the battle picked you
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
right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up
He had said he wouldn't do this. But...if he didn't do this, then he'd likely inadvertently end up doing it anyway. You couldn't tell someone not to think about someone else, and expect them to be able to do it.

And Finn hadn't answered Remi's letter, so really, the Lullaby had no choice.

When you put it all together, it almost seemed like it would hold water to anyone who knew nothing of what Remi and Finn been through together.

So with all the preemptive hesitation that one should have when preparing to do something they knew they shouldn't, Remi put himself to sleep and sought out the mind of the Spyglass, wherever he might be.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn Rosencrantz


Age: 36 | Height: 6’0 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 6 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 21 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 12 - Int:
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#2
sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired
Wherever he might be.

Finn's dreams have always been an interesting place; clawed, thorny nightmares awash in a sea of blood and chocolate.

And things are no different now, but it's a great deal brighter, admittedly. Uppers to keep sane in his conscious hours and downers to stay asleep, if and when he finally did pass out.

Now Finn lays at the bottom of a deep pool of colours; pinks and oranges and yellows, all of it swirling overhead. He's naked, his curls weightless and drifting about his face, and as he blinks - slow, sleepy - a large fish passes by. He should be terrified, unable to stand deep water as he is.

Maybe he is terrified. He smiles, and a steam of bubbles escapes his lips.

Is he laughing, or is he screaming?
FINN
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
right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up
Remi finds himself looking up.

He's at the bottom of a well. It's dark and smells of copper and cocoa so thick it makes his mouth go dry. At the top of the well where the world should be, is a mirror over which an entire ocean seems to drift and surge. The light reflected down from the sea of pinks and oranges is nearly red by the time it reaches the bottom, where the alchemist stands gazing up.

Finn? He doesn't shout, at least not with his mouth. The world gives a slight shake, but nothing like what it should have done. There's a thickness here. A slowness.

Great shapes drift overtop, their bodies obscuring whatever light source beams overhead.

There is suddenly the sound of screams laughter, and the mirror begins to crack.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn Rosencrantz


Age: 36 | Height: 6’0 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 6 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 21 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 12 - Int:
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#4
sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired
No. This is my dream - get your own.

It sounds like something splintering in his ears - like ice cracking, perhaps, or the creak of glass about to give way. Finn hums out another stream of bubbles, sitting up in his sea of colours and becoming distracted, momentarily, by the way his own hands float weightlessly across his field of vision.

Wrapped in pink and orange, the Spyglass kicks off the bottom of his pool, and the whole world buckles. Sucked away into blackness, until all the colour is gone, Finn retches up the remains of his ocean (has he been sick in his sleep? is he choking? would he know?) and finds himself on his knees in shards of mirror. All the faces in the shards are his own, but their eyes are a funny colour.

"Hello again," he whispers, reaching for a wicked sliver of himself. "You will never believe what I have done."
FINN
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
#5
right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up
I will, but first—

But the mirror shatters before he can tell Finn the good news. Torn into a thousand pieces, the mirror splintering across all of his scars, the alchemist is rendered fractured and disjointed.

Hundreds of green eyes survey the Spyglass as the world finally comes to rest, one set in particular meeting his twin's gaze. "Careful, or I'll cut you." Remi says, but at the same time the words instead are, "Careful, or you'll cut yourself.", and also, "Careful, or you'll cut me."

Fingers of concern stroke up the alchemist's back before tightening around his throat. Blood trickles down from those fingers thanks to the sharp edges of the glass. "What have you done?" The mirror whispers.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn Rosencrantz


Age: 36 | Height: 6’0 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 6 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 21 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: Honey Offline
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#6
sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired
"No more firsts. We've got no need for firsts any more." Finn whispers the words through lips stained red with wine. He sits in his wasteland of mirror shards, staring into himself and back out again. His pupils are blown and he's soaked through with colours, with cerulean and fuscia. They press against his skin in the shape of hands; hands all over, against his throat, his back, his hips, his thighs.

"I did what I was told," he says, and his throat is suddenly dry. It suddenly wants to close around the words. With a grip that tightens on the shard of mirror, rich red blood begins to trickle across his palms, down his wrist. Finn lets go of the piece of himself, pressing his lips to the cut and painting them afresh.

"Who are you to judge?"
FINN
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
right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up
"But if we have no more firsts, then all we are left with is what we have already done." Remi points out, logically. Kindly. Peering through the shard and wishing Finn had picked up a bigger piece of him, the alchemist has to still his hands from reaching out for the Spyglass. Finn's hands are made of colours and bruises, but Remi's exist only in jagged edges capable of slitting throats and nooses alike.

The world is painted red as the ground and sky suddenly swap. Upside down now Remi finds himself pinned against sand that grows course as it becomes maroon-saturated and hot. "I am not in the Tower, Finn." The alchemist whines through a throat gone equally tight as Finn's. "We said we would try, remember?"

Slowly, the alchemist reaches up, though his fingers are too large to fit through the shard discarded in the sand. "I did what I said I would.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn Rosencrantz


Age: 36 | Height: 6’0 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 6 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 21 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: Honey Offline
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Posts: 1,688 | Total: 16,313
MP: 3061
#8
sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired
"All we are left with is what we have already done." It could be a confirmation or it could be a mere echo of what one of his reflections says. Saucer eyed and bleeding, Finn looks around at the eyes that watch him, one of them soaked red. Slowly, as if he is undertaking a task almost sacred in its importance, Finn takes two shard of mirror and joins them together, like he's putting pieces of a puzzle in place.

