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!
"A wise decision," Jack says of her deciding not to get mushy, and had he not recently taken a dunking in the sea, he'd be trying to fish a cigarette out of his pockets. They'll be nothing but soggy tobacco by now, and the matches will likely be ruined too, so he merely shifts up on the rock so he can get more comfortable. Her thoughts go south, then, and they try to drape along the webs of his telepathy like a wet, heavy blanket, and the captain wards against it with a pulse of willpower. For a second Aurelia's thoughts are dampened, Jack waiting a few moments before slowly letting her back in.
By which point she's lancing a spear across the water and impaling a cloud manta with the sort of grace and skill that he can't help but admire. And so he watches and listens as she goes to collect the manta, reaching out to grab the net. "I see," he murmurs. "Well, then. Let's start with the shit you know - if I need you for things we both know you're good at, you tag along and we'll deal with it."
As he talks, Jack is using a knife to skillfully carve the jewels out of the mantas, cleaning them off in the shallows before suddenly tossing one in Aurelia's direction. "Get that set into a choker, so the jewel is pressed against your throat. Then you can breathe underwater."
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Aurelia let her hand slip back into the water as he took the net, gazing up at him with a neutral expression. She pursed her lips at his declaration of them 'dealing with it'. That was one way to go about it, certainly. She watched as Jack removed the jewels out of the manta bodies with a skill that revealed he was quite used to doing this. She took interest though, placing her arm up on the rock and leaning against it with her chin as she watched.
"Alright, fine. It's a deal," she sighed, letting it roll off of her shoulders. The chill of the water made a shiver run up her spine. Her eyebrow raised slightly at him, looking up from the manta carcasses. She supposed that she could maintain a title of a simple crew member, while in reality she... did whatever Jack needed her skills for. Keeping that part of herself a secret would be much harder than her past this way, especially to the rest of the crew, but she supposed she could make it work. If it meant that Jack wouldn't broadcast the nature of her previous line of work, at least not until she was ready to reveal it herself, so be it.
When he tossed the jewel in her direction, she just managed to snag it up from the rock's surface. She held it against her fingers, examining the details of its tough surface. She glanced back up at him in surprise, not expecting that one was going to be for her. A smile pressed across her face, "Thanks, Jack. I appreciate it," she clutched her hand around the jewel then. And of course, she wasn't just referring to that.. but they didn't like the mushy shit, so that was all she'd say about it.
"What do you do with the rest of 'em?" she pointed towards the dead mantas.
It doesn't take long for Jack to finish up with the mantas, washing and pocketing the other two jewels and tightening the net to keep the carcasses within it. Aurelia arches an eyebrow up at him and he raises one right back at her, one foot dangling in the water to splash gently through the waves. "That it is," he mutters, his blue eyes lingering on her for a moment or two longer than necessary, as if to make a point of sifting through her thoughts. Still, as she says she appreciates it, he can't help but scoff. "Don't thank me yet," he mutters, hopping off the rock to wade back through the water to the shore, beckoning for her to follow.
"Melita deals with our cannons. Saiden is our cook, Zeph deals with our offshore tradings, and the other burly fucks are there to yank ropes and swab decks," he says. "We're short a navigator, so that's me for now. Recommend you get to grips with all of it to some extent." And a perfect place to start is with the carcasses she asks about. "Gonna give these to Saiden. The man's thick as shit, but even I've gotta admit he can cook."
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Aurelia's brows raised and lowered in quick succession to his prickly way of saying 'you're welcome'. It's not like she had unwittingly signed up for this; she knew that they wouldn't be forging a smooth-sailing path. Hell, she'd already seen what awaited them in the open ocean and Sunjata had told her of fighting a lava octopus. She was much less afraid of wherever this agreement was going to lead her than she was of being alone; cast away. Maybe that was strange of her but, she had spent so much of her life hiding under the ground, only coming up to do unspeakable things for a nefarious government.
Aurelia followed him out of the water, her soggy clothes hanging against her muscular frame. Her shirt slicked against her skin and her pants tightened around her legs, creating a rather uncomfortable feeling. She tried to ignore it, knowing the sun would dry them by the time she returned to the ship, and splashed out of the shallows.
Knowing what everyone else's role was on the Ark was going to prove helpful for the fact that Jack wanted her to get acquainted with all of their tasks. That was something she could do, and she saw the logic behind it. She did need to learn more about being on a ship, especially if she wanted to become a valuable part of the crew.
Still holding onto the shiny jewel in her palm, she reached out for the net with her other hand, "Here, let me take them to him. The least I can do is help him cook what I caught," her gaze traveled up from the net of mantas and up to Jack's sharp blue eyes, "Don't worry, Jack, I won't fuck this up."
