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!
Alex was having a horrible day. The ship creaked as it docked, making the captain's brow furrow. Her beautiful ship, torn up from a storm. It wasn't the first time it'd happened. But this was the first time that it happened so close to Torchline. As much as she'd rather push forward, there was no choice. The damage needed to be attended to now and so Torchline it was.
Alex jumped down onto the dock and began barking out orders to her crew. "Get repairs started! Jace, take the boys and replenish our supplies! Carla and Sam, keep an eye on things and work on internal repairs. Get to it!" There was a chorus of 'Yes Captain' and the crew burst into action.
Letting out a sigh, Alex turned and eyed the Port warily. She really didn't want to be here. Not again. If she was lucky, it'd be a quick stop and she wouldn't run into any familiar faces. And hopefully with the blue flag they'd put up before docking, they could pass as a merchant ship.
What is Jack if not a shit who finds himself in the right place at the right time? True, the Ark is just getting ready to set sail, but he hasn't had to get the hell out of port at high speed this time, thanks to Torchline's clever little monsoon-shield. So as the ship limps into port, he's sitting at the prow of the Ark, one leg dangling over her railing, a cigarette between his lips.
The crew and her captain are a little too far out for his telepathy to catch them, but Jack knows pirates like sharks know blood in the water, and he fucking hates them. He knows flying colours mean nothing too, and he's got an ear for voices. So as the captain of the vessel starts barking out her orders, the captain's ears perk up.
With a slow drag on his cigarette, he leans over the railing enough to spot the woman on the docks. "Get fucked," he calls by way of greeting. "Take your limp dick dinghy and fuck off back out to sea."
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Alex slowly turns to regards the man who shouted out. Her eyes are steel as she slowly rakes her eyes over him appraisingly. Once her eyes meet his own, she gives him a sardonic smile. "Poor thing. You'd know all about limp dicks, wouldn't you? So sorry that my ship is acting as such a harsh reminder of your own shortcomings." She all but cooed down to him with false sympathy.
This man's attempts at mockery are amusing to say the least. Though it does anger Alex that he'd dare to insult her beautiful ship. The Silver Serpent was a more reliable ship then most. Though the name was odd given the ship's dark wood and lack of silver, it was the name the boat had been given by the prior captain. And despite that man's eccentricity, the name had stuck.
Steel meets steel, and Jack scoffs out a laugh on a huff of smoke. His eyes move to her ship as well, looking it up and down in the same way one might appraise a whore in a brothel - and he's left wanting, evidently.
"I'd offer to let you ride it an' prove you wrong, but I'd not want my dick anywhere near you," he informs her, clicking his tongue and shaking his head. "It's one thing to be what you are, but it takes a real fuckin' terrible captain to do that to a ship. Poor thing."
Even without telepathy, from one sailor to another, he knows where to hit where it hurts. For her part, the Ark is looking as good as she can get. A galleon, she's not as swift as some vessels, but with dark wood and a ruddy red sail, as armed cargo carriers go, she's perfect in Jack's eyes.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Alex lets out a low small laugh, her grin sharp as she leans over the rail of her ship. "Oh? And pray tell, what am I?"
Alex's jaw clinks in rage at the comment, her voice taking a sharper tone as her amusement vanishes. "Ah, silly me. I simply forgot how to control the weather!" The sudden storms that can emerge over the sea weren't always avoidable and this case had been particularly bad. The Silver Serpent had done an excellent job in staying afloat and making it to shore. And Alex prided herself on being a captain who could help a ship see it through such storms. For this half-wit to insinuate otherwise made her want to castrate him.
The pirate then glances between the man and the ship he seems inclined towards, and it hits her. "Ah. Now I understand." Alex's smile turns predatory as she eyes the Ark, raising a brow at the stranger. "Poor little smuggler can't protect his ship and goods properly. Let me guess, each time you see my kind on the water do you flee? Or do you just roll over and beg for mercy? You seem like the kind to beg." All bark and no bite. Alex had seen plenty of men like this one.
"Now that'd be tellin', sweetheart," Jack replies, baring his teeth in a grin. "I'm sure you'd not want the fine people of Torchline to know that scum like you have limped into port, mm? Then again, maybe they ought to know." He tilts his head, like it's an offer she can accept or reject.
Snorting out a laugh at her next comment, Jack settles himself back against the prow of his ship, takes a final drag of his cigarette and flicks the butt into the water far below. "Sounds like a you problem to me," he calls, as if controlling the weather is exactly the sort of thing he'd expect. As an Abandoned with control over air and water, well, maybe he's a little biased.
Oh, but then she's challenging him, and Jack can never resist a little bit of dick swinging. Sitting up, he calls out something to the crew on deck, something that has them raising brows and tilting heads, but relaying the orders nonetheless. Smoothly, the Ark's gunports open on her hull, aiming cannons directly at the Silver Serpent alongside her. "Get out of my port. Now."
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Alex cackled slightly, "I highly doubt that this is out of the ordinary for this gods-forsaken place." How she loathed this region and all that it represented for her. The woman's nose wrinkled in disgust as the man kept speaking. And then he had the gall to threaten her ship? Her crew? Absolutely not.
A flicker of fire in the corner of her eye hardly phased the captain but it did help soothe her temper as it forced her to focus, "Down boy. Let's not set the port on fire just yet." Her Abandoned crewmate who had set themselves aflame allowed the fire to dissipate with a huff. Overzealous crewmate dealt with; Alex eyed the Ark's captain with boredom. "Seems logical. Set the boat next to your own on fire. I highly doubt your ship is fireproof so why take the risk?"
Meanwhile she tapped her fingers on the rail of her ship in a seemingly mindless pattern. The crew still aboard moved to positions and the Silver Serpant's gunports open with a creak as the splintered wood protested. But nonetheless the cannons were revealed and aimed for the Ark. Raising a brow at the stranger Alex proposed a counter, "Now then. Are we going to destroy both our ships and this port, or would you like to deal with this like adults?"
"This is very out of the ordinary for this gods-forsaken place. You got a lot of mouth for someone who knows fuck all about where she's landed," Jack says, his voice low and his eyes flat. He merely glances at the Serpent's gunports as they open, internally wondering if the pirates abreast of the Ark have any original ideas of their own. Something they'll soon learn about Torchline, though, is that logic rarely has anything to do with it.
"Deal with this like adults?" Jack barks out a laugh. "You've been warned, which is more'n I give most. Get out of port, or I'll take you out of it." Straightening up now, he leans against the railings and examines the Serpent. "I don't reckon you can take a hit from my guns in your state. Want to try me?"
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Alex can't restrain a chuckle. "Torchline must have changed in the last decade if this is out of the ordinary." Her tone is both nostalgic and bitter. This was her childhood home after all. And her father and his friends had most certainly either been or aided pirates. Though it was possible they'd been the minority. Alex was too young when she was taken to really know.
The man's most recent threat has the pirate shaking her head in exasperation. "I'd be out of here if I could. As soon as my ship is up and running, which will likely be within the next few hours, me and my crew are gone." Alex ran a hand over her ship's railing before jumping down and landing in front of the man.
Meeting his eyes Alex's voice turns serious. "Let's get to the point. You want me gone. I want to get the fuck out of here. My ship can't take another hit and I refuse to strand my crew in a Torchline of all places. I need three hours probably. So then, what will it take for you to accept that?" Three hours for the repairs to finish and for her crew members restocking to return should be enough. Hopefully this man would allow it and Alex could finally stop wasting her time and go help her crew with repairs.
She jumps down, and Jack sidles down from the railing to follow suit. Better to have a fight between two captains than two ships and all that. And maybe he shamelessly wants to be in range of her thoughts, so he can better decide whether it's worth turning the Ark's cannons on the Serpent. (He's lying, that decision can and does change on a hair trigger, this is just Jack being nosy).
"Three hours? I could get a lot done in three hours," Jack drawls, narrowing his eyes and looking her up and down, as if trying to gauge whether she's worth it. Folding his arms across his chest, he eventually scoffs and waves at the crew; the guns slide back into the Ark's ports. "You can buy me dinner," he decides. "That's what it'll take."
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Alex raises a brow but after a pause she nods her agreement. " Dinner it is." She's honestly surprised, having expected numerous other demands or even blatant refusal. Dinner was doable, even though it confused her as to why a man who so obviously hated pirates wanted to spend any more time with one.
Alex jumps back onto her boat and gives out a few more orders to speed up repairs and explaining where she's headed so her crew doesn't worry. The canons are put away and after pushing her hot-headed Abandoned crewmate into the water after they catch fire again at Jack's 'audacity to order their captain around', she jumps back down beside the other captain.
"Alright. Lead the way. I haven't been here in a while so I'm sure my usual haunts are gone." Alex holds out a hand for him to shake, brow quirked in a slight challenge, "I'm Alexandria, but everyone calls me Alex or Captain Moore. What's your name stranger?" She wonders if the man will shake her hand or blow her off. Neither would surprise her at this point.
She leaves to sort out her crew and Jack offers a slow smile to his own. There's always a good reason to spend time with anyone, especially for a man with his kind of skills. So dinner it is, the captain drawing one last time on his cigarette before flicking it away and crushing the butt under his heel. Reaching out, his calloused hand claps into her own to shake, and there's as likely to be razorblades hidden between his fingers than offers of friendship.
"Call me Jack." Throwing a lazy salute to the Ark over his shoulder, he heads further into the port, heading for The Hanged Man, because where else would you go with a pirate in tow? "Your usual haunts? You can't be much more'n a kid yourself. How long d'you reckon places here last?"
The Hanged Man, at least, has been a staple in Torchline since Jack was a kid, and it comes into view along the soft sands with music and voices already warbling out of it.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
"Jack? That fits." He looks like a Jack. His question though gets a small shrug and an amused grin. "It's Torchline. Places either last generations or are gone in a season." It was one thing she had always liked about the region, it's unpredictability. "Who knows if the restaurants or cafes I used to like are still here?"
But then Jack leads them to The Hanged Man and Alex understands his incredulity. "See? Some last generations." The pirate says cheekily as she walks in with a skip in her step. In all honesty she was relieved to see the place still standing. She'd snuck in here with Locke a few times when she was younger to steal snacks. It was one of the few places in Torchline that held good memories for her. Though there just as many painful ones here from the other members of their family.
"Mayhap you should visit more often'n find out," Jack drawls; it's a barbed remark, because of course it is. Alex gliding into the islands' port more than once in a blue moon would draw too much notice from the sort of businesses and establishments that didn't like dealing with pirates, as well as those that did. And sometimes it wasn't always clear which was worse. "Mmhm," he says with a raise of his eyebrows at her cheekiness, falling quiet to step in through the doors of the Hanged Man.
Her thoughts crash against his telepathy like a wave, and though he's a dab hand at keeping a poker face, his curiosity does prick up at Locke's name. Now what was that doing in her head? Jack slumps down at a booth, raising a hand at the bar to indicate his usual, and kicks out the chair that Alex might join him. "How does a waif like you end up with a big bad pirate ship of her own?" he inquires.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
