Invisible Parties — 23 of 31

Book - Ballroom

ballroom is a challenging party in tangle. ballroom is east of wedding and north of gamejam. The printed name of ballroom is "Trad Romance". The description of ballroom is "A high-ceilinged ballroom, decorated in full-on shameless rococo with fussy strapwork and gold-enameled nymphs and all the rest of it. A ring of galleries overlook the dance floor, and you would really rather prefer to be up there and [i]watching[/i] people prance about, but instead you're stuck down here getting handed off from one twirling ninny to the next." Understand "trad" or "romance" or "dance" or "dancefloor" as ballroom.

the closeclue of ballroom is "There's something a little off about one of the nymphs."

the troublesome nymph is an unreachable clue. The description of troublesome nymph is "One of the gold-enameled nymphs in bas-relief on the balcony trim is wearing combat boots. Another is applying a throat-punch to a handsy triton, her feet planted in a familiar stance." Understand "boots" or "combat" as troublesome nymph.

the javeclue of ballroom is the troublesome nymph.

the architectural ornamentation is an unimplement in ballroom. Understand "strapwork" or "fussy" or "nymphs" or "gold" or "gold-enameled" or "gold enameled" or "rococo" or "decoration" as architectural ornamentation. The description of ornamentation is "Gaudy, ostentatious, tits-out affluence. The colour scheme starts at gold and works out from there."

the galleries are an unimplement in ballroom. Understand "gallery" as galleries. The description of galleries is "Evidently this is where you go when dancing doesn't appeal, to watch the dancers and flirt and mingle. Still doesn't really look like your scene, but it's about 1000% more appealing than prancing about in a pattern."

your mask is an unimplement in ballroom. The description of mask is "A domino, covering only the middle of your face; it's well-made and not uncomfortable, but it maddeningly limits your peripheral vision. And you have no idea how it looks on the outside. Weird, no doubt, since nobody else is wearing one."

Instead of taking off your mask: say "Somehow, you can't."

the dancers are a crowd in ballroom. The description of dancers is "Immaculately-dressed. Women like tropical flowers, men in monochrome. Every one of them more capable of self-expression through movement than you are. And none of them are wearing masks."

The tsadesc of ballroom is "The vagaries of this corner of the tangle have put you in a tux and men's dance shoes, and put a good nine inches on your height, but have also given you hair so long it's in danger of reaching your knees. It's mercifully pulled back, but god that shit is heavy. Your peripheral vision is vexingly limited by a mask."

The threshold of ballroom is 1.

The rivdesc of ballroom is "Rivka Strossi is perched on the big square pillar at the end of a balustrade, skirts in picturesque disarray, smoking a cigarette."

The rivcostume of ballroom is "Rivka is wearing an exquisite slate-grey ballgown with complicated embroidered panels, but is very separate from it somehow, as if it's inhabiting the same approximate space as her by coincidence. Her cigarette-smoke is cheap and acrid."

The rivweapon of ballroom is "a cavalry sabre"

The boozedesc of ballroom is "Everyone appears to be drinking the same dry white wine, in vexingly small glasses. It's not bad - crisp mid-mouth fruitiness, maybe a pinot grigio? - but you don't feel moved to go for a second glass."

The shortbooze of ballroom is "You deftly swipe a glass of white wine as the dance takes you to the edge of the floor."

The listendesc of ballroom is "You can't make out the band, but it's definitely live music in a classical-you-can-dance-to vein - a string quartet, maybe? Is this a waltz? Gods, you know fuck-all about anything that happened before jazz."

The dancedesc of ballroom is "Alas, you already are."

The singdesc of ballroom is "You'd rather save your breath for dancing. And this isn't the kind of music that really goes with lyrics."

The javeinit of ballroom is "Jave is in the dance, now closer, now nearer, a flame-gold dress flickering in and out among the penguin suits."

The javedesc of ballroom is "You keep catching sight of the sweeping fire of her dress - but the way that partners switch, like some kind of rotating-discs puzzlebox, seems to be set up to keep you apart: whenever she seems to be getting closer she gets drawn away again."

The javecostume of ballroom is "The advantage of ballroom dresses is that they're [i]intended[/i] for moderately athletic activity, so with the shoes discarded and a foot of material torn off the hem, Jave seems prepared for anything. Or anything that doesn't involve concealment: the colour is a beacon-flame."

