Desperado

Vervain sipped contently at her tea, feeling a rare sense of peace with the world that crept in when she least suspected it. The huntress did not have many occasions in her life to feel peaceful, and she relished each and everyone one when it came along. So of course it fluttered away soon enough, and as Remi drifted off mid sentence Vai turned to glance at him, arching an eyebrow as he looked suddenly uncomfortable in his own skin. "Remi? Do you feel unwell?" she asked softly, guiding the cup into his shaking hands and cupping her own around them as well. "What kind of strange? Does everything... look the same?" It was a wild guess, but given that they had just been talking about Ludo's tricks and the cruel whims of this world's gods, it would be just the alchemist's luck that he drew their ire just for mentioning it. vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do "I think so, or certainly it...it..." But something was wrong with his mouth, his teeth, his lips. Bringing one hand towards his face, Remi noticed that rather than pale-coloured fingers, there were instead black sort of ... well, he suppose they did rather look like fingers. Indeed the hand which held the cup continued to do so, before the weight of it became too much for his little furry paws to grasp. Having shrunk down, Remi found himself grasping wildly for the teacup, wrapping a dexterous fingered-hand around it, as he stared up at Vai with wide black-ringed eyes. Opening his mouth to speak, a sort of chirping-bark came out of his lips. Placing the cup down between his legs, Remi touched at his face, feeling a longish sort of snout and furry ears. Chittering nervously at Vai, Remi rose, spinning to see a black and gray tail billowing behind himself. What? He wondered, before ceasing this spin and looking worriedly up at Vai. What have I become?

Vai was just as helpless as Remi as he shifted, only able to really juggle the teacup from his little paws to stop it falling and spilling over the floor. She set it down as he looked up at her, the huntress thoroughly speechless at the... the... "Raccoon," she said slowly, making it almost sound like a question as she watched Remi chatter and spin himself around. Vai had to bite her lower lip to stop the smile that suddenly threatened, and she carefully reached out to brush her fingers over his furry ears as he chattered so nervously. "I... that makes three animals, Remi," she said. "A hawk, a lion and a raccoon. This might be your most adorable shift yet, you know. How do you feel? Is it like the lion, or...?" Did he have control of himself, she meant. vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do Raccoon. Alright. That made sense. Sort of. But then again, Remi wasn't a raccoon. Mirroring these thoughts, Vai counted out the animal shifts he apparently was now, and though his vocal chords couldn't at all make the sound of surprise he was going for, his bandit-masked face still looked suitably shocked. Patting himself down as if to be sure that this was really the body he was in, he plopped down in front of Vai and picked up his teacup with both paws. Dipping his nose in to drink from it, he covered his muzzle and his long whiskers with small droplets before adorably licking them off. All this to show that, unlike his sudden integration into being a feline, this form seemed utterly without predatory instincts.

Vai tried - she really did. But as he patted himself with his little paws and plonked himself down in front of her to sip at the tea, she couldn't help herself, hiding her giggles behind the back of her hand as she watched him. "This is my favourite shift of yours," she decided, reaching a hand out so she could scritch affectionately behind one soft ear, shifting to sit cross-legged before him. "And it should be quite useful, too. Raccoons are notoriously sneaky, you know. And mischievous. I think it suits you as well as a lion or a hawk," Vai remarked, smirking at him. "Think of all the trees you can climb, and snacks you can steal." vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do Without really realizing he was doing it, Remi had crawled into Vai's lap as she moved to sit crosslegged. He'd become entranced by a bit of string that had come off of her shirt, and was now tugging at it with incredibly dexterous paws. As she mentioned stealing snacks, Remi immediately thought of Ianto and the notion brought a grin to his dark little snout. Reaching up with a free hand, Remi made grabby motions with his little paws and then winked up at the huntress. Oh yes, a raccoon and a fox could certainly get into some delightful trouble. Just think of all the chickens! But of course that would involve Remi actually finding his friend again... Turning around in her lap so their faces were pointed the same direction—so Vai wouldn't see the bizarre human-mouth on his face—Remi said, "It really was Ianto I saw out there. I am sure of it."

"Hey!" Vai's laughter was warm and goodnatured as Remi tugged at the loose bit of string on her shirt, though she had absolutely no problem with him clambering into her lap. Indeed, both of her hands came up for a moment to fuss him, smoothing across the smoky fur and trying to claim back the stray thread on her shirt. Arching an eyebrow at the little raccoon grin - and not trusting it one little bit - she smirked and let him get comfortable, gazing into the flames to listen to him speak. "I believe you," she said - and she did, truly. "Did he not seem aware of the barrier at all? Or anything that was going on behind it?" vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do Remi paused to consider her question. With his claws he absentmindedly worked at the fur of the blanket, smoothing it out just as Vai smoothed and played with his own fur. "It felt like he was looking straight at me. " He said after a moment, small head cocked slightly to the side as his tail switched. "For us we cannot see through it...but...if it is like that from the other side, why would he have been sitting right there?" It was probably just wishful thinking. The barrier was opaque from their side, what reason did they have at all to think the same wasn't the case on the outside? Still, his heart hoped. If it had been Ianto, then at least one of them would know for certain the other wasn't dead.

"I don't know," Vai admitted, frowning as well as she turned Remi's words over in her mind. "Did he say anything? Wave? Do anything else to suggest he could see you?" she asked - because of course she wasn't to know he had appeared as a fox. And if he had seen Remi, why would he stay as a fox instead of trying to call to him? Her fingers absently worked through his fur as they spoke, the huntress nibbling at her lower lip. "Whatever happens, we'll lift this barrier and then you can find out, for certain," she told him. "...You miss him quite a lot, don't you?" vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do Oh. Well that was a good point. "He...was a fox at the time. I thought perhaps the mask made it so he did not know who I was, but if he had been there, he would have seen me put it on." Nibbling his dark lips, Remi pondered, amber-ringed eyes blinking. "I suppose if it was him he would have...done something." The alchemist concluded with a frown. So either not Ianto, or he couldn't see through. Remi nodded, glancing over his furry shoulder and up at Vai. For a moment he just regarded her, before huffing adorably and making a grab for his cup again. "He is so unlike anyone I have ever known." The raccoon said, a bit more dreamily than he had intended. "He just saw me for who I was. There was never any expectations on his part" (as there had been with Loren, of breaking rules and demanding physical affection under a timeline), "—no drama—" (as there always had been with Delphine) "—although I suppose that is not actually true. At one of the weddings I do recall him scarfing down a good amount of chicken and then hiding under a table."

"Either that or it was him, but the barrier hides us the same as it hides the outside world," Vai said slowly, not wanting to dampen Remi's hope. There was far, far too little hope in this place, and they needed to cling on to any little bit of it they could find. "Whatever you saw and whoever it was, come Flowerbirth we will be able to make progress on getting out of here for good. You can find out the truth, then." She couldn't help but find it positively adorable, watching him interact with the teacup as a raccoon the same as he would have done in his human body, and she fell into a comfortable silence to hear all about the fox he had been looking for since they had arrived. "I think I recall a little red rascal hiding under a table with a chicken leg," she said, casting her mind back and grinning. "You'll find him, Remi. Undoubtedly getting himself into trouble and in need of a rescue." vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do "Flowerbirth." He mumbled with a nod. Though Remi knew LongNight was coming and that the end of it heralded the end of the wintery months, time seemed a bit funny here. No small part of the alchemist worried that somehow things would stretch on and that FlowerBirth would never arrive. Or worse, that it would, and still they would not be able to defeat the Spire Demon or master the Spire. Vai's recollection certainly sounded like Ianto, and the raccoon couldn't help the devilish smile that crinkled across his snout. Clinking his small nails against the cup, Remi turned towards the fire and breathed in the warm air. "Did I ever tell you we were going to open up a tea shop together? Perhaps instead of rescuing him I will find out that he has done just that." Remi said with a thoughtful chuckle.

"A tea shop? No, I don't believe you did," Vai murmured, sounding endeared by the idea and smiling as she gazed into the fire. She could just imagine Remi working his alchemy on tea leaves in the warm and welcoming light of a tearoom. Though she knew next to little about Ianto's appearance and mannerisms, Remi's description of the fox made him suit the place as well. And it would be quaint, besides, to bring a place like that in a land as bleak and harsh as the Hollowed Ground. "If he has, perhaps he'll have a spot there ready for you," she said. "Since it was meant to be a joint endeavour, and all. I wonder if any others landed outside the barrier... I don't know what I'd have done if I was alone all this time." Hopefully that wasn't the case with Remi's fox, but they couldn't possibly be certain. vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do "I doubt he would get far without me, in all honesty." Remi replied with a wry grin. "He would probably forget he had a business to run at all, and drink the tea himself and then sleep away the day." Fondly, Remi sighed. He was sure that Ianto would be an utterly exasperating business partner, but someone that didn't deter him at all. Frowning, the raccoon turned around to regard Vai silently for a moment. Blinking his masked-eyes, he made a low chirping sort of sound low in his throat. "I suppose there is no reason to think that everyone did land in here...but I suppose until now I just assumed that they all did." It was a rather silly assumption now that he thought about it, especially in light of thinking that he had recently seen Ianto. "I had a dream that we did get out...but...everywhere was just surrounded in bubbles. Almost as if every town or city or...whatever we would call it, was segregated. Just domes everywhere."