tushanshu_logs | I know what you did last summer

Characters: Pepper Potts, Yami no Bakura, Bladewolf, Raine Sage and you!
Date: Throughout March 2017
Location: Around Keeliai and Hatal
Situation: Let's start a government! And so on and so forth.
Warnings/Rating: Mentions of death/murder

A. Jade Dojo | Early March | Bakura
The truth compulsion last month had largely been innocuous (if not outright positive) for Pepper, with one glaring exception. Gene had admitted to something that was very much Not Good. It was upsetting to hear, but she's continued to remind herself that Gene has changed. However, that admission bears discussion with Bakura, seeing as he was the subject of Gene's actions.

"I heard something interesting at the truth party last month," Pepper ventures after they've finished sparring for the day.

B. Around Keeliai and Hatal | Throughout March | Open
Pepper is still working on building support for a new government, and based on advice she's received she's hoping to find herself a lion to go to bat for democracy.

Hatal is still a major attraction, and she continues to visit a couple of times a week. Window shopping hasn't gotten old, but Pepper is also spending time oohing and aahing at some of Hatal's technology.

C. College campus | Early March | Bladewolf
As promised, Pepper is meeting with the turtle's newest resident AI, who also just happens to be an enormous metal hound. While she might think that's pretty cool, he's might startle the kedan if he just walks into a classroom. Some of the researchers probably would take a more fascinated stance, but in any case orientation is in order. She's waiting on the edge of the campus for him, bouncing on the balls of her feet until he arrives.

D. Earth Sector | March 1 | Raine
Things are once again rife with drama at House Iron Dragon, and this time it's both Gene and Bakura on her mind. What do you do when you find out your best friend killed your other friend? Pacing. There was a lot of pacing. Also some crying. But neither of those things resolved much. The next clear step is to reach out to another friend, one who probably already knows about this event, and who has proven time and again that she can handle the heavy stuff.

And so Pepper is back at Raine's apartment with hunched shoulders and a rather dour expression on her face, knocking quietly.

E. Sky Sector | Before the earthquake | Abigail

As promised, Pepper is suited up and ready to take another of her friends for a spin around the city. Abigail had seemed just as fascinated than Raine, if not more, probably because she's more of Tony's scientific bent. Pepper isn't much interested in the mechanics of how the suits work, but she's more than happy to show them off. For now, she's left the faceplate open while she waits outside her house in the Sky Sector.

(OOC: Feel free to make your own starter or to ask for one over PM or plurk.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, Pepper. Raine very clearly sees some part of herself, there, the frustration at the inability to help she usually marks in healers at the stretched end of their abilities.

She wishes she had some comfort to give.

"No," Raine says instead. "You can't fix it. Some things, once broken, can never be repaired." People hangs in the air unsaid. Gene. Bakura. So many of the people they both count friends have something in their past that should well have broken them.

She sets her tea down, and comes to lean against the table beside Pepper instead, one hand resting gently on Pepper's shoulder. "But you can do something," she says, a little more gently. "The people you want to hurt aren't here. Gene is. Bakura is. They're hardly beyond help. Healing artes don't make it so that the wound never existed; they put the pieces back together, afterward."

It's been a long time since Pepper has felt this helpless to make a difference; perhaps since her mother died. She was only six then, and even now her mother's illness isn't something Pepper could fight. Cancer can't be handcuffed and thrown in jail. Neither can guilt. But Raine is right - the people she cares about are still here, and the things that haunt them are less tangible and - ironically - easier for her to affect. At least for as long as they're in Keeliai to remember.

She doesn't shift away from Raine's touch. After a minute or so, the tense line of her shoulders relaxes slightly. The name Rescue had been chosen for her armor, and who she was when she wore it, but that name is hers even without the shell of steel around her.

"You and Spock would get along well," she remarks more evenly, half-emerging from behind her hands. The healer bridged the gap of logic and emotion without sacrificing either; it's something her friend does often, Pepper has noticed, and she's very good at it.

Raine just waits there for a little while, patiently, allowing Pepper to think through what she's feeling, and she recognizes it when Pepper eases, however fractionally. Good. Something of what Raine said must have had an impact.

With Pepper re-emerged from behind her hands for the most part, Raine picks up her tea, though she returns to leaning against the table beside Pepper as well-- putting the table between them seems too much separation, right now. "Spock?" Raine inquires, tilting her head a little. It isn't a reference she recognizes, unfortunately, though it certainly sounds complimentary.

Pepper reaches for her own tea when Raine steps away for a moment, tugging it closer by the handle of the mug. It's still a little hot to drink, but it gives her something to do with her hands.

"He's a character from a show called Star Trek," she explains with a hint of tired amusement. "Half human, half Vulcan. And the Vulcans are all super logical and suppress emotion, but Spock kind of... skirts that line a little. I think you'd like him."

The healer does much more than skirting it, but the point stands.

"Hm." Raine's head tilts a little as she considers that. Definitely complimentary, then, and even somewhat appropriate, given her heritage. "I can't say quite the same for the elves, but it's true that their longer lifespan leads many to consider that they must be wiser."

And she herself finds it important, to be able to reason through emotion. To do otherwise results in rash choices with unpleasant consequences, more often than not. As well as people being slapped.

"Were there the option, it's possible I might," she agrees finally. "Acknowledging emotion without entirely bowing to it is a useful skill."

"'Aging is mandatory, maturity is optional'," Pepper quotes, holding a finger up.

She hums thoughtfully at Raine's last observation. It makes sense, but as often demonstrated by Spock himself thinking rationally through intense emotions was... difficult. She doesn't say it out loud lest Raine scold her in some fashion, but Pepper can't help but think sometimes it was okay (and perhaps even right) to let emotion rule you. The healer's point holds, though: in order to choose when to acknowledge emotion and when to let it take you, one needed to know the difference in the first place.

"You know, they never tell you about this stuff in school. It's always atomic bonding this and Civil War history that - not so much with the 'here's how to deal with getting magically transported to a different reality and finding out your friend is a murderer'," Pepper says, sounding far less upset than she had earlier.

Raine laughs very quietly at that first. She knows children who comport themselves better than men with thousands of years behind them. "Yes," she says, "I suppose that's true."

In all fairness, the situation Pepper describes is rather a niche one. "History is a valuable lesson, though," Raine points out. Atomic bonding is temporarily sidelined. "Many principles about how to move forward can be derived from it. And a good teacher should give their students the tools they need to work through such things. But only you can figure out how to deal with it for yourself."

She speaks, however, confidently: she is sure that Pepper will be just fine.

"Yeah, I guess. Most of the time it just seems like teachers are more interested in looking back at history than using it to look forward. Which is totally ironic, since it's called the Tomorrow Academy," she points out.

The tea has cooled enough that Pepper can take a careful sip, casting her mind back to classes and school and 'normal' teenage life. More valuable lessons often occurred well outside those sheltered walls, or perhaps just the ones she liked better.

"Maybe if we'd paid more attention to the Mandarin's history, things would've turned out a little differently."

That had hardly been the trio's primary focus, but it had been Howard Stark's. Sometimes age did bring about wisdom.

"Yes, that is ironic," Raine murmurs.

Pepper seems to have eased somewhat, and Raine estimates that the risk of anyone being yelled at is past, at least for now. Raine picks up her own tea again, though she holds it in her hands for the warmth of it instead of drinking it at the moment.

"Perhaps," Raine acknowledges. "I wouldn't dwell on how things might have been, though. If you know that history now, however, you can apply it going forward."

I know what you did last summer

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