OOC: Allo all! Alrighty, this is just the introduction thread to let everyone know what's going on - please do not reply to this. Feel free to start your own threads whenever you're ready. And don't forget, this is meant to be fun, Edmund and I will do our big thinger in a bit.
Note: This will last until Sunday night or whenever people kind of let it die out.
IC: Even before dawn Roseworth manor had been humming with activity. Servants had scrubbed the great hall from end to end, the characteristic rose color of the walls reflected joyously in the marble of the floors. Maids ran to and fro, flowers and bolts of fabric pild high as the rushed to prepare the hall. Kitchen boys franticly fought over space as they turned spits, stoked fires and prepared delicate sweets. Cooks creamed and yelled over the din of activity as stewards pressed uniforms and tablecloths. Everyone was alive with activity.
As afternoon progressed the activity failed to slow though, merely transforming into a quiet quest for precision. The wide windows of the great hall were masked by bolts of cloth draped from the chandeliers and tacked to the window bases like a maypole. Each window part of a pattern of interchanging cloth of gold and crimson silk, the new cloth proudly displayed as a taste of the future production. Exotic flowers exploded from arrangements on tables lined to the sides, their vibrant colors lending a sense of wild excitement to the brightly lit room.
As the sun began to set servants filed in, their golden colored uniforms lined along the hems with simple pink embroidery giving the ladies and men a festive appearance. Just as the sky acquired streaks of pinks and gold lining along the clouds the trumpeters announced the ball, their proclamation somehow just as festive as the sight within.
Courtiers began to drift into the hall, their elegant gowns and doublets mirroring the festivity of the scene as the orchestra struck up a jovial melody. It wasn’t long before Duchess Esabell also descended the steps. Her dress was modest, cream chemise embroidered with gold and crimson linens heavily pleated in the back, the front smooth framing the diamond and ruby belt that hung down. Matching jewels graced her neck and fan, rubies worked into the lace of her fan lending extravagance to the simple costume. It was not her dress however that gave the woman beauty though, but her own personage. Her generous locks of hair had been twisted into an elegant series of little knots at the back of her head, small yellow and white flowers perched about the maze as wispy curls of shocking gold hue presenting a false impression of disregard. She looked like any other young woman about to be engaged as she smiled broadly, nodding at notables as she began to make her rounds through the handsome figures. It was to be a night of lavish celebration. A night of extravagance.
The night held a festive feel, an almost ethereal sense laced within the lavishly decorated ballroom. It was a night to remember, the extravagance lending a magical quality tonight as Lord Edmund found himself for once enthralled with such outlandish surroundings. He was clean shaven, his face void of any lingering stubble upon his cheeks and jaw. His face was lit with a smile of pleasure, his emerald gaze following suit.
He wore a brand new shirt bought just for today, a carefully sewn item that had cost him more than he wanted to remember. Its silk material, hopefully soon to be the new rave of Pemberton, flowed over his muscled torso like smooth liquid. The collar was raised so that it could display the expert embroidery found along the slight ruff, with string ties dangling down in a statement of purpose. His thick chain lay against his throat polished and gleaming. The shirt’s color matched his eyes perfectly, highlighting those particularly striking features of his face. Cuffs bearing further embroidery completed the nobleman’s image. He wore black pants and slippers, his hat freshly steamed and a new feather (thanks to Crow) adorned along the side.
Lord Edmund was the picture of suavity as he descended the stairs shortly after Duchess Esabell. He walked into the crowd, feeling as if he walked on air. To those he knew he gave a sincere smile, offering a congenial nod to the others he had yet to meet.
It was the beginning of a new life.