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!
It was freeing to be mad, really. All Remi's life he'd worried about what others thought, how he could appease them, how he could serve and help them. He'd bled himself dry willingly when asked, had been cowed by those far weaker than he. He'd put himself second always, and tried to always do what was good and right and just.
And where had it landed him? In paradise with a dead daughter.
So mad it was. And on the agenda for the mad alchemist today was adding to his hoard of magical-items. Turns out, you could be as much of an asshole you wanted so long as you had shiny and powerful items with which to buy-off anyone who might want to do you harm. All the better if you had claws and talons and poison for when that failed.
Shirtless and scarred, Remi was currently using his magic to pull up the most beautiful of rocks tossed into the pool. He and Ronin would be able to sell them from the wagon was ready-to-wish-on-stones. Besides, it wasn't like tossing rocks into a pool could actually ggrant wishes, after all.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe had been walking rather aimlessly since coming to Torchline. Everything felt unreal, anger boiling just below the surface of her nothingness. The world had turned upside down and she was never going to stop falling it seemed. In her aimless meandering, she had heard about a pretty wishing pool, and headed that way if only to see if it lived up to the hype.
Of course, when she saw Remi, she hesitated.
Seeing him had filled her with true joy for the first time since Fiat Lux. And when she had run to him, he had pulled and walked away. Blank faced, she approached, watching him pull rocks from the water. "Are you going to walk away again?" she asked quietly almost monotone.
The alchemist hardly glanced up. He didn't need to; he knew Phoebe's presence instinctively at this point. He just didn't care about it anymore. "Are you going to be obnoxiously shrill again?" Remi countered, shooting the midwife a pointed look before returning to the pool.
Rocks of every colour and size rose like reverse-raindrops and those which looked to be the best were deposited at Remi's side. Those that weren't were carelessly thrown back. And if Phoebe were to be splashed, what of it?
She wasn't made of sugar.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe shrugged. ”Unlikely.” she said dryly. His tone should have hurt her feelings, but she couldn’t muster them. Not anymore. Why would she? But at least he wasn’t going to run off again. Quietly she moved forward, away from where he was throwing rocks, and sat near the edge of the pool, staring in blankly. ”I did miss you though.” she added without looking up at him. It lacked the sort of heart and peppiness she usually had, but it was true enough of a statement to say. Remi and her had been in this together from the very start – they adopted each other as family when there was no one else left. If anyone could make her care about something, it was probably him – but he didn’t seem in the caring mood himself.
Though, why would he be? She knew all too well how hard it was to lose a child. And though she didn’t absolutely know that to be the cause of his mood change, she could surmise. For a time she just watched him collect the rocks, saying nothing, just sitting there in his presence. ”What have you been doing since you were brought here?” she asked quietly.
"Then it's unlikely I'll walk away again." He said immediately, with no hint of remorse. "For that reason, anyways."
Stacking the rocks easily and neatly, the alchemist didn't even bother to shrug at this. "Good for you." The words were dry and without emotion. " I didn't miss you. I thought maybe I'd killed you during the festival, but didn't give it much more thought after that." Chilling, heartless, and entirely true.
Tension feathered Remi's jaw for a moment before it broke into a cool smirk. "Is that what we're doing now? Small talk?" Rolling his eyes he threw a stone back into the water. "What have I been doing...killing things with Ronin, sleeping on the beach. You know, living my best life here."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
It should have hurt. It should have made her angry, his callous words. But it didn’t. Instead she stared at the water, unable to muster up anything. And it was glorious. To speak, to hear, and feel nothing. Perhaps she was finally beginning to understand why Frey told her not to worry so much. It was so much better this way. ”Would you have preferred if I died?” she asked, tone unassuming.
She looked over at him only as he seemed to snip at her, face passive. ”What would you rather us do, Remi? You’re my brother. I’m just glad to be able to be around you again.” she said, shrugging a bit. She wasn’t going to try and delve into why he was being so prickly, even if she could assume the answer. It didn’t really matter anyways. He could think what he wanted. It would change her opinion of him. ”Sounds great to me.” she said, watching the stone sink to the bottom.
"Guess we'll never know." Remi replied blandly. That Aoife had died meant everyone should have. Some more than others, but all of them just the same. He and Ronin as well. He bore the scars of that wish, after all.
"Brother huh. And just how does that square away with Ronin and I needing to fuck you if we want a kid, huh?" The alchemist turned a darkly smouldering stare towards Phoebe, daring her to mince words to push herself out of the corner he was shoving her in. "You mentioned it so fucking often Ronin and I thought you actually just wanted one of us. We even took bets about who it was."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe hummed and shrugged slightly. She supposed not. It seemed like he probably would have, given his behavior. But it didn’t matter. She wasn’t dead. Just nearly everyone she loved.
The blonde looked back at him, meeting his smoldering stare with an empty gaze. ”If you mean literally, then some pretty basic biology with a bit of divine intervention.” she said dryly, unwilling and unable to rise to the challenge of becoming angry enough to really argue. ”Otherwise, it squares up since we aren’t really related and Frey is into sex. Pretty simple really.” she said. The midwife reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pack she and picked off Jata since he wasn't supposed to smoke and at on point she had cared about that. She pulled out a match and a cigarette, lighting it up and taking a long drag off it, unperturbed by his continued goading. She simply shrugged, exhaling smoke in a steady stream. ”Well you’re both handsome. I won’t deny that. But it had nothing to do with wanting either of you like that.”
She glanced at him and held up the pack. ”Want one? Took it from Jata.”
"Dunno that basic biology gets us all the orgasms we need." He sassed back, eyes falling down to the cigarettes. "Oh right. Everything to do with you being just so very thoughtful and sweet." Remi added, the sarcasm making his words gooey with feigned sweetness. '
"Oh she's a smoker and a thief now. How edgy." Still, Remi reached out for one of the cigarettes. Striking a bit of created flint on a rock, the alchemist lit the cigarette and similarly took a long drag from it as well. Holding the air in his lungs before blowing out a steady stream, he turned to look properly at Phoebe now.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe shrugged, flicking some ash off on the rocks below. ”I didn’t make the rules, I just conveyed them.” she said, unaffected by any of the implications of his words. ”Mmmm maybe. And the inability to realize not everyone wanted a brood.” she said, critiquing herself with ease. It was true after all. That had been hard for her to understand. Now she couldn’t have even answered whether she did or didn’t want anything.
”Nah, I just don’t care anymore. Not like being a goody two-shoes ever got me anywhere. Slight difference, but important.” she said, taking another drag. What Remi would see likely mirrored himself in some ways, someone who had once been so concerned with kindness brought to their knees by repeated trauma. But instead of outright anger, there was simply nothing. Nothing for insults or compliments to cling to, just a shadow of the woman she had once been.
"A number of times." He agreed, and then smirked. "Mmm yes. Let's not forget about that. Offering to us a child neither of us had ever indicated wanting for the low low price of one orgasm from each of us to you." The alchemist puffed out a curl of smoke. "I'm shocked we managed to say no."
Likewise Remi tapped his ashes into the clear waters of the pool, something the locals would likely have thought nearly-blasphemous. "Welcome to the club." He said with false cheer.
"Why are you here anyways? How on earth will the Grounds survive without you."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe had been holding the smoke in her lungs for a moment, releasing it only as Remi went on again about the offer. ”Yep. That’s what the terms were.” she said nodding, smoke still seeping through her teeth as she spoke. She flicked her ash into the pool, watching it soak then sink away. ”I’m not.” she said, and leaving it at that. Why she wasn’t surprised didn’t matter very much.
”Thrilled to be here. Do I get a member pin?” she said dryly, still staring into the water.
At his question she paused, not sure she wanted to give the real answer. ”It’s not like anyone will notice. I’m not Jigano or Amalia or Wessex or Rexanna.” she said, shrugging a bit. ”Besides, everyone I cared about or who cared about me with any significance that was there is dead. Only person left in either group is you. So. I’m here.” she said, taking another long drag, blowing the smoke out her nose as she pressed her lips in a thin line.
Remi smirked at this, pointing the two fingers that held his cigarette out at Phoebe with a wink of approval.
"Mmm, yeah. nearly forgot." Reaching around, he tapped at the pockets of his pants as if searching for the pin in question. Miming a look of ah! found it!, Remi pulled out what it was. Turns out, it was his middle finger.
"Mmm, not Wessex." The alchemist said with a shake of his head, blowing smoke out of his nose. "Back when Ronin was voted to be King, Wessex was on the nomination block as well. Turns out no one actually thought she needed to be present to vote about it though." The other three? Yeah. They'd be missed. It didn't escape him that neither he nor Ronin were on that list. No great surprise there.
"Well, I'm sure Torchline will be thrilled to have someone so..." Remi let his eyes hang on Phoebe's midsection for a moment as he raised a brow. "...knowledgable about reproduction here." He and Ronin had been jumped on the beach only a few nights before by a few men looking for a bit of a robbery-rape combo. He couldn't imagine Phoebe would attract any less attention.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe looked over, unable to help the smirk when Remi pulled out a middle finger from his pocket. She reached out and pretended to grab it, lifting her own middle finger in the process, before miming fastening it to her shirt. ”Perfect. Just my color.” she said, cigarette bouncing slightly as she held it in her teeth.
”Bitch stayed in charge ‘til she royally pissed off the Fae.” Phoebe said, lifting the cigarette from her teeth then. ”Then she got voted out. Because you know, they all have a real strong grasp on how monarchies work there.” she said with a scoff. Commoners didn’t get to vote on anything in a real monarchy, she and Remi both knew that. Common people like them just had to shut up and put up and that was the end of that.
Her eyes glanced over at him, seeing how he looked at her as she flicked ash into the pool again. ”Two miscarriages and three dead nephews. Yep. I’m exactly who you should ask about babies.” she said dryly, cushing out the embers on the tail end of her cigarette before pulling out another. ”Unless you’re getting at something else.
