Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
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Aurelia's actually not here to specifically wait for Ronin to meet her, like some dark dealing made in an alleyway - though she's done plenty of those, too. No, this really is her office, and so she's here because... well, she doesn't have anywhere else to be. And she did ask that he meet her here, so maybe she is kind of waiting.
But there are things to be done here.
Like sweep the floors, change the bedding from Hotaru's cell now that she won't be using it anymore. Or file away notes about a certain case - the only case as of recent. Haulani isn't exactly a lawful city. It's true. It's clear that the jailhouse has essentially been used to contain rowdy citizens, perhaps sometimes the criminals stupid enough to get caught up in a place like this. The office was more of an afterthought, an 'oh, right, we should probably have one of those'. But Aurelia's done a lot with the space here, and now it looks like maybe someone actually tries to solve... something.
Not that she's gotten very far with that.
Aurelia's breath is a heavy sigh as she collects papers from a board on the wall. Dots connected, notes written. None of it seems to matter anymore. The season changed and with it, it seems as though everyone else is ready to move on. But here she is, wondering if Hotaru's freedom spells out her own doom.
So leave me and tell me what I already know That I trialled and I failed and it's good to let it go
Ronin used to spend a lot of time in jailhouses. Back when he'd been a simple guard, first, and then when he'd been captain and had fallen off the wagon, punching out people he really shouldn't have done. But it's been a while since he was in one - especially one like this.
"Just you in here?" he wonders, straightening up from the doorframe where he's been leaning. There's something hard and tense about the Star at the moment, and it's unclear whether it's his situation or merely the season that's bringing it out.
Stepping into her office, he tilts his head and gestures to the board she's taking apart. "Anything interesting?" he asks, already getting the feeling that he knows what she might have been investigating. "Anything I can help with?"
Because she's called him here for a reason, and he has a feeling that neither of them are around right now for small talk.
"Ah-!" The 'knock knock' at the door makes her startle, because, as said previously, she wasn't totally expecting someone. But she also was. How does one prepare for a conversation like this, anyway?
Looking over from her work, she sees Ronin standing in the doorframe, looking... a bit.. off. Not in an obvious sense but, something about him seems different. If she doesn't sound happy to see him, it's because she isn't, "Yeah, it's just me."
As for her collection of notes and anything interesting? She ganders down at one in her grip, and hands it off to Ronin. It contains a small side note of Hotaru threatening to fry her brains a second time. "It's interesting depending on who you are, I'm afraid. People cry out for proof in a world where... witnesses are proof. Evidence is proof. There is plenty of that, and she tells a painfully inconsistent story in comparison to reality, and yet still... I'm trying not to go insane, Ronin..." she admits openly, whether he's asked how she is or not. Rummaging the rest of the papers away, she pulls out a bottle of rum to take its place. "Remi took Hotaru without speaking to any of us first and now she's free to..." She gestures vaguely and then stills, deciding to busy herself with pouring two glasses.
With a deeper inhale to settle herself, she points to the chair on the outside of her desk. With a voice more bold than is perhaps her place, she tells him firmly, "Sit, please." Ronin may have an aura of intensity about him, but Aurelia is taking no prisoners. Literally. Still, she extends one of the glasses out to him and takes her own seat on the other side of the desk.
So leave me and tell me what I already know That I trialled and I failed and it's good to let it go
It takes Ronin a few moments to figure out just what Aurelia is talking about - he is involved with Hotaru and Remi and That Mess only from the point of view of what it means for him. Honestly, he's aware of all that has happened in Torchline, but he isn't particularly close to it. "Huh... Safrin said she set fire to the Slagveld," he murmurs, almost offhandedly, remembering his goddess's words in the middle of a very different conversation. Still, he moves to sit in the offered seat as she gestures to it, gazing pointedly at a corner of it.
"Yes, I am aware," he murmurs. "She is pregnant with his child. I'm... not getting involved in it, if that is what you have called me here to ask. It will drive me insane." Running his fingers through his hair, he forces his shoulders to slump. "Free to what?" he asks a moment later, realising she never actually finished her sentence.
