crash a little closer

the lullaby

Not having to wait for a skyship to take him places certainly had its perks, but it did mean that Remi arrived to the Climb hours before Isla and was left wandering the mantel of the island with a growing lump in the pit of his stomach. Hearing Isla's name called by Ludo had been as bittersweet as any moment ever could be. Much as he longed to see his son or daughter, he couldn't have been any happier that it had been the Remedy's lantern that Ludo had picked. Of course, watching her in Varus' arms had made him smile for just a moment before he realized all too quickly the pain that would inevitably follow.

So he'd sent the note, flown far too fast, and arrived too early.

Only when dusk began to bruise the horizon did the Lullaby make his way toward one of the "docks", if it could be called that, where skyships hastily deposited their passengers. Keeping an eye out for either of Isla's shifts or the Remedy herself, Remi paced restlessly while trying to swallow down his emotions in order to be fully present for his friend.

I got a feeling inside that I can't domesticate
It doesn't wanna live in a cage,
A feeling that I can't housebreak

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

ISLA

Isla has considered flying if only because perhaps the journey would exhaust her to the point where she didn't have the energy to feel anything else. Alas, she's not so selfish as to not be present with her friend, but that doesn't exactly mean that she'll be great company for Remi. The apology is already burning on her tongue as the skyship arrives and Isla departs on two legs, her fair hair left loose and windblown around her face.

It's unfair, how a moment so longed for can knock her back so effortlessly, and gods, if it weren't for the sweetness of those few seconds with Varus, she'd vow never to bring another lantern to the festival. And therein is the issue, of course - the chance is always worth the pain. Remi knows it, and Isla knows it too.

So as she spots him - she's the only passenger disembarking at this time of day - Isla makes a beeline for his arms, and when she hugs him it's as if it's been another few years since they last spoke, such is her grip. "Thank you for asking me to come out here."

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood

the lullaby

With his arms spread to receive her, the Lullaby pulls her in close. Having doused back his own feelings as much as he was able, Remi took on board the bittersweet blaze that roared from his friend's touch, holding her tightly as if he might syphon some of the pain away leaving only the joy. 'Thank you for coming.' He whispers against her hair, holding her longer than the moment likely called for if only because the swell of her emotions seemed to fix him in place.

He wouldn't tell her that he was sorry her lantern had been chosen, because of course he wasn't, and likely neither was she. Instead, he just kissed the top of her head and sighed softly. "I know how it feels." He whispers gently. Having been able to see Ronin one last time before Safrin took him into the skies and having been with Enzo in the desert...gods but it was an exquisite and unfair pain to bear.

I got a feeling inside that I can't domesticate
It doesn't wanna live in a cage,
A feeling that I can't housebreak

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

ISLA

Content to be held for as long as Remi will have her, Isla releases a shivering breath and just about manages to hold it together by the time they step back. Wiping at her eyes and managing a sad smile to him, she nods. "I wish you didn't know how it felt," she murmurs, giving his arms a gentle squeeze. She appreciates it nonetheless, that much is obvious, the Remedy finally glancing past Remi and nodding out into the fiendishly glowing landscape.

"Nothing like a weepy festival to put you in the mood to kill something, right?" Isla laughs humourlessly. "Shall we see what's out there? I confess I haven't explored the Climb all that much, considering it's meant to be a favourite place for Ancients." Remi probably has more of an idea about the landscape than she does, in fact.

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood

the lullaby

"Well, if I did not, I would have walked away from the festival thinking you'd be nothing but happy." He comments with a crooked smile. "And you would have had to settle for a far less skilled hunting partner, or perhaps none at all." Remi adds, giving his friend one last long look, before pulling in a breath and glancing around.

"Well, I am almost always in the mood to kill something." The Lullaby jokes (?), before giving the hardened mantle of the Climb a speculative stare. "Normally I would say to watch where you step lest you fall into some sort of magma puddle, but.." Shrugging, Remi glances at Isla. 'Do you want to talk about it...?' He wonders sounding a touch awkward despite all the pair had been through together.

