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!
08-04-2019, 09:49 PM (This post was last modified: 08-04-2019, 09:50 PM by Samuel.)
As the last week had worn on, Sam had begun to feel very anxious indeed.
For his own safety, but also the safety of his race, his Goddess. It seemed everyone suspected them of spreading the blight simply because they had been in the blight, as if being Ascended was some kind of disease that could be contagious.
He was done believing that he was wrong. That he was broken.
He was just fine, and he needed to find a space for the people like him.
There was an old abandoned farmhouse in the fields that he knew well, because it had a basement underneath - which he had hid in several times as a child, when bullies found his secret reading spots in the trees. It was not a huge space, but there were not very many Ascended. He wrote to each of them, notes and letters hoping to invite them to come to the fields and join him, help him set them up a safehold, a place to come to meet their Goddess in private and be free from the ramping persecution.
On the day he was to meet them all, he stood just inside the door. Moonlight streamed through the cracks between the old farm woodplanks (for they were a people that moved by night) and he felt a kind of thrill run through him, clasped fists digging nails into his palm as he waited.
---
This PQ is open to the Ascended.
You don't have to join by any means, but the list of invited people are:
When Bastien had received his invitation to this new....place, he had been wary. While he did not like to pass up chances to see something new (and that was definitely what this would be) he also was aware he was not the most...responsible Ascended.
He spoke to The Voice every so often, sure. But other than that, he did not participate in any of the quests or tasks his other Ascended did. He usually didn't even know they were happening, far too mixed up in his guild, his fiancee, his life past the Goddess. Whom he still was not so sure on; she was better than Safrin, for sure, but he didn't know if he could trust any of the deities here, really.
What had made him not throw the paper away at the last minute was Rexanna, who was eager to meet her new kin. When he saw how excited she was to go, how much she longed to see what she had just joined...he could not say no. And given recent events (and past ones too) he did not want her to go alone.
So off they went, ready to see this new home for their kind. Upon arrival he confidently opened the door and seeing Samuel, smiled widely. "Hello! I did not think you the type to do anything like this, or truthfully much at all. Yet here you are. Let us make this place sparkle, yes? I have once owned a church myself."
Like an eclipse, the Penumbra took to the dark well. And with it, she wanted to meet the others, to learn and find herself with a family, a belonging, something she couldn’t avoid for long. Perhaps she’d be of more use now too, the magic that spiraled deep within her, ready to be used at a moments notice. So she had convinced Bastien to go, knowing she likely would have gone without him regardless, but well… Rexanna didn’t have the best track record when seeking things out on her own.
But he agreed, and off they went, reaching the door before Bastien opens it. A bright fanged smile crosses her face and she looks to Sam first as Bastien speaks. She doesn’t comment on what Bastien says, though she does glance to him with the amusement only a lover can give another as they speak, before she moves to greet Sam. “Sam!” She’s a surprisingly cheerful woman despite everything, and she greets the other Ascended with the hopes of embracing him in a small hug. “Thanks for helping with… Well, you know. How are you doing after?” She asks as she moves to stand beside Bastien, away from the door opening so others can join.
after all is said and done you're just a carnivore
let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster
Sam sends her two notes in a season, which is two more than he’s sent in their lifetimes.
The Wraith reads it and is immediately skeptical of their ability to make another shrine to their Lady, but would have come to his aid, even if he hadn’t used such pretty words. That’s what family does. She’ll bully him and tease him and try to make him better (only ever her version of better), then show up when he calls a meeting - or whatever this is.
Arriving third, she slips in silently, behind Rex and Bastien. A small squeeze on Rex’s arm says hello, but her attention is mostly reserved for the redhead in front of them. Neither critical nor comforting, the Queen says simply, “If you need a super safe place, I have an abandoned house in the Woodlands set up. Only Deimos knows its location.” It’s shitty and would be uncomfortable, but fuck, if they needed to disappear, it would be safe.
But it isn’t just about that, is it? “Anything in particular prompt this?”
In other words, was Wessex right about his friends, (or at least Amalia, though she imagines the others’ dedications are similar, if not as fervent) or was she right about his friends?
Sam did not know Bastien or Rexanna well, even though he had helped Bastien ascend - they were loud, bold, party kind of people, who wore flashy outfits and said things like 'Cheers!' Still, they were Ascended, and now that made them his family. He smiled through Bastien's comment, that he couldn't parse as an insult or compliment, and then said to Rexanna: "I'm fine. I hurt for a while but...well. I'm just glad we survived."
How odd, to meet someone for the first time fighting a giant pumpkin. But he supposed it helped them feel a little closer.
When Wessex arrived he still felt the ghost of the fear he used to hold for her in his heart, but mostly he was happy to see her. That she had come at all probably meant she valued the idea, right?
"Well...I'm hoping we can have this be safe, with some work, and maybe somewhere comfortable to stay as well.. And no one but us shall know...and I'd like to make a shrine here, too, perhaps." He told her, in response to her news of a safehouse already made.
Had anything prompted it? He sighed and nodded. "Yes. I've had three different friends accuse me of causing or assisting the blight, in...tones that make me uncomfortable. Accusatory. Treating me as lesser because of..because of their opinions of The Voice." Sam shook his head, then tried to clear his mind for the task ahead. It didn't matter what other people thought.
"There's a trap door, back there, to a basement. I was hoping to attach my cube to it, so that only Ascended can get in. Do any of you have technologies we could use to help? Or...any ideas for what would be good here?"
---
Lucas is sitting this one out, but will be welcome at the hideout later!
08-07-2019, 08:18 PM (This post was last modified: 08-07-2019, 08:18 PM by Wessex.)
WESSEX
after all is said and done you're just a carnivore
let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster
So… he basically said fuck you and your safehouse, mine will be better. Which it might be, but Wessex just looks at him with a raised brow, utterly skeptical. “Riiiiight…” But after a deep, uneccessary breath, tries to let it go. Because she was ultimately right in her warning - the trajectory she’s predicted, multiple times, with Zariah and with the Old God’s devotees, are coming true.
“It’s probably only going to get worse,” she says, referring to the accusations and the opinions, the anger that seems to simmer beneath the surface in so many of their acquaintances. They need a scapegoat for this still unknown thing and the obvious answer is the Voice, simply because their gods say so. Critical thinking skills either have seriously deterioriated over the decades, or religion really is the best weapon ever. “Have you reminded them that all kinds of bad things happened here in the time we’ve been trapped? Animals have mutated. Weather patterns have gone to shit. New diseases popped up. And we somehow got sentient, ankle-biting pumpkins, but of course it must be The Voice.” Sarcasm drips off her voice like honey, her opinion barely contained.
Now, Wessex ain’t saying it isn’t, their Lady's doing, but she’d like some proof first.
Anyway. Back to the task at hand. Wessex looks around, eyeing the house itself. “We could pull parts of this down. Make it seem even more abandoned and decrepit.”
The next person that approaches, the Penumbra smiles widely at. The Queen steps in, squeezing her arm gently in greeting, to which Rexanna nods gently as well before her attention flits back toward the fiery haired man that had helped her when they happened to find themselves underneath the blighted pumpkin. She gives Sam a quick nod in agreement, happy that they had all made it despite the odds. Just another bonus of the Ascended, it seemed.
When Wessex asks what they’re there for, her sapphire gaze lingers on Samuel until he explains. Wessex’s quiet response seems a bit hidden behind something else, especially as Rexanna recalls there already being one safehouse. “Surely it can’t hurt to have more than one in case one is compromised?” She poises quietly until he comments again. Her brow raises, wondering if that’s what Jigano’s and her own chat had been about. The uncertainty on his end about the Ascended and the Voice in general, and she wonders silently how much it had spread. At that point, the Bard had been the only one to directly tell her his concerns. For a moment, she nods in agreement, especially as Wessex agrees.
The Penumbra listens as they speak with one another, and Wessex’s sarcasm slipping from her voice the newly Ascended woman picks up on immediately. She subtly sighs through her nose, eyes flickering over to Bastien with a slight frown in regards to the news. But at the mention of a trap door, she looks back to Samuel as he mentions the cube – a thing of which she’d seen briefly during their fight. Wessex is quick to mention means of making it more abandoned looking, and Rexanna nods in agreement to that as well.
“I still have my magic, and I’ve recently learned to craft some small things.” She pauses, considering. “Alternatively, I have transmutation and fire. I suppose if we want it to look really abandoned, I could scorch some marks into it as well.” There’s another thoughtful pause. “Or create some traps?”
