I'm fine with all the doubts
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
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#1
Kid, I feel like yelling
Ring the bell and bang the drum
For the new few months it was inadvisable for he or Rexanna to seek out wild adventure beyond the Sanctuary. Bastien was glad that they had gotten their journey into Raes Fingers when they had; it had not been a massively dangerous or thrilling mission, but it had at least fulfilled his desire to go out and explore something new for the time being.

So all there was to do was to prepare their home for the new arrival. When Bastien had moved into the Sanctuary building he had left the last room on the corridor empty, thinking in time he might transform it into a private study or some kind of meditation space, perhaps a personal closet for his variety of fashionable items. He had never once imagined he might be changing it into a baby room.

Of course, he had to do it in his own fashion. Drawing out the lines for a mural, he had grand plans indeed for the room. Some mountains in the middle, dividing a stylised view of Halo and the Hollowed Grounds - to one end Torchline and to the other a swirling galaxy to represent those places less well travelled. He did not include the Greatwood. Whether this was a statement due to his Ascended nature or simply having run out of space, who could say?

Of course, this was a joint activity between him and Rexanna. He was drawing the undersketch but he trusted her to begin the painting, allowing her to take whatever liberties she chose with the drawing beneath. With the thought player twinkling out some harmless tune it was a peaceful time and he was happy to continue in a companionable silence for a long time before finally speaking to muse: "Did you ever think we would be doing this? Life truly does keep delivering surprises, even after it dropped me in an entirely different world."
There's just no telling all the things that you’ll become
BASTIEN
Base Code by Sky!
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 4 Abandoned (Level 3 Ascended) - Strg: 19 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 9 - Int:
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#2
REXANNA
FOR A TIME IT SEEMED TO ME,
THAT WE WERE STARLIGHT-TOUCHED.
FAILING TO REALIZE THAT WE WERE STARCROSSED,
One thing she’d realized, was that it was difficult to power through and create everything they might need for the child that would be hopefully arriving while drained the way they were. But it had been… Both nice and understandable – though she feels it in a bit of a different way. The first time, back before ever arriving in Caido, she had been exhausted all of the time as well. Some stomach upset, some quick exhaustion that set on with hardly anything.

This is different, and yet… Still so familiar. It makes her excited for the result, especially with Bastien at her side. And so as Bastien begins to draw out the designs, she pushes off a chair she’d been lounging in while they decided what it would be, to approach and help. After all, she couldn’t let him do everything now could she?

She picks up the paint and a brush, moving to the end where she kind of had an idea of what Bastien was going for, adding in her own spark and zest to the product they create, something beautiful and wonderful, mesmerizing and simply… A mix of them, like their child would be. “I didn’t.” Rexanna agrees, musing quietly though a smile grows wide on her face as she paints strong strokes. “You’ve been the one that’s had such a change of heart, it seems.” She teases lightly, leaning toward him to stick her tongue out at him. “But I think… I think you’re going to make a wonderful father, Bastien. I can’t wait.
THE STARS WERE
NEVER
ON OUR SIDE.
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
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#3
Kid, I feel like yelling
Ring the bell and bang the drum
As Rexanna stood up to work on the wall Bastien watched to see what she would do, finding himself very pleased indeed by her addition to the mural. It seemed they were in sync on what the vision for this room was, what should surround their child when it was time for them to move in. He had a million questions, of course: Would it be a boy or a girl, or...something new? The Voice did not have to follow old rules, after all. Would their child be born with special abilities, would they age? It was all a lot of unknowns, but he supposed most new parents had to feel that way.

Maybe it was just his worries that were already in his mind, but something about Rexanna's phrasing made him feel odd. Pausing his drawing, he looked back: "You...want to do this too, right?" He asked, his voice uncharacteristically unsure as just for a moment he felt a pang of doubt, a concern that he might have pressured her into this.
There's just no telling all the things that you’ll become
BASTIEN
Base Code by Sky!
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 4 Abandoned (Level 3 Ascended) - Strg: 19 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 9 - Int:
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#4
REXANNA
FOR A TIME IT SEEMED TO ME,
THAT WE WERE STARLIGHT-TOUCHED.
FAILING TO REALIZE THAT WE WERE STARCROSSED,
She brings the brush to the wall, swiping paint along the designs that Bastien has laid out – careful to make sure she can separate them in certain ways where she wants to add a bit more of a pattern to it. Still, the brush pauses against the wall at his question – the amount of uncertainty that lingers within the tones of his voice. Verdant eyes slip over toward him where he pauses too, trying to figure out where the doubt had crept in.

