tushanshu_logs | [OPEN] The late heaven of a summer day...

Characters: Bakura, Jack Frost
Date: Through July
Location: Various
Situation: Catch all for July
Warnings/Rating: None yet

A. BAKURA - Jade Dojo

Activity at the Dojo had returned more or less to previous levels from before the attack, although it tended to be less busy on days where the temperature spiked particularly high. Thus it wasn't unusual for Bakura's midday to be a lull, which he sometimes filled with his own practices on the target dummies or, if someone requested it, perhaps a spar.

On the outside of the dojo, one might find him sitting on the wooden-planked veranda that runs around the perimeter of the building. Sometimes he appears to be asleep, leaning up against one of the vertical columns with his eyes closed in a patch of sunlight, and Diabound a bundle of white scales and feathers in his lap.

B. BAKURA - Around Keeliai

The heat is hardly a deterrent for him, and if anything seems to have put him in a better mood. He's more likely to engage in casual conversation and linger in public places like cafes just for the sake of it. Occasionally he'll bring along what looks like a translation project, working in two notebooks: one filled with kedanese, and the other with hieroglyphics.

C. JACK - Welcome Center + Around Keeliai

With Zatanna having taken on extra responsibility due to being one of the elected leaders of the Foreigners Guild, the spirit has been trying to pick up duties around the Welcome Center in order to lessen the workload for her. Part of this requires keeping up with the contacts around the city, especially ones that had agreed to host potential new Foreigners as employees. Most of the time, he makes these visits in the early morning or later, after dusk, and frequently by air and rooftop.

D. JACK - Wood Sector

Even the summer weather isn't enough to entirely dampen his spirits when it comes to kids, and he calls up little pockets of snow in parks for them to play in. He's good with them, even luring older ones who are too "cool" to play with the younger aged ones.

Not often, but sometimes the conjured snow will be laced with his particular magic to bring out the playful side of even the most stalwart grouches.

E. WILDCARD

Hit me with anything that doesn't fit in the above starters!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Even with the heat, Pepper mostly keeps to her usual schedule at the dojo. She's glad to have a proper summer this year, and more than that, to have thunderstorms. It's hot enough out that when there's a downpour, it's actually fun, unlike the hurricane-like storm they had back in January.

While they're taking a break, Pepper sets her staff aside and walks out to the veranda. It doesn't do much to relieve the humidity, which is partially explained by the approaching clouds. "Looks like it might rain," she says with a grin. "Good thing the roof is fixed."

"Yes, we wouldn't want to traumatize your housemates twice in the same year if you needed to invite me to stay over there again," Bakura retorted, though there was more humour than derision in the remark. Watching Tony and Gene look thoroughly discomfited during his stay had been amusing in its own way.

"The rain will be a good break," he added in agreement. While he still preferred summer weather over winter, the humidity was becoming near oppressive.

"They'd survive. They know better than to argue with me, since I usually win anyway," Pepper returned, nudging him with an elbow. She had the feeling that her staying over at Bakura's would result in similar reactions, but they wouldn't get to see them. Alas.

"Did you get big storms in Egypt ever? Obviously it's super dry most of the time but closer to the Mediterranean it's probably a bit different, right?"

"That doesn't mean it wouldn't be entertaining to watch them surviving it," the thief replied with a wicked grin. He was almost as bad as she was for the desire to make them squirm sometimes.

Bakura hummed thoughtfully at the question, and began dishing out the base mix to the bowls. "Down in the Delta it did, yes, when the storms came in off the sea. Farther upward, there were only storms occasionally. It wasn't like it is here... the ground was almost always too baked dry to absorb any of the rain, so it went rushing and flooding everywhere. It seems very strange to think that people can drown in a desert, but it happens."

"The rain wasn't the only thing to worry about. Sometimes the storms didn't bring rain at all, just lightning. Those were dangerous." Exhilarating, but dangerous.

"That's true," Pepper returned, grinning as well. It was too much fun to mess with Tony and Gene now that they'd reached the point of general acceptance of her relationship with Bakura. As long as they didn't take it too far.

"Huh. That makes sense, I guess. Not a lot of high ground, either." She hadn't thought about that being a danger, but recalling the cracked salt flats of Death Valley... yeah, flash flooding could be seriously bad. "Dangerous, but I bet it was awesome to watch from a distance. Like natural fireworks or whatever. Do you know if it made glass out of the sand?" Speaking of lightning, there was a flash in the far distance. "...I wonder if Tu Vishan feels lightning strikes here."

"Just around the cliffsides, which was exactly where you didn't want to be in a flood," Bakura agreed, shaking his head. "And yes, it was quite a sight. On good nights, you could see the strikes a very long way. I suspect it did make glass where it hit, but most populated areas were built where the ground was more rock than sand."

He glances up at the flash. "I doubt it. The shell has its own mountains, there has to be enough mineral in the ground to disperse it before it reaches what can be felt."

"And most people think not building your house on sand is a metaphor," Pepper returned cheerfully. "It's actually good construction advice."

She leaned out from under the veranda, hanging on to one of the columns for balance. "Either that or it feels like being tickled. He's kinda huge. We'd probably have shellquakes if it were, though, since there's usually flailing involved with getting tickled," Pepper commented, far too innocently for the mischievous look on her face when she glanced over her shoulder.

"That's something we haven't had in a while, you'd better not have just broken that streak," he commented, and gave a light harrumph at her mention of him being ticklish in certain areas.

"If I 'flail', you're not going to get dinner."

"Oh, come on. It's not like I can summon those things just by saying them out loud," she disagreed playfully. Shellquakes were not Shadow creatures.

"Hmmm. That's a tough choice. I could always wait until after dinner and get both, you know."

"You don't think so? Even with the Dreaming that produces things at whim? It might just take that as a challenge, biahbenat."

He scoffed at her supposed plan. "Your element of surprise needs work. What kind of clever plan is it to just tell me that?"

"Not if I'm the only one thinking it. Raine said it would take more than one person," Pepper countered, pulling herself back under the veranda. "So if one happens, it's definitely not me."

Because that's how logic works, right?

"The plan where I keep you wondering what I'm actually going to do," she answered, wiggling her fingers at him. "Or maybe the plan where I give you fair warning. Or the one where that's not actually my plan. We'll both just have to wait and see, huh?"

[OPEN] The late heaven of a summer day...

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