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!
Longheat storms are more common over Torchline than they are anywhere else, likely due to the proximity of the land and the water, the air currents that swirl overhead. Either way, when Isla hears of one brewing in the night over the islands, she is quick to message Remi to see if he might join her for a bit of storm chasing. She's explained her reasoning too - the Voice's quest, the sea glass, all that she needs to do with it, and then agrees to meet him here, on this stretch of the Rainbow Road.
She stands at the edge of the land to gaze out at the unsettled sea, as the light that flashes high above in the black clouds. "Pathetic fallacy," she complains. Because Isla, too, is nervous about all of this. About seeing Remi again for the first time since their meeting in the Temple.
'Come again?' Remi's smile is crooked and his curls damp from the humidity as he picks a path toward where the ascended stands at the edge of the sea. She looks radiant and ethereal, pale and blonde and blue-eyed against the abrupt navy and pitch of the surrounding sky and seascape.
Shirtless—his magic shirt misplaced, or stolen perhaps—Remi hadn't bothered to put anything else on, knowing his wings or a shift would tear it apart anyway. He wouldn't have bothered with pants either, were it not for Cal. "Can I just...say something, before we go?" He asks, skipping over awkward greetings and fleeting hugs, wanting just to get to the core of it. Perhaps he was the only one who felt awkward, but even if Isla didn't or hadn't noticed, he owed it to her to be honest. It had helped immensely with he and Ronin, and though he and Isla weren't together, a friendship was still a relationship worth working on.
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Oh--" Isla turns, smiling over her shoulder to the alchemist, the wind catching her hair and blowing it about her face until she reaches up to tie it out of the way with a knot of fabric. "Pathetic fallacy. It's-- well, it's when the weather reflects the mood." Silver flushes her cheeks and she feels the immediate need to apologise for some reason, that she might associate the mood of their meeting with unsteady seas and violent storms (even if she does, whoops).
But Remi cuts to the heart of the matter and Isla, while she's thankful, can't help but shuffle her feet and bob her head in a nod. "Of course," she says, "go ahead." Once upon a time she was confident that she could anticipate anything Remi might have to tell her. But right here and now? Isla has no idea.
"The mood, or your mood?" He teases, offering her a crooked smile that grows endearing as she fights with her own hair against the wind.
Stretching his hands out between them and tilting his palms up to encourage hers to slip between his fingers, Remi pulls in a breath. The way he begins suggests he'd clearly rehearsed this, but as he continues the words seem to wander away from him somewhat. "I am so happy that you have found someone to make you happy. Cal genuinely seems like a really good match for you...not that you need my approval. But..it is going to take me some time to get used to this. I...cannot tell you how much I miss being with you. How much I miss just being able to take you in my arms and kiss you. To be the one you tell things to and go on catastrophic dates with." Swallowing hard, his eyes fall between them, as guilt and shame erase his smile. "I am working on it, and I know it is not fair, and I know I am being selfish, and I do not want you to do anything differently, I just..."
..wanted you to know I'm a spoiled man-child who should not have even bothered opening his mouth.
"..that I am sorry. And that I am trying."
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Well--," Isla mumbles, the flush on her cheeks growing all the brighter as Remi so effortlessly calls her out. But he's offering out his hands and she steps forward to slip hers into his grip, and he rescues her having to make it blatantly obvious when he starts to speak. And as he begins she keeps waiting for the but, Isla guessing that this will culminate with I can't be okay with it or I can't see you any more. She's prepping for it, in fact, blinking quickly and glancing away from Remi...
Only it isn't that at all, the medic squeezing his hands gently and seeming unable to help the way she steps forward to abandon the distance between them so she can hug him tightly. "It's okay," she whispers. "You can't help the way you feel, and neither of us can expect you to just turn it off. But you're still my best friend, Remi. I still want to tell you everything, and to spend time with you. That part doesn't have to change."
He welcomes her into his arms without hesitation, trying desperately to hear the things she says and take them at face value. His mind has other plans, reminding him in no uncertain terms that all of Isla's best moments will be had with Cal, and not him. Her secrets and existing stories will now always be second hand.
And yours aren't? Another voice chimes in, and gods Remi is suddenly glad that he and Isla are off to do something very dangerous and stupid that will take his mind off of things. "Well, good." He chuckles, before glancing up at the sky where thunder purrs ominously in the distance.
"I was thinking about it...as hawks I worry we will not be large enough targets. But as manticore it will be hard to hold the stones. So either, one of us shifts and rides the other, or.." Wings push outward from Remi's shoulders. "..you learn to fly this way."
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Isla might be with Cal now, but it will always be true that she's literally been a part of Remi, and she still feels small and safe in his arms in a way that has no comparison. So, laughing against his chest and nodding, she gives him one last squeeze and a quick kiss to his cheek before she steps back to look to the skies and the task at hand. He makes some very good points, and Isla is about to suggest that she be the one to ride since she doesn't feel pain (in case of being struck by lightning) when an entirely different plan emerges.
There's no hiding the awe in her pebble blues as she watches the wings stretch out from Remi's shoulders, Isla grinning and bouncing on the balls of her feet. She already has his manticore shift simmering in her veins, so it's just the hows to work out. "I have the sea glass here," she says, patting her pocket. "I'd love to learn how to fly that way... What do I need to do?"
The kiss to his cheek, however brief, makes his heart flutter before promptly being tugged back down. Please don't do that, he wants to beg. But also, don't ever stop. So he says nothing.
