Invitation!
The invitation to the Ball. I hope you will all come. RSVP in your comments and be eligible to win a signed set of The Stumpwork Robe and The Last Stitch by author, Prue Batten.
For one point: describe your absolute ‘must have’ in your Ball reticule.
+1 What dance would you like to step to and what music?
+3 Invite others, tweet and let mesmered know.
+ 5 Invite others and post on your sidebar, letting mesmered know of course.
+10 Invent a short backstory of your character and send it via RSVP to the blog.
Winner will be judged by Pat, Rebecca and myself and will be announced at the Ball.
Tomorrow I shall introduce my own backstory and then you will have the three of us, the Charmed Circle, and we can’t wait to see who will join us!
With great excitement and anticipation, I accept the invitation to the Masked Ball, and I thank you for including me, a stranger!
I feel will have to include smelling salts in my reticule, especially if you have a Galliard – they are my favourite dances, though possibly too lively for cumbersome masquerade attire! As for music, I couldn’t suggest a composer; I leave it to the discretion of the Direttore of the Museo.
Nikalee
Smelling salts? Oh yes. Just the sight of Richard Armitage in ball attire may require a communal sniff!
Mia cara signora,
Che piacere di aver ricevuto un invito. Mi scuso per il ritardo terribile nella mia risposta, come mi è stato impantanato in profondità nel box del mio laboratorio e hanno solo ora salito ancora una volta la luce del giorno.
Io sono infatti frequentare, anche se ho il sospetto mi viene da solo. Porterò il mio tesoro Violetta se lei è pronta in tempo.
Cordiali saluti,
il tuo amico
Visconte Vincenzo Perugini di Lanuvio
Signing up again for the masked ball.. but I can’t remember what dance I said I was dancing etc.
Marie, how kind of you to reply again, after that nincompoop Dirretore lost (I ask you!) the replies. He may well ask for the first dance as reparation and I (me, Lucia Brabante) shall advise you. He after all, is a like to sit on his quill and then say he lost it!
+1 my reticule must have an embroidered hankerchief with a beautiful floral design, perhaps forget-me-nots
+1 i would like to partake in a slow dance as i’m still new to dancing to the tunes of a romantic sort
+5 invitation is on my sidebar and also posted here
http://vvb32reads.blogspot.com/2010/03/stumpwork-rose-dress.html
and working on my backstory…
I am honored to attend this wonderful virtual event.
Fondly,
Miss Faustina aka Tina
Thanks so much for reply, Faustina. You above all of us, have such experience in these dangerous and intriguing entertainments.
Oh hells and damnation – I fear that I shall have to regrefully decline your kind invitation as I have a prior engagement that weekend. Alas, it doesn’t include dashing young men in masks (though there will be knights on horses slamming into each other with lances, which is an acceptable alternative, I suppose).
Do, please, dance Mr Beverage’s Maggot for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUC4hmCyxZ0 (such a darkly sweeping tune is sure to stir your masquers into all sorts of revelry!)
And the most important item for a gentlewoman to keep about her person? Well, for this gentlewoman, it would be a blade-edged fan – one can never be too careful when masks might encourage all kinds of unwelcome advances, and the more welcome advances might be encouraged through use of the correct language: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bw1EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=spectator+fans+addison&source=bl&ots=PEC5GvVIam&sig=Bbp4JH1IoCsuuUXVojrM_o7CtEg&hl=en&ei=urOzS9eKIJWL4QarpPCaAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false (see page 134)
Yours &c,
Clare
Hell and damnation indeed! I love jousts and may well leave the Ball and the machinations of Sir Percy and Ser Niccolo to travel to wherever yours is. I believe Geoffrey Chaucer occasionally attends as a Bard!
And as Lucia, I agree entirely with the blade-edged fan. There is many an over-zealous gent who wields a scar from mine!
