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!
It isn't a shrine visit that brings Ronin to Torchline - no, it's a visit to Sunjata to talk about Nate, because he's dealing with it, more on that later - but the Aumakua catches his eye along the way, and his footsteps bring him there before he can decide otherwise. This is not a visit that belongs in the Celestine, so close to home, and as he ascends the lighthouse steps to the shrine, he can already feel the void spreading in the pit of his stomach.
He doesn't come empty handed, though. So many offerings have been left at this shrine for Safrin, one might think that Ronin had run out of ideas. And yet, even from the markets bustling in the night, the Star has his plans. And so when he reaches the top of the lighthouse, it is to spread out a blanket, setting upon it a bottle of chilled and floral wine, and a basket of berries and delicate pastries.
"Good evening, Safrin," he murmurs. "I still need to view your constellation from the South and from the East, but... I need you tonight, I think."
sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
She appears, lounging on the blanket spread out for her (presumably). Her gown is fitted but playful, and as she leans over to inspect the berries in the basket, it hugs her every curve unapologetically and likely, quite blatantly. The words he speaks brings a warm smile to her lips as he must have known they would, but as she gives him a coquettish glance between a curtain of dark hair, her expression melts into something curious and naive. "Oh? Oh." Sitting up, she reaches out a hand for him. "You seem troubled sugar. Come," Patting the blanket as if Ronin might need the encouragement to enjoy his own offerings, Safrin pushes herself up with one arm, her legs curling in and around herself.
Ronin has started the music and Safrin has offered her hand that this dance might begin. Just where they would end up is yet to be seen.
but in your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me
Unlike on other occasions, perhaps, tonight Ronin is in the mood to dance. He takes her hand and takes his seat beside her on the blanket, though he doesn't touch any of the treats in the basket. Bathed in the light of the goddess, the Star merely takes a moment to get centered, to be here in a way he doesn't think he has, in other times.
"I don't think I ever realised how evil I could be, until now. Or how selfish or possessive I am." He shakes his head. "I never thought I was someone who would do terrible things for the sake of my own happiness... but lately my thoughts keep swinging that way." Letting out a humourless laugh, he raises guilty blue eyes to Safrin. "Some warrior I am."
sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
Her presence as if often does, will fill Ronin with a sense of utter ease and relaxation. The tension he carries will melt away, falling off of him like water on oil-slick muscles. "Evil?" Safrin repeats, her fingers warm around his own as she shakes her head. "Ronin, that is something you will never be. Not even in your darkest moments." She assures him. "You have been driven to this. For all you have done for those around you...and here you are clawing for just a moment of warmth and rest." Her perfectly painted lips purse ever so slightly as she gazes at him, resplendent in the simplicity of the moment.
'You have always been far too hard on yourself, Ronin. Taking on the troubles and battles of those around you to make their journies lighter...you are a warrior. The very best I have." She continues with a sweet smile, her eyes never leaving his face. "Stay with me a while. Tell me everything on your mind."
but in your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me
Ronin wants to believe her, especially with how her presence inspires such comfort and relaxation in him. Giving her fingers a gentle squeeze in return, he lets himself sink against the blanket a little more, and the urge to simply lay down is almost irresistible. But he can't stop the niggling sense of wrongness in his thoughts, the anger that sings in his blood and burrows deep into his bones. "You are always so kind to me," he murmurs.
And here she is even now, offering rest and respite, and Ronin finds himself nodding without thinking, his blue eyes dancing over her face. "Remi is expecting a child with someone else, and I can't help but to think that things would be so much easier if that problem just... went away," he whispers, feeling that familiar cool darkness descend upon his thoughts.
"And I know it isn't fair, because it isn't as if I haven't put him in exactly the same situation. But I just..." His jaw clenches. "I don't know what to do with all of this anger."
sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
'Lie down, my love.' Safrin coaxes, but not before reaching for the bottom of his shirt that she might draw it over his head. Encouraging him to lay face down on the blanket (Ronin will feel that it has suddenly become quite padded as if he's laying on a cloud rather than the cold stone floor). He will also feel Safrin's weight upon his lower back, as she daintily straddles him. Instantly her hands go to his back, her fingertips roving over scars and musculature as heat radiates from her palms.
"It's a funny thing..this pregnancy. Do you know Hotaru stabbed Sunjata when she found out about Kamaria? She made quite an ordeal about using children as a means to an end, and yet here she is, conveniently earning Frey's favour and having sex with the one person that might rile the nerves of everyone involved." Shifting her weight forward, her legs press against Ronin's to anchor her further even as she stretches herself to reach his shoulders.
"Exactly the same situation?" Safrin tuts. Her hands will feel as though they're covered in some sort of oil that eases her palms across his skin. "It isn't the same at all." Not unless Ronin was trying to imply that he had been influenced into sleeping with Safrin has Remi had allegedly been influenced into sleeping with Hotaru.
but in your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me
06-25-2021, 06:37 PM (This post was last modified: 06-25-2021, 06:37 PM by Ronin.)
I swear I still believe but I don't know
Ronin does as he is told, and he's rewarded for it with sweet touches and a weight against his legs and lower back that feels somehow more than. Humming a note of something close to bliss into the blanket turned cloud, he wants to turn and face her, but at the same time to stretch himself out endlessly and expose himself to Safrin's attentions. How many can claim to receive this sort of treatment from a goddess, after all?
"Hm...? She what?" His eyes blink open, brows furrowing to hear that Hotaru had reacted with such hysteria violence at the news that a child was coming into the world that she had no part in. Oh, the irony of that. "No, I didn't know that--" Cut off by the sensation of Safrin stretching further across him, Ronin inhales sharply, and lets his eyes shut again.
