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!
Fired up from the Sea of Dreams, the demigod takes her leaves of Maea and continues onward, traipsing single-mindedly across the cracked and decrepit earth until something stirs in her and in the middle of the barren wasteland, a monster is born.
Wings sprout from her back, her skin ripples as scales overtake nanites and flesh, and what short hair she has erupts into a hissing visage of serpents. The new creatures stretches and rolls its neck, until there are several satisfying cracks and then she straightens, flaps her newfound wings, and takes to the sky. In the dark, anyone who knew Amalia might think this woman to be the long-lost Archangel, coming out of the depths of nowhere to make haste to Stormbreak.
They would be mistaken. Wessex flies until she spots a massive boneyard, and, curious, descends. Only to find another shrine of bones. And so the Wraith smiles wickedly, and begins her destruction, letting half her Gorgon features go so she can set her lasers on the skulls.
here I am again, bad news from a bad friend they call me an omen - only here to torment
The sisters go roaming in the wake of the attack on Stormbreak. So few remain, so why should they? Their bonds are snapped and trailing, leaving behind nothing but emptiness. No kin to share in their grief. No direction for their hurt, their rage.
The winter cold invites them to the warmer reaches of Caido. Funny, how before the borders began to open and the barrier fell, Anju was certain she would never be an explorer. Now, she spends more time outside of Stormbreak than within its walls.
Faith can only take her so far. She finds shrines in places she never expected them. Monuments of loyalty that strike something in her heart - not quite hope, but something similar. So she travels to these for lack of any other goal, guided by word of mouth. She goes through so many pairs of boots that she begins to pack extras in her bag, ready for replacement after running out one too many times between pockets of human settlement.
Fate is a fickle thing, but so far it has kept its hands away from the sisters.
Until today.
Today, she finds a stranger, destructive and blasphemous, destroying the perimeter of a shrine Anju has trekked many days to find. At first she is certain it’s a mirage, or a hallucination brought on by thirst. But when Riya’s anger is swift and fierce inside her moments later, she knows she is not wrong. “How dare you!” cracks whiplike and immediate, no pleasantries or pleas to stop as she unsheathes her sword immediately, Riya’s fire bursting forth in a lick of threat as her sister breaks into a run to try and get closer. Hoping she can scare or intimidate off the person doing so, but enough a woman of violence to be certain she is willing to follow through if unsuccessful.
Laughter is all the Wraith can summon, moments after the indignant question - no, not even question, just an exclamation - flies through the dry, sharp air. Wessex dosn’t just laugh, she cackles, thoroughly amused that here, of all places, an utter stranger would find her act of desecration.
The fire, however, causes the demigod to recoil reflexively, just as if she’d touched a hot stove. Baring her teeth at the flicker of heat that sends a tone through her sensors, it’s obvious now just what she is, and perhaps why the abomination is doing what she’s doing. Taking in the two of them - the angry dragon and the woman running full-speed towards her, Wessex decides that if they want to play with fire, they’re more than welcome to.
Let’s conveniently forget that Loki wasn’t mentioned in the first post. The Wraith’s desire to respond in kind pulls Loki from the depths of the boneyard. Loudly proclaiming her protection, she rises with aggressively pumping wings, a dark shadow against she sun-swept sky. She fires some warning blasts at the other dragon - intentionally aiming for just past the companion’s body. There’s its opening to retreat. A scree tells the other it should take it.
And Wessex? With no cares left to give, she wields an energy ball and shoves it haphazardly towards her attacker, lips curling into a predatory smirk. “Fuck the Old Gods.”
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Magic: Electric Orbs | The user may summon orbs of electricity to be used as projectiles. Control is excellent, and multiple projectiles may be created at once. (In quests or other combat situations requiring dice rolling, only 3 orbs may be created per post). 30ft range.
Type: Grey | Rank: Upgraded
06-24-2022, 06:29 PM (This post was last modified: 06-24-2022, 06:47 PM by Anju.)
Anju
here I am again, bad news from a bad friend they call me an omen - only here to torment
The other dragon’s cry seems to incense Riya - older, generally kinder, but a soldier all the same - as she rises and extends her own wings, bellowing back as she gracefully spins away from the warning shots. Held back from interception only by the sharp cut of Anju’s command through their bond. Fire licks in the open cavern of her mouth, draconian gaze locked hatefully on the other dragon but hovering in place restlessly for now.
Anju is not so lucky in evasion, though the stranger’s attacks are not warnings like the dragon’s had been. The electricity sizzles and burns against her bare forearms which had risen to shield herself, and she shouts in pain, activating her ring - it does nothing, given the attack had already landed, but hopefully it would defend against whatever else the woman would unleash. “Do I look like a fucking God?!” she bellows, brandishing her sword with her remaining good arm for lack of anything else to do - cursing internally all the while that The Voice armed her children with such advantages. “I won’t let you destroy it. You’ve already destroyed enough,” she hisses, eyes glinting with grief and hate. Was the Tower not enough?
- - -
Beetle Ring | Nullifies Basic Ascended upgrades in a radius of 5ft for 1 post. Requires a 3 post cooldown between uses.
Is that a real question? Does she look like a fucking God? Wessex laughs, a harsh barking sound, that is more derision than amusement, fading away into a satisfied smirk as her attack lands, sizzling into bronzed skin. Loki crows, holding her position against the other, both glinting black eyes on the flames at the edges of her mouth. She knows what danger they might be to her heart-and-soul.
