deathsmajesty | Halloween Party, Creepy But Nowhere Near Abandoned Mansion, Tuesday Night

Halloween Party, Creepy But Nowhere Near Abandoned Mansion, Tuesday Night

After basically being dared to do it by Tony Stark (and putting in six weeks of renovations, bless Hannibal for the contractor), Liliana, dressed as an empress, hair pulled back in a profusion of curls by her angelic headpiece, was ready to throw her first Fandom party. Sure, it was for a holiday she didn't really understand, but she'd heard enough about it to make due: there was supposed to be candy and people were supposed to be in costume. Done. Everything else was just the same as a regular party, right?

Granted, the last party she'd hosted had actually been for a bunch of vampires and that had been seventy years ago on a completely different plane, but bah, details. You had food to eat, music to dance to, dark corners to sneak off to, and either enough witty people or enough alcohol to keep the conversation flowing. Liliana was hoping that there would be plenty of the former showing up, but just in case, she'd made sure to stock plenty of the latter.

Though her newly refurbished ballroom was actually very light and airy, she had done her best to recreate some of the spookiest elements she'd seen in her travels. The dancefloor was covered in about a foot of heavy fog that swirled and eddied with every movement. While most of the chandeliers were shrouded in fabric and false webbing, she personally found the main chandelier was decorated in something she much more unnerving. Black and red candles flickered about the room held by ghostly hands, dripping skulls, and the occasional elegant standing candelabra. One of the few concessions to magic she'd used tonight was to have the candles lit with tongues of false fire, which provided light but no heat. And they glowed blues and greens and purples, which was a nice effect. Red roses were placed upside down in vases, while more questionable arrangements sat in decorative vases. Out of deference to her guests' ~~squeamishness~~ sensibilities, all creepy critters, skeletons, and dead bodies were all cunningly crafted fakes, not a single real bone or drop of blood in the place.

Other than, of course, what her guests brought in with them. And should they leave with fewer of either than they'd come in with, well, that was hardly her fault. Probably.

Arrive and Mingle / Photos / Dark Corners [NFB] / Refreshments / Dance / Gardens / OOC

[~~Please hold for~~ OCD up! Do the thing!]

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"Well, we're from the same universe, just four thousand years apart," Atton said lightly. And, dryly: "We also got much better acquainted when he found out I'd served on the opposite side of his team back in the day and he gave me up to the authorities. But that's water under a decade-old bridge."

Almost decades. He was getting old, even if he didn't look it.

"Their parents," Margo said. Her face gave very impressive whacha going to do. "Apparently they get shirty when you kill their kids, who knew."

Lana smiled. "I know some of them, but some are still a mystery. And let's hope there's no fighting, but given the island, it's never a certainty. Especially on a holiday."

"Have you done any research into the life of Miss Shelley herself?" Irene wondered, slanting a look over at Liliana. "I daresay, she was your kind of gal, whether or not she was a -- Planeswalker, you said?"

But also, like, Mary Shelley: the original goth girl, losing her virginity on her mother's grave and setting the standard for melancholy dramatics evermore.

Lana nodded to show she understood; she hadn't read him yet, but it was near-instinctual, so it was probably good of him to set the boundary. "Whenever you like. You've got my number. And who knows - maybe the island will throw something at us purely because it's a holiday."

"Parties are wonderful for meeting people," Hannibal agreed. "I should have another myself. Perhaps for the next holiday - it centers around food," he confided.

He shook his head at the Innistradi. "Immortality is no excuse not to keep up with the times. Why not experiment and drive new fashions? See how far you can push it." Said the grinning man who usually matched plaids and paisleys. "But in any event, your outfit is lovely, and yes, very indicative of Earth royalty or mythology."

Atton had always been good at throwing up barriers, confusing people away from his mind; his instincts meant that any casual attempt to read him would bring nothing but base emotions and little rhythmic details from his surroundings-- the sound of the wind, the clicking of a power coupling.

But there were plenty of people who had actively tried to go further. It never ended well.