He winces to hear the emphasis in her voice, nodding. "I know - I meant more that I had appeared in Remi's life with an unexpected child. It feels somehow hypocritical to be this angry about it given all I have done in the past..." And yet. "I have never felt a hate like this, Safrin."
sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
He won't be able to see her smile, but if the air smells a touch sweet in response to his sudden inhale, the Star can make of that what he will. "Indeed. And the whole mess with the guild and the fire..." Safrin clucks her tongue under her breath. "Hotaru seems one so easily able to create chaos, one has to wonder...I mean, showing up at the same time as your husband? What sort of person doesn't let another pray in peace?" Shrugging above him, Safrin's hips lift and shift so that she can adjust her body weight to be carried through her hands. Pressing against the muscles of Ronin's back, her fingers subtly re-align his spine as she chases away with lingering pockets of tension with ease.
"Not so. You were mine long before you were his." Safrin says. "The world needed Seren." She continues. "But Hotaru and Remi? It was not part of what Frey required of them that they have sex at all. Orgasms were all that were required, and we both know what is and isn't necessary for that." Her fingers continue to work against him, the weight of her an all-too real thing against him. "Remi has always been prone to wander. And unlike you, when faced between doing the right thing and denying himself something he wanted? Well. We know what he always chooses. It is why you're left feeling like this. Because once again, you have to forgive him."
but in your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me
06-25-2021, 07:03 PM (This post was last modified: 06-25-2021, 07:03 PM by Ronin.)
I swear I still believe but I don't know
Ronin frowns at that, the Star not quite shrugging his shoulders given the pressure against them and along his spine. "I don't know all that much about it," he confesses. "Only that there was a fire, and a unicorn was killed. That is what Seren told me. I didn't know Hotaru was involved." And oh, the things that he does not know that will come back to bite him in the future. A running joke, in Ronin's life.
He wants to argue with her about Remi, but the truth of her words (and the exquisite feel of her hands) prevents him, Ronin merely grumbling into the blanket like some sleepy beast. Still, while she is correct that he absolutely did belong to Safrin before he belonged to Remi, and while he might feel this way because of Remi, it is not the alchemist who darkens his thoughts. "She didn't even have to involve him," he half growls.
sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
Trickling her fingers down the sides of his body to encourage goosebumps along his skin, Safrin nods above him. "Mhmmm. She was quite angry at them, so she took it out on the bar and the guild." Where else did she take her anger out on, one might wonder.
Much as Safrin is pleased to hear Ronin's dark tone directed at Hotaru, ultimately, the new-hybrid is not the one she wants to set Ronin's heart against. "She didn't, no." The goddess agrees. "Would you like to see a clearer picture of what happened? Sometimes we can't move on until we have all the details.." A very human problem to have, but Safrin was happy to oblige the Star with the gritty details. Important ones Remi had left out.
but in your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me
Humming out a non-committal sound, Ronin shivers to feel the fingers down his sides, though of course that was Safrin's entire intention. "She was angry at them because of Kamaria?" he wonders, his expression darkening further. Ronin should be savvy to his goddess's penchant for manipulation, but his mind is not in the right state to look out for it currently. Which is precisely why he had gone looking for her, he will realise later - to hear all the things he wants to, to feel validated.
"A clearer picture of what...?" he wonders, glancing over his shoulder to peer up at her. "I don't want to see them like that," he blurts, though that probably isn't Safrin's intention to begin with. Clearing his throat, he isn't quite able to get up with her pinning him down, and so he settles into listening for her answer.
06-25-2021, 07:50 PM (This post was last modified: 06-25-2021, 07:51 PM by Safrin.)
sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
"Mmhmm." In so many words, at least. As her fingers trickle down his sides, they curl innocently in toward his hips. Muscular as Ronin is, his body does not lay flat upon the cloud-like blanket, and so it's easier for her touches to begin to wander, if only fleetingly, onto the lower portion of his stomach before vanishing back and up his sides again.
"No? Alright then." With a rather coquettish shrug, Safrin just gazes down at Ronin. Shifted as she has, the entire length of her thigh is visible through the slit of her gown, given how she's moved and adjusted herself above Ronin. "I just thought you might want to see it for yourself. Put to bed those questions you must be thinking, like...why would someone have sex with someone they weren't even attracted to, to please a god they don't care about? Especially when sex wasn't even needed!" Safrin laughs, as if it was a bad joke read out of a christmas-cracker.
'Shhhh.' Reaching backward, she presses a warm palm against the back of Ronin's thigh. "You're supposed to be relaxing." She says, of the tightness she feels in his legs and his body beneath her.
but in your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me
Suddenly the touches to his body do not feel quite so pleasurable as they did just a moment ago. With the carnival of Remi and Hotaru's imagined encounter playing like a film reel behind his eyes, any heat in his belly grows cold, and he doesn't realise that he's been biting at the inside of his mouth until there's a copper taste on his tongue. "I don't really want to talk about it," he says softly, squirming a little as if her attentions are something to be endured now, rather than enjoyed.
He had not come to think about his husband balls deep in someone else. He'd come to get rid of her. "I'm afraid I don't feel very relaxed. I'm sorry, Safrin - I am not the company I thought I would be for you tonight. I'm not sure you ought to waste any more of your time on me."
sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
"How much longer do you think you can carry on like this, Ronin?" Safrin wonders as her fingertips curl into his hair. "My stars either shine, explode, or implode. Such is the nature of them." She explains with a last caress, before rising and walking toward one of the windows.
Peering out at the sea, her eyes narrow. Ronin had certainly begun to mimic her fickle ways, if nothing else. "What sort of company were you intending to be?" She asks, turning around with a brow raised, her silhouette hugged by moonlight.
but in your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me
