and it's harder than you'd think [February, catchall, open]

[ruinsprofessor]

Characters: Raine Sage and open!
Date: The vast majority of February.
Location: multiple, including the healers' guild, her apartment in earth, and the dojo
Situation: many, lots
Warnings/Rating: general suicide content warning for the thread with Kratos; no additional warnings yet


A | snowfall, anywhere | open

Despite their trips to Flanoir, and the fact that there is very little Raine hasn’t seen in one way or another, snow is still something she sees infrequently enough to be fascinated by it.

It’s making life difficult for some people, of course, and she’s too practical a person not to be concerned for the chill and for people unused to snow caught out in it, but all the same occasionally when there’s snow falling Raine stops out in the open air, head tilted back and one hand extended to catch flakes.

B | memory-share, Earth | open

Somewhere around the eighth, Raine is heading to the markets in Earth, choosing to walk from her home rather than take the rheaird. It’s impossible sometimes not to remember what it’s like with certain people accompanying her, but these days it sparks wistfulness more than anything else.

All the same, when she bumps into someone and reaches to steady them, there’s the flash of a memory. Walking with someone taller, discussing earnestly the physics of shadows-- or a pastoral village, sunny and brilliant, with a boy who looks much like Raine beside her.

[if you would like a specific memory these are not the only ones on offer, just lmk and I’ll cook something up in response to your tagin. <3]

C | Healers’ Guild, Water | open

One of the first things Raine does when it becomes clear that the snow will be continuing to happen is make up a quick refresher course on hypothermia, its signs, and the primary easy treatments. She goes back over this with her healers, her volunteers, and anyone else who will sit still long enough and expresses any interest.

Apart from that things are mostly as usual at the Guild, though there are fewer Foreigners than there were and Raine is in charge of scheduling again. She isn’t commonly immediately at the front, but whoever’s looking after the entrance can usually find her within a few minutes, whether it’s in her office or the deeper laboratory she’s co-opted for her own.

D | Bakura’s dojo, Wood | closed

This has been put off by one thing or another long enough. With Bakura’s assurance that Zorc’s presence has receded for the time being, and her ka a more present murmur at her ears when she returns to the idea, Raine goes to see Bakura.

She estimates, at this point, that she has at least an eighty-five percent chance of success. It’s significantly better than even. When she makes herself known in the apartment linked to the dojo, it’s early morning, before most people will be there looking for instruction or practice space.

There is no fruit basket to bring this time; but there is a fresh if lonely breakfast pastry for him.

[ooc; want something else? just want to plot? drop me a line here or at makaricrow and let's get something happening.]

Comments

D.

[denyamenti]

With the Dojo officially closed until next month, even though the majority of the damage caused by the storm has been repaired, or at least patched until better fixes can be made, Bakura has a surprising abundnace of free time this month.

Despite this, the main doors aren't locked; he's in and out often enough right now that it's silly to do so, and in any case, people keep dropping by that aren't there for practice.

As such, he's not that surprised when Raine shows up in the apartment early. "Good morning, seba-rekhet."

[ruinsprofessor]

"Good morning," Raine returns, more or less by rote; but she sounds like she's anticipating something, and isn't as at ease as she normally is. She offers him the pastry, still in a cloth wrap. "Here. I-- do you recall when I asked for some day of your time, earlier?" Back when he'd told her things were no longer so difficult, with Zorc. "I have a research project which is now as complete as it can be without testing. May I ask that you hear me out entirely before answering?"

[denyamenti]

He accepts it, noting that she usually brings him food when she wants leverage or bribery, and her words seem to be leading in that direction. "A research project," he echoed, unwrapping the pastry. "Hm, that's more ominous than you usually begin with. But I'm feeling adventurous, let's hear it."

[ruinsprofessor]

She has to wonder if he'll still be feeling that way in a few minutes, and she watches him for a moment before she actually starts speaking.

"Some time ago, Solomon and I thought that if we could find some way to repair some aspects of your soul, it might... help with the problems of these past couple months." This is said delicately, Raine skirting the name and the fact of the being as much as she can, well aware that drawing Zorc's attention is one of the least desirable outcomes. "Between our abilities, it seemed like it might be doable, but then..."

