Ignis Scientia

The first bit of bad news came even before they'd manage to make it to camp the night before, with the news that the chocobos weren't available for rental. "Not while Deadeye's still about," Wiz explained, when they went to go see him about some birds for the following day. "He's an uncommonly ferocious behemoth that's been takin' to prowlin' these parts as of late. His scent makes our birds nervous, and to prevent accidents an' tragedies, we have no choice to suspend rentals. But…if there happened to be some particularly tenacious Hunters on hand that might be willin' to take him on…If you could bring the beast down, there'd be a reward in it for ya, as well as bein' able to let out the birds again. But...knowin' the danger, I wouldn't blame ya fer sayin' no."

"Nothing like hunting down monsters to wake you up in the morning," Gladio noted with a grunt. "You think we've got time for something like this?"

( We did just take down an Astral; how difficult could a mere behemoth be? )

Prompto nervously licked his lips, but he nodded, the stiff sort of nod of a person bolstering themselves up against unsurmountable odds. "Right," he said. Simple. Determined.

Ignis smiled softly. "Right," he agreed. "Now, do me a favor and go ask the others if they'd prefer fish or steak tonight."

Despite himself, despite everything, Prompto huffed out a small laugh. "I think you already know the answer to that one."

"Well," he lightly ventured, "in that case, tell them too bad, we are not doing Cup Noodle^TM again tonight. Not on my watch and especially not with fresh garula on the menu."

[[ *revels in the quiet simplicity of this one knowing what's up in a couple days* NFB, of course, NFI unless you'd like to fail at getting in touch with them, OOC welcome and cherished, so on and so forth! this one's even almost all original filler content, baybeeeeee ]]

Prompto felt so nervous that he was really regretting that nice meal they'd had delivered up to their room at the Leville here in Lestallum, but now that they were here, they were settled, and night was falling over the town, his attention was focused solely on Ignis.

Ignis, who was feeling very grateful not only for at least Gladio's sense of propriety, but the fact that he had been reuniting with his sister after being uncertain if she'd make it out of the city, and he dragged Noctis along with him to catch up with her, so they were afforded at least….some modicum of privacy for the time being.

He looked at Prompto for a moment, those eager, desperate eyes, and sighed. Turned his attention to the communicator on his wrist and turned it on and attempted to send at least one more message out there into the apparent Fandom void.

He pressed the button, not entirely sure how this exactly worked, and spoke into it steadily. "Shane? Are you there?" he asked. "It's Ignis. Do you read me?"


[[ for the man on the other end of the communicator….at first, anyway ]]

Noctis sat on the bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as the sun rose in Galdin Quay. Slightly less sleepy than usual; it seemed as though they'd let him sleep in a little for a change. That was kind of nice, actually, especially with all of Gladio's early morning sand jogs. The next thing to greet him was Prompto's equally sleepy but much more cheerful voice.

"Heya," he said, simply enough, "morning!"

But something didn't sit right with Noctis. Maybe it was just his nerves getting to him, his anxiousness, the fact that nothing on this trip seemed to be going the way it should. You'd think a simple trip to Altissia would be just that...simple, but so far, it had been anything but. Knowing their luck, that Dino guy had been lying about being able to obtain a ferry for them, and they were just about to find themselves snared in another delay. Meaning the next few days would be a whirlwind building up to the wedding, but, hey. Once they finally got there, he and Lunafreya would actually be married. It was honestly kind of a lot, so it wasn't much of a surprise that he hadn't slept well, even with the extra time he'd been given that morning. Sighing slightly, he pushed himself up to his feet, and turned toward where Prompto and Gladio were ready and waiting to complete their voyage, finally.

But then Noctis frowned, noticing a significant absence in the well-lit room. "Where's Specs?"

"Should be back any minute now," said Gladio, and Noctis, impatient, nervous, anxious, drifted toward the large windows looking out over the sea, toward Altissia, the black smear of Angelgard's sweeping peaks dominating the view.

( Then, the door opened, and Ignis stepped through... - CW for war stuff and ~drama~ )

All eyes fell toward their prince.

No. Not their prince.

Toward their king.

Their king who was not ready for this. Not ready for any of this. Noctis dropped his head, staring into his hands in his lap.

He may not be ready.

But he didn't have a choice.

