I'm not close I'm not safe

[unobtainableredemption]

Characters: Kaine and OPEN
Date: December 23rd
Location: Brazen Turtle; Various
Situation: Kaine has an empty nest. Clearly this means there is something wrong with him as a person.
Warnings/Rating: PG-13 to be safe (Kaine has a filthy mouth)


Option A (Kaine):
[Kaine sat at the bar of Brazen Turtle, staring at his beer. He didn't know why he was as bothered by Peter leaving as he was. After all, how many times had he threatened to kick Peter out? He didn't even particularly like the smaller version of Peter Parker. All his presence did was remind him that there were more idealistic idiots out there than even the Peter he was familiar with. The kid was nothing but a nuisance, constantly butting into his business and forcing him to do things he didn't want to do. How could this kid, this boy who didn't know the first thing about him (by design), mean anything to him?

He had spent his entire life alone; he had always preferred that to the company of anyone. There was no one in the world--in the universe, he supposed--that was like him. They all had souls and families and relationships. He was a human shell hiding a monster within a monster. Miles Warren, his father, had put him on his destructive path by creating him, but Kaine was fully aware that he was the instrument of his own destruction. His own actions through the years had insured that he could never join society the way that Ben had tried, no matter what he did in an attempt to atone. Kaine knew this... he embraced it. So why was it bothering him now, all thanks to a kid he didn't particularly like?

Aracely. Peter reminded him of Aracely. That was the only thing he could think of. And he didn't particularly like her either. She was just someone who needed help, and he was the unlucky sap who got saddled with her. If he had left her, she would have just gotten killed... in any of those times he had gone back to save her. She was just a child. She deserved a second chance. Peter deserved a second chance.

Kaine downed the rest of his drink, knowing full well that it will probably come to bite him in his low tolerant ass later.]

Option B (Scarlet Spider):
[Kaine needed something to punch. It didn't matter what or who, so long as it had a face that he could connect with his fist. He had no recollection of putting the costume on, or leaving his suite for that matter, only swinging through the air throughout Keeliai, looking for someone relatively out of place. He was a man on a mission, one who wouldn't be satisfied until he was able to take his frustration out on someone who looked like they might deserve it, preferably someone of the criminal persuasion.]

Comments

[unobtainableredemption]

[Laughs at that.] I don't know what my "business" is anymore.

I am bored, but that's not my problem. [Looks back at her.] I want to be alone, but annoying brats like you keep popping into my life.

[werethatgood]

[ Cassie opens her mouth to say that she's obviously the only brat around... and then, promptly, closes it again, registering at least one possible explanation for that - that said other brat(s) are back home, and he isn't. ]

Oh. I'm sorry. I can really stay away - random encounters like this excepted, naturally - if that'll make it easier.

[unobtainableredemption]

I just want everyone to stop butting into my life like they actually know me.

[werethatgood]

And what happens when people stop doing it? What does really happen then?

I mean, not that walking you home when you can't quite walk normally is the same as butting into your life. Considering you might not see me again, after.

[unobtainableredemption]

Then I go back to being alone... Like I should have been all along.

[werethatgood]

Nobody should be alone, you know. I mean, in prisons, that's the biggest punishment, to put people into isolation. And I - I don't know what you've done, but I don't think keeping doing that or doing worse is what you're doing now, and here.

So why should you be punished for something that you're not doing?

[unobtainableredemption]

It was only a punishment because you're left alone with your thoughts... [If only they had drugged him up round the clock like they had the one hour a day he was allowed to see sunlight.]

Because I'm a monster. Whenever I try to do the right thing... I only fuck it up more--fuck now I owe the swear jar more fucking money, great.--It's only a matter of time before I get someone else killed... or be the one to do it.

[werethatgood]

[ Cassie stares at him as they walk, mouth pursed to stifle a surprised giggle at the swear jar... whole comment, but she's still very serious, as much so as a fifteen-year-old can muster. ]

... I'm sorry to break it to you, but, whatever you've done? I don't think you're a monster, now. One, monsters don't stop themselves from attempting to burn people. Two, monsters don't insist on punishing themselves. The real monsters just keep on going.

Real monsters don't own up to their monstrosity.

And you don't know what'll happen.

[ Pause. ]

... you don't, right?

[unobtainableredemption]

I only stopped myself because you were a kid. [He might not give out the Mark of Kaine like he used to, but that didn't mean he's stopped completely. He stops as he stares at his hand, watching the heat rise from it as it before pressing it against the side of a nearby building, the sizzle it made loud in the night air. He removes his hand, but the handprint remains. How many people had he given that mark?] And just because I can think about the consequences now doesn't negate what I've done in the past.

[Kaine shakes his head.] Once [as in "upon a time"]. Not anymore.

[werethatgood]

[ Cassie walks in silence for a little while, mouth pursed. She barely glanced at the burn at the side of the building (though she would have stopped him if he'd done that around Wood sector). ]

I stand by my point. Monsters don't. And I've seen enough of them since I was nine to know.

We can't change the past, though. And everybody makes mistakes. Thinking of the consequences makes everything harder, but... in most cases, that means you do deserve better things. I mean, bad deeds merit punishment, but good ones - decent ones - deserve reward, too. If you're trying to be fair in one direction, it should work in the other, too.

[ Small snort. ]

Telling the future? Really? That... might be so cool, as powers go! I mean, obviously, not always cool, not even most of the time, but nothing to sneeze at.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Kaine sighs. He can tell arguing with her is a lost cause, just like it had been with everyone else he tried telling it to.

Why would no one believe him?]

...What makes you the expert on monsters?

[At the mention of his visions being "cool" he shakes his head.]

It sucked. Half the time what you did to prevent it caused it in the first place.

[werethatgood]

Oh, right, Like self-fulfilling prophecies. I can see how that won't be too much fun.

And, um.

When I was nine, I got a -- nah, too long. But the short of it is that my dad became a ... superhero? And a lot of past or potential targets for him decided at one point or another to show their "appreciation" on me. Anything - kidnapped, possessed... [ killed. But that's not because of somebody striking at her because of her father. Well, it sort of was, but, never mind. ] I've likely been there.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Like Osborn and May.]

Isn't that what secret identities or whatever for?

[werethatgood]

Those don't always work, or not for long. Except for Spider-Man, I guess.

[unobtainableredemption]

[He was going to say something about self defense, but then she goes and mentions his brother.]

I don't know how. Why don't they just rip his mask off? How many times has that idiot been kidnapped by someone desperately trying to figure out who he is, only to not take his goddamn mask off? I don't get it.

[werethatgood]

I guess they don't want to find out that much. Or they want to figure it some other way.

I've no idea, really? I'm not exactly the kind of person that goes around either kidnapping people or tearing off their masks.

[unobtainableredemption]

I am.

Okay... enough talk of that asshole. [Laughs bitterly.] He wants to hate me? I'll hate him right back. [Grumbles.] Ha, like I didn't before...

[werethatgood]

[ That. Sort of gives her a pause, and he watches him sideways for a bit of a distance as they walk. ]

Does he really want to hate you?

And did? Tear his mask off, I mean?

[unobtainableredemption]

He didn't say it in so many words, but I took the hint when he took out the building around me. [God knows Peter has every right to be mad at him, he had just thought they'd sort of come to terms with one another.

That's what he gets for assuming.]

I don't need to. I just need to lo--[Crap. He's only just now realizing what he's saying.] ...Forget I said anything.

[werethatgood]

I'll go out on a limb and guess that wasn't unprovoked? At least the Spider-Man from my world wouldn't just. Go and do that without reason. Unless mind-controlled or a skrull, I guess, but, you know what I mean.

[ Cassie's mouth twists a little at the way he cut himself off, but, after a moment... ]

And if I do know who he is already?

[ There. No telling on how and why. ]

[unobtainableredemption]

[Kaine's bites the inside of his lip to keep from saying anything further.

But to answer your question, no. He had thought they were in the middle of a team-up, though he'd never use the word.]

I don't believe you. If you really did know who he was, you wouldn't be asking me that question. [Because he knows he's not a perfect clone of Peter, but he's close enough to look like Peter's built older brother (even if he is younger).]

[werethatgood]

[ Huff. ]

Yeah, well, that's up to you. I don't know him anywhere near well enough to toss his name around, after all the care he's taken to keep it down low, so whatever.

[ On the other hand, while she has some idea of Peter Parker, the photographer, she hasn't exactly spent enough time around him - as Peter Parker - to be able to spot the family resemblance. ]

[unobtainableredemption]

[He looks over at her. Yeah, still don't believe you.]

Then give me his initials, or his day job, or anything else to give me a reason to even remotely believe you.

[werethatgood]

[ She hesitates. She still hesitates, because if she gets May into trouble, that'll not be cool. But, in the end, ]

P and P.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Okay maybe she does know. Still doesn't explain why the kid can't place his face.

Your father. Let me guess, he's an Avenger.