MASQUERADE PARTY, 33 Apocalypse Ave, Friday Evening

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

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!]

Comments

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Wow, okay, Summmer was definitely looking around and taking some mental notes, because she was clearly going to have to step up her party game when she got back to this dimension if this was what people were going to start serving up now.

Also, taking mental notes definitely distracted her from the dread in her stomach that she would show up and no one would even care, and she was trying to linger a little for that sweet, sweet confidence boost that she hoped would come from people spotting her and just being all 'like, ohmygooood, Suuuummmmerrrr!' and also trying to decide what the hell she was going to do if that, like, never even happened, because, you know. Ouch. Suddenly, a nice fat suicide mission in space was gonna look awfully appealing...

Re: Mingle!

[defenderofdesmoines]

Summer. Like. How dare you even worry about that? How dare?

"Summmeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrr!" Tackle-hugging one's best friend was probably a dangerous prospect at a masquerade party, just in case that was not the correct tall, beautiful redhead-in-pink behind that mask, but Annie was willing to risk it. It wasn't, like, the most mask-y mask, anyway. She was confident she had the right girl. "What are you doing here?"

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

God, yes, thank you for that, Annie. It was going to be so nice to not have to fling herself straight into the nearest asteroid when she left here tonight!

"Ummmmmm, partying?" she said, after just taking a moment to soak in that perfectly executed bestie tackle and not even bother trying to hide her grin. "Obviously."

Re: Mingle!

[defenderofdesmoines]

"And in style, with a mask," Annie said with way more enthusiasm than was probably warranted, considering she herself also had a mask. "But like what about space? Are you back-back? Just visiting for the awesome party?"

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Not back-back," Summer made sure to get that out nice and quick before anyone in particular might happen to overhear something and start thinking that there was more to this party-crash than there was. "I was just, you know, in the area--"

Insert JenniferLawrenceOkay.gif.

"--and you know me, a good party is like a siren song, I had the opportunity, so I just couldn't refuse! I'm glad to see you, though! How have things been?"

It had been ages, Annie! AGES!

Re: Mingle!

[my_own_advocate]

Trust one Devil about to sink back into his own brooding misery complicated feelings to veer up at the sight of her, at least? "Miss Smith!" he called, getting up out of his seat.

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

That would definitely help!

"Mr. Morningstar." Summer couldn't really help the big stupid grin on her face, but she could at least manage to keep her little nod in check and stop herself from bouncing and shit. "It's been a while!"

It had...not been that long.

It felt like it had been.

But it had definitely not.

Re: Mingle!

[my_own_advocate]

"It's been weeks," Lucifer said gravely (because he had never in his life had a sense of proportion). "Wednesdays have become terribly boring."

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Well," said Summer, in a moment of honesty that maybe surprised her a little if she hadn't nicely drenched it with a sarcastic tone that made it hopefully seem like not an actual genuine concern (which it was), "at least I don't have to worry about anyone swiping that away from me, right?"

Re: Mingle!

[stykera]

The pink had caught Stark's eye. The island had been a bit lacking in that particular color of late.

"Summer! You're here!"

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Good.

Summer would hate to come back and find out that someone had totally stolen her schtick.

Well...one of them, anyway.

"I am here!" she confirmed, turning to Stark with a grin. "Just for the night, though. I was kind of in the area," l-o-l, "figured I might as well stop by, right? How've you been, Stark?"

Re: Mingle!

[stykera]

It wasn't like anyone could replace Summer, even if they did start picking up the pink slack.

"Just for the night?" Stark echoed, trying not to sound disappointed.
"I've been alright. Boston was good but then Faye was a bird and that was terrible but she's better now. How are you?"

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer had categorical proof that she very much could be and had been replaced before, Stark. It was a very real thing that could happen!

She gave a faint smile of apology for that tone, then a small shrug of her shoulder. "Maybe a little longer," she admitted, "but that all depends of how effectively I can drag Barry away from whatever he's got his big head stuck in right now."

There was definitely a ultierior motive in her dropping into this dimension for a party, yes.

"But a bird?" she asked, eyebrows lifting. "Really? For, like, how long?"

And that other question he asked, well..

Girlfriends turning into birds was way more interesting than any of that, right?

Re: Mingle!

[1000yearstoolate]

Sadly Seivarden didn't notice Summer until she had had on drink too many (possibly with the help of one of the hosts).

"Summer! You didn't tell me you would be here!"

There was more happiness than accusation in her voice, though, and unless Summer objected she would get a hug.

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer would not object to a hug; she honestly kind of expected it when she saw Seivarden, but...she was really hoping at least that she'd be able to eventually get out of that hug.

"I didn't know I would be here, honestly," she admitted as she hugged Seivarden back and then tried to ensure that she'd be able to extract herself. "But everything seemed to have fallen into place, and you know I can't say no to a good party, so...ta-daaah!"

Please, please, please don't make this awkward.

Re: Mingle!

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden let her go, grinning, one of Eliot's signature drinks with enchanted absinthe in her hand.

"It's good to see you. I've missed you... your hair."

She frowned a little, distracted by the glowing red.

At least she wasn't going to cry in your hair, Summer.

"Have you tried the drinks?"

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Her...hair?

Well, Summer wasn't sure if that meant it was a good thing or not she hadn't had the time to actually do much with her hair than keep it in her signature ponytail, but, hey, it was pretty distinctive, so she'll take it?

"I haven't yet," Summer admitted. She'd been too busy spazzing out about her party cred dwindling away in her absense with people like Margo and Eliot on the island now, and having a minor exestential crisis about no one even caring that she'd shown up. "Anything you'd recommend?"

With a small glance toward that drink in Seivarden's hand, because, welp. So much for that whole cutting back on drinking thing that had existed for a hot minute, she guessed.

Re: Mingle!

[what_the_shock]

"Hey, Summer!" Miguel grinned at her. "Where's the jello?"

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I knew I should have brought some!" Summer said, with a snap of her fingers and a laugh of appreciation for the question, then she shrugged apologetically. "Silly me, I thought maybe showing up out of nowhere with jello might come off a little tacky though."

And really, it was fine, she loved seeing Eliot work with the drinks and since she actually liked him, it kind of was good that someone else kind of got the booze spotlight while she was gone?

Definitely helped her feel better about leaving a potential void if she stayed gone, anyway.

"How's it going, Miguel? Have I missed anything exciting the last few weeks?"

Re: Mingle!

[what_the_shock]

"Nah, not really. School trip to Boston," Miguel answered. He nudged Summer's shoulder. "Hey, good to see you even without the jello. How's the war going?"

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Slowly," said Summer, grinning into the nudge a little and risking potentially having her hands sliced off with an axe or something later that evening by giving him a nudge back, "but steady. Sometimes, that can be a good thing. We've got a rare opportunity to start building up some defenses before things really start getting wild. That's really the main reason I was even able to stop by for this whole thing, honestly."

Re: Mingle!

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon was here! Not at home! And he was even looking extremely spiffed-up, thanks to Margo and Eliot's intervention, though it didn't help the awkwardness any.

Still, it was good to see Summer, so he waved from his semi-dark corner.

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer waved back.

But if you thought she was going to just leave it at a wave, Jon, you were sorely mistaken, and she bounced her way over the first chance she got.

"Jon! You're still around! Excellent!"

Re: Mingle!

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Yes!" Jon said, trying and failing to match her enthusiasm, but at least managing "mildly pleased". "I am still here. And you...you're back. You're...I wonder if you're staying."

Re: Mingle!

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Mostly just for the party," Summer said with a sort of apologetic expression on her face. "I was kind of in the area." Har har. "So I thought I'd pop in for this party since I could. Not really sure if I'll get a whole lot of chances to do that once things really get ramped up back home, so..."

She took a moment to look around a little, then lifted her drink in approval.

"Looks like I picked a good one for it, too!

"How's things going with you? Anyone blow up their apartments? Class going well?"