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!
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
'So, I know it was Rae who said to do this, but you can't tell me this doesn't seem like a terrible idea.' Flora murmured as she slashed a walking stick through the tall grasses that had grown over the path she and the Honeybee were trekking upon.
Thanks to Mel's new sky boat the pair had arrived more or less in one piece. It was more convenient for the Honeybee to take them given how weird Jack always seemed to get when either mentioned going to King's End. Probably he thought it was going to cost him something every time and honestly, Flora was perfectly happy to let him think that.
"So...based on what Sunjata has seen...there are...void unicorns..flowers...ghosts..those weird starfish things, moss, and snakes." She murmured, glancing to Mel. "Normally I'm one for going all in, but given it took a god to heal my arm, my vote is for the flowers."
“Makes me think the whole thing is just a big experiment,” Melita surmised as she also whacked and hacked with her staff, then decided on the stolen machete, content with the sounds of demise around her. Would either of them be surprised, given it was Rae who’d granted the request?
Regardless, she sighed, not sure how to feel anymore. A part of her felt like she should’ve been in Torchline tending to everything else, but then recalled this was to help, but gods how in the fuck were they going to keep any of this shit alive? “Yeah – flowers seem all right. Especially since it has to live.” The temptation to destroy and annihilate was always on her mind, and she couldn’t quite process the management of keeping these void creatures enthralled, encased, or away from others before ultimately having to put them down.
Thereafter though, her brow furrowed, mind jumping from one thought to the next. She pondered over the contents of her bag, wondering if she should be grabbing soil or shit to put in some kind of container. “I’ve got a jar if we want to find some and put it in that?”
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
"I mean...Rae did say that they should have left me infected if only so they could see what would happen." Flora supplies, tugging one corner of her lips theatrically downward in a grimace. "If we can't figure them out, I bet my brother can keep them going until we turn this quest in." She adds with a bit of a shrug. "Though..maybe someone should like..clear out a space in the Fingers. Or even just keep everything in the Celestine until we're ready?" The last thing Torchline needed was the spread of invasive species brought to its shores by its own citizens.
"Mmmm?" Glancing over her shoulder and gazing at Melita as if she was the personification of what it meant to be clever, the Doubletake grinned and nodded. "Sounds like a great idea. I guess we could always collect some river water and whatnot too. Really make these stupid plants feel at home."
Melita made a face once more – wrinkled nose and distaste at the confirmation of it all. “Hopefully no one else has to get it either,” like the god damn circle of plagues in Caido. The Honeybee had contracted the blight ages ago, and had avoided the second iteration, but she’d prefer not to have patterns start rolling over diseases.
As far as other ways to ensure their creatures…survived, her head tilted back towards Flora. “Fingers are a bit flooded at the moment, but would Stormbreak want ‘em near them either?” Last she’d heard, the whole floating stone isle was left out of the clutches of the disaster, so if she sounded a envious and kicked a few stray blades of grass for good measure, she didn’t bother to hide it.
Her brow arched at the glance though, barking out a laugh instead. “Yeah, good enough.” Not like she wanted to pamper these stupid fuckers. Keeping her eyes peeled for these void monstrosities, she pointed ahead, to something dark and twisted and generally fucky. “Think that one will do?”
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
"Honestly, knowing some of these morons, someone is going to go get themselves infected on purpose." Infamy didn't seem to be a hard thing to get these days, but that certainly did stop being from acquiring it for all the wrong reasons, in Flora's estimation.
"mmm." She hummed about the Fingers. "Of course they are." Mirroring Melita's petulance, Flora too kicks out at some grass before shrugging. "I mean, isn't the Celestine supposed to be able to keep everything inside all safe and sound? They've got all sorts of dangerous things that never get out."' Then, pausing theatrically, she turns toward Melita. "Or maybe they do and it's a big cover-up on Stormbreak's part." Laughing, and wishing all their problems could just be conspiratorial instead of real, the Doubletake saunters onward with the Honeybee.
Through the tall grasses Flora spied what it was Melita was indicating. Where daisies were normally rather sweet-looking things, the clump of flora ahead was anything but. Given the darkened stems and dripping dark violet leaves, it was a wonder the flowers were even alive. Grimacing, Flora looks to Melita and then back to the flower. "I vote yes. If we dig deep and get the roots, that's pretty much all we can do, right?"
She couldn’t help but laugh at Flora’s statement – because it was true, and several said idiots came immediately to mind. “Right. And then we’ll have more issues at hand.” She huffed, shaking her head and rolling her eyes, figuring some would simply do it for the drama of it all – attention seeking morons. Maybe natural selection would weed them out.
The Honeybee didn’t know much about the Celestine, only frequenting it every so often, as her ventures to Stormbreak had been a rarity at best, and usually for dangerous battles, so she shrugging her shoulders at the first notions. “Wouldn’t surprise me if there’s sudden and inevitable escapes though,” spoken as someone who’d seen lines drawn in the sand one too many times. “At least they’re safe from all this other shit,” for now, anyway. Melita’s trust in Caido wasn’t top notch or highly rated.
The daisies, however, drew most of her attention, and she crouched nearby, much like a child observing ants. “Fine by me,” she warranted soon after, reaching into her bag to pluck out the jar. Her eyes darted back to Flora for a moment, considering the inquiry because the newfound Queen didn’t seem like the type to go digging about. “Did you bring a shovel?”
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
"Is it terrible of me to think that, like, with all this land we don't ever use, that maybe some of it should be designated as, like, siberia a place where we send all the bad shit? I mean, the desert is pretty inhospitable and since no one really lives in the Greatwood anymore, it's pretty isolated too." Honestly, Halo or Stormbreak objectively were the best biomes for what she was proposing, but since the Helovia crowd so many weirdly loved Halo that was a non-starter. Same with Stormbreak. "I just..." S
Pucking her lip and trying not to inhale too deeply lest the flowers give off some weird scent, the Doubletake shook her head. "I....did not." She admits, flashing her friend a crooked smile. "But I mean, how deep can the roots go?" So saying, she knelt down at Melita's side and pulled out her daggers. Offering the Honeybee one, Flora began to carve out the ground around the flowers the way one might begin to carve a pumpkin.
Melita hadn’t considered the depths that Flora had surmised, at least, not until the proposition was unleashed. She blinked rapidly for a moment, mildly bewildered, but then shrugged, because she’d been to the wasteland enough to warrant it as a shithole (and this was coming from someone who’d been born in a desert), but hadn’t figured it’d ever have a use. Other than existing as one of those ‘gonna fuck you up’ hotspots. “The Fae probably wouldn’t take too kindly to it,” she eventually mused, the slightest of smiles angled on her features – mischief inclined. “And wouldn’t it just be running away from our problems? Shit’s still going to be there.” And potentially worse – left unchecked.
At the lack of a shovel, the Honeybee watched as Flora tore into the ground with her daggers. “I suppose,” she remarked soon after, placing the jar within arm’s reach once they snagged at this dumbass plant, and then grabbed the offered portions from the Queen. She began to copy and mimic Flora’s artistry around the loam, and eventually they’d skewered a decent circle around the said void beasty.
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
Flora shrugs. No, they probably wouldn't but at this point, she'd rather fight angry Fae than have to take on murderous plants and animals popping up everywhere. "Probably for the best I didn't bring that up in my campaign speech." She mutters before flashing the Honeybee a grin.
Quite whether or not they'd gotten down as far as they needed to, Flora wasn't entirely sure. Yes, she probably should have checked with her brother first (or just carted him along), but thinking several steps ahead had never really been in the Doubletake's bag of tricks.
Carving down beneath the roots (and maybe severing some, who knew), Flora pulls upwards displacing the horrible flowers before wrenching her daggers upwards and plopping the entire mess into Melita's jar. "Done and done."
So saying, Flora dusts off her knees as she stands, before glancing toward the heart of King's End. "You wanna go bug your uncle while we're here?"
Melita laughed, a wild vicious little bombardment of giggles. “Probably,” in vague agreement, before adhering more to dagger work. She preferred the slicing of her opponents and enemies to dirt and soil, but they got the job done regardless. Once Flora unearthed the rest, scooped up the nasty bombardments, and plopped it into the jar, the Honeybee handed back the knife, and then capped the lid. Staring at it for a moment, and wrinkling her nose, she shrugged again and placed it within her bag.
Glancing upwards towards the rest of the King’s End domicile, she gave another cheeky grin at the notions. “Sure. We can bug your mom too.” Then they could hasten off, job complete and irritations to be had.
{FIN}
Pay a little more attention to the healing power of incandescent rage
