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]

"Oh, see now that is sad," Liliana said. "Sharing something enjoyable with another may be the more common foundation of friendship, but I've found that mocking something together is a much faster route."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"And it takes less effort," Atton agreed. "Always works for me."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Yeah, Liliana wasn't exactly an expert on 'friendship,' so it made sense she would also gravitate to the lower-effort end of things.

"So how do you know the Dean well enough to tease his haircare products?"

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, we're from the same universe, just four thousand years apart," Atton said lightly. And, dryly: "We also got much better acquainted when he found out I'd served on the opposite side of his team back in the day and he gave me up to the authorities. But that's water under a decade-old bridge."

Almost decades. He was getting old, even if he didn't look it.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

See, Liliana had gotten old once and then decided she'd hated it, and had taken steps to reverse the issue.

"Four thousand years separate the two of you and the teams are still, hmm, vital enough to give you up?" she asked. "That is some grudge."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"Jedi will probably be fighting Sith another fifty million years into the future," Atton said. Bitterly.

It was part of why he'd decided to distance himself from the Jedi. For a while, anyway.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Oh! Jedi and Sith!" Liliana said. "I've talked to Lana about them. Jedi sound ridiculous."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm a Jedi," Atton said dryly.

He was absolutely going to wait a second before he said anything else, like a shit.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Then I'd be fascinated to hear if you can explain your order's views to me in a way that doesn't sound ridiculous," Liliana replied without batting an eye.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"Not even a little," Atton said, amused.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana crooked a smile at him. She appreciated the lack of posturing. "But it seems like you and Lana have found an accord, despite being on opposite sides of this eternal conflict?"

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm also ex-Sith, so I'm a little squigglier on the eternal conflict," Atton clarified, finally, "And Lana believes in cooperation, which, let me tell you, is a rare thing in our galaxy."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"I'm not sure there's a plane I've been to where it wasn't," Liliana admitted. "Even without an eternal conflict. Am I correct in understanding that the crux is that Jedi feel that there is a type of magic that is bad and the Sith use that type of magic, and therefore both sides are to be enemies forever?"

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"To be fair, Sith do like to use 'that kind of magic' to subjugate and/or murder a lot of people," Atton noted. "It's just that when the Jedi show up to stop it, they don't exactly make things better. Historically."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"And what do the people who are neither Sith nor Jedi think?" she asked.

This sounded much like the clashes between vampires and werewolves in Innistrad, honestly. Both of them eternally at each other's throats and neither particularly good for the human population. As a necromancer, Liliana stood outside their ancient enmity, though she was at least nominally allied with some vampires.

After all, they threw much better parties.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"That'd be nice if we didn't have a galaxy-spanning religious war that set fire to all of our homeworlds for at least a little while," Atton said, faux-brightly.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana blinked at that. "Well," she said a moment later. "I suppose one must congratulate you lot on both ambition and scale, if nothing else."

Galaxy-spanning wars?

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

Atton snorted. "Thanks," he said. "I hate it."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Oh yes, it's terrible," Liliana agreed. "I believe the only Multiverse-spanning threats we've faced were 'natural' disasters - or however you'd categorize threats that are the consequences of terrible actions but still had no driving sentience behind them - and those were horrifying enough. I couldn't imagine something like that but with an agenda."

Fortunately, she wouldn't have to! In a few years, she'd get to witness it instead!

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, imagine lots of dead people and planets exploding. Or imploding. Or both, for extra points," Atton said, and really wished he had a drink all of a sudden.

"And all the while a handful of other people are monologuing."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana immediately glanced away and down and if Atton were feeling particularly perceptive, he might guess that she didn't need to imagine it.

Or perhaps he simply might think she was squeamish! Who knew?

"Yes," she said quietly. "Because what that situation needs desperately is commentary." And for no reason at all, she followed that up with, "Can I get you a drink, darling? I'm about to summon a bartender over with some wine."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

Atton was always perceptive; it wasn't something he could turn off. But he knew better than to bring anything up.

"Tempting," he said. "Sure, wine, why not."

He probably wouldn't finish it, but he still couldn't help but put on the pretense.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana gestured to the bartender for two and then turned back to Atton with a serene expression firmly in place. "So, if you're both Jedi and Sith, what does that make the Dean?" she asked, bringing the conversation back to where it started.

The bartender hurried over, carrying a tray with two glasses on wine on it, both reds.

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm an ex-Sith, turned Jedi," Atton said, reaching for a glass. "He's an ex-Jedi turned Sith turned Jedi again."

Re: (Eventually) Arrive and Mingle

[deathsmajesty]

"Blind Eternities, is he a man or a revolving door?" Liliana couldn't help but ask.