Cake & Departures

[kaolinandbone]

The present pile shrinks away to nothing, and as the last gifts are being opened, a massive white cake comes in the double-doors, so large that it takes four of the automatons to carry it and almost loses icing on the top sill of the door.

Lioncourt looks up from her present pile, and blinks.

"Oh, the cake!"

A sudden frown comes over her face, then she closes her eyes...

With a flash of light, an equally-massive cake suddenly occupies most of the present table, its spindly legs groaning under the weight of the platter as well as the unwrapped presents. Notably, this one is chocolate-brown.

With a flick of her hands, streams of porcelain leap up from amid the dirt of the garden, quickly forming into an additional table for the automatons to place their own heavy load onto. Unlike the wooden table for the gifts, it doesn't creak when the cake's deposited onto it.

"Sorry for the delay, everyone: these gifts have been so unexpectedly interesting that I've been delaying your opportunity to have cake! The one my servants just brought in is vanilla, a delicacy on my world: the one occupying the gift table is, ah, whatever wonderful flavour Esthfora's candies are. Both of them are excellent, but I must admit that the Esthfora cake is probably better. While I finish with the last few presents, please feel free to ask the servants for your desired flavor."

Comments

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold gets a plate of cake (or two, rather; the first one is discarded when it turns out she doesn't like chocolate) and scans the room - okay, Miles is here, that rude human from before is there, Lioncourt is over this way - where's a good vantage point for keeping an eye on these people?

Hm, this will do: She scales a short wall dividing this section of the garden from the next one, cake plate carefully balanced in one hand, and sits crosslegged on the top.

She's being subtle about watching the people she's interested in - and particularly careful not to be too obvious about watching Aisilian - but she's not exactly hiding what she's doing; someone with a few decades of paranoia under their belt would probably notice fairly easily.

[kaolinandbone]

Lioncourt has far too many decades of paranoia under her belt, and the senses of a vampire. She casually wanders over towards Lurker, and leans against the wall.

"... Concerned about me?"

Ahrotahn

[calledtoventure]

Ahrotahn takes a slice of chocolate cake, and goes to mingle. She's particularly keeping an eye out for Glen or Botanical Engineer, but will happily talk to anyone who seems interested.

Re: Ahrotahn

[botanical_engineer]

There goes a possibly plantlike woman, holding an untouched plate of Esthfora cake.

Meletiti Entelecheiai and Inkspot

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Aisilian wanders around the room, looking a bit miffed about his gift's reception.

Oh, well. He has a conversation partner to find and a somewhat awkward question to answer.

Re: Meletiti Entelecheiai and Inkspot

[poll_the_stars]

The conversation partner, meanwhile, has grabbed cake. Vanilla, over chocolate, on a whim.

Now armed with cake, she locates Aisilian with arcany. He has a somewhat awkward question to answer.

One short walk later: "Hey."

Yeah, she's not going anywhere until he explains himself.

Kit

[hide_and_seek]

Kit takes a piece of chocolate cake. Mmmmmmmmmm.

She brings it with her as she starts exploring the castle. The nice god told her that it keeps changing, and she wants to see. She’s looking for someplace interesting; someplace she hasn’t been before, too, but that part’s easy.

Re: Kit

[kaolinandbone]

The castle sends her a door that opens out onto a balcony.

It's sunny outside, and the stones of the castle are hot enough to flinch from. A brass railing blocks off the two-story fall to the outer courtyard below, but the view is nonetheless excellent: The greenery of the castle grounds, and then a plain of black basalt, dotted here and there with massive hangars. The clang of hammers on metal rolls across the smooth stone, perfectly clear even this far away. In the distance, a town crouches on the dark rock, the noon sun catching tiny reflections off of windows and bannisters. The air smells of sea salt, smoke, and sawdust.

Anda and Linsa

[ambrovimvor]

They grab cake! Anda takes a slim slice of chocolate cake, while Linsa takes much larger slices of BOTH cakes.

They sit down, Anda's cake disappears quickly, and she proceeds to vicariously enjoy her Companion's pleasure as she works her way through her much larger supply.

They could be engaged in conversation, if anybody wanted.

Re: Anda and Linsa

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold wanders by. She doesn't approach them - they are strangers, after all - but she does notice them, and appears to think they're cute.

Meletiti Entelecheiai, Orz, and Lioncourt

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

Despite everything, that was still the most pleasant conversation he's had all day.

Time for what will probably be a less pleasant one, if her rather disappointing reaction to his gift was any indication.

First, though, he had better find Orz. Somehow, he suspects this will not be difficult.

Re: Meletiti Entelecheiai, Orz, and Lioncourt

[withmanyfingers]

Orz is not, in fact, difficult to find. There is only the one 10-foot six-limbed battlemech present at the party, after all, and it rather stands out. For whatever reason, the guests seem vaguely reluctant to approach it.

Kit & Lantern

[hide_and_seek]

Kit comes out into the gardens and blinks at finding herself there. She takes a few steps away from the door and looks around.

Re: Kit & Lantern

[kelardry]

Lantern is eating vanilla cake with a strange pronged utensil, but is managing well enough.

They see Kit and smile wave, while little bits what look like purple plastic confetti appear in the air over their head for a second before disappearing again.

Cordelia and Lurker

[greatcomposure]

Cordelia decides to go for chocolate cake. She finds a seat on a garden bench and thoughtfully watches ongoing conversations while she eats.

Re: Cordelia and Lurker

[lurkingkobold]

Eventually, there is a kobold. She's calmed down slightly from her previous panic, but she's still very obviously unsettled; she snuggles up next to Cordelia without even attempting to talk.

Thorn and Dotted Lines

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn is sitting in a corner with a piece of chocolate cake, watching events.

She appears kind of morose, or possibly merely distant.

Re: Thorn and Dotted Lines

[dotted_lines]

Steve spots Thorn and her cake, and quickly walks over to her, although he doesn't run.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to eat that?"

Anda and Linsa (with Cordelia)

[ambrovimvor]

They can be found sitting on a bench, cuddling.

Re: Anda and Linsa (with Cordelia)

[greatcomposure]

"Hello," says Cordelia.

Lurker and Cordelia

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold is sitting on the bench where Cordelia left her, with her knees tucked up under her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs, scanning the crowd.

Re: Lurker and Cordelia

[greatcomposure]

Cordelia comes back and sits next to her.

"They said they're sorry for upsetting you. I told them you're okay now."

Botanical Engineer (with Anda and Linsa)

[botanical_engineer]

Kyeskei is wandering the gardens, looking for people available to talk to, having abandoned the dubiously plate of cake.

Re: Botanical Engineer (with Anda and Linsa)

[ambrovimvor]

Here are two women, sitting on a bench, their empty plates of cake long since abandoned.

One of them waves, "Are you Botanical Engineer? I have something I think you might like."

Dotted Lines and Esthfora

[dotted_lines]

Steve is wandering around the gardens, calming down after the crisis, thinking about safety.

... It'd probably be safe for him to get mental protection now. It'd probably even be more safe now, for him to have protection than not. He starts looking for a certain rainbow-truth goddess.

Re: Dotted Lines and Esthfora

[esthfora]

There she is!

"Hello!"

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

(Thorn and Tyche circulate around the party, quietly informing people that something is happening shortly.)

Meletiti Entelecheiai and Tyche

[scatteredstars]

Part way through events with Orz, a message pops up on Aisilian's entropics from the secure Firewall channel.

If you didn't install some kind of multitasking boost when you were modding that morph, I would be immensely suprised, but please confirm that you did before I throw this problem at you?

(Not that you should probably be the one talking to the angry reality-warper anyway, but)

-Tyche