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!
"I'm surprised they haven't shown up to...solve all of this." Remi says mildly. "The Order, I mean." Though he can't help but wonder if he'd have gotten sick if he had gone when Finn and Dorian had originally come calling.
"I don't mind being chewed on." The Lullaby growls, his teeth tugging softly against Ronin's lower lip. "But yes, more exploring I think. Just more...new. No more politics. No more you didn't tell me this, no more where have you beens. Or at least, not from anyone but you." He punctuates this sentiment by driving his hips down slightly as the bite turns into a kiss.
"Is it even up to me? I know it could be...but shouldn't I let Torchline decide?" Then again, that might become more of a popularity contest than is healthy. Still, who was Remi to make sure decisions?
because i can't be alone with all that's on my mind
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”So am I. The only person I’ve seen from the Order was that woman who came for Finn...” Ronin’s brow furrows, and he tries not to think too hard about it. He’s been careful and vigilant - even more so - since Remi’s gallivanting around Apopo. Luckily there hasn’t been a repeat performance since then, and Ronin has heard nothing further from Stormbreak.
His husband is so exquisitely good at distraction that he has soon forgotten that thread of conversation, head tilting back to gaze up at the other man with heat in his blue eyes. ”More new, huh? I can do that. We’ll go— hn...!” Whatever he’s about to say is lost in the driving of Remi’s hips and the way his mouth is captured by a hot tongue and playful teeth. For a couple of moments it’s all Ronin can do to try and keep control of himself; his hands want to strip off the Lullaby’s coat, to unbutton his shirt and let his fingers roam over the scarred skin beneath.
Panting, he’s half arched up off the snow by the time he draws away, arms tangled around the alchemist, and he smiles adoringly up at him. ”Even if they change their mind afterwards, choose someone,” he whispers against his lips. ”That’s the last thing you have to do for Torchline. You know the place well enough to know what’s best. Who’s it gonna be?”
09-12-2020, 09:21 PM (This post was last modified: 09-12-2020, 09:26 PM by Remi.)
REMI
the lullaby
walk me home in the dead of night
"Do you think Finn is sick too, then?" It's almost a whisper. Even in this land of make believe where he's hardly got a care in the world, the memory of a memory, of whatever had happened with Finn, is enough to dampen his mood considerably. If he hadn't killed Finn as he thought...if they'd passed out together in the ash...then what had happened?
The warning about frostbite sparks playfully in the back of Remi's mind, but he doesn't make it, busy as his lips are. There is a frustrating amount of clothing between them such that all of his movements are dulled by the thick fabric keeping them warm. It's a maddening challenge that he's happy to fight against, and though his knees and shins are becoming wet, he hardly cares. Not when it means keeping his husband so deliciously sandwiched between his legs.
"I'll flip a coin." Remi grumbles, much more interested in how the Star tastes than about decisions that will affect hundreds of lives. Still, he lets himself arch back from Ronin, looking down at him with a pained and mischievous expression. "Sunjata wanted the position once. Maybe him." Returning to kiss the side of Ronin's jaw and then down toward his shoulder, obscured by the huntsman's coat, Remi shrugs. "Who would you pick?" He asks idly as his fingers threaten to begin to undo the buttons of Ronin's coat.
because i can't be alone with all that's on my mind
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”I didn’t really check,” Ronin admits, even more distracted now than when they opened the conversation. It might be cold and it might be wet, but damn if the Star is paying attention. It has been so long, given how much the pair are usually all over each other, and he’d much prefer to talk about what they can get accomplished in the time before he has to wake up than... anything else, honestly.
Who would he choose, though? Ronin tilts his head, trying to offer as much of himself as possible to Remi’s lips, and it’s like thinking through soup, trying to answer the other man’s question. ”Mm... Jata maybe. Vai’s new man seems like he’s got his head on straight. He knows Torchline pretty well, too,” he mumbles. ”Reckon the people would trust him more’n an Arbiter. Everyone’s got a role to play. Right now yours is putting your hands down my pants.”
No, that's right. They've..had this conversation, hadn't they? Sort of? Distracted as he is, it's impossible to access the memories of his fevered mind. And so despite how much of a pull Finn has on the Lullaby, he happily lets him go.
Grinning against the unshaven skin of Ronin's neck, the alchemist delights in the vibrations he feels against his lips as the huntsman speaks. Hardly listening to what he's saying as he inches ever lower, trying to reveal as much skin as he can, Remi just shrugs. "Zeph seems like Torchline's version of Ianto." He whispers carelessly. Clever, cowardly, well-connected. Not his vote for a leader.
