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!
Perhaps it's precisely because it's literally his mind running away with him, that Ronin's fingers on his hip and roaming up his chest make Remi's vision temporarily go rather blurry at the edges. He wouldn't go so far to say he's seeing stars, but he's certainly seeing one. "You poor thing." Remi hums, lowering himself that he might continue to lament Ronin's awful situation through kisses against his husband's collar bones.
It's only Ronin's tone of voice and the wine-stained mulberry of his emotions that stills Remi's mind from taking the pressure on his hip and running with it. "You've got an entire city to distract yourself with...but I've Mateo and Ianto." Remi's bubble was smaller to be sure, but it was more genuine. All the flashy things and fleeting pleasures from sex and alcohol couldn't compare to being able to hear their son's laughs (and cries). Even Ianto, temptation though he was, was more of a comfort than he was a nuisance.
'Well, then start pulling off those petals." With his legs easily supporting his weight, Remi hovers over Ronin that he might use both hands to cup the Star's face. "And I'll see what there is to be done about the goddess. Hopefully we can meet in the middle."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin hums his agreement, soaking up the affection and sympathy and letting his subconscious all but drown in it, like it might recharge the parts of him that miss Remi the most. It will last for as long as the dream does, and honestly? That's enough right now, Ronin turning his head to kiss the inside of Remi's wrist and huffing out a long sigh, eyes closing for a moment or two.
"How is Mateo?" he asks, almost nervous about it. He's always nervous about asking after their son, knowing that whatever Remi says, it's only a fraction of the changes he know will have come over the boy since Ronin saw him last.
Still, he can always count on his husband to draw a smile out of him, Ronin blinking back up at the Lullaby and nodding. "It's a deal," he says quietly. "I'll make sure I pull the rest of those petals in the next couple of days."
"Doing well. It's getting colder in the Woods, and he isn't a fan of being as bundled up as he needs to be." Flashing Ronin a smile as the inside of his wrists are softly adored, Remi sighs. "He likes to run around naked, just like you." The alchemist adds with gentle laughter. He can obviously feel the Star's discomfort, but he doesn't comment on it. Instead he all but releases a dam of softly flowing reassurance. 'You aren't a bad man, or a bad father, for not being here now.' The alchemist says, voice soft and eyes hesitantly seeking out the stormy blues of Ronin's eyes. "Not for one second."
'Pluck them off all at once. Maybe it's like a bandaid that way?" Remi suggests, knowing not at all what it was actually like save for the hazy emotions and imagery he felt from Ronin. 'You can't do one here, can you?'
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin can't help but smile to hear about their son, and the world around them warms and softens as well with the Star's love for both the Lullaby and the boy he's left behind. Still, all the reassurance in the world can't ease the knot of leaden guilt in his stomach, and he lets out a long breath and shrugs. "It feels like I am," he mutters, glancing up just as hesitantly to meet Remi's eyes. "I have three children - somehow - and I've never seen any of them grow up."
His hand comes up to cover Remi's, his kisses moving from wrist to fingertips, and slowly they begin to sink into the moss. It's set to swallow them up into warmth and love and darkness until the Lullaby mentions trying to pluck some of the flower petals here, and he arches an eyebrow. "I suppose it might work...?" He sounds uncertain, Ronin focusing hard before a bloom with deep red petals appears in his free hand. "Might just be a dream flower," he mumbles. "A memory of the one in my room."
'Yes, well." Remi begins, ready to wave away Ronin's worry with the brush of his lips. Falling silent though, what the Star says next is like a kick to the gut, and not even Remi, once nauseatingly optimistic, would try and smooth this over.
Three. And all taken away from him, for one reason or another.
"Gods." Remi mumbles through suddenly dry lips, exhaling a puff of sorrow. "Well, you will see Mateo grow up. A few months you've had to miss, but it..." doesn't matter? Because of course it did. "..you'll be with us, soon."
Like being enveloped in the earth—a sensation the alchemist rather likes the idea of—Remi turns to see the bloom as it appears in his husband's hand. "Might be. Now if only one of us could turn memories into real things..." So saying, Remi holds out a hand in which another red bloom appears, this one crafted directly from Ronin's mind. "Well?"
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Come hell or high water," Ronin vows quietly, directing a sad smile up at Remi and leaning into the touch of his hand, the feel of him all around. He's twirling the bloom thoughtfully between his fingers when his husband is, of course, an actual genius, and Ronin raises his eyebrows at the identical flower that appears. "Well," he says softly, "I can hardly snub this opportunity, can I?" An easier smile curls across his lips now, and the Star carefully sits himself up; the earth rises against his back so he might lean more comfortably, Remi still in his lap so Ronin can keep him close.
His dream-flower has disappeared by now, the Star reaching out for the real thing, wondering what horrors this next adventure might hold. "At least if it's something really bad, I've got you to hold me down," he reasons, leaning in for a soft kiss. "Shall we?"
'You could...but why? We haven't had any real excitement in ages." Real, because if this worked, for once it would be a dream where they weren't entirely in control (finn-capades aside).
Grinning like the boyish idiot he was, happy to plunge over a cliff with his husband's hand in his, Remi just shrugs and nods. "Really bad, huh? Maybe it'll be another horny flower." He suggests encouragingly, wrapping his legs all the tighter around Ronin (the earth at his husband's lower back easily giving way to his bare feet). Returning the Star's kiss, Remi turns his gaze toward the flower and nods like it was some present he couldn't wait to have opened.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Are you saying we're boring?" Ronin gasps dramatically, looking thoroughly horrified at that thought. Not on their lives would there be a dull moment. And luckily enough, here comes a magical flower to spice things up right at the opportune time. With a sigh that betrays the amount of love he feels for his husband, and the comfort he draws from his presence, Ronin reluctantly peels his arm from around Remi so he can focus on the bloom between his fingertips.
