Comfort and Joy

[simplestgift]

Who: Come one, come all! ...So long as you're appropriately dressed.
What: Luceti's second annual Christmas ball, old-world style.
When: December 1st, beginning around five in the afternoon and ending when the last person leaves.
Where: The Battle Dome.
Summary: Earth's eighteenth-century peeps are throwing one hell of a party. Again.
Rating: Well, considering no one is serving water? Probably PG-13 for alcohol consumption and the results thereof (there's coffee and hot chocolate!).

Upon stepping into the program at the Battle Dome, snow crunches beneath your feet. Great flakes of it drift silently from the dark sky above. And ahead...





The chill in the air is penetrated by the promise of warmth and light within the castle. As you approach, the music and festivities from inside reach your ears--tambourines and laughter and the clink of china dishes.

The doors open to a host of candles and a warm, old-world smell and feel. The scent of food and spices hangs in the air—mulled wine, wassail, evergreen boughs, fresh bread and roast meat--and you're only in the entryway.

Inside the dining room, cream brocades, simple but elegant, are draped over the walls. Traditional red rugs have been thrown over the floor. The single long feast table is impeccably dressed with light linen cloths and set with fine china and crystal.

The tables are lit with candles and chandeliers, giving the room a golden glow. On the tables, boughs of evergreen and holly surround the candles, and mistletoe has been hung discreetly here and there. In one corner, by a large and beautifully decorated fir tree (Buffy’s insistence), musicians are set up to play.

Things will begin with a grand dinner late in the afternoon, with a light supper (mostly consisting of cold meats, bread, and other lighter fare) at around nine o’clock. The selection of food on the tables is enormous. Most of it is meat-based and some of it is simply meat. Roast beef with mushrooms, goose in giblet gravy, herbed chicken, baked salmon, and a whole pig are among the choices. There is some hope for vegetarians, though, with spinach mixed with bread crumbs and cheese on small toasts, turnips (or rutabagas if you speak American), onions, carrots, parsnips, mashed potatoes, asparagus in breadcrumbs, and savory onion and wild mushroom pies. There is hot fresh bread and rolls with butter and heaps upon heaps of small mince pies filled with fruit, molasses, and yes, a little minced lamb. Moreover, there are fresh winter fruits like oranges and mikans and many different desserts, such as Christmas pudding, a rum chocolate dessert, and spotted dog with custard. Sit and help yourself.

Among the drinks throughout the evening are wassail, tea, hot chocolate (less sweet and much more intense than most modern characters would be used to, made with cinnamon, vanilla, and a hint of cayenne pepper), coffee, brandy, wine both mulled and plain, port, sherry, and gallons of rum punch. Even though the food is fantastic, the conversation is the point of the game, and who knows who they will wind up sitting beside. At the center of each table is placed a pineapple as a sign of welcome and wishes of prosperity.

In the ballroom, there is dancing light as the music itself, with Archie Kennedy and Elizabeth Swann teaching the steps of each dance before striking up the music and letting everyone go to town with it. They are poised and elegant but relaxed and seeming to glide as they demonstrate the motions with an effortlessness that comes with years of practice. They were both raised on these dances and this sort of social function and seem completely at home here. The dancing begins after dinner with the minuets and continues after a light supper with some informal English country dances. Anyone unused to dancing like this may find that it’s harder than it looks, but when one gets used to it, it feels very graceful, beautiful, and…fun! In fact, it's perfectly acceptable to goof off during these dances, as long as you're charming enough that people aren't irritated with you when you mess everyone up. The activity will only end when there are too few dancers left to continue, and will continue all night if possible. As dancers pass each other or move hand-in-hand, eye contact can be made, quiet words exchanged, subtle (or not) messages passed as they spin through the room, or perhaps the room spins while they remain still.

It might depend on how much they’ve had to drink.

Those who do not wish to dance have other activities to participate in. In one quiet room, card tables are set up with multiple decks of cards stacked up, and there is even a box or two of dominoes and a handful of dice. The tables themselves are round and made of polished rosewood or mahogany. This area is quietly away from the ballroom, probably as a mercy to the tone-deaf Horatio Hornblower who loves cards but can’t abide music. Here, discreet (or indiscreet) gambling is inevitable. There may be no money here, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to wager.

This being a castle, there are other rooms to explore. Up in the towers are bedrooms, nooks and crannies, and a large private library. Sneaking back to the kitchen between meals for a preview or stolen taste of supper to come is not out of the question, either.

Are you lingering in the dining room, drinking and talking loud and laughing with friends, or will you shyly sit and watch the dancing and games and hope to be invited in? Are you sitting quietly alone and listening to the music as your foot taps on its own, or are you unable to sit still and ready to dance all night if they’ll let you? Are you playing cards with a few new acquaintances, or are you hanging on someone’s arm and helping them cheat? Are you content to enjoy the presence of people, or are you exploring the castle with a special someone?

Whatever you do, have fun.

