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!
isn't it funny? how the cold numbs everything but grief?
“I know, I know.” He protests through a somewhat amused smile. But he draws quiet again, letting her explain that Safrin told her she was tainted by her magic, Sunjata nodding along with that in some understanding, before he’s chewing on the inside of his cheek. “They hate it because of the Voice.” He offers her, his gaze scanning her face as he tilts it avian-like. “She was abandoned and got too strong, I think.” He’s a bit fuzzy on the details, but he’s pretty sure that’s how it went.
In a grossly reduced version of the events, of course.
But he flashes her a soft smile – surprisingly soft for him – as he considers what she’s asked Safrin for. A shield would be good, especially for Aurelia – someone who had been born and grown into her role as a knife, turned into something protective at the source. “Oh?” He asks as a positively feline grin begins to spread across his face.
“Jack, huh? Do tell.” The way his smirk shifts into something wicked is quite amusing, but Sunjata can’t let this piece of it get lost among the mix.
if we could light up the room with pain, we'd be such a glorious fire
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.
Aurelia ponders over this fact, feeling it strike a chord within her. Something vague Gideon had eluded to her, when she first met the man. "Ah.. that does explain a thing or two," her lips stretch into a concerned, hardened line as she grits her teeth at the memory of the priest. "Makes you wonder if their minds could ever be changed." She shrugs half-heartedly, though the sentiment is earnest she is not sure of how such a thing could be accomplished to begin with.
Sunjata's smile is almost feral, that roguish grin she knows and hates cropping back up. At least it means he's still himself... But Aurelia still shakes her head in amusement.
"Uh... yeah, we were exploring the Wilds. Got so high up through the vines you could only see the treetops," she thinks back to how she had reveled in the beauty, only for that to turn completely upside down. "He stepped on a loose piece of the cliff while we were up there and... Just- whoop-" she makes a comical sound effect and vague gesture with her hands to encompass the actual fall rather than explain it verbally, "Luckily he managed to grab onto a piece of the cliff side, in spite of his injuries. I think I was more freaked out than him, to be honest." She laughs a little at that. "Didn't know what I'd do if he just up and died like that. Eh, well... I wouldn't have to go on this voyage, that's for sure. Hmm, maybe I should've let him fall..." she smirks, her turn to have that roguish look on her countenance. It's a joke, of course.
isn't it funny? how the cold numbs everything but grief?
Heaving a heavy sigh, Sunjata’s lips purse as he considers it, wondering if perhaps using his closeness with Safrin might help to alleviate it somewhat. But everything was heading so close to the point of war, he isn’t sure they’d change any minds, regardless of how much they tried or to whom they spoke with. “It would be a challenge, I imagine. It’s been centuries of people thinking this way.” And it had been centuries of Sunjata’s homeland the way it was, the status quo, that made it virtually impossible for him to change it.
All they could do was shake it up, in the end.
Luckily for Sunjata, though, he doesn’t have to focus on the feeling those words bring, when he can focus instead on the fact that Jack ate shit, which is infinitely better to commit to memory than anything else. The grin turns amused, turns Cheshire and feral, and he leans forward to listen and not miss a single word. A bark of a laugh leaves him when she says ‘whoop’, and the grin fades into something far more humored.
“That is the best thing I’ve heard all day Aurelia.” He offers her with a softer laugh, leaning back as the grin spreads across his face. “Gods, I can only imagine how embarrassed he was.”
if we could light up the room with pain, we'd be such a glorious fire
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.
Aurelia watches as he considers the idea, sure that it's not the first time it's been broached. Well, she hopes not, anyway. "I can understand, to a point..." she says, voice lowering because she's not exactly proud of it, "I lived with the same type of hatred in my heart my whole life, until I came here. Met you, Jack, everyone. Realized how wrong and twisted that it all was."
It is a funny story - Jack's, that is. She can find the humor in it now, at least. Now that it's over, now that he is more-or-less okay. Her brows shift upward with a lighter smile and she huffs out a chuckle, feeling the alcohol set in her veins, warming her skin and bringing a slight flush to her face. "Hm, he definitely wasn't happy," her words have a very amused tone. Then she sits up a little straighter, adjusting to reach into a pocket and pull out a pack of smokes. She taps it a few times and pulls out two, gently tossing him one of them.
"He'll probably kick my ass for telling you," she grins around the cigarette she's perched between her lips and shakes her head a little, "...shit." She laughs at this, at realizing her mistake and how Sunjata will undoubtedly use it against the captain.
Settling, she lights her smoke, catching hold of that tether within herself in order to produce a flame right at the end. It's subtle and practiced, the cigarette almost seeming to light itself. This will happen to Sunjata's, as well, if he accepts the one she offered him.
"My magic's gotten better. Or I guess.. I've gotten better with it. Both maybe," she muses, smoke billowing out into the space between them. She tilts her head a little and and narrows her eyes across at him, "I've been thinking about something, though... ever since I talked to Safrin." She leans in on the table and chews over her next words, "She attuned you, right? What is it like?"
isn't it funny? how the cold numbs everything but grief?
“Mmm, yeah, exactly.” Sunjata replies easily, shrugging his shoulders as he tries to ignore diving too deep into his own self reflection on judgements and bigotry. Luckily for him, though, her story of Jack has him absolutely delighted in his amusement and the ability to tuck away the ammo for later. He’s latched onto her words, taken every bit and piece he could, until her realization comes to the forefront.
That Jack might kick her ass for telling him.
It only proves to bring another surprisingly bright laugh into the air as he takes the smoke she’s tossed him, his hands fumbling over his pockets in search for a box of matches that he’s left on the table – before realizing he doesn’t need it as she lights his cigarette for him. “Thanks.” He pauses, taking a drag from it. “I apologize in advance for the ass kicking.” He quips back around the smoke that pours from his lips, thick as thieves with the information that’s been supplied.
It’s such a bright feeling that he doesn’t even let the talk of Safrin and his attunement damper it as he nods along with her understanding of her magic and getting better with it. “That’s great.” He hums to her, taking another drag as he tries to figure out how to word how he’d attuned. “She did. I… Was coming down with the blight and I went to the shrine and asked. She kissed me and…” He pauses as his brows furrow and he moves to flick the ash from the end of the smoke into the ashtray. “She reached into my chest, kind of like last time but more… Delicate. Changed me. I felt different everywhere, like it unlocked some sort of freedom within me. Which, I guess it did. She pulled away and when I opened my eyes, I was a bird.” As if for extra emphasis, he lets the macaw shift show as feathers spread through his tattoos on his shoulders, pouring down his arms in the navy hues that brush against the table as his steel gaze lifts to meet her face.
if we could light up the room with pain, we'd be such a glorious fire
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.
She laughs again and lets out a sigh, pulling her cigarette down to let it dangle between her fingers. "Oh well, you know he'd find a reason anyway," she rolls her eyes with an amused smile, though in the back of her mind she's sure she'll be hearing about this later, whenever Sunjata does take the time to throw it back in Jack's face. She makes a mental note to not bring it up to him herself, in that case.
Sunjata's mood seems better just from that and Aurelia's almost sorry to bring up another, more serious topic. But he doesn't seem the least bit perturbed, and she nods with a smaller smile at his comment. "It's a lot better now that I'm not scared of my own abilities," she admits as an add-on.
Otherwise, she lets him talk about his experience of becoming attuned, taking a few slow drags as she listens. She finds it an interesting, peculiar little tidbit that Safrin kissed him, although it's also unsurprising. He's got that whole... edgy bad boy charm. Guess even a goddess isn't immune to that. "Yeah, yeah, everybody wants to kiss Sunjata," Aurelia rolls her eyes before she mulls over what he's said more earnestly. "Did it hurt? Not the kiss, obviously," she smirks at him briefly, poking fun, "but... shifting. Does it hurt? Do you... lose.. yourself a little? When you become that animal?" It's probably her only major concern with it, if she's honest. Giving in to those animalistic urges could prove... unpredictable, risky.
isn't it funny? how the cold numbs everything but grief?
“He always does, you know.” Sunjata retorts with a crooked grin, something boyish and amused. But he passes that off as he drags on the cigarette, nodding in understanding at the mention of her not being scared of her own abilities. Truthfully, it was a wonderful thing to hear – that she’d learned how to deal with them, how to work with them, more of an extension of herself than something closer to hatred and self loathing with them.
So he can’t help the words as they slip from his lips. “It’s a big step, Aurelia. I’m proud of you for that.” He shrugs, moving to tap the ash off the cigarette into the ashtray, before talk of his attunement arrives and his mood is far too good, far too bubbly to be drowned back down with talk of starry goddesses and deals.
“You didn’t.” He chimes, pointing a finger at her as he smirks, before he lets it falter into more seriousness. “No. It didn’t hurt. It just… Felt like something inside me had been unlocked. Like I’d always had it in me and she just let me see that it was there.” He pauses to take a sip of the water, before he’s chewing on the inside of his cheek. “Shifting doesn’t hurt either. You just… Change. Everything inside you moves and changes to better suit the shift you’ve picked to go into. And yes, you do kind of lose yourself a little.”
He hums for a moment as he considers it. “My… Moods tend to be sort of even. I think it’s because I have a fairly even mix between my predators and prey animals. But when I get another one that tips the scale I get a bit snappier. I became a protective asshole when I got my dragon shift.” He says with a soft laugh, pausing to pull on the cigarette. “You have to give into the shift a bit. Otherwise you’d never learn how to fly with them or become them, if you try to stay yourself. That’s the first thing Remi taught me.”
Because Remi had taught him to fly, after all. So many seasons ago.
if we could light up the room with pain, we'd be such a glorious fire
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.
There is no verbal response to his admittance of being proud of her, only a bright grin she flashes at him and a blush that marks her cheeks. It's not often in her life that someone says that to her, and she doesn't quite know how to react, how to thank him for saying it and accurately encompass how appreciative she is of it. She doesn't expect the feeling of stark happiness and motivation, but she's glad for it nonetheless.
At Sunjata's playful jest, at the finger pointed in her direction, Aurelia's brows furrow further and she sticks out her tongue, "Blegh!" She shakes her head and adds, "Don't be gross. You're like a brother," which is true. He is. It's strange how naturally the words develop, though, and she isn't sure if it's too honest of her, but it's out there now.
So shifting doesn't hurt, and it's good to know. The process of it sounds remarkable, interesting, and... strange. She doesn't know how to take that, since it surprises her. "I thought that would be... worse," she remarks quietly, ashing her own cigarette. It sounds terrible! To have your insides shift and maneuver or even fundamentally change to suit the animal. She can't imagine it without her gut twisting and churning at the thought.
Her brows raise with interest as he goes on to describe more of what it's like, drawing silent again to listen to him more fully. She doesn't really understand how his mix of shifts could impact his own personality, which brings even more questions to the surface. "So.. you get some of the same instincts as the shifts you have?" She clarifies, shifting in her seat, "Like if you have... a prey animal, you get more defensive, but if you have a predator, you're more aggressive?"
She nods slowly at his revelation of having to give into the shift, or else never know what it's like to truly benefit from it. "Sounds terrifying..." if she can be honest... "how do you... control it? Do you know when it's the animal talking? Or does it feel like it's just.. another part of you?"
isn't it funny? how the cold numbs everything but grief?
She doesn’t have to say it for him to know how his words have hit. And it brings a boyish smile to his face as the silence of that goes on until she’s visibly shaking her head and sticks her tongue out at him – bringing another hum of a laugh from him. “You do remind me of my sister quite a bit, you know.” Little does he know that very same sister would be seeing him soon, arriving at his door as well. “It’s not a bad thing.” He tacks on with a crooked grin of amusement.
But it falters as he explains what it’s like to shift, how it changes the person and how you feel while you’re in it, and he can’t help the slight smirk that crosses his face. “Yes. Basically.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Everyone’s a little different, but. For me, when I’m… Startled or spooked, I guess, the feathers appear or the horns appear.” He pauses, keeping his navy feathers out on display as the nyala horns spiral from his head. “Both are prey animals.” He retracts all of them into his skin before the armored plates replace the feathers on his shoulders and the horns disappear in favor for sharp claws on the hand that rests on the table. “When I’m being protective or aggressive, then the predators come out.”
He considers her for a brief moment, trying to figure out how to word it. “I don’t control my partial shifts most times. I try to keep them on a leash but sometimes they just happen, so I guess if you ever wanted an idea of what I’m feeling, just look for them.” He shrugs. “As for controlling it, though, it’s a part of you. Like… A part of your soul that you just give into.” He leans back in his chair and drags from the cigarette again.
“One of my first dates with Nate was on the disappearing islands and I showed him my snake shift. Little did we know that a bunch of sea turtles were hatching and it took everything within me to stop from eating one.” This is said with a bright laugh, before an idea strikes him and he pulls out the journal from his pocket, grabs the pen and opens halfway through the book to write down ‘sea turtles’, before tucking the book away for later.
if we could light up the room with pain, we'd be such a glorious fire
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.
"Well.. I never had a brother.. but if I did," she leans back now, eyeing him tentatively, "I'd want him to be like you." Sunjata encompassed a lot of what she knew, and a lot of what she would want in a brother-she-never-had sort of way. He could relate to her plights, and he could be strong throughout them. Perhaps that's why it frustrated her so to hear him talk so lowly before.
The feathers on Sunjata's shoulders that wind their way down to his arms don't go unnoticed, but it's only now that she's fully acknowledging them. Her gaze drifts across the dark blues of the macaw feathers, stretching up towards the horns that sprout from his head. This isn't the first time she's seen either, she believes, but it's still a surprise. She watches carefully as the feathers on his skin become plates, armored and scaled like that of a dragon, all the way down to his fingers which have become clawed. She makes an effort not to flinch away, trusting him.
"So it's more of a reflection of how you feel, rather than... how the animal feels," she supposes, taking a careful pull from her cigarette only to breathe it out in a billowing cloud. She thinks she understands now, how it's more of a mirror of his soul rather than a separate entity that overtakes him. She'll definitely look out for these traits in the future to try and spot his moods, since he's equally as bad as her at communicating..
The recollection of the Nate date makes her smile more, a broad grin covering her face. "I can imagine how that wouldn't make a good first date impression," she chuckles.
"Well... to be honest, the reason I ask is because I've been thinking about asking Safrin to attune me..." her brows shift with the notion, feeling doubtful and hopeful all at the same time, "I don't know if she'll take that well, considering that I'm already..." tainted she wants to say, but lets the silence take its place anyway. "I guess I just wanted your advice... on that."
isn't it funny? how the cold numbs everything but grief?
Her comment of brothers has him sobering a bit, leaning back when she does and watching her equally as curious, something gentle and soft flashing through his gaze, something vulnerable and fragile for a brief moment before it’s gone in the blink of an eye. It still does perk up the corner of his lips, though. And all he can do is dip his chin a fraction in a nod, an agreement.
But then he’s displaying his shifts, explaining how she might be able to see how he is internally with his thoughts based off what shifts managed to make their way on display. And when she gets the gist, he nods, leaning forward to put out his cigarette, before he’s leaning back again and letting his gaze linger on her face once more. “Again, everyone’s a bit different. This is… Just how mine show.” He offers by way of a final explanation, before he launches into the story of his and Nate’s date.
And also before he writes it down so he doesn’t forget to add it to the little trinket he plans to work on in Nate’s absence.
“I only told him about it after we got married, I think. He was a bit mortified.” This earns a crooked smile, something soft and gentle as he recalls it – back when their arguments had been whether he was going to be a good Arbiter or not, before Remi had offered Nate a position on the council to counter Sunjata’s Arbiter position in a way that would allow them to work together.
His brows arch in a bit of surprise at the admission, and his head tilts avian-like in his own idea of it as he scans her. He works at his jaw for a brief moment, before he’s running his tongue along his teeth and sitting himself up a bit straighter, bracing his arms on the table and leaning forward toward her. “You’re doing a quest for her right now to prove yourself to her, yeah? It’ll… Be challenging for the Abandoned to become Attuned, but it’s doable. You’re strong Aurelia. I’m sure Safrin can see it. What’s the harm in asking?” He waits a heartbeat of a second before he continues. “Truthfully I think whatever Safrin has you do in order to Attune if it’s something you want so badly, you’ll manage it. And when you do…” When, not if, because he believes in her so much, “I can show you a thing or two.” He murmurs with a crooked smirk.
if we could light up the room with pain, we'd be such a glorious fire
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.
She nods in understanding, accepting that the way others' shifts manifest could be differnt, that the way hers manifest.. could be different. It's a striking thought, makes her pause and wonder at herself. Would she sprout horns atop her head when 'spooked'? Maybe feathers, or claws. She's not sure what sort of animals tug and pull at her heartstrings, having never felt a particular connection to any of them herself. "It's still good to know how it effects you either way," she says, "I won't complain about knowing you a little better."
She peers down at what it is he's scribbling down into his journal, arching a curious and speculative brow. "Telling your diary about me already, hm?" She hoists her cigarette up to her lips with a smile.
His scaled arms reign in over the table as he leans in and Aurelia finds herself comfortable in the closeness, for once. It's a contrast to how she feels about most people getting close, that initial pang of hesitance. She can't feel it here, and maybe she owes that to the alcohol. Maybe not. Either way, she inclines her head downward in order to look up at him, interested in what he advice he has.
"Mhm," she hums in answer to his rhetorical question, letting her teeth clench and then relax at his declaration of her being strong. Her lips purse thoughtfully and she shrugs a little, "Yeah, I guess there isn't any harm in it..." she sets the cigarette down into the tray, catching onto the way he says 'when' and not 'if'. "If she doesn't think I'm ready, then.. I'll just have to show her that I am," she adds more affirmatively.
A sharp laugh penetrates her lungs when he says he'll show her a thing or two, and she rests her hands across the table. "I'm sure you will," she rolls her eyes, "I haven't forgotten how you almost killed me after the... horse incident," she smirks back at him, knowing that isn't anywhere near the full truth.
isn't it funny? how the cold numbs everything but grief?
At least they could both get in agreement on that particular tidbit. Sunjata needed to start letting people in and the more that Aurelia understood his reactions for certain things, the better off they would be in the long run with their relationship. She could learn his ticks and twitches and in time he’s sure he’d be able to pick out hers too.
She peers at the book, though, and Sunjata moves to tuck it away with a half smirk. “No. I’m… Well, Nate said he was planning on coming back to tell me his answer so I wanted to sort of… Write down some of our good memories and… Put together a scrapbook of them as I sort of work on myself.” His lips flatten into a frown as the words leave his lips. “It sounds stupid. But. I want to try. Don’t suppose you have any thoughts on how to piece one together?” It’s an awkward moment for him, but he pauses before he launches into his explanation of everything else if only to give her a chance to respond.
As for no harm in asking Safrin and the determination to prove her wrong, that loosens him up and retracts the shifts in his skin until nothing remains but solely him. “Good. Safrin would like that I think.” He offers with a breathy laugh. But the laugh leaves him in a way that drifts off when she begins to mention the horse incident, and Sunjata finds himself rolling his eyes, an exasperated sigh leaving him as he meets her smirk.
“Yes well, at least if you were Attuned I could have cursed you out while I lunged at you.” He arches a dark brow with this, lifting the glass of water to his lips to hide his smirk.
if we could light up the room with pain, we'd be such a glorious fire
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.
Aurelia leans back a little when he closes the note, keeping that curious brow arched speculatively at him, a mischievous little smile on her lips. It's only when he reveals what it's really about that she parts her lips and says, "Ah," with more understanding. She considers this idea for a moment before offering her opinion. "I think it's a good idea... it's sweet, actually," she allows the sentiment to air itself in earnest, not feeling too shy to.
"How?" She deliberates over that, again surprised that he'd ask her. "Hm.. you could put it all together in a scrapbook... but that might require skill you don't have. No offense, but you don't seem like the artsy type," she presses a finger to her chin and tilts her head at him, "what about.. a sort of.. treasure chest? With little items orrr trinkets. Things that will remind him of those memories." It's an idea and it's the best one she's got. A time capsule of sorts, piecing together their journey in small, meaningful ways. "Maybe I should do something like that for Milo..." she considers suddenly, wondering if perhaps it would be neglectful of her not to, "something to commemorate the time we've spent together."
She smiles, at Sunjata returning to a more restful state, at the idea of Safrin liking her determination, preferring to think that that could be true rather than wondering if it wouldn't matter solely because of what she is. "I hope so.." she murmurs, glancing toward the cigarette she's placed down into the tray, watching for a bit as the cherry smolders into ash.
"I'm sure it's not the last time it'll happen," she jokes, "and maybe next time I'll be able to hear it, hm?" She glances away, thinking about the time, thinking about the voyage the Ark will soon take. Her smile and lighter expression seem to fade as she does, realizing that she's probably spent too much time here already when she should be preparing with the rest of the crew. "I should... probably go before it gets late," she comments, sounding apologetic as she glances back up toward him. There's a pause as her muscles tense with the idea, before she asks, "Will you be alright?"
