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

Kainé | Nier: Replicant 1.22 | OTA (cw: underage substance use)

[foulhussy]

1. Early Evening

[ Perhaps you know the ashen haired woman that arrives at the party on the arm of Anna Amarande (looking very self-satisfied about that fact, with a smug little grin). Perhaps you had only seen her at the Leviathan mission base camp, or have not yet met her at all. Either way, Kainé is only here at Anna's insistence, for the birthday party of somebody she's never actually spoken to.

Surprising even herself, though, Kainé isn't in a bad mood, despite how out of the ordinary this is for her. She soon separates herself from Anna's side but stays close to her as she mingles. She's wearing a slinky black dress, and might look elegant if not for her gruff tone and the stream of profanity that issues from her mouth when she speaks. ]

This place is fucking awful. It looks like it was decorated by Dracula's grandma. [ How does she even know what Dracula is? Either way, she looks much more relaxed than usual. ]

2. Later On | Dune Your Mom

[ Later in the evening, Kainé has started to settle in. She helps herself to plenty of food, has several beers, and of course a healthy dose of the Spice. Not too much, mind you. Anna is having a fair bit more, and somebody has to look out for her.

Still, she’s clearly a fair bit further on than she expected to be. She’s feeling downright pleasant. She sits on the sofa with a slice of cake on her plate, uneaten. She occasionally looks around the room to stare pointedly at people, a quizzical expression gracing her features. All the universe is a vast interwoven whole, and all that she sees is a part of it. And it’s all… beautiful.

Now she turns to you, with her piercing gold eyes. She takes a sip of beer. And continues to watch. ]

Hey.

2

[hauntedsavior]

[anna is, of course, taking some time out of her party to be with kainé. she doesn't intend on doing anything too public with her, but kainé's been taking care of her all night and making sure she doesn't overdo it, and it would just be rude to ignore her girlfriend all night in light of that.]

Hey.

[she's smiling and her pupil is a little bigger than it should be, and it's taking a lot of effort not to get all in k's business. but she'll drape an arm around her shoulders. it's obvious even without the spice that anna is so grateful for and happy with kainé, but the empathetic connection really only strengthens that. there's an all-consuming fondness for her that rarely makes its way to anna's face.]

Come here often?

[foulhussy]

[ All told, Kainé hasn't really felt the need to keep a very close watch on Anna. Sure, she drinks, tells bad jokes, and snorts lots of dehydrated worm jizz or whatever that is. And maybe does a few pranks. But she trusts Anna to look out for herself. Her girlfriend sometimes even takes something approaching care of herself these days. It's being with her that counts, and she wouldn't feel half as comfortable at a party like this if she wasn't nearby.

Kainé cracks a sly smile, leaning slightly into Anna's body, despite being in public. ]

Hey yourself. What's a hot little number like you doing at a dump like this?

[ Like this she can really feel her in ways she never thought possible before. So well that she can the faint membranous presence of somebody else who is the same, the two in one. Kainé's eyes widen when she realizes who it is. ]

...I can feel her. A2.

[hauntedsavior]

Yeah.

[it's all she can think of to say in response to kainé being able to feel A2, which feels, right now, like something easier to talk about than anna's shitty attempts at flirting. and though anna can't control what A2's soul does, she'd like to imagine that both of them are leaning on kainé right now. and she almost feels serene, talking about A2 like she's a real person who really exists and actually having proof for it.]

Now you know I'm not crazy. [a smile. that was probably not actually a concern. she trails her fingers through kainé's hair just a little.] I'm gonna try to talk with her tonight. Anything you want me to tell her?

[foulhussy]

[ The spice is a strange experience, opening Kainé's senses up in all kinds of unfamiliar ways. It's wondrous, but she does not think she would care to experience this all the time. Being a Paleblood must be fucking exhausting.

Even so, being able to just be with Anna like this... and with A2—is just sublime. Kainé can feel her little spike of self-consciousness, and truth be told, she's feeling awkward too. Maybe even just a bit annoyed that Anna would think that she would trivialize something so core to her being. Kainé's trust is on a deeper level, and perhaps Anna can feel that sincerity. ]

You know I never thought that. [ She puts a hand on Anna's arm, feeling the faint echo of the other soul through machine flesh. ] I dunno. I wonder what she thinks about me. What she... feels.

[ She closes her eyes. Everything feels resonant, significant. ]

If your souls are one, does she... feel the same as you?

[hauntedsavior]

[this is so peaceful right now, even as kainé asks a question that anna isn't sure she knows the answer to. she looks at her girlfriend's face, studies it and lets its inherent warmth fill her to her core. if her heart beat, it would be beating faster.]

