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!
Sam had been wandering for a while now, trying to follow The Voice's wishes. He had explored as much as he could brave doing, the only places left untouched those that frightened him (Ludo's Woods, Sidhe) and those that were difficult to find (the Mathair). He had taken care to remain invisible, unseen, exploring the quietest way he could. Both to avoid the Fae, and any of Zariah's soldiers that could be searching for him.
He was not sure if it was paranoia to imagine them behind every corner, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
After a few days though, he was beginning to feel...lost. The wanderings were feeling less like a pilgrammage and more like a desperate search for anything meaningful, anything to help him understand what The Voice had sent him out to do. Was there something he was missing?
The only thing he could think of, after a lot of consideration, was that she wanted him to spread her influence beyond the barrier. Spread awareness of her and the benefits of Ascension - something that slowly, he was coming around to. He had once been very bitter indeed about his change of race, but now he had his patch and had spoken to The Voice more...he was beginning to actually quite like his identity.
He found a spot beneath a tree with some space and set to work arranging rocks in a circle, with a larger rock in the middle serving as a kid of table. On this he placed a note (not an offering, for he knew The Voice did not want for material things much): For the Ascended. While he worked he was visible, feeling confidently hidden enough by the surrounding foliage to let his guard down as he made the structure. As a final touch, he took a knife from his bag (a necessity he had thought to bring) and after a breath to steady himself, pierced his thumb (and made a noise of pain) then smeared the small amount of fluid over the top of the centre stone.
"What'cha doin'?" Lucas's smile was the devilish kind, and he dangled a leg down from the bough of the tree where he'd been sitting, watching his fellow Ascended at work. Had he met Samuel officially? Probably. Did he think him important enough to remember? Probably not. Arching an eyebrow and tilting his head while his shadow chased about the trunk of the tree to investigate further, he realised all at once that Sam was making a shrine.
"I am not so certain that rocks will thrill her," he drawled, hopping down from the branches to crouch next to Sam like it was nothing at all - like they were familiar as family, indeed. "Though I enjoyed that you acted like it hurt." He nodded at the cut to his hand.
07-09-2019, 06:46 PM (This post was last modified: 07-09-2019, 06:47 PM by Samuel.)
Samuel
The sudden voice from above made Sam jump, his shoulders shooting up as he took a shaking gasp of air in (not needed, but he found when he was scared he would still instinctively try to take in breaths). He didn't answer the question, looking up at the man (not for the moment noticing the shadow) and trying to think where he recognised him from.
He seemed familiar, somehow. It was only when Lucas jumped down Sam realised he'd seen him last when the Ascended had gathered for the Voice to give them the upgraded eyes. He had not looked at the man for too long then, but he felt intimidated at the time and now.
"It is not about the rocks. It's marking out a place..." He mumbled, feeling defensive of his creation. "And it did hurt. I can feel pain."
Intimidated had a certain look about it, if Lucas said so himself - it probably even had a certain smell about it if he was honest. Whatever it was, Sam oozed it in droves, and the Ascended had to keep the smile from crawling across his lips. "About marking a place somewhere unknown in the Wildwood?" he quipped, glancing about, before he reconsidered his words and shrugged.
"I suppose it's as good a place as any. So, do you think any will come to pray here and praise our great Lady?" he asked, sinking down to sit before the little altar now as well. "And what do you mean, it did hurt? Are you broken?"
"That's the point." Sam insisted. "I'm trying to...leave a mark here, so that any other Ascended who come here know that there is another like them outside of the barrier. That we don't just have to stay trapped in there like The Voice was for years. That...that we're out here, and we can worship her without being scared."
Maybe he was the only Ascended that was worried or scared about this, but Sam knew he'd appreciate it. So on the off chance someone else did...he assumed this was why The Voice wanted him to come out in the first place. "It doesn't matter if anyone actually comes. I know it's here, and so does she...and you found it." He pointed out.
As for the question 'are you broken?' which was rather offensive in of itself, he shook his head. "No. Upgraded. I...I received a patch that lets me feel things as I used to before Ascending."
It was cruel that Lucas was surprised to be impressed by what Samuel had to say about his little shrine, though he was seated now quite comfortably beside his fellow Ascended to gaze upon his handiwork. "I am not sure we ought ever be scared," he said, choosing not to mention anything regarding worshipping the Voice. "Only that I'm not sure she would hear us out here."
He shrugged - it was waxing philosophical at best. "I did find it," he confirmed. "But are you not concerned that those who dislike her will find it too, and ruin it?"
Hearing Sam describe himself as upgraded brought an indulgent little smile to Lucas's lips, though what he said was intriguing. "So you get to feel all the pain that you did before? Sounds worth it," he drawled.
Lucas sat down beside him, and it made him a little less intimidating, though Sam still looked at him warily. "We might not ought to be, but sometimes I am. There are people who seem...uncomfortable, with Ascended people. As for The Voice, I'm sure she can hear us anywhere. She is a Goddess, after all." Accidentally, he said this last bit as if Lucas was stupid, because to Sam it was obvious. Recently he'd latched onto The Voice as a protector, liked the idea that she was always looking, standing behind him.
"I doubt they would know what it is. But...if it is destroyed, I suppose I could just make another." He shrugged. "It doesn't matter about location, I don't think. It's just a sign to any other Ascended who might come by here."
