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!
Outside lightning flashed bright enough that from behind closed lids Remi’s pupils dilated. And as the thunder raucously followed, the alchemist was suddenly pulled from sleep; disoriented, bare-chested, and awash in pale blue light. Glancing to his right he could see window left open, a soft white curtain billowing against the force of the gale outside. He could smell the ocean and was immediately comforted. To his left he saw the remainder of a bed in a relatively small room, and oh—
—his heart skipped a beat. On top of his left arm there was a mop of red hair partially obscuring a familiar freckled face still asleep. In a silent gasp, Remi glanced quickly around the room, spying the familiar dresser, the closet, the steepled roof and the old and warped floorboards. It was ‘cozy’ if you were being generous, or ‘cramped’ if you weren’t.
And it was theirs. The familiarity of it all sank heavily on Remi’s shoulders which in turn slouched as he sighed with relief. He wasn’t quite sure what he thought … but something had seemed so…off.
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finally
What if you were the one for me? I hope you weren't the one for me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Sam (was this Sam? Who know the exact workings of metaphysics in this place, but he was Sam enough to have an internal dialogue) took his time to wake up, happy and content to sleep on. When he did wake he wrinkled up his nose, scrunched his eyes at the light through the window, then made a soft hum as he pressed his cheek to Remi's chest. Storms had always unnerved him a little, but when he was like this it was hard to feel too upset just yet.
"Good morning." He sighed with a smile on his face as he trailed his hand down from Remi's chest to the side of his hip, let his fingertips trace just over the skin there. "Did you sleep well, dear? It's quite the storm out there, isn't it?" Sam turned up to look at Remi, blue eyes with hints of grey clear like crystals in the morning light.
He'd always thought he'd be too shy to be like this, naked and languid with a man he loved, but here he was. In their home, in their bed...even the rumbling of the clouds outside seemed almost soft and relaxing in the context of this moment.
As Sam stirred, Remi winced adoringly, turning to look down on his sleepy counterpart. "I am sorry love, I did not mean to wake you—" He whispered, the apology playful on his lips. Looking back out the window for a moment and regarding the oncoming storm, Remi shivered as Sam's wandering fingers brushed against his skin. Turning back with a warm smile, the alchemist sank back down into the bed with a weary sigh.
"I had the strangest dream just now. You had written me this letter saying you were going to go to the Voice and ask to forget me. But by the time I saw you next, you had already done it.." Voice trailing off, Remi furrowed his brows as he looked at the ceiling (magically adorned with faintly pulsing stars) and ran a hand across his eyes with a sigh.
Pulling his left arm inwards to tug Sam closer, Remi shook his head slightly, kissing the top of the coppery mop against his chest.
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finally
What if you were the one for me? I hope you weren't the one for me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
03-27-2019, 05:16 PM (This post was last modified: 03-27-2019, 05:30 PM by Samuel.)
SAMUEL
I am drowning
There is no sight of land
Remi's dream sounded rather awful, he thought, and not particularly complimentary of his character. Sam frowned, studied the wall for a moment; listened to the waves outside. "Why would I do something like that? You're the best thing in my life. To forget you would be...it would be bizarre. Was there a reason for it?"
He lifted his head, shifted so he was laying with his hands on Remi's chest and their faces close together. "I'm not sure she even could do it. It would be a lot of memories. A lot of love." Sam leaned forward and pressed the softest kiss against Remi's lips, trying to soothe away the concern he had heard in his voice.
Rubbing at the bridge of his nose, Remi tried to remember. The dream was already beginning to slip away from him, as dreams are want to do, but there were still pieces of it shining in his mind. "It was after Ronin died." Remi said, voice even. It was long enough after the captain's death that the wound had healed—in no small part thanks to Sam's presence in his life—and now he could speak about his friend without so much sadness. "Do you remember that first day? When I told you to leave? In the dream you did leave, instead of staying. And ... you left me this note saying you thought it would be for the best."
Scrunching his nose, Remi nodded with an adoring smile. He let his fingers gently caress wordless patterns against Sam's back as he leaned up to press his lips against Remi's, sighing greatfully into the soft and familiar affection.
