le reveillon

[cardsharked]

WHO: French people and you
WHERE: The restaurant complex industrial kitchen floor/a random ballroom and entertainment floor
WHEN: Nebulously between Christmas and New Year’s Eve
WHAT: The Who Pudding Cook-Off Le Reveillon dinner
WARNINGS: Alcohol and boozing; maybe there will be an actual physical fight over the food? Mistletoe shenanigans possible. Let me know if I need to add new warnings.

ALLEZ CUISINE

Anyone interested in contributing food to the dinner will have a place to cook in the giant industrial kitchen. Just a few weeks ago, sentient shadows were stabbing unsuspecting guests in the back here, but today it’s lively and bustling. There may even be a handsome, empty-headed blond vampire wandering around to kick off each round of oven preheating with a hearty catchphrase. Before hopping into the fray, consider grabbing an apron or team varsity jacket from the wardrobe hanger. The old staples are there – “Kiss the Cook,” “I Love You a Latke,” “Sugar and Spice” – but there are also some unusual standouts, like jackets with an extra sleeve attached or aprons that have fashioned the lyrics of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” into death threats.

The kitchen has been incredibly well prepared and stocked, and anything necessary to cook a fine holiday meal is available. Of course, some ingredients may have been shuffled around during the procurement. Maybe cooks need to cross team lines to borrow a cup of sugar, apples will be in the onion basket, or paprika will mysteriously pop out of nowhere in a cloud of spice. Working together is the easiest way to make sure the meal goes smoothly. As a reminder, anyone is welcome to throw a dish or two into the mix regardless of their national cuisine of choice. Get cooking!

FRIENDS AT THE TABLE

Here to cook, or a cook who’s finished their rotation in the kitchen? An adjacent ballroom space has been furnished to hold the dining party, with decorations and ambiance supervised by Sumina. As for the food, there's a plethora of options, with Team France(?) alone providing traditional staples like roasted quail, braised oysters, acorn soup, fennel salad, foie gras and pate with crusty bread wedges, creme caramel, and buche de noel. Menu placards at each table list the dishes on offer, but the full menu information can only be unlocked by answering a discussion question over appetizers – “What’s your New Year’s Resolution? Why? How can we help?”

Alcoholic and virgin bubbly drinks are available for all guests. The effervescence of these drinks is contagious! These drinks have a slight, but pleasant, uplifting effect. Drinking one might make attendees chipper and outgoing enough to chat more openly than normal or literally light on their feet, allowing them to float an inch or two off the ground. No one will be forced to experience sensations or feelings they don’t want to; they are purely opt-in, like the joy that comes from smelling a warm homegrown memory.

In addition to any other decorations, Polaroid-style pictures dot the wall. These snapshots contain representations of happy memories of guests throughout the previous year but can only be viewed by people who want to see them, and only memories of people who are willing the share them will appear. Otherwise, they might contain potential futures, hopes, dreamscapes, aspirations, or other talking points for those who are willing to see them.

SMALL BITES

If anyone truly wants to turn this meal into an epic showdown, feel free to start a rousing debate over different dishes or fashion a scorecard out of the menu placards. Golf pencils are mysteriously available for any and all ranking needs.

Though it’s only nebulously New Year’s Eve, guests who stick around until midnight will see the ballroom dim to a warmer, soothing color, lights twinkling down a countdown the last few minutes to the end of the day. As the time ticks over, guests can hold on to indoor-safe sparkle fireworks or take the floor to give a toast to the upcoming year. Insert other preferred New Year's traditions at will.

The mistletoe is still rumored to be out and about, so take care when mingling.

If asked about any of the weird dinner happenings, Odette hasn’t got a clue. She’s just here for the food. Must be more hotel shenanigans, or maybe someone else put their twist on things.

Comments

[liongeneral]

[His lips curl into that cat-like smile of his when she explains what he's suffering from is a food coma. If that's the current excuse for the present then what's the usual excuse for his sleepiness?

Either way he'll take her up on drink offer.]

Tea, if you please.

[Everyone here is so magical... The ghostly hands to help with the dishes. He suspects she might not have needed his help at all with a summonable pair of extra hands but he'll hover with good intention regardless.]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. [He rolls up his sleeves to help. Or maybe he should stick with drying? There's a lot to get through. He'll allow her to direct him.] And I'm certain everyone appreciates how much you're doing around the inn. You and Miss Giselle are both terribly hard workers.

[airdnd]

[ Sumina would argue that she is one of the least magical people around - she just has a few magical items in her possession, is all! But yes, they do still need someone to dry the dishes, don't they? ]

Ah, General, would you mind terribly if I tasked you with drying the dishes?

[ As she is holding a freshly soaped then rinsed dish! ]

Now that you mention her, it's good that you and I have allied ourselves in this effort. Miss Giselle should rest her feet and enjoy the rest of the evening, too. I'm sure she's spent all of her time preparing for this the last few days. [ She knows, because it is exactly what she would do in Giselle's situation. ] Ahaha. She and I are quite alike in that regard, though compared to her, I'm simply a novice.

[liongeneral]

[He shakes his head and heads over to join her at the sink. Ready to take the freshly washed dishes and dry them.]

I don't mind at all. [He feels around for a drying rag and waits to take the dishes from her many hands.] I would be glad to, anything to help.

Mmm. I agree about Miss Giselle. I think she works much too hard. She was serving dinner instead of enjoying it. I'd say something but I don't know if she'd appreciate it coming from me-- Oh, that's right. She told me the headband she was wearing was from you. It's quite lovely and you have quite the eye for aesthetics.

[airdnd]

Oh, ah, thank you... To be honest, I can't take all of the credit for it, General. I had some assistance in the selection.

[ Dodging compliments as always! But more important than that is a certain nuance in something Jing Yuan has said, that... maybe it's the nosy innkeeper in her, but she can't help but ask after it. ]

How come you don't think she would appreciate you saying that...?

[liongeneral]

[He takes the dishes and dries them as they make their way over to him. At her question he takes a moment to consider his words.]

As a General it's important to be able to read people. Over time you're able to just feel the tension within a room which helps you know what to say and how to say it. When I interact with Miss Giselle it's like... I feel surrounded by frost. She smiles and is polite but I'm quite certain it is only for the sake of being polite.

Of course that's all speculation... I could be very off the mark. We spoke so well over the network but when we met in person it was... very different. [He sets down a the dry dish to take another.] I will try and keep my distance from her and perhaps that will help the situation some while I determine where I may have erred in our interactions. It must have been over the network somewhere...

I could show you the conversation we had, if you like. Perhaps you might know.

[airdnd]

Is that so...?

[ Sumina falls into a contemplative silence, and while it's clear her mind is occupied, her hands remain steadfast in their task, receiving dishes from her Mage Hands, soaping and rinsing them to then be handed to Jing Yuan.

Giselle may quite literally be a frigid woman, if only by her physiology, but... Sumina has known her to be warm-hearted. Perhaps it's naive of her to think this while knowing full well what a warm facade is required of those whose occupation demands it, but perhaps because Sumina knows it, and has lived it herself, even if only for a fraction of time that Giselle has, she can see that at least where she is concerned, Giselle's politeness and smiles come from an earnest wish to help, as a maid would. As an innkeeper would. And that beneath it all, there is a warmth - or rather... the yearning for warmth.

All to say, she's surprised to hear these words from Jing Yuan, though when Sumina recalls one of her recent interactions with Giselle, the pieces of the woman she'd met as "the maid" but has come to know as "Giselle" slowly begin to coalesce. That yearning is she had seen when Giselle seemed like she was about to cry, tempered back into a frosty facade not unlike what Jing Yuan must be speaking of.

