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!
04-12-2023, 11:33 PM (This post was last modified: 04-12-2023, 11:34 PM by Evie.)
Evie
normality is a paved road comfortable to walk, but where no flowers grow
Evie is far from a seamstress, so like most Halovian women once word of the ball had reached them, she had outsourced her dress shopping to a land with far more textile options - Torchline. It had been a simple thing to have Deimos assist her with taking her measurements, a lengthy letter with preferences, and a satchel of money tied to a messenger bird to seal the deal. A little risky given she wouldn't see the final product until pickup, but Evie had been willing to take that chance to spare a secondary trip.
Now, she has to make the final pieces herself, thus why she is on the coastline hunting for shells. There are quite a few tidepools to explore and Evie is hoping to find pearls or sea glass or any other small things to turn into a little tiara to go with her gown. Though the cold doesn't bother her much now as an Academy student, she finds the water is decently warm even in spring - making wading into it up to her knees a surprisingly pleasant affair that Halo admittedly cannot match. Long hair tied in a fiery topknot as she prowls through the latest tidepool, the Evergreen mutters to herself when yet another shell comes up broken and unusable, tossing it aside.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
“Motherfuckers,” Melita grumbled and growled as she hastened across the beach. From the distance, she might’ve looked somewhat deranged and mad, an incensed Honeybee stalking after a flock of Hels swooping and screaming from above. “All of you are going to get wrecked!” She uttered, hissed and spitting, bare feet making a trail in the sand, Fangorn yawning and stretching his viney limbs in a few unconcerned bounces, while Sila flittered after. Commotion and chaos, in every sense of the words.
And from below, any onlooker might have seen a few glittering things in the gulls’ talons; stolen and snagged wares from the deck of the Ark, and Melita had promised to get them back. Which she fully intended to do, without Jack knowing, and by way of murdering the birds when she had the opportunity.
Except someone else was nearby, and while she shouted, hollered, and raged, intending to end their lives with the bow outfitted on her arm, she was momentarily distracted by another flaming aura of locks. “Oh, hey Evie,” she uttered by way of casual greeting, as if these were all ordinary, everyday circumstances, before notching an arrow and aiming at the nearest bird.
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
normality is a paved road comfortable to walk, but where no flowers grow
Company is unexpected, especially such loud, harried, and irritated company. Evie straightens as she hears the hels first, followed swiftly by furious muttering and the chaotic spray of sand beneath hurrying, stomping feet. Melita is far from who she expects to see (by fate, not because she thinks the honeybee is at all incapable of her current rage) but it does inspire a private seed of amusement to see the fellow firebrand so out of sorts.
The hello makes her huff a laugh, lifting one hand in reply as she waits for the arrow to be loosed before she responds. “Hey, Melita. They steal something of yours?” It seems like it, and Evie tries to help by extending her telekinesis to the items in their grasp, yanking at them in hopes of retrieving their ill-gotten wares before they made it out over the water and to freedom.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
The arrow fired was out of pure malice, and the bird might’ve felt it as its last bit of life was shorn away the moment it was pierced – falling in a ridiculous spiral. Fangorn, in all his dutiful airs, went to retrieve the gilded portions from awry talons, while Melita glanced back over at Evie briefly, preparing for another shot – unaware of the other powers at play, though wondering, very briefly, why these dumb animals lingered so close. “Asshats took some shit from the Ark decks,” she gave some manner of explanation, before rallying again, permitting the expertise of accuracy to volley through the sky with some sickening plunges.
Though, it dawned on her that while she saw Evie within Torchline on some occasions, the Evergreen certainly belonged to Halo. Idle curiosity fanned outwards while she prepared a third armament. “What brought you out here?”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
normality is a paved road comfortable to walk, but where no flowers grow
The bird falls in a ridiculous manner, the arrow sticking out of its feathers and limbs all askew. Evie can't help but chuckle at it. They're much like ningos she has come to gather; a nuisance more than anything else, and not to be mourned even when they are culled in large numbers. She helps in whatever way she can with her magic, though Melita doesn't seem to need it. "Ah, left the shiny things visible from the sky huh?" Her grin isn't teasing but rather knowing, recalling the gore crows and ningos that had taken off with painted stones and other baubles she'd employed as decoys in her gardens before the greenhouse had done away with that particular problem.
"I made my gown for the ball, but I wanted some pearls and shells for details and a little forehead crown...thing." She's sure it'll look pretty once it's made, but describing it isn't exactly her forte. "Halo's beach is all black sand and ice, so I thought I'd come visit! I needed to visit Hadama anyway - and you, because you never come to Halo!" This time it is teasing. She's more than happy to journey to Torchline for her fellow fiery-haired friend, but so far the Honeybee has only popped into Evie's greenhouse all of one time.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
Another arrow beelined straight for the hels’ side; it wouldn’t have even known what hit it. It didn’t spiral like its brethren, simply falling flat to the sand for Fangorn to snag and carry back with vines, wares and bird and all. Her eyes went to the sky again, watching for anymore flickerings of gold and gilded edges, or if she’d decimated the last of them. “It definitely wasn’t my fault,” she answered, a bit mulishly, leading one to believe that it probably had been.
When nothing else caught her gaze, she frowned, occasionally watching as the flock drifted back and forth (stupid; because if they’d figured out she was felling them all, one would think they’d be out of there), before shifting her attention to Evie’s current predicament. “Oh, that’d be neat.” Lacking the complexity of such designs, and being loathe to admit Jack had to help sew her dress, she ambled towards the sand while Fangorn and Sila surveyed their haul, scouting out decent shells. “Do they have to be a certain color?”
As for the jibe at never visiting Halo, she wrinkled her nose. “I’m sure it’s nice and all,” and she shrugged her shoulders. “I’m just wandering everywhere else,” slid on a wink, as she crouched into dunes.
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
normality is a paved road comfortable to walk, but where no flowers grow
The next bird dies a swift, stone-like death, and Evie grins at both that and the Honeybee's grumbled defenses. "I wouldn't put it past Jack personally." Always ready to insult someone and give her fellow flamehead an out. Though it seems all has been retrieved, as Melita wanders closer. A good thing too, Evie would have had to leave the tidepool otherwise, and she dreads the sensation of sand on wet skin.
"Nope! My dress is a really light blue, so it'll go with almost anything. I'm just looking for stuff small enough to not look like a giant target on my forehead," she admits with a snort of a laugh. Ironically she keeps finding giant shells, which would be great for any other kind of treasure or keepsake, but not so much a crown.
"Anywhere fun I should check out? I don't get many free days, so I hate to waste them on boring places and views." Which had unfortunately happened a few times already. Deimos was usually her go-to resource given his wide adventuring before becoming Warden, but the war had changed much of the landscape of Caido, so perhaps the Honeybee had found a few golden spots.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
Yeah, she’d happily blame Jack. With that notion placed in her impulsive mind, she angled closer to Evie, perusing and peering. “Small enough...” she murmured, but with no other parameters for colors, that meant she could go hog-wild, already prying into the depths of sand and smaller pools. Sharp-eyed and capable of finding all sorts of pieces that caught her emboldened, capricious angles, the youth quickly pulled out an assortment of shells in her palm. “Any of these?” There were several encased in a pleasant, soft ivory, tones of blue, and one vibrant orange.
As for any place fun, she hummed a little while sifting through another assemblage of trinkets. “Rainbow Road is pretty, if you like stuff affiliated with Frey,” and then didn’t say anything about Metacarpal Island, because it wasn’t entertaining so much as weird, creepy, and definitely full of bones and dead shit. “Mistbanks and Leap of Faith in the Oerwoud are nice too – big waterfalls and fog. Just don’t mess with any of the water horses.”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
normality is a paved road comfortable to walk, but where no flowers grow
It's a relief to have someone so experienced with the shoreline joining in her hunt, which takes away the sting of the Honeybee swiftly finding far more than Evie had in nearly an hour of work. Seeing the younger woman turn over rocks - and things Evie hadn't even known weren't rocks - the Evergreen tries to memorize it all to further her success in the future.
Wading closer to peer into the girl's cupped hands, Evie makes a noise of delight. "Wow, yes! You're so good at this! Is it okay to take them all?" Or would the biodiversity suffer somehow? Surely Melita wouldn't have plucked them out if they were that sensitive, but Evie is certainly not the ruling authority on beachcombing. "Maybe I can put the orange one in the middle, lowest down my forehead..."
Her soft muttering is cut off with the answer to the question she'd initially asked, and though the names are unfamiliar now, hopefully they will not be soon. She still has a few days left in Torchline after all. "Water horses? Sounds pretty, but I won't touch them." Not if even Melita - mischief extraordinaire - deigns to warn her away from them. "Do you have your own stuff ready for the ball?"
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
Beaming at the praise of her rock and shell finding skills, the Honeybee’s grin preened. “Of course.” She certainly had more than enough, and didn’t need to be snagging these for her constant surge of a collection. And given the bout of chaos the youth extended every day on this shoreline, the creatures would probably survive the loss.
Imagining wearing them though hadn’t really broadened into Melita’s mind, and she spent a good amount of moments staring blankly at Evie’s forehead, pondering where on earth she’d stick a shell or a rock. Shrugging her shoulders, she let the Evergreen mull over the portions, while she crouched again and scoured more portions of the wet sand.
“They are pretty,” she relented. “But they also try to drown people.” So the typical standard in Caido. Digging her hands a little more thoroughly, and enjoying the water rippling and pooling over her skin, the monster of mayhem nodded. “Yeah. It’s all sewn and everything. It’s not much, but it’ll do. Yours all done?”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
normality is a paved road comfortable to walk, but where no flowers grow
The offer is kind, though that might hinge on the fact that Evie has no idea the draconic hoard that Melita has waiting for her back home. Still, she holds her little waist bag up, opening the drawstring for Mel to tip the treasures inside to be nestled away.
Wincing immediately after at the idea of pretty horses drowning people - and simultaneously agreeing that it was rather fitting for Caido’s fauna - she lets the topic drop to focus on dresses instead. “I think you’d look rather dashing in a fitted suit if you ever tried one,” she mentions offhandedly, because it seems more fitting for Mel’s style to be a trendsetter. Evie has always wanted to wear a suit to an event, but her chest was a little…difficult to contend with. Most tailors couldn’t even fix the stupid boob gap that always appeared in her sparse button ups. “Mine is done too, thank the gods. I swear I had bandages on my fingers for half the season because of it - I can’t sew to save my life.” Thus the need for pretty accessories, because it had ended up rather plain.
Eating fire is your ambition to swallow the flame down
A suit? Melita had never considered it – despite her utter lack of daintiness and overall femininity, she was quite comfortable in her dresses – flowy and unassuming, until she unfurled some manner of armaments from underneath all that satin and lace. “Hm. I don’t know. I wouldn’t be able to get to all my weapons.” Her nose wrinkled, leaving no explanation to that, but Evie could likely assume there were any number of knives strapped to the Honeybee’s legs, hidden and tucked away. “And wouldn’t it get hot?” Maybe Halo could have their suits, but Torchline's heat would've made being so meticulously covered a dreadful disposition.
The lithe smuggler looked downward, back into the sand and pools of water around her shins and did her own inward grimace. “Yeah, mine has bloodstains.” But then she shrugged her shoulders, unbothered by it. “At least we tried!”
to be lit up from within, vein by vein to be the sun
normality is a paved road comfortable to walk, but where no flowers grow
Evie concedes the point with a contemplative look on her face. "Maybe strapped to the insides of the vest? Hm. Maybe I'll try it myself one of these seasons!" It's not her style necessarily either, but maybe she could adapt it into something more creative. And definitely outsource it. Her fingers wouldn't survive trying to sew a tuxedo.
"Exactly! Plus it's not like it's a pageant." If that were the case Evie would never attend in the first place. Glancing around at the dead hels on the beach, realizing her mission is now completed, Evie turns to Melita with a grin. "Hey, wanna go hunt some more of those? I have some time to kill." And, whether Mel agrees or proposes some other mischief to make, Evie wades out of the tide pool and gestures the Honeybee to her side, ready to gallivant off into further theatrics and adventuring while time allows.
