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!
Remi is off destroying shrines or something, Vai is taking care of Mateo, and Ronin? He's doing what he should have been doing last year during LongNight. The largest bonfire on the beach is one that has people coming and going all thoughout the week of darkness; people play music, drink, dance, tell stories, you name it.
So he's slouched onto a log bleached by sun and salt some time ago, letting bare toes wiggle deep into the sand, his ears filled with the sound of the crackling fire and the crash of waves, and it feels like he's home again. Deft, scarred fingers shuffle through a deck of cards - everyone around is far too drunk to play, as far as he can see, so it's more an act of habit than anything else. Ronin hums under his breath, splitting the deck and letting the cards stack together again.
People of all walks of life have come together under the same black sky, seeking repose from the Voice's monsters and Halo's unforgiving cold. Or perhaps their own, dark loneliness.
Aurelia watches, sprawled out on the edge of the treeline, as people like the aforementioned mill about. They fill the beach like bees in a hive. Tonight, she's alone in spite of being surrounded by people. She nurses a small bottle of rum, though, because who is she to deny the spirit of it all?
There's more faces here that she doesn't recognize than ones she does. In fact, she hasn't managed to spot any of her friends tonight. Eventually, though, the hubbub dies down enough for her to see through to the center of all the action. The great, big bonfire and... Mr. Whoever-That-Is.
She starts, sitting up, immediately recognizing him. Her brows furrow, though, because she doesn't remember where from at first.
Oh yeaahh! He was at that... tree.. thing.. competition? Race? Who can know these things, but she knows for certain he was there. She looked him right in the face - and stuck her tongue out, but that's not important.
Aurelia comes marching through the sand, kicking it up with her toes, half-empty bottle in hand, until she's plopping down beside him. She leans back on the end of the log. Casually, as if this is a welcome interruption and they're old friends who know each other. They're definitely not.
"You know, I have never seen so many people on the beach at one time," she comments, nonchalantly shrugging her shoulders as she looks over, "Not even for Sunjata's wedding. Granted..." she tips her head to one side, squinting, "it is my first Longnight."
There are so many people coming and going, Ronin doesn't notice that he's been selected until the puffs of sand kicking up from the ground culminate in a woman slumping beside him at the end of the log. He glances up, expecting to find someone he knows - and both does and doesn't. "Tree girl," he announces, flashing her a bright grin and a slight narrow of his eyes. "Did you make it to the top in the end?"
He realises then, of course, that she's introduced the conversation in a much more typical way, Ronin glancing around the beach as if just realising the crowds. "Oh, how was his wedding? I couldn't make it?" he asks, jovial as if they really do know each other. "This is my fourth LongNight. Best one so far, to be honest." He grins, nodding to her bottle of rum. "I'll trade you a game of cards for a drink?"
02-21-2021, 06:32 PM (This post was last modified: 02-21-2021, 06:32 PM by Aurelia.)
but if you're broken
"Tree girl!? Is that what you've been calling me?" She feigns offense, expression twisting incredulously. "Not very creative..." Not that her placeholder name for him is much better. Not that she'll say what it is now, though. Aurelia shakes her head with an amused look, "Not really. After you fell out," she makes a point to draw emphasis to that, "some other kid got there first." She wishes she had been the one to get to the top but it's not something that'll haunt her, either.
As for Sunjata's wedding, the fact he knows the governor of Torchline doesn't come as a surprise to her. Most people probably do. It does feel funny, though, since she's yet to see him before that tree feverdream and... now. "Went fine, some guy showed up and made things... weird. But other than that, it was nice," she peers over at him with a smile.
Four Longnights. She breathes out a scoff and folds her arms, obviously not envious. Though it does suggest to her that he hasn't lived in Caido all of his life either, and that does pique her interest. It's nice to meet another Outlander every now and then, especially one that's apparently made it a long time. Suggests it's possible to thrive here.
"Oh yeah? Think you can beat me still?" she leans forward to peer at his deck of cards and sets the bottle down in the sand between them. Color her in. She nods, "What's the game?"
"Hey - you were a girl and I saw you in a tree. Could be worse, you could have been Poking-Tongue-Out-Girl," Ronin points out with a shrug. "Shame you didn't make it up there first - I'd have liked to know what was at the top, after I was knocked out by a bauble," he says, careful to correct her with a smirk and a bounce of his eyebrows. She agrees to play and he shuffles the deck one last time, lifting the bottle of rum and raising it in thanks. "Blackjack," he says regarding the game, dealing them each two cards onto the sand between them.
