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!
If I can stop one heart from breaking If I can ease one life the aching
“I would happily turn a blind eye to such deviousness,” he laughs, and though he knows she supports him too fully in his role to ever consider it, the idea is appealing. To the both of them. A shame then that they are so needed by people aside from themselves. Maybe after the war. But that is a thought he does not want to dwell on, a future too fraught and uncertain to plan for.
He steals a stray vegetable chunk from her cutting board as she preps the potatoes, holding it up to her lips for her to eat though it tempts him just the same. Harper certainly isn’t expecting the topic she moves to, but he listens raptly, tilting away from her so their eyes might meet. It’s not something he has ever considered admittedly. “Ronin and Sunjata are far more precious and useful to her than I am. I don’t think she’d ever ask that of me.” He feels the need to reassure her despite the fact she has just confirmed she would harbor no resentments. And his heart blooms with love anew for her for that. “But I’m glad to know that. Just as I’ll never begrudge you your physicality with Frey - or if they ever bestowed upon you a child somehow as well.” Frey didn’t seem inclined historically, but Phoebe was also special to the deity in that way. Pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth, he squeezes her middle gently. “Whatever the cause of their creation, we’ll love them just the same.” As meaningful a vow as the one they’d make with the rings they would find for one another.
"Already planning on thirds then?" she asked with a smirk. Of course she knew he wouldn't eat until he made himself sick - but a second helping would definitely be no surprise. Even if he had places to be the next day, he could at least handle that.
Phoebe ate the little chunk of carrot, munching happily as he took in what she had said. "Maybe now they are, but you never know what the future holds." she reminded him. Sure, it might not happen tomorrow, or even the next day, but a few seasons down the road? Once the war started and people of power were needed? Who knew what exactly Safrin would do or see fit to use him for? But the demands or wishes of a god were far different from those of a person, so she did not see it in the same light as him finding another person to sleep with.
"If Frey ever bestowed a child upon me, sex would definitely be part of it, no maybes there. But I am not certain they've need for one with both Mildew and I to do their work." she said with a bit of a shrug. Frey had two demigods already and thus far had not expressed any interest in seeing Phoebe bear them a child. But it was still good to know all the same, just as he had said.
"Do you want a boy or a girl?" she asked him curiously, holding up a piece of carrot for him to munch on as well.
If I can stop one heart from breaking If I can ease one life the aching
“Already planning on unbuttoning my pants for more room,” he chuckles against her shoulder. He misses her cooking when he’s away, and overindulging helps in the interim.
She has always had more faith in him and his relationship with the Gods than he has. Still uncertain; of himself, of his uses to them, of having benevolent Gods instead of invasive ones that required teams of people to put down and stop. “Then we’ll simply have to see how it pans out. Regardless - if it happens, to either of us, there will be no hard feelings. Just another addition to love.” Harper had been an only child when his parents had been killed, but he’d found family over the years. He certainly wasn’t one to put weight or necessity on blood connections.
The next question prompts a sheepish smile. “Both?” Chuckling, he taps his thumbs gently against her navel, where someday a baby might grow. “I know it’s getting ahead of myself here, but I’ve always wanted a big family. Though I think a girl would be nice first. A big sister for everyone.” He doesn’t think the idea will dissuade her with her love of children, but hopefully she’d be up to the idea physically. Harper can’t imagine the stress of pregnancy on a body.
"I need to make you pants with stretchy material. We can call them your stew pants." she said with a snicker.
That Harper wanted a big family only made her grin. She wanted one as well, as many children as her body could handle while still being healthy. Thankfully, as a midwife, she was prepared to assess that. She would know when it was time to call it quits. "Not a son first? You are a strange one." she teased, laughing lightly.
But then suddenly, she remembered something. "Oh! I completely forgot!" she said twisting in his grasp so she could face him better. "I can shift too! I just found out recently!" she said. She hadn't meant to not tell him, but sometimes in the midst of everything else, things got lost. It was easy to forget what she had and hadn't told him.
If I can stop one heart from breaking If I can ease one life the aching
“Or I’ll just wear my boxers. Maybe steal some of your leggings,” he teases, aware he’s already has his own. Harper has taken to wearing more jeans since arriving in Caido, but more as a matter of necessity - he’d lived in workout apparel before he’d been dropped into a less modern world. Definitely one of the more minor things he misses.
It’s exactly that modern upbringing that makes his choice strange to her. He nuzzles into her blonde hair and gives a little shrug that she can feel more than see. “You know I don’t put weight into that kind of stuff, it wasn’t a thing in the future I grew up in. Don’t need a son to carry on a name. Although,” here he pauses, retreating and turning his head to try and meet her eyes, curious, “do you want to take mine? I wouldn’t mind combining them, or even taking yours normally.” Though his last name is one of the few things he has left of his family, Harper also knows it isn’t at the same time. He has his memories of them, and their DNA in his veins.
Arms loosen as she twists, and Harper takes a moment for her words to register but once they do his own face lights up. “That’s amazing! Have you done it yet? What shape do you take?” Safrin had told him it would be a reflection of the soul, and he’s undoubtedly interested to know what hers was - half-celestial as she is now.
Phoebe just laughed and shook her head. If he wanted to try an fit into her leggings or walk around in his underpants she supposed that was a decision he could make. Though she might have to hide her favorite pair of leggings in case he did so he wouldn't stretch them out...
She felt the shrug and smiled a bit, already knowing that the traditions she was so used to barely registered in Harper's mind. But his question surprised her, having not considered it herself given the not-wedding wedding they had decided on. The thought of sharing each other's names was uncomfortably foreign to her, and the notion of him taking her name was enough to make her giggle. A man taking a woman's name? No, that was far too strange for her to even consider. "I don't mind taking your name." she said with a small smile. It wasn't like there were legal documents in Caido that dictated such things. It was easy enough to change if she so decided, as she had with Sunjata. And Phoebe Quinn had a nice ring to it.
"Yes, I have!" she said excitedly, glad he was happy for her instead of upset she had forgotten to mention it sooner. "My shift is a unicorn!"
If I can stop one heart from breaking If I can ease one life the aching
In many ways they shouldn’t work. They’re from as opposite of worlds as you could think to get. Yet here they are, defying all odds, navigating each other’s weirdness because they love each other too much not to. “Phoebe Quinn it is,” he murmurs against her skin, lips stretched into a helpless smile she’s sure to feel. It has a ring to it in his opinion too.
Seeing the excitement freely on her face is worth the degree of separation he has to endure as she spins in his arms. Though his dark brows climb high in surprise at the revelation of the form she’d taken. And then he’s laughing - guffawing really, belly deep and joyous as he clings to her lest he take them both down to the ground. Tears of mirth gather on his lashes as Harper tries to catch his breath. “Gods Phoebe, you didn’t have to take the Princess nickname so literally!”
Phoebe Quinn it is. Now there was a phrase a past her would never have thought she would hear him utter. And she might've asked him to say it again and again and again...if he wasn't suddenly laughing so hard that she nearly had to hold him up.
"What are you talking about?" she huffed, a little miffed at his reaction. She wasn't sure she knew how she had wanted him to act but laughing to the point of tears surely hadn't been on the list of acceptable responses. Her brows furrowed and she frowned, not sure if he was making fun of her or just too stunned to respond any other way. "If you don't believe me we can go outside and I will show you." she said, the hint of hardness in her tone making clear she wasn't sure whether to be offended or not. "It's not like I got to pick. I wasn't taking anything literally or not! I know I'm not a princess." she said, defensiveness welling up. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything. But in honesty she hadn't thought that unicorns were so laughable.
If I can stop one heart from breaking If I can ease one life the aching
Her offense reels in his mirth only marginally, aware once he has the breath to explain that she will be easily mollified. It’s just another thing that sets them apart in centuries and upbringing.
“No love I’m not teasing you. Princesses and unicorns go hand in hand in fairytales - they always are visited by them, or have a companion in one. It’s just so fitting,” he chuckles, managing to wind down the intensity of his laughter so he can finally breathe (and talk) again.
“I’d love to see it eventually but then you’d have to stop making the stew, and I simply cannot survive that.” As if to punctuate it he slumps against her as if wilting away with no soupy sustenance to keep him on his feet.
Oh! Her irritation subsided almost immediately as he explained. Apparently it reminded him of stories from his world, where princesses and unicorns were friends. "You're lucky you had a good excuse or else I might've decided to see how stabby my horn could be." she said with a huff, her grin revealing the threat to be in jest.
She held his weight just long enough to tilt him back towards a chair he could plop into, surprising herself with how easy it actually was. She could definitely feel his weight, but it surely hadn't been as difficult as she had imagined it might be! "Well then you just make yourself comfortable and I will finish up the stew." she said, turning back to her work on the stove.
It wouldn't take too long before Harper had warm bread with butter, hot stew, and an ale set before him, Phoebe having long since perfected quick versions of each recipe. His world might've been more advanced, but her world had prepared her for taking care of a large family and a man with a big appetite - call it backwards or old fashioned but it was working in his favor today!
Only once he had had his fill did she dare ask. "There, feeling less woozy?"
If I can stop one heart from breaking If I can ease one life the aching
The way she deflates is endearing, amusing, and he smiles before pressing a kiss to her hair. Harper had known she would understand, and that she’d give him a chance to explain. He simply wasn’t the type to be mean, to needle and tease in a cruel fashion. He was more inclined to compliment and uplift.
She shoos him easily enough into his chair (if by shoo you mean half-lifting, which earns her a delighted laugh). That’s something to consider for a day when the tempting smell of food isn’t a prevalent distraction.
There’s no more than small talk as they eat. Well, Phoebe eats. Harper inhales. He still keeps himself to a strict training regime, and all the new duties of being a councilman only further deplete his energy. By the time Phoebe asks if he’s feeling better, he’s half-slumped in his chair, eyelids hanging low and practically purring as he leans on the edge of the table. “I feel amazing. So full. But amazing.” It comes out in a distinctly appreciative, drawn out groan of bliss.
Phoebe couldn't help but laugh as Harper groaned his appreciation for the food she had prepared. It was something she had always loved about him - he knew just how to make a girl feel appreciated for the hard work she put into a meal! Not all were so free with their praise. "I'm glad. I do think I outdid myself this time. Must've been caramelizing the onion a bit longer than usual." she said, picking up his nearly licked clean plate.
As she brought them to the sink, her stomach gurgled, causing her brows to furrow. It wasn't a happy full tummy gurgle. She had eaten more than her fill of stew too...there wasn't time to think more. Phoebe turned on her heel and hurried to the other room where the bathroom was, kneeling over the toilet before throwing up a good portion of what she had just eaten. Thankfully her hair stayed around her shoulders as she panted, still leaning against the seat as she tried to decide if she was going to get sick again or not.
Yep. Again.
Thrice in fact. "Apparently I overdid it." she groaned, forehead pressed against the cool stone floor when she was certain she was finished.
If I can stop one heart from breaking If I can ease one life the aching
Harper truly tries to put words to his agreement, but all that comes out is a burble of contentment masquerading as English. Sugar plums dancing in dreams? No, Harper is seeing potatoes and chunks of beef, and he’s (somewhat) certain he’s still awake.
It’s a treat whenever he can have Phoebe’s cooking. Harper is no slouch in the kitchen, and maybe he’s just a romantic to think it, but food tastes better when made with love for someone else. He is about to force himself to stand and join Phoebe at the sink to help with washing the dishes in tandem when he notices her shoulders tensing. It draws his eye instinctively, a trained reaction that precedes the slow slog of thoughts in his head. Something in him always forced to notice, catalogue.
As she runs Harper jolts up, lethargy forgotten as he rushes after her, calling her name in bewildered alarm. He’s moments behind her as she hits her knees, and with gentle hands he holds her hair back as she heaves into the toilet. Once it’s carefully held in one hand, the other rubs at her back, kneeling at her side with expressive brows pinched in deep concern. Muttering soft platitudes to feel less useless. When it’s clear she’s finished, Harper reaches to flush the toilet so the smell hopefully won’t make her sick anew and rises briefly to grab the small cup next to the toothbrushes and fill it with water. He cups her hand gently as he hands it to her in case her strength is shaky. “Are you sure? Maybe you’ve caught a bug. You didn’t seem like you ate too much or too fast.” Already prone to mother henning, Harper brushes the baby hairs at her temple behind her ear. “Maybe you should go see Doctor Hart just in case.”
Phoebe took the water and drank, desperate to get the taste from her mouth. Of course, water could only do so much. But it was something. "I doubt it is a bug. I feel fine otherwise." she said with a sigh. No headache, no body aches (except her stomach but that was to be expected after getting violently ill like that), no fever - nothing else to indicate that she was sick except for the vomiting, which came right after she ate...her brow furrowed. Only briefly, shaking her head. No, such conclusions couldn't be drawn yet.
"I think I should just go lie down for a bit once I get the kitchen cleaned up." she said with a small smile. It was getting late anyways, it wasn't like she would miss much by resting a bit. "Sorry, I didn't mean for you to worry...or move so fast after eating like that." she said with a light laugh. He rarely moved farther than from one place to sit to another after eating a meal like that!
