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!
"Of course not, you've always had a flair for the dramatic my dear," she grins back with her blunt teeth, a hint of her old wolfishness still visible. It makes her heart ache for Alice, but if she is alive then she has hope that her companion is as well, even if their bond is broken. She refocuses as Rexanna begins listing her weaknesses, committing them to memory so the Valkyrie can begin to change her lifestyle to accommodate her sister's needs.
"Sunlight? Can you bear any of it, or is it entirely poisonous?" Her quick mind is already thinking of ways around this, calling back to days plotting structures with her Weavers and wondering if perhaps a parasol of sorts would help her sister go out in the daytime when she desired it. Hotaru knows the beauty of the night, a daughter of the Moon as she had always been, but living without the light seemed a cruel punishment even with all the gifts Rexanna had received in her change.
A surprised laugh pops in her mouth, and she turns to ogle disbelievingly at the woman. "A pumpkin? I shouldn't be surprised this place is just as crazy, but really, a pumpkin? We need to get you back in shape," she grins, tugging Rexanna's hand to bring her in and bump their shoulders. Rexanna had never been particularly partial to sparring, unlike Hotaru, and she's excited to test their mettle together once more. Even though Hotaru was sure she would be the one at a disadvantage in this form, still so foreign to her.
Hotaru puckers her face a bit at the idea of drinking blood. Not that blood itself bothers her, but she just doesn't think the taste would be very good. Even just having it on her tongue during battle, the iron-thick heat of it wasn't particularly pleasant, but if it sustains her sister she cannot judge it too harshly. "That's a little gross, but if it tastes good to you and you get your pick of magic I don't see any downsides." Even still her words are lined with laughter, not intending to make Rexanna think she's being called a freak or any such nonsense like that.
Delicate face perks as Rexanna leans in to speak softly into her ear, and Hotaru's face goes abruptly crimson in a way she is not used to broadcasting. Tugging her hand free she slaps softly at Rexanna's middle, faking being scandalized to hide her fluster. "Have some decency, you harlot!" she laughs, embarrassed giggles pealing from her lips like little iridescent bubbles. Then she glances shyly through her golden lashes, knowing Rexanna is the only one she'll deign to tell this. "I've not experienced that, truly. These forms are so much more sensitive," she sighs happily. And then rolls her eyes immediately after. "And of course I've not even had the chance to enjoy it! Know any Ascendeds willing to give me a ride?" Her ensuing grin is electric-sharp and her eyes smoke with the potential in front of her. It has been many years since Ashamin and Thranduil, and her heart has moved on though it still holds them dear. A little fun never hurt anybody, right?
it's our nature, we destroy
it's the constant of our kind
no matter the color of blood, man will always fall
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
It’s true, Rexanna always had that going for her. And she wonders when Hotaru and Bastien meet, if she’ll see how similar yet different they are – how different he was from the King in the East that had whisked her away from her family, her home. There’s a part of her that’s excited for it. But she returns to the conversation when Hotaru asks her if she can bear any sunlight, and she nods after a moment of consideration. “With time, yes, we can withstand it longer.” She offers, reciting what Wessex had told her.
But the laugh that leaves Hotaru’s lips at the mention of the pumpkin has Rexanna’s own laugh intermingling with the chimes of her own, a sound like wind and rushing flame, of shadows in the night. “Gods I need it.” She tells Hotaru as her shoulder bumps hers and she snickers quietly. She weaves in the path and out of the path, taking the quickest way home when Hotaru’s words ring in her ears once more and she snorts at that too. “It’s really the only thing I can taste anymore. Everything else is dulled, with little or no taste at all.” She informs her, wiggling her eyebrows in a playful manner until she’s paused again by Hotaru.
She turns to face her sister when the smack hits her stomach and she laughs loudly, like chimes of a bell ringing through the night, reimagining the crimson hue that overcomes her. But it’s her turn to listen to Hotaru, to pull her into a small half step of a dance with a raised brow and skeptical look about her. “Oh, it’s incredible.” She hums to Hotaru, feigning the dramatics as well, before Hotaru’s voice hits her ears and she snorts.
“Hm, a few, but I’m afraid mines taken.” She chides with a tsk to her tongue before she reaches the porch of her home – the lights off inside, the porch creaking underneath her foot, before she looks back to Hotaru with a wiggle to her brow. “Another downside is that unless we’re in one specific place, we only get the pleasure through the bite…” She says, brow wiggling again to insinuate that even if she did want to go for a ride, it wouldn’t likely be the way the Valkyrie knew.
