tushanshu_logs | City pulls me in closer than I've ever been

Entry tags:

City pulls me in closer than I've ever been | July Catchall

Characters: Pepper Potts, Devin Parker, and you!
Date: Throughout July
Location: Around Keeliai
Situation: Pepper is getting settled after several busy and unpleasant months, and Devin is making dumb decisions.
Warnings/Rating: Violence, possibly blood.

A. [Pepper] KPD | Throughout July | Open

Things have at least started to settle down some in the city, so while Pepper is busy she's no longer stretched to the limit. Her schedule is more regular, and she's taking fewer night shifts this month to try and catch up on sleep. All in all, she's in a much better mood when she's at work, helped in no small part by mending fences with Valdis. The ship is righting itself, finally, but that makes her no less vigilant.

B. [Pepper] Sky Sector | Throughout July | Open

The heat and lack of rain aren't uncomfortable for Pepper - New York could get positively sweltering in the summer - and it's decent weather for practicing summoning in the backyard. She does usually wait until early evening, when the temperatures cool down just a little.

When it does rain, though, Pepper pretty much drops everything and races out into the downpour. She's missed thunderstorms and the torrential rain they bring. Pepper will spin around with her arms out, head tilted back and mouth open to catch the drops, completely unconcerned by getting drenched from head to toe.

C. [Devin] Outside Water Sector | Early July | Kratos

At the gathering to decide the leadership of the Foreigners Guild, Devin and Kratos had decided to spar. More specifically, they had agreed to duel at dawn with swords. The events in the city had made it somewhat inappropriate to engage in fun activities like that as early as they had intended. After things had settled some, they'd reestablished the day and time. The additional time had meant Devin could acquire himself a beater sword - functional and sharp, though not particularly pretty - and shave off some of the rust that had been building over the years. The sun was just starting to come up when he reached the appointed location, carrying not one sword but two.

D. [Devin] Wood Sector | Throughout July | Open

Most of the time, Devin does his best to stay away from the Hotel. It's not hard, and he's still working on his mental map of the city. June was all about Metal Sector, and this month he's largely wandering through Wood Sector when he isn't working or sleeping. From time to time, he'll pause and find somewhere to sit, all the while taking notes in some kind of shorthand.

OOC note: Let me know if you want a specific starter or write your own adventure!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Bakura just shakes his head in amusement as Pepper darts out into the downpour, her excitement contagious as thunder rumbles overhead. "You really have been waiting for that."

"It's totally the best way to beat summer heat," Pepper calls back, throwing her arms out wide and laughing. "Most of the time there's not enough rain to get soaked but when there is it's like the whole city is a waterpark. Are you coming out here or not?"

"Is that right? Here I thought the preferred method was swimming," he replied, giving the sky a glance before stepping out from the overhang. The temperature of the air made the precipitation tepid, and hardly uncomfortable.

"Not when your options are an indoor, chlorinated pool or the Hudson River. Yuck." She shuddered at the idea of it. "We didn't really have a beach like here. But okay, sure, if there's a nice place to swim, that's a good option when there's no downpour," Pepper allowed. "Either way, you end up wet."

Beat. "You know, I don't actually own a swimsuit here. I should get one, then we can go swimming and you can try and argue how it's better than the rain with a practical demonstration."

"The Nile was not exactly a pinnacle of cleanliness," he pointed out. "There are plenty of good places at the shell's edge for swimming."

Emily-Helen had liked them, and his mind flashed back to the beach day with Solomon and both their hatchlings.

Resolutely he shoved the thoughts away, and turned instead back to Pepper, mischief glinting in his eyes. "You could always go without, that worked for thousands of years before."

"Probably still cleaner than the Hudson," Pepper argued.

Despite the heavy rainfall, the blush on her cheeks that arose at the latter comment was obvious. There was, however, a smile to go along with it.

"I guess I don't train this much to not show off," she replied almost evenly. "Tell you what: you come out here, and if we can find someplace on the shell with a little privacy, I'll consider giving up a perfectly good opportunity to buy a cute swim suit."

"Possibly," he agreed. He'd have to take her word for it... it wasn't as though he could see it for himself and compare.

Her proposed bargain earned a grin, knowing and amused, and he stepped out from the remaining shelter of the overhang, directly into the rain. "Biahbenat, I'd almost think that's a wager you wanted me to take."

It is a very gross river.

"I think this is one of those win-win situations, so yeah. I can think of way worse bets to make," she said, smiling more broadly as she started to spin around a few times to bleed off some nervous energy. "Better for preventing tan lines anyway," Pepper added when she stopped.

Bakura might not be dancing and spinning, but he's definitely getting just as soaked as she is, and sodden strands of white hair are starting to mat to his face and neck. "Well, since you're determined to get as wet as possible..." he began--

--and promptly upended her into the nearest puddle.

Pepper yelped as she splashed into the puddle, laughing a moment later. This had not been part of the game plan. Her clothing was stuck to her skin, and now she was not only drenched but a little muddy.

She may as well make good use of that fact. The mischievous look was the only warning she gave. Since Bakura had seen fit to topple her, Pepper returned the favor, getting up quickly and launching herself at him to tackle him to the ground and into another puddle.

He really should have expected that. Or more accurately, he really should have expected the speed at which she accomplished it... look at who has been training her sometimes, after all.

Now they're both wet and muddy, and one good turn does deserve yet another.

Cue wrestling match.

Pepper did not even care how muddy she was getting, still laughing as Bakura started to grapple with her. He was wiry but strong, and they knew how the other tended to fight. This was far from an artful spar.

She scrambled to pin his shoulders and stay on top, grinning from ear to ear. "I guess we found something else rain is good for."

As good as sparring was, in some ways it was still too structured, even with the lack of formality in the style he used. There's something energizing about this in a very different way than anything involving weaponry, practice or not. Pepper gets him pinned for a moment, but he leverages his legs to flip her off him. "Only this?"

The move caused Pepper to topple aside, but she wasn't about to have gone to all that trouble to let Bakura stand up again so quickly. Besides, this was fun.

"I can make a more thorough list if you want," she replied, intent on making his legs less than helpful for removing her again.

Several minutes went by, punctuated occasionally by shrieks of laughter, when Pepper reached to grab at Bakura's shirt and ended up with a handful of hair in the bargain.

"Like you haven't already started making one in your head," he scoffed. They were getting bumps and scrapes as thy each sought to get the upper hand, although neither cares; it's nothing worse than they get during a good bout with staves anyway. He's enjoying himself with this unplanned tussle, and so it catches him entirely off guard when he felt his head being pulled to the side by the hair--

--- "Let go, let go!" you struggle as Master Ghazir drags you by a fistful of hair back toward Amjad's wagon, where the task master was waiting with switch in hand. The fact that you'd stolen the food because you were hungry (Master Ghazir is easily aggravated, and missed meals his second favourite punishment) doesn't matter, it only matters that you got caught ---

--- "You're the new guy, huh? I heard you were a troublemaker at your last school," the gym teacher leers, and this is exactly the kind of attention you don't have time for at the moment, with the Puzzle just now discovered. "I enforce the rules here, and this long hair?!" He yanks it hard enough to pull strands from their roots. "We don't allow this kind of thing here, little miss-- cut it all off by tomorrow or you'll be sorry!" Karita lets go, but the anger burns and burns and burns ---

In one smooth motion Bakura's got her pinned, one knee dug into her sternum and fingers digging hard into her shoulder, while the other hand holds the edge of his knife atop her collarbone.

Edited 2017-07-16 04:17 (UTC)

Like snapping a branch, a moment of fun turned startlingly dark. The memories went by in a flash, seen and barely processed beyond gut instinct. She'd made a mistake, not knowing the pain layered beneath it, not having been careful enough, and Pepper was letting go before she even realized it.

Pepper registers Vee's alarm in the same instant Bakura pins her, mentally pushing her back from intervening; he wouldn't hurt her, and the belief is proven correct a moment later when he stops moving. There's a jolt of fear, but more than anything there's surprise in her eyes as she looks up at him, frozen, breathing hard from the exertion. She's going to ignore the discomfort from how he's holding her down.

Slowly, Pepper curls her fingers over his wrist, the hand that's holding the knife. Just resting there, not grabbing. "I didn't know," she whispered, apologetic.

Bakura looks almost surprised by the whole instance, further proof that some instincts were ingrained deeper than conscious thought. It's only a few scant seconds after Pepper speaks quietly that he rocks back on his heels, removing the pressure holding her down, and drops into a sitting position just a few feet away.

He scrubs one hand through his hair, partly to ease off the lingering sting there, and partly in tandem with the disgruntled muttering that's definitely not something to repeat in polite company-- but it's not directed at Pepper.

"No, you didn't know," he grimaces, switching back to English. "You shouldn't have needed to know."

Pepper lays there in the mud for a few seconds after Bakura backs away, eyes closed as she tries to get her breathing to slow. It's easier without a knee to her chest.

"It's..." Not okay, exactly, but not irredeemable. "It's alright," she soothes, sitting up. "I'm alright. No harm, no foul. I just know to be more careful."

Pepper pauses long enough to move and plant herself in front of him, sitting on her knees with her hands resting palm-up on her thighs, an open offer. She'll wait though, taking only what he'll give. "You okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. You're the one I just--"

He leaves off the sentence half-finished, and gives her a glare.

"Tch, would it kill you to be a little less understanding now and again?"

She blinks at him in silence for several moments.

Then she whaps him upside the head, not hard, but enough to get a point across.

"There, better now? Yelling at you isn't gonna help anything. Am I a little freaked out? Yeah. But I also just saw why you did that, so I'm not about to scream at you for it like everyone else did."

At least the head smack put some normalcy back into the situation. "Whether or not it helps, there's still-- what do you mean you just saw why I did that?"

"It was like what happened a few months ago. I saw the memories - you getting dragged around as a kid, and then that jerk at school," she explains. An intrusion, but an accidental one.

The rain has started to taper off, no longer a downpour. "Maybe we should go inside and get cleaned up."

Indeed, being covered with mud is significantly less enjoyable once there wasn't a current reason for it. "Aa," he agreed, getting to his feet, slipping the knife back into the sheath at the small of his back, and offering Pepper a hand up.

Being in the side yard of the dojo, they didn't have to go through the main part-- they could access the door that went directly into the part that was his apartment. "Take the shower first," he said, waving a hand in the direction of the bathroom. "I'm making coffee."

Pepper took his hand and straightened, following after him into the apartment. She did her best not to trail mud everywhere, difficult as that was.

An idea struck her. Things might've turned a bit sour, but they didn't have to stay that way. "We're both a mess," she pointed out, snagging his hand again before he could wander off. The mud might have covered some of the faint blushing. "And there's no point in wasting water or getting mud all over the kitchen. Right? Coffee won't take long, after."

The mud on the floor would be easy enough to clean up later, so he wasn't particularly worried. He raised an eyebrow when she caught his hand, though the expression shifted to something arch at her suggestion. "No point in wasting water, hm? I suppose there's also no point in trying to wash around clothes at the same time?"

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