I see trouble on the way.

[lacquers]

Characters: Everyone! Yes, you too!
Summary: Mandy's Masquerade hosts a fantastic Halloween party with a costume contest, some very special cocktails, and a few other surprises.
Date(s): Late in the month of October.
Warnings/Notes: Please mark any threads that need content warnings.

Mandy's is looking a bit festive this evening. Arrayed with spiderwebs, pumpkins, and other ghoulish decorations, the interior resembles a spooky haunted house. Spooky, not scary! Everyone's invited to stop by and celebrate All Hallow's Eve with spirited drinks, excellent company, and a lot of that Magnus flair.

You can loosen up on the dance floor to Monster Mash, Thriller, Dead Man's Party, or maybe something from this list. The spooky sky's the limit! Visit the bar for one of several special drinks you won't soon forget. You can also sample some tasty and holiday-appropriate baked goods, courtesy of the other Mr. Lightwood-Bane. Finally, stop by the table with the MAGIC 8 BALL to learn a little more about your fellow partygoers.

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Potions.
drink list

Siren Song
If you're a little tone-deaf, don't fret. This drink will turn you into a master at serenading. It won't actually give you the ability to influence anyone via magical means, but maybe if your song choice is apt, you'll woo someone either way!

Firework!
A drink that comes with a portable fireworks show hovering over its surface. Drinking it will give you the sensation of ingesting liquid pop-rocks.

Blacklight
Does what it says on the tin and makes the drinker glow under a black light. It's also kind of sour.

Frankenstein's Monster
This drink is quite shocking. Not dangerously so, but when you drink it, you'll have the impression of getting a tingling little jolt of electricity down your spine. It's aliiiiive.

To Be or Not To Be (A Daemon)
Drink this and you will find you've been magically swapped with your daemon. It only lasts ten minutes, but hey! You'll get to see how the other half lives. A note: you won't inherit one another's abilities!

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Who Wore It Best?
costume contest

Congratulations to our costume contest winners!

In first place for individual costumes...

Rafa wins for his devilish costume and he'll be awarded 2 potions: the first of which will up his luck stat, granting him good fortune in an endeavor (it says "Deal with the Devil" on the bottle) and the second will up his persuasion stat, helping him to be more successful in an argument (it says "The Devil's Advocate" on the bottle).

In second place for individual costumes...

Nico plunders the second place spot and will be given a treasure chest full of chocolates that are rum flavored. Careful, they pack a bit of a punch and when consumed, they'll make whoever eats them feel especially happy. No sad drunks here!

In third place for individual costumes...

Zeke and his amazingly sunny costume are in third and he wins a sunflower plant that will never cease to bloom and seems to have a bit of a glow about it. Plus, perpetual supply of sunflower seeds?

In first place for couples costumes...

Magnus and Alec came first for their portrayal of... each other... and they win a pair of seemingly mundane t-shirts that say "Bennet" and "Darcy" on them. What's that about?

In second place for couples costumes...

Vex and Kenzi delighted with their take on the Addams' family patriarch and matriarch and won second place. As a prize, Kenzi will be given a shampoo and conditioner set that seems pretty innocuous until you check out the writing on the bottles: 'Have YOU ever wanted hair like Cousin Itt? Are you ever in luck!' Just a small amount will make her locks lustrous and smooth. Vex will be given a very lifelike and animated hand in a box.

In third place for couples costumes...

Rose and Kaz were drop dead gorgeous in their mafia-inspired garb. As prizes, they will receive the following: for Rose, a pair of magical die that make music when thrown, and for Kaz, a set of playing cards that are intricately illustrated with astonishing art that seems to move. Watch out for the face cards, they get very opinionated about your playing. They both also receive a chip that can be relinquished to Magnus for a small magical favor.

Comments

[smileslie]

[The giggle Mandy gives is probably the closest to the way she did before her world fell apart than it has been in...well, ten years. It's both from the butterfly's movements and the praise]

That it would be. A great deal of the music back home has become incredibly...generic, but I am glad we're still getting some men and women using clever double entendres. I'm still amused by the people who think that's really about working out.

[has Mandy watched that video a time or ten? Maybe. It's one of the few things that isn't Tommy that she likes]

I'm not used to singing pop music, that was my ex's forte. I'm more practiced in torch songs and showtunes, the usual cabaret fare. It's...an interesting change.

You made things like this somewhere else then, I'm assuming?

