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!
Torchline was certainly the kind of place that would have been a holiday destination back on Earth, but Josh was not there for sightseeing. He'd heard there were mermaids here and had made a beeline to the beach - but when he'd finally gotten over his singular mermaid obsession he'd looked around and realised there was a whole goddamn town behind him.
After a bit of hanging around he'd learnt there was a new Governor in town; an Outlander, or at least an outsider, who had until recently lived on the beach selling trinkets: he sounded like a lot of Josh's old friends back home, many of whom ran stalls on roadsides that sold 'real' artefacts from Aliens or cryptid discovery sites.
Wanting to meet one of the rulers and hoping he might find some kind of affinity with this man he'd headed towards the lighthouse, where he had been told he might find him. There was indeed a house there but what took his attention first was a wagon; Josh walked up to it and slowly around it, looking at the writing on it with some interest. Quite what he was thinking as he stared at it closely was hard to know, but he was clearly lost in some thought or another.
"I hear the guy who owns this wagon is a real asshole." A voice remarked. It belonged to Remi of course, but there was every reason to believe Joshua wouldn't know that. Sitting beneath a tree, shirtless and appearing to have been asleep, the man cracked an eye open and regarded the interloper casually for a moment before shrugging. "You're probably better to just take what you want than try and barter with him." Remi added in that same sly and rather bored tone, though his lips quirked rather mischievously.
Moving to sit up, the man pressed a finger against his shoulder as if to ensure he wasn't burning (he wasn't, though his skin was appreciably dark now from all his months in Torchline). Seemingly content with his level of sun protection, he ran a hand up the side of his unshaven cheek and gave Joshua a proper look now, sea-glass eyes still slightly dreamy from sleep. "Unless you're actually looking for him and then...well, who knows how long you'll be waiting."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The voice cutting through the wind caused Josh to look over at the just-woken stranger and he breathed out a small huff of laughter, smiling as he looked back over the wagon. "What is it that he sells from here?" He asked, stepping about the wagon as if hoping to catch a glimpse into some small crack or left-open window.
Remi continued to speak and Josh shrugged. "I can wait. I did actually come to speak to the Governor. He lives here? It seems...odd that a politician and leader would also sell things out of a scruffy wagon." He'd already known this was the case before he'd arrived but Josh had expected to see something a little more...professional, he supposed. With staff and a fresh coat of paint.
"If you pull on that latch, you can see for yourself." Remi replied, nosing towards a hatch that was unlocked. "He sells ... well, it's a rather random assortment, honestly. No real rhyme and reason. Some useful things, some weapons...usually it's things he finds interesting that no one else would care about."
Snorting, the alchemist shook his head to cut the detective off. "Politician? Hardly. He was a nobody before coming to this world, made a few waves here, and was only elected because he'd found this place before his competition had." Standing up and reaching his arms over his head in a cat-like stretch, Remi folded his arms across his chest. "Only reason he's here at all is because his husband got someone else pregnant and needed a proper house for the child to live in."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
When prompted Josh went to open the hatch, peering inside to see what was on offer. Reaching in he pulled out what looked like a pack of smokes, turning it in his hand; a habit he had dropped many years ago, but one that did sometimes call... "Do people smoke tobacco here?" He asked, wonder if the flora here were the same as the ones back on Earth...and another question arose too. "And do you have drugs or hallucinogenics here?" He'd always been a little skeptical of their value in occult applications, but he'd experimented.
Remi seemed to know a lot about this Governor's personal life and Josh watched him speak with a raised eyebrow. "Who are you? Some kind of stalker?" Not that he carried any judgement in this question: that would probably make Remi quite useful for his questions.
Remi watched Joshua pick up the pack with mild interest, before nodding. "They do, among other things." It was with great effort that the alchemist forced his thoughts away from one such man. "I don't personally no, but they exist. What they do varies based on where you are...In the Hollowed Grounds there are fish that induce a dream-like state where you can...work things out. Tree sap that is quite hallucinogenic, and all the usual things that one might want to smoke, chew, or shoot."
Chuckling slightly, Remi merely shook his head. "No, though I wish what I am could be so easily boiled down." The alchemist's smile was easy and genuine as he extended a hand towards the once-investigator. "Remi Taliesin, at your service."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
These fish certainly sounded interesting enough and Josh put down the pack of smokes to pull his pencil and notebook out of his pocket and scribble that down, wanting to investigate later. The other things sounded pretty typical, nothing he'd be interested in unless it could provide him with some kind of occult experience.
