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!
Libbs smiled in return. "Y'think so? Well, that's two of us then! Usually I get a pretty vacant stare when I'm talkin' about this stuff." she commented dryly. Which was true, but she couldn't blame them. It was hard to talk about the theory of something, without actually showing them HOW it worked. To her, it seemed very simple. But the dreaded gaze of emptiness as she ranted was something she was very used to. She even assumed on some level Neron was just being nice and pulling off one hell of a pokerface.
But that was just the way the cookie crumbles! "I think I could use probably two more pieces of flint, just enough to make more if I mess up the prototype. But, yes, cotton definitely. As for the sticky stuff, I was sitting on a couple of routes. One would be from a tree. I had one of the botanists draw a leaf on the back of the parchment there that I was looking at. That'd do the trick. The other was to make something like.. cement, from bones or keratin, or even limestone. The point of that stuff is to make a seal, so that the liquid doesn't evaporate."
".. Why don't we get the cotton first?" she suggested. "That'll be easy, and we can ask the farmers there if they found anything like what we're looking for. The flint we'll probably find on the way." she nodded. If he agreed, then Libbs probably would attempt taking the lead. Attempt, that is. She only had a vague memory of where the farms were.
A poker face was absolutely in Neron’s repertoire (read: his default state), but he clearly thought there was something to gain from helping the quirky inventor, else he’d have already quit and gone home. Her considerations about cement or sap were taken with a nod of understanding - given their current location the latter would be easiest to obtain - and began to set off across the mud as she confirmed their route.
”Hopefully the farmers we come across are friendly enough to want to do a trade,” he remarked with a smirk, water welling beneath his feet as he walked to continue to feed the dry, cracked earth beneath them. ”Shall I keep an eye out for anything shiny that might be the flint you need?” They might even be lucky and find some of the metal she was after too, but Neron wasn’t counting on it.
Still, as they headed across the fields he did spot something shiny in the earth, leaning down to inspect it. ”What is this?” It looked similar enough to the stone she had plucked up before. Hopefully it was some flint, and they were a step closer to their goal.
"That'd actually be really awesome!" she nodded. "I mean, four eyes is better then two, right? So, yeah. Again, thank ya for your help!" she chirped as she swung her limbs carelessly, her eyes catching on a bird soaring in the sky, hair pushing some of the locks through her hair. Ah yes, it was lovely to be carefree. A level of innocence seemed to hang around Libbs. Innocence, and almost sickening levels of enthusiasm and optimism.
When Neron had already commented about finding something, Libbs whipped around, and peeked closer to take a look. "Yeah! That's flint." she nodded. "Heh, you're better at this than me by a long shot." she scratched her head. "But there's a lot here. I can probably make.. what.. maybe seven? Ten? Depends on how many times I mess up I guess. The flint doesn't have to be big after all." she nodded. She tested the flint out, before placing it back into the bag.
Libbs would flash a cheery smile, moving forward, stepping on small little steppes and such. "So, Neron- what do you do on the day-to-day? Just.. water the fields? Here it'd be awesome, but I imagine that doesn't always go too far in Halo, especially if it's super cold." Libbs commented, looking at the tips of her fingers. In the distance, some of the fields started to look distinctly like structured squares, and a building with smoke could be seen in the distance. It shouldn't be much longer now.
Neron couldn't help but feel proud of himself for correctly identifying the flint; whilst this wasn't his initial idea for the afternoon, it was turning out to be quite productive. "At least you can get more practice with doing it," he remarked as she leant down and dug out the flint. "And perhaps it's just that I come from somewhere that doesn't have much in the way of grass. Rock is easy to spot."
They moved on and Neron cast his gaze across the fields, satisfied that the farm in the distance wasn't too far away - and the little blobs in the land around it were positive signs of cotton plants. He hoped they were, anyway. Raising an eyebrow at Libbs, he let a slow smile crawl across his face. "I don't make a habit of watering fields, no," he said. "I am the Warden of the Citadel, believe it or not. It's quite a busy role."
Libbs was about to open her mouth, and paused. The brain cell was working at 75% capacity today, you see, and thus- she had a second guess at a thought that was about to spit out of her mouth at high velocity. With that, she looked to Neron. "In my world, wardens guard prisoners. Is that what you do in Halo as well?" she asked. "Either way, sounds very important. Bit more important than following a scrappy vagrant around." she chuckled. "What kind of things do you do as a Warden?" she continued, filling the empty air with a voice.
