reminiscing on days past

Delphine

Sunjata and Nate had made her a little bed on the governor's front porch, pillow, blankets, and of course her bright pink bird. She slept restlessly, tossing, turning, and crying in her sleep. Her hair, so easy to get messed up and tangle, was tangled into knots, some of Poe's feathers had found their way there as well.

When she was found, she'd be found in a mess of blankets, hugging the pillow to her face, which was covered in dried tear streaks, and fresh tears. Her sleep had been full of nightmares; except these were not dreams, but play-by-plays of what had happened to her children, exactly as it had happened.

The porch was the nicest place she had slept, though, in quite a while. The cave certainly hadn't been a nice place, but that decision had already cost her, in more than one way. Poe was glad for the wide, open skies above him and the freedom to fly because he was grounded in the cave.

Remi

Let me make you smile, darling.

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

The Alchemist hadn't been sleeping well. Whether that was because his endurance stat was so high he didn't need sleep anymore or because of the recent transaction of his soul to Ludo, he didn't know. Opening his front door with an aim to sit on his steps and regard the stars, he found not the silence he'd been expecting, but blankets and feathers and a very familiar blond.

Narrowing his eyes and taking stock of the scene before him, Remi raised a silent brow before sighing under his breath and closing the door firmly (and quietly behind him).

Kneeling down, he adjusted Delphine's blankets to tuck her in, blowing away Poe's feathers were they lay, and brush strands of hair from her face.

Delphine

The moment he touched her face, she woke. Startled, her eyes struggling to adjust. At first, she didn't know who was above her, and for a brief second she had considered attempting to slap the person, it seems she's getting really good at assaulting people, but just as she made up her mind to try to scare the person off with a slap, she realizes who it is.

"Remi?" She furrowed her brow, confusion on her face. "I..." As she sat upright, she twisted to study her surroundings, unsure of where she was because she was too high the night before to remember the events that transpired. "How did I...?"

Delphine drifted into silence, just staring. After a moment, she very quietly spoke again, "Remi... I don't know why I'm here."

Let me make you smile, darling.

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

Pulling back so that she could get her bearings, the Alchemist gave her a stern look as she slowly came out of whatever reverie her mind had been cast into. He let her stew in her own thoughts before it seemed she's awakened fully.

"Nor do I." He agreed in a low voice, moving to sit on the porch step with his back against one of the railings. "You smell like smoke." Remi observed without judgement. "What's the last thing you can remember doing?"

Already in the back of Remi's mind, he was making a list of those who cared enough to ensure the former-healer was safe...but were also careless or selfish enough to not simply ring the bell and wake up he and Ronin to take care of her.

Unless she'd nestled herself here on her own?

Delphine

Delphine pressed her hands against her face, mumbling, "I wonder what I smoked." It was the only thing she could think of, getting high, that would cause her to wake up here.

When he asked what the last thing she remembered doing was, she furrowed her brow, and peered through her fingers. "I think... No, I dunno. I remember that I had a bag... a painting, and," She shuffled the blankets around, to peer at her bare feet.

"...I know I had shoes." Drawing her knees to her chest, her gaze roamed. "Poe might know where we came from. I don't recognize this blanket." She murmured, under her breath.

Carefully undoing herself from the blankets, she crawled to sit beside of the man, rubbing her face. "I think... I was trying to forget." She doesn't clarify what she wanted to forget. Because she isn't sure herself; but it seems likely she wanted to forget her children.

Let me make you smile, darling.

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

The Alchemist frowned but remained silent. His eyes wandered to her bare-feet, but in Torchline, such a thing was common. You didn't need to be stoned or drugged to realize that walking around without shoes was the norm.

'Well, you don't look injured. How do you feel?' Torn between wanting to comfort Delphine and getting to the truth, Remi bit back on a tirade of questions he might have asked her, and instead exhaled a steady breath. 'Forget..what?' He asked softly after a moment, turning to give the once-healer a brotherly-sort of look, full of concern and a special strain of protectiveness he hadn't felt in quite some time.

Delphine

Delphine shrugged, mumbling, "Hungover." Which was the truth. She stared up at the sky, curling her arms around her knees, biting her lip.

"Home. I wanted... to forget home. And it went wrong." She couldn't look at him, as she watched the sky, searching for something, and yet nothing.

"Now I can't... forget the children." She murmured, under her breath. Finding silence again, she spoke up, shifting her gaze from the sky to the man, "I... I'm all alone here, and my magic doesn't work, and... I wanted to forget."

Let me make you smile, darling.

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

He laughed under his breath, nodding. Well, a hangover wasn't fatal at least. "Give it time." Remi said with a weary sort of reassurance. "You'll forget. The other day I actually had to think about the word Northaven." He added with a light shrug.

What she said next though drew his stare back to her, brows furrowed and a look of confused concern writ across his tanned features. "Forget them? But..?" How? And why? Surely they were just at home sleeping or some such. His own daughter had never been a problem for him, but he supposed if he used his imagination he could place what it might be like to have wanted to forget her for a night.

"You aren't alone. You have me." So saying he reached an arm out to place it around her shoulders, tugging her to him.

Delphine

Delphine leaned into him, murmuring, "I would have been labelled a bad mother if I left them at home, but..." She shook her head, sighing. "...If I hadn't brought them, maybe they'd still be with me." It sounded like she meant in the present, but she shook her head and studied the sky.

"I... the Gods here are... tricksy." She stated, rubbing her eyes absently. "I wanted to forget home... but you can't bring back the dead, can you, Remi?" She turned her gaze upwards, nostrils flaring. There had been a time where she could bring those who had just died back, where her magic had been the strongest thing about her.

She drifted into silence, snuggling into his side. His touch was familiar, something she could appreciate, and for the moment, it made her glad she'd not been able to forget home; because she might have forgotten him.

Let me make you smile, darling.

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

Indeed he did think she meant in the present, and he only nodded his light agreement. "It sounds like it wouldn't have been good for them if they had." What with the drinking or drugs or whatever it was she'd done to wind up on his porch.

"They are that, and more." The Alchemist agreed, exhaling and leaning his cheek onto the top of her head, sighing in the familiar scent of her. "Well...there are ways." Biting at the inside of his cheek he shifted that she could stare upwards, and his gaze followed in that direction as well. "Ronin died, not terribly long after we came here." The Alchemist said thoughtfully. "And he stayed that way for...a few weeks, at least, before he was brought back."

Turning towards her, Remi pressed a kiss to her forehead. "But if you mean Bellamy...I can't think of anyone who'd give up what it would take to bring him back, if he even made it here in the first place."

Delphine

Delphine listened quietly, and said nothing more. A lie was not a lie if the truth was simply omitted. The kiss to her forehead was welcomed, but his words made her laugh.

"Why... would I want Bellamy? Zariah was right about him." She chewed her lip and spoke up, "He wasn't... capable of love, not like he should have been." Delphine studied the man beside of her, flashing a sad smile.

"He wanted... mmm, to be the first. Greedy and a desire to be, hm, the most powerful killed who he was, slowly." She explained, with a slight shrug. "He wanted... immortality, a pet and a wife, and a legacy that would never die." Her voice sours as she talks.

Falling quiet, "I meant," Her fingers tug through her hair, "Mmm--I, my children are gone, Remi." She couldn't lie to Remi, even if it was just an ommission of truth.

Let me make you smile, darling.

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

"I thought.." Remi trailed off, brows coming together in a look of soft confusion as Delphine continued. Of course he'd thought that the one coming back from the dead would have been Bellamy. Swallowing hard at her description of her former husband, remembering how excited she'd been to marry him so many years ago, on their picnic in the woods, the Alchemist could only remain wide-eyed and silent.

"...gone?.." The Alchemist might have felt a chill, were he not so intimately related to death these days. "What god is tricky, Delphine?" He asked, knowing that the answer to that question would probably give more clarity than asking where her children were.

Delphine

Delphine pursed her lips, fixing her gaze on the stairs under her feet. "Ludo."

She held nothing but resentment for her husband; he had sheltered her, protected her, and had not prepared her to ever live alone. He'd been greedy, and his greed had rubbed off on her. Because why else had she had her children, than to try to win his love, to find someone to love her uncoditionally?

She cleared her throat, murmuring, "I should... find my shoes." With those words, she moved to stand. She always ran from her problems, and that had not changed.

Let me make you smile, darling.

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

Remi closed his eyes as she spoke. He knew who she'd name before she said it, but to hear the herald's name said still made him still in place.

As she rose to fumble in the dark for her shoes, the Alchemist let her. Scratching at the side of his head, a look of frustration scrunching up his nose, Remi tried to formulate some sort of plan in his mind, or at least, some sort of question which might get to the heart of what he was slowly coming to understand had happened.

"So....you found Ludo at a shrine, and you had your children with you." He said, coaxingly, hoping she might fill in the rest of the story.