the little prince

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

On their way from the Greatwood to the Hollowed Ground, Mateo and Remi have plucked a rather motley—but thoughtful—assortment of flowers (and sticks—Mateo quite likes sticks) for Isla. Its grown so large that Remi is finding it difficult to both cradle his son against his chest, and to also ensure that nothing that they've accumulated is lost. Some likely is, but it's easy enough to distract Mateo from what they're leaving in their wake.

It felt surreal to be walking toward Isla's clinic, in the Hollowed Ground of all places. Of course that's where she'd establish herself again, but the alchemist hadn't any intention of ever returning to this place unless he absolutely had to. Now, despite the fact that the medic would probably have met him on the borders willingly enough, here he was opening the door to her clinic.

"Isla?"

Isla

The clinic looks much the same as it did once upon a time when they had just arrived at the Hollowed Grounds. Which is saying something for Isla's memory, given that it has been so long. Clean and airy if not a little on the cool side given the snow and the ice between the Grounds and the Greatwood, it is mostly empty for now. "Back here!" Isla's call is a bit distance - she's in one of the stock rooms - but at recognising the voice she of course comes dashing out.

Back in a medical coat with her hair pulled up into a high ponytail, Isla looks like a doctor again at least, and she smiles brightly to see Remi and Mateo. "You came!" She sweeps up to given them both a hug, kissing Remi's cheek and Mateo's messy curls. "And you brought an interesting arrangements of herbs and flowers." Bouncing her eyebrows at him, they both know who is responsible for it being so interesting, and she beckons both of them to follow her.

sooner or later, we all have to wake
and try forgetting everything

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

It's like deja-vu, almost. Isla looks as much herself as she ever did, and in this setting, it would be a lie to say that Remi didn't feel some small explosion of relief. Her death, her stint as a unicorn, her second death...did this make up for it?

Trying to return her embrace as best he can with Mateo in his arm and their offering in the other, Remi chuckles as Mateo reaches for the apples of Isla's cheeks. "With the season change, I'm not sure how long they'll last..." Remi frowns slightly as he holds out the bouquet with a comical and cringy-smile. 'Thought that counts?'

Following her through the familiar halls of the clinic, Remi takes note of all the work which must have gone into sprucing up and repairing this place. "This looks amazing, Isla." He mumbles appreciatively.

Isla

"I will put them proudly on display in the reception, so everyone who comes in will be able to see them. Thank you." This is said to Mateo, of course, Isla grinning and cooing to the boy, kissing his pudgy fingers before she ushers them further into the clinic. "Do you think so?" There's a shimmer of silver in her cheeks as she glances over her shoulder at Remi; clearly even after all this time, his approval is something she openly appreciates.

"I haven't yet been able to set up an operating room, or any other surgical examination areas." Morgue is a bit far, given how rare it was for Isla to do an autopsy. "But the front face of the clinic is good to go."

Drawing a clean curtain back, she motions for Remi to go ahead and take a seat with Mateo on one of the beds. "Shall I start with Mateo? How are you both doing today?" she asks, accepting the 'bouquet' from him so she might get it out of the way and begin her examination.

sooner or later, we all have to wake
and try forgetting everything

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

The yellow of her hair, the blue of her eyes, and the silvery-sheen of her cheeks is all that Mateo can see. Isla is a world of colour that the boy doesn't want to let out of his sight, and as they make their way toward one of the exam rooms, Mateo is flailing wildly in Remi's arms as if to hurry along a stubborn horse.

'Well, as far as first impressions go, I think you've nailed it." He agrees. Silently he wonders if there will be a need for specific ascended-based rooms and devices. For a moment he images a room filled with blood, and it makes his stomach turn slightly before he shakes away the mental painting of it.

"Well, we're..." Sitting on the bed, Remi positions the boy in his lap (who of course wants to be anywhere but stationary), and bites the inside of his cheek. "I...well.." Sighing and ruffling a hand through his curls, Remi offers the medic a crooked smile. "I think I used him to teleport. Its...magic I didn't know I had, or how to control really. And I don't think that its had any ill effects, but it isn't exactly like he can tell me."

Isla

"I'm glad you think so. You're the first person to visit who isn't already from the Hollowed Grounds - and I value your opinion more than most, though I believe you're well aware of that already." Isla winks to him, arranging the flowers (and other stuff) in a vase and swooping down to tickle at Mateo's cheek, like she can distract him from wanting to wiggle and squirm around.

She's just getting her equipment together and pulling a stool over to sit before the bed when Remi mentions teleporting through the boy, and she blinks at him with pebble blues that are simultaneously worried and very, very curious. "You're going to have to explain a little more than that. But of course, I can check him over. I'd say that from his temperament he's doing quite well, though."

sooner or later, we all have to wake
and try forgetting everything

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

Remi blushes, coral to her silvery sheen. Perhaps it's because he still feels as though he owes her everything, that anything even resembling appreciation feels incredibly misplaced. "With all those with healing abilities, I feel like actual clinics have been really overlooked. But..there aren't that many, actually." Those with healing abilities, he meant. "And I think most would rather stay in pain than let the likes of Loren at them." He adds with a rather cruel snort of amusement.

It's a relief to hear that Mateo seems alright. "I...can teleport through dreams now, I think." Remi answers, creating a feather in one hand before offering it to Mateo. Immediately he puts it into his mouth. "I think I can go back and forth with those I've dreamed with before. I'm not sure that it actually affects them at all, so much as it just...places me near them."

