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!
Well, here he was again. Going to a Shrine for the right Gods this time looking for a purpose.
But there was something different about this time - Adam wasn't going for an adventure, a one off quest, something fun to do; as his fingers tightened around the offering he'd brought, he found himself hoping he could be provided with something more satisfying, something deeper. Not that he was hopeful enough to think he'd get a purpose, but with Caido lacking the system he'd learned to game back in his world, he couldn't help noticing how...lacking his life was.
No real passions, other than getting drunk, having sex and being admired. No real accomplishments. A whole life of not much, really, he had just learnt to speak it up. Adam would never admit it to anyone, but he was having a bit of a crisis because he realised he simply was not as cool as he thought.
Remembering Amalia's devotion to Safrin at her shrine in the fields, he hoped he could maybe capture some of it for himself. It would be a start, at least, a way to begin to be more engaged with the world he'd found himself in. Clutching a bundled cloth around the gift he had brought, he sat before the shrine, looking up and chewing at his lip for a moment before speaking.
"Hey...It's me, Adam. I was hoping to speak to Safrin, maybe...I brought ya something." He opened the bundle to reveal a deep blue necklace from the market wrapped around a bottle of alcohol. "I chose the bottle cos it's got those little sparkling bits kinda like stars, see?"
"A gift? For me?" The goddess purred with delight. Appearing through a velvety curtain of blackness suddenly before Adam, Safrin looked down at his offerings with unfettered delight and joy. Reaching for the bottle, the little sparkling bits instantly were filled with a luminescent light, illuminating the alcohol within.
"Shall we?" The goddess cooed, two silvery shot glasses appearing in the air beside her as she raised a speculative brow towards the accepted.
Adam grinned as Safrin's voice sounded from the shrine, glad to have done things correctly this time; especially as it seemed she liked his offering, which he had been very unsure about. It was hard to know really what it was Gods would enjoy, given as far as he knew they could basically have anything they wanted on command. As the sparkles in the bottle grew brighter he lifted it up and tilted it side to side, always one to enjoy sparkly things (it was somewhat a requirement for a fantasy thief).
"Oh, hell yeah. This is already the coolest time I've ever had at a shrine." He laughed, carefully putting the cloth and necklace down on the shrine then opening the bottle (cork pulled out with his teeth) and pouring it into the two glasses with a precision that spoke to a lot of experience. "I'm not totally sure what it is, but it smells pretty strong and kinda sweet..?"
Taking a glass and holding it out to toast, he gave Safrin a softer smile this time. "So, you feel better after the last time I saw you? You look great."
Safrin seemed to preen a bit at the compliment, raising a perfectly sculpted brow as the cork was unceremoniously pulled out between Adam's teeth. Though if she disapproved, she certainly didn't show it. "Strong and sweet, huh?" She noted with a small smirk, wondering if the similarity was intentional or mere happenstance.
"I do, don't I?" Safrin agreed before raising the glass to her nose and taking a small and seemingly dainty sniff before downing the entire thing with a satisfied sigh at the end. "Another, if you please." She purred, holding the glass out to him.
"Like all the best things are." Adam replied, knocking back his own drink with equal gusto once it was poured and toasted. It was more potent than his usual fare; he laughed as it hit the back of his throat and he squinted in surprise. "Whew, that's the stuff, huh?" He commented as he poured out a second shot for the both of them and drank his right away.
With the hit of alcohol at his mind and the relaxed atmosphere provided by sharing a drink, he felt more prepared for asking his big existential questions.
"So uh, I didn't just come here to share a drink, though I'd be pretty damn happy just to knock back some shots with the best Goddess." Ever the smooth talker he smirked to her, then looked back down as he began to speak his piece: "I was...wondering if I could talk to you about some, y'know, deep shit. About purposes and stuff. Some people go to religion for that kinda shit, so maybe I'll find some help here, y'know?"
Flattery would absolutely get the handsome accepted where he wanted to go. Farther even should his luck hold.
"Perhaps, though I am not religion the way that you perhaps found it in your world. I have no book of doctrine, no things one must do to curry favour with me. Nor am I just a figment of one's imagination, a story passed from generation to generation. I am here, sugar, unlike the gods of many." Safrin chuckled, taking another sip from her cup.
"As for purpose? Well...I suppose that all depends on what sort of life you feel like living. That said, you know you'd look marvelous as a bear..." She hummed, reaching out to touch one of the silvery scars running along his cheek. "An eagle maybe...or a snake."
"Yeah...this is all...way way way different from how it was back home." Though...how did Safrin know that? Squinting at the floor for a moment (surprised at how strong the shots had hit the back of his head, spreading a numb tingle through his mind; he'd been trying to drink less recently and he supposed it had lowered his tolerance. Gross.), he looked up with a tilted head to ask: "So...can you see how it is back in my world? Like, do you know what's going on back there? What the Gods were like there?"
As Safrin reached down to touch his scar Adam reflexively moved back a little, taking in a nervous breath. For a moment he looked up with a confused, laughing smile (he'd never been called a bear. If anything, he was more of an otter) then his mouth formed a small 'o' as he realised what she meant.
He'd never even considered being Attuned. "...Don't I have to do something special for you to give me the animal stuff? Being a snake would be kinda cool, though."
"No, I cannot see through the dimensions. But I can see into your mind." She replied, then raised a mischievous brow as if to warn him where his mind might wander having heard that. He wouldn't be the first man (or woman) to imagine having their way with the goddess sexually, violently, or in any number of other ways (she's seen herself dressed up for a slumber party once).
"Well you've already brought me this fine drink, I'd say that's enough. " Smiling sweetly, Safrin nodded her agreement. "As big of a snake as you like. One with the strength to crush men beneath your coils, or perhaps small enough to fit into a pocket, able to go where you like? One with venom enough to kill a man with one bite?"
"Oooohhh. Uh. You might not wanna look in there all the time. Gets a bit raunchy." Adam laughed and winked, though admittedly at the minute all he was thinking about was cool snakes and how quickly the buzz of the alcohol had hit him.
Thinking about what kinda snake he'd want to be was fun. "Oooh, I'd wanna be a big dark one that crushes stuff. Y'know, the ones that go real tight? ...and...wait, you'll just let me become a snake whenever I want without me having to give you anything else? Wow, that's really cool of you." Ludo: 0, Safrin: 1.
No sooner had Adam said the words, then did two snakes appear. A boa and a python, both melanistic making them much darker than they otherwise would be. They coiled and looped, writhing upwards to appraise the dark-haired man with curious and hungry eyes.f
"I do indeed know those ones." The snakes began to curl up Safrin's body, the strength of their coils sinching in her waist. But it wasn't as though gods needed to breathe, and so she didn't seem to mind. "For you? Perhaps just one more drink, but nothing more than that."
Extending a hand that was enveloped by a dark tail, Safrin reached to tangle her fingers into Adam's locks. "What say you, handsome?"
Adam gasped and watched the snakes with delight, following them with his gaze as they moved up Safrin's body. There had to be something wrong about this, some kind of catch, he thought...but Safrin really was making this into a spectacle; he'd never been able to resist a show.
He leaned into her touch, looking up at the snake approaching down her arm. With a moment's more consideration, he said: "...Yes. Yes, please. Shit, I'll get you twenty bottles of booze."
"Bottoms up then, sugar." The goddess cooed. The snake on her arm flowed into her palm, becoming a darkly frosted glass with an equally dark and smokey scented liquid inside. Something like whiskey perhaps, but far far stronger and robust. The other snake had dissolved as well into an identical glass, that Safrin held out, meaning for Adam to interlock his arm through hers so that they could drink while locked together.
Without a pause, Adam gladly took the offered glass from Safrin's hand. Was it normal, he wondered, for Attuned to transform via drinking? Maybe not, but it was exactly his style. "Cheers." He grinned, then wrapped his arm around hers as desired and knocked back the liquid in one drink, hoping to get it down quickly if it was unpleasant.
Unpleasant? Oh no. The liquid would writhe down Adam's throat like the snake he'd soon become, filling him with heat and a lightness normally only brought on by the cusp of orgasms or particularly potent drugs. The ability would sparkle into his very soul, colouring it and naming it as one of hers. Attuned. "Now darling.." The goddess would slowly slip her arm out from his to ghost her fingers across his spine as she slunk around him.
How do you feel? Only she didn't say it, but thought it to him, as his body twisted and changed.
