Party Like The Damned
20250315
Today’s prompt is “birthday”, because it’s mine! 🥳
The sigils lit up, a foul purple miasma shooting upwards to stain the ceiling as that booming, reverberant voice filled the space. “WHO SUMMONS NOREEL, LIEGE OF FOOLS?”
“It is I, Officiant Leslie, your eternal servant.” With the formalities complete Les dropped the sing-song chant and resumed their normal tone. “So, I have an important question.”
“SPEAK, PUNY MORTAL, AND PREPARE FOR WISDOM BEYOND YOUR PATHETIC COMPREHENSION!”
“Great. See, I’ve been running this cult for you for nearly a year…”
“AH.” Noreel’s smouldering eye narrowed. “YOU WISH FOR A REWARD.”
“Huh? Oh, no, it’s been great. You promised to save the theatre and you’ve totally delivered. We’ve never had a sense of community like this before! No, I wanted to ask about, um, getting something for you.”
The demon was now squinting, its expression lost. “SUPPLICATION?”
“Uh, I was thinking more… when’s your birthday? We should, y’know, hold a party and invite everyone and celebrate how the cult is doing and what it’s done for us and…” Les trailed off and waved their hands. Unable to read the blank stare the demon was fixing them with.
“PARTY? IS THAT LIKE A FESTIVAL?”
“Um. Yeah, I guess? Food and games and everyone having fun.”
“I SEE.” One of the demon’s many spindly limbs stroked its chin. “WILL THERE BE CHANTING? DEVIANT HYMNS?”
“Well, I was going to ask Adam to bring his karaoke setup. Once people get into the booze deviant ‘hymns’ are, er, pretty much guaranteed.”
“AND ATTENDERS BRING TRIBUTE, YES? CONCEALED SO AS TO BE MYSTERIOUS.”
“Yep.” Les suppressed a bemused smile. They’d never seen the demon so intrigued.
“HM. A ‘BIRTHDAY PARTY’ IS ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP.” Noreel decided. “LET THERE BE CAKE OF EVERY KIND AND HAVE EVERYONE GORGE THEMSELVES, THAT I MAY FEAST UPON THEIR GLUTTONOUS DEPRAVITY!”
“Don’t worry, Esme’s got that angle covered. She wants to pull off something special to thank you for your patronage of the bakery.”
“EXCELLENT. TELL HER TO BRING THOSE LITTLE APPLE POCKET THINGS, THOSE ALWAYS PROMPT MUCH GLUTTONY.”
“Will do.” Les scribbled this down in their handy-dandy pocket notebook. “But, uh, when should we be holding this? I mean… do you have a…?”
“THE MANNER OF MY TWISTED CREATION IS NOT EASILY PINNED TO MORTAL DATES.”
“Ah. I figured.” Les gave a philosophical shrug. “Tie it to the anniversary of the cult, then?”
“YEEEES. LET THE SEEDS OF MY DOMINION BE IMMORTALISED!”
“Er, sure, I’ll put together a speech about finding the book and summoning you and… all that jazz.”
“MAKE IT DRAMATIC.”
“Always.”
The demon excitedly clapped their hands, making it sound like the basement was full of applauding corpses. “I WISH FOR EVERYONE TO WEAR THOSE HUMOROUS HATS.”
Les quirked an eyebrow. “Paper party ones, or…?”
“YES. SPARKLY ONES.”
‘Glittery party hats’ were dutifully added to the list. Right beside the planned sacrifices for next week.
“Do you have a preference for decorations?”
“OOH, YES!”
…Fresh page time.