What do you get when two ruthless assassins raise their daughter travelling through the wildest reaches of Caido? Take one look at Theea and you'll get a pretty good idea. Cheerful and tenacious in equal measure, and curious beyond all else, she began her journey on a mission to find those her mother once called family. And find them she did, soon rubbing elbows with demigods, leaders and even ghosts from the past. Her determination is resolute, her thirst for knowledge unmatched. We can't wait to see where her next adventure takes her!
Congratulations, Theea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
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05-27-2025, 08:30 PM (This post was last modified: 05-28-2025, 11:09 AM by Koa.)
(set before the Tower fall)
They'd managed to survive getting Kaisel home and patched up, delivered safely into his parents' arms. Koa hadn't seen much of Kai since The Great Roasting - he'd figured it'd be best to give his cousin space, and besides, he had his own wounds to lick, like a lacerated ego and and bruised pride.
But it's been a few days and he's sent a note to Kai, offering a time and place for the training they'd sort of planned while half-delirious on the skyship home. He'd chosen it for nostalgia's sake, as well as a sort of peace offering: The Falling is a classic place for young (and stupid) Dragoons to test their mettle, and as boys they'd spent their fair share of days scrambling over the hovering stones, daring each other to go further and further out beyond the ledge. Koa, of course, had insisted his younger cousin be harnessed if things looked especially dangerous - this despite his own rejection of any such safety measure, much of the time.
He's laid no harness out today.
Koa waits for his cousin on a floating island about ten feet long and twenty wide, adjusting his boxing wraps and trying not to look anxious as he paces along the rocky length. He's wearing his moth scale t-shirt and joggers; aside from the wraps there's nothing else: no rings, no bracers, no shiny toys. It's an attempt to demonstrate an even playing field, to show Kai that he respects him - even if he is (rightly) afraid his cousin is one stupid move away from getting himself for real killed.
There'll always be a few things, maybe several things That you're gonna find really difficult to forgive
To say that Koa's note immediately brightened Kaisel's day is an understatement. Laying around his house listening to the record of a lecture play over and over again from his folks was slowly driving him mad, not to mention practically being on house arrest save for the occasional Dragoon guard duty assignment or an errand into town. All the while he's replayed the beach scenario time and time again, and while knowing what he knows now about Jack's talents would have made him more cautious, part of him can't quite find it to regret what he did. He doesn't like how it ended up, and he won't do it again, to be sure, but experiencing Jack firsthand like that certainly left it's mark on Kaisel, literally.
On the day the note listed he practically ran out the door, his father's outcry lost on the wind of him streaking past, muttering something about Koa to calm their nerves before heading out to the specified cliffs. It had been a time since he'd last been here, and he inhaled deeply, fond memories wafting among the thin air.
Holding his hand up to his forehead to shield the glare of the sun, he spies Koa further out, moving like a caged animal. Kaisel approaches with a bounce, his grin rough with the eagerness to prove himself. "Hey!" he greets as he makes the leap to join the floating island, leaning forward as he lands to ensure he doesn't topple backwards off it. He does turn to give an appreciative glance down, the risk of it all inspiring an unbeatable thrill in him. Kaisel's in his usual workout attire, black athletic shorts and a blue pull-over hoodie, thin enough even for Longheat, though his 'brow already glistens with some sweat from the trip here. He fishes out the crudely made knuckle knives he's been practicing with to prepare for the nice ones Safrin will grant him. He slips just one one over his right hand, fingers sliding through the grooves and folding over snug as the line of a blade snarls over the edge of his fisted knuckles.
Glancing at the Mothman armor Koa wears, Kaisel wonders just how sturdy it is, given how lightweight it seems. "That'll keep you safe, right?" He rolls his shoulder, then his neck. "That, or don't let me hit you." A cocky grin then, because Koa's good, but he doesn't think he's that good against him.
"So what you been up to while I've been in jail?" Kaisel steps back into a fighting stance, one leg behind the other, both hands held near his face, ready. "I saw you go off with Soh at the party, you make a choice?"
When Kai finally shows up it's with a hot, skip, and a jump, as buoyant as if he hadn't nearly been burst open like an overheated hot air balloon. It's unexpected, but not unwelcome, causing something tight in Koa's chest to unclench and unwind. The resulting relief is almost nauseating, and a little anticlimactic. It seems that Koa's the only one still nursing a bruised ego from the handful of sharp words thrown between them.
Kai had bigger wounds to deal with, if we're being fair.
