[ 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 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.

[aeturnus]

... I'm not sure. There was more than just what I'd said before on it. And the things that I'd said were... strange.

[ Romulus glances down where the device rests against his chest. He really hadn't gotten very far in his own history, partially afraid of what he'd find and vindicated for it when he heard himself admit to children, before he'd ended up exploring other functions and finding something without so much personal terror involved.

The person he heard wasn't very much like him, anyway. All confidence and jokes, no hesitation or confusion. Someone very far-flung from Romulus as he stood now. ]

[greyjane]

[She's kind of glad she wasn't affected by this whole nonsense, honestly. If the girl she used to be was turned loose on Quarantine, the city would probably be a smoking crater by now. She was a tempest once, ruled and fueled by hatred and grief in equal measure.

Small favours, in any case. She nods sympathetically, and gestures for him to take a seat.]

Chairs don't bite, son.

[aeturnus]

[ That. Right. Okay. He moves from the doorway to the chair and sets himself down. Not totally comfortable but it's better than the hovering he had been doing and that helps him relax some. ]

Thank you.

[greyjane]

[You don't have to thank me for basic human decency. It's on the tip of her tongue, but she doesn't say it. Instead, she shakes her head slightly.]

You're welcome. And I'm sorry that you perhaps didn't find all the answers you were looking for. No telling how much your life's changed between now and-- whatever it was you found.

[aeturnus]

Apparently it's changed a lot.

[ Hard to say he's surprised. Easier to say he doesn't like it. Everything about it was uncomfortably foreign and strange, like looking into a reflection wrong. Or expecting to see himself and seeing someone... else. His brow furrows at that thought, lips pursing a bit. ]

This device is incredible, though. Does everyone have one?

[greyjane]

Everyone who wants one I suppose. Imagine those that don't would rather not.

[She keeps hers for convenience, but the thought that it makes tracking them easier is never far from her mind. She's a suspicious gal, even if she is terrifically laid back about it.]

[aeturnus]

Why wouldn't they?

[ He just... he can't imagine that. Not something as mind-blowing as this. ]

[greyjane]

[She smiles faintly.]

People might mistrust the technology or the intent in giving them. Perhaps they would get frustrated in trying to figure them out and are too stubborn to ask for help.

[aeturnus]

[ That last one speaks to him the most and he nods slowly. ]

That's their choice. It seems like a waste.

[greyjane]

When has that ever stopped a soul?

[People are wasteful and petty and cruel. So stubborn it's toppled worlds. She shrugs, brings her other knee up and rests her teacup on one of them. She seems quite content half curled into a ball.]

Hope the bed's comfortable enough for you.

[She tends towards firmer mattresses. Too many years of sleeping on the ground.]

[aeturnus]

The bed is perfect.

[ Better than what they all got at the estate, although Romulus thinks that what's here could even be better than what the master and his family slept in. It's really nowhere near complain-worthy. ]

Really, everything here is almost... too much. All of it.

[greyjane]

[Her expression twists a bit, almost a grimace but with a rather sympathetic bent to it.]

Luxury's a hard thing to accustom yourself to after a life of the opposite. It's all right. Take as much time as you need.

[There's a bit of a laugh.]

I could always string you up a tent in the backyard if that'd help.

[That's humour, kiddo.]