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!
"Were they not worried by the probability of the tree catching fire?" Finn wonders, feeling the warmth of her body pressed against his leg and persuading himself, through a deep, slow breath through his nose and out again, that it is fine. The touch is safe, and the world around them is open enough to rein in the panic that threatens. He glances across at her, watching the cream as it dances closer to her nose, finding that easier to focus on as she speaks. "A young god that required presents... or you would turn into a lump of coal. It sounds absurd."
He speaks with the airy knowledge of someone who knows that their own customs are absolutely batshit, but who is trying to remain serious regardless. With his free hand, Finn reaches up to scoop away some cream with his little finger, sampling it as if it's been a long time since something so indulgent passed his lips.
"Hm?" His stormy gaze slides her way, attention piqued by talk of margins. "That depends on the purpose of the report," he says, utterly reasonable. "Both have merit. Besides, you might want to include diagrams."
let me see you through 'cause i've seen the dark side too.
"Apparently not." Tobi chirps, unaware of the rising discomfort that Finn is trying to breathe through. "Doesn't it? Apparently when the god was born only three people brought it gifts. So maybe it was a selfish god from a young age and just demanded more and more." The doctor shrugs, remembering only a few other facts about it. 'I don't see why you need to cut down a tree, but...I do quite like having the firling here. It's...' Trailing off, Tobi lets her gaze fall on the lights and various baubles that now litter the boughs. She doesn't know why she likes it, other than she simply does. "...I don't know. Warm. Cheerful."
Watching as Finn scoops up some of the cream (Tobi absolutely didn't think he was the sort to sample his drink with his fingers, but he was apparently full of surprises tonight), she tilts her head. "Good?"
So reasonable. 'Too many diagrams and your reader might think you're compensating for lack of content, though.' Tobi points out, equally as reasonably.
When the night falls on you & you don't know what to do Nothing you confess could make me love you less
"Perhaps. Once you start in the habit of giving presents to gods, you cannot really just stop," Finn agrees; because of course he is under the impression that this young god actually takes and keeps all the presents that are left for it. (How little they really know). Following Tobi's gaze up to the firling, the Spyglass considers it as well; a smile flickers across his face, however fleeting, as he imagines what the thing must look like from behind his spectacles. With so many touching and leaving their baubles, the firling would be aglow with aura. "It certainly brightens up LongNight," he agrees.
It is true that Finn is not the sort to sample his drink with his fingers, but the awkwardness of getting up again and asking for a spoon overshadows the ease of simply using his little finger. He is delicate about the process, however, careful not to spill any. "Very good. The whiskey is a nice touch," he says.
But back to their conversation, which definitely could not be called flirting by any means. "That is true. But I always ensure that my diagrams are detailed. They ought to add to the content, rather than overshadowing it."
02-23-2021, 09:13 PM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2021, 09:15 PM by October.)
October
let me see you through 'cause i've seen the dark side too.
"Like a little baby Safrin." Tobi whispers blasphemously. Out of them all, Safrin would certainly be the one to punish those who didn't bring her gifts, even though she said time and time again how little she expected from her followers. "Mmmmhm." Not that Tobi would really know of course, given that she usually spent LongNight in her office. But yes, it didn't brighten things up this year if nothing else.
Unlike Finn and his carefulness, Tobi tips her mug against her lips, predictably covering her nose in cream. Having to put it down before she even managed a sip of the actual beverage, she laughs brightly at her own misfortune. Peeling off one of her gloves to wipe away the cream from her nose, Tobi, having apparently not learned her lesson, pushes her lips directly into the center of the cream and slurps a good portion into her mouth.
Licking her now sugary-coated lower lip as she considers Finn's retort, Tobi nods with a conciliatory smile. "You're right. I shouldn't have even thought you'd give me the sort of reports that I've been given in the past." Finding that seated near the Spyglass as she is and sheltered by the wind that she doesn't need to be so bundled up, Tobi pulls off her remaining glove and her scarf, plopping them next to her.
