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
When you leave your specific cell, puzzle solved and door unlocked, you each will find yourselves walking down a long, twisting stone corridor; eventually it comes out to a grand hall, dimly light by candles on the walls, flames flicking despite no sign of life prior to your entrance. This hall is big enough to fit a few Hollowed Grounds homes and to the distant side is a grand pair of double doors; of course, they're locked.
It's time for you all to meet. Maybe your true form is about to come waltzing in?
--
Currently, these people can enter the great hall, having escaped their rooms:
First of all, post your character entering and seeing the others, potentially with your body! Feel free to post more than once in order to have conversations. Once Morgan and Zeph have entered, the final task will begin.
The hallway they escape into is dim, even for shifted eyes. Never before did Nate think he’d miss something about his ascended form, yet here he is, feet slowed by the fact that he can’t see. It’s a small mercy that the hallway is straight, no branching paths or places to be confused. Nate doesn’t bother waiting for whoever is in Melita’s body, it isn’t as if she can get lost.
Relief swells in his chest when it opens out into a grand room, empty for now, though the other doorways funnelling into it imply that will not be the case for long. Nate waits near his exit, utterly unwilling to investigate further until he has more of an idea what’s going on. His anxiety manifests differently than Sunjata’s does, curved horns spiralling from his head still, coarse hair beginning to sprout along his spine, his throat, tufts of white, black.
11-05-2020, 10:44 PM (This post was last modified: 11-05-2020, 10:44 PM by Theo.)
Theo left the room with the wardrobe as quickly as he can, happy to get away from the sleeping form that he still believes to be Warden Morgan Aristomache. (If he had realized that the actual Warden lay ahead of him, maybe he wouldn't have been so eager.)
He did struggle a little to figure out where he was and, equally important, why he was there. Back in the storage room, he'd assumed from the Warden's presence that they were in Halo, probably in the palace -- but this didn't look like any part of the Halovian palace. Not that he was very familiar with the palace, but a room this size could hardly have gone unnoticed. And how had he ended up in Halo, or wherever this was, anyway? Not to mention in another man's body -- that fact kept tearing to shreds any conception of what was going on that he might have developed.
Seeing movement in the hall, Theo froze, then realized it was another person, who he could only hope wasn't as confused as he was. Stepping forward, Theo called, "Hello?"
Theo
"Poker" by ND Strupler is licensed with CC BY 2.0.
I am my mother's child, I'll love you till my breathing stops I'll love you till you call the cops on me
Huh, it just kept going on.
Melita had believed the end would be the lock opening, rambling down the hallways, twisting and turning until her slumber ended. She’d awaken, and the whole thing could’ve been anointed as some bizarre dream, and forgotten about the next day. But now, as she turned to glance back at the Ronin-but-not figure, they continued and contorted along a massive hall, candles lit, flames flickering, and doors. Which were probably locked, because that was how the moments were strung together.
Balling her fists, habitually and rather indifferent to whomever’s body she resided within, the firecracker’s soul ignited and persisted down the length of the hall, before she noticed others.
Like her uncle. On impulse and no forethought whatsoever, she waved to him, announcing “Oom!” With no actual notion that he, or whoever was in his form, would recognize her. Or, not Melita, as it were.
Then she shifted, very quickly, back and forth to the other not-stranger in the room – because the body was decidedly Ronin’s. Calling back over her shoulder, to where she’d wandered off from the shared cell, she beckoned the blonde-Dark Star over. “Found you!” Pointing directly to whomever inhabited this one –
Gods this was confusing.
M e l i t a
But in our darkest hours, I stumbled on a secret power I'll find a way to be without you, babe
The hallway feels long and dark, but it’s hard for Sunjata to tell with the adjustments to his gaze. The Ascended saw so much more, so much better than he could with his partial shifting. It’s almost a bit of a surprise as he slips into the grand hall, eyes adjusting to the light that’s suddenly found. And he scans the faces, unsure who was who, unsure what he would even find.
He steps a few paces away from the entrance from the hall, glancing around until his eyes land on himself, and his brows furrow together, tugging at the scar that crosses through it. Mismatched eyes remain trained on himself, feet marching him over, jaw feathering slightly as he gets into his space, he supposes, and has to look up slightly – something he hasn’t had to do in years.
“You’re me.” He says, putting it bluntly, a brow raising expectantly, awaiting to find out who was within his 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.
He’s not alone in the room for long, a fact that is at least a little bit comforting. ”Oh thank god there’s more people here. Are you uh, also not yourself?” He knew he wasn’t the only one struggling that particular ailment, not-Melita trailing along behind him he’s sure, but if there’s more, it seems a touch less worrying somehow.
Though, speaking of Not-Melita, a familiar word in an unfamiliar voice calls out, Nate’s head snapping up, eyes landing uncertainly on the only other woman in the room, though her attention seemed to have slipped to someone else. Had he been mistaken? Just hearing things?
Catching sight of his own face is far more interesting, Nate watching himself with amusement, a feeling that only grows as he walks towards himself. And when ‘he’ speaks, the grin on Nate’s face growing so wide and sharp he can feel his cheeks start to ache.
Finally Nate gets to live his secret guilty dream of looking down at his husband, though the effect is somewhat ruined by the fact that it’s his own face he’s looking at. A Pyrrhic victory is still a technical victory though. You’re so fucking lucky sonskyn. Theres something in the way Sunjata’s face twists that is unmistakably Nate, a quirk in his brows, the twist in his lips. Look at how good I look. Even for him though, it’s strange to reach out and grab his own strangely cool face.
Arrogance quickly turns to confusion at the wide grin that spreads across Nate’s face, seeing his own bright smile reflected back at him. His cool gaze flickers away from it, to freckled cheeks and steel eyes, wondering if this is exactly how he looks to Nate. It’s… Strange, if he’s being honest. But it isn’t until his own voice slips into his mind, a reflection of the accented tone that the confusion melts to a bit of relief, a fanged grin shot up at his husband.
His hand flexes, the one with the ring on it, reaching out in a different way than he usually does for his attuned bond to reach for the one the ring supplements. What are the odds? He hums back, that fanged grin remaining even as Nate reaches out to grab his face. But it brings a bit of sorrow, as calloused fingers grasp his chin, and how terrible it is that Sunjata can’t feel it. It makes the smile falter ever so slightly.
For now, though, he angles himself a bit more in front of Nate, peering up ever so slightly in this space, realizing that while he can’t feel anything, how wonderful it must be for Nate to finally be able to. So he reaches up, cool fingers running along the scar to his neck, hidden beneath the tufts of fur. “Not a fan of the feathers, huh?” He teases, a crooked grin forming on his face, fanged and brilliant in comparison. “The horns make sense. And gods, do they look good.” It’s more of that same teasing tone despite being quite the narcissistic compliment, the rest of the room forgotten to focus on Nate in front of him. “Don’t let it get to your head.” Winking, he pulls back a bit with a quiet chuckle.
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.
It does just seem to keep going, and Ronin follows after Melita-in-spirit, gazing around at the grand hallway with confusion flicking across this other man's face. He's still taking it all in - and has just noticed Nate and Sunjata, in fact, when the woman parading as Melita starts to beckon him over towards someone far more interesting. That someone being himself.
"Well thank the gods you didn't ruin me," he says, his tone warmed by good humour as he follows after her until he and the Ronin imposter are standing opposite. Unlike some of the others in the room, it's not all that exciting to look at himself through someone else's eyes. Since the advent of his astral projection, the Star has gotten all too used to it. He still looks pretty good though, if he does say so himself.
"Is this one yours?" he asks, motioning to the body he currently inhabits, before glancing to Melita once more. "I don't think I've seen any sign of you yet, sorry."
"So I'm not the only one who's a little ... out-of-body?" Theo answered Nate, a half-smile tugging at his lips. Soon that stranger was distracted, though, and so was Theo, because there was his body looking back at him.
"I've done my best," he told Ronin. "I hope you can say the same -- yes, that's mine."
Well, Theo's body looked undamaged, so that was nice. He did have to assume that sooner or later he'd end up back in it.
Wait ... if everyone was body-swapped, did that mean that the Warden sleeping back in the storage room wasn't actually Morgan Aristomache? Worse, that she might be here? No, it would be fine. She certainly wouldn't recognize Theo in this other man's body.
Theo
"Poker" by ND Strupler is licensed with CC BY 2.0.
cause it makes me that much stronger makes me work a little bit harder
Luciana had been scouting down the opposite end of the hallway. However, as people began to file out and voices began to speak up, she whirled around. Narrowing her eyes, she scanned them for any sign of someone familiar.
Of course, one face was very familiar indeed: her own. Straightening up from where she'd crouched and pressed herself against the wall, she marched towards the person using her body. Scowling, the Hammer's fingers tightened on the staff that she held.
Coming to a stop in front of herself, the craftswoman narrowed her eyes. "I want my body back." She glanced around at the others, still not noting anyone she knew and feeling quite alone.
it makes me that much wiser so thanks for making me a fighter