He was ready to wait in silence for the governor to arrive when Remi introduced himself. Josh's eyes widened for a moment in understanding before his face went flat again and he stepped forward to shake the hand that was offered, his shake strong but short. "You're weird. I expected that, with the wagon. What made you choose to become governor?"
04-16-2020, 09:01 PM (This post was last modified: 04-16-2020, 09:01 PM by Remi.)
REMI
If Remi had been expected some humorous look of surprise on Josh's face, he didn't look disappointed at all not to find it there. "Weird mmm? I've been called much worse, so I suppose I'll take it." The Alchemist chuckled, making no attempt to defend himself.
Releasing Josh's hand Remi folded his arms easily across his chest. "I chose to campaign. I was elected by the people to become Governor." He corrected. "This is my home now, the last Governor was absolute shit, and while there is a lot of good here, there is a lot of bad as well." The Alchemist gave the man a thoughtful hum as if to say is that not reason enough?
"So what can I do for you,...?" Tilting his head to the side to indicate he hadn't caught the man's name.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I have lost count of the amount of people that have called me weird." Josh replied with a shrug, though he wasn't really too bothered if Remi was offended or not. He'd never understood why people cared what others thought of them in general: when there was work to be done, things to be accomplished, who cared about someone's take on you?
Remi's reasoning was alright enough, he supposed, if somewhat bland. "What did the last Governor do that was shit? What are you going to do to be less shit?" It might be interesting to learn about the policies to be put in place (so if he wanted to do anything illegal, he could do it before the law came in).
"Joshua Sheppard. I wanted to ask you some questions about Torchline, the Gods and the Portals. I was told you are a man with experience here." He raised an eyebrow as if trying to challenge Remi on that.
"Well, lived in a Volcano and hadn't been seen or heard from in years, to start." The Alchemist said with a bit of a smirk. "As for making it less shit, well...There's crime in Torchline, we all know that. But there's sort of...the expected sort, and then the other sort. The other sort will be stopping. Now." Underground economies, brothels, gambling...Remi understood the mechanics of those. Beating the shit out of women and men in the streets? Rampant sexual assault? Hard no.
Raising his brows slightly at this list of topics, Remi pursed his lips and nodded. "I don't know what counts as experience, but fair enough. What would you like to know?"
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Living in a Volcano and not doing anything for people sounded like a pretty wonderful life for Josh, and he began to wonder if there might be a chance for him to take up the title whenever Remi retired. Still, for the moment he was a detective, and he had questions. "So what's your plan to stop the crime? Politely ask them to stop?" A small grin, the indication of the charismatic reporter he'd once been.
He had far more interest in questions about the portals and Gods though. "Which Gods have you met? Do you have a favourite?" This might have seemed a naive question, but he had a reason to ask it: if Remi did have a favourite God, he might be more likely to speak on that one.
"Something like that." The Alchemist replied with a grin. "Though in Torchline, what counts as polite is a bit...nonstandard." Which was of course to say that it would be through threats, bribes, and fists that the violence would end. To be sure the programs Nate and Sunjata had suggested would go far to easing some of the strain, but the language of Torchline was violence, and it was one the Alchemist was quickly becoming fluent in.
Raising a brow slightly at this next question (this conversation having nothing to do with him being Governor, it seemed), he shrugged. "All of the heralds: Frey, Safrin, and Ludo. I've met the Voice before as well." But a favourite? Gods no. "No favourite. There are those I...respect more than others. Those I have a healthier fear of, you might say."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"So you will beat them into submission." Josh nodded, no particular judgement in his voice, just a statement of fact. Whatever Remi was doing with his town was none of his business if it didn't factor into Josh's search for mermaids or whatever else - in fact, a beat-down population were less likely to pay attention to him, so he was all for it.
Having a tendency to jump between many topics at once, Josh didn't think anything at all of going from politics to Gods in one leap. "Which ones? Why do you fear them more? Frey appears to have power over the body, though I still wonder if it is a trick." There were ways someone could do it, after all: a dash of pheromones, some magic or another.
Remi raised his brow at that, wondering what about non-standard made Joshua immediately jump to violence. He wasn't entirely wrong, but if this man didn't know who Remi was, he couldn't have known much about Torchline either.
"Well, I've been cursed by both Frey and Ludo in different ways. Given Safrin brought my husband back from the dead, she too holds a wary place in my heart." The Alchemist shrugged, his interactions with the Voice having been surprisingly neutral, thus far. "Why think it being a trick is any different than it being a power?" Remi wanted to know, a brow curiously raised. "Would knowing how it's accomplished changed the potency of it?"
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
