Liliana's Office, Thursday

[deathsmajesty]

There was a gremlin in Liliana's office today.

Liliana wasn't sure how the wretched little thing had gotten in and there was a very tense standoff for a few minutes while it hissed at her, baring dripping fangs, and she hissed back, holding up hands that were alight with power. "What," she asked, low and tight, "will it take for you to get out of my office peaceably? I like my rug and I don't want your rotting carcass to stain it."

The gremlin hissed again...but then pointed at her bag of leftovers from class.

"You...you want my food?" Liliana asked. The gremlin nodded. Liliana looked truculent for a moment before reluctantly setting it down on the ground in front of her and nudging it forward with her foot. "Fine," she said. "Take it. And if you even try a damn--" The rest of her threat when unfinished as it grabbed her food and skittered off.

Liliana slammed the door shut after it and then prowled around, making sure it hadn't licked anything or spat on something that could still give her hallucinations.

Mugged by a gremlin. She was almost offended.

Comments

[chef_chocobro]

Well, at least Liliana could (reasonably) depend on the fact that such a sacrifice would not leave her entirely without food for too long, because, behold, there was the usual slightly-before-lunchtime knock on her door, which then opened at allow for Ignis to slip in and close it and lock it behind him.

Thus hopefully preventing any further gremlin food theft, although he was quite unaware that he was enacting such a service in that moment.

He did notice a lingering tension in the room, though, upon entering, that caught his attention and quirked his head as he asked, "Is everything alright, 'Iana?"

He made quick work out of closing the distance between the door and her desk, to set down the bag with the spring rolls and dipping sauce (and, of course, dessert) he'd brought so that his hands would be free for whatever the response way be.

[deathsmajesty]

"I was mugged by a gremlin," Liliana said, sounding neither afraid nor embarrassed, but positively affronted. "For my leftovers from class. A gremlin. Had the audacity--! Me!"

Clearly the only thing to do was scour the island to bedrock as a warning to the survivors.

[chef_chocobro]

Honestly, that seemed like that only response too being mugged by a gremlin. Although the whole idea that any creature on this island would possess that level of either audacity or complete lack of self-preservation (which was saying a lot, coming from him!) to even think to attempt such a heist against Liliana Vess, of all people.

So give Ignis a moment to contain a moment of actual shock, before he frowned, and reconsidered his plans of going to her so that he could remain by the food, in case any other such creatures got any ideas about these new victuals.

The two responses that sprang to his mind first, that at least if it was eating the food from class, the gremlin would hopefully be less inclined to feast on the populous of the island and that this seemed like an incredible waste of good food on someone who very clearly would not enjoy it nearly as much as one should, did not seem like the sort of remarks Liliana would find terribly comforting, so he tried a third one.

"You, indeed," he said, and decided that, yes, actually, he would be willing to risk another meal being pilfered to step closer to her and find his hands in her, although you'd better believe he was keeping an ear well-turned for the pitty-patter of little gremlin feet. "I known they're quite renowned for their truly imprudent and unfounded boldness, but I would have never imagined it was quite that bad."

[deathsmajesty]

The next gremlin that showed its scaly face anywhere near Liliana was going to enjoy the novel sensation of having its insides putrefied.

"The problem is I have become complacent," she declared. While taking his hands, shut up. "I haven't properly shown the island what I am capable of. They don't actually know who I am and why I should be feared."

Insupportable.

This was what dabbling in friendship got you. Mugged by gremlins.

[chef_chocobro]

Somehow, Ignis wasn't sure that causation to correlation was quite sound, but he wasn't about to argue it, especially since, well, it was wisely kept to the narrative so he didn't have to.

So there was a small, fond smile, instead, and a slight squeeze of those hands, feeling like they were right where they belonged in his just then. "I, for one," he said, "hope the island never does have to witness you at your most fearsome, my life. Or even just a hint of what you are truly capable of. Because then, I fear, we will truly be in dire straights, with far more to worry about than just a foolishly daring hungry gremlin with very sticky fingers."

Leaning in to kiss her, Ignis realized he (or rather, his knives) might need to make a little visit to some gremlins at some point this week.

[deathsmajesty]

His kiss swallowed the small noise of surprise when she heard his newest endearment. Almost droll, calling Liliana, who brought nothing but death wherever she went, his life. She would laugh--if it hadn't squeezed her heart just so, a soft warmth washing through her that existed wholly separate from his kiss.

"And what did you think?" she asked softly when their lips finally parted. "When you witnessed me at my most..." A moment to pick the right word, since even though he had experienced what power she was capable of calling on in the field, he was still unaware of the true depths of what calculated savagery she was capable of as well. Or, if aware, still unburdened by details, as it were. "...Relentless?"

[chef_chocobro]

And wouldn't you know, Ignis Scientia, the man always so precise and particular in his words, had not even been aware that he had said it. It had merely slipped out of him, slipping over the sound of a different, but somewhat adjacent word, natural and effortless in its simple (almost heartbreaking, really) truth.

Even if he had realized it, it wasn't as if he could even begin to deny the appropriateness of its application.

But there would be no careless slips of the tongue now, as Ignis considered Liliana's question with great care in how to answer. Not so much to tailor it, as he sometimes did, to what might sound the most appealing in her ear, but rather to root around for that exact, precise honesty that, a moment ago, had been so effortless that it slipped right by his usual calculations and determinations.

"Mostly?" he said, finally, and his hands squeezed her again. "I wished I actually could witness you, in all your glory and power, rather than merely deducing as much based on the chaos of my surroundings at the time."

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana freed a hand, but only to bring it to his cheek. "I highly doubt that 'glory and power' was what Prompto and Gladio were thinking," she murmured. "And this is why you are mine. You...you I do not wish to fear me, but...to glory in what I am."

Or at least, most of her. She didn't think he would glory in all.

[chef_chocobro]

And that fact that she recognized that, or, at the very least, could acknowledge it, even if only just to herself...

Ignis smiled softly, pushed out with a small huff. "Prompto and Gladio," he said, "as much as I respect and care for them both, are hardly known to be purveyors of good taste, my love. And that is why I am, unrelentingly>/i> yours. Because I cannot comprehend how anyone could do anything but glory in you."

Was it a bit hyperbolic? Perhaps. There was no shortage of rather unglorious things about Liliana, to be sure, but what were pebbles to towering mountains?

"Ever since I first met you," he said, with an unexpected tightness forming in his chest, making the words come out slightly tighter, slightly more desperate in its longing, "I knew how deeply I desired to glory in as much of you as I possibly could, Liliana."

[deathsmajesty]

She had long accepted it; it was one of the reasons she worried about the longevity. There was more than one place where the name Liliana Vess was synonymous with 'atrocity.' And, also, she had a terrible habit of not eating.

Ignis was the one who eschewed words whenever possible, Liliana delighted in them. But she heard that desperation, that longing, even now that he had her...She kissed him then, in lieu of words. Kissed him deep and long and slow and sure, lips promising him a lifetime of glorying if he wished it.

And when she finally pulled away, it was to say something, but only one word.

"Yours."