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!
I used to hold your haunted neck; I know I'll miss you if I close my eyes
In those bouts between storms, it's a dry but blustery day in Stormbreak. Danta has decided to stick around for a bit because sometimes rain is better than all the times rain in his opinion, and besides, there's a lot of weird shit in this region that he's yet to experience. For instance, there's a lot of kite flying going on, and though he's not entire sure why, it's made flying through the city as a gore crow inconvenient at the best of times.
And so the afternoon finds him, still clad in beak and feathers, on a bench near the Pacifist Plaza. Around him are the scattered remains of a kite he's found in a tree somewhere. It needs a bit of patching up but then who knows, maybe he can soar around with it and pretend?
Dantalion
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
Having opted to stay in Stormbreak as well, but not for weather-related reasons, Flora found herself watching the kites billow around with a distant expression. It was the sort of frivolity that always made her think of Enzo, not because she thought her twin would particularly like flying kites, but because she missed all the sarcastic quips he'd inevitably make in moments like this one.
Glancing away and nearly ready to make her way to Mateo's shop, Flora's gaze landed on a rather large bird, bumbling around with a kite of its own. The thing about all these different races being able to shift was that for someone like Flora, it wasn't as if she could just know who was an attuned (or ancient, or whoever the else could shift), and because she wasn't, like, super up on her knowledge of where big gross black crows were typically found, she wasn't to know that gore crows typically didn't come this far (or high) naturally. So, Flora did the natural thing and just asked.
"Heyyyyyyyyyyy, are you...you know, not just a crow? Because if not, I'm going to need you to fuck away because you're probably diseased." Of course if there was a person inside they might also be diseased, but one thing at a time.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
I used to hold your haunted neck; I know I'll miss you if I close my eyes
Having been putting sticks and paper in entirely the wrong places, as Flora approaches Danta does the only (natural) crow thing and hops protectively over his mess kite so she can't take it away from him. Oh, but then he recognises his guildmistress (huehuehue) - only for her to call him diseased - and his feathers ruffle up in outrage. "Dan-ta," he croaks, because just for that, fuck you Flora, he's staying a crow.
Hopping around the broken kite with fresh interest and hoping that will entice her to use her clever thumbs to help him out, he cocks his head and plays with the sticks a few more times in the hope that it will do something or anything at all. "Kite," he announces. You know, in case she didn't realise.
Dantalion
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
Raising her eyebrows a touch to realize that her guildmate, mother's former lover, and leader of the Hollowed Grounds was actually this feathery fluffball, Flora shrugs off her surprise and grins down at the creature. "Well, well. You're far from home. I wouldn't have expected someone like you to ever want to be in a place like this." You know, drab, boring, lacking in fire.
"Mmhmm." The Doubletake agrees as enthuisiastically as if Danta were a small child sounding out its first word. "Oh, give it here." Reaching down, Flora pushes the two bits of wood together, and, tugging at her hair, releases the clasp which had been holding her curls together. Clamping it on the sticks where they crossed, the girl gave a little shrug before looking at the crow. "What do you think?"
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
I used to hold your haunted neck; I know I'll miss you if I close my eyes
"Par-ty," Danta croaks in explanation for his presence in Stormbreak; he'd seen her rubbing elbows with Sohalia but had been a little busy with his bestest friend at the time to stop and say hello. Even so, he expects that should be enough of a lead for her to realise what he's talking about. (Not that he considered it much of a party himself - the next time he hosts some get together in the Hollowed Grounds, he'll make it one to remember).
Hopping out of the way and resisting to peck at Flora's hands as she comes to invade his kite, he allows her to fix it make it marginally better he supposes and nudges it with his beak when she's done. "Fly?" he asks, hopping back to look up at the multitudes of other kites in the sky. Hopefully his meaning is clear - why isn't theirs up there?
Dantalion
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Ah. Wasn't really much of one, huh?" Flora says under her breath, eyebrows slightly raised. "My bff was the one who did it, so, you know." She wouldn't malign Sohalia's efforts too much, but Stormbreak wasn't really known for throwing wild parties as it was. "More of a peace offering, really. Or just like, proof no one would be grabbed by the handmines when they came." Flora adds with a shrug.
"Don't look at me, you're the one with wings." The girl murmurs before her aqua eyes seem to glimmer with sudden mischief. "Hold onto your feathers." Closing her eyes, Flora pulls in a breath even as her smile turns entirely crooked.
Ludo, if you're around, how about we amp all of this up a little, mmm? No doubt the trickster deity would have some suitable ideas of its own, but if it needed a bit of inspiration, Flora began to imagine basically the scene from LotR where Gandalf basically makes a real fucking firework dragon and scares the shit out of everyone total mayhem.
Flora uses her mastered channeling to call down Ludo!
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
It's about damn time that Ludo was channelled for something fun. Eager for childish mischief and more than happy to comply with Flora's wishes, it's not so much that the other kites aren't in the sky any more... it's just that they aren't moving. As for the raggedy god, it looks as though it appears as a bundle of nothing on the bench next to Dantalion, at first, until it suddenly lifts into the air.
With tendrils clinging to the kite's flimsy frame and a string trailing off for Flora to hang on to, it's clear that Ludo intends them to fly it as a kite. You know, since they're here and all.
LUDO
Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own
I used to hold your haunted neck; I know I'll miss you if I close my eyes
Squawking a response that could have been anything from I didn't know you had a bff to what the fuck are handmines all the way up to I have to hold on to my feathers, they are attached, Danta is thoroughly distracted by the way Ludo suddenly appears. Well, the way it a) appears, b) seems to stop time and c) becomes a fucking kite.
Flapping his wings and hopping back onto the arm of the bench, he's a short ways from ascending to Flora's shoulder when the Ludo-kite takes to the air, and he's heedless to resist the opportunity. "Fly!" he croaks to Flora, following it up into the air currents to soar around their raggedy creation.
Dantalion
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
And why wouldn't the daughter of a demigod not fly her father's herald like a kite? That seemed very on-brand for the Doubletake, which perhaps explained why she met Ludo's presence with nothing more than a grin.
"Awesome." Reaching out to assist Danta before the bird seemed to change his mind, Flora shrugged and instead gathered up the tendrils of Ludo-string left over. "Let's fuck up those other kites." She said of the now-stationary bits of cloth in the sky. Trying to pull Ludo around so that it could catch as much wind as possible, Flora indeed tried to steer it toward some of the other kites as if Ludo might cut them down like old-bunting.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
Let's fuck up those other kites is right up Ludo's alley, to the surprise of absolutely no one. With what one can only describe as audible kite noises, Ludo lets out a 'whoosh' and a 'fwoop' and a 'whee' as it navigates itself without any need of Flora's assistance. She can just hold on to the string and enjoy it, as far as it's concerned. It does bat at Dantalion for good measure before it gets to work, though.
Soaring above and below the other kites in the air, Ludo manages to cut their strings on its way past; as soon as they are free, the kites flutter back into motion, but naturally this means they either nosedive to the ground, or they are carried away forever by the storm wings.
Once it has finished with its mayhem, it lands gently back on the bench before Flora, where it disappears in a puff of dark smoke, leaving only the broken(ish) frame in its wake.
LUDO
Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own
I used to hold your haunted neck; I know I'll miss you if I close my eyes
Squawking his protest at being batted at by a god, Danta nonetheless (for once) takes the hint and swoops down to let Ludo does what it does best. If Flora still allows he will take up her offer of a perch on her shoulder, busily rearranging the pieces of her hair in closest reach while the herald gets on with its mischief.
Indeed, as all the kites that were previously frozen in the air either crash-land or are whisked off forever, Danta can only croak a haughty "Bye-bye," to them - and to Ludo, since it disappears only a moment later. Either way, their fellow kite-flyers are left aghast and confused, leaving Danta clicking his beak with satisfaction.
Dantalion
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
For all of the drama in Flora's life lately, watching Ludo zig and zag and tear down the kites of the unsuspecting dozens in the square, was absolutely restoring a bit of her zest for mayheim. Looking appropriately horrified and confused to see so many kites fall from the sky while hers continued to float solo, it was with a crooked grin and a mischievous glint in her eyes that she watched Ludo sag back toward the ground, where it landed lifelessly back on the stones.
Tilting her head over her should to grin at the gore crow, the Doubletake waggles her eyebrows before gathering up the broken bits of kite. "Well, I'm not sure we can top that. Want to get a drink? I've got some tea to spill." The tea being her plans to take over Torchline, and what that might mean in so far as they'd both be rulers.
~FIN
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
