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!
Call it denial (because that's exactly what it is), but only a few days after the meteorfall and the arrival of the violet shrouded island, Ronin decides that he and Remi and their little boat are going on a trip.
Having followed the shores of Torchline around to a newly christened region, Ronin has a mind to explore the curious marketplace they've come upon, all floating stalls and strange new wares. Later, though.
For now the Northaven has anchored herself in the shallows just beyond the tethered together wrecks, the Longheat sun beating down upon her deck, the skies deep and blue and endless. All is silent, lazy, still; in the distance the sound of merchants and goods clamours in its clumsy way, but none of that matters here.
Here, clothes flutter and dry on the line Ronin has fashioned. Here, the scent of honey and liquor and incense permeates the air. Here, the Northaven's doors and windows are open, and a patchwork blanket has been cast across her deck in a prime position to soak up the sun.
It's here that two demigods might be found, Ronin still glittering with beads of saltwater and flecks of sand from his swim, his body stretched out over Remi's to worship the Lullaby with warm kisses. His lips follow scars and soft flesh alike; an old, white mark on Remi's shoulder made noticeable only by tanned skin leads to the deep lacerations against his lover's throat, and all are treated with the same slow care.
In no rush but equally as keen to explore every inch of the other man's body, Ronin pauses only to lean up and grab his glass of sweetened rum, dropping a kiss against Remi's lips before taking a brief sojourn to slake his thirst.
There are aspects to trauma we might call silver linings as if they are naught but a hem around an otherwise ruined garment, but in truth, trauma offers many gifts if only one knows where to look. The ability to persevere and grow stronger is often cited, but just now it was the fracturing that the Lullaby might have most appreciated—were in any position to do so—for it gave his mind the ability to compartmentalize moments of chaos and worry into sections already torn apart by previous hurts.
This of course is merely the answer to in a world gone so strong, what reason is there to smile? To pick up a houseboat and pull her along the shoreline?
The birds in King's end sing differently, as does the wind through the reeds surrounding the bank. The bones of old shipwrecks also slightly alter the splish splash of the waves against the hull of the Northaven, though only an ear lived long on the sea might notice it. For the alchemist's money, the biggest change between the shores of King's End and those of Torchline, was how wonderfully honeyed his husband's lips tasted against his own. Whether that was to do at all with the local colonies or simply the drink on Ronin's mouth, hardly mattered.
Though his fingers sketched the contours of wounds left by friends and foes alike, never once did Remi's thoughts turn toward the past despite knowing immediately where each and every mark his husband's skin bore, had come from. Instead, he sunk sun-drunk into a surprising feeling of boyish infatuation that had stolen over him. Not surprising in the feeling itself, but instead that after so many years together, he could see Ronin with eyes made new enough to fall in love with him all over again.
"I do hope you are planning on sharing that." The Lullaby comments lazily, adjusting his head against the floorboards that Ronin's own might block out the sun.
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I would never dream of denying you," Ronin says, his voice rum-roughened but no less sweet for it. With another indulgent sip of his drink, the Nova bends to press his lips to his husband's a second time, allowing him to taste the honey and feel the burn of the liquor directly from his tongue.
Should Remi decide that this isn't quite enough, the Lullaby will find the glass well within reach of his fingers as Ronin sets it back down. And with one craving satisfied he returns to the other, smiling a kiss against the hollow of the other man's throat before dragging his lips further south. Collarbones and sternum (scarred, so heavily scarred) receive similar treatment, and though one hand is tragically forced to hold his weight, the other walks down the ladder of Remi's ribcage to curl beneath the arch of his lower back.
With the sun continuing to beat down upon his shoulders, working golden fingers into muscles that feel perpetually held tense, Ronin believes he might have just found paradise here, on the shores of King's End.
"If I love you," he whispers against the warm, bronzed skin beneath his lips, "then I should love you. Isn't that how the saying goes?"
"I have been in your dreams enough to know that sometimes you quite like denying me." Remi counters slyly, almost unable to fully open his eyes given the blue of the sky stretching out around them, but managing it if only to gaze up at his husband. Sighing into the heat—the sensation as much from Ronin's lips as the rum—Remi lets the warm amber beads slide slowly down his throat as he tips his chin up to hasten their descent, and smiles.
"You know, I think Sunjata might just have found paradise down here and not bothered to tell anyone." He murmurs. The floorboards beneath his back smell of faraway forests, that, had they never been cut down and fashioned into the Itchy Pussy, would never have been so bathed in sunlight.
Though Ronin's lips chase past the scars fashioned on the day their daughter had died, still the Lullaby's smile persists as he tells his mind to douse the sound of the water sloshing against the hull of the boat that he might fully concentrate on the press of his husband's mouth.
