HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[paradisamods]

All that clamor from the lion dance prancing down the halls should be enough to draw attention to the party, even without actual invitations. If not the noise, then perhaps the delicious smell wafting under every door and leading back to the ballroom.

The castle is vain, if nothing else. It has decorated the ballroom in the deepest red and brightest gold with auspicious greetings in the common language tastefully posted about the hall. May your happiness be without end, one says, while another goes May all your wishes be fulfilled. Small order, all things considered.

Round dining tables (with the turning glass part) are set up in the middle of the hall, each with about ten chairs and piles of food fit for a whole village. There are two more lion dance teams hopping about the hall and making a racket while occasionally nabbing that dumpling straight from your chopsticks. That should the least of your concerns, however, with many residents still aiming to settle their grudges before the new year.

Watch your back.

[ ooc; IC mingle log for Lunar New Year plot, feel free to make your own threads! ]

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DINNER TABLES

[paradisamods]

The dinner may seem unusual to most: tossed raw fish salad, many kinds of dumplings, sliced barbecue pork, a whole steamed fish, salty-sweet meat coins, roast pork belly, Buddha's delight, rice dumplings with savory or sweet fillings, a mountain of mandarin oranges, dried watermelon seeds and really sticky cakes (to seal the Kitchen God's lips shut so he can't badmouth the castle).

But any food wished up from the castle will show up as one of these instead for the night. At least there are cups of very strong liquor to help you down all that food, kept warm at just the perfect temperature.

[onlyanapple]

[You better believe Crowley is here. He has a plate of everything and has more than a few glasses of Mao Tais in front of him. Hey, if the castle's going to give him alcohol strong enough to take the top layer of flesh from your throat, who is he to turn it down?

He seems to be marking a tally every five minutes, too. Why not bother him?]

[hellofist]

[Well, she just has to ask, so Cass heads on over. There's a precursory wave and smile as a greeting, but other than that? Well, who even needs small talk.]

What are you doing?

[pompous_today]

[Simon was delighted that the castle was celebrating the lunar new year. The decorations and food reminded him of home, and provided him with a chance to get away from the clinic for a bit and rest.

He quickly gathered up a plate of dumplings and stood near the food table, carefully scooping them into his mouth.]

[hellofist]

[Of course Cass is checking out the food, trying out every single dish to see what she likes best but leaving that liquor be for now. Her dress isn't very festive when compared to all the bright decorations, but black is just her color.

At the moment she seems to be focusing on the dumplings, selecting them at random and taking a big bite to find out what each filling is before polishing the rest off. It's a pretty typical sight, really. Cass in something elegant and behaving like she has no idea what things like table manners are. Who even cares though, this food is good.]

[secondchances]

[Steph always checks out the food first at these gigs. Of course, after her cheesecake binging earlier this month (and the aftermath... ugh), she's a little more careful with her stomach.

But a little won't hurt, right?

She eyes the oranges for a moment before going for the barbequed pork. YOLO.]

[willrememberthat]

[Clementine's sitting at one of the tables, idly kicking her feet back and forth. She looks a little nervous, looking back and forth between groups of people. It feels like forever since she's been in a crowd.

She almost died last week and now they're having a party. A lady did die.

Maybe she'll leave early.]

[schrodingersghost]

[As always, Danny was only here for the food. He piles his plate high, though he's skipping the raw fish.]

[ensorceler]

[ A party is a party is a party, and Anne Boleyn simply doesn't miss out on them if she's physically capable of going, no matter her state of being; desolate or delighted. Delighted is how she will usually seem regardless, at least until she's been in the cups for one too many hours.

That will be awhile yet, as she has felt her soul settle somewhat since her coma, or rather return home, and her smile has less of an edge to it as she stops to greet any she might know near the entrance or the dining tables.

For herself, she knows little of Chinese culture but feels compelled to where an Eastern themed gown, anyway, or rather a costume as she sees it, completing the outfit with a gold and red brocade robe, the sleeves ornate and belled. Rubies adorn her ears and her neck, with a ruby encrusted headdress wrapped about the long dark braid she'd wrapped into a bun.

She may no longer be Regent, but she is still a queen no matter where she is, and there is no subtlety in that. Of course she eats very little, which has little to do with the foreign nature of the food, but rather she'd never fit into this dress if she ate as much as others!

Anne acts like she owns the place, whether or not she does. ]

[rogueofheart]

[Guess whose plate consists solely of fish foods? Take a wild guess. You will never guess. It's Nepeta. She can be found sitting at a table with not one, but two plates of fish and grinning happily as she tears into them with no regard for grace or table manners.]

[cant_breathe_no_heir]

[GUESS WHO'S FASHIONABLY LATE!

Equius is making his way to his seat with a plate stacked with meat coins and rice dumplings. There's also a glass of milk in his hand, which he seems to be focusing on a lot more than the food, because his plate is leaning dangerously to one side.]

[freeslider]

[Wade is taking full advantage of the spread. She's spent most of the holiday preceding cleaning, which didn't give her much time to actually eat much beyond basic survival, so this spread is more like a gift from the gods.

Maybe it is, in a way.

She's steering clear of the meat products and piling her plate full of sweet dumplings, oranges, and cakes. She's working at one of the last of these ones when she spots the cups of liquor. Wade doesn't know what they are, but she needs something to wash down that cake. Grabbing one, she took a quick swig of the drink and immediately doubles over, coughing, food tumbling off her plate in the process]

[sugarwaffo]

[Naturally Sugar is there, drawn in by the delicious smells. The tiny fairy is sitting on one of the tables, munching on one of the smaller dumplings she could find.

If she sees someone eating something equally tasty looking though, she might beg for a piece.]

WALLFLOWERS

[paradisamods]

The bright decoration posted along the walls make for a decent excuse for avoiding the dinner tables, for those less keen on making polite conversation.

Most of them are gaudy illustrations of multicolored horses, golden dragons and roaring lions with the occasional happy new year. Then, there are the proverbs: Worry not that none knows you; seek to be worth knowing, or They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom, and then Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness. Wise words or conversation starters? Seems there's no escape after all.

[batteriesarehard]

[It's less that she's trying to avoid contact and more that she wants a good look at the decorations that finds Carley out of the way, though she has snagged a drink from the tables before making her way over. She's even dressed up for the occasion because it's been months since she had an excuse to wear anything more exciting than a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

And Ben is around here somewhere, also stuffed into something a little nicer for the party. It had taken a bit of convincing to get him to go along with it, but she was determined to get him out among the people of the castle, get him to make some more friends.

After all, a teenager needs to hang out with people who aren't all much, much older than him.]

[forsometimenow]

[Jennifer knew she should still be resting in bed- but she had been stuck in the clinic for a week now, and knew her concussion was no longer dangerous. She had to get up and walk around for a bit, and the tempting aroma of food lured her out.

However, since her broken left arm, still in a sling, wasn't exactly condusive to helping her eat with chopsticks, she instead took the time to admire the decorations. She also kept looking around at the crowd without realizing why at first... then she had to admit to herself that she was half expecting Maladict to show up, despite knowing that her friend's nameplate was gone. That made her heart hurt, but she tried to enjoy herself nonetheless.]

[unmanned]

[James takes his time checking out the decor, lingering at each proverb before moving on to the next with a a drink in his hand. He absently takes a sip of his drink, frowns at it a bit, then goes back to looking at these words of wisdom.]

[deductiongeek]

[Conan is reading over the proverbs as he mostly ignores the rest of the celebration. This was boring.

He's already wondering if he should go back to his room to get a book.]

[nothingtobelieve]

[Vicious hasn't been happy all week. The festivities are not exactly foreign to him, and that was half the problem. It shouldn't have bothered him, being reminded like this. After all, he'd gotten what he wanted. The Van and all their irritating traditions had been done away with. But he wasn't satisfied, really, and this was all too much like the castle rubbing his discontent in his face.

He could have avoided it, of course, but he wasn't the sort to hide. So he'd followed the noise, found the party, then, thankfully, found the alcohol. He was now holding up a wall, a monochrome blot against the otherwise brightly colored decorations, glaring at his surroundings as though they had personally offended him]

[eaglet]

[Connor is near the walls -- he is not exactly comfortable with mingling, but also the illustrations and phrases along the walls are of interest.

He lingers at the final proverb: Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness. It's a belief he holds himself, and he wonders who it is that put these words up for all to see. Was it the castle that made a conscious decision? Or was the castle only pulling the beliefs of its prisoners and mimicking them in writing?]

[ofhope]

[ Joshua has always been a lover of the foreign and exotic, not only the supernatural. The more he learns, the more he wants to know, as has ever been his way of being; before and after the acquisition of the horns. Some parts of him will never die, and the childish longing to explore all corners of the Earth has never left him.

And hasn't he learned quite well how to appreciate that when in Rome...

Or this time, China. He knows perhaps the least about this nation, other than the Art of War is one of his favorite recordings, the food is good, and dragons are spiffy. This everybody can agree on, and Joshua can't resist wearing a little pin on his suit sporting a long, sleek gold dragon, but that's possibly as ornate as he gets. He won't seek out that many people, not unless he knows them, but he's in a calm enough mood not give off any threatening vibes to strangers, either. Whatever food he eats, which is no small amount, he'll most likely bring back off to the side, where he can appreciate the decoration and it's proverbs. Those are always fun.

If the former convict isn't welcome here by some, he certainly isn't acting like he's aware of the fact. ]

FIRECRACKERS

[paradisamods]

There's no countdown at this new year celebration, but as midnight rolls around, the thousands of firecrackers lining the walls will light up and pop in an earsplitting racket that would scare off both the Nian and, well, everyone else.

The lion dancers takes it as a chance to go all-out on the acrobatics, somersaulting and hopping about in the jolliest way for any monster to die. Then they all fall as soon as silence returns, mimicking the defeat of Nian and all things unpleasant.

All is now forgiven!

[thebestseller]

[Castle, feeling rather shameless, had decided to join in with the lion dancers after having a rude awakening from the firecrackers at midnight. He wasn't likely to be going back to sleep any time soon after THAT shock, so why not dance and cavort around the hallways with them?

It helped, of course, that the maid outfit had finally disappeared and he could walk and move normally.]

[godmakemeastone]

[River's eyes light up at the sight of the fireworks and dancing lions. She skips happily with them, twirling and spinning, her arms open wide and laughing delightedly.]

FIRECRACKERS

[dog_eat_dog]

[There used to be a time where Tess liked fireworks. Back when she was a kid, her dad would let her stand on the porch while he and her brother set off fireworks on the lawn on the Fourth of July, just barely after sundown, and her mom would have to keep a close eye in case Tess felt like rushing to play under the sparks. Then they'd get into the family truck, Tess between her parents in the front seat, and they'd drive down to the community center and toboggan hill, which in the summer became the best view point for the local firework show. Tess fucking loved those summers, back when the world was a kinder place and fireworks didn't have her ducking for cover.

Now fireworks just remind her of the noise of Boston being firebombed, seeing the horizon light up orange as the U.S. military –– or what was left of it –– tried to secure their borders by reducing lost urban territory to rubble. Fireworks just remind her of the choking feeling she got when ash fell on the Quarantine Zone for the next few days, when the wind kept the dust of rubble on the air for the next week. Fireworks just remind her of her first firefights, the first of so, so many, and fireworks remind her of when the Fireflies' first bombings rocked the checkpoints. They'd become terrorists that day, and it was the same day that Tess quit.

While everyone else jumps and then oohs and aahs at the fireworks, Tess just slips into flight mode. The blood rushes to her ears, her nerves feel electrified, and she doesn't fight the impulse to panic. Even when she realizes half a moment later that they're just fireworks –– god, how long has it been since she's seen fireworks? –– her instinct rebels from logic.

Tess zeroes in on Joel nearby and she makes a beeline for him, reaching out for him before she's even in arm's length.]

We have to go.

[It's clipped, imperative.]