Fandom Island and Town

The trouble with refusing to be beholden to the mundanities of time did occasionally backfire - usually when other people's calendars required paying attention to. Like right now, when she realized that if she wanted to teach next semester, she had to come up with the class idea and writeup now. Ugh. Did she want to reteach this, but with new scenarios? Another class on indulging? Opposing mana pairs...? No, that one would be better as a full semester class.

So rather than putting away the week's delivery, Liliana was lounging at her desk, contemplating her possibilities. It looked a lot like filing her nails, but she was deep in thought.

Liliana glared down at the box on her desk like it had personally offended her. Because it had, by the sheer virtue of not being exactly what she wanted.

"That's all?" she asked in disbelief. "In the entire store, that's all. Not even twenty!" She glared down harder at the box in question, but the numbers did not change no matter how hard she willed it so.

Ugh.

Fine then, she'd start with this poor lot, she supposed. If she couldn't find something suitable here, she'd just move on. Ravnica, probably, or possibly Kaladesh? She'd heard stories of famed craftsmen in Fiora, perhaps she could find some time to take a little 'Walk there and see if those stories were true...Though that would make this little project of hers far more complicated and far more difficult to keep secret until it was ready.

Annoyed all over again, she dumped the box out onto the surface of her desk. The rings tumbled out in a series of soft metallic clangs. Once she had all eighteen laid out in front of her, she began the winnowing process. "No...no....ugly...no...cursed...hmm, potential, perhaps...no...no...useful but ugly...absolutely not, whoever designed this should be ashamed...useless...no...boring...no..."

Abyss, this was going to take forever. Why were most artificers cursed with such appalling taste in jewelry?

Liliana was considering taking the afternoon off and booking a very long massage at the spa later. She had spent the vast majority of the weekend down in her workroom, emerging early Sunday evening, triumphant, and tumbled almost immediately into bed, absolutely exhausted. Fifteen hours of sleep had taken care of most of the accumulated sleep debt, but hadn't done a damn thing for the soreness that came from nearly forty-eight hours spent working on--well, never mind what she'd been working on. It was probably all fine and, like, super-ethical and stuff. Don't even worry about it.

Liliana was dealing with the most frustrating of indignities today. At some point Friday, she must have wandered into a spawning point of mosquitoes or something because she had a number of bites from the miserable little things. Normally, biting insects didn't bother her; her preternatural chill didn't register her as a potential food source for them, but apparently nobody had passed that fact along to the bugs on the island. They had decided she was delicious - which, obviously, but she would have been happier if they hadn't made that discovery - and she was wondering if she was down a pint or two of blood with the number of bites she's found.

None of which put her in a particularly good temper, no. Which was why she was ignoring today's shipment in favor of glaring in the general direction of the park and working on a spell specifically designed to kill mosquitoes. In droves. Possibly enough to unbalance the entire ecosystem.

Good.

[Inspired by my weekend, yes]

Sometimes, you got artifacts that you knew exactly what they were for. Sometimes, you got artifacts that you had no idea what they were for. And then, sometimes, you got artifacts that you knew what they were for, technically, but still had no idea how, or, more importantly, why?

Like the newly-arrived helm of the host. What would possess someone to wear this? What about the weight? The balance? The likelihood of it getting caught on literally everything?

Maybe someone would want to buy it as a conversational piece, because surely no one was stupid enough to want to buy it and use it as an actual helmet.

Helm of the Host
They say two heads are better than one. If so, this helm is the best ever.

From the fuss the chair and the armor made at her reappearance, one would think Liliana had been gone for months rather than a few weeks. And, truth be told, it made her feel decidedly odd. On the one hand, yes, of course she should be adored and missed. On the other hand, her underlings - which these most certainly were - ought to be properly terrified of her and should have seen her absence as an escape.

Was she losing her touch? Was she becoming...nice?

Wonderful. A small identity crisis to deal with on a Monday. Just what she always wanted.

Some weeks, you get a fascinating anthropological mystery in your delivery and some weeks, you just get one more magical blade to add to the pile.

Unimpressed, Liliana was lounging behind the counter with a book. Another truly riveting day at the Consortium.

Sword of Vengeance
Sometimes your enemies need a little stabbing. Or a lot of stabbing.

Liliana was having trouble focusing on work today. Now, most people would assume that Liliana had trouble focusing on work every week, considering how little she cared about her business or the dragon that owned it, but they would be mistaken. Most weeks, Liliana didn't have trouble focusing on work, she just actively chose not to. An important difference.

This week, she'd half-intended to at least unpack and organize the packages that had arrived while she'd been flitting around off the island, but she just...wasn't really getting much done. Well. Work-wise, anyway. Ignis' cell phone was once again getting a barrage of messages while he was at class, but did that really count as work when it was art? And when she loved what she did?

Liliana had been working on a secret project over the past three weeks and it was almost finished. It was almost as important to win at birthdays as it was at Christmas--and she had lost Christmas to both Ignis and Prompto! Obviously, this could not possibly stand.

And so, her project, sparked by a dinner conversation. One she was putting the finishing touches on now, sitting behind the counter and chuckling to herself, highly pleased by her own cleverness.

In the window was today's item, the Magister's Scepter.

Liliana had considered skipping work today to protest Ignis starting classes - something something they didn't both have to start be industrious on the same day something something - but reluctantly dragged herself to work anyway. It wasn't like any deliveries that had accumulated over the holidays were going to unpack themselves.

Well, considering what she sold, that wasn't necessarily true, but odds were that anything that unpacked itself was probably just going to be obnoxious and something for her to deal with anyway.

But sometimes, the gods of industry blessed the deserving (no, Ignis, don't be ridiculous, she refused to learn from this), because the first crate she opened today held...a book. No. Not just any book.

A Thran tome.

"Sweet Serra," Liliana whispered, taking the relic out with careful hands. She didn't know whether this was an original, or simply an ancient copy, but it honestly didn't matter. The value of the knowledge contained therein, even if it turned out to be nothing more than a cookbook, was incalculable.

Ha ha, joke was on you, gods of industry. Once Liliana sat down to page through the tome and start puzzling out Ancient Thran, the rest of the inventory could catch fire and she'd hardly notice and certainly wouldn't care.

Last year, Liliana had had no idea what the mistletoe meant when a cluster of it began bobbing after her oh-so-innocently. This year, however, she was well-aware of its tricks and so was regarding the bits of greenery in the air with narrowed eyes and a distinctly aggressive expression. There were several piles of necromatically rotted mistletoe in front of the building, left there as a warning for the others. Not that any of the cheerfully hovering mistletoe in the shop seemed to be paying them any mind.

There was also a sign in the window. Not one offering the newest weird item for sale, but a head's up.

BEWARE OF MISTLETOE
Proprietress makes no promises of safety

The one person who couldn't read the sign was the one person who didn't need to worry about it, so that, at least, worked out.

Liliana pulled a strand of tinsel from her hair and glared at it. Only a bit of tinsel, foolish to be upset, but for a moment, she'd been convinced it was a gray hair. Preposterous, of course. She'd made her bargains well, but--

A long exhale and the tinsel shriveled and decayed in her hands. Just a bit of island whimsy, nothing more. She was going to make some tea and forget about it.

But the reminder of the Mending lingered, leaving her quiet and subdued.

"If you don't stop chewing on that banner, I'm going to turn you into glue," Liliana informed the little pony that had made its way into her shop. It turned to look at her with big eyes under a floppy mane, and she glared back, unmoved by either it or the adorable little sweater it was wearing.

At least outwardly.

"Don't look at me like that," she informed it. "You're going to develop laminitis and be no good to anyone. You're a pony, not a donkey."

Instead of being properly chastened, the pony clip-clopped its way to Liliana and started to nose at her hand and clothes, looking for treats. With a sigh, she handed over a sugar cube that had...fallen on the ground from her tea. Yes. Absolutely that. "Don't think this is you getting your way," she informed it as it gently lapped at her hand. "That will just make you spoiled and unrideable. Hmm."

You know what? Liliana needed to make a few calls...

Whatever else Liliana might have had planned for the day was quite thoroughly replaced upon receiving a certain message just as her hand touched the knob to unlock the back door of her shop. And then she ended up standing there for much longer than she'd like to admit to anyone, including herself, debating whether she should actually bother with the day's work (something she rarely needed encouragement to skip as it were), or should just turn around and return home immediately.

How dare you, Ignis Scientia. She was never indecisive, and yet--!

That, in fact, was the reason she'd ended up going to work in the end, anyway. If he were waiting for her back at the mansion, half-dressed and hoping, he deserved it for making her hesitate over a question as easy as should I bother going to work today? and then, of all things, being the reason she decided that the answer should be yes.

Though if he sent her another poem, she would be home so fast he'd forget that teleportation had been lost in the Mending.

If not, she still had his first to listen to again. Several times. Shut up.

Some Mondays she had to do battle with indestructible creatures. Some Mondays, she got into arguments with an ambush predator that looked like an entirely normal armchair and a ghost in a suit of armor. Some Mondays, she even had to deal with her single employee who was also a dog at the time.

And some Mondays were easy and relaxing, where she could just put the day's weird delivery in the window and then settle back behind the counter playing stupid little phone games.

Liliana really, really liked those Mondays. A pity there weren't more of them.

All was quiet when Liliana stepped into the Infinite Consortium today. She didn't trust it. Last time she'd been here, there had been three fighting artifact creatures skulking around and while they had some kind of innate capabilities that held one another into some kind of detente, there was nothing that stopped them from turning on her. Save their rightful fear, anyway.

As a precaution, she once again summoned her mana. "All right you lot. Show yourselves before I get cranky," she called, before her foot brushed up against something.

