I'll tell you no lies

the lullaby

The way up and the way down are one in the same
I'm calling an audible late in the game

"At first we didn't know she even existed." Remi explains, as he and his (oldest) son use a pair of rakes to pull the rotting leaves leftover from the previous year away from the trunk of the Mathair. "We knew this tree did, but we'd always thought the goddess that supposedly lived inside was just a story." Turns out, she was real. Real, strange, but on the whole, not so bad. Certainly not as bad as Safrin, which was, by and large, the Lullaby's benchmark for such things.

"Even if she wasn't a goddess or a portal, it would still be important to tend to her. Big trees like this have roots that can extend for hundreds of feet. If the tree dies, that can cause chaos to the rest of the surrounding environment. These ecosystems all fit together just so." He continues, straightening to try and adjust his grip of the rake given the loss of his fingers.

If love is everything, love is pain
Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Usually, Mateo would be an apt listener to this sort of lesson; the botanist brewing in his blood is always keen for nourishment, and even though his mind isn't really on the Mathair, he will still remember this for nights to come. Humming his acknowledgement, he helps to rake the leaves away from her great trunk (he's still a bit clumsy with the rake, but he's getting better as he grows a little taller) before he stops and gazes up at his father.

"Ever's parents would like it if you and Dad came to their house for dinner," he says, his voice soft and his tone uncharacteristically... mature. "I'd like it if we all went as well. We can bring the wine or the gin that you like best. Would that be okay?" It absolutely will not be okay, but he's already come to expect as much.

the lullaby

The way up and the way down are one in the same
I'm calling an audible late in the game

About to say something else about mulch and nutrients, Remi's mouth closes with an audible click as his teeth come together. Though Mateo has said Ever's parents, what the Lullaby hears is F I N N screamed in various tones that echo behind his eyes. Instantly he feels both hot and cold to think of sharing a meal with the Spyglass, a man whose presence in Remi's thoughts alone is problematic, much less inhabiting the same space as him. Like inviting a recovering alcoholic to a wine tasting, nothing about having dinner with October and Finn seemed like the sort of evening that would invite anything but chaos.

"I...do not think that would be a good idea." He replies, stiffly, his grip on the rake growing tight enough that the wood begins to whine as it splinters. Clearing his throat, Remi releases a terse sigh through his clenched teeth.

If love is everything, love is pain
Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo has been expecting this, his brow furrowing in disappointment as he shuffles a few dead leaves around with the toe of his shoe. "Perché?" he asks quietly. "It is only for one night, with Dad and me and Ever and them. And Ever is afraid that there is a ghost in his house, and I thought... well, we thought that you could help." He's chewing on the inside of his cheek now, raking at the ground without much paying attention to whether there's actually anything to rake.

"Mi dispiace, papà. I did not realise that you hated them so much." Because that's the only reasonable explanation, right? "Do you not like Ever, either? He says you scare him a bit. Is that why?"

the lullaby

The way up and the way down are one in the same
I'm calling an audible late in the game

"Perché—" Remi begins to answer, only for his son to toss something about ghosts into the mix, which has him squinting slightly. "A ghost? Well I can clear out a ghost without Finn needing to be there." He mumbles dismissively. There was no need for a bit of ghost-busting to warrant a dinner.

"I do not hate them, I—" Remi has been told many times that he is scary. Monsterous. Unchecked, reckless, etcetera, etcetera. But never has he been told that a child feels that way about him. A child that he would keep safe without question. "Perché Ever dice questo?" He wonders, leaning the rake against the trunk of the Mathair. This turns out to be a mistake as there's now nothing for Remi's restless fingers to fiddle with. Folding his arms across his chest—a gesture that certainly doesn't make him look any less scary—the Lullaby frowns, wondering what Finn must have said about him to his son, such that Everest now found him scary.

If love is everything, love is pain
Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

"Ever's dad lives there," Mateo points out, directing his gaze to the ground and half heartedly raking around the trunk of the Mathair. He doesn't expect the decision to change now that Remi looks the way that he does - for the Taliesin boy, this is just a drawn out explanation of the no that has been pressed in place. "Besides, we do not know if it is the apartment that is haunted, or if one of them has a ghost following them."

Managing to shove the leaves into a pile, Mateo straightens up once more to look his father in the face, only to raise his eyebrows at the question. "You look scary," he says bluntly, as if it might have escaped Remi's notice. "And you pull up trees from the ground and snap them without even having to try. And you take baths in the Drop as a kraken." Okay, the jury's out on that last one. But it's probably true.

the lullaby

The way up and the way down are one in the same
I'm calling an audible late in the game

'Well...' The thing about being a parent, is that sometimes your children are very clever and argue you into a corner for which can you just fuck off please? seems to be the only way out. "..what makes Ever think his house is haunted? Or that one of his parents are?" Remi asks, thinking this might be a better argumentative tactic.

Glancing down at himself—his various scars, his missing fingers, his muscles—Remi looks back at Mateo with a brow raised. "I look how I look." And, if he didn't think it would have proved his son's point, he might have dropped his arms back to his sides. "So you would prefer if I...did things slower and less efficiently then?" He wonders of breaking trees, before snorting. "Che cosa? Io non! And even if I did, what's scary about baths?"

If love is everything, love is pain
Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

"Well the oven was on to make cookies, but when Ever and his dad got home, the cookies were gone and the oven was off and even the baking ingredients and the smell of the cookies had disappeared!" Mateo sounds as dramatically puzzled about this as he had all-knowing when Ever had explained the same thing to him. "So they have had to make a huge inventory of all the things in the apartment, to see if anything else goes missing!"