Sumina finds she must violate a deeply-instilled, professional tendency to mind her own business, because... well, this isn't business. It is a matter of the heart, of one belonging to someone she cares about. ]

I must admit that I'm... surprised, and not, at the same time, General. I have the impression that Miss Giselle has lived a life that few of us can hardly imagine or even fathom - but this is speculation on my end, as well. But, ah, she has only ever been genuinely kind towards me. If... If you don't mind, I would like to see this conversation of yours. If I can help in any way...

[liongeneral]

[He nods and dries his hands off, a little damp from holding onto wet dishes, and digs into his pocket for his phone. He pulls up the conversation from Astarion's hot or not game, specifically where he spoke with the maid.]

It seems like a perfectly fine conversation to me... but... [He scrolls through their messages unable to find any dissonance.] When we met it was quite different from what I expected.

The chill was... [He shakes his head a little.] There was a lot going on at the time with the mistletoe and everything. Perhaps I'm merely overthinking. I may be oversensitive to such things just due to my upbringing.

[Jingliu's frost was literal and metaphorical. For all the years they spent with one another they were never close. Being a fifth wheel in a band of comfortable four was... You learn to sense when your presence is not overly welcome. Not that he was ever made to feel unwelcome in the Quintet. Not once. But there were times when they'd break into twos which simply left him in the cold.

That being said, he holds his phone to her to skim through.]

Maybe you can decipher deeper meanings in the words if there are any to be had at all.

[airdnd]

[ Sumina similarly pauses, dismissing the enchantment of her gloves for a moment and taking them off so that she can receive Jing Yuan's phone easily. ]

Ah, there's nothing wrong with being sensitive to certain matters, of course...

[ But shortly, Sumina glances down to skim and scroll through the aforementioned conversation. Giselle's responses are, as ever, polite and welcoming, and in the process she learns much more about Jing Yuan's story, too. So reincarnations aren't unheard of in his realm, too...

What is most telling, Sumina thinks, is Giselle's final response:
But do you not long for him to reclaim his memories?
To remember you?

And while Sumina knows nothing of Giselle's reasons for asking such a question, perhaps she can hazard a guess or two... But conjecture is dangerous in a situation like this, and though she wants nothing more than to help...

"Please.... forget everything... I just want to live free of this."

With her brow knit together, Sumina frowns in her worry as she hands Jing Yuan his phone. ]

General... I'm sure there are deeper meanings. However, it's not my place to say... What I am willing to share is that many of us here are, whether by design or simply by circumstance, learning much about ourselves. I believe your initial thought to give her some space for now would be the best course of action...

[ A contemplative beat. ]

Please be patient with Miss Giselle.

[liongeneral]

[He waits quietly and paitently for her to read through everything. It's there... he thinks, that something went amiss. That or asking to help with the garden on her floor.

He's really not sure. If he can fix it he will. But he's old enough to know that some things... are simply not meant to be. People, sometimes, are not compatible even on a friendship level. Which is a shame... because he thought they were getting along at the beginning. But it is not worth pursuing if it will simply make Miss Giselle unhappy.

He gives a nod at Sumina's final verdict.]

I would never think of being anything but. [He confirms as he takes his phone back, pocketing it safely.] And I will be sure to keep my distance for the foreseeable future.

Best to let her approach me situation, I think...

[He turns back to their task, putting dishes away with care.]

Thank you, by the way, for looking into it. A second pair of eyes tends to help with such things.

[airdnd]

[ Sumina nods, and offers a kind smile. ]

I'd thought you to be a patient man, General. I'm sure things will improve with time. Miss Giselle is quite distinct. It has taken me time - and, unfortunately, some unsightly circumstances - to learn more about her, too.

[ With that, she turns back to their work as well, reactivating her gloves; they only have a few more dishes to go! ]

But! I'm glad if you found my advice helpful. Asides this, though, you've been settling in alright, I hope?

[liongeneral]

[He can't help but smile at her sweet words and simply gives a nod as they get back to it.]

Mm? Yes... Fairly alright. The mistletoe situation had its ups and downs but overall it's been peaceful. A good place to rest and recover as was the intention. And I've been doing a great deal of resting.

And you, Miss Sumina? Are you enjoying yourself?