gooseberryhigh | COTILLION

COTILLION

After two weeks of etiquette and dance lessons, the 2014 National Wizarding Cotillion is finally here! After lunch, participating students gather dress bags and overnight bags and head out to New York City. They'll be staying at the historic Exalted Enchanter Hotel, which today is filled with rich debutantes from schools all over the country. Headmistress Bloom assures her students that they are just as good (if not better) than these kids, and tells them to hurry and get ready. In the lobby, Jefferson Key accidentally ends up deep in conversation with a dragon dung fertilizer tycoon, who is so impressed that they end up offering Jeffy a summer job.

Gooseberry's musicians are admitted early so they can set up and already be playing when presentations begin. The ensemble's musical pièce de résistance is a solo performed by Iliya Krum during dinner, which is so beautifully played that the giant ballroom briefly goes silent as everyone listens. Afterwards, attendants are seen congratulating Mrs. Bloom on the talent of her students. Guess who just won the music program more funding.

HOW THIS WORKS

Students will leave campus right after lunch, and will arrive at the hotel in time to get dressed for the dance, and there will be a 3 hour window where they can sneak off to see the city if they want to. Presentations start at 4:00 PM, dinner is at 5:00 PM, the dance is at 6:00 PM.

Dress Code: One person in black, one in white (or pastel). Clothes must be modest, so keep that cleavage covered. Dresses should be floor length, but tea length is acceptable. Suits should have jackets and ties, and a vest ideally but they won't kick you out if you don't.

For presentations, the pair will enter the ballroom together and link arms, bow or curtsy, and then walk down the length of the dance floor so that all the attendees can see them. Beforehand, couples are lined up outside of the ballroom and each given a notecard upon which they must write their full name, their school, where they come from, and noteworthy accomplishments or goals. This will be read aloud* for both members of a pair when they enter the ballroom. (*Unless it is offensive, trying too hard to be funny, or a flagrant lie. Subtle lies might pass.)
- Please fill out the following form and post it HERE to find out your character's High Society Approval Rating. If you score a 75% or higher, one of these intimidating patriarchs or matriarchs is going to feel you out for marrying their grandchild one day. You're going places, kid.
 
 Full Name:
 Their Date:
 Location: Where do they hail from?
 Accomplishments: You can cite special positions, academic success, good deeds, charity work or any other awards they've received in or out of school.
 Goals: What high and lofty professional goals does your character have?
 Mannerisms: How does your character hold themselves? Do they float through the room, or slip up their curtsy? Is their hair a little frizzy?
 Connections & Pedigree: Is your character well connected and/or well bred by the standards of high society?
 Anything else?:
 
 Full Name: Their Date: Location: Where do they hail from? Accomplishments: You can cite special positions, academic success, good deeds, charity work or any other awards they've received in or out of school. Goals: What high and lofty professional goals does your character have? Mannerisms: How does your character hold themselves? Do they float through the room, or slip up their curtsy? Is their hair a little frizzy? Connections & Pedigree: Is your character well connected and/or well bred by the standards of high society? Anything else?:

After that, everyone sits down for dinner, a five-course meal. Dates sit together, and the rubbing elbows begins. Pairs will be mixed with pairs from other schools. There are plenty of rich, judgemental adults to size up your characters from this point on. Afterwards, a constantly stocked refreshments table will be available for anyone who wants more canapés.

The first dance is a formal waltz with your date, and after that, everything loosens up a bit. Socializing will take up the majority of the evening, and the upper crust students can expect this to be when the matchmaking goes into high gear. Students may slip out early at this point without fear of repercussions.

Please read HERE for consequences for skipping or misbehaving at Cotillion.

While parents may attend, any cameos from graduates must only be in logs posted separately to the comm, and siblings shouldn't really be in attendance. Parents have to pay their own way into the event, and will be expected to behave appropriately. Honestly, we would prefer not to have to deal with a "wacky parents scandalize high society" plot, because it would be a burden on the mods to wrangle it, and it steals time and attention away from other storylines.

Much to Mr. Merrill's chagrin, no one's checking IDs when they hand out glasses of champagne and wine. On the sly, Mr. Calderon-Boot just warns no one to overdo it.

