But in and outside

[faithfulsupport]

Who: Renee & Ignis
When: Basoon 19
Where: Somewhere on the train
What: A chat post battle, Ignis has a thank you he hasn't yet delivered
Warnings: None yet?



After recent events, Ignis has been checking on more people, his team and getting things together. But there's one person that he hasn't personally thanked yet which was Renee. It almost seemed as if he couldn't find her on a crowded train which was the strangest thing. But then again maybe she'd been so busy with other things of late that it couldn't really be helped.

She'd helped him and his team out with their mission and had even brought food at one point. So her kindness hadn't been forgotten at all. So as the advisor passed through the train today, finally he'd spotted that familiar head of red hair sitting down. Without a word, he went back and brought coffee. She had remarked once how she liked how he made coffee so he thought to bring her some.

Placing the cup in front of her at the table along with the creamer and sugar, Ignis smiled. Good manners forbade him to just have a seat without permission. So he looked at Renee questioningly.

"May I sit?"

Comments

[faithfulsupport]

Nodding, Ignis didn't want to push it. Plans began forming in his mind immediately as to what to do. He wasn't sure who all of her friends were but he would definitely try to keep an eye on that sort of thing so that he could make sure she had her friends around her for her birthday.

"That's fair." he agreed easily. However, her birthday was before his and if he could find a way to have someone else give her a gift from him in the guise that it was from them and not him, well he won.

"Will you help me with the Halloween and christmas things then?" Might as well have a partner in crime.

[afterburner]

"What kind of help are we talking about, here? And the more important question: why are you asking me, and not Tony? He's like a big kid anyway." Which was the gods' honest truth...

Though she made a little bit of a face at that. "Not sure you really have to twist my arm about Halloween, though, I mean." Renee wasn't entirely sure she wanted to, but since a lot of her best memories revolved around Halloween, well.

"I gotta wonder if that was why there were pumpkins on the last platform. I kinda, uh, grabbed some." Not that she'd done anything with them except store some of the bigger ones in kitchen storage--Renee had grabbed an armful of smaller ones, too. Those were still in her duffle bag, hidden in her room. They'd seemed to be okay, so far...

[faithfulsupport]

"Decorations.." and Ignis' voice trailed off at the mention of Tony. Something seemed off about it, maybe that was the reason she had..no. "I thought to ask you, but if you'd like to decline, that is up to you."

He couldn't force her to help and wouldn't even if he could. But then she went on about Halloween and so that's what the pumpkins must've been for. Ignis had meant to grab some for pies and ingredients, not having used them before. However, as he thought to do so, Tony had an anxiety attack and there hadn't been time.

"You did? How many?" This has Ignis curious, interested chef is interested.

[afterburner]

"Uh, three or four big one and maybe six or seven little ones? I can carry a lot, but it also kinda depends on how good my balance with it all is." Since her kinetic powers didn't also include telekinesis, which for once Renee felt was a real pity. She could've gotten so many more pumpkins, had that been the case.

"Yeah, pumpkins are a thing for Halloween and fall in general, 'cuz usually they're harvested around them. They're usually for jack-o-lanterns..." Her lips twitched at that.

"They used to be called 'ignis fatuus' or foolish fire, 'cause they were another name for will-o-wisps, too. Things people thought were like...ghostly fire, but it was probably just like...swamp gas, I don't know. I've never seen anything like that, but I generally don't go hang around in a swamp, either..."

Renee paused again, thinking. "They carve jack-o-lanterns from all sorts of gourds and root veggies, in the places that do it, but my brothers and I just used pumpkins..." She shrugged. "And we'd put tea lights in them to make them glow."

[faithfulsupport]

"How fascinating." Ignis pronounced, writing everything down. At this rate, he might have more notes on Halloween than christmas. But there he went, until he caught his name used in conjunction with foolish and then his green eyes narrowed. It was something else though and he nodded thoughtfully. "Fire and swamps, both can be rather nasty business."

His pen had paused and he looked at her. "So you clean it all out and then cook the insides. Then you carve the husk and use it as a luminary.." More notes.

"Those would be splendid things to see."

