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!
02-25-2021, 10:46 PM (This post was last modified: 02-25-2021, 10:51 PM by Finn.)
memory’s so treacherous
Finn gives the tongue depressor all of the bemused wariness that it deserves, but given their height difference it really just culminates with Tobi waggling a stick under his nose, half threateningly at best. "You don't know. I might have seen something," he says softly, and his tone is just the right amount of Finn that he might just be serious about it. (Let's be honest, with the Spyglass's track record, he probably did). "October," he hisses back at her, turning in time to see her tip toe up to the supply cupboard.
"Not stuffed toys, no." Shadow lurking, dream hopping alchemists? That's a close approximation. Something in the Spyglass tells Tobi to stop when she starts turning the doorknob to Falke's supply cupboard - because what will really be in there, other than stationary and files - but he doesn't listen to that something. Instead he steps forward, ready to take a peek into the cupboard. "If something jumps out at us, at least this will give you a chance to run."
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
It is the right amount of Finn, and Tobi finds herself scanning his face for signs of what to believe. Just when she thinks there's amusement in his eyes, she blinks, and he looks completely serious again.
'And leave you behind to be torn to pieces by whatevers inside? What kind of friend would I be?" Before he can answer—or perhaps over top of his answer—Tobi quickly adds: "Correct! A living one." All that said, the doctor is rather surprised by this relative bad-boy streak from Finn. She can't say she isn't rather charmed by how he peers over his shoulder or what might actually be considered banter between them. But, as with his wry humour from before, she might be making it up entirely.
Humming some foreboding refrain under her breath, Tobi pulls on the door, wanting to reveal everything all at once. Predictably it's completely dark inside, which absolutely ruins the tension she was trying to create. Huffing, Tobi steps inside, feeling along the wall for a light. Only that isn't what her fingers come across at all. Growing incredibly still, the colour draining from her face, Tobi turns her head by fractions until she can catch Finn's eye. "..f..inn.." She whispers, the letters of his name no more than puffs of air over her lips, as her eyes grow wide with fright. Trembling, Tobi tries to still her breath, her fingers still inside the room.
Finn's lips part to respond to Tobi's question only for her to supply the answer herself, leaving him looking quite fish-like in his confusion They make quite the charming duo at times like this, if only the Spyglass were able to see it; Finn is inevitably the straight man in any comedic pairing, and the doctor at his side is all whimsy and cheeriness, all puns and delight. And yet, as she opens the door to the supply cupboard and they are faced with nothing but a wall of darkness, all that humour seems far away.
He raises a hand as if to stop her from reaching into those shadows, but it's too late - and then the horror in the situation seems to come to life just from the expression on Tobi's face. If she's joking, Finn falls for it hook, line and sinker, and his brows draw together in a frown. "Tobi?" Instinctively he reaches for her, as if to pull her back out of the cupboard.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Is this where they find Cian tied up inside? Where the world around them proves to be some matrix-like construct? Is this Falke's sex dungeon? Is there a well, with a young girl in desperate need of some conditioner, mumbling something about 7 days? Does Tobi turn on Finn, forcing him into her lair and proving herself to be some sickly-sweet succubus?
"FINN!" Tobi all but screams as the moment's tension comes to a head. Suddenly the doctor is out the darkness of the doorway, thrusting something toward the Spyglass with a bright look of horror in her eyes. It's a skeletal hand, and she's screaming his name (or is it laughter?) and the hand is reaching for his throat (or is she just menacingly shaking it at him, as she did with the depresser).
"BOO." Tobi concludes with a bright laugh, looking incredibly proud of herself as she withdraws her hand enough for Finn to properly see what she's waggling in his face. It is a skeletal hand yes, but a fake one, likely used for teaching anatomy.
02-26-2021, 05:21 PM (This post was last modified: 02-26-2021, 05:45 PM by Finn.)
memory’s so treacherous
Finn doesn't know what to expect, but there's one thing guaranteed to startle him out of his playfulness, and that's Tobi screaming his name with terror in her voice. He doesn't see what the skeletal hand actually is (i.e. it's not some shade or ghoul, but a piece of kit used for testing anatony), and it doesn't actually matter, in the end. By the time the doctor gets to her punchline (boo, indeed), Finn has snatched the hand and thrown it to the floor, where his boot comes down hard to splinter it into several tiny pieces that probably all have their own name.
He can hear his pulse in his ears and his knuckles are white with how hard he's clenched his fists, and Tobi's bright laughter is a distant thing. Letting out a shaky breath, not having realised he'd been holding it, Finn eventually sinks back against the wall and runs a hand down his face. "That is enough dark cupboards for one night, I think."
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Tobi is still high on her own amusement, and so as Finn throws the hand to the ground and grinds it into a million pieces with his heel, the doctor just watches with open lips and round rosy cheeks. "Oh my gods, Finn!" She cackles, not having properly noticed his upset yet, thinking he was merely taking her charade right to its limits.
However as he leans against the wall, coming down off of a very different sort of high, Tobi immediately fights the cheer off of her face. "Hey," She whispers softly, soothingly, as one might to a frightened animal. And Tobi would know. What she wants to do is cup his face in her hands, to pull his eyes towards hers, and kiss him tell him everything is okay. That it was only a joke and that she knows all of these rooms like the back of her hand.
But knowing how well that won't go over, Tobi...well. She sort of does it anyway.
There are suddenly paws against his shoulders and adorably bright canine eyes staring back at him. With a low ruffff, the dog licks at Finn's chin, tail waggling furiously.
Finn's eyes are pressed closed, and so he's not sure, at first, what the pressure against his shoulders might be. It makes him cringe and try to shrink back, only then there's a furry muzzle pressed against his chin and he blinks his eyes open in time to see Tobi trying(?) to make him feel better. Huffing out a shaky sigh and reaching up to let his fingers sink into the thick ruff of her fur, he doesn't have words for the relief he feels at the quiet canine reassurance.
"Thanks," he mumbles, glancing again at the bits of hand and wrinkling his nose. "Sorry, I just--" He shrugs, honestly having no explanation for how he'd reacted. (Later he'll reflect on the fact that he went for swift and immediate violence against the thing supposedly putting Tobi in danger, but that's for later). "Come on - let's go back to the clinic, before I destroy any more props."
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Tobi snuggles against him, her hind paws tapping on the ground to keep her balance as she animatedly continues to lick his face and the creases of his neck. But it isn't kissing him, lets all remember.
Barking a bright note of agreement, Tobi lets herself fall away from him, darting suddenly away and down the hall. Coming back only seconds later with something orange and triangular in her mouth (a wet floor sign, he'll notice once she's closer), she prances proudly with it, dropping it onto the mess made by a poorly timed joke and Finn's boot heel. She'll come back and clean this up once Finn has been sent back to bed.
Barking again, the sound echoing up and down the empty halls, Tobi wags her tail enthusiastically, bright eyes settled on Finn.
It definitely isn't kissing, at least not by Finn's reckoning, and as Tobi barks and trots away, the Spyglass doesn't even have it in him to remind her that it's midnight and she ought to keep her voice down. No, soothed by the appearance of the lumbering pup, he feels his heartrate start to slow and follows after her, intending to be back at the clinic in mere moments. But then Tobi is bounding back, as proud as any dog ever was, and Finn actually lets out a laugh to see the wet floor sign.
"I don't think the floor is actually wet," he tries, leaning down to ruffle her fur and set the sign up properly before they're off for a second time. "But it will do. Thank you, Tobi - you always seem to know what to say." Then, because she's here, and so is he, and there's only really one thing to do from here, Finn tilts his head at the doctor. "Ball?"
