Open: In a shout of joy at the only shrine where you come benighted and leave benign

[vineleaves]

Dark has come and gone again, which means it’s time to party.

In some ways the party is very similar to last year’s - same large banquet room in the mansion, a similarly large abundance of food and drink, and the promise of a night full of letting loose for everyone in attendance. It’s far from a direct clone of the previous party though. For starters, Dionysus has had Claudius help him in all of the planning (sometimes a god’s blessings come in the form of enrichment for one’s enclosure). They’ve gotten several of the mansion’s residents to agree to play live music during the night, and Dionysus was able to find some, ah, more widely appreciated CDs to play during the breaks between performers.

The room has been decorated to the nines again, but where last year he had green vines draping on the walls diffusing the glow from the twinkling fairy lights, this year he has strung up swooping vines of silver, glittering almost like tinsel. The large food tables have an almost ridiculous amount of things to munch on; there should be something for everyone there.

It should go without saying that the beverage tables are well-stocked, considering the host.

The festivities are starting a little earlier this year than last, out of respect for those who may or may not have earlier bedtimes. Come dressed in your finest, it’s a yearly tradition now!




Just as there was last year, there is to be an ‘after party’. If your character is part of the standard Orgy Invite Crew, they will have received another invitation to that half of the evening as well. Just like last year, this part of the event is to be handwaved, for obvious reasons.

Comments

[sagramore]

Sagramore laughs. "No, I understand, anyone with eyes can see how thou lookst."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Good," relieved. "I suppose it's all rather moot, anyway, unless she's got an invitation."

[sagramore]

"So what thou art saying is that we should persuade Dionysus to invite her."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, Sagramore, I do like the way you think," says Susan, leaning conspiratorially close. "Can't you just imagine her with - hm. Say... Claudius?"

[sagramore]

Well, he hadn't, but now-- Constance's aesthetic does seem complimentary to Claudius' own. A brief tableau unfolds.

"All right, so that's settled."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"We're asking Bacchus to extend an invitation?"

[sagramore]

"She can always decline if she's not interested."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Precisely." Susan shoots Sagramore conspiratorial little smile, then pauses. "Do you suppose this is the sort of thing you and I ought to sort out in advance? Not Constance's invitation. I mean my own probable attendance."

[sagramore]

"How meanst thou?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I mean--" Susan edges a step closer and lowers her voice. "The matter of the two of us." Sagramore is handsome and older, both of which square precisely with Susan's type, and at this point she considers him a friend, which certainly doesn't hurt. If he were any other man, she might develop and pursue an interest. But there is the rather complicated matter of their particular history.

She'd meant it the previous year when she'd told him his presence didn't factor into her decision to abstain - her decision was borne primarily of the fact that none of her lovers had been invited. Though the invite list hasn't particularly changed this year, she's entered into sexual relations with enough people on it that this is no longer her presiding reservation. Paradoxically, now that she likes Sagramore, he's one of several minor concerns that do give her pause.

She oughtn't overexplain this, though. "I mean - ought we make a point of avoiding one another, or ought we make a point of not avoiding one another, or ought we make no point whatsoever and allow the evening to go where it will? On my end, I expect any of those options shouldn't be an issue. I just shouldn't want to jeopardize what we've built between the two of us in the past year. I value our friendship and your well-being."

[sagramore]

"I see." Sagramore hesitates. He likes Susan, and he certainly hasn't failed to notice that she's a handsome woman, both on occasions like this, when she dresses to emphasize it, and just in the ordinary course of spending time in her company. But despite the maturity of her character, she's very, very young -- and even if she weren't, the complication of their first (and only) tryst is so newly worked out in a way that allows for friendship. It's hard to imagine it would do anything other than make things more complicated if they were to sleep together again. It's hard to imagine, in fact, under any circumstances other than Lancelot asking it of him, and that idea is even more unimaginable.

A year ago, he suspects, he would be compelled by the desire to placate, to pretend that there's nothing he isn't willing to go along with, appeasing a desire Susan hasn't even expressed. He's an old dog, trained to anticipate. He would have wanted to please her and he would have offered whatever he thought might. Oh, we can sleep together. I'd enjoy that. Let's see where things lead tonight. He probably would have been a little drunk, too, or a great deal drunk. It would have seemed fine.

It seemed fine with everyone else he's ever regretting taking to bed, too.

"I think I'd rather not fuck thee tonight, if thou dost not mind," he says, because of course he can't just reject her outright; some screaming part of his brain rebels at the thought. "I appreciate thee asking."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Of course," says Susan, unaffected save for the relief of having a clarity of expectation. It's what she thought his answer might be, except there was a little flush of doubt since he did mention missing cunnilingus. "But it shan't be an issue if I attend? It's all right if you'd rather I didn't, you know. I'm not yet committed entirely to the idea, and it isn't as if I'm starved for alternate arrangements." In fact, the largest reservation she's got, after the lack of other women, is that she should hate to end a party without Lancelot carrying her off.

[sagramore]

Sagramore can feel his own relief, as if he'd expected she'd be upset with him for declining to do what's expected of him.

"No, no, please come if thou likest. We'll just be conscious of what we're doing. Is Lancelot invited this year?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Whilst I'm certain Bacchus would delight in inviting him, I believe he might do so only if it ever occurs to Lancelot to ask for an invitation," Susan confides. "And I don't expect that's terribly likely at the moment."

[sagramore]

"Still shy?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Would you call it shyness?"

[sagramore]

"Something like that. He knows his worth in arms, but doesn't see it yet among friends."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

It's interesting, Susan thinks, how she's got such a different experience of Lancelot to some of the other people here. He wasn't slow to sleep with her, and the only times he's seemed at all uncertain of his value to her is when his traumatic neuroses have got the better of him. It makes her fiercely glad that he's got that self-assurance with her. But still -

"I imagine it's more sexual uncertainty than it is social."

[sagramore]

Sagramore considers that, and nods. "Fair enough. There's probably a considerable amount of things he's new to."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Though," as she continues working through the thought, remembering the times that Lancelot has told her he finds strangers very difficult to read, "I imagine the fact that the invite list includes people he doesn't know particularly well certainly doesn't help."

[sagramore]

"So thou art saying thou needst a smaller orgy, with Laertes and Etienne."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Or at the very least, one that hasn't got people he isn't friends with."

[sagramore]

"That seems fair. It's an act of trust, isn't it? Even in a place like this It's hard to trust strangers that way."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes, I suppose it must be." It's not a concern Susan has shared, but she can imagine how someone might have that sort of concern.

[sagramore]

"He's not used to being liked, as thou knowst." And of course he wasn't supposed to care about that, either.