Chapter Three – The Second Ball."Oh Mr Pinkerton-Smyth, you are a delightful dancer. Very masterful indeed. You must have been to a great many balls. Oh you must tell me about them!"
”Balls, my dear Miss Fantail?” said Mr Pinkerton-Smyth, the excitability of the dancing getting the best of him briefly,
”Why yes, balls. Indeed. I am not exactly what one might call elderly, but upon my word, I have seen a great many balls. I rather like balls: I would have to say after flutes and white coats that balls are perhaps one of my favourite things. If I could have nothing but balls, and, of course, white coats and flutes, then I would be a tremendously happy man.“ Mr Pinkerton-Smyth mumbled ever so slightly, aware that he may have let a rush of blood to the head say a little too much.
”There was once... a ball... and I say. Have you been to many balls, Miss Fantail?”Conversation to continue before the next dance!"Oh, I do so enjoy this song." Lady Montagu sighed, idly smoothing her feathers. "Might I ask you for another dance, Captain Arbury?"
Captain Arbury, having been reminded of the horrors of chandeliers – but in a nearly comforting way, as if escorted as a child to a beating on daddy's knee by a kindly elder sister – was more than happy to give in to Lady Montagu's request for a second dance; there was in fact nothing in the world, not even leading a glorious charge on horseback into the ranks of the drooling slack-jawed and perfidious French, that the captain loved, no – adored! more than dancing. It was like the monks of old, or the dervishes of new, who lost themselves in devotion to a higher cause: Arbury easily lost himself in the music, the movement and, let us not pretend otherwise, the physical companionship. Although, let us also not tar the good soldier with unfair calumniation: he was not a lustful fellow in the crudest and most vulgar sense that, say, the common rank and file of soldier may be: he was not an animal. He liked to think to himself that the physical aspect that he most admired was that of handsomeness, and he admired a handsome lady for that very aspect, and not just for some pungent stirring of the loins. No sir – he was an Englishman, and his loins stirred for no one but Brittania, the handsomest of all ladies, and they stirred only in battle.
Which made the present situation even more bemusing, as there was a certain warmth that was beginning to stir within his bosom, which was in some little sense the gateway to the loin, there where the reverse was not the case. He adored to dance, as we have noted, and he himself was busily noting that Lady Montagu gave something tremendously pleasing to gaze upon whilst dancing, and something increasingly intriguing to listen to afterwards.
”Certainly, Lady Montagu. I believe I would take particularly keen pleasure in accompanying you on another tour or two of the floor...”Next dance to follow!She stepped up to Miss Arcy and patted her shoulder, giving her the best gesture of enjoyment and endearment towards her, before finding that man she had thought about before--remembering that one person she had mused upon when writing in her diary: Reverend Halfton.
The parting between Miss Arcy and Miss Thain was, although the young ladypigeon was not aware of it, having insufficient experience of emotional partings involving humans, a little awkward. Miss Arcy, for some reason, was finding it trying to look Miss Thain in the eye; her own eyes, in fact, appeared to be a little redder than was usually the case, which Alessa had once heard was a sign of heightened emotion amongst humans and, particularly, ladyhumans. In menhumans it was more typically a sign of pitiful weakness or brotherly love.
So to fill, or indeed avoid, the silence, which Miss Arcy was finding awkward, and Miss Thain was finding silent, Miss Thain turned away, as her mind had suddenly been filled a little with thoughts of her artistic muse from earlier in the week: the beautiful pile of limbs on the hillside, the possible wonder of humanity, the man who had admired her adventurous soul, the man who might be nearly almost as good as Mr Arbury.
”Good evening, Reverend Halfton?””Oh! Miss Thain! If it isn't your good self, which it is, of course. I trust you are enjoying the ball?”Conversation to continue before the next dance!Action: Excuse myself from the game-time to purchase a new dress, and pronto
"Excusi! Excusi! Mi camisa!" garbled Dame Diane de Oiseau, as she pushed politely through the confusing throng and out onto the steps of Lady Meyerschmidt-Crikington's mansion, and out into the refreshing evening air that suddenly filled her mind with great clarity. It was the fault of the English! Again! She cursed their tomatoes with a vehemence that would have surely marked her out as foreign, were there anyone but her outside in the mild breeze to hear, but it was a sign of her integration into English society that she could not help herself but blush very slightly.
The breeze brought her clarity, indeed, and she realised at once that she was suffering a crisis, and that in a crisis there was but one thing to do: she needed to purchase a dress. Napoleon had not conquered half of Europe, before the Great Disaster, by not regularly purchasing new dresses! She looked hither and thither until she spied her coachman, and beckoned him forth with an arch of her eyebrow.
Seconds later she was absconding from the ball at great speed, galloping down Lady Meyerschmidt-Crikington's luxuriously long gravel-strewn drive and towards town, and the dressmaker's boutique.
The carriage wheels swayed recklessly as the pair of horses pounded along, and it was not long before they screeched to a halt in the street. Dame Diane waited, of course, for the coachman to operate the coach door for her, and then she waddled up to the dressmaker's door. She gazed upon it for several seconds, racking her birdbrain, and then knocked it loudly with the knocker.
"Eh... 'Ello?"”Hello? What it is? Oh, madam. How can we be of assistance at this late hour of nigh on half past the hour of seven?”Conversation to continue before the next dance!
Ohgodthelatenessshame. Monk12, you are not excluded from acting, but you are several seconds ahead of the other ladypigeons at the moment. Feel free to perform small talk if you wish.
GM's reminder: Dwarmin: you will get double approval/dislike scores for the remainder of this chapter to make up for your absence in the first one. You can also take an extra action during the week (you’ll see what I mean when it gets to it) and choose 3 NPCs you would like to have attempted attitude-improving with. List them in order of preference (i.e. the one you’d most like to like you first) and I will apply a complex algorithm to determine what happens to each.
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Topic: Pigeons & Prejudice: Definitely deceased. (Read 23363 times)