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!
With all of this questing (it's been like two threads Mateo, slow down you maniac), the botanist has been unfortunately neglecting his best and favourite pastime. No, you're wrong, it's the other one. Nope, still wrong.
Plants. It was plants.
Anyway.
His shop is, you know, it's fine, but it's definitely in need of some TLC and reorganisation, and it'll be a lot quicker with a few extra pairs of hands. (Especially if those hands belong to bodies and minds who are willing to follow careful instructions).
Putting up a (beautifully written) sign to advise the shop is closed for renovations, Mateo takes care of the initial chores - watering, repotting, weeding, and moving all of the plants to a suitable area where they can be rehomed shortly - before making himself a strong cup of coffee and awaiting assistance.
PQ to help Mateo reorganise his shop (and get his Botanist profession, weee!)
Always happy to help thanks to a problematic need to people please, Everest showed up only slightly earlier than Mateo had advised, despite having been ready for hours. Wearing clothes he assumed would get quite dirty during their afternoon, the aviator had opted for a gray t-shirt and dark khaki pants which actually made him look shockingly normal compared to how straight-laced his attire normally was.
Knocking softly on the door of the shop to announce his presence before turning the handle, Ever poked his head in and was immediately greeted with the familiar scents of this place that he'd nearly grown up in; soil, water, coffee, and some unknown sweet smell that lingered in the air. "Mateo?"
even if i had to lose you to know you, i'd still be that temporary phase that you grow through
07-28-2023, 03:34 PM (This post was last modified: 08-01-2023, 03:12 AM by Koa.)
you can turn off the sun, but I'm still gonna shine
Koa, of course, needs very little prompting to come to the aid of a friend, especially when that friend provides him with food and drugs and medical aid.
Not all of them today, of course. But like, as a general rule.
Koa shows up in off-duty clothes: a well fitted black tee and worn blue jeans, work boots unnecessarily polished because he's vain like that. And though he isn't as much a people-pleaser as Everest, he is a soldier, and thus will also be found outside the shop just a little early, right on the aviator's heels. "Hey, Ever!" the lad greets brightly as he comes up behind his friend, peering over other man's shoulder and into the aromatic shop. "Ready for whatever horrors Teo has in store today?" He waggles his eyebrows playfully, though honestly, who knows what wild and mutant plants they'll find in the apothecary's bowels.
"Did you just refer to my collection as horrors?" Mateo wants to know, having just finished his coffee as he emerges from behind a cluster of vines to greet his friends. For the botanist's part, his curls have been pulled up into a careless top knot, and he's wearing a florist's apron. He's even wearing clothes under it, but you can't see much of them right now.
"I will have you know, these are mostly completely harmless specimens. All of my interesting plants are in the lab." Said lab is through a heavily locked door at the back of the shop, and the less said about what's in there, the better.
"Thank you both for coming. To start, I should really give the place a good clean, I suppose..."
Before we can reorganise the shop's offerings, it needs a good clean down!
1 person to clean the shop windows
1 person to sweep the floors
1 person to declutter the cash register desk
Mateo will take whatever task is leftover. No post order!
i've told you time and time again i'm not as think as you drunk i am
Jumping slightly at the voice—are you at all surprised that Ever is easily startled?—the aviator spins and offers the soldier a polite smile. "I don't think he has horrors in-store. Mostly he sells botanicals." If there were time he'd have said something about how horror was probably context-dependent and perhaps the pair might have had a rousing debate about it (#doubt), but then Mateo was suddenly before them and (thankfully) giving out tasks.
Glancing about, the aviator glanced toward Mateo's horrifically cluttered desk-area with utter delight. Though he was very good at cleaning, nothing delighted him more than a bit of rigorous organization (thanks Finn). "I'll do the desk since I'm already a bit familiar with your....er, accounting?" Which was just to say that he knew enough not to throw away the random stack of papers with numbers and figures on them which counted as Mateo's receipts.
Staring at things for a moment without moving, Ever mentally creates a system of organization he thinks will account for all of Mateo's needs (and then some), before getting right down to it.
Ever takes the cash desk!
even if i had to lose you to know you, i'd still be that temporary phase that you grow through
08-01-2023, 03:12 AM (This post was last modified: 08-01-2023, 03:13 AM by Koa.)
you can turn off the sun, but I'm still gonna shine
"Alright, alright, keep your secrets." Koa raises his hands in defensive posture, raising his eyebrows in clear disbelief of his friends' protestations. Maybe Everest is too innocent to know horrors when he sees them, but the Dragoon'll be damned if Mateo hasn't managed to whip up some pretty gnarly crossbreeds and probably-carnivorous-semi-sentient-monstrosities.
He just met a vampire gourd, after all. Can't even trust plants these days.
It may surprise some, but Koa is a pretty orderly young man: one must be, to succeed as a soldier. So it is with open appall that he looks through the messy shop, his distress comically juxtaposed with Everest's delight. "Gods, man, don't you dust?" the Dragoon asks partitively, gingerly collecting an apron and a towel. "I'll get the windows - your poor little plants must be desperate for sunlight. Aren't you, you sweet little monstrosity?" He adds in a sing-song voice, tutting in the direction of a particularly untamed vine.
Having no issues with the division of labour, Mateo happily takes up a broom and moves to prop open the door of the shop so he might get to work sweeping. And between the three of them, things are pleasant and productive - the cash desk is organised expertly by the aviator, and the windows positively shine from Koa's attentions.
"Don't you ever suggest that I am mistreating my plants," Mateo does add sweetly, giving Koa a pinch to the cheek (that's maybe a tiny bit harder than usual) while the sentient vine he's been addressing curls down to investigate the soldier.
