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 you should definitely go and see her. You will know what I mean," Mateo informs his friend with a sagely nod; his budding hormones like the chaotic Attuned very much, even if no one has told them yet that she's only really into girls. "Hm...? I don't know. I don't suppose I have ever asked her. But then I have never kissed anyone properly, so I don't see why she'd want to kiss me."
He's still learning all about the big wide world and its complexities, but Mateo can guess that people only really like kissing people who are good at it. And how can he be good at it if he's never done it before? "What about you? Is there anyone you'd want to go on a date with, or kiss?"
'Okay. I will.' Ever replies obediently. He'll find Fiadh to be exactly as he remembered her being, if not a bit taller. Such was his interest in willow-y redheads. 'Oh. Well...maybe you could practice first.' Holding up one of his hands to try and make a mouth out of the side of his fist, Ever tilts his head, before giving it an experimental smooch.
He felt precisely nothing.
Glancing skeptically at Mateo as if his friend might have some suggestions, he immediately gives his head a shake. "No...I don't think so. All the things you're supposed to feel...like butterflies in your stomach and things like that, I never do. Anytime I think about kissing anyone I just think about how smushy lips are and all the saliva. And what do you do with your hands? And how do you breathe? And what if you haven't just brushed your teeth?" Sweating just at the thought, Ever frowns and gives his head a few more quick shakes. "I don't see what's so great about pushing your lips against someone else's."
But if the song never stopped, it wouldn't have any magic So even though it's gotta end, I'll keep singing along
"Practice on my... hand?" Mateo also makes a mouth out of his fist, but he doesn't smooch it. Instead he makes it make little mnap mnap mnap noises while moving his thumb. (Okay, the noises come from him, but whatever). "I don't want to date or kiss my hand," he decides, huffing out a breath. "Hey, maybe Fiadh will practice with me. That way we all get what we want." All being Mateo.
He can always trust Everest Hart to overthink things, and whilst in the future this will likely be met with little more than a sunny smile and a withering pat on the shoulder, right now Ever's insecurities become Mateo's, and he frowns. "I don't... I've never thought about that. I... well, I guess I'll have to find that out as well. I'm the older one, so I should be the one to do the experiment. Maybe I'll be able to explain it better when I've practiced."
'Maybe she needs the practice too.' Ever is about to say something about her practicing with someone else, but though he can't quite put his finger on why, he thinks it might upset Mateo.
"Because...you don't feel what they do, so it probably just feels exactly like this." So saying he presses his lips against his hand one more time, just to make sure. "Are you sure?" Not wanting Mateo to unduly shoulder the burden of kissing and all its complexities, Ever twitches his lips from side to side. "I suppose I could be the control? I could be around when you're practicing kissing to see if I feel anything so that we can compare?" Maybe when people kiss it's actually something else. Bugs, or...airborne toxins or something that makes them feel the way they do.
But if the song never stopped, it wouldn't have any magic So even though it's gotta end, I'll keep singing along
"Maybe. Oh, we could practice together." Beaming properly now, Mateo evidently does get all the butterflies and the things like that, and he's quite happy to consider practicing kissing with Fiadh. (How disappointed he will end up being). "I mean... I guess? But there's no..." Face? He wants to say face, but he feels like that will just make Ever draw one on his hand, and somehow Mateo feels like kissing that even less.
He could be the control, he supposes, but Mateo suddenly claps his hands together, as if he's got it. "Why don't we just watch our parents kiss? Or... wait, no, that... no." It's a swift backtrack which tells Mateo he's been hanging out with Ever a bit too much to have suggested it. "I guess we could ask them about kissing, though. They'll definitely know more than we do."
Frowning, Ever gives Mateo a, that's what I meant look (which is and will be a rare expression on the boy's face). Not really wanting to think more about Mateo and Fiadh practicing kissing with each other, on each other, Ever just shrugs his shoulders and lets his kissing-hand fall into his lap.
"Well..." Sounding skeptical, Ever purses his lips together for a moment. "..Mine don't ever really kiss where I can see them. They just kiss on their cheeks or sometimes my mom kisses my dad's shoulder?" Squinting into the distance, eventually Ever turns to Mateo. "That...I mean that can't be right, can it?" As for asking? Brightening considerably, the boy wriggles so that he can pull his notebook out from his back pocket. Next to the entry about learning about the vines here, Ever writes ask mom and dad about kissing. "That's a great idea. Maybe you can ask your dads too if being boys makes it any different." On the surface Everest couldn't think why it would, but then, he knew far too little to be making assumptions like that.
But if the song never stopped, it wouldn't have any magic So even though it's gotta end, I'll keep singing along
Missing Ever's look (and it likely won't be the last time), Mateo shakes away his not-kissing hand as well and lets out a big sigh, gazing across the length of the bridge and away into the deeper jungle. "Lucky," he says, of not really seeing his parents kiss all that much. "Mine kiss all over, I think. I don't see a lot of that, but cheeks and shoulders, definitely," he assures his friend, cementing it in his mind to ask Remi and Ronin about their kissing habits.
"Oh, good idea," he chirps, clambering to his feet now and hitching his bag of holding back over his shoulder, reaching out a hand to help Everest to his feet as well. "Shall we walk across the bridge and see where it goes? Going new places with each other is definitely part of dating." Probably.
"Oh." Ever frowns. He'd absolutely thought kissing was just for mouths (and the tops of hands, but that was mostly in fairytales). "Kissing seems really complicated." He murmurs with a small huff, suddenly realizing that there was some important distinction between kissing and kissing something better, for instance. But it couldn't just be whether or not you wanted to date the person you were kissing, because Mateo and Ever were on a date right now, but it wasn't the same thing at all.
Reaching for Mateo's hand, but not before having a minor panic attack as he wonders whether this was another instance of hand holding and whether or not that meant something in relation to their date, Ever gets to his feet and dusts of the back of his pants. "All of this is so complicated, the more I think about it." He says, walking precisely in the middle of the bridge. "Maybe you can just do all the dating and the kissing for the both of us, and I'll do all the eating of vegetables."
That seemed like a fair enough trade.
But if the song never stopped, it wouldn't have any magic So even though it's gotta end, I'll keep singing along
"I think maybe it's only complicated if we try to think about it too hard," Mateo says slowly, weaving from side to side on the bridge (as expected) and spreading his arms out to keep his balance and to watch out for any other sneaky vines. "But then maybe we just need to do more research. This is how science works, right? The more we know, the easier it will get!"
Gazing over his shoulder at his friend's offer, Mateo considers it before nodding to him. "Okay, that sounds like a good trade. I'll do all the kissing, you do all the vegetable eating." He feels like they should spit-handshake on it, but the last time he tried that he was worried Ever would never start breathing again.
And so, on their date-not-date, Mateo continues to lead the way into the unknown, with promises of further knowledge to come in the future.
