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

[servomotor]

[Tony takes a minute, just looking at his empty armor, opened in the front like a door waiting for him to step in. He's wearing it as a Halloween costume, which irreverent, but since when was he not?] Actually, I'm Iron Man, [he says, smiling abruptly. He glances at her over his shoulder, then turns, steps back into his armor.

It closes around him like a hand. An impossibly complex, sophisticated armor hand, moving parts and fine joints clasping together. It pressure seals the next moment, red and gold over his T-shirt and jeans. The truth is, he isn't trying to be irreverent. He's being paranoid. She has her alcohol, he has his suits. We all cope in different ways.] I'd say compulsive dream murdering is worse. Ethics and all. End of the day, you hurt a lot of people, but as long as they're alive they have a chance.

Conventional wisdom. Open any Hallmark card, it's what's inside.

[rootaccess]

Well, Iron Man,it's a pleasure to meet you. Is this like your schtick? Helping out drunk people in the bathroom?[ Darlene's features knit together at both Tony's response and the way that the suit closes around him in what would have been quite an impressive spectacle were she not completely wasted -- and were she not very rarely impressed by much of anything. ] What've you got running on that thing?

[ While she might not seem outwardly impressed, it's still very relevant to her interests. ]

Ethics. Funny little things, aren't they? [ Another snort, she's got something of a complicated relationship with things that are considered ethically right. ]

They'd put 'go fuck yourself' inside of a Hallmark card if it would make them a few bucks.

[servomotor]

[Iron Man ends up motoring across the bathroom floor a little, going over to the paper towel dispenser. He pulls free one square and wipes at spilled drink on the surface of him. It's weirdly domestic to see a big robot-armored guy polish himself with a bit of napkin, but these are the times and the resources. No personal workshop. It's only a little tragic. Sure as Hell beats a hole in the ground in Afghanistan.]

My schtick is stepping over the drunk people in the bathroom. But you weren't out on your face yet, so I figured I'd split the difference. [There's a backward smile.] You can also just call me Tony Stark. I guess that'd be more accurate.

Iron Man's 'schtick' is more like saving the world from alien hordes and psychopaths. What about Darlene's? [Swizz swizz. The servos in his boots sound gently as he steps backward her, and offers her a big, armored hand.]

[rootaccess]

[ Darlene just continues to watch Tony curiously -- guys in robot suits aren't really commonplace back where she comes from and a drunken Darlene is quite awestruck by it all. ]

Tony Stark isn't nearly as ironically obvious as Iron Man. [ She bites back a laugh, downing the rest of her water and tossing the empty bottle into the trashcan nearby -- or rather, at the trashcan, as she misses and the bottle goes bouncing loudly across the room. ]

Darlene's schtick is the destruction of modern capitalism. [ She eyes the robot hand extended to her for a moment before taking it and pulling herself to her feet. ] And the largest redistribution of wealth in the history of American.

[ She grins, wide and wry ] I'm a leader of the revolution.

[servomotor]

I think that makes you the enemy of my less-obvious alter-ego, [Tony Stark observes, after a moment.] Playboy millionaire philanthropist. My generosity comes with the fine print. This part where I, like, totally sold out. [They're both being wry. An edge of irony to his voice. If he had any room for guilt left over, after costing American soldiers hundreds of lives with hardware sold to their enemies, he would feel guilty about that. As it is, life's too short. Even his. He's giving back, some ways.

Swizz swizz. His mechanical plod takes him back to the open doors of her bathroom stall. He tilts his robot head. His mask is still off, though, held in one hand. The other, he offers her.]

Lift home?

[rootaccess]

[ Darlene wants to laugh at the irony of it all. Here she is, completely wasted -- tore up from the floor up -- and being helped out by one of the exact guys she’d been attempting to completely ruin. That mysterious top 1% of the 1%, the guys that up until recently were nothing more than a faceless humanoid blob in Darlene's mind -- like someone requesting their anonymity be protected on television. They all had faces and names in Darlene’s head now: Phillip Price, Terry Colby, Scott Knowles, Tyrell Wellick, Susan Jacobs.

