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!
Even without the press of Dahlia's palms against his chest or the blood-bright taste of her mouth against his, Everest's mind was still roaring with the purple thunder of her presence. Quite when he'd returned back to Mateo's schooner (and whether or not he'd actually completed his work at the Needle), he had absolutely no idea. All he knew was that nothing in his notebooks seemed to matter in the face of the yawning void that Dahlia had opened up in him by virtue of the violet noise silencing his usual cacophony of thoughts and needs.
Predictably perhaps his feet had taken him to one of the few places he felt safe, and where one might have expected his fingers to meticulously record what had happened in one of his many notebooks, instead those very same fingers had fumbled in drawers and searched the top of dressers for the sorts of potables and injestables for which his best friend was well known.
Soon the aviator was bathed in a new wash of colours as he slumped half on a couch, his cheek resting on an end table and his arms vaguely supporting his weight on the floor. A small box of fine blue-white powder lay nearby—its surface marred by the swipe of a fingertip—as did the remains of several half-chewed plants.
If you keep adding stones Soon the water will be lost in the well
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
Contrary to popular belief, Mateo does not spend every minute of every day drunk or high or in someone else's bed. (Granted, it's about a 70-30 split, so you'd not be blamed for the assumption). Nevertheless, on this particular afternoon, as the Longheat sun leans, hazy, towards early evening, the botanist has just shut up shop and is headed home.
It's not a surprise to find his door unlocked - he gives out keys for a reason - but he doesn't expect Everest of all people to be inside, mostly because the aviator is too polite to let himself in and is more likely to come and find Mateo directly. Nudging the door shut with his hip and placing down the paper bag of groceries, he's already halfway to untying his florist apron and unfastening his hair from its top-knot when he spots his friend.
And then he spots the drugs, medicinal and otherwise. Among them are a few rare finds - not to mention he thinks one of the half-chewed specimen is one of his philodendrons - and he has to do a double (and triple) take when he realises Everest must have actually taken them. Like... himself.
"Are... was there a party I forgot about...?"
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
Mateo's entrance is nothing more than a pulse of movement and colour in the peripheral of Ever's vision. Presently the aviator is watching a dust mote dance and waver with his breath, and it's only as the botanist speaks that he realizes Mateo is more than just a vaguely corporeal shadow. "How could I know what you have or haven't forgotten?" He asks, pupils blown such that the ring of blue around the black looked all the more vibrant for the contrast.
Running his fingers along the rug beneath them and shivering in response to the tactile feedback, a thought glazes over the aviator's expression as his eyes slowly roll from the table up to Mateo. "I had my first kiss today. I don't think I did it right, though." He says offhandedly, before reaching out for the small box of white powder and missing by a few inches. With a frown, he tried to sit up, faltered, and succeeded only in sliding off of the couch.
If you keep adding stones Soon the water will be lost in the well
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
Looking, for a moment, like the gif of that white guy double blinking, Mateo gently clears his throat, removes his apron, and abandons his groceries. How? he wants to ask, as well as With who? Are you okay? Is that why you came home and got high? Is this a breakdown?
The questions tangle and lodge behind his teeth, and eventually the only thing the botanist can do is sweep forward and try to steady Ever and his descent onto the rug (and carefully slide the snuff box out of reach as well. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asks his friend. "Also do you happen to know what you took?"
Far, far be it for Mateo to be the responsible one, but given that this is his own personal stash of narcotics, Ever could be in for anything from a cool trip all the way to needing his stomach pumped.
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
"Hey." Everest whines plaintively, as the small box of white powder that tastes like petrichor and feels like lightning is slid away. Shrugging his way into a sitting position, the aviator narrows his eyes for a moment before eventually shaking his head. "Just what I normally see you take. I needed..' Pausing, his frown returning, Everest shifts to look at his friend directly. "..I have so much space to fill." He explains, his expression and posture seeming to convey a gravity that his words couldn't seem to capture.
