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!
The spots here, the holes in the ground, are incredibly intriguing if he’s being honest. But it isn’t a man that stalks through the Peepholes – no, it’s a Pegasus. One that tucks its wings in tight, stretching out his neck and head to pop into each mansized hole, wondering what sat beneath it. And that’s when a thought occurs to him, mischievous as this shift makes him, he finds a few intriguing plants and a hole that might be large enough to stick his feathered, hooved body into.
Here, he lays a trap – hoping he might be able to surprise someone, leaving the items there with a trail that seems to end right before the hole he thinks about hiding within – a trap set and in waiting, only… He doesn’t fit in the peephole. It’s frustrating for a few long huffs of the equine, before he’s staring up into the trees and spies a particularly large branch that might be able to hold his weight.
So he chooses that one instead, flying up to it right above the trap, a fruit in between his blunt teeth that once dropped might explode, hoping that it does.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
One of the perks of being a hunter for most of your life is that you can easily recognize traps. Especially such obvious ones.
A direct line?
Come on, whoever set it can do better than that. However, as the Wraith is lacking any extra abilities at the moment, she finds herself momentarily at a loss for how to proceed. Hopefully just out of sight, the demigod finally settles on conjuring up her shadow and trying to make it as life-like as possible. A knife belt at its hip, her shoes, even. A cloak (a regular one) to hide as much as possible.
If you don’t look very closely, yeah… it might work.
Settling herself behind some bushes (and who knows if she’s been seen yet, for all she knows the trap-setter has already seen her), Wessex directs her shadow to move forward, inspecting the plants.
Sure, he could absolutely do better. But that’s part of the fun, waiting to see who falls for the easy ones and who are a bit trickier. But he isn’t hiding in the hole as the trap might still suggest (not for lack of trying of course), no, and he spies Wessex from the branches he’s settled within, the fruit still pinched between the edges of his maw as he waits.
And given their last interaction, he likely shouldn’t be fucking with Wessex at all. But he’s mischievous in this shift and truthfully? He’s got a lot less on his plate these days. Perhaps he had listened to her when she’d said he had a choice. He did. And he chose Nate – even if it let Torchline fall fully into Safrin’s grasp.
He’d gotten his husband and his daughter and they weren’t tied to anything anymore.
He spies the shadow, but he did see the way she hides behind the bushes, and he decides to throw her a bone – the equine tossing the fruit somewhere in between Wessex and her shadow – watching as it topples to the ground, a bit closer to the shadow.
But gods it does explode in all its glory, splattering the bush that Wessex hides behind as well as falling all over the trap he’d set. Which leaves Sunjata to do nothing more than offer a whinnying sound of his laughter, perching as much as he can with hooves on the branch to peer down below, tritoned wings flaring.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
A piece of fruit falls down from on high and Wessex watches it plummet - but doesn’t anticipate the massive splattering it does all over her and her fake person. Pulp flies through the gaps in the leaves, landing on the General in a sticky mess, causing her to lose her concentration on the shadow-person. It falls flat, dissolving into a puddle of a cloak, bespeckled with more wet, goopy spots.
Her eyes fly up - to the whinny in the trees above her and all she can think is that even out here, in the Wilds, fuck no, normal horses don’t climb trees. From her hiding spot, her eyes flash, angry at being taken for a fool (even if she wasn’t, that’s what it feels like).
So what does the Wraith do? What she does best: disappearing. Somewhere. Likely nearby, but she thinks the Attuned won’t be able to hear her over their laughter. Maybe above. Maybe below. Maybe just on the other side of the tree trunk.
Oh, normal horses don’t climb trees. Normal horses also couldn’t fly either, and so he’s managed to keep himself perched on the large branch, supporting his weight to watch and whinny his laughter when the fruit does exactly as planned, splattering across the shadow mostly, but still managing to smear across the bushes where Wessex hides in.
He expects retaliation, honestly. It makes it all that much more fun when the Ascended disappears. It’s in an instant that she’s gone and the laughter cuts out, ears perking as he leans over a bit more to try and see where she’d gone. She’s above him by a branch, on the other side of the trunk where Sunjata can’t see – and he finds himself turning his head slightly, wings still flared, peering up through the branches above him as if he might be able to find her there too.
