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!
Odd jobs are a way of life these days, for Ronin. So when he spots a notice for help exploring the Oerwoud for some healing herbs, it's a natural consequence for him to take it. He's been in the jungle before and then some, and whilst his abilities are kaput, the Star still has speed and strength on his side.
He has no idea what the herbs are for or what they look like, which explains the companion at his side as they duck into the hot press of vines and broad leaves in the jungle. Holding the leaves aside that Maeve might step through unaccosted, Ronin lets them fall and turns to face a trail that can barely be called as such.
"If we can find the river, we'll follow it deeper into the jungle," he suggests. "That way, we can get back easily enough." He has offered neither his name nor his background en route to the Oerwoud; a closed book focused on the task at hand. Dressed in little more than a t-shirt and pants that are faded by the sun, at least the heat and humidity won't bother him too much.
soft spoken with a broken jaw we step outside, but not to brawl
She's not made for this. She has never ever been made for this. Ever. So why she is in the Oerwood for the second time this new season is a fucking mystery. Except it isn't because one of the girls is sick and she has to get these herbs so she can get better. Maeve was relieved that she wouldn't have to go back in alone. Maybe this time she can escape without a head injury.
At the mention of the river Maeve can't help but grimace. The heat is already oppressive and her thin shirt is sticking to the small of her back. She carefully steps over a large root, moving past him and onto the trail that can barely be called a trail. The things she does for her girls. "Should keep a close eye on the vines. They're feeling extra vindictive lately," she mutters, bitterness turning her words sour as they move on.
"Hopefully we won't have to go in too deep, but we won't know until we get to where they normally grow. The closest cluster might have been harvested already." Maeve glances over at him, feeling like she recognizes him, but not sure enough of herself to really say.
"The vines?" Ronin repeats, following her over the roots and raising an eyebrow down at the jungle floor, as if to keep an eye out for any of the creeping little bastards. "I'll be sure to keep an eye out. Might they have anything to do with the marks on your face?" he asks, mainly to make conversation. It is not nearly a suave or charismatic as it otherwise might be in a different time and place - and Ronin catches himself, at least, as if suddenly realising that they might be the result of something much less savoury.
"I'm sorry - you don't have to answer that," he says, peering through the foliage and drawing up beside the river as it comes into view. "Well, you're in a better position than I am to know what they look like. So I'll keep you safe from any wandering vines until we find the herbs you're looking for. How's that sound?"
soft spoken with a broken jaw we step outside, but not to brawl
Maeve huffs, pushing a few wisp of stray hairs away from her face, "Yeah, The vines. Maybe because no one has really been coming in here for them to fuck with. I don't know, but they're worse than usual." Her own eyes flick from the floor to the trees and to the bushes as if she can look everywhere at once. Which, she can't, but she tries.
The question catches her a bit by surprise and she raises a hand to run a finger along the bruise, careful not to press to hard before waving him off. "It's fine... Uh, yeah, actually. I was up near Wishtide and got my feet yanked out from under me. Hit my head on a rock in the stream." It sounds like such bullshit when she says it she almost doesn't believe herself even though it is absolutely true. He's the second person to think she's been hit. Despite her profession, that doesn't tend to happen to her. At least not hard enough to actually cause damage.
"Perfect. I, uhm, I don't think I actually got your name? I'm Maeve, by the way." She sort of turns towards him, extending a hand for a shake before she focuses back on their path, eyes trained on the jungle floor for any signs of the herbs she's in need of.
Ronin has no idea what usual means when it comes to these vines, but he's alert for any fuckery nonetheless. From his experience, everything in the jungle seems to want to mess with you to some extent, so it wouldn't surprise him if deadly and mildly annoying go hand in hand here. She's looking everywhere but for his part, Ronin sticks to looking at the floor; this way he can track the river and anything that might slither or crawl out to cause them a bad time.
To hear about her prior encounter with the vines, he can't help but wince in sympathy. "I hope you're alright now," he muses, only to have to halt as she suddenly turns and thrusts out her hands. She didn't catch his name because he didn't give it, but that's easily rectified. "I'm Ronin," he introduces himself, giving her hand a shake. "Nice to meet you, Maeve. I heard these herbs are to help someone who's sick at the Halenani?"
soft spoken with a broken jaw we step outside, but not to brawl
Maeve snorts. She was far from okay if she was being honest. Nothing like getting teleported to another part of the Wilds that isn't at all familiar with a person who wanted nothing to do with her. "That's debatable. The whole being okay... I ended up in the tar pits right after that. Just spat out there. Don't even know why or how or.." She trails off with a shake of her head, taking a deep breath to center herself and force the bad thoughts away. Maeve takes his hand, giving it a shake before focusing forward again.
The name sounds familiar and she's pretty sure she's heard of him at least in passing, but it's hard to say for certain. Instead she focuses on the task at hand and answering his question. "Uh, yeah... I think it's just some kind of cold. Hopefully nothing serious, but the apothecaries are pretty much sold out of everything with people preparing for the monsoons." Maeve offers as explanation
"The tar pits?" Ronin hasn't heard much about the Wilds in their entirety, only that they span long distances through the areas he knows about. And they are, for the most part, ridiculous and dangerous in ways that make the likes of the Greatwood look tame. "It sounds like you've been on quite the adventure, and we're only a week or so out of LongNight." He smiles, but it doesn't really reach his eyes.
Hopping over a vine (just the regular kind, luckily), Ronin is oblivious to the recognition he receives, accidental or otherwise - either that or he's just so used to it that it doesn't feel like something that merits surprise anymore - and instead occupies himself with watching the river race by. "Ah, of course. I almost forgot about them," he confesses. "If I'd known you'd had so much trouble out here, though, I could have just taken a description and gone to get these herbs myself. I'd not want you to end up back in the pits on my account..." However it seemed to be happening.
soft spoken with a broken jaw we step outside, but not to brawl
"They're outside of the Grounds. Very far from here. Yeah... I didn't know they were a thing either." Maeve grumbles, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice. She didn't want to be out here in the Wilds again. It was all the way at the bottom of her list. Except she had to take care of her girl. It wasn't a cold that ailed her, but the one thing that none of them want in their line of work. With Phoebe gone for the time being it was up to Maeve to make sure this was taken care of. So here she was.
She huffs out an unamused laugh at his words, but appreciates them none the less. He's trying. "An adventure... Yeah, that's one way to put it." She steps over the same vine, careful not to catch the toe of her boot on the offending greenery. "No... I need to get them. It's my job to care for the girls right now. We shouldn't have to go too much further, though." Maeve peers around a slight bend in the river, eyes peeled for the faintly purple tinged bush that holds the seeds and flowers she needs.
"Ah, I see. Did you take a portal back to Torchline, then?" he wonders as they walk, knowing nothing about what the herbs look like so being of very little help in that department. No, Ronin is just here to be the muscle in case anything goes wrong. Which, you know... it shouldn't.
And yet as they turn around the bend in the river, Ronin gets the impression that they aren't alone in the jungle. It's true that they're never alone there and they never were, but now it feels like something is actively watching them.
"I hope not," he says, choosing not to tell Maeve about his suspicions. He forces his attention back to her (an easy thing to do), itching at the stubble on his chin. "How is it?" he asks suddenly. "Working at the Halenani, I mean."
soft spoken with a broken jaw we step outside, but not to brawl
"Yeah, I did.. First time travelling by portal. Not really sure what I was expecting, but can't say it was how I wanted my first time to go." That was a theme for her. Bad first times that got taken in ways that she didn't want or sign up for. It was just the way of things at this point. Her lot in life.
Maeve is too lost in the tangle of her own thoughts and watching where her feet land to pay much attention to what's around her. Outside of answering him, her focus was entirely on finding the herbs she needed. She was entirely unaware of the eyes that were tracking their movements. Yet another reason she's not made for this.
His question isn't surprising in the same way it's not surprising to him when people recognize his name. Maeve glances back at him with an arched brow, lips curling faintly as she lets her eyes run over him for a moment. "It's nice. People treat me well. There are worse things I could be doing for a living." She pauses, considering her words and deciding if she's going to lie or give this stranger a piece of the truth. "In all honesty, it's what I've been doing for ages at this point. It keeps me off the streets and keeps me safe. I meet interesting people and I never go hungry. There isn't more I could really ask for at this point."
