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!
Fleeting rainbows dapple the alchemist's hands as his fingers dexterously twirl around invisible shapes in the bright sunshine. There is a fire nearby upon which sits a pan of bubbling purple liquid that Remi is quick to stir every few minutes lest it begins to burn, so it's rather convenient that Sugar is around to helpfully control the temperature when his hands are otherwise occupied. Just now, his fingers coated in oil to keep anything from sticking to them is one such time, and it's with a communicative hum that Remi asks Sugar to blow on the pan as his fingers twists and dance. Covered in whatever is sweetly bubbling over the fire, the alchemist's motions transform strands of a thick prismatic semi-solid into shapes that are more or less round.
"Avete già avuto abbastanza." He murmurs gently as Sugar eyes the newly-formed candy deposited on a plate, to which her nostrils flare in disagreement. Clicking disapprovingly under his tongue, Remi holds out his fingers for the dragon to chill before plunging them into the liquid to begin again.
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.
The door to their little bathroom squeaks on its hinges, and a plume of steam heralds Ronin's arrival. "Average Julia avenge you abbastanza?" he repeats, his voice a low hum. He knows that it isn't correct, but what is Ronin if not a complete shit to his husband? That, as they say, is the meaning of true love. (Do not ask who they are or if this is something he has made up).
With soft nubs peeking through dark hair bejewelled by the shower instead of antlers, and a rather impressive string of bruises along one shoulder and bicep, the Huntsman has been true to his name over the past evening, and the banshee wailing along the riverbank beside their boat is now little more than a rag on the wind. Boy does she leave her marks, though.
"That smells like the evening after a hard day's work," he remarks of the prismatic candies that Remi appears to be making. Adjusting the towel around his waist, he slinks up to inspect them only for Sugar to hiss a freezing breath at him which catches directly on his left nipple. "Safrin's tits that's cold!" he curses, fanning at his chest as if worried he'll get frostbite.
It isn't correct. It isn't even within a stone's throw of correct, and so it's with a long sigh and slow blink that Remi raises his gaze to fix his husband with a disapproving stare. Of course all of his hard edges disappear at the sight of the Huntsman—his breath too—and were it not for Sugar the concoction over the fire would have started to boil over for his lack of attention.
"You look as though you have had quite the afternoon." Said perhaps a triffle jealously that anyone should mark Ronin's skin other than him, Remi's eyes are carefully noting each and every bruise with predatory delight as he nears. "You should have seen that coming." He chuckles, and were his fingers not coated with the sugary gin-mixture he might have offered his palm as a means of warming up his husband's skin.
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.
Still pouting at Sugar (she's trilling in a way that sounds remarkably like a cackle, before going back to her temperature control), Ronin lets out a sigh that starts out as exasperated and ends in a distractible huff as his husband draws closer. "A huntsman's work is never done," he laments, following Remi's gaze down his arm at the tattoo of bruises that lurk there, even as he still rubs absently at his chilly nipple.
"And I know I should have. I was distracted." By the candy? Or the man making it? As blue eyes flick away from his arm to Remi's sugar-gin hands, Ronin can't help but reach out to encircle one of the alchemist's wrists, raising his fingers up so he can suck the sweetness from them. "Whatever you're making, it's delicious," he murmurs.
07-21-2022, 04:49 PM (This post was last modified: 07-21-2022, 04:49 PM by Remi.)
the lullaby
Love isn't all that it seems I did you wrong
"Well you know what they say. All work and no play..." Remi raises his eyebrows and offers his husband a disparaging look before his wrist is shackled by strong fingers made soft and warm from the shower. Clucking just once under his tongue before hastily taking a breath, Remi shakes his head in a strained gesture of no despite how pliable his hand would remain. Imagining of course other things in place of his finger in Ronin's mouth has Remi's tongue going quite dry even as his lashes flutter impatiently to keep his mind attentive."If you distract me, all of this will burn or harden in the pan.." He murmurs, his warning sounding only mildly convincing.
"How does it taste..?" Thus far he only had Sugar to taste-test and of course the dragonling approved only of adding more sugar and heat to the mixture in increasing amounts. 'Does it need anything?'
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.
I am not distracting you. I am helping you, Ronin informs Remi, though his words crack like a whip on a summer night through their Attuned bond. At the mention of things hardening, he can only bob his eyebrows at his husband in an o rly? sort of gesture, given that his tongue and lips are currently busy.
Relieving two of Remi's fingers from the sugar-slick mixture, Ronin finally ends the torture, pressing a chaste kiss to his fingertips as he releases the other man. "Maybe some citrus?" he suggests. "We have lemon juice somewhere, I think... and a little black pepper, if you're feeling bold and adventurous." Is that how Remi's feeling?
Hell if Ronin knows. He's too busy departing towards their bed and the trunk at the end of it, to fetch some clothes.
"Is that what you are doing.." The alchemist remarks in a voice that resembles his spun-gin mixture: syrupy and stretched and malleable so long as it is continually touched. Exhaling a stiff sigh as his eyes close, Remi takes stock of both the heat in his fingertips and cheeks, before shooting a glance towards the pan.
"Why not chilli flakes instead of pepper?" The alchemist counters a touch argumentatively, though that's likely to do more with the way the warmth in his hand has begun to trickle south, and with it, his attention span. "Lo guarderai?" He asks Sugar, before rising to search for a lemon. Opening one of the cupboards, Remi tilts his head slightly over his shoulder to spy his husband's silhouette which has been rendered in tones of gold and bronze in the sunlight.
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.
"I think chilli flakes would work too. But are you not worried they would overpower the gin?" Ronin asks, as if they are two culinary vagabonds and this is their life. No war, no demigodding, no banshees on the riverbank or relics in the Maw. Just lemon juice and cracked pepper and frostbitten nipples. (For one of them, anyway). As if unaware of Remi's eyes on him - he isn't - the Huntsman rubs at his hair and lets the towel drop, making a show of trying to find a shirt he deems appropriate.
Sugar, naturally, is the picture of obedience for Remi, and so she lovingly watches over the mixture as he goes searching for lemons. Ronin turns, holding up a shirt and shrugging into it, before smirking to see seaglass green peeping over at him. "Can I help you?" he asks, turning back around to delve back into the trunk for underwear and pants.
"We could test it and see which overpowers which, if either." Remi murmurs into his shoulder, pale eyes still sneaking furtive glances as his hands make a show of searching the cupboard. It has been years since the alchemist has had any real practice at being sneaky in this particular context, so it's no surprise that his wandering eyes are immediately called out.
"...mm.." He mumbles around a hasty swallow, turning his eyes back to the cupboard and grabbing at an orange instead of a lemon in his haste. "You could give that a stir." Turning, it's with a bit of a relieved grin that he drinks in his husband in full, if only because we all know how ridiculous it is to see a man naked from the waist down but wearing a shirt.
Doubling down on his inadvertent choice of fruit, Remi grabs a grater and some black pepper that he might add orange zest and large chunks of pepper. Odd additions to a candy, these weren't for children and so didn't have to conform to the taste buds of the very young.
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.
"I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon," Ronin agrees, turning to button his pants and leaving his shirt open as he approaches the molten gin-candy mixture that Remi has been working on. Casting a suspicious look Sugar's way, she snorts at him and takes her leave to go and sprawl out on their bed.
Dutifully stirring, of course the Huntsman notices the bright orange fruit that has appeared instead of lemon juice, and he smiles to himself rather than commenting. "Do you know, our son has begun to get very sneaky now that he's growing up," he says conversationally, grinning over his shoulder. "Or rather, he thinks he's sneaky. I've seen him creeping off into the Silk Houses."
Raising a brow as Sugar departs, Remi looks questioningly back at his husband. "I suppose it is your job to keep things from getting too hot." He says casually despite the mischievous glint in his gaze.
Cracking the pepper and then sprinkling it into the lavender swirls, Remi frowns deeply, peering at Ronin through his curls. "Oh? What for, do you think?" The question isn't naively asked as if Remi has no idea what Mateo might be up to, but rather because he has so many ideas. Drugs (buying or selling), sex, general mischief, clothing, makeup? "Do you think he is being safe?" There is no point in telling their son not to do something, especially these days.
Sticking in his pinky that he might take only a drop of the mixture, Remi places it far back on his tongue as if trying to target only certain tastebuds (not that that's how tastebuds work, but you do you, Remi).
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.
"With my left nipple as an icicle still, it shouldn't be a problem," Ronin says dryly, smiling over his shoulder at Remi and beginning to carefully fold in the orange and pepper, before standing aside for his husband to work the candy as he sees fit. "How is it?" he asks as he comically deposits a bit of the mixture on the back of his tongue, resisting the urge to see if he can find the taste with his own if he kisses Remi.
As for what for when it comes to Mateo's antics, he can only scoff and shake his head. "For everything," he suggests with a roll of his shoulder. "I saw him heading in with a very impressive smoky eye the other night, so I feel like he's been at Molly's at least once. And I've had a look in his terrarium, and I swear I can see a dream cactus growing there."
Whether he's being safe is a shot in the dark, though. "Safer than we were, at that age?" he guesses - and it really is a guess. "Either way, I'll have a word around the Silk Houses. I imagine people will have a lot to say." Such is his way, as Commander.
"No nipples in the candy." Remi says, and though it isn't the sort of warning one might expect to have to give, this is Ronin we're talking about. And to. One can never be too careful. Pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth and rubbing it back and forth, Remi swallows once, and then again, before nodding his approval. "I think I like it like this. The zest and pepper give it an interesting texture as well as taste." So saying, he dips his pinky back in before offering it out to Ronin.
'Oh? I wonder if I should check my supplies and see if I need to buy more charcoal." Remi muses, assuming it's from his box of painting equipment that Mateo has been finding his various cosmetics. 'A dream cactus?' He frowns. "If he is going to do drugs I would rather one of us be around for it." Remi murmurs with a mild groan. "Do you think he would take us up on that? Or perhaps I could send Oria with him..?" Scoffing, the alchemist can only roll his eyes. "That is not saying much." He says, before nodding. "At least until he has levelled up enough is old enough to channel us if he needs something, it would be nice to know that Stormbreak is keeping an eye on him." Or out for him. Either way.
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.
Huffing like he's genuinely upset that he can't dip his nipple into molten sugar, Ronin lowers the heat and continues stirring slowly as he turns to sample some of the mixture from Remi's pinky. He mmmm!s his approval, nodding to his husband and turning back to the pan, before stepping to the side to let Remi start to roll the candy into pieces. Sugar, of course, is on hand to make sure he doesn't burn his fingers.
"I'm not sure it was from your box," Ronin murmurs. "It looked... well. It didn't look like a teenager did it," he says, not wanting to say like one of Molly's girls did it even though that's the most likely explanation.
As for the drugs? "I haven't seen anything that suggests he's doing them yet. Making them, I can't be so sure," he admits. "We've never had that talk, have we, about drug safety?" Sex, absolutely. But of course Mateo is finding new ground.
Nibbling at the inside of his cheek, Ronin nods gently. "I think he'd feel like we were spying if Oria went with him. But Then again, this is Mateo. So maybe he'd enjoy it."