I don't know if she does... that's one thing I want to ask her, too. I tell her about you, but she can't talk back to me. I don't know if she ever could, if that's ever... how it worked. [for someone who survived retrospec, she knows so little about its actual mechanics. about whether souls are meant to talk with each other, or if she's just romanticizing things. maybe one day, one day soon, she'll find a way to resonate again.]

But if we're close enough for us to end up entwined in the first place, then I think I have a couple ideas of what she thinks about you. [another smile. she closes her eye, too, trying to exist in the moment with kainé. her lips don't move much.] I think she thinks you're a good person, who's better than someone like her deserves, but who's still the kind of person who makes her want to try harder every day to be someone better.

[foulhussy]

[ She thinks she's beginning to understand Anna a little bitter since those confessions before the abyss. It didn't even give her that much more that she didn't already know, but... she understands that Anna is somebody who feels as though she's been unable to live up to expectations, somebody who fucks everything up. Kainé had a very different set of obligations, but she understands that. They both fear that they're too broken to keep what they yearn for, despite evidence to the contrary. Little by little, they just have to wear that down.

Kainé's thumb traces Anna's jaw, and it's as though the feeling of her, her eyes and skin and smile and everything permeates every part of her. ]

You're... enough. [ A shadow of a smile graces her dreamy expression. ] Even when you mess up the stew three. Fucking. Times. [ She laughs, pauses for a moment, biting her lip thoughtfully. ] Guess you didn't have to do any cooking in the robot war. Did you even need to eat?

[ She doesn't know A2 except through Anna, but they are two in one, wholly different from the demonic presence that invading Kainé's very being. So this seems... right. Natural. ]

It's really something isn't it? Fighting like hell, giving everything, even the things you didn't even know you had... and still not getting jack shit. But we're still fighting, huh? A couple wild beasts, baring our fangs together. I think that's... what love is.

[hauntedsavior]

[anna's not far enough gone to be able to commune yet, absolutely not, but she has an idea of how to facilitate it. it's stupid, it's silly. but kainé's talking to her like A2 is right here with them. maybe anna should respond in kind. maybe it's easy to acquiesce to stuff that she might otherwise think is a little silly or embarrassing when she's this close, when there's a touch along her jaw and a quiet, sincere reassurance that she is enough. she's enough for kainé and, in the dreamlike state she's in right now, that will be enough all on its own.]

[then kainé says one more thing, and the entire idea of speaking as A2 evaporates. this is more important than that. her hand moves down the back of kainé's neck and around her shoulders, and her other hand gently cups her girlfriend's cheek again, like in the catacombs. when things had felt close to right, but the circumstances were too fraught. a party where anna's been deliberately lowering her own inhibitions isn't much of an improvement to things, but at least there's no terror that either of them is going to be swallowed up by an abyss. when anna speaks again, it's still in that private tone. she'll remember this. no matter what else happens tonight, she will remember this.]

I want that to be what love is. It's what I'm good at... fighting and moving forward no matter what and showing my teeth to anyone who threatens what I have. And if that's what love is, then that's the way I want to love you.

[foulhussy]

[ Kainé didn't plan on saying that. She hasn't been planning anything that she's been saying, really, just letting it flow from her heart, perhaps eager to put this lack of reserve to use. At first they had been meant for A2 as well, with the terrible struggle she'd fought, but that last sentence had brought her back to the immediate, to Anna's hands on her, to what has been simmering for a couple months now.

As soon as she tells Anna that she loves her, she knows that it's true. She's known for quite a while. Hell, that sentimental android dork has been going around using the word "girlfriend," and not only has she not protested, it made her happy. She knows, and terrifying as it is, she does not regret it either, not for a moment. ]

...Good. So do I. I want this for... us. I want to tear out the throat of anything in your way.

[ Halting staccato words, tinged with embarrassment, but forceful in their conviction. Kainé's eyes dart nervously to and fro but keep returning to Anna's face. She feels like her heart will burn up in this blaze, but she won't step out of the fire. Instead, she just bumps her forehead against Anna's. ]

[hauntedsavior]

[of course anna's been a stupid little romantic about all of this. she doesn't know how else to be. falling fast, for the first thing that feels familiar, and finding that in the thick of things, she feels even better the more she learns about the object of her affection. she smiles and comes damn close to laughing when their foreheads are touching. the words she's about to say aren't very romantic, but she's certainly going to lean into it.]

I'll shred anything that holds you back. Teeth and claws and blood and bone. That's a promise.

