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

[denyamenti]

"No," he shook his head. "Once, it was the home of tomb-builders, architects and workers. That's why Kul Elna was where it was, as the foot of the cliffs. Many small settlements on the western side of the river started out that way."

He pulled a breath in and then it out slowly at her observation. "You're not wrong. I was five when it happened."

[lasergrenades]

"Oh. Wow. Did they run out of space to build more tombs around there and just... let the village fend for itself or something?" Not something they covered in history class, that was for sure.

Pepper inhales sharply - five? Bakura really had spent all his life fighting, hadn't he? His age at the time only serves to make the whole situation resolutely more foul.

"God, I could barely tie my shoes at five years old. How did you survive on your own?" She looks aghast. "Er. Sorry, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

She's been trying to be more careful about asking questions when the ghosts come up, but that one just kind of popped out.

[denyamenti]

"Not out of space, just out of power," Bakura replied. "This would have been quite far back, you understand. Old Kingdom, perhaps. Certainly no trace of the village's initial workforce remained there for its original purpose. While a pharaoh was in power, the royal city would have sent supplies as part of its tithes, but once the dynasty moved on... well, so did the support. And yes, those who lived there would have been left to fend for themselves. Kul Elna wasn't unique in that regard, but it was out of the way enough that it attracted bad sorts. Even so, it was still a village... families lived there. It wasn't just a hundred cutthroats sitting around and plotting robbery, much as certain others would have liked to believe."

His mouth quirked upward at her outburst, not quite a smile and too wry to be a smirk.

"Well, for the first two years, I was with a trader's caravan. They found me out in the desert, after that night, and decided I was worth keeping on as mirhat for a while."

[lasergrenades]

"I suppose the reputation could have been useful sometimes but... You know, they never teach us this kind of stuff in school, and it seems a lot more important than knowing the difference between Ramses I and II or which god did what." Villages like Kul Elna might not have determined the ebb and flow of history on their own, but they mattered more than most history classes gave them credit for.

"Mirhat?" Some kind of slave or servant perhaps. She studies him for a moment, as if debating something with herself, and then says: "You're kind of amazing; do you know that?"

In both good and bad ways. His ability to survive was remarkable, and no matter how much evil he may have perpetrated in his millennia-long quest to restore his family, he gave all of himself for that cause. That meant something, and was worth recognizing.

[denyamenti]

"Mm, a sort of drudge slave," he elaborated, the factual way he said it; not even resentful, but as casual a recollection as the rest of the history he relayed. "Not one assigned to any specific task or area of expertise."

But he paused in his story to look at her in surprise at her declaration. "Much as my ego appreciates the elevation, biahbenat, getting picked up by a caravan is hardly worth such admiration."

Bakura was certain that wasn't what she'd meant, but for all his posturing -- one didn't go around proclaiming to be the King of Thieves without a healthy self-confidence, after all -- he'd never really considered himself remarkable on a personal level.

[lasergrenades]

Pepper rolls her eyes with mild amusement.

"You know that's not what I meant. Maybe getting picked up by a caravan isn't impressive, but surviving everything you went through at that age, and then spending your entire life - literally giving everything you had, your ka, your soul - for your family? That's amazing. And sure, you did some stuff that most people would consider seriously bad-," She's one of them, "-along the way, but even that's amazing in a sort of 'what the heck, holy crap' kind of way. Not a lot of people would even consider doing what you've done, much less actually act on it. This is not approval for getting yourself killed, by the way," she adds pointedly. "But I can be annoyed with your lack of self-preservation for your own sake and still admire what you did at the same time."

[denyamenti]

He offered her a smile, but it was sad and weary. "Admirable would have had them at rest millennia ago, but I do appreciate the sentiment. I never thought of it that way, nor frankly cared what anyone else thought of it. The goal was all that mattered."

[lasergrenades]

Pepper fixes him in a narrow, concerned gaze.

"What about what they think?" she asks quietly, referring to the ghosts. "Have you ever considered, even for just a second, that maybe, possibly, they might have wanted you to live no matter what? I mean, even if it was just selfish, if you survived and lived your whole life then at least they had someone to remember them and keep their names alive, rather than taking mega giant risks where you might lose that opportunity for forever."

She sighs, looking out into the yard although she can't see the ghosts.

"They might be ghosts now, but they're your family, and maybe the way they are now means that they would want you to risk literally everything. If there were more of themselves left, more than just rage and hate and anger... did you ever ask yourself what they might have thought about risking your soul? You're their hope, even if they can't feel that anymore."

It's all said evenly. She's honestly just curious if the thought occurred to him, and if he had ever entertained living a different kind of life.

[denyamenti]

"But they're not more of themselves, are they?" he snaps, harsher than he'd intended, but with enough anger behind it not to rein the spike of temper back. The soft nostalgia is gone; returned is the simmering resolve and cold fury that had defined him for so long.

"What use would daydreaming of what might have happened done for me? Or do you, as well as Wreath, think that I've done them more harm than good by trying to save them?"

[lasergrenades]

It's a side of Bakura she's hardly seen before, and it's a little shocking; Pepper flinches, barely, trying to hide it. His reaction is not unexpected, but it does sting. More so because he has reason for such anger, rather than feeling that the words were undeserved. She makes a conscious and careful choice not to snap back, taking a deep breath before speaking again.

"No, I don't think that," she replies honestly, still watching the empty air. "I have no idea if what you've done was better or worse, and even if I did have an opinion, my opinion doesn't really matter. They're your family." Pepper turns back to face him again. "You did what you did. I just wanted to know if you ever thought you had another choice."

[denyamenti]

"I didn't waste my time with it," Bakura replies coldly, pressing his hands against the wooden slats and getting to his feet and picking up the short staff he used to spar against her. "And neither should you. I didn't watch them die so I could turn around and live carefree and at ease."

The intimation is there, a warning in the tone, that it's not for debate. He turns and heads back into the dojo.

[lasergrenades]

Crap.

Pepper closes her eyes as Bakura gets up and leaves. That had not ended well, but... his reaction and his response are telling in and of themselves. If Bakura had ever thought he had other options, he had dismissed them anyway. The choice he made in either situation was enormous, incredible, and terrible all at the same time. She might not agree with the actions he took because of that choice, but the choice itself is a different matter.

Choosing to live, though, didn't mean he was choosing to forget, or choosing not to fight. Perhaps when faced with something so horrific, something as awful as what he'd been through, those subtleties couldn't exist.

She sits quietly on the veranda for a while, listening to the sounds around her. Pepper drinks in the noise and tries to soothe the storm of sadness and confusion occupying her mind. Outwardly, though, she's calm save the tension in the corner of her eyes and mouth. It's a choice to be calm, one that she's learned from Skul.

Eventually, Pepper gets up and goes to return the staff to it's place in the dojo. She debates the merits of trying to speak with him, and instead goes to her bag and pulls out a piece of paper. She writes a short note and leaves it folded over the staff where he can see it whenever he does his usual weapons maintenance, then departs. The note reads:

Thank you for answering my question, and for not sparing me your anger. See you in a few days.