Halloween Party Post 🎃 [OPEN]

[irondad]

WHO: Everyone. Seriously!
WHERE: Tony Stark's place
WHEN: Halloween night, Oct 31st
WHAT: It's a party! On Halloween! Arrive in costume, eat, drink, make new friends & be spooky!
WARNINGS: Bog-standard Halloween imagery & shenanigans (skulls, blood, etc, potential pranks from guests); please add content warnings to subject lines & list/link to preferences (if needed). Feel free to select whatever the heck you like for the question maker & fortune teller!

Welcome to Halloween, Stark-style.

ARRIVAL

If you came by car, valets are on hand to park it for you, so don't forget your ticket! Follow the candle-lit path to the house, have your photo taken against the backdrop in the spiderweb-strewn entryway, and go grab a cocktail at the open bar before hitting up the rest of the party!

MONSTER MASH

You've been to a Halloween party before, right? If not, no fear- there's a buffet of perfectly normal, if on-theme dishes to nibble: try a black-candied apple or the macarons, vegan dips dressed like graves, squid-ink pasta bites, and a wide assortment of other common finger foods. Miss the food? Don't worry, helpful robot Butterfingers is on hand to bring you a plate of hors d'oeuvres- oops! He might have bumped you into someone else instead. Sorry!

Other activities abound, if you feel like risking the appearance of ghosts in a "haunted" photo booth, ”trick-or-treating” with a flight of jello shots (which one’s actually alcoholic?), or having fun with classic Halloween standards, like bobbing for apples, donut on a string, gross-out touch boxes, or horror film trivia.

Head outside to dance to a broad assortment of music, new and old, creepy or just right to boogie to. Got one in mind you’d like to hear? The band takes requests. Or maybe you’d prefer to mingle under the full moon with your fellow ghouls and goblins. Stuck for something to say? Don't worry, a blacklight question might flash across your costume, right in time to save you from any awkward pauses. Or add to it, depending on the question. So what is the weirdest dream you've ever had?

Careful not to get too rowdy, as there will be security around to keep anything too nefarious from happening. But hey, no one says they can't be distracted, right?

HORRORBEACH

Wend your way from the backyard down a lantern-lined path to the beach, where an intimate setting of dark tables and velvety couches await, and the music is subdued and eerie. Among the scattering of tables, there are fortune tellers there to give you a glimpse of your future. Why not, right?

Each character will have the option to have their fortune read (the choice of fortune is yours, but if your character needs a uplift this season, maybe keep it light), and walk away with a small gift, one random card of the Major Arcana. Because this is MoM though, these aren't just any cards, and some will impart a light-hearted, fully optional affect and/or compulsion on your character:

0. The Fool: Disclose a hope or dream to someone (within character's comfort level)
1. The Magician: Glowing sparks dance from their fingertips. Fingerguns get an especially bold burst of flair.
2. The High Priestess: Recipients feel the need to give a stranger a compliment, and get a glowing halo!
3. The Empress: Someone at this party needs a hug (or maybe a rescue from an overbearing npc), you can sense it. Go for it, and gain a cloak of shimmering sparkles.
4. The Emperor: You feel wise beyond your years. Offer someone your well-meaning advice, with an accompanying glowing crown.
5. The Hierophant: This card is all about tradition. So, bend to it a bit and ask someone to dance!
6. The Lovers: A heart appears over your head, "beating" rapidly in the presence of something they like. Could be their secret crush, could be a slice of cake, oops.
7. The Chariot: You feel the inexplicable urge to give someone a piggyback ride. May or may not include the sound of mysterious hoofbeats in your wake...
8. Strength: There's someone you need to tell something important to. Now you've got the nerve to make it happen.
9. The Hermit: Are you normally a wallflower? Now you feel compelled to sing! Go grab a mic and do your best Winifred Sanderson impression before the crowd.
10. Wheel of Fortune: Wildcard option! Choose any two that speak to you.
11. Justice: Have you been holding onto a petty grudge, or did you spill your drink all over Tony's couch and need to unburden your soul? Admit it to a stranger!
12. The Hanged Man: You can now levitate! Just a few feet, and try not to get turned around, like your card's namesake. You might need someone to tow you for a little while...
13. Death: You're compelled to change costumes with someone around you.
14. Temperance: You're now sober, sorry! This really is the worst card...
15. The Devil: Enjoy those horns, and a mildly heightened need to play a prank on someone.
16. The Tower: This is your moment. You're gonna climb that table and dance, baby.
17. The Star: Your eyes now glow with reflected starlight. Go you, Galadriel.
18. The Moon: Your verbal filter is gone. The first thought to pop into your head will be your next conversation starter.
19. The Sun: You now glow like a low-wattage lightbulb. Those in your presence get a temporary positivity boost!
20. Judgement: Solicit someone for their opinion. On your costume, the state of the world; you need to hear it.
21. The World: You're flooded with euphoria and affection for yourself and fellow partygoers, and you need to tell them. What a great way to end the night!

(The duration on these varies, and will generally be up to your player comfort level. If an option will unreasonably upset your character either at the party or longterm, then please don't select that one.)

(DEARLY) DEPARTURE

The party (and after-party) will go on well into the night, but everyone’s got to go home at some point. Heading out? Those with invitations, don't forget to swing by the last table before the valet stand, and claim your gift bag! All bags contain aspirin, a bottle of water, a black satin eye mask, a commemorative t-shirt, swanky new EarPods, and a spa gift card, to better recover from your post-party hangover. Thanks for coming!

Any questions? Feel free to ask here or hit up others for plotting purposes!

Comments

[deadwenwalking]

"I don't know what most of that means," Wen Ning admits casually.

Until fairly recently, he didn't even know what a calculator was, much less anything this mechanically complex. Technology is a vast world of unknowns that he's not sure he even wants to step into. Reading up on modern medicine alone is enough to throw him for a loop.

"It seems like you're saying you can control them."

[helpdesk_hero]

“Yes. But I don’t exert that much control over this one. It doesn’t deserve that treatment from me,” David answers. The thing being taken over would be horrible. It didn’t deserve that as a thinking being.

Their code is what makes them do what they do.

[deadwenwalking]

"I-is it autonomous?" He bends down slightly to get a better look now, despite previous warnings. His frames of reference for many things here are small. Generally, he ends up comparing them to something involving cultivation - a puppet, or maybe even one of those small paper men Wei Wuxian made. Something ultimately controlled by a human being.

Does this have a little brain of its own? Is it more like him?

[helpdesk_hero]

“Yes, fully,’ David agrees, peeling the paper off of the cupcake. He likes this trust a lot. “Butterfingers is his own person. Just artificially constructed.”

[deadwenwalking]

"So it's metal that had life breathed into it." Or something like that. "Was it. He. Ever human? Is it... Is he a soul placed in a different container?"

Wen Ning has to wonder if Wei Wuxian has ever done any studies on these robots, or if they interest him at all. If the way they function is completely different from how any of his projects work then perhaps not. He can't feel any sort of resentful energy coming from the creature.

[helpdesk_hero]

"Not quite life," David says. Not in the way he would define it, even knowing technological life. "But no, it was never human. It's all ones and zeroes."

Robots must be hard for people to understand if they aren't already aware of them.

[deadwenwalking]

"Ones and zeroes...?" The reference is completely lost on Wen Ning, as are most things involving technology. He knows little to nothing about how any of the machines in this world actually function. There's too much to read up on. Right now he's stuck on medicine and will be for some time.

"I don't get it, but. He seems friendly."

[helpdesk_hero]

Oh man he's going to have to work hard to explain that.

"Basically we help create their minds by doing this thing where... Well, it's hard to explain. But the way he thinks is, at its core, based on numbers. It's sorta silly, but it's like... their language."

[deadwenwalking]

Wen Ning nods his head slowly. He doesn't really understand, but he's trying.

"So the... the magic, the - the spells used to create them are number based." It does seem like there would be a lot of math involved in making machines, so it's only suitable that they would require number-based spells.

He's sure it's far more complicated than that, but he's trying his best to comprehend.

[helpdesk_hero]

It's not entirely accurate and yet...

"The analogy is a good enough one for us to work with. One builds their language and when electricity is run through them, they can think in that same language."

[deadwenwalking]

"The electric energy that powers all the machines?" He's still not entirely sure where all the energy comes from, just that a lot of machines have to be plugged into a wall in order to work. Maybe there are talismans in all the walls that he doesn't know about.

He's putting this on the top of the list of things he needs to study next.

"Is it because all the parts require a lot of numbers to make them accurately?" Machines are so perfect in form they hardly seem made by hand.

[helpdesk_hero]

"Well yes, there is a lot of math in robotics engineering, both in the machines that make machines, and in the programming of their 'brains' as it were," David agrees, smiling.

Yeah, he's doing his best to explain. He reaches out and touches a tube on Butterfingers.