[the corners of her mouth raise while she's talking to reveal her canines, but she's just having fun with this. it's easy, from here, to capture kainé's lips and get her taste on them. but it's slow, languid. like they have all the time in the world.]

[foulhussy]

[ Kainé closes her eyes and kisses Anna, slow and warm, and barely caring that theý're in public and anybody could look over and see her making out with her girlfriend. Yeah, you can't come back from saying stuff like that, can you? She's in love, charging off into an unknown country without so much as a map.

In love with a beautiful, cynical, clumsy, sensitive woman who says things like this. It makes her shiver. ]

Fuck, that's so hot.

[ Her hand glides down Anna's back, tracing her spine through her clothes and artificial skin. That might have turned her on, a little. ]

...I love you. I— yeah.

[hauntedsavior]

Mmhm?

[it's time for another not very smooth moment from anna, but at least she takes a moment to bite just a little at kainé's lip before she pulls back. that should compensate.]

Upstairs is off limits... could break into the study if you really think it's that hot...

[is she suggesting this? is she really? she just shivers at the touch of fingers running down her back and knows that she would love to have more right now. she's not being immodest with her own touches yet, tracing lines down kainé's arm with her fingers. and there is a third person involved here, isn't there? there's the hint of a reaction from A2 as well—surprise at the affection, bristling like a wild animal that's just barely willing to give a new experience a try. a beast that fears what it wants most.]

[foulhussy]

[ Kainé lets out a soft sigh as Anna nibbles on her lip. That confession is filling her with a kind of wild energy, and she has to admit she's curious what it would feel like while they're connected through the effects of the Spice. ]

The creepy bone wizard guy's room? [ She gestures to her eyes, to indicate John. ] I dunno...

[ But she can feel A2 entwined with Anna, uncertain but yearning. It feels... wrong to leave her out, not when this is her body too, when she shares the heart and soul that she loves. Anna's touch is electric on her skin. No matter where this goes, she wants to be with her, to feel her and love her without reserve. She doesn't know how to categorize any of this. Is it loving one person, or two? Is it unfair to either of them? It's a credit to the mood and chemical assistance, that this doesn't truly worry her. They'll find a way, so long as they have each other, no matter how many that is.

She brushes a lock of hair away from Anna's forehead, runs a thumb along her cheekbone.]

What do you want, A2? I won't make you a part of this unless you want it.

[hauntedsavior]

[the tenderness of kainé's touch sends the same sort of shivers through her body, but there's just... more to it now, more that she's feeling now that she can sense A2's presence more clearly. there's a pause that feels like it takes eons as she delves deep within her own mind and soul to reach for an emotional response that doesn't make sense. she doesn't know if she's channeling anything or just pretending, but with her eye still closed, she mutters something out and realizes as the words come that she doesn't care.]

I want... someone to hold me. [her voice doesn't change, but the way she delivers the words does. she sounds much more hesitant than she usually would be, and knowing how anna already talks about affection that should be saying something.] I want to lie down with someone and have her tell me it's okay to take a rest.

[A2's metaphorical fur still bristles at the words that anna is speaking, which at least in anna's mind makes it feel much more real. she gives a shuddering breath.]

I'm so tired of fighting.

[foulhussy]

[ Kainé kisses her again, gentle as she brushes her lips against Anna's. Not wanting to force anything while she can feel the ephemeral presence of A2, no matter how fired up she feels by this talk of love, this feeling of communion with her beloved. ]

Yeah. Ain't that the fuckin' truth. [ Kainé huffs, smiles slightly. Her hand drops from Anna's face, down to rest over hers. She knows that the other soul isn't speaking directly, not those exact words, but she knows all the same that they are true. Words that meet in the middle between them. They're important, no matter who is speaking them. Like this she can feel how they blend and mingle together. ] Then lets lay our swords down, at least for now.

[ She's wading in blood long enough too. There will always be fighting, it will always follow her, but... it doesn't have to be all of them. ]

When we have to bare our fangs, we will. But not alone, anymore. In war or peace.

[hauntedsavior]

[the weight that comes off anna's, off A2's shoulders when kainé says that is enough to feel. it's so much more than metaphorical. both souls within this body have spent so much of their lives fighting. they're always fighting, even when they don't know what they're fighting against or why. the grace of being given permission to lay down their arms and simply exist alongside someone else is enough of a relief to bring them to tears. (anna won't. A2 may.)]

Thank you. [that comes from both of them. for a moment, anna can feel two of her hands against kainé.] Love you. [even now, she has problems saying it when she's sober. might as well say outright what everything else has just implied while she's in this haze between existences.] Both of us do.