Aaaaw, a tournament!!! Can’t I be at two places at the same time? 🙁
One of the benefits of living in Nottingham: http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/home/leisure/countryparks/sherwoodforestcp/robinhoodmonth.htm
Clare, now I’m really jealous! 🙁 I passed though Nottingham once and wasn’t allowed to look around… but I’ll be back!!! 😀
I accept with pleasure your kind invitation to the Masked Ball on May 1. My special requests for the event and details of my attendance will follow.
here’s my rsvp backstory
http://vvb32reads.blogspot.com/2010/04/charmed-circles-masked-ball-rsvp.html
enjoy
Monsieur de Guerre et Madame de Milo accepts with pleasure your invitation to the Masked Ball on May 1, 2010.
A long overdue bit of back story.
“But, Marsie, it’s The Must Have Invitation of the Year,” I pouted. “And I toiled to persuade the Directtore of the Museo di Veniche to grant me an invitation … for the two of us, of course,” I added quickly as I squeezed close on the loveseat and caressed a lock of his blonde hair off his furrowed brow.
My husband looked at me askance. “And what did you do to … for … the Directtore in order to acquire this invitation, my dear VeeVee?”
“Why flirtation, that’s all.” I rested my head against his chest so he could not see my betraying eyes. “You know those days of offering more than that — to anyone but you, my love — are long gone.”
He slipped the invitation from the envelope and read, “A ball, you say. A masked ball,” he sighed. I knew I had him. “And what, pray tell, is your interest in this event?” He placed his index finger under my chin and tipped my face towards him.
“Why, it’s a perfect opportunity for both of us,” I said, surprised that he didn’t see as clearly as I. “Imagine. As the event of the year, budding young girls, yet not plucked playing coy with eligible suitors. Their loins throbbing with expectation. Women of a certain age, shamelessly spilling their engorged breasts atop the Regency bodice, pitifully hopeful that this be their final walk as lonely, single females. Men, much like yourself, will prance like show ponies and strut like the peacocks they imprison on their manor lawns. With the hunger of wolves they’ll hunt for their inamorata and ready themselves for the fight. The air will fill with the aroma of sexual hope, competition, triumph and defeat, subjugation, love and loathing.” My breath quickened as I felt my own passions rise. The thought of the masked ball and all its promise excited me.
My husband wasn’t blind. We knew each other for what seemed millenia. “Put that way, my dear VeeVee, we will of course go.” He gently tugged my long, flowly locks, raising my face to his. His eyes locked to mine and ever so slowly descended to my lips, to my decolletage and we embraced with a passion that only the two of us could know.
With near violence, our lips parted. I moaned. “Yes, I see where we could both have much work to do at this event, my dear.”
“But,” he paused. “Who or what shall we be?”
“Why we shall go as ourselves. What better disguise, my darling?”
A powerful laugh rose from deep within. “Brilliant, my dear. Brilliant.”
“Wait til you see what I plan to wear. This Regency style that is all the rage is perfect. I’ve found a lovely gown that accentuates my lines. I must merely find a mask to hide behind.”
“And, I, what do you have planned for me?” he asked, rising from the loveseat. I don’t think it will do for me to arrive in my normal ‘costume.’ He stood before me naked, but for his crested helmet.
We shall find some original way to clothe you, my dear.” I ran my fingers across his firm, rippling chest muscles and pressed my own nakedness against him. “Though you are God of War, my dear Mars, let’ss not begin the masked ball with a clash amongst all the fairer sex to ravage your body. That would leave so little opportunity for me to have a bit of fun coupling the young fruit with the hungry animals.”
Mars swept me up and slung me over his shoulder, my most intimate regions exposed to the Gods. “Venus, Goddess of Love, you are a horrible tease,” he thundered. “We will go to your masked ball. But this moment, we have other business to attend.”
The availability of much ambrosia and nectar would be most appreciated.
p.s. – photos are available upon request. 🙂
mmm, Monsieur de Guerre et Madame de Milo, photos please ;-D