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!
"Thanks again for inviting me, Mis- er, Ronin, sir!" Koa corrects himself with a grin, throwing the Nova a playful salute. He's dressed for training, with his boxing wraps on and escrima sticks in a bag across his shoulder. A light tank-top and joggers complete the simple ensemble, Koa's well-defined physique already glistening in the strange island's humidity. It's a truly bizarre place, and an unlikely location for the lad to have chosen given his general insecurity around plants, but when your personal hero invites you for training?
Look, Koa would have found his way to the moon.
The Dragoon continues his trek up the beach, doing his best not to appear dubious as he inches his way around a particularly hungry-looking vine and its pile of bones. "This place sure is, um. Unique?" A curious tendril reaches for his laces; he nudges it away with the toe of his boot, slightly afraid to actually harm it lest the trees take their revenge. "Certainly a good place to practice footwork." Optimistic to the end, that's our boy.
"Any time. I've been wanting to explore this place for a while," Ronin admits with an easy grin back at Koa. Strolling beside the younger man, they look unsurprisingly similar in their attire - the only difference is that the Nova doesn't carry a bag or any weapons, but Sugar does drape herself around his shoulders to keep him cool until they start to train in earnest.
"People say it moves around," he continues regarding the island, hopping over a crimson tendril of something he feels wants to be poisonous, but when only a shooting star can take you out for good, the definitions of dangerous become a little loose. He's no fool, at least, keeping an eye out for Koa to make sure the young dragoon doesn't come to any harm.
"And that's what I thought too. Footwork and multitasking." Grinning over his shoulder, he ducks beneath a broad leaf and into the island's foliage, beckoning Koa with him. "There's nothing like a distraction to make me realise I'm not as good at something as I thought."
08-07-2023, 04:32 PM (This post was last modified: 08-07-2023, 04:33 PM by Koa.)
No better version I could pretend to be tonight
Were Pip draped on Koa's shoulders, she would do absolutely nothing to keep him cool. Luckily for him, the little dragon is currently curled up and fast asleep in the boy's bag, blissfully unaware of her surroundings or the fact that she's been given the opportunity to train with a real, flighted dragon.
"Moving islands, huh? What'll they come up with next." Big words from someone who lives in a floating city, but it's easier to judge the unfamiliar than ones own backyard. Koa follows Ronin deeper into the foliage, a little less graceful than the demigod as he tries to avoid creeping tendrils that want nothing more than to trip up his feet. A particularly rough stumble has Pip stirring and grumbling, her small head popping out of the bag on Koa's shoulder to peer dubiously at their surroundings. One creeper curls out to try and stroke her cheek; she huffs a puff of flame in response, purring in satisfaction as the plant burns to a crisp.
Koa's grin is dimmer than Ronin's; the mention of distraction has him thinking of Sohalia, and a wave of dejection crashes through the boy's sunny mind. "Yeah, well. I could definitely use some distraction," the boy murmurs cheerlessly, a dramatic sigh leaving him as he ducks under the leaves. "I haven't been feeling like I'm good at much of anything these days," he confesses wryly, looking over at Ronin with the crooked, self deprecating smile of youth which fears that each new crisis may spell the end of the world.
"Hmm? Well that's no good," Ronin says warmly, shooting a smile over his shoulder at Koa and threading through the dense foliage for a few more moments before they come upon a dappled clearing. It's humid, with wide, leafy branches spanning overhead and grass littered with small rocks, bones, vines and other nasty little obstacles.
"Do you want to talk about it?" the Nova continues, figuring this to be a perfect place for some training, and he steps out into the clearing to roll his shoulders and stretch out his limbs. They can talk and fight - that way Koa can experience the height of distraction and they can call it a lesson.
When he's ready, he beckons for the other man to come at him, both with his best shot and his hot gossip.
The clearing will do nicely, he thinks: it seems to have fewer carnivorous plants, at least. Pip claws her way out of the bag as they stop, plopping down to investigate rustling leaves and try to snack on bugs. It's muggy and uncomfortable, but not as dismally hot as the beginning of the season, and without the searing heat to melt her the little dragonling has grown more adventurous by the day.
Koa smiles gratefully at Ronin's offer, a little embarrassed to have whined at all. The boy rolls his shoulders expansively, both to shrug off the question and to warm up for the fight. "I wouldn't want to bore you," he demurs (as his masculinity requires), stretching out his hips and arms as he readies for the spar. "It's just girl stuff, y'know?" he adds, with another heavy sigh.
Which is his way of saying yes, senpai, I very much do want to talk about it.
The first set of punched comes fast, an experimental one-two set of jabs aimed at Ronin's face. It's not a fucking around attack - he wouldn't insult the Supernova by holding back.
As Pip crawls out of the bag, Sugar also decides that now would be a good time not to be around Ronin's shoulders, and she peels herself away to land atop a rock in the nearby foliage with a huff of ice. As far as audiences go, they will have no one more judgemental; Sugar will make sure of that.
"Girl trouble? You?" With an exaggerated raise of his eyebrows and a playful grin, Ronin clearly doesn't expect a man like Koa to have any trouble with girls. Or boys. Or whatever his preference. "I'm all ears."
And all fists as well, as it happens. Ronin hasn't expected the dragoon to go all-in right off the bat, such that his response is entirely instinctual. Dodging out of the way of the punches with a speed that almost seems impossible, the Nova twists and sweeps out a leg to try and get Koa on the ground - all before realising he's done it. "Oh shit-- I'm sorry."
Koa raises his arms and shoulders in an, I know, right? sort of gesture at Ronin's protest, a bashful smile rising rosy on his cheeks. "Just one girl," he clarifies, "And it's my fault, really. I thought she liked me - I mean, she did like me - but, uh. She went on a trip, and when she came back and I asked if she'd want to make it official, she told me she met someone else." His smile fades to sadness as he looks away, trying to mask the sting of rejection beneath an affectation of ease. "Let me make a real fool of myself confessing before she said anything," he adds dryly, unable to suppress the roll of his eyes.
Ronin dodges the punch - surprise, surprise - but our poor kiddo has no such luck. Maybe it's because he didn't expect it, but the Nova's leg sweep catches him entirely off-guard, sending Koa sprawling to the dirt with a yelp.
Surprise gives way to laughter as the young man rises to his elbows, gazing appreciativelyat Ronin. "Hells, your fast!" Koa exclaims, extending a hand for the Nova to pull him up. If he does, he will find Koa initially compliant - and then experience a sudden tug as the boy tries to topple the demigod, sweeping out with his tight foot even as he rolls left.
Just one girl makes it both better and worse, in Ronin's opinion, because that's just the sort of sting that suggests there are real feeling involved in Koa's girl trouble. And it turns out that he's right, the Nova smiling in apology to hear the whole sorry story. "I won't say shit happens, because I know you know that - not to mention a bunch of other platitudes. But if you want to have a drink over it, or spar some more, just let me know."
Distraction, at least, might help to heal a broken heart somewhat. And speaking of, since he's accidentally flattened the dragoon, he may as well pick him up off the ground. Which is exactly what Koa wants, as it happens. "You caught me off guard," he's saying, only or the other man to do just that a second time.
And topple Ronin his does, the demigod letting out an oof! as he connects with the dirt, forcing himself into a roll - where he promptly tries to throw some of the sand and mud at Koa's face. No one said he fought fair, right?
08-22-2023, 03:56 PM (This post was last modified: 08-22-2023, 03:57 PM by Koa.)
No better version I could pretend to be tonight
Gratitude blooms over Koa's face, a crooked smile breaking wryly through the gloom. "Honestly, it sucked, but the worst part wasn't that she turned me down. It's everything that happened after." He sighs, scrubbing his hand across his face. Truth be told, he's still not convinced he made the right choice by rejecting Sohalia's offer - but he's also still rather confused by the whole damn thing, and a little offended, if we're being frank.
But back to the fight.
Surprise and delight fill Koa as his little ploy works, Ronin toppled down to the ground by the younger Dragoon's tug. Grinning fiercely, the boy scrambles to get his feet under him - only to be immediately assaulted by a faceful of sand and mud. "Oh fuck, ew." Still crouched, Koa sputters as earth seeps between his lips, trying to scrub the dirt from his eyes and only succeeding in smearing it across his face like a toddler's warpaint.
Hands dirty and grin feral, the Dragoon shoves forward off his heels and into - he hopes - a tackle. Because while this started as a dignified boxing match, it is apparently going to end as a good ol' fashioned mud wrestle between two pretty men, and honestly? I ain't mad.
"There's more?" Ronin raises his eyebrows at that; more fool him for thinking this would be a simple case of boy meets girl, boy gets rejected by girl, boy gets over it. Then again, this is Caido, and nothing has ever been simple here since he can remember. Except, as it happens, a good old fashioned tussle between friends.
Grinning right back at Koa and shrugging his shoulders, Ronin has rolled into a crouch just as the other man comes diving at him, and it's with a string of expletives that are lost around a laugh that the Nova finds himself dived upon. By the time this is over there'll be dirt all over them and sand in places they wish sand wouldn't get, but for now, Ronin feels the same way as when he'd spar as a young soldier.
Unfortunately he's much, much more than a soldier these days, and it's without knowing his own strength that he tries to pin Koa beneath him.
Koa waves away the question in a gesture of I'll tell you after, because this is getting confusing, and let's be honest. It's the good old-fashioned homoerotic mud wrestling that's brought us here today, not a young dumbass's accidental love triangle.
His dive lands - hooray! - leaving Koa briefly flush with triumph as his arms wrap around Ronin's waist. Briefly, because as we all know Ronin is superior to Koa in every way: age, experience, skill, and strength. It doesn't take a fortune teller to predict how this will end, and yet somehow Koa is still surprised as the tables, quite literally, turn. One moment he's got the Nova in a grapple; the next he's back-down on the ground, a woof of air knocked from his lungs as Ronin pins him expertly, with all the ease of swatting a fly.
Now, Koa's a big lad, and he trains with, well, mortals. It's been a while since anyone could get the upper hand on him with quite so much ease (we don't talk about Octavius), and stubbornness and pride prevent him from accepting defeat lying down. Copper eyes glinting with determined ferocity, Koa grins up at Ronin - before grabbing a handful of dirt and sand and chucking it toward the demigod's face. Maybe it's derivative, but the move worked when Ronin did it. And hey, at least the kid is learning, right?
The kid is absolutely learning, and Ronin would be proud of him if it weren't for all the dirt in his eyes and mouth. Forced to roll off Koa - and he'll have to tell him about his love woes later, because now this is srs biznez - the demigod is forced to resort to even dirtier tactics. You know, godly ones.
And so it is that while Ronin tries to wipe his face clean, another Ronin will appear, grinning like a shithead, over Koa. Astral projections can be real assholes, don't you know? Trying to pin his fellow dragoon a second time, the projection will (playfully? maybe?) attempt to push Koa's face into the dirt.
He'd say he'd see how he liked it, but let's be real - Ronin started all this.
A maniacal grin cracks his face as Ronin sputters and rolls away, the younger man feeling quite pleased with his success. His opponent distracted, he rolls over onto hands and knees, ready to rise up and crow---
---"Suckaaphglarblrgh?!"
The word devolves as Koa is shoved back down into the ground, dirt filling his mouth and nose. Sputtering, he looks up to see Ronin grinning back down at him -- which is very confusing, considering that in his peripheral vision Koa can also see the Nova sitting astride him, not to mention feel his weight and the hands on his shoulders and head.
The young man's eyes all but bug out of his face as he whips his head between the two Ronins, unable to make what he's seeing compute. But even in the face of some straight-up godly bullshit, there's one thing every soldier can understand: when he's beat.
Instead of rage, his expression contorts into bemused admiration as Koa taps a flat hand on the ground in a universal signal of I yield. Once Ronin 2.0 releases him, the kid will bound up and launch into a series of technical questions and admiring comments, which will last until they settle in somewhere else, ready for a drink and some hot, hot goss.
