tushanshu_logs | City pulls me in closer than I've ever been

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City pulls me in closer than I've ever been | July Catchall

Characters: Pepper Potts, Devin Parker, and you!
Date: Throughout July
Location: Around Keeliai
Situation: Pepper is getting settled after several busy and unpleasant months, and Devin is making dumb decisions.
Warnings/Rating: Violence, possibly blood.

A. [Pepper] KPD | Throughout July | Open

Things have at least started to settle down some in the city, so while Pepper is busy she's no longer stretched to the limit. Her schedule is more regular, and she's taking fewer night shifts this month to try and catch up on sleep. All in all, she's in a much better mood when she's at work, helped in no small part by mending fences with Valdis. The ship is righting itself, finally, but that makes her no less vigilant.

B. [Pepper] Sky Sector | Throughout July | Open

The heat and lack of rain aren't uncomfortable for Pepper - New York could get positively sweltering in the summer - and it's decent weather for practicing summoning in the backyard. She does usually wait until early evening, when the temperatures cool down just a little.

When it does rain, though, Pepper pretty much drops everything and races out into the downpour. She's missed thunderstorms and the torrential rain they bring. Pepper will spin around with her arms out, head tilted back and mouth open to catch the drops, completely unconcerned by getting drenched from head to toe.

C. [Devin] Outside Water Sector | Early July | Kratos

At the gathering to decide the leadership of the Foreigners Guild, Devin and Kratos had decided to spar. More specifically, they had agreed to duel at dawn with swords. The events in the city had made it somewhat inappropriate to engage in fun activities like that as early as they had intended. After things had settled some, they'd reestablished the day and time. The additional time had meant Devin could acquire himself a beater sword - functional and sharp, though not particularly pretty - and shave off some of the rust that had been building over the years. The sun was just starting to come up when he reached the appointed location, carrying not one sword but two.

D. [Devin] Wood Sector | Throughout July | Open

Most of the time, Devin does his best to stay away from the Hotel. It's not hard, and he's still working on his mental map of the city. June was all about Metal Sector, and this month he's largely wandering through Wood Sector when he isn't working or sleeping. From time to time, he'll pause and find somewhere to sit, all the while taking notes in some kind of shorthand.

OOC note: Let me know if you want a specific starter or write your own adventure!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Like you haven't already started making one in your head," he scoffed. They were getting bumps and scrapes as thy each sought to get the upper hand, although neither cares; it's nothing worse than they get during a good bout with staves anyway. He's enjoying himself with this unplanned tussle, and so it catches him entirely off guard when he felt his head being pulled to the side by the hair--

--- "Let go, let go!" you struggle as Master Ghazir drags you by a fistful of hair back toward Amjad's wagon, where the task master was waiting with switch in hand. The fact that you'd stolen the food because you were hungry (Master Ghazir is easily aggravated, and missed meals his second favourite punishment) doesn't matter, it only matters that you got caught ---

--- "You're the new guy, huh? I heard you were a troublemaker at your last school," the gym teacher leers, and this is exactly the kind of attention you don't have time for at the moment, with the Puzzle just now discovered. "I enforce the rules here, and this long hair?!" He yanks it hard enough to pull strands from their roots. "We don't allow this kind of thing here, little miss-- cut it all off by tomorrow or you'll be sorry!" Karita lets go, but the anger burns and burns and burns ---

In one smooth motion Bakura's got her pinned, one knee dug into her sternum and fingers digging hard into her shoulder, while the other hand holds the edge of his knife atop her collarbone.

Edited 2017-07-16 04:17 (UTC)

Like snapping a branch, a moment of fun turned startlingly dark. The memories went by in a flash, seen and barely processed beyond gut instinct. She'd made a mistake, not knowing the pain layered beneath it, not having been careful enough, and Pepper was letting go before she even realized it.

Pepper registers Vee's alarm in the same instant Bakura pins her, mentally pushing her back from intervening; he wouldn't hurt her, and the belief is proven correct a moment later when he stops moving. There's a jolt of fear, but more than anything there's surprise in her eyes as she looks up at him, frozen, breathing hard from the exertion. She's going to ignore the discomfort from how he's holding her down.

Slowly, Pepper curls her fingers over his wrist, the hand that's holding the knife. Just resting there, not grabbing. "I didn't know," she whispered, apologetic.

Bakura looks almost surprised by the whole instance, further proof that some instincts were ingrained deeper than conscious thought. It's only a few scant seconds after Pepper speaks quietly that he rocks back on his heels, removing the pressure holding her down, and drops into a sitting position just a few feet away.

He scrubs one hand through his hair, partly to ease off the lingering sting there, and partly in tandem with the disgruntled muttering that's definitely not something to repeat in polite company-- but it's not directed at Pepper.

"No, you didn't know," he grimaces, switching back to English. "You shouldn't have needed to know."

Pepper lays there in the mud for a few seconds after Bakura backs away, eyes closed as she tries to get her breathing to slow. It's easier without a knee to her chest.

