What do you get when two ruthless assassins raise their daughter travelling through the wildest reaches of Caido? Take one look at Theea and you'll get a pretty good idea. Cheerful and tenacious in equal measure, and curious beyond all else, she began her journey on a mission to find those her mother once called family. And find them she did, soon rubbing elbows with demigods, leaders and even ghosts from the past. Her determination is resolute, her thirst for knowledge unmatched. We can't wait to see where her next adventure takes her!
Congratulations, Theea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
"Indeed," Hadama rumbled, emerald eyes bright and a smile breaking his serene facade. He shifted as he moved forward, the tail curling under him splitting apart into two muscular legs clad in swim trunks that were a sober navy beneath the pattern of bright yellow pineapples.
Not that Flora couldn't defend against him taking advantage of the water; he had seen just how capable she was in a fight on several occasions and knew better than to underestimate her. But there was no reason not to take the opportunity to train himself as well.
He stood up with a splash but paused to steady himself before aiming a careful kick at Flora's knee. His balance was not very good with the unfamiliar attack, though oddly the presence of the water seemed to help him rather than hindering. It was certainly preferable to trying to kick someone on land, where if he fell he would hit the ground much harder without the water to cushion him.
Sunlit Shadows (mastered) | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 60ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Deadly Recall | Can recall 1, or 2, or 3 of her feathers to her hand, within a range of 30ft. Recalled daggers do 1/2 damage when recalled.
Rescue (Mastered) | Remi can bring a fellow Old God demigod to his side in a time of crisis for three concurrent posts. One use per thread. If the summoned demigod also has mastered this ability, they can remain until the end of the thread.
Offering Hadama a wry smile, she could only assume he'd just shifted beneath the water given the slight change in his posture. It was difficult to tell, though, given how quickly the springs faded to an opaque blue, and it was entirely possible that he was only changing his stance to try and fuck with her. He was tricksy like that.
Only able to predict he was going to move because of how much the water slowed down both of their movements, as he went to strike, the queen threw herself backward in a sort of death-defying stunt that wouldn't have worked on dry land unless she was in the Matrix. The water cushioned her landing, and though she felt Hadama's toes brush against her own (ewwwwwwwwwwww), for the most part, the only damage done was to the couple nearby to whom she'd sent a wave of water.
"Come on!" Laughing, Flora straightens. "Is that all you got?"
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
Slow and methodical was a good approach to paperwork, but a bad approach to sparring, as it turned out. His strike mostly missed, barely grazing his co-ruler, but at least he didn't lose his balance in the attempt. Flora bounced up again and the Tidebreaker inclined his head in acknowledgment of her gaining the point on that exchange. His lips twitched towards a smile at her taunting, and he began to shift slowly to her left, pacing through the water at a sedate pace.
"I will try harder," he promised solemnly, eyes twinkling as he paused to give her a partial bow.
And splashed water at her again with both hands, this time with better timing of his kick to be screened by the splash. He managed to get his leg up higher this time, aiming a rough approximation of a side kick if you squinted real hard and didn't worry about what angle his toes pointed at her left hip.
Sunlit Shadows (mastered) | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 60ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Deadly Recall | Can recall 1, or 2, or 3 of her feathers to her hand, within a range of 30ft. Recalled daggers do 1/2 damage when recalled.
Rescue (Mastered) | Remi can bring a fellow Old God demigod to his side in a time of crisis for three concurrent posts. One use per thread. If the summoned demigod also has mastered this ability, they can remain until the end of the thread.
"I'd expect nothing less." Flora trills back, the echo of her voice warping off the water's surface before bouncing to the cavern walls above them.
As she's splashed, her hands instinctively go to cover her face. Though she'd worn less makeup than usual and her mascara was waterproof there were some things too ingrained to simply be forgotten. So, as her fingers shielded her eyes she felt the brush of toes against her hip; of all the men in Caido she'd bet that Hadama's hygiene was second to none, but still. TOES? It was probably better than feeling the slimy brush of his fins, but come on.
Squealing with horror as much as amusement, the queen threw herself to the side, grasping at the water like some solid surface she could simply tug herself along to try and evade the Tidebreaker. "EWWWWUHHHH." She cried out once she'd finally put some distance between them before shooting Hadama a playfully reproachful look.
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
Aiming for her makeup was not very cricket of him, but Flora had known that he would fight dirty. His attempt to level the playing field by fighting with the handicap of only using his legs was revealed to have an unexpected benefit, doing 1.5x psychic damage to the Doubletake any time he made contact with his toes.
Which was a decidedly odd feeling, and he wasn't entirely sure why anyone would want to use their feet as weapons, but he was not about to argue with his current success.
Their current exchange threatened to throw him off balance as he made contact and he hopped back, arms extending in an instinctive bid to prevent himself from going down. It gave his co-ruler plenty of time to make her escape as he managed to get his weight distributed on both feet again, and he reached up to smooth his hair back with the air of a cat pretending nothing embarrassing had just happened.
"Indeed," he agreed serenely, a grin slowly widening at Flora's theatrics. He considered their distance for a moment before beginning to stride towards her, slowed by the water but moving with a steady inexorability. "Is that enough of a defense for your quest?" He did not think that it was, and he attempted another kick. This one was not quite as clean as his planted foot shifted on the uneven rock of the hot spring floor, and his kick was more of an unsteady roundhouse that came around at thigh-height, only a short distance above the water.
Sunlit Shadows (mastered) | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 60ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Deadly Recall | Can recall 1, or 2, or 3 of her feathers to her hand, within a range of 30ft. Recalled daggers do 1/2 damage when recalled.
Rescue (Mastered) | Remi can bring a fellow Old God demigod to his side in a time of crisis for three concurrent posts. One use per thread. If the summoned demigod also has mastered this ability, they can remain until the end of the thread.
10-18-2024, 11:04 AM (This post was last modified: 10-18-2024, 11:05 AM by Flora.)
flora
That Hadama had nearly a foot on the queen (as opposed to the toes he'd just had on her as well), meant that his reach within and above the water far exceeded hers. Whatever competency she might have had as a swimmer was basically useless when compared to someone who'd been born in it, leaving her quite significantly disadvantaged. Had this been the sort of spar that was properly meant to target some weakness of hers rather than a quest component, Flora might have taken it a touch more seriously; might have found a way to gain an advantage over her co-ruler. Instead, as Hadama combed his fingers through his hair, the queen merely grinned smugly at him.
"Oh, had you started attacking? I thought you were just showing me that you were in need of a pedicure." She trilled, stepping slowly backward.
As he kicked out, this time Flora reached for his leg. Certainly it was the first time that she'd ever groped for him, but in so doing she aimed to try and stall his movement, before using his own strength against him by lifting her feet to try and push herself off against his stomach.
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
"It is... hm. Unfortunate that no one has set up a business for them here," he lamented. Where better to enjoy a mani-pedi than during a day at a hot spring? Alas, the Climb's lack of amenities meant that he would have to wait until they were back in Torchline to have a nail day. Though at the moment the one experiencing the greatest inconvenience from it was Flora, as she dealt with his unpolished toes at close range.
This time, however, things went a little differently. Which great scholar of Caido history had once said that the best defense was a good offense?
The former Mer was easily caught, a brief look of surprise in green eyes as he experienced what he had once put Maea through with a similar maneuver. He was not given much time to contemplate the memory, however, as Flora kicked out in return. The demigod went backwards in a mighty splash, his laughter at being caught off guard cut off abruptly by the water.
But he he did not pop back up immediately.
Instead he twisted beneath the surface of the shallow springs to swim swiftly behind the Doubletake. His dark shape flickered through the water, half-hidden in the steam as he stayed submerged until he could try to sweep both of her feet out from under her with an arc of his leg that lacked leverage but still had raw muscle behind it.
Sunlit Shadows (mastered) | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 60ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Deadly Recall | Can recall 1, or 2, or 3 of her feathers to her hand, within a range of 30ft. Recalled daggers do 1/2 damage when recalled.
Rescue (Mastered) | Remi can bring a fellow Old God demigod to his side in a time of crisis for three concurrent posts. One use per thread. If the summoned demigod also has mastered this ability, they can remain until the end of the thread.
"Oh, so you've already checked, huh?" Flora teases brightly; how else would Hadama know that there wasn't a place to get a pedicure within the Climb if he hadn't? "Certainly seems like the sort of thing the ancients might set up." A nails and horns boutique, maybe. If nothing else, it was worth mentioning to Danta given how much time his lot spent here.
Surfacing with a triumphant grin on her face, Flora blinks a few times to clear the water from her eyes, expecting to see the Tidebreaker either smirking or scowling at her. Seeing nothing has fingers of adrenaline tickling up her spine, and it was a long few seconds before she literally went head over heels back into the water. Spluttering and splashing, her legs floundering around her, Flora did the one thing she could think to do.
Stretching out her arms and opening her eyes beneath the warm water, the queen tried to isolate any part of the Tidebreaker that she could see. Her aim was to latch onto him, fixing him in as uncomfortable a hug as she could possibly manager to deter him from any future attacks.
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
"Of course," he confirmed with all due solemnity for such an important line of investigation. They were certainly spending enough time in Frey's Breath these days! There had been plenty of time to take note of its existing amenities - or lack thereof, if blood baths were not to one's personal tastes. And: "Indeed." Though the Ancient he knew best had not been a hedonist of the same stripe as, say Danta was.
But the time of conversation ended in kicks and catches and splashes that turned into blessings in disguise. Blessings if one was inclined to do a little swimming, at least. And Hadama might not have been particularly skilled in leg-based combat but he was not about to pass up the opportunity to make a sneak attack on his Queen.
Who was entirely capable of some sneakery of her own, as it turned out. He had not moved far enough away to escape her grasp and before he could make his escape she had latched onto him with all the strength of an octopode grappling its prey. He blinked underwater a few times, bemused and quite still as he tried to decide how to proceed as a young woman pressed her face into his left ribs and threatened to squeeze the air right out of him. It was the reminder that they both needed to breathe air in these shapes that propelled him the short distance up to the surface, tapping her shoulder gently. "I yield," he rumbled, laughter roughening his voice. "Mercy!"