"Yeah," he breathed out, lifting his eyes again. "Let's go."


[[ NFB, NFI, TBC, OOC a-ok. Dialogue heavily taken from Final Fantasy XV, Chapter One: Departure ]]

Having assisted Gladio with his class that morning, Ignis arrived at his office a bit later than usual that day, which was fine, because he didn't have too much work to do. In fact, most of it was focused on finalizing the menu for the party on Saturday, shooting a few emails to Summer to ensure that he would have what he needed, and then getting texts in response lambasting him for preferring email to text. Which was fine, it helped prove as a decent distraction from the small twinge of disappointment he felt in realizing that, a week after next, he'd likely be packing up this cozy little oasis he'd created for himself over the past year or so.

It wasn't official, yet, but it was increasingly obvious that their little excursions on this odd little island would be coming to an end, at least for the time being, in favor of more important things going on back home. Regis had made it clear, to Ignis at least, that they would be needed in the upcoming months; it was time to focus on the homefront, and Ignis honestly could only agree, especially since the increasing reports of Empire activity weighed heavily on his mind.

But they'd talk about it next week. No need to go spoiling a good party with bad news.

[[ door and office are open, of course! ]]

Ignis was feeling incredibly grateful for the quiet of his office that Thursday; he had been sent several schedules, iteneraries, and information regarding various events coming up back home that would be quite demanding of thier fledgling little Crownsguard, but of him especially, as the person in charge of making sure Noctis was ready and prepared to perform his princely duties, which was rarely an easy task. The whole thing was giving him quite the headache, honestly, especially with the slow realization that, with everything coming up, honestly trying to work out a schedule that managed to balance everything back home with everything here in Fandom was turning out to be....untenable.

Impossible, actually, as odious as he found that word to be.

Of course, he'd always known that this was not a sustainable situation. It was honestly a surprise it had managed to go on as long as it had. Perhaps it had gone on longer than it should. It wouldn't be an issue with Gladio, of course; he never took anything here on the island seriously at all, considered it more of an amusing novelty more than anything else. Prompto, on the other hand, had roots here, he'd been attached to this place for nearly half-a-decade now, and those roots had clearly just grown even deeper. He barely even spent any time in Insomnia anymore. This news was going to hit him particularly hard....

And, naturally, he was dutifully ignoring how any of his own feelings about the matter played into any of it. His feelings were inconsequential, always had been, and always would be. Completely unhelpful, and to be calmly compartmentalized out of the way, where he wouldn't have to worry about them trying to muddle up an already complicated situation.

[[ door and office are open! ]]

While his conversation with Shane yesterday had managed to inspire a new recipeh, the fact that Ignis could then turn it into an invitation was quite possibly the most inspired part of all. Not that he supposed he necessarily needed the excuse, but in light of what had occurred during the spring break trip, this rather was new territory for Ignis, and though he would absolutely never admit it out loud, he wasn't entirely sure how to proceed from here. He wasn't even entirely sure if he should even proceed from here, all things considered. A...personal life...was always a luxury he figured he couldn't really afford, but the fact of the matter was that here was a young man experiencing for the first time in his life something that felt like it was solely his, done entirely for himself, and that small, well overdue spark of selfishness overtaking the selflessness of his position was starting to ignite quite the fire within him.

And he knew a fire ignored was far more dangerous than one embraced.

So he was keeping that fire very cautiously burning low as he worked on putting the inspiration for yesterday into fruition, a few experimental dishes that he hoped managed to elevate what he imagined the offering on Wednesday had been, still in the spirit of jello offerings that hopefully managed to avoid stepping on the culinary toes of an artist he...

..well, he wasn't sure admired would be the word for it, but he did at least respect Summer enough to feel at least a little bad about treading into her territory.

But when you had a new recipeh, you couldn't just let it go...

[[ for that guy! or anyone else who wants to get in touch before the date has begun ]]

[[edit: *whistles innocently while slowly hoisting up the heading-into-NSFW-territory flag* ]]

As much as Ignis had enjoyed the trip, he was reminded, very quickly, of why vacations weren't really a thing he could completely pursue, because work didn't stop just because he wanted to go flitting off to a different country for several days, and all of that work was waiting for him right along side that week's work when he got back. At the very least, Noctis had managed to survive the week (albeit barely, in Ignis' not-so-humble opinion), but there was a lot of news to catch up on, troop movements to cnsider, a few notes about the Oracle that had tugged his brain a little, in addition to his lesson plans for here, which, thankfully, compared to everything else, felt like a light breeze in the midst of all these heavier gusts.