"Okay, there is one thing I am rather particular about when it comes to my reports though."
When the night falls on you & you don't know what to do Nothing you confess could make me love you less
Her unexpected blasphemy has Finn inhaling sharply, and one wouldn't be amiss if they thought the doctor had offended him, were it not for the smile just about visible as he brings his hot chocolate to his lips. "For shame, Doctor Hart. Don't let Gideon hear you saying that," he murmurs. "Besides, I have found the lady of the stars to be quite forthcoming with gifts, in my own experience." There's a lot of other things he's found with Safrin, too, but given that her demigod literally saved his life only a few weeks prior, Finn is feeling generous towards her.
He's concentrating more on his own drink, luckily, to see Tobi make a mess with hers, and it is probably to no one's surprise that Finn is immaculate as he sips at the hot chocolate, savouring the salt and the bite of the whiskey. "You have never seen a report like mine," he agrees, taking another drink and blushing suddenly, as if he's realised the double entendre they've been dancing along this whole time. Which makes Tobi's next question thoroughly flustering.
let me see you through 'cause i've seen the dark side too.
'Don't you Doctor Hart me." Tobi scolds playfully. It's an entirely appropriate response though, and Tobi might just have believed she'd actually offended Finn were it not for their conversations about Safrin's manipulations and the distance the Spyglass liked to keep between himself and the gods. "Gideon knows I'm a Rae-follower. And because of the necessary connection to Frey, I think it follows that Safrin would take issue with me anyway." Even so...she can imagine Gideon's frown and how it would add about a thousand lines to his forehead, the image of which has her stifling a snicker under her breath.
'Well sure. Handsome accepted, lofty position within the Order and otherwise unattached?' Tobi punctuates each attribute with a bob of her cup. "You're like a Ronin in the making." He even had the Remi connection too.
'That's true. Really, it's about time we worked together. I'm surprised we haven't already." Tobi notes, her tone utterly, utterly professional. Unlike Finn who is drinking his beverage as it was meant to be enjoyed, Tobi has pressed hers to her lips that she might lick some of the salt off of the rim.
"A clear introduction and thesis." Tobi says, savouring the bright tang of the salt on her tongue. "I hate thinking I'm going to read one thing, and finding myself 5 pages into something else entirely."
When the night falls on you & you don't know what to do Nothing you confess could make me love you less
"I think sometimes we expect the gods to take issue with us, and so they do," Finn remarks, almost under his breath. He remembers the feel of cool marble beneath his fingers. The statuette of Safrin had been beautiful, but he had known what he was doing was the worst sort of insulting to the gods even at the time. It had been worse, perhaps, since he had been only a child at the time. Dismissing that train of thought with another drink of chocolate that's still a bit too hot and with a bit too much whiskey, Finn clears his throat to try and mitigate the burn.
He's only just about recovered when Tobi is speaking again, and Finn regards her with cheeks flushed red and the humour somewhat fading from his expression. "Please don't tease me, Tobi," he says quietly. Finn can be self-deprecating - he can be quite good at it, at times - but he finds it stings when it comes from the doctor at his side. (And clearly he thinks that it's a joke).
Offering a non-committal hum that might be agreement, Finn nibbles at the inside of his cheek. "Well," he says, "you will have to reserve your judgement when you see my report. I will use the standard margins."
let me see you through 'cause i've seen the dark side too.
Tobi just shrugs at that. Her encounters with the gods are...nonstandard. Why she was chosen out of so many, why Rae took an interest, she still doesn't know. It really isn't the sort of thing she can talk about, even with someone like Gideon, not without revealing too much. Even now with Finn knowing so much about her, she isn't sure a deep dive into piety is really in the cards.
