"It's a Jungle in There" Party for Cheyenne!

[Wyvern]

As the skies outside of the Mighty Pen Keep begin to darken and night falls upon the many passageways of the Cabaret Room, Wyvern works away feverishly at the surprise birthday/welcoming party he had been planning for his beloved Cheyenne... Pacing back and forth with a pen tucked behind his right ear, Wyvern skims through an accounting book he carries with one hand while typing into an extra-large printing calculator with the other...

 

Let's see here... Gigantic cake complete with extra-shiny candles... check! Pamphlet copies of "Fate" poem... check! Stylish black thongs sale counter... check! Sexy, sexy man kissing booth (courteousy Orlan)... check! Instant hair dye sprays... check! Sleeping bags... check! Victorian flower design... hmmmm...

 

Wyvern sighs deeply... this party certainly wouldn't be helping his geld balance... but then, the sparkle of Cheyenne's eyes and the thought of a smile on her face were more than enough to motivate the overgrown lizard to fully pursue the project. Grinning at the thought of various potential after party activities (*lustfull hiss*), the Patron Saint of Parties quickly decides to head over to the Ballroom where he's set up all the festivities to see if Waterlily had finished the flower design Wyvern had politely asked him to put up. Waterlily was, after all, an expert in all things related to flowers, being a giant flower himself... Besides, he worked of off cheap plant food... ;p

 

Walking down the corridor leading to the Ballroom, Wyv passes the portrait of Zool that rests on the lefthand side of the hall, and stops momentarily to wink and nod to it. Zool's portrait was currently disguised as a portrait of George Washington, as Wyvern had given him the responsibility of signaling to the rest of the crowd when Cheyenne was coming, so that they could surprise her when she arrived. Dressed in a formal uniform with a striking white wig and riding upon an elegant ship that vaguely resembled a rubber chicken, the picture of Zool blended right in with the rest of the pictures lining the corridor, and thus made him the perfect hidden informant.

 

Finally arriving at the entrance to the Ballroom, Wyvern quietly opens the door expecting to see beautifull flower decorations... only to be taken aback in awe and astonishment. The room had turned a heated jungle in his absence, complete with all sorts of bizarre wildlife, hyperactive vines, and complex overgrowth...

 

"What the... W-Waterlily...?" manages Wyvern before being caught by one of the hyperactive vines and pulled into the chaotic jungle of a ballroom...

 

OOC: Happy birthday and welcome back, Cheyenne. My apologies for not having called you, I tried to do so several times but your number didn't seem to work and I'm not certain which e-mail you're currently using. Anyway, you have my best of wishes for your birthday and I'm very happy to see you back in the Pen. By the way, this thread's open for all to participate in...

[Canid]

"They are too loud and there are too many questionable things in them." Canid said with an indignant sniff.

"Fun, fun, fun!" Exclaimed Prospero as he took hold of Canid's tail and dragged her back in through the gates of the Pen is Mightier than the Sword.

"I'm not going to one of Wyvern's parties!"

Canid thrust free of Prospero and began her fluid movement back out.

Prospero made a face and looked around him for some source of help.

He saw a vine.

It was twisting rapidly out of the doors of the main entrance in a way that suggested it was the kind of vine that liked grabbing people.

Prospero grabbed the tip of the vine in his mouth and ran to catch up with Canid.

Canid felt the vine curling about her belly. Vines were not bad things and were generally to be trusted when they wanted you to do something. She only saw Prospero when she was in the air; he was grinning.

 

When Canid stopped moving, she was on the ceiling of a room filled ith some of her favorite plants and wild-life.... maybe it wouldn't be so-

The mouth of the huge plant cut off Canid's thoughts by eating her.

The wolf fell and hit something.

"OW!" said the something.

Canid smelled Wyvern.

"I've never seen this species before..." the wolf commented to the almost dragon with interest.

[Gyrfalcon]

Gyrfalcon walked down the hall, not really noticing anything, at least until he came up to Zool’s portrait. He stopped as he examined the familiar portrait.

 

“Zool, what the heck are you wearing?” he asked the painted Elder, who looked around quickly for Cheyenne. “Don’t blow my cover! I’m supposed to warn everyone at the party when Cheyenne is approaching so that we can spring a surprise on her.”

 

“A party, eh? Where is it being held?”

 

“The Ballroom- just head down the corridor, door at the very end, as if you already didn’t know.” Zool said.

 

Gyrfalcon nodded and reached into his bag of holding, then pulled out an spyglass. “Here, a prop for your disguise.” He offered the spyglass to Zool. The two dimensional image shifted, a hand reaching out to the offered end of the hourglass. There was a moment of blurred vision, and Zool’s image was once again in the heroic pose, now clutching an spyglass.

 

Gyrfalcon shook his head as he walked down the hall- he would never get used to the transference from three dimensions to two.

 

So engrossed in his thoughts, the half-elf didn’t notice the tentacles until they had grabbed him and pulled him through the door.

 

“Hey, what the- put me down, you damned plant!”

 

The ‘damned plant’ didn’t bother to listen, but instead threw him into its mouth and swallowed him without bothering to chew. A short, uncomfortable ride later, and Gyrfalcon landed in its stomach- and on Wyvern.

 

“Ow!”

“My spleen!”

 

After the two sorted themselves out, Canid made her presence known by nudging Gyrfalcon to the side so he didn’t sit on her.

 

“So what, we’re all stuck in Waterlily?” Gyrfalcon asked.

 

“It looks that way.” Wyvern said.

 

“Wonderful.”

[Peredhil]

Peredhil, dressed to satorical perfection and freshly shaved, wanders in toward the Party.

 

A Wyvern Party.

 

Struck by the thought, he checks various implements of survival he habitually carries tucked away in hidden pockets, ensuring they don't make unsightly bulges in his suit.

 

Stopping to talk for a few minutes to Zool, he gives him the small hatchet necessary for his subterfuge, and compliments Matt on the wig impersonation, and Rubber Chicken on being a ship.

 

After making his way to the Ballroom door, sidestepping writhing vines, he pauses to take a deep breath before making the plunge into the maelstrom of activity that always accompanies a Wyvern Spectacular. Looks to be a Jumani set this time.

 

Opening the door, he views with dismay, but no real surprise the fetid jungle. His Ring glows momentarily, and his suit shifts to a light Jungle Explorer motif.

 

As the large Blossom approaches, salvating pollen-laden sap as it making lacivious kissing motions with its petals, he gives it the quelling look stolen from stately old Welch Matriarchs and perfected by Politeness. The Blossom takes on the rosy glint of a naughty boy Caught In The Deed, and retreats, leaves neatly tucked behind its back.

 

Picking his way through the jungle carefully, mindful of the shine on his boots, Peredhil wonders where all the other Pen Party members are hiding. Finding a long table with naught but a gorgeously decorated cake, he slides his present onto the other end, spraying it with Thief BeGone (An Almost Dragonic Guaranteed Thief Protection Device!), and looks for Wyvern to appear.

 

Funny, that almost always draws him out...

 

With a shrug he absentmindedly moves to a chair, nodding graceous thanks to the Vines who quickly move it out to seat him, and accepts a mineral water from another Vine.

 

Sitting alone at the Party table, in the midst of the teaming jungle, he is quickly lost in his thoughts.

[Canid]

Wyvern began making loud sniffing noises.

"Well... we're not actually stuck..." Canid said, in a soothing tone.

"What?!" Gyrfalcon stood up with a start.

Wyvern sniffed more.

"I can actually get us out of here pretty easily... I was sort of enjoying the opportunity to study the insides of this plant.... it is really quite fascinating."

Wyvern started to whimper.

Gyrfalcon sighed and felt his way around until he located an almost-draconic shoulder to pet.

"Wyvern... Canid's going to get us out, you can stop worrying."

Wyvern shook and Gyrfalcon began to get the distinct impression that he hadn't been listening to a word said.

"Someone sprayed Thief Begone!!!" Wyvern cried with a wail of misery.

Canid shook her head and rolled her eyes and sent her magic washing through the plant. Waterlilly began to yawn and keep her esophagus open at the same time.

Wyvern shot forward, lured unstoppable by Thief Begone. Canid and Gyrfalcon climbed forth somewhat more gracefully and then stood brushing plant chemicals off themselves for several seconds.

[Wyvern]

As Wyvern rushes out of Waterlily's gaping maw, frantically looking left and right and sniffing in the direction of the enticing "Theif BeGone" spray, Gyrfalcon and Canid brush the disgusting plant chemicals off of their chests and sigh to themselves... The party hadn't even truly begun yet, and already their cloths had become partially ruined...

 

Heading in the direction of the tables near where Peredhil sits, the three party-goers do not realize that Waterlily's yawn is growing larger by the minute... This rapid growth was largely due to the seeds Waterlily had planted in the ceiling of the Ballroom, which now seemed to be spreading pollen throughout the room. This rain of pollen was causing Waterlily to expand, proving that the gigantic plant was smarter than many people may have originally suspected...

 

By the time Wyvern, Canid, and Gyrfalcon have reached the birthday tables, Waterlily has become the size of over half of the huge room. Elder Wyvern momentarily stops in his pursual of "Theif BeGone"-sprayed objects as a confused scream rings throughout the chamber, and turns his head just in time to be swallowed by an enormous Waterlily. The gargantuan plant then procedes to swallow the rest of the Ballroom whole in one fell swoop, and cements it's open mouth directly where the party entrance is located...

 

Interestingly enough, this unexpected change of events ultimately make very little difference in the party itself... As everything had been swallowed whole, all of the various festivities and people were in place and intact. In addition, the jungle-like atmosphere of the party remained, as the interior of Waterlily seemed to be full of various plants and even live species of animals... Perhaps the only difference from before was that the climate seemed slightly more humid, with the occasional digestive acid dripping from the ceiling...

 

At least that was the only change that one would notice at a first glance...

[Canid]

The Pen's courtyard stretched grandly out before the four green-scaled, log-like forms in the morning fog.

In the midst of the green, towered a huge ballroom-like hallway with a ceiling extending two-thirds of the way over it and held up by pillars, contained numerous moss-covered boulders, a waterfall of it's very own and a very tall and odd looking couch.

"Is that THE couch?" asked one of the three alligators following Shombe, the only alligator who had made it into the good books of the Pen's members who used the courtyard ballroom.

Shombe nodded nervously. "Yes, but that's not what we're here to see."

"Does it really go faster than a lynx?" asked the same alligator, whose name, it happens, was Phoebe.

"I haven't seen it for myself," replied Shombe, walking more quickly past the building, "but they say it has gone faster than any animal."

The other alligators let out a joint exclamation of awe as they passed, staring, by the custom made, jet-powered couch with numerous other features I'm not going to go into.

 

The main building of the Pen was not a long walk away, but all four gators stopped and lay down exhausted by the time they reached the front door. They allowed the muscles in their legs to cleanse themselves before standing up and entering the hall to the Cabaret Room.

 

Zool looked commandingly down from his portrait as the four green alligators did their double-waddles in. A rubber chicken in a second mate's uniform began squeaking at the other rubber chickens who rushed forth brandishing little swords cut out of top hats to protect their master.

"We're here for the party..." said Shombe, looking nervously at the angry painted toys.

Zool nodded. "You'll fit right in," and turning the the rubber chickens, said, "back to your places men."

With several military squeaks, the rubber chickens re-sheathed their swords and dispersed back about the rubber-chicken-ship.

 

A vine wrapped itself around one of the gators and took it to a later point in the story.

The remaining three gators chased desperately after their lost companion and found themselves lost in a jungle.

"Are you sure this is it?" said Niles.

Shombe was silent.

Phoebe whimpered.

"At least it is wet..." commented Shombe at length, poking at the marshy flesh of Waterlilly's interior.

[The Big Pointy One]

Stick came into a semi-conscious state. He stretched out, getting that first taste of morning air. "Odd." he thought, "Kind of musty..." His senses slowly coming to him, he feels the ground. Noting it smells kind of like the grass he was sleeping on last night, he finds it to be a bit... fleshier. Not like animal or human flesh, but kind of like the inside of a plant. He stood up, stretching again and finally opened his eyes. He blinked, rubbed his eyes and blinked some more. Looking around and pinching himself a few times, Stick blurted out loud, "Wait a minute, this IS a plant!"

 

Gyrfalcon, grinning, made his way over to Stick. "You ARE in a plant Stick. In fact-"

 

Stick cut Gyrfalcon off, and started ranting, "Of course! That explains it! This is the Plant Universe!"

 

Gyrfalcon let out a quiet "Great." and walked off. Stick didn't notice, and continued ranting.

 

"Hmm. So if this is the plant universe, then that means everyone here is a double of their real self. Or at least, the real self I know. I have to find my way back, but first, I should probably find out if any of my friends from The Pen have also been captured." Blinking a few more times, he scanned the room over again, "Wow, this looks a lot like the ballroom. In fact, it also looks like a party!"