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!
The more Joshua explained, the more interested Oliver became. Unfortunately, it seemed this man wasn't from the same place as him seeing as a couple of the words he didn't recognize at all. No matter, he was still interested in learning more. Any opportunity to learn about a new location would be well accepted by Oliver. Part of him still wondered if there was a connection between each of the places they came from or if it truly was completely random.
With a tilt of his head, Oliver decided to push on a bit and ask some questions of his own. "What's a UFO? Or a Cryptid? I recognize all of the other stuff. Reporters are super cool." They do get a shit ton of information wrong, but Oliver also saw it as necessary. How else would he learn about the news from other places quickly? "I know some people back where I came from who did similar things. There were people who specialized in the paranormal, though, I never had any problems so we had no reason to request for any help." It was a major surprise that certain things like that had carried over to this world.
Oh boy. Seems that someone has told Joshua about the Ascended. Most likely an Ascended, seeing as he doesn't know about any of the other gods. "Well, yes, she does rule over the Ascended and grants them special abilities, but there are far more gods than that." Should he mention the major ones? Or just the ones Joshua is likely to interact with. "There are heralds of three major gods. The major gods are Vi, Rae, and Mort." Truth be told, Oliver still wasn't entirely sure what Rae did....oops? "Then the heralds are Frey, Safrin, and Ludo. Frey is our god of sex and reproduction... and marriage. Honestly, anything like that, they'll represent. Ludo helps souls to reach Mort." And then the grand finale, of course, his favorite god.
"Safrin is- fantastic. She is our stars, she breathes life into our world. She is simply incredible. If you want to meet a god, I would recommend her, but be wary. She doesn't want you to waste her time with small, petty little problems... and also, I'd warn you that Frey is extremely short. Ludo may be the most willing to answer questions, but it is also very playful."
I JUST WANT MY EXISTENCE TO BE MORE THAN TREMBLING
"Unidentified flying object. Creature that isn't officially recognised by science." Josh rattled off the definitions quickly, not responding to Oliver's comment that reporters were 'cool'. In his experience it had really been the opposite, but he wasn't interested in arguing about it. That they 'never had any problems' like that in Oliver's world, though...that drew a snort from him. "There were problems. You were just too ignorant to see them."
There would be plenty of people on Earth that would say there weren't any paranormal problems after all, and they would be wrong.
The information about Gods fit in with other things he'd heard so far, though Oliver's passionate devotion towards Safrin did not go unnoticed, the little speech drawing a raised eyebrow from Josh, who had never understood religious fervour. "Where does your love for this Goddess come from? Have you received any actual benefit from your following?"
Tilting his head, he tried to think about what Joshua had to say. "Interesting... so would a cryptid be like, something other than a lion? Like... a creature that people report to exist, but has no real proof other than stories?" Just to get some clarification. Things were going pretty good, it seemed, Oliver was asking questions and learning about Joshua's world- until Joshua was an absolute asshat. For no fucking reason. That lovely comment earned almost a growl from Oliver. Clearly, he wasn't a fan of it. "Ignorant? How the fuck am I ignorant if the house I grew up in had nothing that we should be worried about?" What the fuck?! All he had said was that there was no reason to raise alarm! How the hell is that ignorance. "You saying we should've told someone if we were happy with our current situation?" Yeah, a couple of paranormal things occasionally happened, like a door randomly opening, but it wasn't harmful. It wasn't an attack on anyone. What's the point in fighting against something that was clearly harmless?
It would be very hard to shake away those angry thoughts. Oliver was not ignorant. Joshua was seemingly just an asshole. Why the Voice had brought him? Oliver would have no idea. He was even hesitant to answer the question. "She made me an attuned, before I was just an abandoned." Clearly he had been graciously blessed by the goddess.
I JUST WANT MY EXISTENCE TO BE MORE THAN TREMBLING
"A...lion." Josh repeated, absolutely baffled by the example given and the sentence surrounding it. Had...Oliver never seen animals beside lions? He himself had fox ears, didn't he? "..There are...creatures other than lions that are not cryptids. Conversely, not all creatures that are not lions are not cryptids." He'd never thought this was a thing he'd have to explain, but he supposed different worlds, different dimensions...
This certainly did nothing to help his perception of Oliver as 'ignorant', something the young man took quite a lot of problem with. Blinking as Oliver yelled, Josh didn't react, just blankly watched. "It doesn't matter why you were ignorant of the happenings. You were. It is not a huge deal, now that you're here. I'm ignorant about how to use a washing machine." He tried to use as an example, but honestly it didn't matter too much to him if Oliver was offended.
"Oh. Right." He nodded about Safrin's blessing. "Does she often do that?"
And on he went. Talking about how a lion wasn't a cryptid. "I know that. I was simply looking for something to compare it to. It's like a sea monster that lives in ocean, yeah? By the shore or a dock? One that you only see when you're dazed and confused, that scientists haven't been able to discover?" Hopefully that would satisfy his little dreams because Oliver was steadily growing more tired of this conversation. Gods, no wonder why people got annoyed by him when he first arrived. And then things oh-hoh, they got much worse.
This man was so... infuriating! How dare he call him ignorant? The same man who literally tried to grab at his fucking ears! It was insulting really. Why the hell had The Voice chosen a man like this of all people? Probably gullible enough waltz on out during LongNight and get killed. Ignorance? Fucking dick.
Trying to withhold any anger, Oliver took a deep breath to steady himself. "That is very unfortunate that you could never use a washing machine but lucky for you, we don't have those here! Here, everything is handwashed." Oliver could guess what that was. A machine that washed clothes. Fantastic. Too bad for poor little guy, those things didn't exist. At least now Oliver could focus on that instead of arguing with him about the fact that Oliver did know the paranormal existed, thank you very much.
Clasping his hands together, Oliver let out a sigh. "It is rare, yeah. She really doesn't do it often. First, she has to answer your prayer, then she has to judge you. You may even die if she deems you unworthy. The gods are not to be taken lightly. I will warn you of that." Joshua seemed like the kind of guy to overly explain a simple concept, such as a washing machine, to a god like Safrin and get permanently turned into a toad.
I JUST WANT MY EXISTENCE TO BE MORE THAN TREMBLING
If Oliver was running out of patience, Josh was doing worse. He didn't have need for people that weren't providing him with good info, and Oliver wasn't doing that and he was being pretty irritating as well. He'd seen cryptids in plenty of states other than 'dazed and confused' and had never searched for a sea monster - everyone knew Nessie was just Bigfoots dick floating out of the water.
Ignoring angry words about washing machines and warnings about the Gods, he looked over Oliver's head to the path beyond. "This conversation isn't useful anymore. I'm going to leave." Unless Oliver stopped him, Josh would simply walk away.
Oliver seemed to be the exact opposite of Joshua. Someone who actually had feelings towards otherwise and could understand that people came from different periods. He wasn't an asshole that immediately expected every single person to know what a Cryptid was. And oh- if only Oliver knew that Nessie comment because guess what asshole, he wasn't referring to Nessie! Learn the difference between a Scottish and an Irish accent, you fuck-stick.
It was no surprise that Oliver genuinely didn't care when Joshua decided to make his leave. Boy was this manchild dramatic. Oh no, I'm going to leave and make you feel like it's your fault. Whatever. "Have fun." And back Oliver went to sitting by the stream, quite literally ignoring Joshua completely. Let the dude get cursed, it'd do him some good. Oliver tried to warn him but Joshua clearly didn't think he was educated enough to be listened to.
What a fucking dick.
FIN!!!!!
I JUST WANT MY EXISTENCE TO BE MORE THAN TREMBLING
