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!
Her anger is a thing of beauty by design. Far, far above the ocean, Safrin delights in her fury. She burns bright with it, imagining rags smouldering and pleas for salvation from starlit waters. Incandescent, blackholes spark into existence near her and then disappear just as quickly with silent snarls that echo out into the void.
"LUDO!" She sings brightly into the cosmos, her voice carrying towards the herald, whatever pocket of creation it might have squirrelled itself away in. That it would go behind her back, that it would interfere with her chosen, that it would act without telling her. Narcissism and vanity make her emotions swell with righteousness until she is as vast as any light-giving star.
”Saaaaaaafrin!” She’s mad, and it can’t help but be excited to wonder why.
Ludo hops over stars on tiptoes painted black with cold, taking its increasingly favoured form of a youth draped in rags. Waggling one of those rags at a black hole opening nearby, it cannonballs into one void and out of another, whistling a cheerful tune and coming to rest in the space between the open sky and the churning ocean.
”Do you know there’s a plague? It’s awful.” It tries to step on a cloud but changes its mind, not trusting Safrin not to have the thing snatch out and try to eat it.
She turns, all starlight and venom, dark eyes fixed on the youthful face. "Oh is that what we're calling it?" Safrin snaps, hands predictably on her waist as she assumes a position of righteous fury. "I had thought perhaps you would have wanted to call it a game, or a trick, or a test." Or whatever other words Ludo would use to describe its antics this time around.
The two had been through a lot together, but long as their lives were, it all boiled down to the here and now. They'd both been different in the past and would be different in the future, so it did no good to hold each other to the standards of moments long departed.
Even so, she was wounded and bruised that Ludo would do this to her. To those she cared about.
”Why would I call it something like that?” Ludo wonders, gazing up at Safrin with a head tilted softly to the side. She stands before it, angry and righteous, and it sits in the cosmos before her in turn, leaning back on its hands with a furrowed brow. ”Oh, I see,” it says suddenly, not that it particularly understands its counterpart’s train of thought.
”You believe I did this. What a sweet notion.” Smiling sunnily, it shrugs its shoulders, rags flapping around it almost of its own accord. ”How did I do it?” Is it wondering to itself or asking Safrin to quantify her claims? Probably a little of both. Getting to its feet, Ludo brushes off its rags and stares down into the dark deep of the world below. ”It isn’t even killing them. What would be the point.”
"Trying to figure out what goes on inside of those rags of yours, is not a game I like to play." Safrin replies tartly, her lips twisting in an unhappy grimace.
As he toys and plays with both her words and her galaxies, the perfectly painted lines of her lips grow tight with her impatience and venom. "As a punishment for the sea panther? For the ghost whales? How am I to know how and why you do what you do." There had been a time, millennia ago, that she had tried. But those days were hardly more than memories, having lost all colour and shape through the ages.
"Perhaps you are just looking to toe the line, this time. Wouldn't want to get yourself in trouble again." She remarks, thinking of when Ludo had been grounded the year before for its meddling. 'Sunjata told me about the incident on the beach. How you appeared. All of this happened shortly after."
09-26-2020, 04:59 PM (This post was last modified: 09-26-2020, 05:17 PM by Ludo.)
LUDO
”So because one of your swooning fans tells you I was somewhere, it means I am to blame for... all of this?” Ludo waves a hand imperiously down at the world below, where it imagines all the fevers lighting up the coastlines and mainlands, like little fireflies. ”How is your Dark Star?” it asks suddenly, rising to its feet and staring up at Safrin with eyes like a void.
”Perfectly fine, I imagine? Now why would I miss an opportunity like that? Why, indeed, would I make my own Lullaby sick, and leave your star to flit about in good health?” It hopes it might be getting its point across in there somewhere - that it absolutely wouldn’t miss a chance to get on Safrin’s last nerve. ”I didn’t do this.”
"Do you deny it? Were on that beach? Was it not one of your creatures wreaking havoc on Torchline's sands?" Safrin snaps back, undeterred. It's only the mention of Ronin that has her stiffening and pulling back as if having smelled something rotting.
"Because you're a menace." The goddess hisses, eyes glaring into the dark voice of Ludo's face, the one she knows exists behind the youthful eyes and pale skin. "Perhaps this is your attempt at hiding your tracks." At being clever. Because the starfire she'd rain down upon the herald should Ronin be touched would be resplendent and complete. As for Remi? Well. Safrin doubted if Ludo actually cared about him at all. There were others to take his place.
I didn't do this. For all Ludo was...strangely, it was often not a liar. Grinding her teeth together the goddess looks up toward the heavens, silently snarling and wondering how quickly Ludo's rags would burn beneath her wrath. "Well. If that is true, then it seems as though we have a problem."
”I did not think we were the type to suddenly keep tabs on all of our pets and creations,” Ludo tilts its head. ”You have gotten very controlling in your old age, Safrin.” With its rags writhing about it, the youth seems somehow larger than it is, and it stands before her as she boils and rages, utterly unbothered. At least until she mentions the problem, and Ludo smiles too wide.
”More than one problem.” It points, suddenly, out into the cosmos, where a star suddenly blazes with light. ”How long do you plan to lie to your chosen, that I am the reason this star still hangs in your sky?”
'And you have gotten careless in yours." She snaps back. Beautifully wounded thing that she is, her charms mean little to her fellow herald. Perhaps that's why she both loathes him so and finds herself constantly seeking its approvals.
He doesn't move and nor does she, but suddenly the cosmic stage has shifted and they hover both near and far, from a very particular star. Drawing herself up to her full height—not that it matters out here—Safrin sweeps a cluster of stars soothingly around her, like a blanket. "Well. You are. In a way." Just not in the way it matters. Still, that didn't make it a lie.
”I think you will find that I am just as careful as ever.” Ludo seems to swell up, a porcelain mask suddenly in its hands, which it settles over its face. In its usual guise now, it surges and swirls about Safrin, like it might peel off her blanket of stars, like it might wink out the Vanya star out of spite. ”In a way,” it agrees, it’s tone cold and empty now. ”Do you think your Star will see it that way?”
Setting before Safrin, Ludo’s rags seem to writhe and dance in its irritation. ”You accuse me of causing a plague. You lie about me on your own selfish behalf. And you intrude in dreams to give your chosen abilities.” It creeps closer, so its mask is nose to nose with the lady of the stars. ”Would you like my rags? You can do the job as well, since you seem to prefer it to your own.”
"Which isn't saying much." Ever on the defensive around Ludo, Safrin glares at the pristine white mask with a haughty stare. She stands still as it flits about her, the stars upon her shoulders shining all the more brightly for her discomfort. "I suppose we'll never know, will we."
She wants to reach forward and grasp the rags out of the air. Having tried such in the past, she knows it will do little good. Still, her fingers curl furiously at her sides just the same. "Get over yourself. Accuse you. You carry disease in your wake. Can you really blame me for thinking it was you?" Huffing and turning her head to the side, Safrin studies something far way in the galaxy. A grave, perhaps. "Now who's being controlling? What dreams are had under my stars are not purely your jurisdiction." Narrowing her eyes, Safrin turns a hot stare back toward the porcelain face. "Oh? And just what is my job. Do enlighten me."
”No. I suppose we wont. Far be it for me to whisper in your Star’s ear.” As Safrin begins again to rage, Ludo’s own anger turns to ice. It hovers before her, unmoving, its mask blank and its irritation absolute. ”What I tell my own chosen ones is my business, however.” Would it whisper to Remi about the situation? And would the Lullaby pass the information on? Who knew?
It hisses under the mask, its void seeming all the darker suddenly. ”I cannot blame you for that. I can blame you for having a tantrum about it, and not simply asking me.” And while she’s correct - their spheres do cross over in places - it means that everything is fair game between them and the dreamworld. ”I can tell you what your job isn’t. Summoning me here to scold me is not under your jurisdiction. Are we done?”
"Ah yes. You who have so tormented his husband. You who have set him on a path of murder. I'm sure he'll be more than receptive to what you have to say. Show him the star if you like, you, master of illusions and things which aren't real." She snarls silently, her face an expression-filled overture to counteract Ludo's own sterile stare.
"This is me asking you about it." Hands thrown in the air in a petulant rage, Safrin is far past apologize for who she is. Especially to Ludo who has witnessed for itself every incarnation of her personality. "Make smart decisions, Ludo. My reach extends farther than yours does." It's a threat and a warning, but one born out of fear that the goddess doesn't hide well. On thin ice with Ronin as it is, she hasn't sufficiently built back up the trust between them that might make Ludo's whispers more tolerable.
Perhaps she will have to pay him a visit..
"Well if I knew what rock you hide yourself beneath, I wouldn't have to summon you." She hisses with a shrug, nose upturned. Yes. They're done.
