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!
// 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 //
Where does he want to go? He’s not sure. There’s a body pressed against his, a leg slipping in to give him some sort of pressure for the fire in his bones, in his loins. But he tries to think of it regardless, humming low and deep in his throat as Amun takes his thumb into his mouth again. It’s enough to make him grow weak, knees buckling under the sensation that erupts within him again, his panting starting anew. And he drops to the sand, hands leaving Amun as he does so, his body erupting with warmth and sweat, of fire and blood. “Home.” He breathes before Amun’s asking his next question.
And when the Ascended drops too, Sunjata finds himself lurching forward briefly, the dizziness in his mind far outweighing the cons of needing to go home. “Satisfaction.” He growls out, planting his hands on the sandy beach to keep his balance. He stares at his shadow beneath him, he thinks it stares back.
A hand lifts, sandy and salty, rubbing along his cheek and trailing up a horn where he lets his hand rest, his heart thundering in his chest as suddenly something noses at his feet. He remembers in that moment he’s not wearing shoes, he doesn’t know what he’s wearing. But he shivers and shudders under the moonlight, inky black blood smeared along his chest and his face, from his wrist and his thumb. And he’s suddenly so cold.
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.
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
They were both on the ground now. The devil and the star-touched. But which was which was becoming increasingly hard to tell. The last little taste of the blood had already faded from Amun, and he whined at the loss of the contact and at the loss of the pleasure.
But most of all he was still thirsty.
So he continued to lick every droplet of blood from his hand and his body. His fingers made popping sounds as they slid in and out of his mouth. Pausing in his cleansing, he rocked back from his knees to land in a seated position, legs splayed before him. "Is satisfaction waiting for you at home?" he rasped out, eyes once again trained on Sunjata.
// 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 //
His mind swirls and burns, dizziness settling in his bones and he wonders if the shadow he sees in the sand beneath him would whisk him away back home, to somewhere warm. He suddenly remembers there’s people waiting for him, somewhere out there in the distance nearby a burning ball of starlight. Is it the sun? Does he belong in the stars too? Or is he made for the shadows and darkness, of the undercurrents of floods and the cold murky depths?
He stares at his shadow, feels the sensation of something bumping against his feet now, something fuzzy and furry with great black and white wings in the moonlight that reaches in and licks his face. He can smell smoke.
When he finally recovers from the spell of dizziness, he’s still warm and electric within, evident in the blush over his skin beneath the blood and fluid. “I don’t know.” He pants, gritting his sharp teeth and moving to sit up a bit more — to face Amun.
He can’t remember why he wanted the Ascended close to him at first, until he’s reminded with the tightness of his clothes, reminded with the brief press against his wrist when he moves to sit up. Gods how he wants to be warm again.
But Haai presses in on his side, trying to stabilize him so he can stuff those feelings down, at least enough to hopefully walk back to wherever this home is.
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.
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
There was something in the sand, some nightmare creature, a mishmash of body parts from different animals. Amun's eyes widened as it went to the devil's side. The Ascended scooted backwards in the sand, putting space between himself and the devil and his pet.
All the while, Amun kept licking his fingers, though they were mostly clean by now. There was a slight rumble in the ground and a fin began to poke in and out of the dunes as Zhanshi returned as well, circling the potter. As Sunjata got up to leave, the Ascended whined.
"Wait," he croaked out. "Don't go." Hanging his head, he pressed a hand to a forehead that was slick with fluid he'd sweated out. "I'm so alone. So...empty." Even the slightly nip of the landshark as he bit down on the potter's ankle wasn't enough to fill the chilly void that was his body.
// 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 //
Amun scoots back and somewhere within, Sunjata wishes he has that amount of coordination, of being able to control his body at this present moment. But he doesn’t – instead, focused too intensely on the means of recovering and getting his bearings rather than being able to up and leave. But Haai is there, pressing in on him, trying to give him some support while he flounders, feeling like a fish trapped out of water.
And when he hears the other man’s croaking voice, Sunjata swallows down hard – looks to Haai with a relatively unreadable face. “I can stay longer.” He hums, reaching forward in the sand to tug Amun closer to him – he’s not sure why, but his body burns with warmth and heat and he wonders internally if it might help Amun at least for the moment.
Besides, it’s not like he can really go anywhere right now – too dizzy and nauseous from blood loss to be able to stand, to be able to leave. All the while, his body continues to burn. He wonders if it’s bright.
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.
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
The devil's words caused a smile to spread across Amun's lips. It was brief, appearing and disappearing in a flash. When Sunjata reached for the Ascended, with wings and claws and horns and a forked tongue, he resisted for a moment. Then he relented, letting the devil pull Amun close.
Still facing the other man, the potter tucked his legs under him. One hand reached out to touch the wound he'd made on the devil's chest. However, the Ascended paused before it could touch Sunjata's skin. Shooting a glance at the griffin, Amun frowned.
Zhanshi surfaced nearby, jaws closing on air. Then he dove again, heading for the sands where the devil's blood had fallen. The potter watched the motion, mesmerized. "If heaven isn't your home, what is?" he heard himself asking as if from a distance, or as if someone else's mouth spoke the words.
// 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 //
Amun resists the pull, briefly, but Haai simply lays beside the two men – emerald eyes focused on the Ascended, perhaps a touch warily, before Sunjata’s attention focuses back on the Ascended. The hand that reaches out will meet no reluctance from Sunjata – not as he sweats and pants and continues to try and overcome the sudden buzzing in his head. And he idly watches Amun’s face, listening to the landshark as it surfaces again and again from the sand.
The question, however, is met with a low hum – a tilt of his horned head. Where was home? It was… By a lighthouse, right? That sounded right. But that wasn’t really home, home. Because he’d surfaced through the hell and tribulations of Korofi, and certainly that’s where he will return once he dies. Right? Right.
“A dark place.” He manages, jaw clenching slightly as he goes to pull more breath in, letting his hands fall to the sand beneath them once more. “Cold and suffocating.”
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.
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
Amun frowned at the devil's response. For a long moment, the Ascended didn't say anything. In fact, he didn't even move or breathe, just went still in the way that only his kind could.
When he did stir, it was to lay a hand that was slick with fluid from his tongue on Sunjata's knee. "That's awful," the potter croaked out.
Looking down, Amun added, "My home is dark and cold most nights too." He sighed, the sound traveling through his whole body.
Shivering, he jutted out his chin to meet the devil's eyes of steel one more time. "Why go home then? If it's not where satisfaction lives why not just...go somewhere else. Make a new home?"
// 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 //
There’s a hand on his knee now, and Sunjata focuses on it suddenly. His steel gaze snaps to it, watching it for a moment as the words register – a quiet ‘mhm’ offered in response. Because what else could he say? It was awful – but he’d gotten out. He’d gotten out – left his sister behind, got his lover killed, and so many lives were lost for what appeared to be nothing at all.
His hand moves then, to cover the one that rests on his knee, his eyes remaining on where fluid and blood mix and meld, the wound on his chest beginning to close but still dripping with a small amount of ruby. And he lifts his head up eventually, trying to let his tired gaze meet Amun’s as well. “I am. Here.” He says softly, quietly, perhaps a bit broken.
“But what about those all left behind?”
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.
09-06-2020, 02:39 PM (This post was last modified: 09-06-2020, 02:39 PM by Amun.)
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
Amun watched the blood drip from the devil. Only the hand on the potter's own and his exhaustion stopped him from reaching for it. Still, he licked his lips.
Cocking his head to one side he grinned. "Well then why is the dark place your home instead of here? What's stopping you?"
Shrugging, he sighed. "We're copies, remember. Those left behind still have us. A version of us at least." He swayed a bit from side to side to the tempo of the waves lapping against the sand. Zhanshi snapped at the water, before retreating to the other side of the Ascended, safe from the ocean's embrace.
"Plus we have to think about all those here now." It was a whisper, more to himself than the devil. "Why do they use spilled milk in the saying?" He frowned.
// 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 //
“Because that’s where I’ll return.” Sunjata says, adamant in the fact that he’d end up there again – whether it’s because he dreams of it every night, the nightmares that appear when he’s exhausted and his body can’t quite figure out what to do with itself other than make him replay the worst parts of his life over and over again, or if it’s because the lightning strike brought back more memories that he’d long since suppressed.
He sighs when Amun mentions they’re copies, Haai remaining close to him, as he focuses on Amun’s face. “It’s not enough.” He comments. He’s stronger here than he ever was in Korofi. He’s stronger than he ever thought he could be, having the ability to make a life for himself without thinking of consequences that would affect an entire country.
But the whisper is heard, with the gilded earring in Sunjata’s ear, and he reaches up to run a hand through his hair and let it linger on a horn. “I don’t know.” Comes the quiet answer. He’s never quite known where the term came from, but he manages to sit back a bit more, the dizziness subsiding, forked tongue licking along chapped and parched lips. “Will you help me get to the lighthouse?”
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.
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
Frowning, Amun shook his head. "How do you know?" Tilting his head back, he stared at the moon shining above. Or maybe it was the reflection on the ocean, and they were the ones in the sky. He couldn't remember. "You can never go back again." It came out in a forlorn whisper.
Laughing, he sought out the devil's eyes again. "So you want more." The Ascended squeezed Sunjata's knee.
"Why do people spill milk? Why no say spilled wine or beer or cider?" When the devil asked for help getting out to the lighthouse Amun craned his neck trying to see it. "Okay. But not if you're going to snuff out the light. Sailors need it." He stuck out his chin and glared at Sunjata.
// 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 //
How does he know? “I go back there every night.” He rumbles – through nightmares and dreams, he always ends up back where he’d started, where he’d been torn away from. But it’s always the same memories relived, nothing new, nothing set in stone – one thing here and there changing with the days events. But he knows how it always ends.
It ends with him held back by armed guards in a marble foyer, scarlet washed ivory tiles.
He almost flinches when Amun’s hand squeezes his knee, but he remembers where he is as he takes in the potter’s face. He takes a deep inhale, a slow nod granted to the man of meteors with the question, finding it rhetorical and not knowing the answer anyway.
And then, the glare, confusion sparking in his steel. “The light will guide me home.” He says as if that explains everything. Why would he destroy such a thing when it was the only anchor he had to his home?
Slowly, he manages to push himself up and away from the shadow that watches him from the sandy beach, stumbling when he finally stands, and then he glances back to Amun.
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.
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
Amun blinked at the devil's words. Frowning, the potter stared at the moon again. "Then you should know every nook and cranny, and know how to get out for good."
Bowing his head he closed his eyes. "I would give anything to go back to the sky." Taking a deep and unnecessary breath he opened his eyes, staring into his lap. "But I can't. So I make the most of being on earth instead." He shook his head.
As Sunjata got up to go, the Ascended stayed right where he was. "The light's not for me." Still looking down, he added, "Unless it's a fire? I know I shouldn't but..." Voice trailing of, he licked his lips.
