hashtag_chocobro | MHA #4; Tuesday Afternoon [02/02].

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MHA #4; Tuesday Afternoon [02/02].

Well, if Prompto was going to be on the island to substitute for a class (so weird!), then it would be ridiculous of him to not take advantage of that fact to ~~pester~~ hang out with his little sister for a bit. The only problem was that he found out that his little sister just so happened to be in the middle of a very complicated spell that had her a little preoccupied. But Prompto wasn't going to let something like that stop him.

Even if he got one look at all the chalk covering Summer's apartment and immediately fixed Nina with a look of disapproval.

"You're taking a break," he announced. "I'm going to be back in five minutes with some food, and you're going to take a break and rest, and then I'm going to help you with some of this."

And sure, he said that, but after that break and they had full stomaches, there was a cat and Prompto was...maybe a little distracted.

"~Pancakes, Pancakes~," he sang, as he pet and snuggled and danced the poor cat's limbs around, "~Oh, if only you could talk! Bet you'd saa~ay, it's a miracle I'm not covered in chalk!~"

He thought it was pretty good for having just made it up on the spot. With a muffled little merow, though, it seemed Pancakes was less impressed.

"Honestly, though," he added, dropping the song for another look around from where he was sitting on a yet-to-be-chalked spot on the floor, "this is so much work, Nina..."

[[ apartment, cat, and sister all modded with permission! definitely open if anyone wants to swing by lol ]]

[[ edit: that Nina's working on something in the apartment is a-okay, but if the specifics could be NFB, that'd be baller ]]

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She was sitting on the thoroughly chalked up couch because, like, she trusted her own spells and the one to keep it in place was A+ perfect, thanks.

(The one in the bathroom to keep the condensation and steam and water from ruining everything was even better though because, well. The couch didn't have quite the same factors involved.)

"It's, like, going to be worth it," she replied, with a sniff that didn't hide the smile she'd had about the Pancakes-song. "You'll see!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"I just feel like it's an awful lot of work," said Prompto, after making a little face at Pancakes and then finally allowing the cat to just settle in his lap, petting her as she purr because the singing and dancing had momentarily stopped, and Summer owed her big time for this nonsense.

And Prompto could have left it at that, but, scratching behind Pancakes' ears now, he had to add, "I mean, don't get me wrong. Iggy's great and all, but do you think he's going to even appreciate all of this?"

Granted, it was going to be cool if Nina pulled this off, and Prompto knew he was going to appreciate it, but he also knew that he was so much easier to impress.

"If you even breathe a word of this to Iggy before Saturday they'll never find your body," she said sweetly. "He knows I'm doing a renovation project and that's it!!!!!!!!"

That went for the squirrels too.

But as for his actual question...

"I think that, like, even if he doesn't appreciate the pool," she said, though she thought he'd appreciate it because Ignis liked the finer things in life and her pool? Was quite high-class. "That he'll appreciate the effort and thought that went into it, you know??????"

Edited 2021-02-02 13:11 (UTC)

Prompto was going to draw in a breath to sustain a very dubious look at Nina, as if building up to his reluctant acquiescence. "Yeah, alright," he allowed. "I guess. And if he doesn't? I'm never going to let him hear the end of it, I can tell you that much...."

He went a little quiet for a moment, looking down at his fingers running through Pancakes' soft fur.

"And I just hope," he added, looking back up at Nina, "you'll get to enjoy it, too."

He still wasn't...quite sure exactly how Nina's magic worked, if he was honest, just like he didn't really get Noct's magic, either, but he did know that it took a lot out of her, and it didn't seem right, that she should do all this work and not get to enjoy it or run herself ragged for it.

It really didn't help that Nina had basically two kinds of magic at her disposal either. One with the runes embedded in her palms that really didn't take much out of her at all right up until she was nearly out of magic and then—

This sort of pedantic, versatile, time-consuming magic.

"I'll be good," she promised. "Like, I should be done laying the spells out by tomorrow evening, and I'll have to check the timing with Summer, see when she was thinking the actual start of the party would be, but I was thinking I'd trigger the spells around noon on Saturday so that there's time for her and Annie and Rey," she just assumed they were helping with this, "to set up??????? And while they're setting up, I'll get a good nap in, so I'll be up and able to enjoy the party!!!!!!!!!! And once the spell is triggered, it'll dissipate without extra effort from me once time's up, so………."

It'd all be fine!

