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!
Don't worry, Mateo has said as they walked towards the Hanged Man, I'm your older brother, so I'll make sure you're allowed into the bar. It's delivered with a cheeky, dimpled grin of course, because even though he is older and they both know it, no one would believe it. (They probably wouldn't serve him either).
Regardless, his afternoon out in Torchline is going to culminate here whether Flora has to vouch for him or not, the boy gazing up at the moody cloud cover as they stroll into the Hanged Man. "I thought Torchline was supposed to be sunny," he says, raising his eyebrows at her. "The bird of paradise I got you is never going to grow if it's overcast all the time."
"That's so sweet of you." Flora murmurs, resisting the urge to ruffle her smaller/older brother's mop of curls.
"Okay so, there's like..this seasonal diety thing or whatever, and apparently someone built her a shrine here and so she's making it cold." The girl explains, trying not to make it obvious that she's shortening her steps so that Mateo could easily keep up. "We pretty much all hate it, so I think a few people are going to get together and knock it down." She continues breezily with a shrug of her shoulders. "But oh! That's so sweet that you brought me a flower! After this I can show you my new apartment and you can figure out where it should go."
Pushing open the door to the Hanged Man, Flora offers a wink to the bartender who happens to be a rather gorgeous girl with long red hair. She orders herself a sangria, liking the way the word sounded like something from the travelling tongue.
"It is, isn't it?" Mateo agrees with another dimpled smile, heading up to the bar with Flora but sans wink to the girl serving them drinks. Instead he squints up at the rows of liquor and wine and other such things, not wanting any of them but recognising most as being present in the White Hart, so at least there are those similarities. His sister gets a sangria and Mateo orders himself a cinderella this time, glancing up at Flora as she explains.
"Oh, that's... why would someone do that?" He wrinkles his nose, accepting his drink and juggling it and the plant over to a table (he pays with a few sprigs of a peppermint-basil hybrid). "Can't one of the other gods do something about it? Frey or another seasonal deity or whatever?"
Slurping at his drink and setting down the plant on their table, he inspects it to ensure it has enjoyed the journey from his atrium to the islands. "She needs a lot of humidity and sunlight. Imagine she was in the Oerwoud - that's what you should give her," he explains.
"Honestly, no idea. I hate the cold." Flora agrees, plopping herself down into a chair and adjusting her hair away from her face. "Maybe they could but...why not just remove the shrine. No one even really knows who built it, so..." So long as it gets done so Flora can continue working on her tan, she doesn't care much who is responsible or how it's accomplished.
Wincing a touch as her brother slurps, Flora by contrast delicately raises her glass to her lips and takes an inappropriately delicate sip (mostly because sangria is actually a bit disgusting). 'So like...the bathroom? There's a window in there and plenty of moisture from the shower? Or...I dunno, the kitchen?"
"Mm, same. When I went to visit Everest in Halo, it wasn't that much fun. We saw a white dragon, though. And a lot of herbs and flowers and vegetables in their big greenhouse. And I ate ningo fingers." It would be nice to say that this is just Mateo's childlike train of thought at work, but the truth is, it's a trait that will absolutely follow him into adulthood. He slurps again - louder, because he sees Flora wince - and smiles over the rim of his glass.
(You've clearly never had good sangria). "The kitchen would be good," he agrees. "You can get a mister and spray it every day. It's good for your skin too, to keep it hydrated. Don't want you to get any more wrinkles." He waggles his eyebrows at her. "So where's the shrine, if people are gonna try and knock it down?"
"Ooh a dragon? It's so weird to think that they get bigger than Sugar, you know?" Running her tongue defiantly across her teeth as her little brother continues to act his age, Flora tosses a strand of perfectly curled hair over her shoulder and wonders if anyone in the bar has mistaken Mateo as being her child. Ew.
'Ugh, as !" Flora hisses, before leaning forward to inspect her fact in the salt shaker on their table. There isn't a wrinkle in sight, but that doesn't mean Flora won't absolutely be doing an intense anti-wrinkle mask that evening just to make sure.
"I have no idea." Taking another sip of sangria (of course she hasn't had good sangria, you think the bartender is going to offer her anything more than cheap wine mixed with juice?), Flora shrugs. "Why? You want to go be a little hero like dad and knock it down yourself?"
"Mm, era enorme." Mateo nods, shifting to sit cross-legged on his chair and leaving his drink now for the time being. (He's got brain freeze from showing off at Flora, okay?) "It looked like Sugar's great great great grandfather or something." He doesn't wonder if anyone in the bar assumes that he's Flora's child, but rest assured that if the thought did occur to him, he'd be just as grossed out.
"Are you sure? I have heard that the sun causes your skin to damage at a much faster rate. You might look like a hag in like five years," he teases. As for being a little hero, the face the boy pulls is remarkably similar to Flora's when it comes to wrinkle-searching. "Gods, no. I just wanted to go and look at it. I've never been to a proper shrine before."
08-03-2022, 06:44 PM (This post was last modified: 08-03-2022, 06:44 PM by Flora.)
flora
'Is that...even possible?' Flora wonders, of Sugar's family being out in Halo somewhere. "I've never heard the story of how Ronin got her. Just something about a lobster." Except she wasn't really paying attention, because she'd been a literal child.
'Omg, I forgot how much fun it is hanging out with you.' Flora says sweetly before rolling her eyes and sneering. Luckily for them both perhaps, Mateo says something interesting (read: something Flora has done that he hasn't) and instantly perks up. "Gods, you have to go. Especially as an accepted, it's incredible." She gushes as if visiting shrines was the latest trend of which she happened to be a trendsetter. "I went to see Frey and they were amazing. They gave me a quest and everything."
"Well isn't Sugar just... a white dragon but littler?" Mateo tilts his head, before his brows furrow. A lobster? "No, Pa got her at Deepfrost in some icy oasis in the Hollowed Grounds, he said. There was a whole clutch of eggs but hers was the only one that survived. He thinks that's why she's so tiny," he explains, before grinning. "But she doesn't act tiny."
Leaning back in his seat a bit (and mentally packing away the term OMG to use with Ever later on), Flora's gushing is like something physical being thrown over him, and he wrinkles his nose. Right up until she mentions Frey anyway, and all of his cheer vanishes. "Does Dad know?" he asks softly. "He said that you should stay away from Frey - that nothing good comes from interacting with them."
'Well, yes, obviously. I meant if the dragon you saw could be related to her. It isn't like Halo is the only place they're found Mateo.' And then, because he had started it, she adds: "Oh? Is that why you're so tiny?" Mateo didn't act tiny either, so you know, the similarities really were piling up.
Frowning with disdain and annoyance, Flora huffs. "No, and so what if he did? I can do what I want." The really frightening thing about that, was that it was true. "Okay but, Mateo, did you know if you aren't a dick to the gods, they aren't a dick to you?" Raising her eyebrows, Flora shoots her brother a triumphant look. "I wasn't grabby or all glowery like dad is, and surprise surprise, they were really wonderful."
"Yeah? Where else are white dragons found, Flora?" Mateo asks with his eyebrows raising up into his mop of curls. He knows, because he had to write a paper about it for a class in the Collegium. And he's dying to hear her answer. "And," he adds, lifting his drink to take an exaggeratedly dignified sip of it, "I am not tiny. I am a dream come true." So there.
Whether or not he is technically the older one, though, Flora definitely has more life experience in other areas (like this one), and so although his mouth opens and closes like a goldfish, he can't help but give her credit where it's due. "I... really? They were?" He tilts his head, gazing into his drink. "You said they gave you a quest too, right?"
"Well obviously in the Hollowed Grounds since that's where Ronin found one." Flora replies primly. "And also in the Cordillera. Obviously Mateo." Rolling her eyes, the girl lifts her drink to her lips. "More like a nightmare." She murmurs, making absolutely no attempt to lower her voice.
"Mmmhmmmm." Clearly happy to be the center of attention again, Flora sits up with a slight shimmy of her shoulders. "They were beautiful too, and so interesting." She continues, punctuating her words with various raises of her eyebrows. "I just need two more types of feathers and then I'm done. I already did allllll the other parts of it."
Narrowing his eyes over the rim of his drink, Mateo resists the urge to dip his fingers into it and flick it at her - mainly because he's quite enjoying it, actually. "You're the nightmare," he informs her. "And I bet Enzo thinks so too." Brothers ganging up on sisters? Impossible and unheard of, right?
Still, he's more than happy to let her have her attention - because he really does want to hear about Frey - and the boy tilts his head to hear about her quest and her description of everything. "What other feathers do you need?" he asks, enthralled. "Are they going to make you a pillow? Or a feather boa?"
'RudeDavid Mateo!' (Rude comes out Roo-daaaah). Pressing her fingers against the bottom of her glass so that it won't tip (you'll see why), Flora gives the table a good hard shake to spill Mateo's drink while maintaining a posture of utmost innocence.
"A Ningo and a Gore Crow. So I'm going to be going on a trip soon with all my wonderful new friends." She says grandly, and, in her opinion, Melita and Hadama were pretty grand. "No, and if you must know, Mr nosey, it's going to be a weapon."
