Fandom Island and Town

Another week, another delivery.

Liliana rolled her eyes. Well, hopefully she could move whatever this was as fast as she'd moved the creepy clockwork figurine last week.

"Oh for fuck's sake," she muttered as she got the crate open. "I hate it when the Multiverse decides to be cute." Because in the crate was another one of those clockwork figurines. In fact, as far as Liliana could tell, it was identical to the one from last week, from the blond curling wig, to the harlequin-patterned porcelain face, to the trim on the luxurious red gown.

"Hate this for me," she said. "Well, I guess the only thing to do is to let Dean know his purchase was an unexpected two-for-one sale."

Sure, she'd put it back in the window, but if no one else came in to buy it, she was definitely foisting this one off on Dean, too.

The chair was back in the display window today with another shame sign, Homunculi Are Not For Eating.

"It's one thing to keep trying to eat Dean," Liliana scolded. "That's funny. But we do not eat the merchandise! Keep it up and I'm getting a plastic chair cover."

The chair drooped pathetically, but Liliana was firm. "You stay in that window until that hourglass runs out or I say you can leave."

And then, chair being appropriately shamed in the window, Liliana was back behind the counter, reading a new book based on some myth or other. The heroine, Circe, had some excellent ideas about how to deal with unwanted guests and obnoxious men, and Liliana was enjoying her story highly.

Every so often the chair would creak and Liliana would snap, "Is the hourglass empty yet?" and the chair would settle back with its sign.

Infinite Hourglass
Never run out of time again!

[Open]

Another Monday and Liliana was once ignoring her work. And, if anybody asked, it would be because she wanted to and had nothing to do with the fact that opening up the stupid delivery crate had winded her badly, the idea of reaching in and pulling out the heavy messenger's capsule within had her absolutely refusing. Her. Not her body, don't be ridiculous.

Besides, she had a minion for this. No, not the armor.

Quickly writing out a note for Dean (Unpack the crate and make a display in the window. Be careful, there's a good chance it's an executioner's capsule and will kill you if you handle it wrong. If you do end up getting killed, try to stagger your way over to the chair so it gets a meal. Its upholstery is looking thin. --Liliana), Liliana left it on the counter for him and then settled herself in the display window with her lyre. It was the only spot in the front room where there was enough space to properly curl up and it had the benefit of being in a sunbeam, too. Now, to avoid falling asleep while playing a tune.

Well...that certainly had been a thing that happened, hadn't it? Hardly the shock other people had received, most likely, but certainly interesting in its implications.

Its many, many, many implications.

Rather than bother with any of the new inventory, Liliana was going to settle back with her new lyre and idly play whatever songs her fingered remembered and debate whether or not she wished to pursue said implications any further or just chalk it up to Fandom nonsense and ignore it entirely.

...So far, however, pursuit was winning, whether she wished it to or not.

[Open!]

Dean was bringing by cursed objects to store today, keeping them safe in the lockers Liliana had commissioned from Amaya. Dean had been lacking in any useful details, as per usual (because why would information about number, size, or construction be helpful, hmm?) so Liliana was in the back room today, making sure that there were several lockers of various dimensions empty and available for storage. She wasn't sure how curses worked in Dean's world - wasn't even terribly knowledgeable in the art of curses in her own - but she figured more space would be better than less.

Perhaps he'd surprise her and he'd arrive with more useful information than he'd imparted previously.

And if we were believing in nine impossible things before breakfast, perhaps Ignis would announce he was switching to a new, uncaffeinated lifestyle, too.

"Oh dear," Liliana said with a low chuckle as she pulled out a single gauntlet - supple leather covered with fitted crystals over the surface. "I shall have to tell Ignis that someone is flirting with me via post. It's the only possible reason they could be sending me such gifts."

Another laugh as she pulled it on, flexing her fingers inside it. "Oh, you're such a pretty little thing, aren't you," she cooed. "I could do such things with you."

That wasn't going into window, not at all. That was going to come home with her immediately, petted and cared for and placed with all of her favorite (magical) toys.

"All right," she murmured, "what else was shipped to us today, hmmm?" Surely there was something in today's crate that she could put the window. She couldn't bring every fun thing home with her.

Well. Shouldn't. That wasn't quite the same thing.

And then she pulled out the head and shoulders of a life-sized doll made of woven wicker. This one was mostly woven, the top of the head was still unwoven, almost like a wicker crown. Liliana lifted it up, making a face. "A millikin," she read off the shipping manifest. "Well then. Perhaps Ignis needn't be concerned after all."

Yeah, that was going into the display window immediately. Perhaps if it didn't sell in a week, she'd give it to Harley to try and sell in her shop. She was always looking for unsettling things, wasn't she?

Millikin
Three-quarters off

Yes, she did think she was hilarious, thank you.

[Open]

It had been quite the whirlwind weekend, Ignis and Liliana visiting three separate countries and seeing remarkably little of any of them (though they could, of course, give informed opinions about the wine, food, and coffee they'd sampled while visiting their respective countries). They had returned yesterday evening, but had decided to remain in, enjoying the last few hours of their weekend together behind closed doors. Honestly, if Liliana hadn't already had certain plans, she likely would have skipped work entirely and convinced Ignis to extend their vacation for another day by luxuriating in bed with her until a truly obscene hour.

But plans she had and a class as well, and so it was off to work for a few hours until it was time to head up to the school.

Her mystery skull was still in the window and now it was joined by a magic wand made from bones and gold and jewels. A pretty thing, if not quite her style, though the idea that such a wand was for anything besides black mana (and probably necromancy specifically) was laughable.

And with that thought came the decision that she should hunt down the box of wands she'd stashed somewhere and make a very pretty display. The decision to do so while humming was unconscious, but here she was doing that anyway.

Wand of Vertebrae
Supposedly made by the mad for the work of the wicked. Do you dare...?

The Infinite Consortium was open!

The other day, Ignis had made a suggestion and that had given Liliana an idea for a surprise for him. It was a truth well acknowledged by this point that Liliana positively adored surprises, either giving or receiving, and she could also acknowledge that Ignis deserved something nice after a week as a bat, followed by a near week of muteness from her, and then dealing with all of the stress of the Chain Veil.

And, fortunately, for all that it was a long poem, she had managed to break them up into decent-sized bits, stealing a few minutes here and there throughout the weekend to bring her surprise to life. There was still a long bit left, but she was confident she could finish it before Ignis might stop by with treats.

In the window was the week's newest artifact.

Sorcerer's Strongbox
Because what could be more important to protect than your most precious memories?

[Open!]

Without an early class and an Ignis more inclined to her usual schedule, Liliana had opened the Infinite Consortium much later than she had in months, strolling in well after noon. Sadly, it would be a shift without treats, as Ignis remained a velvet-soft bat tucked away in her cleavage, but it was still nice to have him around to talk to, even if he couldn't respond to her trolling properly.

"In lieu of our usual treats, what do you think, little darling? Shall I get Mooby's for lunch? I'm certain Nell would run me over some Cup Noodle^TM if I asked, since she'd hardly want me to starve... perhaps I should keep some microwavable snacks in the back room. Dean tends to eat some kind of burrito that he cooks that way, right? Perhaps I should see what he can suggest."

At least she was subjecting him to this kind of harassment while he was asleep. He might never forgive her for it if he were awake. Even if these verbal travesties were accompanied by scritches.

[Open!]

Liliana was never particularly thrilled to be in the Infinite Consortium, but considering there were no children present, she could say with all honesty that it could be worse. Today's delivery was a mishmash of things: a horn of plenty, an oblivion stone - that was immediately going back into her locked safes, thank you - a snake basket...

And a book.

