eswareinmal | Better Check the Warranty

The problem started when Sento stumbled across that mustachioed dragon, and said dragon's self-proclaimed "amazing" wares. Sento hadn't thought them amazing, and he'd told the dragon so, and there had been a bit of an argument, up until the point at which Sento had found an odd-looking bracelet in the pile. It was a thin band of silver, and this band of silver was studded with several figural beads shaped like different animals--there was a rabbit, a hawk, a hedgehog, a panda, a gorilla...all animals Sento had corresponding FullBottles for, all animals he'd used as half of Build's transformation.

He'd been so taken by the coincidence that he'd haggled with the dragon for it, and in the process, he'd completely managed to miss the fact that the silver band that held all the animal beads was actually a sculpted cobra.

It is perhaps that cobra that made absent-mindedly putting the bracelet on a very bad idea. The bracelet was, rather unfortunately for Sento, just a tiny bit cursed. (This is, the dragon would claim, what Sento got for refusing to purchase the extended warranty, which would have covered cursed artifacts.)

Sento's hair is now white, his eyes are now red, and he's sort of prowling around the town, occasionally kicking over some townsperson's fruit stand or flower cart just because he can. Oh, the humanity of it all.

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"Well, that's convenient, I suppose." He idly scratched an ear. "So what do the locals do here on their own, then?"

"...Mostly try and live out fairytale cliches, really..." Bakura awkwardly scratched at a cheek. "And gossip. And throw giant balls and try and drag everyone to go to them so they can play matchmaker...."

"Cliches and gossip, ha!" He shook his head. "And so they're really unprepared for anything truly bad happening, aren't they?"

"Pretty much! Any time any little thing happens, it's just an excuse to go running to an Import to get them to take care of it!" Bakura agreed with a small laugh. "They're sort of like video game NPCs, realy!"

"What happens if they die?" he tried to ask as casually as possible.

"Mmm... I don't know if they can, realy..." Bakura reflected. "Or at least, no one really ever seems to, and they don't even really react to things like death is something real! I guess when you live in a place where you can be magically healed all the time and there aren't any zombie invasions or people trying to blow up the city or anything like that, it doesn't really make sense to worry about things that..." he mused. "But I don't even think I've seen a graveyard anywhere, come to think of it. You'd think they'd have one of those somewhere, unless they just don't bother with markers..."

He paused again, blinking. "Aaa! Wait! I'd forgotten!" he suddenly exclaimed. "There was the ghost girl in the basement, that one time! And she was local. So they have to be able to die, if they can turn into ghosts!" He paused again. "Though the king didn't die even when Loki tried to kill him that one time..." he added with a thoughtful frown.

Edited 2018-12-17 04:20 (UTC)

This was all very valuable info for a would-be villain possessing a hero. It was quickly filed away for future reference. Ruling over a world full of ghosts didn't sound like a good time, at least, there was that. "So what happened that time, then?"

"Eh?" Bakura blinked. "Aaa-- Loki just got really pissed off, I think. No one else mentioned it much at all, just that he'd had a fight with the King, like they'd yelled or something like that. ...or at least that he'd yelled, I don't think the King knows how, really..."

"It's a land full of idiots, isn't it?" he asked thoughtfully. "Good to know, good to know."

Bakura rubbed the back of his neck with a laugh. "Loki called it that too, un!" he agreed, if sheepishly. "Though really... I think it's kinda... more like they're almost like constructs, in a way. Like golems that were animated to be background, only they weren't told they were golems, so they've basically been living like real people long enough that they have a society. Though that tends to more be something that happens in sci fi shows and stuff like that, rather than anything with this setting..."

"Real enough to have fun with, not real enough for there to be any real consequences?" Which is kind of boring in and of itself in its own way, but he can deal with that.

"..I don't know if fun's really the right word for it..."

"Everyone's got their own sense of fun, nothing to worry about." Actually yes, there was a lot to worry about here while Mr. Villain was considering getting his villain on, but he wasn't about to admit that.

"Aaa-- true! But really.. they're less fun and more... frustrating. They don't even react right to pranks..."

"Eh." He shrugged. "I suppose I'll just have to experiment with it, then."

"Experiment?" Bakura repeated, curious. "With what, seeing what they'll respond to?"

"Exactly, pushing the limits of their programming, so to speak." He shrugged. "Something to keep me from getting bored."

"I'm sure you'll find something more interesting than just that. Unless you're used to a world that has magic already?"

"Something like that." Why, yes, he was going to be very vague.

"Heeeeh, you do?" Hope you weren't expecting to keep that vague, fellow white-haired young man, cause you have a very intensely interested Bakura grinning at you now. "What sort? Is it hero-type magic? Or something more like here, with energy manipulation? Or the transformation based type?"

"...transformation, but that's a story for another time." He was just...trying to extract himself without making a scene now. Why this.

"Heeeeeeh, really?!" Don't think you get get away by pulling a Neverending Story on him, mister. "What sort of transformation? Like alchemy? Or like the hero teams that can summon giant robots to battle monsters from outer space?"

He decided to just...start walking away. "Alchemy of a sort, it's not important."

"Eh? Why do you say that?" Bakura asked, automatically following.

"Because it just...doesn't matter." He quickened his pace.

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shiromadoushi - 2019-01-02 03:40 (UTC) - Expand

I'm so sorry

carbonatedscientist - 2019-01-04 02:17 (UTC) - Expand

shironekodoshi - 2019-01-04 02:23 (UTC) - Expand