"It's..." Not okay, exactly, but not irredeemable. "It's alright," she soothes, sitting up. "I'm alright. No harm, no foul. I just know to be more careful."

Pepper pauses long enough to move and plant herself in front of him, sitting on her knees with her hands resting palm-up on her thighs, an open offer. She'll wait though, taking only what he'll give. "You okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. You're the one I just--"

He leaves off the sentence half-finished, and gives her a glare.

"Tch, would it kill you to be a little less understanding now and again?"

She blinks at him in silence for several moments.

Then she whaps him upside the head, not hard, but enough to get a point across.

"There, better now? Yelling at you isn't gonna help anything. Am I a little freaked out? Yeah. But I also just saw why you did that, so I'm not about to scream at you for it like everyone else did."

At least the head smack put some normalcy back into the situation. "Whether or not it helps, there's still-- what do you mean you just saw why I did that?"

"It was like what happened a few months ago. I saw the memories - you getting dragged around as a kid, and then that jerk at school," she explains. An intrusion, but an accidental one.

The rain has started to taper off, no longer a downpour. "Maybe we should go inside and get cleaned up."

Indeed, being covered with mud is significantly less enjoyable once there wasn't a current reason for it. "Aa," he agreed, getting to his feet, slipping the knife back into the sheath at the small of his back, and offering Pepper a hand up.

Being in the side yard of the dojo, they didn't have to go through the main part-- they could access the door that went directly into the part that was his apartment. "Take the shower first," he said, waving a hand in the direction of the bathroom. "I'm making coffee."

Pepper took his hand and straightened, following after him into the apartment. She did her best not to trail mud everywhere, difficult as that was.

An idea struck her. Things might've turned a bit sour, but they didn't have to stay that way. "We're both a mess," she pointed out, snagging his hand again before he could wander off. The mud might have covered some of the faint blushing. "And there's no point in wasting water or getting mud all over the kitchen. Right? Coffee won't take long, after."

The mud on the floor would be easy enough to clean up later, so he wasn't particularly worried. He raised an eyebrow when she caught his hand, though the expression shifted to something arch at her suggestion. "No point in wasting water, hm? I suppose there's also no point in trying to wash around clothes at the same time?"

"Oh, come on. I basically just agreed to go skinny dipping at the beach. Showering in, you know, actual privacy seems like a good intermediate step to me. Clothes can get washed and then taken off," Pepper pointed out. Despite the fact that there was definitely pink in her cheeks now, she mirrored some of his slyness with her own. "Unless you'd rather just go make coffee?"

Bakura studies her for a moment, although the expression he's wearing is an unclear blend of several thoughts, and none of them easily discernible-- though it's soon enough replaced by a slyness matching her own, though without the blush.

"No, I wouldn't rather make coffee."

It was possible that she would remain pink for the duration of the evening. The exact cause of it might change, however. That brief uncertainty in his expression wasn't entirely unexpected, but all that really mattered was the outcome.

"Good answer," she told him, and tugged him towards the aforementioned shower. "You've got enough negative associations with people yanking on your hair. About time we made a positive one." It wouldn't exactly make a big dent in that many years of abuse, but it wasn't nothing. "Or at least make sure things go back to being fun."

He lets her direct him, more because it's interesting to watch her take charge about it than for any type of reluctance. The bathroom floor is tiled, so mud is hardly a concern for clothing layers to be shed and dropped there.

"You know that wasn't your fault," he remarked, meaning the sudden change in mood from earlier. He's removed his shirt, letting Pepper do the same, though he'll take his cues from her for this. It's new for her, and Bakura privately confesses that he's not 100% certain in which light to take this just yet based on Pepper's unknown intent.

"I know," Pepper confirmed, peeling her shirt off. "I don't want to shower with you to make up for something. I just want to."

She started to shove her pants away from her hips, struggling for a moment with the sodden material when it stuck to her skin. In the interest of clarity, because assumptions hadn't helped anything much in the past, especially when it came to matters of intimacy, once she stepped out of the pile of fabric Pepper looped her arms loosely around Bakura's neck. "I don't have a plan here, by the way." She hesitated, but she was smiling. Rule one: there is nothing to be embarrassed about. "I'm up for pretty much anything, including literally just showering, and if I change my mind I'll let you know."

The clarification did help, and when she draped her arms around his neck and stated that anything was fine, Bakura returned the smile, unfettered by its usual edge. "Sometimes spontaneity can be better than plans," he agreed. He matched her level of undress, turning on the water to a warm setting, not hot. His shower wasn't huge, but it could fit both of them comfortably with enough room that they weren't on top of each other. He cupped a handful of water and let it run over her shoulder, using his fingers to trace the muscle definition there.

Getting that softer smile out of Bakura would probably always be a joy for her. She didn't mind the knife-edged ones, but it was nice to know she could draw this out of him.

The pink blush was apparently taking up permanent residence in her cheeks, but Pepper was noticeably lacking in her usual flailing and squirming. It hadn't entirely evaporated, but it was more uncertainty than embarrassment. Now was possibly a good time to explain why.

"So," Pepper began, gently marking out the edges of the prominent scars at his waist, perhaps trying to overwrite something pleasant there, too. Just spit it out. "I know you said you didn't care, but I've visited the Lantern a few times. For-- I guess you could call it training. Lessons. Whatever. Anyway, I just-- I didn't want you to have to teach me everything or keep being weird even just talking about sex. I didn't want to be completely awkward - for both of us - when we get to that point. I'm not gonna say I'm, like, an expert or anything, definitely not, but-- I'm more comfortable. With myself, and with this," she said quietly, rubbing a thumb along the flat plane of muscle at his hip.

He had been about to comment on the notable change in her demeanor, a gentle tease perhaps that wouldn't have been unkind, but her explanation catches him soundly off guard and for a moment he offers her only mystified silence in return.

Bakura wants to ask her why she'd do something like that, at least in the context of the parts that aren't for her own comfort (it's really not so different, he thinks, than how he 'learned') but with Pepper's expression and her choice of touches, he realizes there's no point in asking that-- he already knows that answer, and it's still near impossible to get his mind around.

But only near, and that's showing too.

"Well," he said lightly after a moment to find his metaphorical footing once again, letting distance between them shrink and setting his mouth to the spot where her shoulder and collarbone met. "It'd be rude not to let you show me what you've learned."

That's not an expression Pepper can recall ever seeing on Bakura. Well. She had wanted it to be a surprise, and happily it's a good one.

When he pulls her closer, Pepper slides her arms around him, closing her eyes and just reveling in the sensation of warmth and touch for several seconds. Yeah, this felt really good all on it's own. "Hm." The hum trailed off into quiet laughter against his neck, and then the barest scrape of teeth there. She had had to learn to ask questions about this, too; it was ironically unnatural, given her proclivity for asking about everything else. "Tell me what you like."

Later...

Since Pepper only had the one set of clothing and it was currently soaking wet, she ended up borrowing one of Bakura's longer shirts to wear the rest of the evening. Coffee was finally being made, and Pepper leaned against Bakura, lazily possessive of his space. "We should save water more often," she teased.

"I'm gratified to know you're being so mindful of my utility costs," he returned, fingers curling around his own mug and posture angled to provide Pepper with a comfortable place to rest. Their clothes would be dry in a few hours, but it was still raining outside.

"I'm trying to imagine you making your request at the Lantern," he added after a moment, amused and clement. "But all that comes to mind is the image of a lot of flustered you."

Pepper probably should have anticipated thorough teasing, but it wasn't unpleasant. She just put her head on his shoulder and laughed, faintly sheepish.

"Yeah, once I actually worked up the nerve I think I was about as red as my hair the first time I went," she agreed. "I was totally embarrassed and everyone there was totally not embarrassed, which kinda helped, I guess. Turns out that was the first lesson. The woman I ended up working with was... super understanding, thank god. Straightforward, too, which is like the exact opposite of what I grew up with. It's really stupid, actually - people use sex to sell stuff all the time, woman and men are way objectified, but when it comes to some random person having sex, it's like they're not supposed to talk about it or be open or say what they want or anything, which seems like a recipe for disaster, honestly."

At that Bakura raised an eyebrow, although more in honest curiosity than anything, and as more of a sidebar than an actual change of topic. "You hired a woman there?"

"It does," he agreed wryly, to her observation that the current approach didn't do anyone any favours. "People are different or complicated about a lot of things now, and some of that's good and some not. It's not always because something's necessarily better overall that I prefer it-- I think it is, in this case, but sometimes I'm just..."

Stubborn. Still pulling scraps of an ancient life around him where he could. Still figuring out how he fit in the world where he didn't have to pretend about any part of himself.

That really would be getting off topic, so he doesn't pursue that trait of thought. The point isn't to make this about himself. "I think it's good you're more comfortable with yourself, biahbenat, since you are happy with it." Not just because of how it changed their dynamic (for the better) but because Pepper genuinely seemed proud of herself.

"Yup. I didn't actually plan on that, it just sort of... seemed like the right decision when they asked me," she told him, shrugging lightly. "I'd never thought about sleeping with another woman before."

Pepper tilted her head slightly, curious about the sentence he decided not to finish. She could guess at a few different conclusions, but she'd leave that for later. "Well, I did say I'd try to get over myself, didn't I?" she said, impishly trailing fingertips up his side. "I'm also very happy with the results. Were things a lot more open back in Egypt, then? Because if they were I can definitely agree that's better. Waaaay better."

He hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "That makes sense, if you wanted to know it from the same perspective as your own. I'll have to pass along a high rating of approval for their good work," he added lightly. A beat, and then in a slightly more serious tone, he added, "And I will speak with Eisso. I did give you my word."

To her question, he gave it some thought and shrugged a bit. "More open for most people, yes. At least in the sense that it wasn't something embarrassing to talk about."

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lasergrenades - 2017-09-24 00:55 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

City pulls me in closer than I've ever been | July Catchall

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cw: intimacy between consenting adults in a relationship, implied nudity

itt: above cw continued

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