From Attuned to Ascended to Ancient, Kiada Njovu-Reyes has been reborn several times throughout her short life, but her fighting spirit has never once been diminished. With beauty, grace and a quick wit, Kiada is the whole package wrapped in an infectious smile. Recent endeavours have found her in the heart of the Hollowed Grounds, aiding the region and bettering it for her new Ancient kin, and whatever she does next, we know it's sure to pack a punch.
Congratulations, Kiada!
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!
Anything beautiful, people want to break And you are beautiful, I'm afraid
Jude has returned to the Greatwood and his mother's arms for the next few weeks, and Edmund - in his new apartment now - isn't due to visit today. The house is empty, and Harper is left with his duties completed and nothing left to do but sit with his thoughts.
Or with something else.
Harper doesn't drink. He simply doesn't. But he had given in once already during LongNight, and though he'd irritated Melita a little bit, the Honeybee had guided him through getting his feelings out until the worst of it had passed. And here, in the dark of the empty house, there's nobody to hurt.
Nobody but himself.
Time stops having meaning with enough liquor, and soon he has his head buried in his arms at the kitchen table, staring past the edge of it down at his shoes while his hands grip his dark curls hard enough to hurt. The little shocks of it help - or so he thinks. Helps with what he's not sure. Punishing himself, maybe. But it doesn't matter because the rest of the hurt is dulled now, and it's nice to only feel physical pain for a moment.
Alas, the reality of living two places means that sometimes things got misplaced, or in this case forgotten. What had been left behind? Pants. All of them. How Jude had managed to do that, she would never know. But it meant another trip to Torchline while Jude remained under strict orders to stay at home in the Sidhe Village.
She arrived at Harper and Maeve's home and sighed. She really hoped the former of the two answered. Maeve was always so cold and spiteful, despite the defenses that even Harper seemed to accept a tragic but unavoidable. So she tried to manifest that hope as she knocked on the door. "Harper?" she called. "Jude forgot some things. Can you let me in?"
Anything beautiful, people want to break And you are beautiful, I'm afraid
The knock has him cursing into thin air, closing his eyes and vainly praying whoever it is will go away, assuming the house empty. It's already assumed they're looking for him or Jude because they would have had to pass the reception in the front before proceeding into the living quarters and council hall areas. But the second he hears Phoebe's muffled voice he knows he can't actually avoid it - especially when he blurrily hears Jude's name thrown in there.
If anything can rouse him from his stupor, it's his son's involvement. While Harper has never been a graceless man, alcohol is the one thing that robs him of his acrobatic elegance, and he stumbles to the door to open it halfway. Aware that he can't hide the smell or the tousled hair and bloodshot eyes even if he wanted to. "C'mon in," he rumbles, voice lower and gruffer as he gestures her inside. Best to get it over with quickly, try to ensure his blackened mood and memories don't rise to the surface - a greater risk if she lingers too long. "What'd he forget?"
It wasn't the tousled hair or bloodshot eyes that catch her attention first. It's the smell. The scent of liquor washed over her like a Torchline wave. She blinked, a look of concern on her face. When did Harper start drinking?
"All of his pants." she said as she stepped in, still eyeing him warily, more concerned about him than the pants now. She would always care for Harper, even as her heartbreak mended. "Have you been drinking?" she asked in concern. If he had - and there was no way he hadn't - it was alot. "Do you need to sit down? Where's Maeve?" Shouldn't she be looking after him when he was this drunk?
Anything beautiful, people want to break And you are beautiful, I'm afraid
Pants. Pants...wait, all of them? Now it's Harper's turn to be baffled, though it's hard to think about the hows and whys when he's so intoxicated. He's only standing through virtue of having been cruelly trained to hold his liquor and still operate when drugged or otherwise inebriated, but it has been many years since those dark days, and he had sought sobriety instead of continued training. So maybe he should sit down - something he hears belatedly.
"Gone," he says dully, and wanders further into the sitting area, hitting the edge of the couch with his thigh and cursing. Damn, that would leave a bruise. "Jude's b'droom is...second on the right," he manages, gesturing loosely down the hall towards the bedrooms. She could snoop for all he cared right now. He doesn't sleep in the bedroom anymore, not with Maeve gone. She won't find anything but a pristine bed and stale air. There are no secrets to find - only the glaring reality of his loneliness.
Yep. All of them. Right now he likely sat pantsless in his bedroom in the Greatwood.
Phoebe looked at Harper, then down the hall, then to Harper. Gone. The word hit her like a knife through her heart. She knew how poorly he had taken her absences, and she could imagine how Maeve being gone, the one woman who had given him all he wanted, was tearing at him. So instead of heading down the hall, she stepped closer. Perhaps they were now separated. Perhaps there was distance between them, years now. But she still cared for him. And she suspected somewhere deep inside he still cared for her.
So she forewent the pants for now. Being pantsless wouldn't hurt Jude any. Harper needed someone for the time being. So she reached out and took his hand gently. "Talk to me." she said gently, knowing she didn't have to say what about - the topic was obvious.
Anything beautiful, people want to break And you are beautiful, I'm afraid
He knows she might ask, might stay. Knows her too well to assume she'd leave anyone to their distress. Part of him had vainly hoped that with Jude back home and him being, well, him, she might be inclined to do it for once in her life. But even the soreness of their breakup and the lure of their son is clearly not enough to pull her away.
The touch of her hand hurts in a way he can't explain. He has been fending off the physical loneliness with affection from Edmund and Jude, but it has been a meager dam at best. Staring unblinking at where their hands connect, Harper shrugs jerkily, trying to leash his tongue lest he hurt her like he had Melita. Then again, he'd been angry more than grieving during LongNight. Maybe there's some small measure of safety in letting go.
"Noth'n to say. Gave up her crown. Went to try'n find Edmund," something he'd told her back when it happened, and something she'd likely heard unendingly from Jude given how close the two boys were, "but Edmund came back, 'n she didn't." And he has seen her here and there in an official capacity only once, but enough to know she was presumably alive. Just...alive somewhere else without him.
Phoebe listened in silence as Harper spoke. He didn't say much, mostly things she already knew. Jude was a chatty boy after all, talking near endlessly. Gently she tugged on his hand to pull him down onto the couch with hopefully. He really needed to sit. She was worried he would fall over. Then things would get really messy.
"I'm so sorry Harper." she said softly, eyebrows furrowing. How could Maeve not come back? For all her protestations about being a constant while Phoebe was off here and there, suddenly she herself just didn't return? Anger filled her heart. If she hadn't hated the woman already, she did now. "Well, you have two options." she said gently. "Stay here and wait. Or...leave. Go somewhere else, and heal." she said. Her head tilted. "Either way, drinking isn't the way to cope with anything. All it does is make you puke and have a headache."
He'd know she knew from experience too. He had seen her at her lowest, when they had been just friends. When she drank and smoked and tried jumping off a bridge.
Anything beautiful, people want to break And you are beautiful, I'm afraid
She tugs at his hand, and he follows her listlessly, like a giant doll. He folds at the waist and drops down with a humph, careless where his limbs end up. Only just catching himself from falling sideways into her.
Waiting…he has waited - how long now? “Been waiting…two seasons now? She disappeared right as Deepfrost started.” And now it was nearly Longheat. Nearly three seasons - nearly nine months. Enough time for them to have had the child they’d been discussing. Gods, had it been that long already?
“Dun’ even know where I’d go. Stormbreak?” To Lena and Sohalia? Healing and warm in a way he hasn’t had in a support group in years. The Greatwood would be too hard with him and Phoebe still healing on their own. The Grounds was a wasteland, and Halo difficult to live in. One hand lifts to curl in his hair again, tugging enough for that same sharp pain to come back. “Helps…numb. Sleep alone. But ‘s only temporary.” Because he couldn’t keep it going; the only real reason he hasn’t devolved into a week-long drunken haze.
Almost three seasons. Phoebe frowned. That wasn't a good sign. Either she had been ensnared by some Caido magic or she just...wasn't coming back. "Harper..." she breathed. Unsure what to say, what there was to say. How many women would disappear from right under his nose?
"Come to the Greatwood. I want you to." she said, almost with sternness. She didn't want him to be alone. "You'll be closer to Jude. There are plenty of homes. I know Jude would like it if you did too." she said, running her thumb along the back of his hand. "We may not be together, but we will always be family because of him, you know." she said in a more gentle tone.
Her heart hurt for him. But there was little she could do but offer him a safe haven. "Wait here." she said, standing. Phoebe went on a mini adventure, searching around the house for wherever the medicines and herbs were. Then she whipped him up a tonic she knew by heart.
She returned and sat next to him again. "Here. Drink this. It will help stave off the hangover." she said.
Anything beautiful, people want to break And you are beautiful, I'm afraid
How many indeed? It's a question he has been asking himself for the better part of a year, and having Phoebe here is only a reminder that this is - somehow - not the first time it has happened to him. But he can't find it in himself to wish her gone, because her presence is the only thing keeping him from wandering back to the half-full bottle on the table.
