Now you know it's so much better to pretend

[thatsit]

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.

Comments

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia caught Lumi's eye and allowed the corner of his mouth to lift. It sounded as if Lumi was making a friend. A friend he was going to make very good use of. If nothing else, it was someone other than Refia and Yylfordt for Lumi to talk airships with.

So long as he didn't replace Marluxia in Lumi's affections. Not that Marluxia was overly concerned with that; Ignis had that brauny meathead bodyguard, so Marluxia wasn't worried he had designs on Lumi in that sort of capacity.

[thesilentstorm]

"It must have been difficult to source a Jagd-proofed engine," Lumi observed. "Lowerworld import..?"

That, plus the modification... that can't have been easy. The source itself was still a mystery, usually sealed into a chamber of the engine. Books on the subject suggested the substance was volatile, dangerous even, so it was never released. His mechanic had either done something extremely inadvisable and freed it from the casing, or transferred the source, casing and all, into a smaller engine. Either way, they obviously had a talent for it. That could be useful.

[thatsit]

"I believe so," Ignis confirmed. He hadn't asked too many questions on the subject. Cindy had been happy enough to discuss the difficulty of the modification, but when it came to the sourcing of the parts required she'd been atypically taciturn, which Ignis had taken to indicate that he probably didn't want to know the answer. She must have called in a rather sizeable favour in order to Jagd-proof the Regalia.

Which meant that the crown owed her a sizeable favour in return.

"She often knows where parts can be obtained, even if she doesn't have them herself. She might be able to help you source parts for your craft, should you need them." Air conditioning aside, Lumi's ship was obviously airworthy already if he was considering a trip to Lucis to be a real possibility.

[thesilentstorm]

Ah, so that's it.

Salvaged parts were hard to come by, especially the engines. Jagd proofed engines were extremely sought after, but they were also difficult to get and hard to get to. They were often found in inhospitable, Mist-filled corners of the world, away from usual routes of travel and, as such, teeming with dangerous wildlife and worse. Lumi's own ship had been sourced from a veritable graveyard of ships and parts, an old battlefield. She hadn't been perfect when she'd been collected, but months of work had brought her up to snuff. Some parts had been collected on that day, some later. Others ... he'd had to source on the black market. War-era ships were obviously no longer produced, but they were common enough back in the day that many small parts could be gathered, but if others gathered them first the price skyrocketed from 'found for free' to 'as much gil as an enterprising Al Bhed thought he or she could get out of a stupid Selkie'.

If his mechanic had managed to get an engine, a functioning engine, it had cost a fortune.

"My craft is a little difficult," Lumi admitted. "She's Pulsian in origin, rather than Ivalician. A lot of the parts I find I need require modification before they work, even if they're from the right era. It may be worth discussing it with her if she's able to alter them to fit the different systems. It's the modification that's the hard part."

[thatsit]

Ignis straightened slightly, his expression shifting.

"Pulsian?" he repeated. "Fascinating."

Serendipitous, perhaps. Ignis didn't want to say more without discussing it with Gladio first. Saying more would involve revealing a little more information, perhaps more than would be wise at this juncture. The plan was a half-formed plan, a possibility, rather than a certainty, entirely dependent on Ignis's ability to find willing and able candidates to join. The Lucian government was understandably reluctant to fund a trip to Pulse that comprised of their own people. Pulse was, reportedly, hell, and it would take the best and the strongest to survive a sojourn there. Should whoever they sent not prove to be as strong as required, Lucis was ill equipped to weather the loss from its own forces.

"Where did you get it?" Ignis asked.

[thesilentstorm]

"A region of Bancour called the Vile Peaks," he replied. "It's in the Wildlands region and sits deep in the Jagd that swathes the east of that country. It's an old battleground, and too dangerous for the usual Al Bhed salvage parties due to the Mist, monsters and Hollows."

It was only the Mist that had stopped the corrosive nature of the sea breeze from ruining all the Machina that still sat there and even then, most of it was beyond help. The rust and wear had set in to the ships and wrecks closest to the sea and those further back were already damaged from the ancient impacts of their fall.

"It's not called the Vile Peaks for nothing," he said. "I enlisted the Arrancar to take me there. They have a Jagd-proof Grappler Ship. Without one, I doubt anything of any decent size could be extracted."

Jagd-proof ships were rare, but Pulsian ones were rarer. It was technology taken from the Lowerworld and reworked by the Pulsian natives during a very short window of trade, before the Mist came and ruined everything on the Ivalice and the Purvamae both. The examples were few and those that had made it to the Lowerworld and survived the intervening centuries were fewer still.

"Would you like to see it?" He asked.

[thatsit]

Ignis listened to Lumi, and mentally placed befriending the Arrancar, and by extension Aizen, higher up his list of priorities. A Jagd-proof grappler ship would be invaluable.

"I'd love to," he answered, honestly. "There are tales of Pulsian technology," he elaborated, "but I've never actually seen any before. It's supposed to be more greatly advanced than anything we've created to date."

Tales of lost technology, of course, could be greatly exaggerated. It was easy to romanticise something that existed in rumour and memory, rather than having empirical evidence as to its actual capability. Still, no one had yet created a Jagd-proof engine from modern resources, and the fuel for them remained a mystery, so there was some scope to argue that the things that didn't make it off Pulse might be even more powerful still.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He threw Lumi a look that was filled with amusement. He did seem to be in the habit, lately, of collecting airship nerds, and it sounded as if Ignis was going to turn out to be one.

Or at the very least, a history nerd with a thing for old airships and technology. Which on this world gave him a shared interest with Lumi.

"I'll leave you two to it," he said. Airships were Lumi's thing, and things that blossomed from the ground were Marluxia's. He appreciated Lumi's airship and the freedom it gave them, but it was very definitely Lumi's airship.

Perhaps, if Lumi was busy entertaining his newest friend, Refia was at a loose end somewhere?