fandomtownies | The Infinite Consortium, Monday

Entry tags:

The Infinite Consortium, Monday

Liliana looked around her store in distaste. There was glitter everywhere. It looked like there had been a blizzard of glitter (she refused to acknowledge 'glizzard' as a word) in the store itself, with piles of glitter in heaps all around.

"I'm going to come down with sparkle lung," she muttered, stalking to the maintenance closet to get out the broom and dustpan.

...No, obviously, not for her to use. Don't be ridiculous. If she really had to, she would summon her steward over, but for now, the haunted armor and the ambush chair were doing a good enough job of it. And bottle gnomes. She was also pressing bottle gnomes into service. And some clockwork gnomes. And a clockwork servant. And...whatever the hell these things were, they were put to work cleaning the building, too.

There was no chance of her getting her shop glitter-free, no, but she'd settle not having to wade through several inches of the stuff.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

All of that certainly did make for thr shop being a bit more noisy that Ignis was accustomed to when he stopped by, and so his probing call of "Liliana?" over rhr bustle of activity actually did serve its original questioning purpose.

Subtle, perhaps, all that whirring and soft clanks, but for someone who depended heavily on his ability to listen to every tiny thing...it was enough to cause a moment of hesitantcy, to access the situation a little more before he locked the door behind him and ventured forth.

Edited 2025-09-08 16:51 (UTC)

"Over here my darling," Liliana called, not from her usual spot by the counter, but standing in front of a crystal ball, examining a felt eye that had gotten shoved behind it. Was this Dean's fault, somehow? It felt like it should be Dean's fault. "Would you prefer I come to you?"

She was perfectly confident in Ignis' ability to dodge around her little helpers and join her, but there was a large difference between 'could do' and 'wanted to'.

Well, the general lack of annoyance or distress in her tone settled the matter of the lock for Ignis, who turned it over and began toward the sound of her voice even as he answered with a "Meet me halfway?"

Shortened the distance for them both, really, thus bringing them together again sooner, and making it, clearly, the best solution.

"Compromise? Liliana Vess? No one would ever believe you," Liliana said with a laugh, dropping the eye in a nearby glitter pile and sweeping over to him.

"Hello, darling," she murmured as they met in the middle, hands immediately seeking out one another, pulling them close for a kiss. "Just tidying up after the nonsense of this past weekend."

There. Explanations over, she could get to the appropriately inappropriate greeting.

You can tell by how he lists
to let her
kiss him, that the getting, as he gets it,
is good.

...kissing you as deeply as possible
and thinking you're mine, mine, mine

It was almost a shame, that that greeting should interrupt all the clever retorts or follow-up questions and commentary that Ignis might have in response. Almost.

And by the time the greeting had ended, with one hand finding its way to brushing back her hair and trailing fingers down her throat while the other held her firm against him, most of those thoughts had been washed away on the deluge.

"Employed a small army of automaton artifact for assistance in the matter, my love? Is that what all that is?"

Be very proud of him, Liliana, that the next thing out of his mouth wasn't to ask how he might help...

If it had been, after a kiss like that, with his fingers still on her throat, they would have had to have words. After all, he wasn't fourteen anymore.

"Precisely," she purred, kissing him again for that impressive alliterative display. "Why would I willingly waste my while when the wayward and whimsical wares of one's workplace were waiting?"

In case he had forgotten, in the past few hours, why he delighted in her, too.

Ah, yes, that thing that was at consrant threat of abandoning his brain at any given moment...

"Why would you," Liliana's turn of that alliteration against him earned her not only a similar kiss, but an appreciative smile as well, "indeed. Impressively efficient."

And you knew how he felt about efficiency, Liliana!

"Though I do wonder about it's efficacy," what with it being glitter and all, "but a remarkable use of resources and a valiant attempt all the same."

"We both know it's a lost cause," she admitted with a sigh. Against his neck. That she'd just flicked her tongue against a moment before. "But even ridding the shop of some of this mess is better than it was. The drifts were calf-deep in places."

Necromancers weren't supposed to sparkle, Ignis! They left that to vampires!

"You know, my darling," she continued as they slowly made their way to the usual spot behind the counter, "3 Minute Dates is coming up. It's this upcoming weekend, I believe." She smiled at him again, this one a softer, sweeter, fonder thing.

Funny, Ignis didn't remember Kristoff ever mentioning sparkling as a potential side-effe t, but if that was what it took...he'd never be lacking in blinded company.

"Is that so?" he asked, listingly following her and immediately seizing the first chance he had in their slight relocation to sweep her up in a kiss again. "Well, we'll certainly have to swing by, won't we? What with the shining beacon of potential success that the event may provide?"

And, imagine! He hadn't even wanted to be there! Really, Gladio was just as much to thank for anything for badgering him into it, but he was hardly ever about to acknowledge that if he could help it.

(Espcially not when Gladio himself was oh-so-fond of rubbing it in. He was no doubt going to be utterly insufferable come this Saturday...)

Liliana was perfectly fine with never acknowledging any debts of gratitude Gladio might or might not be owed, thank you.

"Any desire to participate?" she asked, catching his lower lip in between her teeth. "We can pretend to be strangers. See if the other is as seducible a second time."

A passing fancy, to be sure, but one that amused her.

"That's presuming," Ignis said, with the corner of that caught up curling in a way to suggest he certainly didn't hate the idea, "we even end up being paired up this time around. Can you even imagine, darling?"

The smallest pause, just enough to lightly land on tge dreadful prospect of their paths not at all having crossed that evening, before swiftly moving quickly past it.

"Suffering through five substandard seduction instead of a mere four? But I suppose there's only one way to find oit, and time has shown it to quite well worth the risk."

