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!
05-18-2023, 05:30 PM (This post was last modified: 05-18-2023, 05:37 PM by Dantalion.)
Dantalion
how the fuck am I supposed to know
Besides his little jaunt to the Greatwood and a small detour into the Oerwoud, Danta's home away from home has been jolly old Torchline, and since Longheat hit, this has only become more true. Today he's amusing himself at the very edge of the coastline, crouched in the shallows, his ruddy red coat pooling in the water behind him. Bare toes wiggle deep into the sand, and if he cares that his clothes are being caressed by the sea, it doesn't show.
With a tan enough to make surfers jealous and a spray of freckles across his nose, the midday sun makes it a little hard to see, but as he plunges a hand back into the waters, it's to draw out a few sparkling pebbles and a chunk of pale, smooth sea glass. The glass is for him, thanks, but the pebble he throws with a plunk into the pool.
"No idea why you're a fan of rocks," he says, apparently speaking to the L'ma far below. "It's alright, I suppose. I'm a cheap date, too."
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Is that so?" Never one to apologize for eavesdropping, the Doubletake reaches with invisible fingers to pluck at her towel, before slipping her invisibility ring off of her finger. Wearing nothing at all, but covering herself with said towel, Flora flashes a smile that's somehow just as coy as it is suggestive in the ancient's direction.
"You wouldn't believe the things I hear here." She adds, sitting up slightly. Her skin isn't nearly as bronzed as Dante's is, but that's alright for now. All Flora is presently worried about is not getting any tan lines, hence sunbathing in the nude; her invisibility ring making that oh so convenient.
"So far I've not seen any monsters rise up to grant any wishes, but.." She shrugs. "Maybe today will be your lucky day."
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
The sound of a voice has Danta rising in the shallows in a fluid motion, his coat fanning out as he turns. There's a predatory glint in his eyes at first, until his gaze rests upon the ever-so-undressed Flora, and it softens considerably. "It absolutely is so," he purrs, a fanged smile curling at his lips. "For you I'd be especially affordable." Free, even. Depends on what's under the towel.
"Unfortunately I don't grant wishes, but it might still be your lucky day," he continues, wading languidly towards the shore where she's revealed herself (regrettably not everything, but the day is young). "Do you hide around here fairly often, then?" he asks, because yes, obviously he's a gossip.
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Gasp." Flora gasps, and had this been a telenovela she's sure the audience would well appreciate the dramatic widening of her eyes. "How lucky for me, because I don't seem to have anything on me.." She pauses, letting the innuendo sink in before adding: "..to pay you with." You know, because neked. No pocketses.
"Does that make you the monster?" With one hand clutching the towel just low enough to reveal a bit of cleavage but to hide everything else, Flora tilts her head. "Should I be scared?"
As Dante approaches, she raises her gaze to get a better look, before the Doubletake offers a coquettish shrug in response. "Fairly often is like, so hard to define, you know? But I will say that there aren't as many kids around here kicking up sand, or drunkards strolling home from the Hanged Man." Mostly it was reverent idiots or the occasional couple here for a bit of hanky panky, neither of which bothered the Doubletake's tanning efforts in the slightest.
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
Raising his eyebrows and coming to perch on one of the rocks that border the shoreline leading into the Miana Pool, Danta decides he likes this little morsel very much. "Does this make it a date, then?" he wonders; you know, given how they've already established how she can't pay for him (believe him, Flora, what you are giving him is plenty).
"I am quite a polite monster," he informs her, which just so happens to be true whether he's hunting down strangers along the beach at night or paying off his tab in a bar. "But you can be scared if you like." Who is Danta to yuck someone's yum?
Peering up at her now - all the way up, from the sweet curve of her legs to the hourglass of her hips and beyond - the Ancient's smile turns catlike and amused. "So it's fairly quiet until it isn't?" he supposes, resisting the urge to ask if she'd like to make it less quiet with him to pass the time.
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"If it does, I've been on a great many more dates than I ever thought." The Doubletake trills back, drawing her knees up but crossing her legs at the ankles. It's such a careless movement and yet precisely covers everything, that one wouldn't be mistaken in thinking that a good of practice had gone into perfecting such a movement.
"Not too polite, I hope." Not Hadama-polite. Not Everest-polite. "You know, they say the signs of being scared are quite a lot like being turned on. Pupils dilating, breathing faster, heart rate rising...sweating, shaky hands and legs..." Pressing her lips together, Flora gives a little shrug. 'But no, I don't think I'll be scared of you." She decides, vocalizing it just so that this polite monster wouldn't mistake any particular signs for fear.
"Precisely." Flora agrees, before twisting to grab a bottle of water hidden under a rock where it might stay reasonably cool. "Like I said, you wouldn't believe the sorts of things I hear. And from who." Gods, the marriages she could break apart if she ever felt the need. Removing the top, the Doubletake tilts her head back that she might drink from the bottle as if she were the goddess of wine, and this her most prize vintage.
"Want some?" Flora only just indicates that it's the bottle she's talking about.
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
"It's good to get out," Danta reasons, as if her many, many dates just proves how well socialised she is, and how well-practiced she must be as a result. "Oh, never," he croons - too polite doesn't sweeten his tea or butter his corn (or any other weird innuendo you want to add here). "Just enough to remember my p's and q's."
Raising his eyebrows both at her affirmation that she won't be afraid of him - is that a challenge and should he take it as one? - and at her remarks about the fear/lust response, his smile is enough to properly bare fangs now, the Ancient letting his head loll to one side as if he might be able to see a touch more between her coyly locked ankles.
"Well, I'm not all that familiar with Torchline's who's who," he admits. "I'm just a tourist who likes to try out the local delicacies." But he believes this sun drenched beauty when she says she's got dirt on... well, whoever she's got it on.
"I wouldn't say no." He reaches out a hand for the water bottle. "I'm Danta, by the way."
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
Narrowing her eyes playfully, Flora sucks in her lower lip and slowly pushes it out again between her teeth. "Such an odd expression, that." She muses thoughtfully (or, what she takes to be thoughtfully anyway). "Is for please, sure. But Q?"
Tilting her head the same way as Dante's as if that might somehow block whatever it was his eyes were trying to see (she could move the towel if she was actually trying, of course), Flora raises her eyebrows in mild surprise. "A tourist? Well, well. Finding everything here to your taste...?"
Letting the bottle slip from her fingers but not without some resistance, the Doubletake gives her shoulders a slow and luxurious roll. "I'm Flora." She returns, rolling the ancient's name over in mind, and thinking it sounded a bit like a new cocktail, or a dance.
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
"Q is for... Quite Grateful," Danta decides with a quiet laugh, snagging the bottle with a devilish tug and tipping his head back to enjoy some of the water. Offering it back when he's finished, the Ancient gives no resistance at all whenever Flora decides to take it, though her question keeps the smile on his face and then some.
"Oh, yes," he confirms. "Though I'm not sure I have found exactly what I'm looking for just yet. But the islands are grand, and the people are just my type." Amoral and not keen to ask many questions, that is.
"Flora," he repeats, letting her name flicker off his tongue as if he might whisper it between her legs given the opportunity (and he would). "A pleasure to meet you."
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
'Oh is it now.' Flora muses wonderingly, eyebrows softly raised. Plucking the bottle back the Doubletake isn't quite sure what to make of the fact that the monster gives it up willingly. Once upon a time she'd have tossed this thought over and over in her head, wondering at what the most appropriate reaction would be. Now, though? With her twin dead and her cherry popped by both men and women alike? Now, Flora just grins.
"So glad to hear it. If we had a tourist board I'd make sure to pass along your appreciation." Would that be a good guild to start? Maybe Flora could write off all of her drinks at the Hanged Man as merely being quality testing. Hmmm.
"And you." She agrees, before sliding one leg forward in order to tip a toe into the pool. "So, an ancient, mmm?" Danta's diamond horns obviously hadn't gone unnoticed and having never met an ancient before, the Doubletake found herself intrigued. "Is it true that your kind just gets...so ravenous you'd eat anything that crosses your path?"
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
The mention of a tourist board alone is enough to have a chuckle rumbling from Danta's lips; he's been asleep for so long that even small things like this seem quaint and unusual. "Perhaps I'll just write a message in the sand for someone to find," he concedes, since there isn't any official means by which he could show his Quite Grateful attitude to Torchline.
Flora shifts to dip a toe into the pool and Danta leans back on his hands to soak up the sun instead, humming out a confirmation that he is, in fact, an Ancient. "It's absolutely true," he purrs to her, gazing up at her face haloed by the sun and perhaps squinting just a little.
"Granted, only the foolish let it get that bad. I'm not a very patient monster, so I don't go hungry for long." Or at all, if he can help it.
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Better put it in a bottle." Flora suggests with a small smile. "The winds change so fast around here, it might get blown away." This comment might have been more sourly said had this thread taken place just a few days later, but oh well. What are timelines.
"Well, I suppose that makes sense, with patience being a virtue." Grinning a touch wickedly, Flora gives her toe a little flick as if meaning to accidentally shower Danta with a few droplets. If it tightens the muscles on her legs in the meantime, surely that's accidentally and not entirely planned. "Though...being a virtuous monster sounds very dull." It sounded a bit like her father actually, but nevermind.
"And what's Dygra like? The last mother-figure of a race was a bit of a control freak if you ask me."
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
What are timelines, indeed. "A bottle, then," Danta agrees, his lips curling up in a smirk, and there's definitely another comment dancing on his tongue about blowing him away, but he leaves it there for now. There are better opportunities for innuendo, he feels, especially in a conversation like this one.
Raising a hand to guard against the specks of water that flick across his cheeks - he'd snap his teeth at them if he really minded - Danta does let out a snort as she waxes lyrical on patience. "It does, doesn't it," he rumbles. "Thankfully, I left my virtues where I found them a very long time ago. Life has been much more exciting since."
And violent. And bloody. But exciting, too.
Mention of Dygra has the Ancient's eyes lighting up, his tail flicking this way and that before he flops back against the rock he's seated on, gazing up at Flora like some salamander soaking up the rays of warm light.
"My mother is anything but," he purrs, and now it's his turn to wax lyrical. "She asks for no pomp or vacuous offerings, for a start. Our blood and our presence are enough. She breathes heat and life into us, and in return, it's a pleasure to represent her dark majesty."
if we're in love or if we're in pain?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Just checking to see if you'd melt." Flora says apologetically, even if her eyes suggest an entirely different motive. "Life's too short for too many virtues." She agrees with a snort. "Or...for some of us it is." Did the Ancient's live longer, the way the ascended had? Or could they just survive the years in their stasis state? Though she didn't know, such thoughts had a much more interesting question bubbling to her lips.
'Your blood mmm? So does that mean..." Slowly, because who would hurry with the weather as hot as it was? Flora's eyes rove down Danta's body, ricocheting back up only once they'd settled on his crotch. "...everything works? Talk of heat and life and pleasure, has me thinking yes, but then...I'd have thought that about the Ascended, too."
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
