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!
you were in the fallout and you lost some friends //
Varus had received the note, had spent at least a few hours trying to figure out what had happened. The rest of it? Spent debating between sending a letter to Remi, trying to see if the demigod had any suspicions on this sudden change. What exactly she had meant by considering everyone’s feelings. Had there been someone else? Had Remi not just been a friend, was he missing something?
So he’s abandoned that idea, preferring to give Isla the space she requests, even if it felt awkward living in her house. At the very least he can fix it up for her, before she decides to return. So in the last day or so, he’s picked one of the rooms, begun to convert it, clearing it out and getting his hands on some planks of wood, only to build a bookshelf that can line this new study. There’s a nice, deep oak desk to pair with it, one that sits in the corner of the room as he works to fit the wood together, leveling it against the wall, and hammering it in. If someone arrives, they’d likely find him busied up with the bookshelf, a sleeveless shirt in a deep green, with a glint of metal from the upgraded arm as it holds the wood in place for him to hammer the nail into.
It’s the very least he can do before he gathers the courage to seek her out to talk about everything that had happened.
Isla does not look nearly as put together or casually domestic as Varus. She has just said a tearful goodbye to Remi on the doorstep, the medic still red-eyed and stained with soot and dirt from her escapades with the infirmary. But she can't avoid this - she can only hope that the man behind the green door can forgive her for being such an idiot. So with a deep breath that is entirely all for show, she carefully unlocks the door and walks inside--
Only to find it looking very homely indeed. There's no sign of Varus, but there is the sound of hammering, and so Isla shuffles towards it automatically only to find him apparently altering her spare room. "...Cal?" she asks slowly, wondering if he's even likely to hear her over the sound of DIY. "Is everything okay?"
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
you were in the fallout and you lost some friends //
One thing is for sure, he doesn’t hear her open the door or slip into the house. Not as he gets that board to sit just how he had wanted it to, grabbing a book from the desk to make sure it’s a perfect height for the majority of the books he’s found sprinkled and salvaged around Isla’s home. What he does hear, though, is her speaking, and he nearly drops the hammer as the jolt of surprise slips from him, standing stock still for a brief moment before his head turns toward her and he hooks the hammer into a belt loop. “Hey.” He says softly, finally giving her a good look given the state of her.
His dark brows pinch together as he spies the way she seems to be falling apart, so unlike how he usually saw her, and it’s with concern that he offers a soft smile to her. “Everything's fine. Are you okay?” He asks softly, leading, unsure if he should take a step toward her and embrace her given the note. “I got the note… I thought before I went and found my own place I’d make you a study and a place to put your books.” A memory of him to last, perhaps, even if they both didn’t last together. Still, it’s an awkward smile that soon replaces the soft one, his metal hand rising to run through his hair, waiting.
He's so stupidly sweet that it's enough to have Isla blinking quickly all over again, the medic huffing out a not-laugh and raking her fingers back through her fair hair in an unconscious echo of his gesture. "I wasn't okay," she murmurs, speaking slowly that her voice might stay as steady as she wants it to. "But I think I am now. I didn't... I just... Cal, I've been such an idiot." Rubbing at her forehead, she sniffs and glances around the place.
"It looks perfect," she mumbles. "Only I don't want you to go and find your own place. I messed up when I sent that note. I can... do you want me to explain? Because I just really want to take everything back and try again, but if that's weird for you, or if you think I'm blowing hot and cold, I understand."
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
you were in the fallout and you lost some friends //
She wasn’t okay, which makes sense given the note he’d received, how awkward it had been for him those next few hours of trying to piece together whatever it was he’d done. And when she says she’s been an idiot, well, he can’t stop the way his lips shift in something close to a grimace But he doesn’t know what to say (not knowing if she was an idiot for sending the note or an idiot for getting with him to begin with), not until she offers to explain and he unconsciously folds his arms across his chest, waiting for the ball to drop, of her to tell him that she didn’t want to see him again, for him to get out despite leaving the space a mess as it is right now.
But the ball doesn’t drop – it shifts and turns into something else that leaves him a bit dumbfounded, trying to find the words to put to the thoughts in his mind. “I would like that, yeah.” He offers softly – some sort of explanation, something. He wasn’t going to push her, not with everything she’s been through, and perhaps that was part of the reason he’d been so wary about seeking her out to ask. “And… We can start over. It doesn’t make it weird. I think I’m just mostly confused.” He offers her, actually managing a soft smile as he steps toward her, arms unfolding as he does so to close the distance. “I’m sorry if I did anything that made it uncomfortable for you. If we moved too fast, or…” He trails off because it’s quite evident he’s at a loss for what he did to make her change her mind. But nevertheless, the Ascended settles in, waiting for the explanation to fill in the holes of what he’d fucked up.
Her shoulders relax to hear he'd like to start over, Isla's smile coming a little easier, and she steps forward as well as if to close the distance between them. But there's some explaining to do first, and she shakes her head to him, mildly horrified to think that he believed any of it was his doing or his fault. "No, no-- it's nothing like that. Come on, I'll make us a drink." Not tea, this time. It won't make a difference, the fact that it's liquor, but it feels like it will and that's the point.
As she leads him out into the kitchen, she tries to summarise it as best she can. Coming to Caido, LongNight and her death, Remi bringing her back and exactly what that entailed. It's here that she falters a bit, taking a long breath. "I think I know him better than I know myself because of that," she says slowly. "It's... hard to explain, that kind of bond. There's nothing and nowhere to hide." Her smile grows sad. "It's why I didn't blame him for killing me, the second time."
Isla continues, then - the Festival of Lights, returning with the other Ascended, the start of her physical relationship with Remi. "It hurt him, that I hadn't told him about us," she explains. "Because even though he's married, even though he and I weren't... I guess we weren't not. Not until you. But... yeah. It's... yeah. A lot."
Smiling weakly, she offers out a glass of whiskey to him.
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
you were in the fallout and you lost some friends //
There is a fair amount of relief that slips from his shoulders, to find out that it wasn’t him that had been the problem here. But it still arises a few more questions, ones that are going to have to wait, because she’s suggesting a drink and while they both don’t get the same sensation from it, it’s the thought that matters in the end. And whiskey is certainly a good enough distraction for him any day. So he nods, offering her a soft smile and following her toward the drink.
Truthfully, it’s a deluge of information that takes him a lot to wrap his mind around. First off, the first death and returning as a horse of all things? A unicorn? A bonded companion? It’s here that his brows pinch together but he keeps his lips sealed aside from drinking the whiskey, humming low in his throat as he realizes the intensity of the relationship between Isla and Remi. “I’ve… Never had a companion but I imagine being soul bound for so long to one another, you’d be closer than best friends.” It ends with a small tease, a softer edge of a smile as the relief slips through him.
As for killing her the second time, he nods to that – understanding more than most what kind of strength that might take. And as Remi had told him, he wasn’t much of a fan of any of the gods, and his trust was hard to find. He can respect that.
“It happened so fast. I didn’t mean to offend him by telling him about us. I just knew you were going through a lot and I just wanted to be there for you for it all, just like he did… Does?” His head tilts slightly, lips pursing, before he’s stepping toward her and reaching up to run his normal hand through her hair, aiming to pull her in for a hug. “It is a lot. But I’ve had plenty of centuries to be a patient man.” Another gentle tease, before he’s huffing out a loud sigh. “Is it still complicated between you two or are we okay?” He thinks the latter, but he has to ask to check. "He's okay with me?"
That he has the ability to seemingly take it in stride is enough to have a soft laugh bubbling up in Isla's throat, the medic giving him a soft nod. "Best friends is about as close a description as I can give it," she admits. "It's hard to explain otherwise, as... well. As you literally just heard." She rubs at the back of her head. But as he speaks again she's smiling and shaking her head. "It wasn't your fault at all. No one really had time to... anything. Between the infirmary and the fire and everything else..."
He steps forward and Isla melts against him completely, her arms slipping around him to hug him tightly. "Does," she confirms, murmuring into his shoulder and nodding. "We're okay. He's okay with you, we talked about it." And both apologised. And apologised some more. And it's a trend because Isla's not about to stop. "I'm sorry you got caught up in it. I just... it has been a very long time since I met anyone like you."
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
you were in the fallout and you lost some friends //
There were a lot of things that didn’t make sense when it came to Caido and its inner workings, and Varus doesn’t have all the time in the world to make sense of them. The least he can do is take it at face value and hope that he ends up somewhere close enough to something he can both live with as well as the truth. Still, the bubbling of her laugh is something he clings to as he nods in understanding. “Yeah, quite difficult without making it sound like you’ve lost your marbles, hm?” He can’t help the way he slips into his idle chatter, his jesting tones, if only to try and make light for the turmoil the last day or two.
He steps toward her, a low hum leaving his throat as he reaches up to tuck her golden hair behind her ear, pulling her in for a hug. “That’s also why I didn’t seek you out. I wanted to give you space for a bit. It’s a lot on your shoulders… And given we can’t sleep or drink to forget about it, well, all you can do is constantly think about it.” Is he projecting? Yeah, a little bit, if his quiet broody scans have anything to say about it.
He pulls her in tight and snug against him, though, and she fits quite well in the space he’s carved for her, moving to rest his cheek against her crown. “Does.” Varus mumbles against her hair. But when she goes to apologize again, he does pull away a fraction, the metal hand rising to press a finger under her chin, to lift her head so he might scan her face. “I’ve been caught up in a lot of things, Isla. If that was as bad as it got, I’m a lucky man.” He hums, flashing her an easy smile. “It’s been a long time since I’ve met anyone like you, too.” He teases with a wink – because of course it had been a long time.
“And for what it’s worth, I forgive you. And thank you for explaining all of it, even if it sounds like it belongs in a book.” Leaning in and pressing his lips against her forehead, he withdraws to scan her face again, a glimmer of amusement lingering in his gaze.
05-27-2021, 07:33 PM (This post was last modified: 05-27-2021, 07:34 PM by Isla.)
Isla
Isla can only hum her agreement and nod against his shoulder; she realises in that moment that he probably knows this better than most, how it can be not to be able to sleep or drink or forget your problems or worries. "I don't think I ever gave that much credit until now," she admits, smiling sadly and peering up at him as his fingers gently tilt her chin up. She expects him to say something dorky and probably very sweet - and he doesn't disappoint, Isla's cheeks flushing, her smile spreading wide across her lips.
Of all things, to hear him call himself a lucky man is the most unexpected and the most charming, and the medic leans in without thinking to press a kiss against his lips. Forehead kisses and sweet gestures are all well and good, but Varus is sneaking his way into Isla's heart far too quickly, and this is the only way she can think of showing it. "You are not the lucky one," she murmurs against his lips, looping her arms around his neck.
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
you were in the fallout and you lost some friends //
It’s likely one of the only things Varus has given much credit to, given the fact that it’s essentially the only thing he does when he runs scans. He has little in the ways of distractions, and perhaps that’s why he’s continued to drown himself in books and drown himself in the easy banter and friendship between Isla and him. It made it easier to deal with the rest of it and he only hopes that he can do the same for her while the Infirmary is being put together.
But for now, he simply hums an agreement, leaning into the kiss to her lips – arms slipping around her middle to keep her close to him as her arms loop around his neck. “Are you sure? It feels like I am.” He murmurs, a fleeting smile crossing his face before he leans in for a slightly longer one until he’s pulling away to scan her face, to give her a squeeze. “Is there anything else I should know?” The Ascended asks, softly, leaving the floor open for anything else the Medic might wish to add while they’re airing everything out.
"Fine," Isla murmurs against his lips, "we can both be lucky." But then he's kissing her again, the medic all but draping herself around him; there might not be any chance of a physical reaction between two Ascended, but that does not mean that she doesn't find Varus attractive, and the way her tongue dances against his and the way her hands twine through the back of his hair says as much.
Is there anything else he needs to know, though? Isla chimes out a laugh at that, shrugging her shoulders. "Oh, probably," she says airily. "But it can wait. So can that study you're building for me. Which, by the way, I love. For now, come on. If we take the whiskey bottle to bed we can pretend to have a party."
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
you were in the fallout and you lost some friends //
They can both be lucky indeed. And it’s that which has him leaning in and giving his all in the next kiss – one that’s reciprocated in the squeezes he gives her middle, her sides, the way his hands roam up along her spine as her hands tangle in his short crop of hair. There might not be anything else when it comes to their Ascension, but Varus finds he’s rather content with how this has gone.
So he parts from her, a few inches of course because he still wants to simply wrap himself around her if he could, but her laughter chimes through him and sparks a crooked smile to his face. “Mm, I’m game.” He cuts her a brighter smile, stepping away from her so that he can unhook the hammer from his belt loop, setting it on a table beside them, before taking her hand and interlacing her fingers with his, sure that she likely has the bottle of whiskey, before they do manage to head to the bedroom and have quite the nerdy pretend party with a slowly emptying bottle of whiskey.
