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 know.' Ever replies as he closes his notebook and hops off the bench. "But most people don't like it. Though I think there's a demigoddess who lives there." This isn't strictly relevant, but as far as Ever is aware, offering facts is the best way to make friends. That, and being generally compliant and open to just about everything.
"Uhh, how about..." Ever does his best to seem calm, but inside, staring up at the list which has been only narrowed down by 1, is terrifying. What if he picks wrong? What if he picks Mateo's second least favourite flavour? What if he picks one that they're out of and he has to make another selection? "...uhh..." Squinting at the options, he hitches in a breath. "..they all look so...good.." He lies, stalling for time.
'I would miss my parents a lot too. I think I would go with them, if they ever wanted to live anywhere else.' Mostly because Ever couldn't imagine existing on his own. Socially inept as he was, he adored his family. He planned on living with them always, if he was being honest. Why would he ever want to leave?
"My mom is a doctor and my dad works for the Order. He's their Spyglass."
My spores been growing by the day; my days been shining bright
"A demigoddess, and the Leafchange goddess used to live there. But my dads went and fetched her back to the Greatwood," Mateo agrees with a cheerful nod - clearly offering the facts in return is just as good a way to make friends. He turns to face the milkshake list as he waits for Everest to make his choice, bouncing on the balls of his feet. But it doesn't look as though anything is catching his new friend's eye, Teo giving him a playful nudge with his elbow.
"What about that one?" he suggests, helping him out a little and nodding to the day's special. "It's got peanut butter and pretzels in it." And providing the other boy isn't allergic to either, that would be fine right? (And if he is allergic, he'd definitely say something, Mateo is sure).
To hear Everest speak about his parents has him smiling warmly - it's unusual among boys of their age for someone to be so candid, and he likes it. "Oh, the Order? One of my dads is the Dragon, but... I guess you probably already knew that."
"Your dads fetched a goddess?" Ever whispers, awestruck. The most his father had ever fetched was food for dinner.
The elbow against him as Ever stutter-stepping forward, wanting to mewl something about not liking to be touched. Instead, he merely sighs inwardly and grins as widely as he can manage to the other boy, looking absolutely convincing in his agreement. "Oh my favourite. I don't know how I missed it." An absolute lie. Who wanted pretzels in their drink? And would the peanut butter and milk even mix? Nevertheless, Ever clears his throat and places their order.
Biting at the inside of his lip, not wanting to seem creepy for the things he knew (this was something Finn had cautioned him against), Ever just gives a shy nod. "Yeah but..only because he's so famous and stuff." He replies, of how it was he knew of Ronin. 'You're an accepted, right?' Ever knew he was. "Do you think you'll get a dragon one day and join the dragoons like your Dad and—" Nearly, he says sister. But that's probably too much knowledge. "—and be a soldier?"
My spores been growing by the day; my days been shining bright
"Oh, yeah... I mean. It was so the Greatwood could be better again, and so the Mathair wasn't out of place. And now I suppose they're leading the woods so... it made sense?" He smiles, not that he's sure whether it's something to smile about. Only recently is Mateo starting to discover the expanse of the shadows he lives beneath, the ones cast by his parents. And to hear something as simple as an agreement about milkshake flavours is enough to have him relaxing, letting Everest step forward to order.
Shuffling up to wait for their milkshake and offering a bright and dimpled smile to the owner of the stall which, naturally, is enough payment when his fathers are the Taliesins, he nods to Ever beside him. "Yeah, I am," he says, though the mention of dragons and Dragoons and being a soldier is enough to make him wrinkle his nose. "Nah, I want to... I was making a skyship with my dad, and I grow flowers."
Ever blinks, then blinks again. It absolutely doesn't make sense, but as Mateo smiles, Ever finds that he's smiling as well. Either the older boy is rubbing off on him, or his charisma is infectious enough that even Ever's immunity to such things is too weak to stand against it.
