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!
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
"Be careful - I've dealt with these before, and while they're stupid, they can give a nasty nip to your ankles."
Ronin hops down from his nimbus - he's travelled on it with Maeve to get here, in the Sallow Swamp - and onto a mossy hump, before holding his hand out for the madame.
Around them, even though it is no longer Longheat, the air is close and humid, the water steaming like a soup between the mosses. And there's a lot of hissing, a lot of chittering and movement between the gnarled trees.
"So you know how to shoot already?" he asks, keeping his eyes peeled for anything coming right at them through the mist. "We can find you a safe place to stand, and I'll go out and flush some of the gourds towards us. Not that I think they'll need much encouragement."
It feels weird, to be doing something so comparatively carefree in a place so dangerous.
Oh wait.
No it doesn't.
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
07-01-2021, 04:59 PM (This post was last modified: 07-01-2021, 04:59 PM by Maeve.)
Maeve
Maeve grimaces as the air around them begins to stick, hot and thick, but takes his hand anyway. She took his advice, making sure to wear sturdy boots and proper attire for this little outing. Long sleeves had seemed smart at the time, but she regrets them as the humidity makes her start to sweat.
It's off putting to hear the swamp alive around them, filled with so many different sounds that Maeve isn't even sure where to direct her attention. The only thing keeping her from panicking is the fact that Ronin is with her and can likely take out anything that gets to be too much. "I do. Noah taught me. I won't say I'm the best, but I'm getting to be pretty good at it." She's learned the proper form and how to aim, now comfortable with compensating her aim after Noah's lessons.
Her own eyes flit from place to place, not noticing any brave attackers yet, but knowing they likely aren't far off. "That sounds perfect. Just try not to send too many towards me at once." Maeve huffs with a soft laugh, adjusting the strap of her quiver and drawing her bow over her head, holding it at the ready should she need to shoot quickly.
Fight so dirty, but your love's so sweet Talk so pretty, but your heart got teeth
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
His nimbus flutters away, not entirely gone but lingering around the trees in case they need to make a quick getaway. And Ronin, realising that the best place for Maeve to be is, in fact, right where they are standing, hops away to another mossy hump and smiles over his shoulder. "We'll see just how good," he says playfully, continuing to lope away into the trees to try to flush out their snappy, gourdy friends.
"Ready your bow, here they come!" he calls, though his words are punctuated by a quick yelp, and the sound of pumpkin being kicked. A bunch of fragments of vampire gourd splatter across the swamp and hit the water with a splash, and a very grumpy Ronin emerges. Two more pumpkins are shambling towards Maeve now, not at all expecting to be punctured by arrows.
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
It's a challenge of sorts and Maeve is happy for the distraction. Everything seems to be a distraction these days. Her smiles grows as she draws an arrow from the quiver on her back, knocking it on the string, quickly positioning herself on the mossy lump. The tips of her boots threaten to dip into the water, but the Madame makes it work as Ronin traipses off into the underbrush in search of their quarry. "Surely good enough to impress you!" She calls out after him, eyes scanning for the demon plants that are soon to be headed her way.
A dull thud echoes through the trees, followed by splashing water as chunks of pumpkin sink to the bottom, sending brackish droplets into the air. Maeve takes aim, drawing back her first arrow and releasing it towards the closest gourd, grinning when it hits hard enough to go all the way through and send it falling over. Another arrow is drawn and she releases this one too, hitting the second in the side, but not doing enough damage to stop its approach. Huffing a breath, Maeve moves quickly, knocking a third arrow to end the fiend with. This one strikes through the thing's would be eye, causing its vines to lash about before it's flailing into the water, bobbing lifelessly. "Give me another!"
Fight so dirty, but your love's so sweet Talk so pretty, but your heart got teeth
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Ronin inquires, calling out from the undergrowth. His voice is a little strained, likely because of the gourd that has just bitten his ankle (now floating in chunks in the swamp water), but at Maeve's second call, he rustles a bunch of branches and unleashes another two pumpkins, trying to hurry them towards the madame's waiting arrows.
This time when a fat little gourd tries to take a chunk out of him, Ronin is ready. "Aha!" He shouts as he pulls his foot away, hopping across the moss to avoid it. Hopefully he's spry enough to be able to avoid Maeve's arrows as well. "I think I've made enough of a ruckus to have them attacking us without encouragement, so I'll come and join you now."
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
"I'll leave that up to you to figure out!" Maeve shoots back with a huff of laughter, unable to help being amused with the slight strain that weaves through his voice. These little buggers were no joke. They made good practice though. Two more came shambling forward, hissing and chittering, waving their vines as they made a beeline for the Madame with every intention of taking a bite out of her ankles. Maeve knocks another arrow, taking a breath as she draws it back the string, releasing it with an exhale. The arrows goes whizzing through the air, hitting the closer of the two and sending it falling ass over teakettle, bobbing in the swampy water.
She sends another arrow out, but this one hits the moss close to Ronin's foot, almost hitting the side of his foot. Maeve winces, "Sorry!" Her voice rings out, but there isn't any time to throw more apologies his way, not when there is another gourd heading her way. Maeve strikes this one down too, sending an arrow through the top of its body, halting it in its tracks. "Gods these little things are vicious."
