video, un: j.k. [post-butterfly effect]

[aeturnus]

[ On the screen is one Cain, also known as Romulus, commonly known in the city as Jacob Kane. He looks normal. Normal as he's ever looked, really, but the confidence that he lacked during the recent event is back in full force and he's very nonchalant about it all. He's at a flimsy-ish table with a laptop off to the side where the camera is obviously his propped up phone instead. ]

Hey! Long-time no talk, Riverview Quarantine. Just a few things. If you met me over the last week and a half or so, that was... technically me but not. You know that thing that was going on? Yeah, that. Don't worry about it. Forget about all that.

Quick catch-up for those who have (or haven't!) met me, I go by Jacob Kane nowadays. [ Not Romulus. Nope. This total 180 is completely normal considering he hardly looks any older or different at all. ] My job while I'm here is designing phone apps. I've been here for about two months now and I think this is my first actual post on the network. Anything interesting happen while I wasn't looking?

to Doom; Still good for lessons?

to Shai; Thank you. For everything you did.

to Natsume; Seen anything like our colorful friend lately?

Comments

[burntbridges]

Then I have a sword, a few knives, a viking who would kill for me and a creature capable of draining your life force. I'm sure I could find a way.

[Has she ever killed anyone? No. Has she ever won a fight? Once, against someone with no legs who was going easy on her. There are many, many problems with this plan.]

[aeturnus]

Okay, last question. You realize all of this is a matter of public record now and killing people is very definitively punishable, right?

[burntbridges]

Oh, you're no fun.

[H U F F.]

If you turn up dead, I'll be happy to be questioned. But if that happens we'll still be in a position where you're dead and I know where your body is. So I win.

[In all honesty she doesn't care much about laws around death. Killing people is just sort of frowned upon in her world, since death is mostly an inconvenience to those who can speak to the dead.]

[aeturnus]

No, look, I'll play. Would you really just bind me to be your servant?

[ It's all very fun for this guy, who knows nothing will ever happen. If this takes her focus from some other hapless idiot who pulled her ire, maybe it'll even be for the better. ]

[burntbridges]

Well, there's a wait to be done for respect, and to give you a chance to rot a bit... a cleaning process so you don't stink up the place, but yes, eventually you'd be my servant. And I might even dress you in silly things as revenge.

[You know, because the killing part is just business. Dressing him in a tuxedo with a rainbow bowtie, now that's revenge.]

[aeturnus]

Clothes? Not really going to matter, is it? I'd look horrible in anything without a good frame to hold it up.

[burntbridges]

You don't have much in the way of looks now, so I doubt it will be much of a loss.

[aeturnus]

[ Things someone has never said to a Bomer face: that. I kid, I kid.

Honestly, he just laughs and shakes his head. ]

Is that what you say to all the boys?

[burntbridges]

It seems to have worked well for me thus far.

[This is actually how she approaches boys, and she's been married before. Go figure.]

[aeturnus]

Yikes. Those poor boys. [ Beat. ] Well, actually, they probably liked it.

[burntbridges]

You don't have to rescue everyone from me, you know. Some people actually appreciate how nice my company is.

[aeturnus]

Oh, trust me, I have no intention of saving pretty much anyone from you. Maybe just the dead who deserve their rest and shouldn't be trotted out to fulfill your every whim.

[burntbridges]

You're still on about that? I still hold that he had nothing to complain about. And you took my property from me.

[aeturnus]

[ He'd usually be more neutral, still playful about this but after the week or so he's had it... falls rather serious. Unable to joke as easily. ]

People aren't property.

[burntbridges]

And bodies aren't people. Like I said before, I was only recycling what he had no use for.

[aeturnus]

No, see, almost but not quite. If you'd carved the bone and used it for weapons or jewelry or rituals or whatever, sure. Trapping a soul to their body means it's theirs, first of all, and that makes it a people when there's someone in there.

[burntbridges]

And I'm telling you that isn't what I was doing. It's the opposite of that. I'm blocking a soul from their body - jewelry made from bones is still something the dead can speak through, you know.

[As if to aid her point, a loud caw can be heard from the crow skull pin in her hair. Her crow doesn't really know what's going on, but she's annoyed and it's gotten the bird ruffled as well.]

[aeturnus]

Not naturally, though.

[ That crow does get a pause, however, and he eyes it oddly. Why. Why, Letha? ]

[burntbridges]

Yes, naturally. That's just how it works.

[She's rather indignant now, is she really being accused of forcing people to use their own corpses on their own time?]

[aeturnus]

[ He pauses to put his hand over his face. Breathe in, breathe out. Slow breaths for only a moment. ]

All right. I get that these things are different between different worlds, but I don't believe that's the case here. It certainly isn't where I'm from.

[burntbridges]

Well, maybe if you listened to me you'd know better. Necromancers deal in aiding the dead with their transition, it would be pointless to force them to stay in their bodies.

[aeturnus]

What was that about eventually being a soldier that animates the dead?

[ Oh, he was listening. ]

[burntbridges]

Well, with people who distrust necromancers for no reason, we need to use some method to keep our town safe. Risen just tend to be the most reasonable solution.

[Letha that's not... no.]

[aeturnus]

Have you ever heard of self-fulfilling prophecies?

[burntbridges]

I can't see how they relate.