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: (gallows)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-08 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
"Aye. Highly weird. In that case, you'll be wanting some wine, won't you."

He picks up a carafe of said beverage.

"Do you simply want to sip it out of this, or shall I fetch you a glass?"
i_am_not_cute: (mrr)

[personal profile] i_am_not_cute 2011-12-11 09:32 am (UTC)(link)
Pao-lin looks a little uncomfortable. "Um...is there anything here besides the coffee, tea, and hot chocolate that doesn't have alcohol in it?"
all7seas: (I'm Captain Jack Sparrow son)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-12 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
"Water?"

Jack delivers that answer as though he cannot begin to expect that she will be THAT BORING.
i_am_not_cute: (mrr x 100)

[personal profile] i_am_not_cute 2011-12-14 02:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Cut the girl some slack, Jack, she's not even legal in her world yet. Plus she's a do-gooder.

"What about that red stuff?" she says, indicating the bowl of rum punch. It looked and smelled pretty good.
all7seas: (a dishonest man)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-14 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"What about it?" He begins to pour her a glass. "Perhaps you'd best try it for yourself instead of asking."
i_am_not_cute: (mrr x 100)

[personal profile] i_am_not_cute 2011-12-22 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
Pao-lin's still unsure forever on this, but...she supposes it wouldn't hurt to try. It's not like she's going to be busted for underage drinking here in Luceti, after all.

So, with trepidation, she takes the glass from Jack and sips at it. She blinks. It's...actually...kind of good. Could it be...? Another sip -- yep. Definitely good.

"It's not too bad," she admits.
all7seas: (find the lady)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-22 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's delicious, is what it is. Go on. Finish it up, lass."

And he won't be busted for getting an underage girl drunk here in....

Oh, wait. Yes he will.
i_am_not_cute: ((dragon kid) raiding the buffet)

[personal profile] i_am_not_cute 2011-12-28 05:50 am (UTC)(link)
Pao-lin does finish it, rather quickly. She's pretty thirsty, and the punch is quite tasty. Off she goes to pour herself another glass!

She gives a shy smile to Jack after she takes another sip. "Thanks for your help. This isn't the usual kind of stuff I see in my world..."
all7seas: (keep telling yourself that darling)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-01-03 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
He smiles right back at her.

"My help, dear one, is always freely given when such matters arise. Enjoy it heartily, is my further advice, and heed not what anyone says if you begin falling down. It's all worth it in the end, every drop."