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Ignis came in and made himself some coffee. He had some ideas so he'd brought his pen and paper, prepared for a day of work. Setting down his tools his head turned at hearing his name.

Looking at Reigen, Ignis nodded. "Yes of course it's fine, thank you kindly for inquiring." It was a little unnerving, who had told this man what happened? Was it common knowledge what happened on the battlefield? So he tested that theory. "I'm sorry, I hadn't realized word of my injury had gotten out." As far as he knew only Tony knew what had transpired, and it made him wonder.

But since the advisor was a private man he really didn't care to talk about himself so he shook his head. "But enough about me, how have you been?" There was relief in Ignis' green eyes at seeing the man in front of him looking hale and hearty.

"Hey, why would you apologize? Not like you could've guessed you'd be knocked out there." Reigen went to grab himself a coffee cup as he spoke, figuring he might as well put that leftover pot to use. See, this was why Ignis was cool in his book.

"Mr. Stark told me what happened. Is that supposed to be a secret? I won't tell anyone." Reigen figured Ignis might just be embarrassed, or he was one of those types who didn't want people to worry about him. "I'm fine, though. Most I had to deal with back there was guiding chickens through mudslides and bribing stubborn old people."

Reigen decided not to bring up the health scare Joscelin had, since hey, the kid had his medicine now, so nothing to worry about.

"Well no, it's just not important." This was true and as Reigen grabbed some coffee, green eyes slid over to make sure there was more for both of them later as he always did. It was true too that he wasn't the type to want to worry others about his troubles.

Mister..ok that explained it. Ignis shook his head. "It's fine if Tony told you the story, he was there to take the brunt of it after all." He almost retorted with the face that the man was a hero in his eyes, but he wasn't going to.

Listening to Reigen's side of the mission, Ignis sat down with a smile. "Chickens and elderly people don't sound difficult. I'm rather glad to hear you had it easy."

"You're kidding, right? Almost dying sounds important! Hey, we can always make it sound cooler than getting knocked out: maybe you defeated the goblins single-handedly during the evacuation and only passed out because you had to use all of your power?" Reigen was only half-joking on that, since he was pretty good at stretching the truth to make things look better than they really were. He wouldn't be able to fake being psychic for so long if he wasn't.

"But yeah, it was more stressful than dangerous, nothing we couldn't handle." Once he'd prepared his coffee, Reigen walked over to the table to sit across from Ignis. "Which, uh...actually, I wanted to thank you. Madoka-chan and the other kids were able to make it out safe because you were there, right? I appreciate that."

Despite the ridiculousness he was hearing, Ignis lowered his head and laughed. This all sounded like something Noctis or Prompto would come up with. When he could finally talk, he shook his head. "That might be a more entertaining tale to tell indeed." The truth was that he made a slight error in judgement and before he could finish hitting his watch, the place where he'd been standing had collapsed. Tony had been the hero of the day to take the brunt of the damage when they'd gotten back on the train.

Ignis was intrigued at hearing he was to be thanked after Reigen's mission had been confirmed as not dangerous. Giving the other a curious look as he sat down across the table, hearing Madoka's name was a pleasant surprise. He certainly hadn't expected to have been thanked and as he went to say he was just doing his job, he recalled having that very conversation with Tony.

"Children don't deserve to see battle so their safety came first." And it was true, Ignis had seen that every single one of his team was already off the field before he left it exactly as he had planned. "They all have very big hearts and gave it everything they had." Ignis was obviously very proud of his team. Madoka in particular he'd told to always stand behind him if she was afraid and he'd protect her.

Edited 2019-09-30 10:42 (UTC)

"See, exactly! You have full permission to use that one if anyone asks." Hey, someone had to come up with this kind of stuff!

There was a small smile on Reigen's face when Ignis spoke, giving further confirmation to his assessment of the other man's character. Ignis was a good person, and it was a relief that Madoka had someone like that with her when things got dangerous. "You're right, they're good kids."

Still, there was another concern he couldn't get out of his head, mainly what Tony had mentioned before about Ignis not having backup. "But if you need extra help keeping an eye on them next time we have to go do dangerous stuff like that? Let me know." Sure, there were kids on Reigen's team too, but he figured he could trust people like Eva, Curufin and Spider-san to take care of them.

"I will most certainly try to spin the tale that way." Ignis replied, still smiling. He lifted his coffee cup and took another sip of coffee.

Ignis nodded at Reigen's assessment of the team. "They truly are." And that was one of the many reasons he'd fought so hard to keep those kids safe, even if it meant he had to stay behind or something had happened to him. But Tony's intervention had prevented that worst case scenario.

The unexpected offer of assistance touched Ignis. Only Tony or Renee could've said something about him not having enough back up and he knew it wasn't meant as an offense that he couldn't do his job of protecting the kids. Ignis was about to tell Reigen that it wasn't necessary and to politely decline, but if it would help the children (his children if he listened to Renee) he was in no position to refuse. After all, back home he had two other men to help protect Noctis. So instead the advisor nodded.

"I would appreciate it, that's quite kind of you to offer."

Reigen was glad Ignis actually accepted his help, it was a welcome contrast between talking to Tony about it and having to argue with a grown man about how he shouldn't have gone to rescue people alone. Not that rescue missions were a problem, but that particular mission would have been tragic and pointless if both Ignis and Tony had died.

"Well, it's only natural. You shouldn't have to babysit them all on your own, Ignis-kun!" He gulped down some more of his coffee. "Besides, I told Madoka-chan I'd teach her some things about handling the supernatural: I have to keep an eye on my student's progress! So this is as much for me as it is for you."

More than one child's life was at stake here and Ignis had 2 others for one person. If he had additional help here, the children's survival rates should theoretically be better since it was currently one to three. This didn't include if he would eventually get more children in the future. The advisor's pride was in his cooking, intelligence and being able to protect his king, not protecting multiple children.

He was about to point out he didn't feel like he'd been babysitting when Reigen used an unfamiliar term. Ignis-kun? That was a new one. And there went the Madoka-chan thing again. Nodding to whatever the man was referring to as supernatural, the dirty blonde head shook a moment.

"I beg your pardon, but you said Ignis..kun and Madoka..chan? What do those last bits of words mean?"

"Oh, those? It's common where I'm from to add different suffixes to people's names, it kind of indicates the relationship you have with someone. You're Ignis-kun because we're coworkers and you're younger than me, and Madoka-chan's Madoka-chan because she's a young girl." He took another sip of coffee before continuing.

"Though people call their pets things like 'Tama-chan', so I guess it's just a term of endearment at this point? Eh, there's a lot of social etiquette stuff around what you call someone, I'd be explaining Japanese society all day if we really got into it."

The real question was whether he was the best person to talk about the subject. Reigen himself tended to pick and choose when things like forms of address were important to him: even among peers he was inconsistent. Asking Reigen about proper societal conventions was a little like asking an Olive Garden chef about Italian cuisine.

Co workers. Well now that was something that Ignis hadn't thought of he and Reigen as such but it was fitting so the advisor didn't question it at all. But he listened and had some of his coffee. Those suffixes weren't anything he personally would be using but it was useful to know about others' cultures.

"I thank you for what you have explained. There's no need to get into the rest."

Looking down at his notebook, he couldn't help but ask. "Tell me something. They have christmas where you're from?" The Japan name hadn't escaped him and he'd heard about it on the battlefield. "Do they have any other celebrations there as well?"

Inquiring scholarly type wants to know.

"Oh, Christmas? Yeah, totally. It's mostly a thing for couples where I'm from though...oh, and they sell good cake." Cake that Reigen could get for half-off the day after Christmas since no one wanted them. Who cares if they were supposed to be shared between couples and not for lonely cheapskates in their late twenties? Not him.

"There's a few other holidays from the west like Halloween, too. Then there are some festivals that are kind of a big deal: New Year's is pretty important, and there's Tanabata: you usually go to a local shrine and you can write a wish on paper and hang it up on one of the bamboo there. There's good food at festivals too! Huh, food is kind of a common theme for holidays, isn't it..."

Ignis had gotten Reigen on a tangent, and boy did he enjoy talking when he was allowed to. Good luck getting him to stop.

"Couples?" Romeo didn't say anything about that. But Reigen must know better..maybe. "And I'm sorry, you said cake? Do you know what kind?" This had Ignis setting down his coffee cup and taking out his pen and notebook.

"I've not heard of Halloween. Care to share about it?" And there he goes, off and writing more notes. "Alright, I've got New Year's down and Tanabata." His voice slowed down a bit going over the unfamiliar names.

Ok food, that's where Reigen really had Ignis' attention. "Can you tell me what sort of foods are served for these celebrations you've mentioned?"

"Well, I don't know how it is in other countries, but the city usually sets up Christmas lights and stuff. It's a pretty popular dating spot. Oh, and the cake! It's usually sponge cake with strawberries." If Ignis wanted to hear about holidays and festival food, Reigen wasn't opposed to telling him about it. In fact, it was the opposite, it gave him an excuse to talk someone's ear off.

"Ok, we've got a lot of ground to cover, hope you've got enough ink in that pen. Halloween is kind of thing for kids where they get candy from their teachers and stuff, once you're an adult it's mostly an excuse to go to parties dressed up in costumes and drink." It'd been a few years since he went to a Halloween party himself, since he was mostly invited to them out of courtesy back when he worked at an office.

"Then festival food...it's a lot of fried and grilled vendor food, the takoyaki there is usually higher quality than the fast food chain kind. Oh, Takoyaki are these fried dough balls with octopus meat in them, it's good stuff. Then yakitori are these skewers with grilled chicken and onions on them..." Now Reigen could really go for some of these foods. All he could find in these past two weeks was salmon.

Lights for christmas, alright that got jotted down too. There was that strawberry cake thing again that Romeo had mentioned, but Tony had said it wasn't a thing where he was. Romeo too had said it was a thing for Japan so that made sense.

Reigen then went over Halloween, and his question about ink got a smile and a nod to affirm that yes Ignis was indeed armed and prepared for this. Taking a hurried sip of coffee, the advisor wrote down costumes and candy. "And what is the story behind Halloween?"

As he'd been about to ask what these unfamiliar foods were, Reigen kindly filled in the gaps of knowledge. "Do you know exactly how they're made if I procured the ingredients?" New recipehs were always a good thing to have after all.

Reigen tapped his chin in thought at the question about Halloween. "I'm not sure, I guess some westerners thought you had to give candy to witches or something, and we just kind of picked up on it."

When Ignis asks about making them, Reigen nodded eagerly. "Yeah, it's pretty easy if you have a pan for it! I'll make a list for you of all the stuff if you want it!" Reigen would not consider himself to be very good at cooking (would he subsist off junk food as much if he did?), but he would definitely wing it if it meant there was even a small possibility he could get food out of it.

Confused notes were written down about Halloween. 'Something about giving candy to witches.' He frowned slightly at the notes but that was what he'd just heard.

Reigen then seems to be pretty enthusiastic about the food he was talking about, so Ignis nodded. "I'll have to see at our next stop if the ingredients you list are available." This had him thinking and wondering if he could perhaps get a cookbook or two with the points he had. After all, he had nothing else to use them on.

"I would appreciate any help you can give me so I can recreate these dishes." And that's when he realized he needed more coffee so he stood up, raising his mug. "Do you need a refill?"

Unfortunately, Reigen was not exactly well-versed in history. Hopefully someone else would correct Ignis about the history of Halloween down the line.

"Really? You'd do that?" Reigen was a little surprised that this was something Ignis would go out of his way to get ingredients for, but soon there was a large grin on his face.

"Aha, of course! I'll help as much as I can!" Worth it for a shot at free takoyaki. "Oh, yeah. I've got it." He stood up himself, time for more coffee.

"Of course." Making this stuff also gave Ignis the chance to expand on his recipehs. So he had absolutely no problem at all with making a dish he'd never heard of or knew anything about. And then..there was this really big smile on Reigen's face.

Ignis moved out of the other man's way. He had been about to get the coffee for the blonde but apparently the thought of food had propelled that action. The advisor really didn't mind because making new things expanded on his knowledge but at seeing Reigen's reaction, well that was the entire reason that he cooked. So he smiled into his cup, patiently awaiting his turn for more coffee.

Reigen quickly refilled his coffee so Ignis would be able to get his own without issue. He felt a new burst of energy, partly from caffeine and partly from the promise of food.

"So, you cook often wherever you're from? What's it like over there?" He'd talked about his own world enough, so high time he found out more about Ignis. Apparently wherever he was from didn't have conventional holidays.

Ignis smiled at the sudden burst Reigen seemed to have. But it was gone as soon as the blonde turned back around.

"I do, and have been cooking for quite some time. At first it was a chore but then I became rather fond of it." To him it sounded as if Reigen wanted to know more about where he was from. Well this had worked well with Tony, so Ignis pulled out his cellphone and went to the gallery.

There he showed the other man pictures and while he did he said the names of the three others, stating they were friends that he traveled with. Then he went over things like chocobos, cactuar, and coeurls with their ability to electrocute their victims. He also explained that Prompto took the shots and had uploaded them to his phone, so he wouldn't take credit for how the photos had turned out.

Edited 2019-10-04 02:29 (UTC)

Reigen looked over at Ignis' phone with interest, his eyes focusing on the fluffy-looking chicken things, and the big white plushy with the dumb face that the tattooed man (Gladio?) was holding.

"...those things called Moogles? I want five." What he would even do with a weird teddy bear he didn't know, but it spoke to him. He'd also probably give one to Mob. "Your friend's got a good eye for photography...Wait, did the cactus guy just pose for the picture like that? Do they do that?"

Man, now Reigen wished he had his phone on hand. Not that he had any photogenic cactuses, but there was a picture of the giant broccoli in the city on there if he remembered correctly.

Ignis couldn't help but laugh at Reigen's comment about the moogles. When he was done laughing he nodded about the blonde's eye. "We kept telling Prompto to become a professional photographer. I hope one day he actually sits down and listens to us all."

