runs_on_batteries | IC Inbox/ Interactions 2.0

I suppose an impression is better than no impression.

I will be there in one hour. Should I bring aught else, or just myself and some sweets?

[He was about to say no but then got an idea.]

Just a challenge. Try to make the sweets healthy too. I'll be very impressed if you can pull that off. See you in a bit.

Healthy in what sense? The addition of vitamin-rich ingredients, the reduction of fats or sugars, or something else?

Do you have special dietary requirements?

[Tony rolled his eyes and handed his communicator to Gladio.]

Era had some questions for you. I'm going to go get cleaned up.

[Gladio had only half being paying attention. He'd borrowed a book and that was a lot more interesting. At least until the communicator was shoved at him. He sighed.]

You're an ass...

[But he still took the phone to read what he was supposed to answer.]

Less sugar. Not no sugar. Just less. If you can reduce the fat too that'd help.

All right.

Any preferred flavours, or flavours to avoid?

avoid ginger.

Hello Gladio.

I'll make some adjustments and arrive in one hour.

Hey Era.

sure. we'll see you in an hour.

... if you've green tea at all?

I'm sure I have some around.

[ The request does give her another idea to try for a new batch of cookies, and so while the now sugar-free and low-fat pomegranate apple cookies finish baking, Era makes a test batch of similarly 'healthy' green tea cookies.

(Having a boyfriend with creation magic is infinitely helpful sometimes.)

Once satisfied that everything tastes as delicious as it should, she tucks everything away in her inventory, puts on her rainboots and rain poncho, and sets off for Gladio and Tony's residence.

Precisely an hour after her last message there is a polite knock at their door. ]

[Tony had showered and gotten dressed. He looked a while lot better than the last time Era saw him. No longer in red military gear, he was in loafers, jeans, and a comfortable, blue sweater. He had a kitchen towel over one shoulder and had almost finished putting the mini-pies/ tarts in the oven.]

Glads? Are you available to get the- never mind..

[He straightened up and went over to get the door himself. He gave her a smile and backed up, gesturing for her to enter.]

I expected you to be more punctual than this.

[Gladio had gone back to reading. Sat on the love seat, somehow managing to fit his large frame on the two seats with his bare feet up and pressed against the arm of the small sofa. He was comfortable where he was. And he could have gone to open the door...

Except he was lost in the book and it took him a second to realise anyone had knocked at all.

When he looked up he offered a smile and lifted a hand in welcome.]

[ Era returns the smile; small and uncertain, but earnest all the same. It wavers at his comment on punctuality, leaving her to give a quick glance upward on reflex to gauge the time, then realizing the man is teasing her. Her smile returns, less tentative than before. ]

My apologies. I'll be sure to sync up our clocks next time. [ She bows politely in greeting and steps inside. Pointedly, she removes her dirty boots and places them near the door. Then, even more pointedly, she pulls out a pair of soft flats from seemingly nowhere and puts them on.

Footwear handled, Era takes off her jacket (revealing an outfit that contrast sharply with the watermelon monstrosity) and looks for a place to hang it. ]

Hello, Gladio. I've green tea leaves for you, as well as matcha. I wasn't sure which you would prefer.

[Tony laughed both when she has to check on the time and when she pulls out her slippers. He takes her jacket from her and seriously considers tossing it at Gladio- but the chocolate would make that less amusing and more messy. So instead, he just hangs it up.]

Make yourself at home. However, you can't sit on that chair, stand on that spot of carpet, or look out that window. I'll go put the kettle on.

[ Era nods, stepping further inside and taking stock of her surroundings. It's... quaint. She tries not to think of the time she spent in a near identical townhome what feels like an eternity ago, before all of the heartbreak. It helps that the furniture is laid out differently, and not altered into a more pretentious aesthetic. ]

Where should I put the cookies?

Ignore him. He's a terminal stupidity case.

[Gladio lowered his book and gave a warm smile and gestured with a hand toward the couch opposite him. The house was still very basic. Only having lived there just over a month he'd still not had time to really personalise the place. But give him time...]

Those teas are great. Want a cup?

[After marking his page, Gladio set his book down and went to hold his hands out for the cookies. They smelled pretty good.]

I'll take em into the kitchen. Just sit and relax for now.

She did it to me!

[Tony gave Gladio a glare, but it didn't have any heat behind it.]

I'll get those, I have just another minute on the tarts.

[He takes the cookies from Gladio and gives him a brief, friendly pat on the arm and left to add the crumb on top and stick the pastries in the oven. In this case, it wasn't a general statement but literally a task that took sixty seconds before he was coming back.]

