Inverted AU Character Intros: 4/7
A JSE Fanfic
[These are intros for the versions of the guys for my Inverted AU! Inverted is a reverse-morality story where the good guys are bad and the bad guy—Anti—is good. These intros should help newcomers understand just how the dynamics work :) This one is for Inverted!Marvin.]

The party in the penthouse was still going late into the night. Honestly, it probably should have stopped long ago, considering the state half the guests were in. But the other half was keeping up the wild energy, downing drinks like crazy, jumping around in the middle of the impromptu dance floor, shouting out their conversations. It was surprising that the neighbors downstairs hadn’t called the police with a noise complaint yet. Maybe they’d just resigned themselves to their fate. All the normal lights were turned off, replaced by red and blue and pink party lights that made designs on the heads of the crowd. Music was pumping from a state-of-the-art stereo system.

Parties like this always attracted weird people. The hostess expected it, encouraged it even, but she’d never seen someone like this before. Not because he was particularly strange, but because…he wasn’t. She stared at him from across the room. He was just standing in a doorway, nursing a drink, watching the party. He was wearing a cape and a strange mask, which, in the hostess’s experience, meant he was one of the crazy ones. But he was just standing there. He hadn’t moved at all the entire night, and despite the cup in his hand he wasn’t drinking.

People came to these parties to go insane for a night. Everyone in the city knew this. The hostess finally decided to approach him and figure out what the deal was. She edged her way around the mass of flailing limbs that was the dance floor and sidled up next to him. “You enjoying yourself?” she asked, raising her voice a bit so he could hear her over the loud music.

His eyes snapped to hers. “Not yet,” he replied. He didn’t shout, but she could hear him perfectly.

“Well, the enjoyment of my guests is important to me,” she told him. “What can I do for you?”

The masked man hummed. “I don’t know. How many people are here?”

Odd question. But some people had issues with crowds, so she shrugged it off. “I dunno. I don’t invite people, I just open the door and let them come in. I think on average it’s about a hundred or two.”

“Nice.” He nodded, looking thoughtful.

“Yeah it is!” The hostess said, beaming. “I got the most popular parties in the city.” The man didn’t say anything, just turned and looked back at the party. He was…weirding her out a bit. “Maybe you just need a new drink,” she suggested. “Then you’ll start to loosen up.”

“That’s a good idea, actually. See you later.” He pushed away from his spot and walked toward one of the refreshment tables. The hostess watched him go. She decided to keep an eye on him. Just in case.

It was starting to look like the party would last all night. People showed up, people left if they were able, but the energy didn’t die down no matter what. The hostess left the dance floor to go get a drink. Not alcohol, she never drank, but just a regular refreshment. She tripped over someone who’d passed out. Not uncommon, but usually the wasted people either had the sense to stumble over to the edges of whichever room they were in, or their friends were able to carry them out of the way. This dude was right in the middle of the path to the refreshments.

The hostess frowned. That wasn’t a good sign. She knelt by the unconscious man, checking his pulse. It was as strong as it could be. She pulled back his eyelids to check his pupils. His eyes immediately rolled back, but she noticed his pupils were super dilated and tiny. Probably a problem. Now, she began to notice other strange things. The veins of his face were sticking out, and slightly purple in color. His temperature was unusually high. Despite being unconscious, he was breathing rapidly and shallowly. Was this a drug of some kind? She didn’t allow such things at her parties. Maybe she should call the police…

A few minutes later, she noticed a woman who’d passed out in the doorway to the kitchen. She was showing the same symptoms. And only moments later, a couple were knocked out on a couch, looking the same. Had someone smuggled some new drug into the party? God, she hoped it wasn’t too dangerous.

But an hour later, she was forced to conclude that it was, in fact, dangerous. At least a third of the party had passed out due to…whatever this was. The hostess, seriously worried, went into the kitchen, which was relatively empty of people and noise. She dodged a couple more unconscious people and pulled out her cellphone.

“Hey, it’s you again.” The hostess looked to her left and saw the masked man, sitting on one of her kitchen counters, reading something on his phone. “How’ve you been?”

“Oh. Hey.” She’d totally forgotten that she wanted to keep an eye on him. He was probably fine, she’d seen him hanging out normally. “I was having a great time a little bit ago, but now…people are acting weird. Passing out with weird…I dunno, symptoms? I think it’s a drug so I’m calling the cops.”

The man stood up, stretching. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“What? People could be dying!”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Okay. She was right to be concerned about this dude. She stared at him as she dialed emergency and raised the phone to her ear. His eyes were reflecting the purple party lighting. By this point, she’d forgotten she hadn’t hung any purple lights. She just listened to the dial tone on her phone as it rang…and rang…and rang…and rang…

The masked man walked up to her. “You know, for someone who runs crazy parties like this, you’re a very responsible person.”

“Uh, thanks.” Someone on the other side should’ve picked up by now. It wasn’t a personal number, it was emergency for god’s sake. “Who-who are you again?”

He smiled. “I’m the evening’s entertainment, of course!”

Before the hostess could say anything, he reached out and grabbed her wrist. Violet lightning raced down her arm. Her muscles spasmed and jerked, and when the lightning reached her head seconds later she didn’t even have time to yell before she was knocked out.

A few days later, Marvin was in the basement of the hideout, leaning against a wooden door. Strange symbols were scribbled around the doorframe in what looked like charcoal, but was actually a lot harder to wipe away. He was scrolling through a local news website on his phone. Somebody finally reported the hostess missing.

The article he was reading said she was last seen at her party, or as the media had begun calling it, “The Penthouse Pass-Out.” Stupid name. True, everyone who’d touched any of the refreshments had been affected by the Langoreem’Ysca spell, but they hadn’t really passed out. They all reported being conscious, but too sick to respond. Feverish, nauseous, weak,dizzy…thirteen who’d had too much alcohol had been rushed to the hospital. Of those, seven hadn’t made it. Interesting numbers. Significant.

Marvin decided to call that a successful test. Next, there was a level two version of the Langoreem’Ysca that he was dying to test out. This one happened with no complications, so the next one should work perfectly! He just needed another large group of people…

Actually, there had been one complication. That hostess. She got in the way. But at least he got something out of that. Marvin had a lot of spells he was excited to use. But most of them required a “volunteer.” He needed somebody to test them on, and his last volunteer…well, he decided it was fortunate that he’d picked that party to go to. Saved him a lot of effort.

Marvin leaned over and picked up the leather-bound book he’d laid by his feet earlier. Then he turned and opened the door, revealing steps leading downward still. He adjusted his mask, smiled, and climbed down the staircase, shutting the door behind him.