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!
And if the sky grows heavy wrap your arms around me tight; we'll be alright
It didn't take Remi as long as one might have expected to realize what an idiot he had been, but it did take longer than it should have.
Though his wings were spread and he rose into the sky after parting from Isla, anyone watching would have quickly seen him begin to plummet before disappearing. Waking up next to Ronin, it took only a few muttered words for Remi to realize that the pain that throbbed behind his ribs and scored the back of his eyes was one of his own making. And, with any amount of grace at all from Isla, one he could fix as well. So with a kiss for the Star, an apology to Ianto (and a promise that yes, he would stop using the fox as a means of transport (he wouldn't, they both knew it)), Remi was headed back toward the Temple.
Breathless, flushed, his adrenaline singing in his bones such that his hands were shaking, Remi burst into the Temple. "Isla...!" He called in a voice tinged with bright anticipation and regret. Feeling the beat of his heart in his cheeks and near his ears it hammered so hard, Remi swallowed and stopped, head cocked to the side as if he might hear the nearly-silent medic.
"Isla?"
Instead of feeling weighty disapproval and selfish upset as he had before, now the alchemist was filled with an optimistic current of emotions that made it hard for him to stand still. So long as he could see her again, so long as he could tell her he was wrong—an idiot for everything he'd said and done—so long as he could make her understand that none of it mattered, so long as she stayed in his life, it would all be alright.
He could make it alright.
He had to.
If the ground gives way beneath us, If we should fall to pieces
Find me where I first found you
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The letter had been sent to Cal and Isla had set up shop in a corner of the Temple; it would do until the infirmary was back up and running. She hadn't lost composure quite as much as she'd expected to or wanted to, as she'd walked through the burned out ward with her mind on anything but medicine. But now that the first pass is done and all is quiet and she can focus on the next steps (lists of new equipment and stock, layouts and supplies and materials), the floodgates have opened.
So when her name echoes through the Temple, at first Isla believes it to be a hallucination. Wiping at her cheeks and glancing up from the paper she'd been failing to write, she ignores it - until it comes again. "Remi?" Her voice sounds too loud against the vast walls, and she shuffles to her feet to gaze around for him.
Her feet take her forward quite without her permission, but with the Temple's size and the way their voices bounce and carry, it's hard for her to find him even with her advanced hearing.
And if the sky grows heavy wrap your arms around me tight; we'll be alright
His first call goes unanswered, sending his stomach plummeting to his shoes in a way that threatens his equilibrium. He won't let his optimism sour, though. Still, there's something flighty and just a bit too quick about the steps he takes and the way his eyes flit about the darkness. "I am by—" But everything is in ruins and there are no easy landmarks anymore for him to guide her by.
So he'll make one, instead.
"—by the stars."
All around the alchemist and extending outward, the floor of the infirmary appears to shift and suddenly resembles blue-white sand, made pale by moonlight. Stars twinkle overhead, mimicking a sky not of this world. Turning in place, the sounds of the ocean and the twinkle of bells high overhead actually making it harder for him to hear the sound of the medic approaching, Remi is forced to wait and hope Isla both finds and accepts his starry invitation.
If the ground gives way beneath us, If we should fall to pieces
Find me where I first found you
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
By the... stars...? Isla glances around, bemused at first, but Remi's illusions do their work soon enough and the medic almost has to shield her eyes against the sudden dazzle of a starlit sky. "I see them," she calls, but her voice is lost now in the twinkle of bells. But Isla approaches nonetheless, red-eyed and covered in soot from checking the infirmary, until the silhouette of the alchemist appears in the darkness all around.
"Remi!" Isla is running to him before she can stop herself, before she can think he might not want to be anywhere near her, and unless he holds her at arms length she'll all but fasten herself around him, hugging him tightly. "I'm so sorry, Remi - I shouldn't have let you leave. I shouldn't have been so stupid, of course I should have told you everything--"
And if the sky grows heavy wrap your arms around me tight; we'll be alright
He absolutely doesn't hold her at arm's length, but instead moves to meet her with open arms. Pressing his face against her, heedless of the soot and cinder that covers her, Remi shakes his head defiantly against her apologies. "Your infirmary had just burned down. Gods of course you would want to hold on to the good things in your life." He counters. Tears sneak from behind his closed lashes, mingling with ash in Isla's hair and smudging his cheek black. "I am an idiot. You were right. I was only thinking about myself. And—"
Pulling back if only so that he might gaze into her eyes, Remi's lips border on a frown as he shakes his head again. "I love you too much to have spoken to you the way I did." Finding himself utterly lost in the blue of Isla's eyes, the alchemist swallows around a painful lump of guilt lodged adamantly in his throat. "Please forgive me."
If the ground gives way beneath us, If we should fall to pieces
Find me where I first found you
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"No, I was the one who--" Isla can't really finish her sentence before Remi is holding her close and she's pressing her face away into his shoulder, and whatever else she's about to say is muffled and lost. She doesn't really want to pull back away from him, fresh tears marking clean tracks on her cheeks as she gazes up at him. "And I love you too much to have been so closed off to you," she counters. "You're my best friend and I was unfair to you. I'm so sorry."
Sniffing, she reaches up absently to wipe at the black smudge on his face. "I'll forgive you if you forgive me," she mumbles with a weak smile. "It... well, it's over now anyway. I broke things off with Cal. I just... couldn't, after what happened. It left a bad taste in my mouth."
And if the sky grows heavy wrap your arms around me tight; we'll be alright
"It doesn't matter," He says with a soggy smile against her, his head still softly shaking. Disbelief rattles around in his skull that Remi might have tarnished what he had with Isla all because he was too blindsided by what he had and wanted, to put her needs first.
"What?" Remi's unshaven cheeks flinch to hear Isla say so; reaching up to cup one of her hands beneath his, his brows edge together. "You deserve to be happy." He whispers, having to ignore the far-too familiar inclination to simply want to lean down and kiss her. "Cal is all the things you said: kind, funny, handsome." She hadn't said that last one, but they both knew it was true. "You were right. I have everything." Had, anyway, but that felt like putting too sharp a point on it. "Ronin and Mateo, and everything with you. And I acted like a child, pretending as though it was because you did not tell me first."
Remi's cheeks flush as his eyes grow sad and tearful. "You are the most captivating woman I know. I will miss everything about what we shared." For a moment the sting of his tears is disorienting, and above, the stars flicker and the chime of their light threatens to turn grating and discordant. With a breath, and then a smile, all returns bright and beautiful again. "You deserve the best this...second? third? life of yours has to offer." His smile turns a touch crooked at that, before settling into something hopelessly adoring.
If the ground gives way beneath us, If we should fall to pieces
Find me where I first found you
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 does matter, Isla wants to say, but she's too busy enjoying the way his arms wrap around her, the way it feels like she can finally breathe again, even if she doesn't need to. Her gaze, though, drops to the ground as he speaks about Cal, Isla shrugging her shoulders and feeling really rather small to think about all of it. "He is?" she mumbles, smiling despite herself. "I had hoped you would like him, but..." Her head shakes again, as if it's too little, too late.
"I still should have told you first," she mutters, sounding guilty. "Just because you had Ronin at home, it doesn't mean we weren't anything. I'm sorry I hurt you, Remi."
Gazing up, not at the sound of his voice but at the way the sky sours overhead, Isla reaches up for him, carefully wiping the tears from his cheeks. "Just because I might not be with you, it doesn't mean I care any less about you," she murmurs. "You know that, right? I'll always love you, Remi - it doesn't matter what happens. I know you too well not to love you."
And if the sky grows heavy wrap your arms around me tight; we'll be alright
Remi can't but grin as he bites at the inside of his cheek as if that might stop them from dimpling. "If I recall correctly...he accidentally stepped into a puddle with one foot, decided that he had better even it out, and then stepped in with the other. All while he had no idea I was there." The alchemist smiles. "Then we talked of monsters and fairytales, and up until you...it was all rather nice. Even after you, it was still rather nice." His blush darkens a shade to recall the lust his teeth had inspired, but Remi quickly sighs away the memory.
"I do know." He agrees, letting her hands hold some of the weight of his head as he leans into her. "There is just...no getting over you, Isla." It's said with a smile, but the words cause Remi's lashes to flutter over new tears just the same. It was the strangest thing, being so thoroughly happy and sad all the same moment; warmth flood his belly and fingertips even as his throat and eyes burned as if with shards of glass.
"And I have loved you too much to ever stop." He would always want more of her, and would forever grieve the things he'd never properly appreciated while he had them. But so long as the medic was still in his life, he would be grateful until his last.
