He studies Sheehan closely for a few moments, as if he's trying to catch the man in a lie. There are any number of reasons a shrink might decide to approach him in a public place after all and not all of them are so innocuous as just seeing someone sitting by themselves.
But it isn't as if the fact was kept hidden. Cain hadn't asked.
"'kay." He seems to relent, letting the issue go. "Like I said, I'll tell you if you cross a line."
He holds up a hand. "I got it," he assures him with an apologetic nod. "So you said you grew up on Mars. What was that like? What sort of - infrastructure was there?"
He rubs a hand over his face for a moment and shifts to get more comfortable.
"What was it like compared to what? It just was. It was cold, wasn't much to do, especially for kids. Most work is labour jobs if you don't join the Alliance. My sister got married and got out of there, and I don't fucking blame her."
"Sounds like a rough place to grow up in. But I also was wondering about what it looked like? Did you live on the ground, how did you get around...that sort of thing," he explains. He doesn't want to dive too deeply into that right now. Just nice and simple. Easy.
"Wasn't rough. Just fuckin' boring. Most of the time."
To the more pampered people of Earth and even those better off in the more developed colonies, it might have seemed a hard place to live. Cain wouldn't say it was easy, but he'd been all right. Happy, even. Until he wasn't.
"But yeah, we lived on the ground. Most vehicles were terrestrial, unless you'd managed to find something to fix up. The houses were... grey, kinda semi-prefab shit, you know? Like they'd set up intending to move somewhere else and then never did." Shrug. He lifts his cup to take a sip and lets the rim rest against his lower lip for a moment.
"But I went to school, hung out with my friends, my mom's great. It wasn't bad."
He nods. "I lived a pretty privileged life. So - sometimes it shows."
Sheehan's family had lived in New York. He had an apartment, a nanny, and his father was an absolute asshole. He had money to go to school, to date, to give away as much as he wanted. He could have dodged the draft if he really wanted to, but there was no way he wouldn't give his life for his country.
He regretted it when he came back, but not for the reasons he thought he might.
"Do you still see your mom?" he wonders idly. Sheehan hasn't seen his own in years.
There's a subtle pinch in his expression when Sheehan asks him that.
"Not for a while, but it's hardly been my choice."
A year in the Alliance plus the years in prison? Maybe she'd tried to come and see him, he's not sure. He doesn't know if he would have wanted her to if she had.
He smiles as he looks down to his cup, realizing that it's empty. He stands up, talking over his shoulder as he walks to the kitchen. "I bet she'll be happy to see you. What's she like?" he wonders, rinsing out his cup and bringing back a glass of water for himself.
Maybe she would. He likes to hope she would. Cain was far from the first and only teenager to be put away for jumped up charges just to get some riffraff off the streets. He finishes his own tea and puts the cup down but continues to fiddle with it, rubbing his thumb along the handle.
"She's-- fuck, I dunno. She's a mom, you know? Got a sharp sense of humour though."
"My mother wasn't - well, she wasn't the nurturing type," he explains. "I don't think she's ever missed me. So - I guess it's just nice to hear how that isn't the truth all over."
He holds the cup out for Sheehan to take, studying him quietly as he speaks. Just goes to show that sometimes it doesn't matter how good or bad your parent is - you're going to turn out how you do regardless. Cain isn't sure how his mother feels about him right now, but he's sure she'd still love him.
"Why'd she have kids if she didn't want them?" A blunt question, but given what he was just told... "I mean. You're supposed to love your kids, right."
In her own way, huh. Just because Cain gets it doesn't mean he agrees, but then... he had a fairly average upbringing with a parent who made her love for him clear, so he can't really put himself in Sheehan's place.
He watches the man walk away, thoughtfully quiet for a few moments.
"Does it bother you, though? That things weren't different."
"Not particularly," he admits as he returns to the table with two fresh cups of tea. "The way I was brought up was everything I needed to become who I am now. And I don't want anything different."
Cain takes the fresh cup and stays quiet, thoughtful. He taps the side of his thumbnail against the handle and looks down at the tea, his eyelids lowering slightly.
"Guess it goes to show that sometimes it doesn't really matter how you're brought up, huh."
Cain pauses mid-sip, just for a moment. He looks at the man across from him in silence, using the time it takes to lower the cup to decide just how much he wants to say. Or just how truthful he's going to be.
"On the front line of the war with an alien species called the Colterons. Told you I'm a fighter with the Alliance." He shakes his head slightly. "Supposed to have some new tech to beat them, but someone ran off with it. After that, I dunno. Ended up here."
Honestly, Sheehan doesn't mind if he lies. Lying is a form of protection, and Sheehan and Cain are not good enough friends for Sheehan to ask him to take away those protections.
That's not a lie. Cain wasn't given all the ins and outs of how it all worked - his only knowledge of it was the experience of it - and Colteron tech is definitely a very niche specialisation.
"When it first worked, it made a ship disappear and reappear. No idea where it went in between."
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But it isn't as if the fact was kept hidden. Cain hadn't asked.
"'kay." He seems to relent, letting the issue go. "Like I said, I'll tell you if you cross a line."
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"If you cross a line, I'll tell you."
Guy seems decent, but like hell Cain is supplying anyone with a laundry list of topics that will set him off. That's just asking for trouble.
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He rubs a hand over his face for a moment and shifts to get more comfortable.
"What was it like compared to what? It just was. It was cold, wasn't much to do, especially for kids. Most work is labour jobs if you don't join the Alliance. My sister got married and got out of there, and I don't fucking blame her."
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To the more pampered people of Earth and even those better off in the more developed colonies, it might have seemed a hard place to live. Cain wouldn't say it was easy, but he'd been all right. Happy, even. Until he wasn't.
"But yeah, we lived on the ground. Most vehicles were terrestrial, unless you'd managed to find something to fix up. The houses were... grey, kinda semi-prefab shit, you know? Like they'd set up intending to move somewhere else and then never did." Shrug. He lifts his cup to take a sip and lets the rim rest against his lower lip for a moment.
"But I went to school, hung out with my friends, my mom's great. It wasn't bad."
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Sheehan's family had lived in New York. He had an apartment, a nanny, and his father was an absolute asshole. He had money to go to school, to date, to give away as much as he wanted. He could have dodged the draft if he really wanted to, but there was no way he wouldn't give his life for his country.
He regretted it when he came back, but not for the reasons he thought he might.
"Do you still see your mom?" he wonders idly. Sheehan hasn't seen his own in years.
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"Not for a while, but it's hardly been my choice."
A year in the Alliance plus the years in prison? Maybe she'd tried to come and see him, he's not sure. He doesn't know if he would have wanted her to if she had.
"But I'll be seeing her soon. Can bet on that."
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Maybe she would. He likes to hope she would. Cain was far from the first and only teenager to be put away for jumped up charges just to get some riffraff off the streets. He finishes his own tea and puts the cup down but continues to fiddle with it, rubbing his thumb along the handle.
"She's-- fuck, I dunno. She's a mom, you know? Got a sharp sense of humour though."
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"My mother wasn't - well, she wasn't the nurturing type," he explains. "I don't think she's ever missed me. So - I guess it's just nice to hear how that isn't the truth all over."
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He holds the cup out for Sheehan to take, studying him quietly as he speaks. Just goes to show that sometimes it doesn't matter how good or bad your parent is - you're going to turn out how you do regardless. Cain isn't sure how his mother feels about him right now, but he's sure she'd still love him.
"Why'd she have kids if she didn't want them?" A blunt question, but given what he was just told... "I mean. You're supposed to love your kids, right."
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He takes the cup and walks back to the kitchen to refill it.
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He watches the man walk away, thoughtfully quiet for a few moments.
"Does it bother you, though? That things weren't different."
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"Guess it goes to show that sometimes it doesn't really matter how you're brought up, huh."
Shrug. He lifts the cup and takes a small sip.
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"Not what I meant but, sure. Didn't come here to talk about my childhood, though. You got anything else you wanna know?"
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"On the front line of the war with an alien species called the Colterons. Told you I'm a fighter with the Alliance." He shakes his head slightly. "Supposed to have some new tech to beat them, but someone ran off with it. After that, I dunno. Ended up here."
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Honestly, Sheehan doesn't mind if he lies. Lying is a form of protection, and Sheehan and Cain are not good enough friends for Sheehan to ask him to take away those protections.
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That's not a lie. Cain wasn't given all the ins and outs of how it all worked - his only knowledge of it was the experience of it - and Colteron tech is definitely a very niche specialisation.
"When it first worked, it made a ship disappear and reappear. No idea where it went in between."
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That's - nefarious. Terribly so. "Was there anyone in the ship?"
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It's not really a lie, is it? Just telling it from a different point of view.
"They both made it out fine, if that's what you were wondering."
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