blood ties

Flora

"A what?!" Flora demands of her brother, and though her vocabulary is not nearly as extensive as Mateo's, she can make a pretty educated guess as to what a matrigna was meant to mean. The fact that Remi has all but told him to shut up confirms her suspicions, and suddenly she thinks that if she and her brother did have the magical wardrobe they'd been speaking of earlier, that Mateo would be at risk of being strangled in his sleep.

Wanting to go back to the part where she and Jack had been making her parents feel uncomfortable because of where his hands and lips were, rather than the fact that he and Remi were tied for number of biological children, as Ronin stands, Flora can only huff loudly. "You asked." She points out, even though technically it had been Remi; they were basically one entity when it came to things like this, anyway.

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Mateo

Should'a seen what I wore
I had a cane and a party hat

Feeling somewhat unfairly scapegoated as tensions erupt between his parents and his sister, Mateo can do little more than raise his hands in defeat, taking the hint to shut up about the entire thing. "Well I am sure they are lovely people," is all he does say, as if to tie it all up in a fancy little ribbon labelled that's fucked up. Taking further interest in his cocktail and shifting to sit cross-legged in his seat, the botanist leans an arm against his knee and glances at the dying sun on the horizon.

"At what point is it okay to suggest that we go to The Hanged Man for drinks?" he asks tentatively, not that he thinks Remi and Ronin are going to be at all invited along for the festivities. Maybe he won't at this rate, if Flora is serious about sneaking through a magic wardrobe to murder him.

I was the king of this hologram
where there's no such thing as getting out of hand

honey, you're familiar like my mirror years ago

Remi's stomach clenches as Ronin rises to leave, and if there was ever any wonder where it was Flora got her big feelings from, the percussive ricocheting of the Bastion's thoughts inside his mind should answer that for Jack. Feeling the overwhelming urge to follow in his husband's shadow where his hands could smooth the tension from his shoulders and his tongue could act as a buffer between the things the Knight was likely turning over and over in his mind, instead, he remained where he was. Leaning forward, his fingers steepled between his knees, Remi's smile is cold as he regards the captain, silently wondering what brownie points he could possibly think he was scoring with Flora after no doubt having so thoroughly embarrassed her.

"No, I can take a hint." The Bastion says with a casual shrug. He hadn't known about Jack's children when he'd inquired about the other man's family, so as far as he could tell, this entire mess was entirely of Jack's making. "But I will say—" Glancing over his shoulder to try and spy his husband out of the corner of his eye, as Remi turns back, there's something unwaveringly sad in his green eyes. "There is no keeping parts of your life separate where Safrin is concerned." No one knew that better than the Taliesins. Looking to Flora even as she tried to avoid his eyes, the Bastion persisted. "You can't imagine the things Safrin promised Ronin if only he'd promise to love her above all else. Above me. He could have had the world if he'd left me for her." Though he might have it wrong, Remi thought that Jack was the sort of man who wouldn't need to have such a bribe offered to him more than once before accepting it.

Shrugging, he stands, finishing his drink. "But maybe it's like what Ronin said about your brother. Maybe you're fine with just an okay sort of love." Or no love at all, as it happened.

idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword

JACK

Jack certainly is starting to learn where Flora gets her big feelings from, but as he gets a taste of the maelstrom swirling in Remi's mind, he can safely say that it doesn't do it for him in the same way. Though perhaps that isn't entirely true, if the muscle feathering in the captain's jaw is anything to go by; his fuse has grown longer as the years have passed, it's true, but whilst he stands less than a little chance at going toe to toe with the Bastion in a fight, fuck him if he thinks he'll take this lying down.

"For a man who has so much to say about my age, you're doin' a stellar job at actin' like I'm a kid you can lecture," he says, his voice quiet but threaded with steel. "Not all of us are you. Whatever sad story you wrote with Safrin ain't the gold standard for goddesses. Maybe if you'd done better things would've turned out differently for you."

As for the sort of love Flora might be fine with, unlike Remi, the captain doesn't get to his feet, but the drink in his glass has frozen over completely and the smell of ozone fills the air. "That make you feel good, did it? She tells you I make her happy, and you say shit like this. You really are a fuckin' terrible father."

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

honey, you're familiar like my mirror years ago

"If that's how you heard it." The Bastion says with a shrug as if to imply that perhaps the reason it felt to Jack like he was being treated like a kid, was because he was acting like one. As for gold standards when it came to Safrin? Chuckling humourlessly under his breath, Remi folds his arms comfortably across his chest. "It's true, I am a terrible example for most things." He agrees easily. "Ronin on the other hand.." Well, it wasn't so easy to tar them both with the same brush, now was it? Ronin who had been Safrin's golden boy, who'd been good and honest and true. He was all the things that Jack wasn't, and if he'd fallen from grace, there was no way Jack stood a chance. Whatever the captain might think of himself, Remi was fairly certain Flora wouldn't be as quick to dismiss the parallels he was trying to draw. He hoped not, at least.

