tushanshu_logs | I've got a smile on my face, I've got four walls around me

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I've got a smile on my face, I've got four walls around me

Characters: Pepper Potts, Yami no Bakura, Raine Sage, Kitty Callahan, Gene Khan and you!
Date: Throughout October
Location: Mostly Wood and Sky Sectors, but potentially throughout Keeliai
Situation: Lessons continue at the dojo, there are various Talks, and efforts to save a sinking turtle
Warnings/Rating: Likely mention of death and destruction, evil gods, and sparring. More specific warnings in thread subject.

A. Jade Dojo | October 5 | Closed to Bakura

As he promised, Bakura has been teaching Pepper how to fight with a staff. She's also learned that taking care of weapons isn't quite as glamorous as she might have thought. It's still a neat skill to learn, and it's also nice to have something to focus on that's so totally alien to her, and something that she probably would never get the chance to do back home. Whenever she arrives at the dojo, she never really knows what she's going to be doing that day. The Egyptian seems to like keeping her on her toes.

B. Healer's Guild | October 4 | Closed to Raine

Bakura had told Pepper to ask Raine a very important question. She hadn't felt any need to pursue it immediately, but after something he said during their summoning lesson last month, Pepper has a guess what Bakura might have 'lost'. She knows he died for that loss, and that he went and played with the timeline in a Very Not Good way, but beyond that, she's just got a lot of questions. This time, she's not just going to barge in. For conversations with heavy topics, it's probably best not to just spring it on people, even if she kind of did that before. Oops.

C. Jade Dojo | Mid-October | Closed to Bakura

The summoning with the Milus last month was only the start. Despite how much it took out of her, Pepper isn't inclined whatsoever to stop. It's difficult in a way she hadn't expected, like she's working muscles she didn't know she had. And she's also started taking things much more seriously. Trying to hold the summon with the Milus had been terrifying, but it was still undeniably awesome nonetheless. She's actually learning how to do magic! Not much gets cooler than that.

She bounces into the dojo, searching for the familiar shock of white hair.

D. Midnight Hotel and Central Sector | Early October | Closed to Kitty

Pepper has finally met someone who can keep up with how fast and how much she talks, not to mention how many questions she asks. And Kitty's literally-colorful personality is pretty energizing. It's nice having someone closer to Pepper's age to hang out with, not to mention another girl. Sure, Gene and Tony are her best friends, but she's living with them, and sometimes there is just boy overload.

She makes her way to the hotel late in the morning to find Kitty and introduce her to the crepe place Bakura took her to in Central Sector. Nothing like crepes to start a day off right.

E. Around Keeliai | Throughout the month | Open to all

Pepper usually spends at least a day or two a week, if not more, at the Jade Dojo, so she spends a lot of time walking between the Wood and Sky sectors. She also likes to do shopping for the house, because shopping is shopping even if it's for fruits and vegetables rather than clothes, so she can also be found at the Central market fairly regularly. It's something of an adventure - everything here is pretty strange, but it's also pretty good, for the most part. Gene and Tony have their list of regular favorites, but she sometimes purchases an oddball. It's hit or miss, but Gene is a good cook and can pull off most things.

F. Sky Sector | October 18 | Closed to Gene

Gene and Pepper seem to have mended fences, or at least come to an understanding that mending has occurred even if the fence is still looking a little rickety. So, Pepper wants to do what she does with all her friends: go shopping. Even if it is possibly the most boring and annoying thing that she could inflict on him, it's a trademark for her. You are her friend: she takes you shopping, whether you like it or not.

"Geeeeeeeene," she calls as she comes down the stairs and into the kitchen, seeking breakfast. Oh, but she hasn't told him about this particular adventure. Surprises are the best!

G. Raine and Solomon's apartment | Late October | Closed to Solomon and possibly Raine

Word has reached Pepper's ears that there is going to be a masquerade party at the end of the month, which is close enough to being a Halloween party for her to get super excited. She's pretty sure that Tony will manage to drag Gene to the bash (although she has reserved the right to provide fashion assistance), so there's someone else she has in mind to drag out of his lair. A particular dojo owner that Pepper knows is not highly sociable, but the event provides an opportunity to, well, socialize him a little, but the teenager is pretty sure that it's going to take some convincing. It is also going to take pre-acquired regalia, and she has some ideas about that, but it's been a while since she's had the chance to look at Egyptian art.

Obviously she's not going to ask Bakura about it, because that would just give everything away, and she's not sure she wants more bruises to get the information she's after. So instead, Pepper is heading to Raine's apartment to ask the healer if she's more familiar with any designs. She bounds up the stairs and knocks on the door.

H. House Iron Dragon | Backdated to September 30 | Gene and Tony

After a thoroughly disturbing conversation with one China Sorrows, Pepper returns home confused and far more irritated than when she left. She's frowning as she walks in, and heads straight for the couch, where she sits and re-establishes some sense of equilibrium. After a moment, Pepper pulls out her phone and types something out, but after staring at the screen for a moment she puts it down next to her, text unsent.

OOC: If you want a starter hit me up at plurk or PM me!

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On this particular occasion Raine was already out at the Guild, but Solomon was staying in for a while to work on a case using his verbal notes, with his violin on its stand in the event he got bored or needed something to do with his hands while he turned over a problem.

He was at the console in their living-room when he sensed someone approaching the apartment, but didn't pay the soul any mind until it got close enough to recognise. Most people coming up the stairs were going somewhere else, after all. Pepper was likely to have only one destination. They'd crossed paths once or twice in the past couple of months, but only in the briefest possible sense. It was a pity, actually. Solomon liked Pepper. She was smart and canny and eager, but not jaded.

He opened the door with a smile barely a moment after she knocked. "Why, hello. Fancy meeting you here."

Pepper is just a little startled that the door opens so fast, but that fades quickly when she sees Solomon. She shouldn't be surprised that at least a few of her unannounced visits would find the necromancer at the door rather than Raine.

"Hi Solomon," she replies with a smile of her own. She's starting to get used to his ability to recognize her without sight. "Is Raine home? I'm kind of trying to plan a surprise and I wanted to ask her something." She pauses, recalling that Wreath is also Bakura's friend. "Although you might be able to help, too. How well do you know Egyptian art?"

"She's already left for the Guild," said Solomon, but he stepped to the side with a little bow, extending his arm to usher her in. He smiled slightly. "Ah, so you're interested in the inner workings of our resident white-haired tomb-robber. I know a few things. In fact, I should have a few books on the subject hereabouts."

His tone didn't indicate much different in those last few words compared to the rest, but the truth was he wasn't entirely sure where they were. He'd kept all his books--foolishly; he couldn't read them anymore. He just hadn't been able to let them go. So he'd stuffed them in a shelf which he never touched, so he didn't get the reminder that he couldn't use them.

"Uh, tomb-robber...?" Pepper asks, confused, but she steps into the apartment anyway. She's not yet been made aware of the fact that Bakura is a thief. "Well, kind of. You heard the announcement about the masquerade, right? I don't think Bakura would go on his own so... I'm planning to make him an incentive. But I can't remember the hieroglyphs I learned in, like, third grade."

She peers around the apartment a little; she hadn't paid much attention to books the last time she was here.

Oops. Oh well; if Pepper hadn't realised that Bakura had some darkness in his past, she wasn't as observant as Solomon had thought, and it was due time for her to know. Of course, Bakura didn't tend to hide who he was, so it was interesting if that was a minor detail left by the wayside ... Solomon had to wonder what else she'd been told, if so.

"He used to be a thief," Solomon said as he closed the door behind her, and then added dryly: "Just don't ask where some of his income comes from. This way." He led her down the hall to the third bedroom he had turned into a study. "Yes, I heard about the masq," Solomon said with varying degrees of resignation and exasperation ... and amusement. "Good for you. He needs, occasionally, to be dragged places."

His study here was primarily for the cases he worked. It was organised, if not exactly neat, but in his opinion an investigator's office shouldn't be neat anyway--unless they weren't doing anything. The main feature of the room was the large corkboard, where he could pin carved or embossed maps and images, or create maps of his own using the pins themselves. Most of his cases were missings-persons--primarily because if someone was dead, he was more likely to find them than anyone else.

Solomon moved past the board and the desk to the bookcase at the back. When they'd moved in he had shelved the books with some semblance of order, but that had been a while ago and he couldn't quite remember what it had been.

"They're on here somewhere," he said, putting his fingers on a shelf and running them along the book spines. "Hm." Some of the shelf was dusty, but there was a patch that wasn't. Solomon pulled out one of those books and held it up to Pepper. "Is this one of them?"

He had three or four. Only one actually had any English translations; the rest were all essentially written in hieroglyphs. On the other hand, he recalled that those had a great many pictures which might be of service to Pepper.

"Oh. Uh. Okay." To be honest, his being a thief is a lot less worrisome than everything Raine told her about Bakura's past. It's not ideal, certainly, but it explains how he survived as a child, if she thinks about it.

"He's not super social, is he? I figure a mask gives him the excuse to pretend he's not himself, although I haven't figured out the hair problem yet. He kind of stands out that way," Pepper observes.

The study reminds her of a slightly darker version of a one owned by Sherlock Holmes, and her attention is especially drawn to the maps. Pepper stops staring when Solomon holds a book out to her.

"I think so," she says, taking it from him and opening it. "Yeah, this is all hieroglyphs." She squints at the page. "I guess the translation magic doesn't work on books."

"Possibly a veil," Solomon suggested. "Or a mask that covers his head." He turned away to find the other books, guiding himself based on the grittiness of the shelf and where the dust had been disturbed. He pulled out three more and stepped back, turning, using his shadow and where it intersected with Pepper to tell where she stood so they didn't collide.

"Unfortunately, no," he said dryly. "I should be able to translate good parts of them for you, if you can describe the hieroglyphs. This one has some English translations, though."

He held up the thinnest of the books. "Would you like to stay in here, or move into the living-room? It would--" This last was said dryly. "--be a bit easier for me to maneuver with refreshments if we're out there."

"That might work," she agrees. "I almost don't want to try to cover it, though. His hair is pretty cool."

She looks up from the book, mild confusion on her face for a moment before she realizes he's offering her something to drink.

"Uh, sure, the living room works. I can carry those if you'd like," she adds, referring to the remaining books. "How do you know Egyptian? Actually, how do you have Egyptian books? Did they just show up one day?"

"Is it? I hadn't noticed." The words are bland, deliberately so. Bakura could almost have been Raine's relation, after all, save that his was spikier, so one could argue that Solomon had definitely noticed. "Thank you."

Solomon handed her the rest of the books and motioned for her to lead out, so he didn't stumble into her. "Something like that," he said. "Not in my hands, in particular--but if you scour the black market and curio shops you can usually find innocuous items from various worlds. Most of them are from some variation of Earth, since that seems to be the greatest representation of interdimensionality, and ten to one they won't be of any interest whatsoever--but occasionally they can be useful."

He smiled wryly. "One of those books is about the proper methods of farming by the Nile. Not exactly my favourite subject matter--but suitable enough, to self-teach some hieroglyphs." He'd seen everything from rubber ducks to a defunct printer (the latter being used as a linen press, since printers weren't common among kedan outside of Stark Industries). "Tea, juice or coffee? Or just water?"

It didn't exactly answer Pepper's question about how he knew Egyptian, though it was close enough. The few bits of modern Egyptian he knew was different to the hieroglyphs, but they had been enough of a springboard.

