the break of day

we live in a world someone else imagined

"Mm, like that," Ronin says, scowling as they begin walking away and into the rest of Stormbreak. "Or making Stormbreak more secure." He can't stop himself from gazing over his shoulder at the lonely sentinel of his husband, and for a moment he has to swallow down a lump of panic in his throat that Remi will be left to face off a group alone, just as he was.

Letting that out on a shuddering breath that's also a reminder that it's just a projection, his arm sneaks around the other man to hold him close. While his pace is necessarily slow given his injuries and his energy levels, he has absolutely no intention of dilly-dallying, and the studio comes into view within only a few minutes.

They have to navigate through a very grisly scene of crushed vampire gourds (and Ronin doesn't ask), the Huntsman trudging upstairs to their apartment on tired feet. "Well, I think Amun left almost right away. And Edy..." He shrugs. She hadn't even gotten to touch him. "But yeah. Wessex did her thing, and a lot of other things besides. But I nearly had her." This comes out as a growl more than anything. "I could practically feel it. She must have teleported away before I could land it, though."

the dark star

REMI

the alchemist

What good are hands
if there's nothing that they hold

Remi doesn't ask either, at least not right now. Later, he'll absolutely wonder what Mateo was up to, though. All but holding his breath so as not to smell the souring flesh of the gourds, Remi pushes open the door to their apartment to usher Ronin through.

"How very brave of him." Remi says with casual venom, before huffing and shaking his head. "Edrei Launceleyn as a dragon. That seems...well, very fitting, actually." There's no disappointment or judgement from the alchemist, just a weary acceptance that for however clever Ronin had been, there was no accounting for the strength of Wessex's upgrades. "There has to be a way to counteract what she can do. Even if we had a way of binding her, she could just teleport out of the restraints...stopping upgrades completely though..." Releasing Ronin to trudge down the hall and towards the bathroom where he can start running water for a bath, Remi considers. "Archebold had something like that before, didn't he? A cane that stopped magic? I wonder if we could have something similar. Or...I suppose there is no way of knowing if that is an upgrade or magic that she has." Gods but all these unanswered questions were really starting to pile up.

And what good are hearts
if you bury them all alone?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

we live in a world someone else imagined

The apartment is like permission that Ronin didn't know he needed, the Huntsman shutting the bathroom door behind them and sagging back against it like it's the first time he's let himself be tired. "Yeah, she... humped the Tower?" he mumbles, rubbing his eyes, and if it weren't for the longest night ever and the situation being what it was, he might have had a chuckle about it.

Letting his hand drop, Ronin finds himself clenching his jaw and biting the inside of his cheek practically without thinking about it, consumed instead with the ifs and whats and maybes of the Wessex situation. "Could you imagine me wandering around with a cane?" he says with a weary smirk. "If we had that damned Knowtbook, we might be able to figure it out."

Shaking his head, he lets the matter drop for a moment. "Tobi asked me to stay," he admits. "In Stormbreak, I mean. Presumably to take over and lead."

the dark star

REMI

the alchemist

What good are hands
if there's nothing that they hold

Remi, who hasn't just experienced the longest night of his life, does chuckle. "Once you are up for it, I want to hear how Tower-humping was caused by Gideon and Sam killing one another, and how it became..." He shrugs, not needing to finish. "Right now I can absolutely imagine you wandering around with a cane." Remi quips, grinning over his shoulder.

The Knowtbook has Remi clenching his teeth as he swirls a hand in the water to check its temperature. "I can still go into the Grounds. I wonder what would happen if I just walked in and demanded it. I wonder if I could take Wessex out before she took me out." It wasn't the sort of math he could do, but the question was worth considering.

Remi's hand stills in the water as his shoulders sag for a moment. Releasing a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, he pivots on his heels and instead of replying, begins to peel Ronin's tattered clothes off of his body. 'Well,' He says softly, pressing kisses to the skin his fingers expose as he pulls Ronin's clothes softly away. "It is what you would have done even if she hadn't said anything." They both knew it, and gods if Remi didn't love the Huntsman all the more for it.

