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!
The Spire falling; the flowers and their toxic poison; his astral form flickering, flickering, and Remi and Ashe buried. They'd dug them out, it was true, but that hardly made Ronin feel better. He had been a witness to the ordeal rather than a participant - or at least that was how it seemed, and the guilt and shame mingled bitterly with the seething something he was trying to get a handle on at Remi's insistence that he had stayed.
Was it fear? Anger? Both? It was a difficult thing to contain either way, and were it not for his arm firmly around Remi's waist to hold him as they walked, his hands would have been visibly trembling. Sustaining his astral presence had cost him energy and he'd barely noticed until he had to get up, but that was really the least of their worries.
Mostly silent until they reached the entrance of the guildhall, Ronin finally turned and wrapped his arms around Remi, hugging him tightly. "I thought I was going to lose you," he said, his voice rough. "That I'd have to watch you be buried." And Ashetta, too.
08-19-2019, 07:21 PM (This post was last modified: 08-19-2019, 07:24 PM by Remi.)
Remi's body wasn't terribly tired, though his mind was. Though he'd never voiced it, the alchemist had the absurd hope that once the plants had been entirely cleared away and their poison gone, Ronin would simply...be better. He hadn't of course and while Remi knew it wasn't likely, he hadn't anticipated just how much of a defeat their victory would prove to be.
Killing the plants had done absolutely nothing. Ronin was still dying. Only now, Remi hadn't any idea what to try next.
Unsure who Remi was trying to stay strong for, himself or Ronin, the sudden hug made the alchemist tremble against his husband as he pressed his forehead down against Ronin's shoulder. Arms pulling the man tightly against him, weary or no, Remi sighed a ragged breath against him and shook his head. "Of all the ways I might die, I think been buried is least likely." He said in a dry voice. Earth magic had long since been his strongest power after all, but he took Ronin's point. "I just...I would not be able to rest if the entire place had been buried and there was even a chance of one of those plants being left alive. Even though..." Pulling back, Remi swept away a dark clump of hair to stare deeply into Ronin's eyes. Too dark. Too many lines on his face. An angry sort of weariness. It was all still there. "..you do not feel any differently, do you."
Not a question. An observation.
Яemi
I'm holding on to all the pieces of my heart's debris
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"You say that now, but when the walls were coming down around your ears, it was easy to think otherwise," Ronin said, relishing the warmth of his lover, the heartbeat thudding reassuringly against his chest and upon his finger, and breathing in the scent of him deeply. As he stepped back, the hunter found it difficult, suddenly, to meet Remi's gaze, as though he had failed by not miraculously feeling better since the Spire plants were gone.
Silently, he shook his head. No, nothing had changed. In fact, whilst the progression of things was slow, it was getting nonetheless worse as time went by. That wasn't something he wanted to admit either, though. "Phoebe is working on experiments and cures, but I don't think it's doing much good. The Spire plants didn't make any difference. The gods don't make any difference. Perhaps I can just will it away at this point." He sighed.
"I did have rather large ears at that point." Remi protested mildly. Having never been in a position or situation before where saying I was more than capable of keeping myself safe, even the thought felt awkward in his mind. So instead he just smiled softly, wiping a bit of dust away from the side of Ronin's temple with his thumb.
Exhaling and raising his too-pale eyes over Ronin's shoulder to regard the silent landscape, the alchemist bit the inside of his lip as he held his breath. "Thank you for not saying that everything will be alright. That we will all just..figure it out." Remi said with a voice that shook slightly as he finally looked back to Ronin. "It is what everyone keeps telling me, and.." It wasn't that the truth helped, moreso that it didn't give him false hope.
Яemi
I'm holding on to all the pieces of my heart's debris
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I mean, I fully intend to figure all of this out, but first I need to find out how," Ronin murmured with a crooked little smile, shrugging his shoulders and leaning into Remi's gentle touch.
He finally found the courage to meet his husband's gaze as he glanced back at him, Ronin reaching out to take Remi's hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. "Come on. Let's just... enjoy tonight, for once. Please? Every day it's worrying about the blight and the state of the Hollowed Grounds and I just..." Wrinkling his nose, he shook his head.
"I know what's happening around us. I know what's happening to me. I don't want to wallow on it all the time."
"Oh I see you have given up being the damsel then." The alchemist joked halfheartedly. Happily allowing his hand to be taken, covered in grime and dirt as it was, the alchemist puffed out a slightly amused breath, shaking his head wryly at the hunter. "You mean we haven't been enjoying our nights? With Aoife walking and talking up a storm?" Remi tittered cheekily, tugging Ronin towards the door as he opened it with his free hand.
"Alright. Tomorrow we wallow. Tonight we...what? Play cards? Make ice structures with Sugar? Go for a fly?"
Яemi
I'm holding on to all the pieces of my heart's debris
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"With so little time, I can't afford to be a damsel," Ronin informed Remi haughtily, drawing himself up to his full height and playfully puffing out his chest, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "But sometimes maybe I'll still pretend - only for you, though. You're the only one who gets to see my damseling." Winking, he nudged his shoulder against his husband's and followed him indoors.
"Oh - I mean - yes, I have been enjoying them immensely." Ronin blinked, his voice deadpan as he considered Aoife's chattering instead of sleeping, and her clambering out of bed to come and find them at the most inopportune moments.
"Playing cards and ice sculptures sounds wonderful, but after being underground I think flying is a very good start," he said, nodding enthusiastically.
Remi tried not to cringe at just how easily Ronin breezed over his evaporating timeline. Swallowing hard, he did his best to smile at Ronin's pantomime of manly man, but it fell quite flat. "King in the streets, damsel in the sheets. Just..what I always..wanted?"
Chuckling and shaking his head as they entered, Remi couldn't help but snort. Peek-boo! Aoife had proudly announced one night, pointing at Ronin (above the covers) while Remi was disappeared beneath the sheets. Peek a boo indeed.
"Mmm, well then your chariot awaits. And by chariot I mean me and whatever-it-is I can become now." Remi said with a grin, dropping their supplies vaguely near one of the tables and turning to offer his husband a boyish half-smile.
Яemi
I'm holding on to all the pieces of my heart's debris
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I mean... it's what you got." Ronin laughed, though Remi's forced playfulness did everything to make the moment a little less jovial, the hunter closing the door behind him and glancing away. He wondered whether making an effort at a carefree night would be destined to fail, though that didn't mean he wouldn't try. "Wonderful," he announced at the arrival of his 'chariot', grinning back at Remi and moving to run behind him.
Providing the other man didn't move or drop him or any other ridiculous event, Ronin would do his best to hop onto Remi's back in a piggyback, intent on beginning his journey right now. "To the outside," he announced, doing his best to sound regal.
08-19-2019, 08:27 PM (This post was last modified: 08-19-2019, 08:30 PM by Remi.)
REMI
i've been sleepwalking and wandering all night
Later, Remi would wonder if this sudden bout of playfulness was the old Ronin returning, or some strange effect of the blight as well. In the moment though, Remi ooofed a laugh as Ronin lunged onto his back. Bending his knees and instinctively reaching around to secure his husband against him, Remi tried to tilt his head back (unsuccessfully) to shoot a look at Ronin. "Why yes Ronin I am ready. What's that? Oh no, no need to wait for me to shift." He murmured playfully under his breath.
Walking towards the door and opening it with his magic rather than taking his hands off of Ronin's legs, Remi waited until he was far enough away from the guildhall (read: had enough room to become something monstrous) before shifting. Ronin would feel Remi growing beneath him in a way that despite their best sexual escapades, the ex-captain would never have experienced before. Feathers and fur fluttered and covered skin that stretched and contorted. Massive tawny wings grew before Ronin's legs and just as the shift was nearly complete, Remi wriggled his back slightly to shift the hunter farther down.
"Don't you dare suggest a saddle." Remi chimed over his shoulder, feeling somewhat awkward about having a half-lion face but not fancying a silent-flight.
trying to take what's lost and broke and make it right
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"You are always ready - you're a mighty warrior now, don't you know. Holder-upperer of the Spire and all that," Ronin quipped, thoroughly enjoying their back and forth and purposely leaning in to plant a kiss on Remi's cheek as he was carried outside. The feel of the man becoming manticore beneath him was certainly not something he had been anticipating, and Remi might feel the hunter's heartbeat pick up just before hands became paws.
Shifting obediently down to make room for wing and tail and claw, Ronin let out a long, impressed whoosh of air, and his grin would be audible in his voice. "I mean it would make it easier," he chimed in. "And as far as I'm aware, you thoroughly enjoy me riding you anyway."
"Mmm, I think I may have had something to do with its collapse, now that I think of it.." Remi chuckled in response, a blush creeping out across his cheeks in response to Ronin's lips against his skin. There would never come a time that the ex-captain didn't have some sort of effect on him, and so long as they were both living, Remi would take every opportunity to enjoy it.
"Easier." Remi chuckled, his voice having a distinct edge to it now that his mouth was filled with sharp teeth. "Mm, that I do." He agreed readily, and had his tail not been so new and subsequently tipped with poisonous barbs, he'd have nudged Ronin for his impropriety.
Taking a few steps forward, Remi's muscles coiling beneath his rich golden fur, the manticore lunged into the air. No sooner had his paws left the ground, his powerful wings fanned downwards to propel them high above their strange new home. Remi rumbled a contented sort of sigh, sinking into the hazy feeling that if he just kept going, perhaps he could just fly them away from it all.
"I suppose it is naive to think I could just..fly over all the storms." Remi wondered out loud.
trying to take what's lost and broke and make it right
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
They surged into the air and the force and power of it took Ronin's breath away; any innuendo or other conversation they'd been having evaporated too. With a few more wingbeats he found his voice again, letting out a whoop! of elation as they climbed higher and the hunter found himself all but sprawled on his stomach upon Remi's back, his eyes closing just for a moment to feel the wind on his cheeks and in his hair, the Leafchange chill across his skin.
"It's a nice idea," he agreed with Remi's suggestion, fingers absently working into the thick scruff of the lion's mane. "I've a feeling they're made by the gods, though. I doubt we would get far... and I'd not want to get lost, like Ashe did." Even so, the idea of simply flying away from it all was one he readily entertained. "Do you think there's an ocean somewhere out there?" he wondered out loud.
Banking high and then letting himself glide, every now and then the manticore would twist to catch a passing thermal and the air stream around them would grow decidedly warmer. The air beneath his feathers, the way his muscles stretched and flexed, and the feeling of Ronin against him and with him in this strange new way made Remi's heart soar along with his body.
Cocking an ear back, the manticore rumbled a note of resigned agreement. "We will have to fly really high then." He added after a moment, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of Ronin's fingers tangled through his mane.
"It cannot be all land." Remi said logically. It wouldn't rain, if it was. Not even with enough lakes, or so he thought. "These storms cannot last forever...After one barrier coming down, I cannot believe that this is permanent too." It was like that old joke, about the world being carried on the back of a turtle. And what was below the turtle? Why another! Turtles all the way down! Only here, it was barriers all the way across.
trying to take what's lost and broke and make it right
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
