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!
Dipping his fingertips in oil first and then waving them through a puff of crisp dragonic air, Remi scoops up what will eventually become a bite-sized bit of candy before flashing his husband a wry smile. "So you were close enough to see our son's eye makeup as he went into Molly's but decided not to follow? Just what were you doing?" Remi wonders, raising his eyebrows a single time before turning his attention to his fingers sand the candy taking form.
"He will have to test them." Remi interjects rather matter of factly. "Or someone else will, but.." Flicking his eyes up to meet Ronin's, the alchemist shrugs. 'It is always better to test your work yourself before anyone else does." He continues. Mateo was his son after all, and it's precisely what Remi would do.
"Is it spying if we tell him ahead of time?" He might enjoy it but he also might take it as a challenge. Sighing, Remi begins the process of forming another candy.
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.
"No," Ronin says with a roll of his eyes and a grin. "I just told you I saw it when he was coming home from wherever he was. Obviously if I'd seen him going into Molly's - or being anywhere near Molly's - I'd have intervened." He might dip his nipples in candy, but Ronin has always been an attentive father.
His lips part to argue before he remembers, with a somewhat sinking feeling, that Remi's absolutely right. Mateo is their son - is Remi son, in particular, for this - and if there were drugs to test, he'd be doing it himself. "Ah," he says, frowning gently down at the candies being formed. "Well, I wouldn't want him to feel like he was in trouble. But at the same time, I also want to scour through his collection and confiscate any dangerous plants."
His smile is sheepish and apologetic, because yes that's a kneejerk reaction, and no he can't help it. "Well... I suppose if we tell him what it's for, at least it's not the same as just spying."
"Ahh." Remi hums. "I thought you meant heading in to Molly's." Having assumed Ronin had been out gambling (or, fighting, winning, and handing out the favours he'd won), it did make more sense that he had actually been at home when he'd seen Mateo with said smokey eye.
"The trouble is that we could only confiscate the ones we already know are dangerous. With his terrarium and the skills he has taught himself, he might already have cross-bred entirely new species of plants." ones that looked like harmless lavender, perhaps. "I do not want to treat him like a child, but equally...he is one. I worry that with Flora and Enzo having aged themselves up, he might be inadvertently trying to match them in his own way." Sighing, Remi adds a few more candies to his pile before standing and retrieving a few bowls.
"Sugar?" Nodding at the bowls that he'd placed upside down, he waits for the dragon to blow on them. Coating them with oil, Remi playfully swats away Ronin's spoon so that he might tip the remainder of the mixture over the bowls where it could harden into a candy shell.
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.
"Ohhhhh. Oh. That makes sense." Ronin nods, stirring the mixture a little more before allowing Remi access to it with his chilly oil fingers (yum) to make more candies. And then, at the idea that fuck, Mateo probably did already know a lot more about botany than they did, he groans to himself. "It wouldn't surprise me. He doesn't act as though he cares much about... much--" such is the happy-go-lucky nature of their child, "--but he is still the oldest. He might feel a little left behind."
Smiling as he watches Sugar and Remi work together, Ronin obediently removes his spoon and waves it around in the cool air so it would solidify the candy coating it. And that's how he ends up standing beside his husband, sucking on said spoon. "I guess if he hadn't been so independent so early, maybe this would be different," he mutters, obviously guilty. "Maybe it's best just to have an honest conversation with him. Like an adult, but knowing his answers will be a kid's answers."
"Mmmm. And with his friend back, he might be trying to...impress him? Or perhaps he's just emboldened by having Ever alongside." Either way, gone were the days of parental oversight when it came to Mateo.
Glancing over his shoulder at the sucking sounds—never mind the very obvious innuendo—Remi nods to Sugar that she might cool down the mixture. Turning the bowls over for Sugar to dust again, the material contracts just enough from the cold for the moulds to drop away from the candy shells leaving them perfectly intact. "Maybe. But then..." Turning the candy shells over, Remi begins to gently fill them with the candy balls. "..he is our son. I am not sure we could have escaped this no matter what he was like as a child."
Setting everything down, Remi ruffles a hand through his curls before resting his palms overtop of his arms. "That is a very wise thing to have said." He remarks, before narrowing his eyes. "Who are you and what have you done with my husband?"
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.
"Trouble is always easier when you've got a partner in crime," Ronin agrees, wrinkling his nose no matter how true it is for however many situations. As Remi looks over his shoulder, of course the Huntsman waggles his eyebrows as obviously as he can (and with Ronin's eyebrow game, it's impressive) and offers the other man a lick of his candy spoon. (Eyyyyyy).
Watching the finishing touches with the gin candy and seeming mildly hypnotised by it, his nod is one of sad agreement. "That's true. Flora and Enzo moved to Torchline almost as soon as they grew up, right?" He sighs, only to be suddenly confronted with a very handsome, very suspicious alchemist. Cracking a wolfish sort of smile, Ronin shrugs. "That banshee hit me really hard. Probably knocked loose a couple brain cells?"
It's hard to keep a straight face when graced with such facial acrobatics as Ronin's eyebrows are capable of, and Remi finds himself chuckling despite himself. Rolling his eyes he sinks his teeth into the tip of the spoon to shatter the candy coating with a wicked smile.
"With Hotaru...off and with Vai.." Remi's stomach tenses as he crushes the last bit of candy between his teeth. "...they have said there is not much for them in the Greatwood anymore." Remi understands the sentiments as much as he doesn't.
"Oh is that so? Well. If I had not already proposed to you once, and if you had not already proposed to me again, I might be tempted to try and take advantage." Even so, it's with fingers still slightly sticky from the candy that Remi grabs hold of one side of Ronin's shirt to drag him down. Rather than kissing him as the Huntsman is likely to expect, instead, the alchemist's expression softens considerably before growing almost sad. "Will you go to Fiat Lux with me? I do not want to go alone." For reasons they both well know.
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.
Gasping dramatically at the shattering of his candy spoon, Ronin is left picking at shards of it to crunch on, pouting his way through that before finally discarding the spoon. "Mm," Ronin agrees through a sigh, reaching out to tease at an errant curl in his partner's hair. "At least they always know there's a place for them in the Greatwood," he says. Remi might not always be there but it doesn't make it any less true.
Smiling wickedly by now, Ronin is nonetheless taken aback by the sudden softening of the alchemist's expression. Straightening a bit, his arms slip around Remi to hold him close. "Of course I will," he murmurs. "Here - if you wrap the candy, we can head to Stormbreak and then walk down to the Feverlands? I need to pick up something from there anyway." Cheese muffins, to be precise. "We'll go, stay long enough to say we were there, and then be on our way."
'I hope they do.' Remi agrees, tilting his head into the whisper of Ronin's fingers before sighing. At least they could talk about his twins within Ronin threatening to combust or tear up part of the Greatwood, but raising them was still an uphill battle at the best of times.
With his lashes fluttering as if there was something caught in his eyes, Remi releases the breath he'd been holding with a slow nod. "Alright." He says, nodding again before reaching out his other hand to softly place it against Ronin's cheek. In the blue of his husband's eyes he could see Aoife's stare, could feel the warmth of the blood pooling from his own neck, and could remember the misplaced hatred and vitriol they'd shown one another those early days in Torchline.
Though his lips flinched into a smile there was no warmth in it; just relief and love.
"Thank you." For what?
Everything.
~FIN
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.
