Reverse bear trap

remi Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night They had left the Cordillera as a dragon and manticore for the first time in seasons. The flight was unremarkable if slightly less graceful than normal, though we won’t point fingers at who was to blame for the errant path the pair took. Landing and strolling hand in hand through the woods the pair had once ruled over, now the landscape had taken on a decidedly more rugged and wild cast than ever it had before. Though Remi hadn’t said as much, he was clearly unhappy with the changes to the Greatwood. The colour palette of his thoughts were jumbled and mashed together in loud and ugly conjunctions. It wasn’t just that he was no longer the leader here, not just that the swollen Stonesong was likely his fault for leaving the Greatwood unprotected, and not just that he hated change. It was all of these things of course, but ultimately it was just a feeling of being somewhere familiar and yet so very very different. No doubt that somewhere on Pinterest there was a word or phrase in another language that described this feeling exactly, written over some misty woods in papyrus. But alas, without access to the internet, the alchemist was left without the means to describe how he felt, and so merely huffed and squeezed Ronin’s hand three times as they strolled toward the Sidhe Village. “I am sure we will know what we want when we see it, but any requirements for our new table?”

”Sturdy,” comes Ronin’s inevitable response, the word stretched by his smile. The Huntsman’s fingers are laced comfortably in his husband’s, and while the pulses of upset that warble along the Attuned bond speak of frenetic energy and thorny disappointment, Ronin’s thoughts are, by contrast, a deep, still pool for Remi to dive into. Having been out of the Cordillera much more than the Lullaby, the Greatwood is less shocking to him now than it had been on his first venture, and his steps are slow and sure as they make their way towards the village. Squeezing Remi’s hand and at the same time tugging him closer, Ronin attempts to silence whatever dry comment he knows is coming with his lips. ”And made of a lot of wood,” he adds as he draws back, waggling his eyebrows and turning his attention to the canopy of new leaves overhead. Drawing the smell of the woods into his lungs and holding it there for a moment, Ronin’s sign is one that drags his shoulders down and sends a relaxed ripple across the surface tension of his thoughts. ”Perhaps one that looks as though it grew into a table by chance?” RONIN Darkness is a funny thing. It creeps up on you.

remi Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night “At least the trees are behaving.” The Lullaby murmurs softly and with the sort of wariness most would believe Remi incapable of. Glancing around as if daring the Woods to start fucking about, he misses entirely his husband’s advances, and is caught breathlessly off-guard as the Huntsman kisses him. Sighing indulgently as his tongue parts his husband’s lips and his mind dives into the Ronin-blue waters streaming from the press of their fingertips, tension melts from Remi’s shoulders, leaving him sweetly sighing ahead of Ronin’s words. “Mmmm.” Comes Remi’s lazy agreement, his mind hooked like a fish on the idea of a lot of wood. “By chance? What, like it just stumbled into being a table on accident?” The Lullaby wonders with a crooked smile, despite knowing precisely what Ronin had meant. “Although, given the sorts of things known to happen in these woods, there’s every reason to think that could actually have happened…and I think I would prefer our table no once have been some fae merchant cursed by Arduinna.”

”Exactly like that. I want it to look like it started randomly growing out of the side of our boat.” Ronin nods, and the fact that the chances of the Greatwood producing such an artefact are never zero just makes it all the better for The Huntsman. ”I think any Fae merchant cursed into a table ought to consider themselves lucky to be part of our relationship,” he counters, lifting their clasped hands to sneak another kiss against Remi’s knuckles. Hopping over the branch of a tree that has fallen across their path - and if that counts as the forest fucking with them, Ronin feels like they’ve gotten off lightly - he glances back at the dishevelled predator of his husband and grins. ”I have missed seeing you against a backdrop of trees,” he remarks. ”Are you sure I can’t tempt you to stay here for a couple of days?” RONIN Darkness is a funny thing. It creeps up on you.

bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones.