Lucas responded sarcastically to his upgrade. Sam sighed and shook his head. "Not just the pain. When...when you've been Ascended for a long time, like I have, you miss sensation. Anything. Tasting things, smelling them...feeling. Pain, too, in a way. It is the best gift anyone has ever given me, to be able to feel again. I feel like I am a part of the world once more." He smiled privately and put his hand in his pocket to where the stone from Remi was, stroked fondly over it's surface.
"Those who are uncomfortable with us are really just uncomfortable with their own flawed existence," Lucas said simply, well practiced by now at playing the good little Ascended. "A shame really. If they wished, I'm sure the Voice would make them bright as she has done for us." Shrugging, he glanced over the little shrine once more, thought for a moment and reached into his boot to take out a small hunting knife.
Pricking his finger as well (though without any of Sam's melodrama), Lucas added his own 'blood' to the stone; a silent endorsement of what his fellow Ascended had achieved.
He continued to speak about his 'upgrade', and in fairness what he had to say really did become more interestng, the more that Lucas heard. Granted, what Sam said and what he heard were totally different, as evidenced by his next question: "So can you fuck again now?"
07-15-2019, 04:46 PM (This post was last modified: 07-15-2019, 04:46 PM by Samuel.)
Samuel
"Mm..I mean, I suppose I understand that..." Sam knew well about not being comfortable with yourself; he spent most of his life in a state of uncomfortable. He watched surprised as Lucas took a knife and added his own fluid to the stones, having assumed the other man thought his shrine too silly for actual use. He didn't say anything but he nodded and smiled, thinking it made the shrine feel more like a community area.
Lucas' question (which really, he should have expected by now) made him shake his head and stare down, an embarrassed smile on his face. "I haven't...tested that." This wasn't quite true and he knew it, but he didn't want to get into his inability to remember when he'd had sex with Lucas. "But I suppose I probably could. But that isn't why Iike it."
He laughed and looked off. "There's no one who wants to do that with me."
"You understand it, and yet you don't judge those who aren't like us. Further proof that we are more than what we were, no?" Lucas said, enjoying the brief moment where he could hail the Ascended as higher beings - it was nice to believe your own hype once in a while, right? And from the look (and sound, and all the bits around it) of Sam, he could sorely use an ego boost.
He snorted at hearing that Sam hadn't tested his new ability, Lucas shrugging and leaning back on his hands. "Well, if you ever do test it and it works, sign me up for one of those upgrades of yours." He thoroughly enjoyed Lily's back room (and Lily, over and over and over again), but it was admittedly a lot more fun to be able to fuck as he pleased.
"No one who wants to do that with you, huh? You know the world just opened up, right? The big, wide, endless world? And you think no one wants to fuck you? Be real."
07-16-2019, 05:32 PM (This post was last modified: 07-16-2019, 05:32 PM by Samuel.)
Samuel
Sam nodded to Lucas' words but he didn't really understand the point. While he had come to accept being Ascended and even like it, he did not think himself better than anyone else. Attuned and Abandoned had the most amazing abilities, ones that he could only mimic after a bite.
He didn't mention Remi again, just pretended like it was possible for Lucas to get an upgrade too with another nod. But then Lucas went on and he couldn't keep his casual expression as he began to look very embarrassed indeed.
"W-well if they do I haven't met them. Or...I have, but he's not interested any more. And now that the Queen is taking over in the Hollowed Grounds, I'm staying in the woods on my own, so I hardly think I'm going to meet anyone any time soon." He couldn't imagine the Fae finding a human attractive, especially not one with ties to the Voice.
"Ah, he is it?" Lucas became more amused and more interested in asking difficult questions the more uncomfortable Sam became, the Ascended sitting up now to lean his elbows on his knees. He watched Sam as if he were about to deliver some particularly interesting piece of gossip, Lucas raising an eyebrow and scoffing when, instead, he was told that his fellow fiend was hiding in the woods from their queen.
"Why are you staying here?" he wanted to know. "She's a woman, just like your mother was. Hardly a demon or a god." And as Lucas had already mentioned, he thought them above at least one of those things. "What could she do to you, huh?"
"Yes, it's he, what of it?" Sam asked, crossing his arms. He didn't know where it was Lucas had come from, but he wasn't going to entertain any of the nonsense Remi had told him of, of people being so opposed to two men together. It was ridiculous and one of the few things he would passionately argue.
Lucas' questions both made him feel small and weak, and angered him. Wasn't it obvious what he was scared of? "I do not want to join any army. I...I am not good at fighting and I'm not very strong. If I was caught and taken to the prison I'm sure it would go badly for me...we can die, you know." He'd seen it first-hand, with Aedion at the Spire. There one moment, a crumpled heap slumped against the wall the next.
Lucas held up his hands in mock-placation, as though worried by Samuel (he wasn't). "Nothing at all," he said in a rare moment of honesty. "I was more surprised that you had someone in particular in mind for your sexual escapades, rather than what dangled between their legs. It's unhealthy to pin your expectations all on one person, you know. Plenty of sex out there if you're open to it." He winked. Besides, apparently Sam's dick worked. He owed it to himself and all of his fellow Ascended to go out there and get some.
"We can die," he agreed, stretching and shifting to get to his feet. "We can also live. Remember that bit too." He was done with the quiet of the forest and the dinky little shrine; though he had still added his own fluid to it, and he supposed that counted for something. "Maybe you are too cautious," he countered. "Enjoy your life in the forest. I'll be heading back home."