Of course.” She says quietly, offering him a gentle smile. “I just didn’t expect to be this tired.” It’s a gentle teasing, before she returns to the wall and focuses on it. “It’s much different this time around. Part of me worries that I might not… Well, be a good mother.” An unneeded sigh is granted as she shifts a small amount in her step to continue to paint. “I think you’ll be a great father, I have no doubt about that. As for me? I… Never got the chance to do it before, not that I can remember well enough.” A frown crosses her face, also somewhat uncharacteristic.
THE STARS WERE
NEVER
ON OUR SIDE.
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
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#5
Kid, I feel like yelling
Ring the bell and bang the drum
Rexanna's brush stopped on the wall and if Bastien were in a more wandering state of mind he might have made up some metaphor in his head about the moment itself pausing; now though he only stared at her to hear what she might say, unsure where this intense anxiety had come from that had suddenly seized his heart.

Rexanna had done this before: with people other than him, in different places, with different children. Did she resent him making her go through it again? He knew he could be pushy. Lord above, where was this coming from?

"...What makes you so sure I would be a good father? I find it much more obvious you'd be the good mother. After all...well. Perhaps you do not remember it, but you have done this before at least for a while and you always seem to know just what you are doing. I fear I am too floating, too wandering...That I could not provide the stability needed in a father." He added a few lines to the drawing, quick jagged ones - luckily this was the mountain, so they did not look out of place. "..Perhaps we should have waited longer."
There's just no telling all the things that you’ll become
BASTIEN
Base Code by Sky!
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 4 Abandoned (Level 3 Ascended) - Strg: 19 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 9 - Int:
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#6
REXANNA
FOR A TIME IT SEEMED TO ME,
THAT WE WERE STARLIGHT-TOUCHED.
FAILING TO REALIZE THAT WE WERE STARCROSSED,
This is quite unlike him, she realizes quickly. Is it nerves? The idea that perhaps it might not have been a good idea? The idea that it’s certainly too late now, and perhaps they should have researched more into the possibilities of it or perhaps been simply happy enough as is like the Voice had suggested? She doesn’t know. Doesn’t know where exactly to begin when he adds a few lines to the wall, his explanation out in the open.

And then, then he says that perhaps they should have waited longer and her brow raises sharply. “Waited longer… Until not at all?” She asks, tone a bit shaky, a bit sharp in her confusion. “Bastien… You’ve never floated or wandered away from me. And when you have a child, well, love is different. It’s.. A stronger bond. You love them more than anything, more than everything.” Perhaps it’s her experience talking. “If you treat this child as well as you’ve treated me by being by my side, you have nothing to worry about.” She tries to give him a relieving smile that begins to fade ever so slightly as she recalls his next comment.

But to wait longer? For another disaster to happen? I’m afraid there isn’t ever going to be a good time. But there never really is, is there? We have to make do with what we have. We have a beautiful home, a wonderful family. That’s all we need.” She tilts her head as if daring for him to argue with her for that, brush having stilled back on the palette.
THE STARS WERE
NEVER
ON OUR SIDE.
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
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#7
Kid, I feel like yelling
Ring the bell and bang the drum
Rexanna's tone was audibly shaken and Bastien felt a sharp stab of guilt. He knew he often played the role of the joker, the confident pillar unworried by the world, that when he shedded that persona it would be distressing...but sometimes he could not help the human concerns that nibbled at the back of his mind. He was better at controlling them than most, but of course sometimes they would prevail; The Voice had made him Ascended, but not robotic.

"..You are correct, of course. I just cannot help the fear. What happened to Remi, to Ronin...I would say I do believe we would be better parents, and I do, but what happened to Aoife was accidental, unavoidable.." He had stopped drawing now, the charcoal he had been using hanging limp in his fingers. "And I worry that more than me, it will harm you - Rexanna, you have already lost so much. More than one child...could you handle another, if something were to happen?" Bastien turned to look at her, genuine fear in his eyes. Would she stay with him if their child fell into danger or would she disappear with them?
There's just no telling all the things that you’ll become
BASTIEN
Base Code by Sky!
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 4 Abandoned (Level 3 Ascended) - Strg: 19 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 9 - Int:
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#8
REXANNA
FOR A TIME IT SEEMED TO ME,
THAT WE WERE STARLIGHT-TOUCHED.
FAILING TO REALIZE THAT WE WERE STARCROSSED,
She pauses in her attempts to try and calm the worries that settle in the back of Bastien’s mind, and it’s clear once he begins to speak that it doesn’t seem to work. Not when he admits that she’s correct… yet then spins it around once more of the fear of the timing. And gods how she loves Remi, quite dearly, but the fact remains… Perhaps gatherings just weren’t meant to be for children here. But Bastien doesn’t end there, no, not as he expresses the concern of her losing another that has her gaze lingering on him in silence.

