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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"That is true," Arthur allowed.

It's movember, Arthur! Give it a fucking chance!

Arthur sighed. "Apparently there's some sort of tradition this upcoming month for growing facial hair. I'm not entirely sure what it's about."

"And does it mean the thing pictured? Does the picture symbolize a sound? Both? Neither?" Steven had some experience here. "I mean fascinating to find out about but a bit hard to pick up without context, agreed. Not often they leave a handy stone about to walk you through it."

But had Liliana's war involved a weapon that would have destroyed the entire universe left unchecked? Had it?

"There are always reasons," Stark said. "They both wanted knowledge that only my friend Crichton had. They were willing to sacrifice everything for it. For a weapon they didn't even understand the capabilities of. But it's over. We ended it."

"I...well, I-I teach," Jon answered. "And I, um. I have a cat, as you know. She's lovely. And, um. I like to watch documentaries. And read. And sometimes the building I manage needs things done."

He was a workaholic with very little work to do, Liliana. The man needed hobbies and was bad at getting them.

Liliana nodded. "Dominaria's - my home plane - year is 420 days long, with twelve months of 35 days each," she explained. "So I'm trying to situate where we are in this plane's year roughly around the Argivian Reckoning." She winked at him. "My birthday is coming up it seems, and I'm trying to figure out when. The easiest way I've found to do that is figure out when the Winter Solstice is on a plane, if they have one, and then counting backwards a little less than a month. Well, 32 days."

Hey whoa whoa, I thought we'd all agreed that it was because she was a jerk and no other reasons! And also, yes. Starting with the destruction of her home plane and then expanding from there throughout the Multiverse. Because of course.

"Ah, the willingness to sacrifice everything for the right to stand on the smoking crater of while declaring yourself the victor to the bones around you," she said a little bitterly. "Are any of them at least necromancers to make that victory even the slightest bit less hollow?"

Edited 2023-11-02 01:16 (UTC)

"It's getting cold and dark and people look for entertainment where and how they can?" Liliana suggested.

"Issa," Liliana remembered. "Yes, I remember her."

She eyed him. Even as a giant nerd, that didn't sound like a whole lot to do. "How do you feel about magical artifacts?"

"They didn't realize there would have been nothing left. Everything would have been gone. The universe itself. And...no. I don't think any of them have magic. It's not so common where I'm from as it is for many others here."

Sure, he was a glowy plot device of an alien who could do some mystical shit but that totally wasn't magic!

"The dead stay dead, there. Except in very, very rare instances." Like say, Stark and Zhaan engaged in time shenanigans. Or Zhaan used Stark as a battery to bring Aeryn back from the very edge of death.

That's some 'Sure, Jan' levels of not magic there, Stark.

"Dead and undead are different," Liliana said absently. "Though we also do have proper resurrection, though it's very rare and very expensive, magically."

Hannibal chuckled. "Always a good date to know. So, that would put it around the nineteenth of November, shortly before Thanksgiving. What are Dominaria's birthday traditions?"

Arthur snorted. "As good an explanation as any, I suppose. That would also explain why parties, holiday or not, are so popular these next few months. I wonder if it's the same in Australia?"

Why Australia?

"Oh." Arthur gestured, explaining to both John and Liliana, "it's in the southern hemisphere. So it's lighter and hotter this time of year."

"They're dangerous as hell and should all be burnt," Jon answered immediately. "Except for the Desolation ones; they'd enjoy that."

He belatedly remembered what Liliana's business was. "Oh. Um. Possibly...possibly not everywhere. In my world, they, um. Well, th-there's no such thing as an...an innocuous or helpful artifact. I imagine it could be different other places. Just, um. I'm used to...to everything coming from the Fears." He fidgeted. "Sorry. No offense meant."

"It is that," Lana agreed. "For every person who's never heard of a cell phone, there's one that thinks that magic is a myth. Or one that's never met non-human sentients, which is still odd to me."

Look, just because Stark's dead lady love could essentially join souls with someone didn't mean she had magic either. So there.

"We brought Aeryn back. Zhaan and I. Although I was unconscious at the time. I had no say in it."

No, Lili, you hadn't brought up any memories or anything when you tried to eat Stark for your health. Not at all.

"But she lived. She's still living."

"...That must be a reference to something," Liliana said with a laugh. "Otherwise...stone?"

"Rosetta stone," Steven said. He gestured to indicate the fairly descent size of the thing. "Helped translate hieroglyphics, you see. Had the same message three times. Two in Egyptian scripts, one in ancient Greek. People knew the Greek so that helped suss out the rest. Major discovery for understanding ancient Egypt."

"This island has so few!" Liliana burst out, because honestly, it bothered her. "Everywhere you look, it's humans!"

It had been like that in the Caligo Forest, but that had been a factor of geography, not a lack of non-humans in general.

And she had left Caligo behind two centuries ago.

"Is it?" Liliana nodded once. "The nineteenth. So Earth months are thirty days long?"

Because why wouldn't you have uniform-length months? Otherwise would just be ridiculous.

"Oh, celebrations and gifts and the like. For most, it's usually a small gathering of friends and families, for the nobility or royalty, it's great feasts throughout the land. I remember my brother's--" The barest pause, a slight inhalation of breath "--tenth birthday was quite the festival, or though it seemed to me."

"Near New Zealand," Liliana noted, a fact she knew for no reason whatsoever, honest. "But yes, as the days die, most sentient species huddle together for warmth, comfort, and entertainment. So many more parties to while away the long dark."

"Isn't it so strange?" Lana agreed. "The Empire where I grew up was ridiculously xenophobic, and we still had so many more other species! I had a friend when I went to school here who could only go onto the mainland if she could convince people she was wearing a costume - how insane is that?"

"None taken," Liliana assured him. And she was being honest - she was no artificer and besides, watching his reaction was far more interesting. "All things created bear the stamp of their maker. There are plenty of artifacts out there that carry the malice and ill-will they were made with."

Sure, Jan.

Liliana's face sure did go on a journey at Stark talking about how he had helped bring someone back, though settled somewhat when he clarified that he'd actually been unconscious. "It sounds like Zhaan brought Aeryn back," she noted mildly.

"Ahhh!" Liliana said. "Yes, clever! If planes could start doing that with Dominarian, I'd be ever so grateful."

"Similar to Earth, then," Hannibal noted. He noted that pause and said, all too casually, "My sister's final birthday was quite the production."

Then he shrugged. "Months in the predominant calendar are of varying length. November is thirty days; today is October 31st, and December will also have thirty-one. There are mnemonics to remember it, but if you're still learning the names of the months, the easiest thing to do will be to purchase a calendar."

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

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