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

[lookslikeacinnamonroll]

[ Wen Ning barely knows how to use the ICPs. It's by happenstance that he even sees this post. He clearly hasn't been paying much attention, because so much of this is news to him. ]

A-Qing was killed?

[ Why is Xue Yang here? How is A-Qing alive again? Who is that shadowy figure? What is happening?? ]

video/action (threadjacking ok!)

[blue_ice]

Atem?

[ Kaiba 's face is very pale. He knows that eye. The voice isn't quite the same...but as someone who was once on the receiving end of this spirit's punishment, he'd know what was happening here better than anyone. He races through the rock garden and ends up breathlessly pounding on the gaming car's door, keeping an ear on the broadcast in each car the entire way through. ]

Pharaoh! What did you do? Answer me!

((ooc: feel free to send him a video message or meet him in the garden if anyone wants some answers))

Video

[mtsilver_conquor]

[The fuck?]

-The last thing we need is vigilantes! By the Four...

Video

[mtsilver_conquor]

-You know who did this?

[Here, have a team Leader who's visibly shaken and Unhappy.]

action, dining car

[spikelet]

[ what the fuck just happened. How did they... Why did...



Okay, wow, right. First step, finding somewhere to hide. 1-E? That means having to go past whatever that was. Somewhere this side of Games. She ransacks her memory, and comes up with... Medical? Yeah. That'll work. There's usually an empty room in there.

Second step, get out of Dining. It's a straight line; she just makes a break for it. ]

Audio-Smoking Car

[unholyandbroken]

[CW Angelville and the coffin]


[Jessie was mid smoke when it goes down and thanks to what she saw is reliving Angelville and a favorite of her grandmother, the coffin. But thanks to a panic induced button hit her panic is now train wide.]

Not the coffin...

[Just make sure she does not crash into an open trunk? Her phobia is kicking in just as hard.]

[bloomingdespite]

[Wester had already slipped through the door by the time Kaiba arrived... but they didn't leave fast enough, since out of the corner eye he can see the mysterious stranger from the party watching both Kaiba and the video almost mournfully, the melancholy on their face almost the polar opposite of the pure rage the specter displayed on the ICP.]

Video

[blue_ice]

I'm sure of it...but it's impossible. It has to be. Or is it?

[ He looks shaken too, but for likely slightly different reasons. ]

His name was Atem. He was a young Egyptian pharaoh from thousands of years ago, but in order to protect his land from a sorcerer, he had to seal his soul away and that cost him his name, his memories...everything. I got to know him when he awakened a few thousand years later, enacting this brand of vigilante justice on the guilty through penalty games.

[ He takes a small breath. ]

I haven't always been the person I am today. A few years ago, I fell into total darkness...I never killed, but I came very close. Atem stopped me with one of these punishments. I was rendered comatose for a few months, forced to experience the sensation of death. I broke out of that total hatred and remembered my love for my brother, but...it took me a while to fully come around to trusting anyone after that. And I became obsessed with beating him.

[ He watches carefully, to see if she thinks he's nuts yet. If she doesn't yet, she will soon. ]

But it doesn't make sense that Atem is here. He's not on the roster, the object that contained his spirit isn't here, and even if he was...he grew past his vigilante justice phase a while ago. Or at least I thought he did.

[blue_ice]

[ Kaiba felt another shiver on the back of his neck, and stepped away from the panel before addressing them. ]

Dionysus. You wouldn't give me a name, so I had to draw from a myth I was fond of.

...was that you, just now?

Video

[utulien_aure]

Was there justice in that performance? How odd; I must have missed it.

[runs_on_batteries]

[Tony watched in horror at the ICP message. It takes him a moment to react, but when he does, he's livid.]

Who the hell are you? If anyone knows who this person speaking is, I want their name! Where did you get that video?

[madcuriosity]

Wh-what did you do to him!

[But, as the announcement goes on and on, Alice can only scream in shock and terror, covering her eyes.]

STOP IT!

Video

[mtsilver_conquor]

Nothing's impossible here.

[She nods as she listens, no judgement, no nothing on her face, just the mantle of a Champion, Leader, and Councilwoman. Her mind's already turning over what he's said, what he's told her and Eva can't say she likes it (even if she is glad it yanked Seto off that dark path, but still...).

