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!
03-20-2025, 05:04 AM (This post was last modified: 03-20-2025, 01:46 PM by Maea.)
// now I've been crazy, couldn't you tell? //
No, it just wouldn't do. No matter how charming she found the vines wrapping around the porch, their growing tendrils were in danger of compromising the integrity of the structure. Perhaps it wouldn't do anything this summer, or even the next, but sooner or later the stairs would grow rickety, the porch unsafe and before long even roof and windows might be in danger.
The white gore crow flitted about, inspecting the extent of the incursion of the vines, and realized it would take some serious effort to clear out the vegetation. With only herself it would take weeks, so after some thinking she made a note to pin on the village noticeboard requesting aid and set about gathering and borrowing equipment.
It was a beautiful building, the Guardian's Treehouse. Once the seat of the government of the region, it had been crafted with care in the crown of a sturdy tree and possessed a homey, well loved quality about it that had captivated her from the moment she saw it. With the open floor plan on the first floor and a small room on the second, it was more than enough space for one person, and Maea was determined to honor her promise to Remi to care for it. It was a shame the vines had to go; they added a touch of whimsy and charm that she really liked. But perhaps it was an aesthetic she could recreate with less damaging plants?
Standing on the ground beneath her new home, Maea allowed herself to daydream about all the ways she could make the house her own, while waiting to see if any helpers would show up. Bright with sunlight and drifting clouds, it was a good day for outdoor work, and shelooked forward to getting started.
This is a personal quest to clear vines off the Guardian's Treehouse!
Open, No Post order.
Having lingered a little longer in the Greatwood, Elizabeth figured she'd help around the village. When she heard of Maea's plans for her treehouse, she was more than happy to encourage the settling of her new home. If that meant some manual labor for a few hours, she was more than happy to assist!
Elizabeth stopped by a small bakery on her way, picking up tea, coffee, pastries, and jams to fuel the work to come. When she arrived, her smile was warm and eager to assist. "Hi Maea. Did anyone else mention if they were coming to help?" Her arms reached out to offer the goodies she carried, her usual professional attire exchanged for working clothes worn with travel.
It’s a bright and sunny day when they gather to remove vines from Maea’s home, a task that Lyra has welcomed with open arms. Without children back home to return to, she has decided to stay in the Greatwood for a time, if only to get a taste of the adventure she’s never had. Besides, the region is beautiful, full of nature that she can’t get back in Torchline. There’s something magical and mysterious about the forest and the way its paths always change, the way she always ends up somewhere completely different from where she started.
She turns up to Maea’s house in work pants and a brightly colored shirt that she doesn’t mind getting dirty. There’s already someone else there, and she greets the pair with a friendly smile. ”Hi, Maea!” she says, then turns to the stranger. ”Hey, I’m Lyra. Nice to meet you…?” Once introductions are made, she turns to Maea to wait for further instruction.
Turning to greet the first volunteer, Maea brightened at the sight of Elizabeth. "Hi! Oh, thanks, you shouldn't have." She accepted the food and made sure to put it safely away where it wouldn't get in the way or accidentally stepped on. "Mh, not outright, but I think I saw someone... Oh, right. Hello Lyra!" Pleased to see them both, Maea introduced them to one another, and once the pleasantries were sufficiently taken care of, she turned to the ladies with an eager grin.
"So, I was gifted this house rather unexpectedly, and it needs some care. See those vines wrapping around the stairs and the porch? They're very pretty and very unhealthy for the house. I gathered up some gardening tools," she said, gesturing at a pile of diverse sharp-edged tools in a crate by the bottom of the stairs leading up to the house, "and I need your help in removing as much as we can manage. Then, once we're done, we'll gather up the debris and burn it so the vines don't take root anywhere else they shouldn't be." They had their place in nature and she'd happily have left them to their own devices, if it weren't for the structural hazard they posed. Let them thrive outside the Village; within its borders, she demanded at least a degree of order.
--------
Pick a tool and get started! One person to clear off vines from the stairs, and two from the porch. Maea will pick whatever is left.
Maea
// I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell //
bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones.
You've encountered the OG random event! This allows you to skip one levelling requirement with the character in this thread. (Unfortunately does not count for characters over level 10, how sad.)
"Hi Lyra! Pleasure to meet you. I'm Elizabeth, but feel free to shorten it however you like." She gave a warm smile that was welcoming and happy to work with a pair of capable women. Pointing out the food and beverages she'd brought, she added, "And feel free to help yourself to anything."
Her eyes looked to the work that awaited them. "I can start on one end of the porch if someone else wants to start on the other." Grabbing a pair of hand cutters, she moved up the stairs to the porch. She used her magic to pull at stray vines, loosening the ones she could and clipping the ones she couldn't.
Elizabeth uses the tools and her telekinesis to remove vines from the porch.
Telekinesis: Can move medium objects, in a 30ft radius
Type: Grey | Rank: Upgraded
Lyra glances at Elizabeth's food and drink with a sheepish smile; she should have thought to bring something to share. It is a kind gesture, and Lyra rapidly files Elizabeth's name and face away as a helpful stranger, perhaps one she would like to get to know better.
Maea describes their task, and Lyra lifts her gaze to find the vines that the Ancient describes. She's not a particularly adept gardener, but even she can tell that, if left untended, the vines will start to cause damage. It's a shame, really, because they lend a certain whimsical something to the house. She wonders if they can save any clippings and plant them somewhere more appropriate - in the yard, perhaps. She's seen lattice archways used for such things before.
For now, though, she grabs a pair of pruning shears and heads towards the opposite end of the house from Elizabeth. "I'll start over here!" Then she begins to tug gently at the vines, shearing off sections and beginning to pile them up nearby.
---
Lyra begins clipping vines on the other end of the house from Elizabeth!
They were off to a good start. Elizabeth made swift progress on the first quarter of the porch, perhaps thanks to get clever use of telekinesis. With all the easy sections done, she could choose to keep working on the rest of her half, or try to tackle the underside of the boardwalk, where thicker vines coiled around beams in hard to reach spots.
Even without magic to air her, Lyra too did good work. Perhaps the prospect of a coffee break helped spur her on, because the first quarter of her end of the porch was soon freed from the vines. Just like Elizabeth however, she too would need to decide whether to tackle the underside first, or untangle the railings first.
Meantime, what had seemed to be a quick task turned out to be anything but for Maea. After carelessly handling the vines she discovered the painful way that blackberry brambles had mixed in with the rest of the creepers, and in her caution to not get tangled up completely, she was forced to slow down, such that only a fifth of the stairwell was cleared.
"Watch out for thorns," she warned the others, stepping away for a moment while sucking on a bleeding knuckle. "If either of you want gloves, they're in the crate over here." Fetching a pair for herself, she went back to work, wielding a handsaw and careful application of fire to combat the thorns.
-‐------
Elizabeth and Lyra clears off a quarter section of the porch, and can choose to tackle the other quarter, or to clear vines off the underside first!
Maea is slowed down by thorny brambles, with only a small portion of the stairs clear to show for her efforts. She offers gloves to the others and gets back to work.
Maea
// I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell //
It was nice to lose herself in the work. Elizabeth tugged and pulled at random vines, snipping away the ones that were too hard to remove. Before long, she'd made a decent amount of progress on the porch, noticing that Lyra was doing the same. If they kept it up, they would be done in no time at all! She smiled to herself, ripping away a weak bit of vine to reveal the wooden structure beneath.
Maea's call had her looking over the railing to the Ancient, noting the way she sucked at her bloody knuckle. "Thanks for the warning. Are you okay?" Her own magic made it easy to avoid touching the thorns, but that didn't mean the others had the same, and she considered offering to help with the other sections to prevent similar injuries.
Elizabeth accepts the gloves and continues clearing another quarter of the porch.
The work is soothing, in its way. Lyra has always been one to enjoy having a job, and even on her little vacation to the Greatwood, she finds it a blessing to be able to help a new friend with a task like this. They make good progress; between she and Elizabeth, they have cleared half the porch before Maea hisses a warning about the thorns. "Thanks!" Lyra calls, pausing in her work to check on the Ancient. Seeing no more damage than a bloody knuckle, Lyra offers a sympathetic smile as she goes to get gloves from the bin.
She pulls them on and returns to work. If she and Elizabeth work hard, they can finish up the porch before helping Maea with the stairwell. Using her pruning shears, the woman works from top to bottom, clipping off reasonably sized bits and pieces of the vines to add to the ever-growing pile.
---
Lyra takes some gloves and continues to work on the porch!
"Yup! Just a scratch," Maea reassured them. It had already stopped bleeding when she pulled the gloves on, though likely it would keep stinging for the rest of the day.
Elizabeth's section of the porch cleaned up easily, and she would find herself the first out of the three women to complete her portion of the work. Lyra on the other hand would be glad for the gloves, because she too would find vicious thorns interspersed with the climbing vines and had to slow down, lest she rip either skin or clothes.
Maea meantime, was better equipped this time and managed to make a decent headway on clearing the stairs. She was little over halfway done when she paused to stretch her back and check on the others.
"How's it going for you?"
----
Maea and Elizabeth is making good progress, but Lyra is having trouble with the blackberry brambles.
Keep clearing those pesky vines! Elizabeth can choose whether to assist Lyra and Maea, or to begin clearing vines from the underside of the porch.
Maea
// I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell //
Snipping the last bit from her half of the vines, Elizabeth wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead. She'd tried to pin her hair back in a ponytail with a small braid for her bangs, but a few strands had fallen down against her cheeks and she paused to tuck them behind her ear. The movement had her noticing that a small part of her loose cream shirt had ripped, but she didn't mind, having already decided to toss the clothing when she was done.
When she glanced up, she saw that Lyra seemed to be struggling with her half of the porch. Without hesitation, she stepped forward to assist with a warm smile. "Here, let me help." She offered her clippers as she said, "I'll pull while you clip." Elizabeth then began manipulating her magic to snag at the blackberry vines, ensuring that neither woman would be assaulted by their vicious thorns. As her hands twisted elegantly to shift the telekinesis, she shouted down to Maea, "We're almost done! You?"
Lyra continues to work, but her progress is slowed by spiny thorns that stick out from the brambles. Even with the gloves, it makes the work somewhat treacherous, and her pace slows to a crawl as she tries to carefully extract the vines without stabbing herself somewhere on accident. She fails only a few times, but her forearms have a few pinpricks of blood on them when she steps back to reconsider her plan of attack.
When Elizabeth appears to help, she smiles at the other woman gratefully. "Perfect, thank you." Between the two of them, she thinks, they'll make quick work of the remaining vines on the porch. As Elizabeth uses magic to pull the vines free, Lyra clips them tidily, and they work together in this way until Maea pauses to check on them.
Between magic and sharp tools, the extra hands and with fika waiting for them, the work was progressing at a good pace. Elizabeth and Lyra made a good team, soon finishing up the last bit of vines clearing they could reach from above.
Likewise, Maea had little trouble with the thorns now that she was aware of them and had the gloves on; about the same time as the others, she too wrapped up the last section of the stairs and tossed the bits of vines and bramble over the railing to make a burn pile of it.
"Same here, almost done! When you're finished up there, let's join up and finish the underside together."
She had only found one ladder, but between that, her excellent control over fire and Liz's telekinesis, they should be able to manage.
-----
All the upper parts of the porch and the stairs are clear of vines. Let's do one last push to clean upp the underside!
Maea
// I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell //
