xistentia | I see trouble on the way.

Entry tags:

I see trouble on the way.

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.

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!

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.

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[ Loki merely clicks his tongue while raising a cool eyebrow at him. Was Stark always so short? Granted, he didn't really take note of it the first time they met. He was rather preoccupied. ]

You can gawk while dancing.

[Tony had been preoccupied up until like five minutes ago. But now, Loki is his entire world. Partly because he's extremely tall, actually, and Tony is standing very close to him as he turns him about and wonders why the singed-ozone smell of terrifyingly powerful magic isn't lingering int he air. Mind you, he's cool with not being hexed out of existence on the spot.]

So, what's new? [he asks.] Is it spoilers if I tell you that I heard you died?

[ Loki merely smiles. No teeth, no sharpness, but there's a slickness to his gaze. Even as he is held, you can tell that he'll simply slip through your fingers like air. Even in the cheap Captain America outfit created by his magic, every stitch aligned, his ethereal quality remains pristine. ]

No doubt you all celebrated. Did you have a feast? I believe they did so the last time I perished.

[That's

an interesting reaction. The human watches the god's face closely, as humans have been watching their gods faces for millennia in every world. Only, those gods are most often made of stone that does not, any clear way, answer prayer. Never mind ask questions of its own.]

That would be declasse, [Tony says, after a moment.] Your brother's a friend of mine, and he gets defensive, right up until we remind him of the mass murder. [This is absurd. Surreal. They pass under pulsing fuchsia lights together. Tony holds evil in his arms.] Who's 'they?'

[ Loki clicks his tongue, nonchalant. For all you know, they could be talking about the weather and nothing would budge. There are practiced liars and there is Loki. A category in his own right. ]

His or mine? Thor was so good at it when we were younger. It runs in the family, after all.

[ Bor, Odin, Thor and Loki. All cut from the same cloth. Either way, Loki no longer dwells on it. Having no father, no family, no name . . . it's all rather freeing. He's broken free from Asgard, from Thor. Freedom is bittersweet, curled along the edges of his spine. Loki was going to enjoy it. No one, not even the Avengers will wrest that away with their petty moralities. ]

Asgard, of course. Thor may have mourned, but I doubt anyone else did.

[ He doubts even now, as Thor goes back to Asgard, that anyone would care. They had stopped centuries ago. Only now, they no longer have to keep up the pretense. Loki had given them the excuse. ]

Yours. It's the contemporary acts that those of us with contemporary sensibilities are concerned with, [Tony answers. It's funny because it's true; the carnage of the demigods' earlier years might exist only in distorted and exaggerated mythology, but having met the man in real life, and heard a little about the ways of Asgard, Tony has little doubt that making war, adventuring on horseback, and a healthy dose of xenophobia for less privileged worlds, was part of the package.]

That's sweet. You think Thor might have mourned, and it means something to you. You know what, rock star? He probably did. And that says a lot about him, the way he grew the Hell up from the shitlord you're talking about.

[Sure, he and Thor were out of touch for awhile, but he still knows hammer dude enough for this.]

[ That is hilarious and Loki laughs. He forgets how little Midgardians know, how completely eclipsed they are by what they see and little else. Stark and his little band are no different. It's reassuring, in a way. Loki may be done with Earth and have no reason to return, but he's going to enjoy what's coming while they stumble around in the dark. ]

Ah. And yours are off the table? Since we are considering contemporary acts. But I suppose with enough lucre, you can throw your victims a bone and never look them in the eye again.

[ His smile is sharp. ]

In fact, you should be grateful to me. I am the only victory you have ever had that you were not indirectly responsible for. The first mess that does not have the stink of your past and your mistakes. Do I not soothe your ego? Tony Stark, the hero.

Though now I'm curious — [ Even if his tone is anything but ] — how have things been since I left? I assume the Avengers are still doing their civic duties?

Edited 2017-11-02 02:29 (UTC)

[It's not that Tony doesn't know what the demigod of mischief (god of mischief?) (what does 'demi' mean exactly) is up to. It's low-hanging fruit, if you ask him on a good day— the exact same fruit that Ultron had gone after, setting the Scarlet Witch on him, with her funbag of hallucinations and guilt trips.

But it's been awhile since Tony had a good day. It's been a bad month. It was a bad apocalypse, and at this point in the evening, he doesn't know that Steve is alive. Instead, he's stuck dancing arm in arm with a sociopath who he physically can't punch right now, thanks to weird warding physics.]

We've had some interesting debates about violence prevention versus reaction, [he says,] I'd break it down for you, but considering causation doesn't actually fit in anywhere on that spectrum, I doubt you'd get a kick out of it. Say. [They turn around the corner of the dancefloor, color lights pulsing overhead.] You're doing a pretty good job trying to get at my sense of personal responsibility. You know you'd probably be a little less psychotic if you tried it out. You don't seem to be enjoying the fun psychosis, godling.

[ Loki shrugs, nonchalant. He is uncannily perceptive, especially when it comes to others and he is rather pleased that his words missed its mark. Normally, it would grate but Loki has left much of that life behind him. Even if he is homeless, directionless, he is more himself than he has been in a long way.

