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!
Testing out her new weapon in the bamboo fields had been delightful, but they'd needed to return home eventually. That doesn't mean she feels content with the level of destruction she had wrought, too aware of the habitat around them to have really let loose. So it stands that they must rectify this posthaste!
The Frostfields are the perfect destination for such destruction given its plentiful chunks of ice and empty water at the edge of Svaturis Bay, plus the empty expanse of nothingness that won't go amiss if they're marred and blacked. Also known as plentiful things that will explode and burst with appropriate fanfare when struck by lightning. Evie practically skips ahead of Deimos with her scimitar on her belt, red hair flouncing both from her excited gait and the winds coming off the water and inland to the fields.
Spinning on the flat, snowy surface beneath her feet, Evie's hands fiddle with her hilt as ice-blue eyes wide with excitement meet his own. "What can we explode first?" If not the terrain, hopefully he has something up his sleeve they can decimate.
there she was, all dressed in adventure straddling the edge of a star
He hadn’t expected the lightning weapon to be as riveting as Evie found it; but perhaps he was all the more charmed by her penchant and excitement for destruction, following close behind as they wandered their way through the Frostfields. He narrowed his eyes through the murky, misty, icy abyss, content in its lack of revelations and flattened expanse, an opportunity for mayhem without confinement. He still found opportunities to muffle a round of laughter or shake his head in amusement as the Evergreen seemed ready to burst from the seams.
The Sword remained slightly cautious though, given Evie’s tendencies to embolden her prowess initially. “Ice chunks first,” and he jutted his jawline in familiar facets towards a larger portion rising towards the east. “Or any of these spiders,” continuing to float on the horizon, though seemingly less plentiful than in the Citadel. Maybe it was the climate.
Given his penchant for goading and incitement, he lifted the collar of his coat firmly against his cheeks, and then grinned. “If you can hit those, I will increase the difficulty.”
Realistically Deimos doesn't need to tell her where to start, but she wants them to explode things together. Is this how he feels all the time with all the magic at his fingertips? Evie's earth magic can certainly do some damage, but nothing so showy and delightful as lightning.
Bouncing on her heels - though temporarily wrinkling her nose at the spiders - Evie spins and readjusts her grip on the sword. They've trained plentifully on swords before, she just needs to grow accustomed to the weight and new curve of this blade.
Slicing the sword sideways in a dual-handed grip, she stares wide-eyed with childlike glee as lightning arcs out along the sword's sharpened edge, searing through the spiders in a vibrant flash of noise and color. "Oh my gods!" she sputters in the ringing silence that ensues, turning to gawk over her shoulder at Deimos. "That was the coolest thing I've ever done." She finally understands why he never stops contemplating new designs if this is how fun they can turn out.
there she was, all dressed in adventure straddling the edge of a star
Considering how much several of them within Halo enjoyed destruction and mayhem, perhaps he should have honed the sword into different elements. But that wasn’t who he was – just another fiend with his own predilections towards vehemence and violence and multitudes where the calamity was simply liberating. So to find Evie content, amused, and gawking at the searing edges and the brutal force behind the blade, only enticed and incited his insatiable quest for annihilation.
Grinning, though arching a brow, he set his sights on a distant ice chunk, intending to utilize distance amidst precision. “See? Should have done this sooner,” because he always would’ve offered the gifts and sentiments. Contorting, creating, and forming a rock, he then surrounded it in fire – allowing it to pervade and consume. Thereafter, on air proportions, it was lofted and lifted high into the air –
Before battering into the mass; rendering it melting, caustic, and missing the top portions of its once heightened sheen.
Satisfied with that brutal exchange, he contemplated something else. “Want to see how far yours reaches? Water should help.”
You know how sometimes you step outside and the cold just catches your lungs? And you cough and gasp and desperately try to inhale more oxygen?
Congratulations! You probably just wandered into a breath snatch!
Yeah, that glittering cloud of glittering frost wasn’t friendly either. Who knew?
You’ve encountered a Breath Snatch. This counts as an uncommon creature encounter for the purposes of levelling, but does not count as a Random Event for levelling or MP. There will be no further admin/re intervention. If you choose to follow this creature, you do so at your own risk, however, just having it in this thread is enough to satisfy your levelling requirements. (You may not kill this creature without admin permission. )
Breath Snatch (uncommon) - A minor Halo nuisance, the Breath Snatch is a small elemental spirit that lingers in open areas on cold days. They're easiest to notice on bright days, a concentrated cloud of glittering frost lingering in the air, but if not noticed and walked into, the elemental will disperse in a puff of freezing air, often freezing the breath in the lungs of whomever was unlucky enough to come across it. It doesn't seem to possess enough sentience to be truly malevolent. Large groups of the spirits are rare, but potentially deadly if walked into unknowingly.
Evie laughs, ready to admit that maybe she should concede more often when it comes to gifts, but the familiar chill in her lungs as they suddenly clench around nothing makes it clear she has encountered a breath snatch. Instinctual as it is, her oldest and most trustworthy magic comes to the fore, healing and abating the crippling frost so that she only coughs twice as the temperature in her throat readjusts. Shaking her head, she frowns. "Hate those things," she mutters, having been distracted from the initial topic.
"I'll try to be better about gifts," she admits with a small chuckle, aware that even after a few years together she still finds magical items far too important to be given to her as a gift. "Because it is really amazing." Enough so that she would be enchanted to receive more in the future.
But for now she just wants to continue playing with it, and Deimos gives her the perfect opportunity - as well as a bit of a light show - with a half-melted chunk of ice. Aiming far more deliberately this time with the sword held out in front of her, she keeps the motion much smaller and shorter, almost like cutting with an axe. It works - the lightning shooting out in front of her this time with that same shriek of noise, striking the water coalescing at the top of the ice and sending it spraying in a long, narrow stream down the beach. Blinking afterimages from her eyes she trots forward eagerly, peering at the snow to see where the droplets end. "About this far you think?" Using her boot to mark how far the water droplets had made it. If there's anything further, Deimos would have had a better view of it.
there she was, all dressed in adventure straddling the edge of a star
The unfortunately, familiar binding of the breath snatch over his lungs resulted in a hiss from his throat; the semblance of pain wafting and grasping, threatening to choke and unravel. Rather than panic or be seared into apprehension, he coughed nearly incessantly, weighed down by the pettiness of the cretin, until it passed through and away. Heaving a few more inhales and exhales, it took more moments than Evie had to recover, but then again, no healing fixtures resided within his soul. He could always have Zuriel check him over later. “Likewise,” he added, with a wrinkle of his nose.
As for being better about gifts, he arched his brow again, striving not to conspire into disbelief, but perhaps goading her along again. He’d take the compliment though, with an air along his shoulders, straightening back out into the residual semblances of strength, fortitude, and might again. “I do take requests.” From those he favored.
The Sword waited for her deliberation to occur once more – lightning snapping, sizzling, and streaking from the melted portions of the decimated chunk. “Fair enough,” he added, moving forward to study where the droplets cascaded. “Let me add to it and see how far it can go.” His Mastered elements were cast, and he extended them for a fair distance, both forward and outward along the field of white; trickles of water purposefully honed to not freeze amidst the weather’s conditions.
Not for the first time, and certainly not the last, Evie wishes her magic worked on Deimos. What had so long been the only thing she felt she could offer to people that was of any value being nullified in the face of her most beloved often inspired despondency, even for something so minor as the sting of ice in unsuspecting lungs.
"My ideas aren't the best - though a bug zapper for breath snatches would be great," she spirits back to him with a grin, aware of how ridiculous a notion that is. Yet despite her protestations she finds herself full to the brim with initial ideas; "A vocal amplifier for sound attacks, anesthesia or numbing anesthetic arrows, gloves that secrete acid..." Evie drawls them out on an excited ramble as Deimos sets about supplying more water for their little experiment. "Gods, I guess I understand now why you're always thinking up new things." There were simply so many options!
Only once Deimos is done and properly out of range does Evie lift her sword again, the aim coming more naturally now after having done it a few times. As the lightning streaks out from the sword, some of the water fizzles and steams as it suffers an abrupt death, which leaves a very cool visual if Evie must say so herself - once she has blinked the lightning's after-images from her eyes. "How was it that time?" she calls towards Deimos, wondering if she should keep her position for now.
there she was, all dressed in adventure straddling the edge of a star
One might consider the strength of his deadly incantations a fair exchange for no healing crescendos to maneuver past his wounds; but that wasn’t for here and now. Instead, he tilted his head while he ruminated and studied, listening to her notions and ideas suddenly rampaging forth. Initially, his eyes widened, followed by a strong, enduring laugh, at bug zappers and vocal amplifiers, numbing arrows… “Acidic gloves? What are you doing in that infirmary?” It inspired another rumble of his chuckle, before he stepped back, ready to watch the lightshow.
Of which it was a dazzling display – setting his mouth into a firm snicker, a juvenile, impish grin mustered in satisfaction, of power, of adornments, of persistence radiating outwards in an alarming degree. Streaks lit across the fog and threatened decimation, tearing apart voids and abyss with increased volatility and velocity, and he was all the more amused by each aspect. “Beautiful,” he encouraged, with a steady wink in her direction. “I will create more chunks and then you can try again.”
On such a promise, mounds of ice rose once more from the sector, magic building and binding them along the press and roll of water he restored – but intentionally not in straight lines or designations. She’d have to figure out the best way to charge and spark and sizzle through the course. “If you can strike all of these, then we can increase the difficulty,” came with another feral smile.
Ironically for once her brain hadn't been anywhere close to healing or mending, and his teasing bemusement takes her by surprise, confusion dawning for a brief moment before laughter overtakes her. "Maybe it's for the best you don't know," she shoots back with a grin. Though acid gloves would be fun for observing chemical reactions in plants...
Refocusing as Deimos creates more ice for her to destroy, she shuffles in place, full of eager kinetic energy. The small course he has made stumps her a bit at first, uncertain of how to best approach it when she's so unfamiliar with lightning as an element. Of course she has seen the way it branches across a dark sky, but would her sword be able to replicate that? Could she 'curve' it by swinging instead of pointing?
Well, there was only one way to find out. After some shuffling around for the best angle, she lifts her sword and takes a moment to aim and exhale before activating its inherent destructive abilities. This time, the lightning scorches through the sides of the ice instead of blasting straight through the middle, and she's delighted to find that she has hit all but the last one (though it looks rather melty to her). "How was that?" she calls across the distance, letting Deimos be the judge of her success.
there she was, all dressed in adventure straddling the edge of a star
It seemed his brow would be firmly set in an arched display, given the comment in return. “No experiments on our people,” he gave over with another cheeky grin, before turning to watch the swinging display of lightning and swords. Even if she wasn’t wholly experienced with the element, the blade reigned in potent countenance all the same – scorching across the earth and ice with sizzling propensities. “Very good,” and he advanced slightly to the left, pondering over the next level of difficulty.
Raising the rime back from the loam, revived and renewed, the incantations loomed, higher and broader, bulkier and more immense. Considering possibilities and probabilities, the air of his calculations were obvious with the slightly narrowed eyes, before his grin became even more catlike, feline, and boyish. “Now for moving targets.” Mastered compunctions and enchantments mustered with the force of his power, and the chunks began to rise above, some spinning, some maneuvering, some giving no notice of where they’d roam next – much like any prey. “If you can hit five at once, you can have the largest piece of cheesecake.” Sitting at home, waiting to be devoured.
Evie rolls her eyes as if it's the most difficult concession to not experiment on their people, but the foxlike slant of her eyes makes it clear she's deeply amused by their shared theatrics. "Fineeee," she drawls out, laughter hiccupping in her chest in a bid for freedom. His praise turns her smile into something more sincere, definitely fonder. Evie doubts she'll ever tire of hearing it; even when they are equals in all other ways, his pride and approval will never stop feeling like a gift from on high.
Moving targets sound infinitely more daunting, but her beloved has always known the best ways to encourage and tempt her into success. Grinning, Evie hefts her sword and shuffles her boots in the snow. "You're on," she agrees readily, and prepares herself to win that cheesecake fair and square.
- Fin <3
there she was, all dressed in adventure straddling the edge of a star
