I'm nearly human look at me

[unobtainableredemption]

Characters: Kaine and OPEN
Date: Sometime after the bottle event
Location: Various
Situation: Various
Warnings/Rating: PG-13 to be safe (for Kaine's mouth)


Option 1 - Fire Sector
[Kaine’s standing in front of a storefront, looking through the window at the mantle displayed on the other side and debating whether or not he wants to buy one. Not for the fashion, mind you, but for something he could temporarily wear to cover his face and conceal the giant shiner surrounding his left eye. It’s a cliché, but you should really see the other guy.]


Option 2 - Water Sector
[He had intended to go right home, but now that his face was concealed by the hood of his newly bought mantle, Kaine finds himself walking right past the door to his suite, eventually winding up in a park in the water sector. It's clear by the path of destruction as he enters that one of the baby turtles had been through recently--the rubble had not yet been pushed to the side. He found himself smiling despite himself. When were they going to learn that they couldn't destroy everything?

Kaine sits on one of the benches and pulls the hood low as to cover his black eye, and just stares out at the mess. He could head home some other time.]


Option 3 - Metal Sector (Wearing this costume, though he still has short hair)
[He had forgotten how heavy the outfit was. It was the complete opposite of his Scarlet Spider costume—bulky with ridges and angles that have angles. Then there was the cape. What was he thinking when he added a cape to this thing? There was no reason for it whatsoever. Not like the raised “veins” of the costume, which had once pressed upon the scars of his degeneration to slow its progress, but now just serve to remind him of where the scars used to be. It was perfect.

He couldn't be the Scarlet Spider anymore. Not after what had happened in the bottle. It only served to remind him just how different he was from the others, and just how far he had fallen from what he could have been. And then he found this, his old outfit that once kept him alive, the outfit he wore during the year he spent terrorizing both Reilly and Parker, as well as anyone they might have cared about… and if that wasn't divine intervention, he didn't know what was.

Kaine leaps to the next building, never losing a stride in his step. He’s trying to get used to the suit’s bulk by doing something he’d done hundreds of times in it before... but if he bothered to stop and think about it, he’d realize just how suspicious he looks dressed like that leaping across rooftops at a sprint.]

OOC: If you want to roll with something other than those, feel free to either PM me, reach out to me at redconfession, or just start a thread, your choice.

Comments

1

[problematical]

[ River's been watching the man preen in the window reflection for a few moments now from across the street, her slight figure easy to miss in the bustle of the crowd. She weaves her way through the people though until she's almost at his elbow. ]

You shouldn't fight.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Jesus Christ she scared him. He had been so focused on the mantle he hadn't heard her approach.]

Some asshole got a lucky shot trying to take my wallet. I only protected myself. [And by "protected myself" he means "sent the guy to the hospital".]

[problematical]

[ River is wearing a grin that's just a shade this side of shit-eating as she jumps too; she often does the same to Jayne, knowing exactly how far to keep to stay out of reach. ]

Played a game where he didn't know the rules so you won, but you can't call him a sore loser.

[ Though if he's in the hospital he probably is sore. ]

[unobtainableredemption]

I didn... wait, what? [This girl quite possibly made less sense than Aracely.]

[problematical]

[ River steps around him and picks up a trinket from the mantle he'd been using, under the watchful eye of the shopkeeper nearby. They must look like quite a pair, with her eclectic appearance and his stunning shiner. She holds the figurine, a tacky classic that even from her own universe recognizes, next to his head. ]

You probably could have used this.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Stares at it for a few seconds, fighting the urge to laugh.]

I could wear a belt of those and it wouldn't make a difference. My... family isn't exactly known for its luck.

[problematical]

What are they known for?

[ The question is genuine rather than playful, because River isn't sure (looking back) that she was wholly part of her own family, and what they wanted to be known for. ]

[unobtainableredemption]

[Spiders. Not that this girl needs to know that.

What to say instead...] They've all got this irritating speech about responsibility.

[problematical]

[ River laughs softly at that, though she felt like he wasn't saying what he'd been about to. She made the conscious effort not to speak of that though. ]

Heard those ones before. The old River got them a lot.

[unobtainableredemption]

Old River? [...Though he had to admit, those were the first sentences she strung together that actually made sense.]

[problematical]

The River before she woke up.

[ She puts the cat figurine back on the table, casting a glance at the not subtly hovering shopkeeper. ]

You wouldn't have liked her.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Motions to the mantle to the shopkeeper, pulling out his coin purse since he knows the guy's already suspicious.]

Sounds like old Kaine. It's a good thing they're not here right now. [Though he knows his past isn't far behind him.]

...Is, uh, someone watching you? [Because you definitely seem like someone who shouldn't be wandering around alone.]

[problematical]

[ The gesture seems to mollify the shopkeeper, who backs off and at least pretends to be tending his other wares for the moment. ]

Very good.

[ She tilts her chin up at him from her unimpressive height, but the way she does makes it seem like she's looking right through his fumble. ]

You are.

[unobtainableredemption]

[He fights the urge to sigh. Of course he is.]

You said your name was River? [How does one hold a normal conversation?] ...How long have you been stuck here?

[problematical]

[ You're the only person standing in front of her, Kaine. It's not her fault you took it as a badge of responsibility~ ]

Yes.

For nine days.

[unobtainableredemption]

Kaine.

Have you gotten a good look around yet?

[problematical]

[ River shook her head, picking up a new thing from the shopkeeper's table: this time a carved wooden whistle, half the length of a regular flute. ]

Didn't like the map, it was all wrong.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Damn, and just when she was beginning to make sense.]

Yeah well being on the back of a giant turtle will do it. It's a pretty straightforward city otherwise, though...

[problematical]

[ She smiles beatifically at him. ]

Will you show me the city?

[unobtainableredemption]

[Gah, his eyes.]

...Why not. Let me just buy this hood thing first. [Looks down at the whistle.] You want that?

[problematical]

[ Well, strange or not River apparently reacts the same way as pretty much any teenage girl being offered a gift. ]

Yes please.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Motions to the shopkeeper, then to the whistle in River's hands and the Mantle he's picking up off the table. He quickly haggles a price with the guy and puts the clothing on over his shirt, maneuvering the hood to mask his black eye. He's aware he looks ridiculous but he didn't exactly have the time to get a hoodie commissioned... by the time it was done his injury would be long gone.]

All right, so what sector are you from?

[problematical]

[ River's looking very pleased, blowing a few simple notes on the whistle before tucking it into the bag at her hip. ]

Water Sector. They didn't ask, they just brought me there but it was all right. Did they ask you?

[unobtainableredemption]

[He heads out the store and starts walking towards the water sector. A good a place as any to show her around.]

None of us got asked if we wanted to come. [Though... he can't say he particularly minds. The place, for the most part, has brought him peace. And that is something he'd give up everything for.

It was selfish of him, but he only wished Aracely was here to enjoy it too.]

[problematical]

[ She had meant to ask if they'd asked him what sector he'd wanted to be assigned to but River is used to people not being able to follow her trains of thought and hardly holds that against them. Instead she just goes along with what he answers, because it gives her other information. ]

Would you have come if you were asked?