Still, Koa's laugh is warm and easy, his face shifting neatly to a crooked grin as he takes in his cousin's eagerness. "Going a little stir crazy?" He can only imagine - even in the throes of illness, he's never known Kai to stay put for more than a few hours at a time. House arrest with his parents must have been utter torment.
They slide into familiar fighting stances with the ease of people who have been doing it their whole lives - quite literally, given that Kaisel was still in diapers when their wrestling lessons began. Scoffing and shaking his head, Koa smooths a hand over the soft scale of his shirt. "Wasn't planning on it," he answers cockily, raising his hands in preparation. "You ready to get blood on that nice top?"
He's in his groove-- and then he's nearly skidding out of it, his flow a screeching record scratch as Kai brings up Soh. Color heats Koa's ears, his eyes flying wide before narrowing, his grin challenging and fierce. "Land a fucking hit first, then you can ask about my personal life." And without missing a beat the Dragoon surges forward, swinging a right hook at Kaisel's abdomen. A warm-up jab, really.
There'll always be a few things, maybe several things That you're gonna find really difficult to forgive
If Kaisel sat around licking his wounds the way a dog licks its dick, he'd never leave his room. The nature of being thick headed and loud mouthed is putting your head down and ramming through all the shit you attract, a linebacker through life, a bull in the China shop of emotions. So, other than resenting his punishment and getting tossed in the sand (taking the L is always rough), Kaisel is none the worse for wear. Healing water helps a lot too—stay hydrated chat.
"YEEa," he says flatly, his eyeroll carried in the 'e's and not his actual expression, because he can't risk taking his eyes off Koa. He's not above playing dirty as Kaisel knows all too well, and he doesn't intend to offer any ground to Koa on accident today. Though Koa still outmatches him, Kaisel feels stronger since the last time they did this, and definitely since the last time they play fought up here as teenagers.
A dry laugh answers Koa's taunt, followed up with a wicked glint to his eye as the sound subsides to a crooked grin. The flush on Koa is answer enough, and evidence that Kaisel's learning not to play so fair either. Some emotional warfare certainly seems to be an edge against Koa, who doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve exactly, but sure does let you pummel it in his chest no problem.
Koa rushes, and Kaisel twists—barely—feeling the rush of displaced air graze his ribs. Each step has to be certain with such limited space. They'll stay close, so dodging will be a dance of sucked in guts and spinning toes. His right fist cocks and he jabs at Koa's armored chest, subtly sliding the knuckle knife at an angle with the strike that he sheers downward. "Well I had a great night with Caly, thanks for asking."
1/4 dodges Koa's hit and strikes with a right jab at his chest w/ the knuckle knife
Koa feels the brush of air as Kaisel dodges away, his torso sliding with neat control out of the path of the punch. It's neither surprising or disappointing: the first few rounds of a boxing match are always more test than true attack, and it's reassuring to know his cousin is recovered enough that no punches need be pulled.
He drops back to defensive posture quickly and easily, light on his feet despite his broader frame. The retaliatory strike comes as expected, angled toward Koa's chest. He dodged back and to the right, mindful of their limited space as the knuckle knife slices into air. "I assumed, given how deep down each others' throats you were when I left," Koa laughs teasingly. He'd of course missed the ensuing drama when Kai abandoned his date to join Flora on the dance floor, which is just as well. He'd likely have made his own way out to smack his cousin upside the head, then dragged him back to safer waters.
Though... wait. "Caly... isn't she Nova's sister? So Safrin's kid?" Koa jabs out with a one-two strike, aiming for Kaisel's face, but his expression betrays that he's a little distracted by putting some pieces of a social puzzle together. "And Jack's?" His lips twist as he looks at his cousin, copper gaze narrow. "You don't think that had anything to do with... y'know." Captain Unhinged raining lightning from the sky to try and turn Kaisel into crispy fried cheese?
2/4 Koa dodges, and does a one-two jab at Kai's face
There'll always be a few things, maybe several things That you're gonna find really difficult to forgive
Kaisel's answering grin, even after his blatant miss, is enough evidence that Koa's not wrong. Kaisel sinks lower into his stance, knees bending more. He always has to remind himself to stay low and light on his feet after an attack, where he's prone to spring up a bit more and lean in too much with his weight ahead of him, trying to make his punches count as much as he can in the moment and never fully resetting.
"Yeah, that's her!" he says brightly, buffeting one of Koa's jabs back with his forearm and a lean back, but the other one connects a bit with the edge of his cheek, causing him to shake his head as he bounces to the side and steps in towards Koa with an uppercut to his right side. It's Kaisel's time to falter a bit now, and he forgets to fully put his hands back up by his face and sink into his balanced stance as he stammers out, "y-yea."
His own features pale a bit beneath the stare Koa pins him with, lips thinning. "No—he doesn't know. I don't think." Unless Caly told him, or some other bar lookielou, but to what end? He that much of an overprotective father? "I think that had everything to do with me saying his dick is small and soft."
2/4 Kai dodges the first jab but the scond grazes his cheek. He uppercuts to Koa's right side.
06-12-2025, 06:36 AM (This post was last modified: 06-12-2025, 06:36 AM by Koa.)
"F-F-F-First Blood!" Koa declares in a mechanical voice as his fist grazes Kaisel's cheek, the anachronism a tradition between them because I think it's funny. It's not as intense and triumphant as usual, because there's srs vibes afoot, but it does wonders to lighten to mood, to remind him that despite everything else what really matters is here.
So fuck Jack, and the way he's living rent-free in Koa's mind like a burr he can't dislodge. "Yeah, well, he's gotta he compensating for something with that big-ass boat." He flashes a sharp grin that's only a little faked, using his hands to demonstrate the suspected size of Jack's soft cock.
Which opens him right up to Kaisel's uppercut, the sensation of a fist hitting his right pec jolting him back to the fight. "Ow! My moob!" Indignant and laughing, Koa lunges forward, striking out once before reaching around to try and grab Kai in a grapple. "C'mere, you brat!"
3/4 | Kaisel's hit lands on Koa's man boob. He replies with a jab and a grapple attempt
There'll always be a few things, maybe several things That you're gonna find really difficult to forgive
This is the Koa he remembers from before the war, before the Family, where life stacked responsibilities and worries like a house of cards. The one that could put a smile on your face, no matter how dire the conversation, how stiff the mood. Not that they had swung quite so far into such gravity here, but it brings a lightness to Kaisel all the same.
His laughter echoes over the rocks, snatched away by the rolling breeze that ebbs around the floating pieces and tumbles down beyond clouds and certainty. The islands shift subtly beneath their feet, suspended by mystery and memory, each one a stone in the mosaic of their youth. Up here, it feels like time forgets to pass. It leaves him too breathless, too relaxed, so that when Koa dances in he barely sways back, falling into the grip too easily.
For a moment, it's just them again, testing their limits amid dreams and jokes. No stakes, no heartbreaks, no reason not to laugh.
"Hey! I hit you, your turn," he demands as he leans more into Koa's arms, trying to smother his cousin’s movement with dead weight. He attempts to wrest one arm free enough to weakly jab it into Koa's side. "Just tell me you made a decision," he chides affectionately, "or is the saga still going and I should tune in next party?" His legs kick out ungracefully behind him in a flailing effort to break the hold, though it’s unclear if he’s actually trying or just being difficult for the sake of it.
3/4 dodged the jab but gets grappled, tries to jab Koa's side during it
Kaisel tumbles into the grapple, his head caught in Koa's bear hug like a much-beloved toy. A hefty one, especially as he lets more of the weight fall on his cousin, causing Koa to grunt and take a step back. "You're heavier than you used to be," he mutters playfully, the words punctuated by the mercifully weak blows Kai lands on his side. Everything is heavier than it used to be: life, relationships, the state of the world, all of it coats them like a damp blanket, smothering and suffocating and always there. But for a minute he can ignore it, force his head above the covers and give them both a chance to breathe.
Even if it means exposing his insecurities and fuck-ups to his cousin, who doesn't seem inclined to leave well enough alone.
"Fuck, man, I dunno." Releasing Kai abruptly, Koa steps back and to the right, hoping the suddenness will leave the younger Dragoon unbalanced. He side-steps, coming in with a jab at what may or may not be Kai's exposed left side. "We hooked up, I guess, but didn't really talk about it? It's all just so-- urgh." Koa groans, rubbing his hand over his face. "I really like Soh, and in any other situation I could totally see a future there, but, like... how am I supposed to be a good boyfriend to someone when I'm still in love with her best friend?" Which isn't something Koa'd managed to admit yet, aloud or to himself.
There'll always be a few things, maybe several things That you're gonna find really difficult to forgive
"What, you saying I need to lay off the ice cream?" he says indignant, and perhaps a bit guilty. It's too delicious.
