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!
'cause not everything means something, honey so say the unsayable, say the most human things
Torches light the streets as she walks across the city. She passes her own house and, though she wants nothing more than to lie in her bed and forget, she can't. Or won't. The Slagveld needs repairs and the sooner they're started, the better. Perhaps working on it in the dead of night isn't ideal, but she can't bring herself to do anything else. The Slagveld is a living, breathing part of Haulani. It can't be left to ash and dust.
With a stubborn determination fueled by a depressed feeling of failure, Aurelia does what needs doing. The building is burned and charred from the storm waged against it but, combined with the day's rain, there's a mixed scent in the air. Fortunately, the damage done wasn't catastrophic. A small torch in hand and a satchel of tools slung over her shoulders, Aurelia makes her way in through the front door. Dampened soot catches across her hands and clothes almost immediately, but she doesn't care.
It's soon after entering that she finds someone else has decided to pay the place a visit as well. The light from the torch illuminates his figure and, at first, Aurelia jumps. Immediately her instincts want to go on the defense, but she swallows that down. She doesn't want to fight anymore, and it's doubtful that whoever did this would return to the scene. Not unless they wanted to be caught. As she peers through the initial haze of her panic, her eyes shine with recognition.
"Adam?" Her voice feels booming in the deathly-still air even if she means to be quiet.
"Adam, it's me. It's- it's Aurelia," she stammers, hoping he will believe her in spite of the fact that she looks different. She steps closer but keeps some space between them, hovering between near and far. There's no accusation in her question as she lowers her torch, "What are you doing here? It's not safe."
if everything is temporary I will bear the unbearable
He'd come to pick through the wreckage and see if anything still remained that had been his. Sure, the Devil's Advocates had been Sunjata's baby, but it had been his home, however briefly. He and Pet had made themselves cosy there and all of his earthly possessions, some of which had survived their deaths and rebirths, had been within.
So far he wasn't having any luck. Most of what he'd had had been clothes, blankets, little wooden trinkets - all things that burnt up quickly. Really, Adam was just standing in the middle of the room being miserable, indulging himself in thoughts about the burnt-up building representing the state of his life at the moment...
"Ah!" Adam turned at the sound of a voice, jumping back a little, though he wasn't sure what he was worried about. Anyone that burnt down a building in the middle of the night was a fucking coward, and not likely to fight him face on. "Oh, uh...hey."
Honestly, he was so out of it nowadays that he barely thought about her appearance being different. Rubbing the side of his head, trying to pretend he hadn't jumped, he shrugged. "It's fine. If it falls in it's just fuckin' fitting right now, to be honest. May as well happen. What are you doing here?"
If you hear the call of arcane lore, Your world shall rest on Earth no more
'cause not everything means something, honey so say the unsayable, say the most human things
Aurelia takes a moment to absorb the fact that Adam is here, in a half-burnt building, being broody. His jump goes without being called out because he'd scared her, too. At first it still doesn't make sense to her that he's here, but then she remembers something about him staying in Torchline. Was this where he was staying? And she'd never realized, never known? Her jaw feathers and her grip on the torch tightens.
"I'm..." she wants to explain how she's here to try and patch things back together as she can, with what she has but the words don't feel genuine. Even if that is really what she's here for. "Wishing this building would collapse on me," she replies quietly, "same as you, I guess." She sets down the satchel full of tools without much spirit, letting it slump to the wayside. "I thought I'd try and... fix things on my own, but..." she looks up at the caved in floor above them and already feels as if she's failed.
Her gaze swivels back across to Adam's and her brows furrow. Suddenly her heart lurches. "Where's your husband?" The one he'd spoken to her about the day they'd met. Had he been inside?
if everything is temporary I will bear the unbearable
Adam watched as Aurelia almost deflated in front of him, dropping her tools; he didn't know what she had to do with all of this, but he'd not really listened to anyone providing an explanation. It didn't matter and would only distract him from trying to sort his shit out. With a sympathetic chuckle, he cringed and looked up at the ceiling. "This isn't a one person job. Isn't a two person job. I'm sure 'Jata will organise some kinda team to go at it eventually."
Not that they'd be able to bring back everything that had been here, but he was sure the structure would be saved.
