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!
oh, cover your crystal eyes and let your colors bleed and blend with mine
Lily nods. “He’s been living on top of the Spire, God only knows why. But when I told him about landsharks, he seemed very interested in them. So I told him to find you or Ronin, as I’m definitely not the expert in those.” Luxere, maybeeee. Landsharks, definitely not. So if he comes looking for the bard, maybe he’ll have some information prepared. You know, in all of Jigano’s free time.
As the deer rises and begins to leave, her heart (far more compassionate towards animals than people) breaks a little for it. “Poor thing…” is whispered under her breath, and after a moment, she’s already made the decision to help it. With Jigano’s healing offered, Lily has an idea that might be a little less scary than two humans coming at it. “Sure. I’ve got an idea.” And with that, Lily shifts into her cat form and pads forward with quiet mrowwws to the deer, hoping to get close enough to curl around its front legs and keep it from leaving, combining a soft purr with friendly engagement.
The hushes silence between the two is a nice one and although Deimos is surprised by it, Oliver doesn't even notice. For one, he is deeply engrossed in his work, making sure to meticulously sew up the skins. This is the task at hand and he wont let silly questions get in the way. It's a different side of Oliver and progressively, it's slowly beginning to take over his life, shoving away the once curious Outlander and replacing it with one who wants to get things done without wasting time or energy to chit chat.
The first parts go amazingly well and he glancing up at Deimos' work to see how things are going on his end. Following what the other man has done, Oliver continues to sew, hoping to maintain the same level of progress as before. Finally, though, he breaks the silence. "If the others don't show up soon, do you have other hides that you'd like for me to continue working on? Or anything else that needs to be done?" Hopefully they wouldn't run out of things to do since sitting around and waiting felt like a real waste.
Oliver continues his work! He also asks if there's more to do just in case Jigano and Lily take a super long time to come back.
We're lost in the space between
who we are and all that we're trying to be
More of the same for the sewers and weavers; Deimos working steadily, only losing momentary focus when Oliver spoke, taking him out of his concentration. The needle slipped slightly, and he calmly pulled out the tangled threads, the slight error in judgment, and corrected them – re-stitching, the only thing lost was time. Once he gathered everything back together and settled into a returned rhythm, his gaze went back to the blacksmith. “You can grab some more,” nodding his head, gesturing towards the other pile of hides behind Oliver.
And Oliver should’ve moved on, for he’d finished his first hides efficiently, both sides aligning nicely, just awaiting final stitching after the others had returned with snow moss.
The rest, however, don’t share the same fortune.
Lily’s approach had been quite clever, but the deer was in no such mood. Injured and scared didn’t make a grand combination, and so on less than stable flailings and contortions, the creature lashed out, striking Lily towards her ribs, before teetering and wobbling off. Unfortunately, that meant Jigano’s attempts to heal it would go quite unwelcome.
--
Not great rolls, fam. Deimos and Oliver keep sewing, and Lily and Jigano have run into deer troubles. What will you do?
DEIMOS
Stop trying to show how to save our souls
It takes dying to know
How to live as ghosts
Watching as the much larger man slips up with his needle, Oliver mutters a quiet "Sorry to startle you," The light hues of pink dancing on his cheeks. Great. Luckily, Deimos didn't seem too bothered and gave him the go ahead to just continue on with sewing up the hides.
With his first rug sewed up as much as possible, Oliver placed it off to the side before grabbing two more. This time, he chose to sit on the ground. Lining up the hides, he would begin the process over again, using the bone needle to thread the hides together. Occasionally, he would pause and look up at Deimos or at the door before returning back to his work. Lily and Jigano were smart and strong... they'd be fine, right? Maybe they're just taking their time, that's why it's taking them so long to come back.
Rather than voicing his worries, Oliver simply continued, thinking Deimos probably didn't care about his thoughts nor did he want to talk at this time.
Oliver grabs two more hides and begins working on them !!!
oh, cover your crystal eyes and let your colors bleed and blend with mine
Unwilling to always do Jigano’s bidding and follow his instructions, Lily struck out on her own idea and is, well, struck for her attempts. With a slight yowl of pain as a hoof hits her ribs, she side-hops and tries to evade any other flailings. Alas, the deer seems to be having none of it and though she doubts singing would have calmed it either, the entertainer is nevertheless noticeably a bit disappointed.
