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

[deathsmajesty]

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!]

Comments

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Which is very icy...?" Liliana hazarded. "From whence you were rescued seventy years later?"

Honestly, that made a fair bit of sense when you were coming from Magic: The Gathering lore.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Sure, Jan. Not at all magical.

"Black--" because obviously she'd start with her own "--is the magic of amorality and free will. It's blight and decay, freedom through power. It's the magic of the utmost responsibility and the refusal of fatalism - we strive to be the masters of our own selves and our own destinies, and to give up that power, to give in, is the worse sin. Black mana is, at it's heart, competence and using everything in your power to thrive. Blue is is the magic of logic and technology, and seeks freedom through knowledge. Blue is cunning and riddles and questions, seeking out secrets and creating opportunities by manipulating what it knows compared to what others do not. Blue is the color of control, of denial of resources to others, and most of all, of mastery. If black is mastery of the self, then blue is mastery of a subject. It's the magic of illusion, thought, and the future."

She paused to take a sip of her wine. Red and blue were easy, they were allied with black and she sometimes dabbled with both, like with her attack on the Walmart. Green and white were black's enemy colors and, sure, she used to use white as a healing cleric, but that had been two hundred years ago.

"White is the magic of community, of structure, of law. It is the magic of civilization, ultimately, prioritizing morality, order, and conformity. White magic believes in freedom through peace - any peace. Peace through fascistic crackdowns is just as legitimate as peace through cohesion and even the peace of the grave."

White did have the most board removal spells, after all.

"It's proud and righteous, through rigid. It is very much the magic of 'the needs of the many'. It is healing and solace and succor, but it is also...uniformity. Conformity. And finally green. It's the power of nature, of growth, of unchecked vitality. It is the magic of ancient wisdoms that cannot be taught, only experienced. Freedom through interdependence. It is the color of harmony, but also the color of survival of the fittest. Nature is violent, the foodchain is a type of interdependence as well. It's instinct over thought and nature can cruel."

She looked at him. "There are no 'good' or 'evil' colors. They come from the land, which means they have no morality, which is a purely sapient construct. They simply are."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[stykera]

Zero magic here! Not even a smidge.

"That's not what I would think of for the colors. Especially blue." Blue was love and comfort and Zhaan.

"But then I don't know much of magic. Thank you, for trying to explain it."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[heroic_jawline]

Steve nodded. "More or less, yes."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"Only a few millennia," Lana said. "Five or six at most. It does have an astonishing range of cultures for one world, but most of them are very young."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I...I'm familiar." Jon had the marks to prove it. "Are...um. Lethemancer sounds like you make people forget things."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Such babies," Liliana said with a shake of her head. "I know multiple people older than their recorded history."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Indeed," Liliana said. "It's an aspect of necromancy. I can go into your mind and remove memories, either dispersing them into the aether or keeping them for myself. It's not an aspect I practice often, but I'm well-versed in it."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Blue was not even a little bit those things. Landscapes didn't care much for individual people, simply survival.

Liliana inclined her head. "Of course," she said. "I adore teaching magic."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Fascinating," Liliana murmured. "I suppose that is one of the best case scenarios you could hope for when undertaking a suicide mission."

Or just...don't do them. Liliana suggests not doing that at all.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[stykera]

"I enjoy learning," Stark said quietly. "And your magic seems very interesting."

And creepy, what with all the dead things.

"Perhaps a little too interesting."

What with the lifedraining and all.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"How can anything be too interesting?" Liliana asked, looking at Stark in 'you're speaking nonsense.'

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[stykera]

"I've seen some of what it can do," Stark said mildly.

Some hands-on experience had him wary for some reason.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Then you can certainly make the argument it's too effective, but interesting still makes no sense in this context," Liliana retorted.

She'd still think he was wrong, but at least it would make sense.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[stykera]

Stark's words made sense to Stark, ok? Other people, eh, not always.

"I don't wish to know more about some of it, at least."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[heroic_jawline]

Steve nodded. "It was definitely not what I'd been anticipating."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[two_idiots_one_body]

"I'm pleased to hear it. The school does these trips periodically for all the students and teachers, so if you want to take or teach a class, you'll have more chances."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[sharp_man]

Hannibal joined her laughter. "You and many others. It's not a terribly interesting holiday at any rate, unless you follow its religion or are a child."

Look, Easter brunches weren't terribly interesting. Hannibal had his priorities.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"Oh, now that sounds interesting!" Lana said. "Galactic culture goes back much further, but I've only known one being over a millennium old, and the less said about him the better."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"That sounds...tremendously tempting," Jon admitted. "If inadvisable."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm an ex-Sith, turned Jedi," Atton said, reaching for a glass. "He's an ex-Jedi turned Sith turned Jedi again."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Ignis and I just had tea with an acquaintance of mine, Olivia Voldaren, and she's roughly six thousand years old," Liliana said. "The great dragons are countless millennia old, I'm certain I don't know how many." She looked thoughtful. "I could ask Nichol Bolas sometime, I'm sure, but I'd have to listen to him drone about how ancient and powerful and wise he is compared to mere humans and I can honestly say I don't care enough for the answer to deal with all of that."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"That's true of most holidays, I've found," Liliana noted wryly. "Once the wonder wanes and the obligations begin."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"...They'd let me take classes?" Liliana asked, surprised. "They'd let me teach classes?"

Not that she doubted her skills as a professor, but shouldn't there be some process by which she was vetted?

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana gave him a catlike smile. "That's how most people would categorize interacting with me at all, darling, so thank you."