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!
It would have been nice if it was that easy. Unfortunately, nothing ever is, and she pushes against the mirror a final time in frustration before turning and heading out the door. Maybe the girl would have begun the game even if Adam didn’t attack her, but it probably hadn’t helped. And maybe she would be aiming her revenge on the man who’d tried to hurt her. It would give the Penumbra a chance to find whatever it was they needed to, and then they could both go free.
That was the hope, at least.
She wastes no more time, heading down the hall to room number 2 and jiggling the handle to push it cautiously open, peering inside with her Ascended nightvision.
Here we go, the world is spinning
When it stops, it's just beginning
The door opens easily to reveal a room full of mirrors. If Adam and Rexanna choose to investigate further, they will see that each mirror shows their reflections, but each one is slightly different- just enough to be unsettling, to make you second guess yourself. It's as if in some of them you can see your deepest flaws, while in the others, your greatest strengths. And in still another, the things you want most from this world.
The girl has counted to 12
What will you do?
Sun comes up, we all laugh.
Sun goes down, we all die...
The door opens too easily, and she freezes for a moment as she stares at herself, reflected in a dozen mirrors. Each one is a lure that calls to her, each for a different reason. In that one she stands tall and proud. She is free of responsibilities to kingdoms and governments, charting her own course. In this one she is alone, having sacrificed everything for that freedom, including friends, lovers, and children. Further away she catches a glimpse of regal grace, the glimmer of a crown upon her brow while beside it her reflection seems to cower and flinch away, fearful of the worlds that have sought to break her down again and again.
And then, off to the side, she sees a flicker of light and shadow that resolves into her pale skin and dark hair and beside her stands Bastien holding a bundle wrapped in cloth. The bundle squirms and she feels her heart hammering in her chest as she steps towards it, leaving Adam behind as she reaches the mirror and presses her cool fingertips to the glass, hungrily drinking in the site of her family – their child - in her husband’s arms.
So clearly shooting it didn't work. Adam did everything he could to hide his shaking hands as the monster child stood up, staring directly at him with those creepy big eyes. So a ghost then, and it wanted to play a game. Cool. Cool cool. Adam was great at games.
He followed Rexanna out of the room, immediately going to door number 4. "Ok, we should split up and don't go in until we figure out what the fuck it wants us to find. Or find an exit. Good?" But the hybrid didn't seem to be listening. Looking back over his shoulder at Rexanna, Adam let out a string of silent curses as the woman walked into the room she'd just opened. You know, exactly what he said not to do.
Okay. He would deal with that after investigating his room. Taking a deep breath, Adam slowly and carefully opened the door, one hand on his holster just in case whatever was inside didn't feel like being disturbed.
Here we go, the world is spinning
When it stops, it's just beginning
Behind Adam's door is a table laid out with a sumptuous, far too good to be true feast. It's as decadent as anything he ever had in his past life, with plates piled high enough that they really should be spilling over, but somehow it all stays put. It smells divine, and you can feel your stomach rumbling.
As Rexanna steps into the room and puts her hand to the mirror, the scene continues to unfold. Her child is a beautiful, raven-haired girl, and as the Penumbra watches the baby reaches out for a smiling Bastien, who takes the laughing infant into his arms. Then mirror-Rexanna turns to the real woman before her, a smile of pure contentment and bliss upon her beautiful face. Without moving her lips she calls out softly, her voice filling the Penumbra's mind. You could have this life, Rexanna. Why do you cling to the past? This could be our future. The woman extends a hand, and though it is still in a mirror you know you could grasp it, could slip so easily through the glass and into this other life.
The girl has counted to 20
What will you do?
Sun comes up, we all laugh.
Sun goes down, we all die...
"We’re not going to be able to look for things if we don’t go in the rooms.” It would be nice if whatever the girl wanted them to find was just laying out in the open, but she wasn’t going to gamble their lives on it. Splitting up makes sense for them to cover the most ground though, and she nods distractedly before one mirror in particular catches her eye and draws her in.
