tushanshu_logs | don't you ever consider giving up [March, catchall, open]

Entry tags:

don't you ever consider giving up [March, catchall, open]

Characters: Raine Sage and open!
Date: Most of March, primarily after the 11th
Location: Healers' Guild, Earth sector apartment, assorted others
Situation: Many, lots. Most post-fourth-wall.
Warnings/Rating: just going to go ahead and warn for suicide themes and discussion with Kratos. Dammit, Kratos.

A | Healers' Guild | open

While Raine's largely absent for the first third of the month, spending as much time with her husband as she can before he's inevitably drawn out of Keeliai, she's doubly present for the latter parts of March, throwing herself into work. She always has her hands in something, whether it's healing or herbs or simply scheduling the next days or weeks, and as a result she will need to be interrupted if someone wants any part of her time.

It's entirely possible to get one of her apprentices to interrupt her for you, fortunately, and she doesn't snap at interruptions anyway, only glances up with distracted eyes, slowly focusing. "What do you need?"

B | Healers' Guild | Miles

She wasn't entirely expecting to see Miles again without some grievous injury, but it's not a bad thing; simply a matter for curiosity. Raine lifts her head from the dried herbs she's disentangling and tilts her head at Miles. "It seems you're doing well. What brings you here?"

C | Midnight Hotel | Fai

Eventually, citing time concerns, Raine had had to let Fai go the previous time they'd met, and there wasn't nearly enough opportunity to speak of all the magical and linguistic things she'd wanted to. So she'd arranged with him to meet for lunch, or an equivalent meal at the time of day that worked, and now that's the reason she's at the Hotel, looking for Fai with a pair of notebooks and a slate tucked under one arm. "There you are. I'm glad we were able to sort out a time."

She doesn't look quite as cheerful as she did the last time Fai saw her, but her interest in the matter at hand is undisguisable.

D | Sky Sector, Pepper's home | Pepper

Raine calls ahead, just to be sure; but early in the month, she stops by while Pepper's in and both Gene and Tony are out. "I'm not here for very long," she says, apologetically, "but I needed to discuss something with you in person. I take it you heard I accomplished something with Bakura?"

E | Water Sector, a tea house near the Healers' Guild | Kratos

It's one of their weekly teas, and they've spent what Raine judges is an appropriate amount of time on small talk and catching up socially. Eventually she sets her tea down, arranges her hands delicately around the base of the cup. "I heard," she says, "that Lloyd was here for some little while, these past few weeks."

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Pepper's been spending more time at home because her dad is still here, and she has no idea when he'll be leaving. At the moment, he's gone out with Howard to explore a little, leaving her alone.

"Oh, yeah. Nothing big happens in the Shadow Realm around here without Vee letting me know," Pepper confirms, opening the door to let Raine in. "Want anything to drink while we chat?"

After the door closes, making a decent stab at sounding neutral: "And is there something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, per se," Raine says, stepping out of the way of the door. "Something approximating coffee, if you have it; tea otherwise."

She'll follow Pepper if she moves toward the kitchen. "It didn't go quite as expected, but I think it's the best outcome, all things considered," Raine says aloud, reflectively. "Did Vee tell you anything? Actually." A different thought occurs to Raine. "How much could she tell about what was happening?"

[Not that 'small talk' and 'catching up socially' is much other than Raine prodding Kratos about what he's done in the past week which will meet with her approval. He's slower in drinking the tea, keeps forgetting it's there while he watches the people outside. Raine's comment make his gaze slant toward her, though Kratos's head doesn't move.]

So he was.

Pepper does indeed head towards the kitchen. Usually they have tea, but there's still some coffee left from the infinite coffee jar at the Midnight Hotel. Hot water is needed, and she sets to work filling the kettle and lighting the stove. Unexpected but the best outcome is probably good; there's probably no need to worry, or at least she hopes so.

"Mostly only that you were both trying something - she could feel a shift, but not exactly what it was," Pepper answers, reaching for mugs. She tilts her head, like she's listening to something. "Right, she said it felt a little like when you take a card out of the Graveyard but... bigger."

Sheena had kept as much distance as she could from Raine and Solomon, giving them the privacy they needed and deserved during the first part of the month. And then after... She had still maintained a respectful distance from her friend, allowing her to adjust to the dip in this roller-coaster ride of emotions Raine was going through.

Until today.

Today, she's armed with a picnic basket filled with food and drink, and with the help of Raine's assistant, merely walks into the mage's office, answering her question with one word.

"You."

It's kidnapping time.

Lunch service is in full swing, but the food is already prepared and there are other warm bodies to help move it from here to there. Knowing that he's going to be meeting up with Raine, Fai's made arrangements to slip off to a table in the corner of the dining room without being bothered. The table is already set with a little bit of everything from lunch and Fai is seated, though he smiles and waves to catch Raine's attention when he spots her entering the room.

