EARTH BLUES / RETURN

[CAUSTIC]

[align=center][div style="width:500px;font-size:9.2pt; text-align:justify"]Thinking about shit like a kingdom was half the reason it never ended well. Kings were made for dethroning. How they died was generally known much better than the specifics of what the fuck they did when they wore a hunk of metal on their head, and Caustic couldn't see the point in getting all wrapped up in thinking what authority -or the lack of it- made them. Nothing about himself would ever change regardless of whether he called the shots. Never went all that positively when people thought too much about it, when they saw themselves as new or reinvented. Expectations and pressure- that was why Volatile got all itchy and jumpy when Bane was gone. Power was a noose for anyone who felt defined by how many eyes sat on 'em; slipping the knot meant losing all that laser-focused attention, but kicking the stool meant dying in front of them.

Caustic could be content where he was, so long as he could take care of his own basic needs and fuck his fists up in a fight on occasion. No aspirations for leadership. He wasn't against it if the opportunity came up, but neither was he about to ass-kiss and back-stab his way there. C did enough stabbing for fun on his own time anyway.

Finishing one last stitch to another of V's pants -darning his shit like some kinda mom, fucker was lucky- Caustic set it all aside in favor of hopping down from the fire escape. Bane was back, and miraculously before anything burned down. Pooches were certainly fuckin' happy to see him, and C figured Volatile'd be happy to drop all responsibility for this place. "Probably a bad time to tell you a guy was offed in the street, but welcome back. Nothin' much happened otherwise. All buildings still standing."

Guy looked different. He do some kinda soul-searching shit? Would explain the beard.