Open | Getting all parkour in here

[everysecond]

Who: Riley and ANYONE
What: Riley is getting back into the swing of things and that means roof running.
When: D460
Where: Various districts...feel free to pick one.
Rating: PG for her mouth

Riley had been out of touch for a couple of weeks. Honestly, it had sucked because it had kept her from finding away to save Ellie or going down with her. It was a fucked up situation, especially with what her girlfriend knew about what her future was like. She hated that she couldn't be there for her back home but that was kind of the price of being, well, dead.

That really did come up a lot in her mind. Here she could do things for Ellie and be there for her but in the end they'd have to part ways because Ellie lived and she died. Perhaps she should have hated her for that, hated her for all the love she got from everyone too. It would have been fair really. Though it didn't seem like it, Ellie had it going on. People loved her and cared about her. They'd always put her first. Hell, Riley put her first too.

She was jealous. Who had actually given that much of a shit about her since her parents died? Well, besides Ellie.

Not a damn person.

Today, she just needed to clear her head. Then she could go back and be all smiles and laughter for Ellie again since that was what she needed. She needed her to be awesome as fuck and she had to make sure she had her head in the game for that. Which meant she was now running along rooftops, swinging along ledges. It wasn't anything anyone had taught her to do, she'd figured it out on her own and had the guts to bother to try. Practice had made her pretty damn good at it too.

Landing on another rooftop, she took a breath of air and planted her gloved hands on her hips. It was nice being alive. It really was.

Comments

[everysecond]

Riley's response to that was to bring her bracelet up to get a quick recording of his face. It was only a couple of seconds but she got it and then she sent it to him.

"Look how red your face is!"

[bythewaves]

Oh! And he ducks his head more, mentally cursing his mother's pale skin that lets the flush show so easily.

"I cannot help that!"

He is not pouting. Totally not.

[everysecond]

"Oh my God! You're pouting!"

Riley held onto her stomach more, managing to not fall out of the chair at least.

"Fuck. Can't breathe."

[bythewaves]

"I am not!"

He is not whining either.

"Well. That is hardly my fault if you keep laughing!"

[everysecond]

Riley put her head on the table to stop looking at him because there was no way she was going to stop if she could see his face.

"You're fancy fucking elf badass soldier getting your pride butt kicked by sixteen year old human!"

See? Hilarious.

[bythewaves]

Despite himself a corner of his lips quirk up in a smile, but the betraying flush does not go.

"Even so! You keep laughing, Riley!"

[everysecond]

Not looking at him actually helped a lot and after another minute she was able to get herself back under control. Lifting her head up, she took a nice big swallow of the wine.

"Fuck, that was amazing."

[bythewaves]

It takes a while for the flush to settle, and Maglor busies himself by getting up to do the dishes.

When he returns he is more-or-less composed again himself, although his eyes are still bright with laughter.

"I would blame the wine, but you have had barely half that glass, and it is a small one!"

[everysecond]

"I'm also used to drinking strong stuff a lot."

She was small but she did have a pretty high tolerance for booze, especially the hard stuff since that was what she typically reached for and called 'the good stuff.' "I like the wine though. It's great."

[bythewaves]

He raises an amused eyebrow. Look, he brought desert - there were apple tarts baking in the oven.

"You seem young to be drinking the 'strong stuff', do they start so early now? But I am glad you enjoy it. If I ever return, I will be able to say that even in another world, Dorwinion is prized."

[everysecond]

Riley shrugged as she kept sipping at the wine. No way she was letting a drop go to waste.

"No. I just decided that I might as well try because everything had gone to shit anyway so why wait."

[bythewaves]

"Are things truly so bad in your world? Ellie has spoken little of it, but it sounds... Well. I grieve that any world might be so dark as to cause such things."

[everysecond]

"It's gone to hell. Everywhere people are starving, dying. The Infection is only getting worse and you're not even safe if you stay in the Quarantine Zone. Any sign of infection and they kill you. Assuming fights between the military and the Fireflies don't kill you first. And if you got outside? Then you have to hope you find food, clean water, shelter, and hope the Infected don't get hold of you." It was bad. It had been for years and that was the world she'd grown up in.

"They say the Infection is getting better if you listen to the QZ announcements but that's bullshit."

[bythewaves]

Maglor only listens, quietly, hands cupped around his tea.

"What is the 'Infection' of which you speak?" he asks softly. 'Bad' is probably an understatement - it reminds him of descriptions of the Bad Lands, of places under the Shadow's reach - but some of what she is speaking of is Men killing Men, and that is never a good sign.

[everysecond]

"It's a fungus that invades your brain. At first you just lose your mind and go violent. But then you start to turn mushroom-like as the infection gets worse until you're all bloated. Then...you die. When you die you release spores of the stuff out into the air for more to breathe in and get infected. So, breathe it in or get bitten by one and you're fucked," Riley explained as she gave another shrug, this time lifting her gloved hands up like 'what were you gonna do?' It was what it was.

[bythewaves]

Maglor hisses and shakes his head in dismay at her description.

"It sounds like one of the Enemy's weapons, in my own world. I am sorry, Riley - tis not a world I would wish on any."

[everysecond]

"Every world has its problems so I guess this is just the one I grew up with." Riley took a slow swallow of wine, not at all about to admit that she was one of the many who had died in that world. She had the scar from being bitten on her hand to prove it. The gloves were there for a reason.

"I just decided I would live like every second was my last."

[bythewaves]

He nods and lifts the cup in his hands in quiet salute.

"A good philosophy, even in worlds less bleak, I think. I am glad that it has not broken you."

[everysecond]

It was always so hard to hear things like that. That she wasn't broken. That she was strong. And so many other things. She knew she was just a fucked up kid who had seen and done terrible things, most of which she couldn't even talk about.

"Hey, if things are going to happen no matter what then you might as well, right?"

It was always easier to plaster a smile to her face.

[bythewaves]

Putting down the cup Maglor looks at her quietly and wonders at her smile.

"Things may, as you say happen 'no matter what', yet I cannot think there is anything wrong with seeking to change them, either, as we are doing here."

He tips his head thoughtfully. "As, perhaps, you were doing at home as well? You do not strike me as the sort to simply let things happen without acting."

[everysecond]

What was she doing back home? Rotting.

Shit that was messed up.

"You're right. I don't just sit around without acting. I don't know how to."

[bythewaves]

"Aye."

A hesitation, then.

"Herunya... will you tell me your story?"

[everysecond]

"My story?"

Riley stopped a moment and looked him over. Her story was the worst and not at all heroic like he made her sound. The things he made up about her were far better than anything that was real about her.

So, she laughed. When all else failed, it was what she did. Most people were thrown off by it. Funny how laughter could suddenly be the way of hiding.

"Oh come on. I bet your adventures are way better than mine."

[bythewaves]

Ah

Maglor shakes his head a little. "All tales have their worth - that I have lived long enough to acquire more does not make them any better, or worse" He might argue for worse, but now is not the time.

"Is it so bad then?" He says instead.

[everysecond]

So he saw right through that, huh? Riley hesitated, not actually used to that. Then she slumped against her chair and decided she wasn't drunk enough for this. Of course, she doubted this would get her piss faced but at least she could pretend it would do something. Drinking the rest, she set it down and shoved her hands in her pockets.

"So my story, huh? You want to hear how I was born into that world, how I ended up being trained to kill other humans? How I decided I wanted to join a rebel group that was more brutal? How I got Ellie into all kinds of messes and fucked over a friendship to join that group? How I went back to try and fix things and the ending is terrible?"

She looked right at him and this time there was no laughter on her face. Those were the eyes of someone who had lived through the worst life had to offer and had been hardened by it. There was no mask this time. Right then, this was the side of Riley she usually tried to keep away from everyone.