I got a feeling inside that I can't domesticate
It doesn't wanna live in a cage,
A feeling that I can't housebreak

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

ISLA

Wrinkling her nose, both at the misunderstanding that might have occurred between them and the potential lack of a hunting partner, skilled or otherwise, Isla begins to trail after Remi into the Climb proper. "Today is your lucky day, then, because we can kill something together. I heard there are huge snakes out there, called rocksliders. I'm not sure the Climb has much in the way of prey animals, honestly."

As for talking about it, Isla sighs heavily and forces her shoulders to relax, offering her friend a soft smile. "Yes and no," she murmurs, feeling just as awkward as he looks about it all. "It just... I guess as good as it was to see him again, it just opened all the grief back up, you know? I feel like I'm less healed than I was before the festival."

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood

the lullaby

'Interesting.' The Lullaby murmurs, seeming not at all deterred by the mention of big snakes, but actually rather intrigued by it. "Have you ever eaten snake before?" He wonders, genuinely, as he glances over his shoulder at the Remedy. Not only as a hawk but as a human as well, the once-commoner had eaten his fair share of small creepy crawlies, snakes included. It was true what they said, about them tasting a bit like chicken.

"Mmm." Remi hums, not trying to talk his friend out of her grief but merely holding out a hand that he might share some of its darkness if she's at all inclined. "I often wonder what it might be like if Aoife's lantern was ever chosen. Ronin never got to say goodbye to her, but for me...gods what it might be like, after all these years." He says softly, sighing, and shaking his head.

"But Varus seemed...happy? As happy as he could?" Remi wonders. "He isn't...Oh I don't know, still trapped or anything like that?"

I got a feeling inside that I can't domesticate
It doesn't wanna live in a cage,
A feeling that I can't housebreak

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

ISLA

"Mm, once or twice on the road from King's End to Torchline," Isla says with a crooked smile. "Only ever as a crow or a tiger, though. It was easier to move across the regions that way anyway, so it made sense to hunt in that form." And it's still a little strange to her, to have those shapes knitted against her soul, not borrowed, but entirely her own.

Reaching for his hand, Isla gives Remi's fingers an almost apologetic squeeze as the bittersweet sting of her feelings leeches out and into him. "And yet, if her lantern did get chosen... I imagine you wouldn't turn down the opportunity to look at her face again," she ventures softly; such is the pain of Ludo's blessing at the festival.

And when it comes to Varus, Isla furrows her brow and shakes her head helplessly. "I would hope not - I thought all the Ascended souls would have been free to go to Mort with the Voice and Core being destroyed. But Ludo works with memory as much as spirits, so... I suppose it might have been showing me a sweet lie."

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood

the lullaby

"But not as you are now?" He wonders, instantly imagining a massive snake being roasted over a spit and the look on Isla's face as he tells her to try a bit. It makes him grin a touch boyishly to think of it, though his smile fades as the Remedy takes his hand.

"Never, and yet..." Well, he hadn't brought one for Aoife, had he? Remi had let Ronin alone carry the weight of probability each year. "Honestly, you would think I should know more about death than I do, but.." Shaking his head and squeezing Isla's fingers, the Lullaby just sighs as they trudge onward.

"It could, yes, but.." Biting at the inside of his cheek and glancing only vaguely at the path they were on, knowing that sooner or later they'd likely come to something dangerous to take their minds off of their sorrows such that they needn't seek it out. "It tricks, but rarely does it lie, and normally its tricks have some sort of purpose to them. Besides, I sort of think that it wouldn't ruin having an entire festival dedicated to it each year, by risking not actually bringing forth the dead."

I got a feeling inside that I can't domesticate
It doesn't wanna live in a cage,
A feeling that I can't housebreak

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

ISLA

Shaking her head and smirking at Remi - she knows exactly what the smile on his face means, and she's liable to smack him lightly for his imaginings if he keeps it up - Isla already feels her mood start to lift, even as their conversation ebbs and flows like some woeful tide. "Never apologise for not knowing as much about death as you might. I don't think it's something I'd wish on anyone, not even the Delphias of the world."

Raising her eyebrows - what is a trick if not a clever lie? - and letting her smile soften, the Remedy pays more attention to the road than her friend, and soon enough she spots a murder or gore crows flocking towards something. "Mm, you would know better than I would," she says; having no affiliation with Ludo beyond dark, spooky and sometimes dangerous, she's in no position to speculate.

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood

the lullaby

'Oh? Do you have something against my counterpart?' He wonders, smirking down at her and feeling a bright little thrill of amusement trickle down the back of his throat and bloom somewhere in his belly. Quite when the Lullaby had gotten gossipy was anyone's guess, but if he and Isla really were going to be friends, why shouldn't he flesh out the role by being stereotypically gay at all the right times?

"Or I should, anyway." Remi mutters. Giving the gore crows only a casual glance - what might Isla think about attacking her own kind? Or seeing Remi tearing into a body so similar to her own? - the Lullaby shrugs. "I met with Noah recently and he wanted to know all about my obligations to Ludo and whatnot. He seemed surprised when I said I would give this all up in a heartbeat if I had the chance."

I got a feeling inside that I can't domesticate
It doesn't wanna live in a cage,
A feeling that I can't housebreak

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

ISLA

"No, not at all," Isla says quickly, giving her friend a pout for his trouble. "I just mean that Delphia has at least one foot in the spirit world at any one time, given who she is. But I'd still hope she was as much in tune with life as with death." Gossipy isn't something that Isla has ever been, regrettably - call it a mild rebellion against stereotypical duchess behaviour, or something. Maybe Remi can change her view.

As for the gore crows, Isla won't know unless or until they do it, but it seems as though the flock are in pursuit of larger prey, and she tilts her head at the pack of fyrhund making tracks beyond the birds. More than a couple of them are injured, by the looks of it, hence the carrion in tow.

"Mm? Oh, Vi's demigod? I met a man named Noah recently, too," she says, oblivious that these are one and the same. As for giving it all up, Isla gives Remi's hand another squeeze and moves to slip her arm through his. "You know," she says sweetly to him, "I think that would be so good for you."

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood

the lullaby

"Oh, I can promise you that she is not." Remi says of his counterpart being just as in tune with life as she was with death. Delphia was strange to put it mildly, and though he hadn't anything against her, she certainly was a child of death, no doubt about it. Okay sure Isla, but I think Flora would disagree.

"Mmm, the very one." Looking at Isla with a touch of concern before shaking it off, it's with a slight flutter of his stomach that he feels the Remedy drawing them even closer together. For all the butterflies, the Lullaby reciprocates immediately, though there's no doubt that Isla will feel a shimmer of boyish thrill humming out from him.

'I think so too" Remi agrees readily, before the sound of something yowling ahead grabs his focus, turning the shimmery contour of his emotions into something decidedly darker and with sharper lines.

I got a feeling inside that I can't domesticate
It doesn't wanna live in a cage,
A feeling that I can't housebreak

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

ISLA

Okay but that was mostly about herself, right? Right? "I confess I've only heard rumours about her," Isla adds about Delphia, and so she'll absolutely take Remi's word for it. Not that she's thinking about Mort's daughter for long, given the sudden flutter in her friend's emotions, and Isla would apologise about it if she was sorry. It's still strange to just be around Remi, she's constantly on the lookout for some kind of complication, it feels.

The yowling seizes something feral within Isla as well, and whilst she can't partially shift, the way she straightens and focuses straight ahead tells a similar story anyway. One of the fyrhunds is limping and has dropped back from the pack, the gore crows circling overhead, and Isla glances to Remi. "Do you mind if I go first?" she asks.

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood