VIDEO-ish (cw: torture and murder)

[bloomingdespite]

[Before the ICP flickers on, every passenger hears a resounding, deep voice thunder through every car in the train, carrying with it a deathly—if odd—proclamation:]

PENALTY GAME: HELL REVERSE!

[Moments later, every ICP turns on to reveal a figure shrouded in shadows, holding the unconscious body of Xue Yang with one hand as the Eye of Wdjat blazes on both of their foreheads. It's clear they're in the gaming car, but if anybody tries to enter from either end, they'll find the doors are impossibly locked.]

Passengers of the Voidtrecker Express, I hold in my hands an unrepentant murderer who slaughtered one of your very own: the victim being A-Qing, and the criminal being Xue Yang. While she has returned, this crime cannot go unpunished, and I have taken it upon myself to try and burn out the stain on his soul—or, at the very least, provide adequate agony for all of his victims, both on the train and off.

If you need to see proof of my justice...

Avert your eyes if you do not wish to see memories of the brutal death of a young woman in her prime.

[The screen flickers once again, this time showing A-Qing's murder, although it doesn't have any audio. ((OOC: Additional CW for graphic depictions of murder.))

When it returns to the interior of the Games Car, the shadowy figure is gone, but their voice and Xue Yang remain.]

I leave it to the council to dispense their own punishment, as meager as it may be.

Remember, passengers:

I am watching.

[The ICP clicks off, and the train is deadly quiet.]

Comments

Action, Sleeper 6

[aggressivelygood]

[Disgusting as it might have been to behold, Sven sat with the footage through to the end. Shortly after he stumbled out into the hallway and crashed into the wall, hands braced rigid against it. Air, he needed fresh air. No chance of that here...the air on the train was still, unmoving. The horrified voices of his friends and fellow passengers rang in his ears, deafening his own internal sense of justice. What was justice in a place like this? The murder shouldn't have been shown to the entire train, that much he knew for certain. He focused on that first. What a twisted thing, to expose A-Qing's horrible moment of terror and inflict it on the rest of the train, as if anybody here didn't know a murder had been committed or how vile an act it was to rob a person of their life.

Yet he felt glad. Glad that the murderer was known. Glad, even, for Xue Yang's suffering. Apparently he was alone in that feeling and it weighed on him. If somebody on the train were taking it upon themselves to enact vigilante justice, then probably everybody should be concerned, but would Sven himself really have done anything different?

Should anybody find him, it'd be pacing the halls of the carriages, clenching and unclenching his fists. This feeling of powerlessness...he wasn't used to it. And the silence where his patron's presence should be burned more blinding a hole than ever.]

I decided on the holy creature rather than the murder child

[longforgottenpromise]

[Not actually being able to do anything actually useful in this situation Taiki has taken it upon himself to move through the train, looking for anyone who needs help, anyone afraid, angry.

He knows Wen Qing is helping Xue Yang and she is the best for that, as a doctor. He would just be a hinderance there.

Those that have been voted to lead the train are dealing with the crime committed here.

He also knows many of the passengers, especially the younger ones have been gathered to be helped. It is not those ones he worries about. It is those who do not seek out others. Who try and deal with their pain alone. Those are the ones he is searching for.

He's not sure what he can even do to help, but he needs to do something.

He pauses when he sees Sven and then gathers his courage and steps towards him.] Sven?