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!
05-01-2021, 10:47 PM (This post was last modified: 05-01-2021, 10:48 PM by Rigby.)
i'm really not so with you anymore
Rigby was sitting on a rooftop, chucking pebbles. The goal was to hit people, extra points for hitting people, but hitting anything except ground was acceptable too. He'd been playing this game for a long time, nothing brought him more joy than a sit and hit, bullseye right in the forehead.
He'd been lazily tossing and munching on some jerky, some scraps of meat that tasted a bit too smoked to be good. He was running low on rocks so he had to make the last few count, he aimed at a tall scruffy looking guy and fired.
Adam had had plenty of 'little shit' phases growing up, but he'd never stooped so low as to purposefully throw rocks at people. He did not consider at all that someone might be taking aim as he wandered out into the world for the first time since the monsoons, keeping in the shadows of buildings and corners of streets as Ascended had to and feeling particularly grumpy about everything in the world.
Being hit in the head with a stone did not help. "What the fuck!?" Adam yelled as he rubbed his hair and glared upwards, quickly spotting the culprit - after all, who else was going to be sat on the roof top looking mischevious.
"You little fucking shit. I'm coming up there." Maybe it was everything else stressing him out, but Adam found that he was angry; heading to the wall nearest he began to try and climb it, using ledges and bricks as grips to ascend up the building; he'd had a lot of practice getting up and down places in his seedy past and intended to put it to use here.
The rock soared from his fingertips and clunked right against the man's forehead. Rigby snickered, the best part was always their faces right after, the confusion, the anger. Usually they'd look around and assume it was a sea bird of some sort, a tern or a gull dropping a rock from above. Usually if they realized it was some shitty teenager on a roof they'd flip him off and keep trucking.
This guy was pissed, which was decidedly funny, and Rigby watched with a lazy amusement as the man started to climb the wall. He kicked the last couple pebbles down before scrambling to his feet and dropping off onto the next level down, where there was a small terrace. He slid across the balcony to lean against the railing and watch the man climb from here instead.
Adam knew he had to look like a grumpy old man to the teen, but in the moment he really couldn't find it in himself to fucking care. The little shit had just put one last straw on the very bad day he'd been having (fuck, bad life, so far) and he wanted to yell at someone.
He was a quick climber, but not quick enough; by the time his hands lifted him over the lip of the roof, Adam raised his head to see an empty set of tiles; no irritating teenager. Hefting himself up and over and kneeling atop the roof he looked down and eventually cast eyes on Rigby on the balcony he'd run to. "So you're not just a little shit, you're also a wimp." He declared loudly, then began to make his way across the roof, intending to drop down much the same way Rigby had to catch him.
When the last of the tall scruffy man disappeared over the roof, Rigby turned to lean back against the railing. He sneered, glanced up to see the guy above glaring down at him. The declaration earned a shrug, eyes drifting back down to his pocket. He was definitely a wimp, but he wasn't scared of a confrontation. He'd run because it was funny, and he'd craved a bit of edgy humor.
So he didn't run anymore as Adam jumped down from the roof, instead he pulled his pack of cigarettes and matches from his pocket. He lit one and stuffed it into his mouth, then shook out the flame. The ashen match would be flicked Adam's way, followed by a cloud of smoke.
Oh, the little fuck had really done it now. Adam jumped down and was swiftly greeted with a cloud of smoke and ash to the face. Annoyingly, that was exactly the kind of shit he'd have done as a teen and it did look kind of cool. Determined to not think too hard about the similarities there, he set his jaw and reached to snatch the smoke from Rigby's lips. Usually, this would be where he'd point a gun in the kid's face (to scare, not to shoot), but he couldn't rely on that anymore.
"Start grovelling right now and I won't cut you a new arsehole." He said in his most gruff, low voice; hand going back to the belt loop at his hip that held the dagger he had still retained from death. Would he actually stab the kid? No, almost definitely not. Did he want Rigby to believe he would? Yes. To that end, Adam drew the knife and held it out between them.
It looked cool? No way, Rigby didn't even try to look cool most of the time, maybe he was going more for sleazy dealer or something. But 'cool' is also a win, it would've made him smile to know that considering it was at the other man's expense. It didn't last long, as always the dude had the audacity to snatch Rigby's cigarette. His pack was running out, luckily he had more stashed in some drawer back home.
What came out of his mouth at the man's threat was not grovelling, but a snicker. Arsehole, what a fun way to say butt. Dark eyes followed the hand to the knife at the belt, he watched the way it was handled to be held just between them. He stared for a moment, then glanced back up to Adam, "Where?" he asked, the trace of a smirk drawn at his lips.
Oh, the little fuck was smirking now. Adam pressed his lips together and frowned hard, for a moment considering just flicking the smoke back in his face and jumping down; eventually he decided to keep going, just to see if he could finally get a spark of fear to show up in the kid's annoying eyes. "How about right in the middle of your balls?"
A ballsack-butthole was enough to intimidate most people, he thought.
"If you say sorry and fuck off I'll forget about it." He offered, still not really intending to slice any part of him (though at the rate this was going, maybe a little scratch was in order). Adam was trying his best to put on his 'tough voice', growling his way through sentences in a way that made it sound like his throat was too dry.
Rigby snorted, smirk broadening then into a smile. Most thugs were ironically funny, but this one had such a way with words. The boy cocked his head, narrowed his brows, "All this cause you were too slow to not get hit in the head with a rock?" He shook his head, greasy brown curls flopping over his eyes, "Well go ahead doc, I don't have all day," came his reply, a jaunty shrug as her stared at the other. He knew he was annoying, he knew he was a real fuck head. But that was the point, push and push until they push back.
Something about Rigby's question snapped Adam back into reality; there he was, holding out a knife to a teen and threatening to cut open his balls because of a dumb prank. Yeah, he was still pissed, but this was definitely overboard. Awkwardly, he took a step back and slid the dagger back into his boot. Clearing his throat, he leaned on the railing of the balcony away from Rigby.
"Fuck. Sorry kid. I just...you don't know what kinda day people are having when you throw your little rocks at them, okay? I'm just. Not in the mood." Pushing a hand back through his hair, Adam looked up at the roof above them and tried to work out if he could jump up there, not wanting to walk through a random house to get back down. "You know a way down from here?"
