Author: Bloody Mary
{oOo}
Rogal Dorn had a very good reason to dread family gatherings. He was harboring a secret suspicion that he was the only person there who was not somehow insane. Well, the Emperor obviously was sane too. Even the fact that he created most of the madman could not persuade him otherwise.
The rest… He simply had to watch.
The most obvious were Leman Russ and Magnus the Red, who were having an aggressive drinking contest punctuated by loud invectives. Instead of actually stopping them, Thora was engaged in an arm wrestling contest with one of the Custodes, while Ira was grilling a wild-eyed Lorgar.
That wasn't to say the others were better. His own cousin, Azmina, was doing her best to chatter Alpharius to death. For some reason, she insisted on calling him Betagon and continued to pester him about a "palette swap", whatever that was. Alpharius on his part was, during Azmina's breathing breaks, doing his best to antagonize Roboute Guilliman. While, as far as Rogal could tell, it wasn't working, Guilliman was making the mistake of actually responding.
Did the man have a dictionary in his head? He sounded stuffier than a room that had been locked for a hundred years.
Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus were engaged in one of their usual ego-stroking competitions. That is Fulgrim was gushing about how perfect Ferrus' weapons were and Ferrus was going "strength, strength, strength". Fulgrim would occasionally pause and engage in a complimenting session with Amphithoe, but those were usually quickly broken up by Esin, who monopolized most of Neptune's attention.
Konrad Curze and Jagathai Khan were discussing how to best preserve heads to make them appear most horrifying. Corax had managed to convince Mortarion to demonstrate just how many poisonous things he could eat. That is until Persephone had given them both one of those soulful sad looks and they both subsided into silence.
Then Angron started yelling at Leman Russ and Magnus to shut them up, which, of course, had the two yelling back.
Horus and Serenity actually attempted to get everyone to calm down, but this was sabotaged by Lion El'Jonson who chose this moment to start questioning Horus' authority. While Alta did her best to get him to shut up, it was still enough for Horus to get snippy.
Meanwhile, Rogal's stare met the gaze of Perturabo. Soon enough they were silently glaring daggers at each other.
Tekhne, unnoticed by the others, withdrew a book and started reading under the table.
{oOo}