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

cw: auto-cannibalism description

[terriblepurpose]

It was dry? A little leathery, by the time I got to it.

[Paul's face screws up with the unexpected difficulty of describing the experience. He runs his tongue over his teeth before he can think about how that might look, in context.]

It was my old skin, when we'd all been shedding. Pa- someone told me that eating part of it might revert me back, so I tried it. It did work.

[hearthebell]

Oh!

[There's a kind of rare, genuine surprise in L's response.]

So that counts! I couldn't do it... I can't even eat pork.

[terriblepurpose]

Really?

[The surprise is mirrored back.]

I'm sure that you could, if you had to. Eat pork.

[dohaeris]

[a startled look, back and forth between them.]

It can't count! What if you were to bite your lip, and it were chapped?

[unsheathedfromreality]

[Iskierka cranes her neck from where she's perched on L's arm, looking over (looking through) Sansa.

Something playfully malicious sparks in her faceted eyes. She taps her beak against the detective's glass with a declarative tnk.

drink. she expresses cheerily. It counts!]

[dohaeris]

[rude little bird!! sansa is very clearly addressing her.]

I can't even remember if I've done it!

[unsheathedfromreality]

[The bird in question affects skepticism with a tilt of her head and flirt of antennae.

never. It has nearly the inflection of a question--an incredulous one.]

[dohaeris]

What would you know about it, you don't even have lips!

[or teeth??]

[unsheathedfromreality]

[watch. She's an observant bird; she sees these things.

She doesn't know this human fledge well, but the fuzzy haze of spice makes it easier for her to share soft-edged memories of humans and feather-haired elves and shrikes with their bright-in-black eyes all chewing at their lips. Or tongues. Or insides of their mouths; she can see all of that.

It's a little disorientating, probably.]

[dohaeris]

[nobody needs that many mouth closeups piped directly into their head, especially not someone currently mixing wine with their tequila. sansa waves her free hand in front of her face.]

Stop! I'll be sick!

[this whole conversation is making her queasy, and this psychic onslaught has attracted lady's attention. she wanders out from under a table to nose at sansa's shoulder.]

It's just a stupid game.

[unsheathedfromreality]

[Iskierka is merciful: She stops when she's asked. (Though not without a smug little chortle--see? She does know about lips and teeth and their uses.) There's further mischief sparkling in her eyes--but the approach of the wolf that's not another Omen handily catches her attention, delaying whatever's going on in her little birdy brain.

She gives an echoing chirp, hopping off Lazarus' arm and winging to a better perch to stare at the wolf. Then she looks back to the wolf's lady.

play. she expresses. Sure, it's stupid, but all games are. That's why fledgelings have them.]

[hearthebell]

I'd pull off the dry part and throw it away, of course, or pocket it until I had the opportunity to burn it if I was worried about someone taking it to analyze the DNA.

[dohaeris]

[she's going to assume 'analyze the dna' is some kind of blood magic for now.]

Have you thought very much about this?

[hearthebell]

Of course... I'd think that everyone would give thought to something so very important.

[Said with a straight face, completely without sarcasm or irony.]

[hearthebell]

Did you know that if you never eat pork, and then taste human flesh, even if it's done unwittingly, your body will reject the meat?

[This is probably not true, but my goodness doesn't it sound like it could be?]

[terriblepurpose]

What? That's not -

[Oh. It's a joke. Or possibly a joke, or even true where Lazarus comes from, or stems from some other esoteric cause Paul is slightly too fuzzy to perceive.]

Why is that?

[hearthebell]

[If it is a joke, L is committed. Perhaps he believes it himself, a single old wives tale taken to heart by a very smart man who heard it before he could have possibly known better.]

Because it's so similar to humans. And when you consider that pigs can pass the mirror test... recognizing their own reflection, as we can... is it really surprising that we would be similar?

[L, with his orca omen, apparently has a deep respect for animals, so long as they have passed tests of human-like intelligence.]

[terriblepurpose]

[Paul is rarely openly this baffled. It gives him a goggle-eyed quality, like a startled sheep.]

So...do you not eat pork so that, if someone tries to feed you human meat, you'll recognize it?

[hearthebell]

[He nods, wide eyed and all apparent earnestness.]

Of course. I consider the ability indispensable.

[terriblepurpose]

[Paul blinks, slow and deliberate.]

And this...is something you anticipate might happen at some point in your future?

[hearthebell]

A certain kind of criminally insane cannibal wants to use their depravity to defile virtue. If it should happen, and I was force-fed human meat, I'd prefer to hold onto the virtue of not being a cannibal.

[terriblepurpose]

[He's not sure at which precise point he surrenders to Lazarus' logic, but Paul finds himself nodding along.]

Although, it wouldn't really be your fault, would it? In that situation, you'd be a cannibal by coercion. But I suppose the psychological impact would still be unpleasant.

[hearthebell]

Fault? We're not talking about fault...

[Spoken as though the implication is insulting in itself.]

If one is poisoned by human flesh, at that point... it would be coercion, and therefore not fault, but the result would still be the same. I would still be a cannibal, but one who had exhausted virtue for a worthy cause. If there was a pyre for cannibals after I caught the ringleader, I'd stand on it gladly, and burn on it gladly.

[terriblepurpose]

So the sin is absolute, regardless of circumstances?

[Paul sips his drink again as he considers this, evaluating Lazarus with sharper (although still intoxicant blurred) eyes.]

Do you apply this standard to everyone, or just yourself? If you came across this hypothetical nest of cannibals, and found one of their victims had eaten human flesh, would you condemn them too?

[He doesn't ask in judgment. This is a genuinely interesting train of thought to follow.]

[peripheries]

[-100 Favorite Human points. Not because of cannibalism but because it was OLD. AND JUST SKIN. Not even regular food. Good god, sir.

Kaworu just groans and collapses onto his back, looking seriously like he might need to toss his cookies after hearing that one.]