Those words, if you love me, then love me had always been his favourite. Quite why they struck such a chord, the Lullaby couldn't even begin to answer, but each time they passed from his lips or Ronin's, the result was always the same. Heat. Need. Love. "È così che dice il proverbio."
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"That doesn't sound right. You must have been in someone else's dreams." Ronin's protests come on the heels of soft laughter and warm breath against Remi's chest, the Nova chasing his own kisses slowly back up towards his lover's mouth. He hums a note of agreement about Sunjata and his slice of heaven, though the Flood's name sails in one ear and out the other without catching.
The travelling tongue, on the other hand, ignites like a fuse down the length of Ronin's spine, and its with an inhale in the shape of a wicked smile that the Nova's fingers press against Remi's back, inviting his hips to tilt up and into the length of his body. "That," he says, "is naughty."
Letting his weight sink indulgently against the other man, Ronin reaches the Lullaby's lips again not a moment too soon. His kisses are unhurried and adoring, as if he might write their favourite proverb against his husband's tongue without pausing for breath.
"Nnnn." Remi agrees without much enthusiasm, far too enthralled in the intrepid path his husband's lips were taking to make light or jest about the implications of dreaming with someone else. He does sigh—just a touch—when the Nova's path heads northward again, though there isn't much disappointment in it. Instead, he presses the small of his back against his husband's hand despite the pressure there, as he snakes a leg over one of Ronin's to fix his position. "You started it." He whispers back sympathetically before his breath is stolen by the sudden press of Ronin's body against his.
Feeling his cheeks flush with heat in tandem with his stomach, the Lullaby's hands press symmetrically down either side of the Nova's back before coiling across his body in order to better pin them together. It is only because of this that Remi is able to keep the movement of his lips and tongue somewhat controlled: the flinching of his fingers against Ronin's sun-drenched skin seems to expel at least some of the boyish lust that the Nova's words have kindled.
Able to distantly hear the musical calls from merchant to merchant somewhere across the shallow waters, Remi slides his hand down Ronin's body, allowing it to fall passed the small of his back before climbing the swell of his ass where his fingers spread to find purchase.
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
He did start it, and if Remi gives him the opportunity he'll finish it as well. For now, though, Ronin lets his world shrink down to warm, calloused hands and liquor-sweet kisses, the Nova moaning something soft and needy as he feels a leg come locking around his own and strong fingers sneak down the length of his back. Bracing his arm over Remi's head provides room to breathe and little else, but Ronin takes the opportunity nonetheless and draws back from the other man's lips to regard him with heat and devotion.
Words almost sneak through his parted lips, before the Nova lets them die in lieu of a laugh made quiet with disbelief. To be here, stretched on their patchwork blanket with the world sailing by all around, and nothing but each other to fill the day, it feels somehow better even than when they had been in the Cordillera. There's something about being in the world again that makes moments with Remi all the more irresistible, and Ronin sneaks a kiss to the corner of the Lullaby's mouth.
"I could look at you all day," he whispers, and although of course he has other plans for them, it doesn't make it any less true.
Gazing up at the Nova with an expression that's somehow soft despite the tensing of his muscles, Remi lets his gaze sift softly over features he knows so intimately and yet greedily soaks in just the same. The blue of Ronin's eyes had once simply been the colour of the ocean in Northaven. Had the Nova never died it might always have stayed that way, but as he had, it hadn't, and so started a spectrum of colour that was as informed by their shared history as it was shaped by it. Now, nearly sun-blinded and seeing both metaphorical stars as well as literal ones, as Remi gazed into his husband's eyes he saw only the man who had once emerged naked from the sea; an act which had spawned a thousand memories after it.
"It is unfair that there are not better words for this." Remi agrees, and though one of his hands remains possessively clawed against his husband's ass, the other turns feather-light in its wanderings up the Nova's side. 'All the I love yous will never be enough."
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Every single one of them is enough," Ronin objects softly, the words almost mumbled against Remi's lips. "So don't you ever stop saying it." Sealing the sentiment with a kiss that's practically chaste compared to their usual antics, Ronin feels a shiver try to chase along his side in the wake of the Lullaby's fingertips, and his back arches involuntarily against the other man.
This, of course, sends a plume of heat rippling low in his belly, and it's with a smile that wants to be pained that the Nova regards his husband. "I want you," he whispers, like it's an admission and not something altogether very obvious. "I want you slow. I want to savour you, like it's the first time."
"No," Remi disagrees, though the smile on his lips makes the word sound like laughter instead. "Nothing could ever stop me." Trying not to gasp against his husband's lips lest the sound somehow gives them away, instead the Lullaby opts to let himself grow light-headed with restraints as he sips in a breath that serves only to stoke the heat in his belly.