Sometimes I'll find a way to get us real fruit, but right now these are going to be the synthetic stuff from the replicator. By the way, Era, you couldn't use any potatoes could you?

[He gestures to a bucket near the replicator that is now overflowing with various kinds of synthetic potatoes.]

[ She blinks as she hands the cookies to Gladio, confused by what she may have done, but ultimately decides it doesn't matter. More pressing is the matter of where to seat herself...

By the time Tony addresses her, Era has yet to move, uncertain of where to sit. ]

Ah— I have real fruit, in my garden. Just pomegranates and caelumfruit, but it's enough for desserts. [ Her hands move as she speaks, accentuating her words with vague gestures. ] I made apple-pomegranate oatmeal cookies — free of added sugar, and low in fat. The green ones are matcha cookies, with a bit of vanilla. They've more fat than the others, and have minimal sugar.

[ Era draws her hands back in, wringing them together. Absentmindedly, she begins pick at a loose scale on the back of her hand. ]

If they'll otherwise go to waste I can find use for them.

[Gladio didn't get it either, but since the cookies had been taken from him he decided to change tack and deal with Era instead.

Well aware of what that tail of hers could do, he smiled and with the lightest of touches to get her attention, he tapped her elbow and then pointed to the sofa.]

Those cookies sound great. But c'mon, sit with me.

[And so he moved and dropped himself down on one end of the sofa to show her it was okay, since Tony seemingly put in her head she couldn't go anywhere and she actually believed him.]

Tony can make himself useful and make us tea, can't you?

[Tony hoped Gladio would straighten Era out on what was real and what was him just joking around. He didn't have the patience for it. However, the request for tea which others might have thought was beneath the older man, got a positive response.]

On it!

[He found a plate to set the cookies out on and sampled the apple-pomegranate one- yum!. He waited for the kettle to boil so he could rejoin the party.]

[ The touch to her elbow comes as she's giving one final, analyzing look around the room, startling her so badly she nearly jumps out of her skin, tail standing straight up in alarm. It slowly lowers back down as the fright wears off and, upon concluding that the sofa is the most secure seat in the room, Era moves to sit on the end opposite of Gladio.

She sits on the edge of the cushion, tail curled firmly against her leg, and wonders if it would be impolite to say she doesn't like tea. ]

You were both in a different world before this one.

[ Because Tony is not of Eos, nor Eorzea, and he and Gladio have an easy comfort with each other that doesn't come from only a week of cohabitation. ]

[Gladio tried to keep his reaction to Era minimal. He'd tried to be more obvious when he'd touched her elbow but clearly not obvious enough. He sighed internally and did his best to push himself as far away from her as he could, if she didn't like his presence that much.

She was a damn minefield and Gladio didn't have a map to navigate it.]

Before coming here we were on the same train together, yeah.

[Tony came back in and gave the two a pleasant smile. He had the plate of cookies that he set on the coffee table.]

The tea is steeping, so it'll be a few more minutes.

[To Gladio.]

You should try that pomegranate one. It's really good.

[To Era.]

So I hear all three of us make terrible first impressions.

If we all make terrible first impressions, does that put us in good company, or terrible? [ She hazards a joke, a bemused smile on her face that slowly falls, turning pensive. ]

...I was in a pocket dimension called Deerington. It was a small town in Maine, in the United States of America sometime in the 1960s, though more 'modern' media and technology could be found. [ She offers, slowly shifting in her seat so that she can pull her knees up comfortably to her chest. ] It was a place of nightmares, with numerous people dying brutal deaths each month by monster or manipulation, only to be revived and inevitably suffer again.

[ Era rests her chin on her knees, relaxing a bit more now that she's acclimating to their company. It's easier with Gladio nearby. He is trusted implicitly by Noctis and Regis, which would have made her trust him even if he hadn't already proven himself through their interactions. ]

It was miserable and I loathed it, but I found it preferable to Havenwell.

[Gladio listened quietly to what she said after he'd nodded to Tony. He'd try the cookies later, Era was currently confusing him.

After describing what sounded like a nightmare, that was apparently better than Havenwell? Why, Gladio had no idea. But he was about to ask. And hopefully without sounding like he thought she was crazy, because he kind of thought she was crazy.]

You'd prefer murder and monsters over... peace?

I don't get it, Era. You hated it but you think it's better than here?

[Good job there, Gladio! Totally didn't sound like you thought she was nuts...]

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