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!
There's a shadow just behind me
Shrouding every step I take
Making every promise empty
Pointing every finger at me
'Lead the way.' Adam had said, and Nate had. After a few false starts (how could everything look so similar here?) and more than a few passes of Adams horn back and forth, they were in the place Nate had been thinking of when he first suggested an adventure. In his mind, it had seemed exciting, but now, actually looking down into the collapsed street, Nate was a little worried.
"So... this is the kinda place you found your horn?" Nate keeps his voice casual, but he reaches out for the aforementioned horn and knocks the entire thing back, betraying his nerves. He reaches out to pass it back to Adam, then thinks again, pulling it close for one last mouthful before actually handing it back and taking the first few steps down into the underground. "Think we might find one for me too?'
It's not actually as bad as Nate had assumed it would be. Sure, it's dark, and kind of creepy, but no more so than some other places he'd been in his life. It was almost like some of the places he'd spent time as a kid.
Adam was less nervous than he probably should have been. Both the booze and his previous successful adventure here before gave him a cocky stride as he walked through the ruins, looking over the crumbling walls and tattered artifacts with a bored eye.
"I didn't just find it, you know. I had to fight a fucking minotaur and cut it's horn off, then Ludo turned it into that. Really one of a kind kinda shit." He took the horn back off Nate and waited for it to fill up again, then took a hefty drink himself. He knew he was beginning to go too far (lord, hadn't he thought that every night for days), the street waving and pulsing before him and the ground feeling as if it were about to swallow him.
He spun, sloppy footwork twirling him round as he walked down into the underground with a smile on his face. "You ever do shit like this when you were a teenager? Find some shitty little dark hole and have a fire, drinks? I used to take my first girlfriend to a really crappy clearing in the forest and try and impress her by eating random berries." Adam snorted. Coffee, who was clearly a little frustrated with his master, lit up the area around them with a flame on the end of his nose.
good evening, misadventure.
farewell morality.
it's time for another risky venture,
into the depths of depravity.
There's a shadow just behind me
Shrouding every step I take
Making every promise empty
Pointing every finger at me
”A Minotaur, huh?” Nate repeated incredulously, nose wrinkling as he tried to put the name to a creature. ”That’s one of those uh... Mr. Tumnus things, right?” Did they have horns? Did it even really matter? Nate shrugged, more to himself than to Adam, and reached out to offer the other man a ultimately useless helping hand.
Nate did circle an arm around Adams waist when he reached the bottom of the descent, feeling a little more secure with the other man secure. ”I think I went to every dark little hole I could find to get fucked up in.” Nate grinned, reaching up to break dried roots off the walls. A fire did sound nice. ”Never ate random berries though. Didn’t really ever have a girl around either.”
With one last look at the entrance behind them, Nate stepped forwards, letting Coffee lead the way and trying to keep the other they’d taken in mind. It would make this date(?) way less fun if they ended up lost. ”You think teenagers here come here to have fires and get fucked up? Or do you think they’re smarter than us?” Nate laughed, and reached around with his other hand, nearly hugging Adam as he took the drinking horn.
"Mr...Tumnus..? I don't know whoever the fuck that is." Adam laughed, wondering if Nate somehow had a minotaur friend back home. Would he be pissed that he'd killed one...?
He didn't have much time to consider this, though, because before long Nate was wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him close. A rather intimate touch, even given their previous hook up; Adam considering pulling himself away for a moment, but he was warm and drunk, so he let it go. "Well, you missed out. The girl is whatever, but a teen hang out without berries? Shit, man. Nearly cruel." He laughed, shaking his head.
Leaning back as Nate reached over him to get the horn, Adam kissed his forehead automatically; immediately he widened his eyes and thought why did I do that but tried to go with it, not speaking of it. "Uh...I mean, I haven't seen that many teens around here. Most of them seem to be good little farm boys, so prolly not."
good evening, misadventure.
farewell morality.
it's time for another risky venture,
into the depths of depravity.
There's a shadow just behind me
Shrouding every step I take
Making every promise empty
Pointing every finger at me
It made sense that Adam didn't understand his reference, the jarring realization that this wasn't the world he knew popping out at Nate, not for the first time. Emotions of any kind weren't something he dwelt on though, and before he had the chance anyway his mouth was moving again. "Oh, I Missed out huh? How the fuck did you not get poisoned?" Nate laughed back. It was kind of strange, just talking to someone so easily, but with Adam, things were just... easy. Jokes and touches and time spent with him, it all felt natural. He shook his head, then Adam as they moved deeper into the underground.
The kiss against his forehead as he reached for the horn was unexpected, but not unwelcome for it. The action actually brought a smile to Nate's lips, genuine enough that he was glad for the relative darkness of the tunnels. Should he mention it? Was he supposed to? Nate had never gotten past the one night stand point with anyone, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, he was lost. Instead of saying anything, he simply straightened up with the drinking horn in hand, and drained it.
"Farm kids are always kinda weird though." It was an easy thread to jump to, though Nate was strangely disappointed in himself as he did. Trying to shake it off, Nate turned them down a side passage suddenly, pausing only long enough for Coffee to realise and light the new way. "Would you ever go back to being a little piece of shit?" He asked, both genuinely curious and desperate to keep the silence away.
"Cos I knew not to eat the poisonous ones, fucking duh." Adam rolled his eyes and laughed, though really his survival had a lot more to do with luck than accurate berry identification.
Luckily Nate didn't pass comment on the little kiss so Adam didn't either, just watched as his horn was taken. Suddenly, something instinctual in him told him to give it to Nate, to get it out of his life; Adam, said a familiar voice from his world in his head, You know this isn't good for you. But the offer didn't leave his lips and he just let Nate borrow it for now.
"Wasn't aware I ever stopped being a little piece of shit." He laughed. There were certainly plenty of people back home that would say he was still just as irritating now as he had been at 16. "But...no, not really. I like being the age I am. When I was younger...shit was harder." There was an edge to his voice that spoke volumes more than the actual words and embarrassed by it, Adam sped up, walking beside Coffee and asking the dragon if he could see anything interesting.
The little dragon bounded forward a few paces then lit up a dark, small hole in the low wall of the cave, a claustrophobic's nightmare, just big enough for both of them to squeeze into. "Ooh." Said Adam. "Suppose there's treasure in there?"
good evening, misadventure.
farewell morality.
it's time for another risky venture,
into the depths of depravity.
There's a shadow just behind me
Shrouding every step I take
Making every promise empty
Pointing every finger at me
Nate honestly wasn’t sure if Adam was taking the puss out of him or not, but he laughed along anyway. He also wasn’t sure if he’d ever actually had a berry, now that that he was thinking about it (did raisins count?) but that wasn’t important.
There was a part of Nate that was glad Adam didn’t take the horn back immediately. He’d promised a party, and a party wasn’t something he could deliver sober. Not in a place like this anyway. All sobriety was doing was warning him about how stupid being in a place like this was, how he knew better, but every time the horn refilled that voice got quieter.
”Little should be knocked off there. I can vouch for that.” The joke rolled off his tongue easily, even if Nate knew he was in the same boat. Same irritating bastard, more life experience. He opened his mouth to joke more, Adams tone catching him off guard and stopping the sound in his throat. He knew that kind of boat too, which was maybe why he didn’t fight when Adam pulled away. ”I get it.” The quiet words were aimed at Adams back, not really meant to be heard but needing to be said.
Coffee lit up a hole in the wall, a passage just right enough that it brought images of a coffin to mind. This was where the little voice in the back of his head would tell him this was a bad idea, but with his most recent emptying of Adams drinking horn, Nate couldn’t hear that voice anymore. ”Fheres definitely a body in there.” Nate chuckled, then shrugged, kneeling down to looked into the hole better. ”Guess that’s a kind of treasure. After you.” Nate gesturEd down the hole.
"I'm tall and I got a big dick, I know." Adam laughed, stretching up his arms in a yawn designed to show just how tall he was.
Luckily Nate didn't seem to want to push about the deep well of awkwardly depressing stories that was his past, and Adam just nodded. He knew Nate would get it; it was obvious just from how similar they were that they'd come through something similar in their lives. You didn't drink so much because you had a great life, and broken recognised broken.
"Body could have something cool on it." Adam pointed out, before lifting his leg up and in, then the other; with his thin frame it was easy to slot himself in and begin to push himself down. "C'mon. Let's go on an ill advised adventure."
good evening, misadventure.
farewell morality.
it's time for another risky venture,
into the depths of depravity.
06-21-2019, 05:50 AM (This post was last modified: 06-24-2019, 04:25 AM by Nate.)
Nate
There's a shadow just behind me
Shrouding every step I take
Making every promise empty
Pointing every finger at me
Adams stretch earned him and appreciative whistle, and a hand patting the small of his back, Nate grinning the whole time. ”We’re birds of a feather, huh?” Nate tries to not resent the few inches between them, despite the way it was glaring him in the face right now. If he’d known what Adam was thinking, they might have had a different connitarion, but as they were the phrase was benign.
”Could is kind of the keyword there.” Nate pointed out, watching Adam enter the hole feet first and wondering if that was the better way to go down. At least he wouldn’t get a faceful or corpse if he did it Adams way. ”If I killed a guy and dumped him a hole I’d take all his shit first.”
‘Ill-advised adventure’ made him snort more than it should have, and Nate couldn’t say no to it after that. Even if it meant shimmying into a small dark hole. He did go feet first, like Adam, though he hadn’t accounted for not being able to see where his feet we in comparison to the other man. ”What if there’s not treasure at the end of this adventure?”
"One man's trash is another's treasure, yeah? I've gotten cool shit outta tombs sometimes cos the raiders before me didn't think it was worth shit." Adam said backwards, talking behind himself. Though his voice was a little distracted as he tried to push himself through tight bits of the tunnel - not a trip for the claustrophobic. But it seemed the tunnel was not actually very long, because after only a few shoves he felt his feet break into free space.
"Then we'll fuck on the corpses of the freaky zombies we find, duh." He said as he wiggled his hips out, finally sliding his top half out (scraping his back on the rock in the process and hissing in pain) and standing up in the cave they had discovered.
It was..well, there wasn't any treasure. But he couldn't help the pleased, breathy laugh as he looked about. They were in a small cave that opened up on one side to show a portion of an underground stream, that trickled by around rocks and pebbles, casting odd light reflections on the ceiling -- because far up above it was a hole to the surface.
Adam was not often one to find things beautiful, but it was hard to ignore the natural grandeur of the place. "Hey, come through! It's nice in here! And -- oh fuck I found fifty joints and a million sacks of gold!" He yelled back up the tunnel, his laugh betraying the dumb lie.
good evening, misadventure.
farewell morality.
it's time for another risky venture,
into the depths of depravity.
There's a shadow just behind me
Shrouding every step I take
Making every promise empty
Pointing every finger at me
”Looking through trash stops being worth it real fast.” Nate quipped back down towards Adam. If his partner was distracted then Nate could be described as strained, nearly bordering on panicked if he was being really honest. Adam might have had a few inches on him, but he was gangly. Nate had no such luxury, and the tight tunnel seemed to press in on him from all sides.
Even Adams jokes didn’t really lighten the mood, Nate too focused on squeezing through the tunnel to even respond. The comforting presence of the other in front of him seemed to drop off suddenly, Nate freezing in place and straining to hear something, anything more than natural ambiance of the caves.
A voice rang up to him, and Nate sighed in relief, both because Adam was alright and because the horrible little detour they’d taken was over. He even managed to laugh along with Adam, twisting out of the mouth of the tunnel and scraping either side of his torso along the rock. ”You know, you could at least do me the courtesy of thinking of something believable.” Nate was finding it hard to be serious though, too distracted by the natural beauty of the cave they were in.
”You don’t see this every day.” Mate said the words casually, like they weren’t the biggest understatement he’d ever made in his life. He had never seen anything quite like this before. It was a wonder he could keep his jaw off the floor. Instead he came up beside Adam and put a hand on his shoulder, taking in the grandeur before them. ”I think this is better than some treasure, don’t you?”
Adam waited for Nate's feet to appear before he took a step towards the water, having been a little concerned that he would get stuck. If Nate got stuck in the tunnel, Adam wouldn't be able to get out...oh, and Nate would be trapped too, of course.
But the other man's feet did appear eventually and Nate was there, with an understatement. "Yeah, I guess it is. It'd be nice if there was some treasure in there too though, hey?" Adam laughed, nudging Nate's side. Still, what was in front of them was interesting enough on it's own, and he walked forward to check it out.
The little stream looked refreshing and tempting - before he'd even thought about it, Adam was pulling off his boots. "I'm gonna put my feet in it." He said with determination, then he did.
good evening, misadventure.
farewell morality.
it's time for another risky venture,
into the depths of depravity.
There's a shadow just behind me
Shrouding every step I take
Making every promise empty
Pointing every finger at me
The tunnel and the squeeze and all the talk of corpses all felt more than worth it as Nate really looked around the place they had found. Natural beauty had been a rarity to him before he arrived here, but this blew even what he had seen in Caido already out of the water. The lights that danced around the walls of the cavern were all but magic, and Nate was utterly transfixed.
It was the nudge to his side that finally drew Nate out of his trance. He turned to smile, and elbow Adam back. ”I’ve never seen anything like before in my life. Fuck treasure man.” And it was true. If he had had a place like this he could have gone to when he was younger, maybe he wouldn’t be so fucked up now.
Trailing along behind Adam, Nate knelt, and dipped his hands into the water, upstream from where Adams feet were. He had some common sense. ”You think anyone else has ever been down here?” Nate turned to look up at the crack in the ceiling as he asked, both his hands now completely immersed in the cool flow of the stream.
"Uh..I mean, yeah, it's nice.." Adam trailed off, a little confused. His world had had plenty of developed areas, but it had also been a place of outstanding natural beauty, so much so that it had almost become boring after long enough; he had seen plenty of cave rivers and ponds, had stood at the peaks of mountains and at the shores of emerald seas. This was fine, but it was hardly remarkable.
What kind of pig sty had Nate come from?
Nate's question made him look about for evidence of others. Maybe not something as dramatic as a skeleton, but any left over supplies, bags, waste...he couldn't see anything. But the tunnel had seemed distinctly man-shaped, and this was hardly hidden... "Probably, right? It's near the surface and it wasn't hard to get to. But there's no one here now...I wonder where the stream goes." He trailed his fingers in the water, feeling the cold bite his skin.
"Didn't you have caves and stuff where you came from? I slept in so many of them in my teens I lost count."
good evening, misadventure.
farewell morality.
it's time for another risky venture,
into the depths of depravity.
