Won't you follow me into the jungle

[lasergrenades]

Characters: Pepper Potts, Yami no Bakura, Gene Khan and you!
Date: Throughout August
Location: Keeliai
Situation: Pepper is working on the Police Force, running into a Thief King, and getting ready for cast-off!
Warnings/Rating: None yet, will add as needed



A. Sky Sector | Backdated to late July | Thief King Bakura

Pepper is nothing if not curious about Bakura's split to his older self, but she's also a little worried about how volatile he might be. As anticipated, the Thief King isn't particularly difficult to find. She'd know that red coat anywhere. Her ka is hovering invisibly at the edge of her senses, wary. While Pepper has her deck and Duelist gauntlet in her bag, she's really hoping that they won't come anywhere near to being used.

"I hear you beat yourself up," she says by way of introduction, trying for a smile.

B. Jade Dojo | Early August | Bakura

Meeting the Thief King had been interesting, to put it mildly. It really was remarkable, getting some idea of what Bakura had been like three millennia ago. Perhaps a little unnerving, too. And although Bakura had refused to answer whether he was okay or not after their altercation (and subsequent loss of the Ring and the way his ghosts behaved), Pepper can't help but continue to wonder about his state of mind. That, and she's just curious about the Thief King in general; questions were her specialty, after all.

C. Hatal | August 1-16 | Open

Being anchored for as long as they have has been pretty awesome, in some ways. Pepper was starting to get used to what Hatal was like, learning it's streets and spending her fair share of time oohing and aahing and not doing as much shopping as the business owners probably would have hoped. Once they learn that Tu Vishan is both awake and leaving soon, Pepper makes the most of their remaining time and when she isn't busy (which isn't all that often, actually) she's taking in the last of the sights.

D. Around Keeliai | Open

Although Pepper was expecting to have some difficulties with the new government and the police force, she's really not enjoying having to deal with it. Still, she was and is central to both efforts going forward. She just has to buckle down and deal with the protests devolving into violence and the various other troubles the same way she always does: with a fierce smile and a ton of determination.

She can be found all over the city, sometimes alone and sometimes on patrol with other police force members, usually without the armor. At least a few nights a week Pepper gets in the armor and keeps an eye on Keeliai from above. Once they figure out that the turtle is about to leave Tavimbi, Pepper can also be found helping with preparations for casting off - removing anchors, shoring up structures, and so on. General, she's all positivity, but sometimes when Pepper is alone she looks a little tired or distracted.

Comments

B.

[denyamenti]

In the wake of the Thief King's disappearance, the ghosts had returned (sullenly, he thought) to Bakura and with the Ring once more in his possession, all seemed to have returned to normal. In fact, other than the slight favouring of one side where cracked ribs and bruising still ached, and the faintest of damages where one knew where to look, it almost seemed as if the former Bakura's presence had been erased from having been in Keeliai at all.

Bakura is just as satisfied to leave it at that... it's a shame that other people aren't.

[lasergrenades]

Pepper is no healer, but she knows the way Bakura moves well enough to see that his injuries haven't fully healed - having cracked some ribs herself a few months ago, she remembers the way she carried herself, too.

"You know, I think Raine's done with her 'Back to Black' phase," she comments casually as she's checking her staff for damage before replacing it. "She could probably heal you. Get the last of things back to the way they were before magical twin town."

Bakura hadn't been the only one who'd split; China's doppelganger is still vividly on Pepper's mind, too.

[denyamenti]

"She has other things to think about," Bakura said dismissively. "Besides, she already wrapped them, after she marched over here and demanded to be let do so. But you didn't come over here to check on my ribs."

[lasergrenades]

"I didn't come over just to check on your ribs," she clarified, the corner of her mouth quirking up into a smile. "Turns out I'm totally not a fan of when my friends get hurt. Even if they, you know, technically do it to themselves."

She paused, and took on a more serious tone when she spoke again.

"I'm glad you've got your ghosts back. That must have been pretty awful, not having them around." Even if it had been temporary. They were a powerful part of Bakura's identity, and Pepper knows how much they matter.

[denyamenti]

"It was different, than when I thought they were gone completely," Bakura replied, and though he tried for a neutral tone, it tinged moody and bitter anyway. "At least that, I knew was--"

Whatever thought he'd started, he didn't finish. "Tch," he uttered instead, the sounds curt and disgusted at himself. "No matter. Better a last choice than no choice at all, it seems."

[lasergrenades]

Pepper considered the relative merits and wisdom, or lack thereof, of trying to suggest an alternative explanation and plowed forward like she usually did.

"You've changed a lot from the way you used to be," she remarked, attempting to take a middle ground. "From the outside, at least. But he's still a part of you. If he weren't, he wouldn't have had your memories, and he would've had to kill you to take the Ring, right? Maybe... maybe it's not so much that they chose him, but that they chose the side of you that's closer to their origin. Not exactly more familiar, just a little more... similar, I guess."

Pepper paused and offered a shrug and a sympathetic smile. "Or I could just be talking about things I don't really understand as much as I'd like to and I'm making it all up. It could totally go either way."

[denyamenti]

"I think we can both agree that you know more about it than you let on," Bakura replied, though there was no animosity in the reply. "Technically he would only have to win a Duel against me to take the Ring, but you're right in that one didn't happen."

The loss of the Ring stung less, he thinks, than the ghosts. Pepper knew that their fickle and incomplete natures meant they could love him and loathe him in the same instant, and he'd adapted to that. He didn't hold it against them.

But he'd always been secure in the knowledge that they would stay, because where else could they go?

Now he had an answer to that, and it was not one he liked.

"Perhaps the Dreaming merely provided a taste of something to come."

[lasergrenades]

"I try to pay attention to the things that matter to people I care about," Pepper said easily. She's also just insatiably curious about some things, as Bakura knew well.

Although she continued to smile, there was concern in her eyes. "Could be," Pepper acknowledged. The Dreaming was fickle, too, and nonsensical. "Could also just be random. I'm voting for random. If this is some kind of long term foreshadowing plan that the Dreaming is coming up with, well, then I have to figure out something to do about it because that's super not okay for it to do to a person and I've never fought with an entire plane of existence before but I'm sure I could rope enough smart people into helping."

Pepper was possibly refusing to consider that Bakura might be talking about his (probably) inevitable return home, and instead shifting gears a little from inquiry to making a game stab at cheering him up about the whole thing.

[denyamenti]

Her approach worked, and he offered her a grin that seemed to have only the barest traces of strain. "I hope you wouldn't count me out of that adventure," he replied. "But you're right, biahbenat. There have been stranger things that have happened here with less permanent results. There is no reason to think this was different.

Well? What did you think of meeting my past self, other than that part?"

[lasergrenades]

"Oh, you would totally be included. Wouldn't make any sense otherwise," Pepper assured him, mirroring his grin as some of her concern faded. Some, but not all.

She hesitated at his question, though. "Very, uh, blunt. Stole something right in front of me, which I think might've been to see what I would do. And, um, seemed to like getting a rise out of me however possible. How much do you, er, remember of what he did?"

[denyamenti]

"It doesn't appear to have worked that way, no. I haven't gained any new memories that I'm aware of."

A pause, and then, "Why? What did he do?"

[lasergrenades]

"Nothing! Nothing, really," Pepper replied, perhaps a little too quickly. "Just, um, you were right. About the whole trying to mess with me thing. It was just, you know, with information he already had, basically."