For you are made of nebulas and novas and night sky...

[lasergrenades]

Characters: Pepper Potts, Yami no Bakura, Raine Sage, Jackie Ma, Gene Khan, Tony Stark and open!
Date: Throughout November
Location: Around Keeliai
Situation: Pepper gains the ability to do magic on her own, she's turning 18... it's a crazy month
Warnings/Rating: Probably mention of death; others as needed

A. Jade Dojo | November 1 | Bakura

After the reappearance of Bakura's ghosts, Pepper offered to be something of an ally for them. As she promised, she hasn't kept asking about it, although it's been extremely difficult. As something of an alternative, she'd visited the pyramid outside the city a few times and drawn out the hieroglyphs. She thought about using the suit to translate them, or to borrow one of Solomon's books, but thought better of it. Pepper is only going to learn those names if or when Bakura tells her. She made a promise, and she's going to keep it. Despite them being remnants of people, mostly full of rage according to Raine, she's grown a little fond of them. She comes to the dojo looking forward to seeing them as well as him now.

B. Fire Sector | November 6 | Jackie

Jackie is a sort of odd and interesting person. He's different than most of the people Pepper knows in Keeliai, but he's fun to hang out with. Plus, hanging out with him is a great reason to visit the Fire sector, which is a super cool place. He's also one of the only people she's talked to about the letter she got and that's earned him extra brownie points.

C. House Iron Dragon | November 15, morning | Gene and Tony

Pepper can do magic. She can do magic. On her own. This is awesome and terrifying at the same time. After taking enough time to calm down about it, she needs to tell Gene and Tony. This is awesome! She's as antsy as she's ever been, buzzing with excitement when she bursts into the house.

"Gene? Tony? Are you guys home?" Pepper calls, loudly.

D. Healing Guild | November 15, later afternoon | Raine

It had occurred to Pepper that, while giving Raine a heads up that she was stopping by would have been the polite thing, her shared excitement about this new development will probably overcome any upset at barging in. She's practically bouncing through the halls on her way to Raine's office.

"Raaaaaaaaine," she sings, sliding to a stop in front of the healer's door, the gauntlet on hidden behind her back.

E. Central and Sky Sectors | Late November | Open to all

Back home, it's nearing Thanksgiving. The air is getting colder, and sometimes the feeling of homesickness is intense. Pepper didn't think she'd be spending Thanksgiving away from her dad for many, many years to come. She's doing her best to hide it by preparing for Thanksgiving at home. That means decorations and finding the best substitutes for things like garlic mashed potatoes and perfect roast turkey. She can often be seen in the markets, poring over the different offerings and trying not to buy all the scarves in Keeliai.

(OOC: If you want a starter, PM me or hit me up on plurk)

Comments

D. House Iron Dragon | November 14 | Bakura

[lasergrenades]

Pepper occasionally goes out shopping in search of new Duel Monsters cards these days. She usually visits the same shops Bakura took her to a few months ago, but occasionally visits some of the other curio shops. She hasn't had much luck thus far, but maybe the Dreaming needs time to make things appear. It's given her the opportunity to get to know the city better, if nothing else. This time, though, she's come home with an unexpected purchase. Pepper isn't usually a glove person, outside of winter, much less one like this. 

She waits until she gets home to put it on, though, after dropping the rest of her things on the bed. For a moment, Pepper just studies it, running her fingertips over the studs and the star pins. It's an odd piece, and she's not entirely sure why she bought it, but she just felt like she had to. Finally, she slides the glove over her fingers, and it's as if there's electricity arcing up her arm.

It's not painful, exactly, but it is some kind of freaky, that's for sure. It stops after a moment and ebbs to a low buzz. Pepper sits on the edge of the bed, staring at her hand. What on earth did she just buy?

Nothing happens for a while, so, shrugging, Pepper pulls out her deck to review her cards again. There's one that keeps coming up when she practices with Bakura, usually in the first two or three hands. Pepper shuffles through the cards until she finds it, holding it up in her gloved hand, studying it.

"Valkyrian Knight," she murmurs. "What's so special about you?"

There's a rustling sound, and the room darkens for a second, shocks prickling along her skin under the glove. Pepper looks up, and shrieks, scrambling for her radio.

[denyamenti]

((Continued from here.))

Bakura assesses the situation as quickly as he can, taking in by seconds the unusually familiar glove that Pepper is wearing, the armored kneeling figure on the floor, and his fingers flex at his side as if ready to reach for a card, although he doesn't need it to summon. He recognizes the creature, both vaguely from recollection of perusing cards to purchase in his world, and in seeing it come up in his and Pepper's duels for practice, but it's one he's never summoned himself and so this is his first time seeing it 'live'.

