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!
broken promises and broken arches, phaetons and false hangings
Two souls awaken in strange vessels, in the dark as they had been when the dream began. The room they arise in is simple, no wider than two men laid across the floor and a ceiling just high enough to allow its occupants to stand. On the right wall rests a mirror, as if placed there only to inform the prisoners of their predicament, their new forms, and mock them for it.
On either side of the heavy-looking metal door that leads into the room are handles, about a foot long, carved out of metal that seems to be impossibly shiny and clean in comparison to the rest of the dusty room. Further inspection of these handles might yield further information.
On the opposite side of the room, a desk, long abandoned, has upon it several diagrams and notes written in a strange script.
Sunjata, you awaken in the body of Nate, and Delphine, you awaken in the body of Zephyr! You now possess all their abilities and stats; be sure to look at their profile to see what you have! However, your character still has their own mind and thoughts.
==
For this to work, you need to reply quickly! Within 24 hours, please! If you miss your post, it will move on without you! You can post as many times as you like within the 24 hour time limit, so feel free for your characters to have long conversations, etc; keep in mind there will be no NPC replies during nighttime GMT, because Lam is sleeping, so if your characters attempt to do something large (eg come up with a solution to a puzzle, knock down a wall, punch something), please wait for a post from the NPC account.
First task: Wake up, discover your new body, your partner and the room around you.
10-27-2020, 04:25 AM (This post was last modified: 10-27-2020, 11:21 PM by Sunjata.)
Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us
The first thing Sunjata notices when he wakes up, is that he’s not breathing.
The second thing he notices is that somehow, through the dark room, he can see very well.
He suddenly wonders if he’s a ghost – sitting up from the floor, brows threading together, a hand moving rapidly toward his chest as if he might be able to feel the beat of his heart beneath it. He doesn’t, which only ignites more of the sudden panic that settles in. But he takes a deep breath, realizing shortly after that he doesn’t need to. The hand raises, moving from his chest to his neck, finding rather long hair in comparison to his own usual crop of hair – lips parting in his surprise. Maybe he’s dead. Maybe he’s been dead for a long time. Hair continues to grow, doesn’t it? After you’re gone?
No, that can’t be right. He can’t be dead. His tongue drags along his teeth briefly, snagging on fangs that he can’t retract with a partial shift, the feel of them sharp and pointed, something that is intimately well known by the Flood now. The hand moves into his vision now, a ring of suns set upon the pale skin, a scar that dances across the palm. Both hands move to his face now, feeling the angles of a sharp jaw, the edge of a scar that trails from above one eyebrow down across his nose, across an eye, part of the way down a cheek.
Is he Nate? What the fuck happened?
All those thoughts disappear in an instant as he suddenly spots someone else as he pulls his hands away from his face. “Zeph?” It’s a croak of a sound that leaves him, accent familiar as his own, but not right as it leaves his lips. So he scrambles, then, not giving Zeph time to respond, shifting with a surprising amount of speed to reach the mirror he spies, scanning a bi-toned gaze, a face he'd know anywhere.
these, our bodies, possessed by light
Tell me we'll never get used to it
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.
When she wakes up, Delphine first hears the really nice man who had helped her when she was high and tried to skull Sunjata with a rock. What was his name...
She couldn't remember.
He was calling her 'Zeph,' and she furrowed her eyebrows, reaching up to pat her face. That's not her nose... those aren't her eyebrows... her hands continue to wander, and she frowned.
Her chest was flat.
"Not Zeph." She mumbled, pushing herself to her feet. She feels taller. Weird. The other person was in front of the mirror, and she moved carefully, unsure of how to handle this body, to peer around Sunjata into the mirror.
"Not myself either." She's not sure she likes this voice. At least she's not in her lover's body, that'd be weird.
Then my fragile flower turned into a ball of grey,
So I took a break and made a wish and blew them all away.
All shock and surprise continues to linger in a body that doesn’t feel, doesn’t breathe, a body that simply exists. It’s the only thing he can focus on, and he realizes the terror of it all deep down, how much more he’d understand Nate, provided he remembered any of this when he woke up. Because he has to wake up eventually, right? He can’t be stuck like this forever?
And if he was Nate… Then who was Nate?
The mirror yields the results he expects – a familiar face staring back at him. His gaze only tears away to look back at Zeph… Or Not Zeph, brows furrowing once again with the confusion. “I’m…” He trails off, still not used to hearing the lilting tone of Nate’s voice coming from his throat of all things. He works his jaw a brief moment, shaking his head, dark curled hair shifting with the movement – still something he’s not used to. “I’m not myself either. If you’re… Not Zeph, then who?” He asks, stepping away from the mirror toward the door and the shininess of the handles, his left hand reaching out to run his fingers along it, feeling barely a sensation beneath it.
“How the fuck do we get out of here?” It’s a breathy question full of a surprising amount of panic, the hand latching onto the door now as he tries to put all that Ascended strength into pulling it open.
There’s something incredibly depressing in the realization of just how little Nate feels, and as much as Sunjata wants to pretend he has everything contained and confident, he’d be lying if it didn’t break his heart.
these, our bodies, possessed by light
Tell me we'll never get used to it
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.
As Sunjata reaches to touch the handle, he will feel the lightest shock of electric, dulled by his new Ascended senses, but there all the same. His attempts to tug at the door do nothing.
