Birthday Party

[peripheries]

Who: Paul Atreides and all his CR
What: Throwing everyone’s favorite Duke a surprise birthday party
When: Forwarded dated to April 1st
Where: Bone House in Gaze

Content Warnings: Drinking, underage drinking, drugs (both fictional and not), drawings of space worms, skeletons, will add further warnings if necessary



When you arrive at the house in Gaze, (affectionately known as Bone House), a skeleton will open the door and offer to take your coat if you have one. No need to take your shoes off or anything!

The large house has been decorated with black streamers and confetti. In the entryway and hung on the railing to the second floor that overlooks the entrance to the great room are large banners that say “HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL” (though one looks like it used to say “Jaune” but was just painted over? Whatever).

In the Living Room, there is a large board and various colored markers for people to write messages to the birthday boy. There is also a table full of bottled water and various couches, chairs, and beanbags to collapse into if the party gets to be too much and one needs a quiet place to rest or a place to chill if you’ve imbibed too much… well, whatever you had.

It is also where all the food and drinks are.

There’s an extremely large charcuterie board with the usual meats, cheeses, and olives as well as an extremely eccentric collection of snacks ranging from individual sized Cheez-it bags, to humungous bags of Doritos and salty chips, as well as nearly every kind of Oreo one can imagine.

There are also various cakes, all angel food. Some are misshapen, some have an attempt at being frosted with whipped cream and fruit, one even says “Happy Birthday Ka-” before that was hastily covered with a bunch of strawberries jammed really close together.

At the island, a skeleton is playing bartender. Surprisingly, it can seem to take and understand individual orders, but there’s always a constant flow of tequila shots being made and sent out to the great hall to be served by another skeleton.

And, no, of course it’s not going to check your age to see if you’re legal. It’s a skeleton. Why would it care?

The Great Hall is the center of activity and where everyone is encouraged to mingle and have fun. There is a skeleton on the grand piano in the corner gleefully playing piano covers of the hits from the Shrek Soundtrack with the occasional cover of “DaRude’s Sandstorm” when it has another one to help out.

In another corner, on huge piece of paper that spans nearly 6ft wide and 8ft tall is drawing of an Arrakis sandworm and it’s giant maw. The game is Pin the Tooth on the Sandworm and it’s… very easy… because the worm maw is most of the board. Even if the skeleton spins you as you’re blindfolded, it’s pretty hard to lose. If you manage to do it, which is likely, the skeleton running the game will award you a tequila shot! If you lose, the skeletons will award you a tequila shot (but it’s rail).

(It’s a drinking game, isn’t the point to drink?)

There’s also a table that has many candelabras on it, numbering up to seventeen. They’re still lit and burning even though there is a sign that says “make a wish!” even though it almost looks like a shrine for the dead.

…It’s maybe clear that the concept of “birthday candles” was greatly misunderstood.

There is also a skeleton dealing out small doses of “Spice”, a psychoactive drug straight outta the Duneverse. However, you must check in with this Skeleton to get a dose. There will be no “permanently melting your brain with ancestral memories” at this party!

Teacher’s/God’s/Jod’s/The Emperor Undying’s study, adjacent to the main hall, is closed and locked. Though, the lock is fairly easy to break if someone really wanted to get in. There’s not even skeletons guarding.

That said, many things are warded with eerie runes of blood and bone.

So, fuck around and find out.

The upstairs is generally off limits. Party goers can climb up the stairs, and it’s encouraged if they want to look over the Great Room from above, but all of the bedrooms are carefully guarded by more skeletons who will SCREAM VERY LOUDLY if you try to enter and will become hostile if done by force.

Of course, this won’t happen if you are with someone who lives in the house.

Enjoy the party! Mingle away!

((ooc: if you have any questions or anything, please hit me up at worldtype)) or via PM.))

Birthday Board | At the Party | The Morning After | IC Party Games | Spice Dealer

Comments

later in the night

[peripheries]

[Kaworu has never danced before. He understands the idea that you need someone to dance with and he doesn't. And while he's easily intoxicated enough to ask and, quite frankly, would ask completely sober, he'd forgotten about doing so entirely.

He's sipping on bottle of water forcibly put into his hands by someone (probably Teacher or Izuku-kun) when Sayo asks. He glances over them. It's a little ironic for a monster to ask a monster to dance? Then again who even would be Beauty or the Beast here, they're both.

Kaworu finishes the water, takes another shot, and takes their hand.]

Alright, Sayo-san. Let's dance.

[forwantofahorse]

Thank you, Kaworu-san.

[It's true; usually, it's the charming prince or beautiful princess who asks the beast for a dance. But Sayo lacks either, and while Kaworu certainly lacks the former... perhaps he can extend some sympathy to a fellow monster.

(Maybe they can even get some black tea to enjoy with each other later. A first step toward proper friendship, rather than the bloody, ragged bond formed by picking the shards of a mirror from each other's knuckles in the catacombs.)

Sayo hesitantly grasps his hand, blushing from their own awkwardness. They begin to just... bob back and forth. Step forward, step back. Step forward, step back.]

I'm sorry, I- I don't really know how to dance. Although I suppose that's why I asked in the first place.

Never really had the chance.

[peripheries]

You don't need to address me in such a formal way.

[He finds, oddly, that he doesn't want Sayo to put up distance with formalities. Perhaps, because that means letting what happened in the catacombs have a deeper hold on him than he would like. There's already things weighing him down and he doesn't want to add more.]

Neither have I. So let's see-

[He taps his foot a few times, syncing with the beat of the bass drum as it plays a very common "four on the floor" rhythm. Then he takes their other hand and pulls them along to step with him to one side and then back in time to the beat.]

You just have to find the movement of the song and move with it.

[forwantofahorse]

[Monsters in human skin are the only ones who can understand the pain of forcing their hearts into an unfamiliar mold, or know how it feels to be hauled up from hell or dragged down from heaven into the agonizing realm of vulnerability and emotion. (Literal inhumanity or not.)

Bonds formed from hearts bleeding onto the floor are not so easily broken as ones of blood.

Forward and back, like the pendulum of the clock. The rhythm was comfortable, easing Sayo into the musical cogs propelling the song forward without missing a beat.]

...I thought it would be harder. [They laugh, lacking their usual cackling quality.] Is that strange?

It seems like distance really does engender fear.

[peripheries]

Hmm. I think there's more complicated moves but... for now we're just learning. It's okay to take that time. And it's easy to assume it's harder than you know.

[It's something the Old Man had said to him. Something Paul had echoed. It's okay to learn slowly. It's easy to desire quick knowledge but it isn't wrong not to have it.]

It does. The distance between hearts is the cause of much confusion.

[forwantofahorse]

True. I hardly need to bust out the ballroom dancing for a birthday party.

[They wink, and while they don't laugh out loud this time, there's a cackling quality to their voice itself.]

I'll leave that to you when you get some time with the man of the hour.

[peripheries]

Oh.

Does Paul want to dance?

[WOOSH. Right over his head.]

[forwantofahorse]

He's been wanting to dance with you for a long time, I believe.

[The confusion plain on Kaworu's face is just too amusing for Sayo to pass up the opportunity for a little more teasing.]

[peripheries]

You're just trying to tease me.

[There's a huff! A pout. ...And a glance to the side to see if Paul is somewhere he can see. Thankfully, Paul is somewhere off where he can't see.

[forwantofahorse]

Oh, definitely.

[Step and step and step step. Sayo tries spicing it up a little.]

I'm still right, though.

[peripheries]

[He follows, easily, adding in little eighth note steps.]

But what if you're not...?

[forwantofahorse]

Then you get a dance with a cute boy anyways since this is a party and he's not likely to turn you down, then we can comfort each other about our respective unrequited crushes.

[She begins adding in directional movement, slowly turning them around like a chessboard.]

...something like this... it's an illusion that only becomes real when both sides believe in it. Until then, and until you know the other person believes, it's just an illusion.

So if you want to turn your feelings into more than an illusion, something that you can touch and feel... you need to take a risk and see. See if he can see the same illusion as you. Until then, it'll forever remain insubstantial.

[peripheries]

I see. Nothing changes unless you will it to. Of course.

[He steps with them, following easily, and dodging around other dancers.]

Not having someone reciprocate your feelings must be painful. [It's said tentatively if only because he's neither confirmed nor denied it, but the fear of it happening is substaintle.] The reward must truly be worth the risk then.