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!
After Ronin had been so unceremoniously pulled from across Caido to help stop a massive moth (what?), the pair had flown to the floating city to ensure that nothing else was amoth amiss.
"No, I agree. You are winning." Remi says in a conciliatory tone. Exhaling into the warm steam rising up from the hot springs, he tugs Ronin a touch closer before twining his arms around the Nova's neck. "For now." He adds in a voice that manages to be both ominous and playful. 'Giant moth is currently the Channeling to beat." Such is their life now that they're keeping track of the monsters they're summoned to fight.
Though the Deepfrost chill was only heightened by Stormbreak's new altitude, the Eye of the Storm was more than able to keep the worst of the chill away. That was likely why it was so crowded, such that the Lullaby's arms around his husband's shoulders weren't merely just an act of affection, but one of politeness as well that the pair might take up as little space as possible.
"Pssst." Raising his eyebrows, Remi tries to hide his smile as he nods over one of Ronin's shoulders toward where, and Remi couldn't be sure of this, it looked like a young man had the name R O N I N tattooed on one bicep with stars around it.
did it bend or did I break?
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Smug in the knowledge that he's winning but not wanting to think too hard about why (giant moths are a new one, okay?), Ronin smiles and accepts the warm weight of his husband's arms twining about his neck. His hands drift beneath the hot water to strum along Remi's ribs like they're guitar strings, and he leans in to press a warm, sweet kiss against his lips.
"Mothew," he murmurs softly. "Mothua. Edmoth." Is Ronin trying to think of names for the creature he'd blasted into stardust? Yes, yes he is. "Here lies Edmoth. And also there. And up there. And on the ground there." With a chuckle that's as immature as it is proud, he delivers another kiss to Remi's lips before relaxing back.
"Mm?" Following the Lullaby's gaze over his shoulder, Ronin has to do a double take at the tattoo, and he's not sure whether to disappear beneath the water or just embrace it. "I... oh," he says, quite uselessly. "W... wait. Hey. Why don't you have one of those?"
"Edmoth." The Lullaby repeats, before his expression which had grown softly skeptical as Ronin tried to name the creature now turned boyishly crooked. Combing his fingers up into the Nova's hair, they tense slightly as Ronin's lips press against his own. "Rest in peace, Edmoth." Remi agrees in a low voice. Had he not been pressed so succinctly against his husband, Remi might have had more to say on the matter, but with the winter-bright spark of Ronin's kiss still singing on his lips, he was utterly unable to care at all about the creature Ronin had killed.
Grinning stupidly as the Nova turns to look, Remi does his best to wipe his expression clean as Ronin turns back, all blue eyes and steam-soaked skin. "Why...do I not have your name tattooed around my arm in stars?" He wonders doubtfully.
And then Ronin disappeared.
Without the shape of Ronin against him, Remi's arms fall flatly into the hot springs with a dull thwap.
did it bend or did I break?
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
No, that's exactly what Ronin is wondering. Why doesn't Remi have a tattoo of his name all surrounded by stars, hm? Unfortunately he never gets a chance to vocalise this, because in the next second, he and his duck-spangled swimmies are whisked off to the Oerwoud to be gallant and heroic and things.
Ronin returns with an unceremonious splash, this time behind Remi. He's shivering a bit, having been unexpectedly yeeted out of the hotspring, and bemused, and mildly concerned for the faces he glimpsed during the fight. "Horny tornado," he mumbles, drifting through the water to wind his arms around Remi and draw him back against his chest.
"Giant moth has been knocked to second place by a horny tornado."
Six...five....four...three...two...one.... That was normally the length of time their summoning lasted, and so when the Nova appeared behind him, Remi had good reason to believe that's what had caused his husband's disappearance. Still...Spinning, feathers and claws ruffled themselves dangerously out from his skin as the Lullaby's eyes narrowed to points of dark green. Seeing only the Nova with not a scratch on him, Remi relaxes a fraction but not before snorting out the air in his lungs through slightly flared nostrils.
"Horny..torn...what?" Though he allowed himself to be tugged against Ronin, the Lullaby remained stubbornly stiff in the Nova's arms. "Say more things. Who was there?" He wondered out loud, though the colour of his emotions provided a bit more context to his question; why you?
did it bend or did I break?
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Even ruffled and stiff in his arms and demanding him to say more things, Ronin is too happy to be back where he belongs to be anything other than compliant. "Mm, like a tornado, but with horns," he says, sinking deeper into the warm water and shifting so he can lean back against the side of the spring, as they had been previously.
"I saw Talyson and Hadama," he mumbles, shaking his head. "It was in the Oerwoud." So much less obvious than when it had been Koa and Anju in Stormbreak - that had made perfect sense for him to appear. "Maybe they meant to channel Safrin but she wasn't there...?" But probably not, because Hadama is at least very aware that the lady of stars is unavailable.
"That...is not what I thought you meant by horny." Remi says carefully, still eyeing the Nova rather suspiciously, and honestly, who could blame him? Suddenly aware of the murmurs and sounds of interest growing like a buzz around them, the Lullaby frowns darkly. With a roll of his shoulders his wings push out, curling possessively around he and the Nova. It would absolutely draw more attention, but at least the pair would be blocked from view. Still, the whispered around them continued and where feathers and fur had previously disappeared back into Remi's skin, now they pressed outward again.
"Mmmmmmmmmmm." Remi replies grumpily; such was the double-edged sword of being the Lullaby in that he was just as bothered by being channelled as he was by not being. 'Well...that is still strange. Did it have anything to do with Safrin's disappearance, do you think?" Maybe the horned tornado was a creature the goddess had kept at bay?
did it bend or did I break?
