fandomtownies | Infinite Consortium, Monday

Well, hopefully, in all her scheming, Liliana had taken into consideration the timing of the day, lest any traces of hints remain around lunchtime when Ignis made his entrance into the shop. Granted, she did have a particular benefit in the fact that certain things were much easier to hide from him in particular, but still!

And, naturally, since the morning had been filled with plenty of experimental coffee and tea making, the food he made after that didn't let any of the well-made stuff go to waste in his usual offerings of treats and bites.

But first things first. The gentle, seeking call of her name into the shop after locking the door behind him, assessing the overall mood of the place, before mostly starting toward the counter with nothing else to convince him elsewhere.

Once again, the Consortium seemed quiet and peaceful when he arrived, and Liliana's "Over here, love," was rich and warm...and full of plenty of smug self-satisfaction.

"Oooh, and what deliciousness did you bring me today?" she purred as he came closer with his treats and offerings.

That smug self-satisfaction had Ignis regarding Liliana with a bit more than a touch of cautious suspicion, taking perhaps another moment to try and perceive anything slightly different, slightly off that would give him a hint as to what she might have been engaged in. Just the barest moment, though, a brief pause before meeting her with a smile and an answer.

"Just a few things," he said, setting the carefully paced boxes down on the counter, to nudge her way, subtly cracking open the one containing the truffles in particular, "to put some of the excess coffee and tea from my class to good use, and, of course," with a tug of a grin and his hands now free from their parcels, he could lean to kiss her, "my company."

Tsk. Such a suspicious paramour. Liliana was so often smug!

"The most delicious treat of all," Liliana said, giving her mouth to him easily. Several minutes passed before she was able to take up the conversational baton again. "You know I adore--oooh, do I spy truffles?"

Ah, yes, but there were many different variations on Liliana's smugness, and all of them, if one were wise, were best approached with at least some degree of suspicion.

Although, for now, suspicion made way easily for a soft chuckle, and the pride that came with a diversion working precisely as planned, even if a bit delayed.

"Of course I know you adore them, darling," he said. "That's why I made them. Tiramisu, to be precise. And then there are tarts with blueberries and tea, and crostini with some cofee-rubbed steak."

With fingers lightly tracing along her arm, there was another minute-long pause at the behest of a kiss, before he added, grinning, "Whenever we manage to get to them, anyway."

Edited 2025-01-20 18:40 (UTC)

A wise man would steer clear of Liliana to the best of his ability, not entwine his life with hers and walk with her on her road to destruction.

"I make no promises," she said with a low chuckle and another deep kiss. "Not when I have something else to nibble on." This time, when she leaned in, she bypassed his mouth entirely and nipped at his throat instead. "A pity because that means you'll never get your present at this rate..."

Well, the thing was...there were variations on wisdom. Degrees...tragic, fatal gaps in one's perspective...

"My present for...?" Ignis began to ask with a note of confusion, before it struck him.

"Ah."

Yes. Right. It really was just about nearly February, wasn't it?

"Well," he said, and he knew that modicum of suspicion had been well-founded!, "all the more reason, then, to ensure that this distraction--"

It was here that those hands sought more than just her arm, his own lips following her lead in departing from hers to find her throat, and his arms wrapping around her in that deftly and familiar move that had Liliana soon joining her lunch in being set upon the counter, but, until those vittles, Ignis was not hesitating to start enjoying her.

"--persist."

Tragic gaps wherein tragic loyalty bloomed.

"Mmm..." Liliana said with a rich laugh as she tilted her head back and let him feast upon her throat, her legs wrapping around him already. "But we both know you're a curious man," she said. "And will start to wonder why I am talking about presents now. I've proven I can be patient with gifts, so it clearly isn't that..."

Sometimes, less was more, so she simply left it there for the moment, to let it percolate in his mind, while her hands busily assisted him in removing additional impediments from between them.

Only to come back once more with a, "I believe you'll be quite impressed with my industry..." before her nails bit into the skin of his back.

