Bakura's Birthday Shindig [OPEN]

[hackeralastair]

WHO: Bakura, open to his roommates, everyone living on Hell Towers 10th (and 9th), their guests, all of Bakura's friends and their guests, and anyone who can con the party location out of Alastair
WHERE: Hell Towers' 10th Floor Mancave
WHEN: Friday, Sept. 2 from 7pm on
WARNINGS: none unless Kaiba is his usual self. ;)
SUMMARY: Bakura's turning 20! Time for all the fluffballs and assholes who know and like him to party. And collect delicious random CR from each other.
FORMAT: absolutely whatever you want. Please tag yourself in!

The last-minute party is ready to go. Momiji had been entrusted with the decorations, the cake is coming with Maggie, and food and drink are in the process of being set out. The Mancave is still in pristine form, with arcade games and console games hooked up to the giant TV, and poor Pierre still surviving well enough in his tank. Alastair has his longest techno playlist pumping through the stereo. All they need now is the birthday boy himself!

Oh, and Vector, Alastair has a request for you. Something about space bridges, Tokyo, and January.

Comments

[hackeralastair]

Alastair grinned. Message definitely received.

"Not that I want to discourage anyone from learning computer coding," he added nonchalantly. "I mean, hell, I bothered to get certified last year even though I know more than any classes could ever teach me. Certifications just look good on your record."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

"That's true. I'm always worried about taking classes though. I have a habit of reading too much."

[hackeralastair]

Alastair shrugged a little. "I only really read software manuals, so I guess it's just sort of natural for me."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

Maggie replied reflexively, "But there's so much else to read." She paused, blushing, knowing not everyone heard the cries of unread books like she did. "Although, uh, software manuals are very instructive..."

[hackeralastair]

Alastair smirked again; he knew full well his reading interests were lame. "I like listening better," he said, and then added, "music. That's more my thing."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

"What kind of music?"

[hackeralastair]

"Techno, mostly. Although some pop music and stuff." Alastair waved his drink around nonchalantly. "Thanks to my power I can listen to music in any language, so I like a lot of European and Asian stuff."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

"You understand all languages? That's pretty cool. Can you speak them as well?"

[hackeralastair]

"Most of them. It's like this." Alastair set his bottle down so he could gesture while he talked. "I have to hear or read the language first, and then I can respond in it. But in a place like this where we get monsters and space robots and medieval elfy guys and stuff, if it's a language humans can't speak, I can only understand it." He sniffed a bit. "Which is weird. But it doesn't happen a lot."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

"You could make a lot of money as a guide. Can you read in other languages as well?"

[hackeralastair]

"Yeah." It had been a while since Alastair bothered with this power, it had become so second-nature to him after more than two years. Having someone poke him about it made him excited enough to share. "I can even code and program in them. It means there's no country's systems I can't hack." He took a sip and smirked. "Also made me kind of indispensable when Stark needed me to go to the new branch in Majr."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

Maggie tilted her head, deciding to test it. She spoke the next in Cantonese, with Hong Konger affectation to the language. "So you can understand this?"

[hackeralastair]

After two years, the slide into another language had become almost seamless to Alastair. He noticed it happening, and smiled. "Of course," he replied in the same language and dialect. "So no keeping secrets by speaking...what is it, Chinese? Around me."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

"Cantonese," she said clearly--firmly to assert the correction, but without any kind of superiority or annoyance.

She added, to be helpful, "There are many languages from China. If you want to fool someone, best to keep track."

[hackeralastair]

"Oh, right." Alastair paused, shook his head a little, and continued in English. Picking up the languages wasn't hard, but reasserting his own still took concentration. "Most of the time it just happens, I don't stop to think what it is until later. Not unless it's obvious and I recognize it." He tipped his chin up in a superior sort of nod. "Thanks for the tip, though."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

"To know every language... culture and context still needs to be learned, but that's a powerful tool. Or even weapon," Maggie added, simply musing.

[hackeralastair]

"And a pain in the ass," Alastair said flippantly. "Being anywhere where you get three or four languages mixing on the street? I get such a headache from switching between them on the fly." He would never forget Peru.

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

Maggie nodded. "I can see how that would be. Especially at certain airports." She shrugged. "Some of our best jobs has been translation work. Although I'm sure being a tech is better and more stable."

[hackeralastair]

"Yeah, you know..." Alastair gave her a small, self-deprecating smile. "It's funny. It took getting teleported into another dimension full of superheroes for me to settle down and get a nice job. Live like a normal guy."

He gestured with his bottle. "So you were a detective back home, too? Makes sense. Doing what you know, and all that."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

"I guess more broadly, freelance... finders. Detective work seemed to suit our skills best. My sisters and I, that is."

She smiled. "Oddly, when I first came here, I got offered a job as a librarian. It's taken awhile for me to come back around to my 'real' job."

[hackeralastair]

"Detective sounds way more exciting than librarian," Alastair grinned. "To each their own, though, I guess. So hey - how do you know Bakura, anyway? Just through the comm?"

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

"I liked being around all the books. But I kept reading them all so I don't think I did a good job."

Maggie pursed her lips, frowning. "I... yes, through the comm. I don't remember specifically. I probably offered to lend him a book."

[hackeralastair]

That sounded more than plausible. "Figures. Although I get the sense I might have seen you somewhere before. Besides the network, anyway."

[origamiguardian.livejournal.com]

"I know you and he are from the same world. I used to look after a little girl from your world, Aki. And I went with her to some of the Duel Monsters tournaments. Maybe it was there?"

[hackeralastair]

"Maybe. Were you, really? Taking care of...?" He held a hand down at knee-height to indicate a small child. "...the little one? She's more from Kyosuke's time, not mine, but I remember her from when she was here. I..."

No, wait, Alastair remembered something else. A dark night, a street littered with Duel Monsters cards. "Kaiba," he said suddenly. "Did you run into Kaiba, once?"