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!
There's an obvious answer, of course: she went through a portal and took a left, finding herself in a busy port. She wandered away toward the beach, repulsed by the ocean and desperately thirsty at the same time. She found a patch of sunlight far enough from the waves to feel somewhat safe, though the yawning mouth of the ocean still stretches out like monster's gullet, eager to swallow her whole. For now she's safe, sitting on grass and watching the waves with glittering, sunken eyes.
Who knows how long that will last.
"I'm not afraid. You're afraid." There you go, Amalia. That'll show the sea.
// a reminder, ready when you find her, i repress the iridescence of a fire won't you mind him, steady when you find him, i confess the incandescence of a dyin' light //
Why are they going to the ocean? Who knows. Not Sunjata, that’s for sure.
Still, he clings to Nate, an arm easily slung around the Ascended’s shoulders, dragging him toward the ocean – something that both intrigues and repulses him right now despite how much he’s always loved the water. His lips part, half between saying something to Nate, when he hears Amalia’s voice and he half rounds, stepping on his heel in the sand and spinning – remaining surprisingly in the shade.
“Amaaaaalllliiiaaaaaaa!” He croons, dragging Nate closer to the woman, staying far away from the water as he can, letting the warmth of the sun soaked into the sand warm his bare feet. He’s shirtless, doesn’t know where his shirt has gone, but the tattoos that spark over both arms shift and twinkle in the light, the spiderwebbing of lightning scars raise them in places, before bright pink scars dart toward his heart. “You know, you don’t look like a Shield, does she Nate?” His head cocks to the side, scrutinizing Amalia as if he can imagine her shifting her body into a riot shield of sorts.
SUNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Nate knows exactly why he’s on the beach. He’s supervising Sunjata. It’s a fact he’s so sure of the word occasionally slips from his lips, whispered to the wind as a reminder, a reassurance. He’s less clothed than he’s been in a long while, wearing a pair of shorts stolen from his fiancé and nothing else, trying to soak up the warmth of the sun as much as he can, despite the shiver plucking at the back of his neck with every step they take.
Sunjata might turn, a smart little move made easier by the sand, but Nate doesn’t, he just stumbles, narrows his eye at the other man as he’s dragged backwards along the beach. The name that rolls off the other mans lips takes a long moment to make sense, and an even longer one to spark recognition in Nate. ”Amalia.” It’s bitter, spat out at the expanse of empty beach in front of him before he turns, faces the ever ardent woman.
”Doesn’t look like much of anything.” It’s a dark, bitter growl, one that seems to surprise even him. ”Are you supposed to be a shield?” He calls out louder, trying to recover from his initial vitriol.
Amalia glares up at the men who dare intrude upon her safety, smelling of smoke and sea. The first one to speak her name is easy to recognize, his towering stature reminding her of a beanstalk from a story her grandmother once told. The second one is smaller, but not by much, and the vitriol with which he names her is echoed in her expression. Leopard ears flatten on her head, teeth bared in a predatory snarl, a pissing contest of my fangs are bigger than yours.
"Go away," she means to shout, but it comes out as a mangled whisper, caught on the raw edges of her throat. "You are demons. Let me have the sun."
// a reminder, ready when you find her, i repress the iridescence of a fire won't you mind him, steady when you find him, i confess the incandescence of a dyin' light //
He drags Nate over, a smirk lingering on his face when he focuses on Amalia and the question that’s aired. Nate’s voice is a bitter thing, and Sunjata tugs him closer, letting his warmth leach into the Ascended along with the outside air. “Oh, she’s supposed to be. She's Safrin's Shield.” He rumbles, leaning toward Nate like he’s whispering a conspirator's tale in his lover’s ear.
But when Amalia turns, teeth bared, there’s a wider smirk that spreads across Sunjata’s face – fangs extending on his own as he releases Nate to go and crouch in the sand before the Shield, blocking her sunlight with his shadow. “I am the sun, Amalia.” His head tilts, focused on her for a brief moment before his gaze flickers to Nate. “Sun…Jata.”
SUNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
"Is she?" It's a concept that still doesn't click, though Nate's mind does provide him with the unfortunate image of Amalia, contorted into a rough shield shape, held aloft by a woman made of glittering darkness. If he squints, unfocuses, perhaps he can see the same thing in the flesh, but that doesn't make it any more sensible.
It takes a long moment for the joke to land, Nate unfocused and slack-jawed, staring at Sunjata. The bark of laughter leaves him before his face changes fully, surprising even him. All of his hostility is pushed away in his haste to crow his next words. "That makes the Sun mine then, doesn't it?" He follows after his fiance, widening the shadow cast over the Shield, and smirking down at her. "You can't have any."
09-09-2020, 07:53 PM (This post was last modified: 09-09-2020, 07:54 PM by Amalia.)
you drew memories in my mind I could never erase
painted colors in my heart I could never replace
The monsters come closer, casting shadows, leering and gloating and digging with their words. Again Amalia flashes a snarl, unafraid and reckless as she straightens her spine, glaring up with eyes like embers that dance between the faceless pair. "Sunjata," Amalia repeats, her voice coiling around that first syllable, contempt in the caress. "You are only a reflection of brighter things. Things you stole to fashion into a person shape. There is nothing underneath."
Her attention turns to Nate, then, the cruel snarl still upon her face. Ears flick back, and the horns that spiral up are bathed in lilac fire, harmless and alive. "You can never have the sun. You were tricked into giving yourself away, and now you're only empty." Abruptly her expression changes, the flames subsiding and giving way. Softer, warmer, not cruel but empathetic. She drops her snarl into a sad frown, and reaches up to touch Nate's cheek. "It's sad. That's sad. You could have been whole, but you were eaten apart by lies."
// a reminder, ready when you find her, i repress the iridescence of a fire won't you mind him, steady when you find him, i confess the incandescence of a dyin' light //
A slow grin spreads across Sunjata’s face as he watches Amalia and listens to Nate’s bark of laughter. And the shadow grows greater, threatening to shift around and consume Amalia if they weren’t careful. Sunjata doesn’t know which he wants – to save the shield or let her perish. So he focuses instead on the other thing tangible, Nate’s words cutting through the haze. “It does.” He croons, head tilting a bit to the side as he watches Amalia.
Her words cut through a bit sharper though, and Sunjata’s amusement shifts to something of a sneer relatively quick. “I never stole. I made myself.” He half growls. “I came here with nothing.” And oh how he feels he could eat the world right now.
For now, however, he watches her sneer direct toward Nate and there’s a flare of something within him at the accusations, however true they might be. But it isn’t until she’s reaching up to touch Nate’s cheek that the jealousy flares in a fiery beam within him. “Don’t touch him.”
SUNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Confirmation comes from Sunjata, a voice like smoke wrapping around Nate, pulling him to lean against the attuned a little heavier, bright smile aimed up at his lover. "Aren't I lucky, sonskyn?" It's a purr, meant for the two of them, though he's having trouble controlling his volume at the moment.
Not that it would matter if it weren't for the irksome presence of the shield. It's not the sneering words aimed at Sunjata that tips his grin, not the flames and vitriol then aimed towards him either. Accusations, anger, threats, these are all things he can shrug off, things he knows how to deal with.
Pity though?
Nate recoils from the expression on Amalia's face even before her hand reaches out for him, smirk dropping into a snarl, though anger never touches his eyes. "What do you know about me?" The words are hissed out between clenched teeth, overlapping with his fiance's in a blur.
They both seem to recoil from her touch, emotionally and physically, as though she were iron and they creatures of the night. It fuels her, emboldens her, the sudden power she wields, the way they snap like cornered creatures, poor broken things that they are.
What do you know about me? It takes a moment and no time at all for her to search her tired mind, scattered pieces of information jumbling into a story, embellished and improved upon by her own self-righteous rage. "I know that you are hurt," she answers, not dropping her hand. "I know that you were tricked to become something that you aren't, and that because you can't escape it you've let the monster rise up in you, choking out your goodness like weeds choke out a flower."
