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!
She hears it all. She hears of a sickness rampaging through the Grounds. She hears of their inability to judge situations correctly.
She also knows it has been a long time since she’s had a hunt.
The Banshee, draped in a billowing gown, torn and a dusty mess, wanders the Woodlands — her song a mournful one, hauntingly beautiful, echoes from the trunks of the trees until the entirety of it is ensconced in her call. They will hear it. They will come.
And they will play.
This is a rare creature sighting!
You have 48 hours to reply.
Warning: this sighting can be dangerous!
Bastien had been hearing things for a few days now. Whispers at the door, scrapings in the walls, sweet fragments of Rexanna's voice calling to him from the corners of rooms. For the most part he'd learnt to tune them out, to ignore and continue as best he could, stumbling about the Sanctuary and the town like a drunk, busy on odd, tangential missions.
What drew him to the song was how different it was to the usual noises. Instead of being taunting, dark and quiet it was clear, beautiful and loud. Immediately it had turned his head and in the pursuit of something that might clear his mind he had begun to walk.
When he finally arrived in the woodland, staring in front of him at the figure drifting among the trees, Bastien stood still, only a slight sway in his stature. The performance was so striking that all he could do was watch, tears in his eyes as he was immeasurably moved by the song.
I am the carbon collected. I am the printed upon your stars.
Amun couldn't have told anyone how he arrived in the woods. The notes of the song had filtered through his fevered brain and he found himself drawn to the call. He'd been hearing sirens for a while now, but this was the first time he'd succumbed to their music.
Making his way through the trees, he sidled up next to Bastien. The potter was grinning, and his eyes were wide. "Incredible, right?" He swayed from side to side in time with the beat, smiling all the while.
Zhanshi had followed of course. Snapping his jaws at the air, he tried to fasten his teeth into Amun's boots and tug him away. However, the potter ignored his companion, entranced.
So, baby-doll, don't you lose your touch You take it all cause you're never gonna take too...
They’re in the grounds, for reasons Nate can’t quite remember, except for the fact that it’s a celebration. He’s in a happy buzz, has been for days, forever maybe. As far back as he can remember right now, and that’s some kind of forever. They walk through the woods, hands entwined (has he let go of Sunjata once since their marriage? No, thank you for asking). It would be a nice day all on its own, a nice walk in a nice place, but they’re here for a reason.
Nate is trying to follow a muscle memory, trying to find some kind of humming, like a refrigerator in an unfamiliar house. Instead, he hears singing, a funeral dirge echoing through his head, threatening to tear his heart from his chest. Almost involuntarily, he squeezes the attuned’s hand and follows the song, utterly entranced.
When they finally come within sight of the woman, strange, ethereal, and so mournful. He’s not sure if he’s a child or a rat, but he’s held in the thrall of the pipes, and if it wasn’t for Pemota putting herself in front of him, a mid-air stopping block, he would keep walking. ”It’s so beautiful, Sunny.”
Losing control and you lose your touch You take it all, cause you're never gonna take too much
'cause we might as well be blind, if seeing is believing, this parable's misleading
There’s a lot of things Sunjata doesn’t remember from the sickness that rampaged through his body. But there’s a few specific things that stand out. A house burning down, and a quiet ceremony that has a ring sat snugly on his finger, interlaced with his husband’s. He doesn’t even remember much of the ceremony, either, just bits and pieces here and there. And they’re in the Grounds, for a specific reason he can’t remember and neither can Nate.
But the Ascended had wanted to go, and Sunjata – now sure that he couldn’t lose his partner – willingly goes.
Hand in hand, his steel gaze glances around the Woodland, not sure what it is they’re looking for. At least, until the sound hits, and Nate’s dragging them all toward it. Haai follows at his heels, willing to block Nate as well if he tried to get around Pemota. And Sunjata, tugs back at Nate’s hand, trying to pull him into his chest, an arm slipping around the Ascended’s shoulders.
He sees the woman, sees the way the gown is torn and how… Otherworldly the creature looks, and already his stomach is doing flips. “I don’t trust it.” He says quietly to Nate while Haai takes a stance in front of the pair.
you've got your shotgun loaded with excuses — that you'll fire in vain — but those 12 rounds just won't do
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.
Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination
He was here for a reason, though it had become blurred as time went on. He promised Morgan he would try to speak to Wessex, try to confirm relations with the Ascended and their apparent Queen. But as he came through the portal, and took up his leopard form, he could not help but feel small and insignificant against the weight of nostalgia that coming to the Grounds inspired.
So he procrastinated.
He detoured through the Woodland, letting his instincts take over, letting the leopard "drive". But when he heard the haunting melody ring through the trees, he came back rather quickly. He was not sick, not afflicted by fever or hallucinations, but he was pushed to question that assertation as he stalked from the canopy above the commotion occurring below - a creature, unlike anything he'd ever imagined or researched, wandering through the forest, attracting a great many with her call.
He crouched low against the branch overhead, watching and listening with his keen senses finely tuned to the spectacle below.
My, my, my, they do arrive. Many of them sick, many of them not, accompanied by farmers from the field as well as a few hunters in the wood. And when they’ve all gathered to her call, her singing slows.
It drifts off, echoing into the woods, and she spins in a few dancing circles, tattered dress spinning in the wind, until she stops, hollowed out eyes focused on the leopard in the trees.
And the game begins. Faster than it looks like she can manage, she zips along the grasses, passing by everyone there until she’s climbing up the trees, aimed for Chulane’s throat.
The banshee has picked Chulane for lunch. Do the rest of you help or abandon him?
Moving this down to 24 hours to respond to keep it moving!
09-30-2020, 09:04 PM (This post was last modified: 09-30-2020, 11:33 PM by Amun.)
if I ever start to think straight
As the pretty siren sang her song, Amun beamed at her. Still moving in time with her music, he began to dance, though the motions were jerky and erratic. Zhanshi gave a few more tugs to the potter's pant leg before giving up. After, the landshark circled at Amun's feet.
When the banshee rushed around and started clambering into the trees, he frowned. "Hey! Come back here pretty lady." However, something about her movements caused him to frown. It didn't help when his companion sent images of claws and killing teeth through their bond, since Zhanshi recognized another predator when he saw one.
The potter was unable to see the leopard in the Ascended's current delirious state. However, he raised his hand and fired a flashbang at the tree and the lady of rags. "My singing," he snarled.
Amun fires a flashbang at the banshee (and probably also Chulane).
Type: Light
Flashbang Upgrade | Once per thread the user can generate a flashbang from his right hand. The flashbang has a range of 15ft, and covers a 10ft radius once it goes off. Symptoms of disorientation are more severe closer to the detonation sight.
'cause we might as well be blind, if seeing is believing, this parable's misleading
One thing Sunjata realizes quickly is that the banshee moves fast. She’s still one moment, the next she’s speeding along the field, almost as if she’s taking account of everyone that’s arrived before picking something in the trees. Sunjata doesn’t know whether it’s a person or not, but he does catch a glimpse of the leopard briefly as he follows the path the banshee takes.
“Stay here.” He hums to Nate, moving his attention to the predator within him, hoping that it’s something useful, even if it was the first time that he shifts fully into it. So he steps away from his husband, letting it overtake him as he hears Amun’s voice ring out, a quick glance is given toward the other Ascended.
But then he’s shifting, large leathery wings unfurling, man becoming a large dragon with black plates, large spikes trailing down his spine, a big heavy head full of sharp teeth snap toward the banshee, a blue glow erupting in his throat. The dragon snarls toward the banshee, wings flaring and lightning crackling in the back of his throat as he rises himself a bit higher to try and be eye level with the banshee – hoping to intimidate it rather than blast at it as Amun had.
Sunjata shifts to his dragon shift and tries to intimidate the banshee into leaving Chulane alone!
you've got your shotgun loaded with excuses — that you'll fire in vain — but those 12 rounds just won't do
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.
There's no limit to what I feel, we climb higher and higher
Are you kidding me?
It moves so fast, too fast. Even with leopard senses tracking it, the Chief is hard-pressed to get moving, to react and try to flee. Muscles tense and the leopard hisses and spits, reaching out to swipe violently with sharp paws, yowling all the while.
'Help!' It wasn't so much the actual word that he beamed out, but the sensation, the panic and urgency leaving him in great rushed pulses. Fuck fuck fuck his actual thoughts were muttering, as he leapt from the branch, and shifted into feathers and talons, taking flight.
Around him, the world seemed to explode. And something far more bigger and dangerous than him rose up from below. The world was a blur of bright colours and startling growls, and all he could do was try to navigate away from the danger that seemed to be coming from all angles around him.
---
Chuy shifts to eagle and tries to fly away amidst the flashbangs and banshees and dragons (he's having a great time)
So, baby-doll, don't you lose your touch You take it all cause you're never gonna take too...
Nate doesn’t see what does it, what breaks their apparently tenuous bubble of peace and calm, but it happens quickly. The woman, the spirit, grows quiet, twirls in the woods, and he leans in against all the things holding him back, Haai and Pemota, Sunjata’s hand.
Then, there’s nothing holding him back, the woman who had lured them out here revealing herself as a monster, far worse than him. Nate steps back, turning while he does to try and grab his husband, to leave the woods and whatever secret had them wandering in the first place, but Sunjata is pulling away, telling him to stay put, while he melts and grows into something huge. The shape is impossible for Nate to make sense of, huge wings and scales and that electric blue glow. ”Not a dinosaur.” Nodding, Nate teeters, caught between staying put, keeping his head above water, and diving in as Sunjata does.
He makes a choice, steps forward, and is immediately cut off by both companions, their bodies keeping him in place, keeping him under some modicum of protection.
Nate does nothing to help, cause he’s a sick little weenie
Losing control and you lose your touch You take it all, cause you're never gonna take too much
At first Bastien did not notice the crowd beginning to form, the others appearing behind him, but when he finally did, hearing some twig snap or heavier footstep, he turned to see them all. His first reaction was simply to smile, sure in his delusions that they were all attending a concert of sorts, happy to be enjoying the creative arts with friends once more; he even saw Nate, who he gave a friendly wave to.
He didn't see the leopard in the tree, only the Banshee's sudden and unwarned approach towards it and the flash afterwards. Stumbling back, hands over his eyes to shield them from the brightness, he made a disgruntled groaning noise. It had been so nice! Why had she stopped the performance before it's due time?
"Unprofessional." Bastien said, rather loud, and put his hands on his hips.
---
Bastien calls the Banshee unprofessional and sulks but does nothing useful.
I am the carbon collected. I am the printed upon your stars.
A series of things happen at first. The banshee reaches Chulane, missing a swipe as she attempts to try and get him to drop from the trees. He backs up just enough to evade the banshee, but he doesn’t evade the flashbang that erupts against the tree, showering him in the after effects of an explosion. He’s blinded temporarily with the flash of light, as is the banshee, snarling her frustration.
She hadn’t expected so many of them to fight, her thin, skeletal frame dropping from the trees and out of sight of the dragon and the one with the light explosions in his arm, abandoning Chulane for the time being. It seems he’s far more work than she wanted to put into it.
So she focuses her target on someone else, another single person on the outskirts that had done nothing, the farmer that had appeared from the fields. She moves quicker on instinct, and she dives toward the unsuspecting man, hands outstretched to whisk him away into the woods. He doesn’t stand a chance against her as she plows into him, dragging him screaming and helpless into the woods.
The banshee misses Chulane, but Amun’s flash bang hits him and blinds him temporarily. The banshee switches targets and drags an NPC farmer away for her meal.
That concludes this RE unless you all would like to follow up after the farmer!
He flaps his wings, his senses thrown totally off-kilter as he is blinded by whatever it was that loudly and brightly consumed his vicinity. He screeched and cawed, whistled and called as he inevitably found himself suddenly aground, wings stretched out. It hadn't been too hard a landing at least, for he had managed to get some air beneath his wings, but he did feel completely vulnerable and prone.
So, in another moment, antlers rose up from his avian skull, before its break became elongated and stretch into a moose's nose, and wings became strong and hooked. And he was suddenly there, towering in everyone's midst, snoring as he shook his head to try and rid the fogginess from his gaze. He could not see well, and could not know whether the banshee was still near or had chosen someone else to feast on this day, but he had no intention of finding out, incapacitated as he was. With great, long, stomping strides he left the area, using his antlers as a guide to ensure he did not hit anything (too hard, anyway) in lieu of clear vision.
--
Chuy is blind and falls, transforms to a moose and gtfo.
