From Attuned to Ascended to Ancient, Kiada Njovu-Reyes has been reborn several times throughout her short life, but her fighting spirit has never once been diminished. With beauty, grace and a quick wit, Kiada is the whole package wrapped in an infectious smile. Recent endeavours have found her in the heart of the Hollowed Grounds, aiding the region and bettering it for her new Ancient kin, and whatever she does next, we know it's sure to pack a punch.
Congratulations, Kiada!
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!
Don't you just wanna wake up dark as a lake Smelling like a bonfire, lost in a haze?
Pip meets Spice's croon with one of her own, the older dragon indeed familiar with the experience of a human in crisis. The difference between them being, of course, that Pipsqueak and Koa have already gone through the stages of grief these past few months. They've raged and shaken and come to terms with things, and now they at least have a clear idea of what's happened, even if they're not sure what's to come. None of this is new anymore- that is, until Flora says:
"—pregnant—"
...Pregnant....?
Pregnant?!
Blood rushes out of Koa's face as that word spins wildly around his head, pinballing through the empty space where coherent thoughts had been. Pregnant-- Copper eyes as wide as saucers turn down to where Flora just heaved, as that dangerous word snags against a thread and tugs, threatening to unravel the fabric of his reality.
Flora's pregnant?
Is it his?
"I-- you-- how----" He's 404'ing. It's all too much. Muscle memory has him wrapping his arms around Flora, but he's too busy short-circuiting to meet her eyes. He's going to be a father--- no, he doesn't know that. But Flora - and a child, with everything how it is---?
But Flora's speaking again, mumbling something against his thundering chest that Koa only just makes out. And even when he does, it takes a second to process this new twist, and then he's really confused. "Wait- Soh's pregnant?" the boy asks, grasping Flora by the shoulders and pushing her far enough away that she can see his hopelessly bewildered face. Brows shouldn't be able to furrow this much, but what Koa's capable of doing with his body has always defied the odds. "I thought you meant you--"
And then the other shoe drops. "Wait. Soh's pregnant?"
Who the fuck fucked Soh?
If you're drunk on life, babe, I think it's great But while in this world I think I'll take my whiskey neat
Where Koa's mind is as uncertain as the predictability of a ball in a pinball machine, Flora's has narrowed down to a small circle of facts. Koa and Soh left, abandoning everyone else. Taken or not, they were together, and obviously they were only together because the dragoon had gotten the luminary pregnant.
The. End.
You, he asks, and Flora can only understand this to actually mean, but how did you know? I'm so suave and subtle I can't believe you've figured it out. As for how, well, if anyone knows how the pair of them certainly do.
For her part, the Doubletake is still trying to unscrew the lid of the canteen she's been given, and it's with shaky fingers that she manages it only for her shoulders to be shoved enough to spill water into her lap. "Come on Koa, we both know you aren't a good liar." She scoffs, trying to shrug out of his grip but feeling too light-headed to manage it. "CaMpIng TrIp." Her tone is sing-song, and a little bit hurt.
"PreGnaNt?"
The mockery in her voice matches the theatre of his eyebrows as she finally gives up and lets herself fall back into a seated position. Finally taking a sip of water, she struggles to keep from sputtering it back up. "Everyone already knows." She says, shrugging a shoulder; everyone of course being she and Jude. "You got her pregnant, she was already overwhelmed with being queen, so you two ran off, and then..." Looking over her shoulder towards Starfall, she gulps as her stomach sommersaults.
Don't you just wanna wake up dark as a lake Smelling like a bonfire, lost in a haze?
Oh ok so we've full on left logic behind.
Koa's full on fucking lost now, drowning in a tumble dryer of about seven hundred clashing half-formed thoughts. The mockery of Flora's tone is unexpectedly hurtful, stinging vulnerabilities created by confusion. Releasing his grip on the Doubletake's shoulders, Koa, too, falls back on his heels, hands shaking as they tangle uselessly in the fur of Pip, who has retreated to his lap. The long dragon hisses warningly toward Spice, tail lashing in frustration and anxiety as jumbled waves of conflicting emotions crash against the bond. Everyone knows. "I don't," Koa counters sharply, tightening his grip on Pip. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
And then she explains.
And Koa laughs.
It's a bright, brittle, bubbly, braying, borderline-hysterical burst of sound. "I'm sorry, what?" The laughter continues, still slightly manic, a release of emotion that cannot be easily stopped. "You think... You think I got Soh pregnant? Soh- who, has somehow dumped me like twenty times, even though we've never actually dated or had sex. But somehow I magically got her pregnant and we eloped? And, what, I've just been on vacation while a megalomaniac from space rules my home?"
Is he yelling? When did he start yelling? He isn't sure, doesn't even realize it until the bright pain of Pip's teeth on his wrist breaks the haze of hurt and anger that's swept across his face. A sharp intake of breath as he yanks his hand back, only to find the furry catsnake crawling up his chest, bright blue eyes boring into his. Despite the gulp of air he swallows, his voice is hoarse when he speaks again. "I didn't know you thought that little of me, Flora." He can't bring himself to look back at the Doubletake, fears that Pipsqueak's knowing gaze is the only thing keeping his tears in check. "Not gonna lie, it kinda sucks."
If you're drunk on life, babe, I think it's great But while in this world I think I'll take my whiskey neat
Without thought, Spice hisses back, lunging into Flora's lap and fanning out her wings so that she might simultaneously look intimidating and large enough to protect Flora from the invisible onslaught of youthful hurt and misunderstanding. Whatever brief moment there might have been through which the pair could have slipped back into the realm of logic and rationality was firmly slammed shut as Flora heard the too-bright laugh bubbling from the dragoon's lips. "—yeah but you went back every single time—" Flora interrupts and gods if it wasn't for the way her hands had gone to Spice, she might have picked up a handful of sand and thrown it at him.
Though her face had been pale already, now Flora looks like some haunted Victorian doll as his words drain all the blood and heat from her body. A thousand petulant comebacks vy for first place on her tongue such that what she says is the worst combination of all of them. "I just thought maybe after you fucked me and then fucked off so many times, maybe this time you found someone worth staying for." It isn't what she means, not really. It doesn't get to the root of her hurt, (didn't we have something once, you and I?), nor did it hint at things Koa didn't know the way she might have been able to do if she'd given herself a moment to think, (I told Soh she could have you. I was the bigger person and I want credit for that). Instead, the words just sounded hollow and mean, but there was no going back now. Not sat in the sand with her heart in her throat feeling as though she was bleeding out from wounds of apparently her own making.
"No, you know what sucks?"
What sucks is that I could have just kissed you when I saw you.
"What sucks is that if you two had been doing your jobs instead of breaking up seventy-five million times, maybe it wouldn't have been so easy for all of CAIDO to think you'd just run off together and would have actually looked for you sooner." In bed that evening she'd think of the perfect ways to say what it was she meant, but gods Flora was unable to do anything more than let her tongue lash out at him. It was the only way she'd be able to touch him after all of this, she supposed.
Don't you just wanna wake up dark as a lake Smelling like a bonfire, lost in a haze?
I didn't, he wants to say, or She came to me, or even the ever-obnoxious cop-out of It's complicated! There are so many things he wants to say to her, so many things he hasn't said because he's young and dumb and stubborn and proud, with a chip on his shoulder a mile deep. Yes, he held a candle for Sohalia, kept going back at every love kernel - because Soh was soft and pure and unobtainable, someone that, deep deep down, Koa knows he can never touch.
And thus, never break.
But Flora, with her tongue as sharp as her poisoned blades, with her soul like a wildfire and her hidden, porcelain heart? Flora, who he's always thought of as a sea-salt breeze? Every time they touch they leave new imprints, scars like handprints on the bloom of naivete. It's painful, and difficult, and beautiful, and real.
You're worth staying for, Koa wants to tell her, needs to tell her, but the words are drowned in pride.
He clings to Pipsqueak that much tighter, jaw set stubbornly as Flora's anger washes between them like a flood. His face tingles with a flush as hot as if she'd slapped him - which, in a sense, she has. Burying his free hand in the sand, the Dragoon tries to ground himself as the world reels. "You're right," he answers finally, eyes still fixed on the ashy sand. "I fucked up. Believe me, I know I did. But I want... I'm going to make it right." Is he talking about Soh's kidnapping, or something closer to home? At long last Koa looks back at her, meeting that cerulean gaze with puppydogged determination. "That's why I came to... to Torchline." To you. Extracting his hand from Pip's fur, he extends it beseechingly to the Queen. "Will you give me another chance?"
If you're drunk on life, babe, I think it's great But while in this world I think I'll take my whiskey neat
How dare he be multidimensional like that? How dare he have complex feelings that he was able to overcome in real time? How dare he look at her like that, all broken and blue and still trying, like he wouldn't bleed his own damn blood for anyone who asked it of him.
The you're right took the wind right out of her sails, and whether or not it was a calculated move on his part, it worked. Deflating entirely, Flora chewed at the inside of her lip as she glanced over her shoulder and out to see. She meant to let her eyes grow hazy with tears for a moment, but instead, she spied Starfall looming like a wart on the horizon. Clenching her teeth against the tears threatening to fall, the Doubletake twisted the ring on her finger to render herself invisible so that Koa wouldn't be able to see the way her face scrunched into an ugly mask of pain or how her chest heaved with the sobs she kept caged.
That she'd been wrong about so much didn't just make it better. Such was the trouble with youth. The trouble with invisibility on the other hand, was that just because Flora couldn't be seen, the way Spice trembled and stuttered on her lap gave away more than the queen likely would have wanted.
"I'll just take care of it." Flora said in a soft voice. "I'll get the demigods on it. They'll find her."
Don't you just wanna wake up dark as a lake Smelling like a bonfire, lost in a haze?
The secret, Flora, is that Koa simply isn't that complicated. He's a simple lad. A himbo to the fullest. It's easier to sort out your feelings out when they're largely made up of primary colors, rather than nuanced hues.
Or, pretend your color blind.
It feels like they're getting somewhere. The palpable tension ebbs away, the wave of emotion having finally crashed. Koa even allows himself a smile, the barest little hopeful thing, lighting his eyes with warm copper as he gazes at the Queen. The hand he's extended hovers hopefully, and as she moves hers the Dragoon's chest tightens, relief at their imminent reconciliation blooming within him--
And then she disappears.
And it's like he's been punched in the gut, or cast back to the Wilds. Sure, she's still there, the dragon trembling in mid-air is proof enough of that, but in a larger, more important sense, he feels like she's gone. Like she's placed a barrier between them, again, and he'd be lying if he wasn't reminded of another day with another blonde, when another wall was built. Sohalia hadn't wanted his help, and now Flora doesn't, either and what is the point of him he can't be useful, too weak and stupid and slow and basic to contribute anything at all?
The extended hand hovers before clenching, tight, pulled back into the Dragoon's lap. Unable to see Flora, Koa stares at the ground near where her legs just were, his expression that of a thoroughly beaten dog. "That... yeah. Okay. That makes sense." What's he supposed to say? Nah babe, I got this? You should count on me, even though your parents are all literal demigods and I'm just an idiot who got yeeted into a swamp?
"Just... let me know if I can do anything. You don't have to hide from me, y'know?" He chuckles wryly, though it doesn't reach his eyes. "Plus, I still owe you dinner. Y'know, to celebrate you becoming Queen." A promise made what feels like a life and a half ago.
If you're drunk on life, babe, I think it's great But while in this world I think I'll take my whiskey neat
Those were the actual facts, and when spelled out like that, taking up just two little lines? What was the problem? So Flora had gotten the wrong idea, so there was a misunderstanding, so communication was neither of these two idiot's forte.
But you know what? It felt like a lot, because in Flora's mind were still the flashes of copper eyes and the way Koa's fingers had felt tugging off her clothing; there was the taste of bile in the back of her throat and the thought of Sohalia in some purple dungeon; there was a swollen belly and a gender-reveal hosted by the dragoon and Luminary for all of Stormbreak to attend; and there was the way things had just never quite worked out the way she wanted them to.
"I'm not hiding from you." Snaps suddenly, twisting the ring on her finger that Koa might see the mascara trenches beneath her eyes or the ugly splotches of colour on her cheeks. "I just—" Feeling heat rise to colour her ears as they began to ring, the queen shoved Spice out of her lap so she could stand. In response, the little dragon of course hissed at Sah and Pip as all of this was clearly their fault.
"Whatever, just get in the boat. You can row us back."
