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!
The night air was warm, Longheat having truly gotten it's claws into Caido now. Sam had been considering coming to the Oasis for a while, having memories of swimming there as a teenager in the rare moments of happiness he'd had. But with so many Outlanders around now, he had hesitated, worrying he might be interrupted.
Finally though, he'd decided to do it before Longheat was over, or he knew he might regret it all year. He came out to the Oasis in the dark hours of the night, his Ascended eyes clearly showing him the water before him, the shining ripples of moonlight welcoming him in. Slowly, glancing about himself to make sure he was alone, he removed his shirt then his shoes and pants, folded his clothes neatly and rested them on a rock near the water.
Once he was undressed there was little to do but get in. Sam stepped into the Oasis, the water a pleasantly lukewarm temperature that refreshed him without shocking him too much; he continued to wade in until he was in to his waist, then suddenly dived down, getting his head under the water.
In the Oasis, feeling the water comb through his hair and fish slip by, he began to feel calm in a way he often did not anymore. Without the need to breath he was free to stay underneath for as long as he liked to, only coming up when he felt he'd like to see the moon again. Standing with his back to the path, the water coming up to his mid-thighs, Sam pushed his hands back through his hair and stared up through the trees at the stars, smiling to himself about nothing in particular.
"Well if it isn't sausage-boy." Came a sharp voice from behind the bookmaker.
If he turned, he'd see Edy dressed quite simply and casually, arms crossed and one hip jutted out to rest sensually against one of the trees. On her face was a particularly shit-eating grin as she stretched out a hand, her movements languid and easy, and a strand of fire appeared and flit through the air to swirl above Sam's pile of clothes.
"Y'know when I was just a kid, we used to dare each other to go skinny dipping in this real cold lake. Now if you were brave, you'd just buck the fuck up and dive right on it. If you were smart though, you'd steal the clothes of anyone that you really hated and make 'em walk home with their balls cupped in a hand."
As soon as he heard the call of 'sausage-boy' Sam jolted and immediately jumped down into the water, hugging himself and sinking so far down only his eyes and nose were above the surface (in his panic forgetting his powers of invisibility), slowly turning to see Edrei stood at the shore, menacingly holding a fire spell over her clothes. Eyes widening, Sam swam closer, coming up to his neck.
"No, please don't! I..you don't really hate me, do you?" As far as Sam knew, they hardly even knew each other. She was the bartender from the Rathskeller, Ee--something, he had seen her before Longnight...but he hadn't thought they had a rivalry meaningful enough for her to burn his clothes.
Watching the fire under her hands with a bit lip and worried eyes, he tried to slowly approach closer to the edge, in the hope to grab his clothes. Wet ones were better than incinerated, at least.
"Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Edy replied with a cackle, fingers waggling and fire growing into a vague and likely lewd shape above his clothes.
"Just fucking with you. You're the most easy to fuck with person I think I've ever met, and I barely know you, so that's saying something." She said with a dazzling white smile.
"So what, you're just out here swimming naked all by your lonesome? Or is your mysterious LongNight cuddle-buddy gonna show up?"
As Edrei changed the shape of the fire, the heat of the shifting form becoming noticable, Sam moved back. He often forgot, now that he had his patch and felt halfway normal, that he was still vulnerable to flame.
"I...I just...like to try and trust people..." He mumbled to himself, thinking that Edy was quite mean to want to 'fuck' with people, and that he was quite glad he wasn't used to that sort of thing.
She continued to tease and as she brought up Remi Sam became slightly translucent, immediately embarrassed. "It's just me. I like to come for a swim sometimes in Longheat. Are you..here to swim too?"
"That seems dumb. Most everyone is out for themselves fire-crotch." The mage said with a shrug. "One's that ain't are just the exceptions that prove the rule. They're the ones that'll fuck you over the most though, cause they'll lead you to believe that they won't. But lemme tell you one thing, everyone fucks you over in the end. At least once."
Edrei had a fucking laundry list of names to prove it. The scars too.
Raising a brow as Sam shimmered and became slightly see-through, the former-baroness snorted and grinned. "And here I was just about to say that I can read you like a book and you go and do that." Grinning from ear to ear now, Edy glanced at the water then back at Sam. "I mean, I wasn't. But now that you mention it—" Magical sparked to the surface of her body and all at once her clothes disintegrated off of her athletic and strong form.
"Don't mind if I do." She said, confidently sashaying her way up to, and then past Sam until the water was just below the line of where her thighs turned into her ass.
Sam's eyes widened at the words fire crotch, his eyes glancing down to make sure his sensitive areas were at least partially covered by the water. "I..I don't believe that." He said, once he'd established that you could not ascertain the colour of his pubic hair through the oasis. "I can't believe that. If I did, why...I just would never make any friends."
As Edy undressed Sam immediately turned away, shoulders coming up tense as he looked anywhere else. "Oh. Um." He was definitely not used to seeing naked women (or naked anyone, really, for that matter) and kept his eyes focus on the wave of the water or the sky above them, anywhere but Edy's body.
He supposed he could leave, but he had come here to swim and didn't want to be bullied out of it by the sight of some breasts. With a determined swallow he pushed himself back into the water, diving down towards the bottom and letting his hands trail along the weeds and rocks there. When he surfaced he pushed his hair back off his face and glanced towards Edy. "What are you doing out in the woods at night, anyway?"
