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!
"Not entirely on my own," Ronin murmurs softly, whispering soft kisses along Remi's temples and jawline. "I only glow when I think of good things. And," he lowers his voice, like it's a secret he's about to share, "I almost always thing of you." Winking, as if on cue the glow beneath the furs he's wrapped them in pulses a bit brighter.
This is one time he likely would have given Remi the space to wallow - it's their dream and they can do what they like - but he's equally content to have the alchemist wrapped around him, relishing the touch of calloused fingertips against his skin and soft lips along his collarbone. "You are so welcome," he assures him, shifting a little to lean back against one of the old wingback chairs that had been nestled close to the hearth.
"I forgive you, and I love you," he tells the Lullaby softly, letting careful hands map their way down Remi's shoulders and back. "And," he adds, nudging Remi a bit as if to coax him to look up, "monster hunter happens to be the very first job I chose when I got to Caido. So you keep bringing them to our door, and I'll keep fighting them off. Sometimes, though, we might have to swap places. I have my share of demons waiting to get in too, remember."
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Remi's heart is fuller than it has any right to be, given all the things he's done recently and the hard conversation that they're in the middle of. But as they're always able to do, the pair flit between dire and adoring with ease. It's likely one of the reasons why they work so well together, and though Remi's thoughts are hopelessly bound up by the blue of Ronin's eyes, he wishes he was better with words that he might express to the Star just how much he means.
Shivering softly at both the words and the hands on his skin, the nudge causes the alchemist's forehead to crinkle softly as he reluctantly pulls back. "You have such an unfair way with words." Remi complains, hating and adoring his husband for being able to so succinctly capture their situation in a way that made it seem so easy to handle. "Let me at them." The alchemist all but purrs viciously; nothing would please him more than having the chance to direct some of his fury and frustration outward.
"Aside from..this." This, being the various messes Remi has created as of late. "..how are you?" As a father. As a member of the Order. As a man with his own relationships and such to manage.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Remi doesn't need words to express the things that ring out of him in waves; things that have Ronin hopelessly smiling against his husband's skin where he scatters yet more kisses. Maybe they could stay like this, wrapped up together in dreams and in reality, for long enough that the war might pass them by. It's absolutely not possible, but it's a lovely daydream to entertain for a little bit. And as Remi purrs something adoringly vicious into his ear, Ronin can't help but let out a laugh.
He draws back enough to turn his attention to fussing over the furs when the alchemist continues, Ronin raising his brows and offering the other man a smile as sweet as it is loaded with responsibility. "Oh, you know me," he begins breezily, before leaning in for a kiss - the Star will never brush off his husband with those sorts of platitudes.
"I'm doing good, I think," he murmurs against Remi's lips. "I think Mateo is settling in well, and he likes it here. It's good to be able to actually see him every day. It's not something I take for granted." He smiles. "I started training a few members of the Order, and the skyship route between here and Torchline seems popular. Oh," he adds, almost as an afterthought. "I didn't use my pass. Have it back - I don't want it or need it."
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Kissing Ronin hard enough to try and encourage him onto his back, Remi tugs at the furs until they're around his shoulders. Nestling into the crook of Ronin's arm and letting his fingertips splay across Ronin's chest, the alchemist can distinctly detect the scent of snow as it begins to fall silently outside the guildhall. It makes the roar of the fire and the leathery warmth of the chairs around them seem all the more cozy, and has Remi thinking similar thoughts about staying in this dreamworld longer than they should.
Humming along at appropriate intervals, the relief that shivers out of Remi causes the fire behind them to stutter as if a gust of wind had just roared towards the hearth. "I..was not going to ask." He admits, clearly pleased to hear that it hadn't been a welcoming pair of spread legs that had been the cause of Ronin's abrupt change of heart.
Reaching out as if to accept a tangible pass, Remi mimes tearing it up, before blowing it away into the fire. Returning his arms around Ronin, the alchemist smiles with a stupidly joyful sort of contentment. 'The skyboat is almost done. Perhaps when it is..we could sail to Halo, and teach Mateo how to skate."
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Not asking is not the same as not wanting to know, is it?" Ronin smiles, more than happy to be nudged and coaxed into laying down. Beneath them, a few soft cushions suddenly appear for them to rest their heads upon, and Ronin winds his arm comfortably around the alchemist so he might curl himself firmly against his side. His smile turns more than a little playful to see the imaginary pass be torn to shreds, frittering away in the firelight.
And as the snowfall changes the light and the way the flames crackle, Ronin turns a little to more thoroughly entangle himself with his husband, sighing contently into messy curls. "Ohh? Are you going to use that bone I brought back?" he wants to know. "I think that would be a great idea. Where would we moor the boat in Halo, though?" he wonders.
And then, because he can't help but connect the icy place with the other child, he furrows his brow. "I imagine you will want Mateo to meet them?"
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
'It is very much not the same.' Remi agrees crookedly. "You know what it is like." He adds in a softer tone. "Wanting to know, but also not wanting to." Remi indeed has the ability—especially in a dream—to curl himself around Ronin's bones and lay his head against the Star's beating heart. It wouldn't actually satisfy his want to be closer though, somehow he instinctively knows this. Like saying you want to scream, but finding that screaming does little to feed the urge. Still, Remi nestles himself as close as is possible, always wanting more of the Star.
"If that is alright with you." A man had died that Ronin might bring it back. Both father and son would understand if Ronin didn't want it displayed. "I had thought we might carve it into some sort of creature for the bow. Mateo wants it as the mast." So of course, it would serve as the mast. Shrugging casually, Remi just shakes his head. "I'm sure I can tether it to a boulder. Or if need be, I could just drag it along with us." Like some strange balloon is could just float after them.
Ronin's question has Remi growing still and cold for a moment, but his affirmation comes quickly enough. "Yes." He whispers. "They will be siblings. The why and why-they-shouldn't-be is not their fault. And it isn't Mateo's fault, either." But then..."Is...that why Mateo and Seren haven't met yet?"
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I know it all too well," Ronin murmurs, closing his eyes and letting himself merely enjoy the smell of the fire and of Remi, the feel of fur and warmth and cushions against the back of his head. It's all imagined, of course, but that doesn't stop him from relishing it all the same. "Mm...? Of course it's okay with me. I was always planning to bring you something back. And whether or not you use the bone, that man will still be dead." Morbidly pragmatic is apparently how he deals with things these days.
"You could use it as the anchor," he suggests with a grin. It would solve the problem about how to moor the boat as well, that way. If only the conversation could stay this light; alas, Ronin is forced again to open his eyes to the new reality currently growing in Hotaru's belly.
With a deep sigh, Ronin nestles himself closer, as if suddenly there's a monster knocking at their door with his name on it. "I understand," he mumbles. Which isn't the same I like it but it's as close to I accept it as they'll get. His brow furrows, though, at the comparison to Seren. "If it is, it's a subconscious decision. I just... haven't found a good time for it. It's the same reason she hasn't been for dinner just yet. We're always busy either saving or ruining the world a little bit."
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Wanting to instantly argue, Remi has the forethought to close his mouth before immediately dismissing his husband's suggestion. "I wonder...maybe I could make it so that part of the bone extends into the earth, when placed into it. Sort of like a T." Anchors normally had grapple-y bits after all, and just because he would be mooring the boat on land hardly implied that the same principles wouldn't apply. 'You know Mateo is going to ask for another bone, if we use it for the anchor." Remi points out sensibly.
Trailing his finger along the muscular lines of his husband's chest and shoulders—it's all a dream of course, but the Star feels more than real enough for this simple excursion of his hands—Remi nods slowly. 'A little bit?' Chuckling under his breath as his fingers continue to roam, the alchemist frowns as he maps out his husband's golden skin. 'I still cannot believe what I have done.' He admits. "Hotaru said I did not need to be part of this child's life, as if that was something I would ever be capable of doing." He had meant it though, when he'd said he didn't want more children.
"This...letter on the notice board...Promise to try and keep me from doing something stupid?" Undoubtably Nate and Sunjata would be there. Hotaru too. Isla and Varus..Mateo and Seren...Even the thought of it has Remi's fingers itching with tension.
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Having thrown out the suggestion without remotely thinking about it, Ronin can't help but smile to himself as he winds a finger through a particularly perfect curl. He can practically feel Remi thinking about it, the Star gently nibbling at the other man's ear as if he might distract him from thoughts about bone anchors and his husband being so unbelievably wrong. "I can get him another bone if that's what he wants," he counters, precisely just to be a shit. It hadn't been the monster that had been the issue after all; just the unfortunate soul who had decided to ride on it.
"A teeny tiny bit," Ronin confirms, though his smile doesn't come quite so easily this time. He shifts so Remi might be half draped over his chest, letting the Star run greedy hands over his husband's back beneath the fur. "If Hotaru had meant a word of that, she would never have told you about the child in the first place," he says airily, though the words stain the air like murder. "She told you to obligate you." And he believes it whether it's true or not.
