blindspot

right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up

From what Remi had learned of Caido, there was only one time zone. Or at least, if he kept to normal waking/sleeping hours, it seemed to align with those followed everywhere else. Remi didn't often keep to normal hours though, but being able to instantly push himself asleep helped. So it was that rather than sending a raven to Halo which could take days or weeks depending on the weather, he would just settle down for 5-minute cat naps to see if the glassmaker was asleep. If she wasn't, he'd wake quickly. After several attempts, this time he seemed to be successful.

"Hotaru..?" The dreamworld bends around him, happy to yield to the whims of his mind but he leaves the architecture as it is. The pair have only dreamt together once, and though he'd mentioned that he would come and check up on her, it was still invasive and likely startling to have someone else abruptly enter your dream.

The Lullaby

I need to kill you, that's the only way to get you out of my head
I need to kill you to silence all the sweet little things you said

Sleep doesn’t come easily in the cell. Her back remains unguarded, her stress high, and the general shitty nature of the mattress certainly doesn’t help matters. Still, being pregnant is an exhausting affair even without interrogations and emotional upheaval to contend with, and eventually nothing can keep her awake and alert.

Her dream is vague and darkened, stress planting fingers even here. All she knows is she is moving restlessly, trying to find something in the endless landscape of ashen sky and darkened earth, and then suddenly she is not alone. Her name is like a bell ringing, clear and strong, and she turns to find the source with a keen desperation.

Remi stands out against the murky background, and with his presence and his magic she startles into awareness. Their minds collide, and the architecture melds together, her own awareness of the cell she’s in leaving impressions of the barren room around them. It’s already an improvement to the wandering fog she’d been in. “Remi,” she breathes, and her voice breaks on the soft syllable of his name. Trying to muster a smile and utterly failing as her lips wobble, she moves closer. “Is everything okay?” It’s preposterous to ask considering her own circumstances, but this is only the second time he has dreamed with her, and there is an entire world - and a pending war - outside this cell.

Wipe you off the face of my earth

HOTARU

right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up

"This is..." There's laughter on his lips as he takes in the dim and barren landscape. "...well, I prefered the last one." He says, turning toward her and immediately noting just how tired she looks. How her vivacity seems to be coated in a layer of grime and defeat.

"Yes of course. I just thought I would check in you, to see if you needed anything." He knows nothing of her capture of course, wanting merely to see if there was anything she needed in so far as her pregnancy was concerned. Stretching out a hand toward her, the alchemist frowns as he tries to draw her near. "Are you okay? If this is a nightmare, it does not need to be any longer." At his words, sunshine breaks through the haze of toneless black, and behind them is once again a wildflower meadow. Chorus bees buzz their songs, indifferent to the intruders to their home, as a warm and sweetly-scented breeze pushes back the rest of the lingering shadows.

The Lullaby

I need to kill you, that's the only way to get you out of my head
I need to kill you to silence all the sweet little things you said

He is a spot of brightness long before the landscape changes, and like a moth she is drawn closer to his light. As his hand is offered she reaches to take it like a drowning man, the warmth and presence of his skin pulling her from the mire of her solitude.

It seems she has been struck silent by his presence, and only when the wind runs through her hair and against her skin is she released from her muteness. It is like she can finally breathe again, and she does so, deep and slow. Smelling wildflowers instead of fresh construction and plain sheets. “Nate and Sunjata are holding me in Torchline. It doesn’t lend itself to beautiful dreams.” Her smile doesn’t touch her eyes as she squeezes his hand. Falling short of true humor. “I’ve given my statement to all of them individually, and they’ve yet to produce a witness, but…” sighing, she turns and looks out over the meadow, the curve of her shoulders straightening as the burden lightens, the illusion of freedom bringing lightness to her. “Anyway. I’m fine, physically. Though the accommodations leave something to be desired.” Evidenced by the smudges under her eyes.

Wipe you off the face of my earth

HOTARU

right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up

"Holding you?" As he repeats the words, thunder distantly purrs from somewhere far away as the alchemist bristles. "Because of the fire...?" From different sources he'd heard of it now, not that he cared. No one had been hurt as far as he knew, and given what a lawless place Torchline was, that it was Sunjata and Nate holding Hotaru made it all seem far more personal than he felt was warranted.

"Nate knows..about us." The words sound strange on his tongue, but there was a sense in which the pair were an us, even if it was an unconventional one. "I told him, a week or so ago now. He and I are...not on the best of terms. But I did not want him to think I was with you out of spite." Remi was far from being capable of such a thing, but Nate seemed particularly keen on reading into Remi each and every negative attribute he could.

Looking around, the dreamscape wavering slightly, the alchemist returns his focus to Hotaru with a shake of his head. "You are the only one I have dreamt with in Halo as far as I know...but you needn't stay here. I can take you to Maeve in Torchline, or Vai in the Greatwood." Whatever the consequences of such an offer were, Remi's mind wasn't considering them. Hotaru was the mother of his unborn child, and though he knew precious little about babies, he was quite sure a lack of movement, fresh air, and sunlight, not to mention the stress of being in jail, was good for a pregnancy.

The Lullaby

I need to kill you, that's the only way to get you out of my head
I need to kill you to silence all the sweet little things you said

Her own smile tightens, but thunder does not scare her. Especially not from him. “Yes. I came willingly to talk, but they won’t release me now, and their Arbiter killing Atlas is of little consequence as well. All this over an empty building that housed an inactive guild.” A cloud passes over the sun overhead, and she has to squeeze Remi’s hand to keep her anger from ruining the beauty of their illusory surroundings.

Though she’d been hurt when Nate had flung his knowledge of the baby in her face, there is none of it now as he explains himself. “He has more than enough spite, trust me,” she mutters, recalling how Nate had claimed she fucked Remi intentionally, and assumed she had returned to crawl back into their beds ‘time and again’. “Most of this farce of a trial has been getting screamed at and called various unsavory names.” Quite professional. No conflict of interests here.

The offer is one she hadn’t expected. Perhaps because she never thought they’d need to use this particular element of his magic, or because there was always the possibility he would side with justice - no matter how loose and pathetic the reality of it. His unwavering support warms her from the inside, and she blinks rapidly, cursing her pregnancy for making her emotions linger so close to the surface. “Are you sure? I don’t want to make things worse for you, especially if Nate has some sort of vendetta against you.”

Wipe you off the face of my earth

HOTARU

right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up

Remi doesn't bother to try and cage the growl that builds in the back of his throat. "So that is how Atlas died." He wonders sternly. "But I am sure the Arbiter is not sharing a neighbouring cell for his death."

Nodding in dark agreement at that, Remi's eyebrows shoot up and then draw tightly together as she mentions being called names, of the trial being a farce. "I never thought it would ever come to this, when I named Sunjata as Governor." The alchemist grumbles.

Hotaru's concern has a sly and deadly smile drawing across Remi's lips. "I have told Nate in no uncertain terms that I would not hesitate to take his life. There is very little he could try and do to me that he has not done already." There is very little he could try and do, fullstop. "I will tell them what I have done and if they have issue with it, they can take it up with me." Feathers unhappily bloom in his curls as Remi sets his jaw. It was a perfect storm between all of them that leads them into this moment, and whether it's righteous or completely stupid that Remi goes along so willingly, he doesn't consider.

"The Greatwood is likely the safest place. The ascended cannot wander in without starting a war, and the stronghold you helped build should prove much more comfortable than this. But..." With a shrug that's suddenly soft as he regards her, Remi inclines his head slightly. "It is up to you. Tell me where you want to go."

The Lullaby

I need to kill you, that's the only way to get you out of my head
I need to kill you to silence all the sweet little things you said

There is something dark and feral in her face as it twists, and it’s a testament to her will that her nails do not sink into his palm with the force of her hatred. “No. Instead they had the gall to let her question me alone.” That Aurelia had walked out alive was a miracle. The thunder growls in the distance, louder and closer. It is the first anyone has seemed as furious as she is at the idea of murdering a companion, and she clings to it with both hands.

“I doubt he is brave enough for that,” she snorts, bitter and cruel. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Sunjata was the one you’d find on your doorstep.” Nate hanging over his shoulder like a dog. Hotaru has faith in Remi’s strength, faith in the darkness she sees in him like a reflection of herself. If he is willing to do this on her behalf, she will not stop him.

“The Greatwood. I can get to Halo from there if I need to, or stay a few days.” With her magic and general cunning she is never lacking in things to trade and barter. She could get word to Deimos, or travel straight to Halo. It wouldn’t matter because she would be gone from here, and they would have no leads as to where she’d gone. A thought hits her, delayed, and she smiles sincerely for the first time in days. “Will we show up naked in front of Vai?”

Wipe you off the face of my earth

HOTARU

right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up

Remi has no words for her, not with the way his teeth have grown pointed inside of his mouth. Pressing them together hard enough that he thinks he hears them groaning in his skull, he sighs out a wooosh of hot air. "Well, Sunjata has been planning on visiting Stormbreak. My shop is not hard to find." Nor was he. Hotaru would be, though.

"The Greatwood it is." As for Vai? Remi's smile is crooked as he nods. "We will. She has seen me naked enough times not to be worried and...well. As a healer, you will not be the first pregnant body she has come across." Will it be an utter shock to his mother-figure that of all her children Remi will be the one showing up to hide a woman he's accidentally gotten pregnant? Definitely yes.

Does he trust Vai with all of his heart? Absolutely. "Is there anything you need from your cell, before we go?"

The Lullaby

I need to kill you, that's the only way to get you out of my head
I need to kill you to silence all the sweet little things you said

A vindictive look of pleasure flashes quickly across her face. Good. Until her child is born, Hotaru wants no part in the stupidity the Wrenzoaks seem intent on making everyone else’s problem. Part of her, maternal and concerned, wants to tell Remi to keep Mateo safe - only it’s laughable, with the adults in the child’s life all imbued with some sort of godly power. Neither Sunjata nor Nate stand a chance.

“I will ask her to check the baby then,” she agrees, hackles smoothing and relief filling the empty spaces where rage had been. “Ensure the stress hasn’t had a negative effect.” Movement has become much more pronounced already, but there’s been no kicking yet. Hotaru suspects it will happen soon, though she isn’t looking forward to having her bladder abused.

Shaking her head she looks up into Remi’s seaglass eyes and takes a moment to appreciate that for all the strain their budding friendship has caused, he is there for her. Extenuating circumstances aside, it is a novelty to be able to lean on someone other than Deimos. “No. I’m ready to be free of here.”

Wipe you off the face of my earth

HOTARU

right now everything you want is wrong
& right now all your dreams are waking up

"Then free you shall be."

Reaching for her hands, the world shifts and stumbles with light and texture. Perhaps Remi might have taken a few moments to think of what he was planning on telling Vai, but even though the risk of anyone interfering with this jailbreak was incredibly low, it was never zero. Not in Caido. And so to the Greatwood their minds would flee.

Hotaru's jailcell would be free of any signs of entry or exit, despite the complete lack of the pregnant woman who was meant to be behind the bars.

~FIN

---

Remi has teleported Hotaru out of the jail cell.

The Lullaby