[OPEN] Sandstorm Event + September Introduction Log

[soul_mods]

Given that the last time there was a sandstorm BREW had just...unceremoniously dumped the new arrivals outside to face the elements, Shibusen decided it would be prudent to send some people out to make sure the poor souls aren't left to flounder.

Outfitting their volunteers with the proper gear, they're allowed back into Death City not only to search for new arrivals but also to check for stragglers.

However, as the volunteers go through the city, they find more than just the expected stragglers and new arrivals. For some reason, there is the occasional Kishin Egg wandering around...

To make things worse, the sandstorm continues to rage, causing poor visibility and covering the streets with a thick layer of sand, making it hard to keep footing. A problem these Kishin Eggs don't seem to have when most of them are capable of diving under the sand to move like sharks.

Comments

[feelsgoodinyou]

He pretended to pout before he chuckled for real as he relaxed and leaned back to let her do her work. (His eyes never stopped watching her every move attentively, though. Bakura never trusted anybody for real.)

"Hey, I'm just a low-born guy who's caught in a teenage body and who likes to say the truth." If it suited him, at least. He sighed, cocking his head to the side as he gave her a look, playfulness mostly gone. "But yeah, I guess I'm not used to it. Kindness that doesn't come with the expectation of something in return, that is."

The admission was barely audible against the howl of the wind beyond the windows. This could stay their little secret.

[morecowbell]

"Well I can't really fault you for having good taste," she said brushing a lock of hair back over her shoulder while a small satisfied smile crept across her face, she might be overplaying it a little because she didn't know how to deal with him at the moment.

Nanami seemingly determined to ruin the moment spoke while standing so she could find something to use in lieu of a bandage, "Oh? What makes you think I don't expect something in return?" Was it just her or was the ground swaying a little bit. After tending to Bakura, the next order of business was to find some water.

[feelsgoodinyou]

"Che. I'm pretty good at reading people's hearts. You're not that kind." He really didn't think she was. Petty, maybe - he wouldn't put it past her. But outright evil or dangerous? Somebody who felt the need to confess to what they assumed to be a comatose person didn't have it in them for that in his opinion.

His cat-that-ate-the-cream expression turned into a mild frown as he watched her get up. "Oi. Did you get hurt?"

[morecowbell]

She turned her head a little to look back at him from the corner of her eye and then stared over her shoulder at the ground for a moment thinking. The truth was if he asked her what she expected she didn't actually have an answer, she was just planning on playing coy. Strangely enjoying his company an working with him aside, in a way wasn't she using him to make herself feel needed?

"Huh? I don't think so," she didn't recall getting injured, she just felt a little dizzy for a second, must be heat. Nanami opened the nearby cupboard and managed to find a few cloth napkins that were being stored away there, that would work for now. She returned to her place on the floor in front of Bakura, removed the wet-nap and began wrapping one of the cloth napkins around his leg.

[feelsgoodinyou]

Huh. Had he just imagined things in that case? It was likely, but not by a lot. Truth be told Bakura hadn't paid her any attention during the fight past when she had been the cold steel in his hands - she could have gotten hurt without him noticing and be playing brave now. Or not. On one hand Bakura couldn't give any less damn about it if he tried.

However, having to work with a weapon that was damaged would be the worst.

He heaved an annoyed sigh as he moved to take the napkins away from her to finish the rest himself. "Leave that to me. You can go check that everything's locked," he nodded towards the door and windows, "and then take care of yourself."

[morecowbell]

The girl looked up at him questioningly, she wasn't doing that bad of a job wrapping it was she? It wasn't like this was that gauze that sticks to itself, it was a little more difficult to do, jeeze. She sighed but nodded before standing up and there it was again only this time a little more pronounced.

She stumbled a little until she caught a nearby chair to hold herself up while she tried to blink her vision back. "I'm not sure why people say it's "seeing stars", it's more like silver glitter fluttering around your head," she laughed a little; it was not even close to the first time she had seen this. Another sign of dehydration appeared as a little bit of blood began dripping from her nose but she hadn't noticed that one yet...