'Mmhmm. Thought you would go for that one.' Remi says, watching her eyes widen and sparkle as much as her circuits will allow. "Well, normally I take all my first-timers to the top of a cliff and push them off. You, cleverly, have started us at sea level." Narrowing his eyes as if this was intentional, Remi eventually laughs as he shakes his head. "The biggest thing is to try not to think about it, or compensate with your body. As a manticore your instincts do most of the work. In your body as it is...your mind will try and take over. You will flap your arms, kick your legs, try and angle yourself." Giving his head another shake to indicate that these things should be avoided, Remi lets his wings stretch out and tilt forward slightly to catch the light breeze that gusts over the rocks.
"Wings are not arms. The strength comes from your core and your shoulders. Mmm?" Nodding at Isla that she should try and get the feel for it on the rocks before they lift off, he takes a step back to give her room.
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
An avid seeker of knowledge, Isla is of course bewitched by Remi's wings and his explanations both, and it's with a shaky breath that she absolutely doesn't need that she unleashes the part of the manticore shift she possesses that can soar and dive and fly. Her wings don't stretch quite so elegantly from her shoulders - they explode in a whooph of feathers, and her arms snap out for balance quite automatically before she stops herself.
"Okay... Okay. So don't think about it, basically?" she summarises, offering a smile that sort of wants to be a scream. "Remi, if I fall onto the rocks and get ripped to bits, can you collect up all my pieces please?" she asks, moving to stand and face the wind as well, trying to let her wings to the work as they catch the breeze. "However did you learn to do this alone?"
Remi can't help—nor does he try to hide—his snort of laughter as Isla so ungracefully unfurls her wings. Biting the inside of his cheek and raising a brow, he waits until she's steadied herself before offering a condescending nod. "Yes and no. It..." He knows she doesn't need to breathe, but continues with his example just the same. "..is like when someone points out your breathing and then suddenly you forget how often you are supposed to do it, or how loud. If you think about it too much, you will try to manage it."
Walking with her, Remi steps off the rocks as casual as anything, his large wings fanning up and down to hold him almost perfectly still. Reaching out his hands for her, Remi rolls his eyes. "As if I would let you fall."
With a boyish shrug, the alchemist purses his lips. "I have been flying since I was very young you must remember. And having been in so many bodies before...you get a feel for things."
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Isla fires Remi a blank look at that, her wings still flexing and ruffling in the breeze of their own accord - something she finds remarkably distracting. "I have not needed to breathe in some time, I might remind you," she says, flashing him a crooked smile at last only for her to flail a bit when he steps off the edge of the rock. "Be careful." It slips out before she can help it, Isla firing the alchemist an apologetic look. "Sorry, I just... this is very new."
Still, as evidenced by the way she immediately tried to follow him, her wings are confident about the flight even if Isla herself isn't. "Yes, I suppose you do. I feel like a clumsy baby bird next to you..." Still, there's no time like the present, and she steels her core and shoulders, flexes her wings out in full, and lets herself go.
It isn't elegant, and it isn't pretty, but with a few clumsy flaps, she does manage to stay airborne. "I'm doing it, Remi!"
"Yes, yes." Remi concedes with a patient roll of his eyes. Her concern strikes that same joyful/agony chord in his soul, but at least he's finding his smiles for her are easier to come by. "If you were a baby bird, you would get no help and would be left to die if you failed." The alchemist points out knowledgable, and perhaps just a touch sinisterly.
But then Isla is stepping off, and though it's clumsy, the euphoria he feels at seeing her fly on her own like this, fills him so completely that he can't help but laugh. "If by it, you mean flapping around, then yes, you certainly are." Remi agrees through a smile nearly so wide it's hard to speak. "But you are meant to be flying, not flapping." He adds, tugging slightly on her hands that she might set her sights a bit higher and join him higher in the sky.
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Luckily for me, I am not a real baby bird, and I know that you would never let that happen," Isla says a touch haughtily, offering Remi a sly smile for his trouble. It's not a smile that lasts, given how her entire focus is suddenly on trying to stay upright, and she can only offer a bark of laughter in response to the alchemist's criticism. "Whoa, hey, wait--!" Not expecting the tug to her hands, Isla can't help but kick out a little as they climb higher into the stormclouds.
But the manticore in her takes over at that point, remembering the flight taken over the Feverlands, the airborne battle in the longest of nights. And though she's still nothing compared to Remi, her movements become a little more sleek and certain, and she follows him skyward with a beat of her wings. "This is incredible," she almost whispers to herself, before a little more loudly, "how will we know when we reach a lightning storm?"
"What did I say about that?" Remi scolds with a laugh, nodding towards her flailing legs. "That is just going to pitch you back and forth and then you really will be falling." It's slowly and carefully that he releases her hands when he's sure that she'll be able to keep herself more or less steady on her own. He is the superior flyer by far, and heavier than her twice over if not more. It is only just above the water where Isla could fall that Remi could not race to catch her, and were they that low, she could survive the drop with only her ego sustaining injury.
"Hey, I am just here to teach you to fly. I never said that I knew how to—" The words are cut off by a shocking flash of light, as lightning sizzles across the clouds overhead. Looking toward Isla with a raised brow, Remi shrugs as he beckons her higher. "I think we probably fly higher like a pair of idiots and you wave your stone about. Does...electricity..." Brow furrowed, the alchemist frowns at the medic for a moment. "With your .... the parts that make you an ascended, is the lightning harmful?" That is, would she suddenly be short circuited if struck?
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
