[SE] the art of procrastination

Maea

Oh, when the world is burning

It was snowing again. A light yet persistent flurry had been singling down from overcast skies for the past few days, to the chagrin of everyone whose job it was to maintain the streets. Even the most dogged road teams couldn't keep up and the snowbanks were piling high as a man's head in some places. Lying heavy on rooftops, docks and coating the carefully tied up sails of the ships in the harbor, it turned the seaside town into a winter wonderland - and every land-locked sailor into a menace for the locals, who worked hard to provide lodging and fare.

Watching the ice-choked sea through a gap in the buildings, Maea inched closer to the bonfire and munched on a meat pie. Despite the cold she refused to hole herself up in her office. There was too much to do; hiring musicians and chefs for the banquet, arranging for workers to decorate the Temple, procuring food and fuel for the bonfires - the tasks never ended. It was only the growl of her stomach that reminded her to take breaks, and even now she couldn't quite relax. Another headache would be to ensure that all the guests would be able to reach the Inner Quarter safely, and while she did intend to put the soldiers to work the ceaseless snow would make it difficult enough just to travel. Between the snow, the frozen sea and the Void creatures running amok on the countryside, there were way too many things that could go wrong.

Reaching to take another bite, Maea was surprised to find that the pie had disappeared from her hand. Scowling at the empty wrapper, she tossed it into the fire and licked grease from her fingers as she began to make her way towards the marketplace. It would all have to wait until she'd found something more to eat.

Don't walk away

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

Having felt melancholic as of late, Remi had thought perhaps to find some trinket or bauble he could give to Ronin as a reminder of the simpler times that they'd spend in the Grounds. Quite what that would be he had utterly no idea, only knowing that he'd know it when he saw it.

Certainly, the Bastion wasn't as affected by the cold as the majority of those who lived within the Hollowed Grounds were, that didn't mean he wasn't bundled up to the tips of his ears to try and ward it off. So it was that he found himself wandering toward the giant bonfire that blazed high and hot to try and siphon some warmth back into his fingertips and his nose. Already his curls were heavy with snow and his cheeks were rosy and chilled beneath the scarf wrapped around his neck and over his mouth. Spying Maea by the fire—her height if not her pale hair were hard to mistake as belonging to anyone else—Remi made his way over.

"Bit chilly, no?"  He wondered, sidling up beside her and grinning crookedly down at her over his shoulder.

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

Maea

Oh, when the world is burning

She didn't get far before a familiar voice by her shoulder distracted her. Swaying to a halt and nearly slipping on a patch of ice for her trouble, she was smiling even before her head had come all the way up to actually see who it was. Not that her eyes needed the confirmation - there were few people with that accent in this world.

"Remi! It really is - why are you tormenting yourself at the freezing backside of the world?" she wondered with a laugh. The surprise was already brightening her mood considerably, and she held out an arm to offer him the option of a hug. A rare show of affection - though perhaps not as rare as it once had been. She had been relaxing quite a lot recently.

Don't walk away

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

Reaching out to try and steady her instinctively as her balance nearly gave way thanks to the ice, the Bastion grinned as Maea righted herself before chuckling in response to her question. "Well, I thought I would be very clever and try and find a gift for Ronin in the marketplace here, but I worry all I will come home with is some frostbite." He answers, rolling his eyes as if to mock his own hubris, before immediately tugging her close and wrapping his arms around her. Bundled up as she was Maea felt much more substantial than she otherwise would have, but compared to the sorts of people he normally found in his arms (Ronin) she was barely anything at all.

"What are you out for? I nearly expected the Grounds to be deserted this time of year." Or, if not deserted, he'd expected everyone to be inside.

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

At first it’s a murmur, then a symphony. Voices all out with laughter and conversation. As you look around the voices change to cries, screams. The words ‘Sparkbird’ and ‘Lady!’ call out in fearful tones. As a fin cuts through the water it becomes clear. You’ve just heard the fall of the Hollowed Grounds to the Sparkbird, recorded by the voices of passing Echo sharks. Good luck sleeping tonight.

---

You’ve encountered a pack of echo sharks. This counts as a common creature encounter for the purposes of levelling, but does not count as a Random Event for levelling or MP. There will be no further admin/re intervention. If you choose to follow this creature, you do so at your own risk, however, just having it in this thread is enough to satisfy your levelling requirements.

Echo Shark (common) - A dwarf species of shark known for hunting in packs, the Echo Shark can live in both freshwater and saltwater. They are able to mimic any sound they’ve heard and band together to increase their range of vocals. The sharks use the words and sounds they’ve learned to lure unsuspecting prey into the water, where the sharks will then leap up and drag them into the waves.

Maea

Oh, when the world is burning

Even with layers and layers of velvet, silk and wool between herself and the rest of the world, the hug warmed her. Doing her best to return it despite her much shorter arms, she came away with a flush in her cheeks and a face that didn't quite know how to function anymore; a little awkward, plenty sheepish and entirely happy.
"We can probably avoid that," she smiled, and stole a lick of fire from the pyre to bring along. "Care for some company? I was just about to go find something more to eat. I made the mistake of hosting a ball in Deepfrost. What you see is me paying the price of my own folly."

She was making a sweeping gesture to the market and the snow, when an awful sound cut through the air. All around them people clapped gloved hands over their ears, hunching over with dread twisting more than one face - and then someone called and pointed to the harbor.
"Sharks! It's just sharks -"
Maea followed the pointed finger and caught a glimpse of tall fins cutting through the surface further out to sea, before they disappeared. Her face had grown ashen; tugging her gloves on she shoved shaking hands into her pockets to try and calm herself.
"Well, damn. Good luck keeping it cheerful in this place."

Don't walk away

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

Watching the small tendril of flame float towards Maea and hover politely within her grasp, Remi raised his eyebrows. "Now that is far more useful than anything I can do." He chuckled, before nodding and extending his arm over her to hold should she wish. "Ah yes, Ronin did mention something to me about that." An idea Maea had had while the pair had been...dress shopping, was it?

As the screams of the echosharks screeched around them, the Bastion frowned deeply. He'd heard their shrill calls before, but gods it never got easier.  Glancing down at Maea and noting the way that not even the chill could keep the colour in her cheeks just then, he instead wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tried to turn her away from where the fish were circling. "I suppose that is one way of ensuring no one forgets what once happened here." He says somewhat sadly, shaking his head.

"Did I ever tell you that I met the Voice? We...we worked on an upgrade together."

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

Maea

Oh, when the world is burning

By some miracle she didn't lose her hold on the fire. It bobbed like an orange will-o-wisp in the air and followed them as Remi steered them off among the stalls. She didn't protest. Maea was glad for the arm around her, and for the chance to talk about something - anything - that didn't revolve around those screams. Gods, but she wished she never had to hear that again.

"Yeah? That's a bit surprising, given how things turned out," she mumbled, remembering their tense encounter once upon a lonesome shore. There had been no collaborations possible then - only a moment of mercy that allowed her to slip away with her life intact. It was remarkable how things had changed. "What upgrade was that?"

Don't walk away

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"Disappointing to say the least." Remi agreed softly. "Back then...I was dating an ascended, and I am sure you can recall how little you were able to feel." He says, having to think hard into the past to pluck out the details. His memories of Sam had been entirely erased (and more than once); all of what he knew of his own experiences were now secondhand. "Back when I could create magical items, I...tried to make something so that he could feel. We had to go to the Voice for her permission, and...installation, I suppose. But...for a time, it had worked."

Remi's smile was faint, almost fake. It was hard to feel fondly for a man he no longer recalled, or a gesture he couldn't remember having done.

With his arm still around Maea's shoulder, likely the ancient would feel the Bastion shrug against her even if she wasn't looking at him. "I suppose that is the sort of thing I am looking to find in the market. Something to try and remind Ronin of a time when sex was the biggest worry either one of us had." Ronin with Vanya, or even Ronin with Roana.

