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!
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
Look at his baby sister, all grown up and taking over a bar.
To say that Mateo is excited for Flora is an understatement, and he's been a bundle of energy since leaving Stormbreak in La Verbena, such that he imagines Everest will be glad of the break from him when they arrive.
He hasn't come empty handed, though, and unloading the skyship has taken some considerable time, especially given what he's bringing for Flora. Indeed, when he arrives at the Hanged Man it's with a helping hand from a man who he suspects just wants an eyeful of his sister's assets, but hey, he's carting one of the two wheelbarrows the botanist brings with him.
Both are filled with an eclectic arrangements of plants, some more innocuous than others, and there's a small notebook tucked under his arm - also for his sister. "Ciao, Flora!" he calls, unintentionally echoing Remi's greeting.
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
Not unlike her mother, Flora is not averse to using her assets to get things done, such that when Mateo's helper arrives with eyes that look large enough to drop out of his head like a cartoon hound dog, the Doubletake gives him an appreciative shimmy as he begins to unload the wheelbarrow.
"Hiya!" She calls back, matching the brightness of her sibling's tone but not the language. The travelling tongue was a thing spoken between the real Taliesins', or so it seemed to Flora. She'd come to understand more than a few words and phrases in her time with Ronin and Mateo, but she intentionally chose not to speak it back. 'I'm so glad you made it!' Not that she'd doubted Mateo for a second. For all the things Mateo was, a liar was not among them. And unless he was high on something, he was fairly reliable.
'Doesn't it look fab?' She asks, gesturing around as she swans forward to give the botanist a kiss on the cheek.
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
Accepting the smooch to the cheek with a dimpled smile, Mateo thanks his helper with a flourish and ushers him on his way, figuring that he can take it from here. And all while not staring at his sister's nipples, so it's a win for all of them. "I would not miss it for the world," he tells her, leaving the wheelbarrows out front and following her into the Hanged Man to take a look around.
"Oh, it looks completely different," he says with a grin, taking in the new decor, the furniture, the well-stocked bar filled with suspiciously familiar bottles of liquor. "Che bello. You have outdone yourself." Turning back to Flora, he raises his eyebrows to her. "But I do have your finishing touches, if you would like them." He gestures to his bar-warming presents outside.
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
Quite what her family has against looking at breasts, Flora has no idea. She can appreciate Mateo's curls and his dimples without fucking him, and she isn't quite sure how that's entirely different from her tits, but whatever. He's complimenting the bar now which is really all she'd been wanting anyway. 'Oh you.' She purrs, basking in his approval without making any sort of attempt to hide her delight.
"I do, but first can I show you something?" It's rather innocently said, though the spreading mischief on Flora's face very much suggests that she isn't about to show Mateo new placemats. Gesturing over her shoulder toward the door just next to the bar, Flora reaches for her brother's hand to drag him with her.
'You can't tell, though.' She warns, knowing that Mateo probably would tell someone, but trusting his judgement. Opening the door to the Thieves Guild finished by this thread, so shh, the Doubletake steps inside and lets the room speak for itself.
Cool blue water rushes in from the far corner of the room where there is an opening into the Fingers. Terra cotta tiles have been set placed on the ground so as not to erode with the water, and also to add a bright salmon pop of colour. Bookshelves set into the walls beg for Mateo's plants as well as tomes of hidden knowledge, while a small bar is placed near a grouping of tables, stocked with only the finest potables from the main bar outside.
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
Oh, Mateo has nothing against looking at breasts, or even Flora's breasts, but something something his father would probably blind him for doing it something something. "Oh, me," he agrees, further intrigued by the prospect of mischief and happily allowing himself to be dragged across to the bar and the door beside it. "I believe I read an erotic romance that began this way once," he murmurs. Something to show him; can't tell; a clandestine space and all that.
It takes a lot to render him speechless, as one might imagine, but as Mateo is brought into the terracotta headquarters of what looks to be a beautifully shady place of business, his blue eyes grow almost eager. Now there's delight on his face too, the botanist stepping away from Flora to run his fingers over the bar, to examine the cool flowing water, to peep in at the shelves. "And I suppose this is not a function room," he jokes, grinning to her.
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
"Did you? And here I thought you were still working on your ABCs." Flora says playfully. "Was it any good?" She asks, mildly curious. It could be that her sibling read that sort of thing for the fashion as much as the fucking; either way she was interested in his opinion of it.
With her lower lip held between her teeth, Flora watches Mateo with bated breath as the botanist surveys what she considers her real accomplishment over the past few weeks. Exhaling only when she thinks she has his approval, the Doubletake folds her arms comfortably over her chest and shrugs coyly. "Depends what sort of function." She purrs. "Certainly not bingo though."
Gesturing at the ceiling, at empty spaces on the shelves, on the walkways by the canal, Flora turns expectantly toward her brother. "I was hoping to...you know, have you help me fill those with some of your plants. Maybe the kind that like to grow in the dark? That maybe...shouldn't be touched, or inhaled, or.." She shrugs, rolling one wrist.
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
"Beautiful and funny," Mateo drawls to his sister with a smirk. "And it was not bad - a little vanilla for my tastes, but I had nothing to complain about." That's code for plenty of billowy shirt descriptions and I could masturbate to sleep with it, and since they're on the subject, that's a solid B+ in Mateo's opinion.
But anyway, back to the not bingo hall. As a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, Flora clearly does have her brother's approval, and he's busy trying to decide if a shelf has a false back when she mentions keeping some of his less conventional specimens in the space. With a smile that's quickly turning crooked, he turns back to her.
"As luck would have it, I have a few things that would fit perfectly well here," he confirms; almost as though he'd gotten an inkling from her invitation that she wasn't after pansies on the windowsill. "Would you like to come and see?"
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
Flora flicks her hair daintily over her shoulder in response. It was never clear to her when Mateo was Playing A Role and when he was being earnest; case in point, just now Flora couldn't have said what might have been too vanilla for her brother's tastes. She both thought he'd be perfectly content ball-gaged and whipped as he would be spooned and petted to sleep, which made his evaluation a bit vague. She might have asked to borrow it if she wasn't horrified at the thought of sticky pages, despite knowing how meticulous Mateo was with his things.
Watching Mateo's fingers work against the innocuous shelf (but making a mental note that perhaps there should be more hidden levers and such in the guild), Flora hums with delight. "Oooooooh, I knew you would!" She sings, striding over to him and throwing her arms around his shoulders. "You're the best, and yes I absolutely would."
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
Turning away from the shelf in time to be smothered by his sister's affections, Mateo grins and wraps his arms around her in return, beckoning her back through to the bar and the wheelbarrows waiting outside. "You know, I am the best," he agrees, hurrying out to wheel the barrows into the bar.
"This first one is decorative," he explains. "I brought some golden pothos, blushberry bushes, swallowtails and thatch palms. Oh, and there are a few small living stones for behind the bar." And if you start him talking about them, he'll never stop, but Flora ought to know that very well. "Ah, and I do also have some sentient vines back at the ship, if you'd like some to make a canopy. But they can have a mind of their own."
Moving to the second wheelbarrow, here Mateo holds a hand out as if to tell Flora not to get to close. "A lot of these are poisonous and carnivorous," he warns. "I have a book for you with all of their care instructions, and I have labelled everything I brought, but you should not mess with them too much." Walking her through the less-decorative selection, his sister will now find herself in the possession of some veil fungus, quicksand moss, a gilded lily in a pot, and a miniature dream cactus.
"I have also heard of a species of cluster mushrooms in Halo that glow quite brightly. Moonshrooms, I believe they are called. You could use those in your bingo hall too?"
