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!
Ronin breathes out a soft laugh to hear his husband's words, pressing his eyes shut and brushing his thumb over the back of Remi's hand. "I'll do it as many times as you like," he vows, the words spilling out as easily as the tears that continue to leak beneath closed lids. And as Remi continues to forgive him, to offer such easy love in response to the violence that he has wrought on Hak Etme, on the Lullaby himself, Ronin can only offer what he's always offered in response - all of him.
He reaches out with the sort of care reserved for the very delicate, manoeuvring Remi enough that the other man might lay a little more comfortably in his arms rather than on the ground, nodding to him. "We can stay," he confirms. "Even if it is freezing." Leaning in, he presses a bloody kiss against Remi's forehead. "Thank you," he whispers. "Thank you for helping me, for stopping me from killing anyone. You included."
i don't want the world to see me, because I don't think they'd understand
Closing his eyes, the alchemist lets himself be adjusted with such tender care that it's almost impossible to imagine them growing scaled and ragged and tearing into his body with the intent of stopping his heart from beating entirely. Neither of them has to imagine it though, not with the memories still clear and agonizingly bright. Even so, Ronin will feel an infallible pulse of forgiveness rising from Remi's bones even as they're still melded back together. It's tinged with a strange sort of indifference, such is the depth of his understanding.
"Anytime." Remi chuckles. His voice is exhausted, but stronger sounding for the Huntsman's continued tears. "You were really something, tonight." He adds, sounding quietly in awe of his husband's power and brutality. "And so hard to see against the stars...almost the way sharks are different colours on their bellies to make them hard to see from above and below." Shifting slightly against Ronin—not that the sands provide any real comfort that's worth searching for—Remi tilts his eyes up to meet his husband's. "..un drago stellato." He muses, grinning.
when everything's meant to be broken, i just want you to know who I am
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin doesn't feel as though he deserves Remi's forgiveness, but he selfishly clutches onto it nevertheless, letting it envelop him in a warmth and comfort that he desperately craves and needs. And he thinks he's got hold of himself, too, until he glances down to see his husband smiling up at him like that. How can you smile about this? he wants to ask, but his throat closes around any words he might say. Instead he merely leans into the hand against his cheek, shedding silent tears as he tries to mull over the things the alchemist has to say.
"A dragon?" he manages eventually, his voice thick. Even Ronin can make sense of that translation, and he barely represses the shudder from it. "I guess I was," he mumbles of being really something. "I didn't even realise it was happening until it was too late." But then they had been provoking each other at the time, so that isn't really much of a surprise.
Ronin's smile is small and uncertain, but he does manage one back at his husband eventually. "I love you," he whispers, not for the first time that night and probably not for the last. "I'm going to make you breakfast in bed until next Leafchange. And I won't make fun of your fashion choices for the rest of the season. Even when they're terrible."
i don't want the world to see me, because I don't think they'd understand
sometimes it b like that "It can come on quickly." Remi agrees. "Do you remember when I first became a lion? And you had to throw me in a pit?" Ronin's eyes look nearly black in the dark, but the alchemist knows the blue of them by heart. "I can only guess at what it must have been like." And insofar as he can guess, he can understand. He can forgive the words and threats snarled in his direction, and the scars he'll bear forevermore from this night.
"And I love you." He wants to that he loves the Huntsman more, but at this point, could either of them really know that to be true? "How very thoughtful of you, given that we currently do not have a bedroom or a kitchen." Frowning up at his husband, the alchemist weakly tries to tug him down for a kiss. "It is not fair how you can be charming even when you are insulting me." He grumbles with a genuine—but completely adoring—frustration.
when everything's meant to be broken, i just want you to know who I am
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
It feels like a thousand years ago, when they were both very different men, but Ronin does remember, and his smile takes on a touch of sadness to recall it. "Who knew we would end up here," he murmurs, leaning in as if to kiss away some of the blood from Remi's curls or forehead. His husband barely smells like himself - and Ronin will surprise himself again and again, in the coming weeks, at how this sense has become so heightened - but he could tell Remi apart in a crowd of a thousand, he's sure.