If the ground gives way beneath us, If we should fall to pieces
Find me where I first found you
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Isla lets out a soft laugh, sad as it is. "That sounds about right," she murmurs about Varus, her thumb brushing gently over Remi's cheek as she gazes up at him. "Monsters and fairytales, mm? No wonder you hit it off." Her eyes drop away again, a blush colouring her cheeks silver as she shakes her head. "I don't ever want to hurt you," she tells him, tears blurring her vision.
So instead of speaking more, she merely moves back into his arms, hugging him tightly and tucking her head beneath his chin. Even in the ruined Temple with the infirmary as a smoking shell somewhere behind them, everything feels somehow easier again now. "Thank you for coming to find me," she whispers. "I wanted to go after you, but I wouldn't be able to get to the Greatwood. Or Stormbreak."
And if the sky grows heavy wrap your arms around me tight; we'll be alright
'Mmmm.' Remi agrees with a slight nod, having to still again the urge to simply lean down and kiss away the tears forming in her eyes. "If I have learned one thing, is that loving someone does not mean you never hurt them. It just means you always come back to make it right." Taking one of her hands in his, he presses his lips softly to her knuckles, though doesn't allow the touch to linger.
Gathering her against him and pulling in a deep breath that fills his lungs such that the muscles on his sides stretch pleasingly, Remi nods against the top of her head. "That is the problem with being able to teleport. I was already halfway across the world by the time I realized I should not have left. Had I stormed off like a normal idiot I would have been here much sooner." Chuckling slightly at himself, Remi stops the patterns his fingers are tracing along Isla's back in favour of simply holding her close. He isn't quite sure what constitutes friendly touches between them anymore.
"Speaking of things we might have done sooner...I expect there is a blue-eyed one-armed man sitting alone somewhere, wondering what he did wrong to miss out on easily the most fantastic woman in all of Caido..." Isla smells of cinders and smoke, but there is still something unmistakably her tangled up in it as well. Breathing in deeply and fixing the feel of her against his chest in his mind—where he can feel her chin against him, where the top of her head reaches, the slope of her shoulderblades and the way her feet neatly tuck between his—Remi pulls back. "I would never tell you what to do, but if you thought you had to put your own happiness on hold because of my stupidity and selfishness...please don't.
If the ground gives way beneath us, If we should fall to pieces
Find me where I first found you
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
She fits far too easily against him - like she's supposed to, part of Isla wants to think - but she banishes that thought as quickly as possible, even as she sinks into the comfort of the alchemist all around her. Because it's not as though what they had was one sided, and it's not as though she wouldn't have been with Remi if it weren't for the thousand thousand complicating factors that seem to dog them at every turn. And to find happiness somewhere else - somewhere unexpected and unlooked for... it hurt as much as it was wonderful.
"I don't think either of us will ever count as normal idiots," she remarks, her smile hidden against his chest. She's reluctant to draw away when he pulls back, peeking up at him and letting her hands smooth across his chest to try and get rid of the creases she's put in his shirt, not to mention that it's now wet with her tears. "Now you are just flattering me," she says, the words almost coming out through a whisper. "What if I've messed everything up, though...? I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to see me again."
And if the sky grows heavy wrap your arms around me tight; we'll be alright
I might not have many more chances, he nearly says of flattering her, but instead cages the words behind a smile. Isla doesn't need his grief to coat the rest of their conversation. He'll find a way to expel it somehow, on his own and in some violent manner against a tree or the side of a cliff. It might even be a good excuse for Ronin to blast him with his abilities, if only to serve to take Remi's mind off of things. For Isla it was a new beginning, whereas for the alchemist it was an ending. But that wasn't hers to deal with, as she correctly had said earlier.
"Well, you are very good at putting things back together. And you have had practice on him already if his arm is anything to go by." Remi points out with a half-smirk. "Besides, anyone who is not willing look past what you have been through in the past few days is an idiot." Releasing her that he might point at himself, Remi's smirk widens completely now. "Case in point."
If the ground gives way beneath us, If we should fall to pieces
Find me where I first found you
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"When did you get so charming," Isla wants to know, the medic smiling softly and wiping at her cheeks to clean herself up a little, if she was going to go back home and try to win back the man she'd only very recently broken things off with. As Remi calls himself an idiot, too, Isla can't help bit laugh, shaking her head and giving him a gentle push. "I don't think anyone was particularly smart in what happened," she remarks.
Letting out a shuddering breath, she turns towards the doorway out of the Temple. "Do you want to walk back with me...?" she asks. "I know it hasn't been all that long, but I've really missed you, Remi." Enough to believe that she wouldnt' see him again - it's not a feeling that she wants to repeat if she can help it.
