Knock on wood

The trees were afire with Leafchange glory and the sky overhead was a pale, brilliant blue. The normal seasonal chill in the air was a pleasant warmth on the Halovian's skin as he peered between trunks and branches, but he'd been warned not to enter without permission and he scowled at the biggest tree on the other side of the boundary, feeling awkward as fuck.

"Uh. Hi? I dunno if you can hear me, but I've got a delivery for Remi Taliesin. Is he uh... home?" Tal shuffled his feet uneasily, hitching the straps of the large pack a little more comfortably onto his shoulders as he squinted suspiciously at the trees. They weren't laughing at him... right?

Overhead, Boreal snickered reptilian amusement and glided lower, her eyes on a fat songbird sitting on a branch and serenading the season at full volume.

Remi

the lullaby

How do I learn my dreams to mold
To lay them bare in the morning cold?

Laughing? No, of course not. Would they absolutely turn the man around again and again, sending him in hopeless circles for hours? Certainly. Though whether or not Remi showing up was a stroke of luck or just another difficulty to be overcome was anyone's guess at this point.

"Whatever it is I can assure you that he does not want it." The voice is deeply accented, and though it has a melodic ring to it the words are rather harshly clipped. "If it is something good, you can just take it for yourself." The speaker adds, shrugging even though the courier will not be able to see it. Remi had intentionally taken off his finders-seekers charm that he might not be bothered by letters and the like after his recent decision to remove his memories of Isla. Ronin was meant to be handling his mail, and despite the ingeniousness of sending a courier, absolutely no part of the alchemist was at all interested in being contacted.

If they're still out there then the chasm grows
For all you know, for all you've known

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Tal jumped a little at the harsh voice that came out of nowhere, looking around to try and find the source. When no speaker was visible, he opened his mouth, closed it again, swallowed hard, and then tried again.

"Uh... I can't really do that. It's from The Sentinel of the North. It's a thank you gift? I think..." Tal trailed off, wincing as Boreal folded her wings and dropped on the bird like a stone. It's song cut off with a squeak and a puff of feathers as the dragon landed behind Tal and trotted up beside him, shoving her head against his hip and almost knocking him sideways.

A yellow feather stuck out from the side her scaly mouth as she swallowed her snack. "Do you know him?" Whether Tal meant Remi or Noah wasn't entirely clear in the question, and he was rattled enough by the invisible voice that it wasn't entirely clear to the courier, either.

the lullaby

How do I learn my dreams to mold
To lay them bare in the morning cold?

"Then it is probably something good." The voice counters rather snarkily. "Besides, I won't tell if you don't." It adds. Remi was presently sitting against a tree with a book, only, at Tal's arrival, he had forced himself to go quite still so that his magic might douse him in shadow. The dragon might smell him no doubt, but as a fellow predator, he hoped the creature would keep its distance.

"Not really." The voice replies, though whether Remi was making some sort of philosophical point about the nature of knowing someone or if he was just being difficult was anyone's guess.

If they're still out there then the chasm grows
For all you know, for all you've known

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Tal peered around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. He gave several of the trees suspicious looks, but the voice's source remained a mystery. "Sure, until the next time Noah sees him and asks how he liked it. Then I'll be fucked." He scowled at an oak tree, lacking a better target.

He rocked back on his heels as Boreal settled into the distracted horn scratches she was receiving in exchange for not knocking him over. "So uh... who are you, anyways? I'm Tal," he added as the dragon grumbled a distracted reminder of her bonded's manners.

the lullaby

How do I learn my dreams to mold
To lay them bare in the morning cold?

"Well if you delivered the package, how would you know how he liked it?" Remi counters. "Besides, the trees are funny. Perhaps you left the package for him and they just...removed it. Stranger things have been known to happen in these woods." The alchemist adds resisting the urge to swat at a hanging snake that was looping itself around his shoulders.

"I am..." Frowning, Remi finds he doesn't have a lie prepared for this. With a huff, the alchemist scrubs his hands over his face, breaking the potency of his ability and causing the snake around his shoulders to hiss in his ear. Pushing himself up against the trunk of the tree, Remi ruffles his curls before blowing softly on the snake that he might encourage it to leave his face alone.

Extending a hand towards Tal, one with only two fingers on it, Remi sighs. "I am Remi." He admits, defeated.

If they're still out there then the chasm grows
For all you know, for all you've known

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Tal tilted his head at Remi's question like a confused dog, trying to puzzle through it. The mention of the tricksy trees, however, distracted him and he took a precautionary step further back from the boundary. Calloused hands gripped the straps of his pack more tightly and he shot the trees suspicious glares before realizing they weren't coming after his box.

Relaxing enough to look around and try to find the source of the voice again, Tal almost immediately had to stifle a yelp as a man unfolded from the side of a tree like he was peeling out of the shadows themselves. Boreal huffed amusement at her bonded's startlement, and leaned forward to sniff the hand that was offered. Tal blinked and then reached out automatically to take the wounded hand, wincing awkwardly as he had to shift his grip to accommodate the lack of fingers. "Uh, nice to meet you, Remi. Or should I call you Mr. Lullaby?-- No, wait, that sounds weird." Tal's eyes widened as he realized what he'd said, and his mouth twisted into a scowl at his slipped tongue. He retrieved his hand and glared down at his shoes, rubbing the back of his neck fiercely at the embarrassed flush spreading over it. "Um. Lemme just. Get your package Mr. Er. Remi."

the lullaby

How do I learn my dreams to mold
To lay them bare in the morning cold?

Remi winces as if overcome by a sudden bout of nausea to hear himself referred to, even if only momentarily, as Mr Lullaby. "Remi is fine." He interjects a touch stiffly, turning towards the dragon like he might block Tal out altogether. "Mmmmmhmm." Remi hums without much conviction, regarding the tiny predator with approval.

"So you are an accepted, then." He says, maybe more to himself and Boreal than to Tal, but definitely loud enough for the other man to hear. Raising an eyebrow, Remi glances over his shoulder as if to confirm this. "Have you made any allegiances to a god in particular..?" It might sound like a question out of the blue, but for those able to put together the pieces, what Remi was really asking was how great of a chance there would be of Tal suddenly channeling Remi if the man was indebted to Ludo.

If they're still out there then the chasm grows
For all you know, for all you've known

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi. Right. Tal nodded stiffly from his own embarrassment before slipping the pack off and sliding it down from the wrapped bundle. Boreal took the opportunity to push her head under Remi's hand for scratches, snorting feathers from her muzzle as she grumbled contentedly at Ludo's demigod, and far more at ease than her bonded.

"Uh... yeah, I am, actually," Tal admitted, rising with the heavy bundle and struggling a little with the weight to offer it to its recipient. He blinked at the unexpected question, then tried a shrug. "Never did much praying before but with everything..." He couldn't gesture towards an impending war, so he sighed instead. "Anyways. Safrin's the only one who's answered me so far. She's helpin' me with some magic goggles." Curious eyes sought out Remi's for a moment and then slid away awkwardly towards a tree behind the demigod. "Have you met her?"

the lullaby

How do I learn my dreams to mold
To lay them bare in the morning cold?

Quite content to scritch and fuss over the dragon, the conversation might have ended with a, you'd do better to channel my husband rather than me and a terse goodbye. Safrin's name however, slipping so innocently from the courier's lips, has Remi's fingers stilling from where they'd been tracing patterns on Boreal's head. "...yes." The demigod replies in a steely tone, his gaze moving with intentional slowness towards Tal, as if he might buy himself time to temper his expression.

"I would avoid her, were I you. Unless you are the sort who likes to be hopelessly tangled up in strings you can never escape, but.." Giving the courier a quick up and down, the alchemist shakes his head. "..you do not strike me as the type."

If they're still out there then the chasm grows
For all you know, for all you've known

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Boreal was perfectly happy to be fussed and ignore her human's discomfort, but something in the voices of the two young men kept her from grumbling when the fingers between her horns stilled, and she waited with watchful curiosity as tension flickered between them.

Outside of his Halo parka, Tal was a scrawny lanky young man a little shorter than Remi with dark, shaggy hair and unremarkable features aside from his pale eyes. He shifted uncomfortably at the once-over, brows beetling together as he tried - and failed - not to let it bother him, though he bit his lip with concern. This wasn't the first warning he'd received about the starry goddess...

"What kind of strings?" he asked, uncertain of Remi's meaning. "Has she... did she do anything to you?"

the lullaby

How do I learn my dreams to mold
To lay them bare in the morning cold?

'Where to start?' The alchemist huffs unhelpfully, his lips flinching into a snarl. "She tricked my husband into sleeping with her in a dream which resulted in a real child that she dumped on our doorstep." Remi grumbles before snapping his teeth together, unable to reveal the truly horrific things the goddess had done for fear of losing his son. "Ronin died a few years ago...and it was Safrin who brought him back as her fallen star. I should love her for that, but gods. The manipulations and the hoops and the strings."

Need he mention Sunjata? Deimos? Amalia? Bastien?

"The other gods are not much better, but at least with them you can see the chains coming."

If they're still out there then the chasm grows
For all you know, for all you've known

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Tal's eyes widened at the words that followed the snarl, swallowing hard. "Oh. Uh. Wow. That's... that's a lot to take in." Tricks and traps and resurrections, all in a few short sentences that hinted at much deeper, more sordid tales. After a few blinks to focus in on one of the rabbit holes, the courier took a breath and let it out slowly.

"I thought sleeping with people and havin' kids an' stuff was more Frey's whole... thing?" he put forth tentatively at last. He knew the traditions and the rumors and the gossip, but that was all third-hand, at best. "D'you know why she did that to the two of you?"

the lullaby

How do I learn my dreams to mold
To lay them bare in the morning cold?

Snorting at that, a wicked sort of amusement brightens Remi's sea-glass stare for a moment. "Have you met my husband yet?" He wonders. "Straight, taken, uninterested...if you meet Ronin, you will understand why Safrin would want him." Remi explains, though his smile falters into a sneer. "I have no doubt that she loves him in her own twisted way, but a child served to bind them together in ways simple promises of fealty never quite could."

Sipping in a breath before exhaling it sharply through his nose, Remi shrugs. "Because she's conceited and vain and jealous?" He suggests sharply, before rolling his wrist as if there were many more reasons he could give.

If they're still out there then the chasm grows
For all you know, for all you've known

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!