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!
When selecting the council member to come with her to the Oerwoud, Morgan had admittedly immediately known she wanted to take Neron. Quite simply, of all the people she had, he was the one she wanted to spend extended time with the most. They didn't have many chances to be alone in the palace and after the rather traumatic trip to Cannibal City, it sounded nice to have a walk with her boyfriend loverfriend with benefits Neron.
The Oerwoud was certainly a change from Halo; the solid heat and bright colours made Morgan squint, eyes used to stark cold and white. Her usual cloak had stayed at home, though she'd brought Eunike for the ride; as the terrain had gotten more overgrown and uneven, she'd decided to lead the unicorn along behind them instead.
"We're looking for sentient vines...you should probably look. It's too dark." They'd had to come at this time because of Neron's DeLiCaTe AsCeNdEd SkIn, so he could take on the job of using his special eyes. Morgan stopped for a moment and leaned against a tree, wondering how it could be so warm in the night here.
Neron is actually quite enjoying his time here in the Oerwoud. The jungle never sleeps, and it sounds just as alive (and dangerous) as it did in the daylight, so as Morgan slows her steps and lingers against a tree with Eunike, he turns on heel to regard her with a smile curling across his lips. "Too dark? Would you like to hold my hand when we next proceed?" he asks. It is a rarity for them to be alone like this, especially out of public scrutiny.
Ah, but it's time to use his special eyes, and the Spymaster gives a shallow bow and turns to regard the dense jungle around them. "Sentinent vines, you said? I assume that means they are simply vines that move around?" Tilting his head back, Neron's hands settle in his pockets and he frowns at the canopy above. "Do sentient vines sleep? Because I'm not seeing too much here. Just you. Not that I'm complaining at all."
Morgan 'tsk'ed and rolled her eyes, but a smile did shape her lips as she sighed at him. "Not if you say it like that. It would be practical; however, it's important you know I'm not scared, nor is it for any kind of romantic means." In other words: yes, she'd like to hold his hand.
As for the vines, all she could do was shrug; presumably that was what they were, but Morgan had hardly spent a lot of time here. While Neron looked she readjusted her hairtie, casting her eyes over the dim dark she could see of the jungle; what could he see, she wondered? All the colours, all the details she was missing out on? Ascending had never and would never appeal to her, but there were undeniable benefits.
Turning back as he spoke (once again making her want to scoff, but she resisted this time), she tapped her chin. "I don't know. Maybe we should have gotten some kind of guide for this mission...if you're struggling to see them on your own, perhaps we should stay overnight then in the morning I can look too?" Morgan had slept rough plenty of times, admittedly never in the jungle, but it couldn't be that different, right?
"You? Scared? Warden, I would never." Neron would have gasped and let a hand flutter to his chest to complete the image, but that would ruin the other image of him standing in the jungle like a handsome statue, wouldn't it? Still, as they move to proceed he does slip one of his hands out of his pockets, holding it out for Morgan to take. Feigning offence, he glances back at her and smirks. "I didn't mean that I didn't see anything - just nothing that looked like sentient vines, or anything coming imminently close to us. We should keep going, they might be in a different place."
Then again, staying overnight could also be considered a decent idea. "If you think that would work, I don't mind. I make quite a perfect sentinel, you know, not needing to sleep and all. I'll take the first watch, and all the rest until dawn. But you must promise that you'll keep my delicate skin in mind, if we stay." AKA, please don't let me burn up in the sun, Morgan.
"Good." Sufficiently convinced he wasn't doubting her, Morgan let her hand be taken and stepped over a branch before her, using Neron as a guide and thing to lean on in the dim dark. "I should have asked a local before coming here where they can be found. I wonder if they are malicious?" She could imagine a vine coming to snake around their ankles or bind their wrists if they stopped paying attention, but maybe that was years of experience with Halo's harsh environment making her project onto the jungle.
He was right - if they stayed overnight they'd have a problem come the morning; she supposed they could find a big shadow to stay under for a day, but it would be a waste of time. "Let's press on for now. But it's an option."
Forward past a tight choked corridor with heavy foliage on either side and they came out to a clearing with a small running stream; Morgan couldn't see it, but could hear the water running over the stones. "Oh. I might stop to refill my water...does it look clean?" She knelt by what she thought was the edge and tried to reach forwards, trusting Neron to tell her if she was about to touch a crocodile's tooth. "I do see why people might Ascend when it comes to things like the ability to see in the dark like you can."
"More likely to be playful than malicious, else we'd have heard at least a few rumours about avoiding the jungle, you would think." Of course Neron could absolutely be wrong about that. It might be that the sentient vines are bloodthirsty, and it's just not very well advertised. Hopefully not, though. He's privately glad for the darkness since it means Morgan won't see his smile as she takes his hand. They stroll together over branches and through dense foliage, Neron keeping an ear sharp for Eunike behind them.
Then the sound of running water is filling his ears, and he nods and beckons for her to go ahead towards the riverbank. "Looks clean enough to me. Not as good as the water in Halo, but little is," he says, resisting the urge to give her a playful nudge just in case she falls in.
"Oh, I'm sure there are Attuned who can see in the dark with their shifts too, or items that would do something similar," he says of being Ascended, shrugging his shoulders. "The living forever is probably more of a perk, if we're going to talk about that." He laughs.
"I have heard rumours about avoiding the jungle. Never specifically about the vines, though..." Even if she had, it wouldn't have stopped Morgan from coming. She'd never been scared of what nature could throw at her; respectful, reverent, sure, but not scared. Eunike was much the same, stomping along and crushing leaves and twigs with an indifferent determination behind them.
She trusted his assessment of the water and bent down to cup some to her lips; it was refreshing enough, if with a tang she couldn't quite identify. After deciding it was better than nothing, she refilled her bottle. There was a distracted smile on her face as she watched the water (what she could see of it, vague notions of movement in the dark) go by - that was, until Neron spoke of his immortality.
Her expression immediately dropping, Morgan pressed on the top of her bottle and stayed sat for a moment, wrestling with words that wanted to leave her and finally letting them win. "Surely it's more of a curse. You'll have to see all of us get old and leave you - I'm already keenly aware of the wrinkles on my eyes that you're missing."
Neron unwittingly thrusts a finger at the perpetual elephant in the room, and he's not noticed the slither of vines beginning to gently coil up his leg - not with the topic at hand. Swallowing and letting his gaze drop to the water as he feels Morgan's... sadness? awkwardness? he's not sure. Then, inhaling a breath he absolutely doesn't need, he makes himself glance back down at her. He even resists saying something like with the years between us, that hardly counts. Good job, Neron.
"It is in some ways," he murmurs. "But then it isn't like walking through the world alone. The other Ascended will go through the same thing, and they will always have each other. That is why so many of them fall in love with one another, I suppose." There is always going to be that current of forever that runs through them.
Morgan usually prided herself on her intuition and attention to details, but once again Neron and his irritating habit of making her feel things was getting in the way of her instincts; she didn't notice the vine either, continuing to watch the water flow by as she tried not to think about a tired metaphor for time in the stream.
What Neron had to say irked her and Morgan wasn't even sure why, but before she could consider it she looked over her shoulder, accusing with a dark sarcasm:"So, you will have the other Ascended and not miss me." She hated to think she might be jealous, but the thought of being some temporary thing while she was young enough to be desirable, until Neron could find someone that would live forever...she tightened the cap of her bottle on until she nearly cracked it and stood up.
"..I apologise. I just...I do not like the thought. That we are already apart in age and time is only going to make that more prominent." It wasn't really about vanity, though that certainly added a little more pain to the whole thing; it was about the inevitable end, the reminder of her own mortality, the knowledge he'd never get to grow old and have the natural closure of a life lived normally.
Neron hasn't said it with the intention of making her upset (and with his track record, when the intention is there he can certainly be quite scathing), so it's with confused surprise that he glances down at her, again oblivious to the vines snaking higher along his thigh - naughty naughty. "That is not what I said, and I think you know it," he remarks quietly. His gaze drops away as Morgan rises to her feet, though his feet start to bring him closer only for the vine to keep him rooted in place.
"Oh," he says, gesturing down at it as if to say you're welcome. But back to the subject at hand. "It doesn't have to be that way, you know," he mumbles. It's a thought that has raced through his mind on more than one occasion now, especially as things have progressed with Morgan. "And I would miss you, not that I believe it needed to be said. I would miss you quite fiercely, if you were gone."
05-15-2021, 06:10 PM (This post was last modified: 05-15-2021, 06:10 PM by Morgan.)
MORGAN
It was only Neron's gesture that alerted Morgan to the vine sneaking up his leg. Usually, this would take all of her attention and she did kneel down to start trying to peel the plant away, but her mind was still occupied by their discussion. She was at least present enough to try and spot the root of the vine, so she could cut it there and take it to the shrine.
Neron spoke as she was detangling the determined vine from around his knee and upon hearing his words she sighed and held the vine in place for a moment, looking up at him. Of course, this was the obvious thing to come up, when the subject arose, but... "I can't Ascend. My impartiality to the Gods might save Halo in this tension that's starting to build. I don't want to be beholden to any of them anyway. And..." Casting her eyes back down, focusing on the task again, she added quietly: "I wouldn't want to live forever. It's too long."
Never getting the closure of an end, seeing all your friends and surroundings change and die over and over again...no, it wasn't a life she wanted for herself. "I wish...I wish I had known you better before you Ascended." Morgan wasn't usually prone to fantasies, but this was one that had crossed her mind before.
Neron holds still to allow Morgan to cut the vine from around his leg - an easy feat for an Ascended, and he gazes down to meet her gaze, eyes easily piercing the darkness to find her own. "I understand," he says, his tone quiet and careful to hide away the obvious disappointment that lives behind the words. He understands, but he doesn't like it. He understands, but he doesn't agree. "I do hope you are right about the conflict, though. With as many supporters of various gods within Halo, do you think you can prevent civil unrest?"
But then the political becomes the personal, and he silently holds out a hand to help her up from the jungle floor. "What makes you say that?" he asks honestly. He's not sure what the difference would be, unless... "Would you have wanted to stop me from Ascending?"
Morgan could hear the disappointment in his voice and there was a part of her, the softness in her heart that Neron had begun to easily access, that wanted to try and fix that; but she couldn't. "I have no idea. I'd like to think that those within the Citadel are more preoccupied with being Halovians than specific servants of Gods...though of course, people can hide their true colours." She knew that Deimos had once been married to Amalia, who had very strong opinions against the Voice - did her General share the same sentiments?
"I know I alone won't be enough. But maybe I can still try to show people you can live a life without having to let the Gods pull you one way or another." Her fingers lingered on Neron's leg for a moment as she made sure the vine was taken off and then Morgan stood up, looking at the shadow Neron was in the dark jungle and not letting go of his hand.
She didn't know if he was expecting any other answer to that question. "Yes. Wouldn't you have stopped yourself?"
"Well, luckily for you, that's what I am here for," Neron points out with a smile that, while as crookedly charming as many of his others, doesn't hold quite the same degree of mischief. "As your Spymaster, it would be my pleasure to find out what kind of true nature we're dealing with when it comes to Halo's allegiances." He ran a bar, he kept his ear to the ground. It wouldn't be so difficult compared to many others in the same position.
His hand remains in Morgan's as well, though he turns to direct them back the way they came now, since their mission is complete for all intents and purposes. "I admire you for that," he murmurs with a smile that lays much more gently upon his lips. "Though I'm afraid it might not be so easy for us Ascended. We fight for our very existence. Should the Voice fall, we would all fall."
Would he have stopped himself Ascending though, if he had met Morgan in this capacity before? He chews at the inside of his cheek. "You would have definitely been a compelling reason to remain as I was," he says, giving her a gentle nudge.
