deathsmajesty | The Creepy And Now Holiday-Appropriate Mansion, Thursday Evening

The Creepy And Now Holiday-Appropriate Mansion, Thursday Evening

Once again, the gate that blocked off the bottom end of Phoenix Way was opened, inviting everyone to the creepy (though much less abandoned) mansion. This time, however, instead of being guided around to the gardens, the lit path led them to the front door, where the a tall figure in a tattered robe and deep cowl gestured for them to step inside the door and get onto a...boat? Once people had climbed in settled themselves, the ferryman began to guide the ship down the River Styx. Or, okay, their long entrance hallway, with blue lights to either side of their boat to mimic water and bathing everyone in an eerie blue glow. (Yes, okay, the boat perhaps wheeled down the hallway rather than floated, but they had not refinished this house just to flood the hallway for verisimilitude. Even if Liliana had considered it for a few minutes.)

The double doors leading to the ballroom were opened, with thick fog rolling out of the doorway. And through that doorway, people could descend the stairs into the Underworld proper. Black and gold were the prevailing color, with deep red nods to a pomegranate motif. Gold coins and loose gemstones added to the decor, a nod to Hades' wealth - but even amidst all the dark opulence, touches of other colors could be seen: tucked away in various corners and small niches were flowering plants, a surprise kiss of springtime to be found in the least likely places. Rather than one large chandelier, they had several, creating areas of both light and shadow around the ballroom.

Welcome to the Underworld, dear friends.

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Had Irene and Amaya been somehow tipped off, all the way in far-off Daventry, about the theme this evening? Or had Irene simply been waiting for the right opportunity for this particular playful couples costume, and this felt right?

One could totally just have a couples costume with the woman one lived with in a far-off kingdom, you know. It didn't have, like, to mean anything unless you wanted it to.

But, of course, it was also possible Irene simply didn't have enough opportunities to wear Tom Ford in far-off Daventry.

Clad in a gathered pale lilac gown, with a simple hairpiece and a necklace just to add a touch more to the effect -- no points for guessing who made either of those, by the way -- Aphrodite made her entrance. And as was tradition by now, the first thing that caught her eye was those chandeliers.

"Bloody hell, they're multiplying," she noted admiringly.

Graham. The key component here was Graham. And his....copious amount of frequent letters keeping them updated on all the important stuff, once you managed to parse through all the pages of tangents and babbling.

Amaya just sort of followed Irene's eyes with a bit of a wistful sigh.

"I really do need to get into the chandelier business," she noted. And not even because of Fandom's recent upsurge in interest in them! Imagine all the nobles back home that could be convinced to have their own little one-upmanship on the thing sif she just sort of played her cards in peddling the idea to them right.

But, with that wry little comment, she did shift her attention back over to Irene with the faint sort of smile she got on her face when she still couldn't quite figure out what to do with how things had gone recently and admitted, "I'm glad we were able to come and do this."

See, comments like that were liable to make Irene start taking measurements of their own ceiling-to-floor ratios back home. Who said only the nobles needed chandeliers?

"Would we need to involve a glass-blower, for chandeliers?" Irene wondered idly, shifting a touch closer in response to that smile and reaching to give Amaya's arm -- so kind of her to put on this show, darling, but mind the swooning folks surely left in her wake -- an affectionate squeeze. "And you know, I'm glad we came, too. Polite of everything not to change too much."

Though, again, surely Graham would have given them a heads up if the island had been engulfed in endless winter or sent to space or some other insanity.

Perhaps a better use for those measurements might be figuring out how to lift the ceiling back home first.

Although it should be noted, the apartment over the shop back in Daventry was remarkably like the one here in Fandom. That had been very intentional, of course.

Her nose wrinkled a little at the mention of finding a glass blower. "Not sure I know anyone really in that business at the moment," she admitted. "Suppose I could ask around. Or maybe pick it up myself. Where there's a market, there's a way! Otherwise, we'll probably have to deal with the Merchant of Miracles, and I still have to fight the urge to boot that scheming little whelp halfway to the Land of the Green Isles every time I see his tiny purple shorts."

"Irene!" Liliana didn't quite yell her name across the ballroom or anything, but she also wasn't exactly quiet when she spotted her--

Huh. For a moment, she'd nearly thought friend.

Which was ridiculous, Liliana Vess didn't do friends, but just for the tiniest second--Probably the island doing something.

Never mind, no reason to keep thinking about it, she was right there to say hello anyway. "Irene, darling, how lovely to see you tonight. You look ravishing, as is appropriate."

Irene, who was much more comfortable considering people her friends -- it was their own fault if/when they eventually discovered she was fantastically bad at friendship, right? -- absolutely beamed at the exuberance of that greeting.

"A bit more like my own ravishing self than last year, yeah?" she asked, grinning, as she modeled the dress a bit for Liliana. (Last year, of course, Irene had been a fairly memorable if also mildly disguised redheaded bombshell for Halloween.) "You look fantastic, Liliana. Did you somehow get prettier while I've been away? Did the house? How have you been?"

"I do hope you kept that wig around for special occasions," Liliana replied with a wicked grin. "And, darling, you know the answer to both of those is yes! We've finally finished renovating the house - some time I must have you and Tony over for poker so we can see who cheats the best - and I am like exquisite jewelry. I only get better."

And it had NOTHING TO DO with being like...stupidly happy or anything like that. Certainly not being in love. That was nonsense talk.

"I have been wonderful," she said. "I took this semester off from teaching, but I plan to teach next semester again." She smirked at Irene. "Ethical Dilemmas. Should be fun. And how about you? You know how this island is, it's either nonsense or it's the same every day. Tell me about what you've been up to!"

Look. When one was at a party as the goddess of love -- and, perhaps more to the point, when one had recently committed in a fairly life-altering way to one's own beloved -- one was inclined to, perhaps, read into one's friends' happiness.

Which was to say: sure, Liliana. JenniferLawrenceSure.gif.

"I shall have to wear my sleeviest gown for the occasion," Irene noted, wiggling the fingers at the ends of her very bared arms and grinning at Liliana. (Please. As though simply having a literal ace up her sleeve was all she'd attempt at a poker night. Child's play!) "The place -- and you, of course -- looks marvelous, darling. Thanks for having us. And honestly, I've hardly been up to anything -- Daventry is a bit of a culture shock, no matter how brilliant Amaya is and how much indoor plumbing and electricity she's figured out for me, so it's been a lot of getting my feet under me."

And taking long walks to counteract the piles of carbohydrates she was now encountering, given her newfound round-the-clock proximity to Wente Fey.

Just sell your soul to four demons, Irene. No more exercising. If you could no longer be an energy projection of how you liked to imagine yourself best, the Four Demon Regime couldn't be beat.

"Well, darling, any time you get bored, feel free to give me a ring. With an entire Multiverse at our fingertips, we can certainly get up to something."

"I'll keep that in mind -- especially since now I have a comparison point beyond Fandom and my own native lands," Irene replied with a slight widening of her smile. "Fandom is a bit like having a sampler platter of all sorts of things that exist in other places; actually living in a spot where I might see a troll, and not the internet sort, is more of an adventure."

Not that she'd run afoul of a troll personally (yet), but still.

"Let me know if you'd like to, darling," Liliana said with a laugh. "I know several planes we can visit for that, too. Ravnica, even. Shopping in the afternoon, talk to some trolls in the evening, head back to the Millennium Platform for dinner and drinks."

Ignis' greeting, however, was much more mild and reserved than Liliana's, although (and no one please tell her this), there may have been a small, pleased chuckle at the...well, let's just call it enthusiasm in which that greeting had happened.

"Irene." There was a soft, fond warmness in his voice that a few and very few people at the party would be receiving, but Irene absolutely would, because though they didn't keep up as much, especially with her gone from the island, he would always feel a distinct gratitude for her particular brand of consideration, especially in her appreciation for sharing her thoughts on fashion with him, in the past. "What a lovely surprise. How have you been?"

"I couldn't possibly miss a Halloween party hosted by you two," Irene replied, her own tone injected with warmth -- and, as always, she took great care to give auditory clues as to where she was positioned in relation to Ignis, while hopefully also maintaining an air of casualness, as though she made sure everyone she spoke to could tell where she was standing from voice alone. "Particularly with such a fabulous theme. I love this cape, darling -- or, should I say, Your Majesty. And I've -- we've been well! Good to see the island seems to have behaved while we've been gone."

Edited 2024-10-31 15:31 (UTC)

Octavia, in her suit (and please clock the Louboutin loafers, Irene!), made her way over eventually.

"Irene," she said, by way of greeting. "Been a while."

"And aren't you just a picture, Octavia?" Irene replied, her grin spreading slowly across her face as she gave Octavia a very deliberate toe-to-head once-over. (Those shoes alone -- fabulous.) "I love this suit. Always adore a Halloween costume you can wear just as easily on October thirtieth or November the first."

Though, of course, Irene would likely never wear this particular dress again. But she could!

"How have you been?"

"Fine," Octavia said, which was of course a complete lie, but she knew how these conversations were supposed to go, and nowhere in that was there room for an 'I got cursed and now I'm struggling'. "You? I thought you moved away, I haven't seen you at the store."

"I did -- I'm in Daventry these days, with Amaya," Irene replied, somewhere between vaguely sheepish at not having said goodbye, and faintly proud of having found a new corner of the multiverse to explore with her favorite person. "We're just back for Homecoming, but -- you know, please, I'm not showing up the day after a fabulous party."

"There's nothing wrong with a lovely centerpiece," Tony joked, sunglasses low on his nose as he looked her costume over. "Wonderful color on you, Irene."

Said the guy dressed up as ~~Mojo Dojo Casa House Ken~~ fur coat blond himbo doll.

"Thank you, Tony, but I've just found myself victim to a terrible case of coat envy," Irene remarked, actually lifting a hand to her mouth to (barely) hide her smile. "You ought to bring that thing out more often."

Maybe on the occasions the island actually provided fur coat-requiring weather?

"I meant to come up with a more on theme costume, but then the World Series happened and Steve about had an aneurysm over it all," Tony said with a sigh.

"Irene!" Jon was really pleased to see her; it had been a while.

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The Creepy And Now Holiday-Appropriate Mansion, Thursday Evening

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