spira_rp | Now you know it's so much better to pretend

thatsit posting in

Since the revelations of the meeting the mood in the Palace had shifted. In part, that was because the population had shifted. A number of attendees had left for their own homes once more, and the air had felt a little less tense ever since.

Bellatrix had been the first to depart, slinking off with her tail between her proverbial legs before anyone had chance to notice her retreat. Ariane Emory had stayed the night and left for Gralea the following day. Ignis had no doubt the woman would be back, but since her chances of laying her hands on the stone were currently zero she'd likely considered it a waste of her time to linger. He wasn't sorry to see the back of her black clad followers, whose impassivity was unsettling and existence an affront, although neither of those things were the fault of the individuals themselves.

Sir Integra and Alucard had stayed an extra night, which Ignis suspected had more to do with the presence of Noah clan in the Palace than Integra's own wishes. Alucard was a barely leashed attack dog at the best of times, but the Palace was, if not a no-combat zone then at least a neutral one where residents were expected to behave themselves. Ignis had sought her out prior to her departure, and they'd spent an hour discussing the meeting, the attendees, and Ignis and Gladio's plans to stay on a while longer.

She'd promised to pass his well wishes to his aunt before she'd left.

The Noah remained, though they seemed more intrigued with the Arrancar than they did with Ignis and Gladio. It wasn't unfounded; the meeting had held a number of revelations, not least the fact that Captain Aizen's underlings were daemon-infused experiments. It explained a lot about some of them, such as why, despite their reputations and behaviours, they were kept around.

It only raised questions about others. Nel, for example, seemed perfectly level headed and competent, and even had a background as a ranked watchwoman, and yet as one of Captain Aizen's Arrancar, she was infused with daemonic power. Why she had consented to that was a small mystery, and one that was probably rude to enquire about unless one knew her personally.

She was preparing for another visit to D District, maintaining the air that she was Captain Aizen's lover. Ignis had informally taken over some of her kitchen duties, duties that were not, Nel had said, given to her but which she had assumed because it was that or allow a disorganised free for all that would see inhabitants surviving on cup noodles and ready meals, and no one ever washing the dishes.

Aside from anything else, it gave Ignis a good position from which to ingratiate himself with the Palace's other inhabitants. Some were self sufficient, stubbornly so in some cases. Others were accustomed to Nel's presence, and became similarly accustomed to Ignis's.

He had two flavoured batches of Lucian Delight, cooled and ready for slicing into cubes to one side. He'd found an apron too, which made him feel much more at home in the Palace's kitchen. With his sleeves rolled up and his jacket hanging over the back of a chair, he practically looked like he belonged there as he sifted cornflour and icing sugar together.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

thesilentstorm

'Normal' wasn't really a word that could be applied to the Desert Palace, but what passed for it was slowly coming back, pulling itself out from under the weight of the meeting and its associated guests.

Lumi had allowed himself a bit of a smile at the fact that Bellatrix Lestrange, the objectionable Jyllandi Hume woman who seemed to have a problem with anybody who wasn't of her species, race, nationality or social class, had been the first to leave. She hadn't even stayed another night. Most of the others had left the following morning, but some had evidently decided to stick around.

Lumi didn't mind. Didn't care, really. It wasn't up to him to deal with any issues, and after Marluxia's little performance, he highly doubted that anybody who lingered would be taking their chances squaring up to either of them. He himself had a reputation that had only been bolstered by Alucard's apparent fear of his lack of reiatsu and Marluxia had managed to garner a new respect from both residents and transients thanks to his petal-strewn theatrics.

It was the smell of rose that brought him to the kitchen. There was something else, but he largely ignored that in favour of the more familiar scent. It didn't smell quite like the flowers that Marluxia grew, there was something else to it, a rather sweet note, but it was something he associated with him anyway, for reasons made rather obvious in the meeting.

He watched Ignis sifting the powders for a moment.

"What are you making?" He asked.

From:

thatsit

It was the sound of the door that alerted Ignis to Lumi's presence, and he did his best not to be startled by it, his head turning towards the door reflexively, and then back again to his sweet making. It was discomfiting to be unaware of someone's approach by anything other than sound. Ignis considered himself to be reasonably magically adept, and as sensitive to reiatsu as was to be expected as a result, but Lumi had no reiatsu. The man was a ghost. A mild mannered ghost that had, following the meeting, been viewed in a new light by most of the Palace.

Lumi's erstwhile reputation as a loyal attack dog had shifted somewhat following his companion's swift actions in his defence. The entire Palace, Ignis included, had been forced to do some swift recalculations regarding their relationship. Ignis had never considered Lumi to be merely a follower of Marluxia's; he displayed far too much agency and a quiet intelligence for that, but the depth of Marluxia's loyalty had come as a surprise. Marluxia had revealed a previously unknown ability in the heat of the moment. A calculated move on Marluxia's part, no doubt, and yet one that by all accounts he need not have done.

It had been a move that was of particular interest to Ignis, and by extension Gladio. While it gave the appearance of the royal armiger, the Lucian Royal Kekkei Genkai, it was not a wholly accurate facsimile, not to the trained eye. Of course, only Ignis and Gladio possessed said trained eyes within the Palace at present.

