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!
Flight was a gift he was eager to use, to expand his horizons, to explore. But today, it wasn't just the itch of exploration urging him onwards - it was actual itching. His skin peeled and pulled uncomfortably at all folds and creases, red and raw and burnt to a crisp.
He knew how to treat burns. Especially sunburns - he'd grown up with them, under the Australian Sun, where the weather was 90% sunny and 10% patchy cloud cover. And he was a vet. He'd studied medicine. He should know how to treat goddamned sunburn.
It was goddamned alright. Something had deigned to grant him a taste of their power, scorching him where he knelt before the shrine, burning his skin through layers of clothes, leaving him pink and maroon, blistered and peeling.
Being in Halo helped. The constant cool air, even lying in the snow every now and then, helped to soothe, to provide some semblance of relief, albeit brief.
Today he couldn't seem to find any relief, no matter how many snowdrifts he stuck his head in. So he flew, feeling the burn as if it was on his skin still beneath his feathers, feeling the stinging heat with every movement, pushing onwards anyway.
There, was what he was looking for, a melted pool, an icy bath - water so cold perhaps it would numb the burn once and for all, though somehow he doubted this would be end of it. Landing and shifting to his human form nearby, he shed his outer layers quickly, leaving on only shorts, the heat from his burn and the spring sun enough to keep him from shivering even as he ventured into the pool without hesitation.
I don't know where I'm gonna go But I don't care, I'm on the road
Halo had to be the place Nate had the least experience with, and for good reason. It was cold, it was boring, and it seemed to host the roughest, least fun people he'd ever met. Admittedly, most of his experience was with those who'd moved to Halo from elsewhere, but in his opinion that was somehow worse. Really, the only reason he was here was because Sunjata was here, some kind of business to be taken care of. Business he had (very politely, if he said so himself) chosen to keep his nose out of.
That left him some free time though. And since he couldn't waste the time away in a bar, at least not in any way that mattered, he decided to wander. There was little that stopped him out here, the temperature not truly touching him, the struggle through the landscape not tiring him. Short of running into an ursur or a dragon, nothing could stop him this is not an invitation to be proven wrong.
Perhaps that single, positive attribute of Halo is what made it so surprising to happen across someone else. Someone who was mostly naked. Sure, the cold in Flowerbirth was weaker than it usually was, more of an irritation than a death sentence he imagines, and sure, the sun is doing what it can, though it seems high and pale in the sky, cold as the rest of the region, but surely that doesn't make the day an invitation to take a glacial dip?
"Hey, are you doing okay?" Words precede his feet by only a moment, and it's only when he draws closer that Nate sees the other man is nearly glowing red, sunburn, or something like it, covering nearly every inch of him. "That... fuck, I guess answers my question." He's paused mid step, and it takes a breath for him to actually straighten, his head tipping to the side as he does. "What uh, happened to you?" Another pause, before he remembers to add: "I'm a doctor, I might be able to help."
Never been a perfect soul But I will not apologize
It was cold. So delightfully cold. He'd been so overheated since being burnt to a crisp that he'd almost forgotten what it was to shiver, to feel goosebumps rising (painfully so today), to feel the heat be leeched away into the chilly pool, to feel some semblance of relief that snow and ointment and healing attempts had so far failed to provide.
He's lowering himself down into the pool when he hears the other person, turning and continuing to shuffle backwards into deeper waters. It's not overly deep to begin with, lapping at his thighs at the point which he suspects is the deepest part. He chuckles with a small shake to his head at the man makes his assessment, spreading his arms as if to show just how covered his was, everything (except his nether regions) quite touched by pinkish red skin, peeling and evidence of itching quite apparent.
"Visited a shrine to pray for strength," he shrugged, but winced immediately afterwards. "Got roasted by supernatural sunlight instead." That was the gist of it - his desire to pray had been fuelled by a desire to grow stronger, so that he wouldn't have to remain behind while Kia went off on an expedition, so that maybe one day he could join her without worrying that he was slowing her down.
"I'm a doctor too, of a sort. Veterinarian," he spoke without explaining the term like he normally would, a bit distracted by the desire to plunge himself into the pool. And so he didn't quite plunge, but lowered himself down, shivering involuntarily at the sensation of the chilly water level rising up his body. "Ahh," the sound echoed from his lips almost without him willing it, as the burns were soothed by the cool temperatures.
I don't know where I'm gonna go But I don't care, I'm on the road
"Damn, I guess I really could have been unluckier at the shrines." Nate whistles, taking in every inch of red skin with a sympathetic wince on his face. No answer was better than whatever this was, and he didn't even want to think of the implications of a sunburn in his ascended state. "I didn't know anything other than the gods would answer at a shrine." Comes the admission, though he supposed it made sense. People spoke about them often enough, after all, but every time he'd gone, he'd either been ignored, or spoken to a god. No spirits, no in between.
Stepping closer to the pool, Nate crouches in a smooth movement as the stranger sinks deeper into the pool, a smirk crossing his face at the obvious relief the cold water brought. "That's as much a doctor as I am." He laughs, the words truer than the other would know. There's a quick decision made, as Nate settles in. He'd got nothing going on, he might as well stay to keep an eye on the other man, make sure he doesn't turn himself into a popsicle on accident.
"I'm Nathaniel." He offers, along with his hand, not sure if he really expects the other to reach out of the water and take it. And if he was going to stick around, he might as well sate his curiosity. "This is... maybe gonna sound weird, but you're an outlander, right? Where'd you come from?"
Never been a perfect soul But I will not apologize
"Hm? What'd you get from the shrines then? Which god?" Almost immediately his interest was piqued, the very idea of gods and deities and supernatural forces still so foreign to him that any talk of it was bound to garner his undivided attention. Of course, his attention was hardly undivided right now, as he idly itched under the water at the red and achy skin.
He lowered himself down, further and further, taking a gasping breath in to hold before dipping his head back and under, wetting down the thick curly mop of hair on his head. He sat back up quick, causing quite a splash, taking more big gasps for breath as the cold did stun him a bit - but in such a relieving way. It seemed to numb the burn, to leech the heat that he was radiating, to do exactly what he was hoping it would.
"Chulane," he replied, returning the handshake with a half-smile, guessing almost at the same time as the other man that he was an Outlander too - the handshake wasn't something he'd observed very often in the Naturals of Caido. "Most call me Chuy," he added, before nodding with a low chuckle. "Earth. Yourself?"
I don't know where I'm gonna go But I don't care, I'm on the road
"First time I ever tried any of the shrine shit, Frey showed up and called me an asshole." Nate snorts, rolling his eye as he recounts the memory, the experience turning him away from Gods, and spirits apparently, until his ascension. "The temple got turned into a frozen slip and slide, and my clothes were stolen, and I never even got a chance to tell my joke." As if that were the worst tragedy of them all.
The hand stops to dip in the water, as if Nate could somehow feel the temperature, judge how potentially bad this could be for the other man, but there was simply the brief sense of a chill, as soothing as something could be to his numbed out nerves.
The handshake stopped abruptly, though the ascended didn't pull his hand away, too immediately distracted by his hunch being confirmed. The question wasn't answered, not really, but it was obvious by the words that came from him next where he was from. "I fucking knew it. Australia, right?" It sounds smug, made more so by the smirk that spreads over Nate's face. Finally, his hand drops, only to make it more convenient to sit more comfortably, legs crossing as he shifts out of his crouch. "I'm from the States myself." And god, that had once felt like a world away.
Never been a perfect soul But I will not apologize
08-08-2020, 04:11 AM (This post was last modified: 08-08-2020, 04:12 AM by Chulane.)
I see your true colours shining through
"Damn," he mused, wondering at whether cosmic sunburn or abject humiliation was worse. Chuy was prone to blushing when embarrassed, and he wondered if he would've turned as pink as this if he had experienced what Nate had. "Think I prefer the sunburn," (though it was being unusually more stubborn than 'normal' sunburn - perhaps he would think differently in another week when it hadn't healed still).
The icy coolness was finally seeping in, seemingly delayed purely due to the heat his burns were radiating out. He stood, carefully, on the icy base of the pool (really it was a glorified puddle), letting the chill of the air hit him, watching as steam rose up off his overly warm skin. A grin split his face as Nate identified his homeland. "'Straya, born n' bred," he chuckled, leaning into his accent, slowly extracting himself from the glacial pool. He grabbed at his still-dry shirt, intending on using it as a towel to pat away any drop that didn't dry off almost immediately after his burned skin was exposed to air again.
After pulling on his thicker, warmer trousers (but still topless for the moment), he plopped himself down beside the man, pleased to have company, even if it was unexpected. "Only been here a couple of seasons. Gods and magic still doesn't seem real to me." A pause, as he considered how to frame his next question, before deciding to just go for it. "When are you from? I've heard of the portal pulling people from Earth from all different times."
