deathsmajesty | 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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Who needed proper introductions anyway, when that right there was the perfect way to skyrocket you straight to the position of Amaya's second favorite person in the room, Liliana?

Only thing that would have improved it was if you'd brought over meats on sticks, really.

"Thanks!" Amaya preened and pulled herself up in a way to best show off the various parts of her gleaming skeleton. "Just whipped it up this weekend!"

To elucidate further, she offered out a bony hand. "Amaya Blackstone, local blacksmith. I don't believe we've had the pleasure."

That's what this party was missing. Meat on sticks. Truly a failing that Liliana will have to rectify for next time.

"Liliana Vess, semi-local necromancer, and I can say for certain we haven't," Liliana replied, taking Amaya's bony hand with a chilly one of her own. "You did this in a single weekend? Truly?" She clapped her hands like a little girl at a birthday party. "Is it gauche to do business at a party? Because your costume has given me a brilliant idea for a gown. That spine is magnificent."

"Oh," Amaya assured Liliana, unabashedly and with utmost confidence, grinning and liking her even more now, "the only reason I even go to parties is to do business."

Well, that, and flirt with Irene Adler and stumble home with her, but that was a big old secret that no one knew about, shhh.

"And, well, the last few days, anyway," she continued, "so about the equivalent of a weekend. A bit of a rush job, admittedly, on account of my shop being a Starbucks for the majority of the week, but I had a few of the pieces already lying around."

For what, Amaya? How? Why??

"But I'd love to see what I can do for you, Liliana. My specialty's weapons, but I've been making a pretty deep dive into the fashion industry lately. Be happy to outfit you with your very own Blackstone original, too."

Why wouldn't she? If you asked Liliana's opinion (which everybody should, obviously), Amaya had quite the right idea of it. What, was she supposed to ignore a whole avenue of inspiration because other people hadn't realized the appeal? Folderol.

"I'm not much for weapons, though I will admit that the occasional finely crafted blade can turn a girl's head--" even moreso now for also big old secret reasons, she saw you, Amaya, "--but blending fashion and metalwork sounds ever so much more my style." Perhaps she could rope Boc into this, too. It wasn't like Liliana was a seamstress. "Especially..." She went to drag a finger down Amaya's spine - the metal one, specifically. "Metalwork of this variety and quality. Oooh. Imagine something like your skeltal hand around shoes."

There was a little bit of uncomfortable shifting underneath Amaya's metal bones at that trailing finger, but she reminded herself that, well, this was just displaying the workmanship and if Liliana had an interest in commissioning a piece, then she'd certainly want to verify the quality of it. Amaya just wasn't used to wearing a piece when someone was inspecting it!

"There's definitely a lot of potential there," she agreed, "and if you come up with something and I don't yet know how to do it, well, I'll work on it until I do! But I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find something like that, at this point."

"What are your normal business hours?" Liliana asked, studying the spine intensely. "Perhaps not this week, as I intend to do glorious amounts of nothing this week, but in the future..."

"Oh," said Amaya, "I'm there all week, plus, I live just above the shop, so you could always just ring. I like to think I'm ready..." Amaya paused a moment to pull on her gloves, although it didn't have quite the same effect as it usually did since her gloves were bones instead of her usual workgloves, "...for any occasion of emergency blacksmithing. But I do tend to get most of my business on Tuesdays."

For some weird reason.

"Just down Unicorn Way, right between the Trooper station and the butcher."

There was a joke there, but, unfortunately, Amaya wasn't from here enough to know what it was.

Neither was Liliana, sadly.

"I do tend to spend a lot of time in town on Tuesdays--" also for some reason. "I'll need to stop by."

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

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