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!
04-17-2020, 04:34 PM (This post was last modified: 04-18-2020, 04:32 PM by Odd.)
Despite the best efforts of Jigano and Remi, parts of Haulani hadn't been spared from Apopo's wrath. Seeing as Saiden had already helped with the evacuation and been assisting with clearing the air, he figured he'd help with the rebuild as well. So he'd wrangled Jack and Eloise into coming with him to the damaged area. How? Pathetic begging, probably.
The cook had a small pool of water he'd borrowed from the ocean rolling beside him on the off chance he needed to use his water magic. Mostly, he was ignoring the other two, not trusting himself and his reaction to their interactions, and trusting them to get the job done on their own. Of course, he couldn't help the unhappiness roiling in his chest at the thought of them being together.
That wouldn't stop him from doing his job to the best of his abilities though. Coming to a stop, he surveyed the area in front of them. "How do you want to do this, Captain?" His tone was polite; whatever issues the two men might have, Jack was still the Hali's captain.
This is a PQ+ for Cleaning up Haulani. Make sure to list out things/items you’re bringing along!
I don't, was the obvious response. Jack's home was his ship - he had no base of operations in Haulani, just a lot of connections. Valuable connections. And therein lay the reason for Saiden's pathetic begging having the impact that it did. The ground was still warm underfoot, and Jack frowned around at those houses and businesses that had been worst hit by the disaster. And even then, he couldn't really say they had been hit all that badly.
"I'll say one thing of our new Governor - he's pulled a fuckin' miracle out his asshole with this one," he rumbled, flicking the stub of his cigarette away and exhaling a deep whorl of smoke. "Should probably start by checkin' out the houses, makin' sure there's no internal damage. Clearin' the streets wouldn't go awry either. Plenty of ash still kickin' about."
Darling, you take the high horse and I'll take the high road
"What a delightful image. Cheers." Arms crossed over her chest, Eloise shot the captain a scowl for his particularly colourful language.
With a look towards Saiden, the illusionist offered him a small smile, knowing anything more would trigger more than a few thoughts in her mind she'd rather Jack not hear. So rather than anything else might have done (and then been inclined to think), she shrugged her shoulders blandly in his direction. "You're rather good at cleaning up a mess, why don't you take care of the streets then?"
If you're too good for us, you'll be good riding solo
As you all survey what’s happened, you’ll notice ash coating the streets, wind whipped up in corners and thick with the humidity to where they almost feel like the early stages of concrete beginning to harden. As for the buildings, roofs are coated, sinking in places upon the myriad of homes that litter Haulani’s streets. Windows are broken, foundations cracked from the explosion and the way the earth had rumbled its fury.
There’s much to be done, daunting to some. But you all seem crafty enough to accomplish the task. And so Haulani’s cleanup begins.
Your randomly determined order is: Jack , Saiden , and Eloise. Please summarize at the bottom of your post which task you pick: roofs, streets, foundation/windows.
"You're welcome," Jack muttered in response to Eloise, glancing up and down the streets and wrinkling his nose at the sight of all the ash. The rooftops didn't seem much better, but Jack was more accustomed to climbing and hanging from buildings than he was at sweeping streets or repairing windows.
"I'll take the high road, I reckon," he said to his two crew, nodding at the nearest house and breaking off from the group to find out how he could clamber up there and take a better look. With him, he grabbed a length of rope from the supplies he'd brought along, and a thick bristled brush. If the ash on the rooftops had turned to sludge, Eloise and Saiden might find it being rained upon them.
Jack chooses rooftops, and heads up there with some rope and a brush to check out the damage.
04-19-2020, 01:50 PM (This post was last modified: 04-19-2020, 02:52 PM by Saiden.)
Laughing at Jack's comment about the governor, Saiden just nodded at Eloise's comment. His eyes did flick towards the captain as he flicked a cigarette. Not exactly helping with the ash problem.
Other than that, the cook didn't bother to look in her direction or at Jack. Instead, as the captain took the rooftops, the hali headed towards the nearest buildup of ash. "Streets it is." With that, he called upon his water magic.
The water he'd brought from the ocean blasted in to the hardening ash. Hopefully the water would be able to loosen it, and he'd be able to clean up the piles given enough time. If he managed to deal with the first pile, he'd move on to another one, and the one after that.
Saiden cleans the streets. He starts by trying to clean up the ash piles with his water.
Water manipulation: Can manipulate water. Must be within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent
Darling, you take the high horse and I'll take the high road
'The high road? In the mood for something new I see."
As the boys set off, lone wolves that they are, they've left Eloise with a task she's entirely unprepared to deal with. Fixing windows? For all that she's learned whilst in Torchline, this sort of craftiness is not one of her strengths. Still, she knows it'll do her little good to plead her case to the captain or the cook. Rolling her eyes instead, Eloise lowers her top so that the maximum amount of cleavage is showing. She uses a small amount of illusion magic to...supplement width where she's lacking it, before strolling up the street to find the first male gaze she can. It isn't sexism in that she thinks women can't fix windows: men are just easier.
"Hey there.." She purrs, holding up a shard of broken glass. "Mind lending a girl a hand?" Biting her lip, she offers a sultry smile, nodding her head behind her to where several broken windows lay.
Eloise tries to seduce a local into helping her, because what the fuck does she know about fixing windows.
If you're too good for us, you'll be good riding solo
To the rooftops, Jack goes, with a length of rope and a thick bristled brush. It isn’t too difficult for him to get up on the first rooftop, but upon further inspection he’ll notice that there’s a fuck ton of ash, wind whipped like the streets below and heavier in the corners of the rooftops. The places where the apex of the rooftop forms are relatively clean, mostly it’s to do with working on removing the piles and the shingles that have been caked down.
Saiden will have fairly good luck with the piles and the magic he wields, a few of the piles turning into a muddy mess that needs to be drained, but at least the crevices and the foundations are cleaned up. Now he can survey the official damage in that regard – the spiderwebbing of the stone that holds the homes up that need to be reinforced.
Now for Eloise. She’s indeed lucky enough to catch the eye of a man walking down the alleyway, whose eyes travel from her to the glass, to the windows beyond before approaching her with a smirk. ”What’s in it for me, doll? Better be somthin' good for this fuckin' mess.” His deep voice reaches her through a grin of tobacco stained teeth. The local moves to investigate the windows further, however, deciding on what kind of payment might be fit enough to help.
Your randomly determined order is: Jack , Saiden , and Eloise. Please summarize at the bottom of your post how you go about completing your task!
Oh well wasn't this a lovely fuckton of hard work? Fuck you Saiden, and your fucking virtue signalling shit. And so on and so forth, was Jack's happy working song as he tied the rope about himself and attached the other end to the chimney of the house he'd climbed up. With the brush, he rid the rooftop - slowly, and likely undoing a lot of Saiden's work down below - of the ashy mess, wrinkling his nose.
And then a new series of thoughts interrupted his barrage of loathing, and he paused to listen intently to whatever the man Eloise had called for would do. And what his intentions were. And whether he was about to cause more trouble than he planned.
Jack tethers himself to the chimney of the house and starts sweeping down the roof, likely showering the street in fresh ash (sorry Saiden). Then he pauses to listen to the interaction between Eloise and the man.
As the weakened stone was revealed Saiden groaned. Seeing as he didn't have the tools or the skills to deal with that just yet, he took back the water that he could. Then he started chasing the mud he'd created towards the nearest drains or hill, hoping to get it out of the area.
While he did that, he also directed his water to try and clean the rest of the ash off the streets, sending it hopefully in the same direction. As he worked, he glanced curiously at the man Eloise was speaking to. However the cook shrugged, trusting her to know what she was doing.
