[OPEN] O soft embalmer of the still midnight...

[denyamenti]

Characters: Bakura & OPEN
Date: January catch-all log
Location: Midnight Hotel, various
Situation: Bakura's reappearance on Tu Vishan in a critical state and subsequent healing left him in a coma for a couple weeks, but now he's woken up and has some processing to do.
Warnings/Rating: Angry angst? POSSIBLE SUICIDE-ISH THEMED (SORT OF?) CONVERSATION IN CLOSED THREAD "A". Add specific warnings if needed in subject headers.


A. MIDNIGHT HOTEL - CLOSED TO SOLOMON;
Waking didn't feel like waking, and for several long moments he didn't even realize that his eyes had cracked open and flooded with light, unable to distinguish it from a fever dream. His temperature had developed shortly after he'd finished being healed, as his body sought to marshal whatever strength it could find from a depleted soul. Its efforts were apparently sufficient however, and after forcing a couple blinks to determine that the light was going to remain, he stirred beneath the blankets, seeing which limbs responded. Blankets..?

The room was unfamiliar, the twinge across one shoulder like an old wound he couldn't remember getting, and soreness told him he'd been reclined like this for a while. He felt like he could barely scrape together enough energy to do so, but he managed to get himself leveraged half upright in a vaguely muddled haze. The action was more on instinct than any conscious desire to be sitting upright, before he realized why his head was pounding so unbearably, and broke off his efforts with a strangled, aborted sob. No...!

B. MIDNIGHT HOTEL - OPEN
It had taken another few days after waking before Bakura was recovered enough to start moving around on his own, but he was chaffing to leave the room and be away from Solomon's smothering presence. He had no specific destination in mind, and so had started exploring the various hallways of the Hotel, just to give him something to concentrate on instead of the horrible empty ache that he couldn't get away from. Once or twice he's touched a door frame to illuminate the inscribed sigils there, anything, anything to focus on. His constitution was still lacking however, and several times he's had to stop with one hand pressed to the corridor's walls, bracing himself while he waits for his strength to return. He'd rather drop into another coma than ask for assistance, but he's also in no position to avoid anyone who wants to approach.

C. KEELIAI; FIRE SECTOR - OPEN
Eventually he does start feeling better physically, something he can't quite deem a relief but certainly a state that's preferable. He's still too drained on energy to muster any kind of access to his shadow magic, but a few simple reconnaissances shouldn't be a problem. Bakura's first stop is the old Foreigner housing, to his old suite in the Fire Sector. He heard what's happened to these buildings and thinks that is a perfectly logical thing that the kedan did, although it was vaguely irritating to lose what eclectic possessions he'd had accumulated. His suite is currently lived in by a kedan family with four children, and the thief thinks, at least the space is being put to decent use, having always thought the Foreigners were allotted a lot of housing for individuals themselves.

The family does at least agree to open the door and speak tersely with him, but the immediate denial of having found anything of his possessions comes so quickly that there's a 50/50 chance of being truth or just flat refusal to help him. Bakura gives consideration to the possibility of just pushing his way in and searching for his things himself, but discards it after a moment and lets the door shut. He's not sure what he'd have done with his notes on the various planes and the links between the Dreaming and the khajbit anyway, save feel some kind of vague satisfaction at getting something of his own back.

D. KEELIAI; VARIOUS - OPEN
It's almost startling how much the city has changed in the span of almost a year, but Bakura supposes that if anything's going to spur such an overhaul, it might as well be the removal of any semblance of law and order and the high that comes from surviving almost-annihilation. There's a very different ambiance to the city now, and in a lot of ways it's better, he thinks. He stops to read a large poster that a kedan has just finished nailing to a notice board, who gives the thief a dirty look before moving off, and Bakura slowly works through translating it with his rudimentary knowledge of the language.

A public... court...?

---

((OOC: Or tag in with your own!))

Comments

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine's agenda that day had been nothing more than her own research, which for the moment she was conducting solely by herself, and she'd spent much of the day doing that, but she'd been meaning to drop by and check on Bakura as well, to see if there'd been any change. Thus, later in the day, and with luck some time after Bakura had fallen into a proper, healing sleep, Raine tapped on the door. An absent check -- yes, those were the two people who were supposed to be there. "Solomon?"

