Cisco Ramon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
franciscoramon) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
riverviewlogs2017-07-05 03:37 pm
franciscoramon) wrote in riverviewlogs2017-07-05 03:37 pm
[open] it's time to tip it off
who: cisco + anyone!
what: catch-all
when: july
where: anywhere; if you want a starter, please hit me up!
warnings: discussion of sex & drinking
i. tech testing
[ Most of Cisco's work is done within the privacy of his workshop, but there comes a time when he has to leave and find a nice quiet place to actually test some of the tech that he's made. The one time he'd done so outside the wall, things had gone very very badly. So he makes a compromise, finds an alleyway that is within the city but deserted. Sure, he might blow up a dumpster or two and make quite a racket, but he is less likely to get attacked by monsters here, and if anyone disturbs him he can just tell them to clear out.
That's the theory, anyway. But some of the stuff he brought with him might be a bit more powerful than he'd intended... ]
ii. nesting
[ Cisco had been very tentative about his new living situation, at first. He didn't want to get too comfortable, in case Yuri changed his mind, or Eddie got sick of him. But after a few weeks, with no signs that they want him to leave, Cisco starts to think about maybe settling in to his new room. It's fairly stark, still - just a bed, some sheets, and an old couch. All his clothes are still in bags, but the first thing on his list is some dark curtains for the windows. He was never meant to be a morning person.
He can be seen in various shops in the quarantine, looking at furniture, rugs, curtains, etcetera. Cisco's not above asking random strangers for their opinion, either. ]
What do you think, this one or this one?
iii. misc
[ Come plot something! ]
what: catch-all
when: july
where: anywhere; if you want a starter, please hit me up!
warnings: discussion of sex & drinking
i. tech testing
[ Most of Cisco's work is done within the privacy of his workshop, but there comes a time when he has to leave and find a nice quiet place to actually test some of the tech that he's made. The one time he'd done so outside the wall, things had gone very very badly. So he makes a compromise, finds an alleyway that is within the city but deserted. Sure, he might blow up a dumpster or two and make quite a racket, but he is less likely to get attacked by monsters here, and if anyone disturbs him he can just tell them to clear out.
That's the theory, anyway. But some of the stuff he brought with him might be a bit more powerful than he'd intended... ]
ii. nesting
[ Cisco had been very tentative about his new living situation, at first. He didn't want to get too comfortable, in case Yuri changed his mind, or Eddie got sick of him. But after a few weeks, with no signs that they want him to leave, Cisco starts to think about maybe settling in to his new room. It's fairly stark, still - just a bed, some sheets, and an old couch. All his clothes are still in bags, but the first thing on his list is some dark curtains for the windows. He was never meant to be a morning person.
He can be seen in various shops in the quarantine, looking at furniture, rugs, curtains, etcetera. Cisco's not above asking random strangers for their opinion, either. ]
What do you think, this one or this one?
iii. misc
[ Come plot something! ]
no subject
While she's here, she almost forgot the life she'd left behind. A part of her knew she shouldn't forget. Her brother needs her and Richie... she has to apologize to him. She doesn't know how. If she returns she'll be dead but she feels that she needs too.] That's good to know. Still work a try. Who knows, a car chase might be fun. [She smiles a little more earnestly this time.]
You shouldn't worry. You're more amazing than you realize Cisco. [Kate has a talent for seeing the good in people.] I've never been outside of Texas until recently. Never been to Missouri. I think I've heard of Central City. I guess that's a little like Chicago big, right? [She isn't 100% sure.]
Oh, right. [Back on task.] What do you need next?
no subject
Her comment that he is amazing definitely strikes Cisco as odd - he even does a little double take, a tiny crease forming between his brows, waiting for her to turn that statement into a joke or something. But she doesn't, and he's left a little flattered and a little uncomfortable at the same time. Which is not Kate's fault, really. Just his low self-esteem and paranoia getting the better of him. He brushes it off, but files it away for later. ]
Little smaller than Chicago. It's the one with all the metahumans.
[ That would probably be a pretty good metric, to tell how different her world might be from his. Everybody knew about metahumans existing, even if they didn't understand them at all. ]
I need lamps. One for the desk and some I can install overhead. I don't want anything too fancy...
no subject
Metahumans?
[Light green eyes look over at Cisco curiously as she makes her way towards the next area as she continues.] I don't think I've heard of the term. [Then again, she hasn't exactly been keeping up on the news. She has a guess of what they are and she wonders if Culebra would count.]
I don't know if there are desk lamps here but there are hanging ones.
no subject
[ He comes over to examine some of the lights near where Kate is standing, and has to squint a little bit; they really aren't kidding with this section, are they? Cisco chooses fairly quickly, this time: three very basic, intensely bright fluorescent lights that are meant to be affixed to a ceiling and, on a lower shelf, a only slightly less blinding desk light to mach. He knows himself, knows he'll end up doing work in his bedroom even when he has a perfectly good lab, and so he'll want to be able to see what he's doing properly. ]
Metahumans are basically people with powers. Running really fast, controlling the weather, turning their body into steel, that kind of thing. They got comic books in your world? It's pretty much like that.
[ He shrugs; he's found that that explanation usually works, here, for people who come from places without guys like Barry. ]
Sounds like our worlds are pretty similar, though. They've both got Texas, anyway. And Indiana Jones.
no subject
It sounds like an interesting place. Are there a lot of these Metahumans?
[The more he describes it the more she thinks about the Culebra's and her brother. Part of her mind thinks about Richie too and then Seth but it's a darker, sadder part of herself that she doesn't know if she's ready to face. She isn't running away, she just needs time. 'There is no more love.' Kate wonders if she really believed that.]
I don't know much about different worlds or comics but it's nice to know that they aren't too different. [She flashes him a friendly smile.]
no subject
You mean before you got here, or since then?
[ Her comment about it being an interesting place earns a little snort from Cisco, as if that's the understatement of the century. Kate's question is easy enough to answer: ]
We calculated it was about 1% of the city's population that got turned into metas. Which is still about three or four thousand. Guess it's up to you whether you think that's a lot or not.
[ He walks with Kate in the direction of room decorations, next: little rugs, mirrors, posters, all of that. Cisco stops to just stare at it all for a moment - this is the stuff that really matters, that will really make his new room feel like a kind of home. ]
Definitely not too different. You wouldn't believe how hard it's been to adjust to half the people here not understanding my Kanye jokes. That's like, half my repertoire!
no subject
Before I got here.
[Kate says with a practiced smile. She doesn't know if she can talk about everything but some things come easier: talking about her brother or the culebra are usually the easier topics to attempt to breach.]
It sounds like a lot.
[Her expression softens.] It must be hard to feel different like that. High school was bad enough, I can't imagine it with powers that others don't have.
[Kate's smile returns as she looks back over at Cisco briefly.] Kanye is half? How much can you say about him?
no subject
[ Which is not a request for her to say more about why she is getting used to weird, so much as an invitation to tell him more if that's what she wants. If she wants to stay vague he isn't going to push, but he is pretty intrigued.
Cisco's learned that it says a lot about a person, how they react to metahumans. Some people immediately jumped to thinking of them as a threat. Others, as saviors. Kate, apparently, didn't have any intermediate steps between hearing metas are real and thinking of them as human beings, who would have to incorporate them into their everyday lives. Cisco smiles softly; he thinks he is going to like this kid. ]
Right? Just when you thought high school couldn't be any worse...
[ Yet another thing their worlds have in common, it would seem: high school sucks across the multiverse. ]
...I've actually never heard of any metas that young. Which doesn't mean they don't exist, it just means they're keeping things on the dl. Not telling anybody about their powers, if they even know they have them. Not everyone's abilities emerged right away. For some metas it was weeks or months or even a year later.
no subject
She doesn't know where to start. There are legends about the things she'd run into but she hadn't known about them, she doubted that someone from an alternate universe knows about them.
Kate thinks it's best to accept people for who they are. They're all gods children. That's what she would have said but she isn't sure if it's true. What she does know is that they all share the Earth and they should treat each other like neighbors. It doesn't matter what skin color you are or if you have powers or if you're a vampire.]
I actually liked high school but I know that's not the case for everyone.
[She had friends that she'll never see again. A homecoming that she never got to go too.] I suppose that's easier and harder. If you're older.
no subject
I mean, I know the word, but I'm guessing you don't just mean, like, have I heard of snakes...?
[ He is still really interested in what she has to say, but starts browsing some of the decorations. A lot of them are not really to his taste - either very cutesy or very sleek and classy. He finds a clock that he likes - large and minimalist, non-digital, and sets it gently into the cart.
It doesn't surprise him terribly much that Kate liked high school - she is friendly, polite, very conventionally pretty. Absolute popular girl material, as far as he can tell. Which, in some kind of '80s coming of age film, would probably have made them natural enemies, but real life is much more complex than movies. The so-called popular girls, who were supposed to be so vicious, had never bothered Cisco much. ]
Yeeeaaahhh, I definitely wasn't a fan.
[ It is a complex question to consider - whether people who were turned into metas younger had it better off than people who got their lives turned upside-down after they had a settled idea of themselves and where their lives were headed. ]
I think it depends on the person, and even more on the power. Some abilities, it's pretty easy to hide. Others... well, some metas never got much of a choice.
no subject
There is a legend in Mexico. About snakes and their goddess. Something like a snake demon but beautiful. I- [Her voice breaks and she swallows uncomfortably.] My family found something. It was a club called Twisters but we were locked inside and the people who worked there turned into these creatures. My father, brother, and I weren’t even supposed to be there. They sucked everyone’s blood like they were vampires but their eyes were like snakes and their teeth folded to the top of their mouths.
[Kate pauses. At this point she’s completely forgotten that they are in a store or that Cisco is looking for things. She’s lost, somewhere in the dark turns of her mind.] We had to fight our way out. There was a small group of us. My brother was turned into one of them and- [She stopped again but this time it’s because it was too hard to go on.]
After we got out. I wanted to help my brother. Tell him that he didn’t have to kill to feed. He didn’t want to listen to me. Before… before I could help I ended up here. [She’s leaving out the getting shot part of the story too.]
It’s hard to be different. Whatever your age is. For my brother and the metahumans in your world… I hope they’re okay.
no subject
But it's just... horrifying, plain and simple. Cisco turns away from the package of glow-in-the-dark stars he'd been considering, staring at Kate, his expression a mixture of horror and sadness. He can tell that he pushed too far, that this is all very raw and emotional for Kate. He doesn't stop her from talking, or interrupt - just listens, setting down the stars and covering his mouth with his hand when she says her brother was turned. That she'd come through the portal before she could find a way to help him. ]
Kate, that's... that's awful. I'm so sorry.
[ It's a lot to take in. A part of him is curious - about the Culebras and the legends around them - but he hates himself for it. Now is not the time to geek out and ask a bunch more questions. Cisco swallows, tries to think of a reassurance he can give that won't sound like empty, hollow nonsense. He can't tell her it's all alright, because clearly it super is not. In the end all he can think to say is: ]
I hope so too.
[ Then, he takes a little step closer, raising a hand slowly to touch her elbow, not wanting to startle her but feeling like he ought to reach out in some way. ]
Are... you okay? I didn't mean to pry and bring up all that. And I know you don't know me or whatever but now I'm like... kinda worried.
no subject
Don't worry about it. I can't do anything about it anymore. [Even if she returns she'll be dead. There is literally nothing that Kate can do. She can't help her brother or find Seth and she doesn't have the blind hope that she used to have that believed that everything would be alright.] And I ain't tellin' you any of this so you'll feel bad. [A twinge of her Texan accent reveals itself briefly.]
It's nice to be able to tell someone here. Sorry to put that on you.
[She points to the stars feeling oddly lighter now that she's shared a small fraction of what had happened. She spent so long trying to hide it and protect her brother but it doesn't matter here.]
You should get those.
no subject
Hey, don't apologize. Everybody needs a friend, and I'm more than happy to listen. No matter how weird or sad the story is.
[ And at her behest, he drops the packet of stars into the cart, and then another, and then with a little shrug of 'why not', two more. He'll have a whole night sky going. ]
Don't know if it'll really be any consolation, but I haven't heard any rumors about snake-eyed vampires, and I hear an awful lot of the rumors, so this place is probably Culebra-free.
no subject
Not all of them are bad. Just like not all people are bad.
[If her brother or Richard ever arrived here she'd probably be happy to see them, despite the fact that they are both Culebra.]
Are you going to map the constellations on your ceiling?
no subject
[ To Cisco, it is a bit more of a leap, to imagine that snake-like vampires aren't universally evil. But that's just bias, and he knows it. He's never met any of them, and Kate has, so if she says they're just as complex, morally, as humans... well, she would know, not him. Cisco still thinks he wouldn't like running across one without any warning. Which is kind of a horrible thing to feel, because he wonders if that's how normal people - like Kate, or Eddie, or almost everyone in Central City - would feel thinking about metahumans? ]
Think so. I'll have to find an astronomy book for kids or something. Don't know my constellations all that well.
[ He's a few seconds from saying he'll invite her over to see when he finishes with it, but he realizes that, even though they've been having this lovely conversation, that might come across as borderline creepy. Perhaps he's being too cautious, and she would think nothing of it, but Cisco has learned to be extra cautious. The last thing he wants to do is make Kate uncomfortable, when she's been helping him out so much, and seems like a really sweet girl. He makes a compromise, offers: ]
I'll send you a picture, when it's done, how's that?