She’d thought about it. For a while, actually.

She tears her gaze from him to look back at the paint as it begins to spread and dry a small amount. “But Bastien…? If we keep prolonging it waiting for things to get better there might never be a time? Would you… Would you rather not do it at all versus the possibility of losing it?” She pauses, briefly, a sharp inhale of breath despite not needing it. “I want to do this. If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t have agreed. If something happens, then it happens, and that’s life, yes?
THE STARS WERE
NEVER
ON OUR SIDE.
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
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#9
Kid, I feel like yelling
Ring the bell and bang the drum
The paint drying by Rexanna would have taken his attention at any other time as the colour shifted with time, but now he was only focused on her and her words. The question she posed to him was a difficult one, one that he wanted to say 'no!' to but didn't know if he could with a fully honest heart. So much would change. Were they ready?

"...I suppose. I do want this. I just--" Bastien shook his head, put down his charcoal and leaned against an untouched part of the wall, looking into the corner. "I've seen you come home half-dead and hurt several times. I took your body from the Spire and Rexanna, you were limp in my arms--" He held out his hands before him, shaking as he remembered how she had felt.

"I cannot do this alone and I worry you'll leave me, if you want the full truth of it. Not...not willingly. But you don't...you don't think before you jump into danger and one day it will catch you, Rexanna." He had barely spoken a critical word to her before and it felt odd to speak it, but he felt relieved for having said what had been on his mind.
There's just no telling all the things that you’ll become
BASTIEN
Base Code by Sky!
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 4 Abandoned (Level 3 Ascended) - Strg: 19 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 9 - Int:
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#10
REXANNA
FOR A TIME IT SEEMED TO ME,
THAT WE WERE STARLIGHT-TOUCHED.
FAILING TO REALIZE THAT WE WERE STARCROSSED,
He starts again and her gaze flickers back to him briefly, as he begins to explain all the times she’d come home broken, beaten, hurt. Her lips form a fine line and she nods, sharply, just once – turning back to the wall to avoid looking at him. Her gaze flits down to the paint in her hands and she moves away from the wall to set the pallet away, the brush aside so she doesn’t end up spilling it around their home.

I’m not lucky, Bastien, when it comes to those things. I’ll admit it.” She manages, turning to lift her gaze to him, some cold flame burning beneath that she’s unsure how to quell – not with how exhausted and tired they are. “But I do think it through, at least part of the way. But we don’t have a child right now, do we? The one child I do have here wants nothing to do with me. I have you” She trails off, some of her anxieties showing through as well. “But I don’t doubt you’d be able to find someone else eventually.” Perhaps she doesn’t think herself as important as he makes her out to be.
THE STARS WERE
NEVER
ON OUR SIDE.
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
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#11
Kid, I feel like yelling
Ring the bell and bang the drum
Well, it was obvious they weren't creating for the moment. Bastien didn't like to make work in the wrong mood and didn't want to put irritation or anxiety into their child's walls so he put his charcoal on the windowsill and looked entirely at Rexanna now, zoning out the rest of the room.

Her words brought silence from him for a while, Bastien staring at her. He could hardly believe what she'd said, that she'd implied he might 'find someone else'; was she simply accepting that she would die and leave him? Immediately he felt a prick of tears in his eyes and blinked it back, surprised by how easily it had come when usually he was very able to control those kinds of emotions. "Find...someone else? Rexanna...do not ever say those words to me again."

