breakfast conversations

REMI

From excusing himself in the middle of a conversation or sneaking out in the middle of the night to do Ludo's bidding to more recently falling abruptly silent as messages were whispered from Mort's realm, it hadn't been uncommon for Remi to suddenly seem far away in the middle of a conversation for some time. Only instead of reaching for a paper and pen to record what he'd been told as he had with Hotaru's son, the Bastion's eyes grow wide as a voice he was surprised to hear whispered into his mind.

Remi? Can you hear me?

"Ronin—" He whispers, his voice shallow, interrupting the Knight as he gushed over a game of hopscotch he'd played with a group of children that morning on his way back with breakfast. "Ronin." Lifting his eyes, his cheeks quite pale beneath the unshaven scruff, Remi shoves their table back roughly as he stands.

"I...I think Maea has died."

There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours

Code stolen from Queen Sky

you may not want to change
but the world is unforgiving and will do it for you anyway

More than used to Remi zoning out mid-conversation since his alignment change to Mort, Ronin is starting to suspect that he pretends to do it when he's not interested in the subject. It doesn't stop the Knight, of course, and he's sitting quite happily with his breakfast - and a beautifully adorned flower crown in his hair from said children playing hopscotch - while his husband does whatever he does inside his own head.

Only at the expression of mild horror on his face does Ronin put down the croissant he'd been eating, and he steadies their little table only so the coffee doesn't spill as Remi all but erupts to his feet. "Are you..." Drifting off to hear not the full story, but absolutely enough context to get him standing up as well, Ronin is already dusting off his hands and preparing to go wherever is necessary to fix what's been unexpectedly broken.

"Did she speak to you?" he asks, voice low and startlingly calm. "Could she say where she was?"

RONIN

REMI

"No." Leaning against his knuckles on the table, Remi closes his eyes trying to keep his frustration at bay. It wasn't Maea's fault, no one really knew how his magic worked, so it wasn't so though he could have expected her to say hey Remi, sorry to interrupt but I've died. Flora is with me though so if you teleport to her you can then bring Ronin to you as well and bring me back from the dead if that's alright. "She only asked if I could hear her, which..." He shakes his head. That he could hear her was hardly all the information he needed but it was a start.

"She lives in the Grounds..." He reasons, already heading toward the door. "Is anyone we know there right now?" Anyone he loved, specifically.

"Or.." Helpless, the Bastion turns toward his husband, his lips parted in a silent plea. "Ronin, where do we even start?"

There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours

Code stolen from Queen Sky

you may not want to change
but the world is unforgiving and will do it for you anyway

With a muscle feathering in his jaw, Ronin has clearly forgotten that he's wearing his little flower crown, because he's already slipping on some sandals and heading for the door. In an open linen shirt coloured a dusty blue and a pair of shorts adorned with lilypads, he's going to make quite the guardian angel if he manages to get to Maea in time. "Come on," he urges, his voice never leaving the soft calm it has dropped into, his hand held out for his husband.

"Flora still has a compass, right? If I borrow it I can get to the Grounds - to anywhere settled - quicker than a blink. In the meantime you can try and get more information, and if you find anything out, you can come straight to me using your magic." They have time. They have time. It's true that the temporary hourglass of Maea's afterlife is already streaming sand at a relentless pace, but they can cover as much ground as possible in those twenty-four hours.

RONIN

Flora

They appear nearish the fountain.

It's where Flora had returned only a week or so before after her little tryst with Asta, though rather than invisibly slipping into the healing waters instead the queen did what she did best: she started yelling at giving orders.

"Whoever gets to the Northaven the fastest and tells Ronin to haul his ass here drinks for free at the Hanged Man." Sure it's Flora's usual bribe but that doesn't make it any less effective, and soon a handful of Torchers are running toward the coast. The queen can only hope that's where the Knight actually is and that he and Remi haven't decided to tug their home somewhere out into the ocean for the afternoon.

I don't like that falling feels like flying
'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

REMI

"You're so very clever." Gods but Ronin was so cool in a crisis that were this not such a life and death situation Remi might have made a bit more of his appreciation for the Knight. Not bothering with the door any longer, the Bastion merely gives his husband a nod before disappearing...

..and reappearing at his daughter's side.

"Flora I need your—" The words are out of his mouth before he's even registered where he is. Blinking down at the Doubletake, the remainder of his request dies instantly on his tongue as his gaze falls upon Maea. "Ronin—" He calls loudly, not that he really needed to, but gods it steadies him to say his husband's name. Dropping to his knees he tries to extract the ancient from Flora's arms, drawing her against him before glancing around for his Ronin.

---

Magic: On my head be it: Can teleport to anyone who could kill him via his passive magic.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered

Magic: Rescue | Remi can bring a fellow Old God demigod to his side in a time of crisis for three concurrent posts. One use per thread. If the summoned demigod also has mastered this ability, they can remain until the end of the thread.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered

There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours

Code stolen from Queen Sky

you may not want to change
but the world is unforgiving and will do it for you anyway

"I have my moments," Ronin murmurs with a quick smile, and he's nodding back and already out of the door before Remi even disappears. Whilst it's true that he really doesn't need to go anywhere given the nature of his husband's magic, the frenetic energy building in his bones carries him onto the shore regardless. He's just able to spot the first of Flora's messengers bursting onto the beach, his hand raised in half a greeting, before he's promptly pulled away as well.

Blinking hard in the morning light of the fountain square, Ronin glances around for his husband, only to spot him - and Flora, and Maea - near enough to touch, and he exhales a long and shaky sigh before steeling himself once more. "Clever girl," he whispers to Flora, despite knowing none of the details or the context surrounding Maea's death. Pressing a quick kiss to both Remi's cheek and Flora's curls, he's soon kneeling beside the fallen Ancient, turning her to lay her on her back.

