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!
walked out this morning and i wrote down this song. i just can't remember who to send it to
Everyone would be asleep. Should be asleep. And, like any considerate drunk, Remi was doing his level best to be quiet as he came home. Which of course meant that he was precisely the opposite. Each step of his on the wood stairs up to the deck were loud and clunky, despite how delicate Remi's mind told him they were. His hands fumbled with the locks, scraping and pawing, before finally his fingers remembered how bolts and levers worked. Stumbling inside, his weight on the door, it slammed open against the wall, to which Remi suggested it shhhh, you'll wake everyone, in a voice that wasn't even close to a whisper.
Closing the door (loudly), Remi swayed on his feet as he turned into the darkness, unable to see thanks to how rudely the room was spinning.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Luckily the cottage was build pretty solidly, and he had only just come staggering in, so Vai had time (seconds, but it was still time) before he did anything further to wake the rest of the house. Namely, the children - yes even you, Felix - who were sleeping.
On feet that were actually silent, Vai moved down the stairs and lit a couple of lamps, sighing and smiling weakly at the sight of Remi swaying enough to dance with himself in the doorway. ”You tell that door,” she said, nodding in agreement and sweeping forward that she might try to offer a pillar for him to lean on.
Easier said than done, of course, given that Remi was built like a brick you-know-what these days. Still, she slipped an arm around him, trying to direct them towards the living room. She wouldn’t risk the stairs yet. ”Get enough of a taste of LongNight in Torchline?” she asked.
walked out this morning and i wrote down this song. i just can't remember who to send it to
Jumping at the sound of her voice, and the sudden appearance of light? and...where had Vai come from?? the Alchemist nonetheless paddled out his hands towards her for support. No matter what state he was in, she'd always be a safe harbour in which to moor. With an arm wrapped around her shoulders and the other pointing at the lights (honestly, it must have been magic), the Alchemist numbly bobbed his head in agreement.
As soon as he was near enough to a couch, Remi let himself topple onto it, letting the various blankets absorb his ooof of both discomfort and relaxation. "Nnnn." He moaned, before lifting his head, all half-lidded stare and messy curls, to try and find Vai in the circling room. Closing one eye and narrowing the other, he spotted the witch (she was so very tricksy) tonight, and resisted the urge to throw up.
"LongNight is stupid." He declared drunkenly.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
They moved awkwardly, mostly with Vai trying to keep Remi upright as he barrelled wherever he would go, though she had to laugh at his confusion about the lanterns. ”You know I’m a witch, don’t start questioning it now.” Patting his arm, she left him to flop down onto the sofa and moved to stoke the fire - since the sun had set over Torchline even the islands had been chilly.
”Longnight is stupid,” she agreed, going to fetch a cold glass of water and returning to him, setting it down on a nearby table. Crouching next to the sofa, she reached out to smooth his curls out of his face. ”If you’re going to throw up, at least be a dear and try to miss the rug, okay?”
walked out this morning and i wrote down this song. i just can't remember who to send it to
He absolutely was going to start questioning it, but her words made his teeth click shut with a comical click. It all seemed so mysterious all of a sudden and his brain was simply not up to the task of figuring it out.
"S'my rug." Remi argued, having not even noticed that she'd left and come back. More witchcraft, he thought, taking the glass. The water was like the elixir of life itself the second it hit his lips. Gods why did he even bother drinking when there was this. "I wish we had a pool." He thought, though in reality, said. Which of course when you lived on the beach, was a perfectly stupid thing to want.
Setting the glass on the coffee table such, that the majority of it was hanging off, Remi glanced up the stairs. "Where is e'ryone?" Normally his house was a bustle of activity. People coming and going, Felix and Aoife...but now it was so quiet. Why?
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”I know it is. And I know you’d be very sad with yourself if you threw up on it. Future you would be sorry, anyway.” Future Remi being sober Remi, of course. Still, he drank the water, Vai surreptitiously fixing the glass that he left half hanging off the table (he was a menace) before she straightened up. ”You do have a pool. It’s just down by the beach. You also have a bathtub, which is the next best thing.” Luckily she thought he was still too drunk to go looking for either of those things.
”They are asleep, Remi. It’s still the middle of the night, even if the sun isn’t going to rise yet,” she told him gently, before ushering for him to scoot up on the couch. ”C’mon, I’ll sit with you and keep you company until you get tired as well.”
walked out this morning and i wrote down this song. i just can't remember who to send it to
"No." Remi argued in a predictably childish voice, thinking very little of the rug in that moment. As far as future-him went? Well. Fuck that guy. "No I want...to stretch out." He protested, ruling out the bathtub. "And no salt. Ronin says it makes my hair un-soft." Remi babbled, groping for the water and frowning at the empty glass.
'Oh right.' Remi conceded this point almost glumly. It was so hard to measure time during LongNight. Really other than his biological clock, there wasn't much to go on. And right now it was telling him it was either swim time, fight time, or story time.
Grumbling good-naturedly, Remi did indeed move to make room for Vai, all but collapsing into her lap the second she'd seated herself. Much more man than boy now and unable to shift into anything small and cuddly anymore, the most the Alchemist could do was ball himself up, using her knee as a pillow. "He could be dead, and I'd have no idea.' Remi said softly, his lips moving sluggishly over Vai's knee.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vai had to hold in her laughter at his petulance, knowing him too well and for too long not to find it endearing. ”Then I suppose tomorrow we’ll have to dig you a pool and fill it with fresh water. Wouldn’t want to make your hair unsoft,” she said, slumping down onto the sofa as he finally moved for her, all but expecting him to end up where he inevitably did. Relaxing into the cushions, her fingers moved to tease out any tangles in his curls, and she sighed as he spoke.
”Wouldn’t your wedding ring tell you?” she asked, glancing down at his hand where the ring should hopefully be delivering Ronin’s steady heartbeat. ”He’ll come back to you, Remi. He’s survived enough, and this many LongNights so far. He’ll come home.”
walked out this morning and i wrote down this song. i just can't remember who to send it to
Oh right, the rings. "My mind keeps coming up with all these scenerios...monsters putting the ring somewhere to keep it beating. Pumping his heart for him." Grotesque images and not at all entirely realistic, but that hardly mattered when it came to LongNight and the bright panic it inspired.
"This time last year we were together and the worst thing I had to deal with was Loren calling me drunk, saying Cera had died." Gods, how time made a mockery of what he'd once thought had been unendurable.
"I sent a letter to Rexanna, the Queen...but I haven't heard back." Remi concluded miserably, burying his face further into the crook of Vai's knee.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
It was a grotesque image, and Vai wrinkled her nose as the bright details came to life in her imagination. Her fingers carefully threading through Remi’s curls, she smoothed his hair out and brushed a gentle hand across his cheek. ”Things change all the time,” she agreed; last year was nothing like this year, which was nothing like anything that had come before. ”You just need to get through this week, then you can relax.”
The letter and its lack of an answer was disturbing, but at the same time it could have been put down to LongNight. ”The Grounds are no place to be right now, even for a raven. The letter may have just gotten lost,” she said, fingers dancing down to rub at his back. ”I’m sorry, Remi.” Vai couldn’t really offer him more than hope.
walked out this morning and i wrote down this song. i just can't remember who to send it to
"Then you can relax." Remi murmured drowsily; it seemed drunken-slumber hadn't removed his ability to be petulant. Turning his scruffy cheek into her touches, the Alchemist and Governor of all of Torchline, drooled against the witch's leg as his lower lip fell open.
'So Felix, huh.' The Alchemist said after a moment, sea-glass eyes flitting open and rolling up to look at her. "I dunno how to be a brother, so..guess Ronin'll have to teach me." They were for all intents and purposes one family, blood not withstanding. Though they'd all shed more than enough blood and tears together that Remi would have pinned their familial ties to one another against anyone else's, any day.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”You’re right, actually. I’ll be a lot more relaxed knowing you’re all home and safe for once.” Vai grinned, and if she noticed or minded that Remi was drooling all over her leg, she didn’t show it. No, as he turned to blink up at her, drunk and sleepy and rambling, she felt as fierce a surge of affection for him as she had when she’d found him cold and shivering in the forests of Northaven.
”Mm, Felix,” she agreed, her smile softening, fingers settling to fuss through the tips of his hair. ”I think you’ll be a great brother. I know he already looks up to you, so you shouldn’t have to try too hard.” Lowering her voice, she gave him a secretive smile. ”Though I do hope he doesn’t pick up your drinking habits quite yet.”
walked out this morning and i wrote down this song. i just can't remember who to send it to
Had she said the word Northaven, it would have drawn a sleepy look of confusion from the Alchemist. Northaven; what was that? And where? Who they both had been then seemed more than just a lifetime ago. It had all happened to someone else it seemed, different versions of them. Remi no longer felt connected to the gentle and submissive man the way one ought to when it came to their younger selves.
'Nu-uh. We're the same height.' Remi corrected, before huffing against her thigh as he repositioned himself. Wrapping his arms around her as if her torso were nothing more than a pillow, he huffed again. "Not a habit it's a.." Well, it wasn't a skill. It wasn't even really a coping mechanism. It was just the sort of thing he did now, when things went sour.
Precisely like a habit.
"Shush. You drink too." He argued as if that was at all the same.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”You are? Well, it looks like I have two strapping young men to worry about. Felix won’t take long to start getting into trouble just like you I bet.” Though he had already done enough at shrines, in Vai’s opinion. The more he stayed away from them, the better.
Remi wrapped his arms around her and she couldn’t help but laugh, resigning herself to being his pillow for the night and relaxing into the couch. ”I do drink too. But I restrict myself to drinking while celebrating.” Vai winked at him. ”And once this night is all over, we will have a lot to celebrate. So do me a favour and try to stay sober until then? Please?”
Not nudging him for fear that it would make him throw up, Vai settled for resting an arm around him in return in a clumsy hug.