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finally
What if you were the one for me? I hope you weren't the one for me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Oh." The days after Ronin had died, the days of the Spire trouble and tension in the town...it had not been a happy time. Recalling the memory weighed down his heart just a little, a heaviness in his chest. "Yes, I remember. You were very upset, as is understandable.." It hurt to think of now, the pain he'd seen in Remi's eyes that day. Pain that now he was thankful to only see the remainder of some days, a ghost of much worse things gone by.
As he pulled away from the kiss he let his hands linger on Remi's jaw. "..I...do remember considering something similar, at the time. You must understand I had very low confidence then, and I did not really understand...well, this." He gestured between them. "I remember thinking that I was bothering you, with my affections, that I was making it all worse. With a...general inability to look to the future, I assumed you had seen the last of me you wanted to. I did consider never talking to you again. I'm glad I did not, of course. But I suppose if I was truly distraught...I could see why I would do such a thing. It would be a great mistake, though, of course."
"I had never really lost anyone that I was close to like that before.." Remi said, feeling the need to apologize even now for how harsh he'd been that afternoon. It had been so out of character, and though it might have been understandable given what had happened, still Remi hated that it had happened.
Lashes fluttering slightly at this slight reveal, Remi's lips made a silent O of concern. "You did?" He implored, leaning his head gently into Sam's fingers on his jaw. His smile turned boyish and crooked then, as he tilted his head to kiss Sam's fingertips gently, his other hand pressing against the bookmaker's back. "I know losing my memories of you was not easy for you either. It was all such strange timing.." Remi added, smiling affectionately. "I am glad you saw enough of us in me then." Taking a deep breath, he tightened his hold on Sam, playfully exhaling into the man's hair as he held him close, humming a note of satisfaction against him.
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finally
What if you were the one for me? I hope you weren't the one for me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I understand." Sam assured him with a smile. The first year in general had been difficult for everyone, especially the new Outlanders. Coming to an entirely new world, losing your friends, losing your memories, nearly dying...it had to have taken a toll on Remi. That it had all exploded in one moment was so human he would have been concerned had it not happened.
He gave out a little surprised, happy shout as he was pressed against Remi's chest, kissing at the skin under his lips. It was so easy, this. So comfortable. But before he could totally give into the desire just under his mind to touch and laugh the morning away, he had to ask more.
Placing his hands either side of Remi on the bed for more leverage he lifted himself over his partner, asked a series of rambling questions. "In the dream...were you going to see me again? Once I'd erased the memories? Were you going to try for us again? If you knew...all of this would happen, would that change things? What do you think you'd do?" While it was all hypothetical, this was fun to discuss, though he was sure it would be very depressing in real life. Right now, he was comfortable and happy with a very notable amount of skin touching between them, and Remi was here for him, just him, to talk to.
Looking up with faint but doting amusement as Sam positioned himself above Remi, the alchemist just smiled. This was one habit of Sam's that he'd grown to adore; his complete inability to let go of something once his mind had latched onto it. Remi was quite the same with his projects, whereas Sam always seemed much more fixated on ideas. Like Remi's dream, for example. So instead of rolling his eyes, saying that it was just a dream and getting on with their day, Remi let his fingertips dance up Sam's forearms as he listened.
"If I knew it would be like this, how could I not?" Remi said, his fingertips trying to encourage goosebumps to form against the freckles on Sam's arms. "But no, in the dream I did not. It had only been ... ahh, well I do not know exactly. Not long after my memories of you were taken. And so when you had yours removed there was just...nothing anymore. All the memories of what had happened before, all those firsts were lost, but not gone. I think that was the problem. There was a history, but neither of us remembered it anymore. That seemed...important?" Gently Remi shook his head slightly, reaching up to gently move an errant strand of hair from Sam's face. "I was sad and alone, and you—well, dream-you—took the only recent happiness I had known and just made it vanish."
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finally
What if you were the one for me? I hope you weren't the one for me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Remi's touch easily brought up the goosebumps he desired as well as a little shiver from Sam, a quiet sigh escaping his lips. Even all this time later Remi's upgrade was improving his life, making each experience real for him.
"Hm. That's sad." He frowned. Sam had never liked a sad ending, had usually chosen to adapt fairytales where the evil dragon died at the end and the knight got married happily ever after...not ones where the knight's princess forgot him and they fell apart. It wasn't even a good sad ending. Just one that faltered out, faded away...nothing that felt like them.
