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

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.

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"Yes, well. Ours maybe do too much," Mothwing says drily. "Be grateful yours aren't possessing your brother and using his power to exile cats they have grudges against."

Okay, now, if this is the kind of stories that get told at parties, Gideon's in. "Your brother got possessed? Tell me more, immediately."

Mothwing's tail flicks with exasperated amusement. "You like ghost stories? It's not just a daring adventure, I have to say. Parts of it were tragic."

Gideon can't help laughing. "Dude, like, every outfit I own is all black and covered in bones." A beat, and then, because she's talking to a cat: "That, uh, that means I like ghost stories, yeah."

"I suppose that makes sense. Well, alright then. My brother is called Bramblestar, and he's the leader of ThunderClan. His mate is called Squirrelflight. Squirrelflight almost chose another tom, Ashfur, to be her mate, but chose Bramblestar in the end. Ashfur was so upset about this, even in death, that he possessed Bramblestar’s body and used Bramblestar’s power as leader to punish every cat who had wronged him, all while Squirrelflight thought he was her real mate."

"Woah." That's a lot to unpack. "I've got my own experience with body-stealing pieces of shit, and like. Fuck' em. I'm sorry for Squirrelflight—and you, I'm guessing you also thought it was your brother the whole time?"

"I did, but we're in different clans, so I don't see very much of him," Mothwing meows. She's felt a little odd referring to Bramblestar as her brother while living here, actually. It feels like necessary information, but everyone in the clans already knows that they aren't close, and knows that her true brother is--was--Hawkfrost. "I'm very sorry you went through something similar. Hopefully it wasn't your close kin?"

Gideon shakes her head. "I didn't even know her before she got bodysnatched. But she pretended to like me a lot, before she tried to kill me, and a friend of mine had this whole thing—like, he used to write the real her letters, and he'd dedicated his life to save her life. Um. She was sick." Gideon makes a face. "I feel like I'm telling this story backwards, let me start again."

"This twoleg sounds infuriating," Mothwing meows sympathetically. "How awful, to abuse everyone's trust like that. Bramblestar was sick, too--he actually died, but since he's a leader, he would have gotten another of his nine lives, if the impostor had not slipped in while his spirit was in StarClan. Go on, was it something similar to that?"

"Wait, the nine lives thing is, like, real?"

"Only for leaders, but yes."

"So, what, when you become leader you're gifted eight extra lives? Or is it hereditary?"

"You're given them by StarClan when you become leader, yes. The idea that the next leader should be the kit of the current leader is twoleg nonsense."

"Okay, yeah, it's nonsense if the lives aren't passed down hereditarily, but I feel like if they were those guys would have a big advantage, and probably end up leader anyway just through, like, power," says Gideon. That's basically how it works necromantically, probably. Like, the Houses are ordained by God, but they're ordained by God with the ability to explode people's brains. The whole rule over the planet thing is kinda secondary.

"Why did that woman steal someone's body, though?"

Gideon makes a face. "It's really complicated." She pauses. "Um—I don't actually think I know. She was trying to find something out, obviously, before she tried to kill everyone, but damned if I know what."

"Hmm. It's troubling, not to know." She remembers the troubled moons of speculation before Ashfur's identity had been revealed. "It's much harder to fight a mysterious enemy than one who tells you what they're doing. I mean, we all know that here, don't we?" Mothwing's been apprised of the Aornis situation, though she doesn't think Aornis cares much about her. For once, it's good that twolegs don't always care about cats.

"Yeah," says Gideon, grimly. She shakes her head. "But—hey, it's a party, and look at us all fuckin' gloomy. We really don't know how to vibe with the two-legs, huh?"

"I'm too old to learn how to party," Mothwing meows, deadpan. "I'm a grumpy old medicine cat who's not allowed to have fun."

Gideon laughs. "Not even a little bit of fun?"

"Not once, or I'll simply keel over." Mothwing mrrows with laughter. "Oh, no, I had better be careful."

"Quick, we gotta elect you leader around here, so you can have fun exactly eight times."

Mothwing snorts. "If anyone should be leader around here, it's Susan," she meows. "But we do seem to be getting along fine without one."

That's true, though the lack of anyone even bidding for power does trip Gideon up sometimes. "Susan used to be a queen, right? Like Janet? I wonder if either of them have nine lives."

"It's possible." Mothwing says this very seriously. "I don't know what their StarClans are like."

Re: Arrivals!

ninth_cavalier - 2024-09-16 14:26 (UTC) - Expand

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