Shifting back to her human form, she sighs to herself and places a hand on her ribs, pressing gently to determine the extent of the strike and finds that it’ll probably just be a bruise - nothing cracked, just tender to the touch. Breathing still a-ok. “Oh well... at least we tried,” she offers to Jigano with a small shrug, and then turns to the newly vacated bed of snow moss and begins to pull at the plant.
Jigano winced as Lily's attempt to cozen the deer went astray, and the wounded beast slipped away sans healing. It wouldn't last long in Deepfrost with that injury, but it wasn't why they had come out here, either. Rather than be distracted following it, he looked to his companion with concern for the kick she'd taken, holding out his hand in offer. "I can fix that up for you, if you'd like?"
No point in letting the magic go to waste, but if she was like Sunjata and preferred nonmagical intervention then he'd respect that, too.
Whether she accepted or not, the Provost would join her in harvesting the moss with a regretful nod. "We did. Though it would have been strange to Heal it now, only to hunt it tomorrow, I suppose. I hadn't realized you had Attuned though. Your feline form is quite lovely," he added with a smile. "Ah, I think I see some more moss over there..." Moving off a little ways, he began pulling at another patch with which to fill his bag.
“You are fine,” Deimos insisted, running the bone needle back and forth through the hides, gaining in rhythm and routine. Once his was finished, he placed it aside, ready for snow moss filling. On this next interval he grabbed some smaller hides, meant to be for a tinier rug, matching and pairing it up with a similar sized skin. Oliver would find himself quite in luck and fortunate throughout the entire proceedings, the smooth process he wound ensuring his threads remained taut, his stitching maintained its precise accord, and everything managed to sequester itself nicely. Curiosity compelled the General, an inquiry floating out into the ether while they quietly worked, not intending to break up the routine. “Where did you learn to sew?”
Meanwhile, the deer abandoned and left to fend for itself (likely to become a future hide in their current, intended use), permitted Lily and Jigano to actually work through pulling at the snow moss and collecting it in their bags. The Sage would find his sack full in no time, but Lily, unfortunately (because the dice rolls had not been in her favor again), would discover her bag snagged on some old thorns and nettles. Any pull would cause a gaping hole, and with it, a spilling of the snow moss and extra time mending, repairing, and grabbing the plant all over again.
--
Deimos, Oliver, and Jigano progress just fine, but Lily’s unfortunate roll of 1 means her bag has been snagged on a thorn.
What will you do? No post order, attempting to move on in 48 hours or whenever everyone has posted.
The needle found its way through these two new hides very nicely, his hands moving with great confidence by now seeing as things were going so well for him at this time. He had almost completely spaced out before Deimos' voice cut through. It wasn't an order or a request, rather it was a question. Oliver didn't really see Deimos as the type to be interested in learning anything about him, so he was visibly surprised with wide eyes.
Looking up at Deimos, he paused his work momentarily. "Well... I'm still not entirely sure who, but either an older sister, my mother, or maybe even another female relative taught me... I learned how to fix toys, patch up clothes, and even helped to make a few quilts. I know my family was decently large so... I guess they were preparing me to help around the house." Oliver had memories of young children around him, but very few older figures. Faces and names were still fuzzy, but things were far better than they were initially. "I've tried to do it a lot here and it's really relaxing, making blankets and stuff."
Oliver continue sewing but stops when Deimos speaks to him.
oh, cover your crystal eyes and let your colors bleed and blend with mine
“Sure.” Allowing Jigano to place a hand on her ribs, the dull ache that is beginning to set in is quickly abated and she flashes him a thankful smile. Declining to comment on his statement about hunting - because the fact is that it may not be hunted, it may survive until the spring and make a fawn and then there’s one more deer in the world to feed them.
“Mmmm, yes, in summer. Frey did it.” Bending down to continue to gather moss, the entertainer works diligently with Jigano. “Thank you. I’ve got a bird form as well, but I’ve found it’s just a bit too cold to use that one during the winter.” Indeed, she’s got the wolf cloak and is bundled up beneath it as well, the cold her sworn enemy for as long as she can remember. Fine with gathering in silence, when Lily’s bag is full she rises and a bit of resistance pulls her back down. “Oh!” is her only announcement of surprise, as she quickly bends down to see what the problem is.
