Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
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"He's a stick in the mud who has to learn how to have fun," Ronin counters cheerfully regarding Sunjata and his status as a good friend to have. It's not that the Star disagrees with her one bit - he doesn't - but it doesn't mean he can't get some good natured ribbing in there while he's at it. A shame that Sunjata isn't around to hear it; never mind, Ronin will undoubtedly tell him at some point in the near future.
"My daughter," Ronin repeats; enough time has passed for him to feel comfortable speaking about it, regardless of the fact that it had nearly broken him when Seren had first arrived, unexpectedly and accidentally into his life. While Aurelia gets her head around it in a way that isn't unlike Ronin on that first night, the Star occupies himself with grabbing a fresh bottle of liquor - rum, vodka, whiskey, he hasn't really checked.
"Well," he replies, cracking open the bottle and taking a drink, holding it out for Aurelia, "I wasn't really keen to have any more daughters with Safrin, if you catch my drift. I tried to be diplomatic about it, but that's not really possible with a goddess. So I have a lot of making up to do."
Ronin hasn't noticed the fire either - not yet, anyway. It'll be fine, surely.
02-24-2021, 08:48 PM (This post was last modified: 02-24-2021, 08:49 PM by Aurelia.)
but if you're broken
Aurelia barks out a short laugh at that, "Well, for what it's worth, I think he at least tries." For example, the wedding; it would have been a fun occasion filled with supportive friends and probably dancing or whatever Torchliners did for that sort of thing. But... for some reason, it hadn't turned out so perfect.
Ronin retrieving another bottle is barely acknowledged until he holds it out for her to drink from as well. Shit. Her head is already starting to feel swimmy, considering she's gotten a head start on this. She hesitates, thinking about declining, but she's got that 'fuck it' energy about her so she'd sooner take another drink and hand it back to him. This one makes her splutter and cough. It's definitely vodka and, as she's just found out, she doesn't like it very much. "Nasty," she frowns, wiping her lips with the end of one sleeve.
The fire in the distance catches onto stray garbage {and clothes} left behind but, to Aurelia, it appears as if it's another bonfire. So she doesn't pay it much mind herself, more wrapped up in their conversation.
Swallowing the information, Aurelia goes on to say, "I'd imagine she thinks you owe her... a lot. Bringing you back to life, making you a demi-god, having your child. Couldn't you just wear a condom?" Her lips twerk up at that and she grins humorously, "Probably not, I'm guessing?"
"What will you do to try to get back in her good graces?" She asks both out of curiosity and for her own note-taking purposes, adding, "Something tells me it'd take more than flattery."
"Oh, of course he tries. But just because you try at something it doesn't mean you're good at it." Ronin laughs, though it's safe to say that he's good natured in his ribbing of the Flood. That's what friends are for and all that jazz. Raising his eyebrows at the somewhat visceral reaction to the vodka in the bottle, he can't help but grin at Aurelia. Pleasantly buzzed himself by now, he's not fussy about what he's drinking on a good day, let alone at a bonfire in the middle of LongNight.
He does owe Safrin a lot, and there's no defence that Ronin really has for it, the Star rubbing at the back of his neck. "Not so easy with a goddess," he says of protection, but he appreciates the lighthearted take on it. "And you'd be surprised, but flattery is precisely the direction I'm going in. Safrin likes to be appreciated, and perhaps I haven't done such a good job lately. So that's my angle, at least at first."
Finally, the fire catches his attention, flickering amber causing him to glance across the beach. "Oh fuck." It comes out as a laugh, though he isn't sure what exactly they're meant to do. "I don't reckon throwing the booze on it will do any good."
Aurelia's thinking about what he's said, about to question his sentiment, when he says something else entirely. Her brows furrow in confusion. "Huh?" Throwing booze on Safrin? But it's evident, as she peers at him, that he's looking at something else.
Following his gaze, Aurelia's expression drops into something more severe as she realizes now what he meant. "Oh, shit," she mumbles. Her eyes flicker over the flames that have caught hold of something they shouldn't. The fire's spread its reaches since it started, aided by little things that litter the beach, and is actually trying to work its way towards the trees that line the coast.
She glances over at Ronin, not expecting him to follow her but all the same, demanding that he does, "C'mon starboy. There might actually be something we can do..." she reckons that she might be able to tame it down, at least, "leave the booze." Because, well, no. That would not do any good.
Her steps falter a bit as she realizes just how inebriated she is, but she presses on through the sand anyway, heading straight for the fire. She's already reaching out for that tether to find that magical link between her and the flames. She approaches the part of the fire that's closest to the trees, considering that's a more imminent danger than anything else.
But her senses are impeded and her intention isn't clear, so the flames seem to bite and spark rather than recede. And suddenly they flash in a line straight towards the closest palm. She flinches, hands splaying out, but it only seems to incite the flames to burn hotter, "Ah! No, fuck!"
Oh shit, oh fuck, and any other colourful array of curses still don't seem to be doing much to put out the spreading flames. Still, urgent as it is - and judging by the general atmosphere of oh nooooo that's going up around them it's pretty damned urgent - Ronin can't help but to pause and feel boyishly amused as Aurelia calls him starboy. It's not the first time the moniker has been used, always lightheartedly, and Ronin finds himself trailing along after her without needing too much encouragement.
He doesn't leave the booze, though. He drinks the booze as they weave their way to the rescue. Or, y'know, in Aurelia's case, to the wtf everything is even more on fire. "I don't reckon you're meant to do that," Ronin says helpfully, as the fire streaks closer to the nearest palm tree. He can't help himself, giggling just a bit as he steps forward to (very calmly) start to kick sand over the fire.
And it works for a bit, until he trips over his feet and falls on his ass. "Fuck!"
Aurelia lets out a huff of frustration at Ronin's commentary, especially at the fact that he brought the bottle when she'd specifically requested that he not. "Oh gee thanks, I didn't realize," a roll of her eyes can be clearly heard in the tone of her voice. She returns her attentions to the flames, trying to make a more conscious effort to quell them this time.
It starts to work, the flames slowly recoiling from the leaves and bark, descending back to the ground, where Ronin was kicking sand over the flames - which was actually a good idea. Only when she turns to continue coaxing the flames towards him, she realizes he is apparently knocked prone.
Aaaand now she's caught his pant leg on fire.
"What the hell, Ronin!" Her hands instinctively recoil to cup over her mouth, which unintentionally lets go of her control over the flames... which just makes them seem to bite more fiercely at the bottom of Ronin's pants. "Fuck!" Without any hesitation, she follows his line of thought and kicks as much sand at him as she can - because if she used her magic to help him he might end up looking like a barbequed chicken.
"Well I just wanted to make sure," Ronin says, though his defensiveness is slurred at best, and even though he's fallen flat on his back, he apparently hasn't spilled a drop of vodka. This is evident in the way that he takes another chug from the bottle, right as Aurelia sets him quite literally on fire. "Mmmmf!" It's all the Star can really articulate (his tongue is stuck in the glass bottle, so sue him), though he does manage an extra special few swears as he's covered in sand.
There's a distinct pop! as Ronin pulls his tongue free - it's coated in a layer of the beach by now anyway - and he splutters and rolls back to his feet, finally considering that he might need to put himself out. "Quit helping, it's not working!" he tells Aurelia, as if he's doing any better. Still, the amount of sand she's kicking about seems to have stopped the fire on both demigod and beach, and now everything is just singed and stinks of smoke.
Aurelia's almost a bystander to Ronin's downfall, at this point, if it weren't for the fact that she's frantically kicking sand up and pushing her magic into snuffing out the last bits of embers.
His comment forges a deeply furrowed frown across her features and, at first, she just gapes stupidly at him. Ouch!
"Hey!" She snaps, but she has no comeback prepared on the tip of her tongue, so she just huffs out an aggravated breath of air into the furls of dark smoke. She reaches forward and swoops the bottle from him, grumbling, "At least I didn't fall on my ass."
She takes a look at it, fully expecting that the vodka's been spilled out. Instead, it's still pretty full, much to her surprise. A grin forms, and she laughs - somewhat out of relief. "You didn't even spill it! How'd you manage that?"
"Well at least I didn't nearly set the whole island on fire," Ronin counters, though he really doesn't have a leg to stand on as he gazes down at Aurelia, the Star covered in sand and more than a little tipsy, his pant leg singed and the rest of him a bit of a mess as well. But she's right about one thing; he still does have the bottle of vodka, and it's almost full but for the swigs they've already taken out of it.
Lifting said bottle, Ronin takes a well earned glug of booze when his companion has the audacity to question his skills, and he offers her a very charming smile and beckons for her to follow him back to the bonfires (the ones that are still under control). "Well," he says, like he's about to impart some great wisdom to Aurelia, "you see, I just stuck my tongue in it." And if she's surprised that this is the level of cunning that comes from the Dark Star... well, that's on her.