As they drew down the roads near the farms, a growing cacophony of human shouting and animal noises could be heard. Libbs frowned a bit as she approached. It sounded like a cow was having a bad time, but she couldn't pin it quite yet. As they would draw closer, they could see a family, maybe two corralled around.. something? She wasn't quite sure. "Whaddya think's going on?" she asked Neron, her voice growing a little more serious for a brief moment.
"A Warden," Neron concluded, rather enjoying this game of verbal kiss-chase he'd unintentionally ended up in with Libbs. Alas, as she asked outright what his role actually entailed, the game had to come to an end. He had enjoyed himself, though. "I rule the Citadel," he told her, his tone mild and pleasant as if it was something that might be discussed every day. "I was invited here by Queen Rexanna, given that the people of the Hollowed Grounds have been given the opportunity to visit Halo."
Their conversation was interrupted, inevitably, by some drama or another at the farms, and the Warden tilted his head as if to try to hear a little better what was going on. The sight of the family gathered around something was another issue entirely, and his eyebrows drew together in a frown. "I have no idea," he confessed, though based upon their trajectory they would find out soon enough. "Looks like something bad has happened though."
Oh. Oh. That took a good solid few minutes for Libbs to process in her brain. Her eyes widened a bit, realizing a bit of the situation she found herself in. Treating him like some typical casual probably wasn't the wisest idea on the planet. She could see it now, slandering this mysterious queen she's never met, then suddenly, off with her head! She swallowed a bit. Though it really then did beg the question; why was he helping her? If he was such an important person, then quite clearly, he would have better things to do?
Suspicion started to sink in the pit of her stomach.
Either way, it was quickly whipped away as they grew closer to the corral of people. The baying of a cow started to grow. "Hey now Bessie, ya gotta calm down. I know, it was spooky.. but.." and just like that, a loud bovine moan could be heard from the pit, and ruptured through the circle, and bulldozed the poor woman. Before Libbs could even respond, the bull (Why it was named Bessie was beyond her) charged and smacked her, throwing her to the side into a fence before charging off into one of the fields, bucking erratically.
Libbs gasped for air, the fence she was tossed into breaking under her weight and the impact of being turned into an inanimate object. Thankfully, she wasn't too injured. Just a bit bruised and stunned, taking one wobbly arm and pushin' herself off the ground. "I'm okay!.. I'm okay.." she muttered to the open air, more of an affirmation to herself if anything.
Meanwhile, 'Bessie' didn't look like he was quite done yet, quickly rearing for another charge in the distance.
**Feel free to control the farmers, and Bessie as you see fit. And if Libbs ends up getting more beat up, so be it.**
Talk about his role in Halo could wait - that much was very, completely obvious as Bessie (what on earth...) erupted out of the crowd and hurtled one woman away as it went. Libbs was apparently next on the list, and Neron whipped around as the bull charged away, bucking and baying and making a general fuss. As it turned about for another go, Neron sprung into action.
"Get inside with whoever is hurt!" he barked at the group of farmers; two of them staggered away with the woman who had been hit initially, but another two stayed behind. Strong farmhands, by the look of it - one of them had a thick rope in hand and the other was holding a large white cloth which they had obviously been using to try and cover the bull's head to calm it. Good job guys.
"Stay down if you're injured," he told Libbs, just in case she brought more of the bull's ire upon herself. In the meantime Neron turned to face the charging creature, dragging up a wall of ice before him in the hope that it might stop the bull - or at least slow it down, should it charge right through it.
**Same here! If Neron gets hurt that kind of more fun haha!**
Ironically enough, the wall of ice was effective at stopping it temporarily. A hard SMACK could be heard against the ice, the face of the wall beginning to crack underneath it's weight. The grunting seemed to subside though. Perhaps it had calmed down?
Wrong. Libbs shook her head. "I'm fine. See?" she waved both of her hands as she stood up, but not before her face widened in shock and she pointed out the bull before it was too late. For you see, this bull wasn't as stupid as the everyday bovine. It learned how three dimensional space worked, and it walked around the wall. Now whether it was a diabolical plan by the mastermind, or a very unfortunate circumstance that it noticed Neron from the corner of it's eye, but upon seeing him, the bull whipped onto it's front legs, using it's backlegs to kick Neron square in the chest, sending the poor man flying through the air.
It then bayed loudly, and started charging forward to ravage what looked like to be an abandoned shed of some form. "Uh.. sorry!" one of the farmhands announced, both charging after the bull. "Dammit, we better not lose him! That's the last bull we got!" one of the farmhands shouted to the other. "Yeah, well, this is what you get for naming him Bessie. It's a BULL." he shouted back. "I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS A BOY OKAY.."
As the banter continued, Libbs staggered to her feet, and walked over to where Neron had fallen, blinking at him and offering a hand. "Hey bud, you okay?" she asked softly, the sable gaze filled with a bit of concern. She looked up quickly to see where they had cornered the bull, and a bit of panic started to build as it started to rear up another charge.
**behold, our raid boss. and you can ban me for the pun. i deserve it. **
Pros: The ice wall was effective, if only temporarily.
Cons: Temporarily. Also, being booted in the gods damned chest.
The air left Neron's lungs in a whoosh and he felt something (or several somethings) crack in his chest as he was thrown backwards, skidding unceremoniously on the dirt. Wheezing in a breath and gritting his teeth against the blood in his mouth, the bickering of the farmhands did not put him in any better a mood.
Lo and behold, in the face of adversity, the Launceleyn in him shone through. "Just dandy," he said, his tone clipped and cold and pained, and he forced himself up next to Libbs as he watched the farmhands unhelpfully try to corner the bull.
"Try to keep its attention. I have an idea." Neron couldn't really straighten up in his state, but he mastered the pain (with an odd sort of satisfaction even), and slowly began to approach the bull. "Step away," he called to the farmhands.
01-27-2020, 09:14 PM (This post was last modified: 01-28-2020, 07:39 AM by Libbs.)
Needless to say, Libb's eyes widened at this warden legit just stood right the fuck up after getting bucked by a damn bull. A odd combination of emotions swirled in Libb's chest right then. Admiration. Worry. Probably slight attraction. Fear. But all she could do was step back, giving him the room he needed to step.. kind of straight and face the bull. However, Libbs couldn't exactly chastise him in this situation. Rather- she took his orders, stepping back for a brief second to think.
She looked over him one more time, her eyes shrouded in worry and guilt. Geez. She really ought to have left him alone. But now wasn't the time for that. She needed to follow through here. Her brain thought hard, until she had an idea. A bad one, but still an idea.
She whipped the bandana out of her head, unfolding it into a nice little flat fabric in front of him. A faint memory recalled something. Therefore, a bright red fabric was in plain eyesight of the bull.
Ole.
And that bull caught sight of it and roared into a charge.
It was a shame that the bull might well end up dead for this (something he was certain that the farmhands and the farmers wouldn't thank them for), but better a dead bull than a dead person. And besides, Neron was sure that Halo could make good on a few reparations in that regard. Anyway - ole indeed.
Following the bull's charge - directly at Libbs, whoops - Neron reached deep into the wellspring of his magic and lashed out as the beast barrelled by. Not with ice this time, no. This was more insidious, and Neron tapped into the bull's reserves of strength and pulled at them, draining the life away until the creature's legs buckled and it tumbled, skidded and clumsily staggered to a stop a few feet before Libbs.
Rejuvinated if not healed by the act, Neron nodded at the farmhands. "I suggest you tie that thing up," he said sharply. They didn't argue. Glancing back at Libbs, he nodded at her. "Are you alright?"
01-29-2020, 08:05 AM (This post was last modified: 01-29-2020, 08:06 AM by Libbs.)
LIBBS
Oh yes, Libb's memory worked. A bit too well in fact. As that bull started to charge, a squeal that threatened to break glass cut the air for a brief moment, before Libbs started to run in the midst of his casting. She didn't make it very far though, as she heard some exhausted, concerning, grunting and groaning from behind her. She then awkwardly came to a pause, a bit of a distance from Neron, and the now collapsed bull. Huh.
She walked back up to him, scratching at her head, looking over herself. She could feel some sharp bumps of pain on the sides of her hips and her chests. Shoulders. But, no bones were broken, she thought, and no gashes.. least not worth any crying about. "Yeah, I've been roughed up by worse.." she shook up her body, looking back to Neron. Suddenly her eyes lit up! Wait! Wait a second!
"What about you?! Weren't ya bleedin' a second ago?! You could hardly stand! Shouldn't we like, get a doctor or somethin?!" she exclaimed.
Neron watched sharply as the farmhands corralled the bull and got it back into its pen, the Warden mentally cursing Bessie and his stupid name the whole way. Once it was safely out of sight or harm, he let out a pained breath and glanced across at Libbs, giving her a cursory look up and down to make sure she was in one piece. Her worry had a quick smile flickering across his face, and he shook his head.
”Believe it or not but I’ve also been roughed up worse.” Gods if it didn’t hurt though. ”I’d say they owe us a bit of cotton after that escapade, don’t you? Then I probably ought to get myself looked at, just in case.” At least he managed to maintain his dignity, after being kicked in the chest by a gods damned bull.
