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.

[identity profile] notshadowfever.livejournal.com 2011-12-10 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Eggman's aggressive stance basically dies down as soon as Kazooie changes the subject back to the food. That's that bit of banter over. His eyes scan the contents of the food table once more, and though some of it looks yummy, other things are still leaving the doctor apprehensive.

"Oh, I know! Now I consider myself quite the connoisseur, but-" and he points to something over there on the table. "What in the world is that? I don't know whether to cut myself a slice or use it as a doorstop!"
talontrot: (aren't i the cutest asshole ever?)

[personal profile] talontrot 2011-12-12 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
"Personally," Kazooie says, after appraising the gelatinous mass, "I'd just lob it into someone's face! 'Cause that doesn't even look like it deserves to be called food. It's more like some of the enemies I've fought!"

In fact, if it had eyes, she'd think it would fit right in back at home.

[identity profile] notshadowfever.livejournal.com 2011-12-15 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
"Ho ho ho! I don't think this is quite the place to start a food fight!" Eggman laughs with a sly grin. As much fun as it would be.
talontrot: (i remember better days on the n64)

[personal profile] talontrot 2011-12-16 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Hey, anywhere with food's a place for a good food fight. Besides, this party is pretty stuffy! It could use something fun."

Still, Kazooie doesn't go to hurl anything away, merely grabs a mikan and chows down on it.

"... 'Least there's card games and stuff!"

[identity profile] notshadowfever.livejournal.com 2011-12-16 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Ho ho ho! I agree with you, but I don't think we ought to stir trouble." Eggman grabs a something and noms on it, continuing with his mouth full. "You play cards?"
talontrot: (aren't i the cutest asshole ever?)

[personal profile] talontrot 2011-12-18 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
"Of course I play cards!" is Kazooie's immediate response. "Poker, to be exact, but I can do somethin' else..."

[identity profile] notshadowfever.livejournal.com 2011-12-18 06:54 pm (UTC)(link)
"You play poker? Ba ha ha ha!" Eggman is just trying to picture Kazooie at a card table. He wipes a fake tear from his eye. "Blackjack's my game, but I suppose that doesn't work in a crowded room. I play a mean hand of poker as well!"

Too bad he doesn't have a good poker-face.
talontrot: (i LIKE the sound of that...)

[personal profile] talontrot 2011-12-20 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Yep! I'm pretty good at it too - can beat Worm-breath with my eyes closed!" Probably because she cheats.

"I'll totally take you on, Egghead! Bet I can deal 'em better than you can!"

Her gaze is challenging, but in an almost friendly sort of way.

[identity profile] notshadowfever.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh ho! I'll take you on, Bird Brain, but you should know there's more to it than being dealt the right cards!" Eggman smirks and starts towards the card tables.
talontrot: (aren't i the cutest asshole ever?)

[personal profile] talontrot 2011-12-26 02:14 pm (UTC)(link)
And the breegull trots behind him, right on his tail with her usual obsessive ability to track and stalk all manner of baddies - to be fair, this is a strange breed of baddy, and this is a strange sort of "fight".

"We're gonna need the best table in the house!"