And Ignis regretted none (maybe some) of it.

And the thing he was most curious about in that moment was how differently Liliana might respond if he nibbled there just a bit harder than usual, or if his tongue ventured out in ways it didn't quite normally explore, although, yes, there was a tug of curiosity in the back of his mind for these particular machinations of hers. But if wanted to speak of patience, he had it in droves.

Not that you could tell just then, with the quick work he was making of relieving her of that dress of hers, although the progress on that halted abruptly as he arched, groaning, into those biting nails.

"I find," he murmured into to her shoulder, before sinking his teeth in to reciprocate, "that I very often am."

Which, honestly, by the time he nibbled and did that with his tongue, Liliana was already fine with putting the idea of gifts on hold for a bit. Especially in favor of arching against him and continuing to push away his clothing.

Nails-first, of course. She could get him undressed without using her nails, but...why?

"I--ah!" And then she also had to stop, clutching his shoulders, and dragged him even closer. "Ignis."

Ignis felt the urge, with that call of his name, with Liliana's tightened vice-like grip on him, to dig those teeth into even harder. Hard enough to break the skin, cause a small well of blood to flick away with his tongue? Undoubtedly. But he pulled back from that urge. After all, if there was one thing he prided himself in almost as much as his patience, it was in strategic restraint.

Especially when, one day, restraint could become exponentially more difficult than it already was.

A little harder, then, but that much, soothed with a grin and a soft kiss before landing the same against her neck.

"Too much, darling?" he asked, finding his way to her ear.

"Not even a little," she assured him, with a throaty laugh, turning to catch his mouth. "Unless you mean for me to endure without you..." she trailed off, hands falling to the front of his pants instead to fill in that blank. "In that case...still no, but I'm willing to pretend to yes, if it means you'll do it again...properly"

Well, he'd accidentally broken Steve just a little bit and science was stubbornly stating it was a reasonable downside to the illustrious sport of roller skating.

So now Tony was here to check out magic.

That made sense, right?

"Liliana!"

"Tony, darling, hello!" Liliana said brightly. "Welcome to the Infinite Consortium, darling, and what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"Well, I was hoping you might be able to help me out with something." Two words: magic bubble wrap.

Wait, that was three. Fine. Three words!

Ah yes. Because the super soldier needed to be protected from the world. This would absolutely go over well the other way!

"I'm not usually looked to as a helper, darling, but for you, I'm willing to bestir myself," Liliana declared. "What are you looking for?"

Look, Tony, she was really great at death and destruction. Protection? Not her forte.

Shhh. Shhh. It'd be fine.

"Well, I've hit a brick wall on keeping Steve from getting injured with his... career, so I'm thinking maybe I branch out a little here."

He jumped out of planes without parachutes, Liliana! Only Tony was allowed to do that.

Well, fortunately for Tony, Liliana was the last person to chide somebody about hypocrisy, as she was quite comfortable with her own.

"Oh?" she asked, brow furrowing. "Did he get hurt?"

You know, outside of the minor mishap that didn't require any yelling from any doctors.

"What happened, darling? Would you like to sit down and have some coffee?"

Not that she was concerned, mind. But Tony and Steve threw the other parties on the island and if Steve were out of commission, it would interfere with her social calendar.

Well, Valentine's Day was fast approaching, there should be a party for that, right?

"I'd never turn down a coffee," Tony said. "But it wasn't anything serious, just... I hate hitting a wall when I have a project. You know?"

It was basically their duty to the island!

"Oh, incredibly well," Liliana assured him while a suit of armor clanked it's way into the back room. Such a helper. "It's so frustrating,, when you know there is a solution there but it continues to hide itself. Sit down darl--absolutely not."

That last didn't seem directed at him, but a chair that was suddenly just off to the side.

"Ignore that chair, Tony, this one over here is fine." The other chair sulked back into the aisles. "Now tell me, darling, what kind of safety and protection are you looking for?"

Tony was definitely not alarmed by the chair. Except how he for sure was.

