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!
We will spare the preamble of the weather. It's cold outside - cold enough that when Finn arrives home in the dark, his fingers are numb even beneath his gloves. The house is warmly lit, though, and he sets down his frosty guitar by the side of the door and stamps the snow from his boots. I am home, is what he would call were it the hour for it, but he's finished his performance quite late tonight, and besides, he isn't sure whether or not Tobi is home from her rounds.
Ever is home, that must should be true anyway, but his son won't speak to him regardless unless it's in a beautifully handwritten (and therefore painfully corrected) note. His voice is breaking, or that's what Finn suspects given his own reaction to such a thing when he was growing up. And so rather than disturbing anyone, the ex-Spyglass pours himself a glass of water and pads down the hall to the room he shares with October.
Snow is still melting in his hair when he steps into the bedroom, and he hides his shivering behind acts of movement; unlacing his boots, pulling off his gloves, shrugging out of his coat and so on.
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
Finn is as quiet as a snowstorm (his presence felt more than heard), but having fallen asleep on the couch as a dog affords Tobi more than just the ability to be cozy anywhere; Finn gets no farther than filling up his glass before Tobi's dark eyes snap open in the darkness. Living with Finn is like living with a polite but shy ghost. There are touches of him here and there, but it takes a keen eye to spot the signs of familiarity given how subtle they are. Gods how she adores him for his gentle hauntings.
Slipping off the couch like a pouch of water contained in a pelt of fur, Tobi pads down the hallway and noses open their door. The room smells of oiled strings and snow, and though her canine senses are not particularly interested, the girl within the dog beams to herself. Shifting and rising with a few crackly protests from her back, Tobi stretches out her hands to help untwine Finn's scarf from around his neck and nose. "How was tonight?" She wonders in a sleepy, but interested voice.
Stormy eyes flick across to the doorway at the sound of October, and while Finn's smile crinkles the corners of his eyes more than it's visible behind his scarf, it's nonetheless genuine. His coat is off by now, and he stands quietly by to allow her to unwind the scarf, revealing stubbled cheeks made rosy by the cold and the softest suggestions of dimples. "I think it went well," he murmurs, as he always does. Unless he doesn't think it went well, in which case he says it was fine.
"Somebody asked if I would teach their son how to play," he continues, ducking out from beneath the loops of fabric and ruffling his curls out. "I didn't know what to say, so I told them I would check with you." Which is awkward and lame and entirely true. "How was your day?"
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
Smiling crookedly as she folds Finn's scarf with as much precision as her snoozy mind will allow, Tobi nods. "Oh?" Her smile widens; used to being used by both Finn and her son as a stalling mechanism when they needed more time to think about things, she nevertheless found it rather endearing. "Well, if you don't have the time or emotional resources, you can tell them I said I needed help packaging supplies but to check back after LongNight." Tobi suggests softly, before taking a slow breath and shrugging her shoulders and causing the over-sized t-shirt of Finn's she was wearing to bunch and sag.
"Today was hard." She replies, which almost always meant that someone had died. Rather than reaching out for him as other partners might when they had a tough day, the doctor instead stretches her arms high above her head and tilts both left and right, releasing the tension built up in her shoulders and back. Sighing softly with relief, Tobi smiles up at Finn with a twinkle in the dark pools of her eyes. "You are getting quite the reputation as a musician. I had not one, not two, but three of my patients today talk about you."
Her suggestion is like permission, and though Finn doesn't do anything as overt as sighing out his relief, the way his shoulders drop is enough of an indication for Tobi to know that he'll be happily using that excuse. "LongNight," he repeats, and a passing shadow crosses his face, like a soft roll of thunder in the night. Before he can bring it up, though, social etiquette (and love, of course) turns his attention front and centre to Tobi.
"Oh, I am sorry to hear that," he murmurs. It's partly because that's what you say when someone's day is hard, partly because he has learned those particular implications, but mostly because he is, and that's a strange enough feeling these days all on its own. "Would you like to talk about it?"
She stretches and Finn takes the opportunity to strip out of the rest of his clothes, sinking down onto their bed and regarding her with a flush to his cheeks. "Have I done something to upset them?" he wonders; things like reputations and compliments happen to other people, as far as Finn is concerned.
06-03-2022, 02:53 PM (This post was last modified: 06-03-2022, 02:54 PM by October.)
October
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
'Mmm.' Tobi hums in acknowledgement, if only so that Finn knows he has said The Appropriate Thing. "No, not right now. Maybe in the morning." She replies simply, watching out of the corner of her eye as Finn strips and trying to hide the girlish flush of attraction she feels for him. Being away from the Order and having responsibilities and routines that he'd more or less set for himself had done wonders for Finn.
Biting at the inside of her cheek to keep herself from laughing, Tobi moves to stand in front of Finn. Reaching out with gentle fingers that pause just inside his line of sight so that he might deduce what she was about to do before she does it, Tobi begins to massage the muscles where his neck met his shoulders. 'No, I don't think so.' She answers, smiling at him in the dark. 'Though one asked if you were single.' Tobi adds, grinning. Though it wasn't as though the pair were coy about their relationship, nor were they the sort to pay at each other in public.
"The other was a little girl who lives next to the whereverFinnisplaying. She says she can hear your music through the walls, and that it helps her get to sleep."
"Alright," Finn says with a gentle nod, and Tobi will know that the ex-Spyglass will indeed ask about it in the morning, like clockwork. For now, though, there is just comfortable twilight and a woman he trusts above all others, which likely explains his docile reaction to her approach. It might not seem like much, that Finn barely glances at her fingers before they descend down upon his shoulders, but it's a trust that Tobi has done much and then some to earn. Never have her hands come to strike or invade his space, and he welcomes her touch with an affectionate smile.
"Why would they want to know if I am single?" Finn asks, though the coy way he glances up at her from beneath dark lashes tells that he absolutely understands those social implications, and his smile tilts towards the mischievous. "I hope you informed them that I was not."
Mention of the little girl earns a deal more softness, Finn nodding though it's unclear exactly to whom. "I am glad, that I can help someone else to fall asleep."
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
Though playing guitar was good for his soul, it wasn't as good for his muscles; Finn was prone to contort himself into all sorts of positions to better tease the music from his guitar, leaving knots in places Tobi had rarely seen. Even so, her fingers worked skillfully along his shoulders, encouraging the muscles to relax but not forcing them. 'Presumably because you are a very handsome man.' Tobi says with a small shrug, before crinkling her nose slightly. "Not in so many words, since I don't like to talk about your personal life." She says with a smile. "Though I did say I didn't believe you were looking to date anyone." Which was strictly speaking accurate.
"I might have to find a way of recording you while you play. I much prefer music therapy over prescribing medication. Who knows, it might even work on you." So saying, Tobi's fingers move away from Finn's shoulders, softly trickling like upward falling rain to cup his cheeks. Leaning forward with her usual slow and tender speed, the doctor presses a feather-light kiss against his lips as her legs press against his knees. "I'm glad you're home." She whispers softly.
Finn might be the musician, but Tobi's hands are just as skillful as his own - especially at times like this. He almost melts beneath her touch, his eyes growing heavy as his head tilts to the side to let her fingers work at a particularly sensitive knot in his shoulder.
"I don't like to make presumptions," he murmurs, a smile still curling up one corner of his lips, stormy eyes lifting to search out her gaze. "You can tell them that we are dating," he rumbles, the words low and steady in the wake of her ministrations. "I would like it if you did."
His eyes close completely as she cups his cheeks, lips parting to receive her kiss, slow and gentle as it might be. "I am glad to be home. I missed you," he whispers back, reaching out to draw her closer and slip his arms around her waist. "What is music therapy?" he wonders belatedly, raising his eyebrows.
06-03-2022, 07:59 PM (This post was last modified: 06-03-2022, 08:09 PM by October.)
October
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
For someone as routine as Finn, he certainly catches October off-guard far more than anyone might expect. For a moment her smile grows, falters, and then radiates as her eyes slip from his own, down into the dark pool of shadows on his lip. Given all that they have been through, it seems silly and perhaps backwards to be so twitterpated at the notion that Finn might like it if Tobi told people they were dating, and yet here she was, entirely tongue-tied with sunshine seeming to radiate out from her core. "Okay." She says in a voice made small by laughter and the desire not to wake their son. "Next time I will."
Feeling small and beautiful in his arms despite the bags that were almost certainly under her eyes and his t-shirt baggy on her shoulders, Tobi lingers in the wake of his kiss for a moment before pressing the tip of her nose against his and straightening so that her fingers might resume their work on his shoulders. "It is a fairly broad umbrella." She explains. "But one example, is that singing can help stimulate the vegas nerve, which runs from here—" One of her fingers moves to the side of his neck where his jugular was, before drawing down towards his sternum. "—to here—" Towards his belly, her fingertips fracture out to indicate the nerve's pattern. "—ending here. It's the nerve that controls flight or fight responses. During heightened states of anxiety, stimulating the nerve can help slow both responses."
Her fingers rise once again. "Just as placing something cold on the neck can help calm someone down, singing can stimulate the nerve as well. So can vibrations, like those caused by music."
"Good." Finn smiles. He might have said and I will say it too, but they both know that he'd depart like a poorly executed magic trick before anyone engaged him in conversation for long enough to bring something like that up. Brushing his nose against hers, a wayward dimple appears at the affectionate simplicity of their touch, and the ex-Spyglass sits compliantly as she continues to tease the tension from his abused muscles.
His eyes remain closed too, at least until her fingers start to walk the pathway of his nerves, Finn blinking down at her hand and tilting his head, obviously interested. He almost reminds her that he doesn't sing (in public), but the caveat of musical vibrations covers that nicely. "Perhaps I should try it," he suggests. "It would be nice, not to have to rely on medication." Because while it would be fairytale-esque to think that beginning a relationship with Tobi has cured Finn of any and all of his ailments, reality is regrettably more harsh with her conditions.
Regardless, he captures her fingers on their way back to his shoulders, pressing a kiss against them and gazing up at her with quiet and unfettered love. "Thank you," he adds with another kiss. "For being patient with me all this time."
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
'Even humming can work. Or if you played without a shirt so that your torso could more easily receive the vibrations, that could be beneficial as well.' Tobi doesn't add, but only do that at home, because it doesn't need to be said. Very nearly she almost says, but please do do it at home, and refrains from that as well. Her mind however, stores that particular image away for later use. "That's why I thought perhaps a recording...something you could lay on your chest when you were trying to sleep. If it's your own music, maybe your mind wouldn't fixate on it." Or maybe the exact opposite would happen; either way, Tobi was always happy to experiment with Finn.
Beaming down at him, her cheeks round and rosy, Tobi nods. She doesn't belitte his appreciation by saying, oh no worries or yeah no problem; instead she slinks forward into his lap, wrapping her long legs around his lower back and guiding his hands around her. "You're very welcome." She whispers, smelling the dark silent scent of snow still lingering in his hair. "I will always be patient with you."
Regrettably, Finn has already started to fixate on the entire experiment, but that isn't necessarily a negative thing. Only that it might not be what Tobi might want right now. Already he's considering rising to his feet and going to fetch his guitar to try out her ideas, nodding gently both to show that he's listening and also to confirm his agreement. Luckily, before he can ruin everything with his need to know, she's sidling into his lap.
The warmth and physical touch is the exact panacea to his obsessive nature, Finn blinking himself back to the present and smiling up at her, easy and boyish and grateful as his arms slip back around Tobi's waist. "Well, perhaps not always," he says, tilting his head back to kiss the corner of her mouth. "I recall times when you are quite impatient with me." She knows exactly which times. Usually it's when he's got his head buried between her thighs.
06-03-2022, 08:43 PM (This post was last modified: 06-03-2022, 08:54 PM by Odd.)
October
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
Frowning instantly, Tobi's mind is suddenly a film reel of all her moments with Finn. It replays on high speed, wondering if she'd forgotten a time that she'd snapped at him, if she'd sighed with exasperation if she'd—oh. Sunshine again blooms from inside of her, although now the sun seems to have set such that its heat is coming from closer to her own horizon. "Finn." Tobi admonishes playfully, and where someone else might have playfully hit their partner with a hand, the doctor instead huffs out a quiet laugh.
'Alright, fine. Sometimes I am horribly impatient with you.' She concedes as she places her hands against his chest. 'But you know? Sometimes I think you like it.' Tobi points out, before pushing slightly with her palms, wanting him to lay on his back. "And now that I think about it...maybe if you were in my shoes, you'd understand a bit better..." The suggestive heat in Tobi's voice is cooled only by the silent ever-present promise that at any point Finn could say no.
