Raine's Birthday Bash!

[philomathean]

raine's birthday bash

what's up?

Raine turned 28 on Tuesday, June 6th, and Annie is making good on her threat promise to throw him a birthday party. Despite her teasing to the contrary, the whole affair is relaxed and understated. Everyone at the station was invited either personally by Annie or via flyers posted around the campus. The party is being hosted in Annie's one-bedroom apartment (Apt. 203) and is advertised as a "come through." So, anyone is welcome to stop by between 5pm and midnight to pay their respects, chat for a bit, and play a few party games. There is more weed on hand than alcohol and the vibe has been carefully curated to discourage rowdiness, but it's Raine's party, so Annie will match his cues.

the vibe!

There are few things in Annie's apartment that don't serve a functional purpose, so it was pretty easy for her to make space. Even so, at certain points in the evening, it is standing room only. She's brightened up the earth-toned interior with simple, brightly colored eco-friendly banners and garlands. There are lots of sweet treats on the counters in the kitchen and everything containing THC is prominently labeled with dosages by milligram. Her cat, Tussy, mostly stays in the bedroom but is friendly and available for scritches. THIS IS A SHOES OFF HOUSEHOLD.

volunteer slots!

Rhodes Callaway arrives at the wrong apartment and spends 45 minutes hanging out with Rory Fairfax in their pad before realizing no one else is coming.

Jack Jung is bored? Nosy? They begin poking around in Annie's desk drawers and get caught by Raine Riley!

Lenz Polzin gives Tussy a treat. And then Tussy follows them around the rest of the night. More food please!

Volunteer F forgets to lock the door when they hide in the bathroom to read their phone. Minty Payne walks in on them.

Volunteer H fails to read Annie's notes properly and takes what they think is a weed brownie. But it's really just a regular brownie.

Volunteer I and Volunteer J both got Raine the same birthday gift.

Volunteer K brings an instrument and immediately draws Annie's ire.

Annie's mother taught her that it endears people to you if you ask them for favors, so even though Annie is a control freak, she enlisted lots of help over the course of the week. Feel free to say Annie asked your character for something!

playlist!

🎶

The Groove station on Radio France is ambiently playing from several inconspicuous rose quartz shaped speakers placed around her apartment. If anyone asks if they can hop on the AUX, Annie will pretend that she doesn't know who is controlling the music. 🙃

locations!

⬦ ARRIVALS/VIBE CHECK: Whatcha wearing? How ya feeling? When did you arrive? When'd you leave? Did you bring anything? DID YOU TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF LIKE ANNIE TOLD YOU TO?

⬦ I SAID NO GIFTS: The flyer invites posted around the station explicitly said that Raine does not want your junk, but maybe you brought him something anyway? This is also a place to leave cards or wish Raine a happy birthday with your human mouth.

⬦ AROUND THE APARTMENT: All areas of Annie's one-bedroom apartment are open to partygoers. The living room is set up like a conversation pit, the bedroom is open if people are looking for a little space, and the deck is set up with a few chairs and a small table. Please smoke outside if you're going to.

⬦ PARTY GAMES: A place for party games! Feel free to start your own or just tag in.

⬦ ELSEWHERE IN THE BUILDING: Did you wander off for a moment's respite from the chaos? Did you decide not to come to the party, but you're sitting alone in your apartment stewing with FOMO? (If you file a noise complaint against her, Annie will make your life a living hell. Just know that.)

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS! Here if you need me!

♡

Comments

ARRIVALS/VIBE CHECK

[philomathean]

ARRIVALS/VIBE CHECK: Jack

[nolitangere]

Jack arrived early to help Move Objects, and he will probably be one of the last people to leave so he can help Move Objects Back. Also, it'd look weird if he didn't stay.

He is in his traditional boring dresser garb of jeans and a t-shirt and is seeking to get pleasantly high while staying out of people's way. Annie's friends aren't his friends; he feels a little awkward being here but he is masking that feeling by staying busy (keeping things organized, swoocing up crumbs and spills, ensuring there are enough napkins/cutlery/cups out, making runs to the commissary for beverages and ice, etc.). He would like you to think of him as your little task man, here to complete tasks.

He took his shoes off because of course, but he is wearing socks because it's still not clear to him if there are foot fetishists about. But they aren't grippy socks, so depending on how fast he's moving he might be slidin'.

ARRIVALS/VIBE CHECK: Annie

[philomathean]

Annie ingests precisely 7.5 mg of sativa at 4:55pm, which is the perfect dosage (tried and tested many times!) for low-key conversation based party hosting. She is dressed casually. At first, it annoys her when Jack does all of the little tasks that she would normally be doing, but she is ultimately grateful because it leaves her plenty of time to socially engineer meet cutes. She flits around the party (SAFELY, in her grippy socks), pulling people into pairs, and posing one of Dr. Aron Arthur's 36 questions to fall in love before excusing herself on urgent business to the other side of the room.

Her primary concern is making sure that everyone is nice to Raine and that he has a nice time. Her secondary concern is making sure that everyone thinks she is in love with Jack. Her tertiary concern is getting everyone out of her apartment before the additional 15mg of hybrid she ingests at 11:35pm kicks in fully.

I SAID NO GIFTS

[philomathean]

I SAID NO GIFTS: Jack

[nolitangere]

Raine told Jack he likes food and that he has a spice tolerance. Like an uncle who knows very little about you and fixates on one or two personal facts, Jack will now be foistering spicy food onto Raine from now until eternity. He's made phaal curry using ghost peppers from a plant Lou gave him, and there's a little index card in front of the dish indicating what it is and Jack's warning, in thick majuscule script, of "BE FUCKING CAREFUL!!!"

When Raine arrives, Jack makes sure to point at him aggressively enthusiastically and greet him a happy birthday. Like so.

I SAID NO GIFTS: Crysta

[beautyfull]

This is certainly not a gift. This is a curse. It's a BuzzBallz Biggies Chocolate Tease Flavor which Crysta has written "4 Ur Birthday" on it in sparkly silver sharpie. This is cruel but it's a) the best flavor only everyone's too scared to try so this is a favor actually and b) no actually just mean sorry.

I SAID NO GIFTS: Poet

[deepthot]

A roomba rolled through and dropped a small gift wrapped package containing ear plugs and a Minions sleeping mask on the floor near the other gifts. The FROM: space on the gift tag sticker is not filled out.

I SAID NO GIFTS: Enoch

[imaginist]

Enoch would normally respect a "no gifts" policy, but the desire to annoy Raine is stronger. He uses an illusion to hide what he's carried in: a frivolously decorated pink gift bag, complete with a cute ribbon, two colours of tissue paper and a bunch of loose pastel confetti that keeps spilling everywhere. Nested inside is simply a carton of aquarium salt.

[A volunteer] can spot Enoch leaning over the gifts table, and how less than two minutes later, his illusion drops and the pink bag appears seemingly out of nowhere.

I SAID NO GIFTS: Linus

[crawlwaller]

Linus was raised that it's bad manners to show up empty-handed, so he brings the eight dollarest bottle of wine. Is it for the host or is it for the birthday boy? If he leaves it on the table then it's no longer his problem! There's also a card.

I SAID NO GIFTS: Willy

[norush]

Willy brought Raine a half-smoked j —clearly unnecessary— and a vintage Burger King Little Mermaid cup. Happy birthday, bro.

I SAID NO GIFTS: Minty

[exacutus]

Minty brought a card with $100 tucked in it. It's not signed. What else do you get the guy whose name you maybe didn't know until a few weeks ago?

I SAID NO GIFTS: Isaiah

[stgermaine]

A practical gift card to the coffee shop.

I SAID NO GIFTS: Vidalia

[mxpotatohead]

Vidalia brought an interactive electronic cat toy that was mysteriously dropped on her Amazon wishlist in the middle of the night. Happy birthday!!!!

AROUND THE APARTMENT

[philomathean]

AROUND THE APARTMENT: Crysta and Jack get religious

[nolitangere]

A normal thing to do when you're at a party where you're not super close with anyone but you have to pretend you're very, extremely, intensely close to one person in particular is to find the nearest mean little rich girl that is seven years younger than you and, for some reason, a close friend—and light up a cross joint¹ with her.

Jack is good at rolling cross joints. They're his specialty. It's one way to feel relatively (platonically) close to someone without having to (platonically) touch them because you need at least one other person to help (platonically) light the joint, which you're of course going to share. Sharing a cross joint is in fact a critical way Jack bonds with other people. You know how troops of monkeys will pick bugs out of each other's fur and eat them to reinforce social structures and bonds? This is pretty much that for Jack. It's almost exactly the same thing to him.

Once he's ready to go, Jack finds Crysta, joint in hand. He motions to the deck with his head. "Let's do this." She knows the drill.

