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!
Further along the port, she could hear drumbeats and music, wild and enlightening and free – cacophonies of light and sound and noise that would’ve made anyone’s bones ache to dance. She could feel the rushes of the salt air maneuvering past her in a steady, beckoning rivulet, teasing at hair, at clothes, at manifestations of something more – beyond the aching coils of trauma and illustrious foils of torment – that one could breathe in these hallowed halls. Could stay. Could not be pieced and shackled, tied and tethered, away, away, away.
But she couldn’t follow into the molten sways or the mighty bonfires. Not now. Hands over the tarp, dragging her cleaned, cleansed whale bone, the honeybee youth had one more task to complete. Then maybe she could join the crowds, the crews, the fiery ash and the thundering void.
She tied her long dress in one knot off to her side, and began to wade out into the sea. Fangorn grumbled from his perch upon the closest rock, the lantern beside him, casting a ghoulish haze across a formidable pumpkin. The girl waved and laughed, and then began to tug the bone along with her, with its rope, with its weight, with its might, certain of the promise laden in her soul.
What is Aurelia doing here? That's for everyone else to figure out. She knows. Probably. Where is she, exactly? She's perched on the edge of the port, boots dangling off of the end. A head of thick, red hair catches her attention and she turns towards it with complete lack of coordination, body lurching with the movement. "Mel-ita?" She questions softly, it's probably lost on the waves. But the pumpkin!? "Fangorn!" She shouts with glee and fucking leaps down into the water, disappearing beneath the waves with a splash.
The water's cool and refreshing to her drunken bones. It's fuckin' hot on the beach anyway, with all those fires and sweaty people.
Don't worry, she's wearing clothes. Or maybe worry because... it's probably uncomfortable. Who cares? She's drunk, she doesn't. No more dumb questions!
So she rises up from the ocean somewhere near Melita and her grumbly companion like an ungraceful mermaid.. or like a sea monster. Whatever aesthetic suits her better. A mouthful of water squirts out towards Melita in an arc, though it falls terribly short of the target. "What're ya doin' with that now?" She barks out with a grin, eyeing the tarp and the glimpse of a whale's bone.
The youth didn’t expect to hear her name called over the wind and sea, nor Fangorn’s, and the subtle shift in ropes and tethers, as she maneuvered her head over her shoulder to spy across the expanse of illuminated water, slid across the liquid. The bone maintained its hold along the expanse, born and raised and dead in its keep after all, while Melita sought to identify the individual – laughing when she recognized Aurelia.
Except this was an Aurelia who’d clearly enjoyed the booze and bonfires down on the beach, rising up from the shallows, embarking closer and closer while the wild honeybee shook her head, didn’t bother hiding the bout of giggles bubbling up. “I have to leave it at the shrine overnight.” She hadn’t asked why. It might’ve been safer that way. She presumed it was some deity or herald device, a way to ensure it was secure, protected, and could instill what she’d asked of it. Moments had already been concocted along the Miana Pool, washed and cleaned, cleansed and showered, in however much luck she could salvage – this was the last stop.
Her eyes went back to the shrine, edging closer while Aurelia embraced the waves. “I figured I’d tie it here, and call it good.” Watch over it for the evening, instead of babysitting Sunjata. "Have you been enjoying yourself?"
Aurelia stands to her full height and wrings out her sopping wet shirt, not that it'll do much. Melita's giggles bring a smirk to her own face, but she listens for a moment to the answer. There's a raise of her brows and a slight nod of 'ah, I see'. Makes... sense...? Aurelia's not sure, actually, if it does - but hey! Whatever floats her boat? Or ship, in this case.
"What's so funny? Never seen a mermaid before?" She asks sarcastically, pushing strands of wet hair out of her face. She smiles. "You could say that... you seem to be a bit encumbered, though.." she answers of the question, eyeing the ropes Melita's tugging at.
Well, whatever it is Melita's doing and regardless of whether Aurelia's drunk brain can comprehend why, count her in! She sloshes through the waves with decisive action and picks up the tail-end of the tarp to help lighten the load. "Alright, heave-ho!" Putting her back into it, she makes all attempts to carefully help Melita finish taking the bone to its designated shrine. She tries to step carefully and maybe trips a few times.
"Should we sing a chantey?" Aurelia racks her brain but, in spite of hanging around the ships for some time now, none have stuck with her. Lackluster, she admits, "I don't know any though..."
