Heads on a science apart
Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
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#15

Inadvertently Remi had been clenching nearly all the muscles in his body, and as Ludo's own smile seemed to shine through Ianto's lips Remi actually found release. The pantomime was over and he could see clearly that it was not his friend before him. It was no less difficult to stare into Ianto's eyes—not after all that Remi had been through—but at least the pretense was over.

And then, blissfully, it really was over, and Ianto was gone.

Gasping slightly and recoiling without really meaning to, Remi spun around at the sound of Ludo's voice. Tendrils of black caressed the snow forming a sphere, and Remi's first horrified thought was that he meant to play catch with it. "I do not think—" The alchemist began before biting down on the words. Did he think Ianto was dead? He didn't ... he didn't think he did. But truthfully, he had no evidence to think he hadn't. There was no way beyond the barrier, no way to know who went and who stayed or even what had happened. The sort of finality of information seemed much the same as death, at the heart of it.

At the mention of his magic, Remi's eyes narrowed suspiciously and worriedly. He hadn't been lying to Isla when he said sometimes he felt as though his magic was cheating and that he favoured doing things the old fashioned way with his hands, but nor did he want to lose the magic and the opportunities it provided him.

Swallowing, Remi watched the impossibly dark robes as if mesmerized, before glancing back up. "I...I am not sure whether it suits me. But I do think that I have done some good with them. They have allowed me to do things I was not previously able—"things for which I relied on Loren"—that I can now do myself. For that I am grateful. After all that had happened, the words that came next felt so strange. First his mother, then Ianto? And yet humbleness and servitude had been ingrained into the fabric of Remi's being. He felt helpless to say otherwise.

"Thank you."

REMI
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finding me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Spooky Rags


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#16
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

"Do you not?" Ludo's voice was mild, but it still it challenged Remi even as he challenged himself. As they spoke it completed its snowball, using two clothy tendrils to lift the thing up, only to suddenly pelt it at the alchemist with a flick of its robes. It was already rolling the next one to life when the hawk-lion-whatever responded about the powers it had given him. The gratitude though, that was impossible, and Ludo's white mask tilted up to stare directly at Remi. Abandoning the snowball, it inched closer and closer until they were all but nose to nose, waiting, examining.

"You are welcome," it said finally, drawing back to flutter about the snow. "You are a very strange one, sweetling. Are you sure you do not want to lay down here and sleep? You would be such a wonderful addition. It wouldn't hurt one bit, not like the swamp."

Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
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#17

"Can you...Can you read my thoughts?" Remi asked clumsily, not really sure what the parameters of being a god entailed—or if that's what Ludo actually was—but given the tone of his voice it certainly seemed as though he thought Remi did.

As the snowball flew towards the alchemist, Remi's eyes widened as it struck him straight in the chest. Looking down as the snow fluttered away towards his feet, Remi expected to suddenly be turned to snow (or ice, more likely), or have some sort of magical something come from the act. When it didn't, Remi looked up perplexed in a naively painful sort of way, as his hands idly rose to gently brush the snow away. Before he could say anything more Ludo fixed him with his masked-stare and Remi stiffened slightly. As the being neared, Remi swallowed, pale eyes growing wide. He was not so masculine as to want to try and prove himself tough before a god, but nor did he want to allow himself to recoil completely.

Remi smelled nothing, could see nothing, could feel nothing despite the closeness of the mask and Ludo's dark shape. Still his eyes tried to scan and see something in the strange creature. Exhaling a warm puff of air as Ludo pulled back, Remi sighed gratefully unsure what to make of being called strange in this context, but deciding not to comment on it.

Although Remi's instinct was of course to say no immediately, he did allow himself a moment to wonder. He had no real purpose here (however nice his shop was). No Loren. No Ianto. He had Ronin and Vai and Isla who would likely be sad if he was gone, but was that enough to keep him here?

Smiling sadly, Remi shook his head. "No...but why do you ask? This is the second time. Why do you want me to die?"

REMI
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finding me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Spooky Rags


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#18
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

Considering that Ludo didn't have much of a shape beyond the drifting bundle of rags that occasionally might have had legs, it gave as much of a shrug as one could reasonably imagine. "Probably," it said as though it didn't think that mattered so much. It was unlike its fellows - Safrin, especially - but that didn't make it any less capable. Ludo waited patiently, eagerly almost, as Remi seemed to seriously consider its suggestion, and it let out an undignified snort and swathed itself around him when he finally did respond.

The masked face would hover just over Remi's shoulder, tendrils of fabric helping to brush some of the snow away. "Because you didn't die the first time, in the Woodlands. That always works, but it didn't with you." Whether good or bad, it definitely appeared that Ludo had taken an interest in the alchemist.

"If you won't die today, then, I would at least like one of your memories, please. I will exchange something for it in return, if you like. Name your price."

Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
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#19

Probably? It probably could read his mind? Well. If it was doing so now it would only see confusion and disappointment, and perhaps a small amount of relief bouncing around in what was currently just a complete vacancy. As much as Remi might like to think strategically about this encounter, when confronted with the being the alchemist's mind was nearly as blank as the mask the god wore.

That Ludo would help remove some of the snow from his shoulder was so strange that Remi could only be grateful. Again he tried to see or somehow intuit something about the creature before him as if proximity would somehow impart some secret knowledge, but of course it didn't. "It very nearly did." Remi said, voice low and flat.

Ludo's request caught Remi entirely off-guard, and in a response a crooked and awkward smile spread across his lips as his eyes narrowed with amused suspicion. "A memory? Of mine?" Initially Remi would have thought that the 'price' he would be owed was leaving alive. But if the god was offering something more?

Could he have Loren back? But no. The librarian had made his choice.

But Ianto? Could he have Ianto back?

"And this memory...It can be anything? And it will just be gone from me?"

REMI
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finding me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Spooky Rags


Age: 7 | Height: | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#20
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

Ludo did not smile - couldn't rather - but two wisps of fabric pressed together before them in what could only be delight at the news that it had almost gotten Remi, even if it hadn't been successful. In fact, the less happy the alchemist seemed about that encounter, the more Ludo seemed to enjoy it. "But of course a memory of yours. I doubt you have any others rattling around in there." So saying, a tendril would tickle at Remi's ear, like Ludo could see into there (it most likely could).

"Well I wouldn't say anything. It must be something that holds significance to you. A person. I do not want a memory of your breakfast last week," it said, surging up and over Remi again to hover before him on the snow. It did not have breath to fog the air between them, but there was still an air of anticipation around it. "Yes, it will be gone. Like it never existed."

Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
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Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
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#21

It was strange to try and read personality in the movements of textiles, and yet that was precisely what Remi's mind seemed to be trying to do. As a wisp of cloth moved towards Remi's ear his shoulder instinctively rose to block the motion as his head tilted slightly away. Not that that helped of course since there didn't appear to be any real limitation on the range with which Ludo could reach. Or rather the fabric could reach. Remi was hard telling the deity apart from his manifestation of black fabric.

Swallowing as Ludo hovered before him, Remi considered with a nervousness that he rarely felt.

As much pain as Loren had caused him, as much as those memories would be a welcome weight off of his shoulders, there was one memory in particular that seemed to drown out all the rest. "The memory of my mother...as...she was with you?" Remi whispered hesitantly. Images of her throat pale and white before being spliced open with his claws. Her face bedraggled with pain and longing as his father pulled her down into the mud..

With eyes wide and childlike in their innocence and naive hope, he scanned the contours of that impossibly smooth mask again, silently pleading.

REMI
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finding me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Spooky Rags


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#22
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

Ludo listened and watched and waited, flicking up little flurries of snow with its fabric, only to tilt its mask up to stare at Remi as he made his suggestion. A quiet laugh echoed through the mask, neither male nor female. Ludo shook its head. "I am afraid I cannot do anything with a memory of which I am a part of," it said, starting to roll snow into another ball. If Remi wasn't careful he'd find himself as target practice again, no doubt.

"Come now, there must be a significant memory for which you have little use? From your childhood? What of the not-dead fox? Anything there you are willing to part with." Ludo threw the snowball. "And you still have not named your price. I grow bored.

Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
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#23

Biting the inside of his lip to hide his disappointment, Remi's eyes were drawn to the white sphere slowly being molded by the fabric. Raising a questioning brow, Remi felt his lips wanting to quirk upwards in an amused grin. Was Ludo...playful? Given his previous encounter with the being Remi would never have thought he'd ever believe such a thing. Even if it was just idle boredom something about it was endearing in a strange hard to define sort of way.

"No—" Remi said immediately at the mention of Ianto. He had prescious few memories of the fox as it was, and he wasn't willing to part with any of them. Especially given the possibility that his friend was—

—but no. He didn't want to think about that.

Struck by the snowball again, this time Remi didn't recoil as much knowing that it carried no danger. "It is a bit hard to think when I am being struck by snowballs and tickled by your—" Not knowing whether they were hands or fingers or what, Remi just nodded towards the tendril that had gently caressed his ear.

"Can you tell me how to leave this place? The barrier? Is there truly a way through?"

Then an idea hit him. There was a memory—or rather a cluster of memories—that he'd part with. A person who had used his friendship and had offered him nothing but cursory thoughts and unmemorable wisdom rather than true care and concern. "Delphine Rowan. You may have all the memories of her that you like." And oh there were a lot to choose from. The Bellamy walking in with her hands on him and he in her lap, of their endless talks about her marriage, of all her insecurities. Of the day he almost told her about Loren, only to have the conversation swallowed up in her own worries and wants.

