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!
One would have hoped that the mud would have dried up by now, as Spring nears its end. But no. there’s still fucking mud everywhere and some days, she wonders if the rain will ever stop. One day, when the rain stops and the sun’s come out, she decides to take a walk - somewhere, anywhere, it doesn’t matter. The Glade? Yeah, the Glade seems like it might be nice right now.
A child’s ball has been left somewhere amongst the roots of the trees - red, covered in mud - she almost walks past it. But she hasn’t played with one in awhile, so with a little bit of fondness she picks it up and then drops it in front of her, away from roots and things that might catch it. She gives it a little kick and while it goes a fair distance, it is ultimately stuck by… something.
Lily sighs and jogs after it, but as she nears, the ball seems to roll away - just a tad. She frowns and then grabs for the toy - but there’s a definite bit of resistance. There’s a slight sucking sound, and then Lily is victorious.
Nephele is uncertain if it's the lack of proper understory growth, or earth that is too full of clay to naturally siphon water away, or merely the hand of magic, but the Hollowed Grounds is muddy. Of course it doesn't impact Nephele much when she can simply fly above its weird gesticulating masses, but she's intrigued nonetheless. More so when she sees people doing odd things with it; moving it about, playing with it, attacking it. Is life here truly boring enough to warrant such things? Perhaps, considering they were stuck on the ground after all.
A flash of bright hair turns her head as she flies, hovering in the air as her hazel eyes flit over the canopy below to try and spot it again. Instinctively she assumes it's her sister, and drops down through the budding leaves to alight on a branch, peering down to try and pinpoint the shock of hair so like her own. Instead she finds a human, kicking at a brightly colored ball that reluctantly parts from the mud to go bouncing.
Hmm. Curious.
Nephele's wings flutter as she follows the ball, hovering above it and gazing down. Nothing special really, just a ball. Such games weren't dissimilar from the ones Fae children played, but their childhood games were usually airborne to strengthen wing muscles. Lowering herself she prods a toe at the ball, jerking higher into the air when it moves around in a direction she certainly couldn't have sent it. Casting her gaze to the other redheaded woman, she tilts her head in birdlike inquisitiveness. "Is it normal for your playthings to move on their own?" If so that's certainly a creation she wants to examine. But for now she's not certain she wants to walk on the ground just yet.
All of a sudden there’s a Fae in the air, and while Lily is more than delighted to see one again, she’s also genuinely surprised. She doesn’t know this one, but her appearance is enough for the redhead to open up with, “You’re back!” Which sounds ridiculous, she knows, but the earnestness with which she says it will hopefully make the Fae lady look past it. Looking back at the direction she’s indicated - at the thing she’s foolishly (again) playing with, Lily blushes fiercely, almost as red as her tumbling locks.
“Ah, not that I know of, no.” She shrugs and lifts the little red ball in her hand, examining it with an exaggerated frown. “The mud has been really weird this spring. Have you noticed the same thing in the wood?”
The exuberance is unexpected, the woman's wings fluttering uncertainly behind her, but the emotion seems genuine. And only then does Nephele smile, reluctantly charmed by the fact that the other redheaded lass is excited by the prospect of her - or, more likely, the Fae in general - being able to cross the border once more. "Yes, the borders are open once more." Her voice is much warmer, a small smile playing at the edges of her lips. But she is still curious, and nudges at the ball to draw Lily's attention back to her original question. The woman's flushed face makes her grin, pleased, and she drifts away through the air as Lily retrieves her toy.
"Hmm, yes. It has certainly been...friskier. Inclined to a weird sort of sentience." She winks at the word, if only because the stranger is gorgeous even without wings that would make Nephele more inclined to get to know her. Lowering herself, she stretches one foot towards the mud, giving a shocked little laugh when it swipes at her lazily. Turning gleaming hazel eyes to the other woman, she grins. "Perhaps we should play with it?"
An embarrassed flush quickly turns to another kind of flush as she reads between the stranger’s lines. Oh the mud is frisky, huh? While the redhead hadn’t intended on flirting with the Fae in that way (though sometimes it just happens as if Lily can’t control herself), she finds she’s open to it. Sure, she could have a thing for wings, though then her mind goes to like, what happens if they get too rough and her wings get hurt? Can she push the Fae lady up against a wall? Can she - oops.
A tinkle of laughter brings her back from her salacious wonderings. Truth be told, she’d rather play with her, but seeing as they don’t even know each others’ names yets, sure - they can play with the mud. “I suppose we could. How smart do you think it is?”
