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!
At first he'd considered asking her if she wanted to make good on her offer and meet him in the ~Special Room~, but Sam had chickened out and had instead just asked Edy if she'd come to help him clean. Not the most tantalising offer, but he added two incentives: 1. Anything she particularly liked that she found she could take, within reason, and 2. There were no conversational topics banned; all was fair game.
Honestly, he just wanted to hang out with someone casually for a while. Hide in his house and do a mundane task and forget about the looming dread that was infecting all of them. It wasn't like the job didn't need doing, either; the cupboard by his stairs was nearly bursting with things. Books, trinkets, clothes, boxes of unknowable items...he was an avid collector and the lines between that and hoarder were often subtle.
He hadn't dared to open it yet as he waited for her, Mia walking around with a look in her eyes that said she was ready to mess with something as he idly watched her to make sure she didn't ruin the chairs any further. Once Edy knocked he'd bounce to his feet and open the door, greeting her with: "Hello; I hope you're very excited for hours of cleaning and tidying." and a smirk.
05-30-2021, 08:58 PM (This post was last modified: 05-31-2021, 08:03 PM by Edrei.)
EDREI
Edy wasn't surprised that Sam had asked her over for a night of nothingness instead of meeting her in the sex room. He was kinda reserved and shy that way, but you know what? Having come from a family where the smallest sign of hesitation got your ass thrown into a cell for a week with no sunlight or food? She'd learned you couldn't just browbeat everything into submission. Loud and obnoxious as she was, Edy was actually pretty big on consent and everyone being comfortable in themselves and whatnot.
So she arrives, looking her usual brand of mischievous and smug. Dressed in a pair of oddly fitting overalls with a black tank top beneath, she sort of looks like she's there to clean, were it not for the high heels on her feet or the obnoxiously red lipstick on her lips. "Sup." She replies deadpan, poking her tongue at the inside of her cheek as he mentions the HoURs of CleaNiNg and TidyInG ahead. Whatever other sassy remarks she might have had are entirely forgotten as Edy's dark eyes land upon Mia.
"A cat!" She mewls instantly, shoving past Sam to collapse onto the floor and try and gain Mia's attention.
who wants to fall in love when you can fall asleep?
Edy's intially cool entrance was somewhat ruined by her immediate thrilled reaction to seeing Mia. Sam stood aside, stumbling just slightly but managing to right himself; an amused smile spread across his face. Mia, for her part, was initially hesitant of the loud stranger, but after a cautious sniff, deigned Edy worthy of her attention and took some steps forwards to headbutt her hand. "Oh, she likes you."
Letting her have her time with the cat, Sam went to step past Edy and into the living room, moving one chair to the side so he could open the first task: the cupboard. Already gritting his teeth before he grabbed the handle, he tried to pry it open slowly and carefully, but from the creaks and groans, it was clear things were going to fall out regardless. Trying to minimise the damage by holding out a hand to catch things, he threw open the door - several items fell out, most of them books, and loudly clattered on the floor; Mia jumped almost two feet in the air and scurried up the stairs.
"...Mm. Sorry. It's...it's been a while since I opened that." He explained, as if it wasn't painfully obvious. In addition to the books on the floor, several large sheets and blankets were stacked up in the cupboard, a few boxes, trinkets, a large candlestick and what looked like a broken chair.
Cooing and mewling at the ragdoll, Edy contorts herself into all sorts of shapes that she might nuzzle herself against the cat. Lover of almost all animals (except landsharks, fuck those fucks), this was absolutely not a way to stall having to do any cleaning or tidying. But of course Sam had to go and ruin it by being endlessly practical, ruining Edy's opportunity to lay on the floor and cuddle his cat.
Cocking her head at the sound of the crash and sighing Mia's wake, Edy picks herself off the floor and moves to stand with her arms crossed at the entrance to the kitchen. "Looks to me like once upon a time you had someone to impress and just shoved everything you owed into a cupboard." She notes sceptically, lips pursed and eyes playfully narrowed. "On a scale from one to none of it, how much of this junk d'you actually wanna keep?"
who wants to fall in love when you can fall asleep?
Edy was entirely correct in her assessment, as little as Sam wanted to admit it. He'd never been good at actual tidying, choosing instead to pile everything up into corners and worry about it later. The problem was when later arrived.
"I mean..." He looked over all of it - it was all individually useful, but nothing he didn't have more of or couldn't live without. "I suppose I could just clear out the whole space. Don't you have cupboards like this where you live?" Sam looked back to her, realising he wasn't actually sure where she was staying since her rebirth. "I guess...help me gather it all into a pile. I'll have to take it to the ruins to burn some things."