Perhaps it was only a dream, but he found it troubled him.
"I can promise you it would not have been intentional to make you upset. I have always loved you too much for that. From the first time we were close, really." He let himself slide back down, his hands pushing into Remi's hair. "But the thing about firsts, Remi, is that if neither of us had them anymore...we could make more. Real ones. Ones that weren't just firsts for you and not for me. If...if something is as good as this, it's worth going through those first hurdles a few times, right?"
"Just sad, mm?" Remi asked mischievously, grinning up at Sam. His smirk eased and spread out into a warm smile as he nodded. "I know." The alchemist agreed, sighing happily as Sam's full weight and length of his body slid back down against his own. Hands previously on the bookmaker's arms now closed around his lower back, trailing happy circles there.
Not one to necessarily wax philosophical, Remi shrugged beneath Sam. "I do not know if it works like that. Just because we might have forgotten does not mean that it did not happen. I still think there is something important about that."
Lost briefly in the clearness of Sam's gaze and the way his freckles always seemed to rebel against Remi's mental attempts to map them on his face, the alchemist rolled his eyes with a warmhearted grin, his fingers trailing up and down Sam's spine as he idly ran the length of his foot against Sam's. "There are hurdles, and then there are mountains." He replied with a laugh. "Buit I suppose it does not matter now."
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finally
What if you were the one for me? I hope you weren't the one for me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I suppose it depends if you think it matters to anyone else other than us." Sam said, trying to work it out. He liked to play with ideas in his mind, bend them this way and that and see each side, even when they were ever so slightly painful like this one.
The hand trailing on his spine made him arch his back just slightly, happily hum under his breath; he ran his hands down Remi's sides. "I thought you were the reckless one? When I think of Remi, I do not think can't take on a mountain." He commented with a teasing smirk, fingers tracing the line of his hips.
"I'm sure you could seduce me in a matter of days, if you really put your mind to it. I fell just that quickly before." He promised, lips now brushing Remi's collarbone. There were fading bruises there, evidence of past trysts, and he smiled, kissed them. "Could be fun, almost."
03-27-2019, 07:04 PM (This post was last modified: 03-27-2019, 07:07 PM by Remi.)
"It matters to me>" Remi said affectionately, but stubbornly. Biting the inside of his lip as Sam subtly arched his back, the alchemist gave his partner a classic look of be careful what you start... but the silent threat was mostly innocuous. Though he may have had the larger sexual appetite of the pair, he would still take any sort of physical closeness with Sam.
Snorting, Remi laughed. "Oh I see. So I am allowed to be reckless when it suits you hmm? And well behaved the rest of the time?" He asked with a cheeky grin, still chuckling under his breath.
The contact against his hip made Remi shift slightly beneath Sam, one eyebrow arched as he felt the bookmaker's lips low on his neck. Closing his eyes Remi hummed happily, the vibrations filling his chest as his hands kneaded luxuriously at the muscles of Sam's lower back.
"Oh yes. I am sure seducing you would be just what my heart would want to do, with Ronin gone and Aoife taking up all of my time. Oh, and let us not forget the fall of the barrier, mmm?" He chided gently, a hand rustling up Sam's ribs to twist pleasantly into his hair.
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finally
What if you were the one for me? I hope you weren't the one for me
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Yes. Because usually, you're reckless about rather dangerous things." If you were going to be reckless about anything, Sam thought, love was a good thing to pick. Certainly better than near-death missions or leaping headfirst into poorly planned sieges.
He felt no great rush to urge the touches between them into anything else, not yet anyway; there was always time for that later and it was nice to just be soft and together. Outside, the storm went through stages of crashing thunder then pattering rain, in a moment of relative calm he looked out of the window for a moment, did not wonder where they were because he knew they were home (but if he had thought beyond the dream-state, he would realise it was not at all anywhere familiar).
Sam rolled his eyes fondly at Remi's answer. "You know full well I don't mean flowers and candles. All you'd have to do would be tell me of our past, ask me to come over. You don't have to do anything special to make me fall in love with you, Remi. I think even if I forgot a hundred times, it would be easy to bring me back. And hasn't it been so much better? Aoife, our lives?"