Students will be staying overnight at the Exalted Enchanter, a wizarding hotel in the vein of The Plaza. Very old, very elegant, and with free WiFi in the rooms and lobby. While you can choose your roommates, it's strictly girls only or boys only. No mixed gender rooms. Cotillion didn't account for Gaysberry very well.

» before the event: You'll have a few hours to get ready. Do you need all that time, or do you want to try sneaking into the city for a bit?

» presentations: Two by two, the wizard debutantes of the 2014 season are presented. Please complete the presentation form and post it here for a High Society Approval Rating.

» the dance: The debutantes will need to complete one highly choreographed group waltz before they're allowed to loosen up. But after that, it's unlimited access to the refreshments table!

» new york city: For any scenes taking place in the city, outside of the cotillion.

» the hotel: For any scenes taking place in the hotel, outside of the cotillion.

» OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS & CONCERNS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rosy hates this. She hates everything about this. She couldn't fucking do anything right tonight, she would have been better off if she had bailed at the same time as Reid. Her parents were still going to have things to fucking say about it either way.

Stomping through the room, the poised gait of a high society lady out the window, Rosy snags two glasses of champagne off the tray of a passing waiter without even asking. She knocks one back with inadvisable speed, then pushes through the others in search of her brother. Or, more specifically, his flask.

"I'm back," she announces herself through clenched teeth when she locates him. She's not sure how long she was gone, but it wasn't long enough, considering this bullshit is still going on.

Sy bites down on his instinctive F-word-laden response and, in a vain attempt to save his sister from looking like a lush, takes one of the champagne glasses from Rosy. He has just enough sense to not take the one with liquid in it.

"Welcome back," Sy says, all fake-pleasant, before leaning in. "You know we can just leave now, right? They're not here, they can't get mad." It's clear that by "they," Sy doesn't mean their teachers.

Rosy's quick to blurt out, "No, no, don't—" she takes down half her second champagne flute as she glances around the room, though she doesn't seem to be taking anything in. "Don't act like they aren't going to be grilling everyone about us." All her previous bluffing about a Howler from her parents being less terrifying than ghosts was gone. No, she'd rather face seven ceiling ghosts than have her father yell at her via mail.

Or drink her problems away. Lots of fancy high society business adults did that.

Sy is silent for a moment, doing the math in his head. What if he stays and pretends he likes being here, and Rosy sneaks out? No, that'll just result in them getting angriest at Rosy. What if they both leave? They'd have to grab Freddy... Or, fuck, maybe leave Freddy so he doesn't catch any shit? Except if he runs out on his own and gets hit by, like, a taxi or something—

"Rosemary," Sy begins, and gets a horrible image of their father saying the same thing, in the exact same passive-aggressively patient tone, and immediately revises: "Ro. Come on. Who's even going to believe the du Ponts when they go back home? It sounds like one of those fake stories they're always telling. 'I rescued a debutante,' or whatever."

Rosy bites down on her tongue at the mention of the du Ponts, but she doesn't say anything. She tries to focus on the champagne glass between her fingers instead of the dancing and networking and good manners going on all around her.

"Dude, come on," she says, voice low, and takes another sip of her drink. She's slowed down a hair, but there's no getting out of a headache tomorrow at this point. "Coralee Wong is here, it's, ugh," Rosy sighs heavily, crossing her arms defensively across her chest, "it's fine, it's whatever. I don't care about any of these people, I don't need their fancy husbands."

Sy checks around for the drama-seeking eyes of Coralee Wong before carefully trying to usher Rosy out of sight. "Out of sight" doesn't really exist without outright leaving the ballroom, but they can at least go off to the side where most people won't be looking at them.

"Yo, you know I'm totally down with your 'fuck everything' attitude, but... I thought the plan was for you to, you know." He pauses awkwardly, and turns away to try shoving his empty champagne flute into the soil of a potted plant. "See someone you do care about?"

"Yeah, well, that's where I thought I was going." She shrugs and empties the last of the flute in her hands. There room in that plant for one more? "I tried, I just," Rosy huffs through her nose and unconsciously runs a finger over her perfectly fucking fine eyebrows. She'd acted as if she was going to leave, she'd made it all the way out to the lobby and everything, before she got distracted, and...

"I know you were thinking it, and you're right. I don't have the guts to bail. I chickened out, and it's too late now." It might not have been completely too late, but it was well past Rosy's own threshold. "So either you should grab me more champagne or tell me you brought your stupid flask."

COTILLION

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