the_campus | [MINGLE ] And many happy returns to you, Bakura!

[The Courier shrugs.]

I don't remember their former tribe name. All the current casino runners of Vegas are former tribes, but the White Gloves try really hard to pretend that they simply didn't exist as a batch of cannibals until House pulled them into the fold. Suppose he gave them the name and the outfit when he was setting up his Vegas, but he really should have given them something a little more normal. Don't know what he was thinking.

[She laughs, caught up in thoughts of home.]

Not sure whether or not you'd love the Omertas or hate them. They probably put on the least amount of show. You can always count on them to try and cheat you. Heard rumor that they used to call themselves the Slitherkin and took pride snatching up unwary travelers, drugging them up and killing 'em.

[...this has his interest now. All of this tribe talk and the explanation of the Omertas has his interest. Casino runners that were former kidnappers and murderers? Interesting...]

Oi, Sibyll... what year is it when you came from? You told me once, but I forgot.

Hmm? [Odd change in subject.] 2281. A little over 200 years since the world ended. Why?

2281...

[Either she comes from a different reality, or he must have failed. Tch, that's so annoying... he won't be able to see them.]

I wanted to see them. So I wanted to remember it.

[...no use letting her know that one though.]

...You wanted to see the Omertas? Vegas?

[Dammit, this was going to be something weird and magic-related, wasn't it?]

And how were you planning on doing that?

If it's the same world, I just have to wait and go visit America around the same time. I won't be in the same body, but that doesn't matter. Maybe I'll have an American body by then anyway, heheh...

[If it isn't, that's too bad... but he knows he probably won't be around then anyway.]

After all, it's the 1990s where I come from. Only three hundred years away...

[Okay, still weird, but in a way she was familiar with. He had been trapped in that thing for thousands of years or something like that.

She laughs dryly.]

Good luck surviving a nuclear apocalypse.

You're kind of dumb sometimes, aren't you?

[His voice is filled with amusement.]

I'm hardly going to have problems with that. I can't die.

Oh? Not even after standing in the way of something that would reduce your host's body to a shadow seared on the wall? You'd survive that?

[There's something prickling at the edge of her mind when she mentions the shadows. The phenomena certainly creepy enough, but not really seen in Vegas. They were more common in ruined areas of the more populous cities.]

Of course. [He stares at her blankly.] I won't die even if the body I'm in is reduced to ashes. There's only one way to destroy me, and I don't know what it is.

Hmph. Nothing survives being at the center of a nuke, so I suppose you could try that.

You're such a fool...

[Trusting in such a stupid concept. Weapons like that... they were nothing. Humans had no concept of true power.]

Humans are so powerless.

It's a shame you can't go back... forward... whichever in time and watch the Great War happen. I think you'd change your mind, given that the world pretty much ends. Most of humanity wiped out in a day. Even in your however many thousands of years is still nothing that has ever happened before in all of human civilization.

But you're right. Humans are completely powerless.

[Her last statement is so laced with sarcasm one can practically taste it.]

You're talking of humans as if they matter. They don't. If all of humanity were wiped out in one attack, I'd still call that powerless. They can't destroy anything without destroying themselves as well. Weak human bodies relying on tools that can only be used once.

True power is beyond that. And when I get it... I'll show you. Heheh... all of you. I'll show you those nukes of yours are nothing but toys.

Except that the only way you seem to be able to do anything is through stealing a human body.

You talk like I should be ashamed of it.

[Bakura waves a hand dismissively, turning his back on her without the slightest hesitation.]

When the door opens... you'll see for yourself. The other world is where true power lies. Even if I need a body like this to operate... that problem will disappear as easily as most of humanity did in your world, heheh.

Edited 2014-02-18 03:16 (UTC)

You talk about all this power, and yet the idea of a woman treating you like a mother would is such a foreign concept that you can't even see it when it's right in your face.

[A thought occurs to her as she watches him, shaking her head.]

You're like House. You used to be human, then that little bit of what made you human just got lost somewhere along the line.

Tch... I told you! I don't know anything about parents. I've seen them, but I don't understand them. And most of them don't act like that to people that aren't their kids.

[It doesn't help that Ryou's father is such an absentee... With Ryou practically living alone after Amane's death, Bakura hasn't really seen anything of an actual caring parent even as an observer. More so considering the formality of so many adults in Japan.

The mention of this House guy catches his attention. Used to be human... yeah, it sounds similar.]

I'm more human now than I ever used to be... or wanted to be. You can thank Malik for that! Human emotions tend to tether one.

Who is House?

When you live in a world when orphans exist by the truckload, the idea of attaching to someone who isn't related to you by blood isn't so strange.

[House. Ugh. The memory of him made Sibyll crinkle her nose in disgust.]

A 200-year old Pre-War relic. Kept himself alive by hooking himself up to all these machines. Sought nothing but power. You two might get along, had I not killed the freak.

Machines...? [What a foolish person... He brings a hand up to brush the hair out of his face.]

If he was that old, he might have been entertaining. But I don't pity someone who dies that easily. The powerless remain powerless until they succeed.

[His soul would have been a welcome addition to his collection. Oh well. At least nobody else has it now. Though he'll have to make a few changes if their worlds are the same after all. If he can take that man's soul long before Sibyll even exists... Heh. Heheh...]

Hahahahahahahaha! How did you do it?

How else do I kill anything, cupcake? I shot him.

...tch. You boring woman.

[Really, did she ever put effort into anything?]

At least spill the details.

Oh, that's what you're looking for, the gory details. You should have said so at the start.

[She chuckles darkly, thinking how best to explain things without giving away too much.]

For starters, he was an obstacle. In particular, I could get into the good graces of someone very powerful if I offed him. And since he was also in my way, I agreed. Didn't hurt that House already thought I was on his side because I was willing to do anything to kill the son of a bitch who shot me in the head. I mean, he offered me a room and everything, so long as I kept up my efforts to get the guy.

Since House wasn't expecting anything, I was able to get to his room without trouble. It was the only way he ever spoke to me. The couple times I saw him before, he just let me wander around his room without any trouble, which is how I found the computer that had to lead somewhere interesting. So I just asked to speak with him and up I went. This time around, I simply... disappeared from his robots, got back to that computer and hacked it. It opened up to where he was hiding, this weird pod-thing that had apparently kept him alive for 200 years.

[She pauses to grimace again at the memories of the abomination claiming to be a man.]

Anyways, I pulled him out of it, nearly gagged at the thing inside and put a couple of .44 millimeters through its head and skipped off. The computers went into a standby mode once I left so getting out was easy.

Happy now?

Hoh... [He listens to the story with interest. Half of it doesn't make sense - really, without the details, it's like skipping to the end of a book without reading the first part. But it's still interesting. And it reveals way more about her than she was probably intent on admitting.]

I'd give you a D for the actual murder method, but an A for the infiltration and execution. Not bad. I'd have liked to see you working.

Edited 2014-02-20 03:58 (UTC)

Hmmph. If you had seen him, you wouldn't have wanted to touch him either. And it wasn't like I could invite him to dinner and poison his food. He looked... um...

[She falls silent, trying to piece together images of the ancient past that he might be familiar with.]

... he was like one of those creepy mummies from Ancient Africa. Bet Ryou's ancestor would know more about that.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject