From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
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!
Sam watched Rexanna try to follow his example by pinning down the vines and smiled in spite of everything for a split second, glad he'd apparently come up with a good idea. Also, he was glad to see her still going, after the hit; which had seemed hard. The fluid on her cheek and the fangs in her mouth were a surprise though - was she not Abandoned?
But that was not the focus right now. In response to Remi's offer he nearly accepted, thinking being a lion or able to move the earth would be useful, but then he remembered: he'd already drunk recently. "Maybe later, thank you - but I have something I can use already."
It was clear this was a beast much greater than themselves, so it made sense to get help from a better being, didn't it...? And the Accepted could call on the Gods. He wasn't sure if that went for himself, but he had to try.
Feeling like it might help for some reason, he lifted his hand up in the air (still invisible, so thankfully his teammates did not have to see this) and thought as hard as he could to bring The Voice to him, hoping he could channel her. Please, help me with this, Voice!
Never far away, always listening. These are the promises she has made to her bright ones.
Far from her shrine, still the Voice's reach is vast. Through the air comes a current of electricity. It dazzles as it races, a bolt headed straight for the gourd. Rudimentary as this punking might be, there is a mind somewhere within. A mind that can be slowed and stuttered, stopped and overtaken. It is a process the Voice knows well, and like an insidious wave of electricity, she aims to seem into the mind of the creature, killing it from the inside out.
The heat from the bolt is just a bonus.
So brave, my bright one. And so very strong. But you should be more careful with your things... Her voice, for Sam alone, is adoring and maternal. A smile in her words as through the darkness, Sam's cube returns to him.
It all rather kicks off at that point. Vines fly, daggers fly, arrows fly, and ouch! Whilst the blades Rexanna has conjured fall short of their intended marks (it's alright, flailing ropy plant things are difficult to hit), the arrow manages to stick it. With a shriek of surprise and upset, like one who has pricked their finger upon a thorn, the vine flails a bit.
Then Remi takes control of it, and smacks it along the fleshy bits. Wow. Another shriek - this one outraged.
The other two vines whip out angrily - one thwacks against Remi's earthen shield, but the second catches Melita. Catches and GRABS her. The honeybee girl will find herself hoisted, lifted high up from the ground so it can look her in the eyes and judge how tasty she might be.
Meanwhile, Fangorn is a lucky, lucky pumpkin! He finds the little cube (good boy!) only for it to whip away from him in an instant, taken back to its owner by godlike power.
That's when things really get interesting. Ink black static seems to dance across the punking and it roars its dismay, seeming to wither a little under the attack (and flecking Melita with pumpkin guts spittle at the same time).
Rexanna MISSES.
Melita HITS.
Remi SUCCEEDS in making the punking hit itself.
Samuel SUCCEEDS in chanelling the Voice, and it HITS an attack on the punking!
The punking attacks Remi and Melita. It MISSES Remi but HITS Melita, grabbing her and lifting her high into the air!
She sends her blades and hears Remi speak to an invisible Sam, the person she assumes must be ascended from the way he speaks, and Rexanna watches while her blades soar and miss. “Fucks sake.” She hisses under her breath, diving toward Remi as he attacks(deflects?) the attack. And she listens while the Punking shrieks in its anger, having been hit both by itself and Melita’s arrow. Head shifting to Remi, she calls over the roar of the pumpkin.
“Long story, talk later, I might take you up on that offer.” She calls to him, before she focuses again on the pumpkin. She watches with a small amount of horror and surprise as Melita is grabbed, lifted, and she grins her teeth. Perhaps during its flails something will land, and she aims again with her hands and her fireworks. The magic shoots out, aiming for the vines that hold Melita of the Punking this time — and deep down she prays to all the old gods and the new gods that something will land and not harm the fiery haired girl.
Rex calls out and moves closer to Remi before aiming her last large firework at the Punking, aiming for the vines that hold Melita!
