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

Entry tags:

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

[ 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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Cain closes his eyes briefly, head tipping to the side and clearly steeling himself. He doesn't want to talk about this but it's a first time occurrence for people back home to meet anyone with such unique issues (guilt that spans eras) so he's willing to give Tony a brief period. This is probably a mistake. ]

It's a weight well-earned. There's two things people undoubtedly know about us. One: Romulus founded Rome. Two: Romulus killed Remus. Cain killed Abel. I killed my brother. People like me don't get to feel better about that.

[ They shouldn't, and Cain won't. It's disrespectful to everything Abel's gone through because he was just too scared to say anything, too scared to do something about the time he knew was coming. Remus's death can only fall on his own head. ]

[ most definitely a mistake. Tony likes helping people, that is basically what he is always doing; if he isn't helping others then he really shouldn't be allowed to exist, that is the way his mind works okay. so when Jacob (Romulus, Cain, what?) gives him that inch, you bet Tony is taking a proverbial mile.

or ten.

there is a beat where he is quiet, something haunted barely there in his eyes as he watches Jacob. several emotions flicker through his gaze, but not one of them is judgement or disgust. ]

Cain and Abel too, huh? Aren't you a man of literal legend. I suppose the weight you bear you are sure you deserve too, huh.

[ Tony isn't so sure. the man he met and the man he sees before him are too-- good to have earned that guilt with an actual killing blow. he wonders how much of it is like his own guilt; memories of things he could have changed but didn't.]

Not actually Cain and Abel, but close enough.

[ That much he'll share. He's not that old, and it isn't vanity that leads him to correct Tony, but perhaps the idea that if he had another brother it's somehow less for doing it twice. Just the once, the most important, the thing that was really the fall of Rome before it even came to be. ]

Look, I'm sure you feel pretty insightful and ready to share but how about you deal with your own issues first. Like Rhodey.

[ It's a guess, a wild stab, but not an uneducated one. There's a target in the dark there somewhere. ]

Someone else holds that tale on their shoulders then?

[ correct him all you want, that makes him think more of you if only because he feels like there is far less intent to kill in one story over the other. inaction is a choice, yes, but considering so much, Tony isn't sure there was a choice to be made.

and Tony has a great deal to say, if only because he has decided in this short time that he likes Jacob, no matter what, but it stills when he throws Rhodey into the mix.

catching his tongue against his teeth, there is a hiss of breath before he rubs his face.]

Yeah, that is sore spot for me too, well done. But I at least went to fucking therapy for that shit, at least I started to before I apparently died, but whatever right? At least I was willing to talk about it and not let the ghost of him drown me.

Guess so. Legacy's about the same wherever you go.

[ There's a lot Cain could say to that, to argue or to even just turn the phone off and go do something else while he cools off and considers blacklisting Tony for a while. This isn't the conversation he wants to have. But... there's something to that, something he will say because it doesn't sit right. People shouldn't know when they will die, but it seems wrong not to let someone know that they're still alive.

His statement is neither brushing off nor in denial, because he's seen for a fact that there's still plenty of time for this annoying, pushy man. ] You didn't die, Tony.

[ there is a lot that he wants to talk about, ranging from telling Jacob to fuck off, to telling him he didn't kill Rhodey, that was in fact the title that went to the same person that killed him

apparently.

but there is way too much that seems to be tucked behind those words that are spoken. too much honest to god truth. it makes Tony pause, mouth open, to raise and eyebrow at Jacob.]

You seem terribly sure of that for someone who has no idea what I am talking about. But I have it on pretty good authority that I died, not that I often call Doom good authority, but I am dead which is why he has my Iron Man armour.

I've got a thing called Deathsight, lets me see how much time people have left in their lives. You're not about to die. Can't say more than that, but death isn't in the cards yet.

[ Tony knows Doom? Victor has Tony's armor back home? There's a lot he doesn't understand without more context but he'll keep that in mind for later. They've shifted subjects and he's going to take that and run with it. ]

[ deathsight. right. okay that-- doesn't actually make any sense what so ever to Tony, but at the same time it does fall into place about what he knows about Jacob and makes a few more things that he had been wondering about clearer.

the fact that they have changed subjects isn't lost on him, but he will let it go for now, something curious lighting up his eyes.]

Is it unchangeable? Or is there a way to affect the time on the clock? What if what you see is only for here, not my home.

[ because fuck anything other than the possibilities here clearly.] That seems a lot like the ability to see the future which, amazingly enough, is the argument that got me killed back home, so. How does it work?

Changing it has... happened, but more often than not you run out of time because you didn't make the right choice. People who change their time don't quite know there's a time to change.

[ He tilts his head to the side in consideration, then shakes his head. ]

Clocks don't move here so that would be weird. Pretty sure they're on pause until you're in the proper time for it to actually work toward the end. [ There's a brief breath, like a laugh. ] Maybe, maybe not. What I know is that it's never been wrong if left to nature. It's when someone like me shows up to interfere that things get less... concrete.

How does which part work?

Edited (wtf is english, who uses english anymore) 2017-07-04 01:17 (UTC)

So, you change it but at a price. I mean, I am not asking to stave off death, just... more of a causal free will versus determinism argument here.

[ and you know, him trying to fit pieces of the puzzle together.]

They don't move? Huh, wonder if that means death here is less of a death or if this is something the clocks were unable to predict, or-- Whatever, that isn't the important bit at all. Though, you have tried to stop a clock before? Or speed it up?

Oh, you can do whatever you want with the time but if it has to be measured out, then maybe it's better we don't get to choose all that.

[ Says the immortal, really old guy. ]

I don't fuck with clocks, Tony. [ That's like... the only cuss he's said in a while. But it's pretty natural when talking about something important like this. ] The balance of life and death is unfortunately not a science project.

Huh.

[ that is all Tony says for a moment, considering look as he keeps his gaze on Jacob. there is something that... is making him think with all this. something that actually ties back to everything they were discussing before and Tony wonders about Jacob learning the hard way not to fuck with clocks.

he is betting that he did.]

No, didn't think it was. I mean, it has been for some people, Doom for example but-- Do the clocks register more than one death though? Or just the final death...

[ Tony's closer than he may realize, but not as close as he'd want to be. Cain talks about this sort of thing regularly enough, and it encompasses his whole world, that he doesn't really think about how it relates back to his own experiences with learning all this. ]

What'd he do? [ He gives a one-shouldered shrug. ] Just the death that results in your soul moving on. Not a distinction I usually have to make.

I think a better question is what hasn't he done, but he's been trying so... ask him I suppose. But he hasn't always been on the nice side of things, I will tell you that.

[ it isn't that Tony likes Doom at all, but there is something like tolerance that is there now. because it has been a while and Doom has managed to be more useful than destructive and perhaps he has changed. perhaps he is biding his time.

Tony does laugh though at the need to make a distinction. ] That is sadly a distinction you might have to make with some people, especially those from my universe. I mean.. our universe has died before and yet--- well. Can you see the death of all things or just people?

Ha, all right. I might do that. Could be an interesting conversation.

[ Cain doesn't really care about the good side or the bad side of things, so long as they tend to remain balanced. Sure, he's good himself but those who are lured into the dark... eh. It's their life. ]

Just people. Or... things with souls, I guess? People are the only things with souls where I'm from.

Depends on whether he tells you the truth or not, but he has been trying. I guess.

[ does that sound like it was dragged out of him? maybe. ]

Huh, that is... interesting. Begs a few interesting questions I think, regarding what is a soul but I feel like my scientific mind might not like that debate all that much. So, less about that more about inability to change time of death.

[ is there a bit of a pointed look from him at that? maybe.]

You guys must have a lot of history.

[ He can respect that. While still getting magic lessons from Doom because hell if he's gonna stop now. ]

... unless you want to mess everything up and get hunted down, yeah. [ He's ignoring that look. There's more to it than you think, Tony. Waaay more to the pit that is his guilty conscience. ]

You could say that, yeah.

[ a few histories really. but as long as Doom doesn't try to take over everything again like he has been known to do, they can be... um, almost civil? yeah okay.]

Hunted down by what? p[ he will ignore that look in favour of being very curious about this idea of being hunted down. the first thing that comes to mind is a bunch of tiny grim reapers on beagles and maybe that is a sign he should take a nap.

maybe.]

Not so eager to share?

[ Still picking at it. Just a bit. He's capable of maturity and letting things pass but Tony kind of picked a bad wound to prod. ]

Enforcers. Spirits of the dead who had Deathsight in life. They work for the Reapers, who are the ones that let ghosts say a last goodbye and escort them to the afterlife, but can't kill humans.

[ that gets Jacob a look.]

No, more like I didn't think you wanted to hear the long and sordid history that we had, it might take a while to go over.

[ in a way, Tony understands; there are things that he doesn't like people picking at, but-- well he feels likes gets where he is coming from this time. ]

That... sounds creepy as hell actually. And like a strange ghost police force. Can you see them with your sight and all?

Do we really have anything so much as time here, Tony?

[ That much is the truth. Even if he's been shirking work to do more interesting things, he still find himself with idle hands sometimes and that's just weird. Not of his own choice, either, which is where he was at back home. But here? There's too much coolness going on to not want to get involved in some way. ]

That's exactly what it is. And yes. If I weren't... me, I'd have been one by now, too.

I think that you are the one with the answer to that question honestly.

[ teasing or not, Tony still looks like he is considering something. like he is putting together the pieces of a puzzle. which, in a way he is. but he doesn't say anything.

not yet.]

...does everyone become part of the ghost police force or just those that can see the clocks?

What, because I know what having time is like? There's plenty.

[ That consideration just gets a careful look in return. What now, Tony? ]

Just those with the Sight. No real use if they can't find the people they're tracking down.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject