[Private] Can't Stop Us Now

Riley was not late.
They were on time today. With no small help from six alarms, two calls with Archie, and a few texts from Dani. After all, a meeting with your court's Monarch doesn't happen every day.

The Bright One arrived shortly after The Verdant Queen. Stepping into the room, the bewitched is dressed in powerful  velvet emerald green suit, the collar tips are adorn with silver bees connect by a length of chain.  Riley was talented in making thrift shop clothes look glamorous , but this was something else for them. The ensemble was tailor-made, a luxury Riley was not accustomed to and made possible with the help of Archie.
Riley had long debated bringing their prized hedgespun glove but decided this meeting would feel too much. However, their Golden hair nettle today took the form of a  brilliant scarlet silk bow tie that held their hair back I an tight short ponytail.  

Emerging into the room, Riley flashed Archie a smile and slight wink before their attention was drawn to the visage of the Porcelain Queen. The moth was struck by her bold style, with queen rarely in public sight, it always had an impact.
Riley bowed their head respectfully. For the briefest moment, they weren't sure how to address her. The courtly M'lady, your Majesty? Or Ma'am, had been drilled into their brain as a child? Given the mundane location of their meeting, Riley decided on the Later.

"Ma'am, it's a pleasure," The bright one said glancing up from their bowed head with a smile.

Thank god I didn't wear a dress today.

"Archie this delightful, thank you" 
Spying their place at the table Riley moved towards it, waiting to seat till both the others had arrived and the Queen had taken a seat. 

Certainly, many would jump at the opportunity to pull out the stops when appealing to their Monarch. Normally, Ivory might even be among them. Those who have earned the Crown are deserving of such respects and, despite her recent interest in Buck, Spring had granted the Crown to another. It would not have done so lightly.

Nonetheless, today was not about socializing in its entirety. Today was about business, particularly the business of planning Ostara. As a result, the Pale Dragon dressed appropriately. A fitted grey suit seemed to be the right call, coupled with a fun black lace top just visible beyond the jacket and matching black heels. 

Upon her entry there was some pause in the Fairest, the recent paranoia born from the damage of her Clarity briefly overtaking her senses as she observed all had arrived save for her. Had she been late? Surely not... she had scheduled her commute ahead of time, but there was that small strip of construction in Spring Valley and the light down the rode seemed to last a touch too long. With all of this, the assembled were treated to a rare look of confusion and disbelief from the Pale Dragon before Ivory buried it deep, quietly clearing her throat as she re-centered her perspective.

More notably, though, the Fairest's connection to Spring - and the Wyrd - seemed to have grown. Light feelings of anticipation accompanied the occasional flickering of a dim golden halo behind the dragon's head. Her scales were more abundant, the spread of ivory sheen causing the dusky gray skin that had once been abundant to become scarce, save for her chest, much of her face, and her palms. Her horns, too, seemed larger and sturdier as this Lost edged closer to the Dragon-That-Was. 

"Good afternoon, please pardon my tardiness," she offered, her tone leveling out in it's usual cordial manner as the stoic smile that had been so common to the dragon played on their lips.

Her gaze first landed upon Philicia, for she was the First among them.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Your Majesty," she offered, her head dipping in respect, "Thank you for suggesting the meeting. I am certain it will be most useful."

The smile turned a touch warm as the Dragon's attentions were stolen by the familiar faces of Agrippa and Riley.

"Good to see you both," she offered.

The glance to Archie lacked the warmth the others had recieved, but remained cordial and pleasant enough. He had not given substantial reason for the Pale Dragon to clash with him and, frankly, in this matter they needed to work together. Both of their reputations were at stake.

"And a pleasure to see you again as well, Mr. Hartman," she said.

"Thank you, I make them myself," she said; not shy for the compliment, but also not one to preen. It felt more like a window into her hobbies than a brag.

"Great suits. I don't really see the point in makeup or clothes unless you're going to say something with it." Given the rueful grin, there was likely an unspoken, cheeky joke couched in the statement. A practiced eye swept over the fabric and pattern. The large eyes looked like the should have clicked, but instead the sparkling within appeared to come to life in swirling eddies.

Philicia doesn't force everyone to stand for long, quickly finding her seat. She chuckles a bit at the Chatelaine's excited theatrics. The mood was infectious, and she was glad to see him having fun with the burden of responsibility. She nods to each of the court, giving them their own opportunity to speak if they wanted rather than feeling looked over or cut off with the obvious bridge in rank. Ivory afforded the longest pause, and if silence held she would move on before it got awkward.

Privacy was something she appreciated herself.

Between a strawberry, she holds up a hand, "Mhm- if it helps, I'm not sure who is familiar with the Ostara ritual? Everyone remembers the party where we ring in the new year and wake up the dawn." She wiggles two fingers that click with the joints, "Second half is with the Valley of the Dead where everyone plants their seed, like, whatever is symbolic for them or if they just grabbed a walnut at the market. The Archivist has the paint the Giant's Teeth with the life blood of service for the throne ascension, and I have to cut some yew from a dream before I take the Crown. The egg's important too, but you guys don't have to worry about that. It's all about renewal." It was broad enough: An all-nighter New Years bash around sun worship and fertility.

"I think the most important thing is making sure you have insurance, waivers for attendees, and that the Hedge Gates are prepped for a smooth transition when everyone is probably too drunk to stand straight."

Without even a hint of a request from the monarch, Agrippa plucked the bottle they had originally been eyeing and set it out on the table in front of them, nodding appreciatively as the label revealed their choice to be a raspberry wine. With the others already talking, the beast took their seat in silence, leafing absently through the binder Archie had provided. They hadn't come up with any big ideas, but they didn't fret about it. Nothing they would have brought to the table would likely survive the brainstorming process in any case- it was just more efficient to skip the middle man and create the plan whole cloth at the meeting. They always functioned better as support in these sorts of projects anyways.

"I'll throw my vote in for the Grove as well. Even setting aesthetics and symbolism aside, the logistics of this will likely be easier out doors."

They started on the bottle top, carefully twisting it free as they continued to talk

"Though if we go with that, we'll need tables, seating, and lighting for the guests, as well as some some area for food preparation or storage... though I'm getting ahead of myself here. Regardless of what option we go with, I am going to caution that it might be a good idea to go with décor that can survive an entire night of a drunken crowd. Less fire and glass and expensive lace placemats, and more plastic and electric lighting. At the very least that'll help with the insurance"

The bottle-top made a soft popping noise as it finally released its hold. Agrippa glanced towards the Queen, both as a callback to her own mention of insurance, and as a way to gage whether anything they were saying seemed off-track.

"A little creativity and resourcefulness, and it shouldn't impact the aesthetics very much at all."

Well, it seems like the reigns were happily his - let us keep it that way, shall we? He had nothing but trust that the meeting wouldn’t degenerate into something unruly, but one could call this insurance


“Well, I don’t see much of a point debating the two if everyone seems to enjoy the idea of the grove - so how about we just leave it at that? If you thumb through your hand outs we will be looking at pages 3 through 6, 13 to 15, and 19 through 24.”

At the same time he opened his larger book and pulled out three wooden blocks with paint chips and fabric clamped between them. There were several assortments, one, two, and three to be exact.

“The first is the preamble to the Grove as a whole, a breakdown of the permits required to get us the seclusion he would like - sans cost, but well within our means. Catering as well, all pre-delivered and stored on site, sans goblin fruit of course. Seating area, dance and performance, the wedding hutch used and repurposed as a centerpiece for the ceremony. We can comfortably celebrate with about 200 before we begin to cramp. Given the nature of these events that seems more than enough.”

He flipped his own tabbed book.

“Now for decoration I have three schemes, the first here is specific to what we can take advantage of in The Grove, and plays to a softer pastel palette - inspired by a fondness of periwinkle I observed.”

The Queen’s letters of course.

“The other two are more generic, stronger, and bolder choices. One does favor a more cool send as we blend that kiss of baby's breath in, versus a further cascade of greens. None of this is set in stone of course but something I have sourced as available for what we would need in table clothes, banners, cushions, ground options, etcetera. I am proposing standard round tables, four seats per, isolated to their own section for rest, conversation, and food, another more open seating area with a pop up bar for mingling, a dedicated celebrating area, and then our main ceremony area can flex for whatever overflow we have.”

“Overall the details of how this idea of a layout would manifest itself with each color scheme are covered in the subsequent three sections I mentioned. You can see the designers mockups are all included, feel free to keep these for yourselves of course.”

He glanced around the room with a smile.

“NOW, entertainment - not covered in my guide. I have a few members of the community that can easily provide some background music, and we can always seek out distinct community members to perform. I know Apollo of the Iron Spear has the itch to sing, and Riley here I am sure is more than capable of aweing us. Felicity Stone, also a singer of note, Autumn I do believe. I am sure we can drum up some more names if not off the cuff. Any suggestions?”

He opened the floor to the rest of the group regarding their rightful instance of entertainment. He wanted to know what they had in mind.

Agrippa nodded at Ivory, nearly grateful as she volunteered to help with the insurance. Even if the beast had the wallet for it, they wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of such affairs. The nodding continued as Archie instructed which pages to look at, and asked for opinions on the shortlisted colour schemes

"For fear of sounding dreadfully predictable, I do quite like the pastel pallet the best. Everything I'm seeing here looks airtight to me, though I might suggest setting an area aside for guests to lay blankets out on the grass and sit on the ground that way- given the nature of the event, I'm sure there will be some who would want to."

They paused to taste the wine

"Oh, and did you source any florists? That should be an easy shoe-in for appropriate décor. And do we have sound systems? Especially if we are having singers, that is something we should be providing. I'm sure we can get something on-loan for a night."

They turned to Riley, smiling as the moth in-turn volunteered their own services as a performer to the cause.

"I'd think Garden Party, but with a tad more energy, and a little salaciousness sprinkled in for spice."

It was a fertility festival, after all.