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!
03-31-2021, 08:41 PM (This post was last modified: 04-28-2021, 05:14 PM by Noah.)
I am not a scholar and I don't believe in fate
Noah never thought he would be visiting a spa. But, at this point, his whole life was filled with statements of "I never would have thought...", "I have never done this before...", "This is new to me...", etcetera. He had finally decided to embrace it. Therefor, he opened the door to the spa with ease and stepped in. He shed his outermost layer quickly, having grown up knowing that bodies that acclimated to the temperature they were in with the least amount of clothing needed was the best way to be. It kept your body warmer as it got colder.
The place was welcoming. He looked around and smiled, a contented sigh escaping his lips as he took it all in. It smelled more pleasant than any place he had ever been before, and the warmth coming from it enveloped him enough that he had to shed another covering layer. "Hello?" He let his voice ring out in the empty room, his weight shifting from one booted foot to the other.
For once the masseuse is not at the reception desk. Instead she is in the mud room, hair tied in a messy top knot and stripped down to shorts and a tank top as she cycles in new ash. The heated room is far too oppressive for any heavier outerwear, so when the masculine voice calls from the entry she is taken rather by surprise, unprepared. All the same she has never cared about showing more skin than most Halovians are accustomed to, and so she strides out from the back room, eyes casting about for her patron.
The vague familiarity of the voice clicks when her heterochromatic gaze lands on Noah, pleasant surprise suffusing her fair features. Smiling, Hotaru closes the space between the, gesturing at the coat hanger by the door when she spies the garment in his hands. “Noah! What a surprise, welcome in. Are you looking for something specific today or just exploring what I offer?” Refraining from winking if only out of a desire for professionalism.
HOTARU
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.
Noah held onto his jackets, waiting for his call to be returned. Hotaru moved swiftly into the room, and the hunter's face breaks into a broad, winkled smile. "Hotaru." His voice rumbled out a greeting as she gestured for the coat hangers. The hunter turned and hung his outer layers up. "Well," The hunter starts, turning back towards the blonde woman and taking a few steps towards her, "I remember you saying something about adjustments?" He let his tone lift at the end of his sentence to indicate a question, but the hunter didn't really need to ask. He remembered with extreme clarity what she had told him on the Sea of Glass, all those seasons ago.
"I've got some pain here, when I do this." Noah gestured to the right side of his body, at the base of his ribcage. Simultaneously, he turned his body to the left and bent at the waist. The pain sparked up his side and spread through his body, making his face wince in tandem with the motions he made. "Can you do anything about that?" He asked, slowly bringing his body back to a less painful posture.
She watches as he hangs his coat, tucking a meddlesome flyaway hair behind her ear and unwittingly leaving a streak of ash across her cheek in the process. As he moves closer she tilts her head to keep his gaze, freshly reminded of the differences in their statures when he’s so close. At least she’s used to it with Deimos in her life.
Pleasant surprise flickers over her face before she can conceal it, a warm smile following in its wake. “I’m surprised you remember.” Whether her or her words isn’t clarified, but privately she means both. Hotaru isn’t unaware of her looks, weaponizes them intentionally, but she’s not accustomed to being remembered as anything more than a pretty face. Much less for her words themselves to be recalled. It’s nice, if a vast difference from Torchline as a whole. Or perhaps it’s a more individual difference?
Before she can muse over it too long, Noah is demonstrating a stretch, and her gaze takes on a more professional keenness as she watches his body move and bend. Already pinpointing muscles and ligaments beneath his shirt to make mental note of. “I’m cycling new ash into the mud, but even without that I think I can make a difference.” Already her face is taking on a contemplative cast, teeth nibbling at her lip as she considers him. Coming to some sort of decision, she smiles and walks backwards, as certain of her surroundings as can be as she waves him forward. “I have changing stalls if you need, but I’ll need you to remove your shirt and lay on the table. There’s a cubby beneath it to put your shirt and towels to go under your chest. Do you have a scent preference for the massage oil and incense?” Spinning gracefully on her heel she moved to her cabinet, keeping an ear for his response as well as the shuffle of clothes to ensure he’s doing as asked.
HOTARU
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.
The look in her eyes and the way her words fell from her lips loosened Noah up, even before her fingers started working on his muscles. "Well, you know," he shrugged, following her for a few steps, "It would be a sin to forget my first encounter with you." He kept his gaze steadily on hers as she moved backwards, as graceful and skillful as a dancing luxere. His smile did not fade too far, even after his painful movements, and it brightened his face again. While he did not know the woman well, at all, he felt comfortable enough around her. While he could be cold, their previous encounters did not require an icy guard over his demeanor.
She went on about what he needed to do. Having never been the shy type, Noah did as he was instructed. He did not feel the need for the changing room, and lifted his shirt off without thinking twice. He folded it haphazardly and placed it where she had informed him. Obediently, the hunter took a towel and laid it out on the table. She asked him about scents as she glided towards her storage cabinet. Noah's brow furrowed for a moment, a flicker of contemplation, before he shook his head. "You can choose." While he felt reasonably comfortable around this woman, he wasn't comfortable enough to ask her if she had oils that smelled like the wildflowers in King's End.
Admittedly his remark catches her off guard, the hints of a flush appearing on her cheeks and the tips of her ears before she turns away, grateful for the call of the oils and incense. She’s not accustomed to such forthrightness, and in her loneliness it’s all too appealing, which makes it equally dangerous. Instead she takes a breath, inhaling the amalgamation of scents from the cabinet in order to steady herself before she aims a smile over her shoulder. “Well you can avoid divine judgement another day then.” Keeping a playful lilt to her tone, still pleased to have been remembered if nothing else.
He’s certainly not the first to be overwhelmed or indecisive about the available scents, but Hotaru has become quite adept at fitting personalities to appropriate - if somewhat safe - choices. Plucking a bottle from the shelf and a stick of incense, she sweeps her eyes over him as she moves back to the table, glad to see he has followed instructions to the letter. And blatantly enjoying his physique for a moment. If he recalls her as flirtatious then hopefully it will not be too much of a surprise. Hotaru keeps her tongue leashed for the moment at least, summoning lightning in a concentrated spark of noise and light to set the incense ablaze, blowing it out summarily to leave it smoking. It’s a subtle, musky floral scent, nothing too overwhelming, intended to pair well with the birch wood scented massage oil. “Birchwood and geranium,” she explains, pointing out each in turn in case he’s curious. “Go ahead and lay on your stomach, arms at your sides.” Waiting until he does so to pop the cork on the oil, pouring it into her palm to warm it up before coating his back in smooth, slow strokes.
After, she begins to probe gently at the tender area with her fingertips, tallying knots and following the muscle groups to the real perpetrators that cause the problem as a plan begins unfurling in her mind. “What actions cause it to hurt the most? Much as I’d love to have you in here regularly, maybe I can sort out the cause for you, help you with some daily stretches to do in the interim.” Hotaru certainly wouldn’t turn away his patronage, but she doesn’t want to see him continue to hurt either, he’s far too kind hearted for such manipulations.
HOTARU
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.
Obedient to what she asked, Noah lay chest down on the table. He rested his forehead against the headrest and let out a deep, long sigh. It was meant to help him relax his body, knowing that the stiffer he stayed the more painful this would be for him. Noah had watched his mother adjust people's bones and spines many times, using both her healing magic and her in-depth knowledge of the human body to rebuild and restore hunters when they came back all jacked up. He knew he would squirm.
He didn't make much fuss over the scent she chose, having given her the freedom to do so. As she lit the burning incense with her magic, Noah took a deep breath in to gather as much of the scent as he could before she went to work on him. "I've been practicing combat with spears, and I think I pulled something during a training session." He paused to hiss in a breath as two of her fingers pressed over an especially tightly wound knot. "And since then it has hurt to draw back on my bow." But, of course, he couldn't stop hunting. It had, however, caused him to spend more time hunting in his shifts rather than with his bow.
He tried to continue to relax under the touch of her hands, warm against his skin which always seemed just a little too cold. He breathed out again, pressing his forehead into the rest. When was the last time Noah had been touched for more than just a greeting?
Too long for someone who felt most loved under the touch of people.
As he explains the potential cause for the tightness, she makes a humming sound of understanding. "Yes, that would do it. The thrusting motion for spears is a very different set of muscles than what you may be used to with your bow." The hiss of his breath is just as indicative of her precision as the actual knot beneath her fingertips. She begins deepening the pressure there, small circles to help encourage the muscle to unwind. Whenever she thinks he's getting too tender, she uses the flat of her palm in soothing strokes on the surrounding area so that he won't unconsciously tense up.
As his head falls forward and he submits to her touch, she watches safely from above where he cannot see her inquisitive, lingering gaze. "This will hurt the most, but the rest will make it worth it. Now take a deep breath for me and exhale slowly," she instructs, voice falling into its working state of soft and coercive. Waiting until he does so to exert the most pressure into the source of the knot, pressing into the deep tissue and working tiny circles with her thumbs to try and release it.
HOTARU
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.
Noah pressed his forehead further into the headrest, sucking air through his teeth as Hotaru worked on his most sensitive, taught muscle. His jaw set and he wanted to move away from her. Sher persisted despite his wriggling, and he knew that she would do so. In his head, he knew it was going to hurt, and he knew he needed to relax, but actually practicing that knowledge was difficult. Finally, though, with her warning, Noah made himself go limp and relax under her touch.
"Sorry." He murmured, trying even to press himself more into her touch. It was only a slight movement, and he hoped she would think it was to help her loosen the knots beneath his skin. It was, though, and attempt to drink in her touch. The feel of her hands over his scarred back and ribcage. Finally, he inhaled and filled his lungs as full as they would go, before letting it slowly out through his mouth as if he were going to fill the whole spa with his breath.
Massage is quite the fitting art for Hotaru, she thinks to herself as she watches Noah writhe and try to hold himself still beneath her probing fingertips. The only path to healing is wading intentionally through pain. Ironic then, that she cannot do this for herself. That she gathers and accumulates all the pain of her clients, pulling it free with skilled hands and an eye for setting a relaxing environment, and never finds a way to dispel it entirely from her own skin. That she is the one to cause the pain is not to be overlooked either; it's merely darkly amusing that for once, she heals that which she harms in the end. That had never been her way before.
"No apology needed," she assures softly, focused on the direction the muscle winds itself in order to apply the correct pressure in the opposite to force it to release. Unaware of how badly he needs this, how starved he is for any kind of touch, physicality that all creatures need to live. Noah's deep breath is what finally causes it to relax, and a noise of triumph vibrates in her throat as she feels it buckle under her fingertips. "There we go," she murmurs, and introduces her palms to help massage the surrounding area simultaneously so that she can leave it unattended without it tightening back up while she does the right order of his back. "It's still going to be tender, so I'm going to start with your shoulders and work down so that area has a moment to relax." Dropping fresh oil onto her palms as she speaks, Hotaru then immediately moves to his shoulders, starting with slow strokes and medium pressure across the span of them before gently cupping his neck and letting her thumbs sweep up into his nape and under his ears. "Are you learning the spear for hunting, or defense?" Hotaru always tries to gauge the conversational level of her clients as she goes, but what she knows of Noah he's not against the idea.
HOTARU
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.
Noah could feel the tension uncoil from stone-like muscles and knots the size of his fists as Hotaru worked her magic. He sighed and pressed his forehead again into the rest, letting his glacier eyes fall shut and his body absorb her touch and skill. She shook away his apology, and he melted beneath her fingers. He couldn't remember the last time his body felt like this -- light, tingly, nimble. He knew he would need to treat his muscles with the tenderness they deserved after he recovered from their reset, but he wanted to just go out and continue his work as he had always done.
He would be a good patient this time, though.
At her question, Noah opened his eyes again. "The world is getting bigger, and with it the threat bigger." He said to her, nothing she did not already know. "But, I think I am doing it for both. The combat skills will be useful, and it never hurts to have something else in my hunting skill arsenal." Her hands moved up towards his head and she balanced the weight of it, stroking muscles and skin to smooth them out. Noah let out a deep sigh -- both of relief and pleasure, as he once more felt a wave of tension leave his body. "The spear is a relatively light weapon that I can carry most everywhere, despite its length." Her hands moved back to his shoulders and he turned his head to rest the side of his face against the rest, so he could see her. "Even out into the wilds I could carry it and my bow." Glacier eyes intended to meet her's, "Have you been exploring beyond what was known, yet?"
The breath that leaves him is filled with the sound of relief and relaxation. It causes a small proud curl of her lips to form. It's clear he has been in need of this for some time, even without the knot that had impaired his movement. That's far from news to Hotaru - most of her Halo clientele had been in dire need of adjustment when they first found their way into her spa. As such she has yet to be hurting for business since opening her doors and enticing in the first warily curious stragglers.
A hum of agreement curls warmly in her throat at the notion of the widening world. "A good reason to learn a new weapon. Have you been training with Deimos?" The man would likely be ecstatic - in his own reserved, stoic way - to assist with finding a weapon to match Noah's fighting style and body type. As she gently lowers his head back down to move to his left shoulder, she is momentarily arrested by his gaze as it turns to pin her in place. Not many look at her during their massage, and in some ways she appreciates that, raw and wounded as she is these days. "You could even make it collapsible," she manages to say, tearing her own gaze away to focus on digging her thumbs in rhythmic patterns into the muscle of his trapezius and down to his bicep.
"I have, twice now. The first experience was...disorienting. There is some sort of energy out there, and it is - believe it or not - teleporting travelers unimaginable distances in the blink of an eye." She recalls the desert biome she and Wessex had ended up in, the vague nausea of the transport the only side effect to their unheard of journey. "It is beautiful of course, but without portals I was lucky to have been with the person I did; she was able to get us back home with her own magic."
HOTARU
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.
There were very few people, Noah assumed, who looked upon Hotaru as a woman of physical strength. Despite her petit stature and her small hands, each move of her fingers brought him more and more at her mercy. He melted beneath her touch as she worked out the tension from each muscle she touched, his skin warm and red beneath her hands now even with the presence of oil which kept most of the friction at bay. After meeting her mismatched eyes, Noah closed his once more. "No, actually, I haven't yet. I worked with Morgan, and an outlander I met only twice. Other than that I have mostly been working on my own." He would, in the future, make sure to meet Deimos for some training. He was confident that the general had a vast depth of knowledge that made his seem like it would only fill a thimble.
The hunter's glacier eyes opened again at Hotaru's recollection of what happened to her in the wilds. "That's...interesting." His forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows knit together. "Deimos told me there used to be great elemental storms keeping people out of the place we visited," He wanted to turn to look at her, but didn't try to writhe out of her working hands, "maybe the same energy that kept the storms going is the energy that transported you."
As he melts further into the bed, she allows her hands to explore a little more than necessary in lieu of spreading the oil across his skin. He is not the only one who has missed touch. For all she offers it, her own skin seems to burn with a need for it, but this is as close as she can come now. Deimos' tactility is all that keeps her going, and most days she must initiate that as well even if he would never turn her away. It is a far cry from the touches she'd had day and night for seasons, two pairs of hands that never had reason to doubt their welcome when they reached for her. Noah is warm and alive beneath her hands, and for a moment she lets her hands lay flat over the backs of his ribs, feeling the measure of breath in his lungs as it swells beneath her palms. It's enough for now.
"Morgan is a fine fighter, though I believe she normally wields a hammer?" From what she recalls of the woman at least. "It's merely a suggestion," she hastens to add, though even that is graceful in her regal tones. Her faith in Deimos and his abilities are unparalleled after all, but she is reluctant to make Noah feel as if she is deeming his efforts so far to be somehow lacking. He is far too sweet for the weight of her scorn, even unintentional.
The storms...well, that's a connection she hadn't considered herself. "That's certainly a theory I hadn't considered," she admits, curiosity humming in her undertones. Her hands descend over his elbow and into his forearm, well muscled from years of bow work and in need of attention. "I wonder if Frey would know. It didn't seem malicious, but circumstance alone could have turned the venture deadly if the wrong people were transported to the wrong areas." She and Wessex had been just fine of course, and while Hotaru is not the most sympathetic person, any dangers are due a certain degree of speculation and investigation.
HOTARU
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.