[peacefullywreathed]

Solomon had stopped reading aloud some time ago, and set the book aside to watch Bakura contemplatively. He had been surprised to find his hands were shaking, and wasn't entirely sure why. It could have been pure adrenaline on top of lack of sleep. It could have been the sheer alienness of the circumstance, the need to comfort someone Solomon had for once unintentionally broken. It could have just been the admission that Bakura meant anything to him.

Solomon wasn't accustomed enough to these sorts of situations to know which it was, so he spend some time watching Bakura sleep--making sure that he was--and turning over in his head what it meant and what he'd so recently done. The sound of the knock and Raine's voice made him stir at last, and he said, "Come in. --Quietly."

It would be plain to her that Bakura had moved. Before he had lain on his back, like the ill. Now his position was somewhat more relaxed, more life-like, more indicative of the presence of being within the body.

[ruinsprofessor]

Quietly? Solomon himself was evidently awake, so that left-- ah. Raine slipped inside, making an effort to soften her steps, and looked over toward Bakura. Asleep, yes, but he'd shifted, and there was a bit more presence to him than there had been. As if he was here, finally, not drifting far afield.

Thank goodness. When Raine exhaled it was almost a sigh of relief, and she smiled faintly. Progress.

In a moment she transferred her attention to Solomon, head tipped just a little in inquiry. "What happened?" she asked, keeping her voice low. 'With Bakura' went unspecified, though she didn't think the question needed it. He'd been a source of concern for some time now.

[peacefullywreathed]

"I shouldn't be assigned to the comfort committee," said Solomon, and tried to smile, and managed only to look tired. "Though I didn't break him too badly, I think--at least not so much that we should be worried about him trying to finish the job his enemies started."

Bakura had been altogether too intense in his emotion to try and kill himself while in the throes of that emotion, but after he had deflated like that--well. He hadn't exactly picked up, but a decision had been made in there, though without the rage to keep him warm. Maybe it would be enough.

"I don't think we should leave him alone yet, however," Solomon added. "He's asked for a radio, or a music-box--his kinsmen are latent, currently, and he's lonely in his own head. He's not used to it."

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine frowned a little, her eyes sharp. Awake was good, a start; none of what Solomon had said sounded particularly promising, however. She circled around the room, stopping briefly near Bakura's bed to cast another careful glance over him, before finally moving toward the desk where Solomon still sat. "I can stay here for a while," she said, tackling the practical concerns first. If he had errands to run, or simply needed breathing space.

She both did and didn't want to know what had passed between them. Curiosity, the surety that while she knew enough to guess she didn't know enough to help, warred with the knowledge that whatever it had been would certainly be a deeply personal matter, and Bakura would likely hate anything in that vein being relayed. Until it began to harm one of them, Raine could respect his privacy.

"I'm not sure there's anyone else here who could comfort him," Raine said at length, addressing the first matter. "Nor from whom he'd accept it." She hesitated, laid one hand on Solomon's shoulder. "As difficult as it may be to help, you are likely his best option." Bakura did know Solomon cared, consciously or not, and Solomon had proven in the past he was cavalier about personal safety where Bakura's ultimate well-being was concerned. She'd help -- anything she could -- but whatever haunted Bakura, Solomon had the best chance to genuinely help.

[peacefullywreathed]

"That would be helpful," Solomon agreed, though his relief showed. He needed an escape from the room and some fresh air, and a walk--he hadn't had much time to himself lately, and yet at the same time too much time. Going to the marketplace would help clear his head, and perhaps he could find some kedan he hadn't completely alienated yet.

There had been a few who had recognised him and asked for his help to discover the fate of missing family-members, and he was obliging as far as he could; but given that he had to do so without magic and having to talk to other kedan, it was slow going.

Almost automatically Solomon's hand lifted to fall on Raine's, and then he realised what he'd done and the touch turned ginger; but he left it there nevertheless. "I don't know what to say," he admitted. "I'm not accustomed to giving kindnesss, Raine; I don't know to be gentle with wounds such as his. Especially not since he's unaccustomed to showing them in the first place."

[ruinsprofessor]

"Necessity makes students of us all," she said, and it was a little apologetic. "Who else would you trust him to?"

Half a wry smile, at his gesture, the near-cautious way his touch shifted. As easy with intimate teasing as Solomon was, it seemed to be the simpler things that gave him pause. Something to do with demonstrations of affection versus gestures with more easily defined intent, perhaps.

Raine set that aside for now, moved on. "You care for him," she said at length, with some certainty. "Awkward as you may find your words in this situation, I believe that will show through regardless. He will understand you eventually, if not immediately; all you can do is keep trying."

[peacefullywreathed]

"You," Solomon said simply. He didn't know how much Raine knew, and he didn't think it was as much as Solomon did; but Raine knew and understood enough, and surely she would be far better at this than Solomon.

He let out a short, slightly bitter laugh. "It was my words that broke him, Raine. He was angry at me for keeping him alive, but despair didn't set in until I gave it avenue."

[ruinsprofessor]

"Me," Raine echoed, for the space of the syllable sounding as if the concept was not one that had at all occurred to her. She could heal, and she could sympathize, but the fact Bakura might put much emotional weight on what she had to say was somehow not one that had occurred to her. "I-- suppose there might be something I can do, yes." And if the opportunity arose, certainly she'd offer Bakura what she could.

For the moment, however, she found herself needing to take her own advice with regards to Solomon, trying to offer some kind of comfort despite having no real idea how to fix the problem before her. "I'll help you, and him, however is in my power, but -- especially because he is your friend -- if you have broken something in him then you are the one who needs to set that right." Raine sighed a little then, and leaned to press a gentle kiss against his temple, wishing she had some better reassurance to give. "He's alive. That's the first battle won. The rest will follow, if we can give him reason to stay that way. And we must find some way, as the other option is unacceptable."

[peacefullywreathed]

The kiss was unexpected, surprising. It took Solomon aback and made him realise that his hand was still on Raine's, and he returned it to his lap. For all that Raine was unfamiliar with his little teasing intimacies, Solomon was unfamiliar with this--intimacy of a different nature, intimacy more in the line of fondness or ... something else Solomon didn't know how to define.

"I don't think that's going to be enough for him," Solomon said quietly, remembering how willing Bakura had been to sacrifice in their first duel, in the khajbit, and every other time after. "Life alone has never meant much to Bakura. He can't even see the possibility of a chance of something more. Even now the only thing he has any reason for which to live is his kinsmen."

But how to make him realise that the life he led could be his own ... Solomon wasn't sure how to do that.

[ruinsprofessor]

Perhaps someday he'd be at ease with gestures of simple affection. She could work on that. Solomon seemed only confused, at any rate, not discomfited. Raine filed that note away with the rest, and briefly squeezed his shoulder before letting go, though she did not step away.

"He's carried that weight a very long time," Raine agreed, focus back on Bakura's slumbering form. "At least his kinsmen are a reason to begin with. It would be hard, to learn to live for yourself rather than vengeance -- justice -- after so long." This was not personal experience talking, per se, but certain parallels were becoming harder and harder to ignore. "...he reminds me of someone," she added after a moment, low, half to herself. "I wish he didn't."

Then she shook herself, shoving off that thought. "Difficult, but not impossible. I'll have to talk to him." Making concrete plans based on secondhand information wasn't going to help much. Soon, if not already, they would be going in circles. She had a few ideas, but would need Bakura awake and responsive before she could determine which direction to come at it from.

[peacefullywreathed]

Raine certainly seemed to have more idea about how to use sentimentality. The fact that Solomon and Bakura didn't, save for specific circumstances, was probably one of the reasons they connected--but there was no denying that saving Bakura had some manner of 'sentimentality', and no denying that Bakura disdained it.

Still, for all that Solomon was fumbling, he felt a little steadier knowing that Raine would be helping as well. "Thank you," he said after a moment, and then rose to stretch. "I think I need some air, and I should go down to the market, if you're able to stay with him right away."

[ruinsprofessor]

She'd have been more assured if the person Bakura reminded her of hadn't, ultimately, chosen death. But-- no. Despite the uncomfortable parallels, the situations were not the same.

"Yes, I can stay here. It's no trouble." Raine gave him space to move around her, if needed, and shortly after settled down in the chair he'd just vacated. She had nowhere immediately pressing to be, in any case. "Go on-- take the time you need to." Even without precise knowledge of what he and Bakura had talked about, she could be fairly sure the time to clear his head would be useful.

And if Bakura woke, she'd deal with the problem then, rather than worry about it now.

[peacefullywreathed]

"I'll take a few hours," Solomon said, checking his pocket-watch and gathering up his essentials. "There are some errands for kedan I have to run--discovering potentially diseased relatives takes much longer when I have to do everything by hand."

He pulled on his coat and glanced back, and meant to say something but had no idea what; and so in the end he only inclined his head toward Raine and then turned and left the room.