Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
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Ronin barely had the sense to shiver, but as he was forced into stillness and silence, shiver he did. The cold penetrated deeply into his bones, his fingers and toes long numb from the snow, from wet boots and long, sleepless nights. His eyes closed at the touch to his cheek, relishing the warmth and gentleness of it, and he blinked up at Remi at last.
His eyes weren't blue, but they were very, very tired. And whatever exhaustion had overtaken the ex-captain, combined with the knowledge that he was completely trapped, it seemed to have driven the blight back for now.
"Please," he said softly. "Just take me away from here. Put me somewhere I can't hurt anyone."
"Alright." Remi whispered gently. His wings reached forward to wrap around his husband's shoulders ever so slightly. Seeing how Ronin was gaunt beneath the oppressive weight of the blight told the alchemist all he thought he needed to know in the moment: no amount of heat or blankets could warm the chill now. It was in Ronin's bones. Hopefully Remi could stop it before it blighted out his soul entirely.
"You will forgive me for not trusting you to walk without restraints. I will let you walk on your own, but if you run, I will make one of my weird tree creatures carry you. Is that a deal?" The alchemist so badly wanted to joke, to offer some quip, something to make Ronin smile. But there was nothing, absolutely nothing. Only the darkness of Ronin's eyes.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The warmth of wings, of soft touches and of everything else that had seemed so far away not so long ago... it all combined to pull away at the last amounts of resistance in Ronin. He all but sagged against the vines, nodding obediently to his husband and managing a soft snort of apparent laughter. "I wont run, you don't need to threaten any weird tree things," he assured the other man.
He didn't think he could run, not without the blight forcing his body into it, and so Ronin managed to get his feet beneath him clumsily, using Remi's magic more as a crutch than a restraint. "Let's go," he mumbled once he was standing straight, a sad shell of the man who had fallen asleep with Remi in the woods not so long ago.
"To them, we are just weird fleshy things." Remi countered under his breath in the same sing-song voice he might use with Aoife. Watching Ronin rose and assisting where he could, he gave his husband a questioning look, wanting to ask him something like, are you okay to walk back. Only...no, he very much wasn't okay, but not in the way Remi needed to know. Still, the alchemist merely bit down on his lip and nodded.
"Phoebe very nearly ruined Rex and Bastien's wedding. There was black vomit everywhere, and her dragon seemed all too happy to take part in the destruction." Remi said as they walked, trying his hand at small-talk and hating how empty it all sounded. "I have not seen Sugar around the guild...is she with you?"
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin shuffled along at Remi's side, both hating how long it was taking him to move and enjoying his husband's presence in a moment of clarity that he knew was fleeting at best. "You're a weird fleshy thing," he countered nonetheless, immaturity winning over depression for a brief moment. Arching an eyebrow and listening to the details of Rexanna and Bastien's wedding, Ronin seemed saddened to have missed it more than anywhere.
"Poor Phoebe," he said after a while, stumbling but luckily finding Remi's earth magic there to steady him. "Sugar is around. She's my eyes above the trees," he assured the alchemist; his dragon was no youngster, not any more. She didn't need to stick so closely to his side these days. "Catch her, if you can. Take her home."
"You are absolutely not one to talk." Remi shot back with a crooked smile that didn't quite reach all the way to his eyes. He wanted it to though, and the alchemist found himself letting his shoulders slump as if that might help whatever mirth he was able to conjure up better seep down through the various layers of pelts around him.
"She was laughing the entire time. I think she quite enjoyed it. She...well. None of them are quite so far along as you. Most are still alright, though I think you might have roommates in the jail sooner rather than later." Remi said, swallowing away a sudden surge of despair at imagining the restraints he'd helped build for Zariah used against his friends.
"If I can, I will." Remi vowed with a nod. Though with Ronin back from the dead once the alchemist thought the likelihood of him being able to part her from her bonded for a second time was fairly slim. And why shouldn't it be; Remi wasn't going to part from him either.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I don't know what you could possibly mean," Ronin said, perhaps with a touch of playful haughtiness, but his voice was too quiet and hoarse to really carry it across. He frowned, still, as Remi spoke further about Phoebe, the hunter shaking his head and trying to force his legs to keep up. "It isn't her," he said gently, as if trying to instill in his husband the same sense of separation for others with the blight as he had done with Ronin.
And having them all together in the jail? It was a horrifying thought, more than anything. "Let's hope those roses work before it gets to that point," he mumbled, staring at the ground now to make sure he didn't trip over any other roots or protrusions.
"Well as you pointed out to me last week and I pointed out just now, you certainly need a shower. " The alchemist quipped back, softly nudging his counterpart ever so gently knowing that Ronin didn't have his hands available were he to lose his balance. "No." Remi agreed with a somber nod that seemed to sober him almost instantly. "No it is not."
