If Everyone Was Listening

– NATE –

Nate has spent the day in Haulani. Mostly glowering at things, to be honest, trying to keep his cool and think. Bleeding from one dark shadow to the next, just in case he really needs the extra edge of protection.

Nothing had come from it, nothing useful at least, and stalking home with the sun at his back really feels like the perfect end to this shitty day. He’s uncomfortable, bent in an angry hunch with fists balled up in his jacket pockets, boots kicking sand up with every step.

Quick strides pause, halfway between home and the city, a deep sigh slumping Nates shoulders as a clenched hand pulls from his pocket. He tries to shake the worst of the tension away, so he can reach in and a grab a smoke and a pack of matches without crushing either of them, lighting it in a smooth, practiced motion.  Maybe he can avoid taking home some of the twist in him with this.

Maybe it’ll just get worse.

I’m in trouble for the things I haven’t got to yet

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

REMI

the lullaby

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair

It gets worse before it gets better. Isn't that how the saying goes?

Though there are shrines in Stormbreak, the one on the dock here in Torchline has always felt a bit more personal to Remi, and so it is toward that one that he currently walks. With his head down and his hands shoved into his pockets, the alchemist has allowed himself this solitary stroll so that he might wallow in his feelings for a time, before putting them aside and moving on with things.

Not particularly paying attention to what's in front of him, Remi's shoulder collides with Nate's creating a tableau of comical clumsiness. "Ah! Sorry I did not..see.." The alchemist's words slow and then fade all together as he straightens and takes a large step back, meaning to help right the stranger he'd bumped into. It takes only a second or so for Remi's blood to seemingly all rush to his feet leaving him feeling cold and slightly unmoored.

Oh, it's you.
Sorry I didn't see you there.
I had sex with your ex-wife.
I destroyed the shrine you're rebuilding.
Hear you're called some weird chicken-pun now.

There were so many things the alchemist might have said, but instead, he opts for: "I am glad your clinic did not burn down." Genuinely said, the alchemist still straightens by degrees as his pale stare takes in the man opposite to him.

Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

– NATE –

And worse it gets. Somehow, despite all the room around him, Nate is bumped into. Hard. It has him twisted immediately, shoulders up and a snarled Watch it! rolling off his lips. It’s a twist of expression that doesn’t get any friendlier when he sees who exactly it is that’s bumped into him.

Remi.

There’s some distant satisfaction in seeing the other Demi-god pale, realization washing over both of them simultaneously, but Nate doesn’t seem to know what to do from there either. He settles for drawing hard on his smoke, letting the cherry flare and cast a dull light over his features.

Remi breaks the stillness, something that is probably for the best, if only because it catches Nate off guard. Keeps his response from being too agressive. “Lucky I know better, or I’d think you did it.” Smoke pours out of his mouth along with the words, Nate not bothering to turn or direct it anywhere other than into Remi’s face.

I’m in trouble for the things I haven’t got to yet

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

REMI

the lullaby

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair

For a moment that's a flare of incredulity and anger that resounds in Remi's bones, but it's gone quickly, replaced by dry laughter. "You know, for someone you hate so much, you really do not know me well at all." He doesn't roll his eyes despite wanting to. Settling instead for letting a snarl twitch at his lips for a moment or two before wiping it away, Remi just gives his head a slight shake. "Though I suppose that makes us even, as I thought you might have had something to do with the fire at Isla's infirmary." He adds with a shrug that threatens to become something more petty.

Really, what should happen next, is that one of them should awkwardly excuse themselves—or perhaps say nothing at all—and they should fuck off in opposite directions before the situation escalates. Feeling this in the balls of his feet, Remi nonetheless remains, eyeing the way the light from the cigarette contrasts the blue of Nate's eyes and idly wondering how much of a hazard it was for an ascended to have something smouldering in their mouth.

Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

– NATE –

Nate sucks his teeth, the cherry flaring and dying as he does. Everything Remi does seems to be the wrong move, seems to fill Nate with a twitching, restless energy, the same kind that had the alchemist against a wall last they met. “Hate a lotta people I don’t know.” The words come out lazily, the ascended spitting the cigarette butt into the sand as he shifts his weight. “Y’made it easy to.”

The next words though, they strike a nerve, the same one he must have brushed agaisnt with his initial accusation. “Y’gotta real funny idea of even.” Nate sneers, crossing his arms and straightening up. “Why the fuck would I have anything t’do with that, eh?” The words slip away into a quiet hiss, Nate leaning in just a little to try and compensate for it. Or maybe to be a little threatening, despite the power imbalance between them.

I’m in trouble for the things I haven’t got to yet

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

REMI

the lullaby

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair

That does illicit an eye roll from Remi. "I think that says more about how easy it is for you to hate than about the people you hate." He points out tonelessly, wondering what it was about Nate and the situation they found themselves in that made it so easy to want to just needle the ascended relentlessly with his words.

Raising a brow, if anything, Remi finds Nate's attempts at intimidation easier to bear that cool silences, if only because physical threats are something he understands implicitly. "Are you sure about that? We both suspected the other of fires they did not start. Sounds pretty even to me." As for why? Gesturing at Nate's entire stance of hostility, Remi bobs his eyebrows suggestively. "Well we both know you cannot even hurt me let alone kill me. What better way to get at me then, than hurting someone I care about?" Willfully ignoring the friendship that he should assume was between the two medics, the alchemist just shrugs his shoulders with a vague air of having made his point.

Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

– NATE –

He’s not here to be psychoanalyzed, a rough, half ass shrug the only answer Remi will get. “Guess you don’t know a lot about me either.” It’s easy, the snap, the sneer, even the way shakes his head and rolls his eyes, as if he and Remi are anything close to even.

Nates brows pull tightly together, mouth closing in a hard line before he remembers, the connection between Isla and Remi strangely loose in his mind, though the memories of a hand on his literal heart should really have cemented it. “Why the fuck would I try to hurt you though Isla? By burning down an infirmary?” His hand is up, gesturing, his voice growing louder. “Is there a fuckin’ brain in your head, or are you so self centred you think that sounds like something someone would do? Fuckin’...” Nate breaks off into a rush of lyrical and nonsensical curses, every language he knows mashing into the frustration before he straightens, shakes his head.

“I bet it was your fuckin’ people.” A finger jabs into Remi’s chest, Nate’s whole face screwed up with rage.

I’m in trouble for the things I haven’t got to yet

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

REMI

the lullaby

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair

Remi lets it go, despite wanting very much to punch Nate in the face. If they were going to be anywhere close to even, didn't he deserve that? He'd even settle for just one punch. Gods but it would feel so good.

"Well, because you are a short-sighted idiot, I should think." Remi says casually, and it's only when Nate prods his chest that the alchemist lets go of whatever restraint he'd been poorly holding onto thus far. Reaching out for Nate's wrist, Remi clenches his teeth together and offers the ascended the only warning he's going to get. "Touch me again and I will break your arm." He hisses evenly, sea glass stare focused and hard.

"Do I think it is something someone would do? That you would do? Yeah Nate, because you are not strong enough to hurt me on your own and you never will be. So maybe you thought instead of crying off to the Voice to fight your battles, you would try a different tactic." Snarling openly now, Remi tilts his head slightly that he might better eye up the man before him.

Perhaps it was the rush of curses flowing from Nate's lips that switches linguistic tracks in the alchemist's mind, but it certainly isn't english the common tongue that he answers Nate's final accusation with. 'La mia gente? Non faccio parte dell'Ordine, idiota. Ma no, non erano loro, credetemi o no. Quindi questo significa che qualcun altro sta cercando di ferire l'Asceso.' Remi becomes all the more animated for speaking in what he knows as the Travelling Tongue. His eyebrows dance, his eyes wander, his hands and fingers punctuate every word at his side.

Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

– NATE –

Nates one eye burns in his head, locked on Remi. His fingers twitch, and a slow grin crosses his face, tongue just barely peeking out between his teeth. He leans in, drawing in a breath that is all muscle memory, and licks his lips. “S’at a promise?” His head tips to the side, almost delicately, like he’s offering the angle of his jaw up to the alchemist on a silver platter.

That feral smile stays glued to his face, splitting only when Nate tips his head back and laughs in Remi’s face. Loud and long. “You’re hurting my feelings now, baby.” He gasps between giddiness. “When I hurt you, it’s gonna be just you. And I’m gonna be there to see it. Not gonna touch your friends or your husband or your fuckin’ kid.”

