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!
"HEY." Mateo makes no attempt to be subtle or quiet about his objection, and to no one's surprise it's nothing to do with the peachy drink that goes sloshing onto the table and down his shirt. No, he's reaching for the bird of paradise on the table, lifting the pot to prevent the shaking from disrupting or knocking it over. "Stai attento! È molto delicata!" He pouts at his sister, looking close to taking the plant right back home with him.
"You do not need a weapon - you can just flutter your eyelashes and people will go to fight for you," he informs her, his accent thicker after his outburst in the travelling tongue. "But I hope that you have fun getting ningo feathers. In Halo."
'Uhm, excuse me?" Flora calls politely over her shoulder towards one of the staff. "My little brother spilled his drink : ( Do you think we could have some napkins and maybe a straw?' Gods, what a good sister she was. Turning back towards Mateo with an eyebrow raised and a no YOU'RE the nightmare look in her eyes, she begins to helpfully blot up the spilled drink once napkins are brought over.
'Okay, well, as it happens, Mateo, it would be really great if you and the rest of the TalIesIns would stop telling me what I do and don't need.' As for Halo? Well, Mateo wasn't wrong. She absolutely didn't want to go. "I'm going to have so much fun. Mom has an entire sauna and spa there so it's basically going to be like a vacation."
Mateo, for his part, does absolutely nothing to help the process of cleaning up the spilled drink, letting Flora play the part of good big sister by doing all the work for him. Indeed, he doesn't bother to sit the plant down again until the table is wiped clean, and when he does he has much more interest in its well-being than his sister's.
"I - what?" He blinks up at her, not yet old enough to understand the weird us and them mentality between their split families. "I just meant that you were pretty. Even if you are ugly on the inside," he informs her airily. "Your vacation sounds boring. But I hope that you have a good time. I need to borrow a shirt from you - this one is sticky now."
The only thing that makes it all worth it is the way the server brings over a new drink for Mateo in a plastic cup with a twirly straw and flashes him a very kid-friendly smile. "Thank you so much." Flora says as she turns before flashing Mateo a triumphant smile.
"You're ugly on the inside." She snaps back immediately. "Ugh, fine. I'm pretty sure I have a headscarf you can wrap around yourself. And you can set up the plant, too." This latter bit is said a good deal more sweetly, because for all their barbs and jabs (and spilled drinks), Flora really does actually want the plant because it's stunning and honestly, it's basically Mateo's fault anyways. If he wasn't such a twit she wouldn't have had to spill his drink.
Joke's on Flora, because Mateo absolutely accepts his new drink in his kid friendly cup with his twirly straw, and he obnoxiously slurps it in one endless sip until it's all very much gone. And when he reaches the dregs at the bottom, he absolutely makes sure that it's all gone. Loudly.
"I can make that work," Mateo says, scooting his chair back (he's done, so Flora should be as well, duh) and collecting up the plant again. "Can you do my makeup too? I need to get more practice and yours is more subtle than the whores at Molly's." Is it a compliment? Does he know?
"Ever is great. He wants to know about sex. I'd ask him to ask you, but I think he probably knows more than you right now." Burn.
As Mateo Mateo's, Flora shields her face with her hands so that she could glare daggers at him the entire time.
She was done, because sangria is gross, but she still takes her time getting out of her chair because she'll be damned if she lets her little curly-haired pube of a brother make her do anything. 'Uhm...thanks?' Compliment or not, it isn't an insult (wait, is it?) and so Flora shrugs and nods. 'You have really beautiful natural lashes, you know.'
Pushing open the door and grimacing at the moderately chilly breeze, Flora raises and eyebrow before both immediately descend to form an unhappy line. "Uhm, wrong (rong-guh) Mateo. I bet you two nerds haven't even had a first kiss yet that isn't on your hands or each other."
If it is an insult, for once Mateo hasn't intended it as one, and he flashes a dimpled smile up at his sister as she (finally) joins him. "Thanks - you do too. We must get it from dad," he says. "Or maybe you get it from Hotaru, but I don't think I've ever seen her eyelashes up close."
Following after her and seeming equally unhappy with the breeze - if not more so, because of his wet and sticky shirt - Mateo snorts as he heads down onto the boardwalk. "I haven't kissed anyone yet," he says, not sounding the least bit embarrassed (because he is a nerd, she's right). "But I've seen a lot of people fuck through the shutters outside Molly's. Who did you kiss?"
"Maybe. Her eyelashes are super light though." Flora says of her mother with a shrug. "So it probably is dad." Either way, Remi had produced some beautiful children no matter what his level of involvement.
Thought so the twist of Flora's lips seems to say as they stroll along the canals towards her apartment. "Ewww! Creeper. Why are you doing watching people have sex? Especially through the shutters?" Giving her brother an appropriately horrified look, Flora turns her gaze out towards the ocean and sighs dreamily. As for who she kissed? The answer was no one, but she absolutely wasn't going to tell Mateo that.
"A lady never tells." Then, as if feeling the reply of WeLl ThEn YoU ShOulD Be FinE, she quickly adds: "Don't even think about saying it." Flora warns, holding up a finger.
Flora says creeper; Mateo says curious scientist who is maybe a bit horny. "What do you mean what am I doing? I am watching, obviously," he says, rolling his wrist in a very Remi way, even if he doesn't know yet that this is who he gets it from. "The whores down that alleyway let me practice makeup and smoke cigarettes with them. It's not my fault that some of their clients are loud and there are no locks on the shutters."
With a mischievous smile, Mateo's lips part to say just that when his sister silences him. Huffing and shrugging his shoulders, he still makes sure to think it - loudly - all the way back to her apartment. There will be gossip bickering, setting up plants and plenty of sibling bonding, to be sure. Whether they like it or not.
