Ignis Scientia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chef_chocobro) wrote2023-10-07 01:18 pm
chef_chocobro) wrote2023-10-07 01:18 pm
MHA #18; Saturday Evening [10/07].
Even though it seemed like this week had provided copious examples of attempts to the contrary, it turned out that Ignis actually couldn't spend all his spare time with Liliana and would, in fact, spend time with other people, too. Well, with the other person he spent all of his spare time with. He certainly wouldn't want to overstay his welcome, and they were both clearly the sort of people who had lives beyond the blissful bubble of each other's company that they'd come to discover and had other things to do that day...
...Well, it seemed Liliana did, anyway. Ignis...had a make-up training session to attend to to appease his roommate, after which there was to be take-out because he was quite frankly a little exhausted and wanted to unwind a little with food made by someone else for a change and a glass of wine. And to at least make a marginal attempt to distract himself from wanting to be somewhere else and in different company again already.
No offense, of course, to Gladio.
"So," said Gladio from the couch, no doubt already leaving dusting of rice from his take-out container around where he sat, "what should I put on? Cooking shows to make you mad, or sports shows to make me mad?"
Okay, he took that back. Some offense to Gladio, after all.
[[ for those who know who they are and with some helpful little morsels of OCD like the rice Iggy'll find in the couch cushions later; CW for someone almost fucking dying ]]
...Well, it seemed Liliana did, anyway. Ignis...had a make-up training session to attend to to appease his roommate, after which there was to be take-out because he was quite frankly a little exhausted and wanted to unwind a little with food made by someone else for a change and a glass of wine. And to at least make a marginal attempt to distract himself from wanting to be somewhere else and in different company again already.
No offense, of course, to Gladio.
"So," said Gladio from the couch, no doubt already leaving dusting of rice from his take-out container around where he sat, "what should I put on? Cooking shows to make you mad, or sports shows to make me mad?"
Okay, he took that back. Some offense to Gladio, after all.
[[ for those who know who they are and with some helpful little morsels of OCD like the rice Iggy'll find in the couch cushions later; CW for someone almost fucking dying ]]
Re: The First Interruption.
Now then, if you looked closely, these were somebody else's ashes she was covered in, but they were harder to notice what with all the blood.
Also she was helping. She also knocked, where her 'knock' was more 'raise an exhausted fist and let it thump against the door and then sag against the guy that had basically become your only support structure, since your body was currently on strike.'
Icon chosen for irony.
Re: The First Interruption.
"Marc?" That was hardly helping with the confusion, although that was....well, not alleviated, but shifted, slightly, when he saw who was with him. "Lilian--"
It was like a switch shifted in his brain, muscles tensing and attention alert as he stepped back from the door, opening it wide to usher them in as he called out over his shoulder, "Specs! You're going to want to get over--"
Gladio realized that Ignis had already joined him. There was a moment, when the door first opened, and that wave of that scent of blood seemed to crash into the apartment and invade his senses, but as soon as he heard Liliana's name leave Gladio's lips, he was on his feet and rushing over, knocking his thigh into the side of the couch in his haste, but that hardly mattered.
"--here," Gladio concluded, needlessly.
"What is it?" Ignis demanded, trying desperately to get a sense of the scene, but all he could do was smell blood. "What's going on?"
Re: The First Interruption.
"I--" she said, and swayed reaching out to clutch whoever was closest as the world went swimmy. And she certainly didn't look like Liliana - exhausted, soaked with blood, the scars of her contracts still visibly etched onto her skin, red and sullen looking. She was still pale, colder even than her usual below-normal body temperature, and even holding onto someone, she swayed with exhaustion and the effort of staying even this much upright. "--am in need of some assistance," she admitted softly. Like it hurt to say. "If you would...be so kind."
Re: The First Interruption.
"You're alright," he murmured softly to her. "You're going to be okay."
Ignore the faint tremble in his voice of worry and concern and panic, especially with not knowing what was going on, but any such tremble was long gone when he began to bark out instructions to Gladio. "Quick. Pillows, cushions, to support her. And a glass of water, lukewarm, nothing too cold..." Although, really, with the chill of her body right now, he doubted it would be much of a shock to her system. "And warm water, clean rags..."
While Gladio went to do that, he took a moment to try and find her pulse, finding nothing encouraging there in the too faint, too slow, too distant thumping...but it was there at least, even if barely.
His head lifted toward where he assumed Marc was still standing by the door. "What happened?"
His head was swimming and his stomach a bit nauseous from more than just the blood on her, so he figured he could be a little forgiven for not waiting for an answer before his attention shifted back down to Liliana in his arms. "Why here? You should be at the clinic!"
Field patching and dressing and flinging potions and tinctures in the midst of battle was one thing, but he was hardly even remotely close to a medical professional!
Re: The First Interruption.
How to explain when it all lay so close to some of the most closely guarded of her secrets, those parts of her soul that had long since grown calloused and the idea of exposing them to light and air for the first time in ages hurt nearly as much as the rest of her.
"I'll be okay. I just...Marc didn't think I should be alone." Yes. Marc didn't.
Re: The First Interruption.
Ignis took the pillows and, when he realized that that was all Gladio had gotten at that moment, added another terse demand, "And towels?"
"You didn't say towels."
"Yes, well," Ignis snorted irritably, "I figured it went without saying, unless I'm gravely mistaken and this isn't blood at all but rather some deeply questionable new perfume choice."
And then, to Liliana, softer, he said, "I don't think it works for you, darling. There is such a thing as being too on theme."
The levity was for his nerves, but the conversation just to keep her engaged, to keep her present, to keep her there and away from that brink he could feel her so desperately teetering on.
Re: The First Interruption.
"I have to say it, but you...might be right," she agreed. "I'm not a fan of this at all. And it's quite overshadowing my triumph." She raised a hand to his face, then dropped it before her blood-tacky hands could muss him further.
*He's going to send you to the clinic, Lili-flower. He doesn't understand.*
Liliana tensed, but otherwise tried to ignore the Raven Man's words.
Re: The First Interruption.
"You guys got this?" Marc asked, just to be sure. Not that he had any particular skills to apply here but he wanted to be sure before he left them to it.
Re: The First Interruption.
She floundered for what was supposed to come next, failed to find anything good, and so reiterated, "Thank you."
Re: The First Interruption.
Gladio drew in a bit of a steeling breath, his grunt this time a lot less likely to be passed off as anything else, shaking his head and feeling really glad that the rest of Ignis' instructions gave him a good excuse to head into the kitchen, while a desperate part of Ignis wanted to let out a very honest no, but he was steadily trying to convince himself otherwise.
"Yes," he breathed out, with a nod. "I think so. Unless you know better than either of us how to handle a situation like this, but, if that were the case, then I don't suspect you'd have needed to come here in the first place." And even though he looked up toward him again, he knew there were things he just couldn't convey with a glance, so he hoped he had sufficiently poured enough of how much he meant the next words into his tone. "Thank you, Marc."
"Yeah," no such gratitude from Gladio, just a sort of tight dismissiveness as he nudged Ignis in the shoulder to let him know he was handing him a glass of water, "thanks."
Re: The First Interruption.
"Don't worry about it," Marc said to Liliana
to make ping flow easier. "Catch me up on what the hell happened when you get a chance.And with that he headed out.
Re: The First Interruption.
*..shall rain...root of evil...annihilation...*
She leaned against Ignis, and that feeling he'd had before, of a texture that was neither scar nor tattoo but something of both. Only this time, the textures stay and they're everywhere.