He said "I bet you don't remember me"
For a moment, Remi only blinks, sunlight warm against his face and arriving with the peculiar force of something his mind has only just caught up to; the entryway is familiar, Kaisel is familiar, the small crinkled bag of gummy worms in the younger man’s hand is familiar enough, and yet the spaces between one thought and the next feel oddly stretched and slippery. He has lost time—not much, perhaps—only a handful of breaths in which the heaviness had dragged him down and then nothing, no impact and no memory of finding his feet again, only the lingering certainty that something important is sitting just beyond his reach. His gaze settles on the offered sweets, and the sight pulls loose another memory: a backpack, a bandit’s face, the dry rustle of wrappers beneath sharp little paws, and the uncomplicated delight of stealing Kaisel’s gummy worms while the soldier had been helpless to stop him. The recollection tugs a faint smile from him, but it is the feeling beneath it that finally allows the pieces to settle together—the impossible softness of the moment, the missing seconds, the sand, and the sleep.
Dream magic.
It is almost embarrassing how long it has taken him to realise it. Once, he would have recognised the edges of this place immediately, back when Ludo’s power had curled through him such that sleep and waking had not always felt so cleanly separated. Now the knowledge returns with the slow, peculiar certainty of something remembered by the body before the mind can catch up, and Remi glances down at the gummy worms with a small spark of mischief beginning to wake behind his sea-glass eyes.
"I can do you one better," he says, his accent curling warmly around the words. Pressing his palms together in front of him, Remi lowers his gaze with exaggerated concentration, as though whatever he is attempting requires the sort of solemn focus usually reserved for delicate alchemy or very small children attempting to carry a full cup. When he begins to draw his hands apart, there is nothing there at first but the faint drag of his fingers through the air. Then a gummy worm appears between his palms.
It is small at first, scarcely larger than the ones in Kaisel’s bag, bright and absurdly cheerful in shades of red and green. Remi’s mouth twitches as he continues to pull his hands wider, and the sweet stretches obediently with them, lengthening past the width of his chest, then his shoulders, then further still. Its gelatinous body thickens as it grows, wobbling heavily between his palms until it is no longer a piece of candy so much as a ridiculous, shimmering creature of sugar and colour, large enough that it droops toward the floor beneath its own weight.
Dream magic.
It is almost embarrassing how long it has taken him to realise it. Once, he would have recognised the edges of this place immediately, back when Ludo’s power had curled through him such that sleep and waking had not always felt so cleanly separated. Now the knowledge returns with the slow, peculiar certainty of something remembered by the body before the mind can catch up, and Remi glances down at the gummy worms with a small spark of mischief beginning to wake behind his sea-glass eyes.
"I can do you one better," he says, his accent curling warmly around the words. Pressing his palms together in front of him, Remi lowers his gaze with exaggerated concentration, as though whatever he is attempting requires the sort of solemn focus usually reserved for delicate alchemy or very small children attempting to carry a full cup. When he begins to draw his hands apart, there is nothing there at first but the faint drag of his fingers through the air. Then a gummy worm appears between his palms.
It is small at first, scarcely larger than the ones in Kaisel’s bag, bright and absurdly cheerful in shades of red and green. Remi’s mouth twitches as he continues to pull his hands wider, and the sweet stretches obediently with them, lengthening past the width of his chest, then his shoulders, then further still. Its gelatinous body thickens as it grows, wobbling heavily between his palms until it is no longer a piece of candy so much as a ridiculous, shimmering creature of sugar and colour, large enough that it droops toward the floor beneath its own weight.
and I said "only ever other memory"
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
