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]

What are you talking about, Ignis? They weren't couple-y at all. That was all Gladio propaganda.

There was another slight pause on Liliana's behalf as she registered the tension, though she remained ignorant of what caused it. There was also the subconscious expectation that he would reach for her and the way he didn't do that left things feeling subtly off in a way she couldn't put her finger on. At least, not yet.

"I surprised I made it," she said. "Between the ungodly hours of construction and the cruel demands that I travel for my breakfast, I am nearly worn to a shadow of myself." She smiled at him, before reaching out to lace their fingers together. "Thank you," she murmured, soft but sincere.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[chef_chocobro]

As soon as Liliana's hand found Ignis', that tension immediately seemed to relax and dissipate. A particularly keen observer might have even caught the incredibly faint breath of relief escaping the subtle part in his lips. A bit foolish, perhaps, but the assurance of exactly what his place in all of this was perhaps more needed than he'd initially realized.

He nodded, an acknowledgement to her gratitude but a suggestion that he needed to even think of saying so was wholly unnecessary, as he gave her hand a squeeze.

"If that mere shadow manages to survive the night," he said, "then I believe some very well-earned recovery time shall be in order."

And you knew it was well-earned if even Ignis was suggesting it!

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

She slid her arm through his and leaned against him briefly, letting him support her weight for just a moment, finding a subtle moment of refuge in him before she went back to being the effervescent hostess. "Careful about your promises," she murmured. "Or I shall end up demanding to be even more pampered and spoiled than I already am. Baths...backrubs...breakfasts in bed..."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[chef_chocobro]

"I find it incredibly difficult to fathom," Ignis drawled, smile grown a little warmer with a head tilted slightly more her way, "many ways in which you could become even more pampered and spoiled, though, no doubt, for a woman of your formidable determination, where there is a will, there is a way...

"Two," he then proposed, after a brief pause. "Choose two methods in which you would like to be utterly and completely indulged tomorrow, and I shall do everything in my ability to ensure that you're not left wanting for anything in that regard. But only two..."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Massages," Liliana said immediately, which neatly covered back, foot, scalp, and other massages of all stripes. "And...breakfast in bed. Served when I wake up, complete with cuddles."

Look. She knew what she wanted.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[chef_chocobro]

The alacrity and conviction with which that answer may have easily have actually earned Liliana several more other options, despite what Ignis had said. Granted, he had already been considering as much, but that level of certainty...

"Well, then," Ignis laughed, lightly, "your wish is my command, darling. I look forward to smoothing out all the ache and pain of all your hard work from your poor, sore muscles, and bringing you the most delect--"

He stopped, head tilting, as if a thought had just struck him.

"Oh, well, can we really call it breakfast if it's practically being served at dinnertime, though?"

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

She was already plotting on wheedling more spoiling out of him anyway. Which he almost certainly knew and was planning for anyway. But surely a scalp massage could be combined with shampoo...

"My darling, dinner is only served in the midafternoon when you go to bed with the sunset," Liliana chided. "For the rest of us, that's barely even tea."

She turned her head and stole a kiss. "That sounds lovely," she said quietly. "I can think of nothing I'd like more."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[chef_chocobro]

"Well, if something does come up," Ignis said, the grin on his face feeling as though it had emerged almost directly from the warmth spreading in his chest over the entirety of this interaction, "do let me know."

Not because he'd forgotten about only two over just one stolen kiss from the magnificent person on his arm at the moment, of course. But it could always be useful information.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

She leaned over, drawing a cold finger down his face. "Will you dance with me later?" she asked softly.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[chef_chocobro]

"I would be inconsolable," Ignis murmured back, leaning into that cool touch of her finger, "with disappointment if I don't."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

That hand was joined by the other as she pulled his face in for another, deeper kiss. "Well, I can't have that," she said. "You should come find me. You have rights to my time, too."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[chef_chocobro]

Ignis' hands found Liliana's face, as well, in a mirror of her own placement, but his was not just to help kiss her (although he did do that, too). It was more just so that he could hold it there, since he could not hold her gaze to convey the intent in this next words.

"No one," he said, "has a right to your anything, Liliana Vess."

Especially not three pesky daemons, who were going to be taken care of.

"But I will come find you."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

For a brief moment, Liliana's breathing just...stopped. She looked at him, eyes wide and wondering, mouth a perfect 'o' of surprise.

She'd meant it lightly, of course. Simply that he needn't keep himself apart from her in deference to the other guests. That she liked it when he sought her out.

But his response. He'd been so serious, cutting through that idle phrasing with intensity and fervor. Like it was so important, so precious, that he would stand up for it, even if she did not.

If anyone had ever done that for her before, she could not remember it.

"Ignis..." she whispered, and nothing more. His name was the only word she could summon. "Ignis."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[chef_chocobro]

It was only then that Ignis realized that he may have gotten a bit...caught up in a moment there. Being with Liliana had a rare effect on him, more often than not, where everything around him seemed to fade into the background and the only thing that seemed to exist was her. Which made sense, really, when it was just the two of them, as it usually was, but that effect became incredibly prescient now, as all the din of conversation in this ballroom filled with people had become almost nonexistent except for as some sort of distant chatter at the very back of his mind. It had happened a bit at the diner, too, after the raid on the Walmart, but it was like he was slowly remembering things like time and places and the ones that they were currently in.

"I..." he started, then faltered for a moment, shaking his head lightly. "I'm sorry. Too much?"

Even if it probably was, he still couldn't actually feel too sorry about it. In that moment, it just felt so...important to him, that she heard that, that she knew he felt that way. Caught up in a moment, perhaps, but she was just so good at inspiring that out of him.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

She kissed him. She kissed him hard, and long, fingers slipping down to wrap in his collar because she needed to hold onto something and she wouldn't be so inconsiderate as to ruin his pompadour in the middle of a party. She kissed him like he was the only source of air in the room and didn't stop kissing him until actual air demanded otherwise.

"When, my darling," she said when she finally let go of his lips, still just a breath away from his face, fingers knotted in his costume, a trace of reproach in her voice, "have I ever complained about too much of a good thing?" She shook her head. "You have no idea--" she said, and only realized then that she was trembling. And that, yes, they were still surrounded by people, and even if she were willing to pull back some of the mystique she cloaked herself for Ignis right now, that offer did not extend to everybody else.

"I have spent two hundred years being told I am 'too much' and refusing to pare myself down to be acceptable to others," she said instead. "I will be damned to every hell in existence before I say the same to you."