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!
"As opposed to what? Being on vacation?" Remi wonders as he glances around. "There is nudity and heat, I will give you that." He says, before letting his head loll back and forth. "But not enough ocean or alcohol." And too many women. This is said silently just between the two. I do like her mask, though... So saying, Remi grins before turning his attention back to Chaele and speaking that she might hear.
"Maybe you are meant to learn that this world is incredibly dangerous." He suggests, shrugging. "I would say we were less compelled so much as we were out for a stroll and one of us got distracted." Remi widens his eyes in Ronin's direction and smiles suggestively.
With a much more serious look now, the Lullaby regards the shaman. "Yes. You certainly are meant to die. Perhaps tonight, even. Though not by my hand." Said hand, now held up against the fire, flexed slightly and as it did so, the flames from the Eye swirled together, mirroring the shape of the mask Chaele wore.
Every shade of hurt you know From the deep blue to the marigold
It's gonna make sense someday lookin' back
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Don't be rude, Ronin chastises his husband, smiling over his shoulder at him. He means the private conversation, of course, because in fairness Remi has complimented the shaman and her choice of skull decorations. "It's nice to meet you, Chaele. I can see you've already met Remi. I'm afraid he might have gotten his flair for the dramatics from me somewhere along the line." It's a rarity, indeed, for the Lullaby to be the one naked and showing off his abilities.
"I'm not sure that anyone needs to learn that the world is dangerous any more. It shows us how lethal it can be on a regular basis," he mutters, turning to face the Eye of Fire as well, a frown furrowing his brows. "I didn't get distracted. It's a maze - I got lost," he corrects, unless of course Remi means himself. This definitely counts as a distraction, doesn't it?
Arching an eyebrow at his husband, Ronin can only softly shake his head and stifle his smile. "So are we in agreement that no one is going to try and kill anyone today?"
Her instinct is to feel mocked by Remi’s mirror of her, but the marital bickering lends her an insight into the amiable inclinations of both men. Neither is without their humanity, despite the faint electric stench of their divinities. And Chaele is hardly one to fault theatrics, a hidden grin rising behind her mask.
Ronin’s peacekeeping elicits a mild nod from the mortal, if only to promise that she will no longer dwell on the topic of her own demise. There is certainly something thrilling in the threat that is not a threat, the blithe disregard for her mortality that sinks in her heart like a cliff’s edge or a predator’s growl. A fraying braid, knotted with a dark iridescent stone, is tucked coyly behind her ear. “One could argue that one is never lost in a maze, but rather precisely where they are meant to be,” she interjects wryly, slowly finding the pace of their banter.
She looks down at the little bone charm in her hand, then back toward the fire for a pensive moment. Closer inspection might reveal that the various phalanges tied to the central stone are carved with more runes, invoking notions of sight and secrets.
“I made this as a sort of sacrifice, to give to the Eye and its power.” There were plenty of ways to say the following words, but somehow she could not bring herself to the reverence or formality the moment might otherwise deserve. “Do either of you... want it?”
everything i knew is turning into ruins in your shadow
"Do not put words in my mouth." Remi says with all the unspoken implication of what things Ronin might instead put in his mouth. "I only said I would not kill her." He adds with a crooked smile.
What Remi might have made of Chaele's offer or done had Ronin not been around is something we'll never know. As it stands, with the Huntsman's presence likely tempering the alchemist's inclinations, Remi lets his fiery shift fade away, leaving him naked and more heavily scarred than before as he stares intently at the offered effigy. "...perhaps a trade." He mumbles, before reaching over his shoulder as if there was some quiver hidden in his skin. Plucking a long pale feather that itched out of his spine, Remi holds it out towards the shaman. "If you are going to use this feather to implicate me in a murder, I warn you someone else has tried and it has not worked." The alchemist says with a small roll of his eyes.
"It is from my manticore shift." He clarifies after a moment. "And as far as I am aware, I am the only one in this world."
THE ALCHEMIST
i thought that i'd be ready but falling isn't steady once you let go
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Bouncing his eyebrows at his husband (what things indeed), Ronin instead offers a bright grin to Chaele, gesturing at her as if to say 'see, see? she understands what mazes are all about, so there'. "And now I am here at the centre. So precisely where I am meant to be," he says, and as Remi becomes himself again - i.e. sans fire - the Huntsman is already shrugging out of his coat, sweeping it around the other man's shoulders as if he might be cold.
A lie, of course, and at any other point in the year Ronin wouldn't care less whether Remi decides to strut around naked or not. Call him possessive and insane chivalrous, but at Leafchange he's very protective of his husband's modesty. Before he can even suggest that Remi might want the little effigy, (it seems precisely the sort of thing he would like in his possession), a trade is being struck up, and Ronin steps back to allow it to take place.
"I daresay the feather makes a better keepsake than evidence of murder," he agrees.
Chaele is reminded of stories of her childhood, of spirits and fairies that take more than they seem to. Nonetheless she wants the feather and whatever power it might hold, even if that power is simply symbolic. “This signifies no further agreement,” she clarifies, stepping forward to hold out the offering to the demi-god. “One thing for another. An even trade.”
Even with the cloak around him, Remi seems bare without his halo of flames-- like Ronin, abnormally mortal. Chaele, on the other hand, is entirely clothed: physically, spiritually, emotionally. The only thing laid bare is the honesty of this little creation, made to be burned and never dreamed to be worth an exchange so rare. From one angle it looks like a planet with rings made of phalanges, but from directly above or below it resembles a dark iris within an osseous eye. Its symbolism is its only magic, the power of intention woven in yarn and rock and marrow.
Looking between them both, she must turn her head more than others might to see through the monocular eyes of her mask. Jokes seem to escape her, at least in this bizarre moment. “I promise I will not use it against you, if you can promise the same.”
everything i knew is turning into ruins in your shadow
"Well." Remi grumbles, shooting Ronin an exasperated look. "I tend to take responsibility for my murders." He adds, clearly still annoyed about some shared experience that Chaele wasn't privy to just now. Or, perhaps rumours of Neron's plot had reached the shaman; how was he to know?
For all Remi's barbaric strength and oddness, it's with heightened and reverent care that he turns the object in his fingers, noting how the bones and stones were tethered together. Holding it up to the firelight just so, Remi tries to cast the shadow of the effigy onto a bare patch of his skin but found the reflection far less crisp than he might have liked. Glancing through the flames, the Lullaby smiles and shrugs his (now covered) shoulders. "There is no need to promise that." He says, of her using his feather against him. "There might come a day when it is in your best interest to do just that." It wouldn't be the first time someone required bits and pieces of a demigod in order to fulfill the will of the gods, after all.
'I do not make such promises.' Remi adds with an earnest tilt of his head. "I hardly make any promises at all these days, actually. The world is far too unpredictable for that." As am I goes unsaid.
THE ALCHEMIST
i thought that i'd be ready but falling isn't steady once you let go
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
It's unashamedly charming to be witness to this little trade, and Ronin bites back any remarks he might be keen to make, as if worried that they would ruin the moment. Still, as effigy and feather are exchanged, the Huntsman steps forward so he might take a better look at Remi's gift. "You are so broody and mysterious," he almost purrs to the other man, brushing a finger across the little doll.
"Shall we get ourselves out of this maze, then? Now that we have decided that no one is killing the other - at least today - and that no one is jumping through fire? Unless, of course, you want to jump through it." He glances over his shoulder at the Eye of Fire at their backs, as if it might yet hold some magic that they can't see or sense.
She twists the feather by its stalk between two fingers, feeling the soft blade of its vane in her opposite palm. Her mind races with ideas of what to do with it, but Remi’s assurance rings between the thoughts until they are quieted. She tucks the feather deep into her pack, saving it.
Then he speaks of promises, and the huff that follows takes the shape of a smile. Her familiarity with the demi-gods has extended about as far as their names, content as she has been in the ignorance of her own small, savage world. But she finds herself more fond of their strangely familiar manner than she had expected to be-- their honesty, like one’s nudity, is thinly veiled. “No promise then,” she agrees with a nod, then turns toward Ronin and his suggestion.
“I think I will,” she says suddenly, sooner than even she seemed to expect to. Her cloak is already shed, after all, the scuff marks in the grass prepared for her launch. She drops her bag and, before she can convince herself not to again, breaks for the obsidian bowl.
And then she is on the other side, with only heat and adrenaline in her recent memory. Her beating heart burns in her chest, her arms are flush with sweat and sincerity, and she can smell the halo of burned flyaways around her head. Her long, tattered skirts make excellent kindling: they have caught glowing embers like so many ants, crawling up a few threads and fading into speckled shadows of ash. With a victorious sigh she looks over her shoulder, as if to confirm that she had actually done it.
05-04-2022, 03:29 PM (This post was last modified: 05-04-2022, 03:35 PM by Odd.)
everything i knew is turning into ruins in your shadow
As Chaele sheds her cloak and pack, the alchemist steps back (into Ronin), to give the shaman space to make her leap. He wouldn't raise the flames to engulf her nor dampen them to make her jump an easier (he couldn't just now, back in his normal body as he was), but also because...well, because he didn't want to disrespect her like that. In precisely the same vein however, Remi also makes no effort to help put out the embers that threaten to reveal what is surely sun-pale skin beneath them.
'Well?' The alchemist muses, head inclined in a distinctly avian gesture as the shaman rights herself on the opposing side of the obsidian bowl.
THE ALCHEMIST
i thought that i'd be ready but falling isn't steady once you let go
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Oh? Alright." Ronin is smiling as Chaele makes her preparations and Remi steps back and into him, his arm sneaking around the alchemist as if they are two parents watching a child attempt a challenge. And he supposes that jumping through fire is a challenge, the Huntsman lifting his chin to spy the shaman as she leaps through the flames, victorious.
"Congratulations," he chimes, apparently the more vibrant of the two 'parents', as evidenced by the gentle nudge he gives Remi's ribs, as if to ask whether well? was the best response. Releasing his husband, he goes to approach the Eye of Fire now as well, glancing over to the other man. "Do you suppose we ought to jump through as well?"
She does not feel any different. Other than the lingering warmth and the failing adrenaline, there is no surge of power or prickle of magic or mysterious energy to be seen. She stands, looking down at her brown hands, and sees no change. She begins to assure herself otherwise before she realizes that the flames have followed her-- with a flurry of skirts and stomps, the last of the embers are put out.
Only then does she look toward the two men, entwined and (marginally) entertained, as the memory of their words reaches the front of her mind. Righting a crooked mask, she replies to Remi with a bodily movement that starts as a triumphant curtsy and ends as a shrug.
“Have you never done it before?” She asks Ronin, stepping to the side to get a better look at them both-- and a better view of their attempts. “It is a thrill, if nothing else.”
everything i knew is turning into ruins in your shadow
Glancing over his shoulder, Remi's expression of what did I do now? is almost instantly melted away as he catches sight of Ronin's blue eyes sparkling like cold fire from the light of the Eye. Gods I love you He thinks towards the Huntsman, smiling boyishly as Ronin pulls away and moves towards the fire.
His amusement—such a far cry from his broody Will I or won't I? views on death from moments ago—lights up his face as he shakes his head in Chaele's direction. "No, but there is a first time for everything." He muses, retreating back a pace or two. It's unnecessary of course; with his and Ronin's laughable strength Remi could likely jump over the fire from a standstill at its base. Trotting forward with Ronin's coat flapping away from his sides like wings, as Remi leaps easily into the air and towards the fire, he begins to shift in ways that Ronin will likely find predictable, but that others might find grotesque.
The Huntsman's jacket fades and becomes thread-barren as Remi momentarily warps and swaps as if he was nothing more than fear and mist held loosely together. As he enters the fire, feathers and wings of near-white seem to push through the flames and rows and rows of shark teeth glint in the light, before his plumage becomes nothing more than a tangle of tentacles. There is even a momentary flicker of dragonic scales, not that that shift properly belonged to him, as deadly poison sings from a bifurcated tail. All of this in just a mere instant, and when the alchemist lands on the opposite side of the fire, it's with an innocent expression of triumph.
THE ALCHEMIST
i thought that i'd be ready but falling isn't steady once you let go
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Smiling a sunny response back at Remi that hardly needs words for him to decipher the meaning - I love you too - Ronin steps aside that his husband might take a turn at leaping through the flames. His lips part to comment on Chaele's skirts, but it seems as though the young shaman has already noticed the embers, and so instead his attention returns to the Lullaby.
And of course it's as breathtakingly grotesque as anything else the Huntsman might have imagined from the man he loves so much, though he will continue to insist that Remi must be taking after him in his sudden penchant for dramatics. Releasing a breath he hasn't realised he's been holding, Ronin grins and charges straight ahead to follow.
There's no partial shifting or otherwise on his part - just a man with dark hair and light eyes and a boyish sense of adventure in his expression. His shirt gets a bit singed, as does one eyebrow (for shame!) but soon enough he's straightening up beside Remi and offering him his arm. "That was exhilarating," he announces, gazing over his shoulder at Chaele. "I can see why you wanted to do it."
