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 hadn't realized how different this felt." Days, and weeks, and months of being apart, and the alchemist had forgotten how Ronin actually felt. Their dreaming seemed so hollow compared to all of this, and the heat that swims up from Remi's belly is encased in a jubilant layer of love.
Raising his hands, still covered in a fine layer of soft mulch from the trench he'd been working on before he'd fallen asleep, Remi places his palms against Ronin's cheeks. His fingertips softly rain down the sides of Ronin's face, his expression still one of disbelief. "Well, you're always a stupid man." Had Ronin's eyes always been so blue? Always so full of light?
Carefully but deligently, Remi leans forward to kiss Ronin. It's a kiss that worries this might be all that they'll have, that Remi will suddenly be tugged back to the Woods after. It's a kiss that wonders how much time they'll have like this, and yearns to make the most of it. It's a kiss that's soft and ravenous that threatens to go on forever were the need to breathe not suddenly in the way. Distantly the alchemist can feel his cheeks flush and crackle with heat as his fingertips lace forward into Ronin's hair.
Table by sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Especially with you. You're a bad influence on me," Ronin tells him, a helpless smile on his face as he lets his eyes flicker over the alchemist in turn. He can see where Remi has recently tried to clean himself up, but he's still a far cry from the dream that's projected when they are together in their subconscious. And never has the Star thought that reality could be so much better than dreaming, but with the weight of the other man in his lap, the smell of earth and the feel of scars and muscle, it's almost enough to swamp him completely.
Ronin melts against Remi's lips, a soft thrum of pleasure escaping his throat, and it's with tingling fingers that he feels his way down the Lullaby's back, letting his hands settle on his hips. He wants to be covered completely by this man, to wrap himself up in his love and need and never come out again, and it's with lips gone numb that he parts just for a second, as if to say just that.
But when he glances up at Remi to see flushed cheeks and a body that hasn't felt this real in a long, long time, words fail him. Ronin leans in again, pulling the other man closer as he silences them with another kiss, fire already kindling low in his belly.
don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive
"You can't possibly blame me this time." Remi tries to scold, but the words are undermined entirely by his boyish smile and the way he can't seem to take in a breath large enough to compensate for the way Ronin keeps stealing his.
Adorably lost between knowing exactly what he wants to do with Ronin, and also amusingly bashful about it, Remi meets the Star's gaze with a boyish uncertainty. Had this been years and years ago in Northaven that the pair had gotten together, they might have had an encounter almost just like this. Both so sure and slow, the moment strange and unexpected.
Perhaps that's why there is suddenly the flutter of butterfly's wings in his stomach as Ronin closes the distance between them again, and tugs Remi forward. Releasing one hand from around Ronin's shoulder to roughly brace it against the wall so as not to completely collapse, he does unlock his legs from around the Star that Ronin might be able to lean back again. Already outside there are the sounds of the other soldiers waking up and starting their day, and though he's no power over them in this place, still Remi's mind wishes them away just the same.
"Gods I've missed being touched by you." Remi murmurs against the Star's lips. Though he could just as easily have stopped after being touched. Ronin will feel goosebumps rise from beneath even the most mundane of touches as the Lullaby's body reacts in obvious and demanding ways to the Star's wandering hands.
Table by sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
There are no butterflies for Ronin, though that is by no means an indication of a lack of feeling. For the Star it's like a ball of tension unravelling in the pit of his stomach - it makes every nerve electric and he's lightheaded at best, even as he takes his time in reminding himself what it's like to share a kiss with Remi. Lean back he does, snatching sips of air whenever he remembers, the fingers of one hand threading slowly and carefully into curls that barely feel real.
"I've missed touching you," he mumbles back, the sound of soldiers awakening a distant and unimportant thing. He's got better plans for his morning; indeed, even as he feels gooseflesh prickle in the wake of his touches, he's in no hurry to thoroughly rediscover Remi's body.
His fingertips pass in slow, warm strokes along the Lullaby's side and curl more tightly in his hair, before moving elsewhere on their journey. From firm explorations of well-muscled shoulders to featherlight tickles over his sternum, the Star is clearly unaware of his own potential to overwhelm Remi - he is both patient and greedy as he seeks to run his hands over every available part of his husband, and the need for more is damn near overwhelming.
don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive
01-15-2021, 02:03 AM (This post was last modified: 01-15-2021, 02:03 AM by Remi.)
REMI
Surprisingly, perhaps, Remi is wonderfully boyish and almost naive in his longing for his husband. For all the times that the Lullaby is predatory and primal, there will always be something about Ronin that brings out the unexpected in him. So it's with flushed cheeks and bright sea-glass eyes that he regards his husband, rather than with large leonine pupils. "Ronin, I haven't.." He mumbles clumsily, shifting a pillow behind the Star and then drawing in a swift breath as Ronin's hands are on his chest. There are years between them now, and rather amusingly at this point, this isn't the first time they've been away from each other for a prolonged time. Ronin knows exactly what (or who) Remi has or hasn't done, which is precisely to say no one.
In only his underwear (he had been asleep in his own bed after all), it's likely the flood of bashful emotions that Remi radiates as much as it's the tent in his pants that communicates what his lips are no longer able to. "—we don't—" He manages through sips of air and the magnetic pull of Ronin's lips. "—I'm fine without—"
Table by sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Why not? It’s the first question Ronin wants to ask and it’s probably a good thing that his tongue his busy; he’d be lying if he said that the admission didn’t cause guilt to curl in the pit of his stomach (it does nothing to stop the heat there, though). He’d been out here in Stormbreak using sex and booze as a crutch, and Remi? Well, he was sure they’d talk about it in time.
