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!
It seems that they are both more than capable of sending a happy moment south, and Finn is left wincing on Tobi's behalf as she goes rocketing around the corner only to culminate in a series of yelps and whines that brings him running. A little out of breath - and clumsily following after the doctor - Finn finds her in a heap on the floor, and if he were capable of taking in the funny little details of everything right now, he'd absolutely find it amusing that she's still managed to get the bandages.
"Are you alright?" he asks instead, his voice hushed so as not to awaken anyone (else), and he brings himself up to kneel by Tobi's side. "I think perhaps we were a bit overzealous, playing ball in the dark. Can you walk?" He might be hesitant about touch, normally, but it doesn't stop him from holding out his hands to her now.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Wincing up at him—more because of the concern she sees on his face rather than the ache in her hip—Tobi nods enthusiastically in an effort to reassure him. "Yeah. The floor is really slippery." She says with a chuckle, before raising the hand holding the bandages and giving it a quick jiggle. "Got it though."
Tobi doesn't think anything of Finn's outstretched hands, Tobi bobs her head as her fingers slip against his. "Yeah. Nothing some ice and a lot of wine won't fix." She manages, though as she shifts to move, she has to stop herself as pain flashes up her back. Scrunching her eyes shut, as her teeth click together, the doctor swallows down a moan. Exhaling through the worst of it, Tobi opens her eyes and offers Finn a shaky smile. "Okay. Up." It hurts, and Tobi's hip wants to utterly give out, but she'll manage, especially if Finn helps.
'Another LongNight victim.' She chuckles a bit self-consciously as she glances at Finn. "Do you mind if I lean against you? Or, actually, there's a set of crutches just up behind that desk."
"Even more slippery if you don't have any grip, I imagine," Finn says with a small smile, though it's overshadowed by the concern in his expression. His hands close around hers, planning to lift her to her feet in one fell swoop, but as Tobi falters he's forced to reconsider. "Hey, slow," he murmurs, and before she's even asked if it's alright (and it's appreciated, more than he can ever show), Finn is looping one of her arms around him so he can guide her back onto her feet.
"Another?" he asks; Stormbreak isn't well-known for having victims of LongNight, after all, and he wonders if something bad has happened to one of her patients. Or maybe he's the other victim. "Don't worry about the crutches - just tell me where we need to go," he says, happy to take most of her weight while they walk.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Tobi snorts, but nods. He isn't wrong of course. "If I had more friends to play ball with, maybe my pads would have more traction." She chuckles brightly, before her expression transitions to one of pain.
It isn't like when he offered her his arm outside, with all the layers of clothing between them. But this isn't much of a moment either. She can't think about his hand around her waist or the feel of him against her but for the warbling thud that makes it feel like her pelvis is pulsing inside of her skin. Hissing in a breath as she loops her arm over his shoulde, leaning into him to take the weight off her wounded side, Tobi exhales shakily and nods. "Mmm, yeah. All those kids upstairs drank themselves silly. There needs to be clocks everywhere alcohol is served. Normally it's the sun going down—or coming back up—that makes people stop drinking." Tobi explains. "And now there's me, having hurt myself while trying to retrieve bandages." She grins, her phrasing entirely intentional in that anyone else might think her injury was workplace related.
"Thanks Finn." Tobi murmurs against him, before nodding her head back down the corridor. "Sorry for all of this. I get carried away sometimes." She says with a contrite and bashful smile.
"Then perhaps I will have to play ball more often. I wouldn't want you to get injured again," Finn says dryly. It certainly is a different context, which has turned Finn into almost a different person. There is no hesitation in him, no cringing back, no fear - his arms are firmly around her to keep the weight off her wounded side, and he walks with slow, careful strides in whatever direction Tobi directs.
"Why are you apologising to me?" he asks as they move back towards the clinic. "You haven't done anything wrong. I was enjoying myself, I'm just sorry that it got you hurt," he says with a soft smile. "Thank you, for trying to make me feel better after what happened. I may have overreacted."
