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!
Ronin had to bite his lip hard not to burst out laughing at the sight of Remi bowing so seriously before him, and instead he offered a curt but polite bow at the waist in return. "And don't you forget it," he said, jostling the other man by bumping his shoulder against Remi's, before picking up the pace again.
When Remi put it like that it did sound a little ridiculous, but the grin that was creeping across Ronin's face suggested otherwise. "I ran full tilt into a monster that had plagued this land for 300 years, exploded and died, and was placed into the sky as a star by a goddess," he pointed out. "So... yes. Pretty much, yes."
"I suppose I never greeted you properly the first time we met, so there you are." Remi replied with a laugh.
Glancing at Ronin Remi could only snort and shake his head. "To be fair, only one of those things had to do with you. Safrin did the placing, and really without Ashe you would have never come back. " It would probably always be weird to think of Ronin as having died and been brought back. Remi's mind instinctively kept thinking of it as just...a gap. That Ronin was away, but not dead. "And who could have predicted that it would explode, anyways." He concluded with a grin, shrugging his shoulders and peering up into the sky as Sugar effortlessly glided above.
"So..." Remi began, hands in his pockets and a shadow of uncertainty suddenly on his face. "Ianto asked me to move in with him." He all but blurted, trying to wander his way back to the sort of honesty that had once come to easily to him.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I feel truly honoured to have finally received a greeting from you, after all this time." Ronin scoffed; not that he could blame Remi in the slightest for not doing as much at the time. What with him having been naked and all. Resting his hands in his pockets, Ronin watched the road whilst the alchemist watched the sky, a soft smile on his face. "That's true though, yes. I don't think I'll ever be able to repay her properly for that," he murmured, though he glanced up as if able to feel himself growing too serious.
Barking out a laugh, Ronin scrunched up his nose as he gazed at Remi. "I fucking didn't, that's for sure," he said of the Spire Demon - it had been a surprise to him, if 'surprise' was the right word. And even if it hadn't been the right word to describe the events before the Spire, hearing Remi talk about moving in with Ianto... well, it definitely felt accurate for that.
Ronin stared carefully across the street as they walked, working hard to hide the way he felt his stomach do a backflip. It shouldn't matter - he knew about Remi and Ianto, and Ronin ought to be standing back on his own two feet by now besides. Only...
Only what, though? He'd returned without giving any credence to what he wanted. He didn't deserve to want anything, as far as he was concerned. He'd abandoned his daughter, his friends, those he considered family. Ronin existed for them, now. What he wanted was buried under those carefully constructed layers of duty, and he wasn't going to dig them up now.
"It would be good for you, to be closer to him," he said eventually, nodding. "Just don't forget Aoife, okay? She'll miss you."
"No. I do not think you ever will." Remi agreed chipperly with a shrug. After all, how could you ever repay someone for bringing you back from the dead?
"Will it?" Remi mused, feeling but not commenting on the weight of the silence that the alchemist heard and felt before Ronin answered. Glancing abruptly over at Ronin, the alchemist nudged him in the ribs, offering his friend a playful scowl. "Oh are you deciding this for me then?" He said with a grin, though it disappeared and a shadow darkened his pale stare for a moment. "Don't forget Aoife? As if I ever could." Remi added, a bit hurt.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Well, I mean... I think it will," Ronin said quietly, shrugging his shoulders at his friend. "I've not seen you so carefree in a long time, especially given everything that happened with Ludo and your memories. So... I think it's important, for you to seize the things that make you happy."
The hunter let out a grumble of protest as he was nudged, though his good humour melted at the first sign that he might have actually hurt Remi's feelings. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry," he said, his expression softening. "It was a clumsy way of me saying that I'd like it if you visited often, I guess." Rubbing at the back of his head, Ronin turned his gaze forward again.
"I know you'd not forget her. And I wouldn't decide anything for you. I just... got caught off guard, is all."
The words seize the things that make you happy brought up strange conflicting images of Remi dragging Ianto down a hall into what turned out to be an empty room, but also of Ronin standing drunkely before him, arms pinning Remi in place against a wall. "No..I mean, yes. I suppose it is still new for me to be able to just have what I want. Or at least, not be locked up for it."
Visiting often. That sent a chill through the alchemist's body.
"I did too, when he asked. I mean, it is all so new...and I do like living with you." More accurately though, what Remi liked was sleeping with Ronin (literally). And waking up to him every morning, even if he stole the covers and his feet smelled. But of course the alchemist couldn't come out and say that, honesty or no. Because they rhythm the pair had fallen into was strange, and if Remi brought attention to it, he was almost sure that the hunter would just wave it away, saying it could stop and that it shouldn't hold Remi back. Or worse, that he'd find the same with Ianto.
Staring straight ahead just as Ronin was, the alchemist bit the inside of his cheek and exhaled slowly.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I'd like to remind you that I was having what I wanted back when we could be locked up for it, but I never ended up in prison. Not for that anyway." Ronin smirked across at Remi, finding a moment of humour in the suddenly serious turn the conversation had taken.
Clearing his throat awkwardly, Ronin rubbed a thumb over the back of his hand, where scars had once silvered his knuckles and a habit had formed. "Mm... I like living with you, too." And that was as far as his mind would allow him to push the matter. Because thinking about what it was that he enjoyed about it was a little too personal, a little too close to selfishness for his liking.
"Remi... I don't want to be the reason that you aren't able to be brave enough to take the next step in something that you're enjoying," he muttered. "The guildhall will still be here. Maybe you can just... I don't know. Stay with Ianto for a few days out of the week? Like a trial?" That sounded silly.
"So says the baron and captain of training." Remi replied with a raised brow, running a hand through his curls as he shook his head. "Of course you did not get thrown in jail. I bet Bellamy would have just looked the other way if he had ever found out."
Wrinkling his nose, for it indeed sounded silly, the alchemist shrugged. "You are making me sound like I am a child being split between two parents." Which of course made him think of Aoife and a pang of guilt flooded through his system. Not that Ronin wasn't a capable parent, but there was a reason that children were usually reared by two or more. Because it was hard. Though Remi knew that if he mentioned that, Ronin would just wave him off.
"Am I even allowed to say no? Or is that like...a step backwards? You are my relationship expert, I will remind you." Remi chuckled, shooting Ronin a sunny smile.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I take your point, but Ianto doesn't seem the type to give much credence to rules either. I doubt he would have cared about being locked up," Ronin quipped in return, his footsteps slowing as they entered the settlement, both to enjoy the sun and so that their conversation could continue without running the risk of being interrupted by an excitable Aoife or a raucous guild member.
Ronin tsked at Remi's comment, smiling warmly and shaking his head. "Maybe I am. If so, it's just because I care about you, that's all." He shrugged. You care and you want him to stay, said a traitorous little voice in the back of his head that Ronin squashed down.
At hearing that he was Remi's 'relationship expert', Ronin snorted and arched an eyebrow as if that had never occurred to him. "...Of course you're allowed to say no," he said. "Do what makes you happy - that is all there is to it, really. If you're happier right now being able to be with Ianto without living with him, keep the arrangement as is. But if you'd be happier under the same roof, go and do it."
"I suppose that explains why he was my first then." Remi said, the apples of his cheeks darkening with colour and dimples. First what? Everything, whether he remembered it or not.
"I know." Remi said softly, nudging Ronin again but with less force and speed. More like a controlled colliding, rather than an abrupt nudge. "Perhaps you could teach me that two-places-at-once thing that you have seemed to have picked up." The alchemist said with a sly grin. "It seems like it would be quite handy in situations like this." Only it wouldn't, not really, since presumably one of the Ronin's was more real than the other, in which case Remi would still need to decide where he'd be.
"But if you are serious about toning down the recklessness, perhaps I should stay. Who will deal with monsters and overgrown rodents digging up the yard? Burns from cooking meat can be quick severe you know, it would be reckless really for you to be in the kitchen any more than you need to. And there's the fact that Isla can heal, so she seems good to keep around..." All good points, all true, just not the truth. Or not all the way, anyways.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I suppose it does, yes." Ronin smiled across at Remi, pleasantly surprised to hear just how big an impact Ianto had been on his friend's life, but feeling gratitude rather than jealousy towards the fox. Remi could tie himself up in knots all by himself if left to his own devices - he'd learned that first hand. And since meeting with Ianto again, he'd not seen the alchemist so much like his old self.
But that didn't mean he couldn't feel jealousy about the future. (Not that he did. Obviously. Nope. Nothing to see, here.) "Would that I could teach you," he said, laughing. "I've a hard enough teaching myself this astral projection thing I've got going on, let alone trying to help someone else learn!" And besides, as Remi was already surmising - he'd still have to choose, really.
Slowing further to sit on a nearby wall, Ronin arched an eyebrow up at his friend and folded his arms across his chest. "Don't stay because of those things," he said, choosing to cut through the flowery details in lieu of the hard truth. "Stay because you want to, because it would make you happy. And leave for the same reason. I just want you to be able to smile and not look back, whatever your choice."
"Asstral projection." Remi repeated, elongating a certain sound with a roguish and inappropriate laugh. "You have become so fancy Ronin, have you realized?" The alchemist asked with a bemused grin.
Tilting his head slightly as Ronin halted their journey home, the alchemist moved to sit next to him, the distance between them comfortably close as it always seemed to be these days. "Ahh, so wise all of a sudden as well." Remi murmured, knowing that Ronin was absolutely right to cut through what was an obvious and transparent attempt of his to get around the issue. The fact that Remi was seemingly unwilling to do the same was fairly telling.
Squinting up into the sun, Remi let himself introspect for a moment to see what was really there. Only, all he found were blue eyes—Ronin's, he knew—and the comfortable way they flopped into bed, their mourning routines, the silent way they'd learned to communicate with each other so that they didn't wake Aoife.
There was also the fact that Remi had asked Ronin to accompany him to the shrine, and not Ianto.
"I think I will stay." Remi said softly, looking hard into the sun.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Hey, I'll have you know I was a baron," Ronin said, tightening his accent and lifting his chin defiantly, though the twinkle in his eyes and the smile that threatened on his lips told the truth of the matter. "Though I daresay that has little to do with asses." He grinned, unable to hold it in for long. He thought little of Remi sinking down to sit beside him - that in itself was evidence of how much he had gotten used to the alchemist's presence.
While Remi stared up into the sun, Ronin's eyes remained level, watching those wandering through the streets or sitting in the shade to hide from the heat. And when his friend finally spoke, it was with a decision that surprised no one more than the hunter. Ronin raised an eyebrow, though selfishly he did find his shoulders relaxing a touch.
"Okay," he said gently, nodding and rising to his feet again to smile down at Remi. "Then let's go home, yeah?"
"Are you sure? From what I recall of that last masquerade, it would seem the upper classes had a lot to do with asses." Remi countered with a sly grin.
"And here I just got comfortable." The alchemist protested playfully, though he did rise, blinking away the sun-glare that now dotted his vision. Moving in with Ianto would have been a step in their relationship (or whatever it was). But somehow deciding to stay with Ronin also seemed like a step, though not one that included the fox. Remi felt at once guilty but also like a weight had been lifted, and his moral compass was unsure which emotion was the more appropriate one.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
