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!
Enzo's eye had been stolen by a pretty face (or perhaps the scent of something cooking), which left Flora to her own devices. Rather than looking like some wallflower just waiting to be plucked, Flora began to walk boldly through the crowd as if she had somewhere to be. Had this been a world with cellphones, she'd have had hers out so as to give the impression of not being alone. Without one, Flora's eyes travel from face to face and stall to stall, searching for something upon which she could attach herself. One of the worst feelings for one such as Flora was being unmoored, of not knowing what was expected of her or where to be. Rarely if ever was she up for boldly and bravely trying something new where she could make a fool of herself (unless she was in a group); not with the multitude of things that could go wrong.
Spying a market stall that was offering cups of something that smelled hot and spicy, Flora breezed her way over. Only after accepting her drink did she realize that she was expected to pay for it. "Oh! Right, of course. Just let me..." Patting her pockets, the girl realized that while her outfit was impeccably put together, it was lacking in anything that might be trade-worthy. Or rather, it was lacking in anything she'd willingly part with.
"Here - for both of them." Neron's voice cuts smoothly through the crowd as he accepts his own mug of hot and spicy (he can't really smell or taste it, but it tickles his senses enough to be enjoyable). He'd planned to pay with one of the new shots of liqueur he'd created through the VlamVloed, but he adds another to pay for the pretty little thing next to him.
Raising his mug in a cheers to Flora, the Hailstorm's free hand returns to the pocket of his black coat, and he turns his gaze out to the falling snow as he takes a drink. It's a much of a muchness, with senses like his, but it's better than walking alone in the flurries. And he can people watch from here as well as anywhere else.
Transitioning smoothly from sheer embarrassment to elegant appreciation, the blush on her cheeks suddenly looks pretty instead of panicked as Flora twists herself slightly to look up at Neron. "Why thank you." She murmurs, quickly clocking his brilliant blue eyes, height (well, he could be taller), and chiselled jawline. "What a gentleman." Flora adds, her aqua eyes alighting on more details about him as subtly as she was able to while cheersing her cup against his.
That he hadn't turned away from her entirely gave Flora a bit of hope that she might be able to stretch this encounter out until her twin returned. Or longer, perhaps. Maybe this would be the start of a fairytale where the handsome blue-eyed man bought her a drink and then swept her off her feet. Would today be the day she had her first kiss? And oh gods, would she be able to pretend like it wasn't?
Clearing her throat and trying to think of something sufficiently charming and witty to say (this moment might be retold at their wedding, after all), Flora takes a drink and promptly burns her lips and tongue in one go. "MM!" She moans, reaching a mittened hand up to cover her lips as tears begin to sheen across her aqua eyes.
"How kind of you to notice," Neron almost purrs around his mug, his smirk partially hidden by it. "In my experience, we are few and far between in Caido." Granted, the Hailstorm is much more of a cad than he is a gentleman, but appearances can be deceiving and all that. Especially when one is part Abandoned, part Ascended.
He has settled into his appraisal of the sheep perusing the stalls when Flora's somewhat panicked outburst draws his attention again, Neron raising his brows and able to guess all too easily what has happened. "Careful," he warns, taking a gloved hand from his pocket and squeezing it into a fist, before holding it out for her. When his fingers open, a small flower made of ice twinkles in his palm, the perfect size to pop into her mouth to cool it down.
"I didn't intend for you to burn yourself with it, I promise."
"Isn't that the truth." Flora titters in response as butterflies lift off in her stomach.
Wincing, Flora has to resist the urge to rub at her eyes lest she ruins the perfect smokey-lid she'd agonized over before leaving the house. Blinking rapidly to try and somehow force her tears away before they would be able to drip onto her cheeks, the girl stops moving for a moment as Neron reaches into his pocket. Worried that he was going to pull out a handkerchief and scrub it across her face, Flora's tentative look of concern suddenly bloomed into one of awe and delight to see the delicate flower shimmering in his hand. Looking from it, up into Neron's face, and then back down again, Flora quickly pulls off a glove to pick up the twinkling bud.
Popping it into her mouth, Flora tries to coyly look up again from beneath her lashes, preparing to say, "I didn't expect it to be so hot" with the clear insinuation that Neron was the hot thing. However with her tongue and lips scalded and a flower of ice making everything go number, what she actually ended up saying was, "I 'i'n't e'x'ect it o' 'e 'o 'ot." Followed by the sound of a slurp as she hastily sipped in a breath so that the melting ice wouldn't dribble out of her mouth.
"Oh?" Neron can't resist a grin at that, one wide enough to flash his fangs, and he cocks his head to the side as if pretending to have to try to understand what she's just said. He knows perfectly well, of course, straightening back up and leaning in to purposefully blow on his drink, not that he needs to care or worry about it at all. "Hopefully it doesn't leave any lasting damage. That would be a shame."
Remarks about pretty mouths and pretty tongues wouldn't be very gentlemanly, so the Hailstorm leaves that out. "I'm Neron, by the way. It's a pleasure to buy you a drink and cool down your mouth." That isn't much better, but he's not going to apologise for it. "How are you finding this?" His free hand gestures at the stalls and festivities.
One might think with who Flora was that the sight of an ascended's teeth would have the mirth turning to cold slush in her belly. Instead, it was precisely the opposite. If it was a trope that teenagers liked the things their parents hated, at least Flora came by it honestly.
A more experienced Flora might have touched her lip and murmured something about not being able to feel anything while pouting suggestively up at Neron. This Flora though was hoping that at the very least, maybe the burn would give her lips some colour for the time being. "I'm Flora." She replies, raising her cup to her lips, tucking the chunk of ice into her cheek, and blowing onto it as Neron had. "I suppose I should have blown first, too." Which of course was an incredibly subtle innuendo, just in case you missed it.