And what good are hearts
if you bury them all alone?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

we live in a world someone else imagined

"I don't know that Gideon was killed by Sam," Ronin mumbles. "But I haven't seen him... not at the temple or around the Tower. If he's not dead, he's certainly missing..." But that still doesn't give any clues about the context of it all. "As soon as I figure it out, though, I'll regale you with the story. With my cane. I want it to have a dragon's head." The tale will contain several embellishments about his own heroics too, naturally. That's Ronin's prerogative.

"Please don't." He doesn't expect it to sound so pathetic, the plea for Remi to stay out of the grounds, but there's no saving face once the words have already left his lips. Straightening up, he's already trying to fumble his shirt open when the alchemist comes to help, revealing a body covered in bruises and soot and still healing burns. "Not without me."

The kisses and the acts of easy acceptance are enough to have Ronin's eyes stinging, and he lets out a shuddering sigh and nods to his husband. "I'm sorry."

the dark star

REMI

the alchemist

What good are hands
if there's nothing that they hold

Oh my bad I thought that's what Ronin said 'Well of course it will have a dragon's head." Remi agrees with a warm chuckle. Gods but he can't wait for this all to be in their past. Something they could reference or joke about. Something already healed or at least scabbed over.

For a moment Remi doesn't say anything, he only looks deeply into his husband's eyes, drinking his wounds and weariness. Tension creases the lines around his eyes as one side of his cheek hollows as his teeth gnaw on the inside of his cheek. "...alright." Quickly the strain disappears, and it's with soft kisses and inarticulate sounds of adoration that Remi embraces the Huntsman. "There is absolutely nothing at all for you to be sorry for." He whispers gently, but confidently.

"Come on, before the water cools down too much./"

And what good are hearts
if you bury them all alone?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

we live in a world someone else imagined

With his shirt only half on and Remi's arms moving around him, Ronin all but folds into the embrace, leaning heavily against the alchemist. "On the plus side," he whispers, "if I'm in charge, no one's stopping me from seeing you whenever I want to. I love you, so much." Nodding at the suggestion and with the future still unspooling out before him, Ronin steps back enough to peel off the rest of his clothes before sinking into the hot water.

Instantly it starts to get to work on his sore muscles, Ronin submerging himself completely for, perhaps, much longer than one would think advisable, before he comes back up for air. The dust is already washing from his skin, leaving the bruises and the soon-to-be-scars more stark, and he sags against the tub and closes his eyes. "When I get out of here," he mumbles, "I'd like you all over me in bed, please. Doesn't have to be sex, I just want you."

the dark star

REMI

the alchemist

What good are hands
if there's nothing that they hold

"Yeah, that is absolutely not going to happen again." Remi says with a laugh, of them being separated. There were probably implications for the Greatwood and whatnot, but those were all for later. Despite the alchemist's near-constant state of desire for the Huntsman, as Ronin removes the last of his clothing it's only with appreciation for the wounds that he'd endured, that Remi regards his husband's body.

Watching as Ronin submerges himself, Remi of course has to resist the urge to begin to harass the man with tentacles. He stops himself (though if his fingertips are slightly rubbary, sue him), as he reaches for Ronin's shoulders and begins to massage away the obvious tension there. "You will not have to ask twice." Remi says with a knowing smile as his hands begin to wander, rubbing away grime and ash and blood.

"I will admit, I think I am still in a bit of shock that this happened." And if that's how he felt, there was no need to wonder at Ronin's state of disbelief. "Part of me is inclined to message Isla and ask just what the fuck this was about. But part of me thinks that this might be where communication just...stops mattering. Not with actions like these speaking for them."

And what good are hearts
if you bury them all alone?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

we live in a world someone else imagined

They're in complete agreement there, at least, Ronin grumbling out an inarticulate moan as the man who knows him best starts trying to ease the concrete tension from his shoulders. "I'll move back in here," he says softly. "I'll help Mateo with his... whatever's happening down there. Maybe I can get you a compass..." They're just words, right now, continuing to spill from the Huntsman to help him make sense of things.

Peeling his eyes open and letting Remi do whatever he needs to get him clean, Ronin nods gently. "I don't think I'll really believe it until I go out there tomorrow and the Tower is still gone," he mumbles. "It didn't feel... planned. It was chaotic. No preamble, no coordination. I don't even know how they all got here at once." He frowns. "Maybe Isla didn't know about it. If communication isn't even happening between them..."

