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!
Expansion, a council, securing the Grounds against threats... all things Ronin would have expected, truthfully, and as Bastien spoke he could only nod in agreement. "I imagine the Fields are still a sight, even now." The mud might dry up, but it was difficult to see a Longheat where the scars of Fiat Lux did not linger. Clearing his throat and only able to shrug a bit at Rexanna - exciting was not the word he would have used, given what he and Remi were trying to deal with at the time - but he understood what she meant.
"So what are your hopes for us to walk away with, down here? Gold? Contraband? Or just a good story?" He conjured a smile, turning a corner as the pathway bent this way and that, until they were presented with two branches. "Ah, our first hurdle. Left or right, friends?"
Bastien smiled as Rexanna spoke, proud of her efforts to better protect and organise the Ground. As much as he was not a follower of monarchies or hierarchies, if there had to be a Queen, he could think of none better suited.
"I always hope for a good story - or at least the inspiration for one. Perhaps we will see a particularly interesting shadow I could paint into a great beast chasing us down the caves." He shrugged, not really minding what it was they found, as long as he could call it an 'adventure' when he left. "Great treasure somehow loses its worth here, where there is no money as such. Interesting, how things like gold suddenly seem to be worth so much less once we remove currency."
When faced with the branching paths, Bastien closed his eyes for a moment and held out his hands, pretending as if this would guide him better. After a second he nodded and pointed out a finger down the left tunnel. "This way."
you are like the golden hour. it all glows different
“They are, sadly.” Rexanna comments about the fields, one of the first places she’d been to when she’d arrived. But regardless, she focuses on Ronin’s next question as Bastien answers. A wide fanged grin crosses her face at it, a playful shrug of her shoulders. “He still doesn’t believe I was squished by a giant pumpkin.” She says, sticking her tongue out at her husband before leaning toward Ronin with an amused look. “But I have witnesses.” She winks, before giving Bastien a rather fond look.
But they come to a cross roads while she thinks of the comment of treasure losing its worth when there were no currency involved, to peer from either tunnel. Bastien takes the lead, and she follows suit but as they get a bit deeper, she activates her eyes to scan the walls and the pathway ahead for anything of interest. Her green gaze shifts to a vibrant lime green, glimmering in the light as if they’re glowing as she peers from wall to wall, rock to rock and even to their feet occasionally.
A story it was, then - Ronin was happy with either route and whatever treasure there may or may not be, and so he headed left along with the couple when Bastien made his choice. "I come from a place where trading was the norm, so perhaps I am just used to this sort of thing," he said offhand, raising an eyebrow at Rexanna's mention about the pumpkin. "I believe Remi was a part of that fight too, so I would be inclined to believe your wife, sir," he said, grinning at Bastien - only for him to then falter in his steps to watch Rex at work.
"Now that is impressive," he murmured. "What do you see? Any monsters we ought to be wary of?" He smirked.
Bastien laughed at the mention of the giant pumpkin and Ronin's encouragement to believe Rexanna. "I never said I did not believe her, just that it took a rather large suspension of my disbelief. You must have been surprised too, Ronin, when your partner came home to tell you he had fought a large vegetable?" He wasn't sure if they'd been dating or married then, but he knew Remi must have told Ronin about it at some point.
So used to Ascended upgrades and features Bastien hardly even registered Rexanna's eyes changing, just waited to see what she might have found out; Ronin's comment was the only reason he thought to mention it. "I would hope if she saw monsters she might tell us without prompting." He teased, though waited to see what Rexanna would say. "Surely as a Demi God you can see in the dark, Ronin?"
you are like the golden hour. it all glows different
“He was!” Rexanna chimes to the Dark Star with a bright smile. “That was the first time I’d seen his manticore form. It’s beautiful.” She admits, before settling in and offering a quiet snicker at the reinforcement Ronin gives, adding more to it to Bastien as her husband comments that he held a suspension of disbelief. She’s half tempted to drawl out a ‘suuuure’, but refrains in favor for using her upgrade to scan the walls.
At Ronin’s words, she glances toward the Dark Star, only briefly as she sees through him and the bones within him – something uncomfortable with the thought of seeing through him as she looks back to the walls. “Mmm, no monsters I’m afraid.” But there – something… Bright in the xray vision of her mind behind the wall they step near. She pauses by it, reaching out to press a hand over it. “Something... metal? Is in here though I think.” She comments with a tilt of her head.
"I was more surprised at the manticore than the pumpkin. I am getting used to such things now, believe it or not." Ronin grinned; learning that your lover could turn into a lion-eagle-scorpion the size of a car trumped whatever giant vegetable was bounding through the Grounds. Narrowing his eyes at Bastien playfully and giving him a nudge at his teasing, he figured his agreement regarding the monsters did not need to be said outright; instead, he looked to Rexanna to confirm whatever she did or did not see.
Falling to a halt beside the Queen, he raised a brow at the seemingly innocuous wall. "Something there? How exciting. Would you like me to blast a hole in it?" Then, glancing to Bastien, he chuckled. "Not something in my repertoire I'm afraid. I can make it possible to see in the dark, at least."
Indeed, concentrating briefly on what he essentially considered good thoughts (Remi, the happy memories of his daughter, times of peace), Ronin began to pulse with starlight, illuminating the cave around them. "Not my finest parlour trick, but it does the job."
Bastien smiled, wondering which he'd be more surprised at: Rexanna returning home as a manticore, or Rexanna returning home post-pumpkin battle, as she had. That both of those things had actually happened to either him or Ronin in Caido was cause enough to laugh.
Indeed, no monsters, but what Rexanna did sense was more thrilling than any beast. "Metal? Gold...? Perhaps the Holy Grail of Caido." He grinned happily, well aware that neither of his companions would get the joke but thrilled with the idea of finding some lost treasure anyway. He squinted as Ronin brought out the bright light, but still nodded about the Demi God using some more of his abilities. "Please, go ahead. Blast your hole...we will stand back."
you are like the golden hour. it all glows different
“Gods he’s huge.” Rexanna quips back to Ronin with a bright chuckle before the metal distracts her. And she focuses on it, fingers drifting along the surface of the stone, trying to see if there’s anything there like a hidden door she might be able to find her way into. Bastien’s question of the holy grail has her some part confused, and yet she almost hums at the thought of gold. “Oh, I do love gold. You know that already.” She teases her husband before she points her finger exactly where she can see the trinket inside to give Ronin a good idea of where the item is.
She shifts her eyes back, stepping aside and looking to the glimmering, glowing Ronin with a brilliant grin. “You certainly look like a star now, Ronin.” She chimes brightly, slipping her finger away to join Bastien when her husband suggests to blast the hole. “I think there’s a slight cavern it’s sitting in.” She offers in case it helps, uncertain whether it would or not, but excited to see more of what Ronin had hidden beneath his abilities.
Bastien wouldn’t need to hear it from Ronin - the look on his face was quite clearly the holy what? in unspoken response to his remark. Still, the confusion bled away into wicked mischief as he grinned at Rexanna; Remi, huge indeed. Ah yes, but back to their adventure. ”So I’ve been told,” he said with a chuckle at his passive dazzle, the Star stepping back a little as his companions moved out of the way. A treasure hidden in cavern? How swashbuckling.
Taking a slow breath, Ronin tapped into energy that still felt foreign to him; even more so given that this was his first time using it when it wasn’t in anger. He lifted a hand - unnecessary, he was learning, but it was a visual aid for these new powers - and within his palm, a bright star ignited. Aiming carefully, he cast the bolt at the wall where Rex had indicated, where it promptly cracked and crumbled into rubble.
”So far so good - nothing has collapsed on us,” he said, grinning.
"I've heard that before." Bastien joked at the comments on Remi's 'hugeness', unable to resist the occasional silly comment. Besides, this adventure was turning out quite lovely so far, no real enemies and the promise of treasure on the other side of the wall...he was finding himself in quite the good mood.
This continued when Ronin, almost effortlessly (or so it seemed), created a crack in the wall; as the Demi-God said it did not collapse on them, nor did it pose any danger. With a grin and an eager bounce in his walk, Bastien stepped forward to lean into the hole and look within, trying to see what he could find. "So, follow me." He called back to his two companions, happy to be the leader if they were the actual power in the operation; he stepped into the hole, dipping his head down to fit.
you are like the golden hour. it all glows different
Ronin’s grin is met with a bright smile from the Penumbra, a quiet chuckle of excitement chiming from her throat. Through the settling dust from the collapsed wall, she clasps her hands together in her own little anticipation, watching Bastien take the lead and slipping in behind him with a playful wink toward Ronin.
“This is the kind of adventure I was hoping for.” She offers with an almost conspirators whisper, looking back to Bastien and stepping over the rubble and things left behind, searching for something within that might spark some sort of familiarity from the shape she had spotted within.
Adventuring with Bastien and Rexanna was turning out to be a very playful affair, and Ronin had not felt this way in some time. Jovial, almost, he allowed the two Ascended to step into the hidden chamber before he followed behind them, still shining with starlight to illuminate the area. Not that his two companions needed such a thing, but it certainly helped him out.
"So, what do we have here? Treasure in abundance? Or just a shiny few rocks that someone stored here as a bad joke?" he asked, his voice echoing through the cavern.
Rexanna's statement was met with a nod and a laugh as Bastien briefly looked back to her. "Yes. I feel like an ancient hero uncovering secrets of the Gods!" Well, maybe that was a little dramatic, but he'd always been prone to covering anything that happened with fanciful imagination. Life was just far more exciting that way.
Kneeling by a battered box on the ground, the wood on it rotting away at the edges, Bastien gently reached out to flip the top open, revealing something that at first made him gasp, shocked; a glint of gold, just like he'd said, on a goblet inscribed with swirling patterns. "Cazzo santo!! It really is the Holy Grail...!" This was said mostly quietly to himself as he picked up the goblet (revealing another beneath it) and turned it in his hands.
Further inspection made it obvious the cup was actually made of something much cheaper and lighter; still he was pleased they had found anything at all and handed the two cups up to Ronin and Rexanna to look over as he dug further into the box. Other than scraps of unidentifiable fabric and dirt, there didn't seem to be much. "It is a humble treasure, but a treasure nonetheless my friends, ah?"
