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!
Delphine was... wandering, again. Though this time it was in more familiar territory. She had left her little gremlins in the cave with the bird as a sitter and had set out to trade what little skills she was aware she had, for things that might prove useful. She was already contemplating ideas to get herself a new dress, though ideas were just ideas until put to the test.
It'd really be easier to just sell her body or to steal, but she couldn't bring herself to do either of those things, some moral code she had. As she walked, she was allowing her gaze to wander, across vendors and traders, and other patrons mingling. She wasn't entirely sure what she was searching for... so she'd just keep searching until she found it.
If nothing came of it, at least she got a good walk in. Her thoughts turned to the fact she used to paint, before finding herself in Caido, and how that might be a way to barter and trade; though she'd need to figure out what she could use to make her paints... The canvas was easy, she knew how to skin small animals...
These thoughts had caused her to be absentminded enough to run right into someone, and she murmured a quiet, "My fault, sorry." Though it did not sound like she meant it, nor did it sound like she was actually there, her tone was absent as if she was far-away.
Josh had come down from his spire-camp to find supplies, now that he'd set up and could see clearly what it was he was missing. Mostly he needed some kind of large material piece to hang up as a ceiling, so when it rained he wouldn't find all his things soaked. In his old world he would have just found some tarp at a dump, but here it was all a little harder.
So he was in the market, trying to find something that wasn't wool. Leather would do, but any pieces big enough for what he wanted all seemed ridiculously expensive. He was beginning to wonder just how hard it was to kill and tan his own leather when he was knocked into and stepped back stiffly, looking Delphine over as she gave her obviously not-meant apology.
"It was." He agreed, but was not overly bothered about how genuine her words were. Normally he would have just continued after this point but something made him stay back and he peered at the woman curiously. Something about her seemed familiar...someone he knew from Earth?? ..but he couldn't quite place it; while he thought about this his eyes kept locked on her in a way that was probably quite uncomfortable.
Delphine moved past the stranger without a second thought. She was looking... for something. However, as she moved she felt like she was being watched, and quickly scoured the area around her.
Just that stranger.
She must have pissed him off. Or maybe he wanted a better apology. She didn't have one to offer, so he was out of luck there.
"Do you need something, sir?" She stood in place, about six feet from the man, and waited for an answer. She wasn't getting a vibe that she should be afraid; more... like he wanted something. So that's what she was waiting for.
Apparently he'd stared long enough for Delphine to notice and when she called attention to it he shook his head, though then did ask her a question anyway: "Did you come here from Earth?" Loren had told him there were other Outlanders from his home planet and he assumed the same dimension, so it wasn't impossible. As much as he wanted to pretend this question was only for investigative knowledge it might bring, there was a part of him that wanted to make as many connections with his old world as possible.
He'd never been a sentimental man before but he found himself hoping that she might say yes, even though he knew the odds well. Still, none of this emotional side to the question showed through, Josh as still and monotone as ever.
Delphine furrowed her brow at the question, tilting her head in thought. "Earth? Uhm... I'm from Northaven." She wasn't sure how to answer that question. It was... direct, which was nice.
"Are you from Earth?" She inquired. Delphine had never heard anyone refer to Northaven as 'Earth', but hey, she'd at least be honest with the stranger. She moved towards him, and offered her hand.
"Delphine." She spoke with a clear and easy voice, and she offered a smile. "Have you heard of Northaven?"
"Oh." Josh had heard of Northaven from Loren; it sounded like a world not entirely dissimilar to Earth but under quite a strict social regime - either way, not Earth. Josh would have left the conversation then had Delphine not asked him the question in return, and well, it was only fair to answer it. It wasn't like he could fall into any negative consequences now from her knowing his home. "Yes. I come from the United States...a country on Earth."
He took the hand more out of habit than anything else, the handshake strong and confident while his eyes were distant, and he quickly let go. "Josh Sheppard. I have. It didn't sound like a good place to live." Statements like this were often useful to ascertain the attitude of the person you were speaking to: would she agree or defend her home?
Delphine tilted her head, thinking about her old home. "I... wouldn't know whether it was a good place to live or not. I belonged to the Master Chief." There was a tone that made sure the man in front of her understood she had been a pet. "He was the man in charge, so he and his wife were able to give me the world."
But she had seen people who had less than she did, and how they had dealt with living in less than ideal manners. "Can you tell me about your Earth? Was it like the settlement?" She had never realized there were worlds aside from Caido and Northaven, though she had yet to get to know anyone who wasn't from her homeland or a natural.
"Belonged." Josh repeated, though he didn't seem to be particularly disapproving or approving of that, just making sure he got it right. He'd seen so many horrors in his life that it took a lot to phase him, and well...unfortunately, this kind of thing was more common than many wanted to imagine. "Was the Master Chief in charge of your country, or the world as a whole?"
He watched the people going past for a moment instead of answering her question, unsure of how to sum up his Earth or how he'd even ended up in this conversation to begin with. He supposed he could humour it for a while: If Delphine would give him answers about her world, he would tell her things about his. "No. ...Maybe in some parts. Not where I lived. I lived in a desert, in a...metal house." He doubted she'd know what a trailer was. "We had a lot more technology than there is here."
"Belonged." She confirmed, with a firm nod. She agreed with Zariah, that there had been no real love there, just adoration, and lust for the things the man could give her. "Uhm... We had a king, in our other world. See, uhm. We got to Northaven by using a portal, to leave Northwind." She nodded slowly. That was right...
"He was in charge of the settlement, uhm... I guess it was its own country." This was hard to explain, when she had never thought much about it herself.
Luckily, he moved on. "Oh? Can you tell me about it?" She moved towards him, now, clearly intrigued. "Metal... house? Like a sword is made of? That's... that's a lot of metal."
Delphine didn't seem entirely sure of the answer to his question herself so Josh didn't push when he didn't quite understand it. "Powerful man, at least." He stated, sure of that if not anything else. That certainly didn't equate to power for Delphine as someone 'owned' by the man though, so he didn't asked her any more questions about the government or set up of her world.
He was sure someone else could tell him, anyway. It seemed there were a few residents here from that specific dimension: he wondered if some were more likely to gain portals than others.
"It was a trailer with wheels. Made of thinner and cheaper metal than a sword. Far away from anything else." If you had squinted from the door, you might have been able to see the road on a clear day, but he had purposefully positioned himself far enough away from civilisation that he could go about his business privately. "It was small. Not much bigger than two stalls put together." He pointed to the market stalls, trying to get a reference she could understand.
Delphine nodded slightly, "Yeah, powerful." Bellamy had held all the cards in her life. She was glad when nothing more was said on the matter. Then man began to explain what he meant, using terms and visible items she might understand.
That, at least, was helpful.
"That sounds... lonely," she surmised. It also sounded a lot like a horse stable, than a home, but that was probably rude to say.
Delphine judged his description of his old home as lonely, which made Josh blink in surprise; he was quiet as he considered it. She was likely right: after all, he'd never had any guests as a matter of principle and barely saw cars go by, but he had chosen it for those reasons and never particularly missed the company of people. The tumbleweeds, the desert winds had been enough, as well as..
"I had a computer." He told her, then sighed as he realised he'd have to explain what that was. "It let me send messages to people anywhere in the world very quickly. I spoke to a lot of people about the topics I was researching." A grand way to describe having arguments on forums, but since he was away from Earth now he had a chance to rewrite his own narrative a little bit. "I like being alone, anyway."
Delphine tilted her head, nodding slowly as he explained. That sounded like it was nice. "So... not lonely, then?" She raised her eyebrows, studying the man. "Are you lonely here, without your, uhm, computer?"
This man was strange. What world had he come from, that was similar but so dissimilar at the same time? What was this 'Earth'? Nevertheless, he was interesting.
"Tell me more! What other things did your Earth have?"
Delphine's question took Josh a moment to answer as he considered it. He'd never really thought of his computer as that much of a social device prior to coming here; it had been for asking questions and confirming theories, for typing out flyers to hang up in towns: though now that he was actually without it, he supposed he did miss those innane comments on his forum posts... "I am lonelier. Not lonely." He settled on.
What else did Earth have? was a very broad question, one that left Josh staring blankly for a moment as he tried to think of something out of everything that had made up his life. "Cars." He finally blurted out, the first word to come to mind. "We had cars. They were metal boxes with wheels. They let you drive somewhere fast." Trying to simplify the explanations for her, he thought of what else he could say. "There were bigger ones. Buses. For a lot of people."
