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!
we used to play outside when we were young & full of life & full of love
You aren't wearing underwear, either, so that makes you two of a kind, though for now the primary evidence of that fact is in how very easily your pants are tenting. One gentle flick against her clit and you obediently move your hands away, roaming back to rap around her hips, a smirk punctuated by a gasp flickering across your face. "As y'wish. 's yer night, after all," you attempt to drawl, though whatever suave notes you've put in your voice are rather diminished by your intermittent groans.
There is zero effort to stop her; on the contrary you rise your hips to help her slide her hand down your pants, head thrown back in appreciation of the not-so-gentle touch. "Where else ya plannin' on leadin' to?" you ask, your right hand moving up her side, cupping her breast and squeezing her nipple. If the roadmap is going to continue being anything like this, you're quite enthused about the destination.
”Our night,” she mumbles against his lips, almost regretting telling him to keep his hands to himself; she already misses his touch against her, nipping at his lip and shifting lower, her lips blazing a trail down his abdomen to the tent in his pants. ”Oh, I think you can guess,” Vai informs him, a dark laugh escaping her lips as her fingers hastily unfasten buttons, freeing his arousal.
It’s with a soft chuckle that she realises they’ve both had the same idea (aka deciding against underwear), and rather than soft teasing or slow build ups, Vai gets straight to work. Drawing a circle around the head of his cock with a hot tongue, the witch hums her approval, taking in as much of him as she can handle and letting her fingers squeeze around the rest. Her lips draw back up his length, her hand following in long and luxurious strokes. Not time to waste, if there’s the rest of the date to look forward to.
(Maybe even a second performance, if they’re lucky).
we used to play outside when we were young & full of life & full of love
Maybe it's selfish to allow her to carry on while you give nothing in return, but the witch has woven a spell on you that you'll be damned if you try to break. There is no reality in which you have the self-control to stop her from pulling down your pants or grabbing your cock, and once her mouth has joined the fray? Goodbye, all the blood that should be fueling your brain.
So you can't give her anything physical right now, but you can give her your full attention and obvious appreciation. "Gods, Vai, you're a fuckin' beast," you groan into the open air, not giving a shit how many fish hear you. "Gorgeous- yer mouth feels so good, too fuckin' good." Fingers coil in her hair, tightening and urging her to take you in deeper. You've been craving her since you saw her in that dress, and you know it's not going to be a long detour.
Which is fine - there will be plenty of time later for a repeat performance, one in which you fully intend to cast her as the star.
She moans around the full length of him, a mixture of appreciation and need, since she can’t really stop for a conversation. The fingers in her hair are encouragement enough, her free hand sliding along his thigh, urging his hips up until she can take in all of him at once. Only then does Vai come up for air, her fingers pumping his erection in a steadily increasing rhythm. ”Did you just call me a beast?” she whispers, sounding amused and maybe even a little turned on.
”Too good? Prove it.” She leans down again, tongue and lips wrapping back around his cock in motions that echo the ones her hand is making. A beast or a witch, there’s one thing Vai is for certain, and that’s relentless.
we used to play outside when we were young & full of life & full of love
"I did," you confirm through gasping breaths, the words a low growl in your throat as pressure and pleasure creeps down your spine. The pause in her rhythm has you squirming, your hips arcing up and your fingers tightening in the raven hair as the heat of her mouth leaves your cock quivering in the cold.
As for proving it? "As y'wish," you grin back fervently, throwing down your head as she resumes her attentions. It doesn't take much - she's been driving you wild all evening as it is, and the stress of the past weeks leave you susceptible to any sort of stimulus. And while you might normally have tried to hold out and linger on the precipice of pleasure, who are you to deny the woman who's currently sucking your cock on a magic carpet suspended over the open sea?
So you cum, hard and fast, your body shuddering as a wild moan rips its way from your chest. In the aftermath you lie there dazed, blinking as your breath steadies and the aftershocks ripple and subside. Your hands stay on her in any way they can, wanting closeness, caressing appreciatively, broad and calloused and warm. The temptation to close your eyes and surrender entirely to the delicious post-coital exhaustion is strong, but you somehow fight it off.
"Fuck, Vai," you murmur expressively, pressing your lips to any part of her you can reach. "I think I'll keep y'around."
