I took my time, I hurried up
Mateo Taliesin
Botanist

Age: 23 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 17 - Int: 0
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 802 | Total: 16,320
MP: 3061
#1
Mateo

Let's not think about how long it took Mateo to sail his little schooner down to the floating city of Haulani, or who did the piloting. (It's better left unknown, truth be told, since Ever is out on some errand - aka his job - and the drifting botanical skyboat is a danger to itself even before getting Mateo involved). Whatever, though, because he's here!

He's not paid Torchline a visit since the blowup with his sister, but even the thought of running into Flora doesn't dampen his spirits; not when the invitation to the islands has come from his fathers. Mateo has agreed to meet Remi at one of the highest floating points of the city, where they can watch the skyline bleed into the ocean like running watercolours.

Dressed impeccably in a crisp, white shirt, a sage coloured waistcoat and a spray of gold jewellery, Mateo hides his nerves by chatting up a skinny street cat sunning itself on a wall.
i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am
Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#2
i'm not the man they think i am at home
Anxiousness isn't a word normally associated with the Lullaby. Once upon a time, he'd been a fidgety man with a heart like a caged sparrow who was ever on the side of flight rather than fight. Whether it was the leap over that line or just the hardened man he'd become that had all but erased any foothold in his soul where anxiousness might find a grip, now Remi was more likely to misdiagnose himself with a stomach ache than being able to properly identify what it was he was feeling.

Luckily Ronin had been there that morning to explain to him that no, it hadn't been their breakfast that had Remi's stomach twisting into knots.

Streaking across the sky as a hawk so that his presence in Torchline might go unnoticed, it's with a keen predatory gaze that the Lullaby first sees the scrawny cat and not the handsome man waxing eloquent at its side. Unable to hold his breath in this body given his muscle's demand for oxygen, or to sigh in a way that would feel satisfying, the hawk simply angles itself down toward the twisting tributaries of streets before shifting.

Dressed simply in a faded chambray shirt and rather fashionable tan trousers (he'd put on Ronin's by mistake), the Lullaby shuffles toward his son keeping his eyes trained on the pavement before him and only glancing up when he was close enough to find Mateo's gaze. "Buon pomeriggio." He mumbles a touch awkwardly, though the travelling tongue makes music of the greeting just the same.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Mateo Taliesin
Botanist

Age: 23 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 17 - Int: 0
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 802 | Total: 16,320
MP: 3061
#3
Mateo

"...e così le ho detto che ero già sposato. So you see, it simply would not h..." Mateo's kitten conversation ends rather abruptly when the feline leaps down from the wall (it's because of Remi's arrival, but he doesn't know that yet). "Che maleducato," he remarks, turning to follow the cat's departure - and finding himself eye to eye with the Lullaby.

Or, well - eye to shoulder, really, because Mateo is not a tall man, but it takes little effort to lift his gaze to meet Remi's. "Papà," he all but blurts in his surprise, which is absolutely not how he had imagined this going when he was practicing in his mirror that morning. "Er, I mean... Buon pomeriggio. I did not... well, I was not expecting you to just..."

Gesturing vaguely with his arms as if to indicate the Lullaby's sudden appearance, Mateo feels suddenly more like a child than ever.
i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am
Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#4
i'm not the man they think i am at home
Unable to tell if this early misstep was his or Mateo's, Remi rubs his palm up one unshaven cheek before letting it fall with his (ghostly) fingers splayed apologetically. "Did you think all the shadows would suddenly run down the street toward me, or that there would be screams of kraken!  to announce my arrival?" The Lullaby asks, only half joking.

Across his left shoulder was a worn leather strap attached to a bag repaired so many times that likely nothing of the original was even left. Shrugging his shoulder to draw attention to the bag, Remi looks from it to his son. "I brought some things to paint with, I thought..." Gesturing with his chin toward the horizon line, the creases by the Lullaby's eyes deepen as his smile is forcefully widened. "..but only if you want."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Mateo Taliesin
Botanist

Age: 23 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 17 - Int: 0
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 802 | Total: 16,320
MP: 3061
#5
Mateo

"I - no, no of course not. I just did not expect you to be on time," Mateo confesses, mainly because he is also never on time, today being the exception because it's Remi. His eyes follow the dance of Remi's fingers up the scruff of his cheek, then to the ragged bag he's brought - and then back to his fingers, where he finds himself subconsciously counting them.

"Your hand--" he says, the words colliding with the Lullaby's suggestion, tangling the threads of conversation until Mateo isn't sure whether to continue to ask his question or to answer Remi's. Eventually, and with a huff of laughter that rushes out of him like a punch to the gut, Mateo steps foward to embrace his father.

