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!
Things had felt like they were ramping up, even if they weren’t just yet. Perhaps it’s talk of using the Spire as protection for the Grounds, mixed with the fact he’d been turned to stone by an entire basilisk on the adventure to search for the relic that he’d dipped out of. He wasn’t strong enough yet, and to go from there being nothing and returning to pure and absolute chaos, he mentally wasn’t ready to try and figure it out.
It wasn’t something they’d talked about really. But with the snow piling up along the Grounds, he settles in the middle of the bone bridge, leaned against the side, peering into the deep dark below despite the night that’s already cascaded. Back home, there’s a note left behind for Isla to find – one that reads ‘needed a walk, meet at the bone bridge? – C’ and a surprisingly well drawn heart.
The metal arm shifts as he twists his wrist and inspects the new upgrades to his fingers, sure it won’t be long until she arrives.
Isla doesn't realise how much she has gotten used to Varus being around until he goes away, and the medic sets out after receiving his note without so much as putting down her medical bag from the Infirmary. So she's still carrying it when she trails onto the Bone Bridge, snow crunching underfoot and mist swirling about her legs as she spots a familiar figure in the distance. Placing her bag down once she's close enough, a few strides takes her close enough to slip her arms around his back.
"Mm, I missed you," she says softly, her voice muffled given that her cheek is pressed against the back of his shoulder. "Shall we walk and talk?" Not that much of the former is going on right now, but he knows what she means. Stepping back, the Remedy retrieves her bag and gestures for Varus to lead the way.
we're gonna separate ourselves tonight we're always running scared but holding knives
She sneaks up on him, arms slipping around his waist as he inspects his fingers some more. There’s a soft rumbling laugh that leaves him, leaning back a fraction to twist in her arms so that he can wrap his good arm around her shoulders. “I missed you too.” He leans in, pressing a kiss to her temple, keeping his arm right around her even as she pulls away to grab her bag, feeling touch starved.
He falls into step with her with ease, the metal hand rising to brush his longer dark locks from his face before he casts a playfully bright grin her way. “What do you wanna talk about? Should we start with the rumor that isn’t much of a rumor about how I became a coat rack for a while?” He asks with another soft laugh, watching her face to see how she reacts.
"No more quests for a while, yeah?" Isla says with a small smile, unaware of course that she'll soon be roped in for the search for the Prince. Varus turns to begin walking and Isla sneaks back beneath his arm, slipping her own around his waist so they can stroll together. "Well, I was going to start with some perfunctory talk about the weather, but if you insist I suppose we can dive right in," she says, sneaking her hand into his coat pocket.
"I don't blame you for getting yourself out of there," she continues after a few moments, in case he harbours some guilt about it. "Something with that kind of power in such an enclosed space..." Wrinkling her nose, Isla shakes her head. "You were right not to stay. Not everyone is like Wessex, and they can't teleport around."
we're gonna separate ourselves tonight we're always running scared but holding knives
“Mm, nope, no more.” He agrees with a hum of a laugh — at least for him, until he’s prepared enough. He turns them, though, begins to walk with her tucked under his arm and her arm snakes around his waist, her hand finding his coat pocket while his hand resting on her shoulder begins to draw little symbols against her jacket.
“It was strange. It was like shutting down but this time instead of three hundred years, everything was calm and when I came back to it, it was chaos.” Far more than he could mentally handle and there’s a huge part of him that’s so glad she understands. So much so, he squeezes her shoulder a bit tighter out of comfort. “I certainly can’t teleport around, but I do have a couple of new things. An upgrade and a tech.” The metal hand lifts to wiggle in front of Isla as he smirks, amused and excited to show her what he’s got.
"Mm, nothing like waking up to a bit of excitement," Isla remarks; or in his case, a fight with a giant snake that can turn people to stone. She feels the squeeze to her shoulder and reaches up to brush her fingers across the back of his hand, opting for comfortable silence. She might be a doctor, but probing into something that, for all intents and purposes, is a bit of a fresh wound... it probably wouldn't end well.
So she lets Cal lead the conversation, her head lolling gently against him as she lifts her gaze to raise her eyebrows at his wiggling fingers. "Do you, now?" she asks, and her fanged grin is both curious and excited. "Well I absolutely need to know about it. Do you want to stop and give me a demonstration?"
we're gonna separate ourselves tonight we're always running scared but holding knives
“A bit too much excitement for these old bones.” Varus rumbles with a hum of a laugh, another squeeze offered to Isla’s shoulder as he draws her in closer. Her hand brushes along the back of his hand and he fiddles his fingers just enough to latch onto her own to hold onto her fingertips, leaning in to brush a kiss against her temple.
He pulls away into his own small amount of space as she raises her gaze to him and his soft smile shifts to something catlike as he regards her and the excitement hidden behind her own fanged smile. “I would love to stop and give you a demonstration.” He chimes, keeping her close still but stilling their pursuit in heading home so that he can point his index and middle finger toward the empty space in front of them, letting the lasers shoot from his fingers into nothing more than a beam of red before they disappear. “I have laser fingers.” He whispers, almost kidlike with a brighter grin. “I haven’t tried them on anything yet, though.” He says idly, awaiting her response.
