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

[greyjane]

[Yeah she's not going to mention that part. It's probably one of the reasons she's being a bit standoffish, though.]

Didn't do it for gratitude.

[That, at least, is gently said.]

You don't owe me anything.

[aeturnus]

No, look, that's—I'd have probably done the same. Maybe.

There's some things I don't want to talk about, but if you have questions, I can answer them. Not because I owe you, but because I'd like to think we were friends for that time, anyway.

[ She might want to know where that gentle, unsure and infinitely curious young man went. ]

[greyjane]

[She considers it, which says rather a lot.

Can't say she's not curious. But she has an aversion to questions of this nature - deep, personal, prying, that runs too deeply in her to be excised by the offer. The bones of everything she is has been picked over too many times by the vultures of modern media. She could never do that to another living creature, regardless of her personal feelings on them.

She also feels a little disgusted with herself, frankly, like she took advantage of the situation somehow without meaning to.]

Man's secrets are his own. I'm not looking to overturn yours.

[Her mouth twitches. Half a smile.]

Jacob's certainly easier to say than Romulus, though.

[aeturnus]

[ He can't possibly know her reasoning, but he respects the choice she makes. Offer will be on the table if she changes her mind, because it was just something that happened when Romulus was too young to know better and now Cain's too old to care as much. ]

Not a lot of secrets left to be kept.

[ He smiles back, soft, in return. ]

Yeah, I liked that about the name, too. Thankfully there's a more modern variation on my old name but it's a little too on the nose for me to reuse it.

[greyjane]

Maybe not, but you keep them just the same.

[She's not unwilling to listen - hardly that - it's only that she won't ask. Not about his past, at least. To the rest-- well.]

My door's always open, by the way. Friends and strangers alike. [Since they're both, in an oddly synergistic way.]

[aeturnus]

[ He hums for a moment. ]

Just the early days, really. Most of what came after you met me was fine enough.

[ If you skip around ten years or so. It evened out around then from apocalypse level down to stuck in a storm on the ocean. ]

Fancy a Kassurat rematch? You might have to show me the rules again.

[greyjane]

[Life's life, and it is inexorable. That, she understands.]

My pride can only take so much defeat, you might have to go easy on me.

[aeturnus]

Maybe my skills have gotten rusty in my old age. It's... been a while. [ He says with with a lot of irony, because he knows it doesn't look like it. Cain realizes she might not ask, but he generally doesn't mind people knowing and kind of hopes to just ease it in there if he can. ]

[greyjane]

[She can tell he's trying to slot something into the conversation, and it's so damned delicate it almost makes her angry.

She sighs. Gives him (and thusly, the camera) a look.]

You're immortal.

[Context clues. Plus, she did some research on Earth while he was Romulus, to try and help him with whatever difficulties may have arisen from what he didn't and couldn't possibly know. Context clues were important, and no one goes from being an illiterate slave to being a computer programmer in the span of physical time that doesn't seem to have passed for him at all.]

Or a time traveler.

[aeturnus]

Man, time traveler would have been way cooler.

[ Give him a second to consider that. Not long, though. He looks amused and maybe even a little chagrined for the look she gives him. ]

Immortal. Back then was... just before it kicked in. I didn't know.

[greyjane]

Anything else you feel I should know?

[Her tone's a bit... dry.]

[aeturnus]

Uh...

[ He pretends to think about that. ]

I can handle spicy food now?

[greyjane]

[In an absolute deadpan,]

I'm so glad.

[aeturnus]

[ Cain just gives her a wide grin, then settles back into his chair. ]

Really, though? It's been... thousands of years since then. Who I was as a kid and who I am now aren't really the same but I like to think the core of a person doesn't really change. So... unless it's too awkward, I'd like it if we could reacquaint.

[ It's an offer, but no matter how she chooses to approach this, Cain's going to keep an eye on her. Definitely secretly-adopted already. ]

[greyjane]

[Her mouth twitches upwards.]

You're trying very hard to ensure I'll still like you in the morning.

[Maybe that's what's got her hackles up. She feels like she's being pandered to instead of spoken with.]

[aeturnus]

[ That gets a brief smile from him before he kind of slouches back, one hand moving to rest alongside the phone and behind it. It's weird to be jealous of anything he had at that time in his life, aside from Remus, and this whole experience wasn't really in that time of his life, either. He still found himself very glad to know Shai despite the things he's gone through and wants to still know her.

Being so different now and possibly just not being the kind of person she'd care to know brings out an insecurity he doesn't really miss. Usually he knows better than to get into situations like this in the first place. ]

Yeah. I'll cut it out.

[greyjane]

Made quite the impression, didn't I?

[She sighs, rubs one hand over her face and presses her index finger sharply against the bone of her temple.]

Obviously, I lack the context for what thousands of years entails. I'm sure you've been through a lot. Just don't bullshit me, and we'll be fine.

[aeturnus]

Believe it or not, not a whole lot of people were very understanding about my circumstances overall.

[ He gets it, he really does. It's not easy. Shai, however, took it in stride and even took him in when his difficulties became obvious. Quite the impression doesn't really cover it. ]

All right, turning my bullshit meter down.

[greyjane]

[People like to talk. It's easier to feign outrage on someone else's behalf than it is to affect actual change. Or tell someone that if they try hard enough, they'll overcome their circumstances and life will get better.

Sometimes life doesn't get better. Sometimes you just have to live on your knees.]

Better. [She's still totally in charge here and also The Oldest somehow?? somehow.] Now, would you like something to eat?

[aeturnus]

[ It was certainly the hardest thing for Romulus to acclimate to, people telling him it was okay when he always knew that was a lie. He'd have to go back. Cain doesn't blame any of them, but it's certainly part of why he's much happier just ignoring the whole thing happened at all. ]

Yes, I would. I'd even like to help, if you'd have me.

[greyjane]

Help?

[She scoffs, lightly. He seems like he can take a joke a bit more easily than his much (much) younger self.]

Honestly, I was planning on putting my feet up while you did all the work.

[aeturnus]

[ His eyes roll while he scoffs in laughter. ]

Oh, I see how it is. Those weren't rainchecks, you know.

[greyjane]

No? Few thousand years of interest ought to do wonders for my stock options.

[Or. However that whole event worked. It's too weird to even consider. She's just glad a younger version of herself hadn't cropped up and ran around. She'd have regained her senses to a smoking crater and a mostly-dead populace.]

[aeturnus]

You know, the conversion rate isn't that great? Hear it depreciates like crazy once you add in alternate universes.

[ On the other hand, Cain can't imagine what might have happened had it gone the other way for him. How far it might have reached. Perhaps going back into his past instead was some kind of double-edged blessing. ]

[greyjane]

[She heaves a rather theatrical sigh.]

There goes my retirement plan.

[Nah, she's going to die doing this job. Something hard and bloody and it will, undoubtedly, hurt like hell. When you live in anticipation of something for so long, you sort of lose your fear of it.]