07-02-2021, 10:54 PM (This post was last modified: 07-02-2021, 10:59 PM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
Aurelia's tongue runs across the outside of her teeth and she makes a loud 'tsk!'. "Yes, she did, and Deimos helped her," she confirms, not that Ronin would need an Abandoned to confirm the words of his Goddess. In Aurelia's perspective, Hotaru and Deimos both played equal roles in the fires. They were both responsible. But the situation had not entirely been in her own hands, and now what little grasp of it she had has crumbled through her fingers like something solid turned liquid.
The fact that Ronin takes the seat surprises her, even though she had wanted him to. Truthfully, she doesn't know what to expect from people anymore. Assuming the worst is safer than the best, at this point in time. Tensions have risen exponentially now that war is on everyone's mind.
At Ronin's explanation, she tilts her head and furrows her brows. But she relaxes and takes her glass into her hands, indulging in a sip of it that she hardly reacts to. "Free to plot, to come back and do it all again. Or something worse. They're a danger -- not just to Sunjata and Nate. To me, to Torchline, perhaps even to Halo, and anyone that might try to intervene in whatever they pull next. Innocent people's lives have already been impacted by their actions."
"The Warden has questioned Hotaru, we've questioned her. I know she did it. You know she did it. Nate and Sunjata know. She knows we know! And what does an animal do when it feels cornered?" She sets the glass down with an audible tap against the wood, looking across at him with a hardened gaze. They both know the answer.
"Ronin... I consider us friends. Allies. We both follow Safrin now, doesn't that make us.. kin of some sort? We'll be on the same side of things when all of this comes undone in eight seasons. Why not start now?"
"I..." she sinks back in her seat, looking away, "I need your help... I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do anymore. Just wait? Wait until she does it again, and only be able to react? I don't know if I'll survive a second time..." Her voice is breathy and low, and though she'd never admit it Aurelia is sinking in her defeat. This was not what she had in mind to tell him, but now that he's here, now that she's looking right at him and he seems changed himself... it's different.
So leave me and tell me what I already know That I trialled and I failed and it's good to let it go
"And down the rabbit hole we go," Ronin comments softly, accepting the glass almost as an afterthought, taking a sip of the drink without checking what it might be. He listens as Aurelia speaks, and whilst on the outside there seems little change to his expression, rest assured he is boiling within. "I thought that they would be banned from Torchline. Would they be so blatant to ignore that?" He tilts his head, making no mention of Halo - that's not either of their business.
Chewing at the inside of his cheek and taking another healthy sip of his drink, he sets his glass down as well and raises his blue eyes at last to meet her gaze. "You're right," he says with a small smile. "I suppose that does make us kin. And I am more than happy to help you, Aurelia - but I don't know in what capacity you're expecting that help. I no longer live in Torchline, and whilst I can travel relatively quickly, I can't be here in time should anything go awry. What do you need from me?"
Aurelia can't hide the flash of irritation that crosses her face at hearing Ronin's comment. Her brows flutter toward one another, the veins in her forehead flexing with the motions, and her eyelids close as she inhales a breath to settle herself. Even if Ronin is boiling within, she can't tell of it, and in the here and now he's putting up a contrasting front. "What makes you think that? Because they were so considerate of Torchline before?" She retorts with a raise of her brows, voice lathered in disdain. Come on, Ronin.
The glass is set down almost angrily. It's lazy, it's uncaring, it's blatant. A lot is said in the little motion of it. Her hand comes up to hide her lips, as they purse and twist and scowl with more of her ire.
"If it makes you feel any better, you weren't the first person I thought of," she informs him reluctantly, "I went to the lighthouse, seeking Safrin's guidance. All I received was the advice of a spirit. A dark.. spirit," she sucks in a breath through her teeth, which threaten to grit together. "Its advice was to strike first," she splays her palms, "and maybe it was right." But she puts this out there for Ronin to process and react to. Because, well, he doesn't want to be involved - even though, by definition and association, he is - and she is his ally - by definition and association - and therefore she has all the respect for him to put the figurative ball in his court.
"But the problem is that Hotaru is pregnant. With a demigod's child." Which is a big, fat, glaring issue. "It said that she would use it as a martyr..." she adds, eyeing Ronin carefully, "and I believe that, too. Before Remi whisked her away... I was able to interrogate her. She showed very little emotion when she gave her testimony - to any of us - you know that? Very little... like she had it all planned out, her story, her lies..." And who the fuck goes through that kind of emotional trauma, through a trial like that, acting like she were a queen - all cross-legged and haughty - and the prison her kingdom. "She isn't right, Ronin." In the head, in the heart, in the spirit. However you want to put it.
