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!
"That," Ronin tells his husband with a tone that feels stern and an expression that belies the exact opposite, "is very sweet of you. Perhaps we can start frequenting those thrift stalls in marketplaces that sell broken and secondhand items. Unless you like breaking things." Because Ronin is not about to be bested by his husband's attempts at being the best and most thoughtful.
Remi goes to the couch, not at all occhieggiando, and Ronin spends a couple of seconds testing his weight on the balls of his feet, before heading further into their kitchenette with the tell-tale swagger of the very well fucked. "That's right," he says with a chuckle, heading to their icebox (aka opening and reaching out of a window into the snow) to get their ningo, "you spent quite a bit of time at that brothel, didn't you?"
Donning an apron around his waist that protects his assets while continuing to bare his buns to his husband, Ronin is holding a comically large ningo as he turns back from the window, though there is no doubt that they'll manage to eat it all between them. "I absolutely would," he says, all the while eyeing their stove as if wondering whether the bird will fit.
What good are hands if there's nothing that they hold
"What a great idea." Remi says through teeth which are very carefully not clenched. Though his eyes narrow playfully he finds himself absolutely bested by his husband's efforts to out-do him on this point, and while the urge to break something in this very moment if only to make a point is incredibly strong, he resists the urge with a very dignified and mature huff.
'You mean the one time I went there and Maeve did her best to seduce me?" Remi wonders, eyebrows raised. Immediately he regrets mentioning it, especially without memories of Isla for context, such that he pulls a face as he flips through the book now strategically placed (have you seen Ronin) in his lap.
"It is..right.....ah! here." Tapping the page, Remi glances up expectantly while tugging mentally along the tether of their attuned-bond that he might coax the Huntsman over. Holding out a hand, the Lullaby lets large suction cups spread out over his skin. Rubbery-pink and each fully without his control, he lets them pulse undulate in a way he knows Ronin hates. "As you know a kraken is basically a large octopus, but squids.." Shifting so that Ronin could see the picture on the page as well as his sucker-covered arm, Remi finishes. "..have these."
Squids, as it turns out, do not have conventional suckers like octopi do. Instead, each ring was covered with rows of serrated teeth with some even having long fangs jutting out.
And what good are hearts if you bury them all alone?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Listen, it might have only been that one time but you were there for quite a while," Ronin objects, though it's with a warm and affectionate gaze that he glances over his shoulder at his husband. He's working on ensuring there is room for their bird in the oven, as well as the pan he needs to put it on, when the lasso of Remi's thoughts snag around him and he abandons the task to meander his way towards the couch.
Only to be greeted with a rippling expanse of rubbery suckers that probably have very specific groups of fishermen hastily adjusting their pants. "Uh huh," he drawls, lips parted in a curl of distaste, only for it to twist into a quick and uncomfortable inhale to see all of the, uh, teeth in the book.
"Oh," he says. And then again, "Oh. So they do." What Ronin does next might make sense to Remi and no one else, but gods, there are no words for how horrified he is by the squid suckers and how relieved he is that the kraken is an octopus. And so, crouching down and leaning in to smooch his husband's cheek, he lets a hand trail across the undulating suction cups. "I will never complain about these again," he vows.
What good are hands if there's nothing that they hold
"It felt like an eternity to me." Remi agrees, letting his breath woosh past his lips. In his mind, that was the last time he'd been with anyone who wasn't the Huntsman, and without context as to why, it leaves his stomach a weighty but fluttery mess.
With a sunny smile, Remi peers up at Ronin, delighted to see him rendered so uncomfortable. "Can you imagine?" Remi wonders, and while you might be wondering, imagine what?, there's no doubt the Huntsman knows full well given just how often Remi relies on his tentacles and suckers to help out with any number of tasks (or torments).
Leaning up to accept the kiss, Remi is wholly caught off guard by the sudden attention paid to his suckers. In the same way that you can't tickle yourself, so too was the alchemist unable to really get a feel for the sensory abilities of his appendages on his own, and, because Ronin wasn't too fond of them, what he felt was a complete surprise. Flinching and choking on his own breath like a teenage boy might do the first time a hand not their own suddenly rummaged around their pants, Remi nearly knocks the book off his lap given how abruptly he'd started.
"Oh." He murmurs hastily and perhaps a touch guiltily against Ronin's lips.
And what good are hearts if you bury them all alone?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Most brothels would argue that it feeling like an eternity is a good thing," Ronin points out, but of course he knows better when it comes to the specifics of Remi's visit to the place. And while one hand is still very happily feeling the lack of teeth on the alchemist's kraken suckers, the other reaches up to tuck an errand curl behind his ear. "I can imagine well enough that I think my balls are trying to climb back up inside my body," he informs him sweetly - only to suddenly find his husband choking on air.
"Are you alright?" he asks, eyes widening as he gives a double take down at his partially shifted arm and hand. "I can't decide whether you've just discovered a new kink, or if we should pretend it never happened." Having no idea, of course, of the wealth of sensory information available (ish) to the alchemist - Ronin is just coming to terms with squid teeth, come on - he assumes he has managed to tickle Remi, or something similar.
What good are hands if there's nothing that they hold
"Thank you husband, I am aware." Remi replies with a light roll of his eyes, now all the more eager to drown out thoughts of his upbringing as well as his time with Maeve, with some fun anatomy facts.
I can help you pull them down, is what the Lullaby might have said had his blood not turned into static and his thoughts into marshmallow fluff. Blinking like a man in the midst of a stroke, for a moment all Remi can do is stare slack-jawed up at Ronin with the entirety of his focus on the mechanics of breathing. Forcing out a strangled breath and trying to relax the muscles of his stomach, Remi shakes his head slightly before managing to fully exhale.
"No, I mean.." Not one to rule out a new kink too early, Remi swallows back the rest of his sentence and tries again. "That felt like..I don't know, like goosebumps and your foot being asleep and a claw dragged lightly up the bottom of your foot and nails on a chalk board all at once." It's the closest he can come to the sudden sensory dump his body had just experienced, and yet it's still miles off.
Flexing his fingers slightly, the Lullaby pulls in another breath, holding it for a moment. "Do it again." He whispers tentatively.
And what good are hearts if you bury them all alone?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
While Remi half considers yanking on Ronin's balls and the Huntsman wonders if he'll ever put the ningo in the oven (another euphemism, perhaps?), it soon becomes evident from his husband's words that, in this beautiful and golden stretch of time spent together, they might have just discovered something... new.
Emboldened by the whisper running like silk across his ears and the hesitant, yes-no-maybe energy he can feel warbling through Remi's body, Ronin sinks down to kneel properly beside the other man. His free hand drifts down to hold onto Remi's arm, keeping it positioned palm-up, before - and there was never any doubt, given their shared history - running his fingertips across the undulating rows of suction cups.
"Like that?" he wonders, and then wonders again despite how the childish part of him wants to recoil from it - I wonder what would happen if I used my lips?
What good are hands if there's nothing that they hold
Watching Ronin kneel with his breath held in his mouth and his lungs screaming for oxygen, Remi blinks, his expression one of nervous anticipation. Able to see it coming this time, it's with a hasty inhale that Remi convulses forward as Ronin's fingertips slip across his suckers again.
Almost as if struck by a taser, Remi feels all the muscles on the right side of his body grow bright with surging fireworks of feeling as his left side grows stiff and cold and unresponsive. His fingertips splay and stretch and the skin not coated with pinkish suction cups grows veiny and covered in goosebumps.
Quite without his permission the heel of one-foot stomps onto the floor as talons emerge from his left hand and threaten to tear the arm of their couch into tiny pieces. Exhaling in a sharp burst, Remi wriggles uncomfortably before panting in a breath and trying to force himself to still. "....fuck." He manages after a moment, glancing at Ronin with cheeks aflame and ears gone quite red.
And what good are hearts if you bury them all alone?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Anyone who is anyone knows enough about Remi Taliesin to appreciate, above all, the mastery he holds over the (arguably monstrous) power coursing through his body. Of course, Ronin is in a privileged position in that he can handle - and provoke, and enjoy - those lapses in control, but this is something entirely, refreshingly different. And while he manages not to let his smile take over his face, the unmistakeable delight that warbles down their bond and through the other man's magic is difficult to dampen down.
"I think," he almost purrs, his fingers hovering once more over the undulating flesh of his husband's forearm, "that maybe we should reserve that one for special occasions." For safety if for nothing else. It doesn't mean he gets up, though, or that he isn't thoroughly enjoying seeing Remi as flustered as a horny teenager. "I never realised that octopus tentacles could be so interesting."
What good are hands if there's nothing that they hold
Looking at Ronin's fingers, hovering just above his tentacles has the alchemist jerking in place like he'd just bitten into a battery. Arching his back and yet somehow still receding into the couch, Remi gulps audibly as he nods shakily. Closing his eyes and letting his suckers disappear back into his flesh, he reaches out with his other hand to scrub roughly where they'd been hard enough to almost break the surface.
"I...just a second." So saying, Remi's naked body suddenly pitches to the side, nearly lifeless. Well, not lifeless, but soulless. Oria, wherever she and Sugar were currently hiding, would still be able to see him as he steps up from the couch, entirely incorporeal. Stretching and trying to brush the latent sensations away from himself, Remi utters an uncomfortable yet strangely pleased moan (drawing Oria's attention from the bathroom), before stepping back into his body again.
Blinking his eyes open and huffing out a breath, Remi ruffles a hand through his curls before pushing himself into a seated position again. "Well, you would have known about it sooner if you were not so squeamish."
And what good are hearts if you bury them all alone?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Careful," Ronin chides gently as Remi risks giving himself a friction burn or worse on the area where the suckers had bubbled to the surface. Little by little the amusement fades into something warm and deeply affectionate, concern mingling with the glee he'd felt initially as the Lullaby literally flees his own body to recover. "Oh-- sure," he murmurs, mainly because it is already happening.
While Remi shivers away the aftershocks of sucker-play, Ronin takes the opportunity to wrestle the roast into the oven (he adds whole potatoes, very roughly chopped carrots, along with sprigs of rosemary, thyme and other seasonings). And by the time his husband returns in earnest, at least dinner will happen eventually.
"Well," he argues back, "if I had known earlier that they were the lesser of two evils, maybe I wouldn't have been so squeamish." Looking appropriately triumphant, Ronin saunters back over to the couch where his husband has (regrettably) just sat himself back up, nonetheless trying to climb into his lap and sink his full weight onto him; it's fine because there's an apron between them, alright?
"Feeling any better?" he wonders, letting his fingers press down the corded muscle of Remi's neck and shoulders to try and find sore spots to relieve.
What good are hands if there's nothing that they hold
Reaching for a blanket, not necessarily to cover his nudity but more to just have some sort of barrier in case his skin decided to change on its own, Remi tugs it close before opting to drape Ronin over himself instead. Leaning back against the arm so that the pair could more or less splay themselves across the length of the couch, the Lullaby twines his arms around Ronin's shoulders while simultaneously leaning his forehead down to allow his husband's fuss.
"Yeah, I feel fine now." He murmurs as he stifles a yawn against the side of Ronin's neck. "It is just like...a complete physical overload. It...hurts in a way that has no pain? And feels good without there being anywhere that actually feels it." Helpless to capture the feeling, Remi decides merely to shake his head and grumble inarticulately instead.
"Dinner smells good." He murmurs after a moment, remembering the discarded blanket and thoughtfully draping it over Ronin's bare ass.
And what good are hearts if you bury them all alone?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Letting himself sink fully onto the couch and, subsequently, into his one and only, Ronin allows his fingers to dance in pressure points along the slope of Remi's shoulders for a moment or two more, before he relaxes fully against the other man. It's obscene, the comfort he can draw from moulding so completely against the alchemist, and Ronin tilts his head up in time to catch the grumbling vibrations against his lover's throat with his lips.
"I'm not sure how to say this in a way that makes it sound loving, but it was a nice change to see you so flustered," he says, nibbling at the Lullaby's windpipe for good measure before settling once more. "I forgot how adorable you are when you're blushing," he adds, as if that aligns more with what he's trying to say.
Lifting his eyes up enough to spy the oven and feeling glad that nothing is on fire that isn't supposed to be, he presses a gentle kiss to Remi's bare chest. "Thanks. It won't be done for a while, though. We could always nap."
What good are hands if there's nothing that they hold
Shifting just so, that Ronin might bonelessly sink against him (rather than finding himself elbowed or jutted by the other angles of his husband's body), Remi lets his head tip back against the corner of the couch. Sighing indulgently against the top of Ronin's head, the Lullaby's forehead wrinkles slightly as he seems to make up his mind about whether or not to be offended by the Huntsman's oddly-stated compliment. Of course he almost immediately decides against it, grinning boyishly up at the ceiling as his eyes slip shut. "I think you like making me flustered." He murmurs, smoothing down the blanket slightly. "Though careful not to let Mateo hear you say that or else he will try and gift me rouge for my cheeks."
Given that the pair are snug on the couch with a blanket draped around them, napping certainly seems the most logical thing to do, and so it's with a sigh that's almost resigned that Remi agrees. Lacing his fingers somewhere around Ronin's lower back, the Lullaby resists the temptation to simply slip from his own body and curl himself up around his husband's ribs, opting instead to leaning down and press a prolonged kiss into the Hutnsman's messy hair. 'I love you.'
And what good are hearts if you bury them all alone?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
