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!
Ascended and the sun are not a great mix, so rather than long, hot days with the sand beneath their feet and golden light tanning their shoulders, Isla opts for a moonlight dip in the Oasis. She really doesn't come here often enough - not at all, since Ascending, she doesn't think. And oh but it makes a difference under the light of the moon, her eyes cutting easily through the shadows.
Exhaling a sigh that's as relaxed as it is full of awe, her gaze dances between softly pulsing glowstones to the shadows that ripple upon the water. "I never expected it to feel so alive out here," she murmurs to Varus. Because even if it's tranquil, even if they are alone, the Oasis is anything but quiet to her keen senses. "This is wonderful."
say a prayer, but let the good times roll in case god doesn't show
Back in the Grounds and everything seems to be going just fine – back to an almost normal, as it were. And he’s in a very good mood, all things considered. He walks beside Isla, a small smile sparking on the corners of his mouth with the sigh she exhales. “Plenty of things come alive at night. Have you ever seen a Dreamfish before?” He asks, a grin forming on his face that seems to suggest they’re quite possibly his favorite thing about the Oasis, regardless of how rare they seemed to be.
Perhaps his constant inner conflict made them drawn to him a bit more, but he doesn’t like to admit that part, so he passes that commentary quite quickly. “If you listen closely you can hear the crickets, too.” He murmurs as if it’s a secret, leaning into her briefly, before he’s pulling away, taking his shirt off and folding it neatly to set on a rock beside the edge of the water.
and i want these words to make things right, but it's the wrongs that make the words come to life
A dreamfish? That has Isla tilting her head, and the medic's smile suggests that he's telling her a very quaint lie. Then again, with all the creatures that exist in Caido, this is hardly the most unlikely. "I have not," she says. "What are they? And what do they have to do with dreams?" Are they like djinns? Do they make dreams come true? All very valid and interesting questions, and all remaining unaired as Varus leans into her and starts stripping off his shirt.
The way Isla watches him is absolutely not with a medic's eye, though she can certainly appreciate his bone structure and musculature in that sense, too. "Mm? Crickets?" she asks, fumbling to draw her dress over her head as well. "You know, I almost miss the way water is so cold when you first step into it," she remarks. "Almost."
say a prayer, but let the good times roll in case god doesn't show
She doesn’t know about Dream Fish, which means that it’s Varus’ time to shine. A bright fanged grin spans across his face as he tilts his head toward her. “They’re these white fish that live in the bottom of the Oasis. Hard to find and even harder to catch. But they’ll appear to you if you need them to.” His smile grows a bit more crooked, a slight masking of the true reason the dream fish would appear. “If you touch a scale of theirs when they appear, they can put you in a dream you can control to help you work through things.” The grin remains, even as they part once the Oasis is in sight.
And he suggests the sound of crickets that can be heard in the distance – easier for their hearing versus the non-Ascended. But that’s neither here nor there. So he focuses on removing his shirt, definitely casting a glance over toward her as she fumbles to slip her dress off over her head. He takes a moment to appreciate her own body before he realizes that he could help. He hasn’t even gotten to his pants yet, before he’s stepping over to her to help her with her own clothes “Oh I don’t miss it for a second.” A hum of laughter leaves him. “Definitely don’t miss the goosebumps. Here, hold still a second, arms up.” He tugs the dress off of her completely before he’s folding it to set it beside his, and moves to remove the rest of his clothes – casting a glance back toward her with a softer tinged smile as he folds the rest of his clothes and sets them neatly in a pile beside her dress, next to his boots.
Returning to her side, he reaches out with the metal hand, hoping that she might take it. His blue gaze is soft and surprisingly warm. “Suppose we could still pretend its cold though, if you wanna.” His smile is crooked and his words are punctuated with a wink.
and i want these words to make things right, but it's the wrongs that make the words come to life
"Spoken like someone who's had a few dreams with them himself," Isla remarks with a fanged grin. "Does it work for Ascended, too? Because we don't..." Dream, she shrugs, like it ought to be obvious. "And how far down are they? I don't think I've ever considered how deep the Oasis might even be..."
But then Varus is crossing the grass to help her with her dress, and Isla accepts the help with silver in her cheeks and a smile that grows more bashful. One might expect that she'd be adverse to swimming naked with Varus, what with her reaction in Torchline, but that had been when he'd startled her. And before they'd kissed, so...
Whatever.
