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!
'Oh shush.' Flora sings back, her eyes alight with mischief. 'You love the dramatic. Someone with a boring and regular life would give you wrinkles." From what she'd seen of him, George was lovely and polite and handsome, but he was still just a boy compared to someone like Sunjata. Still, she'd add her guild-member to the newly created do not fuck list and let her mother have her fun while it lasted.
Encircled by love and mud, Flora feels things inside of herself release that she hadn't even realized she'd been keeping tense. So long had she maintained an affect of breeziness that she almost forgot what all of her bold colours and wide smiles were trying to protect. "I love you, mama." She whispers softly, her voice girlish and very young as she presses her cheek against her mother's soft skin and sighs indulgently.
Then, as if realizing perhaps she isn't the only one in need of a soft place to fall, pulls back slightly. "Are you happy?" She wonders, gaze searching Hotaru's multifaceted eyes. She finds herself focused on the more blue of her mother's stare, if only because it reminds her so much of Enzo.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
It should be backwards that someone boring would give Hotaru wrinkles, but she also can't deny it. Not that she'll let Flora win sitting down - she blows quite the childish raspberry in response. Who needs words when you can do that?
Besides, the quiet that reigns as they hold one another is preferable. She may be just a letter away, but Hotaru will never feel that Flora is close enough; it can be hard not to give in to her desire to be overbearingly involved in her daughter's life. Having her in her arms is a comfort she cannot adequately describe and one she wants to cling to for as long as she can. "I love you too baby," she whispers, holding her as close as her body allows.
It makes it hard to let Flora move back for that very reason, but her arms do go a bit slack at the gut-punch question the Doubletake poses. There comes moments in a mother's life when she must decide between emotional vulnerability and protecting her child from the weight of her own demons; were it any other grief, any other loss, maybe she would have been inclined to the latter. Smiling sadly, Ru cups her daughter's beautiful, mud-smeared face. "Not always," she admits quietly in the emptiness of her spa, "and less so before your opening." Implied gratitude lives there for Flora having reminded her how to live again, marking a change in the Valkyrie's trajectory that she never could have anticipated. "But I think I'm starting to be."
Leaning forward, she kisses just between Flora's brows and lingers there a moment before tilting her own forehead against the Doubletake's. Eye contact is a little harder this way, but Ru couldn't care less. "Are you?" Gods know they must look a sad sight; two broken halves of twin units trying to find happiness that would never really fill those empty spaces.
Oh, drunken gods of slaughter You know I've always been your favorite daughter
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.
Flora's eyes appear all the more sea-toned for the mud smeared on her cheeks and the lace-white colour of her mother's hands, and though they search Hotaru's face for a moment, ever do they land back on the flecks of Enzo-blue in the Valkyrie's stare. A fledgling smile of understanding tries to part Flora's lips, but knowing that she didn't need to pretend in this place keeps her smile from becoming anything but genuine. "I know what you mean." She agrees in a low voice.
Breathing in her mother's words like some potent drug that might ease the tension in her thoughts that way Hotaru's fingers had eased it from her body, Flora pushes her chin forward in a childish gesture that brings their noses together. "Not always." She mimics, raising one shoulder in a shrug that hardly shifts the mud around them. "Sometimes I think I'm doing fine, and then other days I miss Enzo more than I can bear and it makes me hate everyone else for not being him." Flora admits softly. 'And I know it won't always be like that, but when it is...' Another sad smile, the weight of which has the Doubletake's stomach clenching as her fingers tighten around Hotaru for fear she might sink into it. " Sometimes I feel so lost even when I know that I'm not. Do you know what I mean?"
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
It's a subtle shift in the position of Flora's irises, but Hotaru knows what she keeps looking back for. She does the same every morning in the mirror.
It isn't easy to stomach the thought that your child is suffering, but their grief is a shared thing even if neither can wholly understand the nuances of the relationship the other lost. "I know what you mean," she reassures quietly, and the arm around Flora's body tightens; she won't be lost to that feeling, not with Hotaru here. "You said it yourself - it won't always be like that. And if we hate people for not being him, we're merely upholding the best possible standard." One they would never meet. "Enzo would love that." In a darkly amusing way he likely revels that his death has elevated him to a paragon status that ensures nobody can ever measure up.
"You don't have to have it all figured out, flower. Not today, not a year from now, not ten." Gently brushing their noses together in belated response, Ru pulls back just enough to press a kiss to the very tip of Flora's nose. "Whether in life or in knowing how to exist without him." And, although her daughter surely can tell and already knows, honesty is the best policy. "I still am too. It's hard to remember how to live instead of just surviving." As has been pointed out plentifully. "But you're figuring it out. I can tell - and I'm proud of you."
Oh, drunken gods of slaughter You know I've always been your favorite daughter
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.
Huffing out a quiet laugh, Flora can only nod. The smile on her lips is one that looks almost like a wince such is the pain and weight of it, but the girl doesn't mind. Of course were Enzo here he'd tell her that frowning that way would only give her wrinkles, but then, she'd be happy to remind him that were he alive he'd be giving her wrinkles, and so this was just her way of keeping things balanced.
Hotaru's affirmations relax her more than any mud or botanicals ever could, and quite bonelessly Flora melts again her mother letting go of any other reservations she might have. They'd come back of course, but at least with this moment cemented in her mind she could replay back the Valkyrie's words when she needed to hear them most. "I love you." Flora whispers, finding herself suddenly and completely exhausted.
'Maybe a nap before lunch?' She suggests, shooting her mother a wry look before sliding down into the mud until it nearly touched her chin.
~FIN <3
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
