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!
03-24-2021, 12:44 AM (This post was last modified: 03-24-2021, 11:14 AM by Maeve.)
We lay here for years or for hours
Your hand in my hand
Maeve was never left in charge of preparing for the monsoons. At least not preparing the building for them. She did all the shopping. Stocking up on medicine, candles, and other supplies to keep the girls taken care of. Phoebe usually took care of organizing this part, but now that the Halenani was under her care, it was her job to make sure it was still standing by the end of the season. Otherwise they would all be hurting in more ways than one. Maeve spent the morning collecting the necessary materials. Extra latches for the doors, sandbags in case the water rose, and more lumber for the windows. Even with Melita's earlier help, they still needed work to make sure that all would be well.
She's sitting on the front steps, hair half pulled back from her face as she reinforces a few of the sandbags. A notice was posted on the front gate inviting anyone to come to help with the promise of refreshments and payment if they were willing to lend a hand.
Up to three, please! Choose one of the following: start filling sandbags, boarding up the windows, or adding extra locks to the doors to keep them secure.
1. Locke
2. Rigby
3. Hotaru
So still and discreet
So long we become the flowers
He's got to leave soon but that doesn't stop him from hanging around the Halenani as often as possible. Especially when he found out Maeve was going to be boarding things up. He hadn't outright offered to help but here he is! He makes his way over to Maeve, giving her a little wave. "Figured you might need some help and I was in the area.. Thought I'd swing over and see how you were doin'." He reaches out for one of the bags, taking it from her. "And I like liftin' heavy things for cute girls." He gives her a little wink as he looks the bag over. "Jus' waitin' on some more help then?"
Monsoon prepping was an annual event in Torchline, it wasn't new. Every year houses would start being boarded up, around this time Rigby would have to find somewhere to actually stay during the tougher storms. No crashing on rooftops or in trees, he had to pin a room at an inn or board up something of his own. That was a lot of work, so instead he liked to deal in favors, help someone with their home, squat there if the season got too wet.
He didn't intend to help today, he didn't intend to help ever really, so what made this different was a toss up. He'd happened to walk by the Halenani, biting into an orange-like fruit slice that he'd pulled from his pocket, and noticed Maeve. An incredibly familiar face, Rigby couldn't remember the last time he'd seen someone so regularly, even if it had only been several days.
He was going to continue moving on by, but for some reason he didn't. The Halenani was a secure building right? Full of rooms cause it's a brothel, and probably pretty nice. Might be worth it to help out now and save himself some pain later. So with a lazy pivot the boy turned back around and lumbered over to where Maeve sat, chatting with another familiar face. This one he was less enthused to see, but he'd manage.
There's a darkness down inside me That I know we'll both enjoy
The Halenani is shockingly not a location she has visited yet. A shame, considering her sexually free nature, but well...at the time she'd been the equivalent of married to two men. The pain is still incredibly fresh. In fact she is not staying long in Torchline, has already packed her bags to return to Halo to stay with Deimos and nurse her broken heart. Still, this place has been her home for many seasons now, and seeing the notice requesting aide as she passes by, Hotaru pauses and eventually turns to stride down the pathway as if this had been her intention all along.
Before she leaves, she can at least give her thanks to Torchline by way of assisting for the coming monsoons.
There are already three gathered, two men and a woman. Two of them seem relatively young, though all of them exude an air of familiarity with each other. Hotaru is far too self-assured to feel anxious or excluded, and she ascends the stairs with an easy grace and a prim smile. The lumber stacked against the side of the house and the extra locks sitting nearby are an easy induction to make, and the organizer is clearly reinforcing sandbags. Plucking a lock with nimble fingers, she spins it around and cocks a hip, giving a quirked smirk towards the trio. "Nothing like a little manual labor to warm up in the morning," she hums pleasantly, heterochromatic eyes sweeping over the gathered faces. "What you need seems rather simple, but care to give us directions beautiful?" This time directed with a kind tone at Maeve, ready for instructions on what she can at least do with the lock she has claimed. Would be awful stupid to put a lock on a door that doesn't need it.
and it's screaming from within me to have us set it free
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
We lay here for years or for hours
Your hand in my hand
Maeve looks up at Locke and a smile instantly lights up her features. Despite the fact that he’s leaving soon and the idea of that still stings, she’s unwilling to deny herself his company even if it’ll make it harder when the time comes. ”You’re always in the area, Locke. That’s nothing new. I could use the help though.” He’s already taking one of the sandbags, clearly having picked his task for the time being. ”Oh yeah? So I’m cute then?” She can’t resist teasing him, standing and ushering him towards the sand filled wheelbarrow. ”You can start filling these with sand. We’re going to need at least twenty or so if they’re going to keep water out.”
Just as she finishes instructing Locke, a person she wasn’t expecting to see and would have been happy to avoid for the rest of her days meanders up the path towards the porch. The smile on her face falters and she narrows her eyes as she looks him over. ”Are you actually here to help or just make my life hell?” It’s maybe a little more aggressive than it needs to be, but those days she was with him lost in the swamp still weigh heavy on her. It’s not something she’s been able to move past easily. She was doing alright until he showed back up and reminded her just how much she didn’t like his ‘I don’t give a fuck attitiude’.
She sighs, shaking her head as her arms cross over her chest and she’s really debating if she’s going to turn him away or not. ”If you stay, you’re going to work. The windows need to be boarded up. Think you can manage that one?” Maeve drawls, pointing towards the stack of lumber with a bag of nails and a hammer resting on top.
Just as she finishes directing the two boys in what needs to be, a third arrives and she pauses. She doesn’t know this one. Her brows draw together, head tilting to the side as she looks her over as if trying to place her. The stranger is already plucking a new lock from the small pile of hardware and it spurns Maeve into action. ”Uh, right. Yes. I’m Maeve… That’s Locke and that’s Rigby. The sandbags and windows are covered. So that just leaves the locks for the doors. We have this one at the front and then a side door and back door that we need to put new locks on. I guess that will fall to you.” She adopts an air of authority, dishing out directions even though she has never done much of this herself. ”I’ll reinforce bags and help you tie them off, Locke. If anyone needs some help just give a shout.”
With the instructions given, Maeve rejoins Locke by the wheelbarrow and resumes her work on the sandbags. With deft fingers, she works the needle and wax thread along the seam, reinforcing them with ease before stacking them neatly for Locke to fill while the others get to work.
No posting order! You guys have your tasks!
So still and discreet
So long we become the flowers
There's a darkness down inside me That I know we'll both enjoy
Their collective voices wash over her in a symphony of sound, each so individually different and yet with recognition that binds their undertones together. Hotaru has no problem intruding despite the pleasantries. Help is help is it not? They're all certainly easy on the eye - though one seems more boy than man, and her eyes skirt over him in that particular manner - which makes sense considering their ah...venue.
Hotaru is far too superb an actress to let her laughter bubble free at seeing Maeve's dark brows creasing in consternation as she tries to determine who has ended up on her doorstep, but it's quite tempting. Maeve is cute to say the least, in that charming way all young women have. "I'm Hotaru," she deigns to share after their own names have been given, nimble fingers still playing idly with the metal in her hand. The blonde may be a connoisseur of glass but she appreciates any manner of creation, especially that which dissuades the curious and quick-fingered.
With her instructions committed to memory, Hotaru gives a cheery wink and spins on her heel to attend to the closest door right behind them. It's a familiar act and one that calls back to the building of her own spa in Halo. Iron is a commonly traded commodity in Torchline, and Hotaru is grateful for the existence of real nails in this endeavor. First she measures out the best place for the lock - keeping in mind not everyone is as vertically challenged as she is - and scores the wood with the nail in an outline of the lock, matching it up horizontally across the frame. She begins hammering in the hardware for the lock first, fitting it to the frame and the flat of the door, pausing only to repeatedly check that everything is properly lined up.
Hotaru starts mounting the lock hardware on the front door!
and it's screaming from within me to have us set it free
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
"'Course you're cute." It's all he really gets to say before they're joined by Rigby and then Hotaru. Locke gives Rigby a sly little grin and Hotaru a little wave. He doesn't know her but he's grateful for the help. She seems to know what she's doing after all. Rigby he's less sure about. But Maeve has given him a task and he's here to help. Plus, filling bags is easy enough.
He takes the little shovel and begins to fill the bags as Maeve finishes stitching them up. He leans them against the wall so she can tie up the top of the bags. He's kind of sweaty and his hands and arms are getting dirty but it's fine. Nothing a dunk in the ocean can't fix.
The moment Maeve noticed him, he realized he might've made a mistake in stopping by. Sure he hadn't been kind to her, but he wasn't any ruder to her than he was to anyone else, so somehow her response to him being there was a little surprising, he flinches at the tone, hunches further, then shrugs in response to her question. He was here to help technically, maybe get something out of it, whether or not it was a hellish experience was no concern of his.
In the end, she gives him a task to do, and instead of replying he raised his eyebrows slightly and nodded before trudging off towards the windows and the wood. He lifted a hammer, some wood and a nail, and got started with the first slat, working hastily so as to waste no time here that he could be spending fucking shit up elsewhere.
We lay here for years or for hours
Your hand in my hand
(Sorry guys! We are archiving this because it isn't going to get finished before the monsoons arrive and is kind of moot at this point! Thank you for participating anyway <3 I appreciate you all!)
So still and discreet
So long we become the flowers
