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!
The ascent of the moon over Peekaboo Rise is always quite something, as any (recent) traveller to the Hollowed Grounds would say. And tonight is no different, but as it creeps behind the peak of the hill, round and full and crimson, it's especially breathtaking. A jubilant cheer goes up from those gathered for the festival at the first sighting of the Blood Moon; streamers are thrown, music strikes up and more wood is thrown onto a bonfire already climbing ever higher.
Whilst it's true that this is a celebration of the middle of Longheat, now too does it represent Dygra, newly revived to complete the eternal circle between order and entropy. And so rubies glisten and obsidian swallows the light as part of the decor, and to say that there's a little bit of chaos in the air would be an understatement.
Tonight is a night to enjoy, to go wild, to misbehave. And who doesn't want a piece of that?
Welcome to the Blood Moon Festival for 316 PC! Feel free to have your characters enter the festival <3
Don't forget to wear your jewellry and bring your leftovers, if you have completed these parts of the Seasonal Event!
what tried to destroy you didn't have the strength
Deimos would never be able to erase the unease festivals gave him – and their arrival within the Hollowed Grounds once more did nothing to ease the tension. It could’ve been the promise of chaos bounding and leaping through the air, but the tension knotted and coiled along his spine as they came upon the rising hill, the reddened moon.
Had his hands not been full of their leftovers, they might have been tightly clenched into fists. Eyes narrowed, he pondered over the inevitable – of the landmark itself (he’d been expecting the Climb, or Torchline, perhaps), and anything else beckoning and clawing their way out.
Turning to Evie, intending to gauge her reaction to returning to the Grounds, he settled for a quiet rumble in his chest, for her ears only. “You all right?”
06-14-2023, 02:46 AM (This post was last modified: 06-14-2023, 02:57 AM by Sohalia.)
Sohalia
The Hollowed Grounds was not where Soh had expected the festival to be held, and she couldn't say she was particularly thrilled about the idea. She hadn't been back since Auden had died, and she hadn't expected to return any time soon. Still, they'd done all that work preparing for the festival, and she and Jude had so been looking forward to it, and it seemed silly to waste all of that energy and excitement just because she was - what? Scared to come back? Still, she clung to Jude's hand as they approached the festival, and his presence was the only thing that kept her from turning tail and leaving.
She wore a red blouse and black jeans, all a little more form-fitting than she was used to, but Flora had told her that it looked nice, so here she was. She wore her ruby earrings, dangling teardrops that shone in the light of the rising moon, and her hair was pulled up off her neck in a simple, twisted bun. Tarak sat on her shoulder atop the leather pauldron she'd had made just so he wouldn't destroy her shoulder with his sharp claws, and he was far too interested in her earrings for her comfort. She kept glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, just to make sure he wasn't about to rip one out of her ear.
She carried leftovers from her lunch with Lena in her free hand. There was a bonfire, and music, and a jubilant crowd, and Soh turned to Jude with a slightly nervous smile on her face. "This is very lively, isn't it?" she said with a soft laugh. "Where do you think we're supposed to take the leftovers?"
06-14-2023, 02:52 AM (This post was last modified: 06-14-2023, 02:52 AM by Alys.)
Alys and Talyson arrived at the party to find a jubilant crowd throwing streamers, playing music, camped around a massive bonfire, all under the blood-red moon. The Seer raised her eyebrows at the display. "Is it too late to go back home?" she asked Tal, her nose wrinkling in distaste. Parties were not her thing. Crowds were also not her thing. But they'd worked hard to prepare their soup and salad, and here they were. With a sigh, Alys started forward, looking for a place to set their leftovers.
She wore a red dress with a black belt, offset by black flats and a black pearl necklace looped twice around her neck. On her finger, she wore an obsidian ring, and she looked back on making it with a certain fondness. She'd managed to somehow tame her dark curls into a braid wrapped into a bun at the nape of her neck. Overall, she looked nice, but not particularly fancy - and, to her relief, she was relatively cool. At the very least, she wasn't dying of heatstroke.
I just wanna feel something, tell me where to go 'Cause everybody knows something I don't wanna know
Ru arrives alone this time. There are many in attendance that are familiar to her, all who are awarded a warm smile and flutter of her fingertips in their direction, but she remains alone for a variety of reasons that for today are for only her to know. Though usually a cooler region, the height of summer has not released its grip on the Hollowed Grounds. As such she is dressed in far shorter, lighter garments than normal.
Wandering around the hill restlessly as the bloodred moon rises, Hotaru keeps sharp eyes on both their surroundings and the goings-on as people pour in. Depositing her leftovers with the rest, she walks barefoot through the grass, shoes held loosely in her fingers as she takes a moment to stare up at the ominously red moon overhead. Beautiful in a dangerous sort of way. She likes it.
So I'll stay right here 'cause I'm better all alone
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul
Lena’s lack of experience with the Hollowed Grounds was probably for the best – though she couldn’t fight off the apprehensive aspects regardless. Given the surroundings, the elemental fervor, and the threat of ominous chaos flickering about, she was more inclined to hover towards the back as others began filing in – taking a few opportunities to survey, watch, from vantage points.
But eventually, she too had to arrive on the scene. Steeling herself, she wore the ring of ruby along her finger, and began slowly walking in with her portion of salad and lemon bars, ignoring the thrall of the wilderness calling over the horizon.
I was born into the light
Under wide and open skies
Noah did not hold the same kind of trauma that some others did when it came to Caido's festivals, but after souls came back into Ascended bodies from the realm of Mort, he did have some hesitancy. Though, he was confident in his ability to leave quicker than he arrived should things go awry with the compass in his pocket. On top of that, his curiosity when it came to all things Ancient and Dygra kept his hesitancy from jailing him in Halo.
The ruby and leather bracelet wrapped loosely around his wrist as he arrived with a jar full of cold stew. His eyes moved across the waves of people, recognizing more than not at this point. Smiling and nodding to those he knew and passed (Lena, Alys, Deimos), he placed his leftovers on the table before striding towards Hotaru. "I wonder what it looks like in Halo right now." He said, slowing himself to keep pace at her shoulder.
"I mean, it'll only take five or so days," Tal told Alys with a snort, looking around at the party and already feeling out of place in the festivities. He wasn't out of place in his attire, at least - much to his relief. He'd worn a long-sleeved red shirt under his black Rockhide Vest that was clasped at his throat with a brooch of black iron and rubies. His Dagger was discretely at his hip, useful for cutting up food if nothing else, but he'd heard enough of Hotaru's stories to have his guard up.
And the bloody red moon was fuckin' unsettling.
He ended up following Hotaru and Noah to the tables where the food was set out so they could drop off their soup and salad leftovers. The soup needed reheating, but there were enough Ancients around that it didn't look like that would be a problem. He waved to Noah and and Lena, and flashed Hotaru and Sohalia brief grins but he was just as happy to find an upthrust of stone a little ways from the main festivities to lean against and people-watch.
Boreal, of course, had shouldered her way into the thick of it, begging treats from strangers and touching noses with other companions who'd arrived with their people for the festivities.
Brooch {SE} Red on black
Leftovers {se} i'll point you to the mirror
Deimos is normally the one who eases her own tension, which makes it all the harder when he is clearly just as unsettled as she is. Though the crimson moon is objectively beautiful, the wash of red over her old home makes her sick to her stomach in a way that has nothing to do with Dygra or the party. Being back in the Hollowed Grounds at all makes her skin clammy and cold, neck constantly prickling with a sense of danger that never comes to fruition despite how many times she turns her head.
What is worse somehow is all the familiar faces in attendance. She will never forget the misery of Fiat Lux, the terror and lost lives. She had never used her magic so plentifully in public before, and those horrible hours would live in her chest forever. Seeing so many Halovians only makes her quake with the need to keep an eye on all of them at once so that she can get them to safety if anything goes wrong. Festivals had become more enjoyable with time, but the newness of everything today - the new goddess, the new festival - merging with old, bloodied land was making her sick with tension.
Deimos' rumbling voice draws her back to the present, and her hand tightens in the crook of his elbow in a private display of vulnerability. "No," she whispers in turn. "I just want this to be over."
We're going down, down in an earlier round And sugar, we're going down swinging
Unlike many other attendants, Koa has no unpleasant association with the Grounds. If anything he's curious, eager to see the site of so much sordid history, the land lost to a barrier where the seeds of a war that changed his world were once so fruitfully sown. And though ostensibly here in official capacity, it doesn't take long for him to find Mateo and Everest and get involved in shenanigans as the festival wears on.
He's also trying very hard to avoid Soh and Jude.
"So what do you think's gonna happen?" Koa asks the other boys, passing Mateo a flask. Pipsqueak is draped over his shoulder, chewing happily on a mysterious piece of meat. "Really hoping there's no monsters or anything. I don't wanna have to work tonight."
I'll be your number one with a bullet A loaded god complex, cock it and pull it
06-16-2023, 08:29 PM (This post was last modified: 06-17-2023, 04:28 AM by Hadama.)
A full moon meant legs, at least for one night, and Hadama's curiosity about the Hollowed grounds had been piqued by Fox. The festival had seemed like a good way to catch kill flying fish with one stone, and the mermanta had arrived via Aquaportation and then beached himself while his body shifted into a temporary human form.
Wearing the torc he had made with Fox - tipped with obsidian hippocampus heads with chips of ruby for eyes - and bringing a box of leftover toasted coconut chips to leave at the table with the rest, he began a slow, dignified mingling, nodding solemnly to those he recognized. Most of those gathered, in fact, he was a little surprised to see.
After a stately circuit of the gathering he drifted towards Noah and Hotaru, joining them quietly with a murmured greeting. "Well met."
Edit: I forgot his threads >.> {SE} utile dulci Made jewelry {SE} Consider the coconut Ate coconuts
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
Everest has kindly flown La Verbena down to the Hollowed Grounds, and while it hasn't been a quick trip, he and the aviator have been friends for long enough that Mateo has hardly felt the time pass. Now his little schooner is safely moored nearby, and he climbs Peekaboo Rise bathed in the distant crimson of the moon. It's with wide blue eyes that Koa will find them, the boy absently accepting the flask and taking a long pull from it.
"I think my nonna would love this," he confesses to both of his friends. "My dad, too. Though I do not expect we will see either of them here tonight." There are bad associations with the Hollowed Grounds, and then there's whatever Ronin and Remi had been through here.
Mateo, though, like Koa, has no negative association with the place. "An orgy, I hope," he says with a flash of teeth.
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
It's Danta's first time to the Hollowed Grounds, and if this is what the place has to offer for festivals, he's pulling up a seat and staying, thank you very much.
Ascending the hilltop at a pace best described as a prowl, he finds himself within a breath of Hotaru and her bodyguards soon enough, though he doesn't spare a glance for the Mer or the demigod.
"You can find me at the bonfire, when you get bored," he purrs over her shoulder, before going on his way to toast his toes and find some trouble to get into.
'cause I'm selfish, I'm obscene
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
Let's not consider the timey wimey aspects at play - needless to say, she hasn't expected Sunjata to want to return to the Hollowed Grounds, and so she sets out for the festival on a tiger's silent paws, shifting back only now that she has reached the base of Peekaboo Rise.
A new addition to the region she once ruled, the Remedy finds herself frozen for a moment, overwhelmed by things that are both familiar and not. She wonders if her house is still standing, wonders whether or not there are still belongings there she might collect.
Her feet take her up towards the crest of the hill, even if her mind is out in the Levinsward, where Cal had spent his last moments.
