Oᴅᴇᴛᴛᴇ Mᴀʟᴇɴᴄᴏɴ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cardsharked) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hotelcaelum2023-12-29 02:25 pm
cardsharked) wrote in hotelcaelum2023-12-29 02:25 pm
Entry tags:
le reveillon
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.
WHERE: The restaurant complex industrial kitchen floor/a random ballroom and entertainment floor
WHEN: Nebulously between Christmas and New Year’s Eve
WHAT:
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.
no subject
[ Still grinning, but a little more serious: ]
As for the big guy... it's obvious by now, right? When I said my name was "Charlemagne", I bet someone like him popped into your mind.
no subject
Yes, that is true. Though I would imagine most people picture a stern, older looking man, when they think of a King.
[ In saying that everyone thinks it, she wonders if that will help her answer feel less personal - less like she's definitively saying you don't look like what I imagine King Charlemagne to look like to his face. ]
Those of the majority rarely have opportunity to hear descriptions of royalty, much less lay their eyes on them in paintings... or in the flesh.
[ So, a scary old man is just the kneejerk image people conjure up, she thinks. Her eyes wander back to the image, hand raising to cover her mouth as she chuckles softly. ]
But his clothing is certainly not what I pictured. Hehe...
no subject
[ Charlie, don't hit on your own older self.
Her answer seems relatively noncommittal, and he wonders if she's trying to let him down gently; as if agreeing would somehow deny his own identity as "Charlemagne". With a breezy laugh, he clarifies. ]
You're right about people's imaginations. I know I must seem like a kid in comparison to him, but that's basically the point.
Remember that stuff about me being a bunch of legends? Well, compared to the real thing up there, there's no room for those legends to exist. [ Said plainly, unbothered. As much a fact of life as the sun rising in the morning. ] Me being summoned at all is a miracle that only happens once or twice at most, and only for a limited time. That's why I'm gonna enjoy myself while I still can.
[ As if he hadn't just dropped that bombshell (or perhaps, entirely because of it): ] That reminds me! I protected your side of the kitchen from regular sis Ringo earlier. I know I wasn't much [ any ] help with the cooking, but I stood guard the whole time. Feel free to praise me!
no subject
This is where she should let go, and stop concerning herself with him entirely — because like he says, it's inevitable. But she finds herself unable to do so. Charlie has only ever been sweet with her, and much as she'd like to be ambivalent, the sadness she would feel at yet another person who has eased her burdens slipping through her fingers outweighs her instinct to isolate herself.
So while the turn in the conversation is sudden, she accepts it easily, keeping herself from showing any of the unease that begins to brew in her chest at his words. Instead, her grin turns cold and bright, like a winter morning. ]
Oh, is that so? I did not know we were under such danger. How fortunate that you were there... [ Then, more seriously and formally than his words likely necessitate: ] Thank you kindly for your help, my dear.
But... may I ask you something?
[ She has dozens of questions — what does "limited time" mean? Did he come here hoping for a way to escape an inevitable fate? But none of those questions end up as the one softly spoken. ]
Are you? Enjoying yourself, I mean.
no subject
You bet I am. Spending time with you, big sis Figue, and Miss Odette is the awesomest! Plus, I get to eat awesome food, learn all sorts of awesome new things, and play awesome games with everyone! What's not to enjoy?
[ No fighting, except for fun. No war. No destruction, no misery. An oasis in the sea of everyone's lives, a respite from whatever awaits them back home. Even if he can't save anyone, even if he can't change anything, he can at least help create a good memory or two while he's here, as a sort of legacy of his own. A shame he won't work on his vocabulary in the process. ]
... And I was kidding about the praise. Sis Ringo wasn't a real threat, but I would've taken on a thousand guys to make sure today went perfectly. Not just the cooking part, but everything else too.
Know why, Giselle? Because you're smiling right now. That's all the thanks I need.
1/2
It's why it catches her off guard, when he follows up about how serious he would have hypothetically been about making sure that the day went as planned. Her brows raise, a faint, muted astonishment staining her pale features — and while yes, she'd been smiling a moment ago, the brief blankness on her face that follows seems a hundred times more genuine and tender. Only the most subtle of emotions ever seem non-artificial on Giselle's face. But his implication that would've gone through a much greater effort to see her smile draws a wonder out in her jade eyes. ]
My... how sweet you are.
[ There's curiosity there, but underneath that... something earnest, almost hopeful, before it slips away out of sight, replaced by her usual cool timbre. ]
2/2
Shall I smile a bit more for you, then? [ Her head tilts. ] I truly am grateful.