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

Entry tags:

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

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!

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After their conversation, Bakura made sure all the ledger books were where they were supposed to be in the office. Hiring a bookkeeper wasn't strictly necessary-- it wasn't like he couldn't actually do the work himself, if he had the mind to. The finances for the dojo weren't particularly complicated, just tedious.

He could have hired a kedan to fill the post... which he probably would have done, had Sonja not responded with interest. Although he'd meant it largely in humour, it was surprising how many people really did get taken back home after taking the position. More than half a dozen now, which was starting to edge out of the territory of coincidence and into... well, he wasn't sure what it was moving into. Something, anyway.

Bakura had left the time and date open to Sonja's choice for stopping by to get acquainted with the run of the job, so he kept an idle eye for her arrival while working on other things or watching the dojo's patrons in their usual rounds.

Why did Summer have to be a thing? She liked the Spring far more, with its vibrant colors in the flowers waking up from their slumber - even the Fall was preferable, with its crisp, fresh air that inspired her to jog about. Okay, Winter was nice too. But did the temperatrures have to be so extreme?

Eh. Well Marinette was out again with her drawing pad, a pencil tucked behind her ear, when she overheard the giggling of children, young and older, and followed the sound out of curiosity to see what was going on. There is happiness here and she needs to be a part of it!

Even with the heat, Pepper mostly keeps to her usual schedule at the dojo. She's glad to have a proper summer this year, and more than that, to have thunderstorms. It's hot enough out that when there's a downpour, it's actually fun, unlike the hurricane-like storm they had back in January.

While they're taking a break, Pepper sets her staff aside and walks out to the veranda. It doesn't do much to relieve the humidity, which is partially explained by the approaching clouds. "Looks like it might rain," she says with a grin. "Good thing the roof is fixed."

(Marinette would dislike Summer even more if she met the spirit in charge of it -- The May Queen was almost as bad as Chloé.)

Jack had just whipped up a new layer of snow -- he had to keep refreshing it, since it was melting as they played -- when he noted a new arrival. Older than the others, but that had never stopped him before.

"Come to join in?"

"Yes, we wouldn't want to traumatize your housemates twice in the same year if you needed to invite me to stay over there again," Bakura retorted, though there was more humour than derision in the remark. Watching Tony and Gene look thoroughly discomfited during his stay had been amusing in its own way.

"The rain will be a good break," he added in agreement. While he still preferred summer weather over winter, the humidity was becoming near oppressive.

"They'd survive. They know better than to argue with me, since I usually win anyway," Pepper returned, nudging him with an elbow. She had the feeling that her staying over at Bakura's would result in similar reactions, but they wouldn't get to see them. Alas.

"Did you get big storms in Egypt ever? Obviously it's super dry most of the time but closer to the Mediterranean it's probably a bit different, right?"

(Ohgod, she didn't think that was even possible.)

She grinned, "Actually, I thought I'd try and see if I could stirr up some inspiration for drawing. But I could take a break -- well, technically it's not taking a break if I haven't started yet." She reasoned. "If I'm not intruding, that is."

"That doesn't mean it wouldn't be entertaining to watch them surviving it," the thief replied with a wicked grin. He was almost as bad as she was for the desire to make them squirm sometimes.

Bakura hummed thoughtfully at the question, and began dishing out the base mix to the bowls. "Down in the Delta it did, yes, when the storms came in off the sea. Farther upward, there were only storms occasionally. It wasn't like it is here... the ground was almost always too baked dry to absorb any of the rain, so it went rushing and flooding everywhere. It seems very strange to think that people can drown in a desert, but it happens."

"The rain wasn't the only thing to worry about. Sometimes the storms didn't bring rain at all, just lightning. Those were dangerous." Exhilarating, but dangerous.

(Never let the two of them get together. Ever.)

The spirit grinned, rolling a snowball in his hands. The wide patch of it seemed a hilarious incongruity in the middle of the summer sunshine.

"You're definitely not interrupting. Better make some ammo while you can."

"That's true," Pepper returned, grinning as well. It was too much fun to mess with Tony and Gene now that they'd reached the point of general acceptance of her relationship with Bakura. As long as they didn't take it too far.

