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!
The taller Ancient might not be eavesdropping, but Danta is a shameless gossip and he absolutely is, and so it's as Flora directs them to the backrooms that he sidles past the other man with a shit-eating grin. "Someone likes you," he purrs, before disappearing to where their former guild HQ used to be situated.
"Mm, before I was the accomplished Theocrat you see before you, I was helping out Torchline's queen with her little side projects," he confirms, peering around and letting out a low whistle. "Alright - can you sort the bar? Looks like I'm going swimming."
Wading to be precise, the Maverick kicking off his shoes and plopping into the murky canal waters - based on the colour alone it does indeed look blocked, so this is about to be a good, fun time.
Danta directs Asta to sort the backroom bar, while he goes to unblock the canal!
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Flora," Isla hisses through a laugh that says she's not entirely adverse to the conversation, if only because listen, the Remedy doesn't have all that many female friends, and this is kind of nice. As for the would she?, she can only offer the Doubletake a knowing smile and a gentle nudge with her hip as she sidles past with the broom - which isn't a no, and Flora will understand that entirely. "He does have good dress sense," she concedes once the two Ancients are out of earshot, before heading to where the bar once stood.
"Have you thought of a corner bar?" she suggests, tilting her head. "With an exit at each side? I've seen a few places that even have a circular setup. All eyes on you, right?" That would mean they'd need to sort out something else for where the Mer might pop up for a drink, but it's not impossible.
Isla gives her suggestions for a bar and engages in some not-gossip.
Astarion will find that the bar has not only been plundered entirely of supplies but all but demolished as well. It's going to take more than just a little elbow grease to get it back up and in the sort of shape where men such as the two ancients within the back rooms, would see themselves drinking at.
As for Danta, it turns out what's blocking the canals is all that trash Dorian deposited during a certain PQ+ previously. An entire cartload of it, to be precise.
"IsLa." Flora hisses back through a Cheshire smile, pausing for just a moment to watch Danta and Asta disappear into the backrooms. "And I bet he puts as much effort into other things as he does picking out his clothes." She hums, nibbling at her lower lip before finally following Isla toward where the previous bar had been.
"Oh, that could be nice. Maybe one side has a bit of a canal for the mer?" Yeah, that could work. "Okay, well let's map out the dimensions with some of this wood and then we can get going?"
The purr as the Maverick slips by him has a dark brow rising, still not paying attention to the gossip. “Mm, is that so?” He has to assume it’s Flora, given that they’d just met and all, but as he delves further into the back of the bar, he truthfully doesn’t know.
Nodding with a grin shot back Danta’s way — so pleased to not have to be the one to dive into the canal water, Asta’s focus is the bar. And gods, it’s going to take all of his focus as he sees just how fucked up it is.
Setting to work collecting a pile of pieces of the bar that aren’t salvageable, and starting on resurrecting the frame of the bar, the sound of a hammer ringing through the air as he sets it up. Once he’s completed that task, he’ll move onto filling it out until it’s strong and sturdy and with plenty of little storage spots to put the liquor.
Or other things.
Asta makes a pile of unsalvageable pieces of the bar and starts on building the frame and the rest of it from essentially scratch!
"It certainly is so," Danta rumbles, his voice echoing strangely in the tunnel where he's waded to investigate their canal issue. And his aw, what the fuck is just about audible as he discovers the cause of the blockage, and thus their gossip will have to wait for the moment.
Given that his fellow Ancient is likely too busy with his bar work to pay any mind to what the Maverick is up to, the only indication of Danta's attempts to extradite the cart load of garbage are some questionable sound - and a lot of swearing - from the tunnel. Eventually, though, he manages to free the cart enough that the current is able to wash through, and it's a coughing and spluttering Theocrat that emerges.
Oh, and his cart of trash.
Danta spends this round freeing the garbage cart from the canal opening to let the current back through.
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Mm, perhaps you will have to ask him when this place is all fixed up," Isla suggests to the Doubletake with a knowing raise of her eyebrows. "Though he is very polite, so who knows if he kisses and tells." Granted, if anyone would be able to prize that information out of a person, it's Flora.
Anyway, back to the bar.
"That could be a good idea. We'd have to dig the canal through for them to surface but anything is doable with enough effort." Smiling, Isla moves to collect some of the lumber that Flora has brought, choosing a bit of tinder to light on fire with her magic only to blow it out again so they might use the charcoal to help mark dimensions.
"Hey, at least when this is over you'll be able to say you built it with your bare hands." She grins.
Astaroth will find his work going swimmingly, while Dantalion will find that swimming is not helping his work. In the months that followed Dorian's garbage-dump, much of the debris has begun to decompose, turning into a thick cement-like sludge. Even with the cart shoved away from the opening allowing a bit more of the current to pass through, there's still a good deal of trash affixed to the canal floor interrupting the flow of the water.
"Maybe I will." The blonde trills in response, before pulling a face to hear that the other man was polite. "So how do you two know each other then?" She wonders gossipingly conversationally as she watches Isla make her own charcoal out of wood and fire. "Gods you're so cool." She whispers under her breath, flashing the ancient a wide smile before peering over her shoulder as they marked out the dimensions.
"I mean...I guess?" Flora, who hadn't known a hard day's work in her life aside from the occasional one-night stand with a particular task or chore, could only shrug. Sure, she probably should feel empowered to do things herself, but gods, why? "Not to like, undermine that or anything, but I could always channel Ronin to dig out the canal? Unless...I mean...I guess we can do it ourselves?"
Asta, you're perfect, never change.
Danta, the trash is winning. Do better.
With complete unawareness of what is happening for the Maverick, Astaroth puts all his attention and focus into the bar. It flares up his shoulder a bit, but pushing through any of the pain, the small amount of it given his deadened nerve ends, Asta’s able to get a sound structure put together and some compartments.
And before he seals up all the edges, he slips in a couple more secret hidden compartments.
The sound of a hammer and nails echoes as he adds the planks to the outside, flattening the space and giving it an almost rustic kind of look as he goes around the shell he’d created earlier, and once he’s done with that he tries to decide what to use for the countertop.
Between the methodical sound of a bar being hammered and sanded and altogether wonderfully put back in place, Danta drowns in trash. And, y'know, that's fine, but also what the fuck?
Swamping Wading back out of the canal, it's with a look of utter disdain for the sludge and the cart and all the soggy debris within it that Danta climbs back onto dry land. "Enjoying yourself?" he drawls at Astaroth - entirely unfairly, of course - and flicks water at him for good measure before retreating to find a rake.
Procuring one from Flora's supplies, it's back into the water with the Maverick, and he works to try and drag the rest of the debris out of the canal opening so the water might flow better. He can dispose of it later.
Danta sasses and grabs a rake to drag out the rest of the debris from the canal floor, planning on disposing of it once he's pulled it all out of the water.
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"I look forward to hearing your review," Isla smirks and shakes her head, before busying herself with marking dimensions and laying out the wood. "Oh, we met in a market in Haulani. He'd just come down from the Climb and was looking for some clothes. We went for tea afterwards." And hilariously, it's exactly as she says - nothing untoward, nothing gossip-worthy. A duchess and a gentleman and all that.
As for channelling Ronin to do their hard work, the Remedy does flash Flora a fanged grin at that, but straightens up and folds her arms. "I think we could probably do it between us," she challenges. "But if we fail, we can keep him as a failsafe? Just point out where you want the canal to be, and I'll get to work."
Dantalion 's one-man white t-shirt contest is going well enough, though he is both in first and last place. The rake does an okay job, and soon there is a ton of garbage floating around the ancient before he wades out of the water.
Only time will tell if any of Astaroth 's additions to the bar are made known to its proprietor or if they are kept properly secret, but if nothing else, the rustic frame of the bar looks fantastic.
"Mmmk, but that sounds exactly like a date." Maybe a super gay date, but still a date. "Speaking of, when was the last real date you went on?" Flora wonders, requiring absolutely no privacy within which to continue gossiping, unlike Isla apparently.
Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine girl power it was. Reaching for her ring, Flora tossed it onto the ground such that a sea panther appeared not terribly far away from the tigress. "Aight, let's dig it here. But sort of wavy so that it adds some visual interest to the tavern." So saying, Flora takes the charcoal from Isla and drags it along the length of one wall, moving it slow wavy lines the way one might indicate "river" on a map.
Oh he’s pleased as punch with how this is turning out so far, and perhaps if he hadn’t focused so much on other endeavors he might have been inclined to build more often. As it stands, so long as this looks great it’s all he cares about. “Very much so.” The butcher drawls to Danta as he passes, only to simultaneously give a feral grin as disgusting trashed canal water is flicked at him.
He would retort but he’s got half the bar already complete, and by the time he extracts himself he spots the blonde’s head back in the water. Which, fine, but he hopes Danta knows he’ll receive some payback later. For now, stepping away to search for some supplies, Asta’s found a bunch of pieces of broken ceramics when a thought occurs to him.
Trudging back with it all, Asta preps the countertop base, lays some mortar that had been quickly tossed together, and starts to lay out a mosaic pattern with the colorful ceramic pieces on the main countertop of the bar.
Listen, these things happen in stages, okay? And Danta standing in a canal full of floating garbage is just one of those stages, so deal with it. Having raked up as much as he can, the Maverick is out of the water a second time, this time trudging away to procure a net. Luckily there are several (dozen) lying around given the nature of Torchline as a series of islands, and he returns a short while later with a large net on a pole.
Using it to skim the canal, he focuses on drawing as much trash as he can out of the water, piling it up conveniently right where he hopes Astaroth might step back and trip over it. Providing he's able to clear it all, he'll pop up next to the freshly constructed countertop (soaking wet, of course) to hold out a hand hopefully. "Strike a match, would you?"
Danta uses a net to skim all the trash out of the water. He asks if Asta would be so kind as to strike a match so he can use the flames to burn the debris.
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
At least Isla's answer is easy enough for Flora - for all the dalliances she's had, lately and prior to coming to Torchline, dates still haven't really been a part of them. "It would have been back in the Grounds before the war," she says honestly. "With Varus." And while there's still a soft bittersweetness to the way she says his name, no longer does she feel seized by grief at the thought of him.
Regardless, there's too much to do to continue to gossip just now (sorry, Flora) and so Isla promptly shifts into a form clad in fur and molten gold. With large paws and twitching whiskers, the Remedy sets to work digging along the pattern that the Doubletake has indicated, and soon enough there's a sizeable trench that's becoming wAvY as she goes. And as a plus side, the canal will glitter golden in places, thanks to the metal dripping from the tiger's stripes.
