i won't leave any doubt [May, catchall, open]

[ruinsprofessor]

Characters: Raine Sage and OPEN
Date: May, most of it
Location: Keeliai. Healers' Guild, Earth Sector, assorted other
Situation: many, lots.
Warnings/Rating: None currently, will update if that changes


A | Healers' Guild | OPEN

Raine can be found at the Healers' Guild perhaps even more often now, even though she was supposed to be delegating to free up more of her time. With the recent loss of some personnel, and a recent brush with friends from home as well, she's been working as hard as she can, and possibly forgetting to take as many breaks as she should. At any point during most days she can be found tending patients, or in her office working at any number of administrative tasks, or making a beeline from point A to point B, walking briskly and with purpose. She's rarely in the entrance hall, but any kedan volunteer can point out where the head of the Guild has gotten to at most times.

Fairly generally, if she leaves on time, it's because someone else has reminded her to, whether it's Solomon coming to pull her away from things or one of her coworkers reminding her about the fine art of delegation.

There is only one instance in which she falls asleep on her desk.

After the seventh of the month, there will be one or two instances in which she can be found at the empty pool in the courtyard, looking visibly and unusually troubled.

B | markets | OPEN

Raine, mid-errands, has a basket under one arm and appears to have been sidetracked (yet again) by her questionable cooking choices. This is currently manifesting in the shape of a conversation with a shopkeeper about sea prunes.

She herself is intent, brow furrowed and questioning earnestly. The kedan appears somewhat more concerned. "No," he's saying, "you can't put sea prunes in cake."

Raine does not appear to believe him.

C | a particular tavern | closed to Lin and Pepper)

Finally following up on the lead Solomon uncovered for her regarding last month's anonymous donation, Raine goes from kedan orderly to a specific tavern where she has been told they usually drink, around the hours that would make sense for such a thing. She really should have made time for this earlier, but the practicalities of running the Guild combined with the pressures of the Milyn problems only made her busyness mount, instead of easing.

In contrast, it's almost pleasantly simple just to go out to a tavern with a friend. Even if there is an ulterior motive. Raine invited Pepper half because she really could use a second point of view on this problem, and half because she wanted an excuse to spend time with a friend, in the middle of everything else that's happening.

She's looking for a scrawny kedan with colourful hair and a stutter, and she'll head his way when she spots him.

D | wildcard | open

[ooc; if you have questions about the Healers' Guild, or questions in general, or want to plot, drop me a pm here or at makaricrow c: Or just throw things at me, that's cool too!]

Comments

[ruinsprofessor]

At the sound of his voice Raine startled, drawing her breath in sharply as she turned. He shouldn't have been able to startle her -- normally she could feel him coming, and the nickname was a familiar thing. She relaxed in the moment after, shoulders dropping. "...I must have been more distracted than I thought," she said, wry. Her mind had been in thoughts of Milyn, now more of a troubling subject than before, and the empty pool was a stark reminder. "Hello, Bakura. What brings you here?"

She would guess she was the reason, one way or another, but couldn't extrapolate anything more specific from his appearance alone.

[denyamenti]

"I came to check out the growing thundercloud above the Healer's Guild," he said, with a perfectly straight face. "And behold, I find the source."

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine glanced up, almost reflexively, at the clear gray skies above the courtyard, before back to Bakura with a flat sort of amusement. "You can hardly have detected I was lost in thought from where you started," she told him, the faint curve of her mouth giving the lie to her tone. It was a valid metaphor, though, given where she had been thinking. "What was on your mind when you set out, then?"

[denyamenti]

The fact that Raine looked up made him grin, and that smirk was waiting for Raine when she glanced back down at him. "Couldn't I have?" he returned. "Are you so confident of that you'd put a wager on it?"

He walked closer. "I haven't seen you around much," he said. "And there's been plenty of recent happenings that make it unwise for you to keep to yourself so much."

[ruinsprofessor]

The request for a wager caught her mid-agreement, and Raine frowned briefly as she considered. Bakura's confidence implied perhaps he could have, but he was also skilled at projecting confidence. Could he have? She touched the charm she still wore at her left wrist, rubbing the disc of it between her fingers in absent thought. No; that was only a trap, wasn't it?

"You might have predicted it through familiarity," Raine acknowledged finally. "But I don't think you could have specifically detected it, no." Those two did not qualify as the same thing, and she would indeed split that hair. "That, I'd be willing to wager on, yes."

Which itself said something. Once, she would have considered making anything like a bet with Bakura to be a terribly foolish thing.

She tilted her head at his phrasing, mutely curious. Most wouldn't have called it unwise. "There's been a lot to do," she said, faintly apologetic. "Especially now that we're somewhat shorthanded."

