khuioduan | ( 001 ) ≠ video;

Entry tags:

( 001 ) ≠ video;

I'm starting to think these World Turtles have a fascination with using people's souls as cosmic currency in some way or another.

[ Someone's grouchier than usual today. And apparently uncaring about the hypocrisy of him presenting this particular argument. ]

That's the only reason I can think of for why they're continually attaching ours to some kind of tangible reminder: first lanterns, then jewels, now being marked like a gods-damned heifer at market.

At least no one should be able to swallow these tattoos, unlike the gems-- and before anyone asks, yes, that's a thing someone tried once.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

( Everyone keeps going on and on about these markings... it's a bit tiresome after a while, Sera still under the impression that she lacks one. The only reason she even bothers with listening is that they speak with experience of this place. Perhaps they could provide her with better answers than her so-called caretaker (does she really need a guardian in this place, she wonders) or the others who are as equally confused as herself. Her guard is lowered when she connects with an expression that betrays her boredom (truly it's not as interesting as the realm she resided in prior), Sera staring down at the screen.

It doesn't take long for the features of her face to change to express an entirely different emotion. Confusion and anger both fill her, though she isn't entirely sure what to make of these feelings. As far as she was aware, she came to this realm all by herself―yet here he was. The voice was familiar now that she was reflecting on it silently. Familiar, but different in some manner. Was it his dialect or something else? )

... ( She knows that it's rude to be silent when answering a call yet that does little to stop her. There's nothing to say to this person, is there?

Not that she really needs to speak out loud: the look in her eyes should be enough to convey whatever it is she needs to say. This was a being who brought a fair amount of internal conflict to her and now she only had a few seconds to process that. )

[ The lack of verbal reply means he doesn't notice her end of the video feed at first, and when he does he takes in her appearance and outfit first, followed by her expression. There's not-quite recognition there in his gaze; a connection of two and two not yet summed yet. ]

Cat got your tongue, girl?

No. ( It might have, but she's forcibly reclaimed it now. )

I was uncertain if I should point out the obvious.

( She doesn't give him much time to consider what might be obvious. ) That you and I come from the same world.

Don't we?

Hmph. I would have preferred a gem to this. How do we know these tattoos don't have some sort of hidden power over us?

Oh? I didn't know humans could eat gems. Maybe I should be worried, huh?

[The person sitting in front of the screen and looking faintly amused about the whole thing has a massive, messy length of glistening hair. The sound it makes as it moves isn't that of hair, but of slivers of gemstone sliding against each other. Their nails are similarly gemlike, visible as they reach forward to adjust the screen a bit.]

There are a few people who've been here before, aren't there? A lot of them have been complaining lately.

[ That fits with the ornamentation, at least. His is the only world he's had experience with that seems to wear gold so openly. At her words though, the Ring beneath his shirt gives a faint twinge is response. ]

So it seems.

Should I know you?

Almost certainly. Were you planning to try something with yours?

They're not supposed to, any more than they should eat a piece of wood, or a pebble.

[ The second remark about them being worried is puzzling; he's seen his fair share of races in his tenure now, but this is new. Bakura isn't sure what to make of the allusion, so answers the other question first. ]

Some of them wanted to be done with places like these, that's all.

(That makes her blood boil a bit, but somehow she maintains her composure through this. The distance through the video chat makes it easier to manage her emotions... though she is certain she could hunt him down swiftly if need be.)

We haven't been introduced to one another. (It's a vague answer given over technology she's not entirely sure she can trust. Not that she would trust anything Seto Kaiba created, but his work was set up to be manipulated via magical means.)

[Really, Bakura? Though it's not like she can judge.]

It's not quite that bad. Though, if there's a way to mess with the tattoos, someone will find it eventually.

[Knowing how such things have gone before.]

Edited 2018-01-24 15:18 (UTC)

You answer my question by not answering my question-- so I should know you.

[ That unfortunately isn't as much help as one might think. ]

Or maybe you just think yourself more important than you actually are?

What would you call it then, if not a brand? And don't say 'tattoo', I know what it is.

You don't remember. (She is important. That's the way she was raised to think after all.)

Or maybe you don't want to remember.

(There's a bit of a chill in that retort.

Sera stops at that, conflict present in her features. If she continues this way, then she will be disobeying her master's final words. If she doesn't, then how can she face her fear and overcome it? The delicacy of the situation weighs down on her.)

Is this where you've been hiding? Strange...

There are some similarities, that is true, but it's not as if we are being treated like livestock.

[Though branding had been used as punishment in the history of her world, among other things. Perhaps his objection had more to do with the idea of that than anything else.]

[ He laughs, abrupt and short, at that suggestion. ]

People tell me that I'm many things, 'avoidant' isn't usually among them.

No one's hiding, least of all me. You may have noticed those who arrive here aren't given much choice in the matter.

[ Now she's closer to the mark, even if she doesn't know it for sure. ]

We've been here only days, I think it's too early to claim that for sure yet, khapshemet.

You were among those who wanted to go home.

Be that as it may, I don’t intend to allow anyone to treat me as such.

[ah, there it was, at least she had accepted her presence here now]

Yes, but it seems this world wasn’t finished with me yet.

You are trapped here like the rest of us? (While that catches her interest at the same time it also invokes a little bit of fear in her. He laughs while not remembering who she.

It's a little unsettling.) I shouldn't have assumed. It's been a while since we last met though it is as I said before. I never had the chance to introduce myself.

And since you obviously know who I am, why don't you go ahead and correct that?

[ He usually knows the people who know of him, at least in the modern era. He's having trouble placing her there though, not with the way she speaks, the way she dresses that he can see on the video. But would someone from the past have recognized him so readily? He supposes he doesn't look that different. ]

Who are you planning to make answer for it? From what we've been told, Tu Vishan is indisposed.

My name is Sera. (The name is anticlimactic as she stares down at the tablet with an expressionless look in her eyes. She doesn't expect him to know it or to recognize it from anywhere other than home.

She lets it sit for a moment, as if giving him time to analyze it or perhaps she just means to screw with his mind by not expanding beyond that immediately. It's only after a noticeable pause that she clarifies in a manner he might understand.)

I was under the tutelage of Master Shadi.

You’re assuming that I plan to act on the offense. All those I might blame are long since dead.

Like what? We don't know that mutilating ourselves to remove it will actually remove the magic or not.

[And then he mutters,] I thought I was done with nonsense like this...

[ And there it is: the thing that had been niggling at the back of his mind for why she had seemed off to him. Rather than look shocked or alarmed at the statement however, Bakura looks oddly thoughtful. ]

Oh, you were one of those kids from back then. I didn't know any of you had survived.

I knew it: you'd resurrect Yunxu to take the fall for it if you could.

[ He's mostly teasing. ]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 6

( 001 ) ≠ video;

video;

Re: video;

video;

[Voice]

video

Re: video;

Re: [Voice]

Re: video

Re: video;

Video

Re: video;

Re: Video

Re: video;

Video

Re: video;

Re: Video

Re: Video

Re: video;

Re: video;

Re: Video

Re: video;

Re: Video

[Voice]

Re: video;

Re: Video