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!
Ronin's likeness practically jumped off of the canvas, the sight of his face actually making Bastien rather emotional for the loss of the man on his later nights painting. There was something about the moonlight and mourning, he thought. Something that had inspired him to paint Ronin laughing, light catching his eyes. He had only a few sketches to work from (for everyone who entered his accquaintance was honoured with at least one sketchbook page, except for Phoebe) and his memory, but he was very proud when he stepped back from the last mark.
Vanya's portrait was more subdued, quiet. Softer, almost as if she was attempting to balance out the light of Ronin's expression. Bastien had only met her the once but he had liked her very well for it, so took time to remember her features as best he could. The two portraits were joined by a golden border that matched up between them. For a moment he toyed with adding Aoife, but decided to not put in a baby among the dead. It seemed wrong, somehow.
With both the canvases tucked under his arm he headed to the Guild, expecting to see Remi. There would probably be tears, he supposed (hoped, for an emotional response was something all artists craved, he believed).
Bastien knocked on the door then began to push it open, yelling his arrival with: "It is Bastien! Accompanied with two rather flat friends!"
04-24-2019, 07:28 PM (This post was last modified: 04-24-2019, 07:28 PM by Ronin.)
RONIN
if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving
It is Bastien! Accompanied with two rather flat friends!
"Flat... friends...?" Bastien would find Ronin standing in the corridor of the guildhall as he entered, the guildmaster having just come from upstairs. The towel around his waist and his wet hair suggested that he'd just bathed himself, but he did not seem to mind one bit about the intrusion. Indeed, he grinned broadly to the other man as he stepped inside, sweeping his hair back from his face and tilting his head.
"You brought Remi paintings?" he asked, sounding curious and intrigued and utterly forgetting that not everyone really knew he was alive again and all that. "May I see? I remember your artwork being beautiful, the last time I saw it."
When Bastien entered and saw Ronin, heard his questioning voice, he stopped dead (though not as dead as the guildmaster himself...had...been?). It seemed to take a moment for his brain to kick back into gear but when it did he was moving all at once, laying the paintings against the door and running to embrace Ronin, not at all caring about his state of undress. It wasn't anything he hadn't seen before.
"My friend! I do not understand but I do not care!" He yelled, attempting to pick up Ronin and spin him. Had Ronin done the same thing as him? A fake death for one reason or another..? The man had been closely involved with Safrin...whatever the reason though, Bastien was thrilled. When he finally did step away from Ronin he ran back to his paintings then held them up for Ronin to see.
"A memorial! Perhaps a...half-ironic one now, ah? But done with the greatest love, I assure you."
There was no doubt that his grin had become the shit-eating sort by the time Bastien came into view, and Ronin couldn't help but laugh as the other man rushed forward to embrace him. "It's good to see you as well!" he said cheerfully - the artist would be successful at lifting and spinning him, much to Ronin's laughter, and they were lucky he didn't lose his towel in the process. Not that it would have mattered much - it wasn't anything Bastien hadn't seen before, he didn't think. (Not that he could honestly remember).
"A... a memorial? What f... oh, shit, yeah." The death thing. Straightening up, Ronin watched with interest as Bastien held up the paintings. His blue eyes lit up at the sight of himself rendered so beautifully, Ronin resisting the urge to strike a pose to see if it was as similar as it looked. The only thing that stopped him, in fact, was seeing the painting of Vanya.
It was as though all the air had left his lungs, Ronin drawing close to peer at her, his smile equal parts sad and delighted. Feeling his eyes start to prickle, he quickly stepped back to nod gratefully to his friend.
"Thank you," he said. "Thank you very much. They're beautiful."
04-26-2019, 08:53 PM (This post was last modified: 04-26-2019, 08:54 PM by Bastien.)
"For your death, idiota." Bastien laughed, his voice fond despite the insult. He could hardly fault Ronin, he had struggled to keep track of his own temporary death too.
He had not expected to get a review from the man himself but welcomed Ronin's eyes on the pieces as he held up the art, glad to see both his joy and his solemn appreciation of Vanya's portrait, before he broke out into another smile. For that was the joy of being an artist, the ability to stir up whatever emotions he chose in his audience, to make them discover feelings inside themselves through his magic with sorrow and happiness.
"Remi and I were thinking...above the fireplace. For both of them. And...I was going to wait, but since her father is here: would you care for one of little Aoife? Though I would need her to sit still for a while, which I understand can be difficult for children..." He trailed off, suddenly realising once again he was talking with someone he had assumed dead only minutes ago.
"No, wait. I must know how you have accomplished this new life first."
Ronin nodded instantly, more than happy to see the paintings hung above the fireplace in the greathall. He beckoned Bastien to follow even as they spoke, planning to put them up that very instant. And then perhaps get dressed, he didn't know. Having his friend paint his daughter too brought a sweet smile to his lips, Ronin leaning a hand on one of the tables and nodding to Bastien. "I'd like that very much," he said. "Though perhaps it can wait until she's a little older? You'll be hard pressed to get her to do anything you want right now."
Chuckling, he moved to the side to pour them both some wine as the other man asked how he had achieved his apparent resurrection. "Well... I became a star, when I died. Which I am to understand isn't normal anyway. But then a dear friend of mine gave up something to the god of death, Mort... in exchange that Safrin might pluck me from the sky and into a new body. And... here I am."
Ronin gestured for him to come forward and Bastien did, going to stand before the fireplace and lift the portraits up, adjusting them to see which way looked best. He had always been finicky when he had the chance to be about these things, wanting to be sure his babies paintings were presented the best they could be. "Until she is older, yes. Well, bring her to the Sanctuary whenever she is ready and I will schedule a sitting."
He was glad to see wine even if he could not appreciate it fully anymore, always just liking the mood of reclining with a glass. Though his eyes were drawn away from the glasses with the words 'I became a star'. Not that anything afterwards made any new sense.
Lowering the portraits in his hands Bastien stared for a moment with his jaw uselessly moving before he could actually summon words. "...So..you...became a star, one of the...lights in the sky. Those stars? But then..Safrin brought you back? Are you still...human..?" He tilted his head almost entirely to the side, one eyebrow going up.
Filling two glasses and taking a seat at one of the tables while Bastien went about seeing the best place for the paintings to hang, Ronin nodded amicably at the prospect of having Aoife painted. His friend was a talented artist - that much was already obvious - and he knew that missing the opportunity to capture his daughter's likeness as a child would be something he regretted. For now, though, the other man had other more pressing questions. And Ronin was happy to answer.
"Mm, one of those stars. You could see the constellations at night if you looked skywards." Ronin grinned at Bastien. "And Safrin brought me back. I... I'm mostly human, I think. I hope." The guildmaster laughed awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his head as Safrin's words echoed to him. "I met with her, shortly after I returned. She called me not quite a man, but definitely not a god. I'm unsure what to take from that."
"Looked...backwards? What do you mean...?" Bastien tried to show off some examples, turning his eyes up and tilting his head back, but he was still unsure of what was meant by that. He had certainly never seen Ronin winking down at him from the night sky; perhaps he had been looking wrong.
She called me not quite a man, but definitely not a god. Immediately he leaned forward, eyes glinting with a firey interest. Bastien's goal since he had learnt of the Gods in this place was to stand among them and..well. Not quite a man was a good place to start. He'd thought his Ascension something similar, but he had not managed to come back for the dead.
Or at least not for real.
Still, he knew better how to turn a conversation. He took in his face and sipped at his wine, spoke with a casual tone. "Well do you find yourself with any new abilities? A sexual magnetism? Ability to fly? Some kind of ability to move things..? Someone as mortal as Remi can do all three, so you must have more to be between the human and divine."
"I mean to say that yes, I became one of the lights in the sky." Ronin smiled warmly at his friend, though as he leant forward with such interest the guildmaster could only let out a jovial laugh, leaning back slightly in return as if afraid Bastien might pounce at him without warning. "Trust me, it was a bit of a shock for me too," he told him, sitting up a little and arching an eyebrow at the strange new abilities he supposedly might have now.
Pursing his lips, Ronin feigned offence. "Are you saying that I didn't have any sexual magnetism before," he inquired, before letting his expression relax into something quietly puzzled as he considered the other man's questions.