Bastien smiled as he watched the exchange, content for once to mostly stay in the background of his operation. He was not, admittedly, the most up to date on Ascended matters; hell, he hardly even knew what they were. No one had spoken to him of the Blight. Questionly, he looked over to Rexanna when it was mentioned with a raised eyebrow, as if to ask have you heard anything about it?
The idea of purposefully making a place look more decrepit made him laugh, though he supposed he could see the point; he had practice painting things like that anyway. He had spent much time learning how to paint all kinds of textures, including rust, rot and dust.
Of course, Rexanna had good ideas. Smiling proudly, he held out his hands as he offered his services. "I can help with anything to do with the aesthetics. As for technology...I have a flying board. I would not mind leaving it here sometimes, for Ascended to use. It may be useful for quick escapes."
Sam, unaware of how he had offended Wessex, nodded along to Rexanna's point. "The more, the better. This way, if this one is taken, we can go to Wessex's, but if that one is we can come here. With...so many people to potentially go against us, it's better to be safe than sorry." Sam hugged himself and sighed, unsure nowadays of how much of the darkening cloud over his life was paranoia and how much was painfully real.
Wessex's point helped him feel justified in his actions (a quiet, but meant, "Right." was mumbled) it also solidified the idea that this panic was very much real, and he clenched his fists as he shakily took in a breath.
Everyone seemed to want to make the place look more abandoned, which he was pleased by; it had not really occured to him as a thing to do but it was a good idea indeed. Nodding along with everyone's ideas, he headed down into the basement as they worked, clearing some things and preparing the space for the next part of the task. When he came back up, he took his cube from his jacket and wedged it into the corner of the trap door.
Looking about to make sure everyone was done, he called to them: "Please, come down here and help me make a shrine." Once they had all followed he showed them the far wall of the basement, where he had spread out a wide stone as a sort of makeshift table. The rest of the wall was bare. "I want this to be a place worthy of The Voice, so we can speak to her here. Um..any ideas? I thought...maybe we could each let a little fluid drip onto the altar."
----
Please present your ideas for making a shrine!
Bastien used his fingers to paint dots and scrapes of mud and rot onto the boards, but also painted with his magical brush bugs and cobwebs for the corners, that in the dark would seem to move and blow in the breeze, giving the impression that the place had been taken over by nature and time.
He was confused as to the purpose of the little block Samuel placed on the trapdoor (it did not seem to make it any harder to lift) but followed without mentioning it*. When he had made it down to the basement he immediately tutted and shook his head. Where was the boys sense of taste or aesthetic? The top had to look abandoned, but that didn't mean their actual place had to look so drab.
As soon as there was a chance to say something, he did: "We need it to look impressive. Awe inspiring. I shall paint a great mural of The Voice and her children with this brush, so everyone shall know who it is this shrine is to."
*(because Ryan does not want to RP that question with himself).
Where Bastien lacked in Ascended duties, Rexanna was certain to pick up the slack. And she watches as Bastien gives her a slight look when the Blight is mentioned, and she gives him a small smile and a nod as if to say she’ll explain it all later to him. Not long after, she listens while he explains how he can help as well, nodding along with the mention of the hover board – a thing that had been incredibly fun and interesting to her since before her Ascension.
She begins to make things look a bit more abandoned (heh), using a small amount of her magic to scorch a few of the boards and spread the soot caused from it to make it appear as though it might have had a fire at some point. Then, when Samuel calls to them, she follows him down toward the basement, noticing the cube as she does so.
She makes no comment on it, instead, she listens while Samuel explains and Bastien speaks of painting a mural behind it, and she gives him a small nod with the idea before she approaches it and begins to stack a few bits of left behind metal into a small tower of sorts to gather an idea of height. Then, she breaks them down in to small sections, similar to his cube. She takes her transmutation magic, then, taking the few bits of metal and transmuting them into small blocks with a smooth surface.
Then, she stands back to look at the way it’s coming together, before moving to stand around behind it. “I can’t… make anything large yet, but I can make a few small pieces.” She offers helpfully, spreading her hands above the small tower she had made as a reddish hue takes hold between her hands, and a small stand of sorts appears, crafted with lines and sharp edges. She sets this down on top of the small structure before doing it again and making a similar orb to the one she recalled from her Ascension, perfectly round despite its small size. And she sets this in the center of the small stand she had made previously.
