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!
Well, so far Danta is impressing even himself with his apparently incredible ability to do construction work. Nodding and hmming at the mortar as if he has any clue whatsoever what he's done to make it go so well, as he turns, Phoebe is already taking some volunteers to collect volcanic rock, and so that leaves he and Edmund for pillar making.
For anyone else, this being in Frey's Breath might make the going incredibly tough - and for some of the aforementioned volunteers that's undoubtedly the case - but for two Ancients this is a relative breeze. "I'll add the mortar if you lay the stone," he offers Edmund, feeling weirdly protective over his skeleton-bark-mixture.
Danta helps Edmund with the pillar, offering to deal with the mortar while the other Ancient lays the stone!
'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.
Despite being surrounded by lava and stones, Phoebe and her team struggle to find any lava stone that's actually harvestable. They stumble upon one large deposit, but it'll need to be broken into with a pickaxe to harvest. Meanwhile, the two Ancients have mixed results as well. Dantalion and Edmund successfully get about half of the pillar built by the time Phoebe returns. At least what they've built so far is sound!
Shaking his head in an effort to fight the humidity attacking it, Edmund lets out a small, contemplative noise. "Ok. I think we need just a bit more time to get these tasks done."
~
Round 5! No post order.
1. Phoebe and her team need to finish harvesting the lava stone.
2. Edmund and Dantalion need to finish building the pillar.
Frustrated by the sudden decrease in progress, it's with a huff that Danta sits back to examine what they've created so far. It seems Phoebe and her volunteers are having an equally as difficult time - which, frankly, is the only thing preventing Danta from trying to change task. Instead, rising promptly to his feet, he moves out into Frey's Breath properly for a moment.
When he returns it's with a decent amount of embers and ash, the Ancient using his fire magic to tease some flame to life to sit around the pillar and, hopefully, keep it from being too affected by the humidity. "Let's keep going," he suggests, ready with the mortar as well as his magic.
Danta keeps working on the pillar, but also uses his fire magic to try and seep away some of the humidity from the area.
'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.
Who would have guessed that finding lava rocks would be so difficult? Thankfully they did find a deposit, but it needed to be broken into smaller more useable pieces. Phoebe thought for a moment before coming up with a solution. She told the volunteers to wait a moment as she headed back to the hole. She picked up a few pickaxes and glanced at the other two. Well, at least they seemed to be struggling too.
She returned to the deposit and handed out pickaxes. Some of the volunteers swung them at the deposit to break it down while she and the rest collected the pieces. It was slow, hard work, but hopefully they would make progress.
Phoebe and friends use pickaxes to break up the deposit and collect the pieces!
09-07-2023, 02:38 AM (This post was last modified: 09-07-2023, 02:39 AM by Edmund.)
With Dantalion's plan, the two Ancients quickly start to add the last few layers to complete the pillar. When Edmund notices what Dantalion is doing with his magic, the teen shifts into his molten tiger form. Standing on his hind legs and pressing a molten-coated paw along the stretch of the pillar, he works to fully seal it in place with low and slow heat. It works surprisingly well, and the pillar holds strong.
Phoebe's team extracts plenty of lava stone this time around and they even find a large bow-shaped chunk. Perhaps it was used eras ago by previous inhabitants? Once the team has brought the stones over, Edmund jumps out of the basin to give out the next tasks.
"Great work so far, everyone! We'll use the lava stone in a bit. Thank you for getting it." The young Ancient then spots the bowl-shaped stone and picks it up. Eyes brightening, he glances at the pillar, "I know just where to put this." It's the perfect shape for an offering bowl.
~
Round 6! No post order! Edmund will take what's left.
1. One of the Ancients can attach the lava stone bowl to the of pillar. it's going to be a pyre/offering bowl for Dygra.
2. The other two can start laying the perimeter down with mortar and stone.
Pleased with the way their work is going, Danta keeps his little burst of flames alive and around him in case they need the fire again - something he'll come to be glad about in just a few moments, as it happens. Seeing the bowl shaped piece of rock, he's of a mindset with Edmund, and is more than happy to take on this responsibility.
Collecting up the bowl and using his fire and some of the leftover mortar, the Ancient works to fix it to the top of the pillar. Once it's stable, he instructs some of their volunteers to hold it in place while he fixes a few more pieces of stone to support it.
Danta takes the offering bowl!
'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.
Phoebe was glad to have collected enough lava stone for the work that needed to be done, and that one piece in particular suited a specific need. As Dantalion took up the bowl to set it in place, that left masonry work for her and the other volunteers. It wasn't something she had particular experience with, but in theory the general premise was quite simple.
