call and i'll rush out

are you really going to talk about timing in times like these?

"If we had not seen this from above, I am not sure I would have believed it wasn't a mirage." Remi says once he has a mouth capable of forming words. Having flown Isla here as a manticore, it was at the Remedy's nudging that Remi had banked down toward the edge of the desert, where gold bled strangely into bright green.

Isla might not have been affected by the heat, and though Remi wasn't properly bothered by it, there were still beads of sweat that glistened across his forehead and under his curls. Wiping the back of his right hand across his brow (which the hand seemed to hate), the Lullaby turns to Isla with a boyish grin. "Can I interest you in a stroll through this weird and probably very dangerous oasis?"

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Isla

Standing beside Remi with feet clad in walking boots and gypsy skirts tumbling past her knees, Isla looks like some strange adventurer out in the desert. Remi is right, though - there isn't a bead of sweat on her freckled skin, and it's with a bright, fanged grin that she nods up at him. Caido doesn't have the equivalent of smashing that like button, so the way she snags his hand and tugs him forward will have to do.

"I wonder if this appeared all at once right after the war, or whether it's been slowly forming since then," she murmurs, hopping over a bit of foliage and smiling over her shoulder to her friend. "Do you remember Ghilio, that Flowerbirth deity? Maybe he's the one responsible for this."

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

are you really going to talk about timing in times like these?

Still finding it so strange to be able to feel actual warmth from Isla as she grabbed his hand, the Lullaby stutters-steps after her if only because the easiness of their friendship continued to catch him off-guard.

"It is a good question. I wonder if anyone knows? Phoebe was up on the mountains with us, and Ianto and his daughter were in the Refuge." This was just to say that of all the remaining residents in the Greatwood that Remi still knew, none would have been around at the time of The Change.

"I do remember him. I helped bring him back to the Oerwoud, did I ever tell you that?" It seemed a lifetime ago, but...Tugging at Isla's hand if only so that he could look over his shoulder and into the distance, the Lullaby huffed a breath of amusement to himself. "It was just over there, actually." He murmurs, nodding to where the sunshine pools sparkled like a mirage far in the distance. Maybe they were a mirage actually, his geography of this area was fairly limited.

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Isla

It catches Isla off-guard too, don't worry Remi - the Remedy is just better at hiding it behind sudden bursts of energy and boundless optimism. "I bet the animals know," she says, as if this is a perfectly reasonable thing to suggest. "Do you know any Abandoned with special magic, to speak to animals? Or, no, perhaps that's more of an Attuned thing." Her smile softens regardless to hear Remi talk about Ianto, and she glances up at him curiously. "Do you keep in touch with him? You really should," she says.

Rolling her eyes and falling to a stop as Remi tugs her hand, Isla squints in the distance towards what might be the Sunshine Pools. "Of course you did," she drawls, her tone teasing. "But no, you haven't regaled that tale to me. What was he like?" Blinking quickly so she isn't blinded by the shimmering pools in the distance, Isla returns to their hand tug-of-war so she can urge them further into the oasis.

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

are you really going to talk about timing in times like these?

"Maybe someone like Phoebe?" Remi guesses, but the way he scrunches up his cheeks suggests it's a poor guess at best. It certainly was more of an attuned thing, and given that Sunjata as the attundediest of them all, it probably wasn't worth diving into. "I miss being an attuned." The Lullaby admits suddenly, and perhaps a bit too casually before memories of Ianto colour Remi's emotions a soft sunset gold that has him smiling. "Not as much as I should, no. I have no heard from him in.." Glad for Isla's hand in his that he could softly squeeze her fingers, the Lullaby swallows. "Years now, actually."

Chuckling bashfully, Remi can only roll his eyes slightly and offer her an apologetic shrug. "It was Ronin, Maeve and I if I remember correctly. He was beneath the ground in a hovel he'd made basically dying of thirst." The Lullaby explains, before feigning being tugged forward and following Isla into the Oasis. "It wanted water as you might expect, and other than that, preferred to be left alone from what I could gather." Over his shoulder, Remi grins down at Isla, clearly finding no fault in the deity's preferences.

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Isla

"You know, I can't ever remember meeting Phoebe. Or if I did, it was so long ago that we're probably both so different by now that we may as well be strangers." Isla smiles to herself; who knows, on her adventures, maybe she'll run into the demigoddess one of these days? Drawn out of such thoughts by Remi's sudden admission, her smile grows soft and she leans gently against the Lullaby as they walk together, pretend-stumble or not.

"You're still an Attuned in a lot of ways," she reminds him. "You're just... also a lot of other things." And since it's been years since seeing Ianto or his daughter, Isla can only raise her eyebrows up at him knowingly. "Might be time you dropped in to say hi, huh?" she teases.

As for Ghilio and his personality, along with Remi's contributions to his safe return to the Oerwoud, it's of little surprise that this all has Isla laughing merrily to herself. "Ghilio reminds me of someone, you know. I can't quite put my finger on who, but I'm sure it'll come to me."

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

are you really going to talk about timing in times like these?

Are you sure you can't remember meeting Phoebe? Are you sure we didn't say Isla and Phoebe and Flora had manicures not long ago.

Isla would no doubt feel the strange flutter of the Lullaby's emotions as she pressed gently against him; it wasn't quite the pitter-patter of budding affection, but something altogether more nuanced and hard to describe. Conveniently, he didn't have to nor was he really thinking about it even as the colours of his feelings for Isla shimmered from his skin.

Grumbling in acknowledgement if not agreement about both his status as an almost-attuned-but-also-other-things as well as dropping in on the fox, the Lullaby wipes his hand across his brow again, causing his curls to clump together thanks to the humidity. "Does he now?" The Lullaby pretends to think about who the deity could possibly have a passing resemblance to. Snapping his fingers as if it has just come to him, Remi glances at Isla over his shoulder with a grin.

"Loren. I bet that is who you are thinking of."

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Isla

WHOOOOOPS.

Smiling at the good-natured grumbling from Remi, Isla tilts her head up at him. "Well, if you like you can just be an 'Attuned' for today, while we hang out. Though I don't think you can turn off that emotion magic of yours," she points out, picking her way through a dirt path now that looks as if it's been used more by animals than humans.

Eyes widening, it's with the glee of someone entirely committed to the bit that she claps her hands together to hear Loren's name, Isla nodding. "That is the exact person," she says. "Gosh, you are so wise, Remi."

About to lavish him in further compliments, Isla stops suddenly at the sight of something she's seen, evidently, through the trees. "Hey, I don't suppose you mind if I...?" Rolling her shoulders, there's no easy way of saying murder and eat something to satisfy my bloodlust, but after the blink hare fiasco, hopefully Remi will understand.

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

are you really going to talk about timing in times like these?

"No, I do not think I can." Remi says with a crooked smile, wondering if he was ever able to leave Ludo, just what sorts of ramifications would come with it. Much as his emotion-magic, as Isla called it, was a hassle in the beginning, now the Lullaby leaned heavily on it as another form of communication for when words simply couldn't express the things he felt.

Contemplating this as he strolled at Isla's side, it was the theatrical burst of the Remedy's emotions more than the way she pulled her hand from his that had Remi turning to look at her, before bursting into easy laughter. "I really am. Remi the Wise is what everyone should actually be calling me. They probably do not because it is so obvious already...?"

Having paid little attention to the surroundings in lieu of paying attention to his company instead, Remi turns to gaze out into the forest as if he might instantly recognize what it was that had caught Isla's attention. Seeing nothing, or at least, nothing he'd register as interesting, it was only the vaguely awkward expression on her face that gave him any insight into what she meant now that her hand was no longer in his. "By all means. Depending on how much effort you are looking to put in, given how animals seem to flee from me, if I stroll along this path it should flush anything out..?"

But he'd understand if she was inclined to prowl around on her own.

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Isla

Managing a brief, but still genuinely fiendish smile at Remi (Remi the Wise, she should say), Isla is unfortunately far too focused on the prospect of a hunt now to continue with their verbal tennis match. Luckily, given that he's a very good friend indeed, rather than any awkwardness between them, the Lullaby is even offering to help, and Isla feels herself instantly relax again.

"If you don't mind," she says. "I think it was just a roadrunner or a lizard or something, but if you can flush something out it would be a lot quicker." And then they can continue with their wonderful little jaunt through the oasis. "I can even show you my new shift while we're at it, as long as it is something small."

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

are you really going to talk about timing in times like these?

"Not at all." Remi says with a casual shake of his head, before tilting his head to the side and lifting his eyebrows. "A new shift? You are just full of surprises these days." He chuckles warmly, before rolling his shoulders back as if he might suddenly re-load his arms Henry Cavill style.

This was unnecessary of course; the same way he couldn't quite turn his emotion magic off, it wasn't as though he could turn on this don't pick on fights you can't win magic on. Even so, Remi opted to partially shift parts of his vocal cords and throat in order to roar loudly as he began to stalk menacingly forward along the path.

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Isla

"I have to try to keep things interesting," Isla says with a sly smile, before she drops back to a safer distance at Remi's heels. And as he really starts to prowl through the foliage, the Remedy seems to disappear entirely, leaving him to his intimidation tactics.

Let it never be said that the Lullaby doesn't know how to make a scene; the roar doesn't just have a couple of roadrunners and lizards scattering across the sand, but a flock of wrens take flight from a nearby tree, and even a camel can be seen lumbering away through a distant thicket of green.

Isla, at least, has honed in on a small iguana as it scuttles by, though it isn't a woman or even a tiger that darts forward for the kill, but a blue-eyed gore crow. Clutching the reptile in enormous talons, the corvid takes to a nearby tree to begin picking apart the iguana while it's still alive. No one said nature was pretty.

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

are you really going to talk about timing in times like these?

"I hardly think you have to try." Remi counters, still finding himself laying on the flattery and compliments perhaps a little too thick but not wanting to take for granted even a second more of his friendship with the Lullaby.

Strolling and trying not to listen too hard to what was going on, it was only when he heard the sound of wings flapping nearby that he bothered to look properly around himself to try and identify what nearby creature Isla might be. Of course given the options, varied though they might be, birds typically did not blue eyes. Folding his arms comfortably across his chest and glancing up at the corvid as it picked away at the lizard, Remi could only grin proudly. Whatever Isla thought the morality of her new need to feed, the Lullaby clearly harboured no such issues about it; unsurprisingly, he rather liked it.

"Try the eyes."

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

Isla

Busily flaying off pieces of flesh with her beak and gulping them down, it's with a twitch of her head towards Remi that Isla realises she's being spoken to. "Eyes," she croaks back at him, something he'll likely find as delightful as others might find truly disturbing, and without missing a beat, the crow bends to do just that.

Leaving the iguana eyeless and with a large deal of flesh and guts missing, she leaves the husk of it hanging in the tree before taking off to swoop around and land unceremoniously on Remi's shoulder, bloody talons and all. Clicking her beak at him and starting to preen glossy black feathers, it's as close to a thanks as Isla can give without a real voice. Still, she does lean her feathered head into him for good measure, just in case he doubts her.

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