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!
Adam tilted his head from side to side, considering what Amun was saying...and yeah, maybe his usual teasing jibes weren't really the right approach to be taking here. "It'd suck, yeah. Fair enough. Which hand're you dominant in?" Hopefully, it was the left.
"Eehh, I don't think failing to save the temple is anyones fault - it's more Ronin's fault for being enough of a dickhead to try bring it down in the first place." He screwed up his face as he said Ronin's name, clearly not keen on the man; once he had thought of him as a potential friend, but now that Amalia was laying in a bed crying after he'd had a tantrum? Adam didn't know if he'd ever forgive him.
He raised his eyebrows at the prosthetic, looking it over. "Can you pick things up with it?"
Obediently he began to roll around the clay, snorting after moment. "Not the first wet thing I've loosened up." Awful joke, but if he hadn't said it he'd have been thinking it for the next half hour. There was something pleasing about touching the wet, firm material and he found he enjoying moving it about; so much so he almost forgot to decide what it was he wanted to make. "I think Pet'd like a brooch, maybe? That sounds...easy to make?" He looked to Amun with a questioning glance.
Amun just stared at Adam after the other man’s question. Finally, the potter raised his prosthetic. ”Right.” The word was a little incredulous.
Shrugging, he crossed his arms. "You and I might feel that way, but I'm not sure the gods feel similarly." The Attuned's next question caused the Ascended to roll his eyes. Reach out, he tried to pick up some clay with the prosthetic, but was unsuccessful. He had to physically place it in there with his left hand and move the prosthetic for it to stay in place.
Crossing his arms again, he leaned against the wall. "Sure." Finally, he nodded. "Then just shape the clay into the size and shape you'd like it, making sure to leave room for the jewel."
Amun confirmed it was his right, the one he had lost - Adam 'tsk'-ed and shook his head as if to say that was a shame. He'd once been unable to use his left for a time and he knew first hand (ha) how irritating it could be.
"I mean, I imagine Safrin must be kinda embarrassed her golden boy went ahead and did that. I wonder what's happening to him wherever she poofed him off to." Privately, Adam hoped it might involve something at least double as bad as Amalia's leg wounds.
It was rather obvious Amun was not going to be firing any particularly good pots in the near future. Trying to put on a kimd smile, as Adam followed his instructions and began to shape the clay, he asked:"Do you want me to help you with making something while I'm here?"
Amun just shrugged at Adam’s comment about Safrin and Ronin. "I don't know either of them, really. But the gods rarely do as we wish them too, so I wouldn't get your hopes up." As the potter crossed his arms, just the barest hint of sorrow flickered in his eyes before they faded back to dullness.
At the Attuned's offer, the Ascended shook his head. "Thanks, but as I said, give me some of the jewelry for the party and we'll call it even. It's not like I need to work." His eyes were sharp as they watched the other man work the clay, and Amun offered pointers every now and then. This particular task wasn't too difficult.
Once he was satisfied with Adam's progress, the potter got out some small bits of wire. "Once you're happy with the shape, insert these so you can hang the brooches and pendants. Then you can paint them." Setting the wire down, he got out the glazes and the brushes.
"Oh, if Safrin isn't making him pay I will, don't worry." Adam promised as if Amun cared, threatening something vague so it sounded much worse than what he actually had planned, which was wave my gun around and swear at him a lot. He'd never actually been able to take revenge as far as violence, but this was probably the closest he'd gotten to really wanting to since his father's murderer had come onto the scene.
He nodded as Amun turned down his offer and looked to his pile of gems, separating them in half with the side of his palm, deciding the half closest to Amun could be given away to him. With that done he began to mold the clay brooch into the rough shape of a loveheart; it was probably embarrassingly soppy, but he felt like it was something Pet would like and it was easy to make.
Taking the wire from Amun, he pushed it in where necessary and bent it around so it would stay in place. "Thanks. ...So...you ever had a student before? Or is this new territory for you?"
01-24-2020, 12:20 AM (This post was last modified: 01-24-2020, 12:20 AM by Amun.)
full moon rising on the waters of my soul
Amun gave Adam an unimpressed and disbelieving once over. ”Uh huh. Because you’re going to succeed where Amalia, Jigano, Wessex, Samuel, and I all failed.” Unsurprisingly, the potter’s doubt and sarcasm were on full display. ”Best of luck with that.”
Falling silent as the Attuned work the brooch into a silly shape, the Ascended continued to gather the paints, glazes, and brushes. When the other man took the wire, Amun stepped back, then turned, heading towards the kiln. "Once you finish painting it, we'll fire it."
However, the question caused him to pause with his back still to Adam. "Ever? Yes, I've had a student. As a potter? No." With that, the potter walked forward again. Opening the grate at the bottom, he poked the ashes with the poker, revealing some still smoldering embers. Slowly, he built the fire up once more until it was blazing merrily.
"Have any of you got guns? No? Then there's the difference." Adam shot back, starting to get tired of Amun's attitude at this point. He tried his best not to use his firearms when he could, partially because the mystery kept him safe but also because it often felt unfair, when everyone else was at magic spells and knives. Not that he didn't think the mages in the world could kick his ass (they absolutely could), but he wasn't sure if they'd get to do it before he unloaded a bullet into their foreheads.
He took to painting the little brooch, his strokes messy and too thick, but it didn't have to be perfect - just from him, for Pet.
Amun said he had indeed had a student, but...not for pottery. Adam frowned and looked up from his work to ask the obvious question: "So what were you teaching them then?"
Amun raised his eyebrows. ”What the fuck is a gun? How do you think it measures up against whatever burning light fire thing that Ronin seems to be able to toss about? Or against his ability to duplicate himself?” Still, even with this ‘gun’ thing that Adam thought so highly of, the potter didn’t think the Attuned stood a chance against the demi-god.
If Adam wanted to get himself killed, however, that was none of the Ascended’s business. The Attuned had been warned, which as far as Amun was concerned was above and beyond the call of duty.
The pendant wasn’t exactly the prettiest thing the potter had ever seen, but honestly, he didn’t care. He just hovered over Adam, waiting for it to be finished so the Ascended could toss it in the kiln. He didn't respond to the question right away, though when he did his eyes tightened slightly. "How to sail." Then he crossed his arms. "Have you had any students?"
Adam couldn't help it; he smiled as Amun asked his questions, finding them wonderfully quaint. From his hip he pulled one of his pistols, holding it up in the air. "This is a gun. And yeah, it could do better than all of than that, if I was fast enough with it." He was a good shot and well, no one could do magic if they'd recently suffered a bullet to the head. As far as he knew, not even a Demi God.
He liked the firey part of the process very much. He sat to watch the kiln burn, Coffee running over and peering into the flames too, excitedly puffing smoke rings from his nostrils.
"Sail, huh? That used to be your thing?" Adam supposed it must be frustrating to have been stuck so inland, if so. "Uh...no. I've always been kinda a lone wolf. Oh, I guess one time I trained one of the new girls at the brothel?"
As Adam showed it off, Amun looked over the gun. ”How does it work? Like a harpoon or a crossbow?” He could see the trigger, but beyond that it was rather incomprehensible to him. As the Attuned mention being quick enough, however, the potter raised his eyebrows.
Then he sprang into motion, attempting to pluck the gun from the other man's fingers using the enhanced speed of the Ascended.
If Amun was successful, he'd immediately hold it out for Adam to take it back. "Well good luck. I'll make something pretty for your grave." Taking the pendant, he slid it into the kiln. "Yeah I was a sailer. How about you, what'd you do before Caido?" Turning around, he snorted. "Trained her, huh? And was that training business or pleasure? Or business of pleasure."
"Eerrr....more like the crossbow, but way more powerful. Look." He opened the magazine and tipped a bullet out into his hand, passing one over to Amun. "It fires out these using something called gunpower, which kind of blows up inside and then sends it out really fast." Normally at this point in the conversation he'd give a demonstration, given that he had infinite bullets, but he assumed Amun wouldn't like a shot fired in his studio (full of almost comedically breakable pots).
Though it seemed Amun was not only content with taking the bullet - as the gun let his fingers Adam let out a yell of "Hey!", still pulling a face over it when it was handed back. "You can't just take a man's pistol like that."
Ignoring sarcastic comments about his grave, he answered the question, eyes still following the brooch going into the kiln. "I was a highwayman, for the last several years." There wasn't any shame or hesitance in his voice; he did not think Amun would be the type to be scandalised by his old line of work. As for his training of an old colleague.. "Oh, Jesus, no. Never sleep with a coworker. It was more showing her what to do if a client tried to short her, or showing her how to stand in the line up, or how to report her earnings...y'know, all the stuff that goes around the sex." He spoke very casually of this, waving a hand about loosely as if it were public knowledge.
Amun smirked, more than a bite cruelly. "Clearly I can, seeing as I just did." Crossing his arms, he shrugged, clearly unimpressed with Adam's toy.
"And if you think Ronin is going to give you any more of a chance than I did, or if you think a little piece of metal will do more than inconvenience him, no matter how fast, well, as I said, your funeral." Again, the potter really didn't care much if the Attuned lived or died. If he was dumb enough to go after a demi-god alone, that was just natural selection at work.
Still smirking, the Ascended chuckled, the sound dark and low. "Oh of course. How noble of you, to show her the ropes." Honestly, he didn't really believe the other man, but it didn't matter one way or the other.
Whether or not Amun had a point about Ronin having even less mercy (and he definitely did), Adam didn't acknowledge it, turning away and folding his arms with a frown, not unlike a sulking child just for a second before he collected himself. "I'll be more alert then, obviously. I don't wanna be mean to a one-handed guy, so I let you take it easier." Clearly.
The way Amun responded to his chatting about the brothel seemed like he didn't believe him - yet Adam was, for this once, speaking the absolute truth. Perhaps a case of the boy who cried wolf, but he found himself getting more and more irritated by the moment with this potter. "When is this brooch gonna be done cooking?"
Amun chuckled, the sound dark and low, sounding much more like his old self. ”Sure. Very kind of you.” Smirking at Adam, the potter shrugged. ”Best of luck with the whole assassination thing." It was clear from the Ascended's voice that he felt the Attuned needed all the help he could get.
At the other man's question, Amun glanced at the kiln. "It'll take about ten to fifteen minutes. If you wanna take a walk or something and come back later, feel free to go ahead." He gestured at the door, clearly not caring one way or another what Adam did with the remaining time before his pendant was finished.
