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!
"Well, I guess we'll see who ends up being right, won't we?" Flora says with a shrug of her shoulder. With a harpoon resting on the other shoulder and a net hanging from her back, the Doubletake almost looked as though she was here to put in a real day's work. In fact, she was just holding things while various members of Jack's crew set about tossing bait out into the water.
Having informed Jack that she was fairly certain Hadama was going to start outlawing the aquisition of manta crystals, the captain had said that there was no way Torchline would go full animal-activist in his lifetime. This was met with a few grunts of agreement from the NPCs, to which Flora could only shrug again. "Well, either you'll right and I"ll just conveniently have a surplus whenever I need them, orrrrrrr-" Drawing out the word and flashing Jack a grin, Flora raises her eyebrows. "I'll be right and have stocked up early on contraband." It was a win-win in her books, especially if Jack's crew were doing most of the work.
Convenient how much you could get done by offering free booze to the Ark's crew and the occasional fuck to its captain.
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
Feeling somewhat puppeted out here by Flora, Jack is nonetheless too hot to argue, and he sits perched on the ship's railing at the side of the Ark. They've put down anchor in the deepest waters they can - he hates getting too close to the Isles in case they decide to get up and move and run the ship aground - and as some of the crew take the harpoon and net from Flora, the captain's eyes are on the water.
"Surprised they ain't been hunted to extinction by now," he mutters around the spring of peppermint bark between his teeth, Jack lowering his sunglasses a fraction as he notices movement in the water. "Aight, hopefully we just get mantas, an' nothin' bigger." Or angrier. "You wanna do the honour and strike first?" This, of course, is to Flora, so she can put her money where her mouth is.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Despite Flora's sunhat and oversized sunglasses, she still finds the world quite bright, such that it's with a hand shading her eyes that she turns to regard the captain. "What, are you a conservationist now?" In her mind she pictures Jack in some tight white t-shirt with SAVE THE MANTAS written on it, holding a clipboard and begging for signatures to take to Hadama or Harper.
Glancing overboard into waters which looked deep and blue and entirely unremarkable, the Doubletake turns back to Jack with a shake of her head. "I'm not here with something to prove." She says with a roll of her eyes, not that he'll be able to see it behind her shades. "No need for me to try and impress you and just end up scaring everything away, now is there?" Besides, Flora's talents weren't really in the skewering big fish department.
"Soooo, what'd you think of my opening?" Leaning against the railing, Flora tilts her head back slightly to try and soak up as much of the seabreeze as she could. "You and my Aunt Phoebe seemed cozy." Casually said, Jack will no doubt feel the subtle barbs of jealousy that crown around her words.
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
"Hardly," Jack drawls. "I been waitin' for it to happen so we can start chargin' more for contraband." You know, since Hadama gets all uppity about the mantas being harmed and whatnot. (He wonders if the Mer would calm down if there were no more of the creatures to break his heart about).
He's equal parts disappointed and impressed that Flora doesn't take his bait about potentially striking at the first manta, and so with a grumble he waves a hand for the crew to get to doin' a murder and turns fully back to face her. Slipping down to stand on deck and lean against the side of the ship, his brow furrows over his shades at the sudden turn in the conversation.
And while the barbs of envy roll off his telepathy and try to dig their way into his psyche, he can't help but be puzzled. "Did we?" he says with a tilt of his head. "If I remember rightly, you left us at the bar." Snorting, he glances briefly to the crew as a cheer goes up - they've got their first manta.
"Openin' was impressive, though. You built a reputation that night." And yes, that's a compliment. From Jack.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
"You know...I wonder if we couldn't just...make up something in short supply. It doesn't actually have to be in short supply for us to tell people it is." Flora murmurs, lips tugging down in a thoughtful frown as she tries to imagine just what sort of item might fit the bill. A knife that they salted and left out in the rain, only to rust so that they could say it belonged to some long ago warrior? And hell, why not just say they'd found relics from the war? Who was going to challenge them? Who had the knowledge to?
"It was a party. Couldn't just stand around with you two all night." Flora chimes in response before shrugging as if she hardly cared. "But if I remember rightly, you stayed, so.." Not wanting to think about it but, you know, hoping the captain would just supply his thoughts about Phoebe, and that they'd be of the wouldn't fuck her with a 10-foot pole sort, Flora's worries utterly melt at the offered compliment.
That made, what? Three in the history of their relationship? Trying to twist her lips so that her glee wouldn't be quite so apparent, not knowing the sunshiny burst of her emotions was more than a dead giveaway, Flora hmms! a little sound of appreciation. "I learned quite a few things about quite a few people that night."
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
"Flora Kaliesin, talkin' 'bout creatin' a scarcity in the Torchline market?" Jack's tone makes it sound exaggerated, but the fact that he holds her gaze says more than words alone. It's a good idea, and one he's used himself in the past with his black market contacts. "Gettin' all grown up over here," he rumbles, reaching into his pockets for his cigarettes and matchbook and watching as the crew haul a few small manta onto the deck.
"I did stay. I was at the bar," he reminds her with a smirk around the cigarette he slips between his lips. "She didn't have anythin' interestin' to say after you left." He can't say he wouldn't fuck Phoebe, because it's Jack and he would, but her thoughts hadn't been particularly spicy, and a lot was starting to happen in the rest of the tavern.
Lighting his cigarette and feeling the firework of her pride ripple across his skin, hotter than the sunshine overhead, Jack hides his own smile and offers her a smoke as well. "Oh? Don't go givin' information away for free, now. That shit's expensive."
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Flora hums a sound in the back of her throat that's both bright and contented, all while pursing her lips together and bouncing her eyebrows. "Short of going back to Frey and having them age me right into menopause, the Harper's and Hadama's of the world are always going to treat me like a kid, but.." Flora's smile remains perfectly in place, but her stare hardens. Age was just a number when you'd already seen war and had your twin die in your arms. '...I'd rather look like this and just make their opinions irrelevant than play by their rules."
Turning her chin over her shoulder as a pair of manta slopped onto the deck, Flora did her best not to wrinkle her nose at the sudden smell of brine and guts, instead preferring the smell of Jack's tobacco. Accepting the cigarette, though Flora can't make the sorts of shapes with the smoke the way Jack could, at least she could draw from the cigarette without choking anymore. "Who said anything about giving it away?" She wonders, flashing the captain a crooked smile; in her minds eye he was between her thighs, hands groping at the back of her legs as his tongue begged to know the sorts of secrets she'd learned.
Exhaling a puff of smoke, she turns her aqua gaze toward the sea. "It's like...this big game, you know?" Eyeing Jack over her shoulder, Flora's smile turns secretive and self-indulgent. "I have all these pieces and I know how lots of them fit together, and even things I don't know< I can sort of still see the shape of. Like when you're doing a puzzle and you have a piece missing, but you know what it has to look like in order to fit."
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
"Playin' by the rules is overrated," Jack says, because of course he does, the captain stepping back to hoist himself up and sit on an upturned barrel, easily able to ignore the manta violence going on behind them. "Besides, let 'em underestimate you. It ain't an advantage you'll have forever." And he doesn't even mean because of her youth; there's only so long Flora can keep being successful, even covertly, before people begin to expect it from her.
The images that sway and dance through her mind earn a private smile around his cigarette, and if the smoke rings he blows are perhaps a little more wobbly than usual, so be it. He follows the thread of her thoughts like they're part of the very same puzzle she's talking about, because this is Jack's bread and butter. Criss-crossing psychic lines, mapping out Torchline's hierarchy through hidden desires and dirty secrets - he knows it all too well. "Watch yourself - that kind of thinkin' is addictive," he murmurs with a knowing look.
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
Rolling her eyes, it was always easier said than done, Flora sighs and nods before turning her gaze back toward the water. She was going to let them underestimate her, and with the newly named Captain of Stormbreak having offered to take Flora under her wing and train her, the Doubletake was planning on making a gulf between what the likes of men like Harper thought she could do and what she actually could.
Inhaling the final drag of her cigarette before letting the sea breeze tangle her final exhale of smoke, Flora glances toward Jack with a small smirk. "Well maybe we can indulge together one day, mmm?" She murmurs casually with a small shrug, knowing it would take more than just an off-handed offer to get Jack to share the things he knew, but that was fine. The Doubletake had a certain heist in the work that was sure to yield the sort of results she hoped she could tempt the good captain with.
As the crystals are harvested from the Mantas, Flora begins to eye the final haul with interest. Not only would their bounty serve to provide an easy escape for the guild should it ever flood, but this would knock off part of her quest for Frey if all went well. With this in mind, the Doubletake turns her attention back to Jack. Sitting there smoking, looking like he could be any old scrawny idiot on a ship the way he was seated so casually on one of the barrels, Flora couldn't help but wonder just how many people had underestimated him in his time before notoriety. 'So what is it you want, Jack?' She asked in a low voice, aqua gaze intent upon him.
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
"Mm, maybe so," Jack murmurs, though of course he spends most of his time indulging, not that Flora is aware of that. Even so, if she continues moving from strength to strength (and if the training she's thinking about comes to fruition, he doesn't see why she wouldn't), then they're only going to have more to talk about. Once upon a time Jack might have seen a rivalry in the Doubletake that begged to be taken care of, but the world has changed since the war, and he's been forced to change with it.
Finishing his own cigarette and flicking the butt overboard, it's with a final, smoky exhale that he pins his gaze on Flora, both wanting to and knowing better than to ask who the fuck she thinks she's calling a scrawny idiot. What does he want, though? He considers her for a moment, a wolfish grin threatening on his lips, and he finally seems to decide to throw her a bone.
"Nothin'," he says with all the weight of an admission. "Anythin' I want, I already got. And any time that changes, it stays between me and the gods. You'd be wise to take the same approach."
Jack being an Abandoned is common knowledge these days, however his Telepathy remains a well-kept secret:
Magic: Passive Telepathy | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Also branded with a small star tattoo beneath his left eye.
It isn't the answer she'd been expecting or even hoping for from him. The wolfish grin does nothing but leave Flora feeling a touch unmoored, not unlike the sensation of falling when the tide pulls away leaving you wanting to catch your balance on the shoreline. Anytime she felt she was near to the point of getting Jack, whether sexually or just in terms of understanding him, it was like a mirage that slipped through her fingers and moved out of her reach again.
Biting at the inside of her cheek and wanting to grab a tangle of Jack's hair in her fingers and yank out her frustration, instead the Doubletake pulls in a deep breath of sea air and lets her head tip back indulgently. If she'd learned anything at all from men like lucifer Jack, it was that knowing what someone desired was more important than almost anything else. But if Jack was going to remain tight-lipped, perhaps the Doubletake would have to forgo her girlish daddy-issues-based crush on the good captain.
"Or maybe I'll just become a goddess myself." Flora muses, eyes on the sea, before abruptly turning toward the haul of manta crystals that she might sort out two she could use for Frey's quest.
~FIN
The rumors are terrible and cruel But honey, most of them are true
