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!
(This thread does take place IC, but the 100 wc minimum is waved, so it won't count towards your post count. It will count as a drop though!)
On an empty expanse of beach in Torchline sits a rather ornate chest. No amount of physical or magical damage will be able to open or move it. No amount of intuition will tell you what it is you ought to do. There are no clues as to who has put it here, or why. Overhead the night sky stretches silently as the waves lap against a beach free of foot prints.
Please post your character arriving!
This drop will move on in 24 hrs!
06-18-2021, 03:02 PM (This post was last modified: 06-18-2021, 03:02 PM by Maeve.)
Maeve
Finding things on the beach happens often. Maeve had a whole collection of odds and ends that she'd picked up during her evening walks. However finding an incredibly large chest with no apparent wear and tear from the elements wasn't a common occurrence. Maeve approaches slowly, brows knitting together as she looks around for any sign of who might have left it there. No drag marks remain in the sand and not a single set of footprints walk towards or away from it, making it seem as if it just appeared out of no where. She walks a slow circle around it, inspecting it with a hint of caution.
Maeve inspects the chest without touching it.
So come on, give me a taste Of what it's like to be next to you Won't let one drop go to waste
Your metaphorical gin and juice
A raucous crow, a rootless tree A coiled adder, night-old ice
A raven fluttered in on inky wings. It's blue eyes spied the chest from the elevation of the sky, and piqued a moderate interest. A woman was approaching it, but that did not mean anything to him; she was a stranger, and would receive no consideration.
Drifting down in lazy circles, Korbin tried to land upon the chest. If nothing else, it made for a good perch. Beady eyes blinked up at the female who appeared much oversized from his perspective; quietly daring her to object to this hogging of the chest.
Korbin tries to land on the chest.
A racing stallion who has wrenched a leg, Are never safe: let no man trust them.
Sah had gone to Torchline like Locke had recommended. His curiosity driving him. He'd ended up taking a walk on the beach, losing himself in the sound of waves and the expanse of stars. The night sky in Torchline was truly incredible and Sah was glad that he'd taken the time to go.
But then he spotted a chest in the middle of nowhere. No footprints, no signs of intentions. There was already a woman inspecting the chest, likely wondering the same things that Sah was. He approached the chest, staying a few feet from it as he inspected it for himself. "Any ideas of where this came from?" He asked her as he too eyed the chest warily.
Sah arrives and is also inspecting the chest. He's staying a few feet away from it, just in case.
"Maybe a pirate put it here," Seren suggested as she sidled up to Sah and Maeve. Eyes glittering with delight, she looked from the chest to her friends - as happy to see them as she was to have this mystery to solve. "Maybe it washed up from a wreck somewhere."
Walking around to study the chest from all directions, she laughed at a bird trying to land on the thing. It was an interesting idea - though she preferred to let others have a go at opening the thing first, if they wanted to.
Maeve arrives talking to Maeve and Sah, but otherwise stands back to let others try their luck with the chest first.
I've got to make room for this feeling
SEREN
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
It isn’t the first spooky thing to pop up on the beach, but it is one of the more intriguing things, once the excitement of the giant eggs calmed down. Raza leans lazily against a trident stuck fairly deep in the sand, preferring to let everyone else do the hard work of trying to figure it all out. She’s ain’t so far away that she can’t try to zap a bitch and then try to muscle her way on in if need be.
------------
Raza lingers close by and lets everyone else do the figurin' out.
she's got a real quick trigger and some new demands
You took notes on what you had to do
To get the piece of the pie that belonged to you
Being a beach hobo meant that he noticed things like this pretty soon, but apparently not soon enough to beat some others; Adam sidled up to the crowd to see what was going on. Everyone circling a chest, a bird on it and all apparently very hesitant to get it open.
"Used to deal with a load of these back in the day. Usually if they don't open, just--" Bringing his foot back with his hands in his pockets, Adam slammed a steel-capped toe against the side, hoping to perhaps jolt the lid open.
--
Adam kicks the side of the chest with his tough boots.