Ah, there. Finding the thorn and the snag, she tries to remove the bag as best she can from the prickly trap without creating a hole.
Jigano Healed Lily of her bruising (no point suffering unnecessary discomfort when the cold was already bad enough on its own) and then bent to their shared task, gathering the moss and filling his bag as they exchanged a few words. "A bird form? Hopefully I'll get to see it someday. Hmm..." He glanced over to her with a friendly smile. "My guess is something with beautiful plumage, or perhaps a beautiful voice? Or both?" Somehow he couldn't envision her as a vulture or carrion-eater, but perhaps that was just his bias in the matter.
The eventual silence was fine by him, his breath frosting the air above the bed of moss that he gleaned handfuls from. He finished one section, then moved on to the next, making sure to leave plenty behind to grow more for next year. Eventually his bag bulged full and he stopped to tie it off, looking over to Lily as she exclaimed her surprise and found herself in a thorny situation. "I can make another bag, if we need it?" It was an offer he hoped wouldn't be necessary, staying back and letting her handle the problem on her own unless she invited his assistance.
The Sword finished on his end, eyeing and surveying the rest of the components left to be matched, paired, the last lingering forefront before they needed to be stuffed. He maintained focus on the primordial tactics, age-old predilections, and habits, only lifting his gaze from the sewing needles and thread when Oliver answered his inquiry.
He wasn’t sure who? Perhaps it was a memory loss thing, a pattern of portal problems, trials, tribulations, and fixations. They were skills though, no matter how acquired, and so the General nodded, about to merit or proclaim some form of a compliment, when the blacksmith’s attention must’ve deviated (oops) or fortune had run out. His needle slipped, the point sticking directly into his thumb. The beast hesitated, and without Zuriel in sight (likely twisting around outside somewhere), his head gestured to a bag nearby. "There are some bandages there, if you need them."
Lily and Jigano, varnished in their own adventures amidst the woods, finally both had success. The singer’s quick thinking, and careful removal of her bag from the nettles, ensured that no hole ruptured through the seams, leaving the sack intact, bearing the weight of only snow moss. Jigano’s healing measures would leave Lily lighter, less of brutality lingering upon her, and they could easily trek back to the Artisan’s Guild, and hopefully start stuffing moss into the carpets and rugs already rendered, nearly complete.
--
Lily, Jigano, and Deimos all rolled well. Oliver unfortunately stabbed himself in the thumb.
Lily and Jigano may head back to the Guild so we can get these things made! No post order!
Jigano was glad his magic went unneeded as he hefted his sack and deferred to Lily to lead them home again. Walking warmed him up beneath his cloak and by the time they returned to the guildhall he was pleasantly toasty aside from his ears and nose, which had become bright pink with the brisk winter weather.
He was surprised to see so many casings already stitched and ready to go, but thought ruefully that their trek and gathering adventure had taken quite a while. With an appreciative nod to Oliver and Deimos he took one of the larger rugs and begin to fill it with a light stuffing of snow moss from his pack, figuring it would be easier to do the larger ones while they were fresh to the task, and the smaller ones could be done towards the end.
oh, cover your crystal eyes and let your colors bleed and blend with mine
Her nimble fingers seem to do the trick and soon enough, the bag is pulled gently away and slung back over her shoulder. If Lily knew about Santa Claus, she would have felt a bit like him right now, but that part of American culture comes far later in her country’s history. Instead, they’re just two people walking in companionable silence and though her mind returns to the wounded deer now and then, it soon fades from her thoughts altogether as they enter the Guildhall.
Shutting the door behind her, Lily rolls her bag open so everyone can use it, and then takes a rug as well, sifting the snow moss into it so it.
It seemed that speaking truly had thrown Oliver off as soon, the bone needle pricked into his finger. Wincing, he immediately removed the injured hand away, using his other hand to move the hides and needle away from him so that he could go fix himself up. Serves him right for getting so distracted, especially since Deimos didn't even have anything to say in response to his explanation.
Guided by Deimos' words, he headed over in the direction specified to bandage up his finger to prevent blood from getting on the rugs. Once that was done, he returned back to sewing, clearly not too bothered about this whole thing. He had a task to get done and he wasn't about to leave until this damn rug was done.
Sorry for the quick and short post. Oliver bandages himself up and then goes back to work.
