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!
"Do you not like the theatre?" Ronin raises an eyebrow, as if suddenly judging the angel before him not on the fact that he's a celestial being about to turn him over to Sky Daddy upstairs, but because he has bad taste. Dropping his hand and rolling his shoulders as his personal space is somewhat returned, the demon follows Remi's glance over his shoulder, only to roll his eyes very obviously at the couple.
"How could I possibly enjoy breaking everything when I haven't seen it yet?" he asks, gazing down at the other man with a come on now, be reasonable expression. "Besides, I'm chained to you. I can barely walk five feet without you correcting me like a puppy. I doubt I'll be able to reach the top shelves in your shop." And neither can you, but that's not the point, he adds internally.
'Of course I like the theatre." The angel hissed defensively, his green eyes flickering with irritation. "It's the prospect of attending with a de—" Remi leaned forward, subtly lowering his voice as he glanced at the observing couple. "—with a demon that I find rather unappealing," he concluded, straightening himself with renewed composure.
Not wanting to keep standing in the street if it was going to draw attention, the angel clears his throat and nods over his shoulder for them to continue. "Surely it's in your nature to enjoy breaking things?" Remi says under his breath, rolling his own shoulders back and smoothing down his curls. "Well, you see you've said it yourself. How are you supposed to help if you're constantly underfoot? No, there's simply no way ... around..."
His words trailed off into a stunned silence as the colour slowly drained from his ears, pooling in his flushed cheeks. Before them, the door of his shop stood ajar, a scattering of glass fragments decorating the steps from a nearby broken window.
either way, it ends
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," Ronin informs him, "is a hate crime. And besides, you were perfectly content to share a drink with me just five minutes ago. The theatre would ask less of you in terms of conversation." He's decided he doesn't want to take Remi, even if he miraculously changes his mind about the matter. (Though perhaps he ought to be more careful with his use of adverbs).
"I'm a demon, not some petulant housecat," Ronin hisses right back as he's tugged into action once more; spend long enough around him though, Remi, and you can go all por que no los dos on his ass.
It's ironically appropriate that Ronin is quite underfoot by the time they finally come upon the angel's little shop of curios, though his demeanour stiffens considerably at the sight of the apparent break in. Scowling, his eyes cutting easily through the darkness within and without the building, he steps in front of Remi.
"Your thief is gone," he says. "Either that or he's very well hidden."
"Yes, well," Remi replied with a furrowed brow, his tone dripping with a dry indifference. "That was before you insulted my storm," he added, the words carrying a weight that suggested he cared far more about it than he let on.
The angel appeared utterly drained, as though his very essence had wilted in the face of the shattered glass. He stood there, seemingly paralyzed, his gaze fixed mournfully on the broken shards. It was only when Ronin entered his field of vision that he stirred, snuffling in a breath as his eyes attempted to focus but managed only to raise to the demon's shoulder. "Oh, I don't care about that," he murmured in a heavy voice."But that glass, you see... it's from one of the windows in the Church of Gethsemane."
either way, it ends
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"If I had insulted your storm," Ronin informs his counterpart with slightly raised eyebrows, "you would never dare to make another. I happened to like it quite a bit. I just thought it ended with something of a whimper, is all." A for effort, room for improvement, all that jazz.
But anyway.
Honestly, seeing the righteous angel about to tattle to Gabriel on him so deflated ought to have filled Ronin with glee, but as Remi explains with a voice heavy enough to sink right through the cobblestones, he can only sigh. "Well then," he says. "We'd better pick it all up, hadn't we?"
Shrugging out of his coat to use it as a makeshift basket for the glass, Ronin starts to head towards the window, only for the cord to stop him in his tracks. "Well? Come on."
What would soon become a familiar pattern between the two initially left Remi in a state of profound bewilderment. He struggled to discern whether he was the recipient of an insult, a threat, or perhaps even a veiled compliment. The not knowing left him feeling jittery and somewhat unsettled, a sensation that left his mouth dry and his palms damp. All he could muster in response was a hesitant, "Oh."
"Mmmm?" Blinking himself back into the present, the tug on his wrist had him stumbling forward slightly. "But... Well, we can't possibly gather it all. It would require a mira—" His voice trailed off, and the angel responded with a resigned shrug, shaking his head. 'You know." And of course miracles were not to be trailed out willy-nilly; not for irreplaceable religious artifacts and certainly not for sugar.
Still, Remi couldn't deny that seeing the demon so willing to help wasn't very sweet, and even if they couldn't pick it all up, they could at least save the larger pieces? "Maybe I could make..Oh I don't know, a picture frame out of what's left."
either way, it ends
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," Ronin says with a lopsided smile, moving to the steps now that Remi is actually on board and spreading his coat out on the wet ground. Given that the artifact is probably holy he hesitates before touching it, opting eventually to use a handkerchief from his pocket to start picking the more visible pieces of glass up.
"If the pieces fit right, you could always turn it into a mosaic of the church itself," he says, dark eyes seeming marginally lighter for the delicate work and concentration. "And perhaps hang it indoors, you know... where nobody can break it." Glancing in through the darkened doorway, he wonders what the thief could have possibly wanted to take.
"Now there's an idea." The angel mused thoughtfully. 'Perhaps I might have a poke around and see if any of the church's descendants have found their way into the arts."
Glancing briefly toward Ronin, the angel hums out a resigned sigh and nods. Bending down, he uses the cuffs of his jacket to gather up some of the smaller fragments. "You're right of course, I just...well I hate the idea of having so many beautiful things always hidden away behind doors, you know? Beauty is so often monetized these days."
Following the demon's eye line, the angel seems to shrink inward for a brief moment as he stares apprehensively into the dark. "I almost don't want to go inside." He admits in a soft voice. "I know none of it is really mine, but I have worked so very hard finding it all, and..Perhaps I should just place a bag of money outside, so any future burglars might be content with that instead?"
either way, it ends
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Given the number of priests that must have passed through those church doors, I'd say your chances are quite high," Ronin remarks, being careful not to cut himself as he gathers as much of the glass as he can; and what a sight they must be, two crouched opposites, picking up glass from the wet stones and ignoring the matter of the very obvious robbery.
"Mm, I suppose your other options are to put some of those ghastly wire mesh things around your windows, or to hire some security." He shrugs his shoulders, straightening up when he thinks they've gathered as much of the window as they can. Bundling the shards up into the coat they've been using, he holds it out for Remi, assuming he'll want to pick through them a second time in private.
Raising his eyebrows at the bag of money prospect, Ronin's stare is simultaneously bewildered and concerned, and he hopes for both their sakes that it's a joke. "Do you want me to go in first and check?" he asks. "I can see in the dark, so I can probably give you an idea of the damage without you having to look."
"Are those my only options?" Remi wonders tenatively, before reaching out for the jacket and clutching it close to his chest.
Frowning, the angel looks from the demon to the dark but familiar interior of his shop, and then back again. Of course it would be extremely helpful to have Ronin go in first, not least of all because he'd probably not think twice about levelling a good kick at anyone who might still be inside. "You aren't just trying to escape, are you?" Remi wonders in a small voice. "I wouldn't put it past you of course, being what you are," he adds in an understanding tone. "Only that I probably shouldn't release you if that's the case."
either way, it ends
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Probably not, but they're the options that feel like they have the least amount of work involved," Ronin murmurs, rolling his shoulders and feeling strangely naked without the weight of his coat. "And obviously I'm trying to escape - I don't really want to be sent back to Hell for God only knows how long this time." Frowning over his shoulder at Remi, on any other occasion the angel's flippant remark might have been taken as banter, but it's hard to take a joke when you're bound by angelic cord.
"If you really insist, just give me a bit of room to move," he says, tugging at said cord as if Remi might make his leash a little longer. "And an invitation is still outstanding as well. If nothing else, I suppose you know your thief wasn't demonic."
Frowning to himself but nodding nonetheless, the angel wonders what other sorts of options they might have which require more work. As a member of the heavenly host he certainly wasn't a stranger to hard work and nor would he shy away from it. "Well, you know, in the spirit of charity...if you were to help me with this perhaps I might be persuaded to put off that phone call? The angel suggests in a hesitant voice. "If only to...reinforce your good deed?"
Ah, yes. That. Still clutching Ronin's jacket to his chest, Remi musters the resolve to step over the threshold of his shop. Already feeling as though something was certainly amiss inside, the angel set aside whatever worries he was harbouring and took a deep breath. "Please come in." So saying, the golden cord would vanish from around the demon's ankle, leaving Remi with a desperate sort of smile which was as pitiful as it was golden.
either way, it ends
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The cord vanishes, the invitation parts a veil that Ronin has been aware of but trying not to notice, and he's free to come and go as he likes. In his mind he can already see it; returning Remi's pathetically golden smile with one as crooked as any demon's; disappearing into the shadows to regroup; attacking the angel outright on his own turf. It would be easy for him - nay, expected of him.
Maybe that's why there's a small part of him that feels gleeful not to do those things. Instead, running his tongue across his teeth and giving a curt nod to the angel (not gratitude, acknowledgement, okay?), Ronin steps across the threshold of the shop and further still, drinking in the details afforded to him by his darkvision.
"Huh," he murmurs softly, brows furrowed. "You can turn on the lights." he continues. "Nothing is... well. I don't know if anything has been taken for sure. But someone has certainly gone through the place." It's the most polite and meticulous ransacking Ronin has ever seen; artifacts and documents have been carefully stacked and moved around, the thief evidently taking great care not to damage anything.
Nervously Remi's fingers clutch at the jacket, peering anxiously after Ronin as the demon slips past him. He half expects the shards of glass he's holding to turn into a bouquet of snakes or for the demon to disappear in a plume of smoke. When neither of these things occurs, the angel feels a burst of relief that only intensifies his underlying unease.
'Oh?' Immediately doing as he's instructed, Remi shuffles toward one of the walls and nudges at the light switch with his shoulder. "Let there be light." He hums to himself without much thought; it was simply the sort of thing angels said when turning on a light, the way humans often said bless you after a sneeze.
"Oh dear." Though Remi couldn't immediately see anything gone, he absolutely could see things in the wrong places, which was almost just as bad. Books flipped upside down, papers neatly stacked by out of order, artifacts moved from their original places. "Is...is there anyone else here, do you think?"
either way, it ends
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
