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!
10-02-2020, 09:28 PM (This post was last modified: 10-07-2020, 06:00 PM by Remi.)
While Ronin called for Vai, Remi slumped himself down right onto the floor where it was cool, and flat, and no one was threatening murder. The events of the last hour haze through Remi's mind even as he closes his eyes against him. A headache has already begun to storm behind his eyes and no matter which way he turns his head, his neck is stiff with tension that makes him want to vomit.
His hand is still on his throat helping to clot the blood, though most of it had in fact dried now and stopped actively bleeding. Gods, why did it have to be Sam. Of anyone and everyone who might have bit him, why Sam?
Groaning to himself and muttering vague threats under his breath, Remi reaches out with the hand not against his throat and slings it over his eyes, as if he might block the world out for a time.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”One of these days, you’re going to come home and nothing bad will have happened. It’ll all be painfully normal, and I won’t know what to do.” Vai’s voice is playfully exasperated, the witch’s footsteps soft as she heads across the room to where Remi is splayed out on the ground. Shifting to kneel down beside him, she reaches out to touch a hand to the one clutched over his neck.
”Hey,” she says softly. ”Ronin was still pretty wound up, so I sent him up to the bedroom. He’ll be waiting for you when we’re all done here.” So saying, Vai smooths his curls back from his face, aware that they’re a little matted with blood. ”Can I take a look? I’ll get it taken care of.”
He can hear her coming—smell her too, if he really thinks about it. Even so Remi doesn't move as Vai kneels down. His head hurts far too much. "Mmmm." He grumbles in acknowledgement, though he does manage a smirk to hear that Ronin has been grounded.
Letting the arm covering his eyes flop back behind his head, Remi turns his chin away from Vai and slowly pulls his palm away from his neck. This of course partially reopens the cuts which had clotted against his skin.
"..'sorry." The alchemist manages, not able to look at Vai without further aggravating his injury, but somehow feeling responsible for all of this just the same.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”You can make it up to me another time,” Vai says warmly, knowing better than to wave off the apology. ”And you can also get yourself to bed when I’m done here. You two are on bed rest until tomorrow, and I don’t want to hear a peep of an argument.” Smiling, she quickly replaces his hand with her own, magic already pulsing at her fingertips.
”He told me what happened. I’m sorry to hear about Sam. And the other Ascended...” Her brow furrows, Vai already soothing away the pain and trying to close up the wound. ”I know you’re rough enough in this world now not to care about scars, but would you like me to get rid of this one for you?” For the Star if not for the Lullaby.
Of course Remi grumbles at this, though like Vai, he knows better when to argue. There's no way they'll make it all the way until tomorrow (they'll starve long before that), but he's sure that they'll find ways of entertaining themselves until Vai has forgotten to be cross with them.
".mm...Nate." Remi offers, sighing gratefully as her magic begins to knit his skin back together. Instantly his shoulders release the tension he'd been carrying, and he takes a deeper breath than any he'd been able to manage in the last hour. Smiling fondly up at Vai, Remi nods at her question. "No record of this needed." He chuckles, before tilting his chin away from her again that she might completely smooth away the snarl of skin left by Sam's teeth.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”Nuh uh, no grumbling mister. I’ll leave dinner outside your door, and plenty enough snacks to keep you occupied.” Vai smirks, continuing to try and tease blood out of his hair as her magic gets to work. Her smile softens as he finally looks up at her, and she winks to him. ”I know who Nate is,” she assures him. ”I meant the Ascended in general. I wonder how many more of them are sick.”
Humming her agreement, she falls quiet to concentrate so she can wipe away all the evidence of this having happened, and soon enough she slips her hand away, leaving blood in her wake, but no scarring, no bite. ”Good as new,” she says, leaning in to kiss his forehead. ”Now off you go. No complaints.”
"Oh." Remi hums, brows furrowing slightly. Already his mind is a warm fog. Exhausted and now relieved of the pain in his neck, the alchemist might have slept right where he was on the floor had it not been for a presumably grumpy-Star waiting for him upstairs.
"None at all." He agrees, sitting up and reaching to tug Vai against his chest in a quick hug. "Thank you." For the healing. For removing the scars. For always knowing what he needed.
Clumsily getting to his feet and meandering up the stairs, Remi pushes open the door to their room with a slow and unhappy smile on his lips. "Just another reason I shouldn't be governor, really." He chuckles, immediately shedding his shirt and stepping out of his pants that he might flop into the bed next to Ronin. Assuming that his husband is a mixture of misplaced anger, frustration, protectiveness, the alchemist twists himself that he might force the huntsman into spooning him, making sure that there is enough skin contact for him to feel his husband's emotions rather than Ronin having to try and explain them.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin has already stripped off, buried under the blankets with his face pressed into a pillow as his husband enters the room. He makes a show of grumbling and wriggling and making it generally difficult for the Lullaby to get into place as little spoon, but it doesn’t take all that much encouragement for him to join in. His arms slip around Remi so he can gather him back against his chest, Ronin’s lips softly drawing a line down from a stubbled cheek to a neck still stained with dry blood.
