8th Trick - VOICE/TEXT/VIDEO FEED (Day of the Dead Guy)

[vengefulshades]

[At 8:45 PM on November 3rd, this message is broadcast to all Import devices. The video shows a flickering feed of security cameras in some swanky lounge. As the camera shifts, six people can be seen in and around the lounge, in various emotional states:

- Abigail Hobbs
- Annie Leonhart
- Kate Kane
- Siegmund Heissenrech
- Anna
- Rampage

Finally, the voice of The Manipulator comes over the line.]

Attention, all Import citizens of Heropa. This is The Manipulator speaking.

Here, you can see there are currently seven people in the top floor lounge of The Lift in downtown Heropa. Six of them are innocents. Six lives. Six hostages who may be dead by tomorrow morning.

Unless one of you has the guts to save them.

[The camera feed flicks around appropriately to show the security system, the room's entrances and exits, and whatever else he talks about.]

Let's break it down nice and simple.

The lounge is secured by an alarm, doors and windows-- one that you won't be able to turn off without my knowledge or my help. If it goes off, the hostages will die. If anyone attempts to enter or leave the lounge, the hostages will die. If anyone sets foot on the 15th floor of this building without my express say-so, the hostages will die.

But you don't need to sit around and accept this loss of life. You can stop it. Only one person needs to die tonight to end this.

The seventh person. Me.

[And now the camera flickers to show a brief glimpse of a silhouetted person- someone in plain clothes, wearing a black mask over his face.]

One of you so-called heroes has fifteen minutes to get to the rooftop of this building. There, your only task is a simple one... you're going to kill me. Get rid of me permanently. End this hell of an existence of mine once and for all.

No mercy. No tricks. Just you and me and your powers, and the death that I was denied ten years ago.

[The shot goes back to the lounge and the hostages within.]

If your powers don't work on me, I'll understand. Nothing else has worked so far. And I'm really not unreasonable. We'll just have to try someone else. Every hour. On the hour.

And if some hour passes and nobody shows up to take me on, then one hostage dies. You've got six whole tries to figure this out before we run out of hostages.

But remember. I don't need to kill anyone. Nobody innocent needs to suffer tonight. Only one person needs to die to put an end to this.

So come get me.

[And the feed ends.]

((ooc: All replies will come from "The Manipulator," not "Yomiel."))

Comments

[infomodder]

[Sir you have some problems, were you aware.]

You claim to have already tried methods that generally work. [The Manipulator has a difficult unlife, is what Will's gathered.] Have you thought of personally asking someone with powers that might work without doing...this? Maybe Lunatic.

[Maybe be polite. Maybe being polite gets people places.]

[vengefulshades]

[Aaaaaa little bit.]

Lunatic already tried to kill me. Deservedly so.

As you can see, I'm still here. You wouldn't believe what a headache it's been trying to get somebody with the guts to even try.

[infomodder]

[Is it on par with the headache this is currently giving Will because even if it's not he's got his stupid empathy crap he could try to understand.]

Oh, I'd believe it. [Because he's gone to the trouble to abduct people and basically tell the superpowered powder kegs of Heropa to "come at me bro"—that takes some effort, come on.] This is a lot of trouble to go through for someone who's not at their wit's end.

[And it's probably going to end horribly, isn't it.]

[vengefulshades]

Someone finally sees it. How far I've had to come to get here. There's nowhere left for me to go.

If I had any other options, I'd take them. But here I am.

[infomodder]

[He's all about the seeing, just not seeing the biggest bad right in his face. So it goes.]

Nowhere but prison if this all goes belly up. [It's sort of already belly up, isn't it.] You've probably already considered that much, haven't you?

[Does it matter where one rots when one can't actually rot?]

[vengefulshades]

Who cares? My whole life is a prison.

And that's not even considering the fact that these morons couldn't contain me even if they could catch me. How do you trap a ghost?

[infomodder]

[With a containment unit stored in an abandoned firehouse and a steadfast refusal to cross the streams?]

If someone tries and only succeeds in hurting you, not killing you—you don't think they'll try to figure out some way to contain you so this doesn't happen again? [Cages for all.] There's a lot of smart people from worlds with a lot of technological advancements. Couple of 'em, I wouldn't put it past figuring out how to contain a ghost.

[Val?]

[vengefulshades]

I can't be hurt. I can't be anything. For me, existence is just one long, pointless drone.

And like I said. This prison, that prison, what's the point?

[infomodder]

[He pulls a face and shrugs, waves one hand loosely.]

This prison is one you control, the prison that might come if someone contains you is one you don't.

[♫ My body is a cage ♫ but as long as there's no cage to cage the body itself...that's as good as anyone can ask for, isn't it?]

[vengefulshades]

It's all the same to me. This entire world is my prison.

I've waited ten years. Ten years I was supposed to be dead. And now I want out.

[infomodder]

[perfectly reasonable his ass, but provoking the guy who's in charge (of this situation if nothing else) is not the best idea.]

I sincerely hope you find that way out.

[What else is he supposed to say? Everything else he's thinking is...well, the opposite of helpful.]

[vengefulshades]

Yeah. So do I.

So should everybody.