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 hasn't gone far, you're quite right Finn. Where he has gone will be clear enough shortly, even if the hows and whys of it all are left a bit vague (and they are going to be left that way).
On unsteady feet, a child makes his way back towards the sound of panic. With the reassurance of a deity still clinging to his skin like a fog, his youthful and naive face emerges without a trace of worry or anxiety despite the chaos that is suddenly vying for purchase in the Celestine.
Only having just learned to babble a week or so ago, the new abilities afforded to him by matured vocal chords and teeth aren't at all intuitive. But Frey has made his mind capable of understanding what to do, even if his body is slow on the uptake. And so, feeling that a gurgle wouldn't be appropriate, Everest Hart raises a hand, and gives his panicking parents a small wave.
For all the times that Tobi has wished Finn was an attuned like she was that they might share the bond, in this moment, it's largely in his best interest that he isn't. The doctor's silent screams and bright warbles of panic are so strong that any attuned in the area are likely to feel them like a sudden monsoon. Her body might as well have been made out of jello or paper for how useless it is, though her strong hands clutch at Finn even more tightly than they might have done during her labour were it not for Phoebe's crown.
"..F-f-...i..." Barely able to say anything due to the way she's started to hyperventilate, as the boy appears through the foliage, none of the maternal senses we might have assumed would spring up, do. Tobi looks at Ever, suddenly 9 years older, with uncomprehending eyes.
'P-p-lease.' She manages, holding her breath to keep her diaphragm from spasming. "Have you s-s-een...a baby?" The words rush out, and she doesn't care if they don't make sense.
07-11-2021, 07:59 PM (This post was last modified: 07-11-2021, 07:59 PM by Finn.)
we are all broken
Finn doesn't know what to do. And at any other time, he would have panicked for more than the obvious reasons; indeed, after all of this is over, Tobi will likely find him in one of the closets in her apartment, hiding behind the coats with his head between his knees. For now, though, he clutches the doctor close, following her gaze up as she addresses someone nearby. He sees the boy and - would you believe it - the similarities of the child that suddenly stands before them do strike him.
"What is your name?" he asks, almost at the same time as Tobi speaks, which will likely result in a bit of a jumbled mess when it comes to actually deciphering what each of them is asking of the boy.
Like someone who has been given all the theoretical knowledge of a subject but exactly none of the practical know-how, the boy opens and closes his mouth several times, before reaching up his fingers to poke at his teeth. He's never felt them before, nor his tongue—not like this anyway—and though he doesn't know how he knows it, innately he understands that this is going to take more practice than the present moment affords.
Looking between faces he knows so well and yet is seeing for the first time, Everest slumps down into a seating position like a toddler who has decided he's done with practice-walking for the day. Then, with a stroke of brilliance, he points down at one of his feet where there's a birthmark on the top of one of his toes.
Ready to scream, Tobi very nearly shakes Finn. I don't care what his name is! she wants to whine, but her throat has closed tightly around the sobs that push against the back of her teeth over and over. "...finn.." She cries softly, on the verge of hysterics again. It isn't a state that Tobi finds herself in often, and though she's weathered a number of storms and crises in her time, never before has she lost her own child.
So when the boy plops down and starts pointing at his foot, Tobi is nearly ready to ask one of the dragoons to pick him up and take him home until she catches the familiar splotch of purply-brown. Blinking at it rather stupidly for a moment, the doctor releases her grip on Finn's arms (sure to leave bruises in familiar-enough patterns), and crawls toward the seated boy.
Reaching gently for his foot, Tobi wipes her thumb across the mark to be sure that it wasn't just extremely coincidentally placed mud. When the blemish remained, she looked up at the boy, before cupping his face in her hands. "Everest?"
It's a wonder, honestly, that Finn hasn't passed out just yet. And by the way his fingers are going numb and his vision is beginning to cloud at the edges, it's probably only a matter of time. Tobi's mounting hysteria and the boy's complete lack of response other than to point at his toes do not help the situation, unsurprisingly, and he lets the doctor go, leaving pinkish finger shapes along his biceps.
Then Tobi goes and asks the boy if he is their baby, and he's quite certain she has snapped. They don't have time for this, and the dragoons are already branching out further in the search for him. "That is the name of our son," he says softly. "Did you see him? He's only a baby."
Finn doesn't seem to understand, but at least his mother does. Nodding fervently into her hands, the boy flops forward into her arms. His muscles are tired already, and his mind has been rendered useless by the bigness of all of this. Of suddenly being a boy instead of a baby. Of knowing things without knowing how to get at them.
"Nnmmmm." Ever mumbles happily into Tobi's arms, her sweet familiarity going far towards soothing his rattled mind. His fingers clutch at her shirt as his curls tangle into the crook of her arm as he attempts to bury himself against her side, finding the gesture comforting in a way he can't quite understand.
