October Catch-All

[backwordscompatible]

Characters: Aya, Midii, Zatanna, & OPEN
Date: Month of October
Location: Keelai
Situation: Various (specified in openers)

Warnings/Rating: none to start; will update if necessary



A. - Zatanna

[She felt overwhelmed.]

[So much had happened. The death of the Turtles. Rising theories about Asti and Malicant and...things that the last exploration group had come across. Tensions were rising, and the worst part of it all?]

[They were in the proverbial calm before the storm. Which meant waiting.]

[Zatanna hated waiting.]

[She was a busy person by nature. Sitting still? Not an option. She would fidgit. Her hands, usually. Flipping a coin or a pencil or some other manipulative. Often, it was subconscious. She didn't even realize she was doing it.]

[Like right then. It was a small card. Not a tarot card, like the kind she'd used at her work in the past--for a time, she had considered the option, but even her skills weren't good enough to actually use the art to predict what would happen. Not with enough certainty to be of use. No, this one was your average playing card. A four of hearts. Arbitrarily chosen from the pack because it was there. Keeping her left hand busy while her eyes scanned the shop store windows. It was October. Which, to her, signified a lot of memories. Of costumes and friends.

[Halloween.]

[More than once, she found herself wondering if they would celebrate this year. With everything going on...probably not.]

[Shame]


B. - Midii

[The soon-to-be teen girl was hardly ever without Riva at her side these days.]

[After what happened...both of them had only just barely stopped crying. For the mutual losses they shared. Out of fear of what was to come. Midii wasn't a fighter. She had always known this. Her strong suit was knowing, but when it came to the enemy...she was too vulnerable. Bad enough when it was her life at stake, but if something ever happened to Riva? She would never forgive herself.]

...I know, girl, I miss them too.

[Sitting on the grass, out in the open, near one of the lakes, she gave Riva a soft pat on the neck. The weather was a bit cooler than it had been during the summer months, but Riva was still in need of constant hydration. An attempt to distract from all the loss. Not just her brothers and sisters...but from the pair that had been her co-parents for so long. First Rapunzel, and now Septimus.]

[They hadn't been particularly close, but Midii had liked them both. She hadn't been lying about missing them. Riva would know.]


C. - Aya

[The message she had translated was...concerning.]

[The latest theories regarding Malicant were even more so.]

[With only just barely enough returns to her assigned quarters to check on her soul lantern, Aya had all but taken up permanent residence in the Laboratory.  She found a great comfort being surrounded by like-minded individuals, in proximity to tools in which she might be of use.  She was a fighter, yes, but she was also one of the most advanced pieces of technology known to exist.  An asset, against an enemy such as Malicant.]

If it is true that the enemy has infiltrated the Network itself...then perhaps there is some way we may use this knowledge to our advantage?

[Her leading--and only--theory.]


D. - (Misc.)

((If there's another scenario you'd like any of the girls to be in, feel free to set up and I will absolutely follow accordingly!))

Comments

[insertdadjoke]

[ Cain shakes his head at the sudden feelings rippling out in reciprocation. This isn't something he's used to and moderating his thoughts has never been something he's thought to do, not in all his twenty-eight hundred years. It's going to take some getting used to, feeling his own and someone else's. ]

That, just now... Riva, can you feel me? [ He's not going to apologize, but he is trying to switch gears from being on his own to having a child to care for again. That helps stem some of his more grim tendencies. ] I'll try to keep it in line.

[unetrustworthy]

Easier said than done.

[Midii's words were low. Barely meant to be heard. And yet...there was a hint of ironic humor behind them. If he were to catch her at just the right moment, he might even see the corners of her lips twitch upward. Eyes glazing over at certain memories. Certain people and moments passed in which keeping it in line had apparently not been an option.]

[Fortunately, they had been good memories.]

After a while you almost start getting used to it.

Go ahead. Talk to her.

[She took a step back, giving her permission. True, he didn't need it...it wasn't really hers to give (it was Riva's), but it would help if she did all the same.]

[Riva, as he would soon learn, was almost as stubborn as her "Midii-mama" (the nickname Midii had long ago resigned to, no matter how much it reminded her of her baby brother back home) with about three times the cheerful attitude. She was at a stage in her life where she was attempting to exert independence. Mentally, the same age as Midii. Maybe slightly older. The younger girl was less than a month away from the cusp of teenage-dom, after all.]

[Slightly rebellious, and very knowing in what she wanted.]

[Which, at this particular moment...seemed to be getting Cain to smile at her. Come on, Cain. You know you want to. Isn't she just so adorable?]

[insertdadjoke]

[ Cain eyes Midii for a moment, exasperation warring with amusement. If it's one thing he doesn't need, it's permission from a twelve year old to approach a telepathic turtle who started this whole thing by calling him out. Still, it's kind of cute in the kids-are-helpless-at-being-annoying way.

He does turn to pay attention to Riva. Now it really is amusement with those emotions washing around. He can't help it, this whole thing is so ridiculous and amazing and just his luck. He grins for Riva. ]

You two are going to be trouble, I can just tell. My name is Jacob, we probably shouldn't forget that part here.

[ Not entirely true. He's more Cain than Jacob Kane and more a man lost than Cain. What's in a name, though? ]

[unetrustworthy]

[She knew how to play nice. When she wanted to. But she was even better at playing precocious.]

That's a very rude thing to say to someone you've only just met. [Although she didn't seem to take much offense. It was true.] I'm Midii.

[insertdadjoke]

Midii? Well, it looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the future. Might as well get the rude out of the way first.

[unetrustworthy]

[The absolute rudest.]

You're not very good at first impressions.

[insertdadjoke]

[ Girl, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Be glad he's able to defer to a child instead of letting loose like he would on an adult. Now he's just entertained. ]

No, not really. Neither are you, but you don't hear me harping on it, do you?

[unetrustworthy]

[The fact that he mentally keeps referring to her as a child might have something to do with it. Not much, but a little.]

I'm not harping on anything. I'm stating a fact.

[insertdadjoke]

[ Cain is old enough to be the founder of Rome. Midii is a child and the sooner she accepts it, the sooner she can learn to grow up. ]

Observant, too. How long have you been here, Midii?

[ No matter the conversation, he hasn't taken a mean tone of any sort yet. It's patient, tolerant, maybe actually respectful in there. ]

[unetrustworthy]

[Now that, regardless of how he intended it to sound, she would take as a compliment; it wasn't necessarily the acknowledgement of her age, so much as it was the potentially condescending timbre that came with the association. Or what could be empathetically interpreted as such.]

A long time. Since I was eleven.

[insertdadjoke]

[ It's okay, Midii. You'll grow to understand Cain's warring cynicism and realism soon enough. He's not a bad guy if you can manage to be his friend... and hey, you're already at an advantage!

Cain gives an amused grin at how useless the information is out of context, but he's still patient. He has all the time in the damn world. Literally. ]

And how old are you now?

[unetrustworthy]

[Considering she literally grew up on a war-torn planet, and had been standing in the middle of a field of corpses not long before coming to Keelai? ...it wasn't a matter of understanding so much as about a hundred other issues. Mostly hers.]

I'll be thirteen next month.

[insertdadjoke]

[ Meh, Cain understands issues. He's just not going to talk about them... or even really let on that he's not some twenty-four year old, fresh out of college product of the modern age. ]

Must be tougher than you look.

[ That actually is a compliment. ]

That, or Riva's been taking care of you.

[unetrustworthy]

Both, really.

[Without a hint of sarcasm. Granted, it wasn't difficult to be tougher than she might have looked. Midii had always been small for her age due to a childhood of malnutrition and hardship. Even the year spent in Keelai, finally getting some meat on her bones and building up the muscle...she was still petite. Hardly a fighter.]

We take care of each other. It's how we survive.

[insertdadjoke]

And here I come, just barging into the middle of that.

[ He tilts his head to take another look at Riva, moves closer so that he can place a hand on her shell. ]

Is that going to be a problem?

[unetrustworthy]

[She shrugged.]

[In her defense, she legitimately thought about it before shrugging. And only then, as an honest way of showing she didn't have an answer for him. Yet. It was too soon to tell.]

You aren't the first person. You might not be the last.

[insertdadjoke]

[ His head dips in acknowledgment. That's a fair point to be made and he isn't going to argue it. ]

At least in the meanwhile, we can try to get along, huh?

[unetrustworthy]

I thought we were getting along.

[In the sense that, for otherwise complete strangers spontaneously thrown into such a potentially intimate, uncomfortable situation...with their respective apparent natures...they were off to a relatively good start.]

[insertdadjoke]

[ Cain laughs at that. ]

You know, you have a point. What were you doing out here?

[unetrustworthy]

[She indicated towards Riva.]

She likes to be outside, especially in the water. We come out here for walks a lot.

[It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Riva got her daily swim in, while Midii got to people-watch. See what was going on around her.]

[insertdadjoke]

No one ever bugs you, do they?

[ His hand is still on her shell. ]

Where do you stay when you're not out with Midii, hm?

[unetrustworthy]

[She wished.]

People come up to talk to me. Usually if I know them, but sometimes if they're you.

[Riva, meanwhile, was attempting to send little mental flashes to her new turtle parent. Names. Septimus. Rapunzel. Her former parents, whom she would take turns staying with. Septimus' place was more frequent, but there were equal amounts of love and longing between the two.]

...for the last couple of weeks, it's been just the two of us. She'd stayed with me almost constantly.

[insertdadjoke]

[ He gets the flashes, although he's unaccustomed to them, and takes a moment to sort through the information. He isn't used to images and ideas dancing across his brain like this. ]

Didn't realize our places were actually big enough. I could probably take her for a while if you ever want the space, though.

[ It's an offer with a point to it. Cain wants to know more about Riva, too, get closer to her. ]

[unetrustworthy]

[Her first instinct was to reject the offer. Politely.]

[But...]

[She glanced to Riva. It was up to her.]

You should probably spend some time together. I think...that's what she'd like.

[insertdadjoke]

It won't be forever. No offense, I'm not used to having kids around anymore. So, just for a while. A week?