Being out of Odin and Thor's shadow would do that. ]

It was merely a phase. Desperate times, as they were.

[ His expression clouds briefly before it smooths itself away. Despite his earlier thoughts to the contrary, Loki was not all that keen on seeing the Titan again. ]

[They are two alley cats circling in a dumpster that's catching on fire. Or, you know, a reputed superhero and supervillain dancing around at Halloween post the end of the world. Same difference.

Tony's face is rigid. Were it not for the alcohol, the rest of him would be too. Not a sexual reference, for the record. The servomotors in his arms zip and swizz faintly as he adjusts for the turns, the slight dip of the demigod's arms. He does seem less manic than before. This would probably be a good time to start plotting to lure Loki out onto the beach and kill him.

Maybe Loki's doing the same.

His brain grates tiredly in its tracks, discomfited and unhappy. He knows he shouldn't ask. He does anyway.] Desperate times, [he says.] You're saying the high-tech ball gag and jailbird stint, that was your preferred scenario to what came before.

[ Loki glances at him, an inhuman tilts to his head. It is very clear, no matter how hard Loki mimics the clothing and stylings of humanity, that he doesn't quite have it. Even Thor, for his boisterous loud behavior stands apart. They are centuries old, and time moves so slowly that every moment slips past their fingers like sand. They are never ready. ]

You saw it, did you not? Merely for a second, but it stayed with you. Ingrained itself on your mind, a certain kind of madness.

[ The vastness of space. Littered with the bones of the dead and lights so far, it seemed to be eaten up. Loki knows the void intimately now. He knows how the silence of space swallowed up his screams. How his moment of weakness stretched into days and months. How once he finally stopped falling, his mouth was so full of gratitude, he scraped it raw on the ground. ]

How long do you think I was there for, Stark?

[And here is the championship trials of trying to figure out what it was Thor might have told him off-screen. The default assumption is still that Loki's fucking with him, of course. God of Mischief, right? Fucking with people is going to be for Loki like respiratory functions are to the average yeast cell. Or, you know. Courting homicidal supervillains, if you happen to be a narcissist with your own set of weird guilt complexes.

In spite of the alcohol, Tony feels his heartbeat kick up a notch. Riding the fear-cadence of reminder. He got past the Acute Stress Disorder symptoms at this point, mostly, plenty of inadvertent exposure therapy, plenty of actual discourse. It took the sting out of the memories, but it still isn't particularly fun to think about.]

A week.

[He doesn't think about what it'll mean, if he is wrong.]

[ Loki does smile wider now, a crinkle in his eyes, as if he is simply so amused by the guess that he can't quite hold it in. At the very least, it does not seem biting and cruel, mostly a thread of humor that one can't place. Like a joke held at the expense of everyone else and only Loki knows the punchline.

( he knows the truth now and how ironic is that from the god of lies? how ironic, loki laughs as the blood bubbles up in his veins )

Either way, he does not laugh or mock. He does not see the need to. After all, Tony already carries a sliver of that pain. Loki knows it exists. Adding to it seems highly discourteous. His tone is even gentle. ]

Perhaps it was, Stark. Perhaps it was.

[There's an intimacy to sharing this pain that Tony isn't entirely comfortable with, and maybe it's not just because of Loki, either. Even in telling Bruce of his scandalous misadventures at length, he'd had his own spin to it, finished it up with a bow and somehow managed to put his friend to sleep. Pepper had had to squeeze tidbits out of him like burping a baby, because he didn't want to spend more time in the doghouse for eating without her on date night.

He's not supposed to have anything in common with Loki dated anything more recent than the inception of Operation Enduring Freedom.]

So you can't die from suffocation or deep space radiation. Thanks for the tip. I'll have to keep that in mind, next time you lose it and try to end the local population plus-minus fascism. [His voice is light.] Appreciate it if you try something different on me, too.

[ The lights flicker around them, casting shadows over faces but Loki's gaze is still a steady cool green. He no longer has the lean angry look that he possessed in New York, though the hallmarks of it still lingered in his face. Like a creature stitched together but has finally felt out the seams and started mending them. None of them makes him better. If anything, it makes him more dangerous, more self-aware. The Loki in New York was a driven, ambitious thing, hunted and wane.

The Loki of now has no more strings. His teeth flash boldly. ]

Is that a request? Very well, Stark. Next time, I'll make it quick. Will that suffice?

[Their song is winding down now. You can tell because the lulls between the woman's voice and the pulsing instrumental are growing longer, a subtle way of slowing down. He could have left at any time, but it's not until this moment that it occurs to Tony that this is over. Any tactical benefit, information-gathering, or possibly, masochistic undertaking-- it's coming to a close.

Yes, he can tell. That Loki's different now.]

Appreciate it. And you should look into a gel-based serum. For the newer, less manic you. [And then he removes his armored hands from Loki's waist.]

I will consider it.

[ He steps back into the shadows with a jaunt wave of his hand before vanishing. Loki always did like a grand exit as much as a grand entrance. ]

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I see trouble on the way.

I'VE COME TO TALK WITH YOU (AGAIN)

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