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!
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
The easiest way to find Delphia Remi has found is to enter the spirit world. He can't manipulate it the way that she can (one day, perhaps), but his presence there alone always seems to call her out from the dark and lovely places she frequents. And so, the Alchemist has stowed his body against the trunk of a tree, lined with thick moss and shadow. He'll nearly disappear there as the darkness drifts over his form and renders him nearly invisible. Hopefully, he'll be safe from predators, lest he finds himself stuck as a spirit forever.
Which is just to say, dead.
Free of his body, Remi moves through Ludo's Woods. He doesn't call out, assuming that the wood or the other spirits will announce his presence to the demigoddess. He doesn't stray too far from his body either (he has promised to come home to Ronin, and it's a promise he intends to keep). But the world is so different just now, a blur of colour and motion and things that don't quite exist, that he can't help but lose himself just a little bit in this new reality he has access to.
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn falls straight over the shadowy form of Remi’s body. Why? Because of course he does, that’s why. The Spyglass has found Mort’s daughter and now all that’s left is to get back to the Mathair and to Torchline. Or he could just use the ring on his thumb to get himself home, but... something about that is deeply unappealing. It’s probably having to get that report on Cian’s desk. But Finn has five days (maybe four, three possibly?) and these woods have eaten him all up. He walks aimlessly - until he’s on the forest floor, of course.
Rolling to look, his glasses askew, he swears that his pulse actually stops for a second at the sight of the aura he recognises so immediately, even with the body attached to it swathed in darkness. His clothes, once clean and pressed from where he’d first arrived, are now a different story; Finn is creased, smudged with moss and dirt, with grass stains on his knuckles and mud under his nails. ”R...Remi...?” He doesn’t keep the panic out of his voice. He doesn’t try.
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
Remi doesn't answer, because in all the ways that matter, he isn't there.
Spirit!Remi is watching what he thinks is the slow prowl of a cat sith through the underbrush. Perhaps it's "Tishy", Delphia's companion, or perhaps just another predator in these woods. With a small grin, he wonders if the creature can come after him. What would happen if it did? If his soul, marked by Ludo, was dragged off to some lair to be toyed with? The thought makes him smirk darkly, and he almost wants to test his theory by trailing the dark shadow through the trees.
But, he did promise Ronin he'd come home.
Straightening, the Alchemist begins to meander his way back towards his body, ignorant of the fact that Finn has quite literally stumbled upon him.
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Is it Remi? Or has Finn died somewhere out here in the woods and hasn’t noticed? After meeting with Delphia it seems entirely possible, with the spirits that wander the forest to follow her about. Something cold and very unpleasant settles in his stomach; Finn fixes his glasses on his face and kneels down beside the Alchemist (he hopes it’s him anyway, and even that doesn’t sound great in his profoundly moral mind).
”Remi,” he says again, reaching out to shake the body by the shoulder. Because maybe he isn’t dead. Maybe he’s just... sleeping? Or passed out, or...?
His palms are sweaty and he can feel madness climbing up the back of his throat, threatening to spill out of his mouth in a strangled laugh (or cry). Finn forces in a deep breath - it doesn’t help, instead making him feel very sick indeed. He has to turn away from the corpse to throw up, figuring that even if the man is dead, vomiting on him isn’t very respectful.
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
Remi's body moves stiffly beneath Finn's fingers. His broad shoulders move as they are shaken, but no life sparks in the Alchemist's unshaven face. In a moment or so Remi will thank Finn for not throwing up on him. As it is, approaching to see someone hunched over his body, and then turning to throw up next to it, causes the Alchemist to pause. With a thoughtful expression despite his furrowed brows, Remi pulls in a silent ghostly breath. Part of him can't help but want to slip inside Finn's skull and give him something to properly be frightened about, but the urge passes.
He is trying not to be so unkind, to be better. And though this iteration of him is new to it, he's fairly sure letting someone think he's dead isn't on the right side of the line.
Slipping back into his body, Remi's eyes open as he stifles the urge to sharply inhale. Instead sipping small breaths of air, the Alchemist reaches out to steady the Spyglass's shoulder. "I'm not dead." He says in a dry and dusty voice, before sitting up abruptly lest he chokes on his own tongue which has gone shockingly dry.
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn is understandably a little busy,, so he doesn’t notice at all when Remi comes back to life beside him. This is not the way he foresaw his day going - but with that in mind, his thoughts are so scattershot that he doesn’t really know what he would have expected otherwise. Flinching at the unexpected touch, the dry rasp of a voice, the Spyglass tears his gaze up with eyes wide.
”You do a very good impression,” he manages, sitting himself back up on his knees and wiping at his eyes under the glasses where unexpected tears are stinging at them. ”Another trick of yours I don’t know about?” he presumes, teeth chattering - but he’s not sure if it’s from the cold or not. He’s kneeling in wet mud and has been wandering the Greatwood for days, so... probably.
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
"It was unintentional." Remi assures the man kneeling next to him, letting his hand drop away from his shoulder now that they're both properly back in the moment and such niceties are no longer called for.
"Oh yes, one of my best." The Alchemist says without sounding at all pleased about it, flinching as sensation begins to creep back into his bones. Groaning slightly as he shifts his legs (they too are covered in mud), Remi lets his head loll back against the trunk of the tree. "I can...leave my body, and either wander just as a spirit or enter others." The urge to say, Don't worry, I didn't touch you mingles with Do you want to see what it feels like? in his mind such that he can't find anything to say for a moment.
Raising his hand, within which is suddenly a cup filled with water, Remi takes a small sip before offering it silently to Finn.
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Finn wants to say that he knows it was unintentional, but it’s rather that he hopes it is. Still, the hand on his shoulder is unexpected and he only realises it when Remi takes it away, the Spyglass exhaling deeply and looking over to the other man. ”It certainly is,” he murmurs, accepting the cup of water as Remi offers it out, taking a sip to wash out his mouth.
”Still... if that is what happens when you decide to go for a stroll out of your body... maybe you ought to consider keeping it some place safer.” He nods to the forest around them, the trunk of the tree, the way Finn has just managed to stumble over it so spectacularly. ”Especially if you look... the way you did. What if someone had decided to bury you in a grave?”
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
"Mmm, so that I have a warning before someone nearly throws up on me, you mean?" He asks, flashing Finn a quick and weary smile, before sighing out a note of agreement. "I don't...do it often." Remi admits. "But now that you mention it, I probably should have some sort of...proximity sensor or something."
Raising a brow as he glances thoughtfully over at Finn, Remi nibbles at the inside of his lip. "I suppose I'd be buried alive. Sort of." Rubbing at one ear, he frowns. "I wonder if I'd even know...I don't think I would, actually. I'd just come back and find that there was nothing to slip myself back into." The thought wasn't nearly as frightening as it should have been.
"I'm hard to see, in shadow. It was just bad luck you found me." It was the only type of luck between the two, it would seem.
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”That does sound useful. Perhaps a spiritual bell that rings when someone gets too close to you, or touches you.” As if Finn knows whether such a thing might exist. ”For what it is worth, though, I am glad I didn’t throw up on you. And even more glad that you weren’t dead.” The relief is almost palpable, in fact, Finn taking another sip from the cup before offering it back to Remi.
It might not be something Remi does often, and the idea of getting back to... nothing at all might not bother the Alchemist, but the same cannot be said of Finn. Through eyes ringed with shadow, he shakes his head softly, as if he can’t quite understand the other man. But then that has been the case since the day they met. ”I seem to be on a streak of bad luck lately,” he murmurs.
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
Remi can't help but snort a touch at that as if being touched is so much worse than someone being near. Running a hand through his curls and heaving himself into a proper sitting position now that his body is as awake as his mind is, he looks earnestly towards Finn. "I think I'm a bit more grateful for the lack of being thrown up on." He says with a hollow laugh, before offering the Spyglass a genuine smile. "I'm sorry if I frightened you." Perhaps it was a clumsy attempt at kindness, something Remi used to know how to do instinctively, but he had to start somewhere. Stumbly-steps were probably to be expected.
"I wonder when it stops becoming a streak and just...is." Remi muses softly, accepting the cup back and draining its contents. He gives Finn a look of more? tilting the empty cup towards him. "Why are you here?" And then, probably able to answer his own question adds, "Delphia?"
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”Believe me, I am grateful not to have thrown up on you as well,” Finn manages with a quiet laugh. ”Especially given that you turned out not to be dead.” Quite what’s happening he doesn’t understand, especially given their last conversation together, but if it isn’t obvious from the terrible state of the Spyglass, he doesn’t have the fortitude to fight against it. So instead, he gives the Alchemist a boyish, self-deprecating sort of smile. ”In your defence, I was not looking where I was going. And I fell over you - I hope you’re alright.”
Nodding gratefully at the offer of more water, he lets out a sigh in a long whoosh of air. ”I’m not sure. But I think I’m close to it, if it does eventually stop being a streak.” He hasn’t had a lot of luck lately, it’s true. Given that Remi answers his question before Finn can reply, the Spyglass merely nods the affirmative. ”I was sent here to try and recruit her for the cause,” he explains. ”I am relieved to say that I was successful.”
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
"I'd tell you to be wary of the shadows but...I think normally you are." Remi murmurs as more water fills the cup. Handing it back to Finn, the Alchemist rubs his shin dramatically as if only now realizing how wounded he is. "I'm fine." He adds honestly, knowing that he and Finn have a tendecy to bury the line between humour and honestly far too frequently.
"Well done." The Alchemist says of Finn's 'victory' when it came to Delphia. The demigoddess is an odd one, but she has always struck him as the sort who is constantly wanting to help. Maybe that's why Finn was assigned to her, as a sort of easy-win. "Well, I'm on board now too I suppose you could say. So...that's two in the win column for you." Remi swallows rather awkwardly after this admission, turning his gaze upwards to inspect the canopy of leaves overhead.
"I'm sorry for how things ended last time." He says softly, colour bleeding onto his cheeks as he blinks up at the leaves. "For...how I was."
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”Oh yes. When I see them, I try to be wary,” Finn assures the other man with a lopsided smile, accepting the cup back and easily draining half of it in one gulp - he’s not sure, actually, when he last had a drink before he tripped over Remi. Glancing to the Alchemist’s shins, he’s about to inquire as to whether he actually needs medical attention when the other man confirms he’s really okay, much to his relief.
It’s more than a surprise to hear that Remi is on board with the Order, honestly. Finn’s eyes widen a fraction, the Spyglass watching his expression as if trying to find some pretence of deceit or humour. Finding none, he can only give a sincere nod of gratitude. ”That means a lot,” he confesses.
He’s still watching Remi as he looks up at the canopy overhead, as colour heats his cheeks, Finn chewing on the inside of his lip and nodding. ”I’m sorry too. For what happened, and how I was as well. Fear makes me ugly, I’m ashamed to say.” Raking a hand through his curls and finishing the water, he looks around the forest. ”I had hoped to find you again before leaving, but... the order came abruptly.”
