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!
I can't see much of the future Unless we find out what's to blame, what a shame
Since the sun had come up, it had been hidden by clouds, by driving rain. A gasp emerged only rarely, a break between the clouds, and in his drive to not leave himself a free moment, Nate seizes the opportunity to climb out onto the roof, making sure the shingles are solidly in place, that there's no weak points where wind can rip something off and let water seep into the house. It's simple, busy work, good enough for his hands, though perhaps it leaves a little too much space for his mind to wander, to drift away from him.
Maybe he's not as good at this whole busy work thing as he'd thought. Or maybe he's just carrying heavier burdens these days.
His work has paused, ostensibly he was on a break, but in all honesty the horizon had caught his attention, drawing him for long enough that the rain began yet again, slow fat droplets that were easy to ignore, when he didn't feel the chill of the water. If it wasn't for how out of place his silhouette looked, hanging on the edge of the porch roof, he might be able to be mistaken for some kind of especially garish decoration.
And we won't be together much longer Unless we realize that we are the same
With his current vantage point, Vai would have been impossible to miss. She emerged from the house next door, dark hair wild about her face and blown back by the playful breeze, the slow slap of raindrops. A satchel hung from her shoulder, the huntress crossing the small space between the two houses and raising a hand in greeting as she reached the gate. ”Please tell me you haven’t stopped because you’re stuck,” she said, her tone easy, a smile curling at her lips. ”Because I’ve no chance of getting you down unless I try to catch you.”
These were much different circumstances to their first meeting, and Vai was in a much better place. Though the sky was grey she still had to raise a hand to shield her eyes and look up at him. ”Do you need a hand? I was hoping to catch you at a free moment, but I can talk and work.”
I can't see much of the future Unless we find out what's to blame, what a shame
Caught out in the open like he is, Nate doesn't really have any other choice but to watch Vai, hoping that her emergence was to head towards some other, more pressing matter, that she wouldn't make her way over to him, that he wouldn't have to figure out how exactly to have a casual conversation again. He was not so lucky, but at least she made it easy on him. "I can't say I have a lot of faith in you catching me. I don't have any handy smaller forms." He calls back to her, settling on a kind of unaffected levity. If he simply acted as if nothing had changed, like he wasn't scarred, physically and mentally, then maybe she would pick up the act as well, and he could get through this relatively free of pain.
Even if their roles were reversed this meeting (though that assumed that he'd been better their first meeting, and that was a lie) Nate would fight to keep it from seeming like that.
"Not stuck." As if to demonstrate, he pushes himself up again, then gestures to the far end of the porch. "There's a ladder back there, but just your company is fine." He waits until she joins him, playing at fixing shingles if only because there's an audience now, but he's far more interested in her. "Why were you trying to catch me?"
And we won't be together much longer Unless we realize that we are the same
Stepping in through the gate, Vai couldn’t help the grin on her face as she closed it behind her. ”Hey, now. I could certainly catch you as you are - it would just look a lot like I was breaking your fall instead,” she informed him with a laugh, pushing her dark hair back from her face. Their previous meeting was not lost on her, and she was glad to see that they were both adept at the game of let’s pretend things are fine. It helped break the ice if nothing more.
He motioned to the side of the house and the ladder, Vai nodding and moving to climb up and join him. The view from the roof was impressive and for a moment the witch was similarly caught up in the horizon, careful to stop walking lest she stroll right off the edge. Nate’s voice brought her attention back, and she glanced to him - and tried not to look at his face for too long, given that she had already been warned about the attack.
”Sunjata told me that you’re a doctor,” she explained, gently patting the satchel over her shoulder. ”I can’t claim to be something quite so refined, but I’ve been doing my part with magic and otherwise since I got to Caido. The Greatwood has been a bounty for all sorts of medicinal herbs - and I heard you have a garden where they might find a new home.”
I can't see much of the future Unless we find out what's to blame, what a shame
"Well we don't want anyone looking to get the wrong idea, now would we?" His words, the light huff of laughter, follow her around the edge of the roof and up the ladder, the automatic grin still at home in the marred face, even if it doesn't reach his eyes anymore. It's a good thing Nate already isn't really working, so he doesn't feel guilty for watching her watch the horizon. For already looking when his words focus her back.
Though the words don't leave his mouth, he's much more interested in the otherwise than the magic. His strict views might have relaxed slightly, in light of recent events, the pain Sunjata had been in soothed by magic, but that doesn't mean he has to trust it any more. Thankfully, the satchel on her shoulder points to something more concrete, and he straightens again, hammer in hand, waiting for her suggestion.
"A garden sounds nice." Nate doesn't even need to think about it to respond, but he does think about the problems it will solve, problems he's already started running into. "There's a patch of wild nothing behind the house, but... I've got these planters on the roof of my clinic too." He looks up at her, a quirk in his brow before it pulls strangely, reminding him of his face, reminding him to look away again. "I can take care of things once they're growing, but I can't get anything to start." He admits, just to keep talking, distract from his discomfort.
And we won't be together much longer Unless we realize that we are the same
”A good point - not that I think many people will be looking from out here.” That was part of what made the horizon so captivating; it was largely blank of civilisation, just craggy ground and stretches of sand, the sea rolling in the distance. But back to business. Vai didn’t know about his prejudice towards magical healing, but in truth she had been utilising the otherwise aspects since long before Caido, when that magic hadn’t been a part of her repertoire.
She nodded in agreement about the garden, brightening further as he mentioned a clinic. ”I didn’t realise you had one,” she said. ”Where is it? Down in Haulani?” Then, at the admission about not being able to grow things, she offered a lopsided smile. ”Lucky for you, I’ve got a few sprouts in the bag as well as some seeds, but they’ll need to go in the ground as soon as possible. Though with the rain they say is coming, those planters of yours will be better until Longheat.”
I can't see much of the future Unless we find out what's to blame, what a shame
The siren song of the horizon is forgotten in favour of business, hands ”I almost forgot I ran one myself.” is the joke he wants to make, though it feels less than appropriate, and he answers instead with: ”It’s just off the Main Street. Closer towards the port than the mountain.” His grin grows to match hers as Nate recalls the building, how long it’s been since he’d gone back to it.
”That is lucky for me.” The words fall from Nate like he doesn’t quite believe them, like something isn’t quite adding up, but that seems to be the only sign of his suspicion, the sharp grin returning to his mouth. It all seems so convenient, the perfect hook to tug him back towards work, towards a focus outside of the house, or is that just paranoia?
Luckily, there’s an easy way to solve this dilemma, and Nate has always prided himself on finding the apparent simplest solution to any given problem. ”This is... going to sound crazy,” the best way to start a statement, ”did Sunny ask you to talk to me, or something?” He crosses his arms, clearly a little uncomfortable, but still trying to meet Vai’s eye with his remaining good one.
And we won't be together much longer Unless we realize that we are the same
Making a mental note of the location of the clinic, Vai would be lying if she said the grin on Nate’s face wasn’t welcome. It was still a touch awkward between them, though it seemed more to do with his current circumstances than any lingering bad blood from showing up with a bat cradled in her arms. Still, the awkwardness only increased when Vai detected suspicion, of all things, in his demeanour, the huntress raising an eyebrow across at him - and then it all clicked.
”No, not at all. Not exactly, anyway,” she said with a sheepish kind of smile, shoulders relaxing a bit. ”I’d just come from the Greatwood with the plants and seeds when I saw him out on the cliffs. Felix and I are sticking around Torchline for a while, so I thought I’d better stock up just in case. Sunjata just mentioned that your garden might be a useful place to grow them, given your job.” Shrugging, Vai tucked a lock of hair behind her ears. ”I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was checking up on you, or anything.”
I can't see much of the future Unless we find out what's to blame, what a shame
Not at all and not exactly were two incredibly different answers to the question he’d asked, a fact that does absolutely nothing to inspire confidence in Nate. Granted, he isn’t sure how he’s going to feel about the answer, regardless of what it is, but having some part of the equation nailed down would do some good all over. As she explained further though, the only feeing that settled over him was a squirming shame, borne of being too suspicious, too paranoid.
”No, I... I wouldn’t mind being checked up on, probably, I just don’t want it put on you, you know?” As far as attempts to save face go, it’s weak, but Nate’s hoping to inspire a little pity, a little understanding at the moment. ”I’d be happy to give you whatever space you need to plant what you got though. Here and at the clinic.”
With embarrassment resting on his back now, Nate turns back to the roof, his initial task. ”If you were serious about helping, there’s another hammer around somewhere, and I only have the porch roof left to work on.” He doesn’t know what it is about Vai, but something about her cuts through all his bullshit, makes it sound... well, like bullshit, even before it leaves his mouth, and it sets Nate a little off balance, keeps him unsure of how exactly to reach out. ”Why uh, why’d you decide to stick around?”
