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

[wannasmash]

Midoriya isn't in the habit of mentioning people not present by name--a subconscious regard for privacy--but someday he will have to tell Paul more about Kirishima, the gregarious yakiniku guy. For a moment, it seemed as though Paul was channeling his spirit.

He smiles and thumbs away his tears. Midoriya isn't prone to hiding and turning his emotions in on himself to save his dignity. His outpourings give him the superficial appearance of being weak. Anyone who knows him experiences the opposite. He has been uncommonly resilient since he learned, at the age of four, the world isn't fair, especially to people born like him. This makes him want, all the harder, to clutch his friends' hands when they shake, wrap them in kindness when a forlorn cloud strikes, and shield them from their fears.

He shifts, passing Paul a quick but grateful hug. (If he presses the tears he missed into his shirt, what of it?) He puts his hands out slightly when he stands, not for balance, but because the air is fascinating cotton. He admires colorful motes dancing on Paul's dark hair, and he makes his peace with the spice.

"Not actually looking to pass out again. Water's fine." He thinks, too, he'll go for a starchy snack rather than eldritch Tang.

[terriblepurpose]

The brief hug is returned firmly and warmly before Paul follows Midoriya's cue to stand. It's good to be on their feet, Paul thinks, even if his head performs an interesting series of acrobatics when he does rise from the couch. He counters this with an arm raising stretch over his head. It's good to be moving in a direction away from that tense, strange series of moments.

It is fine. Paul reminds himself of that as he slings an arm around Midoriya's shoulder again and proceeds with him to the kitchen, where water and possibly eldritch Tang await them.

"If you do, you can stay with us," Paul assures him, grandly, because they're still having fun - they're going to have fun, he's determined, until Midoriya forgets all about whatever has him so upset. He's always looking out for everyone else. Paul may not be as good at it as he is, but he's capable of this much: of closeness, of hospitality. Of a glass of water and secrets kept. These are the critical things in the world, at least for tonight.