The Far Less Creepy and Far From Abandoned Mansion in the Woods; Friday Afternoon/Evening [06/27].

[chef_chocobro]

When the guests arrived, they would, of course, be instructed to find their way to the garden conservatory; the subtle decorations both inside the mansion and through the exterior gardens would guide most people to there, and, barring that, the steward was naturally on hand to provide and escort. There, they would find a scene that seemed almost a stark contrast to the dark and brooding decor of a necromancer, a place filled with light and life, with plants both decorative and functional, colorful and aromatic and useful, and, of course, no lack of the expected gothic or Victorian touches here and there. Somewhere, some cleverly situated water fixture babbled steadily along with the light, inobtrusive music that set the atmosphere: something elevated just slightly above casual, that slight touch of pretentiousness that was gentle in its demands for propriety and decorum and class. Comfortable chaises and chairs were arranged here and there sociably, a gathering a wrought-iron bistro tables and chairs as well, but the set-up seemed to suggest the kind of floating interactions of butterflies among flowers, drifting from one to the next with an airy regard.

And, of course, the spread of food was exceptional, lighter fair, but plenty of it, things that could be enjoyed while fluttering about with the other guests in one hand, while the other held a glass of fine wine or sparkling water garnished with fresh fruits or even a robust coffee or a floral cup of tea. Small sandwiches and crostini, bruschetta and other variations, but there were also empanadas with a chimichurri sauce, paella with scallops, pomegranate pork kebabs...

Spring rolls, summer rolls, smoked salmon cucumber rolls...

And of course, desserts, which would include alfajores dulce de leche, coffee truffles, fruit crostini, and key lime mini pies.

Needless to say, no one should be wanting for food. Just be careful not to fill up on treats too much if you plan to stay on later; there was still plenty of dancing to be had, once the party moved itself to the awaiting ballroom.

[[ naturally, ocd incoming ocd is up! Come and celebrate with us! ]]

Comments

Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[chef_chocobro]

Your hosts, leaning into the lightness of the garden party in their own exceptional and of course matching attire, are pleased to welcome their guests (well, most of them, anyway) and invite them in celebrating this...oh, you know, oh-so-small and insignificant matter of their engagement with them.

So come and spend the afternoon in their lovely, vibrant conservatory, with excellent food and even better (for the most part) company.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[sword_chocobro]

Not only was Gladio wearing a shirt today, but he was also wearing a jacket over it, meaning it would be a bit more difficult for him to end up in his more comfortable natural state of shirtlessness. The things he did for friendship, right? And while he'd much prefer something in his more native black, he couldn't fault the nice touch some green brought to a garden party...and the fact the he looked pretty damn good in it, too, especially if you asked him.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[deathsmajesty]

"Why Gladio, I'm touched," Liliana drawled, not that she thought Ignis needed the verbal cue to let him know who was standing in front of them. "What a lovely engagement present."

A shirt? A jacket? If this was some new form of protest about the whole thing, she hoped he kept it up.

"If you're not going to wear black, green suits you well." Not that she was biased by any little woods witches or whatnot.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto maybe didn't realize that the pattern on his shirt wasn't flowers like he originally thought they were, but fruit instead, until it was way too late to change course, but hey, fruit grew on trees! Gardens had trees! It was still a garden party outfit! It was fine!

He figured the yellow would be more than enough to be on theme, anyway. And, really, he was just an accessory for Noctra and her outfit, anyway, even if she was squirming to be let go and to walk around almost as soon as they arrived.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Yeah, like Summer was going to miss this. She'd been waiting on this fucking engagement to actually happen for, like, what? SIX MONTHS, maybe? Probably actually way more than that. Whatever the actual time frame had been, it seemed like it had been way too long between when Ignis dragged her out to actually get the ring with him.

She was wearing vaguely pinkish off-white, but perhaps she actually should have been wearing all black, in mourning for the death of her ability to hold 'waiting for the perfect moment' over Iggy's head like she had been.

Especially since she couldn't even say anything about it now without him being smug about having actually found the perfect moment, that snooty asshole.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden had dutifully looked up 'wtf do you wear to a garden party?' and the internet had informed her that the answer was, 'florals and pastels,' so here she was, in florals and pastels.

And drifting over towards the food tables, because food always made socializing easier. And who didn't like empanadas?

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[stykera]

Stark wasn't sure about garden party attire but he had a pale blue shirt under the jacket of his favorite suit.

He was feeling a bit out of place, wondering if he ought to just bolt sooner than later, but he was going to try.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[what_big_teeth]

Eleanor had made this mistake of mentioning at some point, offhanded and not even really thinking about it, that she didn't know what to wear to Miss Vess' party today, and Luma had pounced on the opportunity to procure something for her sister as quickly as she would a rabbit about to flee into the bushes. Which is why she was feeling slightly uncomfortable in white lace that still had a distinctly 70s vibe to it, despite being something Luma's gotten at the store where she worked.

It wasn't bad, of course, and if there was one thing she'd learned with events here, it was that she wore dresses she felt uncomfortable in surprisingly well, but it just felt like more of a Luma dress than an Eleanor one.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey didn't have a ton of nice clothes and she'd worn some of them yesterday. So she'd had to go and see what she could get delivered overnight after also looking up what to wear to a harden party. Congratulations, you got her in a dress and kind of a color.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[even_bigger_teeth]

Luma was absolutely thrilled to have a chance to dress up in something frilly and pretty for today, and feeling far more confident and comfortable with it being not only for someone she knew, but also in a place she was familiar with, eradicating a lot of the factors that made her nervous with socializing.

True, she didn't know a thing about Miss Vess' betrothed except that he apparently liked to cook (and was very good at it, based on the food they'd had in class!), but perhaps that just meant now was a good time to work on that! Especially since she was desperately curious to know what kind of man could actually win over someone like Miss Vess!

It felt like the closest thing to a sweeping romance from one of her books as she could imagine.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia had just the thing for a garden party and wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to wear it.

And to celebrate Miss Vess and Professor Scientia's engagement, of course, yes, yes, felicitations and whatnot.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[ifwebeworthy]

Don still owned precisely one suit, which was navy, and he'd left off the tie on account of it having snowflakes on it, Thor's suggestion of, You could purchase a second tie, being brushed off.

He was wearing the Mjolnir cufflinks, though. Look, they amused him. With his walking stick, that was three Mjolnirs.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[imafuturist]

Tony had a wide selection of suits to pick from because, well, Tony. But he'd settled on a pink seersucker suit for the weather.

And it was close enough to red for him. Look, following a color scheme was just how life was sometimes!

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[suitably_heroic]

Jack had only shown up here because, well, as he'd told Summer, it felt like a good idea to stay in Liliana's good books.

He was regretting it about three minutes after entering. Yeah. This garden reminded him way too much of Alderaan. And no, he hadn't expected his henley-and-a-leather-jacket attire to be exactly fitting whatever mood Liliana and Ignis were likely to go with, but still. Eesh.

Well, he'd stick around for half an hour and then make a quick exit. Yeah. That seemed about right.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[x_wondrous_x]

Stewart had, initially, completely dismissed the invitation that had appeared in the mail for him last week, either out of apathy or out of being pretty sure it had been sent to him by mistake or one of those things where you sometimes got mail for the last person who lived where you live.

But Liliana had given him a skull once, at another party here, and she was one of the few people on the island he felt really got him in a certain way, and so he figured he should at least show up and check it out.

And also check out if there were any good opportunities to slip away and maybe poke around while everyone was partying it up, because Liliana and Ignis had a very cool house.

And absolutely wasn't dressing up or anything, showing up in his usual overalls, and looking very disappointed over how normal the conservatory was for being owned by someone who just, you know, handed out skulls to skids.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven and Llewellyn who would ping in himself arrived after Llewellyn had gotten off work and there was time to make themselves party appropriate.

Steven didn't know what exactly was expected for this sort of a gathering, particularly on a humid summer day. He erred on the side of something he felt might answer the needs of both weather and occasion, putting on his light blue linen suit.

Of course being Steven meant that even looking at linen meant it wrinkled straightaway, but he'd done his best to look smart at least.

He looked around when they entered, trying to get a feel for where people were and what was going on.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[pocketpretzels]

Watts arrived wearing one of his lighter suits, hat deposited upon entering on some bit of statuary or light fixture or something that was definitely not a hat rack.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[witchoftheflesh]

Arden and Rey weren't the only people to have been frantically looking up garden party attire. Despite having only black clothing, Adrian had stayed up trying to figure out what he was going to wear.

Boston had been surprisingly helpful with the internet. Weird.

But! The time spent looking had paid off, he thought, rather pleased with the outfit he'd managed to put together. And, since it was indoors, he'd even left his witch hat home. You're welcome, Yelena, Lydia.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[flamesburned]

Liz wasn’t sure how long she was going to be up for a party and she was trying to be a bit better with being social, so she didn’t want to miss Ignis’ and Liliana’s party.

She didn’t really have a lot of options, options but she found a dark blue floral dress for the party and was looking forward to spending time at the party.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve was, of course, impeccably attired, entirely the fault of his husband, and the blue in his eyes was definitely highlighted by the blue in the suit.

He glanced through the crowd for his hosts.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[fears_no_one]

Flint had carefully laundered the same outfit he'd worn to tea yesterday because it was that or an increasingly large collection of terrible t-shirts from not avoiding the park on Wednesdays and he feared Liliana enough to not tempt her wrath by wearing one of those.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[unusual_sith]

Lana had debated showing up in purple herself, but hadn't been sure if it would be in keeping with the theme, or akin to wearing white to an Earth wedding. In the end, she'd gone with a green suit with grey shirt and boots.

It matched the bottle of Kaasian wine she'd brought with her.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[sharp_man]

Hannibal was in a good mood and a delightful indigo three-piece suit with canary-yellow shirt and pocket square.

He'd brought with him a certificate for a couple's day at the spa.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon was in his one nice suit, which was nicely pressed, and his shoes were polished.

Which was rather in contrast to the fact that he looked, to put it kindly, like shit.

But he was doing his best.

Re: Arrive & Mingle - 06/27.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell was here wearing a lovely, if simple green dress, which remarkably seemed to coordinate well with Gladio's outfit. Who knew?

"Beautiful as always," Nell said with a smile, nodding at Liliana's dress. "And Ignis, you've outdone yourself. Congratulations again to you both."