[afterburner]

"No no, you don't cook pumpkin guts, not the squishy stuff! You can separate out the seeds and roast them, but if you want to make pumpkin for pie, you get the guts out and roast the actual pumpkin. Skin on, but that comes off afterwards." Renee was no cook or chef or anything in the ballpark of Ignis' skill, but she knew that much. If only because she'd do that to their leftover jack-o-lanterns, if they weren't scorched. Food was food.

"Oh, I should tell you about Turkey Day--uh, that's American Thanksgiving. Canada--that's another country on my world--they have Thanksgiving too, but that's usually before Halloween. American Thanksgiving is celebrated between Halloween and Christmas--the fourth Thursday in November." She didn't remember when Canada did it, so she'd skip that part--though if Ignis asked, Renee would own up to not knowing.

"Yeah, glowing jack-o-lanterns are part of the fun of Halloween! But Thanksgiving is like...gratitude for a good harvest and a time to get together with family." Which probably meant nothing good for Renee, but she was trying to separate out what was good from her own shitty experiences. "There's usually a lot of food--the centerpiece is a roasted turkey. That's a flightless bird that's native to America. And then stuff like potatoes, cranberries and yams and other veggies, and bread, and pumpkin pie...the idea is basically to eat. A lot."

Renee'd already eaten, but she already felt like she could have another go at the kitchen, after relaying that.

[faithfulsupport]

"I see." This had him amending his note scribbles. It seemed as soon as he got those notes down, now Renee was throwing something else at him. Thanksgiving. He hadn't heard about that one, so she got an interested glance and he pulled out a clean sheet of paper, not knowing how much of it he was going to need in order to properly notate all that she was going to undoubtedly tell him.

More notes went down but Ignis looked up at her when he was done. In that short span of time he'd filled up three quarters of the page with just notes. "Thinking of feeding an entire train would take days of meal preparation. Or different days could be scheduled since I am not the only one who cooks here." Not that he'd be sharing the kitchen with any of them as he didn't for the party.

His green eyes looked and flipped a few pages backwards. "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us."

[afterburner]

"Assuming we can even find turkeys...though that's just traditional, pretty sure there are other foods used for a main course too." Though Renee is not even going to speak blasphemy by naming things like tofu. Tofu is okay, but it's not a primary food source, even to her when she was desperate...

"You want me to do some illustrations for you there, too?" Though she couldn't help sort of chuckling at that. "Well, yeah, but you're the chef, I'm just gonna chop and clean for you if you need, I guess." She'd already volunteered, and stubborn and prickly as she is, Renee wouldn't go back on that now. If nothing else, she's got her pride.

[faithfulsupport]

"We can substitute. I'm sure we'll find more ingredients on another mission." Foraging and fighting were after all, certainly up this man's alley. Ignis wasn't even sure that he would be able to find birds in time, but as of the next mission he was a man on a mission of a different sort too.

"Illustrations would indeed help." He surrendered the paper and pen to her, delighted that she would help. Picking up his mug, green eyes peered into it. "I'm getting more coffee, can I fetch you another cup?"

It was repayment for all of her help after all.

[afterburner]

"Yeah, sure." For the moment, Renee was more involved with drawing turkeys and multicolored corn and cranberries and other Thanksgiving-inspired doodles across the top of Ignis' Thanksgiving page.

"Yeah, it depends on what the train gives us too, I imagine. Not that we even know what month it actually is corresponding to, back on Earth or where ever else!" Which was a bit frustrating to her, but Renee wasn't really sure she cared if she knew when she turned 20, either...

[faithfulsupport]

He went off and refilled the coffee cups. Bringing them back, he set hers down first. Looking over her shoulder at the new drawings, he couldn't help but smile before seating himself across from her.

"Well I'd imagine if the pumpkins are any indication, we must be in or near this Halloween of yours." It was Renee's holiday because Ignis didn't have that back where he was from. It made him wonder what the citadel would look like though he didn't imagine Regis would be up for decorating the throne room with spider webbing.

Noct might like the idea of it, but spiders and bugs weren't his thing, so he highly doubted the new King of Lucis would allow them near him.