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!
He briefly remembers a conversation during which he thinks she mentioned taking a shower, but honestly, it could have been two minutes ago or two hours ago - he isn't sure.
One thing he is sure about is the fact that apparently (after the shock wore off) the tiny life in his arms is something that he will destroy lives for in order to keep safe. That, and Everest is able to accomplish something that no other can.
Everest can make Finn sleep.
Indeed, the Spyglass is passed out, flat on his back on Tobi's sofa, with their son resting on his belly and its soft rise and fall. One of Finn's hands stays protectively on the babe's back, and one or both of them might be snoring - it's hard to tell. Around them, the doctor's apartment is chaos. That, too, has escaped Finn's notice.
It's true, Tobi had gone to shower. And then she'd started a loud of laundry, changed their sheets, and was currently tackling their fridge. Or...her fridge. Whatever. With Finn and Ever asleep, Tobi was filled with a burst of energy that she focused solely on nesting. Though everything for the baby was already here, put together, and in its correct place, still her fingers found things to do, like strange chore-dowsing rods.
Breezing around in just an overly large shirt and leggings, Tobi realized early on that both Finn and their son seemed to sleep like the dead when they were both recently fed and pasted out on the couch. So it was that she wasn't aiming to be overly quiet when she accidentally dropped a basket of tennis balls onto her piano. The noise was bright and discordant, not quite resolving into a melody but not sounding as bad as one might think.
Frozen in place, guilty holding a tennis ball and waiting for the rest to stop bouncing and for the ring of the piano to die away, she glances slowly at the pair on the couch, wondering who, if either, will wake up first.
If Finn had known what had made the noise, he still wouldn't question it, not in Tobi's apartment. Luckily for them both, perhaps, only the Spyglass awakens when the bright sound of the piano bounces through the air, and even then it is slow. His eyes peel open, stormy and dazed, and his hand absently pats at Ever's back, as if picking up a rhythm he hasn't realised he'd ever stopped.
"Mm, good morning," he rumbles in a voice too thick with sleep to be anything but sleepily content. "Did you have a good shower?" The last word is eaten by a yawn, unfortunatey, Finn's free hand coming up to cover his mouth. Only when he's certain he can absolutely exist without falling back asleep does he blink back up at Tobi. "What happened?" he asks of the sea of tennis balls.
'Good afternoon." Tobi corrects cheerfully, setting down the tennis ball onto the piano bench and padding over to her snoozy boys. Leaning down, she presses a butterfly-soft kiss to Ever's head, smoothing away an errant curl, before finding herself doing precisely the same to Finn. Tobi doesn't even think about it, or question it, and as she straightens, it's guiltily that she looks back down at Finn.
"I did, yeah." She says with a crooked and bright smile. "Those uhm.." Itching at the space beneath her pony tail, Tobi's lips twitch back and forth as she considers Finn's question. "They..fell."
They had. Finn didn't need to know that Tobi had decided in that moment, she wanted to learn to juggle. She didn't anymore, anyway; seeing the balls bounce made her want to chase them, not toss them. That's what other people were for. "How do you feel? Get some sleep?"
"Oh - afternoon, then," Finn concedes with a sheepish smile, his eyes closing as Tobi's shadow falls over them. He receives the kiss, soft as it is, with minimal fuss; indeed, there is even a hum of sleepy enjoyment that rises up in his throat when she draws back. Blinking stormy eyes across the room again to track the route of several tennis balls along the floor, Finn raises his eyebrows as if to suggest that, whilst he does not believe her, he does accept it.
"They fell," he repeats, his hand pausing in its gentle patting of Ever's back so it can strum careful circles over it instead. "Mm, I think I must have," he admits about the sleep. "I just meant to close my eyes for a second, that's all. I hope I wasn't any bother for you?" He moves to sit up, before thinking better of it; that is not something he's going to risk with a baby on his chest.
'Technically...yes.' Tobi hums, and though she's a terrible liar, at least she's an adorable one; her cheeks grow round as her smile turns crooked. That isn't even to mention how wide and child-like her eyes sparkle beneath her bangs. Exhaustion has left her entirely it would seem, that, or perhaps there was a bit of unicorn-magical-fuckery that took place while Finn was sleeping.
"Mm, not at all." She sings, clearly bursting with energy. Watching as Finn decides to stay where he is—and perhaps nodding slight approval as she shifts her weight from foot to foot—Tobi glances toward the kitchen. "Can I get you something to eat? Drink? Snack on? Read? Watch? Listen to?" It's only to take a breath that Tobi pauses her string of offerings.
Tobi's smiles are contagious, and Finn's arrive in sleepy response as he peers up at her. The Spyglass does not think he has ever felt so relaxed, and for this to occur with his newborn asleep on his stomach would normally be enough to bring laughter rumbling up in his chest. Of course, he daren't do it and risk waking the baby. "Well," he mumbles around another yawn, "technically is fine by me."
Finn doesn't expect quite the onslaught of offers, his stormy eyes widening a fraction as he gazes up at Tobi, as if trying to decide what, if anything, he wants. "Crackers and cheese?" he asks. "And do you still have that book you were reading?" He can't remember where he fell asleep last to it, but he had been enjoying it. Whatever chapter she had been narrating.
Tobi doesn't quite have a name for the fluttery and golden feeling that constantly rises from her chest up into the back her throat when she sees Finn and Ever together, but she doesn't think it matters. Her fills her mouth like jasmine, making her want to laugh, while also making it feel as though she's walking on air.
