[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

E

[commandandcontrol]

"Actually, yes," Sonja said. She'd actually come to the welcome center specifically to discuss it.

"Picking up where you left off?" she asked. It made sense, but it still seemed strange to Sonja that you could be gone so long and then just come back as if nothing had changed, even some things had drastically changed. She supposed it helped that Zatanna ran the welcome center.

F

[schrodingersghost]

Danny spent a lot of his evenings just flying around. Sometimes stopping to help people out, if he saw something happening. But a lot of times he was just out there to fly.

Flying was awesome, okay. And around here he mostly had the skies to himself.

Until tonight, apparently.

Danny hastily shifts into intangibility to avoid a collision.

G

[backwordscompatible]

They started with a walk.

It was still cool enough that Zatanna would have required a jacket. Except she was notably sporting a certain choker that hadn't been seen around her neck in more than a year. Because of that, she comfortably headed out into the city with her usual jeans and tank top combination, hair loose and lightly bouncing around her bare shoulders. In the back of her mind, she knew that the weather was starting to warm again...that winter was over and they would have to start thinking about what it would be for Jack come summertime...and if it would get worse for him again, now that he'd gone and come back...but, for the time being, she put that thought to the back of her mind and focused on other things.

There were certainly enough to; though the first few minutes passed in a (mostly) comfortable silence, Zatanna could never stay too quiet for long. Verbosity was her literal lifeblood, and while she soon realized she struggled to talk about the city itself and the changes made within it--(15 months was just long enough for her to not quite recall exactly what he'd been around for, and what he'd missed)--she eventually settled on some of her more recent personal adventures. Knowing Jack wouldn't mind hearing about those at all.

"...so that was pretty sweet." She grinned a little to herself at the deliberate pun as she spoke of her and Pepper's recent Gelato Get-togethers. Although the smile was a bit weaker than usual, her eyes still a touch distracted as they passed by the park. "And then there's Penny. We've been meeting up now and then to help him practice his Dream Walking. Honestly, I'm surprised it took this long for Eshai's spell to find somebody who also had dream-related powers."

[wintershepherd]

"Trying to," Jack answered lightly. "Still getting used to the fact that that much time passed and I wasn't aware of it. Spirits have a sort of... built in clock and calendar, it's weird. But we always know exactly what day and time it is."

[wintershepherd]

Jack hadn't quite mastered intangibility that adeptly yet; during his previous tenure in Keeliai, he'd managed to work up to phasing through solid objects like walls and doors with concentration, but it didn't come naturally or instinctively to him yet.

He looped backward, re-finding his footing on the cushion of air one of the local winds provided. "Whoops," he laughed. "Good thing one of us was on the ball, huh?"

[wintershepherd]

"I'm starting to think you're soul is actually part sugar," Jack laughed. "Why does everything come back to ice cream or sweets when you're around? I can't believe I thought the ice cream shop was a one-off," he added teasingly.

"Yeah, you'd think dreaming magic would have been pretty high on the list originally," Jack agreed. He hadn't met Penny in person yet, but perhaps he'd tag along to their next meeting if neither of them objected.

"On the other hand, you could have gotten to meet Sandy that way."

[commandandcontrol]

"Oh, handy. Even when it's in a foreign dimension or whatever?" She imagined it was like the way certain animals could intuit the direction of north.

"So- on the subject of guilds, I was actually hoping the Welcome Center could become kind of a major component of the Foreigner's Guild. Taking care of new foreigners is kind of what the new guild was designed to do, to it seems like a natural place for the welcome center to move under, organizationally speaking."

"Obviously I don't want to remove you or Zatanna's stake in it, but this could be an opportunity to get help, or expand...?"

[schrodingersghost]

Danny flips himself around in the air to face Jack again, shifting back into tangibility as he moves.

"Or something like that." Intangibility was a reflex for Danny. He'd spent the first months after getting his powers desperately trying to remember to be solid all the time. It wasn't something most people had to think about.

He stares as Jack shifts his footing.

"Uh... Are you standing on the air?"

[backwordscompatible]

Some of the tension actually melted away with his initial reply, and she found herself genuinely laughing. Not only because he had a point, but because he remembered. Not that she still had doubts it was really him, and he still had his memories of their time before...but it was still nice to get a reminder like that.

"You've figured out my deepest, darkest secret. And it's partially made of chocolate." With a slight increased bounce to her step, she tilted her head to one side as she added. "Yeah...I do wish I could've met him too. I'm sure he would've been a big help the last time we were in Dreaming."

[wintershepherd]

"It normally works here," Jack confirmed. "Although there's a bit of weirdness since I've got one sense telling me it's 2017 and one telling me it's 2018. I think it has something with the Dreaming Year we got stuck in."

He listened to her explanation, nodding along. "Well, we could always do with some more volunteers to help out here... we used to have a lot more, but the number of Foreigners in the city is really small compared to what it used to be. I don't know about expanding though... you mean, the actual building? Or in another way?"

[wintershepherd]

Jack laughed at the question, but it was bright and good-natured.

"Technically yes, but it's actually an air current. I travel on the winds and the local zephyrs are kind enough to lug me along most of the time. It beats walking all the time, and it gives the north wind a break sometimes. How about you? Straight up flying, or something else?"

[wintershepherd]

"All 87% bittersweet cocoa of it," he added sagely, before he couldn't keep a straight face at that. He was glad that some of the tension seemed to be ebbing, from both of them. "He and Tooth are the only ones you haven't met yet. Well, of the Guardians."

[backwordscompatible]

"You and your random percentages." She let out a small chuckle. Mr "12% son. That memory hadn't been forgotten, either. "And wait--what do you mean bittersweet?"

[commandandcontrol]

"I honestly don't know, I'm kind of just throwing everything and the kitchen sink at you. Is a bigger building something you think it would actually benefit from?"

[schrodingersghost]

Danny points back at himself. "Ghost. I don't really get how it works, but I'm basically just made up out of ectoplasmic energy. Most physics in the living world are optional. You know, like gravity."

He grins.

"But I've never heard of anyone being able to actually travel on the wind."

D

[lasergrenades]

Pepper trots from the kitchen to answer the door, pulling it open with a broad smile.

"Morning!" It's been wet and chilly for months, not to mention busy, so the chance to get outdoors regularly to practice Shadow magic (as well as show it off) is more than welcome. "Want some tea before we head to the backyard?"

B

[lasergrenades]

As she had promised, Pepper was continuing to keep an eye on Bakura and Diabound. Not much more than usual, really, but her attention was a little more focused. Things did seem to be going alright, insofar as nothing had gone evidently wrong. He had said it felt different, which made sense, and she continued to be curious as to how.

Vee helped her to locate Bakura outside the city, and after a walk Pepper spotted him watching Diabound with purposeful intent, although she herself couldn't read exactly what it was for. The ka looked almost amused.

"The answer's forty-two, if you're wondering," she said brightly, announcing her approach.

[wintershepherd]

"Not really," he admitted. "Besides, Zatanna and I live here. I built the addition on the back of the building so that we could. That is, I hired other people to do it, I didn't do the construction or anything," he amended with a laugh.

"I'll be the first to admit that I don't know much about the whole," he gestured vaguely. "Political thing, Sonja. I kind of made it a point to stay out of the spirits version of them, back home."

[wintershepherd]

"Spirit," Jack echoed the gesture, grinning widely. "But, uh, not the ghost kind. I hear you on optional gravity. I'm not the only one who does the wind thing back home, but it's not like I control them or anything. Just hitching a ride."

[wintershepherd]

"Look," Jack protested, although any genuine affront was nulled by the grin he was sporting. "I didn't start with the percentages thing. I would have been perfectly happy with fractions or decimals too."

He sidestepped in mock-fear of being swatted. "Bittersweet is good too! Nobody wants all sweet, all the time. It's boring and bad for your teeth. Trust me on this, I'm friends with the Tooth Fairy," he added sagely, as if he was conveying the fact to a stranger who might doubt him rather than someone who'd known him for years.

[isochrone]

"Tea sounds wonderful," Elizabeth nodded happily. She didn't take many days off of her delivery job (not because Klaus didn't offer them, but because Elizabeth enjoyed it so much) but she spent them exploring and discovering when she did.

"It's already looking to be very nice today," she added, bending to begin unlacing her tall boots inside the door. Despite having picked up several new outfits since arriving months ago, most of the time she still preferred her outfit from home.

[denyamenti]

Pepper's remark broke his attention for the moment, although it was not an unwelcome intrusion. "If only it were so simple," he smiled, turning toward her.

"It's actually surprising how often that number comes up, well before it became pop culture. There are 42 Laws of Ma'at, also called the Negative Confessions. And you thought it was a modern thing."

[schrodingersghost]

"Huh. I don't think I've ever met a straight up spirit before. I mean, the Fright Knight calls himself the spirit of Halloween, but he's really just a ghost like everyone else."

Danny grins.

"Sounds unpredictable. And fun."

[lasergrenades]

"I am so glad to have more sun back," Pepper agreed enthusiastically. "I'm used to some really gross winters, but this was like the winter that never wanted to end. Cute boots, by the way."

She led Elizabeth towards the kitchen; there was a door off it into the backyard, so they could head there later. Her deck was on the kitchen table, and the Duelist gauntlet laying next to it. There was still hot water in the kettle, so Pepper retrieved a mug and left the cabinet open so she could peruse the selection they had.

"We've got a lot of different kinds of tea. Any favorites?"

[lasergrenades]

"Seriously? Huh. Maybe Douglas Adams wrote that as an obscure tribute or something." Not many readers would know that much about Egypt. "I guess it'll keep being a popular number." Pepper paused, glancing at Diabound again. Seeing him still made her happy. "What are you up to out here?"