"Ah, you know what they say. You're only as old as the woman you feel," Isla quips back to Varus with an obvious wink, leaning into him on purpose before he draws back that they might stop to see his new upgrades. Shifting her bag in her grip, she rolls on the balls of her feet expectantly - and when the lasers pew out from his fingers, she lets out an audible gasp of delight. "Cal," she whispers, gazing up at him and then back at the empty space.
"That's amazing," she gushes, dropping her bag to (naturally) rush forward and reach for his hand, that she might be able to look down at his fingers and find ot how they work. "Did you just figure out you could do it? How did you know?"
we're gonna separate ourselves tonight we're always running scared but holding knives
“Is that what they say?” Varus asks, tilting his head and clicking his tongue as if he’s considering it. “Huh.” He’s half tempted to make some quip about feeling like a spry twenty-three year old woman, but he knows it’s not the case and instead turns his focus on his little laser finger guns. Her whisper is aired and Varus grins to her, giving his hand over easily so that she can inspect them. “Isn’t it?” He asks with equal wonder.
“Well, I noticed these little lines in there that I hadn’t noticed before. I think the Voice might have put it in there and it was like a switch that just turned on one day.” He hums thoughtfully, twisting his hand this way and that so she can inspect them further. “The other one, the tech I have, I left it at home. It’s a disk of sorts but it glows and it’s sharp.” A bright content smile crosses his face, his metal hand closing around her own once she’s had her fill of the fun upgrade.
"It's what they say now," Isla decides, though she's naturally distracted by now in looking over his metal hand, trying to find the lines he describes and how the mechanisms might work. The glint to her pebble blues are a good hint that she's engaged her upgrade so she can see as much as possible, and were they in the clinic, Varus could have looked forward to a lengthy tinkering (hurr).
His fingers finally close around her own and she reaches up to press a soft kiss against the metal, before stepping into his arms for a proper hug as if craving his closeness suddenly. "A danger frisbee?" is Isla's eloquent description of the tech he describes, a crooked smile tugging at her lips as she gazes across at him. "You're becoming quite the assassin."
we're gonna separate ourselves tonight we're always running scared but holding knives
“Hmm.” Varus murmurs as if he’s questioning it. Regardless, he shows off – her gaze flickering over his upgrade with the upgrade of her own and he’s more than content to let her keep looking, to inspect him both in and out if she so wished to. (And perhaps that’s on the agenda when they get back home). For now, though, he squeezes her hand when she’s done, a soft fanged smile lingering on his lips as she presses a kiss to the cold metal.
A bright laugh leaves him at her nickname for the disk, though, a grin cutting sharply across his features. “A very dangerous frisbee.” He agrees with a wink. “Took a little bit of time but I’m getting back into it.” He tugs her closer with the hand still connected to hers, moving to wrap his arm around her shoulders again to continue the walk home. “And you’re becoming quite the leader, aren’t you?” He bounces his brows a couple of times with that same crooked, almost shit eating grin.
Leaning down to collect up her medical bag again, Isla tucks herself under his arm and continues on the trek across the bridge, her footsteps slow and leisurely. Neither of them feel the cold and it isn't as if it's actively blizzarding, so they don't have to be in any particular rush. "Is that so? Have you assassinated anyone recently with your very dangerous frisbee?" she inquires, as curious as she is teasing.
But then Varus brings her leadership into it and the medic has the decency to blush about it, silver colouring her cheeks just above the scarf she's wearing. "You think? I've just done my best for the Grounds, the same as anyone else..." Shrugging her shoulders, she gazes up at Varus. "I'm worried I might not always make the right decisions."
we're gonna separate ourselves tonight we're always running scared but holding knives
Her inquiry is met with a warm, bright laugh as he shakes his head. “Not as many as I’d like, I’ll admit.” He teases her, flashing her a playful grin. It’s a bright grin at first, until she begins to blush and Varus’ smile grows a bit softer as he squeezes her shoulders, stepping over a fallen stone in the walkway they take back to the house.
It’s a smile that fades a bit more, even, as her worries come to light and Varus has to spend a moment thinking about what he wants to say. He takes a deep inhale, glancing away from her to look to the path they take, before his head swings back toward her and he offers her nod of understanding. “Honestly… You’re not going to make the right decision every time. That’s just being human, you know.” He murmurs, offering a smile now to try and soothe her worries. “You can only do what you think is best for yourself and your home. Not everyone will agree, but so long as you think it’s the best, that’s what matters.” Because honestly, Varus would much rather Isla think of herself and the Grounds as priority before trying to appease everyone’s whims.
"Mm, maybe I will have to make cutouts of assassination victims and hide them in doorways and windows for you dispatch. I wouldn't want you to feel as though you weren't able to practice your skills. Or gods forbid, that you were getting rusty." Isla's grin might be shortlived based on where their conversation is going, but for here and now, her cheerful mischief all but shines out of her.
They fall into a comfortable silence while he thinks, and Isla leans against his steady presence, glancing up as he starts to speak again. "Human, mm? It's nice, to have someone think we are still human." Leaning up, she presses a smooch against his cheek and lets her free arm work around his waist so they can meander home all wrapped up together. "Thank you, Cal," she murmurs. "You always know what to say."
we're gonna separate ourselves tonight we're always running scared but holding knives