For now it’s all the Star can do to pull his husband closer, as if to make up for it, and his fingers are already sneaking across Remi’s lower back and slipping into the waistband of his underwear when the snippets of sentences reach his ears. ”Are you?” he wonders between kisses. Is Remi fine without (whatever punctuates the end of that sentence)?
Either way, Ronin is here regardless, though he can’t stop the way he wants to arch into the man in his lap; Remi isn’t the only one wearing very little, and the Lullaby already knows all too well exactly what he does to his husband. ”Whatever you want,” Ronin manages eventually, wanting nothing more than to keep him close. How close is up to the other man.
don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive
"—I just—" What he wants is deliciously hard to separate from the heat which has taken over his entire body. He feels relaxed and pulled taut in all the right ways, and it's only with the sort of restraint he used to show in Northaven that Remi remains where he is. "You're what I want." He says with a breathless and instant laugh, his cheeks growing an even more obvious shade of pink. "But it won't be good. Or..last." This is added with a helpless and hard swallow, feeling like he owed Ronin so much more than the lacklustre performance that he was currently capable of.
Table by sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
With a huff of breathless laughter that simultaneously understands his husband's plight but also can't believe they're in a position where this might be embarrassing to discuss, Ronin merely leans in to press a kiss to Remi's lips. "We'll have to rip off that bandaid at some point," he mumbles. "The fact that you woke up in bed with me is better than any sex we do or don't end up having."
His arms tighten further around his husband, pressing him closer and inhaling sharply as he unintentionally grinds his hips against Remi's. "Though I'd be lying if I said I stand much of a chance of a stellar performance either," he admits.
don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive
"I know, I still can't believe I'm here—" The words are sharply ended by the sound of Remi's teeth clicking together as Ronin's movements cause their bodies to pivot and press delightfully against one another. Closing his eyes as if that might help him focus (it doesn't), what Ronin says next has a shaky grin parting the alchemist's lips.
"Well if we're both going to be shit, might as well." Whatever humour there had been is quickly gone once the trajectory of the next few minutes has been decided. Hasty as any schoolboy, Remi leans forward to capture his husband's lips in a series of kisses which have increased dramatically in their need and unfettered desire. With the hand not braced against the wall, Remi pulls at his underwear, managing only to remove it from one of his legs. But one is enough to free his erection and he hasn't the attention span to worry about the fabric now twisted around his ankle.
Table by sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"It's something to laugh about later at leas--" Ronin is cut off by kisses and the feel of the man in his lap moving deliciously against him, and that's really all there is to it for now. The sound of the soldiers' footsteps in the corridor outside fades away, replaced by a curious static in Ronin's ears punctuated by sips of air and the shift of fabric. It's even more difficult for the Star to free himself of his underwear, and he huffs a boyish laugh against Remi's lips when he finally manages it.
"I love you," he purrs, his fingers plunging into messy curls so he might ease Remi's head back enough to kiss his neck, his free hand already seeking his husband's cock to move along its length in slow, hard strokes.
don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive
This isn't a room that calls for romance; the Star and Lullaby's hasty and youthful tugging of their clothing seems to fit the vibe of the soldier's quarters quite nicely.
Gasping with breathless anticipation and then release as Ronin's fingers are finally upon him, Remi both tenses and shivers as his toes curl against the thin bedding linen strewn around them. "I love you too." The words are strained, tugged as they are through small gasps of breath. Already Remi's estimate of how long he might last is being proved laughably wrong as lightning crackles in the base of his spine and the balls of his feet.
"Gods, just fuck me already." He pleads as his hand drops away from the wall so that he might reposition himself at a proper right angle to the man beneath him.
Table by sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Like you even have to ask," Ronin mumbles against Remi's neck, the other man's words sending a pulse of exquisite heat through his belly. His free hand wanders down now to give Remi's ass a very appreciative fondle, before slipping further to grip his thigh as he repositions himself. With a moan that borders on bliss, the Star eases himself in, his fingers squeezing against the other man's length.
For all of Remi's warnings, and for all that Ronin has been able to find release in Stormbreak, none of his encounters come close to this. It's better than dreaming, Ronin thrusting hard and deep and without a thought for stamina. Remi might disappear at any second, and he'll be damned if they get ripped away from each other before they're done here.
don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive
Remi doesn't know where he is. To be fair, he hadn't really known anyway, but as Ronin's cock enters him, the world fades away into a crackling white tinged with buds of purple that radiate and pulse with every thrust. Were this a dream there would be an earthen ceiling for Remi to dig his claws into for purchase and release. Here, in reality, there is only white plaster which is out of reach, leaving the alchemist blissfully confined to the here and now.
Wrapping his legs around the Star's thighs that the shifting and rise of his hips might be added into the dance of his husband's body, Remi sinks entirely into the moment without concern for what sounds the soldier's outside might be treated to or how long the moment would last. There would be more of this for the rest of their lives, and hasty though this might be, it was real.
Within the wellspring of passion and wildfire-desire that bubbles and broils within the alchemist, is a white-hot core of unyielding love for the Star. Remi's magic lets it spill out and over, mixing with the relief and blinding love he feels from Ronin in return.
Table by sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Putting the physical aside, it's Remi's magic that is ultimately Ronin's undoing. He has missed this more than he might have ever anticipated, feeling anchored to the alchemist in a way that goes beyond words, beyond actions even. The other man's feelings roar through him such that there's giddy laughter wanting to rise up in the back of Ronin's throat, and he hitches in a breath against the crook of Remi's shoulder.
The soldiers might as well be in another world by now; the room barely exists for the Star now - there's only Remi and the tangle of their bodies, the tight pressure surging up the backs of his legs and through his core. "Fuck," he hisses into skin that smells like earth and spices, his thrusts already growing frenzied and urgent. "Gods, Remi - you're too much."
don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive
