not_a_goddamn_princess | MASQUERADE PARTY, 33 Apocalypse Ave, Friday Evening

Party night. The best of nights. An ornate sign on 33 Apocalypse’s door invited all to knock and make themselves known.

The space inside was bigger than it looked from the outside, stretched and displaced by magic. The wallpaper was green and textured, hinting at the English countryside. On one side of the room sat a significant bar offering food and drinks, while the other gave ample space to sit. A large Jenga tower held prominence in a corner.

It was easy to miss it, though, in favor of the little streams of water that ran across furniture and floor. Tiny glass gondolas, animated by magic, made their way back and forth across each stream. The gondolas were real, though the water itself was an illusion. It called attention to the ceiling, doubly enchanted: both to draw all cigarette smoke to itself so it wouldn’t blow in anyone’s face, but also to mimic the starry sky above Venice.

You could watch the stars twinkle, or see the occasional cloud go by. Magical fireflies added to the illusion, dancing through the air like tiny lights. If you listened closely, you could hear the sea rolling in across an invisible beach. Even the air smelled faintly of it: the sea, warm food and good wine.

Welcome to Eliot and Margo’s pad, people. They’d make damn sure you had a good time.

[ocd up, come party!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tisarwat had probably spent far too much time putting together her outfit and her hair, and she spent probably twice as long deciding on her gloves as she did her mask, because Radchaai priorities were hard to live down, but she had missed parties like this where she felt putting an effort something that was just as much a conversation piece as it was an outfit terribly. She doubted any of it would be even half as appreciated here as it would back home, but that hadn't stopped her before.

The door opened, and. . .

“Well, fuckin’ A,” Margo said. “We got some space royalty here.”

She appreciated the look.

Or maybe there was some more sophisticated class on this hopeless planet after all.

It was hard for Tisarwat not to grin at a greeting like that.

"Not quite," she admitted, although the emperor that had briefly taken over her brain lamented over that admission. "Just a lieutenant. But I certainly won't argue if you want to keep saying other wise."

“It’s a masquerade party, half the point is to dress like what we aspire to be, right?” Margo said. “And that outfit says I’m ambitious and about to knock your fucking socks off.”

She’d know. Fuck, she missed all her statement dresses from Fillory.

"Why say it with words," Tisarwat said, with a pleased expression to have someone actually get it and get it so quickly, no less, "when you can say it with fashion? Unfortunately, I'm used to some of those more nuanced," Tisarwat, there was nothing nuanced about this look, "statements soaring right over the radar around here..."

“I’m not surprised,” Margo said. She was sympathetic, nuanced look or not. Tisarwat should’ve seen some of her Fillorian queen looks! “We’re not exactly in the middle of civilization here, are we?”

"Sometimes," Tisarwat found herself to relieved to find someone other than Seivarden she could admit this to to bother with holding it back in a more subtle way, "I wonder if we're even remotely close to the edge of civilization here..."

She shook her head a moment, and then considered Margo a little more closely behind her mask with those very bright lilac eyes. "So where are you from? It's always nice to meet someone who can at least understand what it might be like for those of use who are from more...sophisticated regions of the multiverse."

“That depends on what you mean with that question,” Margo said idly, like she wasn’t keeping close track of Tisarwat’s responses here. “I was born in LA. I moved to New York, where I learned about magic and the multiverse and all that fancy, sophisticated shit most people don’t know anything about. Then I wound up Queen to a magical kingdom full of backwards idiots covered in mud right before I came here. So. . . all over.”

Considering there were times when certain parts of Tisarwat's brain regarded this entire planet as backwards idiots covered in mud, eseentially, that part caught her attention a little more than the rest, but what she would up asking was, "How do you feel being here compares to being Queen of that kingdom?"

Eliot was not one for full on gay cliches, but he couldn't help but let out a little "yas!" when he saw this woman's look. "Daring! Unique! Perfectly executed! Welcome to our soiree."

It was giving Tisarwat such a thrill to learn that, apparently, her assumptions about appreciation for a good party outfit around here were ill-founded and that the hosts, at least, were civilized enough to know a good ensemble when they saw one, and she met the accolades with a small, pleased smile.

"Thank you for having me," she said. "The invitations mad eit sound like quite the event. I'm glad to see that they weren't lying."

"Trust me, darling, we try never to oversell our own parties," Eliot said. "I'm Eliot. I don't believe we've met just yet?"

"We haven't," Tisarwat confirmed with a smile. "I'm Tisarwat. It's very nice to meet you, Eliot. Parties like this make me realize I really do need to socialize around town more often, but parties like this also remind me that it's rare that an occasion comes around that makes it worth the trouble."

"Well, hopefully it won't be quite as rare now that Margo and I are here. We have quite a reputation for our magical extravaganzas."

"If this," said Tisarwat, with a an appreciately look around the room and a gesture of a gloved hand to accompany the assessment, "is any indication of what we can expect, it's really not a surprise why. It's...very impressive. Reminds me of some of the receptions they hold in the ~~Handwavey Because My Canon Doesn't Believe in Elaborate Detailed Worldbuilding, La~~ System."

Granted, Tisarwat had never actually been to that system before, but she still had plenty of memories of it.

“Oh? A pleasant reminder, I hope. I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that system.”

"It's easily one of the nicer systems in the Radch," Tisarwat assured him with an easy smile. "That is where I'm from, which is....outer space, basically, in another dimension, probably far, far away from this on."

Eliot nodded, now quite blase about people saying they came from space.

"I'm the High King of a magical realm somewhere on the other side of . . . some great universal divide or another. Fandom takes all sorts, doesn't it."

MASQUERADE PARTY, 33 Apocalypse Ave, Friday Evening

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