His free arm perches on his thigh, and he drops his head into his hand as she immediately becomes firm, taking control of the situation as she has so many times before. It sounds like a perfect fix, but - "'s not that easy. Torchline needs me. 'd have to talk to Hadama at the very least, and...and this is my home." His voice breaks pitifully on the word, and the fingertips on his face dig in harder, going white with pressure as they hide the sudden sting of tears that threaten behind his eyes. He doesn't want to leave. Maybe he can find a different house - a third one, Gods damn it all - to escape the living ghosts who don't find him worthy of haunting.
Phoebe disappears moments later, and Harper is too disoriented to follow her with his gaze even if he wanted to. Only forcing himself to emerge from his palm to focus on something she's handing him. "Thanks," he murmurs gruffly, and downs it without even wincing. It has nothing on the cheap burn of whiskey, and he trusts her to have made it right.
Phoebe sighed as he gave his excuses. Some valid, some pitiful attempts. She sat next to him again and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "You can't help anyone else without taking care of yourself first. And you can't heal in a place that has broken your heart." she said. "You need to be with family right now. And right now your family is in the Greatwood. The change would do you good." she said, a thumb running over his shoulder.
As for Hadama, well, she barely knew him. But from what she knew of him he seemed the steady sort, level-headed and cool. "I am sure Hadama will understand if you need some time away." she said soothingly. "Or if you feel so strongly, have your home in the Greatwood and commute to Torchline on the skyboats." she offered as a compromise. He had done that before with her when she lived in Stormbreak. It was doable.
Anything beautiful, people want to break And you are beautiful, I'm afraid
Her sigh feels patronizing, and though her touch is a comfort, the words that come tie his insides into knots. And that dark, awful, tar-like beast inside (fed, finally fed with all that horrible drink he'd had) rears its head, forcing him back up on his feet, ripping out of her hold. "You don't get it!" he cries through gritted teeth, and kicks the coffee table so hard it splinters. Breath comes fast through his nose, anger and grief spiraling like noxious fumes up and into his brain. "All anyone has ever done is tell me what they think is good for me! And I went along with it every single time, and where did that get me?!" The slurring seems to disappear now that anger has gripped every syllable, allowing him vocal clarity at the cost of his mind.
"I left the Grounds for you, left all my friends behind so I could support you." Kiada, Loren, Oliver, Maea, Lily. All of them gone or dead. "I worked at the Haulani because you started it. I talked to so many people to try and change my biases about our relationship so that I could stop breaking your heart!" Another kick and the top piece of the table buckles, leaving it crumpled on the floor. "Then you disappeared, and Maeve asked me to be on her council, so of fucking course I did! And I raised Jude as best I could until she told me I couldn't do it alone anymore!" And he had been so heartbroken, so lost, so tired, that his best friend - the only friend he'd had left - had inserted herself into his life only to leave him lost again a year later.
"I stayed to defend Torchline so she could go to the Draig! I didn't go after Edmund because she wanted to! I became Hadama's councilman because he asked me to!" Standing over the ruins of the table, broad shoulders heaving like an enraged bull, Harper tries to reign in that horrible rage that tastes like blood on his tongue. Monster. Monster. You're being a monster again, Harper. You were always going to show your hand eventually.
"Did you think maybe I don't want to go because it still hurts to see you? That I already feel selfish not moving for Jude's sake, because I'm putting my own broken heart above giving him more family time?" And now Maeve's disappearance had done that more firmly than Harper ever could have, all because he'd chosen wrong again. Always following his misled heart. "When does it get to be me? When do I get my happy ending? When do I come first?" He staggers away from the destroyed table, hands finding the back of the empty couch beside it and bracing his arms there, head hanging between as his body goes through the turmoil of such an unexpected outburst. One that had been building for a very, very, very long time.
Phoebe sat still and silent. She could sense an outburst when it approached. And Harper, for all his closeness to her, had never truly let his anger get the best of him infront of her. Not once. She didn't know what to expect but when he finally let loose, when he kicked and destroyed his table, when he hung his head between his hands, all she could feel was sadness for him.
Even when he concluded she remained quiet for a time. Then she stood and walked up behind him. It was important that he knew she wasn't afraid of him. And she wasn't. Even this incensed, she trusted he would never hurt her. "I understand more than you know." she said softly. She too spent her time doing the bidding of others, Frey most of all. But in her time before Caido, she was nothing more than play dough in the hands of others.
Gently she placed her hands on his shoulders. "What do you want, Harper?" she asked gently. "Say the word, and I will do all I can to make it happen, just like you did for me."
