knightsoflegend | after-party ♔ february

♬ Kodo (Inside the Sun remix) - Yoshida Brothers

WHO || Wynn, any and all Knights not currently on missions (if you are uncertain if your character would be at the castle for this, ask!)
WHAT || Squiring Ceremony Afterparty
WHERE || Knights Headquarters, the Ballroom
WHEN || February 1st, 2014, 6:00PM [backdated]
HOW || Prose OR Actionspam

The "afterparty" is the real main event of the night at every squiring, but tonight's party is a little different than usual - Faith has successfully lobbied (as in roped people into helping her decorate for) a Chinese New Year's party, or Lunar New Year, theme. With Knights from all over the world, it was easy to get input from those who traditionally celebrate the holiday, and Wynn is all about the spirit of cultural unity. Not to mention, the second of the 15 days of the spring festival is all about spending time with one's family and friends.

The lavish, opulent ballroom has been transformed, filled with red lanterns, peach blossoms, kumquat plants, and chrysanthemums. People are encouraged to dress in red to ward off evil spirits and bad luck, and avail themselves of the New Year's Cake, golden champagne cocktail, rice pudding, candied fruits, and the Tray of Togetherness.

As always, it is every new Knight's chance to mingle and meet some of their new brothers in arms. Of course, a couple hours are provided following the ceremony 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 you aren't shy. They're all here to meet you.

Feel free to make your own open threads for people to come congratulate your newly pledged knight.

ooc; also if your Knight wants to get all gussied up, you can make a Disguise (Cha) check for how good they were at hair/makeup/stylin', etc! This goes for... any time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Kate catches sight of Alanna in a sea of red and weaves her way through the crowd. She is equally enthralled with the sight of everything, and feels the need to commiserate in that.]

This place looks amazing.

You're not looking so bad yourself. Fit right in. [ she looks to the side and gives kate a grin, then glances back up at the decorations. w o w. she exhales. ] Never seen this before. Some holiday of their world, then?

[She nods as she looks around.]

It's the Chinese New Year. Their calendar was different from ours so it's on a different day.

[Or at least that's the gist of what she can remember right now (knowledge (history) 10).]

I'm not sure I understand. Who are the Chinese? [ critfailed her knowledge check ... ]

China is a country east of here. It's probably one of the most highly populated countries in the world.

[Kate apparently knows more about China than she does about Chinese holidays (intelligence 14)]

Does every kingdom in this world have its own calendar? Seems complicated for historians.

Not anymore. In the early centuries we didn't communicate the way we can now. It wasn't exactly easy to share.

Still a bit odd, isn't it? Tortall had none of the luxuries of this land, but our trade routes were well-worn between cultures.

[For some reason Kate's light reading has included the History of Early Cultures. Or maybe she's just remembering stuff out of nowhere (knowledge (history) 23).]

Well, back then when we traveled to other lands it was more about conquering than trade. Why give them something of ours when we could just take what they had for ourselves.

[She shrugs.]

We weren't exactly peace loving.

[But they got better! Only not really at all.]

Tortall - that's where you're from?

The name of the kingdom I served. [ she nods her confirmation. ] We've had our share of conquering, war-mongering kings, but none to splinter our world as a whole so greatly. Our neighboring kingdoms have wished for their share in war, as well, but none to cut themselves off so completely. The greatest difference lies within our own borders, with the Bazhir tribes that make their homes in the Great Southern Desert.

[Kate listens with interest, filing away the names she doesn't recognize more for reference than anything else.]

Does it take a long time to travel to each of these kingdoms?

The mountains make the journey to Scanra three weeks by horseback. The Yamani Islands, the Copper Isles require passage by ship - as little as a week from Corus, but Carthak to the South is across the Great Inland Sea and two weeks' ride South by land - three, in total. Tusaine by the Great Road East is a week. [ for the most important neighboring countries, that about covers it. she seems to be squinting to recall rather than reciting a set amount of time. these are all unaccompanied - an entire battlement would take far more time, but she imagines that's not kate's question. ] The distance is not nearly so great as that which we move across in only a day in this land, but we had no cars or aircraft.

[Kate nods slowly.]

We didn't always have that. It sometimes took us decades to make connections with other cultures and most of the time, one side usually saw their new friends as more "primitive." They didn't take the time to understand their culture, they simply wanted to eradicate it.

More primitive? [ she scoffs. ] Wasn't there anybody around to knock sense into them that they're all people, not animals?

Apparently not back then. They're ideas that have never really gone away - at least not in the Western world. We're just more discrete about them.

Sounds like you're a bit more honest than the rest of them. I'm sorry, West of where? [ what makes this the west HOW DO YOU GEOGRAPHY. most people use like an ocean or something for reference but china is ... on the same continent ??? how ??? ]

[Kate smiles a bit at that before nodding.]

West of the Prime meridian. It actually runs through here. Anything west of that is considered "the west" - Western Europe, the United States, Canada and South America. The east is anything east of us, but is mostly used to refer to the Asian nations.

Hm. [ she nods, accepting that. ] I suppose I could get all this in the library - I've tried, believe me. But I spent years studying my own land's history, seems a bit much to take on another's all at once.

[She makes a face at that.]

Sometimes it helps to just learn things as you need them. It can be impossible to understand everything at once.

after-party ♔ february

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