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"So... wait. You actually fought the little dudes?"
Cagliostro leaned back in her chair, pensively gazing upon the evening intruder into her humble little corner of the Grandcypher. Ostensibly, she didn't let people simply barge into her room without consent, but this particular guest had... piqued her interest, over the previous days. After all, her more street-savvy expertise was very enlightening in regards to studying those weird gadgets, while that strange cat-like automaton was on board the ship.
Although, she could really have done without the interrogation this late at night. Not that she needed the beauty sleep, being the cutest genius in the skies, but would it have killed her to knock first? Nocturnal or no, it was just plain inconsiderate to Cagliostro's sensibilities, regardless of whether or not this girl thought herself a king of the night.
"Not exactly." Cagliostro finally answered, after a moment. She didn't exactly do much fighting personally, although the captains and their cadre certainly did. All that she did was whip some dust around. "If I'd gotten too hands on with them, we'd be flying without a captain, especially given their... condition at the time."
"I heard. Something about some weird gadget that made 'em smaller..." Illnott pursed her lips in thought, before snickering to herself. "Heh. Little dudes got really little, from th'sounds of it." She giggled, kicking her feet back and forth from her perch upon Cagliostro's bed.
Cagliostro rolled her eyes at the silly pun, even if she knew she'd have to stifle a chuckle so as to not encourage her to make more. Though, she did have to admit, it was adorable, seeing Gran & Djeeta both so small and scurrying around atop her desk. Had she not been so enraptured with the gadgets themselves, it would have been something to study... hm. She had to admit to some miscalculations there.
"Well, yes, but they still snuck into a girl's room, so they had to be punished for the indecency."
"You're just mad they had a buncha others with 'em." Illnott snarked, flashing a feral-looking grin that Cagliostro knew was a mere bearing of teeth. And Cagliostro, loathe as she was to admit it, again conceded the point to Illnott - after all, she made no bones about her fascination with the duo from Zinkenstill, as did many of the others in the crew, not the least of which was her erstwhile apprentice. She'd begun to lose count of how many teaching sessions were derailed by Clarisse's latest ramblings about just how frickin' cute the pair were, Djeeta in particular, which in turn led to Cagliostro spending many a night in Raduga lamenting the lack of progress.
Honestly, she really should have just snatched the duo for herself if only to shut Clarisse up, but that might have just been unfair to the poor girl. Cagliostro would admit to some degree of fascination, but some of the crew genuinely fell in love with the tandem, and Clarisse fell hard.
Speaking of...
"And you're just upset that you weren't around to torment them." Cagliostro shot back, and Illnott simply met it with a shrug.
"Well, duh. How could I have passed up such a dope chance to tease my fave little dudes?" Illnott responded with a wink. If it were on anyone else, Cagliostro might have figured some would call it sultry, but on Illnott? It was just another of her little quirks - quirks that made her surprisingly entertaining to be around. "Although, I betcha what I'd've done woulda pissed a lotta people on the boat off, so s'probably for the best that I didn't get the chance."
Cagliostro couldn't help it. She turned around, resisting the very tempting urge to simply scoff and cock an eyebrow, and leaned in attentively. "And what might that have been, your Kingliness?"
"Simple. Woulda just stuffed 'em both in my pocket n' kept 'em." Illnott replied, nonplussed by the fact that she was basically admitting that she would have flat out kidnapped their captains if she had the chance. "I mean, 'm pretty sure I got 'em both wrapped around my lil' finger. Think Gran mighta genuinely fallen for me."
Cagliostro leaned back once more, pondering that little tidbit. And, perhaps more importantly, the shift in Illnott's tone when she said that part out loud. Clearly, there was something more in that that Illnott wasn't willing to budge on, but she let it slide in favour of more of their trademark snark. "Sounds like you might have got a bit too much paint up your nose the other night."
"Hey, I had my new mask! Even if I only brought the one with me 'cuz the vents in my old ones were all messed up..."
"I've been looking into that, by the way." Pouncing on the chance to switch topics before Illnott let herself get overly wrapped up in the idea of actually loving the captains back, Cagliostro reached into her desk drawer to pull out the offending face coverings. "You've got some good stuff going here. Although, I don't know why you asked me to take a look at them, and not Mahira. She's a lot more..." Cagliostro paused, trying to think of the best term for it. "... Experienced, with this sort of thing." She finally decided on, after a moment.
"Eh, was kinda hoping you'd be able to whip up some alchemy shit to make it work better. Plus, you'll never get better with this kinda stuff if ya don't poke around with it."
Cagliostro, for what was uncharacteristically the third time this evening, had to concede the point to Illnott. Although, considering that Cagliostro had enjoyed working on the masks...
"Well, you're lucky I came up with something to minimize the harmful chemicals that might be able to filter into the mask. That way, it'll be safer to be around your paint clouds to get your fix."
"Dope. Thanks, Caggy." Illnott snatched one of the masks off the desk and slipped it upon her face, taking a few deep breaths before pulling it off once more. "Knew you were the right girl for the job."
Cagliostro simply waved off the painter's praise. "Eh, it was easy enough once I figured out what to do to make it better. Just remember to keep coming back if you feel like it might be wearing down." She moved to turn back towards the desk, but Illnott stopped her in her tracks, much to the alchemist's alarm. Her hands were clutching the armrests of Cagliostro's desk chair, and for a moment, the smaller girl was almost impressed by the strength of her grip to keep the chair so steady.
"Hey. Come out there with me tonight."
"You're kidding."
"Nope." Illnott shook her head, shifting her grip to rest an elbow upon one of the armests. "I like havin' friends out there with me. Usually, it's only the captain that takes me up on my offer, cuz the others in the crew... aren't exactly on my wavelength, y'know?" Cagliostro did know, because she felt much the same a lot of the time. It honestly irked her, knowing that she'd been sussed out so readily by the taller girl. Mercifully for the both of them, Illnott then added, "Plus, let's face it. You know that neither of us need our beauty sleep, cuz we're cute as fuck."
"Vulgar. Not wrong, but vulgar nonetheless." Cagliostro admitted, before coming to the realization that she'd just been called cute by someone on the ship that wasn't either of the captains. And, perhaps more strange to her, she found she didn't hate it nearly as much as she thought she would, when they stopped being cowards and simply admitted that Cagliostro was, in fact, the fairest of them all.
Illnott couldn't help herself, and barked out a laugh. "Like you give a shit."
"No, but Gran & Djeeta might."
"Eh, long as I keep it clean when Lyria's around, they really don't care. Sure, some of the other crewmates like to give me funny looks when they think I don't notice, but if I let it get to me too much, I'd be just as grumpy as that one cat we just picked up."
Cagliostro let a frown cross her features at the mention of the mysterious Evoker who'd just recently joined their ranks. Nier was... almost frightening in her devotion to the dual captains, and just as terrifying was her penchant for killing things. Thankfully, only monsters so far, but she'd heard the stories of the things Nier had supposedly done, the whispers of her being a murderer that neither Gran nor Djeeta should have ever allowed to roam free upon the deck of their beloved Grandcypher.
Although, given that Sandalphon was still part of the crew, so much so that Lyria seemed to almost acknowledge him as a big brother...
"Oi, brainiac." Illnott's voice snapped Cagliostro from her thoughts like a bolt of lightning. "We're burnin' moonlight, here. You comin', or what?"
Well, what the hell. She doesn't need to think too hard about that sort of thing tonight.
"Only if you get me some coffee after. Skies know, I'm going to need it after the all-nighter we're about to pull."
Illnott smirked. "Nah, I'm just putting some final touches on this last piece tonight. Shouldn't be too long. Then we can hit Raduga n' grab some snacks before ya go to bed. Ladiva'll be happy to see us two makin' friends for once."
Cagliostro met the King of the Night's smirk with one of her own.
"Yeah, I bet she would."
And the newly forged friends slipped into the cover of darkness, leaving mischief in their wake.