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WHO: Kaine Parker
WHERE: Nonah #001
WHEN: Fridayish.
WHAT: Kaine's return. Open to residents of the house!
WARNINGS: Kaine swears a lot. He even does it in his inner monologues.

It's not that Kaine hadn't thought of leaving Aracely behind in this world once they settled in, but the thought now makes him feel guilty the moment he exits the porter. Leaving her with a healthy home situation hadn't been a bad plan, and he still liked the idea of running away from Mexico. In some ways, having the collision of two sets of memories is good for him. Kaine likes his bad habits like he likes swearing, and like hell is he going to stop most of them. But what Justice said got through to him. More than that, what Wally said got through to him. He's a hero, like it or not. Fuck, it's like everything he never fucking wanted to be.

Just great.

Here he is, anyway. Feeling guilty. Porting immediately to Nonah. Heading straight to his house. He knows he could possibly take off for good this time. Aracely has a support group and enough busybody assholes who want to tell him how to take care of her, but he knows he won't do that. Even if he knows he can play it differently this time, he can't. She's there, and she's waiting.

So, he returns to Nonah #001 dressed in his Scarlet Spider costume, and he swings all the way back to the house without too many damns given. He makes sure to repair his costume around the way, and his first thought when he walks into the house is that it hasn't burnt down.

The second one?

"Before anyone asks, I just fought a giant fucking bear." Just in case anyone is within earshot and they're going to ask where he's been.

He feels like that says enough.

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"... Not that impressive. I did that in August."

It's a strangled statement. Annie holds her position on the stairs, looking down at Kaine in surprise. She'd told Aracely he'd be back. His disappearance is different from Bertholdt, blah blah blah, but it's still a shock seeing him all...

... Okay. Dressed as he is, actually. Costumes like these still trip Annie up.

After Annie responds, he tugs off his bask and looks at Annie with a degree of consideration. A giant bear? When did that happen? Maybe the idiots on the communication device didn't put it out there for the entire world to know. That's probably for the best. Kaine is the last person who wants to know everything about ... everything.

He's purely on a need-to-know basis with the world.

Still, she said it, so he'll ask.

"How big?"

Annie pauses to consider.

"Three... four meters tall?" Annie wasn't actually concerned with the way the fight with the modified polar bear had gone - Knock Out had torn its heart loose, after all - but it'd been something to blurt out other than why the hell did it have to be you who fobbed off for a while?

Questions like why wasn't that the case with Bertholdt, too? Nothing with answers. Annie merely starts back down the stairs, eyeing Kaine's costume.

Kaine slowly pulls off his mask the longer that Annie stands there and stares at him. In the time between Bertholdt's disappearance and his own, he hadn't been able to figure out if Bertholdt had returned—for obvious reasons. He's not exactly astute enough to ask, either. He's basically taking things as they come.

He holds his mask in his hand, considering something else to say, but instead, he goes with the easiest: "This was as tall as a fucking building, and he never shut up. What a pain in the ass."

Edited 2014-09-29 20:52 (UTC)

"He talked?" That was enough to make Annie curl her lip, displeased at that possibility more than being as tall as a building. It's disturbing, sure, but size can be dealt with. Talking is a sort of sentience that would bother her in a variety of ways. "How did that end?"

She looks away from Kaine, heading toward the kitchen. Her goals are simple. For now, water should be enough. Though she does think to ask after him, looking back over her shoulder.

"Thirsty?'

"It turns out that someone was ... driving the superpowered giant bear," he says finally. "And I am, after shouting at that idiot." He follows her into the kitchen. Having to go on about how he was a villain and having to talk about feelings with Vance was just too much. While Kaine regrets having to come here—Faira, if anything, really deserves an ally right now—he's at least relieved he's back with Aracely.

"Did anything happen while I was gone?"

Aracely had a minor breakdown, but generally speaking, no, not much. She keeps that thought to herself, shaking her head - of course someone was "driving" the bear. Nothing's ever straightforward. She really hates that.

Annie pulls out two glasses, filling from the tap water at the sink. Pure and delicious water as far as she's concerned - the chlorine that keeps it clean comes through to her palate, but as unused as she is to generally potable water, it's not worth complaining about most the time.

She hands one filled glass over to Kaine. "Nothing stranger than normal. Aracely missed you." Understatement of the moment, but she doesn't feel like overstating it. Kaine should know. If he doesn't, then... hell.

He takes the glass and sits down, looking out the window. The fact that Aracely missed him isn't surprising. Kaine's not exactly adept enough at understanding what that entails, even if the two of them spend a great deal of time together.

"Any information on our leads, or am I back to looking into that?" Given the timing, he hadn't had much of a chance. Some of his consciousness of this world is, seemingly, starting to shift back into place. He has a mission, a goal, and he has to get right the fuck on that.

"The ones I left in your hands are still waiting." It hadn't been long enough that she'd worried the differences between his leaving and Bertholdt - or Thundercracker, again - were null and void. "I may have Shinjiro Aragaki looking into one of the groups that likes to hang around and cause trouble down in old town, mostly the public nuisance sort."

May have, being it depended on his interest.

"Ananke got me a list of the same names as are on the memorial stones in the cemetery they opened up earlier this month. They're people we should look into, but only a few were local here - like I'd said before." More came out of Heropa or De Chima, or were last known to be active in M. Falls. "If any of these heroes went underground, the 'Hornets' is just a local name to what they might have had in mind. Nothing about the Hornets shows up in any other part of the country. Whatever ghosts we're chasing, they're local."

Legend or not, it has a certain curiosity attached. On the subject of Aracely, she doesn't explain. Not her place, and it's not something solvable. What's the contingency plan if you go missing again?

The unfortunate thing is that Kaine isn't together enough to consider a plan, but he considers this home, and these kids, to be enough for Aracely. In fact, they might be better for her. The fact that she doesn't mention it further doesn't faze him in the least.

"I wonder why. What do they gain from remaining localized. What about here gives them better resources?" He thought about hearing about the kids who got snatched elsewhere. If that's a real thing, a real threat, then it makes sense that there are resources elsewhere.

"Answering that will help. There's a chain of supplies occurring to ensure that they can remain here comfortably."

There are so many ifs, but there's little to do outside of accept the uncertainties and navigate through them to find anything half-way concrete.

"I don't know. I'm trying to determine if Nonah itself has any particular importance, past the people on network pointing out the name ties back into the Fates, and more of that line of thinking." Why Nonah? Where were the groups in other cities, the individuals, the stories about people who had half-way retired but were suspected to still be around?

It was probably her world experience talking, but crime and those who fought against the established system were both pervasive and interconnected. We did it better isn't a statement about Nonah alone, and might not need to be heroes at all - simply those possessive of their own world, their own country, and their own ability to defend and protect both.

Having agency stolen away isn't a good feeling. Annie can understand that much.

"I have Wally West looking into a few other rumors... between all of us, what I've heard up to this point should be covered." Hearing more along the way seems to be the natural progression.

Unlike the thought that she, or anyone, was enough for Aracely. A young woman who spoke as factually about her upcoming death (not in that tenuous sense where everyone died, not even in the sense of those in the Survey Corps, knowing they might well die every tomorrow), who'd been devastated by the loss of a mental presence as much as the person. Poor substitutes, though not ones who were inclined to leave her alone. That had to count for something.

Wally West. He gave a final nod to that, remembering that kid from before. Kaine didn't believe he had enough individual motivation to handle this on his own, but he didn't want to say that. Annie had a good head about these things, so he had to trust her. Still, bringing in too many outsiders meant that the web of individuals involved was getting fairly wide. He doesn't want that.

"Try not to involve too many other people," he says after a beat of thought. "We don't want to be obvious about what we're looking into, and we don't know who knows who." Spreading it out in three directions isn't bad, but he still wishes they kept it to the two of them. Even if he's working with a team, that doesn't uphold here. This isn't some New Warriors deal.

And besides, he's an adult working with kids. That says enough all on its own.

There's enough she can say, with the situation is as it is, but this isn't anything that she disagrees with. She's talked to who she has found worth talking to on this subject.

Annie simply bowed her head.

"While we're in process, we may want to pay attention to the Lif Foundation. See where they're doing their charitable works."

"Who?" There are a lot of intelligent responses that Kaine could have to that suggestion.

That isn't one of them.

Annie paused, shaking her head. "Sorry... they're a group who used to help fund hero efforts. If we're looking back to see what we can find out about the native heroes, they seem like someplace to pay attention to, as well." Support once given might mean support still given... or might mean connections still in place.

"Where are they located?" The location will matter. Kaine doesn't mind looking into someone, but he doesn't want to be drawn too far away from Nonah. Still, he knows full well that there are few others as ... equipped as he is when it comes to looking into things.

He's damn lucky that he has that suit he stole from Peter.

"Nationwide." Which meant local and not so local efforts, hence Annie shrugging one shoulder when she admits to this. After all, she's been focused on handling one place first - and delegating the investigation of others to otherwise interested parties.

"Gonna be easy to figure out if they're corrupt, but it's gonna be a matter of figuring out where the hell that corruption is." He's not certain either of them have the schedule to even start doing that. It's obvious that Kaine isn't committing to it either way.

Honestly, neither one of them does right now. "Yeah. So keeping an ear out for the name... that's all."

"See if it comes up." Kaine can ask around his work, too, and see what the sentiments are. That's low effort, at least.

She had felt him the moment he came back. It was like a wave of relief washed over her. She didn't need the assurance that he'd be heading straight back to their new home in Nonah, but she could feel his guilt and his draw, and she knew it wouldn't be long until he arrived. So she busied herself making things somewhat accommodating in only the way that she could make it. Which mean, really, that there were cold beers and clean towels.

She doesn't have any words, or feel the need to say much of anything. But she steps forward easily when he arrives, tucks herself in her arms and says simply: "Welcome home."

There's no indication of her episode, of the desperation and the fear. Kaine was back, and that's all that mattered.

"You didn't get up to anything, did you?" he asks, as if he's expecting that she did. Aracely tends to get into a lot of messes, and he does want to know about it. But there's still that typical aggravation to his tone, as if he doesn't know how to sound fond about another person. Of course, she can likely sense it, anyway. More than that, there's something else: as if he's not going to stick close to her while trying to find a way to run away.

She's his responsibility. She's his responsibility. And even if responsibility is a stupid fucking word, he's not going anywhere.

(But really, fuck responsibility.)

"Nope! Nothing."

But that doesn't really account for the kitten that's come bounding around the corner to make a fluffy appearance. She scoops her up with one hand and looks satisfied. The foreboding and the loneliness were gone. She readjusts and settles easily.

"This is Ben, Robbie brought her when you left. Peter came too—oh, I mean Spider-Man." She lowers her voice. "Don't call him Peter when he's wearing the costume."

"Obviously." That's to the last bit. When the cat comes running in, his first thought is "fucking Robbie." Because really, fucking Robbie. How the hell is he supposed to take care of a house full of kids who don't even know how to toast bread properly and a cat? Does Aracely know how to take care of a cat?

Well, she's going to know he's wondering if she does, so he frowns heavily.

"Why the hell did he give you a cat? Why did you name her Ben?" The stupid sweatshirt that she wears around is bad enough. Why does she need a cat to add to it? He doesn't need extra reminders!

"Because she's a hero too! Do you want to name her something different? ... But she already knows how to come ..." Aracely looks thoughtful, and then reaches out to hand Kaine the small little fluffy ginger bundle of Ben. "I think she lies you! She was company while you were gone. It felt really weird, but she slept with me the whole time!" she sounds very satisfied.

"You want a soda?"

"We're not bringing a cat out there. Who told you that a cat was a hero, anyway? Not that we're heroes." Kaine knows with absolute certainty that Aracely's going to know about his acceptance of his role among the New Warriors. He knows that, and there's little he can do about it.

He shakes his head at the offer of soda, focusing on some other things she mentioned instead. "No one wondered why the hell Spider-Man was here?" he asks.

Edited 2014-10-06 04:32 (UTC)

She's already decided that they're keeping the cat, and she already knows that they're heroes, so that doesn't need to be argued. There's a little smile on her face, she looks more content than she has in days.

"People probably wondered but no one asked."

"Or they figured it out and his psychic blindspot doesn't hide shit," he retorts easily, his cynicism strong in his tone. "He shouldn't be here, so tell him not to come next time." Kaine knows that he's speaking as if there will be a next time, but all the same.

"He was worried about you too," she says, quirking her head to the side. The kitten wiggles a little bit in her arms, before she lets her down to scamper around her feet. "And me, so he wanted to come by." She wasn't going to discourage him, especially since it was one form of solace.

"What happened while you were gone?" she asks like she doesn't know fully.

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