Unless he hated it. Then it would not be fine. But no, no. Nina wasn't thinking about that.

And it all sounded like she'd really thought this out, and Prompto knew Nina was nothing if not thorough with this sort of thing, but even if it all tracked, he just couldn't help feeling a little worried about her pushing herself too hard with something that was definitely cool, but...

...he would just have to trust her. And then not let her hear the end of it if any of his concerns ended up being realized.

"Okay," he said, making sure to sound reluctant and skeptical about it. "If you say so. And if there's anything you need on my end, you let me know. I mean anything. Even if it's something, like, super small or silly."

Especially if it was small and silly, because then he knew he could at least be good at it.

"It is really cool that you're doing this for him, too, Nina."

"I mean, I just…………"

She looked down, a little flustered.

"Like, he deserves a party that's all about him, you know????????? Everyone does………."

And it was a crying shame that Ignis never really got that!

"As for what you could do…………..," she said, "what about, like, a charcuterie board that fits the theme?????????? Summer's handling the bulk of the food prep, but she hasn't mentioned anything like that and I know Ignis would enjoy that sort of thing??????????"

"Charcuterie?" asked Prompto, head tilting a little as he tried to place the familiar word, but it wasn't like it was something he used in, like, regular conversation or anything. "That's, like...all the fancy meat and things like that, right?"

And, man, if he was going to put together a charcuterie board to impress Ignis, it would really have to be something good and special...

"I can text Summer, too," he offered. "Make sure there's no overlap or anything."

And maybe she'd have some ideas, too. He kept up on her socials! She was good at this sort of thing! Noct could probably weigh in, too. He knew Ignis better than pretty much anyone.

"Fancy meats, cheeses, that sort of thing," she said encouragingly. "Usually laid out all prettily on a board--------I don't think anyone would be happy if you just dumped them in a Tupperware container, even though it would be the same food!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Sometimes presentation really was everything.

"But, like, checking with Summer is a good idea!!!!!!!!!!! She won't steer you wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!"

…

"Usually," she finished, remembering that, yeah, Nina had been in some of those terrible cooking classes she'd done.

Prompto had to snort a little bit at the addendum, because, yeah. Yeah. He was in Summer's first class and was still traumatized over going to an amusement part in someone's body.

But he'd not talk smack about her, especially not in front of her cat, who was now peering up at Prompto from his lap, purring and looking content, but he could swear that was a glint in her eyes that suggested that he would regret it if he would even so much as dare extrapolating on that snort.

"No meat and cheese thrown into a Tupperware," Prompto vowed, though he snickered just thinking of the look on Ignis's face if he did just do that. "Got it. I think I can manage at least that.

"Soooo," he then ventured, thinking they'd probably talked enough about all that for now and Nina needed a break from it, anyway, even if she would probably insist that she didn't, "how have things been, anyway? Outside of you chalking up a storm?"

Nina's fingers twitched a little, as she thought about that question and the answers she could give to it. Everything was simpler when it was just her, the spell, and her chalk.

And Pancakes.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Day to day, I'm doing great!!!!!!!!!! School's fine, you know?????????" And Liam being dad wasn't anything she really wanted to talk about with her brother. It was complicated, but not in a bad way. On the bright side, she had other things to flail about and, like, Prompto was one of the few people who she'd admit some of it to. "Like, I'm sort of staring down the fact that I've only got a year and a half left of school with a lot of…….."

Screaming into the void? Screaming into the void.

"Like, it's starting to come up in my feeds a lot about ~life after graduation~ and I just………….. don't have a plan?????????"

And she hated that.

"I've been thinking of going back to my world, too, to help with the war," she admitted. "But I'm…….. what if I get trapped there for months again???????"

Prompto may have grinned softly at knowing just how much not having a plan probably drove Nina crazy, but it faded quite a bit with that last part.

"Yeaaaah," he said, "we should maybe figure out a way to make sure that doesn't happen again if we can. And, hey, if anything, I'm sure if you don't figure something out in a year and a half, Iggy could find something for you to do...

"Although I guess," he realized a moment later, almost apologetically, "that's pretty much just trading one war for another, isn't it?"

Oh, Prompto.

She was already a spy for the crown—in his world.

"I mean, like, true," she allowed, since actually telling her brother that was… well. Maybe she'd tell him when she was eighteen and therefore an adult and not tell him just how long she'd been working for the crown…

"And how much would you worry????????