So yeah. Vai shows her appreciation, and Zeph shows his right back; in the aftermath the witch relishes the sound of him trying to catch his breath, nibbling at his hips and reaching up to rest her hand over his as it twines through her hair. Eventually (and she’s kind enough to button him back up, too), she collapses down onto the carpet beside him, tucking herself under his arm. They’re both damp from their dip in the sea, but she barely feels the cold.
”You will? How sweet,” she all but purrs to him, an arm thrown carelessly across his chest as she closes her eyes for a moment or so. ”I don’t plan to go anywhere, lucky for you. But where’s this carpet going to go next?”
we used to play outside when we were young & full of life & full of love
Your arm curls possessively around her, as though you don't quite believe her when she says she has no intention of leaving. And honestly, part of you doesn't, is still terrified of letting her in close enough that it'll leave a scar if she's ripped away.
Which, let's be honest, it's more than a little too late for. But you can lie to yourself with the best of them. You've been doing it for years.
The carpet continues meandering over the sea towards its destination, spurred on by some magic you don't even pretend to understand. "'s goin' t'dinner," you inform her drowsily, making no effort to disentangle yourself, hand playing idly over her shoulder blades. And indeed, it isn't long before the carpet leaves the open sea behind, pulling into a secluded cove that's shielded by cliff on either side. There's a blanket already laid out, and lit candles, and even flowers, bright tropical things, the smell of ginger and gardenia fragrant in the air.
You step off of the carpet first and extend a hand to her, gentlemanly nature belied by the sparkle in your eyes, and the slight insecurity as you wait for her reaction to the scene. A firepit smolders nearby, the smell of meat wafting from it. You don't always set up dates, but when you do you do a fucking good job.
"To dinner? You really did have this all planned out, didn't you?" Vai grins to him, letting out a sigh that has all the tension bleeding out of her, and she falls quiet to enjoy the carpet's lazy journey across the waves. Lounging all over Zeph as she is, the heat between them is more than enough to keep her warm, and as their 'carriage' draws into the little secluded cove, she's almost reluctant to sit up.
But she does in the end, Vai's lips parting in quiet awe at the set-up he's arranged, and she gives his hand a gentle squeeze as she steps off the carpet beside him. "This is beautiful," she says softly, blue eyes flicking from the firepit to the picnic to the flowers, until they land right back on Zeph. "One would almost think you were gearing up for something," she says playfully, bouncing her eyebrows at him before stepping forward to kiss his cheek.
"Shall we sit by the fire and eat? Gives us an excuse to sit close and dry off." She winks.
we used to play outside when we were young & full of life & full of love
One would almost think you were gearing up for something.
Um.
Uh.
Fuck?
Suddenly a thought crashes through your thick head, and your eyes widen in alarm as you wonder, oh gods, does she think I'm gonna' propose? The dinner, the date, the flowers- it would be a perfect setting, and yet the very thought of it is laughable. You're a widower and she's still kind of married and it hasn't been that long and oh god, marriage?
You watch her bounce off, trying to school the panic off your face. "Uh... yeah. Eatin'. Yea." Have you gone a little pale? Are you sweating? Absolutely maybe. Keeping your back to her as much as possible, you fish out tongs and plates from your bag and then set about gathering the food from the coals, buttery laulau and kalua pork wrapped in foil. Each plate gets a packet of food, and you pass hers to her without quite making your eyes, face flushed from discomfort and heat.
Completely oblivious to the can of mental worms that she has just opened, Vervain heads straight to the firepit to take a seat, smiling at the wonderful smells that emanate out of it. She has no idea what the fuck half of it is, only that she has been around Zeph for long enough to know that the man can fucking cook. She has to stop from drooling too much as he passes her the plate, and were it not for her catching the look on his face, she might have just dug right in.
"Hey, are you alright?" she asks, thoroughly distracted. Perhaps he'd gotten sick from the carpet ride? She had been wondering about that, honestly. "You don't look well," she adds, setting the plate to one side and shifting to sit a bit closer so she can get a better look at him by the light of the fire.
we used to play outside when we were young & full of life & full of love
Settling quietly beside her you begin to poke at your own plate, your appetite having evaporated rather abruptly. She can't have meant marriage. There's no damn way.
And yet.
And yet.
