Liliana Vess Defiant Necromancer

Ravnica was a much better plane to do one's recovering on. For one thing, it was still intact (or, well, as intact as any plane could be that housed the Izzet, the Rakdos, the Gruul, and the Simic), which meant that they were no longer lacking in the creature comforts that a disaster-struck plane simply couldn't provide. Liliana had left Gared with a truly obscene amount of money and told him to start overseeing the repairs to the structure of Vess Manor as soon as he could find enough surviving competent craftspeople to handle them.

They had gotten some news in the intervening time; Olivia Voldaren lived and had proclaimed herself Lord of Innistrad. No one knew what had happened to Sorin, but he hadn't shown up and beheaded her with his claws for the audacity, so it was possible that the previous Lord of Innistrad hadn't survived the battle. Liliana privately assumed he'd Planeswalked elsewhere when the fighting had gotten to be too much, but Olivia certainly wasn't telling--not that Liliana had gone to confer with her 'friend' in person. Runo had also survived, or so the gossip said, though much of the Stromkirk line had been twisted by Emrakul's corruption. Piotr had been one so corrupted, and 'put down' by Thalia and her cathars in the new 'Order of Saint Traft,' whatever that was. Kristoff was said to have survived, though the same could not be said of most of his grandchildren, all of whom had been human and thus, easy prey. The Falkanraths had been similarly twisted, and rumors said there were barely a third of them remaining. The Markovs had, of course, been mostly slaughtered in their home (though Liliana now had an idea of what happened there), and while Olivia had declared herself the victor of the battle with Nahiri the Lithomancer and her army of Eldrazi spawn, a large percentage of her line had died on the battlefield as well.

It was truly a fascinating time in vampire politics right now, and if it didn't involve being on a plane where privation was a fact of life for even the most rich and powerful, Liliana would be gleefully watching as they all fought and scrabbled for power, probably with popcorn.

But since Innistrad was in such a pathetic state, they had decamped to Ravnica for a bit, where they could enjoy peace, plenty, and the pleasures of civilization. Liliana had merely had to mention the quality of healthcare she might receive at the Clinic to immediately convince Ignis that Ravnica was a much congenial locale for her recovery. And so it had been; in fact, they were even taking a stroll along the Transguild Promenade from the South Plaza towards the Gateway Plaza, where the Hall of the Guildpact - and, according to her spirit spies, the 'Headquarters of the Gatewatch' - were located.

What a crazy random happenstance.

[NFB for distance and for the paramour, please]

It would hardly be a birthday trip for Ignis if they hadn't gone somewhere that specialized in wine, and while Liliana doubted that they would take to Portugal in quite the same way they had to Argentina, it certainly wasn't because the Douro River Valley was in any way lacking. (Of course it wasn't, she had researched the place thoroughly before providing Ignis with what she refused to call a presentation, even if the term wouldn't exactly be inaccurate.) Rather than a resort, they were staying in Casa da Tia, a gorgeous apartment complete with a full kitchen and a fridge that Liliana had paid to have stocked with groceries from local shops and markets, including a truly ridiculous amount of Portuguese coffee. Which was immediately joined by Argentine coffee and several flats of Ebony upon their arrival, of course, but Portugal had a rich coffee culture and they could no more ignore that than they could the vineyards and wines that had histories dated back all the way to the Roman occupation.

The past two days had been a whirlwind of shops, cafes, bistros, and wine bars, leaving Liliana laughingly declaring that today they would be doing nothing more than lazing about in their rental, perhaps (perhaps!) bestirring themselves for another riverboat wine tour around dinnertime if they felt truly ambitious.

Whether or not Ignis believed her when they'd gone to bed was unimportant, considering he was getting his first birthday surprise bright and (ugh) early the morning of his birthday, when Liliana stepped outside onto the balcony to join him for his first coffee of the day, cradling a mug in her own hands, wearing only her dressing gown with the Chain Veil in her pocket, too early even for her headdress. In front of them, the sky lightened in a truly glorious sunrise, which easily could have taken place several hours hence, but knowing what she did, she found she could not truly blame him for waking up early and enjoying it.

"Bom dia, meu porto seguro," she said, crossing to him to brush her lips lightly over his. "Feliz aniversário pra você.

[For the birthday boy, por favor. A bit of birthday nsfw in there, too.]

Unlike some foolish creatures who slept inverted and dangling from canopy bars, Lilicat had chosen to get comfortable by walking over Ignis several times before curling up on his chest and falling asleep. She had considered and ultimately eschewed the idea of headbutting him in the chin and throat several times for maximum proof of affection - she had to play it a little cool, after all. She was a cat.

She did spend a lot of time purring while she was curled up on him though. Just saying.

At some point in the night, just before the golden hour of dawn stole away the dark of the night, the sleeping cat turned back into a sleeping woman, though she remained curled up on Ignis. She murmured little nonsense words, tucking her face into his neck and pressing chill lips to warm skin, one arm tucked against his side, the other splayed on his chest.

See? Not everybody's transformation back to human had to be so dramatic, Ignis. Especially when they didn't have time to do a truly ridiculous post in the park with 90s clothes, le sigh

[For the much-abused paramour, pls, if time and work schedules permit!]

When Liliana had turned to Ignis and said, "I wish to go out tonight," he very likely had not anticipated ending up here, on the beach not far from Serenity Cove - and, likely not far from where, just a few days after a chance meeting, Ignis had prepared a dinner of paella and fruit salad in honied cream for Liliana. And here they were, six months later, lounging on a thick blanket and surrounded by cushions, with a picnic basket full of fruits, cheeses, and the last of Liliana's Valentine's chocolate nearby. Their repast was rounded out by two bottles of sweet Argentinian red, to be drunk from the pair of wine goblets Liz had given them for Christmas. Liliana had wished to go stargazing and could think of absolutely no reason why his inability to 'gaze' should somehow keep Ignis from enjoying the stars with her - which was why he was lying with his head in Liliana's lap, one hand in a bowl of cherries that he would occasionally bring up to her lips in offering, the other pointing up to the sky, wrapped in the chilly grip of her own hand.

"...and there," she continued, her voice low and soft but rich with the delight of learning, "is Schedar, the brightest star Cassiopeia. And if you travel just a little lower..." She shifted their hands down until they were pointing at the bottom of the 'W,' "That's Caph, the final star of the sequence. And if you move in a line eastwards from Caph to here--" again, their hands traced the pathway she was describing "--you have the very descriptively-named Iota Cephei, of the constellation Cepheus. It looks like a little house, and if you go up to the tip of the roof, that's the star Errai, and from there..." Their hands fell back into the now familiar angle of pointing to the North Star. "We're back to Polaris."

She once again returned to Cepheus, their arms tracing out the five stars of its asterism before moving onto Draco, which of course required her to tell him about some of the real dragons she knew about as well as going over all the major stars of the constellation. And from there, Ursa Major, after which she let their arms fall again, laughing a bit as she rubbed out the soreness in her shoulder - she was no lancer, used to keeping her arm extended in odd positions for any length of time - and accepted the last of the cherries as her due for the astronomy lesson.

...By the time the wine in the second bottle was down to its dregs and the snacks long-since eaten, they had shifted position, Liliana now tucked against his side, head pillowed on his shoulder, her furred mantle spread over both of them as the temperature had slowly dropped while they'd nibbled and drank and talked and kissed. "We'll have to do this again some time in the late summer," she murmured to him. "When the Milky Way is visible. Right now, it can only be seen in the hours before sunrise, which is both too late for you and too early for me." She laughed, pressing a cool kiss against his cheek. "But for now, we still have the vast panoply of stars above us. The moon is waxing and is bright enough to illuminate our path back, and the stars are bright and spangled against the black velvet of the sky..." Eschewing their discarded glasses, Liliana reached for the remaining wine and drank straight from the bottle, finishing it off in a few swallows. She'd should have some tea once they returned home, both to offset the night's chill and to soothe her throat.