"Thank you," she murmurs, folding her clothes and removing the light sandals she's worn. Purposely not looking below the waistline as Varus strips off too, however, she steps up to the edge of the water and happily takes his hand. "Can you feel that?" she wonders. "I imagine your sensors must recognise it. And I would like nothing more than to pretend it's freezing cold with you."
say a prayer, but let the good times roll in case god doesn't show
“I haven’t tried since I Ascended.” He offers her with an easy smile, fanged and crooked. “But since we are Ascended, we could probably try swimming to the bottom and see if any appear.” A thought for later, perhaps, because he’s striding across the space between them to help her with the dress, and he does notice a fraction of a silver flush along her cheeks, one that’s met not as strongly but still there, beneath the stubble of his own cheeks.
He purposefully tries not to look at her too long, even as he’s finished up and reaching for her hand. “I do feel it, yeah.” He murmurs softly, giving her hand a light squeeze, trying to make sure he isn’t squeezing her hand too hard with the metal. But his gaze drifts from their hands intertwined to her face. “It’s like… There’s a separate section of the sensors that are telling me what is happening, versus the other hand which just has it there… Like a map?” It’s hard for him to explain and he doesn’t know if it makes any sense – but she’s always been curious about it and it’s the least he can do.
It helps to talk, too, while making a show of pretending just how cold the moonlight Oasis is, stepping into the cool water – something that begins to spark his sensors as soon as it’s reached his calves. “For Longheat, even this seems c-c-cold, h-honestly.” The grin he casts her way is playful as he pretends to be freezing, making a show of how his hand in hers (regardless if it’s metal) trembles lightly with a shiver that runs up his spine that he forces there out of sheer muscle memory.
and i want these words to make things right, but it's the wrongs that make the words come to life
"Now that sounds like quite an idea," Isla murmurs with a grin, but like her fellow Ascended, she's currently more interested in the water rippling in the moonlight, and pretending to be freezing cold. Drawn momentarily by his description of how his metal arm correlates to the rest of his body, she smiles up at him and returns the squeeze against his fingers. For what it's worth, he seems to have the calibration just right currently; that's what her body is telling her in any case.
"You'll have to let me take a proper look at you again one of these days," she says with a playful bounce of her eyebrows, before throwing herself into this game of I am very cold.
Isla follows suit after Varus, making a show of tiptoeing into the water and letting out a peal of a scream-laugh, clutching at herself with her free arm as if to hug herself warmer. "I w-wonder h-h-how the f-fish survive," she exclaims, before gasping dramatically and 'falling' over something beneath the water, tugging them both into the depths.
say a prayer, but let the good times roll in case god doesn't show
He can feel the squeeze she gives back, but in that very same offhanded way (heh) that his sensors tell him. He only knows it’s there because it tells him, rather than the spark of realization like his other hand typically offers. It had taken some getting used to, and while it still wasn’t perfect, it was getting there. He’d certainly rather have the arm than not, at least. “Mm, well, my schedule’s wide open. When can you fit me in, doc?” He replies with a playful bounce of his brow, before he’s throwing himself into the cold with her.
She’s quite good at it too, and it sparks a shivering laugh from Varus who’s far too deep into the dramatization of it all, huffing short bursts of breath as he pretends to shiver and tremble with the chill. His lips part, “s-something witty, ‘m s-s—” he doesn’t get to finish the thought because she’s falling quite amusingly into the water and tugging him down with her. He gets a mouth full of Oasis water, but it doesn’t matter any, not as he moves to wrap both arms around her to drag them to the surface, realizing quite suddenly that a metal arm does differentiate the weight a bit when it comes to water and he isn’t quite as buoyant as he once had been. He leans with it, head breaking the surface of the water as he spits it out before squinting his eyes at her, keeping up the same. “T-that’s one way t’get the chill to go away.” He manages with a laugh, the light of it crinkling his eyes as he peers at her, still leaning slightly off-center.
and i want these words to make things right, but it's the wrongs that make the words come to life
The glance Isla returns to Varus is more filthy than it is playful - when can she fit him in indeed. "I'll have a check of my schedule, and see when I can have you drop by the clinic," she suggests, before they are both fully committed to this colder-than-you game. And down Varus goes with her. Isla is grinning beneath the water; the only difference between this and the surface is the muffling of sound, until her ears become accustomed to it.
She lets him draw her closer as they surface together, the medic finding herself leaning against his chest quite suddenly. "You know what they say about getting it over with quickly," she murmurs, their lips lingering only inches away from one another when Isla - naturally - takes full advantage of his being lopsided.
Giving Varus a lighthearted shove, she hopes to topple him to get away through the water. "Catch me if you can!" she invites, giggling and kicking off into an actual swim.
say a prayer, but let the good times roll in case god doesn't show
He wonders if it’s worth mentioning ‘it’s a date’ when they were very clearly already on one. But it’s an absent thought as soon as he’s falling into the water after her, laughter bouncing through him as he works to try and right them in the water again. It works, for the most part, despite how heavy the metal is and how it tries to tug him down, and she thoroughly — thoroughly distracts him with how close their lips are and how her body is pressed against his that he tries desperately not to think too much about, his smile faltering a fraction as he leans in to cross the distance when she’s pushing him back into the water and diving off in a quick spin. “Shit, fuck—” It’s truly a cackle that leaves him, muffled soon by a mouthful of water, but he pays it little mind.
Because obviously there’s a chase going on and he’s prepared to try and dive after her, even if his arm proves it quite the difficult task. So he thinks he’s gone at it all wrong, as soon as he begins to curve with the weight of himself off balance as it is, and he works to overcompensate for it — kicking out with much more force on his left leg to try and even him out with lighter strokes with his right leg. His arms continue to do the same, a swift stroke that chops through the water as he follows her, when an idea strikes.
He dives below her, aiming to try and pick up his speed so that he might be able to rise with a hand outstretched to reach for her hip. It could be a monster, it could be some vegetation, or it could be a metal hand. Who knows?
and i want these words to make things right, but it's the wrongs that make the words come to life
Isla isn't a cackler, as a rule, but there's a definite note of smug affection rolling off her as she splashes away. She's not a swimmer usually, either, but being an Ascended makes up for a lot of that. Naturally faster under the milk white moonlight and with no need to breathe, she cuts through the water with barely a ripple. But glancing over her shoulder to look for Varus proves to be a mistake, because he's quite simply gone. Her smile falters, and she wonders whether he's accidentally sunk to the bottom of the pool under the weight of his arm.
Then he grabs her hip.
Her scream is a bright, high thing that rings out into the night before cutting off entirely as she's dragged under the water. Isla has kicked out before she can fully realise that it's only Varus, and she has no idea whether her foot will make contact with his face any part of him or not. Still, when it becomes obvious that she isn't about to be dragged to the bottom of the Oasis, she swats at him again (but this time it's playful, ok?)
say a prayer, but let the good times roll in case god doesn't show
Oh, her foot connects. Not entirely with his face, though, but it does slam down surprisingly hard where his shoulder and metal meet, and it’s with a bubble of surprise and amusement that leaves him just around the same time the echo of her scream may have died off from the trees around the small lake. He’s latched on, though, and Varus is nothing but determined as he takes the playful swat, propelling himself — still rather lopsidedly toward her.
He lets her go so that he can swim a sharp circle around her, aiming to get those blonde locks of hers to fan out like some type of mermaid when he rises again beside her, head breaking the surface, bumping her with a shoulder and a vibrant, wide fanged grin. “Hey Isla… Tag.” He doesn’t apologize for startling her, not in the slightest. And when he utters the words, he darts off into the water, diving down and down into the murky depths, searching for those elusive dream fish.
He wonders if she’ll follow, wonders idly if she’d retaliate. He finds that he doesn’t matter whichever way she chooses.
and i want these words to make things right, but it's the wrongs that make the words come to life
She'd be more victorious apologetic about what she's just done and where she's just kicked were it not for Varus continuing to glide through the water towards her. And he gets what he wants as she whips around to try and keep an eye on him, her fair hair floating like a halo about her head, before she's trying to break the surface with him. "You scared me," she says with an unnecessarily breathless grin, taking the bump against her shoulder with ease.
Only now it's a game apparently, and she's outraged. "Hey!" she calls, promptly diving back below the surface to seek him out. This is where his metal arm is probably an advantage, letting him sink more quickly, but Isla does her best to propel herself to catch up. Indeed, she reaches out a hand to try and snag his ankle when she's close enough, a wildly smiling ghost in the depths.
say a prayer, but let the good times roll in case god doesn't show
He scared her, he knows it. The fish in the water know it as do the birds trying to sleep in the trees. Yet Varus doesn’t apologize for it, not when he bumps his shoulder against hers and flashes a bright fanged grin paired with his tag before he’s diving again, letting the arm pull him under just as she expects. But it’s still not perfect, yet, he hasn’t quite grasped the entirety of this metal arm he’s trying to swim with, as quite evident in the way Isla catches up to him.
But he’s a fighter, practiced despite his years spent offline, and when she grabs his ankle — he doesn’t kick at her, no, he practically folds himself in half, adjusting his trajectory to hopefully confuse her and end up behind her or take her with him. Whichever she chooses. But the further into the water they get, life underneath continues to spur on, silver fish flitting through the darkness of the depths, darting through the shrubbery, and yet still no sign of a dream fish.
and i want these words to make things right, but it's the wrongs that make the words come to life
