victory_road | ANOMALY DETECTED

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ANOMALY DETECTED

Who: ANYONE AND EVERYONE
Where: ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE
When: NOV 25TH to 27TH
Summary: GET IN HERE AND MINGLE
Rating: BUT PLEASE MARK YOUR THREAD CONTENT ACCORDINGLY
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[Ryou recognizes that tone, being familiar with DMing himself. He doesn't like hearing it come out of the spirit, considering his track record with tabletop gaming, but he recognizes it.]

Maybe. I didn't remember what happened when I got the Ring at the time, but he probably didn't know that.

[Wait. Did the Scales actually say that?]

Shadi - uh, Bobasa said they would only tilt if you had evil or deception in your heart. They stayed still for everyone else, but tilted when he held them to me.

[Hold on a second.]

Maybe it wasn't truly evil, but deception. I wasn't exactly telling anyone I was wearing the Ring again, but I think they probably knew anyways.

[Or it could have just been picking up on the spirit's presence in the Ring. That too.]

[Ryou's only got himself to blame for that one. GM'ing is definitely something that Bakura picked up from him.]

When I saw them being used on somebody, they'd usually shake at first, before tilting one side or the other. Well, with me-

[He trails off, a strange look crossing his face. Bakura just realized something that has him almost cackle again.]

- with me, they just kept swinging back and forth endlessly. That's when the priests started claiming that the 'evil' inside of me must've just been too big to measure, and that they could 'feel' the darkness inside of me. That was enough for them to try to rip out my soul and seal a part of it away so that they could use my Ka Beast as they pleased.

Now consider this: the owner of one of the items can influence the way it acts to a certain degree. We can use the Ring to find things. That's simple and straight-forward. But by what measures do the Scales measure things? What is 'good' and what is 'evil' to them?

What if they simply react to the sense of good and bad of the one who wields them? You're the bearer of the Ring. The Ring is 'evil' to Shadi. So doesn't that mean that the one chosen by it would have to be 'evil' as well?

That might make more sense than a simply choice of not telling about something that you know would upset others. You didn't plan to harm them with the Ring in any way, after all! If a single white lie by omission makes one evil, then I doubt that there'd be very many 'good' people left in the world. Definitely not Yuugi, Jounouchi or Honda!

[Ryou frowns at the spirit's description of how the Scales acted, surprised that they didn't act similarly between when the spirit saw it used and when Ryou saw it used. But then the spirit goes on, and Ryou can't help but admit that there's some sense there in how exactly the Scales detected good and evil in a person.]

So it detected everyone else as good because Shadi expected the friends of Atem to be good and trustworthy, but the fact that I had the Ring overrode that and got me labeled 'evil', because Shadi didn't think whoever had the Ring could possibly be a good person.

[A thought strikes him, based on something the spirit said earlier about the Items corrupting their bearers.]

Did he think the Ring would have corrupted its bearer, so even if they were originally good, they would eventually end up evil to match what he thought of the Ring?

[Did the Ring corrupt him in the time he had it? He was ten when he got it, young and potentially easy to corrupt.]

[Bakura is actually just spouting theories as they cross their minds. It's nice to actually have somebody to ramble them against for once, especially since he doesn't doubt that his host would point out any obvious flaws without holding back.

The way he is crossing his arms, tapping his foot and relaxing again while his head is propped against his hand in thought are all remnants of something that was once very much human.]

That's possible.

[He huffs.]

It's also utter bullshit because the Items are neither good nor bad by themselves. They corrupt their owners as much as their owners corrupt them.

But who the knows what he thought? The high priests always had the weirdest ideas about them.

Hmm. That makes sense.

[But then again...]

Not too long ago there were these two guys named Aigami and Mani. They survived your attempt to kill the kids after I first got the Ring, and blamed me for what happened.

Mani had recovered the Ring from where it was left and it...it influenced him. He wanted to kill me with its powers and had to fight to resist being influenced. Then Aigami got it later and something similar happened where he also fell under its influence.

[He kind of wants to hear the spirit's input on that, despite still not trusting him too much.]

Oh? I only remember killing Shadi. [But then again, his consciousness had been very spotty back then. He very well could have decided that wiping out the whole clan was the best way to go. Or Zorc could have.]

All they did was to have the Ring?

You definitely tried to kill the kids as well after Shadi died. [He knows what he saw. Or what Aigami forced him to remember in this case.]

As far as I know. They had weird powers of their own - Aigami had a cube that let him send people to other dimensions - but as far as I know they started being influenced almost immediately after getting the Ring. Aigami even said Mani was being controlled by the Ring when he showed up to kill me.

Edited 2022-12-11 21:53 (UTC)

Hm. How do you know that? You never remembered much of that time. [He isn't denying it. If his host believes it's true, then he has a very good reason for it. But Bakura needs to make sure that new 'knowledge' comes out of a reliable source.]

If it happened that fast, then I have two theories. But keep in mind that I'm no expert on the Items, either.

Aigami made me remember what happened when he came to get revenge. Don't know why he thought I killed Shadi when he saw what happened...

[By his tone, it wasn't pleasant for Ryou to go through remembering it, nor is he happy about being blamed now that the spirit has gotten him to stand up for himself a bit better.]

...What do you think happened? [He's always been curious about the Items, so this conversation is enough to make him stay.]

.....and Aigami is one of Shadi's students, who apparently looked up to him, and has a strange item or power that can make people "remember". [Bakura shakes his head and sighs. Like really, host, really?] The tomb keepers should know what's up with the Puzzle and the Ring. Marik was able to tell that I'm not you when we first met, and he's about as uneducated in tomb keeper lore as it gets-!

[He tsks, looking annoyed both on his own and his host's behalf. That the Pharaoh's followers were incompetent on top of being biased shitheads is just adding insult to injury.]

One, they were rejected. Whatever power of theirs kept them from being killed right away, but it still went haywire, creating what they thought wearing the Ring has to be like. There's several points that speak for that theory.

But before continue, care to fill me in why you want to know about this so much? The Items shouldn't be your problem anymore.

He might have given me false memories? You said you killed Shadi, but after that...

[Ryou doesn't need to doubt his memories more, he already has holes in them as it is because of the possessions.

The rejection theory at least makes sense, but before he can push further the spirit asks him why he wants to know so bad.]

...I'm curious about them, that's all. [Ryou knows he can just walk away and not make this his problem, and he should, but he's always been curious. Even after Atem was sent to the afterlife and the Items were returned to Egypt, he's still curious.

He's similar to his father, in that way. Overly curious about the Items, to the point of making bad decisions.]

[Bakura just shrugs his shoulder.]

Maybe he thought they were real. I have no clue what he used and what the effects were - visions or memories.... Only you can tell. I can only tell you what I know myself. [he raises an eyebrow before adding with a chuckle] ...and what you want to believe of that, of course.

[He gives Ryou a long knowing look before Bakura finally gives the minutest of nods.]

Ah.

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