Emery made a face. “Oh… now that I’m thinking about it, I remember going to those tea parties… But those weren’t going all out, as you say.”
It was a long time ago, but the conversation had conjured images of the tea parties held monthly at the prostitution house. Soft chatter, clinking silverware and cups. Pretty dresses glinting in candle light. Nothing like Faust had described.
They shifted their position. “Interesting. I guess I’ve never been to your kind of parties, Bastien. I don’t think I’ve ever had alcohol either, but then again, I don’t think I want to.” They grimaced.
"Tea parties?" She had heard of the parties faust had talked about however tea parties made her think of hoity toity people dressed in fancy clothes with tea cups. she honestly preferred faust type of parties. "I guess I have nothing better to do." she spun her pistol on her hand out of habit, her hair covering her left eye like it always did.
“My party will be no tea party, I can assure you,” Bastien replied with a grin. “Parties on Ruby are a different kind of wild, so this should be fun. Of course, this will probably be tame compared to those, but we’ve got to get at least a little interesting. I’m sure Faust can help me plan a normal party, though.” He paused, reconsidering. “A less insane but still fun party.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it.” Emery smiled again. Then it dropped, and their hand went to their chin in thought. “What do we tell the Captain?”
"Hm, you could pretend he played a prank on you and that's what his plan was and its already happened so no need to worry but I doubt that would work." She continued to twirl her pistol in her hands.
"Maybe we could start it out with a feast, afterwards we can ramp it up games, music, dancing, and booze. Maybe a little dancing competition. Actually, if we have any extra trenchers that could be transformed into a magnificent crown for the winner. The Proud Prancer," Faust went straight towards the bread cabinet and started counting the trenchers. "Yeah, It wouldn't really be a great idea to rock the boat too much. Don't want to capsize… But ya, you'd have to be careful around Luna, have to make that prank look convincing."
Bastien grinned. “Oh, I can certainly do that. How attached are you to the clothes you’re wearing?” he asked Emery. “As for the party, that sounds like a great idea!”
Emery had been listening and nodding along to Faust, though a little nervous about how wild this might get. Now they stepped away from Bastien, arms stiff at their sides. “Um, I’m very attached to my clothes, thank you.”
If the prank was going to be aimed at them…
Bastien pressed his lips into a line. “Hmmm, okay. How about you just act like I really scared you then?” he asked.
"I'm not very attached to my clothes just don't touch my boots." She glared at him. "The scaring idea could work for Emery but not so much for Faust, or me." She looked away. "I'm not a very convincing actor nor do I have the energy to act like you scared me."
"I'm not attached to my clothes either. Don't mind being pranked," Faust gestured at his stained, ratty clothing. "Actually, if it makes my clothing worse that's a plus, but I assume it is whatever would be more convincing to Luna and a decision we are all collectively comfortable about."
Tori glanced toward the Pearl ship, then up to Luna. "It seems they've taken Faust. If it's alright with you, I'm going to go check on him and see to it that they don't kidnap him or something." The woman grinned, before sneaking belowdecks.
“I can… try and act scared,” Emery said uncertainly. “What’s going to be the story behind that?”
"something along the lines of, oh he pretended to be dead and then jumped up and scared me and I ran away maybe?" she twirled her pistol more.
"More like make sure he doesn't kidnap them," Luna laughed just ever so slightly as she watched her first mate disappear below the deck. What were they discussing down there that they didn't think she would approve of? Or at least that was beginning to be her thinking. Either way she could stay up top mannign the helm and keeping an eye on that damn Pearl ship.
“Or we could say that one or two of you guys were in on it, and explain why you all showed up here,” Bastien suggested. “Maybe we could say that we all pretended to be zombies. Like the playing dead idea but with more fake gore. Does that sound believable?”
"I think it sounds more believeable, maybe make the costume incase someone else comes to check on us?" she suggested.
"Sounds believable, time to be dea- holy shit someone's coming," Faust frantically reached for the tomatoes and started to throw tomatoes at everyone while his thumb pierced into one, and began to smear the juices all over his face and shirt.
"who- Agh! Pff!" she spit the flying tomato out of her mouth, taking it out of her eye. her hair shielded her left eye. she tried to make the tomato stains more believable costume before the person arrived and then tried to scare emery-
Emery yelped as a tomato hit their leg, and groaned in dismay. They weren’t keen on the idea of getting dirty, but it was just as well. Anxiety spiked in their brain as they heard footsteps creaking down the stairs. Their breathing quickened. They remembered their mother’s voice saying, “It’s him again, love. Hide while you can, okay? Don’t worry, he’s my last customer.”
Almost believing they should obey their mother’s words, Emery stumbled backward and fell.
Perhaps their half-baked plan had worked a little too well.
Faust was distracted by the adrenaline juggling in his blood to take notice of Eremy’s change of breath, but saw them stumble back. Initially, he didn’t think much of it while patting a handful of flour over his face to give himself a deceased appearance; his mind on the other hand travelled back to how they fell and came to some conclusions, did they just die?. His pace quickened to Emery and asked, “Are you okay?”
Emery tried to come to their senses. Why did they feel tears in their eyes all of a sudden?
“Yeah… well physically, I-I guess? Um, I don’t know.” Their words fumbled over each other, and their voice wavered. “I… I guess I’m scared now, hehe…”
Somehow there was a a part of their brain that was totally unfazed by everything. It seemed to groan, Gosh, why am I so emotional? Why am I reacting like this? Why was that particular memory triggered? Oh, gosh…
Haisley noticed Emery's response. "Emery are you sure your okay?" She frowned looking towards her. she may be harsh but she still cared for crew.
Bastien had just finished making himself look like a zombie when he noticed the others’ expressions. He glanced at Emery, also concerned. They were clearly upset. “If there’s something wrong, you can tell us,” he chimed in. “If you’re comfortable with it, that is,” he added hastily, not wanting to make the situation worse for Emery.
(I’m begging you, Ash, please interrupt us)