[denyamenti]

"I'm not talking about filling in for extra shifts at the Guild," he replied mildly, well aware that she already knew that. "You participated in quite the deception, seba-rekhet, and that goes against your nature."

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine sighed then, and glanced away. "I don't like deceiving people," she said, which was more or less an agreement with his assessment. "But I agreed with the necessity, at the time."

Now she had more questions than she'd begun with, and they'd made very little progress at the underlying intent.

His meaning, though, she didn't quite take. "Are you implying it's safer physically to be with a group, or that expanding my interaction with others will be wiser for regaining trust?" she asked with a little frown.

[denyamenti]

"Neither," the thief chided. "I meant, you tend to dwell on thing when you have no distractions. Aren't we similar, that way?"

[ruinsprofessor]

They were, at that. And Raine must be more off-balance than she'd thought, if she'd missed that option, and its relative obviousness. She passed her hand across her eyes, grimaced, focused on Bakura again. "We are," she agreed. "And I have been, you're correct."

She made an effort to offer a smile, though it was a little rueful. "Very well, what do you recommend in terms of distraction?"

[denyamenti]

"How about a day of shamelessly excessive drinking?" he offered, tilting his head with another sly grin. "If we ask nicely, I'm sure Jackie will give us something celebratory."

[ruinsprofessor]

Well, she had asked. "No," Raine said, and then, in the interest of compromise added, "Although if you're set on getting drunk, I'm willing to accompany you."

To keep him out of trouble, mostly. "In any case, alcohol isn't so much a distraction as an altering of perceptions. Why something celebratory?" Had she missed an occasion?

[denyamenti]

"You just want to see if I'll drunkenly spill anything you can blackmail me with later," he replied loftily. "Why Raine, and here I thought you didn't have a devious bone in you. As for celebratory... I can come up with something. Less people being dead than we thought?"

[ruinsprofessor]

"Would you?" Raine inquired, with purely scientific curiosity. She'd assumed that embarrassing secrets would be functionally useless, as Bakura didn't have much of a sense of shame, and anything darker he would have a tight hold on and she wouldn't want to risk revealing to others, anyway.

She made no comment on her deviousness, or lack thereof. "I suppose that's always grounds for celebration," she allowed dubiously instead. "However, it sounds like an excuse at best. Are you sure it isn't that you want to see me drunk?" The last slid into a wry sort of teasing in return.

[denyamenti]

"There are some very potent liquors here," he answered, which was neither confirmation or denial.

"Well, Solomon no longer has the opportunity to see it, I don't see why the experience should go to waste."

[ruinsprofessor]

"Bakura," Raine said, exasperated but hardly surprised by the joke. But she was considering it: it would be a departure from their usual lunches, and not precisely within her normal area of comfort, but all the same, Bakura had made the suggestion for a reason.

Granted, that reason really might be to see if he could get her drunk. Two years and she still didn't always understand him as well as she'd like.

"What about that wager?" she inquired. "You never answered if you did."

[denyamenti]

"You can't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing and are merely too nice to say it," the thief retorted with a wicked grin.

"Well, what would you want, if I can't back up my claim?" he asked, not seeming concerned about having to prove the seemingly impossible.

[ruinsprofessor]

"I was hardly thinking the same thing," Raine countered, mock-lofty in a way that slipped out of defensiveness and into humor. "That would require that I consider drunkenness to be entertainment." Honestly, her tone provided, though she didn't say it.

What would she want? Raine gave this serious consideration, and also acknowledged that Bakura was unlikely to bet something he wasn't sure of winning. "More of your home, perhaps," she said at length. "Or more in-depth study of magic or language or both; or an instance of patience with Solomon when you're inclined otherwise." That last was dry, with a quick flicker of a smile over at him: Raine wasn't entirely serious. Most of what she would want from Bakura were answers, and most of those were not the sort that should be forced.

[denyamenti]

"If you don't already, that's only because you haven't been around the right kind of drunken people. Besides, you don't need to win answers to most things, seba-rekhet, you only need to ask. Haven't we been over that before?"

[ruinsprofessor]

"The ones I have been around," she said firmly, "have been obnoxious. Meltokio nobles. Zelos. Casino patrons." The less said about that last, the better; the Tethe'allan affluent did not always make a good impression.

Raine slipped toward wry with Bakura's other response. "I suppose we have," she agreed. "But since that's the case, I can't think of anything I'd need to win from you. I already see you often enough, anything you wouldn't answer normally isn't something that should be bet on, and there's no concrete item it would make sense to ask for. What would you offer?"