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.
daisy023: (No)

[personal profile] daisy023 2011-12-18 12:25 pm (UTC)(link)
"If we use these..." Daisy picks a few snacks from the table, and uses them as poker chips. "I haven't played a lot since I got in here."

Upon being done, she sets the cards on the center, and grabs her hand for this game. She lets Kazooie grab her own.

...

Speaking of hands.

"How will you hold your cards?"
talontrot: (awesomeface.jpg)

[personal profile] talontrot 2011-12-20 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
"No sweat!" Kazooie assures, snatching the cards up with her wings like there's nothing wrong with it whatsoever. "I can hold 'em just fine."

The breegull settles into her chair, eyes already scanning her cards as she searches for the best possible combinations...

"Bring it on!"

Not that the mun has any idea what to do... sob.
daisy023: (Look)

[personal profile] daisy023 2011-12-20 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
Daisy's expression turns into stone.

Her starter bet is more of a ritual than an actual strategy, to give the impression that at least her beginning hand is stable enough to hold off for the game.

One would imagine being taller than her opponent would make her take that edge to look at other peoples' cards, but military theory taught her that the more her pupils move, the more likely it becomes for people that she is thinking hard about something.
talontrot: (aren't i the cutest asshole ever?)

[personal profile] talontrot 2011-12-26 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Meanwhile, Kazooie's expression remains as bright and cocky as ever. She has a surprisingly good poker face because of this - there's no visible shift in her demeanour, and she knows how to play it cool in the face of a threat, whether that's in a game or on a real battlefield.

Coolly, she gathers her cards for her own play, unfazed by the combination of cards she has. She's a shoe-in to win. Though she's totally probably not going to.
daisy023: (Serious)

[personal profile] daisy023 2011-12-27 10:32 am (UTC)(link)
The huge girl in dress has to rise her eyes for an instant to look at Kazooie. It reminds her a little of the smug grins Jorge would make in games like these, almost as if he knew that smile would throw people off-guard.

She cannot back down. She needs another test. Daisy has to risk getting at least a pair. She pushes a few of the bargaining chips -ie, sweets- forward.

"Raise."
talontrot: (i remember better days on the n64)

[personal profile] talontrot 2011-12-28 12:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, tough. Kazooie actually gives a little pause at this, tilting her head slightly. One side of her beak ticks up just a little.

"Huh."

But she doesn't betray anything more - yet.
daisy023: (What)

[personal profile] daisy023 2011-12-31 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
... Kazooie went in.

Daisy's face remains as a stone, but she realizes it's better to move in now and claim what could be claimed, or lost what could be lost.

With her straight face, she reveals her hand. The threat of the mess of five cards... is only a seven of spades and seven of hearts.

A pair. The lowest hand in poker.