Ronin is both distracted by the sidestep in subject and grateful for it, and he draws back enought that he might look at Remi properly. "I promise," he vows, as if it's the easiest thing in the world. "I will keep you safe from yourself, and by default, keep everyone else safe from you as well. I've got you. We'll just enjoy the party and see how much sugar we can reasonably feed our son, okay?"
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Had Remi been shifted, his ear would have flattened and flickered like a giant cat being softly bothered. Given how completely undone Remi normally was by any amount of attention from the Star, it was a testament to the skyboat and his dedication to building the best craft with his son, that the alchemist continued to ponder about bones digging into ice, and not bone®s digging into other places instead. "mm...maybe.." He hums distractedly before his husband's nibbling becomes entirely too much; twisting, Remi presses a hasty kiss against the Star's lips to cease his bothering.
Remi's shirt has long since disappeared by this point, and as he sighs against the Star, the physics of the dream are done away with that he might be able to rather bonelessly remain draped over him. "I wonder which would be worse though. Being obligated or...finding out years down the road about a child whose life you weren't given the chance to be a part of it." And then, because he's thinking more about the body beneath his than about choosing his words carefully, asks: "You don't think that you have...any children you do not know about..?"
Leaning down to press a kiss against the side of Ronin's nose, the gesture aimed to be as sweet as it was slightly frustrating, Remi nods. "When he falls asleep from the sugar, you are carrying him home. You have no idea how hard it is to balance a child on your back while trying to fly."
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin giggles, naturally, as his husband finally has enough of his bothering, and he accepts the kiss as his punishment with grace and dignity (in his very humble opinion). The Star settles, happy in the small and imaginary paradise they've created for themselves, where even the worst conversations can't touch them. Well - not quite, anyway, his brow furrowing at Remi's question. It isn't something he has really thought about, in truth, and nor is it something he wants to consider.
"I don't think so, no," he murmurs after some considerable thought. "I was always careful - I knew I only wanted children with someone I..." It's not an easy sentence to finish, given the situation Remi finds himself in, and the Star sighs and shakes his head. "I would want to know though, if I did. So I understand." Leaning in, he kisses the other man as if to apologise for anything he might have said to unintentionally hurt, now or in the past.
"Mm... I'm lucky enough to have a cloud to ride on, so I think I'll be just fine. But I am glad you both managed to get back here safe," he says, leaning back with an adoring smile.
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
Ronin might be concerned for how his words relate to Remi's situation, but the alchemist can't help but think of Seren. Bitterly, he wants to point out that Safrin wasn't something the Star wanted to dot dot dot, but he doesn't. It wasn't Ronin's fault, and if the alchemist allowed himself to continually salt that particular wound, he couldn't be surprised when it never stopped festering. "I love you endlessly." Remi says instead, nuzzling himself just below Ronin's jawline.
"Do you think there will be more ascended arriving at this PaRtY?" Remi wonders. "Call me a pessimist, but nothing about the invitation at all makes me think this is going to be a mundane affair."
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"And I love you for just as long," Ronin murmurs, smiling at the mass of curls that comes nuzzling beneath his jaw. He, of course, feels the same way as his husband, the Star unable to answer the questions and concerns that they both have about the situation with Seren. But what happens in dreams doesn't stay in dreams, as it so happens, and he dismisses it as well to let his eyes close, to let himself start to drift against the backdrop of their dreamscape.
"Oh, probably," he mutters about the Ascended, though his tone of voice suggests he doesn't much care about that compared to their more immediate issues. "The good thing is that this time, I think we are much more prepared to deal with things should they go wrong than before." He's quite certain about it, in fact. And if Fiat Lux tries to repeat itself, the outcome will be very different indeed.
right now everything you want is wrong & right now all your dreams are waking up
"You think so?" Gods but Remi loves the feeling of Ronin beneath him. The warmth of him more soothing than the fire, and the sounds of his heart thrumming beneath his skin preferable to the crackling of the hearth. "I suppose we have gotten rather strong." It was an understatement of course, but it had been so long since the men had been properly pitted against something that required a real test of their abilities, that Remi really had no idea how to put what they could do in context.
"You know...while we're here..." The furs dissolve into flower petals in a manner that Remi can only replicate in dreams now. Moving to perch astride the Star with a mischievous look on his face, Remi reaches down and pulls something from behind Ronin's ear.
A coin.
Biting at the inside of his lip to keep his smile from spilling over, he raises a brow. "I always did say I would bring a coin next time."
The Lullaby
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
