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.
lostinmyway: (Hmm I wonder....)

[personal profile] lostinmyway 2011-12-06 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
"Hmm...." She thinks about that for a little bit. ...And then for a little bit more.

At the very least, Ceodore's feet have nothing to fear; Grune is both a faster learner than one might expect, and a competent dancer.

God I am so so so sorry for the delay!

[identity profile] lunarianlegacy.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
Taking her slowness to reply as an indication she was not familiar with the dances, Ceodore nodded once with an encouraging smile. "They don't look too difficult. We can learn together." At the very least, he was used to figuring stuff out on the fly. He'd been doing in the whole time he'd traveled back home.

First though, he had to lead her to the dance area, which for once he accomplished without tripping over his own two feet or worse. "This reminds me very much of feasts at home."
lostinmyway: (It's always a sunny day.)

No worries! I'm actually just coming off slowatus, so your timing is excellent. <3

[personal profile] lostinmyway 2011-12-13 03:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Grune is more than happy to go where she's led. She's very fond of Ceodore--even more so than she's usually fond of people--and so she's looking forward to this dance.

As they settle into the position indicated by their instructors, she asks, "Is this what your home is like?"

Phew!!

[identity profile] lunarianlegacy.livejournal.com 2011-12-13 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
He nodded and smiled warmly at her, before his eyes trailed off to take in more of the scenery. The lady was truly kind, which impressed the young prince a great deal. "Yes very much. It's like the feasts we have for celebrations at home. Especially at the winter solstice." What he didn't mention was that his birthday fell on the solstice too, and given his parents over eager pride in their only child, turned the day into a truly expansive gala.

"I didn't realize just how much I missed it until now." He had the good grace to look sheepish at that admission, even while following along with the dance with surprising grace given his clumsy nature. Some things truly were trained into one.
lostinmyway: (Tender.)

[personal profile] lostinmyway 2011-12-14 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
"It's nice to have things that remind you of home, isn't it?" she says, somehow able to follow the figure of the dance without paying even the slightest attention to it. Instead, all of her focus is on Ceodore.

[identity profile] lunarianlegacy.livejournal.com 2011-12-19 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
"It is. The Battle Dome recreations just aren't the same." Which was an admission he used the facility for just such a purpose. Although after the fact, he found it only made him feel more homesick and drove home the need to return. "What about your home?"
lostinmyway: (Hmm I wonder....)

[personal profile] lostinmyway 2011-12-19 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't think there's anything like this back on the Legacy," she says, then pauses. Fortunately, her feet continue to work on autopilot. "Or is there?"

If there were, sad to say, Grune wouldn't be on the guestlist.