Maeve shrugs her shoulders, the tops of them already pink from the sun that finds them through the canopy. "It can be lonely, I guess. People don't often care to settle down with a whore.
"Heh, yeah. If you get travel sick it can be... something," Ronin agrees, following along in Maeve's wake. His hands are carefully by his sides now, though, ready to raise up or strike or otherwise move quickly should anything lunge out at them. A lopsided smile spreads across his face, though, when the conversation turns to her career, and he can't help but nod in agreement. "You're right there - a lot worse you could be doing." And a lot worse places she could be doing this at, in his experience.
He'd actually helped to build the Halenani, back in the day, and it's a memory that simultaneously warms him and grows sour in his stomach. Things had been so simple then. Clearing his throat as if to rid himself of the gloom that wants to settle around him, Ronin steps up to walk beside her. He keeps her on his left, closest to the river, placing himself between her and the rest of the jungle.
"What would you be, though?" he wonders. "If you weren't a whore, if you could do anything and go anywhere."
soft spoken with a broken jaw we step outside, but not to brawl
She felt sick to her stomach for a few days afterwards. Whether that was from using the portal or the ordeal she went through was unknown, but she wasn't jumping to do it again anytime soon. "Something... You really have such a way with words," she drawls and for the first time the smile that's on her lips is one that reaches all the way to her eyes. Which is something. It lights up her whole face and makes her nose wrinkle. It only lasts for a moment before she sobers, but it's beautiful while it lasts.
Maeve reaches out, grabbing his wrist as she comes to a sudden stop, "A little word of advice, we don't actually like being called whores. Most of us anyway. Not just in..." She waves a hand as her brows knit together, "General conversation. I mean, I guess when it comes down to it, that's what I am, but that's not all I am." Why does it even matter to make the distinction? It doesn't and he likely doesn't care. Not that she blames him. Not many people do, but she's tired of just being treated like a thing. It's been happening a lot recently and maybe, just maybe, she wants someone to look at her like a person.
She sighs, shaking her head, "Honestly? I don't know... I've been working in brothels since I was fifteen. Not with Phoebe, but another place before then. Didn't actually... actually have sex with costumers until I was considered of age, but I've never done anything else. I don't even know what I would do at this point." The honesty feels good and she's glad to be open about it. Even if it is with a total stranger who thinks very little of her outside of this one job she's paying him for. Her footsteps resume, eyes back on the brush along the river in search of what she came here for.
Ronin's way with words - or lack thereof - is suddenly a subject of conversation, and as Maeve catches his wrist and stops them where they walk, the Star is aware of just how closed up he's been thus far on the trip. Taking a slow, deep breath and letting it out again, he seems to thaw somewhat, offering the woman at his side a warmer sort of smile. Turning her wrist, he leans in to press a kiss to the back of her hand (providing she doesnt smack him first), as if in some nobleman's apology.
"Very well said," he murmurs. "I'm sorry - I didn't mean to be rude. It was a very rough LongNight, and I suppose I'm still remembering my manners." Releasing her, he gestures for her to walk on, keeping her closest to the river and keeping a close eye on the undergrowth on their other side.
"Well... what do you think you'd want to do, if you had a choice? You're quite a good explorer," he remarks, as if the jungle around them is testament to that. "And a good botanist, if you're able to find these herbs."
soft spoken with a broken jaw we step outside, but not to brawl
The smile is welcome and it puts her more at ease. One of her own settling on her lips as he bends down to suddenly press a kiss to the back of her hand. It's unexpected, but not unwelcome. A faint flush rises to her cheeks and she draws her hand back after he releases her. "It seems to have been a rough LongNight for a lot of people... I'm not here to judge. That's never been a part of my job description." Maeve murmurs, her voice soft amongst the din of the jungle.
Maeve snorts at the compliment, "I am not a good explorer. I barely step foot into the Wilds and the last time I did I ended up to my ribs in tar. So I don't think I'd really call myself a good explorer. I appreciate you saying so anyway. She shakes her head, chewing on her bottom lip as she considers his other suggestion. That one holds a bit more promise. "I do have an affinity for plants, I suppose. I do make most of the tonics and things for the girls if we can't get them at the apothecary, but I don't know about making that a job. What do you do?"
