gj surviving the demon world how about a nice MURDER

[shegypt]

So! Thief King Bakura has structured her entire life around tormenting and ultimately murdering the Pharaoh for whom Yugi is a dead ringer (this being the backstory of like, 2/3 of Yugioh villains). Kaiba looks like one of the Pharaoh's priests, as well. Past life shenanigans.

This means that after seeing the two of them on the platform, Bakura is going to lay a trap for them on the train and attempt (potentially succeed; up to Yugi & Kaiba's players) to kill them. I am COMPLETELY fine with her receiving whatever punishment is appropriate - somebody else offing her in return, extensive time in medbay, I'm open to suggestions.

I also want this to be fun for the people who opt in and affect people who want to opt out as minimally as possible. Who all wants to be in on this? Who definitely does not? What is the best way OOCly and ICly to make sure this only has ramifications for the people who are interested in engaging with the plot? What should everyone do with Bakura afterwards? With the help of a monster living in her soul (think Stands....), she can slip through walls and repel joint attacks, though the mods have confirmed the "you can only get out of this medbay if somebody lets you out" thing DOES mess with her powers.

FWIW after whatever happens here I'm going to have Bakura decide that since her quarry is very well-guarded, she shall Bide Her Time re: going after them again. This will keep her from being an outright homicidal menace while everyone is in close quarters, although it will not stop her from being an ass and potentially deliberately trying to mess with anybody who assists with the "capture the thief" operation.

I also plan on using cut text for all violent threads & staging the attempt NOT on the platform, to make opting out more feasible. How else can I set this up that will work for everyone?

Comments

[blue_ice]

Alright, so I'm leaning toward having Seto survive the attack...he has a few options here.

-Trying to trick Bakura into turning on one of the ICPs. This will of course be a brief flash so other characters can easily miss it, and it won't be posted to the main net comm.
-Any rescuers picking up on their distress and following it to the crime scene, or just noticing they didn't show up for game night.

Volunteers for rescuers and healers are very welcome! Just be aware that your character will likely see some gore, possibly a body.

I (or someone else) will likely post a single aftermath log under a cut, and he won't bring up the event outside that post unless a player opts in. The tournament will proceed as normal because he's determined to not back down and hide.

[menaretrash]

/points to eyes, points to you!

As previously discussed, I will gladly have Ann use her Persona to do what she can to provide at least SOME healing to the boys and whoever may need it after it's all said and done, and she'll gladly help get them away too [although i'm pretty sure you guys are going to have that in spades].

[blue_ice]

What a fun way to meet a new passenger! Sorry Ann...they can say hi later.

But yes, healing and escape route are appreciated.

[menaretrash]

The only way, really! LMAO. She's pretty used to meeting people in life threatening/odd ways, so really, it works out!

Poor Yugi and Seto. She will do her best! o7

[helborn]

I understand if you want this to stick to closer CR but Casper is an experienced body mover (and knows how to get stains of many types out of many surfaces). He can also help calm Seto down, though that might be better for closer CR. Just as an option so the gore doesn't linger and make more shit blow up.

[blue_ice]

Cleanup is very much needed, thank you! And the other talk would be welcome.

[helborn]

Yeah there's 0 way for him to not notice a recent death considering he can... smell entropic energy. He'll guide someone to move Seto to a quiet car and will be along shortly after to have a talk.

... conveniently even though it's a temporary death I already am having Casper purchase a grief therapy textbook and he'd be willing to talk to Yugi after, as well. He's familiar with both dealing with grieving people and also... has come back from being dead before.

JONOUCHI VISION, ICP WILL NOT BE USED

[blue_ice]

Hoping everyone sees this because I can't edit

Jou is going to have a vision about the attack and latch on/gather a volunteer or two that way. Nothing will appear on any ICPs, it won't be addressed in public at all.

[runicfeathers]

already mentioned on discord, but putting here that bird is gonna be volunteered for help where necessary regarding the murder, esp in the talking at bakura bit. So ofc I'm opting in

[namethattune]

Siebren will absolutely intervene to save Seto's life (though it's looking like it's going to be a bit too late for Yugi, I think? ;;; ) He is down for yeeting Bakura into medical lockdown, since he knows about it by now, and he's also here for grief counseling. He's lost people he loved; if all else fails, he can empathize.

[blue_ice]

...depending, Seto might tell him more about the ancient Egypt part of the story, and more about Atem and the old grudges that led to this (or at least Seto's patchy understanding of them).

It could get weird.

