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!
"She did. But not because she was voted in." Remi countered with a shrug before snorting. "What they have a grasp of is popularity. Why else would Ronin have been voted in? Why else would he have been allowed to stay even though he was blighted and then did fuck all?" Remi pulled in another long inhale of his cigarette. "It's because he's charming as all fuck and that's about all. Hilariously they've voted in a former queen anyways, so I suppose the political climate is back to where it should be."
Returning her stare flatly, Remi just flared his nostrils in response. "None of those things have anything to do with how easy of a fuck you are." He pointed out coldly. "The fact that it seems like you're shit at keeping babies alive might actually make you more desirable here." Torchline wasn't really a wholesome baby-raising community, as Phoebe would soon come to learn.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”They kept in the bitch, the Blueblood, and now have a real Queen. Fuckers don’t know what they are in for.” she said dryly, lighting her new cigarette. Her and Remi knew. They’d lived through it, looking up from the bottom of the heap. ”You know I got voted onto some Council as if it would mean something. Hasn’t been a single meeting since.” she said with a mirthless chuckle, shaking her head. Maybe Zariah had been right. Maybe the people in the Hollowed Grounds really were idiots.
She nodded slowly though at Remi’s explanation, not showing if she was surprised or not. ”So something else then.” she said, taking a long, slow drag. She stared off into the distance for a moment, silent and unmoving. But she finally looked back at him, expression not having changed. ”Is this your roundabout way of saying I can’t stick with you and Ronin?” she asked. If they were around, she didn't have much to worry about. They were big strong fellows who could fight off would-be assailants. But if she was on her own...well...she was screwed. Literally.
'Doesn't matter though. They all like her. What other qualification is there?" Hearing that there was a council now and that Phoebe was on it, made the alchemist smirk. "Oh really. Do they know you're just a filthy commoner? That the Lorens of the world before would have turned their noses up at you?" He pretending to gasp as if horrified at the notion.
"Stick with us? We live on the beach, Phoebe. We steal food for breakfast and then kill things most of the day until we drag ourselves back somewhere clear of the tide, drink, fuck, eat, and then go to sleep. Sometimes we even go for a swim." He added this latter point as if it was a real highlight, then rolled his eyes. "Besides, you can't be here. You've got your fancy council position."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”She isn’t a Natural you know, so she does have that speck on her otherwise pristine pedigree.” she said, snorting as Remi went on about her own poor lineage. ”I’m an Outlander, isn’t that worse?” she said.
If what he said was supposed to surprise her or shock her or otherwise make her reconsider, it failed. She simply took a drag, blew a puff of smoke, then sighed. ”My fancy council position for a council that has never and probably will never meet for a place that is filled with more clique’s than a girl’s finishing school dormitory?” she said, raising a brow at him. She shook her head slowly. She didn’t put much stock in it. ”Sticking with you would keep me safer than if I was on my own. It’s pragmatic that way. And like I said, you’re all I have left. Ronin too, through you, in a way.” she said and shrugged, looking down at the water.
"Wait she isn't?" Remi snorted, rolling his eyes. "No. You're a woman who came here desperate for a boyfriend who somehow kept getting pregnant despite apparently being an expert on fertility. I'd say that's what's worse."
The alchemist paused, a serious look of contemplation on his face. Dragging the last of his cigarette until only the smouldering end was left, he tossed it into the water where it floated on the crystal clear surface. "You know...you make a lot of really good points..." His lips twitched to the side before he raised his palm to his head and struck his forehead with it. "Ah! There's just one thing."
Standing, Remi grabbed at his basket of rocks. "I don't care about you being safe. I don't care about it being pragmatic, I don't care about the bullshit politics of the Grounds. Just like with the baby thing, I think you forgot the part where you ask what Ronin and I want. And you aren't it."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe looked over at him, expressionless, save for a slow blink every now and then. Apparently she had set off a tirade without realizing it. ”Is there an issue between us?” she asked, just wanting to confirm. She wasn’t sure if it hurt, or how she felt about it, or even if she felt about it. But if anyone could, it would be her.
And then the tirade continued, and she watched blankly. For a moment she felt the emotions building, somewhere deep down, and she desperately didn’t want to feel them. So she looked away, took her cigarette, and ground the burning end against her knee. It hurt terribly, and it was all she could do to keep from letting it show on her face. But the moment of blinding pain distracted her long enough to keep her from feeling. ”I did ask you, actually. It’s what started this conversation. But I get it. It’s fine. I am sorry for whatever I did to make you hate me so much.” she said as she straightened out the smooshed end of her cigarette so she could relight it. She had thought, perhaps wrongly, that Remi would always have her back in some way. Even if he didn’t care about anything anymore. Even if he hated and cursed the world, she thought he would at least be there. But she had been wrong, just like with everything else.
"Whatever makes you say that?" Remi asked sweetly. "Are people only honest with you when they have a problem with you?" The tone dropped and he merely gave the midwife a blank stare. It was possible he was verging into the sort of behaviour he'd once so condemned Loren for (that is, cruelly saying what was on his mind). He found her didn't care. "There's no problem Phoebe but I just don't have it in me for the bullshit anymore. The reason you aren't liked here has nothing to do with being an Outlander."