He steps toward Pepper on the edge of the bed, although the movement is more to put himself at a better position to block the Knight should it come necessary. He doesn't know what it wants, yet. There's also a chance it would recognize him, whether by association or by the Ring, and that was something of a game of chance depending on any possible allegiances.

"What happened?" he asked Pepper.

[lasergrenades]

In the time it takes Bakura to get there, Pepper has managed to calm down somewhat, and panic and fear are becoming excitement and curiosity. She glances over at the thief when he arrives, tense like a cat ready to spring on its prey. The Knight watches Bakura, too, but doesn't make any moves.

"I don't really know. I mean, I think it's this thing," she says, pointing at the glove on her right hand. "I bought it at one of the stores you showed me, I don't really know why, I just felt like buying it and then I put it on and it kind of felt like I'd shoved my arm in a power socket for like a second, and then it went away and I thought it might be like one of those trick magic buzzers or whatever, and then I started looking through my deck and I pulled out this card because it keeps coming up at the top and then I-" She takes a breath from the racing words, realizing something. "I said it's- it's? Hers? Hers. I said her name and she just... whooshed," Pepper describes, gesturing to the Knight. "It didn't feel the same as summoning before. It doesn't," she clarifies.

The connection was so different, and so integrated into her own mind, that she had hardly noticed it was there at first. But it's definitely there, and she's trying not to think about it too hard because she doesn't know how to control it, or if she can.

[denyamenti]

"I know these," Bakura said, moving to Pepper's side and examining the glove, though he never fully turned his back on the Knight.

"They're what was used in Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom by participants. See these," he said, touching the studs around the wrist cuff. "Are Star Chips, obtained with each win. You started with two, and had to have ten in order to be admitted to the finals."

It was yet another measure of how pervasive Duel Monsters was in his world, that it encompassed so many aspects of people's lives. The Ring hummed against his skin, emitting a faint light, and the sharp pointers lifted to glove. Power. There was power there, in the gauntlet, and it was not precisely shadow magic but not wholly different, either.

Bakura turns to look at the Knight once again, pondering Pepper's words that the summon didn't feel like the others. It could be that a power source connected to her own had mitigated the strain, or...

Or there was another explanation, he realized. One not entirely out of the realm of possibility, however surprising.

"Can you speak?" he asked the Knight, because some did and some did not, particularly the non-humanoid ones.

[lasergrenades]

As Bakura examines the glove she's wearing, Pepper extends her arm away from her somewhat, as if expecting it to explode at any moment. It doesn't, of course, which is encouraging. Until they figure out what's going on here she doesn't really want to take it off. What if she puts it back on again and it doesn't work?

She looks back up at the Knight when Bakura asks her an unexpected question. Pepper didn't realize they could talk, at least not in any language she could understand. The Knight turns her head slightly, as if considering whether to answer Bakura or divest him of one his limbs. After a few tense seconds pass:

I can.

Pepper jumps like she's been bitten because the Knight definitely spoke, but she also definitely did not move her lips when she did it.

[denyamenti]

Bakura only stares coolly at the Knight, who would probably be twice his height if she were to stand up, unintimidated by the deliberate wait before answering. It's not the first time he's faced a willful monster with the capability do to real harm if it so chose.

"That makes things easier," he replied when the Knight confirmed her ability to speak. He glanced back at Pepper, having felt more than seen her start when the Knight spoke. He lays his hand on Pepper's forearm, above where the glove ends, an encouragement, before speaking again to the summoned creature.

"You weren't willfully called on, and there's no Duel here. I'm only going to ask once: what are you to her?"

[lasergrenades]

When he touches her arm, Pepper realizes that Bakura is trying to protect her, that he thinks the Knight might be dangerous. It's a sobering thought, and she looks from one to the other, gears spinning madly in her head.

The Knight shifts, barely, and grips the hilt of her sword harder at Bakura's question.

I could ask you the same thing, Ring Bearer, she hisses, or at least Pepper imagines that the edge to her tone is hissing. In any case, she does not sound happy.

Pepper has seen this kind of standoff before, between Tony and the Black Panther, and she does now exactly what she did then.

"Okay, both of you, enough," she says forcefully, getting off the bed to stand in between them. "This is my room, and my house and you came because I called you so don't get any ideas about beheading my friends. You're a Knight; act like it." She looks over at Bakura with a mix of appreciation for his concern and general irritation at what's threatening to go on here. "Answer the question," she demands, turning back to the Knight.

Of course, lady, she replies with the faintest trace of a smile, bowing her head. The Knight looks back at Bakura. I am Vördr. What you call ka.

Pepper just gapes at her.

D. Healer's Guild!

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine's door is ajar at the moment, so she can see perfectly well when Pepper slides to a stop. Pepper looks, to Raine's eyes, absolutely thrilled.

