[CANON RAZ] Waiting.

[purpose_of_the_goggles]

Raz paces in the parking lot of Whispering Rock Summer Camp. He's chosen this spot specifically for the Psitanium alloy lying underneath the surface. Ford Cruller, his mentor, had mentioned that Psitanium made psychics more psychic; frankly, he needs all the help he can get on this.

He fights down a momentary feeling of panic. It's been washing over him on and off ever since he discovered the burnout in his brain; not so much for the loss of psychic abilities, per se, so much as the fact that it could mean the end of his Psychonauts career before it started. It was so unfair to lose his chance after he'd worked so hard and done so much to make it in. His career would be over before it'd even started, and it'd be back to circus oblivion for him. He shudders at the thought.

He taps his foot. Bakura should be here any moment.

Comments

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

And, lo, he is--appearing out of nowhere, courtesy of a T-Watch.

The Millenium Ring around Bakura's neck is still quite visible.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz breathes a sigh of relief. "THERE you are! I was kinda worried! So, what're we gonna do? Psychic exercises? Some sort of mental salve? I've been looking into some books that talked about various forms of mental medicine." He opens his backpack, pulling out said books. The Psycho-Portal he carries with him is dragged out for a second, but Raz grabs it and puts it back into the bag.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"I was more thinking of something like astral projection, actually," he says. He eyes the Psycho-Portal before it's shoved back into Raz' backpack.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz blinks. "You can actually repair physical damage via astral projection? I didn't think that was possible!" His eyes gleam a little. Ooh, new stuff.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'm not entirely sure if it is," says Bakura, "but, at least, it would mean being able to find out what the problem is."

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

"I guess that makes sense." Raz nods. "Does that mean you've got a Psycho-Portal then? What's yours look like?" He sort of looks around Bakura, as if he's hiding it somewhere on his person.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"What's a Psycho-Portal?" he asks, seemingly completely innocent. Then, with one hand, he opens up...what would seem to be a simple but useful card-deck holder on his belt.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz frowns. "Oh, you don't have one? Here, we can use mine." He pulls the Psycho-Portal out of his bag and shows it to Bakura. It's a small door. "You can enter minds with this and walk through peoples' mindscapes. We usually use it on missions to help sort out personal demons. Think this'll help?"

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"Really?" He looks over the device appreciatively. "I'd been planning on something else, but if this is specifically made for this sort of thing..."

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz blinks. "What'd you have in mind? Aw never mind, tell me later." He holds up the door. "Okay, so once I've got this thing on, you can enter astrally. If you can do that sort of thing, of course," he explains.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"Of course," says Bakura, smiling.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz nods and pulls his pilot's cap off. He places the Psycho-Portal on his head and closes his eyes, retreating into his mind. The door provides an inviting method of entering Raz's mindscape.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"Let's take a look then, shall we?" asks Bakura, and with a momentary glow of his Millenium Ring, his astral self slips in through the doorway.

Interestingly enough, Bakura himself is still quite animate.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

The entrance to Raz's mindscape is relatively non-descript. The central object of focus is a run-down gypsy caravan sitting in the middle of his mindscape. There's a few outward indications that some intense heat has affected the caravan a little; a dark spot on one end in particular is a focal point. Raz waits patiently by the caravan. "Welcome to my mental world. It's not much, but it's home." He shrugs.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"Well, it's a sight better than the last one I had to deal with," says Bakura. There's no real apparent change in his appearance between 'real' and astral, though his hair might be just a nudge larger. The Millenium Ring is quite obvious hanging from his neck. "I'm hoping there aren't any labyrinths or lethal pit traps?"

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz blinks. "Well, the last time yeah, but it was kinda tangled up with a nutcase at the time, so it's probably not so bad anymore. Anyway, it's all astral, so you'd just get kicked out of my mind if anything happened," he explains.

He gestures to the cart. "Anyway, everything's in here. Wanna take a look?"

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"Certainly," he says, evidently a little offput by the response to his question. He walks over to the cart, peering inside.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz leads the way. The inside, much larger than the outside, contains a pretty normative circus. Bakura, in many respects is lucky; a year or two back and this setting would've felt a lot more hostile. But Raz has since dealt with that particular personal demon, so the circus remains just a circus.

More noticable is the dark burnt spot on the main tent, where a number of clowns and acrobats are standing around, surveying the damage.

Raz walks up to them. "Any luck?"

One of the clowns shrugs. "Dunno. It's pretty damaged. Could be problems." He emphasizes by honking his nose.

Raz sighs. "Great." He turns to Bakura. "Wanna see the damage inside?"

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

Bakura looks around, surprised by the odd construction of metaphor. Ah, well.

He turns back to Raz. "That would be helpful, yes," he says, entirely politely.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz leads the way into the tent. There are figments of his imagination scattered liberally about, mainly focusing on his life in the circus and his life as a Psychonaut. The basic structural integrity of the tent is fine, as does the equipment. A large podium sits in the back of the tent, looking melted and burned. So too does the large icon behind it, shaped exactly like a Psychonauts badge. A few clowns dressed like firefighters are discussing the best ways to repair the area.

There's a few undamaged spots. But the damage still seems prety extensive, and Raz looks pretty crestfallen about it.

"Guess that's what psychic burnout looks like," he mutters.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

Bakura winces a little, looking around. "It seems rather unpleasant."

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz nods. "Yeah. It stinks. They really think I can recover from this?"

One of the clowns mutters something to the effect of "Oh ye of little faith," but such commentary goes unnnoticed by the rather tunnel-visioned Raz.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"I've got a few effects that could probably help," offers Bakura, "but I'm not sure how much, with damage like this."

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz looks anxious. "Anything's gotta help a little. I'm desperate," he pleads. And he is, really. He LIKES being psychic. He LIKES being a Psychonaut.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"Let's start small then, shall we," says Bakura in a way that's not really a question.

In a single smooth motion, he draws a card from the deck holder on his belt, holding it with two fingers while he slams the palm of his other hand against its back. "Gemini Elves! Come forth!"

And, with a momentary burst of static light and noise, a pair of elves (http://www.yugioh-cards.net/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/db2/DB2-EN094.jpg) coascele out of nothingness.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz's eyes widen. "Whoooa. That is SO NEAT," he says. A pause. "What do they do?"

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

"We," one of them says in a distinctly snobbish attitude, "are psychosomatic magical specialists."

Bakura gives Raz a 'just go along with it' look.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz raises an eyebrow incredulously, but decides to see exactly what they can do here. The clowns and acrobats have all paused in their work to see these elves as well.

[milleniumspirit.livejournal.com]

The two hurry forwards to examine the big icon, poking and prodding at the damage there. High-speed, seemingly incoherent jabber bounces back and forth between them.

Bakura just waits patiently.

[razthepsynaut.livejournal.com]

Raz moves forward, trying to overhear exactly what the hell the two elves are trying to say to each other. When that fails, he sighs and steps back.

The circus clowns are eying both the elves and, oddly, Raz with an air of annoyance and suspicion. For Raz, particularly, there seems to be an element of unhappiness, as if he's broken some sort of bond of trust. Raz doesn't understand this.