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!
02-23-2024, 07:37 PM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2024, 07:38 PM by Odd.)
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
Though the season was coming to an end, standing at the southernmost tip of Torchline's city, you'd have no idea the region wasn't still in the height of LongHeat. Kept cool only because of the small white dragon on her shoulder constantly snorfling icy kisses against her neck and dressed rather appropriately for the amount of walking this was going to take, Flora stood with her arms crossed and bag packed awaiting Jude and Jack.
Hadama had given her all the rocks he and his group had collected the night before, and as she'd sent out notes to Jude and Jack letting them know it was their turn, she'd also found someone willing to part with a pony and cart. While it might be cumbersome to lead the pony all along the entirety of Haulani, there was no way Flora was going to carry a bunch of rocks around on her own.
The list of things Jack dislikes is a mile long and a foot wide, but one might be surprised (or not) to know that horses are near the top. As he approaches, deeply tanned from work on The Ark and the docks and dressed in a loose linen shirt whose sleeves are rolled to the elbows, he makes a point of circling around the pony to stand with Flora, levelling it a look of disdain for its trouble as well.
"If you'd told me I'd be doin' arts and crafts with rocks at the beginnin' of the season I'd have told you to go fuck yourself," he remarks gruffly, though the way he settles beside the Doubletake without question is testament to his willingness to participate. Or maybe he just likes being close to her? Who can tell, honestly?
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.
it’s tough to be a dreamer when they don’t come true Feels like your blossoming is overdue
Twisted up and sour over his father's rather untimely visit, Jude arrives looking far moodier and edgier than he is normally known for. Sweltering heat with no clues of impending break has him draped in an overly-large linen shirt and shorts with a criminally small inseam. Sweat is unfortunately inevitable, and he envies Flora's helpful companion the moment he sees them.
Jack is familiar in the way most big names in Torchline are, but without any accompanying personal knowledge. Jude lifts a hand in greeting from afar, torn between lifelong awkwardness and a budding sharpness that inspires him to keep people more at arms length. Unbothered by the presence of the horse, Jude presents his hand to it and looks to Flora for direction, more familiar with her than the Ark captain. "Ready when you are," he offers amiably, providing a faint smile.
Well there ain’t no use in crying, darling Or so they say
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
"Which is probably why I didn't mention it." Flora trills back breezily, grinning at the captain over her shoulder. With so much rebuilding and other bureaucratic fuckery on her radar, the Doubletake's mind wasn't as fully with salacious thoughts as it might otherwise have been, but even so, she still had space to spare for Jack's tanned and toned arms.
"Heya." She says with a smile for Jude, before turning and looking out across the sands. "So the whole purpose of this little exercise is to place rocks all around Haulani so that Rae knows where to put the barrier." Not a terribly difficult thing to do, but much more of a time sink than any of them might have wanted.
'So....we can either divide and conquer, which means hauling the stones around yourself instead of having Penelope here do it, or we can all stay together and have it take longer."
And as long as Flora does have time for Jack - in whatever capacity she enjoys the most - the captain considers himself an upstanding member of the team. You know, provided the horse doesn't cause any fucking shenanigans. Giving a gruff nod to Jude, he's already moving to haul a sack of stones off the back of the cart, having no intention of being around the equine for longer than necessary.
"Let's get to it, then," he mutters, an air current already breezing around him to keep him cool while he works. Whether Jude and Flora opt to stay together is irrelevant to Jack - he'll be going it alone and on his own two legs, thank you very much.
Jack opts to split up!
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.
it’s tough to be a dreamer when they don’t come true Feels like your blossoming is overdue
Flora's smile is returned readily, and though Jack likely doesn't care for a response given the initial read Jude can make of him, the young man returns the dip of his chin as well. Glancing between Penelope-the-pony and Jack's retreating back, Jude waffles immediately. He's the weakest of the lot, unfortunately, so he likely needs Penelope's help the most.
"I'll stick with the horse, you're welcome to join me," he offers to Flora amiably, still petting Penelope's soft nose. It will make him a little slower initially but will certainly make him faster than doing it by hand and growing tired of the course of the afternoon. Whether she chooses to or not, Jude opens one of the sacks of stones in the back so he can withdraw them in small handfuls to begin marking the perimeter and returns to the pony's head to encourage her along.
- - -
Jude opts to stick with the horse because he's a string bean, and offers Flora to join him or not!
Well there ain’t no use in crying, darling Or so they say
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
"Ugh, you would." Flora calls with a playful roll of her eyes. She should have anticipated that Jack would go his own way (likely completing any number of chores while he was at it), but never mind. It would get things done faster (probably).
"Alright. You go north, north-west and we'll go the other way." Patting the neck of the pony, she handed the reins over to Jude before skirting around the back to ensure that each group had the right amount. For a moment the Doubletake considered impressing the need for care upon a Jack, before deciding against it. For as flippant as the Captain could be, Flora was fairly certain he knew the importance of getting this RQ done correctly.
"Okay, off we go then!"
Team Sample Size is heading past the Hanged Man first. Jack will be heading by Rae's Fingers.
He certainly would, yes. Grunting something to the affirmative and offering a wave behind him without looking back, Jack hauls his bag of rocks with the assistance of the magics at his disposal. While the Longheat (oh damn) sun will melt it almost as soon as it's created, the ice he forms beneath the sack will at least let him ferry it along at a good speed.
Placing down rocks as he goes to form their little perimeter, as he approaches Rae's Fingers it's with a furrowed brow that he gazes out over the ruined tunnels. The Starfall had done a number on them, and business would be recovering for a long while yet. Pausing at the edge of one of the cliffs - this is urgent business, yes, but so is everything - the captain takes a moment to examine the ships out at sea, as if to see if he recognises any of them.
Jack heads around Rae's Fingers and pauses to take in the view, or something.
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.
it’s tough to be a dreamer when they don’t come true Feels like your blossoming is overdue
Jude dutifully takes the reigns from Flora, easily directed and bossed around as needed - especially when given with a smile, or in Flora's case, a jaunty cheer. Jude goes in wide arcs between the cart, the road ahead, and the pony to restock his minimal bag of rocks. Unlike some people he doesn't have convenient ice, so he preserves his arm strength and uses his feet to slide the rocks into a proper line as he drops them from above.
He doesn't mind silence, but given they're headed toward the Hanged Man, Jude juts a thumb toward it. "How's the bar doing lately? I haven't been in a while." He'd entertained thoughts of performing there after Noa had planted the seeds of encouragement, but with her away in Stormbreak the urge has faded and fizzled without her borrowed drive.
- - -
Jude helps guide the pony and drops stones!
Well there ain’t no use in crying, darling Or so they say
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
Were there icons to designate the movements of the trio, Flora and Jude's would overtake Jack's in almost no time as the good Captain stopped to gaze out into the harbour.
Given their similarities in age and the lanky way Jude carries himself, it's hard for Flora not to think of her brother such that it's only out of the corner of her eye that she looks at her counterpart. "Yeah, I mean...I had to put everything else as a higher priority than fixing up the bar or I thought people would accuse me of being a shit queen." She said honestly, dropping stones and letting Spice help to shift them into place. "But I mean, eventually I feel like Torchline is going to split at the seams if it's all work and no play, so.." Shrugging, Flora pauses to wipe some of the sweat from her brow with a sigh.
"Y'know, I never really thought about it before, but...given how close my dads are to your mom, I guess that kind of makes us, like...cousins? Not real ones, but in that close-friend-so-you're-basically-family kinda of way."
Too bad, so sad, Jude and Flora are out of range of Jack's magic, so he's unable to know how far in front they've gotten. Regardless, the good captain does tire of his game of where's my boat or do I know that flag and, with a sigh, returns to his work. Picking his way around Rae's fingers, towing his sack of rocks on his little icy path, it's not long before he turns his back to the glittering ocean, leaving a neat circumference of pebbles in his wake.
And say what you like about him, but the job, while lazily done, is done with surprising precision, and the distance between each stone and the next is as equal as Jack can make it. Whistling softly under his breath, he continues in the direction Flora had pointed, assuming that at some point he'll either come upon the duo and their pony... or he won't.
Jack hurries the fuck up.
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.
it’s tough to be a dreamer when they don’t come true Feels like your blossoming is overdue
Eye contact is one of Jude's primary allergies, so he doesn't readily notice Flora's inability to keep it. Though he does offer her an encouraging smile as he goes through the motions of drop, kick, shuffle, drop, pony. "Easiest way to deal with haters is to deny them alcohol," he cheekily advises, though he is nevertheless glad the damage had been repaired as much as possible. "I'm not the most fun person so I'm not good for giving ideas, but clearly I'm good at grunt work." Though he has recently slipped headfirst into drinking, bar fights, and even a brief tangle with Dreamdust. Maybe he's more Flora's brand of fun in the depths of his moping.
The idea of family takes him aback in a pleasant but achy sort of way. "I didn't think of it that way, but yeah. It would be pretty cool to be cousins with a Queen," he admits, the smile he shoots her boyishly charming and shy around the edges as he drops another rock. His calves strain just enough on the incline to make him grateful he runs nearly every day, or else this would be a lot more painful.
- - -
Jude starts on leg day up the hill.
Well there ain’t no use in crying, darling Or so they say
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
Snorting under her breath, Flora can only grin slightly as the pair walk, stopping every now and then to adjust and place their stones before carrying on. "I dunno, before things with Sohalia went...the way they did, she always said you and her had fun." Koa had said much the same, now that she thought of it
"What do you mean would be?" She wants to know, nudging him playfully in the side while trying to catch the colour of his eyes and the set of his jaw in a single glance before she looked away. "We're friends now pretty much, aren't we?" They weren't, not by any real standards, but given all that had happened with their individual families and in their personal lives—not to mention Torchline—why the fuck shouldn't they be friends?
"Speaking of, I haven't heard from Soh in like...a hot minute. Koa either. Have you?"
Meanwhile on the literal other side of the city, Jack's solitary trek hasn't gone unnoticed and quickly a few seedier members of the community have begun to trail the good captain to figure out what the fuck he's doing with a sack full of stones. They even start to pick a few of them up, displacing the barrier.
As Jack begins to climb, some idiots are removing his stones thinking that maybe they're valuable if Jack is involved.
It's lucky that the good captain has sharp eyes and sharper magic, because as he lazily turns to start at what he assumes is the appropriate point to make their circular barricade, he notices figures nearby along with their greedy, grabby thoughts. As dumb as they are admittedly brave, it takes Jack a full second or two to realise what they're doing, the captain having fallen to an abrupt halt to stare them down.
"Oh what the fuck," he hisses out as he finally realises, and with the prickle of his temper comes a swift change in the direction of the wind; using a combination of air and water manipulation, Jack has become an almost literal storm as he stalks back the way he came towards them. "You've got two seconds to put 'em the fuck down an' fuck off 'fore I test whether you can fly," he snaps.
Jack uses Intimidate! with his magic and casually threatens the idiots with death.
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.
