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: (Painted)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-17 12:54 am (UTC)(link)
Jilly bit her bottom lip, thinking, and then laughed as well. "I guess...if were ignoring all the outside factors...Nicholas Wolfwood?" He was easy company, at least, and there was no denying he was cute.
herotypical: [ happy ; snarky ; sly ] (✝ put it down to circumstance)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-17 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
Her responding smirk is sly. "...Huh. I did not see that coming. That's your type? Really?"

Said the woman who dated the undead, the bleached blonde, and the dreadlocked.
Edited 2011-12-17 01:00 (UTC)
ext_934189: (You know you love to laugh.)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-17 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
"Hey, this was not about type. You asked for attractive." And Wolfwood was safely unattainable. In a game like this, the more remote possibilities were the most comfortable.
herotypical: [ snarky; happy ] ] (✝ where blood ties are only blood)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-17 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
"Okay, okay. Tit for tat, right?" Buffy bit down on her grin. "Derek Bliss. There's a serious case of yum, if I ever saw one."
ext_934189: (Default)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-17 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
That got an approving smile, her eyes lighting up in amusement. "I can't argue with that. I met him at Thanksgiving. He seemed nice."

A game like this was certainly nothing to take seriously, and she doesn't mind derailing it even further, the corners of her mouth quirking upward with laughter even before she gives voice to the next. "By sheer personality alone...Guy Burgess. One would never be bored." She was fully aware, maybe more than most, of where his actual interests lay...but if marriage wasn't an obstacle, why should orientation be?
herotypical: [ happy ] (✝ giving notice)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-17 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Very nice. He doesn't...doesn't remember me completely yet but -- but he will. He'd better." The Slayer held a very hallowed tenderness for the other vamp hunter.

But conversation moves on and Jilly named Guy and Buffy nodded -- slowly. She was well aware of Guy and his interests; recently, she even jokingly warned him to stay away from her man. She liked Burgess. He was peppy. "Not my usual look but...he's a fire-cracker. I can appreciate fire-cracker-ness."

A moment to consider, then: "In a totally untouchable and entirely between you and me and also never my usual? Albert Silverberg."
ext_934189: (Listening 2)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-17 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
"I won't tell a soul," she said. She'd met Albert at Thanksgiving, too, and her head tilts a bit. "Though why all the cautions with him?"
herotypical: [ neutral ; sad ; busy ; collar ] (✝ whether i'm right or wrong)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-17 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
"The Shifts have tried twice to match the two of us up. Romantically. But me and him are determined to keep it strictly professional. You know that he's the big-wig strategist for most of the village's martial affairs, right?"

And Buffy was his general. Official.
ext_934189: (Listening 2)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-17 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
"...the idea of the Malnosso playing matchmaker at all sounds terrifying. So...fair enough. No Albert."
herotypical: [ snarky ; happy ] (✝ sew a flag on the back)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-17 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
"Besides. I'm holding out on him holding out for Raine. More his pace, I think. I'm not...outside of Shifts, me and him'd never -- well, he's him. And I'm me."

Oh boy. This was more than she had bargained on saying. "Okay. Okay. Scratch all of that. What do you think of James? Forget about all the stiff and dull parts. And maybe try and picture him sans-wig. He...could be quite the arm-candy."
ext_934189: (Peeking 2)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-17 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
"James?" Looking across the room, she sought out the admiral, a bit bewildered by the question. "I hadn't even-"

Trailing off, she laughed. "I don't think he's dull. Stiff, yes, but not dull." And attractive, certainly, when the wig disappeared. "But I barely know him. He seems pretty set on formality." As much or more than Horatio. And the rather focused questions about Elizabeth raised questions as well..but she shakes her head before voicing any of that. It was just a game after all...no need to treat it as something serious.
herotypical: [ happy ; snarky ; bar ] (✝ but twice as fast)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-17 02:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Buffy, too, did not find the Admiral dull. She rather liked the man -- she got along with him surprisingly well and he seemed to consistently be in her corner, providing subtle and gentle support in all manner of disasters. But she did like to tease.

"Come on. The man probably enjoys watching paint dry."
ext_934189: (You know you love to laugh.)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
She laughed. "Then I guess I'm in the right profession."

And then she faltered. "Not that- you know what I mean."
herotypical: (} and in her glove compartment)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-20 12:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"I know. I know what you mean. It's...I still wouldn't blame you from holding back. I'm pretty straight-laced and I think he'd still be way too laced straightly for me."

But it wasn't tough to know, by now, that most of Buffy's straight-lacing was for show.
ext_934189: (Painted)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"Straightly laced is a good way of putting it. And...I doubt I'd qualify as a respectable lady with any of our dear sailors." She says it lightly, but it's an echo of deeper concerns. She knows Archie accepts her without judgment...but not everything she'd done could be blamed on others. The drugs had been her own doing, and it wasn't a past she imagined going over well with anyone...least of all the honorable and upright naval officers.
herotypical: [ angry ; snarky ] (✝ a minor miracle of medicine)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-20 05:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"See? That's why you just gotta redefine the way they see respectable." A gentle wave of her hand. "Besides, you're at least three times more respectable than me. And they like me well enough. I think. Maybe. Jury's still out on whether they just see me as a very manly short woman, perhaps."
ext_934189: (Jillian Coppercorn)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 05:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"They definitely like you," she said with a laugh. She'd ignore the three times remark, for now.
herotypical: (} enroll at the local college)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-20 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"They know better than to cross me. That's all. Archie? Archie once told me that everyone in the village is afraid of me." A soft voice. She wasn't insulted. Just a little sad.
ext_934189: (I can't quite look you in the eye.)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 05:26 pm (UTC)(link)
One eyebrow went up at that. "I think he might have exaggerated a bit. And you might want to keep in mind that he was dating your sister." That would have been enough to make any man fear her.

"When he talks about you, it's not like someone he's afraid of. Same for Horatio. Or Stephen, come to think of it." She couldn't speak for Jack Aubrey. Buffy hadn't come up in their conversations, really. But somehow she couldn't picture him disliking the slayer, either.
herotypical: (} never made my way through a forest)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-20 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"W-wait. Stephen's mentioned me to you?"

Curiousity. It killed the cat.
ext_934189: (A genuine smile)

[identity profile] tehoniongirl.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 05:30 pm (UTC)(link)
She laughed. "Only briefly. But positively. We talked when I was tiny...while he was making me a ladder to get around."
herotypical: (}  it's all right)

[personal profile] herotypical 2011-12-20 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Huh. What a sweetheart."