Kicking at a bit of rock, expecting an awkward lull while waiting for their order, Ever turns another surprised blue stare Mateo's way. "A skyship? How?" His fingers itch for his notebook as if his classmate might be able to rattle off the schematics right then and there. "And...and..flowers? Isn't there a florist right next to your house?" How do you know where he lives, Ever? Not realizing his faux pas here, Ever's mind is more confused by the need to grow flowers at all. "Is that a chore you have to do?" He suggests, wondering if it's at all like when he helps his dad cut minuscule amounts off of the edges of his notepaper so that it's all precisely the same width and length.
My spores been growing by the day; my days been shining bright
The skyship is the thing they will bond over, it seems, and Mateo is grinning ear to ear as he reaches up to accept their milkshake, snagging a pretzel from the top to munch on it and offering one out to Ever as well. "My dad got a book from the library that had blueprints in it," he explains, like it's a secret (and Remi stole the book so it kind of is). "We built it together - I just have to wait for him to come visit and we can probably finish it and take it out to make sure it works."
Buzzing with excitement, he seemingly manages to overlook the fact that the other boy knows where he lives - or where he sort of lives. "I board with the Collegium now, but I have a key to the shop!" He smiles. "It's where all my plants live. I get seeds and cuttings from the florist. And no, it's not a chore. It's fun."
'Oh, yeah, in a minute.' Ever says, tactfully (?) declining the pretzel. Nodding toward another bench they might sit on (though they could walk too, Ever would be fine with that. Whatever Mateo wanted), he listens with rapt attention. "Whoa." He breathes, clearly impressed. "Once my dad and I tried to build a birdhouse...but we didn't get around to it. We researched all the birds in this area and cross-referenced it with the likelihood of them landing in our birdhouse and which species would coexist best." He twitches his lips and shrugs. "Then it was time for dinner."
Nodding along, feeling swept away by Teo's enthusiasm and rather enjoying it (he'll feel guilty about this later, in bed, as he thinks about his day), Ever itches one of his curls away from his eye. "Chores can be fun." He points out. "Is the shop where your ship is?" Can I see it? goes unsaid, but the words colour Ever's cheeks an adorable shade of pink as he imagines a massive and grand ship somehow contained in a small two-story building.
My spores been growing by the day; my days been shining bright
Enthralled by the conversation and the milkshake, Mateo only offers an easy shrug in response to Ever's declining his offer, crunching another pretzel and meandering along with his new friend. He doesn't feel like sitting, not after having stayed after his last class to finish that homework, and so they walk through the dappled sunshine back through the streets. "A birdhouse?" In comparison to a skyship it seems small, but Mateo is no less awed by it, grinning to hear of the research that had gone into it.
"Maybe you could still build it," he suggests, taking a slurp of milkshake and offering it out to share. "And I guess so. I prefer watering plants to washing dishes though," he says with a small shrug. "Mm, not any more - it got too big. It's moored up at the Falling now. Do you want to come see it some day?"
"Yeah, one day." Though Ever's shoulders nearly hit his ears with the force of his shrug, he isn't actually that disappointed. He knows how busy his dad is. "With all this relic stuff, dad has had to do a lot of reading up. You probably see him more than me, if you stay in the Collegium." Was that weird to say? It was probably weird to say.
Reaching for the milkshake, he looks dubiously at the single straw. Taking off the lid he feigns drinking out of the side of it, but succeeds only in getting peanut butter on his cheek. "Yeah, I don't like dishes either." Both of his parents were neat freaks, and though Ever had absolutely inherited this trait as well, it didn't make cleaning any less stressful for him.
"Can I?" Nearly tripping over a root on the path and lobbing the ice cream into the oncoming crowd, Ever catches himself just in time. Beaming from ear to ear, he nods heartily. "I'd really like that. Maybe after school one day? Before homework and dinner?"
