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!
The way up and the way down are one in the same I'm calling an audible late in the game
"Lo capisco..." {chitter, scratch, scratch, scratch} "..Beh, non posso farci nulla, a meno che..." {squeak! scratch, scratch, scratch} "Ascoltate, dipende da voi. " Said matter of factly, Remi sighs and crosses his arms.
Midway up one of the towering trees which populated the Greatwood, was a fox tangled in a heap of hanging vines. It looked young and malnourished, and had it not been for the dull brown of its eyes, Remi might have thought it was Fiadh on first inspection. "Bisogna stare fermi." He whispered reassuringly, raising his hands only to have the fix twist and try and nip at him. "So che odore ho, ma non ti farò del male." He tried again, though the fox remained unconvinced.
Sighing, the alchemist rubbed at the back of his neck and looked up the length of the tree, wondering just how many hanging vines he'd have to carve away and kill if he couldn't get the fox to settle.
If love is everything, love is pain Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Do you know, the Sea of Branches just tried to charge me an extra toll for being your husband?" Ronin is saying, scowling incredulously over his shoulder as he wombles up towards Remi, instinctively following the scent of the Lullaby with senses that go beyond the human. "Ianto and Fiadh could learn a thing or two from them, the conniving little-- oh!"
He manages to stop just before bumping into Remi, which is a blessing, because otherwise he'd end up squashing the box of pastries he's just gotten for them. "Who're you singing to?" he wonders, because the travelling tongue definitely counts as a melody in his books, though he hasn't realised it's a song that all foxes know.
"Oh, that is a predicament..." He winces. "Think it likes pastries?"
The way up and the way down are one in the same I'm calling an audible late in the game
Still frowning at the fox, the sound of Ronin's voice has a small smile tugging at one corner of Remi's lips before the alchemist is even aware he's reacted to his husband's quip. "Well, did you pay it? All of that money comes back to me, you know." Remi chirps over his shoulder, his voice still more-thickly accented than normal from having just been using the travelling tongue.
"She." Remi corrects, in a tone that suggests perhaps the fox's gender is playing a role in its lack of cooperation with him. Exhaling, he glances over his shoulder at the scent and mention of pastries, looking first to the box and then into Ronin's unfairly blue gaze. "We could try, if you do not mind having your fingers bitten off in the process." To demonstrate, Remi moves just an inch or so closer to the fox, who screams her protest and snaps her teeth at his fingers.
'I have lost enough fingers, but you still have a full set, so..." So if it was going to be either of them, better Ronin, apparently.
If love is everything, love is pain Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Well of course I paid it," he mutters, though he still sounds belligerent about it, the Huntsman standing comfortably next to his counterpart now, peering up at the vines holding the fox - the vixen, forgive him - captive. "Well alright, do you think she likes pastries?" he asks, though he's carefull putting his box down somewhere that it won't get sat on or kicked.
"Could you put her to sleep?" he wonders. "Preferably by not putting your hand near her mouth. I could use my nimbus to help support her while we untangle her. But if your superpowers don't work on animals, I guess I'll be sacrificing my fingers..." Or his projection's fingers, though that will render it useless, which... Ronin has not yet considered, evidently.
The way up and the way down are one in the same I'm calling an audible late in the game
"Unfortunately I cannot." Remi murmurs, of putting her to sleep. "Per favore, non puoi stare fermo? " He tries one more time, looking earnestly at the fox who merely screams again. Sighing and all but throwing his hands into the air out of frustration, Remi instead rakes his fingers through his hair and forces out a (mostly) calm breath.
"That or I could enter her mind and try and take over her body, though I think that goes against everything I have said to her so far." You know, about trusting him and not being afraid. "Alright. You distract her with a pastry and I will touch her tail and put her to sleep." This is said in a whisper; who knew what languages foxes could speak these days. "Then you can conjure your nimbus to hold her. Yes?"
If love is everything, love is pain Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin is quite certain he knows the answer to that age old question, what does the fox say? but this vixen is quickly proving him wrong. There's a lot more screaming than Ianto would have led him to believe. Anyway.
Feeling put out that he has to give up a pastry after all, the Huntsman nonetheless complies and picks out his least favourite one from the box, conjuring his nimbus to hover just beneath the little creature, ready to catch her once she's surrendered to unconsciousness. "Hey," he coos, holding up the pastry for her. "Maybe we don't be this way?"
Her opinion, as it turns out, is that she very much will be this way - at least at first. Screaming and yipping and gnashing at the pastry, it's about a second later that she realises it's food like that angry raccoon with the popsicle and calms down considerably. "Ain't nothing that apple turnovers can't solve," Ronin agrees.
The way up and the way down are one in the same I'm calling an audible late in the game
Whether it's the food or it's Ronin (and the question of "Does his magnetism extend to animals" can finally be answered), Remi doesn't have time to consider. Waiting until she seems suitably distracted, he reaches forward and..
..nothing happens. As we already established, Remi's magic doesn't work on animals so what the fuck were you thinking, self. "Oh." He murmurs stupidly, before thinking up something else. Quickly pulling from his mind a strip of leather, Remi cuts a slit through one end that he might loop them together and holds it up for Ronin to see. If I can slip this over her nose, we can pull it tight so she can't open her jaws. Remi thinks. If they were gentle enough, hopefully they could have her untangled. The real question is how many pastries it would take to keep her occupied, and whether or not Ronin was willing to pay such a hefty price.
If love is everything, love is pain Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
08-30-2022, 07:47 PM (This post was last modified: 08-30-2022, 07:47 PM by Ronin.)
"Oh?" Ronin echoes, as the pastry is now being enthusiastically eaten out of his hands. "Oh?" Is he pouting? What do you think? If you manage to slip that over her nose without getting maimed, I'll make you a trophy, he informs him. Can you try and untangle her while I keep her busy? We can muzzle her once I run out of food. His projection has come to (reluctantly) stand by with the rest of the pastries, so Ronin is able to continue to placate their furry hostage guest.
I'll keep the nimbus, just in case she falls when we start to untangle her, he says. And by we he of course means Remi, because Ronin's hands are full. Of pastry. That he isn't able to eat himself right now, in case that part has been missed. At least their vixen is quite happy with their choices for now.
The way up and the way down are one in the same I'm calling an audible late in the game
Okay. Remi confirms, before tilting his head and giving the fox a disapproving look. "Onestamente, se mangiate tutto il suo cibo, potreste essere ancora più in pericolo." He tells her, to no avail.
Knowing that this will require much making-up later given the speed the fox was going to go through Ronin's pastries, Remi hurriedly conjures a duplicate himself to try and expedite the unravelling process. "Alright, so if this is going through there...and this...here..then.." Gods but it would be so much easier just to carve away the entire thicket of hanging vines and be done with it. If it wasn't for the fact that Mateo's screams would rival the fox's, Remi would seriously consider doing it.
"About...20% there." He murmurs to his counterpart as his four hands work in tandem to try and quickly solve this cumbersome riddle.
If love is everything, love is pain Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
grnam snorf monch mlem, the vixen helpfully replies to Remi as she devours Ronin's second pastry, narrowly missing his fingers (though she does pause to lick cream off them instead, and the Huntsman can't decide whether it's cute or if he's outraged). "Yes, quite," he agrees, getting yet another pastry ready while his husband works on their living puzzle.
"I'm almost 75% of the way through these pastries, so hopefully you have a breakthrough soon," he says, else he'll be feeding his arm to the fox with his luck. "I can understand getting caught up in these, but how does one become this stuck?" He sighs, directing the query to both fox and Lullaby, though he isn't sure if either will have an answer.
08-30-2022, 08:11 PM (This post was last modified: 08-30-2022, 08:12 PM by Remi.)
the lullaby
The way up and the way down are one in the same I'm calling an audible late in the game
"Can't you feed her slower?" Remi protests, huffing out his exertion as he continues untangling (and re-tangling) the vines above his head. Having more hands doesn't necessarily make this process much easier, and gods the urge to just swipe his claws through the vines is something he feels like he can taste on his tongue.
"..just a little bit more..." He murmurs to himself more than to anyone else, before mmmm?ing under his breath. "A game, perhaps?" Remi suggests distractedly, coughing a few times to hide the sound of vines being snapped in half.
If love is everything, love is pain Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
And lo, somewhere off in Stormbreak, Mateo felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of sentient vines suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Ronin, however, feels nothing but the growing emptiness in his stomach where pastries ought to be. "Oh sure, why didn't I think of that?" he grumbles, as if the vixen isn't a veritable eating machine. Any attempts to slow down are met with furious snuffles and yips and the flail of many paws, so stick that up your pipe and smoke it, Remi.
"A game," he repeats dryly, raising his eyebrows. "I'm not sure she's in a position to play fetch, and I don't know if she knows the rules for blackjack." And so, with exquisite upset writ across his face, Ronin slowly surrenders his last pastry to a foxy maw.
The way up and the way down are one in the same I'm calling an audible late in the game
Raising his eyebrows in Ronin's direction, Remi can't help but smirk to hear the obvious hangry-annoyance in his husband's voice. 'Ohho. She is not the only one who is cranky I see." Grinning to himself, the alchemist turns his gaze back up into the tangle of vines which is actually looking a lot more tangled just now, but don't worry, that's how these things go.
(probably)
"You do not like when people make assumptions about you, why do it to her?" Remi counters, if only because needling his husband when Ronin is already forced to give away his snacks is just too good to pass up.
"3...2.........." There's an obnoxiously long pause here as Remi finagles and fusses, coaxing and then coercing the last remaining knots to release. "...1!" Taking a large step back and dismissing his duplicate, Remi holds his hands in the air like some calf-roper who is indicating that his time should be called.
If love is everything, love is pain Certain spirits are too bright to be tamed
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
08-30-2022, 08:37 PM (This post was last modified: 08-30-2022, 08:37 PM by Ronin.)
"I just had to pay a double bridge toll and give away our dessert," Ronin reminds the Lullaby haughtily, as if he has every right to be cranky in this instance, though he does soften as Remi makes a good point. "That is true - I'm sorry, ma'am," he says to the vixen. "Do you happen to know the rules of blackjack? It's quite easy, and I do have a deck of cards in my pocket, I think. If I still have hands by the end of this, I'd be happy to play a game with you..."
And on and on in this vein, Ronin will host a full conversation with a fox who is only interested in the last and best of his baked treats, right up until Remi's countown. Once he reaches one, of course, Ronin also takes a large step back, and the vixen finds herself standing on a nimbus, quite safe, and licking her chops.
She glances between the two demigods for a second. Then she shakes out her fur, screams one last time, and leaps off the nimbus before scarpering into the undergrowth. This leaves one Ronin covered in pastry crumbs, fresh cream and fox spittle, and the other sadly gazing into an empty pastry box.
