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

[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.]

[aeturnus]

Well, you can count this place as a mid-working age retirement if you want.

[ It's definitely an option, what with how off-track it puts people. ]

[greyjane]

[She snorts.]

Don't tell me that, I'm like as not to shrivel up and die of boredom.

[She's staving it off already as best she can. He probably noticed, during his stay in her apartment, that she doesn't spend a lot of time idle. She's always going off somewhere, running usually but often training in other ways.]

[aeturnus]

[ Cain's similar. He gets it. Staying still is fine as long as he's engaging his mind but really just sitting and doing... nothing? Not his style at all. ]

I find that this place always has something to check out if you look around.

[greyjane]

Oh? Going to rattle me off a list of amusements, are you?

[Go ahead, she'll wait.]

[aeturnus]

And if I told you to get your own?

[ He laughs, then shifts in his seat. ]

There's a bunch of clubs starting up about now. Specialty stores for things I've never heard of. The library here is hilariously eclectic.

[greyjane]

[Clubs are rather too cloying for her. Not her favourite way to socialize, though she'd never admit it aloud. The press of bodies reminds her too much of the Arks. Dryly,]

Not much for clubbing, and why would I need something I've never heard of?

[As to books, well. She doesn't have much time for them, and has no interest in making time. Literature isn't her bag of cats.]

I'm not being contrary, you understand, but I think I'll stick to running for the time being.

[aeturnus]

Not those kind of clubs. Like... find an interest, join up with other people who have the same interest?

[ Yeah, he probably should have specified. ]

To each their own. We'll always have board games, though.

[greyjane]

Mmm, hard pass on that as well.

[People in her space? Sharing her interests? Ew. That involves talking to humans on a level beyond the superficial, and she's not really into that.

Blandly,] Unless there's a sex club, then I might get behind it.

[Ha, ha, #peggingjoke.]

You make it all sound terribly dramatic.

[aeturnus]

[ Cain just laughs. Okay, noted. ]

Better than trying to suggest boring alternatives to boredom.

[greyjane]

Mm.

[She shrugs. It's an easy, affable gesture. Perhaps more guarded than he might remember.]

If you felt like making your way to my place, we can get started on that food, for which I'm putting my feet up.

[aeturnus]

[ He grins. ]

Need me to pick anything up on the way?

[greyjane]

[She makes a contemplative little hmm.]

Bottle of wine? If you drink that sort of thing.

[aeturnus]

Sure, I can do that. [ He gives her a contemplative look back. ] Spiced wine?

[greyjane]

[A laugh.]

Sure. Sounds like a plan.

[aeturnus]

[ He gives the camera a thumbs up and moves to turn it off. He'll be by in about twenty minutes, hope the house is presentable! ]

[greyjane]

[hdu her house is always presentable. she is Shai: eradicator of dust and detritus.

The door's unlocked, as it always is whenever she's home, and she's stuffed under the kitchen sink when he enters, by the clanking she is fixing some pipe or other beneath it.]

[aeturnus]

[ Even though the door is unlocked, he makes sure to knock on it before entering. He knocks on the kitchen countertop as well before moving to set the wine in the fridge and stepping back to tilt his head at her. ]

Hope I didn't break anything when I was here before.

[greyjane]

[She can literally pick up on the electronic impulse of your sinoatrial node, pal, she doesn't need you to knock. But she appreciates the gesture nevertheless, and sort of gestures at him with a construct wrench. Why buy tools when you can make your own, seriously?]

Wasn't you. Sink's had an issue since before I moved into the place. Reckon the gasket finally blew.

[She sounds cheerful about it, honestly. It's something to do. Azalmaud would handle it back home, but Shai's never taken issue with getting her hands dirty.]

[aeturnus]

Timely.

[ Maybe that whole effect being blown away did it. He doubts it, but it's about as likely as natural degradation in this place, so he'll go with an either/or until proven otherwise. ]

Any requests on what I make tonight?