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!
Annabelle was very confused as she finally awoke. The last thing she could remember was running for her life away from KNIGHT. She'd been on their most wanted list, and she'd yet to understand why. As she'd neared her top speed, which would have resulted in a sonic boom enough to short circuit the law enforcement, she'd felt like she was suddenly swimming through mud. It had become so thick it was suffocating, and the next thing she knew, she was in total darkness.
She took stock of herself as the fog cleared from her mind. Both hands, both...feet? Was she wearing boots? She was barefoot she'd thought. She looked at the rest of what she'd been wearing, no longer her typical jeans and tank, but now she was wearing something she'd never seen before. The sleeves were very long, and the pants were...poofy. It was all very strange. It wasn't until she examined her hands closely, that fear began to set in.
Nails. Not claws. Nails. Where were her claws?! She bit her lip, as she typically did to think, and realized her teeth were all wrong as well. Where were her canines?! Her breath quickened, and she reached to touch the top of her head.
And then she screamed bloody murder.
Where were her ears?! Her long, warm, fuzzy cat ears?! She felt all around her head, eventually finding human ears at the sides of her head. She screamed again, looking for something reflective to peer into. She looked into a puddle, but her face didn't look back. The panic set in, and she fainted.
Of course she fainted. Couldn't she handle a major change without it being the end of the world? She got up, dusting herself off and looking around. So she had a new face, and was in a new land. How did she get here? Where were Aesop and his brother? Did something happen to them? Why did she care now? They weren't really friends, were they?
She started walking around, trying to find some sign, something that would tell her where she was. Had she fallen in some forgotten district? Why did everything seem so....real?
James heard the scream and yawned lazily. No matter what part of the world you were in, there was always someone screamin' about something. But it wasn't as though the snake had anything better to do, and so be began a casual amble in the direction of the sound.
Eye-spying a rather strange looking bird dusting herself off, James using his robust detective skills, deduced she was likely the one who had screamed. On the basis of what, did he make this deduction? Shh. Magicians never reveal their secrets (weren't we just talking about detectives though, you might be thinking? Also shhh.)
"Bit early to be so loud, but you do you sweetheart." The snake sang out, his voice a pleasing? irish lilt. Dressed in a ratty shirt and too-tight pants, it was only the man's chipper smile that made him look only slightly-less of a hot mess.
Her head whirled around at the voice that addressed her. Immediately, she narrowed her eyes.
"Don't call me sweetheart, unless you have a death wish," she warned. But he was the first person she'd encountered, and she sighed in annoyance.
"Where exactly am I? Where's the city? Am I in some forbidden district? What happened to my ears?"
She eyed him carefully. She typically didn't like questions, giving or answering, but better than just trying to guess. She intentionally ignored his comment on her screaming, because it hadn't been her. That was Annabelle.
As she looked the man over, she noted his clothing. Perhaps he was just another Jagan native and she'd found an abandoned part of the district. Who would live here?
"Alright cranky." James tittered, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. Folding his arms across his scrawny chest, the snake raised a brow at the sudden barrage of questions. "You're in it. Well. One of them at least. This is the Hollowed Grounds, which is really about the most shit place to be, actually." James said with a shrug, patting his pockets suddenly to find his cigarette. Finding one, but not a lighter, he glanced hopefully up at the stranger. "Haven't got a light, have you?" He asked distractedly, before frowning at her.
"Uh, if I was a betting man I'd say your ears were probably behind all that hair." James replied helpfully.
She rolled her eyes. First time she was called Cranky to her face, but she didn't have her speed to help her show him she was a force to be reckoned with. How annoying.
"What are the Hollowed Grounds? It doesn't sound like anywhere I've been in the Megacity. But a shit place sounds like Jago or Hades District. This place just doesn't look like home."
He was annoying, but again, she needed answers.
"I know my ears are under my hair, but the last thing I remember, I had cat ears, not human ears." She said human with disgust. She wasn't human, she was an Axion, and proud of it. What the hell is going on?
What was annoying was the fact that this bird didn't answer his question about having a light. Continuing to fiddle about and eventually finding a bit of flint, James took his time lighting his cigarette, taking a deep drag and blowing out several smoke rings before deigning to answer.
"What is any city, really." James answered with a philosophical bob of his eyebrows. Waving his cigarette between two fingers to indicate some sort of mystery, he eventually just shrugged. "Don't know those places love, but you're free to call it what you want." He replied lazily.
At the mention of cat ears, the snake bristled subconsciously. Cats. Pff. Not his favourite to be sure, the annoying predators that they were. "Right well. Seems like a you problem. Not that I've heard of anyone being able to partially shift and then suddenly not, but stranger things and all that." He added with another casual shrug.
08-20-2019, 04:49 PM (This post was last modified: 08-20-2019, 05:10 PM by Odd.)
CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT
OR DID I KILL CURIOSITY?
Partially shift? Didn't know the districts she mentioned?
"So I'm really not in the Megacity anymore. How in the world did I get here?" She crossed her arms, then looked up at the sky. So it meant that this was real, no artificial weather, no artificial sunlight, no recycled air. It was all real.
As for the other subject... "I've never been able to 'partially shift' as you put it. I was born with the ears, and eyes, and teeth and claws. Now they're suddenly gone! And I want, no, I demand an explanation!"
James snorted. "This look much like a mega city to you?" He chortled glancing around. The buildings were dilapidated at best, the ground entirely fucked and dry from being encased in a barrier for 300 or so years. Not really what sprang to mind when someone said mega city.
Raising a brow and putting the cigarette in the corner of his lips, James shrugged. "Oh well on a magical rainbow of unicorn I expect." He chuckled sarcastically, though his tone was still melodic and light.
With a lazy laugh, James merely regarded the stranger with an air of slight interest. "Bully for you." She could demand an explanation all she wanted. "Maybe if you screamed again that would help?" He mused. "I usually feel better after a good scream. What'you say? Shall we give it a go?"
08-20-2019, 05:01 PM (This post was last modified: 08-20-2019, 05:08 PM by Annabelle.)
CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT
OR DID I KILL CURIOSITY?
She was beginning to lose her temper. How she would love to rip him apart with her claws and teeth...if only she had them! She clenched her hands into fists instead, trying to tamp down her anger.
"I wasn't the one who screamed. That was Annabelle. I don't know how I got here but I am definitely not from this world. I've been stripped of my powers and my looks and I would rather just have a civil conversation. You are making that impossible. And you're too damn happy."
She dealt with that enough with Skruffles. She didn't think she'd have to deal with that with this guy. She was a feared and intimidating serial killer, and now she'd been reduced to a woman with nothing but a new look.
At the mention of Annabelle, James looked around exaggeratedly, to indicate that there was no one else there. "...Right." The mention of being from another world though? Now. Had this outlander run into just about anyone else (literally anyone else, actually), they would have understood perfectly. James however was the only one not from these parts as it happened, and so he was a bit slow on the uptake.
"More you problems, love." The snake yawned, finding this conversation to be far too much of a chore. "So what, you were some sort of—" He had to really work not to say pussy, though his smirk suggested he was indeed thinking very hard about saying it. "—cat? Well go on then. You should be able to shift just as well as before."
She pinched the bridge of her nose. This man was insufferable. What part of "never been able to shift" didn't he understand?
"Yes, I was part cat. But, and I'll say it slowly since you clearly didn't get it last time, I've. Never. Been. Able. To. Shift."
How annoying. The ears, the teeth, they were part of her! Not something she could make come and go whenever she wanted. What kind of idiot was this man? She looked around, was there someone she could talk to who wasn't an idiot?
James regarded Annabelle for a long moment, sucking on his cigarette as if it were some sort of bottle, and then releasing the smoke in lazy but concentric rings. "Well, clearly you know more about it than me." He said with a chuckle. "If you're not an attuned, you're not an attuned. No big deal." James added airily, holding up a hand again in that same placating gesture before flouncing it through his abundance of curls.
"You enjoy this search for your mega city and your missing cat ears. Sounds like you were on a real wild trip." The snake said with a laugh, before beginning to stroll away.
"What the hell is an 'attuned'? I'm an Axion, I've never heard of an Attuned." Against her better judgement, she began to follow him. Better than sticking around here.
"I don't know what kind of trip I'd been on. First I was running away from KNIGHT, because I'm a wanted criminal, and the next thing I know I'm waking up here. Maybe you could just tell me what this place is, what Attuned are, all of that. Think of me like a child. Teach me."
She had a feeling there would be more annoyance and sarcasm before she got anything.
Glancing over his shoulder James merely shrugged at the stray following behind him. If she was a cat, he couldn't say that he was terribly surprised. "Attuned are animal-shifters." The snake explained. "Take me for instance. Bet'cha can't guess what I am." He said with a laugh. If she was a criminal though, at least they'd have something in common.
"How can you run away from the night?" The snake mumbled under his breath, before kicking absently at a rock in their path. "Oooh roleplay, huh? Can't say I'm much into the whole child thing. It's a bit creepy really." But you know. Beggers and choosers and all that. "Alright then little not-cat girl. This world is called Caido, and this shit hole specifically is called the Hollowed Ground." All this James said in a rather sing-song voice as if he really was imparting this information onto someone much younger.
"Attuned are the animal-shifter ones, like me. Abandoned are the magical gits, Ascended are the weirdo not-quite-human ones, and the Accepted are the normals." Normals. Beloved. Whatever.
