Midnight Manor Boarding House Movie Room, Saturday Evening

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

As soon as Kamala had turned back into a person yesterday, Arden and Eleanor had swung into action. Arden had contacted Mr. and Mrs. Khan to let them know that Operation Birthday Bash was a go and about what time she'd be by to pick up the cake, and then called Mr. Najaf to see if he would be willing to cook up a whole slew of gyros (including some vegan gyros in case Steven or Watts showed up) for Kamala's birthday the next day. She also messaged Bruno and asked Mr. and Mrs. Khan if they could pass the invitation on to Nakia, letting them know about the party and offering to arrange portal service if they could make it out. After that had come handwavily messaging everybody else to let them know that they were celebrating Kamala's belated birthday at Midnight Manor on Saturday evening.

And lo, now it was the appointed hour. Ellie was keeping Kamala distracted upstairs (Arden was not asking how), and she was here setting out drinks (sodas, though Mr. Khan had sent Arden home with a jug of 'sweet tea,' which she had been very appreciative of and had appreciatively poured down the drain once she'd gotten home), gyros, and setting out Mrs. Khan's cake, leaving a spot in case Ellie had somehow managed to find or invent a Squishie cake. Bollywood movies were playing on the TV (though currently with the volume very low), there was a karaoke machine on standby, balloons and streamers were up, the guests Avengers assembled...

Now all they needed was the co-host and the birthday girl!

[Open! If you're a student, a resident of Midnight Manor, or just think Kamala is cool, feel free to handwave yourself an invite!]

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Other Stuff

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

There's food! There's soda! There's Bollywood movies! There's karaoke! There's probably Mario Kart or Overcooked!

Whatever non-mingling activities you wanna do, this is a great place to do it in!

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[what_big_teeth]

Alas, Eleanor's search to discover the perfect recipe to turn a Squishy into a cake was not successful, because she didn't want cake that looked like a Squishy, but that was all the results she got to weed through. She supposed she could have tried her hand at it regardless, but the time crunch made her feel like it would just be smarter to contact J,GoB and arrange them to make something like the cupcakes she found, only with Red instead, obviously.

And they'd really delivered on that, too. They looked and tasted great, far better than anything Eleanor would have likely have been able to do herself, even though she was pretty sure if she'd made something, even if it wasn't great, Kamala would have still loved it.

But now everyone else could love it, too, because while it worked in nicely with her pre-party distraction and the previous promise of cupcakes, there were still plenty others for the other guests, as well.

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[afraid_of_marshmallows]

After the Surprise! and greeting Kamala, Arden made her way over to Eleanor, all smiles, fist out for a bump. "We pulled it off!" she said, clearly relieved. "Operation Birthday Bash was a success!"

At least today's. She was going to have to throw herself into setting up for the second one next week. BD-1 was counting on her.

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[what_big_teeth]

Consider it almost like a warm-up! Besides, Arden would have one extra set of hands on deck now that Kamala was no longer a sloth or the prospective party person!

Eleanor, meanwhile, looked mildly confused at the lifted fist, though she tried her best not to look it, and just sort of awkwardly lifted her own in a mirroring of Arden's. But any faux pas created from not knowing what a fist bump was was quickly dispelled in light of the reason for it in the first place.

"I think if she'd have been a sloth just a little bit longer," she noted, "I'd have gotten that cake down, but I think this is much better. Great job setting everything up, though, Arden, this is great, thank you."

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[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden reached over and gently tapped her knuckles against Eleanor's. "Fist bump," she explained. "Same sprit as a high five, if you know what that is?" She certainly had no idea when high fives had come into the zeitgeist. Or what a 'zeitgeist' was, either.

"That just means you can really surprise her with one later if you keep practicing," Arden pointed out, absolutely reaching out to grab a cupcake. "These look killer, though, oh my goddess. J,GoB knocked it outta the park." She took a bite and grinned happily, both at the taste and Eleanor's compliments. "Thanks! Though I mostly just shoved stuff into other people's laps and asked them to do stuff for me," she admitted. " You with the cupcakes - so good - and folks back at Jersey City did all the heavy lifting."

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[what_big_teeth]

Shockingly, it was apparently still about a decade until even the high five started to come into popularity in Eleanor's timeline, which just seemed wild, but, okay, internet.

So Arden was getting just a little bit of a shake of Eleanor's confused head with that, as well, but she wasn't going to dwell on it, just commit the fist bump to memory and then look into high fives later, when they weren't too busy patting themselves on the back for being, somehow, miraculously, the best birthday party throwers ever.

"But delegating," Eleanor pointed out, "is an important part of making things work out well, too. Like in a household or a business, sometimes you need the person figuring out who does what to make sure everything runs smoothly. So that makes you sort of...the Party Boss, without whom none of this could have come together so well."

And as the probable future matriarch of what little remained of the Zarrin clan, maybe Eleanor should be taking notes.

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[afraid_of_marshmallows]

What even was time, really? (A lie perpetrated by the Exarchs is what.)

"Oooh, Party Boss. I like that. Makes me feel like I should have some kind of badge or something," Arden said. "But that makes sense. Figuring out what needs to be done, and then making sure everything gets done on time. That seems...useful, actually."

