At last, a pale sun emerges after a season of bleak darkness and troubled skies. In the Greatwood and the Hollowed Grounds the trees begin to bud and blossom, and whilst the days continue to be crisp and cool, there is a brightness, a jubilance in the fields and the forests. New life can be found in lambs and saplings, and Flowerbirth is abundant with Rae’s gifts. Be wary of sunshowers and the odd lightning storm, however, or you might find yourself caught out!
Character of the Season
With a long and complex history that extends years prior to his arrival in Caido, Deimos is one of the most well-rounded and well-written characters on the site. A man whose actions speak volumes but whose words, though few, are always precise and pointed, Deimos is a character whose indomitable presence has been part of revolutions, jail-breaks, rescue attempts, explorations, and one of the steamiest romances on the site. Kind and loyal to his friends, the Resurrected Sword as he has come to be called, is also one of the few hybrids on the site. Congratulations Deimos!
This chat is mostly for guests! To come and chat with us join our discord!
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!
Kaimana’s answer interests him regardless, that even the child of Rae only met the intriguing god once as well. He thinks for a moment on what to say to it, before his steel gaze snaps to the freckled man at his next question – refraining from laughing at the elephant in the room. “That’s one way to put it, yeah.” He rumbles, not wanting to explain that it was possible to enjoy the feeling, without the reproducing aspect. He doesn’t want to go into details on that regard, especially with the way Kai seemed to be.
Still, he snorts a few moments after, shaking his head and returning to the sweeping of the steps and porches, listening as he asks what the most interesting parts were. And it seems, perhaps, Sunjata can learn a thing or two as well from Rae’s child. “I arrived just after the barrier lifted.” He says in acknowledgement. “How did the barrier affect it?” An interesting question, considering that nobody had told him much on it other than the fact that it did.
"What's another way to put it?" Genuinely, you want to learn about expressions and idioms and the way people would say things. More and more you've begun to feel that maybe you don't do as good a job as you thought at blending in with other people, something that you know shouldn't bother you but still itches somewhere in the back of your brain. "I know humans engage in sexual activities recreationally, not just 'cusa reproductive needs. Is that what y'meant? Didja feel the desire to do that with Frey?" You fidget a little with the broom, shifting your weight from foot to foot, your brain racing a little bit. Is that what you wanted to do with Frey? Is that a thing you want to do with anyone?
At least talking about your knowledge of the barrier is an easy piece of conversation, more in your wheelhouse than recreational sexual activity and whether or not it's something you're interested in. "Well, 'course, it's hard to say without havin' seen it 'afore the barrier. But the barrier created a closed ecosystem- there wasn' any genetic drift, an' the populations of the local flora and fauna was constrained by a small gene pool an' limited geographic space." You've stopped sweeping now, and are using your arms to gesticulate as you speak, making a circle out of them to indicate the small space in the barrier, waiting for Sunjata to express a level of understanding of further curiosity before going on.
He definitely doesn’t expect to have to answer that question, and his gaze lingers on Kaimana as he figures out just how to put it. “Well, there’s a number of ways I suppose.” He says awkwardly, coughing lightly before a similarly awkward, boyish smile crosses his face. “Most people tend to hide it by saying they want to sleep with someone.” A brief shrug before Kaimana continues, and Sunjata pauses with his own broom, gaze lifting to the other freckled man. “Yeah, that’s what I meant.” He admits, a quiet hum of a chuckle leaving him before he shakes his head. His cheeks flush a small amount with his embarrassment of talking over this.
He’s not wrong, at least.
At least his awkwardness and embarrassment fades when Kai begins to reveal the information regarding the barrier, and he listens diligently while he continues to go and brush off some dust, mud, and debris from the next porch step. “Hmm, I see. And so by breaking the barrier of the ecosystem, it adds new…” He pauses while he thinks up the correct term. “Influences? That changed the ecosystem here as well as those around?” He tilts his head, steel gaze drifting toward Kaimana curiously.
Sunjata is picking this up very quickly compared to many of the others you've spoken to, causing a broad, enthusiastic grin to stretch across your face. "Yeah! 'xactly. An' it affects both the area in the barrier an' the area outside."
Still gesticulating, any semblance of cleaning long abandoned, you continue with your point. "So for instance the Blight could be considered an invasive species from the Hollowed Grounds- or a virus, really. The people an' plants here have a natural resistance to 'em, which is why they weren't affected so bad. But the Greatwood hadn't been exposed, so there was no immunity." If your voice holds a little too much respect for the Blight, it's only because you do respect, even if you think it was a terrible thing at the same time.
He finds he’s thankful when the conversation drops and shifts toward the barrier, to the wide smile that crosses Kaimana’s face, a hint of a smirk reflected on his own at being able to read between the lines. But it fades quickly as he speaks of the blight, Sunjata’s head tilting slightly with the thought.
“I had the blight.” He rumbles, steel eyes lingering in the broom in his hand, recalling the way it had changed him, messed with his mind, made him do things he otherwise wouldn’t. “We still managed to get it, though. Was it just something that arrived because of the interaction with the Greatwood?” It hadn’t been around before as much as he’d heard. But he’d only arrived after the barrier had fallen anyway.
"You did?" you exclaim, suddenly fascinated, your attention rapt as your brown eyes widen. Leaning toward Sunjata as though proximity might give you answers, you peer up at the incredibly tall man. "How'd you get it? How long did it last? What were the symptoms? Didja pass it on to anyone else? D'ya have any lingering effects?" He's a living specimen, a survivor, and thus a wellspring of knowledge.
You are somehow even more animated now, and his questions only fuel you. Tapping thoughtfully on your chin, you begin to pace in thought, the broom dragged behind like an errant child, its purpose long abandoned. "Could be 'cus you're an outlander, so y'don't have natural immunity. It sounds like the pathogen spread from the Greatwood- it'd make sense fewer Grounders got it, an' it could be it was milder just 'cus'a the interventions that Vi and Dama made."
Kaimana drifts closer, almost as though he’s inspecting, and Sunjata stills to let the demi-god peer at him. “I’m not sure how I got it.” He offers unhelpfully. “The girl I was with had it though. Longer than I did. It got to her more.” He rumbles, reaching up unconsciously to rub at the scar on his shoulder, a small place where the tattoo that lined his skin wasn’t entirely there anymore. “Mood swings, lots of anger, hopelessness. I don’t think I passed it on.” His face scrunches up with the memory. “No lingering effects either. But more people had it worse and longer than I did, where they were almost rabid, not themselves. They’d do things they wouldn’t normally do.”
He, too, had done things he wouldn’t normally do.
Yet he watches Kai begin to pace, informing him that since he was an outlander he likely didn’t have a natural immunity, and he nods slightly. “The roses.” He murmurs under his breath. “The worst blighted ones kept trying to destroy the roses.” He offers a bit offhandedly.
You listen intently to the described symptoms, mentally committing the description to memory, watching as the man rubs a small spot on his shoulder as though it is related to the disease. It reminds you of rabies, or some other diseases you've read about: mind-altering and intense, and apparently incurable.
Until Vi and your Dama stepped in, that is.
You nod along as he mentions the roses, that much making sense. "If the roses were a threat to the pathogen - an' the pathogen had taken over the hosts - it makes sense that they'd try to destroy 'em." Thoughtfully you turn the broom over, holding it so the straw is facing upward, your fingers brushing across the hard fibers. "Did you destroy any?"
It was like a rabid animal, a change in the person that overrode the basic instincts and changed them into something else. But he pays attention with a quiet sigh to the demi-god as he comments about he roses, and he nods in understanding. To remove the threat, to destroy it and remain in the darkness that was the blight. But as Kai asks him if he destroyed any, he shakes his head.
“I wanted to, but it didn’t get bad enough for me to actually do it.” He offers unhelpfully. “I did plant one before the symptoms started showing. Got attacked while doing so, but.” He trails off a bit offhandedly, uncertain where that conversation will go, and so he lets it go unless Kaimana asks a question that continues it.