"I hope not," he said. "I kind of like being able to nope out of here and head back to New York most days of the week." He sighed. "How's your schedule tomorrow?"

"I haven't," Liliana admitted. "Ignis left me a book of planarwide poetry before heading off to New Zealand, so I've been devouring that, instead. And yes, Planeswalkers. Those few about the Multiverse who have the ability to traverse the Blind Eternities without injury and leave the planes of our birth to wander the Multiverse at large. "

"All right, I simply must ask," Liliana said. "Is the island truly sentient? Or is it simply a kind of shared joke to speak of it like that?"

Perhaps the island was some kind of...Multani-esque creature?

See, Liliana had gotten old once and then decided she'd hated it, and had taken steps to reverse the issue.

"Four thousand years separate the two of you and the teams are still, hmm, vital enough to give you up?" she asked. "That is some grudge."

"Perhaps they could have given thought to raising them to not be little shits?" Liliana suggested with a shrug.

"Oh, see, I do like you," Liliana said, laughing along with him. "So, tell me about yourself, darling. Since I know little about you, other than you were gifted with a great deal of charm that you've learned to use well."

"I was talking to Detective Watts about having a small wine party or the like," Liliana said, "and you were on the list of people I knew I needed to mention that to. But tell me more about this food holiday." She paused to calculate the rough date, since the concept of 'October 31' meant nothing to her. "Ah. A harvesttide festival, then?"

"Er...yes, I'd prefer never to see another cultist." Not that he would. Ha. "Don't encourage him too much; he thinks I should have a moustache."

It would look dashing, Arthur!

"It would mean far too much upkeep, John."

"I was in a cell on a Peacekeeper Gammak research base then," Stark clarified even though it didn't make things any clearer.

"Being used as a science experiment, mostly. Then Crichton was thrown in my cell with me and then I was free."

"Mmm, I'm not particularly a fan of facial hair, so I would need to be convinced," Liliana said thoughtfully, like, you know, she had any say in this argument. Not that had ever or would ever stop her. "But if it did look good, a bit of upkeep would be worth it, wouldn't it?"

Liliana just stared at him. "Delivering narratives was never focused on in your education, was it?"

"Crichton infiltrated the base to get medical help for Aeryn because she'd been stabbed but he was found out by the Peacekeepers and captured. That's how he ended up in my cell and then they were torturing him for information and I tried to comfort him and when Aeryn and the others came to rescue him they took me with them. Is that better? There's more to it but most of it won't make any sense without knowing even more."

And Stark just kind of assumed Liliana didn't really want to know that much about him.

"Well, I teach Renaissance art up at the school this year, I'm married to Tony, and I fought in World War II," Steve said.

That was a pretty quick synopsis.

"I think you would be a terrifying god," Stark said honestly. "But that doesn't mean you wouldn't be a good one."

Mostly, Liliana just didn't like having questions.

"I see like every other group ever in the history of sapience, people calling themselves 'the Peacekeepers' use torture to extract the information they wanted," Liliana drawled. "Good to know that everything remains to be expected no matter where you go."

"And exactly one of those three proper nouns means anything to me at all," Liliana declared, blowing a kiss to Tony for being the one that did.

"Just for you," Eric said, smiling. "I used to have a parade of DJs through the club until Lucifer arrived and declared that déclassé." Eric rolled his eyes. "He didn't need to eat them."

"Thank you, darling. What you do with your humans is on you, but these are mine, at least for the night," Liliana said. "Also, I've been to enough vampire parties to be able to continue on a conversation while getting arterial blood on me because someone couldn't wait until the next round was brought out and attacked a thrall, but I highly doubt most of the people here can say the same. Not that you'd be that--" obvious "--gauche, I'm sure."

Steve's cheeks went pink until his dragon mask. "I apologize. I know what it feels like to not have context for what people are talking about. The Renaissance is a period of amazing art and engineering on this planet a few hundred years back. World War II was a global war that took place in the 1940s. We're now in 2023 on the island--my own dimension is a few years back."

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Halloween Party, Creepy But Nowhere Near Abandoned Mansion, Tuesday Night

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