My Lucky Day

It sounded good to Lucas as well, and not just because an excuse to see the alchemist again would further his own agenda. He listened with an arched eyebrow as Remi explained further about the properties of the mask, the Ascended hardly able to believe it himself. See memories? It would likely be a good thing for Remi to not look at him with that mask, he thought. It would probably drive him mad. "That is... quite something." He nodded. "I wonder why that god decided to gift it to you. Did they want you to look at something in particular? Or just to keep it safe?" Lucas pondered all of this aloud, but it got him no closer to getting the mask for himself. Until, of course, Remi told him exactly where it was. Lucas's gaze sharpened, his mind already ticking over the several areas of the Rathskeller that he had explored, wondering where it might be hiding. "That is not a bad thing of course," he murmured. "From what we have seen so far, the less contact we have with the monsters, the better. Right?" 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 shrugged, his uncertainty clear. "Ah, I cannot say. For all the times I have spoken with Ludo it says little that is straight forward to understand. The mask though...we had been speaking of the barrier and how to perhaps get out. Though so far the mask seems to be more of a tease if what we are missing than an actual answer to anything. " Glancing up, Remi gave the ascended an exaggerated nod of agreement. "Yes. So far I've not heard of anyone seeing them and living to tell about it. Mask or not. "

"Ludo? Is that the name of it, then? How curious." Lucas smirked, glancing around the temple as if uttering the deity's name might conjure it out from the dark somewhere. He hummed in quiet agreement, however woolly it seemed the god's gift to Remi had been. For all of the vague interactions with Ludo, Lucas had tiptoed close enough to godhood for long enough to know that even the most meaningless of gestures always had purpose. "Perhaps it wants you to use your alchemy upon it, or something," he said, and it was only half a joke. If Lucas was in Remi's shoes he would be doing everything he could to make the mask into something that could more than simply see through the barrier. But talk of monsters dampened the conversation somewhat. "Strange, that they simply disappear when the LongNight ends, if the natives of the place are to be believed. Where do they go the rest of the time?" 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 ”Mmmhmm.” Remi confirmed. Chuckling in response, Remi shrugged. ”Perhaps...Though the last time I tried to use magic on something already magical it turned into a lobster.” To be fair, Remi had grown in his capacity since then, but magic was a strange thing he hardly understood at all. He was more powerful, but not more knowledgeable, and Ronin’s Echo seemed a far cry from a god’s mask. ”I have no idea.” Remi said thoughtfully, brow furrowing slightly. He’d...not yet considered that. His mind had been focused on the fact that they were here now, not where they were the remainder of the time. “It is worth looking into though. They must be somewhere...it would be horrific to just stumble upon a pit of monsters unknowingly. “

Lucas was becoming increasingly aware that he was not nearly as up to speed on the deities of this world as he had been in his own. It was something that he told himself he would most definitely change, and sooner rather than later. "It turned into... into a..." The Ascended shook his head, looking utterly deadpan and as though he wanted to ask a dozen questions but thought better of every single one of them. "Well," he said, "if you ever do want to try it, I would be a curious bystander if you'd allow. I was a collector of curiosities, if you like, back where I was from." The 'curiosities' in question were usually stolen from other powers-that-were, but the point still stood. "Is stumbling on them worse than having them all around us for a week or more?" He smirked. "Anyway, I was interrupting what looked like a very good nap. I ought to leave you to it." 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 "mmhm. A lobster." Remi repeated, his voice warbling slightly with his displeasure at the memory. Chuckling, Remi ruffled a hand through his head and nodded. "Perhaps when this is all over? I am sure that I would receive an earful from Vai or Ronin if I started conducting potentially dangerous experiments when we're all basically trapped indoors." Actually they would probably advise against any sort of experimentation. That being said, Remi wasn't entirely convinced either. He liked seeing through the barrier, or rather, liked what he could see (a certain fox in particular). If he fiddles and ended up with some other space-bug, it could be the last of his 'time' with Ianto, meager as it was. "Honestly, I would rather not find out." Remi said with a shrug. "No, no. As you said, I probably should not have been sleeping up here in the first place. Did you come up for the infirmary? Or..the shrine?"

The two names meant nothing to Lucas, but he stored them away for later nonetheless. Each connection made furthered his understanding of this web he found himself caught in. And once he understood it, manipulating it was all the easier. "A wise decision, though given how I came upon you, I did not think you the sort of man for whom danger is a deterrent." Smirking, Lucas nodded at the alcove in the dark. That in itself seemed dangerous enough. "That makes two of us," he agreed. At least not yet - Lucas had only just touched his toes down in this place, and he was not the creature he once was. The weakness was sickening, but it was a work in progress. "Hm? Oh, the shrine. I was hoping to speak with someone... there was no answer, however." The lie slid smoothly off his tongue. 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 made an uncertain gesture with his hands, grinning crookedly. Days ago he might have flinched at Lucas' judgement of him, given how close it was to what Jigano had accused him of. Though now that his ears had been open to it, he had been accused of it so many times in the last few days, that the bard might well have been far more correct than the alchemist would have believed. "Ah. Perhaps for the best. With everyone cooped up inside you might have had a far less private meeting than you might have wanted. Which, if one like Frey answered, might have ended horribly."

For the best? So far this society seemed a mix of pious and oblivious, but this was his first time meeting someone who seemed cynical of the gods. If indeed this was cynicism. "Why do you say that?" Lucas grinned. "Ludo I have heard of now, and Safrin too, and the Voice I was acquainted with when I first arrived, for reasons that are likely more obvious to everyone else than they were to me at the time." He shrugged, trying for a sheepish expression. "Frey, though, I have not had occasion to meet, I don't think." Because obviously he had no idea that the deity was responsible for his, ah, performance at the Masquerade. Why would he? As far as Lucas was concerned, he was just that good. 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 Sighing in a way that made his lips billow against themselves, Remi shrugged. "Just after I first arrived here, I saw a woman praying just inside here. Where I came from we had no gods, not like this, and so I was curious as to what she was doing. Frey appeared and what followed was...well, it is difficult to describe. Our clothes were taken and the being seemed quite intent on one, or both of us, playing some part in releasing one of the women from her virginity. It was all quite against our will, but at the time it was ... it felt..." Coral coloured the alchemist's cheek slightly as he guiltily looked away for a moment towards the shrine, with a sigh. "... at the time I think we would all have done just that. The other time I have seen Frey was much the same. The same removal of clothing...the same apparent lack of concern.." The alchemist ran a hand through his curls, offering Lucas a light shrug. "Safrin healed me once, Ludo has tried to kill me twice, Frey cursed me, though recently that curse has been lifted, the Voice...aided me with something once but still seems to dislike me because I am an abandoned.." He trailed off, stifling a yawn. "It seems easier to simply leave them be, than risk their wrath, honestly."

A place with no gods... Now that really did sound interesting. Though as Remi listed off his interactions with the deities of the place, Lucas felt his eyes widen. "And... ah, how long have you been here, did you say?" He tilted his head, torn between wanting to know more about where Remi was from and wondering how he had managed to encounter so much since his arrival. Ruffling his hand through his fair hair, he shrugged his shoulders. "That is usually the way," he agreed with an easy smirk regarding the gods and their wrath. "Would you like to continue talking downstairs? Or were you waiting for someone...?" He nodded at the paper that had fluttered about when Remi had awoken. Obviously it was a note. 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's brows furrowed slightly. "Ahh..two seasons now." The alchemist replied, seemingly bewildered at just how long it had been. "mmm." Remi agreed with a happy hum as he nodded. Glancing towards the note as Lucas did, Remi felt the cold sweep of panic fall over him again. The ascended's charm and easy conversation had been a welcome distraction, but now that it had passed, Remi's thoughts turned back to what had been scrawled on the note and its implications. "Another time." He responded with a charming smile. ~FIN