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 wasn’t any time to glean satisfaction from the hit that brought Aurelia down; besides, Melita only truly gloated when overcoming an enemy, or an adversary. Her, once, fellow smuggler was neither of those things, and even through these tumultuous, tempestuous times, the honeybee still clung to such values.
Thereafter, she chose her defensive stance, expecting a rise from the sand, from the dirt, from the soil, some manner of vitriol and vehemence to overcome. Not a full blown charge, headlong into the waves.
But that’s what they did – her body bending and swaying to the motions, falling off the shoreline and into the coast itself, with a powerful oof flailing from her lungs, from her breath. And then a laugh, because while Aurelia would likely sink, Melita remained firmly on the surface, laid out across its veneer, the anklet almost eternally in place; the charms bobbing up and down.
There would be a sore ribcage tomorrow, based on these tactics, but she rose on another giggle, standing atop the unfurling current like a nymph with a vengeance – rounding a kick towards the Arbiter.
At first, Aurelia felt a seething sort of anger rile up within her, spurring her on to charge at Melita. She has been through a lot these past weeks. Much of it has been brought upon herself, and yet she cannot help the anger, the resentment, the frustration and the hurt that has built up over it. Much of it... directed upon herself.
To have something to take that anger out on, even if for a moment, is satisfying - and the feeling terrifies her but she doesn't know how to reign herself back from it.
But as she resurfaces, expecting to find Melita down in the water with her, she spies the honeybee standing atop the waves like some sort of fae being. Her teeth grit for a moment and she slaps the foot away. Her only retaliation, at first, is based on instinct, impulse, urge. It's weak. She splashes at Melita with a vexation that quickly fades, and laughter soon rumbles up out of the fibers of her being. It rolls out through her shoulders.
"That's not fair, you ass!" She chuckles out.
Aurelia uses the leverage of a nearby rock to shoot forth and try to unbalance the still-smuggler again, reaching for her legs to pull her down.
looking in the mirror, drop of rum on my tongue with the warning to help me see myself clearer
Melita had deserved anger from others before; but not in this instance. So even if Aurelia fumbled along in her seething range, the honeybee stoked sillier ramparts, laughing in the face of wrath and umbrage, of worlds before that had taken her down, and this one too, where she refused to bend and break.
Dancing away from the splash, she yielded to giggles and merriment, even in the midst of a spar. “It just makes it more challenging for you.” Truth be told, the youth hadn’t expected to be sent into the water – that had been as much Aurelia’s decision as Melita’s wearing of the anklet.
Regardless, as the other woman rallied, she dodged, twisted, and turned; but hands grasped and pulled, and laughter rang as she began to lose her grip on the surface. An instinctual kick lofted and rallied this time, intending to hasten towards palms, limbs, a face; anything within reach.
07-09-2021, 10:06 PM (This post was last modified: 07-09-2021, 10:54 PM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
Aurelia grins determinedly back up at Melita, shaking the dripping water from her face until she's diving into her next move. She tries her damnedest to get the honeybee and she only misses and.. "Fuck!"
The kick does reach her face, hitting her right in the cheekbone, sure to leave a shiner. The burn of pain only inspires her to reach out and grasp that very same foot. Her fingers dig in almost like claws, grabbing hold of the anklet around Melita's foot.
She gives it a sharp tug, using the leverage of her own strength to try and snap it off.
looking in the mirror, drop of rum on my tongue with the warning to help me see myself clearer
“Hey-,” was only a garbled shout before hands grasped and reached, tugging at her beloved item. Never before had it been under such a looming threat, and the youth kicked, screeched, howled, all to no avail.
It snapped, the charms still managing to remain, but the tether away, away, away from her –
And she descended, straight into the waves, into the roll of the tide, sputtering only because she wasn’t ready. A few strokes of her arms and Melita no longer flailed so ridiculously, at home and accustomed to the breadth of the sea – and in those matter of moments she became some banshee figure rather than any nymph, any regal fae. Fingers clawing, reaching out to grab, to snarl, to snag, a looming, disastrous look about her – doused, flaming red hair streaking behind, as if she’d risen straight from the ocean and it was yearning to spit her back in again. “Give it back!”
Aurelia lets out a startled guffaw of laughter as Melita plummets into the water, suddenly realizing the power in the piece of jewelry that's now stolen into her own hands. "Hey! Thanks!" She retorts jubilantly, a grin spreading across her cheeks.
As soon as Melita swipes and claws and fiends after the anklet, Aurelia dodges back from her clumsy, frantic movements. She proceeds to duck down beneath the surface, feet kicking out away from Melita as she goes. Her hands reach for darker depths; even without a manta jewel around her neck, she's able to hold her breath for quite some time. Perhaps it's a skill she's honed just by being a Torcher; something she'd never needed before but now it's wholly necessary.
She glances over her shoulder to see if her friend is giving rampant chase. Thinking that she must be, she peddles downward faster.
looking in the mirror, drop of rum on my tongue with the warning to help me see myself clearer
A fiend, a ferocious, unwinding fury, she dove after Aurelia. The sea parted its way for her, a streamlined swimmer since childhood, a babe in the oasis under the bright, blue illustrious sky. Breaths held, she clambered and clawed much the same, but held all her grace below the surface.
Combined with vehemence and anger, wrath and contempt, down, down, down, reaching out for Aurelia again – maybe her hair, maybe her clothing, maybe anything to grab and hold and snarl. She cannot howl or scream in these fathoms, but it scarcely mattered; she suspected every ounce of emotion was ignited in her motions and movements alone.
07-13-2021, 10:46 PM (This post was last modified: 07-13-2021, 10:47 PM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
Melita does manage to snag onto Aurelia's clothes, the press of her twisting, furious fingers enough to force the arbiter to stop. She cannot speak, but bubbles do swarm from her lips for a moment as a muffled sound of protest warbles through the water.
She turns toward Melita with a calmer grin, in spite of the seething rage the girl so plainly wears, so plainly enacts upon her. The desperation to reach the anklet is unnecessary, as it is nowhere to be found in Aurelia's hands, of which she opens with a shit-eating grin to display this fact.
In the storm Melita waged to grab hold of her, it had been dropped, and floats idly downward several feet behind the duo, threatening to be lost to the depths of the ocean. But Aurelia points at it, before kicking away to try and go back to the surface.
looking in the mirror, drop of rum on my tongue with the warning to help me see myself clearer
07-15-2021, 02:56 PM (This post was last modified: 07-20-2021, 12:34 PM by Melita.)
but there's chaos brewing
underneath my skin
If she were not underwater the girl might’ve howled and bared her teeth, shown ferocity in more than just her gaze and her viciousness; the vehemence pervading from her form. But it took only a moment for her to stare, and her brain, to realize the situation, shifting that rigid, resolute convictions from Aurelia, and to the anklet floating behind her.
Her lungs were burning, but so was the rest of her, and she didn’t care, didn’t care, at one with the current and the waves, shifting quickly, efficiently, to grasp hold of the precious artifact. Her hand reached, fighting against so many other bombardments, determination in the stretch of her fingers, in the restless breadth of her quaking breaths. Her world was on fire and it was all right, because the anklet was in her grasp.
Then she was kicking, kicking, kicking back to the surface, billowing over the veneer in one extended gasp as she broke through – victoriously clutching the broken strands and the Fae charms. No glance given to the Fireheart; nothing more than the echoes of some blistering vestiges.
