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!
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
So... Ronin's lovely little skyport hadn't fared well in the monsoons. The Star is more than a bit pouty about this, and so the first of many blazing, sunny days in Longheat will find him stripped to the waist and letting out a long sigh to see what work there is to be done before he can officially say that the travel route between Stormbreak and Torchline has been established.
There's a lot more on his mind as well, granted, but Ronin is a dab hand at compartmentalisation by this point, and he stuffs it into a mental cupboard in the back of his mind and pretty much leaves it there to be dealt with later. For now, he cracks his knuckles and gets to work. And if anyone happens to be coming by who wants to help him, gods, it'll be appreciated.
The following is a PQ to repair the skyport to allow travel between Torchline and Stormbreak!!
The following tasks are available:
- Clean up debris; there's a lot of rubble, driftwood and other stuff that has been blown in from the monsoons.
- Help to repair the docks (Ronin is doing this too!). There's spare wood, nails, sealant and other tools available.
- Inspect the water. Who knows what's lurking down there since the monsoons rattled through Torchline?
1.
2.
3.
Post your character arriving and feel free to pick a task! (More spaces can be added if necessary).
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
05-01-2021, 10:36 PM (This post was last modified: 05-01-2021, 10:37 PM by Rigby.)
all alone, open eyed, burn the page my little dark age
Flowerbirth and it's plague of monsoons were finally over, and Rigby was almost reluctant to leave the house. It'd been nice, having a place to take cover in, make a room in, live in and not have to leave the next day. He wouldn't dare call it a home, that was pushing it a bit too far. He had the feeling that any residual attachment to the place would vanish when Milo and knife bitch came back anyways.
He did leave though, dragged himself out of bed and out into the streets where the sun was actually shining. Not that that was a plus or anything, the grey clouds were just as good. He'd headed to the market first to refresh his thieving abilities, leaving the square with a new ring on his middle finger. Somehow he ended up at Kaiholo port, where a man he'd never seen before was muddling around with some ruined dock.
The ghost wasn't particularly interested in helping, but a ripple at the water caught his attention and he slipped on by to look at the surf below.
Who am I, that the morning star would light the way for my wandering heart?
"Uhm... Hi dad."
Seren appeared quietly by the docks, barefoot as usual and with a thick coat more suited for Frostfall than Torchline sun slung over an arm. It was damp, oozing with the stench of wet fur and her dark hair looked as though it too was just drying up. Apparently it had veen snowing in Halo when she left.
Biting her lip, she hovered uncertainly and threw a quick glance at the stranger hovering nearby, before gazing at her father. Trying to gague his mood. She wanted nothing more than to leap into his arms and cry from relief of seeing a familiar face, and finally explain everything. But could she? Was this the right moment? Dropping the coat in a careless pile on the ground, she approached the Dark Star cautiously. Ready for a scolding, or... No, truth be told Seren didn't actually know what to be ready for. "Can I help you?" she asked anyway, unusually subdued.
---------
Seren will choose to help Ronin repair the docks.
Seren
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Hanging around the port in preparation for the monsoons to end hadn’t been easy, and Harper had soaked through more than a few pairs of shoes to do it - but here he is. Even without Safrin encouraging him to be here, he likely would have shown up anyway; helping is in his blood, regardless of ulterior motives.
There are already two others gathered around Safrin’s chosen - both relatively young by visual estimation. Not that it precludes their usefulness of course. Harper strolls in with a warm boyish smile, giving a wave towards Ronin and keeping an ear for the tasks laid out. As last to arrive he doesn’t have much of a choice, but that doesn’t bother him.
Cleaning up debris is easy enough. Physical labor, and Harper keeps up an intense training regime that makes that relatively easy. He sets to work in silence - well, relative silence, as he hums pleasantly to himself as he goes - and takes stock of the landscape with a shrewd eye as he does so.
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
Ronin glances up to see that a few have come to help him out, and it warms him as much as the sun overhead does. But then a painfully familiar voice calls out, and his breath hitches to see his daughter. Relief washes through his expression, echoed by the dazzling starlight that suffuses his skin at the sight of Seren, before it fades to a mix of happiness and scolding. It's not the time nor the place, and Ronin simultaneously wants to hug his daughter tightly and reprimand her in front of the rest of the port for vanishing.
"Of course you can help," he says softly, handing her a hammer so she can tack in the nails while he holds them in place. "Nothing looks rotten, but a few planks have splintered, so we'll have to re-seal everything once it's in place."
Then, looking up, he smiles across to Harper and Rigby. "Thanks for your help," he calls. "I'll buy a round at the Hanged Man for us, after this."
Seren and Ronin need to hammer in some replacement boards for the dock! Watch Ronin's fingers, Seren!
Rigby will find something very shiny indeed in the water beneath the docks. Maybe he should hop in the water and investigate to see what it is?
As for Harper, his cleaning efforts go reasonably well at first, but the rustling movements have attracted a flock of hels, and they are making his life a bit difficult! What will he do to discourage them?
No post order!
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
Who am I, that the morning star would light the way for my wandering heart?
The starlight shimmering forth from Ronin as he spotted her was all the answer Seren needed. With a soundless sigh she relaxed, and crossed the distance between them in a few quick strides. No hugs; she could live with that. No scoldings either; at least not for now. The hammer was enough. The task was enough.
"Alright. Let me know if something looks shoddy, and I'll fix it." Seren had never tried to build something before. It looked easy enough to hammer down nails, though she was perhaps a touch too careful as she began to hammer down the boards. Bashing her father's thumbs in seemed a very poor way to say how sorry she was.
Seren
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
05-02-2021, 06:21 PM (This post was last modified: 05-02-2021, 06:22 PM by Rigby.)
all alone, open eyed, burn the page my little dark age
A couple other people showed up, presumably to help the man build and mend his storm ravaged port. There was a thank you shot Rigby's way; he glanced over his shoulder, eyed them silently for a moment, scratched a place at the back of his neck, then looked back at the rippling surf. Something shiny blinked back up at him, something that begged for his attention and weaselly disposition.
He'd never cared much about wet clothes, so without reservation he hopped down into the shallows and plunged his hand quickly into the water, hoping to pull up whatever was down there.
Ronin's charming smile - and the promise of drinks - only inspires a brighter smile from Harper as he gives a cheeky wave from further down the beach. The bolts in the small leather bag at his waist swings cheerily for all the power it holds, but Harper pays it no mind for now; patience is a virtue, and work on the boats will come eventually. For now, there is manual labor to distract him - and hels, which are somehow even less appetizing.
Luckily, they are relatively friendly creatures, even if he seems to have riled them up with his work. Reluctant as he is to sacrifice the snacks he'd packed there is no other swift and easy alternative. Plucking some of the dried meat from his pocket he tosses it further down the beach, hoping to entice the crowd by making them squabble for the protein. Only then does Harper sidle around them to try and continue cleaning up the debris.
- - -
Harper throws some dried meat further down the beach to try and entice the hels away so he can continue cleaning!
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
It starts off really well, but unfortunately Seren's inexperience works against her; with a thunk that is definitely not a plank of wood, Ronin manages to hold in his curse - barely. "It's fine," he says through a strained laugh, shaking out his sore thumb and offering her the bag of nails. "Here, why don't I hammer for a bit? There's only a few more planks to go and it should be fine from there." So saying, he takes up the hammer and tries to carefully tack in the remaining nails whilst Seren holds them in place.
Rigby plunges into the water to grab his shiny thing, and damn if he's not successful. He grabs it! It's a treasure fish.
It's a fish, Rigby. And as it wriggles and writhes in his fist, it will become apparent that he's also disturbed a school of cloud manta that have tried to reclaim their home beneath the dock. Oops.
Harper, meanwhile, is very successful with his plan to distract the hels - off they go down the beach, nibbling after the bits of meat he throws. All but one. King Hel will not be discouraged, and it comes to perch on Harper's shoulder to try and nip at his ears and generally make his life difficult.
No post order!
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
Who am I, that the morning star would light the way for my wandering heart?
Seren grimaced enough for the both of them, wincing in sympathy. "Oof, sorry," she said, and hurriedly handed over the hammer. "Here, you can do one back. It's only fair." Accepting the bag of nails, she juggled a bit with them and the wood before getting a good grip. She wriggled her fingers pointedly around the nail, and tried a little grin at her father. If he aimed for her fingers, maybe the blow would land on the metal instead? Backwards logic may or may not work as intended.
At least now, she had time to look around and see what the others were up to. She was suitably impressed that the boy in the water had managed to catch a fish with his bare hands, but the one who made her laugh was the older fellow with the Hel on his shoulder. "Try walking on the water!" she called to him. It had nothing to do with gathering up debris, but why be so serious all the time. They could work and play at the same time, right?
Seren
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
05-03-2021, 11:41 PM (This post was last modified: 05-04-2021, 01:21 AM by Rigby.)
all alone, open eyed, burn the page my little dark age
Rigby was incredibly fast, nimble fingers built for thieving stole the object from the water, only it squirmed and writhed in his fist. There was a pause, a wide eyed fumble when he realized he'd actually caught a fish with his bare hands, and then the thing flopped itself free again. He didn't try after it, he didn't need the thing and it wasn't worth as much as some other shiny trinket might’ve been.
He glanced up to the others, shielding his dark eyes from the burning longheat sun above with a scrunched up scowl. Everything was a bit chaotic in general, but boards were getting placed, hel's were being chased off, and fish were being caught. Rigby hadn't started the day giving any fucks about a broken dock, but he was relatively interested now, especially with payment on the line.
Some more movement on his own level caught his eye, beneath the dock some cloud mantas began to surface and dive, weaving through the water restlessly. "There's a bunch of cloud mantas down here," he called up to the others, before sloshing through the waves to meet the animals to scare them or corral them away, or just to see what they might do. They were beautiful animals, even more beautiful were their crystalline head pieces, and Rigby was an opportunist.
rigby walks through the water to the mantas to corral them away (look for any of their crystals in the water below!)
Okay well, snack loss aside he’d call that a success! Except for the weight that settles ominously on his shoulder moments before a beak starts pecking and pulling at his ear. Harper gives a startled noise more squawk than laugh, but even his initial startlement doesn’t seem to dissuade the bird. The young woman’s teasing has Harper laughing more fully, even though he can’t really see her through his new parrot’s feathery body. “I don’t think I want to swim when he leaves me alone,” he calls back, trying to shoo the bird away with a flail of his arm.
Even if that doesn’t work, a few pecks to the ear and blunt nails through his coat won’t stop Harper from cleaning up the beach. He’d rather just give King Hel a taste for human blood than give up because of a bird.
- - -
Harper tries to flail at King Hel to dislodge him but otherwise suffers through it to try and continue cleaning!
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
"I would never," Ronin croons to his daughter, a whisper of a smile on his face despite himself. And his efforts to hammer actually do the job - avoiding fingers and any other mishaps, the Taliesins are a good team and they successfully repair the broken pieces of the dock in good time!
Which is helpful, because it looks as though there's trouble brewing under the water. Rigby and his efforts to get rid of the cloud manta are going... reasonably poorly? Perhaps it's because he's looking more for their crystals (the only ones he finds are attached to the plantimals, sorry) but they seem very stubborn when it comes to being displaced.
Harper, meanwhile, seems to have found a second profession as a Hel Whisperer. It's probably because he's paying King Hel absolutely zero attention that the bird swoops indignantly away. Or maybe the bird is even trying to help, since it grabs a few bits of debris and takes flight with them as well.
Either way, his efforts to clean up the docks are a bright success!
Last round guys! All in the water to help shoo away the cloud manta!
No post order :3
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
Who am I, that the morning star would light the way for my wandering heart?
The look Seren returned her father was wide eyed and wholly innocent. Perhaps too much so to be entirely pure - was she actually hoping to be whacked on the fingers, or just pleased to lure a smile from him? Who knew. Regardless, the work proceeded smoothly, and she soon had nothing more to do.
Free to turn attentions elsewhere, the young woman looked between Harper's struggle with the Hel and the ratty-looking boy's dance with cloud-manta, and nodded her assent. "Yes, I should say so. Here, let me try something."
Whispering something under breath, she threw a glance to the sky. Even in the bright sunlight, a star became visible and came tumbling down, sinking into the water without so much as a splash. A faint shimmer of starlight remained beneath the surface however, and soon the gleaming fin of a tiger shark could be seen cutting the surface as it approached, heading straight for the swarming mantas.
Seren
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
