[OPEN] The late heaven of a summer day...

[denyamenti]

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


A. BAKURA - Jade Dojo

Activity at the Dojo had returned more or less to previous levels from before the attack, although it tended to be less busy on days where the temperature spiked particularly high. Thus it wasn't unusual for Bakura's midday to be a lull, which he sometimes filled with his own practices on the target dummies or, if someone requested it, perhaps a spar.

On the outside of the dojo, one might find him sitting on the wooden-planked veranda that runs around the perimeter of the building. Sometimes he appears to be asleep, leaning up against one of the vertical columns with his eyes closed in a patch of sunlight, and Diabound a bundle of white scales and feathers in his lap.

B. BAKURA - Around Keeliai

The heat is hardly a deterrent for him, and if anything seems to have put him in a better mood. He's more likely to engage in casual conversation and linger in public places like cafes just for the sake of it. Occasionally he'll bring along what looks like a translation project, working in two notebooks: one filled with kedanese, and the other with hieroglyphics.

C. JACK - Welcome Center + Around Keeliai

With Zatanna having taken on extra responsibility due to being one of the elected leaders of the Foreigners Guild, the spirit has been trying to pick up duties around the Welcome Center in order to lessen the workload for her. Part of this requires keeping up with the contacts around the city, especially ones that had agreed to host potential new Foreigners as employees. Most of the time, he makes these visits in the early morning or later, after dusk, and frequently by air and rooftop.

D. JACK - Wood Sector

Even the summer weather isn't enough to entirely dampen his spirits when it comes to kids, and he calls up little pockets of snow in parks for them to play in. He's good with them, even luring older ones who are too "cool" to play with the younger aged ones.

Not often, but sometimes the conjured snow will be laced with his particular magic to bring out the playful side of even the most stalwart grouches.

E. WILDCARD

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

Comments

[denyamenti]

Bakura was fully of the impression that getting stupid and cocky and then paying the price for it was an excellent source of motivation to learn better, but he conceded that having to drag fainted kedan out of his dojo on a regular basis would get irritating after a while.

"As though Pepper wouldn't be the first to remind me of that," Bakura said, tucking one leg under him as he shifted position to pick up the glass. "Thank you, hebnay. You realize the irony of your remark, I take it?"

[wrathfulkhan]

"I do," he said with a bit of a smile. "But the point stands."

Gene closed his eyes and breathed in. "You've got the right idea for the middle of the day. It's hit a lull inside, and I don't think it'll pick up again until later in the afternoon. Too damn hot."

[denyamenti]

"Everyone used to sleep through the hottest parts of the day," the thief commented, sipping the water as he looked up at Gene. "There's no smart reason to stop when it's going to be weather like this."

He lets the sounds of the quiet Wood Sector take over for a moment before speaking again. "You've been inquiring about kaa lately."

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene blinked at the sudden change of subject before exhaling, a little sheepish. "Who told you?"

To be honest, nobody, he supposed. Bakura was observant; no doubt he'd figured it out on his own.

[denyamenti]

"The Shadow Realm is a surprisingly adept place for gossip," Bakura replied, although there had also been some direct mentions made to him. If those people wanted their concerns known, they could tell Gene themselves.

"Should I be offended that you haven't come and asked me directly, hebnay?"

[wrathfulkhan]

"I didn't want to bother you," Gene said, though he was in point of fact mildly disturbed by the concept of gossipy kaa. "Not until I had a proper idea of what I wanted to do."

He closed his eyes. "Though I'm not sure if I ought to seek mine out after all. I've spoken with Pepper and Vee about this, but I've been told there's a problem with me. Something I've always suspected, really."

[denyamenti]

"Because I am so in demand by the population at large to not have found time," is the sardonic retort; he'll call those pitiful excuses out wherever he sees them, Gene.

"A problem," Bakura repeats skeptically.

[wrathfulkhan]

Don't think he doesn't hear that tone, Bakura.

"Back before I came here, I was briefly trapped in a realm much like the Shadow Realm. My soul was examined by a...creature...that lived there, and it was deemed impure." He practically spat the word. "My soul, not the soul of the former arms dealer who was there with me, with blood on his hands. Mine."

[denyamenti]

It takes a moment, like Bakura's waiting for that to be followed with some kind of clever punchline, but when it dawns that Gene is serious, the thief laughs-- and not even his usual sly mockery, but full-on laughs that are rarely heard from him.

It's going to be either very disturbing or very reassuring, to get that kind of reaction to that statement.

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene stared at him in shock. His genuine anger, his genuine insecurity, something he reveals to very few people...is met with this?

"Um...excuse me?" he said, utterly bewildered.

[denyamenti]

After a moment Bakura manages to get enough of it out of his system that he can at least answer Gene, although the reply is still broken up by near-wheezes of mirth.

And then, because he's comfortable sitting down and feeling too lazy to get up, Gene gets a sharp tail-whip slapped across the back of his head courtesy of Diabound, who has appeared coiled around the post that the younger man is leaning against.

"'Pure'? Who in their obviously not-right mind told you that had anything to do with kaa? Look at the people who've found theirs here so far... do you consider all of them 'pure' souls? Do you think mine is?"

stop hitting him bakura

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene rubbed at the back of his head where Diabound whapped him. "That's not the same," he argued lamely. "Isn't your ka part of your soul? I don't think any will accept me. Not after that thing saw me for what I am. I'll fail my shadow test and be lost."

