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

[spikelet]

[She leaned back properly against the machine, thinking lightly.]

He said he killed me back home, too, so maybe they showed that. There are a lot of things they could've shown. That guy is so petty and had so many grudges, who knows how many people he killed because he thought they'd done him wrong?

[She does, she knows.]

[knifewithnoname]

He did be killing you twice? [That was pretty bad luck on her part. Or just weakness. It can't be easy having such an enemy when you can't see. She should get better at hiding.]

He did be killing a whole bunch of people. He did be telling me. But it did be being him killing you that the spirit did be being so mad about.

[spikelet]

He told you? [That startled her.] Are you friends, or something? You should be careful. Don't make him mad.

[knifewithnoname]

No [She shook her head quickly. It's true, they aren't friends. She only has one friend. But also she knows she needs to distance herself, at least in peoples minds. He's been compromised, caught.

He's on his own.]

I do no be being stupid, I will no be making him mad.

[spikelet]

Good. He doesn't... he's good at scaring you, making it hurt. [She didn't really care about sparing kids from talk of that sort of thing. Why bother?

She curled her legs up closer.]

Hey, what's your name?

[knifewithnoname]

[She wrinkled her nose at that, she's not scared of him. Wary, of course. But not scared.

She pulls a bigger face at the question.] Buttercup. You do be being Qing, right?

[spikelet]

[She tried not to scowl at that expression. Maybe the fear took more than a few months to set in, then. Or maybe her gut was right, and she needed to be careful.]

Yeah. Hey, I don't wanna think about that guy any more. Let's talk about something else.

[knifewithnoname]

[She wrinkled her nose again but nodded.]

Yes, we can be talking about whatever you do be wanting to. [She's pretty certain no one will find them here, it's not somewhere they will think to look, at least for a while.]