#jou needs some space or he will dead you

[trion-revolutionary]

Evening the Score, page 368

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure 01x05 - Lightning! Kabuterimon! / Kabuterimon's Electro Shocker

Previously on Digimon: We found drinking water, ate birdseed, and poured gasoline on a fire until it caused an integer overflow error and rolled over into zero. Also discovered that the true birdseed was the friends we made along the way. It was a good day.

But now it's time to leave the Pyocomon behind and get back on the road to... whatever might help us go home. File Island is no fun.

We join our cast at the end of a long hike. The younger kids are too exhausted to keep going, so we need to stop and take a break. We don't see Koushiro in this shot at all but he's resting with Mimi and Takeru in the next so we can probably assume which side he's on.

The dub adds context that we're going in circles, which is why everyone's so tired. In the original, they've just been walking for a long time.

Koushiro takes this as an opportunity to once again get his laptop up and running, but no dice. None of his electronics work on File Island. Taichi tries to help, but has a particular approach to IT... and about as much respect for other people's things as Haruhi Suzumiya.

Naturally, this gets him yelled at not only by Koushiro, but Sora also joins in to chew him out.

(Not okay, Taichi. What if you broke something? Where are we supposed to get replacement parts out here, the internet!?

...don't answer that.)

Suddenly, Taichi notices smoke on the horizon. Explaining nothing beyond the words "What's that?" Taichi suddenly runs off. The others shrug it off and decide he went to the bathroom or something.

Dub Tai is much more explicit in his communication. He explains that he sees smoke and is going to investigate. They still blow him off, with Joe claiming he has "the attention span of a gnat".

Unexpectedly, Koushiro's computer turns on. This is unexpected for two reasons; First, because there's no clear indication of why it suddenly works now. Second, as Koushiro quickly discovers, the battery is completely drained. There's no power to turn it on, and yet it runs.

The meaning of the blinking dead battery symbol is changed in the dub. The original plays this as eerie; The laptop has no battery so how is it running? The dub plays this as disappointing; The laptop has low battery so Izzy won't be able to use it. This sets Izzy on a quest to power on his laptop.

Before he has time to think about that, Taichi finds what he's looking for and calls them over.

Those smoke pillars meant exactly what he thought they did: A sprawling factory is laid out before them. Naturally, the kids descend into the factory to explore.

They find no people, but an assembly line of machines constructing... something. Jou, however, insists there must be people here somewhere; A factory like this can't be completely unmanned so we need to keep looking.

Like usual, Jou's determination to find other humans on File Island doesn't make it into the dub. Instead, Joe wants to find a cafeteria in the factory to get food from.

The kids split up; Taichi, Sora, and Jou head off one way while Yamato stays with Takeru, Koushiro, and Mimi and go another. As Taichi's group searches for human presence, they suddenly hear something.

They aren't sure where it's coming from but somebody's here. They can hear some kind of mechanical whirr and some sort of deep, echoing vocal noise. Taichi wonders aloud if that might be a person!

The dub flubs this just a bit; To fill dialogue space used for Jou insisting there must be people here, Biyomon instead calls out to the others, "Don't go any further in this direction!" That indicates that she knows the presence is over that way, making it odd when they all start looking around for it - and Biyomon specifically checks back the way they came.

We also don't hear the echoing voice in the dub; Instead, we hear metal clattering against metal. Tai announces with alarm, "Doesn't sound good!" Once again the dub team are quicker on the uptake and recognize the peril they're in, while the original kids are still holding out hope.

Meanwhile, Yamato's group finds the power supply room and discovers what's running this factory.

It's a super-sized battery plugged into the factory as if it were a TV remote or video game controller.

(It would be hell to change those out. Can you even imagine?)

While Koushiro's surprised to see that the factory runs on this weird system, Dub Izzy is more interested in using it for himself. He wonders aloud if there's a way he can hook it up to his laptop.

Still investigating, Tai's group comes upon this 'mon caught up in the gears of the factory. Gomamon ID's him as Andromon, and informs the others that he's highly evolved. Taichi asks if he's more evolved than Greymon, to which Gomamon answers yes, without a doubt.

(He's right, too. Andromon is a Perfect-stage Digimon, the stage beyond Adult. The kids aren't anywhere near that yet.)