[tactlesstantei]

Since Sera has an emotional bond with Yugi due to the Jema'grethy event, she'll notice his feelings during the attack, followed by nothing. She'll be worried and will try and look for Yugi, so she'll likely end up involved in some way depending on how fast she gets there.

[sciencegirl]

I think it'd be super helpful for some characters to provide other characters who would cause big plot interference if they found out something else to do/a reason not to notice? Like they got in an argument, or they were distracted with a new person, or something big happens on the other end of the train like another IC fight that gets successfully broken up?

If anyone is down for providing distractions.

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou can set the kitchen on fire. And then flood it to try to put the (grease) fire out. I was gonna do that when blue got kitchen duty but I'm willing to pop it early if it helps facilitate RP. :>

If folks are interested in that anyway.

[miseris_socios]

So Ken is going to have to be distracted because he considers Seto a Good Adult. Points pending but I'm going to be having him getting a training spear for DigiKen so that could be a distraction if it's not at that end of the train. If it is... uh.

idk if Koumyou's destroying the kitchen probably that.

[controlsthedie]

Platform days are always a little overwhelming for Thanatos with all the additional new people, and he's still recovering from the mission. Probably going to have him try to shift like he normally does on platform times and feel immediate regret.

So, Thanatos will not be getting involved and reacting to the death(s). He's passing out in the quiet booth again. Goodnight... or day.

[sizedoesntmatter]

It will be a success with Yugi anyway because no way to actually defend himself. But this will lead to Yugi coming back the next day and actually wanting to talk to her because he wants to try and understand the other's perspective because he actually doesn't know what she actually went through and why she is the way she is.

Also to just show her that you know, he will just come back so as to not do that again because it serves 0 purposes.

[blue_ice]

please someone accompany yugi to this talk

Seto might be too injured to go right away, but...he's both in awe and worried about Yugi's resilient optimism.

[helborn]

If Casper does end up handling cleanup and talking to Seto after, I’m more than happy to have him talk to Yugi the next day or so. Just to check on him... coming back from death is hard, even if you try to hide it with cheer.

[shegypt]

I WENT TO BED but here are some thoughts based on what has been contributed so far...how about this?

1) Bakura arrives on platform. At some point during the day, she realizes Yugi and Kaiba are here. They are not the people she expects them to be, but she's in a crappy mood so she decides, what the hell.
2) Bakura slinks around the train plotting her move. She figures out which room is Yugi & Kaiba's and either lures them both or gets the drop on Kaiba at some point to use him as Yugibait.
2a) Koumyou accidentally causes A Distraction. (Bakura will potentially cryptically thank him later, to be an ass.)
3) WHAT'S A GOOD CAR TO HAVE THE FIGHT IN? Yugi shows up to save Kaiba. Bakura gets sufficiently pissed off, or other circumstances intervene, and ends up offing Yugi first.
3a) Other characters whose players want to be involved learn this is happening (either by Kaiba figuring out how to get them, powers of their own, or coincidence) and come to help.
4) The cavalry, having arrived, takes advantage of having more kinds of powers than Bakura knows to expect and takes her down. She is yeeted to gay baby jail med confinement so what to do with her can be decided without her escaping or starting more shit.
5) Now that she knows the train is full of unknown factors, Bakura's thief survival instincts kick in and she decides not to do any more murders without having a thorough understanding of her fellow passengers (the gaining of which I can drag out indefinitely if needed).
6) Yugi revives in the luggage car and goes to see her. Anyone who wants to be involved in talking to her can do so. Bakura may or may not monologue about her traumatic backstory.
7) Bakura concedes that further Murder on the Voidient Express is a shitty idea. Fight smarter not harder so the mangaka can drag out the series. I am 100% down for whatever additional consequences for her actions are agreed-upon.

Re: fighting Bakura, she can summon a creature named Diabound from inside of her soul. At her canonpoint, Diabound has 3 special abilities:

1) it can shoot off a giant spiral energy beam, "Spiral Surge"
2) it can reflect attacks when multiple people tank it simultaneously
3) it can slip through, and thus hide in, walls/ceilings/etc, taking her with it. This last one is the reason why medbay's a good option to chuck her into - she can't get out of that.

Fighting in a train car is gonna cramp her style already b/c options 1 & 2 work better in large, unconfined areas. She might try, but protip: take out Bakura and Diabound vanishes. She will be aware of this BUT she doesn't know what other powers she's dealing with. KICK HER ASS.

[blue_ice]

Oh boy...so, probably easiest to trap Seto and use him as the bait? That lets Yugi be the hero. He keeps his cards in his belt buckle so probably hard to get to that, but just cornering him while alone on his business will work.

Toward the back is probably best, as everyone else is being drawn to the kitchen in the front. Maybe the training car? It has some space for battle fun and isn't likely to be heavily used the first day.

[enthunder]

Training car is actually pretty heavily used on Platform by a bunch of characters. Luggage is also bad if it's on the first day because everyone's getting packages, there's a lot of traffic at that end of the train. There's lots of traffic everywhere, really...

I think perhaps the least-used areas is the upstairs floors of Music or Library... or Triage, since it's past Luggage and no one generally has a reason to be there/it's not a through-route.

[blue_ice]

Oh wonderful, so she gets all kinds of weapons! She's good.

[helborn]

Uh, I thought luggage was last car.

[spikelet]

You're right. I had it down as being the end carriage in my notes, but Setting has it as penultimate.

Well, even so the upper floor is likely still the least frequented area of the train.

[enthunder]

Alas Lightning will probably end up getting involved because this is the second murder and the culprit is ALSO a red team member yayyyyy.

I'd rather stay out of the initial thing but obviously if people call Lightning I'll be around, and she'll go and talk to Bakura once she's in baby jail. o7

BUT LOOKS GOOD GENERALLY! should probably say that gkdfgd

[hashtagparkerluck]

I'm still happy to offer Peter as part of the Calvary! He will attempt to web her to something but I'm also down for him getting hit with an energy beam and things not going as planned.

[shegypt]

sweeeet~ going to put together a roster atm

[menaretrash]

Commenting here to say that Ann will be available to help subdue or whatever needs to be done if needed, and also she'll be able to provide a little bit of healing via her Persona, Carmen.

[blue_ice]

Healer will definitely be needed while the others are pursuing Bakura, so yes. Excellent.

[menaretrash]

She's defs on healer duty then, she'll keep an eye on Seto until they can get him proper medical attention too! o7

[storms_eye]

Replying to say that Silvia will probably learn more about this later (Depending on whether anyone informs her), since she has a habit of getting distracted with platform activities and she will be super upset that Yugi and Seto were thusly injured or offed in the process.

Plus, the thought that she might get some unrelated cr with Bakura first, kinda amuses me that way. It depends on how things develop though! And I'm up for whatever or editting my plans if anyone would like more involvement.

[blue_ice]

She might get a cryptic warning to watch out for Bakura eventually, if you want to play with that after she gets a chance to meet her.

[storms_eye]

Sure! That sounds like a good way to go!

[emerald_mirror]

Xander is an empath. While he usually tries to be busy on platform days (and thus will not be stuck near Kaiba or Yugi like glue), he's especially sensitive to Kaiba since Seto's some of his closer CR. He may not make it much to the rescue, but Seto will have a tall, winged bodyguard after the fact at the very least.

He'd also do his best to soothe Seto after the event, to try to help him back on as even a keel he can get to, all things considered...

[blue_ice]

He's probably the person Seto is the most willing to open up to, so...yes, he's very much needed here. Hope he doesn't mind that bro's a Mess.

[emerald_mirror]

These things happen...wouldn't be the first time, just the first with Seto. :)

ROSTER

[shegypt]

So I'm thinking I'll do a separate post, set aboard the train, in order to better facilitate keeping everything under cuts/not somewhere people have to scroll past it. Four top-level strings: Bakura v Yugi, Bakura v Everybody Else, Interrogation The Next Day, Other Aftermath. The people I know are interested in each of these thus far:

Bakura v Yugi - Bakura, Yugi, Kaiba
Bakura v Everybody Else - All of the above PLUS Jou (has a vision and grabs people as he heads to Triage), Siebren, Peter, Ann
Interrogation (GAY BABY JAIL) - Willow, Eva, Lightning, Yugi, others from above?
Aftermath (likely in separate threads from each other) - Yugi, Kaiba, maybe Bakura far away from everyone else, Xander, Zagreus, Casper (cleanup), Ann (healer), Silvia, Sera?

The actual post will probably not go up until tomorrow because today is April Fool's and I'm going into work early to cover my boss's office with pika plushies (plus one Pikachu). As one does.

If I missed anyone's involvement with any of these pieces (esp. the fight), please drop a note below!!!! When we start taggin' I don't want to accidentally skip people/leave them out.

[helborn]

Casper's gonna try to grab Yugi and Kaiba later, but sounds good for me.