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Tobi huffs out a breath that makes her jowls flutter slightly. Her canine eyebrows raise, and though Finn isn't an attuned, he probably doesn't need a telepathic bond to read her expression as one of did you want to stop and clean it up now, then. Or if not, she still looked thoroughly unimpressed. But adorably so.
Tobi wags her tail in happy agreement—she does know what to say, or bark, as the case might be—however what he says next has her muscles stiffening, and her eyes widening. Caught in the middle of a wufff, her lip is slightly and comically curled upward, her ears perked forward, and her eyes impossibly shiny and intrigued.
Barking again—the sleeping pills are definitely awake by now—Tobi prances in place as if expecting Finn to suddenly materialize a ball. When he doesn't, the berner whines encouragingly, tail waggling back and forth.
"What?" Finn asks, holding out his hands as if to show Tobi that he doesn't have anything in them. "I don't have a ball - you are the one who keeps a healthy supply of those." Were the Spyglass any sort of charismatic he might have mentioned the only balls he does have; alas, instead he turns on heel and strides back to the Very Spooky Supply cupboard.
There aren't any balls in there either, but Finn does magically produce a roll of bandages, and that will do for now. "Okay, come on then." He waggles the bandages (making sure they're tied properly so they won't unravel) and flings them as hard as he can down the corridor for Tobi to chase. A world away from the unfortunate situation with the skeletal hand, it seems as though the doctor has helped him to bounce back quite spectacularly.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Darting forward, Tobi snuffles her nose in Finn's palms, as if wanting it enough would make it appear. Up his sleeves, maybe? Was that where the ball was? The dog whines, her tail wagging less dramatically now as all of her hopes and dreams seem to be crumbling. Her lips part slightly to reveal a set of very white lower teeth, as she whines a long and horribly sad note.
Finn retreats to the cupboard—for bones? another innuendo Finn might reach for, if only he had the mind for it—and emerges with a roll of bandages. Lowering her head, her ears flicking back uncertainly, Tobi whines as her tail wags between her legs. Was he going to make that into a leash? Was she a bad dog?
But oh! Her eyes follow the bandages, and she's off! Skittering in a circle, Tobi's claws can't quite find purchase on the shiny near-linoleum flooring, leaving her looking as though she's running in place. Eventually she does make some headway, catching up to the bandages, and then overshooting them. Barking her joyful frustration, Tobi doubles back, grabs the cloth in her mouth, and proudly trots back to Finn with her tail held high.
Dropping the roll at his feet, she drops her head toward the floor, hind-end wiggling.
Well, Tobi has successfully lifted Finn's spirits well into the realms of boyish; it's as if there's nothing beyond this, nothing beyond the long corridor and the unexpected game of fetch. With a grin that dimples his cheeks and takes years off his face, Finn follows after the doctor as best he's able to watch the trainwreck that is her attempt to catch the roll of bandages. "You did it!" he cheers when she finally snaps it up, and he's leaning down for her as she approaches again to deposit it at his feet.
"Again? Alright, but we need to make sure we don't wake any of your patients, Doctor Hart." With a smirk that is as close to charming as Finn will ever get, he collects the bandages a second time and straightens up. Pulling back his arm, he lets the roll loose again, and it bounces merrily away down the dark corridor.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Tobi is all happy wiggles, her antics made even more energetic because of his enthuisiasm. However as he mentions her other patents, the dog's ears flatten slightly as she lets out a muted woooof of acknowledgement.
However as he throws the bandages, Tobi is all bright barks again as she bounds off. She simply can't help it. Just as she laughs as a human when the mood strikes her, so too in this form does she bark. The bandages bounce down the hall and around a corner. But because of her speed and lack of traction, Tobi slams into the edge of the wall as she tries to make a turn. Letting out a yelp of pain as she rebounds into the opposite wall and out of Finn's sight, the sound of whining will be all that is returned to Finn.
Should the Spyglass come around after her, it will be to Tobi sprawled on the ground, holding her hip with one hand. And yes, she has the bandages in the other.
