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!
And time it waits for no one It heals them when you die
It was a sentiment Maea understood. "I've been told that keeping busy is the way to go," she nodded. "I'm doing that, too. The guild, training, this... I'd be grateful for anything to keep me occupied." For every chance to avoid thinking too deeply on anything. Recent events in particular... She didn't say it, but the truth of it lay in the faraway look in her eyes. In the fleeting smiles that came but never lingered for long, only rarely lighting up her face in earnest.
"I see. That's impressive. What would you like me to do, for a start? I can learn as I go," she offered. Though Maea would be perfectly content to do the grunt work, if it freed Isla's hands for more pressing matters.
And soon you are forgotten A whisper within a sigh
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
"I can absolutely attest to its effectiveness," Isla agrees about keeping busy, the medic smiling to Maea as she continues the tour around the Infirmary, showing her the reception, the ward, the treatment rooms and surgical theater, the stock room and so on. "When I came back from the dead, I think I poured all of myself into this place. The same again when someone tried to burn it down. It's a stress relief, almost."
As for where Maea could start? She isn't the first person Isla has trained, the medic smiling and leading her into the stock room. "If you wouldn't mind cutting some strips of cloth for fresh bandages, and checking the items against the stock list here, that would be a great start. Then I'll know what I need to get from the market. Afterwards, if you want to just shadow me, I'll be able to teach you different things depending on the patient."
And time it waits for no one It heals them when you die
"I wish I'd had something like this, back then," came a soft reply. "But I didn't. Nor was there anyone around to welcome me back... at least no one I cared about in return. It drove me all kinds of insane, for a while." Noting the location of everything Isla showed her, Maea realized perhaps for the first time how well organized it was. Rooms and equipment, all had a place and remained sorted, clean and neat. Looking down over herself... that was very much not the case.
"Alright. I can do that. How... what should I be wearing?" Sneaking a glance towards the medic offered little in the way of instruction. Best to simply ask. The part of her that wasn't numb and reeling still kept itching to get started. Immediately. To bury herself in something entirely boring and routine until the passage of time became a distant thing and her own mind ceased its incessant nagging and churning.
But she should probably let Amun know that she was patched up again. Before he paced a hole in the ground somewhere. Sometime... soon.
And soon you are forgotten A whisper within a sigh
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
"I'm sorry for that," Isla murmurs with a kind smile, pausing now that the initial tour and instructions have been given so she can give Maea a second to let her mind catch up. "Hopefully you will never have to go through something like that again, but if you do and you're helping out here, it will be here for you in the same way it was for me." You know, if throwing yourself into potentially traumatic work is your thing.
"You can wear whatever you like. There isn't really a dress-code, although..." Glancing back at Maea as if seeing her again for the first time, Isla's cheeks flush a little silver with embarrassment. "By all means, we don't have to start right now. Go home and get cleaned up - I'm almost always here, and I will be until well past morning. If you want to go and come back, we can start whenever you're ready."
And time it waits for no one It heals them when you die
"Thank you." Quiet gratitude laced through her voice and Maea's smile warmed a few degrees in response to Isla's sympathy. Or rather, to the offer of a place to return to. It was an obsession she nurtured of late, to collect things, people and causes into which she might throw herself. Thin lifelines that seemed flimsy one on one, but which put together forged an anchor that tied her intrinsically to this place and these people.
And maybe it was guilt, too. The nagging awareness that she had destroyed a place much like this infirmary. Harmed the patients within. Even without casualties, it was an unforgivable sin that she could never atone for, and by helping these people... perhaps one day she might hate herself a bit less for what she had done.
A second glance down over herself made her doubly aware of the ripped and stained state of herself. Maea waved off the medic's apology and nodded at the offer. "I should tell Amun that I'm okay now," she admitted, "since he will be waiting. But I'll come back afterwards. Keeping busy feels... like a very good idea." Especially since she couldn't look at her own hands without shuddering, expecting to see them stained in red.
Said and done, after disappearing for an hour or two the girl eventually returned. Cleaner now, in a borrowed shirt that screamed of a certain potter they both knew and with her hair tied back, she leaped straight into making new bandages.
"A lot of things have changed, since I lived in the Grounds," she admitted conversationally while she worked. "What's new, aside from the King becoming the Overseer?" Titles that had not existed for so long, it still felt unreal to apply them to anyone within the Grounds.
And soon you are forgotten A whisper within a sigh
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
"You're welcome. I'll see you soon," Isla murmurs, smiling and raising a hand to bid Maea farewell as she heads out of the Infirmary. In the other woman's absence, Isla does her rounds on her other patients, ensures that the treatment room is properly cleaned up where she'd treated Maea, and is in the middle of creating a sleeping tincture when her fellow Ascended returns.
Letting out a low whistle, she grins across at her. "What hasn't changed?" she murmurs softly. "It's difficult for me to say - I've been playing catch up as well," she admits, having returned at the same time as Maea. "But it seems as though the Grounds are busier nowadays, doesn't it? More people are choosing to live here."
And time it waits for no one It heals them when you die
Recently returned she may be, but Isla had still been around longer than Maea. More keyed in on recent events that the albino girl had simply refused to care about. Still, she accepted that it was hard to summarize.
"I don't really understand why anyone would," she murmured."Amun had to quite literally drag me back here, and it still feels like a big trap. Like the walls might come slamming down at any moment. It's not... the most charming place, either. But I suppose it's a good thing, if it means we aren't monsters to everyone." Tolerable enough to be around, even if the region was bound to become a target soon enough.
"Are there any plans for the Grounds I should know about? Like fixing the Spire more, or... anything else?" She settled on a stool and began to gather the strips into manageable rolls of varying lengths.
And soon you are forgotten A whisper within a sigh
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Isla raises her eyebrows at that, tilting her head at Maea. "I quite like the Grounds," she admits with a small smile. "I know that when Bastien was around, he wanted to make the place... better. More palatable, that sort of thing. But it's taken a back seat to practical matters, as you can imagine." A shame, but Isla understands it. Bastien had been the aesthetic one, after all.
"Well, we have finished the Voice's quest to create a weapon for the top of the Spire, though I hope we never need to use it. We've also created some traps to discourage people from crossing through the Greatwood and into the grounds, as well as the work you helped to complete on the Spire. I'd like to keep working on it, to make sure all the levels are functional. It seems like the sort of space we should use, right?"
And time it waits for no one It heals them when you die
She could indeed understand that, and Maea found it rather humbling to realize that to some, her homeland wasn't the claustrophobic prison she had come to view it as. "Sorry if I sound negative," she said, head bowed over the bandages. "There are definitely worse places to be..." Even if she couldn't think of any at the moment. "I just hope there won't ever be another barrier."
There had certainly been work done, in her absence. Some of it sounded quite recent, and Maea nodded when the Spire was mentioned. The looming tower had always been a center point in the region, an inescapable reminder of the prison they were in. A death omen to anyone who strayed too close - until a few years ago.
"Yes, I agree. It's a lot of space... What would you like to do with it? I'll admit I still find it rather... ominous. Eerie. It takes some getting used to, that it's not forbidden ground anymore." A shoulder quirked as if the memories was something she might simply shrug off - as if the changes weren't kicking up dust and forcing her to see everything from new perspectives so quickly it was dizzying.
And soon you are forgotten A whisper within a sigh
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
"I hope there won't, either. I remember life behind the barrier, though I wasn't trapped for nearly as long as you were. Hopefully we'll come out of this free, if nothing else." Is dead the same as free? Isla doesn't really want to think about it too much. "But yes, I can imagine The Climb would be a definite step down from here, don't you?" She smiles; lava and heat and fire aren't really their thing, after all.
Continuing with her tincture and starting to divide it out into doses, the medic nibbles on her lower lip as she imagines what they might do with the Spire. "Well, she says slowly, "the portal is already beneath it, and now we have a solid ground floor and a place to operate the Spire cannon... I thought we could use it as a sort of fortress, if we needed to. A bastion of defence, with room enough for all the Ascended."
And time it waits for no one It heals them when you die
A smile, mercury quick and just as elusive glinted across the pale girl's lips at the comparison. "Quite," she agreed. Sunlight and fire had been things she avoided even before Ascending - it really hadn't been much of a sacrifice to stay away from those since. Not as much as it might be for others.
Isla's musings on a fortress stilled Maea into motionlessness as she contemplated the idea. Perhaps it was Amun's steady influence that did it or Nephele's merciless attack, or just the circumstances shifting her mindset, but where once she would have abhorred the idea of something being made to strengthen Ascended, now... the thought did not bother her. Not at all.
In fact, "I like it," she found herself say, and marveled at it. "I actually like that a lot. Imagine if just being inside were enough to patch us up, or make us stronger... Maybe we would actually stand a chance, then."
It was foolish to hope, of course. And it was only one building. But... "You think we could do it? I'd be happy to help, just like before."
And soon you are forgotten A whisper within a sigh
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Whilst Maea becomes motionless, Isla continues in her steady movements, dividing out her tincture and corking the doses before starting to seal them with wax. Once that's done, she goes about writing labels for each one in a looping cursive, glancing up only when the other woman speaks. "You do?" She smiles, straightening up. "That's very good to hear." It makes her feel less insane for trying, anyway.
Raising her eyebrows at the idea of the Spire being able to heal them, just by being inside... now that's a hell of an idea. "Perhaps we can ask the Voice about that next," she suggests, sounding quietly excited. "I think we could do it, yes. The next time I am planning anything for it, I will be sure to let you know. And if you want to do something yourself, by all means. It's a place for all of us."
And time it waits for no one It heals them when you die
Her hands began to move again, slowly at first but with gradually building confidence. One by one rolls of bandage began to pile up next to Maea, much like the shared ideas lined up between the two women.
There may have been a point in time where the pale girl would have raised hackles over being given permission to do things for her homeland... but so much time had passed since she truly thought of the Hollowed Grounds as home or wanted to do anything for it, that she only nodded now with a grateful little smile. Contemplative and solemn, as she actually gave it due consideration. What she could do, what she wanted to contribute.
"Then... for the time being, would it be alright if I saw to mending that floor on the first level? It's not that difficult to fix, and it would save time for whenever we'd like to do other projects in the Spire." Decrease the risk of injuries, above all else. Darkeye's near fall still gave her shivers whenever Maea recalled it.
And soon you are forgotten A whisper within a sigh
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
They work in comfortable silence for a few minutes, Isla finishing up with her tinctures and putting them neatly away, before coming to assist with rolling the bandages with Maea. Smiling, it's with a touch of pride that she notes how well the other woman has done, adding her own to the pile so they can be done quicker.
"Hm...? Oh, yes, by all means. That's a very good idea," she nods regarding the floor of the Spire. "I imagine there will be a lot of smaller projects that go into this; it's probably the most ambitious renovation that any of us have tried to do. And I don't know how much help I can be when it comes to raw construction, but if you need a hand, just let me know?"
