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!
'Gasp,' Flora whispers conspiratorily, her eyes and lips widening at the same time. Honestly, nothing the Supernova could have said would have surprised her at all, and to hear that her dad's jealousy was second only to a literal dragon bonded to Ronin's soul was pretty on brand for all of them. 'Isn't it ever weird that he's so like...into you?' Flora wonders with a slight grimace, and not just because Remi - and Ronin, now too - was her dad.
'Awwww, are you blushing?' Flora wants to know even though the Supernova quite clearly is, and if he'll allow it, the Doubletake will boop him on the nose with her index finger just to confirm. 'I dunno Spice, what do you think? Should we tell him our secret ingredients?' It was lemon, sugar, and alcohol, but of course Flora would make it out to be much more than that.
'It isn't supposed to be strong, maybe you're just more of a lightweight than you thought.' As Spice chirps in agreement - to what, the dragon of course doesn't know - Flora again feels the prickle of something. It feels almost like a shiver at the nape of her neck, causing her to swipe at her skin again to try and make it go away.
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
"You know I am," Ronin complains, because that's what blushberries do to people, Flora, the Supernova accepting his boop before scrubbing a hand across the bridge of his nose as if he might wipe away the pink flush to his cheeks. And of course that's when she decides to ask all of the really juicy questions, Ronin sighing hard enough to puff out his cheeks and sitting back on the bar stool.
"No it isn't weird," he says with a boyish tuck of his chin. "And I'm not a lightweight, I can just taste the... whatever is in this." He's not a taste tester extraordinaire like his husband, sorry. Booze is booze and fruit is fruit. "Anyway. I think it's probably good if Spice stays here with you. Since you have such a bond."
"Well I think it would be weird. " Flora chirps doubtfully. "To have someone just...all over you like that? All the time?" Considering her relationship role models had been Vai (widowed), her mother (single), and Ronin and Remi (hateful and a glorified sperm donor, respectively), it was no wonder the girl thought that relationships were the sorts of things to be kept at a distance.
"The whatever is just a simple syrup, Ronin." On the counter, Spice echoes the sarcasm with a chirpchirp to mimic the syllables in ronin.
Dragon and Doubletake look at one another, before both pairs of eyes look back to Ronin. 'Oh, uh...I dunno. I think I might be allergic, I keep feeling this-" Hissing in a breath as rejectionrejectionrejection spikes through the small dragon, Flora shakes her head. "-I dunno, like this weird headache thing around her."
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
"It's nice," Ronin admits, all of his eloquence summarily destroyed by the potency of the blushberries in his drink - a drink that, while it really does taste good, he is not keen to take another sip of, thank you very much. Taking another deep breath and letting it out again, he's suddenly grateful for his demigodly constitution, because the blush is already starting to fade from his cheeks.
Awkwardly swiping a hand back through his hair, he's nonetheless enthralled by the unmistakeable companionship he sees forming between Doubletake and hatchling, and his smile takes on a little more of its usual charm. "Mm, almost like there are feelings that aren't yours creeping in?" he agrees - his smugness has drawn Sugar down from the rafters (because of course it has), the pale dragon looping around his shoulders like a winged scarf.
"You're not allergic, otherwise you'd never have made it through your reopening," he points out, given that she'd been using the ice machine present between them all night. "I think you've found yourself a companion."
'You're nice.' Flora sasses, not meaning it as a compliment.
"No not feelings, just pulses of..." Furrowing her brow as her brain began to consider the demigod's words more carefully, Flora realized that the pulses of electrical sensation she'd been feeling were a bit like feelings. They were just...jaded and blurred and all mashed together.
'Me?' Staring down at Spice, Flora lowers herself so that she's eye-level with the bar. Making a face of clear concentration, the Doubletake thinks a command at the little creature, before shifting her gaze slightly to the side and then back again. For a moment nothing happens, and when nothing continues to happen, Flora is in the process of exhaling a you're wrong, when Spice begins to amble toward one side of the bar. Watching on incredulously, Flora beams as the small dragon as she presses her head against a potted plant and begins to try and nudge it toward the edge of the bar. 'Loooooooooooook!' Flora whispers, awestruck and brimming with pride. "She's doing it!"
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
"Well she is only a baby," Ronin points out; her feelings aren't going to be particularly nuanced at this stage, he thinks. Back in charge of his senses now, at least, he does set the blushberry cocktail to one side as if to subtly tell Flora she can find another lab rat for the next stage of her experiment, if there is one.
Together, Ronin and Sugar wear matching expressions of expectation, even as it takes Spice a moment to get the hang of what Flora wants, and when the hatchling starts her shitfuckery ambling towards the plant, the Supernova is grinning as well. "You see? Your dad thought she was going to bond to me, but I feel like I was meant to bring her here."
The plant - a cactus - does continue to nudge dangerously towards the edge of the bar, however, and Ronin instinctively reaches out to catch it as it falls. "Ouch," he mumbles as he's pricked by one of the spines, offering Flora a reproachful smile as he sets it back on the counter and shakes out his hand. "Maybe keep to frosting drinks for now?"
Were it not for Spice, Flora would have torn a strip off of Ronin for giving up so quickly when he'd said he would help her. (Had he said that? Whatever, doesn't matter). Of course with a new mind pressing in against hers, the Doubletake was suitably distracted from Ronin's poor showing as a parent just now.
Focused intently on said shit-fuckery ambles, Flora ignores the Nova's fated explanation as she can feel the dragon's struggle to move the little cactus. Go on, you can do it! The Doubletake encourages silently, and as the cactus disappears from the bar but isn't followed by a crash, Flora's delighted expression clouds over as she glares at Ronin. "Oooh you're going to want to put something on that." She murmurs, biting at the inside of her lip and wondering if Mateo's notes said anything about this.
"Only if you stick to saving dragons instead of plants." Flora chirps back before stretching out a hand toward Spice to expedite the dragon's journey back to her.
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
"It's just a little prick," Ronin says with a roll of his eyes, before chuckling at his own juvenile joke. But readers, it is not. While Flora coos over Spice (and Ronin has to stop himself from smiling too hard at it), he takes a closer look at the plant pot which is emblazoned with warnings and notes in a familiar script.
"Flora..." With furrowed brows, the Supernova turns the cactus carefully to face her. "Did Mateo give you this? Because this specifically says this is a Dream Cactus, and that you shouldn't display it out in public in case people touch it." He knows the answers to all of these questions, of course - he's just making a point.
06-27-2023, 08:51 PM (This post was last modified: 06-27-2023, 08:51 PM by Flora.)
flora
"Is it though?" Flora wonders with the facial equivalent of the upside-down smiley emoticon, knowing from Mateo's many (maaannnyyy) lectures that the Supernova was in for it.
"Mmhmm." The Doubletake trills back, clearly distracted and delighted by Spice's attempts to gnaw off one of her rings. Glancing flatly over the dragon's back, Flora blinks once before beaming back at Spice. "You know he did, and you know that's what it says because you can read." She answers, sounding borderline annoyed the way any teenager might when their parent tries to comment on the state of their room (or in this case, their tavern).
'You're probably going to want to like...lay down and think happy thoughts.' Flora offers offhandedly.
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
Ronin wants to kombucha girl about it, but unfortunately he's suddenly got a little more to think about than the size of his prick (ha). And he wants to be annoyed at Flora, only he knows exactly what it's like to suddenly be bonded to something for the first time, and at Sugar's cold snout pressing against his cheek, he realises that the Doubletake is absolutely right. With a groan, the Supernova slouches off the barstool and nods towards her back room (the real one, not the secret one).
"I'll be in there. When you hear your dad, it's not me cleverly throwing my voice," he says, shuffling off. "Oh... I'm really happy for you, though." Managing a smile that's already growing a bit hazy and uncertain, he nods at the hatchling. "You'll be great together."
And then off Ronin goes to use an as-of-yet untested magic. Because if there's ever a time when he needs rescuing, it's right the fuck now.
