Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
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Remi can only try and look annoyed as Vai pinches his cheeks because of course, he's anything but. That he'll never be the man he was only making relationships like this one all the more special.
But then it all goes to comical hell, Remi shaking his head in sudden alarm as his eyes widen. "What? No." He wheezes, still shaking his head. "And she was a unicorn, but...no, she's not dead." Wait no, that wasn't the critical piece of information to press here. "She's a woman again." He manages, finally thinking he's supplied enough information to pull a breath in.
"During Ludo's festival, when all those who were dead came back as ascended? Isla was one of them." There's a strange but hesitant smile on Remi's face now, as he leans forward. It feels as though his assumptions have somehow steered them impossibly offtrack, leaving Remi all but wishing he could turn back time and start this conversation again.
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vai's eyes are wide as dinner plates, and whilst she's trying to delicately sip at her iced tea, the fact that it's already dripping on her chin should tell him how good he's doing at explaining himself. "Oh, a unicorn, I'm so sorry," she said, her voice high and strangled, especially when he mentions that she's alive again. Then, after what feels like an eternity, he finally delivers the critical piece of information that causes it to all make sense.
"Ah," Vai says diplomatically. "Ah, well, that... yes. That I can probably help talk you through." Reaching out, she pats his hand like the past few moments hadn't happened, taking a much less comical sip of her tea. "So you slept with her and you liked it," she repeats, making it sound much less rushed. More calm and reasonable, one might say. "And is there anything wrong with that?"
Remi sinks his fingertips against his forehead, letting them slide up until his palms are supporting his head and his elbows are braced on the table. Though with all of Remi's shifts now it's fair to call into question whether or not his sexual partners need to be human (they do, they absolutely do), he can't help but shoot a look at her through his curls. "Vai." He scolds, wanting it to be quite clear that, "Demigod of death or not, I will not be having sex with dead things."
Grabbing at his iced tea, but shifting it back and forth between his palms instead of drinking it, Remi shrugs, unable to look at Vai. 'I don't know.' He admits. "I suppose I just..she's an ascended, so...it's complicated. Or at least, it's making it complicated." Swallowing hard, Remi jiggles his glass that the clink of the ice might somehow make all of this less awkward than it was.
"She took my shift a few times, to protect herself. And..." Did Vai know how that felt? Well, she must know of how it felt by now. "..I don't think that's what planted the seed, but it's the first time I can remember really thinking of her that way. And then in order for her to feel anything it had to be in that room, of Lily's old house, in the Grounds." No, Remi couldn't say sex room in front of his mother. "But in there...I mean, you'd want anyone." Gods, he was making a mess of this. "What I mean is, it isn't as though I can just...be with her without anything else influencing it."
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Listen," Vai says, her voice a near whisper as if she doesn't want anyone who might be walking by to even consider as much, "I would normally never even dream it, but I didn't know she came back or was a woman again, and you literally said you did." She shrugs, before (quite gladly) letting that matter lie. Dead. Under several feet of earth, if you please.
With that dealt with, Vai sits back comfortably in her seat with her tea, content to listen as Remi tries to tease out his own thoughts into something tangible. That Isla is an Ascended certainly does complicate matters, and even hearing the convoluted journey they'd had to take to get to the point where they could sleep together is enough to make Vai's head start to ache. "I see," she says slowly. "So you don't know if you're attracted to her, or just... craving what she can give you, I suppose?"
Chewing the inside of her lip, Vai lets out a puff of air that blows her curls off her forehead. "So... before you went to this room, did she bite you? What prompted you to go there in the first place?" she wonders. "And is it the same for her, do you think?"
03-19-2021, 03:42 PM (This post was last modified: 03-19-2021, 03:49 PM by Remi.)
REMI
the alchemist
& my heart ran away with me
"No...it's..." Remi shakes his head, wondering why finding the words was so difficult. "..if she were here and I kissed her, she wouldn't feel anything. Not a thing. And knowing that makes it almost entirely undesirable. But the only times that she can feel something, are when I'm also influenced." Running his fingers through his curls, Remi sighs a touch hopelessly. 'When they bite you...and in that room...you'd want to be with anyone."
Vai's question has Remi nodding. "Multiple times. Not that day, though. That day...she'd just escaped the monsters, the Grounds were on fire, and Ronin and I had just..." He waves his hand vaguely. They'd had their not-fight-that-nearly-broke-them-up. "She kissed me, but it felt like it was more out of relief than anything else. That's when I realized that whatever I was I felt, she couldn't. That's why we went to the room." Was their chemistry just trama-based? That was the real heart of Remi's concern.
"I don't know. And I know you're going to say that I should just ask her, and I probably should, I just...I was hoping to understand a bit more of what I was feeling, first."
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
It's a lot to wade through, and so Vai starts easy, her fingers drumming gentle and tinkling patterns over her glass of tea. "Alright, well... if she could feel something, without you being influenced, would that change things for you?" she asks. "Or if it wasn't Isla, would that be different as well?" It's difficult thing to tease out, whether Remi likes women in general these days, whether he simply likes Isla, or whether this is all just a parcel of chemically induced effects brought on as a coping mechanism.
"Before any of this happened you two were still close friends, weren't you?" she wonders. "Then what happened to Isla, and with her becoming practically part of you... I can see where that line can get really muddled. Maybe you could just hang out together without any expectation of biting, or rooms, and see how you feel then?"
'I think so. And—' Remi is hasty to interject, even though Isla isn't around to hear it. '—I don't mean that to imply I think there's anything wrong with how she is. It just...makes things confusing. I'm not...I don't think I could want someone who I knew felt nothing for me.' It wasn't demisexuality so much as it was common decency, or so the alchemist believed at this point.
"I don't know. I've never given it much thought. All of the women I know are..." Off limits, in a sense. "..I don't know." He concludes with an unhelpful shrug. Remi has Ronin, and it wasn't as though he went looking for anything else.
"Mhmm." He agrees, before exhaling and nodding. "We have something planned. We're going to map out the stars." This of course brings a warm smile to his lips, that both is and isn't because of Isla. Or at least, is because of Isla, but isn't because of any feelings he has for her in addition to her being his bestfriend.
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Humming out a sigh that suggests Vai is finding more than one angle to look at this, the witch sips at her tea again before reaching out for the jug to top them both back up. "Maybe she can't physically show you a reaction, but how do you know she doesn't feel anything?" she asks, tilting her head and offering a knowing little smile. "A lot more goes on in the mind than the body when it comes to attraction, Remi." She winks.
That all the women he knows are the equivalent of I don't know has Vai laughing, though not unkindly "Alright, well. If you just look at Isla as a woman, and compare her to someone else you can imagine. Phoebe at the Halenani for example, or any of her girls, or Raza, or Amalia... that's a lot of different ladies, with a lot to like about any of them. How do you feel?" She tilts her head.
That Isla and Remi are going to map out the stars, though, has a grin spreading across Vai's face. "So you're going on a date," she says, like it's obvious.
Remi's boyish naivety shines across his face as he tilts his head. ????/ His look all but screams, as he frowns and tries to understand. "I just mean...well.." Pausing and staring down at the wood grain of the table, his eyes moving back and forth as if reading something there, eventually, he exhales sharply and looks up. "Does it not matter if it's all in her head?" Which, he means literally.
Thoughts of Phoebe have him all but gulping, she being like some virginal sister in his mind despite her relationship to Frey. Raza has him growing cold, and thoughts of Amalia have him pulling a face. He immediately shakes his head. "No. Phebe is...She's like a sister to me. Raza...I think she'd feel like hugging a back of sticks. And...Ronin has already slept with Amalia."
Blinking at the witch, Remi frowns and shakes his head. "No, we're just..." Biting the inside of his lip, he makes his thinking very hard face. "We are going to dress up, but I thought that was just for fun."