There is a choked off rush of surprise at the familiar language leaving Remi, cutting off the laughter and felling the smile as Nate’s brows furrow and he tries to pull hazy memories up. The first response he has is a snap, “Cazzo rallenta, stronzo!”, Nate grinding his teeth while he thinks, translates and translates back and spits out some slow, stumbled rebuttal, refusing to back away from this battleground now that he knows it exists. “Tu dormi, uh, fuckin’... tu dormi con loro, stressa cosa.” There’s an air of accusation in the words, Nate’s hands fluttering with the same indignant animation, though of his gestures flick towards Remi, almost touching.

Licking his lips, Nate lets his next words slip in an irritated huff, the accent returning to him the more he speaks. “No shit. C'è una lista di persone che ci odiano finché il mio cazzo.” And just to drive the point home, he grabs between his legs.

I’m in trouble for the things I haven’t got to yet

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

REMI

the lullaby

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair

"You do not deserve my promises." Remi hisses back. "But a threat? Absolutely it is." It's lucky Nate doesn't breathe the same air as Remi does, or he might add that into the bounds of the threat as well.

"When. Bold words. What is to stop me from just killing you now?" Nate can laugh all he wants. Can cross his arms, can stand tall. Only one of them is in any position to make these sort of threats though.

Nate answers him in kind, and that the first thing he says is a plea, only makes the alchemist grin darkly. "Ah. Un'altra cosa che non puoi fare, mm?" The insult is slow and poorly worded, and were it not for the fact that Remi wanted nothing more than to see what it would be like to try and choke the life from a man who didn't need to breathe, he instead just offers Nate a condescending slow clap.

"Sei sicuro?" Remi's nose crinkles as he holds up his thumb and forefinger and approximates just a few inches. Glancing between Nate's legs, he frowns and tilts his head back and forth consideringly, and then diminishes the space. "Bene, almeno puoi usarlo come un modo per misurare, dal momento che non puoi usarlo per molto altro."

Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

– NATE –

“Boo, you tease.” Something glints in Nate’s eye, some deep satisfaction from having something to loose the rage in his chest at. There’s no denying that he’s at a disadvantage here, though all it does is make him plant his feet, face Remi a little more steadily. “Safrin, maybe.” Nate shrugs, honestly not clear on what the actual deal regarding his life was. “Whatever lies you’ve told yourself about where you stand in whatever war is brewing.” Licking his lips, Nate glances towards the ocean, the sky, then back to the Lullaby. “You’re not going to kill me.”

Remi’s words strike an obvious nerve, more so than even the slow taunt. He was raised in this, can speak the fucking language, it just... takes a bit for the words to come back to him. “Vai a vendere il culo, eh cornuto?” Vulgarity has always come quickly, helpfully bringing along everything else with it, and wrapping Nate in a heady, familiar cocoon, some scene stolen straight from his memories, transpiring on a beach worlds away.

“Pompinara.” The ascended snarls the word, spitting at Remi’s feet while he does. “Non ho bisogno del mio cazzo per far impazzire le puttane.” Nate sneers, his hand retuning to his side, just in time to gesture at Remi with a savage smirk, all teeth and tongue wetting his lips. “Guardati.” The word purrs out smugly, that grin growing just a touch wider.

I’m in trouble for the things I haven’t got to yet

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

REMI

the lullaby

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair

"Touch me again and you can test that theory. Something tells me you are in the same boat as I am, when it comes to her." Safrin wanted Ronin to herself. It stood to reason she would want the same of Sunjata. Moreso, given that Nate was an ascended and a demigod. For a long moment the alchemist says nothing. Nate's words open up a dialogue inside of his mind that he'd never properly engaged with, and now that he was? He felt hollow and reckless. "I am not sure that is true." The reply takes a moment, the words carefully considered and without malice. There were few consequences that would come from killing Nate. At least, consequences he cared about. Even so, something did still his hands just now.

"Almeno non ho bisogno di stanze magiche." The alchemist replies with an easy laugh. "E non ho bisogno di puttane." There was something sloppy and greasy about the words used, this vocabulary learned exclusively from his father.