The books and sheets went easy enough, but then there were items that were harder to let slip from his grasp. A carefully painted picture in a locket of his parents that he didn't know how to feel about, a little statue of a dancer, a book with childish drawings inside. "I, um. I think I might keep some of this. I don't know. It feels pointless, but it's worthwhile to keep a hold of memories, right?"
06-10-2021, 03:13 PM (This post was last modified: 06-10-2021, 03:13 PM by Edrei.)
EDREI
"Cupboards like..where you put shit, or cupboards where you hoard things because you're worried about people seeing your mess when they come over?" Edy chirps back with a grin. "But no. I'm not really that sentimental about things." She adds with a shrug of her boney shoulders. It probably stemmed back to her upbringing as a Launceleyn and blah blah blah, but that all hardly mattered now. "Could just burn it in the street. Would anyone really care?" Cocking her head to the side, she fixes Sam with a mischievous smile. "Could roast some marshmallows over it and pretend we can taste 'em too. Could be all, no Sam, u have to Do iT LiKe ThIs tO maKe It PeRfEctly GoLdeN BrOwN." Cackling to herself, Edy fully assumes Sam is the type to get all controlling and worried about perfect marshmallow cooking.
Slouching against one of the walls, Edy folds her arms across her body and twitches her lips. "I mean..It isn't like you don't have the memories in your mind. Do you really need stuff to like...force you to remember shit? And from that look on your face, it doesn't at all seem like this shit is going to do anything other than bring you down." Pushing herself off the wall, Edy stalks forward and reaches for the statue of the dancer. "Who the hell are you keeping this for? Cause if you're doing it cause you feel obligated and not because you actually want any of this...then..." Holding the statue by the tip of a perfectly pointed toe, Edy dangles it over the trashbin with a brow raised.
who wants to fall in love when you can fall asleep?
"Mmm..honestly, it's often just to get it out of my own eyesight. I don't like tidying much." Sam had always failed at that bit of being a weird nerd; he'd had a habit of shoving things into the nearest crevice instead of sorting them since childhood and it had continued well into his increasingly neurotic adult years. Somewhere in there there was probably a metaphor about his messy thoughts and repressed traumas, but he didn't want to delve too deeply into that.
As for burning things in the street, he shook his head. "No, I actually care about my neighbours and I think they'd rather not be choked with smoke all day." With the amount of odd dramatic occurrences he'd had at his door in the last year, Sam was very interested in trying to up his status with those on his street. "...I've never had a marshmallow, actually. So I'd let you cook them however you thought best."
Things swiftly moved on from marshmallows though, as Edy did what she so often did: broke her cool, whimsical and sassy persona to deliver some soul-hitting truth. Sam blinked, looking at the things in his hands then up to the statue she held (it had been Evie's, once, he thought? He seemed to remember it on her windowsill). "I guess you're right. Throw it. I guess I'm keeping it because I feel like if I don't my family will be mad, but...my parents are dead. Evie is...somewhere, and Amalia is hardly close to me." With a sigh, he took the locket, shut it and lifted it over the bin too.
"There are some things I'd like to keep, like um, Remi gave me a golden feather once. Even though he's...on the Old God's side now, it still means something to me." Standing, he went to take the golden feather from it's place on his hearth. "I guess if he kills me I'd want someone to throw it away. I might be a little bitter then." His voice implied this was half a joke, though he couldn't quite get the smile to join it.
06-21-2021, 05:48 PM (This post was last modified: 06-21-2021, 05:49 PM by Edrei.)
EDREI
'So get rid of it. If you don't want to look at it, why're you keeping it around?' Edy asks, more or less rhetorically. She knows that Sam is going to say some shit about wanting to keep it even if he didn't want to look at it, and blahblahblah. Still, she thought it would probably be freeing for the ascended. That said (or thought), Edy also had the impression that so much freedom might be too much for Sam.
"Your neighbours are ascended." The Rapacious argues. "No need to breathe, means no need to choke. Problem solved." Grinning a wide and white smile at the bookmaker, she waits to see what else he's got in the way of excuses. 'WHAT. SAM' They can't taste anything, so really, it's a moot point, but Edy is dramatic and nearly hysterical about it just the same. "Seriously? Okay well, you gotta try 'em. I'll find us some and then we'll do a whole taste test to find out how you like them best." They won't be able to of course, taste them that is, but fuck it if Edy isn't going to find them some marshmallows just the same.
Dropping the statue with a satisfying flare of her fingers, Edy folds her arms and listens. "Okay but...does it actually mean something to you, or are you just holding onto bits of the past so you can pretend the now isn't so bad? Cause Remi? He's a demigod asshole who was a cunt in the world we came from, and nothing seems to have changed here. You two even fucked the same guy and now he's your enemy." Edy frowns, looking at the feather. "It's basically like keeping the bird-equivalent of a fingernail on your mantel. So you know, not to be a dick, but what the fuck Sam."
who wants to fall in love when you can fall asleep?
"...I don't know, because it's my stuff and your house should be full of your stuff." Sam mumbled, aware as he said it that it was a weak explanation. With an acknowledging tilt of his head he went to pick up some more pieces and put them in the 'rubbish' pile, fully aware that he'd just made Edy's point for her.
Were his neighbours all Ascended? Sam chewed on his lip, trying to think through them all. "There's actually a very sweet Accepted old lady just opposite. I don't want to smoke her house out. Besides, it'll be a nice trip to the ruins to burn things. I like it there." Maybe there was always the vague hint of danger in among the peaceful spots, but wasn't that true for basically all of Caido?
Laughing at her reaction to his marshmallow virginity, all Sam could do was shrug. "My family didn't let us have sweets growing up, then I was Ascended!" After that, all he'd eaten was tea and biscuits, more out of habit than any actual desire for them. "...You know that the taste test will have the same result every time, right?"
It was always a surprise when Edy suddenly got serious, even more so after discussing marshmallow taste tests; the jarring nature of the meaningful speech made Sam listen quietly, brows furrowing as some of her words hit. "..Why was he a cu-- a bad person in the world you came from?" He asked, not knowing much about Remi in the past other than that he had been discriminated against for his sexuality, that he had been powerful. "It's not...like a fingernail. It's made out of gold, for a start. Maybe a golden fingernail would be alright to keep if it was from someone you really liked."
'Who says?" Edy shoots back with a rather triumphant look on her face. "You're an ascended. The fuck do you need stuff for?" Edy who was all about tactile sensations, had thrown away most of the things she owned (that was, most of Bastien's clothing), now that she couldn't feel the sequins or velvet or leather anymore.
'Oh is there now?" Waggling her eyebrows suggestively and not meaning a damn thing by it, Edy starts tossing things into the rubbish pile seemingly on a whim. A half-burned candle, some papers, a teacup (with tea still in. warm too). "And here I thought my family was shit." She jokes. Hers probably was worse, but it was no use comparing trauma. It wasn't the sort of thing anyone could evaluate objectively, and much as Edy liked to be the winner in all things, even she could let this one slide.
"YoU KnOw ThAt The TaStE TeSt WilL HaVe ThE SaMe ReSUlT EvEryTime RigHt." Rolling her eyes with a sneer, Edy brightly flips Sam off, in no way deterred from burning the hell out of some marshmallows and making him eat them.
"Ugh, he was just the worst." She explains. "I know you don't really have it here, but he was like...low class. Take the bottom—" Holding her hand up as if to indicate the lowest rung of a ladder, she then points way down to the floor. "—he was here. But then he found friends in high places like Ronin and Loren and this other asshole named Koel—" Koel who had in fact come to Caido for a while, and who had, almost, stolen Edy's heart. So she spits his name with added fire. "—and thought he was someone because of it. He was bestfriends with ... basically like our king's wife. Everyone thought they were fucking." She shrugs. "Probably were. But anyway, he just..was always in the way, you know? Just..annoying most of the time. Like a cunt."
Wincing, Edy just curls her lip and shakes her head. "Who gives a shit about gold. It isn't like it's worth anything here. And do you even reELLy LiKe hIm?"
who wants to fall in love when you can fall asleep?
"Because! We're going to live forever, maybe. Shouldn't we have stuff to enjoy in that time? I don't want to be bored and miserable." Sam insisted, thinking that perhaps this was down to a very different life philosophy. He couldn't imagine a comfortable life without books and trinkets and tea and cushions, all the things that came together to make a cosy home.
A smile weaker than most appeared as he watched her toss things into the bag, not really listening to her words then but registering them as some kind of joke. She was right to throw them, but there was still something in his heart that cracked a little at every thrown item.
Distracting himself from the task at hand, gingerly holding an old box with worn corners in his hands, he listened to what she had to say about Remi. At first, it just sounded like classism. In the sheltered Grounds, there had been a relative equality, but Sam knew well enough from history and later experience how the powerful thought of the poor and lower class. "It...kind of seems like you were snooty." He commented, keeping his voice light and jokey, but also meaning the accusation.
"And...I don't know. I liked him once. I still like that him, but he's not here anymore. And...and I've done a lot of soul searching, and maybe I just liked that he liked me, you know? It's...hard to know. He is handsome, but...he's also...he makes a lot of bad choices." Sam shrugged, staring at the feather, not giving any word as to whether it was to be tossed or kept.
'Yeah but only if you actually enjoy it." Edy counters, before pursing her lips and giving the room a once over, silently challenging the ascended to commit to actually enjoying everything he was hoarding.
Not taking offense, Edy just barks a laugh as she nods. "Absolutely it was snooty. Didn't Loren ever tell you about it all?" Her boney shoulders rise and fall as she gives Sam a stare that's not quite guiltless, but isn't entirely bothered either. "It was how things were done. Even with the snooty ones there was still a heirarchy. For instance Isla and I were both above assholes like Ronin, who were all about people like Remi."
Unable to help it, Edy can only roll her eyes in a manner that someone comes across sincere. "Who cares about handsome. You're handsome. Loren was handsome. Everyone here is handsome. Honestly, you'd think the Voice was running some beauty contest with how fucking beautiful everyone is." She did understand, at least a little, and a whole lot more than she'd care to admit. "Listen. Even if that's all true, y'gotta stop making everything so external Sam. That's all still true even if you don't keep the feather around, y'know? Cause it's you. It isn't all this shit. You're the one he liked, and I promise that doesn't go away just because you get rid of his junk."
who wants to fall in love when you can fall asleep?
"I..." Sam swallowed the words enjoy it all, knowing instinctively before he said it that it wasn't true. "Enjoy some of it. Fine. This can all go." Resigned to the fact that Edy was probably right, he gathered up a bundle of old sheets and frames and put them in the 'rubbish' pile, a dusty cloud poofing up as they made impact with the floor.
As for Loren (the mention of whom made Sam frown; he missed the man and had heard little of him for some time now), all he could do was shrug. "He wasn't quite so direct about it as you are. He...spoke a lot about his childhood and himself, but not the whole system." Hearing Edy actually admit it was snooty got him back on her side a little, appreciating the self-awareness at least. "Isla was...on the same level as you? She's never mentioned it."
Twirling the feather in his fingers as Edy gave her speech, Sam took perhaps the least important point from it and asked, eyes genuinely surprised as he glanced up: "You think I'm handsome?" He did actually listen to the rest though (fingers still firmly on the feather) and sigh. "Well, I don't think he does like me like that anymore. He has his Order husband and...maybe two children? Gods, that all happened so quickly and I'm still just...me." Getting a little antsy at so much analysis of his pysche, Sam put the feather down on a shelf and went to grab a box at the back full of random knick knacks, easy things to sort through. "...Do you want all that? Marriage and babies?"
Clapping her hands like Sam was some toddler to be praised for using the potty, Edy cackles brightly. Clearly taking great delight in ensuring that everything that could break or make some sort of sound when tossed into the pile did just that, the mound grows and grows, leaving the Rapacious looking more and more pleased.
"Yeah...Loren has this thing where he only reveals enough to get what he wants. Whether it's sympathy, a relationship, whatever..." She shrugs, her voice free of judgement. "It's a self-defence thing, I think." Loren might have been an absolute fuck, but he was a fuck she understood very well. "Yep. Duchess Lockwood. Very fancy. If you watch her close, sometimes you can see her arranging forks and shit to be in the proper order." Edy adds with a cackle.
Without missing a beat, or offering a Sam what the fuck is wrong with you, Edy just shrugs and nods. "Yeah, sure you are, with those stupid freckles and your messy hair." Her dark eyes rake up and down his features for a moment as if confirming the things she was saying. "Especially in a 'fold you up like a lawnchair and fuck you against the wall sorta way." He seemed bendy. He also seemed like he'd like that sort of thing.
"Wow, so he married the first guy who didn't think he was a complete fuck-off and made some babies. Yeah, you're really lagging behind. I'd take one'a you over ten of him any day." Rolling her eyes a bit when the feather didn't make it into the pile, Edy says nothing as she continues absently breaking things already discarded.
"Uh." Maybe for the first time, it seemed Edy was speechless. For all of about 10 seconds, but that was a lot for her. "I dunno..back home it was ..the expected thing of everyone, so I always thought I'd get married off and then would have to have babies, but.." It's good that she can't blush as an ascended. "Dunno. Not really marriage or mom material, y'know?"
who wants to fall in love when you can fall asleep?