She opens the door to her home to let Hotaru in before following and turning on a few of the lights, shifting her flame magic to spark the oil lamps to life. “I’m afraid no erections or sensations for us unless we're in this one room further down the road, for whatever reason that is.” She finally says with a pout before she breaks into another bubbling huff of laughter as she moves toward the fireplace and alights the logs with another small amount of her flame magic – wielding it from the oil lamp beside it into the fireplace, growing it larger and larger until it begins to heat the room to a comfortable amount. She turns to look at Hotaru with a light sigh, a smile crossing her face as she stands there and soaks it all in, the light of the flame flickering across her figure, her short hair and her brand.
Hope is the deliverance of the words her sister utters, and it soothes something nervous and wretched in her breast to know that this cursed portion of life of hers is only temporary. She flips her hair over her shoulder to better see Rexanna at her side, squeezing her hand like a promise. "I'll see if there's anything I can do to make it easier on you," she promises, mind already alight with plans and goals, devising ways to have things made and what she can haggle and steal to ease her sister's troubles.
Or at least, the troubles not of Hotaru's own creation. Her vixen smile does not waver, already imagining the trouble the pair are sure to get into now that they're together once more. The Valkyrie wasn't going to let Rexanna simply settle into her engaged lifestyle! Oh no no, they were far more than that. "Well I'd let you sample my surely delicious neck just to provide you a good meal, but I don't think Mister Fiance would like the side effects much," she says with a sly wink. It gives her a steadier ground to tease and instigate, helps calm the flush of shyness on her cheeks to take back control.
The golden girl is momentarily distracted as they arrive at a house, homely and welcoming even with its darkened front. Her heart aches with joy for Rexanna, with relief that she is home. Even if it is not her home, it is as close as she can get right now.
"Sure I can't be the bloody middle to your lovely sandwich? I'm sure I'd die of the intensity, but my what a way to go," she purrs with a downright sinful grin, eyes twinkling with playfulness. A jest, she'd certainly never do anything to endanger Rexanna's relationship with her new beau, but it's a tantalizing idea nonetheless. Hotaru was not blind to her sister's beauty and charm, though her familial love was too strong to consider much else with the woman.
Dual-colored eyes flicker over the room as fire brings long shadows and light in equal measures to the house. A soft sigh of comfort shudders from her lips alongside a prolonged shiver as she steps closer to the fireplace. The thick wool of her dress had done wonders for the chill, but the warmth of the flames chases away the remaining cold that clings to her skin. Then she turns and simply...looks. Gazes upon Rexanna, confident and beautiful in this home she has built, this life she has created from ashes. Watches the crimson dance across her midnight hair, illuminating her intense eyes and flickering on her cheekbones.
Hotaru claims the distance between them, drawing her hands to Rexanna's face and cupping it gently between her palms, pulling her down to bridge the distance between their heights and presses her lips to her sister's brow. She lingers there for a moment, eyes closed and peppering kisses across the bridge of one brow before withdrawing, smiling a little wet-eyed and giving Rexanna's face a tiny shake of affection. "I have missed you so, my dear. I did not say it often enough back then, so reticent with my words, but I love you Rexanna. Thank you for bringing me home."
it's our nature, we destroy
it's the constant of our kind
no matter the color of blood, man will always fall
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
08-21-2019, 06:38 PM (This post was last modified: 08-21-2019, 06:38 PM by Bastien.)
"Rexanna! The day goes on and I have not yet seen you, my heart withers away to dust!" Bastien called into the house as he shouldered through the door, holding in his hands his latest work on canvas to show to his love. It was a forest scene, a colour study of sorts for the painting she had asked for depicting her fight against the Pumpkin - dark trees and sky with bright oranges and browns in the changing leaves.
But as he turned into the house he saw that Rexanna was not alone - with her there was a woman he did not recognise. Immediately, his natural charm and hospitality switching on, he put down the painting and walked towards her with a smile. "Oh, hello. I apologise for my unusual entrance. You see, sometimes being engaged to this one--" He glanced to Rexanna. "Fills me with such joy I must yell. I am sure you can understand why."
With a little bow, he introduced himself. "Bastien De Rosieres. And you?" Name given he went to touch Rex's shoulder and kiss her cheek in a small greeting then looked back to the new face.
