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 glade was nice during flowerbirth, quiet, and sweet smelling as life bloomed in the trees. Peter stepped between them, quietly as he could, taking special notice of the sprouts and mosses that abounded. Apricum walked at his heels, it’s footsteps even lighter than his own, not that it was difficult for the bony creature.
There wasn’t anything in particular he was looking for. This time last year, he had been too sick with panic and worry to enjoy the explosion of green. Though he would rather be in the Greatwood, which boasted even more variety, he was unwilling to break rules, and get himself in trouble when it was unnecessary, so here he was.
On a whim, Peter climbed a sturdy looking tree, and laid on its boughs, taking in the woods around him with an easy smile on his face. His companion stood guard near the trunk, a quiet contentment passing between them as he sat and basked.
Peter, it turns out, is not the only one in a tree.
There are a number of reasons you like being in tree.
Reason one: it makes you feel tall. You aren't exactly too terribly short, but you spend most of your time with your sister, who is basically a giant compared to you.
Reason two: most of your life is lived on the ground. You have no issue with the ground, but sometimes it's nice to get a different perspective on things, and being in a tree affords that pretty well.
Reason three: trees are very comfortable, and whoever says otherwise is objectively wrong.
So yeah, you're in a tree, and Peter's in a tree, and by your standards that pretty much makes you immediate friends. Different trees - for now, at least - but close enough that you spot him immediately as he makes his way up. He might not see you, and honestly that wouldn't be so strange: you already have a solid collection of lichen and moss and bark growing off you, and the boughs around you have somehow grown denser than they really have any right to be. Honestly, you look more tree than human yourself, all tucked away and coated in nature.
So when you call out to him, well, who could blame Peter if he thinks the trees have begun talking? Though you're certainly distinguishable if he squints, but... yeah. Not saying a lot. "Hullo! D'ya see anythin' interestin' in your tree?"
if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?
The relative peace of the trees is broken, very suddenly, by a disembodied voice. Peter's surprise is quieter than Apricums, bones and leaves rustling at the foot of the tree as the small skeleton starts, but he is still surprised enough to not respond right away. Something about answering disembodied voices in the trees seems like a bad move, by any standard.
Curiosity is stronger than fear though, so he sits up, looking around and focusing on where he thought the voice came from. "Its... its not my tree." Peter clarifies first, calling out into the woods. Then, he looks around. The whole point of getting up into the tree had been to look around, to see interesting things, and now that he's been asked, Peter finds nothing that hes seen seems interesting enough to mention. It's a problem he runs into more often than he cares to.
So instead of answering, Peter just shrugs, clearly he can be seen, so the gesture should be enough. His eyes move around the crowns of the trees again, trying to pick something out, and eventually he settles on a dense looking patch. Too dense. "What about you?"
"Oh. Well, that's true I s'pose!" Your laughter is light-hearted as it rings out through the woods, fully agreeing with the assessment that, no, trees cannot be owned.
The dense boughs shudder as you stand up suddenly, reaching for the branch above you and resting your chin upon it, the better to see the other man. His toes, still bare, rest on the bark below him, hidden behind foliage and lichen and moss, but his face is like a beacon in the greenery, honey eyes wide and warm as he looks across the way at his newfound friend. "Yeah! I saw loads of interestin' stuff! I saw some ants that were collectin' dew. I saw a cardinal, I think he has a nest nearby or somethin'. I saw some lichen that was makin' cool patterns - usnea an' peltigera cohabitatin'. An' I saw you!"
Laughing merrily you let your feet drop off the bough, dangling a moment, suspended by your arms as you begin to swing on the swaying branch, bouncing as it gives and retracts. "Who're you? I'm Kai."
if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?
Relief and triumph both run through Peter as the dense patch he's focused on shudders, and seems to stretch into a person, a head poking out of the branches. It's still a little strange, that only the face is visible, that Peter can't find any other hints of the rest of the rest of his body, but he tries to only focus on whats in front of him, and not worry, or even think, too much about the rest.
What's nice is that their ideas of interesting apparently align, though the stranger feels is clearly a little more educated than he is. Sitting up, Peter cocks his head, and offers a small, confused smile. "I um... I came out here to look at stuff... stuff like that. There isn't... or, there wasn't a lot of nice stuff, green stuff, back where I came from." He nods, like just the motion will add more sincerity to his words.
There is a little more hesitation as he watches the body finally come into view, joined with the head and swinging from a branch. "Kai. I'm Peter." He stands, then drops down, onto a lower bough, closer to the ground. "How... how long were you uh... up in the tree?"
His body language and tone suggest a certain level of hesitant fear, much like an animal you might try to study in the woods. That's okay. You're used to easing animals into some level of trust (though the scars on your arms clearly indicate that this hasn't always worked out in your favor), so you smile non-threateningly, carefully keeping your teeth behind your lips. "I don't think I would like livin' in a place like that. I like green stuff." You nod safely to confirm your statement.
Peter drops lower, indicating that he's considering leaving, and you abruptly stop swinging. Instead you lower yourself as well, trying to stay at his level in the trees and failing because, well, they're trees. They're not exactly designed to have boughs at the same elevation. So you stay on your branch, squatting like a frog. "Hullo, Peter!" Your voice is bright and warm as always.
How long were you in the tree? That... Is a good question, given that you have almost no grasp of time. "Uh... I dunno," you admit abashedly, your cheeks dimpling as you laugh. "I was there for the time it took a spider to spin a web. See?" You point at the aforementioned web which extends between two offshoots of the branch above you, a fat and quite self-satisfied spider squarely in the middle of it.
if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?
The smile that's offered is strange, in a way Peter isn't sure he can put his finger on, but he returns it hesitantly, the slight curve of his lips not reaching anything else on his face. "I didn't like it. Not... not just because of the uh... the no green." Honestly, he had never really thought about the lack of plants, not until he'd come somewhere with so much life. The fact that he considered what existed in the Hollowed Grounds abundant probably spoke volumes to what he'd come from.
As he drops, the tree boy, Kai, drops with him, stopping Peter on the branch. He licks his lips and stares out into the other tree, wondering what exactly the angle was here. Wondering if he should feel in danger. But, he doesn't, and can't really find a reason to, so Peter settles again, feet planted firmly on the branch. "Hello." Below, Apricum rises, and moves to stand directly below him, setting up a quick escape, or at least a distraction, if he really needs it.
Peter's smile grows a little more genuine and warm in response to the uncertainty, feeling a little bit of kinship with Kai. If the other hadn't shown up, he would probably have spent hours perched in the branches, and longer still in the woodlands. "You... just watched the spider? The whole time?" Peter has to squint to see the bulbous bug, the silken strands all but invisible to him.
You follow him down into the lower branches, trying (and failing) to seem as nonthreatening as possible as you settle down onto your new perch. "How come y'didn't like it?" You frown a little, feeling sad that he would have been from a place he did not love- but then you brighten again. "But you like it here, yeah? 'Cus it's green? Did anythin' change about you when you came here?"
You might have jumped into an explanation of how you didn't just watch a spider the whole time but it certainly was part of your observation because spiders are incredible architects and everyone should admire them and the structures they create and the strength of their webs and their adaptations that allow them to overcome prey significantly larger than them-
- but you don't explain any of that, because you are suddenly, deeply, irrevocably distracted by the most amazing thing you have ever seen in your life.
Brown eyes wide as saucers you stare at the creature on the ground, exhaling a gasp of pure awe and amazement at the dark, skeletal, incredible thing. "Is that... a luxere? Made'a nuthin' but bones? It's beautiful."
if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?
How come he didn’t like it? It would be be easier to list the reasons he had liked his old world, the list so short he could count it on both hands. But Peter wasn’t bold enough to respond quite so sassily to the strangers (and boy did Kai put the strange in stranger) question. Instead, he just shrugged, and nodded along to the provided answer. ”The green is nice. I like the... the people too.” The second question confuses him somewhat, his head cocking to the side before he answered.
”I don’t really... my nano... uh, my magic was... different, but not... not by a lot, I guess.” Things have changed since he came through, but that wasn’t the question Peter had been asked, and he wasn’t going out of his way to volunteer anything he wasn’t asked. It just felt safer.
All of Peters assumptions and impressions of the tree boy are blown out the window when the other gasps, the sound nearly making Peter flinch, and coos over his companion. Most people had reacted with either a quiet discomfort, or outright fear, so the exuberance brought a proper smile to Peters lips, his shoulder finally relaxing. ”That’s Apricum.” At the sound, or maybe the feeling, of its name the skeletal creature stretches out, showing itself off to its admirer. ”You’re right too though. And thank you.”
"Oh, you have magic? You're an abandoned?" This interests you mostly as another thing to note about Peter; you do not feel any particular biases toward or against any of the races. Perched on your branch, you regard the older man curiously. "What's different about it now? D'ya like it more? Do you feel different?"
The bone luxere is named Apricum, a very nice name for a very nice creature. Without much thought you drop down further, landing on the ground with a solid whump and settling into a squat. Brown eyes never leave the luxere, and the smile on your face is bright with childlike wonder. Extending a hand toward Apricum you do not even try to hide your delight. "I've never seen anythin' like you, I think! You're so beautiful- how're you standin'? You must be kept together with magic- d'ya even count as being alive if you don't have any organs or a nervous system?" So many laws of nature defied, and you adore it even more for that.
if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?
”Yes, I have... I have magic.” The question comes so quickly Peter can’t help but answer it, some part of him deeply satisfied to be asked questions he has the answers to. ”And... I am abandoned, I guess.” The way he says it gives more weight to the word than a simple declaration of race, but, unless it’s asked after, Peter isn’t going to be volunteering anymore information on that particular tangle.
The rest of the questions require a touch more thought, though the answers also come fairly easily, in order. ”It’s much more... more like me now, not... not something put into me. So... I do like it more, now. But... it doesn’t feel different uh... all the time. Just when I use it.” There. Simple answers to easy questions, and they do a lot to help Peter warm up to the strange young man (the irony of him thinking someone strange is not lost on him).
As Kaimena drops to the ground, Peter sinks down lower as well, though he never actually leaves the tree, preferring to watch the man with cautious eyes from above. Apricum, for its part, extends towards the offered hand, it’s silent, eyeless gaze the only answer to the excited questions. ”Does it... does it have to be alive? Can’t it just... be?” Peter called down. He had not put much thought into the details of his companions existence, he had just accepted it, along the with current of awareness in his mind that tied him to Apricum.
"Was your other magic not you?" This is a curious thought, and so of course you have to ask about it because asking questions is kind of your whole thing. You don't really care that much about the political distinctions between the races; you are far more interested in what makes people inherently different, and inherently the same, and how to help them bloom in the best way they can.
Peter does not seem to bloom particularly well, but maybe he just needs a little time. Or some slightly different light.
Does it have to be alive. That's an interesting question, and one that you don't have any easy answer to, besides a shrug. "I guess not," you allow without much protest, your fingers pressing gently onto the luxere's - Apricum's - firm nose. "I wonder if you can sustain life, though? If there's nutrients in ya to keep something alive..."
And without really thinking you hold yourself still. Unless Peter or the luxere interrupt you you will allow yourself to keep from moving long enough to cause a pocket of red-cap mushrooms to grow from Apricum's sternum, brightly colored and merry as they peak out from between its ribs.
if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?
Peter opens his mouth to immediately say no, it wasn’t me before he pauses, and slowly closes his mouth again. Saying it like that simplified it a lot more than he was really comfortable with, especially since he knew it wouldn’t be the end of the questions. ”I was uh... sensitive, or... receptive to uh... the magic stuff in my world. But... I had a lot of it um... put into me? So... it was like magic, but not... not me.” The magic he had here felt more natural than it ever had before, felt like less of a infection and more like an extension.
Usually Peter would be far more guarded about his past, the things he’d gone through, but something about Kai was easy to talk to, easy to explain things to. Or maybe it was just him, maturing and getting better at dealing with his own shit. Or, most likely, it was a little of both.
The question Kai asked was a little bit beyond Peters knowledge, though it didn’t seem to really be directed at him. Apricum pressed up against the gentle touch, nosing to the side of Kai’s finger as if asking for a more thorough pet, though it pauses as it feels the blooming between its ribs, and stares at Kai with empty sockets. It is the first inkling Peter gets that something is happening, and he drops out of the tree to crouch beside his companion, watching. For a single terrible moment, he thinks the red is blood, thinks that somehow, the bones are growing flesh once more, but the bulbous caps of mushrooms make themselves clear, and he lets out a breath.
The red is a bold statement between the stark bleached bones, and Peter reaches out to run his finger along Apricums ribs, eyes wide. ”What did... how did you... you did do that, didn’t you?” The questions drop of his tongue quickly, strangling each other as his mind catches up to what exactly he’s looking at, what he saw.
Peter's outburst interrupts you before more than a couple mushrooms can grow, causing you to blink and look up at the man. He's on the ground now, next to the luxere, surprisingly close to you given his prior distance. What an unexpected turn of events.
It takes you a moment to realize he's asking about the mushrooms. When you do you drop your hand, letting it fall away from Apricum. Sitting back on your heels, you bend over to peer at the little fungi that have sprouted up between the undead creature's ribs. "I didn't do it- well. I kinda did. Things grow around me a lot, but only if they can. An' dead tissue is usually a real good foundation for fungal growth."
Scooting over to improve your view, you continue your inspection of the skeleton. "So it can sustain life an' growth, despite maybe not bein' alive itself. That's fascinatin'. You're a fascinatin' thing, Apricum." The tone of your voice indicates clearly your delight in this assessment; your voice is practically electric with wonder.
if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?