Having swept the dust out of the shop and with it looking cleaner and brighter as a result, the botanist turns back to his friends. "Alright, let's get the plants back out," he announces. "The larger pots can go long the walls or tucked in the corners, and the smaller flowers and plants can use the shelving. I'll deal with creepers and climbers!"
It's time to organise the plantlife!
One person needs to move the larger pots, and another needs to set up the smaller plants on the shelving.
(All plants are meticulously labelled, and Mateo is on hand to help should anything not 'go' together, so feel free to RP that however you want!)
i've told you time and time again i'm not as think as you drunk i am
you can turn off the sun, but I'm still gonna shine
"Ow." Koa rubs his cheek petulantly, lower lip pushed out in an exaggerated sulk. At least the vine seems to appreciate him, though the soldier isn't quite sure how he feels about the experience of a semi-sentient tendril waving slowly at his head. He responds with a friendly, if uncertain, boop, grinning as the plant curls around his calloused finger. Maybe it's not so bad, after all.
Ah, but there are more friends plants to fetch, and so Koa bids farewell to the vine before setting off to survey the pots. "I've got the big boys," he announces cheerfully, never one to miss out on an opportunity to (literally) flex. As he sets about carefully arranging pots through the store (with frequent requests for guidance, such as which needs more light or whether two trees need to be separated), he'll ask his friend: "Hey, Teo, you wouldn't happen to have any snow moss or red lichen lying around, would you? I need 'em for a quest."
Missing much of the banter between his friends given how focused he was on organizing the desk, it was only when thick panels of sunlight covered the papers in his hands that the aviator blinked and glanced up. The entire front area looked so different thanks to the sudden brightness resulting from Koa's handiwork, that Ever had to take a moment and reaffirm his bearings just in case he'd accidentally been transported somewhere else.
Somewhere much cleaner.
About to offer to do the heavy lifting if only because his body type seemed to be of the sort to develop muscle quite quickly, as Koa said he would take care of the big boys, the aviator instead looking toward the smaller pots and the shelving. Frowning to himself as he made his way over, it was convenient that Ever was used to Mateo's methods of labels and warnings if only because the botanist's beautiful looping script could sometimes prove hard to read.
Mentally mapping out where things should go before actually moving anything so as not to stress the plants, eventually, Everest began to arrange the pots on the shelf based on their clade, order, and family.
even if i had to lose you to know you, i'd still be that temporary phase that you grow through
With a dimpled smile in Ever's direction to see him working independently (and lending the botanist's shop a touch of Hart, given the orderly nature of the arrangements), Mateo is free to assist Koa in his own endeavours whilst coaxing and teasing the more mischievous plants into position. Once the climbers are happily draped amid their new homes, the place is looking like a much better version of itself, and Mateo is visibly delighted.
"Hm?" He glances to Koa. "I tried cultivating the red lichen previously, but it is quite invasive. I do have some snow moss here though, if you would like it." Meandering to one of Ever's recently organised shelves, Mateo carefully separates a tray of snow moss he's cultivated to grow on a chunk of bark, offering it out to the dragoon.
"There are a couple of things left to do, but they shouldn't be too difficult." He beams.
The shop is looking great!
A few finishing touches, now:
1. There are a few jars with candles in them to be hung up around the place and lit.
2. If someone could be kind enough to mist the plants, please!
i've told you time and time again i'm not as think as you drunk i am
Quite satisfied with his work and having received no commentary from Mateo, the aviator stepped back with his arms folded comfortably across his chest to fully appraise the positioning of all the smaller plants. Judging that it was satisfactory, he nodded to himself before glancing toward Koa and Mateo for indications of what should be done next.
"I can water." He offered helpfully, and, given his familiarity with Mateo's labels which indicated how much water each plant needed, he didn't think the task would be too difficult.
Picking up a mister and filling it, as Everest went to turn the tap off he noticed a mush of white sitting atop the nozzle. Frowning down at the little cloud spider, the aviator tutted softly under his breath. 'Although there are some plants here I am sure you would be good for, there are too many thought would try and eat you.' Setting the mister down, Everest reached out for the small creature, encouraging it onto his palm. Not squeamish about insects or spiders, the Spyglass simply covered the creature with his free hand before shouldering his way outside and depositing it in a bit of shade.
Returning back inside, he set about misting the plants based on the instructions on each of their pots.
Ever mists the plants, and also relocates a lil cloud spooder.
even if i had to lose you to know you, i'd still be that temporary phase that you grow through
you can turn off the sun, but I'm still gonna shine
"Oh, sick, that's super helpful. Thanks man!" With care (and probably no little guidance) Koa will go about scraping some of the moss off the log and depositing it in a receptacle, secure and ready to be returned to Ludo once the lichen is fetched.
They've made great progress, and the shop is looking quite impressively clean and organized. Koa eyes their work with pride, returning Mateo's grin with his own sunny smile as he sets about collecting the lovely candle lights to hang. With care and consideration the young man disperses them throughout the shop, trying to ensure that they are both accessible for Mateo to light and out of the way of customers, and that no corner will be left too dark once the sunlight starts to fade.
"Grazie," Mateo chimes to Everest, content and impressed with his friend's organisation skills. "And I do my best," he adds to Koa with a crooked smile, assisting him in removing as much of the snow moss as he needs before replacing the specimen back amongst its bretheren.
Between them the plants are misted, the candles are hung and lit, and Mateo adds a few finishing touches in the form of artwork of pressed flowers and a freshened up version of his opening hours, which he attaches to one of the new sparkly clean windows. Once all is said and done, the shop certainly looks as though it's been given a breath of fresh air, and the botanist is pleased.
"I could not have done this without you both," he says, clasping each of his friends on the shoulder. "Come on - lunch is on me. I know a place." He always does.
And that's that! <3 Thank you both very much!
~FIN
i've told you time and time again i'm not as think as you drunk i am
