[SE] banked fires blaze

you must burn brighter than ever

Ordinarily, Melita might not have been bothered by any spirits. She’d lived through enough LongNights to not be put off by too many things, but she’d had ideas along this interval of the season, and by then she’d ignored a multitude of other things to ensure this was done first.

So, as she gazed upon her house by the cliffs, there was a pile of makeshift Ludos in front of her. All clearly hand-crafted, some had silly faces from its mask, while others were meant to be downright terrifying and chilling. She’d figured they’d be enough to put off anything nearby; and if not these, then her own presence.

“All right, let’s hang this one here…,” and she began to direct her intrepid dragon towards the highest window, with a cut-out of the ragged deity holding cinnamon rolls.

Melita

Got no plans and I've got no money
Gone are the days of milk and honey

Sohalia was, not for the first time in her life, a nomad, and as such, she had no home to protect this Leafchange. Instead, she wandered here and there, coming and going as she pleased. She'd spent a fair amount of time in Torchline, grateful for Flora's invitation to use her home as a base of operations while she decided where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do. And while she had some vague notions of what that might be, she was also hesitant to put plans into motion before all of the pieces had fallen into place. Not that she knew when that might be.

Lost in thought, she didn't realize that she'd wandered quite so far until she saw a familiar face. "Melita!" she called with a friendly smile, waving to the woman and her companions. They weren't exactly friends - more like acquaintances - but they were friendly enough that Soh thought it might be nice to stop and chat for a while. "Hi! How are you?"

Green eyes and a head of gold
I'll give you two dollars if you save my soul

Sohalia

you must burn brighter than ever

As Sila placed the cut-out near the window, Melita nodded. “Yeah, just there!” The dragon stuck it against the frame, and for a moment, they all stepped back, surveying the positioning. “Looks good to me!” The companion flew down, and they started to do a rotation of sorts, with the Honeybee placing sticky substances on the back, Sila going upwards, while she and Fangorn orchestrated efforts below.

“This one on the door for sure,” she mentioned to the gourd, who grumbled wholeheartedly, long vines already reaching out for the image of Ludo playing a fiddle. She was interrupted from any further thoughts by a voice – recognizable, but not someone she’d heard in a quite a long time.

Head turning over her shoulder, her eyes widened briefly to see Sohalia of all people. “Oh, hey!” A thousand questions rumbled through her mind; like, where the hell have you been and why were there so many damned rumors about you, or bruh shouldn’t you be taking Stormbreak back. But call it maturity, growth, or simply learning to be slightly better, she voiced none of them. And given that Sohalia had never been someone she needed to be an outright shit too, she presided in kindness. “I’m all right. How are you?”

Melita

Got no plans and I've got no money
Gone are the days of milk and honey

Fortunately, Melita greeted her kindly, and Soh let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. It wasn't that she and the Honeybee were particularly close, but she still hated the idea of disappointing people, of returning from her absence to find that she had fallen from grace. She had enough self-loathing; she didn't need others to contribute to it, too.

"I'm okay," she said, because she and Melita were not close enough for I was kidnapped by the family and ran away and I was sick for seasons because of the Void but I'm not infected, thank the gods and I'm not strong enough to take Stormbreak back so I don't know what I'm doing with my life. Instead, she skipped over the intricate details of her life, which had thoroughly gone off the rails, and turned her attention to Melita's home. "What are you doing?"

Green eyes and a head of gold
I'll give you two dollars if you save my soul

Sohalia

you must burn brighter than ever

Perhaps their lack of closeness sheltered and saved Sohalia from Melita’s wrath; but most of the time her umbrage and outrage were reserved for those who truly deserved it. And they’d know, immediately, based on her reactions. Not one to sugarcoat anything, the Honeybee was all boldness and daring on most days, and so her predilection to honor some foreign concept of amiability was unique. Surprising, maybe. But Sohalia had never conjured any of that unrelenting bitterness or rancor, so perhaps they were both free to enjoy and relish, rather than mourn and blister.