She had, actually, seen a mermaid before – though the one she’d encountered had been stranded along the canals, and cursed. Aurelia lacked the fish appendages to make the scene actually work, but the youth laughed again anyway, waving off the speculation with a brush of her hand in the air. She was more or less impressed Aurelia could say ‘encumbered’ while more than a little tipsy.
“Thank you,” the honeybee presided instead, grabbing hold of the ropes as her fellow smuggler lifted. Together, the process was that much smoother – and the bone could glide along the water, where she could once again laugh at the request, in between strong, enduring inhales and exhales. “I know a couple,” she uttered – things learned from Saiden and the rest of the crew in journeys before.
A whistle drew from her lips, and Fangorn seemed to start a beat with his vines whacking, while the continued to haul, lift, and drag. “Now you're ready to sail for the Horn, weigh, hey, roll and go!” and then she persisted, waiting for Aurelia to take some of the cue. “Our boots and our clothes, boys, are all in the pawn, to be rollicking Randy Dandy, oh!”
02-24-2021, 11:33 PM (This post was last modified: 02-24-2021, 11:33 PM by Aurelia.)
can i be the only hope for you?
Aurelia doesn't say much in the way of 'you're welcome'. Helping out her friends is a requirement; an obligation. She needs no thanks. "If anything it's made my night that much more interesting," she mumbles out, shrugging with a gently smiling face - though it's definitely ruffled by the determination that takes hold of it due to the weight of the whale bone.
Aurelia's brows lift from her concentrated lifting and pulling at Melita's announcement. Excitement churns within and she readies herself for whatever song is soon to come, eager to see what kind of voice Melita has. Her gaze casts back towards Fangorn for a pause, admiring his rhythm. But her attention quickly returns to the whale bone when the waves give her a sharp tug, as if reminding her of the task.
"Oh, I remember this!" Aurelia pipes up quietly as Melita begins to sing, a grin forming against her cheeks.
She's already begun humming to the words of weigh, hay, roll and go. If she's slightly off-sync, she doesn't seem to pay it much mind. Picking up where Melita left off, she belts out with confidence in her best drunken sea-shanty voice, "Heave a pawl, o heave away! Weigh, hay, roll an' go! The anchor's..." something-something, she's a bit foggy on the next line but! Her humming is still on point! "To be rollickin' randy dandy-O!" She nearly cuts herself off with a joyous laugh as the waves push them onward.
Drunken exploits and bonfires on the beaches could be all the more interesting – but if Aurelia yearned to assist in the weight, mire, and collection of whale bones meant to shift along the shrines, then she was more than welcome. It sounded as if the long evening had been encompassed for the purpose of amusements in the entanglements anyway.
And while Fangorn could hasten a beat, and Melita’s mother and sister had a way with melodious, singing tones, the youth hadn’t inherited such wealth. Instead, her measures of tunes fluctuated between screeching, caterwauling, and some howling measure; intonations neither sublime nor siren-enticing. The stanzas often kept local wildlife away. Which was why she was often taken into hums, capable of corresponding with her family’s lilting arias and strains, without completely undermining them with her tone deaf vocals.
But since Aurelia had yet to complain, and she hadn’t caught her companion’s wince, she carried on while they hastened and dragged. She wasn’t tipsy or plied with alcohol, and there was hardly any other excuse for continuing, save for laughter in between their bursting layers. “Man the stout capsn’n an’ heave with a will, way, hay, roll an’ go,” a pause as she lifted a little higher, the shallows rising along their hips. “Soon we’ll be drivin’ her ‘way down the hill, to be rollicking randy, dandy-o!”
02-26-2021, 01:37 AM (This post was last modified: 02-26-2021, 01:40 AM by Aurelia.)
can i be the only hope for you?
Melita has no need for feeling self-conscious about her shantying because, frankly, Aurelia's not much better. With the alcohol churning through her system, she doesn't bother refraining from this cacophonous combination of their voices. She lifts hers to catch the next lyric as Melita's words get tangled up in her own bubbles of laughter.
The salty, frothy waves reach around their torsos at this point, but Aurelia's unperturbed. She's already soaked through, both by the ocean and drink.
The shrine, a faded statue of a man, is charming in a surpisingly humble way. It comes upon them sooner than Aurelia expects, voice fading into a surprisingly pleasant hum, which fades into the lull of the waves until there is a moment of clear pause. Her grip on the tarp slacks.
Pale green eyes lift up to Melita's wild head of hair, a smile filled with good nature lifting up one end of her lips, "Now what, Mel?"
The echoes of their shanty remained, long after it had dissipated from their howls – sifting along sand, drifting in along currents, poised and aloft near the shrine. Her hands reached for the solidarity of its presence, in the familiar shape and thresholds where she’d placed many an offering, expecting to find toys and trinkets left from others. Maybe the tide had taken them. Maybe Ludo itself. But her smile remained, registered, entangled, brightened, refreshed, after songs, ridiculousness, and a weight lifting from her shoulders. They were capable. This would be fine. One last maneuver. One last motion. Then she could return, and there’d be something beyond the fixtures of beasts, shadows, and the longest of nights.
Aurelia hummed nearby, and the girl took hold of the ropes left drifting along, Fangorn still perched on her shoulder. “We tie it to the shrine, and it can stay.” Until she arrived when the veil of winter lifted, and Flowerbirth breathed its contentment – when the gods and heralds all returned from the dusk and Stygian abyss. She offered one loop to the smuggler, and then went the opposite direction, casting the bone so it would stay firmly in the middle, but below the surface, tucked and safe along the threshold of the shrine. "Then we have a few more drinks on the beach!" Another announcement made and spun on mirth and merriment.
"Oh, it stays..." she raises her brows, surprised, "I was just starting to get attached."
Aurelia wades forward to grasp the other end of the rope from Melita. It takes her a bit of drunk figuring and fumbling for her to manage it, but eventually the whale bone is anchored to the shrine thanks to both of their efforts. To her, it looks secure enough.
She's unaware that Ludo's shrine here is touched for luck, so maybe it's ironic when she gives the whale bone one last pat for good fortune. At Melita's declaration of having some drinks on the beach, Aurelia's more than happy to join her in that endeavor. Her lopsided smile becomes an eager grin as she says, "Absolutely! I could really go for a hot meal, too." The thought alone makes her stomach tense in anticipation.
But Aurelia's not quite ready to step off and shanty their way back to shore. She glances over at the shrine, grin subsiding, "Should we say a prayer? Or something?"
“It stays,” she nodded, momentarily solemn, before bursting into laughter. Not theirs to cherish much longer, gone back into the waves and current, settled in and amongst the shrine’s statue, until she could bask in the tides again, when the sun had stretched and lifted its beams, basked them all in light once more. Not much longer; and then they could breathe a little easier. For more than one reason.
Together they tied and secured the bone, left it to the murky abyss, to the swell of lantern abyss flickering from the port, the incendiary reaches from the bonfires along shore. When she’d done enough sailor’s knots to presume it’d be fine, her hands released the filaments, watched as they remained tethered, anchored, to the effigy. She was quiet at Aurelia’s inquiry, brows furrowing, contemplating their efforts. “The heralds aren’t here during LongNight...but maybe Ludo would appreciate it all the same.” It sounded like something along Safrin's preferences, but it likely wouldn't do any harm, regardless. A finger went to stroke at the feet, at the knolls, at the intricate, worldly, ethereal metal fashioned by so many so long ago. “Thank you for being willing to watch over us,” she murmured, low and pondering – there would be more acknowledgments, more thanks to come in the upcoming days, when promises and convictions could be truly sung.
Then she stepped aside, shifting along the ebb and flow, permitting Aurelia an opportunity, if she so wished, to do the same.
Aurelia's brows furrow at the fact that the heralds aren't present during Longnight. If it's something someone had told her in the past, it's slipped her mind by now. Her head inclines a little with a thoughtful frown present on her expression, staring at the shrine. She watches curiously as Melita glides her hands over the feet.
"Well, even if Ludo's not here, maybe he's listening," she says with a clever smile, tipping her nose down at the statue. In good spirits and to show her support, she slips forward through the waves. She glances back at Melita with a hesitant quirk of her brow, reaching for the feet as well, as if silently asking 'like this?'
It feels a bit awkward to be rubbing someone's feet, even if it's a statue, but she supposes maybe that's the point; to humble oneself. So she bites back brazen words of 'tell the ghost whales we said fuck off!' It takes her a moment to think of something better, though, as she stares down at the detailed bumps and ridges worn down by ocean salt. "Wish us luck," she requests simply, "we'll probably need it..."
At that, she lets out a ragged sigh and sloshes back towards Melita. "Alright, you ready? Way, hay, roll an' go!" She grins, picking up her feet to return to the shore quickly. She'll spend the remainder of the night (or day, whichever!) engaging in food and drink and maybe even a bit of dancing with Melita.