"I am not in the Tower, Remi." It's suddenly clear, who his reflection is, now that the two bits of mirror reveal a bit more of his face. "I am in the storm. There are fireworks under my tongue, and a stranger wears my skin. Would you like to see?"

He holds up the mirror before his face, like Remi will be able to see the man he looks like in the Halenani. Of course he doesn't, because deep in these chains of Finn's mind, Thomas is not allowed to tresspass. Only his deeds write their tales on Finn's body, in his dreams and outside of them.

"What did you do?" he whispers.
FINN
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
right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up
"Then it is all for nothing." The shard is suddenly vacant of eyes and everything else. A portrait whose subject has decided to vanish. "Was it going to be like this, from the start?" Were they doomed, from the first meeting?

Like butterfly wings that open to reveal a whole, there are suddenly green eyes looking into Finn's that are different in hard to parse ways. "If you find the center, maybe you can rest." The reflection suggests, though it isn't Remi's voice. As the landscape shifts and curls and day-old scruff replace long-lashed blue eyes, Remi just shakes his head. "You haven't, though. I think that is the problem."

It's the problem for them both. They haven't changed. Not fast enough. Too fast. In all the wrong and right ways, and it hasn't mattered. They're still here, making each other bleed across the sleepless smiles and bruises that grow between them.

"I brought something to catch the bad dreams, but I think I am too late. Did you leave your window open on purpose?"
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn Rosencrantz


Age: 36 | Height: 6’0 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 6 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 21 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 12 - Int:
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#10
sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired
"You don't understand," Finn whispers, cutting his hands further on the edges of the mirror when he finds it frustratingly blank. "Come back. You don't understand, please." He's scrabbling for more pieces of himself, to jam them together into the mosaic of shards so he might see more clearly. So he might be able to climb inside, perhaps.

Find the centre, maybe you can rest. "The eye of the storm," he mumbles to green eyes and a voice he does not know. "The Eye." Suddenly the world plunges into darkness, and the man painted with handprints finds himself on the floor of an office with a crackling fire. There's a broken teacup on the hearth.

"I didn't jump. I was pushed," he whispers sadly. "I didn't do it on purpose."
FINN
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
#11
right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up
"The Eye." Remi agrees from where he sits in Cian's high-back chair. The flames are scalding reassuring where they lick against bones and dry wood that crackles and snaps. There are no edges to the room; the corners fade into a dark fog, within which a Tower rises. Watching.

"I tried to give you wings." Remi protests sadly. "But you chose the knife." He looks down at his hands finding them shockingly free of blood. Turning his eyes toward the fire, watching as the wood burns in reverse, Remi grips the edges of the chair with pressure enough that it threatens to pull the plush velvet apart at the seams. "I wish I was your only bad dream." It's said with jealousy and kindness both, and as the alchemist turns to look at the Spyglass, it's with contempt and heartache. 'How could you have let them in?' He asks softly, pleadingly.

"HOW COULD YOU LET THEM IN?"
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn Rosencrantz


Age: 36 | Height: 6’0 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 6 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 21 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 12 - Int:
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#12
sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired
It's not about you. It's not about this, Finn wants to plead, but his throat closes tight around the words. Stop. You don't understand, please. He trembles hard, on the ground before the high backed chair, and no amount of fire can warm his bones. Holding tight to the shards of mirror that still cut into his hands, naked and painted with the touch of other people, he gazes up at Remi. "No," he mumbles, shaking his head. There are no wings here, no knives.

Just fire, and fingers cut to ribbons. Remi's voice rises suddenly, abruptly, and Finn flinches back hard enough to drop the mirror he's been trying to put together again. It shatters afresh on the ground, and bloody hands press to his ears. "Go away," he begs, hunching in on himself on his knees. His scars bare to the sky, and a whipcrack sounds in the distance, like rolling thunder. "I just want to go home."
FINN
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
right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up
The fire swallows the words the Spyglass can't bring himself to say and through the cracks on the teacup, tears begin to pour out on the mantel. The bits of the cup tinkle apart, having never actually been put back together. They had just been stacked so neatly so as to give the illusion of wholeness.

"Then let me take you home." Remi offers, suddenly on his knees before the fire. "I did not mean to be too late. I wanted to be your only nightmare, because that I could fix." He reaches for the dreamcatcher, holding it up as evidence. As if it might serve to free them both. "Unbreak." The words are a whispered pray. A plea. "Please unbreak. I did not mean to be too late."

The back of Remi's eyes sting as the cup on the mantel continues to fill with tears which drop onto the fire with a hiss.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn Rosencrantz


Age: 36 | Height: 6’0 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 6 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 21 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: Honey Offline
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Posts: 1,688 | Total: 16,313
MP: 3061
#14
sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired
It does not matter how hard Finn presses his hands over his ears. The words ring true in his mind, as if Remi were whispering to him, and through stormy eyes whose pupils are large enough to swallow the eye of the storm, he sees the dreamcatcher. Unbreak, Remi demands, and Finn's violent trembling starts to still, even just a little. "I'm not home, Remi." He mumbles. The Eye's office drops away, and the world around them grows warm and quiet.

Bookcases and sheet music, and a skylight that pours moonlight onto them, that they might be clean. The whipcrack fades into the sound of a guitar, into a comfortable tune played hundreds upon hundreds of times. "May we sleep?" Finn asks. He wants to reach for the dreamcatcher, but he can't quite make himself move. "I am very tired, and there will be someone at my door in the morning."
FINN


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