CHAPTER 33 – RALAMARA AND TRAN – TOOTHPICK PARTY

Second Age, Echo Realm

"This is absolutely disgraceful" Ralamara whispered to her friend Tran Carpenter underneath her venetian mask. For this private party alone, the revelers had spared no expense. When partygoers were bored of dancing, they would pick up one of the silent vacuum cleaners that were arranged on the wall and go about sucking up all the free coins that filled the room. "This is why our boys and girls are getting secondhand everything" she reiterated, nudging her politely. "Yes, darling, but that's hardly a reason to fret" Tran, spurning such an infantile quibble answered as she showed a little bit of ankle to the waiter as he passed. "Place like this could become a cinnamon den if you're not careful" Ralamara chided. Tran took hold of her friend's venetian mask and threw it away into the crowd, "darling, you are far too uptight. Respect the relaxation riddle a little". Ralamara pouted, thinking to herself what scathing remarks her friend would have if she were to bring her to a typical club in the portion, with people dancing to that new hit, "I like grub, rub a dub dub" as videos showed Measuring-Cup Domination eat sandwiches in a bubble bath on the viewscreen. The fact of the matter was, these gatherings had always been a drain on resources and led them to be totally unprepared when tragedy struck, whether they were for the Couple, the metacoma or the upper set, and no one had learned anything. She was just the only one clearsighted enough to notice. "Oh my!" one of the ladies yelped as her vacuum cleaner began to malfunction and spurt coins out in every direction. The crowd took notice, and just as they did the mechanism exploded in a shower of coins that stopped short, spinning in the air, "Hello, one and all! Allow me to introduce myself. I am the master of ceremonies, and gamemaster for all of tonight's glorious distractions!". The crowd cheered and listened intently to his instructions. The men were to be separated from the women and enter a private room at the far end of the chamber. Then, when they came back, they were to all be seated at a row of chairs. The festivities would continue as usual, but with the men taking no part, being only onlookers for the remainder of the night. "How pleasantly presumptuous!" Tran laughed and shooed away the men that grumbling, passed them by. "Maybe I am being a bit ethnocentric" Ralamara thought and grabbed her friend's hand, leading her over to that part of the room with a fountain around the corners of which red foxes were seated with straws in their mouths and blew into them, making bubbles. The two girls grabbed their own straws from the pile and joined the foxes. When they had labored enough, a contraption at the center of the fountain rewarded them with a wineglass. "I think I've figured out you little miss schoolteacher" Tran started as she sipped her glass, "All you do is complain about how everyone is misbehaving all the time, and you've taken care of everyone for so long, that you've never really had any time for yourself, have you?". Leaning back against the fountain, she caressed the head of a fox as she glanced out into the crowd, "I wouldn't say that, but there are some things that always need to be taken care of. By the way, it's not like I haven't got any good offers before". "Whoo hoo. Bet you have, darling. You minx" Tran yelped excitedly, poking her with the straw before tossing it onto the floor. Just then the men returned from their private meeting and arrayed themselves on the row of wooden chairs across the walls of the chamber. The music alternated to classical as a line of waiters appeared from the kitchen carrying trays of appetizers and mixed in with the crowd. As they made their rounds the woman flocked to them, very selectively selecting a toothpick, and when they were done tossed it back onto the empty platter. "Wonder what all the interest is. Looks like normal appetizers to me" Ralamara chuckled. Tran turned to her and rolled her eyes, "They are normal darling. It's not about the appetizers. The men go into the private room like just now where they are castrated, and their special amigos are turned into toothpicks. Then the waiters come out, and the women pick the toothpicks. Haven't you been to a toothpick party before, they do one every month or so?". The woman as she heard this was too shocked to react. She looked over at the crowd and watched in disgust as a lady removed her venetian mask and pluck an appetizer off of a platter, almost in slow motion. Tran summoned over a waiter that crossed their path and did the same, savoring the toothpick as it rested between her lips. Looking over the row of chairs, she tried to guess which one of them it was. Each of them could barely sit still. "What a lucky young buck this must be" she laughed, then flicked the toothpick across the room. At this, the schoolteacher's emotions began to boil over. Stomping to the center of the room, she slammed her foot down, "Everyone stop what you're doing right now!". The crowd gasped as the new distraction presented itself. "Can any one of you really say you are proud of yourselves? You should be humiliated. This is repulsive and wrong. And more than that, this stupid party is taking away so much that we could have given to support our brothers and sisters who are fighting now, going head to head with the other realms just to protect us, and this is the thanks they get?" the schoolteacher belted out with vigor. Tran jumped in to save face, "Don't mind her. She's almost too ditzy for me! But I think it would be a fabulous idea if we did give something to our friends on the front line, tonight, don't you all think?". Five minutes later, a waiter pushed a cart of vacuum cleaners out of the front door. In front of him were both women, each of them holding a full vacuum cleaner in their arms, which had hurriedly been thrust upon them, after they were escorted out of the party. "Don't worry, I have some connections that can get us back in next month's get-together" Tran sighed as she watched her friend struggle with the weight of the vacuum. So they ended up going to a different party that was A LOT less fun. On a table there was a shoe filled with delicious salty pretzels. Beginning to stir, the partygoers turned to see what was hidden inside. They stared at it until a bunny popped its head out of the mass of pretzels. "Excuse me, can we be reasonable? It's obvious that no one here is having a good time"