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!
Darling, you take the high horse and I'll take the high road
'Fine by me, darlin." Eloise chuckled back.
As the man began to smash his way through the windows, Eloise let her cheeks fill with air before sighing it out rather dramatically. Of course this wasn't going to be easy. "Going for supplies!" She called brightly to Jack and Saiden. "Jacks' just up there, if you need anything." Eloise added rather pointedly to the Torcher who was helping her. The implication being that should he try to fuck off, Jack would indeed be around to notice.
Strolling towards the market with an eye for anyone making or selling glass, Eloise stopped at a merchant's stall. "What'll you want for a bit of glass to fill in the windows in the center of town?" Holding up a finger to indicate that the merchant should wait for her to finish before they answered, she continued. "The Ark is making it our responsibility as chartible members of his town to help out. I'm sure Jack would mightly appreciate anything you could do to ease the burden of this clean-up, yeah? And just think of all those people who get to go back to their homes, with glass from your stall in their windows every day reminding them who it was who helped them out. Mighty good advertising if you ask me."
Smiling sweetly, Eloise fluttered her lashes. "Now, how much did you say it would be?"
Eloise tries to barter for glass.
If you're too good for us, you'll be good riding solo
Unfortunately, Jack doesn’t have as much luck with this rooftop as the last one. The piles hardly budge, the dusting of ash covering the shingles an easy removal to reveal cracks and burnt edges on some, and hardened concrete like ash in the corners.
Saiden manages to clean up the ground beneath the first house, the ash wiping away with the water and revealing more of the cracks left behind from the eruption. One of them spiderwebbing up the main frame of the home, all the way through the lines of the window that the stranger had already cleaned out. The Torcher hears the question edged, sticking his head out of the door and huffing a large sigh, turning to look at the spiderwebbing cracks. A heavy sigh leaves the Torcher, but he moves to a nearby merchant, grabbing stealing a bit of clay and reinforcing pans, setting to work on that while Eloise grabs the glass. Nobody said the foundation repair had to be good did they?
Eloise gets the attention of the glass merchant, the man behind keeping a level glare with the way she’d simply walked up and interrupted what he was currently working on. But he lets her go through her spiel, pausing to focus on the rest of the crew out and about working on cleaning it up. With a long and intense narrowed gaze, he looks back at Eloise, a brow raising slightly in response. ”A few bottles of something stiff to drink the next time the Ark returns from a trip would do it.” Comes his gruff response, not giving her a chance to reply as he moves to grab the panes needed and hand them to her.
Your randomly determined order is: Jack , Saiden , and Eloise. Please summarize at the bottom of your post how you go about completing your task!
Okay this was getting stupid now. And difficult. And boring. As Jack surveyed the piss poor job on the second rooftop, he wiped the sweat from his brow and glowered at Saiden as if to remind himself that the Hali was the reason he had been roped into this to begin with. Grumbling the equivalent of I'm a sailor, not a fuckin' builder as he scrambled back to ground level, Jack grabbed some extra tools from their supplies; a small chisel to chip away the ash, a hammer, some nails and some new shingles for the roof.
It took a few trips to get it all up where he needed it, but once he had it all to hand he began to attack the concrete like stuff that had melted into the shingles. Once that had been swept off and into the street below, he worked on trying to repair the roof.
Jack complains to himself and heads down to fetch further supplies: a chisel, new shingles, a hammer and some nails. Then he sets about removing the hardened ash and repairing the rooftop.
Saiden wasn't super happy that he had to redo all his hard work, but he wasn't going to complain. Out loud, at least. Thankfully, his clean up efforts worked. However, they also revealed even more extensive damage to the house. His new 'friend' was already on it, though.
Tossing the water into a nearby barrel, the cook went to join the stranger. Taking a pan and half of the clay, the Hali set to redoing the foundation as well. Granted, he had no idea what he was doing either, but hey, nobody said the foundation repair had to be good, did they.
Darling, you take the high horse and I'll take the high road
"Something stiff?" Eloise practically preens at that, all wavy hair and fluttery lashes. 'Now that is something I can certainly guarantee." This was all going surprisingly well, and somewhere deep down, she hoped it was more than just idle luck and that maybe, just maybe, she was starting to learn a bit of what Jack was trying to teach her. TO be sure it was throwing around his name that was doing all the work here, but at least she'd had the sense to do it.
...or something.
'Thank you kindly.' Eloise said, accepting the panes (heavier than she anticipated). With a wink, she sets off back towards the houses and starts replacing the glass with that broken by the other Torcher.
Eloise agrees to the deal and starts installing the glass.
If you're too good for us, you'll be good riding solo
It was getting stupid and difficult and boring, but hanging out on the rooftops of Haulani right after the volcano erupted, while foundations were still relatively fragile, still had some threat of danger to keep the smuggler on his feet. And while he begins to chisel away the ash, begins to nail some of the shingles into place, Jack will start to feel the roof beneath him begin to sink. The hammer goes clattering off the rooftop – thankfully, not into someone walking below – but it causes six shingles to fly off into the abyss as well.
Saiden finds the Torcher with the bucket and the clay, the man happy to have the help for this fucking daunting task, and as Saiden begins to lay it out with his new found accomplice, the work goes together relatively smoothly. The lines are filled in and begin to dry ever so slowly, giving the foundations around them a bit more sturdiness, a bit more to move with the sways of the volcano and subsequent storms that would inevitably pass through. There’s still more, however, but so far so good.
For Eloise, she’ll find the glass panes easy to work with – the Torcher she’d threatened recruited, surprisingly quiet while he works at the chipped and broken glass, clearing out the panes to make room for new ones, grabbing the bits of glass she offers and helps slide them into place and sealing them on the inside and the outside. Once this house is done, the sealant begins to dry and the next house over that Jack sits atop only has one window broken.
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, are you fucking kidding..." Jack was, naturally, ecstatic to find that his hard work had just tumbled off the roof - the roof which was sinking, too, wonderfully enough. With a grumble and an exertion of will, the captain discovered something brand new about him in that moment; a blustery gale whipped up in close proximity to him, blowing some of the ash away and revealing further the extent of the damage.
Blinking and glancing around as if trying to sense whether someone else had done it, Jack eventually had to acknowledge that it had been him. Well. More on that later.
Dropping to the ground to collect up the shingles and see if any were reusable, Jack got himself back up onto the roof to try and finish the repairs. He avoided the parts that looked unstable, not wanting to fall through into the house below.
Using newly discovered Air Manipulation (thanks, Level 2!), Jack cleans off the roof a little more to check the extent of the damage. Then he goes to rescue the fallen shingles, provided they aren't broken, and attempts to finish the repairs.
Grinning at his fellow Torcher, Saiden glanced over at Eloise to see how she was doing. However, his eyes were soon drawn to the crash of shingles on the next house over. Apparently, Jack was having trouble. However, all the captain had to do was ask for help and the cook would be there.
For now, though, the Hali just took more of that clay and his pan. Although they'd done a good job restoring the foundation (well, kind of) he could see there was still more work to be done. So he just kept applying the repairs as best he could, following the lead of his much more skilled companion.
Darling, you take the high horse and I'll take the high road
Well, well, well. It was nice for things to be going easy for the illusionist. Re-installing windows, while not her strong suit, isn't the complex task she might have imagined it to be. Still, she doesn't take her luck for granted and ensure's she's careful with the glass so as not to cut her fingers. This makes the work slower, and while she isn't aware of any nautical fables about breaking glass, she's sure Jack could come up with one or two to scold her if she's careless and costs them time.
"Shall I fetch you a cold beer while you work?" She croons to her recruitee as he continues to work on the windows. It isn't at all because her fingers are sore that she's looking for a break.
Eloise continues to work, then offers a bribe a beer to her recruit
If you're too good for us, you'll be good riding solo
Oh, there’s quite a bit of damage to the roof with the way it edges and sinks in on itself, on the ash that clings to the corners and along the shingles. Luckily, however, the wind that picks up around Jack seems to do quite a good job, blowing away the stacks of dried ash as he works to chip away at the thicker bits. The shingles that fell to the ground were able to be reused, and it helps to reinforce the roof once the weight of the ash is off. Another roof cleaned, and the rest are simply coated in a light dusting of ash – hardly anything to worry about.
