voidtreckerexpress | be my mirror my sword and shield

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be my mirror my sword and shield

Who: Thief King Bakura OR Atem & you!
Where: Throughout the train (Bakura); gym car (Atem)
When: Llama 27
What: Bakura slacked off on getting her crystals made into a pendant….and then lost a Shadow Game to Atem. Hope you aren’t all too tired of illusions cuz she’s stuck in one now.
Warnings: MIND CRUSH.

[ Bakura ]

Bakura walks through a tomb.

Oddly enough, the surroundings comfort her - it's right that she should be here, in the catacombs no man should dare to tread, hand grazing the spells and images marked on the walls, unconsciously pausing, grabbing a rock, scratching out the pieces she needs to proceed without being cursed. Even when she encounters more physical traps - a deadly pitfall, a cluster of undead soldiers - her body takes her through the motions of dodging. This is where she belongs. This is right.

Except it's also so very wrong.

The thought of treasure, as always, spurs her onward - the thought of taking, taking, her hunger raging inside her yet battering against the walls of a hollowed-out hole. There had been something in here, once, in her heart. Something that had rooted around, burrowed deeper than any gravebuilder. Now she's left with empty passageways, a vacuum that abhors itself. She's seeking. The prize that will fill her up, that will glue her cracks, is in here - but where?

Not there....not there, either.....what is it........what did someone take from her....?

And what's she supposed to....feel.......when someone takes from her....?

Aimless, Bakura wanders the silent, still hallways of her mind. In the physical realm, her drive to pursue has lurched her body into motion - but she's stumbling, she has to lean on the walls of the train. Or she's taken a break, lying flat on her back anywhere that will fit her (a table in the gaming car, the....hallway....), slumping in corners, always with her head bowed and her eyes unfocused.

She looks like she's trying to focus, though. Like there's something on the tip of her tongue - but it keeps slipping through her fingers, like sand.

Falling through the gaps where the sun has burned her rot away.

[ Atem ]

Returning to reality, Atem observed the thief for a moment or two just to ensure they weren’t in any immediate danger (to themself, mostly). He took a few steps up to relieve her of that weapon and, calm as ever, exited the car. Silence guided his footsteps down through the various carriages. Controlled deep breaths all the way to the gym.

And he remained controlled, almost too controlled the entire time. His movements were swift; they carried purpose and intention. Focus. Smoothly walking up to a rack and wrapping his fingers around one of the dulled practice swords, he moved over toward the dummies and brought that blade swiftly to its neck. It took a disappointingly miniscule amount of effort even with such a dull blade.

He watched as the head rolled, and something about how easy it was just made him snap. The Pharaoh let out a scream -- the kind you let out at 3am when one too many things have gone wrong and that last thing was the end of the road; the kind you find yourself smashing plates and slamming doors and throwing everything in sight and for one cataclysmic moment there’s not a breath of control in sight. All that’s left is anger, a soul wrenching type that radiated off him in waves. Thick, and heavy, and damn near enough to almost knock someone over.

The kind that brings that blade right through its target. Skewers it straight through the heart or at least where the heart would be. His jaw tight, his entire body tight as he curled idle fingers around the shoulder. A grip so tight on the sword’s hilt that he could almost feel it dig into his skin. Labored breaths desperate to reel it all back in, reel back in that fire, that rage, and shuttered.

He’s okay. Just breathe. Slow, yes. Breathe. He loosened his fingers from shoulder and sword. He’s okay.

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Katsuya doesn't find Bakura first, suffice to say. Bakura isn't exactly radiating frustration of some kind, and slamming things with practice swords. No, Bakura's just kind of out there, which is definitely a contributing factor.

That's not the point.

Katsuya opens the door, Red Eyes big fat neck-head-only deal looming up behind him only to rest his head on his partner's like he's some kind of St. Bernard instead of a great enormous dragon (*head).

The blond blinks.

"Uhhhhhhhh..." Well. "...Should I uh, come back here later 'r somethin'..?"

Kaiba is a well-practiced late night wanderer. He's casually strolling back to the sleeper cars until he hears a roar, and then---he jolts. Something's telling him he needs to stop and investigate.

He ducks inside the gym to see a familiar face. Oh...oh no. This is something all right. He hurries over, sensing enough danger that he remains an arm's length away.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"...What the hell did you get into? Hello? Anybody home?" Murphy asks as he's passing through the gaming car, seeing the especially strange woman being especially strange in a way that's unlike herself. Less cackling and more aimless roaming. Like she'd eaten the mushroom from hell.

He goes over to where she's laying, grabs her arm, and starts to pull her up. He's stronger than he looks but that doesn't mean a languid body of a mad thief king is anything but unwieldy.

"Well, sport, looks like you're due for a trip to the medical car." He at least owes her that for trying to help him out. Usually he's a 'good luck with that' step over the legless soon-to-be corpse kind of guy. But he has his moments, mostly for his allies.

"Or your room or something. You shouldn't be out wandering around like this. Kids could put gum in your hair or something."

Huh. She's...She's not alone in the tomb. That's - unusual. That's different. Bakura has the sense she's usually alone for this stuff.

She knows that voice, too, and grunts when he talks (but remains deadweight.) That's the guy...who searches for things. This is funny. Obviously that's why he's here! Maybe he knows where to find the.....whatever it is.....she needs.

Bakura chuckles to herself and stumbles forward at Murphy's side. She wants to say hey, but words are...hard. It's like....he's out on the other side of something, and she's in here. In this tomb, and there's no way people can pass through stone.

The chuckle tells him a lot in itself. "Yup, lights are on but no one is home," he mutters to himself, and starts hauling her in the direction of the medical car. At first he tries an ungainly half-walk, half-drag in that direction. But... yeah, yeah she's pretty gone.

"To hell with this," he mutters, ducks down to grab her under her knees and carry her princess style, which honestly feels a little ridiculous. Like porting a maniacal noodly-limbed hyena woman. Oh and the doors sure are fun to get through. Excuse him. He makes a half-ass attempt to not bump her against anything.

He plants her on a bed as soon as he gets in there.

"Give me a minute. I never do shit in here so I'm going to have to find everything they do vitals with. Hooray for having eaten the brains of a few competent doctors, am I right?" There's his own unsettling chuckle. Funny? Eh, whatever. Where is the stethoscope and that other shit he needs...

Bakura sprawls on the bed, a bundle of limbs, giving even fewer damns about comportment than usual. In her mind, she's just sailed across a pit full of spikes, the bold...explorer? She does something very specific in these tombs and it's also hiding from her somewhere in these shadows. What a pain.

Fortunately (?), aside from long-healed scars all over her body, she is in the peak of health. There's absolutely no physical anomaly. She's just....on vacation. In her mind.

And unresponsive to stimuli, should he examine her.

"Blood pressure normal."

"Heart rate normal."

"Eyes, extra crazy." He says miscellaneous observations as he's checking her out. Though he is reminded, sadly, of a subterranean bunker far away. Of a girl laying on a table, drifting away, over-heating from bacterial infection. Of the moment he looked at her and decided that he was going to interfere.

I'm not dead. That's the most coherent thing Cassandra said once she was up again. All teeth and feral glee. Murphy had done that to her. He was the only one who couldn't see it as a bad thing, all he could see was the beauty in a life preserved even if it was at its most raw, brazen, needy function. She was his first that was truly his, before he figured out what the hell he was doing. She'd stuck loyally with him until her end.

He finds himself frowning at Bakura, before returning all the times to their various places. He retrieves a syringe and draws a small amount some of his own blood, no more than a few drops. Take the risk? Yeah. Yeah, why not. Not like he won't piss someone off sooner or later and he's gone there already.

He injects her with that small amount of blood, disposes of the syringe, and returns to her bedside to wait for it to take. This time he leans his elbows on the railing and closes his eyes to concentrate.

Respond to me when you can hear me. He thinks loudly.

Yugi felt like something was off. The closer he found himself to the gym the more he felt it, but couldn't put his finger on what.

At least that was until he finally opened the door of the gym and looked over what he saw before him. Atem seemed pissed he could tell that at first glance and it was enough to cause the other to tense up briefly.

At least until he finally speaks. "Atem?"

There's nothing down this corridor, either. Where is that treasure...She used to be able to sense it, almost, instincts honed....even if she didn't know what she was looking for, she could always lay her hands on it. And once she caught a glimpse, well! Anything you can see is something you can....

You can.....uh....

....Wait, what was that? Bakura doesn't move on the bed. But in her mind, she draws herself up, senses now fanning outwards instead of pointed straight ahead, the urge to keep seeking present but put off, for now. She'd just - had she -

That can't be possible. No one can break in and out of a grave like this. And yet. And yet.

A flicker of...energy? Sensation...stirs. She faintly recalls a desire to do something, when people tell her things like that. What was it?

Oh yeah.

Fancy meeting you here. Bakura's internal voice is tired. Exhausted, really. Bone-dead weary, and oh, so lost.

But she clings to this one thing she's just found. This one thing called....yeah. Yeah, she's got it.

It's called 'being an asshole.'

I tend to show up in unlikely places. It's a habit. Fortunately, being an asshole is a skill that Murphy understands well.

He opens his eyes and looks down at the bed again. The body is still there. Once that's confirmed, he closes his eyes again. You're in the Medical car right now. I checked and you're still healthy. Focus and show me what's going on in there.

He wasn't quite so good with images when he first showed up, but with Ghost around, with Tannis around, he's learned. While everyone has been focussing on their psychic defenses, Murphy's been training his aggressive reach. Seems like it might be lucky that he did.

For a moment, for that small moment when he registered a voice amongst the cloud of anger, his head tilted to observe who approaches. That eye, bright and glowing wide on his forehead. Eyes violent and red and it took a few more moments -- he breathed, calming the rage in his heart.

Atem turned away, eyes fixed on the dummy before him. "Bakura," was all he could manage to get out. Though the tone was indicative enough.

Suddenly, this whole scene made perfect and terrible sense. Kaiba paled as he took in Atem's lingering anger...for his reaction to be so strong, she had to have done something. Guilt pricks at him---really, why hadn't he warned Atem about how dangerous she was? Hoping he already knew?

Well...it might've been more that Seto was a coward. Too ashamed of his failure to say a word. But that was over now, one way or another.

"What did she do this time?" Afraid of the answer, but he has to ask.

This was-- this was the very last person he wanted to see this. Something sharp and painful stung deep inside Atem's chest. He could see it, see the picture Bakura described so vividly and just the thought tightened his grip back around that sword. That all-seeing eye burned brightly on his forehead, and Gods... he didn't want to face the young man.

"I'm sorry Yugi," his eyes close, and he breathes again. Still not ready to face the young man. "It took -- it took everything within me to not let her fall."

The Medical ca - oh. Huh. Bakura is not...quite sure she gets it......since after all, there is obviously tomb everywhere.....but it probably doesn't matter, she's willing to roll with it, her brain hurts and she's got something to find, so whatever.

Focus, though, that's the....ergh. That's the tricky thing. Bakura sighs, rubs a hand over her eyes. Come on, what's with this slowness in her head, she hates it. Will concentrating on taking in the labyrinth of underground passageways help?

I prefer this, she admits...freaky mindvoice of the ribcage guy wants her to show him the tomb, sure, why not. There's the...there's the wall, it's got hieroglyphs on it, hieroglyphs and pictures, oh, that part's a curse, she grabs a rock and chips a letter so it'll lose its power.

There's the hallway. It's stretching for an absolutely boggling length, which is kind of what these things do, right? Nothing weird there, not to Bakura. Somebody's added torches so there's even some nice flickering light to see by. And over here, there's....

Oh it's a passage that splits into TWO passages, fantastic. Bakura makes a note of where she was, and then trudges towards it. She has to search. There's treasure in here.

If she just keeps walking, she'll find it.

Edited 2021-06-23 18:31 (UTC)

"Your...sorry." Yugi was admittedly a tiny bit confused with what he said. What exactly did he have to be sorry about? The next sentence at least maybe explained a bit but not a lot really.