"I don't know what you could possibly mean," Ronin said, perhaps with a touch of playful haughtiness, but his voice was too quiet and hoarse to really carry it across. He frowned, still, as Remi spoke further about Phoebe, the hunter shaking his head and trying to force his legs to keep up. "It isn't her," he said gently, as if trying to instill in his husband the same sense of separation for others with the blight as he had done with Ronin.
"Indeed." It was a rather breathless sort of sound as his eyes lowered towards the ground. The roses. "Do you...can you feel them, when you are...well, not you?" Remi asked, glancing sidelong at his husband as he thought of all the instances of attacks he'd received when simply trying to plant his roses.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin let out a huff that might have been a laugh, swaying considerably as he was nudged and having no choice but to let the vines take the brunt of it, righting him so he could continue to walk to his jail cell. With death creeping closer on the horizon and madness lurking, always, around the corner, it was difficult to think about something as mundane as a shower.
Further talk of the roses had him narrowing his eyes, a surge of something dark and hateful vibrating through his bones. He clenched his jaw, swallowing hard as they continued to weave their way through the woods. "Yes," he said quietly. "They stink, and when they are planted it sounds like nails on a chalkboard."
Remi glanced to his side, noting the almost visceral reaction to the roses that his husband showed. "Mmmm." Kicking out a stone that might otherwise have tripped Ronin up, but also giving his body something to do since it couldn't in any meaningful way focus on his husband, Remi merely nodded grimly. "I can see why I have been attacked so often then." He said with a sigh.
"You...do not look well at all Ronin. And with Vai gone, there is only one with healing magic." Remi began in a low and unhappy voice. "If I thought you would let me feed you properly and tend to your wounds I would not even suggest it, but...There is no way I am letting you die of something preventable before we figure the rest of this out." Now it was the alchemist's turn to feather his jaw with unhappiness, the words and what they meant feeling like sandpaper on his already raw heart.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Mm. There are people guarding the Spire and Mathair, though, so the roses are kept safely out of reach of my grubby little hands, don't you worry," Ronin said with no small hint of sarcasm, and he raised an eyebrow across at his husband. "I assume there aren't any planted daintily outside my cell window?" he asked, the barest hint of a smirk on his face. Turning his eyes back down again, he frowned as he listened to the alchemist.
"How do you know I won't let you feed me and the rest of it when I'm stuck behind bars?" he inquired. "And what wounds? I'm a bit cold, that's all." As far as he knew, anyway. Still, Remi was being vague, and he was in no state to comprehend or guess at it. "Suggest what?" he wanted to know. "What are you saying?"
It chilled Remi more than he could say, that Ronin knew that to be true. Indeed one of his hands clenched as he forced his shattered stare towards the sky. Frowning he distantly wondered how much more he could likely take. How much the world would continue to throw at he and his husbadnd and expect them to simply keep enduring. Glancing back at Ronin, Remi could only offer him a weak smile. No, there weren't any roses near the jail. Plenty at the guildhouse but...shrugging, he simply bit the inside of his lip.
It was Remi's turn now to raise a skeptical brow as he glanced in earnest at Ronin. "Oh, let's see...You have attacked me on both occasions I have seen you lately. You are a walking skeleton and for whatever reason, your blighted alter ego seems perfectly happy to keep it that way." Scrubbing a hand across his face, Remi steeled himself for a moment before exhaling a sharp burst of frosty air. "Loren." He all but grunted in a voice that sounded very unlike him, rough around the edges as it was. "Loren could heal you. Your body, at least."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"It might be happy to keep it that way, but I doubt it will turn down a hot meal. And a jail cell will be infinitely more comfortable and out of the elements than the woods at Deepfrost," Ronin pointed out, keeping his eyes forward so he couldn't grace Remi with his own skepticism. The fact that he wouldn't be able to run himself ragged would probably help matters too - though he wasn't sure how the blight in him would take to a confined space. He could feel it now, seething and writhing, and he didn't think it would be long before he found out.
Loren's name fell from Remi's lips and what little restraint Ronin had left crumbled away. "Loren can keep his bony fingers out of my business and away from my family," he snapped, falling abruptly to a halt to the point where Remi's magic would have to drag him further. "No," he said firmly. I'd rather die didn't really need to be said.
The alchemist hummed a reserved note of agreement. Ronin wasn't wrong, but it still wasn't easy to hear to be reminded of the horrific living conditions that he was being forced to endure. That a jail cell was going to be a significant upgrade made something beneath the surface of Remi's skin twitch and demand to be released. He had to actively focus on keeping his hands at his sides.
So when Ronin came to an abrupt halt it took the alchemist a step to notice. Pivoting to regard his husband, Remi merely nodded with an expected sort of reluctance. "I thought you would say that." He said with a sigh, though he knew not to whom he was speaking precisely; was it Ronin, upset at his friend and once-lover? Or the blighted creature simply wanting to stew in its dying mortal body?
"Well, you know how much I like playing doctor, anyways. Jail-house doctor is just a nice new twist, mm?" The words might have been light but Remi's voice still held a hard edge to it as he tried to offer Ronin a smile.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
