Murder on the Voidient Express [closed]

[shegypt]

Who: Team Stalk Like An Egyptian (Bakura, Yugi, Kaiba); Team Calvary (above + Jounouchi, Siebren, Peter, Ann), Team We Didn't Even Bring Her A Katsudon (above + Willow, Eva, Lightning), Team Why The Hell Don't We Have A Therapy Car Yet (above + Zagreus, Xander, Silvia, Sera & anyone coming to this late who wants in on aftermath)
Where: 2nd floor of Triage; forced container medbay on the 2nd floor of Medical
When: Kazoo 16, evening - Kazoo 17
What: Bakura believes she has seen (a version of) the person she hates above all others. Trapped in a moving tube with her. #YOMTPO (you only murder the Pharaoh once).
Warnings: MURDER, violence, torture, potentially stabbing depending on how this goes, nasty language, villainous monologues

This was absolutely too fucking easy, and Thief King Bakura is mildly annoyed.

Everyone on this moving tomb has spots they're supposed to sleep! And they're labeled! And they keep their possessions in them, without any traps or curses to prevent break-ins! This is either a set-up or else it's the easiest damn grave she's ever robbed, and honestly, the lack of effort insults her.

Or it would, if she didn't find it so damn funny. Under the pretense of learning "her new home", she'd been able to wander the entire length of the 'train' without incident, and the quietest, most out of the way spot in which to erect a trap was full of sharp objects for cutting into people! Bakura has loaded up the flaps sewn to the outside of her - whatever this shit on her legs is supposed to be called - with various items that could be useful in a pinch, but stabbing someone is more the work of an assassin than a thief. A thief has their own ways of fighting.

Their own way of enacting revenge.

Getting the drop on the priest hadn't been difficult; it'd been thanks to him that she'd found the nooks he and the Pharaoh(?) share, a name that didn't quite match - but was close enough. All she had to do was slip into the room, rifle through their possessions until she found - sweet confirmation - a golden box with a familiar symbol upon it. This she snagged, along with the little pieces of stiff papyrus in it. No Millennium Items; she'll grant the pair that much sense. If they've got her real prizes with them, it's on their bodies.

Into the wall she and Diabound had gone, placing a few of the papyrus pieces scattered outside. Sure enough, that'd drawn the priest's attention upon returning to his quarters - and when he bent over, well, that was curtains on the first act of this tragedy. A swift blow to the head crumpled him.

The Millennium Items still have to make an appearance, which is disturbing, but she didn't knock out this guy with the face of a woman whose existence annoys her for nothing. She's left an obviously beloved memento from around his neck sitting where he'd fallen, and has placed a deliberately sloppy-looking trail of papyrus from that door to her new lair. The box....the box she kept, because she's a thief, and it's the most valuable thing she's found so far, and it'll probably piss the erstwhile owner off on top of however he feels about her kidnapping his priest, and that's worth it.

Seto Kaiba will awaken trussed up in the second floor of the triage room, strapped to a bed propped up vertically in a mockery of a stone slab used for trapping the ka of so-called "sinners". Arms and legs have both been bound with strips of red bedsheets, the pillowcase twisted into a noose around his neck to ensure he doesn't struggle too much. All of his pockets have been emptied. (She still doesn't know the word "pockets", but they're like, the greatest fucking invention. Hail the pocket! So easy to pick.)

His captor is lounging against the wall and juggling scalpels, because she can. When she sees him stir, she grabs them - managing to avoid all the dangerous parts - and sticks them back in her clothes, since if she has them, no one else does.

"Finally decided to rise and shine? I hope you're refreshed, Mister Mighty Priest."

Oh. She's still got one scalpel. Which she twirls between her fingers, casual as can be. "I gotta lotta knowledge to steal before your savior descends."

[[ ooc: Different top-levels will be posted for the different portions of this scene! The YGO fight (ie, Team Egyptian/the actual murder) and subjugating Bakura (Team Calvary) will both be single, multi-person threads. Interrogation and aftermath can both take place in multiple threads BUT if you want more than one character in a thread, go for it! Just please note who all will be there so nobody gets passed over. :3 ]]

Comments

[blue_ice]

"Assuming he revives," Kaiba can't help but add. There it is: one fear, that this situation will be the exception to the rule.

"And I was...nothing but her plaything. Powerless." He squeezes his eyes shut, pulling his knees up slightly.

[helborn]

"If he doesn't... we might have a few options. But let's try to not need them." Please and thank you, he doesn't want to have to deal with summoning a ghost. He has no idea if it'll even work in this place.

He's quiet for a few moments, stamping down on his own pain and running his hands through his hair. "... I know the feeling. Not the same as that exact situation, but... really, I do." His mouth twitches a little bit. "To have someone much more powerful than you use you as nothing more than a toy... or worse, someone you should be able to take on but can't. I know." No one saved him in either case, and he paid for it in blood and nightmares. "I'm so sorry you had that happen to you. You don't... deserve something like that."