He takes a drink while he considers the weird guy at Jata's wedding reception, the Star wrinkling his nose. "Was his name Kane?" he wonders suddenly. "Oh - I'm Ronin, by the way. Nice to meet you in person, Madam Tree." Ronin tilts his head at her, as if asking whether or not that was better.
Aurelia lets out a breathy laugh through her nose, supposing he has a point. "Damn. I was really hoping you wouldn't bring that up," she admits with a grin. As for what was at the top of the tree, she shrugs. "Hey, you know, some people might call that falling! But uh... it was probably just another bauble, given the context clues," she tells him sarcastically.
Her green eyes watch him shuffle the deck carefully. She offers a nod of approval; Blackjack is simple enough and she's not exactly partial to this bottle. If he'd asked, she probably would've given him a drink but - again - she won't tell him that now.
She retrieves her cards and peeks at them for a few seconds before deciding "Hit me."
At the question, she lifts her eyes and her brows to stare up at him, "I uh... think so, yeah." Why? She wants to ask, but the word disappears on her tongue as he quickly follows it up with an more proper introduction. "Wait a second-" she shakes her head as if in disbelief, "you're Ronin?! Shit..." Any semblence of humor disppears and, in fact, she frowns a little. Absolutely perplexed. "I thought you'd be more... uh..." Oh, what's the word?
"And I was hoping you wouldn't bring up my 'you could call that falling' episode, but here we are," Ronin says brightly, flashing her a grin for her trouble and taking a peek at his own cards, before acquiescing. He flips over a card from the deck and tosses it her way - a 10. Then he takes another swig of rum and offers her the bottle as well. "Mm, I thought he would be," he says of Kane, saying nothing more on the subject. There's enough conjecture going around about Sunjata right now without him adding fuel to the fire.
Blue eyes flick up to look at her as she seems to recognise him all of a sudden - his name, at least - and he can't help the boyish smile that creeps across his face. "More what? Go on," he invites, thinking he's probably heard it all before. "More pompous? More of a knight in shining armour? More glowy?" He chuckles. "I'm all out of starlight right now, or I'd do some parlour tricks for you."
Aurelia rolls her eyes humorously. She then mutters a swear under her breath at the face of the ten, deciding to refrain from another hit. The bottle dangles towards her and she takes another drink. Her forehead creases as one of her brows raises in speculation. What? Is he known for making things weird? She wonders on the subject of Kane.
Ronin prompts her to say what she was going to and her lips pull down into a lengthy, embarrassed frown. "Hey, listen, okay-" she tries to interject defensively, but he hits the nail on the head and it stifles anything else.
As for being out of starlight, she blinks stupidly and then shrugs it off, "I don't even know what that means, but okay. Look," she pauses, feeling a laugh starting to bubble up, "Yes, I expected you to be... shinier - or something. More godly. No offense but.. instead, you're playing me in a game of Blackjack and trying to drink my rum." She holds the bottle back out to him at this.
She refrains from another hit and Ronin flips over his cards - an ace and a nine; either 10 or 19, and it's obvious which one he's going for. "What'd you get?" he asks, nodding to her cards and reaching out to accept the rum back with a rumble of laughter. "It means don't fuck off the gods," he tells her quite simply. "And I'll have you know, I'm not trying to drink your rum. I am drinking it." Tipping her a wink, Ronin takes another hefty drink and sets the bottle down in the sand.
"I wasn't always a dEmIgOd, if that's the word people are still banging about. I was a soldier, and a helluva gambler." And a lot more unsavoury things, besides. "I've tried to stay me, underneath all of this godliness." Snorting, he sits up a bit on the log. "Once I've got my mojo back, I promise I'll give you a Dark Star demonstration - as long as you tell me your name." Ronin tilts his head at her, as if to remind that she's left that bit out.
She spies his nineteen and flips her own cards over with a defeated huff; two ten's and a seven. "The extra ten got me." She thought she'd push her luck at seventeen and there it was, pushed. Ah well. The stakes weren't very high.
Aurelia remembers sharply that, for some, communing with the Gods is a lot easier than it is for people like her. "If I ever get the opportunity," she grumbles with a hint of something sour, "I'll be sure to remember that."
Her eyes roll at his show of drinking from the bottle. He won the game. It's his now. Even so, she plucks it right out of the sand audaciously for yet another sip before she puts it back.
Oh yeah. "Ah, right, sorry," she offers a sheepish smile before more seriously introducing herself, "I'm Aurelia."
Her gaze shifts. She wasn't exactly a soldier in her world, not by any standard definition. But she was someone who fought and killed in the name of a higher authority. To that extent, she can relate. She slumps back against the log and hoists an elbow up onto it, asking him curiously, "So, soldier boy, what'd you do to piss off the gods?"
"It happens. I win the pleasure of your company," Ronin says of her extra ten, gathering up the cards and giving them a casual shuffle again. He doesn't offer a second game, only because he's more interested in their conversation by now. "Ah, are you blessed with magic, then?" he inquires, smirking. "Keep trying. It might be hard to have the gods lend you an ear, but they'll listen eventually. What would you want to speak to them about?"
Aurelia. Better than Tree Girl, for sure. "Nice to meet you," he says, though his smile becomes something self-deprecating at the question of what he did. "I've got a particularly close relationship with the lady of the stars, as you can probably imagine. I told her no. She didn't appreciate it." He shrugs, seeming remarkably unbothered by it. (All a front, of course, but that's 90% of Ronin's life anyway).
Apparently she is transparent as all hell. His question about being 'bLeSsEd' with magic makes her lips draw into a tight line. Again, that same advice; try, try again. Only he also asks something different from everyone else. What she'd want. "Dunno," she admits lackadaisically, "everything feels so small and insignificant, they'd probably smite me for having the audacity." She lets out a soft chuckle at that mental image.
She's happy to let the conversation flow on in favor of listening to his... lady problems!? Her head tilts curiously almost like an animal's might and she smirks up at him.
"He's the Governor so he was there to give me answers when I first showed up here.. he's a good guy, don't have a clue why everyone's suddenly turning against him now," she adds that last bit on with an edge to her voice. The angry posts left on the notice board, people gossiping, and now this. Her eyes flash up towards Ronin's face, completely unaware that he'd know all about that, and she says, "My turn again. How close are you with your 'lady of stars', exactly?"
"They might. Or they might give you exactly the thing you want," Ronin says with a shrug and a knowing sort of smile. He has had far too many dealings with gods, one might say - he knows well that they can be just as fickle as mortals. Even more so, at times. "You can come along with me if you like, when I am back in Safrin's good books. But you must promise to bring her something beautiful, and give her plenty of compliments." It sounds amusing, but Ronin is deadly serious.
Reaching for the bottle of rum again, Ronin takes a long drink and holds out the bottle for Aurelia to finish it up, if she chooses. He's already glancing around for the next bottle for them to start on, as well. "Ohh? What a gem. And Torchline is a nest of vipers - people turn on authority quicker than you can blink. He is a good guy, though. And one of my best friends." If not the best one. Remi doesn't count - he holds the Star's beating heart in his fist.
His turn, though - Ronin turns back to grin at his new companion. "Our daughter is called Seren," he says, as if that should demonstrate exactly how close he is with Safrin. "It's complicated. I died, when I was an Accepted. She put me in the sky as a star, and then brought me back to life as a demigod, if that's what you want to call me."
Aurelia doesn't say much in the way of taking advantage of the offer, merely gives him a thoughtful stare as it drifts away. She does have a vague idea that it just might give her a better chance of getting into Safrin's favor. But a part of her would rather try that on her own... something about using a demi-god to get an answer seems like cheating. At least, maybe at first. If nothing works for her, then maybe she'll call for Ronin or Sunjata.
The bottle is, indeed, finished off by her. She plops it back into the sand with a soft sigh. Her gaze lifts back up to Ronin at the declaration of being Sunjata's best friend, and that fact does resonate with her a bit. As if Sunjata had told her before, but she can't really be sure; foggy memory thanks to the booze and all that. "He's a good friend to have," she muses quietly.
"Your daughter!?" She blurts out, pulling herself more upright to incline her head. Her expression contorts with more of the context he gives her and she has to admit, that's astonishing. For what seems like a long time, she's stunned into silence trying to wrap her head around all the shit he's explained away so nonchalantly. "Wow..." her brows furrow deeply before she's practically pummeling Ronin with questions, "Wait, what did you tell her no about? Had to of been something big, right? What did she want you to do?"
Somewhere from not too far away, an unattended fire has caught hold of something and might gradually creep into their peripherals as it spreads.