"First time?" Tobi wonders with a grin as Finn too-hastily drinks his beverage. But it's only because she'd glanced his way with amusement that she notices how rosy his cheeks are. And it doesn't appear to be from the cold. "I wasn't, Finn." The doctor clarifies in a voice that's soft, but unyielding. "You've achieved more than Ronin had before he arrived here...just because it isn't the path you would want for yourself, doesn't make you any less precisely the sort of man for it." She adds. His hands are wrapped around his mug, and Tobi very earnestly considers peeling one off and taking it into her own. Instead, she just lets one of her feet bump ever so gently against his. "It wasn't a joke, Finn." Tobi adds, her almond-eyes genuine and persistent. The Spyglass might find the words uncomfortable, but that doesn't mean he doesn't need to hear him. He is, and is deserving of so much more than he gives himself credit for.
"Oh, deciding on standard margins before you've even started. Bold." What she's even saying now and what it might mean in a larger conversation, Tobi doesn't know anymore. It doesn't matter though, not with the ease with which she thinks she can steer them back into safer waters.
"There is another Outlander tradition where they celebrate the death of a god by pretending that rabbits are no longer mammals. And they send their children out to find all the non-mammalian rabbits' eggs."
When the night falls on you & you don't know what to do Nothing you confess could make me love you less
02-23-2021, 10:10 PM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2021, 10:11 PM by Finn.)
FINN
the spyglass
it is only through mystery and madness
"First time with whiskey," Finn just about manages, and he blows on the hot chocolate to try and cool it down, inhaling a deep breath so the cold air can get to his burned tongue. The snow is falling heavily by now, settling in their hair and on their shoulders, and Finn has to shield his drink from getting snowflakes in it. And not a single one makes it in there - he can tell, because of the intensity with which he's suddenly looking at the hot chocolate, precisely to avoid looking at Tobi.
And when she speaks, he feels something sink low in the pit of his stomach; a knot that lessens by degrees, and it's only because of who she is and the history they now share that allows him to believe her, even if he doesn't exactly believe what she's saying. Tobi thinks it's true, and that's enough to take the sting out of what he had assumed was banter gotten too sharp. She bumps her foot against his and he finally glances across at her again, snow clinging to dark lashes, his smile somewhat uncertain.
It's easier to reply to the change in subject, standard margins and not-jokes aside, and he raises his eyebrows at the new festival Tobi describes. "That sounds horrifying," he admits, though in truth he's intrigued. "And what do they do with the rabbit eggs?" he wonders, not sure he wants to know the answer.
let me see you through 'cause i've seen the dark side too.
Tobi gives Finn a look, not sure whether or not he's kidding. That's the thing about Finn, he's so dry and can be so Finn, that sometimes it really is hard to know when he's kidding.
The doctor has the strangest thought just then, as he looks over at her and she looks back at him: would you believe me if I kissed you? She doesn't know why she thinks it would work, only that it might. Maybe it's because words have been weapons against Finn in the past (and kisses haven't?), or because he suddenly looks so real next to her. But that's precisely what stops her. Finn isn't the sort of man you can lean over and kiss. He isn't the sort you can playfully put cream on the nose of, or just sink against. Finn was an entirely different sort, who would probably react badly to physical gestures as demonstrations of reassurance.
So instead Tobi merely looks up, her own eyelashes dotted with snowflakes despite the cover of her bangs, and nods towards Finn's curls. "Well, you won't need a shower when you get home if we stay here much longer." She says jovially, unaware of the blush on her cheeks.
"I think it's a fertility ritual." Tobi tugs at her lower lip, squinting off into the distance and trying to remember what her father had said. "Maybe...the more eggs you collect, the more fertile you are later on? Or maybe it's to do with households and crops?" Eventually she shakes her head. It was ridiculous, and that was why she found it so hard to remember. It had nothing at all to do with imagining what it would be like to kiss Finn beneath the falling snow in the light of the firling, with their licks sticky-sweet from their drinks.