05-28-2019, 07:49 PM (This post was last modified: 05-28-2019, 07:59 PM by Odd.)
cigarettes, the taste of your whiskey lips
Edy just rolled her eyes. "Don't be so naive. People can fuck you over and still be your friends. Sometimes they don't even mean to do it, but doesn't change that it happened."
Raising her brows as Sam awkwardly turned away from her, the Launceleyn girl tipped her head back and cackled happily. "They fuck are you getting all weird for. You're gay aren't you?" And even if he wasn't, a tit was a tit and an ass was an ass. You could appreciate it, or not, but it was hardly worth getting worked up about. In this context anyways.
Spashing backwards into the water and letting herself float in the moonlight, Edy raised her head slightly to catch Sam's words before letting it flop back down. "Oh you know." She said with a shrug, not actually answering the question. The real answer was something like trying to fill this fucking void of loneliness that won't quit, but if Sam wasn't the type of guy that could look at a titty and keep his composure, he probably couldn't deal with Edy's emotional baggage either.
"I-um--wow." Sam raised his eyebrows at Edy's sudden bitter words. Clearly something had happened there, but he didn't feel that he knew her well enough to ask much about it. He supposed her words were right, in a way, but there was definitely a touch of the personal in there that made it dangerous to ask more.
She pointed out he was gay and he struggled not to say yes, so I'm not used to seeing this but he held it in, slowly managing to turn and look at her face without wanting to politely turn away. Once again her answer seemed...odd, sad almost. As if her boisterousness was only a momentary facade.
Sam couldn't believe he was doing it, but he swam a little closer and floated next to her, looking up at the stars. "You know..." He began. "They say there are dream fish in this lake, who help you work out things in your life that have gone wrong. Did you perhaps come to seek them...?"
Fully expecting Sam to pull his lily-white ass from the water and stomp home, Edy was surprised as he neared. Ever comfortable with her body, especially so when she was naked, she continued to float easily, letting the cool water sop over her wet skin as she continued to stare up into the starlight. Every now and then her toes would flicker slightly, sending ripples outwards.
"A dream fish? Tell me you're joking. A fish that helps you figure your shit out?" Whistling a low and long note, Edy shook her head in the water, causing her mane of dark hair to swirl and fog around her head. "That's fucked up." She concluded with a laugh.
"Um, no, I'm not joking. I mean...I've never seen one myself, but I have heard of them from people I trust..." A flicker of doubt came through his mind, Sam finding himself wondering if perhaps the Dream Fish were a story for children he'd embarrassingly carried on into adulthood. But he'd brought it up now, so he had to try and appear confident about it. "If you don't know about them I suppose you didn't come for them...but does it sound like the sort of thing you'd like?"
He was not really sure what he was doing, but Edy seemed...troubled, somehow. Not that he knew her well, but Sam had become rather observant of people full of confidence and spunk over the years and recognised signs of it becoming a bit of an act, when it was clouded by bitterness (the comment about people fucking you over definitely was a rather big sign).
"We could look for them, that's all. I would help. ...As long as you promise not to stare at my body." Whether this was a joke or not was unclear.
"It sounds hella fake. That's all I'm sayin'." Edy replied with a shrug. At the question of whether it was something she'd like to see, for a moment the Launceleyn remained silent. Wiggling her toes in the water and enjoying the sound of the ripples, Edy finally shook her head. "Nah. I ain't so far gone that I need a fish to help me sort my shit out. How about you?"
Leaning forward and letting her feet touch along the bottom where she could reach, Edy eyed the pale ascended with a skeptical and mischevious sort of gaze. "Why not?" She asked curiously. "I'm not your type, so what do you care if I look?" She asked with a grin, thrusting a palm towards him to shoot a spray of water in his direction.
Sam merely shrugged as to whether the dream fish were real or not, but he felt Edy was still being a little rude about the closely held myth of the people anyway. "Honestly, I would be glad for anything that would help me work some things out. It's sorely needed." He didn't much care if that help came from a person, fish, or God. Heck, even a bug could give him counsel at this point if it would be wise.
"I care because even if you are not my type, I don't like people to ogle me naked. It's something only for the man I love." He insisted. As far as he remembered, he'd never been naked in front of anyone before and this was not how he'd imagined the experience to go.
He jumped back as water was splashed at him and immediately retaliated without thinking, using his strength to sweep a great wave of water back at Edy before diving down to swim to the bottom and look for Dream Fish, though really he was just trying to escape her revenge.
"Is that so? Well I don't see any fish, but I'm a pretty good listener. What's on your plate?" She asked, sounding surprisingly chipper and genuine.
As Sam clarified, Edy cackled happily. "Ogle? Boy, you need a thesaurus. There's a difference between looking and ogling." Before she could elaborate more on how ridiculous the ginger was being, a wall of water shot her way. It splashed over her, leaving a breathless but bright grin on her face. "That's more like it—hey." Wiping the water from her eyes, Edy saw Sam's feet as he disappeared beneath the surface. With a grin, Edy promptly followed.
Swimming rather elegantly behind him, her hair like a black cloud, Edy tried to shoot a blast of fire his way, but of course it didn't work.
