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!
Black foam flecked a white muzzle as the fox snarled at the otter who evaded his attack. A name echoed in his thoughts, one that was as familiar as his shadow, but the presence of the roses had driven him to a fury so great that even his name was unrecognizable to the blighted bard. All that mattered was the abomination that the otter held to her breast, and the heart that beat behind it, pumping sweet blood through that ever-so-breakable little body.
Enraged he might be, but in pursuit of his goal he could still be clever and aware of his surroundings. As the otter bounced away he saw the shadow of the eagle pass overhead and he dodged, slipping to the side of its attack with agile paws.
Not only dodging, but shifting as his first attack missed its mark and he had two foes to face. As Deimos plunged to strike the snow where the fox had been, Jigano lashed back with a hoof as he launched himself after the otter once more, muscles bunching to pack the kick with enough power to hopefully knock the bird out of the fight if he should strike. He didn't wait around to see if it was successful, the kick almost an afterthought to his charge at Amalia's slender form, determined to trample her and her rose both into a bloody pulp against the snow.
Jigano shifts to a horse and tries to kick Deimos on his way to trample Amalia and her rose!
shed every skin that doesn't fit even if they call you cold-blooded
unhinge your jaw —
She ignores virtually everything, her scarlet ringed eyes focused in on the rose with the gilt thorns, prepared and ready to snatch — except she doesn’t, she isn’t even close, and she cries her frustration until a familiar voice reaches her mentally. And she almost stops, head swinging around toward the eagle as her heart thunders more in her chest.
And suddenly all she thinks is what the fuck.
But Remi manages to distract her enough, again, that she disregards the eagle as Jigano veers toward him, and she wonders how long the Reaper has had the ability to exchange hands for wings. And she wonders why he hasn’t told her, why her of all people didn’t deserve to know that. As if it was some big conspiracy against her. As if she wasn’t worthy enough to know it.
It only serves as fuel to her flame, surging upward into the sky before she dives again for the manticore, trying to avoid the paws and teeth for the rose, to pluck and pull it from the earth to destroy later. All sense of thought gone in an instant in her fury. She knows the manticore is a bad choice, deep down, but she’s drawn to his bigger target… and she simply can’t help herself.
Kiada tries to swoop again for Remi’s rose, trying to grab and carry it off!
— go for the throat
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Deimos' attack is easily countered by Jigano's lashing hooves, the horse striking the eagle squarely, though it fails to damage his rose. Deimos! Amalia cries through the bond, panic and terror in her otter eyes as she watches the blow land, but she does not have time to react, to respond, to do anything for her lover because the equid is upon her now, rage in his inky eyes.
It is lucky that Amalia is so small, and that Jigano is so crazed. The otter is able to evade the trampling hooves, her lithe form darting between stomping hooves. Even better, she is able to push the rose into the hole, the crevice she has chosen well protected and difficult for one so large to reach. She only has time to press dirt around it before she has to dodge once more, rolling out of range of a hoof and scampering away, a length of thorn clenched in her nimble paws. As she rolls, she attempts to press it against the horse's hind leg, remembering its effect on Safrin and hoping - praying - it might do the same here.
Unfortunately, she misses catastrophically, and rather than pricking the stallion's thick skin the thorns go flying into the snow, landing some ten feet away.
Remi, meanwhile, has successfully captured Kiada's attention. Again the harpy strikes toward the goliath manticore, and again the chimera is easily able to divert her attack, keeping his rose well from her reach. The distraction prevents him from fully securing the flower in the ground, but he is nearly there - if only he can keep the harpy at bay.
Deimos attacks Jigano and misses! Remi does not succeed in planting his rose! Jigano attacks Deimos and hits! He then attacks Amalia and misses! Kiada attacks Remi and misses! Amalia succeeds in planting her rose! She then attacks Jigano and criticallymisses, resulting in her thorns flying off into the snow!
09-08-2019, 08:21 PM (This post was last modified: 09-08-2019, 10:25 PM by Deimos.)
DEIMOS
He missed – missed, missed, missed, like everything else in life, his scorecard a mismatch of sieges and assaults gone correctly, and those slashing, tearing, burning him awry. Aren’t you tired of losing? the earth mustered, burned, seared against his soul. He only had half a moment to seethe though, intending to arch upwards, reposition where he could best try again (because one could always say something derogatory about the beast, but at least he strived). By then Jigano had already shifted, an ivory equine now, the blight still readily apparent in his movements, and before Deimos had the ability to fly off into a safer zone, a hoof came into his view.
It was a heavy, heady cast of pain suddenly binding his senses, sending him scattering off to the right, bewildered and rattled, not in a form readily capable of taking vicious vehemence (not like his human form, bulky and monstrous, a monolith well-conformed to war and weaponry). The sharp lancing of anguish and demolition echoed along his chest, a rasping breath as Amalia called out to him – and he stayed on the ground for a moment, catching the rough inhale, the grasping exhale, before shaking his head. She couldn’t worry about him – she had other things to watch out for – Jigano still in his festering, decaying, wilting stupefaction, or the rose’s roots needing to take hold. I am fine ricocheted, even if he wasn’t.
His eyes segmented briefly to Remi, but he seemed to have it together against Kiada – and his attention riveted straight to the chaos once more. With no thought to himself, he dug into the earth, scraping up dirt and loam beneath the snow, grasping hold of their granules in his talons as best he could, before taking flight again, the wince of pain evident in his movements and motions, not quite as graceful, rising, rising, rising into the air. Then he plummeted, a wake of speed and barbarity, intending to release the soil, clay, or silt from his grasp and into Jigano’s face; a distraction, a deterrent – stare noticing the swoop and flail of the stem and its thorns. He continued his descent, surging downwards, towards the ground, then away, away, away, desperately aching to reach the stalk, to grasp it in his talons.
--
Deimos is hit along his chest by Jigano’s hoof. He attempts to grab some dirt and throw it in Jigano’s eyes, before trying to grab the stem.
With a wounded sort of furiousness bright in the manticore's glare, he welcomes the attack from the vulture. Though he isn't actually looking to wound the woman he considers a friend, still his patience is frayed thin. If she wants to attack him in an effort to steal that which might cure his husband, she has his full invitation.
As she races in again, he hops into the air. It isn't a leap meant to force him airborne, merely to extend the reach of his paws as his mighty wings flail from his sides to aid with balance. With a loud roar he swipes towards her, ears pinned against his skull. Landing, the manticore digs at the ground with a hind leg, all the while keeping his gaze trained on Kiada. With any lucky he'll have time to create a suitable hole and put the rose inside of it before she comes round for a third attack.
Remington rears and paw-swipes at Kiada and digs a hole for the rose with his hing legs while watching her.
trying to take what's lost and broke and make it right
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
She abandoned the rose, leaving it to take root in the cold, dead earth beside the Spire and though part of the blighted beast wished to dance upon the loathsome weed and scatter its gaudy petals across the snow like blood from a beating heart, something worse, far worse, a violence, a darkness, a cruel, raging pain else drew him after otter with a ringing equine cry. Mere rose petals were nothing compared to his hateful, aching, desperate desire to shatter the pristine white of Deepfrost's mantle with truest liquid crimson splashed in elegant arcs across the snow.
And no blood would suffice so well as that of the otter whose very presence tore at his heart with such terrible agony, the darkness whispering sweet promises in his mind that her death would bring a surcease of the pain for an hour, a minute, a fraction of a moment more than he had known since the snows had fallen across the land in their colorless funereal shroud.
He ignored the flower, rising up on powerful haunches to lash out with his forehooves, blunt and hard and thick enough to crush an otter's skull--
In his rage he had forgotten the eagle, assumed it out of the fight after the sweet, so sweet, sweet as death impact of hoof against feathery, hollow-boned body. Deimos's divebomb struck true, dirt and grit lashing against large, delicate equine eyes and turning Jigano's attack aside as the horse twisted and bucked wildly out around him, shaking his head in a paroxysm of pain and frustration as he tried to rid himself of the dust that watered his vision to near-blindness.
Jigano bucks and lashes out blindly while trying to clear his eyes!
shed every skin that doesn't fit even if they call you cold-blooded
unhinge your jaw —
She dives, all fury and flame, anger and blighted darkness swirling within her. And for a moment, in her black smudged gaze, she thinks she might make it – a swoop and a dive through the massive paws of the manticore, that she’s certain she’ll avoid. She’s small enough, right?
Wrong.
She dives, and he hops, and a paw comes colliding with her, a guttural shriek leaving her beak as she spins in the air, wings flecked with red, black, and white go spiraling. Feathers dance to the ground, and with the wind from the massive beast she’s chosen to target, she goes spinning underneath him. She shifts back into herself, an arm flailing to the side to try and grasp into the dirt of the Spire, to grab and latch onto.
When she manages to grasp the rose, thorns piercing, and all fury and flame are gone. The rose drifts from her hand toward the hole Remi’s digging, and she has time to slide onto her back and look up to see the giant creature, a moment of clarity in her gaze, and her iceberg eyes look up in a small amount of true fear. Black blood leaks from her hand as she reaches up to cover her face, black inky tears welling in her eyes as she shields herself and realizes what she’s done.
“I’m sorry!” She cries out in a gasp, so unlike her. Every bit of this is unlike her. She doesn’t know, doesn’t understand what’s happened. “I’m sorry, Remi, I’m so sorry!”
Kiada's hit and spirals underneath Remi where she accidentally grabs the rose trying to catch herself, and pricks herself with it!
— go for the throat
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Amalia inhales sharply as the eagle falls down to the ground, panic racing through her, indecision on what to do. It is only the Sword's return to the sky that keeps her from running to him, though as her own thorn is cast away she does make a break for it, dashing off to the Spire door where Deimos' rose is not yet planted and digging with small yet nimble paws, frantic to finish their work.
Though Deimos is struck by the equid's hooves, it does not stop him from a swift and successful retaliation. Distracted by the dust in his eyes, Jigano does nothing to stop the eagle from snatching up the stem of thorns. Kiada, meanwhile, has also been thwarted- and not only thwarted but for a moment saved. The otter throws her head back, tears in her eyes as the girl she loves falls from the sky, coherence once more in her voice. Kiada! she cries, wishing she could run to her, could save her from herself.
This rose remains, though, and Amalia must see this through. Working frantically, she is able to secure it in the ground, nestling hard earth around it before turning to see how her friends are doing.
Deimos now has a length of rose thorns! Remi has succeeded in pricking Kiada! His rose is almost planted Jigano has been distracted by Deimos, but has not been struck by a rose Kiada has been struck by a rose!
Amalia has succeeded in planting Deimos' rose
There was no satisfaction in the eagle’s form, no harsh, triumphant smirk, no bludgeoning, harpooning snicker. Only a wheeze in his chest from earlier wounds, only an ease to his gliding form, only moving and maneuvering forward, understanding there was more at stake here than blighted lives and sand in the bard’s eyes – his talons grasping hold of the thorned stem, gaze taking in the proceedings, Kiada’s raised voice, piercing through the Spire’s shadows, the extension of their unrest. She’d be safe for now – he doubted Remi would squander her further, but a quiet pulse of calm, coldblooded composure that he didn’t quite feel, that he didn’t quite embrace, that he couldn’t quite fathom, pervaded through his frame, hoping it reached her somehow.
Meanwhile, he glided back over Amalia, using his powerful talons to break the stalk in half, dropping her a piece as she took up the mantle of the rose he’d hidden and abandoned in his haste to ensure her safety – then swung around, back towards the equine.
Another plummet, another movement of swift, quick measures, striving to ignore the pounding, languishing pain clustered in his throat, inspired madness in his motions – intending to dive above and along Jigano’s back, lowering the tip of thorns and nettles near flesh. He tried to pierce. He tried to free. He tried to undo some accord of brutality, the sickening disaster of pestilence and irreverence – long enough to ensure Amalia and the rest were guarded, protected. That was all he was ever good for.
--
Deimos breaks off a piece of the thorned stem and drops it towards Amalia. He then flies back towards Jigano, trying to pierce him with a thorn along his back.
As she comes in, the large beast is again waiting and ready. Only..he actually isn’t because despite all the scars on his body, Remi is still no warrior. The instincts of this body cannot even help him, for vultures are not known enemies of such a rare and large beast. So as she rolls beneath him, shifting into her lithe form, the manticore has no choice but to awkwardly sidestep away. He won’t let her ruin this strange attempt at being a gardener, but nor will does he wish to crush her and poised as she is, it would be all too easy.
With a large paw raised, the size of which is almost the size of her faces, claws outstretched, he sees for the first time a spark of blue in her darkened gaze, hears a voice that he recognizes. Still. There is little room for easy and immediate compassion in the alchemist’s heart these days. Despair has fully taken over now and it is all Remi can do to not roar mercilessly in her face. Instead his eyes merely flicker to the rose where it lays fallen, crushed, and smeared with a prick of her blood. Nostrils flaring slightly and ears pinned against his head, the manticore rumbles something towards Kiada. It..is not you. He says tersely, moving aside and gently plucking the mangled rose in his teeth so that he can set it into the dirt. When he does, his barbed tail helped sweep the earth back to cover the grave hole he has made for the rose, all the while eying Kiada untrustingly.
Remi thinks hard about squishing Kiada, but plants his rose instead.
trying to take what's lost and broke and make it right
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Black tears finally carried the grit away, but the distraction had done its job. By the time Jigano regained a semblance of sight the golden eagle had returned for another strafing run, and though the white horse tried to side-step he saw the attack too late. He braced, skin twitching as he waited for the powerful talons to tear deep into his chilled flesh, but it was only a sting as if from a wasp that pierced his skin and caused him to buck again in protest--
Clarity
The horse collapsed in on itself, shrinking back to the body of a fox with black streaks on his face, its jaws, and welling from the thorn that pierced his back. Jigano crouched, black eyes wide with shock as he looked around at those he had been fighting with such mindless fury mere seconds before. The otter was as dearly familiar to him as any sister could be, and he could never mistake the manticore for anyone but Remi. Kiada was as broken and lost as he, and there was an eagle he didn't recognize with a string of thorns clutched in its talons.
Amalia... The thought whispered between them, hollow with grief and full of horror. What have I...? But wasn't it obvious? The scattered and trampled snow around them spoke silent accusation of wild carnage. Only the lack of blood gave any solace as the fox tucked himself as small as he could, black liquid running from his eyes in all-too-human tears. Oh gods, I'm so, so sorry...
Jigano gets pricked by a thorn and starts round one of his (new) apology tour!
shed every skin that doesn't fit even if they call you cold-blooded
unhinge your jaw —
Amidst the inky tears that stream from her face, she keeps her arm above her head, as if it would do anything to impact that giant paw heading her way. And as she suddenly, slowly, begins to recall the last few moments, she realizes she wouldn’t blame him if he chose to stamp her out. In fact, for a moment, she wishes he would, until Kiada’s words hit her ears and she manages to shoot a glance toward the otter, nothing but sorrow and sadness and fear within the icy, inky gaze.
Her lip trembles as Remi’s paw leaves her, and her lower lip quivers as she focuses on trying to catch her breath between the sobs that slip from her. So much black mars her face, the tears streaming down her face as she sits up slightly to bury her face into her hands. “I’m so sorry.” She tells him again, even after he tells her that it isn’t her.
That’s where he’s wrong. It was her. It had been her body, her mind, she had felt the frustration and anger with the rose, she had known to an extent what she was doing but was incapable of stopping it. So much for wanting to become a better version of herself, right? Only after a few moments does she seek out Amalia again, a haunted shadowed look to her eyes as she spots Jigano in much of the same state. And she sees the eagle too, with Deimos’ voice, confused and full of far more sorrow than she thought she could hold.
— go for the throat
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
