From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
"Or perhaps we should stop letting you out with Hunters so often. That way you will need decontamination less," Isla points out, though her voice is slightly far away due to her pace towards the examination room. Listening intently as he begins to explain, it's only once the door is shut and they are away from very authoritative scientist eyes that she softens, lowering the clipboard to set it down on a nearby counter.
"Sorry," she says, glancing up at Remi with a tired smile, "but knickers got into such a twist because you were late. On the plus side, it's how I managed to swing the rota to be your debrief." Gathering up her equipment and loading it - and the clipboard - onto a small, wheeled table, she rolls it up beside where Remi is sitting.
"That is the fourth water hag in two weeks," she murmurs. "Does she have anything to do with your missing shoes and clothes, or were they merely a casualty of the situation?"
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
"Mmm, but all work and no play makes Remi a dull boy." The wendigo replies, doing his best Jack Torrence impersonation. His accent is wrong for it, but conveniently he has the menacing monster part down.
Shrugging his shoulders and looking at his knees instead of at Isla, Remi can only press his tongue against the top of his mouth to stop the flood of things he might otherwise have said. "Both?" He replies, holding his arm out that she might begin. "I could have either come back with my clothes or with Ronin in one piece...and being the clever monster that I am, I chose Ronin." As he said this, Remi peers through his tangled curls at Isla to gauge her reaction. He was fairly certain that somewhere down the line Isla and Ronin had been a thing. Not that it mattered much.
Not that he was wondering about it, and certainly not ever at night, alone in his cell when he knew he was being monitored.
Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your blood, go and take it
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"You are many things, Remi, but never a dull boy," Isla says with a wry smile, rolling up the sleeve of his boiler suit as he holds out his arm. He might like to hide behind a curtain of curls, but Isla has preliminary checks to do, and whilst her inspections - blood pressure, pulse, the reactions of his pupils as well as a blood sample - are as gentle as possible (and positively affectionate compared to Suuuuuuusan - she still doesn't take no for an answer.
"Well that is certainly good to hear," she murmurs, though she does give him a stern raise of her eyebrows at his use of language. "You know how I feel about that term," she says, rolling his sleeve back down when she's done (and there's a boring beige bandaid in the crook of his arm, but Isla has coloured a tiny smiley face on it with a marker).
"You are not a monster," she continues, writing down a few more notes before opening a few containers and putting together his evening cocktail of medication. "Monsters do not have a sense of humour, for a start."
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
'And you know how I feel about being a lab experiment.' Remi counters smoothly, intentionally not noticing the smiley face on the bandaid. Later, alone in the dark, he'll run his fingertip over it, thankful for the flood of melancholy and shame it brings.
"I suppose you are the expert." Watching the brightly coloured capsules that Isla puts into a small white cup for him, Remi inhales stiffly as he looks towards the ceiling. 'If I ever lose my sense of humour I will be sure to let you know.' So saying, Remi's pale eyes drop back to the woman in the white coat. "I hear someone new is going to take me out." He murmurs, inspecting the palm of one hand. "We both know that is not smart, but what I can't figure out is if it is meant to punish me, or Ronin." Flicking his eyes up to meet hers, Remi tilts his head slightly to the side as his eyes narrow.
"Or maybe..you?"
Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your blood, go and take it
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I do know how you feel about it. Which is why I am doing my best not to treat you as a lab experiment," Isla points out, gesturing to the restraints attached to the table precisely for Remi's use that she's barely glanced towards. "You," she continues, "are an extraordinary case, Remi. And whilst everyone else here might see you as an excuse to bring down monsters, I think you are more than that."
The evidence of this opinion is stored in a carefully locked drawer in her office, where a subset of her project and research suggests that it might be possible to cure humans who have been warped and changed by monstrous creatures. Vampires, were-creatures, and yes, even wendigos. Maybe. But she isn't bringing that up unless it proves more than a pipe dream.
Holding out a cup of water for him to take his pills - they're mostly vitamins and stabilisers to monitor how his human body deals with the dietary requirements of a wendigo - Isla's jaw tightens ever so slightly as she realises he's already found out about the plans for him. "I had hoped to break the news to you separately, sorry," she murmurs, letting out a long sigh.
"I have no doubt it is to punish all of us in some way, but mostly me, yes. They believe you are getting too comfortable out there."
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
'She says, having just hosed me down, stuck me in a suit to keep me caged, and taken all my vitals.' It comes out far snappier than Remi intends, which has him exhaling in a sharp burst. "I know you are trying your best, but I am what I am. You can call me an extraordinary case all you like, but at the end of the day I am still locked away in a cage to be watched and prodded and poked anytime someone snaps their fingers." All work and no play might not make Remi a dull boy, but it certainly makes him a realist about his situation.
Downing the pills in one swallow, Remi chases the chemical cocktail with a small sip of water, careful not to let his fingers touch Isla's as he takes the cup. 'Too comfortable.' He scoffs, shaking his head. "So what is the plan then? I go out with someone else, then get hauled into solitary for my inevitably bad behaviour?"
Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your blood, go and take it
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"That was not for you," Isla objects, taking his snappiness in stride and clearly separating the monster from the man (even if Remi doesn't believe it). "Or the parts that were are for your health, not for experimentation." Still, neither of them are of the illusion that she is entirely in control of Remi's wellbeing these days, not since he started doing so well (?) out with Ronin.
Stepping back to write a few more notes on the clipboard and to start preparing the last of Remi's chemical cocktails - which will take the form of an injection, hurray - she wrinkles her nose as she works. The less scientific part of her wants to squash her hands against Remi's cheeks and give him a little shake, and she squashes it down instantly.
"I was rather hoping you would be on your best behaviour so that they will lose interest in you, and you can return to your regularly scheduled adventures."
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
There seems to be some retort on Remi's lips that he swallows down instead, opting to crinkle his nose as he again glares up at the flickering fluorescents overhead. Pale as his eyes are he's fairly sensitive to light and it only takes a few seconds before he's seeing stars everywhere he looks, for which he's thankful. Better pulses of white than the look of...whatever it was, on Isla's face.
"And if I said you should be on your best behaviour with Shmeimerdonker so that loses interest in you, how would you feel about that?" He wants to know, still not looking at her. Remi was quite sure everyone in this place masturbated to Isla on the regular, downplaying her brilliance in lieu of focusing on her body. He also knew she had to turn the other cheek to it most of the time to get where she was, but if she had to do it all of the time?
Running his knuckles between his eyes, Remi forces his shoulders away from his ears. "I am sure it is not so hard for someone like you to imagine what it is like to have some pompous idiot yanking your leash around like they own you." Sure, Remi's leash was a literal one, but he was still fairly confident Isla would know the feeling.
Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your blood, go and take it
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Remi knows exactly how she feels about that, and the subtle pursing of her lips says as much. In a long, slow breath she releases the tension from her own shoulders, turning to face her patient on the exam table. "Touche," she says, holding up the syringe for him to see. "Do you need this tonight?" she asks; it's a sedative combined with a muscle relaxant, intended to keep the mOnSTeR docile and compliant until the morning. But when Isla is on debrief, it's a choice (because sometimes you need to zone out).
"I can't stop them from doing this, but I can try to veto who takes you out first," she murmurs. "I'll try to work with Ronin on it, get a Hunter with their head screwed on straight, at least." Hopefully one or two trials will be enough to show that Remi is a capable partner. Or maybe it will cause them to have him shared around the Hunters more often. In which case, maybe it wouldn't be so bad for him to kick up a fuss.
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
Looking at the syringe, Remi considers the question for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, might as well." He didn't much feel like dealing with his own shit tonight. Snorting under his breath, Remi pulls up his sleeve. "You make it sound like you are setting me up on a blind date." He chuckles, though there's no humour in it. Remi knew that there was only so much the Hunters would put up with before they decided this experiment was over. The line between fascinating monster and burden was tenuous at best, and on Remi's worst days he didn't much care which side he ended up on.
"Better double the dose. I need my beauty sleep if I am getting set up with someone new tomorrow."
Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your blood, go and take it
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"A blind date - now wouldn't that be something?" Isla smiles despite herself, turning to attend to the sedative now that a double dose has been requested. "And here most people would be thrilled at the idea of a regular date. How lucky for you," she murmurs, drawing a new syringe and turning back to Remi. She doesn't actually know if he requires anything to numb the area, but it feels kind to do it anyway, so it's with a sweep of an antiseptic wipe across his arm that she proceeds.
"Thank you for cooperating," she adds once she's delivered the injection, stepping away for the last time and setting the tray aside to clean up later. "I know you don't believe you have a choice, but we're both aware that you can make things difficult if you want to. Shall we?" She gestures towards the door.
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
'Well,' Remi all but purrs, waiting for the chemicals to sing through his bloodstream. "-we both know I am not most people." No, he was a monster whose last orgasm had quite literally been forced out of him by some robotic wanking-machine.
The sedative doesn't do much, but lord it does enough. Hoping off of the table, Remi rolls his head from left to right over his shoulders before following Isla. It crosses his mind as it so often does, just how easily he could kill her right now. Shedding his boiler suit would take only a handful of seconds, and then he could be on her in a flash. She'd be nothing but a bundle of bloody clothes before the alarm could sound more than a few chimes.
He wonders if she thinks about that too.
His cell room is small. Painted Pepto Bismol pink (remember that study someone did once, of inmates in a prison who behaved better with pink walls? Yeah, well some asshole thought it'd be cute to try it out on a Wendigo), on first glance it looked like just a room, with a bed, a desk, and dresser. Of course on closer inspection one would see that everything was bolted down, the furniture was nothing more than fiberboard so that it couldn't be used as a weapon, and there were no sharp edges. Oh, and there were about half a dozen cameras.
Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your blood, go and take it
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"You certainly are not," Isla murmurs as she exits the room - and he's quite correct, she does think on it. Often. And she still chooses to turn her back to him; whether that says more about him or her remains to be seen. (Perhaps that's why she does it).
The walk down to his cell room is a short one, Isla unlocking and opening the door for him. "Would you like a bedtime story?" she asks with a small hint of amusement in her voice.
The story of course, consists of some sleep study that one of her interns is performing. Remi will have a choice of whalesong with alpha waves (or beta, Isla can't remember), whispered fairytales or desert winds.
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
Entering the room, Remi strips off his boiler suit and tosses it near his desk, caring little whether or not it ended up on the floor. Early on he'd been admittedly a bit shy and flustered about being naked in front of someone like Isla, but being hosed off daily was a quick cure for body insecurity. Pulling back the crisp white sheet on his bed and flopping down, Remi tugs the covers up to his chest. This was where, in a movie, he'd say something about the bed being big enough for the two of them, Isla would abandon her scientific principles for a romp in the sack, and the pretty doctor's love would prove to be the cure for Remi's monstrosity.
What actually happens is that Remi shrugs as he fluffs the pillow behind his head. "Does not matter to me, just make it loud enough that I cannot hear Schmimerdonkle breathing into the mic all throughout the night."
Kicking up his feet to untuck the bedding, Remi closes his eyes and waits for whatever sounds Isla has chosen for the night to drown out his own thoughts.
Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your blood, go and take it
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
