Ask me your questions

Remi's observation about the painting was touchingly genuine, something Bastien tried to remember well so he could write it down later. He showed his gratitude for the comment with a warm smile. Perhaps Remi did not consider himself a man of wit, but Bastien thought his friend very clever in his way of seeing things (especially when that way involved compliments). The question threw him a bit. Bastien was quiet for a while, rubbing the petal stains from his fingers. Was Remi asking if you needed permission to have dreams...? Eventually he started to speak again, though it was clear in his tone he was not quite sure what he was being asked. "Well...I have always just done what I wanted to do. That is life, isn't it? You pursue what you love and hope it works. I have found something new to - hm. Maybe not love, but...I can do this. So I will. What's stopping me? Take what you want while you can, my friend. Life is short." His piece said, Bastien patted Remi on the back, hoping his answer helped. BASTIEN This tiresome desire to shock and amaze Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Remi Abruzzo
& all we are is skin and bone trained to get along

Remi listened with the fascinated expression of someone hearing a fairy tale. You just did what you wanted to do? Not in Northaven; not for someone like Remi. The mention of pursing something loved made Remi's smile crinkle sadly at the corners before he shrugged off the emotion with an ambiguous nod of his head. The alchemist had to keep reminding himself that this was not Northaven. He'd not make any judgements about whether or not things had been misconstrued back at home—it didn't matter now anyways—but merely set his sights on the here and now.

"I have never lived my life like that, but perhaps here I will. Or at least, I can try." Shrugging slightly Remi wandered another few feet grabbing various herbs as he went and occasionally lifting them to his nose to smell.

"Perhaps if you do learn from about this Safrin I might ask to meet her. Perhaps not to have her change what has been done to me—" Even now Remi was still far too subservient to ever believe a god would care about his plights. "—but to learn more about her and her ... kind? If they can be called such?"

Image by Lamreii!

"They may as well be, why not? The Gods here must be a kind of race, right? They appear with us and around us in the world." Bastien thought for a moment, tapping his lower lip. "Do you think...maybe, if one attended to their God enough and perhaps underwent some sort of process...we could ascend to Godhood?" He had heard of the Ascended, seen some pass by with whispers about their 'gift', but he had not as of yet had a chance to speak to one, as far as he knew. Besides, they weren't Gods. Just...the word vampiro passed through his mind, but he was sure this place had another name for it. "I would never discount yourself from these things, Remi. You are a very capable man." He moved to pick a flower at his feet, held it up. "See? You know the meanings and uses of each of these. To me, they are just flowers. To you, they are budding potentials. Such an ability to see is something rare." BASTIEN This tiresome desire to shock and amaze Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Remi Abruzzo
& all we are is skin and bone trained to get along

Though Remi was a scientist of sorts when it came to the nomenclature of gods he was entirely at a loss. So instead he merely shrugged at Bastien's suggestion that they were a race unto themselves. Even so, the flaw in the man's logic seemed obvious. "I...but if they are a race, then it would seem no? After all, simply because one tends to a horse, one does not become one? We would all have to be the same race now, and I do not know about you—" With a chuckle, Remi raised his hands and flexed them for a moment as he gazed up at Bastien. "—I have never felt less like a god."

"Ahh." The alchemist said with an awkward shrug, brushing away the compliment. "It is merely a matter of experience. Just as you are able to see art and beauty in the world where I cannot, I can name the uses and qualities of various things. It is not so different. If anything you are the more impressive one, for I do not believe artistry can truly be taught. I used to be friends with a painter .. and the things she could see, I could not even hope to imagine." Then again, Delphine had had synesthesia which lent itself well to her artistic abilities. But even so.

Image by Lamreii!

Remi's point was an interesting one. Bastien considered it with a tilt of his head, about to launch into a philosophical discussion of what it meant to become anything; but laughed at Remi's self-deprecating comment. When it was added to the other speech though, Bastien began to worry for his friend's self esteem. "We are in their image, are we not? And you are a fit, handsome young man with an active mind. As they go I would say you are a fine candidate for godhood. You are far too hard on yourself. You must own your talents and abilities. I could likely teach you to paint and see as I do in a matter of weeks." This was a cocky statement, but one Bastien was sure he could back up. He had taken people with no creativity at all and made them into artists, and Remi had some clear imagination. Confidence had always come easily to him, so he didn't understand Remi's unwillingness to praise himself. BASTIEN This tiresome desire to shock and amaze Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Remi Abruzzo
& all we are is skin and bone trained to get along

Fit? Remi had always had possessed a rather slim sort of build. It was only over the last few months of working with his hands and assisting with a variety of strange tasks back in Northaven that his body had begun to transform into something more athletic. He'd never be bulky with muscle to be sure, but now he was covered with lean definition in a way that he'd never really noticed. Mirrors weren't in large supply and given his decided lack of intimacy as of late, it wasn't as though he'd had any commentary from anyone else.

Rather shyly and awkwardly Remi looked away, considering the bark of a tree quite carefully as he felt his cheeks pulse with heat. "The land I came from did not have gods.." Remi said as gently as he could, trying to still the waver in his voice as he hazarded a glance back towards Bastien, pale sea-glass green eyes slightly wary. " And yet you and I look as though we were created in a fairly similar image? And so without a divine template, from what was I based off of?" Already these waters were far too metaphysical and he was sure Bastien could drown out his logic if the artist tried.

Image by Lamreii!

The blush and glance away were adorable, Bastien grinning at Remi's reaction. He rarely found people so easy to wind up with only a few words. He hadn't even had to lie, come up with pleasant half-truths. Remi posited a question that was wonderfully ripe with possibility for discussion. His soul cried out for some wine and a couch to lounge on to properly talk through it. This field would have to do. He made a show of thinking about it, tapping his finger to his chin. "Mmm. That is a good point. But there are ways around it. For example, what if your world did have a God, but it was like the one in mine? Simply, no one spoke about them? Or what if Gods look the same across worlds. There are theories in my own world about why different cultures possess different Gods. We could apply those to the worlds, but the form could be one main God which carries across the whole universe. Do you think there are different versions of the same worlds?" He was on a tangent now and he knew it, but Bastien loved a chance to ramble. "Perhaps a version of this world where there are different Gods, or none, or I am a King, or we are married, or we hate each other, or you are the painter and I the alchemist...But that was not your question, ah? Hm. I must find some philosophical readings from this place. Or if there are none...make my own. Based on the great modern writers like Kant and Hume." BASTIEN This tiresome desire to shock and amaze Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Remi Abruzzo
& all we are is skin and bone trained to get along

Remi felt the way that others must when he tried to explain complex spacial reasoning problems. In his mind Remi simply saw the way things fit together—physically anyways—and was often at a loss as to how to explain the physical world to those who didn't have the immediate comprehension that he seemed too. Similarly Bastien seemed to just so easily pull at the threads of what Remi had suggested, unraveling his notions and ideas like a parent speaking to a child. Rather than being put off by this though, Remi perked up, pale eyes wide with fascination as he tried to follow the musically-cadenced words leaving his friends lips.

"I suppose that is true. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." The alchemist said with a studious nod. As for the idea that not only was there one hidden god, but perhaps many? With one ultimate creature? It was a bit much for Remi's rather scientific mind to even imagine. "I...I cannot say. I had never even considered it before coming here. Though...Frey was unlike anything I have ever seen. They...they were indescribable, and I do mean that literally. Though they appeared naked I am quite sure that I could not describe even remotely what it was they looked like." It was difficult to put into the words the kaleidoscope of features that the deity seemed to possess, and so Remi merely shook his head to indicate his inability to offer more. "And Ludo...It wore a mask and ... fabric that seemed to possess life of its own. If they had an image, I am quite sure we bear no likeness. But your Safrin ... you painted her? And she looked as we do?"

Just as Remi was about to applaud the notion of Bastien being a king, the mention that the two of them were married followed so swiftly by the notion that they might equally hate each other caught the alchemist quite mentally off balance. Running a hand from the nape of his neck forward through his curls, Remi laughed helplessly as he shook his head with awestruck confusion. "Do you really think so?" He asked in earnest. It was one thing to suggest that were Remi's life slightly different he might have ended up on a slightly different path, but his lack of any sort of education resulted in his inability to comprehend the sort of metaphysical branching that the artist was trying to suggest.

"I have never heard of them, but then, people like me did not receive an education where I come from." Though the alchemist was rarely anything but honest, still his words were tinged with a hint of embarrassment. Especially after so much time spent with Loren who'd had the finest tutors—and was a duke of course—the fact that all Remi knew had been taught to himself had never escaped him.

Image by Lamreii!

"Ha. I have seen many people naked I could not quite describe now. That is simply the miracle of alcohol." Dumb jokes aside, Remi brought forth a lot of interesting thoughts and anecdotes. He wished more than anything to see Frey and Ludo as well, to taste every bit of Godhood he could. "Oh, she was...human, to me, but radiant. In a way unlike anyone else. Painted with the night sky and blessed with a light within. But she had a face and two arms and two legs like we do." Even speaking of her filled his heart with a lightness; the memory of her beauty and magnitude would be enough to support his artist's soul for years. Remi's surprise at his ramblings made him smile, but he quickly began to reassure him once more. He wondered if Remi's seemingly terrible self esteem simply seemed worse next to his own confidence - he was self aware enough to know he perhaps had too much of it. "Do not worry, my friend. It is not a sign of poor education, for I doubt your world had them. Besides, there are many things we learn outside of classrooms. I found my schooling useful for learning to read and write. Past that it taught me little. I learnt all I did from friends, books and life." BASTIEN This tiresome desire to shock and amaze Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Remi Abruzzo
& all we are is skin and bone trained to get along

"I can assure you I was not under the influence of anything..other than the deities themselves." Remi murmured, unsure if his friend was merely making a joke or actually criticizing his judgement.

Remi listened and nodded. Originally his idea of the gods was like how Bastien was describing them: humanlike but somehow more. Though what Ludo and Frey were was more to be sure. He just wasn't sure that there was any humanity in them at all.

The alchemist tried to offer an agreeable smile, but he was fairly sure that Bastien's final words were merely to reassure him. It was only with the luxury of having both a proper education and the school of life that one could confidentially say Remi was fine with one but not the other. Having only one though .. The alchemist had always done what he could to better himself, but as the poor son of a thieving merchant who was constantly on the road, the chances for the boy to ever have the chance to grasp more than the bare minimum for survival was not very often. Even as an adult he was probably woefully lacking. It was only because there was no one else really in his field that he'd never really encountered the full depths of his own ignorance.

"Well. This world is certainly a knew one, I think I can say that for sure though ... perhaps in the same sky?" Remi didn't have the vocabulary to talk about galaxies or solar systems as such had not been a priority from whence he came. "I have been looking at the stars and they appear to be entirely knew. And yet the moon and sun appear the same?" So perhaps Bastien's notion of there being multiple worlds was indeed true.

Image by Lamreii!

"Hm. I had not thought to study the skies. Truthfully I never had a mind for remember constellations. I know there was one called Orion's Belt, but I could not tell you about the rest of the man." His voice was light and easy, having missed discussions of things so pleasantly vague and dreamy as this. "Perhaps sometime you could show me the stars. Do you have a telescope?" Remembering that they were there to gather flowers for pigments (or rather, Remi was and Bastien had crashed in), he picked a few around his feet and passed them over. He tried to select blues which he thought would work best in his paintings, though mixed in some other colours as to not appear too selfish. "Do you think that is enough flowers?" He asked, glancing into Remi's basket. "If you gather too many at once you may find yourself without any left to gather." BASTIEN This tiresome desire to shock and amaze Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Remi Abruzzo
& all we are is skin and bone trained to get along

Though Remi had never heard of Orion's Belt, based on context he could only assume it was the name of a constellation from Bastien's world. The idea that fashion was somehow a part of the night sky in the land the artist came from was a bit strange, but Remi merely smiled at the mental image it conjured. However as he asked about a telescope, Remi bit down on the inside of his lip and turned his gaze away slightly. Taking a breath the alchemist nodded slowly. "One I have been working on, yes." He admitted, though the melodic cadence of his voice was now decidedly more somber. A telescope was one of the things he'd been working on in secret with Loren. Most of their work had to be focused on that which would help the Settlement as a whole, but in their spare hours they'd been working on different lenses to try and get the optical portion of the device perfect.

Even without his feelings for the Launceleyn, that abandoned project made something inside of Remi curl in on itself and wither sadly. "I would be happy to show you." He added after a moment, his openly expectant smile resurfacing slowly.

"Mm?" The alchemist hummed thoughtfully looking down into his basket. Twitching his lips slightly as he looked down at their assortment, considering thoughtfully. "If I say yes it just means you will have to come back sooner if you use up your supply of blue as quickly as last time." Then again if this goddess of Bastien's did have the starry aesthetic the man had described, that wasn't so surprising. "But you are right. Conservation is important." Remi added with a chuckle, tucking his notebook into his basket.

Image by Lamreii!

To hear that Remi did have a telescope (though seemed oddly sad to share that news) brought Bastien more happiness than he thought it would; he supposed it was the familiarity of the technology and the promise of a chance to meet his only friend here once more. With a smile he nodded to Remi's suggestion for him to see it. "I would love to, my friend. Show me the stars of this world...perhaps we will find Orion's pants and shoes, ey?" He didn't quite elbow him, but his tone was that of someone who knew they were making a poor joke. Remi seemed to agree it was time to be done, so Bastien helped him gather the last of the flowers around them and walked with him back to his shop, splitting when they reached the town with the promise of paint soon to come. He had snuck a flower from the basket which he hung in his window when he arrived home, occasionally glancing to it as he painted and smiling. {The end!} BASTIEN This tiresome desire to shock and amaze Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days