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

[the_obedient_servant]

[Don't worry, Deku. They're much worse.]

I think if you get everyone else to drink you've won.

[wannasmash]

[ He should worry. ]

That's what I thought too, until I thought about it being embarrassing to have everyone know I have or haven't done stuff. Or even just now annoying it would be if they were jerks about it.

[ Ever the overthinker, and yet also not a great liar--most of the time. At least he isn't playing poker here. As for getting made fun of, he's blasé about it. He's moved on from that being ranked among his important worries. ]

[the_obedient_servant]

I think unless this takes a turn for the dark, I'm safe from running into things that I have done.

You don't trust the people here to not mock you?

[wannasmash]

Paul-kun trusts the people here, so I don't think it will happen, not seriously. [ Being made fun of, or people asking dark things? Who can say... ] It's just me overthinking things again.

[the_obedient_servant]

And you trust Paul?

It's odd. He seems to have that effect.

[wannasmash]

[ What a question. He's too polite, too used to watching others not to notice the shade. Here comes yet another test of his recent resolve not to advertise the strength (or complexity) of his own friendships too much, in case his new (old) enemies get wind. People at this party should be all right. None of them have grudges against him, several already know they're friends, and he's given them the heads up or is going to.

He shrugs and smiles wryly. ]

To not stand around and watch someone at his party get seriously insulted, sure. That's kind of awkward.

[the_obedient_servant]

[Chara also trusts Paul, at least to an extent. They like him, at least, and they think they can use him. It's just fascinating how he manages to gain this near universal faith. Chara raises an eyebrow at Deku's question.]

But not otherwise? Harsh.

[wannasmash]

[ He grins, a quick fleeting thing. He almost laughs, out of fondness for his friend, and Chara's humor, even if they didn't mean to be funny. (It's the timing, really.) The Midoriya before the Leviathan, his own Corruption, and the sobering arrival of old enemies in Trench would have. ]

Yes, he has an effect, but that's... [ he frowns mildly, trying to see it from the perspective of most people and place it, lands on what most people might know when Paul put himself out there after his vision of the Leviathan, ] leadership? Common ground?

[the_obedient_servant]

He was quite firm about not being the leader himself of that entire operation.

[It was dumb, and naturally everyone immediately assigned him that role anyway.]

[wannasmash]

That's what he gets for being organized from the start. But I think doing that was reassuring to him. [ He smiles gently. There are times when he lets Paul spin his wheels a little to find equilibrium. ]

Anyway, in the end I reported to Commander Flynn as part of the ground division. And, for a little bit on the water, Captain Anna... Don't call her that, though I think you might be able to get away with it in a pirate voice.

[the_obedient_servant]

You will have to tell me if my pirate voice is adequate, then.

Yarr.

[wannasmash]

[ He says, in problem-solving earnest: ]

I think part of it is the slang. Try using stuff like 'sea salt' and 'scalawag'.

[terriblepurpose]

[Perhaps invoking Paul's name summons him via some subtle Paleblood sense - or, more likely from the vague looseness of his limbs and the drink in his hand, he's just wandering in a pleasant mingling daze. Either way, he leans in curiously on this conversation.]

What's a pirate voice?

[the_obedient_servant]

[They look up at him with a nod.]

That would be the question. Perhaps... Yarr, my scalawags, I am a very sea salty individual.

[It should be noted that they are not changing their voice at all.]

[wannasmash]

[ He almost jumps. He tips his head back to look up at Paul in surprise. The faint pink tinge of alcohol in his face grows less faint. ]

So--Captain Anna was doing a pirate voice, which I guess is just an old-fashioned English sailor accent. You say stuff like 'scurvy dogs' or 'the lot of ye' and you call your friends 'mates' who are part of your 'crew.'

[ Midoriya, likewise, disappointingly does not change his voice. However, he helpfully accompanies this with a passable imitation of Captain Anna's energetic, Ahab-like eyes and a broad emphatic gesture with both arms meant to be one of her "cool poses" while he clutches his drink. ]

It helps if you have a long coat, sword, and triangle hat.

[terriblepurpose]

[Paul listens to these respective demonstrations with a slightly cocked head, nodding along with a look that suggests it all makes perfect sense to him. Sailors are known for their distinct trade slang on most planets.]

Neither of you did an accent.

[He observes, mildly, but with a touch of (exaggerated? surely not) disappointment.]

On this, the day of my birthday? You come into my house [it's not his house] and taunt me in my ignorance?

[the_obedient_servant]

[Unbothered, they raise their eyebrows in faux alarm, like they've committed some grave offence. Then, without doing an accent, they continue.]

Terribly sorry, you scurvy dog. Where and when would you prefer I taunt you in your ignorance?

If it is on the sea salty waters of the ocean, my hearties might be a bit pre-occupied with avasting, but I can pencil you in for a place commonly occupied by landlubbers and timbers of mine to shiver.

[wannasmash]

[ He's been watching the Omni again, Midoriya thinks. ]

That's not even-- [ Wait. ] 'Tis not even a film of the salty dog variety. There's no swabbing decks in that one, just a lot of landlubbers with pistols.

[ No accent. This is painful. ]

[terriblepurpose]

[Paul has been receiving a truly slapdash cultural edification in the subject of second millennium Earth cinema.]

If you are going to taunt me, now that you mention it, I could start keeping open hours for audience on certain days of the week. Keep things organized.

Is that really what she sounded like? Maybe I should ask her. What do you think?

[the_obedient_servant]

Sundays work for me. Seven A.M to Eight P.M. Don't be late.

I think asking the captain of the undead fleet for her thoughts on our pirate impressions would be an excellent idea. Feel free to make the olive branch. Or throw down the powder keg. Whatever it is that we use on the seven seas.

[wannasmash]

And don't forget the 'Captain.' She hates it when people forget her title.

[ Anna explicitly told Midoriya not to call her captain while ruffling his hair. ]

She'll, uh, make you walk the plank. I saw her do it once with a skeleton when they forgot. It was brutal.

[ The skeletons don't even speak. ]

[terriblepurpose]

[Paul laughs, between the two of them, a warm and open note as he shakes his head. The fondness of the look he gives both of them is unmistakable.]

Sundays it is. I'll have tea ready. And I'll risk the possibility of joining the disrespectful skeletons in the briny deep, me mateys.

[So he may have picked up something from their impressions.]

[the_obedient_servant]

My mateys. Please, let's try to keep things gramatically correct here.

Don't be late. I won't forgive you if you are. [They shake their head like a long suffering but affectionate mentor.]

Are you enjoying yourself?

[It is his party, after-all.]

[wannasmash]

[ Midoriya nearly chokes on his laugh. He's not so sure the brand of sailors they're talking about are too concerned with grammar. ]

Paul-kun is laughing and trying to talk like a pirate, so I would guess so, but I can't speak for him.

[terriblepurpose]

[Paul elbows Midoriya very gently, care overemphasized to the point of parody.]

I am. Saltily, and so on. And I'd never dare to be late for you, Chara.

[If they're looking to play the part of the long suffering mentor, Paul can play the chagrined student, bobbing his head in contrition.]

It seems like you both are, too. I'm glad.