Taking up some rocks and mortar, she set to building the perimeter, which seemed the most logical place to start. The work was hard but she still found she could perform the tasks with ease. Her own strength continually surprised her, not having been one to be particularly powerful before becoming a demigod. Now such manual labor was less...well...laborious. So she fell into a rhythm of laying stone and mortar, moving her way around the perimeter.
Construction continues and Dantalion has little trouble securing the bowl. Meanwhile, Edmund and Phoebe along with many volunteers get the perimeter squared away. It's not too tall just yet but it's enough to mark where the boundaries of the pool will be. Now they just have to keep adding to it and building in some stairs.
Edmund rolls his stiff shoulders and calls the group, "Alright. Now for the most time-consuming part. We need to keep building the walls up till they are tall enough to actually function. Make sure that they're sealed properly too. We don't want any leaks." Bloody leaks sound like far more of a mess to deal with than water ones. With that, they break to keep working.
~
Round 7! We're about halfway there.
Everyone keep building the walls with stone and mortar!
Listen, in Danta's honest opinion, bloody leaks sounds like just the sort of aesthetic they ought to be going for, but he's not the project manager here so he supposes he'll leave it up to Edmund to decide. Having settled the offering bowl appropriately, he spends a moment or so ensuring that it's set and won't go toppling over, before moving towards the bloodbath walls.
"When this is done it'll remind me of the Mountain's Roar," he remarks as he gets to work with the mortar, having decided on a preference for that sort of work rather than hauling the rock and brick around. "Have you visited lately?" Tainted by such a vast quantity of blood, he imagines the waterfall is grotesque and magnificent in equal parts.
Danta gets to work on the walls with the mortar!
'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.
Phoebe continued working on the wall. It was hard work, and she noticed some of the other volunteers struggling with it. Why it was so easy for her felt strange. She could still not think of herself as so strong. Even so, she took her time. Leaks would not be permitted on her watch.
As it was, she had something to eavesdrop on. Dantalion spoke to Edmund about a place she wasn't familiar with, but assumed was important to Ancients like them. She made a mental note to consider visiting. Maybe she would get more answers about this new race there. Or the sort of stress that suddenly afflicted her son. It might not be Edmund, but perhaps the Ancients as a whole.
Edmund shakes his head in response to Dantalion, "No. I don't think I've been there since I was little." He pauses, tail flicking in thought. "That's the waterfall that turned red right before the war, right? It was a normal waterfall when I was last there." Even protected as he had been as a child, the young Ancient had heard stories about what had happened to the Mountain's Roar. A body of water drenched in blood. No wonder Danta was reminded of it at the moment.
Edmund's manners kick in and he calls out to Phoebe so as to include her in the conversation, "Have you ever been there, before?" As the conversation flows, he keeps working on the walls.
~
Round 8! No post order. Keep working on the walls!
"Mm, I always recall it being red, but then that was a long time ago," Danta murmurs as he tries to neaten up the mortar and fails miserably. (Luckily one of the volunteers is on hand to fix his sub-par workmanship, which is good because he's more interested in the conversation now anyway). "It turned again right before that war, you say? Ah, because the metal woman was trying to wake up Dygra."
Forgive Danta for not understanding the nuances of the Voice and what she was made of - it was before his time and he doesn't care besides. Glancing to Phoebe and moving onto another section of the wall, he flashes her a fanged grin. "I bet you'd look fetching under all that crimson."
Danta keeps on keeping on, and flirts a bit too.
'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.
Phoebe continued her work, diligent as always, still listening to Danta and Edmund. But then she was addressed directly and she looked over. "I was there when it turned red again." she said. And when the body of the Stormbreak woman had been pulled out of the pond. But that didn't seem like a good point of conversation.
Then her eyes turned to Danta, flirtatious as always she could see. So her lips turned up in a humerous smirk. "Red does suit me." she said with a light laugh. She had quite a few red dresses...though most of her collection was pink or white. "What was the world like as you remember it, Danta?" she asked, curious.
Edmund's eyes go wide, "It was red beforehand?" That was something he'd never known. And to think that Phoebe had seen the newest change happen! The young Ancient has no knowledge of the body involved in the process, otherwise, he'd be far more horrified over the shift. "Wow."
Edmund can't help but cringe when Phoebe asks Dantalion about the past. The older Ancient had clearly been uncomfortable when he'd asked in the past. As the young Ancient listens, he keeps stacking stones and building up the wall. "We can probably start with the stairs now too." They had to be able to get into the bath after all.
~
Round 9!
No post order. Edmund will take what's left.
1. One to start building the stairs to enter the bath.
2. Two to keep working on the walls.
