[ 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

[aeturnus]

[ He's going over each bit of explanation to himself, one hand moving faintly over the board as if playing it out when it matters. Eventually he nods and looks up at her with a sparkle in his eyes, glad to learn and excited to try. ]

Yeah, I think so.

[greyjane]

[Not a lad that's had much of a chance to shine, she thinks. Pity - he's smarter than he's probably ever had an opportunity to show.

(There's that rage, again, but she quells it with a smile.)]

All right. We can do a few rounds as warm-up, and then see how you're feeling. By the time we're done, should be just about time to start dinner.

[aeturnus]

[ Just wait until he teaches himself math and reading in a few years, then he'll finally get going on using all that inquisitiveness he's been unable to indulge in for so long. ]

That sounds like a good plan. Will you start?

[ So he can watch, and learn more from that. ]

[greyjane]

Of course.

[She rolls her dice to open - which regulates the number of moves you can do - and then she starts her initial set-up with her pieces. They react to each individual biometric signature and flare electric blue when she touches them, the glow will linger until the game is done.]

See, the strategy I'm using is to take the sea port side of the city.

[aeturnus]

[ Romulus listens avidly, paying attention to the idea even if the whys of the strategy are currently meaningless to him. He has the idea of what one must do to succeed, now he simply... has to figure out how to get to that end.

He'll mostly be quiet while he plays, speaking up to ask about his own movements and how much more he can do in a turn, things like that. Those lights are definitely one of the best parts, again like magic even he gets to touch. He and the magic teacher he's found won't be there for quite a while (if ever), after all. ]

[greyjane]

[He's good at it in a way she never was. Shai is absolutely rubbish at strategy and tactics on paper, but as soon as you throw blood and certain death into the mix her skills tend to plateau on a much higher level. This? It's a game she enjoys, but it's not one at which she excels.

The insight into how his mind works is downright fascinating. He's not just smart, she'd warrant, but uncannily so. She spends more of the game engaged in determining his next move than her own, and loses track of time entirely. It isn't until well after six that the game actually concludes, and he's won the day.

She sits back from the board with a faint hm. Just studying it for a moment. One of her wireglass pieces gets rolled between her index finger and thumb in an idle contemplation.]

Well. Haven't had that much fun in ages.

[aeturnus]

[ Time passes mostly without him noticing, which is new, because he's concentrating so much on the game. It's the sort of challenge he's never gotten to try before and Romulus takes to it like a duck to water and follows the metaphorical pathways opening before him every time Shai makes a move. As his understanding of the game grows while they play longer and longer, he starts getting—not fancy, but more intricate in the hopes of remaining enough steps ahead.

It isn't so much about winning or losing to him, so much as succeeding at this challenge of learning something new. When the last piece is played and he comes to the realization there's no further move to make, that he is the one who made the final play, he sits back in a bit of stunned silence. It occurs to him, then, that he's defeated the one he was playing against and he looks up at her carefully. Not quite fearfully but... uncertain. Even the other slaves, when playing their games and getting involved, could get rather passionate about a loss. ]

Um... I... I liked it.

[greyjane]

[She laughs outright as she begins to clean up the pieces, putting them back in their proper places. The blue flare fades from hers, and whatever colour his had been will as well.]

Really? I had no idea.

[She says that so breezily. She doesn't take loss - at least of this kind - poorly at all.]

You played well. Quite the treat. Haven't had a decent partner for Kassurat in years.

[aeturnus]

[ Probably a light yellow, like sunshine. Nothing intentional but it's something pleasing. While she puts them away, he tries to replace his own pieces around where he remembers most of them to have been, anything to help with the cleanup. ]

It was... more complicated than anything I've played before. [ He's hiding his smile while he says it, though, like a good thing. ] It was fun.

[greyjane]

[She lets him help, and doesn't bother to correct any pieces he may have placed incorrectly. It doesn't matter much, in the long run, and she's willing to bet that any correction carries with it an expectation of cruelty for him.]

Someone should teach you trigonometry, in that case. You'll be entertained for hours.

[aeturnus]

[ It works, and he does base most of how he replaces it by her side of the board along with his own memory so it isn't as bad as it could be. At that suggestion, he looks at her with curiosity in his gaze. ]

What's that? Is it like this?

[greyjane]

It's not a game, per se. It's mathematics. Numbers, numerical functions that relate to angles.

[She waves a hand (she doesn't need to do this when she produces a construct, but she finds it helps other people be less freaked out than things that seem to spontaneously manifest) and a bunch of bright blue, crackling energy equations pop up in the air between them. Numbers and formulas.

(She wanted to be an engineer, so of course she's good at this sort of thing.)]

I always thought of mathematics like a form of language. Something that can be so simple and so complex at the same time. It's beautiful.

[aeturnus]

[ He looks in awe of the things he's seeing, eyes alight and trying to take it in. This is tempered, however, by knowing that he doesn't know this. Doesn't even have the foothold to start on something so involved. ]

It would be nice... but I don't... [ He shakes his head. ] Math and numbers aren't for me.

[greyjane]

[Mm. She shrugs a bit and, lightly,]

They're for everyone who wants to learn. Knowledge is something no one can ever take from you.

[aeturnus]

However, it's something that can be kept away.

[ He says it wryly, like this is something he's thought about before. ]

[greyjane]

[She can't disagree with that, and doesn't try.]

Yes. But until the laws of your place are enacted here, is there any harm in trying?

[aeturnus]

[ There's a pause and then he shakes his head. ]

No. I'm just not sure how much time there is.

[greyjane]

Could be next to none, could be forever. Might as well spend it doing something you'd enjoy.

[Her smile is crooked, but present nevertheless and she stands up in a smooth motion. Everything she does - physically at least - seems deliberate, no wasted motion. Bit of a predator instinct, with her.

Her hair's about as dry as it ever gets, she twists it up into a loose bun at the nape of her neck and heads for the kitchen.]

C'mon, I'll teach you how to make pansheer viala.

[aeturnus]

[ He doesn't have much more to say on that subject because she's right. It's hard to say what will happen tomorrow even if this sort of existence he has now is bound to be reset sooner or later. It isn't scary so much as just... inevitable.

Romulus follows quietly, peering around the kitchen as if it might have changed while he was gone. ]

What does pansheer viala entail?

[greyjane]

Pan-seared tofu with spices and sauce. I'll work out a mild variation of the recipe so it doesn't kill you outright.

[She says it playfully, aimed more at making him a little less twitchy. She does hand him a cutting board, though, and a construct knife which she passes to him with her fingers on the blade so he can take the handle gingerly. (Her knives are sharper than anything storebought, she can make them finer on a molecular scale than anything man-made.)]

Here. Know how to use one of these?

[Touching the construct is a bit... electric, there's a living thrum of energy to it.]

[aeturnus]

[ Trusting her by now is easy, or rather he isn't quite sure how to mistrust and do anything about it, so he takes the handle of the knife. Shoulders raising as if with the feeling of the hairs on the back of his neck, he looks down to stare at it and acclimate to the energy. His eyes are glittering again with obvious interest and curiosity and wonder.

It takes a moment for him to remember what she asked. ] Yeah, I've used knives before.

[greyjane]

Excellent. If you wouldn't mind chopping the vegetables, I'll get started on the base for the sauce. Just-- grab whatever looks tasty out of the fridge. It's a bit of a hodge-podge.

[Sort of meant to be made from whatever's in the fridge at the time. God, the strange, familiar domesticity of this makes her ache. The last time she cooked a meal with anyone else was with her parents - both mothers and her father all pitching in. It's a strange, dizzying sensation.

Which, of course, she ignores in favour of grabbing garlic, and a few things out of the cupboard to add to the sauce.]

[aeturnus]

Of course. That's simple enough.

[ It isn't a boast, but some way to let her know that he can handle the task. Setting the cutting board out, he retrieves whatever vegetables he recognizes (some of the ones he'd purchased earlier that day) and begins to work on slicing them down. He has to pause every now and then to stretch his hand, unused to the sensation entirely, but it's almost invigorating at the same time. ]

[greyjane]

[Shai Has A Lot Of Feelings About Cooking™.

She tweaks the sauce a bit so it's less of an assault on the senses (she likes hot food, okay) and it's not too long before the kitchen is filled with the aromatic smell of food.

The dish itself is quick - the sauce takes the most work and prep, and she's cheerful and informative about explaining it to him at each new step - and then she tosses the vegetables in to let the whole thing simmer a bit.]

Of a mind to help me with the dishes? Goes quicker with two.

[She's being very careful about how she phrases things, mostly to ensure he doesn't try to just do it all himself.]

[aeturnus]

[ The smell is incredibly pleasant, if a bit foreign and takes time to get used to, and he's already moved to put things to their proper places like near the sink while rounding up other utensils that they've finished using when she asks.

He pauses, looks up at her and takes in a breath or two before nodding. ]

Yes. Of course. Please.