Those last few words, of course, being murmured against each spot on her neck previously marked with soft fingertips.

Liliana was obligingly tilting her head back, giving him full access to her throat--and however much more of her he wanted. "Perhaps you still would have heard my stomach rumbling through the crowd and come to my side anyway," she said, nails pricking into his shoulders.

The alternate prospect did not bear consideration.

His now roaming hands were making it clear not only how much more je wanted, but also that he fully intended to have it, too.

"Oh, undeniably," he said. "You know how little I can stand letting someone's hunger go unsatisfied."

Including, quite evidently, his own, and his need to have Liliana there on thr counter, legs wrapped around him...

like a belt
around my waist
I wore her out
like my favorite shirt

(no subject)

deathsmajesty - 2025-09-08 23:07 (UTC) - Expand

It was a normal day, thank god. And Riri needed that before she ended up throwing the whiteboard of weirdness against a wall as none of it made any sense at all. Even factoring in magic and the like.

So, she was enjoying the weather and almost immediately getting pulled in by weird robots. Hopefully no one would notice if she just slipped into this shop to take a closer look.

So sorry, Riri. Because not only were you fully noticed, but the little robots? Also magic.

At her entrance came a loud, echoing groaning noise from a suit of armor that was sweeping up piles of glitter from the floor. If Riri knew anything about 'armored body language,' she could probably guess that the figure was feeling fairly sulky about said sweeping.

And that groan resulted in a woman leaning out from one of the aisles. "Who is--oh! A new face. Hello, darling, welcome to the Infinite Consortium."

Rude. That was rude, Liliana. Let a girl have some normal robots for a bit before she took a deal with a devil.

Riri looked away from the armor to who was talking. "That's..."

Moving all on it's own. Her own armor never hit that point. Not without a better AI unit, at least.

"...Hi," she settled on instead of questioning magic weirdness. She's make Erasmus explain it.

He wouldn't be able to! It was a ghost haunting the armor and Erasmus didn't believe in ghosts.

JUST ONE MORE THING ABOUT NECROMANCY HE WAS WRONG ABOUT.

Ahem, that was fine, that was all fine, Liliana was also fine. Anyway. "I don't suppose you're here offering a discount on glitter removal service? Or even a marked up glitter removal service. Either way, I would be interested." She stepped out from the aisle, carefully stepping over a mound of glitter, and offered her hand. "Liliana Vess, darling, delighted. And you are...? A new student, by my guess."

Look. Look. Everyone of the Iron sort of lineage had to be friends with an necromancer and end up causing some kind of catastrophe. She was just getting ahead of the game!

"Uh, no," Riri said, looking around like glitter might jump up and get on her outfit. "I stayed inside when that happened."

Like a sane person, she didn't say. But the implication was there.

She then reached over shake the offered hand. "Riri Williams. New student."

Unexpectedly new!

A fine, upstanding tradition that she should be proud of upholding.

"And my shop should have been closed while it did," Liliana agreed with a hard look at the armor. And the completely normal looking armchair that was an inviting few feet away from Riri. You know, in case her feet hurt or something and she wanted to sit down. "And yet, somehow, my shop is full of glitter. Quite the mystery."

Now the armor's body language was projecting innocence for all it was worth.

"Didn't you have a hell of an introduction to the island's oddities," she said. "Most of the time, new students have a few weeks to settle in before it shows its true colors. On the other hand, you haven't gone running yet, so either you roll well with punches, you're used to strange things, or you've nowhere else to go."

She wasn't going to ask which one of those it was, however. "Tea, darling?"

"Thanks." She wasn't a tea person, but she'd been raised with manners, thank you. "And home is... not as weird as here, but doesn't seem like you can go very long without aliens, wizards, and androids showing up on social media."

But in a normal way. Like getting a college student kidnapped by a fish guy for her homework. Not a polar bear handing you a soda way.

Riri, could we talk about your use of 'normal' in that previous sentence?

She escorted Riri over to the counter, where there was already a tea set laid out, though the second cup was upside down in a (mostly futile) effort to keep it free of glitter. There were also little cakes and ladyfingers (the pastry, of course, this wasn't her workshop) covered in plastic wrap. "Sit, darling," she said. "In the chair to your left, not your right. That one was just leaving."

Again, she directed a hard glare at the chair, which dragged itself several inches away. And then a few more. And then a few more, at least until she stopped glaring at the chair and looked back to Riri. "I'll pour--or are you more of a coffee afficianado?"

Another proud Iron lineage tradition.

Look, this is just what happens in the background of the usual Avengers shenanigans.

"It's just..." Riri's mouth snapped shut as she watched that happen. "Right. Uh... yeah, honestly. Tea's my mom's thing, but I never really got it. How did you...?"

"Bully a chair?" Liliana asked, her smile curling as she reached into a drawer for a coffee press. Of course she kept one nearby, Ignis and Tony both visited her shop. "It's very easy, darling, it recognizes I'm a bigger threat than it is."

She let that hang in the air between them for a moment, then chuckled softly. "This is a shop that sells magical artifacts. Why someone, somewhere, decided they wanted a chair that was also an ambush predator is beyond me - unless they were cursed with a quantity of obnoxious guests that refused to leave - but they did and now it's here. Waiting hopefully for the next unsuspecting person to sit down."

"And you keep it?" Because Riri was pretty sure the easy solution was an ax. Or maybe a bonfire. "Wait. Are you the pony lady that Erasmus met?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Liliana said, then raised an eyebrow. "I did meet an Erasmus, yes, but I wasn't a pony at the time," she said.

Unless...wait for it...

"Ah." Several things fell into place. "Perhaps I was, indeed. Necromancer? With an accent?"

Honestly, the accent should have given it away immediately, but Liliana had been distracted by being a fucking pony.