Mention of first times sends the Lullaby back to a place where he'd been (literally) half the man he was now, with fragile needs and hidden ideals. He'd remember how it had been, befriending the Nova and then nervously loving him from afar until a drunken fumble had brought their true feelings to a head. When he'd known so little of the Nova's body that every flash of flesh had been overwhelming, and his kiss had been enough to send Remi reeling for days.
"Unless you want to flip for it," there were no petals littered around them as there had been then, but Remi thought the patchwork blanket was apt enough. "I am more than fine like this." He whispers, lips slightly parted as he gazes boyishly up at the Nova, darkened only by the shadow the other man cast.
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"The last thing I want to do is move even an inch away from you," Ronin says with bald honesty, the words spilling through a smile even as he feels a cloud of butterflies take flight in his belly with the way Remi gazes up at him. "So I'm glad to hear that." Perhaps one day they really would flip for it, but for now it's with thoughts of petals littering the deck around them and an impossible shade of green filling his field of vision that Ronin leans in to take another kiss from his husband's lips.
Humming a note of anticipation, the Nova's eyes slip shut. It's with almost lazy movements that he shifts and adjusts them, a hand slipping beneath Remi's thigh to encourage his leg to hook around his waist, his hips grinding with renewed insistence against the Lullaby. With a shaky inhale that has his forehead pressed against Remi's shoulder, Ronin teases himself against the other man, wanting to laugh and scream at the prospect of holding himself to account when it came to going slow.
He does manage it, however - though don't ask him how - and as he inches himself forward to bring them together in a way that feels so much more than physical, he swears that, were he a mere mortal adrift in the world, he'd happily worship at the feet of Ludo's demigod.
Another place and time Remi might have made a joke about how lucky it was for the Nova that the Lullaby was so accommodating, but in this particular place (his back pressed against the quilt, his body on fire from Ronin's touch) and time (the heat of Tallsun fading away the noise of the world into a distant buzz), he was all too eager to agree.
Leaning his chin up to press his lips against Ronin's, it's with thoughts of guildhalls and roaring fires that he closes his eyes and reimagines the moment they're in. The Nova's kiss is replaced by the weight of his forehead against Remi's shoulder and though his mouth is free suddenly it feels all but impossible to breathe. Hazarding a glance at the sun if only to blind himself to everything but the sensations of his body, Remi succumbs entirely to the moment as his hips rise and a pleading sound he doesn't quite recognize as his own pushes past his lips.
Had this been a different moment entirely, Remi might have audibly cursed the Nova and his insistence to go slow, but still mesmerized by thoughts of first times as he was, it was with a genuine inhale of shock that he felt Ronin move through him. Soberly, the Lullaby wrapped both legs around his husband's hips, his breathing drunken and his lips agape against the mop of Ronin's dark hair. Anticipation and need flashed in equal measure through him, making his hips jump in a way that was both unbidden and pleasing. "I cannot believe I have you-" Remi mumbles, his teeth grazing the shell of his husband's ear as one hand reaches low toward the small of Ronin's back as if to press him in further.
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The Nova's moan is caught in the crook of Remi's neck, and the Lullaby will feel it thrum through him rather than being permitted to hit the air. Drowning in physical sensation and further overwhelmed by the emotions that spark and erupt in every place they touch, Ronin forces himself to relax by sheer force of will. In doing so, whatever tension and resistance in him promptly floods away, bringing him flush against Remi in what he swears feels like something brand new.
"Believe it," he whispers - just about - managing to turn his head and sneak a kiss to the Lullaby's stubbled jaw, even as his hips move without his conscious permission. "Gods--" He hisses, trying to chase the urge to hurry out of his mind. "Gods, you feel good."
Colours bleed like wildfire in the places that they touch, though no more so than where Ronin's lips part to moan against Remi's neck. Had he not known better, the alchemist might have been tempted to wipe at his skin as if something had actually spilled from his husband's lips, rather than bled between them on some plain neither could touch with their fingers.
Exhaling sharply, Remi cradles the back of Ronin's head against his shoulder both tenderly and desperately, before releasing to allow the Nova's lips to find his own. Greedily returning the gesture, the Lullaby arches his hips slightly only to find the muscles of his thighs and lower back suddenly filled with white light and static. "You have always been too much for me." Remi chokes between thrusts of his husband's hips, however slowly they might be moving, it was enough to steal the Lullaby's breath each and every time.
For all his meager attempts to fill his lungs, each sip of air fanned the flames in his belly. "Ronin-" Shaking his head as if to belay the Nova's movements or stop him altogether, Remi digs his heel against his husband's thigh as streaks of pleasure crackle like lightning up the backs of his legs and into his spine.
remi
Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
