A step out of time ((Open RP, Courtyard))

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

((OOC: As the mun has lots of other RP drama going on and wanted something light and silly, we'll call this something like an open RP, something like a chocolate plot, something out of time...RP time, that is. So, basically, this mun wanted a time out from the drama of her other threads and you are welcome to the same time out. If you want to play your drama-involved characters out of the story lines, go for it...the point is fun!))

The problem with learning magic was the results of practice could be unpredictable. In some cases, very unpredictable, especially when one of the practitioners tended to make comments about the spells they were trying. The thought had crossed Sakon's mind that he should practice without Ukon, but he didn't want to risk having to try to talk to someone on his own. And, when Ukon was out, he was rarely silent.

Perhaps he also shouldn't have tried a spell to hurry anything up, as well. But, it was the next one in the book. Ukon's ill-timed comment shifted Sakon's concentration just enough to throw the whole spell awry. When Sakon looked around, the air shimmered around the boundary of the courtyard and everything beyond the courtyard looked almost as though he were trying to watch two movies projected over each other, both running alternately too fast and too slow.

"Just what did you do?" Ukon demanded, his hands on his hips, looking around.

"Uh," Sakon managed to say. He turned back to the book, frowning at it. "I think I made a mistake," he said softly.

"How are you going to get us out of this?"

Sakon started flipping pages with his free hand. "I...don't know yet."

Comments

[endlessgoth.livejournal.com]

Death had been on her way back from checking in on her realm when the spell bubbled up and outward, inadvertently catching her in it's wake. She landed in the courtyard, hard.

"Ow!"

Wait a minute. Ow? She was Death, she didn't get hurt.

Unless..

She looked down at herself, her eyes going distant for a moment. Yep. She was mortal again. But she wasn't due for that for at least another 81 years.

"Crap."

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

"Ah, Sakon, what did you do?" Ukon cried out, twisting to look over Sakon's shoulder at the girl.

"Me?" Sakon stammered, picking the book up and holding it to his chest as he turned too. "I'm...I'm sorry," he said, his cheeks coloring.

"You," Ukon asserted. "He messed up the spell," he said, turning back to the girl. "Do you need help? Are you badly hurt?"

[endlessgoth.livejournal.com]

Death sat up, elbows on her knees. She took a quick mental sort of inventory before smiling up at the pair. "That was one serious spell." She couldn't be too mad at them. The magic wasn't permanent, and being mortal wasn't that bad, really.

"Nah, I'll be okay. I think I just landed kinda funny."

She got to her feet and dusted herself off. It was going to take awhile to get used to walking everywhere, but she'd deal. "What about you guys? Did the spell whammy you too?"

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

Sakon's blush remained. "I...cast it," he said. "Only, it wasn't quite supposed to work like this."

Ukon crossed his arms over his chest. "It was just supposed to be cast on him, to make him go faster."

"I'm not sure how I messed it up, though," Sakon added, pulling the book away from his chest and looking at it.

Ukon laughed and then bowed a little. "I'm Ukon, a masterpiece of Edo puppetry, by the way. This is Sakon."

[endlessgoth.livejournal.com]

"Really? That was a misfire? Yeesh. I might consider starting with the smaller spells next time?" she offered. Temporal spells had a nasty habit of going sideways, even for the most experienced of magic users.

"And what a masterpiece you are," she said with a wink. Cheeky little thing. "Hi guys. I'm Death."

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

Ukon's arms flew up and he cried out in surprise, "Death!"

"Hush, Ukon," Sakon said, though he looked uncomfortable, too. "She's a student here, too. And, it's not like you can die." At least, not in the human sense of the word. Fire was a very real risk for Ukon, though. "And, it was the next spell in the book," he offered apologetically, holding it out awkwardly to her.

[endlessgoth.livejournal.com]

"Relax fellas, I'm not here to collect anyone in the official capacity. The whole no-kill spell," she waved a hand vaguely around at the courtyard, "keeps everyone from having to worry about that. So it's fine. Promise."

Death took the book and flipped through the pages. "Hn. Well, that's a heck of a twist you put on the spell. Not sure how you managed to go from A to Z like that. But it feels like it's only temporary, so I wouldn't worry about it. It'll wear off soon enough."

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

"No-kill spell?" Ukon asked, relaxing a little. His hand went to his chin. "Does that mean fire?" he asked.

"Let's not find out," Sakon countered, his tone flat.

"At least you didn't completely mess up," Ukon said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Thank you," Sakon said, turning back to Death. "It's challenging to learn to alone."

"When are you ever alone?" Ukon demanded. "Don't forget about me." He turned to Death. "Tell me about what you do. He sometimes helps the police solve murders."

[endlessgoth.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, you might not want to tempt fate like that." Besides, she'd never been called upon to collect a .. whatever Ukon was.

"I'm sure there are other students at the school that wouldn't mind a praticing partner. And I'd maybe avoid the spells that have to do with screwing up time. Those tend to go south on just about everyone."

She grinned at the demanding puppet. "Like I said, sweetie. The personification of Death. I'm there when everyone dies, and I take them on to wherever they're supposed to go afterwards."

"You solve murders? That's pretty important work. It's good for the dead to get a little bit of closure. Makes things easier on them."

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

"Everyone?" Ukon asked, tilting his head skeptically. "How can you do that? There's just one of you! And where do you take them?"

"It's...not much," Sakon said.

"That's not true. Kaoru-nee-san couldn't do it without you!" Ukon protested. "She always—" Whatever else he was going to say was cut off by Sakon's hand.

"Kaoru-nee-san is a detective," Sakon replied, looking more embarrassed.

[endlessgoth.livejournal.com]

“It’s.. tricky to explain. I’m sort of everywhere at once. Anytime someone dies, and the moment they’re born, I’m there. I welcome people in, and I’m the one who moves them on. As far as where they go, that all depends. On a lot of things that people aren’t privy to until it’s their time,” she added, cutting off the next inevitable question.

She winked at Sakon. “Helping out isn’t nothing. Especially if you solve the murders. That’s pretty brave work. How’d you two wind up doing that?”

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

Ukon pulled Sakon's hand away from his mouth and turned a glare over his shoulder at him. "He was around when Kaoru was talking about a case and put all the clues together when no one else could. The murder had taken place in a locked room!"

"It was—"

This time Ukon broke in. "Don't say anyone could have done it because Kaoru would have!"

Sakon looked more embarrassed. "I suppose," he said.

[endlessgoth.livejournal.com]

Death barely stifled a giggle at the two arguing. It was almost cute. "Tag team detective work, I like it."

"It's always the quiet ones that wind up being the brains behind the operation," she said, clearly teasing Ukon.

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Kurama wandered around, dumbfounded. Just a few minutes ago he'd been walking to school, the first 'normal' day of his life after the fiasco with Sensui, and now...?

Where the hell was he? The architecture was completely unfamiliar, and while nothing seemed overtly violent despite the odd demon energy registering and the inexplicable familiarity of his own scent all over the place, he was seriously ill at ease.

What had happened?

He stumbled into a courtyard, where someone seemed to be putting on a puppet show for an invisible audience. "Excuse me?" He asked, polite but wary, "but where am I?"

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

"The courtyard just off the Great Hall," Ukon answered, barely looking up. "This one messed up a spell and is trying to figure out how to fix it."

Sakon looked over, his cheeks coloring. "I am sorry for inconveniencing you," he said, bowing as he sat.

Ukon crossed his arms over his chest. "Inconveniencing, he says! Now he's stuck in here with us and look at that uniform!"

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Kurama opened his mouth to admonish the puppet, realized what he was doing, and closed it again, taking a breath. He looked to the puppetmaster instead, his voice quite a bit colder than it had been. "It's a school uniform; I don't wear it by choice." He took another moment to calm himself - Gods he'd been irritable lately, probably because of the breeze he could almost always smell wafting from Makai - and took a closer look around.