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"What else could I have possibly meant?" Ronin wants to know with a playful raise of his eyebrows. He's got just enough time to notice the way people are glancing towards them and murmuring about the Nova's sudden disappearance (and reappearance) before the world becomes a wall of tawny feathers. Humming his appreciation and turning his head to press a kiss to the shield of one wing, Ronin slips his arms around Remi to hold him closer.
"I'm not sure. It didn't seem as though it did. It was just... roaming around the jungle. If anything it looked like more of a Frey-made thing." You know, a mash-up of all kinds of random bits of creatures; a patchwork of stuff that's angry for some reason. "Either way, I hope they were able to finish it off. I didn't kill it the way I did Edmoth."
"A tornado of penises? A...sex...wind?" Remi frowns, the words not really matching up to the whirling wind of lust he had in his thoughts, but never mind.
That the creature was an angry patchwork of things had the Lullaby snorting softly under his breath. "Sounds like Sunjata." He mutters, not really meaning the slight toward the Flood but finding it far too low-hanging fruit to not pick. "Or me, actually." Shrugging and leaning his forehead against one of Ronin's shoulders, Remi presses a thoughtful kiss against the Nova's skin and tightens his wings around them. "Well, I imagine it is probably a bit difficult to explode a tornado into a bunch of little pieces."
Stiffening slightly, Remi presses his teeth together quite hard before something in his expression suggests that he's reconsidering his reaction. Turning his head over his shoulder, the Lullaby pulls back one wing to reveal a small child—a girl of around 6 or so—holding out a cookie. "Thanks for protecting Stormbreak Mr. Ronin." She said in a small but rather angelic voice, before holding out the cookie toward the Nova.
did it bend or did I break?
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin's lips part as if he might have a response to that, but in reality there's little he can say to sex wind, so he reconsiders, shakes his head and moves on. (Probably wise). "Definitely you if it's horny," he murmurs, letting his head tilt to rest against Remi's mop of steam heavy curls. "And I don't know, I think I've I'd been given a couple more shots at the thing I might have managed it."
Alas, we'll never know.
As Remi's reactions twang through to murder and back again, Ronin is left somewhat puzzled by the flare in his emotions; until, that is, he reveals the little girl and her cookie. Given the Supernova's love of all things edible, his problematically heroic core and their recent conversation about having more children, Ronin finds his breath catching for a second in his throat.
"That is very kind of you," he says once he finds his tongue again, "but I couldn't possibly take your whole snack. How about this - why don't we share?" So saying, he takes the offered cookie, carefully breaks it in two, and offers the other (slightly larger) half back out to her.
The girl's almond-shaped eyes widen with wonder and vague apprehension as Ronin takes the cookie. It had been her only one and as much as she wanted to use it as a way of meeting the Nova, she was just a child. However as he breaks it in half, her face utterly lights up as if having absorbed just a bit of Ronin's dazzle herself. Reaching out for her half of the cookie, she looks from it, to Ronin, and back again, before spinning on her toes in the water and holding the cookie triumphantly above her head. "MOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM! He SHARED!" She squealed joyfully, waving her half at a rather nervous-looking woman who flashed Ronin an appreciative smile.
All the while Remi has gone very Aziraphale about the entire thing, beaming silently at the Nova and falling all the more in love with him for this simple exchange. Rather than recovering the opening with his wing, Remi instead lets his appendage slip into the water. "That was very sweet of you." He murmurs, knowing his husband's love of all things snack-shaped and sweet.
did it bend or did I break?
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Smiling openly to see the girl's reaction and offering a gentle nod back to the child's mother, Ronin settles in the water with his husband and his snack, taking a bite of it. (He's pretending to be oblivious to Remi's expression and emotions, but it's difficult with it all but screaming through their bond and the Lullaby's magic). "Mm, this is good," he murmurs, offering the remaining bite out to the other man - and that more than anything is a true display of love, as Remi should well know.
"And it doesn't cost anything to be sweet," he adds once his mouth isn't so full of cookie. "Besides, I'm still getting used to being back out in the open. I didn't realise Stormbreak remembered me so well," he admits. Granted, with the whole recent mothman thing, perhaps he shouldn't be so surprised. "I hope you didn't mind the interruptions." Both of them - the little girl, and the sudden yeeting away to the Oerwoud.
Though Remi's smile was perhaps not especially wide, it did dimple the corners of his mouth. "No, you have earned it.' He said of the offered cookie, knowing precisely the sort of affectionate gesture this was meant to be, but still thinking the Nova was fully deserving of it just the same.
"No...perhaps not, but there is something to be said about being naturally sweet, as opposed to.." Affecting an air of thoughtfulness, Remi leaned forward to brush his nose softly against Ronin's. The steam from the water made the gesture effortless and perhaps too quick, which was why the Lullaby repeated it a few more times. "..say, artificially sweeted."
Shrugging, his hands roaming beneath the water where they splayed against his husband's back, the Lullaby pulled back only enough to meet the Nova's eyes. "I always mind the interruption." He admitted, though sounded not at all guilty about it. Instead, both his smile, his fingertips, and the emotions coursing outwards from where they touched, all spread with boyish affection and no small amount of greed.
did it bend or did I break?
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Another man might have insisted that Remi share the rest of his snack, but this is, after all, Ronin Taliesin, and so as soon as he's given the perpetual green light, he polishes off the remainder of the cookie without complaint. He's just about finished when his husband's nose comes to brush against his own, the Nova smiling automatically and letting his arms loop around Remi's waist beneath the water.
"There's nothing artificial about your sweetness," he tells him softly, kissing the tip of his nose for good measure. "And I do apologise for all of the interruptions. I'll have to make it up to you," he decides, drawing the other man closer against him. "Name your price."
