My Lucky Day

Lucas exited the shrine, green eyes all but catlike in the darkness, his hands resting in the deep pockets of his coat. The same coat he'd been wearing when he arrived, and the same clothes too. But given he had shaken off that mortal coil (like he ever had it), it didn't seem to make a difference to his hygiene or appearance. His mind whirred in overtime, and his footsteps echoed quietly through the temple. A mask from a god named Ludo. A man named Remi... and a promise that the world would belong to him. Wonderful. He felt he had purpose now, the likes of which he had not experienced since he had arrived in this cage. He was about to rejoin the dotted candles which led back down into the belly of the tavern when soft, heavy breathing caught his interest just out of the periphery of his hearing. Turning and narrowing his eyes into the shadows, he easily discerned the shape of a sleeping man in an alcove. A sleeping naked man. Covered in rose petals. Lucas couldn't help it - he snorted. Approaching, the Ascended merely hovered over the man's sleeping form for a moment (creepy, yes, but like he cared), before softly clearing his throat as if that might awaken him. LUCAS don't you know there ain't no devil it's just god when he's drunk

REMI Cause when a heart breaks it don't break even The blankets had been shredded at some point, by claws or teeth or just pure sexual frustration. Remi couldn't really remember. All he knew was that his rest hadn't been interrupted this time by Sam's affectionate and love-fueled murmurs, and so he'd slept. And slept. And slept. He'd slept through Isla dying, though he'd not find that out yet. He slept through hours of mischief and mayhem downstairs, his slumber only aroused by a soft coughing sort of sound that tickled his senses in a far off and distracted sort of way. Assuming it was Sam resuming, for a moment Remi hardly stirred, instead reaching around the 'bed' for the bookmaker. Finding no one and nothing, his eyes snapped open as his fingers closed around a piece of paper. Suddenly wide awake, Remi shot up, adrenaline pumping through his sleepy muscles. Without thought he rose to stand, only just then lifting his eyes fully to see Lucas standing before him. And of course realizing a moment later, that he was completely naked.

Lucas stepped back fluidly as the man before him awakened and shot to his feet, making it even clearer - if it hadn't been painfully clear before - what he had been doing prior to falling asleep. The real question was, of course, who he had been doing it with. Regrettably the Ascended was more interested in the pale, muscular form before him, arching an eyebrow and giving it a once over without trying to be shy about it. "I'm sorry for startling you," he said in a low voice like crushed velvet. "I was on my way down to the Rathskeller and came across you here. It's too dangerous to sleep alone up here - it's too open. My name is Lucas, by the way - do you need... clothes, per chance?" LUCAS don't you know there ain't no devil it's just god when he's drunk

REMI Cause when a heart breaks it don't break even Lucas' cool stare over his body snapped the alchemist's mind back to reality. Or at least the reality of the previous night. "Ahhh.." Remi began, glancing down and immediately snatching up one of the blankets behind him (hopefully one without a drying stain on it) and holding it over his nakedness. "No, I—" Remi stopped. There was no good way to finish that sentence, and the crimson blush on his cheeks was just evidence of that. "You are right, of course." Remi continued, running a hand through his curls and taking a steadying breath. "Just a nap somewhere quiet—Ah, Lucas. Pleased to meet you. I am Remi." He said with a perfunctory and immediate smile, leaning forward to bow slightly in greeting (probably not the most appropriate thing to do given his state of dress, however). At the mention of clothes, Remi crinkled his nose with a boyish laugh. "I do have some..under..." Glancing behind him to the mess of blankets and pillows, Remi shrugged. "..there."

Millenia of polishing a facade meant that Lucas just about managed not to break into a grin as the man before him gave his name. How very fortuitous, indeed. He laughed low in his throat as his new prey fumbled and tried to cover himself up, though it was a mighty shame if you asked Lucas. "Ah, so you are Remi," he repeated, the name rolling off his tongue. "I have heard so much about you." It was evident, that from the rumours from the Rathskeller and beyond, Lucas thought Remi was living up to everything he had heard. Giving a quick and well-executed bow in return, Lucas deigned to comment on the fact that Remi had decided to take his nap naked and in a place that stank of sex, instead turning slightly so the man could find his clothes in peace. "The pleasure is all mine, Remi. You must be quite the thrill-seeker, napping up here." LUCAS don't you know there ain't no devil it's just god when he's drunk

REMI Cause when a heart breaks it don't break even The richness of Lucas' laugh caught Remi momentarily off-guard. It was so warm and attractive that for a moment Remi could only smile with a boyish sort of intrigue. However what Lucas said next made his smile grow crooked and his head tilt slightly. "About...me?" He inquired with a bit of an awkward laugh. Remi was certainly not the man he had been in Northaven, unknown and unimportant in some regards, and yet he still hadn't lost that rather bemused ignorance of his reputation. Quickly slipping himself into his clothes, he glanced over his shoulder towards Lucas with a slight shrug. "Less of a thrill seeker, and more of an opportunist napper actually." Remi answered, shrugging into his shirt and turning to face Lucas now fully dressed. Ruffling a hand through his hair, he glanced towards the main sanctuary doors where he'd pilled and created dirt to block it. "Someone was trying to leave...it took some doing to make them stop." He replied with another light shrug.

"An opportunist napper, you say? A man after my own heart." Lucas flashed the alchemist a grin that bared his fangs, if but for a moment. He was by no means a morning person (regardless of where the 'morning' fell in terms of the sun), and indeed Remi had gotten himself awake and ready in a remarkable amount of time. "But of course, about you," he murmured, shrugging a shoulder. "You are the man who saw through the barrier, are you not? With the god mask." He slid it into the conversation like a needle into a vein, green eyes flicking to the door to follow Remi's gaze. The earth caught him off guard; he was still getting used to the idea of true magic users able to operate in the public eye in this place. He smirked. "Speaking with gods and possessing magic in your fingertips... you're like a hero from a book." LUCAS don't you know there ain't no devil it's just god when he's drunk

REMI Cause when a heart breaks it don't break even The sight of Lucas' fangs made something inside of Remi shiver. It was hard not to have that reaction now, especially since he knew what those fangs could do. A high functioning addict was still just an addict after all. "Ahh, yes." Remi replied with a muddled sort of smile. Only a few had been at that gathering, but given what the mask let him do, it was not so surprising that word had gotten around. Right? With a full on adorable awkwardness, Remi all but melting beneath the cool and charismatic weight of Lucas' green stare, Remi lips turned crooked and he found it rather hard to meet Lucas' eyes. "Ahh...well...I can do a little I suppose, but I am certainly no hero." He said with a bashful shake of his head.

"That is quite something," Lucas continued about the mask. "I have been here for less than a season, so forgive me if it is something mundane. What did you see, out there?" He asked not just to learn, but out of curiosity too. The Voice would probably want to know it, but more importantly - Lucas did. Angling his body to look at the door properly, he arched a golden brow and glanced back at Remi. "What are you then, Remi?" he asked invitingly, a half-smile curling at the corner of his lips. "Were you born here, like some of the others I have met? It's an odd sort of place, this. If you don't mind me saying so." LUCAS don't you know there ain't no devil it's just god when he's drunk

REMI Cause when a heart breaks it don't break even "Oh, not at all." Remi said charmingly, his urge to reassure immediate. "It was DeepFrost out there as well. Only ... there was much more vitality than here. The trees were still green and there were lights in them. Lights that seemed to float. On brighter days when I looked, I could see an entire forest, and far in the distance, what looked like a mountain range. " Remi's pale eyes and accented voice had grown far away as he recounted what he'd seen, but finding his description coming to a close, his attention snapped back suddenly, a bashful smile on his lips. "Just an alchemist." Remi said with an unimportant shrug of his shoulders, crossing his arms as if suddenly feeling quite self-conscious beneath the smoothness of Lucas' gaze. "And no, like you I was brought here from somewhere else. But I suppose it has been nearly two seasons for me? And yes. Quite odd. The things I have seen here I would not have believed had I not witnessed them with my own eyes. Magic and dragons, and gods?" With a chuckle Remi shook his head with amused disbelief, even now.

Lucas soaked in every shred of information he was given about the world outside this one. Life, forests, more magic by the sound of it... and it sprawled on considerably. He felt the flame of ambition spark low in his core, and he inclined his head in polite thanks for Remi's descriptions. The Ascended raised his eyebrows at the 'just an alchemist', unable not to look quietly disbelieving. "You do not do yourself justice," he informed him quietly. "Though they say modesty is a virtue, do they not?" He tilted his head, not having expected to hear that Remi, too, was from somewhere other than here. He wondered, then, if he too had been brought through by the Voice. And if so, for what, exactly? However keen he might have been for answers, Lucas tempered his impatience. "It sounds like a fairytale," he remarked. "But... how did you come across that mask? Are the gods here so generous?" LUCAS don't you know there ain't no devil it's just god when he's drunk

REMI Cause when a heart breaks it don't break even Remi shook his head with slight disbelief. It wasn't in his nature to argue (though he'd been doing a fair amount of that lately), and so he merely shrugged awkwardly, chewing on the inside of his lips. "Ahh, so you say. Perhaps you were told better fairytales than I." Remi countered with an easy grin. "Generous? Oh...I suppose that depends if you think of their gifts as blessing or curses, really." He replied with a bit of a chuckle and another shrug. "But ... ahh..well. This god in particular has a fondness for trying to...win me over, you might say. I can't tell if the mask was a consolation prize or a victory, but...I am pleased to have it, if only to look out." Wistfully Remi thought of Ianto, and how he'd looked for the fox over and over again ever since that first encounter.

"Perhaps so. I know enough of them. Maybe we can exchange them one day, and give them a verdict," Lucas said of their fairytales, still watching Remi closely as if trying to make his measure of him. Affable, humble and awkward, but with the power and stature of someone who could really be a problem in this world. Interested? You're damned right Lucas was. He laughed musically as Remi continued to explain about the gods and their apparent boons, and he shrugged. "I'll be frank, I appeared in this world with nothing but the clothes on my back, not knowing what I had become. Any curse would be considered a blessing back then, if it let me know more about my situation," he admitted. "To win you over, you say. What a god that must be. I wonder, though, whether it can do more than simply see through the barrier?" It was a musing, nothing more and nothing less. "Did you bring it here with you, for LongNight? I wonder if it might see through the darkness too." LUCAS don't you know there ain't no devil it's just god when he's drunk

REMI Cause when a heart breaks it don't break even Remi found himself grinning without having realized it. There was something about fairytales that spoke to secret and whimsical places in his heart. Perhaps it was because they reminded him of his mother and Vai. Now mentioned by this stranger and on top of his charm, Remi found himself relaxing into an easy smile. "Sounds good to me." Remi nodded. From what little he had learned, appearing here in such a large group was uncommon. Lucas' situation was far more the norm. "It lets me see...ah..memories I believe." The alchemist corrected, though quite softly. It wasn't as though he was entirely sure that he was right about this. "They appear like hazy after images around them. I do not think it will let me see in the dark given that." Without a thought as to any potential ulterior motives, Remi nodded. "I did. It is down in the Rathskeller. I had thought perhaps it might give some insight into the monsters...but of course it isn't as though we have really been able to see them up close yet."