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 was kind of drunk earlier. Like, kind of drunk. She didn't let herself go out because it felt like the kind of night where you made bad decisions, but she felt like she still kind of made bad decisions.

She was still sort of drunk and her head already hurt, maybe because she had kind of been knocking back champagne for half the night and ignoring all calls to drink water. Like a fucking hypocrite.

"Okay, there's too much happening here. Choose too loud or too weird, you don't get both," she says, and she moves to grab what she's pretty sure is making the sound, but fair warning, Rosy doesn't understand technology and she is very probably going to break something.

Edited 2017-11-14 05:29 (UTC)

Ursula was helping with charms. Make that 'helping'. There had been all the best intentions to only drink a little, what with Ferdie remaining sober and the whole night going sideways from the start, but then one drink had turned into just one more and now she had a slice of pizza in one hand and her wand in the other, both looking dangerous for different reasons.

And then that comes on the television screen.

She was not drunk enough for this. She would never be drunk enough for this.

"No. Youtube," she decrees, her best EC dictator voice made dull by that last drink. "Someone get me out of this dress. I just want to eat..."

Small demons on the screen finished the sentence for her.

Edited 2017-11-14 11:45 (UTC)

"I can–" Kurt begins to reply, tugging at his bowtie. "I can help–" His face is red, so red, and his jacket is abandoned on the bed behind him. Whose bed? He isn't sure. But he should be considerate!

He slides off the foot of the bed and onto the floor, struggling to untie the knot at his neck. He could tie one in his sleep but now maybe it's been charmed to something?

"I ca...............n't help you. I'm here forever. In my tie."

Chloe is drunk. Her fake ID, crafted for last year's MACUSA Press Gala, is apparently as convincing now as it was a year ago, and she had no trouble ordering multiple drinks. Her shoes are missing and she's not sure where they are, but she doesn't care, because right now "Slow pizza" is the funniest thing she has ever heard.

Her laughter turns into a whine. "Ursulaaa," she says, "We miss it!" She stumbles towards Ursula to help her out of the dress, but it's not clear whether or not she'll be able to do anything productive. Ursula is never escaping her dress.

Slow Pizza is basically Yancey's aesthetic. So he's dancing, now. Which is a real shame. On both accounts.

He walks around Ursula and takes a look at the back of her dress, taking another bite of pizza as he observes, "Mon Calamari, you've got about ten hundred buttons here." He gestures (but doesn't touch!!! he's being good!!) with a greasy pizza finger. "You'd need all of us working all night on this."

Edited 2017-11-15 02:19 (UTC)

"Okay, okay, we don't need an entire committee on this guys," Rosy says, already worried for the safety of both Ursula and her dress. Arms crossed over her chest, trying her hardest not to show how much she felt like a pile of dried dog shit, she not-very-gently nudges Yancey out of the way. Please, for the love of god and everything else you love (pizza? seems like you guys really love pizza) do not get pizza grease on this probably incredibly expensive dress, Yancey.

"We also probably don't need an audience, aren't you guys watching... pizza things?" She wrinkles her nose at the screen. Aggressively weird things made exactly zero sense to her. "Someone grab me one of the robes and the rest of you just, like, go watch and eat and, I dunno, be pizza."

Edited 2017-11-15 02:36 (UTC)

Ennis is glad when Rosy is distracted away from his noise-making technoboxes. Maybe he doesn't hear Rosy over the sound of the demon children, or maybe he just has selective hearing because Ennis dances his way over to Ursula to help with her buttons.

"Freeeee her," he eerily intones as he, too, tries to help with the buttons on her back. The playlist shifts from slow pizza to an East Hills commercial. Which circle of Hell is this?

Edited 2017-11-15 03:29 (UTC)

Yancey is not drunk enough to risk mom's wrath, so, double decker pizza in one hand, he scoots by Ennis, who is probably much better equipped to help Rosy dismantle this horrifyingly expensive dress, anyway, and, after wiping his hand off on one of the hand towels (god damn it, Yancey) he retrieves a fluffy white robe and returns it to Rosy. "Bathroom's private," he advises drunkenly, before plopping down in front of Ennis' computer.

"I'm going to Internet," he says. He then proceeds to henpeck some random words and click through videos, letting them play for about two seconds before clicking on to the next one. Eventually he halts on a twelve second long video of a CG cat meowing in front of some salsa dancers (?????) that he stares at, agape, as it plays to completion. "What on earth. Is this, y'know, normal no-maj entertainment?"

Edited 2017-11-15 03:52 (UTC)

Chloe gives up on helping, because Rosy is helping now and Rosy is very smart and in charge. Instead, she makes a beeline back for the bed, squeezing in with Ennis and Yancey. She brought her own laptop - of course, because there's wifi - but she never got it from her room after their journey to the bar. Now, that seems like an insurmountable distance away. Instead of making the trek, she situates herself so she can see the laptop and the television screen. "Ummmm, like. Weird nerd no-maj entertainment."

COTILLION

Big Fish Drunken Pizza Party!!!

Big Fish Drunken Pizza Party!!!

Re: Big Fish Drunken Pizza Party!!!

Big Fish Drunken Pizza Party!!!

Big Fish Drunken Pizza Party!!!

Big Fish Drunken Pizza Party!!!

Big Fish Drunken Pizza Party!!!

Big Fish Drunken Pizza Party!!!

Re: Big Fish Drunken Pizza Party!!!