a reflection that nobody really knows
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
MP: 3059
#1
maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane
The rain was endless, but somehow always different. It brought with it different skies, different smells, different sounds. It was refreshing, and not just because of all it washed away. So Remi was telling the grave marker at the base of the lighthouse, anyways.

"I think you'd have laughed at all this." The Alchemist said softly from beneath the magical barrier above him that kept away the worst of the rain. "And you'd have wondered why and we'd have made up all sorts of stories to tell you. That the monsoon are tears from Safrin laughing so hard...or the L'ma lamenting its lack of wings..." Reaching down, Remi's fingers created small pebbles in the shape of stars that scattered along the rocks that marked Aoife's empty grave. They'd be blown or washed away like all the others before, but it didn't matter.
THE ALCHEMIST
maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vervain Calob
Huntress / Witch

Age: 44 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 11 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 19 - Luck: 16 - Int:
COCO - Regular - Cloud Wyrm
Played by: Honey Offline
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Posts: 1,328 | Total: 16,313
MP: 0
#2
Vervain
”Or maybe Vi has spilled his cup of water before bed.” Vervain’s voice was a soft thing, almost lost in the downpour. The witch was soaked through, having walked up from the beach towards the Governor’s house, a route which naturally took her past the lighthouse and the marker beside it. There was a satchel slung over her shoulder, her hair braided messily out of her face.

Really she hadn’t even intended to speak with Remi until he heard his voice, having given the Alchemist his space since the night on the beach when she had been left to care for Seren. ”It’s nice to see you out here,” she remarked, standing outside his magical barrier and glancing from the grave to the choppy waves beyond.
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
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
MP: 3059
#3
maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane
"Maybe that." Remi agrees without turning to look; Vai's voice is a thing he'll never mistake for anyone else's.

"Are you making a point of staying wet?" He asks, glancing over his shoulder to where the rain hungrily clings to every inch of the witch. "You know you're always welcome here." At her grave, by my side.

Ignorant of so many things—like Vai's disappointment and anger with him—Remi merely interprets her space as respect for a conversation between father and daughter, however one-sided it might be. "Its nearly been a year.." The Alchemist mumbles, more star-shaped pebbles dropping from his hands onto Aoife's grave. "I don't know why it should matter. Day 360 is just as hard as day 365, and yet..." Well. They all measured time in years, now didn't they. A year was somehow more real, more devastating, than the days that fell just shy of it.
THE ALCHEMIST
maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vervain Calob
Huntress / Witch

Age: 44 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 11 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 19 - Luck: 16 - Int:
COCO - Regular - Cloud Wyrm
Played by: Honey Offline
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Posts: 1,328 | Total: 16,313
MP: 0
#4
Vervain
”Am I?” Vai asked, a sad smile on her face as she gazed down at the little grave, at the small and starry pebbles that adorn it. ”The rain is refreshing.” It was a poor excuse, and one she didn’t try to fix. She was already soaking wet - what was the point in getting dry now? Still, the witch was far from heartless, and her expression and shoulders softened as Remi spoke again, Vai tucking a tendril of hair behind her ear.

”It’s like a milestone,” she said quietly. ”Or an anniversary. It doesn’t make it any less painful than the other days, though, save for when people expect you to have moved on, or feel better. How is Ronin coping with it?” A year since their world had imploded. A year since Torchline. How time flew.
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
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
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#5
maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane
Remi frowned a touch at that, but said nothing. That was the bittersweet bite of their relationship, mother and son. Son's are so used to being coddled and tended to (Remi certainly, when it came to Vai), that they tend to forget their parents (surrogate or not) are people as well. Thus he didn't offer the witch the reassurance she was owed, his mind far too focused on the empty grave over which he knelt.

"A milestone, yes." Maybe that was it, even if it didn't feel entirely right. "After everything that happened in the Hollowed Ground during LongNight..." Turning to give Vai a haunted and broken stare, the Alchemist merely shook his head softly. "Bad timing." He said in the end, poorly capturing the sentiment.
THE ALCHEMIST
maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vervain Calob
Huntress / Witch

Age: 44 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 11 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 19 - Luck: 16 - Int:
COCO - Regular - Cloud Wyrm
Played by: Honey Offline
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Posts: 1,328 | Total: 16,313
MP: 0
#6
Vervain
After everything that happened...

Vai inhaled deeply and let it out again, finally stepping beneath the barrier of Remi’s magic and shivering as the drum of the rain cut out so abruptly. The horror in his eyes was not something she was built to ignore - thus was her downfall, always, for her children.

”I can imagine,” she said slowly, moving to sit down beside him, shrugging the satchel off her shoulder and setting it on the rocks. ”Have you spoken about it with anyone?” Do you want to? went unsaid; it wasn’t needed between them, she thought, after all they had been through already.

”At least he came home. The two of you can get through this milestone together. And the next one, whatever it happens to be.” Remi had proved that much at least, by succeeding to get his husband back from the dark.
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
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
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#7
maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane
Remi shifted only enough that Vai might have somewhere comfortable to tuck herself, but not enough that he was any farther away from the grave. "Have I?" He asked, confusion innocently spreading across his face. "Other than Ronin...no. Why would I?"

Whatever it happens to be. Gods how ominous and how completely true. "I think we are getting through them, but only because time forces us through them." Remi said slowly, turning to face Vai. "Everyone keeps asking me when I will get back to being the man I once was. Wondering why I'm still so broken, why I can't go back to being good.." Picking up a single star-pebble, Remi stared at it intently as if it might hold the answers he was looking for, before letting it drop.

"It's like...they don't agree that I should be changed by any of this. That with enough time it all just goes away."
THE ALCHEMIST
maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vervain Calob
Huntress / Witch

Age: 44 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 11 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 19 - Luck: 16 - Int:
COCO - Regular - Cloud Wyrm
Played by: Honey Offline
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Posts: 1,328 | Total: 16,313
MP: 0
#8
Vervain
”To hear someone else’s perspective, perhaps. To process it without having to filter anything for Ronin?” Vai suggested, shrugging her shoulders and glancing across to him with tired eyes as he continued to speak. It was a slow and hesitant gesture, the way she moved to rest her hand over his, giving it a gentle squeeze. ”I’m... trying to understand,” she said slowly. ”As best I can.”

With a deep sigh, she turned her attention to the grave. ”I was very angry with you, when you went through that portal,” she said. ”I have lost two husbands, a twin, a daughter, and I lost Felix’s childhood. And off you swanned to the Grounds anyway, leaving me holding all your responsibilities down, to stop them flying away. You might never have come home.”

Shaking her head, Vai forced herself to relax. ”But thinking that way was selfish of me.”
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
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
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#9
maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane
Instantly Remi took her hand, folding his over hers again and squeezing it affectionately. "I know.." Though the way he trailed off suggested she might never be able to. Listening to what the witch had to say, Remi found himself surprised. Too selfish and too wrapped up in thoughts of Ronin, he'd not even considered for a moment how things might have affected Vai. Biting the inside of his lip so that he'd let her finish, his fingers tangled between hers until she was done.

"When we first came here, we tore into one another. The things we said...it was honest, but it was brutal. Entirely unfiltered. We lashed out with words and fists and were no better for it. No one here knew us and so we just...didn't care. And gods it felt good." Too good to easily come back from. "During one fight I even threw my wedding ring into the sea. Or near enough that it took Ronin hours and hours to find it again. I really thought we were done for, that everything had cracked so completely there was no way back." Pausing, he looked longingly at Aoife's grave before continuing. "But we did find a way back, only...the bridge that we formed between our broken pieces...I think there is only room for the two of us on it." On Remi's side, anyways. Ronin always had been the stronger, the better of the two.

"I am sorry for leaving you in that place. I...didn't think of how it would affect you at all." The Alchemist's easy honesty was tempered heavily by a dull sort of shame, if only because he knew he would do it again. Such was the unhealthy state of his mind and heart these days.
THE ALCHEMIST
maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vervain Calob
Huntress / Witch

Age: 44 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 11 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 19 - Luck: 16 - Int:
COCO - Regular - Cloud Wyrm
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,328 | Total: 16,313
MP: 0
#10
Vervain
Squeezing his hand back, Vai frowned off over the side of the cliff as he began to speak, hearing him out, keenly feeling the hurt of not being there for either of them. Ronin and Remi had made it through by leaning on each other, scarring each other, and she didn’t - couldn’t - blame them for it. But it didn’t mean she could be dragged along in the wake of their selfishness.

”No,” she agreed softly, ”you didn’t.” Letting out a long, deep sigh, she leant in and pressed a soft, motherly kiss to his cheek. ”I love you like I raised you myself,” she told him, her smile warm with affection. ”I always will. Nothing will change that. I’ll be here for you for as long as you need me. But I can’t protect you from yourself, especially when I get burned for it.”
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
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
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#11
maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane
For a long moment, Remi said nothing.  He leaned into Vai's lips against his cheek, comforting and warm, but there was something still unsaid. Something he wanted to leave unsaid, but couldn't.

Wouldn't.

"Vai...even had I known what my leaving meant for you...I.." He didn't want to meet her blue gaze, but he owed her that, if nothing else. Raising his eyes, weary in their honesty, Remi found himself again in the position of having to tell someone just how much he'd changed. If Vai found him now lost in the woods, his talons would lash out at her. He'd not be carried back to safety and society, but would maim and flee farther into madness and death. "..I would still have gone." He said finally, softly.

"Aoife's death..Ludo's cleansing of my soul...I feel like I've lost my ability to care. I'm not moved by anything, anymore. There's really only Ronin now, and while I want to let you in as well, to have you on my bridge...I don't.." Raising his free hand to his chest but not to his heart, instead to the place marred by grotesque flesh, he swallowed. "..I don't feel anything, anymore."
THE ALCHEMIST
maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vervain Calob
Huntress / Witch

Age: 44 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 11 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 19 - Luck: 16 - Int:
COCO - Regular - Cloud Wyrm
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,328 | Total: 16,313
MP: 0
#12
Vervain
”You don’t need to explain it... but I appreciate that you did,” Vai said softly, sitting back again. ”I knew it already. That you left, so blinkered by yourself... I know you would do it regardless of any other bridges burning around you.” And so it was. ”...But I said what I said for a reason,” she murmured, referring to her previous remarks. ”You have been a father. You know how deep that rabbit hole goes. So even if you don’t care - can’t, for however long it takes, even if it’s forever. There’s always room on my bridge for you, Remi.”

She just wouldn’t be jumping after him any more. ”You have been through so much, but you’re still so young,” Vai said through a sigh. ”You’re an intelligent man, Remi. You won’t stop changing, because of this. You won’t simply... freeze this way, forever. You’ll keep growing. You’ll change again, and again after that. Embrace it.”
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
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
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#13
maybe i'm a runaway train, maybe i'm a feather in a hurricane
Vai's was probably the only lingering kindness that had the potentcy to reach Remi. Amalia, Sam, the rest of them...it was superficial feeling. They'd stretch as long as it was convenient but after that, Remi would be allowed to fall just as he wanted to. Intended to, maybe. But he believed Vai and the words she said. The fact that it didn't make him feel near as guilty as he should have spoke to just how much work he had to do. Shifting slightly so that he could lean his head against her shoulder, eyes trained in her fingers interlocked between his, he hummed a discontent note before answering.

"Embrace it." He repeats, the words thick in his mouth. "And if I don't change back? If I am just a selfish asshole for the foreseeable future?" Because that was the real heart of all of this. There was changing, and then there was changing the right way. "I am a tool for Ludo. I kill when it tells me to. I end lives before their time when it can be seen as a kindness to do so...I don't know how to reconcile that with...the man everyone seems to want me to be, again."
THE ALCHEMIST
maybe it's a long gray game, but maybe that's a good thing
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vervain Calob
Huntress / Witch

Age: 44 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 11 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 19 - Luck: 16 - Int:
COCO - Regular - Cloud Wyrm
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,328 | Total: 16,313
MP: 0
#14
Vervain
Vai tilted her head to rest it upon Remi’s, his body a warmth against her soaked through clothes. She kissed his curls, closed her eyes, and thought of sunnier times for a while, the little good that it would do. ”Then you are a selfish asshole for the foreseeable future,” she murmured to him, as if it was that simple. ”And your actions will continue to have consequences, and you’ll continue to have to face them. The thing about changing is that you can control it, if you want to.”

A frown darkened her expression as he spoke about Ludo, Vai preferring not to think of the god who had stolen the Alchemist’s memories, tortured him, just to take him under its wing in the end. ”What kind of man do you want to be?” she asked. ”Would you want to care again if you could? To be kind, compassionate? There are pros and cons to everything.”
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!


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