Comfort and Joy

[simplestgift]

Who: Come one, come all! ...In formal attire.
What: A Christmas ball, old world style.
When: December 1st, beginning around five in the afternoon and ending when the last person leaves.
Where: The rec center.
Summary: Earth's eighteenth-century peeps are throwing one hell of a party.
Rating: Well, considering no one is serving water? Probably PG-13 for alcohol consumption and the results thereof (there's coffee and hot chocolate!).

The recreation center has been utterly transformed.

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. Cream brocades, simple but elegant, are draped over the walls. Traditional red rugs have been thrown over the floor. Gone are the billiard tables, ping-pong, and foosball. It looks like a different place entirely, every table impeccably dressed with light linen cloths and set with fine china and crystal. At least one-half of the room is cleared and ready for dancers.

The tables are lit with candles, and five chandeliers have been temporarily added to the room for more light, giving the room a golden glow instead of the sterile luminescence of fluorescent lighting. On the tables, boughs of evergreen and holly surround the candles, and mistletoe has been hung discreetly here and there. In one corner of the dancing area, by a large and beautifully decorated fir tree (Buffy’s insistence), the musicians are set up to play, unobtrusive to the diners but essential to the dancers. Leading them is Frederic Chopin himself, and few here can say they have had anyone better play for their pleasure.

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. For a complete list of the food offered, take a look here.

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, overseen by Jack Aubrey, 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.

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! 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 corner, 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 well-lit and on the opposite end of the room from the musicians and dancers, 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.

Are you lingering at the dining tables, 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?

Whatever you do, have fun.

Comments

[all7seas]

"Nah; haven't eaten properly in..."

In a week. Not since the Thanksgiving party has Jack had a decent meal. And it wasn't because the Malnosso did not provide food, but that he hadn't taken the time to consume it, so eager was he to finish the jobs set him.

"Feed me."

[herotypical]

"What? No magic word?"

[all7seas]

"Mutton?"

[herotypical]

"...Strike one."

[all7seas]

"Stuffed partridge?"

[herotypical]

"Strike two. Mention pear trees and I'm gonna steal your hat back and dump it in the punch."

[all7seas]

"Why on earth would I mention a pear tree when I could be mentioning 'oh please Buffy please feed me'?"

Nevermind that he could easily get his own food, here. That wasn't the point.

"'Sides. You'd never punchify my hat. You love my devilish and piratical hat."

[herotypical]

"Fine. I'll spare your hat and punchify you instead."

And then she was off -- leading him by the hand towards the food. She would relish feeding him, tonight.

[all7seas]

Possibly not as much as Sparrow was going to enjoy eating.

"Be gentle; it's been a long week."

[herotypical]

"How gentle are we talking, here?"

This was a layered question. Obviously so. After all -- plans had been planned, last week. Plans about how long she would give him to recover after his mission before a whole other flavour of relishing.

[all7seas]

"Why don't I show you later, hmm?" A layered answer to a layered question.

[herotypical]

Buffy plucked up a little phyllo cheese-puff from the table and held it out to the layer-providing pirate. She smiled.

"It's a date."

[all7seas]

The idea of showing her that had momentarily driven the thought of food from Sparrow's mind. He stood just off to her side, smiling absently to himself as he imaginatively stripped layers away from it all.

[herotypical]

Stripping might, in fact, end up being a thing she needed considerable help with. These stays -- was that what they were called? She could barely remember. Tricky things. Wonders for the figure; horrors for comfort. If she wasn't already the sort of person who was used to grinning and bearing through hardship, she might have complained.

Hell -- at some point she'll probably complain anyway.

She waggled the food before him. "Hey. Earth to Sparrow."

[all7seas]

"Hallo, Earth." He opened his mouth to try to catch and snatch the pastry away.

[herotypical]

"Nice of you to join us once again."

One easy movement and she had delivered the phyllo treat into his keeping.

[all7seas]

"Nice to have food with some flavor to it again." Jack chewed and swallowed. "So Kennedy selected this gown for you, hmm?"

[herotypical]

"Young Kennedy, yeah. We ran through a few options but the moment this one...well -- it was kind of a love at first sight thing."

More food. She constructed a plate's worth.

[all7seas]

"Oh. I understand that perfectly well, love." Softspoken, he watched her build his dinner. "Remind me to thank him profusely later on."

[herotypical]

A glance. And then she piled some herbed chicken onto the plate.

"You...you do that. Honestly, the way he made it sound? I figured everyone'd be dressed like this." But a second glance past Jack's shoulder and out at the dance floor provided her with images of larger, more ornate dresses. Hoops and all. Or the more modern ones -- strappy numbers with blinged out embroidery. It only now occurred to her that neither alternative truly suited her own taste.

No -- Archie's choice had been perfect.

[all7seas]

"There are others in this room? Interesting." He tried to dodge around her and pick some of that food off the plate as she was filling it for him.

[herotypical]

She hauled the plate out of his reach. "Patience is a virtue you're now going to share with me. Savvy?"

[all7seas]

"I just want to get through the eating part so I can get to the part where we dance, you an' me." Jack knew better than to try again; the desire to wind her up was strong, but the desire to eat something was stronger. And this food looked amazing.

[herotypical]

"Me and you," she confirmed as she added the finished touch -- a thick slice of apple-crust bread. Then, with a crooked smile, she presented the meal to Jack.

[all7seas]

"Annie? You're a golden treasure, is what you are. Obliged, lass! But aren't you eating as well?"