Jou's disappointed that Andromon isn't human, but the kids still agree to help him anyway.

The dub cuts the discussion around Andromon being evolved beyond Adult-stage, though Agumon does say he's "very much advanced" which is open to interpretation. The rest of the conversation is spent agreeing that they should pull Andromon out of the gears.

They also, of course, cut Jou's disappointment about this being another Digimon; Joe complains, "My mom really doesn't want me moving any heavy objects; I've got bad knees," so Sora volunteers herself and Tai to do it without him.

Brief cut to Koushiro, who tells Yamato, Mimi, and Takeru to go on without him; He wants to stay here and investigate the battery further.

Meanwhile, Dub Izzy is still thinking about plugging his computer into the battery; He explains that if he can get it up and running, they can use his computer to call for help.

Meanwhile, Taichi's group begins pulling Andromon out.

(What happened to those bad knees, Dub Joe?)

Taichi loses his grip and falls back against that lever behind him, activating the machines he's stuck in. Unbeknownst to anyone, the machines insert one of those Black Gears from last episode into Andromon's fleshy cyborg leg, just before he comes loose.

Taichi attempts to apply some percussive maintenance, like he did for Koushiro's laptop, but Jou and Sora grab and restrain him. Taking cues from Taichi, Agumon smacks Andromon's head to bring him online.

It does not go well.

The narrator cuts in here to formally introduce Andromon. He's a Perfect-stage Data-type Cyborg Digimon, said to be the strongest among Digimon.

(I assume "on File Island" is a qualifier there because there are absolutely Digimon way more powerful than Andromon.)

Piyomon hits Andromon with Magical Fire to make him release Sora. He shrugs off her attack, then he lobs Sora into Taichi and Agumon, who catch her.

Taichi notices a bunch of metal beams being stored on the ceiling for some reason and has Agumon cut them down with a Baby Flame.

(I want to feel bad for him but he brought this OSHA violation on himself. If he stored his beams properly, this wouldn't have happened to him. Slacking off on safety protocols is how you end up caught in gears.)

Taichi's group takes this opportunity to run for it.

Back with Yamato's group, they've left Koushiro to investigate the power supply room and gone on without him, as requested. Mimi offers some wild speculation as to what the devices being assembled actually do.

Dub Mimi's similarly confused, but offers no speculation. Instead, she complains that there should be a tour guide to explain this stuff. "Ooh, maybe in a plaid outfit with a bullhorn!"

Meanwhile, Koushiro continues investigating the battery. He finds something most unexpected: A door? Why would a battery have a door? Dub Izzy is less confused by this, assertively calling it an "access panel to the interior operations!"

Opening it up, he enters and... it's wild.

Koushiro identifies the writing on these walls as computer code. He doesn't offer any particular programming language, just that it is one he recognizes. He runs his hand along one of the symbols, wiping away part of a letter as if it were fresh paint.

Instantly, the machines throughout the factory shut down in response to Koushiro disrupting their code.

Unfortunately, Taichi's group is still fleeing from Andromon when the lights suddenly go out. Taichi speculates that Andromon might not be able to find them in the dark if they creep away quietly. He's wrong; Andromon finds them immediately and we see from his perspective that he can see fine.

Andromon's signature move, Spiral Sword, spins his hand so fast it turns into a drill before slashing suddenly and creating a blade of pressured air. The dub calls this Lightning Blade.

While the kids narrowly avoid being cut apart by Andromon's Spiral Sword, we cut back to Koushiro and Tentomon. Koushiro laments that he broke the wrong part of the code. At Tentomon's suggestion, he takes out a sharpie and repairs the code, bringing the power back online.

As the machines come back online, Dub Mimi speculates that the factory didn't pay its power bill. XD Valid theory from her perspective.

Koushiro lays out for Tentomon why this is so bothersome. This is not how batteries work. The programming inside the battery is itself what's supplying power to the factory. Koushiro breaks out his laptop to further analyze the program.

(It's like a Sim City power plant. It looks like a power plant. It satisfies the electricity needs of the other programmed structures you lay down. But it's not a real power plant. It's just coded to look like one and to satisfy the coded electricity needs of the coded world. Koushiro and Tentomon are inside the code of this "battery" right now and seeing the true nature of its artifice.)

Meanwhile, dub Izzy is looking for a way out of the factory. "If I can decode this particular program, then I can trace its base functions and figure a way out of here!" This is peculiar because they aren't trapped here to begin with, but it's the beginning of what will be a plot point throughout this episode.

We cut briefly back to Taichi's group still dodging Spiral Swords from Andromon, and then return to Koushiro. Tentomon asks him about how happy he looks doing this; He's more motivated than he's been since Tentomon met him, in fact. Koushiro confirms that he's having a blast.

Tentomon doesn't get it. He asks what Koushiro gets out of this, and Koushiro explains that he gets knowledge. He wants to understand the secrets of this place and what the Digimon are. Tentomon isn't swayed by that; He doesn't really care about who or what he is, and he turns it around on Koushiro: Is he trying to solve the mystery of who he is?

Tentomon doesn't realize it, but that question triggers Koushiro. He flashes back on something he doesn't want to remember.

Though it's not explicitly stated, the subtext of this conversation he overhears from his parents is fairly obvious. Koushiro is adopted, and his parents haven't found the courage to break it to him yet. His parents agree to put it off a little longer; It'd be too much of a shock for him now. They don't know that they've already revealed it. And it is.

Dub Tentomon captures the spirit of the conversation, but with a lot more passive-aggression. He peppers Izzy in sassy backhanded remarks like "I admire the way you keep working while your friends are out having fun!" and "So you would rather spend your time with puzzles than with people?"

He also suggests that they're "trapped in a small room with no exit". I don't know where he got that idea from; There's a door. They came through the door. We occasionally see the door and it's still open like they left it. We're in here by choice 'cause Koushiro/Izzy wants to learn. But aside from that one line, this all works really well. Even the adoption conversation is adapted perfectly.

Back in the present, Tentomon snaps Koushiro out of his disassociation to let him know that some weird shit is happening to his computer screen.

The lines of code he'd been analyzed begin freely floating around the screen, and the light on his Digivice begins to blink.

Here, Dub Tentomon goes off-script to start ranting at Izzy that he's being irresponsible, playing around on his computer while his friends are in danger. This is not a thing they know, but Tentomon insists he can "feel it in [my] bones".

While Koushiro is learning, Mimi lets out an angry shriek from another part of the factory as she finally discovers what the place does with those machines it's assembling.

It sends them to conveyor belt which disassembles them for parts. Nobody offers any commentary beyond Mimi's angry shriek but honestly that's valid commentary in and of itself.

(The assembly and disassembly lines are my favorite part of this episode. It was not meant to be but it's such a scathing metaphor for the military-industrial complex when you think about it. We give hundreds of billions of dollars to defense contractors each year to do exactly this, and that makes me want to angry shriek when I think about it too.)

Back inside the battery's source code, the data moving around on Koushiro's screen begins to form into what appears to be a map of File Island. Dub Izzy's so excited, he officially abandons his alien theory.

However, before it can fully process, Tentomon begins overheating, crying out in pain. Koushiro checks his Digivice and sees that the little bar that rises and falls on it is filled to capacity and blinking.

He's forced to shut down the laptop for the sake of Tentomon's wellbeing. Once the laptop turns off, Tentomon stops glowing and burning, and his Digivice's meter returns to empty.

Meanwhile, Taichi's group escapes Andromon once again after Taichi makes an unbelievably brave leap from a scaffolding suspended dozens of feet in the air to a crane, and hooks Andromon with it.

Of note, Dub Andromon keeps demanding vengeance, presumably for Agumon banging on his head. This is not in the original, where he's a mostly-silent stalker except when he's firing his Spiral Sword or analyzing the kids. His Gear-corrupted systems label them intruders when we see things from his perspective, so he's trying to kill them based on that.

Dubs back in the day would often add dialogue just to fill space, on the assumption that kids would get bored if they go too long without hearing spoken words. So instead of a silent Terminator type marching through halls, we get cries of "ANDROMON WILL HAVE HIS VENGEANCE" whenever the camera's not on his face so you don't notice his lips aren't moving.

Up on the roof, Yamato, Mimi, and Takeru discuss what they've learned. Yamato lays it all out: The factory is a perpetual machine, disassembling the thing whatever it is for parts it can use to assemble the thing which it then disassembles for parts. Nothing is actually produced. This entire complex exists to make nothing.

The dub kids get the gist of this, though Matt's less confident than Yamato in his assessment. They also again suggest that they're trapped here which... is based on nothing? T.K. nervously says, "I hope there's a door," but Matt firmly states that there's no door because nothing ever leaves this place.

(Matt. My guy. There's a door. It's the one you came in through. We are not trapped in the factory; We're voluntarily poking around at stuff to learn what's what. Nobody is in any peril that they know of except Taichi's group.)

While Koushiro rejoins Yamato's group, we get a brief cut of Andromon cutting himself loose with a Spiral Sword air blade, curved around to hit the crane wire holding him.

Koushiro explains his findings: The factory is powered by a computer program; It's coded to have energy so it does. Extrapolating outwards, this means we presently exist in a world where data and programs become real, tangible things.

In the dub, we've already been calling this Digi-World since episode 1 so Izzy ratchets up the revelation: "In Digi-World, basic data and simple information are a living, viable substance; IT'S ALIVE!!!"

Before Koushiro can explain what he means, Taichi's group arrives and screams warnings to everyone. They're too late, though; Andromon erupts through the floor, turning on Yamato's group.

He wastes absolutely no time firing up his other signature attack to kill them with: Gatling Missiles. Yeah, Perfect-stage Digimon get two. That's not fair. This is Baby-stage Bubbles at Kuwagamon all over again.

As the group scatters, Yamato miserably fails his Big Brother check and leaves Takeru behind, frozen in terror. He realizes his mistake too late, but Gabumon evolves to Garurumon to shield Takeru from the blast. As he's evolving, the camera calls special attention to Koushiro noticing the data being output by Yamato's Digivice.

Garurumon swipes the Missiles away, destroying one of them. But the other recovers in the air and comes back for Taichi's group, revealing what exactly makes these Gatling Missiles.

With another shot of Koushiro noticing Taichi's Digivice glowing, Agumon evolves to Greymon to defend them from the gatling bullets. He smashes the missile with his tail. Their victory is short-lived, however, as Andromon proceeds to demonstrate the difference between Adult- and Perfect-stage Digimon.

This is not a winnable fight. They are all fucked beyond measure.

(Even if the whole team could evolve, this would still be a very hard fight. Remember that time the entire team of Child-stage Digimon tried to fight Kuwagamon and lost? Yeah. You really gotta party up if you want to take on a higher-stage Digimon.)

The kids watch in horror as Andromon easily takes Greymon and Garurumon apart. Yamato and Sora both chime in, acknowledging that they get what the whole "evolved at a stage beyond Greymon" thing from earlier means. He's so much stronger and faster than their guys; This fight is hopeless.

The dub didn't have that conversation earlier, so Sora has to offer this up as speculation. Dub Sora pegs his strength to being all-machine but adds, "It's almost like he's Digivolved far beyond the other Digimon!" Yeah. Almost like.

Out of desperation, Tentomon asks Koushiro to fire up that program he was looking at earlier. Koushiro acquiesces, firing it up and filling Tentomon with a surge of energy just like last time. But this time they let it go and don't resist it.

Tentomon SHINKAAAAAA!!!

Tentomon evolves into Kabuterimon, named for kabutomushi, the rhinoceros beetle. His arrival does little to change the tide of battle. Perfect-stage gonna Perfect, y'all.

Jou frantically wonders aloud if Andromon has any weaknesses, which gets Koushiro thinking. Scrutinizing Andromon carefully, he notices energy sparking out of his organic right leg and yells at Kabuterimon to focus fire on that.

The dub seems a little confused on this note; Izzy yells at Kabuterimon to "Cut his power! Demobilize his right leg and we'll interrupt his energy source!" which is making a lot of (wrong) assumptions about why we're shooting at his leg. Koushiro just says to shoot the leg and doesn't explain why.

Kabuterimon opens fire with his signature move, Mega Blaster. The dub calls this Electro Shocker.

Kabuterimon's shot hits home. It does jack shit to Andromon but it obliterates the Black Gear inside his leg, which forcibly emerges and flies into the air to explode like with Meramon. Instead of bursting into a cloud of smoke, however, we get to watch it disintegrate like a Final Fantasy monster.