__________
¹ Cross joints are commonly considered the apex of the vortex of joint engineering.

AROUND THE APARTMENT: Annie & the Birthday Boy

[philomathean]

Uh oh. Farhad from security is talking to Raine. Annie isn't sure how the birthday boy feels about his conversation partner, but she does know that the last time she was cornered by Farhad, he gave her what amounted to a TedTalk on managing glucose spikes. She had been eating a cinnamon sugar bagel at the time and it really ruined the whole experience for her.

Without waiting to be sure that Raine wants to be extricated, she fills two mason jars with water from her Britta and weaves her way through the crowd toward her friend. "Here you go," she hands Raine one of the jars, like she is stepping back into a conversation that she had just left. She places her now free hand on Farhad's bulging bicep and gently guides him to turn his body away from them and toward another guest.

"You know, Matteas here just started training for the Boston marathon," she connects the two men. It works like a charm.

When she turns back to Raine, she heaves a silent, dramatic sigh and then breaks into a smile. "Are you having an okay time?"

AROUND THE APARTMENT: Enoch & OPEN++

[imaginist]

Enoch stands in the kitchen, contemplating the treats on offer. With his powers, it's easy to disorient people, but he's never been able to induce truly mind-altering effects. He suspects it's beyond the scope of his specific abilities, although he knows of at least one case study on a Liminal illusionist with psychedelic powers. Is he restricted, or is he just not trying hard enough?

(The latter, always. Every goal achieved is just a sign that his personal expectations were too low.)

He selects a bystander at random. "I need someone to do a taste test." Enoch places a plate and fork in front of them, featuring two identical bite-sized brownie squares—literally identical, if you look closely enough.

AROUND THE APARTMENT: Jack is FBI (Federal Bureau Inspector)

[nolitangere]

When I said Jack would be masking his anxiety by completing tasks, I lied!!! Surprise! He also drank 4 Bud Lights, 1 canned cocktail, and toked up with his emotional support mean little rich girl!

He now feels incredibly relaxed because the critical parts of his brain that register and operationalize such functions as 'noticing things' and 'being normal' are dulled. His impulse control has always been a little bad, but now it's especially bad. He thinks to himself that while he could continue asking Annie about herself, it would be a lot quicker and efficient if he just lightly rummaged through her belongings, scanning them and gaining key insights into her personal brainfeelings like the Terminator.

So he's in Annie's room now, shushing Tussy (who is watching him silently) as he opens her desk drawer. What if he finds something really awful, like a KILL JACK JUNG manifesto? He laughs involuntarily, and loudly.

PARTY GAMES

[philomathean]

TWENTY QUESTIONS

[philomathean]

A classic.

Come up with a secret person, place, thing, or concept. Tag in saying that you've 'Got it!' and you're ready to be asked questions. Others will respond, asking questions until someone guesses correctly. This works best if threaded as one long, multi-player conversation but feel free to go off book! Also, I know traditionally you're supposed to ask yes or no questions, but I think it's funnier if you don't lol.

TABLE TOPICS

[philomathean]

Annie has several sets of these Table Topics sets strategically placed around her apartment.

Tag in with a question and everyone playing should respond with their answers. Feel free to make up the questions or RNG and pull from this list.

Can you tell yet that 'talking' is a game to Annie?

ELSEWHERE IN THE BUILDING

[philomathean]

ELSEWHERE IN THE BUILDING: Rhodes & Rory with the Real party

[quickpickled]

The flyer had very much said "come through," which in Rhodes' personal vernacular meant everyone who was interested could sort of just walk inside and partake. Clutching a small mason jar full of pickled beets with a lovely ribbon tied atop, he knocks once for courtesy and to alert the attendees of his presence. But when he opens the door, there's only person there. It's Rory, in his kitchen, cooking probably the birthday cake with the dulcet tones of something he thinks is Meg Ryan in the background.

Rhodes checks his watch. Exactly 5 minutes early. Well. Maybe there was something to that fashionably late thing, after all. He curses himself for not remembering that.

"Where do we put the gifts?" He demands from the door, at least intent on busying himself.

OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[philomathean]

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[philomathean]

If the coding looks goofy, try clicking the words on the 'Raine's Birthday Bash!' hyperlink, instead of the arrow. And if the visuals pictures are formatted in a stupid way, I know and don't know how to fix it. Just ignore it :)

And have fun!

Be back in a lil bit to start some party games.