Wherever I carry your heart with me

Let me paint a picture for you, I'm feeling like Bob Ross

Kaisel sits on a slope of meadow, criss-cross applesauce. He’s got on a violet windbreaker, every motion loud, no matter how slight. The orb is tucked into his pocket, the weight keeping the fabric tugged forward into his lap. His hood is pulled up over his dark mess of hair, although it’s almost not needed with how faint the drift of moisture is, more like a thick mist than anything resembling rain. There’s also the wide hang of the tree he’s sheltering under that keeps most of the water at bay, but he doesn’t seem to notice the lack of wet now, hood still on, thoughts turning instead around the woman he’s about to meet.

”Ready when you are,” he informs Remi, glancing up at the Bastion, whom he collected for the task. The sprout and its fence are not far, but Kaisel’s meandered over here to leave the busy fathers to their diligent watch, not wanting to interfere with it beyond what he already has. He did provide some packed bundles of breads, cheeses, and meats as a peace offering to the demidads, and a little pair of crochet baby socks with plant themes. Two pair, in fact, as he’s heard.

---

Kaisel

They don't gotta ask 'cause they know I'm him

i've got a river for a soul

A fine mist clings to Meadowreach, but Remi’s attention is fixed on the fenced sprout, shoulders angled protectively toward it as though sheer proximity might encourage it upward. At Kaisel’s voice he glances over, eyes dropping to the bundled offerings and then to the two tiny pairs of plant-themed socks. One brow lifts. "Ahhhh," he murmurs, shooting Kaisel a crooked look that is equal parts amusement and appreciation. A soft snicker escapes him as he rolls his eyes. "I see you have also heard."

He draws a steady breath and turns inward, fingers flexing slightly as he reaches for that quiet filament binding him to Mort’s realm. The air before him shimmers, the threshold easing open with deliberate care. When Vai steps through, Remi wraps her in his arms at once, strong and unreserved, pressing a kiss briefly to her hair before leaning back just enough to see her. He tips his chin toward the sprout, a proud grin curving his mouth. "I’m sure you’ve heard already. Twins." Not entirely sure what the dead could or couldn't see, when it came to their family, he was quite sure the witch would make sure their bigger goings-on were known.

His gaze flicks past her shoulder to where Kaisel sits beneath the tree. "And I bet you’ve seen what he’s up to as well," he adds, shrugging lightly, meaning the orb as a gift for Flora rather than the soldier's sneaky marriage to the Bastion's daughter. "It’s very sweet." Looking back to Vai, he squeezes her once more before easing his hands down her arms. "We’ll catch up after, mm?"

---

Remi uses 1/3

Magic: Gone but not forgotten | 3x a year can bring back a dead PC (with permission) for one thread.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered | Cost: Action

Vervain

even the darkest night
will end

"I have heard already, yes." Vai is beaming and reaching for Remi as she steps through the veil between Mort's realm and this one. A practiced hand at the journey by now, the witch almost makes it look easy, her arms folding around the Bastion to give him a warm squeeze, leaving a motherly kiss against his cheek as she steps back. "Congratulations, both of you," she tells him fervently. "And yes, we'll catch up later. For right now, I'd better keep to one sweet thing at a time."

Grinning and releasing Remi properly, her attention moves to Kaisel once he has stepped away. "Hello, young man," she says, trying and failing to hide her smile, which entirely ruins her attempt at matriarchal discipline. "I'm Vervain Calob. Flora calls me nonna, and you can call me Vai. It's nice to meet you in person at last." Does that mean she's been keeping an eye on things from the great beyond, or does it mean she's already heard plenty about Kai from Flora during their last meeting?

The answer, of course, is both.

and the sun
will rise

Let me paint a picture for you, I'm feeling like Bob Ross

Rising swiftly to his feet as Vervain approaches from the other side, Kaisel dusts off any clinging ground matter with a chorus of swishing fabric. He extends her a ready smile, shoulders smart with trained practice and the nerves of meeting someone important for the first time. He may not have seen her until now, but he has heard a good deal, and his opinion of her could not be more polished for all the way she’d supported Flora in her youth.

”Vai,” he greets warmly, brows rising with the slow surrender to wonder at Remi’s gift. It’s ont thing to know of it, and another to see it in person, alive. ”Is it awkward if I hug you?” he asks, swaying on the spot with the indecision. It’s as much a curiosity at her spirit being given form again as much as their lack of familiarity. Kai is a hugger naturally though, and he wants to offer the full force of his appreciation

Kaisel

They don't gotta ask 'cause they know I'm him

Vervain

even the darkest night
will end

Turning her attention properly on Kai once Remi has left, she raises her eyebrows at him and grins. "It's only awkward if you make it that way," she says, and before he can sway comically in place any longer, Vai steps in to make the decision for them both. Her embrace is brief but warm, leaving behind the scent of wildflowers and bergamot, and although the witch is no stranger to King's End, it's certainly the first time she's seen Meadowreach this way. 

"I should have brought my spectral umbrella," she remarks with a wry smile, though if the fine mist of rainfall bothers her at all, she doesn't show it. Instead, turning her face up to the clouds overhead, her smile softens into something more natural. "So," she says after a beat of silence, "I hear you've been organising something very sweet for Flora? Don't keep a girl in suspense."

and the sun
will rise

Let me paint a picture for you, I'm feeling like Bob Ross

His nerves ease into a softer smile, breath releasing with audible relief. He’s about to say he could definitely manage to do so, a joke more than a promise, but he’s swept into her arms before he can put his foot anywhere near his mouth. It is not the long embrace of two people long separated by a veil and aching, finally able to manage something they have missed, but it’s no less encompassing for how fully she delivers it.

The remainder of his tension melts, comfort and flowers lingering as she steps away, and he stands less like a middle school boy preparing to ask a girl to dance for the first time, more like the son-in-law that he is. ”They have those!?” he gasps softly, eyes widening with a boyish delight over an idea he’d never once considered. ”Is it made out of ectoplasm? Is there ghost rain? Does it fall through objects and you lose it all the time?”

He could have gone on and on with questions about the operations of Mort’s realm, but she reminds him that he hasn’t requested her on the basis of education. Although he might be bothering Remi again at this rate, or maybe he could twist Enzo’s arm into an actual answer instead of something he can’t tell is a joke or not. ”Yes!” he says with a sudden, shy smile. He dives both hands into his jacket pockets, fingers brushing the cool glass orb and pulling it out with a bit of rustling.

”I didn’t really think this would feel complete without a memory from you.” He holds up the polished orb, its surface reflecting back the tree in a warped way. ”So, could you please hold it and think of your happiest memory with Flora? That way she can replay it back later.” He extends the birthday gift to her, and despite hugging her just a moment ago, is overly cautious with the hand-off, as if expecting it to pass right through her instead.

---

If you have a thread the memory is from, please link it on the bottom of your post!

Everkeep | a handheld glass globe that can hold memories to be replayed later and include sight and sound.
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Basic | Cost: (None)

Kaisel

They don't gotta ask 'cause they know I'm him

Vervain

even the darkest night
will end

Vai tilts her head a fraction to the side at Kai's sudden and boyish interest in ectoplasmic constructs and weather patterns in the land of the dead. If there were time, you can bet your sweet bippy she'd have indulged him with an answer only tangentially based in fact (even ghosts have to get their kicks somehow), but given that they're here on Flora's behalf, she offers him only a quiet raise of her eyebrows. By that point the soldier is already rummaging about in his pockets anyway, and the witch forgets her spectral umbrella in lieu of... a paper weight?

"What is... Oh. You got her a collection of memories?" she asks, accepting the glass globe with all the care of someone used to handling fragile things. Vai holds it up to the light briefly, as if she might be able to see the various recollections swirling within, a smile blooming across her freckled face that's all warmth and unmistakable approval. "Remi was right. That is incredibly sweet of you," she tells him, before lowering the orb to cradle it in both hands. "It would be an honour to add something."

Gazing deep into the glass, rather than choosing any one memory in particular, the witch instead offers the very essence of Flora's childhood. A small girl's laughter echoing through trees; the smell of sun and soil and sweetgrass; the crackle of a fire and the sound of endless, endless fairytales, all contained beneath the quiet sanctuary of a thatched cottage roof.

"Will this work?" Vai asks, smiling and offering the glass orb back out.

and the sun
will rise

Let me paint a picture for you, I'm feeling like Bob Ross

His caution is unnecessary because Vai takes it with the steady understanding of how important it is, and the expertise to cradle something like that. He supposes that compared to the lives she helped raise, a glass ball is no large feat for her, ghost or not. ”That’s right. All the best ones, from all her favorite people.” He smiles faintly to see her admire it, one hand clapping the back of his neck and rubbing there briefly as he absorbs her praise with the same fumbling grace he had everyone else. Though hers means something more to him, because of everyone he’s heard about and everyone he’s met, she has carried the most weight of happiness for Flora thus far. Childhoods are important in that way, setting down so many markers for the future.

It’s also why he’s absolutely nosy this time, even against his better judgment. He’s anxious to see a young, happy Flora, which isn’t quite what Vai offers up. Not in the splay of images of a young blonde dashing through woods as he expected anyway, but instead a sound not unlike the one he hears now, wrapped around other elements that draw him in and promise to uplift.

It’s mesmerizing, and even as it fades, Kaisel is slow to return to damp moment of now. He blinks, looking up at Vai, and slowly reaching back for it with a nod. ”That’s perfect,” he declares, wondering if this is how life and memories work in Mort’s realm, or if this is the best way to truly remember her, not as moments, but as feelings. ”Thank you, she’ll love this.”

He could spend all day with Vai, he's certain, but he has to head home to begin getting the party in motion, and she does not have long past Mort's halls and he'd leave her with the family that's here and she knows. Departing from her and Remi, Kaisel heads back to Torchline.

[FIN]

Kaisel

They don't gotta ask 'cause they know I'm him