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!
I've done nothing wrong Except for all the atrocities
Perhaps there were many amidst Torchline who were daunted by the overly large waves. Melita was not one of them.
She’d long since knotted the ends of her dress, and found a rock that jutted outwards from the coastline. Easy to follow, and large enough so that the majority of it wasn’t covered by the impending squall. Fangorn and Sila had long since left her to her own devices, carefully hovering airborne or guarding her bag respectfully.
For these moments were for zero thoughts – not of potentially moving to King’s End, not of ongoing political nonsense, nor even of peculiar happenings at meteor crash sites. Nope. All she wanted to do was ensure her bangle bracelet was tightly secure on her ankle…
And launch upon the undulating surface, curling beneath her feet. Rising higher and higher upon the oscillations themselves, she wildly whooped and hollered, thoroughly amused.
One might expect Jack to come across Melita from the deck of the Ark, but the good captain is not going to risk these roiling waters until he absolutely has to. And yet, he is seeking out the Honeybee (for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with a certain Doubletake's remarks, thank you ever so much), and so it's on his own two feet that he heads towards he rocky outcrop.
Coming to a halt beside her bag - and make no mistake, whether it's dragon or sentient pumpkin, they'll be punted into the water if they cause a fuss - Jack watches and waits as the fiery headed woman frolics in the choppy waves. Occasionally the spray hits the rock and attempts to soak him, but his manipulation of the waters easily keeps it at bay, and the salty foam is turned back upon itself, leaving him dry and impatient.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
I've done nothing wrong Except for all the atrocities
It was with wild, raucous laughter echoing from her lungs and throat that she felt Fangorn and Sila’s warnings warble through. There was a long, long sigh suddenly through her chest, turning around to spot Jack looming there on the rock, like some grumpy ogre. She was half-inclined to ignore him, pretend he wasn’t there, or even zoom past his presence in a dash of impetuous and irrational glee – but, there were things to discuss.
Instantly deflated but not enough to stop being a brat, she sauntered over along the waves, amused even more when one undulation brought her towering above him, and then back down. It repeated in several cycles and patterns before she said anything at all, so the scene was probably even more ridiculous. “Need something?”
It's at times like these that Jack and the Honeybee can be said to be similar in some ways; as she (ridiculously) bobs up and down before him on the undulating current, of course he watches, just as stonefaced, waiting to see who blinks first. "Oh, nah," he drawls, the spray continuing to reflect off some unseen shield brought about by his magic. "Just thought I'd stop by an' watch the show for a bit."
He steps back a few feet to allow her onto the ridge if she so chooses - and if she remains in the water that's her decision too, he fucking guesses - his hands buried in the pockets of his coat. "Ark's settin' out to King's End in a few days," he announces, nonchalant as you like. "Got some business there, an' with its brand new leader. You in?"
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
I've done nothing wrong Except for all the atrocities
She didn’t tread upon the rock, not yet anyway, maintaining her balance impeccably along the waves as if it was a completely and totally normal thing to do. At one point she crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for the eventuality of Jack’s actual reason for remaining there, one brow arched.
The Honeybee didn’t expect it to be about King’s End, nor Sunjata, and a part of her mulishly wondered what would happen if she said no and avoided it altogether. But then again, curiosity and impulsivity countered and conjured a little quicker, swifter, than her reluctance, so her head tilted, hair catching at the salt spray. “Sure. What did he do this time?” Assuming, of course, that her uncle had somehow managed to piss the Captain off, and this would be the only valid assertion for said visitation.
Saying no and avoiding it altogether would be right up Jack's alley, actually, and the captain is fully prepared to turn on heel and go back to Haulani for a drink and some good old fashioned denial, but fine, he supposes. And Mel is right, anyway - of course Sunjata had succeeded in pissing Jack off, even if the Flood doesn't know it yet.
"Decided to raise King's End from the fuckin' dead, didn't he? A marketplace's taken over the Boondocks, an' that's where I keep a lot of valuable shit." It's also where a lot of valuable shit is dropped off to him to collect by suppliers and business associates. Thanks for that, Sunny.
"You don't seem surprised about it." There, look. Jack's trying to breach the subject of a difficult conversaiton. Fuck you.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
I've done nothing wrong Except for all the atrocities
True – the notions came as no surprise to Melita in any way. Her uncle had a habit of pissing people off for a variety of reasons – and most could be linked to a lack of forethought, planning, and poor impulse control (no, we’re not going to say which traits were inherited). So she remained a little crimson fortress, bobbing up and down on the waves while Jack spewed out the motives for vitriol at this particular hour. Opting to see the brighter side of things, her head tilted, very catlike. “Could be useful for you eventually, if he has more people coming in.” Yeah, for now it’d be a pain in the ass, but valuable shit could be moved.
The insinuation though caused her eyes to narrow, as if they were speaking around a particular topic. Rather than outright say it though, she wondered just how much each one of them knew in retrospect, and played, batted, instead. “That he’s making things difficult for you? No – he does that with many.”
"Could be," Jack agrees, and one might say reluctantly on this point, "but only if I whisper in the right ears first. Hence the trip." And the inevitable tongue lashing he'll be delivering to Sunjata the second he gets a chance. With the waves still trying to crash against his magical shield and his eyes tracking Melita's ascent and descent upon them, eventually the captaiin does snap, "Do you fuckin' mind?" and gestures to the solid ground nearby.
And oh, he can read the need to skirt around and avoid in her thoughts as though they were his own (because they are, he feels the same way) but that makes Jack all the more keen to spearhead through to the heart of the matter. Sorry not sorry. "I don't disagree with you, but no - how'd you know he was leader of King's End?"
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
I've done nothing wrong Except for all the atrocities
The Honeybee gave a noncommittal hum and buzz under her breath, indifferent about the right or wrong ears. As for the snapping and gesturing, she pondered over the situation – rather enjoying sometimes having the high ground, and whooooop back to lower. The fact that it seemed to bother Jack meant it was recklessly amusing to the fellow smuggler, and she let the moments extend into silence, and a few more waves and undulations, before finally adhering to the request. Albeit with a roll of her eyes and a huff.
But oof, wasn’t considering the whole straight to the point strategy. She wrinkled her nose, as he instigated a fair bit of ire, in that ol’ touche framework. “He told me.”
"Did he now?" He knows Jata must have told her - because he has a feeling he'd have definitely heard about it if the Honeybee had found out on the grapevine (she'd be pissed, he knows it). But then that begs the question as to why she's decided to keep it to herself.
...And again, he knows that answer too, but he'd very much like it if Flora's remarks fucked off back into her head, if it's all the same.
Instead, taking a deep breath and letting it out again, Jack jams his hands in his pockets and shrugs to Melita. "He say anythin' else?" he asks. You know, like hey why don't you fuck off away from Torchline and move here?
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
I've done nothing wrong Except for all the atrocities
They’d somehow come to the point where it was clear Jack already knew – somehow, someway. She almost wondered if Sunjata himself had simply spread the news, known to be a bit of blabbermouth in his own modicums and agendas. So there she gave a long, sullen sigh upon the rock outcropping, wondering how to stop a snarl from pressing over her face. “He asked me if I wanted to live there too.”
To which, if they were truthful, she still didn’t have an answer. Sudden inclinations and impulses had loomed, with other offers and deliberations to be done – the Honeybee wasn’t one to measure pros, cons, values, or circumstances, but in this case, it felt necessary, for a variety of reasons. “I haven’t given him an answer yet.”
And there it is. They've taken the long way around but they're finally here, and Jack grumbles something incomprehensible under his breath as Mel lays it all out. Jerking his chin towards the shore - and more specifically the Hanged Man - it's a wordless invitation for her to walk with him and for them to get a fucking drink if they're going to be having these kinds of conversations.
"Well, do you wanna live there?" He asks with a raise of his eyebrows that would, in any ordinary conversation with anyone who wasn't that, be considered non-committal. "Kinda figured you for wantin' more outta life than one brothel and a settlement next to a river," he continues, somewhat mulishly.
All of this is to say the things that he doesn't really want to put into words. Things like but it would fucking suck if you left and you're actually a pretty decent part of the Ark and whatnot.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
I've done nothing wrong Except for all the atrocities
As much as Melita might’ve spurned his directional shift out of spite and pettiness, she still ended up following dutifully along, likely because she would want a drink after this too. Fangorn and Sila came rambling alongside, and before long she had the dragon on her shoulder and the gourd in her arms, preventing her from mauling or hurtling objects unless she felt the need suddenly and impulsively rise.
The way Jack cut through it at all though made her have to consider and weigh moments – which she hadn’t done since Sunjata had asked. There’d been multitudes of other things and distractions, some purposeful, and she wasn’t never one to simply sit down and muster out pros and cons of specifics. “He said we could build onto it,” muttering under her breath too, because half the time she wondered what she was doing here too – unleashing cannons from the Ark and wandering around with nothing but bedlam on her mind.
But to actually answer the inquiry, she too turned mulish, a little defiant, chin raised on seditious edges, on why she’d even thought about it at all. “I don’t have much family left, so,” she wondered if it’d be nice to have some again. Her mother had sacrificed herself for her daughters. Her twin had long since passed. Nate was gone.
"Sunjata says a lot of things," Jack mutters. He'd been governor of Torchline for long enough that the islands had needed and respected him, and then fucked off. He'd been one of Safrin's favourites until playing turnabout with a goddess. And now what? Now he's going to turn a little settlement out in bumfuck nowhere into what, exactly? And for how long, until he abandons that too?
All of these very good (in Jack's opinion) points go unsaid, of course. Feeling Melita's thoughts prickle like the spines of a cactus through his mind, the captain finds himself rolling his shoulders and hissing a soft curse under his breath, before shooting his blue gaze back towards the Honeybee. "I didn't realise sharin' blood with someone meant you had an obligation to 'em."
It's better than a lot of the knee-jerk reactions on his tongue. Opposing sentiments like you're not going and fuck off, then stay locked and loaded there, behind his teeth, but remain unfired for now.
Clearing his throat, Jack pins his eyes on the Hanged Man in the distance and eventually, finally settles on, "The crew won't want to lose you."
Ha ha, see. Because he's part of the crew, technically, but also not, so... yeah.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