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
As Mateo recites the plants in the first wheelbarrow, Flora finds herself nodding along as if she understood every word the botanist had to say. "Ooh, nice." She would add at what she took to be the appropriate moments. Most of the plants really did look interesting and beautiful, it was simply that Flora, despite her name, didn't share her sibling's passion for them. "Mmm, maybe not then. If the vines spill drinks I don't want the patrons to start chopping away at them, y'know?"
Nearly about to stick her hands into a spray of something with black leaves and purple flowers, Flora stops abruptly at Mateo's warning. "Oh." She says, hissing in a respectful breath and taking a step back. "Uhm..maybe you can tend to these ones? You know, when you come and visit and whatnot?" Flora was okay at taking care of plants, but she could also be a touch reckless in her haste. The last thing she needed was for some of her new decorations to begin to starve and start taking bites out of her new guild members.
"Ooooh. Those sound amazing! Can they live here though? Do they need the cold? I don't.." Crinkling her nose, she gives her head a little shake. "I want everyone to be comfortable here." Which meant not having magical AC going in the not-bingo hall.
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
Visibly wincing at the idea of some hapless patron of the Hanged Man chopping up any length of sentient vine he invites to stay there, Mateo can only agree with his sister. "Mm, perhaps they will be better off on the ship," he agrees, seeming a touch worried for his plants, but then again, he sells them every day without knowing what will happen to them.
Glad that his sister has decided against plunging her hands into some belladonna, Mateo takes up the second wheelbarrow and begins to roll it into the guild headquarters. "I would be more than happy to do that," he says. "Unless I am forbidden from this very exclusive part of your bar?" Since, you know, he still isn't entirely sure what it's for.
"Either way, the notebook will give you a good indication about whether they are doing well. And if you are worried, you could always come and visit me," he adds, grinning and pulling a pair of soft leather gloves out of his back pocket so he can install Flora's deadlier plants into their new homes.
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
Grimacing, Flora can only nod her agreement. She hopes that whatever they place as decorations around the tavern will go untouched, but if any of the plants decide to interfere with her patron's potables? Well, she loves her brother dearly but she has her priorities.
"No, no, of course not. Wanna join?" She asks, also without really telling him what it's for. "You can distribute these types of plants from here. And you know, anything else that you might want to keep on the down-low." Rolling her eyes at the mention of Stormbreak, Flora can only huff dramatically as she mimes straightening a few books. "Well, if you lend me your personal chauffeur and ship, maybe I will." Though Mateo's friend Everest didn't seem to like her much, Flora certainly liked him. Or at least, she liked the way she could make it look like his brain was going to explode simply by pulling her shirt down a little while he was around.
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
"Mm? Sure, why not," Mateo says without ever giving a thought about what he might be signing up for. And hey, the fact that what Flora describes might actually be very useful for him is a nice surprise. "I do actually have another gift for you, for your grand opening," he says, since they're on the subject. "But you must promise not to try it yourself. I did, and I have created something quite nasty. I would only wish it on my worst enemies."
It's with a sly smile that he finishes setting up the veil fungus in one corner where it will be happy, and moves to find a cute place for the dream cactus and gilded lily, being careful to neither prick himself nor disturb any of the lily's pollen. "I shall have him come to collect you in a few days?" he suggests with a grin. "Be gentle with him. He may wish to practice his customer service on you."
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
Not sure if Mateo is joking or not, Flora lets her mouth drop open comically while widening her aqua eyes in anticipation. "Is it...that?" She wonders, glancing at the veil fungus. Flora thinks..no? since Mateo is putting it out into the open, but then, her brother would likely think anyone who just went about touching plants without knowing whether or not they should, probably deserved what was coming to them.
"Sure." The Doubletake chimes, not really thinking too seriously about it before flashing the botanist a look of suspicion and amusement. "Customer service?" Flora narrows her eyes, considering. "Ever would call it that." She decides, clearly thinking it's some overly polite euphemism for sex. Or knowing Ever, maybe just kissing. "I'm surprised he doesn't just practice with you." Flora adds with an innocent enough shrug.
