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

ota;

[slays]

[ Andie must be loving this.

It's pretty much all that occurs to Buffy as she takes her seat. The goal, she's pretty sure, is more squirely bonding, but she's not even sure she's bonded herself, still feeling a little out of sorts despite the best efforts of knights and squires alike. So, she does more observing of other people's stories than sharing of her own.

But, she makes for a very active listener, and she's more than happy to partake in the food portion of the evening. Finding offices and sleeping through the night, she could use some additional skill points there. But, eating? That's something she's really good at. ]

[befree]

[Katniss has taken notice of the blonde not very far down to her right, but waits until the table starts clearing out before turning to stare on over at her. Normal people would just get up and go over to the person to speak to them, but Katniss isn't exactly normal.

So she just stares at the side of Buffy's face, willing the other girl to turn around and notice her. If she doesn't, it's not a big loss. She doesn't need to speak to someone else. It just would be nice to find an ally or two right from the start. And the blonde looks nice enough, and is able to pack away food about as well as Katniss herself, so it only makes sense to start there in ally seeking.

Of course, all the Knights were supposed to be her allies. But trusting that many people at once is worse than being torn apart by dogs, so she'll start off small.]

[slays]

[ It doesn't take too long for Buffy to turn to look at her. A minute or so of staring, and that creeping in the back of her neck that she's coming to seriously think could be Spidey sense is tingling. Or, rather, pinching, and causing her hair to stand on end. Same feeling she got around Sir Spike, funny enough. She slowly glanced around, shifting her gaze down the table toward Katniss and locking eyes with her.

Which would be really dramatic if Buffy weren't ... in the middle of taking a bite out of the leg of some kind of bird. She should feel guilty, given that there are live birds in cages around, but ... she sure doesn't.

Slowly, she raises her free hand and gives a tiny kind of finger-waggling wave. ]

[befree]

[Is she...waggling her finger at her like she's a child or an animal?

Katniss is initially offended, but once she sees the greasy chicken in the woman's hand she settles for just being exasperated instead. The blonde's already proven herself to be more personable in one finger waggle than Katniss knows she's been in any gesture she's ever given in her entire life.

Maybe attempting to converse with her is a bad life choice.

But she's already gotten the girl's attention so...

Here goes nothing.]

Do you think they keep the birds here in their cages so they can serve them later on?

[Well...she tried. She can't help it if seeing the meat Buffy was eating prompted her to think of such things.]

[slays]

[ She chokes a little on her dead animal, setting the leg down and quickly drinking from her wine glass to wash it back, because that was ... so unexpectedly tactless. Her eyes are wide and she swallows the wine to clear her throat, croaking out a response. ]

Do I think who huh? [ Her eyes dart up to the cages and her expression steadily grows ucky. ] ... Kinda figured they imported. [ She looked down at her dead animal leg, and then back up at the bird, wondering if that might have been its cousin. ]

[befree]

[And her reaction gets Katniss to do something so rare, she can feel her face stretching as she does it.

She smiles, and lets out a laugh. But smiling is hard and painful work, so she quickly slips back into her usual look of indifference.]

I hadn't actually thought about it. [She just didn't know what else to say.]

I'm Katniss.

[Yep, still failing at conversation.]

[slays]

Buffy. [ She returns the smile, even if Katniss isn't wearing it anymore. Despite the smile, though, she decides to just push her plate away for now, because the birds are judging her. ] You got knighted today, right? [ She wipes her hands off on her napkin. ] Mine was about a week ago.

[befree]

Only a week ago? [They sure do knight people a lot here, but she doesn't comment on it.]

What's it like? [Curiosity gets the better of her, and even at her clipped question, it's clear that she's eager to figure out her place here and get into the swing of things.]

[slays]

Big. Kinda overwhelming. Some of the other knights are a little scary. [ She glances around the table. ] The whole place feels family-ish though. I think it's a good place to be. [ She doesn't mention, of course, the issue of trying to break into said family vibe. It's awkward and the out of placeness is a nightmare. ] Just takes some getting used to. [ A beat. ] Okay, a lot of getting used to.

