gooseberryhigh | GALENTINE'S DAY

GALENTINE'S DAY

Who needs BOYS to have a good Valentine's Day? Literally no one, according to Miss Riley Mae, who has taken it upon herself to bring all you beautiful babes here for Galentine's Day. Come one, come all, to bitch about boys, gush about the dance, braid hair, rage, make sacrifices, makeout and pillow fight in your underwear—you know, normal girl party stuff.

The Grotto is pinked the hell out, a celebration of Riley's favorite color more than Valentine's Day, with lights and streamers and pink lip-shaped pillows inside the building for people to sit on. It's disgusting if you don't like the color pink. It's par for the course if you've met Riley before.

There's a table with booze off to the side that looks like, at one point in time, was intended to be something of a mimosa station until Riley realized she would have to get champagne from Logan and lost interest. There are still several champagne flutes and lots of juices, there's just a haphazard collection of other alcohols there instead of champagne. Which is obviously better.

The building is host to makeovers, kissing games, and, apparently board games, and y'all better get to partying before curfew! It is, regrettably, still a school night.

HOW THIS WORKS

There are games of Spin the Bottle and Seven Minutes in Heaven in their usual place, but I'm not rolling any matches for anyone. Kiss who you want! Take over the closet if you want! It's a party!

Riley will be doing makeup and nails! Or she'll just allow access to her extensive and slightly trashed nail and makeup kits if you want to do it yourself. I will try and do personalized responses to makeover requests, but you can also assume Riley is just MIA sometimes. It's a party and she's drinking.

The party will still end at 10:00 PM, just like a regular Grotto party. Someone carry Riley home. And someone else please clean up after.

PARTY PARTY PRINCESS

There are old sleepover classic board games going on inside the building, around the edges of any kissing games going on. Who cares if most of these girls are too young to be feeling nostalgic, don't you want to play?

Ursula de Luca got her mother to send Pretty Pretty Princess, and you can play too! Fill out the form, post it here, and see how you did. I will keep rolling as long as you want so everyone can get that coveted crown.

The rules for Pretty Pretty Princess are here, but you don't need to know them OOCly to play with us. You're just trying to get a full set of jewelry and a crown (but not the black ring!) before your friends, because the winner is a pretty pretty princess, and the losers are all ugly ugly urchins.

There are other games, too! Mall Madness, Dream Phone, something with a whole bunch of sugar packets, whatever you can think of! Riley got her older siblings to send some to her, but, as these are Stampers we're talking about, most of them do not have all their pieces or rules included. I will not RNG these and characters are encouraged to just make up their own rules and find a way to include drinking.

Don't you dare lose any of these plastic pieces of jewelry.

♥ BEFORE THE PARTY: The all important "what are you wearing?" section.

♥ DURING THE PARTY: Pop music is blasting, and there's no weird movie playing, but otherwise it's your standard Grotto party. But with No Boys Allowed. They'll just stink up the place.

KISSING GAMES: You don't need boys to play Spin the Bottle and Seven Minutes in Heaven, but these are a la carte. Make your own matches!

OTHER GAMES: Drinking games can go here, but let's play Pretty Pretty Princess.

MAKEOVERS: Take a seat on the stone steps outside and Riley will slap some makeup on you. If she happens to be around!

♥ AFTER THE PARTY: Did you stay and clean up? Or did anyone need to get carried home? Hope all the strong girls stayed relatively sober.

♥ OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Divination is serious business, except when it's not. Little Miss Lightweight is offering up single card tarot readings in the spirit of the season—come get some questionable advice about love and relationships.

"Tell me about my love life," London says, flopping down in front of Lilika, already significantly inebriated.

Lilika has London shuffle the deck while thinking about love and relationships and hearts and fat babies with wings. She tries to do the same but her mind is a little fuzzy and she keeps getting distracted. Finally satisfied, Lilika draws one card and thwacks it down between them.

“Three of Cups. Oh, this is a good one,” she nods vigorously, “It’s all about, like ... the free flow of ideas or, like ... mutual benefit. You need to find a boy that shares your interests. Or needs something from you. Or you need something from him. The kind of boy who wants to accomplish something with you. I dunno, like a caper.” Maybe she’s projecting a little.

London has an easy time keeping romance on the brain as she shuffles the deck, and watches with awe as her friend draws her card. She leans so far in that she nearly knocks heads with Lilika. "Oooohh!" she says, clasping her hands together in delight. "I love capers! Now I just need to know who it's going to be!"

“I can’t divine that,” Lilika laments, though it’s unclear if she means that it’s outside the realm of possibility or simply that she herself is incapable. Either way, she’s particularly incapable at the moment, so it’s probably for the best that she doesn’t try. “I think you should focus on the what instead of the who,” she advises, “Like, focus on a goal that is important to you and see who, like ... operates in that orbit.” She punctuates with two full hands of spirit fingers.

"Of course it's not that easy," London says, then gives an exaggerated, forlorn sigh, but nods. "But, you're right, as always. I'll have to give a really good thought to my goals. The rest is sure to follow."

"It's New Year's Eve," Liberty says, sitting down across from Lilika. "Chinese New Year, I mean. So, what sort of fortune am I going to have in the year to come?"

“Really?” Lilika asks unnecessarily. Of course whatever Liberty says is the honest truth. She’s one of the few people at this school that Lilika reads as consistently genuine. “We should celebrate. Well, we are celebrating. But we should celebrate that! In a minute...”

She has Liberty shuffle and cut the deck while focusing her mind on the year ahead. Lilika is personally thinking about kissing boys as the other girl is shuffling, but not, like ... intensely. But maybe it skews the results.

When Liberty is ready, Lilika draws a card and places it between them. “The Devil. It’s not bad,” she assures instinctively. Everyone always panics when that card appears. Don’t panic! “It just means you’re gonna meet someone—or maybe you already did? And you’re gonna, like ... vibe. Intensely. Be careful not to lose yourself in this new relationship. But avoiding it will prove just as dangerous.”

"Really," she confirms with a nod, "It's the year of the goat. I'd considered bringing firecrackers or fireworks to the party, but that's probably not very inconspicuous. Besides, fireworks and drunk people don't mix."

Liberty doesn't look at all put off by the card that's drawn, merely curious as she leans in to more closely examine the artwork. "Are there supposed to be romantic connotations?" she asks, picking up on something in the way Lilika says relationship. "Curious, though. How does one meet anyone new at a small boarding school?"

GALENTINE'S DAY

LILIKA DOES TAROT

London

London

London

London

London

Liberty

Liberty

Liberty