'Absolutely! Saltines? Butter crackers? Triscuits? Cheddar? Marble? Goat? Brie?" Already drooling, Tobi laughs and shakes her head to suddenly indicate that she doesn't need Finn to answer. "I'll bring them all. And the book! We can learn about the earth's atmosphere and the saddlelites they have in space!" Perhaps it's because Ever has heard Tobi's voice so often in the womb that it doesn't stir him from sleep. Soon probably, but not yet.
Returning with two platters of cheese and crackers, cut, styled, assembled, and arranged in about five different styles (some she's cut to look like stars and hearts, others are mountains (No Finn, they're mountains, not triangles), and some she's stacked as if they're about to play jenga).
'Mmmmmm?' Offering up the plate, Tobi mumbles a sound toward Finn. Grinning, bits of cracker dust are revealed on her lips; her entire mouth is already stuffed full, hence her lack of words.
"Uhh..." It's a good thing that Tobi decides she'll simply bring them all, because Finn has absolutely no chance of being able to figure it out. He smiles to her instead, nodding as she goes to get everything ready. And whilst she's gone to arrange things in elaborate fashions, Finn attends to the exceedingly important work of levering himself into a sitting position. By the time she returns, Ever will be lolling against his shoulder rather than his belly, the Spyglass resting his cheek very gently against their son's soft head of curls.
He smiles softly at the offer of the plate, patting the space beside him and reaching out for a cracker and a triangle mountain, as well as a star, stacking them up and doing his best not to shower Ever with crumbs. "Do you think Safrin has saddlelites up there in her stars? I imagine it would be a lot to keep track of."
Tobi's heart nearly bursts to see Finn and Ever so perfectly arranged, and were they in a different time and place, this would be a moment well worthy of Instagram. Instead, she's forced to memorialize it in her own mind, and for a long moment, she ignores what Finn is saying to do precisely that. Noting how Ever has inherited his father's long eyelashes and curls, how his pink cheeks are reminiscent of her own, how his fingers clutch and ball into fists against Finn's chest...'I'm glad you're here.' Tobi says quietly, and then, before the Spyglass might be forced to come up with a reply, she rushes on.
"I don't think so. It says here that the Outlanders built them so that they could monitor the earth. I think their world must have been a lot larger than ours, based on this. They also wanted to go into space and visit other planets, but.." Tobi frowns and bites her lip, her brows drawing together as she stares down at an image that depicts 8 plants in a row. "Do...you think there are other worlds we could go to? From here?"
Partially distracted by crackers, cheese and their son, Finn glances up just in time for Tobi to steamroll past his need to respond (something he absolutely appreciates, given the dimples in his cheeks), and he settles down to nibble on more snacks while she describes more about the earth's saddlelites and planets and things. "Huh," he says, clearly not understanding Outlander lore, but finding it interesting nonetheless.
"Eight planets... I haven't ever read about any other planets. And if we aren't as large as this earth place, would it..." Finn furrows his brow, and clearly he's mildly irked that he can't make sense of it. "Surely Safrin would have mentioned it," he says eventually, settling on it given that he can't decide on a theory for himself. "As for us, I think we have travelled quite far enough just going to the Wilds."
06-14-2021, 09:20 PM (This post was last modified: 06-14-2021, 09:20 PM by October.)
October
"I know that she's made other things...galaxies and things like that, so I always thought there were planets out there, but...well, they have to be empty right? I don't..." Frowning and staring at the page of the book a bit more, Tobi sucks on her bottom lip as she flips through a few more pages. "Ahh, see? It says they're looking for life. So maybe it is just like this, they just...don't know it yet." Glancing at Finn, Tobi shrugs. "It must be awfully inconvenient not to be able to just ask the gods who created things, about them." She concludes, more or less echoing Finn's sentiments on the subject.
"That's true. No more Wilds for me. Although...Cian did mention going to Torchline as one of their clinics burned down. It was an ascended clinic so he wasn't certain it was worth sending anyone. And also we have a baby now, but...I don't know, I did rather..like..Torchline...." Again, she shrugs, before her cheeks grow hot and her words trail off, realizing that she'd just mentioned The Place That Must Not Be Named.
"...Yeah," Finn concludes, as if he's utterly befuddled by the entirety of earth's galaxies and planets and stars. Indeed, he's more than happy to leave it where Tobi decides to, feeding himself some more cheese and crackers as if to punctuate the end of that particular topic. Almost, anyway, Finn glancing at the next page curiously. "Their telescopes do look more advanced than ours, though," he notes. "What's that? The Bubble Telescope?"
Rather than stiffening or looking away or any of the other obvious tells that go along with Finn's discomfort, the Spyglass barely reacts at the mention of Torchline; indeed, he even nods a bit to hear her speak about it. "Perhaps when Ever is a little older, we can take him," he suggests. "I feel it might be a bit too soon right now, though." He smiles to her.
"Mmm...Huble." Tobi corrects. Tilting her head back she opens her mouth expectantly, waiting for a deposit of cheese to be made.
"Sorry Finn." She hums softly, shooting the Spyglass a crooked smile and subsequently crinkling her nose for emphasis. "I agree. Too soon. Though maybe we could take that stroll through the Celestine and see if any enclosures have beaches or oceans." The Falling just...wasn't the same as warm white sands and a glittery blue ocean. Something about a deadly drop just killed the mood.
"But back to this. Do you know that the earth outlanders gave the moons on other planets names...but just called their own moon moon?" Chuckling under her breath, Tobi continues to read until Ever wakes up and demands a feeding. It's at that point she drags the two of them back to bed where they could all properly stretch out.
