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!
Stiffly Remi nods, and because of the gravity of the situation and everything else, it doesn't occur to him to ask why Isla was patching Sunjata up at all. "I know you will have to go after them, just..." Tensing his jaw, Remi stares fixedly at Isla's shoulder as his lashes flutter with indecision. She said she would be careful, and though they were friends, her safety was not his to govern. Even so, his hands are shaky with restraint. "..don't die again, mm?" He finishes lamely, not able to meet her gaze.
Finding one of his hands suddenly in hers only intensifies Remi's not looking, and the breath he pulls in is a touch ragged. "You control what everyone thinks now?" He asks with a small smile, hazarding a glance at her. "I doubt Ludo would give it." Remi says, shrugging like some overly large toddler. "But I could ask." Or, he could ask Ronin who would tell him if the idea was crazy or not, and then go from there.
"I need to tell you something. And ask you something, neither of which I think you are going to like very much. But I do have to tell you. I probably shouldn't, and I won't fault you if you use it against me, or to make things harder for me." It's an ominous way to start of course, and Remi finds his fingers tightening against hers to perhaps imprint the feeling in his mind just in case things go horribly awry.
honest feelings and bad timing make the most painful combination.
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I'll do my best," Isla assures Remi with as warm a smile as she can give, considering that it's not something she can promise for certain. Things would be as they would be, before the war and after it. And if they end up facing off against each other during it? She doesn't like to think about that very much. "And you don't know - maybe it's an upgrade I have now," she says, trying to lighten the tone and giving his hand a gentle squeeze.
"Yes, that's right. Ludo isn't the biggest fan of the Ascended..." Her smile turns wry - of course it won't be easy to get any god's blessing for neutral grounds, let alone Ludo's. "The worst they can say is no, though, right?" Shrugging again, she glances up at him with an attempt at levity, though it's impossible with what comes next.
"Uh... Spooky way to start, but go ahead...?" She tilts her head.
10-02-2021, 06:47 PM (This post was last modified: 10-02-2021, 06:49 PM by Remi.)
REMI
"Is it?" Remi asks, bright optimism flashing across his face as he looks at her only to realize that no, she's likely kidding. Even so, he remains that way for a moment, silently willing her to say that yes, it is.
No is not the worst thing Ludo could say. There's every reason to think the alchemist might be punished just for having asked the question, but that was for later-Remi to think about. Instead, he tips his head back slightly with a wry chuckle, exhaling a puff of cold air into the night sky above them. "I know, sorry." He says apologetically, taking one more breath before turning to face her once more.
"The Greatwood has a quest, like yours for the Spire. It...is a barrier to keep out the ascended." This perhaps is just par for the course in light of who Remi is and what he has been sent to the Greatwood to do, but still he feels traitorous and sickly for saying the words. Especially to Isla. "I have asked that the barrier not harm you, though."Not like your murder barrier. "The trees would simply...hold any ascended who try and pass, until someone from the Woods can free them." Tapping one of his feet on the ground, Remi loses himself to his friend's pebble-blue stare before looking away.
"But I need fluid to complete it. Fluid from an ascended, a hybrid, and a demigod." He says, bouncing his heel against the stone step and considering a mound of snow somewhere in the distance.
honest feelings and bad timing make the most painful combination.
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Would that it was," Isla says apologetically, though little is she to know that Remi will be the one doing the apologising soon enough. And despite their friendship, despite everything they are and ever have been to each other, she'll feel that the apology is necessary. Indeed, she grows nearly impossibly still as he begins to explain, the medic swallowing hard and giving his hand a squeeze that she doesn't release.
"To free us?" she repeats, sounding doubtful. Because it probably won't be freedom that those in the Greatwood come to deliver, she's sure. "Luckily I don't think many Ascended dare to sneak among the trees, these days." Still, with the whole murder barrier situation, she can't really complain much.
But there's more to come, and she does glance up at Remi this time, a mix of startled and uncertain by his revelation. "So you invited me out here because you need my blood?"
"So long as the Greatwood are under my protection, yes. To free you." He says evenly, wishing in that moment they could have this conversation with his arms wrapped around her in a hug, only to realize how absolutely foolish that was.
Opening his mouth to say no, Remi clicks his teeth together as he meets her gaze, wanting to look away but knowing she deserved more than that. "I was going to ask, yes." He manages guiltily, his thumb sliding over hers a fraction of an inch. "But it's more than that, and this is where...this is where it will make things difficult for you."
Looking down at her hands around his, imagining the blades he knew to be hiding beneath her porcelain skin and wondering if this was the night he might lose his life for his love of her, the Lullaby explains. "I cannot see Neron giving anything over willingly, though perhaps he can be bribed." Remi knew little of that particular Launceleyn, but just maybe enough of the old world was in him that he could be bought. "But Wessex and Nate..." The alchemist's lips curl wryly as he shakes his head. "They won't." Tapping his toe in the snow now, Remi closes his eyes.
"But I am stronger than they are." He whispers, somehow sounding defeated despite this claim. "I can take what I need from them, if it comes to that." Opening his eyes and looking toward Isla, Remi lets his head tilt imploringly to the side. "I was hoping you would help me so that it wouldn't."
honest feelings and bad timing make the most painful combination.
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Isla doesn't know when her hands slip away from Remi's - she can't pinpoint the exact moment, but her fingers feel somehow colder as she clasps them in her lap, her gaze on the ground. If that was it - if it was just a little bloodletting, she could deal with that and be on her way... but it isn't, and Isla finds herself breathing out a soft laugh of disbelief.
Rising to her feet now, she shoves her hands into her pockets, giving a soft shake of her head. "Or," she suggests, "you could not turn the Greatwood into an Ascended trap, and we can continue to not go there the same as we have been doing for seasons." Isla can barely turn to look at him, but out of respect she forces herself to do so.
"I'll pass along your message to them," she murmurs. "To Neron, Wessex and Nate. But I won't sweet talk them - they can make their own decision whether or not to fight you for their blood. And I..." It sticks in her throat, the next part, because gods if she hates to say no to him. "I can't let you take anything from me either."
The air sums to hum with tension despite the deadly stillness of everything save for Isla's hands, back in her own lap now, and his unsteady breaths. "Isla." He murmurs, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. "You have built a barrier that would kill Ronin if he entered. You are turning the Spire into a weapon, which we both know will be used against us." As she turns to look at him, he lifts his chin to meet her gaze. "Being tangled in a tree hardly compares to what you have already done."
"That was not what I was asking." He says, of her passing along a message. If she wanted to warn them, that was one thing of course. However as she says no to him, Remi feels his muscles shake beneath the layers of clothing he wears, as the monsters inside of him laugh.
"If you have already agreed not to come into the Greatwood...if the line between us is to be respected anyhow, then why say no?" He wonders softly, unsure if he would feel the tang of tears behind his eyes first or the flush of metal in his mouth from biting his tongue.
honest feelings and bad timing make the most painful combination.
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"On the contrary, I did not construct that barrier. And Ronin could leave the Order and walk into the Grounds whenever he likes," Isla retorts, balling her hands into fists. "And you wouldn't even know about the Spire if I hadn't come to tell you about it. The amount of things that you could do with Ascended fluid, the things the Fae could do..." She shakes her head, before suddenly things seem to grow very still again.
Because she can almost see straight through Remi at this point, at his reasoning, at the aura of you couldn't stop me if you tried. "I'm saying no because it is the only thing I can do," she says honestly. "If you want my blood, you're going to have to take it from me. I can't do anything about it... I don't stand a chance. But I can say no to you. I won't give it to you just because I know I can't stop you."
Remi gives his friend a flat stare, before recoiling as if slapped. "But I am telling you what I would do with it." He says in a low voice, before things reach such a fever pitch that he has to look away.
Pulling his lower lip over his teeth—it's blood first then, not tears—Remi laughs bitterly as he shakes his head. "I was hoping you would give it to me because we are friends. Because even though things are complicated, I thought we were still that. Because I have given you shift after shift to keep you safe. Cal too." Furious at himself that he was naive enough to think it wouldn't come to this, Remi rakes the fingers of both hands through his curls. His lips and eyebrows flinch and move with words he won't let himself say.
honest feelings and bad timing make the most painful combination.
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
10-02-2021, 07:52 PM (This post was last modified: 10-02-2021, 07:54 PM by Isla.)
"And I trust you. But I don't trust them," Isla says simply, furrowing her brow and shaking her head in disbelief as he continues, as if wondering when their relationship became transactional. "I have never asked you to do that, you always offered," she says softly, sounding hurt. "And I have never used your shifts to snare people coming into the Grounds, either."
But if that's the way things are now (have they always been this way?) then fine - blood for shifts, and her debt will be paid. Isla fumbles to unbutton her coat, shrugging out of one sleeve to bare her wrist. "I assume you have a vial or something, then? Wouldn't be like you not to come prepared when you know you're going to ask me for it."
"Isla." He repeats, his frustration bubbling them over. "There is no them, here. Just me, asking for something for a very specific purpose." Then, at the mention of her having never asked, Remi does feel the bite of tears. Snarling in response to the white flashes of pain behind his eyes, he looks down at the hand Isla had been holding only moments ago, flexing his fingers. "No you never had to ask." He agrees quietly. "Because there has never been a time I have not already offered to you everything I thought you could want of me." Remi had been wrong in the past, about what it was Isla had perhaps wanted or needed of him to be sure. But that she had never asked was, in his mind, simply because he had already promised everything he was to her.
As Isla begins to fumble with her jacket, Remi looks up aghast, nearly recoiling. "Stop it." He whispers through a snarl that has begun to shake his lips, hating her when she was like this; bright and burning and full of a vindictive passion that begged to either be fed or blown out. Remaining seated for fear of what he might do were he to rise, Remi tries to still his face into neutrality and utterly fails. "Just go, then. Warn the ascended if you want. I said I would not hold that against you and I won't."
honest feelings and bad timing make the most painful combination.
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Don't," Isla snaps right back to Remi, scowling deeply and feeling frozen despite not being affected much by the cold. "Don't use that against me. Like it's something that I should do, or that I should feel guilty about for not offering in return." Isla can't help but have boundaries, can't help but not heedlessly offer herself out completely, even to those she cares about, and she won't be shamed for it.
"It isn't a warning - it's giving them a choice. If they know you'll be coming for them either way, they can choose whether or not to give their blood to you willingly," she counters. "And I won't go. You invited me out here for something very specific, and I wouldn't be much of a friend if I let you go without it."
10-02-2021, 08:24 PM (This post was last modified: 10-02-2021, 08:26 PM by Remi.)
REMI
"You can say no without being like.." Flustered as he normally was in Isla's presence, the best the alchemist could do in the moment was gesture at her. "...this." Bright. Hostile. Scalding beautiful. "You could have just said sorry, no into turning everything around." He says, his cheeks flushed with enough heat and emotion for the pair of them.
Adamant about not giving him her fluid to now adamantly saying she would, Remi squeezes his eyes together and then presses his fingertips against them. "If you don't think it's right, you can say no. I was half expecting you would. I only mentioned the shifts because saying no to me for no other reason than you could, or to show me that someone was capable of saying no, seemed like a fairly shit reason in light of everything." He mumbles, sounding tired. The formation of tears on top of this new exhaustion made him want to keep his eyes closed all the more, but slowly he lets his hand fall back to his lap.
"Maybe there are nuances here I don't understand." Which was probably true, and was probably the understatement of the year. "I should not have asked you." Rising to his feet, Remi tucks his scarf more completely around his neck as if that would protect him against the chill in his bones that had nothing to do with the weather.
"I meant what I said before. Be careful." He says gently, before turning to go.
~FIN
honest feelings and bad timing make the most painful combination.
Code taken from Sky who is utter perfection
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