"I have always enjoyed stargazing," she said, setting the now-empty bottle back down on the blanket. "At least when I'm on a plane that allows for it. It's near impossible to see the stars from most of Ravnica, but Innistrad and Lorwyn are perfect for it. And my dorm in the Sedgemore at Strixhaven had a telescope mounted on the roof that you could access by a small, wrought iron staircase that led up to it from the dorm's attic." She laced their fingers together, though left them resting, tucked between their bodies. "I know the night means something different to you than it does to me--" Only one of them had lived through a decade of nothing but night, after all. "--but it was lovely, sharing the stars of this plane with you."

[Establishy, unless the heavily-modded-but-with-permission-honest paramour wishes]

After discovering that the Argentina Carnival was celebrated on the Monday before Ash Wednesday - so, today - and since they'd already extended their vacation until Wednesday, there was nothing to do but to book a portal to Buenos Aires and take part in the festivities of the biggest celebration of the year.

So far, it had been a thrilling, enchanting, and exhausting evening. There were various stalls and vendors offering their take on street foods to try. The Buenos Aires neighborhoods offered different entertainments and so they tried to visit as many as they could, standing next to the street for the night parades with their elaborate floats in Palermo, stopping by San Telmo to catch a murga or two, thrilling at the La Boca street performers, and then grabbing a pair of Carnival masks on their way to Recoleta for an upscale masquerade. Liliana with her cheaty, Planeswalker bullshit provided an on-going translation and description for Ignis, regaling him with the sights as they passed: the brightly colored, sequined costumes, the elaborate headdresses with feathers and beads, the dancing murgas and the festive floats. In turn, he told her everything he could ascertain from the foods they tries, the drinks they sipped, and what little he knew of the culture and history of Carnival - because of course he was going to google what information he could as soon as the option to experience it had come up.

And now, laughing and catching their breath after being drawn into a knot of people dancing in the street - the samba, not that Liliana knew the name - they settled down in a pair of wrought iron chairs in an open air coffeeshop, just as a woman began serenading the crowd.

"You are not anymore by my side, love
In my soul only loneliness I have
And if I cant see you anymore
because love made me love you
to make me suffer more

You were always the reason for me to exist
Adore you was my religion
And in your kisses I found
The warmth they brought
Love and passion," Liliana translated softly, as the crowd joined in on the chorus.

[NFB for distance! I guess I say to myself...]

Liliana glared at the smoldering wreckage in front of her like it was a personal insult, reminding herself that even though the contractors were starting this week, she couldn't just slag the offending ruins - and the rest of the kitchen along with it - the way she wanted to. The contractors had enough on their hands with the rest of the house and she was pretty sure she couldn't hide a corrupted and rotted kitchen from Ignis for long.

Even though it was tempting. Really, really, really tempting.

...harvest of rotting fruit...the vessel of evil...

"Yes, yes, I've heard it all before and I remain unimpressed," she snapped at the Onakke voices, giving the Chain Veil at her hip a brusque shake for good measure. "Now shut up and let me think."

Perhaps aware of her mood, the Onakke spirits wisely stopped their murmuring.

The wreckage was still hot, though the cake pan had dulled from a cherry red to a more blackened color, though the smoke remained thick in the air. Taking a pair of the...oven glove thingies...she picked up the whole mess from the oven rack and threw it into the sink to finish cooling, summoning her steward with a single cranky thought.

"When that cools enough to not start any fires, throw the whole thing away," she ordered. The pan had warped enough that even if her steward could scrub all the soot and char off, it would be useless. "Clean up this mess--" she gestured to the rest of the kitchen, where it looked like a small bakery had exploded "--make sure whatever ingredients I used up are replaced, and do not allow Ignis in this kitchen until it stops smelling like a backed up chimney in here."

"Of course, Mistress."

Liliana grabbed a now-thoroughly stained piece of paper and stalked out of her good-for-nothing kitchen. It looked like it was time to put these so-called 'benefits of friendship' to work. Pulling her phone out, she scrolled down to a number and pressed the call button.

"Hello Nell, dear," she said into the receiver. "Might I come by your apartment and borrow your kitchen and your baking expertise?"

[For one, please, and NFB if the squirrels know what's good for them.]

(Personal journal of Thalia, Thraben Guard; 48th of Hunters Moon, Ava. 716)

Thraben is a carcass and the buzzards have descended upon us. To the heavens, the undead army must look like a swarm of ants, devouring all that is good and leaving a black stain in its wake. The ground shakes beneath my feet. I hear the outer wall crumbling under the assault. Without Avacyn, stones that have stood a thousand years will crumble into dust.

I have a plan, but Lothar is nowhere to be found. I must make him hear me before the outer wall is breached. But it's as if devils have plugged his ears and reason can no longer sway him.

Thalia, newly appointed Guardian of the City after her predecessor had been found dead, looked over the outer walls of the city and tried to remain impassive, the way Lothar would have if he'd been here. 'Never let the people under your command see how nervous you are. It will destroy their morale.' But does it matter what Lothar would have done? she thought bitterly. How much worse can their morale get, finding the body of the last Guardian of the City on the rocks surrounding the outside wall? Her friend and mentor was gone and here she was, staring over the walls at an army made up of the living dead, wailing and snarling and slamming their hands against the gates.

A roar from behind their ranks sent grown men flinching behind their shields. Grimgrin was there, as well as hundreds of skaabs, pieces together bit by bit from who knows how many people. Was there anyone left alive on the Moorlands at all? Or had they all been sacrificed to these insane twins and brought back as ghouls?

( Now what? )
***
Ignis' mind was a whirlwind, in a way that almost made him grateful that he didn't have the added distraction of witnessing the mounting trouble with his own eyes, though that was exactly the crux of one of his concerns in that moment. This was an unfamiliar city, filled with people he couldn't trust, and he was at a significant disadvantage. A part of him felt the pull toward just finding Liliana, hoping she finally got what she needed to out of Volpaig, and leaving, but it barely managed to tug at him before it was immediately dismissed. He couldn't just do that. He couldn't just abandon something where he could do some good, especially on a plane where there was still no doubt more work to be done. But he also couldn't do it alone, and his eyes here might still be quite entrenched in matters far more important to her, and he knew Liliana well enough by now to suspect that her singular focus would be unshakeable.

And if he handled things out here, then that would grant her that lack of distraction.

There was, however, some hesitation. It would be late, back in Fandom, just as it was late here, but he reminded himself, of pacts made years ago, when they started drifting apart in Noctis' absence, that they would always come when the others called. He thought of battles and raids in the past, liberating conclaves beset by the threats of daemons, shepherding people to safety, even all the way back to the evacuation of Altissia, where the determined efforts of Gladio and Prompto had helped usher in a near miracle of limited casualties, though the city itself had not fared nearly as well.

When one had resources, it was wise for one to use them, and so drawing in a breath, Ignis pulled out his phone to make a call.

( Gods, he was never going to hear the end of this one... )
***
Liliana stalked around Volpaig's living room like an angry tiger. She wanted to leave immediately, to strike out for the Cathedral and shake down Mikaeus for Griselbrand's location, but she was waiting for Ignis to return. Even as impatient as she was, she knew that leaving him behind with no word where she'd gone in the middle of some city-wide emergency was a cruelty. It wasn't as if she could leave a note, and with Volpaig a pile of ash and his soul locked away in some demonic prison, she could no more bind his soul to act as a messenger than she could force it to reveal its secrets.

"The least you could have done was remain a body," Liliana huffed to Volpaig's fled spirit. "Just so I have something to kick when I think of all the ways you have inconvenienced me."

A rattling at the door drew her attention - "Finally!" - and she flew to it, throwing open the latch and wrenching the door open without much care of who was on the other side; either it was Ignis or it was someone about to have a truly bad night. To her relief, however, it was her paramour, and she realized, belatedly, that some of of the discontent she'd been feeling had been worry, genuine concern for him, outside of how it would affect her. "'Nys," she said, tugging him inside the door and into her arms. "What's in the Abyss is going on out there?" Her embrace was tight, hands checking him over for injury.

