simplestgift: (Just a little idle talk of this and that)
Archie Kennedy ([personal profile] simplestgift) wrote in [community profile] lucetilogs2011-11-30 10:14 pm

Comfort and Joy

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.
herotypical: [ snarky ] (✝ planting trees)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-02 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
"He's not communing with it. He's not a druid. And if you think for one second that you could get out of tonight's..."

She trailed off -- observing the Admiral's little gingerbread game and laughing under her breath. "God. He's all alone over there. Come on--? Don't make me beg. It'll be too undignified for this dress."
all7seas: (you are bizarre and confusing)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-02 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
"A woman in such a dress," the pirate intoned, "will never---ever---have to beg. For anything. Especially if that woman is you. Fine, then: we two go off to amuse ourselves with Colonel....


What the devil is he doing with that cookie-man?" Without another word, Jack strode over to the Admiral to investigate this, tugging a woman whom he might in fact try to make beg later smartly behind him.
Edited 2011-12-02 03:44 (UTC)

[identity profile] abidinglaw.livejournal.com 2011-12-02 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
Fortune or some awareness of the physical space encouraged the admiral to turn around at that moment and see the pirate and his lady approaching. Hailing them would have been fruitless - at least, if he were to have used his mouth then he would likely have had to shout. He did raise a hand, though, and he seemed happy enough to see them. When they got to within feet he offered:

"Miss Summers. Sparrow."
Edited 2011-12-02 04:05 (UTC)
herotypical: [ snarky ; happy ] (✝ sew a flag on the back)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-02 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
"Is that the secret to never having to beg? Wearing this dress? Noted. Duly."

But then they were up and off and weaving through the crowds and Buffy kept her palm pressed happily against Jack's. Before too long they were stumbling into that strange land of awkward greetings.

"Hi," was her opening salvo.
all7seas: (salute to the fallen)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-02 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
"James. Tiny....Cookie Person. Greetings and Happy Day-That-Is-Rather-Far-From-Christmas, man. We saw you being inordinately appreciative of this tree and thought to come over and offer ourselves up on the sacrificial altar of society for your pleasure."

[identity profile] abidinglaw.livejournal.com 2011-12-02 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
"Much obliged."

He can always fall back on pleasantries.

"The cookie-person too, I am certainly.

It is a singularly pleasant tree. How did it end up in here, one wonders?"
Edited 2011-12-02 04:14 (UTC)
herotypical: [ happy ; snarky ] (✝ on the edge of safe)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-02 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
Oh. Here was the smug expression of the cat who got the cream.

"I'm so glad you asked, James. So -- so -- glad. Really, it was a miraculous bit of tree-hunting. And all on my lonesome, too."
all7seas: (under the same horned moon)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-02 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
Well. She was just going to go with this, wasn't she. Thank God Norrington's pun took place in an internal and therefore unknowable monologue.

"Meet my Annie: my miraculous Annie."

[identity profile] abidinglaw.livejournal.com 2011-12-03 12:57 am (UTC)(link)
"In fact, we have a prior acquaintance."

He said, but he nodded his head as though to tip his hat in greeting. Another smile. A memory. He had spoken words much like these a short while earlier, but they had indicated his friendship with quite another young lady.

"But not long enough for me to fathom why it is that you insist upon calling her by that name."
Edited 2011-12-03 00:59 (UTC)
herotypical: [ happy ] (✝ la belle evangeline)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-03 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
Buffy had a few choice things that she could have said. Something about how there wasn't a long enough anything in existence to get onto the right track, fathom-wise, to figure that one out. Or perhaps she could have instead said something debonair and fierce about it being a key part of her pirate name.

But instead she only smiled and tipped her head and left the floor open for Jack to answer that one in some way that wouldn't earn a smack on the arm.

It was a trap.
all7seas: (wear out the words)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-03 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
"It's her. Fits her, doesn't it? She named herself after all. Axe-Swinging Annie. Pirate name." So much more than a pirate name, now. "And in all the hubbub of your arrival, James, we've completely overlooked giving YOU a pirate name."

[identity profile] abidinglaw.livejournal.com 2011-12-14 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, how remiss of us all."

He said, and yet he was not shooting the notion down outright. If anything, his non-answer opened the way for suggestions.
herotypical: [ happy ] (✝ shine on)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-14 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
"...Norry No-Fear. Is that piratey? I have no idea." Her filters were down. She gushed -- joined in without apprehension even if her ideas were mostly very crap. "Or something with James. No! Jamie."

While Jack occasionally called him Jamie, Buffy never did. Somehow, the creation of a pirate named seemed to allow it.
all7seas: (must be a tiny thing behind the Pearl)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-14 06:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"James the Earless."

Her ideas might have been crap, but not as crappy as Jack's.

[identity profile] abidinglaw.livejournal.com 2011-12-16 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Buffy got points for effort - and for her sentiment. She was wrong, though. He did have fears. As for Jack's offering, the admiral could not even conceive of where that came from. Earless? He turned to the pirate and squinted minutely.

"Excuse me?"

Of course, the fact that the same utterance might be made if he were incapable of hearing was beyond him.

"Thank you, both of you, but as I understand it a pirate must earn his name in the service of vice and misdeed. As I have achieved neither, I am regretfully at a loss to contribute my own suggestion. And since I am both in posession of both of my ears --"

To say nothing of the 'fearless' issue.
herotypical: (✝ did i scare you when i dared you?)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-16 01:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"H-hey!" Mock-insulted. "It's not like I've earned my pirate name with any vices or any misdeeds. I'm misdeed-free! Mostly." She pouted.

But then James's honesty seemed to get the better of him and Buffy did well to wave the whole subject off. Pirate names were silly things, maybe. Jack's was ever-so-less-unsubtle. The whole Sparrow element...what it signified. Not bad at all. Lovely, really. She shrugged and oh-so-casually adjusted her gown's neckline around the peeking beak of that inked sparrow on her shoulder.

"Have you danced yet? I danced. It was -- it was educational."
all7seas: (hmmmm....)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-16 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"Toad-in-the-Hole Neddy?"

Jack, for his part, was still thinking up pirate names. Though if Norrington wished to dance with Buffy, he would be more than content to watch the pair of them. The last time the other man had taken Buffy for a partner, the results had been.....lovely to watch.

[identity profile] abidinglaw.livejournal.com 2011-12-18 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
She would have learned from Elizabeth.

"What dances did you learn?"

Jack could think up pirate names all night for all that Norrington cared.
Edited 2011-12-18 22:02 (UTC)
herotypical: [ snarky ] (✝ buy a shiny backpack)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-18 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"O-oh. No. Me?" She was quick to shake her head. "I've really only dabbled in the...dancing. I'm a dancing dabbler. I was really just asking if you had and...uhm..."

Her jaw continued to work -- soundlessly -- as she turned to look at Jack. Jack who was still looking as though his mind was on pirate names.

"Already danced."
all7seas: (must be a tiny thing behind the Pearl)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-19 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
"Hmmm? What?" Jack realized that Buffy was looking at him. "You want to dance with Jamie? I trust you, Jamie, but no funny business, mate.


'Charles the First.'"