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You've encountered the OG random event! This allows you to skip one levelling requirement with the character in this thread. (Unfortunately does not count for characters over level 10, how sad.)

remi Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night Feigning insult, Remi levels a broody stare at Ronin. “Oh? Finally grown bored of me all those months on the mountain? You want to open our marriage up again?” Though his eyes have darkened somewhat, the shine of his thoughts are playful and golden even as he continues to try and look unhappy. Perhaps it’s no surprise then, that the knuckles upon which Ronin has placed his lips suddenly spread and clench back together quite against Remi’s will (but honestly, who can really tell). Grinning both boyishly and apologetically as he shakes out his hand as if that might dispel the mischief that now lives there, Remi glances over his shoulder as if he might parse out the backdrop of which his husband speaks. “You—“ He hums, stepping over the fallen log instead of prancing over it like Oliver Rakan Ronin. “—are getting sentimental in your old age.” Still, it isn’t a no. “Do you remember getting kicked out of the pub?” Well, they hadn’t quite been kicked out. One couldn’t really kick out the leader of the Greatwood and his husband even if said pair’s bathroom antics had caused a good deal of damage and several noise complaints. Grinning and with suddenly flushed cheeks, Remi shrugs. “Maybe we could stay a night or two…but not in the village. Beneath the stars.”

Ronin’s blue eyes widen a fraction despite the mischievous sheen to his husband’s thoughts, and as he turns (after prancing), it’s to pull and draw Remi up against his chest as if they are about to ballroom dance. ”There will never be a day when I grow bored of you,” he rumbles, his fingers splaying and spidering up the length of the Lullaby’s spine. ”And I know you know that, but I am going to remind you whenever I can regardless.” All of that is to say that yes, Ronin absolutely is getting sentimental in his old age, and he cares not a jot about it. Turning with reluctance to continue walking, if only because it means he has to downgrade his affections from an embrace back to hand holding, the laugh the Huntsman lets out is equal parts amusement and nostalgia. ”Ah, the Sea of Branches was never quite the same after that,” he says on the heel of a sigh, only to find himself surprised at Remi’s agreement. ”I would really like that,” he says. ”We’ll go hunting and make a fire. Maybe even tell some ghost stories.” RONIN Darkness is a funny thing. It creeps up on you.

remi Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night Pliant in Ronin’s hands despite still affecting a broody expression, it’s the hand on his lower back that melts away his frown and has the Lullaby moulding himself against his husband’s body. “It is not fair how easily you can do that.” He mutters through a smile that’s doing its best to take up his entire face despite the alchemist’s efforts to keep it somewhat subdued. Indeed, the times that Ronin couldn’t coax him out of a bad mood (or a fake bad mood as the case might be) were few and far between, and gods but Remi both adored and was wonderfully frustrated by this particular skill of Ronin’s. Slipping his fingers eagerly back against his husband’s, Remi nods, solidifying their plans. “Only if I get to be the ghost.” He murmurs through a crooked grin, glancing at Ronin over his shoulder before turning his attention back to the sprawling fae village before them. Inhaling deeply as if to steady himself against whatever is ahead (mostly the inevitable conversations and questions about where they’ve been, how they’re doing, having they had any more children, legitimate, godly or otherwise, etcetera), Remi again gives Ronin’s hand a squeeze. “Alright. One table that looks as though it has grown out of the side of a boat. And in return we can offer…” Manticore feathers (mangled, but still mostly functional), dragon scales, pheonix tears (Healing Not Included), Or, and here Remi was quite sure Ianto—wherever he was—would be quite proud, reverse waterfall gin. Did it have gravity-related properties? Could it heal? Would it increase sexual prowess? Drink it and find out.

”It’s entirely fair. You have the same superpower, it’s just you don’t need to use it as much,” Ronin points out, as if it’s Remi’s fault for being the grumpier out of the two of them. It’s true, though, that in the times where the Huntsman does desperately need to be coaxed out of his own black mood, Remi is able to manage it with ease. Aiming an equally as crooked grin back to his husband, Ronin nods his instant agreement. ”Of course. You make the best ghost,” he says as if he’s just delivered a sweet compliment to the other man. And as they enter the village properly, Ronin is there to offer another example of the perfect pendulum they swing between. His hand frees itself from Remi’s if only for a moment, his arm soon slipping around the Lullaby’s waist instead. It’s a subtle but nonetheless clear indication for anyone approaching to field their questions and annoying socialisations towards the Huntsman rather than the man at his side. He’s hopeful, besides, that most of those living in the Greatwood will remember enough about their personalities not to bother. They’ll just have to see. ”I think at this point we could just offer our presence and that ought to be enough for them,” he counters. RONIN Darkness is a funny thing. It creeps up on you.

remi Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night And it’s taken as a sweet compliment; why shouldn’t it be? For being Ludo’s demigod Remi does very little ghosting about in comparison with what anyone might think, and a good deal less ghosting about than he had done before (thanks in large part with his departure from Finn’s life). “And you can be the hero.” Remi adds as his smile goes from crooked to softly adoring. Had Ronin not reached out, Remi might have taken to his husband’s shoulder as a hawk to fully try and dissuade anyone from speaking to him. However, the Lullaby had been making an attempt to try and be better in social settings, and so he merely mirrored Ronin’s movements by slipping his own arm around his husband’s waist. “Your presence certainly.” Remi says in a low voice as he nods towards a small gaggle of fae who have straightened at the pairs presence. Apparently Ronin’s role as Dragon of the fae warriors had not been forgotten, as many offer him a salute and still more hide their whispers behind their hands as they explain to their ignorant comrades who is currently strolling through the streets. “If our presence would get us a table, just think what a kiss on the cheek from you would do.” Remi wonders, waggling his eyebrows.

"I do enjoy being the hero," Ronin murmurs back to his husband, as if it were merely some role they'd both agreed to play and not a complex (at least on the Huntsman's part) to which he was an occasional slave. The secure warmth of an arm around his waist in return is enough to have the smile on his face honeysuckle sweet and twice as sticky, and his returning salute to the Fae warriors is thoroughly ruined by it. "I think your presence is just as noticed," he argues to Remi. "People are just a lot more subtle about it." Is that because they are showing deference and respect to the former Greatwood Guardian, knowing of his somewhat surly nature? Or is it something altogether more bittersweet? Who could tell, truly? Tilting his head towards the Lullaby, Ronin gasps a soft inhale and widens his eyes. "I can only imagine. It certainly bears further investigation," he agrees, swooping in to deliver said kiss right against Remi's cheek. Listen, in his opinion, he's completely understood the assignment. RONIN Darkness is a funny thing. It creeps up on you.

remi Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night "If anything, they are probably wondering if I am here to collect any of them." The Lullaby murmurs softly. Though there are a great many character traits of his that pushed people away, not least among them was the fact that Remi's face was often the last anyone ever saw. The last real face anyways, for despite his surly nature the Lullaby did his best to weave sweet dreams around the lives he was obligated to take. The pulse of colour through the pair's bond was not one of anger just then, but certainly the gold thread tethering them was suddenly frayed with jealousy. This Ronin must absolutely have expected, and so he'd find the cheek he was pressing a kiss against was tense at first given the rigid line Remi's lips were pressed into. Melting almost instantly though, the alchemist turned the foot nearest to Ronin's to the side, that he might lovingly trip his husband for this small bout of fuckery. "Hmmm." Remi murmurs, glancing about with a small frown. "How strange that no one is offering us anything. Perhaps you have lost your touch."

"Perhaps I should make a sign for you that says OFF DUTY," Ronin suggests with a fleeting glance around at the Fae, as if to gauge how many of them seemed pleased to see the Taliesins and how many were surreptitiously finding excuses to close their stalls. It's about 50/50, if he's honest, and he's about to say as much when jealousy's pickaxe comes shattering through the stained glass of their bond. It's almost enough to steal his breath, and luckily Ronin is already remediating the situation - but it does mean that he's a prime target for tripping. As a result, it's probably not that the Huntsman has lost his touch (how rude) but more that they're concerned he's drunk or otherwise incapacitated. How else could one explain the way one arm pinwheels out as he tries not to drag both he and Remi to the ground? "It obviously has to be something else," he informs his husband with a haughty sniff, straightening up and perhaps pinning Remi against his side a little more firmly, as if that would stop any future shenanigans. "Oh," he adds, rather suddenly in fact - and if a ray of bright sunshine breaks through the tree branches to fall upon them in that moment, well, it's just a coincidence, surely. "Happy Birthday, Remi." RONIN Darkness is a funny thing. It creeps up on you.

remi Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night "They'd just think it was a lie." Remi replies, and not just in an effort to be argumentative. No doubt the second he slipped an OFF DUTY sign around his neck, especially in the Greatwood, then Ludo would appear with a task for him to do. Standing stiffly that he might not be dragged down to his knees (unless..? insert kombucha girl gif here), Remi looks skeptically at his partner as if to question what it was he was doing splayed out so inelegantly before tightening his grip helpfully around the Huntsman's waist. "Oh sure, must be." Remi agrees with a roll of his eyes just as a curtain of sunlight parts to bathe them in warm golden light. Glancing around sharply, fully expecting bunting to descend from the tree branches accompanied by a bunch of noise (aka singing), the Lullaby returns his stare back to Ronin. With eyes made impossibly green thanks to the beam of sunlight, Remi tilts his head ever so slightly and when he speaks, it's as if he's trying to hide the fact he's talking at all. "I had hoped you would forget."