This Man's Home Is A Castle [OPEN]

[imperious_lex]

When he first saw it weeks ago, shortly after the crew had finally caught up him, he thought for certain that he was hallucinating. But there it was, nestled among several other castles. The Luthor Mansion, in all it's glory.

Lex was never a superstitious man, but even he believed that there was more to heaven and earth than what could be proven on paper. The appearance of his home, a reward no other crew member had received (to his knowledge), certainly made him think. He wondered if this was some sort of sign that his decisions so far had indeed been right, or that he was on the right path. Perhaps it was put there as a distraction of sorts, as well, as there were many unpleasant memories that haunted those walls. For the time being, he decided to take it as a reward, however relocating there initially proved to be problematic.

The Mansion wasn't in disarray, but it was clear that no one had walked its halls in quite some time. Not only that, but the last people who had clearly had little regard for the property. There was a layer of dirt and dust everywhere, expensive and priceless paintings had been torn off the walls and trashed, priceless artifacts were just broken pieces of clay or stone, pieces of antique furniture had been smashed, and every vault was empty. Not a single green meteor rock to be found. He counted himself lucky that his pool table, piano, and a handful of family photos managed to survive.

Rather than be dejected, Lex looked at it as project to occupy his time. Since he only worked in Neuropathy whenever he felt like it, and manned the bar in the lounge at his discretion, he did have plenty of time to devote to this project. Which was good, because cleaning up and fixing up a 40 room mansion-- replete with its own library (with real books), well supplied medieval armory and modern armory, pool, wine cellar, gym, and grand ballroom-- took a lot of work.

Work which still hadn't been completed, but he had progressed far enough to not only make it livable, but also presentable. The master bedroom, Lex's office, and most of the common areas had been cleaned up. All the rest was blocked off for the moment, but were in locations that were fairly out of the way.

So, he put out a message on the omnicomms, and invited a few people to check the place out. The ones who weren't already spying on him, at any rate. He laid out a few drinks, and a sampling of some of the fresh fruit and food he picked up while during their last mission to earth. He didn't expect many guests, after all, he had never been the most well liked person, even back when he was a relatively kindhearted kid. Most parties he hosted as an adult, he was usually surrounded by obsequious employees desperate to move up the food chain, business partners who wanted a more favorable deal, business rivals who were trying to find out something about the competition, charity representatives who wanted money, and sycophants who wanted the notoriety of being in the same room as Lex Luthor and access to the connections that alone can bring. Friends were simply a foreign concept, if he ever truly had any to begin with, and he certainly hadn't gone out of his way to make any on the ship. He was curious as to what category his guests, if he had any, would fit in.

((ooc: This is something of a party style post, so feel free to talk to Lex, Lois, or talk to each other while your character looks around.))

Comments

[wheresmysuit.livejournal.com]

Nate was dressed in a suit. Nowhere near as expensive looking as Lex's, but then he'd never really bothered about those sorts of things. He was comfortable in a suit, and he liked how it looked. So it was that he walked up to the front door of the mansion, hands in his pockets. He was nursing a headache, but after receiving an invitation from Lex, well, he wasn't about to turn that down.

He'd found the play easily enough, even in the sprawling mess that was the city. So when he stepped up to the door, he lifted the heavy knocker and let it fall against the wood, looking around him as he waited for an answer.

[governorkang]

At the mention of drinks, and especially after the rumors he'd heard about a man named Lex being in possession of alcohol, Kang just had to investigate. That, and he was a social creature; he wanted to meet more of the people aboard the ship, the people he was going to be fighting alongside.

So, it was with a large amount of hope that the bozak ended up at the door of the impressive-looking castle. To an engineer like him, the bits of damage to the exterior were apparent, but it looked structurally sound.

And it seemed he wasn't the only one who was curious.

[kawalskyeffect.livejournal.com]

"Luthor." Kawalsky grinned. "How much did your father pay for this? This place is fit for a king."

