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!
Sam wasn't quite sure if he'd actually drum up the courage to ask Isla what he wanted to, but a visit to her was a pleasant way to spend his morning anyway. In the end, he hadn't been able to work in the infirmary with her over Longnight, but in a way it had worked out, he supposed; they were both, at least, alive, and he'd gotten to see a side to himself that he might not have done had he spent the whole time hiding with the wounded.
When he arrived, giving a knock at the door and hoping she wasn't too busy, Sam stepped in, curious to see what the infirmary looked like now; she had mentioned improvements, focusing on helping Ascended patients as well. "Isla?" He asked as he entered, his posture not as anxious or unsure as it had once been, a hand holding the door as he peered around but no fiddling or troubling looking forward into the room. "I was hoping to say hello."
Neither of them had been lucky enough to spend time in the infirmary throughout LongNight, and the place had been full of smoke and ash and filthy upon Isla's return. So unfortunately there have been no improvements to speak of lately, but it's looking more how it should when Sam knocks at the door and opens it. The reception area is clean, tidy and smells like flowers - likely from the blooming bouquet on the desk - and at the sound of her name, Isla appears in the doorway leading into the treatment area.
"Sam! Hello!" Isla is in her white doctor's coat, of course, her golden hair lifted up into a messy bun, and though she might look the part, it doesn't stop her from rushing across to wrap her arms around her friend. "How are you? Have you... gotten taller?" It's likely because he isn't slouching any more, but as Isla standa back to grin at him, she can't help but notice the change.
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
Sam couldn't smell the flowers in the air, but the effect of walking into the infirmary was still a pleasant one; he smiled, glad to see it looking put together. Sometimes, in the midst of Longnight, it could feel like the end of civilisation. It was silly, but something as simple as a clean room felt like hope after the destruction at the end of Deepfrost.
"Hello! Oh, you weren't busy with a patient, were you?" He asked, seeing her in her coat, but she seemed happy enough to see him, coming with a hug that Sam gladly returned. It was so nice to have a friend, not one he had any real complicated history with (or a complicated romantic past with), that wasn't going to later be upset with him for being with the Voice. Maybe his Goddess had been right when she'd said he should search for companions within the family.
Glancing down at his legs as if to check he hadn't in fact grown, Sam laughed and shook his head. "I don't...think so? Is that something we can still do?" Not making the connection to his posture, he just jokingly stood on his tip toes. "Maybe it'd be nice to ask the Voice for a couple of inches, like this."
Jokes aside though, he was here for a reason; dropping back down to his normal height he lookd further into the infirmary. "Have you got a little while to talk? There's something I want to tell you about."
"Oh, no - I was just restocking the supplies cupboard," Isla says with a smile. "I don't have any patients scheduled until later on, but obviously if there's an emergency in the meantime, you might have to excuse me." She's sure Sam will understand, and her smile only grows as she watches him step up on his tip toes. "I don't think we are able to still grow, but I imagine the Voice would definitely give you something if you wanted to tower over everyone. Perhaps cranks in your legs, or springs?"
She can't stop from sounding whimsical about it all, even though it would likely be quite an unpleasant process if the Voice were to attempt such a thing. Perhaps Isla could try...? It's a good thing that Sam gets her attention before she can get too wrapped up in the thought process, Isla blinking herself back into the here and now and raising her eyebrows. "Yes, of course. Let's go to my office - it's a bit quieter."
Leading them through the infirmary to the cosy (and comparatively dark) office at the back, she gestures for Sam to take a seat in one of the armchairs. "What's on your mind?"
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
"Of course. Do you get a lot of them - emergencies?" Sam asked, looking around the infirmary as if he expected to see a whole gang of wounded patients hurry in any minute. The Grounds could be dangerous, but the day to day was rather mundane, or so he thought.
Cranks or springs in his legs was a step too far (ha) for Sam and he shook his head with a cringe, laughing at the idea. "She doesn't like it when people ask for unnecessary things and I think that would be one of them. Besides....spring legs don't sound very attractive." Where would the springs even go? Where his knees were now? Around his legs to stretch them out?
Probably for the best, both of them left that thought behind and headed into Isla's office. Sam wrung his hands together, going over in his head what he'd said to Sunjata and what he wanted to say to Isla. Barely even noticing between his distracted thoughts and Ascended eyes that the room was dimmed, he sat down and began to speak. "Well, I'm trying to start something. An organisation of sorts, for people that believe Ascended can live in peace with everyone else. That is something you agree with, right? That we could successfully mix with the other races and put aside our differences?"
"Mm... not usually, but in this season and Leafchange I do see more injuries than usual from farmers trying to plant or harvest. Though I'm not sure how much longer that will be the case. Are there all that many left in the Hollowed Grounds who are not Ascended?" Isla wonders; it would be sad to lose that diversity, she thinks, but she also supposes that it makes sense with how things are panning out.
Little does the medic know that how things are panning out is precisely the nature of Sam's visit, and she settles in the comfortable seat opposite him to hear what he has to say. As he begins to speak her expression becomes curious, at first, and then pleasantly surprised, Isla already nodding even before Sam has finished. "Yes," she all but gushes. "Yes, that is something I believe in. What a wonderful idea, Sam. How do you plan on going about things?"
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
"That makes sense." Sam nodded, knowing that farming in the fields could be dangerous work. As for who was left though, he smiled a bit at the idea, knowing several stubborn families that would never leave their homes. "There are always going to be some non-Ascended here, I think. As long as they don't mind us staying, well, I think it's nice to have the diversity. And the customers." He winked at the last sentence, marking it out as a clear joke.
He really couldn't have asked for a better response from Isla when it came to his ideas; Sam beamed back at her, thrilled to hear such eager agreement. The task became a little easier with each person he had to share it with, especially someone with such enthusiasm. "Well. At the moment I'm just trying to speak to everyone I think might be interested in helping me start it. Then I'm hoping we can meet, think of a proper name for ourselves and start spreading the message. Maybe...at some point...try to develop a place to stay. A sanctuary for everyone that won't let Godly things divide us."
03-26-2021, 02:04 PM (This post was last modified: 03-31-2021, 06:21 PM by Isla.)
Isla
"You think?" Isla smiles at that, clearly cheered by the thought that there will always be people in the Grounds who aren't Ascended. She's a doctor, after all, and whilst it's interesting to dabble in 'Ascended medicine', her primarly skillset has always been surgery for people who look like people on the inside, to put it simply. "I would hope they stay," she agrees with Sam. "Maybe all you're hoping to put in place will help with that.".
It certainly seems as though they are on the same page, and if they were capable of enjoying it more, Isla could see them discussing these sorts of matters over wine or tea, curled up in the threadbare armchairs of her office until the wee hours. And they could still do that, undoubtedly, but there's something about the fatigue that comes from the satisfaction of working hard that Isla misses.
"I think that's a great idea," she says with an encouraging nod. "Do you need any help with arranging things? Do you think here in the Temple would be a good idea, maybe...? This is the only place I can think where both Old and New Gods might appear. But then again, if you want to set apart from that, elsewhere might be better..."
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
"I hope so. I know that some people seem to think it's the perfect solution, but dividing ourselves up into our own communities will only make the misunderstandings and division worse. I think one of the most effective things changing peoples minds on Ascended right now is having Ascended friends and people in their lives. If we shut ourselves off...we make ourselves vulnerable to other peoples speculation and lies." This was all true and what Sam believed, but he paused after it left his mouth, surprised to have heard it all come out quite so smoothly and elegantly. He had been thinking about this for a long time, but it was rare that ideas actually fell into places once he spoke them.
Maybe he actually had a chance of making this work.
As for meeting in the temple...he grit his teeth and shook his head, not meaning to be rude but immediately recoiling from the idea. "I think it's best for us to at least begin somewhere where it feels like it's just us as people. Not to let the Gods be a presence there all the time...I mean, I know they will be there in some capacity, but - it's better if we can connect on where we're similar, rather than focus on our differences, right?"
Sam isn't the only one to be surprised by the elegance with which he's just phrased his ideas an opinions, but for Isla it's a very pleasant surprise indeed. Her eyebrows raise and she sits up a bit in her seat, intrigued - and in agreement. "I truly believe that if you were to ask any Ascended here in the grounds, they would have friends - even family - who aren't Ascended, who they care about and who care about them in return," she says. "I certainly do. That sort of approach is probably going to be much less upsetting for those who believe us to be monstrous."
Because they aren't monsters, much as some seem intent on proving otherwise, and Isla lets out a soft sigh to think of a Hollowed Grounds that is an example of peace and teamwork, rather than some Ascended sanctuary. And she nods as Sam explains about the temple, nibbling on her bottom lip. "I wonder if the Atheneum might be a good place, then. A place of knowledge, peaceful... people don't tend to start wars from libraries. Not publicly, anyway."
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
"For the most part, but...I think there are some Ascended that would object. I can't see Wessex being for this." Sam sighed and frowned, looking down. He actually wasn't sure what the Queen would think, but he was scared to ask the question. Maybe once they had some actual push in the organisation. "I do wonder if those that consider us monsters would be happier now that the Longnight monsters have been...at least lessened." It was hard to believe they could have actually been defeated.
All of this said though, he wasn't totally naive, and knew that there were some that would always consider them monsters, no matter what they did. "I've been asking people I know - do you know anything about The Order?"
Sam laughed at Isla's comment about wars not starting in libraries. Hopefully they wouldn't be the first. "I think that's a good idea. It can be a very warm, inviting space, too. Lots of little areas to set up a comfortable place to meet."
"You will never please everyone." It's all Isla can really offer, because it's true. Someone, somewhere, Ascended or otherwise, would always take issue with what Sam is trying to achieve, and knowing that and not trying to change it would probably be more productive in the long run. "Even if it doesn't lessen their opinions of us, at the very least it should make the Grounds a safer place to live." And if more people wanted to live in the Grounds, they would become more inclusive all the time.
The Order strikes a chord with Isla, but she can't quite place the name. So she shakes her head softly, making a mental note to look into it later, in the silence of her office. "It feels like something I ought to know about. What is it?" she asks, tilting her head at Sam and smiling gently to hear the Atheneum praised as a more suitable meeting place for their organisation. "I wonder if there is anything in the library about this Order, too."
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
"...Yeah. That's something I'm still learning." Sam laughed and rubbed the back of his neck; he'd grown so much confidence lately, but he still felt a drive within, with each new person he met, to have them like him. The thought that anyone didn't, even people he didn't like in return...in the late night it bothered him, poking at his mind.
Isla smiled and looked sweet, happy; for a moment Sam didn't want to break the news of the Order to her, didn't want to let her know. But he had to; it was a matter of literal life and death for them. "I don't know much, but I know they're an organisation operating out of Stormbreak. They believe Ascended and the Voice are...abominations, I suppose." A sigh let him and his shoulders sagged at the reminder of just how deep some of the hate went. "They are, I've heard, quite dedicated to our destruction."
As for anything being in the Atheneum, he chewed on his lip and frowned. "I don't...think so? We mostly have books from the Grounds for the last couple of hundred years, for obvious reasons, and I don't...know how old the Order is, but it can't be older than the Voice."
The inevitable happens, and Isla's smile of course fades to hear about the Order and its objectives. She lets out a sigh with breath she doesn't need, leaning back a bit in her chair. "And I imagine they would not be content merely to just let us live in peace and get on with things?" Impossible, she knows, because whilst the likes of she and Sam and others might not wish to fight, the Voice would always want to reach for the stars. And that in itself would be a cause for friction and conflict.
"I suppose it is to be expected. Just an extreme manifestation of what we were talking about, about not everyone always liking you." Her smile returns as a sad shadow of its former sweetness, and Isla sits up again. "Onwards and upwards, though. If we meet in the Atheneum, then, when do you propose we hold our first get together? How many others do we have on board so far?"
sooner or later, we all have to wake and try forgetting everything