[lacquers]

[ If you've never seen a butterfly bow... well, that's probably also a good sign. Anyway, Magnus' daemon is large enough that when he does bow, it's actually not that hard to tell what he's doing. ]

I remember talking to people who said that! [ Magnus (in Anned's voice) sounds mirthful. ] I've been saying this as long as I've been alive, but people are strange. And wonderful! But also very, very strange.

In answer to your question, I did. I ran a club in New York and also in a city called Eudio.

[ Anned cuts in: ] What is a "torch song?"

[smileslie]

[Given the number of things Mandy has seen in her life--including a large number of things she doesn't actually remember--a bowing butterfly who has swapped places with a person is...okay, it's bizarre, but not enough to be remarkable. She still has no idea what that says about her or her sanity]

Strange would be quite the understatement for some of the people I've known. Which is hardly an insult, for most of them. If most of them were normal...well, they wouldn't have been in my life.

When in New York? [she pauses a bit, laughing] God, that still sounds bloody bizarre to say out loud. But I was working the dive scene there before I showed up here, so it's...well, as home as anywhere was, I suppose.

[she turns, having to realign herself just a moment to remember it's not the man asking, because she's damn sure he would know] Usually a very sappy sort of song where the narrator moaning a bit about a lost love or one they didn't get the chance to have in the first place.

[yes, she fully recognizes the irony in specializing in those when she will claim she's not sappy about Brian. Claim being the key word there]

[lacquers]

[ That says something interesting about her. Perhaps that she's led a colorful life? That can be both good and bad and Magnus would know better than most. ]

I guess we're all strange by someone's definition, aren't we?

[ Says the talking butterfly. Who is actually a man. Who is sitting beside Mandy. Whew. ]

I've been in New York for, let me see-- Well, since the early eighties. That's nearly forty years now! And I lived there during the Roaring Twenties and in the sixties as well. I keep finding myself coming back there. So maybe we just barely missed each other, hm?

[ Just barely missed one another in time and space. He'll be musing about that for a second while Anned offers its opinions about this musical trend. ]

That sounds painful. [ Thank you, daemon friend. ]

[smileslie]

Indeed. For most of my life, I considered the people who went in for the whole white picket fence business to be the most incredible oddities. I still don't exactly understand them.

[which avoids the fact that maybe a part of her wants their life--or if not that, the seeming stability that comes with it. Yeah, she's not touching those issues.

Her brow shoots up so it's almost hidden beneath her black wig] That long, wow. Yeah, I uh...I grew up in Connecticut, moved to London in '64, and stayed there until '75. I think I went to New York since it seemed like the closest place with the same sort of scene, without most of the baggage. It sounds like we might have had a few other missed opportunities, given those gaps. I traveled a lot in the seventies.

[she only gives a small, sad chuckle to Anned]

Quite a lot, but it's sort...cathartic, sometimes, though. At least it means you're pouring it all out to a hopefully-paying audience instead of...oh, pouring a bottle of vodka on the clothes of the object of your misplaced affection and threatening to strike a match.

[that's definitely just a hypothetical, yep]

[lacquers]

You're not the only one! [ A beat. ] Well, I guess I'm coming to understand the appeal of a peaceful life.

[ The butterfly starts pacing back and forth. As much as a butterfly can... ] It's taken years and years, as you might've guessed. My kind live a long time. I think - in the end - it just means we learn more slowly.

[ He pauses a second, thinking. The pacing doesn't exactly stop though, and Anned chooses this moment to pipe up again. ]

Maybe you will cross paths in your future, [ the daemon says to Mandy. ] You can sing one of your songs and not pour vodka on someone. [ To Anned, this seems to make a lot of sense.

At least, that how it sounds coming from Magnus' mouth. Also, Anned may not totally understand the nuance of the hypothetical. ]

I may have been too hasty making this drink, [ Magnus offers. ]

[smileslie]

[that gets a rueful smirk] It's hardly just your kind. I think a lot of...people who spend too much time living large, ridiculous lives do, if they get the chance to live long enough to learn the lessons. I'm just coming up on forty and I'm not sure I've quite stopped wanting that fast lane.

[even though she's started to see the consequences of it, that it doesn't always end in leaving a good looking corpse.

She nearly chokes, but manages to avoid much more than a slight cough as she shakes her head]

I haven't wasted a drink in that manner for quite some time. Thankfully the person I did that to and I haven't seen each other in a long time.

It's nice to think about, that we might run into each other when all...this is resolved. [she won't touch the fact she still wonders if Xist is better than the world she left which was only metaphorically falling apart before, but might as well have been destroyed as far as she was concerned]

[lacquers]

You make a good point. It doesn't always take a long time for someone to reach those heights of perception. It can happen in the blink of an eye.

[ And, well, forty years is basically the blink of an eye to him. ]

Was it wasted if you said what you wanted to say?

I think I agree with Anned on that one. Also, the thought of meeting people here and at home is a nice one. [ It sounds like there's a hidden "but" there and that "but" may have something to do with the whole reason they're here.

Magnus doesn't think about it very often, truth be told. He believes returning home is a given.

Eventually. But he also has the luxury of thinking that way, being as long-lived as he is. ]

[smileslie]

[Mandy snorts a little, even if he may have meant it in a different way, if she thinks about it her perception of her life was changed pretty quickly all things considered]

Yeah. In some cases, a single day can do it even for mortals who are a little slow on the uptake.

[like the day your husband fakes his own death and doesn't tell you he's doing it so you find out after the rest of the world.

She chuckles]

I guess not. I didn't precisely get the last word, but I made my point in a dramatic enough fashion it might have gotten through.

[maybe. She doesn't know if Brian even remembers that, considering everything he was doing at the time.

She smirks]

It is. I actually think I'd rather see a few people from home here rather than go back, mostly because for some of them I think it would be...better. [like it has been for Arthur. Curt could use this, a place where Brian Slade's shadow isn't hanging over them, where they could just be people instead of fictions again]

[lacquers]

[ Magnus makes a sort of thoughtful sound there, in lieu of being able to nod somberly. Yes, one day can more than suffice. There are certainly days like that in his history. Some good, some bad. Some really wonderful. Were he still in the right body, no doubt his gaze would be seen to wander across the room for a brief moment, falling on Alec.

And then back to Mandy, at whom he would then smile in that sort of mild and understanding way that says, 'yep, I get it.' If only he were not momentarily stuck in the body of a giant monarch butterfly... ]

You strike me as the sort of person who says what they mean and means what they say, if you don't mind me saying.

[ ... Magnus is also that sort of a person. ]

Do you like it here? [ There's Anned again, pulling no punches with the questions. ]

[smileslie]

[that's a statement that would have made her cackle once upon a time, when she was wearing a mask more subtle than the green facepaint she has on tonight. Now, she just shrugs]

I try to these days, when I'm able.

[when a man she left and yet hasn't been able to keep out of her life isn't holding vague threats over her if she tells his truths. But that's a problem she doesn't have to worry about now, for more than one reason.

She blinks, a bit surprised by the daemon's question, less laughable than the others and yet...

She runs a finger along the rim of her glass, not able to look at either of them for a few moments as she ponders that. She shouldn't, really, she knows. It's the bloody apocalypse, and who knows what's going to happen. But there had been a sense of that back home, too]

Yeah. Which, on the one hand, is pretty damn depressing because at least the threats here are a little more concrete than a political party and a good percentage of the populace thinking I'm a degenerate. [and a plague that's killing her friends while the rest of the world just listens to Tommy Stone, their new plastic god.

She swallows, glancing up] But on the other, I left a whole lot of baggage back there. I've only run into one person who knew I used to be famous, and that's...refreshing. I would have hated it a couple years ago, to not be talked aobut, but now...I can have this place, and it's mine by my own merits, not because a few people recognize my last name and remember my ex-husband was a rock star.

[she hasn't mentioned to many that the surname she uses here is Brian's, that she's still using that as a tool--but it's not, here, so she's not quite sure why she's hung onto it for anyone besides Arthur. And maybe herself]

[lacquers]

[ Magnus-the-butterfly goes quiet for a minute here, which might mean he's thinking. It's sorta hard to tell, because... butterfly.

Anned, however, has some thoughts. ]

You want to be anonymous, is that right? [ It'd be obvious to people who know Magnus that he's not the one delivering the words, because they're said in a sort of clipped tone. It's pretty contrary to the flowing, meandering way that Magnus tends to talk. ] Does that mean that this is like a fresh start?

I can see how some people would look at it like that, wouldn't they? [ Magnus offers this after his apparent contemplation draws to a close. He's about to say more, maybe...

But before he can, there's a little puff of green smoke around both man and butterfly and when it fades, Magnus-the-human is examining his fingernails. ] Well, that was interesting.

Talk about walking a mile in someone else's shoes! [ He says this with as much brightness as ever. Maybe too much, but who's to say? ] I wanted to say, it's my experience that threats can come in all forms, concrete or not. In line with that, good things can too.

[ And from the most surprising of places. ]