[OPEN] In the palace of a thousand eyes...

[denyamenti]

Characters: Bakura, Elizabeth, Jack
Date: Through May
Location: Various
Situation: Catch all for May
Warnings/Rating: None yet


A. BAKURA - In Jail

Following Bakura's arrest as a result of his Dust-triggered attack on a kedan, he'd been given a combination of jail time, penalty fines, and proposed 'community service' when the time served was up. He had not accepted the ruling lightly, which had nearly resulted in a much larger conflict than the singular initial assault.

It had been resolved, at least to the point that no one else had ended up injured (although it had been close, when one of the KPD officers had tried to insist that removing all personal effects to be stored included the Ring.)

Most of the time he feigns sleep, though more for not being interested in talking to any of the others in adjacent cells. Sometimes Diabound is present as well, coiled on the cot as a form of distraction.

B. BAKURA - Post Release - STARTER PENDING

To be added later in the month...

C. ELIZABETH - All Sectors

Since she'd joined the Guild of Justice and Arbitration, Elizabeth seemed determined to be an ideal member. That meant that she was going around to various places in the city, introducing herself and asking if there was anything that the GJA could do for people. Some people seemed approving that she'd moved outside the Foreigners Guild, while others were indifferent.

"Are you sure there's nothing you can think of? Every idea is an idea worth hearing, I've always thought."

D. ELIZABETH - Greenhouses

The damage done to the greenhouse crops and more importantly everyone's hard work had stoked an indignant fire in Elizabeth, and when she wasn't on deliveries for the Midnight Hotel, she could be found working to help get things back on track at any of the hydroponics sites. At the moment, she was wrestling with a gunk-covered drainage mechanism, which would need to be fully disassembled and cleaned before it could be used again. The messy work clashes with her usual neatly pressed outfit, and yet she looks like she's barely noticing that she's gotten covered in mud.

"Aha, got it! Now, let's see how this comes apart..."

E. WILDCARD

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

Comments

A

[redlightgreenlight]

Aside from escorting Bakura to the Arbitrator's people, Valdis had stayed away from the sentencing and imprisonment, though she knew every detail of it, including how one of her officers had tried to take the Ring after she had told him to leave it. But it didn't matter now. She didn't have any real reason to visit Bakura, she definitely wasn't going to apologize, but she still felt badly for the circumstances that led to this mess.

The jail wasn't horrible, but it wasn't supposed to be a pleasant place either, and Valdis didn't enjoy going down the rows. The emotions were high. Anger, fear, sadness. She passed each cell, ignoring the occupants until she reached the one where Bakura pretended to sleep.

"You aren't fooling anyone, you know." She commented, "Your breathing isn't deep enough to actually mimic sleep."

[denyamenti]

"How do you know what my breathing is like when I'm asleep?" Bakura answered without opening his eyes or moving his position. "Now you're crossing into stalker territory."

[redlightgreenlight]

"Years of experience," She replied, "But not you specifically, although you replied, so now I know you are awake."

If he was feeling good enough to joke, then perhaps he wouldn't turn that tendency for vengeance on the GJA.

[denyamenti]

(She was assuming joking precludes revenge, when history says he's likely to engage in both simultaneously.)

"Come to gloat, ihemtepet?"

[redlightgreenlight]

"If it were Daseng in that cell, then yes, I would have 'come to gloat'. But you aren't Daseng." To state the obvious. "What I don't understand is why both you and Pepper have suddenly decided that I'm a different person."

Though someone else had also decided that and publicly announced it, so there was that to deal with.

A

[commandandcontrol]

The guard knocked on the bars loudly to announce that Bakura had a visitor, which made Sonja cringe.

She clutched a bag to her chest nervously, filled with an assortment of dried fruits and meats which had been thoroughly inspected. A largely pointless gesture in her opinion, since she was pretty sure Bakura was here voluntarily based on the powers he could wield.

The winged snake is strange but kind of cute.

"Hi, Bakura. How are you doing?"

[denyamenti]

"Just different priorities," he replied. "I see your new Arbitrator has you well-heeled already."

[denyamenti]

Bakura gave the guard a baleful glare (and if they thought he wouldn't remember every one of them for later, they were sorely mistaken) until they left, before his gaze switched to Sonja. Diabound also raised itself on its coils to observe her, its gaze alert and sentient.

"Another day of thrilling excitement, I don't know how I'll be able to stand it," he answered sarcastically.

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis glared at him, "Are you trying to rile me, Bakura? Because someone has already managed that this week and I'm not in the mood."