"Va bene per me," he mumbles, his voice muffled by faded chambray. "It is good to see you."
i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am
Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#6
i'm not the man they think i am at home
"Oh, si.." Remi's right arm stretches forward self importantly even though the Lullaby hadn't told it to. His fingers waggle for Mateo's approval as if dancing some invisible coin back and forth over his knuckles. "Ludo...it..." Wondering how best to articulate that the herald had imbued his arm with the soul of something in order to make it work again, the Lullaby is let off the hook by his son's sudden embrace.

Quite how it was that everyone else seemed to have a knack for breaking tension was beyond Remi, but gods he was glad for it now. Stretching both arms around his son and tugging him close, the Lullaby presses his cheek against the top of Mateo's head and does his best to still time. This was a moment to be remembered and cherished, and yet Remi finds the seconds slipping through his fingers.

"I have missed you." Remi murmurs into his son's curls, breathing in the perfumed aroma of whatever Mateo has washed his hair with. 'Mi dispiace che sia passato così tanto tempo...' Pulling back so that he might study his son's face, the Lullaby's expression slowly blooms into one of fatherly pride, which is rather ironic given how very little positive influence he's had on his son's life.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Mateo Taliesin
Botanist

Age: 23 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 17 - Int: 0
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 802 | Total: 16,320
MP: 3061
#7
Mateo

Mateo only has time to glimpse the, er, personality that his father's arm suddenly possesses, before it doesn't matter any more (sorry, arm). They can talk about it later, probably. "I missed you too, Dad," he murmurs, happily squeezed tight in a hug that he feels like he needed months ago. "Ah, no non sei," he teases, smiling hard enough to set off the dimples in his cheeks as he looks up at Remi.

"Besides, we saw each other in the desert not long ago, no?" You know, for Flora's drahmah-tic farewell Enzo's last goodbye.

He doesn't particularly want to step back, and he's more interested in painting the expression on Remi's face than the horizon (so he can keep it for himself to look at in secret when he needs it). Alas, all things must end, and Mateo extracts himself to lean casually against the wall. "What do you think of the city now that it is half in the sky?" he asks.
i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am
Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#8
i'm not the man they think i am at home
Chuckling despite himself, Remi grabs at the inside of his cheek with his teeth and gives his head a little shake. "I am not sure that counts." He remarks of Enzo's farewell as Mateo drifts back and against the wall.

Furrowing his brow as he gazes out toward the abrupt city drop-off, Remi does his best to try and answer his son's question before a lopsided grin overtakes the pensive set of his lips and he just shrugs. "I have given absolutely no thought to it, to be honest." He murmurs, stepping forward to stand at Mateo's side. "I try not to let myself have too many thoughts about things that do not concern me, these days." Remi adds, glancing rather mischievously over his shoulder even as his right hand begins to try and pick at the retaining wall.

"Though I am sure the Jack's of the world will find a way to benefit from it, and Maeve will turn it into some sort of Safrin symbol." Knowing not of Maeve's stepping down, Remi can only imagine some sort of curtain of starlight shining down from the lifted portion of the city. "Maybe if anyone accidentally falls off they can say three our Safrins and be saved." He suggests with a roll of his eyes.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Mateo Taliesin
Botanist

Age: 23 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 17 - Int: 0
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 802 | Total: 16,320
MP: 3061
#9
Mateo

"Well, luckily we have the sky and the sea and some paints, so it can count today?" Mateo says, trying not to let himself lean into the awkwardness that he can feel clawing at the pit of his stomach. The fact that it has been so long, that he is a man grown now and this is the first real time spent with his father is... he doesn't know how it is honestly, and he supposes that's the point.

It's why the first words on his lips want to be like us? in response to Remi's remarks, but he swallows it back and lets out a long, slow sigh instead. "The who's of the world?" he asks, knowing next to nothing about Torchline and the lowlives running it - and especially not the one who had taken Flora's virginity, evidently.

Still, grinning in the wake of Remi's somewhat bitter analysis of Haulani, Mateo leans his elbows against the wall. "Yeah, I like it too," he says. "Oh, I got something for you as well."

Reaching into his waistcoat pocket, he withdraws a few small, sealed packets of seeds, holding them out for his father. "Fruits, vegetables and flowers," he says. "I wrote planting instructions on the back."
i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am
Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#10
i'm not the man they think i am at home
"Mmmmmmm." The Lullaby agrees, doing his best to sound chipper and wishing that he was the Accepted here so that he might channel his husband and steal a bit of his charm.

"Jack. He commands the..." Frowning, Remi stares into the distance, willing his mind to shift the lazy clouds into the name of Jack's ship. "..Ark, I think it is called." Pulling his tongue back from the corner of his lip, the Lullaby glances at his son. "He is a criminal, but very near the top of the food chain." Remi's right-hand rolls absently at the wrist as if to say and so it goes.

Trying to keep his expression neutral even as a fist of ice water punches in his guts, Remi turns and gingerly accepts the small packets of seeds. Once, long ago, this would have been precisely the sort of gift he might have given, poor as he was. Now, upon receiving it, he couldn't help but notice the similarities between who he had once been and the man Mateo was now; perhaps all the more so given how Mateo was dressed today.

