I'm No Party-Throwing Expert But I Do Think This Is Gonna Be A Good One!

[summerdude]

The first day of summer dawns bright and warm, a steady breeze stirring through the trees. The day itself is a flurry of activity: Magnus and Tress meet up in the kitchen early in the morning to start throwing together refreshments for Galahad's party. They make three kinds of cookies, and also a tray of flat brownies — Magnus has it in his head that half of the cookies and all of the brownies should be turned into ice cream sandwiches and, accordingly, tracks down Susan (who seems to know everything about this place) to get her to produce a deep freezer for Legoland. (She has that look on her face like he smells bad the whole time, but when he mentions it's for the bachelorette, at least she seems slightly less cold and standoffish.)

While the baked goods cool, Magnus ransacks the pantry for chips and candy and stuff for sandwiches. He lets Tress handle ice cream selection; when they find boxes of Bagel Bites in the freezer, he cheers. Legoland definitely has a microwave; they plugged the freezer into the same outlet. (Is a bachelorette the same thing as a slumber party? Maybe!)

It's early evening by the time everything is done and set up, even with Alex and Tress's help. He decides that the substantial food and record player should both be reserved for Legoland, partly because it does have electricity. They lug a big old table up to the top of the tower for the taste tests, and then an easel with giant post-it notes for the 'naming Mansion constellations' portion of the evening, and then a bunch of the smaller easels, sketchpads, and a selection of different art supplies (markers, crayons, watercolors, pencils, acrylic paints) he and Sunny have been tracking down and hoarding, for the bestiality portion of the evening.

After sending Tress and Alex off so they can get ready, he sets up for the taste tests: bowls full of different candies (white rabbit, hopjes, strawberry-flavored fizzing warheads, Reeses's cluster bites, Haribo gummy goldbears, hundred grand bars, red vines, salmiak licorice, candied verdant vines (Tress made them), and nerd ropes), bowls full of chips (Takis in the flavors angry burger, blue heat, and dragon sweet chili; Lays in the flavors Wasabi Octopus, All Dressed, Cappuccino, White Rabbit Rich Toffee (to compare with the actual white rabbit candy), and Pimento Cheese), and several cloth bags covering different red-flavored sodas, with wine tasting note cards so people can try to guess which is Code Red, which is Big Red, which is Cheerwine, and (in a fond nod to Alex), which is Tizer. He completes the array with a stack of paper for general ranking notes for the candy and chips. (There are also a couple child-sized easels and ranking sheets, for Mothwing and Sunny, but Magnus did also bring regular water for her and Sunny, a fish supplied by Drosera for Mothwing, and some carrots and apple slices for Sunny. There is also an easel and notepad for Shen Yuan, even though he's just a ghost and probably can't manipulate it, but he knocked once for yes when Magnus asked his growing body if he was going to make it.)

Finally, after convincing Drosera that she should absolutely wear a cute little bolo tie and party hat for this, he darts into the mansion for a quick shower, a change into one of the outfits Galahad picked for him when they tried on clothes, and to collect the groom himself. He presents Galahad with a white sash embroidered in gold; it reads GROOM TO BE. There's also a little tiara that he found in their bedroom. He assumes it's a cheap gimmicky one, but it's actually filigree red and white gold with real sapphires, diamonds, and pearls — he just picked it because it's delicate and will blend in with Galahad's hair in a way that will let the sapphires really pop.


Stages of the night will be posted in parent comments; everyone is welcome to thread with whoever in response to those! Awkward social interactions between people who aren't necessarily friendly are encouraged.

Comments

[lightbearinglord]

He observes this with sympathy. Out of politeness, he ate the entirety of his portion of that one, but he has no intention of repeating the experience. He will be taking some back to Wei Ying, however. "Magnus tells me that I am from more than a thousand years before him," he says, mildly enough, as explanation for his ignorance regarding toffee.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan is very good at not making facial expressions, and furthermore has prepared for many people at Galahad's party liking the boy who he asked to sort out the entire affair, so her mouth doesn't thin at the mention of Magnus. "I'm afraid I haven't got any sense of when he's from," she says, an explanation for how this doesn't clarify the full extent of Lan Wangji's meaning. It's merely clear he's from her future, as well.

[lightbearinglord]

"The twenty-first century," Lan Wangji says, without commentary on the fact that that is not at all how years are counted by his own reckoning. Gamely, he eats an all-dressed chip, primarily to have done with it. It is not good.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

So anywhere from fifty to a hundred and fifty years in Susan's future. "Ah." She surveys the table and selects a brown crisp. It - is tolerable, for something coffee-flavored.

[lightbearinglord]

In that case, Lan Wangji returns to his task. The sooner he has sampled everything, the sooner he will have finished sampling everything. He eats a red vine, carefully doesn't make a facial expression, and then pauses to dutifully record his observations. Because the entire setup seemed too crowded for grinding ink, he is writing with one of the pens Magnus provided, but because he refuses to compromise his handwriting, he is doing so very slowly and with deep focus in the pursuit of each character emerging as neatly as possible.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

And Susan lets him be. There shall surely be time enough to chat with everyone over the course of the party.