Ever the protector, her sister is, and she beams a beatific smile toward her as she mentions she’ll find something to make it easier. She wishes to tell Hotaru of the parasol she has, of the ability to remain in the shadow slowly approaching and encapsulating the light, to feel and soak the residual heat of the world around them as soon as the sun sets. But it can wait, like many things, and instead they’re raucous and conniving, a beautiful pair full of destruction. And she beams with the opportunity.
But her suggestion gives Rexanna pause only briefly, catching the sly wink and she snickers – her nose wrinkling before she lifts her head to her. She doesn’t have a chance to speak, lips parting briefly before they arrive at the house and she mentions the idea of being a bloody middle to a lovely sandwich, and she laughs a chime of a laugh at this, glancing to her sister with those beaming sapphire eyes. “I forgot how much of a temptress you were.” She says, a hint of something else beneath her words as she regards Hotaru.
“Nothing like a little orgasm to meet the end of the world, hmm?” She winks, settling along the fireplace and soaking in the warmth she can barely feel – but she does it for Hotaru, she’d do anything for her. The pair of destruction, of flame and fury, of rebuilding and growth. As Hotaru nears, her eyes are soft as she takes away the distance, arms outstretched, hands reaching and cupping her face, and she sighs contently into the touch – bending at will, as though she’s water through Hotaru’s fingers.
If Hotaru’s eyes are wet with tears, then she would find that the Penumbra’s are the same as she pulls away. And she leans forward to place her soft lips in between Hotaru’s brow, arms wrapping around her sister’s shoulders and pulling her close. “I love you too Hotaru, and I’m sorry for everything I did in Helovia.” She whispers, shutting her eyes to bury her face into her sister’s neck.
But she doesn’t stay that way for long as the door swings open, and she pulls away her head, still wrapped around Hotaru, a bright smile through the tears as she hears Bastien’s voice – the theatrics to a grand entrance. And she snorts lightly, wrapping an arm around Hotaru to guide her to her man. But her eyes immediately spot the painting, and her jaw drops as she leans in toward Hotaru. “That was the pumpkin!” She exclaims, before Bastien’s body turns toward her and she can see the surprise on his face.
Regrettably, her arm leaves Hotaru’s shoulders and reaches for her hand as she bounds toward Bastien. “Oh, she understands, love.” She says with a laugh that chimes through the house. Bastien approaches her then, after the introduction, and melts just enough at his touch and his kiss, settling in between the two of them before she gestures toward Hotaru. “Bastien, this is my sister from Helovia.” She announces, before her head tilts and she moves toward Hotaru’s side, allowing her to introduce herself with the comfort of both her presence and the unorthodox meeting Hotaru had just witnessed.
Except it was like that every day, and Rexanna loved it.
Her wicked smile slips into a simpering, coy twist of her pretty mouth, intentionally hooding her eyes and letting her tongue peek through to wet her lower lip. "A temptress? Me? Those are some bold accusations dear," she practically breathes it, the hum of her voice the only cadence of hinted amusement. Oh, Hotaru knows exactly the kind of woman she is. Would have preyed upon her beautiful best friend in a heartbeat if she had not proven to be such a worthy equal and part of her family.
The acting shatters apart with a laugh, nose scrunching up in her joy. "A better way to go out than any of the other options I'd say!" Certainly a better end than the last one they had been through, the disorientation, the destruction of loved ones before them. Hotaru does not let the emotion bleed onto her face, not here, not in the face of all this joy and gratitude. But it is a trauma she will never recover from, a wound that will never heal, having to watch her children walk calmly to their grisly deaths.
Instead she focuses on Rexanna, here. Beside her. Before her. Beneath her palm. The way she bends and molds to her Lady's will, as she had risen to fill the gaps in Hotaru in the past. Trusting in a hand with so much blood on it, knowing it will not harm her, a trust only she can offer in this wretched foreign land. Tears cannot be stopped here, with the weight of her love like the world upon her chest, squeezing all restraint from her ribcage until she is laid prone beneath it. Helpless to its fervent emotion.
When Rexanna leans in, lips pressing cool and soft to her crown, Hotaru's brow pinches with the ferocity of her love. It is the sweetest deliverance, the only brand she would ever wish. "It's in the past," she says in a quiet voice to disguise the roughness that lives there. "We can talk about it later. But there is nothing you could ever do that would tear me from your side forever." And nothing she would ever expect Rexanna to do even in her darkest, most treasonous thoughts.