Kaisel reels as they break apart, his weight suddenly back in his own hands, Koa's voice surprisingly tense. He stumbles a bit before catching himself, both physically and emotionally. Too slow to block the jab, Kaisel instead takes the hit with a winded oof, body curling away from the strike as he slides to the side and loosely resets his stance. He's less focused on fists now, 'brow crinkling low with confusion, because last he saw, Koa had vanished with Soh like they were headed for a good time, not an emotional spiral.
Then, oh. Kaisel stands up a bit straighter, head tilting to the side. He hadn't meant to drag his cousin back into this impossible choice, had thought he'd already chosen and only meant to happily goad Koa for the future he picked. "Hmm, a threesome?" he asks, trying to diffuse the tension with the only real weapon he's got. "No wait, I meant throuple. Or, I mean, both? A throuple threesome?" He grins with well-meaning as he walks back towards his cousin, one playful punch aimed towards his shoulder in a, you dog you manner.
"You could also flip a coin," Kaisel says absently, thought not without something serious, implying he's made many a tough decision in such a manner. "Takes away all the thinking. Or, tells you the answer you were hoping you'd get."
Then, quieter with understanding, though with a shrug of I dunno man. "Or you could just tell both and see who decks you first. Probably clears things up fast." His eyes are thoughtful, the grin not quite as present as before.
"I mean..." Koa trails off with a playfully suggestive laugh, color staining the tips of his ears. It's not as though he hasn't thought about having them both together, especially when he's alone in his barracks and unwinding from a long day ifyoucatchmydrift. But in reality? He rubs the spot where Kai's bopped his shoulder, ruefully shaking his head. "I can barely handle one of them at a time. They'd eat me alive if I tried to date both."
It'd be fucking hot, though.
"It's not that simple, though, is it?" Koa rolls his shoulders and neck, trying to ease some of the tension from his joints. They seem to have moved onto the talking phase of the hang, an inevitable but far more exhausting venture. "I'm not choosing between them. Flora's made her decision, and I can respect that, even if it hurts." The flutter of his jaw says that it does, though certainly far less than in seasons passed.
He sighs, beginning the process of unwrapping his hands, needing the physical action to let his brain work. "But it's like... do I give it a go with Sohalia, even if I still have feelings for Flora, and just... I dunno, power through and hope it goes away? Is that fair to her?" He looks back at Kaisel, biting his lip, the now unwrapped length of cloth fluttering in the wind like a white flag. "I told her I needed time, but then the party happened and we hooked up and I really like her but I know what it's like to fall for someone who has feelings for someone else and..." He groans, raising his hands to his face, his fingers tugging at his hair. "I don't wanna hurt anyone, but it feels like I'm gonna fuck up no matter what I do."
There'll always be a few things, maybe several things That you're gonna find really difficult to forgive
06-17-2025, 05:33 PM (This post was last modified: 06-28-2025, 11:10 PM by Kaisel.)
Kaisel
Don't need a sign, nothing divine's gonna save me
Admittedly Kaisel is not any better versed in any of this than Koa, arguably less so even, although (so far) Kaisel has managed not to date two best friends and make the weirdest love triangle. Still, he listens, yanking his hands out of his knuckle knives and pushing his thumb against the joints of his hands. "Why do you feel like you have to love only Sohalia for it to be fair to her?" He asks it simply, perhaps overly so, given Koa's history with being one of two lovers for both women. He likely doesn't want to return the favor of what he felt, but Koa's trying to make his heart obey very strict lines and that only seems to be making everything worse.
"I think," Kaisel begins cautiously, well aware he's infringing on territory that could send his cousin reacting wildly in any manner of emotional direction. "It's okay to love more than one person. Love for one doesn't remove it for the other. Just like you can love all your family, all your friends—each one different but not less." Well, maybe sometimes less, if your great uncle smells like beans and always talks over you. "You're worrying too much about only loving one and not loving the other. It can be both."
Kaisel glances at him with a bit of a frown, arms crossing, knives dangling from a pinky beneath the fold of his arms. "I don't mean be in a relationship with both, but you aren't gonna fuck up anything with Soh just because you still feel for Flora. Maybe it'll even fade with time, and distance... or maybe after trying it with Soh you'll find it doesn't work out. Whatever you choose, it's not like it has to be forever, not if it's not, right." As for not hurting anyone? Doesn't seem that's possible, since at the very least, Koa's hurt.
"C'mon, let's shower and get something to eat," he offers, so that if they want to keep talking, at least it won't be on top of floating islands and sweaty with effort. Food does the mood wonders too.
