Around Town, Sunday Afternoon

[deathsmajesty]

It was the day after vacation and the last thing Liliana wanted to do was hang posters for the Halloween party they were holding this week. Which is why she absolutely was not doing that. She was, however, sitting in a rickshaw wrapped in her fur mantle and a jacket properly while her steward hung them up where she directed.

Delegation was an art and she was a master of it.

Liliana Vess & Ignis Scientia invite you to
A Trip Into The Underworld
Thursday, October 31st, 2024
Sunset
The Creepy Mansion in the Woods
All residents and their guests welcome
Costumes appreciated, but not required.

[Open if people want to stop her and talk, will pick up pings tomorrow]

Comments

[beautiful_boc]

It was on his way back from the bakery that Boc's path crossed Liliana and her rickshaw, and his head bobbed as he offered out a "Oh, hel--hello, miss." And to the steward: "Sir."

Actually offering out greetings, stammering and nervous though they were? The loneliness of last week mush have left quite the mark on the demi-human indeed.

[deathsmajesty]

"Oh hello, Boc darling," Liliana said as her steward nodded, returning the "Sir," in greeting. "How are you today? Did that bizarre little man from the other weekend ever find you?"

[beautiful_boc]

"Oh!" Boc had actually rather put that whole visit quite from his mind, and, being reminded of it now, his big round eyes widened a moment before he failed to suppress a shiver the way down from his hat to his toenails. "Oh, thank goodness, no. I was able to quite avoid him. Thank...thank you, for helping. With....diverting him from the right path. I know he was...well, that he was sent your way, to keep him...away, and all that. And, erm, thank you for not...well, for not giving me up, I suppose."

[deathsmajesty]

"Oh, you're welcome, darling, think nothing of it," Liliana said, waving his gratitude away. "He had nothing he could offer me that would make it worth my while to do otherwise, darling, and was a complete idiot to boot. His plan was good for nothing beyond getting him killed in a spectacularly gory fashion and I didn't see any reason for you to get involved with that."

And since she'd had no intention of following the idiot home, she wouldn't even have had the entertainment value of watching Kenneth's plans gruesomely blow up in his face!

"Perhaps he'll give up on his idea without you and will go on and live slightly longer, at least until he gets a new, differently-stupid idea."

[beautiful_boc]

He most certainly would not, but, luckily for the Great Kenneth Haight, some Tarnished would no doubt come by to get him out of that particular poor decision in due time.

Whether or not that was lucky for the Lands Between as a whole, well...

Boc's withering expression deemed to express all this and more.

"Well," he said, "all the same, kind of you still, especially when I haven't got too much more to offer."

Even if even he could tell he very likely had far more to offer any society than someone like that.

But wanting to move on from that before any objections to that last point could be made, he nodded toward the flyers.

"Another party soon, is there?"

He might not be able to read it, but he had noticed that posted papers about town and parties tended to sort of align.

[deathsmajesty]

Did anybody want to guess Liliana's take on the matter? Anybody?

"Darling, you're not an idiot. You have no idea how rare that commodity is in the Multiverse, but I do, and believe me, that is plenty to offer," Liliana informed him as her steward posted another. "And yes! Thursday is Halloween, so my paramour and I are hosting a party. If you're interested in attending, darling, we'd love to have you."

[beautiful_boc]

Boc maintained his withering expression, that Liliana could claim him not-an-idiot, and yet still expect him to believe a thing like that last bit.

And perhaps he truly must be coming down with something, because illness seemed the only possible explanation why his next thought was one of curiosity.

"What's Halloween, then? If you don't mind me asking..."

[deathsmajesty]

Mostly not-an-idiot, then. We all had our blindspots. Or brainworms.

"One of the holidays this plane celebrates," Liliana explained, while the narrative apologized to much of the rest of the world that did not actually celebrate it at all. "I'm sure there are religious or spiritual origins, but as far as I can tell, it's a harvest festival where people dress up in costumes and eat candy, with particular aesthetic trappings considered to be 'spooky' or 'scary'."

Liliana, a necromancer whose primary non-Fandom residence was on the plane of Gothic horror, found it all quite amusing.

[beautiful_boc]

And Boc, a demi-human from the Lands Between, would find this realm's idea of spooky and scary quite quaint, really.

Eating candy? Instead of human flesh? Adorable, really. And the costumes probably were made out of good old cloth and fabric, too, instead of that very same skin!

"I...see," he said, nodding a little again. "You said that's Thursday? Of this week? Well, I suspect the store might be getting some costumes, then, in the next few days. It does tend to follow those sorts of things with what shows up."

As a matter of fact, Boc would return to his nest to find that the entire store seemed to have been unindated with them in the short amount of time he'd been out!

[deathsmajesty]

They didn't even use real bones for the skeletons!

"Excellent," Liliana beamed at him. "Then you should have no trouble finding a costume to wear to the party!"

[beautiful_boc]

Then could you even really actually call them skeletons??

The sound that escaped Boc was just slightly too disgruntled to be a whimper, slighlt too resigned to be a grunt.

"What...erm...and what sorts of costumes do people tend to wear?"

Not that he would, of course, this was a purely professional question, as the local seamster and alleged manager of a clothing shop.

[deathsmajesty]

Just ask her about her experiences in the Museum of Natural History. Just. Ask.

"Oh, any number of things, I suppose" Liliana said. "I've only been present for a single Halloween so I'm certain I haven't seen the full panoply of available costumes. Anything from cheap, plastic outfits to walking visual puns to elaborate works of art. Some people choose to be different professions or different types of creatures...it's quite a wide and vast variety."

[beautiful_boc]

Boc's head tilted a little as he pondered this.

"So, it's a bit like...oh, well, it sounds a bit like you could dress up in a costume of almost anything. Is that right?"

[deathsmajesty]

"Precisely!" Liliana said. "As far as I gather, people dress up in costumes that seem fun, or impressive, or as a chance to feel like something or someone else...you can choose to dress up as anything for any reason."

If only Liliana knew more pop culture, Garfield had a perfect song for this.

[beautiful_boc]

And, all of a sudden, Boc was feeling like he needed to be extra wary of gremlins going into this week...

Well, not really. He was mostly thinking about this and trying to determine what he might dress up as if he really could dress up in a costume of anything he wanted.

Not that he would, mind you! This was all hypothetically speaking!

"What will you be doing?" he asked. "Something fun or impressive or something to feel like something or someone else?"

[deathsmajesty]

"Oh, impressive, fun, and thematic to the party," Liliana said. She gestured to herself. "Why would I want to be anything other than who and what I am?"

Honestly, Boc. She was Liliana Vess. She and cats shared the distinction of being the gods' perfect creatures.

[beautiful_boc]

Boc took a moment to consider Liliana, his gaze skirting just close enough to basically look at the general idea of her without actually looking at her directly, and then his head bobbed along understandingly.

"Yes," he said, "that's....that's a very good point, miss. Anyone would be very lucky to be even a little like you. I, meanwhile, am very clearly nothing like you, so the idea of being someone other than who and what I am is....very appealing."

And there, that whisper in the back of his mind, of the rumors of the Queen of the Full Moon, and her powers of transformation. Of rebirth. The ability to awaken as something new...something less offensive and terrible and miserable...

"What sort of theme is it? Should one try to fit it, if they can?"

Not that it would matter, because of course he wasn't going to go, but if he did, hypothetically...

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana regarded Boc with those ancient, fathomless purple eyes of her. "The theme is a trip to the Underworld, or the land of the dead in various mythologies" she answered, though her attention was more on him that the answer to his question. "You're more than welcome to come in costumed for something of that nature, but you certainly don't need to. Dressing to the theme will let you blend in a bit better with the aesthetics, or give you a place to start planning your costume if you find yourself with too many options, but it's certainly not meant to stifle your creativity, darling."

She went quiet for a moment, still watching him.

"I do not understand," she finally said. "Why would you want to be someone other that yourself? I mean, I generally don't understand that view, but for you particularly, Boc. Are you not rather remarkable?"

[beautiful_boc]

And some regarded the Lands Between to be an underworld of sorts; Boc was already getting a little bit of an interesting idea, especially when Liliana mentioned blending in, but that might have to wait for when he wasn't feeling his shoulders rising up protectively under that steady, watchful gaze. His head wagged back and forth.

"Oh, no, miss," he said. "Not at all. Not in the slightest. At least not in any good way. Perhaps a bit odd, if I were anything, but hardly in any remarkable way."

[deathsmajesty]

"Well, that's truly odd then," Liliana said. "Because I was told that you were unique among your people, and that was why I ended up entertaining a perfect stranger over tea - he was so interested you that he came from faraway lands in an attempt to find you and bring you home to try to make your people more like you."

She let that settle for a moment before continuing. "Do you not sell some of your own designs, a sign of creativity a cleverness? Do you not make your own designs, a sign of skill? I assure you, Boc darling, I cannot do what you do. I can stitch flesh, so I can stitch cloth, but that is nowhere near the same thing as making something beautiful. Are these not things to be proud of?"

[beautiful_boc]

Boc was, of course, a very small creature, and, in that moment, he seemed to be doing everything in his power to make himself as utterly small and tiny (and insignificant) as possible. His shoulders lifted around his raggedy, bite-torn ears and hunched forward, his head ducked as though trying to reach his belly button and his hands lifted to his head to cover it as it swayed slightly back and forth as he gave a small whimper.

And there was that unusual spark of sociability that seemed to have ignited in him that day extinguished, that rare mote of confidence crumbling into dust inside of him.

"No, no, no," he murmured. "I just do what I can! To try and do right by my dear old mum! That man was just delusion, touched by madness and silly notions! I'm still just Boc. And no one would want to be just awkward, wretched, miserable me if they could be anything else!"

[deathsmajesty]

"Oh he certainly was delusional," Liliana agreed, still watching him. "His plan didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of working. Enforced assimilation requires force and he didn't even seem to recognize that that was what he was suggesting, never mind that you'd be a terrible choice for it."

She watched his cringing with dispassionate interest. "Is that how you judge value? By how many people would want to be some particular thing? Or is it something else?"

[beautiful_boc]

"It don't think I'm in any position to judge the value of anything, miss," Boc whimpered...

...and instantly regretted it, because he could see exactly where it might go from there, and was already trying to preparing himself to just submit himself to that inevitable conclusion.

[deathsmajesty]

Indeed, Liliana was just looking at him with open amusement on her face now. "It looks like you heard it as you said it," she said. "Would you like me to point out the obvious flaw in your argument, darling, or can we skip right to the point where you acknowledge you can't have it both ways?"

[beautiful_boc]

The sound that escaped Boc now was not quite a whimper, not quite a sigh, maybe bordering on a groan, but it was certainly muffled from him still being quite curled up into himself.

"Let's just skip right to it and get it over with, please. If that's quite alright miss."

[deathsmajesty]

"Of course, darling," Liliana said with a wave of her hand. "Feel free."

Never said that Liliana wasn't passingly fond of you in her own way, Boc. She was giving up on a very good I told you so-adjacent comment. Some time soon, Ignis would be willing to give a very great deal to be given that consideration!