He almost says 'no one does', but there's a few people he can think of who... yeah. Yeah they do.

[blue_ice]

"Necromancy?" Kaiba sounds incredulous. He doesn't want to think about it. But does he have any room to talk, given his own journey to the afterlife because he hadn't accepted Atem's death under those circumstances?

He doesn't know. He can't imagine he'd be successful at something like that now. When he does speak, it's uncharacteristically whisper-like and hesitant, as if he's fighting himself.

"Actually, I do. He didn't," Kaiba admits. "I've done horrible things in my life. I'm used to people being out for my blood. But Yugi...he's been an unquestionably good person his entire life. Never hurt a fly."

[helborn]

"... It's complicated." Technically yes, but he really doesn't see shoving a soul back into its body as necromancy. Now his ability to make zombies, that's necromancy. "Don't worry about it."

Sometimes he forgets those things aren't normal things for people to think about or offer.

"I won't ask you why you think you deserve that - that's your life and your decisions to talk about with who you want to talk about it with. But... there's very few people I'd wish that on. Do you regret what you did? Have you changed?"

As sympathetic as he might feel, he's going to keep an eye out to see if Kaiba is lying.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba thinks about it, only briefly, and nods. "Her behavior reminded me of who I used to be, and it disgusted me. I never killed anyone, but...it was on the mind."

He folds his hands in his lap. "That isn't who I want to be anymore. I haven't been, in a while...but sometimes revenge is tempting."

Not that he's in any condition to dish it out. He droops against the pillows. "Yugi always believed the best in everyone. He even believed in me, when I was at my worst...he thought he could save her, and paid for it with his life."

[helborn]

"If you did things and changed, while it doesn't erase the past it doesn't mean you have to go through more pain because of it. Of course revenge is tempting. That's what it is by nature. It's only natural to struggle with things like that. You're not alone."

It's not like he doesn't have someone he'd like to exact revenge on, as much as he knows that it won't help.

"It's not wrong to want to try to help people like that. Maybe sometimes impractical or reckless, but not wrong."

[blue_ice]

"...if anyone could've reached her, it would've been him. He's always had a gift for people."

It's hard, to talk about him. But nothing else is really breaking through.

"I just can't get it out of my head. The life leaving him. That sadistic glee..."

[helborn]

"... I'm so sorry." He almost reaches out, but... no.Doesn't seem like the type. "Those sorts of images... I'm not going to lie to you and say they go away. But they start to fade with time. I know that's not all that helpful right now... but it won't be forever."

[blue_ice]

Kaiba nods wearily. "I don't know what happens now...if Yugi comes back, how can I help him. How can we do this."

[helborn]

"... First, you realize you have each other. You lean on each other. And then you both reach out. This isn't something you can or should do alone."

[blue_ice]

"...if he comes back," Kaiba grumbles reflexively, trying not to lean on that hope too much. If Yugi does return, Seto owes him so many apologies. But beyond that...

"You mean like therapy?"

[helborn]

He's not going to entertain that thought. He's heard of people coming back before, and not like him. "... To the degree it can be done here, yeah. Or more like peer support. I'm pretty sure no one in here has a psychology background, but a lot of us have a background with a lot of hurt, so we can relate in some way. ... If nothing else, I'll listen."

[blue_ice]

Kaiba can hardly articulate in words just how much he dislikes that idea...but he's lost in a fog and he knows it. He thinks back on what Casper told him, slowly putting the few pieces together.

"...did being around so much death discourage you from making personal attachments of your own?"

Odd place to start, but.

cw: death, murder, harm to children, sexual assault

[helborn]

Hm. It's a good question. He tilts his head slightly as he thinks about it. "No. I was around people who mourned, but I saw how much they cared about the one who had died. There were exceptions, obviously, but I saw those connections. As much as I tried to pretend I did, I didn't for a long time."

Casper folds his hands into his lap, trying to articulate this properly. "I was on a team - smaller than the ones we had here. We sort of formed together, whether you believe in fate or coincidence. We solved some problems. ... Caused some others. I was really attached to them since they were my first friends." He looks away and pulls up his pant leg, revealing the ivory colored metal.

"They weren't. I was too weak to stand up against someone in my group who was doing something wrong and bullying me into it. At least one child died because of it, and so did I when I finally broke and fought back." He drops his pant leg and looks at Seto seriously.

"And I kept traveling with them when I got back - the guy who killed me left the group. The others didn't care about it, but I still stuck with them. I was still attached to them. ... It started to weaken, especially after they didn't care that I nearly got raped." He hates how that word sounds, but calling it 'sexual assault' just seems to weaken the impact of the word to him. "I still had ties to my father even after he revealed himself to be absolute scum, caring nothing for family, legality, morality, or for facing the consequences for his actions in general. I still held onto the ties with everything I had."

Bob hops onto his lap and Casper pets his feathers absently. "... And then I got pulled to a place like this. It took time, but I started to let go of those ties. I knew they were strangling me but they were all that I had. I met better people who I formed far healthier ties with. I've learned to be a bit more careful now... but I still feel like there's chances for everyone. The likelihood of those chances varies, but it's there. ... And that little spark keeps me going, keeps me reaching out to people even when I'm afraid. I know how to cut ties when I need to. But I'd rather get hurt than leave someone to drift out there alone." He offers the other man a gentle smile.

"So the short answer is... no. It didn't. If anything it showed me just how valuable connections can be. It took me a while to get the right ones, but I kept trying."

Re: cw: death, murder, harm to children, sexual assault

[blue_ice]

Kaiba listens to this story with steadily-growing horror. He'd been through a lot too, even before this latest incident, but to hear how often this man had been hurt...his expression darkens in sympathy at certain points. The story relates to his own pain, but at different points, before all this.

"You're pretty tough," he says softly. "I used to think it was foolish to try...my father was the same, but I absorbed different lessons. He taught me to distance myself, to take everything I could...that kindness was weakness and I needed to conquer at all costs."

He bows his head. "Yugi was one of my intended victims, but he kept reaching out to me. When I was in over my head and I'd burned all other bridges, he saved me. And over time, he taught me how to be part of a group, as much as I was unwilling at first..."

Trying to stay calm here. "That you figured it out after so many false starts is admirable. Maybe thee is something I can learn here."

[helborn]

"I'm sorry you were treated like that. You don't deserve that. ... I'm glad that he saved you. Being alone is awful. You can conquer whatever you want, but if you do it at the expense of others it's just... hollow."

He blushes a little bit, more yellowish-red than red. "I'm... if nothing else, I'm stubborn and loyal. Sometimes things happen, and they hurt... but closing yourself off is just going to hurt more, in the end."

He leans back a little bit, thinking. "If you ever need an escort around, just let me know. I'm usually in the library... I don't want you to be alone, especially when you're still processing and nervous from all of this. You deserve to feel safe. And I'm not easy to damage and I'm very fast, so you don't have to worry about me being in danger."

[blue_ice]

Kaiba listens and processes. He'd barely even begun to think about what his life would look like after this nightmare...but Bakura could potentially be around any corner, waiting to try this again. She could ambush him anywhere.

He needed a bodyguard or few, preferably someone trustworthy. Was that Casper? Well...it certainly could be.

"Thanks, but...Yugi. I'm more worried about him---I can't put him through this again, once cost way too much."

[helborn]

"I can keep an eye on him, too. ... I don't think people are going to let him travel alone, either. I'm free for either... I want to talk to him after he revives. After you and other people get to talk to him, after all. ... Just to make sure he's okay."

Or as okay as someone can be, after going through that.

[blue_ice]

"After this, okay might be out of reach..."

Kaiba hates this. He hates feeling terrified, hates needing a bodyguard to do anything...but this is the hand he's drawn. He has to play it.

"Thanks. I guess I should be getting ready for bed, then...but I don't know if I can manage any sleep other than the mandatory. I know you said you can help, but that gives her an opening..."

[helborn]

"... I can stick around until the train forces me to go to sleep. Or I can make you something that might help with the nightmares." He knows it won't be as effective as one made by the person themselves, but...

[blue_ice]

"...what would that be?"

Hey, he needs something to focus on.

[helborn]

"... It sounds kind of corny, but I can take an object and fill it with good memories, and it'll pull nightmares away from you until it's full. It can disperse that energy in a few ways, most of which don't work here, but it'll function as a magical battery of sorts for people that use it. It'll also passively disperse magical energy, so if you put it away for a while it'll eventually empty."

He holds his hands out and a plush wolf appears in them. He pulls it to his chest and hugs it. "This is mine. They're called 'dreamcatchers', which I know is already a thing but these actually work. Most ones around are just cheap shit with materials that would never be actually used, but that's a whole different rant."

[blue_ice]

Kaiba watches it curiously. It sounds almost silly, but Casper speaks so seriously about it.

"Is it more effective with an object of mine? She raided our room to set the trap, but there might be something left."

[helborn]

"Yeah, it does. If you have anything on you... or if you want I can go get something."

[blue_ice]

Kaiba touches his chest, but there's nothing there but skin and a bandage. She'd stolen the locket from him, and that was unsettling. No one had looked for it on Yugi's corpse...was she still hiding it?

He fumbles for his bag, digging through the mess for his ticket. "Room 5D. There should be a stuffed blue dragon. The furry brown ball next to it is Yugi's, that will work for him when...when the time comes."