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

[unobtainableredemption]

You mean you don't regularly? [Because really, his neighbor talks too much.]

[mendelian]

[Connor snorts, but quietly, very quietly, and the laughter is quickly tucked away where his friend won't notice it.

Because, really, Kyle sometimes does not know when to keep quiet. It's true.]

I... he's never gone on about bowling, to be honest, but I'm a little dated. Maybe he's picked it up.

[unobtainableredemption]

He dragged us all here, didn't he? He must like the damn thing.

[Speaking of, he finds himself looking around the bowling alley.] God, who even thought this was a good idea, anyway? [Means the bowling alley, not the outing. He knows damn well who's responsible for that.]

[mendelian]

[Connor looks around the alley as well, finding himself smiling in amusement.]

I think he likes that it's normal and fun. There's not a lot of places here are. That's probably why the bowling alley's here. It's not a bad idea, having a place to unwind. There are worse options.

[unobtainableredemption]

Really? Bowling is what people consider normal and fun these days?

But I mean seriously, look at those people. They have less an idea of what they're doing than I do. I watched one of them carry the ball over to the pins and hit the pins with the ball he was still holding.

[mendelian]

I'm not the best person to ask about what's fun these days. I have that on good authority.

[You wouldn't believe the reaction he gets when he suggests a secondhand books and coffee shops crawl.]

But I don't think it's important to know what you're doing. He still smiled. Everybody laughed. What's the harm in it if everybody's in on the joke?

[unobtainableredemption]

Clearly I don't know either.

[He... would much rather be doing that, even if it sounds boring as hell.]

I... [...have no idea how to respond to that.] I guess.

[mendelian]

[Gosh, Kaine, it's not boring. You get to meet new people, have interesting conversations about philosophy, politics, new authors, and a decent cup of joe. Why does no one ever see the appeal?]

You're a little serious for one of Kyle's friends.

[He looks amused, because so is he.]

What would you have done for a night out? Since it's obviously not go bowling.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Can they just go punch things instead? That's... way more interesting.]

He decided to make me his pet project or something after we met. It doesn't help that he's my neighbor. Or rather I'm his.... boyfriend's neighbor? [He still has no idea what the deal is between Kyle and the other guy in that suite.] Whatever.

I... [Like to put on a Spider costume and "fight crime." God that still sounds stupid. Besides, he's not wearing the spider costume anymore.] I prefer to go to a bar.

[mendelian]

[Punching things isn't something he puts down in his date book. It tends to just happen, and then he winds up looking around a dinner of knocked out bikers and rednecks and wondering why he always winds up here.

... funny, Kyle tends to be there when that happens, too.]

Oh, Kirk. [Connor has noted his neighbors, but he hasn't gone out of his way to take them bowling. Maybe he should; it's not a bad idea.] His pet project? For what?

[He pauses for a moment, trying to think of the reasons why someone would adopt someone as a pet project. Well, his father took in Mia and Roy, but Kaine isn't a teenager.] I was going to suggest that we do whatever you said after the game, but I don't drink.

[unobtainableredemption]

That his name? [He'd seen the guy around, but he can't say they've ever spoken before.]

And damned if I know. I ran into him when I first got here, then had the unpleasant experience of learning we were neighbors. Apparently he thought that entitled him to harass me.

All I want to do is go home. [Even if he is getting into this idiotic ball game despite his best efforts not to.]

[mendelian]

His last name. I think his first name is Jim or James. [Connor hasn't actually met him yet, either, but he's chalking it up to either incompatible schedules or trepidation on Kyle's part, rather than some character flaw of his. He really should do something about it, either way, before it reaches the point of unintentional avoidance. People could get offended.]

We all want to go home, but I don't want spend more time than I have to in a condo that isn't mine. There aren't enough tchotchkes in the markets to make it feel homey.

[unobtainableredemption]

[Kaine just shrugs. He had no idea.]

With the life I've lived, I'm just happy with a roof over my head. Without any holes. [Some of the places he lived were real dives.

Though, if he were being honest, the only reason he can consider his suite his home is because of Peter and May and now Miles who remind him its his.]

[mendelian]

[Unlike Kaine, Connor's family isn't here, and he wouldn't want them to be.]

Must've been a helluva life.

[It's an invitation to talk about it, if he wants to, but it doesn't cross the line into request. Sometimes, people just don't want to share, and, so, Connor offers an out as well.]

This frame's yours too, you know.

[unobtainableredemption]

[It isn't like he exactly hoped people he knew would be here, but they all showed up around the same time.]

You have no idea. [Sorry, Connor, he's not talking about his life. He doesn't like talking about it to people he considers his closest friends... he's not about to open up to a stranger.

He stands up and picks his ball out from the others. Why was he doing this again?

Right, because he was apparently a competitive idiot. He lines his ball up and releases. It wasn't what he wanted, but he didn't have to cheat to knock the 8 pins down either.]

[mendelian]

[He had offered, and that was what mattered. He hadn't expected to be sat down for a reading of the Autobiography of Kaine. Instead of harping on it, he watched as the ball neatly took down 8 pins and smiled warmly.]

I don't think you need any lessons from me. You're going to end up neck-and-neck with Kyle.

[unobtainableredemption]

Great, and then I become king of the idiots. [Gets his ball from the machine and releases it poorly. He just sort of watches as it careens off track, and his hand flicks almost instinctively, though it doesn't fire webbing this time, as he debates whether or not to cheat again (because really, doing it twice would just be an all new low in his life, and he wasn't sure if he could deal with that accomplishment).]