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!
"Well of course Ever would. I could not possibly be talking about myself - I am very easy going, you know," Finn informs her dryly from behind the rim of his wine glass (which hopefully hides his lopsided smile). The circle brings a hum of familiarity, and the Spyglass nods as he nibbles at his crackers and cheese instead. "Maybe we can sneak across the Tower and fetch it from your office," he suggests, but it looks as though Tobi has it covered with her absolutely-not-suggestive stretches.
As for dragons, though, Finn chews thoughtfully on a grape he's added to the mix and leans back against the base of the sofa, rubbing at the scruff on his jawline. "They fight," he confirms with a gentle nod, "but I wouldn't say without reason. It's usually over food or territory, like other predators. Herding, though, I haven't ever heard of." Usually solitary creatures, like tigers, he's never known the reptiles to group unless it's when they're very young.
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
'How could I forget? You are the most easygoing man I know.' Tobi replies, a touch flirtatiously as if Finn's anxiety was just some adorable quirk of his and not a lifelong difficulty to deal with. "If I get desperate I can always drape myself over the arm of the couch." She says with a sigh, absolutely not wanting to leave their cozy apartment for anything. Pushing her shoulders back, looking down, and lifting up with her chest, Tobi's sternum gives a hollow clunk, which sounds halfway between a pop and a crack. "Oooh. Gods that feels better." She says with a happy moan.
'Mmmm. Well there goes that.' Knowing Finn would ask, Tobi bobs her eyebrows in a just a second gesture, as she helps herself to a large piece of cheese. 'My first shift came to me directly from Rae. My second one though...it just...was one day. But leading up to it, there was this strange sort of feeling. It's hard to describe, really. It's a bit like when something sweet fills up the back of your throat, or when your foot falls asleep and there's just a fraction of a second where it feels good. It's like that, but more subtle, inside my bones." Washing down the cheese with a sip of wine, Tobi shrugs a touch coyly. "I suppose I thought if it was a new shift and it happened to be a dragon, then..." Then what? She could just sail into the Draig Cordillera?
"And don't you forget it," Finn says, tilting his wine glass in her direction, and honestly, the fact that he can even joke about himself like this is a thousand percent more easy going than he ever has been. And he's got Tobi and Everest to thank for all of it. All of that instantly washes away, though, at the crunching sound in her chest, Finn pulling a face the one Moxxie makes in that gif and shaking his head. "Please leave our couch out of whatever you are going to do," he pleads.
Of course he's going to ask, and it's while munching on a slice of apple that Finn listens, tilting his head at her. "Are you saying you've been having that sort of feeling again?" he asks, before quite suddenly blanching of all colour. "Tobi, if you are pregnant again we are going to need to get a bigger apartment."
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
"Does that mean you're going to help me then?" Tobi replies instantly with a bit of sass in the smile she flashes him. "It's a common misconception that the cracking sound has anything at all to do with bones, you know." She adds, as if snapping cartilage would make Finn feel better about the sound he'd just heard.
Nodding her head yes, before abruptly ceasing, Tobi puts her wine glass down that she might reach for one of his hands. "No. I'm definitely not pregnant." Well, definitely was perhaps a bit strong, but there was no reason to think the contraceptive shot she'd taken wasn't working as it should, nor did she feel pregnant. "I was really quite sick with Ever." She explains, Finn having missed that part of her pregnancy. "And there were other obvious signs as well. But no, don't worry." Releasing him in favour of her wine, the doctor shrugs softly. "I do think I might be gaining a new shift, though."
"And how do you propose I do that?" Finn sasses back, albeit as politely as one might ever sass, and it's mostly the wine to thank for it. "Do I need to make myself into the arm of the couch?" Actually, he imagines that is exactly what Tobi will have him do, the Spyglass taking another drink of wine before sandwiching cheese precisely between two slices of apple.
She takes his hand just as he's debating whether to choke on said sandwich, Finn managing to calm himself down thanks to her reassurances (just about), trying to latch on to the idea of her gaining a new shift instead. "Do you just... shift, when it's ready?" he wonders, even as his expression belatedly catches up with the realisation that the first part of her pregnancy with Ever had been difficult.
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
'Well, you would get on your hands and knees and arch your back, and I'd lay across you.' Tobi replies, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 'If you can, that would work too.' She agrees, of him contorting into the couch-arm. Very nearly does she steal the cheese and apple from him, but instead she gives him a crooked smile and makes her own, but with double the cheese.
'Not that I remember. One day it's just sort of there. Like all of a sudden having a new sense. But no, I don't think I'll suddenly end up shifting mid-conversation or anything.' Popping her double-cheese sandwich into her mouth so that her lips don't have time to frown, Tobi just nods, appreciating the sentiment. "Me too." She agrees around a mouthful of absolute deliciousness. "But there wasn't anything either of us could do about it." Not only were they not together, but Finn couldn't have rejected his assignment even had he known.
The words maybe next time? hover on her lips, but that absolutely isn't the type of conversation they should be having, and so Tobi washes the question down with a sip of wine. 'I don't think there are any animals here that can teleport. Blink hares maybe, but they don't go far. That's the only ability I think I would like to have.'
Finn gives her the look over another sip of his wine, though it's not clear whether he's giving her the Finn Rosencrantz edition of absolutely not or just watch me. Likely the former, given how he doesn't move from his spot against the couch, but then again he might just be ensuring he gets a few more bits of cracker and fruit before Tobi's appetite steals it all.
There wasn't anything either of them could do about it, but that doesn't stop Finn from feeling terrible, and he wiggles his toes as if that might somehow persuade the feeling to pass. It's definitely the sort of conversation they ought to be having, even if not right now, but Tobi (bless her heart) opts for teleportation instead. Finishing his wine, Finn considers it. "You wouldn't wish to be invisible, like a peryton?" he asks, setting down the empty glass.
"And if you were a dragon, what type do you imagine you'd be?"
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
'What would I want to be invisible for?' Tobi wonders, frowning. Such is the nature of her, to not be bothered with the ability to go unseen. ' Originally I wanted to be something large, so I could be protective. You know, just looming over Ever and you. But then I thought if I could teleport around, I could be instantly where I was needed.' All of this is said with an air of realism, in that October knows that she's already been gifted with a shift she doesn't rightly deserve. To ask for anything more would be greedy, and other than with food, that word isn't often applied to her.
'I'm not sure. I know there are different colours of them, but I don't know much more than that. I sort of like the ones that look like very large snakes with small legs and feathery wings.' She answers, frowning suddenly at just how little cheese is left.
"Finn. Love of my life, and father of my son." Tobi says, giving Finn her best I'm Srs look, and drawing out the tension as long as she thinks he can take it. "Will you please help me stretch."
To spy on Cian, Finn nearly says, before silencing himself by accidentally biting the inside of his cheek. His response becomes a soft sort of grumble, and he finishes one of the last crackers before leaving the rest to Tobi. "You are already very protective. You don't need a shift to do that - you already have it," he tells her with a surprising air of authority. Then again, Finn has seen her go up against Remi Taliesin and come out on top, so he thinks he's got reason to have conviction in what he says.
"I think those tend to be venomous," he murmurs off the top of his head regarding the snake-like dragons, but then Tobi is pulling out the big guns. Her preamble has exactly the effect she likely hoped for, Finn freezing and glancing up at her as if he's just done something terribly wrong. And the breath he's been holding huffs out of him all at once when her request finally makes it out, the Spyglass raising his eyebrows at her before shifting to obediently become a bridge.
"If you become stuck, I will not know how to help," he warns her.
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
"I know. But as you might have noticed, I am not very big." Tobi points out, tilting her head slightly to the side as if to say, duh, Finn. Frowning thoughtfully as she considers whether or not she might want to be venomous (perhaps she could help with the creation of anti-venoms), the ache in her back has her needing to shift conversational tactics.
'I think the chances of me getting stuck are very low.' Tobi says reassuringly despite how much she wants to laugh and kiss the incredulity off of Finn's face. As he arches, Tobi stands behind him facing away, before reaching down to grab his hips. "Ready?" As gently as she could, the doctor leans her back against Finn's. Inching herself up until her feet are right at his knees, Tobi is forced to let her head loll against just one of Finn's shoulders, as she lets her arms droop down. "Oh gods this feels amazing." Tobi moans, and as the blood rushes into her cheeks one might think Finn was doing something else indeed to elicit such a reaction from the doctor.
"I want to stay like this forever. This is perfect." She adds playfully as she adjusts her hips so that their spines are basically aligned.
"Size isn't everything, or so I have been led to believe," Finn says. Did a small amount of ex-prostitute sass just slip out? Maybe. Either way, before he knows it he's becoming a human bridge for the woman he loves, and let no one in the Order think that Finn is unable to be flexible if he has to be. (Not literally, though, he makes a basic bridge at best). "Not especially," he responds to whether he's ready, not that it prevents Tobi from going ahead.
And her moaning is enough to flush his cheeks red, Finn clearing his throat and trying to ignore the weight and heat of her draped against him. "I am glad to be of service," he manages, his arms still braced against the carpet. Tilting his head back a bit as if he might be able to see her face (he can't), he does seem very worried that she really will stay there forever. "Am I meant to do anything else?" he asks.
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
Tobi's eyebrows and raise and gods if she wasn't so keen to have Finn's spine pressing against hers, she'd absolutely have given that thread a teasing tug. Alas, soon she's upside down, having forgotten all about all the size-doesn't-matter jokes she might have made.
"mmmm?" Tobi murmurs, feeling her spine release such that she can feel blow flow whoooooshing down to her toes. "Well, if you can grow ridges from your back that align with my vertebrae, that would be really excellent." She replies, almost drowsily, as she swims in the euphoria that this stretch is producing.
"I can be done whenever you want." Tobi, who knows she doesn't weigh enough to be a burden, nevertheless knows that despite how much she might want to, she can't actually stay this way forever. 'I can do it for you after, if you want. You don't know what you're missing.'
"I am afraid I can't, but I could always channel and see if Frey could help," Finn suggests, his voice a little strained by the arch of his back, but he's otherwise fine. (And let's be real, this is absolutely not the most acrobatic position he's ever been wrangled into). The past few seasons of athleticism all come to help him out now, because his arms hold steady even if he's continuing to blush about all of this.
"You couldn't do this for me, I'd crush you," he objects, as if she's forgotten the size difference between them. "I could probably carry you to bed like this, though. But I will be coming back to clean the dishes." She can stop him from messing with his shirt, but she'll never prevent him from clearing up a mess before bed.
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
'Oh no. I wouldn't want to bother a god for something like this.' Tobi says, shaking her head against Finn's shoulder, before snickering. "Of course you wouldn't. I could probably hold three hundred pounds or more on my hands and knees. Especially with your weight distributed, it wouldn't be hard at all." The doctor laughs; Finn had bulked up to be sure, but not by that much.
"That's sweet of you, but no on both counts. I can walk, and I'll help with the washing up, too." So saying, Tobi pulls one of her arms forward and then the other, using Finn as a chair for just a moment before forcing herself to stand. "oooh." She hums, before sinking down hard onto the ground. The wine combined with the sudden change in blood pressure leading to light heatedness was something she should have anticipated, and yet her she was, blinking stars out of her eyes just the same.
"Mmm. Oops." She murmurs with a girlish laugh, reaching out for Finn as if she might need him to steady her a bit more.