"Hello, Pepper," Raine says, smiling, her tone dry but fond. "What brings you here today?" She gets up, comes around her desk in anticipation of Pepper's excitement. She will probably want to be standing for this.

[lasergrenades]

Standing is probably best, yes. The hallways here are a bit taller than her room, she noticed, which will be useful in a moment for maximum effect.

"I found something super mega cool and you are not gonna believe what I can do with it," Pepper says speedily, grinning from ear to ear. She reveals her gauntleted hand, her eyes shining. "I can do magic!"

[ruinsprofessor]

"Magic?" Raine repeats, sounding curious. "You said you were learning some from Bakura, but--" And then she focuses on the gauntlet. Ah. One of those items which Foreigners sometimes find, she guesses, and she lights up, instantly fascinated. "You've discovered something to help you do it on your own, I see. What have you managed so far? Have you shown Bakura yet? Do you know what its limitations are?" Already Raine is crossing to Pepper, eager to see the results of the item.

[lasergrenades]

As expected, Raine is quite excited by this new development, to the point where she's asking questions like Pepper does.

"Yes! He was the first person I told, I mean I literally called him right after a shadow creature showed up in my room. It was kind of freaky but also super cool at the same time. It was only yesterday so I don't know all the limitations yet, but now that I can summon creatures on my own Bakura and I can have proper duels and I'll probably figure out what any limits are pretty quick, if there are any, but there probably are, Duel Monsters always have limits so this probably won't be any different," Pepper replies in one breath. "All I really know right now is that I have to have the card, I can't just summon anything I can think of. Wanna see?" she asks, pulling out what is now solidly her favorite card, Valkyrian Knight.

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine keeps up with the torrent of information well enough, nodding occasionally to show Pepper she's following and making mental notes all the while.

"That's good," she says finally, of the fact that Pepper appears to have been appropriately careful with new magic. Bakura is absolutely the first person who should have known about this, since it's his own variety of magic. "Yes, I'd love to see." She smiles, and it's closer to an outright grin than she usually gets, full of enthusiasm, as she leans to get a good look at the card.

In consideration of the fact that the image there looks to have something of a larger scale, she takes a few steps back in anticipation of Pepper's summoning.

[lasergrenades]

There hadn't been much thinking when Pepper had called Bakura; it was more like a knee-jerk reaction, but it's fortunate that she's being a little more careful with learning magic than then she decided to take the Rescue armor out for a spin.

Still grinning, Pepper turns to face the length of the hall.

"Summon Valkyrian Knight," she says confidently.

There's a whirl of shadows, and an armor-clad woman over ten feet in height appears in the hallway in front of Pepper. She doesn't have to kneel like she did in Pepper's bedroom.

"See?" Pepper cries gleefully as she turns back to Raine. "This is uber mega crazy shiny cool."

[ruinsprofessor]

Oh.

Raine stands very still for a few seconds, watching the gathering of shadows carefully, and her eyes go wide in delight and wonderment when the Knight fully materializes. "Pepper, this is marvelous!" she agrees, bright, and heads right for the Valkyrian Knight. Not especially fast, no matter how she wants to, for worry that the Knight might perceive that as a threat, but Raine aims to circle the Knight, get a good look at her from all angles. "You had previously only managed joint summons with Bakura, correct? Even with an item's help, this is substantial progress!"

A thought occurs to her, then, and she peers back at Pepper from around the Knight. "Is there something special about her?" she asks, carefully.

A.

[denyamenti]

He never really sets aside specific time to speak of them, and the first few times since Pepper's found out about them, he's gone the whole day without even offhand reference. Then a few things slide into mention, nearly always contextless, but recalled with clarity. There haven't been a whole lot of actual names imparted, certainly only a fraction of their total, but a few have come out. Whether he does it intentionally or not, Bakura isn't just building for Pepper the memory of the ghosts' identity, but Kul Elna's identity as a whole.

Today, they've finished their usual spar, and are sitting on the veranda and enjoying the crisp afternoon weather. The nights are starting to turn chilly now, although the days are still tepid.

"You're the same age as Nakhanatit," he says, without preamble.

[lasergrenades]

It's fortunate that Pepper has a mind for details. She's practiced at collecting information about and from people and compiling them. The skill has been particularly useful with the bits and pieces of Bakura's history that he's started to share.

The cool air is nice after sparring; a hint of a breeze but not so cold as to need more than a light jacket. She looks up a little too quickly when he mentions what is clearly an Egyptian name.

"Is there something important about being seventeen in Egypt?" Pepper asks, noting the choice of the present tense and using it as well. Maybe that was when people came of age.