"But there's other things," she said, "like, what about Sir Foomy????????? Honestly, I really think if I kept it multi-universal that I'd be able to make a serious killing as a television writer??????????"

She was making pretty great money off of it already.

"A lot," Prompto decided, after pretending to think about it for a moment. "I'd worry a lot, but I already do that, so you know. No big change there. I like television writer way better. I mean, I know the entertainment industry's probably pretty cutthroat but not, you know, literally."

She laughed.

“Not in this world,” she allowed, absolutely certain in some worlds that television was literally deadly. “Though I caaaaaaan take care of myself!!!!!!!!”

So Liam had been intending to stop by Summer's apartment and make sure Nina took a break for lunch, but a little mouse told him that had already been covered by a certain someone.

Instead, he waited until later in the afternoon and then headed downstairs to Summer's apartment with a selection of chopped and sliced fruits and some cookies he'd picked up from Gingerbread Pudding, and knocked on the door.

Edited 2021-02-02 15:54 (UTC)

Prompto and Pancakes both looked up from the knock at the door, where they were engaged in playing with a feather on a stick (man, but this cat had a stupid amount of toys), and he glanced over for a moment to where Nina was working and figured he'd take on door duty so she didn't need to be more interrupted than she already was by him even being there in the first place, tossed the toy for Pancakes to go chasing after it, then hopped up to his feet to answer it.

"Summer's not he--" he started, as he opened the door, which was an interesitng greeting if you thought about it, because it definitely opened up a lot of questions on what he was doing in her apartment when she wasn't even there, but then he saw who it was and the words halted right there. "Oh. Uh, hey, Liam. You're, uh, probably here for Nina, right?"

So he stepped back, opening the door and gesturing an invitation with his arm as if this was his own apartment or something.

Look, it's not like Summer didn't know, or something!

“Mmhm,” he nodded. “Though I brought enough to share,” he said, holding up the containers of fruit and cookies. “For all of us, I mean.” Lest Prompto think he wasn’t to be included here.

It's almost like Liam knew that Prompto would definitely think he wasn't to be included, or something! Which, you know, was generally his thing with about everything. He still seemed surprised when he got included in official Crownsguard stuff, soooooo....

Don't be surprised that he definitely already had an escape plan in mind even in those brief seconds that had passed.

"Well, I mean," he said, "I definitely wouldn't want to get in the way. I was thinking I might pop by the shelter real quick before I left for home, anyway, see how all the pups are doing. It'd be really good to see them all again..."

“Prompto,” Liam said firmly. “You’re not in the way.” Maybe if he repeated it enough times it would start to sink in?

Hahaha, oh, Liam. Adorable.

Red and freckles immediately splashed across Prompto's face and he laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean," he said, "if you're sure. I definitely don't mind just chilling with some puppers for a bit. I don't think I'd trust anyone who would mind that, actually."

“I’m sure,” Liam said. He’d brought the good cookies, Prompto!

Which, mindful of the way Nina had danced around his food issues (who didn’t have food issues, considering Liam himself was on a trauma-induced vegetarian diet), Liam wasn’t going to say that part, lest it seem like he was trying to bribe him with unhealthy stuff.

“I mean, you should definitely check in on the puppies, because puppies, but later.”

Prompto was definitely not above being bribed by unhealthy stuff.

Which was part of the problem, but...

The red and freckles stayed, but the crooked grin softened a little. "Later," he allowed, and then turned his attention to something else, that being the most obvious thing to bring his attention to, other than Pancakes having brought rolled over a little jingling ball against Prompto's boot and meowing up at him until he gave it a little kick so she could go running after it.

He was just glad she hadn't brought over one of her toy mice, because...would that be, like, super awkward? It was a question he was glad he didn't have to find the answer to yet, anyway.

"Can you believe all the work Nina's done on this place?" he asked. "You can hardly even see the apartment underneath all the chalk anymore!"

Honestly, like, he knew how it would all disappear when the spell was done, but it was almost more unbelievable that Summer was totally cool with letting this happen, if you asked him.

Well. Liam’s mice were vicious little things that hunted in packs, and it was entirely possible that one or more of them was lurking nearby, so yes. A toy mouse would have been... awkward.

“I’m looking forward to the finished project,” Liam agreed with a nod. “Even if I’m sure my head would explode if I tried to think too much about how this is all possible.”

"Yeaaaah," Prompto chuckled a little, grinning a little more and stopping himself as his hand now reached to rub his wrists a little. "Best not to think about it too much, really But, hey, you're gonna come, huh? That's really good, Iggy needs to meet more people, and this party sounds like a great way to do it. It sounds like all he does besides his class while he's here so far is sit in his office or cook..."

It was said with a snicker, though.

"Of course," Liam nodded. "He seems like a good guy, and maybe I can bug him for a few recipe ideas."

He wasn't quite at Ignis' level, but like... he'd kind of discovered how much he enjoyed cooking, especially when he could make other people happy through it.

It was like everyone thought she'd starve or wither away if they didn't fuss and, like, while it was really strange to have this obvious and unable to be ignored outpouring of affection…

She also really loved it too? It was just complicated, in her head.

Nina finished the swirl she was working on, an intricate curlicue of lines and dots before she beamed at him. It was handy, using the work she was doing to have a quick wrestling session with herself about--

"Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she greeted.

Like, she honestly didn't know how Prompto would take that? She didn't want to hurt Liam by not calling him dad, when he was, but she didn't want Prompto to…

Just, like, to think… things?

The more she thought about it, the more anxious she got about both her families being in the same room.

“Hey kiddo,” he beamed at her. “I thought you guys could use a break.”

Yes, the use of ‘you guys’ was deliberate; he knew Nina was the one doing the actual work with all the magic. But Prompto was keeping her company (and keeping the cat occupied!) and that was important too.

Edited 2021-02-02 16:50 (UTC)

And the fact that he just casually included Prompto helped her feel a little less anxious about it.

Nina laughed.

"Between you and Prompto, like, half the day is going to be a break," she said, both amused and exasperated. "But I'll never turn down visits!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

“We’re not that bad,” Liam protested. “We’re hardly here going ‘Pfft, Nina, forget about all this setup stuff, let’s go, I don’t know, bowling.”

Nina giggled, making grabby hands at the cookies and fruit.

"Did you know, I've never been bowling???????"

"Would you like to?" Liam asked, handing them over. "Not," he clarified, "right this minute. But sometime? There is a bowling alley right here on the island."

He'd only been the once himself, with Beau. But it had been fun.

He glanced over to where Prompto was playing with the cat, suggesting Prompto come along on the tip of his tongue. Except Nina hadn't actually said whether she wanted to, yet...

The nice thing about spellwork like this was that she burned so much energy that all food was good food and she usually wanted seconds.

Not that Nina usually worried about that sort of thing anyway but—-she did eat more when working like this.

They’d had lunch not long ago but that wasn’t stopping Nina from snagging a few cookies with a gasp of delight as she put the tray on the coffee table.

“Gingerbread Pudding!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she enthused. “Ohmygosh, thanks, Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Only after she took her first bite, sighed happily, and had swallowed did she answer the actual question.

“And, like, yeah!!!!!!!! I’d love to, some time that’s not this week!!!!!!!!”

Edited 2021-02-02 22:42 (UTC)

Liam grinned back at her. Jeff’s was great, sure, but Madhura-made baked goods just had that extra special something about them.

“D’you think Prompto would like to come?” he asked, curiously.

She thought about it, with a glance over at him.

“Probably,” she decided. “And, like, I’m not actually sure if he’s ever bowled either????????”

“And despite it being something from my world, I’ve only been once myself,” Liam said. “So I wouldn’t even have a terribly unfair advantage over the two of you.”

They had bowling in Insomnia but, like... Prompto hadn’t had friends before high school, really, and she wasn’t sure if the guys had ever bowled since they’d introduced Noctis to an arcade last year for his birthday but...

Well.

She wasn’t going to say that to her dad!

“I’ll see what he says,” she promised. “And when he’d be free since, like, his schedule is probably the least flexible right now????????”

"Makes sense," he nodded. "I certainly don't have a lot going on these days. Crime on the island isn't exactly an issue."

Which wasn't a problem, per se, but it was definitely one of the reasons he'd jumped at the chance to go help Rey out over the weekend.

Nina smiled.

"It's good but, like, it's boring too, right?????????"

Liam nodded. "Don't get me wrong, I'm never going to complain about waking up and not having to worry how someone's going to try and kill me today, but at the same time, it's nice to-" he almost said 'feel useful' and then thought better of it, even though this was in the context of work. "- Feel like what I do makes a difference."

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MHA #4; Tuesday Afternoon [02/02].

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