[imperious_lex]

"Somewhere in the upper eight figure range," Lex responded. "My father was somewhat... eccentric and lavish with his spending."

[gogopowersuit.livejournal.com]

Samus had made a beeline for the bar. She wasn't too concerned with socializing, and she had really only stumbled into this party on accident. There was really only one thing that was keeping her interest enough to stick around: booze.

[imperious_lex]

"Didn't care to take the grand tour?" Yes, Lex saw you sneak off, Samus. Dude's house is wired. It has to be, really, there's a lot of ground for one mere human to cover.

"Please, help yourself." It was an open bar, so everything was within reach.

[starlightace]

Nanoha certainly wasn't going to pass up an invitation like that, of course. She came to the party, just scanning the faces to see who was there and smiling pleasantly at whoever caught her eye. It seemed like more people had been there than she anticipated.

[imperious_lex]

Lex also was surprised at the number of people who showed up. But navigating the constant web of social activity was something he was good at. He had to make sure that all of his guests got some of his attention.

"Nanoha, it's a pleasure to see you again. Glad you could make it."

[bonnypiperlad]

After a brief trip to the bar, Jamie's wandering the room, glass in hand, when he spots someone who isn't Lois, but looks vaguely familiar all the same. He shifts his path to head over in Nanoha's direction.

"I'm sorry, but ye look familiar. Were ye at the snowball fight?" She was up high enough that he didn't get a really good look, but he thinks that's where he might have seen her. It's worth a shot, anyway.

[bored-admiral.livejournal.com]

Spaurh deliberately does head down to the party. She's even managed to procure a dress (http://redhotbrides.com/blog/media/blogs/redhotbrides/GenericRed/sexy_red_dress.jpg). It's not the best fit, as it isn't custom-made for her, but it's passable and a close enough shade to her eyes to match. She obtains a glass of high-quality wine and begins to circulate, hoping to run into Lex. Or anyone else, really. She could enjoy herself while she was here, after all.

[imperious_lex]

"Greetings Admiral," Lex stated as he approached. "You are certainly looking lovely this evening."

[worm-dancer.livejournal.com]

Sheeana nursed a cup of spiceliquor. She could flush her system at any time, but the appearance of intoxication helped her blend in. And that she did, earning her nickname of 'Mouse'. She watched the mating dances, the drunken confessions...The cat, which was inexplicably there.

[imperious_lex]

"Enjoying yourself?" Sheeana was one of the few he had expected to see there. It was little surprise that was observing everyone else.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel brought the dress (http://safebooru.donmai.us/post/show/252403/crown-dress-earrings-formal-hat-highres-jewelry-la) from Earth number whatever. She was happily seated at the bar, sampling a mind boggling number of liquors and despite her slight frame not getting a bit drunker, it seemed.

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Luly has managed to find for herself an odd dress (http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/mfw-tuesday-a-model-wears-007.jpg) to wear, leaving that makeshift wrap she's kept for such a long time behind. She's claimed a seat next to Lafiel, though she hasn't done very much drinking yet. That dress Lafiel has, though... "It looks very good on you."

[bonnypiperlad]

Jamie wasn't sure if he was going to go, originally. The tale about the castle did catch his interest, but would it be worth it to have watch his step around Lex? Then he saw the mention of Kansas, and meteors.

He doesn't recognize the name 'Smallville', but he does know someone who might very well be from the same place given the rest of what was stated - and might very well be attending the festivities. That, more than anything, decided him. He's even dressed up for the occasion. Since he's still lacking a full dress kilt, dressing up nicely for Jamie is pretty much him wearing a clean button-down shirt over his regular kilt and a scarf tied around his neck. He's brushed his hair, though.

As for what he does once he gets there? He's off along the edges of the party, watching the people circulating throughout the room and keeping an eye out for a certain intrepid reporter from the Daily Planet - although he certainly seems willing enough to talk should anyone else happen over.

[morewildcherry.livejournal.com]

Jamie sticks out like a sore thumb, mostly because few men wear kilts at all, and even fewer still consider them formal wear. When Lois sees him, for a brief moment she wants to pull him aside and get him a pair of pants just so he doesn't look weird.

