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!
// i don't wanna break but I did today guess i only have myself to blame //
Honestly, out of all the wilds, Kings End is the nicest. Nate know she should probably be partial to the jungle, with it being close to home and everything, but there’s something so peaceful about the barrows and cairns, about the wide fields that span between them.
It’s perfect for what he needs right now, actually. Home is too stormy, he’s too stormy to quite face it yet, but here it’s calm, clear, and peaceful.
Moonlight spreads across the flowery fields, bright and full. Nate fishes a diamond and a little vial out of his pocket, and finds a decently flat surface to set them on, letting them soak up the light and turning to flip off the moon for good measure. Then... it’s just waiting, isn’t it? Sitting and twiddling his thumbs until the sun starts to come up.
Fuck this is boring.
It only takes him a moment to start pacing, and a moment past that to collapse back first on the ground, a heavy sigh leaving him.
Despite the fact the other Ascended might think he’s alone, he’s not. Varus simply hadn’t wanted to let himself be known just yet. So he waits, watching curiously from within the shadows of Mourn and the graveyard that makes up the rolling hills, before he curiously sees the way Nate sets up a few things, flips off the moon, and seems to grow quite impatient.
So he supposes he’s not going to get much else out of this quiet little observation and might as well have a bit of fun after three hundred years of stasis.
He appears as if he’s just arrived, of course, a slight stumble as he kicks a rock toward the stones that mark a grave, shaking his head. “Mother fucking Mourn and it’s godsdamn hills.” Varus hisses quite audibly, announcing his presence. Because initially, he had been looking for something he’d dropped sometime three hundred years ago – it was likely it had gotten buried just like himself, but that’s beside the point.
He’d simply grown more distracted and interested in what Nate’s whole venture was.
“Hey kid, you see a silver necklace around here somewhere?” He calls out to Nate, wanting nothing more than to cross his arms but only having one made it difficult to do, so it hangs limply at his side.
// i don't wanna break but I did today guess i only have myself to blame //
Footsteps are the first sign that Nate might not be as alone as he thinks, the grumble immediately proving that thought correct. And he’d been looking forward to a long night of solitude. Not moving, except to extract his hands from behind his head and rest them over his chest, Nate let’s the stranger approach him, his one eye straining to catch a glimpse of the man before he comes too close.
Always be underestimated, that’s his motto.
”Kid?” Immediately, Nate rocks up, leaning on his elbows to point a lazy glare at this interloper. Looking the stranger up and down, noting the arm, Nate rolls his shoulders, and leans back again, trying to paint a picture of careless relaxation over his tense irritation. ”I’ve seen a couple. What’s it worth to you, old man?” Sure its immature, but it also feels fucking good to snap back, to erect some irreverent wall to sit behind.
He’d be lying if the reaction he receives to the term he’d called Nate didn’t spark some deep settled amusement, enough to glimmer in his gaze briefly before it’s gone. That was the most amusing part to him, given the fact he doesn’t look more than five, maybe ten years older than Nate and yet? Yet, Varus would be willing to bet he had centuries on him.
So yeah. Kid.
Nate snaps back with old man and Varus’ lips curl in a wonderful display of a smirk and a grimace (all for show, of course) as he takes a step closer, peering down at Nate with a raise of his dark brow. “Worth a three hundred year promise, Kid.” Is it? Absolutely not. It was just one of his favorites. Still, he can’t help but to yank the kids chain a bit.
He passes it off as he rounds to the trinkets Nate’s left out for the moon, crouching low to inspect them. “The fucks all this for?”
// i don't wanna break but I did today guess i only have myself to blame //
Three hundred years hangs in the air like it’s supposed to impress him, and Nate stubbornly refuses to let it. Stubbornly refuses to think about how it makes the kid make a little more sense, considering this fuck is hardly any older than he is.
”No shit?”{/sNate let’s mute interest flutter across his face before he sits up properly. [say}”I seen three around here. One,” the middle finger of his left hand hooks around one of the chains on his neck, dragging the compass into view, ”two,” the right finger this time, around the wide chain he’d brought with him to Caido, ”and three.” A holographic arm appears between his legs, wrist pumping in an irreverent heel off motion.
Forcing himself on his feet as the stranger comes closer, Nate narrows his eye at the other, head cocking like he’s trying to decide how agressive to be here. ”It’s shit for the Voice. What’s it matter to you?”
It hangs in the air and truthfully, Varus isn’t sure how to take it. He could be stubborn and double down on it or he could let it slide. He’s half tempted to let it slide, until of course Nate has to go and ruin it. A dark brow raises toward Nate as if to say ‘what do you think’ before the kid is droning on about the necklaces he’s seen. Two around his neck and a fucking holographic arm that appears that certainly catches the Ascended’s attention.
In a complete look of disinterest, he tears his gaze away from the kid toward the items on display. “Good for you, kid.” He half rumbles, rolling his eyes as he turns toward it to crouch, his one arm reaching up to pull at the shirt that half covers the section of his missing arm as if it might close it off from the elements a bit further when in reality it’s just something to do with his hands so he doesn’t fuck with the items.
“Looks like you’re trying to summon something or some shit.” He offers with a bark of a laugh, tilting his head up to look at Nate. “Also if it’s for the Voice then I suppose you and I have something in common.” He flashes a playful fanged grin, just for a second, before it disappears and he moves to stand – quickly – in Nate’s space, peering up at the other man. “She's gonna give you a new eye?” He asks, scanning Nate’s face, lingering quite obviously at the scar and the space where an eye should be.
// i don't wanna break but I did today guess i only have myself to blame //
Really, the only bad reaction Nate could get is no reaction, his lips twisting into an annoyed frown almost immediately when the other doesn’t react to his goading. What a fucking bore. His one good eye rolls while he stands, all the humour chased out of his tone. ”Yea well as long as it works it can look like what the fuck ever.”
