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!
Being a petty thief required more than just stealing, it was an intricate and complex network of stealing, trading, of keeping quiet but charismatic enough to barter, and stealthy enough to succeed. For example, today he'd begun with nothing, stolen a bag of spices under the cloak of longnight shadows, then traded the spices for something he could actually use; a few red apples.
He'd had a craving, all this hard work deserved a prize. The boy bit into one as he walked into the Hanged Man, avoiding the bright and thriving center in favor of leaning against a wooden beam near the back. He crossed his legs and munched away, content to observe and satiate in that moment.
In light (or lack thereof) of Longnight and the Ark being repaired, Aurelia's not got much to do but wait until Flowerbirth. So she ventured into the Hanged Man in search of a strong drink to shrug off any anxieties she has about the crew's impending departure.
She's sitting in a booth off to the side and has somehow found herself wrapped up in a card game against a friendly stranger. Whenever that irkingly familiar face shows up, she doesn't realize it. Being wrapped up in the game, her eyes are glued to the cards. Occasionally, she reaches for a glass with amber liquid in it to take a generous swig, as if it's giving her some sort of advantage and she has to have a bit more to ensure her win.
Unexpectedly, she manages her victory - and there were, indeed, stakes. Her opponent huffs in disappointment and then takes a ring right off of his own hand to place it on the table. She flashes him a grin and lifts it up triumphantly. It's a nice piece of jewelry; a gray band with waves engraved around the outside.
It's as she's lifting it up to admire it, her opponent gone and leaving her with the deck of cards, that she spots him. Her grin doesn't disappear though, as she eyes him from across the bar. In fact, it turns into a knowing smirk; something mischievous and amused lighting up her eyes. Funny that he should be eating an apple.
"Hey! Street rat!" she waves him over, tone jovial thanks to the liquid happiness, "come play a round. Drink's on me," she gestures towards the cards and eyes the bartender (who's watching) pointedly. Leaving no room for him to object, she begins shuffling the deck in preparation.
Rigby stops mid bite as she waves him over, the hair on the back of his neck rising at the familiar voice. Not of fear really, but of dread. He could walk out right now, back into the night, but if he remembered right she was partial to chasing. He switched his gaze between the shuffling cards and the other patrons, the bartender that eyed him expectantly. He took a deep, annoyed breath, and finished his crunch.
Boredly he trudged over to her table, ragged shirt hung off his shoulder as he slumped down into the chair opposite her. Dark curls hung in his face as he glared at her, then he placed the apple core on the table. He chewed at the apple skin still in his teeth, flashing her a sarcastic sharp toothed grin that absolutely screamed fuck you. He thought briefly he might be able to take advantage of the situation, win something off her while she drank away.
"What's the game princess," he drawled, in his low rumbling tone far too old for his face.
Aurelia barely watches him approach, her gaze flickering between the cards. His 'fuck you' smile does little to faze the amused smirk on her face at this point. She fully expects that he won't enjoy any of this, especially with what she has in mind, but who can refuse a free drink? That being said, she thinks this'll be quite a bit of fun.
At his question, she sucks in a breath and eagerly prattles out, "Okay, so the rules are simple and rounds are quick. Draw up to three times. Whoever gets the highest total wins the round," she's already placing the stack neatly between them, in plain view. She leans her elbows onto the table and eyes the curls in front of his eyes, "should be relatively painless, aye? No skill required." She flashes him her own 'fuck you too' grin. At this point, the bartender brings over another glass, pours a whiskey for Rigby - and another for Aurelia. She thanks them graciously.
"Let's start off with something easy..." her expression scrunches up as if thoughtful, but this is premeditated, "Alright. If I win a round, you have to answer a question. If you win... then you can ask me something."
And let the game begin! She draws her first card, smiles down at it, and waits for Rigby to take his turn. They'll go like that for three draws at most, and then they can reveal their hands. Her own hand tallies up to only fifteen.
Rigby partially listened, and partially eyed the ring that Aurelia had just won off the other guy. It was nice, might be worth something good if he could get it. So he'd play along for now, darkened gaze sweeping over the cards as they were dealt. The bartender neared with a couple glasses of whiskey, the boy took his glass and set it down. He wasn't one for drinking, he preferred to keep his wits about him.
She said the stakes, and he almost laughed at it. Information would do him no good, if that's all she wanted it was fine with him, but he wanted more, "Bullshit, I win and I get that ring," he snarked, pointing towards the item. They went ahead and started, whether or not the prizes would be further discussed. Rigby drew his cards, the fucking 2 of clubs stared innocently up at him.
Once they'd finished drawing they showed their hands, and unfortunately his cards only added up to 11, the girl's up to 15. He ran his tongue across his teeth, wondering briefly if she knew how much she pissed him off, and then he sighed, "Ask away."
02-19-2021, 03:39 PM (This post was last modified: 02-19-2021, 03:39 PM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
as if you were on fire from within
Aurelia notices that he doesn't take a drink from his glass, and frankly- that's weird. So neither does she, squinting at him suspiciously for a moment. If he thinks she's forgotten about his little stunt the last time they met, he's dead wrong - and she's far from forgiven him for it. There's no way in hell she trusts him, especially if he won't even bother to drink with her.
So when he requests the ring as part of the gamble, she picks it up from its spot on the table, holding it up to scrutinize it. "What, this old thing?" She puts it on her forefinger and grins at him. But she makes no comment on whether or not she'll agree to it, she'll simply wear it for the remainder of the game. Just to piss him off.
"Hah! I win~!" Comes the small victory cry, before she's swooping in to pick up all the cards and shuffle them again. "You'll have to have better luck than that if you want the ring," she says, rather astutely. But she eyes his face as if she's thinking really hard about what she wants to ask him. "What's your real name?"
Answer or no, she replaces the deck after a small bit of shuffling and taps it expectantly for him to start first this time. Eventually, she comes up with an eleven... What a weird coincidence!
Rigby noticed the sudden interest that the girl took in her drink, and the little devil on his shoulder cooed. Inadvertently he'd caused her a little anxiety, and it felt oh so sweet. She may have won the round but not the game, not yet, and Rigby wasn't known to play fair. If anyone here knew that it was the bartender, he'd watched the boy con his way through cards since he was far younger than this. He was fine to bide his time.
Drinks aside and questions asked, Rigby's eyes followed the ring as she flaunted it about, "Rigby," he replied plain and simple. It wasn't sensitive information, he was far better known as street rat than by his birth name anyway. He eyed her with a look that was almost interested, which was rather rare, then drew his first card. An ace, does that count as really high, or a one? In the end, his hand amounted to utter bullshit, and with his arms crossed he looked back up, awaiting the next question.
She catches his shit-brown eyes following her ring around the table every now and then. This observation causes a shit-eating, scheming little grin to form on her face.
The name comes out easier than she expects it to. "Rigby..." she lets the syllables roll over her tongue a little slower, tasting the name for the first time. "That's a nice name. Suits you better than 'street rat', I think," she offers him a less mischievous smile this time, something born of the desire to be friends.
Oh, turns out her cards beat his after all! She's pleasantly surprised but makes much less of a show about it this time, falling more comfortably into the pace of this game. She might expect to lose the next round, at least, out of sheer probability.
As for another question... well, she doesn't want to make things too personal. "How about I make a request this time?" So, instead, she picks up her glass and extends it out to cheers him, "Drink with me. C'mon, just one drink - for luck," feeling a bit bold, she takes a breath to say, "you don't always have to look at every situation like it's something to be sized up, you know. It is possible to just.. sit back and have fun." She pauses, quirking her brows, "Well, sometimes."
Again, whether he obliged her or not, she wouldn't wait too long before throwing back a swig of her own drink. The cards are reshuffled and placed back in the center of the table once more, and this time Aurelia will go first.
She comes up with a total of twelve and looks over at his cards curiously to see what he has.
The response he received regarding his name was a lot less venomous and rude than he'd expected, and somehow that was irritating. Was she trying to be nice? As if Rigby would open up and let her help or change or something? He was used to insults and snarky banter, but this almost compliment caused his brows to narrow and his body to sink further into the chair.
And then there he is, losing the second round as well. He next request isn't a question at all, she just wants him to drink with her. He eyed her suspiciously for a moment, eyes shifting to the glass and waiting there for a moment before finally lifting it up. He shook it around for a moment, inspecting the liquid like a curious child before taking a sip. Cigarettes were his favored poison, not ale, and the whiskey burned on it's way doing. Incapable of hiding the grossed out expression he let his tongue out and cleared his throat.
Then he looked back to her, coughing out, "Happy?"
The next round began and they drew their cards. Finally the numbers were adding up, and when they revealed the cards Rigby had won the round with a sum of 14. Finally he smiled, seeing the appeal of the game, and held out his hand expectantly.
She lets out a chuckle, pausing with the glass pressed close to her lips, close to being drank. "C'mon, the bartender didn't poison you - at least, not on my account," she scoffs at his suspicious expression but lets her humor die down enough to drink from her glass.
There's a moment she takes to chuckle softly at his disgusted expression, and she nods her approval, "Yes, very."
He may have won the round, but she doesn't remember agreeing to this exchange. She grins devilishly and pulls her hand back - yes, the one with the ring on it. "Hold on a second," her eyes narrow, "the deal was asking me a question if you win, and you haven't even done that yet."
Rigby gave a lanky shrug at her comment on the drink. If he'd been suspicious of an attempt on his life he definitely wouldn't have drunk any of it. He just didn't want to be drunk. As a thief he was fully aware that it was easier to steal off of the intoxicated, he just didn't want to be that sorry fuck tonight.
But for some reason he obliged her, maybe because he liked the challenge, and or maybe because for once he thought he might relax a little.
She was happy, very happy. Goddammit this was going against every instinct in his body. But he played his cards and sipped some more, recoiling from the drink and returning to it again. He won the hand and asked for his ring, deciding that this was far enough. Once he had it he had no further reason to be here, he could slip away with minimal damage having occurred. But no, he watched with the expression of a dog who'd lost his treat as she pulled the hand with the ring out of his sights.
He screwed up his nose at her words, this talk of a deal. He'd never been one for honesty or promises or any of that. If he had indeed "made a deal" he probably wasn't paying any attention, he'd planned on voiding it anyway. But since she was being so difficult and there was no easy way of snatching the thing just yet without getting that familiar knife pressed to his throat, he just glared her way and rolled his shoulders.
02-24-2021, 09:11 PM (This post was last modified: 02-24-2021, 09:14 PM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
as if you were on fire from within
She relishes every moment that he's suffering, if she's honest, and this is evident in the self-satisfied grin she has. Fuck him, she's having fun with this. Not to worry, though, she doesn't actually plan on being as big of a pussy prick as him. Just enough to make him fume a little, no big deal.
"My favorite color?" It actually startles her, even if he has little no interest in actually knowing. Not many people cared to ask such a little thing, so Aurelia didn't typically care to have an answer prepared...
There are a lot of colors in the world; there are the basic ones, the in-betweens, the mixed-up-mashing of pastels or neons or shadowy darks. Is she simple enough to just say something like 'green' or does her favor run a little deeper than that? Thoughtfully, she narrows her eyes and rests her chin on her ring hand. Her deliberation might be intentional, just to make him squirm with irritation, or maybe it's something she really hasn't ever given much thought - and this is the perfect opportunity to.
"Bright blues and dark purples, I think," she finally answers, thinking of the swath of stars that normally light the night sky. Now that she's grown accustomed to them, she's missed looking up at all their unfathomable possibilities. Universes that will never be reached again but, somehow, they can still look out and admire the mystery.
"But there's also something really appealing about red," She flashes a toothy grin, thinking of a particular red-headed boy whose hair the sunrise sets ablaze. Rather than omit to that, though, she says with a bit of a sinister edge, "like the color of blood."
Leaning back, she relaxes and pulls the ring off of her finger. Without really saying much else to prompt this, she plunks it down on his side of the table. Perhaps the most sincere and friendly she's sounded all night, with no air of confident taunting, she says, "Thanks for playing, Rigby."
His question seemed to surprise her, she took a moment to gather her bearings on what her favorite color might be. Honestly, Rigby didn't care. It was the most basic question he could ask short of her name, which he spitefully refused to commit to memory. But he let her think, toying with the hem of the apple sack, lazily looking back over his most recent hand.
Blues and purples, and then a shitty attempt at looking threatening. The color of blood, yeah he was aware of what red was. He gave her a slow unamused blink, and started to grab for his cards when she plunked the ring back on the table. Brows narrowed now he reached forwards to grab it, but hovered just over it. "That's it? My name, a drink and your favorite color and I win?" he was almost disappointed that there wasn't more of a challenge, but he snatched the shiny thing up anyway.
02-25-2021, 05:55 PM (This post was last modified: 02-25-2021, 05:55 PM by Aurelia.)
Aurelia
as if you were on fire from within
Aurelia taps her nail against her glass, smiling coyly as she watches him snatch up the ring. With a slight roll of her shoulders, she shrugs at his perplexion. Before answering, though, she downs the last of her drink.
"That is what it's like to have friends, but that's okay," she states simply, amused. "It's not because you won a single round. A ring like that is worth a better game," she suddenly barks out, but relaxes a little, leaning back in her seat, "consider it a gift."
She peers at him curiously. It's to be expected that he doesn't really know how to accept a friendly gesture. When she was his age, which wasn't too long ago, she might've reacted in the same manner. Human kindness doesn't often lend itself to those who need it most, it would seem.