[feelsgoodinyou]

Gods. And there they said that he was bad at taking care of himself. Bakura gave her a telltale gaze that was paired with an eloquent silence before he turned his attention back to getting himself patched up. Somehow he managed to express a lot with not saying anything at all, but then again, this was Bakura. It was always worse when he didn't feel like twisting the verbal knife for once.

"If you're already that far sit down and get some" he almost said 'damned' before he remembered that he's supposed to be nice(r) to her, " water to drink. And wipe that red snot from your nose while you're at it." Almost as if to empathize his point one of the towels was tossed her way.

[morecowbell]

For one not used to such a dry climate she had done well before now to keep herself hydrated but the sand storm was making it much worse than usual. Having regained her vision she caught sight of him in time to see the towel coming at her and she plucked it out of the air.

"Red..sn—?" She touched the towel lightly just above her mouth to check. Sure enough on that bright white linen there were a few drops of blood. "Oh very attractive Nanami," she thought to herself while turning away from Bakura and covering her nose to stop the bleeding.

The dizziness was still there but it was from standing up too quickly that caused the short blackout. She'd be fine while she searched around literally single-handedly for where the cafe stashed their extra water bottles.

[feelsgoodinyou]

Bakura watched her for a moment longer to make sure she wouldn't suddenly keel over or do something equally stupid before he directed his attention once more to his injured leg. Nanami had done nice work with it so far, so it didn't take him long to finish the makeshift bandage that surely nobody would want to have close to their dinner once they were finished with this.

He also had a big bottle of water for himself inside his coat and for a moment he played with the thought of offering to share it with her for additional trust points, but then he decided against it until it would be sure that there was no other water around that could be used. Water was precious during a sandstorm, even if they were in a city.

"Find anything?"

[morecowbell]

They could both agree that their respective cloths were going in the trash once they had outlived their usefulness. Nanami kept hers in place because she knew it could take a while to stop bleeding, she had learned from experience. She moved about the room slowly checking the cupboards and racks lined up on one wall. Bingo. A half a 24 pack of water bottles was at the bottom of one.

"We ducked into the right building for sure," she answered somehow managing to pull out two for each of them with one hand. She made her way back to Bakura and sort of held the one she had in her hand out to him, the other three were pinned against her body with the same arm.

[feelsgoodinyou]

Bakura snorted in response to her remark, as if to ask what else she had expected from him. A thief who lost their head that much that they didn't check where they fled to during a pinch ran good risk to lose the same head quite literally in the immediate future.

When she offered him one of the bottles he drew up an eyebrow. "For me?"

[morecowbell]

She hadn't really been paying attention to the place they entered, she had been so turned around she didn't really know where in the city she was at that point.

"No, I grabbed four for myself and now I'm just standing here holding this one out as far as I can for my health," she nudged it over in his direction. "Take two, there's more over there."

[feelsgoodinyou]

A brief amused look flickered over his features before he reached out and calmly took the offered bottles. "You know, if you were clever and only out for yourself that'd be the only intelligent thing to do."

Then, feeling that this wasn't quite enough, he added, "That's the thing I'd have done if I were still me." He didn't seek her eyes. Instead the floor and the white of the bandages against the pale shade of his skin suddenly seemed very interesting. ".... is that guy still staying with you?" It wasn't like he didn't know the answer to that already.

[morecowbell]

"If I didn't like you I wouldn't have offered you any," it wasn't really a confession. "Besides," she blotted her nose one final time making sure the bleeding had stopped before tucking the cloth partially into her pocket, "there's nothing to keep you from going over and grabbing one yourself, or even if I did try to horde them, stop you from taking what I already claimed."

His words were strange and she didn't really understand what he was implying about himself. Maybe she'd circle back to that discussion later. She sat down on a nearby chair and opened one of her bottles of water watching him for a moment before glancing elsewhere. "He is," she stated only pausing a moment before she took a sip of water. No, scratch that, she was so dry she began downing the bottle disregarding the drops that missed.

[feelsgoodinyou]

He pretended that he hadn't heard her unintentional confession, but one of his hair-blades perked up just a tiny bit, like the ear of a cat that had just heard the traitorous scuttling of a mouse.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Bakura allowed a cross look to ghost over his face before he commented with a low. "Hmph!" Then he took his time removing his own bottle from his coat and taking a few swings of it. "Is he going to stay?"

[morecowbell]

Her water bottle was already finished and she turned her attention to the second one, this time sipping it slowly. She eyed the bottle that had appeared while she was drinking that didn't match one of the ones she found. "He is," she repeated, "why, did you want to move in?" She glanced back at that dang bottle.

[feelsgoodinyou]

There was no hint of shame as Bakura stopped not long after he had begun drinking and put it back to the same mysterious place it had come from. Then he pocketed the bottle she had given him as well.

In his mind he was cursing. That damn pharaoh and his impeccable timing to get into Bakura's ways! "Not really." His voice and expression were schooled into a study of boredom. "I was just wondering, especially since I'm not staying with Ryou anymore." It had been a while since he had last called that person his host. Intentionally so. "It's just that I hate him for what he has done. ...unlike you."

[morecowbell]

"I would have offered if I had known you were having problems," she set aside the second bottle still a third of the way full before picking up her stuff from the floor and pulling out the brush. Nanami began pulling out the bobby pins that were holding her braid in place. "Yes, I gathered that from the last encounter but being roommates with him doesn't change the relationship we have now, whatever that might be," she added because let's face it, she had no idea what it was. "Did you... want to talk about it?" She's not sure if she wants to hear it.

[feelsgoodinyou]

"What's there to talk about?" He watched her with an odd expression that somehow managed to be both adverted and tired. There were no words that could change anything between him and the Pharaoh. No 'sorry's because neither of them felt remorse for their actions and no 'I forgive you's because neither of them ever would.

[morecowbell]

She glanced away from him uncomfortably. "What happened?" It wasn't really a question to his own but an opportunity for him to explain his side of the bad blood between the two of them. She regretted it the moment she asked however, she should have simply taken it as a "No". She set her bobby pins aside and undid her braid revealing wavy bangs, it gave her something to do besides fidget.

[feelsgoodinyou]

Bakura shrugged his shoulders and looked away for a moment. The open hair suited her better than the braid, in his opinion, but this wasn't the right time for saying something like that now.

He licked his lips. " ...Is that a question of a friend?"

[morecowbell]

Nanami hesitated but she did manage to finally look at him again. "I don't know to be perfectly honest. Are we friends? This is all sort of new territory for me. I mean, were you even planning on offering me some of your water if I hadn't found some here?" Yes, she had already circled back to that part of the conversation.

[feelsgoodinyou]

"If you hadn't." He left the sentence like that, chopped off before it became something binding. If there hadn't been any other way. If it were necessary. Then yes, maybe. He'd have only known what he would have done when that situation would have come to pass. But it hadn't, had it? He hadn't asked her for her water either. "But you did."

[morecowbell]

He may have answered the last question somewhat satisfactorily but she did not miss the fact that he didn't answer the first one or simply decided to disregard it. The blond sighed and leaned back in her chair looking rather tired as she began brushing sand out of her hair.

"I see." She was getting mixed messages but was it fair to ask him such questions when she herself couldn't answer them? He had once told her that she was his weapon of choice which was in itself ambiguous but he had also implied that he wouldn't give her special treatment which mean that she wasn't special to him. She wasn't special to anyone here and that just killed her.

She shook her head and sighed collecting herself. It was best to back up a little and think of him as a business associate. The less personal it was the better.

"I have granola bars if you're hungry but only if you can't find something else to eat first." Hmph, two could play this game. Well she had meant it to be meaner than it actually was seeing as how it wasn't mean at all but that was beside the point. She was making a point, dang it.

[feelsgoodinyou]

It had been both intentional and without meaning to that he had forfeited his chance to reply to her first question. Bakura had simply assumed that it hadn't been the type of question one expected or wanted an answer to.

"Hmn." Did she? Bakura gave her a weary glance as he pulled his injured leg up to pull his pants' fabric back into place. Resting his head against it, he ran a hand through his bangs, idly noting that the sand had invaded them as well. "I'm not hungry right now."

He still had a habit of forgetting about his renewed need for the intake of food unless his body reminded him of it. In this case he had eaten earlier before he had decided to brave the sandstorm once more, though. "I'm a bit tired, but that's about it. I've never needed much."