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

[unusual_sith]

"You know, I'm not entirely sure?" Lana shook her head. "Some sort of warrior or spy, I gathered. I went to a place on the mainland, and this was one of several they suggested. I chose it as being easy to move in and even fight in if necessary."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"If there's fighting at my party, someone will regret it," Liliana said darkly. She was not here to play, island, you hear her? "But, either way, it's certainly a very good look." She shared a conspiratorial grin with the other woman. "Between you and I, I have no idea what most people are supposed to be tonight."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

Lana smiled. "I know some of them, but some are still a mystery. And let's hope there's no fighting, but given the island, it's never a certainty. Especially on a holiday."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"All right, I simply must ask," Liliana said. "Is the island truly sentient? Or is it simply a kind of shared joke to speak of it like that?"

Perhaps the island was some kind of...Multani-esque creature?

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"I would say semi-sentient," Lana answered. "Or perhaps sentient in a way we're not equipped to handle. It definitely has a mind of some sort, but communication is difficult."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Huh," Liliana said, somehow not having expected that answer even though she'd asked. "A semi-sentient island may be the oddest thing I've come across in my travels yet, and that's saying quite a bit."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

Lana chuckled. "There's something new for everyone on Fandom, no matter where you're from, I think."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"That does seem to be the prevailing attitude," Liliana admitted. "There's something shocking here for everyone. An equalizing effect, I'm sure."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"It is that," Lana agreed. "For every person who's never heard of a cell phone, there's one that thinks that magic is a myth. Or one that's never met non-human sentients, which is still odd to me."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"This island has so few!" Liliana burst out, because honestly, it bothered her. "Everywhere you look, it's humans!"

It had been like that in the Caligo Forest, but that had been a factor of geography, not a lack of non-humans in general.

And she had left Caligo behind two centuries ago.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"Isn't it so strange?" Lana agreed. "The Empire where I grew up was ridiculously xenophobic, and we still had so many more other species! I had a friend when I went to school here who could only go onto the mainland if she could convince people she was wearing a costume - how insane is that?"

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"It's just nonsense!" Liliana declared, throwing her hands up. "I was honestly so glad to meet Sidon that first time because otherwise I had assumed there weren't any non-humans about."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"Oh, and Sidon is so...I'm not sure if someone his size can be considered 'darling', but honestly. He's so very good and cheerful all the time."

Lana thought about it. "Actually, we are incredibly light on nonhumans at the moment. Or at least light on those who can't pass as human - there are those like Eric that aren't but still seem to be. We usually do have at least a few."

Most of the current nonhumans were muppets.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Somewhere, Arden was sweating and didn't know why.

"Oh, he's absolutely a darling," Liliana said. "Just the sweetest man. But yes, and even vampires used to be human. It's so baffling."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"It really is. Though I suppose it's somewhat understandable since there's only one world. Still, you'd think at least one other species would have evolved civilization here."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Perhaps the humans killed them all," Liliana suggested, having met humans before, even one time.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"Entirely possible," Lana agreed. "Though if so, it's far back enough there are no records or memories of it. Which doesn't mean it wasn't covered up."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"I will admit, I have no idea what this plane's timescale even looks like," Liliana said. "Or how far back their recorded histories go."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"Only a few millennia," Lana said. "Five or six at most. It does have an astonishing range of cultures for one world, but most of them are very young."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Such babies," Liliana said with a shake of her head. "I know multiple people older than their recorded history."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"Oh, now that sounds interesting!" Lana said. "Galactic culture goes back much further, but I've only known one being over a millennium old, and the less said about him the better."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Ignis and I just had tea with an acquaintance of mine, Olivia Voldaren, and she's roughly six thousand years old," Liliana said. "The great dragons are countless millennia old, I'm certain I don't know how many." She looked thoughtful. "I could ask Nichol Bolas sometime, I'm sure, but I'd have to listen to him drone about how ancient and powerful and wise he is compared to mere humans and I can honestly say I don't care enough for the answer to deal with all of that."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[unusual_sith]

"Sounds like an immortal being," Lana said wryly. "Apart from the one I mentioned, we've got a few more long-lived species in my galaxy, but most hutts have the same arrogance problem, and you'd have to find a neti first."