Also thankfully, he did have his helpful supply of Ebony to keep him going through it.

Or, at least, it usually was a helpful supply of Ebony, but, even after the first few sips of the first can he cracked open, Ignis had to frown a little and examine the can a little more closely. Something definitely tasted off, and he wasn't sure he could quite put his finger on it, and, a few more sip later, he started to wonder...

...but no. That....couldn't possibly be it...

Halfway through his second can, though, he caught himself in the truly disturbing act of actually yawning, and he realized that his suspicions must have been correct.

There had been a horrible mistake. These cans were obviously, despite the labeling, actually decaf Ebony.

Decaf Ebony!

That such a thing even existed was an abysmal state of things.

And now all of Ignis' work was going to be entirely derailed by him trying to decide whether or not it was worth the effort to write a very strongly worded letter to the company berating them for this egregiously unfortunate mishap...

[[ door and post are open! ]]

Through no small amount of effort and perhaps a bit of a miracle, Ignis had, in fact, managed to find a decent place for dinner on Valentine's Day that wasn't completely booked. He had gone into this not expecting to be his usual picky self, of course, figuring that his option would be a bit limited, and, with that in mind, he had considered leaning heavily toward someplace a bit more casual. Not only did he feel it would be in less demand, but he felt the setting would be far more conducive to Shane's comfort, knowing how he was already feeling quite a bit out of his depth with all of this to begin with.

Which had him landing on the White Oak Tavern a bit on the further outskirts of the city, which seemed to be an excellent cohesion between your rustic American fare and excellent craft beers with an elegence and culinary surprise here and there, and of course the emphasis on local and seasonal fare sealed the deal for him firmly. The charm of the interior that seemed incongruious with its unassuming outside added the feeling of finding a rather hidden gem, although it was clear the place did quite well for itself.

And, of course, the leather pants simply had to make an appearance, with a casual flair to fit the setting. They were, after all, now a staple.

[[ and obviously for this date, and also NFB for distance! ]]

Even if it weren't for the company that would be going along with it, Ignis could hardly complain about having had a nice quiet afternoon preparing for dinner that evening, especially now that his concerns about the Niflheim movement were, so far, overexaggerated and potentially unneccisary. He was not still entirely willing to accept that there was nothing to worry about (there was always something to worry about), but it seemed rote enough that he could allow himself to focus on enjoying himself with tonight's...

...well, he supposed he could call it a date. Everyone else seemed to have been.

With some music to guide him, he'd gotten to work preparing his menu, which may have involved aquiring some fresh ingredients from Galdin Quay specifically, some dumplings to go with it, and, for dessert, a fluffy chiffon cake...of course.

And he didn't have to do much to decorate the place tastefully, either, as the apartment was distinctly already a paragon of taste between himself and Seivarden, really, and the gladiolus tht usually sat on the table served as a nice centerpiece. Perhaps a few candles, as he did rather like the atmosphere they lended to the event last time, but he would not be sorry in the least bit to report that there was no glitter, thank you.

The sheer trouble of cleaning it up alone...!

But, with everything pretty much set, there was very little he could do at this point except wait for his guest to arrive and finally force the decision between which two of the wines he'd picked up to pair with it to ultimately go with, easily the most taxing decision to make out of all this.

[[ expecting one, of course :) ]]

When Ignis came into his office that morning for his now again regular office hours, he...had not expected to find that it had been rather oddly redecorated. Perhaps redecorated wasn't quite the word for it, but, needless to say, when he opened the door and discovered his office appeared to be a grassy field instead of a room, with an outcropping of rock instead of a desk, well...

All he could do was just put a hand on his hip, considered it carefully, and decided it was best not to think about it too hard. Fandom was clearly having a thing right now, and he could just hope that whatever that thing was would just pass quickly, and, in the meantime, he supposed he would just enjoy the fresh air and the fact that the weather inside his office was much nicer than the weather outside of it.

[[ open door, open office! ]]