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!
09-19-2023, 08:19 PM (This post was last modified: 10-28-2023, 10:01 PM by Talyson.)
It had been a long time coming. Some might say too long, but Tal spent so much time traveling that he'd dreaded coming home to a cold and empty place after weeks of deliveries aboard the Peregrine. It was easier to just crash in his childhood room above Seawright's Sundries or, more and more often in the past two years, cuddle up with Ru in her big bed when she didn't have other company.
But Ru was having company more often these days, and he was feeling restless and smothered under his old family roof. Since he'd fixed up the first floor of the building near the Docks to serve as a parcel depot for his courier service it only made sense to continue on and get the second floor livable again. It would give him options, at least, and Tal liked to keep his options open.
So here he was, a few days after they'd finished with the doors and windows and chimney repairs on the first floor, with another shipment of wood and paint and other supplies that Boreal - a large, pale dragon built like a bull mastiff - perched atop. She balanced precariously with her wings spread wide, making an enthusiastic and amiable nuisance of herself as Tal tried to sort the different lengths and cuts of wood for the repairs to the stairs.
The dragon caroled a cheerful greeting to those that arrived to help, whether they'd heard of the courier's plan through word-of-mouth around Snowcloak or seen one of his posters on the notice board asking for volunteers.
This is an open PQ to repair the second floor of the Snowcloak Shipping Center and turn it into an apartment for Tal and Boreal!
Wanting a home of one's own was something that Alys understood all too well, so when Tal wanted to expand the Snowcloak Shipping Center to include an apartment for he and Boreal, the seer was first in line to help. And while she would have assisted regardless, she had to admit that her eagerness to help was not entirely innocent: she was preparing to purchase her own shop and apartment, and she would need help in turn when it came to setting everything up. She just hoped that the majority of the work would be inside, given that it was the middle of Deepfrost and, despite the Citadel's protections and her Academy blessing, frigid.
When Alys arrived, Boreal was (unsurprisingly) perched atop a stack of wood and paint and other supplies, caroling a greeting and looking quite a bit more cheerful than her bonded. "Hi, Boreal," Alys called, snickering to herself at the dragon's eagerness, which she was sure was a nuisance as Tal tried to sort through the wood. "Hi, Tal." She sidled up to her friend to peer around his shoulder at the wood. "Where do you need me?"
------
Alys arrives, ready to help!
Oh, I had a dream that you couldn't hear me screaming Trying to tell you everything but it wouldn't stop you leaving
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Alys.
Tal and Boreal needed a new apartment. If Sah hadn't already been intending to help, Lilly would have dragged him. Literally. He wouldn't have put it past the wolf to gently tug on his hand with her teeth all the way there. As the trio approached, Pad remained by Sah as usual while Lilly raced ahead. The silver wolf skidded to a stop in front of her best friend and eagerly touched noses with Boreal, wagging nonstop.
Chucking, Sah nodded at Alys, "Good to see you again." Turning to Tal he smirked, "So did you burn down your other home cooking or something?" Though it seemed more likely that Boreal had burned it down trying to 'help' cook.
"Alys!" Tal greeted with open relief as Boreal hopped down off her 'mountain' to greet the seer with happy rumbles and a broad head pushed gently against Alys's hip. "Thanks for comin' back! I could really use a hand with--" Before he could finish a familiar fuzzy face came trotting into the snowy little yard and the courier's grin broadened.
"Hey, Lilly! Did y'come t'help, too?" As much as he wanted to fuss the wolf, he left off while she greeted Boreal, who touched noses with her bestie and then rubbed her cheek against Lilly's in happy greeting. Her scaly tail wagged too, creating a smooth section of snow behind her.
Of course, where Lilly went Sah wasn't far behind, and Tal dusted his hands off as he straightened to give his frenemy a wicked grin. "Spoken like a guy who doesn't want LongNight cookies this year," Tal 'threatened' back, playing his trump card. "But since you're here I'll let y'help." The last was added with a gracious sniff and a wink to Alys before he led the way inside, pointing out the staircase that was looking decidedly worse for wear.
"First things first, we need t'fix the stairs so no one gets hurt goin' up an' down 'em while we're workin' on the second floor. Here's what we need t'do..."
Round 1: One step at a time
1. Measure and cut lumber to replace the broken or weak steps
2. Remove the damaged treads and use the new planks from above to replace them
3. Repair the damaged railing and replace any broken supports
10-10-2023, 01:35 AM (This post was last modified: 10-10-2023, 01:35 AM by Sah.)
Sah
What is knowledge without wisdom?
Sah was almost alarmed, in fact, he was for a heartbeat. But then he flashed Talyson a feral grin, "That's up to your sister. Not you." Those cookies were sacred and if Tal denied him, the Wild Thunder would go straight to the source. Longnight cookies would be had.
As the companions had their fun, Sah turned to the work at hand. "I'll take the railing and supports." He grabbed the necessary tools and nails and set to work. Although he carefully and manually removed the damaged portions he turned to his magic for the rest. Feeling the mageglass at his neck warm, the Abandoned worked to create new supports and manually install them.
~
Sah uses manual labor and magic to repair the damaged railing and replace any broken supports.
As a wolf ran up to greet Boreal, Alys turned to find Sah arriving. "Oh, hello!" she said with a smile. She didn't know the man well, but he was a part of the Academy. Besides, anyone in Ru's good graces - and anyone willing to help Tal - was in her good graces. "It's good to see you again." As the men exchanged banter, Alys watched the companions. For a moment, she felt a pang of envy. Everyone else seemed to have someone or something to keep them company - but she was just her, on her own. She bit back a sigh of longing.
But this was no time to be wallowing in self-pity: there was work to be done! And so Alys got to work. "I can measure and cut the lumber," she offered before grabbing a measuring tape and beginning to jot down numbers on a small note pad. Once she'd double checked her measurements, she moved to a table where she could lay out and mark the lumber before cutting it to size.
------
Alys measures and cuts lumber!
Oh, I had a dream that you couldn't hear me screaming Trying to tell you everything but it wouldn't stop you leaving
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Alys.
Tal's grin only widened at the attempted threat from his frenemy. "Actually, I'm makin' the cookies this year," he drawled. "Dierdre's teachin' me. Which means I get t'decide who gets 'em!" He gave Alys a wink as he turned away from Sah, far too smug for his own good before he laid out the plans for the first task.
Sah started out with confidence, and the removal of the old safety supports went off without a hitch. Each section had the potential to go awry and damage other parts as they were disassembled, but the Wild Thunder soon had them off and out of the way. It wasn't until he started replacing the missing sections with magicked wooden supports that Tal spied what was happening and hurried over with a yelp. "Hey! No shortcuts!" he scowled, pointing at one of the just-created bars for the railing. "I've been hearin' enough about magic t'know that stuff's big enough t'just disappear in a season. For nails or wood glue, magic away, but for the wooden parts, stick to the real thing!" Grumbling under his breath he went back to his own job.
Admittedly, he'd been pretty happy when the others had left the patching of the stairs to him. He was confident in his woodworking skills and ability to replace the boards safely, but he soon realized that the measurements were a little off. Going to check on Alys, he grimaced as he saw where some smudges on the measuring tape were causing the issues. He scrubbed them off with some spit and the corner of his shirt and then let her get back to work. It still wasn't perfect, but Tal brought a small handsaw with him when he went back in and he adjusted the boards on the fly until the new steps fit seamlessly into place, looking like they must have when the building was new.
The stairs soon led safely up to the second floor - give or take the railing - and the sight that awaited them wasn't exactly reassuring. There was a sizeable hole in the roof and the chimney had been damaged by a crashing dragon. Tal sucked in a breath through his teeth and swallowed hard before forcing a cheerful smile onto his face that wasn't exactly convincing as he tried to put up a brave front for his friends. "Right. Okay. We can still do this." Was he trying to convince them, or himself? "We just gotta break it down into manageable parts, yeah?"
Round 2: Reduce, reuse, recycle
- Collect fallen shingles from the floor and sort for re-use
- Remove broken chimney stones from the roof and floor and sort by size
- Haul out broken wood and splintered ceiling beams from the damaged section
Sah scowled but the smirk on his face betrayed his amusement, "You mean you're going to burn them, and Dierdre will have to remake them. But sure." When Tal ran over to stop him, the Abandoned raised a brow, "These count as small and will last. But if you're more comfortable with me making them by hand, I will." When the Wild Thunder, Deimos, and Noah had created the indoor market, creation magic had been used liberally. The benches and stalls still stood if he recalled correctly. Yet this was Tal's home that was in question and Sah would abide.
Completing his task by hand he then headed over to the others for a new assignment. Sah let out a snort at the sight, "Don't worry, Errand Boy. We've had to fix worse damage in the past. We've got this." Sending Alys and Tal a reassuring grin, he got straight to work on the ceiling beams and broken wood. As the Abandoned got on a ladder collected the broken pieces and set them to the side to dispose of, he took care not to let any drop onto the people and companions below him, keeping his telekinesis active to gently lower the parts.
~
Sah hauls out broken wood and splintered ceiling beams from the damaged section.
10-14-2023, 04:01 AM (This post was last modified: 10-14-2023, 04:02 AM by Alys.)
Alys
Alys was quite proud of her work, thank you very much - or, at least, she was, until Tal came over to rub some smudges she hadn’t noticed off her measuring tape. She smiled up at him sheepishly with a quiet word of thanks, then returned to her measuring. Things went more smoothly after that, with the seer making sure to measure twice and cut once.
With the stairs repaired, it was time to move on, and Alys followed the boys to the second floor, where she paused to take in the damage. She said nothing, preferring to listen to the boys’ banter, but she did raise an eyebrow when it came to the hole in the roof. She had every confidence in her ability to clean, or to help with minor repairs, but this? Hopefully Sah was more handy than Alys.
With their path laid out before them, Alys began to make a sweep of the second story, picking up old shingles and sorting them into piles of good and bad. Hopefully they would be able to reuse some of them instead of having to start completely from scratch.
———
Alys sorts shingles!
Oh, I had a dream that you couldn't hear me screaming Trying to tell you everything but it wouldn't stop you leaving
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Alys.
Alys had sharp eyes (because she's a seer, get it?) and a good sense for which shingles could be reused and which ones would need to be thrown out. Luckily for everyone involved, it looked like most of the shingles were actually in fairly good shape. Many had scattered when they'd fallen and ended up under intact sections of the roof, which had protected them from further damage and further weathering. In short order she was able to sort out two neat piles that they could use later.
Then, the bad news:
Tal just snorted and rolled his eyes at Sah's jibe, the corner of his mouth kicked up in a smirk. "Thin ice, pal," he 'warned' the hunter over his shoulder as they went to their separate tasks. He gave his frenemy's dark hair a quick tousle of gratitude when Sah agreed to make the railings by hand - just in case - and when they made it to the second floor the courier was quietly glad of the support of both his friends. Sah was right - they had fixed worse, and the hunter swung into action with enthusiasm!
...Maybe a little too much enthusiasm? One of the beams he started to remove had a hidden crack farther up its length. The wood split suddenly, bringing a fresh cascade of shingles down towards those below, but luckily his telekinesis was active and ready. No one was hurt, but it did add some extra time to cleaning up and giving Alys more to sort.
And then it got worse, at least for Tal.
He went to sort the stones that had fallen out of the fireplace on the second floor from those that had crashed in from the section of chimney that stuck out above the roof, but his expertise was in wood, not stone. He was having a hail of a time trying to puzzle out which stones went where, and it culminated in him dropping a particularly large one on his foot when he tripped over one of the recently-fallen shingles. Hopping around as he bit his lip to hold back the colorful words and prickles of tears in the corners of his eyes, it was several minutes before he could wave weakly to Alys. "Uh... little help here, please? You're better at this than I am," he admitted, giving his friend a watery grin.
Gingerly testing his footing, he limped over to Sah to check on his progress and breathed a sigh of relief to see the debris cleaned away and the ragged hole tidied up to a neat section ready to be repaired. "Right, this next part'll take both of us t'hold things steady..."
Round 3: In with the new!
Sah and Tal need to put the new rafters into place and nail the decking boards down on top of them
Alys, can you finish sorting the rocks and repair the interior fireplace? (As always, there's mortar available downstairs where it's warmer)
Sah froze when Tal ruffled his hair, completely caught off guard by the odd action. The courier walked away and the Abandoned's gaze followed him for a moment with pure bewilderment. Had Tal hit his head when Sah was working? At least the Abandoned was able to stop any further head injuries with his telekinesis when the beam cracked. "Sorry! Are you ok?" He called down with a guilty look to Alys in apology for giving her added work.
Just as Sah finished up, the others seemed to be regrouping as well. "Alright", Nodding at Tal's words, the Wild Thunder positioned himself to hold the new rafters still. Between his strength and magic, Sah should be able to take enough of the load to not strain Tal's injury.
A beam cracked overhead, and Alys looked up in surprise just in time to see wood hurtling towards her. Her own telekinesis was still too weak to stop such a large object, and she had only enough time for her heart to stutter in fear before Sah caught the beam. She looked up at him with no small measure of relief. "I'm fine," she called, before getting back to work. With more to clean for now, she kept going - with an eye on the rafters, just in case.
Talyson seemed to be having about as much luck as Sah: Alys's head shot up and her eyes fixed on her friend with concern as she heard him drop something. He seemed to have dropped a stone on his foot, and she winced in sympathy. With her work nearly done, she was happy to trade jobs with him and work on the fireplace. There was something soothing about mixing up the mortar, smoothing it into place, and carefully selecting just the right stone for each position. It was almost artful, in a way, and Alys settled easily into the rhythm.
------
Alys works on the fireplace!
Oh, I had a dream that you couldn't hear me screaming Trying to tell you everything but it wouldn't stop you leaving
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Alys.
Tal didn't notice Sah's bewilderment, too distracted by how many things still had to be done to make this reclaimed building a home - and eventually too distracted by the pain in his foot to worry about what the hunter might think. Besides, however much he might dislike admitting it out loud, he and Sah made a pretty effective team. With the barely taller man holding the beams steady, the courier was able to scamper up and slide the new reinforced brackets into place on the ends of the old rafters so the new boards could be slotted into place. The whole roof probably needed to be rebuilt, but the patching they were doing would last many seasons, giving Tal time to do a more thorough job later. With Sah providing the raw magical strength to lift things and Tal doing the fine-tuning and final nailing, screwing, and gluing into place they eventually sorted out the beams. Then it was up and out to start laying the decking, attaching each board firmly to the new rafters and building a seamless patch to keep out the snow and wind.
Alys, meanwhile had come afoul of Tal's bad luck at last. The mortar was chunky and refusing to cooperate and the rocks kept wanting to fall out of their holes, even after the sticky mortar was applied. It was a good thing that she approached the task with patience and was careful in her rock selection; although the task might have been finished much sooner than the boys' carpentry if everything had gone well, she instead finished at the same time, but her work was impeccable.
Tal wiped his brow as they took a break and tea and biscuits were passed around (with some for the companions, too). "Right. We're gettin' close, I think. Just need to put the shingles back on the roof deckin', an' that'll be done. The chimney up top is still a mess, though. That'll take some work to finish repairin', but after that..." He looked around, then nodded to the window on the back wall. "Just need t'replace the glass in that, an' then we can finish up the last bits inside."
Round 4: Finishing the outside
- Replace the windows
- Shingle the roof
- Rebuild the top chimney flue
We're almost there! Second to last round!
No posting order
Things progressed a bit smoother this time, much to Sah's relief. Enjoying his biscuits, he listened for the next tasks. This entire endeavor required the Abandoned to be in the air it seemed. Grabbing the shingles, he climbed up to the roof and got to work. Sah was meticulous as he went to avoid rain from leaking in later.
He walked along the roof with little fear, secure in the knowledge that he could slow his descent should he fall. Granted, the Wild Thunder had only ever caught others with his telekinesis. But the same principles applied, right? Regardless, Sah singled the roof and did his best to stop any shingles from falling onto anyone below.
