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!
05-31-2021, 08:01 PM (This post was last modified: 05-31-2021, 08:01 PM by Remi.)
REMI
the lullaby
"No, I know. I was a bit surprised as well. If this was Safrin's quest, I am almost sure that Ludo would have been left off the list." Hand in hand the pair are strolling through the Celestine toward the garden at the heart of it. "Do you think anything actually happened between them, or...is this just Safrin being Safrin?" The feud between she and Ludo was well enough known, but given her dislike of Frey, perhaps she merely held all her fellow heralds in contempt equally.
What Remi had brought as an OfFeRinG was shoved into one of his pockets, not to be revealed yet. With Mateo on a playdate with the florist's niece (a happy coincidence, that), he and Ronin thought this as good a time as any to check this part of Remi's quest off the list.
Maybe it's my fault for forgetting Who I was when I was mine.
I've come to realize this one thing:
You couldn't fix what I couldn't find
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I suppose it has to pay lip service to all of the gods, if you're going to start going around and mimicking all of their chosens' powers," Ronin points out with a small smile, giving Remi's fingers a gentle squeeze and taking a deep breath of the cool, fragrant air of the Celestine. With the stars perpetually shining overhead, it is much cooler in the gardens than out in the rest of Stormbreak where Longheat beats down on them as relentlessly as most other places.
Remi's question is an interesting one, Ronin trying to recall all he knows about Safrin in relation to the ball of death rags. "I think it might have to do with their time in the Grounds, behind the barrier," he guesses, shrugging his shoulders. "After all that time, with conflicting needs and wants... I imagine things can grate even on gods."
"Why though? If it has the ability to give me the powers, is this really going to be the thing the other heralds come after it for?" Remi doesn't know why he's arguing the point, only that there's something incredibly upsetting about being forced to pay any amount of respect at Safrin's shrine. Caught constantly between this tug of war between Ludo and Safrin, it leaves Remi's stomach unsettled and his heart lodged in the back of his throat.
"Mmm." He hums thoughtfully, kicking at a pinecone that had the misfortune of being in his path. "They do bicker a bit like siblings." Remi points out, his head thoughtfully warbling from side to side. "Or..." Raising a brow as he shoots Ronin a look over his shoulder, Remi mouths, lovers.
Surely it's far too scandalous to say out loud, and yet....if the shoe fits...
Maybe it's my fault for forgetting Who I was when I was mine.
I've come to realize this one thing:
You couldn't fix what I couldn't find
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"You know very well how fickle the gods can be. It might be just the thing that the other heralds come after it for. And besides, no matter what the reason is, you still have to do it." Ronin laughs softly, leaning in to kiss Remi's temple and slip his arm around his shoulders in lieu of holding his hand. "It's one offering on one night. I am sure Safrin will be thrilled that you paid her a visit."
Or she'd curse him. Ronin is very aware that this might also happen.
He's still considering as much when Remi drops the idea of the two heralds being lovers into his train of thought, and his look of horror says it all and then some. Maybe he's also just a little protective of Safrin that she'd ever take Ludo as a lover after everything, but that goes unsaid. "The shrine is up ahead. Don't you ever speak of that again."
Remi's grumbles are made all the more dramatic as Ronin kisses him, as if the Star's affections serve only to fan the flames of his annoyance. It couldn't be more the opposite, with Ronin's soothing words and emotions flowing into him and cooling Remi more than the Celestine's breezes ever could. "Oh I just bet." He grumps, falling into step with Ronin as Remi too slides an arm around his waist.
It doesn't need to be said for Remi to feel the pulse of jealousy-covered-horror that oozes sharply from Ronin at the mention of Safrin being lovers with Ludo. "So that is a no to roleplaying as them in bed, I take it?" He wonders with a roguish laugh. Now it's Remi's turn to press a kiss to Ronin's cheek before pulling away as they near the shrine.
Maybe it's my fault for forgetting Who I was when I was mine.
I've come to realize this one thing:
You couldn't fix what I couldn't find
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"That's a no with bells on," Ronin informs his husband, though the smile on his lips can't be helped as he dutifully accepts the kiss to his cheek. Still, like Remi he can't help but to relax into the touch, and he gives the alchemist a gentle pat on the butt as he sets off to the shrine properly, Ronin taking his time in following.
When he does get there, he likely already treats it with more reverence than the other man - Safrin's part, anyway - the Star stepping forward to remove any dead flowers or debris, to relight any candles and make sure everything is just so. "There. Do I get to find out what you decided to bring for an offering now?" he asks with a flash of a smile, retreating to allow Remi to do his thing.
"Awww." Remi pouts. "Well have it your way, then. We will just be that boring couple who don't mask trauma with sex." Grinning toward Ronin with a waggle of his brows, Remi's smile drops dramatically as he turns to face the shrine.
"No. It is private." It wasn't of course, but Remi knew that Ronin would instantly see right through the thing he'd decided to bring, and for that he was perhaps a touch ashamed.
Kneeling by the base of the shrine, Remi removes a stone from his pocket. Flecked with opal, Remi has written in periwinkle blue paint, una stella che non potrei mai dimenticare in the travelling tongue; a star I could never forget. Pretty sounding perhaps, but also objectively true.
Maybe it's my fault for forgetting Who I was when I was mine.
I've come to realize this one thing:
You couldn't fix what I couldn't find
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"We used to be that couple, if you remember. It didn't do us any favours, and I am much happier with things as they are now." Ronin reminds his husband. Its a little too real to be as charming as he wants it to sound, but the smile he flashes to Remi is nonetheless full of warmth and love. That being said, the Star does raise his eyebrows to hear that Remi's offering is private, and he chuckles and turns away to let the alchemist have his moment.
