all that was me, is gone

REMI

if you're not going to swim deep with me

Like how meat is spoiled if the animals are taken when they are frightened.. Remi knew well the difference in taste from vermin and other game he'd caught when he'd been hidden versus when he'd taken his prey out after a chase. It was perhaps a crass comparison, and yet it was all his mind could think of to reconcile what it was he was being told to do.

But he understood, and willingly he went.

To fly down as a manticore would have been to invite fear. And so instead, it was with the wings of the beast and the body of a man that he glided towards the sinking ship. Curled hair, bright eyes, wings and a smile, as Remi called out to the men that the had a way of saving them from their watery grave, he might have indeed looked like some characterture of an angel. "Come close," He urged, arms outspread. "—I can help." The meagre illusion magic he did have covered him then. In his hands appeared Hels, which would let the men walk on water, and dripping from his wrists were other artifacts sure to aid in their rescue. The magic would also cover the monstrous way the alchemist would change, from would-be savior to bringer of their end.

Make it fast. Don't spoil the meat. Don't let them know it's coming.

So it was that when Remi spun, talons extended towards throats and a barbed tail dripping with poison aimed for their hearts, he meant to leave no survivors.

get out of my waters

Coding base by Sky!

ludo Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own It was a peaceful sort of carnage, and one which Ludo watched with an appraising eye, the dark eyed child strolling upon the surface of the waves and among the water churning red. Remi moved like a wing and a prayer, his executions swift, the panic extinguished in leiu of hope and wonder; the perfect foundation for the sailors' happiest memories to take root. And when it was all done, the seas were quiet but for the sinking, fiery wreck of the ship, and Ludo waited patiently for Remi. "A necessary job, but very well done sweetling," it remarked. Indeed, Remi might see the small points of light beginning to drift from above the ocean, bobbing about the deity in preparation for their final journey.

REMI

if you're not going to swim deep with me

The blood was hot and sticky and strangely inert given the lack of screams that accompanied it. When the last of them fell, the manticore lunged awkwardly from the sinking wreckage, wings powerfully pressing down to gain altitude lest the alchemist go down with the ship as well. Quickly their bodies were taken by the waves, but only after small spheres of light were released.

Swallowing hard, a blank look on the face of the leonine-creature as he glided back towards Ludo, small but vast on the waves, Remi hovered awkwardly again near the deity. I let them think I would save them. How hated he would be, if this was Ludo's purpose for him, when finally he crossed the threshold to Mort's kingdom. How many would await him, how many would die with his smile in their minds eye, thinking themselves rescued?

get out of my waters

Coding base by Sky!

ludo Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own "Good," said Ludo, softly. "You did save them." Save them from death? No, of course not. Save them from a slow death, punctuated by horror and fear? Certainly. As if sensing his thoughts, the ragged deity snorted - a sound even more childlike given its current state. "Do not be so prideful," it chastised, beginning to walk again now upon the waves, the soul lights dancing about it. "You think they do not know, afterwards, what happened?" It nodded at the lights. "Besides, you may not end up in Mort's realm at all. Nothing is set in stone."

Unsure as ever how to take Ludo's quips, the manticore shifted into a much smaller body. As long as I spend this life with Ronin, I'll be content with whatever comes next. That was prideful, but love makes fools of us all and he truly did believe it. The pair of them had been given so many second chances and finally, it seemed, they were both on the same page with regard to not squandering them. How will I know? I've had enough near-scrapes with death to know that what looks like a certain end might not be. REMI I wish I could discover something that doesn't expire

ludo Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own "You are in luck. I do not control what happens in this life - only at the end of it," Ludo said; what Remi decided to do with himself while he was still living and breathing was his business. For now, at least - for there are ways for gods to have influences over the mortal realm beyond their usual capabilities. Safrin and her Dark Star were evidence of that. "You will know," it assured Remi, and as they walked the shores of the Ahi Coast would appear in the difference; they had passed through miles of water in mere moments, it would appear. Now, however, the sun was setting, and stars were already beginning to twinkle overhead. Ludo's meaning ought to be clear: Remi would know, for the god would appear.

On near silent wings, the alchemist glided carefully considering the god's words. Ludo, so boyish and young had yet never appeared to him to be so terrifying or steadfast. Had he hands instead of wings, Remi might have raked them through his curls as he'd likely do later on. For now though, he merely trilled a note of understanding, meagre as it was. Then I'll look for you. He vowed, wondering what it was he ought to be feeling now. Relief, for having survived another encounter with the fickle cloaked god? Horrified for how easily he had taken the lives of those men? Joyous that perhaps his life would find purpose, even if that purpose would manifest itself in dark rags that heralded a life to be ended? REMI I wish I could discover something that doesn't expire

ludo Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own "You will not need to," Ludo vowed. As the shoreline grew closer the dark child with the blackened fingers remained standing in the waves, a lost and lonely figure in an otherwise strange and cheerful landscape. "Think on what you did today, sweetling. If you can stomach such business, then you may find yet more purpose than you ever imagined you might have." The deity smiled then, a thin, wry thing that did not reach its eyes, and it waited in the water as the hawk flew back towards life and light and civilisation. ~FIN