He figured at least something had happened that much he could at least understand as he moved a step forward. Sure, he was feeling anxious but he was also sure that something was up, and honestly, to him that was more important than how he was feeling.

"You didn't want who to fall exactly?" he asked curious, having taken another step. He wanted to at least try and help calm the other if possible even with not really figuring out what had happened.

Oh, we're going full Indiana Jones, are we?

Okay, well, good setting for a sexy grody archeologist. Less for a bit of mindfuckery. Of course you prefer it. What the hell are you looking for, anyway? A treasure in your own head? A memory? A feeling?

How the hell did she even end up like this?

He grips the railing on the bed a little tighter, tipping his head as if he's trying to 'listen' harder. He's just trying to hone in, get a clearer image of what's in there, rid himself of the blurry edges and uncertainties. He no longer dreams but he can remember what it was like, the details slipping when he wakes.

That's what this feels like if he can't keep his focus. It's good practice, though.

Alright, what's your situation here. What happened before you found yourself here?

"Before"?

Confusion spikes. Bakura wrinkles her nose. What's "before"? Yeah, she knows about other places, but they don't matter right now, do they....not when she's got something to find....

....but how the hell did she lose it? That's not...that's not her. Bakura isn't quite sure what is her but a person who lets things slip isn't it.

...I think you're bendin' the rules, she admits, but a flicker of something stirs in her and that just makes her all the more determined to do so. Okay. Before. Before the tomb...before the....

Talk it out. She's already stuck in a tomb she doesn't remember entering with the voice of a man whose spare brain she helped locate (...how? She'd had - something - that helped her. What?). Why the fuck not narrate?

I was in that OTHER grave, she says, remembering both this experience AND feeling certain she's been in this tomb forever but choosing to ignore the latter since only the former makes sense, the one with the wheels.

She knows it's called a "train". That, for some reason, she has been allowed to keep. But if Bakura is going to have a difficult time, so is Murphy.

And I met....somebody.

Huh. Bakura tilts her head. Drags the top of it along the wall as she thinks, leaving a clean streak on the dust of centuries. (Oh. It's an OLD tomb. She knows a damn lot about tombs for some reason.) The most important somebody! Somebody I wanted to meet, but I don't....

This is weird. This is actually registering as weird.

She can see his face. Pictures it in her mind. Dark skin, arrogant, sharp eyes - not unlike hers, in temperament if not genetics. Hair out of a tropical bird's nightmare.

And here's one place where there's a gap. There is supposed to be a feeling here. There's supposed to be a feeling! And now there's -

A piece of the wall crumbles behind her, impeding her path back. Bakura stops.

He means nothing.

And now, when she realizes she's been divested of whatever she's supposed to experience when thinking of this man, fear creeps in.

Wow, her brain is all over the place. Not easy to navigate but here we are anyway.

I appreciate the big bright hairdo. So you don't remember anything but that they're important and you wanted to meet them and now you're looking for something. But now he means nothing.

I'm going to guess that meeting him didn't go well.

So now she's wandering around in her own head in a tomb of her own creation. Honestly, 'other grave' though? Now he's really starting to wonder what it was she thought was a jail. (If he'd known, he might have been a little more careful about dragging her into it.)

Have you been in this tomb before? Or is it just pieces of what you're familiar with?

Bakura takes a moment to reply, too busy being stunned into silence by the fact that she is feeling afraid of something. She honestly cannot remember the last time she was afraid, and since that fact stands out to her with startling clarity, she gets the sense that's not her brain acting up like all the other space case shit.

Pieces... she manages - she knows that much, this isn't a tomb so much as it is "tombs, the idea thereof", and that means that right about now there's usually another tra -

Something creaks in the ceiling. Bakura looks up.

And a platform full of spikes comes dropping down from above.

He's known, he's well known what the thief was capable of. Atem himself had almost died at their hands. He'd lost countless people several times over. The Pharaoh's relationship with his own Bakura was quite turbulent and ever the difficult one, but the thief here was -- "What did she do the last time?"

He swiftly pulled the sword out as his eyes began to fade again into a more violet nature, signs of that eye in his forehead returning to normal.

"She..."

Kaiba hesitated a little. Atem was still in quite the state, he could see that. And this was going to be a thoroughly unpleasant conversation, he knew that much.

"Before I tell you, know that I'm doing everything I can to keep it from happening again. I'm building tech that will alert me if she comes near, and I'm not dropping my guard so foolishly again---I didn't tell you before because she'd vanished, and I'd hoped it was for good."

He stops to take a breath. Drags it out a little, gives Atem a little more time to get on a slightly more even keel.

"When she first arrived, she decided to satisfy her thirst for the blood of the royalty who wronged her by spilling Yugi's. Spilling a little of mine was just a bonus."

"Bakura." Atem gets to the point, he just needed a moment to... collect himself, to stave away the fears that still rummage in his mind, his heart. That rage. He slowly removed the blade with a long exhale. Fingers steadied on the faux chest in idle movement.

"I promised back home, promised myself no more shadow games. It brought quite the stir but I had outlawed them. And then here I am," does he need to say more? The tip of that dull blade thuds against the gym floor. Its hilt still loose in Atem's hand. "When she told me what she had done, it took everything in me -- everything to not just" fucking break her. Permanently, and without mercy. He exhaled.

The worst part about the way his particular brand of telepathy works is that it echos. It's not as strong as it could be raw and unfiltered, but emotions felt by someone he's connected to leak into him. He's not one of those chess masters that feel nothing for people; the source of most of his empathy comes from the feedback of those he's connected to, whether they be living or undead.

He can feel her fear, and knows how jarring it is. It's your mind. Your obstacles. You can do what you want with it.

He gets the inkling of the trap and he's not quite sure how to stop that. He can almost tell it. The motion of an unbidden dream-like thing versus what's truly Bakura. So he shoves the immediate feeling of Move! Roll into her head at the same time he tries to quell the thought. Which is a more complicated dance than he's done before. It's a mental scramble that causes him to wince visibly on the real side of things.

"How the hell did someone here set this up?" he ends up saying out loud, to himself, and grimaces. Okay, time to figure out how to walk someone out of their own brain when they're making their own maze with an undefinable goal.

MOVING AND ROLLING DEFINITELY HAPPENS fuck fuck fuck that was - that was -

"Too CLOSE!" Bakura yells, springing back up once she's out of the way, whirling to point an accusatory finger at the now-completely-barricaded passageway. If she's loud enough, Mister Ribs will hear her even if she isn't doing the thinky thing, right? "NO ONE'S COME THAT CLOSE TO GRAZING THE GREAT BAKURA IN YEARS!"

....Which probably...has something to do with the "I don't usually feel fear" thing, huh.

"YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF NERVE," she continues, at the top of her nonexistent symbolic lungs, "THINKING YOU CAN SQUASH THE UNSTOPPABLE KING OF....."

.....

King of......

"THE KING," she finishes. The torches flicker. What had the guy said? She's making the traps? She can do what she wants? Well, then, why doesn't she just find the...the treasure......the uh....

Shit, she's scared again, and the thing that usually happens to make her not-scared still isn't happening. Bakura slouches over and stalks deeper into the tomb - but now, although she's a good deal more alert than before, she's almost too much so. Every small anomaly's making her jumpy.

Whatever's missing, she wants it back. Being scared sucks.

He could at least now take a guess at the fact he finally saw Bakura when he answered his question. But that started to get Yugi thinking. In his mind Bakura wouldn't usually cause such a reaction. Atem to him was usually so calm unless there were something specific that caused it.

And that was when the last sentence happened. 'When she told me what she had done' that line was enough for it to dawn on the other what exactly was causing this kind of reaction. The one thing that he had honestly been afraid of even mentioning for various reasons.

Of course, Bakura would be the one to say it in the end. Upon the realization, Yugi tried his best to keep a rather level head. But it was much harder than anticipated. Yugi started to become a little hesitant for a little too long.

"So...she told you what happened then?" he finally spoke after what seemed like forever, his eyes looking down at the ground, like he couldn't bring himself to even look directly at him.

"I'm sorry..."

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be my mirror my sword and shield

ATEM

oh pharaoh my pharaoh

[ Bakura ]

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