[is that embarrassing? maybe. probably. god. whatever. who cares. she doesn't have to fight this. there's no battle to fight. her voice gets lazy again more than hesitant. A2 is still present, but anna's speaking for herself next.]

Too good to me.

[foulhussy]

[ One way or another, Kainé's whole life has been a struggle for survival. Even during those warm days that she'd spent with her grandmother, there'd been too little food and the shadow of danger constantly looming over them. It speaks to just how hard that life was, that Trench affords her more opportunities for rest and pleasure. But it's only because somebody was there to pry her heart open that she's able to feel like she can take moments apart from that struggle.

Right now she can feel both of them touching her, hear two speaking in one voice. Kainé knows little about A2, but in this moment she can feel her perfectly, can see how she was there all along, intertwined in every nook and cranny of Anna. ]

I know.

[ Does she love them both separately, or who they are together? It's a good thing that she's high enough that this doesn't worry her right now. Kainé touches her and she feels all the intricacy, organic and mechanical, scars and kindness and naivety and love and brattiness, Anna and A2, all fitting together into somebody miraculous. Part of her speaks, and Kainé responds, continuing on with words that would be harder to say sober. ]

Bullshit. I'm only able to be like this because of what you did for me.

...We can sneak behind the house, if you're still feeling it.

[ Classy as always, these two. ]

2

[forwantofahorse]

[Sayo flops down onto the couch next to Kainé with all the grace of a stoned bonobo, grimacing as they hold an ice pack (thanks, Soot) up to their forehead. Unfortunately, Anna hadn't obliged Sayo by knocking them out and saving several... some units of time, they couldn't tell... of spice-high, so now that they're on the come-down, they're feeling especially miserable.

Nothing but a few drinks would fix right now and make a lot worse in the morning, at least.

And a friendly face did wonders for alleviating their mental pains, if not their physical ones—no matter how awkward things got with Anna.]

Mmmrph.

Kainé.

[foulhussy]

[ Kainé's eyes are still dilated from that euphoric spice high, even if it's beginning to taper off a bit by now. She doesn't seem to mind, but then, she's always had a high tolerance for just about anything that goes in her body.

Her eyes widen see that ice-pack on Sayo's forehead. At least they don't look really hurt, but shit. Parties sure happen, huh? She puts on a wry smile, still in a peaceful mood. ]

Wow, you look like hot garbage.

[forwantofahorse]

Now that's what I was expecting to hear this time, kyaha- ow. [Sayo winces, their cackle interrupted by whatever wretched beetle that had crawled inside their skull while she was zoned out on spice attempting to burrow out of their cranium.

They'd had some bad hangovers before, but Sayo knows that when they wake up in the morning (or afternoon at this rate) the reckoning they'll face will be fearsome.]

...what I want to know is what moron decided to name it SPICE. How was I supposed to know that the spice the skeletons were handing out was a space drug and not, I don't know, avant-garde cinnamon?

[foulhussy]

Nah, that's on you. If it's just called "spice" instead of pepper or cardamom or whatever the fuck, that's gonna be some weird shit.

[ She says that as a gentle jibe, knowing she could have made the same mistake. Wanting to stay lucid enough to keep an eye on Anna if she needed it has kept her from going too hard on the intoxicants. At least until the drinking game starts, anyway. ]

The hell happened to you, anyway?

[forwantofahorse]

W- Well forgive me, an orphan who has never gone to a single party before, not knowing how intoxicants work!

[Sayo turns away, crossing their arms and sulking. They can already imagine the look on Kainé's face when they tell her the exact nature of what happened.]

...if I tell you, you have to promise not to laugh.

cw: minor bathroom references

[foulhussy]

I lived in a shack in a canyon, you think I understand any of this shit? Hell, a couple months ago I was pissing outdoors.

[ She shrugs, with a sharp huff. She's not about to judge Sayo for being poorly socialized or getting into stupid situations. ]

I promise I will laugh only at bitter irony towards the cruel absurdity of the cosmos. How about that?

[forwantofahorse]

[No comment on the piss, but Sayo is now deeply concerned after doing some basic math. She shudders to think of what would've happened to both of them had Anna had not found Kainé.]

...I sprinkled it on my cupcake because I was craving something really sweet.

[foulhussy]

[ She should be. Kainé is a red flag soaked in gasoline, but then, Anna is too, and hopefully their different urges towards self-destruction can cancel each other out. Yeah. Maybe. ]

Goddamn. You come down yet?