the little prince

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

It isn't a question he's been asked before, and genuinely the alchemist has no idea. "I think...that would count as a separate ability." Which was just to say she'd have to bite him again if she wanted to fly with wings, as opposed to as a manticore. "And it's a different mechanic, flying with one body over the other." He adds, ruffling a hand through his curls. It would take multiple lessons to learn, despite how clever Isla was.

The fingers in his curls work toward his eyes, and Remi rubs at them as he sighs. "Maybe you'll have more insight from the Voice now that you're back, but...the Old Gods seem fairly set in their ways. None seem at all willing to discuss any other options other than stopping whatever the Voice wants to do, and putting a halt to...anything ascended related." Swallowing hard, this being more awkward territory than talk and thoughts of bites, Remi frowns as he shakes his head. "I don't even know what a way back would look like. It seems as though its always been this way."

Isla

"Ah, I see," Isla says with a gentle nod of understanding, turning back to finish putting everything back where it ought to be. It is clear that she has taken a different sort of meaning to his response - biting him once or twice in order to get something that might protect her at LongNight was different to essentially doing it for fun. Once all of her equipment is back where it should be, she returns to sit on the stool next to the bed, content to chat for as long as he likes.

Not that it's an easy conversation, and on instinct she reaches out to touch a hand to his arm, offering a sad smile. "It can be whatever way it likes," she says. "You will always be my best friend, and you are always welcome in whatever home I make for myself. With any luck, that will still exist when the sun comes back."

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 smiles at the touch, trying hard not to notice the temperature of her hand. He can't though, and with a quick laugh he places his palm over her hand, wrapping his fingers around hers. "I keep wanting to try and warm you up when you touch me." He admits with a chuckle.

"I wish I could say the same." Remi's cheeks darken, but not for the reasons they had before. Now the heat that had curled and flirted with fire in the pit of his belly had turned dark and cold. "Not about you always being my best friend. Nothing can change that. But...I have a suspicion Ronin will be made to stay in Stormbreak, and...I don't even think ascended can enter there. But...all we need to do is see if you can dream. If you can, I can be with you wherever you are." Remi raises a brow as his lips curl into a smile.

"Feel like a nap?"

Isla

Isla raises her eyebrows at him, a surprised sort of smile flickering across her face. "I barely notice it any more," she admits. "I don't get cold though, I promise." She doesn't stop him from holding her hand, though, the pressure of his fingers as close to human touch as she can get these days. Still, she can't not notice the way he does anything but agree with her, the medic frowning gently as she hears him out.

At the mention of dreaming, though, Isla can only wince. "I haven't slept since I came back," she admits. "And I don't think... I'm not sure we do dream, Remi. I can't remember the last time I had a dream." Still, she would try it if it would make him happy, Isla nodding and gesturing to the bed. "What do you need me to do?"

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

"No, I know." Isla is the last person that he needs to take care of, and though she's already pointed out numerous times and in numerous ways that he isn't doing a good job of taking care of himself, still the urge is there. It's a strange love he harbours for her, sisterly-adjacent but passionate all in one, and though he doesn't have a name for it, he doubts if anything could ever lessen it.

Sliding over on the bed and laying on his side so that she might join him, Remi offers her a less than optimistic smile. It probably won't work, but if it did? His stomach flutters a touch.

"If it works, I won't keep you asleep long. I promise."

Isla

Isla watches as he shifts across the bed - a bed that is absolutely not large enough for two people, especially when one of them now resembles a small tank (and quite when Remi became this solid is beyond her), but which she moves to sink down on nonetheless. "You can put people to sleep now too?" she inquires, tilting her head at him in unbidden curiosity, but she tries to stifle that when they're trying to do a different kind of experiment.

And when she's, you know, laying down in the crook of his arm to try not to fall out of the bed. "Alright, well... do your worst, I suppose. I trust you." Isla smiles up at him, thoroughly ignoring how close they are and how, at least physically, there's very little that comes from it.

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

"Oh." The alchemist blushes slightly and nods as he tugs her to him. He isn't sure if ascended can feel discomfort the way someone else might, at having to lay awkwardly in a bed, but as with wanting to warm her hands, he's unable to do anything but try and make her comfortable. "Yes. I have been for a while now." He doesn't add the bit about being able to lock those he sends to sleep in coma-like states. Now doesn't seem like the right time.

Snorting, any attempt at appearing menacing entirely undone but the mischief in his eyes, Remi has to ignore the urge to do something stupid—like kiss Isla goodnight—as he nods. Pulling in a breath Remi focuses on the specific thread of magic within, wanting nothing more than to see the medic's blue eyes fall closed.

Isla

She doesn't ever think she has been quite so awkward around Remi, and it's more uncomfortable than any physical discomfort from the bed. Smiling up at him, Isla makes herself relax and open to whatever his magic is going to do, the Ascended pinning her gaze on the ceiling so she doesn't have to think about the weight and warmth of the man around her. (If Remi even counts as a man any more, what with being half god and all that).

Sleep does, indeed, take her, Isla's pebble blues softly closing under the influence of his magic. But there is no awakening of unconscious, no dreamscape - just a blank and dark emptiness, a sensation of perfect balance and efficiency. She has no need to let her thoughts and memories arrange themselves - it is a process that happens in the background of her day to day. And so the Lullaby will find himself alone in a world of quiet circuitry and blissful nothing - no Isla to be found.

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

They've shared bloody meals, secrets, their souls. And yet Remi can't decide if it's appropriate to let his head loll against hers, or if his hands are appropriately placed. Luckily for them both perhaps, they drift off, though not quite on the current Remi had in mind.

In a world where he should be able to dictate everything, he finds his abilities neutered by the stark and sterile place he's in. It surely isn't a dream, but it's not not a dream either. It's just...

..nothing.

"Isla?" He calls out, hearing only the dull pulse of what he assumes are her biorhythms in the background. Sinking down to his knees, the Lullaby rakes his fingers through his curls and resists the urge to scream or slam his fists into the ground (if indeed that is what it is). Despite being back from the dead, selfishly, Remi had wanted this so badly. It made sense that it hadn't worked, and not unlike a thousand times before in similar situations, the alchemist chastizes himself for the kernel of hope he'd allowed himself to covet.

There's no Ronin to dazzle him back to wakefulness, but it being the middle of the day, Remi doesn't find it hard to blink himself awake. He gives himself a moment to stare sadly at Isla, to let silent apologies hang on his lips, before releasing his hold on her so that she might wake up.

"Well, we tried." He says, unsure what she will or won't have been aware of.

Isla

Isla comes back to consciousness like a computer that has been hibernating. Her eyes merely blink open without any hint of sleepiness or distraction, and she glances back up at Remi with mild confusion. She wants to ask whether or not he has put her to sleep yet, before his words pretty much confirm it. With an expression that is as knowing as it is exquisitely sad, she nods to him. "We did try," she agrees, considering sitting up, but instead finding herself simply... not.

"Nothing is ever easy, is it?" she murmurs. "Still, there is always manticore flying. And I will come with you to the Feverlands. Just tell me when and where, and I'll make sure we can go on an adventure together." Reaching across, she hugs Remi for a few moments, feeling strangely guilty and apologetic for not being able to sleep properly.

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

Had she moved to get up, he'd have let her without complaint. Now though, he fidgets with the idea of wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. What is stopping him, he has no idea. Perhaps it's because he doesn't know why he suddenly wants to be so near to the medic. Or perhaps it's because he does.

"No. Not good things, anyhow." He agrees, before his melancholy cracks to hear that she'll come with him to the Feverlands. 'A few days' time I think. I just need to set some things in order in the Greatwood.' As her arms curl around him, for a moment Remi doesn't seem able to breathe, before he returns the gesture, letting his cheek rest against the top of her head.

"I...think I'd rather not have you bite me with Juniper around." It's a poor segue, but a necessary one. "I could always come and see you before? Or.." now, hovering unsaid.

Isla

It isn't like they've never hugged before, but as his arms move around her, Isla finds herself relaxing in a way that surprises her. It's like being given permission, though quite for what she doesn't now. And the Ascended finds herself smiling, suddenly and stupidly, a gesture that Remi would likely feel against his shoulder. "Good," she murmurs. "You can just send a raven, or come and get me when you're ready to go. I'll make sure I'm available."

Then he says what they've both been waiting for, and Isla's smile doesn't entirely fade, but there's a flush to her cheeks that appears in little more than a silvery shimmer. "I'd like to give you time to recover," she says. "If we do it now, you'll have a few days. Just say where." She recalls, very faintly, that being an alchemist, his wrists were a no-go.

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

"Oh? I was thinking I'd send you an appendage or something and you'd have to figure out if it was mine or not." Remi says with a laugh. The medic won't be able to feel his smile as he can hers, but she'll certainly hear his amusement vibrating through his chest.

"I genuinely don't think you could drain me dry." Remi says, before realizing that he isn't sure why he's said it. So that she doesn't worry? Or so that she won't stop? "Where." The alchemist repeats; a bad joke to cover up the building awkwardness. "I'm not sure it matters where." He answers quickly, clearing his throat slightly.

Lifting a hand off of her shoulder, his body tensing as he prepares to sit up, Remi mumbles under his breath: "Probably best to be sitting up..." For blood-loss reasons that wasn't true, but for it-will-be-harder-to-drag-Isla-on-top-of-him-reasons, it absolutely was.

Isla

"Whose would it be, if not yours?" she wants to know, before shaking her head. "Don't answer that. Just... get me a message, preferably without hurting yourself or anyone else." Isla chuckles. Then awkwardness starts to creep its fingers back in towards them, the medic releasing Remi as well and shuffing to sit herself up, raking a hand back through her fair hair. "I see," she says, clearly having similar thoughts regarding not needing to stop.

She glances up at him once he's decided where and how he wants to sit, the medic huffing out a sigh from a breath she absolutely doesn't need. "It's more difficult when you know what's going to happen," she remarks with a lopsided smile. In fact, Isla has to tell herself not to think about it so she can shift a little closer, leaning in to slip a hand against one side of Remi's neck that she might press her mouth against the other. A heartbeat or two later, and it doesn't matter what either of them think or feel - Isla sinks her teeth in deep, and all rational thought winks out.

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