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Limping along, feeling foolish and perhaps a bit fluttered, Tobi will nod or mumble directions to Finn as they wander the dark halls. "Now I'm really going to be sore tomorrow." She chuckles under her breath. If only she could call in sick.
'Well. I did try and light you on fire." Tobi points out, releasing Finn long enough that he might open the door to the clinic before grasping for him again. Laughing brightly, Tobi shakes her head and sighs softly at Finn's side. "I don't think so. You're the type of man to protect hot chocolate from snow." She says with a shrug. "Of course that type of man feels compelled to completely shatter threatening skeletons in darkened corridors." Because it actually was quite brave of him—protective even—to try and protect her from the thing in the closet.
"Would you like me to come and lend you a hand in the clinic?" It surprises Finn just as much as it will likely surprise Tobi, how he's so wiling to offer his help. "Though it might make your report a little late, I'm afraid." He'd nudge her but he has a feeling that will make her even more sore.
"Did you, though?" There's no denying the wry tone to his voice there, as the conversation swings back to her 'lighting him on fire', Finn only pausing to open the door so she might get into the clinic unscathed.
Assuming they're going to her office, that's where Finn leads them next. "I don't believe the skeleton feels the same way about me," he murmurs. "I will have to work to get a new prop for Falke, since I turned the other into bone dust."
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
"Oh." Tobi hadn't been expecting the offer of course, but looking over at Finn, she's quick to wipe the incredulity off her face in lieu of a smile. "Well I already know you have steady hands and are good at taking direction." She muses under her breath as if this was suddenly some mock interview. "If you're okay with a few sassy teenagers and a few unsavoury smells, I'd be happy to have you." Even if all he did was push her around in a wheelchair, she'd still appreciate the help. His nudge makes her stifle a grunt of pain, but she grins through it. "It's sounding more and more like this is going to be an oral report, after all."
Instead of answering, Tobi scrunches her nose at Finn, the expression adorably sarcastic and entirely unthreatening. Indeed it is to Tobi's office they go, her door still left open from where she'd left it that way. "Skeletons don't have feelings, Finn." The doctor says, her voice dry and nearly free of emotion. It's a poor replication of Finn's voice, made even worse by the fact that Tobi can hardly keep her smile from colouring her words as it is.
"No you're fine. I'm almost sure that skeleton was mine from my last class of nurses I was working with." Nodding toward the couch, she'll likely sleep there tonight, Tobi detaches herself from Finn that she might collapse down onto the cushions.
"Then I will come down in the morning and work with you, at least until you feel better." For Finn it is an easy decision to make - he feels at least partially responsible for the state that Tobi finds herself in, so it's only right that he is there to help. "Don't underestimate my reporting abilities, though. It will be a written report - it might just be short a few of those diagrams."
They make their way into the office and Finn releases Tobi, though his hands still hover as if ready to catch her, should she fall. Only once she is settled in the couch does he move to fetch the blanket folded on the back of it, draping it over the doctor to ensure she is comfortable. "Will you be alright sleeping here?" he wonders, never having given it a thought about where Tobi sleeps regularly.
Then she fires back one of his usual lines and, caught completely and pleasantly by surprise, Finn flashes her a warm grin. "You are quite right. They don't," he observes.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
'There's a pair of scrubs in the closet in the hall. They should fit you well enough.' Tobi murmurs through a yawn that she lifts her hand to stifle a few seconds later than was probably polite. Grinning up at him, Tobi shrugs against the couch, sinking even farther into it. "I'll be the judge of that."
Unable to help her sigh of contentment as Finn drapes the blanket over her—she'd just been about to ask him to reach for it—she shimmies her shoulders and adjusts herself for maximum couch comfort. "Yeah. The idea of walking up a few flights of stairs seems impossible right now." None of her shifts were small enough to be carried and while she had no doubt Finn could probably manage her if he tried, there was no need. It wasn't the first time she'd slept in her office and it wouldn't be the last. "If anything really big happens, I'm sure one of the kids in the next room is sober enough to help me, if it comes to it."
It's a skeletal crew on, because of LongNight. Unlike in other areas, this is sort of a holiday for those in Stormbreak. Time is spent at home, with families, as there isn't much else to do.