REMI
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finding me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Spooky Rags


Age: 7 | Height: | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#24
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

"That is your problem, not mine," Ludo responded to Remi's chastising, wiggling a tendril of fabric at him for good measure. It continued to flick up flurries of snow with its rags as the alchemist gave its terms due credence, and the white mask tilted up to settle on Remi in a blank, sightless stare when he finally named his price. Ludo seemed to shiver a little, as if stretching to say what it wanted to. Finally it drifted forward and about Remi, cloaking itself around him almost. "I cannot say, for I do not know," it said. "But your answers lie up there."

The mask nodded through the bleak, stark snow to the needlepoint of black in the distance, to the Spire. "You will likely need aid from those abominations that claim themselves ascended. But to say more than that is beyond me."

Then he spoke the name of Delphine Rowan and Ludo near quivered. It unwrapped itself from around Remi to hover before him once more, examining him carefully. "No, you may keep the others. I need only one." It reached out a lick of fabric to flick Remi in the forehead petulantly - and just like that, the memory of Bellamy's interruption into their intimate (if not platonically so) moment would be gone. And in Ludo's place stood Delphine Rowan, wearing the god's rags and a white mask. "Oh, this is different," it said in her voice.

Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
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#25

Remi wasn't sure what sort of response he'd expected of the god—indeed as soon as the words left his lips he felt sure he was going to be struck down or cursed once again—but Ludo's reply seemed almost ...impish?

Watching as the tendrils of fabric stretched and moved—a gesture the kindly alchemist didn't understand in the least—Remi could only gape with his lips slightly apart. However as the god cloaked himself around the alchemist's shoulders, Remi shivered slightly as he looked from shoulder to shoulder. Was he wearing Ludo? Or was Ludo wearing him? Trying him on for size? Swallowing uncertainly, Remi shrugged his shoulders feeling the weight - or lack thereof - of the cloth around him.

Following where the mask nodded, Remi squinted to see the darkened spire peering out of the distance. "I thought as much." Remi murmured, wondering if this conversation would at all convince the likes of Rory and Ronin to let him study the spire in earnest now. Ascended. The bloodfiends that were ... at least, that's the understanding that he and Rory had come to.

Comically recoiling backwards (and giving himself quite a few chins as his head lolled back), Remi felt the gentle snap of fabric on his forehead and then...

...then...

well. Nothing really. As with Frey's removal of his feelings losing something was not quite the same as simply not remembering it at all. The memory was gone, and there before him was Delphine Rowan.

Smirking slightly at the short blonde, the alchemist shook his head. "Something tells me that if Delphine was around she would be quite pleased to know that a god was parading around in her body." Remi said dryly, folding his arms with a skeptical raising of one of his brows.

REMI
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finding me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Spooky Rags


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#26
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

Ludo examined Delphine's hands, turning them this way and that and plucking at the fabric of its clothing (the rags still seemed to move of their own accord), before pushing up the mask to offer Remi a mischievous smile with full, soft lips. "Would she? Perhaps one day we shall meet, and I will take her to the swamp," it said, walking a few paces around Remi before shrugging and nodding. "This will do nicely. I trust our deal to be done." So saying, Ludo lifted the mask clear of its now blonde and bouncy curls, pressing it into Remi's hands.

"A keepsake from me to you. Wear it well." Ludo flashed a toothy grin, before turning on heel without another word to the alchemist. It walked on bare feet along the snow, not seeming to sink into it in the slightest, and a stray tendril flickered out as it travelled, trailing absently to leave a line in the snow.

Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
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#27

Remi watched as Delphine's lips appeared below the mask, and the alchemist scowled softly. At the mention of the swamp Remi both recoiled and smirked. "I would never presume to know the limits of your patience...but if anyone could test them, it would be Delphine." He intoned dryly shaking his head with disappointment and annoyed amusement.

Watching out of his peripheral vision as Ludo circled around in Delphine's delicate body, he raised his brows surprised as the mask was removed entirely and handed towards him. Without thinking his hands reached out to take it, though stopped just short of grabbing the material. He'd be fooled twice by the god, and with embarrassing ease. Swallowing, Remi's fingers gently folded around the mask, finding it incredibly strong but immaculately free of any imperfections. "Thank you." He mumbled uncertainly, thinking to perhaps say more, but watching as Ludo turned easily on the snow.

Staring stupidly at the receding shape of Delphine swathed in black cloth against the bright white snow, Remi glanced down at the mask. Even though the gods eyes were no longer behind it, the alchemist doubted that he'd ever be able to look at the thing without seeing Ludo in it.


~FIN

REMI
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finding me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.


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