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!
welcome to the playground, follow me tell me your nightmares and fantasies
It's desert winds, as it happens. But that doesn't really matter. Neither does the rest of the night, or most of the next day, in fact.
No, what matters is the alarms screeching their siren song throughout the complex, signalling that something has gone very, very wrong indeed. And Ronin is already headed down to see what's up, fully armed and ready and expecting a breach of the tunnels.
What he gets instead is far more worrying. Radio static tells repeated warnings of a fatality at the docks, of Project W on the loose, of units having been sent to retrieve him. And that's all Ronin even hears, honestly, before he's trying to head out of the complex.
Quite why he hasn't been called as part of one of these units is beyond him to begin with, and he can already taste blood from biting the side of his cheek as he heads for the guardposts. So much for a little outing later on this evening.
sink into the wasteland underneath stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
The human part of his mind is already rehearsing the sorts of things he might say when he's captured. How it wasn't his fault, and how Jefferson wouldn't fucking listen. But now that Jefferson would never listen to much of anything ever again, Remi supposed his excuses would fall on similarly deaf ears.
With the idiot boy slung over his back and blood coating Remi's arms, the going wasn't as difficult as Remi's frail frame suggested it should be. Through the tunnels and over various C Cans Remi carried Jefferson who seemed to be getting lighter and lighter thanks to all the blood loss.
Despite the silver chain still shackling him to the Hunter, as soon as he came into view, the control teams sent after him immediately fired canisters of tear gas to blind him, before advancing on him with kerosine and matches. The fire was unnecessary, but as soon as they laid eyes on the dead hunter it was all over. Torches were lit, and though a few of the Hunters opted for kicking Remi in the ribs (he hardly felt it), it was the presence of all that fucking fire that was his undoing. Shifting without thought, the Wendigo stretched out his disproportionately long arms to lash out at the mob forming around him. Slicing through whatever he could get his claws into just to get that fucking fire away, the smell of fresh blood had his pupils dilating dangerously.
Fuck OFF He screamed into the minds of those around him, though his demand was met only with sneers of this is for JEFFERSON.
As if any of them cared at all about the kid.
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.
welcome to the playground, follow me tell me your nightmares and fantasies
"Hey! HEY!" Ronin's voice echoes off the cavernous walls as he shoves his way through the growing crowd of Hunters. There's no need to ask questions about how he got up here so quickly or how he knew exactly where to go - it's just chaos and coincidence, nothing more.
Regardless, it's a difficult procession through the knot of torch-wielding thugs, and by the time he's close enough to see the hunched and hulking shape of the wendigo filling the tunnel, he's received a singed sleeve and a shiny burn on his neck for his trouble. "Gods damned fucking fools," he grates as he shoulders one of the main offenders out of the way, finally finding himself in the no man's land between monster and Hunters.
And it's there he turns, hands held up towards the burning torches. "Shift back before they fucking lynch you," he hisses, trying to prevent further thrusting of fire into the wendigo's face.
sink into the wasteland underneath stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
Blinded by both rage and blood, where bullets and blades have almost no effect on him, the fire certainly does. Already the wendigo's pelt is blackened and twisted where the torches have been thrust against him, and the open wounds on his body weep blackened blood. Death calls sweetly to Remi then; if he charges forward they'll absolutely kill him, but not before he takes out a significant number of them first. He has nothing to live for here and everything to die for, but--
--shift back.
No, he wants to hiss, but he has no tongue with which to do so, and gods had it been anyone other than Ronin he couldn't have done what he did next. And yet, despite the odds, the wendigo turns away from the group where he slides his claws down the broken concrete until the smell of his own flesh being grated away is bright in the air. Remi doesn't know quite how long it takes, but eventually, he's a man again. A man with his forehead pressed against the wall and his hands openly bleeding, just waiting to be restrained and hauled away.
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.
welcome to the playground, follow me tell me your nightmares and fantasies
It takes almost a full minute - Ronin knows, because he's fucking counting. And even as some of the Hunters snarl their curses and their vengeance for the boy laying still and broken and tethered to the wendigo nearby (a few of them swipe their torches at him, for which he will ensure they are very sorry), Ronin holds his position until the shadow at his back shrinks to a more human shape.
"Now someone go and get the assholes responsible for this mess," he grates into the air, making it very clear that he does not mean Remi in this situation. And if his expression and his willingness to fight it out with anyone who tries to get closer doesn't seal the deal, the gun that appears in Ronin's hand might do the trick.
A few of the Hunters at the back of the crowd peel off, running back towards the complex. In the meantime Ronin backs up towards Jefferson's corpse, swiftly untethering the silver chain from the boy so he can keep hold of it himself. "Take the kid, but we're staying here," he mutters, nodding at the body at his feet.
sink into the wasteland underneath stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
'Ain't yer call, Taliesin.' Barks someone from behind Ronin who thinks he's safe behind the singular flag on his uniform that puts him a rank ahead of Ronin. 'Orders are that this 'un needs to go straight t'solitary.' He pauses and then adds, "By us." Just in case it wasn't clear.
Pressing his forehead into the wall hard enough to make it bleed, Remi feels the last tenuous strings of his willpower slowly snapping as his mind traitorously pictures for him just what the next few hours--days, months--are going to be like.
"It was not my fault." He whispers under his breath, more to himself than anyone else, as if he might persuade his mind from continuing on as it was.
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.
welcome to the playground, follow me tell me your nightmares and fantasies
Despite the obvious confrontation, a couple of individuals do come forward, at least, to gather up Jefferson's body, carrying it away where it can be properly examined in a post-mortem, poked and prodded and dissected cared for. And that's all the permission Ronin needs to stop being polite, the silver chain loose in his hands as he steps back a few more feet until he's closer to Remi than he is the remaining idio-- er, Hunters.
"I know," he says, barely hearing the words Remi says but (perhaps foolishly) assuming they were for him.
"This'un isn't going anywhere until those torches are out and there's a white-coat here to escort us," he snaps. "Or shall we fight about it?" Gods, he almost hopes they want to fight about it. He knew this was a fucking terrible idea. "Just keep your fucking heads for a second - why the fuck would he come down here if he'd killed the kid? Just thought he'd take the body for a stroll into the place that would... do this?"
sink into the wasteland underneath stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
Remi's eyelashes flutter slightly, though beneath his eyes have all but rolled back into his head. He feels sick with power and hunger and gods the more he thinks about it, the more he's sure he could kill them all. The warmth of their imaginable blood is almost tangible on his fingers, but...no, that's just his own, already growing sticky as it clots.
"More of us than you." The soldier replies, squaring up slightly and raising his jaw. "Ain't no white coat comin' cause they expect us to do our jobs. Now, are'ya gonna let us do it?"
The words rattle around in Remi's brain; his shoulders twitch as his upper lip flinches. He tries to think of something else, anything else, but all he can come up with are decontamination showers and crisp white sheets that were badly in need of fucking fabric softener. Running a hand across his forehead in faster and faster swipes, Remi begins to shake his head no in response to the voices in his mind.
Yes, they whisper back. Kill them all.
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.
welcome to the playground, follow me tell me your nightmares and fantasies
Well this is all going to fucking hell in a handbasket, isn't it? Ronin swallows hard, and it's nothing to do with the gathered Hunters and everything to do with the wendigo who is offering zero sass just behind him. He hasn't ever known Remi to be a quiet detainee, and the fact that this is happening now is, he's sure, the definition of Very Bad Vibes.
"No," he says softly, sounding somehow more steadfast in the decision for keeping his temper. "I'm not. Your jobs are about to get you killed, and I'm not having that blood on my hands. You have no idea what you're doing out here."
As if to prove it, Ronin raises his gun and fires it directly at the roof of the current tunnel. On impact, the bullet explodes and hisses into a billowing, thick mist that instantly clogs the area, making it impossible to see. Luckily, Ronin has a chain leading directly to a wendigo. "Back about thirty feet, then hang a sharp right," he hisses, already trying to tug Remi along. "We can get around them."
sink into the wasteland underneath stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
Whatever argument is about to come is lost in the rain of debris that Ronin's gunshot ushers down.