You've been waiting for this ever since you were young
Be careful not to choke on your tongue
Melita had become used to not even questioning weird circumstances. Like chests showing up on beaches – which actually, given the world they lived in, probably made more sense than the regular occurrences. Like bone monsters rising out of sands.
So she ambled her way to a small crowd growing around the latest intrigue, staff in hand. She’d learned over the years to be a little more cautious (emphasis on little), so when others came along, she rounded out on the sides, brow arched, arms folded across her chest, Fangorn at her ankles. Quiet. Inspecting. Wondering. Perusing. Waiting in all her speculation.
Ray had been combing the beach on her walk when she saw the commotion. At first worried, she jogged over, only to freeze. Clearly everyone was ok. But seeing an undisturbed chest in the middle of nowhere with no signs of whoever placed it? That was all manner of red flags. Curiously and with caution, Ray went back to the surf. Grabbing a piece of driftwood she returned. Biting her lip with nerves, Ray gently poked the chest with the stick to see if anything happened.
“Well if there’s nothing in it we can always turn it into a bonfire since the party is already here!” Harper joyously swans in, bumping shoulders amiably with Seren and grinning at those he recognizes - Ray, Raza, Melita, Maeve. Funny how Torchline has so quickly become home.
Swinging his staff off his back he follows Ray’s lead, tapping the end of the box but doing so in a cheerful rhythmic pattern. “I hope it’s kittens and not murder.” Both are a likely possibility in Caido.
- - -
Harper taps a fun rhythm on the chest with the end of his staff.
I've got ten digits I'd like you to find but I won't get that call You've got so much to give, I've got nothing at all
Bart might not like crowds but he sure is a nosy bitch, so when he sees a bunch of locals crowding around something of course he saunters in, hands in pockets and already more sun kissed than when he first arrived. Unfortunately he has had to forego the jacket to not die of heat stroke, but it’s easier to bear now that he has his actual womb-buddy present and accounted for.
Tilting his chin with a rakish half-grin at Adam and Maeve, Bart stays on the fringes of the group, curious but naturally wary. “Shouldn’ touch it till we know it ain’t someone’s,” he remarks, but it’s idle at best and said at normal volume. “I ain’t gettin’ my hands cut off by a smuggler.”
- - -
Bart warns against touching it and stands in the crowd.
As most of the people that have shown up, Rin has found herself out at night time out of curiosity. A crowd has formed and continues to grow by the minute. At the center of it, is a chest. Initially, Rin is confused... why does everyone care so much about a chest?
She attempts to move along the crowd, on average several inches to a foot shorter than those around her. As everyone clamors towards the chest, she is pushed out of the way frequently, forced to the edge of the group. Several times she is able to edge her way back into the current of moving bodies, but at some point she stops pushing and decides to watch from the sidelines.
How curious, a chest worthy of so many people's attention.
Rin tries to get close but can't, so she watches from the side.
Crowds are interesting and he spots like at least three people he kind of likes crowded around it, so why not see what's up? He makes his way over to Maeve and Seren and Sah, what an odd little assortment they make. He squats down, trying to get a look at the chest without touching it. It reminds him of pirate tales his mother used to tell him when he was a kid. "Don't remember seeing this earlier.." Surely it had just appeared, right? Someone would've made off with it already.
Another moment and he shifts, sniffing the air to see if he can pick up anything over the salty ocean smells.
____
Locke shifts into his jaguar form to see if he can smell anything!
and my hands aren't clean maybe they never will be
It's not the first time something weird and inexplicable has had to do with a beach. Although, the first time {for her} had been the beach itself. This, at least, feels a bit more grounded in reality. When others have had their looks and touches, Aurelia steps forward. She narrows her eyes, closely examining the ornate designs on the chest.
Maybe there is something inscribed, some tell of what it could be or symbolize. Then, she could proceed from there. Or at least, that's her approach, though the chest seems to lack a desire to be figured out. There's nothing around that suggests this will be a puzzle easily figured.
But all - or most - chests have keys, right? Just a matter of figuring out what that is, what might match up to the lock.. if there is one.
Aurelia tries to study the chest, esp in order to determine if there's a keyhole (or anything that could possibly-remotely be one).
but they can still carry you home when you're ready to sleep
