used to care, but times have changed. [ catch-all ]

[insertdadjoke]

Who When Where What Warn

"Jacob Kane" (Cain) & You Catch-all for the rest of August Various places in Keeliai Cain reacclimatizes to life on a a turtle floating through the Dreaming. Basically just make something up and I bet you Cain is there somewhere. The thread with Gene delves into imagery of torture and child abuse. (If you could take a moment, consider filling this out!)

There was a whole lot that hadn't actually changed in the city. Small things, different businesses here and there, maybe a few more houses in one district and some converted or otherwise gone in another. It was familiar in the way any city was after a time lapse, although Cain would be the first to admit that it was a significant enough change for hardly a year's time since his last visit. At least that meant it was easy to catch up on old ground.

However, now he found himself staying at and working at the Hotel however temporarily until he got his feet truly underneath him. That was good, a simple task to keep an eye on people and make himself comfortable again. Working with the Metalworkers on his own projects kept the rest of the time occupied. The vast majority of Cain's free time, however, was spent exploring the city and feeling out the atmosphere, talking to kedan and foreigners alike. He had cleaned himself up and changed his wardrobe just enough to look older than his usual early-twenties for a change of pace. Usually, this wasn't the sort of thing Cain would care about; usually, this was the sort of bed the city could make and lie in all on its own for the denial of taking responsibility they'd dragged in themselves; usually, he wasn't stuck here forced to be a part of it with a bunch of others who were in much the same situation.

Usually, it sucked to have a sense of responsibility for those he felt close to.

Most of his days consisted of hitting up local businesses, making himself known to the locals as someone helpful and harmless and getting whatever gossip he could. Cain checked in on the few friends he had, and looked to make any more to improve his own situation. It never hurt to make use of a specifically positive image, after all. He might as well have a bit of fun with it.

Comments

Mid August | The Earth Sector

[redlightgreenlight]

With all the extra hours she was putting in at the Dojo, Valdis was feeling drained. She found herself relieved when time came to close, but she lingered a few moments after the last student had left, to clean up a few things that had been left behind. After putting the practice swords away and making certain that everything was in it's proper place, she gathered up Revelations and her small arms bag, and headed out the door, almost hurrying to get back to the Hotel. A familiar scent caught her attention an instant before she had to turn aside to avoid running into the man who had left them months ago. Her eyes narrowed, part annoyance and part confusion.

"Jacob Kane," she said bluntly, "I didn't know you were back."

[insertdadjoke]

Moving quickly to avoid the woman who was obviously going somewhere with a purpose — even if that purpose was just to relax the night away — Cain didn't catch who it was. Or, well, he didn't see her face; a glance slightly down told him exactly who this was, and he hid his automatic reaction to such odd and worrying clocks heralding very ominous things for the balance of death around them.

Shoving it again, Cain raised a brow at the almost accusatory tone Valdis was using. "Then maybe you should check the radio network sometime," he said, more as a tease than anything. "It wasn't exactly a secret."

[redlightgreenlight]

"I've been busy," she replied, less aggressively this time, "Since you've apparently been back for a few days, I assume someone has filled you in on the fact that the Kedan are preparing for war?"

Not to mention that she was working overtime because of it, or the fact that she was still trying to hunt down the cultists and destroy them. The cultists were a serious problem, one that apparently only she and a few others cared about.

[insertdadjoke]

"No one has put it quite so direly," Cain said with a shrug. He was looking older than last time, but his mannerisms were as young as before. An odd combination, but not an improbable one. It just took more effort to act old when you didn't feel it. "More that some Grand Justicar will be coming to receive a Chihulean deserter that no one can find. Which, yes, may lead to a war," he acknowledged.

He wasn't so dim nor optimistic as to think it would turn out peacefully, but there was something to be said for winding up too early. Preparation and contingencies were all good things. Keeping a proper mindset was just as essential.

[redlightgreenlight]

"The kedan aren't taking any chances, they don't trust the Chihuleans, and for good reason. After all, they invaded once before and the Justicar wasn't exactly...reassuring in her message."

Valdis didn't notice any change in him, she hadn't exactly known him well enough to pay much attention and they certainly hadn't parted on friendly terms, though it wasn't as if they hated each other. She herself didn't look a day older, but internally she knew she was different from when she had first arrived in Keeliai.

"My main concern is that we haven't dealt with the internal problems and I can't get the kedan to focus on anything but the Justicar and her forces." She shook her head. "I can teach them to fight and I can teach them self-defense, but if we get caught between two enemies..." She sighed, "At least the family heads seem to be cooperating with each other."

[insertdadjoke]

Considering it had been less than a year since Cain had been around last, he didn't expect to see any drastic changes in the people themselves. Perhaps new faces in general, but not anything different in the ones that were still around. His own appearance tended to largely depend on how much effort he put into appearing an age different than his body had stopped at. It was an art form he'd long perfected, made only slightly more challenging by the lack of his usual resources.

"If the families are on even ground, then what internal problems have we still got?" Far be it from him to assume everything had been solved, but it would be impossible to figure out what had stayed and what had gone. Not to mention other issues Cain had heard about such as the soul gem thefts and tampering.

[redlightgreenlight]

"I wouldn't say that they are on 'even ground'," she replied slowly, "Just that they seem to have agreed to not fight with each other until the threat of the Chihuleans is past."

It was important to at least appear united, both kedan and foreigners...

"Surely you remember the cultists," She continued, one eyebrow raised, "They are still around, as are Malicant's drugs. In addition, though the turtle is still alive, Tu Vishan is sinking and we don't know why."

[insertdadjoke]

"Even ground implying they're seeing eye-to-eye at the moment," he elaborated. Whatever power imbalance they were suffering, it wasn't enough to have caused fractures or any absorption of other families into one another. That was close enough to even as mattered to Cain right now.

Nodding, Cain let that sink in. "I remember the cultists, and poison, but is that the same thing as the drugs?" Then he dipped his head in thought. "Okay, that one is concerning. How rapidly is that happening?"

[redlightgreenlight]

"Dust has shown up twice. Once at the palace grounds during the demolition of the Palace and then a woman who mugged a friend for his soul gem overdosed on a very potent form of it. She is the one who told us that we would pay for killing Malicant and revealed that the cultists are still active."

She couldn't actually remember how quickly the turtle was sinking, but at least they knew that the turtle was alive thanks to Zatanna's spell.

"I don't know, but we are trying to figure out how to stop it. Asti gave us visions, we think that he is trying to give us a message, or a clue as to how we can help him. But so far, that's all we have."

She was a bit more focused on the cultists at the moment. They had hurt Anton and they might hurt other people she cared about. That problem was a bit more immediate in her mind.

[insertdadjoke]

"So the drug is called Dust. What kind of drug is it?" There was a lot of information being taken for granted, clearly, but Cain wanted to make sure he knew exactly where they were standing before forming a true opinion on it. Regardless of that, he was concerned of what a cult without a robbed of its focus might be doing. As unstable or misguided as they might have been, that didn't mean the cultists were impatient or stupid. It could be leading up to something incredibly dangerous.

Immediate though the problem was, Cain still wanted all of the angles going on. Crash courses were the way to go, it seemed, and he was at least thankful no one seemed bothered by giving them. Considering the way foreigners tended to come and go, there wasn't a whole lot of helping it. "Is it possible that he's hurt somewhere we can't regularly see? That he's somehow become disabled?" An injury would certainly account for a descent into the ocean, possibly for the lack of contact as well.

[redlightgreenlight]

"It is quite aptly named," she replied, "It originally took the form of a dusty substance, but a cultist overdosed on an injectable form not long ago."

It wasn't exactly exhausting to have to catch someone up to the current events, and it was necessary to do so, but she had been headed out to do some searching and this was taking up precious time.

"The turtle is disabled, but as to an injury, we cannot know...I'm inclined to believe that it is more...magical in nature." She hesitated a moment, "Asti gave me a vision in which Malicant was talking to the turtle hatchlings...Malicant wanted to know why the 'husk' remained and wanted the 'last secret', I don't know what he meant, but it was important enough that all the other foreigners saw the vision as well."

[insertdadjoke]

Cain tilted his head in understanding. Dust was something dangerous, as all drugs were in uncontrolled excess, but it seemed that it was being used as a tool among deeply-disturbed cultists which only made the situation worse. He wondered briefly at the status of law enforcement in the city, but set it aside for now. The city wasn't in shambles despite the hardships it was currently facing, so there were probably larger issues they could focus on until a larger portion of the population took note and called for a solution.

"A vision of Malicant?" Now that definitely caught his attention. Cain had been happy knowing the guy was gone, but if there was some remnant of him hiding out, then that was an even bigger worry than an invasion to him. The trip into the Dreaming and the fight against him had been nothing but unpleasant. On the other hand, it could have simply been some sort of warning from Asti, that there was something they were yet unaware of which could benefit them all. "Has anyone been able to properly reach out to the hatchlings since then?"

[redlightgreenlight]

"It was....more like a memory," she replied, still feeling guilty over the whole incident, "It involved the hatchlings that died, it was...their final moments."

She didn't particularly like recalling the memory, so she moved past it, hoping he wouldn't ask anything more about it.

"I can still feel Bobby," she said, shrugging, "But he's distant, not close enough to give me anything other than a feeling that he is ok."

[insertdadjoke]

That got a moment of quiet, then a nod from Cain. All right, then that changed the substance of the vision considerably. If it was when the hatchlings died, when Malicant was still around, possibly not yet having possessed the turtle on which they stood... All of that was something to take into account. The 'husk' was likely not to be the turtle itself since Asti had still been there in some form.

"Has there ever been a case of Asti shedding?" he asked. Even if turtles didn't shed all at once like snakes did, they were still reptiles and by rights there was a chance that the turtle was leaving pieces behind in unseen growing pains. It was all Cain could think of, anyway. "That's good, anyway. Glad to hear about the other ones."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis tipped her head, uncertain as to what sort of thought process Jacob was going through and somewhat confused as to how his question was relevant.

"You know," she said, "In all my years, I have never bothered to learn anything about turtles. But I don't think that they shed."

As for the surviving hatchlings, yes, she was glad that they were ok. Well as ok as they could be when their foreigner parents kept disappearing.

[insertdadjoke]

"Turtles do shed," Cain said simply. That was just a fact. Now he found himself curious what someone with such an odd and long-lasting soul did with all of their time. What kind of world did she even live in?

He shook his head and continued, "And what's left behind when something sheds could be considered a husk."

[redlightgreenlight]

Interesting, but she wasn't entirely certain that that was what Malicant had meant.

"Malicant spent a lot of time and energy trying to kill Tu Vishan," she replied, "I'm certain that he killed the hatchlings trying to find out why he was unable to kill the great turtle."

[insertdadjoke]

"Kill him?" Cain raised a brow, not really ready to argue the point since he hadn't been here for much more than the climax of the whole struggle. His own experience and perspective was different on the matter and that seemed to be where some of their mutual confusion was coming from.

He shook his head next. "You're assuming the Husk was something Malicant intended to use to kill and-or possess the turtle rather than part two of whatever he had been doing," he pointed out. "We may or may not ever figure out if he was already at his end-game or there had been more, but if that Husk is related to something else then we need to keep our eyes open for possible complications it might bring up."

[redlightgreenlight]

Communication was failing somewhere and Valdis had no idea how to correct it. But it wasn't as if he wrong, what he was saying was entirely possible.

"Perhaps," she said, one hand drifting to her sword's hilt, the red gem lighting up as her fingers brushed it. She wondered how the demon would have reacted to the Holy Blade in the physical plane. "And even though he's gone, his minions are still working on something."

[insertdadjoke]

They seemed to have that problem, but Cain wasn't particularly bothered by it. Sometimes people just didn't jive. Even so, he was learning something new and getting a better idea of what was happening and what had happened in his absence, and was thankful for that.

His eyes narrowed a bit when they focused on the gem where it lit itself in response to Valdis. More magic. He wasn't surprised by its existence anymore, yet still found himself wary whenever living beings wielded it. That just wasn't right. "Either he left a metaphorical dead man's switch in the cultists," Cain said with a tilt to his head, a concession to the possibility, "or they're scrambling for some way to feel like they didn't fail their lord and master. Dangerous either way, but if they're making it up as they go along... well, that's going to be even more trouble."

[redlightgreenlight]

She followed his narrowed gaze down to the sword on her hip, realizing that her grasp on the hilt could be seen as a threat and moved her hand. The gem immediately went dark. She resisted the rising curiosity, the urge to reach out with her senses and gather deeper information about this man. Perhaps later, but right now she needed to focus on the matter at hand.

"I prefer to think that they are scrambling, trying to pretend that they haven't failed Malicant. but you are right in that that can make them more unpredictable."

[insertdadjoke]

His gaze didn't last much longer than the glow did and Cain turned attention back to Valdis. He knew a resting position when he saw one, that wasn't the issue. It was more of the magic that seemed inherent in it, confusing and rather foreign. He didn't know what to expect of it. That was the weird part.

"Right," he said. "You'd know better than I would. What have they been up to so far?"

[redlightgreenlight]

"Well, for awhile they were at least involved with, if not behind, the soul gem muggings and creation. And they, or whoever they are working for, poisoned Anton." A brief anger flashed through her eyes, "But other than an initial threat, they have been silent." Which almost bothered her more than the fact that they had gotten to Anton in the first place.

[insertdadjoke]

Brow beginning to furrow, Cain picked out the most important part of that sentence. It wasn't the involvement with Anton, although he put that away to examine on his own later, but something more disturbing that had further reaching consequences.

"They made soul gems?"

[redlightgreenlight]

"Somehow, yes, they did." An uneasy feeling rose up, perhaps a bit too much like a warning from the Void of impending danger. "Several kedan, who have since vanished, were kidnapped and then when they reappeared, they had soul gems."

And then of course they had disappeared again.

"And...with the muggings, there was something very off about the ones who came after my gem. I think that their bodies were being controlled by someone else, they were almost like zombies."

The part she was hesitant to say was that she believed that death magic was somehow involved in both the creation of the soul gems and with the zombie kedan.

"I don't like it when people mess with the souls of others."

God, she sounded like such a hypocrite.