"But nevermind. Tell me more about this ball."

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

Maea

Oh, when the world is burning

Oh, she remembered all too well. The disconnection, the numbness, the way it had eaten into her emotional awareness as well - she nodded fervently, and wriggled her arm closest to Remi free so she could sling it around his waist. Just to squeeze him in second hand appreciation for the kindness it would have been, whatever that device had accomplished.
"Right... you did have magic, too. I forget how much you've changed sometimes," she admitted. "But not in the ways that matter - it's nice to know you've always been kind." Whether the contraption had only worked for a little while or not, he had tried. That alone was rare enough.

Startled into a cough by the sudden shift in his tale, she hastily looked up at him and then off among the stalls. Would there be anything of... that nature in a place like this? "Hmm... we can always look," Maea offered, dubious but willing to try. There was plenty of brickabrack around, at least he might find some alternative. As for the ball... she shrugged lightly beneath his arm.
"A big part of it is just me keeping busy," she admitted. "The rest... I keep thinking about the storm of letters that flew around after Starfall. Information got lost, some people didn't hear anything, no one was really talking to the general public... and some didn't catch up until much later. And I feel like we need to get better at the whole communication thing. All of us. If I can make everyone get into the habit of meeting up and talking... it might help, somewhere down the line." Stopping by a stall that sold more of the meat pies, she traded for a bag of them and offered one to Remi. "Besides that, it's a good excuse to have some fun. Dress up, dance a bit, talk about something new, with someone new... Never thought I'd say this, but I sometimes miss the days when we were all cooped up here. If only because we were closer together."

Don't walk away

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"I did, but only because Ludo cursed me, way back when." Remi says, his shrug just as boyish as his smile as he glanced down at Maea. "Gods, if only you'd known me from the world I came from." He adds with a chuckle; how Remi Abruzzo had gone from the lowest caste of citizen with no backbone to speak of and only ever polite words on his lips to what he was now, or even what he had been leading up the war, was nearly unbelievable.

"Shocking, isn't it. To think of a married couple having sex." He says, playfully nudging the ancient, though being careful to temper his strength lest he hip-check her halfway across the market. "Really I just...I wanted to find something to remind Ronin of simpler times. Responsibility has been weighing on him, lately." Vi's interruption of Safrin's meddling had done wonders for the Knight, but still the Bastion would like to see more laugh lines on his husband's face again.

Listening as Maea explained about the gaps in the general population's knowledge and how poorly information had been decimated as a whole, the Bastion frowned somewhat as his steps slowed. "You know...I suppose it never occurred to me to even ask, but...do people want to know?" Unlooping himself for Maea in order to accept the meat-pie, Remi smiled his appreciation before continuing to worry over the implications of what she'd said. "With the war...I suppose it just fell on us to take care of things, and now with this..." He swallowed. "I guess we all thought it was more of the same, but it isn't, is it."

The war had affected them all, yes, but this was an outside threat and that made it everyone's fight.

Grinning, there was a twinkle in his sea-glass stare as he glanced at Maea. "You know, I was just saying the same to Deimos. Not about dressing up, but about all being together and how far apart we all seem now."

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

Maea

Oh, when the world is burning

She hadn't known that and her eyebrows came up, curious about the story behind such a curse. "This is just my take, but I've always failed to see how magic can be a punishment," she admitted. "Maybe it's because I was born with it. Even knowing the Voice and her actions, it's not like having power makes anyone evil." No more than an axe or a sword were evil; they were all equally capable of doing good or bad, according to the intentions of the wielder.

Shaking her head with a strained laugh, Remi's teasing nudge had her sidestep a pace. "No, I guess not. Just shocking to speak of it so frankly. At least it's not a common topic around me." She poked her tongue at him for good measure, then turned back to scrutinizing the stalls for something cheerful and interesting. "What were you doing back in those days?" she asked idly, picking up a ring shaped like cherry blossoms on a branch. It was pretty, but probably more to her liking than the two men.