Allowing himself to be tugged into a kiss, it doesn't matter to Ronin that it still tastes a little like iron, like a struggle in the dead of night, and the Huntsman relaxes however fractionally it might be. "I was working on our kitchen," he says softly. "I'll have it finished by the end of the week. Bedroom is wherever we fall asleep, it doesn't matter to me."
Brushing a hand over Remi's hair, Ronin draws back enough to smile at the alchemist's frustration. "I'd insist, but I just promised you that I wouldn't."
i don't want the world to see me, because I don't think they'd understand
"Our lives have been nothing if not unpredictable." Someone, somewhere, could probably find a thread in the madness of it all, but it certainly wouldn't be either man. At least not tonight. "Then again, if you told me we would end up with one of us having nearly died and cold in a desert, I would have at least believed that." Remi adds with as boyish a shrug as his bruised shoulders can manage.
Barely, Remi contains the words, you were working on it without me? The emotion flutters beneath his skin just the same, followed quickly by a bubbling-over of guilt. Of course Ronin was. What else was he meant to do while Remi was off with the twins. Bile coats the back of his throat as the alchemist forces a smile and nods. "You are the best." He offers in a weak and apologetic tone.
Narrowing his eyes up at Ronin, Remi sighs his defeat. "You are still doing it. The impossibly charming, thing."
when everything's meant to be broken, i just want you to know who I am
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Even the small gesture of a shrug is enough for Ronin to check over his husband to make sure he's alright, the Huntsman carefully adjusting Remi in his arms and daring to hold him a touch closer now that he looks so obviously less close to death. And he doesn't miss the flush of emotion, the guilt and the sad acceptance, Ronin leaning in to try and kiss it away. "It was just boring stuff," he whispers. "I wouldn't dream of putting anything in the boat without you. I was just sanding things down."
Smiling against his lips, he straightens back up and shake shis head. "No I'm not," he lies, inhaling a shaky breath before the supernova within him begins to charge up again. "I think this is the only one I have left," he murmurs apologetically. "Afterwards, you think I can persuade you onto my nimbus? Call me old fashioned, but I'd like to hold you on the way home."
i don't want the world to see me, because I don't think they'd understand
The moment is perfectly absurd in a way that fits only them, and Remi finds himself relaxing into Ronin's embrace in a way that his battered body hadn't previously allowed for. "At what point in history was it ever in fashion to hold your spouse on a cloud." He doesn't add after nearly killing him, of course. In absolutely no position to do anything at all about the way his mind wants to demand of his hands to undress the Huntsman and tug him close, the alchemist merely sighs with a shaky and weary contentment against his husband.
"Well whatever we call it, I think I would very much like to be held." Remi agrees, knowing that going to sleep in his current condition is likely ill-advised, but wanting little else other than to sink into the darkness with Ronin's arms wrapped around him.
when everything's meant to be broken, i just want you to know who I am
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I'm fashion forward," Ronin shrugs gently, as if that's as good an explanation as any. It also happens to be true, so the Huntsman leaves it at that as he reaches to shield Remi's eyes a final time from the force of his supernova. In a flash of blinding light which sends tremors through the ground beneath them, Ronin is finally too exhausted to conjure any more healing for his husband.
But Remi doesn't look like he's at death's door any more, and gods if that isn't enough for Ronin right now. His nimbus moves to hover nearby as he gathers up what's left of the Lullaby so he can settle them on the cloud, Ronin leaning in to brush his lips against Remi's forehead. "Good," he mumbles. "Because I'm not going to let you go all the way home."
The nimbus sweeps up easily enough, rising into the darkness, and Ronin furrows his brow. "I made it all the way out to Hak Etme...?"
i don't want the world to see me, because I don't think they'd understand
This final blast of healing has Remi feeling as though he can take a breath without pain whiteing-out his vision. Given how long it has been since he's been properly injured, it's rather strange to have the pain nearly gone just as comparatively quickly as it came. Everything feels dull and muted but with the warmth of the Huntsman all around him and the blue of Ronin's eyes to keep him anchored and focused. "I feel like my bones are wrapped in cotton." Remi murmurs, humming appreciatively at the kiss pressed against his forehead.
Not bothering to look around but instead content to be cradled against the former Star, Remi nods distractedly. "Mmm. It was very thoughtful of you, actually. It would be hard to explain to Juniper and Nephele why my husband and the Dragon of the Greatwood was currently destroying it." Remi's smile is slow, not meaning to make light of their situation, but feeling inclined just the same. "It was only once word came from the village that a few supply caravans were late because of a dragon turning their pathways into glass that I thought I had better come and find you."
when everything's meant to be broken, i just want you to know who I am
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"If that's true, your bones are quite well protected now," Ronin reasons, adjusting the Lullaby so that he can settle back against his chest, the Huntsman slipping his arms around him properly at last. They streak across the sky, silent and not nearly as deadly as the dragon had been, but able to clearly see the path Ronin had taken by the shimmer of the glass. "Mm, I can't imagine that would have gone down too well with Cian, if I had rampaged through the Greatwood." He wrinkles his nose.
Nuzzling into Remi's curls, Ronin lets his eyes close for a moment so he might be able to feel the breeze against his skin, the weightlessness of their flight. "I'm very glad you came and found me," he whispers, resisting the urge to let his hands wander given how injured the other man still is. "Now I can get us back home, at least. And you can get some proper rest."
i don't want the world to see me, because I don't think they'd understand
'Be that as it may, it feels...' Remi pauses to give his weary mind a moment to find a word to aptly describe the hollowed-out-cotton-stuffed way he feels. But Ronin's smile is far too captivating for his mind to care for aptness just now, and so the alchemist shrugs. "..thick."
Chuckling his agreement despite fearing more the fae's reaction than Cian's, Remi breathes in deeply, scenting his own blood watered-down by sweat in Ronin's shirt. Restlessly his fingers search for a bit of his husband's skin which he manages to find through a rather large tear in the Huntsman's shirt. "Even if you had not been rampaging, I could not have stayed away from you for much longer. I knew you needed time to process, but..." Against the rise of one of Ronin's collar bones, the alchemist smiles shyly. "...I hate being away from you." It isn't an admission that will surprise the Huntsman by any means, and yet still Remi says it with the equivalent of a vocal-blush.
when everything's meant to be broken, i just want you to know who I am
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"The amount of filthy comments I could make," Ronin says with a soft sigh at Remi's bones feeling thick, the Huntsman letting a crooked smile creep across his face, though for all of the comfort of having his husband in his arms, there's very little of him capable of acting on anything more physical than this. So he doesn't try, opening his eyes again to peek at the stars as they blur overhead, as the press of Remi against his chest keeps the cold at bay.
The touch of fingers against his skin has him shivering and relaxing simultaneously, Ronin carefully teasing his fingers through Remi's bloody hair, and he doesn't hide the way he preens and flushes to hear the alchemist's admission. He knows it - they both do - but it's always nice to know. "I hate it too," he says. "Lucky you showed up when you did, before I decided to come back to the woods to look for you. Perish the thought."
i don't want the world to see me, because I don't think they'd understand
"I would have welcomed you back with open arms." Remi says with a grin; those open arms would likely have turned into wings and taloned-paws, but that wouldn't have changed the relief the alchemist would have felt. Even in their darkest and most deadly moments, with Ronin is still Remi's favourite place to be.
"Exhausted as I am, I think I might still need a snack before bed." This is said with an air of forward-looking apology as if pausing to eat might be a great inconvenience for the Huntsman. Knowing it couldn't be farther from the truth, Remi grins against Ronin's chest, finding that part of him was enjoying the feel of Ronin's skin beneath his fingers in a way that doesn't make his toes curl and his hands become greedy for more.
"Do you think Sunjata will be jealous that you are a fancier dragon than he is?" Remi mumbles as the edges of his mind fray into sleep.
when everything's meant to be broken, i just want you to know who I am
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
