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!
Contrary to many rumours or strings of thought outside the Rosencrantz-Hart household, the lavender plant that takes pride of place on the windowsill of the master bedroom really is just lavender. This is both a blessing and a curse, because it means that the strange, ghoulish dreams that have plagued Finn's night are all him, all the time. But at least they aren't exacerbated by Dreamdust, hey?
He has slept, even after shuffling out of the drunken-murder-husband debacle of an investigation, but that isn't to say that he feels rested. Indeed, it's one of those nights where he may as well not have bothered, the ex-Spyglass rubbing at tired eyes as he dresses and makes the bed, washes his face and brushes his teeth, and finally emerges to make a cup of tea.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
It doesn't take a detective to puzzle together that the various scrapes and sounds coming from the front door are from someone with zero coordination trying to get in. Is this the world's worst burglary? Is it Edward Scissorhands?
Oh, nope. It's just Tobi. A very, very hungover Tobi.
With hands trembling slightly from latent spasms of unmetabolized alcohol and eyes squeezed shit against any and all light, when Tobi manages to make it into the house, she's shussssshing herself as she clicks the door closed (it sounds like a slam). Turning to begin the comical process of tiptoeing down the hall, it's only as she passes the kitchen that all of her naive hopes of stealthing into bed without Finn noticing go up in smoke.
"Oh, you're up." She mumbles guiltily, peeping guilty at her BoYfRieNd through mascara-smeared eyes. With her hair an untidy mess and her shirt on backwards (what?) Tobi looks (and smells) the part of a walk of a shame. She can only hope Ronin is doing better this morning.
Fingers grasp towards his hip at the sound of the door, but of course Finn isn't currently carrying his firearm, because it's first thing in the morning and he doesn't expect to need to shoot anyone. Even so, his heart is hammering unfairly in his chest and he's gripping his mug of tea hard enough to burn his fingers, as if he might launch it at an intruder. So when Tobi appears it's both a relief and a slap to the face, a reminder of things he thought he had dreamed.
"Good morning," he says automatically, placing his mug down and ignoring his searing fingertips to reach for a glass so he can pour Tobi some cool water. "You were out all night." Very observant, Finnigan. "Were you asleep in Ronin Taliesin's lap?"
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
Too caught up in the hurricane of her own headache to take much note of how white Finn's knuckles had turned or how red the skin of his fingers, she moves towards these sound of water as if magnetized. Had Finn not been there already with a glass she'd very likely have shoved her entire face beneath the facet. 'Mmmmm.' Tobi concedes, wincing. "I didn't mean to be."
Were you asleep in Ronin Taliesin's lap?
Blinking, but only out of surprise rather than guilt, Tobi's head cocks dog-like to the side before she's nodding and stealing the glass from Finn's hands. "I didn't meant for that, either." She mumbles, before draining the entire glass in a single breath. 'We got talking, and drinking, and...gods, there was so very much wine." Pouring herself another glass of water, Tobi adds: "But I was a dog, so.." so it doesn't count.
Unless it did?
Stopping the flow of water, Tobi turns towards Finn, trying her best to focus on just one of him. "Are you upset?"
Finn surrenders the glass willingly, stepping back because even though he loves Tobi, she smells like a winery and it is something of an assault on his senses. Gently holding his burned fingers with his free hand, he listens quietly to her explanation and his eyes widen, because the question had slipped out and he didn't expect her to actually answer it. Or for the answer to be yes.
"Oh," he says softly. "I thought I had dreamed it." Along with a lot of other things. Like demigods in red thongs, and poisoned champagne and oranges staring at him from a basket.
Is he upset? There's something thorny in the pit of his stomach, but he can't get to it right now, so it's with a furrowed brow that he shakes his head. "I don't know," he admits. "Would you like some painkillers? I believe you might have a hangover."
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
"How would you...?" Shaking her head and causing a flurry of static to fall across her field of vision, Tobi decides she is in no state to be asking such things. Maybe Finn can see the future now. Maybe there's some sort of two-way glass between their apartment and Ronin and Remi's. Stranger things had happened.
Finn's silence is telling, and despite the pounding in her temples Tobi manages to open her eyes long enough to offer Finn a reassuring smile. "Okay, well we can talk about it later once you know? And yes. That would be amazing. I might go sit under the shower, if you'd like to...?" Awkwardly sit in silence? That was probably what it would be, and hungover or not, this was a mess of Tobi's making and she had no right to ask Finn to piece her back together. "...or we can talk after." She mumbles, smiling.
Making her way into the bathroom, Tobi closes her eyes and sighs. It's a long and low sigh that seems to empty the air from the pit of her stomach. She feels foolish and perhaps a little sad, though maybe that's just the hangover. Either way, water will absolutely make her feel better and if by some miracle it doesn't, at least she won't smell.
Finn can't answer her question because she doesn't finish it, and even though he might be able to see the future now, he doesn't feel comfortable guessing the ends of people's queries. He manages a smile back to her that's all politeness and no dimples, though it's less because of anything he's feeling towards Tobi and more because his mental resources are being used up elsewhere. On automatic feet, he goes to find their first aid kit to prepare a cocktail of painkillers for Tobi to take.
"I will let you shower," he says. "When I am hungover, I do not like to have long conversations." He does follow her, at least, with the medicine and another, fresh glass of water, sitting them both down on the countertop. "I will finish my tea and bandage my hand. I think there is a blister forming."
So saying, he turns to shuffle back out of the room to do just that. And once the tea is drunk and his hand is bandages, he returns to their bedroom so he can lay out some pajamas for Tobi when she finishes showering, drawing the covers back from the bed with the assumption that she will want to sleep. It is Saturday, after all.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
'A blister?' Tobi mumbles, but Finn is already gone, leaving Tobi alone with her thoughts, her thunderclaps, and her emotions. Scrubbing at her eyes and arms as if she might rub-off whatever was clinging to her that was causing this mixture of melancholy dissatisfaction, she eventually leaves the shower smelling of subtle clean fragrances but in no better of a mood.
Peeping out into the hall to make sure Everest wasn't there (she had a towel around her, but even so), Tobi slinks across the hall and into their room only to find the telltale gestures of Finn's particular brand of love. 'What did you do to your hand?' She wonders, pressing her towel against her chest with one hand and reaching out to see what sort of bandage job he'd managed.
Finn, of course, is not planning to go back to bed (it is day time), and so he's busy tending to a few mundane chores when Tobi walks in; putting away laundry and watering the lavender, mostly. "Hm? Oh, I didn't realise who it was when you walked in. I forgot to let go of my mug," he explains, as if this is an every day occurrence. And for them... it practically is, unfortunately.
Holding his hand out for her to see, Finn's bandages are passable if not perfect by a doctor's standards. Practical and with some salve applied before wrapping it around his fingers, they should nonetheless do the job. "Are you feeling better now?" he asks. "I can make some tea, if you think you can stomach it."
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
Pulling in a breath and exhaling it slowly, Tobi nods. "I'm sorry. I should have called out. I...lost track of time and weren't sure if you were up." She explains, and though the madness of not releasing a hot mug was very much a Finsue (a Finn-Issue, get it), Tobi had known this man long enough to have predicted how her actions might have affected him. "Well, if you'd like help healing this along, let me know." She adds.
Turning for the clothes but still clutching her towel against herself, Tobi nods. "That would be lovely. Something with lemon and honey please?" She asks in a dry and delicate tone of voice. Knowing that it was likely just her hangover and nothing more that was making her feel like a needy mess, Tobi opted not to burden Finn with her thoughts. Instead, she hung up her towel on the back of their door and slipped into the clothes thoughtfully laid out for her.
"I think it will be alright. It wasn't a bad burn," Finn murmurs, taking his hand back and turning it over as if to make sure the bandages aren't falling off or that his fingers aren't oozing through them. Nodding softly, he makes sure the rest of the laundry is appropriately put away before moving towards the door. "I can do that," he says, padding silently back out into the corridor.
A few minutes pass during which Tobi can get herself as comfortable as she needs to, before the ex-Spyglass returns with tea on a tray for her. "I looked in on Everest," he says. "I told him to be careful about noise, in case your head was still hurting." Setting the tray down, it takes a couple of awkward seconds of Finn lingering before he finds his words again.
"If... if this is not making you happy any more, I understand," he says softly. "I would not blame you for wanting to be with someone more like Ronin."
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
Able to feel her pulse in both her teeth and her fingertips, Tobi might have screamed at her own stupidity if she didn't think the sound would split her head in half. Snug and guilty beneath the sheets, it's with a moan of effort that the doctor shifts to partially sit up when Finn comes in with a tray and tea. 'Oh...thank you.' Her BoYFriEnd's kindness makes her feel all the worse, especially because of the three of them in this household, rarely is it Tobi who requires allocations to be made for her to be comfortable.
Reaching for the tea, it makes it halfway to her lips before Finn's words nearly have Tobi dropping it onto their bed. "Wh—?" That she doesn't understand where this is coming from takes a quick second place to Tobi's need to reassure. Setting down her tea rather jerkily, she reaches out for his bandaged hand. "Finn, no. Not at all." So apparently her having fallen asleep in another man's lap had meant something to Finn. "I'm so sorry, it wasn't like that at all. I had too much to drink and I shifted and there were ear touches, and..." Helplessly she shrugs, only just now hearing how potentially damning it all sounded.
Smiling politely, it is no surprise that Finn is actually more concerned about the tea than himself and his own feelings, and he's standing by to make sure she doesn't spill any and hurt herself (or stain their sheets). Once it has made its way safely back onto the tray, he finds his hand stolen, Finn stumbling a bit towards the bed so he's not tugged over completely.
His lips part to speak but she's already tumbling ahead with her explanation, the ex-Spyglass furrowing his brow as he tries to make sense of it. "I... but you did not come home," he says, clearly out of his depth when it comes to this, but gods if it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that he should understand, and that just makes it worse.
With colour in his cheeks, he gazes down at his hand clapsed in hers. "I know that things are not... how they might be with anyone else. People who aren't me. If... is that what you want? Because I could try to be..." Better? More normal? Someone who drinks too much and gives you ear touches?
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
when the night falls on you & you don't know what to do
Is this about to be their First Fight? Gods, she hopes not, and she also thinks not, but...
"Right...I didn't come home. But that wasn't intentional. A bit like when you fall asleep in your office." Tobi explains, before the tears that are suddenly shiny in her eyes somehow cut off all the air in her lungs. Gods, and only moments ago in the shower she'd dared to imagine what Finn might be like if he was a little bit dot dot dot. Swallowing hard and wishing she could somehow take back the last 12 hours (was that even far enough? Better make it 20 to be safe), Tobi sits up properly and shuffles herself back to make space for Finn.
"Sit?" She requests in a strangled voice, trying to ignore the way the fresh pain from her tears was mingling a little too comfortably with her throbbing headache. "I don't want to be with anyone who isn't you." Reaching out for him, it takes what little mental capacity that hasn't been stolen away by her hangover to stop herself from just grabbing onto him and squeezing him tight. Instead, she lets her open hands hang in the air for him to lean into or not. 'And I only ever want you to be you.' She cries, as softly as she can, for both their sakes.