Solomon vanished. Still. Raine shakes her head. "I had his research notes to go on," she goes on, aware that she should make her point quickly and trying to condense despite her tendencies to want to expound on every detail. "Sigilwork is simple enough, if you're precise, and he left detailed notes. Necromancy, however, is something I have no substitute for. Had," she corrects herself. "I have reason to believe that dreaming of the Queen of Dragons had more meanings than I initially thought. We've been speaking..."

She's going farther afield than she needs to. Raine pulls the narrative back. "I believe we can restore Diabound to you," she says bluntly, finally cutting to the chase. "I estimate the chances of success are at least eighty-five percent." It isn't perfect, but it's an acceptable level of risk. "I didn't want to say anything until I was sure it might work. Now I am. Will you let me try?"

[denyamenti]

He listens with muted and mild interest as Raine rambles through the first part of her explanation, not entirely grasping where the conversation was going. The last part though, hearing I believe we can restore Diabound to you, that causes him to still.

It isn't actually the first time this has been brought up... Solomon did mention it, briefly and in very vague terms, around the same time as he'd started studying the black and white stone portals. But after the vehement reaction Bakura had had to Amanhef's semi-appearance... the subject had been dropped. Which had probably been for the best at the time, all things considered.

But now? Now he's not even sure what he's feeling, let alone what to think about a claim like that.

Stall. To order his thoughts, or at least to figure out how to move forward.

"And how would you have reached that ratio?"

[ruinsprofessor]

Of all the things to comment on-- Raine folds her arms. It occurs to her that this may be an extemporizing measure, to let him think, but honestly.

"It's a rough calculation, I'll admit," she says. "It isn't as though this can be precisely qualified in numbers. Let me put it this way. Without Solomon, the odds immediately became zero. Going through his research provided me the way in which it might be done, but not the means. Still, effectively, zero. Even then, if I had found the means, I don't believe I would have calculated my odds at anything above fifty percent. There's very little of this I've been able to practically test, after all."

Bakura is probably not listening to half of this. Raine keeps talking anyway, laying out her thought processes. "The fact that the means are my ka, however, changes things. As I understand it, my own will and yours will both figure in; and, since the Dreaming is some little bit involved with Solomon's portions of this research, intent and emotion must also be accounted for. She's been able to confirm some of what were only suppositions earlier, as well. There is still naturally some margin for error -- frankly, running preliminary tests is nearly impossible, and it's always possible that I overestimate one or both of us. I consider that unlikely, but I must account for mortal error. Ninety percent is too high for something I haven't been able to test, but the theory and the foundational research is strong enough that I'm confident in better than four in five."

She pauses. Considers. "I might go as high as eighty-seven, or as low as eighty-three."

[denyamenti]

She was right in that he'd tuned her out almost as soon as she'd launched into her explanation of reasoning. Running through a hundred scenarios, good and bad, in his mind that could spring from what little information he had from what Raine was saying.

He hasn't entirely stopped listening, however.

"... You've been working on this for a while, then."

[ruinsprofessor]

She can't quite tell if that reaction is good or bad. Raine presses her lips together for a moment.

"Yes. As I said, I didn't want to bring it to you before I was sure I had something workable. The research in the process will and has provided other gains, so it's hardly a waste of effort anyway if you decide against it. It's simply... I wished to present to you a genuine possibility, not a what-if."

Which she has. And now leaves it to his choice. It was the best compromise she could summon.

[denyamenti]

Bakura's looking at her, but his gaze is seeing something other than the apartment and the healer. "You're offering this even though you know about Zorc?" he said finally. "Even though you know what happened last time?"

Keeliai was safer for the fact that Bakura didn't have a ka anymore. Not that it would stop Necrophades if the demon was set on destroying this world, but it certainly provided an avenue he might not have otherwise had.

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine nods, slow and deliberate. "I'm aware," she says. "There are significant potential risks. That's another part of why I didn't tell you I was working on this until now." How to put it. Raine taps her fingers against her staff, a quick staccato drumroll of thinking in motion. "I trust you; you must be aware of that. However, I'm also aware both of your priorities and your... accompaniment." That's a delicate way to put it. "It was our belief initially that with your ka returned to you, it might bolster you, and your will, sufficient to perhaps change the balance between the dog and the hunter. So to speak."

She still remembers the story he told her over Egyptian lessons, once, when they were talking around Zorc; she still debates about it with herself every now and then. "I can't be sure," she says then. "That, I suppose, is the nature of trust. That in the end, you choose to be sure even when you can't logically be. I believe you will choose differently, and act differently, than you did the first time. I wouldn't make the offer if I thought the same thing would result." Bakura is different now even than when Raine first knew him.

[denyamenti]

That was quite a leap of faith she was taking in him, as far as Bakura was concerned. Hadn't he told Pepper here in Keeliai already, that he wasn't so different in a lot of ways to what he'd been like back then? His goal certainly hadn't changed. He was more cautious in some aspects, more reckless in others, depending on what his experience dictated.

But Raine was offering this chance, and emotion conflicted logic. Pragmatism with selfishness.

It was never his will that was in question.

"... all right."

[ruinsprofessor]

"Very well." Raine's eyes were sharp on him while he'd been thinking, looking for some sign of his thoughts in his face; even after he'd assented, she barely softened. There was work to be done. "Come with me; we should be outside the city for this."

On land would have been better, but they would make do. "I don't expect a great deal of physical blowback," she said, explanatory out of habit while she was stepping outside again. "However, this is likely best not done around people, and there are sigils besides. I doubt you'll want me writing on the floor. And, as previously mentioned, it isn't as though I've had the chance to properly experiment with this."

She'd had plans in line, naturally, and knew exactly where she would take him.

[denyamenti]

"Wait... now?" he blinked, having not anticipated it was to be taking place at present. He followed her outside, listening to her explanation and deciding that no, he probably didn't want that being done in the dojo.

An unexpectedly nervous shiver carried across his shoulders. Risk and reward.

"What would you have done if I'd said no?"

[ruinsprofessor]

"Yes, now. I did say I'd want the majority of your day." She pulled her rheaird from its wing pack, settling easily into the driver's seat and turning her head over her shoulder to wait for Bakura.

Raine had thought about that beforehand, too. "Abided by that choice. I'd likely have destroyed all physical copies of the research to be sure," she said, blunt. "I have most of it memorized, in any case; but I'm aware of the power your ka represents, and what this research could lead to. I won't have the data misused, nor risk it falling into any other hands."

She had no idea for a certainty if any of those measures would be helpful, or if what she feared about Zorc was possible. It was better, where this was concerned, to err on the safe side.

[denyamenti]

Bakura looks at the rheaird like oh great, that thing again before grudgingly taking a seat behind Raine.

"So practical," he sighed, mock-put upon by her logicality. The jesting was reflexive, while his thoughts were otherwise occupied by what they were planning to attempt. Would it really be possible? Restoring the ghosts back to him... that was one thing. They'd been muted by Zorc, removed, but never destroyed. His ka on the other hand...

"I didn't know he was working on this," he said lowly, meaning Solomon.

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine lifted the rheaird from the ground with little effort, putting it into gear with no more than a faint whir of the engine behind them.

She ignored the dig at her practicality. It was, after all, practical. And he was teasing, so she wasn't about to apologize for it.

"He didn't want you to, until he had something more complete," she returned, turning her head just a little so her voice will carry over her shoulder. "And Solomon has never been terribly skilled with expressing his emotions clearly. But he cared for you. Cares." Shifting to the past tense always felt like admitting defeat. "...this is his work, as much as or more than it is mine."

But Raine was the one left to put it together. She could, so she would.

[denyamenti]

(At least she, unlike many, knew when he was teasing.)

At Raine's explanation he's silent again, mulling that over and thinking, well it's not like I'm any better at it without voicing the thought. But there was a flash of something like regret, that he hadn't known about this while Solomon was still in Keeliai.

He couldn't have said how he'd have reacted at the time, but if this did indeed work, he'd owe the man a better thank you than Bakura was likely able to give. Especially considering he'd never given a proper one for Emily-Helen's funerary rites and tomb.

"You both could have found someone so much more worthwhile to put such effort into, you know."

[ruinsprofessor]

She let him have that silence, not pressing anything. The rheaird took up enough of her attention anyway, and she wanted to spot a good location from the air before landing.

At Bakura's eventual statement, however, Raine shook her head. "I'm sure we could have found someone less scarred by their past, or with more compunctions about certain courses of action. That doesn't speak to how worthwhile you are, however. And Solomon and I have each chosen, on our own recognizance, where to put our efforts."

Bakura was one of those places.

Eventually, Raine steered the rheaird downward, toward a clear patch of land with no plants nor people, some distance from the path leading out of the city, where they would be least likely to be disturbed.