[bigbad]

[Buffy is one of the very few people Spike's come to actually like and get along with, so it's something of a no brainer to sit near her. He serves himself helpings from several of the dishes, along with a generous glass of wine before he turns toward her.]

So, my knight's not only smelly, he's a complete ass. How are you, love?

[slays]

I got lost. [ She raises her wine goblet in a cheers gesture and then drinks from it to mourn their hard lives. ] So, how smelly are we talking here? Bathes weekly for posterity smelly, or you're likely gonna have to invest in air fresheners to hang on him smelly?

[bigbad]

You know, I don't think he knows what a bath is. Probably considers it one of those luxuries that get in the way of duty. [He makes a disgusted face.] He wouldn't let me into his hut.

[slays]

[ She look a little baffled by that -- okay, granted, she hadn't exactly gotten cozy in Jack's personal space, but if Spike's knight was going to operate out of his hut, he should treat it like an office, right? ]

What, he repelled you with the power of his stench? [ There's a chuckle at that. ] I mean, okay, maybe barging in anyway wouldn't be the polite thing to do, but if you ask me, he started the lack of polite, and you would've been totally justified.

[bigbad]

[Spike looks a bit embarrassed.] I couldn't get past him. [Or cross the threshold at all, but Buffy's welcome to think it meant Lan stood in the doorway blocking Spike's way. It's better than 'I'm an undead creature of the night and can't go in without an invitation'.] Though the stench bit too.

[slays]

Well, in the interest of optimism, at least that means you're bound to learn a lot? I mean, if he's tough enough to keep you out.

[technophobic]

[And Lan is just going to loudly speak up from a few seats down, addressing his comment to Spike oh so casually, but making it clear he's heard every bit of it.] Now if only this were roasted over a good open fire. Don't you think, boy?

[bigbad]

[First the decapitation threats and now this. Spike really, really hates this guy.]

Maybe a real stove's too much of a luxury for a backwards woodsman like yourself, but some of us prefer not burning the house down. [Also? Flammable vampire here. Not that Spike intends on sharing that bit of info.]

[witchwoman]

[Being the people watching sort herself, Myri can spot her own- someone trying to take in more than give out. She's never seen as much food as there is in the dining hall, and to be frank, she's a bit overwhelmed.]

Hello. [She says before she has realized that she's spoken at all. She stands awkwardly next to the woman's table before just going for a nearby chair. Beside her, a large black cat makes his presence known as he sits beside Myrilandel and lets out a noise that sounds like the mix of a cat's meow and a bird call.]

[slay]

[ Buffy looks up, surprised by the suddenness of the greeting, then her eyes fall on the cat in a look that is ... oh that's going to sit at the table with us and eat dinner OKAY SURE THAT'S SANITARY. But she overcomes it. ]

Uh, hey. You're one of the new squires, right?

[witchwoman]

[The cat is very well behaved, thank you very much. He simply stares at Buffy with large, unblinking violet eyes. After a long moment, he yawns wide and curls up beside Myri to take a short nap.]

Myrilandel. [She offers her name with a polite nod of her head.] And yes, still new enough to find all of this so... exciting.

[slay]

Honestly? IIIII'm not sure I'd say it ever un-excites. Granted, I've been here, like, a week, but that's my ... quasi-expert opinion.

[witchwoman]

I'm not sure whether to be disappointed that you aren't more well versed or relieved that I'm in good company to feel a bit lost. [She sighs]

What do you make of it?

[slay]

It's overwhelming. But ... the people here. They're good people, doing what they can to help others. [ She looks around, then back at Myril with a smile. ] Plus, getting put up in a castle at zero cost doesn't hurt.

[witchwoman]

Nothing's ever truly free. [She says, her eyes drifting around the lavish room.]

[slays]

Maybe so. But, I'd say the cost being employment is a low one, considering the work they do.