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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"We certainly were," Steven agreed. "Well, I mean not me personally. Finding it was well before my time. But after the fact, very grateful. Though now your situation makes me wonder if there's a linguist Planeswalker out there who might think to make such a thing."

"Yes!" Arthur agreed. "I didn't realize you knew about New Zealand. "Anyway, I wonder if they have as many holiday parties at this time of year, or if they have more when it's summer up here. I don't know any Australians or New Zealanders to ask."

We could Google it, John muttered. He pulled out Arthur's phone and set about doing that as Arthur was talking.

"There was a party on the school trip, but from what I gather, Summer does that every trip, so I'm not certain it counts."

"She needed me," Stark said simply. "She just didn't ask first."

Good thing Stark had so much energy to spare?

"She knew what to do but she didn't have...she said she needed my strength. But Aeryn is fine, now."

Zhaan was very dead though, except for those priceless weekends when she wasn't.

Interestingly enough, that reply made Liliana twitch. Very slight and subtle, something most people likely wouldn't even have noticed.

But Hannibal was hardly most people.

"Well, who came up with that nonsense way of timekeeping?" Liliana asked with a laugh, definitely focusing on the calendar discussion for no real reason. "Does it follow some natural phenomenon? Or is there some other reason that you all didn't decide to keep your months tidy?"

Jon winced. "Still, as I said, where I come from, they're all malicious. All artifacts, all...powers, or magic, or beings, or what have you. None of them come from anything good. I...I do realize it's apparently not like that for everyone here. It's just been difficult to get used to."

"It's just nonsense!" Liliana declared, throwing her hands up. "I was honestly so glad to meet Sidon that first time because otherwise I had assumed there weren't any non-humans about."

Hannibal chuckled. "It's meant to be a lunisolar calendar. But it was also created centuries ago and hasn't been adjusted in some time.

"Roughly every other month has thirty or thirty-one days, and one month has twenty-eight three years in a row, and then twenty-nine on the fourth year, unless it's divisible by one hundred and not by four hundred," he added cheerfully.

Edited 2023-11-02 02:20 (UTC)

"I only know about it from the school trip," Liliana explained. "I'd heard of it and had to look up more information. I'm ever-curious."

Sure, Lili. Just random curiosity, obviously.

"Oh, and Sidon is so...I'm not sure if someone his size can be considered 'darling', but honestly. He's so very good and cheerful all the time."

Lana thought about it. "Actually, we are incredibly light on nonhumans at the moment. Or at least light on those who can't pass as human - there are those like Eric that aren't but still seem to be. We usually do have at least a few."

Most of the current nonhumans were muppets.

"There was, once," Liliana said, some of her sparkle dimmed. "Well, I don't know if they made stones like that, but they did make a study of languages over the planes. I didn't know them well, but their work was brilliant."

You know what Liliana hadn't thought of in a hot second and needed to be reiterated right now? Fuck the Mending.

Steven of course didn't know about any of that but he could pick up on Liliana not being as brilliant as she'd been a moment earlier. He could certainly sympathize even if he didn't know the cause. "They sound very interesting. Imagine it must have been fascinating for them. Being able to work with all those puzzles. I like puzzles, myself."

Which was Steven offering a gentle change of subject if she was looking for one.

"Are you a Jedi?" Liliana asked, intrigued.

"It was an interesting place," Arthur said. "Relaxing. It was good to have a bit of holiday."

John grumbled to himself, still fussing with the phone, but since it didn't seem to be urgent, Arthur ignored him.

"A wh...um, no?" Jon was very confused now. "Why would...um. I'm not sure why you'd assume that."

Oh, Liliana was not going to react well during those terrible weekends. Very much not.

"Is there no one on the island who could work with you in that same way?" Liliana asked. "Use your strength to bring people back from dying?"

You know, rather than the opposite?

You lose many people even over a span of two centuries. It just especially stung when you they were people who shouldn't have died - who only were able to die because of the interference of others.

To save the Multiverse, sure, but Liliana was still bitter.

"Oh? What kind of puzzles?" she asked, not quite lunging for the new topic but certainly reaching for it very quickly.

Those weekends were a gift. And a time for your gorgeous dead not-quite-betrothed to make things real awkward with your don't-call-her-a-girlfriend.

"Not that I know of. It isn't usually needed here. Deaths are thankfully very rare. It's one reason I like it here."

"Oh all sorts," Steven said, warming up to it. He was after all British and if the puzzle topic hadn't worked he'd have been happy to chat about the weather. "There was a time when I was trying not to fall asleep, you see. So I would try to keep myself awake by doing puzzles and the like. Have you ever seen a Rubik's Cube? Those can be fun, especially if you're the sort of person who prefers having something to do with your hands."

"I talked to Lana and I know that Jedi see some power as being inherently evil and corrupting," Liliana said. "I know some people also have that view of black mana--" She rolled her eyes "--but I don't believe you're from anywhere that has the same idea of mana that I do. Which leaves me with Jedi."

"I only saw it through pictures," Liliana said. "But it did seem lovely. And the wine I've tried there was quite excellent. Good wool, too."

She had a sweater. Well. There was a sweater. Ownership was being negotiated.

"...Is everything all right with your phone?"

"Ah yes," Liliana drawled. "I do so love needing an abacus and a mnemonic in order to figure out the date. Perhaps I'll ask Detective Watts to have his wine party on the square root of the third week of the last month with thirty days."

"No, I'm, um. I'm from Ear- well, a version of Earth. I just." He took a deep breath and let it out. "There are the Fears. They're the only powers there. They...they embody and feed on and generate fear. Every sort of power comes from them, and thrives on traumatizing people. Nothing good ever comes from them."

Somewhere, Arden was sweating and didn't know why.

"Oh, he's absolutely a darling," Liliana said. "Just the sweetest man. But yes, and even vampires used to be human. It's so baffling."

"Hm?"

Arthur belatedly realized what was going on. "John?"

I can't find anything useful about when Australians have parties, Arthur! Fucking useless Google.

"Ah. Apparently there's nothing to be found about when Australians party." Because the real answer was always.

"What is the wool like? I didn't get to look at clothes much." Ha.

Hannibal laughed. "It would make about as much sense as trying to figure out the date for Easter. That holiday's in Spring."

And actually probably made more sense, since it was lunar.

"You do get used to it, but I can't claim it makes much sense."

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

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