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

[terriblepurpose]

[Paul's grin gleams with the slightly hungry, avid eagerness of a teenager about to say something they think is going to be impressive.]

It is to scale. As for what they eat?

[He plucks a cube of cheese from a passing skeleton-born tray and flicks it into the air, catching it deftly in his mouth and making quick work of it in two bites before he looks back at her.]

Whatever they can fit into their mouths.

They're always hunting. Everywhere that satellites can track, you'll see the traces of their passing, constantly seeking out prey. They filter the sand through those teeth, and their inner organs, sifting out anything edible - but they'll breach the surface to swallow anything on it, too.

[unphase]

[she knows that smile. she is well-acquainted with that smile. it's similar to the one her husband used when they were first courting, only he was bragging about being a badass gang leader on a lawless planet. it's typical teenage behavior and it's endearing, so she smiles back]

I've never seen a life-form so large before! They're from where you're from?

[it's not hard to look curious and attentive, because she is both of those things. she honestly though she'd seen just about every form of life that was out there in the galaxies, but this was entirely beyond anything she'd seen]

It looks like they could fit a decently-sized family shuttle in their mouths!

[the everywhere part makes her blink, though] How in the Mistress' name did they migrate from planet to planet, are they impervious to the effects of space? They would almost have to be. That's incredible. It really is.

And I should probably introduce myself. I'm Tinya. It's very nice to meet you, especially since it's your birthday!

[terriblepurpose]

They're only on the one planet.

[Paul may have gotten a little ahead of himself. He colors faintly from more than the alcohol, his casual confidence a touch undercut - but he rallies readily enough with the bolstering effects of alcohol still outweighing its depressant impact.]

The planet Arrakis, though how they got there - [he shrugs, loose shouldered] - their spores might be impervious to the void, or some other part of them. Or they were imported there long ago, and the records were lost. It's against Guild law to try to remove them from the planet. They're the only thing that can't be smuggled.

And I'm Paul. It's a pleasure to meet you as well - I don't see enough fellow appreciators of astrobiology.

[unphase]

That must be quite a relief to the other planets.

[the only beings she can think of which compared were space whales. a straightforward enough name for beings who tended to congregate around Rimbor. a planet given more to lawlessness than poetry.

though, she does notice the blush. she's not quite sure where to judge it originated from]

Arrakis. I know I've never heard of that. [but learning about worlds outside of the United Galaxies was fascinating] The spores...it could easily be that. But, may I ask how long a long time ago could have been? Centuries? Millenia? May I ask what the Guild is?

I come from a society which took its place in the galactic community a few centuries ago, at my great-great grandmother's behest. [even though she was pretty sure her great-great grandmother regretted that decision now] And I've always been curious about the galaxy outside of Bgztl.

[terriblepurpose]

[Something Paul has come to note is that many universes have more complete understandings of their histories and planets than his own does. He's not sure how much his answers end up satisfying people, but he's optimistic about these ones in particular.]

At least ten millennia. That's when the Guild of Navigators arose, and the sand worms were already on Arrakis when it entered into the historical record through them.

[Now it's his turn to be curious. He doesn't know all the planets of the empire - no one could, save the Guild, and even within that bureaucracy Paul would expect errors - but a recently new entrant should have been known to him.]

I doubt we hail from the same galaxy, but I'm always interested in hearing about others. What is your planet like?

[unphase]

[her own planet has a ridiculous amount of information about its past, especially the transition of power to her foremothers, right down to an enormous tapestry tracing the family line. she hates it]

Ten millennia? Wow. And much of that time was spent in space, given the importance of navigators? Though, worms like that, they already knew the worms were there, given the satellite tracking?

[her home planet would have made its presence very well known, if it were the same galaxy]

Well...it's a matriarchal planet, my family is about as close to royalty as it gets since we've ruled for the past five thousand years. It's actually in another dimension, sharing the same orbital and rotational sync with Earth with the Phantom Zone between us. [and her smile turns a tad rueful] Everyone on my planet can phase, skirting the edge of the Phantom Zone to become intangible. This place...still lets me do that. But it's really hard and really painful.

[terriblepurpose]

They're hard to miss even without satellites. The only places on the planet that can be safely settled are the rocky poles, since the sand worms can't burrow underneath them.

[The poles are also the only places on the planet with temperatures considerable livable by the Empire. This doesn't stop the Fremen from thriving out there, but if he starts going into sociology they'll be here all night.]

It must be difficult for you to be confined to a solid state. I can't imagine it was easy to adjust to.

[There are plenty of other things he could comment on in her description of her planet, speaking of sociology, but he's struck by that thought first.]

[unphase]

I cannot tell you how much I'd love to see your planet in person. It's just...it sounds fascinating. I can't even try to guess what kind of culture would come with having such beings among them.

[and she can't. much to her own mild chagrin. she's spent so much time on other worlds and in other cultures that she barely recognizes herself as Bgztlian, even though she knows that certain life choices she made won't save her from her familial duties]

It's awful. Even in the other world, I still had my birthright. But I'm trying to look at the bright side. For one, I'm a literal blue-blood now. Mother would be thrilled.

[terriblepurpose]

[The joke about being a literal blue-blood is unexpected in this world so lacking in titles and bloodlines (except for esoteric Pthumerian ones), and Paul's laughter at it is just a little nostalgic.]

There's always something comforting about knowing you're making your mother happy.

[He actually means it, even though he says it lightly.]

I wish there was a way for us to travel between worlds from here. I can't imagine what a world like yours would be like, either.

[unphase]

[it's true, though. back home, her and her foremothers were the bluest of the blue-bloods on their planet, and deferred to in kind. maybe that was why Mother had gotten away with so much shit on the diplomatic corps, up to and including turning her own daughter into a weapon, taking advantage of her easy charm and friendly curiosity]

Yes. Mother would be very pleased.

[and she says it with an air of gravity. Winema Wazzo, her mother, had status climbed her way to President of the United Galaxies, doing everything she could to ruin her own daughter's life inthe process]

And I can't imagine yours! But, who knows? The other world I was at didn't seem like it was capable of spaceflight, even though it was. Perhaps this world will surprise us both? It would certainly come as a surprise to most of the populace.

[terriblepurpose]

[Paul has his theories about what might happen if they attempted to break atmosphere, and why. If he's right about the purpose of their confinement to this world being the limitation of the spread of blood pollution, he doesn't even think that it's an uncalled for measure - but that's a discussion outside the scope of a boisterous party, so he simply smiles as he nods his agreement.]

We might want to master the seas before we strive for the stars, but on the other hand, we wouldn't be the first world to do otherwise.

[He rolls back his shoulders and shifts his weight into his heels as he glances around them, noting those he's sailed with before. Would they make good spaceship crew? It's something to think about.]

Well - I thank you for indulging my curiosity, and for listening to my impromptu lecture, but I should let us both get back to our mingling. What would our mothers say if they saw us hemming ourselves in?

[unphase]

[her own home planet had been isolated, too, both having been in another dimension entirely and also because her great-great grandmother was leery of trying to contact Earth for fear that their own way of life would be threatened by outsiders. so far, things were going well, if only because Bgztl had such a fierce advocate in her mother]

The seas here are strange and it's hard to not want to fish squid out in hopes that they might be someone from home or at least somewhat amiable.

[she'd give anything for her husband to join her. if only because that would get him out of Saturn Girl's telepathic grip on him. if Saturn Girl herself arrived...well, Tinya would deal with that if it happened]

Of course. I'm always interested in hearing about other worlds. And sharing stories about my own. [a bit of a chuckle] My mother would be thrilled to see me talking to a handsome young man who was not my husband. Then she'd do her best to get as much information about you as possible, since you'd be judged far better than a street rat from Rimbor. But, yes, it was lovely to meet you and I hope you have a very happy year ahead of you.

[terriblepurpose]

[Paul's good cheer stumbled once on Tinya's isolation and the restriction of her powers, and it stumbles again on her mention of fishing out squid. Neither are unusual things to find resonant in this place, but he hates to let things like that show in the midst of otherwise bright, warm festivities.]

I've been thinking of investing in a dipping net.

[It can be played off with a joke, at least, and it's not such a terrible thing - there's always the hope that the sea will give back what it's taken.]

My mother would be asking what kind of alliance I intended to forge with you, so it might be for the best they're absent - and I very much doubt I could be any competition to a partner of yours. [Flattery gets you everywhere.] I think I will have a happier one. Thank you, and the same to you. I hope we cross paths again soon.

[With that, he bends lavishly at the waist, laden down with respect and a touch of mischief, before he takes his leave.]

[unphase]

[after being trapped in that other world for three years, being here is almost a vacation. if she had to choose for people to care about to show up, it would be here. the monsters, the things which went bump in the night, none of them would be as scary if Jo was here. or almost any teammate, but especially Lyle, Luornu, and Salu. but she's not expecting them. she's not that lucky]

It might not hurt?

[she tries the jest, but it may fall flat. it's hard to be away from home so many years]

Oh, my! Then it's best that we never allow our mothers within a parsec of one another, otherwise they might be scheming schemes and dreaming dreams! And trust me, Mother would approve. Loudly, often, and in great detail. [she gives a playful wink] As do I. [she curtsies gracefully, head lowered and held in place for just the right amount of time before she rises.

and she likes the hint of mischief in him. she responds in kind with a cheeky grin] Happy birthday.