It's vigilantism at best and a twisted sense of justice at worst.]

Just because the item's not here doesn't mean he isn't, meaning he needs to be found and fast. This kind of thing cannot be seen as acceptable on the train. Not when it could very well lead to an air of fear or paranoia, and we've enough troubles without adding vigilantism into the mix.

[She's done her best to keep her own crimes from everyone (no-one needs to know one of the Council and Orange Leaders is a thief (finders Keepers with the masterball is still stealing it and could even be seen as worse, given she never told anyone-), and a traitor to humanity (because she's protecting a sapient pokemon instead of turning it in to be destroyed) back home, but this..].

Gods. What a mess...

[blue_ice]

[ Kaiba is more subdued than usual when he answers. ]

His name is Atem. He's an ancient spirit with the power of shadow magic. He was from my world...

...but I have no idea how he's here. He's not on the roster, and the object that contained his spirit isn't here. Yugi or I would know if it was.

Xue Yang will probably wake up soon. I've done things I'm not proud of, if maybe not quite the same, and Atem performed this same punishment on me. It rendered me comatose for a while, but in the end...it worked as intended.

I realize he's undermining the council's authority and has no right to do this, but...that's what happened.

[mtsilver_conquor]

We will find him. We have to. We've enough troubles without adding vigilantism into the mix.

[Eva's voice is tight. Both anger and fear.]

I was going to ask for my laptop at the end of the month, but it might be wise investing in one of the smaller psychic pokemon instead.

[You know, to help keep this kinda thing from happening again, if possible.]

[runs_on_batteries]

[He listens to the answers he gets before responding. This was about the last thing he needed right now.]

Would you be able to find him? We need to speak with Xue Yang and Qing too.

Video

[blue_ice]

I'll help you all look. Yugi and I know him best, and he'll listen to us...he hasn't been like this in a while. I don't know what went wrong.

But I know we can't let him be the sole arbiter of justice. Pharaoh or not.

[goingthroughaphase]

[ She knows that voice. She isn't sure how, but she knows that voice. Where has she heard it before? ]

...What have you done?

[bridgetothefuture]

We already have people keeping an eye out for this train because some government organization thinks we're dangerous. The last thing we need is more people deciding they really need to show off a brutal murder and then claim broadcasting another near-murder is justice.

We've got kids on this train, for God's sake.

[goingthroughaphase]

Atem?

[ That's not the name that she remembers. ]

Are you sure?

[goingthroughaphase]

.....They might also go by Wester. That name's not on the roster either, though.

[blue_ice]

I'll do a sweep of the train for him or any pieces of his relic, and ask Yugi to do the same. Yugi was his best friend, if I can't draw him out, he can.

Video

[mtsilver_conquor]

Good. Changed or not, he still crossed the line here and the faster we find him, the faster we get into his head that if he wants justice, it has to come through the Council and that our word on it is final.

[Eva sighs.]

I was going to ask for my laptop at the end of the month, but it might be wise investing in one of the smaller psychic pokemon instead.

[blue_ice]

Positive. He...wasn't always like this. He became one of my closest allies, maybe even a friend. After he stopped doing things like this.

I'd know his soul anywhere.

action

[theturksway]

[Shit. That was some messed up shit. Who the hell would do that on a train full of innocents? As a Turk Reno got it. People got what they deserved. He didn't care about that.

But seriously showing that to the public? That was something better left to the darkness where all secrets should be kept. There was a reason why Turks did their business where no one could see it. And he hated it whenever some idiot (Heidegger) took over and made things extra difficult for the Turks.

All right, all that aside, Reno was on the move. He didn't really know where or to do what yet but there was some shit going down and he wasn't going to sit it out.

He didn't get very far though before he ran into a familiar face. And by familiar he meant 'oh, I just saw that person get murdered in a televised broadcast just thirty seconds ago'. He hesitated. Nope, no time for that now.]

Hey.

[It came out way more casually than even Reno thought possible. He sidled up next to her and started to keep pace as she made a beeline for her hideout.

Damn, she was even younger than he'd realized. What fucking monster... wait, no, never mind.]

You okay? [Obviously she wasn't but what else was he supposed to say?]