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.
ext_934189: (The things we don't say)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-14 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
"But...you're alright?" She was hoping that he had to be, if he was there right now.
all7seas: (leverage)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-14 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"I am doing brilliantly now I'm back here, aye. Much more better than that cold miserable port, lass."

Jack decided that she didn't necessarily need more details on that; just to know that he was fine, and be reassured.

"What of yourself?"
ext_934189: (A genuine smile)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-15 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm here and with friends. I'm wonderful." Glancing over her shoulder back at the dance floor, her smile only widened when she turned back to Jack. "I don't suppose I can talk you into a dance? Assuming you've already had one with Buffy."

Buffy, of course, needed to have the first.
all7seas: (salute to the fallen)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-15 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
"I have, and I would be honored, Mistress Blue-Eyes, to partner you. Unworthily, of course." He offered her his arm.
ext_934189: (happy to be here)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-16 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
"Hardly. You probably know these dances better than I do." A few lessons with Archie does not an expert make. But her smile only widens as she takes his arm. Familiar moves or not, dancing holds a special place in her heart.
all7seas: (salute to the fallen)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-16 01:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Sort of," he admitted. "I don't typically dance, back home. And the only high-toned functions I've been to were dinners, not balls." But he is a quick study, is Jack Sparrow; that's what allowed him to succeed at those fancy dinners in the first place. Good at imitating and sensing social expectations. He bows to his partner as the song strikes up.
ext_934189: (Default)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-16 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
She beams, returning that bow with a careful curtsy (with only a small glance to the side to check how it's done) and then the dance begins. Music and sailors and pirates and dancing. She really couldn't have asked for a more perfect night. "This is definitely one of the fancier events I've ever been to."
all7seas: (over reefs of moonshine)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-17 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
"I hardly ever attend anything this high-toned, myself. If you'll allow me, though, Jilly--" He twirls her and moves through the pattern before returning to her side again--"it suits you."
ext_934189: (Peeking)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-17 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
She laughed. "It's all too formal for me, really. I'd end up messing something up." She could only stay within structures and rules for so long. "But it makes for a beautiful night."
all7seas: (keep telling yourself that darling)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-17 03:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"Never. You're makin' the whole thing all Christmas spirit-y for myself, Jilly-lamb."

And as if to illustrate that remark, he twirls her out of the dance beneath a bit of mistletoe.
ext_934189: (You know you love to laugh.)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
For her part, Jilly hadn't really been paying attention to that particular decoration. If she had, she might have reacted differently. Instead, she laughs again as he twirls her, then leans on his arm as they come to a stop off to the side of the dance floor, still grinning. "Then it's exactly as it should be."
all7seas: (you are my dear my annie)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-20 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
And for his part, Jack Sparrow leaned down and kissed the girl just on the top of her head. It was possibly one of the most chaste kisses the pirate has ever given a female creature of the opposite sex.

"You're lovely. My thanks for the dance, darling."
ext_934189: (happy to be here)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
"Anytime, Jack."

She beamed up at him. However strained their relationship could be, he'd come to be one of her most cherished people there in Luceti.

Standing up on tip-toes, she presses a light kiss to his cheek in thanks. "I'm glad you're home."
all7seas: (lol)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-20 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
There is just this face for a moment. Then: "A man couldn't ask for a better welcome. Obliged, lamb."
ext_934189: (Peeking 2)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 05:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"You've earned it."

Which reminded her... "Jack...did you get what you were looking for? With your mission?"
all7seas: (I will fly I will swim I will die)

[personal profile] all7seas 2011-12-20 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Without answering, he pulls a tiny jewelry box from his pocket and opens it to show her. Inside is a delicate gold ring with a jade stone.
ext_934189: (Bad news)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-27 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh, Jack...it's beautiful."
all7seas: (gallows)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-01-02 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"You think she'll like it? Matches her eyes, this ring."
ext_934189: (Default)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2012-01-03 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"I think it will make her very happy."
all7seas: (off the map)

[personal profile] all7seas 2012-01-04 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hope so. I mean. That would be the goal of it all, in the end. Her. Happy and such. Glad you think so, Jilly."

It bolstered Jack's hope for a smooth proposal rather than a rocky one, though he didn't mention as much to the young artist.

"Obliged."