It was a chunk of metal that looked like half a pair of scissors. "Interesting..." she murmured. A few steps on, she found an aisle riddled with scraps of orange and black paper.

"So the lizard must have caught the tiger by surprise. That just leaves the lobster." She looked around. "Come out, come out, wherever you are..."

There was shuffling from further in store. Raising an eyebrow, she stepped around a large shelving unit, thinking that poor Ignis would probably be disappointed at the lack of lobster for dinner, but her spells generally didn't leave much edible behind. The shuffling continued as she moved across the main walkway--

Only to find her chair there, looking still and as innocent and as an entirely normal as an ambush predator posing as a chair could look. And no sign of the lobster. "Awwww," she cooed. "Did you kill it? What a good hunter you are. You know what? You deserve a nice waxing."

If an entirely normal chair could preen, this one would be.

"I'll fetch some from T&C's and make Dean handle it tomorrow," she decided. Because she was the boss and could make those decisions. "Hmm. Maybe he could fetch it and take you out for a walk at the same time. I think it will be a nice bonding experience."

Dean.
Take the chair for a walk to pick up some furniture wax from T&C's. It'll be good for the both of you.
--L

[Yes, the chair now gets an icon. It deserves it. <3]

Liliana knew from the moment she stepped into the shop to find not one, not two, but three crates waiting for her, that today's shipment was going to be a right pain in the ass. It got even worse when she drew close enough to hear them. One was growling, low in its throat. Another had an oddly metallic snipping noise. And from the last came a heavy clackclack. Liliana was tempted to just ignore them and leave them for Dean to deal with, but that's what she'd done with the clockwork creatures and he'd helped her with the car, so she supposed she could bestir herself top open these.

Doing so, however, reminded her exactly why she ought not let things like 'gratitude' and 'kindness' dictate her actions.

An origami tiger prowled out of the first crate, its shoulders at the height of her shoulders. It snarled at her, though once it caught scent of the second crate, it slunk away. From the second crate crawled a giant metallic lizard, body seemingly crafted from scissors that it snipped menacingly towards the tiger. Before it could do much more than advance, Liliana got the final crate open, and out scuttled a stone crustacean on par in size with the other two. The lizard froze as the lobster clacked its pinchers at it. The tiger went to pounce on the lobster, but shied off when the lizard extended a metal foreleg towards it. Which seemed like a perfect time for the lobster to bash the lizard, but the tiger's growl had it backing off slightly.

Liliana gave them the jaded look of This might as well happen, and sighed, retreating to behind the counter with her lyre. "You may continue," she declared. "But as a warning, harm the contents of my shop or any of the creatures within it, and we will have a problem."

For a minute, all three creatures eyed her, speculatively. Their powers were stymied by the other, but perhaps--

Liliana removed a hand from the lyre's strings and filled it with purple fire. "I wouldn't consider it, were I you," she informed them. "I may not have a lot of counters for regular artifacts, but artifact creatures die like any other."

The creatures considered this, nodded, and then ran off into different directions, spending the rest of the afternoon trying to ambush, attack, or avoid one another.

Just another day at the Infinite Consortium.

On the positive side, they were at the tail end of the mansion's necessary renovations. On the negative side, they were renovating the mansion's upper floors now, which meant that construction began bright and early all around the master bedchamber. This morning, Liliana had been chased out of her nice, warm bed at the ungodly hour of eight and had actually come into the store out of self-defense. It was at least quiet here. Had she been thinking more clearly, she might have fled to the apartment in town to continue sleeping, but she'd unthinkingly followed her Monday habit instead and so...here she was.

Ugh.

Well, she might be physically present, but nobody could make her work if she didn't want to. So instead she was napping behind the counter, today's shipment still inside its crate. if anybody wanted to know what was in it that badly, they were welcome to open it themselves.

Some days, Liliana opened crates and immediately wished that she had not. Other times it took a few moments and somehow, those were worse. When Liliana first pulled off the lid of the crate, all she noticed was the beautiful crimson silk of the gown. Then the profusion of golden curls. But it wasn't until she had pulled the clockwork figurine from the crate entirely that she realized she would be much happier putting it all back and marking it 'Return to Sender.'

As that was not possible, she had to turn to other ideas. Giving it to Harley, maybe? Making Dean take it? He certainly owed her for holding onto those cursed objects. Feeding it to the chair?

...Well, the latter idea was a bust because as soon as the chair spotted the creature, it was sidling away.

"Coward," she muttered after it. Still, that was enough to put a little starch into Liliana's own spine. Please, she was Liliana Vess. She did not get unsettled by a creepy clockwork figurine; no, she did the unsettling, thank you very much.

Still, she was putting it in the display window quickly and hoping that there was a doll collector on the island that was looking for a very large addition.

Clockwork Droid
An amazing deal at twice the price!

Liliana felt comfortable making that claim as she intended to sell it very, very cheaply.