[OPEN] The sun just touched the morning...

[wintershepherd]

Characters: Bakura / Elizabeth / Jack + YOU
Date: April
Location: Jade Dojo; Midnight Hotel; Welcome Center; others
Situation: Catch all
Warnings/Rating: N/A


A. BAKURA - Jade Dojo (Wood Sector)

With the weather steadily improving, especially with the rain tapering off to only being intermittent, Bakura's preference for being outside was showing itself more often. It wasn't unusual to find him sitting on the wooden-planked veranda that ran around the perimeter of the building. Sometimes he appeared to be asleep, leaning up against one of the vertical columns with his eyes closed in a patch of sunlight, and other times he was reading through a book (slowly, but determinedly) written in one of the more popular kedanese dialects.

(Almost never did he give off the impression that he was the Dojo's owner. The fact that more than one person stopped to warn him that the Dojo's aforementioned owner disliked loitering and that Bakura would likely get in trouble for it was an endless source of amusement for him.)

B. BAKURA + DIABOUND - Outside Keeliai

Although Diabound had arrived in his initial small form, Bakura knew the ka was capable of much more. While there wasn't any immediate need for Diabound to shift to a more battle-capable state at the moment, the thief also didn't want to wait until a situation arose where such a thing was needed to discover whether it was possible.

He'd moved well outside the city's walled border for this, keeping away from the bustle of the farming fields to an area that was rocky and therefore not under agricultural development, but still within sight of the wall. Diabound coiled in front of him, watching with evident amusement as Bakura pondered how to initiate some kind of transformation for the ka.

C. ELIZABETH - Any Sector

She normally woke early, both out of habit and because she liked to get an early start on her day's deliveries for the Hotel. But for some reason, she'd slept in hours later than normal, and at midday she was rushing around trying to get things organized.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, almost bowling someone over as she exited one of her regular delivery stores. "I'm sorry, that was my fault. Are you all right?"

D. ELIZABETH - House Spicy Iron Dragon (Sky); closed to PEPPER

The redhead had offered to demonstrate a type of magic that Elizabeth had never heard of (she'd technically only heard of any magic in stories, such fanciful things just weren't real at home) but the way she'd described this variant seemed absolutely fascinating. Things had gotten pushed back slightly due to things in the city which had taken precedence.

Having been given the address in the Sky Sector, Elizabeth arrives on the designated morning and knocks energetically at their front door. "Good morning, Pepper!"

E. JACK - Any Sector

This whole Guilds thing... well, he'd been here during Eshai's rule, and for Evandau's... while he'd missed the three Families taking over, he couldn't figure that dispersing the authority in the city across more of its population could be bad. But he did want to get people's opinions of it on a more personal level as opposed to just the public front people might feel obligated to show.

So he might bring it up in casual conversation, sometimes smoothly segued too (sometimes not): "Hey... any thoughts on this Guild thing yet?"

F. JACK - Rooftops - closed to DANNY;

He didn't actually need sleep -- and he tended to dispense with it when he was busy or simply absent-minded. Or, in the case of this evening, when he just had too much on his mind and needed something to occupy him while he puzzled it out.

He didn't usually have to worry about much in the way of air traffic, so he was not expecting to almost collide with someone midair. "Whoa! Sorry there..."

G. JACK - Keeliai - closed to ZATANNA;

The first few days back had felt... not awkward, but if the intervening 15 months had been less a measure of time and more a measure of separation. It was worse, Jack thought, that he hadn't come back with the same span of time. Even if he'd gone back to his world, and lost the memories of being in Keeliai (a thought which filled him with no less dread than it had prior), at least he would have been able to better process that gap.

Instead, he'd lost the time in what felt like the span between two non-existent heartbeats, and the difference was altogether more startling in its suddenness.

Zatanna kept assuring him it was all right. Once the initial shock had passed, of course.

Today, they were going to hit the city together, getting reacquainted with it as with themselves.

Z. WILDCARD

Hit me with anything that doesn't fit in the above starters!

Comments

[denyamenti]

Diabound didn't make any move to prevent Pepper from moving; it seems the ka's focus had been in making sure they didn't exchange blows, although the serpent head keeps a close eye on both of them, tongue flicking out periodically as if tasting the tension in the air.

"Are you retroactively asking to be struck for that?" Bakura rolled his eyes, although at least it was clear that wasn't an actual threat so much as sarcasm. "And yet you ask for that and for me to coddle you in the same breath? Don't restrain me, you should know better."

When Vee didn't move, his gaze darkened and then suddenly there was pressure in her head, invading her sense, compelling her to stand aside.

[lasergrenades]

"No, I'm saying that you went further than you usually do for someone making a stupid, ignorant comment," Pepper argued.

There was more she wanted to say when she felt the compulsion through her bond with Vee, a force trying to overwhelm the Knight's control, and Pepper inhaled sharply. The ka resisted as she was able, until Pepper shook her head. Resisting could only lead to a fight, and much as she didn't want to allow the invasion, battling each other would solve nothing. The fact that Bakura was even trying to exert his will over Vee was startling and only made her more worried.

A few tense seconds, and the Knight stepped aside, scowling.

"Bakura..." Pepper shivered. "I'm sorry I tried to hold you back. I'm not sorry I tried to stop you from hurting someone. You are not acting like yourself, and I'm worried, okay? I'm worried about you. You have never tried to force me, or Vee, to do anything, ever, so why did you just do that to her? Can you please just stop and think about it for a moment? Because I thought it would take a lot more to push you into coercing a piece of my soul," she said, eyes blazing as she came up to him.

[denyamenti]

"Did you not just hear me telling her to move or I would move her," Bakura snapped, glaring hard at Pepper. "You are the one not acting like herself, and become a nag when I wasn't looking. Shemkhati--!"

And yet...

There's something in her insistence that's finally seeming to register, however slow and disjointed. The low-level twinge of a headache had been getting stronger the whole day, but it seemed to be peaking now. Was he being more ill-tempered than usual? His mind kept saying no, and yet it didn't feel quite right.

Up close, Pepper could note there are physical tells to there being something amiss. His eyes are reddened, pupils enlarged, and hints of a rash along the backs of his hands.

[lasergrenades]

"Yeah," Pepper said quietly, suddenly looking a little like she'd been slapped. "Yeah, I heard you."

Ironically, the words seemed to hurt more than the blow had, even as she reminded herself that there was something very off with Bakura and he almost certainly didn't mean that. Probably. She was close enough to see physical symptoms, too, which actually alleviated some of the desperate worry that this might be related to getting Diabound back and replaced it with worry about not knowing what was happening.

"Look at your hands, please. And then maybe go find a mirror. You don't look so good," she continued softly after a moment, and reached up to check his forehead for a fever before stopping herself partway, remembering his ire again. "Just-- will you trust me on this one? Please? Because I'm only trying to take care of you. That's-- that's all I want to do here."

[denyamenti]

"My hands?" Bakura echoed, eyes narrowing slightly, trying to figure out where that seemingly unrelated comment had come from. But he does look, and sees what she's talking about, though fails in this state to see the relevance.

"What of it?" he said irritably, moving again for the doorway to the apartment. "I bought new fruits yesterday, and it seems I'm allergic to them. That is what you're so concerned about?"

[lasergrenades]

"I think you might be sick, actually," Pepper told him, following a pace behind him. "And yeah, I'm concerned; that's kind of part of the girlfriend job description. Even if it is just an allergic reaction--" Definitely not an allergy. "--those can be serious. Whatever it is that's going on, would you at least be willing to go see Raine? She can probably make you feel a whole lot better."

If he said no, then Pepper was probably going to camp out at the dojo and call Raine here anyway. It would be ideal if Bakura went to the Healers Guild of his own volition, however.

[denyamenti]

The fact that the dojo was empty now, ironically, was helping. He hadn't realized it at the time but the constant noise had been exacerbating the headache he'd had, and the way he felt far more on edge than he normally did in this space, being his.

And Diabound-- Diabound had found its second form, not intentionally, but because it had moved to keep he and Pepper apart. Concerned.

"Just-- will you trust me on this one? Please?"

Bakura passed his hand in front of his eyes, wincing slightly. Perhaps Pepper was right, he didn't feel the best at the moment. Diabound's bulk shimmered briefly like a heatwave and then disappeared.

"Aa. Fine, we can go."