"The plants," he murmured, noticing at once that they weren't even remotely indigenous to Japan, "are we somewhere in Europe? How did I come to be here?" And hadn't the puppet... puppeteer said something about a spell?

Had they - had he - somehow managed to summon Kurama? Gods, things really had gotten more complicated, hadn't they.

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

"Well, I didn't know they had a uniform here," Ukon said, his hands going to his hips.

"Ukon," Sakon said softly.

The puppet glared over his shoulder at Sakon and settled into a huffy silence.

"Scotland, I'm told," Sakon said. He frowned slightly. "Didn't someone tell you that in your Sorting?"

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

A tic beat under Kurama's left eye, but he just managed to keep his cool. He was two thousand years old. He was not going to be baited by a puppet.

"Obviously I do not attend this school," he said sharply, doing his best to keep his eyes on the puppetmaster, though every instinct told him to talk to the little wooden bastard. "I do not know anything about a 'sorting' of any type, nor do I know how I came to be in Scotland when I was walking down a street in Toshima district in Tokyo."

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well that explains it," Ukon said, "he's from—" His words were cut off by Sakon's hand over his mouth, though he tried to speak more. He crossed his arms over his chest in a huff.

"If you just arrived, you should be in the Sorting Room," Sakon said, his voice softly confused. "When we figure out how to get out of here, we'll show you."

In his distraction, Ukon was able to pull Sakon's hand away. "Haven't we seen him before? Isn't he one of the teachers here?" he demanded. "You're a kitsune!"

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Taken aback, Kurama really looked at the puppet, and it's master. Sure, it was a superbly crafted piece of work, but it didn't seem to have any kind of spirit within that could see through his human disguise, and the puppeteer (who was beginning to sound eerily familiar, the more he spoke) seemed nothing more than very dexterous and skilled at throwing his voice.

The 'teacher' comment he let pass. Kitsune, however...

He forced a little smile and tilted his head. "What ever do you mean by calling me a kitsune, my highly susceptible to wood mold little friend?" What idiot just went out and said things like that? Didn't it, he, one of them know how difficult it would be for him if his cover was blown?

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

Ukon blinked and goggled at Kurama. "You told us, showed up to our sorting with silver hair and ears and tails!" he protested. "If it's a secret, then why show everyone?" He looked over his shoulder at Sakon. "What's wrong with him? Why is he threatening me with wood mold?"

Sakon wrapped his arm around Ukon. "I think something more went wrong with the spell," he said, his tone apologetic. "It's just supposed to hurry me up, but it seems to have caused a time warp, I think."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I would not do such a thing unless I was completely out of my gourd," Kurama growled, glancing around lest someone else hear. He really didn't want to be outed by a bit of wood, wire and cloth.

He glared at the puppet master. "How was it that a time spell suddenly jettisoned me halfway around the world?" He demanded, too irate at the moment to be forgiving. "If you screwed it up that badly, you likely shouldn't be playing with spellbooks at all."

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

"You were not jettisoned halfway around the world! I'm telling you you were here! You live here! With a medicine pe—" Ukon's words were cut off by Sakon's hand.

"The only way to learn is on my own," Sakon said.

Ukon pulled Sakon's hand off his mouth and picked up his tirade, "With a medicine peddler! And, what kind of teacher are you, not teaching classes?"

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I'm sixteen," Kurama growled back, "I'm not old enough to be a teacher." A thin excuse, considering this little duo knew what he was - somehow - but it was technically true. That last remark stopped him, though. "A medicine peddler? Why would I live with a medicine peddler?" Why would he live with anyone?

[ukon-sakon.livejournal.com]

Ukon snorted. "You're silver! You can't be sixteen! And, why should I know? I just know you live with him! I've seen you two together."

"Ukon, that's enough," Sakon said firmly.

Ukon crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Kurama. "I don't know why he has to play this stupid game with us. It's not like we don't know. Everyone here knows."