Looking back at the cactuar, Ignis shrugged. "They're certainly fast little devils full of hurtful needles, so I'm not quite sure how he got that shot." Or how he managed to get half of the photos he always managed to take.

"But those are some of the characters from my world. And those aren't even half of what we fought." And made recipehs out of.

Edited 2019-10-04 06:11 (UTC)

Reigen's taste was unquestionably good, what could he say? There needed to more of those moogle things in the world.

"They're moving cactuses that attack you? Man, what kind of wilderness are you traveling in?" He frowned, a little perplexed. Ignis and his friends seemed like they could handle themselves, at least.

"Yes they are." Ignis replied with a nod about the cactuar. Those things were a pain in the ass in more ways than one. He half smiled at the question and actually turned away to get some more coffee.

"It was quite the adventure at times, but completely worth it." Truth was he didn't know what they were getting into half the time which was nerve wracking to say the least. Ignis liked precision and things to run smoothly. Monsters of all types had to be fought against and there was no journal or guide they could use to help them.

Coming back to sit, green eyes fixed on Reigen. "So you had nothing similar in your world then? No monsters to fight?"

"Well, there's nothing like the stuff you showed me, no. Most trouble I run into comes from evil spirits causing people problems. It's the kind of work only a psychic can do, though, so it's only right that I use those skills to help others! ...well, that and I have to pay my bills somehow."

With another sip of coffee, Reigen sat back down. "Then again, I mostly work in the city. I doubt there are any of those cactus things even in the country though."

Ignis leaned back in his chair. Well he learned something new every day on this train. "You exorcise evil spirits?" Only the Oracle back home could do that so far as Ignis knew. Did this man serve as one of those, or whatever the equivalent in Reigen's world would be?

The advisor couldn't begrudge someone from paying their bills so he didn't say anything regarding that. It wasn't his place to judge anyone or tell them what they could or couldn't do. If the blonde helped people with his skills, then that wasn't a bad thing.

Nodding to the last part, Ignis was curious. "I highly doubt cactuar would exist in cities unless someone happened to catch one and let it loose." That was a thought he didn't want to pursue though.

"Oh yeah, all the time. I run a spirit consultation office back at home, so I handle a lot of spirits and curses." In reality, Reigen handled the seventy-five percent of cases where the cause was something more mundane his client mistook for a haunting, and his psychic coworkers were the ones who took care of real ghosts. But hey, his role as the face and brains of the business was still important even if he didn't have ESP.

"One of those around a big city, huh...that could be a disaster. Like if you let a bear run wild or something." Now he was curious about if someone could wrangle one of those cactaurs like a wild animal. "Are there, like, domesticated cactuses?"

This was fascinating. To chase away spirits and curses was Oracle's work. "And how exactly do you do that, if you don't mind my asking?"

Ignis wasn't about to sit and grill Reigen for details. But it did sound like something the Oracle (Lady LunaFreya) could do back home so it was interesting to see how another person performed the same job function.

One word had him curious too. "What is a bear?" And to the question posed at him, his head shook. "They're wild cactuar. If they've been domesticated, I've not heard of it."

"Oh, you know. Salt, telekinesis, sometimes just talking to the ghost? It's a very case by case kind of thing, so me and my coworkers gotta be prepared for anything." That much was true, he had to do a lot of improvising in some cases.

"A bear? Uh, it's like..." Reigen made a few vague hand gestures as he tried to think of how best to describe a bear. "A big furry animal with tiny round ears...they live in the mountains. I think they like picnic baskets?"

"Salt?" He wasn't sure what salt had to do with anything, but then again this was Reigen's area of expertise. "So you can talk to the dead?" Well that might be a handy skill and at the same time, a truly frightening thing.

Listening to what a bear was, he had a mental image in his mind. But then the blonde said something about what?

"Picnic baskets?"

"Salt keeps spirits away, it's one of those urban legends that's actually true." It was supposed to be, at least. "And yeah, I can see ghosts. It's a gift I've had since I was a child." More like since a few months ago, when he got temporarily infused with psychic power and all he got to keep was the ability to see spirits. Not even cool spirits, just the ones that made themselves obvious and a green bastard.

"Oh, a picnic basket, that's...well, a basket people will put food in if they're going to eat outside in a park or something." Reigen hadn't actually been on any picnics since he was a child, given he'd need family or friends around to even consider it.

Storing the information away about the salt, Ignis shook his head. "Are there any spirits on the train? If there are, have you spoken to them?" Questions of curiosity, Ignis has them. Were they harmful? A threat? Could children see them?

"I'm sorry Reigen. I know what a picnic basket is. I suppose I'm just surprised that they would eat food that humans would eat." He frowned in thought. "I wasn't aware of their diet."