[se] the gift that keeps giving

REMI

the alchemist

Walk me home in the dead of night,
'Cause I can't be alone with all that's on my mind

Just because it was after dark did not mean that the merchants of Torchline had packed away their wares and gone home for the day. Perhaps some had, but others had merely adjusted their offerings to suit the clientele that darkness coaxed out.

For instance, where Remi might not have found what he was looking for during the daylight, he indeed found it now. After just a quick bit of bartering, the alchemist shoved a delicate and cylindrical item into his pocket, careful to keep it wrapped and out of sight. Paying attention only to those who might be watching him and not the slow throng of evening shoppers, it was with a sharp turn and no regard for the flow of traffic that Remi moved away from the stall.

So say you'll stay with me tonight.
'Cause there is so much wrong going on outside

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ophelia

The night merchants of Torchline are strange. Shifty, snappy, beady-eyed - and at a loss as to what to make of Ophelia. They don’t mind, they’re rather used to that. It’s amusing to watch them falter when their sharp words do nothing to cut through the dreamlike expression on their face, continuing on in their questions as if the seller had never spoken. A shame they can’t come in the daylight, they wonder if it’s much different.

They’re departing with a less than legal jar of liquid when they’re bodily accosted by another shopper, sending them stumbling back hard (because the stranger is a goddamn tank). Managing to protect the jar with a swift hand, Ophelia rights themselves with an inconvenient hand reaching backwards, landing on another seller’s table and rattling the wares, sending a few to the sand at their feet. The seller’s voice rises, and Ophelia waves them off with a flick of their hand, bending to put the wares back to their rightful places to silence the annoyance in their ears. Glancing up at their partner-in-collision, Ophelia blinks too-big eyes at the man in all his scarred glory. “Apologies, I didn’t see you move. Are you here for scar salve or something for retribution?” Their forward bluntness is tempered only by their dreamlike tone and the genuine crinkle of concern and curiosity in their face.

Feel the storm every night, hope it passes by
Hallucinate a shady grove where Judas went to die

REMI

the alchemist

Walk me home in the dead of night,
'Cause I can't be alone with all that's on my mind

'F—' The expletive is lost in the sound of tinkling glass as Remi's purchase bounces from his pocket and onto the cobblestones where, despite how it's wrapped, it breaks. The snarl on the alchemist's face is immediate, and though his sea glass stare alights upon Ophelia immediately, he seems to see right through them if only because the error was clearly his own. Biting at the inside of his cheek, Remi kneels to try and salvage as many of the shards of glass as was possible. In the darkness, it was hard to tell if the item was irreparably broken, and he certainly wasn't going to figure it out now with so many eyes now upon them.

Ophelia's question, so dreamily said and yet so shockingly apt, has Remi's fingers—all 8 of them—stilling. "Are those my only two options?" He wonders with a frown, looking at Ophelia with an expression free of accusation, but filled with uneasy questions.

So say you'll stay with me tonight.
'Cause there is so much wrong going on outside

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ophelia

His anger is a feral thing, twisting his face and highlighting his scars in sharp relief. It’s beautiful, and Ophelia wishes they were a better artist if only to capture it later. Watching from their lower vantage point as the man also squats down - though in an attempt to salvage whatever they’d heard break - Ophelia tilts their head inquisitively. “Would you like help? I cannot feel if it cuts me.” Because unlike their brethren, Phi sees no point in hiding their nature.

They tilt their head at his question, enamored by his accent momentarily. “We either heal from our wounds or seek to inflict them back on our assailants, do we not? Even stagnant acceptance is a form of healing.” They slip their own jar into their pocket and straighten from their crouch, looking down at Remi now. “Though perhaps there is always the opportunity for both in succession if that is what you mean.” And the curious tilt of their head clearly implies their desire to know if that’s true.

Feel the storm every night, hope it passes by
Hallucinate a shady grove where Judas went to die

REMI

the alchemist

Walk me home in the dead of night,
'Cause I can't be alone with all that's on my mind

Remi pauses at the words, hearing and understanding the meaning of them at once. Without his memories of Isla the alchemist was becoming more and more aggressive towards the ascended, but he was not so far gone to simply attack someone in the street. Not yet, anyway. "No." He grumbled with a terse shake of his head.

Raising his head as the stranger before him began to wax poetic on the nature of vengeance and retribution, the alchemist narrows his eyes. At another time he might have had the words to express his thoughts on this complicated matter, but just now? when the item he'd purchased was now shattered on the ground? No. Now his words and thoughts were hostile things that demanded to be thrown at Ophelia's throat.

"If you say so." Remi replies, the words sounding flat and unsatisfying to his ears but never mind. Huffing out a sigh to see that there was little to be salvaged, he rises and shoves the remainder of what he was able to collect back into his pocket. 'Perhaps I will just watch where I am going next time.' He adds, before turning that he might slip back into the stillness of the marketplace to perhaps replace his purchase, if another item existed.

~FIN

So say you'll stay with me tonight.
'Cause there is so much wrong going on outside

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!