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!
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
And just like that he was back in the Greatwood. Only Ronin wasn't at his side, and the Lullaby was no longer in the mood for a nap. It was infuriating how perfectly normal everything looked. How the Wishing Wagon had the audacity to look calm about the whole thing. How Mateo was, presumably, pleasantly asleep within despite the fact that his father had been thrust to the other side of the continent.
But Remi had enough fury to compensate for the entire world it felt like. In a body which could scarcely be called human, the half-leonine man reached for the nearest tree with claws extended. Raking them down the trunk and shearing off thick bark as he went, Remi roared an inhuman sound of fury and pain into the afternoon, causing a few birds to grumpily take flight. When one of his claws broke down to the quick, blood dribbling down his finger, instead of quitting, the alchemist instead clenched his hand into a fist and punched the tree, shredding away skin nearly down to the bone.
Still shirtless and with his wings curled around his shoulders as if to hide the brutality he was inflicting on the tree, Remi worked himself into a primal frenzy to rival the state he'd found himself in with Ronin that morning.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Foxes will not do well against lions. Ever. Not in any sense of the word. And if nothing else happens in whatever is to come from all of this, perhaps one thing might strike true in Remi's senses - the startled cries of a newborn, torn from sleep by a roar of savagery that echoes throughout the woodlands. The cries settle by degrees, of course, because Mateo is never left alone, but when Ianto appears at the entrance of the Wishing Wagon, he honestly thinks someone has died.
And when there's no sign of Ronin... Well.
"Remi," he hisses into the night, not wanting to be too loud - and besides, he's not able to see the state of the alchemist with his wings shielding him so well. "What's happening?"
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
It is the sound of Mateo's cries, and likely those alone, which still Remi's arms and save the tree from his wrath. With the blood pounding in his ears and all the words he might have said against Vi and Mort screaming through his mind, it takes a moment or so for him to properly hear Ianto. Once he does, the alchemist turns his head marginally looking over his shoulder. There are flecks of blood on his cheek and a faraway look in his pale stare. For a moment he does nothing but glare over his shoulder, before turning his body and letting his fingers fall down to his sides.
With hands bloody and raw, his torso covered with dirt, bits of bark, and red smears, the only bits of Remi left cleansed at this point are the tear-tracks which have stolen down his cheeks leaving them painfully clear.
"Ronin is gone." Remi replies in a hollow voice, his eyes not meeting the fox's, but hovering somewhere around his chest. "The...Mort and Vi...they.." Swaying slightly on his feet before leaning back and striking the trunk of the tree hard, Remi sinks down, tearing out a handful of feathers from his back against the bark as he does so. "..He's in Stormbreak. And I'm...to remain here."
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
For a few moments Ianto does nothing, watching Remi with obvious tension in his body, like he's not sure what the other man is about to do and he can't tell whether or not he's in danger. But when the alchemist thuds against the tree and slides down it (drawing a wince from the fox to see the feathers torn away), he takes a tentative few steps down to the ground, like he's trying to test things out.
Hearing the news, his blue eyes widen, and he glances over his shoulder back into the wagon. "But..." he begins, knowing Remi will have already thought of it all. But you have a newborn son; but you only just got out here; but you have been looking forward to this for years. Remi already knows it all, and it definitely won't help to air it all again.
"We need to clean you up," he says, beckoning him towards the wagon. "You... can't you both dream together? You can see him again as soon as you want to."
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
The alchemist doesn't move. He doesn't really see Ianto, instead looking through him. It's better that way, probably. Safer, in more than one respect. Curling part of his lip up in a sneer, Remi finally raises his eyes toward the fox. 'You sound like Ronin.' He muses. That morning when they'd been oh so worried about cleaning up, feeling as though it happened months and months prior.
The mention of being able to dream together sets Remi's teeth on edge. He wants to scream at Ianto, to rise off of the ground and knock the fox unconscious that he might see for himself what the dream world holds. How hollow it can seem when everything is at your fingertips and you know that the warmth you feel is only a creation of your own mind. He doesn't do either of these things of course, instead exhaling a weary and painful breath. 'Yes.' He says through slightly clenched teeth, clearly not comforted at all.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Remi doesn't have to do or say anything for Ianto to flinch, knowing the other man well enough (even now that he has more power than sense) to know when his words are twisting knives he can't see. "I don't know what to tell you," he says softly. "I'm not Ronin, much as I would love to be able to trade myself with him so he could be here for you and your boy. But... I'm not." He shrugs, ruffling a hand through his red hair.
"I'm gonna go inside and make some tea, and start dinner. I think you should stay out here as long as you need to. Do... whatever you need to. I rocked Mateo back to sleep - he's fine." He smiles gently, backing up again to the wagon. He's not keen to get within arm's reach of Remi while he's in this sort of temper.
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Remi shakes his head a touch at that, unable to deflate his anger enough to be soothed by the fox's words. He can appreciate the sentiment well enough, though he isn't able to feel the calming effects it might otherwise have. All he hears is that the fox isn't his husband, which is both precisely what he needs to be reminded of, and also acid against his frayed nerves.
Remi's wings fall limply at his side, a squirrel edging toward the bloody beast and risking its life to steal a feather with which to line its burrow. Hardly noticing, the Lullaby just absently bobs his head, before his eyes refocus and he's able to give the fox a properly broken and hopeless look. "Yeah..I'll...uhm..I'll be in to help in.." A minute? A while? Gods, but he doesn't know.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Take as long as you need, Remi," Ianto murmurs to the other man, smiling sadly back at him and retreating into the wagon. The sound of him pottering about; the whistle of the kettle, the chopping of vegetables, the sound of a little Fae ditty (undoubtedly for Mateo's benefit) trundling out of the wagon at intervals. Once he's set soup on to cook and bubble away, he returns to the wagon steps with two cups of tea in hand. Sitting on the top step, he keeps one, placing the other beside him in case Remi feels like he wants to partake.
He also brings a first aid kit, something well-stocked but rarely needed in the Wishing Wagon since Ronin had been there. That was something that would probably change within a few days, too. Less, actually, given the state of the other man when Ianto had first spotted him.
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Remi watches Ianto retreat into the wagon the way one might watch a mist over a lake. It's without real thought or attention, and yet distantly the alchemist is aware that the fox has left. He's aware too of the sounds and smells coming from inside the wagon, though he can't seem to find the energy to make himself move. The cuts on his back from the tree are tiny annoyances; his hands are in a terrible state, but Remi hardly has the heart to care.
Eventually, Ianto returns, and Remi regards him with a dull green stare that suggests that the alchemist has fallen into a vague state of shock. He looks from the fox's blue stare, to the steaming cup of tea at his side, and then back up again, seemingly not comprehending any of it.
"This was about how old Aoife was when Ronin was gone before, too." Remi says, swallowing hard and curling in a leg as if meaning to stand up. It takes him a moment before he finally forces himself to stand, a few more feathers falling away from his back as he rises.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ianto is careful not to look at Remi at first, sipping at his tea and idly sorting through the bandages, dressings, various antiseptic solutions and whatnot, until the alchemist is the first to speak. Glancing back up at him, he softens somewhat, at least feeling more comfortable in approaching the other man when he's like this. "You two can't catch a break," he remarks, the sadness in his voice making his accent heavier. Slipping from the wagon step, he pats it as if to invite Remi to sit instead. It would make it easier to look him over.
"So you don't know when you're going to be able to see each other properly again? What... actually happened, Remi? Mort, Vi... it was that big a thing?" His brow furrows, and his coward senses start to tingle. Ianto desperately wants to run from this.
