Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
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I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
Weaver chuckles at the mention of Frey. She had never met them, though she had heard enough about the herald to have some inkling of what they might be like. ”Ah, yes. That does sound like something I would expect of Frey.” They were certainly an interesting god, but then again, they all seemed to be rather interesting. From her understanding, Safrin was perhaps the most normal, though normal really isn’t a good word for it. She knows far less of the old gods themselves as compared to the heralds, though that isn’t surprising. Few would see the old gods in their lifetime.
Content with the purchase, Weaver tucks the bag of candy into her pocket and follows him to the next stall. The baked goods smell divine, and she picks up a pastry covered in chocolate. Another bit of beef jerky handed over, and she’s happily eating her chocolate covered treat as he browses for whatever it is he’d like to purchase. ”Sounds vaguely like Torchline,” she says with a bit of humor in her voice and her mouth still slightly full of pastry. ”Though I’m guessing the similarities end at hot and busy. Also, I’m curious, what exactly is the point of money?” Wouldn’t it just be faster to trade one thing for the other? Money seemed like an extra step.
Weaver didn't seem to be bothered or embarrassed at all by Josh's recount of his time with Frey, which raised his opinion of her somewhat: he'd always looked down on squeamishness and embarrassment, thought people wasted way too much time on it. That this woman could accept the facts of life easily made her someone he might actually enjoy talking to. "Have you spoken to any of the other Gods? Do they make similar requests?"
He shook his head at her comparison. "No. It was not coastal. Or at least: where I lived was not." Josh had never been one for the beach, unless he was mermaid hunting.
Trading a few nicer rocks he'd found on the fields for the pastries (it was possible the shopkeeper was taking pity oh him) he picked them up before replying. "When things get big enough it's useful. I don't know. Not an economist. Read some communist texts but got bored. Not enough crytpids."
04-25-2020, 06:34 PM (This post was last modified: 04-25-2020, 06:35 PM by Weaver.)
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
She is not at all bothered by the mention of male parts. They exist. In fact, she rather tends to like male parts. Besides, she’s grown up here, and with that many stories of Frey have made their way to her. ”They make requests, though not of the same nature as Frey,” she says. From what she gathers, each has their own preferences, their own types of requests. Frey liked things that were juicy, so far as she knew. She thinks of Safrin, of the quest given to Sunjata, and the request for a heart of a rare creature. ”I gather Ludo tends to be the most generous.” She doesn’t quite know what to say of Safrin.
Weaver takes another bite of her pastry, watching as Josh trades pretty rocks. What an unfair trade, though the shopkeeper takes it anyway. Maybe not everyone hated Outlanders after all. His next statement is all full of words that are largely meaningless to her. She can get the gist of it, but still, economist? Communist? She considers asking, but decides she probably doesn’t care that much. Crytpids though is a word she does understand, and she grins a bit. ”Did you have magic, or magical creatures, where you came from?”
"The death one is the most generous. Interesting." There was probably some kind of spiritual observation one could make about that, but Josh really wasn't the type for coming out with grand statements on life and death. He'd have to try and find this Ludo for himself and see just how generous it was, he supposed. He'd found on Earth that generous spirits tended to always have catches hidden somewhere away in their gifts.
If Weaver was unfamiliar with his terms she didn't say so, so he didn't explain. "Yes. Well. I don't know about magic. But a lot of creatures that could be classified as magical: I prefer to use scientific words, though." Of course, a lot of the 'science' he subscribed to a lot of people would call 'bullshit', but he'd never really cared. "We had mermaids, vampires, werewolves...hidden from the public eye. Not like here - a lot of people didn't believe."
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
She is not exactly the most philosophical either, so she cannot add anything particularly profound. Instead, she merely says, ”Perhaps that is not shocking.” And perhaps it is not. There is something kind about death for those who pass on to the next realm. It is only for the living that death is truly all that painful, if Delphia is to be believed (and what reason did she have to lie about it?). ”Though being told to orgasm as a quest from Frey isn’t exactly bad,” she adds with a chuckle, ruining any deep conversation that might have happened.
”How do you know you had them, then?” she asks. It’s not because she doesn’t believe him, but simply because she wonders what kept them alive, and the tone of the question makes it clear enough. Stories, like here? Tales that make them hope and believe things might exist, or could be different simply because they were different long ago? After all, how many times had she been asked after mageglass by people who don’t believe it exists simply because they cannot find it? ”And what scientific words do you have for the things of Caido?” Because it seems pretty magical to her. Like conjuring fire from nothing.
Josh actually snorted in quiet laughter at Weaver's comment, nodding and tilting his head from side to side. It wasn't really the kind of quest he'd have chosen to undertake, but as they went it was easy enough, he supposed. It didn't require any pre-planning, at least.
"I know they exist because I made it my work to hunt them out." He explained, shaking his head a little with a sigh: it had always frustrated him how easy it would have been for the rest of the world to see what he did, if they just bothered to look. "When I would try to present my evidence though, one organisation or another would crush it. I have had my home burnt to the ground three times; I do not keep many possessions now." There wasn't any emotion in his voice as he recalled this fact, but something in his eyes would momentarily flash haunted.
Her last question was a little odd and he paused, unsure of how to answer it. "There is a scientific name for anything. You would need to be more specific."
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
A few orgasms was definitely the kind of quest you wanted. Better than the heart of a rare creature, though Weaver wonders if they, as humans, made requests like that harder than they needed to be. They did have a tendency to overcomplicate even the simplest of things.
Weaver stuffs the last bite of the pastry into her mouth, listening as he talks about the creatures. Though he doesn’t sound particularly sad about his home being burned, there is clearly something lurking beneath that. She cannot quite imagine, and though it feels like she’s probably missing a good bit of the story, she feels for him. ”What exactly was your profession?” she asks, steering the conversation into what feels at least slightly safer. Find out what he did exactly, perhaps how he planned to translate that to Caido, if at all.
She hums slightly. ”Start with magic,” she says, unfurling her palm and letting a small little flame burst to life there. Perhaps it was science, but she wasn’t quite sure how science explained her ability to control fire and air, her ability to heal her own body and others. It didn’t feel like science, at any rate.
Josh paused at Weaver's question. He usually answered 'paranormal investigator', but that seemed a brief explanation now that they were in an actual conversation about it. "I used to work in TV." He began, then immediately realised he'd now have to describe what that was. "...A way of communicating to people over the world. I told the news from countries in wars." A time in his life he didn't often talk about now, world conflicts seeming a world away from the cryptid-packed space he had inhabited. "Now I research paranormal occurrences and creatures. Governments don't like that."
Start with magic was, well, simpler, but still quite the request. Josh watched the flame as he tried to think of the right words. "It is difficult because magic takes a different form here than on Earth. There magic was usually in the form of petitionary prayer and focused on the movement of energies around yourself to manifest situations. Here it is more immediate. Your pyromancy would have seemed bizarre on Earth."
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
She turns to him a bit at the mention of TV, eyebrows going up in a clearly confused look. Though he seems to anticipate that (it cannot be the first confused look he’s gotten at the word), and he continues. His description only kind of helps, but of course, she’s grown up with limited communications at all, and what did come in was through a bird or posted on a piece of paper. ”Huh. How did that work?” More importantly, how did they get something like that here?
She’s equally confused by the idea of governments not liking paranormal research, but then again, their lives were basically paranormal. ”Have you found that to be true here? I imagine no one really cares as long as you aren’t picking at their secrets.” That was always the real issue. Whose secret was he really picking at?
She listens as he explains, sort of, though there doesn’t really seem to be a scientific explanation for what she does. She shrugs, the fire going out. ”So, magic,” she says with a teasing grin, as if that explains her point. Maybe it was okay that they didn’t know everything. ”It is handy, regardless of whether we understand it. Did you have gods as we do?”
How did TV work was such a big question Josh wasn't really sure how to tackle it and he decided that right now, he didn't want to. "If you really want to know, come and ask me later. I'll need diagrams and time to think about it. It's complicated." He'd have to explain cameras, electricity, radio waves, microphones, how film worked...there was too much to get into for a casual chat at a market stall.
"It's not true here. But I haven't really gotten to the secrets yet. There will be secrets: just different ones to my old world." Since magic and monsters were common knowledge, there had to be something lurking in the shadows that was even worse and he was determined to get to it.
Josh actually smiled at her repeating of 'magic' and shrugged, giving her the point. "Yeah." As for the last question he just shook his head, though of course that one was a matter of opinion: but as the representative for the whole of Earth right now, he was able to make that judgement call.
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know all that badly, but maybe one of these days she’d decide she cared enough to ask the question again. Well, actually, that’s not quite true. She’s curious if there are better means of communication that they could manage in Caido, something other than ravens that got lost on their way to Halo half the time. So maybe she did want to know, but less about the specific workings of TV, and more about what they might actually be able to accomplish here. So for now, she only nods, tucking the idea away for later use.
The topic drifts on to secrets, and she’s quiet for a moment as they wander through the market. She’s in no rush, having already planned to stay the night in the Grounds, so she might as well make use of the time for conversation. ”How do you feel about gathering secrets?” she asks him after a short pause. The question is a bit strange, but she’s got an idea nibbling at her mind and it’s the sort of thing best approached sideways.
They walked along for a moment in silence and Josh looked at all the various items on display, mind already beginning to wander to how each one could be used, how it fed into the greater cultural history of the place...some things were obvious, but he was sure there would be others with hidden meanings.
When Weaver spoke again she pulled him from this train of thought and he had to take a moment to roll the question over in his head, unsure of quite what it meant. "..Is that an offer? Do you need some kind of secret found?" He asked, looking at her with a brow lifted.
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
Weaver looks at the items in the market with a far more practical standpoint. What could she take back to Halo? What would keep through Deepfrost? Weaver’s mind was always running through the useful things, the practical things, having lived a whole life of simply trying to survive. They learned how to use everything, how to waste nothing, and she can never quite turn off that part of her.
She gives him a slight grin as he figures out where she is going. ”Perhaps, though I am thinking more of a standing arrangement. I am always interested in information, particularly where the portals are concerned, or Halo, though it’s always hard to be sure just what might be useful. Perhaps, if you are thinking of digging into secrets anyway, there might be something mutually beneficial in it?” She is not sure what he might like in return, or what she could offer, but it certainly didn’t hurt to ask.
Josh was frankly surprised to receive an offer from Weaver given how they'd met and how unhappy she had been about it, but he wasn't going to question that for the moment. "Sure. I don't mind sharing the information as long as you don't tell anyone where you got it. If it's sensitive. And I will find out." He wasn't a particularly threatening man, but this sentence definitely had an edge to it.
"It depends on what you could give me though. I'm not interested in money or sex." He paused, tilted his head from side to side. "If you have information for me, that could do."