( Not goodbye, just see you later. )

[Again, NFI, NFB, and OOC very welcome! Stay tuned for some liveplay in the comments. Preplayed with the magnificent chef_chocobro pulling triple fucking duty like a champ. Follows this post and this post, with the next post here.]

The first juggler, wearing studded red leathers and ribbons that ended in sharp metal fishhooks, ( Cut for graphic and potentially disturbing imagery )

***
Liliana surfaced into the streets of the Upper City well after midnight, ( still idly wiping away the spatters of blood )

***
Liliana let herself into the mansion, the piece of shaped metal in her hands a twin to the the one she'd pressed into Ignis' hand the day before her party, full of meaning and significance. She tossed her mantle over a table in the foyer, and started making her way deeper into the house to head upstairs to the bedroom - though she stopped short when her steward stepped into the way. He said nothing, simply bowed - and gestured into the parlor. Frowning she walked into the room - and there saw Ignis, sprawled on the divan, his phone in his hand, sleeping the sleep of the positively exhausted.

Part of her didn't wish to wake him. Surely any conversation they could have could wait until the morning. But also she knew what she would want him to do, were their roles reversed. And how she would feel, to find him sleeping blithely up in the bed, while being left to sleep on the divan. So instead, she crossed to him, bending down to brush cold lips across his cheek, and murmur, "Wake up, 'Nys. It's time to come to bed."

[For he who is mentioned and permissibly modded! Pretty much everything in the first section c/p'd directly from Greg Weisman's War of the Spark: Ravnica and then lightly changed for content. (Look, it's a perfect depiction of Rakdos entertainment and it needed to see the light of day). Content warning beneath that first cut for gore and violence! Everything on Ravnica NFB, obviously.]

Liliana had, quite reasonably, expected nightmares after Garruk's attack. And yet, after one day and then another had passed without anything more than a few vague and disquieting dreams, she'd figured that she had escaped that fate somehow and had fallen asleep Wednesday night with nary a care.

( Unfortunately for Liliana, the human mind was not so easy to predict. )

"Josu!" she cried, heartbroken and bereft. "Josu, forgive--!"

And only then did she realize that she was not, as she'd been dreaming, in a destroyed sick room in the Vess Manor on Dominaria, but instead, in her own, well-appointed bedroom in the Vess manor on Fandom Island. She was in bed, clutching the blankets to her chest, arm outstretched like she could still reach him if only she tried--

And breathing. Even if breathing hurt right now.

Everything hurt right now.

Especially her heart.

[For the guy with her!]

Liliana needed a costume for her own party and she'd taken a single step into the new shop in town before deciding, absolutely not. She would patronize one of her own modistes about the Multiverse, thank you. Which, of course, had meant that Ignis would need to accompany her for his own costume fitting, and so the two of them have ventured from Fandom to a mid-sized city in Stensia, a province of Innistrad, not far from Liliana's own manor house. Oddly enough - though she had not offered an explanation - Liliana had chosen to travel via planar portal with Ignis, rather than planeswalking, and had clung tightly enough to his hand has they'd stepped through that her knuckles had turned white, relaxing only once they were safely on the other side.

Their immediate stop for lunch in a nearby tavern was for his opportunity to try some local cuisine and had nothing to do with any emotional reactions on Liliana's part at all, thank you. Because obviously she hadn't had one.

Between explaining the designs, choosing fabrics and patterns, and the unending round of measurements, their trip to the dress shop had taken several hours and Liliana had just been about to suggest they return to Vess Manor for dinner when the tailor that had been working with Ignis had entered the private sitting room they'd been escorted to to inform them that 'there was a gentleman looking to speak with them.' Intrigued, annoyed, and suspicious by equal turns, Liliana had given permission for the man to be allowed in - only to discover that it was a vampire looking to converse.

"My lady, Olivia Voldaren, invites you to a late tea at the Voldaren Estate," he told them in smug tones. "How very honored you must be to attend."

[NFB for distance, and for that guy!]