Office Hours; Office #27; Thursday [01/06].

[chef_chocobro]

Dinner with Shane last night had gone exceptionally well, and having come back to the island a little early for it meant that Ignis had a rare moment of having the Fandom apartment all to himself that morning, which he definitely took advantage of before heading over to his office for a bit of a later start to his day there. As he settled in to work on some minor details and potential changes to his lesson plans for his class tomorrow, his phone vibrated with a notification.

He frowned at it, almost is if he could tell from the vibration alone that it was not going to be terribly good news, and picked it up to confirm a news alert from Lestallum, detailing and speculating on some recent Empire activity in the area, specifically around the Disc of Cauthess.

"Well," he murmured, clearly to himself, since he was the only one there, as he started to pull up more resources to investigate further, "that doesn't bode well..."

And, as these things usually did, he was about to find himself down quite the rabbit hole of checking in with various points of contact to find out more about exactly what might be happening and just how worried he should be about this.

So much for those lesson plans...

[[ door and office hours are open! ]]

Comments

[notagoose]

So the dinner had gone …rather well, Goose was pretty happy with how it had turned out all things considered … since there had been many things that could have easily gone wrong yesterday … namely causing a fire and burning the apartment down, so that didn’t happen at least.

Yesterday evening had been … nice … he had liked spending time with Ignis and …

He was still pretty confused about all of this …

He decided to stop by the bakery and get a variety of assorted pastries and donuts, he realised he didn’t actually know how Ignis liked to take his coffee, so he decided to just get the food instead.

“Um … hi,” he said, knocking as he stood in the doorway, rather awkwardly as he held up the box with the pastries, “I …. er … got pastries, um … if you … if you’d like some,” he was really bad at this.

[chef_chocobro]

Even if he had been any good at it, Ignis was not terribly likely to have noticed in his current state of distraction. And though all reports were coming in that it just seemed like more standard Niflheim business as usual, he just couldn't shake a strange feeling...some sort of ominous intution, that there might be something slightly more to it than that.

But, that said, perhaps it was all still too fresh, and it would be a while before any more news regarding the situation came out, so a distraction might be just the thing. So he finished what he was typing quickly, sent it off, and then set aside the phone to turn his attention toward the visitor, hoping its presence there beside him wouldn't just keep him wholly preoccupied.

"Shane," he greeted, and, even with everything else frustratingly clouding his head at the moment, he found himself sparing a faint smile at it, and he gestured to invite him to have a seat, "yes, come in. I...certainly wouldn't say no."

[notagoose]

There was a hesitation and then Goose entered and took the offered seat, holding the box out towards Ignis as he did.

“Is …er …everything okay?” he asked, after he had watched Ignis finish typing on his phone, He wasn’t sure if he was right to ask …this was all still something that he was getting used to.

[chef_chocobro]

Ignis's first compulsion was to tell Shane that everything was fine and dismiss the matter, but as he took the box and set it on the desk between them, he sighed.

"If it's not one thing," he murmured, "it's another. And in this particularly case, it's a rather timely reminder from the Niflhein Empire that we are, indeed, still quite entrenched in an active war back home, lest we forget..."

He opened the box, took a moment to consider the contents inside.

"Can I get you a beverage?" he offered, lifting his eyes toward Shane. "I have water and Ebony, though I could get some water going for tea if you prefer."

[notagoose]

“Oh …” Goose said softly as he listened, he did understand always having the threat of an ongoing active war, “Is…is there anything I can do to help?”

There was a pause and then a slight head tilt, “I’m not…uh familiar with ebony?” he eventually said.

[chef_chocobro]

Ignis had expected as much, and the faint smirk on his face seemed to suggest that Shane was in for a treat. "Ebony," he explained, as he pushed his chair back enough to access the small mini-fridge under the desk where he kept his precious supply for his office to extract two slim, black cans, "is a brand of coffee from home. I have yet to find an similar beverage on this planet that can even begin to compare."

He handed one of the cans over the desk, picked out one of the pastries, and settled back in his chair again.

"As for helping, I'm afraid," he said, "I don't believe so. As it often is with these things, it is merely something we should keep a close eye on, to see if it's anything more than the usual Imperial annoyances..."

[notagoose]

Goose definitely looked intrigued as he picked up the can of ebony, “I actually wasn’t sure what coffee you liked,” he admitted, “I decided to just get the pastries,” he revealed.

Then he considered Ignis’ answer, “if there is anything I can do, I will be happy to help where I can,”he told him.


[work is going to be super crazy for me today so will soon be on extreme sp but I’ll try and ping when I can]

[chef_chocobro]

"Black," Ignis was more than happy to inform Shane...for future reference, if he felt so incline, "and very strong, which Ebony delivers in spaces." He cracked open the can, lifting it a little with a "Cheers" before taking a drink.

"And thank you," he added, with regards to the other matter. "I'll keep that in mind. But, hopefully, it is nothing more than just a bit of sensationalism stirred up out of boredom."

[[ that's a whole ass mood; no worries! ]]

[notagoose]

Goose smiled at that, definitely filing away that information for future reference and then he nodded, “i hope that’s the case,” he told him softly and then he took a sip of his can, “actually, this is quite good,”

In the last two days he’d tried wine for the first time and now a new coffee and he’d also made dinner without anything disastrous happening.

[chef_chocobro]

"Yes," Ignis agreed, with the air of self-important confidence that always went along with the superiority of Ebony, and a faint grin, "I know."

It was, however, a pleasant surprise that Shane did appreciate it. The refinement of his particular tastes seemed....well...nonexistant, really, but the spectrum, at least, seemed quite...broad, with very little hesitation to expand it even further. And that was certainly something Ignis could appreciate in turn.

[notagoose]

Goose’s tastes were definitely quite unique.

He grinned at that and he took another sip and then he paused, “I …I …liked making dinner last night,” he said softly and then he didn’t think that was quite what he meant to say, “I mean …I …I liked last night …er…” wow that can of ebony was suddenly really fascinating as he looked down at it.

[chef_chocobro]

To be fair, it was a rather dynamic and compellingly designed label...

Ignis grinned faintly as he waited to see if there was anything else Shane wanted to add, then brought in his response before he lost the man's attention to a can of coffee.

"I rather enjoyed it as well," he said. "But that hardly comes as a surprise, when the quality of the company surpasses even the quality of the food."

And that wasn't just empty flattery, either. For one thing, Ignis didn't bother wasting his time with such things, and, for another, he'd been there at the start of last semester's class. The level of improvement was downright staggering.

Ceiling pork stains aside.

[notagoose]

The odds of Goose being able to properly avoid ceiling stains were really not good odds at all.

Goose finally looked back up now that the mun was free from coffee hell, he had started to turn rather pink.

“Oh …um…I liked…sp…being …er…”

Seriously why was all of this so hard? He really didn’t want a repeat of Darkstar and Stingray but he really didn’t do well with emotions and talking about feelings.

“I mean…ialsolikedbeingwithyou,” apparently it wasn’t just a certain pyrokinetic who talked in a keysmash like that.

[chef_chocobro]

Must just be something about those Insomnia boys...

And if Ignis thought Shane's awkwardness was absurdly and endearingly charming before, well...clearly, that had all been merely a warm-up, and he found himself smiling softly with perhaps just a small touch of wonderment. This sort of thing, after all, was actually fairly new to him, as well. It wasn't really that he'd never had the desire or interest...he just never really had the time or means to even so much as spare a thought towards any kind of...inclinations...

"Then we should do it again sometime," he suggested. "And I'll take my turn at the cooking."

Far less stress for poor Shane that way, especially considering the amount he was fumbling his way through at that moment.

[notagoose]

Well they did have something in common after all.

That would probably be the best for everyone involved, Goose was already a mess when it came to normal everyday situations and if he’d had to plan another dinner too soon, it might be too much for his nerves … and this was from a man who thought the best tactic to get away from an enemy armada was to pilot his ship straight at it as a means to escape.

“Um … I … er … I would like that,” he finally managed to get out and almost in a complete sentence this time. “I’d … I’d like that a lot,” his cheeks went even redder.

[chef_chocobro]

"Wednesday again?" Ignis sugggested. "Perhaps at my place this time? Maybe we can even make a habit of it."

Much to the detriment, no doubt, of Noctis's diet, but perhaps if he could prepare something in advance and task Gladio with the mission of ensuring the prince actually at that instead of giving into simply ordering pizza or something from the Crow's Nest...but even though it was just him and Gladio there now, Wednesday would ensure privacy. Gladio was quite the barfly on Thursdays, of course, but this spared them any awkwardness for when he did get home.

[notagoose]

“Wednesday sounds good,” Goose smiled, rather shyly then, “it … it would be nice … especially if … uh … it was … to become …you know... a regular thing,”

He was definitely going to miss jello shots and seeing Summer on Wednesdays but somehow he thought Summer would actually approve that they were already planning a follow up dinner and that there were plans for more of them.

Goose would also be glad of privacy and a chance to avoid any such awkwardness, especially when he was already pretty awkward about everything already.