"Lucian Delight," Ignis answered, when Lumi spoke. He glanced over his shoulder once more and offered Lumi a smile. "It's a traditional sweet," he added, "have you ever tried it?" It wasn't to everyone's palate, although Ignis did hold the opinion that anyone that disliked it had merely never had it made properly. Even in Lucis, these days, people tended to buy it pre-made, and shortcuts were taken in the manufacturing that altered the texture and made the end product overly sweet.

From:

thesilentstorm

Lumi raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

"I've never even heard of it," he admitted, approaching the counter on which Ignis was working. "I don't get the impression that Lucian cuisine is a particularly well-known thing in Ivalice."

'Ivalice'. It was a useful word, and a far-reaching one. The Lowerworld. All of the various disparate cultures and countries that sat on the surface of the Spira fell under the term, their conflicts and alliances ignored. It distanced it from the Purvamae without the need to adhere to borders or nationality.

"It smells like roses," he said, perhaps somewhat redundantly.

From:

thatsit

Ignis glanced sidelong at Lumi. The way he spoke, it sounded as if he wasn't native to the lowerworld, which might explain some of Lumi's general strangeness. As far as Ignis had been able to determine, Lumi was exceptionally powerful, but seemed to prefer guns to any other form of weaponry, a preference that was more typical of the Union, where guns were more prevalent than on Ivalice. Lumi was rarely without one; he walked around casually armed just as any mage did. The fact that he bore no discernable reiatsu suggested he was also horrifically powerful as a mage, so Ignis imagined it didn't make much difference whether the man was visibly armed or not.

Not that it made much difference with his companion, either, clearly.

"I'm impressed," Ignis admitted, "most people don't recognise it unless they know." He flashed Lumi a brief smile before turning to sprinkle a light dusting of the icing sugar and cornflour mix on the countertop. "Rose and lemon are the traditional flavours, though one can flavour it with ginger, orange, liqourice," he tailed off. "Personally I prefer rose," he added, "I enjoy the subtlety."

He turned the first batch out onto the dusted powder and carefully peeled the baking parchment away by degrees.

From:

thesilentstorm

Lumi gave a soft snort of amusement, a light exhalation in lieu of a laugh.

"Rose, in my experience, is anything but subtle," he said, his voice even flatter than usual.

He watched as Ignis worked, curious to see something he'd never heard of prepared. It looked jelly-like, in a strange way. Jelly-like, but strangely thick. The smell was pleasant, but he did wonder if it would give between the teeth like jellies he'd tried in the past, or whether it would have more bite, or be stickier, like one of the pre-packaged sweets he'd tasted in port shops.

"You like to cook, I take it," he said, more as a statement than a question.

He didn't get the impression that Neliel enjoyed it. She did it, because it was that or suffer the kitchen looking like a bombsite and her compatriots starving to death or getting malnutrition. She did it because she was a mother to the others, Ignis... appeared to get very real enjoyment from the results.

From:

thatsit

Ignis barely suppressed a smirk at Lumi's comment. It seemed the loyal attack dog wasn't above some humour at his companion's ostentatiousness. Of course, roses by appearance were anything but subtle, and they advertised both colour and thorns, but their scent was sweet and their flavour as delicate as their petals. Roses were very much about the show.

Fitting, perhaps.

"I do," he answered. A second light dusting of powder sprinkled the top of the slab, and then Ignis carefully sliced it into strips. The sweet clung to the knife stubbornly, but Ignis was patient as he worked, slicing the first strip up into evenly sized cubes and dropping them in the bowl of mixed powder. "Originally I took it on as a duty," he admitted, talking absently as he sliced. "I got no joy from the process of cooking, but I found the reactions of others to be worth the effort."

Now, of course, he enjoyed the process too. It was therapeutic to put aside the concerns of crown and state to concentrate on the art of melding flavours, and the precision of the process.

When the first strip was lightly coated in sugary powder Ignis threw Lumi a smile. "Would you like to try some?" he offered.

From:

thesilentstorm

Lumi listened as Ignis explained. It made sense. Duty somehow blossomed into something enjoyable for some, but it seemed that the effect it had on others was more of a reward to him than anything else. Ego, perhaps, if innocently applied.

"Certainly," he said, half surprised to be offered something that was evidently special and part of the man's native cuisine.

He took a small cube between finger and thumb, the white powder pale against even his skin. It was squishy, as expected. The small cube was bite-sized, so instead of biting it in half, he put the entire thing in his mouth, mostly in an effort to avoid coating his teeth with potential stickiness.

It was rather nice. It tasted sweet, but Ignis hadn't been wrong -- the rose taste was subtle.

From:

thatsit

Ignis watched for the change in Lumi's expression that told he was experiencing the flavour. His expression certainly wasn't one of disgust, which was fortunate. Some people disliked the texture, others the sweetness. "I daresay the taste is a little more understated than you'd expect, given your experience," he said, with a hint of amusement.

He turned back to the rest of the slab and began to slice that up, too. "You can have some if you like it," he said, "I've certainly made plenty to share."

Now you know it's so much better to pretend

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