“Any other ideas? I have a bit more in me.” She gives them a gentle smile.
Rex takes a bit of left behind metal and transmutes them into three small cubes, stacks them, then uses her creation magic to make a stand and an orb to go on top!
after all is said and done you're just a carnivore
let you in and drink my blood you're nothing but a monster
After listening to the others’ offerings, Wessex shrugs and opens her hands in a frank manner, saying, “Afraid I don’t have any magic that might help, or tricks for this sort of thing. Just protection. As your Queen.” She has that adrenaline booster and monster repellant. A map of the Greatwood. And her eyes, all of which are useful in the right circumstances, but less so for this specific one. “I can read anything, though. So if you ever find something that may look important, bring it to me, yeah?” Knowledge is power. Their Lady would probably agree with that statement.
Then they get to it, and Wessex smashes a couple of windows then pokes a large hole in the roof with her talons, giving any passerby a reason to keep on walking and definitely not seek sanctuary there, as it may not be the best protection from the elements.
Then Sam calls them, and as she’s walking past his funny little cube, she asks, “So the cube - what does it actually do…?” He’d never actually explained what it did, only that it would somehow only let their kind in. Bastien and Rex are much more useful in the decorating department than she is, she has only her talons and their poorly refined etching skills. These hands are better suited to violence, to whittling shafts and sharpening knives, to force rather than psalms and pilgrim’s pious devotions. So in the interest of keeping the altar pretty and grand, the way they seem to want it, she refrains from offering her talents.
That doesn’t mean her mind isn’t working. “I’m not sure our fluid will be enough to call Her here. It feels like we need something of hHer, something more than just us. Her energy, or… something.” Wessex’s face wrinkles a little bit in thought. All they have are their gifts, their upgrades. “I have this adrenaline booster than feels a lot like Her when you shoot it into yourself, but it’s not the same as Her electricity, her light… maybe we need obsidian or onyx? Or to bite someone with lightning magic?”
They can get either of those from somewhere, she assumes. Lucas managed to get his hands on the rocks for their eyes... and there's gotta be others running around with lightning in their fingers.
08-15-2019, 08:12 PM (This post was last modified: 08-15-2019, 08:13 PM by Samuel.)
As they went through the trap door, Wessex asked him just what the cube did and Sam smiled, glad he had a useful answer after all the experimenting he'd done with it. "It can only be lifted by Ascended. So if I leave it on the trap door, no other race will be able to lift it. It's a very secure lock, I think."
It seemed if he asked, people were actually willing to help; no, not just any people - his people. Sam marveled that he had not seen what a blessing his family of Ascended were before, when he had been blinded by his hate for the forced nature of his Ascension. Ironically, it turned out the worst thing his biological family had been the best thing for him, because it had given him this one.
Not that he was really particularly close to any of these people. But smiling as they worked on the shrine he suggested, it was hard not to enjoy the connection he felt.
"That looks wonderful, Bastien. And Rexanna, I.." Sam smiled as he saw her make things out of thing air. With no creation powers of his own, it seemed miraculous. He noticed Bastien look over with a slightly open mouth too, apparently momentarily amazed enough to stop his painting. "How amazing. Thank you."
Wessex's suggestion, to use a shock of some kind rather than fluid, sounded great until Sam realised he had no idea how to get such a charge. "You might be right but...do we know anyone with lightning magic...? Or a way to get any electricity? Outside of asking The Voice, I can't...say I can think of any methods."
Truthfully, Bastien was not sure that electricity was what was needed. The Gods here seemed to be fickle beings, and he was sure fluid could be as good on one day as electricity on the next, as licking the floor on the next...but Wessex knew The Voice better than he, so he kept quiet for the moment.
Electricity was a...relatively new concept to Bastien, and one he only understood in the context of Caido's magic and Gods, so he had no idea how one could harness it (or really, truthfully, what it actually was). Still, he had one helpful suggestion.
"If it is precious stones we need, such as Onyx, you can find such things along the banks of the river in the Greatwood, I have heard. Or do you have any on hand, Wessex...?" He very much doubted she was the kind of woman to sentimentally collect anything beautiful, but he supposed it was not impossible, especially if it had a functional purpose.