His husband will feel that his assumptions are entirely correct; a flash of something hot with the memory of what Sam had done, a sour prickle about how he had acted towards Sunjata. And warm, velvet love overriding the rest, the Star letting out a long sigh against Remi’s neck. ”As long as you stay my husband, you can be whatever you like,” he mumbles against his skin, wrapping his arms around him further. ”I love you. I’m glad you’re alright.”
Despite Ronin's stiff limbs and grumbles, Remi wiggles, shifts, snuggles, and otherwise makes it impossible for his husband to do anything other than accept his position as big spoon. Pressed together as they are the alchemist feels as though he can finally breathe after the lengthy events of the day. "I'll never be anything else." The Lullaby agrees warmly, pressing his lips against the crook of Ronin's arm and sighing heavily into the warmth and familiar contours of the body around his.
"I'm sorry for what happened. I suppose I should have known it was a possibility with Sam being sick.." His voice trails off, knowing his apology won't quite hit the mark. There was nothing to apologize for in so far as he was Governor and as such he had a responsibility to the people of Torchline. Really, his apology was aimed more toward a blurry history which had been written long before he and Ronin were together, and for the strange emotional shackles, it still brought to bear. "More tired than I've been recently, but..Yes. I'm alright. Are you?"
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The kisses and the feel of his husband around him make all the difference, coaxing a smile from Ronin’s lips. He mumbles some incoherent declaration of love into Remi’s neck, shaking his head even as he begins to apologise. There’s a pulse of something like amusement, the Star nibbling at Remi’s collarbone as if in an echo of what had happened with Sam. ”It isn’t your fault. It was an accident... I overreacted.” But he meant it, what he said. About killing the Ascended if he sees him again.
Perhaps that will change in time, but not today. ”Exhausted,” he mumbles. ”But... yeah. I’m alright too. Just glad to have you here.” He snuggles further beneath the blankets, pressing little kisses all along Remi’s neck and shoulder. ”I think we’ve earned a nap. Don’t you?”
"I've seen you when you overreact." The alchemist chuckles. "That was just a...strong warning." And then, feeling that he couldn't bring himself to say the words out loud, adds: I think I actually sort of liked it. I've never seen you defensive of me like that before. It's a childish thing to find pleasure in, and probably not the healthiest that the alchemist is strangely drawn-in by his husband's show of possessiveness, abut Remi has never boasted emotional health.
"Considering Vai says we aren't to leave until at least midday tomorrow, I think a nap is a perfectly good place to start. Together?" Dreaming, of course. Obviously, they would nap together. "I've...been working on something I want to show you." Though his face is hidden from Ronin's gaze, there is a shy quality to it, his smile colouring the words a bashful sort of tone as he pulls the covers up to their ears.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
”Hopefully it’s a warning that he heeds well,” Ronin mutters, the words muffled against the blankets and the crook of Remi’s neck. There’s a wicked sort of smile on his face at the admission, the Star giving his husband a gentle squeeze and letting his eyes close. ”Brace yourself for LeafChange,” he mumbles, remembering the surge of protectiveness that came with last year. He has a feeling it will be worse this time around.
Grumbling something that’s deeply satisfied to hear that they’re on forced bed rest, Ronin nods softly. ”Together,” he agrees, eyebrows raising to hear Remi sound so bashful. ”Something you want to show me? How exciting.” Leaning in, he tries to capture the other man’s lips in a kiss, then burrows back beneath the covers. It won’t be long before he’s fast asleep, snoring into Remi’s curls.
The kiss Ronin receives is sluggish and sleepy, but heartfelt just the same. Together they tumble into a world of their own making. Not as restful as their sleep might otherwise be were it not spent together, still the alchemist wouldn't trade it for anything.
When Ronin finds the alchemist it will be in one of the strangest settings. A log cabin, not unlike the one Vai and Devrum lived in together so very long ago, stands sentinel amongst a hoard of towering fir trees interspersed with aspens perpetually donning autumn leaves. The house is tethered to an emerald-coloured lake via a dock and a sandy strip of beach that has no business being as smooth or white as it is, in the middle of a forest. In this lake is a houseboat that, there is no reason to believe it has the ability to do so, makes you think that were you to climb aboard, it could take you to an ocean. Mountains seem to border everything, and yet there's an overwhelming sense of space.
On a wrap-around porch is the alchemist, whittling something and looking far more ruggedly handsome than he has any right to (that normally being Ronin's domain of things). "I'd thought...since it might be a while until we had somewhere perfectly our own that...maybe we could have it here." Like he had been while they were both awake, Remi seems strangely bashful and timid of this idea, as if waiting for Ronin to force some sense into him.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
When Ronin finds the alchemist, he’s strolling across the glassy lake on bare feet, his toes touching the water yet not sinking into it even an inch. Remi does look ruggedly handsome, and of all the wonder and perfection that rises around them in great branches and mountain crags, it’s his husband who has stolen all of his attention. Ronin, by comparison, seems rather well put together, as if he and the Lullaby at working at charming opposites; apart from the bare feet he’s immaculately dressed, even wearing a cravat for the occasion.
Rather than offering him words in response, the Star leans in for a kiss that should hopefully say it all. And just in case, when he finally draws back, he gives him the words anyway. ”That is one of the finest ideas you have ever, ever had,” he informs him, whispering the words against his lips. ”This is incredible. You are incredible. I love you so much.”
