Monday Night at Nell's

[mylandmyrules]

Nell was hoping Liliana did join them tonight and she had the plan s for flower delivery all set for her approval. She'd made a batch of red velvet cupcakes - some vegan - for dessert as well as a noodle casserole for those looking for a more filling dish. The usual snacks and other treats were also available and there was always ice cream in the freezer.

Nell and the kittens were playing with a feather on a stick, them chasing it and her laughing at their antics, as she waited for her guests to arrive.

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[deathsmajesty]

Liliana Vess was a woman whose exploits inspired fear and dark visions across the Multiverse, as least if you knew the right places to look, listen, and ask.

Liliana Vess was also a woman immensely aware of her dignity, caring about it - and her general appearance - more than she cared about most people.

Liliana Vess was also also secretly a sugar-motivated gremlin and was absolutely arriving later than they had originally intended because she had spent the entirety of the trek over trying to catch powdered sugar flakes on her tongue as they fell from the sky, laughing brightly the whole way with wonder.

She did make a fetching sight coming in on Ignis' arm, raven black hair dusted with white (which would be awful to deal with but that was a later Liliana problem), cheeks flushed from amusement, eyes sparkling with an incipient sugar high.

[mylandmyrules]

Nell grinned at her when she arrived. "You came! Welcome to my house. Hospitality and safety while you're here. Come on in! There are drinks and nibbles in the kitchen."

[deathsmajesty]

"Why thank you my dear one," Liliana enthused, full of holiday cheer and/or sugar and positively delighted by it. And, with a conspiratorial glee, as if Nell might not have realized it yet, she leaned down to add, "It's snowing sugar."

Look, she'd missed this happening last year. She might have been out turning the entire population of the plane of Tevalia into a zombie army under the influence of the Chain Veil or something, who was to say?

[mylandmyrules]

Nell laughed. "It is, but I think you're happier about it than I am. For me it was mostly a pain trying to clean it up after the customers tracked it in."

[deathsmajesty]

"Oh, well, customers," Liliana sniffed, dismissing them as necessary frustrations at best.

She was not a great shopkeep, no.

"And here I had thought I'd find a kindred spirit, someone who'd also spent time trying to catch sugar flakes on her tongue," she pretended to chide. "Unlike Ignis. I think he thought I'd run mad when he explained that this wasn't regular snow and I ran out the door to experience it myself."

[mylandmyrules]

Nell had a wistful look on her face. "Now I kind of wish I had," she said. "I think I was so focused on everything I had to get done that I just didn't even think about it."

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana gave her a mischievous smile. "It's still snowing," she pointed out. "And I believe I've heard something about roof access?"

[mylandmyrules]

"Maybe after dinner then," Nell said with a smile. "Then I can show you my greenhouse and my beehives too."

She gestured to the table. "For now though, I thought you might like to see the floral arrangement I made for you to look at." It was bright and moddable and also smelled wonderful since Nell had indeed taken into account that Ignis might want to be able to enjoy it as well.

[deathsmajesty]

"Oh, it's lovely," Liliana said, reaching out to stroke a finger over one colorful, velvety-soft petal. "Exactly what we were looking for. And a delicate fragrance that won't clash with my perfume, either, but manages to hold its own. I'm most pleased with this, Nell."

[mylandmyrules]

"Oh, I'm so glad," Nell said happily. "I didn't want the fragrance to be overpowering, but I did want there to be some."

[deathsmajesty]

"Something to make Ignis smile when he enters the room as well," Liliana agreed. "Well then, he may have additional notes, especially on the contract and all of that, but I am well and truly satisfied, so if you get me a copy of the contract by the time we leave, I can bring it 'round tomorrow perhaps?"

[mylandmyrules]

"I have it in an envelope for you to take home and look over," Nell said, "And I'd be happy to have you stop by tomorrow after you've had a look."

[deathsmajesty]

"Fair warning, I take no responsibility if Ignis decides to call you up to argue points, clauses, or pricing," Liliana declared.

Fair warning, Liliana took little responsibility for things in general, so...no change.