As for Remi looking how he looks, the boy sighs exasperatedly. "I know that, but no one else does. And it can be scary," he says. "I don't know... maybe just do things less..." He lets go of the rake so he can make a big sort of gesture with his arms. "And it's probably the kraken more than the bath... anyway, I'm not the one who's scared. You know what's not scary? Going to dinner."

the lullaby

The way up and the way down are one in the same
I'm calling an audible late in the game

Looking appropriately disbelieving, Remi exhales a breathy chuckle and shakes his head. "Or, there never were any cookies. Maybe whoever was supposed to be making the cookies, forgot, and then lied about it. That sounds much more likely than a ghost who steals cookies and also tidies up." The alchemist muses thoughtfully, thinking that such a lie sounds exactly like the sort of thing he'd have expected from himself or Ronin.

"Who doesn't know?" The Lullaby wonders sounding a touch exasperated. "I am a demigod. Almost everyone knows that. Everest certainly does." He points out, thinking he's being quite reasonable. (No Remi, you aren't. You're arguing with a child. And losing). "Less." He huffs, rolling his eyes and then looking up into the canopy overhead to disguise his irritation.

"I can make dinner scary." He scoffs under his breath, to absolutely no one's benefit.

If love is everything, love is pain
Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

"Does it?" Mateo raises his eyebrows so high they disappear into his curls, as if this entirely reasonable explanation from his father is very far-fetched indeed. And to be frank, with the kind of upbringing the boy has had so far (not to mention the method by which he was born), ghosts are more likely than lies.

The matter of Remi's scariness is a more thorny matter, of course. "Dad's a demigod as well, but people don't find him scary," he points out. "And he looks how he looks, the same as you do." Whatever that means. But Remi brought it up originally, so Mateo's sure as hell going to run with it.

"...Less," he agrees with a sad smile, unsure how else to say it. "And you can make anything scary. That's the point!" Huffing and slouching his shoulders, Mateo sets down his rake. "We can just forget about it. I will tell them that you said no."

the lullaby

The way up and the way down are one in the same
I'm calling an audible late in the game

"Si" Remi replies emphatically. "Of all the many, many spirits I have met, none have ever cleaned up a kitchen." Stolen things? Sure. But meticulously cleaning up after? That wasn't in their bag of tricks.

"I am much stronger than he is." The Lullaby replies, and perhaps it's an unfair thing to say, but just Remi didn't have the words to explain that Ronin possessed a charisma that could literally outshine the gods. 'Di tutte le cose da chiedere! Trova questa reliquia, Remi. Combatti questo dinosauro. Abbi paura ora che hai perso le dita, Remi. Non iniziare la guerra, Remi. Vieni a cena, Remi, ma sii meno di tutto quello che sei. ' The words roll swiftly off of the alchemist's tongue, and to any watching, it might appear he was scolding the trees for how his gaze swept across them.

Scratching at the back of his curls despite there not being any sort of itch there, the Lullaby throws his hands into the air. 'Fine, Mateo.' Because who was Remi, really, to deny his son anything? Deflating as he reaches for his rake, the alchemist shakes his head. "Fine we will go, and we will bring the wine, or the gin, or whatever it is that will go best with dinner.'

If love is everything, love is pain
Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

"Non mi interessa chi è più forte! Non mi interessano le reliquie oi dinosauri. Voglio solo sentirmi normale per una volta!" Remi isn't necessarily talking to his son, but Mateo can't help the response that comes singing from his lips regardless. If he were Attuned there would be feathers in his hair or he'd have sprouted fur to stand on end by now. Unfortunately, the only thing he's able to conjure are words.

"Fine," he agrees moodily, though it sounds anything but. The begrudging agreement isn't the same as wanting to go, and so the boy grabs up his rake again and continues to clear up the leaves in silence. In reality he wants to kick them all about and storm away to go and bounce on giant mushrooms, but it isn't the Mathair's fault he's here.

the lullaby

The way up and the way down are one in the same
I'm calling an audible late in the game

"Normale? Normale?! Da quando mio figlio vuole essere noioso e come tutti gli altri?" Remi wants to know, looking at Mateo with growing confusion and bewilderment. It's all he can do not to throw his hands into the air; wherever Ronin is, he's sure to feel the thunderous skipping of Remi's heart against his finger.  

'Fine.' He agrees, though it absolutely isn't. As Remi leans down to rake at his pile of leaves, the handle snaps and splinters. "Oh, per la miseria!" Throwing both pieces onto the ground, Remi inhales a breath so deep that he's momentarily dizzy. Pressing his fingers against the bridge of his nose, the Lullaby tries to soothe the bright fury mingling with adrenaline in his veins. 'I did not mean to do that.' He says as evenly as he can, with his eyes closed that he might conjure up happy thoughts to calm himself down.

If love is everything, love is pain
Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

"Non sono noioso!" Mateo says, and if Remi had been looking at his adult-son, this would have been accompanied by a dramatic gasp of outrage. "Non è noioso voler fare amicizia. E non è noioso volere un papà che non spaventi tutti!" More bruised and hurt than he expects to be, the boy's young mind is consumed with a flare of temper that his body feels too little to hold onto.

And as Remi snaps the rake and tries to calm himself down, Mateo flings his own against a nearby tree. It doesn't break, but it does clatter to the ground. "I did," he mutters, before turning and cromching away into the woods, almost annoyed that it's Flowerbirth and that there are no more leaves to kick.