They could skip over multitudes of what the Honeybee had been doing in Sohalia’s absence too – namely becoming a demigod and subsequently dying – her head tilting as she gestured vaguely towards her house. “Oh, guarding against spirits,” as if it were obvious from the absurd drawings being hastened towards her window frames. “You can help if you want.” She picked up another image, this one of Ludo on a pool floatie, and began to place it near her door.

Melita

Got no plans and I've got no money
Gone are the days of milk and honey

Guarding against spirits seemed to be as reasonable a thing to be doing as anything else, and Soh took this information in stride as she looked between Melita and the companions, who were now placing a sign that looked to be Ludo on a pool floatie. With a soft sound that in a less attractive woman might have been labeled a snort, Sohalia bent to pick up the next image: Ludo playing with a rubber duck. Well, at least the signs were thematically cohesive - even if Soh questioned their efficacy in warding off spirits.

But she wasn't one to work in silence, generally speaking, so as she placed the sign in a window, she glanced back towards Melita with an inquiring smile. "So, what have you been up to?" she asked conversationally, hoping that with Melita, at least, this would be a safe enough topic.

Green eyes and a head of gold
I'll give you two dollars if you save my soul

Sohalia

you must burn brighter than ever

The Honeybee wasn’t certain, initially, about how to quite curate the response. How long had it been since Sohalia was gone? Her face scrunched up for a moment, as she stared over the next image, then shrugged, figured she could go over the more important parts. “Well, Ludo asked me to be their demigod, so I accepted,” and then placed the spirit-warding picture up on the door, adjusting as necessary. She ignored the part where she died, because no use wallowing when she’d done quite enough of that already. Vengeance would be hers eventually.

“And now I do things for uh…chaos, essentially? It said everyone and everything was too serious.” She grinned back at the Attuned, to see if she concurred with the statement, shrugging her shoulders again and liking the askew way the picture bulged from the frame. “What about you?”

Melita

Got no plans and I've got no money
Gone are the days of milk and honey

New of Melita's ascension to demigod-hood brought a smile to Soh's face. "That sounds fascinating," she said. "And probably true." After all, was she not the first to be serious these days, moping around as though she hadn't the slightest idea of what she should do next? And even when she dreamed of what she might do, weren't the topics at hand rather serious in nature? The Family, the Void, Stormbreak... it all coalesced into something decidedly not fun, although she could argue that it was chaotic enough. Maybe Ludo only like the fun kind of chaos. "I don't know much about Ludo, if I'm being honest - I've only seen Frey and Safrin, so far."

As for what she'd been doing... the Luminary wilted slightly as she pasted a picture upon a window. She supposed she had set herself up for that one. But there was no need to be secretive, really, not when she was sure everyone knew she'd disappeared for a time. "Long story short, I was kidnapped by the Family and it took me a while to come back. Lately I've been wandering a bit, I suppose. Mostly in Torchline, but sometimes I go out into the Wilds."

Green eyes and a head of gold
I'll give you two dollars if you save my soul

Sohalia

you must burn brighter than ever

Perhaps it depended on what people determined as ‘fun’ bits of chaos. Melita quite enjoyed the mercurial, bedlam, mayhem aspects of the entire charade; from water balloon fights, to silly, inane acts where no one was especially harmed – just alarmed. Surprised. Given over to folly rather than the endless barrages of angst they could all fall into. “Ludo’s great,” she managed while still trying to put up the image, then snagging a more sticky substance to ensure it stayed on the frame.

Explanations of Sohalia’s disappearance sounded grim as fuck, and had the Honeybee’s nose wrinkling, mind reeling on wondering why she’d even asked. “Sorry, woof. That sounds like ass.” Having no desire to inquire further on that hellish aspect, weren’t they supposed to not be so serious, she opted for a lighter venue. “What have you seen in the Wilds?”

Melita

Got no plans and I've got no money
Gone are the days of milk and honey

In truth, Sohalia and Melita had very little in common. Soh wasn't one for chaos and bedlam, preferring order and calm to run her life. But perhaps that was why she admired the other woman - she didn't seem to care what anyone thought of her, living by the beat of her own drum and embracing the task set to her by the gods.

Her explanation was brief, but it was enough to have Melita's sympathy. Soh snorted at the other woman's assessment. "It was," she said, but offered no more on the subject. What to do about Stormbreak's leadership was something she would have to figure out on her own - if, indeed, there was anything that she could do at all. As much as she longed to take back her home, she was under no illusion that if she tried, she would likely die, and she wasn't quite ready to meet Mort yet.

"I've been spending most of my time in Frey's Breath when I'm not in Torchline," she admitted. "And a little in the Greatwood, once it was cleansed."

Green eyes and a head of gold
I'll give you two dollars if you save my soul

Sohalia

you must burn brighter than ever

They likely could’ve shared their implicit and inherent bend of trauma; but given how little Melita focused on her emotions (other than rage and any other mercurial bounty), it probably wouldn’t have gone well. But she’d grown into her demigodhood by death and determination, grateful for another opportunity and eager to take hold of it with both hands raised into fists. Better to have tried than completely given in.

Stepping back to survey the Ludo image no longer wobbling, but definitely off-center, she shrugged and moved on, snagging at the next picture – the raggedy herald and a pile of donuts. “Oh Frey’s Breath. I’ve gone back and forth there too.” Sighing, and brushing a crimson lock out of her face, she shrugged. “Didn’t find shit, of course,” otherwise everyone would’ve known because she would’ve been bragging about it. “Gods, I haven’t been to the Greatwood in ages. The Fae were always uptight assholes. Anything new there?”

Melita

Got no plans and I've got no money
Gone are the days of milk and honey

Sohalia knew that she wasn't the only one traveling back and forth to Frey's Breath. Many of Caido's citizens were obsessively looking for the special flowers known to cleanse the Void. Of course, the flowers were exceedingly rare, and hearing of Melita's failure softened the blow of her own.

As for the Greatwood... "I spent a lot of time there, back before I moved to Stormbreak," Soh said. "It's... wilder, now. The Void is mostly gone, but so is most civilization. The Fae are still there, of course, but I'm not sure what happened to everyone else who lived there at one time or another. I suppose they must have moved on." Like she had - whether by choice or by necessity, now that, she couldn't say.

Green eyes and a head of gold
I'll give you two dollars if you save my soul

Sohalia

you must burn brighter than ever

Little did Melita know eventually, towards the end of the season, she’d be doing exactly that, but given the present, she only wrinkled her nose, glanced upwards at the empty window space, and listened. She wondered if the Fae liked the more wilder aspects; untamed and vast, with nothing to tether and tie it down to except themselves; all like thorns and brambles, hidden in the web of plants and timber. Perhaps one day she’d ask Ludo why it was so partial to the landscape. “Given everything that happened to it, I can’t say I blame them.” Living amidst a world that would only annihilate you in the crossfire…didn’t seem like the Honeybee’s favorite pastime. Hence why she’d gotten away from the Hollowed Grounds when she could. And Sohalia, in all her time, hadn't stayed either.

Pausing, she tilted her head, calling Sila back down. “I can get my companion to take this up there, but not sure how she’s gonna make it stay,” pointing to the window on the second floor – though maybe if she did some adjusting and shimmying, she could run up the stairs, launch out the frame without too much issue, not fall, and place it there. Shrugging, and not certain how to make the plan better, she started to place more sticky portions on the back.

Melita

Got no plans and I've got no money
Gone are the days of milk and honey

"No," Sohalia murmured as she toyed with a depiction of Ludo adding marshmallows to what was presumably a cup of hot cocoa. "Nor do I." After all, she herself had elected to move on, and that had been before the invasion of the Void. Now she was rather glad that she'd chosen Stormbreak to call home, even if it was currently under the control of the Family. At least she could still go there, if she chose, and not turn purple.

"I can shift into an owl and take it up there?" Soh suggested as she pasted her own figure onto a door. Perhaps, between the two of them and with some sticky substance on the back, she and Sila could figure out how to make the thing stay in place. Maybe if she just... smacked it really hard with her wings...

Green eyes and a head of gold
I'll give you two dollars if you save my soul

Sohalia