Ignis Scientia

Enjoy your rest, Ignis.

Just as he'd quite suspected, there was neither rest nor enjoyment ahead for Ignis after he'd made his exit from dinner last night, especially not with that (and the sound of shattering glass) slipping into every corner of his restless mind, although he did try. It was an insurmountable task, though, perhaps as impossible to achieve as convincing either one of these diametrically opposed forces he'd found himself in the middle of (no, correction: that he'd thrown himself in the middle of), but there were things at play here that Liliana didn't quite know, about why he would be so invested in the preservation of Innistrad beyond just the urge to not let a plane get devoured by some unknown entity, but after last night's conversation, loathe as he was to admit it, it left him wondering if such destruction might actually be preventing him from making a terrible mistake.

But even without all that...

Liliana might be able to stand by to save her own skin, but he could not. The very thought of remaining idle in the face of being able to do something, even something desperate and ill-advised, actually made his skin crawl.

Well, the bright side of being unable to sleep through the night, the hairs-breadth silver lining, was that he could at least get started on breakfast early enough that he might be able to catch Jace before he slipped away on his crazed mission. He'd asked a servant to try and intercept the man when he did emerge, to extend an invitation that if he is still planning to traipse up to Markov Manor, to at least have some food in his stomach before then. And therein, he planned to lay his trap of logic and reasoning.

He just hoped, as he took a long sip from his coffee, that the tumultuous and riotous weather outside would work as a boon for his argument, and wasn't just a portent of things to come ahead.

[[ for the ~brand new bestie~ and NFB for distance, obvi ]]

The quiet spot on the beach was the same, as was the fisherman's paella, but the date, the fruit salad, and the wine were all different, as Ignis had been saving one of the bottles they'd cultivated together in Argentina with the hopes to bring it out for this exact occasion: a celebration of the very first meal he'd ever cooked for Liliana, on this very same beach, as a bold response to a coy and cloying inquiry that had not only kicked off his experience at last year's Three Minute Dates, but had also fundamentally altered the trajectory of his life in ways he would have never imagined were even possible.

It was hard to put into words exactly how completely and extraordinarily things had changed for him during this past year, and so Ignis wasn't even going to try. In fact, he was just going to do what he knew was a far better way for him to communicate all of that, the same method he'd used to channel all the things that couldn't be expressed otherwise, for one reason or another: by pouring it all into food instead.

And so, his camp station was set up, there was achingly familiar music drifting quietly from a familiar music box, there was an excess of fruit that was not going into the salad to satisfy any grazing fingers, a spoon that being ostentatiously flipped far more than could ever be necessary, and, of course, someone to share it all with.

[[ and the post is for that someone~ ]]

It had been quite the eventful whirlwind of events, these last few weeks.

Although, really, if he was honest with himself, things had been like that ever since he sat down across from Liliana at a table in Caritas as the start of the very first round of Three Minute Dates months ago, now, which seemed simultaneously an impossible long and small amount of time ago. But ever since Liliana had gifted him that kaapi from Kaladesh, it felt like he'd been all but stumbling from one thing to the next, with barely enough time to recover before it was onto the next peak or low, low chasm, and it had given him a lot of food for thought, and, staying at the mansion as much as he had that week, still not a lot of time to really chew it over. Thus, this morning became a bit of reflective refuge, knowing full well he'd be awake well before Liliana would even dream of breaking her slumber, and, so he slipped out of bed without disturbing her, to let her do just that, while he went downstairs and made himself a cup of that kaapi, and then just...thought.

( Some of the thoughts were practical, and then lingered, drifted, meandered from there: )

So, in due time, there would be the sort of breakfast that proved that Ignis had a lot to think about coming up the stairs to the bedroom, with fresh juice and coffee (of course), and if the aromas alone didn't stir Liliana gently out of her slumber, that was fine. He naturally had a Plan B on hand, but he could make no guarantees that would remain so gentle once it got started.

[[ well, if I have to tell you who this is for....]]

While Ignis knew he could just send Liliana's steward out for what he needed for dinner that evening, he much preferred to fetch them himself. He liked to have that personal hand in making sure everything he'd selected met his standards, and to be able to sway the course if, for whatever reason, they failed to do so. Besides, in defiance of the part of him that would be quite content existing further in her thrall, he felt it would be good for him to go out and get some...fresh air. Clear his head a little, after last night and some breakfast (well, brunch, really), and focus on what had been the entire purpose of his phone call last night.

(Well, not the entire purpose. At its core, he'd mostly just wanted to hear her voice again, and everything else that came with it had just been...ancillary.)

But with ingredients and supplies now in hand, he returned to the mansion and the kitchen that would now eke a smile out of him just by him existing in it, and got to work, laying out what he'd need to prepare a squid ink pasta, with some fresh bread and a request for a nice pinot gris from Liliana's own cellars.

[[ for the necronerd whose progressively less abandoned but still creepy mansion has been so shamelessly modded, por favor ]]

Ignis was incredibly glad that the weather held up for the day, because it would have rather put an uncomfortable damper on his dinner plans if it had not been so cooperative, and for this meal, for this purpose, he felt the setting was as integral as the ingredients themselves. But it had been, so he had nothing to worry about. He supposed he could be worried about how things might go tonight, but there were no concerns there. He'd arrived well before the agree-upon time, to get himself set up: a proper table, with two chairs, and place-settings and everything, as well as his camp cooking set-up, with his prep table and portable grill, Coleman^TM cooler with all his ingredients as he worked on the prep, so that it could be timed that all his mis en place was finished by the time Liliana was expected to arrive and the cooking itself could be done during a bit of preamble so before the perfect moment whent to serve it.

So he was well in the process of recreating his fisherman's favorite paella, with a nice bottle of viognier to compliment it.

Already prepared was the seasonal fruit salad, drizzled with the honey he'd obtained from Nell the previous evening.

And now all he would need was someone to share it with.

[[ are you a) a scary necromancer lady and b) expecting to have a blind man cook for you on a beach? Then come on down, this post is for you! ]]

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 :) ]]