The first useful skill she could claim, as opposed to all those useful skills that remained stubbornly out of reach.

"I hadn't thought of it that way. Thanks, Ellie. That actually makes me feel a lot better."

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[wildgalegirl]

"These cupcakes are amazing!" Charlie said. Charlie somehow had never had a squishy, but the cupcakes were amazing in their own right.

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[what_big_teeth]

"It really is amazing what they can do at J,GoB!" Eleanor agreed, looking pleased as she came over to Charlie with a grateful sort of smile. "Hi, Charlie. Thanks for coming."

The more people here to celebrate Kamala like she deserved, the better, after all.

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[wildgalegirl]

"Thanks for inviting me. I'm always glad to celebrate with cool people," Charlie said. She considered for a moment. "Well, I'm pretty happy to celebrate just in general, but it's even better when it's cool people like everyone here."

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[what_big_teeth]

"Yeah," Eleanor had to chuckle a little bit with her nod. "That definitely does help, and everyone here is pretty cool."

She felt she could say that with pretty good authority just on how cool everyone was with her, which had absolutely not been the case at her last school.

"And, apparently," she added, now a little curious because it had come up with Arden, "August is pretty fully loaded with birthdays, too. Yours was earlier in the month, too, wasn't it?"

Eleanor didn't remember the exact day; she just remembered finding Charlie on the beach recently and celebrating with her.

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[wildgalegirl]

"End of July," Charlie said. "And you were good enough to hang out and celebrate with me on the beach a few days later, which was awesome."

She smiled as she looked around the room. "Never had a party back home without Aunties, so this is particularly nice."

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[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Kamala had slowly but surely been inducting people into the Cult of the Red Squishy. Everybody thought it was a birthday party but actually it was a ritual to get more people indoctrinated.

"Right? Who knew red #5 was so delicious?" Arden asked.

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[wildgalegirl]

"I guess I've just been too sheltered," Charlie said. "but the cupcakes are amazing. How's it going, Arden?"

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[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Good, seeing that we managed to pull this off," Arden said with a laugh. "Planning something you could pull together, like, twenty-four hours after someone changed back from a sloth is harder than it sounds."

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[wildgalegirl]

"Ah, the things you never have to take into account outside of Fandom," Charlie said lightly. "Who knew?"

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[moreofaponchoguy]

Cal was definitely here to be social and hang out with people. But he had also just discovered Mario Kart, so people might need to talk to him between races.

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[what_big_teeth]

In light of finding out that Arden's birthday was coming up pretty soon, too, and wondering if that meant the Party Boss title would have to be temporarily given to her or Kamala, and just knowing she should get to know Cal a little bit better, anyway, Eleanor gave him a small smile and a shy kind of wave.

When he wasn't distracted by a race, anyway.

"Hi, Cal," she said, and gave a little nod to his robot, which was still a little curious and strange to her, but when hasn't her life been full of curious and strange things? "Hi, BD. How are you?"

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[moreofaponchoguy]

Eleanor's timing was perfect as Cal was tweaking his racecar. "Hi!" he said, as BD gave a happy beep as well. "I'm doing all right. Did you help get all this set up?"

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[what_big_teeth]

"Not much," Eleanor admitted, and it wasn't just her sense of humility at play in that answer this time. "It was mostly Arden's idea. I pretty much just had to keep Kamala distracted while she did all the hard work. She did a great job, though, especially considering we only just started planning on Thursday."

And she might have been tempted to say more, but the less she said regarding Arden's party-planning prowess at the moment, the better.

"I'm really glad you could join us for it, too, though!"

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[moreofaponchoguy]

"I can't say no to a good party, especially for someone I like. I'm amazed you guys threw this together in such a short time."

While Cal was distracted, BD gave Eleanor a little pat and a nod. She was doing great, and Cal was clueless, as he should be.

"Did you get Kamala to show you her workout routine?" Cal teased.

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[afraid_of_marshmallows]

At some point, Arden was gonna head over and flop onto the ground next to Cal, using his thigh as a pillow. "And here we have the masculinus nerdikus, a subset of the family jediitus," she intoned like a half-assed David Attenborough. "Engaging in socialization with his peer by throwing shells at them."

She grinned up at him and then held her hands up for a hug.

For BD, of course.

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[moreofaponchoguy]

BD was happy to give Arden a hug because Cal was busy running people off of the course. "That was an awful lot of words for 'Hey Cal, are you having fun?'" he said, laughing. "Once again, you've thrown an awesome party. I hope you're proud of yourself."

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[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Are you kidding? I'm exhausted," Arden said, snuggling BD who, it must be noted, was never too busy committing vehicular crimes to cuddle her. "That's why I'm flopped on you. Too tired to sit under my own power. The Party Boss is done throwing parties till September."

So, like, any invitations to do other social things totally wouldn't lead to a party, Cal! Honest!

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[moreofaponchoguy]

Cal gave Arden a little headpat when he could take a hand off the controller, and smiled as she cuddled BD. "You can rest right here, it's totally fine," he said. "You've earned a rest to regain your Party Boss powers. We can't have you at only partial power when we're so close to new people coming."