He doesn’t though, and the feathers that coat the edges of his shoulders before his wings sprout out smooth out over his skin as his muscles bunch, as if he’s about to hop off the branch and take to the sky to find where the Wraith had gone.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Above and around the thicc trunk (it’s a good looking tree, we can use thicc), Wessex is hidden (for now) by the luscious foliage, vines, and otherwise beautiful vegetation of the Oerwoud. While she’s made herself still as stone, some vines begin to move above her - clearly of sentient kind, they give the Wraith an idea and she grins to herself, pressing quietly against the trunk of the tree and trying to scoot enough to one side to see down at Sunjata.
Splitting her shadow in two, she hands one a piece of fruit similar to the one throne at her. The other shadow is sent to tap Sunjata on the flank - or leg - whatever can’t as easily be seen on the other side of his body. If he turns to see what’s touching him, she’ll instruct the other shadow to throw the piece of fruit in his face.
He tries to search for her but it’s difficult between the winds, the moving vines and foliage that surrounds him. He can’t even scent her completely – because he certainly knows that she’s around him somewhere, but to pinpoint it? He’s in the wrong shift for that. His muscles bunch, however, as he plans to take to the sky to scout for her when he doesn’t get as far.
There’s a moment where the touch to his flank has his sides twitching, has his tri-toned tail flicking over to smack at the shadow as his head whips around, long broad neck curling as he snorts at it – only to get pelted in the face with another piece of fruit, mottling his pale fur with hues of reds and oranges, splattered out across his face and neck.
And honestly? Well fucking played. He shakes his head, the fruit slipping off of him in chunks as another throaty sound leaves Sunjata, full of amusement. A laugh, as much as an equine could laugh. His posture relaxes, wings drooping a fraction as if to say 'ah, you got me, fair play.'
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Satisfied that she’s now evened the score, Wessex allows herself a brief, bemused chuckle as well, hauling herself around the trunk by sheer strength until she’s somewhere where she can easily face the shifted Attuned. Something inside her says she ought to be more sheepish, more - something - than what she’s feeling now, given her last encounter with the Flood and what she’s about to ask of him.
Because of course, fate has a way of handing her things she needs. Eventually.
But she doesn’t feel guilty or sheepish, she just feels - relieved, perhaps? - that he engaged with her in a normal way. “Hey Jata,” she offers him simply. Normally. Maybe wearily? “Took me a moment to realize it was you.” An awkward pat on his flank tries to convey that she is no longer ready to claw his face off and then hurl stinging accusations at his raw flesh.
Not because she think he’s making good decisions. But because she recognizes the need to not burn this bridge. It’s a common motivation for her actions: keep the fires to a minimum if at all possible.
When Wessex fully comes into view, Sunjata’s ears perk forward – his gaze following her with a surprising ease. Their last encounter hadn’t gone well, but it’s also something that he doesn’t hold against the Wraith. No, if anything it added to his eye opening realization. Because while she had told him he did have a choice in the matter (he doesn’t really, but Wessex doesn’t know the ins and outs of just how tied to Safrin he is,) she had given him the thought of stepping down, of focusing on his family, of pouring all of his love and attention to Nate where the stakes were low.
He nickers his greeting back to her, the pat to his flank appreciated in the way his head cranes to press his muzzle against her arm in a greeting back. It was easier that way. His wings shuffle on his back, feathers rising in content as he shifts on the branch to peer at Wessex. His head quirks in amusement, though, pleased to see his ruse works for the most part.
Still, he's all ears if she wants to keep talking, settling despite the stickiness of the fruit still on his face.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
She’s not well versed in horse, but if they’re anything like cats and dogs, a head butt is a good sign.
The branch, however, is an awkward place to have this conversation. Apt, perhaps, but with the full weight of a horse and a human, she can’t help but wonder about its stability. “I have a question to ask,” she begins, looking at the Flood!horse. “Maybe down on the ground though, yeah?” Assuming he’ll agree with a reasonable request like that, the Wraith peers down at the ground (not so far away for either of them), notes a good spot, and jumps, landing in a squat to absorb the impact.
She brushes herself off and once Jata joins her - horse form or otherwise - she gets right to it. “I'd like to know what it's like to fly. Think you could teach me?”