Turning the packets over and looking at his son's writing rather than the words written there, Remi swallows around a lump of guilt in the back of his throat. "Grazie. You know...if you would like, you could come back with your father and I to the mountain. I am sure there are many things that grow there that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Certainly, flowers from the amphitheatre would make very unique gifts in your shop."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Mateo Taliesin
Botanist

Age: 23 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 17 - Int: 0
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 802 | Total: 16,320
MP: 3061
#11
Mateo

"Oh," Mateo says, with all of the airy acknowledgement of one who neither lives in Torchline nor cares about anyone's opinion, let alone Jack of the Ark's. (Alright, that's not strictly true, and the man beside him and the sister who is angry at him are proof enough of it, but shh). "Well, Stormbreak is doing its best to benefit from being permanently afloat, so I would not be surprised if the islands down here did the same."

Small talk appears to be the flavour of the day, and to anyone watching Everest it's clear that Mateo is on his very best behaviour, but whether Remi will know it is another matter entirely. Either way, it's why he resists the urge to snark or flounce or channel a spirit in response to the lacklustre reaction to his carefully curated gift - a good thing too, as it happens, based on what Remi says next.

All but lighting up from within, Mateo blinks up at his father, trying to stop a smile chasing away the shadows on his face. "What about the dragons?" he asks, because of course he does, however little it lasts in his attention span. "I will have to get someone to watch the shop, and my boat, but I would love to come and visit."
i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am
Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#12
i'm not the man they think i am at home
"Is that so?" Remi does his best to sound interested, though he hasn't benefited from being around Charming Ronin as much as you might think. For the Lullaby, Stormbreak holds memories of his husband nearly dying, of Cian and Finn, of the time when he and his husband had been separated by the entire continent. "Has the city...moved at all? I wondered if the air currents would shove it around."

Danger is easy to forget for someone like Remi, and so it's with an almost immediate and careless shrug that he tries to chase away his son's fears. "With both your father and me with you I do not think they would dare bother you. Or maybe it is because of Sugar and Oria, but in the last year we have not really seen them at all."

Remi's right hand begins to mime writing a note, which has the Lullaby frowning before he takes the hint and plays along. "You could write a note saying you will be collecting things from the Cordillera. That is sure to generate interest while you are away." Glancing at the seed packets in his other hand, Remi smiles as he pats them neatly together. "I could even wait until you come to plant these, and we could do it together."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Mateo Taliesin
Botanist

Age: 23 | Height: 5'7 | Race: Accepted | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 18 - Luck: 17 - Int: 0
Played by: Honey Offline
Change author:
Posts: 802 | Total: 16,320
MP: 3061
#13
Mateo

"Mm," Mateo agrees, and they're both acting out a pantomime of politeness, because he doesn't really care either. "I don't think it has moved. There is an... uh, osservatorio in the city now, as big as the Tower. I think if it were moving there would have been a notice." You know, DANGER, THE CITY IS HURTLING THROUGH THE SKIES, or something.

It has been a while since Mateo was around devil-may-care Remi rather than everyone-cares-but-especially-me Everest, and the botanist finds himself smiling to hear the blase response to motherfucking dragons. "Oh, I have missed them as well," he says of Sugar and Oria, before starting to track Remi's right hand with increasing amusement.

"Did Ludo give you a possessed new arm?" he asks. "Because I do not like any of the gods, but that is very cool."
i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am
Remi Taliesin
the Bastion


Age: 31 | Height: 5'11 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Torchline
Level: 15 - Strg: 68 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 100 - Luck: 93 - Int: 3
ORIA - Mythical - Spriggan (Ghost)
Played by: Odd Offline
Change author:
Posts: 10,723 | Total: 16,193
MP: 3059
#14
i'm not the man they think i am at home
"Oh?" Now that does draw Remi's attention just as surely as the clink! of ice in a glass will make the mouth of a recovering alcoholic begin to water. "That is interesting.." The fingers on his right hand begin to drum impatiently upon the stones. "I...hm..." Swallowing against the alarm bells of Finn! and imagery of the Tower collapsing all around Ronin, Remi itches at the redness on one of his cheeks against his shoulder and clears his throat.

"Then it is settled. Just let us know when it is convenient for you, and...one of us can come and get you."

Looking at his right hand, Remi itches the stubble by the corner of his mouth with his left and frowns. "I am not sure I would say it is possessed..." He murmurs softly, as if not wanting his arm to overhear. "More like...it is a vessel for a spirit." His fingers still suddenly which has Remi's eyes narrowing. "Sometimes when I am writing, my printing changes drastically. It is not as if my hand can write me letters or anything, but the style of it...sometimes it will become not my own for a few words before changing back." He adds in a whisper.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)


RPG-D