tushanshu_logs | you're standing too close to a flame that's burning

Current Music: "I Burn" - RWBY Season 1 OST

Entry tags:

you're standing too close to a flame that's burning | open, with starters

Characters: ~~Eyebrow Squad~~ Gene, Jackie, Deon, and you!
Date: Throughout July
Location: Keeliai and the rest of the shell
Situation: July interactions for Eyebrow Squad.
Warnings/Rating: None initially, but subject to change.

A. [Gene] House Iron Dragon | July 6 | closed to Pepper

Gene's been able to keep his emotions contained after his initial breakdown upon first experiencing the vision, but he can't hold that tide back forever on his own. At least he manages to keep it in until he reaches the house, and immediately goes into the kitchen to make himself some tea just so he has something to do with his hands (that isn't dig his nails into his palms so hard they nearly draw blood). But he doesn't finish making it; he's barely gotten the cup down when he's seized with another wave of grief and anger and frustration and guilt. It slams down a little harder than he'd meant it to, making a clatter, and he rests his elbows on the edge of the counter, his nails digging into his scalp, his eyes screwed shut.

B. [Gene] House Iron Dragon | early July | closed to Raine

Gene's been practicing a little - scraps of different metals were scattered across a piece of the kitchen he'd claimed as his temporary workroom. Some experiments had clearly been more successful than others, but there's a clear progression of his improving skill and finesse with the orange ring. Fine-tuning it had been the hardest part, and he wants to be especially careful when dealing with something as delicate as someone else's soul gem.

C. [Gene] Sky Sector | mid-July | open

Gene's seemed pretty preoccupied as of late - though with things in Keeliai being how they are, who could blame him? His mood's brightened considerably since leaving Zeshora in their wake, though, and he's back to being as chipper as he usually is. Which is to say, not especially, but at least he won't bite your head off if you look at him the wrong way.

He's taking down notes from time to time, but if you try and read over his shoulder, you may not be in luck. Unless you can read Mongolian script, of course. Hey, some people here can read Chinese, and a whole lot can read English. There are some notes he'd rather keep to himself instead of sharing with any nosey parker lurking somewhere over his shoulder.

D. [Jackie] Water Sector | early July | closed to Dove

Jackie's been keeping mostly to himself lately as he's been trying to figure out how to leave the Snakes. Today, he's walking by one of the canals, trying to relax in the most laid-back sector, when he sees someone familiar.

"Hey, Dove!" he calls out, hoping he's right.

E. [Jackie] Water Sector | July 6 | open

The vision had driven Jackie straight to a bar. He doesn't really know what he's drinking and he doesn't much care, just so long it gets those horrible visions out of his head. He knows, somewhere, miserably, that it won't get out, no matter how much vodka-analogue he tries to drown the memory in. It's seared itself on his neurons, and he misses Rio'era terribly.

F. [Deon] Metal Sector | mid-July | open

Deon's been a bit unmoored this month; what with the Stark Industries handover and that horrible vision of the baby turtles soon after, and of course Vincent being around and in the Hotel, he's been very jumpy of late. Definitely jumpier than usual. Nobody come up behind him, okay? It's undignified for a 6'2" man to scream.

G. [Deon] Sky Sector | July 18 | closed to Dr. Light

Deon had gone on a shopping expedition today, but his prize had been quite unexpected. The kedan hadn't seemed to know what he had, and was selling for a reasonable price, so Deon had snatched it up immediately, his heart pounding in his ears.

The laptop sat on the table across from him, bedecked with Tetravaal decals, and dead as a doornail. It had no charge whatsoever, and if it had even shown up in Keeliai with a charger, it had long since been lost.

He picked up his tea, and stared at the laptop. It was exactly what he needed, but he needed to devise a way to power it, first. And that is not his forte.

OOC Note: If you want another starter, please hit me up over at

Chatvert and I'll pull something together for you! :>

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It's in the middle of one of these experiments that Raine turns up again. She hasn't called ahead, is mostly just hoping that she'll happen to catch Gene there; she finally turned something like a useful base up in the markets, and delaying on re-setting her soul gem doesn't strike her as a good idea.

She finds the house easily enough, knocks on the door. "Gene?"

It takes a moment, but he hears the knock and goes to open the door. He's a bit pleasantly surprised to see Raine. "Raine, good timing. I was just honing my control on some scrap metal. Do you want to see what I have so far?"

He had to admit - this was actually kind of a fun challenge.

"I'd love to," Raine says, frankly. She smiles at Gene -- the expression is missing something so far as cheer goes, but the pleasure at seeing him and his work is genuine enough. "I found something that should serve as a base." It's a simple piece of jewelry, a broad, flat cuff type of bracelet that she probably paid a little too much for. Simple, but it doesn't need to be complex; the solidity is the key.

Gene wholly understands. Most people don't smile when they see him, so even this is nice to have from Raine, even if it's not super cheery. That would actually freak him out, probably.

He looks at the bracelet. "May I?" he says, reaching for the bracelet. He needs to get acquainted with its weight and heft before he works with the metal.

"Of course." She hands it over; it's some silvery metal she hasn't been able to identify, but it doesn't give to her strength alone, so that's something. It's a solid piece. Not especially attractive as it is. "It's acceptable, I hope. May I come in?" Better to not be on the doorstep, and he did offer to show her his work so far.

"Oh. Yeah, of course," he says, stepping aside to let her in while he examines the material. It's similar to an alloy he'd been working with before, not too brittle or pliable, something jewelry-quality that seems to be able to stand up to a lot of wear and tear

"Can I get you anything?"

"Perhaps tea, if you don't mind," Raine says absently. Tea is the safest thing to request, and most people have one blend or another in their kitchens. And speaking of kitchens...

As soon as it's in view, she's immediately sidetracked by the evidence of his previous experimentation. She doesn't touch yet, but bends over the table to see what Gene's been up to, curious. If she looks closely enough, she thinks she can almost piece together the timeline of his efforts.

Gene fills up the kettle with water and selects a tea while she's examining his previous attempts at metalworking. "It took some trial and error, but I think I have the hang of it now," he says. "I think my touch is delicate enough not to damage your soul gem."

At least, he sure hopes it is. They're hardy things, but also unpredictable in some ways. And there was the matter of how they'd come to be in the first place...

"It's already damaged," Raine admits, blunt. "I doubt you can do worse to it than was already done." She turns one piece over, then another, finally looks back up at Gene. He's evidently been putting some work into this, and that deserves acknowledging. "...still, I appreciate your efforts. It's kind of you."

Oh, and speaking of the damage... Raine grimaces, and leans on the kitchen counter, drawing her gem in its barely-surviving makeshift cage from her jacket. It's fracturing again. Of course it's choosing now.

Gene nods. "That's right. Yours was stolen, too, wasn't it." He's still not entirely sure he doesn't bring misfortune on everyone who knows him. Even at home he hadn't been free of the curse; his mother had been its first victim. And here in Keeliai, innumerable people disappearing - including Zuko and Wan, now - and Tony and Raine getting their gems taken and meddled with.

But he laughs a little, suddenly, at the second thing she says. "Now that's not something I'm often accused of."

"It was," Raine agrees absently. She looks a bit strained, her gaze gone distant over her gem. Mana dims in her awareness, which is possibly her least favorite of the options when her gem fractures, and while she is physically fine it's a sort of wrong that sets her teeth on edge. For several moments she's not really present in the conversation.

Gene said something, though. She drags her mind back. The gem will heal soon enough. "You're going out of your way to help, aren't you?"

"Not so far out of my way," he demurs.

"I like you, Raine. And I owe you. So think of this as me paying back a favor." After all, she had stopped and listened to him in his distress, and told him soothing words, and a ~~Lannister~~ Mandarin always pays his debts. Especially when there weren't many people he could have talked to about that.

She gives his past efforts a meaningful look. That's hours of effort at least, right?

The rest just gets a blank stare. She doesn't consider that she owes him, really, and can't bring to mind what he might be talking about. Certainly she's healed him and listened to him, but he's a friend. What else would she do, walk away? Ridiculous.

But she says nothing on the subject, in the end just nods gravely. "I appreciate it, still," she says. Looks down at her gem again. The cracks are repairing thenselves, as they do, and something of the strain goes from her face as it does. In a moment she extends it to Gene in her open palm, wordlessly questioning.

That's the thing about Gene - if he likes you, he'll go to great lengths, unconsciously, to 'prove' it. He never feels like he's done enough; his self-esteem has been shattered too many times.

B-besides, it's not like he thinks you're his friend or anything, b-baka.

He takes the gem when it's offered, looking at it.

"I'll do what I can," he says, trying out a number of configurations to put it on the bracelet, tilting it this way and that. "Which way do you want it to go?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," she admits. It's a little strange, having her gem in someone else's hands like this, but she trusts Gene and it's not like she doesn't know exactly where the gem is. "The original setting resembled a tree, with the gem in its trunk. Perhaps... this way, then?" She doesn't expect him to try for anything fancy, but the mirroring will make her happy. She reaches to guide Gene's hand, angling the gem so the length of it crosses the bracelet rather than paralleling.

Raine trusts Gene? If she ever explicitly tells him as much, he'll collapse from shock. Mostly, he's used to people not trusting him. And for good reason.

"I don't think I can shape it into a tree," he says apologetically. "I'm not that skilled yet, I'm afraid. But I can do this."

The kettle goes off, and he pours for her. "Honey for your tea?"

Look at the rest of her life choices, Gene.

Raine shakes her head. "Function before form, of course. Don't worry about it." She'd said it mostly for her own memory, anyway. It was a lovely piece, even if she was a little worried at first about souls in gems; it reminded her of the Tree, or what the sapling would become someday.

"It's fine plain, but thank you. Unless you have lemon, or some equivalent citrus around?"

Gene nods, and finds a citrus-like fruit that he'd found in Keeliai. (He knows where all the food is because he does the majority of the cooking in this house.) He cuts the fruit into wedges, and places it on a plate in front of Raine before bringing her the tea.

"It's not quite lemon - more like a lemon mixed with a grapefruit, I'm afraid - but it should work well enough, I hope."

"It's close enough," Raine says. She recognizes the fruit, anyway; she doesn't have a full catalog of the produce that's available on the turtle, but she's seen this one before. She tastes the tea first, squeezes a wedge of the fruit into it. "Thank you."

With the tea handled, she moves herself to the side a little, giving Gene room -- she doesn't know exactly how he does his work, but it seems sensible to give the strange magic (or tech) a little bit of space.

"Of course," he says, and adjusts the position of the gem on the bracelet by just a hair, then turns to slip on his rings. "This might get a little strange, so bear with me."

He's had to practice quite a lot on similar metals, so the process is now familiar. It's like silver in more ways that mere appearance; as he touches it, the crimson ring glows, feeding information to him about the melting point and malleability of the metal.

"Right," he says, half to himself, and activates the orange ring. A stream of orange light pours out of it, and where it touches the metal, its shape begins to change. The red and yellow rings flash intermittently, heating and cooling the metal, and forming it into a secure setting around the soul gem.

It takes about ten minutes of work, but the result is one soul gem, securely ensconced in the silver metal, and it almost looks like an actual qualified jeweler did the work. The setting is still a little rough-looking, but secure for all that. Gene replaces the bracelet on the table after his examination, and sits back with a tired sigh.

Raine just watches, utterly quiet -- she has so many questions, but knows better than to interrupt to pepper Gene with them -- and once Gene sets the bracelet on the table she picks it up, turning it over and over in her hands. She pauses briefly to tap the gem, tries to wiggle it a bit. It's not that she doesn't trust Gene, but she needs to get to know the jewelry for herself. She's going to be spending a very long time with it, after all.

"Thank you," she says finally, pulling her sleeve up a bit so she can fit the cuff onto her wrist. "It's a relief to have it secure again."

A breath, and then she leans forward, curious eyes fixed on Gene now. "What exactly were you doing with it?"

Even Pepper doesn't know better than to pepper Gene with questions when he's working. Kudos, Raine.

"Let me know if it comes loose at all, and I'll work on it again," he says, and folds his hands.

"I was manipulating the structure of the metal, and heating and cooling it rapidly to be sure it would stay workable, and not get brittle in the process." He shrugs, then. "I haven't worked much with this metal, but I'm confident that it's good to go."

"All right," she says, and, "I'll keep an eye on it." It'll probably take some weeks before she relaxes enough not to think about it, anyway.

His process makes some kind of sense, though she suspects the discussion he might have about smithing with Dirk or Lloyd would be far more in-depth. "Are the functions of those rings simply temperature related, or is there more to it?" Raine asks, pursuing the slightly more magical/technological part of the equation.

Honestly, Raine, he is literally just bullshitting his way through this.

"The yellow one works with ice and cold, and the red one is fire and heat," Gene says. "The orange one manipulates matter of all kinds. Before I only used it to summon acid, but that's not what we wanted to go for here, for obvious reasons. Hence the experimentation."

At least he bothered to do proper experimentation beforehand.

"I can appreciate that," Raine says, a little dryly mostly because of the mention of the acid. That really would have been significantly less helpful, unless perhaps he wanted to get fancy with etchings. It's wholly unnecessary, though, and she has a working bracelet again. She picks up the tea again, then; even if the main point of her visit is taken care of, there's no harm in staying a little longer, unless Gene needs her gone for some reason.

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