Remi, too lost in the haze of his own thoughts, has hardly noticed much of what's happening. It's only the tug of the chain that has him snarling back into focus. Not needing his eyes to navigate, Remi is quickly a shadow at Ronin's side as he so often is. 'I did not do it.' He says in a low voice. And were one to listen closely, they might have described Remi's tone as pleading. "There was a siren up there. That must be why the hags had been leaving the water. She--" Ahead there are voices shouting. Something about Project W having disarmed one of the soldiers and fired a gun at the Hunters.
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.
welcome to the playground, follow me tell me your nightmares and fantasies
"I believe you," Ronin says, breathless from the clogging air and the sprint, but sincere nonetheless. "I knew there was something going on up there. They should never have--" But he hears the voices too, cursing under his breath and changing route from right to left, which admittedly will only lead them deeper into the tunnels. But it's better than whatever panic is happening around here.
It's only once Ronin has (purposely) taken them round enough bends and forks that they are admittedly lost that he slows down, ear cocked for the sound of the guards. It might only be a moment, but it's a moment they can breathe. "They're either going to catch you or they're going to kill you," he says, kneeling down to look through his pockets and his drop-leg for... gods, he doesn't even know, really.
"If you'd prefer to die now, I can just make it quick." And why does it sound like he's trying to do Remi a gods damned favour here? Ronin clenches his teeth.
sink into the wasteland underneath stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
Remi isn't even breathing hard despite the debris and general gunk that always seems to hang heavy in the air. He gazes into the darkness, though whether or not he can actually see anything is unclear. Smirking a few seconds too long after Ronin's offer, Remi unfixes his gaze and looks at the Hunter. "You would be dead before you could make more than a spark." He replies a touch apologetically. Many of his instincts were within his control, but Remi was no Buddhist monk who could just sit idly by as his body burned.
"You should leave me here. They'll buy the story that I overpowered you. If I make it back to the complex..." He shrugs. "Besides, you only slow me down." Though it was true, somehow Remi said it almost as a compliment, or perhaps as some sort of branch. Not an olive branch, but...a thank you, maybe. "No sense in us both going down because Jefferson wanted to play fucking hero up there."
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.
welcome to the playground, follow me tell me your nightmares and fantasies
Ronin is smiling too, because fuck sake if Remi isn't right. "Give me some credit - I feel like I could at least set a bit of you on fire first," he snarks back, before straightening up and raking his hands through his dark hair. "While you make a great point, I'm not willing to let this one go," he says, equally as apologetic. "And I'll be fucked if I--"
Whatever Ronin is going to say is interrupted by a sharp fwip of air passing by his cheek, which culminates in (and he wishes he were imagining it) a tranquiliser dart that could likely take down an African elephant, aimed at whatever available flesh Remi can kindly provide.
Gazing sharply over his shoulder, the Hunter just has time to recognise a white coat, slate grey hair and a facemask before Suuuuuuusan strikes him with the butt of the tranquiliser gun, and he goes down like a sack of shit.
sink into the wasteland underneath stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream
Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun
Remi is still smiling crookedly at Ronin as his knees buckle. The last thing he remembers seeing is the dizzying switch from the blue of the Hunter's eyes, to Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuusan's facemask, and then it all goes black.
///
Even as a monster, Remi's internal clock is just as shitty as anyone else's might be such that when he manages to peel his eyes back open, he has absolutely no idea how much time has passed. Above him are the sterile white panels of the medical wing, though something about this room smells...different. It smells like death, though not the good and bloody sort of death that Remi is drawn to, but stale death.
Around his biceps and forearms are several silver restraints with runes carved into them. Similar ones appear on his legs and stomach rendering him utterly unable to move. Even his fingers have been bound together. Straining his eyes to the side Remi can make out a few brightly coloured IV bags which, if movies have taught him anything, are used for lethal injections.
How nice.
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.
