capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

WHO: ERIDAN AMPORA and ZATANNA ZATARA and THEIR VERY UNFORTUNATE GUESTS.
WHERE: a creepy ~~rose red~~ house on the edge of the city.
WHEN: 11/5.
WARNINGS: fakemurder. gore. trauma. misery. mystery!!!
SUMMARY: since eridan spent the entirety of halloween wweepin and eating stale sugar cookies in his basement leah, he and zee throw a belated halloween party!! BAD THINGS HAPPEN.
FORMAT: ANYTHING GOES.

[the house - it's more of a miniature mansion, really, and incredibly creepy - is just far enough from the city's limits to be quiet. sprawling, dark, and eerie; it's kind of like a cross between rose red and dracula's summer home, which is at least half of the reason why it was chosen. maybe two-thirds.

inside the decorations are done up in lush reds and the occasional streaks of violet; the kitchen is full of food and refreshments, the main hall is decked out, the music is pumping, and the hosts will no doubt be more than happy to tell everyone all about how they heard a rumor from a friend of a cousin of the realtor that like a quintuple murder totally happened in the attic or something (or one of them will, at least). rooms beyond the immediate party area (a host of ground level rooms and anything upstairs, basically) haven't exactly been blocked off, but they're also visibly not as touched up and may or may not be haunted.

well, there's a definite risk. the place is creepy as hell.

doors open at eight-thirty (just to spite vriska). get in there!!

(DIRECT QUESTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS RIGHT HURR.) ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Her shoulders inch a movement, almost like a shrug, but not quite putting forth the effort to commit to it. ]

It could be worse, I suppose. [Fucking Pigtails comes to mind...] Just, don't give Ms Zatanna any ideas.

Oh believe me, I'm not inclined to. [ He waves a hand, as if in description. ]

Besides, she seems to mostly get ideas about me, so I have my own skin to worry about.

I'd think she wouldn't bother changing your costume twice...

This is Zatanna, of course she would!

That much? [There's a flick of her eye to the side, a little turn of her head, suspicious as hell that eavesdropping will occur -- but if there was something she wanted to say, she doesn't.] Sorry to hear that, then.

Well, you know. I could just tell her no, but it's easier to let her think she's getting some of her way, or else she'll be mad, and I know I sure as hell don't want to deal with her being mad.

... That bad?

Well, I wouldn't say she's bad, but--

[ Now it was his turn to shrug, if only a little. He couldn't do so much with the weight of a fucking jet pack strapped to his shoulders. ]

Well, she likes her fun, and that means if she gets an opportunity, she'll take it. Even on the pretense of being mad.

I can't say I've ever been a fan of the type. Faking emotions to get what you want, I mean.

[Now, faking a lack of them, well, that was something completely different, right.]

Shit, that's why she's a stage worker.

[ He can certainly sympathize, but his faked emotions to get what he wants are more for the benefit of others. To make sure he looks more human than he feels sometimes. ]

I can't blame you, though. It takes a certain person, but they can be difficult to deal with from time to time.

I suppose I'm more used to the honest sort. It's exhausting enough, trying to keep up with a genuine heart. [ her head tilts a little to the side, as though she were going to shrug a shoulder, but it forms only in implication. ] The stage is one thing, but day to day stuff...

It makes it difficult, sure. I honestly don't know how she does it. She seems happy though, so at least there's that.

Different strokes, I guess. [ As if that were a good enough reason to put up with any sort of lying. He shakes his head, weight the fuck down by his gear, and shifts his weight a little. His motions stilted if just because he's wearing a goddamn costume that could probably kill a man if it landed on him.

Or at least the jetpack could. If it were full. He liked Zatanna a fair amount, but she could be exhausting, even for him, and he wasn't exactly unused to lying. ]

[ The smile cuts into her face a little unexpectedly, but the expression is more sour than sweet. ]

Hardly anyone is what they seem.

[ He released a soft laugh. It was almost bitter in his bark of it, like he knew exactly how people worked with things like that, and he did. Nobody was who they seemed, because people had every reason to hide. He lifted a shoulder, ostensibly in a sort of 'what can you do?' motion. His lips spread into an almost comical expression. ]

Yeah, well. That's a feature that's uniquely human. Everybody lies eventually, especially about themselves.

And to themselves, as well. Though that's always the harder one, I think. Not everyone notices when they do something like that.

That's for sure. [ He waved a hand, dismissively. ] I think that's kind of the point, though. One of those lies someone believes so much it's true? It's more common than you'd think.

[ Her head tilts a little -- slight exaggerations of physical gestures to accommodate the fact her expression itself seems so rarely to shift out of tired disinterest. ]

Though, do you believe that sort of deception will change them?

Who the fuck knows? [ His hands gesture with his words, always animated, even in the ridiculous getup. His motions are a little awkward with the weight of his costume. ]

I'm sure for some people, it does. The kind that can just decide to do something and then it happens.

Mmm... I'm not sure that's really the same thing. Deciding to change, and deceiving yourself into believing you've changed already. They'd be very different sort of people, I think.

Maybe. I don't know. Just deciding and it happens? You have to deceive yourself on a pretty high level to make that happen. It's not just will.

Then, what do you think it is?