My work-in-progress, The Demon Wore Stilettos, is coming along well, with a target date for a first draft at the end of this year. It opens with Sam and Lil giving a party in Hell, along about 8,000 BC.
Samael, the Demon of Pride, walked Lucifer to the front door of his apartment in the First Ring of Hell. “Thanks for coming.”
Lucifer was a short, skinny figure with leathery skin the color of sour cherries. In the two thousand years since he’d founded Hell, he’d shriveled, losing all resemblance to the bright morning star he had once been. Beneath the little horns poking out of the top of his head, his narrow face did not look happy. Behind him, his arrow-tipped tail swished angrily.
“Hell of a party.” He looked back into the cave, where the party was still in full swing. .
Sam’s quarters, like every other apartment in Hell, consisted of a huge cave sculpted from hardened lava. Near the back wall, a quartet of demons yodeled disharmonies while the audience pelted them with rotten figs. In the middle of the room, at a bar constructed from stalagmites and a slab of granite, a bartender mixed pus with boiling water for an endless line of takers, who shuddered as they slugged back the concoction and then got in line for more.
Around the room a dozen smudge pots burned, filling the air with sulfurous smoke. Several demons roasted wild boar sausages over the open fires while others, drunk on pus cocktails, tried to pee on the sausages. Here and there fights broke out when one of them was successful.
You all were so helpful in suggesting things that might go on in Hell’s daycare that I’ve decided to tap the hive mind for party suggestions.
What other kinds of activities might go on at a demon party? (Remember: this takes place approximately 8000 BC.) Hell often has technology before it shows up on Earth (because most technology is create in Hell) but not thousands of years before, so please stay within that constraint.
Eight Ladies Writing 
Wrestling, fighting, contests like who can spit farther, drinking games, nudity, sex, orgies, beatings and friendly torture (of acquaintances), practical jokes like cutting someone’s hair, setting someone on fire, or writing stupid “kick me“ things on someone’s back. Maybe some BDSM? Getting high/stoned/hallucinating. Frat party tricks like chugging puss/drink concoctions, parading around naked, stealing something important (like a mascot), or stupid dares or physical challenges. Maybe that might give you ideas? It also might depend on the relative age of the person in hell. Is it an old codger? Or are they young, stupid, impressionable devil wannabes? That might help you decide what happens.
These are some great suggestions!
My Hell is populated by fallen angels, who are immortal and essentially ageless. I generally present them as being in their mid-thirties, so these work great.
Thanks!
I LOVED The Demon Always Wins and am looking forward to reading the next in the series. I always find Dad-dancing completely cringeworthy and would consider myself in Hell if I was surrounded by people who really couldn’t dance.
Lol–that’s perfect! Thanks!
Also, right back at ya on the book love! Loved The Garden Plot and I have Love in a Mist on my Kindle & plan to start it as soon as I finish Out On the Ice by Kelly Farmer, my current read.
I hope you enjoy it! I’d be very interested in your feedback!
Feedback, absolutely. I’m all about leaving reviews!
I think Justine has pretty much said it all! And I have to say, either she’s got an incredible imagination (which of course she does), or … maybe she had a wild youth. Just sayin’. 🙂
I’m thinking both!
Love your hellish party activities (except the pus cocktails . . . I was eating corn chips when I read that, and I’m not anymore. Effective . . . maybe too effective!). Justine’s got great ideas, too. I could see a lot of those activities on a Grecian urn, LOL! And Dad-dancing? Yeah, that’s gotta be eternal. Maybe Lucifer busts some moves, and embarrasses the younger/fresher demons?
Wine, women and song covers a lot of very old party games. Seductive naked or near-naked dancing/writhing (in all genders) on a stage near the band. Would they have animals underfoot? I can picture dogs, rats and maybe a stray chicken underfoot at a mundane ancient party. Hell-hounds? Lizards? Snakes from the ceilings?
Also, I would look up Victorian party games for a whole new kind of hell. One from the 1920s that I remember fairly vividly was to set raw eggs all over the living room. Choose a person to be blindfolded, and tell them you’ll set up an obstacle course of chairs, etc, and they have to avoid the eggs. Give them 2 minutes to memorize where the eggs are. (Should be at least 20.) Send them out of the room with someone in on the joke to blindfold them. Then, clear away all the eggs and scatter the floor with saltine crackers, let the blindfolded person in, and have them cross the room.
I don’t know if this can actually be worked into a hell-party. But maybe it’ll inspire some other party games. Tell a Whopper or Dare?
If you ever decide to change careers, party planner for demonic events should be one you consider!