Glancing up to answer his take on the invasion, her expression turned thoughtful. "It was never just your fight, even though the burden of being on the frontline fell on you," she replied quietly. "Every ascended was involved, and everyone who ever used a portal, or struggled beneath the barrier, or found their world constricted by the storms in the years while the gods tried to keep the Voice contained. The only real difference between now and then is where the threat comes from. Would you not wish to know as much about it as possible, so you can make the right choices for yourself and your family?"

Don't walk away

kidnap me from my reality & crushed pieces of my soul

"I am inclined to agree. The things I was able to create back then as a result of that magic was some of my best work." The Bastion agrees. "Certainly though with that sort of power does come...an inclination to simply act without thinking." Wincing a touch, Remi's nose wrinkles slightly before he gives his head a little shake. "At least it did for me. Leading up to the war when I was at my most powerful, certainly I acted in ways I look back on now with disgust and guilt. But there was no one to tell me no and I thought I knew best." That was the danger the abandoned possessed in his mind, for they didn't have a god or herald overseeing them.

"Ah, my apologies." Cheeks flushed thanks to the chill as much as Maea's discomfort, he laughs as she sticks her tongue out at him. "We were...well, Ronin led the Monster Hunter's Guild, and I had the Artisan's Guild. Most days he would be out hunting, and I would be in my shop working on some new and entirely unnecessary contraption." Glancing approvingly at the ring in Maea's hands, Remi smiles as he runs his fingers against a windchime on display.

Biting at the inside of his cheek, of all the thoughts Maea's words bring to his tongue, he can't find any reason to give voice to them. She was right, in every word and phrase. "Perhaps I have not lost all the arrogance of that power." He admits, sighing and ruffling his fingers through the back of his curls to displace some of the snow.

"I am sure you will bring it up at the ball, but...I am eager to know: what would you have us do differently?" Now more than aware in the errors of his thinking thus far, was keen to have someone—and why not Maea?—tell him what he ought to do instead.

colour me outside the lines

until my shattered heart is whole

REMI

Table & Gif-sniping by SKY who deserves our love and affection for always.

Maea

Oh, when the world is burning

"Ah, that's a good point," she conceded. Intrigued by the different perspective, she thought back to her own life. "I did the same mistake, I guess. As soon as I mastered a bit of magic I felt like I had become invincible. Like I didn't have to listen to anyone around me, because surely I knew what I was doing. Even though Ronin told us you would be fine, I still felt the need to get in the water to help you." Rueful at the memory of her untimely demise, she shook her head. It could be excused as youthful brashness and even bravery, but looking back it just felt foolish.
Admiring the windchime he picked up, she considered what hunting and inventions could have in common. Spotting something in a corner, she reached for a child's slingshot and held it out to show Remi. "Maybe, if you used snowballs, or clods of paint, or dirt...?" she suggested, impish notions of how to spruce up a game of chase and make it... hm, entertaining.

His sigh brought her attention back to Remi. Looking surprised at the question, she wondered if she'd said too much. At the same time, it felt nice to be asked. Tugging at a lock of hair that had strayed from the hood, she looked off among the people that milled through the market. Their faces twisted by fear and discomfort haunted her, and she thought of all the friends and acquaintances that had not been invited to the tournament. Some who had just woken up. Some who had been around for years and years, slowly growing in strength and experience. It would be a shame to let all those different points of view get lost.

"Well... there's no denying that the demigods are, or have the potential to be the strongest among us," she mused out loud. "What if, instead of being the sole champion to protect all else, you were to be the captains of a squad? If you had people to train with, and face dangers alongside, to support you and fill all the cracks that I assume even you have... Would that be a strength or a burden, do you think?" She cocked her head and gazed curiously at him. Unsure whether working with a team would solve anything. "Communication is largely a task for the leaders, in my opinion, and to organize things like information gathering and defense. But they can't do all of that on their own, so they need to pass down instructions to someone who will carry out the task and solve the issues that needs solving. Delegate more, I suppose. That's my thinking."

Don't walk away