[mylandmyrules]

"That's fine," Nwll said with a smile, "but I think you'll both find it's comprehensive and fair."

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana shrugged; she genuinely didn't much care. She was paying money and getting flowers, the rest was all just details. So long as the price wasn't ridiculous enough for her to notice and she didn't stop getting flowers, she was content.

"I'll take your word for it," she said. "More importantly though - what am I smelling for dinner?"

[sword_chocobro]

"Liliana," Gladio nodded, lifting his Christmas cola in greeting, and figured he might as well get this out of the way, "haven't had the chance to thank you yet for those Halloween pictures."

And it definitely hadn't escaped his notice that he wasn't the only one they'd been gifted to.

[deathsmajesty]

"Gladio," Liliana returned his nod with a regal one of her own. "I'm pleased you liked them."

Why would he be? They were pictures of the two of them, they both deserved their own prints, especially since they didn't live together.

"I had already planned to give them to Nell and wanted to make sure you also had copies to enjoy."

[sword_chocobro]

"Well," Gladio allowed, because, you know, credit where credit's due, "that was really thoughtful of you, so...thanks. Looks like Liz got some pretty good shots."

A soft grin, there, since, well, an Argentum around to snap pictures was just the natural order of things, right?

"You get any of you and Iggy, too?"

[deathsmajesty]

So terribly sorry it hurt you to have to be grateful to Liliana, Gladio.

"We did," she said and couldn't help the soft warmth in her voice when she added, "We looked through them all together when we were children, actually."

Ignis hadn't mentioned anything since, but he did know what she looked like now. Sometimes she wondered what he--but no, unimportant.

[sword_chocobro]

Look, it was just pretty contrary to the narrative Gladio was trying to build about this relationship between her and Ignis that go a little thwarted when Liliana went and did nice things like that. He had to just remind himself that things could have gone very different that night, if Stark hadn't shown up when he did.

Although that warmth in her voice and that little tidbit of information was making it very difficult to think about any of that at all, and that grin twitched a little bit more.

"Good timing on that, then," he said. "I bet that was really nice for him to get to experience."

Bittersweet, sure, but he knew that Iggy didn't take those weekends where he could see again, no matter what the circumstances, for granted.

[deathsmajesty]

...She wouldn't have reacted in response to a threat trying to drag her across the threshold and into the Void?

"It was a nice change from searching for people who weren't on the island anyway," she said. "And a far better topic than the odds we were on the island to negotiate a marriage alliance between your prince and I."

Enjoy that thought, Gladio.

[sword_chocobro]

"Negotiate a...?" Gladio asked, blinking a moment before his eyebrows lifted and he snorted. "Between you and Noct?"

...well, at least it would have probably turned out better than the marriage alliance that was supposed to have happened for Noctis!

"Now there's a....."

There seemed to be several words he was trying very hard not to actually choose to say, and decided to just skip right over the modifier and just concluded with, "thought."

[deathsmajesty]

"We couldn't figure out why else we had both been brought to the island and yet couldn't find Noctis or any of my expected escort," Liliana said, watching him struggle for words with wry amusement. "We both mentioned the war, not realizing the other was talking about a completely different war, and we concluded that everyone was off discussing a military alliance. And why else would I be brought along to an alliance summit unless I was somehow integral to it?"

Look, it had made sense to a pair of seven-year olds.

[sword_chocobro]

"And here all Nell and I did," Gladio said with a grunt and a shake of his head, "was fight over oatmeal. But, hey, congrats on managing to avoid your arranged marriage."

Again, he was tempted to mention something about there not being a great track record with that, but he also found himself not exactly wanting to delve into any more of their past than necessary. Leave that to Ignis to figure out what was worth disclosing.

[deathsmajesty]

A wise approach to dealing with the past! It was called the past for a reason! Leave it there!

...Though, all told, she had learned more about the past from Gladio and Prompto than Ignis himself.

"Thank you," she said, affecting a theatrical amount of regality, as opposed to her usual level. "I shall add it to my list, but know that this is truly the most illustrious that I've escaped." And then she made a face. "Being queen. Ew."