Her question catches you off-guard, because really you thought you'd done a better job hiding it (you did not). Are you alright? Not particularly. You're freaking out over nothing, threatening to ruin a perfectly lovely date with your idiocy and fear of commitment, and yet the idea of lying to her - of having her believe something that isn't true - leaves you feeling even more sick than saying nothing, somehow. You don't look at her when the words tumble out, half mumble, half blurt. They are not the words you want to say. But they're the ones that happen nonetheless.
"Vai- I don' wanna get married again."
Smooth, Zeph. Fuckin' smooth.
Realizing how poorly you've worded this you are quick to place your food aside, running your hand through your hair. "That- I mean- Safrin's tits, this is goin' all wrong." You laugh somewhat panickedly, closing your almond eyes and taking a breath. "Look, Vai, what I'm tryin'a say is I love ya an' I wanna' be with ya' an' grow old an' all that shit, but I don'... I don' think I wanna get married. We've already done that, y'know?" You're rambling properly now, with no idea how to recover except by plowing forward. "But I don' want ya t'think I don'- or if that is somethin' ya wanted... I dunno. We could talk about it, I guess. But I don' feel like we need to. We can just, I dunno, figure it out. You'n me'n Felix."
Finally your mouth stops running, your teeth coming together with an audible click and your brain finally catches up and slams hard on the brakes. You just said.... a lot of things. A lot.
And you meant them all, but holy shit, this is not going to plan.
She thinks he's going to make some god awful joke about travel sickness. Or something about the name of the stuff that they're eating, maybe a quip about that time he persuaded her to eat a raw oyster. Or possibly even his greatest trick of all, disarming her with his sweetness and honesty just when she thinks it's safe to start to relax. And he sort of does that, Vai supposes; it's just that what he says is so comparatively out of context (to her, at least, given that marriage hasn't even entered her head) that she has to do a double take.
Her lips part to say... honestly, she doesn't actually know what at first, but Zeph beats her to the punch again, and Vai can do little more than sit in quiet awe as a lot of stuff comes tumbling out. A lot of stuff.
There's a ringing silence in the wake of Zeph's words, Vai clearing her throat awkwardly and ruffling her fingers through her damp curls. There's a definite flush to her cheeks, and her appetite has thoroughly disappeared as well. "...I never want to get married again," she says quietly. "I've done it. Twice, in fact." She shoots him a coy smile.
"But I love you too. And... we'll... yeah. We'll talk about the rest of that stuff. You sort of crammed a whole lot of really important stuff in there all at once. And I love it all, and I want it all as well. But let me just enjoy the first one for a bit, okay? Say it again?"
we used to play outside when we were young & full of life & full of love
Oh. So you may have misread this situation.
The blush that bronzes your cheeks is hot even in comparison to the fire, and her coy smile is met with your own chagrined one as the realization of just how badly you misjudged this strikes home. "Oh. Uh. Ok. That's good. I just- y'said y'thought I was gona do somethin', an'..." You trail off haplessly, shrugging thoroughly embarrassed by how awkward you've made everything. Your foot scuffs against the sand, heel digging a hole you would like very much to vanish into. And here you are not even drunk yet.
You're staring at your lap like an embarrassed schoolboy when she starts up again, and damn if you can't help the sudden smile that cuts across your face like sunshine, or the fluttering in your chest at those first few words. The rest of it? Not as important. Problems for future you. But that? The thing you've now both said for the first time in the most unplanned way possible?
It's almost shy, the way you look at her, and yet there's mischief glittering in your eyes above a face that's just barely managing to stay shy of shit-eatingly-delighted. "What, 'Safrin's tits'? Didn' know y'were so fond'a them, tho' they are pretty excellent. Y'know, in an unobtainable-slightly-terrifyin'-goddess kinda way."
"And you assumed, even though the two of us are so far beyond being lovesick teenagers that it's a distant memory, that I was waiting for you to propose?" Vai can't help the smile that brightens her words and blooms across her face; it's delight and amusement and warmth all in one. Because honestly, what he's said is better than either proposal (and that's saying something, because she was the one doing the proposing the last time it happened), and she really wishes he hadn't blurted it out so quickly, because then it would be easier to remember.
Still, he at least repeats what he said, and obviously it's about Safrin's tits, and obviously she grins and moves over to smack his arm for that - his good arm too, because Vai is a gem like that. "They are pretty excellent, but I couldn't give two fucks about them right now," she says, still smiling as she scoots close enough to rest her head gently on his shoulder.
