tushanshu_logs | OPEN: When our lives are over / and all that remains

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OPEN: When our lives are over / and all that remains

Characters: Skulduggery, a whoooooole bunch of others, and YOU.
Date: August 2nd to August 14th, 2015 (2016 in game).
Location: All over Keeliai.
Situation: Skulduggery's been accidentally brought back to life. It's temporary, but he doesn't know that. All kinds of shenanigans ensue.
Warnings/Rating: Mentions of death, but nothing major. Will edit as necessary.

A; Morning of August 2nd; CLOSED to Solomon Wreath and possibly Raine Sage

Walking was strange. It didn't hurt, exactly, but it wasn't comfortable either. Part of it was because the pants, which were already tearing slightly at the seams, were ridiculously tight. Part of it was because his muscles - his muscles - pained him with every step.

Eventually, Skulduggery pulled off the jacket. He made a sight walking up to Solomon's door with an unbuttoned shirt flapping in the breeze, his face probably red from the crying fit he couldn't control; but the longer he walked, the easier it became, and the deeper it sunk in that he was alive. Skulduggery couldn't bring himself to care what he looked like.

He knocked on the door of Solomon and Raine's house in the Earth Sector, and waited until Solomon opened the door before trying a smile. "I'll bet you don't recognise me."

B; Late on August 4th; CLOSED to China Sorrows

It took a long time for Skulduggery to realise that one of the reasons he felt so strangely manic was that he hadn't gotten any sleep. He tried, during the day, but he couldn't remember how to. Meditation involved a series of carefully executed steps, consciously taken; sleep involved lying quietly and hoping your mind would eventually get the message.

After two hours, he gave up, and went for a walk. That walk led him, completely unconsciously, to China's apartment. He nearly passed right by it. Then he stopped, smiled because he could, and went to knock on her door.

C; August 5th onwards; OPEN

For the following week, Skulduggery's much more visible around Keeliai - just not necessarily more recognisable. His priority is finding and talking to the Foreigner who managed to bring him back to life, but in between that, he can be found almost anywhere inside the city, from Anton's Hotel to the more remote areas in Sky Sector. He's as impeccably dressed as always, but no longer unnaturally thin, and more often than not he's wearing a faint smile.

[OOC: Feel free to tag in with whatever you'd like! I'm up for pretty much anything. There's also a radio post if you'd prefer, and you can always contact me at

Amaraq if you want to plan out Shenanigans. :3]

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Skulduggery has been intentionally evasive for the past few days. He even sent Pepper a message saying he wasn't going to be 'around', which was basically the worst possible thing he could have done if he really wanted her to stay away.

So, naturally, she has been spending her free time, er... hunting him. It's getting annoying, which is just spurring her on further. Pepper will find him, but instead of following him, she's decided to switch tactics and act on some of what the Skeleton Detective has been teaching her. She's stopped hunting.

Now she's waiting.

In the Hotel garage.

Next to the Bentley.

There was a small blue stone in the glove compartment of the Bentley. Skulduggery had absolutely no intention of touching it whatsoever, but since he'd already set foot in the Hotel once, he began wondering why he couldn't at the very least see his Bentley. Avoiding it completely was one of those illogical emotional reactions he thought he'd left behind when he was murdered.

Then again, some people would argue caring about the Bentley at all was an illogical emotional reaction.

When Skulduggery walked into the garage, hands in his pockets and whistling, he saw Pepper waiting by the car. He managed not to smile, but it was a very near thing - she was learning. She was learning fast. To test her even further, he changed his accent, lightened his tone of voice, and gave her a cheery wave. "Waiting for someone?"

Pepper hears someone coming before she sees them, but when it's not the Skeleton Detective, and not someone she immediately recognizes, her eyes narrow in suspicion. She stands up a little straighter, but doesn't move.

"Yes," she replies flatly.

He's tall and well-dressed, but he doesn't look like a kedan. Nor is he a Foreigner she's ever met before. He could have come in recently, but then why would he know about the garage? It wasn't standard debrief material. There is something oddly familiar about him, like she's seen him out of the corner of her eye. High cheekbones, mischievous eyes. Pepper can't quite put her finger on it.

"Why are you here?"

Immediate suspicion. Now that's interesting. Skulduggery doesn't look particularly suspicious or out-of-place, a fact he's sure of because he's now been alive for almost a week and been outright told not to look so unfairly disarming. Where is Pepper's suspicion coming from? The situation, unconscious recognition, or some mixture of the two?

"Apparently," he answers, using the same tone of voice as before, "I'm also waiting for someone. A friend, actually. Someone who never does what they're told, yet still somehow manages to find exactly what they're looking for. Probably due to being smarter than I give them credit for. They remind me of someone I know from back home, come to think of it."

It's definitely a mixture of the two. That nagging sense of familiarity continues to tug on the back of her mind, more forcefully this time, but annoyingly it doesn't crystallize into anything useful. His reply does nothing but add to the confusion.

"You're being very cryptic," Pepper responds coolly, but there's no hostility in her tone. "I don't suppose your friend is a particularly evasive skeleton?"

It's the next most logical conclusion, as far as she can see. Maybe another one of Skulduggery's friends has appeared in Keeliai - there do seem to be an awful lot of them.

"A skeleton?" Skulduggery frowns. "An evasive skeleton? Evasive, as in someone deliberately avoiding answering even the simplest of questions? That's strange. I thought evasive and cryptic meant essentially the same thing. No, Pepper, I can't say I've ever met an evasive skeleton."

It is, technically speaking, true. It's also, if Pepper's paying attention, a hint.

Pepper's eyebrows rise towards her hairline. She definitely hadn't told him her name.

That wasn't a hint, Skulduggery. That was a neon sign the size of a billboard, complete with fireworks spelling out 'Over Here'.

She takes a step closer. The cheekbones. The suit. The Bentley. The wordplay.

There's a tiny, sharp intake of breath, and her eyes widen.

"Oh, my god," Pepper whispers, reaching out to touch his arm. Not just bones. It's warm. It's warm. "Oh, my god. You're... How are you...?"

What. Is. Going. On.

"So this is what you really look like?"

She may or may not be in shock.

"No," says Skulduggery, standing still for the benefit of Pepper's examination. "You've seen what I really look like. This is what I used to look like, back before I was killed."

Splitting hairs, probably, but the distinction is an important one to Skulduggery. He's not that man. Not anymore. Being brought back to life, however temporary, doesn't change that fact. It doesn't change what he's done. It doesn't change what he's lost.

All it does is make it annoyingly difficult to stay focused.

He takes a long, unfortunately necessary breath. "I don't know," he admits. "I thought I'd find out when I talked to the man responsible. But he said the magic he used was supposed to kill me, and he doesn't understand why it didn't." Skulduggery spreads his hands. "I'm afraid I'm doomed to remain enigmatic forever."

Pepper laughs; she can't help it. This is ridiculous and shocking and weird just like everything else, and in some way it's also upsetting but Skulduggery remains, as ever, clever and amusing.

"Right, right. Well, uh, you look- looked... alive," she finishes numbly and let's his arm go.

"This is really weird. It's weird, right? You must feel weird, I mean, you've been a skeleton for how long now? What's like to actually breathe and wow you must be getting to know gravity in a brand new way and oh man, eating! We need to get you chocolate," Pepper concludes.

One of Skulduggery's eyebrows twitched in amusement. "I'm glad I looked alive," he said. "If, on the other hand, you meant to end that sentence with 'handsome', then thank you. I agree."

Chocolate. Well, Pepper's conclusions could have been worse. As it happened, Skulduggery hadn't eaten chocolate very often even when he was alive, and he was fairly sure something about it had changed over the centuries. People went nuts over the stuff now. He couldn't remember anyone going nuts over it back then - although to be fair, it used to be more expensive.

"Yes," he finally answered. "It's weird. None of my hats fit properly anymore."

"Oh. Well, I can't disagree," Pepper replies, a little bemused. It's odd enough thinking of Skulduggery as alive, much less making any assessment of his physical appearance. She takes a moment to really look at him. "As much as try to listen to Anton and not stroke your ego, I'll have to give you that one."

It's very true that chocolate has changed, and even though the 'chocolate' here isn't quite right, it's still pretty good.

"Great opportunity to get some more, then." She smiles at him, still a little shocked. "Are you okay? I mean, obviously you're not, like, sick or falling apart or anything, but this goes way beyond hats."

"I think I might be using hats as a defence mechanism," Skulduggery admits. "But until I start getting sick or falling apart, there's no reason for me to change that."

He's admitted it's weird, and admitted to the possible use of a defence mechanism. Surely that's all he has to admit to, isn't it? Skulduggery isn't a shining example of a well-adjusted man, but most well-adjusted men probably don't have to deal with being killed and brought back to life twice over. Skulduggery will take what he can get.

"Since you've displayed a stunning lack of an ability to follow simple directions," he adds after a moment, "you must have something important you need my help with. What is it?"

"Well, there are a lot worse things you could use as a defense mechanism," Pepper replies, shrugging, but she's concerned. This is about as literally life-changing as you could get, and it has to be utterly disorienting in more ways than she can count.

If she knew Skulduggery better, she would probably be a lot more than concerned.

"I didn't actually ignore your directions; I just creatively interpreted them. You said you wouldn't be available and I shouldn't try to get in touch. You didn't say I couldn't wait around for you," she points out, slyness curling into her smile and the corners of her eyes. "But it was mostly to find out why you said that. You don't really do the whole hermit thing. I wanted to know what was going on and there was half a chance you were doing it as a test anyway and I got to spend some time hanging out with the Bentley. Don't ever let Tony near it, by the way," she adds rapidly.

"Tony?" Skulduggery asks, addressing the last part of Pepper's concerns first. "Why not? I hired him a few months back to give it an alternative source of fuel. I have less space in the boot, but I consider that a necessary sacrifice."

He'd gone over every inch of the car when he got it back, just to be sure, but Tony proved to be as good as his word. There hadn't even been a scratch on the chassis.

"Oh." She's honestly more than a little surprised that Tony didn't help the Bentley out with some additional creative mechanical evolution. Apparently his impulse control has improved a little. "He likes to take things apart, figure out how they work, and doesn't always put them back together. At least not completely. Either that or he turns it into something else. I guess he must have tried to hold back," Pepper says, and the tinge of disbelief is audible.

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OPEN: When our lives are over / and all that remains

C!

6th/7th sound good?

Sure :D

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