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!
Undaunted and unbothered by streamlines of volcanic masses, or the roar of the high tides looming beyond in the distance, Melita was content to ramble and meander her way along Apopo’s reaches. Bags and baskets in hand, to snag the suitable rocks necessary for this upcoming fountain, the only thing that encouraged her to lead the way was simply getting it done. Once the whole rum notion was taken care of, then Torchline would be free to actually prepare for shit. Maybe. Who knew anymore.
“Looks like there’s a good chunk here,” she called back over her shoulder to her fellow stone collectors, pausing to gaze back at Flora and Jude. Tying a knot in the lower portions of her dress, she persisted and continued, before nestling amidst a bunch of the ashen properties.
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
I'll breathe you in like smoke in the backyard light We used to laugh til we choked, into the wasted nights
Unexpectedly thrust into solitary living - his cat aside - most of Jude's life has shrunk down to actions and events, the rest of the days smearing together like expired watercolors. The prospect of being near Flora is mildly terrifying, but he is a rather forgettable person, so maybe it won't go nearly as badly as he fears. Besides, Melita is a friend of his. He has to go - because nationalism means almost nothing to him these days.
Following in the Honeybee's wake, Jude keeps quiet and focuses on his footing. The ash hides most all things even after so many years, and it kicks up in clods that will surely leave them all black-streaked and dusty by the end of the day.
Hoping one of the girls will take charge of any conversation that may happen, Jude kneels and begins combing through the available rocks, plucking a few here and there to slip into his bag.
It was the best time of my life, but now I sleep alone So please don't wake me up, 'cause my thrill is gone
Insofar as Jude was concerned, he ought to be far more concerned about Flora's opinions of him vis-à-vis his relationship with Sohalia, than who his father was (the letter had all but rendered Harper one of her favourite people just now, if she was being honest). Maybe something would come of it, or maybe they'd all just collect rocks and fuck off back home so that all this could be over and done with.
"Oh my gods, Mel, I brought a basket!" The Doubletake calls out to the Honeybee, grinning with feigned admonishment. Waggling it at her friend and knowing Mel would probably keep using her skirts if that was easiest, Flora rolled her eyes affectionately as she tried to make her way up the rocky mantle.
"So how many do we actually need?"
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
“Hey Jude,” don’t make it bad Melita offered in a weird hand wave, uncertain what to do or say with the younger cretin. His own life had been unfurled in some layers of turmoil the Honeybee probably still couldn’t quite comprehend, so for the moment, she just let him be.
Flora, on the other hand, occupied much of the space with admonishment – as the smuggler glanced down at her ashy and soot-laden dress without much of a problem. “All good,” and shrugging along, she snickered and snagged a few more into her makeshift pouch. Melita didn’t really have the answers so much as a massive amount of indifference, so she wrinkled her nose instead of offering too much in the way of assistance and answers. “It’s supposed to be used to build the fountain, so….,” probably a shit ton. “We’ll likely need all those baskets and bags.”
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
I'll breathe you in like smoke in the backyard light We used to laugh til we choked, into the wasted nights
"Hi Mel," he echoes, managing a small smile that is thankfully more shy than sad. The girls bring a lackadaisical, positive energy that cocoons him and carries him like a toy boat in a typhoon, and he's glad for the way it improves his own mood to luxuriate between them quietly.
"Please tell me we don't have to lug them back ourselves?" There's a wrinkle to Jude's nose as he envisions his al dente spaghetti arms traversing the not-inconsiderable size of Torchline with rock-laden baskets. Maybe there would be donkeys chartered to pick them up? "I'd be happy to say Flora and I twisted our ankles and Melita had to carry us both back, one in each arm." He aims a shy smile toward the girls, attempting to be humorous, though he doesn't doubt Mel could easily carry both of them that way. Regardless, he plunks another few rocks into his bag, dutiful still.
It was the best time of my life, but now I sleep alone So please don't wake me up, 'cause my thrill is gone
Crinkling her nose, the Doubletake huffs under her breath. "Oh...I was sort of hoping it was just, like, a token gesture." Like how sometimes they just picked up a few stones and then bam, the gods just, finished shit for them. Snorting under her breath at Jude's suggestion, Flora opts to at least make the most out of her time rock-gathering.
"Hey so, are you still ignoring Sohalia?" She asks Jude baldly, through a wide smile. Reaching for a few rocks and tossing them into her basket without a single fuck to give about how suitable they'd ultimately be to build a fountain with, she glances innocently over her shoulder and waggles her eyebrows.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
Melita wasn’t bothered by any kind of physical labor, but was more readily enticed by something nefarious and stupid. “We could just throw them down the side,” which would save some time, and if anyone was down below and got hurt, that was their problem. Though it might be worth seeing Jude trying to tug and toil his way over towards wherever their dropoff point was. Child needed to eat or something.
Though Flora’s question, as she settled into collecting rocks, brought forth a sudden bout of curiosity. Hilariously unaware of the dramatic flourishes of heartache and disaster between Sohalia and Jude, she abruptly swiveled her head back and forth, oblivious. “Sohalia? Did she do something?” Girl wasn’t the greatest fighter and seemed a bit more naïve, but the Honeybee didn’t mind her.
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
I'll breathe you in like smoke in the backyard light We used to laugh til we choked, into the wasted nights
Jude isn’t quite so blasé as Melita with throwing the baskets down - and wouldn’t they have to clean up the rocks a second time anyway? - but he decides it’s not going to be his problem (or decision). Sometimes being a background character even if only in his own head is a benefit.
He’s not expecting Flora’s boldness, and anger comes creeping in tendrils of furrows through his forehead and around his mouth - but not at her. How many people had Sohalia been airing their business to? Everyone but his dad, who would’ve known he hadn’t been home to receive letters? Melita’s comment interrupts the soft insidious voice of Noe in his ear, telling him he’s allowed to be angry, and he turns a sharp smile toward the Honeybee.
“Plenty, though if she was as forward as our resident blonde, maybe there wouldn’t be such juicy gossip,” he says with saccharine sweetness that burns against his molars. It’s a compliment to Flora and a diss on his ex at the same time, which reminds him - turning to the former, he flicks too-long curls out of his eyes to meet her fluttering eyes. “Yeah, I actually broke up with her. So I guess we’re back to ignoring anyway?” The poison feels weirdly good, as does the heavy handed dump of rocks he throws into his bag. “People trying to kill my lost brother and I in the wilds and reporting to her Dragoons is apparently a shitty excuse for not responding to letters. Who knew?” It’s muttered with all the petulant need for explanation that any eighteen year old jaded golden boy could muster.
It was the best time of my life, but now I sleep alone So please don't wake me up, 'cause my thrill is gone
"Mmhmmm, apparently they had a fight or something and then Jude just disappeared and didn't return any of her letters." Flora explains to Melita with a sagely nod, before glancing back to Jude. Surprised and slightly delighted by the edge to his voice, the Doubletake can only nod in agreement. "Yeah, I did tell her to be more forward about it all the way back when the drama started." She murmurs, before lifting a few rocks and yeeting them aimlessly into her basket.
At the mention of dumping her, Flora straightens. Shit, she hadn't known that? Why hadn't Sohalia told her? Had it been...were she and Koa..? Clearing her throat against the head in her cheeks and subconsciously mirroring Jude in flicking her own hair from her eyes, the Doubletake just hrrmphhs under her breath. "Oh, well. I mean, probably for the best." Sohalia had been ready to commit her entire life to Jude, and at 18, that struck even Flora as being a little silly.
"So you gonna go live with your dad in King's End after this?" She wonders, before quickly adding: "He and I are on good terms again, if you were wondering."
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
Oh, so this was a whoooole can of worms – one Melita eagerly, if a bit owlishly in her expression, surveyed. Sometimes being blissfully unaware and bewildered had its moments, for she was suddenly given a rapt retelling of relationship drama she hadn’t been privy to. Having really only Sunjata’s stories of misspent decisions and inclinations with others, this came as a chaotic little treat, and she couldn’t help herself from staring, back and forth, between the other parties. The rocks were an absent-minded deluge.
“Sorry about all that,” was the best she could muster, uncertain if that was even true. And after that, the Honeybee’s head shot up. “Wait, what’s going on with Harper?” Why would he be living in King’s End?
What else had she been missing?
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
I'll breathe you in like smoke in the backyard light We used to laugh til we choked, into the wasted nights
Jude is far from an actor, and the stunned expression on his face is rather pathetic as he glances between Flora and Melita, completely taken aback by their easy support of his side of the breakup. "Um...thanks. I wish she'd taken your advice." And given that Harper is now on Jude's shitlist instead of Flora's, well, she has certainly risen in the ranks of his own esteem through this small action alone.
He's not surprised Melita doesn't know, Jude is pretty sure his dad wrote a few letters and simply dipped, so he throws a few more rocks into his satchel and makes an angry sort of noise - the girls have been rather receptive of his petulant anger, and it's nice to actually let it out. "Dad had a mental break or something and abdicated," he bluntly informs the Honeybee. To Flora, his gaze is perhaps a little lost, a touch questioning. "I was gonna stick around, but mostly out of spite," he confesses sheepishly. "I was born here, I don't want to leave. I just don't really know how to help make things better." He assumes that's the topic nobody is really willing to broach - the steady decline of Torchline as a whole.
It was the best time of my life, but now I sleep alone So please don't wake me up, 'cause my thrill is gone
Nodding along as Jude speaks, Flora kicks mildly at a rock as if to suggest to anyone watching that she was still focused on the rocks. "Yeah he said he didn't want to see it go to shit anymore, and honestly..." Pulling a face, Melita likely knowing a bit more about Flora's position on the whole leadership debacle than Jude.
"Love that." The Doubletake grins, meaning it wholeheartedly; spite was a perfectly fine reason for doing just about anything in her opinion, and she wasn't about to pretend otherwise. "Well, I want to lead and I think I can make it better." Flora declares brazenly, perhaps because she's been talking about it so much lately that it hardly seems like a novel idea to her anymore.
"If nothing else we wouldn't be working on fucking fountains when some unknown threat is coming our way." Was the fountain initially her idea? Yeah, cause an alcohol fountain sounded like a fucking hilarious idea way back when everything was safe and sound. But now?
Shrugging her shoulders, Flora just huffs. "I keep trying to get Mel to lead with me, but she keeps turning me down." She adds, batting her eyelashes dramatically at the Honeybee as if what had been turned down had been a marriage proposal.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
Melita probably resembled a gaping fish, but at that moment, so many notions were dropped that broke any working brain cells. Harper abdicating, and just fucking pissing off to wherever. Flora still wanting to lead. Being irritated about fountains. All of the brazen flares of pieced-together logic eventually tied, knotted, and gnarled themselves back again, but it took a few seconds more. “What the fuck?” she first solidified to Jude. “A mental break? From what?” Gods. Nothing had even been difficult lately, save for the whole clusterfuck of Safrin thing, and quite frankly, she didn’t give a shit about that either.
She tossed some more rocks in when she remembered why they were here, shaking her head all the while. “Dumb. It’s all dumb. And as for leading,” here she sneered at Flora, jokingly and humoring the notions, but absolutely not stepping one foot within the thoughts of guiding a world along. “You can have that responsibility,” handwaving it in her direction. “You gonna ask Hadama or are we going to do something else about it?”
Because the Honeybee always had the penchant for violence over substance.
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
I'll breathe you in like smoke in the backyard light We used to laugh til we choked, into the wasted nights
Jude, bag now full, squats down and begins petulantly throwing rocks into the nearest empty basket as he shrugs sharply at Melita's question. "Lotta personal stuff, he said. Both my moms disappearing again and feeling useless to help prepare us against whatever might be coming." Or so he'd said - in a letter. Bitterness floods Jude's mouth, making it twist as he looks away from Melita. He nods at Flora's succinct way of putting it; fountains and threats don't exactly jive.
Standing, Jude dusts his hands off on his pants and considers Flora leading. Sohalia was younger and doing a fine job in Stormbreak (even if thinking of her makes him doubly as sick) so why not honestly? "And why not try even if you weren't 100% interested? Everyone and their mom has tried leading Torchline at some point." Including his mom. Well, one of them. Jude must hold some sort of world record for the amount of parents to disappear on them at this point.
Mel's not-so-subtle allusion to doing something else makes Jude's eyes widen slightly, and he turns them on Flora. "Would we...need to do something else? Won't Hadama just let you do it? You already ran once." Surely that shows long-term interest and dedication? And though there'd been no other contestants, shouldn't the runner-up of the political race deserve a fair shot at the title?
It was the best time of my life, but now I sleep alone So please don't wake me up, 'cause my thrill is gone
