Yule potluck party post is here! Open RP for all school

[iam_beowulf]

On the day of the Hufflepuff-hosted potluck, the Great Hall had been transformed to accommodate the event, courtesy of Skwisgaar, a few of his bandmates, and several other helpful volunteers from Hufflepuff -- and one Ravenclaw. Skwisgaar and Toki's adoptive dragon-son, Smaug, had assisted with arranging some of the heavier items

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[dreamingnotdead]

((Tagging in both Cthulhoo and the Shoggies here- they are out at the bonfire, as the Great Old One is too impossibly huge to fit in the school.))

A horde of Shoggies, each creatively wearing a headband marked with kanji which could be basically translated as 'unspeakable', and some partially draped with semi-eaten fur robes, gathered by the side of the Lake, with numerous voices piping at once. Mostly, these voices were calling out things such as, "Great Master Cthulhoo! It is your wake-up call!", "We call you! The stars are right for a party!", "Bring snacks!", "OH MY GREAT CTHULHOO I SEE FOREVER" (a number of Shoggies had gotten into some drugged food back at the party inside, which unlike magic did affect them), "IA Cthulhoo! Fhtagn!", and far less pronounceable things. Without any proceeding sign an impossibly huge head, green and tentacled, rose above the waters, followed by most of the squamous horror's upper body. How exactly it was that Great Cthulhoo fit in the lake was one of those many mysteries of Hogwarts, which Cthulhoo had never felt any need to understand. Dozing for aeons in his sunken house in R'lyeh wasn't the most exciting pasttime. The Vault where he mysteriously hung out with the other Great Old Ones while he was still sleeping in R'lyeh managed to relieve much of his boredom, but, Hogwarts was nevertheless a mildly amusing diversion.

Cthulhoo had been somewhat confused when he managed to receive a letter from Hogwarts despite the Vault's interdimensional nature, especially a letter telling him he was a goat, and addressing him as a wizard despite the fact that he was unmistakably a god. After a few re-readings, Cthulhoo's deep and malevolent intellect did manage to grasp the actual concept of the missive, and decided that as it was a form letter, that perhaps the lack of proper address was unintentional. Thus, Cthulhoo had briefly emerged into the Hogwarts dimension to tell some Shoggies to wake him up when it was time for the party, before sensing out the mind of his victim present-recipient, suprised to find that it was delightfully non-euclidean for a human brain, one of the nicest he'd seen since good old Abdul Alhazred's. He then put in what he considered an apt order with Nyarly's Joke and Novelty Shop before dozing off again until the Shoggies called, a few ideas forming in his incomprehensible mind.

Cthulhoo's moodiness at being awoken by the distant, piping voices of a swarm of Shoggies filtering in from the impossible to designate direction he recognized as Hogwarts was a short lived thing. Before moving through the dimensions to the lake where he generally appeared, Cthulhoo grabbed the requested 'snacks', and thus, appeared carrying a blue whale (dead but still fresh), which he tossed down by the side of the lake. It was due to this that the Shoggies' cries of "Oh hello there, Great Master Cthulhoo!" quickly degraded into a mass "Oooooh!" followed by a madness of excited piping, and then into the sound of Shoggies tearing into the immense pile of meat. Cthulhoo greeted the amorphous horrors by patting (and temporarily flattening) a couple with an unspeakably huge 'hand', and looked around for the recipient of his gift. It was possible that he'd like an explanation regarding the proper pronunciation of 'fhtagn'. The Shoggies were somewhat less watchful, being focused on the whale carcass, but nevertheless most were keeping at least an eye or two out for the recipient of their handiwork or the possible revelation of the individual who had given them headbands and trees and tasty snacks.

[miranda_bnewski]

There were aliens at Hogwarts of course. But this? This was eldrich. It loomed. And the shoggie-things tearing into the whale carcass were their own kind of horror. Miranda stared, openmouthed.

"HOLY HELL!" The water curse made her voice louder than it would have been. "CAN ANYONE ELSE SEE THAT!?"

[dreamingnotdead]

"We can ALL see Great Master Cthulhoo!" a Shoggy shouted back. Dumb as it was, even it knew the sound of a human recognizing the eldritch horror that was Great Cthulhoo when they heard it. "We see you too!" called another- managing to do this at the same time as tearing into the whale due to possessing an irregular quantity of mouths. "We're at Hogwarts, not Hell," another helpfully attempted to explain.

The vast and ponderous mind of the Great Old One took a moment to notice Miranda, but after a moment the huge head turned in her direction. "And unholy would be more accurate, mortal." he clarified.

[miranda_bnewski]

"UM." Miranda stood back. She was still screaming at the top of her voice every time she spoke. And that- that was scary. Maybe a bit cartoonish as well but still scary. "ALRIGHT THEN!" she managed.

[my_soul_itches]

((Shoggies' brief cameo with approval.))

Megan had no idea who Great Master Cthulhoo was. So, back when she got her Yule Goat assignment, she gave a mental shrug and decided to just do something as Christmassy as possible, and hope for the best.

And now it was the party, and she still had no clue who Great Master Cthulhoo was. She stood by one of the tables, loading up some waffles with ice cream because why not, when she overheard someone mention her recipient. She looked, and did a double take, because it was those Shoggies things that kept talking about chicken and were kind of gross looking but not that bad, really, and they couldn't help how they looked. She asked one (at least, she assumed it was one; they kind of globbed and she could never keep track) where she could find this Cthulhoo guy and was pointed in the direction of the outdoors bonfire.

So outside she flew, holding carefully on to her waffles and ice cream, and--

Oh.

Wow.

She fluttered down near--sort of near--maybe not near, it was big and smelled--the whale (whale?!) carcass, staring.

The snowflake scarf would never fit him, a small part of her mind thought in dismay.

[dreamingnotdead]

After devouring the edible portion of their own gifts, tying on their headbands in a variety of creative ways, and delivering all their miniature trees to the mysterious vicinity of the Dethtower, a number of Shoggies brought package to Cthulhoo, having found it labeled with their Great Master's name. Luckily, this package did not smell edible, and so they managed to bring it to him without any bites missing. Cthulhoo hadn't really understood the nature of the gift exchange, but, he did understanding offerings, and interpreted the present as one of these.

When Megan arrived, Cthulhoo was peering at her gift in one immense 'hand', squinting at the little objects it contained. A Shoggy he held up as well had opened the card- the happy trees reminded Cthulhoo of Shubby, the Black Goat of the Woods, and certain yearly rites and festivals whose origins went back further than humanity would care to know. It was good to know these weren't entirely forgotten. This caused Cthulhoo to decide that the sunglass-wearing stuffed reindeer was likely an effigy of Shubby made by this culture- he wasn't sure if a statue of another God was exactly a traditional offering, but, Shubby was a friend, and it was nice to be remembered. He wasn't overly sure what the scarf was, but presumed it an aesthetic part of the offering. He was carefully adjusting it with the tip of an enormous claw when a tiny flash of wings caught his eye, and he slowly looked down at Megan.

He wasn't sure what kind of mortal Megan was- he hadn't noticed where humans had started developing wings, but, supposed it probable. Or was she some species of zoog? "Hello, little mortal. Did you leave me this offering?" He indicated the stuffed reindeer.

[my_soul_itches]

"I, uh... hi. Yes, that's... um. It's less an offering and more a Christmas present?"

Really big. Huge, even.

"You know, for the Yule Goat thing?"

So... did he use a wand, or...? No, a wand would be like a splinter or something. Maybe a tree?

"To make people happy around... um, winter holidays?"

Weren't blue whales endangered? She bit down on a sad whimper for the blue whale. Maybe if it was a bunch of cows or something instead... but then it'd be like, a hundred dead cows versus just one dead blue whale. It was sad any way you thought about it.

[dreamingnotdead]

"A present is a kind of offering!" a Shoggy interjected. "Ours are sooo cool! We got head-flags." yet another put in- it was rather difficult to avoid interrupting Shoggies given the number in the vicinity.

That the 'offering' was actually a present clarified it somewhat- offerings usually squirmed and screamed a lot more. "A present? I don't think a mortal's ever given me a present before. Sacrifices, but not presents. It's a nice little effigy. I like how it squishes." Cthulhoo, being an ancient and unfathomable horror didn't have feelings exactly like those of humans, but, something in Cthulhoo's immeasurable black heart was somehow brightened by the present. It was, after all, his only present from a mortal in all his aeons of godhood. And it really was nice to know that the Old Ones seemed to be remembered, somehow- or so he chose to interpret Yule Goats and winter holidays. Cthulhoo's tentacles curled in what was in fact a 'happy' expression. Usually, this was associated with a lot more madness or carnage, but, Hogwarts had a distinctly mellowing effect on Cthulhoo and his appetite.

"Did you want some whale? Most of the best parts are still left." Cthulhoo asked, relaxed enough to be oddly sociable- after all, it was a party. He lacked skill at recognizing or even understanding the purpose of mortal emotions- Cthulhoo had a sense for human minds, but it was more a color and shape and flavor sort of thing. He couldn't read what they were thinking. He could only invade them on occasion, leaving strange impressions and visions, often leading to insanity.

Incidentally, had Cthulhoo realized he'd brought an endangered breed of whale, he'd have actually been angry. It was easy to miss details when sleeping for ages. But, he'd still noticed humans screwing with his home far too much lately, and whales were delicious.

[my_soul_itches]

She froze with a polite smile on her face. Were presents really a type of offering? She hadn't known that, and certainly hadn't meant to make any offerings to anyone. "They're very nice head-flags," she told the Shoggies automatically. "They set off your, um, pseudopods very well."

Cthulhoo's seeming clarification settled her mind a little, and she relaxed. "Really? Well... merry, um. Yule." Somehow, she wasn't sure that giant tentacle thingies who thought that presents were offerings celebrated any of the holidays that she was familiar with, and went with the one that had been on the invitation. "It's supposed to be a reindeer. They don't look much like that in real life, though."

She turned slightly green herself at his invitation, but smiled brightly despite that. "No, thank you. I got some waffles and ice cream inside." She held up her plate of mostly untouched waffle, and now half-melted ice cream (the bonfire was not kind to ice cream.)

[dreamingnotdead]

"We don't have heads, so we had to loop the head-flags around until they stuck!" A few of the Shoggies approached Megan, finding someone new to talk to more interesting than the whale. The whale was going to last a while, even with the Shoggies' unnatural appetites. They piped happily at the compliment, several of them waving said pseudopods to illustrate just how nice they were set off by the 'head-flags'. "We like your wings! They set off your. . . . um. . ." the Shoggy turned to another, asking, "What's the cute little head-tentacles called again?" "The wings set off her bouncy-parts well!" chimed in another, pleased to have demonstrated its recognition of human sexual dimorphism.

Cthulhoo observed the sky for a moment, his gaze wandering between moon and several different constellations before turning back to Megan. "Merry Yule to you too, little cultist," he replied, deciding that the stellar alignments were indeed right to suggest this time of year, changed as they were through the years. Cthulhoo did not exactly celebrate Yule himself, but he did enjoy the planet's seasonal celebrations. The cultists remaining to the Great Old Ones tended to pick these points in time to hold their rites and make their offerings. He expected he'd be getting more as the Northern hemisphere's night wore on, probably of the meaty kind. It was going to be a nice night.

Cthulhoo lifted the stuffed toy up again. "I thought it was a Shubby effigy. It's still nice and squishy. Most effigies don't look much like their counterparts. You should see some of mine! They're almost embarrassing."

"There are waffles and ice cream in there?" Cthulhoo examined the tasty-looking remnants on Megan's plate, and plucked the Shoggy from his hand and put it down by the lake. "Shoggy, take more Shoggies, and bring back waffles and ice cream." It was going to be a nice night indeed. No one ever offered him waffles and ice cream. Sometimes he got to eat cultists containing waffles or icecream, but really, it wasn't quite the same.

[my_soul_itches]

"They look very nice." Megan wondered briefly what on Earth they could be talking about, then flushed about as pink as her hair as bouncy-parts registered. The light from the bonfire kept her a rather uniform orangish shade, though. "Thankyouthat'sverykind," she squeaked.

"It's supposed to be a reindeer," she explained. "They don't really look like that, though. Also, they're bigger in real life. So... maybe it's kind of like an effigy? It's more a stuffed animal, though. You know, to sit there and look cute." She felt slightly silly now, giving a stuffed animal to... that... but he seemed to like it well enough. "Some people play with them, but most people stop when they get old enough."

Megan nodded briefly over her shoulder back at the castle. "Oh, yes. They've got lots of things. I just really like waffles and ice cream. For some reason, I always want ice cream when it's cold out. And when it's warm out too, but it always seems strange to want something cold when it's cold."

[dreamingnotdead]

Luck was on Megan's side, as the Shoggy didn't carry on about her 'bouncy-parts', having already showcased its understanding of human anatomy. It had also been distracted by the group exodus to the castle to obtain Cthulhoo's requested waffles and ice cream, and ended up falling in with the group who hurried off on this errand.

"I think that counts as an effigy. That's all that some of mine seem to do these days. Have reindeer been around long? I can never keep track." He'd had arrived on Earth well before dinosaurs had ever set foot on land, so it was occasionally difficult to keep track of exactly what species appeared when. Humans were relatively new, but, rather memorable. "And when did humans start having wings? Are you a new species of human?" He supposed that wings were a good adaption, but, hoped it wouldn't catch on too much- when the stars were finally right he didn't want to spend too much effort chasing his food around.

"I like this place," Cthulhoo remarked. "I never get waffles and ice cream in the Vault or at my House in R'lyeh. And it's always a good time for waffles and ice cream." He half-wanted to add 'or cultists', but, as usual, Hogwarts simply put the idea of eating its inhabitants out of his mind. Waffles and ice cream sounded much better at the moment.

[my_soul_itches]

"Well, they've--" She stopped and frowned. Science wasn't Megan's strongest subject. "I think they have. I can't be certain, but... I mean, you don't see them as a recent sort of thing." Reindeer couldn't be recent. They had to be about as recent as dogs and cats and elephants and therefore around almost forever, right? At least in terms of her experience.

"I'm a--a mutant," she said firmly. "With a little fairie thrown in, but mostly mutant. So... kind of a new species, yeah. Some of us have wings. Not all." She'd only met a few others with wings, to be honest, plus a handful of wingless mutants who could fly without them. Like Northstar, who was pretty awesome and treated her like almost an equal sometimes. (Mostly she suspected that he thought it was funny getting a technically underage kid drunk after Dazzler concerts, but he still kept an eye on her and made sure she didn't do anything too stupid.) "Or sometimes we look normal and just have powers. Or we look different and have no powers at all." She shrugged.

"How big is your house?" she blurted out before the tentative filter between her mouth and brain could even think of asserting itself. "I mean--yeah, it's always a good time for them. But really, if the castle's too small for you, where do you live exactly?"

[dreamingnotdead]

"I suppose I just missed them, then," Cthulhoo conjectured. Reindeer appeared to have land-feet, so probably didn't come into the water all that often, and, he supposed he'd just missed them from the Vault. Or that he'd just not noticed them- it was easy to miss little details over the years.

But, due to being around for aeons, the idea of mutants made perfect sense to Cthulhoo. Evolution had to happen somehow. Perhaps all mutants weren't the herald of divergence that would lead to a new species, but some of them certainly were. "They're nice wings. Wings are a good adaption," Cthulhoo replied. "Maybe someday, you'll make ones that can fly through space." Cthulhoo fluttered his incongruously small wings, as if in illustration. Amazingly, his wings did sort of work in the air, but, were primarily adapted to steering him through space.

Hogwarts' unusually relaxing influence had Cthulhoo in a conversational mood. "My house? It's big enough, nothing too special. Just a few hundred square miles, but it's mostly just me, and I mostly sleep there these days. It's over. .. hrm. . ." Cthulhoo looked around, and, then pointed in a roughly south-western direction. "It's out that way, in R'lyeh. I think R'lyeh's in what you call the Pacific ocean these days. It's in a big, empty spot in the Southern Hemisphere. It's underwater, right now." He sighed, a bit disappointed at just how long it was taking for the stars to be right so that R'lyeh could rise again, permanently. "It's come up a few times, but, hasn't stuck in ages. Last time it did, someone drove a boat through my head!" Cthulhoo still wasn't really over this incident- it was damn disconcerting, having a boat driven through your head, even if your head wasn't made of normal matter, and had recovered just fine.