Then that makes them even more dangerous, in Ronin's opinion.

the dark star

REMI

the alchemist

What good are hands
if there's nothing that they hold

Agreeing with Ronin where agreement was required but not really committing to much one way or another, Remi pours his gaze over the Huntsman's used body, noting where it had changed and the comparatively few places that it hadn't.

'I don't know. I once asked Isla if she could keep something a secret and she had said no, that the Grounds came first." It was a position he understood even if he didn't share her loyalties. "I have no reason to think she didn't know. But even if she didn't..what of it? Either they came with her blessings or they didn't, which means she has no control over them and what they do." And if that was the case? Then talking to her wouldn't do much good anyway.

Cupping water in one of his hands and letting it drop down Ronin's shoulders and arms, the Lullaby taps out an agitated rhythm against the floor. 'If you do take over Stormbreak, I will handle this however you want to, but...if you had died..?" Shaking his head Remi smiles bitterly at the ground. "I would have burned the Grounds to the...well," Huffing, Remi raises his eyebrows.

And what good are hearts
if you bury them all alone?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

we live in a world someone else imagined

"I don't think anyone has had any control over the Ascended for as long as they've been around," Ronin says softly, humming out a sigh of relief and affection as Remi lets the water pour over his body. "Not Wessex, not Isla... not even the Voice. They go where they please and they make whatever decisions they want. Only difference is now it's inviting retaliation."

Which Remi makes quite clear with his next remark. And although it's really not the sort of thing he ought to smile about, smile he does nonetheless, his head lolling back against the Lullaby's chest. "Good," he whispers. "I'd have wanted you to, if that was the case." Leaning up to try and kiss Remi's chin, Ronin wiggles his toes in the water. "I should get out soon, before all my muscles stiffen up and I have to sleep here," he says with a weak laugh.

the dark star

REMI

the alchemist

What good are hands
if there's nothing that they hold

'Then what point is there to Isla calling them their queen? Or...overseer, or whatever it is?" Remi wants to know, his voice growing more and more frustrated as the reasons why he and the Remedy couldn't be in each other's lives seem to scream at him.

"Maybe I will see about having some sort of fire shift, next." Remi says, idly tapping his foot and imagining strolling through the Grounds during Leaf Change and setting the whole place ablaze. 'Mmm?' Glancing at the splashes made by Ronin's toes, the alchemist can't help but smile. "The old leviathan in the bathtub trick, mm?" He wonders, of Ronin sleeping in the tub. "No way I would let your muscles stiffen up, I can promise you that." Rising and extending a hand down to Ronin to help him out, Remi reaches for a towel that he might immediately wrap the Huntsman up in it.

And what good are hearts
if you bury them all alone?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

we live in a world someone else imagined

"Isla is the Overseer of the Hollowed Grounds, not the Ascended. It's a place, not a race," Ronin points out, though he completely understands the other man's frustration. "But perhaps after tonight, they'll also think twice about being reckless." And tomorrow maybe he'll actually register the shitfuckery that has been his experience over the last 24 hours. Because he did hold his own against two Ascended demigods, as well as the rest of what happened.

He'll laugh about it one day. Not today, though.

"Hey, I haven't once been a leviathan in the bathtub," he points out as he's helped out of the water and into a towel. "Not yet anyway." Snagging another towel to rub at his hair and wincing as his body finally catches up with the ordeal it's been through, he leans against his husband. "Take me to bed?"

the dark star

REMI

the alchemist

What good are hands
if there's nothing that they hold

"So again I ask, if the ascended of the Grounds do not care about their Overseer's leadership, what is the point of it?" Remi argues back, not willing to let this point go. Even if he had it all wrong, with the water around Ronin having turned an ugly red from his wounds, Remi was more than happy to lay blame at Isla's feet.

"Sure, sure." Remi agrees, wrapping his arms around Ronin. Lifting the Huntsman was laughably easy in a way that probably made the pair look absurd had anyone been around to see them. Encouraging Ronin's legs around his waist, Remi reaches out to tug on the doorknob before grumbling into Ronin's chest as a wall of cold air hits them. "That is always my least favourite part." He says, of the different air temperatures.

Stretching out a tentacle to pull back the covers and sheets, Remi gently lays the Huntsman into bed. 'Need anything else before I join you?'

And what good are hearts
if you bury them all alone?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!