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's distant, the slap of skin on skin, the protests of the creaking wagon, the wood splintering beneath the Lullaby's claws. Later Ronin will reflect on it, on the things people undoubtedly heard even if they didn't see it, but for now the only thing that matters is the way he melts around and against Remi in precisely all the right places, the heat from their bodies setting him alight from the balls of his feet right up and into the back of his throat.
Remi wants more and he'll get it, Ronin's fingers flinching around the alchemist's throat, even as his hand and hips work at a pace that's unsustainable at best. It's enough to make his muscles start to burn with fatigue and gods if that doesn't add to it all, and it's with an inarticulate moan that he hitches Remi up further, as if he might have him even more completely somehow. "Fuck," he whispers through a groan, his voice ragged and breathless, "you're gonna make me--"
It's a warning cut off by teeth pressing against the other man's neck, not breaking the skin but desperately wanting to as he climbs towards his own orgasm.
i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out. but i flicker from time to time
Predators don't bear their throats. But perhaps it's exactly that, which makes it so maddeningly exquisite for Remi, as Ronin's fingers encircle the scar tissue and muscle that coats the skin around his throat. Each of Ronin's thrusts ignites something in the core of the alchemist, sending sparks radiating out to his fingertips and the tip of his tongue. There are brief hiccups of pain too, as his talons are relentlessly shoved deeper and deeper into the wood of the ceiling, but gods if that doesn't just add to it all.
Later Remi might have the wherewithal to correct Ronin—you're going to make yourself cum—but as it always does, the Huntsman's warning is at once so satisfying to hear and so unbelievably arousing.
Shifting slightly that he might provide as much resistance to Ronin's thrusts as he can, the world begins to spin and grow bright as Remi's own orgasm finally catches him. Releasing the ceiling, Remi reaches for Ronin's arm with a clawed hand, gripping his husband's bicep as he cums hard enough to lose his balance. With one of Ronin's hands around his erection and the other around his throat, Remi felt suddenly adrift. Held fast by the Huntsman and against him, it was a weightless and surreal sensation of proper belonging and bliss.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin begs to differ - he might be the one in the driver's seat this time, but it's absolutely the man in his arms who's responsible for the way his mind whites out and the ecstasy that crackles up and through the backs of his legs. Remi cums and Ronin isn't far behind, pitching forward hard and having to work to both breathe and hold his husband aloft even as every nerve sparks and unspools, leaving him panting in the wake of his climax.
It feels like they're here forever, the Huntsman clasping the other man against his chest, his muscles screaming a protest that his mind is too overwhelmed to hear, and it's with a gruff moan against the side of Remi's neck that Ronin finally comes back to himself. He crumples onto the bed as gently as he can, his arms still very much twined around his husband, though his hands drift away from the Lullaby's throat (and his cock) to wrap around him properly instead.
There are no words for this; only the galloping of his heartbeat and the sweat beading down his spine, and the soft and careful kisses he presses to Remi's shoulder.
i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out. but i flicker from time to time
Panting, his mouth agape and his eyes pressed shut, Remi nevertheless feels the strangest sense of nothing. There's no place that he ends and Ronin begins, no bit of skin he might be able to confidently say belongs to one or the other of them, and no emotion that is purely his or Ronin's. Feeling delirious and yet blissfully calm, it's only the sound of the Huntsman's moan against his ear that has Remi filtering back into rationality again, albeit slowly and lazily.
Falling forward, his hands and legs twining in an attempt to keep Ronin close, Remi bonelessly relaxes into the bed and his husband's arms. Feeling Ronin's heartbeat thundering against his back as well as on his finger, Remi finds himself smiling like a complete idiot. Tilting his head back only slightly to graze his cheek against Ronin's chin, the Lullaby lets out a sigh. "I love you so much." And, for all the bruising kisses and clawed-pathways they'd left on one another, now there is nothing about the alchemist that is anything less than sweetness and love, as he presses a gentle kiss on the curve of his husband's jaw.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Happily twined with his husband, Ronin could stay here until the wagon melts away into their memories again, especially with a sleepy, post-sex haze starting to drag at his psyche. He hums a wordless, blissful sigh against Remi's shoulder, his lips still pressed there as if he might never stop leaving kisses against the other man's skin. "I love you too," he whispers in a voice made hoarse by their exertions, his head tilting back enough that he can enjoy Remi's affections.
"I don't know what came over me," he admits with a breathless chuckle, a lazy smile curling across his lips even as he lets gentle hands stroke across the well defined musculature of his husband's torso. They've gotten caught up in each other plenty of times in the past, but there was something feral about this occasion that Ronin will happily admit to want to look for again (and again, and again, truth be told).
"It must be your fault," he decides, nibbling playfully at the shell of Remi's ear. "You drive me wild."
i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out. but i flicker from time to time
A warm shiver whispers down Remi's spine, put there by the boyish and straightforward shine of Ronin's affections as they lap against the back of Remi's mind like summer waves. Just as inclined to stay in bed until enough time has passed that they find themselves a field of clover once more, Remi is tempted to slide out of his own body and into Ronin's, where he might wrap himself around his husband's heart. The only thing that keeps him where he is, is the Huntsman's warmth and the incredible bone-deep sense of relaxation.
'It's the rabbits.' The Lullaby answers lazily, twisting his shoulder a touch more that he might be able to spy more than just a sliver of his husband out of his peripheral vision. "Definitely the rabbits." Looking up at the ceiling and frowning with amusement at the deep gouges he'd left there, Remi reaches for the bit of curtain he can reach, tugging it more fully over the small window as if that might be all that it takes to keep them in this memory forever.
Snorting under his breath and raising one shoulder to counter Ronin's nibbles, Remi shakes his head. "I will never stop believing that the day you were concussed really did scramble your brains, at least when it comes to me." He says, with a genuine but slight sense of dismay.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"The rabbits?" A laugh rumbles up through Ronin's chest and throat, one that only grows as he's nudged away from nibbling Remi's ear by a well placed shoulder. "We should come here at least once a week, then. To catch rabbits," he says, like that's absolutely the only thing they're coming to the Celestine to get. Nosing into Remi's curls as his husband reaches for the curtain, it's with as much reluctance as desire that he shifts a little that he might wrap his arms around the Lullaby properly and tug him closer again.
It means he's able to look him in the eye as he speaks again, Ronin reaching out to map the curve of Remi's jaw with his fingertips, his touch whispering over his cheekbones, his lips, the scars against his throat. "Unfortunately, I was wildly in love with you even before I was concussed. Scrambling my brains only meant you could propose to me on the spot." He sighs, like it's a shame (it absolutely isn't).
"You are complicated, and dark, and you get angry, but for all the right reasons," he says. "And gods if I don't think you shine brighter than I do at your core. You dazzle me, Remi Taliesin." He grins.
i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out. but i flicker from time to time
Grinning, for a moment the alchemist is silent, if only because the joy that deepens his dimples has also spread his lips too wide for him to speak. 'I will catch one. One day I will.' Remi says after a moment, feeling both confident and stubborn in equal measure.
Peering up at Ronin, undone as always by the blue of his husband's eyes, Remi's smile grows sweeter if not still slightly disbelieving. "Wildly?" He repeats, pressing his cheek into Ronin's palm. "I always thought it was more of a... Oh no, I have accidentally fallen in love with this idiot, sort of thing." And honestly, he really did think that. Had Ronin been able to choose his next partner, no part of the alchemist would ever believe that he'd have been at the top of Ronin's list.
As Ronin continues though, Remi finds his teeth grazing against the inside of his lips to keep himself from interrupting, but it was still hard to hear for some reason. Shaking his head slightly, the feeling of joy that had previously been bursting in the back of his throat now turned vaguely painful, as tears scratched at the back of Remi's eyes. The summery sheen of his emotions now turns dark and cold, the way the air does when a storm is on the way. "You say that...but what if you are wrong?" Remi wonders, shifting in Ronin's arms that he might peer up at the Huntsman properly. "I know you love me...and it terrifies me to think that one day you might wake up and realize that you have been wrong about everything...and that you fell in love with a fool and a monster."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I believe it. Even if we have to keep coming back here to try, over and over. You'll catch one eventually." Ronin says with a crooked smile, though he's obviously more invested in visiting the Celestine again for other reasons. Letting his thumb graze along the side of Remi's neck, the Huntsman can't help the pink that dusts his cheeks all of a sudden, feeling quite boyish as he tries to put the very first kindling of their relationship into words.
"Wildly," he repeats through a whisper. "It was never an accident. I loved you when you helped me, after Vanya. I loved you when we fought the Spire demon together. I loved you when we said goodbye, after that. And I absolutely loved you when I came back. I loved you so much, I couldn't stop myself from being around you."
As Remi shifts, Ronin's brow furrows, and he finds himself gazing up at his husband now as he speaks. "I'm not wrong," he says simply, unable to put it any other way. "Maybe once, back when you and I weren't being honest with one another... but never now. Not ever. If we have problems, we talk about them. And we solve them - just like right now. I'm sorry that you're scared, and me saying it's fine doesn't change anything for you. What can I do to help you to trust me on this?"
i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out. but i flicker from time to time
It isn't often that Remi even hears the differences in their accents, but there's something about the way Ronin sounds when he's being incredibly genuine, that seems to transform his entire face. The rise and fall of his words are mirrored by his eyebrows, and the warmth in the way he utters certain sounds seems to round his cheeks in a way that Remi finds entirely endearing.
'Well, you did not have much of a choice, seeing as I moved into your home.' Remi says softly, through lips that were quite dry and with eyes that weren't. Swallowing, it's the alchemist's turn to reach out to cup his husband's face. Regrettably, it's with his ruined hand, but his thumb is still able to brush against Ronin's jawline with intimate knowledge and ease. 'I just want you to have everything. If I could hold on to this feeling...I think I could be better, for you.' But it wasn't that easy, as they both well knew.
As for what could be done? Smiling more shyly than Remi had any right to given the way they'd pawed and had their way with one another only a few moments ago, the Lullaby leans forward. "Kiss me. Slowly."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"It was our home from the second you set foot in there, and you know it." Ronin smirks, leaning into the touch of his husband's hand, his own coming up to cover ruined fingers without considering, even for a moment, that they're anything less than perfect. "If you want to be better, be better for yourself," he urges, sneaking kisses to the inside of Remi's wrist in the ways he knows the alchemist likes best. "I already have everything. I have you."
Glancing up and into seaglass eyes as the other man leans forward, it's with suddenly flushed cheeks and a body that feels hot all over that Ronin complies. "I can do that," he whispers, leaning up to close the gap between them. His lips are soft against Remi's, like he can melt into the moment, and as he deepens the kiss, it's like carving out a new memory from all of this. One that's no less passionate, but somehow more than, though the marks on the wagon likely beg to differ.
i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out. but i flicker from time to time
Ronin's lips felt both like silk and the bone-deep weight that one might feel before falling asleep; it was the sort of kiss you could sink into. Tender and deep, it was exactly what Remi had wanted and needed, yet as their lips made their final passes in this dance that they both knew instinctively by now, the alchemist found he could no longer enjoy the last fleeting moments if only because he knew it was ending.
Remi's throat closed and new tears streamed down from his eyes as a shiver raced through him. It was a complicated moment to be sure, to feel such a painful sense of dread and anguish right on the heels of utter bliss and contentment, and yet here Remi was, feeling just that. "Please don't stop loving me." He whispers in the space made by his lips as they pulled in a shaky breath, before kissing the Huntsman once more.
The Huntsman. The Dark Star. The Fallen Star. The Storm Guard. Ronin. His Ronin. Gods, let it always be that way. If he could only have one thing in this life, let it be him.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Inhaling a shivery breath on the heels of their kiss, Ronin blinks his eyes open, only to frown at the sudden appearance of tears. "Are you--" He's cut off by Remi's words as well as his lips, his arms moving around the Lullaby to clasp him close. He sinks into this kiss even more than the last, as if the depths of his feelings require more than mere words. But that isn't to say he doesn't have the words. "I won't," he vows, riding it out on a whisper. "You sweet, wonderful man, I won't ever stop loving you."
Letting one hand move up now to carefully brush away the tears that streak his husband's cheeks, Ronin offers a smile and another warm, chaste, yet lingering kiss against Remi's lips. "Let's get dressed, and we'll take a skyboat home to the Greatwood?" he suggests. "I'm in no rush to be away from you any time soon."
i wish I could say I am a light that never goes out. but i flicker from time to time
'Not yet.' The Lullaby whispers with a slight shake of his head. "Just a minute more." Reaching out to tug at one of Ronin's arms to drape it probably around his shoulders, Remi slides himself beneath the Huntsman anew and lets his hands wander down his husband's sides. The architecture he feels made of muscle and bone is one he knows well, but gods if he doesn't find himself exploring Ronin's body with renewed zeal just in case anything might have changed.
Leaning up, Remi's kiss is slow and sad and sweet. It's the sort of kiss that is tainted for wanting to somehow be better. A declaration of love that falls short for being genuine instead of poetic. A love that is tarnished from use instead of shiny and new.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
