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

[hearthebell]

[L glances up, startled at the second intrusion. Already, he's half-memorized this study, sped on by his own opportunistic motives, but the girl seems to be genuinely caught unawares, and truly in search of a water closet.]

Probably best not to use it that way.

[He seems darkly amused by the thought of it, in spite of the advice.]

"Solar?"

[His mind flicks through contextual clues before he settles on a probable approximate meaning.]

I don't live here. Just a visitor for the night, as a friend of Paul's.

[There's almost something defensive about it, as if he considers it a little bit insulting that someone might think any part of this was his.]

We haven't met, have we? Because...

[He trails off. It's just a gut feeling, he can't prove anything, but his gut feelings have a pretty high success rate as a general rule. His own Paleblood might amplify that effect, sharpening his intuition even further.]

[dohaeris]

[the faint glowing seems to be coming from the shelves, and she steps cautiously towards them, her brows furrowed.]

Oh, a...study? I'm a friend of Paul's, too.

[she glimpses a vial of blood, and a strange skull, and while she doesn't know enough to recognize them without context, the runes around them seem to indicate danger. she glances back at the man. yes, lady definitely knows him. I saw you in a dream sounds like a line in a silly song, but she's seen quite a lot of things for the first time in dreams, here. and he sounds, perhaps, like he also finds this house of bones somewhat distasteful. possibly. he does seems very droll.]

Sorry. I'm called Alayne. You do look familiar, but I--

[she presses her hands closer together.]

I haven't been here very long, and I have very much to learn about magic and dreams. I couldn't say where we might have met before, exactly.

[she hopes that sounds more normal, but the tequila makes it hard.]

[hearthebell]

Are you? Well met, then.

[Knowing that someone is Paul's friend gives them a sort of leg up in terms of rapport. L begins more neutrally, likes them a bit better, frees them somewhat of the suspicion that most are immediately wreathed in through no fault of their own.]

Alayne... Stone.

[He fits the names together like puzzle pieces, brows raising in sudden comprehension.]

I can say where we've met before, though it wasn't exactly direct.

[dohaeris]

[wow he really is the world's greatest detective]

Yes. [she blinks.] The docks.

It's good to meet you..?

[she doesn't mean to phrase it like a question, but again, it's the tequila.]

Again. It's good to meet you again.

[hearthebell]

[His memory is uncommonly good for someone who runs on sugar and habitual sleeplessness, it's really true.]

Lazarus Sauveterre.

[He holds out an uncertain hand. Does she shake? Does her dream-wolf? Is this patronizing? The gesture seems to waver, in conflict with itself and its own motives.]

I suppose you know the owner of this house, too.

[dohaeris]

[she tilts her head and looks at him almost exactly as her omen did, and then she clasps his hand briefly but confidently.]

I spoke with him earlier. It's certainly interesting that Paul would choose to study with him.

[she can't tell if he reminds her of petyr or if she's simply so...angry that any man of that age being solicitously friendly puts her in mind of petyr and makes her inclined to dislike him. tyrion was that age too, but at least he had the grace to be unhappy with their arrangement, even if he stood up to his father too late. and if he is like petyr, then she thinks he must be like the people that hurt paul, and she thought paul was cleverer than she had been, but what if he's only being alayne, in his own way, because he's afraid, and the worst ones always live? but what if she's wrong entirely, and he's simply a friendly man from a culture whose magic makes her uncomfortable because of the stories she'd always heard as a child?

regardless she doesn't like the necromancy, even if the bones are mostly from his home (mostly is probably not good enough). she looks back at the ominous shelf.]

And live here, in this place, with this magic.

[hearthebell]

[Her confidence is heartening, at least. He squeezes briefly in answer before she releases his hand.]

You think so too, do you?

[A fairly neutral statement. It's not like she said I think it's sickening, I think it's abhorrent, and it's not like he agreed with those.]

On both counts... I also think it's interesting. I think that much I could find in this room might also be interesting; are you of a like mind?

[A small test, and a simple one: is it safe to snoop while you're here with me?]

[dohaeris]

[her eyebrows lift, the ghost of a smile on her face.]

I imagine there's very much in this room that could interest someone who liked curses, and who was prepared to handle dangerous magical artifacts.

[snooping seems dangerous--at least, for her. it was a risk she hadn't been necessarily willing to take when she entered the study, and she's aware the longer she's in this room the less of an excuse she has to be.]

[hearthebell]

I like secrets; maybe, by extension, it means that I also like curses and danger.