I don't know where I'm gonna go But I don't care, I'm on the road
At the time, Nate's sure he would have preferred the sunburn as well, but as he is now, it's a harder decision to weigh. His confidence is far more solid than it's ever been, no longer a glass wall doing what it could to keep him untouched, and sunburn implied well, sun. "I don't know, that looks like hell. I mean, you're in an ice puddle right now." The last part probably didn't need to be pointed out, but it did help his point.
Look at him go. The assurance that he was correct only had the grin on his face widening, stretching into a proper smug smirk. It was the second time he'd met someone else from Earth, and it was just as strange, just as uncomfortable feeling. As if they shared some kind of distant dream. Nate's jaw works, his one eyed gaze drifting out towards the mountains that rose up around them, as a body warm enough that he could feel it plopped down next to him. "I've been here... fuck, over two years now." Not a realization that particularly helped him at the moment. "It... gets a little bit easier to deal with, the longer you're around it."
If this was his first time, maybe it would be a little stranger to hear the question that fell from the other man. "It does do that. The first other person I met from earth was from uh, ninety-five, I think?" There'd been so much other weirdness in that conversation that he really couldn't bring a solid date to mind. "I'm from eighty-two. You?" His head tilted to the side as his gaze focused all at once on Chulane again, wide and unblinking and only a little worried that the man had come from some unimaginable future.
Never been a perfect soul But I will not apologize
He laughed, unable to do anything but agree with the man's words. He was indeed in an ice puddle, an activity he never would've imagined himself doing - but then, he'd never experienced cosmic sunburn either, never had a reason to want to do it. He hadn't quite caught on that the other person was an Ascended, hadn't quite picked up on the implications of sunburn potentially affecting an Ascended worse than a normal man.
"Good to know." That he would get used to how this world worked eventually was a comfort, even if he doubted it for now. He'd adjusted to becoming Attuned pretty quickly, frankly loving it - though admittedly the whole empathic link that was the bond still startled him. But he was well practiced at reigning in his emotions, at hiding them away, shoving them to the side to focus on the here and now. Controlling what he let out through the attuned bond was just another aspect of that skill - though with some he didn't have to control them, to hide them, free to feel himself, as well as the other.
Surprise transformed his face as he heard about another who came from the nineties, and then heard that Nate was from the eighties. "Damn," he murmured in awe, knowing that he could expect it and yet being amazed by it all the same. "December twenty-eighteen," he said softly, goosebumps rising along his skin, not just from the feeling of a cool breeze along his burnt skin.
I don't know where I'm gonna go But I don't care, I'm on the road
Never before had Nate really considered himself a caring person, but being in a new place had brought out different parts of himself, pieces allowed to bloom freely where they'd never had the chance before. Maybe that's why his grin grows a touch wider at Chulane's answer, even if it's tinged with a touch of doubt - he gets it, really he does. But he's also right. Eventually the punches get easier to roll with, even if they never really ease up.
Any musings are blown from his head though, first by the surprise on Chuy's face, then by the year. A low whistle leaves him, trying to understate his own surprise, though Nate can't stop himself from repeating the murmur, with feeling. "Damn." Almost forty years. He wants to ask whats changed, how things have shifted, but he can barely wrap his mind around that kind of time difference. Some part of him spends a half second trying to figure out how old he'd be, before he decides unceremoniously there's no way he would have survived that long if he'd stayed where he was. "It must really be a fucking change to have come here then." He says instead, so they're not just sitting there, so he's not stewing awkwardly in his own thoughts.
Never been a perfect soul But I will not apologize
It was mind boggling, that all the science fiction and fantasy theories of a multi-dimensional universe being proven correct, time and again, with each Outlander from Earth he hears about, or meets. He ran a hand through his hair, before deciding it was time to put layers back on - even the badly sunburnt needed protection from the cold, even if steam still rose from his back and arms. He pulled his shirt down, and then reached for his thicker overcoat, locking in what warmth the chilly air hadn't stolen away.
The moment of silence after his Damn was echoed by Nate wasn't uncomfortable or overly long, but just right - a moment where two individuals wrapped their minds around the implications of the shared existence here, in this moment. Then, Chuy had to laugh, to let the amusement over the ridiculousness of it all rise up and bellow from his lungs.
Because if he didn't laugh, he'd probably cry, and no-one (least of all, him) wanted that.
"Bit of an understatement," he chuckled, shaking his head. Then he rose, dusting the snow off from where it clung to his pants, and seemingly dusting off the mild shock and awe of the revelation of their different timelines. He'd be happy to answer questions about the 'future' for Nate, but it felt like a moot point - they were here now, weren't they? "You heading to the Citadel?" he asked, realising he hadn't really ascertained what a stranger was doing wandering around on the Tundra all alone.
I don't know where I'm gonna go But I don't care, I'm on the road
Nate might not laugh, still too boggled by the implication, the sheer idea that that much future existed, that time had somehow kept ticking right along, even without him. It's worse than his talk with Josh, more than triple the time passed. His humour comes back to him first, a grin spreading over his lips even before he's spoken. "I thought just losing t.v. was bad. Can't imagine what you lost." It's almost an opening for a question, a hook that Chuy can take to indulge him, or leave alone, as they move on.
The question reminds him of where he's come from, the reason he'd come out in the first place, and Nate suddenly realizes just how much time he must have spent getting out here, how much time it would take him to get back. He is definitely going to be keeping Sunjata waiting. "I guess I am heading to the Citadel, yea. I hope you don't mind some company on your way." Assuming Chuy is going the same way, assuming the question had been the invitation he took it as.
"So... did you show up here, or did you come here after?" Since the portals had opened, there had been talk of outlanders coming into other places, but he had yet to actually speak with another outlander who had arrived aywhere other than the grounds. That he knew of, at least.
Never been a perfect soul But I will not apologize
He noticed the hook, and so he took it - Chuy had always been open, a scholar happy to share information rather than hoard it for himself (not that the topic of his origin was a scholarly matter). "Had you heard of the internet before..?" …before you were brought here? he silently finished. The internet had taken the world by storm; he'd grown up in that time where old was rapidly replaced by new, and newer, and newest - he wondered how much Nate might know, but knew the internet itself wasn't really known until the nineties. So, with a frown, he asked a follow-up question soon after; "Or mobile phones? I think yanks called them cell phones?"
He welcomed the company, gesturing for them to walk side by side, that they might make their way to the city centre, to complete whatever business Nate had there. Chuy had flown to this spot, the trip far easier to navigate from the skies above, but he did not shy away from the prospect of a return trip on foot - perhaps along the way, he'd learn more about the other man, especially now that his sunburn was temporarily soothed, and his focus was better able to cling to the present moment.
"Was on a research expedition to Antarctica," Gods but it was nice to be able to talk of Earth so easily and openly. "Saw what I thought were the Aurora lights. Wandered into them… Ended up not far from this spot, actually," he looked out over the expanse of space below them, carefully navigating his way down the icy path the relatively small glacier offered. Every now and then he paused, and glanced at the other to ensure he was handling the trek well enough - he hardly need worry of course, most in this world were far better suited to surviving it than he. "Since then, as I'm sure you can appreciate, it feels like shit has hit the fan over and over again, with no mind of stopping anytime soon."
I don't know where I'm gonna go But I don't care, I'm on the road
The internet was not something familiar to Nate in the least, though he did remember Josh mentioning something about it, maybe. It was easy to discount most of the things the other man had said, to wave them away with the cloth of crazy conspiracist, but maybe there was something worth listening to in it. ”No, but I did have a mobile phone. Came with my car, had to be the fanciest thing I owned before... well, before here.” He laughs, trying to smooth over the frown on the other mans face, trying to keep the conversation light.
Company isn’t something he had on his trek out this far, but it’s a pleasure to have as they make their way back to civilization. Even more pleasurable is having someone around who presumably knows the way back to civilization. The cold can’t touch him, and he’s fine with wandering until he stumbles across what he needs to. There is a path, after all, and it can only be so hard to stumble over it.
”Antarctica?” A low whistle leaves Nate, his one eyed gaze leaving Chuy to consider the landscape around them, some quip about how appropriate his new home base was resting on his tongue, not quite formed enough to slip out. ”It’s more interesting that what I got. I thought I was having some kind of... hallucination, after a night of partying.” Nate laughs, the circumstances different, but the result the same. ”You learn your roll with things a little more. It’s still hard, and it’s still shitty, but it gets a little better.” It was the truth, mostly. Things had gotten better, since he’d been here. But he’d gone through more than he ever had before as well.
That didn’t make for bright travel conversation though, so Nate keeps his details to himself, keeps his words bright and airy. He’s in a good mood, all thin aconsidered. Things feel like they might finally be on the upswing.
Done
Never been a perfect soul But I will not apologize
