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

[redcosmedic]

[ Her greeting and welcome are greatly appreciated; he hadn't expected an invitation to this party, and he didn't actually know that many of the people in attendance. ]

Thank you. You do as well, your costume suits you.

[ He doesn't actually recognize the character she's portraying; he's got a handle on a fair bit of Earth media for having been planetside the best part of a decade, but there's so much that he often has to skim only the surface of. But Jane wears it well, the style perhaps familiar, and maybe that's what he's picking up on. ]

I suppose there's a certain irony in representating myself as someone sea-faring given where I'm from, but it seems well received.

[ The holoform sits next to her, but the couch cushions don't depress. While the avatar could exert force, it doesn't have any inherent weight. ]

Are you enjoying yourself?

[cantgetanyworse]

Oh, thank you.

[She chuckles and smooths a hand over her skirt. As the night has gone on the costume has become a little... warm to wear, though that's only part of the reason that she eventually made her way outside. It's been pleasant to come to a gathering like this and not have something terrible happen.]

I would say that I am. I haven't been to one of these events in so long. Something dreadful would always happen, and it does become rather off-putting.

[Jane lets out another little laugh. At some point in the evening, she might have had a drink or two.] Ah, but why irony? Are there no oceans where you come from?

[redcosmedic]

[ At least the evening is pleasant and mild, and on the other side of the property where Knock Out is resting in vehicle mode, he's appreciating that there's a nice breeze. ]

Yes, there does seem to be a running theme of incidents at the Swear Ins.

[ He doesn't mind; he can't partake, this construction of light and code has no internal systems z even though it appears complete from the outside. But he doesn't doubt that Stark is serving the good stuff. ]

No... Velocitron — my homeworld — was a desert planet before it was colonized and cyberformed, and Cybertron itself was entirely inorganic.

[cantgetanyworse]

Mm.

[Enough to make any person wary about coming to another one. Why this one? She couldn't say for sure, but it could have just been the lure of being able to dress up. Surely nothing too terrible could happen at a costume party.]

Entirely inorganic? [She doesn't look confused by the concept, but more that something like that could really exist at all.]

Someone made it? A whole world?

[redcosmedic]

Entirely inorganic yes, but no one made it. Just as no one built us.

[ There's a mild note of rebuke there, as if it's a touchy subject (it is). But there's no anger in the correction, she hasn't upset him. ]

But I suppose if you want to get theological about it, Cybertron is made of Primus' — our central deity — physical form.

[cantgetanyworse]

[She misses the rebuke. After all, don't many people believe that Earth was 'created' by something grander than itself? It doesn't seem so strange an idea to her.

But she nods, tapping the tips of her fingers together in thought.]

Theological, you say - so you can't be certain?

[redcosmedic]

It depends on how much you want to lean into the literal aspects of it. But given everything I've seen, especially in the last few years...

[ Resurrected dead? Mythical relics? Demonic possession? ]

Well, let's say I'm not a religious mech but I also am not foolish enough to tempt that particular fate.