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!
Remi had given up Ronin would come home. He'd given up thinking that he should come home as well, dark and unsettling as that was. But, with unspoken looks and oppressive silences they'd agreed it was best. Or at least, one of them had.
It had been almost a year since Remi had slept alone, having shared a bed with Ronin even when the two were just friends. It always seemed right and easy and good to be together, in the same way that it felt wrong, and hard, and bad that they were apart. But then...the man who peered out—nay, the thing—that peered out from behind Ronin's stormy blue gaze hadn't been his husband for weeks.
But still Remi cared for it. Still Remi loved without question, much as it hollowed him out.
With several animal skins wrapped neatly in a bundle, the alchemist trudged dutifully into the snowy woods, looking for any sign of his husband. Where Ronin kept himself, Remi didn't really know. And so, with senses more animal than man, he searched the woods for the Fallen Star.
forget but not forgive, not loving all you see
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Through the trees, upon a crust of snow and with his coat left carelessly open, Ronin strolled through the woods. Black rimmed his eyes, his footsteps quiet and sure, and a biting gale whipped through the trees to ruffle hair flecked with ice. He walked slowly into Remi's line of sight, glanced up, and smirked. Lifting a finger to his lips, the nails caked with dirt and blood, he made a gesture to shhh... before darting off back into the trees.
And so the trap was laid. Because of course it wasn't actually Ronin beckoning for his husband to follow.
No, Ronin was some distance back, crouched in the lower branches of skeletal trees. Watching. He was coiled like a spring, some dark glee begging him to go, to hunt, to rip and tear and chase, and the effort to remain still was monumental. He had bitten his lower lip hard enough to make it bleed, a stream of black running down his chin, and he pressed closer into the branches as if to get a better look at what Remi would do next.
And of course Remi would go, and of course he'd listen.
A warm spark of excitement coursed through his system followed just as quickly by icicles that seemed to lodge in his joints and the cockles of his heart. Ronin looked...he looked mad, and what was worse, he no longer looked at all like himself. Instead he was some dark mirror-image, a facsimile with just enough likeness to make Remi's breath catch, but not enough to sway him entirely.
In Remi's pocket was his illusion-lens, but of course he didn't even think of using it. For all he knew of blighted-Ronin, still his trust in his husband persisted.
"Ronin—" Remi hissed softly, trotting through the snow and making far more noise than Ronin had (hint #1), as he stumbled awkwardly forward, trying to follow the king's path (which he couldn't see, hint #2).
forget but not forgive, not loving all you see
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin? And who was that, exactly? Some weak-willed fallen star who had been talked into becoming king? Pathetic. Not to worry, though - the blight had created from that husk a fine predator indeed. It was equipped with strength and speed and powers a'plenty. So it was that Remi made chase on the astral-Ronin... and the real one dropped from the trees to the ground, intent on stalking his prey for a while longer.
The projection made it look easy, hopping over fallen branches and slippery stones as though it was nothing (because it was). In the meantime a shadow prowled through the woods in pursuit, taking higher ground until the ex-captain could watch as Remi followed the bait, stupid in his innocence.
Then his patience ran out.
With a snarl that only sounded minimally human, Ronin dropped down from his scouting spot, intend on landing on the alchemist to pin him down and... and do gods knew what, honestly.
Remi was still the more spry and agile of the pair, and so as 'Ronin' darted so effortlessly away, the alchemist found himself frowning at the receding silhouette of his husband. As for the need for silence? Were they running towards something? Or away? Glancing over his shoulder Remi saw nothing but silent wood, and ahead was more of the same. Pulling in lung fulls of frigid air, the alchemist did his best to keep up but was finding himself falling short time and time again. "Ronin, what are we—"
Knocked flat, Remi's face was shoved into the snow. Feathers careened down from his curls to his arms and back beneath layers of warm sweaters. Trying to press himself up to gasp for air, he tried desperately to look over his shoulder to see what it was pinning him to the ground. Despite how large his shifts were, it still wasn't instinctual for Remi to fight back, and so rather than trying to knock the weight aside, the alchemist merely tried to roll onto his back to better appraise the situation.
forget but not forgive, not loving all you see
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The thump of two bodies hitting the ground sang through Ronin's blood, his heartrate spiking and thundering erratically as his prey fought to breathe in the snow. A sound that was almost a laugh tore from his throat as Remi shifted and squirmed, and he allowed the other man to flop on his back just so he could see his attacker.
Sitting astride the alchemist, it was a monster, truly, that sneered down at him, cold eyes roving over the body beneath him as though trying to select the best parts and what to do with them first.
"Hello, Remi," he said, his voice a hoarse, low rumble in his chest. "I wasn't expecting visitors."
He wished he had remained face down. He wished he had never seen what Ronin had become.
The alchemist's hands were frozen somewhere above his chest, having originally reached out to grab at who—or whatever—had attacked him. Upon seeing the blighted thing however he simply ceased moving. For what felt like an eternity Remi couldn't so much as blink or draw a breath. Where once there had been fire-blue points of light in his husband's eyes, now everything was black. The brilliant vivacity his strange new-sight painted Ronin in was entirely gone, leaving the king comprised entirely of blackened smears. Coal for eyes, ebony for hair.
It was not fear that the alchemist felt, or at least not fear for his own life. It was fear that he was too late. That Ronin was already gone.
Bristling at the voice, Remi's fingers flexed in the air, unsure whether to fall upon the thighs of his husband or around the neck of the thing controlling his body. "Ronin..." The alchemist replied in a tense tone, his breath leaving his lips in a puff of air as his eyes continued to scour the lines of the blighted king's face, looking for some indication of colour. Some sign that Ronin was still in there.
forget but not forgive, not loving all you see
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Oh, sing me another song why don't you, little bird," Ronin snapped as Remi said his name once more, the hunter slumping back in the other man's lap and rolling his eyes, as if he was no longer even worth the effort of ripping to pieces. "Ronin this, Ronin that, is it a wonder I had to escape into the woods to get away from you?"
Even as he spoke, a hand had snaked out to insidiously snake its way around Remi's throat, flexing as if it might squeeze at any moment. "What, then? What did you want with little old me, sweetheart? Just fancied playing kiss chase in the woods?" His smile was dark, too wide, and stained black. "Because I'm game."
Leaning up on his elbows as the blighted monster moved back slightly, Remi narrowed his eyes. Oh sure, his lips still trembled, his heartbeat wild and afraid, but where sadness might have rolled across his expression there was only a look of disappointment. "You say that as if you are him." The alchemist replied. "You escaped into the woods because that is what monsters do."
As Ronin's icy fingers wrapped around his throat, Remi tilted his chin up to level a glare at the black-eyed creature astride him. Horrifyingly, this was more contact than the alchemist had had with his husband in weeks. Treacherously, his body was enjoying it. "No. To bring blankets in the hope that I could convince you to take care of this body until I tear it back from you." The alchemist responded, swallowing unsteadily beneath the far too chilled grip of the creature.
forget but not forgive, not loving all you see
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The sneer that flickered across Ronin's face was all too satisfied, as if to tell Remi that it didn't matter whether Ronin had run into the forest or if he had been commandeered there. Either way, here they were, and he was getting exactly what he wanted. "Keep it up, sweet thing, and I can show you everything else monsters do, too." A dark laugh bubbled out of his throat, fingers pulsing against Remi's neck.
He raised his eyebrows at the suggestion that he would be tearing anything back from anyone, and in a moment Ronin had squeezed the alchemist's throat and attempted to slam him back against the forest floor. Leaning down into the dirt and slow so his cold lips could linger against Remi's ear, his nails bit into the flesh of the other man's neck. "You will never take this back," he whispered, sounding very certain about that.
Clenching his teeth together the alchemist did his best to hold the darkened stare of the thing commandeering his husband. The knowledge that, should 'Ronin' clamp down his throat that Remi would be able to shift into something sufficiently large to protect his windpipe only soothed his worry slightly. It wasn't for his own safety that he feared after all.
Only he wasn't fast enough.
Stars sparkled in front of his eyes as a dull ache spread out across the back of his head. With a snarl revealing white leonine teeth, the alchemist glared into the blackened eyes of the thing. "Is that so?" He sneered, hoping the taunt would hold the creature's attention while Remi's hand reached into his pocket to grab the nose nestled there.
"Prove it." So saying, the alchemist would try and wrap his legs around Ronin's to halt any escape on the part of the blighted. With his free hand he'd reach for the one around his neck, trying to pry the fingers away so that he might force them around the stem of the rose instead.
forget but not forgive, not loving all you see
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I promise it," Ronin whispered intimately to Remi, his teeth bared in a smile, utterly consumed by the proximity of the alchemist, by the pulse fluttering beneath his fingers, the body pinned under him. And, like it or not, regardless of how blighted the ex-captain now was, Remi still beat him to the punch in strength as well as speed. Hissing a curse as his legs were captured, Ronin lurched back up, his free hand whipping back as if to strike Remi---
Only for the other man to peel his fingers away from his throat with something close to ease. Ronin's free hand came down, aiming to strike hard at Remi's face - but not before his grip was forced around the stem of one of his fucking stupid roses, the thorns biting into the skin in two, three places, staining his palm black.
Roaring his displeasure, Ronin flung the flower aside with the aim of crushing it later. In the meantime both hands now went for Remi's throat, to make him pay for his stupidity.
"And here I thought you would have liked my gift." The alchemist snarled into the face of the blighted-man above him. Where there one might have been room for disappointment, despair had entirely taken over. The flower hadn't worked. It...whatever he had felt at the shrine, whatever Ianto had said, it hadn't worked. "Go on then." Remi urged.
As soon as Ronin's hands were around his throat, the alchemist would try and roll swiftly to the side, punching Ronin in the shortribs to knock him off balance to hopefully find their positions swapped. If the alchemist should find himself astride his husband, it would be all too easy to break his grapple and in so doing, try to capture Ronin's hands and pin them down in the snow.
forget but not forgive, not loving all you see
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Already the hand that had been pricked by the rose thorns was growing warm and heavy, the feeling spreading up his arm and into his chest, even as the rest of him fought to try and strangle Remi. His husband Remi, the man he loved, the one he would kill and die for--
The ground hit him hard, Ronin having all but become a ragdoll in Remi's grip in the time it took the alchemist to reverse their positions. That same heavy warmth was radiating throughout his body now, soothing edges made jagged by the blight, clearing a mind now endlessly stormy, clouded with burning hate and guttural need.
Vaguely, Ronin realised his arms were pinned. He blinked up at Remi as if seeing him for the first time properly since he'd come into the woods, and the tears that streamed down his cheeks were black as pitch, but real all the same. "You found me," he rasped, utterly compliant beneath the other man.