It was then that the Shoggies began streaming back from the castle, each carrying as many plates as it could manage, piled up with waffles and ice cream, in no particular order. "Good job, Shoggies!" Cthulhoo exclaimed as the Shoggies began stacking the plates at the lakeside. Cthulhoo picked one of these plates up, and popped the bite-size morsel somewhere amongst his tentacles, plate and all. "Yum yum! That's some good waffles and ice-cream. You can have some if you want. Yours is starting to look kind of runny."

[my_soul_itches]

"Well, they do live pretty far up north. At least, I think they do." Geography was also not one of Megan's strong suits. Nor was zoology. Some people were just not cut out certain subjects, especially when the school year was continually interrupted by bombs, terrorists, aliens, magic, demons, and robots.

"That would be pretty cool. Flying through space, I mean. I've seen pictures, and I've heard there's a lot of awesome stuff out there. I can't go very high before the air gets thin and I get cold, personally." Her own wings fluttered in unconscious response, reflecting some of the firelight across the trees. Her wings were awesome.

"Wow! That sounds awesome. I'm over... um. There. I think. Wherever Gryffindor is. Hey, do you know where Atlantis is? Or was, I think it's destroyed now and that's why they're living under Utopia. Anyway, I think it was also in the Pacific. They're blue people with kind of markings on them, except for Namor who looks like a human except he has pointy ears and he's got wings on his feet." And he was kind of intimidating and she didn't talk to him unless she absolutely had to, which was pretty much never.

She waved to the Shoggies, and smiled hurriedly up at Cthulhoo. "Thanks, but no. It's kind of--I don't think I can eat it fast enough out here? I'll just get more whenever I go back in. Um. Any of you Shoggies want the rest?"

[dreamingnotdead]

"That might be why I never noticed them, then. I don't get out of R'lyeh much, except for the Vault. And here, lately." He still didn't know why he was occasionally finding himself drawn to what the Shoggies had assured him was a school. Often, he wondered what was inside, other than Shoggies, but just couldn't bring himself to open it and find out. Maybe if he could somehow be smaller for a bit. . .not that he had any idea how to accomplish this. He'd have to do some asking around- something for the Shoggies to do, perhaps. There seemed to be some weird energies at Hogwarts, perhaps even a few that might be able to affect him.

"There's some awesome stuff out there, but mostly, it's just a lot of empty space. I suppose that's why it's space," Cthulhoo was starting to feel unusually thoughtful. Possibly even philosophical. He popped another few plates of waffles and ice cream into whatever unspeakable mouth was concealed by his tentacles. "I'd take you up to see, but, I'm technically stuck at my house in R'lyeh until the stars are right again. Either it's taking forever, or, I slept through it the last time."

"Gryffindor? Is that one of the little towers?" Cthulhoo really was curious about their contents, especially after discovering that the castle was apparently full of food. "I know a few underwater cities where the Deep Ones live. Y'ha-nthlei's in the Atlantic ocean, but, maybe it's one of their Pacific cities? The Deep Ones are Dagoon's, but come by R'lyeh sometimes. They're sort of blue-people, and sort of frog-fish." "And they're sooo cute!" added a random Shoggy. "I can see them now ifs I squint right!" another Shoggy insisted- this one's eyes were all unusually dilated, suggesting that it had partaken in food containing some of Valentine's little treats. That it then started talking to a Deep One who wasn't there pretty much confirmed this.

"For us?" A few Shoggies gazed at Megan. "Thank you, little Mastress with Wings!" one declared with delight, as the others nearby piped happily. "Whale is good, but ice cream is better!" "Not all of it, Shoggies," Cthulhoo interjected. Cthulhoo reached down and pushed a pile of waffles and icecream apart for the Shoggies. "The rest is mine!"