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!
"Extravagant," she confirms with a smirk, tailing after him and absently reaching up with her towel to rub at Sunjata's hair, wondering quite how he manages to take care of himself. Only to see the state of the kitchen, it becomes less amusing; as it turns out, he isn't managing all that well. "Not home much?" She asks casually, tilting her head at the jerky and the empty icebox, meanwhile drifting over to the shelf of teas.
"No bread or butter, but you've got quite a selection here," she teases with a raise of her eyebrows, reaching up to take down a black, spiced tea to hold out for him. "I think I'll just about be able to smell this one, if I'm lucky. It has cloves and nutmeg, and cinnamon. Is that alright?"
He only pauses in his steps when she reaches up to dry off his hair, a soft snort leaving him at the gesture and the kindness of it – he was more than content to just drip all over the place. As for the question, he shrugs a shoulder. “Pretty often, actually.” When he wasn’t out wandering, debating his life, that is. “I eat with my shifts mostly these days.” Nate had been the cook, after all, and he’d tried and tried to learn, but he certainly wasn’t going to figure it out overnight, and the memories of the two of them working on dinner in the kitchen (even if it wasn’t this kitchen) were too much.
His steel gaze flickers over to her as she makes her selection and comments about no bread or butter, nothing unusual for him these days. Stepping over to inspect the tea she’d picked, he nods, casting his gaze down toward her. “It does. And a little bit of ginger.” He hums, opening the tin and giving it a whiff before handing it to her to see if she can smell it while he rummages around for two metal tea infusers he took from the VlamVloed.
The water in the kettle begins to heat up, though, and while it does he grabs two mugs from the top shelf to the left of the sink, pulling them out and setting them down before moving back to the tin of tea to scoop some into each one and set it in the mugs.
love will save you, but it won't save me
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
"Oh?" Isla raises her eyebrows, folding the towel as he takes the tea to let it hang on the back of the nearest chair. "Which ones?" she wonders with a hint of curiosity; does Sunjata favour meat as a panther or a dragon, or does he go grazing as a pegasus? And how did that fare with his human form?
None of these, of course, are questions for polite conversation, and that old scientific curiosity has snuck up on Isla so quickly that she has to rein herself in before she starts suggesting potential experiments. Instead, she leans in to take a steady inhale through her nose, brightening as some of the notes of ginger and clove hit her. "It's lovely," she remarks.
Seal of approval given, while Sunjata goes to get mugs and sort the tea, Isla noses in one of the cupboards and emerges with a small jar of honey. "Aha," she announces with triumph, before pausing and looking a touch sheepish as she rolls the jar in her hands. "I don't remember the last time I did anything this normal."
“The dragon, mostly.” Though there are times where he’d rather play it safe and chooses his bat shift, swiping fruit from the trees he hung out in. “The bat, other times.” But there’s something to be said about the way he’s picked the dragon shift over the rest of them, that carnal predator within him craving the hunt to subside his inner thoughts.
The tea is on its way to be heated, though, and he flashes her a small smile at the compliment, glad that she can smell it. She finds the honey shortly after as he pulls the whistling kettle from the stove and pours the water info the mugs with the tea infusers. “It almost feels weird, doesn’t it?” He rumbles, leaning against the counter and peers at her.
love will save you, but it won't save me
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
"That is quite a difference," Isla remarks. "Maybe we'll have to go out to one of the marketplaces and get you a real meal, rather than just ingredients." If she still had need for it she'd partake as well, but as it stands she's happy enough to tag along to keep Sunjata company. From the past hour or so, it seems like they're both in sore need of it. (Company and a good meal, for that matter).
"It really does," she nods, sidling up beside him with the honey, opening the jar to set it down. "Almost like we shouldn't be allowed it, you know?" Shrugging, Isla glances down only to notice her still-sodden clothes have been dripping all over his kitchen floor. "And now I'm a portable trip hazard," she remarks with a lopsided smile, shifting away to get the towel again, trying to dab at her dress to soak up some of the downpour still clinging to it.
A shrug greets Isla’s offer, a small half smile that’s only slightly mirthless, another thing of which he hasn’t done much of since Nate’s passing — market shopping for food for himself, only because hunger rarely struck these days. “Yeah, maybe.” His accented voice rumbles out, just about the time she sidles up next to him with the jar of honey. He stirs the infusers a few times, checking their steeping, before he pulls them out when he’s satisfied.
“Oh, I do know.” He counters, some amusement coming back into the fade of his gaze. “Though I think in my case it feels more… Not deserved.” At least Isla had fought, and while Sunjata had saved so many, a huge part of him can’t help but to selfishly wish he’d only saved Nate.
His gaze flickers over to see her still dripping, a surprised hum of a laugh leaving him. “Here, you can borrow some of mine.” She’s already in a dress, it won’t be that strange. He departs and allows her the ability to finish up the teas and attempting to dry further, when he returns with a warm copper colored sweater and an undershirt in case she wanted that, too. But unfortunately, nothing else would fit her that he owned.
“The bathroom is the second door on the right if you want to change.” He offers it out to her.
love will save you, but it won't save me
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
"You deserve it as much as I do," Isla informs him with a small shrug, though that doesn't really say much. She might have fought but she had also run away, leaving Nate and the dragon on that lonely mountain (and where the fuck Wessex had been at that point, the gods only knew). So perhaps she doesn't deserve it either.
Humming a soft sound of confusion as she glances up from where she's trying to dry off her dress, her lips part as if to tell Sunjata there's no need, but he's already gone. And so she does finish up the tea in his absence, removing the infusers and giving them a stir and a swirl of honey each before he returns. "Thank you," she murmurs a little sheepishly, accepting the clothes and smirking down at them.
"I think the sweater will almost come down to my knees," she remarks, stepping away to the bathroom to change.
Isla isn't gone for long, and when she returns it's with her sensors calming down from the warmth of the dry clothes, the medic carefully hanging her dress on the back of a chair. "You know," she says casually as she sweeps her damp hair up and into a messy bun, "I don't know if you and I have ever actually had a conversation when there isn't some huge crisis going on. This is a first - oh, apart from that time you helped me find that diamond, I suppose."
Maybe he does deserve it, maybe they both deserve less, it’s hard to say. At least the need for clothes for her to change into is enough of a distraction. He returns with the sweater for her to change into, a small smile blooming on his face as she comments on the sweater’s length. “That was exactly my thought.” He snorts softly, watching as she disappears before he blows on the tea to cool it down (though quietly thankful for the heat to warm the chill in his bones.)
When she returns, he takes a sip of his cooled down tea, sliding her cup over to Isla so she has it when he hears her next comment. This one sparks a laugh, though, a rumbling quiet one in the back of his throat. “Feels like there’s always a crisis. But you’re right.” They’re technically past the most current crisis, even if it doesn’t feel like it. At least their conversation is enough to make it feel lighter, to pull the stress from his bones however momentarily it is.
“Did the diamond work out?” He asks idly, recalling it was for a quest or something (he hopes; his brain is a bit foggy these days.)
love will save you, but it won't save me
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Murmuring a quiet thank you, Isla accepts her cup of tea and wraps her hands around the mug, allowing the warmth to spread through her sensors and calm them further before she takes a sip. "Mm, it does feel like that," she agrees quietly. "But you know... I really think there's peace right now. I feel like I ought to knock on wood just saying it, but there doesn't feel like anything big and bad is brewing."
And perhaps she'll rue the day she said that, but for now, it feels very apt. At the mention of the diamond, Isla smiles over the rim of her mug and sets her tea down to nod. "It absolutely did," she murmurs. "If it weren't for beign in the Refuge, I'd show you. It ended up being part of quite a clever upgrade." Pushing up the sleeves of his sweater to the elbow, they'll undoubtedly slip down again in a couple of moments, but hey, it's fine.
One of his hands leaves the cup to knock on the wood paneling beside the makeshift fridge, before he takes another sip from his tea. “I suppose I haven’t stopped to pay that much attention, but you’re right. It does feel like things have settled.” Even if the Ascended got the shit end of the stick. She was still functioning and alive and it’s been a year since the war ended, perhaps they became less reliant on the Voice for life after the war.
As for the diamond, he nods to that, hip pressed against the edge of the countertop where it almost digs in against his bones but he doesn’t seem to mind. “Next time we’re out of it, you can show me.” He hasn’t gotten any new tricks as far as he’s aware of, but he hasn’t exactly tested anything either. Maybe he has and he just doesn’t know it yet.
Regardless, she asks if people are still living here and his gaze lifts to scan the little window in the kitchen, out onto a mostly empty street. “Not many. I left it open for anyone to come and go however long they wished.” And from there, other plans in the mix began to form. “I was thinking about maybe expanding it… Putting a brothel in here. Just to have another thing to do.” He offers quietly, a small shoulder rising and falling as he slips his gaze back over to her.
love will save you, but it won't save me
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
12-08-2022, 08:07 PM (This post was last modified: 12-08-2022, 08:07 PM by Isla.)
ISLA
Isla grins into her tea as the hollow knocking from Sunjata's fist echoes around the small kitchen, and she gives him a grateful nod for being so proactive. "Not that the people feel that way, of course. I don't interact with them much, but I see enough. It's probably quite similar to us, believing that another battle will happen the second we think we can relax." But it's been a year, and people are slowly but surely starting to live again. All but the two of them.
"That sounds like a plan," she agrees. "Not that I need my upgrades much these days. It'll be nice to use them just to make sure they still work. If I still work." Because there's always the possibility that Isla will just stop or break, right?
Taking another sip of tea, her pebble blues follow Sunjata's gaze out of the window, and she smiles softly. "Perhaps more wanderers will come and settle here in time. I suppose everyone thinks the world is very exciting again now that it's all changed." And she assumes that the conversation will continue to bumble along like that, so when he mentions a brothel, Isla snorts into her tea quite unintentionally.
"That's quite a jump," she gasps, though no part of her seems as though she's judging him for the choice. "I suppose it's very Frey. And you definitely wouldn't be alone. Where would you put it?"
“Always one thing after another, hm?” He offers with a soft sigh before he takes a sip of the tea once more, letting the warmth of it soothe his throat – raw from the cigarette smoke these days. As for the plan for showing off upgrades, he nods to her, unsure how the changes of the Voice being gone has affected her. “So… Without the Voice, how do you re-up?” He asks curiously – in regards to the fluid. Did they have to change to something else? Was it in the Voice’s dying wish that there was another upgrade released, a software update as it were to make it so they weren’t so reliant?
Maybe wanderers would find their way here – or maybe they wouldn’t, starting new lives back in the changed expanse of the world they now find themselves in, in places where their shifts and magic and abilities aren’t restricted, where they’d be able to do whatever they wanted again without a magical barrier preventing a shifter from shifting or magical abilities. It doesn’t bother him that much, though, he realistically likes the quiet most times. It beats the chaos of what could be.
He doesn’t expect her to snort into her tea, though, not expecting the surprise. Of course, it’s so unexpected that it sparks a soft rumble of a laugh from him too, relaxed somewhat. “I don’t feel like I have much of a purpose aside from… Them, these days. So might as well dive into it, right?” That’s his thought anyway. It gives him something to do that certainly follows along with his deity.
“I was thinking about clearing out the edge where the trees are, since we can leave now. Might as well build it there – out of everyone’s way.”
love will save you, but it won't save me
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
"I don't need to," Isla says softly, rolling the mug of tea between her hands and furrowing her brow, as if afraid voicing it out loud will suddenly make her shut down; like the universe has realised she shouldn't be or something. Nothing happens, of course, and she stares into the depths of her cup for a second before continuing. "It's like the connection is severed but I'm still powered on, do you know what I mean?" She shrugs.
The chaos of what could be ironically comes marching in regardless, with Sunjata's suggestion of a brothel and Isla snorting into her drink, and she's laughing as well as she reaches for a napkin to dab at her face and the table. "As long as it would make you happy, I think you should absolutely go for it," she tells him seriously. "Obviously it's a plus that Frey would approve as well."
Isla's gaze moves out the window into the dark and the rain, as if she can see the fringes of the refuge and the trees he mentions, and she nods. "Perhaps people will be able to see it from the Boondocks, depending on how tall the building is. Would it still be under the effect of the refuge? No magic and whatnot?"
It’s a shame he’s taking a sip of the tea the second she announces that she doesn’t have to, because he chokes slightly at the surprise, pulling the cup away from his lips and raising a brow. He doesn’t get a chance to speak as she continues, but at least it makes sense to him. The outlander that’s come from a more technical world, able to understand completely. “Yeah.” He offers softly.
She’s become like some kind of generator. But, he supposes, as long as she’s still standing it’s good.
He manages to take a good sip of his tea, without choking on it as she comments about the brothel. And he sets the cup down, shifting to cross his arms across his chest, the lightning scarred arm tucked over the tattooed sleeve. “I doubt I’d have trouble getting support for it from them.” He offers softly. The question she poses next is quite a thinker, though, and he tilts his head — a bit of his now damp hair falls onto his forehead.
“I figured inside, but I’m not too sure. Guess it depends on which people would prefer. What do you think?” He asks, his steel gaze sliding from the window back over toward Isla.
love will save you, but it won't save me
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
