By Sara ‘Zarine’ Jessop
I always enjoy our annual masquerade, but this year I was particularly excited because I got to be there all day! Yes, I took a day off from my duties at The Lupe to attend this year's festivities and I am so happy that I did because what a wonderful day I had. The weather was sunny and pleasant and the leaves were falling all around us. A perfect autumn day to set the scene for all of the activities. So many activities that one couldn’t possibly attend them all, so I am sure that there were things that I missed that will be omitted from what you missed.
I arrived early to perform one of my Peacocky duties of setting up the Swap Shop. We had so many items up for grabs that we needed to use two tables! We had many visitors throughout the day who outfitted themselves in your previously loved goods. Many times as I wandered the grounds I spied someone wearing something that used to grace my closet with its presence and it warms my heart to see them being enjoyed by someone new!
I spent most of the early part of the day at Invictus Gladatoriums. For those not in the know, that is how we induct both Black and Gold wolves into the nation. Black Wolves are petitioners, and Gold Wolves are full members. We welcomed Mistral into the Milites et Cives Invicti (civilians and militants sworn to Invictus). Then we all fought Lupa, some of us more times than others. While she had already received her Gold Wolf, we hadn’t yet run her ceremonial fights so that was rectified.
Much to Lupa’s relief, we paused mid ceremony as Chimeron was about to do their own ceremonial fight fest, wherein the Champion of Chimeron is chosen. There were many well fought bouts, and even if I couldn’t figure out the exact structure of the competition it was enjoyable to watch. Orion emerged victorious, defeating Tirvanel in the final duel. What a star!
Now that Lupa had had a break to catch her breath and make sure she knew all our names, we finished up her portion of our assembly. Next up was Aiden’s fights as we welcomed him with a Black Wolf. Both combatants did well against all of their opponents and did all of us proud. There wasn’t a very big crowd gathered to watch us, which was a shame because it really is a spectacular fighting showcase. And you missed me actually fighting!
With that wrapped up, I headed back up to the main hall as I was starving. Fortunately the first round of food was out and it did not disappoint. I still say they need to provide full size plates. I want to try everything and that requires a lot of return trips to the sideboard. All those trips were worth it though. I particularly enjoyed the crabbies, cucumber sandwiches, and the brie. The crab dip was also quite delicious. The prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe was… weird? I love prosciutto and I love cantaloupe but I am not sure I liked them together. I ended up taking them apart and eating them separately. The cucumber lemon water was a nice change of pace instead of just plain water, and the cider was very tasty.
I caught a group about to judge something, and was very offended that they didn’t ask me to judge. But then they asked me if I wanted to judge cheesecake and like, who doesn’t right? I learned that not everyone enjoys the same texture of cheesecake as we often disagreed on that front, and that Malaki is the only one of us who really liked matcha. I loved the dulce de leche, which was made by Sabine and was the winner. Honorable mention to the peanut butter, which was really good but seemed more like a peanut butter cake as opposed to cheesecake. And a big shout out to the one we couldn’t figure out. It seemed to be a brûlée but it had a flavor we couldn’t place. Rum maybe? It was extremely interesting to the palate and most of us couldn’t decide if we liked it or not. If whoever made it could share the recipe so we can settle the ‘what the heck is this flavor’ debate, we would appreciate it.
During all of this there was some questing going on. I did not get a chance to participate, but I heard it involved vampires, and maybe eagles? There were Kingsmen who wanted access to some mines to somehow help them return home, I think…? I got all of this second hand and in bits and pieces, so I could totally be way wrong. You should ask someone who went on these adventures if you want more (and more accurate) information.
Then it was time to get all fancified for court. That’s right, I wasn’t already fancy. In fact, I wore a tabard for much of the day. A tabard that I remembered to bring and everything! After getting myself ready, it was time to wander about and judge people. We had two awards to hand out and we needed to peruse the candidates. In doing so, we learned that since no one is really ready for court until court actually starts it is very difficult to get a good look at everyone, make a decision, and then get their names on certificates. So we will be looking into ways to improve that in the future. But for this year, ‘Best Mask’ went to Killian, and ‘Best in Black and White’ went to Marycia (if I spelled that wrong, I apologize). We also chose the color of the season, which is Deep Sage and was very nicely modeled by Kas.
A lot of things happened at court and I cannot possibly remember them all. I know that Vuel squired Lupa, Kiira squired Elora, Cressida was welcomed into the royal house of Chimeron, Saka announced his intentions to take on a squire, a group was honored for rebuilding the Library of Chimeron, a letter of resignation from Aymis was read aloud and Cressida was sworn in in her place, and Ryu was made a royal bard of Chimeron. I am sure some other stuff happened, probably involving Cressida, but that is all I can remember. Perhaps someone can fill us in on what I apparently missed.
After court was dessert. There were cards you got when arriving that secured your place in line, though apparently some folks didn’t get them. I passed on both mine and Trent’s to the less fortunate, since he’d already gone and I had already eaten a large quantity of cheesecake. I did sample some of the other desserts after I’d finished packing up the shop into my carriage. The cookies were good, and my favorite of course was the pumpkin spice.
Dancing followed. I love dancing and I always want to participate, but the dances are always so complicated to learn and by then I am too tired to think straight. I wish there was a way to learn them ahead of time, or just have ‘easier for forty people to learn in 5 minutes’ dances. But the people who did participate looked like they were enjoying themselves very much and I was content to sit and watch the hilarity of everyone bumping into each other and giggling as they learned. Eventually as I relaxed in my chair I realized I was falling asleep and it was really time for me to head home. It was a long tiring day, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.