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!
06-21-2020, 06:11 AM (This post was last modified: 06-21-2020, 06:16 AM by Tala.)
Tala had heard the phrase “stir crazy” only ever in passing, and had only a vague idea of what it meant, but she was pretty sure that was exactly what must be happening to her. She had never been inside for more than 24 hours in a row in her whole life. It was agony. If the outside world weren’t sure to freeze her to death in minutes even despite her heavy reindeer pelt clothing, she would’ve ventured out after just one day of LongNight spent inside the academy. Instead, she was trapped.
The saving element had been the library. Sure, she wasn’t well acquainted with magic and had some trouble figuring out what half of these books meant, but at least she was able to do some studying of her new world, even if she was never going to use magic herself.
She’d spent the morning being a helping hand to the people preparing and serving food, and once the rush had died down and the clean up was done, she was able to slip away to the library. It hadn’t been particularly busy, so she was comfortable perusing to her heart’s content. Today, though, it felt like she had option paralysis from staring at all the books on the shelves. This was easier in her home world, where at least she knew what she didn’t know. Here, she was clueless. There was so much to learn, and she had no idea where to start.
Chulane was becoming well versed in the definition of stir crazy. Arriving at Halo had thrust him into a new way of living - he was still able to devote himself to his books and his note-taking, his learning and expanding of his mind, but he also had put his body to work. Manual labour, food deliveries, and now a position on the government cabinet had him busier than ever.
At least, it would, if Longnight hadn't of taken the sun away from them and turned the outside world to a flash freezer.
He did what he could still to ensure food made it to everyone who was huddled within the Academy, but outside of roaming the halls endlessly and having his regular sleep patterns just not exist, there wasn't much else to do. He was at the point where he had read enough books, written enough notes, researched enough about the magic he'd never wield for himself - he was wandering, searching for something else, anything else to do.
He tossed around the idea of shifting, of letting a leopard prowl the halls and playing with the attuned children amongst the crowd - but then, his shift was a touch ferocious, and he didn't want to stir up a panic when nerves were already frayed from fatigue and isolation.
So he wandered, finding himself at the library (again), strolling through with nothing but looks at the walls of books that surrounded him. It was easy to see one of the few others within the library, to recognise the expression he had worn himself many a time. With a soft, gentle chuckle, he approached the lass who admired the walls with a quiet awe, utterly inundated with choices presented to her.
"Is there a specific topic that interests you?" he asked as he approached slowly, gesturing to the wall of books she was looking at. "Flora, fauna, Gods, magic - it can be a bit much, can't it?" he offered with a slanted grin, friendly and open, if a little tired around the edges.
Tala started as someone approached her and began to speak, as if she’d been shocked out of a trance. Her startle quickly turned to a friendly smile. She’d been hesitant to socialize and most people were too focused on other things to speak to her, so she’d been more eager for a conversation than she realized. She supposed that going from a life surrounded by fifty family members all day everyday, to being all alone, would leave one rather desperate for a chat.
”Much is an understatement,” She said with a slightly nervous laugh. ”Not that it’s a bad thing! Honestly, I love it, it’s exactly what I wanted - except I just don’t know where to start,” Her face fell into a moment of deep consideration as she thought over the list for a split second. ”Fauna I think, that’s my favorite. Flora would be interesting except that I am still coming to terms with there being more than ten plant species.” She said with a wry grin. She saw no reason to hide the fact that she was an outlander, it was obvious enough on its own.
He grinned happily when she responded, nearly overjoyed by the positive reception to his company. He had guessed idly that she was an outlander, and her mannerisms and words further marked her as one (a willingness to learn about the local fauna wasn't something many needed here).
"Good choice - that's my favourite too," he held a hand out to her in greeting. "I'm Chuy. Well, Chulane, but most just stick to Chuy." He paused, hoping to hear her own name in return. He nodded to the wall of books before them, gesturing slightly with his hand.
"A lot of these will have magical connotations - do you have magic? Or are you possibly attuned?" He didn't particularly like the term Abandoned to label those who had magic, for he did not see them as that at all.
"What I mean to say is, I have just what you might be after - I arrived here just before Deepfrost set in, and had the opportunity to attend a lecture by a very experienced Loreseeker in the Hollowed Grounds. He gave me notes of all the Flora and Fauna in Caido, and I have since made a copy to ensure the information sets in my memory (and added in a few more notes of my own) - you're welcome to it, if you would like."
Perhaps he trusted too easily, or maybe he was blinded by his overexcitement to share knowledge with a willing associate. He hoped he didn’t seem too overeager, too overbearing, but he was thrilled, and the goofy grin he wore probably hid that fact quite poorly.
Tala reached for his hand rather awkwardly - she’d seen the motion in the past few days but had not shaken someone’s hand before, it wasn’t a custom in her world. As she greeted herself she gave a deep nod of her head, which was the proper way to greet somebody new in her eyes. ”Hello Chuy, I’m Tala.” She said, with a smile still fixed onto her face.
She remembered what the boy Korbin had said, that magic was considered a curse in this world. A part of her still wished to have it, but not enough to seek out such a fate. ”No, I’m… accepted, I think it was? No magic, just curiosity.” She said, shrugging her shoulders a little bit.
She visibly perked up when he said ‘loreseekers’. That was the group Korbin had mentioned, and was first on her list to find when she was able to get to the Hollowed Ground. Her understanding was that she’d be able to educate herself on whatever she may need to know to explore this world from the knowledge they gathered. ”That is exactly what I am looking for!” She said, with hardly reserved excitement. ”I had met somebody who told me that I ought to find the loreseekers to learn more about the world, given that I hope to explore.” She added, feeling that she should include an explanation.
"Accepted huh? Cool." He said with a nod - she was the first Accepted he had ever met, and it was intriguing to him. "I am Attuned myself. Discovering that I could shift into a leopard was surprising, to say the least - I come from a world with nothing like magic or shifting abilities exist." He added the last part on, unknowing whether magic or gods and the like were a common feature in her world.
The whole concept of there being potentially limitless amount of worlds that all randomly link up with this one via these portals was still mind-boggling to him.
Focus Chuy, he had to say to himself, as he nodded along enthusiastically to Tala's words. He had found a new energy, a new objective to focus on, to enable him to procrastinate more failed attempts to sleep, and he was so ready for it.
"Great! " He clapped his hands together, pleased with the direction this conversation was taking. "Follow me, the notes are in my room." He made to walk away, gesturing for her to walk alongside him, that they might continue to chat along the way. "Wait till you see the Athenium, if you ever go to the Grounds to check out the Loreseekers. I've only been once and I am keen to revisit them - already read the handful of books Jigano would let me borrow for the season."
Part of her wished she was ‘attuned’, though from the sounds of it she could perhaps petition a god for the ability or something like that. But, that whole world terrified her and she thought it may be best to keep her hands off of that category of magic and gods. Korbin had made them sound frightening enough to avoid, and he hadn’t even been trying to. ”Oh, do you pick to be a leopard? Or did you just end up with that?” She asked with curiosity plastered clearly across her face.
While much of her wanted to ask questions upon questions about being attuned, she was tempted onwards by the promise of information that would be directly related to her future in exploration. Perhaps she should have been cautious about following a stranger, but she eagerly followed him anyways. ”Athenium? What’s that?”
He welcomes the questions, having asked them himself when he was newly arrived, newly discovering the magic within him. And when he had tapped into it, he had kept testing it, kept playing at it, kept asking questions about it. "I'm told the shifts represent significant parts about you - you don't choose them, they choose you." He grins, inwardly amused at his own joke that was a callback to a homeland he longer had access to.
(He was a Ravenclaw, of course.)
"I am a very curious man by nature - I tend to ask a lot of questions, especially when a topic interests me. Cats are inherently curious, and leopards - well, I like to think I'm at least a little bit badass to have earned such a shift." He offered a soft chuckle as he tried his best to explain it - the whole concept still baffling to him, though he had filled his head with as much knowledge on the subject through books and conversations.
"The Athenium is a huge domed building at the Grounds, you won't be able to miss it. Though I've not been further than a lecture room, the Loreseeker's Guild is based somewhere in there too. I was on limited time when I visited last time, I'll be revisiting it once the seasons lets me." As he described the building he gestured with his hands before himself, tracing a rough dome shape as they walked. When they reach the door to the room to he and Kia's quarters, he opens it easily, stepping inside.
"Come in, if you like. Don't mind the mess!" They were usually a relatively tidy pair, but there was only so much space, particularly when Kia's companion, Auni, required a nest of blankets and pillows set up in the prime position before the hearth. With a bed, a desk and a couple of chairs also crammed in there, it was easy to call their room 'untidy', even if it was just a victim of their current predicament.
"Ahh, here we go," he is bent over the desk, searching between his many notes, locating the copy of Caido's Flora and Fauna and happily pressing it into her hands. "This should cover most of the unusual things you might see around the place." He sat rather unceremoniously in a chair, inviting her to do the same if she wished. "Do you have any plans for when this endless night actually ends?" He asked, a brow quirking up in playful curiosity.
Tala let out a little ”Oooh,” Of wonder, she almost wanted to find a way to become attuned only to find out what animal she would be. She was curious as well, but she didn’t think she’d be a leopard, mainly because something about what he said made it sound like the leopards here were different than the snow cats of her homeworld. ”So you were an outlander? And when you got here you could just shift, suddenly?” She asked.
Some version of a large, domed building conjured itself into her imagination, but something told her that she wasn’t thinking grand enough from the sound of it. Even the name, ‘Athenium’... she knew that she needed to get there. Surely she could spend decades just reading about this land, though, and what she really wanted was to get out there and find new things.
She entered the room cautiously, still feeling a bit weird with the concept of entering a stranger’s living space. Things were easier when she lived with her clan, but they didn’t even have ‘rooms’ per se, just their mobile tents.
Tala accepted the book and gazed down at it in wonder. She handled it with extreme care, but quickly opened it all the same to flip through the pages. There was so much here. ”Hmm?” Her eyes flicked up, his question snapping her back to reality before the book engulfed her completely. She closed it, deciding that she was interested in talking to the man before letting herself get carried away in her reading. Part of a new world was new people, and she had liked the ones she met so far.
”Well, I think first I will go to the Athenium, I want to get more information about the world before I set about my goal: exploration. Where I come from everything is the same, tundra as far as the eye can see. Not unlike Halo, actually,” She gave a wry smile. Figures she should portal here. Maybe it just looked comfortingly familiar. Thankfully, both Korbin and Delphine had assured her that Caido was not entirely tundra. ”I couldn’t live with hardly ever seeing anything new. My need to see new things may very well get me killed, but at least I’ll go out happy, eh?” She grinned, repeating some version of what she’d said to Korbin the other day - that one had seemed sure she was right that she’d die on this adventure, but she was okay with that. Her clan never taught the fear of death. ”Have you been around most of Caido then?” Curiosity was constantly written across her face, and she hoped that she wasn’t asking too many questions of the man. She could ask until her throat went dry and still want to know more, about almost any subject.
"I very much am an Outlander, yes. A lot of the Naturals won't ever let you forget it, and will hold it against you." The warning was given with as much kindness as possible, more a precaution than anything else. His latest foray with Korbin had cemented in his head that he was definitely considered apart, untrustworthy just because he came from someplace different. "That isn't to say all are like that." He added on with a small smile. "And yes. One day I'll visit a shrine and find out which of the 'gods' here decided to gift me with the ability."
He decided that he liked this woman. She was unique, as they all were, but also engaging, and keen to learn. He appreciated that in others, and hoped to have the same qualities reflected in himself too. He nodded as she gave her answer to his question on her plans for Flowerbirth - it was a topic easily welcomed by may during the Longnight, something to look forward to, something to get them through this dreary time. A grin touched his face as she spoke of her curiosity getting her killed. "Hopefully not before you get to learn about all those creatures," he added with a soft laugh.
"Not yet," he answered to the question posed to him. "It's definitely a goal of mine. Kia - my girlfriend - and I will be heading to the Grounds come Flowerbirth, to catch up with her family. And then onto Torchline for some exploring." His expression seemed to soften into a wholesome, quietly satisfied state as he spoke of Kia and their plans, a simple happiness that their relationship brought him clearly evident. "And then I also have plans for here. Warden Aristomache asked me to be her 'Chief of Agriculture', so I have plans that will be put into motion when the season allows it, that will require a lot of work."
Tala considered his words for a second, and then gave a small shrug. ”I suppose I didn’t expect it to be smooth sailing.” Her clan had always been welcoming to travelers they met, but still with cold caution. Weariness of outsiders was to be expected, and after all… She wasn’t here for the people. She’d be perfectly happy traipsing about in the world on her own, until she either found something new, or died trying.
She gave a warm, wide smile in response, even though they were more or less discussing the possibility of her death. ”Hopefully!” She said with a definitive nod.
”Agriculture! That’s wonderful. We hardly grew anything at home because of the frost, and what was grown did so more on its own than through intentional agriculture. And you’re going to grow here? What withstands the weather?” She asked, briefly glancing at the book in her hands as she considered opening it to flip through and see if anything that grew in the cold was listed, but it would take long enough to search for something so specific when it was easier just to ask.
"Not much grows here - similar to your homeworld, it would seem. I'm told some moss and tough shrubs that are barely suitable for consumption is all that appears when the snows melt slightly in the Longheat." He answers, though all of his knowledge comes from word of mouth - the Flora and Fauna guide was notably light on for detail when it came to Flora for Halo. It made sense, even if it made his job a lot harder.
"First, I am hoping to use a resource already abundant in Halo. Did you get to see a live ningo before the Longnight locked us all up in here?" He asked, wondering just how much of the land the other had seen before being forced into this isolating environment. "They are hardy birds, and with some careful selection and the right facilities, I am confident we can breed bigger birds to produce more meat per carcass, and also another line of prolific egg layers. Once that is established, we will have a steady source of food, feathers and well, shit as well."
He held a finger up, to indicate that the shit was indeed relevant to his tale. "I think that may be the key to encouraging more things to grow here. Others have thrown around ideas of building greenhouses to house the plants from the elements, and I think that is definitely relevant, but the ningo shit should really help too." He hoped he hadn't said too much, hoped that he hadn't confused her, or gotten too into what he was saying to come across as intimidating - it happened sometimes.
She nodded, imagining the plants from her home world in her head. ”Yes, we had those… the reindeer moss grew year round, although someone in the city said something about it not being a moss but a lichen. I’m a bit fuzzy on the difference.” She said.
”I haven’t seen a ningo! I think I may have eaten one, though.” She listened intently as he spoke, riveted by the plan even as she giggled a bit, somewhat immaturely, at his casual tone talking about the bird shit. ”My clan is of reindeer herders, we moved the herd around the same annual path because the reindeer shit on the grass fields made it grow back a little better the next season, though even still it could never grow much beyond short and tough strands.” She made a gesture with her hands to mimic the height of the grass. ”So I think the bird-shit plan will work.” She grinned.
07-02-2020, 06:22 AM (This post was last modified: 07-05-2020, 11:36 AM by Chulane.)
He nodded along with her words, pleased to hear that the theory of his plans might have been proven to be true in practice at least on some plane of existence. "I appreciate the vote of confidence," he said sincerely, smiling warmly at her words. "I'll need all the hands I can get once things are in motion, if you're still around. We weren't able to clean up the Citadel much after disaster struck at the beginning of Deepfrost, so that, along with these plans, will be sure to keep everyone who is willing and able very busy."
He hoped he had something of an ally, or even a friend in this woman. At the very least, he seemed to have identified a fellow book lover - he gestured to the book now as it rested in her hands. "I've kept you from your reading long enough," he rose from his seat, moving to the open doorway. "I'll see you again soon, Tala. It was nice meeting you." He offered in farewell to the woman.
