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!
A houseplant. Something to remind you of me. Ever wasn't the sort of boy to melt, but the way his shoulders sagged with appreciation was certainly his version of collapsing against Mateo. "That is the best gift." He whispers, nearly awestruck and overcome with sudden emotion that has his fingers fidgeting in his lap. 'Oh! Absolutely we can. I think you'll really like them. Everything is nicely ordered." That won't be the part that Mateo appreciates the most of course, but it will make it easier for the pair to find the particularly deadly things that Mateo will enjoy.
'Mmmhmmm." Ever all but huffs, nodding seriously. 'Yes please.' And then, in a low voice, he adds: "I hate it here."
With flushed, dimpled cheeks, Mateo shrugs his shoulders to his friend as if to tell him that it's fine, it's okay. But honestly, to have been able to get Everest Hart to show some degree of emotion, that's more than a good sign that he's done well. "I wrote instructions so you will know exactly how to take care of it," he adds. And gods, the greenhouse does seem like it would be a great afternoon, so fuck this dragon and its stupid interruption.
Shifting to sit properly next to his friend, Mateo leans against him a bit and offers him a sad smile. "I hate it too. And I hate that you're somewhere that you hate. Have you told your parents? Maybe they would let you move back to Stormbreak. I thought you were only trying all of this out for a season or two anyway...?"
"Good." Ever chimes brightly, loving instructions. In the coming weeks and months, the boy will undoubtedly transfer his worries about his friendship with Mateo onto the plant such that should it start to wilt, he'll take it personally. We all have our quirks though, don't we?
Stiffening as Mateo leans against him but not pulling away, Ever nods. "No, and I wouldn't ever tell them. They...I dunno. It's weird, but they seem to really like it? My mom delivers medicine by dogsled and my dad has been playing his guitar more than ever and talking about starting up his own little...place." Ever doesn't really know what it is, aside from it being a No-Kids-Allowed type of thing. 'There isn't even a real school here. I've had to try and teach myself everything we would normally be learning.' He adds with a huff.
As Mateo hears his friend out, the frown on his face grows deeper and deeper, and he resists the urge to reach an arm around him only because he knows Ever doesn't like it (even if he has a feeling he'd tolerate it). "That... really sucks," he mutters. And whilst the Hart boy doesn't have any intention of telling his parents about his woes, Mateo doesn't have any such proclivities. Besides, he's pretty good at that these days - hitting parents with guilty truth, he means.
"Stormbreak isn't dangerous, it's boring," he mutters, kicking his heel back against the bed. "They've gotten rid of all the good classes. It's all physical education, trying to get us to enlist in the Dragoons. We can't go out after it gets dark and we have to be chaperoned through the Collegium. I hate it."
"Sometimes I just wish I was older, you know? And...I know how silly that sounds with a war coming, especially since Safrin is going to make sure all the kids are safe, but..." Releasing one of legs so that he could kick it jerkily out only for it to slam against the bed again, Ever frowns and glares at his carpet. "I just...I guess I'm sick of doing things I don't want to do." He admits, and though he'd never say so to anyone else, he knows Mateo will understand.
"What? But how is anyone supposed to make smart decisions if all they ever do is pushups? The brain is a muscle too, you know." He says scolding as if Mateo were the one coming up with this curriculum. 'Wait..is the brain a muscle? Or an organ? Or..both?' Distracted, he turns a puzzled stare towards his friend, is starkly reminded of how Mateo has changed and quickly looks away.
"I know. I know," Mateo agrees, as if Ever has just said all the things that have been rolling around in his head for so long. "I don't want to fight in any stupid war, but I just... how much use is it, running through an obstacle course and being told over and over that Ascended are bad? We know they are bad, we saw the Tower." He rolls his eyes and huffs out a long sigh. "Maybe you could learn to fly a skyship and I can get mine in the air, and we can just..." He wiggles his hand, as if to demonstrate them sailing away and doing whatever they like.
"It's an organ, but you can still work it out like a muscle. Learned that much in science class before they cancelled it for the HiStoRy oF StOrMbReAK." Shaking his head, he rises slowly back to his feet and runs his fingers through his curls. "Do you want to have lunch and then go out?" he asks. "Unless... dragons, obviously."
Ever nods studiously in response, before tilting his head to consider Mateo's suggestion far more seriously than his friend likely intended him to. Or, perhaps not. It wasn't like Mateo didn't know who he was talking to. "We would need to figure out a way to anchor ourselves while in the sky, and will need to account for the altitude and elements in a way normal ships don't. We would also need to schedule getting food and getting rid of waste, but..." Ever regards his friend with bright and determined eyes. "I think we can. Or...at least I don't see why we can't."
Looking a bit wounded, Ever shrugs his shoulders in a helpless gesture. "You see? I don't even know that." He whines, heartbroken at the mere thought of all the things he wasn't learning.
'Who even cares about lunch.' Ever says defiantly, only it's a token effort at best given that, as growing boys, both of them absolutely did care about lunch. "Lunch on Wednesdays is a sandwich so..we can take it with us and eat on the way to the greenhouse? If we stay in the city we'll be safe from dragons."
"And I could bring my plants too. I wonder if the altitude would affect them. Oh, I wonder if some things only grow at higher altitudes... maybe we could get hammocks, or bunk beds." Because obviously that's the stuff that's important to Mateo, not the this is how we could stay alive and how logically things would work. But that's what Ever is for, right? Already the boy is grinning, and he can't see why this is such an impossible plan either. "You will need to teach me the basics about how to fly, otherwise if you are away then I will crash the ship," he decides.
A sandwich and a stroll to the greenhouse is the best thing Mateo has heard in a very long time, the boy already grabbing his backpack again, but not before taking out a very carefully packaged box containing Ever's houseplant. "I didn't know if it would like the cold, even in the street, so I insulated it," he explains. "And I can bring all of the notes I made from class next time I visit, so you can keep caught up?"
"Oooh. That would be a really good experiment. And I doubt anyone else has studied the effects, and..." Trying to keep up with Mateo's line of thinking, Ever bobs his head accomodatingly. "Or I can sleep on the floor until we get things figured out. You know, as a god." He adds, shrugging before the colour threatens to drain from his face. "Oh...yeah..that makes sense. Or...I wonder if we could create some sort of autopilot. Or ask Frey for help. Or..Safrin?" Ever blinks, unsure what diety presided over the domain of, magical autopilot so that my best friend doesn't get us killed if I have to go pee.
Accepting the plant with no small amount of reverence, Ever pulls up a chair to place it on so that it won't be too close to the window, but still in sunlight. Sliding Mateo's instructions underneath to read for later, the Hart boy grabs a sweater before nodding eagerly. "Yes please." He chimes, before plodding down the stairs to request two sandwiches for the road.
Bundled in their coats and mittens, and with cream cheese, cucumber, and ningo sandwiches at the ready, Ever leads them toward the Greenhouse. 'Snow is one of the most boring forms of precipitation.' He complains on the way. "I think I would like to moor your boat above the jungle. And if I don't see snow for a whole year, I wouldn't complain."
"I wouldn't feel good about you having to sleep on the floor, even as a dog. Maybe we could get you a nice bed, if it came to that." A dog bed, he means. Smiling as he watches his friend with the plant, Mateo shrugs his backpack over his shoulders again and lingers by the door, waiting for Ever to lead the way. "My dads said that Frey might be best to ask about skyboats, so I guess we could ask them about an autopilot for ours as well?" he says, albeit reluctantly.
With their plans set for both present and future, the boys set off into the chill, with sandwiches and (hopefully) sans dragons. "I quite like the jungle, we could do that. As long as we go back to Stormbreak every Deepfrost to visit our memory snow brothers. Then we can leave again," he adds.
And then, with a gentle smile across to his friend, Mateo considers (and then decides against) clapping Ever on the shoulder. "I missed you," he mumbles. "I'm glad I could come and visit."
'It really doesn't matter. Everything is comfortable when I'm shifted.' Ever replies, and though this is absolutely true, he also very much doesn't want Mateo to go to any extra trouble on his account. " The nature one, right?" He clarifies, looking a touch dubious if only because of his utter skepticism when it came to Remi. "The nature one is nice. They are the one who attuned me when I was younger. I don't remember much of it, but..." He shrugs. "I wasn't cursed or anything, so."
"Snow parents." Ever corrects. "It's their existence that makes us snow brothers." It's for the best that Mateo doesn't reach out emotionally and physically at the same time. It makes it much easier for Ever to process and reply to what he's hearing. "I missed you too. I was really worried we were going to stop being friends. That's another reason I hate this war." Pursing his lower lip for a moment, Ever decides to do something utterly reckless. Something that goes in the face of many of his goals and self-principles.
"Let's promise to always be bestfriends. Even...even if the gods say that we're supposed to hate each other."
"Then there's no worry about making you even more comfortable, is there?" Mateo smiles cheekily. Later he'll reflect that Ever could probably just sleep at the end of his bed as a dog on their imaginary skyship, but for now a few squishy pillows seem fine. "Oh - of course, yeah, the nature one," Mateo says with a gentle nod. "I don't know what the other one is even for." You will in time though, kid.
Snow parents, of course. "Mi dispiace molto. We will go and visit our snow parents," he corrects himself. Nestling further beneath his scarf and grinning, he glances across at Ever, both surprised and delighted by the frankness of his response - and by the suggestion of the promise. "Absolutely," he says instantly, before the other boy can take it back.
Sticking out his mittened hand for Ever to shake, Mateo gives a grave nod. "I promise to always be bestfriends, no matter what."
"Sex." Ever supplies, both looking and sounding as if he's just said a filthy word, and indeed his cheeks have flushed red over and above the chilly-blush that was already there. "I heard some people talking about it, because there's a sauna thing here, and how they should get Frey to bless it so that it's always clean." A very specific kind of clean, apparently.
Looking at Mateo's hand without understanding at first, it's the presence of two layers of mittens that makes it easy for Ever to reach out once he realizes that his friend is doing more than just showing him his palm. "No matter what." Ever agrees, sighing with relief and not even minding if Mateo notices.
The greenhouse rises out of the snow like something from the Emerald City. Looking wonderfully warm , Ever hurries towards the double set of doors and heaves one open for his friend. 'You'll want to take your coat off, before—' But already the heat is upon them as the magical warmth makes their previously cozy coats now feel more like straightjackets.
"Oh," says Mateo, more because he's as surprised to hear the word tumble from Ever's lips as the other boy likely is to say it. And then again, "Oh. I see. Well, we definitely won't need that one for our skyboat." Laughing it off (and maybe thinking about that version of Frey more than he might have done even a year ago), it's only as Ever takes his hand and seals their promise that he brings his focus back front and centre.
A good thing, too, because as the greenhouse looms overhead, his jaw has dropped beneath his scarf, his head tilting back to try and take in everything about the place at once. "This is amazing," he blurts out, hurrying through the doors without even thinking about the heat.
And when it hits him, gods, he's trying to peel off scarf and coat and mittens as quickly as he's able, all the while trying to look at as much of the greenhouse as possible. "Incredibile," he mumbles under his breath, already setting off through a canopy of leafy plants he's never seen before. "This must feed the whole Citadel!"
