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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From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

You know, when you had an eyepatch anyway, you could go the obvious route. Or you could show up dressed like this, with a plastic crow on your shoulder, and tell everyone you were taking Odin for the matriarchy.

Margo knew which one she was doing. So there she was.

From:

begmetwice

"I feel like you could just wear this. Like as an outfit," Irene observed with a smile when she sauntered her way over, gesturing to Margo's whole leather-clad person with one hand and gripping her cigarette holder and drink with the other. "The bird's a bit much for just Tuesday, though, I suppose."

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

"I dunno," Margo said, glancing at it as well as she could under the circumstances. "I'm starting to dig the terrifying witch vibe."

From:

begmetwice

"So different from your usual terrifying magician vibe," Irene teased lightly, carefully patting her wig to make sure it stayed in place. "Though the crow does sinister things up a bit for the occasion."

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

"Hey, there are two ways to go on Halloween when you're as badass as we are," Margo said. She nodded at Irene. "And you already got 'sex me up' covered."

From:

begmetwice

"I try," Irene replied, cocking one generously padded hip. "Though maybe next year, we ought to lean out of type and do mascot costumes, or the like. Maybe a giant inflatable unicorn, or a tyrannosaurus rex everyone has to negotiate their way around all night?"

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

"A costume that'll fuck up somebody's day?" Margo asked, tilting her head. "Okay, I'm interested."

From:

begmetwice

"Maybe something with an absurd hoop skirt that whacks everyone the whole party," Irene mused. "Help maintain personal space, too."

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

"I'd have to find a spiky hoop skirt," Margo mused. "That's also fucking cute."

From:

deathsmajesty

Liliana had no idea who Odin was but she firmly supported taking things for the matriarchy, so good on you, Margo darling.

"Margo, hello darling," she said when she spotted the queen. "Lovely to see you again. I heard radio say your shop escaped the infestation of tawdry unscathed?"

Jealous.

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

"I made sure it knew I was gonna fuck it up if I tried anything," Margo said. "And it knows when causing shit ain't worth it."

From:

deathsmajesty

"Alas, we have discovered one of the limits of my power," she said, studiously ignoring the corvid on Margo's shoulder. "I have yet to be able to successfully intimidate shops and inanimate objects into submitting to my whims. But now I have a new goal."

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

"You just gotta foster some rage," said Margo, who had at least once been described by someone as 'anger and armor, all the way down', and was happy to live up to it. "And focus it into whatever you wanna do."

From:

deathsmajesty

Liliana laughed. "Rage? If my magic worked like that, I would be unstoppable."

She wouldn't have needed stupid demons, she would have become immortal again through sheer force of will and the desire to mangle everyone who had taken it away from her in the first place.

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

"I figure if we have to have a magic system that runs on pain, why not use it?" Margo said, wry as anything. "Not that it gets me more than keeping shitty corporate branding off my soap."

From:

deathsmajesty

"That's fascinating," Liliana said. "Red mana is aligned with rage, but it is not of rage. I have seen pyromancers and the like tapping into their emotions to fuel their spells, but it still needs the spark from elsewhere. But you can just use your fury, nothing else needed?"

Hello magical theory conversation, Liliana is here for this.

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

Margo snorted. "No," she said. "Where we come from, magic is math. You can have all the aptitude and the pain in the world, and it won't get you anywhere. But you can channel it, if you know how to make the equations work."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

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From:

stykera

Stark, still shirtless and occasionally regretting that choice, offered a nod and a "Hello, Margo," in her direction.

"You have a bird?"

He had a random bow and arrows, so.

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

"A crow," Margo agreed, eyeing the bow and arrows and coming to a conclusion. "I'm Odin, but better. You Cupid?"

From:

stykera

"No." Stark shook his head. "I don't think I'm anyone in particular. Just an... archer."

To match someone else who looked better in her costume than he did, of course.

"Odin is a god?"

That tracked for Margo.

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

Yeah, Margo was choosing to ignore whatever weird thing Stark and Summer had going on that involved dressing Stark up like a Barbie doll for any occasion. "The Norse king of the gods," she said. "He's kind of a shit, allegedly, but the title's aspirational."

From:

stykera

Summer liked matching and Stark felt loved when she picked things out for him. It worked for them.

"You want to be a god-king?" he asked. Margo could pull it off if anyone here could. "What sort of god would you be?"

From:

not_a_goddamn_princess

Margo was going to keep YKINMKing her merry way out of addressing anything to do with the matching. She felt that was a good gesture of friendship on her part.

"At the very least I'd be better at this shit than every god I've ever met," she said. "Might as well be worth a shot, right?"