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 was happy enough to have been have some use in a fight without necessarily getting to do all the cool moves he wanted to. He crawled away quickly and didn't quite smile as he heard Smashy yell, but felt better than he possibly should have done with the wound in his leg.
Wessex yelling to him that he was 'up', though - immediate panic. Up to do what? Desperately he looked about to see if there was something he was meant to be doing (and if it involved standing on his very painful leg, it wasn't going to happy). But without anything obvious he instead reached out in front of him, trying to grab at Cleric's ankles and pull them back, hopefully banging their head against the Mathair in the process.
He wasn't sure quite why he'd ended up so positioned against this one Fae, but he knew that the healing was making this whole process longer, and the sooner it could be over the better.
---
Sam tries to grab Cleric's ankles and make them fall over! (And maybe hit their head...?)
silver is your groan. her laugh. twin voices, twin vices
two sets of arrows
“Fuck’s sake.” She hisses through her teeth as the fire lands on the tree but Cleric remains enough to heal it. However, she’s lucky, as the flame reaches the bark of the tree, she’s let go. And she staggers for a moment, reaching for her shoulder until something actually begins to hurt.
Fire. Fire fucking hurts.
It reminds her of her Ascension, and she bounces back from the tree a safe distance to literally cool down while she grits her teeth and looks toward Wessex as she drops something by her feet and tells her to hold off. Spotting the syringe, she knows instantly what it is, and picks it from the ground with an easy swipe and pockets it for later, to save it.
Then, she abandons everything while her fellow Ascended work toward focusing the fae, and she reaches deep within her to summon the last firework, aiming it straight at the center mass of the Mathair.
Rex moves back from the tree and the fire to keep it from exploding her lmao and shoots her last firework at it in the center of the tree!
Wessex 's rock hits true, striking KITTY in the shoulder and opening up a fairly large gash which halts the feline in her tracks, snarling at the queen. If the Voice hears, for the moment she gives no sign. HISSY meanwhile has flown up into the sky. Dropping a barrage of rocks, he aims for the top of Wessex' head. Whether because of the darkness, HISSY'S aim, or Wessex' supernatural reflexes, none of the rocks seem to hit.
As Samuel goes for CLERIC, given that they were already on the ground, his pull isn't enough to upset their low center of gravity. Still the sudden hands on him make him shriek and flail around. Seeing the shriek and following the trail of ascended fluid Sam's leaking leg left, SMASHY raises his ax and swipes it down furiously into the ground, of course missing the invisible Sam.
From within the Mathair electric blue light begins to seep from the bark. The tree fights and struggles as smoke begins to pour from various knots.
Your randomly decided order of initiative is: Wessex, Lucas, Sam, Rex, Amun. You have 48 hours to reply (if not faster, please). Include a summary at the bottom of your post.
WESSEX attacks KITTY and HITS
SAM attacks CLERIC and..?
SMASHY attacks SAM and MISSES
HISSY attacks WESSEX and MISSES
REXANNA attacks MATHAIR and HITS
CLERIC HEALS MATHAIR
VOICE attacks MATHAIR and HITS
Defeat or kill the fae guards!
Closing HP
Mathair: 200
Kitty - 35% health
Smashy - 5% health Leroy - 0% health
Hissy - 75% health
Cleric - 16% health
dont know where the lights are taking us but something in the night is dangerous
Godamnit, Sam, she curses, noticing that the Cleric isn’t exactly done for yet.
And really, it’s just ridiculous. Wessex growls, knowing what she has to do - she can’t leave him in there. (even though he should be able to handle a Fae at a measly 5% health). Drawing her other iron knife from her other boot (that’s one knife per boot, for those counting), the Queen holds it in one clawless hand while the other hand has claws again. Back to the fray. Luckily, she doesn’t have to go far to hit them with a biopulse. Taking a circular path back around the group, that would hopefully make Kitty have to watch where she’s going to avoid Smashy if she wants to guard against Wessex, the Wraith tries to hit all three Fae with a double biopulse. “Sam, show yourself!” she yells not wanting to accidentally skewer the dude as she tosses him the knife. That would suck.
Hoping they’re all relatively incapacitated, she slashes at Smashy’s back before turning her claws on the Cleric and trying to stab him in the gut.
---------------------
Wessex takes a less direct path back to the Fae group to try and fuck with Kitty. Sends out two biopulses to the Fae and tosses a knife to Sam. Slashes at Smashy’s back and then tries to stab Cleric.
Sam yelled as the axe came down towards him again, but this time thankfully he didn't feel the sharp bite of metal sinking into his leg. He was about to try and attack the Cleric again when Wessex yelled.
He didn't really want to show himself, not when he was right in the middle of the fight, but he feared Wessex's reaction if he didn't more than any danger. Sam made himself visible then thought to try and use the potential shock of his sudden appearance to try and punch Cleric and knock them out, maybe ending their little feud once and for all.
--
Sam makes himself visible, then tries to punch cleric in the face immediately after.
silver is your groan. her laugh. twin voices, twin vices
two sets of arrows
'Success' she thinks as her fireworks land, and she can see some blue electricity sparking from beneath the bark of the tree, smoke pouring out of the knots. And for the time, she can hear Sam and Wessex grappling with the rest of the fae, leaving her to focus on the tree. But she can feel that she’s waning, when it comes to her energy and the magic required of her, and she reaches into her pocket before darting in a circle around the tree, pausing long enough to pull the adrenaline boost Wessex had given her, before she stabs it into her arm and lets the feeling flood through her.
But she doesn’t have time to experience it, and she takes a ragged breath, pushing herself so she’s constantly moving around the tree in a circle, focusing her fire to the trunk of the tree, hoping to help her goddess burn it to the ground.
Rex uses the ADRENALINE BOOST from Wessex, and starts to circle the tree and direct her fire onto the trunk of it!
KITTY remains where she is guarding CLERIC, though her feline eyes do follow Wessex with ease. Near enough to hit KITTY and SMASHY, the pulse makes the large (but still suitably small) fae stumble even as Wessex reaches out to strike at him. Perhaps because of his stumbling fall, Wessex's attack of CLERIC goes wide.
As Samuel reaches out to hit CLERIC, KITTY who has been defending him, moves to take the hit. The ascended hits her in the nose, which she immediately retaliates with a paw full of claws scratching across his face. Above, HISSY creates more rocks and throws them below, but they bounce harmlessly around Sam.
With a cry of alarm, CLERIC reaches out to heal KITTY.
Lost in the fray, a bolt of bright fire from Rexanna strikes the Mathair dead centre. But will it be enough?
"My bright ones, do you trust me?" The Voice's call is suddenly everywhere around them. Time has slowed to almost nothing now as their eyes are pulled towards the tree. Within the boughs and branches she is there, encased in the wood; electrified in all her glory.
"Do you trust me?"
For this round as time has stalled, just answer the Voice!
Your randomly decided order of initiative is: Wessex, Lucas, Sam, Rex, Amun. You have 48 hours to reply (if not faster, please). Include a summary at the bottom of your post.
WESSEX attacks KITTY and HITS
WESSEX attacks SMASHY and HITS/KILLS HIM
WESSEX attacks CLERIC and HITS
SAM attacks KITTY and HITS
KITTY attacks SAM and HITS
HISSY attacks SAM and MISSES
Defeat or kill the fae guards!
Closing HP
Mathair: 120
Kitty - 62% health Smashy - 0% health Leroy - 0% health
Hissy - 75% health
Cleric - 6% health
dont know where the lights are taking us but something in the night is dangerous
Without hesitation, Wessex takes the leap of faith - despite all the fucked up shit, despite the mystery and the stress, her Lady has always given her freedom of choice. She has always provided for Wessex when asked to. She has done no more than a mother who wants her child to use its own mind to grow would do.
"Yes!" she cries into the dark. "Always!"
Everything the Voice has done has moved them forward. She has to trust, and deal with the consequences later.
The answer did not come so easily for Sam, who had been conflicted for a while over his devotion to The Voice. She had let him go out and infect dozens of people with a disease that had seemed like a worst nightmare; Jigano had made it clear he hated her and he valued the bard's opinion.
But ultimately...Jigano had never made him feel as loved and safe as The Voice did. There was a part of him that clung on, the bit that had come to the woods when asked. A faith he couldn't shake that ultimately, she meant the best and would achieve it for everyone.
"Yes. Yes, I do." He replied, more measured and quiet than Wessex, but sure she could still hear him.
silver is your groan. her laugh. twin voices, twin vices
two sets of arrows
The world slows, and the Penumbra has time to think about the question – if only for a split second as the queen and the bookmaker add in their own agreements. And honestly? In comparison, had the Voice ever led her astray? The Voice had given her options, had valued her choices, had ensured her safety when she was even only an Abandoned.
She gives it her all, pausing near the tree despite the stillness of the time. “My bright ones, do you trust me?”
“Yes!” She says, echoing Wessex and Samuel. She trusts the Voice, regardless of what people have said. Regardless of what people think. She trusts her. And she trusts herself in making the right decision.
The Voice expects nothing less from them, but still she is as pleased and full of pride as any mother might be. Her children, her bright ones. How they have helped her, how they have freed her. She doesn't wish for them to endure this, but they will be rewarded.
Time resumes in a crackle of blue and white, and everything is over.
Wessex might recognize the pulse vaguely, given her ability to bio-pulse. Though what the Voice does is so much stronger. It decimates. The Mathair dies. Kitty dies. Cleric dies. Hissy dies (and subsequently falls from the sky). But so too do her children. Very nearly anyways.
Wessex, Sam, and Rexanna are, for all intents and purposes, running on emergency power. 1% battery. Sunlight will kill them. A strong wind will knock them down. Their strength and speed are gone. They are like blind newborn puppies who must find their mother's teat if they are to survive.
But in this she has absolutely no fear. They will find her, as they always have.
"Come to me, my bright ones. Come, and be restored.."
Behind them, a portal has opened. A portal of beautiful white-blue light in the heart of the tree.
As the trio leave, the fae move in. Alerted by the trees they arrive in droves, setting up a perimeter around the charred and blackened mother-tree. There are screams, sobs, prayers, and threats uttered in the language of the Woods. What has been done here cannot be undone, but still the way forward is not clear...
COMING SOON: a mini event for the leaders / their designated party to decide what to do about the Portal! For now however, it is heavily guarded by the fae. None may go near it.
This KQ is complete! However, given that you are all useless skin-noodles, best you all go and find the Voice quickly! Someone make a shrine post where the Voice can find you, and receive your reward.
