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!
"Of course you can," Isla all but whispers to him, as if she's unsurprised to hear that from Remi. After all that has happened for the alchemist in recent days, to hear him so humble and simultaneously so generous calls back to a time that she had almost assumed was forever gone. And her heart soars to know that it isn't, Isla almost captivated by him as he explains, her eyes catching on every trace of joy in his expression, from his dimples to the glimmer in his eyes.
"That sounds like Mort," she whispers, of the God of Death just appearing to go for a stroll with Ludo's demigod. What Isla doesn't expect is for the swamp ahead to become a glade dappled with warm sunlight (sunlight that doesn't cause a flutter of panic in her chest, to boot) or for Remi to tug her close again.
Even a glimpse of the god, sweet and serene in the woods, is enough to have her eyes prickling a bit, and she hugs the alchemist in return with bright smile. "I love you too, Remi," she mumbles. "How are things going in the Greatwood? Even without running into Mort, it sounds very magical."
He wants to repeat the words over and over, to take hold of every moment and treat it as if it might be his last. One might expect as much from someone who has had a literal brush with death, but even so, Remi is overcome by the strength of his own emotions just the same. "I really do." He adds, needing to have the last word for some reason he can't quite name.
'Ah, well..' Rolling his eyes a touch but losing none of his good-humour, Remi slides an arm around Isla's shoulders that they might continue to stroll lazily along. "My co-leaders are...well, no, I should not put it like that. I am difficult to lead with.": He corrects with a laugh. "The one you have met, Juniper, wants to keep our borders free and open and to maintain alliances with all the other lands." Pulling in an unhappy breath, Remi shakes his head at that. "As much as I appreciate what she is trying to achieve, I do not particularly want to be at the beck and call of Torchline every time Maeve or Aurelia get themselves in too deep." Mort might have softened Remi's edges, but still he had his boundaries.
"And..." Because he loves Isla dearly, he doesn't stop himself from saying the words that tumble out of his lips. "...Hotaru has given birth to twins. They are in the Woods now, too." It's a touchy subject for hard to explain reasons, but it's the truth just the same. "Enzo and Flora."
I'll stay here with you Until this dream is gone
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Isla fits herself snugly against Remi's side as his arm moves around her, and her own slips around his waist that she might enjoy his warmth as they stroll along. Isla doesn't even need to keep her eyes open, her footsteps as sure as they will ever be, and she trusts Remi to keep them out of danger. "I suppose after so long of having to figure things out just between you and Ronin, it's difficult to share the burden," she says; despite the alchemist's brutal honesty towards himself, Isla still can't help but try and soften the blow.
"I suppose you could always negotiate the terms of any alliances? That way you could keep things open but make it clear that your priorities are to the Greatwood." She wrinkles her nose, not particularly wanting to get into politics, but it's not really something they can avoid now. "I suppose an alliance between the Greatwood and the Grounds would be impossible by this point."
Then Remi opens up about his twins and Isla blinks her eyes back open, gazing up at him with a gentle smile. "Congratulations," she murmurs. "Those are beautiful names."
"It might surprise you to know that I am a bit stubborn when I think I am right about something." Remi says as if this really is new information. Grinning, he shrugs against her. "Maybe. But right now I am happy to let the dust settle. Between Sunjata leaving Torchline and the coup in Halo, I think everyone needs a breather." Her words about the Grounds and the Greatwood are truer than either of them would like to believe, and yet the pair of them are here nonetheless, arms around one another. "I think it is. But you will always have me, and I hope that is worth something." He offers gently. Just what that something would be he can't promise, though he hopes that his presence here today serves as an indication.
'Thank you.' Whispered, Remi finds his smile is stunted by the lingering tension with Hotaru. Regardless, he shakes his head slightly, his fingers tightening around Isla's shoulder.
"How are you? The Grounds?" And, if only because of Mort's softening of his edges: "Varus?"
I'll stay here with you Until this dream is gone
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"You are? Oh, my. I wonder how I never noticed that before?" Isla grins, her amusement a light and simple thing that feels all the more precious for how rare it undoubtedly is these days. "Mm, things have been quite turbulent," she agrees nonetheless. "I think it's as good a time as any for most regions to turn inwards and focus on themselves above all. Deepfrost will be here soon. Still... first Longnight without monsters. I can't deny I am looking forward to that."
Relaxing against Remi as they walk, it wouldn't bother Isla if they were to meander through the swamp forever, though of course that will not actually be possible. Neither of them are nobodies any longer, and there are responsibilities calling them even now. "It is worth everything," she whispers to him, smiling to herself and letting out a shaky breath, as if having only just realised how much she'd missed these conversations.
"The Grounds are doing well," she murmurs. "We are rebuilding, mostly. Making sure infrastructure is solid, making repairs and all that. Varus is good as well." Naturally, talk of the assassin causes a flush to her cheeks. "Though he is the most accident prone soldier I have ever met."
"Well, you are not very detail-oriented, so..." Remi chuckles back, feeling as though they're walking on clouds instead of marshy mounds of mud. The mention of LongNight is a chilling breath of reality he could have done without. Tinged by darkness as most of his memories are, there is one that fills him with a red sort of joy to remember, and it has that memory that has Remi swallowing hard and nodding. "Without the monsters..." He repeats carefully. "And...does that mean things will be alright?" Though the Lullaby has an overactive imagination when it comes to monsters, he doesn't think he's being farfetched in wondering if no monsters is the same thing as no danger.
"I would think by now he would not need to hurt himself as an excuse to see you." Remi chuckles, truly wanting to be fully happy for Isla but knowing he never quite would. He loved her too much for that, and that love would always be tinged with selfishness. Even so, the grin he flashes her is genuine just the same. "Maybe the Voice could get him a bubble-wrap upgrade, mm?" Nevermind that bubble wrap isn't a thing.
I'll stay here with you Until this dream is gone
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Mm, I think the weight of that leadership responsibility must be squeezing out the rest of my intelligence," she says with a quietly dramatic sigh, leaning all the more into Remi as if to emphasis how terrible it really all was. His reaction to LongNight naturally draws her attention up to his face, though she has no way of knowing quite what the cause is. "Well," she murmurs, "I daresay that just because we don't expect monsters, people won't prepare just the same. I for one plan to spend the time catching up on reading and paperwork." It's what Isla always plans. She hasn't managed it yet.
Grinning up at the alchemist, she gives him a gentle nudge with her elbow. "Maybe," she agrees with a chuckle. "Luckily, I quite enjoy stitching people back together. It's a fun pastime." And for the medic, it really might be. "And how is Ronin? It must be nice for the two of you to be back in the Greatwood."
"Reading and paperwork." Remi comments dryly, playfulness making him look years younger as he glances down at her. "I did not take you one for such obvious euphemisms." He notes, not believing for one instance that locked away with book-boy for a week would result in Isla catching up on her charting.
'Ahh well, if only my pass to the Grounds wasn't so conditional...I nearly died last week. You would have had a field day putting me back together." He says merrily, the words a convenient lead-in to her question. "Ronin can be a dragon now. Whether it coincided with the twins being born or came about because of it, I am not sure. But that has been especially rough on him." The alchemist's good-natured smile falls away, replaced with a blue sort of regret that darkens his eyes. "He feels as though I have gone and started a family with someone else." Remi explains. "But we are working through it."
I'll stay here with you Until this dream is gone
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Hey!" Remi's playfulness is infectious, Isla unable to help the laughter that bubbles up in her throat as she realises that she's stepped right into his teasing. "Listen, I really do plan to read and do paperwork during LongNight. Perhaps I underestimated what would happen with Varus there as well, though." Narrowing his eyes up at him, she still can't help but look a touch mischievous. "I imagine you and Ronin will be thoroughly tangled up together, mm?"
Her what? dies on her tongue as the Lullaby deigns to explain the reason behind his near death experience, and given how pale Isla already is, it's difficult for her to blanch, but she manages it all the same. "Oh shit," she mumbles. "I hope he is alright. I hope you both are." Pausing suddenly to wrap her arms around Remi in a hug, she gives him a gentle squeeze. "There's nothing you two can't work through. I really do believe that. You'll be alright, just keep checking in with each other."
"What makes you say that?" Remi wonders haughtily. "Are you implying one of us is afraid of the dark?" He adds, sniffing and raising his chin. The Greatwood would be safe during LongNight, as would...well, everywhere this year, he supposed. "It's strange to think that the Grounds might be calm. It is not as though most of your people mind the dark, after all. Maybe it will just be...another week." Biting the inside of his cheek, the alchemist takes a breath and then lets it out. "Do you need anything from me, for LongNight?" Anything, being as close to saying do you need any of my abilities as he can manage just now.
Halting instantly as if his body had always been ready and simply awaiting a reason to find himself in her arms again, Remi returns the medic's hug with a soft hum. "We are." He agrees with a vague sigh. "I think we have both become a touch desensitized to all of this. It seems as though there is always something between he and I." The alchemist sounds both optimistic and pessimistic at the same time, which is probably quite close to the truth.
I'll stay here with you Until this dream is gone
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
08-15-2021, 06:56 PM (This post was last modified: 08-15-2021, 07:09 PM by Isla.)
when it's just the two of us, only the two of us
"It wouldn't surprise me if a fear of the dark was one of your secret weaknesses. Ludo seems the type to give you a phobia to go along with all with all that power." Isla grins against his chest, giving him a squeeze and not stepping back from the hug until she absolutely has to. "Maybe it will," she says of the Grounds this LongNight. "...I don't think anyone will complain if that's the case, to be honest. It has been a very long time since the Grounds saw any peace."
She falls quiet for a moment, then, the medic smiling up at him sadly. "Might be the only peace we get per year, if war really does break out." It's never very far away, thoughts of tHe WaR, but Isla turns to settle in against Remi's side to walk again without complaint. "And yet, you have never been closer," she says of the alchemist and his husband, giving him another playful nudge. "I'm happy you're both in the Greatwood together. It suits you more than Stormbreak."
As for whether she needs anything, Isla glances up at her friend with a small smile that both understands what he means but doesn't want to delve into it. "I'm still good from last time," she murmurs. "But if that changes before LongNight, I'll let you know."
"Do not give it any ideas." Remi complains, glancing over his shoulder and then hers as if expecting to see the herald spooping about, taking notes. It honestly wouldn't surprise him at all. "Not since the barrier fell, and even then the monsters had been around." The alchemist agrees. "You don't ever think about leaving, do you? Not abandoning everyone, but just...packing them all up and going somewhere else?" Somewhere they could have a fresh start where the bodies of their dead ancestors weren't buried beneath the surface, threatening to emerge one week of the year.
Mention of war has Remi filling his cheeks with air that he exhales in an exaggerated stream as they turn and continue to walk. "I think so too. Stormbreak was...I think you would have hated it. Or maybe not." Glancing over his shoulder at Isla, Remi shrugs. "They have lots of interesting medical things." He adds with a crooked frown. "But it feels like a place where all the life has been sucked out. Like...fake flowers planted in stone."
Nodding, grateful at Isla's ability to still more or less read his thoughts, the alchemist just swallows with relief (mostly with relief, anyway) and lets thoughts of bites and abilities fall from his mind.
I'll stay here with you Until this dream is gone
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Oop, sorry." Isla grins, following his gaze over his shoulder as if trying to spot Ludo spooking around in the Feverlands as well. Remi's next question draws her attention back, though, and whilst she smiles, it's a nostalgic sort of expression. "And where would we go? Torchline is Safrin's, Stormbreak is impossible, and off the cards besides if what you just said about it is true." Fake flowers planted in stone are not how the medic likes to operate, however many medical advances the city might have.
"The Greatwood is the Greatwood - too many bridges burned there to ever try again. I suppose we could go to Halo, since it's still neutral territory, but..." She shakes her head. "No one really wants us, Remi." It's true, however sad it might be. "Once I imagined there could be peace between us all. I think I'm growing less naive by the day."
'Why not somewhere in the Wilds? Here looks ... well, dark." Remi grins. "Or the Oerwoud?" He adds brightly, though his expression falls somewhat as Isla mentions that Halo is neutral.
"If it helps, I do not think you were ever naive." Remi replies, trying not to sound so sappily adoring as he thinks he might be. "Has anyone yet answered the question of what will happen after the war? If your side wins, I mean?" Tilting his head to the side and glancing down at her—the urge to simply scoop her up into his arms and take her away making him blink distractedly—Remi breathes himself back into focus. "Do we die, the way that killing the Voice will supposedly do to you?"
I'll stay here with you Until this dream is gone
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