"Huh. That makes sense, I guess. Not a lot of high ground, either." She hadn't thought about that being a danger, but recalling the cracked salt flats of Death Valley... yeah, flash flooding could be seriously bad. "Dangerous, but I bet it was awesome to watch from a distance. Like natural fireworks or whatever. Do you know if it made glass out of the sand?" Speaking of lightning, there was a flash in the far distance. "...I wonder if Tu Vishan feels lightning strikes here."

"Just around the cliffsides, which was exactly where you didn't want to be in a flood," Bakura agreed, shaking his head. "And yes, it was quite a sight. On good nights, you could see the strikes a very long way. I suspect it did make glass where it hit, but most populated areas were built where the ground was more rock than sand."

He glances up at the flash. "I doubt it. The shell has its own mountains, there has to be enough mineral in the ground to disperse it before it reaches what can be felt."

(DEFINITELY not.)

Marinette laughed, "All right, let me just put my things down." She trotted off, though she called over her shoulder, "No hitting moving targets when they're not ready!" JUST in case someone was being sassy and thought they'd get an early shot in. She carefully put it down on a bench a short distance from where the 'battle' was to take place, then quickly started gathering snow - "I've gotta say, a snowball fight in the midst of this heat? BEST way to stay cool." Followed by swimming at the beach.

Jack is definitely lowering his arm, having fully intended to be sassy. So close.

"Sure, sure, take the whole element of surprise out of it," he teased. "And thank you. At least here people just think it's awesome, back home this would attract climatologists and conspiracy theorists."

AHA!!! Jack you SNEAK! Marinette laughed out loud when she caught him lowering his hand, and quickly knelt to start maing snowballs. "Haha, honestly that's not too far from how people would react back home." She paused. "Actually, they'd probably think it was the result of a supervillain first."

The hotter days were the ones where Gene really hounded everyone to drink water, especially after one kedan nearly fainted in the middle of a spar. The dojo was open enough for airflow, but people still got stupid and cocky.

And Gene knew from getting stupid and cocky.

One afternoon he came outside and leaned against a nearby pole, but not before placing a glass of ice water next to Bakura. "If you desiccate out here, you'll only have yourself to blame," he said, a little teasingly.

"And most people think not building your house on sand is a metaphor," Pepper returned cheerfully. "It's actually good construction advice."

She leaned out from under the veranda, hanging on to one of the columns for balance. "Either that or it feels like being tickled. He's kinda huge. We'd probably have shellquakes if it were, though, since there's usually flailing involved with getting tickled," Pepper commented, far too innocently for the mischievous look on her face when she glanced over her shoulder.

Guilty as charged! He's definitely a trickster. He's tossing the snowball he's holding with a smirk, waiting for her to be ready.

"Supervillian?" he echoed. "Is that something you've got to worry a lot about at home?"

"That's something we haven't had in a while, you'd better not have just broken that streak," he commented, and gave a light harrumph at her mention of him being ticklish in certain areas.

"If I 'flail', you're not going to get dinner."

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?"

Following their conversation, Bakura had exactly an idea about how to prove his point to Aya about how everyone desired power. More specifically, how everyone could be seduced by it. Nothing beat a practical demonstration, after all.

Certainly not, no.

Aya had her own ideas about the notion of desiring power. Unfortunately, many of them conflicted with one another. For once, it was as if she had too many answers to a single question, and it was her hope that an in-person discussion (and demonstration) with Bakura would help narrow down the choice.

She arrived mid-morning, as promised, quietly announcing her presence at 10:30 on the dot.

"Kiind of," she answers, finally turning towards him and rubbing her hands together a bit to show she was ready. She had her stockpile all set - she scooped one up, eyeing her potential barriers, and started inching towards a tree, "A couple of my classmates, as well as some friends and associates, were akumatized by a supervillain once... they're fine now, thankfully.. but it seemed like almost once ever few days someone was targeted by him." And ha! Lobbing a snowball in a casual throw!

"Oh, come on. It's not like I can summon those things just by saying them out loud," she disagreed playfully. Shellquakes were not Shadow creatures.

"Hmmm. That's a tough choice. I could always wait until after dinner and get both, you know."

"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."

"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."

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

closed to Sonja - Jade Dojo;

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Ugh it's so hot ;o;

hot and humid and grooooss

Worst part of Summer T_T

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closed to Aya - Jade Dojo;

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