Saiden tries to wash the streets off more completely and get rid of the mud he created.
04-20-2020, 05:36 PM (This post was last modified: 04-20-2020, 05:37 PM by Eloise.)
Eloise
Darling, you take the high horse and I'll take the high road
Smiling girlishly, as if she were as unthreatening as the waifish silouette she bore, Eloise slunk towards the man and draped her arms about his neck. Pressing her body against his, the thin cut of linen that covered her hiding none of her curves, she reached her lips up towards his ear. "You know who I am don't you? And if you do, that means you know who I work for. Why, Captain Jack is up on the roof just over there, doing his part to help clean up the town. Surely you want to do the same?"
Reaching a hand down against the flat of the man's pants, her fingers pressing upon whatever trouser-snake was caged within, the illusionist bit his ear. "What's in it for you, is that you get to keep all your fingers and both of your eyes."
Elo threatens the man with Jack's reputation and says he gets to keep his fingers and eyes if he helps her.
If you're too good for us, you'll be good riding solo
Unsurprisingly, or perhaps surprisingly, Jack has quite a successful time as he works to clean the roofs. The piles begin to disappear, the ash caking the shingles of the roof now free and gleaming. The place where the roof began to sag upon further inspection will reveal it was only due to the weight of the ash covering it that caused it. It’s relatively clean and sturdy. Unfortunately for Jack, this is one of a few that are in such a state of disrepair.
Saiden, poor Saiden, down below will notice a few drifting passes of ash to the work he’d already completed. Until, of course, the piles Jack removed waft down in small amounts at first, and then suddenly all at once. It takes out all the work he did of cleaning the ash from the streets, coating and caking them again. Oops?
As for the man she’d captured the attention of, the Torcher focuses on her as soon as her arms are around his neck. He appreciates the view, at least at first, before her sweet words turn a bit venomous and he swallows a bit hard to look up and spy who all surrounds her. Fair enough, he supposes, but he’s going to grumble and complain the entire time – surely she can handle that? The Torcher peels himself away, returning to the windows and grabs a rock to clean out the broken shards left behind, but… Nothing to replace it with, just yet, unless Eloise is quick to think up what to grab to cover it. Grumbling more, the Torcher moves onto the next broken window, repeating the process and leaving it open.
Your randomly determined order is: Jack , Saiden , and Eloise. Please summarize at the bottom of your post how you go about completing your task!
Unsure how to feel about being used as some kind of invisible threat (and utterly unaware that he had just undone much of what Saiden was working towards in the streets), Jack finished up on the rooftop and untethered himself, clambering back down to ground level only to move along to the next in the row. It was going to be a horror of a day at this rate, and he was looking forward to a stiff drink afterwards.
Along the way he nodded at Eloise and the Torcher through one of the broken windows, before disappearing around the side of the next house and hauling himself up onto the roof. Once he got there, of course, he realised what he had done with the piles of ash and snorted. "Maybe hold off on cleaning this part 'til I'm done!" he called to Saiden. What's this? Jack? Trying to do the sailor a favour? The heat was getting to him.
Jack glowers at the Torcher through the broken window and moves on to the next house in the row to clean the rooftop.
04-22-2020, 11:48 AM (This post was last modified: 04-22-2020, 11:52 AM by Saiden.)
As the ash from the roof came pouring down, Saiden's eyes widened in dismay. Then he sighed, and called his water back to him. Nodding at Jack's words, the cook smiled. "Aye, captain." Stellar teamwork and leadership all around.
Hopefully the looser ash would be easy to clean and sweep up. As he tried to redo all the work he'd just done, he glanced at the man Eloise had successfully roped in to helping. Saiden called out cheerfully to the stranger, since the cook hadn't heard how she'd secured the unknown man's services. "If you take care of the walls too, I'll throw in a free night of drinks at the Hanged Man for your trouble. There are supplies in that pile there that should do the trick." The Hali pointed at the supplies that the captain had brought along.
