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!
04-25-2020, 06:54 PM (This post was last modified: 04-25-2020, 06:55 PM by Aisha.)
AISHA
when you look at me like that what did you expect
Aisha didn't know that the boy wasn't interested much in the structures around them, not for certain, but she knew she wasn't. They shared that sentiment, the Hollowed Grounds only had a couple exciting places, and having visited the temple today she had safely scratched it off that dwindling list. So rather than show him to a boring place of grey and brown, why not throw him for a loop?
She exited the temple, turning to walk backwards for a brief moment to check on her companion. He'd brought paper along which was good thinking, he was a tall fair toned man with a charm that others might find dry, but Aisha found full of life. She glanced around for something to play the exotic artifact in her little show, deciding on a thorny vine that protruded from a pile of rubble nearby.
She gasped, exaggerating the motion so as to catch his attention, then reached for the paper. With pseudo regard for the vine, she leaned the paper against the wall, to write her story. She finished and handed it to him, That's a whispering vine, they say you can hear the screams of all the people it's tripped if you listen very carefully. Then with another gasp, she grabbed the paper back and wrote swiftly before handing it too him with a devilish grin, Oops, nevermind. You can't hear.
Overkill? Maybe, but she had said that she enjoyed spending her days messing with the deaf and cursed. This was just a taste.
i'd probably still adore you with with your hands around my neck
He endured her scrutiny with surpreme ease, calmly meeting her gaze when she turned to walk backwards for a bit of oogling. Her colors reminded him somewhat of the Captain, but her demeanor was more akin to his sisters, though without that barely veiled threat of violence. Aisha seemed lighter to him, quite vibrant, and a good offset to his usual dark moodiness.
If he was surprised that she led him out of the Temple, he didn't let on. Just followed, and gazed with some scepticism at the thorny vine she showed off. Korbin let her claim both paper and pen when she reached for them... and at reading the message, both his eyebrows shot up this time.
"Ouch! Very funny, miss."
Without thinking, he pushed the thought out towards her, so used to bantering with Loren this way that ut was second nature by now... Or tried to. But it echoed hollowly in his mind, blocked off as he wasn't shifted. Rolling his eyes at himself for the mistake, Korbin reached for the paper to respond in a way she could actually notice.
Seems even curses have upsides then. Let me know if you need a shoulder to cry on when you're done listening to it.
The raise in his eyebrows was a satisfying reaction, her grin widening to see it. It almost looked like he was about to say something, but instead he reached for the paper. Ugh, cumbersome was right, it'd been amusing at first but her wrist was growing tired of writing and her eyes of reading. It was really inconvenient, she certainly felt for him (and anyone who had to go through this with him on a regular basis).
His response was witty as expected, but would be given so much more bite should she hear it from his lips. Based on the laughs he'd given she could form what his voice might sound like, whereas he likely had no clue of her own resounding tone. She giggled lightly, then let out a soft sigh, reaching for the paper again, I hate writing. I wish we could talk, she wrote and unlike any of her other written comments it carried little sarcasm.
i'd probably still adore you with with your hands around my neck
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
He couldn't agree more. Thus far he was lucky - not that he would ever admit it out loud - to have Loren and other attuned around to translate for him. But like this, or with his sister these days... silence was just the easier option.
Reading her note, Korbin's expression sobered, and he nodded slowly in agreement. Grazing at the lip with his teeth, he considered the girl, weighed his options. The odds were slim that his first thought would work, but...
Handing her the paper back without writing anything, Korbin took a step back, and shifted. His tall silhouette blurred and shrank, melted away into inky black feathers that shimmered in hues of blue and green under the wan sunlight. The raven beat its wings and circled Aisha, careful not to get so close that he would crowd her. Unsure whether she was comfortable around shifters. Or birds.
"I don't suppose you can hear me like this, can you?" he asked, his thought reaching out quite easily this time. Though he had little hope it would actually work.
04-25-2020, 08:10 PM (This post was last modified: 04-25-2020, 08:24 PM by Aisha.)
AISHA
i doubt its your style not to get what you set
In a matter of moments Aisha's expression went from the sobered smile to confused, to beaming once more. Korbin had backed away and shifted into a black bird, a raven to be precise. His feathers carried a silken sheen, an iridescent layer adding some reflective color when the sun beat down upon them. He circled her for a moment, and that was all the invitation she needed to boast her own shift.
In a show similar to his, involving shrinking and blurring or color and space, the girl transformed into her other skin, a golden cat flanked in brown and black spots. Sunglow eyes blinked a few times then sought him out, her tail curling playfully up in the air. "We could've been talking this whole time like this. I'm gonna blame you for not realizing," she replied to him with a soft purr.
Then sitting down, still propped on her front legs she added "Nice wings bumpkin," in her teasing tone. It was nice to hear his voice, even if it was only in her thoughts.
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
In the beat of silence that followed as she shifted, the full extent of the raven's surprise reverberated through the bond. Then the feeling was replaced with true delight, that he didn't even try to shield away.
"I'm deaf, what's your excuse?" he quipped back, delighted to be able to respond immediately. There was something to be said for suspense, but in the long run it grew tedious. This was infinitely better.
The raven dipped a wing and swept in over the large feline, playfully nipping with a heavy beak at the tempting curl of her tail.
"Like your spots, kitten. Never saw one like you before... What are you?" There was lazy admiration lacing through his words, and curiosity. So many questions.
04-25-2020, 08:34 PM (This post was last modified: 04-25-2020, 08:35 PM by Aisha.)
AISHA
i doubt its your style not to get what you set
Aisha could feel the joy through the bond, and now that she realized what they'd shared even before in human skins she remembered all the amplified and extras feelings from earlier. She too let her excitement bleed through the link, a shared emotion.
She let out a chuff at his quip and excuse, a sound akin to a scoff but from the cat's maw. "Your hiccups were too distracting for me to think," she shot back, flicking her tail away when his beak nipped at it. It moved almost independently from her curling in a new direction and enticing him back to the target.
When he asked what she was she turned her head to face him, nose scrunched and teeth parted in a playful growl, "Your most generous lady," she replied, using his own phrasing for her purpose. "You've never met a leopardess before?" she asked, though pretty much knew her answer.
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
The tail was pulled away from his beak, and the raven deftly angled itself to sweep out of the way from any retaliation. Not necessary as it turned out, so in the end he flew up on a nearby wall, the ruins of some house or other. Stepping up to the edge, the bird peered down upon Aisha with beady black eyes, the quiet humor still there within him.
"Ai, 'tis cruel, my lady, to mock a man already twice scorned. Where then shall I find comfort, if you will not be merciful as well as generous?" It was entirely teasing, full of exaggerated self-depreciation and suffering.
"Well, no," he continued, dropping the lyricism. "Halo is full of ice and snow, kitten. Ursurs and wolves, dragons and spirits are plentyful, but there's nothing quite as pretty as you."
04-25-2020, 11:07 PM (This post was last modified: 04-25-2020, 11:08 PM by Aisha.)
AISHA
i doubt its your style not to get what you set
Pupils dilated with feline focus, Aisha's gaze followed Korbin up to his new perch. "Hmmm," she hummed mentally giving an audible purr to accompany it, "Perhaps, but cheer up peasant, your lady will make up for her cruelty in her prayers for your swift recovery, remember?" With that the amber toned cat flopped onto her side, raising a paw to her mouth for a quick preen.
He dropped the playful eloquence, but threw in a bit of flattery to butter it up. Aisha chuckled, rolling onto her back to expose the lighter fur of her underbelly, "Well here I am love, admire while you can," she replied, fire dancing behind her slitted gaze as she basked in the attention.
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
The raven clipped its beak. "A kitten of her word, I hope," he drawled, and there was plenty of challenge in there. Daring the girl to go back on her word.
Korbin did indeed take the invitation to look, and absorbed the predatory grace of the leopard with keen interest. "Oh, I am looking," he assured her. "And now that you have my undivided attention, what do you want to talk about?"
04-26-2020, 03:01 PM (This post was last modified: 04-26-2020, 03:02 PM by Aisha.)
AISHA
i doubt its your style not to get what you set
If the jokester was one thing, it was true to her word. Being raised royalty, honor had always been an important vice, instilled in her by family and counsel throughout her whole life. She did however believe that honor ran hand in hand with trust, and thus only made promises and deals with those she felt some sort of kinship with. She needed a reason to keep her word.
Luckily for Korbin, she both liked him, and was overdue for her first visit to one of the infamous shrines, and so with her own vitality in mind she would slip in a good word for him, if only to hear his thanks from his own lips.
"Of course," she replied with a benevolent bow of her head, enjoying the playful lyricism of their speech.
Another satisfied purr as he responded to her most gracious offer, she rolled back on to her stomach with a lazy grace and stretched. "I told you a story about the wildlife in the Hollowed Grounds, so it's your turn. I wanna hear about Halo," she said, truly interested in what he might tell her.
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Korbin trusted actions, not words. He would believe her only when she had well and truly set foot at the shrine and spoken his name aloud in benefaction. Success or no was uninteresting, that didn't matter... t was the living up to ones word he put stock in. For the time being, however, he remained politely doubtful that the girl would actually try.
That was not to say he didn't enjoy her company. Korbin very much did, and croaked in acquiesence to her request. The raven walked thoughtfully along the top of the ruined wall, gathering its mind, and wove a story worthy of its homeland.
"Fire and Ice were lovers, once," he began, mental voice falling into the cadence of a true storyteller. "And in their unity, there was harmony. Longheat and Deepfrost were their legacy, and all was well. But it happened that the Gods who governed Caido made war upon one another, and the discord that spread caused a rift between the two. Fire was passionate, see, and eager to get involved that it may aid in the change of things. But Ice was happier to keep things as they were, and wary of the fickle whims of the Gods. They quarreled back and forth, and after a vicious row Ice left their lover and fled north."
The raven paused, and gazed down on Aisha. Wings flexed, resettled, and he went on.
"To Halo, Ice fled, and there it made a home for itself. And Ice remade the land to its liking, unchanging and implacable. It is cold there, and the snow never melts. The sun rises and sets, seasons come and go, but no rain will fall, no grass will grow, and the animals that roam are hungry. Always hungry. It is a land of wind and ice, of vast empty Tundra and mountains that snap their jagged Fangs at the clouds. All those who dwell there are strong, for only the hardy can survive there. Ah, but it is a land of beauty, too, and Ice loves it dearly, and governs it well, even to this day."
And so did he. It was evident in the words he chose, the tone of his mental voices, laced through with deep sentiment.
Done, he quieted and settled down, patiently waiting for a response.
Korbin indulged, despite her 'story' having been little more than a sentence of nonsense he started his strong and mysterious, "Mmmm," she oooed and settled back into a comfortable laze, prepared for the tale the raven would weave. The picture he painted with his words used many colors, there were ups and downs, the soft pinks of love and the violet crimsons of a fight. The lovers split, as lovers sometimes do.
The world he described, Ice's domain and Halo's reign, was a bitter one. A land with no rain, no green, a merciless terrain of rock and snow. A land Aisha wouldn't choose as her own, she breathed to bask in the sunlight, the warm among the vibrancy of spring and summer's wonders. To cry in the rain, rather than have her tears turn to snow. And yet she could see it as he saw it, disciplined, and in that, eternally perfect.
"What of fire?" she asked, cocking her head and giving a languid flick of her ear.
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
He did always appreciate a good listener, as much as he did a good story. Aisha was dutiful in her rapt attention, and it stroked the feathers of his ego very pleasantly. It felt good, to see he hadn't lost his touch yet.
"Fire went its own way," he told her, and kept spinning the yarn of his tale for her entertainment. "It too found a place to settle, but it never forgot the fair face of its lover. Restless it was, and kept leaving to roam the world, ever searching for its lost partner. And they did find each other... But so much time had passed that they had grown entirely apart, and could no longer be as they were. Ice stayed in the north, and Fire went away. It is said that Fire peeks through the hearths we build to keep us warm, however, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Ice once more.
"And perhaps Ice does not mind so much, because it has long been a law in Halo that a fire must never be allowed to go out. To do so would be a terrible crime."
One his sister often accused him of, without any actual basis. Just because he didn't keep it roaring up into the chimney all the time...
But he digressed.
The raven cocked its head aside. "Your turn. Tell me a story of your home," he prompted. Curiously wondering what kind of things she would reveal.
