i'm on my knees here

I will fight the end

"Ew," Ronin mutters, not needing any further words to describe how bad that would be. He could see Bellamy already, still believing he ruled the roost. He's certain that Caido would have corrected him quite soon after arrival, but still. "More than just the accent. He's run into him, apparently. But he says he doesn't look like himself." Ronin is aware even as he's saying it that it's starting to sound far-fetched all over again, and his fingers strum absent, gentle patterns across his husband's back.

"The man has quite the price on his head, doesn't he?" the Star murmurs, letting out a low whistle and gazing up at the black, starless sky. He still doesn't like LongNight, but regardless of all that has happened so far, it's still better than last year. The remarks about Zeph are ultimately what stump him, though, and Ronin shakes his head helplessly to Remi. "Perhaps Jata was grasping for anyone else who has met the guy?" he suggests. "But you might just need to ask Zephyr about it."

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

"Well.." Remi shrugs at that. "Neron looks different than he did once.." Peter too, not that Remi knew it. Still, the defence was getting weaker and weaker again. So it was a man who sounded like Sunjata, but with a different face. That meant not even Ronin who had dreamt with the Flood could verify who he was.

'A price? No.' The alchemist chuckles darkly, the smile that tugs at his lips is one which is far too eager. "He has an hourglass."

The tide is a comforting sound, and one the alchemist hadn't realized he'd missed. For a long while he lets the silence and distance between them dissolve in the relentless crashing of the waves. "All of it makes less sense the more I think about it. Even if we do know Sunjata didn't do it, it isn't thanks to anything he's said." Giving Ronin an unhelpful look, the alchemist just sighs before smirking. "Honestly, how does no one have the ability to tell truth from lies. With everything else we can do, how can no one do that."

It is a bit funny, in the big scheme of things. Lullaby and Star, even the Archangel. They can all do so much. So why not that?

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I will fight the end

Ronin can't help it; even with the darkness that all but oozes out of his husband, he can't help the way he just wants to draw Remi closer. The Lullaby can be as angry at him as he wants to, as long as he's still beside him. Even if that's only until he puts himself to sleep to go and fetch their son. "An hourglass, then. That does sound more apt," he agrees, sinking into the warmth at his side, into the crash of the sea nearby, the smell of smoke from bonfires.

"He isn't good with words." It isn't a defence of Sunjata so much as it's reciting exactly what the other man said to him. "But you're right. It doesn't give us much to work with, does it? Do you want me to try to talk with Zeph, while you're gone?"

Remi smirks and Ronin scoffs out a laugh, nodding to him. "Perhaps when I get my power back, I'll see if I can get a truth telling ability. Or you can ask Ludo. If it can make charms for us to receive letters, that should be easy right?"

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

Remi gives his husband a withering look, not at all moved by the he isn't good with words defence. He was an adult, a powerful attuned, and the Governor of Torchline. He needed to do better. Besides, there was a difference between not being good with words—the alchemist, at least compared to his husband, was terrible—and making absolutely no sense.

"I won't be gone that long." Remi says of Ronin tracking down Zephyr, though he doesn't tell his husband not to. There's no one really to take charge here given that everyone involved has an equal claim to wanting to find out who hurt Vai.

"It probably could. I was going to ask it for a way to stop waking up in Finn's bed, first." Remi says with a crooked grin. Was imitation murder preferable to waking up next to the Spyglass? For so many reasons yes. (But also no).

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I will fight the end

Ronin gives his husband equally as withering a look in return, as if to remind him that you can be absolutely fucking terrifying when you get it into your head. Sunjata might have been a master of negotiation and Ronin still wouldn't have blamed him for losing all composure in the face of the Lullaby as he was in the dream they've just recently left.

"Mm, I hope you aren't," Ronin says of his husband not being gone long, reaching out to brush his curls out of his face, to let calloused fingertips dance across scars and stubble for a moment. "For Finn, or for you? he wonders, raising his eyebrow to the other man. He doesn't mind or care either way - he just wants to know that Ludo isn't going to ask for anything unreasonable in return. With his recent encounters with Safrin, he can't be too careful.

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

But Remi has never encountered himself. He's never even encountered anyone equal to him in strength, save for his brief spar with Wessex. And even then he hadn't been afraid. Once the last rung of the societal ladder with a single shift comprised of hollow bones and feathers, now Remi has lost all touch with what it means to feel vulnerable.

Playfully (probably) Remi snaps his teeth toward his husband's fingers as they caress against his cheek. He knows he doesn't deserve even half the affection and patience he receives from the Star, and gods if Remi isn't suddenly aware of how much more he owes his man for everything he is. Stretching an arm around Ronin, Remi leans his cheek against the Star's shoulder. "Both." He murmurs, sadly. He wants Finn, that much is true. But that want will also likely destroy the Spyglass, even if it didn't result in his death.

"I love you more than anything." Reaching to twine his fingers into Ronin's, the Lullaby tightens his grip, bringing his husband's knuckles to his lips and holding them there as he closes his eyes, awash in the smell of the sea and the Star.

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I will fight the end

He might have lost all touch, but Ronin still knows and remembers. He's been with Remi, hand in hand, since he's come into the powers that have grown and flourished and risked consuming him. And so as the Lullaby reaches for his hand, as he snaps his teeth at his fingers, Ronin is there. His arm tightens around Remi, his lips pressing to his temple, and he huffs a sigh out into his curls. "And I love you," he whispers. "More than anything in the world."

They sit and Ronin does nothing to stop it, the Star happy to let these moments stretch out, to unravel like the tension that bleeds through the two of them. "Gods," he grumbles, though it's soft and good natured. "What I'd give to lay around in our cottage again, complaining that we hadn't left for the Greatwood yet."

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

Remi's mind wants to dissect those words and find flaws in them. The world? But not the things outside of it? Not more than the dead who wait for us, when finally we manage to die for the last time? Where this is coming from, he won't know until after LongNight. Until everyone returns home safely (or not), and he realizes that he's let his circle widen without realizing it. Vai, Mateo, Isla, Ronin...he cares more than he knows, but in unhealthy ways that are eating him from the inside out.

Maybe he'll see that, when the sun rises.

The alchemist can't help but laugh dryly at that, nodding. "When my biggest worry was setting up my shop in the Grounds. I was so proud of that damn shop, I'd never had anything like that before." Remi looks down at Ronin's hand, scared and rough in all the right places. "Helping you clear that golem out of the guild you were setting up seemed so dangerous." And now look where they were. Who they were.

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I will fight the end

Oblivious to the jealous horrors running through Remi's mind, and shut out as he is from their Attuned bond, there is no way for Ronin to either know or reassure his husband about all he's feeling. So he sits, comfortable in the Lullaby's presence, wiling away the time and letting his fingers gently ghost over his husband's back and his knuckles, mumbling nostalgia into the soft mess of his hair.

"Mm, I loved that shop too. You used to let me into the back room and make me tea," he recalls with a sweet smile, closing his eyes to better think about it. "It felt dangerous, at the time. I'd never seen anything like that golem before - I was very surprised when it crumbled to dust in the light."

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

An illusion spreads out before the pair, and it will seem exactly as though they are seated in the middle of the shop. Light motes dance in the rectangles of light from windows which sorely need to be washed. There are racks upon racks of half-finished inventions and various creations in every stage of completion. Paint is scattered on the counter, and somewhere behind them a tea kettle whistles. It smells of simplicity and youth.

"You, the mighty monster hunter." Remi adds with a nostalgic smile, glancing sidelong at Ronin and finding himself surprised that he wasn't looking at the face of the 25-year-old who had managed to kill that golem. 'Gods, Bellamy wouldn't know what to do with us if he came through now.' The baron and the commoner, married and tackling the world. It would ruin his precious lifeview to be sure.

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I will fight the end

The sound of the kettle has Ronin's eyes blinking open, and a warm smile spreads across his face to see the old shop, the creaky boards, the smell of paint and tea and woodsmoke. His arm tightens around Remi just a bit, and he nods at the shelves. "And you, the clever alchemist," he echoes. "I loved to watch you work. I swear I could see the cogs turning in your mind sometimes. You'd always be dipping your sleeves in ink and accidentally wiping charcoal on your cheek."

He snorts at the mention of Bellamy, leaning in to press an adoring and somewhat obnoxious kiss to Remi's forehead. "I'd love to see his face," he murmurs. "Nothing used to make Bellamy speechless, but I bet this would shut him up." And if that didn't, they could take care of the job personally.

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

Remi remembers. His days had been spent just...imagining. The biggest things on his plate were wondering if he was good enough to start a guild for those like him, and then trying to manage it once he did. Gods but how life was easier then. "And your echo I turned into a lobster."  Remi adds, shaking his head.

The kiss has him snapping out of his melancholy. Reaching out a hand to draw Ronin's chin his way, Remi presses a proper kiss against his husband's lips, his tongue warm and apologetic as he lingers in the simplicity of it. "Well, you might get your wish one day. If the Voice really is double-dipping." Remi whispers mischievously against the Star's lips.

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I will fight the end

A bright laugh leaves Ronin's lips at that memory, and he nods to his husband. "Yes, my Echo. You were quite unimpressed with her, if I recall. You believed she was very alien-like, and were horrified when she would climb up and into my coat." He remembers Echo well, though she hadn't been in his life long. The loss of that first companion during Longnight never truly healed over, but Sugar had done much to thicken his skin to it.

The kiss is a surprise, and one that Ronin doesn't take for granted even in the slightest. He melts into the warm lips and soft press of Remi's tongue, wanting nothing more than to linger here in this imaginary alchemy shop, with the fire crackling behind them. "Mm, even better. Can you imagine how unimpressed he would be if his mighty magic was taken away?"

Drawing back a bit, Ronin's still smirking as he continues to listen to the fire. "Do you remember when we tried to make those vampire gourds into soup? You told me to put the soup in the fire... so I did." All of it. Pouring it onto the flames.

'til the end is here

Coding base by Sky!

This scar I can't reverse, when the more it heals the worse it hurts

Remi shivers with a revulsion he no longer feels. Lobsters are not too terribly far from scorpions, of which Remi's manticore shift is partially made up of. "Do you know, at the time I was probably just jealous of her. Constantly under your collar and all that." Remi admits with a sly smirk, shrugging in his husband's arms. "But I was just getting to know you properly then." And of course Vanya had still been alive.

Enjoying the way the Star's feel, and the buzz of stubble against his chin, for a moment Remi just allows his head to tip forward that his forehead might rest against his husband's. They really could just sit the in shop forever. Or perhaps just until the world stopped expecting so much from them. "He might have been a big fish in Northaven...but Caido? Caido is an ocean." Remi grins, thinking maybe he wouldn't mind it so much at all, should any of their old ghosts come back to see them now.

Frowning, the alchemist looks over his shoulder. He sees the doorway that leads into the back room where there's a wood-burning stove. And indeed, in his minds eye he watches the hunter douse the flames with the soup they'd made, instead of heating it. Laughing as he turns back, he shakes his head admonishingly. "Honestly, it seems like the sort of thing I'd do now." Pausing, his smile turns surprisingly sweet. "We should do that again...next year. We'll find some vampire gourds and make a soup."

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