Happy Birthday, Viatorus!

[westfallcorndog]

Invitations to this party have been written in neatly legible, semi-calligraphic font, hand-crafted with care and talent by Amelia Ronsam. Harrowheart has asked that she create a few more than necessary on the off-chance anyone lost theirs and was liberal in handing them out.

The room mentioned on the card is easy to find with a map of the aquarium: In the Earth wing, past a long series of exhibits, and through a glass hallway over which the water rests and the fish are free to swim. The corridor ends in a dome-shaped room spacious enough for a party of a few dozen. 

The meeting space, like the hallway, is composed entirely of glass walls around which a vibrant array of Earth’s tropical fish drift through bright blue waters. Now and then they dart in odd directions, flashing their gem-like scales as their school is disturbed by the passing of a sea turtle or the flowing wings of a manta ray. Far, far in the distance are the silhouettes of whales that, on rare occasion, shadow the dome as they pass between the party and the far-off source of light above the water. Simpler creatures crawl through the coral just on the other side of the glass: crabs and minnows tease at algae, grinning eels poke shyly from their dark crevices, and anemones dance with the motion of the flowing seawater. The only thing to break the immersion of the scene are the mermaid attendants, glimpses of whom can be caught as they feed the fish while trying their best to stay professionally unnoticed. 

Outside the glass is the beauty, but inside is the party! There are bubbly balloon letters hung from the ceiling reading HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Green streamers dangle from the ceiling like kelp, and someone's even set up a motorized shark balloon to swim through the air. Set up against one rounded wall are two buffet tables of food laid out. Stacks of cheese-stuffed fried peppers, fried chicken, grilled corn cobs, a kind of savory pork stew, something resembling black crab legs that’s been labeled ‘Duskwood Land Crab,’ a fruit and vegetable platter, a single pizza for the guests to fight over, and for the English Birthday Boy, cucumber sandwiches. Drinks are a bowl of punch and a keg of water. Looks like this aquarium party is a dry one. The sweets are cookies and hard candies laid atop a pile of pink candy floss. Then, of course, there is the cake: One large sheet cake of marbled chocolate and vanilla iced with buttercream frosting. On top there rests a little gingerbread man with black icing hair sleeping soundly atop a little frosted bed, a red smile on his face. Four tall candles make the posts of the bed. An unsteady hand has piped along the side ‘Happy Birthday Viatorus!’

Two people beat the crowd to enjoy this quiet afternoon retreat. Harrowheart, who sits at one of the tables in the middle and watches the passing of the fish, is dressed for the tropics. He’s bought himself a Hawaiian shirt to go over a pink tank with a pair of palm trees on the front, and of course he’s wearing his usual cargo shorts and tan work boots. Any rumors of pajama dress code were greatly exaggerated. With him is Amelia, whose garb for the evening is much more demure than her usual. The first sign is her lack of visible weapons. The second is the combination of dark navy jeans and black blouse. Her hair is tied back in a simple braid and the hair pin she's always been so fond of is nowhere to be seen. 

((If you'd like to greet the host and/or hostess or remark on your character's entry, feel free to tag this post. Otherwise, try the Gift-Giving or Free Mingle subsections: Viatorus will accept gifts and well-wishings in the Gift-Giving section, and threadhopping will be with OOC permission. Free Mingle will be a threadhopping-encouraged area for party-goers to interact with each other. Meet new characters, talk about fish, fight about who gets to eat the pizza.))

Comments

[ixis]

"Do I? Vale's bones, no. Who knows what I was up to around that age! I'm sure it was great things one way or another. But that time is lost to me for reasons that we don't have to get into right now. This time is about you!" Wow, Naugus NOT hogging the spotlight? It really is a special day!

"What does an Overlander from your world do to celebrate the passing of age? I ate a strange flat piece of bread with cheese on it. It was wonderful." The whole thing. He ate the whole goddamn pizza. Who's gonna explain to him someday these things are supposed to be done in slices?

[heirtothearcane]

"Um. Usually I just attend a formal party which has dancing and dinner." He pauses and pulls a face when he adds, "And speeches." Focusing on Naugus again, he transforms his frown into a smile. "I much prefer this."

At least Naugus' bombardment of information means that he does tend to indulge the scholar's curiosity. "What do Mobians do?"

[ixis]

"About the same. Or personalized things, like making a day of going to a favourite place. Otherwise, just an opportunity to celebrate. Favourite foods, favourite people, so on, so forth. I never made a habit of celebrating my own but attended a few of the royal court. Though those were the more formal affairs, like you speak of.

"Not a fan of making speeches, I take it?" He gives Viatorus a gentle elbowing.

[heirtothearcane]

Viatorus perks up at the answer, as if shocked straight by it. It's a question he's been asking a fair bit, but... "Going to a favourite place. That's a good idea. I'd never thought of that."

"No." Understatement of the century and he knows it. "I think people like you are better at making them anyway."

[ixis]

"I do love the attention." All attention. Any attention. Guess it works out when you look like he does. You're gonna attract it, might as well revel in it.

"Is that your way of asking that I say some words in your favour on this special day? I'm sure I can spool out a speech off the top of my head."

[heirtothearcane]

Viatorus jumps on the spot, waving his hands desperately. "Oh no! No, no! Please don't!"

This is one of those many things in which the scholar differs from Naugus. Attention is a terrifying prospect to him.

"I-I wouldn't want to... to interrupt everyone else. A-And there's really nothing to say."