open | your baddest behavior

[cozen]

WHO: Alexandrie, Bastien, Byerly, and their captive audience
WHAT: Mandatory etiquette and dance lessons
WHEN: Justinian 15, 9:45
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: See the OOC post and IC announcement for more information! If you didn't sign up, you can still participate in Parts A and D, and just handwave the other two, without needing to sign up or get an assignment. If you want to do B and C, you can find your own dance partner/seating group OOC, or you can sign up now and we'll dole out new assignments if we get enough latecomers to do so. If you signed up and are missing from the lists when you shouldn't be, I'm sorry and please tell me!

disclaimer: event less fancy than pictured

Seating Assignments
— Table One: Gwenaëlle, Iorveth, Matthias, Athessa
— Table Two: Flint, Ilias, Darras, Med Seller, Yngvi
— Table Three: Julius, Thranduil, Anders, Brienne
— Table Four: Benedict, Colin, Valentine, Six, Derrica
— Table Five: Teren, Salvio, Bartimaeus, Osana
— Table Six: Freddie, Petrana, Kain, Merrill, Silver
— Table Seven: Yseult, Cosima, Steve, Inessa
— Table Eight: Sidony, Fifi, Nell, Fingon
— Table Nine: Thor, Nathaniel H., Solas, Skadi

Dance Partners
— Cosima & Nathaniel H.
— Athessa & Anders
— Teren & Flint
— Freddie & Bartimaeus
— Yseult & Darras
— Nell & Julius
— Merrill & Colin
— Skadi & Benedict
— Gwenaëlle & Solas
— Petrana & Salvio
— Osana & the Medicine Seller
— Sidony & Matthias
— Six & Thranduil
— Brienne & Valentine
— Fifi & Steve
— Thor & Fingon
— Ilias & Iorveth

Comments

Table Seven

[youwonscience]

The thing she should have anticipated, actually, is the vegetarian problem. It's probably fair that Thedosian nobles are not going to take well to "I can't eat your food, sorry, it's not you it's me." (She mentally adds this to the list of reasons she should not be assigned field work.) The bruschetta is good, but the stew is a bit of a challenge.

She should have smuggled Franklin in, she thinks, feeding beef to the dog under the table is a time-honored "dispose of food" technique.

So this is Cosima, seeing how long she can effectively mime eating this course before someone says anything. "So what happens in a real setting if you do this wrong, do you think? Regular jail, or do they have a special jail just for fork violations?"

[circleprodigy]

Inessa seems to make a token effort to try a little of everything, each bite and movement carefully chosen. She already has marks against her for being an elf, and she knows it, so she's giving as little room to judge her otherwise as possible. Her posture is perfect, and every so often she glances over to see how the 'experts' handle things, taking her cue from them.

Cosima's question causes her lip to twitch, despite herself. "In Orlais, I would not be surprised. They can be extremely...particular. Though if you play up the 'exotic rifter' angle, you might get away with a withering stare or somesuch. Though against those, I might almost recommend the special jail."

[youwonscience]

Cosima laughs. "I don't think I have a withering stare that would work in Orlais. Do you think I could try huge sad eyes instead? Please, m'sieur, I'm just a poor barbarian, how am I supposed to know what spoon to use?" She would try to demonstrate with the sad eyes, but she's smiling and it kind of ruins the effect.

She glances at Steve. "I bet you could go the withering stare route, if you wanted, though."

[murrika]

Steve Rogers grew up on the poor side of Brooklyn, during the Great Depression. Fancy dinners with starched clothes and too many forks? Not his scene. Not in the least. It's really starting to show as he picks up a tiny little shrimp fork, turning it over in his hand like it could be the key to globalized clean energy.

"They really take table manners seriously here, don't they?" It's half mumbled, before his eyes snap up when one of the grading officials wanders past, eyeing Steve and his new Tiny Fork friend. He straightens up and carefully places the fork back where it came from, clearing his throat and trying not to look as much like a guilty child caught playing at the table as he is. Once they pass, he's careful to keep his voice low, muttering to Inessa and Cosima. "Back home, elbows on the table just meant my ma poking me with a fork."

And let's be real, the next time he'd be at a place where table manners mattered, he was Captain America, and no one was going to poke Captain America with a fork. As for a withering stare, he chuckles, shrugging.

"I've been told I do 'Not Angry, Just Disappointed' well. Think that'll pass?"

[circleprodigy]

"That's what it meant in the Circle, too, only with our mentors doing the poking. And...it might? The Orlesians might even be grudgingly impressed as a result, though I have a feeling they would rather die than admit it." If there's one thing Inessa's learned not to underestimate, it's Orlesian pride. She darts a sympathetic smile Steve's way, then Cosima's.

"Appeal to their pride and you'll be fine, I think. They enjoy feeling superior to others, so give them that chance and they'll run with it. If you're a 'pathetic barbarian', you can be no threat to them, after all. Just hide the smile behind a fan or something. I suppose this is why those full masks come in handy..."

[youwonscience]

"I'm OK with condescension if the alternative is jail," Cosima says, frankly. To Steve, she adds sympathetically, "All I've got is that when in doubt, start on the outside and work in. Or anyway, that's what the movies told me, and it seems to hold for Orlesians."

After a second: "Sorry, wait, do you come from somewhere with movies? You'd think I'd remember to ask that by now. I used to think about keeping a little bingo card for rifter cultural references."