thetombkeeper | IC CONTACT

[It's a few days after prom when Ryou texts Marik about something on his mind.]

Is it weird that I'm still curious about the Items?

I don't want the Ring back or anything, but I still wonder sometimes.

No. They played a big part in your life whether you wanted it or not.

What in particular are you curious about?

I'm not sure.

I guess there's a part of me that just wants a chance to know more about them, even though I know I shouldn't want anything more to do with them.

Guess I'm kind of like my dad, huh? He had an obsession with the Ring too.

They should have never been uncovered, in my opinion, but what can we do...

How did you father find out about the Ring?

The spirit put it best when he said that the Items were like tombs.

[The spirit had also said that if the Items were like tombs then there had to be a robber to rob the tombs, but that's besides the point.]

I don't know, I was a kid when it happened.

He'd been searching for it for years, and when he found out where it was he went and tried to buy it from Shadi. He had to have it.

He would know better than anyone.

[There's a pause between replies and the lack of punctuation shows how utterly flabbergasted he is at what Ryou's just told him.]

im sorry what. he tried to buy it????/???

He did. There was a whole duffel bag of money involved.

Shadi said my father couldn't buy it because the Ring already had an owner and that he needed to be tested if he wanted it. Shadi didn't stop him from putting it on himself, of course, just warned him that there was evil tied to it.

[Because of course Shadi made no effort to make his father actually leave, only telling the clearly obsessed man that the Ring already had an owner and that he would have to be tested if he really wanted it.]

[Of course Shadi would be vague about it all. The Items are meant to test people in order to see if they're worthy of mantling them. Still, Marik's pinching the bridge of his nose in between replies.]

well hes correct in what he told your father but good gods.

what happened to your father? i assume nothing good

Well, he somehow lived.

Maybe he dropped it before it could kill him, but I don't know. What I do know is that it rejected him, he dropped it, and I grabbed it to give it back to him when he asked where it was.

[And then the Ring claimed him, but he probably doesn't need to say that.

Also yes, his dad still wanted the Ring even after it almost killed him.]

The Gods showed him mercy.

And it chose you.

What specifically do you want to know about it? The Spirit never opened up much about the Ring itself but I know some things about the Items.

I suppose. He owns the Domino City Museum now, so I'm not sure how much he learned from it.

[It's no British Museum, but well. Ryou recognizes that going from an antiques dealer to museum owner isn't a great career path.

As for what he wants to know, the thought strikes him. He's curious in general, but what happened with Mani and Aigami is still bugging him.]

I'm not sure how much you'd know about it, but after the Items were returned to Egypt the Ring ended up being uncovered again. The Spirit was supposed to be gone, but the Ring still managed to control the two people who got it.

[He spoke to the Spirit about it a bit back when he was here in November, but didn't get a solid answer at the time.]

[As long as it brings in the money, spreads awareness, and allows people to learn of the ancient ways, Marik can't complain too much. Outside of them hosting cursed relics publically.

He knows the Items will eventually return to Egypt to help Atem on his way to the Afterlife but... he had wondered what that meant for the Spirit. He has a strange fondness for the thief and the thought of him being gone... upsets him more than he'd like to admit.]

Each of the Items weren't intended to have someone renting space inside of it. They were meant to amplify certain abilities and pass judgement. Many souls were sacrificed to make them. Their residual energy as well as the Dark God's will linger for quite some time, if not forever, since the Items can't be destroyed physically. So even without Atem, the Spirit, or the Dark God, the Puzzle and Ring still are capable of being used. All of them are.

Hearing that the Items are still being searched for even after everything is disappointing. I'm not the keeper of the items but still. I would have hoped my sister would have looked into locking them up properly if Shadi wasn't going to bother guarding them anymore.

[It's always Shadi's fault.]

[Ryou doesn't answer for a bit, thinking. Marik should get to know what happened, right?

It takes him a bit of time to work himself up to explain what happened, considering how upsetting it was to be blamed and almost killed over something he didn't do, but eventually the explanation comes.]

There were two people named Aigami and Mani. They were...being raised by Shadi as kids, and the Spirit tried to kill them when he killed Shadi.

They blamed me for killing Shadi, and Aigami came after me. Mani managed to somehow get the Ring from where it was buried in Egypt, and it was controlling him.

[Marik takes a bit to reply himself, thinking over the news that's just been revealed to him. Shadi, adopting outsiders. He wrinkles his nose at the thought. The tomb keeper clans are closed sects. Just letting anyone in could allow outside influences to warp their practices and muddy the clan's genealogical purity. ~~Odion is excluded from this for various reasons.~~

Why is it always Shadi throwing a wrench into things. Everything falls back to him. He wouldn't be surprised if the man was responsible for the rifts between the different clans.

Were his own past goals the same as they were in Ryou's timeline, Marik would comment how this Aigami fellow sounds like a copycat. But seeing as this version of Marik wanted the Pharaoh's powers rather than revenge for his father's death, the thought never occurs to him.

When he sends his next message, he changes it to private. No need for prying eyes on such a sensitive topic.]

People seem to enjoy blaming you for everything concerning the Ring, don't they? Your body was being puppeted. It's not like you had a choice in the matter. You shouldn't have had to go through all of that because of a proxy.

You aren't the Spirit of the Ring committing all of these atrocities. At most you're an unwilling alibi and even then, it's not like you remember what he does when he takes control of your body.

What ended up happening to the two men?

[He's grateful for this conversation being set to private, largely due to how sensitive this is for him.]

I've had my fair share of people blaming me for stuff the Spirit did, or at least thinking I was a troublemaker because they thought i was doing that stuff.

Mani got the Ring first, and was influenced into trying to kill me. He tried to resist though, and I think it might have been rejecting him. Aigami got it second, and it corrupted him worse.

[Less said about how it corrupted Aigami, the better.]

Last I heard, Aigami went back to Egypt after everything was dealt with.

I'm sorry you had to deal with that. It's a difficult situation and most people no longer believe in magical relics.

[He's... not really. But it's the polite thing to say. He also doesn't particularly care about this Mani or Aigami person either. Marik wants to know how and why the Items were unearthed. Again.]

What happened to the Ring itself?

I know. I was transerring schools a lot because the Spirit kept putting my friends in comas and I couldn't explain why it kept happening, so everyone else started avoiding me. Had a teacher who knew about my track record too, he tried to make me get a haircut if I wanted to be accepted at Domino.

[And he previously mentioned during the Christmas meetup how Bobasa/Shadi identified him as 'evil' and kept him from helping find Atem's name out.]

I don't know what happened to the ring. There was a lot happening when Aigami got corrupted ad I didn't see what happened. I graduated and then got brought here a bit after that.

Sounds like you've just had bad luck all of your life since coming into contact with the Ring. Not that I'm surprised.

[Gods, public schools sound so stupid the more he hears about them. Hair regulations, are you kidding him...]

I see. I can only hope it was brought back to Egypt and properly sealed.

You mentioned the Spirit told you about Shadi, you know of the Kul Elna, and how the Items were created. What more do you want to know about them? Their specific functions?Or something else?

IC CONTACT | POKÉGEAR

A few days after prom

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private;

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