The alarm with which she asked about Pet set alight some of the worry in his own ribs, but Adam determinedly put on a reassuring smile (or at least, a smile, as best as he could) and held up his hands in a 'don't worry' gesture. "He wasn't in here. Though, uh..." Hands dropping to his sides, he kicked a piece of unknowable debris away with his boot. "We're kinda on a ...break right now, and I don't actually know where he is. Worried fucking sick, to be honest, but at least he isn't here."
If you hear the call of arcane lore, Your world shall rest on Earth no more
06-01-2021, 09:04 AM (This post was last modified: 06-01-2021, 09:06 AM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
'cause not everything means something, honey so say the unsayable, say the most human things
Aurelia's gaze is somber as Adam tells her it's not really possible to fix this mess on her own, and she hates that that's the truth. She would, if it were; take on all of the weight and responsibility - if only to alleviate it from everyone else and perhaps as a way to distract her mind. But she can't, and now all she's left with is the thoughts and feelings that stir within the silences in such an unpleasant way.
A breath billows out through her nostrils, long and relieved, at the mention that Adam's husband wasn't here when it all went up in flames. Her brows quirk upward in curiosity when he seems to want to say something else, that smile not quite having the effect he wants it to have, her gaze turning to the rubble he's kicked.
A forlorn frown takes residence in the lines of her face and she looks back up at him, understanding.
"I'm sorry, I wish there was more I could do..." she looks around at the debris and dark soot around them, "about everything." She'd prefer not to have Sunjata return to find everything in such a sorry fucking state, waiting for him to come and pick up the pieces.
"Were you staying here, Adam?" She asks suddenly, looking at him more directly, "Is that why you're here? If you're looking for your things I can... I can try to help," she grimaces slightly because it may be a lost cause, but she's willing to try all the same. Losing everything isn't easy, especially when you're alone. At the very least, she can offer her help.
if everything is temporary I will bear the unbearable
"...Yeah. Me too." That was the thng that really smarted about this whole situation; he hadn't had any control over it at all. He didn't even know why it had happened. One day he was piecing everything back together, the next all his stuff and his living space is just gone and Pet was missing entirely.
When asked if he was staying here, Adam laughed helplessly and gestured around himself. "Yeah, but I guess I'm not anymore." They'd really carved out a nice little nook for themselves; it hadn't been much, but it had been something like a home; now it was gone, and he was back at 0. At least he didn't need to sleep and eat, but being homeless really wasn't what he'd chosen to come back to life for.
As for his things...he looked around them with more sardonic smiles, more covering laughs. "It was all my clothes and shit like that. It's not here. My old bag with all the shit from my old world - not like, anything important or whatever, but stuff that meant something to me - s'all gone." It would have burnt up in an instant, had to be a part of the dark ash around their feet. "I was...trying to look for the ring Pet gave me, but...it probably melted or some shit, I don't know."
If you hear the call of arcane lore, Your world shall rest on Earth no more
'cause not everything means something, honey so say the unsayable, say the most human things
There's a melancholy silence that takes hold between the spaces of Adam's words, takes hold of Aurelia. All she can do is stand here, defeated, wondering all the same things he must be. Why would someone do this?
But she cocks her head up a little when he entails everything he had here. And it really was everything he had, here. A grimace darkens the newer features of her face but, she tries to hold it all together. If she can't do it for herself, then she can do it for Adam. Just keep it together.
"A ring might've survived the fire," she suggests tentatively, "if it didn't get hot enough, it could still be intact. We should look for it now," she nods decisively, "before Sunjata comes back and starts working on repairs, because then.. it might not ever get found." Swept away with the debris, as if it didn't matter at all.
"Can you..." she flinches, because she knows this isn't easy, "can you figure out where it might've been in all this?" She gestures around the room, at the dark, sooty layer that cakes everything. It's not hopeless. If Adam could narrow things down within a certain vicinity, maybe they could find it. She doesn't know why this suddenly feels so important to her. Maybe it's the distraction of it, the focus subtracting from the chaos going on within.
if everything is temporary I will bear the unbearable
Adam didn't want to take on Aurelia's hope about the ring; it was easier to just think it gone than to entertain the idea it could have survived, to get optimistic and only have his hopes crushed. As if humouring her (though really, humouring the little spark in himself that wanted to believe), he nodded. "Yeah, we could look for it. It's...It'd be um.." He looked around, the room hard to identify without the usual furnishings inside it.
