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!
07-22-2022, 08:43 PM (This post was last modified: 07-22-2022, 08:44 PM by Mateo.)
MATEO
Mateo doesn't order a Shirley Temple, but he ends up getting one anyway when his requests for anything with a higher (read: any) alcohol content are repeatedly denied. While Ever and Ronin have their little get together in a downstairs corner of the tavern, Mateo has requested that they sit on one of the upper levels, by a window, so he can watch merchants at their stalls.
"I am sorry that we were peeking," he murmurs, his gaze out the window, which is probably the only indication that he is feeling guilty. "I know it looked like Everest was leading us there, but it was only because I showed him the first time..." Kicking his heel back against the chair, he takes a long slurp of his drink.
Remi lets his son try and get away with as much as he can with their server before ordering himself a gin. He too is watching the ships, and though his gaze is far away on the smudges of white amidst the blue, he's very much listening. "Does that mean you will not do it again?" The alchemist asks conversationally and without judgement. He of all people knew you could be sorry for a thing while fully intending to do it again.
Mirroring Mateo, Remi takes a sip from his drink as well, before swirling it and holding it up to the light. 'To be honest, Molly's was the last place I thought someone like Ever would want to go.' He admits with a shrug.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
No, Mateo instantly wants to say, but he huffs out a breath and nods, albeit reluctantly. "I want to do it again, but I would feel bad about it. And I don't like my bad and good feelings to mix up too much." Yet. The key word there is yet, Mateo. Fishing out a cherry from his drink, he finally pulls his eyes away from the view to look up at his father, shrugging his shoulders.
"He walked in on his parents about to have sex and now he's really curious about all of it. I thought I could help by showing him Molly's," he explains. "He wanted to ask to watch you and Dad, so..." So I'm doing you a favour is the appropriate end to that sentence, but little does Mateo know that this particular train has left the station already downstairs.
"I started hanging out there when Ever moved to Halo. I've never been in, but the girls come out sometimes. They try out makeup on me and give me cigarettes." He's never hidden it after all, per say. He just... hasn't found reason to bring it up.
"There will come a day that you can freely go to Molly's. I think you can be patient until then." Perhaps too candid with his children, the alchemist tilts his head slightly. "It is not just the bad feelings that are a reason to stay away. You are robbing them by watching something you are not paying for." He points out.
Unlike Ronin who nearly choked on his drink, Remi simply gazes out towards the sea before lifting his eyes to the sun to burn out the images currently occurring behind them. Though he didn't feel the same way he did about Finn when he still had his memories of Isla, there was enough weirdness between them that having his near-twin's child wanting to watch him have sex absolutely made him feel a certain sort of way. "Well...I suppose you can understand his line of thinking." Remi says at last, blinking away sunspots.
It would be hypocritical of Remi to chastize Mateo for this given his own upbringing, and so he just nods. "Many think less of people who work in places like Molly's. I am glad you are seeing for yourself that there is no reason to."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Huffing out something unintelligible (it's a grumpy teenage I know and we can all hear it), Mateo eats his cherry and twirls the stem between his teeth. He hasn't the knowledge yet to know how to tie it with his tongue, or why that's a skill he should learn, but give it time.
"Well I figured that I was paying them with my face," he says, gesturing at his kohl lined eyes. Yes, he'd done that himself today, but IOUs, father. "Though I suppose there was never a formal agreement. I guess I should... I... no. I will stay away," he decides, hating it a bit.
Nodding and taking another slurp of his drink, Mateo wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "I didn't think it was a good idea, but you always say that you can't learn unless you test your hypotheses, so I was trying to let Ever do that himself." He's nothing if not Remi's son.
"The girls at Molly's are really nice. Though I think that's because they know who my parents are more than anything," he agrees with a small smile.
Remi raises his eyebrows; not because he's surprised, but because it's a bold claim for his son to think his features were so valuable. "That is probably for the best. They can easily find others to practice their skills on, and then who would teach you?"
Listening, the alchemist can't help but agree with Mateo. "If you want to learn about something, watching is a very good way of doing it. And going to a place where sex is sold and where you probably can pay just to watch, is also a good way of doing it. However—" Remi holds up a finger. "I am sure I do not need to tell you that even watching is far too hands-on a method of study for both you and Everest right now."
Tutting under his breath, Remi grins and shakes his head. "Maybe. But you are growing into a very charming boy who lets them practice their makeup skills. What isn't to like?"
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Maybe it is a bold claim, but then have you met Mateo's parents? "That is true," he says regardless, fishing out another cherry. "Am I still allowed to go there then, for makeup practice? But nothing else?" He adds that second part on quickly enough, old enough to make choices - especially bad ones, and lots of them - but young enough still to toe the line if Remi decided it was a hard stop.
Which explains why he gives an understanding nod at his father's explanation, shifting to sit cross-legged on his seat and get more comfortable. "I know," he agrees, a couple of pink smudges high in his cheeks betraying his embarrassment at being caught doing something he knows better for. "But I know that sometimes Ever does need somebody to tell him those things. And I don't want to be that for my friend. I'm not grown-up enough." As evidenced by the let's go to a brothel! method of helping.
"I suppose," he murmurs at his father's compliments, a dimple appearing in one of his cheeks as he lines up his two cherry stems like soldiers on the table. "We did get the supplies we needed as well," he adds quickly, just in case Remi thought they'd spent the entire time slacking off.
"Of course." Remi says with an immediate nod. "There are probably lots of things they can teach you that have nothing to do with sex." Or well, it all had to do with sex really—makeup, hair, cooking, perfumes—but so long as his son wasn't getting sex tips (and even then..?) gods but this was complicated. "Just be smart about it all, si?" Really, what more could a father like Remi ask of his son?
Pulling in a breath and nodding wearily, Remi takes a sip of his drink (savouring it, unlike his counterpart downstairs). "Well, I am sure Ronin will tell him as much." The alchemist chuckles. How was he to know just how poorly things were going a floor below? "That is a good thing for you to realize though. You are Ever's friend and not his parent. Sometimes when those things get confusing, even for good reasons, it can be hard on a relationship."
Nodding, Remi puts his glass down and leans forward, his expression becoming one of Serious Dad (which, given that they'd just had a sex-adjacent talk seemed surprising). "There is something I would like to speak with you about." He wouldn't dare have brought cuttings of his son's plants, but what he did have was rubbings of their various leaves along with a few sketches. These he places on the table between them. "I know what these are." He says pointing to the tines of the cactus. "And these look very much like a hybrid between lavender and dream cacti."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Si," Mateo says with a sunny smile, because of course in his mind he is always smart about the choices he makes. (It might be the folly of youth right now, but of course this is a characteristic that will follow him into adulthood). Taking an almost relieved gulp of his drink and relaxing fully into his seat, the knowledge that his father - the one downstairs - has everything in order is very welcome indeed.
"Mm," comes the boy's emphatic agreement about being Ever's friend first and foremost, only for his eyebrows to disappear under his halo of curls as Remi adopts his Serious Dad tone. Swallowing hard and pushing his drink away so he can properly concentrate, he's visibly surprised that this is about his plants, of all things.
"Ah, yes!" he says, his accent thickening in his excitement. "I got this from our trip out at Hak Etme. And someone was selling a Gilded Lily in the Silk Houses. It is self contained in its own area, and I have never touched it with my bare hands." He sounds very proud of this fact. "With the lavender hybrid, it's a lot safer." If he says so himself.
Remi listens, and it's one of those moments that, were this not his child, he'd have been just as enthusiastic as Mateo. Regrettably, he has to take a different attitude toward his dream offspring, so it's with his teeth biting the inside of his lip to keep from smirking that he nods slowly. "Mateo—" Remi's accent has thickened as well, either simply because his son's has or because of his attempt at terseness.
"You must be very careful when creating hybrids. There can be many unexpected consequences, especially in a place like Caido." You know, where it's entirely possible that one day Mateo's plants will develop sentience overnight and creep up the stairs and strangle him in his bed. "If this is going to be something you are going to do regularly, perhaps we should get you a proper place to work out of. Somewhere with locks, and storage for gloves and equipment."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Mateo obviously expects quite a bit of enthusiasm from his father, and when he doesn't receive it, his own excitement dampens considerably. "I... Well, yes. The first time I tried it created a lot of spores, and I was falling asleep in class for a week," he says with a self-deprecating laugh, his gaze dropping to the table before flicking back up to Remi.
He thinks he's very much in trouble at this point, so when the suggestion is to get him a proper workspace rather than to confiscate all of his plants and burn them, he can do little more than blink at Remi for a couple of seconds. "Like... a laboratory? For all of my more excited plants?" That sounds better than dangerous, poisonous and occasionally carnivorous plants.
If Remi's hands weren't around his glass he might have folded them across his chest. That might have been overkill though, so perhaps it's best that his gin was occupying them. "È necessario prestare attenzione." Remi says in a low voice, glancing around at the other patrons, none of whom seem to take much notice of the pair. "La botanica è molto vicina alla produzione di farmaci, è..." Pulling in a breath, Remi exhales through his teeth.
"..like sex, there are many unexpected consequences to this sort of thing." Finishing his gin, Remi leans back against his chair and this time he does fold his arms across his chest, though it's merely for comfort rather than parental anger.
"I will get you a proper lab if you promise me that you will not sell any of your...piante eccitate until you are older. Or with my help."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
This is very unfamiliar territory for Mateo, and he uncrosses his legs to tap out a quick, unsteady rhythm under the table with his feet. "Mi dispiace, papa. Stavo solo facendo quello che pensavo avresti fatto..." It doesn't follow exactly what Remi is telling him, but the boy can tell that he's in trouble - like, proper trouble - and he doesn't like it.
"I was just trying to make things that hadn't been made before. Or to make better versions of the things that I saw other people making..." He frowns. "I wasn't... it isn't about selling anything. I would do it anyway." Sounding a little sullen and defensive, he nonetheless nods to Remi, even if he isn't sure he wants a lab any more all of a sudden.
Not unless it's one he can make with his own hands.
"Yes, but you are not me." The alchemist points out. "There are those who would take advantage of a young boy, who could not do the same to me." Tapping his fingers on the table as well—they really were very alike—Remi sighs and gives his head a gentle shake.
'What if someone came to you with una sfida? To see if you could combine two plants for them? What if it just so happened the plant was poisonous, but they said they only wanted it to make some sort of paint with?" Remi shrugs as if to suggest that the request seems innocent. "And if later the plant was used to poison someone? What if someone broke into the apartment to steal the things you were working on?" Splaying his fingers, Remi lowers his head slightly as if to be more on Mateo's sightline rather than glaring down at him.
'Just because you do things for you does not always mean they will stay with you, mmm? This is why you must be careful.'
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
