LL cont’

[markofkaine]

[Bad ideas. That’s what Rafael was famous for. Sometimes those bad ideas would pan out into groundbreaking technologies. Other times it would blow up spectacularly in his face - and by extension, all faces adjacent. Not that it ever stopped him from coming up with more.

This one, though. A bridge too far.

Aracha - if that really could be called his name anymore - sat, hunched over, cycling a trinket between his fingers as though in a trance. It felt like the slow, tactile motion was the only thing still keeping him grounded to reality (again, questionable). His mind was… far, far away, in a place that might not even exist anymore, lost. But more than that, alone, in a vast, empty field of deaf, silent rage. And that cold silence seeped into every crack in his brain, filling the folds of his thoughts, the hollow space in his bones, the pockets in his lungs.

He wasn’t real. He wasn’t real. None of this was real. He knew that now.

At some point, his fiance was going to walk through the door and find him sitting at the foot of their his bed. And one way or another, this lie would be shattered.]

Comments

[markofkaine]

[Ignore the sudden warmth. Ignore it. (He is not successful in ignoring it. Suddenly the thought of Miguel getting hurt on this suicide mission makes him feel sick. The only person who's ever been resembling happy to hear from him...)

If these prizes aren't the plan, then what is? Kaine's eyes narrow in suspicion, even from afar.

Then what IS this idiotic plan?]

[intelligent]

[ He wants to see him. He wants to see him so badly.

...

Not telling. Even if I had the best idea in the world, you'd say it was bad. ]

[markofkaine]

[That longing tugs at his heart as keenly as it would Miguel's hand on his own. He tries to counter the helpless feeling with a biting thought.

Of close I would. You're gonna get yourself killed.]

[intelligent]

[ He can't remember the last time they've been separated this long. Maybe when they were dating—a time that never existed. Just like how this separation is fake (someone is in someone else's head) (and it hasn't been THAT long, he's just dramatic.)

Don't you want me dead half of the time already? ]

[markofkaine]

[It shouldn't sting, but it does - just a little. Always lashing out, never normal. He's worried, goddammit. Don't use his words spoken in anger against him.

If it gets Miguel to not be so fucking reckless... a small thought, muttered out in a secret corner of his brain,

I don't want you dead, asshat.]

[intelligent]

[




uggHHHH YOU!!

I'll be okay. If I die stupidly, go home and complain about me to Dr. Strange. ]

[markofkaine]

[You think I'M someone who talks to Dr. Strange?

Laughable. First of all, he'd be kicked out on his ass. Second, he'd be arrested.

Kaine grits his teeth, forcing himself again to admit the thing he really didn't want to admit. He had to shake some sense into him, somehow.

...I don't wanna watch you die either, stupid.]

[intelligent]

[ Look. Stranges do strange things.

...I know. I know you dont. But if there's no stupid plan, then what? I walk off this boat and never look back?

I'm not good at that last part.

He can, has, and will again, run from all of his woes; forgetting them is another matter. ]

[markofkaine]

[You should. Just run and forget about all this.

There's a guilt tinging his thoughts as he thinks them. That's the smart thing to do, he knows it. Maybe, just this once, he wants Miguel to actually listen - that way he'd fucking live.]

[intelligent]

[ Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. And then,

Would you run too? ]

[markofkaine]

[Maybe he wouldn't normally form the connection, but. Rafael's tenderness echoes in the space between Miguel's words. A longing in the emptiness. A shape called Aracha.

Are you asking me t'come with you?]

[intelligent]

[ No. Maybe? Maybe no. Maybe yes.

It's more the latter. ]

[markofkaine]

[A part of him wants to curl up and die.

You're still a terrible liar.]

[intelligent]

[ I know—hey wait, you're cheating since you can literally read my mind. ]

[markofkaine]

[Huff! My point stands.]

[intelligent]

[ I can lie with my voice mostly good enough, thanks.

The only person worse at a secret identity than Miguel is Kaine— ]

[markofkaine]

[You're so full of bullshit

There's a mental sigh. Why did he miss this so much? It's comfortable, even the bickering. He slides right back into Aracha, and Miguel back as Rafael. Even if he didn't want to admit it just yet.

...I don't have anyone else. I never did before.]

[intelligent]

[ It's hard. Nobody can blame them for struggling to deal with this.

I wish we could've met normally. I like mean people. ]

[markofkaine]

[I don't like anyone.

This is a lie. Or at least, it is right now.]

[intelligent]

[ See? It'd have been great.

Let's leave together. You don't have to stick around after if you don't want to.

How the turns table. ]

[markofkaine]

[Shit. Shit and fuck. How could this happen to me, I've made my mistakes, etc

He could shoot Miguel down. Go for one last petty lash to try and soothe himself. But that poisonous little thought didn't have the appeal it used to. And besides, if he turned him down - Miguel was just gonna throw his damn life away on a plan that had no way of working.

After what feels like an eternity, Kaine relents.

Well you'll obviously need the help.

He still wasn't going to be nice though.]

[intelligent]

[ He didn't realize he'd been holding his breath. That there's be a pleasant feeling growing in the pit of his stomach when the response came.

Oh yeah. I'm helpless without you.

He considers throwing everything in the ocean... the items he was going to maybe use as a distraction. And then decides to keep them based on ocean littering is bad and maybe they could be useful off of the boat. But the idea that they're to be used for revenge... that one is slowly ebbing away. ]

[markofkaine]

[Obviously.

Try not to let the neediness seep into his mental voice. The weakness in his knees. He hardens himself again, before crawling out of the shadows into Miguel's range of sight. No big deal. Just a team-up.

It's still... hard to look him in the face. But he's here. Alert and tense like a coiled spring.

...The boat's stopping.]

[intelligent]

[ It sure is.

He says, as if he doesn't know the next step; he doesn't. Attacking the people behind this is easy, leaving it behind and bailing with this guy seems like the hardest thing in the world. It feels right, though. Maybe. It feels right, when he sees him out of the corner of his eye.

The boat turns, slowly, curling into the port. This lets them have their first real view of the land—and of the sprawling city, with hundreds of tall buildings and beautiful rolling hills. Land. Land. What land it is remains to be seen, but it's—not a shocking OCEAN for starters.

Do we wait for the others? Should we just go?

They're spiders they don't need to worry about using stairs to get off of a boat. ]

[markofkaine]

[Every fibre of Kaine's body is twitching, itching to leap off this hellhole and start running - never looking back. Solid ground was right there in front of him, for the first time in weeks. He wasn't going to be held back for anything.

Except...

except for that one tiny shred, still hanging on. The last vestige of a conscience he should've discarded long before now.

Damn you, Peter.

We can't just leave them.]