The Infinite Consortium, Monday Afternoon

[deathsmajesty]

Today's delivery was a single broom with no identifying or explanatory information provided. Liliana just looked at it and shrugged - it could be an amazingly powerful artifact, or it could just be a broom accidentally sent in lieu of the proper shipment. She didn't know and, more importantly, she didn't care to. She had some top-quality brooding to do.

Along with writing. Definitely a lot of writing. Making an outline, in fact. Trying to make sure that she had a full idea of everything she needed to mention, and how one topic would best transition into the next, even writing down snippets of phrasing as they came to her, to better guide the ensuing conversation.

For sale: a broom. Your guess is as good as mine.

The Infinite Consortium was open!

Comments

[chef_chocobro]

And, of course, at a certain point, a very well-dressed gentleman with a pair of shades slipped into his pocket and a box of freshly made treats slipped into the Infinate Consortium at some point, sending out his usual honing call of "Liliana?" before making an initial, tentative move toward the counter.

[deathsmajesty]

For a moment, Liliana panicked, looking for a way to hide her notes, before realizing she was being both an idiot and a ninny about it. "Over here, my darling," she called, glad that Ignis couldn't see not only her notes, but her expression. He almost certainly could hear the chagrin in her voice, but that couldn't be helped.

[chef_chocobro]

It truly couldn't be helped, just as Ignis himself could not help the small frown of concern on his face as he set down the treats he'd come bearing today in response to that worrisome tone.

"Is everything alright, my dear?" His own tone held both softness and curiosity, trying to lean more on those than any hint of underlying distress. After all, it was Liliana. It could be anything from a particularly pesky hangnail to the complete destruction of the known multiverse. Perhaps merely residual feelings about the weekend. Best to just move around to where she was and seek to soothe whatever it was with a soft kiss.

[deathsmajesty]

Mmm, yes. A kiss was always a good idea for soothing distressed Lilianas (except for when it was a terrible idea and the clues for which one it was were subtle and varied widely).

She pulled him in for a kiss, deepening it if he did not, an odd mix of desire and desperation. She lingered in it for as long as she could before reluctantly letting him go in favor of breathing.

"I have just been..." she said, voice surprisingly raspy, "... preparing my notes to keep my promise."

[chef_chocobro]

Although Ignis did get the distinct feeling that perhaps such a...thorough response to his kiss might have been in part (he'd come a long way, indeed, that he knew it would not be entitely, or even mostly) to prolonging and postponing a proper response, buy he was the last to complain about it. In fact, he would gladly hold onto it and prolong and postpone right along with her. He always did have patience in spades.

And her answer, once given, had his curiosity, although it did little to assuage his concern.

"Notes?" he asked. "Notes on what?"

He had an idea, but didn't exactly care to voice it if he didn't have to.

[deathsmajesty]

"The Chain--" she paused to cough, you know, what someone always wanted to hear after a thorough kiss. "The Chain--" Another round of coughing, this time leaving her voice raspier than it was before. "I finished the--" A third round, this one strong enough to bend her over with it.

"What in the nine hells?" she croaked.

[chef_chocobro]

Well, at least the cough had some pretty stiff competition with what else was coming out of Liliana's mouth just then, no matter how much Ignis had expected that part. He frowned, wondering if he should hold back his urge to almost immediately lift a hand to her forehead, although he supposed, if he did find it to be quite warm, that would be distressing.

Instead, he used it to comfortingly rub her back (which also could serve as a way to check if she really was far warmer than usual, which was to say, emitting any heat at all really) and frowned. "Do you have water somewhere?" he asked. "I'll get you some, maybe it will help. Just a bit of air, going down the wrong pipe, as they say, perhaps?"

He certainly hoped so, anyway. It was not in the least bit settling t think that even mentioning research being done on the Chain Veil would now be inspiring coughing fits to this magnitude.

[deathsmajesty]

"Yes, in the--" More coughing, so it didn't seem to be limited to the Chain Veil. That was...something? More data perhaps?

She didn't seem warmer than usual - that was, warm at all, even just the normal body heat anyone would produce - but her cheeks were certainly flushed, though that was likely??? a side effect of the coughing.

"Could you plea--" This time, rather than a cough that stopped her, it was her voice, gone from raspy to just...completely non-existent. She made several gasping noises, mouth working like a fish and then just...nothing. No matter how she tried, no sound came out.

Well. Fuck.

[chef_chocobro]

Oh, this was completely fine, not at all worrisome, and it wasn't as if he depended heavily on the ability to speak to communicate or anything...

"Liliana?" he asked, brow furrowing deeper and deeper with each moment he seemed to be able to hear only futile breaths and no words at all. He considered the coughing. He considered the topic of discussion. He kept consolingly rubbing her back, though he wasn't sure it was her he was trying to console any longer. "Go, make yourself some tea. I'll quickly swing by the shop and see what else I can get to soothe your throat. Hopefully, it's just a matter of a rather sudden bout of laryngitis and not something a bit less...medical to consider..."

Perhaps he should swing by the clinic instead, actually? Of course he remembered who was working there that day, but, honestly, if it meant getting what Liliana might need to feel better, he'd suffer that particular annoyance and then some.

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana slid his hand up to her face so he could her nod, and then, considering if this were some kind of...swift-onset cold...he was already well and truly infected, she leaned in to brush her still-chilly lips across his scarred cheek, and slid away from him, out of his grasp, and headed towards the back of the store, still coughing from time to time, though the coughs seemed to be subsiding as quickly as they'd come.