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vai waits patiently to see if the penny drops, and she can't help but giggle into her tea at the expression on his face. Reaching across, she affectionately musses up his curls and puts him out of his misery. "Put it this way - given that Isla has kissed you first, before, and she's never objected to going along to that room in the Hollowed Grounds, I imagine that if she could show it physically, or feel it in that way, she would. So all she's got is what's in her head."
Cupping her chin in one hand, she listens to Remi's instant and various objections to the women that Vai has mentioned. It's true that all of them have very valid excuses, but the witch did ask to simply consider them as women. The question has practically answered itself. "And when you think about Isla? Don't think too hard, mind - a mother doesn't need to see that."
Sipping again at her tea, her opinion on their little get together is expressed over the rim of the glass. "Sounds like a date to me," she says in a sing song voice.
Remi winces slightly, if only because Vai was right, it just...didn't help. "But it almost makes me think that...the sexual part is all in my.." He gulps, and had it been Ronin here, he absolutely would have said head. Instead he just blushes and stares into his tea, shrugging awkwardly.
As she asks about Isla, Remi's entire expression—and posture—changes. Relaxing, he just smiles fondly. "I...like being around her. I like making her feel good, and she makes me feel good." In the room, anyway. Outside of the room thus far it was all awkward hugs and weirdness that was somehow still endearing.
Glowering into his cup and shifting his feet beneath the table, Remi huffs slightly as he taps his finger on the table. "Do...you think she thinks it's a date? Should I bring..." Wine? Why. Food, also why. Flowers? He'd just done that. "Ronin and I's dates usually just start out having sex in bed, followed by drinking and eating, and then winding up back in bed." He complains.
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Vai's smile becomes something much warmer, and she lowers her glass and reaches out to clasp the Lullaby's hand. "I think - and you know that I've been leading up to this moment, Remi - that you should probably speak to Isla and find out exactly what her opinion is." Letting out a soft sigh, she gives his hand a squeeze. "But honestly... if you liked it, when it happened, and you don't really feel that way about any other woman, then I think what you have with Isla might just be something in and of itself."
It doesn't make it any clearer for Remi right now, though, and Vai appreciates that. "Do you think you'd feel differently if Isla was a man and an Ascended? Would it matter?" Letting him go, she runs her fingers through her curls. "Whatever your dates are like with Ronin, she isn't Ronin. So maybe she'll know what she wants to do."
Remi groans and dramatically lets his arms slide down onto the table so that his head can crash down on them. 'But I don't want to talk to her about it.' He whines as if he were a teenage boy being asked to take out the garbage. Sighing and letting his cheek rest on his arm, looking at Vai sideways across the table, Remi just shrugs. "I didn't think much of it, until the new madame at the brothel asked me what my preference was. I suppose I would like to know too."
Remi nods immediately, which is perhaps more naive than he gives himself credit for. 'Well...yes. If only because...I know I like men, regardless of what they feel toward me."
Biting the inside of his lip, Remi sits up, still fidgeting with his glass. "Ronin and I...we never really dated. I just..adopted Aoife and then we were living together." Ruffling a hand against the back of his neck and then up through his curls, he shakes his head. "With Ianto and Loren, it...it was never really that, because it couldn't be. I...I don't think I know how to go on a date." He confesses.
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Well I don't want to talk to my son about why he thinks some ladies are gross but this one particular lady is wonderful - and I think that's pretty much your answer." Vai raises her eyebrows across the table to Remi, patting his hand and letting him go so he can go ahead and slump down with his head on his arms. Then, as he slips in that little comment about how it would be if Isla were a man, she can't help but bark out a laugh. "So if she were a man it wouldn't matter if she couldn't feel anything when you kissed her?"
Things settle, then, into something that she feels she can at least figure out a little better, and she shifts to sit cross-legged on the chair. "Well, I think... maybe you and Ronin need to go on a few dates," she admits. "Like... real dates. Go and put on your suit and take him out to dinner?" she suggests.
