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!
working the goldfields on the high sierras the early snow began to fall
The glass shatters and is thrown out, Sera automatically shielding herself with an arm, despite not needing it as Remi and her avoid it. “Gods, thank you.” She breathes in a sigh of relief, clutching into Remi’s mane tighter as he rises them toward the roof, heading her suggestion. Levi follows suit, the pale dragon swooping above the top as Sera leans slightly over the side, searching for anything within.
“I can channel if we need it.” She suggests with a pause, sucking down a breath as she regards the rooftop. “Just… Growl or something if you want me to.” She knows well enough from Lena that he couldn’t converse with her like this, and so she holds tight, eyes peeled just as the manticores are.
Sera clings to Remi and tries to scan the roof as well! Levi also swoops above it in search of anything!
buried treasure for my darling under redwood trees so tall
Now you're sucking the right tit. (Or whatever other saying you wish to use).
Anju and Lena hunker down at the side door to the temple. Bandages change hands, and some of those cuts and lacerations get the appropriate care. Much better. As for the door? Anju tries it, but it won't budge. And from within, the two women will hear fresh screaming - it sounds almost like sobbing, and it comes from everywhere within, as if the building itself is terrified. Luckily, nothing comes to scare them off (yet).
From up on the roof, Seraphina and Levi will find their view to be predictably... average. It isn't as obscured as it might be, but nor is it particularly insightful. Just the rooftop of the Trinity Temple in the pouring rain and pitch black.
Then there's Remi. Like a really vicious Pooh Bear, the manticore puts his head in the game and think think thinks about the problem at hand. And a stroke of inspiration hits him:
What is normally considered polite to do, when one arrives outside a stranger's door?
You have 48 hours. So that nothing is missed, please include a quick summary at the bottom of your post, including any items or abilities you have used.
Anju spares a grateful smile to Lena as the woman - unsurprisingly - produces bandages. There is time enough for mending before she is trying the door; finding only a stuck-fast resistance and a screaming wail that only seems to intensify with their efforts.
Riya flutters anxiously, turning to soar past the windows on their side of the building, peering through the glass to try and find any figures inside if they are farther from the door. Biting her lip, prowling to and fro like a caged lioness, Anju wracks her brain for any other alternative. Whatever was inside hadn’t answered Lena, so it was no animal. It certainly sounds human.
Turning back to the door she pounds on it with her fist, unsure what else to try. “Can anyone answer us?! Can you let us in?” A ridiculous notion, but perhaps if someone is injured they can get to the door long enough to unlock it if it means being saved. Otherwise, well...she hopes one of the others has a better idea.
- - -
Riya flies past the windows to try and find anyone inside. Anju pounds on the door and calls out asking if anyone is in there and if they’re capable of unlocking the door from the inside.
I am a kamikaze Lonelier than a patriarch labeled liar
The ceiling simply looks as one expects, and without the ability to expand on any of the thoughts he's having with Sera, the alchemist decides to forgo their rooftop mission. Gliding back down toward the door they'd initially tried to enter, Remi dips a shoulder to wordless communicate for Sera to slide off. Once she has, he'll shift back (wings retained), to ruffle a hand through his curls fore staring at the doorway.
"If we are being kept out by magical means...perhaps that is how we need to be let in. You know, like in the stories? You know, where you have to click your heels together, knock, spin around three times, and say the magic words?" Clearly Remi hadn't paid enough attention to Vai's stories, though at least one of those suggestions might prove fruitful. So, clicking his heels, spinning around, knocking on the door, and then singing out, "Open sesame!" Remi cocks his head to the side, waiting for what he assumes will be precisely nothing.
Remi returns he and Sera to the front door and tries all of the magical-door-opening-tricks he remembers from Vai's stories (including knocking).
Remoodles feats:
Magic: Kindred Spirit (Feat) | Spirit-attacks have disadvantage against him
Type: Dark | Rank: Basic
Magic: FEAT: Aint Afraid of No Ghost | Has advantage against spirit-based creatures.
Type: Light | Rank: Basic
THE ALCHEMIST
i’ve been chasin the storm of a lovesick lonely lie
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm
Uncertain what the other pair, and most importantly her sister, were faring, Lena conjured more information through the Attuned bond towards Remi, presuming it could reach him far better than her screeching over the rain. We found another door.
But thereafter, the wails increased, pervading, surrounding, overbearing, overwhelming, and her sincere, glowing, beneficent heart couldn’t take it. It sounded like terror and fear, like sobbing and something else she couldn’t quite fathom, couldn’t examine. If it wasn’t a creature – what was it? A spirit? A ghost? A portion of the world they’d yet to understand?
She moved against the door then, gingerly, gently, rapping her knuckles against its surface. Maybe they could gain access or attention in that way? “Please, let us help you,” she echoed. What else could be done?
--
Lena tells Remi through the Attuned bond that they found another door, and tries to knock on the door saying they can help.
Attuned Ability:
- Can speak telepathically with other Attuned even when not shifted
that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm
working the goldfields on the high sierras the early snow began to fall
A sharp sigh leaves her as her view and Levi’s result in essentially nothing of use. And it seems Remi’s have as well, as Sera grips onto him tight when he begins to move again, heading back down to the ground as the rain continues to pound them. They land and the shoulder shrug is all she needs before she’s sliding off the Manticore, feet hitting the ground as Levi whirls around back to the Artificer.
She steps up beside Remi, hearing his suggestion and despite her panic of the wailing from within, it cracks a small smile on her face. “I don’t think it’s combined like that…” She starts before she’s watching him do exactly that, combining them all. She sidles up beside it, too, though and raises her hand to knock on the door. “Hello? May we come in?” She asks, as politely as she can despite her heartbeat thundering in her ears. And she steps back immediately to Remi’s side.
“I’m pretty sure you click your heels three times and say ‘there’s no place like home’, by the way.” Her gaze slips over to the demigod with that same small smile.
Sera follows Remi’s lead and knocks on the door, asking to come in, before moving to stand beside Remi and corrects him on his story books.
buried treasure for my darling under redwood trees so tall
As if by magic (because maybe it is), the doors - both sets of them - fly silently open. And they stay that way. The rain pounds and the wind howls and within the Trinity Temple? Silence, and blackness, and more silence. Like a wall of dark it beckons them forth, and the screaming, sobbing something from within has ceased its cries, as if realising that they are come at last.
Knock knock, who's there?
Upon stepping into the dark (because presumably that's what you do, given how dearly you have tried to get inside), there's something else. Breathing, it almost sounds like. Wheezing. And then a voice rasps out, whispering.
You have 48 hours. So that nothing is missed, please include a quick summary at the bottom of your post, including any items or abilities you have used.
As the door swings open swiftly, revealing nobody behind it, Anju immediately hesitates. (Maybe she's done being so stupid, who knows?) Her arm flies out to try and prevent Lena from entering as well if possible, and Riya wings to her side instantly, abandoning her search of the windows. Fuck, but what else is there to be done? She sidles sideways through the doorway, unsheathing her sword and holding it at her side. Only barely entering the actual building, she directs Riya to try and melt or scorch the carved area in the doorframe so that the door cannot be closed and locked by human means if it tries to swing shut once more. Though this reeks of magic to Anju, which only makes her trepidation worse.
The voice calls out, eerie and consuming, and Anju tenses. A thousand answers swim through her mind; spare him, kill him, bring him to me. But who is this he? "What has he done to face judgement?" is what she settles on instead. Unsure if the voice is friend or foe, and hoping to discern something closer to an answer regarding that by prompting the voice into something that - were the situation not so tense - could qualify as conversation.
Anju slides sideways halfway through the door, and has Riya try and melt/scorch the lock area in the doorframe so it can't be locked again. Then she responds to the voice that calls out.
I am a kamikaze Lonelier than a patriarch labeled liar
'Oh, you're an expert into getting into things, as well as building them?' Remi quips back, but it does make sense. It might be the sort of enchantment Sera has put on buildings and doors in the past.
Oh. Lena? Not knowing Sera's sister was an attuned, it's a thoughtful smile that spreads across the alchemist's lips, as if they all aren't suddenly on the precipice of danger. Sera and I are going to try and go in through the front. We—oh, it's opening.
Glancing over his shoulder at Sera, assuming it was her efforts rather than his, he does immediately step inside. In the darkness he begins to fade almost instantly, and it's only because of Sera's presence with him that he lets his fingers roll slowly by his side to keep himself mostly visible. The question makes him pause, wishing Ronin was with him that they might offer some pithy and boyish response. Alone though, he simply stands slightly taller and considers.
"If it is his time to die, then give him to me." Because in this, that's who Remi was after all. Ludo's demigod. The Lullaby.
Remi steps in and suggests if death is on the table, then he be given over to Remi.
THE ALCHEMIST
i’ve been chasin the storm of a lovesick lonely lie
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm
The world around them rasped, opening up into darkness. Anju’s arm sprawled in front of her, blocking her entry, wasn’t disregarded or ignored; she had another voice echoing back in refrain. Longing to be with her sister, as opposed to wandering in alternate directions, the young Caretaker responded in turn. Okay. We’ll come to you! She twisted back towards the Dragoon, trying to ignore the inquiry beating against her for now. “Let’s go meet up with the others,” and her hands were striving, trying, to drag Anju out of the darker folds, just for a moment more.
And then back towards the main door, giving her more time to think, to puzzle over the inquiry, before she coined anything else into the folds of the abyss.
What would the kind, beneficent, gentle Lena say? “Save him,” she unfurled.
--
Lena implores Anju to come with her to the main door to reunite the party. She then answers the question with ‘save him’.
that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm
working the goldfields on the high sierras the early snow began to fall
She doesn’t know, but she feigns confidence as easily as she breathes. “You have to know how before you can build them, you know.” She titters back with a playful grin despite feeling everything but playful in this moment. But the doors open and she steps back toward Remi with dark brows furrowing together, the whispered voice rasping out.
She remains as close to Remi as possible, not wanting to get lost in the dark.
But she finds that the Lullaby nearly disappears until he moves and she tries to keep that in mind. She can’t hear the conversation that goes on between Remi and her sister, but she does try to peer through the dark to find the other Magnus sister, when she comes up empty for the time being. “Save him.” She repeats her sister, unbeknownst to her.
Sera tries to stick close to Remi and answers the same as her sister with ‘save him’.
buried treasure for my darling under redwood trees so tall
04-23-2021, 02:51 PM (This post was last modified: 04-23-2021, 02:51 PM by Court Official.)
key quest
One answers a question with a question, which is bad enoughl. And the others...
Save him?
Save him?
OUTRAGE.
Doors slam, sealing the party inside the Trinity Temple, and whether or not the locks have been warped (clever idea, granted), they will not be able to see the outline of the doorways to escape again. All is black, all is howling, screeching fury, and what feels like raking claws reach out and swipe at Anju, Lena and Seraphina.
Anju is hit the worst, as if whatever spirit resides here is already gunning for her. Lena, too, receives a few nasty lacerations. And Sera? She's hit, certainly, but it's barely a graze. Maybe it's her proximity to Remi.
Because of all those to answer, he has answered favourably.
For Remi's eyes only, what look like candles will light up ahead. The voice calls out again to him,
"And will you make him suffer?"
For the others, things are not so pleasant. (Ha.) Whispers sound from around pillars, from beneath their feet, and chittering things laugh from dark corners. What do you do?
Anju 29/51 HP
Remi 634/650 HP
Lena 45/60 HP
Seraphina 29/30 HP
You have 48 hours. So that nothing is missed, please include a quick summary at the bottom of your post, including any items or abilities you have used.
Claws dig deep, though Anju cannot see them, and she can’t help the strangled noise of pain that escapes her. Riya - previously bound to immobility on Anju’s orders - roars and swoops in a circle around Anju and Lena, fire crackling in her maw to try to light the area and reveal any physical entity for her to attack. For now though, all she can do is circle like a guard dog, and Anju does the same to Lena - trying to keep herself as a physical barrier between the healer and whatever is in the dark, sword aloft in preparation to stroke whatever is revealed.
Fucking magic.
Nothing responds to them, and Anju grits her teeth. What the hell do they do now? Anju wants to tell them to kill the poor bastard, but can’t bring herself to after Lena had asked for them to be saved. If they’d receive any kind of response now anyways. And she still has no idea where Remi and Sera are. “Can you tell where Sera is?” It’s a bitten out question, mumbled low. Anju has no Attuned bond, but she needs to know where the other two are before they either try to meet up or try to fight their way out. No sense in friendly fire.
- - -
Riya circles Anju and Lena with fire in her mouth to try and light the way and reveal anything physical.
Anju asks Lena to try and figure out where Sera and Remi are and is ready to use her sword on anything Riya’s fire reveals.
I am a kamikaze Lonelier than a patriarch labeled liar
Remi can't hear what the other two answer, but hearing Sera, the alchemist inwardly tenses. He's quite certain that saving is not on this creature's mind, and indeed, as it asks him if suffering is involved, Remi thinks the desired answer is probably yes.
Drawing himself up taller, Remi's wings unfurl from his back as claws extend from his fingertips. Colour begins to bleed away from his irises as shadows creep up his legs as if to claim him as their own. "I am Ludo's demigod." He replies in voice that's more of a growl; certainly he looks and sounds like the sort of creature that would make others suffer. With talons to tear through muscle and a newly-appeared tail capable of doing irreparable damage, the manticore-man does his best to appear like the sort of beast who would indeed render the sort of violence that the unknown voice seems to be wanting from him.
Remi tries to imply that yes, he would make him suffer.
THE ALCHEMIST
i’ve been chasin the storm of a lovesick lonely lie
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