"This? There is fluid in this. He has a small motor in his body that pressurizes the water. Higher pressure makes it press on actuators that case his claw to close. Lower pressure relieves this and opens the claw. Math must be applied to help the designer figure out how much pressure range to give his grip, and he has to use math to figure out how firmly to grip something without breaking it."

[deadwenwalking]

It's taking all Wen Ning's focus to keep his eyes from glazing over with all the unfamiliar terms. He's worked in medicine and he's seen new buildings being designed. He knows how important mathematics can be in all of these things, but seeing this little mechanical creature being put together this way is something else. It's magic in science.

"Is there... something off with the calculations that was making him function incorrectly?" He wants to reach out and touch it, but he doesn't dare. Knowing him, he could accidentally damage it somehow.

All of the knew knowledge he's gaining here has been making him feel completely out of sync with, well, life in general.

[helpdesk_hero]

"That I don't know. I don't want to pry deep enough into his code to mess with anything," David admits. "It would sorta... violate his being, and if he doesn't ask, I won't do it."

IT would be no better than altering Wen Ning's mind.

[deadwenwalking]

Wen Ning nods. He understands enough of that to get where David is coming from, even if he doesn't get the finer points of it all. For the time being, he's going to consider a robot like a conscious puppet. He knows not all machines have that level of sentience.

"You told me his name is 'Butterfingers'... but I don't think I ever got yours. I'm Wen Qionglin." Introducing himself with both his given name and his surname has been confusing for some people, so he's decided just to go with the one he'd expect a polite individual to use. "The, uh. Surname is first."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Yes, I surmised that. I'm David Alleyne, surname last. But if you are more comfortable referring to me as Alleyne, I will respond to that."

He patted the side of the bot because he wants to address the man directly.

"So, how long have you been here?"

[deadwenwalking]

Calling him 'David' feels too informal still. He'll go with 'Mr. Alleyne' in the future.

"I've been here... almost a month." In this version of the world, at least. Prior to that, he spent about three weeks in the other one. But there's no reason to confused things now by bringing that up.

"Long enough to get somewhat settled in." And hope that he isn't somewhere lese at the start of the next month.

[helpdesk_hero]

And of course David will feel weird being called Mr. Alleyne. But it's a cultural thing he supposes.

"That's newer than I'm expecting. Where do they have you residing?"

[deadwenwalking]

"Oh... They assigned me an apartment, but..." Wen Ning scratches at the back of his head. He can't even recall what the address was. He's sure he has it written somewhere. It might still be under his ownership?

"I've been living with my friends. They... had a house already." A very nice house with a room available for him. Of course it's also in a part of the world seeped in radiation, but he's a puppet and a cultivator. He should be fine.

[helpdesk_hero]

"Well, that's pleasant. I had a friend who bought a place and I live with him now. I get the value."

And of course Tony clearly didn't live in government apartments.

[deadwenwalking]

"I wouldn't have minded the apartment." Wen Ning has lived comfortably in a cave, after all. "But I was fortunate."

He would have been far more lost upon his arrival - both arrivals - if they hadn't been here to help him. He's grateful to whoever brought all of them here for at least bringing them together. "People seem to be brought here from the same places fairly often."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Not... as often as you would think. Sometimes, in small groups, but those groups seem to get broken up, sundered at times. Other times it's just one person, alone and sad."

He's seen both spreads of things. David? He'd been lucky to have Josh and Laurie.

[deadwenwalking]

That's disheartening to hear. Wen Ning went through a rough patch with that whole instance in the other world, but things have worked out well here aside from that. Most of them have stuck together and those that haven't had their own reasons. (It would get crowded, for one thing, and it will be a long time before Jin Zixuan ever feels comfortable living under the same roof with him - if he ever does).

Xue Yang has earned the distance others keep from him.

"Well... then I'd hope they could make new friends here. There's plenty of us."

[helpdesk_hero]

"From my experience, yeah, new friends happen."

There was even a warmth in his smile that said that David had definitely found friends here, perhaps even more than that.

"For instance," he offers out his hand, "consider me one."

[deadwenwalking]

"O-oh." Wen Ning stares at the hand a moment, then cautiously takes it in his own. Handshakes are still new to him, but at least now he knows how they work. He's accidentally been a bit rude in the past.

"I'm glad to have met you, then."

That's another thing he has to get used to - anyone willing to become his friend so easily instead of outright running scared or thinking poorly of him because of what he is.