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!
He listens while she settles beside him and he begins to dig a hole for the plants. A quiet nod is given in response, a certain kind of sorrow he can understand — and while the person who had taught her how to plant was gone, his mother was gone as well. Still, he runs through some of the information he’s gathered on Emmett, some of the things she’s told him as well. “He probably knew much more than I do when it comes to planting.” He offers, a quiet compliment.
He wasn’t a farmer, but his mother did love her roses.
“When I was ten, my leg got pinned by a couple of logs and I almost drowned. And my mother, when I got better, would bring me out to her garden and show me how to plant her roses.” He says quietly, thoughtfully, that they could both talk about those they lost without as much sadness as the time moved on.
While he digs the hole and begins to place the seedling flowers, he glances over to her as his lips form a slight frown. “You did as much as you could while you were afflicted.” He comments quietly, turning to face her a bit more fully. “You did everything you could before it took over.” And while he hadn’t quite gotten as bad as she had, he’d been afflicted later, but he still understood the feeling of not being in control, to choose to do something and have it go wholly unnoticed.
The question about the notice board causes him to nod and he goes back to his work, packing the dirt around the roots as he listens. “I did.” A quiet admission. “The technology with her is very different from what most people know here. It’s hard to compare what we don’t know, to get the better of it. It’ll be like the blight all over again, doing your tests without the cause.” He hopes it makes sense, he’s not sure if it does or not.
if i let go, would you hold on?
would we fly?
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
"I think Emmett knew more than most people here when it came to planting." she said softly, a small smile curving her lips. He would've made short work of what had taken her a near full day to accomplish. But she glanced over at Jata as he said his piece managing a small smile for him as well. "Roses can be quite finicky. If you can manage those you can handle most of these." she said, then gestured to a spot where she had a few rose bushes planted near some hawthorn. "And the hips are quite useful in medicine too." she said.
She sighed and shook her head, knowing he was trying to make her feel better but it all fell short. "And all that I did wasn't enough. People still suffered. Frey still suffered. We can't be caught so unprepared again." she said quietly, gently covering the roots of the flowers with soil and fertilizer. She fell silent again as he spoke, reminding her why it had been so difficult to understand the blight in the first place - because they did not understand the Voice's technology. "Then we must adapt. Plants and animals adapt to their environment and predators, so they are not so easily killed. We must understand enough in order to do that much."
He nods to her, agreeing that the man probably did know a lot — especially here in the Grounds where you needed to know what could and couldn’t grow. It must have been hard, but they had managed. They’d kept people fed, kept them alive. Still, he hums along to her in a quiet laugh. “I’d always grab onto the thorns just so that way I’d get a bit more time with her.” It sounds sad as it leaves his lips, but the smile that crosses his face is anything but.
But back to the blight, he continues to finish planting his flowers, gaze drifting toward her when he’s finished planting the second to last snapdragon. “At least you had been trying.” And she had, until it became too much. Still, it was a war fledged on the backs of the weak, and if Sunjata knew one thing, it was how much he hated those types of positions.
“Unfortunately that takes time we don’t have to evolve to become it.” A quiet admission. “Unless we could somehow see what the technology is like and make things to combat it.” Wiping the dirt from his hands he looks over at her again with a dark raised brow.
if i let go, would you hold on?
would we fly?
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Phoebe glanced over and smiled at him. "Lots of kids do things like that to keep their mother's attention." she said comfortingly. He wasn't unique in that sort of antic. The hardships of his childhood hadn't changed him completely. He had still been the same as many another child, and that was important for him to know.
"Not that it mattered. No one listened to me." she said softly. In fact, she had lost friends over her findings. "Rexanna won't even talk to me anymore you know. I was blighted so I was harsher than I should've been but...apparently pointing out the Ascended connection was more damning than me being out of my mind." she said quietly. And in the end she had been right. It had been the Ascended. It had been Sam. The Voice had used some technology like the Ascended fluid to create a blight to spread. Truth didn't matter apparently.
"Even if I could see it, that doesn't mean I would understand it." she said softly, shaking her head. She could see cells, and she was only just beginning to understand those. "The Voice clearly understands the bodies that Rae created so thoroughly that she could alter them to make the Ascended. We don't even have the science to understand exactly how it is that a man's seed can blossom into a child in a woman's womb. Or how it is a heart beats. Or how it is our eyes see. Or why we feel things differently in certain areas." she pointed out. "The only way we can do that is to see inside the body, but...well murder and grave robbing aren't exactly my thing. And rotting corpses aren't ideal either...I tried to speak to Frey about it but they were busy and didn't come." she said with a sigh, looking at the little shrine to Rae and Frey in the far corner by the prettiest pink blooms in the garden.
"If I can understand the base she is working with, then I can understand the way in which she is altering it. And if I understand what is being altered, then I can come up with ways to combat it." That was her theory anyways.
He nods to her with a soft smile. It’s exactly why he had done it, why he’d always craved it from her especially, why his father always tried to keep them as separated as possible. Just in case he died, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world — no attachments. But that wasn’t really true. His mother had loved him dearly, so much so that she’d made him a dreamer despite the rigorous plans his father had for him, the strong emotionless man he wanted him to be.
Quietly, he considers her with a tilt to his head. “Have you reached out to her?” A quiet question. “I’d heard she had a rough LongNight.” Because news during the longest week of his life came like gossip with everyone trapped in the same place.
The next set of information he gets from her has him settling back in the dirt, legs folding beneath him as he leans forward to look at her and listen. “Youre right. You don’t here. But they did back in Korofi, and they taught us a bit of what it was like.” He looks away from her then, swallowing hard as a small smile of awkwardness creeps into his face. “We had X-ray machines that would let us see our bones, see if any of them had broken. We were also taught…” A pause, very awkwardly as he refuses to look at her. “How all of that works, how children are made. Scientifically.” He offers. He might not have known what snow is, but they did teach him how babies were made.
He certainly didn’t think he’d be having this conversation with Phoebe.
“I can help you try to understand?” He asks, rummaging for a stick among the dirt they sit in so he can draw small diagrams in the dirt.
if i let go, would you hold on?
would we fly?
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Phoebe shook her head. "No. I haven't. But she seemed to make fairly clear she didn't want me around when she stormed out." she said quietly, continuing to pack soil over the roots of the flowers she planted. She had heard Rexanna had a rough Long Night, but between their ruined friendship and her inability to do anything medically for an Ascended she couldn't rationalize a reason to go see her when she didn't want Phoebe around.
But as Jata revealed how medically advanced Korofi had been - how much he knew - she turned to stare at him blankely, honeyed eyes wide. For a moment she was silent, just staring. Then... "And you're just telling me this now?!" she said incredulously. "Yes! Tell me everything you know! And what's an Exray? How does it work? Does it hurt?" she said, quickly wiping off her hands to grab her notebook from her bag.
He nods to her lightly, understanding the thought process but having always gone about them differently. He’d always focused on getting into the thick of things or staying away completely when asked. But for something like that? He usually found a way to figure out if it was done for entirely, especially if he’d said something he hadn’t entirely meant when he hadn’t been entirely himself.
But she blanket looks at him while he focuses on her, explaining, and he takes a moment to bite down on his lip. “I didn’t think about it really.” He offers. And he hadn’t. When had he broken a bone here and someone couldn’t fix it magically? As for children; well, he had sort of thought she knew how it worked. Not just based off of experience but science behind it.
She grabs her notebook and quizzes him and he shakes his head. “Its not going to make a lot of sense to you I don’t think, but no. Xrays don’t hurt. Basically they take a picture — like a painting but instant, that moment — put onto a film and when held up against the light you can see your bones.” He offers, thinking and mulling it over. “You can’t take them a lot though, there’s a chemical of some sort that’s not good for you if you have too many.” He can recall the blocks they made him wear to prevent it.
But he switches the subject and his face turns a few shades darker as he looks away from her now, stick extended in the dirt in his left hand as he makes a rudimentary diagram. “First off I guess, uhh, how much do you know about women’s cycles and what not?” Gods this was going to be awkward, he can feel it in the back of his mind.
if i let go, would you hold on?
would we fly?
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Phoebe gave him a blank stare, clearly unimpressed with that excuse. He just didn’t think about it? He saw what kind of medical knowledge they had! How could he not…urgghhhhh men.
As he began to talk she started taking furious notes, writing down everything as close to verbatim as she could. Perhaps if she could explain this to Remi, he could make her something like this Exray but without the chemical…because magic, clearly. Of course, it would be good to develop some of these things without magic, but she simply didn’t have the builder’s mind to even begin to figure out how to do that.
But as he changes subject she couldn’t help but give him another flat look. ”It’s only something I specialize in understanding. How about you just talk and I will ignore the parts I do know?” she offered.
Gods this was going to be exceptionally awkward. And he feels it immensely, reaching up with his right hand to run through his hair, pausing as he contemplates just where to start. But she hasn’t given him a starting point, and he supposed he has to start from the beginning, internally cringing and shying away from those wide brown eyes ready to soak up the information, information he’d had to learn to ensure he could continue his lineage in the most advantageous times.
“Okay.” He offers quietly at first, nose wrinkling slightly as he contemplates how to start. “Alright, so, you know the cycles last roughly about a month give or take.” He knows that she does, because it made sense that she’d likely know it intimately well. “So, you also know the cells that you saw with the micro lens, right? Basically during that time, after about a week after it’s finished or so, something like one of those cells starts to travel to your womb.” He refuses to look at her, instead focusing on the little drawing in the dirt he’s made of a uterus and internally cringes further. “About half way through it gets to here.” He points to the middle of one of the tubes, looking up despite his face being tinged surprisingly red, bringing out the freckles on his cheeks and along his nose, to see if she’s understanding it.
if i let go, would you hold on?
would we fly?
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
As Jata spoke she continued to write notes, copying his drawing – though fixing a few inaccuracies since she had seen this particular organ a number of times through her work. As he explained how a cell would move down the fallopian tubes from the ovary, her brown eyes narrowed slightly, brows furrowing in confusion. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense to her. She pointed to the little dot he had made. ”Why would an ovary cell leave the ovary? Cells of similar types cluster together unless they are dead, so is it dead? And if it is dead what does it have to do with making a baby, which is hopefully not dead?”
If Jata felt awkward now, it was about to get a lot worse.
He regrets the decision immediately as she questions why it would leave, unsure how to exactly explain it in a way that would make sense. He focuses on it briefly before an awkward laugh leaves him and he shakes his head. “Because, Phoebe, it’s an egg.” He begins, face still flush as he takes the stick eith his left hand again and points to the ovaries. “These are full of them, but they don’t make more. And each month one is released.” Again he trails down the tube where he had started. “But it can’t do anything unless it’s fertilized.”
He hates this so much, and he refrains from looking to her in his awkwardness. Perhaps anyone else and it would have been fine. But her? Someone he’d done this with? He certainly never thought he’d be explaining it.
if i let go, would you hold on?
would we fly?
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
The midwife blinked slowly, the blank expression on her face making painfully clear how unclear what he said was. ”Jata…an ovary wouldn’t be able to hold one egg without causing severe pain, much less many of them. Moreover, these tubes are about as thick as hair. A egg isn’t going to fit down there either. And then how is it supposed to be fertilized with a hard shell?” That was the only thing that made some sense. Whatever this egg thing was that Jata was talking about was supposed to interact with a man’s seed and make the child. But…”It’s just a goopy liquid. It has no means of breaking through a shell like that.”
He hears her pause, steel eyes slipping upward to look at her and see what part she doesn’t understand. And when she starts to think of the egg as something like a chicken’s egg, he shakes his head, eyes growing wide a fraction before a surprisingly boyish smile crosses his face. “No… Not like that.” He explains, turning slightly to a fresh patch of dirt. “But it’s like an egg, incredibly small and with like… a soft shell I guess.” He stumbles, first full time he staggers over his words.
He can’t help the snort at the comment of the man’s seed, face flushing further with the insanity of it all. “Likewise… the liquid I guess as you so elegantly put it, has lots of ‘seeds’ in it.” He explains, looking up to Phoebe.
if i let go, would you hold on?
would we fly?
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
"But an egg can only be so small before it isn't an egg and is just a mass of cells that could potentially make up an egg. So what makes it an egg and not a mass of cells? And even then, that many cells would still be as big as an egg combined so it is still too big. And a soft shell is an indicator of health deficiency and I can't imagine that something deficient in a health could make a baby no matter how many seeds you say there are." she said, crossing her arms.
Wasn't he supposed to know how this worked apparently? Nothing he said made sense!