But, well, it was his choice. She had hers, too, after all. In a crisp (and short) pencil skirt and a nice blouse, as well as towering high heels, Lois looks so much more herself.

"Jamie," she calls, sharply.

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

While surprising, Picard had to admit that he hadn't expected Luthor to live in the crew quarters. It would certainly make getting hold of Luthor easier, if Picard knew he'd be living in such an obvious place. "Mister Luthor, this is quite the accomplishment," he greeted warmly. If he felt a little out of place still wearing his plantsuit, he didn't show it. Let the others worry about their appearances first. If there were any clothes left over, Picard would make do after the fact.

[imperious_lex]

"It's a side project to keep me occupied." One of a few side projects that he had going. "But I'm glad you could attend, Captain."

Elsewhere in the Mansion

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

The thing about Lex having a party is he has to be around the guests to entertain it, right? That means this is as good a time as any for Kon to poke around Luthor's mansion. Even if he's still in the building, at least Kon knows exactly where he is--and he can lie and say he was coming to the party, but just got...curious and wanted to look around the castle.

Climbing in through a window is pretty easy when you can fly, and he can fly again, after his recharge on the holiday mission, but Kon opts to maintain the secrecy of his powers. On the off chance there's surveillance, he looks like an athletic guy, right? Not that out there that he can scale the side of a building. Thus it is that Kon climbs into the second floor of the Luthor mansion by carefully prying open a window with his TTK in a way that makes it look like it had simply been left unlatched. He can hear the party going on downstairs, and a quick scan of his X-Ray vision tells him where everyone is.

Good. No one is upstairs--at least right now. That gives him some time to look around. Landing lightly in the study, he uses his flight to tread lightly, so his boots didn't make any sound on the floor--without actually visibly flying.

And they are his boots, mind you, because he and his friends had used their money to get each other clothes. (He likes the clothes from that world they'd been to, at any rate--very 31st century). He refuses to take anything from Luthor. He doesn't trust anything from Luthor. It could have mind control drugs on it, or nanites, or...things. Evil things. Things of evilness.

Luthor could also have said evil things hidden in his mansion. Horrible death machines, kryptonite, something... that's why he's here. Admittedly, Kon knows it's unlikely because Luthor would know that would be the first place anyone would look, but that's all the more reason to check it out--he might bank on people deciding it's too obvious and have something hidden in some secret chamber somewhere or something.

As he moves along, carefully, he looks around in each room, scanning with his X-ray vision and poking at anything that looks mildly suspicious. Study after study, bedroom after bedroom and there's a few things that are odd, but they usually turn out to be weird antiques or high-tech alarm clocks. Nothing truly suspicious yet.

The longer he looks, the more curious about things other than evilness and deathrays he gets. He knows this isn't his Lex, but they're pretty much the same guy, and it's strange seeing things here as if he's a normal person that grew up with a family and didn't just pop out of the womb evil.

Eventually, he stumbles on a room that seems like it hasn't been disturbed for a very long time. There are books here, on gardening, and a couple are about the gardening and care of gardenias. There's a picture on a table in it of a woman and a little boy with red hair, and he picks it up to look at it curiously. The woman is beautiful, and--

And part of him is supremely disturbed to see that even though she's from another universe, Kon has her cheekbones a little bit.

The boy is... is a boy, and he has a suspicious feeling he knows who it could be (after all, he'd met Lex Luthor's red-headed younger "son" that turned out to be his clone). But he's a boy in the picture. He looks so innocent.

...Maybe even a little sad.

Wandering over to the bookcase to take a closer look and see if anything is behind it, he starts up with the suspicious prodding again--but he still has the picture in his hand.

Re: Elsewhere in the Mansion

[enter-aeneas.livejournal.com]

Kon has a visitor.

