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!
"I wasn't expecting to enjoy that as much as I did," Isla is saying as they meander down a boulevard next to the docks, the Ancient admiring the softly pearlescent sheen to her nails. It's a lot, relaxing while someone takes care of your body (or just hands in this case, she supposes), exchanging warm chit-chat with other women. Vacuous, Isla might have called it once, but this afternoon she can't think of anything she would have enjoyed more; maybe it's high time she made room for a little more vacuous in her life.
There are, of course, any number of wine bars and tiki shacks along this stretch of Torchline than runs parallel to the beach, and though it's fair to assume that the Remedy isn't not hungover, it's not nearly as bad as it could be. And who knows - maybe some hair of the dog will help? So saying, she gestures to one of the places they pass. "Do you want to stop for a drink? Or would you prefer to go back to the Hanged Man, since..." Well, Flora owns it.
Over the course of the manicure, Flora had been able to remove her sunglasses without squinting painfully at the harsh (read: normal) lighting around them. She was young, yes, and her liver was more than up to the task of getting through the liquor she'd consumed the night before, but gods, it was a lot, such that it took the Doubletake a little bit to bounce back.
Looking down at her own nails, a bright red with small pearls placed on her ring fingers, Flora shakes her head. "Nah, let's try here. I can see if there's anything on their menu worth stealing." She chuckles, before angling slightly toward one of the little wine bars that was basically just a small shack on the beach with a few tables and umbrellas.
Ruffling a hand through her curls (still mostly intact from the night before), Flora points dramatically toward a table before making a MENU gesture with her hands to the one server lounging behind the bar. "SooOoOoOO," She sings suggestively as she slides into her seat. "Have fun last night?"
"Young but wise," Isla remarks with a smile, nodding and heading into wine bar with the Doubletake. The two women ought to be at quiet odds with each other given their personalities and styles, and yet Isla finds Flora's company to be flamboyant and refreshing, like a burst of colour in a world she hasn't realised has grown so monochrome.
"The party was great," she informs her wryly as she sidles into her seat opposite, bare shoulders pink from soaking up the sun, not that she's remotely bothered. Knowing that wasn't at all what Flora meant, the Remedy takes the opportunity of the menu arriving to peruse it while trying to form her answer.
"Yes. And then not so much," she says, ordering something fruity and an appetiser of raw sushi - hopefully the Doubletake won't mind.
Grinning, the compliment absolutely appreciated, Flora pulls in a deep breath of salty sea air as if it might somehow cleanse whatever poisons are left in her system in order to make room for more. Adjusting the umbrella at their table so that neither woman is at risk of getting tan lines (gods, can you imagine), Flora accepts the menu with a gracious trill in the back of her throat.
To their order, Flora adds some grilled sweet potato with salt and some sangria, before leaning back in her chair and appraising Isla with a wildly interested gaze. "Oh?" She wonders, blue eyes widening. "Couldn't have been worse than mine. I went home with my brother and his weird friend." Flora says with a light laugh and shrug, before nodding invitingly. The Doubletake found the Remedy fascinating in ways she couldn't quite articulate. Not only was this woman one of the few non-demigods to possess the strength to, you know, be part of the war, but she was also Mateo's namesake and the reason her father had been forced to remove part of his memories.
And, BusIneSs ParTneRs or not, Sunjata was hot, so the fact that Isla had gone home with him made the Remedy all the more badass in Flora's opinion.
Isla can absolutely imagine, given that she's probably got a few already - such is life when you don't feel the heat from the sun but it can still reach down and slap you. Still, she's appreciative of the shade to see Flora better, smiling after the server when they take the menus before returning her attention to the Doubletake. "The hostess going home with family, like a good girl? I can't decide whether you are or you aren't your father's daughter," she murmurs.
Still, she quietly disagrees, thank you - it absolutely could be worse, and Isla is about to prove it. With a soft grumble that suggests she's loathe to keep everything inside just as much as she doesn't want to say it out loud, the Remedy shakes her head. "I let my feelings get the better of me, that's all," she says. "I've known where things stood between Sunjata and I since day one, but with everyone making assumptions..."
Scrunching her nose and, when their drinks arrive, taking a generous sip of her own, Isla pinches at the bridge of her nose. "I asked him if things were more than they seemed, and was very much assured that they were not." I got friendzoned, in modern terms.
"Ewwwwwwwwwwwww." Flora groans, crinkling her nose and looking at the more youthful for it. "I've got like...some people I'm interested in, but not enough to invite them home after, you know? That feels too...like...more than just casual." AKA both the situation Isla was in, but also not. Shrugging, Flora rakes a finger through her hair and had it been short, the gesture might really have reminded Isla of Remi. Given the length though, the movement is all Flora as her newly painted nails comb through her curls.
With her interest more than just a little peaked by Isla's reluctance, Flora leans forward conspiratorily, offering the ancient her full and undivided attention. "WHAT." Flora gasps, before lowing her voice considerably. "What?!" She demands again, eyebrows furrowed as she glances about to make sure no one was eavesdropping. 'Okay but you're like...super gorgeous? and fought in the war. You're the total package. What the hell is wrong with him?" Though it's true Flora might have a bit of a crush on Isla for all the reasons just listed, it isn't just smoke she's blowing up the ancient's ass; genuinely she believes everything she's just said.
"Anyone would be lucky to be with you, demigod or not." Take that, Remi.
"Sorry." Isla grins from behind the safety of her drink, even if she very much isn't. "Going home alone," well, with her brother, but still, "is absolutely the right vibe, though. Makes you look mysterious and unavailable." And a bit cold and probably a workaholic, but she doesn't mention that aspect of being a strong woman who manages herself.
Besides, Flora is exclaiming her outrage to the beachfront, and it's with a soft flush to her cheeks that Isla tries to duck a little further under the umbrella, wondering how many drinks she can ideally sink before their food arrives. "Would you like an itemised list?" she asks with a dry smile, of what the hell is wrong with the Flood, before sadly shaking her head.
"The war leaves us all with scars," she murmurs. "I don't blame him for any of it, it's just..." She shrugs and takes a long, deep breath in. "It would be easier if he didn't look at me sometimes like I was the only person in the world, you know? It's been a long time since anyone looked at me that way."
06-09-2023, 05:27 PM (This post was last modified: 06-09-2023, 05:27 PM by Flora.)
flora
"Oooh. I like that." Mysterious and unvailable was a far better way of framing things. Jack tolerates me and is a good fuck and Paige is unavailable didn't quite have the same ring to it. Taking a sip of her sangria before pulling a face and giving it a stir with her straw, Flora rearranges her face to be appropriately horrified as Isla spills the tea.
"Yeah, in order of importance." She agrees as a way of encouraging Isla to continue. "Okay but like...and, I know this makes me a hypocrite because I hated when people told me to get over it and heal myself after Enzo...but they weren't wrong. You can't just...be stuck in the past, you know?" Flora, who had never had anyone look at her that way, could only softly gaze at the woman before her as if she might somehow understand the importance of the gesture by Isla's appearance alone. "That sounds really nice, though." She all but whispers, before inhaling and taking a long sip of her drink.
"But I guess I can imagine it. Feeling so good with someone and having it just be...nothing the next day." Jack.
"So what are you going to do?" Flora asks, perhaps a touch too boldly given how new this friendship was. "I mean, if it isn't the same for him? l have lots of space if you want to come stay here." The Doubletake adds breezily. Gods, the things she could learn from living with someone like Isla..
Laughing to her new friend, Isla leans an elbow on the table and tucks a lock of her fair hair behind her ear. "I won't air his dirty laundry," she says - or at least, she'll only air the laundry that also belongs to her. "Just rest assured, there's a lot of pain in Sunjata's past. I don't know if he'll ever be able to let it go. Sometimes living in the past is the only thing making sure someone has a future." Ah, flowery suicide themes; perfect wine bar subject matter.
Smiling into her drink, the Ancient gives a gentle nod. "It is," she confirms. "And... yeah. I just... I didn't expect to be here again. It feels too soon." And yet, isn't that always the way?
As for what she's going to do, Isla winces, not really knowing the answer and not wanting to commit to anything even if it makes her a coward. "We're still business partners," she points out. "I run a clinic in King's End. It's important work." Or maybe she's still just chasing a feeling that isn't real, however fleeting it comes and goes in those moments.
"Mmmmmmm...I dunno about that." Flora murmurs, and had she known about a certain Spyglass's memory orb, she might have suggested something like that might be just what Sunjata needed. Alas, all she can do is grimace and take another long slurp of her drink. 'Are you in love with him, do you think?" Flora asks, again, perhaps too boldly though there's a genuine innocence in her aqua stare that suggests she's genuinely curious. "Or do you just...love him?"
BusIneSs PartNerS has Flora rolling her eyes a touch, albeit playfully. "I mean..how hard can it be to run a brothel?" She wonders, having absolutely no idea. As for a clinic? Pulling back her lips to make the grimace-emoticon face, the Doubletake widens her eyes a touch doubtfully. "Oh right, for all the loads of folks in King's End. Not like Torchline and our 0 citizen count or anything." She sasses with a grin.
Not knowing anything about such an item either - and honestly, the part of her that knows Sunjata best thinks he wouldn't take it even if it was offered to him, because the pain is too comfortable - Isla can only stir her drink absently. She's foolishly decided to take another sip when Flora blurts out the most innocent and yet hard-hitting question yet, the Remedy trying not to inhale her cocktail as she sets the glass down.
"Flora," she chides with a grimace, grabbing a napkin to dab at her lips. Such a reaction is never going to stand without clarification though, she knows as much by now, and so Isla gathers herself before responding. "I think I was walking a dangerous line," she confesses. "I've loved Sunjata for a long time - he's one of my closest friends. I've known him since before the war, and he and I have helped each other through a lot this past year."
Doesn't really answer the question, though. "I think it would have been very easy to fall in love with him. Maybe I had already started to." Shrugging helplessly, she's saved by the arrival of their appetisers, though she does offer a scoff in response to Flora's sass.
"You don't need to understand it to accept it," she points out with a bob of her eyebrows.
"Isla" Flora replies immediately, eyes wide and lips pulled down in an upside smile. Just about to point out that no part of what the ancient had said was actually an answer to her question, the Doubletake hums a sound of thanks as their food is brought before immediately refocusing. Caring little about the sushi or fruit and only about the answer to her question, when it finally comes the Doubletake is surprised by just how sad she feels for the other woman.
"You deserve way better than that, you know? And I know there's the whole...doctorly here to help everyone thing that you healer-types have, but if I told you that I was just ghosting around with someone who wanted to be sad and didn't love me back so I could help change cum-soaked sheets and treat STIs in some big field that no one goes to, would you think that sounded like a good plan?"
Reaching for one of the sweet potato rounds, Flora licks a bit of the sea salt off before gesturing vaguely to Torchline. 'The sun suits you.'
No, I really don't, Isla wants to reply, almost feeling the words pressing against the back of her teeth. She's always been someone's sometimes, but not always (hey there, Remi), someone's for now, because I need to feel good. The one time she wasn't, he got himself incinerated up by a Sparkbird. Nabbing a piece of sushi with chopsticks and eating it so she doesn't have to respond right away, at least it tastes divine good, so there's that.
"Well when you put it so poetically, you're right, it does sound like a bit of a shit situation," she agrees, and although the compliment is flattering, Isla smirks and shakes her head. "There are too many people in Torchline," she mutters. "I don't know if I am ready for that." Because as fresh a perspective as Flora has, there's still a lot she doesn't know, and the Remedy is a long way from alright even without Sunjata-gate.
Flora raises her eyebrows victoriously, even though this very much isn't the sort of situation where a winner is needed, as that implies a loser. 'I'm just saying..' The girl says, reaching for some sushi as well though doing so without chopsticks. "...like...just because you're around someone who is content with being miserable, don't let that rub off on you, okay? Besides, Ronin literally stayed up on the mountain with my dad because he wanted to mope around and be a grump, and look where that got him." She reasons, head inclined to the side slightly before she waggles her nearly empty drink at the waiter to indicate she'd like a refill.
'For real though, I have extra room. And my place is right on the beach. Without Enzo it's...' Lonely wasn't quite the right word, not anymore. It was just..."..too big for just me. So even if you just want somewhere to stay for a little vacation."