She wants it. The mirror reflects back the dreams of her old life and her new one and it would be so easy to just reach out and take them. She has given up more than she ever could have imagined to get where she is now, and to have the opportunity to gain it all back is much more than just tempting. Her gaze lingers a moment longer twenty one, twenty two on her daughter before she pulls herself away, steeling herself against the loss. She has made this choice before though, and it’s easier the second time. She traded that part of her life for the power to be a weapon and the strength to protect herself and the people she loves, and she won’t look back now.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy to leave the room, but her eyes are dry as she steps back into the hall and pulls the door firmly shut behind her. She doesn’t really think it will slow the girl down, but every little bit helps. The stairs at the end of the corridor look promising, but she’s reluctant to leave Adam behind so instead she goes to door number three, opening it cautiously and darting a swift glance within.
"What did you find?" She calls to her companion, hoping it's something more useful than twisted reflections.
Fuck if that didn't look like a delicious meal, but something about it made Adam uneasy. It was all just a little too perfect, and Adam had seen (and been caught in) enough traps in his time to be able to smell one a mile away. It's also too much like the preposterous dinner parties he was forced to endure with Heidi, and he has no interest in reliving that hell.
So despite the protesting grumble of his stomach he carefully shut the door again and turned back to Rexanna, breathing a sigh of relief to find her out in the hall. "Uh, a lotta' food that looks way too good to be legit." The ghost child thing may have been skinny, but somehow he doubted the thing she was looking for is a plate of mashed potatoes and gravy.
Rexanna seemed determined to ignore the stairs for now and Adam had no intentions of splitting up, so as she went to open the door to room three he walked down the hall to room five. Trying to ignore the creepy and ominous counting that he could somehow still hear, he turned the knob and peeked inside, hopeful that this room at least held a sign of what they were supposed to do.
10-22-2019, 06:33 PM (This post was last modified: 10-22-2019, 06:34 PM by Shark.)
Here we go, the world is spinning
When it stops, it's just beginning
As Rexanna walks away from the mirror the reflection shifts and changes, a hideous facsimile of the ascended hybrid taking its place. "COWARD!" it howls, banging on invisible glass, and the cry seems to come from every mirror in the room. "TRAITOR! ABANDONER! YOU LEFT HALYVEN, AND YOU LEFT YOUR CHILDREN! YOU WILL NEVER BE ANYTHING BUT ABANDONED, NO MATTER HOW MANY SPECIAL GIFTS YOU ARE GIVEN, NO MATTER HOW MANY MEN YOU FUCK!" As the door falls shut the noises stop. Only Rexanna would have heard it.
The next door Rexanna opens seems innocent enough. A child's room - a little girl's, likely - with a four posted bed and a long white dresser and a comfortable looking armchair in the corner. Should she choose to look closer, Rexanna will quickly realize that there is a rather unsettling number of dolls in the room, and she can never quite pinpoint where they are. It's as if every time she turns away the dead-eyed creatures move, though closer to her or not remains to be seen.
The door Adam opens seems to lead outside, with a copse of dead trees and a narrow trail that leads directly to a great cliff overlooking a surging sea. In the center of the not-room is a decrepit well, and Adam may recognize it from the mirror.
The girl has counted to thirty.
What do you do?
Sun comes up, we all laugh.
Sun goes down, we all die...
She does not flinch from the ghosts of her past, and instead she leaves the room with her head held high. She hears them, but their words slide from her without striking deep. She knows her worth. She did not ask to come here, but she has made the best of what she has been given and what she has earned. She is married to a man who loves her deeply and she has found a true family among the Ascended. She is no longer Abandoned, she is bright, and no haunted mirrors can take that from her.
The quiet when she shuts that door is welcome, though. Whatever game the girl is playing they don’t need more handicaps in finding her unknown object, or in hiding from her. She might feel sympathy for the child, but she isn’t foolish enough to think that tragic is the same as harmless. She wants out before anything else goes wrong.