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Remi doesn't want to be that guy. The guy who says, it's been so hard for us. They aren't the only couple to have endured the blight, two rounds of leadership, death, opposite demi-god motivations and goals, the death of a child, another round of crazy sickness...oh no wait, they are. "No," Remi agrees softly, wanting very much to simply collapse next to the fox, draw his knees up to his chest, and cry. Instead, his wings disappear (he hisses a breath in as they fold back into his skin, leaving bloody traces down his back and torn skin), he carefully takes a seat next to the fox.
"We were just...I was going to nap with Mateo..Ronin was making tea and suddenly we were somewhere else. Ludo and Safrin were there—Frey too—and the other demigods. And then they came." Rae, and Mort, and Vi. The alchemist scowls down at his feet. "Something about stopping the ascended. About the Order in Stormbreak, and creating a defensive hub in the woods. And then they just.." Raising bloodied fingers, Remi waves them before his eyes. "..just sent us off. Delphia and I are to remain here, Ronin and Amalia to stay in Stormbreak."
He bites the inside of his cheek, pulling in a breath and furrowing his brows as he gazes at the grasses below the steps. "I said no, as if that mattered. Mort said something about doing this for Mateo, about the greater good, I think." He gives his head a slight shake. He'd stopped listening at that point, once it was clear that neither he nor Ronin were being asked.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Drink the tea. I put a shitload of honey and rum in it," Ianto advises, nodding at the cup; there's more in Remi's than in his own, but he's pretty sure that's called for. "Will you let me look at your hands, too?" The sooner they're bandaged, the better. Remi probably won't even know he's hurt himself in a couple of days, with the kind of superhuman shit he's got going on. But still - now is not the time to tempt fate.
Ianto listens as he explains it all, as he gets the shock out of his system and sets the story as it happened, the fox worrying his lower lip between his teeth and cutting appropriate lengths of bandages, soaking cloths with antiseptic. "I am so sorry," he whispers. Not even given a chance to say goodbye. And for Ronin, not even getting to see Mateo one last time... The fox lets out a long huff of a sigh.
"A defensive hub." He wrinkles his nose. He doesn't know he likes the sound of that.
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Remi glances at the mug, not wanting much of anything right now, but also not really having the will to argue anymore. Wordlessly he reaches for it, raising it to his lips and taking a mouthful. Succeeding in burning his tongue, Remi winkles his nose and shoots the fox a miserable look, as if he might have been warned first.
"Look away." The alchemist mumbles under his breath, holding out hands that look as though they've been trying to make love to a cheese grater. Quickly though and causing a riot of pain to flash behind Remi's eyes, the alchemist pulls them back. "You.." Wanting very much to rub at his eyes but having to refrain, Remi just sighs miserably. "I'll feel everything you're feeling if you touch me." He says on the exhale. "And you'll feel everything I do too, if I'm not careful."
Nodding appropriately at the apology, lulled by the sound of tearing cloth, Remi just shrugs. "Mhmm. Since the ascended have taken over the Grounds it...I suppose it's meant to be a strategic decision, to have something so close. But I wouldn't know, having never been a soldier." He grumbles, his hackles rising as do a flurry of feathers in his curls.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ianto shoots Remi equally as horrified a look in return for being shown his hands. He wants to reiterate the sentiment, only the alchemist had warned him. And it was still awful. He's about to reach for them when the other man's warning rings in his ears, the fox raising a brow and chewing at the inside of his cheek, before shrugging. "Then be careful," he suggests, trying for his usual cheer but it's a little half baked.
He does reach for the other man's hands, then, warning him about the stinging antiseptic before attempting to clean the ruins of his fingers and palms. Remi will feel a strong pulse of concern from Ianto, about the immediate state of him mingled with everything he's just gone through, and a great deel of sadness and empathy. It's all platonic, though, his once-feelings for the alchemist replaced by a friendship that he's honestly much more comfortable with.
Working deftly, he starts to wrap his hands up in bandages, muttering some Fae curse under his breath about strategic decisions and whatever. "Well," he says. "Luckily, your husband is a soldier. And unlike last time, with Aoife, he isn't gone. Not really. He's just away, and I imagine he can't wait to speak with you."