Thinking she'd done quite well on that bit of banter, Flora straightens as some of her nerves and the adrenaline from having burned her entire mouth begin to subside. "Uhmm..." Twitching her lips (ow), she glances around with a skeptical stare before turning back to Neron. "I mean...okay look—" Pointing to a boy and girl nervously getting into one of the sleighs, Flora shakes her head. "Like, he clearly wants to put his arm around her from how he's fidgeting, and she clearly wants it too, but I bet they're just going to go around and around on the sleigh and have some long doe-eyed goodbye before everyone goes home and —" She was about to say touches themselves to the version of events they'd wanted, but the chunk of ice is suddenly sloshing towards the back of her throat, choking off her words and also just choking her in general.
For what it's worth, Neron finds Flora in all of her inexperience the sort of charming that one might see in a little sister (oops, sorry). And although his fangs slip away, he's still smiling to himself as he gives his drink a slow stir and takes another sip of it. "My understanding is that people enjoy it more if you do," he murmurs, giving her innuendo tit for tat.
It has been a very long time since Neron was able to enjoy any sort of banter without worrying it would cost him his life - and even longer since the banter revolved around gossip. With a coy tilt of his head, he sidles a little bit closer so he can see the nervous young couple for himself. "Perhaps we could give them a nudge," he suggests, just as Flora starts to choke.
"If you think you can last five minutes without being a risk to your own health," he adds.
"Mmmm." Flora agrees with a bob of her eyebrows, smiling stupidly around the rim of her cup which, while girlish, is probably better than giggling. If nothing else, it's better than choking, but...
Clearing her throat and trying to gasp in air while trying not to look like a wounded animal, Flora swallows hard and smiled crookedly to show she was alright. "I promise to be more careful with the things I put in my mouth." She says, before wondering if that suggested the opposite of what she meant. "Come on." Nudging Neron's shoulder gently to encourage him before he could change his mind, Flora set off towards the sleigh, waving a hand to stop them before they could cluck their luxere into motion.
"Hey! I think you dropped this!" Trotting around to the side where the girl was, Flora flashed Neron a go on! look. Just what he was supposed to go on! and do, was anyone's guess though. The girl, wide-eyed with surprise, turned to look at Flora as she reached up and pressed a small something into her hand. "It's lip gloss. It'll look super cute on you." She whispers with a wink before adding, "and it tastes really good too."
"As you should," Neron quips back, though Flora is urging him on only a moment later and the Hailstorm sets off at a lope beside her, more than happy to join her in some assorted shenanigans. He raises his eyebrows at her go on! suggestion, watching her set off to hassle the young woman and leaving him to the casanova. Luckily for Flora, she has found herself a very adequate partner in crime, and Neron swans off to the luxere where the boy is still sitting.
"You know, this stuff warms up the hot cocoa really well," he murmurs, passing up another small bottle of liqueur to add to the drinks. "Helps loosen up the nerves too, if you know what I mean. I think she likes you, by the way." Tipping him a wink, he swans off once more and offers Flora his arm, as if they are just two people happening to pass by.
Though the girl looks vaguely confused, Flora leaves her be and quickly fits herself at Neron's side with a casual flick of her hair. Looping her arm through his and feeling like she'd just saved the world instead of having just nudged two lovebirds towards something they'd already wanted to do, Flora decides that this will absolutely be an adorable story at their wedding.
OR! At the wedding of the two in the sleigh? Who seek them out later and say that their entire love story couldn't have happened if it weren't for Neron and Flora?
Nearly giddy with her own thoughts, it takes Flora a moment to realize she's probably gone too long without saying something. "So...what do you think of the Festival so far...?" She asks, tossing his question right back to him.
Luckily, Neron is not the type to feel awkward in any situation, and with the festivities flowing around them like lazy traffic and the luxere sleigh trotting off with the two lovebirds, he settles into a smug stroll with Flora on his arm. "Mm?" He glances across at her to hear her question. "Oh, it was dreadfully boring until you arrived," he informs her. "Do you know, most people just want to enjoy themselves without causing any mischief at all?"
Huffing out a sigh and finishing off his drink, Neron returns the mug to the stall as the amble past it, giving the merchant a polite nod. "Still, it's the most exciting thing to happen for a while, no? It's all doom and gloom these days. It's quite pleasant to see people not murdering each other for a while."
That was precisely the sort of response she'd been wanting. It wasn't quite as romantic as the other things she'd imagined him saying, but gods if it didn't send butterflies dancing up the back of her throat just the same. "Ugh, so boring." She agrees with a confident roll of her eyes. As they pass the stall, Flora deposits her drink as well despite not having finished it. It was just one of those mirroring-things that she unconsciously did. In her mind the merchant was thinking to himself about what an attractive couple Flora and Neron made, and in response, she offered him a gracious smile (even though in fact he'd been thinking about how much wasted cider there was).
"I suppose so. I just moved to Torchline and though everyone keeps telling me how dangerous it is, so far the most exciting thing I've seen is a Hel taking off with some woman's beach hat." Flora shakes her head.
Subconsciously or otherwise, Neron is walking them through the stalls and towards the very edge of the Boondocks, where the moonlight and stars glitter on the freezing, choppy water. "Oh?" He chuckles to hear her speak about Torchline. "I have only had the pleasure of visiting once," he confesses. "And even then it was barely an evening - it was for someone's wedding reception. As you might well imagine, I am not best suited to the sun."
It isn't as though he's kept his status as an Ascended secret, and she hasn't pulled out her pitchfork yet, so Neron assumes it's fine to be candid about such things. "What made you decide to move to Torchline?" he wonders. "And if you say the weather, I might just be insulted to spite you."