They are separated by a sudden shout, a profession of love that lights up Rexanna from within in a homely, warm glow. It settles Hotaru's instinctively hiked shoulders at the intrusion. Even from word alone, Hotaru can tell that this man is of a greater breed than the ones Rexanna had put her lot in with last time.
She watches them, a content smile on her mouth as she watches them revolve around one another like planets seeking each other's orbit. They are lovely and in love, and though her own loss aches like a knife, it brings her joy to see Rexanna so settled and confident in her choice. Her hand is clutched by her sister, her introduction already given, but it swells her chest with security that she is not forgotten her in this life Rexanna has built. In the end, the Penumbra still reaches for her.
"I completely understand," she assures in echo of her sister, though her smile takes on a teasing quality and a mirthful glint comes to the eyes. "Though I'm sure your neighbors, if they are too close, may soon have it memorized." Not that she minded. Hotaru believed Rexanna deserved to be told how loved she was at the highest possible volume, and Bastien - as he swiftly and charmingly introduces himself - certainly delivered.
With a little half-bow of her own, newly woolen skirt too stiff to curtsy and too militaristic to want to do it anyway, she lifts her head back up and meets Bastien's eyes with a confident air. "Hotaru Kaito, a pleasure. My apologies for intruding, but you have a lovely home," she compliments, more rote than anything. Though she has Rexanna's welcome, Hotaru is aware this is not merely her sister's home.
it's our nature, we destroy
it's the constant of our kind
no matter the color of blood, man will always fall
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
"Not quite the pumpkin, not yet, but I am glad you recognise the idea." Bastien smiled at Rexanna, always happy when his work managed to communicate what he wanted; so often it didn't work and someone would ask him a question completely at odds with what he'd been trying to do with a piece.
Rexanna's guest seemed friendly and receptable enough to his antics, so Bastien already liked her. When he heard who she actually was, he raised his eyebrows and looked between the two. "Rexanna, you seem to be producing new family members by the day at the moment. You are rather embarrassing me here with no De Rosieres clan." A little chuckle leaving him, he turned back to Hotaru.
"Oh, that it were my home. No, even though we are soon to be wed me and Rexanna do not quite yet officially live together - something we should likely discuss, I suppose." Bastien looked at Rexanna and tapped a finger to his chin, thinking about it. They spent so much time at each others houses it hadn't felt necessary before, but when he thought of it...having a space that was their home, not just the others one was visiting...it was appealing.
She has nothing but adoration for Hotaru when she feels her brow pinch beneath her cool lips, and she wonders if the two sisters reuniting was fate from the start. Hotaru’s voice is quiet, and Rexanna hums and beams beneath the sound, listening to her accepting the apology and claiming there was nothing she could do to tear Hotaru from her side. And Rexanna quietly wonders if she’s ever heard a more beautiful phrase of words.
But Bastien arrives, and it gets shelved for a later date, her face alight by Bastien’s approach – he clarifies it isn’t the pumpkin yet and she wrinkles her nose slightly before nodding. “You have a way about you.” She comments, winking his way. But she loves that about him, everything in between – the art, the mind, the beautifully accented words she hangs onto for life. And when she introduces her lover to her sister, her gaze slips between her family, as Hotaru comments on the neighbors and Rexanna snorts, before the Valkyrie introduces herself too.
Her eyes slip back to Bastien with a small grin as he comments and chuckles, the Penumbra’s own shoulders rising and falling in a slight shrug. “Oh, whatever do you mean?” She jests with him, a quiet snort leaving her. “They’ll be yours soon enough, too.” She gives him a fanged grin at this, wondering how the man might take to having such a wide attachment via her. But she doesn’t mind it, in fact she loves how fate has seemed to revolve and shift with every passing moment.
But Hotaru has apologized for intruding, and Bastien mentions that it isn’t his home, and she slips to his side to wrap an arm around his waist with a content sigh. “That’s probably an important thing to figure out.” She says easily before stepping up to press a kiss to his cheek, turning her gaze and attention back to Hotaru with another quietly fanged smirk. “But in this home I get the last word.” She teases Bastien, though her eyes are alight with nothing but love and adoration for her family combined under one roof.
“We have much to talk about Hotaru…” She pauses, stepping away from Bastien then to grasp her sister’s arms gently and tenderly, allowing Bastien to do whatever he needed to do with the painting. “I told you Deimos was here, but Kiada is too.” The words are a near whisper as they slip from her lips and she looks to her with a soft smile.
A sly foxlike grin pulls at Hotaru's full lips, narrowing her gaze on Bastien like a viper. "You could certainly make a clan if you feel so undermined," she purrs, flicking her gaze slowly and deliberately to Rexanna, sliding up and down her body before turning back to raise an eyebrow tauntingly at Bastien. She feels more confident making the comment with the knowledge Rexanna had imparted, that children were not so out of reach in their inorganic bodies as they had thought. Though she had her reservations about Rexanna jumping back into motherhood, it seemed she had at least found a better ending in love with the man before her. "Though I've heard practicing is all the rage," she says daintily, mirth in her eyes at odds with the prim way the words are spoken.
He seems a decent fellow, kind and happy in a way that she is not accustomed to. Not that she intends to trust him so swiftly, Hotaru was certainly not the type no matter how charming and appealing to the eye the man may be. She'd respect her sister's choice, but she'd just as soon ram a dagger into his spinal cord and twist if Rexanna merely said the word.
Ah, such is love.
For a moment she merely sits and appraises them with a warmth to her features that feels both natural and foreign with how long it had been since she'd felt comfortable enough to let her defenses down. Listens to their banter, the former queen feels a coil of secondhand happiness at the discussion of joining households. It is echoed by a bitterness, a tang of loss like blood on the back of her tongue. She swallows it down and keeps her smile affixed properly in place. Rexanna was the most likely to see through such a facade, and she cannot falter now in front of this stranger.
There is distraction in time, her mismatched eyes falling to Rexanna as the woman steps to touch her arm, her words delivering a blow that sweeps her breath from her lungs more effectively than the news of Deimos had. "Kiada?" she croaks pathetically, trying desperately to maintain her composure in front of Bastien. Her hands shake at her sides, and she fists them into her dress to stop their betrayal. Where Deimos had been a mentor, friend, leader...Kiada had been so much more. Hotaru had been there at her birth, had seen her first wobbly steps, had shared her warmth and side when the little mistress needed a place to rest. She had been present in long-limbed piles of children, her own included, in the safety of her own cavern. Hotaru had been Auntie Ru to Kiada since her first words had come to her mouth, she had loved her. As intensely as she had loved her own children.
It is almost impossible to stop her tears from falling, though her eyes are surely glassy. She turns her chin from the pair, too proud to be seen at her weakest. "Why is she not here?" she chokes, bitter suspicion kept from her vocals but not from her mind. Rexanna's departure, her abandonment of Kiada, was not something Hotaru would so easily forget. "Is she well? Does she...does she remember me?" Her voice finally cracks beneath the question, unable to bear the thought that she might not remember in the way Hotaru did. Even if she remembered in the dreamlike way Rexanna did, at least it would be something.
it's our nature, we destroy
it's the constant of our kind
no matter the color of blood, man will always fall
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
Bastien soon sets off to put the painting in progress down, while Rexanna focuses on her friend. As her daughter’s name leaves her lips, she watches the sentiment hit, and gods, it hits hard. Her eyes soften as she reaches for her sister, pulling her in tight against her chest, tight and close, enough to share breath if the Penumbra needed to breathe at all. She figures that just means Hotaru could crush her if she wanted, and Rexanna would never find it in her to complain.
Her eyes are glassy, however, and she turns her chin from Rexanna and asks the obvious question – one that causes Rexanna’s lips to shift downward in a small frown. “I was not a good mother, you know this Hotaru.” She says softly, reaching for her sister again. “She blames me for a lot of what happened, and I don’t blame her for it. But she is with Deimos, and I know he will take good care of her.” She adds, as if it helps at all.
But the next question makes her dark brows furrow ever so slightly, and she gnaws on her lip absentmindedly. “She’s as well as she can be… Much has happened in all the worlds we’ve been to.” She explains, dancing around the obvious of oh your son was here for a second time and she had to watch him die. again. “She remembers everything, better than I do. She came directly from it all.” She tells her, trying to soften the blow, but blocking Hotaru from Bastien, wherever he’s slipped away to, in case she needs to break and meld back together.
It was a lot for a new Outlander to handle, and Rexanna feels guilty for a moment of bringing it all up. But she needed to know. And she soon reaches for soft silk and fleece blankets to drape around her sister’s shoulders, tugging her into her again with a light squeeze. “She is strong, like we knew she would be.” She says softly, pressing a gentle kiss to her sister’s temple.
Hotaru, for all her pride and independence, cannot help her fervent gratitude as Bastien turns and busies himself elsewhere. She folds into Rexanna's embrace like a ragdoll, childlike and helpless. It is a revelation she cannot bear without her sister's arms around her to ward away the warring emotions the world tries to impress upon her. There is nobody here, in this world or even this house, that she needs to impress. No title or facade to keep cemented in place. Instead she quakes in Rexanna's hold, pressing her face to the cool column of her neck to conceal the tears budding in her eyes and lifting her hands to grip at her sister's hips.
There's nothing to say, she knows Rexanna is right. Part of her is proud that she is aware now of how her children had suffered beneath her lackluster mothering. Still nothing comes to her tongue, because she can't soothe or defend something she knows is right. "But she's safe," she insists, unsure if it's a question or a statement. Deimos' name is like an anchor to cease her shaking, pulling her back down from her immediate fear at Kiada's absence. Safe, alive, that is all she cares about.
Her eyes finally lift to Rexanna's as she withdraws the scarcest amount she can manage to establish eye contact. "I understand," she murmurs, trying to bring herself together lest the entirety of the night's revelations shake her apart at the seams. "For me it's like it was only yesterday, even in the other places I've been." Solemnity coats her words, eyes glazed and far away, remembering how she'd landed in the Rift with Thranduil and her twins and then immediately been ripped away again, still freshly scraped raw from the loss of her family. Out of the pan and into the fire. And there had be nobody on the other side that time. Hotaru had been alone, so alone, and she wishes Kiada had not had to experience such an awful transition as well.
Blankets are placed around her shoulders and she leans into Rexanna's hands more than the fabric that offers her heat. Turning to offer her face to Rexanna as she lays a kiss on her temple. Closes her eyes with a wry, bittersweet smile as she remembers their days huddled together while the children slept, speaking of the future and whining about motherhood in turns. "We are rarely wrong," she concedes, amusement pulling at her lips. Blinks open her eyes to gaze softly at Rexanna and finds her hand in the dark once more. "I know this is close to daylight for you, but...stay with me?" The request is little more than a vulnerable whisper, feeling raw and bruised all over, inside and out. They could stay and whisper the night away like teenage girls, or perhaps the Penumbra would allow Hotaru to simply sleep against her side. The day had dragged what little energy she had from her body all the way down to the marrow of her bones, and in that moment she simply needed closeness and comfort.
it's our nature, we destroy
it's the constant of our kind
no matter the color of blood, man will always fall
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
She nods softly in response. Kiada is safe, the safest she can be, as far as Rexanna knows. But she had been young the last time Hotaru had seen her, uncapable and inexperienced for the harshness of the world, and she finds that when Hotaru meets Kiada, she will see what the Harpy has become. A battle hardened warrior, full of experiences and heartbreak. Like the rest of them all.
And her sister withdraws just enough to murmur, to explain, and she nods quietly. “For me, it’s a haze of memory that appeared when I arrived. I came here the same time I arrived in Helovia.” She tells her, explaining the strangeness of portals. “I vowed to her I’d never make the same mistakes. But she does not trust me yet. I don’t blame her.” She admits a bit solemnly, but presses her lips to the side of Hotaru’s temple anyway, a soft smile playing on her lips despite it all.
And when she places the blankets along Hotaru’s shoulders, and presses her into her tightly, Hotaru concedes and Rexanna hums a sound of agreement. Yet soon, the Valkyrie’s eyes open up and looks to her. Her own sapphire gaze slips down to the bi-toned eyes with a soft smile at the question. For a moment, it feels a reflection of those hazy memories. And before, where Rexanna had once promised and broken it, this time it feels stronger – it feels true, a promise she would fight or die trying to keep.
“Always.”
She leads her sister up the stairs to the spare bedroom, pulling back the blankets and making them softer, fluffing up the pillows briefly and letting Hotaru get comfortable wherever she chooses to while Rexanna curls up comfortably behind the Valkyrie, tugging her tight and close, wrapping her arms around her tight and gentle all the same. Her head nestled in the crook of Hotaru’s neck, in her blonde hair, and nuzzles gently.
Hotaru sighs against her sister's skin, eyelashes brushing against it as she blinks slowly. A closeness she would sacrifice so much for. This, in many ways, was worth so much of the pain. How she had wished in Helovia to be able to hold her loved ones like this. She had been granted her wish, but at the cost of having so few loved ones to pull close now.
"Perhaps it's better that way," she points out softly, still caught in the memories of her previous life. Could she even make that distinction? Was it another life? Or merely another realm? Hotaru doesn't know where to draw the line. "It's hard enough to know Kiada remembers. I wouldn't wish it upon you, the kind of clarity we have." If she could spare them all the horror, the trauma, the pain of how their lives had been lived and how they had...ended. She would do it.
Hotaru reaches a hand to pull gently at Rexanna's hair, small smile at her lips and a spark to her eye that was kindling, small embers sparking to try to chase away the pain of remembrance. "Give her time, Rex. Actions speak louder than words." It seemed so simple and plain to her, but she knew how hard it was to wait for the forgiveness you so desperately needed. To be separated in any way from your child if you loved them even the smallest amount. Hotaru would not advocate for Rexanna or use her connection to Kiada to draw the two closer - she'd never betray Kiada's trust like that. But she would give advice where she could, and keep them both full of love and company at all times she was near them.
Nearness is all she cares about now. As Rexanna's vow reaches her ears, Hotaru soaks it in, lets it fill her soul to the brim. Lets herself be led to the guest room, one hand clutching the blankets to keep them over her slight frame and the other still hanging tight to Rexanna's. It's a comfortable room, with a bed softer than she has had in a long time, and the Valkyrie does not wait to fall into it. Her mind is more exhausted than her body, but even still it aches with travel. She had scarcely stopped or slept since the destruction of Helovia, and now she can finally rest. Rexanna slips in behind her, and Hotaru lays her arm down on her sister's as it finds her waist. There is no heartbeat to feel at her back, no breaths to match, but it doesn't matter to her the eccentricities her sister's new form bring.
Sleep does not come easily, mind still abuzz with questions. Hotaru reasons that it is daytime for Rexanna, and lets her quiet voice fill the room. "You know what I miss most?" My family. My parents. My Goddess. My children. My title. My land. My home. "I miss those damned hotsprings," she laughs incredulously, interlacing her fingers through Rexanna's over her stomach where it vibrates with her mirth. It's a pleasant memory, one she would rather dwell on than all she has lost.
it's our nature, we destroy
it's the constant of our kind
no matter the color of blood, man will always fall
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
She agrees with Hotaru, that actions absolutely do speak louder than words. But she doesn’t dwell on it, she knows Kiada will come around. She always does. Even if she isn’t the same form, the same type of woman she was before, she’s still her mother – and sometimes, that was all you needed in life was your mother’s touch. Rexanna would always be here for the Harpy, whether she knew it or not – but she hoped somewhere deep down that Deimos would let her know that too.
Soon, however, she’s leading her sister to the bedroom, tender and soft, watching with a light smile as the Valkyrie slips into the bed and under the covers – comfortable and content, and Rexanna finds nothing in her that makes her happier than the picture that she sees before her. That is, until she climbs in after, and the feeling of Hotaru’s arm resting over her own makes the Penumbra hold her tightly, face slipping into Hotaru’s neck comfortably, awash with a crown of gold to mix her own dark hues.
She listens for a time to Hotaru’s heartbeat, to her breathing, wondering how it might be for her to not share those very special things any longer, but it dies from her mind as Hotaru’s quiet voice slips into the room. “Hmm?” She asks quietly into the air, eyes closed as Hotaru laces her fingers with and mentions the hot springs, where Rexanna snickers in agreement. Her hand tightens lightly in a squeeze on Hotaru’s fingers as she leans back slightly to prop her head up as though they’re gossiping.
“I tell everyone that was my favorite part.” She replies with a quiet hum of laughter. Sapphire gaze slips down to look at Hotaru through the dark room, wondering if her sister would like some form of a light on even if Rexanna doesn’t need it – even if the Penumbra can see the swaths of porcelain that make up Hotaru’s face, the bi-toned eyes through the night as dawn filters through the drapes she has closed.
“And I miss the Aurora, when it danced above.” She snorts, burying her face into the back of Hotaru’s neck, lips brushing against the column of her spine as she does so. “And you, when I came across you as we were on our way back to the Basin, and we were both so fucking fat and pregnant with our twins, and we did nothing but bitch about it the whole day.” She laughs.
