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!
Ronin has given up his compass for Flora and Enzo, so he has no choice but to make his own way back to the Greatwood after the situation at Torchline. Destroying the Eirachi shrine has left him sore and tired, but with a demigod's endurance, it's a relatively easy trip home beneath the wings of a dragon. Still, that isn't to say he's feeling good when he lands.
The sun has long set, Ronin rolling out his stiff shoulders and flexing the arm caked with blood from the whipcrack of ice. Limping up the door of the houseboat, it's with a soft grumble that he lets hismelf in, slumping back against it once he's finally amongst the familiar sights and smells of home. "Well that sucked."
Curled up inside the houseboat on a chair made by the fae for fae-sized creatures, is a rather lazy looking raccoon with an upside-down book on advanced chemical compounds wedged between his paws. It hardly matters that it's upside down for two reasons: the first is that Remi had been looking primarily at the pictures, (studying them upside down helped his brain process sometimes), and the second was that he was fast asleep.
The sound of the door opening has the raccoon startling himself awake, causing an involuntary half-shift which resulted in his suddenly being far too big for the chair he was occupying. So it was that as Ronin made his way inside, it would be to see his husband sat awkwardly on the floor, rubbing at his foot where a book had just fallen onto it. 'Oh? I am shocked to hear that playing hero did not go well.' He mutters with a chuckle as he pushes himself to his feet, stretching out his arms toward Ronin.
"Was it bad?"
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Blinking at the sight of his husband on the floor (and he'll be sad, later, to have missed sleepy raccoon Remi in his tiny chair), Ronin's brow remains furrowed right up until the Lullaby gets to his feet. With a grumble, he moves into his outstretched arms to slouch against him, lolling his head against the other man's shoulder. "Playing the hero was fine," he informs him, "but I now have a newfound respect for you standing in the way of all the nasties."
Scrunching his nose, Ronin straightens back up to gaze down at himself. "It could have been worse," he admits, glancing at the deep lacerations on his bicep and thigh, along with the scrapes and soon-to-be-bruises from the falling bits of cavern that had tried to come down on top of them. "But I wouldn't say it was easy, either. At least it was Longheat."
Finding it adorable in the way it's adorable when large and menacing creatures act like the younger and less coordinated versions of themselves, so too does Remi find it adorable when Ronin is like this. Wrapping his arms around Ronin's shoulders to hug him tight, Remi raises his eyebrows with a vaguely smug smile. 'Is that so?' He muses innocently enough, though the Huntsman will no doubt feel his partner's amusement through the attuned bond.
Letting Ronin pull back slightly, Remi follows his gaze toward the deep cuts and frosty burns that the shrine had inflicted on him. Hissing in a breath that's as possessive as it is sympathetic, he reaches forward to softly turn one of Ronin's arms this way and that to survey the extent of the damage. "Everyone else made it out alright?" He asks, clearly not as interested in the well-being of Ronin's shrine-destruction party as he was about Ronin given the intensity of his gaze.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"It is so," Ronin agrees with a pout, though the flush of warmth in his thoughts tells that his emotions lean more towards pride and gratitude for his husband and the role he's chosen to play in all their battles thus far. He allows Remi to examine him as closely as he likes - especially if all that scrutiny eventually leads to tea and soup and hair pets - the Huntsman nodding quietly.
"We all got out okay. Torchline should be heating up again soon," he says, his free hand slipping around Remi's waist so he can press his palm against the other man's lower back, beneath his shirt. "Just in time for everything to go to shit. But I suppose it's better than dying in the cold."
Unable to keep himself from laughing at the bald truth of it all, Remi nods as he releases the Huntsman's arm. "The cold might have preserved the bodies better." He points out with a shrug as he slips his arms around Ronin's shoulders. "Now the heat is going to have everyone turning to mush." This is nothing to joke about of course, but with war upon their doorstep now, there seemed no place for seriousness. There was every reason to think that this conflict might kill one or both of them, leaving their children alone and the world forever changed. If that didn't call for a bit of sass, Remi wasn't sure what did.
Softly sighing, Remi's fingers busied themselves in Ronin's hair. "What do you need? Warm water might aggravate your frostbite more than anything else." He points out, though given their godly strength these days the Huntsman could either just let the wounds heal on their own or endure the pain with equal success.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Mm, it's Torchline though. Even with an Eirachi shrine, I doubt it would have gotten cold enough to freeze bodies," Ronin mumbles into the collar of his husband's shirt, as if this is an every day conversation. (And it's sad that it is, these days). "Not like King's End. I stopped by there the other day - it's still snowy there." Not his circus, not his monkeys though. Not right now anyway.
Grumbling and somehow making it sound content, Ronin leans into the fingers in his hair and lets out a soft sigh. "Don't they say that body heat can help when someone is too cold?" he asks, pressing his lips against Remi's neck. "I need to lay down while a very handsome man who also happens to be my husband fusses over me. Maybe a hot drink or soup as well."
'Is that what they say?' Remi asks somewhat skeptically even as his fingers continue to plunge deeper into Ronin's hair. Pretending to look around for said handsome man, the Lullaby huffs out a sound of mock understanding as he nods. "Oh, who also happens to be your husband, I see. Here I thought perhaps you had brought someone else home with you." Gods, the carnage that would follow had that been the case. As it was, Remi merely grins wickedly against one of Ronin's temples before twisting them towards the bed.
Corraling Ronin with his body until the back of the Huntsman's legs met their mattress, it's at that point that Remi's body duplicates so that he, the ReAl ReMi, could continue to push Ronin onto the bed while his duplicate went to heat water and fetch some soup from their icebox.
"Now then. Is it just your arm that needs heating up...?" Remi asks, already smoothing his palm up Ronin's forearm and back down again.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Ew, never," Ronin mumbles, his voice muffled against Remi's neck, his body immediately relaxing against the other man's. Happily corralled, the Huntsman exhales a brief huff of surprise as he tumbles down onto the bed; only at this point does he realise just how tense his muscles are, his eyes closing as if the task of keeping them open is too great.
"My arm, my leg. My everywhere," he says, only pretending at sounding pathetic but succeeding nonetheless. "Had to fly home - the skies are still cold at night," he adds as an afterthought, as if that should convince Remi to blanket him for the rest of the evening. "I missed you."
'Oh, no, not your everywhere.' Remi croons. Still rubbing at Ronin's arm, the Lullaby opts to flutter kisses against his husband's collarbones instead of letting his tentacles try and tease the stiffness from Ronin's limbs. 'Oh, you poor thing.' Though this is said with a shit-eating grin, the pulse of appreciation Remi sends through the attuned bond is genuine. The only reason the Huntsman had to fly home was because he'd given up his compass to serve Remi's twins, and for however much Ronin was planning on milking his injuries, his weariness at least was Remi's fault.
"I missed you too. I hate when we are apart, all the moreso when I know you are doing something HeRoIc without me."
In the kitchen, Remi's duplicate waves Sugar over that she might use her claws to slice up some herbs for Ronin's soup.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Mmhm," Ronin agrees, his bottom lip poking out in a pout even though his eyes remain closed. It's hard to maintain even a pretense of unhappiness with Remi's lips fluttering over his skin and his weight sinking down onto him, of course, but the Huntsman keeps it up for a few moments longer regardless. "You just want to make sure that I don't get too hErOiC without you," he mumbles, his arms spidering up and around the other man to hold him close.
"Too much of a good thing and all that," he continues, though he doesn't believe such a thing can exist when it comes to Remi. "Mm, you're such a good chef," Ronin adds, his eyes peeping open to watch Sugar come to lend her culinary skills to his husband's duplicate.
"That is exactly what I don't want." Remi agrees, letting the vibrations of a grumble help to make his point. "Especially now that Maeve has that bow that can quite literally kill you." He adds, huffing out a sigh that has his lips warbling against his husband's skin. Oh sure, Maeve would NeVEr use it against Ronin, but that was to say nothing of her aim.
Remi's duplicate gives Sugar a wink as the pair scoop up the shredded herbs into the finally-boiling pot of soup.
"I am. A good husband as well, and an even better kisser." So saying, Remi shifts his weight into his hips, using his forearms to brace against the bed so that when he presses a kiss against Ronin's lips, it's entirely feather-light.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I'll make sure I get an arrow-proof suit of armour to wear when we're around her," Ronin assures the other man, as if that might do a little to soothe his ruffled feathers. More than words, though, he finds that kisses are the real cure for a bad mood, and although the Huntsman hiccups in a sharp inhale of breath to feel Remi's hips pressed down against his own, he sinks into the press of his husband's lips without complaint.
"The best," he corrects in a whisper, deepening the kiss with a flick of his tongue, though there's just as much of a chance of Ronin falling asleep or getting distracted by the smell of the soup as there is of him succumbing to the Lullaby's charms. "You are the best husband, and the best kisser. And I love you."
Whether Ronin's inhale is out of desire or because Remi is leaning against one of his fresh injuries doesn't even cross the Lullaby's mind; such is his charm, you see. Right? Had their positions been switched, the Huntsman very likely could have carried on teasing his spouse and cooking. Alas, Remi's attention couldn't be in two places at once with any real accuracy, and much as he wanted to continue to warm Ronin's tongue with his own, he was vaguely aware that their soup was about to boil over.
Pulling back and giving Ronin a look that was as pained as it was adoring, Remi huffs out a frustrated sigh as he grins. "I love you more." Before Ronin might argue, the Lullaby will have rolled away, dismissing his duplicate in the process. Just as the soup is about to boil over, Sugar cleverly blows a blast of ice against the bottom of the pot, cooling it enough to avoid a mess. "Thaaaank you." Remi sings appreciatively as he reaches for three bowls (Sugar surely deserves some given her help), and begins to spoon the broth into them.
"Mateo seemed to think he was going to remain in Stormbreak during the war." Remi muses over his shoulder, before turning and waiting silently for Ronin to either stay in bed or move to the table.
who's got their claws in you my friend?
into your heart i'll b e a t again
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