"Delphine." She mumbled, in response. She's still staring in the mirror, even as... whoever was with her, moved to the door. "You're in the body of... someone who helped me, once." She supplied, finally turning to follow after Sunjata.
"I don't even know where here is." She grumbled, watching hopefully. Because just maybe the door would open, and they could leave.
Or wake up.
"If this is a dream it's a weird one." She grumbled, reaching to scratch her--no, Zephyr's face. Man, she hoped she was just high. At least then she could say it was a delusion, a drug-induced hallucination. That'd make it a bit less weird.
Then my fragile flower turned into a ball of grey,
So I took a break and made a wish and blew them all away.
He reaches out for the handle, listening to ‘Not-Zeph’ who’s suddenly revealed to be Delphine – and if it weren’t for the shock that the handle gives as some form of a feeling, he’d have whipped his head around toward her to try and determine the truth to the statement. As it stood, though, none of the added strength gets the door to unlock, and his fanged teeth work at his lower lip as he considers the room again.
“I’m Sunjata. I brought you to Nate when you smacked me with the rock.” He glances back toward her, scarred brow raising with the information, until he’s peering around her again and spotting the desk with the writing and diagrams on it. He steps over to it, still not used to the paleness of his arms aside from the one tattooed arm. He reaches out for a few of the papers, peering at it with a bi-toned gaze. “Agreed.” The words feel weird still leaving his tongue in an accent he’s used to hearing, never speaking.
He half turns back toward her, looking back in Delphine’s direction. “Do any of these papers make sense to you?” He asks, hoping she might have some idea. As it stood now, however, the Attuned turned Ascended was still reeling with the fact he’s in his husband’s body.
these, our bodies, possessed by light
Tell me we'll never get used to it
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.
"Sunjata... So that means you're in Nate's body?" That was the piece of the puzzle she'd been searching for; a name to put to Nate's face. She rubbed her face and mumbled, "Just a bad high, Del. You're definitely not in some strange man's body." as she moved across the room to join Sunjata, peering at the papers.
"Not one bit." She declared, honestly. If he was asking her, they probably didn't make sense to him either, so she felt a bit better about not having any idea what the papers said.
"So are we... just stuck here?" She was studying her hands, dark skin, the accent was definitely strange. She's never met Zephyr in her life.
Then my fragile flower turned into a ball of grey,
So I took a break and made a wish and blew them all away.
“Yeah.” He responds at first, lips quirking a bit as he hears the tone of his voice. He shakes his head, wild raven curls dancing along the nape of his neck. He peers at the papers, shifting one a bit over toward Delphine to focus on, Sunjata’s gaze narrowing slightly as he focuses on the words and the diagrams.
Her question has him taking a sharp breath, not like he needs it but he can’t… Not, yet. It feels too wrong to not breathe. “Not if I can help it.” A grey and blue eye drift back over toward Delphine, trying to pass on some of the honesty within it. But he turns his attention back to the diagrams, brows furrowing as he sees the “V”s, realizing shortly that it might be ‘volts’…
And seeing as the door had shocked him, well, he peers at the other one that seems to almost be like wiring. Something so unlike this place but so similar to home for him he can’t ignore it. He puts both papers into one hand, his other lifting to run through his hair to push it back, not used to the length and the way it falls into and frames his vision.”I think it might be electric?” He murmurs to Delphine, setting the papers down and searching the desk for any drawers he might rummage through, trying to see if there’s any tools left behind of any sort.
these, our bodies, possessed by light
Tell me we'll never get used to it
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.
There’s no tools, and a frustrated hiss slips from his lips turning back toward the door. He peers at the handles, hands clenching and unclenching when he realizes the spark of electricity that had come from the door when he’d touched it. But it’s too far spread to reach both handles, he thinks, feet taking him closer to the door.
Bi-toned eyes flicker along the metal, arms stretching out — still at odds from this shift in his body, not used to the spread of Nate’s arms versus his own. But he tries anyway, attempting to grab onto one of the door handles, reaching with all his might to land his other hand on the other handle.
He hopes maybe it closes the circuit, grounds it, provided it works.
these, our bodies, possessed by light
Tell me we'll never get used to it
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.
While it's rather obvious that the gap between the handles is intended for two people, Sunjata's reach enables him to touch both handles with his fingertips at once. With a sudden whirr and a click, the door opens.
--
Congratulations! This is not the end of the event, but you are out of your captivity. Stand by for a thread when others have escaped their rooms. Feel free to chat. When out of the door, they will find a large stone corridor.
If Delphine posts in this thread leaving the room before the end of the event, she can join in with the final thread. If not, she will not get credit for the event.
Somehow he does it, the fanged grin brightening on his face. He hears the whirring, surprisingly loud in his ears, and the door opens. They’re free, and Sunjata takes a deep unnecessary breath of fresh air at odds with the stuffiness of the room they’d found themselves trapped within. He doesn’t wait for Delphine as he bolts into the corridor, glancing around it.
There isn’t really much to look at, but he peers at them nonetheless, eventually finding no other way out. So he leans against the wall and waits, running a hand through his hair to pull it back out of his face – unsure how Nate dealt with it all the time, as well as the little feeling. It makes sense, he supposes, the quick and swift realization of what the Ascended could and couldn’t feel, while his hand rests at the nape of his neck, waiting idly for something to happen.
these, our bodies, possessed by light
Tell me we'll never get used to it
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.