Books weren't anything new, there was a small bookcase of them over to one side, most of them in languages that she didn't know, which meant they were likely only of interest to Jon. But this one was in Kalonian, a language spoke on Shandalar - a plane she knew very well.

*...hallowed earth...the void's first breath...*

"Shut up," she murmured absently, paging through the book, skimming to see if anything useful jumped out at her. It seemed to be some kind of epic poem from several hundred years ago, telling the story of a warleader named Ob Nixilis who had 'arrived in swirling flame' - which probably meant a Planeswalker - and was searching for an artifact of great power, according to the narrator, a simple young man hired to be his guide into a sacred tomb.

A sacred tomb. Home to an artifact of great power. On Shandalar.

Suddenly the Onakke voice rose up in a loud chorus, feeling almost like a tidal wave against the inside of her skull. *...WHERE THE SEED TOOK ROOT...JUST A CHILD...UNIMAGINABLE...* It was loud enough to drive her to her knees, where she clutched her temples, eyes closed.

"Stop it!" she snapped. "Shut up!"

*VESSEL...OF...DESTRUCTION!*

The words reverberated through her head like a bell, over and over and over again. She wasn't sure how long she knelt there, wasn't even sure when the voices had faded back into their usual whispers until she felt an odd plink plink plink on the skin of her hand. Was there a leak in the ceiling...? She pried open one purple eye and saw red - literally. It was not water dripping on her hand, but blood. Her nose was bleeding and she had the most splitting headache.

"This is truly getting untenable," she muttered to herself, trying to sound composed and in control. She stood again, grasping the side of the counter when the world went a little wobbly, then slowly made her way into the single stall bathroom to pinch her nose and wash her face and hands. In the mirror, her eyes were also a little bloodshot, though no burst ves--no burst capillaries there to worry about.

"I don't know what in the Nine Hells that was all about," she muttered to her reflection, "but I do know I'm not going to let it stop me."

Ten minutes later, she was back behind the counter reading the story of Ob Nixilis, every so often whispering, "Shut up," at the voices once more whispering in her head.

After the movie in class that had resulted in a tearful and even more snappish Irrim than before, Liliana had considered bringing Irrim back to the mansion but was moderately certain that watching the child mope about the house waiting for Ignis to come home to play more chess with her was going to do neither of their tempers any good. And considering she was holding onto her own by the skin of her teeth, it was probably best to not chance it. So instead, she had brought Irrim with her to the Consortium in the hopes that an entire store full of magical artifacts would hold the girl's attention. Or perhaps a trip over to Furnado would be in order, see if puppies and kittens (or lizard or birds or by Urza's eyes, a fucking fish) would put her into a better temper.

Gaia only knew what would happen if Dean brought Samantha to the store to add her pleasant disposition to the mix.

And this? Was why she never wanted children! All the sighing and the sniping and the sulking and the whining and the tantrums...those were Liliana's things! Not things that she had to deal with!

On the positive side, "Find one thing that you like and if it isn't a hazard to life and limb, you may bring it back with you" had at least piqued Irrim's interest enough that the girl had wandered off into the shelves to poke around at whatever was there. And, like a responsible adult, Liliana had even warned her about the chair, so gold star in parenting for her today.

Was it lunchtime yet? Except, wait. No. There would be no Monday Consortium lunchtime due to children. Right.

She loathed this weekend.

So far, Liliana's spirits had turned up neither hide nor hair of that aggravating vampire that had earned herself a...let's call it a talking to, for the sake of plausible deniability. That was fine, after listening to the radio, Liliana knew that Navaan had class that afternoon and she would be waiting after class - after all, it wouldn't do to interrupt the students' learning. For whatever value of 'learning' could be done in a class taught by that.

And, until then, Liliana had some unpacking to do. No, not of her emotions or anything like that, don't be ridiculous. It was delivery day from the wider Infinite Consortium and she was digging through a large crate, pulling out five mana generators. They appeared to all be from a set and, unless she missed her guess, were some sort of religious icons, with writing she was unfamiliar with on the base. She'd add this to her list of items to rub by Jon and have him read for her, as well as the slabs of the obelisk she'd brought home back from her fight with Baron Sengir.

But what she could do was copy down some of the alphabet and also the name on the manifesto and then flip through her books to see if she could find anything that seemed similar.

A fun little mystery to pass the time until murder.

The Eye, Heart, Horn, Skull, and Tooth of Ramos
Mana generators and religious icons - useful and lovely, too!

[Open!]

Liliana was once again feeling restless, but it was a very different kind of restlessness from the weekend. No, she knew exactly what kind of restlessness this was; her cheeks were flushed, her pulse was beating faster, and she was feeling very sensitive, the shift of silk over skin, the way her hair felt tumbling over her shoulder, the occasional rush of air when she moved all caused her flesh to prickle with goosebumps.

Well. All right then. Apparently she'd woken up on the very right side of the bed this morning. Seemed like the best thing to do would be to pull up some slow, sultry torch songs and listen to some music while unpacking the day's shipment.

Lifecrafter's Bestiary
An entire memory's menagerie lies within.

[Open]

Dammit all. Dammit all to the Abyss.

Liliana looked down at the lyre she had unpacked from the latest shipment and frowned. It wasn't the harp she had grown up learning under her mother's gentle instruction, but it was close enough. She had avoided the harps in music class, sticking to the piano she had learned much later in life, whenever an instrument had been required. But she couldn't pretend that she hadn't been drawn to the harps, almost reaching out to touch them before jerking her fingers back like their cases and arms were hot enough to burn. The piano was safe, it held no memories made fraught by time and deep emotion.

And now, a lyre had been sent to her store and it called to her to play.

"Don't be ridiculous," she told the instrument. "I have neither the time nor the inclination to play you." The lyre just sat there, simply existing, causing her to scowl.

Resolutely, she turned away to make that week's sign, determined to set the stupid thing in the window and give it no more thought. And she succeeded in making the sign, and putting both it and the lyre in the window!

Giving it no more thought was...more tricky.

She lasted until she'd finished cleaning up the packing material, and then made the mistake of glancing at the display. And that was when she noticed that the lyre was out of tune, its strings loosened for travel, as was right and proper. But now that it was here, she might as well tune it, just in case she had a real customer drop by looking to hear it. So she removed it from the window, sat behind the counter, and started to tighten the strings. Which, of course, meant plucking each string to make sure that it was tuned properly...which led to her playing a few scales just to make sure everything sounded right...

Which led to her playing a song, a quiet reverie settling into her. At first she faltered, the last time she'd played a harp almost a full two hundred years ago, but soon muscle memory kicked in, the strings singing under her fingertips.


Elven Lyre
Musical when intact, magical when broken

The sign was in the window, but the lyre seemed to not be.

[Open!]

"No!" Liliana scolded, shaking her finger at what appeared to be an entirely normal armchair. "Bad chair! Bad chair!" The floor around the chair was littered with debris: nuts and bolts and shreds of paper and shards of brass. "That secretary was worth more than three of you! You're a very bad chair!"

The chair's cushions sagged a little, though Liliana wasn't sure if it were truly contrite or just pretending. It didn't matter, her brass secretary remained destroyed either way. "You get up into that display window and you stay there all day where people can see you and your sign." The cushions sagged further, but Liliana was adamant. "Maybe a day of being perceived will make you mind. Up!"

She went to fetch a dustpan and handbroom to sweep up the remains of the artifact creature that had been in today's shipment, and when she turned back around, the armchair was in the display window, her hand-lettered sign perched on the cushions.

I like to eat expensive artifacts and leave a mess behind.

