apocalypsehowcomm | I’m a maker of fine graves // Open Log

Who: Caduceus Clay

thatsreallygreat and YOU
When: post event
Where: ADI, Bonnie's, Dogtown, random park
Summary: Open prompts; happy to match style
Notes: visual reference for Caduceus's human disguise when he's off ADI property; (source)
Warnings: instrument that makes a sound like a person screaming; general references to death/decay

Bonnie's

Helping Bonnie with projects around the house is one way to get a little extra earnings, and Caduceus is happy to do it. He's tall, so at some point Bonnie sent him around to change lightbulbs all around the house - including in rooms where people are staying. He'll knock first, of course, and hold up a lightbulb with a bemused smile.

"Come to add a little light to your life." He thinks he's hilarious, thank you. "It'll only take a minute, or I can come back when you go out."

Sometimes he can be found down in the communal kitchen, cooking relatively large meals for anyone who might want to grab something to eat. Everything he cooks is vegetarian, though if someone requests a meat dish, he might be willing to make it. He'll just need someone else around to do the tasting. When he can, Caduceus does both breakfast and dinner. And if anyone wants to keep him company while he cooks - or better yet, help him - he'd welcome that.

And when the house is quiet, Caduceus might be found in his room, all seven feet of him crammed into a bed that does not fit him. He doesn't complain... though he does tend to leave the door open, even when he's sleeping, to avoid feeling too closed in.

ADI

Medical
"I don't want to die--"

"Mr. Smith, you aren't going to die, but we do need to treat that injury." The nurse standing by the bedside is clearly trying not to sound too exasperated. Caduceus, for his part, stays placidly behind her. And towers over her. The man in the bed doesn't sound placated.

"I heard what he is. People say things he touches die."

"Well, that isn't exactly accurate," Caduceus chimes in, calm despite the roundabout accusation that he might be killing patients. "I am a healer."

The patient doesn't seem willing to budge, though, and looks at the pink firbolg like he might be Death itself. The nurse gives Caduceus an apologetic look, but he bows out, thinking it better that he not aggravate a somewhat hysterical patient. Instead, he finds another occupied bed and approaches, hoping that the somewhat loud conversation wouldn't put anyone else off.

"Hi, I'm Caduceus. What are you here for today?"

Counseling
He shares a room with some of the other counselors, though they are never in there at the same time, and Caduceus has added a few personal touches as he can. Plants, in particular. They brighten up the space. He also find a comfortable rug that matches absolutely nothing else in the room. He likes it and so far the other counselors that use this room haven't removed it.

He gets water heating for tea, tickled by the electric kettle and willing to admit its convenience. He sets out his own box of loose-leaf tea along with whatever ADI has on hand.

Caduceus looks up when he realizes someone is in the doorway.

"Hey, need someone to talk to?"

The Bone Flute

After checking through the bag that arrived with him, Caduceus is delighted to find his bone flute. He almost blows into it right there in Bonnie's, then thinks better of it. Instead, he heads outside and finds a relatively quiet park. There don't seem to be a lot of people around and he picks a spot under a tree.

He runs his long fingers over the flute, smiling at the memory of finding it. Keone had been strange, but he liked her. He liked the harp she'd made for Yasha, too, and in that moment he misses Yasha. It'd be nice to sit with her and play their weird instruments. He'll just have to do so in memory of her, and hope that she is will and safe wherever she is.

The trouble is, the flute... doesn't exactly make the sort of music that most people might recognize as music. He blows the first note, and it sounds like a person shrieking. Caduceus pauses and nods a bit as he gets comfortable holding the flute again. Actually playing it means the duration of the notes is shorter - and sometimes longer - and it creates the most eerie cacophony.

And if someone rushes into the park, worried that someone is dying, well... it wouldn't be the first time.

Dogtown

Caduceus is taking advantage of some decent weather.

He heads toward Dogtown at a leisurely pace and picks a trail that feels right. He carries his staff with him, though for the most part he's only been using it as a walking stick and... well... a whacking stick. The last time he tried to call on his spiritual guardians, they had swarmed him and he isn't eager to try that again just yet.

Now and then he closes his eyes as he walks, just sort of taking in everything without seeing it. Caduceus stops when he sees a boulder that strikes him as appealing. He stands for a long moment, considering it. It feels like the right place to stop. He leans his staff against the rock and runs his hands over it before climbing onto it. He arranges himself somewhere comfortable and takes his straw hat off, leaving it in his lap. Back straight, eyes closed again, Caduceus tries opening himself up, searching for the Wildmother.

He feels... something. It isn't her, but there's almost like an echo of her. An aspect. And a familiar one, at that.

He breathes in deep and exhales slowly. He can hear and smell the life all around him, but there's far more than that. There always is. Beneath fallen leaves there is decay and growth. He can smell the damp earth, made rich by death and able to sustain the living. Agents of change move and grow: insects, fungi, scavengers. In a moment, he is as aware of the inevitability of it all, the natural process that will continue whether or not anyone wants it to. No matter how much interference there is, death will always happen. It is grounding in a way that the understanding of that cycle always has been. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Clay to clay.

As his mind wanders, he thinks of the strange roots he's seen. Meditating like this, he becomes vaguely aware of them again. And he is vaguely aware that he has manipulated them in the past by casting Path to the Grave. He'd seen the dark tendrils wrap around the kelpie moments before Tak killed it.

Caduceus feels a faint, warm breeze and it brings a serene smile to his face. He tips his head into it, comforted by it, just as he is comforted by the cool of the rock beneath him. Life and death. One can not exist without the other. And he is content in knowing this.

Anyone approaching the rock along the path will certainly notice the awkward-looking human with pink hair sitting on it, apparently meditating. They might also notice the ring of mushrooms that have sprouted up around it in a spiral.

Wildcard

[Please feel free to toss a scene my way if you have something you want to play out! I'm also happy to write more specific starts, so let me know if you'd like one. You can PM me here or find me at

givemedragons; also happy to exchange discord information. I will likely update this with event prompts as needed when that goes up.

When he is not on ADI property, Caduceus looks like a very tall, lanky human with pink hair and pierced ears.

Oh, also happy to match style! If you prefer brackets, go for it.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He would appreciate the lack of mention of the medical center, if he knew about it. "Security," he answers readily enough. "Patrols and training recruits in self-defense." Really, it's more self-defense than actual combat at this point. Nobody he's working with is to the point of combat.

And he kind of likes that. Actually.

"Sent on missions sometimes. Helped with the kelpie thing."

"Yeah, I was working on the kelpie thing, too. Still have one of the seal skins."

He should probably give that to ADI, but to be perfectly honest, he'd forgotten about it when he got back to Bonnie's after a long night of cutting people out of those skins.

As they cross over onto ADI property, the disguise forced onto him slowly starts to fade away. The illusion hides his true height and a few extra features. Soon enough, the man walking next to Winter is a full seven feet tall, his ears are longer, and he most certainly has a tail.

... wow, okay, that's. Not what he expected to happen once they crossed onto ADI grounds. This dude is tall. And. Has a tail? He sidles another half-step away so he can keep all of Caduceus in his field of vision.

As much out of fascination as because he's wary of anything that moves.

"You should probably turn that in," he says, but he sounds maybe a little distracted. Not a lot, his voice is still pretty flat and uninflected, but a little.

"Probably," he says with a nod. But he also doesn't sound like he's going to do that right away, either. He'll hold onto it for a while. Just in case.

He couldn't say just in case what, but... Yeah. Caduceus smiles over at Winter, aware of the distraction even if his affect is pretty flat. He notices because he's used to it.

"Yeah I get that look a lot," he says lightly. "I'm a firbolg."

"I don't know what that is." But he can guess, and actually sounds like he's asking a question when he says: "Not human?" Or some kind of human variant somehow? Plastic surgery or electronic pieces grafted onto Caduceus, like his own arm. Genetic experimentation, maybe.

Or not human.

"Not human," he confirms. Humanoid, but that's hardly the same thing. "Different species. That's not a problem, is it?"

Caduceus sounds genuine as he asks. He's startled a few people here, and there's a handful that actively avoid him after a few things they might've witnessed or heard rumors about. He's tried not to depend on magic here, but... He feels better when he can reach for it and find it there. And he understands that he must find ways to do that without interfering in his purpose here.

It's a delicate balancing act.

"No." Why would it be a problem? He has no idea what a firbolg is, and Caduceus hasn't done anything but have a very obnoxious musical instrument yet to make him any more wary of him than he would be of a human. He has the-- stupid, rude-- urge to reach up and poke one of those long ears, which of course he doesn't act on.

The question begs it own, though. "Should it be."

"No," he answers easily. "But not everyone reacts well to... things that are different."

And while he's a mild flavor of weird most of the time, his appearance might be off-putting to people who aren't expecting it. And that is the least off-putting thing about him, so he would rather it not be an issue on its own if he can help it.

That's not really something he's had a lot of direct experience with, unless he counted himself. He was unique, HYDRA's Asset. And nobody was ever treated like him. But he's also not got a tail and cool, mobile ears. Surely people treat Caduceus better.

But just in case, he decides, "Not me." Not this kind of different, anyway. But maybe he'll try not to react badly to other kinds of different, too.

"I appreciate that," he says sincerely. He's had some trouble, not necessarily with the way he looks, but... He doubts it helps.

Caduceus leads them across the campus to the counseling center. There's a slightly garish pink and green rug on the floor. He found it a while back and none of the other counselors have seen fit to move it. He finds his electric kettle, a thing he's been terribly pleased to learn to use and gets water heating.

He gets down a box from one of the higher shelves and opens it on a table, revealing a selection of loose-leaf tea. Some appears to include bits of dried mushroom.

He also finds two mugs: one with a frog and another that looks like an owl.

"Earthy, floral, herbal?" he asks as he starts sorting through bags.

He drifts over to peer at the little owl with its little ceramic feet. It's... actually really damn cute. Jesus, where do they make this sort of thing?

The question gets a shrug. "I have no preference." He never has a preference. That's not allowed. But: "You don't need to make me any. I can wait until dinner."

"It's not really about need," he says as he peers over at Winter. Caduceus considers him, then chooses a blend he thinks will suit. Winter is most certainly getting the owl mug.

"I take it your life is, or was, pretty regimented." Call it a wild guess. He's still trying to figure out Winter, getting glimpses here and there. Like his reaction to the owl.

"Yes. It was either mission, training, maintenance, or cold storage." Which is to say, he didn't really do a lot of living. He's still trying to figure out Winter, too, to be honest.

Cold storage sounds somewhat ominous. He adds hot water to both mugs, then a tea bag in each. He leans against a desk, though there are other places to sit if Winter should feel the desire to do so. It will take the tea a few minutes to steep.

"Are you staying here at ADI?"

He's tried to learn all the faces at Bonnie's, but some stick better than others.

It's probably about as bad as you're thinking, Caduceus. Possibly worse.

"At the apartments." Winter gestures vaguely (well, not vaguely; it is exactly in the direction of the ADI-owned off-campus apartments) in the right direction. He does not sit unless asked to. "With Belova and Kate. You do not. You are at the. The flophouse?" It sounds awkward in his mouth, but only because the word is awkward, not because he thinks he might be wrong. He knows all the faces at the ADI housing.

"Bonnie's, yeah. I think you'd've noticed if I was around here," he says with a wry smile. "Feels weird being in disguise whenever I'm not here. Even when I'm in bed there."

This is the only place he looks like himself. It's starting to make him feel a way. Not... bad. But he isn't used to being hidden all the time. He isn't used to people looking at him and not seeing him unless it's an active decision on his part.

There's a moment of silence, before Winter actually asks, "Does it feel different? Being. In disguise." His only irregularity is his arm, and it's not illusioned away. He just wears a glove over it, and long sleeves.

I’m a maker of fine graves // Open Log

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