”Oh do we?” The Demi-god rumbles, brows lifting as he looks Varus up and down once again. ”Never seen you around before. Welcome to the fa-fuck!” Nate doesn’t flinch back when Varus leans in, though the way the curse squeaks out of him has the same effect. His teeth clench tightly as he grabs a hold of himself again, straightening up to his full height and squaring his shoulders. ”Thats the idea. Cant have me running around with this mug.”
A rough laughs barks out of him, Nate looking away for a moment, focusing on the space where an arm should be. ”You gonna ask her for a new arm?”
He supposes that’s a fair point, that it could look like whatever they wanted it to look so long as it did the job. Perhaps it’s another bonus if it does indeed summon the Voice – the thought comes and goes with amusement before he’s shifting and moving into Nate’s space, relishing a fraction in the surprise he gives the other Ascended.
“Haven’t seen me around because I haven’t been around.” He says, flashing Nate a bright smirk. “They’re still calling it a family?” He asks, humming a laugh. He wasn’t sure how he’d fit into the family anymore, but he supposes it’s nice to know that some things hadn’t changed.
Nate straightens up to his full height and Varus remains with a casual air of indifference, his gaze lifted to scan the other Ascended. “Good. Gotta be in tip top shape, yeah?” He takes a step back, out of Nate’s space, before he’s looking down at the space where his missing arm should be, humming a laugh into the night. “Of course I am. I’m not stupid.” He flashes a grin back at Nate. “Might try for a metal one. Don’t wanna lose that one like I lost the last one.”
// i don't wanna break but I did today guess i only have myself to blame //
”Shit, there’s that mystery solved.” Sarcasm drips off his voice like venom, his question left unanswered and Nate too proud to voice it a second time. ”Shouldn't it be we? We call it a family.” Brows pinch together, Nate trying to put the pieces together quickly, and not liking the picture he comes up with. But... Aamu was old too, wasn’t he?
A huff is the only agreement Varus will get, Nate bristling. “If you weren’t stupid, you’d be fixin’ that might of yours.” Nate mutters, his shoulders dropping as his space is returned to him, though his unblinking gaze doesn’t leave Varus. ”Metal would be cool.” The admission comes along with a shrug, the doctors tongue coming out to wet his lips. ”What did you do to lose a whole arm anyways bud?”
Nate’s sarcastic comment is met with a fanged smirk of amusement. One that remains even when the question is aired, raised into the air around them as if it meant something. “Our family, then. If you’re gonna be so nitpicky about it, kid.” He passes by it quickly, still unsure how he’s about to fit into all of it, but he’d manage. He always does. Adaptable and quick, once he’s got his feet under him, and now that he’s back from his stasis and his mind can start to wrap around everything? He plans on working at it quickly.
He steps out of Nate’s space but still manages to raise a brow back at the tall fuck, hearing the mutter but deciding against responding to it. After all, there’s the idea of a metal arm blossoming in his mind and he’s absolutely planning on following through with it.
Varus walks a small half circle around Nate’s… Voice, moon, shrine thing, gaze dancing between it and the starry sky, before falling back on Nate. “Got it fucking shredded to shit in the war.” He says point blank. “Lost too much fluid, started to shut down, got fucking stuck under a shitty hedge in Queen’s Gambit.” He stops his slow vulture-like circle, when he’s rounded back at Nate – staring up at him with a hint more seriousness than before. “Woke up and would you look at that? It’s been three hundred years and we fuckin’ lost, just in time for another.” His head tilts a bit, bright blues boring into Nate. “Wessex found me and brought me back to the Grounds and Isla took it off.” He reaches over to pull the collar of his shirt down to show the precise and perfect stitches that are likely only temporary until the Voice can help him out.
// i don't wanna break but I did today guess i only have myself to blame //
An easy shrug rolls over Nate’s shoulders. If he can’t be a pedantic dick, fussing over semantics, then what was the point?
Nates gaze doesn’t move while Varus walks, focused on the moon above them, squinting against the silvery light and ignoring what he can only assume is an attempt to intimidate him. ”Its nice to know that some things haven’t changed.” He huffs, rolling his shoulders back. He bites his lip, wanting to ask about the war, about how things had gone, but... well, a missing arm doesn’t inspire confidence. It doesn’t matter anyway though, because Varus offers him the short version anyway. And he was right to not have any confidence.
”Maybe it’ll go better this time around. We’re...” He purses his lips, unable to finish that sentence. ”So you’re like Aamu then? Minus an arm.” Nate’s head cocks to the side as he leans in, examining Isla’s precise stitches. ”I bet she was real excited about that.”
Nate seems focused on the moon, which is fine to Varus. He doesn’t particularly care whether or not the kid wants to look at him as he details just how he’d come back around, how he’d gotten his gears working again after so long. He almost wonders if it’s worth agreeing with the other Ascended over how some things haven’t changed – because some things had. Some things major. Like his childhood home in the Grounds, reduced to rubble and nothing more.
Even he thinks that’s a bit too sad to say aloud. So he doesn’t. Instead, he rounds back toward Nate, visibly seeing the way that the man cuts himself off from speaking further. At least the subject of Aamu brightens Varus, gives him a crookedly fanged smirk. “Yeah. Like Aamu.” He agrees swiftly, with something softer edged in his tone as he thinks back to his now oldest friend.
“Isla had a blast. Except for when I spooked her and she hit me with my own arm.” He flashes a half smirk toward Nate before he’s stepping past the demigod to peer back down the path he’d come from. “Well, anyway, still looking for that fucking thing so I’ll leave you be… With your moon and voice things.” He shrugs, offering a one handed wave of goodbye to Nate, before he’s disappearing into the night once more.
