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]

Darling, what on any plane at all made you think Liliana ever fought fair?

"He was explaining about the magic in crystals and how only the royalty can use it, which led to him naming all of the gods, and..." Here Liliana went on for easily a minute or so, summarizing everything Ignis had told her in the Waffle House and offering up several of her questions as well. "So, if Ramuh, Shiva, and Ifrit's are represented by the magic within the crystals and, I suppose, one could argue that Titan is represented by crystals themselves, then where is the Leviathan's element? How are these crystals even created in the first place? How is their power extracted? Are the royals somehow connected to Bahamut that they can use the magic? And how does that fit in with the Starscourge?"

On the off-chance Gladio had been assuming Liliana was just blowing smoke up his ass about all this, her clear curiosity likely put that ridiculous notion to rest.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[sword_chocobro]

"Oh, well," said Gladio, snorting a bit, and then there seemed to be a sort of shift in the air, as if Liliana had gone and flipped a sort of switch, a switch that activated his...oh no...nerd mode, "Leviathan has always disliked humanity, so it wouldn't be surprising that she just didn't want to lend us her powers; she definitely wasn't happy about it when we woke her up so that Noct and Lunafreya could commune with her, but I might be a little irritated if a bunch of ants tried to rouse me up from a 2000 year nap, too. And the power of the crystals is extracted by the royal family itself; they're usually found around Havens, and so Noct could just...pull their energy and use it. There are some more industrial ways of extracting it, but the magic's never as powerful when you do it that way. As for how they're created and why they're tied in with the bloodline? That is all Bahamut. He's the one who created the crystals to help combat the Starscourge, which....well, there's not a lot known about the origins of the Starscourge, but some sources say that it arrived with the gods, on the Meteor of the Six, which crashed into Eos before the dawn of civiliza--"

He stopped, abruptly, as he realized he was sort of rambling and shook his head. "Oh, man," he said, "you probably better not get me started, I'm gonna end up talking your ear off all night..."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"...The only reason I'm agreeing to that is because I have a party full of guests and it would be unfair to Ignis to tag him in unexpectedly as host," Liliana declared. "But we're putting a pin in this discussion to continue later. Preferably over good food and better drinks, all the better to yell about theory with."

At least, that was always how it had been for Liliana.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[sword_chocobro]

"To yell about, huh?" asked Gladio, and Liliana was getting both brows lifted now. "Well, it's looking like both of us will have no shortage of good food in our future, so I'm sure you'll get the chance eventually."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"You've never sat around arguing theory at increasing levels of volume?" Liliana asked, surprised. "Why this thing works one way and not another, what that thing means in the grand scheme of things? It's not even necessarily an argument or debate, but you just get so excited--."

Wait, that couldn't have just been her and her cohort at Strixhaven, right?

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[sword_chocobro]

"Theory?" Gladio snorted. "No. There've been some pretty heated debate over things like tactics and strategy, King's Knight and whether or not the break of dawn is...too early for running, but I mean, it's usually resolved pretty quickly."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"The break of dawn is absolutely too early," Liliana declared. "For anything but going to bed."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[sword_chocobro]

The next snort was much different.

"Those sunrises, though," Gladio said, grin resurfacing on his face, but it was softer, and there was something that seemed to go a little beyond just some smart-ass comment.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana could imagine why a sunrise would feel extra special to the chocobros, enough so that she didn't make a snarky comment about it.

"They are lovely," she acknowledged. "I just see them from the other side."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[sword_chocobro]

See, and Prompto got it, too, but it was a lot harder selling Specs in on the idea.

"There's some pretty good sunsets, too," Gladio allowed, especially now that didn't just come with dread for the nights. "Why not try to enjoy both?"

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Because I like the cool silence of midnight," she said softly. "The starry sky overhead like a pathway leading to other worlds, like the Blind Eternities made manifest."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[sword_chocobro]

"Well, you can enjoy that, too," said Gladio, who clearly couldn't help himself. "Who even needs more that four hours of sleep, anyway?"

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana raised her hand. "I am a delicate hothouse flower," she informed him. With a straight face, even. "Fragile and wiling, and in need of a great deal of sleep to bolster my wavering constitution."