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!
It was meant to be just a training day for the Nightshade. Further familiarizing herself with the Phoenix whip that rests at her hip more often than not. The queen knew that now wasn't the time to start slacking. Just because she was fairly strong already didn't mean there wasn't more to learn. Further skills to master. She begins by dragging a few targets through the sand, intent on setting them up in a little makeshift practice area, thinking that the coastline would be as good of a place as any to do so.
Her brow creases as she hauls one through the sand, sweat beading at her temples and jaw clenched with the effort. Aidon watches from the side unhelpfully, trotting back and forth, wanting nothing more than to assist despite not having thumbs.
This is a PQ for learning how to use Maeve's Phoenix whip!
Write yourself arriving and helping to set up the area!
Tal's journey had started at its farthest point, and now he found himself back in Torchline once more, slowly making his way back to Halo - where he belonged.
But first the courier stood hip deep in the waters of the Arclight ocean, submerging a thick glass bottle from the pack he'd left on the dry sand, with a large, pale dragonling curled around it protectively. Only once the water was full did he turn and make his way back to shore, fitting the rubber stopper into place firmly and grimacing as his wet trousers stuck to his skin. "It'll be good to get home again," he told the dragon fervently as he packed the precious cargo away in the small box lined with ningo feathers, before closing the pack up and standing. He wrinkled his nose as his wet trousers stuck to his legs, but the dragon only snorted an amused plume of smoke as she stretched and then shook the sand from her scales.
The size of a wolfhound but built like a mastiff, the heavy-jawed companion wagged her scaly tail twice before setting off towards movement on a nearby headland, and Tal jogged after her with a yelp, carrying boots he hadn't had time to put back on it. "Hey! Boreal, wait up!"
Not listening in the slightest, Boreal headed over to croon a bass greeting to Aidon while Tal caught up and looked over to Maeve with an apologetic wave of his hand. "Sorry, she's friendly, just..." He shrugged a little helplessly, not sure how to describe the dragon to someone unused to her antics.
Only then did he notice what the woman was doing, and he reached up to rub the back of his neck awkwardly. "Uh... do you... need a hand or somethin'?" Not that he had time to be playing around, but Hotaru would probably kick his ass if she ever found out he hadn't at least made the offer.
Darkeye was struggling with the curse on him, the magnetism was getting to him. He avoided the big places and walked with nothing that had metal on it to clear his head. He went in the direction of the water, the probability of being affected by metal there was extremely unlikely. He saw Maeve, but he didn't know who she was. "Greetings," he called to her and saw her handling her whip. His anger at Voice was enormous. He had not expected to meet anyone so soon. He even had to leave his beloved spear behind. With only some water and bread, as well as the wooden sword of Deimos at his side and simple clothes, he went towards her. "My name is Darkeye and you are carrying a very interesting weapon if I may say so." Perhaps it was time to expand his horizons.
The Nightshade grumbles under her breath, digging her heels into the sand and giving sharp tug just as the other dragon appears out of nowhere. Her balance falters and she's sent sprawling onto her ass into the powder find sand below. "Fucking hell.." The queen mutters more to herself, huffing out a sharp breath before she's suddenly accosted by a rather large dragon. Aidon, not one to take kindly to being rushed, grumbles low in his throat. He puffs up his chest, orange eyes trained on the other dragon. They're a clear study in opposites. While their sizes are incredibly similar, the black dragonling the size of a great dane, that's where the commonalities end appearance wise. "Hush now, Aidon. She's not doing anything wrong."
With another huff, reptilian eyes studying this other dragon closely, Aidon relents and offers a greeting back. Maeve pushes herself back to her feet, brushing sand off of her person as she shakes her head, "It's alright. I have one of my own." The Nightshade replies easily, offering the newcomer a small smile before she braces her hands on her hips, turning to regard the training dummies in question. "I wouldn't mind it. For some reason I thought it would be a smart idea to drag these down here myself."
Her smile is charming as she throws it back over her shoulder at him, jade eyes giving him a quick once over and noting that she's not seen him around before, assuming he's not one of her people. Before much else can be said, they're interrupted by the arrival of another and Maeve falters, glancing down at the weapon in question. "Uh, thank you. I'm Maeve." She offers the bit of information for both of them, taking a moment to compose herself.
"I was about to do some training with it if you're interested in watching?" Perhaps an odd offer, but what was a girl to do?
Round 1~
Help Maeve set up the training dummies!
If you're a lover, you should know The lonely moments just get lonelier
Tal groaned as Maeve fell over, putting his hand over his eyes as Boreal made another great first impression. The pale dragon only spared the human a fleeting glance, all her bright-eyed attention on her fellow companion as her tail swept the sand behind her. Once he'd relented a greeting in return she leaned her blunt-muzzled head daintily forward to sniff politely, pleased to meet a dragon of proper size. Not too big and not too small.
According to her standards, at least.
Tal ambled over towards Maeve, reaching her by the time she stood up and accepted his offer. He looked over at Boreal with aggrieved exasperation and then gave an abrupt nod, but before he could speak an old geezer showed up and Tal scowled at the man as he was summarily ignored.
"Fuckin' rude," he grumbled under his breath, but he followed the other man's gaze to Maeve's whip and had to nod in agreement. It was pretty interesting. "Tal," he offered laconically to round out the introductions. He gave a shrug at her offer of watching the training, but the notion of assembling training dummies brought back mostly-fond memories of helping Deimos at the Barracks and his grin quirked up in spite of his sour mood.
Without another word to either of them he whistled for Boreal and groaned as she ignored him. "Oh, c'mon, girl. One thing, then you can play. Promise." She snorted, refusing to look at him until he rubbed his brow. "Yeah, well, there's jerky in it for you if you do..." Sliding a sly glance back towards him, she crooned questioningly. "Two strips of jerky, you swindler," he relented. Only then did she give Aidon a bass chirrup of apology before trotting across the sand to butt her heavy head into Tal's stomach, knocking the breath out of him so that he folded over her and half-slid to kneel on the sand. He shrugged out of his pack and unhooked the lightweight coil of rope from it to loop around her body swiftly in a practised, makeshift harness while she stood patiently still.
The pair of them then proceeded to stamp the sand down firmly in a path leading from one of the training targets to where Maeve directed them before Tal tied the tail end of the rope securely around its base. "Hup!" he called out, setting his shoulder low on the target from behind and pushing while Boreal dug her talons into the sand and leaned into the harness, the pair of them attempting to drag the target into position.
Tal harnesses up Boreal and the pair of them try to drag a target to where Maeve wants it.
A sudden bout of mist begins to swirl rather charmingly around your heels. It’s gone nearly as quickly as it came, followed by the indistinct sound of faraway laughter.
Dragons, and two at once, behaving like little puppies. Ridiculous where was the would of these creatures? Play maximum with their prey but not something like this. These were not dragons, they were deprived of any dignity. Darkeye did not want to say or show this openly, so he smiled eagerly when he saw the two beasts. Maeve the queen, he thought to himself. Darkeye bowed to Maeve again, as was proper in her position. "Tal, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." he indicated a bow and tried to make it look elegant. He simply missed his spear.
Darkeye was glad of the lady's offer, but he wanted to see what was possible first, so he grabbed a couple of logs from Wood and put them together to make a kind of practice dummy. He liked what Tal did and made it after the sand was a good idea. He set up more of these dolls. He was careful not to get too close to Maeve or Tal. He didn't want to explain. There was it again the wind and the loughter...
Darkeye Does it to Tal and levels an area and sets up a doll made of sponge wood.
Aidon had met many a dragon in his time since bonding to Maeve. None that were his size, however. It was almost intimidating. Almost. He blinks owlishly, head tilting to the side as the other leans forward to sniff at him and he bends his head down in turn, nostrils flaring before blowing a ring of smoke towards her. The Nightshade watches the exchange with an amused look, lips twitching at the corners before she looks back to Tal, "Aidon, out of the way." The queen instructs as Tal hooks his own companion up to one of the targets.
It's a fine idea. Truly. Would have worked too if it wasn't for the fraying of the rope that was unnoticed by the Accepted. As soon as the dragon begins to pull it snaps. She winces, lunging forward to catch the dummy before it can fall onto Boreal.
Darkeye has better luck with his task. The sand flattened and dummies placed. Maeve moves her own down with Boreal's help once the rope is replaced and they give it another try. She steps back when it's all said and done, regarding the small training course and giving a nod before she pulls the whip from her hip, the phoenix feather at the end smoldering. "This weapon has a reach of fifteen feet. It inflicts fire damage and can leave some nasty wounds behind."
She explains beginning to wind up the weapon before snapping it against the ground, igniting it with a sonic crack that rings out across the beach, causing a few passerby's to shift their attention in their direction. "The key to this weapon is really in the wrist. As long as you commit to the movement, it will do the work for you. It takes very little force." Another flick of her wrist and she catches the side of one of the dummies, briefly igniting it.
"Care to try?" She offers Tal first, holding out the weapon so he might take it from her and give it a go.
04-11-2022, 04:41 PM (This post was last modified: 04-11-2022, 04:41 PM by Talyson.)
"Yeah, well... same," Tal nodded awkwardly at Darkeye's greeting.
The courier swore loudly and creatively when the rope snapped, even as Boreal huffed reptilian amusement at her bonded's fit of temper. "Fuckin' hail, I can't believe this. Thanks," the courier added gruffly to Maeve as they righted the target before the snickering dragon could get hurt. Teamwork sorted them out in the end, and Tal began unharnessing his companion as Maeve explained the whip.
Boreal flipped one of her jerky prizes up and caught it in blunt jaws, swallowed it down without chewing. The other she took delicately from Tal's hand and then trotted back over to Aidon, offering it with a rumbling bass chirrup.
Tal, meanwhile, had locked his eyes on the burning whip with naked envy as soon as it had burst into flame. His earlier reservations were forgotten as he nodded eagerly and reached for the offered weapon. He tried to hold it the way Maeve demonstrated, but his experience lay in the axe at his hip, and in keeping a straight arm and wrist. He tried to overmuscle the whip's motion and the flick came more from his elbow instead as he lashed out at one of the dummies.
Okay... that was harder than Maeve made it look.
With a scowl he pushed the weapon abruptly towards Darkeye, trying to pretend the heat darkening his cheeks was from sunburn rather than embarrassment. "Here. You try it."
Tal tries to hit a target, but doesn't have any experience with whips >.>
Darkeye looked closely at Tal and Maeve, trying to size them both up. The dragons he tried to ignore.
He looked closely at every movement. He had never swung a whip before. But unfortunately, he often felt it. Since then he had never seen it as a weapon option. However, the phoenix feather in the front made it much more interesting. Putting fire into such a weapon without it bursting into flames was a wonderful idea.
Darkeye first tried to imitate the movement without the whip. When he saw Tal's attempt, he didn't think it was poorly executed. He was surprised that the young man wanted to give up so quickly. "Then I will try," he said as the whip was pressed into his hand. He wondered what he had done wrong and why he had earned this look.
Darkeye took his time and looked at the whip, and the feather and made a few practice swings before he tried to strike with the whip. His legs stood firm as a rock as he lashed out. The power came from his back arm and wrist. But he had not reckoned with the jerk in the whip and he lost his balance. He hit the line but almost dropped the whip. It didn't look elegant what he was doing. "An impressive weapon, Queen Maeve."
A blind chicken also finds a grain. Darkeye strikes with the whip and hits the target but loses his balance. The first time with a whip.
Aidon doesn't like being ignored. Especially not by people who eye his bonded so intensely. He growls low in his throat, orange eyes trained on Darkeye without daring to move them away. Even as Boreal moves away from him to pull the dummy for her own bonded. He's pulled from his glaring as the other dragonling approaches again, trilling and offering jerky. He blinked, eyes darting between Darkeye and the pale dragon, shifting slightly in the sand before taking it from her carefully. His narrowed snout touched hers, breaths mingling before he withdrew, tossing the jerky into the air and catching it easily as he showed off just a bit for her.
The Nightshade busied herself with studying their forms, jade eyes scrutinizing each action an movement, lips pursed in thought. She clicked her tongue as the weapon was handed back to her. "Definitely need some work, but not too bad for your first go." She tossed Tal a wink, a playful smirk curling on her lips as she took position once more, slowing down her movements.
"Watch closely now." The queen instructed, "See how I don't swing my arm? There isn't any need for such power when you're simply striking. Now, if I wanted to get it to wrap around the dummy, that would be different." She swung her arm back, whipping out the length of the weapon away from her body as she leaped, twisting with the motion as the cord wrapped around the body of the dummy. With a hard tug, she sent it falling, jerking again to uncoil the whip and flinging the target off in the process where it landed a few feet back.
Deftly finding the ground again with the grace of a dancer, Maeve turned back towards them, "Try hitting it and then see if you can wrap it around one of the arms."
Round three!
Rinse and repeat!
If you're a lover, you should know The lonely moments just get lonelier
04-12-2022, 04:28 AM (This post was last modified: 04-12-2022, 04:28 AM by Talyson.)
Boreal sat back with a little thrum of admiration - earning a faint groan from her bonded as Tal rolled his eyes at the dragon's antics. His try at the whip wasn't successful - but at least he didn't fall down. His lips twitched upwards out of his scowl towards an unintentional grin at Darkeye's stumble.
He felt a little better, knowing that he wasn't the only one having trouble with the magic weapon.
The look he gave Maeve was rueful, but at least he didn't try to storm off in a huff as she continued her instruction, moving on to a more complicated technique. He slanted a dubious look at her confidence in him as he accepted the whip back - more gingerly this time as his grin faded again.
Perhaps it was the more cautious approach he took, or simply Maeve's good instructions. Either way, Tal shook the whip out onto the sand, rolled his shoulder, and then took a step as if he was going to throw an axe. Instead of releasing from the elbow, he rotated his whole arm into it the way the Queen had done. The whip snaked out, wrapping a fiery coil around the second target's arm and sizzling like bacon in the pan as it began to burn through cloth and wood.
Tal gave a quiet yelp of surprise and tried to shake it loose. It finally came off (with part of the arm) on the third try, and he cleared his throat awkwardly as he handed the weapon off to Darkeye, pretending that he'd handled the follow through with a little more aplomb.
Tal succeeds in wrapping the whip around the dummy's arm, but has a little trouble freeing it afterwards.
Darkeye continued to try to ignore those dragons. Dagger as Aidon growled at him, Darkeye just had to look at him. "A fighter nature understand." He grinned broadly as the food was tossed up and caught by Aidon, nodding in acknowledgment.
The man must still be a child as much as he acted. First angry then laughing and now this doubtful look. What would this man do in a serious fight? Scream his opponent to the ground?
Darkeye nodded to Tal as he handed him the whip. "Well done," he said to Tal. Darkeye first made a couple of trial swings from the wrist the first was too short the second would have missed. Then he paused again for a moment and went through the motions in his head. He did it very similar to what Tal did, except that his punch just hit the dummy. The whip wrapped around the arm of the dummy and he got it off. He tried the whole thing again. His ambition was aroused. But this time he did not even hit the target. He rolled up the whip again and handed it back. "I guess I'll need some more practice," he admitted.
Darkeye hits his target but he tries more often and unfortunately can't repeat that.
They try their best. Truly. Maeve bites back her giggles as the two of them attempt to do as she did. @Taylson is the only one who manages to actually get the whip to wrap around the target’s arm, but the release leaves something to be desired. The Nightshade stands with her hands on her hips, head cocked to the side as she watches him struggle to pull the whip free, finally getting it after a few sharp tugs. ”Almost.” She says, giving him a playful nudge with her shoulder as he moves back for Darkeye to take his turn.
The older Accepted has an even rougher go of it. Darkeye can’t manage to even hit it once. He strikes three times over before finally giving her back the whip. ”It’s a hard weapon to get a handle on.” She reassures, taking the whip into her hand again.
She considers what else to show them, lips pursing in thought before finally settling on swinging as her eyes land on a nearby tree. ”While it’s very good at harming those who cross you, it can also help you traverse the landscape.” Maeve explains, approaching the tree and winding up her wrist to strike. It’s the same kind of movement used for wrapping around one's adversary, but instead of tugging to release, the Nightshade swings and lands a few yards away as her whip releases from the branch.
”Who would like to try next?”
Final round!
Swing from the tree!
If you're a lover, you should know The lonely moments just get lonelier