Raising one hand, he pressed it against his chest—where Dahlia's had been, coincidentally—and patted his sweater. "So much space." He said again, softly smiling. Strangely, it was an entirely genuine and easy smile, which was a rather foreign thing to see on the aviator's face, and the warmth and joy in it made him almost look like another man completely.
"I can see why you do this. This feels amazing."
If you keep adding stones Soon the water will be lost in the well
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
It's startling, more than anything, to be looking suddenly and directly at his friend, all blown out pupils and easy smiles. Having known Ever for longer than anyone else, family notwithstanding, Mateo is well aware that this kind of bold eye contact isn't within the ranges of the aviator's normal, let alone everything else. For a moment he can't find the words to string his question together (has he ever seen Everest smile like that, even once?), and so instead sits himself down beside the other man.
"It does," he agrees with a soft chuckle. "If you had waited until I had gotten home, I could have introduced you to some of the even better stuff." Okay but focus, Mateo. "What do you mean by space?" he asks gently. "Is this to do with the kiss you said you had? Did... was it not something that you wanted to do?"
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
"You still can. I'm happy to be introduced." Everest says, and though in his mind he's winked at his friend, in reality he's just blinked sloppily a few times with various levels of exaggeration.
"I mean...well it's just that normally—" Raising his fists up and holding them out, Ever strains until his forearms shake with exertion. "Normally it all feels like this inside." Whatever name—or names—there was for how Ever's mind normally worked, tightly clasped and shaking fists was not a bad analogy. "But then when she kissed me, it all just—" Letting all the tension relax away, Ever opens his hands and softly moves his fingers.
Ruffling a hand through his hair, the aviator shrugs slightly. "I didn't have time to think about it. She said she needed to talk to me about something and pulled me into a closet. She kissed me before I could find the light switch." He explains seriously. "She said we could do more but I was in the middle of work. Then by the time I had finished—" Had he finished? "I noticed how...how it all felt so different. Like," reaching out, Everest tries to take one of his friend's hands and even goes so far as to lace their fingers together.
"See?"
If you keep adding stones Soon the water will be lost in the well
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
"Another time. One can easily ruin a good high trying to chase a better one," Mateo says sagely - especially given that this is Ever's first experience under the influence. He watches, both curious and softly awed, not only at the description of what's happened, but at the ease with which Ever manages to explain himself and his feelings. "You..." His brow furrowing as he finds their fingers laced sweetly together, Mateo can't help the disbelieving laugh that comes hiccuping out of him.
"You feel good, then? Because of what she did?" Not knowing quite where to start, the botanist gives his friend's hand a gentle squeeze, finding the gesture to be a foreign one when it comes to Everest, but not an unwelcome one by far. "Who was this mystery woman?" And if she didn't possess magic and wasn't a goddess in disguise, Mateo will be dumbfounded to learn that all Ever needed to relax was his first kiss.
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
Though he looks like he wants to argue, a strange enough thing in and of itself, the aviator sighs and nods.
"It doesn't..." Ever's face crumples somewhat as he mentally stumbles through the lavender haze of his own thoughts. "..this feels fine now. Nice, even." Just as he had done with the rug, the aviator lets his thumb trail over part of Mateo's hand, going so far as to close his eyes to better enjoy the sensation of someone else's skin. Though it didn't dull the noise of Dahlia's injection nor still the violet storm, it created a little island in the maelstrom upon which Everest could stand. Where he could relax.
"She's going to be Stormbreak's new leader, actually." Ever answers dutifully. "It's very good timing too, because Sohalia has had to step back." High and mentally fractured as he currently was, even Everest knew Stormbreak couldn't handle being leaderless any more than it already had.
"Is that always what it's like, kissing someone?" Previously the aviator had always written off Mateo's affairs, though now he seemed keenly interested.
If you keep adding stones Soon the water will be lost in the well
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
"...Oh," Mateo says dumbly, smiling down at their clasped fingers; more conclusive evidence that this is a Big Deal is that it has rendered the botanist near silent. Tilting his head to hear that Ever's mystery-kisser is about to become Stormbreak's new leader to boot, for a second Mateo is plagued with the sort of responsible thoughts much more suited to the politically inclined. Could she be a demigod, perhaps, one not unlike Sunjata in that way? Was Sohalia alright?
Alas, the questions slip away almost as quickly as they come, because Mateo is not politically inclined, and he cares much more about his friend on any given day of the week. "I suppose it won't be too long before all of Stormbreak knows about her, then," he murmurs, happy to drop that particular thread of conversation.
Kissing, though - he can talk about that all day. "I like to think so," he says, assuming Ever is referring to the release of tension he'd described earlier. "Granted, kiss for long enough and you might end up craving a very different sort of release." Nudge nudge, wink wink and so on.
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
"Ejaculation?" Ever wonders, sounding sincere but fairly confident that's what his friend had meant. Whatever Dahlia had done, there were still certain parts of the aviator left fundamentally unchanged, it would seem. "I hadn't thought of that. I suppose I have more than just kissing to practice." Sounding practical about it despite the drugs causing halos to surround Mateo's head, Ever nodded.
"My father is probably the best person to ask, but I don't think he'd want to teach me. I suppose Molly's is my next best bet?" Looking down at their hands, Ever lifts them and inspects the crinkled skin between his thumb and forefinger. "I remember Paige saying you could practice on your hand." He says, before raising an eyebrow to invite Mateo to either corroborate or discredit this childhood suggestion.
If you keep adding stones Soon the water will be lost in the well
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
"Quite so," Mateo trills of his friend's scientifically accurate terminology, finding the smile on his face quite hard to wipe away; hells, the fact that they're still holding hands makes it difficult to believe he hasn't also taken drugs this afternoon. "Paige did say that, but we were about eleven years old at the time. I can confirm that your hand does not make a very good kissing partner," he says, reaching out to pat the back of Ever's hand as if to apologise for that fact.
"Besides, there are different kinds of kisses, Ever. The feeling you will get from being kissed at Molly's will not be the same as with someone you care about. It is a messy and colourful business, is feeling." With a wink to the aviator - and it's okay, Ever, Mateo can't do it properly sober - the botanist shifts at last to try and get to his feet. "So how are the drugs at filling all that space?"
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
"No?" The aviator's smile falls somewhat as he looks down at their hands. Rather than flinching away at the additional touch, Everest merely sighs softly and nods. "Your hand feels like those ties you wear sometimes." He says almost reverently; those ties of course being any number of thin stripes of satin Mateo might wear around his neck or in his hair.
"No?" Looking up, it takes him a comically long time to realize that he's holding his arm over his head in order to keep their hands together. Releasing the botanist and immediately regretting it—the spaces between his fingers suddenly felt like ice without Mateo's warmth—Ever lets his head loll back against the couch. "But I didn't care about her before she kissed me. I didn't even know her name, or had ever seen her."
As for the drugs?
Reaching again for his chest and splaying his fingers there, Everest pulls a face and suddenly tugs his sweater roughly over his head. Throwing it into the corner of the room with a disdainful grumble, he lets his fingertips pad over his skin before moaning with pleasure. "There are so many things to feel." He answers, letting his eyes slip closed.
If you keep adding stones Soon the water will be lost in the well
Champagne, cocaine, gasoline and most things in between
"Does it? That is very kind of you - I do try to pride myself on my skincare routine," Mateo says with a pleased little smile, blowing Ever a kiss for his trouble and hustling to put away his groceries before his friend finds something else to snort or swallow from his narcotics collection. "And I think that first kiss might have had something a bit magic about it," he points out, of Stormbreak's new leader and her ability to thaw out Everest Hart.
"From here, though - especially when you are sober - you might understand it a bit better." For now, though, the aviator is yeeting his shirt and looking for all the world the same way Mateo does every few benders. Laughing musically and turning to hold out his hands to help Ever up, he nods indulgently. "That is the point. What would you like to do now? Dance? Cook? Sometimes I like to lay up on the lavender for a while."
I roam the city in a shopping cart a pack of Camels and a smoke alarm