My spores been growing by the day; my days been shining bright
Mateo shakes his head easily at that, offering the other boy a warm smile. "Nah, we get told to stay away from the Order members because they're so busy. I think I've seen his office though a couple of times." The sort of stuff Everest's father does seems terribly boring to him, but he's at least polite enough not to say that out loud. Watching as he wrestles with the milkshake, Teo tilts his head. "I've not got the blight, I promise," he says through a laugh.
But talk turns to skyships and trips after school, and he nods eagerly. "Yeah, that sounds great!" he agrees. "Do you want to do homework together? If we both get done early then there'll be more time to go play out at the Falling." The prospect of this being a dangerous place for two young boys to go does not occur to him, clearly.
'Oh, that makes sense.' His father doesn't talk much about what he does at work, or if it's necessary to do so, it's usually in hushed whispers behind doors. Ever is smart enough to know that these are Adult Conversations, he just wishes his parents didn't make such a show of trying to be discrete. They were both very bad at it. "Oh, no, it isn't that, I just..." Cheeks flushing, Ever's mind whirls to try and figure out a way out of the implicit mess he's made. "I...have bad breath. And...I didn't want it on the straw." Blushing furiously now, he clumsily puts the lid back on and hands the milkshake back to Teo.
"Sure! Only...I'm not as fast at you." A thought occurs to him, as it usually does, leading EVer to quickly qualify his statement. "...not that I want to cheat off of you or anything, just that I might take a bit more time. Which is totally fine...as long as it's fine with you. Or..I could meet you after?" When was the last time he'd had a conversation this long? He can't remember, but his conversational muscles are clearly becoming fatigued from prolonged use.
My spores been growing by the day; my days been shining bright
Mateo goes from nodding to befuddled to being handed back the milkshake, and he gives it an experimental sniff before shrugging and taking another slurp. "No you don't," he says around the straw, offering a dimpled and sunny smile to his definitely-a-new-friend. And as he continues to slowly give himself brain freeze with his treat, he has the great pleasure of watching Everest try to talk his way something as simple as doing homework together.
Eventually Teo reaches out to give him a little push, like that will help to stop him from glitching out. "I can teach you all the shortcuts," he assures him. "Not cheating, just... better ways of learning," he explains. "You'll get as quick as me, then. Do you have history studies tomorrow morning? I sit in the middle by the window. You can come sit by me if you want."
Ever's lie has clearly worked if Mateo's smile is anything to go off of, and yet the boy is left feeling slightly slimy and damp in the pit of his stomach. He doesn't like lying, but he also doesn't like letting people down. It hasn't occurred to him and likely never will, that voicing his opinions didn't automatically mean he was putting someone out.
Stumbling sideways—had his shoelaces not been so neatly tied he'd likely have tripped over them—he forces a smile toward Teo. 'There are other ways of learning? Why aren't we taught those ways, then?' He wonders, his tone mystified rather than argumentative.
It doesn't bother Ever that Mateo doesn't know they're in the same class. Where others might take offence, the Hart boy is strangely comforted at going unnoticed. "Yeah I am. I sit by the door." Easy to slip in, and then out again. Right now they were learning about the early destruction of mage glass mines in Halo, which Ever cared very little about. "I think we're also in art together.." They absolutely were in art together. And Caido-Science (which was the equivalent of earth-science), and maths. "You're uhm...you're really good."
My spores been growing by the day; my days been shining bright
Quite happy to slurp away at the milkshake as they chat and head back towards the bench where Mateo had found the other boy, he can only offer a small shrug in response to his questions. "They must pick the way that most people are likely to understand. I guess they can't stop and go through it all the other ways as well - there's not enough time," he reasons. "But that doesn't mean we can't figure it out right?"
Given that Mateo's gaze is mostly out of the window during history, it's little surprise that he hasn't realised Ever is there and sits by the door. Art, though? He thinks he'd have been a little more attentive than that. "Oh, you think so...?" His cheeks flush a bit, his smile deepening his dimples. "Thanks. My Pa taught me. I want to go and visit them soon - do you want to come? You can see the woods with me."