Meeting Jack's gaze, Remi is silent for a long moment. Despite the way his thoughts do continuously flicker to images of wringing the captain's scrawny neck, for the most part, his mind is filled with a thick fog of sadness. How could Flora not see that she deserved better? Infinitely better? "No, it really doesn't." He says sadly on the heels of a long sigh, glancing sympathetically toward Mateo before letting his gaze return to Jack. "That's the thing about loving someone. You can't just smile and say the easy stuff." Which is no doubt precisely the sort of shit a man like Jack did if his r U haPpy w/ Me FloRa's were anything to go by.

idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword

Flora

"Oh my GOD." Sounding very much like annie murphy absolutely done, Flora abruptly stands, shrugging off Jack's arm and knocking the table with her knees hard enough to have her gin spilling over the lip of her glass. "Enough already." Pressing her palm to her forehead and glancing around exasperatedly, had her curls not been in a knot on the top of her head she'd likely have pulled them all out by now. With a frantic glance toward Mateo, not that she suspected even his buoyant charm could rescue things at this point, Flora realized that if anyone was going to put a stop to things, it'd probably have to be her.

"I don't care that you two don't like Jack, and I never will, so shut up about it already." Wishing she'd taken the last sip of her drink rather than spilling it, Flora huffed dramatically at Remi before continuing. "And enough doom and gloom about what could go wrong. A thousand things could go wrong, but you know what? I could die tomorrow so there's really no reason to break up over something that hasn't even happened." Though Ronin could just bring her back if she did die, Flora thought her point still stood.

"This doesn't have to be a for sure forever thing for me to be happy, and Jack doesn't have to be perfect for me to love him, so just shut up." Having balled her fingers into fists, Flora's voice rose and rose, until she was practically yelling at the Bastion, her point punctuated by the stomp of one of her feet.

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Mateo

Should'a seen what I wore
I had a cane and a party hat

There is no buoyant charm from Mateo, it's true, but given that he had zero idea about the animosity that lurks between his father(s) and the man Flora is dating until right the fuck now, suffice to say he is very much on his sister's side. Especially when the Doubletake detonates, leaving him suddenly quite sober and feeling a mix of awkward and upset. 

"Sei stato piuttosto scortese," he admits softly to his father - not just in what he had said to Flora, but at the implication that she, like Ronin said about him, would be content with something that is just okay.

Clearing his throat and rising to his feet as well, he straightens out his shirt and glances between Remi and Flora. "I think I am going to call it a night," he says. Here, anyway. He's absolutely going to continue having a night elsewhere, though. "Thank you for inviting me." And we will probably never do this again.

I was the king of this hologram
where there's no such thing as getting out of hand

JACK

Leave it to Remi Taliesin to once again make Jack feel like the street urchin he'd once been, the captain throwing up a mental block against the other man as his thoughts turn sour with the sympathy of oh my poor girl, falling for such a waste of breath. Glancing up as Flora rises to her feet, her mind razor sharp even after the considerable number of drinks in quick succession, Jack also gets up stiffly once she's finished, fixing the cuff of his shirt and brushing the frost from his fingertips.

"I think," he says slowly, echoing Mateo and gesturing for the botanist to keep his seat, since he is, after all, a Taliesin in all of this, "it would be better if I was the one who made myself scarce. Clearly this is a family matter." And much as he would thoroughly enjoy hearing Flora continue to tear strips off her father, Jack has suddenly lost his appetite for it.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

Not knowing what it was her brother had said but agreeing with the tone of it, Flora glances from Mateo to Remi. Feeling Jack rise from behind her—not least of all because of the frost falling from his fingertips—she instinctively reaches her hand out for him, to brush against his leg or catch his fingers if they were anywhere near hers.

"Well, I've lost my appetite, so.. Given that Jack wasn't wrong in it being a family matter and as it was too soon to try and rope him into staying under that banner, Flora is more than happy to disentangle herself from what was a spectacularly failed family dinner to be literally anywhere else.

"Obviously you drink for free at the tavern." Flora murmurs in Mateo's direction, and while the queen didn't not feel like drinking, she certainly didn't feel like doing it in public. Maybe she and Jack could steal a bottle on their way bar, get drunk on the beach and then he could fuck her beneath the stars. That'd be nice, no matter what her stupid dads might think.

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

honey, you're familiar like my mirror years ago

Turning to Mateo, the furrows lining Remi's brow have the shape of his eyebrows rising and falling with immediate regret. "Io... non intendevo questo." He murmurs softly, thankful that at least this portion of his conversation with Mateo was private. (lol). "Era fuori posto. Mi dispiace, Mateo. Puoi restare e goderti il ​​cibo se vuoi? Io e Ronin resteremo dentro."

Then, as he's verbally brow-beaten once again by his daughter, Remi can only do as he did before and concede to all her points (despite apparently having not learned from them before). "You're right." Remi agrees softly, lowering his chin and closing his eyes. "Of course you're right." Biting at the inside of his cheek, the Bastion ruffles a hand through his curls, and if his fingertips grow jagged near the back where they tug at a sudden spray of feathers, so be it. "I think maybe this was a bit too soon. For all of us." Flora wasn't wrong that he and Ronin needed to get over their issues with Jack, but nor was it so easy for them to be in the presence of such an absolute jackass of a man.

As Jack rises, Remi can't say he's at all surprised that the captain is keen to turn tail and run to leave, nor that Flora wants to go with him. Sighing, knowing that there was absolutely nothing left to say and that whatever he did say would probably just make things worse, the Bastion just nods at his children, and Jack. "Love you both." He says to them, before eyeing the captain silently and returning to the Northaven.

~FIN

idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword