kinship | 010 Omens of Crusnik

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010 Omens of Crusnik

[A: Elementary School (OPEN)]

[What is that sound floating out over the playground at lunch? It's piano music, just basic tunes being repeated over and over again from the open window of the music room. Cain has retired there to study the books that Charles gave him, tireless in his pursuit of being the very best at whatever task was set to him.

Every time he makes a mistake, he repeats that part of the piece over and over again until it's flawless. Anyone at all is free to hear his attempts or tell him to shut up.]

[B: Around Town (OPEN)]

[Tis the season, and all that... It's Cain's first Christmas where he'll actually get to celebrate, instead of watching all the colonists exchange presents while never being part of it himself. He's been saving all the pocket money that his drone not!mother had been giving him (until she got replaced yesterday), as well as the money he got for doing odd-jobs for his friends. So now he's out and about shopping for gifts.

Do you work in any of the stores? Then this blond haired boy might just be peering over the counter with a bright smile. Are you wandering down the street aimlessly? Feel free to bump into Cain as he carries a stack of boxes too high to see over... because clearly that's just asking for trouble.]

[C: Phone (OPEN)]

[Did you order a rousing pep talk by a ten year old today, Mayfield? No... shame, because it's coming anyway.]

Christmas is coming soon... Maybe you celebrate something else in your world, or maybe you don't celebrate anything at all, but here... I think they'll have Christmas. I don't know if anything will happen, but...

Even if it does, and even if it hurts us, we can't let it break us. We have to keep our eyes forward, and we have to stick together. As long as we look out for each other, then we can change the future to whatever we want.

[D: Home (Locked to Housemates)]

[It seemed like he was the first one home, which was a little odd after the drone!Esther housewife who had always been there to welcome him in and tell him to do his homework before dinner. Which, consequently, led to the thought that there was no dinner... Astha didn't seem the type to make a meal for the family based on what he had seen, Rachel had already shown she believed cooking beneath her, and he didn't want to die so Abel was out.

Therefore, whenever anyone else gets home, they might find the youngest non-drone member of the household stood on a chair by the stove. He's pouring over one of the recipes Esther had left behind, not being allowed to go and find any more of his own, and is carefully adding things to a big bubbling pot.]

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[His lips curve into a smile where they're still pressed to Abel's forehead, not wanting to step back. He was so worried, he's still so scared underneath it all and he doesn't know how to stop it.]

It's okay, you didn't cook this, it'll be fine.

[mmph big-little brother, you're the best. he chuckles a little, before settling his head on Cain's shoulder. shut up he can do this and get away with it right now because he said so.]

Now you're just rubbing it in, smart alek.

[He doesn't mind Abel's head at his shoulder at all, raising his hand to gently start petting fingers through his hair. Cain just chuckles at the mild teasing, falling silent for a little bit to let Abel eat without distractions.]

Mm, Abel?

[oh this is nice. hair pets AND cuddles AND food? he will be a good boy and eat in that case.]

...Mm?

[It's true that Abel is a dog, he just needs petting and food.]

Will you tell me about Miss Astha?

[herp... his drowsy eyelids open a little more, at that... and he's quiet, thinking... before responding.]

Mm. Is there something you wanted to know...?

Just... everything.

[He knows that's a bit vague, but he doesn't really know much about the world Abel lives in now or the people he knows.]

[that's a sad thought, but... the reality of the situation. after a pause of reluctance, he finally pulls his head up to look on his brother properly.]

I guess I haven't told you much about home, since... [...]

[Since he died. Since the war and Crusnik. He isn't even sure he wants to know more than is necessary, he doesn't want to make that future a reality in his mind.]

...no.

[herps all the derps. he looks down at what's left of the bowl, returning to poking at it absently just for something to do that isn't looking into his brother's eyes.]

...I met Miss Astharoshe through the Vatican. She's a Methuselah-- it's what they call the descendants of the colonists from Mars, now... those who inherited the bacillus in their bloodstream. Because of the Earth's closer proximity to the sun, the effects of the nanomachines... they give their host side-effects, ones that resemble vampirism.

[he looks up a bit, before giving his brother a wan smile.]

Allergy to silver and inability to tolerate UV rays... the need to consume hemoglobin to fuel themselves... They are 'vampires' who don't even understand what they really are.

The rift from the war still exists, today. They've been living segregated from the 'terrans' for centuries... and it's only in the past hundred years there's been relative peace between us, but it's strained at best. Miss Astha was sent on a mission to capture a fugitive from the Empire, and I was assigned as an agent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assist her while she was in Rome.

[The more he hears about this future, the more questions it raises and the more insane it sounds. He remembers Abel telling him about the bacillus, though he hadn't realised it had been assimilated with the colonists to produce... something akin to vampires of legend.

If he hadn't met both Esther and Astha, who confirmed this story, he would have thought Abel was either crazy or lying to him. And Abel... an agent with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Vatican, that was the most unbelievable of all.]

So she is your friend?

[When she regains her bacillus, she's not about to eat him or Rachel, is she?]

She is...! Astha is... well. She's dependable and has a kind heart, even if she's got a rough exterior. She's very noble and trustworthy... I've had to rely on her a few times in the past, and she always comes through.

[he's fond of her, it's true. he can appreciate the weight of the word 'tovaras' when it comes from someone like her.]

The Methuselah see themselves as... superior beings. Evolved... better. They have no idea where they came from, or what they really are, so... you might have to tolerate some, ah. Interesting commentary on the subject.

[That was... almost darkly amusing. Superior beings? That's what the Red Mars clones were supposed to be... well, superior in most ways, but inferior where it counted the most regarding rights and freedom.

He sits back, scrubbing a hand over his face slightly and trying to order his thoughts.]

Do you... want me to keep quiet about the Red Mars Project again?

[He knows Abel had given him the go-ahead to speak about it, but that was before someone else from his time had shown up.]

[believe him, he understands the irony. Abel shifts, slightly, as if in search of a more comfortable position -- even if his unease was not physical.]

...

[his knee-jerk reaction is to selfishly and cowardly say yes. yes, yes yes. yes...

but he had seen how much it had eased a burden on his brother to be... free of those secrets. he never wanted to hear him speak of feeling like Abel was ashamed of him again...

...yet, thinking of Astha... if she were to know, then...]

I can't... ask you to do that for me. [not anymore, even if he's terrified.]

[Abel's answer was far from reassuring. His brother has never been the best at concealing his emotions, at least not from Lilith or himself, and they are written so clearly in the shifting of his body and the look of his eyes.]

But... you want to.

[Ask that of him, he means. Even if he won't.]

...Do you... understand, Cain? That no one has any idea about-- any of this... that it's been nine hundred years, and the world... it isn't the place we knew as children.

[half dead.]

What you saw... [he points, vaguely, beyond the bedroom.] After the holiday. That's all that's left of most of the earth... and after the war, everything... just... stopped. Cities that weren't destroyed turned to chaos... most smaller towns still don't so much as possess the luxury of electricity after all this time...

How do I explain...? How do I tell them what we are, when the world that made us is centuries gone...? How do I tell someone like her I'm... that I've--

[g... nn; he hangs his head a bit, breath hitched quietly as he pressed a hand to his side. his insides get all twisted up thinking about this... the remembered fear in Esther's face as she discovered that the priest was truly a monster. even if her forgiveness and acceptance had come with time... he will never be able to forget what he is and can so easily become in the eyes of the children he vowed to protect.

he's just a selfish coward...]

[He can understand it from a purely subjective point of view, but he can't really grasp the enormity of it being real. Even the world they had glimpsed for a few days was overwhelming enough, to imagine that having happened all across Earth?

And nine hundred years! That span of time was incomprehensible to a ten year old, however smart, and it just sounded... ludicrous whenever Abel said it, even though he knew his brother wasn't lying.]

I don't... know, Abel.

But if she's your friend, wouldn't you want her to be friends with all of you and not just the half you'll tell her about?

[...

he gently sets the bowl in his lap on the nightstand, trying to keep that pang in his chest under control.]

...Do you really think I deserve a friend?

[do you really think anyone could love him as a friend if they knew who-- what-- he really was?]

[Idiot... he's such an idiot. If Cain were the type, he would smack him for that question, but he's not. So he'll just answer with a question of his own.]

Do you think I do?

[Because he thinks he does, and if he deserves friends then so does Abel.]

You know I do.

[the reply is immediate, but he can't keep the slight strain out of his voice. Cain, don't... try to pull that card. it won't lead anywhere good.]

You deserve what I took away from you. You're someone... who deserves love, Cain, to be happy and accepted and to be whole.

[by his own actions, he had ensured that he, in turn, did not.]

Then you know that you deserve them as well.

[He stepped a little closer, so he was almost on Abel's lap, looking into his eyes firmly.]

Even before I met you, our hearts beat at the same time, and they still do. It doesn't matter if you're nine or nine hundred, clone or Crusnik or something else entirely... you're my brother, my twin, the other half of me.

I can't be happy and accepted and whole without you, so... don't think for a second you're worth less.

[he won't say it out loud, but it should be obvious -- it isn't a matter of whether or not he was worth less than Cain. to Abel, his own life would always mean nothing. the debt he owed for his sins was so great, even if he kept going on forever... he'd never be able to repay it. maybe the world would forgive him, one day, but...

he'd never forgive himself.

he averts his eyes from his twin's into his own lap, unable to look at that piercing gaze and know that his brother was so ignorant. would he feel the same way if he knew that Abel would be his murderer, one day...? what he had allowed happen to Lilith...? you've got it all wrong, Cain...]

[He hates that the only answer to that is an aversion of Abel's gaze, the self-loathing evident in the slope of Abel's shoulders.

Squeezing himself between Abel's knees to lean against his chest, hugging his seated brother, Cain's words were a little muffled into his shoulder.]

We're the same. Always.

You're not... a monster, Cain.

[he tugs his brother in for a hug, tight.

they stopped being the same the moment you died... and it had taken Abel far too long to notice.]

[He stiffens in Abel's grip, looking up at his brother's face awkwardly from where he was being held.]

You're not a monster!

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