[denyamenti]

"You are not in the mood?" Bakura repeated incredulously, and followed it with an Egyptian phrase that she may not have understood but was most certainly not complimentary. "I am playing your ridiculous game by sitting in here like a fool, are you trying to rile me?"

[redlightgreenlight]

"It's not a game Bakura," Valdis replied, "You attacked someone. And you know that I know that you could break out of here with ease. Sitting here is your choice. And your situation could be worse."

[denyamenti]

"I attacked someone, yes," Bakura scoffed. He sat up and swung his legs off the bed, Diabound coiling around one arm and shoulder. "And I've killed them before, right in front of you. You even put one out of his misery, cut his head off, or don't you recall that, sefatjiw?" The old title he'd used for her, butcher, cut across the small space between them.

"But you didn't care then. You haven't cared about the dozens of other times between then and now either, by me or others. But now you bark for a new guildmaster and you're all about following the rules?"

He came close to the bars. "And if my choice is to leave?"

A

[irongaze]

Eliyen had been interested in Bakura's case, as it had been the first attack by a Foreigner on a kedan. It had come in while she'd been speaking with Valdis, who had obviously been severely shaken by the news.

Clearly, the answer was to go meet the man himself.

She stopped by the cell he was in and eyed the winged snake. That was interesting. She'd have to bring that up. "Mr. Bakura," she said, and waited to see if he would acknowledge her.

[redlightgreenlight]

"You mean when I was high on Malicant's drugs?" Valdis replied, "Or perhaps you mean the kedan I killed when they attacked Wan? Or maybe you mean the Cultists I killed during the war with Malicant. I hate to break it to you, Bakura, but aside from the man you maimed beyond repair, all those others deserved what they got."

She didn't move, even when he came close to the bars, even while Diabound curled around his arm. Nor did she bring Hila to the life plane.

"If you choose to leave, I will not stop you," She continued, "in fact, I might even give you the keys. I'm tired of fighting my nature, aren't you?"

[denyamenti]

He didn't move or open his eyes, but he did answer her; still, the lack of full acknowledgement saying almost as much as the words did. "Ah, the queen in her prison castle arrives."

[irongaze]

She had been expecting something like this, as well as the simmering hostility.

"So I have," she said. "How are you faring?"

[denyamenti]

"No," Bakura spat. "Because I don't fight mine. I am what I am. My point is that if you're now taking loyal orders from someone else, then own up to it. Otherwise people might think you've still got a will of your own in there."

[denyamenti]

"I've left all your guards intact so far, isn't that answer enough?" he asked, cracking an eye open to view her briefly.

"And I don't see any fired bronze rods, so that's always a plus."

[redlightgreenlight]

"You are fighting, Bakura," Valdis replied, "Dust doesn't change who you are, it simply brings the worst of you to the surface. Would you have killed Chesala if Pepper hadn't stopped you?"

She ignored the comment about her 'will'. That was unimportant for the moment.

"Though you aren't the first to attack my loyalties as of late. Perhaps I really do need to reevaluate them"

[denyamenti]

"I'd have killed her if I'd wanted to kill her," he retorted. In hindsight, he couldn't be sure he had actually intended to, in any case. The memory wasn't fuzzy, it was clear... he hadn't been Dusted heavily enough to cause that distortion. He'd told Pepper he was going to make an example of Chesala, and he had done that. Where it might have gone from there would remain an unknown.

"You directly contradicting me has never worked out well for you before, don't think that's changed. Your loyalties are only in question if you can't decide what they are." He hadn't seen the console post... jail didn't exactly include network free time.

[irongaze]

She didn't fear Bakura's power, or any Foreigner's. If she was harmed or killed, that would cause...trouble.

"And we're all very grateful for your restraint," she said, her voice dry.

Then, abruptly: "You didn't kill her. Why?"

[denyamenti]

"I didn't need to," he answered. On the cot next to him, Diabound uncoiled and recoiled into a better position to watch the Arbitrator with red eyes. "I doubt she'll run her mouth off like that again, don't you agree?"

[irongaze]

That didn't shock her one whit - at least, on the outside. What sort of man...?!

She kept her voice even. "Would you do it again, without the influence of Dust?"

[denyamenti]

"If anyone else comes around calling for means to try banishing 'dark spirits'? Of course," he replied deliberately. "That part didn't have anything to do with Dust."

[irongaze]

"'Dark spirits'?" She said, and raised an eyebrow. Eliyen was not superstitious as a rule - her job required too much logic for that - but she knew that many kedan were. The rash of attacks on spirit houses made even her uneasy.