Infinite Consortium, Monday

[deathsmajesty]

Another week, another exciting book find!

A book of Kamigawan script, Liliana knew just enough to begin to puzzle through it--which was enough to get the gist of it. It was not an artifact - at least, she didn't think so, but instead, a book of Kamigawan poetry.

Seeing the moonlight
spilling down
through these trees,
my heart fills to the brim
with autumn.
–
How sad,
to think I will end
as only
a pale green mist
drifting the far fields.

Reading a little further, becoming ever more fluent with every stanza, she realized that it was actually a book of Kamigawan love poetry.

Did he appear
Because I fell asleep
Thinking of him?
If only I’d known I was dreaming
I’d never have awakened.

No, wait, this was a book of Kamigawan erotic love poetry. Thoroughly engrossed, Liliana curled up in her chair, in dire need of chocolate or sweet fruits or something as she read.

When my desire
Grows too fierce
I wear my bed clothes
Inside out,
Dark as the night’s rough husk.
–
My longing for you—
Too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
When I go to you at night
Along the road of dreams.

"I might have been less dismissive of Jace's little Moonfolk friend if I'd known she could get me copies of books like this," she gleefully murmured to herself.

[Text appropriated from the The Man'yoshu.]

Comments

[chef_chocobro]

If Liliana was expecting her perpetually punctual paramour to come waltzing through the door of the Consortium at his usual lunchtime hour, she might be sorely disappointed. Perhaps she might still be too engrossed in her poetry to have even noticed, or perhaps she had been all too aware of every single slowly ticking minute dragging toward noon.

Or perhaps she knew her paramour more that well enough to not be in the least bit surprised by his eventual, delayed arrival, just as she may have suspected that, as postponed as it may have been, he may have intended for it to have been even later, but, after enough times listening again to the select passages sent, he realized that he, too, had his limits.

Either way, he had no doubt she wouldn't be the least bit surprised by the nature of today's offerings once he did waltz in.

"Liliana?"

[deathsmajesty]

"You're late."

For someone who quite loudly bemoaned the indignity of being beholden to clocks, apparently Liliana had been aware of the time enough to notice his unexpected tardiness. A tardiness that had, in fact, surprised her--at least until she had realized exactly what the game was. She'd been planning to pretend that she had not even noticed the time...

...But she, consummate, centuries-old liar that she was, had found herself unable to play it cool and coy. Her name from his lips had her up out of her chair, and she had cut the distance between them in half by the time her peevish accusation had left her own. That did have the fortunate effect of leaving both their lips (and tongues and mouths in general...) free so that when they did finally meet--

She would get around to her lack of surprise at the flavor profile of her treats eventually. Right now, they were the furthest thing from her mind.

[chef_chocobro]

Oh, no, Ignis was not expecting the matter of what he'd brought to come up for quite some time. And, also, in his defense, she did start it...

And for all the faint smugness turning the corner of his mouth when he eventually did sweep in, there was that small unraveling of relief in his kiss back, and once that tiny knot had loosened, so much more that had been building up since he'd gotten Liliana's message had come undone, as well. A deluge, now that that levee of restriction didn't need to hold the flood back. Not enough to bring him to completely dismiss the food he'd brought to the floor, but certainly enough that he was maneuvering them back to the counter as quickly as possible so that he could dismiss them in a more proper way to free up his hands to hold onto her instead in an improper way.

"My apologies," he said, eventually, holding her closely as if to make up for every millisecond of tardiness on his behalf. There was a reverence there, in the brush of the back of his fingers against her cheek, a sort of marveling that he even could keep himself away from her with so much intention as he then curled his fingers under her chin to lift it to his lips for another, softer kiss. "I found myself unexpectedly caught up in a surprise burst of inspiration."

[deathsmajesty]

"You should have been caught up in me," Liliana informed him, though the honey of her tongue on his skin took the sting out of that chastisement. "I assure you, I have spent considerable time thinking of nothing but that today."

She caught his lip between her teeth, pressing herself against him. "I hope that you were driven to similar distraction--both from the wanting and the knowledge of how badly I've been wanting you."

[chef_chocobro]

"They are," Ignis said, voice low and husky with every ounce of that building and simmering desire so carefully kept from boiling over completely, "a veritable ouroboros, one feeding into the other, only instead of satiating my appetite, it has only made it that much more voracious."

His head ducked against her shoulder; it turned to return the favor of her bite by catching her ear lobe between his teeth, then he pressed a kiss into spot just below, where jaw met throat, before whispering in her ear, even lower, richer, a bit of his own counter-poetry:

"Even if I now saw you
only once,
I would long for you
through worlds,"

His teeth against her flesh emphasized the pause; what was supposed to be just one bite for effect turning into two, three, all soothed with a trail of his tongue back again to her ear for that punctuating repetition, drawn out in that familiar, rumbling drawl.

"worlds."

[deathsmajesty]

She shivered, the rich timbre of his voice hitting her deep and low, legs trembling slightly with the desire to just give way entirely. "You foolish man," she chided, turning her head to catch his mouth once again for a kiss that pretended towards laziness but simmered with far too much heat to pull it off. "Torturing us both for no good reason..."

She was fairly certain that he would consider the button that had just gone flying off his shirt from her inpatient hands proof that his reasoning was excellent, actually.