It's easy to tell that Raine is perhaps not in the best of moods, but Fai doesn't know her well enough to comment on that just yet. The blond man has his own reasons to be unhappy--just as quickly as she'd appeared, Mokona is gone again. Fai just smiles through it. Smiles are lies, and Fai is a very accomplished liar. It's like slipping back into a comfortable, well-worn pair of shoes.

He rises from his seat as Raine nears the table. "Ah, yes! I've been looking forward to it. Have a seat! I wasn't sure what you'd want to eat, so I grabbed a bit of everything. I hope that's alright?"

Raine focuses on Fai easily, lifts her free hand in a brief wave in return as she comes over. She sets the materials she's brought on the corner of the table, out of the way of the food, and herself sits with a small, mostly genuine smile.

"This is fine," she says, nodding. "I'm not picky-- the only things I really object to are mushrooms."

And it's nice to be around people who obviously enjoy cooking. Raine tilts her head back a little to look at him, another note made of exactly how lanky he is. She does have a habit of befriending people more than a head taller. "Is there any place in particular you wish to begin?"

"Mm, no mushrooms today! It's your lucky day~"

There's also no fish, because Fai can barely stand the smell of it. He's been getting creative in ways to avoid using fish, or to disguise the smell when he does have to work with it. Or pawn it off on one of the other cooks if there's no getting around it. Most of the table is covered by various dishes, with a space for Raine to work and a space in front of Fai as well. He doesn't have any work materials, though--just a plate with what looks like a cinnamon roll and a fork to eat it with.

Fai takes his seat again as soon as Raine is sitting and picks up his fork, stabbing absently at his sweet roll while they talk. He's not particularly eager to re-invite Raine's question about Celes, so--

"Magic?" he suggests, choosing between magic and language. "I'm still interested in what sort of problems there might be, trying to leave this dimension, but I haven't had the nerve to try it yet. But--did you have any questions for me?"

[Raine really should remember about Kratos and leading questions: that is, that he prefers to completely ignore them, and the excuse for doing so is easy.]

[She sighs quietly.]

You didn't go to see him?

Raine nods, leaning against the counter where she'll be out of Pepper's way. The head-tilt, she presumes, is Pepper drawing information from her own ka. Listening. "That's effectively what it was," Raine explains. "My own ka has that power, to pull certain types of --monsters from the Graveyard, such as it is." There's the briefest of hesitations over 'monster', like she's still adjusting to the other terminology.

It's fortunate, all things considered, that Diabound reads as something like light.

"Between the mixing of different systems of magic... well." Raine has so very many questions which may never be answered about the interactions of their magic. Did her arte count as a spell under the careful rules of the Shadow Realm, and by virtue of being out-of-bounds of the usual limitations but still a recognizable form, therefore do something more or less impossible? Did she draw Bakura into an area of influence where it all seemed just mana, that thing Raine was best suited to fixing? Was there, for a brief and perfect moment of confluence, utter harmony?

She's gone distant. She can at least recognize when, perhaps, a full-scale lecture isn't needed. Raine shakes her head and drags herself back to the conversation at hand. "Never mind. In short, the repair was completed, but... hm. Imagine it like a puzzle box, perhaps. The hinges are in working order again, and the finish is smooth enough that it shouldn't catch, but there's no way to be sure it will work as it's supposed to other than opening it." It isn't a perfect analogy, and Raine's aware of it, frowning distantly at Pepper's mugs.

Raine looks up with a start, eyes wide. It's plain she didn't quite expect Sheena to simply invade; it's equally plain, to her at least, that she really should have made more note of the plans made to kidnap her. "Me?" she repeats, tilting her head at Sheena.

...no, it would be a waste of time to be disingenuous. Raine can tell well enough what Sheena intends from the basket carried with her. She sets down the chalk and slate she's working with and holds up her hands briefly, empty, palms toward Sheena. "All right," she says, pushing back from her desk. "I won't make you throw me over your shoulder."

Raine always appreciates people in her life who can cook well and avoid mushrooms. She peers curiously at what's in front of her, trying a bite thoughtfully before she actually speaks.

"I have several questions," she admits, free hand straying to her notebooks. "Beginning with the structure of your magic, whether it's internal or externally based, how you travel between dimensions-- power over space and time in that manner is, so far as I'm aware, exceptionally rare. If you had your own questions, you might prefer to ask them first."

Since she has something of an interrogation in mind.

[Kratos's gaze returns to the people outside the shop. A direct question does, at least, deserves a proper answer; but that doesn't mean he can't turn it back.]

No. Did you?

[He knows she didn't. He'd have seen her with Lloyd if she had.]

There's a sense of satisfaction that the redhead gets from Vee at that answer. Despite her own ka's reservations about Diabound, the Knight is still pleased to be correct about her interpretation.

Pepper's about to ask if Raine is alright when she finally speaks again. The healer drifted off there for a moment, which is... odd if not a little troubling. Still, Raine said there wasn't anything wrong, so there's that. The analogy takes some brief thought to wrap her head around.

