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!
Dusk has not quite left its final imprint upon the sky, leaving the heavens a wounded and bruised purple that simply disappeared into black should you look too long. The stars are few and the ones that do shine seem lacklustre tonight. The wind that blows in from the coast is warm and sweet though, so at least there's that.
Upon the cliffs Safrin stands, a long white gown billowing out from her body. Where this cliff a ship, she'd be the masthead brazenly breaking waves as they set across the sea.
Wake up grey eyes. Her voice will sweetly slip into Sunjata's dreams, tugging him into wakefulness. Come to me. She doesn't add alone, though it's very much implied.
A voice he isn’t used to slips into his mind, one that regrettably he hasn’t heard in some time. But he doesn’t ignore it, how could he? He drags himself from his home, from his bed, parting words of how he’d be right back, slipping out the door into the purple hewn sky. A tug and a pull straight to the cliffs themselves. He hasn’t put himself together, a simple sleeveless shirt worn atop pants and boots, tousled hair from his attempts to pull himself out of his nightmares.
And then there’s the anxiety that swells in, having planned to see her after the quest was done, after he’d prepared himself from the scars he’d suffered from his father and the way Torchline tried to turn on him. But Safrin had summoned him, and to her he goes. A deep breath is pulled in slowly, grounding himself, no offerings or gifts to give aside from himself. “Hello Safrin. You look stunning as always.” He greets her gently, coming to stand near her but a fraction away from the cliffs. He thinks she might understand why.
His gaze flickers from the cliffs edge onto Safrin herself, always stunned and taken by surprise by her beauty, by her brilliance. But he draws silent, giving her all of his attention, refraining from chewing on the inside of his ruined cheek.
maybe i'll cope with life without hope
maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor
SuNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
"It doesn't do to let wounds linger." Safrin remarks, turning gently toward him and opening her arm that he might step nearer. "And I would hate to see you turn away from the sea." Reaching her fingers up to softly touch the side of his face marred and broken, she hums a sigh as her fingertips brush across his skin. "Would you keep these reminders of what happened?" Her question is softly said, her dark eyes scouring over each and every line of his face, easily able to see the man he was so long ago, when first he'd come to her.
Fitting herself against him easily enough such that there's barely room for the wind between them, Safrin smiles sadly up at him before she lets the weight of all that has happened tug her lips down. 'I think perhaps it is time for you and I to talk about the future...' Said with all the hesitation of a lover about to end a relationship, still she gazes up at him with hope in her galactic gaze.
A remark that sounds so much like Ronin had said, about ripping the bandage off. And so he nods, stepping into her space, beside her along the cliffs edge, glancing once down to the cliffs where he’d dropped his father in their embrace, and he turns his attention to Safrin fully when her hand brushes across his scar. There’s no hesitation when he responds. “Yes.” He knows she could take them away, but deep down he needs the permanence, needs the understanding he’d won. Perhaps that’s why those in Korofi were all for keeping all of their scars.
She fits herself against him and Sunjata doesn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around her in turn, keeping her close and warm as he always had wanted to, peering down at her with a softness and tiredness that appears in his grey gaze. His stomach drops when she speaks, though, the Flood swallowing hard as he regards her before nodding. “I think it’s time, too.” He admits, leaving room for her to speak, trying to wrap his mind around a starting point and how woefully unprepared he is.
maybe i'll cope with life without hope
maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor
SuNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
'Alright.' She says with a knowing smile. "But remember, it's just a flesh wound. Whatever lingers, whatever lesson you learn, that is more than skin deep."
She is small in his arms, her face turned entirely up towards him. Capable of expressing herself in any size she chooses, this is intentional of her, this fragile facade she puts on. "It feels as though I'm losing you..." She whispers, placing her cheek against his chest that his chin might rest atop her head. Twining her arms around him as if they are dancing here, precariously close to the cliffs, the roar of the ocean falls away so that it feels like they are the only two left in the world.
"This war..." She softly shakes her head. "...it is what the gods want. It will come no matter what we do." For all the power she wields, this is not something over which Safrin has any control. 'Nate came to see me, asking for protection for you in what was to come. I thought...if he could help our side...if I could go to Vi with evidence of his assistance, that perhaps his wish could be granted...' Trailing off, the goddess sighs with a weighty sadness. Nate hadn't come through. Hadn't even tried.
With his mind playing games and tricks and the lightning strike that had joggled his memory, Sunjata isn’t sure that the lesson would stick. But he nods regardless, taking the words and hoping to remember them. For now, though, she’s small in his arms and despite his still healing body, he keeps her close to him with her head at his chest, the whisper in his ears. He does place his chin on her head, he closes his eyes, tries to soothe the worry that seems to remain in his gut.
“I know it will.” He murmurs, about the war, about the choices he has to make. And when the subject of Nate comes up, Sunjata swallows hard. He’d known that Nate had gone, he hadn’t known entirely the details given that it had been before LongNight. But he knows that it was a gift for him because why else would he have gone to her? She trails off and he picks up, swallowing hard. “But he didn’t. And you… Changed him, just before LongNight.” Not in the way Sunjata had hoped – still unsure what the change even was. But it isn’t an accusation, either, just simply a fact. “And that wish won’t be granted.” Given the fact that he knows Nate’s gone to speak with the Voice over what happened, all the tangles of them and their gods so much in the forefront of his mind now. It becomes such a hopeless feeling.
"I won't... I won't hurt him, Safrin. Regardless of what this war makes me do. I can't."
maybe i'll cope with life without hope
maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor
SuNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
'No, he didn't.' She agrees in a low tone, her fingers gripping the material of his shirt. "I did. He came to me looking for help...said he would do whatever to protect you, and.." As if she can't believe the audacity at him, Safrin gives a hollow laugh against Sunjata's broad chest. "I gave him a chance, and he squandered it. I couldn't abide that." Turning her eyes upward, the goddess offers Sunjata a dainty shrug. I did it for you, sparkling on her slightly parted lips.
"No, and I would never ask you to." Reaching up a hand to tangle her fingers in his windswept hair, Safrin coquettishly bites the inside of her lip, lashes fluttering as she gazes into deep grey eyes. "It is no secret that Torchline has become...a second home for the ascended. And as Governor...it very much seems as though you've picked your side in this."
In one aspect, Sunjata could understand why Nate hadn’t – provided he knew what was asked of his husband. But he doesn’t know the details more than that, just that Nate hadn’t done it, and he trusts Nate enough to know that there was likely a decent explanation for that. If he had his choice, however, he’d have preferred that Nate not seek out Safrin. But he doesn’t have his choice in that. And Safrin had punished as she saw fit. At least Nate was still alive – a solace that he keeps close to his chest.
So he nods in understanding, his head lifting just enough so that he might look down at her, to see the look that seems to say it was for him that she had done it. He doesn’t know the details to argue it. His head tilts slightly into the fingers in his hair, his steel gaze scans her face when she speaks, when she looks into his own eyes. “Acceptance has always been… Difficult for me.” He rumbles, though it’s likely she knows that already. “They’ve been my friends… Past lovers…” A brief thought of Maea returned from the dead as Ascended comes to mind. “What would you have me do? Banish them from Torchline back to the Grounds?” The thought of even attempting that has Sunjata’s gut sinking. Nate, Adam, Peter, all of them gone back to the Grounds. What kind of punishment would Wessex bestow for that?
Could he even survive the distance from Nate now that he's gotten his family back together? Could he survive whatever punishment Wessex would surely have for him?
maybe i'll cope with life without hope
maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor
SuNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
'I would say you could step down as Governor but...I think the problem runs deeper than the office you hold.' Moonlight strangles her effortlessly, making her eyes sparkle and her skin sing beneath it. "Torchline, the Grounds...it's all just preamble." She says with a small sigh, her fingertips outlining his ear, before slipping down to his jawline. "There are two sides in all of this. There is no opting out. No watching from the sidelines." At least, not for someone like Sunjata. Not for someone like Nate, either.
"When the time comes...where will you be?" Her voice is a whisper now as she stands on her toes, her other hand reaching up for his cheek, anchoring herself to him with her palms. 'I know you won't ever hurt Nate..but will you fight for him, then? Will you stand with the ascended?"
He could step down as Governor, but who would take the job? Remi had said nobody had come to him wanting it and Sunjata has done well with it as far as he’s concerned. He’d fought his father over it and to get Nate back, after all. What would it mean if he stepped down anyway? He watches her, melts in the way the moonlight reflects off her skin, in the way his tattoos shift ever so slightly closer to where his skin touches her. “I know.” He murmurs, sadly, his head tilting into the hands that caress his face, with how she’s so close and so powerful and beautiful.
“We both know I can’t choose the Voice’s side.” He owes Safrin too much to consider it. And with everything going on, not unless something horrible happened to Nate. Only then would he even consider it. So he swallows hard, peering down at her with moonlit washed, tired grey eyes. “I owe you so much Safrin. I just can’t lose Nate either.” If it came down to it and the two of them were the only ones left on the battlefield, he wouldn’t harm his husband. He knows Nate wouldn’t harm him either. “I know he didn’t do what you asked of him but… If the war ends and the Voice is destroyed, he’ll die anyway.” His throat tightens in both fear and sorrow and hopelessness. “Will you be willing to help me fix him?” I'll lose myself if I lose him.
maybe i'll cope with life without hope
maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor
SuNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
'Are you so sure of that?' Safrin whispers, her voice like a gentle breeze through the meadow of his thoughts. 'The Voice is a part of them in a way...in a way we aren't part of those we've chosen. She can control them. I've seen her do it in the past.' Leaning up, her lips nearly against his such that he'll feel the moonlight displaced between the two of them as she speaks, Safrin whispers: "She can make him kill you. Do you think you two are the first lovers placed on opposite sides of this war?"
Pulling back, Safrin gives the Flood an imploring look. "I loved you long before Nate. Long before all of this. Tell me, when did the Voice's interest in your beloved begin?" Recently, perhaps? Recent enough that he might simply be a pawn, to be used against one of the most powerful non-demigods on the opposing side?
"It has never been done before...but there might be a way...the Voice has his soul trapped, but if it can be taken from her...then we can save who he is. Place him into a new body, or...if you're attached to this one, store him until we figure out to undo what it is she has done."
He wants to say that he is sure, but she throws a wrench in that. He’s sure in his husband. He isn’t sure of the Voice and her plans. He doesn’t trust the Voice to not turn his husband against him, and Safrin knows this – pulls those strings and plants those seeds of worry further into him that he has to swallow hard. She’s close enough now to him that he can’t see her clearly. “No.” He breathes, sadly. He imagines he isn’t the first to find himself here.
It’s such a lonely feeling, though.
She pulls away enough that he can see her clearly again, but his arms remain tight around her. She had been there before Nate. She’d attuned him and protected him and loved him and rewarded him long before he’d stumbled into the Infirmary. “Recently.” He answers her question. Because Nate hadn’t been answered often until recently. And Nate had sought Safrin out to protect him and not the Voice.
He reaches up to place his hand along her neck, a gentle and soft stroke of his thumb against her star hewn skin. “I would like to try that.” He offers quietly, a sad smile crossing his face. “And…” A heavy sigh passes from his lips, pulling his gaze away from her to peer out over the edge of the cliffs. “I’ll only attack him if he makes the first move.” He still won’t kill him, but at least this way perhaps he’d be able to contain Nate somehow to try and fix him. Hopefully that would be enough.
maybe i'll cope with life without hope
maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor
SuNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
'Mmmm' Safrin hums with a sad but knowing nod. 'All that time he toiled on his own...coming to me. And only then did she realize the important of him. But not for his own sake, but for hers."
Adoringly she sighs against him, so fragile and delicate against his large hand. "Lets hope it never comes to that." Tilting her head to place her lips softly against his thumb, Safrin exhales, and with that puff of breath, all of Sunjata's aches and pains disappear. They'll return afterward that the Flood might continue to endure all he feels he must to overcome what has happened to him recently, but in her arms, there is no need for such punishments.
"There is something so much more binding than just words.." The goddess says softly, her lips now pressed against the calloused skin of his thumb, before she presses her cheek into his hand once again. "Words can be such tricky things." A smile dances across her lips, before disappearing as she turns her eyes up to him. The hand which had been be his ear now falls lower that she might press her thumb softly against his lips as well.
"...the life of a child though.." She tilts her head slightly.
He offers her a small nod of agreement, hearing the story for what it’s worth and keeping his arm around her tightly as she sighs into him. His thumb strokes along her jaw just enough that when she tilts her head and the softness of her lips are beneath it, he sudden feels so much better. The soreness and the aches and the pains disappear, replaced by an ease of ability he hasn’t felt in a while. It clears the fog from his mind, his gaze focused on her intently as he lets the relief course through him.
He scans her face when she suggests something more than words, something to enact on, and he’s nearly ready to melt into a puddle with the relief that swells through him. Until, of course, her thumb dips to his lips, his eyes watching her intently. The mention of a child makes him tense, his gaze narrow, a shuddering breath leaves him. He’s silent for a moment, realizing that ultimately it’s for Nate, that all of this is for Nate and him to be able to ensure what comes next.
That hand trails up and brushes her hair behind her ear. “A tangible bind.” He finishes, swallowing hard before he nods. “I protect our potential child and you’ll save Nate.” The terms as far as he’s aware, with no child yet in sight.
“Alright. I agree.” For Nate, for proof of himself not becoming his father. For a binding contract between them. Gods, Hotaru is going to murder him.
maybe i'll cope with life without hope
maybe i'll open the door and fall through the floor
SuNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