"Alright, Maea, come back," he says softly yet firmly, clasping her cheek and reaching within himself for that golden strand of light, before tugging at it hard.

---

Magic: Second Chance | Twice per IC year, Ronin may bring a character back from the dead, provided the ability is used within 24 hours of the character’s death (measured both in site time and real time).
Type: Light | Rank: Upgraded 

Magic: Rescue | Ronin can bring a fellow Old God demigod to his side in a time of crisis for three concurrent posts. One use per thread. If the summoned demigod also has mastered this ability, they can remain until the end of the thread.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered

RONIN

Flora

Okay, that was fast, but also she'd asked for Ronin, and not—

Wide-eyed as the Knight just appears—how had they gotten there so fast? did they know..? had someone else gotten to them before she had..?—Flora willingly allows Maea to be pulled from her lap in order to stand. Noticing the blood on her clothes the queen frowns, before turning to her dads with a slight shake of her head. "There were all of these bone things in the desert. I don't think it was void-related, but a lot was happening and then Maea was just..." Dead.

Had she more time Flora might have pulled the remaining arrow from the loreseeker's shoulder, but whatever. Lots of people shot arrows, it wasn't proof of anything.

I don't like that falling feels like flying
'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

REMI

Helping to shift Maea onto the sand, Remi moves back in order to give Ronin all the room he needs. Only once he sees the ancient's chest rise and fall with life again does he close his eyes, reaching into himself. Rather than plucking at a golden string, he instead tugs at the wellspring of his own vitality, tipping it as one might a bowl, and allowing it to flow from him and against Maea that she might awaken free of pain. It had him sipping in a hiss of pain and growing a touch paler for a moment, but it was nothing he couldn't stomach for a friend.

Dying was bad enough, Maea didn't need to feel as if she had been dead as well.

Glancing at Flora, the Bastion nods, smiling. "You were smart to bring her here." He murmurs adoringly, before glancing at Ronin and finally feeling as though he might be able to take a proper breath.

---

Magic: A gift | Can give up to 100% of his remaining HP to another character within 60ft.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered

There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Maea

Rest against my pillow
like the aging winter sun

It is peaceful in death. All sense of time floats away, leaving only tranquility. Even to one who had made up her mind on wanting to return, that desire was muted and fleeting. An inclination, rather than a need, that seemed more trivial and less driving as that peace sank deeper into her being.
She did linger in a state of waiting, however. Perhaps it was the song, and her patient coaxing for the rest of those lyrics to spring to mind that kept her from following after her brother. Perhaps it was faith.  A knowledge stemming from trust that told her that Remi would respond, if he could. She had only asked for his help once or twice in the past but those had been rewarded with more than satisfactory aid, and she didn't see why this would be any different. If he could, he would answer. And if he could not... then at least she had left some kind of trace behind. Some hint of will to return that proved it hadn't been a choice, no easy way out, no surrender on her part to the struggles and pain that everyone went through in life at some point.

She waited. And then, as if to reward her faith and her patience, she felt something pull on her. A golden light secured to some place just beneath her navel drew her backwards, in on herself, through, somehow. A memory of pain spring up, and a stab of fear left her fighting that pull for a moment.
"... and no more regret," Noah's voice seemed to whisper, gentle and reassuring - and with a sigh, Maea gave in, and stopped fighting. All at once the meadow faded, light brightened into a singular point that swallowed up all else...

... and when it faded, a confusing barrage of sensations came rushing at her like a raging tide. Pain. There was so much pain. A slamming weight in her chest that might be the heart restarting, buzzing, humming noises of blood and churning organs within her ears, almost drowning out the steady, off-rhythm beat of some other drum, some other heart beating through a palm pressed to a cheek that no longer felt quite so cold.

And around the arrow wounds, blood that had begun to crust up started to flow all over again, spilling that precious life right back out onto the pavement. Maea groaned, a faint whimper of wordless agony that was mirrored in her eyes as eyelids once shut in reverence fluttered open. Slowly, that pain faded. Perhaps it had only been the expectation of pain, or by some magic she was healing already. It didn't matter.

She was back. She was back. She was back.

Only wake each morning to
remember that you're gone

you may not want to change
but the world is unforgiving and will do it for you anyway

With his focus wholly on the task at hand, Remi and Flora fade into a faint and affectionate buzz in the background, and Ronin keeps his eyes on Maea's face despite the way her chest rises and falls, indicating that his magic has done it's job. Only when her soft whimper hits the air does he let out a breath he doesn't realise he's been holding, satisfied that he's succeeded. "Hey, you're alright. You're safe," he tells her in a gentle voice, and already his projection has appeared to go and collect water from the healing fountain nearby.

"You're with Remi, Flora and I in Torchline. Flora brought you here. You're going to be okay." Rather than bringing attention to the arrow in her shoulder, Ronin is already reaching to draw it out before her eyes have even fully opened. Murmuring a gentle apology against the pain he knows it will cause, luckily his projection is there soon enough to douse the wound in healing water, helping to finish the work he and Remi have started.

RONIN

REMI

"Hey," Trying to distract Maea as Ronin pulled the arrow from her shoulder, the Bastion leans forward and chuckles boyishly. "If you'd wanted to talk to me again you didn't have to die to do it, you know." He hums, lifting his eyebrows as if Maea had merely gone and done something a touch overdramatic rather than getting herself killed in some..desert..bone..creature fight?

"You're going to be okay." He adds, sitting back to allow Ronin's duplicate to bring the water over. "Look, you've got not just one Ronin but two to look after you.' He points out, unable to help the mischievous raise of his eyebrow, remembering what the ancient had said about not wanting to air her problems in front of a literal White Knight.

There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours

Code stolen from Queen Sky