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'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."

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."

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.

"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.

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?

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."

There were just so many snide comments she could make right here. But she wasn't! Because she was playing nice. You're welcome, Stark.

"True," Liliana said. "Especially compared with its environs. Still, very rich in swamps and black mana."

Edited 2023-11-02 03:31 (UTC)

Snide comments wouldn't be needed if someone hadn't fallen out of the sky mostly dead and then gone right upstairs where someone else could feel them DYING.

"Mana is... your magic?"

Maybe someone'd DYING senses had grown rusty with disuse and couldn't be relied upon anymore. Ever think of that?

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Liliana said. It was more technical than that, and the simplification made her a little twitchy, but for the sake of a casual conversation, she could let it go. "Mana comes from the land, a natural upwelling of energy. Wizards and people with magic can tap that mana and use it to cast spells. Different types of mana cast different types of spells. And while all magic users can use all types of mana, most of us gravitate to one or two, maybe three at the outside, colors and specialize in those."

Wow, aggressive, Lili.

"And the island here provides enough for you?"

When you weren't trying to eat poor glowy aliens instead?

See? Comments she wasn't making out loud!

"Indeed," Liliana said. "It's an island, so blue is very strong, but green, white, and black are surprisingly abundant as well. And red isn't absent, even if it doesn't exist in the strength as the others."

"What does red do?" Stark asked.

He liked the sound of blue, of course, but he always liked blue. "Or...any of them, I suppose."

Had they talked about this before, the day of the fire? They might have but most of what he remembered of that day was the fire.

Much the same for Liliana. She remembered he liked the Dukhara peafowl and that was pretty much it.

"Fire and lightning are the most iconic spells of red," Liliana explained. "Red is good at haste and damage. It's the color of chaos and passion and impulse. It's damage and destruction all at speed, very much the color of 'a good offense is the best defense.' It's the primary color of goblins and dragons, and is the color most aligned with the philosophy of freedom through action. Don't wait, do. No subtlety, but you don't really need subtlety when you're swinging a brick at someone's face."

"What about the other colors?" Stark asked.

Look. He was very clearly not magical at all but magic was interesting.

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."

Edited 2023-11-02 23:04 (UTC)

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."

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."

"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.

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

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

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

"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.

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."

"That is, of course, always your prerogative," Liliana replied.

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

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