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!
Isla folds against Remi, melting against his body and fitting there as if she's made of soft clay, tucking her head beneath his chin and letting her arm splay across his chest. She can hear the beat of his heart under her cheek, and if she concentrates enough, she can imagine that she's still got a heartbeat too. It's a strange peace that the Ascended doesn't think she's found since becoming what she is - too bad, then, that talk of Ronin is what causes it to break.
"Hm...?" She glances up at him in the near-dark, all too aware of wandering hands desperate for distraction, and Isla reaches out to guide Remi's lips back against hers for a moment in a purposely slow and gentle kiss. "I see," she murmurs. "Forget I asked. You're still a very handsome man, for what it's worth. Even more so if we cleaned you up."
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
She's small against him in a way that feels fragile, even if it isn't. His is the body providing warmth here, but tucked under the blankets and with her pale skin reflecting it back against him, she feels like she might have once have done, years and years and years ago before both of her deaths.
At first Remi doesn't quite kiss her back. He's tense and frustrated and wily all over again, but her lips soften him by degrees, and eventually his shoulders melt into the mattress. "Well." Remi says against her lips, wanting to rake his fingers through his curls but not wanting it more than he wants the feel of Isla beneath his palms. "If that's true, then I'm a living example of handsome only being skin deep." Ronin had called him monstrous, and others had said far worse.
But what Remi was slowly realizing, was that this wasn't a phase. There was no soap and water to scrub clean what he'd become. Ludo might once have purified his soul, but what he was now was exactly what he was made to be. He was loveable on the surface, just as he was handsome. But deep down?
Deep down he was something to be feared.
Something to walk away from.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Isla hums a note of almost contemplation against Remi's lips, and she draws back enough to look up at him and stroke a gentle hand across his stubbled jaw. "Mm, handsome and ever so broody," she says. It might not be the time for jokes, especially given that Isla has no idea the depths of Remi's darkness, the reaches of his hurt or grief. But after what they'd just done, her contentment cannot be denied, even if it is a magically induced cocktail of hormones to blame.
"I happen to be able to see beneath the skin," she informs him. "And I must say, your bones are handome as well." This is said through a coy flutter of her lashes, before Isla tucks herself back around Remi, as she might be a panacea to his darkness, if but for a moment.
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Her words don't quell his uncertanties, but only make him feel more like a squatter in his own body.
As the night wears on, Isla will find the alchemist inveritably seeking out the warmth and sanctity of the darkness between her legs. With an inquisitive tongue and tireless fingers, he can only hope to persuade the ascended to letting him linger against her thighs. It's madness and heartbreak much as it the sweet orgasmic rhythm they're able to find together that drives him from pretending to sleep.
How often he's successful doesn't make the sun rise any faster, and though LongNight finally does come to a close, it brings with it no new resolutions. No closure. Just a room that smells of sweat, sex, and blood, walls with claw marks in them, and a broken door.
'I love you.' The alchemist tells Isla, only able to properly feel ashamed of himself once the door is closed and they are on the outside of it. Leaning down he kisses her again, softly, but only slightly more chastly than he had done within the room. "I'll come and see you soon." He vows, before he turns his gaze toward the treetops of the Greatwood, and the god he hopes to find high, high above it all.
~FIN
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
