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

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Current Location: the tower and also legoland!!!

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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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"Nina loves sweet," agrees Gideon. "I'm more of a spicy guy myself. Hey, if that one ever repeats, maybe we'll swap, and you can enjoy spicy and I can taste super-meat."

"Go for fish first, if that happens. Fish is the best prey. But you know that, right? I think I see you fishing sometimes."

"Ah, yeah." Gideon rubs the back of her neck. "I'm not very good at it, though. I don't have paws and claws, so I have to try and use a pole and line."

"Is anyone teaching you? Other twolegs who know how to fish?"

Gideon gives a slightly embarrassed shrug. "I made a bet with Little John about it. I thought asking for help might be cheating."

"You're never going to learn anything without a mentor," Mothwing scolds. "Asking for help isn't cheating."

"Okay," says Gideon, abashed. Being scolded by Mothwing is so cute she can't even resent it like she usually does. "I'll ask."

"Good. What have you been up to, besides hoping fish will fling themselves into your paws by themselves?"

Gideon doesn't think Mothwing will be interested in whatever is going on with her and Tally. "I've been sparring with Lancelot a lot," she says, "and reconsidering my stance on God."

Mothwing nods. Sparring doesn't surprise her in the least. Gideon feels so much like a young warrior that Mothwing can almost picture her as a cat, big and ginger and probably doing something stupid to bring the biggest prey home. The second part of what she says takes Mothwing aback, though, her ears going back in alarm.

"Reconsidering it from what to what?"

"Well, I was raised in a nunnery. Um. Do cats have nunneries?"

"No, we don't." Mothwing thinks maybe she's heard Galahad say the word, but she's not sure.

"Okay, so, a bunch of old people who worship our God really hard. Specifically, they guard the Tomb, where something's sealed away that can kill Him. Obviously everyone who vaguely raised me was fanatically devoted to that not happening, because He's all-knowing and all-seeing and keeps the universe alive or whatever. But it turns out he kind of sucks, probably."

"I mean, does he allow suffering to happen, despite being all-knowing and all-seeing? Then yes, he sucks." Mothwing says this confidently, but with an air of knowing it's a controversial opinion. "That's what I think about StarClan, the warrior ancestors we worship back where I come from, anyways."

The idea that God could, or should, stop suffering--like, in a general way, and not specifically in response to individual prayer--is completely alien to Gideon. "Huh! We have warrior ancestors, too, but they're not the same as God. And they're just, like, the holy dead. They don't still do stuff."

"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?"

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