The desolation of ballroom is "The music's quality has shifted somehow, grown... more full-spectrum, is the only way you can describe it, like maybe a complete orchestra snuck up and progressively infiltrated a string quartet. Faster, too, rising towards an ever-delayed crescendo. The dancers are speeding up: a woman trips on her skirts, goes down, you're whirled away and don't see what happens to her. You can't tell if those are masks or the actual faces of the dancers any more. There's no ceiling, no walls, just a floor surrounded by darkness, and you know that as soon as the dance ends -"

The demise of ballroom is "The music reaches its final crescendo, and the world winks out of existence."

Carry out using warrior in ballroom:

say "Well, fine, fuck it. You can't dance, and you're not going to be able to figure out how this one works in a hurry, but this is all basically just footwork, right? Footwork you can do.[p]As you're handed off from one partner to another, you put your hands behind your back, hook one foot behind his, step into him, and shift your bodyweight just so. No hands required: not expecting anything of the kind, he goes down smartly onto his rear. You translate the motion into a broad turn, scanning the room. [i]There she is.[/i] You turn through the dance. It throws another partner at you - you evade her, sweeping around to the far side of another couple. You're getting some really good glares now, but without a partner you can position yourself far more easily.[p]Interception. You judge the next arc of movement correctly, get a grip on her partner's upper hand. Then it's just the right twist to peel him off her and away and down to his knees, and a step to rejoin her, hand to her waist, and [i]there.[/i][p]She's trying not to crack up. 'You'll spoil the party.'[p]'I think it's made to ruin itself. Look, if we get separated, meet up at the -'[p]'Wait, who's leading?' You've slowed to a sort of skippy shuffle. Well, if you don't know how to do this, why did you think that she would?";

ruin everything;

Carry out using commander in ballroom:

say "As Jave spins past you, she flashes a hand-signal: [i]remain in place.[/i] That has to mean [i]don't try switching partners[/i], right? You try to follow what she's doing. She's... stepping off the floor with a curtsey to her partner. Ah. Obviously.[p]The dance's structure is a series of constantly-moving, interlocking rings, with partner-changes switching dancers from one circuit to another; if you were up in the galleries and had a pen and paper maybe you could figure out the periodicity, but you'd be willing to bet that it's something that ensures you and Jave are never within range at a switch. But while the dance is [i]internally[/i] tightly determined, it has to allow for dancers leaving and joining - which means that if she just rejoins the dance at a suitable spot...[p]It doesn't work the first time: she steps out, and you can see her tracking where the error was, her eyes plotting out arcs across the floor. And the second time she nails it, the current of the dance bringing the two of you smoothly together with no apparent effort at all, like a spaceship docking. She looks enormously pleased with herself.";

ruin everything;

Carry out using abider in ballroom:

say "If you just wait around, you'll never run into one another here.";

Carry out using laughing one in ballroom:

say "There's plenty that's ridiculous about the situation - this hair, for instance, good lord - but you can't really make her laugh if you're seperated in the crowd.";

Carry out using antinominalist in ballroom:

say "Jave attempts to simply abandon her partner and walk up to you. The guy she shrugs off doesn't object, but somehow the pattern of the dance compensates for the error, and in a moment she's clasped in the arms of another partner, whirling away again. They assume she's dancing even when she's not. Hrm.";

Carry out using forager in ballroom:

say "Your forager sense picks out waiters with trays of frilly confections, circulating well [i]outside[/i] the dance. Unlikely to be of much use.";

Carry out using critic in ballroom:

say "There's nothing to interpret. Oh, someone with more of a focus on data rather than meaning might be able to make something out of the mathematics of the dance, but that's not your deal.";

Carry out using troublemaker in ballroom:

say "You can think of several grades of shit to start here. First, and most obviously, you could spark a fight, and you'd probably be able to link up with Jave in the chaos; but that's a lot of damage. Secondly, a dance is obviously a ritualisation of all [i]kinds[/i] of juicy social motives that, if you knew anything about them, would make for fertile ground: but you're not good enough at reading people to identify their individual, underlying needs and motives without actually [i]talking[/i] to them. And if this was a normal place, you could disrupt the dance with the aim of ending it - but you suspect that the dance is built into the nature of this place, and thus impervious to normal attempts.";