[Everything in here might as well be whispering, in a way that is tempting, requires getting just a little closer to manage. He approaches some of the lesser artifacts, just some apparent bits and bones.]

What do you like, Miss Stone?

[dohaeris]

[her mouth twists. softly:]

I like to know where I stand.

[she takes a step towards him, peers at what he's doing.]

But I like having all my fingers even more. And my blood on the inside of my body, and my mind intact, both my eyes, all my skin...

[sansa never really liked scary stories. doubtless the curses on (or maybe even the intended effects of) these objects were worse than anything she could think of.]

Not being turned into a terrible beast, I like that.

[hearthebell]

[His hand hovers by one of the shelves as he listens to her very reasonable, but oddly specific list.]

It stands to reason that you don't like those things' opposites. Do you know that from experience?

[dohaeris]

[a small snort of laughter.]

No, it was the best I could come up with.

[she makes a face of concentration and she walks towards him, aiming to put herself between him and the shelf.]

I suppose...worms could crawl out of our eyes, or all our bones could break at once.

[worms seem to be a theme tonight.]

Whatever these curses are, I'm sure they're worse than anything I could think of.

[hearthebell]

[He looks at her with something between bemusement and sympathy, brushing aside a strand of red hair on his way to reach for a bone.

He withdraws his hand almost immediately; his fingertips had begun to shrivel, as though aging very rapidly, when he came in contact with the ward. The skin plumps and recovers with the regained distance.]

I'm not... because the worst thing I can think of is not knowing.

[dohaeris]

[she steps more squarely in front of him.]

The worst thing I can think of is killing all the people I was trying to help. Or turning them into hideous beasts, so that they hurt the people that they care about.

[she sighs, a little exaggerated for effect.]

I suppose it would be helpful to have worms coming out of our eyes. We could test the curses on them. So long as our eyes were all right.

[hearthebell]

[He actually takes a step back, because he's close enough to the shelves that any closer would put her dangerously close to it. There's an underlying strength and courage to the girl, but it's no reason to put her in harm's way needlessly. Not when, clearly, touching this stuff with bare skin is bad news.]

No... I believe that the worst thing you can think of is in fact more terrible than what I can, or what these curses could possibly do. What you've described would be very difficult to live with.

But you're alive, aren't you? No worms in your eyes yet. Whatever you've been through up until this point, you've survived, and that's something.

[dohaeris]

[something shifts and softens in her face. what did winter tell you? perhaps he can see all the ghosts that have been weighing her down since the catacombs--since she stopped being alayne.]

I know.

[deep down, sansa's always known, or she wouldn't have bothered. there have to be wolves, or everything falls apart. she makes a point of looking around the room.]

You should make a video of this place with your omni crystal. Then we could look at it later.

[hearthebell]

[He makes a soft sound in the back of his throat, as of dawning comprehension and mild epiphany.

Remembering all he sees, as he does, he doesn't actually need to take a video, but he doesn't want that widely known. Too many people already guess, correctly, that he's sharper than he tries to present himself.]

That's a good point, and an excellent suggestion I'll thank you for making.

[He draws out his omni, making sure to at least appear to record something. It's evidence; he's not about to have that discovered on him.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa doesn't know enough about the omni crystal to know that he's faking. she does wonder why he didn't think of it before.]

What did you think you'd find out, from touching the bones?

[she steps forward, away from the shelf. she is genuinely intrigued.]

[hearthebell]

[He seems to relax, a touch, when she steps away from the shelf. When he can help it, he's glad to have innocents avoid collateral damage. Whatever it might mean, that's how he's more or less categorized Sansa: whatever her gifts or her dream-wonts, she is innocent, he is convinced.]

A new kind of pain... and a new direction to steer. That's what I think I've found, from reaching for the bones.

[Touching them, he's not sure he wants to risk. Yet. He's still debating.]

[dohaeris]

[sansa tilts her head minutely.]

You learned about the curse.

[not all about it, but a little. she thinks about the worms that they could have tested it on, and wonders if it works on all living things. there is a potted plant in this room. she lets her eyes rest on it.]

[hearthebell]

I'm learning. It's a process, that isn't finished yet.

[He states as much with a very straightforward and serious demeanor.

His gaze follows hers to the plant.]

Do you truly think it's worth it to sacrifice a life for what we know will shrivel it? It is just a plant... I suppose it could serve as confirmation.

[dohaeris]

[the answer comes to her surprisingly quickly.]

No. It'd make him suspicious. We can't give him reason to think people have been testing his curses.

[it's like littlefinger's lessons. except...it doesn't leave her with an uneasy feeling.]