He’s a curious blue creature, long and serpent-like and very quietly creeping in through the window after him. Because, while this human has scanned the inside of the mansion, he probably wasn’t expecting that there were others who could easily climb a two-story stone edifice roughly as fast as he could fly past it. Having six limbs and a really flexible spine makes for an understandably easy time climbing.

Truth be told, Aeneas was only curious, and he had no intention of going to the party in the first place. For a while now he hadn’t even bothered to check his Omnicom; mostly he’d been sleeping and wandering, keeping to himself. He…needed some time to sort things out was all. But it was the noise that had first attracted his attention—the alien had, after all, chosen the City as a place to sleep because of the noticeable lack of said distraction.

He’d been trailing far behind the human male, keeping his distance partially out of fear and partially because he saw him glance back every once in a while and carefully peer inside each room, eyes glinting, as if he were scanning them. If he was then that was far from surprising, as Aeneas was almost sure the man had flown up the side of the building (unless he had imagined it or mistook his gliding motions for floating, considering his relative distance away at the time).

In any case, Aeneas says ‘hi’, Kon! He’s standing behind him now, frozen with wide eyes and locked in a defensive, alert posture because he’s accidentally knocked over a stack of books with his tail. It’s made quite the racket.

[greenie-arrow.livejournal.com]

Ollie had heard rumors that Lex was here on the ship, but with how many people were actually on it, it was really hard for him to encounter a specific person that he could have been looking for. So, when the invitation was offered, he didn't stop at the chance to accept it. The sight of the mansion though reminded him of the Queen estate back before he lost it - although more extravagant. It almost made Ollie homesick.

He passed through the crowd at the party, stopping to glance this way and that at a strange looking person, or some beautiful woman that happened to catch his eye, but soon enough, he made his way to the bar, where he took to standing at while both ordering drinks and glancing around the area to see what he could - and if he could spot Lex, of course.

[imperious_lex]

Lex wasn't that difficult to spot. There weren't exactly that many young bald men wearing expensive silk suits walking around. He seemed to be moving around the room, going from one small conversation to another.

Perhaps it was possible to catch him in between.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara, who had heard the announcement, had decided to dress up (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/elpedrososama/Princess_Katara_by_invisiblejohnny.jpg) for the evening. She knew that her presence here would be strange: she was probably the youngest person here, and more than likely most had popped in for the alcohol. That was actually the farthest thing from her mind: she hadn't had the chance to see Luthor outside of certain circumstances, and knew that Lex wasn't well liked. For that reason she'd come here, hoping to just have a nice talk with him over a small meal.

What she hadn't expected was how grand the place would be, how many doors there were, and all of the items contained therein. She had seen pretty well off places (the palace at Ba Sing Se stuck out in her mind). There were literally tons of things to look at, and Katara observed everything with wide eyes.

"It's so beautiful," Katara murmured, and finally reached the bar, looking a little awkward. "Hello Lex! This is really a fantastic place!"

[imperious_lex]

Lex was easily moving from conversation to conversation, and politely excused himself when he noticed Katara approaching.

"Thank you, Katara. I'm glad you could make it."

[depthundersands.livejournal.com]

(http://s861.photobucket.com/albums/ab173/GreybillGirls/alia%20icons%20Rp/?action=view&current=banthafodder7.jpg)

The grandeur didn't impress her even here. It was to hard wired into her mind to be impressed. Though the chance to socialize could not be passed up.
She spied Sheeana across the room, and inwardly sneered, could she go no where that was free of the others from her homeland. Damn them... damn them all.

Instead she stood very still, poised even and watched the others with a looks of calm and invitation but she was after a bigger fish. The handsome man she had seen around, and only heard about, the man throwing the party, Lex Luthor.
Something told Alia if she could strike the right cord, he would be a more than powerful ally to have in this place... all she had to do was entice him, she hoped.

So running a hand through her wave dark locks, she stood and she waited. A young woman as pretty as she was, was sure to get attention sooner or later...

[imperious_lex]

And that attention arrived sooner rather than later.

"Evening," he stated as he approached. "What's a lovely young woman like yourself doing on the edge of the crowd?"

