[ open ] #throwbackthursday

[aeturnus]

who: Cain (now Romulus), Anyone
what: During the effects of the Temporal Chalice, Cain gets to explore some of his much, much earlier years. He's in his early twenties, not immortal, shy and gentle, and goes by his birth name: Romulus. Oops.
when: 15th until the event ends.
where: Housing during the day (floor six + around), and out in the Quarantine at night mostly. Specific starters upon request.
warnings: Romulus at this point in his life is a slave. Mentioned of free vs not, expectations of having lesser value, and possible other related subjects are very likely. More will be edited in if necessary.

i. Housing. Floor six.
[ He's not sure what to do with himself here. One of the first things Romulus did when he came to was familiarize himself with the device he carries around with him, because he remembers that being important, and notices that the job he only vaguely recalls sent a message to not show up if you couldn't do the work citing distraction to the other workers who were still in their right minds. He supposes that means he should stay away from the place and he intends to. It just doesn't leave him a whole lot to do aside from putter around the floor he knows he belongs in, even if most of his belongings feel foreign and familiar at the same time. Sparse, too. Some technology to work, small knickknacks here and there, and nothing that really speaks to who he is. All except for a plain lantern hanging from the bedpost with scenery drawn on it that makes him feel more at home. It's familiar to him, only a breath away, if he were back home at all. That lantern is lit every night to help him sleep.

Either way, Romulus putters. Messes around in the kitchen to try and make food but plenty of the products are foreign and confusing and he sticks with what he knows, basic fruits and vegetables and puts together simpler things with simpler tools and methods. He's not going for anything fancy, just subsiding on what he can until he figures out what he's doing here anymore. What he doesn't do is actively bother anyone. Finds his own supplies and makes sure whatever he uses is communal and doesn't belong to anyone in particular, shops with the money he's found for himself to buy things he can't find.

It's probably easier to ignore the guy who's suddenly turned wallflower around floor six, or even in the rest of the building where he comes and goes quite often out to explore the city. Except... he didn't used to be like this, not at all, entire demeanor changed. Not that he's the only one but it's pretty radical and noticeable. Kinda sad, really. ]

ii. Quarantine.
[ Mostly, he goes out at night. Lots of people don't notice the nervous ones at night because crime still exists but Quarantine is better protected and managed than most cities in other universes, apparently, and a lot of the older residents expect the nervous ones to calm down eventually. Romulus isn't nervous because of crime, but instead because it feels like a lie. He shouldn't be out here without a cause or an order or a reason given to him to explain if anyone catches him out — but he's not doing anything wrong. There's no master here, no one holding him in their hands and certainly no one to say he can't explore or shop or live.

It's freedom, and it has his heart constantly in his throat. What do you do with freedom?

Either way, he stumbles into people because he's not paying attention, lost in thought. Flinches back and swerves to press nearer to the walls or almost walks into the street sometimes and has to get fished out of the way. It's all very nerve-wracking, but again, people expect it more in the darkness for whatever reason. Sometimes he does go out in the day, too, but this is easier for him. ]

I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to run into you—forgive me.

[ He doesn't meet many peoples' eyes in the dark of the night, either. ]

iii. Wild Card.
[ Romulus gets places he shouldn't. Curiosity is certainly his vice and that's never gotten him anyplace good. It's usually up to Remus to keep him from wandering and Remus isn't here. He doesn't go into dangerous-looking places, but stores or odd streets or stopping to watch something odd? There's no reason not to. ]

[ Make something up, and I'll work a response in! Contact at plurk or at biomagnet#1925 @ disco to discuss more if necessary. ]

Comments

[greyjane]

[She's not going to insist, of course - she's hyperaware of other people's comfort levels when it comes to varying stages of trauma - but that's a flimsy protest.]

My home's a long, long ways away from where we are now. This is just a place I'm living in for a while.

[aeturnus]

[ That strikes close and he goes quiet to think about it. Takes another bite of salad to buy time because it's a legitimate motion, not him simply fidgeting around while his mind goes in circles; Remus would have had a quicker answer, a solution they could work on together and in the moment, but now he's just left to himself. ]

Would you allow me to work for you in exchange?

[ It doesn't feel right to simply accept without giving back what he can. The money that he has, he isn't sure how much is there or if it will last him until things are resolved, but work. Work itself should still be a valid form of recompense. And he does want to make sure she receives something back for her kindness. ]

[greyjane]

[That's something like progress. She nods.]

