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!
01-12-2021, 08:04 PM (This post was last modified: 01-14-2021, 09:23 PM by Isla.)
Isla
Here they go again. It's a distant memory, this clinic, and Isla can almost see herself moving amongst the beds and down the corridors like a ghostly version of herself, and it brings a smile to her face at the recollection. She stands in the doorway to its entrance, having collected together a few bits and bobs to get the job done and make the place suitable again. There are mops, brushes, fresh sheets and pillows to change the beds, and a variety of herbs which need to be ground up, put into jars and labels.
All she needs now are a few willing pairs of hands to get it all done. She prepares for those who might arrive by opening windows to air the place out, lighting lanterns for those who might need them to see by (not everyone in the Grounds is Ascended, after all), and starting to sweep away the dust from the floors. This is how anyone who comes will find her.
This is a PQ to clean up and reopen Isla's medical clinic in the Hollowed Grounds!
The following tasks are available:
- Mopping the stone floors
- Changing the pillows and sheets for the beds
- Grinding up herbs and labelling them in jars
Please post your character arriving and feel free to choose one of the tasks! Let me know what you choose at the bottom of your post. :)
Mabel only had infrequent memories of the clinic; her family had kept to themselves while they were still living. Independent. Numb. Mystifying. Regardless, she’d waltzed into it only several times in her short life before Ascending, and so only barely noted when it had reopened.
The inclination to help wasn’t truly there; not now, not after being swept away in her latest stint. No altruistic bone in her body, this was merely to get upon the good side of anyone in a heavily trafficked area; thinking, perhaps, if Evelyn were to be injured, she might be brought here. She might be told her sister was alive. She might’ve been seen.
A one-track mind, perhaps, but her twin had been all she had for a long time.
So she too was like a ghost, maneuvering through sanctuaries like a piece of willowy thread; though she’d bathed recently, so the seaweed and salt no longer clung to her as visceral, visual reminders of her death, of her damnation. When glancing in, she could only note the other Ascended – recognized merely from the Festival, when they’d all been called, and so, segmented she wouldn’t know about her sibling’s whereabouts either.
The youth hid the semblance of a frown away, and only eerily glided in, glancing around for things that needed to be done. A farm girl was worth at least some proportion – and so she aimed for the pillows, the sheets. “I can change these,” by way of offering, and then proceeded to do just that.
The trip to the Hollowed Grounds is not necessarily one Nate wants to make, in the midst of everything going on at home. It’s not long, at least, and he can call this a professional courtesy. Sauntering into the building like it’s only been a day since he’d left, and not seasons, Nate stops rather abruptly as he sees a hauntingly familiar face. All the pieces fall together in his head, but there’s still a disconnect that comes from seeing someone who he had watched die.
Shaking his head, Nate steps seeping into the building, a sharp smile stretched over his face. ”Its almost nice to be back.” He laughs, immediately making a beeline for the herbs and jars. The mortar and pestle feels archaic and familiar, and Nate falls into the repetitive flow of grinding, dumping, and labelling easily.
Nate takes jar filling!
‘Cause god forbid you ever let me inside or there within Heaven forbid you show your underbelly
Once the call for help goes up on the notice board Aamu does not hesitate. Not only did he promise to help, but he wants to. After all, Isla rescued him that day, took him from his thoughts and the crowd and led him somewhere else, where he would have space and time to think. She offered help she did not have to give, and he wants to show his appreciation.
He is beat to the clinic by two others. Mabel, looking better now that she's not half-drowned but still sisterless, and someone he doesn't know. His face is vaguely familiar, but not in an old way. Likely someone from the Festival, then. "Hello," he says, nodding to Isla and Mabel before fixing his pale gaze on the third Ascended in the room. "I am Aamu." His voice is light and lilting.
Once introductions have (or have not) been made, he goes for the only task not in progress. He doesn't notice the temperature of the water—assumes it to be cooled by the breeze from the open windows—as he wets the rag in it and wrings it out. Slowly he starts to work across the floor, scrubbing grime and stains from the stone flagstones where Isla has already swept the dust and debris away.
Isla offers a chiming greeting as they arrive one by one, taking up tasks in a happy and willing way that makes gratitude swell in her breast. And so she gets to work as well, sweeping all of the debris into neat piles and gathering it up in a dustpan to give Aamu room to mop. And mop he does - the floors are gleaming under his hard work, seasons of grime, dust and disuse coming up beneath a little elbow grease.
It's a similar story for the others, too - Mabel successfully changes the sheets and pillows and it definitely makes the place smell a bit fresher. Even more so with Nate grinding up the herbs, filling the clinic with a clean and fragrant scent.
"Thank you so much," Isla says once those first tasks are completed. "Next, I've had to take down all of the curtains to divide off the beds. They have been washed and replaced, but they need to be hung back up. The reception area is also in very poor shape - there are papers everywhere and it needs to be organised. Also, if someone could work with me to clean these windows, I'd really appreciate it".
Well done gang! Next tasks are as follows:
- 1 person to hang up curtains to divide up the beds
- 1 person to reorganise the reception area
- 1 person to work with Isla cleaning the windows
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
Nate’s appearance caused her to raise her head from her duties – very briefly – uncertain what to say or do. Apologize? She hadn’t meant to be swept off into the wilderness, into the salt, into death and damnation. But then again, none of them had – and so she marched back to her tasks instead, offering the lightest of smiles to Aamu, because that was all she could handle for the moment.
She listened to the next reel of commands and necessities. The youth was used to doing a multitude of these semblances, but thought she might be of better use in the reception area. “I can organize,” she prospered and offered, a quiet, sullen void of a thing. Then she went towards the papers, grabbing hold, straightening out, placing certain figments aside for Isla to inspect later.
It is pleasant enough to get lost in manual labor, easier to work out a particularly stubborn spot of grime than to contemplate the meaning of life and memory—if only he could defeat his demons as easily as he could defeat these stains. They fade, replaced by a bright and inviting sheen which slowly dries.
Once they are all done he nods slightly, listening to the new instructions. Gazes towards the beds, and the stack of curtains; looks up to where they should go, then to Nate. Up at him. Smiles wryly. Why not leave that particular job to the man with the reach? Aamu will have an easier time fitting onto the windowsills if it's needed, anyway.
"I'll help you with the windows," he offers, since Mabel took the reception area, following her to the wall once the tasks have all been claimed. He does as she bids him to, working with her to clean the dust and grime from the glass, and not minding to climb onto the sills to reach the furthest corners of his windows should it be needed.
"It's a pleasure." Nate even manages to mean the words, his own hand lifting in a wave, the third man the only stranger to him here, and a welcome distraction from the drowned girl. Even with the few things they've done so far, the space is beginning to shape up, the smell of ground herbs replacing that of dust. And it's blessedly simple, a far cry from other recent disasters in setting up places. His face is still recovering from that, a single brow taking it's sweet time to grow back in.
"I'll do the curtains." He is the tallest, it only makes sense that he takes the task that involves hanging things. Some part of him is sure it's a thought that crosses the others minds, at least one set of eyes on him. It's not even like it's difficult either, all of the hardware already sitting there, waiting for him, ready to be used. The clean curtains are gathered up, and Nate gets to work.
Nate hangs up the curtains!
‘Cause god forbid you ever let me inside or there within Heaven forbid you show your underbelly
And off they go again. Between Isla and Aamu they manage to get the windows gleaming, and although it is dusk outside, the soft light that filters in still seems clearer and brighter than before. Mabel's task can also be considered an overall success in that she does, indeed, manage to get the reception area organised. Sure there are a few papers that are beyond comprehension, and another few that are eaten and too damp to be salvaged, but... eh. That's fine, right? Right.
Nate ends up having a fight with the curtains. It's true that with how tall he is, it shouldn't be a difficult thing, but the sheer amount of fabric means that the mischievous things end up taking longer to hang than anticipated. But, after a few tries (by which time the rest of the group will be done), the clinic is starting to look very much the way it is supposed to.
Last, there is the stock room - Isla has a pile of boxes to be unpacked and arranged, and there are also the herbs that Nate has kindly prepared. Unfortunately, the stock room is currently filled with a very strange buzzing.
"Well that's grand," Isla says with a soft laugh. "It looks like some humming bats have taken up residence in the stock room. We'll have to try to get them out."
A colony of humming bats are in the stock room and refuse to budge! Try to get them out of there using whatever means you feel appropriate.
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
Her organizing was adequate, and so she presumed others followed suit upon their own accords. The last task, after following Isla and the rest of their looming crowd into the stock room, didn’t concern her. Humming bats were a standard affair in old, slightly unstable farmhouses, lurking in back corners of abandoned barns, taking up residence in attics. Her head turned, glancing upward, glancing back at follow nocturnal creatures with vacant features – the only clarity of her thought process behind her sharpened eyes. “I can try and encourage them to leave with a broom?” Then she glanced back at the Ascended fleet – unless someone else had some other distinctions, feats, or talents (she didn’t). “And we could open some windows or the door?” A place to flee. A place to roam.
If there were no other ideas, she’d do just that – grabbing hold of a nearby broom, intending to raise it towards the cluster of bats, brush aside, grant them a reason for departure.
--
Mabel suggests waving her broom around wile someone else opens a door/window to get them to flee.
When the windows are finally clear and let through the pleasant glow of a village dusk Aamu steps back. His sleeves are rolled up, hair escaping its braid, a sort of youthful enthusiasm on his face. Few things are as satisfying as the results of hard, honest work: gleaming floors, gleaming windows, the fresh scent of ground herbs and laundered sheets. And besides, he'd taken some moments to watch Nate wrangle the curtains, laughing quietly in his chest at the sight. Aamu is glad to have dodged those cloth-dragons.
"They put up quite the fight, eh?" he murmurs cheekily to Nate when they convene again, contemplating the buzzing mess of the stock room. Humming bats are not uncommon, but Aamu feels uncharacteristically blank. He feels like there's something he should be able to do, but he can't put his finger on what.
Mabel has a more hands-on solution and Aamu shrugs. "It's worth a try. Perhaps if we light more lanterns in here they will seek the darkness of the night?" And unless either Isla or Nate come up with better suggestions Aamu would go to the windows, making sure they are securely propped open before getting out of the way. He would not want to discourage the bats from going out the windows, after all.
Aamu thinks that's a good enough idea and suggests brightening the clinic with more lanterns to further encourage the bats to leave!
But if Nate or Isla has any grand master plan he'll happily go along with that too.
Height is apparently, only so much of a boon. Putting up curtains this wide feels an awful lot like trying to button up a shirt in the dark, loops missed, or doubled up. There’s even one where Nate gets nearly to the end, only to realize he’s missed a loop in the middle. But the job gets done, and with it, things really look like a proper infirmary, ready to service whoever comes through the doors. Just because it looks ready doses not mean it is, and there’s still things to do.
Like deal with the humming storage space, apparently.
Bats. Of course it was bats. Why was there any reason to think it wouldn’t be? Thankfully, for once, it seems there are others who know how to deal with the pests, and he can simply follow someone else’s lead. Windows and doors open, easy. Lanterns, a touch more involved, but just as easy at the end of it. ”Those both sound like good ideas to me.” Aamu is already moving to the windows, so Nate moves instead to find more lanterns, more candles, trying to light and position them so they fill the space with light, and make it inhospitable to the bats.
Nate lights lanterns and tried to keep well away from the bats
‘Cause god forbid you ever let me inside or there within Heaven forbid you show your underbelly
Isla nods at the combination of ideas, smiling and finding a broom for Mabel to do some bat-herding. Meanwhile Nate is already lighting more lanterns, which aids in making the infirmary look more homely as well as making it less friendly for their interlopers. Ushering for Aamu to join her in opening all of the windows and the doors, they're pretty much ready to go!
And it's... it...
Well, it works. And that's the main thing.
The bats swarm out, some of them completely failing to find the exit even with Mabel's broom directions. A lot of them also bash into the lanterns, smashing them. And a few even manage to panic and crap all over one of the freshly made beds. But... They're gone.
Isla's smile is pained, almost, and she shakes her head. "Well... I guess there's a couple more jobs to do. But then we're done!"
Last round! The following tasks need to be completed:
- Someone to sweep up the glass from the smashed lanterns
- Someone to change the sheets (again) on the bed that has been ruined
- Two people to carry boxes of supplies and the herbs into the stock room.
Isla will take whatever task is left over!
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
They were all older, wiser, and still listened to her. Mabel had half-expected a round of other suggestions, better notions and ideas, to send the humming bats elsewhere. And while it wasn’t wholly effective, the actions proved successful in their own way – a bit of a fray, a bit of a mess, until the creatures were vanquished and vacant. Nothing truly worse for wear, save for some efforts they’d already put in. And if she held herself a little higher, a little straighter, it might not have been anything of worth at all, save for a child, a youth, who’d rarely been attended to.
“I can sweep,” she proffered, considering she already held the broom. No need to hand it off to someone else, when she was fully capable. Mabel went towards the glass, and with practiced ease, intended to fend off the filaments and fractures now, tending to the broken filaments of lanterns smashed and collapsed against the ramparts; their work done.