A range of emotions blistered through her: a gleeful, proud satisfaction as her arrow hits its intended target, as some measure of precision managed to grab hold of the vines, as Remi’s incantations appeared to control the gourd sovereign for a time.
But so content in those single, solitary seconds, that she missed the vine whipping towards her. It grabbed and snaked around her waist, lifting her into the air (don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream, they’ll hear you, they’ll find you echoed through her form, her mind; like a vice, like a noose, like days spent hiding from monsters). Only a muffled series of gasps managed to collide through her chest, billowing out into the frosty air – surprise, shock, awe, and fear. It’s the latter that fueled her, pushed her, irked her, rankled her, inspired her. Her arms and legs kicked and flailed at the vine, punching, launching, assailing as best she could, incapable of reaching for her bow now on the ground, on the useless quiver bouncing along her back.
This was so stupid. So dumb.
And she felt incredibly useless, maneuvering around the air, about to be eaten, about to be consumed, managing to live her life without being swallowed or broken apart until now - within the range of a frickin’ vampire pumpkin. After she’d saved her own –
Fangorn was below, screeching, howling, and growling, at the king. She couldn’t understand, too lost in her own muddled seconds and snippets, thinking she heard down, let down, down, but it could’ve been her wishful thinking.
Ludo, she called, deep in her stupefied, enraged self, with her fists flying and her mercurial endeavors blistering. What do I do?
--
Melita is picked up by the pumpkin king, and flails around trying to hit it. She channels Ludo. Fangorn growls at the gourd, hoping he’ll put her down.
Swallowing down an uncertain reply at Rex's acceptance of his offer (thoughts of Isla blurred the back of his mind, Isla as a woman, Isla the first night she'd been ascended, what had happened before they'd fallen asleep), the alchemist could only nod distantly.
The dampened and near-percussive sound of a vine hitting against his shield makes the alchemist bristle and clench his teeth together. With a wry glance towards Melita, Remi looks at her quiver of arrows, thinking that fire might be a nice addition when suddenly she is swept away from him. Hissing in a startled breath and reaching out for her far, far too late, all he can do is trying and shout her name, "MELIT—" before the remainder of the word is swallowed up by a horrific row of jagged shark-like teeth.
Remi has shifted before, and while his lion form is larger than his human body, and his hawk a good deal smaller, the change that overtakes him is unlike anything he has ever experienced. His bones seem to separate and rearrange themselves as they grow to shocking proportions, wings fanning from his back as claws larger than his hand had once been sprout from massive paws. A tail, not leonine now but bifurcated and tipped with poisonous barbs curls upwards. None of it matters though, what he is doesn't matter. His gaze is focused solely on Melita.
Lunging into the air, Remi's wings powerfully press to his sides forcing him upwards. Not the size of a house like the punking, but near enough to the side of a car, all Remi needs to be is large enough to re-take the honeybee from the gourd's grasp.
With outstretched talons and rows of shark-like teeth aimed for the vine holding Melita, Remi attempts to slash the vine off and carry Melita to safety. Simultaneously his tail flicks downwards, hoping raining poisonous barbs onto the creature.
Remi manticores out and tries to rescue Melita by biting/slashing off the vine holding her, and throwing poisonous barbs at the punking.
find me on the rocks when you break down
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Well. His cube might have missed the mark, but Samuel was very happy indeed to see his Goddess come to help with crackling lightning, truly the most powerful thing he'd ever been able to bring forth.
And she even brought back his cube! Sam smiled. "Thank you." He said to his Goddess.
Then once again everything kicked into motion. Melita was taken up into the air (Sam watched in horror, not knowing what he could do) then Remi became... he stared, and after a moment decided it was not the time to work this out.
Throwing the cube clearly hadn't worked, but he still felt pinning the pumpkin down was a good idea. Invisible he ran towards it, hoping to simply place it instead.
---
Sam attempts to run and dodge close enough to the pumpkin to get the cube on a vine and pin it to one spot!