“Haven’t your Gods? They destroyed a whole region with their bubble.” Seething with memories the other could only imagine, Wessex calls up two more orbs, one in each hand. Eyeing the brandished sword, she chuckles darkly and tut tuts at the other woman, smug and obnoxiously overbearing. “You think that's a real threat?" Hurling one of them at Anju, the other is lobbed at the shrine, intending to scorch and mar the bones.
here I am again, bad news from a bad friend they call me an omen - only here to torment
Riya and Loki are at an impasse, snarling predators defending their bondeds. Blood drips onto the sand from Anju’s scorched arm, but her intense gaze never wavers. Even mockery won’t sway her, though she grits her teeth at the awareness of just how weak she is.
“You all seem just fine having taken the place over,” she snarls, “and you don’t see me marching on your borders to kill your innocent civilians. Or are you still pretending that wasn’t an individual choice?” Ronin’s words ring in her head, reminding her that he had begged for them to take the fight elsewhere. Lena’s tear-stained face, Abe’s broken body, they will never leave her memory. Wessex can claim the Gods caused that, but the Ascended had acted alone.
The next scorch knocks her back a few steps with a shout of pain, gripping her shoulder and nearly dropping her sword. But she won’t walk away, even if she has to be burned bit by bit until the demigod tires of her rebuttals or kills her outright. “I don’t abandon my faith or my morals over an inability to kill my opponent,” she hisses. “Just leave, what does your destruction achieve?” It goes against her very nature to talk instead of fight, but Robin’s words hold her back. Stormbreak needs her, she can’t die for nothing.
07-28-2022, 01:49 AM (This post was last modified: 07-28-2022, 01:49 AM by Wessex.)
WESSEX
Go deep throat a cactus
Y’know what Wessex is tired of doing? Talking. Talk talk talk talk talk. Excuses upon excuses and pointless yelling about things they can’t change.
The demigod just… doesn’t care. Not about this lady, her dragon, her sword, what she has to say, or the shrine. None of it matters in the face of what’s going to come. She can’t change that either - can’t stop it, can’t find a fucking relic, can’t sway anyone - and so she give Anju nothing. Well, almost nothing. Wessex grins as her orb hits a second time, purposefully revealing as much as her fangs as possible.
“Then you’re an idiot.” With a mental prompt to Loki, the two of them launch simultaneous attacks, waves of blue energy shooting from the dragon towards her opponent while the Wraith lets her Angry Eyes bore down on the Dragoon. One less fighting Stormbreaker is one less person her siblings have to face, one less fire-breathing dragon to take them by surprise. The solution here is obvious - but this assault is more than a mere solution to a future problem, this is vicious and vengeful. Everything a weapon should be.
here I am again, bad news from a bad friend they call me an omen - only here to torment
Anju has never backed down from a fight before. Even the spirit in the temple had not swayed her resolve. But dying a warrior’s death means nothing, it never has, and Anju has never placed much stock in things like honor and tradition. Her dedication to Mort ensures she doesn’t fear death, but it doesn’t mean she will greet it before her due time. What matters is surviving, enough to be useful to her people for a little bit longer if the war must take her life. So though it feels cowardly and against her nature, as Wessex’s insult meets her ears Anju hears what’s to come in the Wraith’s flippance, and she makes her own choice.
Throwing herself into a side roll over her shoulder to try and evade the woman’s attack as Riya spins tightly away from the other dragon’s attack, Anju prays with a force of faith that has never gripped her so strongly before. Ludo, please. Take us from here. A mere soldier fighting a demigod would be useless, all that remains is a tactical retreat.
- - -
Anju channels specifically to be taken away from the board!
Sorry Anju - you're not a high enough level to control this Pokemon deity yet. Luckily, though, a little friend does hear your call.
Run, it whispers on the desert breeze, even as the air shimmers as if there's a mirage in the distance. Run, it whispers again, as that same shimmering, wobbling quality takes on everything around Anju, making her impossible to distinguish from the Boneyard surroundings.
Run, it whispers, and flees again into the baked earth, giving her the chance to do the same.
A spirit responds to Anju's Channelling and obscures her for her next post so that she can escape!
here I am again, bad news from a bad friend they call me an omen - only here to torment
Anju has never Channeled before, but she has also never faced an opponent she was so hopelessly outmatched against. And certainly never alone. Dragoons always at her back, ready to catch her as she fell, to step in with sword and shield as she would in turn. So many dead, and this woman had been the cause for so much of it.
The voice that touches her ears isn’t Ludo’s, but Anju has spent her life respecting all spirits in Caido, and she doesn’t waste time wondering if she’ll make it. If the dancing, shimmering effect will last long enough for her to escape; a chance is a chance, and she will grasp it with both hands. Anju calls Riya to her side with a thought, and she turns and runs, hand pressing to the wound in her side to staunch the bleeding and numb the area with pressure so she can run as fast as her legs can take her. Thank you, she prays, and hopes the spirits hear her.
Before her very eyes, the Boneyard seems to shimmer, taking on an ethereal quality that makes the Wraith blink suddenly, cutting off the lasers. It’s still there when she opens them again, but this time, the Dragoon is gone. Loki has given chase after her own opponent, but without Wessex to tell her to continue, the companion soon drops back and simply hovers in the sky.
Wessex quickly rubs again at her eyes. Nothing - except now that shimmery thing is gone and her victim Anju’s back is retreating at quite the pace. A deeply dissatisfied grumble pools in the back of her throat, but Wessex does not give chase. Not this time. One final, annoyed blast of her lasers against the bones sends some smoke into the air before she calls to Loki and waits for the dragon to land in her arms. Then off they go, on to the next shrine.
