True Colours

remi Rocketman; burning up his fuse out there alone As if LongNight wasn't strange and difficult enough, now there was suddenly some strange man saying all sorts of impossible things. Things that Remi could hardly wrap his mind around. Things that he thought late at night, in the comfort of his own silent thoughts. Ways he wished he could be, things he wished he could say or want or have. And then suddenly to have some stranger telling him that everyone knew? That he was ... ...he was.. dating? There was only one person he wanted to talk to about this. Vai. The Rathskeller was a great deal less crowded now that the Sanctuary had been made safe. Even so, there were enough people that he didn't see Vai immediately. With lines of worry creasing his face and exhaustion darkening the skin beneath his eyes, Remi searched for the huntress, sighing with relief once he'd found her. "Vai!" He called, gaze miserable, heart hammering, mind exhausted. "Can we..." Remi asked a bit breathlessly, before shaking his head slightly to clear his thoughts. "Do you have time to talk?" He didn't add just for a moment, because given all that had happened, it probably wouldn't be.

Vervain was always busy in the Rathskeller, even with a lot of the lodgers having headed home under the protective light of the Spark Bird. When Remi got downstairs it would be to find her batting a wine spider away from one of the barrels, Chunk giving it a lazy swipe as it scuttled by him along the floor. Swearing and grumbling when the spider hiccuped and disappeared in a crack in the wall, she put the broom aside and turned to smile at him. "Hey, Remi. Did you enjoy your sketching?" she asked. The alchemist had been in odd sorts for a day or so, but she put it down to the stress and understandable terror of LongNight. When he asked if they could talk, she nodded to him and stepped behind the bar. "For you, always," she murmured, beckoning for him to follow her towards one of the back rooms. "You look tired," she said, concern warming her voice. "Are you holding up okay?" vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi Rocketman; burning up his fuse out there alone "I did until...well. That is one of the things I wanted to talk to you about." Remi mumbled with an uncertain sort of hitch in his voice. Following Vai into the backroom, she hardly had the time to get her question out before Remi wrapped his arms around her, drawing her into a tight hug. Only slightly taller than she was, Remi easily nestled his head against her shoulder, sighing softly against her hair. He was too tired for tears, but the way the air left his lungs in shuddery sort of bursts it would almost feel like he was sobbing. "I have so much to tell you I hardly know where to start. " He breathed, pulling back with a pained and weary smile.

"Hm?" Vai frowned gently, turning as they reached one of the back rooms just as he shuffled into her arms. "Hey, Remi... it's okay. Whatever happened, you can talk to me, okay?" She hugged him back, kissing his curls and smiling sadly. He had seemed happy coming up to LongNight, even with the horrors it had brought. He stepped back and she clasped his shoulders, giving them a warm squeeze. "Beginning at the beginning is always easiest, I find," she joked, ushering him over to one of the crates to sit on, sinking down beside him and affectionately brushing a lock of hair out of his face. "What's on your mind?" vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi Rocketman; burning up his fuse out there alone There was this odd feature of being an attuned, a disconnect between you you were as an animal, and who you were as human. For instance, as Remi shifted himself into a raccoon to flop unceremoniously into Vai's lap immediately awaiting her scritches, he thought nothing of it. As a man had he done the same, though he and Vai were close, it would have been a good deal more strange. Keeping his mouth shifted so he could talk, the raccoon sighed unhappily. "The beginning ... I hardly remember anymore..." The story about Sam's reaction to Isla biting him was gone. About Sam slapping him, about the man saying that he loved Remi in the closet just after Celosia died...all of it was just gone. "I do not know how well Ronin is doing with all of this...and I do not know how to help him. And..Isla died." He said softly, his small hands plucking absently at bits of Chunk's fur on Vai's pants. "I went out to find her, to bring her back so we could bury her at least, but I found Ludo instead. It ... it put her into the body of a unicorn." He added with a shaky sort of laugh. "And then while I was outside just now sketching, a man came up to me. He...he tried to kiss me and said all sorts of strange things. How we were...together?" This last bit was whispered of course, Remi shivering slightly in Vai's grasp.

Vai grinned as Remi shifted, dutifully working her fingers into the soft fluff along his belly and scritching the ruff of fur beneath his chin. He was lucky she was still small enough to give that sort of fuss - give it a little longer and her pregnant state would make it difficult to find space on her lap. She settled back against the wall as he began to speak, one arm curled around him, the other rubbing at the silken fur behind his ear. She frowned as he explained about Isla, closing her eyes briefly. "I had thought something bad had happened. I'm sorry, Remi. I know you two were... wait, did you say a unicorn?" Blinking her eyes back open, Vai did her best to glaze over that giant little revelation so she could concentrate on everything else he was saying. "I wish I could give you better advice for Ronin, but... I can't imagine what he must be going through. You're a good friend though, Remi. Just be there for him, like you have been for each other all this time." He shivered and she tilted her head, thinking his repulsion was to do with the fact that a stranger had seemingly come onto him. "That's... very odd," she agreed. "And you'd never met him before?" vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi Rocketman; burning up his fuse out there alone The raccoon sighed and nodded, his ears straining and flickering to receive maximum scritch from Vai's fingers. "Mmhm. Ludo had this .. lantern. When it threw it onto the ground, it formed into a unicorn. But none like the books of tales that you have showed me. She is not white, but black. Parts of her seem to shine like the night sky, and her eyes are still as blue as they were. I ... I can hear her in my mind and speak to her, as if she was merely shifted and an attuned. It was not what I had expected when Ludo said he could put her in another body but .. At least she is not gone. As a unicorn she can still heal. Perhaps that is why she was placed into that shape." The alchemist's heart ached at the thought of Ronin and Aoife, but he nodded just the same. He hadn't even begun to consider what they would need to do with Vanya once LongNight was over. Luckily that was a problem for another day at this point. The alchemist shook his head definitively. "No, I did not recognize him at all. Though he seemed to know me. Knew that I was an alchemist, who I was friends with ... He said his name is Samuel. Do you know him?"

Vai couldn't help but grow more solemn as he brought up Ludo in more detail, the huntress sighing and letting her scritches fade to soft and affectionate strokes along his furry head and neck. "From what you have said, there is very little that deity does that is to the letter," she murmured. But still... she had never really known Isla, but she had known Remi had been close with her and that she worked hard at the infirmary. "It sounds as though you are bonded to her, like Ronin and that dragon of his," she said. Listening closely as he explained about the stranger who had spoken to him, Vai was unmistakeably surprised to learn that it was, in fact, Sam. "I... yes, Remi. I know him. You introduced us," she explained slowly. "We've never spoken about it particularly, but my understanding was that you two are in a relationship. You're saying you've never met him?" vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi Rocketman; burning up his fuse out there alone "Perhaps ... only ... it is still Isla. It feels so strange to think that I am bonded to her in that way. Unfair, somehow. She is not lesser just because she is in a different body." Chewing the inside of his lip, Remi shrugged a bit miserably. Was it like Ronin and Sugar? Remi didn't quite think so. Sugar had autonomy yes ... but she'd never lived as anything other than part of Ronin's mind. Isla had. Isla had done so much, and now, thinking on it, he couldn't help but think that somehow what had been an aim at saving her soul, had merely caged it. The raccoon sat up with surprise as Vai confirmed that not only did she know of the red-head, but that it had been Remi who had introduced them. But then she said something that made everything else fall away. That made him feel hot and cold and shivery and on the verge of some sort of mental collapse. "I—" He stammered, rolling off her lap and onto the floor. Immediately shifting back into his own body—this seemed like the sort of conversation he needed proper facial expressions for—he stared blankly at the former-huntress. "—a—" The alchemist shook his head, bewildered and in shock. "but...I...I can't...I wouldn't..." The room started to spin. "But I'm not..."

"I think perhaps that is a conversation best had with Isla," Vai murmured with a gentle smile. Especially if Remi was concerned that she might somehow feel less than by being in a strange and new body, having someone care about her opinion and input would be a good start. The huntress would have stayed there contently for as long as Remi wanted, and she was almost disappointed when he went tumbling from her lap. Disappointment, though, turned to utter surprise as he seemed suddenly so distressed, Vai rising to her feet. "Remi, you look terrified," she said worriedly, and if he let her she would clasp his shoulders as if worried he might topple over. "What did I say? I... Remi, do you really not remember anything at all about Sam? About where he works, how you met, your conversations together...?" vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi Rocketman; burning up his fuse out there alone Remi sighed and nodded. She was right, she was always right. Isla would probably kick him for being so short-sighted to ask someone else how to think about their new relationship, rather than just asking her. Just because she was a unicorn now didn't change the fact that they'd always been able to talk easily. White as a sheet, the alchemist stumbled back until he collided with the wall, likely dragging Vai with her if she'd been earnest in her attempts to grab his shoulders. "No" He replied with a strangled and horrified sort of croak. "So you are saying ... he and I ... we ..." Unfocused, Remi's eyes widened at the implications as the world continued to spin around him. "But I have never ...I am not..." I've never been with a man. I am not gay...it's illegal..it's... Taking small quick sips of air, Remi's gaze snapped firmly to Vai's, his eyes searching hers as if the answers were all right there. "What do I do?"

Vai was more than a touch concerned about Remi as he stumbled back (indeed tugging her along with him), the huntress holding his gaze steadily, searching his expression and desperately trying to understand what was going on. "I am not saying anything, not about that and not right now. I'm more concerned about why you don't remember him, Remi. You recognise me, and you know Ronin... is it just Sam you have forgotten?" And if that was the case, why would that have happened. As he asked her what to do, she tried to coax him to sit down with her - on the floor was hardly a strange state of affairs for the two of them. "This can't have just happened... You were alright when the Spark Bird arrived. Can you tell me anything about the time after that? Maybe we can figure this out." vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe

remi Rocketman; burning up his fuse out there alone "Of course I remember you, and yes, Ronin. And everyone else - Vai and Jigano, Edy..." His shoulders rose and fell. From his point of view, he remembered everything. Giving her a skeptical sort of look, he narrowed his eyes slightly. "How do you know that? That I was alright at the Sparkbird?" Swallowing, Remi ran a hand through his curls, yielding to her silent suggestion. Sinking down onto the ground with his back against the wall, Remi tried to take a breath. "The mask that Ludo gave me. I brought it here. I thought maybe I would be able to learn something about the monsters, though I did not have the chance to put it on. And now... it is gone." With a strangled smile, Remi sighed. "I told Ludo, and he said I would be punished. I remember Isla was there and he spoke through her I think. But .. " The alchemist's shoulders rose and fell. "I thought perhaps something would happen in the future. I did not realize that something already did. So this...Samuel. He took memories of him. But why ?"

Sitting opposite him and studying him carefully as he spoke, Vai rested her hands gently on her knees and nodded. Okay, so the memory loss seemed very... pointed. Specific. Was it just Sam then? "I know you were alright because... you were standing with me, then. And Sam was with us. And you knew him," she explained slowly. "Sam was the one who tried to stop you opening the door, when Ronin arrived. He was worried about you." She gave him all the time he needed to get his head together (as much as possible anyway), in the meantime leaning over to tug at one of the crates. She lifted out a bottle of wine, uncorking it and offering it to Remi in case it might help to steady his nerves. "Ludo's... mask? The one that let you see Ianto, through the barrier?" she asked, her eyes widening. She was further confused when he continued to explain about the encounter with the ragged god, tucking a lock of hair out of her face. "Strange that it was Isla. I thought Ludo usually appeared as your mother." vervain well i'll rest my eyes and i'll let the earth breathe