"Si. Guardami. Spreco il mio tempo con uno stronzo che porta rancore come te. Sai perché penso che tu sia davvero arrabbiato? Sei andato in una stupida missione ascesa che non ha fatto nulla. Ma se fossi stato in giro, avresti potuto salvarlo. Hai lasciato la tua famiglia ed è stato facile accumulare tutte le tue stronzate su di me.

La verità è? Sei debole. Hai fatto una cazzata. E non puoi andare avanti, perché la vendetta è tutto ciò che hai." The words sing from his lips and gods Remi hopes that it's hard for Nate to keep up.

'Answer me this.' Remi's jaw tightens as he takes an unhurried breath. "If you are just going to run off one day and find someone stronger to back you up...why shouldn't I kill you now?"

Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

– NATE –

"Yea? Ronin loved you enough to cut a deal for you too, eh?" He doesn't know why he says it, except to jam more fingers in places they don't belong, to try and rip up more for strife. "Cause if he didn't, I'd say we still have fuck all in common." Instead of reaching out again, Nate throws his arms out wide, refusing to think of the ramifications of his boasting, just for a little bit longer.

Until Remi throws deadly honesty into his face, and Nate pauses. Doesn't so much suck in a breath as he simply flutters, tongue poking out to wet his lips as his eyes grow hooded. In another time, another place, he'd push again. Reach out with a laugh, push Remi over that edge and let him do what violence he aches to. This isn't the time, isn't the place, and Nate leans back again, clenching his teeth so hard they creak out a protest, his chin tipping up again.

"Devi essere una cagacazzo egoista. Non ho bisogno di una stanza per compiacere." Nate breathes, brows pinching. "Perché avresti bisogno di puttane quando sei tu la puttana?" The insult rolls from him easily, slower than it needs to, as if Remi is the one whose comprehension needs to be mocked.

It is hard for Nate to keep up, a fact that angers him just as much as the snippets he can catch, the accusatory claws that drag away the layers of bravado and rage and leave him bare, powerless. His jaw works in tandem with his hands, another smoke freed and placed between his lips, the edge of his jaw jutted out towards Remi. "Quindi mi stai incolpando per il tuo piccolo attacco isterico? Vai a vendere il culo." The words are a dark rumble, no more of the spiteful playfulness Nate had had before.

Despite the barbs they've already traded, this seems to be the question that irritates Nate most. "Fuck, are you serio- I'm not going to find someone stronger." He snaps, somehow keeping the unlit smoke steady between bared teeth. Instead of explaining himself again, Nate rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. "That's what you're gonna kill me over? Because you think I'm not fucking man enough to wanna beat the shit out of you with my own fists? Is that it, pompinara?"

I’m in trouble for the things I haven’t got to yet

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

REMI

the lullaby

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair

"He did not need to. Unlike you, I do not need saving." Remi snarls back, as his emotional temperature continues to rise, burning away what little willpower was currently at work within himself.

"E devi essere di mentalità ristretta se pensi che il sesso sia solo un modo. Ma poi, se è abbastanza, perché tuo marito è nel mezzo di qualsiasi paio di gambe aperte?" Chuckling at that, the alchemist raises a rather triumphant brow. Perhaps it has more to do with the fact that he and Ronin have recently returned their open-passes back to one another, but he thinks that there's truth in it just the same.

"Isterico? Per favore." Rolling his eyes as the urge for pettiness sings higher and higher beneath his skin, Remi glares at the cigarette between Nate's lips, wanting to slap it from his mouth.

Like a chord of wire, tightly bound to hold a great load, the more Nate speaks, the more his words saw away at the outer strands. Though Remi's restraint holds fast, it splinters and twists; the alchemist does nothing to braid it back together that it might out last their conversation.

"No. I am going to kill you over the threat you made to hurt me." Remi snarls, his voice far too calm, his gaze far too even. For all Nate's ferocity, Remi is entirely unmoved. 'You have tried that once and failed utterly. Just like you will if you try again.' The alchemist points out, using the same slow tone they've both dipped in and out of.  "I will kill you because you are a pain in my ass. Because you continue to threaten me over something I have apologized for."

Killing Nate would complicate things, but gods with him so close, his beady blue eye glaring pompously, his arms folded with that cigarette still hanging from his lips...it riled every part of the alchemist in ways that hadn't been done in a very, very long time.

"Either you drop this now and apologize for continuing this rancore assurdo, or you die tonight."

Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!