GP - dreaming of a black christmas

[lcrpg_npc]

The repurposed railway arches that housed Beagle's bar and restaurant were decked in shades of black: black christmas trees glittering with sparkly and satiny black ornaments, black wreaths with perfectly tied bows, black garlands draping along the walls and bar, ribbons edging the long banquet benches in the restaurant dining room. A gentle snow seemed to fall from the ceiling, a specially designed lighting effect much more pleasant than the cold and wet that would've accompanied real snow. Christmas music played over hidden speakers, setting the mood without interfering with conversation.

The Kraken Black Christmas feast was a different spin on the holiday than you'd find most places, and yet, a christmas feast all the same. All the flavors of the season were there, both in the bar's specialty cocktails and in the feast itself, served banquet-style to those fortunate enough to get tickets - mulled wine, egg nog, roasts and stuffing and puddings, and so much more. Yet the food and drinks all shared the same theme as the decor, shades of black augmented with squid ink, charcoal, or black sesame seeds.

Guests had been encouraged to continue the theme with black festive attire, but it wasn't required, and spots of color could be found here and there along the table or mingling in the bar. There was one thing everyone could agree on, though. No matter how black the theme, the mood was anything but dark.

Comments

[wandandawolf]

Remus caught that hesitation, and that awkward smile. He didn't say anything of course, merely filed it away.

"Can't recall one myself. I s'pose people want to do something memorable for the season. Otherwise it's just...family and the usual cold cuts, for most. For me, anyway." When his family were still alive. "What about you? Do you have family in London?"

[faizel]

"Oh, no. It's just me, I'm afraid," Faizel smiled, shaking his head. "And my family never celebrated Christmas. At school it was an excuse to stay behind and have the library mostly to myself," he added with a fond smile as he thought back at the most pleasant part of his school years.

[wandandawolf]

"I went to one of those schools too," Remus murmured, with a fond smile of his own. "My family took me when they could over the winter break, but more often than not, I ended up staying at school." Easier to avoid the questions of the neighbours, that way. Easier to just go to the Shack like any other month. Visiting James-and-Sirius, on those few rare occasions, required adherence to a strict schedule. "Used to explore the Library and end up in the common room with the hearth going and a big book to read."

His mother had coped the worse in having her son away for Christmas, but she was safer at home. "Mum sent me decorations in the post, and I'd make my own little tree." That was the closest he'd gotten to a family Christmas for those seven years.

[faizel]

"That's lovely, truly. ...My mother has never been terribly interested in the holidays, nor was my father ever terribly inclined to celebrate. It was all a bit too- Well, outside their small sphere of interests."

[wandandawolf]

"No siblings?" Remus wondered. He didn't seem like the sort who had siblings: typically they would have been mentioned by now. "Cousins in town? Pet dog?" Faizel's life seemed content, just rather lonely. Remus got lonely, knew it down to his bones. Always seemed a shame for others and less so for him.

[faizel]

"No, nothing like that. I do have a few friends here though. I've become quite close with the guardians of one of the students I was tutoring, Finlay and Will. Their ward, Winter, is a friend, of sorts, from back home. Oh, and through them I met my dear Sunny," he added, gaze drifting over the room before settling on her. She was currently speaking with someone he didn't know, and looking as beautiful as ever.

"We ran into one another tonight by happy chance," he said, gesturing over at her.

[wandandawolf]

"Oh? What's your specialty subject, then?" Remus sounded like he was asking the bloke what he'd do as a Mastermind contestant. (He'd caught the new series on the telly. It wasn't the same.)

Still, Remus always felt a kinship with tutors and teachers: he'd taught a few students whose names James had chucked his way, back in the day, and well, he'd sort of ended up a teacher. A version of him, anyway. Sometimes thinking too much about it felt like stepping on his own grave. In his own time, he'd never gotten too close to any of the students he tutored: that way led possible discovery, but he wasn't a prude about socialising with students or keeping strict boundaries or anything. It would have been nice to make friends.

Following the other man's gaze, Remus' own face brightened in a pleased grin: "Oh, Sunny! I know her! We seem to bump into each other a fair amount. It's lovely to meet another of her friends." And he knew Felix as well, but Felix wasn't the sort of person he would blather on about.