Reading is fundamental (OPEN)

R E M I Remi had never been calmed in that way before, but, obedient as he normally was, he did just as Jigano instructed. Swallowing, he fluttered his lashes closed and inhaled deeply while silently counting to six. Holding his breath for just a moment, he exhaled in a rush not quite making it to 6 but perhaps close enough. [say]"I am not sure we can ever know that for certain."[/say] He said, but there was a slight smile on his lips as he let his eyes open once again. Remi perhaps did not feel immediately better about the situation, and though he wasn't sure that the breathing helped he did feel immensely grateful that Jigano had tried to offer him some sort of coping mechanism. The way Jigano's eyes had shifted from something soothing like a summer sky to something sharp and cold but hot at the same time. It made the alchemist sit up a bit straighter, eye lashes fluttering with puzzlement wondering if perhaps he'd said something too much, or if perhaps Jigano favoured one of the gods of which he'd spoke..? However as the man began speaking, his tone did not imply any sort of fealty that Remi could hear, and the alchemist relaxed his tense posture slightly. Listening carefully he considered Jigano's words. While he didn't necessarily disagree—it did seem as though Frey was willing to give his feelings back if certain conditions were met—the explanation didn't soothe him either. "The game.." Remi all but whispered, the skin around his eyes seeming to quake as his forehead wrinkled with his pained expression. If anything playing with him sounded more like an occupation of Ludo's, not Frey's, but of course who was Remi to know the mind of a god? The question of Loren halted Remi's line of inquiry in its tracks, and for a moment he could only stare gravely at Jigano. Lowering his eyes slightly, Remi was surprised to feel the pinpricks of tears stinging the back of his nose and just behind his eyes. It was surprising only insofar as without the emotional capacity to feel something for Loren, he had not. But this wasn't a question of love, it was a question of where. And in that, Remi could feel something about and for the Launceleyn. And he did. Much as Remi was in love with Loren, the two had been friends before all the complicated stuff had occurred, and the alchemist still missed his friend deeply. That and the fact that Loren was apparently holed up in a 'sex cave' (Edy's words, not his),  was also deeply wounding. "Yes." Remi said, eyes focusing on the feather before setting it down with a sort of finality that Jigano likely wouldn't understand. Feathers and Loren..Those were thoughts he didn't need to think just now. "He did come through to Caido with the rest of us. He is...ah..." Swallowing, for he'd really only said this to Vai thus far and he was finding the lump that grew in his throat rather hard to talk around, he tried to continue. "..he has relocated for now, I believe." But that wasn't going to answer Jigano's next question, which was surely to be Well you should find him and just fall in love again, right? And so, steeling himself, Remi tried on a smile before letting it slide away. "I think...I have been told that he is seeing someone." He tried, eyes flickering self consciously upwards towards Jigano, before darting away again as his cheeks flushed and the colour roamed towards his ears. Many might see Frey's curse as actually a blessing in disguise. If you were going to be blown off, better not to feel anything towards the person who'd left you. But the kindly alchemist didn't feel that way. Loving Loren had been an awakening. The librarian was the first man that Remi had allowed himself to have feelings for, and it was because of Loren that he'd finally abandoned the shackles that Northaven had placed on him. He'd never loved before Loren, and so he'd never had his heart broken. Even so, he lamented the absence of that pain, if only because it was real. And because it was all he had left.