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.
all7seas: (my sails fill with your breath)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
"There's to be manhandling tonight? Thought gentleness was in order, love." At gentleness he very lightly caressed her collarbone. Something about this dress seemed to demand only the most restrained touches; it was both wonderful and maddening.
herotypical: [ social ; happy ; angel ] (✝ in a town)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
She bit down on her lip; just barely. Did he know that he was...? Yes, she decided. He must. Her head tilted to the side, opening up an expanse of bare neck above that collarbone. A decidedly vulnerable gesture for a Slayer although the only two vampires in attendance were...far off. One had a presence she could still feel in core of her spine -- now that he was back. Undead again.

But she found it surprisingly easy to ignore others -- even vampires -- given this long-sought reunion. She stepped closer.

Quiet and hardly above a whisper: "God. How long do we have to stay at this thing? Not that it's not..." She trailed off...perhaps a little guilty for unintentionally slamming Archie's pet feast.
all7seas: (that's not very nice)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
In the end, they would certainly have to stay long enough to chat with James Norrington and get the DL on his little tête à tête with Elizabeth Swann.

The food and drink and dancing had at least had the effect of driving off Jack's post-mission exhaustion for the time being. Thus it was with a very courtly tone that he informed her:

"As long as you like, of course."
herotypical: [ happy ] (✝ nothing survives)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
"Which inevitably translates out to as long as you arbitrarily think is socially appropriate, Buffy." It was true; they couldn't leave yet. There were still others to converse with -- properly and in good spirits, now that she had less of a reason to look so impatient and glum.
all7seas: (forgot my shirt at the water's edge)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
"Mmmhm. You've got a marvelous inner compass when it comes to identifying social mores. Me, I'd likely as not just get drunk and fall asleep under your great fir tree and leave sometime tomorrow morning-afternoon-ish."
herotypical: [ social ; intimacy ; angry ; riley ] (✝ bridge to nowhere)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm taking you home even if I have to carry you. Again. That's a promise and a threat."
all7seas: (kiss)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
"Take me home, then, but I'd like to be conscious for the whole affair."
herotypical: [ neutral ; happy ] (✝ and then the truth)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 02:51 am (UTC)(link)
"Pfft. Heck, no. If you're conscious? Then I'm getting a piggy-back ride so I don't ruin this dress. That's your big hang-up -- isn't it? What with the soot, earlier. And the not-touching. You gotta stick with that life-choice to the end, buster. With all the consequences."

Was she practically asking to be carried? She'd deny it, later.
Edited 2011-12-04 03:06 (UTC)
all7seas: (this is my lying face)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
She's practically ASKING to be carried. She'll deny it later, of course, but...

"Very well. Then I shall try to limit the amount of wassail I drink and I pledge to stop adding liquor to Kennedy's Christmas punch."
herotypical: [ snarky ] (✝ buy a shiny backpack)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
Flatly: "You're spiking the punch.

Thank God I passed on it."
all7seas: (any way you slice it)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
"Kennedy made a rum punch. I made the punch rummer."
herotypical: [ snarky ; happy ] (✝ sew a flag on the back)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
"You make a room rummier," she corrected (or so she thought), "just by walking into it. But me? I'm gonna stick to the hot chocolate. Unspiked."
all7seas: (salute to the fallen)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
"Probably for the best, though if you indulge it's not as though I cannot carry you home later."
herotypical: [ social ; intimacy ; angel ] (✝ he offers me protection)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
"...I'm good." She reached for his cheek. Her fingers lighted gently against the well-admired bone structure there. "Indulgence-free. At least where the booze in concerned."

Other indulgences? Hmm. That remained to be seen.
all7seas: (not a cry you can hear at night)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
"See, woman, that's your problem. It's a party. Should be one or two indulgences at a party."
herotypical: [ snarky ; angry ; hands ] (✝ you're all cold)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
"Are you telling me to drink, Jack?"

Another smile. She tracked her fingertips across the side of his face.
all7seas: ('allo love)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
"No. I'm not." The drinking, he understood, only came during times of trouble for the slayer. This was not one of those times. Instead of explaining what he meant, the pirate leaned in and kissed her: brief. Again--teasing.
herotypical: [ intimacy ; angel ] (✝ don't speak)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
"Because I'm much hap--" Oh. Her fingertips dug back into his dreads; she drew as much of the kiss as she could from him. Sighing softly when he had teasingly broke it off. A light, impatient hum in the back of her throat.

Her eyes opened -- so close to his. "R-right. What was that about social mores? Maybe I should go...do those. Get'em over and done with and dusted and..." She grappled and wrestled for another word but found it wanting.

Instead, she chased down a second kiss.
all7seas: (she broke your throne)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
Dusting. It was always dusting. Jack grinned against that kiss before delivering a third to her cheek. "Attend to them, then. Then you may attend to my mores, which need oh so much attention."
herotypical: [ happy ; snarky ] (✝ contagious)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
"And who's gonna attend to mine?"

She gave his hand a tight tight squeeze before stepping back and executing a clumsy semi-sarcastic curtsy. She dipped low but kept her eyes eye and her half-smirk directed fully upon him.

And then, finger by finger, Buffy Summers released him. "Meet me back at that table." She nodded to the one they had vacated before the dance. The one they would be sitting at before ambushing Norrington, later.
all7seas: (you're believing this right?)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-04 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
The pirate only smirked at that question.

"At that table," he repeated. Jack stepped back, again noticing how delightfully warm the crowded room had become; he would be shedding his coat long before he met with her again at that table. He nodded at the slayer. "Madam."
herotypical: [ happy ] (✝ new ones are slave labour you keep)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-04 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
"Captain," she nodded in return. And then she retreated into the thick of the party -- back to playing the most social of social butterflies.

Later? Ah, well. Later -- and after she had retrieved her coat -- she would re-reunite with the pirate.