((CrossPosted--a complete accident, but hey it works I guess))
What a night! She'd never understood the strange rituals that many RhyDinites took for granted. The BDSM flavor that influenced birthdays had always made her a little wary: Spankings anybody? And what was with the voodoo doll stuffed full of candy? And why celebrate that you'd made it a whole extra year. Seriously? You hadn't done anything special but managed to live. RhyDin had to be an extra specially dangerous place to make people think they needed to celebrate each year as a success just for breathing.
Where she came from they celebrated the Mother on the day of your birth, after all she'd done all the hard work, hadn't she?
But it wasn't a birthday at all that they had celebrated so successfully but a babyshower. Which was yet another strange custom that she'd known little about. When Mindy had mentioned that she'd made no plans for a babyshower, she'd felt honorbound to help the girl out. After all they were friends, and that was just what friends did, right?
Commandeering a babyshower in the middle of the Red Dragon wasn't anywhere near as difficult as she'd thought it would be. Well, if she'd thought about it. Which she hadn't. Elessaria had been a delightful good sport allowing their hilarity to take place during her shift and even the quiet friend of hers had given a few suggestions to help fuel her imagination.
But the real stars of the show were her newfound friends Audrey and Jase, and of course Jatari. They'd barely given her a questioning glance when she'd set them to work making everything perfect for Mindy. Jase had drawn the Donkey for pin the tail, or was that knock up the... no wait...hit the Donkey on the tail? Whatever, she still wasn't sure what a Donkey had to do with a birthday/babyshower party but she wanted Mindy to have the games that such a celebration demanded (And she was really thrilled to discover that you didn't really take the baby out and give it a bath and then find a way to put it back in the new Mom). She'd made up a song to some ritualistic music (We Wish you a Merry Baby! We Wish you a Merrry Baby! We Wish you a Merrry Baby and a Happy Set of Twins!) and they'd played "Go Strip."
She still wasn't sure how ending up half naked was part of celebrating a baby's new arrival but that Danny guy had mentioned that it was probably good babymaking ideas. Anything to help Mindy bake those babies good.
The only glitch had been the cake. The idea of baking left her with kind of a petrification seconded only by the sight of certain people in the Inn known for their insanity. But no one had said what kind of cake and judging by Mindy's giggles the cake of soap with the candled gouged down inside it had been a raging success. She sure hoped the Inn hadn't had too hard of a time cleaning up the scorched/melted disaster from the bartop. Leave it to her to burn even a cake of soap.
Shaking her head in bemusement she grinned a dimpled flash of happiness. Mindy had left in good spirits and Jase had agreed to paint her a nursery mural so the Gift part of the shower had been covered.
She'd been quite tipsy and in good spirits herself when she'd made her way back to the Plaza. In her giddy state she'd known better than to attempt the walk back to the Gardens so late at night and had instead crashed on her couch in her office. If JhaiNein was going to be such a good sport about dressing her and there was a shower that was good enough for an impromptu sleepover.
Humming the catchy tune to herself she whispered, "For you Mindy!"
(*Special Thanks to all those who allowed themselves to be shanghaied into the impromptu celebration and to Mindy of course! You guys and gals totally rock my world!)
What a night! She'd never understood the strange rituals that many RhyDinites took for granted. The BDSM flavor that influenced birthdays had always made her a little wary: Spankings anybody? And what was with the voodoo doll stuffed full of candy? And why celebrate that you'd made it a whole extra year. Seriously? You hadn't done anything special but managed to live. RhyDin had to be an extra specially dangerous place to make people think they needed to celebrate each year as a success just for breathing.
Where she came from they celebrated the Mother on the day of your birth, after all she'd done all the hard work, hadn't she?
But it wasn't a birthday at all that they had celebrated so successfully but a babyshower. Which was yet another strange custom that she'd known little about. When Mindy had mentioned that she'd made no plans for a babyshower, she'd felt honorbound to help the girl out. After all they were friends, and that was just what friends did, right?
Commandeering a babyshower in the middle of the Red Dragon wasn't anywhere near as difficult as she'd thought it would be. Well, if she'd thought about it. Which she hadn't. Elessaria had been a delightful good sport allowing their hilarity to take place during her shift and even the quiet friend of hers had given a few suggestions to help fuel her imagination.
But the real stars of the show were her newfound friends Audrey and Jase, and of course Jatari. They'd barely given her a questioning glance when she'd set them to work making everything perfect for Mindy. Jase had drawn the Donkey for pin the tail, or was that knock up the... no wait...hit the Donkey on the tail? Whatever, she still wasn't sure what a Donkey had to do with a birthday/babyshower party but she wanted Mindy to have the games that such a celebration demanded (And she was really thrilled to discover that you didn't really take the baby out and give it a bath and then find a way to put it back in the new Mom). She'd made up a song to some ritualistic music (We Wish you a Merry Baby! We Wish you a Merrry Baby! We Wish you a Merrry Baby and a Happy Set of Twins!) and they'd played "Go Strip."
She still wasn't sure how ending up half naked was part of celebrating a baby's new arrival but that Danny guy had mentioned that it was probably good babymaking ideas. Anything to help Mindy bake those babies good.
The only glitch had been the cake. The idea of baking left her with kind of a petrification seconded only by the sight of certain people in the Inn known for their insanity. But no one had said what kind of cake and judging by Mindy's giggles the cake of soap with the candled gouged down inside it had been a raging success. She sure hoped the Inn hadn't had too hard of a time cleaning up the scorched/melted disaster from the bartop. Leave it to her to burn even a cake of soap.
Shaking her head in bemusement she grinned a dimpled flash of happiness. Mindy had left in good spirits and Jase had agreed to paint her a nursery mural so the Gift part of the shower had been covered.
She'd been quite tipsy and in good spirits herself when she'd made her way back to the Plaza. In her giddy state she'd known better than to attempt the walk back to the Gardens so late at night and had instead crashed on her couch in her office. If JhaiNein was going to be such a good sport about dressing her and there was a shower that was good enough for an impromptu sleepover.
Humming the catchy tune to herself she whispered, "For you Mindy!"
(*Special Thanks to all those who allowed themselves to be shanghaied into the impromptu celebration and to Mindy of course! You guys and gals totally rock my world!)