Pepper makes an amused face at Solomon, even though he can't see it. She'd called Bakura 'Mr. Snark and Dance' the first time they'd spoken, but she's wondering if the appellation wouldn't be better suited to the necromancer. She takes the books and heads back to the living room.

"Bakura and I went shopping a while ago to find me more Duel Monsters cards. Maybe some of my closet will show up someday," she says a little wistfully. "I'm still not totally clear on this Dreaming plane thing, but I guess it's kind of nice to get stuff from home, even if it's totally random."

She plops herself down on the couch, gently placing the books on the table in front of her.

"Tea, please." Pepper reopens the first book Solomon handed her, running her fingers across the pages. There's no comprehension, but the images are familiar enough from her schooling that it's comforting. "Do you have to learn a lot about, like, funerary practices of other cultures as a necromancer?"

The entrance to the kitchen was near to the coffee table and the sofa, since Raine and Solomon frequently held conversations through the door; so it wasn't difficult for Solomon to move into the kitchen and still hear Pepper, and respond.

"It isn't much different from lucid dreaming, in some ways," said Solomon. "Though it may not be us that defines it, specifically, so much as the interplay between planes. We do represent laces where the planes are most blurred, at the very least, which is probably why objects from our worlds reflect on this one ..."

Solomon stopped and chuckled at himself, his hands moving easily between kettle and summoning shadows to draw mugs and a tray to him, in open view of the living-room. "No," he said to answer Pepper's actual question. "Most cultures have afterlife beliefs which are essentially the same; it's only the bells and whistles which are different, and they don't really have an effect on how the magic works. Metaphysically the cultures which are unique do tend to be of interest, though most other necromancers don't tend to bother with those details either."

"That... makes a lot of sense, actually," Pepper replies. Solomon's explanation was simpler in some ways than other's that she had heard, and it helped to clarify them as well.

She looks up from the book to watch how he uses shadows to make the tea, fascinated the by mugs flying around. Although she's seen him use the shadows before, it's still novel enough to catch her attention.

"I was just wondering, since Bakura told me about the pyramid you made. I went to see it. That was a really amazing thing to do for him, and for his family," she says more seriously, glancing back down at the hieroglyphs. "Even if he was kind of a jerk about it."

She doesn't know about the fight they had, but what Bakura had said to Raine about Emily-Helen not being his problem anymore - not to mention the ninety-nine names carved there as well - suggested he had been rather difficult with everyone about the whole situation.

At that, Solomon's hands still and his head turned very slightly toward the living-room. He honestly hadn't expected anyone to know about the origins of the pyramid, by this point; Bakura hadn't wanted anything to do with it, and while Solomon had expected the thief would appreciate it in the long run, having someone else bring it up was a surprise.

Especially to bring it up approvingly. It didn't tend to happen often, approval from someone other than Raine.

Then, a moment later, he resumed what he was doing, pouring the tea into the pot and setting out the sugar and cream. "Egyptian funeral rites were something I personally did study in my world," he said as he worked. "I picked it up again after I met Bakura. The books I'd collected for that were among the items I didn't get back when we came out of the Dreaming; the ones you have there are what I only collected after our return."

He wasn't bitter about that. They were gone for a year; the kedan were in their rights to assume no one was coming back. The tray was set, so Solomon use a shadow to pick it up and glide it over to the coffeetable. Teapot, two cups, sugar and milk so Pepper could treat her tea as she liked. "Bakura's told you a good amount, then?"

Pepper barely notices the stillness from the kitchen, and by the time she looks back up at Solomon he's finishing a tray of tea, which he floats to the table in the living room. She can't help but grin at that; shadows or not, that was super cool.

"Yeah, I guess he has," Pepper replies. "Some of the uglier stuff he had Raine tell me. He thought she would be more objective about it than he could be. But he basically always answers my questions, although lately he's been making me work for them," she says almost fondly. "And I met the ghosts."

For the moment, she decides not to mention her offer to help Bakura. That's perhaps the most sensitive subject between them, and doesn't want to jeopardize anything; she hasn't told anyone about that yet. Pepper busies herself pouring out tea for herself with a dash of milk and just enough sugar to make it sweet. She pauses though, before taking a sip.

"Raine also told me you saved him when he came back, even if he... didn't want to be. Thank you for saving him," she says seriously. "If he hasn't yet, he should, but you probably know how stubborn he is."

Edited 2015-11-08 04:21 (UTC)

"You met the ghosts." Solomon couldn't help but shake his head, smiling slightly. How much was Pepper, and how much Bakura's experiences in Keeliai backing him? It was difficult to tell. Either way, 'meeting' the ghosts without other circumstances obliging Bakura to make them known was a feat. Maybe it was just because they were so recently returned.

Solomon summoned a couple of pillows to him so he could kneel by the coffee-table, and poured his own tea. Because of that, it took a moment for him to answer, and he didn't until he had the cup cradled in his cold hands. (It was, technically, still too hot to hold like that; he didn't notice.)

"He has," Solomon said simply. "In his own way." It had been a birthday present, the card of his ka, but it wouldn't have been given if there hadn't been more behind it too. Solomon hadn't expected the subject to come up, though--not even with Raine, let alone with Pepper. Still ... Solomon found he wasn't entirely surprised. "You're like her, you know," he observed. "Emily-Helen."

Not the same, but ... similar, in some ways.

"Yeah. A few days after he got them back; we were sparring for questions and I asked him why he was in such a good mood all of a sudden," Pepper replies. She decides to leave out the fact that she hit him shortly thereafter as well.

Watching Solomon navigate the tea without his eyes almost feels like staring, rubbernecking, but it's not like he can see her, and she doubts he would mind the observation. And she's pleased to hear that Bakura demonstrated at least some kind of gratitude for being saved, but she doesn't press as to his method.

"Oh. Am I?" She'd heard very little about any of the hatchlings, even the living ones, and hadn't expected to learn about Emily-Helen, at least not for a while. Losing his kin may have been the greater trauma, but Emily-Helen's loss was more recent, and perhaps more raw. "I hope that's a good thing."

"Leaning toward it," said Solomon dryly, but he was smiling. "An indefatigable sense of curiosity, an optimistic view on life, and the inability to let him brood. But he resisted, when Emily-Helen wanted to be his friend; he isn't resisting with you."

There was one very large difference, between when Bakura knew Emily-Helen and now, of course; in between the two associations he'd gone home and come back dead. Solomon knew that Raine had spoken to Bakura before on the merits of having other people around, had even seen the changes, but it was still something of a mild shock to realise the difference.

"It's good for him," Solomon added vaguely, without explaining which part or even completing the thought in favour of taking a sip of his tea. "Did you have any thoughts in mind already, for his costume?"

It was interesting to hear what Bakura had been like, or the perspectives of other people on him now. It seems like her picture of him, while not exactly rosy, is at least nicer than most. Raine and Solomon in particular have an 'insider' view, so to speak, and it helps to hear what they know of him.

"Sounds like she and I would have gotten along like a house on fire," Pepper observes, smiling. She returns her attention to the book in her lap.

"Well, I know I want to embroider a coat for him with his name, but I wanted another name too. I thought it might be cool to make him a mask of one of the Egyptian gods and have that be the other name, but I'm not sure which one to pick and there are definitely a lot more than I remember," Pepper elaborates. "As long as it isn't Horus or Ra since I'm pretty sure I still remember that those are supposed to be linked to the pharaoh and that is just giant 'no' territory."

"And driven the rest of us mad," Solomon teased, and hummed, his fingers tapping against the cup. "Thoth springs to mind--the god with the head of an ibis. He was the god of knowledge and writing." Given the other topic of their conversation, about the pyramid, Solomon assumed Pepper knew what the written word meant in Egypt. It was a method of maintaining memory, and that had always been important to Bakura.

He was also a force of justice, and that was, in its own way, appropriate.

"But it might be better if you opened one of the books and see what appeals," he added. "If you're making a costume, some will no doubt be easier to translate into clothing than others. If you can describe them to me, I can tell you which is which."

Pepper grins at the thought; it would have been nice to meet Emily-Helen.

"Thoth. Hm." She flips through a few pages, scanning the images. "Maybe. Although I'm not sure I could convince him to wear a beak, no matter how cool it is." She stops turning pages when she finds an unfamiliar image. "This one kind of looks like a white Anubis."

"Fair enough," said Solomon, sounding amused, and then resumed sipping his tea while he rifled through his mental library. His father had been a learned man and he'd instilled that taste for books in Solomon, but four hundred years ago many of their traditions had been oral. The transition away from written hadn't been too difficult.

Actually being able to research things was a little bit more difficult, though. "White Anubis," he muttered. "Anubis, Anubis ... with spear and an ankh? Could be Wepwawet, the 'opener of ways'. He isn't a jackal; he's a wolf, rather, though I understand they do look similar. As I recall, he led royalty through the underworld."

"That's probably it. I like what the name means, and the white would totally go with his hair," Pepper considers. "I'll have to think about it."

She flips through a few more pages, absorbing the style of the art.

"There's one other name I'd like help translating, actually, since I don't know what the hieroglyphs are. 'Diabound.'"

Pepper is making an assumption here that Sol knows about Bakura's ka, and all else considered she's fairly certain it's a good assumption.

Solomon went still. It's not that he didn't think Pepper didn't know; it was just somehow unexpected to hear the name spoken by someone not himself, Bakura, or Raine. Bakura didn't talk about Diabound often, and although when he did he threw the name out casually as though it didn't mean anything unusual, the fact was that he kept Diabound's name close.

"I know them," he said at last, and put down the cup of tea. "I wrote them into the pyramid. It's been a while, but I think ..." He lifted his hands and summoned shadows, shaping hieroglyphs into the air. It wasn't a quick process; he hadn't written them since he lost his eyesight. But he got, in the end, to a point where he was satisfied with the result. "There; write them down. You may need to get Raine or Bakura to confirm."

Solomon's stillness is enough to make Pepper look up, and his response confirms her assumption - fortunately. Solomon and Raine were the only other people who seemed close with Bakura, and she appreciates being able to brainstorm about the thief with them both. She stays quiet as he works to form the letters.

"That," she says, referring the floating shadows, "is super cool." Pepper pulls out a notepad from her bag and copies the hieroglyphs down. She also jots some other notes about costume ideas and the style of Egyptian art. "It is one of the names from the pyramid," she adds after a moment. "I recognize it from when I went out there, but I've never tried to translate any of them. Thanks for your help with this, by the way."

Diabound had been woven into the door, a protective figure, but most of the names had been on the inside. Solomon had to wonder if Bakura had taken her to the pyramid himself, showed her the names, that she was able to recognise them so easily between the other writings.

"It sounds as if you're already a ways into telling hireoglyphs apart," he said approvingly, picking up his tea again. "Of course." He shrugged. "Bakura needs to be distracted sometimes. You and Raine are better at it than I am." Solomon could do the things that Bakura would never let happen, prod the bear when the bear needed prodding. He couldn't be gentle, or sympathetic.

"Feel free to borrow the books," he added dryly. "I no longer need them, for obvious reasons."

sure thing

lasergrenades - 2015-12-29 02:46 (UTC) - Expand

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peacefullywreathed - 2015-12-29 08:11 (UTC) - Expand

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I've got a smile on my face, I've got four walls around me

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iii am terrible i'm sorry orz i will prioritise this from here on grr

No biggie :)

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wrap this one up too?

sure thing

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