Ludo is simply there before Melita as she calls to it, and time seems to bend. To slow. To warp around them, so that the firework Rexanna aimed at the vine bends around them and towards the fleshy part of the punking instead. "That is a very big pumpkin, isn't it? Oh, it is playing with you! What should you do? Well. You could always play back?"
Tendrils of fabric snake out, teasing away the vines that hold Melita and lifting her safely out of its reach. That done, Ludo soars upwards - just as Remi makes his attack, also allowing him to aim for the punking directly.
"This is not right," Ludo says with a shake of its head. "Bad pumpkin." As it descends and sets Melita nicely upon the ground, the world snaps back into motion, and before them patches of the punking begin to wither and to die.
LUDO
Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own
One minute its prey is there, the next it isn't. The vine that holds Melita... no longer does? and it looks around, the tendril opening and closing in a loop as if to find her. (In its peripheral vision, a firework whizzes by). Then it glances up, only to be met by teeth and claws and poisonous barbs - in short, a face full of manticore. It shrieks long and loud, a sound that drowns out Fangorn's own outrage, and when it can finally focus again, something is pinning down one of its vines, and its prey is on the ground once more.
The other two vines snap at her - one catches her, but the other flails a little wide, as if afraid of the raggedy thing that stands nearby.
And it is right to be afraid, for quite suddenly the vines holding it aloft seem to falter and weaken; its flesh dimples and sags, and it lets out a roar of confusion as its life force is drained away.
Rexanna MISSES.
Ludo sucks the punkin's life force out!
Remi HITS.
Samuel succeeds in pinning down one of the vines!
The punkin attacks Melita and HITS with one of its vines!
Everything happens so suddenly, one moment Melita is being grabbed by the Punking. The next, Remi shifts into something not quite lion, not quite bird, but a combination of so many things that she’s distracted momentarily with a huff of surprise. And as if it couldn’t get more strange, someone appears to rescue Melita and Rexanna’s gaze flits to the god as they place Melita on the ground and the Punking begins to wither and weaken. She doesn’t notice the cube on the vines, but Rexanna grits her teeth regardless as she runs toward Melita right as a vine snaps down for her.
She focuses on trying to block anything incoming that might focus on Melita once more. Her brows furrow and she searches her magic for more fireworks – only to find it empty. Huffing, she doesn’t know what to do next. Fumbling through the different channels (she doesn’t know how much her Ascended body can handle, but aside from no pain, the fluid that drips down her cheek begins to slow) she finds her creation magic again. This time, she creates something akin to flint.
She uses it to spark a fire and searches for her flame magic (weak as it is) and runs toward the Punking, creating the flame as a small bomb that she aims at the base of the pumpkin, cursing everything under her breath that something has to land. Either that or she’s incredibly unlucky.
Rex runs to try and protect Melita for any other attacks before running toward the Punking and sends out a fireball toward the base of the Punking
Fear was replaced with gratitude – because all of a sudden they were trying to reach her, Remi transforming into something she couldn’t quite understand, Rexanna with her fireworks, and the girl refused to give up or give in, beating her fists, until suddenly…everything seemed to slow down.
She was confused and muddled for a moment, until a familiar set of rags appeared nearby; a gasp uttered even though she’d called for the god (and never believing she’d be good enough for another response), speaking as if everything was a game. Maybe it was. Her gratefulness and appreciation was alive and effervescent on her face, a bright, illustrious grin, “Thank you, thank you,” her voice was exuberance and wonder, as vines lifted away, as they soared upwards, as she was placed on the ground, as the pumpkin began to wither and decay. Before they disappear, before she can regret it, her hands found the rags and strived to embrace, a quick hug. “You’re amazing!”
And then the world returned back to normal, and a vine blasted against her again. She stumbled, nearly falling, a hiss on her breath, remembering just where she was, the repose and sanctuary gone as swiftly as it’d arrived.
Fangorn growled at her side, her bow in his mouth. She didn’t cry; but gods, she wanted to. “You’re amazing too,” she uttered, everything happening too fast to reach down and stroke his head, to scratch behind his stem. Then the gourd, perhaps realizing where its loyalties laid, shuffled out of the way.
She turned to Remi instead, and she could only say so many acknowledgements on the battlefield, reaching towards him, an idea forming in her mind at his blistering, bewildering form. “Can I?” She asked, indicating his back, her bow in her arms again, an arrow from her quiver already notched, climbing aboard his massive frame, and aiming for the pumpkin sovereign’s eyes again.
--
Melita tries to hug Ludo, and climbs aboard Remi to go shoot arrows into the pumpkin gourd’s eyes!
The sight of Ludo makes the alchemist go cold, fear and suspicion blazing in eyes that are now the size of dinner plates. He watches, follows as Ludo leads Melita back to (presumably) the safety of the ground. He holds back the roar that builds in the back of his throat, his lip in a half snarl revealing too many rows of shark-like teeth.
The rags disappear and the punkin appears to be weakened, but still, Remi is wary. Shifting back with long-practiced ease (though the transformation still catches him slightly off guard), the boyish alchemist flashed Melita a grin, reaching out to touch her quiver of arrows. Enchanting them with fire, he nods with a mischievous smile. "Hold on to whatever you can." He warns/offers, focusing on this strange new shift and manifesting the hulking form around himself.
Waiting for the honeybee to perch herself on his back, the manticore lifts off again into the air. Knowing roughly what an appropriate distance is for archery based on his time spent with Vai, the manticore does a slow fly-by around the punking, pausing for just a moment before its eyes. As Melita shoots, so too do the barbs from Remi's tail also let fly. Roaring loudly with a sound that makes his own bones reverberate, he hopes the punking will return the sound and in doing so, will find the poisonous barbs of Remi's tail lodged in the back of its throat.
Remi flies back to make sure Melita is okay and enchants her arrows with fire! They fly to the gourd and Remi tries to make the punking open its mouth by roaring so that it eats his poisonous tail-barbs.
find me on the rocks when you break down
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Sam was pleased to see his plan worked, but once his cube was down...he didn't have much else he could do. He did not habitually carry weapons, had no magical powers of his own, the only object of any use he had was the cube.
He took a step back from the vines and watched Remi soar into the air with Melita too, desperately searching his mind for something he could do. He didn't want to be useless, but he could hardly ask Remi to help him when he was flying up in the air. Rex, if she was Ascended, couldn't be bitten for any advantage either...
Well, he could at least help out, even if he had no way to attack himself. Seeing Rexanna run towards the beast with her fire, he joined her, ready to push or hit any vines that might try to attack her out of the way, hoping the catch the punking by surprise with his invisibility.
----
Sam runs invisible by Rexanna, ready to whack off any vines that might try to get her!
The two vines not tethered down by a ffffffffucking cube lash out at Melita again, determined to get the honeybee girl as a snack. Luckily, she dodges out of the way of one... and the other strikes an odd, invisible force. Strange, that.
Then all hell breaks loose. Yay!
Fire is effective. Fire singes, burns, melts, and Rexanna's fireball thocks into the underbelly of the punking, causing it to jar and topple...
And then topple the other way, as claws and tails and arrows buffet its front. The vines that hold it up have been withered by Ludo as well, and it just can't quite remain airborne.
The punking plummets - right atop Rexanna, who had bravely run towards it.
There is almost a crunching sound (is it the gourd? is it Rexanna?) as orange flesh splits and black comes pouring out, soaking the ground where the dirt drinks it up thirstily. All is quiet. Rexanna and Samuel are nowhere to be seen. But the vines still weakly lash out at the group.
Rexanna HITS.
Melita HITS.
Remi HITS.
Sam dodges one of the vines, but is hit by the other.
The punking topples to the ground - Remi and Melita are airborne, but Samuel and Rexanna are unable to get out of its way - both are now trapped beneath it.
