Remi flinched slightly, not likely the way it seemed Jigano was mocking him by repeating his exact phrasing back to him. "It seems off-hand given that save for once, I have not actually asked your opinion. You just seem to provide it—as well as a healthy dose of criticism—immediately. You say that what you have to offer is thought-through, but as you even point out, it is based on information I have given to you and always comes immediately. The day we met in the library? You judged me so harshly based on a meager description of events I offered, as if the glossy overview from one stranger to another was anything to base an entire character description off of. And yet you did. We were not friends then, nor are we now. You were a stranger who needed the books I had at the time. You can understand why your remarks about my character and how I ought to conduct myself given what information you had at the time came across off-hand and callous." Perhaps it was because they were simply too different, but Remi could not imagine the confidence or ego it would take to simply think others wanted to hear his opinions on things without first being asked. Even if, as Jigano mentioned, he had a wealth of life experience at his fingertips, did that really give him the permission to cast it about, criticizing those who failed to heed his warnings? To laud it over others in this way?
Raising a brow, Remi frowned and shook his head again. "Really." The alchemist asked flatly. "Not, 'Remi become a bird and attack its eyes, or Remi I wanted to study the creature why did you bury it..?" He could list any number of examples even in their short time knowing each other of when he had indeed taken Jigano's suggestions, not to mention the evidence of any of his other relationships. "You told me that here there was no hierarchy, and yet you fault me for offering my own points of view and following them, as if I am still meant to abide by those who consider themselves my betters." Remi continued, chin rising slightly. Jigano would surely deny that he did think of himself this way, but from the alchemist's point of view, the bard acted like any Lord or Duke would have back in Northaven.
"Keep the ascended from leaving." Remi muttered with cold horror. "His name is Archebold." He added, wondering if this borderline racist phrasing was intentional on the bard's part. Remi hadn't believed the ex-captain when he said that some still viewed his kind with hostility, and Sam not withstanding, Jigano seemed to be doing just that. "We can both understand why Vai would not want him to drink from her. Why none of the others would have wanted that, but are you really suggesting that when a friend came to offer his aid, I should have just asked him to leave? Further ostracized him?" For all Jigano's talk about friendship, he certainly had a strange view of how others were meant to treat theirs. Immediately Remi shook his head. "No, Sam only recently mentioned to me about how daylight effects them. In Northaven they could go about as they pleased. Archebold is one of the strongest of his kind I have encountered here, and did not appear to show any ill-effects when he arrived. Indeed I have seen Sam in the daylight as well. As for the barrier itself, it was simply a way of gathering information. If magic could have broken through surely that would have been done so by now as well. I did not expect Archebold to pass through, merely to see what effects it had on an entirely different sort of body." The mention of asking him to touch it did make Remi bow his head, and nod in somber agreement. Though his voice had remained as gentle and soft as it ever had, now it notched lower in pitch as he sighed sadly. "A poor choice of words on my part. When I asked him to see if he could touch it, what I was wanting was for him to merely see how close he could get. Archebold was one of the highest ranking captains in Northaven. I hold no authority over him whatsoever; he is not the type to blindly follow orders. I thought it went without saying that he should call a halt should he begin to feel the effects of the barrier." Colour bloomed on the alchemist's cheeks as he ran a distracted hand through his mop of curls. He very much wanted to say something about how the bard had not lent a hand in retrieving the fallen captain, but refrained. It felt petty, and so Remi merely sighed away the urge to try and claw his way out of whatever grave he was inadvertently digging for himself.
The mention of the mask brought his eyes into focus, and he levelled a solemn but confident stare towards the bard. "Yes. That is true. But all of my friends would attack without hesitation, and have in the past, without feeling guilt nor would I ever hold them accountable. True, Zariah is not one I would in anyway consider a friend, but given her reputation she would not lose an ounce of sleep over doing what needed to be done. Especially to a commoner like me." At the mention of playing god, Remi merely shook his head with disappointed wonder. He was starting to think that the bard used such phrases merely to get a rise out of him, because if he truly believed that such was the case, Remi really had no recourse with which to defend himself, it was so far from the truth. "Perhaps you should look closer, if that is what you thought you saw. What better time to try an item such as that, then when I was surrounded by those closest to me, who would ensure that harm did not befall anyone else, the strongest in magic and in heart? And no one said not to put it on, not that I heard, though unlike you, those gathered would not take my decision as some sort of personal affront had they thought I should not and did anyways. I appreciate Zariah and Vai's concern, but I took a step forward before righting myself. "
"I did want your suggestions, which is why I asked for them." The alchemist reiterated. Though this seemed very much like a conversation they'd now already had at this point. "I told you why I did not think a temporary solution was what the aim of such a device should be, and you offered nothing further. And I do not look for your praise, Jigano." Remi said, growing quite weary of how often the bard seemed to believe he knew Remi's own mental states better than the alchemist did himself. But Jigano seemingly wouldn't be deterred from thinking that Remi was anything other than some attention-seeking idiot, and so the alchemist tried to let his hurtful words merely fall.
"It is not that I find myself in dangerous situations that I disagree with you about. It is that you think I do so for attention, or praise. Ludo said we might find our answers at the top of the Spire. Who else, besides a group of birds might reasonably be able to investigate such a claim? You were not there Jigano. You did not see our precautions, our methods."
The mention of him being a kicked puppy simply made him raise a brow, that look of simple and complete shocked confusion welling in his pale gaze. "Do you hear yourself Jigano? You, who barely know me at all, now find fault with how I blink, the way my lips move? A kicked puppy? Does your dislike really run so deep that you find flaws with my expressions?" Gently Remi shook his head again. "Perhaps it is simply your guidance or help that I do not want, for thus far you've provided very little of it. As I said, I do not know you. My trust in my family and friends far exceeds the words of a stranger who picks at the way I blink. Offering guidance and help is not the same as offering criticisms after the fact."
"When you began to tell me of your world, I quite literally told you that I couldn't imagine. That Northaven was small. I had nothing with which to understand what you were saying, and then you failed to say anymore. "
Running a hand across his forehead, like Jigano, he too was feeling the effects of this conversation just behind his eyes as well. "No, you did not say that in so many words. But if you want to keep your friends safe and you believe that I am a danger to them and will bring nothing but hurt, then I would assume your preference would indeed be that I stay away." Remi rephrased, tired of the way Jigano seemed to do anything but twist his words into their least favourable meanings. REMI
How do you steal what you really want
When what you really want is free?
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