Isla

Remi speaks and Isla listens, though her eyes are on Mateo as he stuffs the feather in his mouth. She doesn't stop him, of course, merely observing him with a gentle smile, making sure there's nothing awry. He seems cheerful and just as mischievous as she expected, and she reaches out to muss at his hair before glancing back to the Lullaby. "We are a rare thing," she agrees with a gentle sigh. "I've also noticed that, of the clinics that do exist, they are mostly run by Ascended."

What does that say about the world, that they are willing to be treated by an Ascended, but not to suffer them to live? It is lucky that Remi continues, distracting her from such morbid thoughts. "I'm sorry, what?" She blinks, gazing up at him and reaching out to touch a hand to his cheek. Letting out a breathless laugh, as if amazed at her own stupidity in trying to look for such a power in the alchemist, she slowly sits back again.

"You amaze me every time," she informs him, settling now to gaze at Mateo. "Right, let's start off easy," she says, getting the boy to follow her finger, before proceeding with a set of tests on his reflexes.

sooner or later, we all have to wake
and try forgetting everything

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

Considering this for a moment, Remi chuckles and nods in agreement. "You're right. Strange, that." Perhaps it was because both Isla and Nate had been medics before they were ascended that they continued on, but it was a good point nonetheless. For the wicked and vile creatures the ascended were supposed to be, they also currently made up 100% of the non-magical healing on offer. Outside of Stormbreak, anyway.

Looking up at her and instinctively leaning into the perfectly room-temperature hand upon his cheek, Remi can do little else but shrug. "I don't think it had anything to do with me at all." He replies bashfully, but not disgenuinely. There was a war brewing. It made sense that his abilities might increase in response to it, if only because he was a pawn in the big scheme of what was happening.

For the most part Mateo is a good sport of things. Easily distracted like his fathers but just as drawn to Isla, he cackles as she manipulates his tiny body to test his reflexes.

Isla

"Very strange. I suppose it is not really our place to question things though, is it?" The smile that Isla offers her friend is utterly shit-eating. Not question things indeed - that is not Isla Lockwood. And it is not Remi Taliesin either, as far as she remembers. "Well, whether or not it was anything to do with you, it's something you can do now. Where did you go teleporting off to?" she wonders, already thinking she knows the answer.

But then there's little Mateo to tend to, Isla cooing and praising him whenever he does as he's told (or is adorable in general, which is always). Once she has tested all of his reflexes, she leans in to listen to his chest - of course giving plenty of opportunity for him to grab her hair - before stepping back once more. "All looks good to me. Are you able to put him down and step away, just for a second?" she asks Remi.

sooner or later, we all have to wake
and try forgetting everything

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

"Gods, no. I'm sure we'd both have our tongues cut out." Remi chuckles wryly in response, before sucking in his lips as if suggesting that merely saying as much might draw precisely the penalty he was hoping to avoid.

Blushing furiously despite his answer being an entirely predictable one, Remi explains how he woke up in Ronin's bed. He skips over their sexual escapes (there are certain blanks he doesn't need to fill in for his friend), and shrugs. "Worry about Mateo is what brought me back here. I forced myself asleep while thinking of him, and sure enough, I woke up back in Ianto's wagon." Remi hasn't made the connection between those he's dreamed with before and this magic, merely associating it with those he cares deeply for.

Though the alchemist looks uncertain at Isla's request, he trusts her with more than his life. Setting Mateo upon the bed, Remi takes a step back, and then another, all the while looking the worried and tense picture of a father ready to swoop in should his son edge toward the side of the bed.

Isla

It's more amazing that Remi was able to get back from where he went, honestly; given exactly where he's been, Isla's impressed that he's here at all. Still, that only proves the fierce love that he has for his son, and she smiles back down to Mateo as his father steps back, protective as ever. "It will only be for a moment, I promise," she says to him with a warm smile, moving forward so she's near enough at the side of the bed anyway, just in case the boy does take a tumble.

Isla looks at the boy. And then she looks, engaging with her optical upgrade to see within, to check to make sure he doesn't have any hidden injuries or abnormalities. It takes only half a minute at the most before she's happy, reaching out to tickle him under the chin and straighten up again. "He's absolutely perfect," she gushes, giving Remi a nudge. "Go ahead. Then it's your turn."

sooner or later, we all have to wake
and try forgetting everything

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

It doesn't look as though she's doing much, not that that means anything. Were it anyone else the alchemist might question their methods, and though he fidgets, Remi does stand where he was told patiently enough. Widening his blue eyes to match Isla's and then cackling as he's tickled, Mateo claps his hands together, obviously picking up on the fact that whatever he's done, its been a success.

Feathers of relief flourish in Remi's curls as Isla says perfect. Exhaling and beaming down at the boy, the alchemist banishing thoughts of how he's going to sleep at night, not knowing where he'll wake up next. That Mateo hasn't been hurt by this first act of teleportation-anchoring doesn't mean he won't in the future.

Glancing at Isla as she nudges him, Remi chuckles a touch boyishly. "Me? Oh, I'm fine." He replies, brandishing a smile and shaking his head as if she's offered him some sort of confection that he can't pay for.

Isla

Beaming at Mateo as well, Isla scoops him up into her arms and coos to him, completely charmed by his mischief and warmth. (It will likely prove a trend in the boy's life, but only time will tell on that end). Then as Remi predictably declines the offer, she turns to grin up at him, reaching out with a free hand to gently pinch his cheek. "Aww," she says, "it wasn't a question. Sit down, you big lug."

If she has to, she'll push down on Remi's shoulders with the expectation that he'll sink down onto the bed so she can perform a similar check up on him (as if she could move him without him wanting to be moved). "Do you think if you go and see Ludo, you'll be able to figure this new magic a bit better? I'd hate for you to disappear and not know where or when if you'll be back."

sooner or later, we all have to wake
and try forgetting everything