[ Location: Home in the suburbs | Company: NPCs Dan and Mother | Mood: No, seriously though, don't call me that bro. ]
"...And that's why," Daniel concluded over the phone with a matter of a fact tone,
"you should never perform an autopsy to a bloated body."
Remy chuckled on the other end of the line, trying his best not to laugh at his fellow coroner in training. Daniel Reed went to the same university with him, and together they did shifts at the same hospital morgue under the surveillance of their mentors. Dan was a guy in average height and average grades and average looks and so painfully averagely human, that their friends had dubbed him as Mr. Mediocre. Oddly enough, it had turned so that now Dan pretty much took pride in how much of a regular bloke he was, and embraced it. Remy found himself envious of Dan every so often, especially when his most weirdest experiences with autopsies were stories like this one, where he had done the mistake to open the stomach of a body that had been dead long enough for it to start gathering gas inside the stomach, and that had resulted him having to clean the whole room and disinfect everything and wash his clothes twice. Meanwhile, Remy had to try to hold his autopsies down on the table lest they try to walk off their own when he wasn't keeping a watchful eye on them, and hope no one would notice.
"Come on Dan, you should've first release the gas before you decided to stab it open with a scalpel. That's first year stuff!" Remy teased the other as he was leaning back on his computer chair, his fingers flying over the keyboard. He was working on an essay and it was nearly finished, even if its deadline wasn't due until next week. What could he say, he liked finishing things in advance to remain on top of his school work.
"Right, I totally knew that. I just tested if you did." Dan feigned, even if both of them knew he was bluffing and making the poorest performance of it. Remy couldn't help the giggle that escaped him over the other guy's expense. He could see it a little bit too well, his expression of complete bewilderment after the contents of the stomach had exploded everywhere after the gas had been rapidly released. Their trainer, Mr. Zielinski, must have been very pleased to find the whole examination room covered in excrement and other varying goos.
"Of course you did," Remy smirked on the phone and pressed the print button on the corner of the program, and his printer breathed into life on the side of the table,
"like I haven't been whooping your butt on every exam day ever."
"That is irrelevant," Dan argued and then sneered over the line with a mocking tone,
"Remington."
Remy's freckled face turned into a stale one, as did his tone, even if a little underlying of humor was still audible;
"Don't call me that."
"Oh, what are you gonna do about it, Remington? It's your name, isn't it, Remington? Why don't you like your own name, Remington?"
"I'm hanging up, Dan."
"Aw, don't be like that, Remington."
"Bye Dan."
"Good night, Remin--"
Close the audio call, Casper."
The little ghostly idPersona did as it was told, and closed the call in mid-word for Daniel. The other forensics pathologist student must have been laughing at the usual reaction of his friend at his dorm room right now; this happened time to time, and Dan always played the name card whenever Remy brought in the fact that he was better student academic wise than Dan was. It was a running gag that just never seemed to get old for Dan, even if Remy was actually a little irritated every time he did use his full name.
Remy stood up from the seat into his full, rather impressive six foot and five inch height, stretching his back with a pleasant moan. Once the printer was done with the pages, Remy pulled them out and stabled them together, leaving the finished product on his neatly organised work table. It looked rather similar to his room, which had been decorated with neutral colors of warm browns and subdued blues. The cork board on the wall over his single bed was decorated with pictures of him and his friends and family, there was couple of school diplomas framed on the wall, and the bedspread and carpet on the floor were obvious handwork of his mother. Overall the room was very temperate, and rather minimalist and practical in decor, tidy but had the definite feeling of someone living in it.
"Remy!" Came the voice of his mother from downstairs, followed by a question in Portuguese if he was still awake,
"Você ainda está acordado?"
"Sim!" Remy called over his shoulder back, waiting for her mother to articulate further what she wanted with that knowledge.
"Fiz um lanche, vamos ter alguns!" She hollered back soon after, informing him of the availability a late evening snack. Almost like on cue, Remy's stomach growled. The good point of still living under the roof of his parents was that he would always be enjoying his mother's cooking, which was excellent if he might have added, even if the young man had been pining after his own place for a while now. But the fact was, with his university attendance, training at the hospital and school work after hours, he wouldn't have the time for a job that paid enough to pay his rent and keep himself fed. He might have not been a teenager anymore when he ate every meal like he would have never seen food before, but as a tall guy he did still eat a lot. So far it seemed like he wouldn't be moving out until he graduated and got some of his school debt paid off.
"Yeah, I'm coming!" Remy called again and reached to shut down the old desktop.
"Remy, em Português, obrigado!"