When the night falls on you & you don't know what to do Nothing you confess could make me love you less
Finn's thoughts aren't about kissing Tobi, but they are no less stormy or turbulent. And it's as close enough to kissing or thoughts of it when it comes to the Spyglass; deep in a pit of inadequacy as he usually is, Finn tries to make sense of her compliments or why he believes her when she says the things she does about him. Why she believes the things she does in the first place. Eventually, with a huff of a sigh, he takes another drink of hot chocolate, finding it quickly cooling off with the plummeting temperature.
"Hm...? Oh, yes. It seems to have become a blizzard without us noticing," he remarks, gazing around at the Plaza and the way the stalls are shutting up now. In fact he and Tobi are one of the only couples left, and Finn promptly rises to his feet as if just realising that they ought to get going. "Frankly," he says, "I am worried about what the eggs would hatch into, if they hatched at all."
Lingering by the bench, he squints off into the path. "Shall we walk back? I'd not want you to get stuck out here. Who knows if a patient might come in and need your help?"
let me see you through 'cause i've seen the dark side too.
'Snow is sneaky like that. It can be so quiet." And then, knowing what he's going to say, Tobi turns sharply to Finn with a silencing look as she holds up a finger. "And before you say it, I don't care if snow can't be sneaky." She smiles brightly at that, as Finn rather unceremoniously gets up. It's a shock to her senses for things to change so abruptly that she shivers slightly as if from a chill.
'Maybe you eat them after, to absorb their power through their nutrients?" Tobi suggests, rising to her feet as well. Putting her cup down on the bench, she reaches for her gloves and scarf and begins twining the material upon her long fingers and around her neck. "Sounds good. You can grab your dose before you head up." Her eyes lower to his cup and then raise again as she laughs. 'Less that whiskey.'
When the night falls on you & you don't know what to do Nothing you confess could make me love you less
Finn's lips have already parted to inform Tobi as much, before he promptly decides against it (given that she's ruined it by pre-empting him). Sipping again at his chocolate, as Tobi puts her cup on the bench he thinks nothing of holding it for her, ensuring it doesn't spill or get too cold while she's putting her gloves and her scarf back on. "I find the idea of rabbit eggs to be very upsetting for some reason. Especially eating them," he remarks, wrinkling his nose and trying hard to put the image out of his mind.
Honestly, he'd have forgotten all about the dose of medicine, such is his fatigue and comparative relaxation, but it doesn't stop him from nodding his agreement. He finds that he doesn't quite want to leave Tobi's company just yet - their jaunt through the Celestine and now the Plaza is coming to an end abruptly, thanks to the blizzard. "Surely the whiskey would just allow for a better night's sleep," he suggests.
Is Finn being a shit for no reason? Is playful even a mood he can get into? Not even the Spyglass is sure, and he turns to lead them back down a pathway that is already concealing their prints.
let me see you through 'cause i've seen the dark side too.
Tobi bites her lip to keep from calling Finn thoughtful or chivalrous, and instead just reaches out for her mug with both mittened hands. Their fingers necessarily overlap, such is necessary given how he's holding it, but the doctor doesn't linger. But she wants to. 'Thanks.' Tobi chimes appreciatively, whisking her mind away. "Knowing me, I'd have knocked it over." Not unlike how her tail could get the better of her when she was shifted, as a woman, when she wasn't at work, Tobi could be a proper clutz.
"While that might be true if you sleep the day away tomorrow that's just longer I'll have to wait for my report." Tobi reminds him, bouncing her eyebrows in his direction as if taunting him to try and counter that logic. They both know that anything that will help Finn sleep is welcome, and honestly, with Finn's size, the ounce or two of whiskey will hardly make a difference.
'You can hardly even see the Tower.' Tobi notes, peering through the near white-out. 'Almost like it isn't there at all.'
When the night falls on you & you don't know what to do Nothing you confess could make me love you less