Tony Stark is a new face in the lineup, but she can venture to guess he’d be on that exclusive list too.

(The multiverse seems to have a twisted sense of humor.) ]

Well, money does have a way of making people do crazy things. The more it is, the crazier.

[ It could even cause a man to set fire to millions of it in the middle of Battery Park. ]

And unless you plan on plunging the fair citizens here into crippling debt while you sit back all cushy and sip martinis, then we should be golden, babe.

[ Darlene eyes Tony’s hand for a moment, a mixture of skepticism and curiosity on her features. The suit is clearly only built for one body to fit inside (or perhaps two extremely small bodies rather uncomfortably.) and her drunken mind is having some difficulty figuring out exactly how this whole lift home is supposed to work.

(Look, she's used to traveling by subway, taxi, or the occasional Uber. Robot suits are uncharted territory for her.) ]

Yeah, sure. One question, though. [ She’s a little wobbly on her feet, bending to pick up her hat and murderglove. ] How exactly does that work?

[servomotor]

[There's a version of this conversation where Tony dismisses her question because laypeople tend not to understand, and he's usually not-- bothered with most -people at all. Never mind laypeople.

But she asks, and he's in a Mood lately. He's actually been very rarely out of a Mood these days. It makes him patient, in a sense. More patient than he would be.] This-- [he taps his chest, where the round glow of the fuel unit sits squarely in the center of his armor. Very aesthetic, but functionally essential.] Is an arc reactor. Back home, I just joined the renewable energy industry, hoping to make this kind of thing more accessible to people around the world, but it started with weapons.

And it connects to these repulsor units. [He exposes his palms. Taps one foot on the ground, a wrang wrang sound of metal on concrete.] Which can generate thousands of pounds of thrust. I've broken the sound barrier in flight.

Carrying one adult human passenger a few miles ain't no trick. [He winks at her, friendly enough.] I can do a princess carry, very ergonomic. Haven't received any complaints. [A beat.] Not that were my fault, anyway. Sometimes, in rescue capacity, the supervillain in question has to accept some responsibility, you know?

[This top 1% of the top 1% is not tremendously mysterious, as a general rule.]

[rootaccess]

[ Darlene listened closely, her eyes trained on Tony as he goes about explaining the suit to her — and for as drunk as she is, she manages to keep up with the whole explanation fairly well. It doesn't make complete sense to her, but she's also aware that it's not supposed to.

Her manner of weaponry is far less tangible, but equally as destructive. And when in the right environment, lies right at the tips of her fingers the same way that Tony's does.

(And it's a weird thing for Darlene to feel like there's so much common ground between them. She'd always assumed that herself and guys such as this couldn't have been further apart on the spectrum.)

(Once again, the multiverse had a very twisted sense of humor.) ]

Impressive, Mr. Stark. [ Darlene snorts softly in more drunken amusement. ] Well, as long as you get me back to my place all in one piece, I'll be sure to leave you a stellar review on Yelp.

[servomotor]

You have Yelp to? [his voice sounds indulgently exasperated. He reaches up to fiddle the mask over his head, tapping on a corner, making sure the seal is tight.] Maybe we should let D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. take over. Could be what the Multiverse deserves, if this is what we're doing with it.

[But even if Tony Stark is making a stupid joke about nihilism and the end of the universe, he's not about to pull out of giving her a ride. One metal arm swizzes up behind her, at the small of her back, and his fingers close around her waist. His other arm goes behind her knees. It's an effortless motion, the way he lifts up beneath her, supporting her off the floor. She's nearly weightless given the mechanical advantage of the suit.]

Try not to barf on yourself, [he suggests, as he navigates them out of the bathroom. It isn't far to the club's exit, and outside, the cold gulf of darkness that is the deep autumn night.] After all this is over, they're still going to need you to fight the Man.

Not being sarcastic about that. Really.