reaching out across the sea

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

"I do see it. We are...well. We are literally in your dreams." He replies with a chuckle. Remi has never seen anything at all like the Windtossed Foothills—or what later became the Hidden Falls. The lush trees and river valleys that bleed way into crumbling cliffs make his breath catch. Rarely these days does Remi dream with anyone other than Ronin. Ascended just...go offline, and anyone else? There had been Maeve, Ianto, and Vai, for purely necessary reasons. Then again, this was for necessary reasons too, he supposed.

But what in Remi's life was ever purely for pleasure anymore?

Looking around, instead of adding to the masterpiece drawn from Hotaru's mind, Remi lets his fingers brush against flower petals that feel shockingly real. "Your memories of here are strong." He notes with a hum, glancing across to where Hotaru stands amidst the clover and dappled sunlight. Dressed now as he might have been as a younger man, Remi is barefoot with threadbare shorts and an unbuttoned shirt. He doesn't look quite at home here, having grown up on great dusty roads that led through barren lands, but there's a sunny smile on his lips just the same as his eyes cast around the world he's been brought to.

"Where are we?"

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

HOTARU

Her dream. Her creation. Is this what she dreams of? It's admittedly a surprise that this isn't the Aurora Basin, but perhaps in the wake of her pregnancy she's feeling particularly nostalgic. This was her childhood home after all. This was where her own had mother raised her once upon a time.

His voice is dreamlike and distant to her, overtaken by the emotional weight of surroundings that melt obligingly into a replica of the meadow she'd known.

Her life had started here; hours spent bickering with Raeden, hiding in their mother's shadow, running labyrinthine patterns beneath the trees to avoid Stella's sharp gaze and giving themselves away with the chorus of young laughter. Such small and humble roots. And though it was never planted there, from her memory springs a tree; two trunks planted close together, twisting and combining into a singular entity as it reaches for the sky. A tree she would often visit in the wake of her parents' murder, laying against the sun-warmed bark as she regaled the monument of their love with all the little moments of her life they would never see.

Simple cotton brushes against her legs as she moves closer; an unassuming white sundress, hair loose and feet bare. A child of the nature that surrounds them. "This is where I was born," she replies, voice quiet and filled with a lifetime of memories. Turning, Hotaru lets her eyes rove over Remi, barefoot and boyish where he stands gazing over her origins. He seems younger to her, free of the burdens of maturity. She extends her hand to him, beckoning. "We simply called it the Foothills. I've yet to find anything like it in Caido." Turning away, Ru gazes up at the tree's unified branches, smiling sadly. "And this is my parents' tree. They died together; my father protecting her. The gods made a monument to their love when their killer was caught, and this is the shape it took." Her palm touches the bark, and she marvels at how close to reality it feels. Turning over her shoulder, Hotaru quietly marvels at how Remi looks against the backdrop of her youth. Peace is a cloak she wishes he were at liberty to wear more often. "Is this why they call you the Lullaby?" She is sure she has scarcely felt more at peace than she does now.

i'm the little lightning girl

living electricity

a lightning bolt in human form

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

Remi's expression softens with this information, as he looks around their surroundings anew. Born here? He isn't sure what he imagined Hotaru's formative years to be life, but this wonderful simplicity seems unexpected. 'Aptly named.' Chuckling, he comes at her beckon, sea-glass eyes still wandering around this world so full of detail and memory.

Before he even reaches the treed, he can feel its importance, if only because of how elaborately created it is. The bark is perfectly rendered, the smells and colours rich and sincere. Even in dreams, most cannot conjure strong resemblances to the world of their past (or even present). Human minds simply do not retain those sorts of small details without reason. "A beautiful testament." Remi hums softly, reaching out to place a hand against the twisted trunk. "Though I am sorry you have it, and not them." He adds with a flash of a frown.

Her question tugs Remi's down further, though there is a smile hidden in his frown as he takes a breath. "Much as I would like to think so...no." He replies honestly, but sadly. "Wonderful as this is...it is just a pretty lie, to hide what it is I am normally called to do." Running a hand through his curls and looking suddenly self-conscious, Remi closes his eyes against the sunlight on his face for just a moment before continuing. "Were you one I was sent to kill by Ludo...at my touch, you would have fallen asleep, just as you did. But I would have poisoned you, before joining you here. You would slowly die in your fondest memory without ever knowing what happened." Strong as he is, the words clearly are a weight that Remi struggles to bear. "I can create illusions while awake too, to approximate memories if I cannot be left vulnerable and asleep." He adds with a soft shrug.

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

HOTARU

His hand joins hers upon the bark, and it feels both strange and fated. To have someone appreciate it knowingly is new, and she wants to defend it and share it equally. “It is better than nothing at all,” she comforts with a smile. Hotaru has had many years to come to terms with their loss. “My only regret is being unable to meet them on the other side.” Their souls held in different realms, never to be united again. It’s a worse pain to know her children are the same, but even that cannot seem to touch her here in the cradle of her memories.

It’s clear this is a burden on Remi, and Hotaru listens keenly, the whisper of wind through the long grass a susurration that draws the blades against her bare skin. “Then you are a gift.” It is spoken with all the surety she can muster, hand departing from the tree so Hotaru can turn to regard him fully. “Few deaths are ever peaceful. What does poison matter, or illusions - pain they will not feel - when compared to this?” Hands outstretch to gesture to their surroundings. “It is a pretty lie, maybe. But one I would want, if I had a choice in my ending. To go from a place like this to Mort’s realm would be a kindness.” Hotaru can’t presume to understand why it bothers him, and the tilt of her head reveals how she’s trying to puzzle it out unsuccessfully. There is still so much they don’t know about each other. “Taking a life is rarely easy.” Her hands are too bloody to say ‘never’. “And I can’t imagine your burden. But what you give them, there are few things that could outweigh the meaningfulness.”

i'm the little lightning girl

living electricity

a lightning bolt in human form

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

Remi frowns for a long moment, saying nothing. His face doesn't quite grow pale, but something in his expression hards. Only when he tugs in a slow breath does he seem to come back to himself. "I had never thought about that...about those who had died in other places, but..Ludo...whether it was memories or the real thing somehow, has shown me my mother often." His sad smile suggesting she was no longer alive. "Perhaps...perhaps things are not without hope. If I ever see Mort again, I will ask him for you."

Glancing down at her, petite and unwavering, the alchemist allows for the ghost of a smile before shaking his head. "If that is the metaphor we are going with, so be it. But not all gifts are good." More aptly he supposes, if this place is a gift, then he is just the courier. "Well, if ever it is me who Ludo sends for you, I will make sure we come back here." To this place. This tree.

Remi's smile is one that suggests he disagrees. He does of course, but arguing over death..over taking lives...what use is it? What good would it possibly do to convince Hotaru? So instead the alchemist just nods without conviction, turning from the tree to take in the rest of the landscape.

"It really is beautiful here. We can stay as long as you like, though..time does not necessarily move the same here."

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

HOTARU

Hotaru wonders fleetingly if Remi’s homeland had any Gods, and then realizes she had no idea if he’s an Outlander at all. Perhaps that’s why the thought had never occurred to him - Hotaru had instantaneously assumed it to be an inevitability with how the deities differed. Hope isn’t something she expects, but it blossoms all the same. “For us,” she corrects gently, expression soft with understanding. It would lay to rest both their worries about reunion. “I would ask myself, but I’ve never met Ludo. I intend to - Frey told me to seek them out regarding Atlas, but I would be hesitant to ask too much at once. Or at all.” For a woman who had been Abandoned, Hotaru has been lucky to not have a negative firsthand encounter with one of the heralds. Somehow she knows that will change when she asks for the way of the world to be altered on the emotional whims of her heart.

His denial is not unexpected; what ground does she have to stand on? It is not her job alone to convince him, though she adds herself to faceless others all the same. “It would be nice to join them here,” she agrees, just as calm and fearless as she’d been the last time they’d talked about her death. Strange topics they seem to find for conversation.

Leaving the tree is unnecessary with how this world bends to her whim, so instead she envisions a thick blanket with downy pillows that embrace her as she kneels. “It’s early yet, but do you have any naming traditions for the baby?” It seems they’ve scarcely talked about the baby at all despite the revelation having called him to her side. All but her first child had been named according to the traditions of their fathers, and part of her selfishly wants to avoid that.

i'm the little lightning girl

living electricity

a lightning bolt in human form

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

"I have only met Mort once, and it was..." There's a flash of boyish mischief that streaks across Remi's face before he raises his eyebrows (seemingly judging himself). "..well. Not the best impression, perhaps." Defying orders from the Big Three Gods was probably one of the least advisable things the alchemist had ever done. "But I will see what I can find out. Ludo...might know, though. If you go and see them, be sure to bring a game." He adds with a wink.

Glancing over his shoulder to find Hotaru kneeling on a rather comfortable looking blanket—and having to quickly blink away images of her naked in precisely that posture that want to overlap his thoughts—Remi leaves the rest of the world Hotaru has created in favour of sitting with her. "No, none at all." He says with a bashful chuckle and apologetic shrug, as if he's doing her a disservice by not having any traditions to impart. "My mother died when I was young, and my father.." Plucking at a blade of grass that he might worry it against his palm, Remi just shakes his head. "I would not carry on any of his traditions, even if he had them."

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

HOTARU

An unexpected snort of laughter overtakes her at his charming rebellion, far from ladylike, and she covers her face with her hand as if to catch it on the way out. “Are you trying to collect all the gods then? You seem to have a negative interaction with all of them to share.” Remi, the cautionary tale: a guidebook on what not to do when faced with a god. Perhaps she’ll write it and give it to their child as a storybook. She hopes the little one doesn’t have his predilections when it comes to pissing off deities or she’s going to grey well before her time. Which she narcissistically prays is never. His advice is taken with a grateful smile. “A game. I’ll have to think of a good one if I’m going to ask for Atlas back.” Her sigh is faint, trying not to in the first place lest it ruin the beauty of the moment.

Humming softly as she listens, Hotaru encourages flowers to bloom within her lazy reach, plucking them and beginning to weave the stems together - a more purposeful destruction than what she can see Remi doing to that poor piece of dream-grass. “Then that merely means you can make your own.” A gift unto itself. The freedom to divert course from those who’ve hurt you, leaving them to be forgotten instead of carried on. “All I ask is if they’re twins, we do not give them matching or rhyming names. Gods, it’s the worst. Thankfully my mother had much better taste.” Their entire family had quite unique names, but she’d stumbled over Ru’in and Romina frequently in their childhood by virtue of their starting letter - not that their inseparability had helped there. “Do you remember your mother much?” As she plucks another flower she poses the question, her conversation with Ronin tickling in the back of her mind.

i'm the little lightning girl

living electricity

a lightning bolt in human form

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

"I think I have collected them all, actually." Remi points out with a smirk. "Rae does not talk much, but..they were there." He shrugs, having only a faint recollection of the twins and their similarly unimpressed expressions. "Ludo likes ones that it can cheat it. Just so long as you do not cheat, you should be fine." On the topic of whether or not Atlas could be returned, the alchemist offers no advice or council. He thinks that...it's possible, but whether the price is one Hotaru would be willing to pay, he can't guess at. There's no question about the love and devotion she felt for her companion, but Ludo was not one to bargain lightly.

Glancing toward her, his calloused fingers stilling around the grass that he's worrying away, Remi frowns. "Rhyming?" He repeats, as if offended. "Why would anyone..?" Scowling slightly and swallowing hard against the vile taste in the back of his throat, he gives his head a firm shake. "Something I can pronounce would be appreciated." He had managed Aoife well enough, but it never sounded quite as sweet as it did wrapped up in Ronin's accent. But then, similar things could be said about Remi's way of saying Mateo.

"Moreso now. She died of a bone blight—" cancer "—when I was quite young. I remember her face though, and her stories and songs. It is only because of her that posso parlare nella lingua di viaggio." Pointing to his lips to indicate the language he's speaking, Remi tosses away what little grass remains in his fingertips, and plucks at yet more. "But my father banned any and all talk of her." He adds with a sad shrug.

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

HOTARU

There is a fond exasperation to her bi-hued stare as it’s aimed his way, humor curling in the corner of her lips. Others would consider it blasphemous, but a little heresy is good for the heart. Like a daily glass of wine. “Clearly I’ll handle the lessons on how to talk to gods when the baby is born.” Though she appreciatively tucks away his advice, a different sort of idea budding darkly in the back of her mind.

Laughter shakes her shoulders as her hands weave the flowers stem to stem in motions she has admittedly missed since the closing of her first shop. “As if being twins isn’t identical enough,” she agrees, and with a thought changes the colors of the flowers in what has now become a crown. Leaning over her small belly, she places it in Remi’s curls, admiring the compliment of the white, lilac and green in the dark tresses. Nearly as beautiful as the language that caresses over her, lilting and smooth, beautiful despite her inability to understand it. “Fuck him,” she says simply, almost delightedly. “He’s certainly not here to enforce it anymore, and if he was I’d break his bones myself. What was her name?” Prompting intentionally, so that her memory might live between them for a moment in rebellious fuck you to his father.

i'm the little lightning girl

living electricity

a lightning bolt in human form

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

"Speaking of..my friend Phoebe has a crown that makes childbirth painless. Pleasurable, even...I think." Obviously having never used it, he couldn't attest to that part. But especially as Frey's demigoddess now, surely the Nightengale would be able to help with Hotaru's birth moreso than a normal midwife would.

Lowering his head like some unicorn enchanted by the appearance of a virgin, Remi tilts his head slightly to the side now that it's adorned with flowers. 'And? How do I look?' He wonders, flashing her his most dashing smile.

Remi's laugh goes from abrupt and approving, to something sweet and sad as Hotaru asks about his mother. Glancing over his shoulder, far away in the meadow appears an olive-skinned woman with long dark curls. She waves over her shoulder, before plucking herbs and placing them in the basket she carries. "Milia." He whispers, gazing at her across the distance. Strange, that she doesn't come any closer. Or perhaps that's exactly what is to be expected from a man remembering the first woman he'd ever loved.

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

HOTARU

“I’ve met her before,” she hums, recalling with no small amount of amusement how the young woman had come seeking a glass dildo from her shop. A much better meeting than when she’d shown up at the girl’s sad wedding. “I certainly wouldn’t snub such a gift,” laughs free of her lips, twisting into a grin. One that only brightens as Remi poses and preens, prompting her to pat her own back in smug pride.

“Quite the fetching accessory, I dare say.” Hotaru has not made flower crowns in years. It seems only fitting she do so now, surrounded as they are by childhood memories. Ones they share willingly, as Hotaru’s eyes lift to land upon a beautiful woman who appears as if she’d always been there. She inhales in surprise, eyes roving over the beautiful bone structure and dark loose hair; all that define her from this distance.

“She’s so beautiful,” she murmurs, scarcely daring to blink. It is a precious, personal moment, and Hotaru isn’t unaware of the vulnerable nature of it. “I can see where you get your looks.” A gentle tease, something to keep them afloat instead of sinking into the depths of bittersweet memories. Glancing around, Ru reconsiders exactly all that this world - if it can even be called that - is meant to achieve. “Was this what you brought me here for? Not that I’m unappreciative - this is the most at peace I’ve been in some time.” Her gaze is distant and smile half-forgotten where it hangs on her lips.

i'm the little lightning girl

living electricity

a lightning bolt in human form

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

Remi's smile is halfhearted at best in response to Hotaru's teasing compliment. He's far too transfixed on the woman and her herbs to do anything more than distantly nod; Hotaru might have asked him to give up his life right here and now for all he knows. "...mmm?" Blinking himself back into the moment such that the image of his mother fades away on a warm breeze, Remi turns properly back toward Hotaru.

"Oh, right." Blushing and looking all the more boyish given the flower crown, Remi shakes his head apologetically. "I can teleport myself instantly to those I have dreamt with." He explains. "I...do not teleport with my clothes on though, so...you will have to keep the ursur bikini ready if you ever call for me." Chuckling under his breath, he shrugs. "I do tend to...dream-walk though. I find myself in other's dreams quite without meaning to." Usually it was Finn. Almost exclusively it was Finn, but it had been known to happen.

"And now this way, I can bring you with me too. Right now instead of waking up in Halo, we could go almost anywhere." Anywhere was linked to those he had dreamt with, but having accumulated enough dream-anchors now, Remi's reach was quite far.

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

HOTARU

When he turns to face her there is only an understanding softness to her face. Hotaru doesn’t recall her parents well enough to bring their imagery here. She recalls gold and green, red and brown, and moments more than silhouettes. Her mother is the strongest memory of the two, but Hotaru is reluctant to even try. To see her incomplete and vague would surely hurt worse than a perfect copy.

Her slightly upturned lips part into a grin at the blush she spots on his cheeks, but for now he’s safe from her teasing. “It’s ready when you are,” she chimes in with a wink, taking the time to marvel at the breadth of the magic he describes. “You’re welcome to visit any time. I’m not certain how interesting the pregnancy itself will be to you, but you’re welcome to my dreams whenever you’d like to check in.” Ru’s smile twists wryly. “But if you see another you in that bikini, pretend you didn’t hm?” The idea of teleporting somewhere else is novel but unnecessary for now.

i'm the little lightning girl

living electricity

a lightning bolt in human form