Fight so dirty, but your love's so sweet Talk so pretty, but your heart got teeth
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
Ronin is too busy trying to stop a couple of gourds from tripping him up with their vines or biting his legs, so he's not really watching Maeve. Not until the arrow nearly skewers the side of his foot, anyway. "Oop!" It's not an elegant noise, but one can hardly expect an oh dear when an accident like this happens. He takes himself well out of Maeve's range, then, his astral projection suddenly appearing beside her, only for the Star to swap places with it.
It will appear, to someone not really looking, that he has teleported, but honestly that's the last thing on his mind. "Would it make you feel better if I told you they tasted good?" he asks with a grin, taking aim and kicking out at another of the troublesome pumpkins. It connects and goes sailing away, crunching into a tree nearby.
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
She wasn't laughing at him. Not really, but it's hard to keep the laughter in when he hops and stumbles about, making inelegant noises that were enough to almost make her lose focus entirely. To add to her already faltering focus, his astral projection appears right beside her before it's him replacing it all over, but Maeve turns her attention back to the gourds that are continuing to make their way towards them. She lets loose another arrow, the projectile lodging into another, sinking it into the water.
"You've eaten them?" Maeve asks, having just enough time to shoot him a look, brows lifting towards her hairline. Her eyes snap back to one that's gotten a bit too close, landing a sharp kick into its side that sends it flying, vines waving wildly before it hits a nearby tree along with Ronin's. "Why is this so run?" She huffs despite herself, another arrow flying through the air to impale the next pumpkin that dares to approach.
Fight so dirty, but your love's so sweet Talk so pretty, but your heart got teeth
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
Now that he's next to Maeve and out of the way of any low flying arrows, Ronin is able to focus a bit better. And this isn't his first rodeo, so as the gourds begin to swarm them, he turns so he's facing the opposite direction to the madame. He doesn't have arrows, but he does have shooting stars, and one of them lances through the air to pretty much pop one of the pumpkins that gets too close. Unfortunately it does shower them in a bit (a lot) of pumpkin goo. Whoops.
"Oh yeah, of course. I remember the last time I saw these, people were making soups, bread, pies, or just roasting them up and eating them. Obviously you have to make sure they can't bite you first." He grins, sweeping a leg towards one gourd that has gotten a bit too close to Maeve's feet. It goes flying, lining itself up to get hit with an arrow.
"Probably because it's fairly easy and they deserve it." Ronin chuckles, shrugging his shoulders.
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
It's the safer place to be. While her aim has improved and she's much better at actually hitting the things she wants to hit, being in her line of fire was likely not the smartest move, but Ronin thankfully figured that out. She hears the various sounds that accompany exploding vampire gourds, yelping when they're suddenly showered in pumpkin good, seeds and gunk clinging to her hair. Maeve tries to flick some of it off, but there are too many hungry pumpkins to fill with arrows to even spare a moment.
"I didn't even think about that." Likely because she can't cook to save her life, but she's going to have to start figuring that out. Maeve watches as he sends the gourd flying through the air, lining up a shot, the arrow piercing through it with ease. The gourd splatters across the ground as it impacts, pumpkin scattering everywhere, "They do deserve it. How the fuck do they manage to spread this much?"
Fight so dirty, but your love's so sweet Talk so pretty, but your heart got teeth
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
"You should try it some time. Y'know, when we're not standing in a swamp covered in gourd goo," he suggests, smirking across at her only for his eyes to suddenly focus on the space just beyond her. A starbolt whips past them to explode into a pumpkin getting a bit too close - but honestly, right now they're all starting to get too close. A fact Ronin notices as one of the gourds rises up on its vines and snaps at him - only a very well placed duck stops him getting a nasty bite to the face.
"I feel like there's a big mama pumpkin out there somewhere," he says breathlessly as he decides on punching the thing out of the air. "And it spawns all these babies and they're just real hungry. Fuck." Glancing around, it becomes suddenly apparent that they're absolutely surrounded. "Okay, I think that's enough target practice, Maeve. You think you can cover us while I get the nimbus down?"
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
"I'll keep it in mind." Maeve responds, but their conversation is quickly cut short when another gourd comes their way. A yelp leaves her as one lashes out with its vines, wrapping around her ankle, but Maeve lands a sharp stomp to the top of it. Her booted foot sinks into it with a thud, splattering guts this way and that, making her grimace as it sticks to her boot. She spares a quick glance around, seeing that they are quickly close to being overwhelmed, "One of these times we should go hunting for the damn thing. Put an end to this all." Maeve sends a shot over his shoulder, stopping another from wrapping its vines around Ronin, quickly nodding in response.
"Be quick about it! I'm running out of arrows." She grabs another from her quiver, the container much emptier now than it was before they started this whole adventure. At least she can say she's gotten better at hitting moving targets.
Fight so dirty, but your love's so sweet Talk so pretty, but your heart got teeth
gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer
"Now that sounds like a good plan. We'll wait for you to get your bow from Remi and we'll all go," Ronin says, though he doesn't sound nearly as carefree as his words suggest. As Maeve keeps them covered with her arrows, he conjures his nimbus down from the trees, all the while kicking away pumpkins that are starting to swarm. "Well this is a fucking mess," he complains. They both are, slick with gourd guts and bits of vine.
"You'll have to forgive me for this," he says by way of a warning, because they don't really have time to get on and get comfortable before they are entirely overwhelmed. So Ronin merely lifts Maeve by the waist to plonk her on the nimbus, half falling onto it afterwards before they lift into the air. A few pumpkins still cling on, but he kicks at them until they disappear. "Well," he says as they rise above the swamp, "you can't say I don't make your training interesting, at least!"
~FIN
bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator
