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!
11-25-2022, 06:28 PM (This post was last modified: 11-28-2022, 04:24 PM by Flora.)
flora
Flora was adrift, though perhaps not in the way you might think. She was not adrift on the sea, rising and falling with the tides, buffeted by the winds and kept warm by the sun. Instead, she was adrift the way a piece of trash is, as it is tossed by floodwaters on its way to the gutter.
Kneeling down on a rather unremarkable corner of Haulani, Flora touches a part of the ground whose construction is clearly newer than the surrounding areas. This block was put in after a bit of building had fallen, destroying everything beneath it: flowers, the sidewalk, oh, and of course, her twin.
Mumbling a few words through chapped lips, Flora hasn't the energy to shed a tear for Enzo today. Instead, she selfishly holds onto every scrap of emotion she has left. Her sadness and grief are the only emotions she really feels these days, and she isn't about to give them up so easily.
Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness 'Cause it's all over now, all out to sea
11-25-2022, 08:14 PM (This post was last modified: 11-26-2022, 06:35 PM by Hadama.)
He'd sailed in with the Starskimmer today, assisting the rigging crew for the journey from Halo to Torchline as he continued his apprenticeship aboard the larger skyships. There was a large, cloth-covered box that he carried on his back along with his usual Bag of Holding at his hip as he and Boreal disembarked with a wave to the captain and first mate, heading in to Haulani to make the deliveries that had been piling up.
He'd delivered two packages before he came across the kneeling figure on the sidewalk. He didn't recognize her at first; time and grief had worked a transformation on her that the courier almost didn't see through.
"'Scuse me, miss, d'you know where I can find-- Flora??" He stuttered to a halt, fingers twisting around the rucksack strap across his chest as his dragon stretched her neck curiously towards the young woman, muzzle twitching as she sniffed for the scent of Hotaru's hatchling.
Had the courier just made a simple request, the girl might not have looked up at all. Call her rude if you wanted; Flora hardly cared anymore. Hearing her own name sparked something inside of her which had the girl turning tired and sunken ocean-blue eyes in Tal's direction. For a moment she hardly seemed to know him at all, or perhaps the muscles in her face which were meant to convey recognition had given up the ghost as much as the rest of her had.
"Hi." Flora whispered, the greeting coming across like a great effort. Tugging Enzo's sweater more tightly around herself, she gave the rather unremarkable square of concrete a final broken look before dusting off her knees and standing.
Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness 'Cause it's all over now, all out to sea
She was a wraith of the vivaciously sunshine girl who'd breezed through life before the War; a pale echo of a fading whisper. He knew why. Hotaru had told him while Flora had slept like the dead in the little house in Halo. But when she'd come back to Torchline he'd thought--
Except he hadn't. Not beyond how it impacted Ru, and Tal drew a slow breath and reached up to rub at the back of his neck guiltily. "Um. Hey. You uh... you're not doin' so good, huh?" He winced at the blunt question, but there was no point in asking how she was doing when she looked so... brittle. "Look, I know it's been awhile but... " Ah, hail, he was bad in these sorts of situations. He gave a helpless little shrug and reached out without thinking to stop Boreal from sniffing the place where Flora had been kneeling. "Y'need help with anything? I still have your stuff, if you want it..."
Flora had heard nearly every variation of that question. You okay? You gonna make it? Hurts, huh? and so on. It didn't make the girl bristle as it had in the beginning, nor was the urge to spit out the words what in they Frey do you think? quite so strong. Still, the skin around her eyes flinched for a moment as she shrugged.
"No, I don't--" Her stuff? Her..oh. Oh!
Clearing her throat, Flora rubs a hand up the side of one of her arms. "Your uhm..you skyboat..it was destroyed during the attack on the harbour. I don't know if it was the KingMaker that got it, or if it broken what Torchline...you know, lifted, but.." Flora frowns, her lower lip puckering out as her eyes fall towards Tal's feet. "It was a really good one, too." She added, sounding nearly on the verge of tears.
Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness 'Cause it's all over now, all out to sea
Tal wasn't looking at her eyes so much as down at her feet. There were too many shadows in her eyes for him to meet them, and he didn't know her well enough to know where to begin. He could only offer what he had, and what they still had left unfinished between them, and hope that maybe some of the shadows might be.... well, less dark when they were through.
There was probably some poetry in there about light houses or rainbows after a storm or some shit, but since he still wasn't over losing his parents he wasn't going to inflict those horrible platitudes on anyone else.
Pale eyes flicked up at the mention of his skyboat, a spark of hope that quickly faded. He nodded glumly and tugged at Boreal's horns to keep her distracted as Flora explained what had probably happened to it. "Yeah, well... whole world comin' apart at the seams, it's understandable," he muttered. He snuck a second glance up and it looked like she was about to start crying, so he started talking.
Fast.
"Look, don't worry about it, yeah? You tried. S'good enough for me, what with everythin' else y'got goin' on. Here, I've been carryin' this around too long anyways--" His hand dipped into his Bag and groped around for a moment before pulling out the heavy ceramic jar with its sealed lid. Something heavy and metallic sloshed inside as he hurriedly offered it over to her. "Molten tiger drippin's, just like you asked!"Just please don't cry, he definitely did not say out loud as his dragon looked between the two humans and then deliberately stepped one large paw on his foot before he could put it in his mouth.
