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!
Arclight is usually far less populated as far as Torchline beaches go. With the Underwater Kingdom readily available now there are a few visitors, but nothing like Ahi Coast. Given Jude’s desires to be as far from crowds as possible, it’s usually his go-to spot for any sort of shoreline activities.
Today, that happens to be an impromptu barbecue. Dygra’s festival requirements had been quite clear, and Jude is no slouch when it comes to making food, but the heat of the summer day makes him long for open fires and grilling instead of sweating over a stove. Normally he would coordinate meeting up with Sohalia or his father (gods his lack of friends is depressing) but today he’s trying to be a little out there. Exercise some bravery.
Luckily, Jude has never minded solitude. With the fire going and the portable metal grill already positioned over it he is absorbed by looking into the flames to pass the time, listening to the waves and enjoying the peaceful moment.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
As luck would have it, Melita was always looking to set something on fire.
At least today there was a purpose behind that mission, rather than the usual flair of embers and excitement. Fresh from the hunt, with feathers already plucked for quills and arrows, the birds needed to be cooked – and what better way than an open flame? Also because she didn’t want to burn her house down.
She spotted another as she carried the breadth of once skyward gliders – Fangorn eyeballing the cluster with hunger in his eyes, Sila unabashedly staring – and Melita only paying attention to the portable, metal grill nearby, and the occupant behind it, shouting as she approached. “Hey Jude!” She rarely talked to the young lad, to be fair, as she was often on adventures (something stupid and dangerous). But she’d seen him with Harper enough times to know he was a decent kid. “Mind if I join you?”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
Company is sparse and therefore easy to spot on the shoreline, though Jude doesn't recognize Melita as more than a passerby until she's a few feet away. Only then does he brighten, aiming a shy smile her way as she sweeps in like the wind off a summer storm, the way he has always known her to.
"Hey Mel," he greets warmly, sitting up a little straighter in the sand now that he has company - it helps him get a good look at her armful of questionable trophies as well. She is one of the few in Torchline even close to his age, so he has always enjoyed any spare time she has for hanging out with him. "Of course, plenty of room on the grill." Speaking of, he uses his tongs to shuffle his own meat closer together so she has plentiful space for her kills. Patting the sand in a 'join me' motion, Jude hangs the tongs back up and perches his elbows on his thighs. "I haven't seen you around in a while, how are you?" He can never remember what season it is that she departs on her boat but at least it means he's always pleasantly surprised to see her when she's around.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
With the easygoing acceptance, she snagged at her portions of meat, intending to add it to the empty space. Humming one of her mother’s old tunes, when busy in the kitchen, the youth glanced up with a wayward and Cheshire grin. “Thanks.” Thereafter, she plopped on the sand, sitting in a crossed-leg position, content to watch the fire for a moment or two.
The question drew her attention though, head tilting, pondering what on earth this lad got into on a daily basis too. Oh well. Her turn would come soon enough. “Good,” she chirped, pretending it was – uncertain about her parameters with Sunjata at the moment, and then everything else left up to her impulses or the tide. “Went to the Hollowed Grounds on the Ark recently. Don’t recommend.” 1/5 stars.
Flailing the attention back on him, she churned the same inquiry over. “What about you?” With Maeve missing…Harper getting promoted..and all of that.
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
What he gets up to is usually a mystery to more than just her. Probably himself as well. Jude has a pending apprenticeship with Talyson but honestly his days are usually his and his alone, so he has never had much of a recognizable schedule from the outside.
Jude hasn't been to the Hollowed Grounds, but both of his parents had been from there and didn't exactly linger the second the barrier fell, so he can only quietly laugh in commiseration. "Yeah? What part was so bad? The company?" There's a hint of teasing there, poking fun at Jack. Sohalia has been a questionable influence on him during the course of their friendship. She has soothed much of his anxiety, yes, but what surfaces in the wake of that is something far more mischievous that his father undeniably passed on.
The energy dies immediately at her question, wilting with a grimace. The problem with being the son of the former Queen and now-King was his entire life being publicly consumed by nearly everyone in Torchline. Considering his issues with anxiety it was pretty much a living nightmare for Jude, especially because he'd been the one to find Maeve. "Less good," he mutters, though he tries for a smile for her sake. "I'd rather not be involved in the whole homecoming-meets-coronation publicity but I don't really have a choice." Running away to Stormbreak with Sohalia looks more appealing by the day. "I'd ask if the Ark would take me but I think we both know that wouldn't work." Laughing, he turns his meat over. He's not only rather lacking in the muscle department, but he was far too soft-hearted for their ranks.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
Fangorn and Sila both managed to settle into her lap, and while he turned over the meat, she opted to take the next turn, inspecting the outside of the portions. The question made her laugh though, an uproarious, mercurial, stormy thing, with one too many revolutions in its tide. She hadn’t expected such a dry semblance of humor from him, but perhaps that drifted from Harper’s influences. “Well, there’s that,” and she could gesture towards the Ark somewhere in the distance, with Jack aboard probably, cursing at someone or something simply because he could. “And the Grounds itself isn’t exactly a delight. There’s been a lot of good changes, at least with the land.” She didn’t know of any others; leadership stagnant and nothing.
She hadn’t meant to cause him to wilt, so her own nose wrinkled at the prospects. Perhaps she should’ve known it was a loaded inquiry, what with the adults in his life making some intriguing choices – and the Honeybee nodded along with the insinuations. “Ah well, you could always escape to somewhere else for a while.” Avoidance was always a keen prospect in the Accepted’s book. Or setting it on fire, beating things into tiny fragments and pieces. Stuff like that. Her smile brightened though at the quip of forging on the seas, or in the air, as it were. “Depends on your skills.”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
With Koa and now Melita reacting so delightfully to his expanding confidence and mischief, they are setting a terrible example that only feeds into his newfound convictions, surely turning him into more of a quick-tongued monster. For now though he merely grins, positively delighted to have made her laugh so uproariously. "I think you'd be a better Captain, you should just throw him overboard," he stage-whispers, though perhaps he's a little biased given Jack had sided with Flora in what had become a blood feud Jude wants no part of. Plus Jack just sort of gives him the creeps. "I haven't been yet. I'm guessing it's not worth the trip then?" Land improvements or otherwise.
She doesn't pry, and for that she has pretty much guaranteed a friend for life. "I went to Stormbreak recently for exactly that reason," he confides on a small laugh. The Wilds are more his speed, but it had been a good change of pace. Taking his meat off the grill and setting it on a prepared plate to the side, he extends the tongs towards her so she can utilize the entire thing for herself and laughs at the idea of skills. "I'd be best as a maid. I have noodle arms and I burn at the first sight of sunlight. But I'm a good cook and pretty tidy, and dad has taught me acrobatics and hand-to-hand." Nothing to do with weapons yet, but Harper wasn't much of a weapons man himself either, so Jude has no clue what he might be good at there.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
Indifferent if she was a bad role model (actually – that would probably only offer inspiration), she turned over the meat, content for the stage whispers of dramatics and mischief. Laughing again, at the mere image of Jack tossed overboard, hissing and snarling like a cat, the sound were defiant measures – amused all the more, vicious for its onslaught. “I’m not sure I have the ambition for Captainhood. I’d end up just trying to hit things with the cannon.” Or running the Ark straight into something else – for the sheer and mere adventure, violence, and vitriol of it all.
As for the Grounds themselves? The Honeybee can’t see the youth wildly adventuring towards a land of perpetual heartache, abandoned places, trauma, and then godsforsaken nothingness, so she shrugged her shoulders. “Not unless you really like farmland, lightning storms, and ruins.” Not even an ideal place for a vacation – save for no one coming to find anyone there. Couldn’t be assed.
Her brows arched as she turned the meat over again, the smell and aroma enticing, inviting, stomach rumbling at the mere thought – mostly due to his reasoning. Stormbreak didn’t make her want to dance and cheer and flee, but her experiences were probably different than most. “Did you like it?” Perhaps someone else’s opinion might skew her own. But more than likely not.
She snorted at the maid comment, snagging at her food when it was ready, playing with the tongs more than once, before sliding them all on another plate. “Of course he has,” and she shook her head, with some level and layer of fondness. “How’s he doing?”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
Her continued laughter soothes something in Jude he didn’t know was prickly. They’re not exactly the same age, but Melita has never infantilized him, even when he assuredly deserved it before he aged. That might say more about Melita’s maturity than his, but Jude merely appreciates that her easygoing company makes him feel like the spotlight has finally shifted off his shoulders. And it definitely encourages his sass.
“I mean what else is a giant boat good for but cannons?” The Ark isn’t a vessel for animals and goods as far as he knows (and can reasonably guess because he doubts Melita would sign up at all in that case) so why not just blow things up? Jude may be a well-mannered, shy young man, but he’s still a young man. Explosives are cool.
Wrinkling his nose at the lackluster image she paints of the Grounds, he merely shakes his curly head and sections a piece of meat away for the festival. The meat will live in its own container marked ‘DYGRA’ on a piece of tape that’s already stuck to the top. If he doesn’t take precautions his father will surely hoover it down while Jude back is turned.
“I have mixed feelings. It’s really modern which is admirable, but not my speed. Not a lot of nature.” His mother may follow a different aspect of Frey, but he’s grown up gardening with Maeve and most of his young adult life has - had? - been spent wandering the Wilds trying to find her. “But I do like how organized it is; fewer people just loitering around or bumping into you and ruining your plans.” Which only semi-translates that Jude hates confrontation and strangers talking to him. That’s his version of chaos; it’s why Torchline’s eccentricities don’t bother him the same way. But right now the constant questions have him feeling less charitable to the beachside natives.
Grinning her way at the comment on his dad, Jude relaxes backwards on his hands, smile dying thereafter as he considers yet another bummer of an answer. “Not well. Maman’s back but things seem…off. I don’t know if they’re getting back together.” Jude was born into a very weird, long-distance home so the idea doesn’t bother him as much as it should. His fathers stress however, as his favorite parent, does. “Maybe you can get him out of his head for me? I think I traumatized him against ever confiding in me again after I aged up to try and take some weight off his shoulders.” The sheepish tilt of his lips is barely a smile, because it’s clear Jude isn’t very regretful.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
“You have a point,” and she considered, maneuvering the meat around and placing them in her own little section, because much like Jude’s notions, her own pack of companions (and herself) wouldn’t hesitate to devour the remains later. There was no neat label to accompany the gesture, but the threat of it being gobbled up in the present was dissuaded. “Smuggling,” she added, with a grin.
With no outcry over the Grounds, and Melita presumed she’d made sure he’d inevitably steer clear of that desolate world, she took a piece and divided it between herself, Fangorn, and Sila. His Stormbreak notions and motions were far away from the battles, the relics, or the inherent racism though, and it was intriguing to hear another perspective. Her eyes drifted upwards, amidst the sky, wherever the thing floated now. “Seemed…dull,” she uttered – without the presence of violence and vehemence, she wasn’t certain what they did there. “Maybe that’ll change too,” since everything else seemed to.
Her eyes widened over the subject of Maeve – before placing another bite in her mouth, mulling over what to say. She’d yet to see the woman out and about, but maybe she simply wasn’t ready. “Did she find Edmund?” That had been the purpose of shedding titles, as far as the Honeybee knew.
But then semblances turned to Harper. Not a great creature of self-reflection, the spark of laughter unwound from her. “I can try. Does he like explosions too?”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
Jude tilts his head and waves his hand in a touche gesture, grinning. He has a strange moral compass at times; usually defining something based on how many and how badly it might hurt others, and not caring about the rest. Smuggling is right in that grey area. "There's nothing to say you can't do both." Dimples popping in impish delight at the idea of blowing things up just to smuggle things into Torchline thereafter.
Jude watches her companions eat from the corner of his eye, admittedly curious how Fangorn consumes anything. "It was, honestly. But that meant it was good for a getaway from here." With all the nosiness, gossip, and countless eyes. Sohalia has yet to sell him on the rest of the city.
Sighing slightly, Jude shakes his head on the topic of Edmund. "No, she got hurt and really sick in the Feverlands. No news on Edmund." It seems his patrols of the wilderness will never cease at this rate, always finding one family member just to lose the next. Luckily Melita doesn't dwell - nor let him - so he grins her way. "Definitely. Isn't that why you guys are friends?" Harper had shared a few crazy exploits in regards to the Honeybee, but admittedly that was when Jude was much younger.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
She winked, content with the knowledge of devilry and amusements, and then shrugging at the thoughts of stone walls and dull tomes. She’d give him the excuses of escapes, escapades, and avoidance; understanding the need for it.
Her brows furrowed at the Maeve circumstances – hurt and sick – which seemed so beyond her image of the once-Queen. “Let me know if you guys need anything,” because for all the busy nature of the woman, she’d always made time for others in those ways.
“Consider it done,” with notions about Harper, putting it in the back of her mind for the upcoming seasonal change. Maybe she could even scare the shit out of him for fun!
And with that, they could finish meals and conversations.
{FIN}
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