The alchemist didn't roll his eyes, frown, wince, or react at all to Phoebe's display of...what? Anger? Toughness? Resilience? Stupidity? Instead, he merely threw another rock into the pool. "I don't hate you Phoebe, but I have nothing left for you. My world consists now of a wagon and Ronin and of one of those things, I could hardly give a fuck. The other I will have until the day I die, though neither of us cares when that will be. So no, it isn't safer with us. It isn't more pragmatic. It's you clinging to something that isn't there anymore. I'm not your brother, because I'm not at all the man I used to be, and despite the demands of some, I won't ever be again. Call me another name if it makes it easier for you."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe was silent for a long time, staring at the water, gently tapping her ashes into the pool as the cigarette naturally burned down. As his words dug scars into her soul, her mind did what it could to protect itself. Another piece of her shut down, like a festering limb cut off to protect the rest. Her eyes were glazed, not by tears but mental distance. Was there anything left at all? A single human soul - for she knew somewhere deep down that even to Frey she was merely a speck in existence - left that mattered? Or that she mattered to?
No. Not one.
"I see." she said softly, fingers thrumming against the stone she sat on. After a moment more she lifted her face towarda him, lips smiling but nothing else, nearly unrecognizable as the Phoebe he had known. "Well I won't ask or demand that you be anything other than you are. I hope this life makes you happy." she said, before looking back at the pool.
The alchemist sighed into Phoebe's prolonged silence. It wasn't Remi's intention to be unkind, but too much of his life had been spent sparing the feelings of others in the name of politeness. And where had it gotten him?
"Well you'd be the first." He grumbled, the basket twisting in his fingers. "So what did Frey have to say about all of this? About Ronin and I?"
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”First time for everything.” Phoebe said dryly, rolling the cigarette absently in her fingers. But his question that followed caught her off guard, and she glanced up at him with a raised brow. ”Frey?” she said before shrugging her shoulders. ”I haven’t asked, but I don’t think Frey would care if I am being honest. They’d rather live and let live so long as everyone is regularly fucked to their individual liking.” she said, watching the smoke rise and fade away into the bright blue sky. ”The last time I spoke with Frey was about getting a plant that grows working body parts for medical study.”
Now it was Remi's turn to look down into the water. There was a smirk on his features, a glint of which even reached his eyes. But it was cold and unsurprised. Running his tongue along his teeth, he nodded to himself, frowning with bitter amusement.
"Right. Your best friend, your brother up and disappears from beneath you after his daughter has just been impaled and killed...and in the month since that happened, not only did you not bother to ask the literal god you have on speed dial about us or what happened, you started to grow body parts?"
Remi ran a hand up the side of his unshaven cheek and shook his head.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
She glanced at him. Frowning at the implications of his words. ”Now you’re just looking for a reason to be pissy.” she said, unimpressed with his turning of the situation. ”I spoke to Frey about the body parts plant long before Fiat Lux.” she said to clarify that off the bat. Clearly, if it had been after, she would have asked. But… ”Then you’ll have to forgive me but I was a bit preoccupied with all three of my nephews being crushed to death, while still having to help heal the wounded and making the worst, guilt and grief ridden decisions of my life. I assumed you were dead and lost somewhere in the mud. And then I was reminded of this.” she said, pulling the Guardian Stone out of her pocket. ”Frey didn’t need to tell me you were alive and well. This did. Then all I could do was wait for the Ascended to open up the portal like the shitty Portal Guardian I am. Frey sure as heck wouldn’t have cared enough to bring me here.”
Remi raised a brow a bit at the nephews crushed to death bit. "Right yeah. You can go to Frey for orgasms and broken hearts and sex potions, but not for anything else. And if you remember I have one of those stupid spheres as well. Good to know that being alive was the minimum standard you were looking for. Not, you know, finding me, seeing if I was alright."
Gesturing to himself, Remi merely scowled. "As you can see, alive doesn't mean alright."
Though Phoebe was right that Frey probably wouldn't have cared, Remi, didn't either. "Well glad you didn't waste your breath then."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe smirked coldly and shook her head, a mirthless chuckle breaking through her lips. ”You know what’s really funny, Remi? You sitting here, being pissed off at me because I didn’t do more to find you, after you just told me that you didn’t give a fuck if I was dead or not, didn’t try to find your own damn way back, told me I’m a prime rape target and you didn’t care to make sure I wouldn’t be.” She paused just long enough to take and drag and then blow the smoke out her nose. ”You’re pissed people didn’t give enough fucks about you to meet your standard meanwhile you gave negative fucks about everyone else. Stop being such a hypocritical fuck.” she said, now turning to glare at him.
”I know you’re not alright. You’re looking at the only person who probably has any clue the kind of pain you’re in from all you’ve lost. I’ve been there.” she said sharply, not so much as losing her temper as not wanting to be walked over. ”And apparently I’m the only one letting you deal with that however you want. Go ahead then, be a bitter prick about it. Be pissed off at the world. It’s a fucking bitch. But don’t stand there and be pissed at me for not doing whatever you think enough would have been when I gave you more thought that you gave me.”
Her hands shook, ash sprinkling onto her legs and the ground. ”I am fucking aware that alive{i] isn’t alright{/i}.”[/say} she said in a near hiss as she glared at the pool. But that was everyone wanted her to be all the time – alright. And she just wasn’t.