Pursing her lips in an attempt to keep her emotions in check, Flora sniffles loudly and rubs at one eye with the back of her arm. Watching as the courier pulled out a jar, the girl waited for just a moment to see if there was anything else accompanying it. When Tal didn't reach back into the bag, she nibbled at the inside of her lip and glanced back down toward his shoes. "I guess the treeflit probably died..?" She asked in a breathy sigh, reaching for the jar and looking at it curiously.
Flora still had a quest to finish, and with Enzo gone the very last thing she wanted to do was put effort into anything. Whether or not there really had been a skyboat was now entirely irrelevant, at least in Flora's mind. Though it was too bad she didn't know the courier was maybe trying to bang her mom; that sort of knowledge would have absolutely come in handy. As it was, she could only hope he'd take pity on her, you know, because of her twin dying and all, and somehow produce the bug she needed.
Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness 'Cause it's all over now, all out to sea
The jar was handed over readily, but Tal hesitated at the mention of the treeflit. "Well... no... but..." He scowled down at his toes again and went back to rubbing the back of his neck. The covered box on his back weighed almost nothing, but it was suddenly dragging at his shoulders as he sighed.
"I brought her along. It's just..." Slowly, reluctantly, he slid the straps of the pack off his shoulders and set it down with a gentle pat. Boreal crooned softly to it and nosed at the fabric covering it as Tal crouched down and began to unbutton it to let the light in on the sleeping winged lizard in her padded nest. "She's not gonna be hurt, right? I kept her in the conservatory this past year an', well, we all got pretty fond of her... C'mere, Flora," he coaxed the blinking peacock-toned serpent with a little beetle in his hand.
Quest threads:
Obtain a live treeflit Flutterby
Get the molten gold from a molten tiger Rivers of silver, streets of gold
Unaware of the internal conflict taking place, Flora merely let the silence stretch out. She had learned long ago that if she stayed silent long enough, normally that mere act was enough to get her what she wanted from others. She didn't quite know how it worked, only that it often did.
Kneeling down and peering into the pack, the girl tucks some of her hair behind one ear. "Well...it's a quest from Frey, so I don't think so?" She replies honestly. "I can be sure to tell Frey that you took really good care of her, if you're...you know, one of their followers or whatever." If it was the case that Tal was a follower of Safrin for instance, she knew for certain the goddess wouldn't want him currying favour with the other dogs. She wasn't even sure if Frey would care, but seeing as the courier was getting nothing out of the deal at this point, it seemed like the least she could offer.
Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness 'Cause it's all over now, all out to sea
Welll.... if it was Frey, then it was probably fine. Tal relaxed a little as he managed to get the treeflit to perch on his hand while she nibbled her beetle. "Hey, thanks. I'd appreciate that. I follow Them an', y'know, all the Old Gods. I need all the help I can get," he added sheepishly. And Remi's advice from a time long past hadn't been in vain. He'd kept that in mind, too.
He was reluctant to part with the little creature, but he settled her back into the box and stepped back to let Flora claim it. He rocked back onto his heels as the conversation petered out and he was left in that awkward moment of not knowing how to end things cleanly. "Is there, uh. Any letters or anythin' you need taken to Halo? I'll be headin' back there in a few days," he offered, uncertain whether to mention her mother or not.
'...k.' Flora agrees, bobbing her head a little. She'd probably remember to include Tal's part in all of this. She had last time, hadn't she..? Hadn't she? Listen. It was a long time ago and it wasn't like she was a historian.
'Uhm...no. I guess you can tell my mom you saw me. Maybe she can come visit here and help with...y'know, Enzo's stuff in our apartment.' The pair hadn't really talked about the courier's relationship with Hotaru you know, because the threads haven't really finished yet, but the girl flashed him a knowingly sort of look from beneath her pale eyelashes just the same.
Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness 'Cause it's all over now, all out to sea
If she followed through, that would be great! ...But Tal knew better than to count on verbal agreements. Optimists didn't traditionally survive long in Halo and in truth, seeing Flora like this didn't give him much hope that she'd remember much of anything beyond her lingering pain after they parted company.
He didn't like to think of himself as particularly soft-hearted, but Flora had his number and he wasn't very good at resisting her wiles. His social armor was piecemeal and filled with holes at the best of times, and dealing with a sister's grief wasn't even close to ideal.
That said, he was blissfully oblivious to her knowing look as his gaze turned skyward at the mention of Enzo's name and he swallowed hard, nodding. "Yeah. I can do that. I, uh... I'm sure she'll... y'know. Want to hear how you're doin'." Because mothers worried. Or at least, they were supposed to. And with Flora the last living child of Hotaru's line, he was sure the Valkyrie would want to know about her.
Beyond that, he didn't dare make promises he wasn't sure Ru was in any shape to keep.
"Sooo, uh... should I let you get back to...?" He gestured uncertainly towards the sidewalk, unaware of the importance of that particular spot.
"This is where Enzo died." Flora says tonelessly, glancing back to the newly spread concrete. Pulling in a quick breath, the last of the Kaliesin's swipes at her cheeks before shrugging and nodding at the same time, indicating that Tal could...well, he could do whatever, at this point.
'Thanks for the help.' She murmurs softly, before turning her attention fully back to the precise spot where Enzo's soul had left his body for the first time. Flora tries not to hear the inescapable silence which had followed, tries not to remember the brisk Halovian chill on her shoulders as she'd screamed for Hotaru and teleported to Halo, but she does just the same.
~FIN
Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness 'Cause it's all over now, all out to sea
