feast & after-party ♔ empty my heart | i've got to make room for this feeling

[wynn]

♬ Can't Take It In - Imogen Heap

WHO || Wynn, the new Squires, any and all Knights
WHAT || Squiring Ceremony Feast & Afterparty
WHERE || Knights Headquarters, the Dining Hall & Ballroom
WHEN || February 9th, 2012, 7:00PM / 9:00 PM
HOW || Prose OR Actionspam

While every dinner served in the Knights' exceptionally large Dining Hall manages to have a sense of occasion, given the sheer quantity of food necessary to serve the hundreds who take their meals there, the 'feast' Wynn's ordered for after this squiring party outdoes the norm. It's not a problem to produce so much food at the drop of the hat when mages can magically summon up entire banquets, and so the room teems over with the smells and spices of hundreds of unique dishes. Centerpieces built with peacock feathers and sweet smelling flowers dot the table at intervals. A silver cage in the very middle of the table includes several live birds, their feet and tufts each appearing to be silver as well. A banner hangs from the top of the cage, with the Knight's symbol of a black dragon on a silver field.

The food has a distinctly medieval flair to it today, which several of the older Shadowkind Knights express their boisterous appreciation for as they dive in. The first course consists of a civet of hare, a quarter of salted stag, a stuffed chicken and a loin of veal, the latter two covered with a German sauce with gilt sugar-plums and pomegranate seeds. At each end of the table is an enormous pie, surmounted with smaller pies, which form a crown. The crust of the large ones is silvered all round and gilt at the top; each contains a whole roe-deer, a gosling, three capons, six chickens, ten pigeons, and one young rabbit. Serving as seasoning or stuffing, a minced loin of veal, two pounds of fat, and twenty-six hard-boiled eggs, covered with saffron and flavoured with cloves.

A second course follows: aroe-deer, a pig, a sturgeon cooked in parsley and vinegar, and covered with powdered ginger; a kid, two goslings, twelve chickens, as many pigeons, six young rabbits, two herons, a leveret, a fat capon stuffed, four chickens covered with yolks of eggs and sprinkled with spiced powder de Duc, and even a wild boar.

Next came wafers and stars; a jelly, part white and part blue. A fourth course of cream with Duc powder, covered with fennel seeds preserved in sugar; a white cream, cheese in slices, and strawberries; and, lastly, plums stewed in rose-water.

Besides these four courses, there's a fifth, entirely composed of wines, and of preserves, which consist of fruits and various sweet pastries in the shapes of dragons.

---------------------------

Following this, assuming anyone is still capable of moving at all is the after-party: a black-tie affair in the lavish, opulent ballroom, every new Knight's chance to mingle and meet some of their new brothers in arms. Per usual, a couple hours are provided following the feast for everyone to change, do hair and makeup, and choose from the vast array of formal attire in the closets of the balcony "dressing rooms" located at the top of spiraled staircases on either side of the ballroom. A separate dressing room exists for men and women, and they include full bathrooms (with, thankfully, very modern plumbing).

The squires are usually among the last to arrive, and the ballroom is full to the brim with a fancy array of people, of all shapes, sizes and species.

Hope none of you are shy. They're all here to meet you. 

All open feast threads should be made under the FEAST heading below. Any other threads below will be for the after-party. Feel free to make your own open threads for people to come congratulate your newly pledged knight.

Comments

[befree]

You're going to pass out before the meal is over.

[Yeah, Katniss is noticing you drinking. And lucky you, Spike, you're the first person she's actually initiated a real conversation with this entire time.

Too bad what she has to say is filled with disapproval and near disgust.]

[bigbad]

[Spike glances up at her, then rolls his eyes and downs the rest of his glass.]

Not me. I'm not a little girl like you. I can hold my drink.

[befree]

I'm hardly a little girl.

[And now she's entirely offended and sits up straighter in her chair, almost as if her height will prove she's not a child.]

I only meant that you should be more responsible. I was trying to be helpful.

[By criticizing you.]

[bigbad]

Helpful is giving me someone to lean on if it turns out I can't walk straight. Giving unsolicited advice is just annoying. [He pours himself more wine.] Who are you, anyway?

[befree]

Katniss Everdeen.

[An image flashes through her mind of an older man that spends his entire life drinking. She can't place who he is, but she assumes he's a town drunk that she must know from back home.]

Christos' squire. [She identifies as that more than anything else right now, and there's a hint of pride in her voice. She has something to identify herself as belonging to, of course there's going to be pride there.]

[bigbad]

Oh, I met him. Can't say I liked him. [Spoiler: The list of people Spike does like is teeny. But Katniss seems proud, so he relents a bit.] Reckon he knows his stuff, though. Knight and all. I'm Spike.

[everyredcent]

[/Pretending like he doesn't hear every word you're saying. God Spike, stop gossiping about everyone who is sitting two seats away.]

[befree]

[Yeah, Spike, stop gossiping. Even if she doesn't necessarily like or trust Christos yet, he's all she has and she feels a sense of loyalty to that fact.]

He wouldn't be a Knight if he didn't know what he was talking about.

[The look on her face would be questioning what kind of name Spike is, if she wasn't named after a plant.]

[bigbad]

[That's not gossip it's expressing an opinion that is... seriously obvious.

Anyway, he gives a shrug. He doesn't care that much.]

Maybe. Have you met him yet? [Spike didn't meet his until after the squiring ceremony and everything.]

[befree]

He's the one that found me.

[She's not getting into the specific details, like how she was a crazy girl shooting arrows down on the city to ward people away from getting in close to her. Nope.]

So far, he's the only one here I've found worthy of trusting.

[bigbad]

You trust him? Really? [Spike sounds more curious than disbelieving. Spike hadn't liked him, but there weren't many people Spike did like. It didn't mean Christos was untrustworthy.

At least she had a mentor she could trust. Spike still thought Lan might behead him. Or try.]

Lucky you.