[not_the_philistine]

At some point in the evening, Goliath put a brief appearance in at the party.

The party found itself with one less guest, however, when he found the library, and its real books.

He will gladly sit there long into the night, perched on a ladder, deep in contemplation of an expensive-looking copy of War and Peace, handling the pages with care that would be exceptional, even if he didn't have talons.

[imperious_lex]

That was... a sight to walk in on. A gargoyle looking creature, reading one of his books. Lex cleared his throat slightly to get the creature's attention.

"It's a first edition," he stated. "As is most every book here."

[feelnothinatall.livejournal.com]

Ahava had been spending more time around the city of late, working on her own side projects as well as getting a feel for the ship. And when Luthor's message came over the omnicoms, well, she couldn't very well pass up the chance to see what the man everyone seemed to have a grudge against was like, could she?

That was why she was here now, calmly looking around the area in case the elusive host decided to show himself.

[imperious_lex]

The ever elusive host wasn't all that elusive, actually. He was quite easy to spot; it was bad manners otherwise. He seemed to be in between conversations at the moment, though. Now might be a good time to approach.

[notadamnangel.livejournal.com]

Party hey, he hadn't been to a party in well.... almost never? Hunters were more about slinging back shots and bottles of beer in a bar. Not throwing wild parties. He'd figured Sam probably went to fun college keggers on Stanford, but Dean? Nope.

Still, there's a bar, and hopefully some hot women around to hit on. Still it felt weird to be in freaking Lex Luthor's house. Though at least the guy was more about building evil robots for Supes to beat the crap out of as opposed to to summoning any fuglies from the third circle of Hell.

[jedimacguyver.livejournal.com]

Jedi did not get drunk; they were in control of themselves and their inhibitions at all times. They did not overindulge, did not indulge in the first place. Therefore, it could not be possible that Obi-Wan had attended this part for the express purpose of easily acquired drink. Like a frat boy.

...He still had, though. But he was looking much more Jedi than usual in his newly acquired and proper tunic, with blessed sleeves, and nevermind the plantsuit visible underneath it.

[imperious_lex]

Lex was never one to be in awe of anyone else. He had dined with Presidents, Royalty, celebrities, you name it. But there may have this part of him that was still eight years old that inwardly lit up when he spotted one of his guests.

"Well, if it isn't the famed Obi-Wan Kenobi," Lex stated as he approached. "It's certainly an honor to have you in my home."

[standaloneshell.livejournal.com]

Come for the espionage, stay for the booze? Motoko had been nursing her martini for far too long— it had gotten cold. Not that she cared, she wasn't capable of tasting it. Oh, her tongue could sense the chemical properties, spit out an analysis of sugar content and flavinoid percentages. She could assign a specific dose of endorphins to each ingredient and experience it as tasting 'good' or 'bad'. It had a low alcohol content, it would take more than a handful of them to more than buzz a normal human. For a brain in a jar...

Well, she wasn't actually pickled per sé, but the micromachines that scrubbed alcohol out of her short-loop bloodstream were working overtime.

Maybe she'd switch to harder drinks, just to mess with them. Yes, that sounded fun. She swished past the bar and exchanged the faintly pink, long-stemmed affair for a deeper, less elegant, high-proof whiskey. The dress was what made it all work, a slim, swishing white affair, like something a bond villainess might wear to a state dinner, slit up the side to a dangerous height. Opera gloves and high heels— bless the woman who'd designed the control program to handle those, and the one who'd invented heels strong enough to bear cyborg weights. It was enough to make you wonder where she'd holstered the gun.

[worm-dancer.livejournal.com]

Sheeana was instantly reminded of historical holos of the Lady Fenring as she slid in on the stool next to hers. She wore a dark green and black wrap that complimented her much slighter figure, all the better to piss off Alia by wearing her brother's colors.

"It's difficult isn't it...turning them off." She referred to the voluntary mechanisms they had to control the intake of intoxicants and the accompanying self consciousness.