Winking up at Finn, her cheeks round and her eyes shiny with the success of her quip, Tobi suddenly remembers the reason Finn came down in the first place. "Oh. Did you want something more to help you sleep through the rest of the night?" Tobi is already leaning forward as if to stand, given that the pills are in another room.
Having never worn scrubs, Finn doesn't really know what to make of the change of clothes and whether it will make a difference to his comparatively terrible skills in the medical clinic. (He has proven, multiple times, that he is much more of a patient than a doctor). Nodding his understanding at the stairs predicament, the Spyglass is in absolutely no position to tell people how they ought to have a comfortable sleep, and so if Tobi is happy, Finn is happy.
From cold, spooky corridors to the warmth and comfort of Tobi's office, it feels like a place that Finn might like to stay as well, rather than traipse up the long flights of stairs and back to his apartments (rooms which occasionally become traitorous, as of late). But of course he is neither that bold nor that presumptuous, and he shakes his head politely and lifts a hand as if to tell Tobi to stay put.
"I will manage until morning," he assures her, which probably means he won't sleep, but there we have it. "Try to get some rest. Is there anything else you need before I go?"
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
It doesn't occur to Tobi to ask Finn to stay, and so the touching moment passes them by without them evening knowing. "Well, if you're sure." Tobi says, her tone more concerned than disapproving. Leaning back against the couch she begins to chuckle, but it quickly turns into a yawn. "Don't you dare...(yawn) work on that report." She says drowsily, though she's still awake enough to fix him with a stare.
"No, I think I'm alright. I'll lay here and wake up with more aches than I went to sleep with, but what can you do." Heal yourself, you unicorn idiot, but she wouldn't of course. Not here where it would be all too easy for someone to hear the sound of a large equine in her office, where the sound of her hooves and the latent horse-smell might give her away.
'What a day, huh?' Their adventures from that afternoon seemed as though they'd happened an eternity ago. Even Finn's saving of her hot chocolate felt distant. Despite all that, Tobi's sleep smile is entirely adoring and joy-filled. "Thanks."
"I absolutely will not work on that report," Finn tells her, crossing his heart with one of his hands (and crossing his fingers with the other behind his back, of course). He's glancing around at her office as if to see if there's anything he can spot that might be of some use to Tobi between the time when he leaves and when they see each other in the morning. He does spot a jug of water, which he moves to pour into a glass, setting it on the side table next to the couch.
Finn also has some ideas about what can you do. "Are their any pain relief medications nearby?" he asks, glancing over his shoulder and out of the door. "I could bring you something before I go, if you let me know the name of what I need to find." It's stalling as much as it is a genuine offer to help, though gods know why Finn feels the need to linger tonight.
He smiles to her, nodding his agreement. "No, thank you," he repeats - whilst the evening didn't entirely spook away his nightmares, it definitely soothed his soul somewhat.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
'Well it's lucky for you that I can fix hearts, as I'm fairly certain you're lying to me." And everyone knew that if you crossed your heart and didn't keep your word, that it would break. She's about to tell him not to bother fussing over her, but the gesture is simply too sweet for her to turn down. So while Finn pours her a glass of water, Tobi just watches him with quiet eyes and a crooked smile.
'And here I was just going to sneak some wine once you'd left. Perhaps you really will be of help tomorrow." Tobi says with a laugh, nodding in agreement; Finn's medical advice was currently much better than her own, it would seem. "I don't need anything too strong. There should be some tablets in individually wrapped bags in the nurse's station." Finn, of course, knew much of the clinic as well as Tobi did at this point, but still she noses in the direction of it.
If there are butterflies in Tobi's stomach to hear Finn say so, to look the way he does, she's suddenly quite glad that her stomach is covered by the blanket, lest the Spyglass see the flutter for himself. It's a one-sided moment of course, but as Finn leaves to retrieve the aspirin, Tobi inhales a shaky breath of surprise and bright jubilation that settles in the back of her throat. Smiling stupidly down at her hands, Tobi fusses with the blanket, biting at her cheeks in an attempt for a more neutral expression.