As for Saiden, the clay continues to do its job – slowly drying and reinforcing. Until the Hali gets to a rather large crack, perhaps one that had been there before the volcanic eruption, and as he begins to fill it in with the clay it begins to writhe and spit it back out. Upon further inspection, there are dozens of centipedes that begin to filter out of the crack, clawing and trying to grab onto anything nearby to not suffocate by getting trapped in. His companion finds the same issues, the Torcher hissing as he tries to squish them beneath his boot as they fall to the ground.
The Torcher helping Eloise moves along quickly, clearing out the squares and prepping them for the panes to be placed. And it’s a surprisingly good bribe for the man, grunting something akin to ‘yes, doll’ as pane after pane are replaced. And before long, the windows are shiny and new, clean and fresh. All that’s left is just the foundation that poor Saiden is struggling with.
Your randomly determined order is: Jack , Saiden , and Eloise. Please summarize at the bottom of your post how you go about completing your task!
Last round, perhaps you could all combine your efforts to help Saiden finish the foundation?
That was more like it. Scouting across the rooftops and seeming pleased to find them simply dirty rather than damaged, Jack made short work of it. His newfound magic was rather good at blowing ash away, and soon enough he was at ground level again, watching the struggle with the foundation that fought back with no small amount of amusement.
"Lovely," he intoned as he drew close, folding his arms across his chest and wrinkling his nose at all of the centipedes. He didn't particularly care whether they were crushed underfoot or otherwise dealt with, and he followed in the suit of his fellow Torcher to stamp on one as it wriggled free of the foundations. "If you've any water left, you could probably flush 'em out that way," he reasoned to Saiden.
Jack finishes up on the rooftops, crushes a centipede and offers sage wisdom to Saiden (lol).
As the foundation repair went sideways, Saiden frowned. He glanced at the man helping him, but the stranger didn't seem to have any idea what was going on either.
So the Hali peered into the crack. He let out a disgusted sound as he saw the bugs writhing inside. As Jack approached, the cook simply nodded in acknowledgement of the captain's suggestion. Raising one hand to the barrel Saiden had stashed his water in, he called it back to him.
Then he sent it blasting through the hole, uncaring of killing the things as well. He just wanted them gone so that they could finish the job. Washing them as best he could, we would return to laying the foundation if possible.
Saiden uses water magic to try and get rid of the centipedes. If successful, he'd go back to working on the foundation.
Darling, you take the high horse and I'll take the high road
Returning with the drink for her assistant, Eloise watched him as he finished the last window, applauding his efforts. Offering him the beer and then rubbing the tight muscles of his neck for good measure, she grinned against his ear. "Shall we go see how the others are doing?" She coaxed, with a nod towards where Jack and Saiden currently were. "Worth a laugh if nothing else."
Seeing all the bugs, Eloise wrinkled her nose. She'd grown used to insects having been in Torchline as long as she had, but it didn't mean she had to like them. "You could just move them." The illusionist pointed out. "Murder isn't always the solution." Eloise snarked in the general direction of the men, before lending their efforts the use of her telekinesis to move the bugs as well.
Eloise uses telekenesis to help move the bugs.
If you're too good for us, you'll be good riding solo
The centipede that Jack crushes underfoot, squishes, but not before a few other centipedes begin to crawl over the smuggler’s feet. The idea the man offers to Saiden is a good one, if you’re trying to flush them out – yet their little black bodies and legs both move and clog, spitting some of the water Saiden uses back at the group gathered around, pieces of the insects bodies lingering within the water. It drenches Jack the most, Saiden a fair bit, and only a few splashes sent over toward Eloise and the Torcher she’d wrangled up to help.
The only one that seems to have much luck at all, seems to be Eloise. A few of the insects that crawl over Jack’s feet and along the ground in front of them are easily picked up, and moved outside away from the building without issue. The Torcher she’s wrapped up, downs the drink before using the cup to try and gather as many of the creatures and dump them outside in the alley as well.
It seems that the other Torcher that Saiden has also wrangled also has a fair bit of luck, able to clean out the cracks of the creatures and spackling the wall where they’d came from – a job mostly completed and well enough done to pass any future glance overs inspections.
The PQ+ is complete! Haulani is clean (without too much issue, surprisingly)! Feel free to wrap up the thread or not, will archive in a couple days.