So leave me and tell me what I already know That I trialled and I failed and it's good to let it go
Chewing on his lower lip, Ronin concedes the point with a gentle tip of his glass. In one fluid movement, he knocks the rest of it back and sets it down on the desk, lifting his gaze to Aurelia's. "Alright, perhaps I was a little naive there," he murmurs softly. And again he is in contast to the (for now) Arbiter, his eyebrows raising as she slams her glass down in echo of his own movement, and as she speaks of Safrin and dark spirits, he almost wants to say that it could very well have been the lady of stars in disguise. The night is dark, even by starlight.
"Strike first...?" he echoes, but before he can get his head around it, there's the mention of Hotaru's pregnancy, of a demigod's child, and his facade shatters. So does the tumbler he's been holding onto. "I am quite aware," he says, almost whispering the words, even as he sweeps up the glass shards with bleeding fingers. "Sorry about this."
Closing his eyes and letting out a long breath, a muscle feathering in his jaw, Ronin speaks after what seems like an eternity. "I would never leave an ally feeling helpless," he says. "If you give me a little time, I will find a way for you to call me, if you need me. Would that be alright, for now?"
The glass shatters in Ronin's hand and it's near-silent the way it does. As if it's made of little more than plastic, crumpling in the strength of his grip. Aurelia doesn't even notice it until he's apologizing, until he's cleaning the mess he's made.
Her eyes widen and all anger evaporates from her in that instant. The topic at hand, while not forgotten, is foregone. Ronin seems to think that she will press further after this, though, and she can hear in his words the way he's attempting to appease her upset.
"Ronin- that's fine- your hand, you idiot," she snaps out dismissively, the chair beneath her squealing as she pushes it back to stand up. In a drawer right at her desk, she draws out a first aid kit (not the modern kind, but.. it'll do). After all.. if you're going to have unruly prisoners, you might get scraped up - or they might. It's good to keep these things on hand.
Although this, admittedly, wasn't what she anticipated to use them for.
Setting the kit down on the desktop, she rests her hip against it and puts her hand out. "Let me see," her tone is much gentler than before and the aggravation that furrows her brow is of a different nature now.
If he relents, which she hopes he knows he doesn't have much say in, she'll set to work on picking out the shards herself. While Aurelia is no medic and its certainly one of her weakest skills, her fingers are smaller than his and will find it easier to pick out the little bits of glass.
"Find a way to call you, huh?" She echoes without looking up at him, "Like with a letter? Or what?" Admittedly, her anxieties are a bit sated, though she has no idea what he means.
"Can you tell me something, Ronin?" This is when her gaze lifts up to look at him, "Has Safrin ever... told you to do something you knew was wrong?"
So leave me and tell me what I already know That I trialled and I failed and it's good to let it go
”Mm? Oh no, it’s fine. You don’t have to… His protests are perfunctory of course, because Aurelia is already getting up and readying her first aid kit. So Ronin surrenders his hand, staring instead at the bloodied glass on the table and frowning; partially at himself but also at the situation that has arisen which has caused his temper to flare so quickly, without warning or care for what is around it. ”I’ll get you another glass,” he says with a listless smile. ”Wouldn't want any of your guests to go without a drink, huh.”
Lifting his gaze to her face at last, the Star smiles a bit and shrugs his shoulders. ”I was thinking of something more immediate. Like how Accepted can channel, except you’d get me instead. I could ask Safrin if there was anything she could do.”
Speaking of Safrin, Aurelia’s eyes meet his own, and she asks a question that both is and isn’t something that people often want to know about his goddess. ”Yes and no,” he says slowly. ”What I think is wrong and what she thinks is wrong are two different matters. What she has done is taken all of my abilities away for refusing her. Take that however you will.”
Aurelia scoffs softly at his offer, at his clever little joke. "Don't worry about it... doubt very many of them will stick around for long," she drawls out with a raise of her brows, offering him a half-amused smirk.
Her interest sharpens a bit as he explains what he meant by being able to 'call' him, and with it there's a realization that makes her eyes widen and a line crease in her forehead. "You would.. do that for me?" She asks, pausing in the picking of his hand for a brief second.
At this point, she feels as if she's just making that worse, so she stops and retrieves a vial of liquid. "'s jus' water" she mumbles as she pops the cap off with her teeth and uses it to wash away the rest of the grime on his hand. Well, it's not just water; it's a mild saline solution, so it may sting a bit.
Spitting out the bottle cap, she listens to Ronin's answer about Safrin as it clatters across the desk. It veers off toward him, randomly, but she's too busied to worry about it much.
"Oh, right.." her eyes darken with recognition, "when you.." Well, nobody needs to say that part out loud, do they? But she does recall him telling her a bit about that before, when they'd met on the beach. "But she's given them back since then," she points out, sounding strangely hopeful, "there's nothing she's asked of you that... couldn't be undone?"
She chews the inside of her lip as she works on bandaging his hand. "The spirit told me I could kill Hotaru, along with the baby..." she admits reluctantly, movements faltering until they still and she draws her hands away, the bandage finished.
So leave me and tell me what I already know That I trialled and I failed and it's good to let it go
"Ah, you don't know that," Ronin says, able to laugh off the cracking glass more easily than the emotions that prompted it in the first place. And he proves he's human, at least, wincing as she takes hold of his hand and starts to removes the shards from it, and it turns into a full blown pout as her just water turns out to sting a bit more than he had anticipated. "Ow," he complains, before his gaze softens a bit. "I mean, of course I would do that for you. We're in this together, right?"
Whatever 'this' is. At the moment, at least, it's chatting about Safrin, and Ronin manages a wobbly smile that says eeeeeh sort of without really saying anything at all. "She didn't exactly ask me about Seren," he murmurs, "and I love her to pieces, of course I do. But would I have chosen her? I can't really say." He shrugs.
And if the conversation has turned dark already, it doesn't get much better as Aurelia continues, and Ronin tilts his head at her. "You could," he offers softly. Because it's true - she could kill Hotaru and her baby. "So could I. But neither of us are going to, are we?"
Aurelia smirks slightly with amusement when Ronin complains about the treatment. "Not very tough, are you, Ro?" She murmurs teasingly with a taunting wiggle of her brows. But her expression softens and quivers with heartfelt surprise when he confirms that of course he'd do that. "Thank you..." she says as her chest caves inward, "I won't forget that."
The conversation does take a darker turn, but it's one Aurelia has steadily continued to supply since the moment Ronin has arrived. Her gaze turns somber and understanding at the account of Seren's existence. "Of course you love her," she gives his wrist a squeeze, where she's finished tying the bandage, before she lets go and her hands slowly fall away. "She reminds me a bit of myself when I was younger... but, less angry. A lot less angry. Because she has a good father, and you've protected her well," although her small smile doesn't reach her eyes, her words are genuine.
She doesn't have to know their lives to know these things keenly, to feel it within her gut. It's something she can spot from a mile away because it is something she had sorely missed growing up. Though she would not say that here and now.
Ronin's reaction is not as extreme as she thought it might be. His voice is soft, as he tilts his head up at her and states the plain truth of the matter. Her lips purse and her brows furrow as her shoulders shrug down in defeat. For several moments, she's quiet, until finally she says, "I guess I'm not as bad as I think I am, huh?"
So leave me and tell me what I already know That I trialled and I failed and it's good to let it go
07-08-2021, 04:22 PM (This post was last modified: 07-08-2021, 04:25 PM by Ronin.)
"I have sensitive skin," Ronin informs her with a tilt of his chin, looking every inch a baron for a moment or so, before it melts back into a cheeky smile. "C'mon now, don't get soft on me. I've got a hero complex as long as Torchline's beaches. I can't say no." He winks, absently reaching out with his good hand to catch the cap from the traitor-water she's been using, offering it back to her once she's done rubbing it into his wounds.
Every darkness has a shard of light, it seems, and for this particular conversation it's Seren. Ronin's smile softens into something warm and genuine, and he seems to relax into his seat. "Thank you for saying so," he murmurs. "I have missed a lot of her life, and I know that I can't make up for that. So I am doing my best now."
She ties off the bandage and Ronin nudges her gently, rising to his feet. "You're bad enough," he says with a smirk, as if that's a good way to cheer her up. And then, because he's a hugger, Ronin leans in to draw her into an embrace. "Look after yourself until I get this sorted out, yeah? I'll see you soon."