The next door opens into a lovely little room. It’s a little old and worn, but there’s no dust or cracks in the furniture. A couple of lamps would make it almost cheerful, and she smiles at a doll sitting on the bed. Isn’t it? It’s hard to tell just where it is, but she’s certain that it has brown hair and button eyes and a yellow dress, and it’s almost sweet, really, if the buttons weren’t so dull and soulless. “This looks like a bedroom. It might be hers.” She calls back to where Adam is standing in front of another door. But when she looks back into the room the doll that caught her eye isn’t there anymore. She frowns before she sees it sitting closer to the dresser, and several others aren’t quite where she remembered. There are a lot more than she first thought, and she sounds a little uneasy. “There are a lot of dolls, too.” She probably doesn’t need to add that, but nothing in this house is normal and she’s certain that doll wasn’t there before. It’s hard to say exactly where it is or was, but it definitely wasn’t there. Probably.
“We can look at it together later if we can’t find whatever it is anywhere else.” She doesn’t know how long they have, but this is more than she wants to handle alone, and she eases the door shut before any of the dolls can block it. Not that they would, but it doesn’t hurt to be on the safe side. “Any luck?”
The room he'd opened was definitely not super friendly looking. Adam had never been one for the woods, or nature in general, much preferring the comfort of the great indoors. Though the aesthetics of this place were pretty excellent: creepy trees, ocean somewhere in the background. A giant, old, crumbling well...
Rexanna's announcement that she found a room full of dolls was enough to make him entirely certain he didn't want to follow her. Besides, he had a good feeling about this room. "Uh, Rex? This one has a well, kinda like the mirror I guess. I think maybe it sounds better than dolls." He waited for her to confirm that she was coming before walking inside, being careful to avoid making too much noise, just in case this whole thing wasn't just an incredibly fucked up trip.
Here we go, the world is spinning
When it stops, it's just beginning
The dolls do nothing as Rexanna shuts the door.
Should Adam and Rexanna go investigate the well, they will find it to appear almost infinitely deep, with a long length of rope attached to a hand crank. You cannot see what is at the bottom of the rope, but it is definitely something heavy
The girl has counted to 40
Sun comes up, we all laugh.
Sun goes down, we all die...
A well like the one in the mirror? That sounds promising and she goes to join Adam without wasting any more time. “The ocean is new.” It’s obviously not the way out, but it’s reassuring to see open sky above her again even if it’s just an illusion. “Maybe we should shut the door behind us? I don’t know how much longer she’ll be counting.” She doesn’t have a plan for what they’ll do if the door won’t open again afterwards, but they’re running out of time and ideas, and if this isn’t it she doesn’t think they’ll get another chance.
She pulls the door quietly shut and follows Adam to the well, exchanging a look with him at the sight of the rope and the hand crank. ”Maybe it’s a sunken treasure?” The suggestion is mostly a joke as she starts to turn the hand crank, putting her strength into it and going as fast as the simple machine will let her. It’s harder than she expects, and she makes room for Adam to help. Whatever is at the end of the rope might be gold after all with how much it weighs. Or maybe it’s a horse, like the stuffed one the girl was carrying. They’ll find out soon as the rope begins to wind around the crossbeam.
Here we go, the world is spinning
When it stops, it's just beginning
There is a low, steady creaking as Rexanna begins to wind up the rope. There is also a distant sound of splashing as whatever is on the end leaves the water far below. A breeze has picked up, and you can hear a rising tide of ferocious whispering, but for now nothing interrupts your work.
The girl has counted to 42
Sun comes up, we all laugh.
Sun goes down, we all die...
“I think she’s slowing down.” Rexanna murmurs, putting a bit more muscle into turning the hand crank. That doesn’t bode well for them, but they’re committed to the well and whatever was at the bottom of it now. The similarity to the image in the mirror and the girl’s general dampness and focus on water all pointed to this being the place they needed to be. Turning the crank as fast as they could, trying to raise the bucket – or whatever was attached to the end of the rope – was their only hope of escaping this waking nightmare they’ve found themselves in.
