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 can't help but be sheepish in the wake of his relief. He slips the ring on his finger, running his tongue over his teeth as Ronin wraps an arm around him. "I mean...that's why you married me, isn't it?" He asks with a crooked smile, turning into his husband and, given how muddy they both are already, thinks very little of pushing Ronin over into the chilly mud. Lavishing his husband's bare chest in kisses that lead up to the Star's neck, Remi pauses as he holds himself over him, beaming down.
"It's a good thing you were here to talk some sense into me." He croons, half teasing, half genuinely appreciative. Glancing down at the hawk-shape that spans the Star's shoulder, the Alchemist smirks to himself thoughtfully. "I wonder if anyone could make magical tattoos...Much harder to lose a tattoo." Not impossible of course, and honestly, the fact that neither of them has lost any digits or limbs is statistically improbable at this point, but still.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”Oh, absolutely,” Ronin says with a smile, ”among other things.” Feeling the heartbeat return to his finger is a relief he doesn’t expect to feel, and that combined with wanting to tell Remi all about these other things prevents him from being able to react when he’s shoved over in the mud. It’s thoroughly cold on his bare back, and he’s going to need multiple showers after this; and yet, the hot touch of his husband’s mouth on his skin has him all but relaxing into it.
A muddy hand comes up to cup Remi’s cheek, the Star flashing him a crooked grin. ”I imagine there’s someone out there who could do it. What’d you fancy getting? My initials on your ass cheek?” He winks, leaning up for another kiss since they’re out here getting dirty anyways.
There are lots of people (somewhere) who would pay good money for this sort of thing (presumably). An organic mud-bath with monsoon-invigorated hydration? Surely that's worth something. Of course, the only one Remi needs to justify this filthy mess to is his husband, and by the crooked look on Ronin's face and the maroon-splattered glee rising up from where Remi's fingers and lips are against him, he won't be asking for a refund.
"I suppose that all depends. Do you have a middle name? Because if it starts with an a or a u, I might have to rethink my entire plan." Funny how they could go so long not knowing the simplest things about one another. But in the life they've lived thus far, when had middle names ever been important? And when, honestly, had things been calm enough to ask about them?
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
On the contrary - Ronin will happily pay for the VIP treatment in this sudden mud bath he finds himself in, fingers playfully drawing pictures on Remi’s shirt and his skin in sludge. ”You realise we have the same initials, right? Maybe our middle names are the only thing that can differentiate us,” he says with a shrug. ”Damn, we should have double-barrelled it. Then we really could have been R.A.Ts.” He grins, shifting to get himself up on his elbows and gaze across at the other man.
”Luckily for you, you can rethink your plans anyway. I was given the illustrious middle name of Arthur, after my father. I abandoned it as a youth for the reasons already outlined above, but just for you, you can have it back. Right here.” He slaps Remi’s ass, his grin utterly shit-eating.
No, actually he'd forgotten. It wasn't like Remi often thought of his full name, and he wasn't entirely sure he fit the name Taliesin, if only because he'd never be able to think of it as another other than Ronin's. Either way as mud is slorped against his back, the Alchemist recoils with a laugh, arcing upwards which drives his hips lower onto Ronin, pleasurable and amusing all in one.
"Gods you're right. I suppose it's so lucky I was common-bred then, or else we might really be in trouble." Chuckling to himself hearing the name Arthur—of course it was that—Remi inhales a sharp spike of boyish disbelief as mud is caked between his ass and Ronin's fingers. "I'd say I would just get a picture of one, a rat that is...but I can just imagine Sugar needing to make sure it isn't real, time and time again."
Shooting his husband a disapproving look that quickly fades, Remi schluffs off of the Star like a piece of mud himself, laying on his side on the ground. "It is something to think about though. With everything we do, it's a wonder one of us hasn't actually lost their ring yet."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”Oh, obviously. And there’s nothing quite like a dragon biting you on the ass to get you up in the morning.” Ronin grins; up, of course, is punctuated by a playful press of his hips against his husband’s, and the hand on Remi’s ass stays precisely where it belongs. Or at least it does until Remi slides off him, leaving him pretty much brown from head to toe from the mud. Gods how he loves this man. And gods if he’s not an absolute shit.
”Well?” he asks. ”Were you too common-bred for a middle name, too?” Grinning, he gazes across at Remi and hums his gentle agreement; today alone has demonstrated how likely it is that either one of them might lose their bond to the other. ”Perhaps if a tattoo could replicate what the ring does...” He examines his hand, as if trying to imagine ink in the place of the wedding band. ”You couldn’t lob it into the sea then, either.”
"Mmm, since we've both such—" He can't help the way his breath hitches as Ronin playfully draws his hips up, leaving the Alchemist breathless and scowling down at his husband. "—trouble with that." Remi finishes.
"I was, yeah. Could hardly afford food, how do you think we afforded extra names? Explains why mine is so short." He reaches up, tapping the side of his nose (which succeeds not to communicate anything, just to further dirty himself, apparently).
"Well," Remi says, clearly preparing to argue. He grins at Ronin, hardly able to contain the special brand of joy the Star always seems to create in him, without having to do much of anything at all. "We could always lose a finger. But.." Glancing towards where the star-tattoos are on Ronin's wrists, Remi reaches over and flicks his fingers out, scattering Ronin with mud. "There. The Taliesin constellation. Surely Safrin can manage that?"
After everything she's done to you.
After everything you've done for her.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”I’ve not just got trouble with it in the morning, with you around,” Ronin remarks, giving Remi the most smouldering side eye he can manage given that he currently looks like he’s taken a bath in mud. Which he has, sort of. Still, he doesn’t buy it for a second that extra names cost anything, but still, he loves his husband just the way he is. (Even if he doesn’t really believe he’s a Taliesin, which Ronin thinks is bullshit frankly).
Wiggling his fingers up at the grey sky as he examines his ring, he jumps in surprise as Remi suddenly flicks mud over the shining tattoos on his wrist. ”The Taliesin constellation, you say?” He grins, turning it this way and that as if to admire it. ”Only if you get one as well.” Turning to lean up on his elbow, he narrows his eyes playfully down at the Alchemist.
”You aren’t normally keen for me to go and see her,” he says. ”Changed your mind on a whim of a new tattoo?”
Covered in mud, blood, bedraggled from sleep or drink, and still Ronin is the most breathtaking man the Alchemist has ever laid his eyes on. The Star takes his breath away even now nearly obscured by mud and rain as he is. "Gods it must be difficult being you." Remi says adoringly, unable to replicate Ronin's heat-filled gaze, and so settling on one of unfettered love instead.
Remi leans in, watching the light bounce off magical stars and mud-speckled ones alike. Laughing, his crooked smile making a dimple appear on just one cheek, the Alchemist tilts his head slightly. "Not sure Safrin would. But I could find someone." Their own constellation? Honestly, with Aoife and Vanya and the whole history of it all, it seemed fitting.
"A whim? How dare you." Blowing in Ronin's face purely to be a shit, the Alchemist shrugs his shoulders. "Well, seeing as she is a necessary—" Evil his eyes say, though what he actually says is "—presence in our lives, I thought maybe we could have a bit of fun with it." So saying, Remi let himself flop down next to Ronin, trying not to laugh with boyish mischief at the squelching sound that the air trapped beneath his lower back made. "I'm sure some crisis or other will happen upon us sooner or later." Might as well make the best of it while we can, not needing to be said.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”It’s the hardest thing.” Ronin says with a truly filthy laugh, beaming across at his husband, expression warming at the adorably lopsided dimple that appears on the Alchemist’s face. ”And why wouldn’t she? You both share me in common, and I am not so sure that she hates you, Remi,” he murmurs. She’s never caused him to lose memories, or cursed him.
Still, they can think about that a bit later - in the meantime Ronin is scrunching his nose and trying to push Remi’s cheek away; punishment for blowing in his face. ”I can think of fun we can have,” he says in a low voice, scooping a handful of mud to fling it at Remi as he squelches back to the ground. A slow patter of rain begins around them, guaranteed to churn up the ground even more.
”Well. Whatever new crisis can wait for a bit,” he decides, sitting himself up. ”Want to go run and clean off in the sea, then warm up in other ways?”
Grumpily (Ronin's expression putting Remi in far too good of a mood for him to lose it now), the Alchemist just shakes his head. "Share?" He scrunches his nose. There would likely come a day when Remi would be unable to abide this arrangement any longer. But luckily, today was not that day.
"Do you call that fun??" The Alchemist wants to know as mud is thrown all around them. Sitting up and wiping at his eyes haughtily, he grins to himself. Quickly he turns with a handful of mud, smearing it on Ronin's bare chest and laughing delightedly as his fingers rub it in against the hunter's warm skin.
"MMm, I think we'd better. You're suddenly quite dirty, Ronin." The Alchemist hums as his smile turns devilish. Off the pair go, naked before they even reach the water. The quick movements and laughter of boys playing in the sea turns to something much more mature as they seek out each other for warmth, hardly making it home and to their bed before wandering hands and lips make quick work of any lingering shivers or chills.
~FIN
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