"Over there. I had a cabinet next to the bed I was keeping all our stuff in. It was on top of that." Not yet moved from their communal things because he'd not known what to do with it. "It was silver, with uh, a skull on it. Little black stones in the eyes." They were never going to have typical rings; he'd been thrilled to see Pet's choice.
Trying to seem like he thought there was a chance, he went over to the rough location and knelt down, seemingly not caring about the mess, and scooped through the ash. "...I suppose we should be glad no one died or anything, right? I just...fuck, I'm having the worst fucking luck right now. You ever have those years where it just feels like everything that can go wrong, does?"
If you hear the call of arcane lore, Your world shall rest on Earth no more
06-12-2021, 09:10 AM (This post was last modified: 06-12-2021, 09:11 AM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
'cause not everything means something, honey so say the unsayable, say the most human things
At his approval, Aurelia feels a spark of hope within. She licks her dry lips thoughtfully as she turns her attentions to their surroundings. There's a feeling of overwhelming defeat as she does, but she tries her best to ignore it. With a singular, somewhat-achievable goal in mind, it's easier. Silver ring with a skull and little black stones for eyes. Got it.
She tries to offer him a reassuring smile and nod, though it falls short and wavers a bit because... well, this is all pretty fuckin' shit and it's tough to stay constantly brave.
Her steps trail after him through the ashy mess, where whatever cabinet had been here was nothing but smithereens now. It's not a good sign but.. potentially, the wood taking all of the heat could've saved the ring.
Kneeling down adjascent to him, she begins to sift through herself, concentration pinching her brows together and drawing a tight-lipped frown to her face. Adam's voice breaks through it, though. She nods with an unreadable expression on her face, since she had nearly died herself. The scars tracing along her torso and hands might indicate as much.
But her expression softens at those last few words he says. She almost laughs, a sad smile taking residence on her face. She'd said something so similar to someone else, when she'd first come to this world.
"Like the rug's been pulled right out from under you," she murmurs in dismal agreement, "yeah, I have... My dad was killed when I was a kid, and everything after that's just felt like one giant... butterfly effect, you know? I don't even think I'd be here, in Caido, if that hadn't happened."
She considers the fact that this isn't really about her, though, and looks over at Adam. Tentatively, she asks, "What... what happened, with you and Pet?" He'd said they were on a break, and she can only imagine how much that hurts.
if everything is temporary I will bear the unbearable
Dying dads! Hey! Something they could connect on! Pushing aside debris and ash of his own, Adam nodded. "I get you. My dad died before I was born and he was some revolutionary guy, and everyone thought I was gonna follow on what he did. I uh, didn't. What was up with your dad? Like, why'd he get killed?" An insensitive question maybe, but they were on the same level here (and Adam had never been very good at keeping things appropriate).
Suddenly, through a gap in the floorboards, he saw a tiny flash of silver - his ring? Thinking it unlikely but able to squash the hope, Adam began to try and prise the boards up.
Aurelia's question took some of the gumption out of his attempt, but he kept going as he tried to think of what to say that didn't just amount to I fucked it. "Er...well, I guess it's been kinda hard to find our groove again, y'know, coming back to life and shit, and I met up with this old friend and I..." He gritted his teeth for a second, knowing this was going to sound bad, because, well, it was bad. "I told her I loved her. And in that second I kinda did? But she fucked me over and I realised Pet means way, way more to me. But I still fucked it, and I'm not...he deserves better."
If you hear the call of arcane lore, Your world shall rest on Earth no more
06-19-2021, 06:12 AM (This post was last modified: 06-19-2021, 06:13 AM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
'cause not everything means something, honey so say the unsayable, say the most human things
She scoffs a tiny bit at the piece of Adam's story that he decides to share, and the way he describes simply... not following in his father's footsteps. Aurelia didn't either, and for that she can relate, but her father was also an ordinary man - or so she'd thought. The question Adam directs back at her is harmless, but it has her pausing with a heavy silence. There were things about her memories that had come to her in waves since she came to Caido. And some of the pieces just... don't fit, don't make sense. Aurelia glances back down at the debris, working slowly, deliberately, trying to be thorough.
"He uhm... he was a smithy. Built armor and weapons... good man, but- ordinary. Well, I thought he was, anyway," her brows raise skeptically now, "He was killed in a fire... the circumstances were suspicious; it was started by magical means. Someone.. wanted to hurt him. I was a kid. I didn't understand, still don't. And the police never got to the bottom of it, I think they didn't care. So it just made me real angry." Still does. She sniffs involuntarily and a cough forces its way back out because of all the stirred up particles in the air.
Adam moves toward a floorboard and starts trying to pry it up. She moves almost immediately to help him, and her hand goes for the knife she knows must be in its sheath along her hip. However, it's not. The sheath is empty, has been since she lost her father's knife in the Oerwoud. She grits her teeth as she reaches for one of her daggers instead, listening to Adam. She works at the sides of the board with the tip of the blade, searching for a spot to sink it through.
She pauses a little, looking back up at him as he trails off. Now that they're closer and face-to-face, she can see the tension feathering in his own jaw too. "I know how you feel..." she says when he's finished. "I never feel good enough for the people I love, and I think I tend to prove it.. unintentionally. Even though I'm trying... it sucks-"
The blade suddenly catches on one side of the board, drawing her attention back down. She pushes it further in along the end of the panel, prying it up as best she can. "Is it there?" She asks, voice a little strained.
if everything is temporary I will bear the unbearable
Adam was well used to those heavy silences when it came to asking about dead dads or absent mums, but he'd grown in a way almost addicted to hearing the stories, to knowing other people's childhoods got to be as fucked up as his own. Aurelia did not disappoint on that front, having a whole murder mystery behind her dad. "Wow. That's fucked. Did ya ever make any progress on looking into it before you came here?"
He had his own loose ends from his old world, but nothing quite that pressing; knowing he'd left a whole conspiracy behind would have bugged him no end.
Between them they managed to pry the board off, and Aurelia got right to the heart of his interpersonal issues with a speed and precision Adam wished he could have with his crossbow. "Damn, uh, I guess yeah, I never really felt like--"
Thankfully, the board went flying. Taking full advantage of the distraction, Adam knelt down and dug through the ashes and dirt until his fingers felt a familiar cold metal band. "Holy shit, it is!" He declared, pulling the ring from the debris - a little dirty, a chip on the top of the skull, but still for the most part in one piece.
If you hear the call of arcane lore, Your world shall rest on Earth no more
06-22-2021, 12:56 AM (This post was last modified: 06-22-2021, 01:01 AM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
'cause not everything means something, honey so say the unsayable, say the most human things
At Adam's curious question, she shakes her head. Her frown twitches. "I tried to find who did it all those years ago, when I was still there... but that just lead to me punishing a whole lot of innocent people for the actions of one..." she admits, "I stopped caring, I guess. It was about the premise, eventually, and nothing else. I wasn't much of a detective, before."
No, instead of unveiling a mystery, it became all about sending a message - even if the only one who understood it was her.
The board that goes flying makes her startle and panic for a split moment, ensuring that the dagger doesn't go ricocheting with it. Her grip on it's firm and trained, though, so it's fine. She sighs and refocuses on Adam just as he locates the... the ring!
A smile breaches across her face, the relief meeting her eyes, and she reaches up to give Adam a pat on the back of his shoulder. Standing, she says, "See? It was fine after all." She reaches down to give him a hand up.
"Y'know, maybe it's a sign," she says, surprising herself with the fact that she's saying that stupid crap out loud. Feeling a need to explain, she hastily adds, "you think you and Pet are doomed. Just like you thought the ring was gone forever. But it's not, so maybe you and Pet.. aren't..?" She smiles awkwardly, feeling embarrassed. "Or I'm just an idiot, and you can tell me to shut up."
if everything is temporary I will bear the unbearable
"Oh. I mean...maybe it's for the best y'didn' know anyway. When you got one person to pin all your problems on, it gets messy. I know that one." Adam cryptically said, his fingers reaching to trace over the thick and messy scarred skin on his right jaw. It was hard to imagine Aurelia downing many innocents, but he supposed he was nothing like he used to be on his old world now either; Caido had changed them all, for better and for ill.
Not thinking much to the board when he had the ring in his hand, Adam grinned and slipped it on. Still fit, though it was a little warped; as Aurelia spoke about signs he embarrassingly had much the same thought. "No, I think you're right. I mean, there's Gods and magic and shit here. Why not signs or whatever too?"
Standing and helping her up, he couldn't keep the smile off his face. "Thanks. For helping me get it - uh, is there anything I can do to help you with your thing?"
If you hear the call of arcane lore, Your world shall rest on Earth no more