"So... there's no way to know if Bakura can summon Diabound, even if the repair's been made," she parses. Pepper busies herself with getting the coffee grounds measured out into a filter with a sort of determined neutrality. Simply telling Pepper it worked wouldn't have required a personal visit, but she's doing her best not to worry. "Is it possible something might go wrong if the summons fails?" Other than Bakura being dejected. "Or even if he doesn't?"

[Raine hesitates. Shakes her head.]

No. I...

I considered it, but that period of time also returned my husband, for however long.

[She's missed those from home, but she knew as soon as she realized Solomon was only here for a few weeks that it would be the same loss all over again. It was cold, but she had to pick and choose her losses. If Lloyd came again, she'd find him; or he might have found her at the Guild, if he was so driven. It's hardly a secret that Raine runs it, after all.]

And I don't need to come to a peace with Lloyd. I know him, and I believe in him. That's enough.

Raine does like to get lost in thought; she simply usually tries not to do it mid-conversation.

She nods to Pepper's assessment, but the rest of her questions get only a little, apologetic shrug. "There's very little way to tell for sure," Raine says. "I wasn't able to exhaustively or practically test what I did, and there's only the barest of precedents. It's possible something may go wrong, or it's possible Bakura may be completely fine and simply need to work up to it in terms of strength. I honestly can't tell."

Which means she should be prepared for the worst.

[Ah. That makes Kratos pause, effectively curtailed. He can hardly blame her for wanting to spend limited time with husband he has been explicitly not asking her about. If Anna had been here --

[He closes that thought sharply.]

I wasn't ready.

Valdis knew that Solomon had vanished again, but she hadn't come to the healers guild to console Raine. She didn't have that right after avoiding the woman for the duration of her annoying husband's stint back in Keeliai. She might not have even come now, but for the persistent, reoccurring dream that had been plaguing her the last two weeks. It wasn't an unpleasant dream and it wasn't a nightmare either. It was a dream and that wasn't supposed to happen.

She knew exactly where to go, but, sure enough, the healer was so involved in her work that she didn't even notice her walk into the office.

"Raine?" She asked, "There's something wrong."

Fai chuckles, taking a tiny bite of his cinnamon roll while Raine lays out her plans for the coming interrogation. Thankfully he doesn't mind answering questions about his magic at all--it's always been one of the safest topics for him. Much easier to talk about magic or potions or dimensional travel than anything personal.

Maybe he should even try talking about something personal one of these days, now that he knows... what he knows. Even Fai knows it's healthier to talk about one's problems than to bottle everything up inside, though he's never actively put that knowledge into practice. If Sakura were here perhaps, or Syaoran....

No. Magic is safer.

"So there's no one in this world capable of dimensional travel? But I assume there must be other powerful mages? Yourself?"

[...of course Kratos would understand that. Raine had been half-braced to defend her choice further.]

Sometimes, I find, there are things that must be faced before we think we are ready.

Do you believe you will ever be ready to face him?

I was, before I was brought here.

[This is short, because Raine knows quite well the circumstances of Kratos's timeline. He had been waiting for Lloyd, then.

[He knows that isn't what she means. He chooses to ignore it.]

That was rarely a good phrase to hear, and especially not from Valdis. Raine was out of her thoughts in an instant, focusing narrow-eyed and concerned on Valdis. "What is it?" she wanted to know, already on her feet, coming around the desk to see that Valdis was all right.

"I'm a healer," Raine says, which is not precisely a denial of being a powerful mage. "Healing artes lend themselves to light magic, in my world, so it's not uncommon to find that practitioners of healing artes are also capable of using offensive light artes."

She pauses to consider dimensional magic again, fingers tapping absently at the slate beside her. "You may find some interest also in talking to a friend of mine," she says finally. "Sheena Fujibayashi. She's from my world as well, but she's a Summoner, so her skills naturally slant a little toward the dimensional. However, no one that I know of is currently capable of breaching this dimension intentionally."

Valdis almost laughed, but felt it would be inappropriate considering how concerned Raine appeared, and rightfully so.

"Nothing like that," she replied, meaning the Void, "But I've been having strange dreams. Normal dreams. Not nightmares or memories."

And her kind couldn't dream.

Okay. Pepper isn't panicking. She refuses to start panicking. Things are still fine, and they may not go wrong, and yes, alright, there's definitely reason to worry but no need to worry too much until there's something to properly worry about.

"I guess that's the best we could hope for," Pepper says after a moment, carefully neutral. God, she doesn't want to lose him, and even the thought makes her breath catch for a moment and her hands still. It's fortunate she's turned away from Raine, since it gives her time to collect herself again. That's an extreme result, and Pepper can do more by being positive. "But it's gone okay so far, that has to be good," she reasons, hopeful. "Is there anything I can do?"

She's got magic at her beck and call, although not much, but what she lacks in ability she more than makes up for in determination.

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don't you ever consider giving up [March, catchall, open]

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