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!
' Absolutely you can.' Remi says of Isla steering it despite the images of Dwight steering the boat with the fake wheel that you might be thinking of. In any event, those are better thoughts than of Jake/Rose titanic scenes or of Remi holding the wheel with Isla between his arms or any other nonsense.
Raising his eyebrows in the silence and staring at Isla as if telepathy is perhaps some new skill that if they try hard enough they might both simultaneously develop, he snorts laughter as she finally comes up with the two ingredients of a mimosa. "Two mimosas please." Remi says to their server when he arrives; unsurprisingly the man doesn't linger at their table but simply sweeps away their empty glasses and disappears.
"Phoebe has taken over the Greatwood actually. A good deal of it has changed since the war, so it will be new for both of us. There is a stream of water that runs above the ground that I would like to see, so do not forget a bathing suit."
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Feeling very proud of these developments, Isla snaps her fingers victoriously and points at Remi as he produces the word she couldn't think of, the Remedy smiling after their server and giving him a little wave for good measure. "So where are you keeping this marvellous boat that you and your son made?" she inquires, before her expression softens significantly. "He's looking well, by the way. Mateo."
Isla both is and isn't surprised to hear of the significant changes to the Greatwood, and the idea of a floating body of water intrigues her just as much as one might expect. "I don't own a bathing suit," she tells Remi cheekily. "But I'll invest in one, just for this occasion."
'It is in Stormbreak. We started building it when Mateo was younger, and then moved it to the Skyport when he moved to the city.' The alchemist explains. "I think he uses it mostly as an extension of his shop, so do not be surprised if every surface is growing something." Smiling proudly, Remi nods at their server as he delivers two flutes of sparkly orange with a toothpick of maraschino cherries bobbing happily on the surface. "Thank you. He has really come into his own lately." Remi agrees, beaming.
Pulling a face, Remi tilts his head at an angle meant to convey the depth of his disbelief. "I do not believe you." He says, eyes slightly narrowed as he reaches for his glass. "Have you just been skinny dipping this entire time? Or do you even know how to swim?" He had carried her back to shore as a Kraken after all.
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Appropriately enthralled - and why shouldn't she be, with tales of building skyboats and the city high up in the clouds - Isla finds herself peering up towards where she thinks Stormbreak might be. "Well, there's a skyship that goes there too," she points out. "But I guess if I want my first experience on one to be on your boat, maybe I could ask for a ride from a manticore up to Stormbreak...?"
Interrupted by the arrival of their drinks, Isla trills another thanks after the server and plucks up the cherries to enjoy - and if Remi isn't quick, she'll try to take his, too. "Of course I know how to swim, don't be silly," she murmurs around a cherry. "Funnily enough I haven't been much in the mood to go swimming since I got here." What with all the existential dread and all.
"Maybe you could." Remi agrees with a grin that's all teeth. 'Though you will need a sweater I would think. The air gets quite cool and now that you have the capacity to be chilly, I would not want you to get sick." Did Remi just lecture the doctor on health? You know he did.
Quite liking cherries, Remi nevertheless holds out the tiny wooden spear of fruit for Isla to take with a knowing smile. He'd made her into a companion, killed her, and forgotten her for years; he owed her more than just a few cherries no matter how good they looked. "No?" Letting his head loll to the side, Remi raises a brow. "Not even with the heat?" Indeed despite Leafchange, Torchline was still quite balmy aside from the breeze, but during LongHeat? Gods, even he'd been in the water nearly every time he'd visited.
"Afraid you will melt, because of how sugary you are?" He adds, grinning at the stupidity of the line and finding himself all the more amused because of it.
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 don't even know if Torchline sells sweaters," Isla admits with a smirk. "Maybe a nice sailor's coat, though? Or a blanket?" Laughing to herself, at least the Remedy thoroughly enjoys the cherries for the two of them - and she even leaves a final one on the little toothpick to offer back out to Remi as thanks. "NoT eVeN WiTh tHe HeAT?" she parrots back at him with a bob of her eyebrows, as if to remind him of the topaz horns that curve delicately back into her hair.
"If Apopo erupted again I would use it as a hot spring," she clarifies a little less sassily. "As dangerous as heat was to me as an Ascended, now it's..." Isla shakes her head and smiles. "I can't get enough of it. I'm even able to control fire a little bit now, you know." Certainly not the skillset of a melty, sugary doctor, surely.
Rolling his eyes the Lullaby huffs. "Either a blanket or a will bring you a sweater." He offers, doing his best to sound thoroughly put off, before seeming to remember something. "Or I am sure Flora would have something you could borrow." Were Isla and Flora the same size? Wincing internally, the Lullaby realized he had no idea, not that that was a bad thing, really.
Isla's sass has Remi's stare flattening somewhat as he levels a look at her. "Listen, you are my first ancient friend, alright? Forgive my ignorance." Fire manipulation was certainly something new, and though Remi's mind wanted to concern itself with imagining Isla bathing in a lava flow (either with or without a bathing suit), the Lullaby's eyes narrow further as he smirks. "Really? I wonder if you could control any part of me when I am made of fire?" Eyebrows raised, the pair had come quite far from manufacturing anesthetics together, though really this was not really any different from the sorts of experiments they'd done before.
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 don't think Flora owns any sweaters, given that she lives in Torchline," Isla points out with a smirk, taking a sip of her mimosa and dropping the last cherry in Remi's drink since he refused to take it from her. She and the Doubletake are a similar size though, as it happens, but the point still stands. "You could always bring down one of Ronin's from the Cordillera." Ronin's because if she wears a sweater from Remi, the Nova is likely to lose his fucking mind about it.
Raising her glass in a gentle cheers, all is clearly forgiven. "I'm honoured to be your very first Ancient friend," Isla adds, her spaded tail swishing lazily with amusement. "And you've already seen me right after a bloodlust, so there shouldn't be any surprises." Hopefully, anyway, unless there's a sudden blizzard in Torchline and she turns to stone.
Tilting her head with unhidden interest, Isla's expression is very much the fuck around and find out sort. "That would be another first for me," she says, as if they needed any more reason to do it.
"Flora's mother lives in Halo." Remi counters, and it's a good thing indeed because seeing Isla in either his or Ronin's sweater would likely do things to the alchemist that weren't properly conducive to a friendship.
Chuckling his thanks, Remi's right hand reaches out to stab the cherry with a claw before placing it delicately on his tongue. "Oh, was that supposed to be off-putting?" The Lullaby wonders and though this might have sounded a touch flirtatious from anyone else, given who Remi was it was a genuine question. "Regardless, given all we have been through, I would not say no to a few surprises anyway." He says with a shrug.
"Well, finish your drink and we can go somewhere safer." Remi says, laughing. For all of his control, a burning Remi at a picnic table was probably not the safest of control environments for such a test. But with the beach just a few steps away? They could experiment all they liked.
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
07-07-2023, 08:43 PM (This post was last modified: 07-07-2023, 08:43 PM by Isla.)
ISLA
There's another argument brewing on the tip of Isla's tongue, but she chooses not to skip down that particular conversational lane. Why Flora's mother would send her daughter sweaters when she lives in Torchline is just repeating her point, after all. And there are more interesting things to talk about besides. "I mean, it seemed off-putting to you, when I was roaring in your face as a raccoon," she points out, as if he might have forgotten.
Isla has not forgotten, though, and she can grin at the memory now. "Your cheeks were full of seeds," she recalls. Whether or not he'll find her reaction surprising is entirely up to Remi, but he'd just said he wouldn't mind a few surprises, so there.
Needing no encouragement to finish her drink (Isla is already well on her way to tipsy), the Remedy drains her glass and sets it delicately down - one does not slam a champagne flute - before clambering to her feet. "Alright, alright, lead the way." She beckons.
"Did it?" Remi asks slyly, his eyebrows bouncing slightly. "Hmm." The sound is mischievous and menacing as he tilts his head slightly to the side and takes a long sip of his drink. That said, discussing any more about the sorts of predatory behaviour that Remi did not find off-putting was perhaps best suited for when Isla was not 4 drinks in.
Finishing his own drink though hardly feeling their effects at all, Remi rises and glances at his arm where feathers are suddenly sprouting. Plucking a particularly large one, he sets it down as payment. Manticore feathers were valuable, though Remi had no idea why.
Walking on the side and relishing the warm friction beneath his feet, Remi pauses once they're a safe enough distance away from...well, everything. "And you promise I really cannot burn you?"
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Resisting the urge to steal said manticore feather or to run her hands down Remi's arm, instead Isla happily totters after him. Having been barefoot the entire time, she relishes the feel of the warm sand between her toes, and with enough alcohol in her system now to make her giddy, she appreciates once again how unexpectedly wonderful the day has turned out to be.
Moving to plop down in the sand a few feet away from Remi, Isla sits cross-legged and smiles brightly up at him, like she's a student and he's about to teach her something. "I promise you really cannot burn me," she assures him, her hand drawing a cross over her heart. "Ancients are impervious to heat or flame. I'll show you, if you shift."
Looking down at Isla as she plops down into the sand, Remi chuckles at the childlike nature of his gesture as he rolls his shoulder and tugs at the thread of fire ever burning deep within. Flames sprout from all around him, removing the hard lines of his body and reducing him to mere outlines and vague indications of the male form. His face is clear enough, though it has a mirage-like quality as the heat of his own body distorts his features somewhat.
Holding one of his hands out toward her, his fingertips mere sprays of fire, the Lullaby tilts his head slightly still expecting to see Isla wince and pull away. 'Still alright?' He wonders, his eyes appearing all the brighter for the contrast of green against red.
Every shade of hurt you know From the deep blue to the marigold
It's gonna make sense someday lookin' back
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Unlike back on the island, Isla is in a position this time to fully appreciate the ifrit for what it is, and as Remi ignites into a ripple of bright flame, her soft inhale is one of near awe. With the fire reflected in her pebble blues, the Remedy rises to her feet, carefully gathering her skirts in one hand (her clothing is not impervious to flame) as she steps closer. "Still alright," she assures him with a soft smile.
Reaching out, her hand slips through the flames as if they are nothing, stroking along Remi's palm and the flare of light that serves as his fingertips. She's not quite dumbstruck enough to say something stupid like you're warm, because duh, but she's still clearly transfixed by the living fire that the Lullaby has become.
"What a beautiful shift," Isla murmurs eventually, fingers combing through the plumes of orange and red that lick along his arm, before withdrawing. "Shall I see if I can control them?"