And we won't be together much longer Unless we realize that we are the same
That surprised Vai, a little, the huntress tilting her head at Nate and offering him a gentle smile. She was a mother - he caught her hook, line and sinker. ”Believe me, it’s a rare thing to get me to do something I don’t want to do already,” she said with a chuckle. ”Between you and Sunjata, someone should probably be checking up on you regularly. Who knows what trouble you’ll have gotten into next.”
Nodding in acceptance that she could use the garden and the clinic, Vai turned to set down the satchel and pick up a hammer, ready to help repair and replace tiles wherever needed. ”Is this for the monsoons?” she asked, guessing at a yes based on what they had all heard. The rain had been consistent, but not particularly bad yet. Vai had a feeling that would change quite rapidly.
As for why she and Felix had stayed? The witch grinned. ”My son has only known the woods, and me in them. He wanted to stay a while - and it would be good for him, all these people,” she explained. Good for her, too.
I can't see much of the future Unless we find out what's to blame, what a shame
Well, there's another reason to feel stupid about his earlier suspicion, to try and move past it quickly. "Think we need a little more than check ups." The admission is a little sheepish, the shrug that comes along with it more resigned than anything. It had taken him a while to accept it, but it seemed him and Sunjata were destined to be trouble magnets.
A hand came up to tap his nose, a sidelong grin thrown towards Vai. "I can't say I've been in a monsoon before, but I've lived through a few almost-hurricanes. I'm thinking it's the same idea." Or he was going to have done all this work for nothing, and that would just be a really shitty cherry on top of everything else.
The further the conversation shifted from him, the more Nate relaxed, easing into his work with a kind of ease that can only come from fucking something up enough to know how to do every bit of it right. "Sounds like a lonely way to grow up."
And we won't be together much longer Unless we realize that we are the same
”Maybe,” Vai agreed, though her tone was kinder, filled with the sort of amusement that came from having children who needed more than ‘checking up’ on. ”I’d ground you both, but that wouldn’t stop you,” she joked, joining him with hammer in hand to hopefully get the porch roof reinforced with little difficulty. ”The closest I think I’ve seen is a bad storm - probably not even an almost-hurricane.” Vai failed not to sound at least a little excited about it; having never experienced anything like a monsoon, this would be interesting to say the least.
Still, her smile faded somewhat at his remark about Felix, the witch nodding her agreement. ”It is,” she said. ”Though he hasn’t really... grown up.” She shrugged, not knowing how much had been mentioned about her toddler-who-wasn’t. ”Either way, he’s quite taken with the place. I imagine he won’t remember what being lonely is like before long.”
I can't see much of the future Unless we find out what's to blame, what a shame
“My own mother couldn’t ground me.” Nate snorts, shaking his head. If only staying out of trouble were as simple as a few stern words, a few restrictions. It would save him headaches. ”I think we’re both in for a treat then.” He pokes fun at her excitement, even as his own voice drops heavily with it.
There’s a quirk in Nate’s brow at the answer he receives, the details of Vai’s child not knowledge he possessed. ”Not really grown up? Is he... slow?” The last word is whispered, though not judgemental, simply curious. Being taken with Torchline though, that’s a given, isn’t it? ”That’s good though. You’ll wanna keep an eye on him, don’t want him falling in with the pickpockets and street kids.” The words have his hands pausing, heart thumping painfully before he steps past it, refuses to let himself be made sad by an errant sentence, the reminder of a loss still fresh.
No, he just hammers the roof a little harder than it needs, and hopes Vai doesn't notice, hopes she’s distracted enough by the work and his words.
And we won't be together much longer Unless we realize that we are the same
”Then I certainly won’t try,” Vai said with a laugh, shrugging her shoulders. ”I’m more of an advocate of letting Felix choose his own punishments, not that he’s done anything yet worth punishing.” Yet being the key word, given that they currently lived in Torchline where trouble seemed to lurk around every corner.
She glanced up as Nate spoke again about her son, a lopsided smile curling up the edges of her lips. ”No, he’s sharp as a tack,” she assured him. ”He... visited a shrine when he had just learned to walk - about six months ago. By the time I got there a spirit had already got its hands on him. He had... grown up, to the boy you see now.” Vai sighed. ”So in short, I’ve got a teenager and a toddler both at once.”
It sounded ridiculous every time she explained, but that didn’t make it any less true. Raising her eyes to Nate, it would be a lie to say that she didn’t notice his awkwardness, the witch turning back to her task. ”How about you and Sunjata? Do you two want to be parents?”
