003. aranea/ignis; great clouds roll over the hills

[dragooned]

bringing darkness from above

( To say shit had hit the fan was somewhat of an understatement. Of course all signs had been pointing to such for a while, but it was still surprising as to just how badly downhill it had all gone. Which was saying something coming from her. And Aranea was honestly surprised they'd even gotten out of Galea at all. Not that it had been entirely a clean escape — her ship had taken a bit of damage. Damage only made worse by pushing the damn thing on the way back to Lestallum, a stop in Caem to retrieve Gladio's sister and the others there. She was, unfortunately, grounded now for the time being. What would have been an easy fix only weeks ago would now take longer than she liked. But Cindy seemed confident in having a part that would suffice, though Aranea knew she was asking a lot of the mechanic. It would still be a day or so before someone would be able to get up with the part and already Aranea could feel the impatience at the situation settle in. With a thank you she ends the call out to Hammerhead, her eyes sweeping across the lobby of the Leville to spot Ignis in the corner talking with a woman from the power plant. The sun had sunk some hours ago and no one knew if it would ever come back up, Lestallum was soon going to be one of the few safe places left, provided the power plant could handle running lights 24/7. She wasn’t quite sure where the other two had run off to, possibly upstairs in a room, hopefully getting some rest as the lot of them seemed more than dead on their feet. She moves towards Ignis and as she approaches and notices a lull in the conversation she deftly slips to Ignis’ side, a hand on his arm as she glances between the two. She knew there were important things to discuss, to put in place, but she also knew all those problems would still be there in a few hours. While the woman from the plant might not notice the wear on Ignis, she did. ) Mind if I steal him for a moment, there’s something we need to discuss. ( However she doesn’t exactly wait for an answer before she’s gently guiding Ignis away from the other woman and towards the staircase. Her touch is light on his arm, not really leading but there nonetheless. ) Your friend, Cindy, should have that part out to me sometime tomorrow. ( A small pause before she says casually: ) Stairs. ( And then back to the previous conversation. ) Thank you for the suggestion.