[EVENT|4TH WALL] THE NEWCOMERS’ ARRIVAL | APRIL 15-22

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL and plus ones.
Date: April 15-22 2015 (2016 in-game)
Location: Farmlands outside the city walls, but this log can also be used for locations within the city.
Situation: Spring planting - fourth wall event, week one!
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The days for the festival dawn sunny if a bit chilly, but the air is clear and the soggy ground has dried enough that there isn’t too much mud in the lanes between fields and homesteads. The broad dirt path to the Woodsmen’s land leads past the tram-line construction, lined with waving ribbons on sticks along the sides. The Woodsmen’s territory circles the city, separated from the city’s walls by five hundred yards of neutral land.

The festival’s central area is Liangken’s Clearing, and this is where the festival will begin and end each day. Liangken is an ancient tree, among the oldest on the turtle’s back. Though it doesn’t flower or bear much in the way of leaves anymore, the kedan have cultivated it carefully and now it’s an excellent representation for the revitalisation of old wisdom.



The lanes between the fields and homesteads will house the stalls, contests and walking areas. The Woodsmen will be keeping an eye on these to prevent anyone from walking off the marked paths. The homesteads provide ‘hotspots’ in among the lanes and fields, with Woodsmen families lending their yards to the comfort and entertainment of their guests.

In general, the Woodsmen are a taciturn, soft-spoken lot who nevertheless take great pride in their work. Their lands are all but sacred -- they accept no attitude, no trespassing, no attempts to thwart their authority. This causes some noticeable tension with the Snakes, who are accustomed to being the sole enforcers within the city; but though there may be some ill tempers and raised voices, at no point will anyone come to blows. It’s hard to argue with someone built like a brick wall and carrying sharp farm implements.

The Woodsmen are a touch anxious about having strangers on their land and this shows in them being overly officious or bossy, but at the same time their pride shows clearly and they are eager to show off the state of their lands, their greenhouses, and their farming processes -- practically without being asked. The residents of Keeliai tend to think of the Woodsmen as ‘cowards’, and the Woodsmen are taking this opportunity to prove themselves otherwise with feats of strength and tall tales.

Due to the farmers’ hours of “early to bed and early to rise”, the festival ends in the early evening at sundown, but begins again before dawn -- usually by greeting the sun with a song.

---

LINKS
Heojin, Ran and Lin | Liangken’s Clearing | Stalls and Lanes | OOC Information post | 4th Wall Character Check In

OOC
While Heojin and his bodyguards are open to everyone (including fourth-wall characters!), they are not available for small talk and general directionless CR. For the integrity of the mod’s inbox, please only request a thread with him if you already have an idea of what you’d like your character to ask/do. Other NPCs can be requested by sending a PM to the appropriate journals directly, with the same guidelines.

The top-level comments are for the festival, but fourth-wall characters should feel free to use the rest of the post for anything within the city of Keeliai itself! Just remember to label the top-level comment for location and date.

Comments

[denyamenti]

Bakura hissed out a frustrated breath, because she was pointing out what he already knew. She was right, of course. He could have tried to finish the job, and he hadn't. At the end of the day, being alive wasn't really the problem he faced, and he recognized that. The problem was that he didn't know how to address what was the problem, or even... define it.

"Do you think I haven't tried to answer that? That I just haven't made up my mind? Or that I enjoy feeling this way, like an echo of what I should? Don't you think I would do something that made me happier if I could find something that did? Or do you just assume I'm not looking hard enough?"

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine didn't flinch at the force of his questions, but she went carefully blank, smoothing over the little wells she'd made in her fruit as if that would help. Well, she had been pushing on purpose, after all. "I doubt very much that it's something you enjoy. Nor do I believe you'd linger in this state willingly, no." She shook her head briefly, as if that would clear it. "However, it's been-- what, four months? And while you've certainly healed physically, in this respect you seem... not much changed."

She grimaced then, breaking that facade, and there was something of self-deprecation in it. "My apologies," she added. "I-- there's an element of selfishness to this as well, I suppose. It may be that you are best left to your own devices, to find your own solution. However, I can't pretend it doesn't pain me somewhat, seeing you-- lost. And if so long alone has failed to bring you any solution..."

Raine turned one hand over, palm-up. Sighed a little, at the fruit juice beaded on her fingertips as much as the entirety of the situation. "You're not alone," she said simply. "That's all."

[denyamenti]

Four months is not that long, in respect to the three thousand that came before it, he wanted to grouse, but he didn't. And he didn't bite back at the term lost, although he probably should have, even if it were largely accurate.

What he did was reach into his pocket and pull out a cloth, and pressed it into Raine's upturned hand. "Here," he said instead, and most of the animosity was absent in his voice this time. "You've made a bit of a mess."

[ruinsprofessor]

She'd been expecting some kind of pushback, and the simplicity -- and utter irrelevance -- of his reply disarmed her. Raine could only blink at him for a moment or two, the cloth loose in her hand. Then she closed her fingers over it and bent her head, focusing on cleaning her hands. "So I have," she agreed. She separated out the most damaged piece, consumed it before even more juice could get everywhere. "I didn't realize. ...Thank you."

[denyamenti]

"It's easy to do. Sometimes you forget what you're holding onto," Bakura replied, settling back to pick up his own half-finished fruit.

"As for the rest, well... given enough time and practice, I'm sure I can fool even you, seba-rekhet. But if you're hoping I'll ask for suggestions, this is as close as you're going to get."

[ruinsprofessor]

She'd thought Bakura would stop surprising her eventually, but thus far there had been no such luck. Raine didn't reply immediately, but laid the cloth across her knee and separated segment after segment from the fruit, eating them one by one.

This was likely not a liberty he would allow many -- if any -- others, she was aware. She still wasn't sure what she'd done to merit it. "It has been my observation that people can often do for those they care about what they cannot for themselves," she said eventually. "I've seen it in my students; I've seen it in my enemies. If not for my brother, I don't know if I would be here now." She suspected that same behavior was at least partially responsible for Bakura's persistence over three thousand years, as well. "If you cannot yet find something that motivates you to living for yourself, not simply surviving, it may be that starting with the people you care for here will help some."

If nothing else, he would wind up spending time with and around friends, and there should surely be some benefit from that. Raine was not at all going to raise the topic of Solomon. She lifted her shoulders fractionally, added wryly, "I would request that you not outright try to hide this from me, but I prefer to ask favors I think have a chance of being granted." And she already owed him, anyway. At the very least he always seemed to be truthful with her, if not necessarily honest, and she'd start with that.

[denyamenti]

Living for other people... that was something that Bakura knew very well. Had in equal parts embraced and loathed it, over the centuries. But what Raine was proposing was at least a voluntary way of taking it up, and since living strictly for himself the last few months had been a little (a lot) abysmal, he might as well give it a shot.

What could it hurt, ultimately? He could always stop, if it got troublesome.

"What, you're going to ask for a monthly report card?" he asked, but he was mostly joking.

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine laughed at that, half-startled. "Now there's an idea," she said, amused. Bakura, reporting to her on his social achievements like a child given homework. "No, I don't think that's necessary." She paused over the last few pieces of her fruit, turning them over in her hands. "Sometime in the next few weeks, however, I'd appreciate time for lunch with you. Is that acceptable?"

[denyamenti]

He glanced up at her, not quite startled but certainly not expecting that sort of request. Had he really become so detached that even Raine felt the need to ask if she was allowed to share time with him? For as much as Bakura generally didn't give a damn what other people thought of him, that caused a spark of penitency.

"Of course you can," he muttered, faintly chagrined. "You don't need to ask that."

[ruinsprofessor]

The barest of pauses, as Raine blinked at him and processed that. "I didn't want to simply assume," she said, to cover the fact that somehow she actually had missed that she didn't need to ask that. Somewhere in their association, Bakura had come to consider her a friend as well, not only someone useful to indulge. In retrospect, she ought to have noticed when he was asking after her familial troubles; it wasn't as if that really benefited him in any practical sense. "... I'll look forward to it."

How long had she been missing something now staggeringly obvious? Hm. Perhaps some of their more curious interactions bore re-examining.

[denyamenti]

He looked at her strangely, because she was already presuming to tell him quite a lot (even though she was doing it because she, however inexplicably, was worried about him), so stating that seemed very odd.

"One of these days you're going to run out of people to fuss about," he said, resuming eating his own fruit. "Then again, the other people in this city like their cracks and damages."

[ruinsprofessor]

She was definitely aware of the logical inconsistency, but if he wasn't pressing it, she was certainly not going to offer the explanation. "At this rate?" Raine said, with an amused snort. "I don't think I've gone more than a week without someone mortally injured arriving at the Guild, or my doorstep, or both. Some days it feels like all I can do is fuss." There was only so much she could do, when it seemed no Foreigner would consent to be sensible.

[denyamenti]

"I suppose that suggesting weeding out the the frequent patients is out of the question?" he asked, probably 95% jokingly.

[ruinsprofessor]

This drew raised brows. "If you'd like to take that up with Valdis, feel free." She, too, was mostly joking, but Valdis had been her most common repeat offender recently. "No; I'm not abandoning anyone, no matter how foolish they're being."

[denyamenti]

"I have other things to take up with her," Bakura replied, which might be worrisome in itself.

[ruinsprofessor]

It was. There was a visible shift in Raine's expression, at the point where she decided she just didn't want to know. "Just be careful," she said with a sigh. It might not be a complete waste of breath. And Bakura could take care of himself, at any rate.

[denyamenti]

The thief gave a short laugh at that, like he could hear her thoughts on the matter. "You're tired of patching me up already?" he jested.

[ruinsprofessor]

"Tired of seeing the people I care about hurt," Raine returned levelly, not even trying to match his mirth. "That I can patch people up says they are still alive to be healed, so I doubt I can ever truly be tired of that, but there's been too much lately that I can't..." Raine shook her head, stopped herself there.

[denyamenti]

Some of his joviality, real or false, faded at that response. "Don't make me lecture you on the perils of caring too damn much about people, seba-rekhet," he grumbled.

[ruinsprofessor]

This jarred her free of whatever vaguely melancholy line of thought she'd been beginning to consider, and Raine gave him a mildly bemused look. If he thought she cared too much, she couldn't help but wonder what he'd make of her students. "I'll endeavor not to," she said in a moment, "but I'll admit I'm not sure what crossed line would merit that lecture, either."

[denyamenti]

"The fact that you're not sure is part of the problem," he sighed. "You're not replaceable, you know. For all you do around here, and I'm not talking about being a healer, since they're six hands to a pole. How you manage not to see that is absurd."

[ruinsprofessor]

The idiom gave Raine pause briefly, but with context meaning made itself clear shortly. It was true she wasn't the only healer, and certainly at this point Aqua or another could take over the Guild without significant loss in function or efficiency.

Even so, there were a few seconds where she looked at Bakura blankly, like his words had completely failed to parse in a meaningful way. Then she huffed, amused, and looked away, focusing on the landscape. "I was surprised," she said, almost haltingly. "There were a few instances, during our journey, where Genis and I were-- separated from the others, or imprisoned." Or that time she was reasonably sure she was sacrificing herself. "It surprised me each time, when they came for us. I don't know why. Logically speaking, it shouldn't have after the first instance."

Even here, it had surprised her. It shouldn't. She could guess at why it did, but it still shouldn't. "I suppose it is absurd," she admitted. "Nevertheless, it's a blind spot. I know that much, at least."

[denyamenti]

Raine's baffled look at his statement caused made Bakura shake his head wryly, but he didn't say anything while she continued to speak. "Logic doesn't always follow experience," he said. "Sometimes, it just makes things more confusing. But so long as you know that much, I suppose it's fine."

There's a long pause then, before he speaks again. "But to put your mind at rest, I don't hate Solomon for what he did. I'm angry, because I don't know he knows or cares what he did to me. But I don't know what to do with that yet."

[ruinsprofessor]

And knowing she had that blind spot was at least half the battle, she supposed. Raine lifted her shoulders a little, a tiny shrug, and let the silence rest until Bakura spoke again.

When he did she turned her eyes back on him, considering. An interesting callback to the earlier thread of their conversation. Not a question she'd been expecting answered. "I think that's something he needs to hear, more than I," Raine said eventually, careful. "And I think he would be relieved, to hear it."

She was too, of course, because in her opinion the two of them could both benefit from understanding each other and repairing the friendship, but that much she kept to herself.

[denyamenti]

"You're the one who asked," he replied. "Not him. If he cared what I thought of him, I'm sure he'd have figured out how to inquire about it somehow. Most likely indirect, knowing him, but somehow nonetheless."