"Oh," Remi hums delightedly, rolling slightly to one side that he might brace himself against his shoulder, freeing up his other hand to do as it was instructed. Rather than letting his hand slowly make its way down, wandering and teasing as was normally his way, the Lullaby instead slips his fingers beneath the waistband of his husband's pants without argument, capturing the Star's lips as soon as his partner's erection was against his palm. "I wonder just how difficult I could make this for you...seeing as it's my dream." He whispers darkly against his husband's lips as his fingers tighten around Ronin's length despite the confines of his pants.
because i can't be alone with all that's on my mind
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”Everyone’s got a place,” Ronin murmurs distractedly, as if to say that perhaps Torchline needs a Ianto in charge of it, since it doesn’t seem to be doing well with the other type of person. But ultimately it’s Remi’s decision; all the Star cares about is what his husband wants and what he wants to do afterwards - or more accurately, what he wants to do in this moment. That there’s no teasing is entirely unexpected, and Ronin gasps into the mouth suddenly pressed against his own, fingers wrapping through soft curls and grasping at Remi’s hip.
He rocks into the touch, luxuriating in it, in how deliciously trapped he is against Remi’s kisses, against the grip of his hand. ”Our dream,” he corrects in a breathy growl, though that’s the extent of his complaints and objections. Ronin is exactly where he wants to be, and just now that is entirely at Remi’s mercy.
There is something about being wanted by this man that sets Remi ablaze. Something about the sounds he makes, the way fingers tighten against his curls and his hip, that is maddening. It fills parts of him he didn't know where cracked or wanting, it satisfies and invigorates. It's the perfect taste and the sweetest sound, and gods if he can't get enough. It doesn't matter that all of this is real-adjacent. Doesn't matter if, when Ronin wakes up, it will be to a bed that doesn't truly have Remi in it, only his body. For now, they're together.
Remi's tongue traces out the calligraphy of curse words against Ronin's, spelling out promises of things to come as his hand continues to move with frustratingly thwarted movements inside of the Star's pants. Remi could release Ronin from this, to be sure. He could have extra arms if he wanted, or could slip them into a bed or on the beach, free of their clothes. But what fun would that be?
"Are you often tortured like this, in your dreams?" Remi wants to know, the light in his eyes entirely wicked as he pulls back a fraction to gaze into the hunter's eyes. The flat of his hand continues to move against Ronin's erection as if they were two hasty school-mates trying to fool around in some stairwell, unable to get well and truly into the act for fear of being caught.
because i can't be alone with all that's on my mind
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
It’s difficult to think like this, with the alchemist wrapped so infuriatingly around him, so real and so present that it’s almost impossible to remember that it really is a dream. Ronin nips against soft lips that come to write poetry against his own, fingers flexing in unruly curls, wishing (and not wishing) that the layers of fabric between them would dissolve into flower petals just as they have done in previous times.
The Lullaby’s question comes as an interruption, Ronin already busy unbuttoning Remi’s shirt, head tilting down so he can drop hot kisses against chilled skin. ”Somehow this is better,” he growls, though around them the caricatures of the Star’s favourite dreams dance in a parade. Filth and fantasy roll together - Remi taking and being taken, his pleasure painted in exquisite detail in the stars that twinkle above, all feral innocence and gentle violence.
The reminders do very little to cool the heat in Ronin’s belly, and he mumbles a soft curse against Remi’s collarbones as he urges the alchemist on.
Remi's eyes have darkened predatorily, and not for the first time the alchemist's mind wrestles with the duality of his nature. It isn't that he wants to hurt Ronin by any means, but that doesn't stop the urge to tear into the core of him, that blood and screaming muscles might somehow sweeten the pleasure he can make his husband feel. The tongue against the side of Ronin's neck wants to become thickly barbed to flay the skin away from bone. His rational mind knows it makes no sense, but in the primal core of him, gods it's hard to ignore.
Focused as he is on the man below him, the imagery is mostly lost on him. He can hear sounds of pleasure carried on the wind and vaguely he's aware of illusory rose petals beneath his fingers. Much as he might have liked to stop and watch this fantastical replay of the duos greatest hits (both real and imagined), he's far too consumed with wanting to coax another of those shivery half-moans from Ronin's lips.
"This...being a dream and all.." Remi whispers against his husband's chest. Looking up, cheeks boyishly flushed, there is a question growing behind his teeth. His tongue draws circles around it, as if wanting it polished before releasing it into the world. Smiling softly, bashfully, he lets his lips drop back to the huntsman's neck, his kisses softer now that his mind has latched onto something. Remi hardly remembers what it was like to be with women, having only done so enough times to fool those around him into think he was straight. But Ronin? It was just over two years. Less, if you counted Safrin. This was a side of his husband's appetites Remi had never been able to fulfill. "..would it feel differently, better?, if I ... wasn't entirely male?" He wondered with a shy smile. It wasn't that he thought Ronin wanted something else or that he wasn't satisfied...but in this world of make believe, why not take advantage if he wanted?
because i can't be alone with all that's on my mind
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Unaware of his partner’s train of thought (and with a fantastic view of the parade of bodies sprawling across the sky overhead), Ronin assumes that Remi is doing what Remi does best and teasing him. Kisses move from needy and hungry to feather light, the Star’s back arcing as he tries to feel more of the other man, to press further into his touch, his teeth. With fingers splayed over Remi’s lower back, trying to coax the grind of his hips, Ronin’s lips are parted in a breathless pant, and words take a little more time than they should to filter through.
”Mm...?” He blinks through the firelight at the Lullaby, thoroughly distracted. ”Different? Sure. Fun? Absolutely. But better? No, never,” he mumbles, leaning up again to try and silence Remi with his lips and tongue. ”Why, do you want to...?” It’s not a question he can finish, and it’s only partially because there’s very little blood going to his brain right now. It’s a heavy sort of discussion to have when Remi’s hand is wrapped around his cock, and Ronin refuses to overstep the mark for the sake of getting his leg over.
"I only meant.." It might be his hand wrapped around Ronin's erection but that doesn't stop the alchemist from being thoroughly caught up in the ministrations of his hand and his husband's lips just the same. Kissing Ronin hard, using his weight to lean into the huntsman's kiss, his fingers wrapping around his length in a slow tug that mirrors the movement of his tongue, he breaks off with a breathless sort of sigh. "I..I wouldn't know what it feels like." It being a dream and all, Remi could give himself whatever anatomy he wanted but that didn't mean he'd be properly experiencing it.
"I just thought—" Well, he didn't properly know what he'd thought, and with his hand already down Ronin's pants and his mind melting away to soup somewhere above them, it probably wasn't the best time to be having this conversation. But it had occurred to him in the moment and having no filter around the Star, Remi had just said what was on his mind.
because i can't be alone with all that's on my mind
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Remi’s kiss steals his breath, Ronin’s fingers slipping down to squeeze his ass and the backs of his thighs, trying desperately to encourage him closer. Growling a curse against the Lullaby’s tongue, it’s impossible to try and stay focused with the other man’s hand stroking out a tight rhythm against the constraints of his pants, leaving Ronin reeling. ”It’s a dream,” he moans, unable and unwilling to hide the sound of his enjoyment. ”It can feel however you want it to feel.”
He’s neither encouraging nor trying to discourage, exactly, Ronin merely pointing out that in a place where anything is possible, things like not having tried it before don’t really matter. ”Gods, as long as you keep touching me, I really don’t mind.” The Star lets out a shaky laugh, nipping at Remi’s lower lip.
"But it won't feel like it does for them." Remi whispers back as if women are some entirely foreign species of which he can only poorly approximate. Maybe this isn't so far from the truth, but the original suggestion had been more for Ronin than him. Later, perhaps, with pulses lowered and minds not coloured red they'd have more insightful things to think about it.
"Oh, touching you? Is that all?" With a wicked smile Remi pulls his hand from Ronin's pants, letting it glide blandly up his husband's side. In other moments it might have been a sweet caress, but after the ministrations, he'd just been offering, this was sure to feel like a monumental letdown. Which of course was precisely the point.
because i can't be alone with all that's on my mind
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”No, it’ll feel like it does for you,” Ronin points out, and if his husband hasn’t noticed, that’s really all the Star cares about. He draws in a shuddering breath, hips lifting as if to chase after the abandoned touch, and he all but growls against the side of Remi’s neck. ”You know what I meant,” he hisses, surging forward suddenly to try and flip their positions, capturing the Lullaby’s lips anew.
”Remi,” he mumbles into his partner’s mouth, the chill of the snow and the crackle of the fire behind them making this place seem as real as any other. ”What do I have to do for you, exactly, for you to just fuck me?” His husband was a master of teasing, and Ronin was close to becoming unwound entirely.
