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

[bigbad]

Spike. [The not-nearly so courteous. You can tell by how he takes a big bite of meat between words.] Sir Spike, that is.

[king]

[ Christ, so they really do knight anyone. ]

Pleasure.

[ It's not. ]

[bigbad]

[Yeah, convincing.]

So, you're royalty or something?

[king]

King, yeah.

[ And then he suddenly pays a lot more attention to the conversation. ]

You've not heard of me?

[bigbad]

[He shrugs.] Name might ring a bell. Doesn't mean I've got the foggiest clue past that. Why, are you famous?

[king]

[ A one-shouldered shrug of his own. ]

Apparently.

[bigbad]

[Spike doesn't look particularly impressed. He doesn't really give a crap about fame most of the time.]

So what, you're going for knighthood now? Isn't that something of a demotion?

[king]

Squiring is. I was already a knight. But. New age, new rules. It's not as though I'm going to find it difficult to uphold those vows.

[bigbad]

And I guess there are all sorts of fun new weapons to learn too, right?

[king]

[ Oh yes. ]

Somebody said something about "guns"...

[bigbad]

[Spike nods.]

Oh yeah, we get those. Never used one, I take it?

[...actually, Spike's got no idea if he's used one before. He was competent enough when he pointed it at his mentor, but he didn't use it. Huh.]

[king]

[ Arthur shakes his head. ]

Never even seen one.

[ His eyebrows flick with interest as he muses. ]

But they sound interesting enough.

[ Nothing to compare to a sword, but a new weapon is a new weapon. ]

[bigbad]

They're interesting, all right, and deadly. You can get a hell of a lot more range and accuracy than with a crossbow, too. [Or, at least, so Spike assumed. This was another of those areas where he had no real memories.]