Taking a breath to try and steady the rising tension in him he ran a hand through his hair and shook his head before continuing. "Do you not hear me when I tell you that you are my world? I know I am prone to dramatics but -- my God, Rexanna, I love you more than I was capable of feeling anything before. If I thought it right I would keep you in this house and be sure you were safe, but I believe in principles of freedom...every time you leave the house though, you are content for me to be worrying you will return to me in a coffin?" His voice was strained and as he said this last part the stress made itself extremely obvious, Bastien putting a hand over his mouth and looking down as he finished, closing his eyes.
There's just no telling all the things that you’ll become
BASTIEN
Base Code by Sky!
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 4 Abandoned (Level 3 Ascended) - Strg: 19 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 9 - Int:
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#12
REXANNA
FOR A TIME IT SEEMED TO ME,
THAT WE WERE STARLIGHT-TOUCHED.
FAILING TO REALIZE THAT WE WERE STARCROSSED,
The words hurt as they leave her lips, but she can’t stop them in her frustration and exhaustion – to keep it all packaged in and bowtied as a perfect present of understanding and nonchalance. So she lashes out in the way she knows how, finding some tinge of regret within her at the words as they leave her lips, but not making an effort to try and pull them back. Instead, her gaze drifts back toward the wall, along the sketches and the lines of drying paint, while he mulls them over.

And tells her to never say those words again to him. That’s too bad.

She clenches her jaw slightly, fingers itching to do something, to distract herself from taking out her frustration on her husband, but she can’t. Especially when he mentions that he’d keep her in the house if he could, to keep her away from sticking her nose recklessly into danger, and her head whips toward him with a tilt of her head, legs taking her closer to her husband, verdant gaze watching the way he covers his mouth and averts his gaze. “I’m trying to say that sometimes there are things that are unavoidable.” She frowns. “The pumpkin? Happenstance. You weren’t there. Neither with the Mathair. During LongNight, I made a promise to Sam I had to keep to help him understand them.” She doesn’t reach for him, just crosses her arms over her chest. “I retained my magic, plus the magic I had gotten from Loren. I was stronger than you then, Bastien. I couldn’t not help where I could.” But then her frown deepens with the idea of a coffin, gaze growing a bit cold.

You’ll remember I’ve already mourned you once.” When he'd held his own funeral after the first LongNight. A secret she's kept with her ever since.
THE STARS WERE
NEVER
ON OUR SIDE.
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
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#13
Kid, I feel like yelling
Ring the bell and bang the drum
"The pumpkin you could have run from. The Mathair you did not have to volunteer for. You could have left Sam to be the ignorant pissant he is." Bastien did not reach for her either, his hands busy gesturing before him; he had always spoken with his hands, especially when passionate and now as Rex would find out, when he was angry. Rexanna's attitude was very admirable he supposed, from an impersonal point of view, but as her husband? It was unbearable. "You cannot fix the problems of this world, Rexanna. You can step back sometimes."

That was a point he was willing to give up on, eventually: he actually admired her spirit and as soon as he said the words he paused as he regretted them. As she spoke again though he felt a mean laugh leave his lips and knew that they were well and truly in this now.

"You mourned me for all of five minutes and we weren't even together then. Do not pretend as if you felt any real pain on that day: any that would compare to how I would feel now should you not come home." He crossed his arms and shook her head, irritated she would compare the two.
There's just no telling all the things that you’ll become
BASTIEN
Base Code by Sky!
Rexanna De Rosieres
the Penumbra
Queen of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 34 | Height: 5'4" | Race: Ascended x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 4 Abandoned (Level 3 Ascended) - Strg: 19 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 9 - Int:
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#14
REXANNA
FOR A TIME IT SEEMED TO ME,
THAT WE WERE STARLIGHT-TOUCHED.
FAILING TO REALIZE THAT WE WERE STARCROSSED,
She could have ran from them, and what would have been left? Someone else to take her place, someone else to possibly die when she’d made it out okay in the end? Squished, broken, impaled? Sure. But at least she could heal, the Voice could repair. She wasn’t the fragile abandoned woman that Bastien had fallen in love with. She’d changed her entire life because of him, and still he wants her to live content within a cage with it?

I could. I did before. And my people died for it.” She frowns, sharply, recalling Halyven and its destroyed walls while she’d ran for far too long to protect her own life. She didn’t want to be selfish anymore, wanted to give as much as she could to right the wrongs of her past. And here? Here it seems like he’s mocking it.

But still, the anger that leaves him, that dark laugh has her shaking her head and moving away from him with her own scoff/laugh of disbelief. “No. We weren’t together then. We’d only just arrived.” Her voice edges on something sharp and piercing. “You don’t get to pretend that I didn’t, Bastien! You who held this mock funeral for yourself because you didn’t want people to see you the way you’d been cursed? Please.” She rolls her eyes to that, trying to push the point that she had felt the pain of it, irritated and exhausted that he can't see the correlation.
THE STARS WERE
NEVER
ON OUR SIDE.


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