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!
I just wanted to, Tobi says. But she hasn't just taken what she wanted. She's asked him. She's taken care of him, not once but countless times, providing a port in a storm for the Spyglass when the waters get rough, when his little boat threatens to capsize and he doesn't know how to get home. She's never overstepped, and on the rare occasion when she's come close, she's always there with a quick apology and a step back again. Patient and kind and every single thing that has never been afforded to Finn in his life, she has asked before taking.
And that, he supposes, is what has him waking up a bit, examining the situation for what it is rather than some half-dream drifting on the bands of sunlight from the window and beneath the door. Finn glances down at Tobi, a little more sense in his stormy eyes, and his smile becomes - if anything - a little more certain. "I'd like that, I think," he says softly. "I..." But there's nothing more that he really wants to tell her, with words.
So instead, in a twist that will likely go down in Finn's defining moments, it's the Spyglass who leans in, his lips brushing against Tobi's with a warmth and sweetness that both is and isn't exactly the sort of man he's become.
please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere
If Caido doesn't have it already, Tobi is about to develop the theory of relativity because gods if time isn't all sorts of warped right now. The moment is whizzing by such that it seems ages ago that she whispered his name to see if he was awake, and yet she's also certain that she could have performed an entire surgery in between her question and Finn's answer.
But then he's doing the kissing, and Tobi feels as though she living out every storybook moment or fairytale ending. This is the front porch moment, this is the kiss between dazzling lights at a school dance...but it also very much isn't. There's no groping, no passionate sips of air, no hands frantically plunging into hair. It's soft and it's gentle, and though it might not be out of place for her to do so, her lips remain closed against his, her tongue locked behind her teeth. But the butterflies in her stomach that his lips free don't need to escape on a moan or a gasp. They're content to flutter around, making the doctor feel light as a cloud.
"Yep." Tobi whispers, almost musically, once he pulls back. One of her hands snakes up between them, that she might press her fingertips against her lips as if to capture the sensation, blushing openly as she smiles. "That is very much what I wanted." She adds, trying very hard not to dissolve in a shivery girlish giggle.
Finn is a lot of things, but - and it might be a surprise to most who know him but not his history - a prude he is not. Having walked the walk of a prostitute for years before stepping into the Spyglass's shoes, he's well aware of what does and doesn't make a kiss, about where his hands are meant to go and the right noises to make to show pleasure and encouragement. It's true that Finn only serviced other men, but Mother Molly's has a variety of boys and girls working for her, and whores talk.
Either way, it's perhaps this exact thing that stops him - he doesn't want things to be anything but genuine with Tobi, and so he takes her lead with lips that are soft and pliant, his hands never groping, never trying for more than what's already there. And when he draws back, eyes opening, it's with pleasant surprise to hear that he's delivered on what she had requested. "And that's all you wanted?" he asks, a boyish smile threatening on his lips.
please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere
"I mean..." The doctor laughs, and though she absolutely does want more, first she takes a moment simply to gaze at him. He looks happy, and though she isn't so naive to think that one kiss from her was somehow life-changing, she can't even express how much she'll cherish just having been in this moment with him. Even if this turns into nothing, she'll always remember the blue of his eyes just now. This moment when everything was happy, and easy, and safe.
"If one kiss was nice, I wonder what two might be like? Or...even three?" With bright eyes and a girlish smile, Tobi shrugs against him as if she doesn't already know the answer. Biting at her bottom lip as she raises her head slightly toward him, she immediately lets it go, wanting much more than her own enamel to be placed there. "But..no more than what you want, okay?"
And so long as there's no rebuttal, it's her turn to kiss him. Leaning up, it's with the same softness as before that their lips meet. Only this time the hand Tobi had freed to touch at her lips finds it's way to his side. That makes two, Tobi thinks, and as she does so, Finn will likely feel her smiling against him.
"Okay," Finn agrees, already offering her a gentle nod. Because the Spyglass has always been sparing with his banter; his flirting comes in acts of kindness, as Tobi has already experienced (even if Finn himself was not aware about what he was doing). And he wants to kiss her again - the soft, warm press of her lips has awakened something within him that is so desperately starved of touch that it selfishly wants more of what it's just been given.
And so when Tobi leans up again, Finn welcomes her kiss by angling himself a little more towards her, the arm not acting as a pillow for her head very carefully slipping around her waist. He doesn't mind the touch in return, and when she draws back - counting, unbeknownst to the Spyglass - it's already not enough for Finn. He's kissing her again before he can find the words to ask in return if it's alright, his tongue teasing against her own, his body rising to this (not new, exactly, but very rare) experience with a surprising amount of need.
This time Finn doesn't bother to draw back, and when he manages to speak the words are mumbled into their kiss. "Touch me," he says, somehow making it sound like it ought to have a please on the end of it.
please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere
Her lips don't leave his, but as his arm wraps around her, they part enough to pull in a breath that stutters only for a moment. Her eyes scan his as she pulls back, already missing the closeness of him, but looking adamantly for signs that things aren't okay. His answer is clear enough, and as she feels his tongue against hers, the butterflies in her stomach do try and flee, if only because of the sudden flush of heat.
Walking the line between losing herself in the moment and not overthinking it, and keeping a level head for both of their sakes, Finn's request has her fingers stirring against his side. Lowering her shoulder slightly so that she might slip more fully under him—to free her other hand of course, not because she's dying to know what it will feel like to have him stretched over her—she does indeed touch him.
For now at least her hands remain over the twice-slept-in shirt he now wears. Curling her hand from his side up to his shoulder, her other hand sweeps up his arm before plunging softly into his curls. She doesn't pull at them as others before her might, but gods if she hasn't always wondered what it would be like to comb her fingers through them. "is this okay?" Tobi whispers hastily against him; no matter the thundering of her heart, her concern for him will always be louder.
Whatever her reasons might be, Tobi does end up beneath him, and whilst Finn has been with women before, this feels completely different in a way that he can't help but relish. Tobi chases the shadows from his bones with a mere touch, and though it would be a lie to say that his mind isn't fighting to remind him of the things that make him broken - choking silk and the press of a body behind his, fingers yanking at his curls, pain and guilty pleasure rolled into one - it doesn't consume his thoughts.
It barely registers, in fact, as he concentrates more on the sunshine of her touch, the Spyglass bracing himself against the arm of the couch so as not to risk smothering her, a gasp breaking through their kiss to find her fingers in his hair, gentle and pliant. His confirmation that yes, this is okay comes in little more than a hum against her lips; he nods only when they part, and the Spyglass seeks out more of her, his mouth pressing now to the silken skin of her neck.
"More," he pleads? demands? asks? murmurs against her, lost in the sensation of the way her body curves against his hand, abandoning himself to this strange and ethereal moment Tobi has unlocked with a simple question.
03-25-2021, 09:35 PM (This post was last modified: 03-25-2021, 09:39 PM by October.)
please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere
He feels every way she'd hoped that he would, and though he's kind enough to brace himself that she isn't helplessly pinned beneath him, she's tempted just to drag him down anyways. Maybe they'll talk about it later, or perhaps maybe they won't, but just now Tobi is keen to err on the side of gentle in everything she does. It doesn't take an overly active imagination to think of all the ways Finn must have been tugged and shoved around, and as much as she wants to let the moment engulf her, everything she does is tempered with the option for him to stop her.
As his kisses move to her neck, it frees Tobi's lips allowing her to gasp through a smile at the goosebumps that his scruff causes in bright waves on her skin. Though Tobi knows Finn's body better than anyone else arguably given her many exams of him, Tobi nonetheless feels a shiver of anticipation and surprise as the hand on his shoulder slowly trickles down his back. Slowly her hand moves beneath his shirt, her fingertips ghosting over his skin. She hasn't noticed that at the name time her hips have subtly risen, the couch cushions beneath her making it all too easy to fill and fit the shape they're creating.
It's of course at that moment there's a loud rap at the door, followed by a very familiar voice. "Alright Doctor Hart, I've got your files for toda—" Milligan mutters, sounding offended at having to do her job. Her eyes are lowered to the files she carries, but as she barges into the room, they won't stay that way for long.
So many moments have collided and spidered away from each other to lead Finn here - moments spent fleeing his own bed because there's another person in it, moments showering and then showering again just to make sure, moments in dark corridors at LongNight, smacking fake skeleton hands to the ground. And now that they are here, gods if the Spyglass isn't greedy for it. Every touch of Tobi's hands is like a cool and gentle breeze, her fingertips gentle enough that he can't associate it with anything else - it's just this.
Unlike the doctor, Finn has no idea of the body beneath his own that he might start to explore given enough time; at the moment he can barely focus enough to keep himself grounded. Tobi's fingers dance down his back, teasing beneath his shirt, and he arches into the touch, humming encouragement against the side of her neck. She'll be able to feel the very edges of the whiplash scars that stripe across his back--
And then in walks the nurse.
There's no hiding it. There's no jumping to one's feet, since they're still mostly tangled up in the blanket. There's nothing they can do at all; the most Finn manages is a half shuffle into sitting on the sofa, his curls thoroughly messed up at the back, his cheeks a rather fetching shade of pink. And that's... all he's got. What Tobi's plan is, though, is beyond him.
please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere
What Tobi has seen of Finn's body when she's been examining him or washing dried blood from him, is nothing at all like what he feels to her now. The hand in his curls slips down, tugging lightly at the base of his shirt so that she might have an easier time exploring him with both hands. Soon they'll be so tangled that he'll need to take it off—or she'll want him to, anyway—and gods she hopes he wants to feel his skin against hers as much as she wants it.
Lost in lips against her neck and the weight of Finn around her, Tobi is slower to react to the nurse's presence than he is. Looking over her shoulder with eyes as round with surprise as they are sudden frustration, Tobi opens her mouth to say something curt, before forcing herself to take a breath.
"Thank you. You can just leave them there." Tobi says with a look toward her inbox as she wriggles out from under Finn, flashing the nurse a flushed smile. "Doctor Hart!" The nurse implores, slamming the files down. "Thank you. That will be all." Tobi hums in response, already moving toward the matronly woman to shoo her out.
"You might sleep in here but it is not your bedroom!" Milligan hisses as she flees, keen as always to have the last word. Closing the door and then locking it, Tobi stares at it for a moment as she feels the heat in her cheeks. Turning to Finn with her hands over her mouth, she regards him with wide eyes...before she bursts into laughter.
Tobi isn't the only one with heat in her cheeks, and whatever confidence borne of insomnia that he showed to the nurse yesterday has all but evaporated now. It's with a mix of mortification and awe that he watches October navigate the situation, while Finn can do little more than sit with the blanket in his lap to disguise his very obvious interest in where the situation with the doctor was leading. He lets out a huff of breath that he hasn't realised he's been holding once the nurse is gone and the door is locked, risking a glance up at Tobi to see her burst out laughing.
Finn, of course, is not quite so vibrant, so the most she gets is a boyish and mostly hidden grin, the Spyglass rubbing at his eyes and softly shaking his head. "I think we can safely assume that I have lost whatever leverage I had gained over nurse Milligan," he murmurs, his fingers running through his curls. It feels nothing like when Tobi had been doing it, and he tries not to feel disappointed about that. Clearing his throat and sitting up a little more, he glances to the files in her inbox.
"I suppose I ought to let you get on with work, then, Doctor Hart," he says, and perhaps there's just a touch of mischief in his tone. Perhaps.
please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere
"I'll let you in on a secret Finn," Tobi whispers as her hands fall away from her face. "I don't know that you ever had any." Milligan was an institution in her own right. It would take powerful forces to ever upset the thrown on which she'd made for herself. Then again, she'd never properly gone up against someone like Finn before.
Tobi can't help by notice the pillow discretely placed over his lap, and she's both thankful her own signs of interest weren't so obvious, as much as she enjoyed that his were. Hard as it is not to let her mind tease that thread a little more, though she wants to crawl back under him and drag him over her like a blanket, the moment is quite firmly doused with water, no matter how many embers still burn.
"Yes, I apparently have quite a lot of it." Picking up one of the files, Tobi raises and brow and then frowns, turning it around to show Finn a completely empty chart. "Funny that." She says with a roll of her eyes.
Experts in navigating the awkward these two are not, and so as the doctor sets the file back down on her desk, she folds one arm around her waist and smiles around the bit of her lower lip that she's holding between her teeth. "I suppose I'll...see you later?"
Finn even has the good grace to pretend at being offended to hear that he'd never had any leverage over nurse Milligan to begin with. (And really, that's as much of an indication that he's in a very good mood as anything). And however hard things might be for the Spyglass right now, Tobi is right and the moment has been thoroughly ruined - and honestly, if Finn was the vindictive type, the sight of the empty chart might have sent him back out into the clinic to demand to know what the nurse planned to do to allieviate his current symptoms.
Alas, the most he can do is offer a disparaging groan, trying to tease his curls into something marginally less bed-head and giving himself a couple of minutes before rising to his feet. "I think you find it more funny than I do," he remarks with a soft smile, taking a deep breath and letting it out again before turning to face Tobi properly. Now the blush is threatening on his cheeks again, and he nods back to her.
"Later," he agrees. "I'll drop by for that prescription, maybe." Does he mean his medicine? Or does he mean whatever they've just gotten up to? You know Finn doesn't know.
please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere
"I find lots of things funnier than you do." Tobi points out her, her lips still hopelessly twisting into a smile no matter how much she tries to school her expression into something that isn't over the top joy.
He mentions later, but he also says maybe. Finn isn't the type to play hard to get, but nor is he the type to commit himself to something without meaning it. Maybe might just mean you know, unless something else comes up. And that's no big deal. Don't overthink it. Tobi, don't.
"Your, uhm.." Tobi reaches out, stops, and then points at his collar. Scrunching her nose, she tries to wordlessly indicate that it's flipped up, that she'd be happy to fix it, but doesn't know if that's alright. Of course Finn will likely pick up on none of that.
"Okay well, I'll...be here." Brightly said, Tobi bites the inside of her cheek, thinking that—and this is already her problem, all this overthinking—whatever had just happened between them didn't make a parting kiss appropriate.
Probably.
Right?
When Finn exits, he'll find Milligan almost right outside the door. Looking busy enough, despite the fact that the Spyglass is taller than she is, still she'll find a way to look down on him as he leaves.