Comments

[keepsmehonest]

[It had been Jilly who helped him pick out the appropriate clothing for the night and, therefore, Jilly whom Geordie had asked to be his date (platonic, of course) to the party. If he had had his way, he would have come as his scruffy self, dressed in a pair of jeans and a simple button downed shirt. But he could rarely say no to his best friend. Especially over something like this.

Still, he didn't look all that comfortable in the clothing picked out for him. Geordie continued to fidget with the neck of the shirt, loosening the knot whenever he thought someone wasn't looking. The breeches weren't much better.

His fiddle had, too, been reluctantly left at home knowing full well that he would be talked into a dance or two. But he did have his Copeland whistle with him, something that could much more easily be placed inside his jacket pocket.

As he explored, Jilly off somewhere socializing, he played short little jigs on the pipe. Clothing aside, the night had promises to be one to enjoy and remember.]

[all7seas]

"Geordie." Jack tipped his hat to the fiddler. "You're lookin'.......snazzical."

[keepsmehonest]

Geordie had no hat to tip, unable to find one that he thought well suited Jilly's choice in wardrobe. He opted, instead, for a brief nod and an offer of a hand. "Unfortunately, I can't take any credit for this look. If it weren't for Jilly, I'd just as much show up in jeans and a shirt."

[all7seas]

"If it weren't for Jilly, we'd all of us be sadder villains than we are."

[keepsmehonest]

"I'd drink to that," he began and then shrugged. "If I had a drink, anyway."

[all7seas]

"It JUST so happens, lad, that I've got some rum.






Are you old enough to have it?"

That was a jab.

[keepsmehonest]

Geordie's eyes narrow a little. The jab is recognized. And definitely not appreciated. He's been allowed to legally drink for eight years now, thank you very much.

(Not that the law necessarily stopped him before he reached eighteen.)

But he'd be good and keep his temper in check. "I've been old enough for a while now. So, are we going to drink to Jilly or what?"

[all7seas]

"We are." Jack fished around til he'd found a paper Christmas cup on a nearby table. This he filled with a couple of ounces of rum from his private stock, keeping the rest of the flask to himself. He handed it over.

"To Jilly," he said solemnly, raising his drink.

[keepsmehonest]

Geordie raises the paper cup in return. "To Jilly. The best friend a man can ask for."

Then, he clinks his cup against the pirate's flask and downs his share in one gulp. It's strong and he can feel his eyes begin to water. But Geordie is determined not to let Jack see any weakness on his part.

[all7seas]

The pirate can appreciate that kind of manliness. He doesn't really mind rum-faces, though. He's made his fair share of them, especially considering some of the varieties of rum provided in Luceti.

"She's a peach, she is. To think once I wished to marry her."

[keepsmehonest]

"..."

Right. Jilly had mentioned that once, hadn't she? About some of those damned shifts the Malnosso conducted, where people randomly fell head-out-of-heels in love with each other. Hearing about it for the second time didn't make him any more comfortable than it did the first go round.

"Do they often make people fall in love with one another here?"

[all7seas]

"Often. Very often."

And it had been DIFFERENT with Jilly, though Jack couldn't explain it. He'd offered himself to her if she chose even after the experiment ended.

[keepsmehonest]

It's always different with Jilly. She's Jilly.

And it's part of the reason that Geordie scowls. Forcing love upon anyone wasn't right. But Jilly especially didn't deserve it. Of course, if Geordie had his way, he'd make certain no wrong ever came to Jilly again.

"I don't like it."

[all7seas]

"No one likes it, now do they?" Jack asked indignantly. "'S like being a poor wee fishy trapped in a net!"

[keepsmehonest]

"I'm well aware of that," Geordie replied with as much calm as he could manage. "But I haven't been here as long as you have. Or Jilly, for that matter. I'm still getting used to this whole forced lab rats idea."

[all7seas]

"Hmmmmm. There HAVEN'T really been any bad ones since you've come, have there...."

[keepsmehonest]

No. Jilly had only died instead.

But he doesn't say those words around, even as his brown eyes harden in memory.

"There was a draft."

[all7seas]

And at this point Jack has no idea she died -- only that she was kidnapped.

"Not the same thing. Not nearly the same, drafts. Not nearly as...weird.


Though I did turn pink once."

[keepsmehonest]

He blinks. "Pink?"

[all7seas]

"Like a baby's bottom."

[keepsmehonest]

"Why?" A pause as his face scrunches up in further confusion and disbelief. "No, wait. How?"

[all7seas]

"I'm not certain how. Shifting got buggered up, is what. Some of us weren't chosen for battle but were sent anyhow." A shrug. "Doesn't happen often. Had a broken arm as well."

[keepsmehonest]

He refrains from saying that he still wished it wouldn't happen at all. There was optimism and then there was inane wishful thinking. He tries his best not to do the latter, as much as possible anyhow.

Instead, dryly, "Sounds like there's never a dull moment here."

[all7seas]

"Oh, I dunno. I've had my share of those. You'll see, lad. This place? It can get to people in funny ways."

[keepsmehonest]

He's never considered himself a very dour person but Geordie can't help but looking grave and concerned at those words. "How so?"