"Well, Steve tends to lead headfirst into dangerous situations." As did Tony. Shut up. "And I want to make sure he actually comes home from them. So, I've tweaked everything as much as I can without getting yelled at for trying out airbags. Again."

The things Steve put up with for love.

It was an entirely normal armchair!

...That was also an ambush predator.

"And now you're looking for magic ways to fill in the gaps," Liliana said with a nod. "How often does he go up against magic?"

The armor returned, clanking down a tray with a pit of coffee on it, and some tiramisu truffles that she hadn't gotten around to eating yet.

You know, his bots were suddenly the most normal thing around!

"Well, less often than my version of New York, but planning ahead is always the name of the game." Obsessively planning ahead, one might say. "You don't know what comes next, so best to plan for everything."

"Of course," Liliana agreed, though her MO was closer to 'fuck it, I've got a fuckton of power and a can-do attitude and baby that's enough' than meticulous planning.

"I do have some things that can protect him from different colors of mana, but I'll have to see if they can also be used against magic that just...doesn't use mana at all."

As truly nonsensical as that was.

"And plenty of equipment to make someone stronger and tougher, harder to harm, and quicker to heal. Nothing that will make him indestructible, of course, but that's more the area of enchantments than artifacts, anyway."

"Well, we can make it a project then," Tony suggested. "And you can explain what mana is."

And they'd for sure not going to end the world in the process.

Noooo....no, no, no...a bit, maybe...yeah, a bit.

"Love that," Liliana said. "I'm always delighted to explain magical theory." Because she was a nerd. "Especially since it would be fascinating if you could find ways to replicate what mana does, so people who can't access mana could still use it, if only for triggering magical equipment."

This was going to end up with them blowing a hole into the Earth's crust at minimum.

Look. Look. It'd be just fine. Ignore how both Steve and Ignis were suddenly on high alert and couldn't explain why.

"You know, that's a great idea." And excuse for when they got caught.

They were just paranoid. Everybody knew that.

"And think of how much safer he'll be afterwards, once we get it to work!" Another great excuse! They were definitely focused on safety and not if they could make it happen!

"I love the way you think," Tony replied, beaming.

Liliana dimpled back at him, just two very gorgeous and brilliant people who were going to work together and very possibly destroy the world!

"It's because brilliance recognizes brilliance, darling," Liliana said with a laugh, pouring him a cup of coffee and toasting him with it, before handing it over. "The first thing I suppose we'll have to do is find something that recognizes the energy that is magic."

Tony's grabby hands at the coffee was perfectly normal, you know.

"In a lab environment," he agreed. "Then we can transfer that over to the field. And I can hold one over on Strange if we manage it."

She was involved with Ignis Scientia, for whom coffee was her only rival. It was perfectly normal.

"...Strange?" A pause as she tried to figure out why she knew that name. Perhaps an Earl Gray tart would help. "Ilyana's Doctor Strange?"

Oh look! It did!

"Well, a version of him, I assume," Tony replied. "I don't know that I know of Ilyana back home, honestly. But that could just be a timeline thing."

Also, the X-Men were hard to keep track of. They just kept dying or going to space or both.

"The sheer number of versions of you all hurts my head," Liliana said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"What can I say? I'm a popular guy." Tony, no.

Jon eyed that scepter dubiously as he carefully came in, messenger bag over one shoulder.

"Oh darling, don't look like that," Liliana called. "It's just a bit of time trickery."

"Oh." Jon blinked at it. "With the scales, I thought it might be some sort of justice thing." He was always a bit wary of anything like that.

"Oh no, just a scepter. You can use it to create special charges and then..." She tried to figure out how to phrase it. "Use them to get a bit more time to put your own machinations and plans in play."

Jon frowned, thinking about it. "So...sort of like a pause button," he guessed.

"More like..." She had to pause to consider. "Like taking two chess turns in a row, I suppose."

Jon huffed. "If I could do that, I might win on occasion."

Look, it should surprise nobody that tactics and planning were not Jon's strong point.

Infinite Consortium, Monday

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