"Sim, mãe! Fica frio!"
It would be nice if he didn't have to speak in Portuguese all the time to please his mother, though.
[ 30 minutes later... ]
Once back in his room and with a full belly, fatigue had finally set in. Remy changed his clothes into pajamas, simple grey college pants and a black sleeveless top, and crawled into bed for the night. Once comfortable, he reached for his bedside lamp and put the lights out, and pulled the blankets up. He stared at the ceiling, and thought about the news he had been watching as he had eaten together with his mother. He knew a lot of his fellow students at the university had been seeing the same dream, as he had been going to class in the morning and exchanged stories together with the others. It had been freaky, enough to cause some panic among people. However, the news brushed it all under the carpet, trying to reassure the people that everything was alright. And perhaps, he thought to himself, it was just that. Alright, he meant.
His gut told him otherwise, no matter how much he tried to reassure himself. Ever since the dream, Remy had felt unsettled. The day had been filled with nervous sort of energy, as if he would have been waiting something to happen without knowing what it was.
With that thought, the mage closed his eyes and drifted off into the feather islands...
[ Location: A Dream | Company: The Twelve | Mood: Wait, so who thought any of this was alright? Who? Who?! ]
It all started nice enough. He was hanging out with his friends in the university's cafeteria while it was otherwise appearing completely empty, wearing his pajamas like it would be totally normal thing to do (though for his defense, Dan was wearing swimming trunks for some reason and Angie was wearing what looked like a tutu) and someone was saying something silly that made absolutely no sense logic wise but made absolutely perfect sense dream wise. Everyone laughed at the joke that wouldn't be considered funny at all if he was awake. Then suddenly, everyone in the table fell completely silent simultaneously and stared at Remy, like they expected something. This too, seemed to make completely sense at the time, even if the day's earlier unsettled feeling intensified on that very moment. Then he felt it; a calling. It wasn't a voice, it wasn't a sound of any sort. Just a feeling, a strong pull in his gut that made him turn around in his seat and look behind his shoulder towards the cafeteria exit door. Something was calling out to him, and Remy wasn't entirely sure what it was. Was it someone from the Other Side? That wasn't out of the question. There was a distinct feeling of supernatural in this. He could feel it, the magic that raised his skin in goosebumps, the electricity in the air and taste it in the tip of his tongue. But perhaps it was just his mind pulling his leg here.
He got up, and approached the glass door. Once standing by it, his friends still remaining at the table and completely, eerily silently just staring at him, he looked outside in what should have been a hallway. But it wasn't a hallway. What he could see, was a forest with trees taller than any he had seen. And without thinking too much into it, because this was a dream, Remy opened the door and stepped into the forest.
He trudged through the underbrush, his bare feet experiencing the coolness of damp earth. And the further he walked, the more realer all the sensations got, and more aware Remy started to be of his own thoughts. Was he lucid dreaming? Was this it? To test it out, he willed himself to fly. But as it turned out, he wasn't taking off like a superman, which was kind of disappointing. So he kept going, walking under the canopy of the trees that let in some spots of sunlight. He wasn't sure where he was going, but at the same time, it was like he knew exactly where he wanted to end up, even if he wasn't aware what it was. But alas, magic tended to work in mysterious ways, and Remy had learned to just not question its ways and just go with what he felt it wanted him to do.
And soon enough, he stumbled on a clearing. It was grassy evergreen that dipped up and down in gentle hills, and a gentle wind brushed the grass in waves. It smelled earthy, and the grass under his bare feet was soft, and sunlit ground warm. Remy wiggled his toes and smiled at the sight, the first word popping into his mind was
beautiful.
However, suddenly everything changed. He wasn't standing at the edge of the valley anymore, and the forest wasn't right behind him. His position seemed to move, all by itself and he was further away. Now he could see some kind of building, perhaps a castle in the distance, and there was a female standing in front of him. And around him, spread around evenly, eleven other people. Remy would have looked around to study all of them, but his field of vision was limited as he found he couldn't move which was suddenly freaky on its own. He could only stare ahead towards the girl with hair white as snow, and tattered green dress, and what appeared to be completely random objects lied at her feet. There was something off about her, and he could have sworn there was a glow in her eyes behind the white bangs; was she a mage? Was she doing this to him? Was it her magic he could feel?
She spoke, and the nervousness grew. He could sense the others having similar feelings around him, the growing emotions in the air so thick he could almost taste the fear. And the further the girl addressed them, the more certain Remy was that he wasn't just dreaming anymore. He was too aware, but it wasn't lucid dreaming either. Nor was he awake, that was for sure. Something was off, but he couldn't quite place what it was, and his mind was reeling. All he could do was just stand there, and listen to the girl.
When creatures were summoned, what appeared to be some sort of golems, Remy was ready to whimper. He was only glad that he was physically denied of making any sounds, lest the others around would hear him.
"Deal with these beasts, and I will tell you of the first harbinger. They've already made themselves quite comfortable in Autumn."
As the golems started moving towards them, suddenly, he could move again. Remy backed away, staring with wide brown eyes at the gigantic creatures that made him feel like a dwarf for once. All his life, he had wanted to be a little bit shorter, but he wasn't sure he liked feeling short around these guys.
"This's some bullshit," someone suddenly spoke, the voice sounding very familiar. Remy snapped his attention towards the speaker, his expressions bewildered when he recognized the guy. Was that the SPARRO detective that had recently started specifically asking him for help with his cases that required autopsies? Detective Kasten? He was a man in his early thirties, and a hint shorter than the average, but somehow his intimidating personality compensated for the missing inches and dominated the room. He was a bit arrogant sort of fellow, very blunt and cussed a lot, and if Remy was honest, a tad bit scary. He was the sort of man one just couldn't ignore when he stepped into the room, his presence was strong and demanding. There was something in Detective Kasten that always made him feel nervous, and he couldn't even anymore count how many times he had dropped documents from his trembling hands, how many times he blushed from embarrassment whenever he fumbled around with his own words and how much worse it became whenever the man kept staring at him. The run ins with Kasten were always equally awkward for some reason, even if he had never done anything specific that would have made Remy able to point out the cause.
"I don't believe any of this." Kasten stated as Remy gaped at him, unable to understand why he was in the dream or whatever the hell this was, out of all people. Everyone else appeared unknown for him; couple of elves, one dark and one light, a troll, a goblin, some women and girls... He didn't have the time to look at who all else were there, because the golems reached them, and one of them punched Kasten hard enough to make Remy cringe, and sent the man flying and landing on his back, groaning.
"My spleen..."
Remy started panicking.
Really panicking now. He wrapped his arms around himself, gaze feverishly moving about as he watched the golems run after different targets, making the people take mad dash into safety. One woman distracted the first golem that had punched Kasten, turning it towards her. Then a male troll basically bashed himself at the golem, sending it reeling backwards and falling on its earthy butt and sliding down a slope. The said troll then scooped Kasten up like he was but a mere child (Remy had a feeling that despite how hurt he was, the detective wasn't going to be happy about being manhandled), bellowing them to get off the open.
The light elf was screaming,
"There! Hurry!" but Remy had no idea what she was meaning until she dashed towards the direction of the castle, and so did the goblin man. The dark elf with splotchy skin was being pursued by one of the golems into the forest, but pink haired girl came to her rescue. However, her victory was short lived as she was punched and sent flying deeper into the forest like Kasten before.
"Oh my God!" Remy yelled as he watched the girl break through the trees and disappear. Was she dead? He surely hoped she wasn't dead. He was rooted on where he was, unsure where to go, if he should dash to help someone or try to dash into safety, contemplating with the options and ending up choosing nothing in his indecisiveness.
And then he took simply too long to decide, and one of the creatures had turned its attention on him and snuck up on the young man from behind. The only reason why Remy noticed it in time was when its shadow cast itself on him, and he turned sharply to take into its looming large form over him, its fist raised to crush him to the ground. Remy had barely time to throw himself off the fist's way which had been about to smash him on the top of his head and hammer him into the ground like a human nail. The fist smashed on the grassy floor with immense power that Remy could feel through the ground in tremors on his back, but he didn't stay to admire it. The tall man scrambled on his feet, and ran as fast he could and as far away from the creature as he could. He couldn't really help anyone with the creatures around, and if he stuck around he would be the one in need of some healing instead. All he could do was to hope that everyone would manage to save themselves, as Remy would be no good to anyone dead.
"Come on!" He said to the woman who had thrown stones at the creature; she was a classy looking beautiful thing that would have probably made Remy feel like a plebeian in any other situation if he would have had the time to analyze it. He figured that the troll could help Kasten and carry him into safety, he seemed big and strong, seeing how he had managed to take one of the golems on earlier. Meanwhile, Remy could try to herd forward anyone who seemed to fall behind while running. His thoughts were on the pink haired girl that had been punched into the forest, and he hoped she was alright and would be able to catch up to them. She had thrown a damn tree earlier with what appeared to be telekinesis, so he also figured she was much tougher cookie than she appeared.