Though sometimes, in his darker days, he thought that might be a good thing. Make everyone rid of him once and for all.

then stop acting dumb and emo

[denyamenti]

"All kaa are part of someone's soul," Bakura corrected, shaking his head. "You're not auditioning for a part in a play, and your ka isn't shopping around for a better candidate."

Diabound, admittedly, was different. But Bakura would not wish anyone to get their ka by having to go through what he did; and that's something now that Gene's seen directly. He sets the water down next to him and sits up a little straighter with a sigh, beckoning Gene to sit down as well.

"After the Items were made, after the Shadow Realm became connected again to the real one... that was something the Priests tried to tell everyone. That kaa were only for those who were good of heart, that only the best among them could hope to control these creatures. They did that because they wanted people to be afraid of them otherwise-- to think those who had them were better than they were, and those who didn't weren't good enough."

A smile reappears, but this one is closer to his normal sharp one. "But who do you think were the first ones to figure out how to summon theirs? What group or caste of people?"

that's the only way he knows how to be

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene sat and listened. Bakura knew what he was talking about the most; so for once, he'll listen, and try to internalize.

"Those who'd been wronged," he said quietly. "Those who had no power at all."

He knows that feeling. He knows that feeling well.

boy u need an attitude adjustment

[denyamenti]

Bakura's look said that Gene had got the answer in one.

"Gene..." It was rare for Bakura to use given names with people unless he really wanted to hold their attention.

"Listen to me... the reward for being 'good' isn't for someone to tell you that you're good. The same as the cost of being 'bad'--" He doesn't finger quote, but you can hear it anyway. "--isn't having other people point it out. If you fail your shadow test, it won't have anything to do with however pure you are or are not. It will have everything to do with you preferring to let someone else tell you what you are, instead of you knowing it yourself."

ur not his supervisor........wait

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene looked intently at Bakura; the use of his given name certainly had grabbed his attention.

"And what if I know what I am?" he said, his voice quavering. "What if that had merely confirmed a suspicion I'd had all along?" The bastard orphan monster, the freak of genetics that shouldn't be. What had been ground into him over and over, the duality that defined him - the worthless child, the rightful ruler of man; the Makluan puppet, the self-appointed defender of Earth; the scheming wounded child who had considered overthrowing Eshai and had murdered Bakura, the deputy chief of police and upstanding member of society with people who, for some reason, love him?

"...and what if I don't?"

Fired. No severance pay. Ever.

[denyamenti]

"Then tell me how this moment gets better or worse for knowing it?" Bakura challenged. "Not tomorrow, not a year, not when you're back in your world. Sitting here, what changes if you decide that you are exactly as you've been told?"

WOW RUDE

[wrathfulkhan]

There was silence for a moment, and then:

"I do."

He took a long breath, leaned his head back against the pillar, and closed his eyes. "I need to know what I am, Bakura. If I'm a monster, then I need to know that. For good or ill. I can't question it anymore. It's making me crazy." He's stayed up nights tossing and turning over it, gone to the roof to think it over, and sometimes when the city was quiet he looked out at the blanket of bioluminescence and remembered what Tony had called him all those years ago. Monster. How right had he been, in the end? Surely more right than he'd known.

DEAL WITH IT

[denyamenti]

"How?" Bakura pressed, not backing down from Gene's unrelenting self-deprecation. "You avoided the question. What here becomes undone if you decide one way or another? What evaporates? Your friends? Your family? You think they waited for you to make up your mind about this before they gave you what you have? The good things here you've done? The bad? Nothing changes, Gene. You still have done what you've done. You'll still do things yet because you'll do them anyway."

It was a challenge, because in order for Gene to have any change at passing his shadow test, he would have to accept himself. It didn't matter whether Gene was a 'monster' or not -- Bakura didn't consider him one, but that was as irrelevant as what the other entity or anyone else thought.

What Gene had to accept was that ultimately, he had to live with whatever he ended up deciding himself to be. If he couldn't, it didn't matter if that was aberrant or not.

YOU CAN'T MAKE HIM you probably can he's just thick

[wrathfulkhan]

Family. Family. He hadn't had a family for eleven years before arriving in Keeliai, and now he had one. Surely that meant something?

"Nothing," he said at length. "Nothing changes. Not like that. The only thing that changes is how I'd look at myself. And I'll need to know one way or the other."

[denyamenti]

"Nothing changes," Bakura repeated, affirming the statement. "So figure it out, or let the shadows decide it out for you if you can't, but stop acting like everything will fall apart when you do. Your ka isn't a prize that you win for being perfect. Neither are the people who choose to be around you."

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene exhaled. "You're right, you know...of course you know you're right, you're the local ka expert.

"So how would I go about it? The shadow test. Because I think I want to do it."

[denyamenti]

"Just ask," the thief said, amused. "You don't need an appointment."

[wrathfulkhan]

"Ask...what, ask you?" Gene said, a little bewildered. This entire conversation had his head spinning. "Just ask you?"

[denyamenti]

"Yes, to pull you through. The Shadow Realm hardly needs an appointment, hebnay. You could do it yourself if you had any way of opening that connection yourself... as it is, I've inadvertently become something of a gatekeeper."