"Well... I can see the constellations and the stars now, night or day. It's like they are there, whenever I close my eyes... oh! I recently learned I can do this - but please be patient, I'm still trying to figure it out."
Taking a long breath in and letting it out again, Ronin set his hands in his lap and closed his eyes to concentrate. He stayed that way for what was perhaps an uncomfortable amount of time for Bastien, but just when it looked as though nothing was going to happen, a celestial version of the guildmaster simply got up from his seat, leaving the physical Ronin behind.
Like a shadow but wreathed in stars, the astral projection grinned at Bastien and took a few steps across the guildhall. "How's that for sexual magnetism?" he said through it.
"Oh no, my friend. You practically oozed the stuff. Secreted it from every pore. Especially when you got drunk and used every chance to whip your cock out." Bastien grinned, remembering a select few parties from the Church of Safrin days. "But there is a difference between the magenetism of mortals and the potential of a divine drive." Possibly something he had himself, he thought, in the aura The Voice had given him.
See the stars...? Well, Bastien supposed that was nice, but it was a rather personal power, one only Ronin could see that he had no proof of. Rather boring...he stood back with his wine glass raised to his lips to see what the the other ability was, not really expecting much.
So when Ronin split into two, he was quite shocked. Choking for a moment on the wine he had just swallowed, hitting his chest with his fist, all Bastien could do at first was stare. But when he had recovered from the shock he rushed forward to try and touch Ronin's arm, see if the projection was tangible. "Oh. Oh, you are truly a divine man. How wonderful. I wish only you would let me in on the secret to gaining the favour of these fickle Gods."
The projection laughed as Bastien nearly spilled his wine, flickering for a moment as Ronin's concentration was divided between checking that the other man was okay and maintaining the astral form. He succeeded, with no small amount of focus, and managed to keep the projection still as his friend came to investigate. Bastien's fingers, of course, would flicker right through the shadow of Ronin wreathed in celestial lights, as though he were little more than mist.
"I just wish it had been kind enough happen when I wasn't dozing in bed," it remarked with a chuckle, walking a few slow paces around the table that the two were seated upon. "As for favour, I... well, I'm not sure how to answer it. All gods are different. And Safrin was kind to me, and to Vanya. I wanted to repay that kindness, and to free the people from the barrier, too."
Bastien quietly gasped as his fingers passed through Ronin like smoke, reaching up to rub his fingertips together as if he might hold a little bit of the man now. He didn't, of course, and all he could do was shake his head in amazement as he stared. That this kind of power was available...even if Ronin wouldn't tell him how to achieve it, Bastien felt inspired.
He could, he would become just as divine, just as celestial, in good time.
"Hm. Perhaps I am simply not the right kind of man for the religion here." He mused, sipping at his wine. "It is very different from my experiences at home, where no one had so much as seen God, yet his presence was everywhere in our lives...it is hard to adjust to. But I must. A man's journey must be to ascend to the divine. You are like a modern Achilles and I must become a devoted Patroclus, watching and lea--" Bastien realised he was rambling.
"...I'm rather jealous, is what I'm trying to say. Not of the death. But of...this. What are your plans now?"
Chuckling at Bastien's reaction, the astral projection soon began to flicker as Ronin's concentration wavered (it was something he would simply have to work on, he thought), and the guildmaster dismissed it before shifting in earnest at the table to get more comfortable. Eyes lighting up curiously, Ronin listened to whatever the other man had to say about the kind of religion he had experienced back in his native land.
"That's interesting," he admitted, itching at his stubble. "In Northaven there were no gods, so all of this is very different to what I'm used to. I just think maybe you haven't found your relationship with the gods yet, no matter what it might be." Ronin shrugged, though as Bastien began to speak about some guys called Achilles and Patroclus, the guildmaster's smile grew sunny but just a touch vacant, as if to demonstrate just how little he knew about what was happening.
Thankfully, Bastien realised and they were able to pick the conversation back up without too much of an issue. "Jealous? There's no need, honestly. Anything you want to achieve in this place is possible - the fact that the Voice exists at all is proof of that," he pointed out. "As for my plans, I'm not sure... really, I just want to raise my daughter and to look out for my family and friends... Safrin did mention that I can help her with her tasks, when I'm stronger. So... I guess we'll see."
