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!
Having been letting the vibrant hum of the party fade to static in her ears, Isla is busy watching the condensation drip down the side of her glass while her mind pleasantly hazes - and then a trilling voice startles her out of it. Glancing up to see none other than their hostess wanting to take a seat, she doesn't need to think about it for more than a second before smiling and gesturing for her to go ahead.
"Of course. I gave up and sat down a while ago," she says with a small smile; granted it was to hide from potentially daunting socialisation, but her feet would have start to hurt too soon enough. "Congratulations, by the way. I think it's safe to say that your grand opening was a success, no?"
"Ugh, if everyone wasn't so tall!" Flora whines playfully, shooting a glance toward the patio where Sunjata loomed like a waterfall. Grinning and turning her aqua gaze smoothly back to Isla, the Doubletake uncorks the bottle of gin she'd brought with her before leaning back.
"I think so?" She replies, and though it might seem as though she was simply feigning modesty, after the recent election, Flora's pride was not quite so eager to believe all the compliments she'd been hearing. With the sort of gossipy-ease that the very young seem to have instinctively, Flora raises her eyebrows as she leans forward. "So your business partner-" The emphasis there clearly implies that no part of Flora believed that to be the case. Or not the whole case, anyway. "-and Ronin, huh? Y'think they'll finally put their drama to bed?" All Flora knew about it was that Ronin and Sunjata had been besties, then Remi had pulled some Remi shit, and then a war had happened.
Far as Flora was concerned, life was too short for long-lasting grudges. Better to throw a massively successful party and wear your best dress as an act of revenge than strew about things for years.
Isla can't help but chuckle at that; given that she and Flora are of a height, she can absolutely appreciate the sentiment. As the young woman uncorks her bottle of gin, Isla raises her own glass in a toast and takes a healthy sip from it. "I think so too," she adds, as if that might not have been obvious. "I haven't seen so many familiar faces in one place for... well, it must be years." Less said about how she feels about it the better, though.
As for her business partner, Isla glances over her shoulder towards the open patio doors and tilts her head at Sunjata's distant silhouette. "Honestly, from what I understand of the situation it's as likely to end up in fisticuffs as it is with a handshake," she admits, glancing back to Flora and smiling. "How did you meet Jata, by the way? I only ask because of how few people either of us meet these days." She laughs.
"Well, Torchline just elected another boring man into the government, so I thought it was time to have a proper party and remind everyone what Torchline was all about." Looking around at those in attendance, Flora thought she'd done a fairly accurate job of it. There was tension, both sexual and otherwise, deals going down, liquor flowing, and bad decisions on the horizon.
Rolling her eyes dramatically, Flora gives a judgemental shake of her head. "He could punch Remi and shake Ronin's hand. I bet that would solve it." The Doubletake suggests with a flash of white teeth before taking a sip from the bottle. "Mmm? Oh! Well..I mean he and my mom are close.." Flora replies a touch vaguely, waving one hand so as not to offend Isla; close of course being code for fuck buddies once upon a time. "But he also helped train me when I first got my feathers." So saying, Flora pulls out an iridescent dagger from gods knew where given how tight her dress was, for Isla's inspection. That Isla might recognize the owner of the feather wasn't something Flora thought of at all, as she let the light catch bounce off its edges.
Isla hasn't spent enough time in Torchline to accurately understand the vibe beyond sun, sea and shady dealings, but if Flora's party is an example of it, she'd call it a stunning success. "Ah, boring men and their boring governments," she says with a flash of teeth. Caido is actually a little more progressive than Northaven had been, she thinks - though apparently Torchline is the exception - but she still remembers the Bellamys of the world enough to see where Flora is coming from.
"I am not sure I would recommend anyone try to punch Remi Taliesin," she says dryly, proud of being able to mask the way the Lullaby's name - not to mention the very familiar feather Flora produces - drives an icy shard through her chest. "Your mother - oh, Hotaru? I think I met her earlier." She smiles. "You take after her."
Forcing herself to look at the feather more closely, intrigued by the obviously razor sharp properties of it, Isla tilts her head. "You're quite a formidable young woman," she remarks. "Those boring men ought to look out."
"Mmmm." Flora hums, eyes widening emphatically. That it was a stupid boys' club as well only added fuel to the Doubletake's growing dissatisfaction with the status quo, but nevermind just now.