"Hmph!" Liliana huffed, going behind the counter to dispose of the remains of the secretary and pick up her book again. She really needed to find some kind of enrichment for that chair. And until then, some kind of bad kitty spray bottle.

Creeeeeeak.

"If I put down my book and there's not a chair in the window, perfectly still and holding its sign, I'm going to get out the varnish stripper and go to town," Liliana said without looking up.

The creaking stopped.

"Wise decision."

The Infinite Consortium was open!

Liliana was quite busy on the phone today. Did any of it have to do with the shop she was running?

Of course not, don't be ridiculous. She might be the proprietress on a technicality but that didn't mean she actually intended to spend effort in running it. Unpacking new arrivals and keeping a generally up-to-date inventory was really the most anybody could hope for from her.

But there was still something up in the display window, so really she was going above and beyond here, at least to hear her tell it.

"No, I assure you, the view doesn't matter. Tell me about the kitchen amenities. Mmm, that one has a kitchenette? Well, which one has a proper kitchen? Then yes, I'll take that villa. Darling, I've already agreed to it, you can stop singing its praises now. And...yes." A very deep sigh. "We'll take the early morning coffee bar."

Shriekhorn
Point the open end away from you

[Open!]

"Oh, oh dear," Liliana said, picking up the weapon in gentle hands. Snake-like tendrils fell limply around her wrist, down to her elbow, barbed weights secured to the ends. "Oh, you are going to get me into such trouble. On the positive side, I don't think I recognize you, so you're not a message, simply macabre."

In her hand was a woman's head - specifically, a gorgon's head, mounted upon a hilt, and turned into a flail. It had been hooded in the crate, but was also securely blindfolded as well. Liliana felt the hum of power in her hands; the gorgon's petrifaction gaze was still active, then, even more dangerous than it had been in life, as now it could not be turned off. "I don't know who you pissed off, darling, to be turned into a flail, but I will admit you're a beautiful weapon."

Wielded by an expert, the weighted tendrils could do significant damage on their own, but the real point of them was to catch the victim's attention enough to get them to look in the weapon's direction. Catching the unbound eyes of the gorgon would turn them to stone, even if the tendrils had inflicted no more than the slightest cut.

"May your sisters sing your funeral dirge," Liliana said, pulling the hood back over the head and setting it back into the delivery crate. "I think I will have to start something of a restricted section. Or, at least, a 'by invitation only' section."

Too many do-gooders on the island. It wasn't like Liliana had mounted the head! Or had even requested it! And yet, somehow it would be her who got nagged at for it.

Truly, the unfairness of it all.

Yes, best to keep it out of sight. It wasn't something Liliana had much use for - she hardly had the skill to wield it - but that didn't mean it wouldn't end up being useful somehow.

She hastily added something innocuous to the display window, and then went searching for a box to keep the flail in. Preferably a lockbox. Hmm. It was possible she needed to make a visit to Amaya shortly. A collection of lockboxes of various sizes might not be the worst investment in the world.

Grappling Hook
Tool and weapon in one!

[Open!]

With Thursdays being her teaching day, and Mondays requiring her to already be up and out of the house at a truly ridiculous time, Liliana had surrendered to the inevitable and swapped her primary days in the shop from Thursday to Monday.

There had better be some really big, really exciting skeletons for her to play with, guys, or she was going to be quite put out with her new schedule forcing her to be awake at this gods-forsaken hour. Okay, more like forcing her to be dozing off at this gods-forsaken hour. She needed to start stashing a pillow and a blanket in the back room.

Perhaps she'd summon her steward with something appropriate.

Ugh, it was so early that she didn't realize until lunchtime that she'd forgotten to put anything in the display window in an attempt to lure people (and their wallets) inside. Which was also about when she realized that she also hadn't grabbed anything to eat for lunch.

On the other hand, a nap was practically the same thing, no?

Infernal Idol
Do. Not. Touch.

The Infinite Consortium was open! (But sleeeepy!)