She's rising now, her dark eyes blazing, horns spiraling onto her head. It is her turn to stand, to glare, to tower, to steal back the sun. "I know that you can be cruel, and that you are broken, and that your lover wants to fix you but he does not know how." Is she speaking of him now, or herself? "I know what it feels like to be caught between moments, to not know who you are."
// a reminder, ready when you find her, i repress the iridescence of a fire won't you mind him, steady when you find him, i confess the incandescence of a dyin' light //
If he could take all the accusations and words that Amalia begins to spill about Nate, Sunjata would. It’s that thought that has him trying to swallow down his impulse, though it fails immediately the more the Shield talks. His jaw clenches, he slips in between the space with Nate and Amalia, an arm slinging around Nate as his heart thunders in his chest, his jealousy rearing an ugly head.
His lips curl into a frown, into a sneer of sorts, as his steel gaze narrows on the Shield and his own horns begin to spiral around the crown of his head. His hand lifts, trying to block Amalia’s, trying to ensure that the only touch Nate gets right now is his and not whatever this is Amalia is attempting to do.
“Do not — Amalia.” He manages, though his thought process flickers and the words don’t quite make sense, the protest is weak. He does want to fix Nate. He doesn’t know how. But how does she know all of this when he’d kept it bottled upside, hadn’t he? “Stop.”
SUNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Though his expression doesn't shift anymore, each word levelled against him has Nate retreating further and further into himself, his hand slowly rising to cover his face, to hide away from both of them. It burns, being seen when he doesn't expect it, when he doesn't control every aspect of it. He wants to lean into Sunjata, but can't justify the comfort to himself.
When he finally finds the voice to reply, it's small. It matches the haunted, distant look in his eye, peeking out between his fingers like a child. "So you know all of this." There's a tremble to the words that makes them waver, Nate clenching his jaw so hard it creaks before continuing. "What now? Tell me what to do." If she's so clever, if she sees through the walls he's put up so easily, then she can tell him what to do, how to put together the broken pieces into something whole.
"Or is this your revenge? Your cruelty?" An idea that occurs to Nate as it leaves his mouth. It's something he would do, if he was in a different state of mind. Figuring at this point, he's already broken, already lost, already shown too much weakness, he leans, sags into Sunjata and covers his face fully at last, hiding away in self-made darkness.
The bits and pieces she's put together from conversations here and there flood from her with torrential force, leaving her drained and empty of empathy, with nothing left to give him but this cruel deluge of truth.
And it works, because the demon dissipates, drowns himself in his own darkness and releases his hold upon the day. A cruel part of Amalia delights in the dismay that seems to radiate off the monster, in knowing that she's hurt him the way he once hurt her. "I can't fix you," she hisses through the sunlight that streaks down from above her, around her, leaving them in shade.
Her dark eyes glitter, ghost to Sunjata, to the horns he tries to boast and the teeth he tries to bare. "You can't fix him either, you know," Amalia growls cruelly. "He'll cut away at everyone in search of blood, but nothing will make him bleed again. He traded his soul away and now he'll never have the sun."
// a reminder, ready when you find her, i repress the iridescence of a fire won't you mind him, steady when you find him, i confess the incandescence of a dyin' light //
The plea in Nate’s tone breaks down whatever walls Sunjata’s built on this encounter. All amusement and glory shifting into something protective, something jealous, something that only wants and wishes for the best for his lover; and Amalia effectively breaks what little hold Sunjata had on the Ascended. An arm tightening around Nate.
And then Amalia’s flint hued gaze meets a stormy stone of his own, his gaze narrowing as soon as Nate’s sagging into his arms. “You’re wrong.” He manages, pressing his head against Nate’s crown while his gaze shoots daggers at Amalia. “I will give him the sun. I will fix him.” He murmurs with every ounce of conviction within his fevered red body. “I won’t ever give up like you have.” His lips edge in a sneered curl, arms remaining tight around Nate. “Can you say that you’ve done everything, Amalia? No. You can’t. Because you haven’t.” He’s hissing by the end of it, everything in him believing it as pure truth.
SUNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