"Was it as bad as you thought it would be?" he wants to know, his hands resting in his pockets where he stands with his back to the other man. Ronin's eyes are on the stars which twinkle above, naturally, a soft smile playing across his lips.
05-31-2021, 09:48 PM (This post was last modified: 05-31-2021, 09:48 PM by Remi.)
REMI
the lullaby
"Oh, were we?" Remi narrows his eyes thoughtfully before giving his head a shake. "I would not have it any other way." He says with a nod, before flashing Ronin a smirk over his shoulder. [b]"If it helps, I was going to let you be Ludo." And what would that help? Oh, Ronin getting to having sex with Safrin!Remi perhaps. That, or being able to tear apart Ludo's rags as some show of defiance. But as Ronin pointed out, in fact, it would help nothing at all.
Turning away from the shrine and mirroring Ronin's hand placement, Remi shrugs a touch boyishly as he shuffles down the stairs and toward the Star. "It feels empty and fake." He whispers as if the words were blasphemous. "Then again of all the gods who would accept lipservice...it would probably be Safrin." Surprisingly perhaps, Remi's cheeks are rather flushed. There's an aura of guilt and darkness that wraps itself heavily around him, making the warm humid air feel oppressive and weighty. "I will never be able to tell you what I know...but yes. I think it does feel as bad as I thought." Especially since it was Ludo who tasked him with this quest, and Ludo who knew precisely what Safrin had done, and Ludo who made him promise to remain silent.
Maybe it's my fault for forgetting Who I was when I was mine.
I've come to realize this one thing:
You couldn't fix what I couldn't find
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin glances across at Remi as he joins him, and for a moment they merely stand together, to men thrown to the wind by the gods, watching the stars go by. Scarred and too strong for most anyone but each other, they are, for a second or two, a perfect representation of the line Vi mentioned, and their proximity to one another on either side of it. "Then I think we ought to just be glad in the knowledge that it is done. You don't have to come back here on her behalf again, if that isn't what you want."
The Star steps closer, turning properly to Remi now so he might slip his arms around the alchemist's waist, leaning in for a kiss that's as slow and soft as if the whole world would stop to give them that time together. His fingers splay along Remi's lower back and whisper up the length of his spine, as though to cradle the scars that lurk beneath his clothes, and he writes silent I love yous with each flick of his tongue; promises written on lips that hold secrets too dangerous to share.
"I hope you know that I don't treat it lightly, that you have to keep this all to yourself - whatever it is," he murmurs. "But I know that even to mention it would invite an accidental slip up. I do think about it a lot, though. And I am sorry that it isn't a burden you can share."
“Not until the next time.” Remi murmurs stiffly. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not the alchemist is being staunchly practical or sulky. Ronin will know that it’s a little of both.
In Ronin’s arms, the world melts away; demigods and heralds, lines to be toed and occasionally crossed. It all fades to a welcome black that swaddles him completely that his mind might be allowed to drift. Where he ends and where Ronin begins has always been a blurry thing, what with attuned bonds and heartbeat rings and Remi’s ability to leave his body and curl against Ronin’s bones. Right now, though, Remi is content just to allow for the motion of his husband’s tongue against his own as his arms slip about the Star’s neck to draw their bodies together.
“I would endure anything for our family...but I hate that it means keeping anything from you. “Especially this, not that he can say it.
Maybe it's my fault for forgetting Who I was when I was mine.
I've come to realize this one thing:
You couldn't fix what I couldn't find
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Not until next time. Ronin doesn't say it but that doesn't mean he isn't thinking it as well, and for once the Star sees his husband's potential sulkiness as practicality. Luckily, he's too busy kissing Remi and letting them wind about each other to voice any of this, and by the time they've breath enough to speak, he's forgotten all about it for the most part. "I know you do," he whispers, brushing his nose against the alchemist's. "And I love you all the harder for putting yourself through it for us."
Tugging the other man closer, he merely stands there for a moment, draped in starlight and wrapping himself in Remi's presence, unwilling to move and break the spell. "It isn't too late in the afternoon, and Mateo will be on his playdate for a while yet. Do you want to go for a picnic on the Falling?" Either on a skyboat or on his nimbus, Ronin isn't fussy.
"There is truly no one like you, you know that?" In other contexts Remi might have meant the words as a playful insult, but he can think of no other way to voice all that he feels for the Star in this moment. Who else could abide their husband hating their chosen deity? Who could allow for them to explore their sexuality? To develop complex feelings for another? To keep secrets? "Only you." Remi whispers against Ronin's lips, the words offered apologetically in the wake of all the things that Remi does and is that his husband has to bear.
"I want to go anywhere you are." Remi says sappily, before grinning and pressing a soft kiss against Ronin's lower lip. "But yes, that does sound nice. Let's take a skyboat. I have some thoughts about their design and flying around in one should give me some more insight. That is, if.." Tugging the Star close one last time, the alchemist steals a hug rather than a kiss. "..you feel up to captaining one, and not crashing it."
Maybe it's my fault for forgetting Who I was when I was mine.
I've come to realize this one thing:
You couldn't fix what I couldn't find
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Mm, I've been told as much before, but people don't normally mean it as a compliment," Ronin admits with a flash of a smile, leaning in to steal a proper kiss from the Lullaby's lips a second time; it's a good thing they're already wrapped so close to each other, else his dazzle might be well on the way to blinding them. When he draws back, it's to keep one of his arms around Remi, fingers slipping all too comfortably into his back pocket.
"Only you," he agrees wholeheartedly, giving Remi's ass a gentle squeeze for good measure. "And it's settled, then. You will be wherever I am, and I will be captaining a skyboat. Or at least standing at the helm of a skyboat while a skyboat captain does the work so we don't crash." With a cheeky grin, the Star leads them on out of the Celestine, the shrine at their backs and the stars winking overhead.
