BrainDed

Phoebe I know I am good at something, I just haven't found it yet Uh Phoebe walks up In her brightly Nightly Bloody Remi is also bloody They both like “yo.”

Isla was a unicorn. Sam was in love with him. Ronin was a father. And Remi wasn't quite sure he could take any more of this, and LongNight wasn't even over yet. Having just cleaned up as best he could, and having magicked himself some new clothes to wear, Remi felt moderately better. He hadn't slept well the previous not, not with Isla in his thoughts (literally) and with his conversation with Sam about their relationship on his mind. Even so, he still felt better than he had. Stretching his arms over his head and deciding whether or not he should go down to the Rathskeller and try and tell Vai or Ronin about what had happened, a familiar pair of dark eyes and long tangle of hair caught his attention. "Phoebe?" He called with his ever-buoyant smile. "What are you doing up here?" REMI Everything looks perfect from far away

Phoebe I know I am good at something, I just haven't found it yet The familiar voice caught her attention, cutting through the fog of exhaustion. Where was she even? What was she looking for? Was she just walking aimlessly? Actually that seemed right. Phoebe turned to look, wide-eyed, hoping she wasn't hearing things in her sleep deprived stupor. What she saw was Remi. What he saw was likely unexpected. It was still Phoebe, without a doubt. But her hair was a mess, tied in an oversized bun on her. Her eyes were dull with circles under her eyes. Dark, dried blood was splattered on what had been the top of a dress, but its skirt was long gone, a tied blanket all that covered her bottom half now. She was a mess. She had been through hell based on how she looked alone. And yet when she saw him, she managed a smile. "Remi! You're okay!" she said, relief in her voice. She rushed forward and hugged him if he didn't otherwise stop her. Tears came to her eyes. He was okay! Someone she recognized, someone she cared about, was well and healthy! "I had to come here. The house was..." suddenly she realized that she hadn't spoken of it since her hurried explaination to Vai. Her lips pressed together and she shook her head. "A lot happened." she whispered.

As she came closer, the dim candlelight finally illuminating her, the smile disappeared entirely from his face. "Phoebe, what—" He began to say, before happily wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to him. She didn't seem to wince away or cry in pain, and given that she was walking on her own, she couldn't be too poorly injured. But the blood, the general state of her...that was about as unlike Phoebe as he'd ever known her. Pulling back slightly, he clasped his hands against her cheeks, looking deeply into her eyes as if he was about to kiss her. Instead his gaze just shifted back and forth, as if trying to convince himself that she was alright. "The house?" He encouraged gently. "Isla said you were going to stay at the infirmary with her, and then you never did. What happened? Where were you? And how...why are you here now?" Then, because of course none of those questions really mattered in the face of the last one, Remi asked gravely: "Whose blood is this?" REMI Everything looks perfect from far away

Phoebe I know I am good at something, I just haven't found it yet She didn't move as he grabbed her face, looking up at him without hesitance. As she blinked a few welled tears rolled down her cheeks, waiting for him to finish his assessment of her. Of course he had a lot of questions. Phoebe swallowed a lump forming in her throat. But his questions prompted some of her own. "You've seen Isla? I haven't been able to find her since I got here..." she asked quietly. But he had questions that really needed answers and she sighed. "It's a long story..." she said. Phoebe glanced down at herself, seeing the awful stains. "Not mine." she said with a small frown. "I...it's...it won't make sense if I start there." she said, to explain her roundabout way of saying whose blood covered her top. "I met a boy a few weeks ago." she said with a light blush. "He's a Natural, his family farms in the Outskirts. He's...he's been very kind to me and...well he invited me to stay with his family for Long Night so I went there but..." She paused, knowing this next part would probably lead into lots more questions. More than she wanted to answer. But for now she would gloss over it. "We were upstairs and...I don't know how but we could not hear anything outside the room but when we opened the door his two youngest siblings were screaming about monsters and downstairs..." Her voice hitched and she squeezed her eyes closed. More tears rolled down her cheeks. "They were all dead. All of them. And everything was covered in blood." She had begun to tremble. The memories were traumatic for Emmett and his siblings, but her as well. Especially the next ones. "So we ran. And we were attacked by...Remi it looked like my brother in his bull shift. It attacked Emmett and he passed out and I tore my skirt off so I could bandage him and dragged him all the way here." She was trembling like a leaf in the wind, the tears rolled freely now. "So its his...from when I was sewing up his wounds in the Rathskellar."

"Ah...Yes. She is here. But ... well. I will need to explain." Remi said vaguely, wincing slightly. He'd taken it all in stride that Isla was now a unicorn. So far the only people he'd had to explain it to were Sam and Rory, who both took it rather well. The next day however, the memories seemed more strange and bizarre the longer he thought of them, and the tale didn't quite roll of his tongue as it had the night before. Remi sighed with initial relief. Not hers. But of course that left the obvious question: whose? Too concerned to do anything more than nod as she mentioned having met a boy (rather than grinning or nudging her). Remi's mouth dropped open as she mentioned that they were all dead. With a hasty gasp, he pulled Phoebe towards him again, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his cheek to the top of her head. She continued speaking and it just ... he believed her of course, and with all the madness of LongNight what wouldn't he believe at this point, but gods it was just all so...so...so cruel. 'And it was a monster? Not Brahm?" Remi asked, then belatedly shook his head. If it was Brahm she would have said...Hugging her tightly before releasing her, Remi let his eyes trail down her 'outfit' now with a sad smile. "Here—" He said softly, reaching out to touch the ruined fabric of her shirt. As he did so, the clothing she wore ('skirt' included) became a pale pebble-blue dress, free of blood. "Emmett." The alchemist said under his breath, storing the name away for later like any older brother might do. "And is he alright?" REMI Everything looks perfect from far away

Phoebe I know I am good at something, I just haven't found it yet Phoebe was confused, then inmediately concerned. Isla was here but he would need to explain? What did that mean? Was she injured? Comatose? What?? But...well he would have said if something was horribly wrong right? So she nodded a little, trusting him to explain the whereabouts of the medic. She was terribly needed right now in many places because of all the injuries and suffering. Maybe the explanation was more mundane than she feared. Remi pulled her in for a hug, the sort of hug that reached in and embraced the soul itself. Her armor of strength that had been holding back the well of emotion with the barest of threads cracked then. In all of the suffering, the struggle, the cruelty, Phoebe had been the comforter. She had yet to be held or soothed with kind words. A choked sob bubbled up and escaped her lips, pressing her face into Remi's chest, finally falling apart for just a few moments. Her whole body trembled as she hugged the alchemist back and cried, holding onto him as if letting go would snap the last remaining strands of sanity keeping her rooted in the moment. But the tidal wave of emotion did not last very long. Her heart and soul ached and yet she felt selfish for it. They hadn't been her family after all. The scene had been horrific, the trek to safety had been stressful at best and her muscles ached from it, but she hadn't really known those people. Her emotional state was selfishly self-preservationist and weak when in truth, when Long Night ended, her life would be realtively the same. Emmett and his sibling's wouldn't. So after a few minutes of indulgence she swallowed, forcing the feelings back down, locking them away, breath coming in short spurts. Remi's question helped and she shook her head, pulling back slightly so she could look up at him again. "No. It had his bull face but the rest...even if it had been him at some point he was no longer my brother." she said, her answer interrupted by a few little hyperventilated gasps for air. No. Somehow the monster had known to take his face, but that was all. Phoebe looked down at herself, watching the rags she was in transform into a pretty blue dress. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes. "Thank you...its so pretty...you could be a fashion designer if this alchemy thing doesn't pan out for you." she said with a soft laugh, trying to use humor to lift her own spirits. She nodded a little and sighed, finally getting her emotjons in hand again. "Just barely. His ribs and arm are broken. His torso was cut open but nothing inside hurt so I got him stitched back up. Miss Vai used magic to get the poison out and Ronin set his arm...I was looking for Isla though to asses that to make sure it didn't need more work. I hope she won't mind I took a sling from the infirmary earlier..." she said.

Remi's hands gently stroked Phoebe's hair, happy to hold her together as she beautifully came unwound. Softly he consoled, humming notes of patience and understanding as he tightened his grip around her so that she could simply feel. Closing his eyes, Remi tried to suppress the shudder of frustration and sadness he could feel shaking inside of himself, rattling up into his lungs and wedging itself in his throat. They had been told LongNight was something awful..but this? This was an unthinkable amount of pain and torture for them all to endure. And they had been led to to believe a bit of moss would be enough. "Well that is..." Remi swallowed. Good? Relieving? Was it though? Either it was not Brahm at all and something had stolen his memory from Phoebe's mind, or it was Brahm, who was now beyond saving. The alchemist snorted in response and shook his head with a tentative grin. "I will keep that in mind. " The mention of Isla made Remi's jaw tighten as he glanced over his shoulder, as if expecting to see the dark unicorn there. Only he knew that she wasn't, because he could feel her in his mind. He sighed. "Isla...the luxere herd here started to move. There was a wounded lamb out in the outskirts and a group went to aid it. Isla was with them. She was attacked by a monster and died." Remi only paused for a beat, before continuing on. "When I heard of this, I went out to retrieve her body, but found Ludo instead. We...made a deal, and Isla's soul was placed into another body. Only...it is not a human body." At that moment, as if on cue, the gentle clip-clop of hooves could be heard as Isla moved from one room to another. "She is now a unicorn." Remi concluded a bit awkwardly. But really, what other way was there to say it? REMI Everything looks perfect from far away

Phoebe I know I am good at something, I just haven't found it yet If Phoebe felt like she could have gotten away with hiding in Remi’s arms all day, she absolutely would have. Of all the people in Caido, he was the only one she felt really cared for her, that had her best interest at heart, that didn’t think her burdensome. Of course, Emmett cared about her too but…it was different. Remi didn’t want anything from her. Part of her wondered if the alchemist knew how important he was to her…or if he could even comprehend it if she said so plainly. ”I know.” she said with a quiet sniffle as Remi tried to come up with a comment about the bull and its appearance. It was complicated which made it more difficult to process. Her head tilted slightly as Remi began to explain what happened with Isla. At the midpoint of his tale she gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, wide eyes already tearing up again. Isla was dead? Guilt washed over her in an almost palpable way. If she had just been at the infirmary like she promised, maybe she could have stopped her from going out! And then she wouldn’t have brought any bad luck to Emmett’s family either! But before she could ponder the what ifs long, Remi delved back in. ”You made a deal with Ludo?” she said, concern etched in her voice. Bargaining with a god of death? That didn’t sound safe. ”What deal? What did you give them?” she asked quickly, worry growing. But the faint clip-clop of hooves made her turn her head, brows furrowing in confusion. He…made a deal with Ludo…to bring Isla back from the dead…as a unicorn?? Her tears stopped as shock took over, mouth dropped. ”A…a unicorn?” she said in disbelief. There was very little Phoebe wouldn’t believe nowadays, but this was one of those things. A god of death put a dead woman’s soul inside a unicorn. Without thinking she reached up and placed a hand on his forehead, checking his temperature to make sure he wasn’t having fever hallucinations.

Remi could sense the worry and concern in Phoebe's expression, and heard it plainly in her voice. But it was Isla...he couldn't just ... let her die. Not if there was something he could do to save her. Placing her soul into a unicorn was not quite what he had in mind, but all things considered, wasn't it better than nothing? "Yes." Remi said softly with a gentle nod. "Ludo...did not specify. He said he would ask for something when the time came and that I would be forced to comply." Holding up a finger to halt what was surely going to be a lecture, Remi hummed softly under his breath. "I know it could ask for anything, I know the consequences for having done this could very well be steep. But I would do it again. I would do it for you too." Nodding, Remi glanced over his shoulder at the sound of hooves and smirked. "Yes, a unicorn. It had a lantern made of bones and...stars? It smashed the lantern on the ground and this unicorn appeared. But ... not like any I have seen in books. Instead of white, Isla is dark in colour, her horn like obsidian. She does seem to have the markings of stars on her though." The alchemist shrugged. "I am not really sure what any of that means, but apparently she has retained her ability to heal." REMI Everything looks perfect from far away