Hearing her father's name drop from Isla's lips has Flora both snorting under her breath and rolling her eyes. "I dunno. Sometimes I think that's the language he understands best." She mutters, trying to match the dryness of the Remedy's tone. "Or maybe it's just the only one that gets through his thick skull." Sitting up slightly at what she's happy to interpret as a compliment, Flora's eyes flicker outside once more although she can't distinguish her mother's shape in the dark. "Mmhmm! I don't see her as much since she lives in Halo. I'm trying to get her to come out more. I think this party has helped."
Not able to dance coins along her knuckles, Flora is nevertheless extremely adept at flashing her feathers in a way that catches the light and doesn't cut her fingers. "Mind telling them that? They look at me like I'm just someone's daughter." It didn't help her case that Flora was the only almost always reminding everyone of just who her family was, but still.
"You might be right about that," Isla murmurs of Remi's language, love or otherwise. "My point still stands though, I think. It might be why he's more of a wallflower these days." Because of course she can't help but talk about the Lullaby even when she's trying not to even think about his presence at the party. Taking a measured breath and letting it out in a long sigh, Isla takes a sip of her drink as if to say enough of that.
Her eyes widen to hear that Hotaru lives on quite literally the other side of Caido; she'd assumed Flora's mother would be a Torcher as well. "The party's a very good start," she says with a flash of fangs. "Given how far she'd have had to come to get here. I think I've only ever been up to Halo once." And it was too cold even as an Ascended, when her understanding of the temperature had been purely logical.
Watching the blades dance and glide between Flora's fingers like a work of art, Isla absently runs a finger around the rim of her glass. "Point them out and I'll gladly tell them," she says, only half joking. "Most of them are just someone's son, after all. And I don't see any of them managing to get so many of Caido's infamous in one place at the same time, either."
In response, Flora can only shrug and take a sip of gin. "I dunno. He just...stays up on the mountain all the time. Honestly, if Mateo and I hadn't been attacked the other day, I doubt if he'd even be here now and that's only because I channelled him to come and help." The girl explains casually. "Honestly, I think it's because only Ronin can put up with his shit these days. I mean, how are you supposed to be friends with someone who can just...turn into whatever weird things that he can and slorp up your soul if he wants?" Pulling a face that only the daughter of such a monster is likely qualified to make, the Doubletake just shakes her head. "Then again it's probably better for everyone this way, so..."
Mirroring Isla as she takes a sip, Flora can only nod. "Right? Who would want to live somewhere that cold?" Her lips peel back as if having tasted something gross, which she quickly chases with another sip of Remi's gin.
"Well, one is the mer over there." She mutters of Hadama. "And don't get me wrong, I really do like him, but he's so...I dunno, well-mannered? Straight arrow?" Flora frowns. "Just such a good guy." Perhaps it's no surprise that a daughter of Remi and Hotaru would find fault in someone being too good. "The other one is Harper, and-" Looking around, her eyes suddenly sharp and intense, Flora huffs a note of satisfaction. "Well, he isn't here. Dickhead."
Hating herself for it, Isla nevertheless continues to hang on to the snippets she hears about Remi like an addict looking for a hit, her eyebrows raising a little to hear that the Lullaby is sequestered up on the Cordillera these days. "You think so?" she murmurs, of it being better this way, wondering who exactly it was better for. "You're right, though. It must be hard making friends knowing you're capable of doing that sort of thing, too."
At least she can offer Isla a smile of camaraderie at their shared dislike of Halo, the Remedy raising her glass in a brief toast, the light catching on the curve of the topaz horns that nestle back into her hair. "Honestly, King's End can get pretty warm in Longheat, but Torchline puts it to shame," she agrees, before following Flora's gaze around to one of the boys' club members in question.
"Well, I suppose I can't accuse him of thinking with his dick, then," she laments with a smirk. "But I know the type." She also knows the type not to grace them with their presence, Isla turning back to her new acquaintance. "Let the rumour mill do the work for you, then," she suggests. "I feel like people will be talking about this one for a while."
"You say that, but Ronin is doing just fine." Flora says breezily. "But then, Ronin lets him get away with murder, soooo." Meaning this both literally and metaphorically, Flora shrugs a touch. "I think it's all gone a bit to his head. I mean, it's great for me, but..." Absolute power corrupts, so they say, and the Lullaby certainly had been corrupted in his own way by it.
Snorting under her breath and finding herself utterly entranced by Isla's dry and quick wit, Flora bobs her head with instance and slightly drunken agreement. "I hope so. I honestly thought there would be more drama actually, given.." Turning, Flora partially closes one eye to keep the room from spinning, before pointing toward the various former couples. From Phoebe and Sunjata, Hotaru and Remi, which led her to point to Ronin and Sunjata, and then back to Hotaru again, and...Giving her head a little shake, Flora sits up and gives the bottle of gin an accusatory glare.
"It's cool that you're with Sunjata now. You seem like a catch."
"Yes, well. Ronin always does just fine," Isla points out with an amused smile into her drink; Flora is easy enough to speak to that her over-familiarity with the demigods leaks out unintentionally. Her point still stands, though. "And that wouldn't surprise me. Remi always did need someone to ground him, even before he could do... well, whatever it is he can do now." Swallowing hard and taking another drink, Isla shrugs. "At least they're down from the mountain for a bit though, right?" she says breezily.
As for the drama, Isla followed Flora's gaze around at the Hanged Man with a smirk, tilting her head in acknowledgement. "Well," she says, in defence of the drama, "the night is still young. And things get messier the later the party goes on, in my experience."
Or maybe not. Maybe they're about to get messy right now, based on Flora's comment, which has Isla almost inhaling the last of her cocktail. "Oh - we're not--" Shaking her head and giving herself a second for the burn in her throat to fade, she lets out a forceful breath. "I appreciate the compliment, but we aren't together like that. We really are just... business partners, I suppose." You know. Who live together, sleep in the same bed, occasionally fuck. Normal stuff.
"You'd think so, but apparently Safrin just told him to do better." Flora says, leaning forward so that her whisper might seem all the more conspiratorial. A brief interlude in the gin's hold on the Doubletake's thoughts has Flora tilting her head. Eyeing Isla with steadily widening aqua eyes, it's after far too long that she pieces a few things together for herself. "Wait, are you the Isla Mateo's named after?" She wonders, grinning. "I mean, it isn't a super common name, right?" And it certainly sounded like Isla knew Ronin and Remi moreso than just via gossip.
"I hope so." The Doubletake agrees, clearly having no problem with the night getting a touch messy. So long as it stayed the good kind of messy and not the oops can you help us dispose of a body kind of messy, she was here for it.
"Oh." Clearly looking disappointed in this - Isla was hot, Jata was hot, who wouldn't put them together - Flora considers. Letting her gaze wander back over Isla's shoulder toward the bonfire, she thought she could just make out the shape of someone very tall seated kissing-close to someone very petite. "Well, maybe he'll get back together with my mom then and I'll have a third dad." The Doubletake trills with an easy laugh.
Fortune favours the bold, or so they say. Alas, Isla can't agree in this moment, since her decision to flaunt (or at least not consciously hide) her previous relationships with the Taliesins comes back to bite her with one small, sharp quip from Flora. Biting at the inside of her cheek hard enough to taste copper, she nods softly and stares determinedly into her empty glass. "Yes, I am," she confirms. "Though I haven't seen him since he was a toddler. I don't believe he even recognises me."
In fact she's sure of it; she thinks she's been able to pick him out at the party based on Flora's behaviour and dimples too similar not to be Remi's, and the lack of recognition goes both ways, she supposes. Yet another opportunity for things to get messy, and Isla smiles at the wicked glee in the Doubletake's voice despite herself.
Her next comment, however, has the Remedy raising an eyebrow, and she turns to follow Flora's gaze over her shoulder out onto the patio. "I didn't realise they used to be together," she says quietly. "I suppose this party has a lot more skeletons in its closet than anyone could have predicted."
"Oh!" Too excited at her own genius to notice the effect her words have had on Isla, Flora nods her head over toward where Mateo was currently chatting it up with Paige. "He's there! He has a botany shop in Stormbreak." The girl explains, grinning. "I always thought the Isla he was named after must have been someone who died or whatever." Luckily, a sparkle of decorum keeps Flora from asking just what it was Isla had done to merit the use of her name as Mateo's middle one; the raised arch of her eyebrows very much suggests she'd been keen to hear it if Isla was up for explaining, though.
"Yeah, I'm not really sure of all the details. But I know my mom burned down part of the bar when they all broke up." All having included Nate of course, but Flora simply assumed that Isla would know that. "He was married to my auntie Pheobe too." She says, nodding toward where Phoebe was still talking with Jack. "And then she was married to Harper, who is the dickhead and new king, who was..or is? engaged to Maeve, the former queen, who also was with Sunjata. Then of course Remi and my mom being together, which Ronin absolutely hated. I still don't think they ever talk." This little exploration more than confirms that although her guests might have been surprised by the number of skeletons, that Flora certainly hadn't been.
