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!
Today was one of those days where Oliver just wanted to relax. He didn't want to see anyone that made him feel conflicted or grumpy or upset or really any kind of emotion that was the opposite of pleasant...which really limited him greatly on the places he could risk going in. A place where he typically didn't see those kinds of people was the forest. Now, there was that one time that he saw Amun and Amun decided to be a massive asshole....but that probably won't happen again.
About midway through he shifted his ears into the fennec fox ones, allowing him to listen to the nature around him. With a bag strung over his shoulder, Oliver simply started to walk around and explore, climbing over a fallen tree or two and attempting to balance himself on the roots, his ears picking up every faint sound that echoed through the forest...until he became distracted by a particularly lovely stream that had some beautiful rocks in it. Squating down, he focused pretty much all of his attention on the stream, picking up a rock or two to inspect it, obliviously ignoring anything happening around him.
Heading back in the direction of the Spire after his time looking around the domiciles, Josh was considering exploring up the giant black structure, hoping it might provide a good home for him, somewhere he could get good signal if he could make some kind of rudimentary radio. It was well defended too, and far up enough the average person would not think to look for him up there.
During his walk, he saw in the distance, between the trees another person, but did not think to stop at first. He'd spoken to more than enough people already, needed some time to close in on himself and think instead of collect more information...then he saw that the relatively normal looking kid had fox ears.
After a moment of squinting to make sure they weren't a costume, he stepped forward, leaning over the spring to grab at the tip of one of Oliver's ears to feel it between his finger and thumb.
The bubbling of the creek and the sounds of the wildlife were enough to distract him from the sound of footsteps approaching. Really, it wasn't exactly a good thing since if it had been anything other than a human, he probably would've been fucked over royally. Thankfully, or unthankfully, it was a human who...didn't seem to have an understanding of personal space.
Just the faint feeling of someone touching the tip of his ears caused his ears to flicker and his eyes to open wide where his head shot up and he stared right in the direction of the person who still had their arm extending. Yelping in surprise, he completely lost his balance and fell straight into the creek. It was safe to say: Oliver was more than a little annoyed.
Climbing out of the creek, his ears were now pinned flat against his head and Oliver didn't look pleased. "What the heck?! Why were you touching my ears?!"
I JUST WANT MY EXISTENCE TO BE MORE THAN TREMBLING
Josh drew his arm back as Oliver fell into the creek, raising his eyebrows. Not very good co-ordination or reflexes, for a creature half-animal. He stood motionless watching until Oliver spoke to him, at which point he shrugged.
"They're not human ears." He stated, as if that explained everything - as far as he was concerned, it did. Who wouldn't want to investigate fluffy animal ears further? "Is it a costume? Or did you have a splicing accident with a creature upon your dimensional shift?" Digging out his notebook he got ready to write down the answer, hoping that Oliver would be able to describe in detail how his DNA had been mixed up with that of a rabbit.
Standing back up, Oliver was so ready to get mad and scream. Who the hell would just grab at someone’s ears? His first initial comment didn’t really help to make him feel any better. No shit he didn’t have normal human ears right now. This dude was just stating the obvious. Then...he continued speaking...and Oliver felt a tad less mad. He was still annoyed, but he started to understand why exactly the man was so curious. He was brand new. It wasn’t an excuse for being an invasive asshole, but Oliver knew he should at least be respectful.
Letting out a soft sigh, Oliver adjusted his clothes before allowing his fox ears to disappear, returning to normal. ”Not really any of those. No idea how new you are, but I’m part attuned. It means that I can turn into an animals and I can also partially become an animal. So I can make myself have sharper canines or I can have animal ears.” He tried to explain it as simply as he could. ”They are very much real and whenever I shift I am also very much turn into that animal”
I JUST WANT MY EXISTENCE TO BE MORE THAN TREMBLING
Josh stared blankly at Oliver's angry face, seemingly not moved at all nor even remotely intimidated by the frown. After all, he'd seen angrier expressions on men with helmets and guns and he'd still survived. A skinny kid with fluffy ears was hardly the most frightening thing he'd seen.
What Oliver told him though was incredibly interesting and he drew out his notebook in an instant to write it, amazed that this world not only had vampires, but now it had shapeshifters too. "Show me. Completely transform." He demanded, eyes wide and ready to take in what he was sure would be a fascinating display.
Damn was this dude pushy. Oliver really wanted to be nice, he really did, but boy was he lacking in any respect or personal boundaries. Hell, he wasn't even all that cute so Oliver didn't see any redeeming factors in him. But fine. Whatever. He would play along, as long as it meant that the man would be calm. Besides, he didn't even know attuneds existed. He could easily get a rude awakening from someone like Loren or Wessex. Those two would knock him into shape.
Shifting down into his leopard, Oliver chose his most intimidating shift. The fox was too delicate and he didn't exactly trust this man.
Sitting down, his tail flickered as he stared the man straight in the eyes, waiting for him to say something. Obviously, he wasn't going to be able to communicate with him, so hopefully this stranger wasn't expecting a full on conversation with a cat.
Instead of transforming into the fox or cute animal that would be expected from the ears, Oliver was replaced by a leopard in a process Josh tried to pay attention to but found difficult to quite pin down, as if his eyes missed the transition from human to animal. This was the kind of thing he'd immediately grab a camera for usually - he hoped he might be able to find something similar in Caido eventually.
He wrote several notes in his book rather than speak to Oliver right away, not seeming to rush to be polite. When he was done, Josh looked back up. "Can you understand human speech in this form? Nod if so." If the answer was yes, he had a list of questions which he would rattle off: "Do you have a craving to eat raw meat? Are your human instincts increased by this ability? Do you have the same sexual characteristics as when human? How old are you? Does that age matter for the creature?" There were many more, but he felt that was enough for the moment.
Thank the gods the man was respectful of his sensitive ears. Rather than immediately being met with a birrage of questions, he man waited for a few moments before he was asked something nice and simple. Obviously, he could understand. Just to prove it, he nodded and stared the man dead in the eyes.
And then he opened the door for a world of pain. Once the man FINALLY stopped talking, the leopard let out a soft sigh before he shifted back into a human. "You realize some of those questions can't be answered with a yes or no." He let out a sigh of frustration before running a hand through his hair. "Okay. I don't think I have any cravings? I mean.... I like to eat meat, but not raw." He still found it to be disgusting and unsanitary. "I have zero interest in doing anything sexual as an animal." He took a moment to breathe, seeing as he man was kind of giving him a lot to answer at once. "I don't think the animal stuff makes me more nimble or anything, I think training has done that. I'm also twenty-two and.... no? I mean. I've only had my shifts for a couple of seasons, so I couldn't say." Okay.... okay. He answered everything. Obviously, this wouldn't be the end of it.
"Lets take the rest of the questions a bit slower, okay? I'm okay with questions...just don't bombard me."
I JUST WANT MY EXISTENCE TO BE MORE THAN TREMBLING
"I only asked you to tell me if you could speak in a yes or no form." Josh replied succinctly, not liking being misinterpreted when it was genuinely unintentional. Still, it seemed Oliver was willing to give him answers anyway so he listened to what he was told, writing down parts that seemed important and adding further notes and question marks on as he went.
Oliver's request that he slow it down drew a frown from him, Josh pulling his mouth to the side with a clearly displeased look. "Where can I find other 'Attuned'?" Maybe they'd be more willing to speak at his level.
Letting out a soft sigh, Oliver held up a hand. "Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were asking it so that you could then move on to ask yes or no questions." Well great job Oliver, accusing the random dude of something. While the guy was being ultra invasive, Oliver knew that he should at least try to be a bit respectful of him and his beliefs. He was once just as obnoxious, hell, he's still super obnoxious.
There was an eyebrow raise at the man's next question. "More attuned?" What all did this man even know? "Well... we kind of are just...everywhere. It's sometimes hard to tell, since most people don't show partial shifts or walk around in their animal shifts just randomly." It was clearly hard to answer it seeing as Oliver was genuinely confused. "There's a lot of them... why? It's kinda like...finding an abandoned or an accepted. You just meet them. It doesn't change how we act or anything and the only way you can really know is if they show you or tell you." Hopefully that was a good explanation? Or at least cleared up any confusion, even if Oliver was even more confused now than he was before.
I JUST WANT MY EXISTENCE TO BE MORE THAN TREMBLING
"Mm." Was all Josh had to say about the misunderstanding, already forgetting it in favour of more interesting matters.
Oliver's confusion was evident, but as he gave the needed information anyway Josh didn't bring it up, nodding. Seemed like it'd be easy enough to find Attuned, though if they didn't look any different usually, he'd have to think of a creative way to sort them out from the rest of the population. "I'm trying to build up a base understanding of this world's mechanics before I work on more complex theories." He explained, voice a little tired as if it should be obvious.
"Do the Attuned have the same..." Josh sighed, wishing he didn't have to play along with the fantasy of Gods, but there was no way around it. "...Complex relationship with the Gods as the Abandoned do?"
There was a large peek in interest when Joshua mentioned complex theories. Now, he had mostly ignored any prior mentions of scientific research or taking down notes due to frustration over, well, the invasion of his personal space. Now that he had calmed down, Oliver was able to actually pay attention to this. Safe to say, he wanted to know more.
"What sorts of complex theories do you work on? What kind of science did you work in before you came here?" Most likely, he had said something wrong since this dude seemed a little stuck up, but Oliver still wanted to know more. Having people interested in science was better than someone saying 'Just accept it, that's how things work' because fuck was that shit annoying.
When the question was asked, Oliver could tell there was something behind it when Joshua spoke, but he brushed it off for now. The dude was being nice now about his questions, even if he seemed doubtful, so Oliver might as well try to educate him. "Not sure how much you know, but their dynamic is different. The Ascendeds align themselves to the New Gods, or the Voice. The Attuneds align to the Old Gods and then Accepted are to both. Abandoned are aligned to none because... they have a very complex history." Oliver had to hold his tongue from saying that none of the gods trusted or liked them. It was blunt and honest, but it was also probably not the most positive and uplifting thing to say.
"How much do you know about the gods? Or... well, do you want me to answer any questions? I can try to explain stuff if you'd like, I'm also an Outlander so I know how it feels to come into a place that is super different from what you're used to." Kind of a lie since when he originally arrived he lacked all his memories, but some memories had come back so he could sympathize now. Totally.
I JUST WANT MY EXISTENCE TO BE MORE THAN TREMBLING
To say he had been a scientist was a lie, though Josh had dabbled in experiments and investigations with homemade supplies regularly. Enough that he felt confident to give Oliver an answer. "I investigate paranormal happenings and cryptids. UFOs and dimensions, too...all the things people deny. Though..." He paused, then decided it didn't matter if he told this, as he wasn't even on his world. "My education is in media. I was a reporter."
Would Oliver know what that meant? Probably not, but that wasn't Josh's problem.
The races being defined by their relation to the Gods rather than their origin or skin tone was interesting indeed still and Josh listened closely, nodding as the categories Oliver gave matched up with that he had heard so far. "I know there is The Voice. That she rules over the vam--the Ascended. Not much past that. Tell me all you know."