"A horny flower, mm?" He grins, his hips arching up to meet Remi's, and he settles back feeling more content than he has any right to as he begins to pluck away the petals, in a loves-me, loves-me-not sort of gesture. As he proceeds, however, Ronin's expression fades to something the Lullaby will likely recognise; silent brooding becomes blank, careful fury, and gods this would be much more difficult a couple of years before. But Ronin is a surprisingly deft hand at chewing and swallowing his anger.
Still, it doesn't stop the world around them from changing and warping; soon enough they sit in the bleak ruin of the Temple in the Grounds, the roof caved in, the shrine asunder. Outside, a soft rain patters. "It was a different sort of flower," Ronin mutters, a muscle feathering in his jaw.
"Why not? Maybe Safrin really wanted to make sure you could handle being in two places at once. Four heads to deal with?" Remi grins, winding his arms around the Star even as Ronin has to peel himself away to pluck the petals from the red bloom.
Deft as Ronin might be at hiding his emotions, Remi's magic blows right past his defences easy as a breeze. The fury he feels welling inside of his husband hasn't started off slow, but is already white as a pulsar, pounding and humming. 'So it makes you...angry. Furious, even." Remi wonders. He can feel how tense Ronin has become beneath him, and deadly as the Star can be, the alchemist doesn't bother to try and put any distance between them.
"Furious sex is still a thing. As is furious eating." The Lullaby offers, feeling absolutely weightless in the face of his husband's storm-like anger.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin, much as he wants to make a quip back at his husband, is too busy riding the wave of anger that washes through him; above them, through a hole in the Temple roof that he's brought down, stars collide and implode, much as the Star himself is prone to do. Drawn tight as a bowstring and rigid as his husband drapes around him, Ronin also doesn't attempt to put distance between them. He nods quiet affirmation to the other man's assumption, even as the Temple around them begins to disintegrate further, balling itself up and tearing itself apart of its own accord.
There are visions dancing in the destruction, too - the Star giving in to every furious urge that has ever seized him, dark and murderous as they might be. Amalia, Cian, Safrin, Skyler, Zariah, Loren... the parade goes on and on. Only at the suggestion of furious sex does Ronin glance up, a quiet huff of a laugh leaving him. "Only you would have your mind in the gutter right now," he growls, surging up for a hard and passionate kiss nonetheless.
Remi can feel the tight weight of Ronin's fury as it balls and twists inside. The ruins of the world around them are evidence enough of what happens when the Star lets himself go. And yet in a dream, he's as safe to detonate as he ever will be.
"Mm, or yo—" Remi is about to point out when Ronin's mouth is suddenly against his, his husband's hastiness and residual fury passionate enough to draw blood from the alchemist's lip. "Burn, then Dark Star." The Lullaby encourages, not sure if this is part of what Ronin is meant to do or not. There is controlling oneself to be sure, but there is also knowing when it is best to let go. If the years have shown anything at all, other than the unreliability of the gods, is that there's no storm too large for the two to weather. No words too cruel, no actions too reprehensible.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin doesn't think he's ever heard Remi call him by the moniker the world has bestowed on him, and it sends a shudder running up the length of his spine. His hands return to Remi's thighs, squeezing him closer even as he kisses away the blood he's drawn with bruising force. Burn he does, the fractured light within him needing very little to detonate entirely, and the world fills with blinding, white heat. Nothing is safe save for the man in his arms, and dust and ruin remain where once a broken temple stood.
"I hate this place," he mutters when he has sense enough to speak, his forehead resting against Remi's, his voice little more than a quiet growl. "The Grounds, I mean. I'd tear it off the world, if I could." Too much pain lays in wait in the Hollowed Grounds, from failed kingships to dead daughters to blights and spires and long nights and burning guildhouses.
Remi replaces broken rubble with stars and galaxies, such that when the light inevitably fades, the pair will be adrift in the cold of space, where Ronin might find some respite from his rage.
The taste of blood is all too commonplace between them now. Not normally like this to be sure, but not enough to jar the alchemist's mind away from the flow of his husband's emotions. "I do too. If I thought it was dead before, it's ruined, now." When Amalia and Deimos, Jigano and Rexanna had been at the helm of it all, the land was healing. Gone now as they were, dead or just in new places, it was decaying. Rotting.
"It's like a scar that will never heal." Both metaphorically and literally. "I'll never get over, or get past the things that happened there." The monsters. Aoife. Rexanna. Loren. Ronin dying.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The stars and galaxies do meet their end under Ronin's fury, and it's something he throws himself into with utter abandon. Relatively calm as he might be with his husband in his lap, bloodied kisses aside, the world they've created without suffers under the Star's rage. Black holes suck all light and matter into their yawning void; galaxies crumble; comets and meteors collide with unsuspecting planets; suns explode and wink out entirely.
And soon enough they really are adrift in the cold black of space, Ronin's head flopping to rest on his husband's shoulder. Quite when he started trembling he doesn't know, but it doesn't stop the chasm around them from swallowing itself into oblivion. "I couldn't, even if I tried," he mutters about the things that happened in the Hollowed grounds. "Every time I take a step forward, the Grounds comes back to bite me again." He lets out a shuddering sigh.
