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!
There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day
Ok well we all know exactly what you're choosing. Honestly, do I even have to spell it out?
You try look somewhat nonchalant as you catch the locksmith's eye, making your way over to lend him your aid. And before anyone protests, look, yes you've got plenty of skill picking locks- it makes sense you'd be the one to aid in making sure they can't be picked by anyone else.
So yeah, of course you're going to work with the locksmith. And of course you're going to offer him some cash in exchange for a copy of the keys. Look, you don't want to rob the Governor and his First Dude - you don't even particularly want to go inside the thing, once it's been christened - but a scoundrel's gotta do what a scoundrel's gotta do. And if Vai gets upset, well, really it's insurance to make sure they can check on her children the next time they do something thoroughly hair-brained like try to burn down the house.
Zeph chooses locks and is gonna try and bribe the locksmith into giving him a set of keys. Nobody is surprised
And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say?
I never had a chance to be soft I was always bloody knuckles
Another day, another series of options. The youth hadn’t snagged at the usual notions, surveying the options carefully, precisely, and thinking over her general irritation towards her uncle, settled on the mosaic. Her eyes inclined towards the potter, bright, mischief rendered, fully capable of being an absolute shit – and any other nuance wouldn’t prevail here. “What do you think about a lightning rod, right in the middle?” Perhaps Sunjata and Nate could pretend it was some divine phallic symbol, but she, and so many others would be able to see the streaks of electricity and the rampant stupidity of moments cast seasons before. Heh. And with that, the grin widened, and she assisted in the plans, designs, and orchestrations.
--
Melita helps plan out a lightning rod mosaic!
and shards of glass I wanted people to be afraid of hurting me
That leaves Vai to the doors. She's not an expert carpenter (the Wren Society, anyone?) but the man with her is, and she's happy to follow his lead in creating pretty doors and shutters that are sturdy at the same time. They also have some lovely looking locks.
As it turns out, both Zephyr and the locksmith are as crooked as each other; the bribe is easily palmed and squared away, and at the end of the day the dockhand will find himself with an extra set to the house, just for him. (So evenly footed are the two criminals, that Zeph even gets himself a shiny extra key, for that hidden tunnel).
Ray, like Vai, has an easy time following in the seamstress's lead, and the house, while bare of furniture, is beginning to look a lot more like a home should. A skeleton, ready for Sunjata and Nate to flesh out on their return.
It's when the sun begins to set and they all gather outside that she notices the mosaic, depicting one of the Flood's least impressive moments. Vai doesn't laugh - she winces, remembering well the thunder of Sunjata's heart, the way his hands trembled, the fear and the pain. Clearing her throat, she raises a brow at Melita. "I didn't realise you were so callous," she murmurs.
The sun sets. The sun rises.
And on the final day, it's just the four of them for the finishing touches. Vai has with her a few seedlings; flowers, herbs and other plants, as well as a couple of sweeping brushes, some paint, and a long strip of fabric to make into a banner.
"Last stretch, guys. Thanks for all your help!" She smiles.
Zeph has earned secret keys to the kingdom.
Melita has earned Vervain's Disapproval.
The following tasks are available!
- Sweep throughout the house to clean up a bit (2 people)
- Make a 'Welcome Home' banner for Jata and Nate
- Repot some plants to make the start of a herb garden
As soon as someone mentioned an herb garden, Ray claimed the task. She inspected the plants available, most were common herbs seen in cooking. Ray quickly ran home to her herb shop and grabbed a few seedlings for some more exotic herbs, a few medicinal plants, and one or two simply beautiful ones. She put them all in a cart and wheeled them back up to the construction site. There she scored the site until she found the perfect plot. A piece of land with plenty of sun. Ray took some rope and sectioned off the barrier of the future herb garden, including barriers for different sections.
Ray spent the rest of the day potting the herbs and tending to them until she was certain that they would grow. She arranged the pots into three sections. Edible, medicinal, and aesthetic herbs. Each section was labeled and each plant had a nametag. On the tags for the edible and medicinal plants Ray included a description of their uses and which parts of the plant could be used for what. By the end of the day Ray's hands were covered in dirt but she was deeply satisfied. It was small but it would be a great start for an herb garden.
Ray is potting the herb garden with the plants available and some from her shop.
r a y
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
—Albert Camus
I never had a chance to be soft I was always bloody knuckles
She should’ve known better – but her level of audacity and belligerence had weighed far more heavily over her morals, and the note of scolding rendered from Vai stopped her in her tracks. Her head bowed, and her cheeks colored an obvious red; some of it in anger (for herself, most likely, rendered abhorrence for the necessary target), and some of it embedded in obvious shame. The impulsive, impetuous act had earned her a measure of something like a slap to the face, and it pooled deep down in her gut – a long time since she’d had to bleed into the sentiment.
So in silence, in the dark, she asked the potter for supplies, to try again, to instill rudimentary, likely horrific efforts, contorting and recreating until dawn reached. The lightning rod would’ve been taken apart, each piece by piece, carving straight through her sorrows, through her humiliation, through the way she’d acted and displayed. If there were tears and sobs, she’d done her best for them not to echo in the hollowed frames of the house, wiping them with the back of her hand.
Eventually, there would be a dragon, fanged and ruthless, in its place.
And when she arrived the following morning, obviously exhausted, she couldn’t meet Vai’s eyes. She couldn’t do anything but silently tend to the tasks at hand, wishing she’d been early enough to grab the plants, be able to pulverize them into soil. Instead, she took up a broom, simple, where she likely couldn’t ruin everything.
--
Melita falls apart into Great Shame, and redoes the mosaic in the middle of the night to a dragon.
Then takes up sweeping!
and shards of glass I wanted people to be afraid of hurting me
11-23-2020, 06:20 PM (This post was last modified: 11-23-2020, 06:22 PM by Zephyr.)
There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day
It helps to have friends in low places (and sometimes be the friend in the low place), and you walk away at the end of the day with a new set of keys tucked into your pocket and a great sense of self-satisfaction in your breast. In fact, you're in such a good mood that it carries over to the next day, when, whistling a filthy ditty, you merrily take up the task of welcoming the children home.
You're an artist as well as a scoundrel, and you settle into your task with the gusto of someone who both gives far too many and critically zero fucks. Through sweet talking and promises you get a local seamstress to swiftly sew all the pieces of fabric together into a massive, hodge-podge sail of different colors, textures, and shapes. Then you paint your message upon it, the large lettering flourished and embellished with a collection of tasteful phallus motifs, some assery, and so forth. Bordering the words on the upper right corner is a beautifully painted octopus in shades of orange and red and black; on the lower left a pod of bone whales swim through the depths.
And the content itself? Well, when you step back with a satisfied smirk, the massive and overdone banner reads:
Welcome home, boys!
Tō tero! Tō raho! Tō teke!
And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say?
And so it goes. At first Vai isn't sure she wants to trust Zephyr with the banner, but the result is gorgeous and perfect in ways that have her both impressed and cringing. The herb garden is planted without incident, and between Melita and Vai, the inside of the home is swept clean and ready for the inhabitants to move in (of which the honeybee girl is one, she's to understand).
The sun sets on this final day of house building - there's still a lot more to do, but that they can leave to the homeowners. The Governor and his husband will have a very decent baseline to work with now, at least. "Thank you for all of your help!" Vai chimes through the twilight. "Let's head to the Hanged Man - I've arranged for food and drink for all of us. We'll sleep well tonight, I bet!"
And thus concludes this PQ! Thank you for all of your help and hard work! Sunjata and Nate will now have a house when they arrive home from honeymooning!
