Wishing you were somehow near [SE]

Phoebe

Phoebe had always been prone to wander, especially once the walls of the Hollowed Ground had ceased to exist. Today was no different, except for the added companion. Jude was nestled in a sling against her chest, looking around wide eyed at the pretty waters and lush greenery of the Wishtide. He was still young, but she hoped to instill in him a sense of adventure to see all the beautiful things the gods created.

The Nightingale crouched down near the water, letting her hand feel the coolness of the creek. Then she took it and sprinkled some atop Jude's head, making him cackle with delight. She smiled and kissed his forehead. But the sound of someone approaching broke the happy bubble and she rose, back turned to keep Jude away from whatever was coming, prepared to use her rainbow shield.

"Who's there?"

she sprouted love like flowers
grew a garden in her mind

and my heart ran away with me

"Just me."

Whatever Remi had been hunting he'd let slip away a near-certain death in lieu of following a much more interesting scent. One which was familiar, but distant and entirely changed despite still ringing as being Phoebe's in his mind. Splaying the branches of a nearby bush with his hands, Remi didn't move to come any closer to mother and child for lack of both understanding and consent.

"It..has been a while, Phoebe." A full year or so, though he couldn't really be sure. So very much had happened between then and now, and prior to that more still. Remi could remember times he and Phoebe had all but been best friends when she'd offered to carry he and Ronin's child, when they'd fought and he'd said he'd rather live without her in his life, when they'd come back together, and then...

"Who is that?" Tilting his sea-glass stare towards Jude in her arms, Remi judged he very likely already knew the answer.

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Phoebe

The Nightingale's shoulders drooped as the newcomer revealed themselves to be Remi. In fact she smiled warmly to see him, a familiar face once again in her life. "Remi!" she said brightly as she settled back down onto her heels. Jude squealed happily because of her tone, babbling nonsensically.

At the mention of the time that had passed though she frowned, looking down briefly. "While everyone else has prepared for war, I lost another year. This time to a garden that turns years into hours." she said with a soft sigh in explanation.

But she is distracted again by his words and looked to Jude, smiling again. "This is my son, Jude." she said, turning her torso so Remi could see the boy more easily. He had Harper's brown waves and Phoebe's brown, round eyes, the rest of his features equally a mix of his parent's. Jude stared at Remi with wide eyes before cackling and shoving his fist in his mouth.

she sprouted love like flowers
grew a garden in her mind

and my heart ran away with me

"Ah." It didn't matter that her explanation didn't make sense, or rather, it made sense in the way that nothing in Caido seemed to the closer war approached. Heaving out a sigh and feeling, conveniently perhaps, too tired to fight just now, Remi accepted his once-best friend's explanation with an easy nod.

"Jude. A lovely name." Stepping near, no stranger to babies anymore, the Lullaby lowered his face slightly so that he might be at Jude's eye-level. Sticking out his tongue and letting his hair turn into soft feathers, Remi made some cheerful sound in the back of his throat to try and coax a laugh from the boy. Snorting his own amusement, the alchemist straightens and lets his features shift back before turning his gaze to Phoebe.

"It was...uhmm..Harker? Was that his name?" The pair had eloped? Or maybe Remi just hadn't been invited to the wedding, he really didn't know; no more than he knew the man's name.

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Phoebe

Thankfully Remi doesn't question her. He knew as well as she that strange and unfortunate things happened in Caido all the time. A time warp garden fit right in.

Jude squealed and cackled at Remi, raising his hands and waving them towards the feathers on his head. Phoebe smiled, feeling a warmth in her heart to see the two interact. "Will you be fighting in the war?" she asked him, a note of concern in her voice. She had lost Remi once. She didn't want to lose him again.

"Harper." she said with a frown. Not at Remi but the situation. "He moved on while I was away though so...we are co-parenting, he called it." Such arrangements were nearly unheard of where they were from, given the rigid restrictions on marriage, parenthood, and love lives in general.

she sprouted love like flowers
grew a garden in her mind

and my heart ran away with me

Glancing up at her from his position hunkered before her son, Remi blinked a few times before swallowing and offering Jude a final smile. "I..yeah, Phoebe. I will." He replied a touch more sharply than he meant. "I have to. Are you...not?" It was the Lullaby's understanding that all of the demigods had to fight in the war; that was precisely the reason they'd all been created.

Wasn't it?

"Ah, right. Sorry." Remi said with an apologetic tilt of his head. "He...mm." Closing his mouth around what otherwise would have followed (only a year? he could not wait that long?), he clears his throat. "And for you it felt like almost no time had passed...Phoebe..gods, that..." The tilt of the Lullaby's head grew even more severe as he finally sighed, shaking his head and running a hand through his curls.

"..that really sucks."

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Phoebe

Phoebe looked down, biting her lip at the way Remi answered her question. He had to. Not only did it worry her that he would be in such danger, but she worried that perhaps Frey had made some godly oversight or faux pas in telling her to not join in. "Frey told me not to. They want me in the safe haven they created with Sunjata." she said. "I suppose they want me to look after all of the children that will be there."

She managed a small smile as Remi continued. A small, sad sort of smile. A previous her would have been inconsolable just touching on the subject. But her heart had been broken enough times that the feeling simply settled over her like an old (yet unwelcome) friend. "It does suck. And to add insult to injury he is with the Queen of Torchline who used to be one of my employees at the brothel." she said with a wry smirk.

she sprouted love like flowers
grew a garden in her mind

and my heart ran away with me

"Or start making new ones." Remi murmurs, and though the comment is meant to be more on the joking side of things, given who and what Frey was to both Phoebe and Sunjata, would it surprise anyone if that's what the god had up their sleeve?

"...Maeve?" Sounding a touch incredulous if only because the sorts of men who would be attracted to Phoebe did not seem the sort to also be attracted to someone like Maeve (ignoring Sunajta), Remi exhales forcefully and gives his head a little shake. "Well..." Pressing a finger between his eyebrows as if there was some hidden button that would make the right words come out, the Lullaby can only shrug softly as his hand falls back to his side. "I am sorry to hear that. Are you...alright? I mean, surely not, but...are you doing okay?"

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Phoebe

The joke was enough to make the Nightingale fake a gag. "Unless Frey commands it, that won't be happening. Even then I would heavily protest it." she said, shaking her head. She had but one child, and that one child would remain just that. Besides, she knew well enough that Sunjata had never wanted children. A war wouldn't change that stubborn man's mind.

It was satisfying to hear the tone in Remi's voice as he said the Queen's name. The incredulity of it soothed a part of her aching soul, and she nodded to confirm at indeed Maeve was Harper's new choice. "I'm holding up." she said with a slight shake in her voice. It was a precarious thread pulled taught in her heart. "I have to." she said, nodding to the babe in her arms. She couldn't fall apart with Jude to think about. "But I am not sure I can stay in Torchline like Harper wants. It's too painful." And being in such close proximity to Maeve was certainly unsettling.

she sprouted love like flowers
grew a garden in her mind

and my heart ran away with me

Snorting a huff of amusement, Remi can only roll his shoulders in a vague shrug. "You two seemed happy for a time, and stranger things have certainly happened. Especially when you are cooped up for long." He says.

Biting at the inside of his lip, understanding at least in part what it was Phoebe meant—the soldiering on, the having to portion of it—Remi nods. "When Ronin found out about Hotaru and I and the twins...he could not stay in the Greatwood. Not with her so near." If anyone thought Phoebe less of a mother for needing to be away from Maeve, the same would have to be said of Ronin and his role as a husband as well.

'Well, you know the Greatwood would always welcome you. And I am sure Ronin would say the same of Stormbreak.'

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Phoebe

Phoebe faked a gag, which caused Jude to cackle. "If that happens, please abduct me after the war until I regain my senses." she said with a cheeky grin.

She smiled warmly at Remi and nodded. "I think I would like the Greatwood. But I'd need to talk to Harper." she said, glancing at the babe in her arms. He wouldn't like Jude so far and inaccessible...but she thought she would like being amongst the foliage more than the cold stone of Stormbreak.

Before she could say more though, a shout of alarm came from down the riverbank. She startled and looked back towards it, hesitating until she heard the words 'help!' cried out. She stood and looked to Remi. "We should go help." She said, a worried look on her face.

she sprouted love like flowers
grew a garden in her mind

and my heart ran away with me

Snorting under his breath, Remi just grins. "I am not sure I can do that. If I am alive after this war, I plan on not seeing anyone but Ronin for a very long time."

Pausing to consider, Remi realizes how easy it had been for him to have children on opposite sides of the continent because of one important ability: "Perhaps you could ask Frey for a way to teleport. It has certainly made it easier for me given that Mateo lives in Stormbreak and the twins are now in Torchline."

The yell of alarm stole Remi's attention away as well, and just as Phoebe was suggesting it, the Lullaby was already dashing down the shores towards the sounds of distress. Already wings were threatening to push out of his back as his hands become tipped with deadly claws.

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Phoebe

"I won't be a bother, promise." Phoebe said with a cheeky grin. The idea of a teleportation device though was one that hadn't crossed her mind. She was sure Frey would be willing to help with something like that, given the circumstances. Besides, wouldn't they rather she be in the Greatwood which was lush with life? "I'll ask them. Thanks for the idea."

But Remi was already off and running before she could get her next concerned phrase out. She quickly tucked Jude into the little carrying sling on her chest then set off herself.

Remi being much faster than her would happen upon the poor fellow first. The bank had given way and he now sat on the water's edge with what was obviously a broken leg. "I can heal that." she said quickly, not wanting Remi to jump to conclusions of putting the man out of his misery. Besides, he wouldn't be feeling very miserable once she got her hands on him.

she sprouted love like flowers
grew a garden in her mind

and my heart ran away with me

"It is a convenient way of getting around." Remi adds, as if reading Phoebe's thoughts. Not that it took someone with telepathy to guess what the Nightengale might be thinking.

Coming quickly upon the young man, it was with a quick tilt of his head that Remi seemed to turn in on himself, listening intently for sounds which were not there. Hearing nothing, and thus deducing that this man was not one he was meant to kill on account of this injury, the Lullaby knelt at his side with a reassuring smile. Or, as reassuring as someone as predatory as Remi had become, was able to give. "You will be alright. My friend can--"

Glancing up at Phoebe with a crooked smile, Remi reached out for the man's shoulders to hold him steady. Feeling the flash of terror and uncertainty warble up from his fingertips, the Lullaby exhaled steadily and nodded his head in Phoebe's direction. "Trust me, when she gets to work, you will forget all about the pain."

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)