I'm all right with that. [A brief pause. She points her fork at him.] So long as we're clear on it being a matter of payment rather than servitude.

[Since. You know. Slavery and all. Still not her bag.]

[aeturnus]

Um. All right.

[ Close enough for him to be okay with it, probably. It's something to do and honestly, he'd be glad to leave the communal housing for now. All those people around is familiar in a way and terrifying in that they're all just strangers sharing a space. (And he's still got some pretty strong imposter syndrome going on, that doesn't help at all.) ]

Then... I would like to stay here if that's all right with you.

[ She just said... you know what, forget it. ]

[greyjane]

[Luckily she's chill about that kind of thing. She spears a piece of peach with her fork.]

Long as you need. And for the record, if something isn't all right with me, I'll let you know. Deal?

[aeturnus]

[ It sounds fair enough. So far she hasn't given him reason to distrust her and has been very little aside from open and kind with him. His instincts tell him to remain suspicious, but his heart is open and he'll believe it for now.

An idea comes to him, and he stretches his hand across the table to her. Mimicking how she had done it before. ]

Deal.

[greyjane]

[Oh, that's adorable, and it serves the purpose of cementing her decision. She reaches to complete the gesture - her handshake is firm, her knuckles and fingers are rough and ropy with scar tissue and years of maligned use - but it doesn't seem to slow her down in the least. In a few years she's sure she'll really start to feel it, but for now the worst is an ache in the cold.]

Now, about the comms.

[She pushes her salad aside for the moment, and pulls her out.]

They can be navigated entirely by voice, and if you used it at all prior to this little misadventure, you should be able to access everything. There's a voice print identification module that will identify you as the owner.

[She clears her throat, announces her credentials (CDR.EBBISARYN) and turns the device around so he can see the resultant screen.]

You want to hit the icon at the top-- here. [she taps on it.] and it'll bring up any past conversations you've had. The text-to-voice function will read off anything you ask it to.

[She demonstrates that as well, easily enough, with slow and clear enunciation so he can follow along, and ends up reading off one of her last correspondences on the network.]

[aeturnus]

[ His hands are strong but not very callused. The work he does isn't very intense on his body, and his grip is unsure at best. It's still not horrible and he pulls away with interest when she moves on to the actual reason they came here in the first place. He takes in every word she gives him, repeating them several times to himself in order to remember them, and pulls out his own phone as if to follow along. ]

Okay... so I just need to find out what I say to it?

[greyjane]

Should be fine once you authenticate. The voice commands are always the same no matter who you are.

[The tech is hideously outmoded by her standards, but anything that doesn't run on wireglass is positively medieval by those.]

[aeturnus]

[ He nods, turns it over in his hands a few times. ]

Authenticate with... something that I set up before?

[ Before this whole thing rolled in, he means. ]

[greyjane]

Should just need your username, spoken aloud with your voice.

[She gestures at his phone.]

May I? I can read it for you and then leave you to it if you'd like.

[aeturnus]

[ He nods, not at all bothered by the idea. That he might have something private on there doesn't really occur to him because privacy isn't something he's ever had? If anything is to be kept private, he clearly wouldn't leave it with... this.

It's easy to see the user name is plain and simple: j.k. ]

[greyjane]

[she has no idea who that is anyway, that's the amount of attention she pays to the network so she just recites the initials to him and hands it back.]

Now whenever you want to give it a try, should work if you say that bit.

[aeturnus]

[ Oh. That's... surprisingly easy and Romulus hesitates before repeating it back. When he does, the phone makes a little beep and opens up to him. Whoa. Whoa. It worked! He did magic! Kind of. It did magic in response to him? Still. ]

Now I can tell it I want it to read to me?

[greyjane]

Mmhmm. Just do what I did earlier, it'll work like a dream.

[A pause. Then,]

I'll show you where you can stay, and you can browse it in there if you'd rather. Bit of privacy.

[aeturnus]

[ He pauses at that, tilts the phone down to show she has his attention. Oh. Maybe she doesn't want him to do this where she's going to be busy. ]

Would you like help cleaning up first?

[greyjane]

[It's your privacy she's concerned about, you goober. She's had her own trampled over so much in her life she tries to be considerate of others'.]

Nah. You go on. We can make dinner together tonight if you'd like. You much for meat?

[She knows how to cook it, and her vegetarianism is a cultural thing rather than a moral one, so she doesn't mind frying up a steak or something else similar.]

[aeturnus]

I've never had much of it.

[ Only really during celebrations where everyone got their fill just because there was so much to go around. Meat is a very rich-people food, so he's been around it a lot, just... hasn't had it. ]

I'll have whatever you have.

[greyjane]

Fair enough.

[Whatever she makes, it's going to have lots of protein. Seems like he could use his share and then some. She stands up, stretches her hands up over her head and then curls the fingers of her left hand in the thick braid at the nape of her neck, which she then flicks over her shoulder.

She leads him off to the room without further preamble. It's a smallish space (honestly, her place might look lavish but it's singularly defining feature is that it's all smallish space. She'd feel weirdly agoraphobic in something bigger) done up mostly in blues, and she pushes the door open with the heel of her hand.]

Here you are. Bathroom's down the hall, hot water's endless so showers can be as long as you like. I get up well before sunrise, don't feel like you have to join me.

[Her day is a lot longer than what passes as one here. Thirty-six hours versus twenty-four means she needs less sleep and more things to do with herself than most. She spends a lot of her time running.]

Take your time, all right? Lot to take in. I'll be in the living room if you need me for anything or you want to talk about what you've found out. We can cook around six.

[aeturnus]

[ For once, he doesn't comment on much. There's a lot to take in, but more than that the feeling of coziness is both somewhat unsettling and very relaxing. He doesn't know what to do with that, or the consideration to his schedule that they might not match up and he doesn't have to. That's new and strange and he might just wake up with the sun instead of whenever he might hear her around the house, and he'll deal with that when it happens.

For now he settles into the room and putters about, phone clutched to his chest until he can't take it anymore and sits down. Starts to pour over previous conversations where he can until he's distracted by an accidental command and finds how to really explore the internet. It's like a wikipedia binge gone wrong as he takes in plenty of things he has absolutely no context for and it's probably one of the best things that's ever happened to him. He isn't sure how to keep track of the time like this, so even though he's completely sunk into everything the phone reads to him, he gets up, hovers near the door and glances down the hallway to see if she's looking for him or needs him.

He'll do that until it just feels late enough to start for dinner (closer to five than six, admittedly) and wanders back into the living room. Phone held to his chest like some kind of lifeline now that it basically holds the world for him. ]

Uh... what time is it?

[greyjane]

[She looks freshly... laundered, for lack of a better term. Her hair's wet, and she's dressed in something rather comfier than her prior digs, which although not her military uniform (she saves that for special occasions) mimics it exactly. Shai tends to pick things with full sleeves and a high collar when she's out in public, but now she's wearing a tank top and a pair of slacks (they're probably sweatpants. maybe.) with her hair loose and sticking damply to her shoulders. She's got plenty of visible scars (knives, burns, bullet holes, her skin's a roadmap that runs the gamut of traumatic injury) and although she's quite slight she's whipcord lean and heavily muscled besides.

She's not doing anything in particular. Just sitting beside the window with one leg drawn up, her hands curled around a teacup. When her guest pops back up she glances towards him and gives him a bright smile.]

Just after five. How're you feeling?

[aeturnus]

Oh, that's... too early?

[ He knows how to tell time better than probably any other skill, even if the ways he keeps track are absolutely not the way anyone else wants to follow along. It certainly isn't the same as actually counting the hours themselves down, though, so talking about it with other people isn't always the most straightforward. Right about now would be time to prepare dinner, or at least time for him to join the others already working, but it seems like his habit for that isn't the same as hers.

Her new outfit gets a curious look from him, taking all of her in, but nothing more than cursory. Just absorbing the new information in a way. ]

I'm all right. Thank you for asking.

[greyjane]

Not too early if you're hungry at all. Otherwise you're welcome to join me. Not up to anything in particular.

[Just missing home. But that's a constant state for all the Janiraki displaced. It's something she indulges in no matter where she is, for at least a few minutes each day. You accept the grief exists, and you move on. Saves time in the long run.]

[aeturnus]

[ He shifts from foot to foot while observing her for a moment, hand clutching the phone and leaving him torn. Because he doesn't actually have to for once but he wants to because she offered, and it wars with the need to go back to what he was doing before it's too late. Because this whole thing certainly can't last. ]

No, I'm not hungry. This is usually when we start prep to make dinner, though. It must be habit.

[greyjane]

Mm. Things I make don't usually take that long to toss together.

[She's not fancy unless she's really in the mood for it. She appreciates the indulgences, of course, but at her heart a soldier's adherence to simple fare reigns supreme.]

Did it help? [A nod to his phone.] Whatever you learned.