[denyamenti]

"Not unless you're in the process of getting married," Bakura answered dryly, of which he was fairly sure Pepper was not. "She was. Well, that was the plan, but she had been kind of stubborn about it, I think. I remember Khephra being annoyed by it."

[lasergrenades]

Pepper makes a noise that sounds something like 'nghl' at the prospect of being married at 17.

"So, Khephra is either an annoyed parent with a rebellious daughter, or an annoyed guy who Nakhanatit wasn't marrying," she reasons. She could probably come up with a few others, but those seem the most obvious and most likely. "Good for her, being stubborn," she says, giggling a little.

[denyamenti]

"Don't make such a sour face at the thought, that was a completely normal age to have been married by, particularly for girls. And you were closer with the first," he added. "Khephra was the village's elder, so it was his responsibility to oversee anything like a marriage. The one trying to marry Nakhanatit was Hor-Khaut."

Bakura pauses here, ostensibly to brush a few stray leaves from the wooden deck, but in reality he's testing himself minutely. There's a peculiar tightness in his chest, as there normally is when he thinks about the lives he knows about, the ones he was part of in a small way by proxy. The conflicted trickle of feedback from the ghosts, collective and distorted by their overbearance of negative emotions.

It hurts, a little, to speak about them like this. But it's an acceptable kind of hurt.

[lasergrenades]

"Yeah, but not for girls from Manhattan." At least 17 was better than 12 or 13. "She can get married whenever she likes, I'm a little busy fighting supervillains most afternoons."

Pepper turns the names over in her head a few times, memorizing them, memorizing the relationships between the people they represent. If only tumultuous marriage arrangements had been the worst of Khul Elna's problems.

She notices his silence, and doesn't disturb it. Instead, Pepper reaches out across the space between them and just barely rests her fingertips on his forearm, and only for a moment, as if to say 'That's enough for now' if he doesn't want to continue. Each name meant a person, a life, and the loss of that life. Three people meant three times that memory of loss, although he must be thinking of all of them whenever he does bring them up. How can he not? She promised she wouldn't press, and she won't.

[denyamenti]

"No, I suppose not," Bakura answered. It actually wasn't uncommon for girls to start being married off at 13 or 14, although he conceded it was probably better that didn't happen anymore. He looked over at her when she touched his arm, understanding what went unspoken. It took him another moment before he seemed to rouse himself, and gave her a weary smile before resuming speaking.

"You'd have liked Khephra," he said finally. "Near everyone did, and he was the smartest person I knew. He was an estate overseer for most of his life, somewhere in the Ma-hedj Nome, until the landowners fell out of favour with the local heri-tep a'a--"

Bakura paused, running the word through his mind to find an adequate comparison. "Nomarch? A governor. Anyway, that happened a lot, if you angered the wrong people or just didn't slip them enough bribes, whatever. The land got turned over to someone else who was probably kissing up to the governor, and everyone who lived there before was out of a job."

He exhaled with a shake of his head. "Khephra could have gone-- anywhere, really. Any estate would have been lucky to have him, with his skills and his experience. But he came back to Kul Elna... he wanted to bring those skills back, teach them to the younger ones. You have to understand, very few people were literate in the village. Not just in reading and writing, but in a lot of things. It just wasn't necessary for the kind of life that was lived there. Khephra came back because he wanted to try and change that."

B

[jinzhong]

And he has cool tattoos, right? You forgot to mention his cool tattoos.

Most of them are covered now, anyway - Hong Kong is the right temperature to wear tank tops all the time, and so is Keeliai in high summer, but it's a little too cold for that now, and this delicate hothouse flower is wilting.

"Hey, siumui, what's up?" he asked when she came by.

[lasergrenades]

Yes. His tattoos are indeed excellent.

"Hi Jackie," she says, waving. "Not much. Not the temperature, which kind of sucks because I totally don't have enough winter clothing here." Is she pouting? She might be pouting. "But at least you live in a super warm sector. Does it snow here ever?" she asks. "Have you decided to take your own advice and start bartending? You could make snow drinks."

C

[wrathfulkhan]

The door swinging open like that could only be Pepper, really.

"I'm home," Gene calls from his room.

[lasergrenades]

Pepper skids to a halt, slamming the door behind her. She races upstairs when she hears Gene's voice, eyes bright and alert.

"Oh, man, Gene you will never guess what I can do this is probably like, the ultimate most awesome thing that has ever happened to me except maybe getting to be a superhero but this is totally on the same level," she rambles, restraining herself long enough to at least give him the chance to guess, even though she definitely said he wouldn't guess.

The gauntlet is on her right hand; it's new and odd enough that Gene will probably notice, but whether he'll make the connection as quickly as Raine did is unknown.