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!
Ronin and Noah left in the middle of the night last night for the Sea of Glass.
It's a short letter from Cian that awaits Finn on his desk, but it hits like a punch in the gut. He'd been intending to leave within a few short hours to get to the Sea of Glass, demigod and others hopefully in tow, but now? Now that doesn't need to happen. It doesn't matter if it's Finn's job, and it doesn't matter that it's a relic. With Ronin Taliesin (and Remi, he thinks belatedly, and that's strange) on the case, there are no stronger allies they can call upon.
So Finn arrives back at the apartment he shares with Tobi, probably for one of the first times since Longnight, and they might just be home at the same time. And if not, well, Finn can just stare at the wall for a long time bit. He's still dressed in his coat and snowboots when he unlocks the door, rubbing at his eyes behind the glasses perched on his nose, feeling suddenly exhausted.
Finn will have heard music coming from inside of Tobi'stheir the apartment before he steps inside. Dressed just in her underwear and one of Finn's shirts with her hair piled atop her head with a pencil, Tobi is playing some wildly energetic and slightly clumsy song on her piano. Having expected to have the evening to herself—Finn having said he was going to leave from his office—she's already well into her second glass of wine and has stopped caring about the way her fingers occasionally play the wrong notes. Laughing through the mistakes and singing nonsense accompaniment, the melody crashes into chaos as she hears the latch of the door.
"Oh!" She all be squeaks, surprised and pink-cheeked. "Hi...you're..you're home." Tobi mumbles, blinking, her wine-lubricated thoughts taking a moment to piece things into place. "You're...home? Why are you home?"
It's a very difficult thing, to have one's thoughts whiplash from my boss is going to find a way to assassinate me to Tobi underwear good yes we like this yes good, especially when it's coming from Finn. And given the spectacles he's wearing currently, the doctor is almost literally dazzling to him right now; clicking the door shut with numb fingers, Finn swallows, tries to speak, fails and tries again.
"I, uh... There is no requirement for me to go to Halo any longer," he says stiffly, but not without a small hint of amusement, even as he fights between looking everywhere but at Tobi and also at nothing but Tobi. Fumbling with the buttons of his coat, Finn blinks towards the kitchen. "You are wearing my shirt," he remarks softly, not at all sounding put out by this. "And drinking wine alone. Are you upset?"
11-16-2021, 09:51 PM (This post was last modified: 11-16-2021, 09:51 PM by October.)
October
Frowning, Tobi tilts her head to the side in an adorably canine expression of what? "But...the relic?" Tobi only knows of these things because of how important they are to Finn, but otherwise hasn't taken any special interest in them. Still, it's strange that one day the Spyglass was hurrying about to get things in order, and now he just...didn't need to?
Normally Tobi would recognize Finn's furtive glances for what they were, but just now her mind is fuzzy enough that his here-and-then-gone blue eyes just make her smile. "Oh, mmhmm." The doctor agrees, looking down and stroking one of the buttons with her fingertip (done up wrong, mind you). "I was doing laundry." She explains, glancing down the hall as if that supported her story. 'Oh, no not at all.' Beaming, her smile all the sunnier for the wine, Tobi shakes her head. "I thought you were going to be gone, and Ever said he and Mateo were going to camp out under the stars, and..." Trailing off, Tobi shrugs a bit helplessly but grins just the same.
"So I thought I'd have some wine and play piano more loudly than I normally would." Rising, Finn's shirt barely making it past her upper thigh, Tobi reaches for her wine and strolls barefoot to the doorway. "But I'm glad you're home. Wine?"
"The Taliesins and Vi's chosen left to get it themselves," Finn explains, having unbuttoned his coat, shrugging out of it to hang it on the coat stand. "I didn't think they were going to be involved. Evidently I was wrong. Regardless, they do not need anyone to lead the way any longer." And usually that thorny issue would roll itself around in his mind until he exhausted himself with it. Tonight, though, that apparently isn't going to happen.
Unlacing his boots and slipping them off, Finn straightens up just in time for Tobi to do the same, and it feels as though he's just started chewing a ball of cotton for how dry his mouth suddenly is. "The buttons are..." It's a false start, because the buttons of his shirt are done up wrong in such a way that it's impossible not to notice all the places where the fabric hugs her curves, and Finn tilts his head up to gaze at the ceiling.
"Wine," he agrees. "I would like some wine, yes." Belatedly, his mind catches up to the rest of her words, and he rubs at the pink flush against his cheeks. "You do not have to play the piano quietly on my account."
Taliesins sounds like a word that would be very fun to say. Tally eyeeeeeee sinsssss. It felt like you could sing it the way a rollercoaster felt. 'Oh. Well that's good.' Tobi says warmly, if not ignorantly.
'Okay. Here.' Smiling more widely, Tobi presses her wine glass forward that Finn might just have some of hers. It's half-empty already, but the rest of the bottle is in the kitchen still. (It is, isn't it? She thinks it is). "I know I don't have to," Tobi agrees, her voice still sing-songy from both her musical escapades as well as the wine. "—but when I play too loudly your eyelashes flinch. Did you know that?" He probably didn't, it wasn't as though Finn spent any amount of time assessing himself in mirrors. "So I try not to, when you're around."
Is it good? Finn wants to ask, before belatedly remembering the plans they'd so optimistically been making at Longnight. They've barely had a chance to see each other, let alone speak to one another since that night, and his cheeks are already flushing at the sight of Tobi right now, let alone the feelings that those memories spark. Swallowing hard and about to agree, in the end, that it is good, instead he finds himself holding a half drunk glass of wine.
"Oh, I... that is very kind of you," he begins automatically, though it should be of no surprise that Finn does not plan to drink out of someone else's glass. Instead he drifts into the kitchen, turning on the light and collecting up another glass. The bottle is still there (though it's more than half empty, Tobi), and he tops her up and pours his own drink before returning.
"My eyelashes flinch?" he repeats, blinking at her from behind his glasses. "Well, I... thank you. But you don't have to tonight. You thought I wouldn't be home, remember."
It doesn't surprise Tobi, but such is her state of mind that she hadn't realized what a Finn-faux-pax it was to offer him her cup. Instead, she merely ghosts after him into the kitchen, humming an appreciative melody under her breath as he fills her glass and raising it immediately to her lips. 'I like this one.' She admits with all the levity of a secret. Tobi who knows nothing about wine either than that they usually come in red, white, or rose, categorizes them into categories of no thanks, yes please!, and snooty special occasions.
"Mmhmm. It's really subtle. But it's right here—" Reaching out to place her fingertip just next to the corner of Finn's eye, Tobi is careful of his glasses but perhaps slightly less cautious of Finn's boundaries than normally she was. 'Yes but now you are home." The doctor points out, her eyes twinkling and her cheeks singing with colour.
"Do you?" Finn raises the bottle to glance at the label, and naturally he locks away this bit of information for the future. Tobi will find herself with glasses of this particular wine for the foreseeable, until she vocalises another that she likes the taste of. Such is life with Finn. Speaking of which, it's as his glass moves towards his lips that her hand ghosts up to his face as well. And usually he'd step back, naturally wary of anyone closing distance, but with Tobi he's promised to be better.
So instead, his hand comes up to gently brush over the back of hers, and he manages a softly amused smile. "Now I am home," he agrees warmly, before they're skipping onto the next subject. It's one Finn quite enjoys, surprise surprise, and he nods, taking a sip of wine and gesturing for her to lead the way back into the room. "I would like that. Let me go and get my guitar."
"Mmm." Tobi hums as Finn's hand covers hers, and it's with an easy and relaxed smile that she gazes warmly up at him. After their last rendezvous together one might have expected her to stand up on her tippy-toes and kiss him then, but not even more than half a bottle of wine could erase a year of platonic tip-toeing around one another, such that it's all too easy just to spin in place and march toward her piano instead, so that they could play together.
Perching her bare feet on the pedals, Tobi's fingers begin to coax out a few random strains of melody before she finds one she likes. With her head tilted to the side and her eyelashes fluttering in response to the notes, she builds in harmonies with growing confidence as she waits for Finn to join in. As the music swells Tobi's posture and expression changes, moved and moving with the sounds their instruments produce.
Tobi begins her melody, and Finn finds himself smiling even as he heads into the other room to fetch his guitar, returning with it before long to open the case and get the instrument out. "That sounds beautiful," he says softly, still gazing down at the strings and sinking down onto the sofa with the guitar in his lap. It's not just the tune that's pretty, but of course the Spyglass would never dare to say such a thing with Tobi being less than sober.
So instead he does what they do best together (apart from... yeah, he's not thinking about that) and starts to strum out an accompanying melody to Tobi's piano. It doesn't take long for Finn to lose himself in it as well, and around them the room subtly seems to grow warmer and brighter, more homely almost.
Magic strings are the least of what makes the moment memorable and warm; it's a way the two can communicate with one another that isn't tainted by the dark things in Finn's past or the shadows that seem to lurk around each corner thanks to Cian. Here, with their melodies, they can chase and twine around one another in a way that's effortless but deep, and Tobi finds herself on the verge of both laughter and tears when the final notes hang heavy and undisturbed in the air.
Waiting until the last of the harmonics have faded away, only then does Tobi remove her fingers from the keys, slumping down slightly and shooting Finn a shy smile. Reaching for her wine glass only to realize that it was empty, Tobi frowns for a moment as she tilts it incredulously up toward the light just to confirm. 'I'm out of wine.' She declares, twisting herself on her piano bench to face Finn and interlocking her ankles together.
Not nearly in his cups as the doctor, Finn isn't quite on the verge of tears from their combined playing, but even sober, there's no doubt that what they can communicate without words is something rare, something he might even consider special. Breathing out a soft sigh and carefully setting the guitar back in its open case, he offers Tobi a small smile as he straightens back up, only to find her twisting about to face him.
"Oh... Would you like mine?" he asks, nodding at his barely touched cup (because it's not sharing if Finn intends to give her the whole glass). "I suppose I had imagined that you wouldn't be at home, so I was going to go to bed," he says slowly, twisting the ring on his thumb. "But is there anything you would like to do now that I am home?"
"Mmmmmm." Tobi hums in a rush, beaming at Finn and fully intending to take him up on his offer. Not when she was still reeling from the music and when Finn's eyes were suddenly so blue. Wine seemed a perfect addition. 'Oh. Sorry.' About being home? She wasn't, really, but that was alright.
Rising, the piano bench having left marks on the back of her thighs, Tobi nibbles at her lip and nods. There was something she wanted to do now that they were both home. Something she very much wanted to do in fact. Coaxed to a kindle by the music and fanned by the wine, Tobi is only just now aware of a heat building between her thighs that has her smiling warmly as she edges toward the couch. "Yeah, there is.." She whispers, her long lashes fluttering as she moves to stand in front of Finn. Carefully (both because of her lack of balance just now and because of her intentions), the doctor slowly positions one knee against the outside of Finn's leg, before moving to straddle him with the other. With her hands on the back of the couch on either side of his shoulders, Tobi holds herself above his lap experimentally to test the waters, so to speak.