With Andromon now liberated from the Black Gear, he unpacks what happened. He found the Gear stuck in the machinery of the factory and was trying to get it out when he got trapped like that. He doesn't actually know what it is or what happened any more than the kids do.

He's apologetic for what he did under its corruption and wishes he had more information for them, but he doesn't. He does, however, have a suggestion for how they should leave the factory, which may be where the dub got the idea that they're trapped here. He advises them to go through the sewers.

Dub Andromon skips the explanation and goes straight to apologizing. Though he still says he has little information for them and suggests using the "underground waterway" to "escape" from here. He also calls it a "labyrinth", which the original does not.

Andromon wishes them luck in returning to their world, which is now officially what we're calling it. Dub Tai promises to never forget Andromon. Then the kids make their way into the sewers.

As they're walking, Takeru strikes up conversation with Koushiro. He wants to know if the program Koushiro used to evolve Tentomon would work for Patamon as well. Dub T.K. has the same question but refers to evolving as "becoming a superhero".

Koushiro agrees to give it a try, but as he's typing, his laptop suddenly loses power. Taichi and Agumon both want to hit it, forcing Koushiro to comically protect his laptop from these two lunkheads.

As Taichi and Agumon comically hit each other, we close the episode on the group laughing at them. The narrator chimes in to foreshadow that Koushiro's laptop will be the key to solving the secrets of the world.

The dub's been having the characters narrate instead, but they don't even bother with this line. They just cut it outright. That's fair; It's kind of unnecessary.

Assessment: As a character-focus episode, this one works really well for Koushiro. The emphasis of the episode is on learning and information-gathering. We found something interesting so we start poking around to figure out what we can about File Island.

So far, each episode has focused on a particular trait of a character that's going to become important later down the road. For Koushiro, it's his intelligence and curiosity that not only drives his discoveries but fuels his Digimon's evolution.

This is a big episode for discovering the lore and understanding the mechanics of the Digital World, as befits a Koushiro episode. I particularly like the choice of a Perfect-stage Digimon for their adversary, forcing them into a situation where Koushiro has to solve the puzzle rather than defeat the bad guy.

The dub quality here is... serviceable. There's some lateral changes that just come across as different presentation choices, such as having Tai announce himself to the others more directly when he leaves the group. Also, some of the tension-relieving jokes they added got me, especially Mimi's "didn't pay the power bill" crack.

But there's definitely some changes I wouldn't have made. Cutting out the explanation that Andromon's evolved beyond the levels of Greymon and Garurumon confuses the matter of why they can't beat him. As a kid, I remember legitimately thinking that metal Digimon are just automatically the strongest because of this episode.

Also, they're still erasing Jou's character direction: To find humans so they can take us in and get us home. This leaves him with little to do but provide comic relief.

Nonetheless, the main character arc between Izzy and Tentomon mostly lands, even if they go a little too hard on Tentomon's disagreement with Izzy's way of life.

The dub version is a little lesser for the choices that they made, but not by too much, I think. It still hits most of the important beats and delivers the story it needed to tell, and that's what matters most.

[pomegranates-and-blood]

νοσταλγία (Chapter 22)

νοσταλγία Masterlist

Pairing: Ivar/Reader

Summary: This is a retelling/romantization of the Greek myth of Persephone’s abduction with Ivar as Hades and you as Persephone. The Reader character is a Byzantine woman, follower of the Greek Pantheon/Religion, and a devoted follower of Persephone. This takes place after 5A, but the universe of this is a little changed in relation with the series, of course. Thank you for giving it a chance, hope you enjoy!

Word Count: 3.3k

Warnings: The usual

A/N: Hi! I’m sorry, this chapter kinda jumps around a lot, like seven different things happen, I’m sorry. A few chapters are gonna be like this, I’m afraid.

Also, some things at the beginning refer to stuff mentioned/detailed in Ivar’s PoV, which will be uploaded on Tuesday, so any doubts regarding what is mentioned about those first few days after the wedding will hopefully be cleared up then. Regardless of that, I always welcome any and all questions, of course!

Thank you for reading, sorry for the long note, love ya!

Taglist: @youbloodymadgenius @heavenly1927 @toe-vind-ek-jou @xbellaxcarolinax @pieces-by-me @angelofthorr @samsationalwilson @peachyboneless @1950schick​

The celebrations for Ivar’s wedding last more than a few days, you lose count -refuse to count, if you are honest-. It proves to be…not as awful as you believed, to be his wife, to be queen.

You are still by no accounts used to people calling you that. You sooner grew used to Ivar calling you his wife -which he does, a lot- than to the people of Kattegat calling you their Queen.

Of course, Ivar has noticed. He is exceedingly good at noticing things about you, in a way that if you were a sane woman, would frighten you.

The ring you bear on your hand, you noticed once the blood was washed off, is engraved with runes you aren’t familiar with, but bears the design of branches and leaves. A wreath of flowers to wrap around your finger instead of being placed on your head.

The crown he gifted you on the first morning you spent as husband and wife is also skilled metalwork with the delicate motif of flowers. You asked why, and his answer was, simply enough, that he knows you like flowers.

On that same first morning he also pointed out he’s noticed your very deliberate intention to avoid having your hair braided in any way. It resulted in this silly game that still goes on, where you exchange a braid in your hair for the day for a question he must answer with the truth.

You’ve learned many things, and the thralls have been told to make intricate work of the braids he insists on seeing on you. You’ve learned more of Sigurd, and how he is somewhere in the Danes with an Earldom and a child on the way; you’ve learned of what happened with Margrethe when Ivar was younger, you’ve learned of his ambitions to be even more of a legend than his father ever was, you’ve learned of what he thought of you when he saw you across that battlefield.

And it is not just Ivar that has learned to notice things about the person at his side. You have grown keener to noticing the tells in his expression, in his voice, in his posture.

It is terrifyingly easy to find routine amidst all this madness. To find safety, peace.

It has always proven to be easy, when it comes to Ivar, for you to forget there’s a world past him. In Aneridge, the door to the hut closed and there were no Saxons, no dead and no living, no names. And now, here in Kattegat, you sit at his side on a throne of your own and there’s no chains, no past or future, no walls.

And now, in the borrowed time that it seems both you and Stithulf live in, there’s a freedom in being at his side you weren’t able to allow yourself before.

You know it should scare you, and sometimes it does. When easy steps guide you to him every night and familiar fingers run down your back unlacing your dress, you feel that in reveling in this familiarity, in being soothed by this strange peace, you betray your people, your home. When you slip under the furs of your shared bed and close your eyes and feel safe and warm and like you’d never want to leave, you are haunted by the question of why you deserve to choke with the hope you can still taste so long after the kiss you shared with Ivar, while Narses choked with the poison you fed him until the day he died.

____

You’ve realized many things, in these past few weeks.

Something they don’t speak of, something you frankly hadn’t considered before now; is how, regardless of your intentions, intimacy grows between two people that share most aspects of their lives, and every night they go to sleep together and wake up every morning together.

It makes you realize, the easy familiarity, the reluctant intimacy, that grow between you and Ivar, why it is so easy for arranged or unwanted marriages to fall into contempt, into resentment for one another.

Granted, that intimacy, that trust to close your eyes and trust you are safe even if alongside someone you did not want; it also explains the respect, the formal but honest affection you saw in the marriages of many elders back home.

If you are honest with yourself, which is something you’ve been trying to do more often, you know you will not grow to resent Ivar, you know you trusted him even before he became your husband.

No, you know -and fear, you fear to your very core- that all this familiarity, this intimacy, does is soften your foolish heart, make your chest fill with a warmth you shouldn’t feel in this land of cold.

But it doesn’t matter, you don’t have to make a choice, not yet. You don’t have to face what the choices you would have made would have said about you, for you didn’t make them; and you don’t have to face what this choice you could make says about you, because you haven’t made it yet.

It is a strange limbo to live on, a limbo that may last months or days or years, but you find you do not mind.

Point is, you’ve realized many things, in these last weeks.

This morning, as Ivar gets out of bed and in his absence lets the cold air enter the space he occupied before with no regard to your body so unused to Scandinavia’s cold, you also realize why so many women kill their husbands.

You grumble curses in your own tongue as you burrow further under the furs, and you could swear he huffs a laugh in response. Regardless of your reluctance, you know you are to get up soon as you hear the thralls walk in and leave the platters and pitchers on a nearby table.

You quickly prepare and let the infusion of red clover and chickweed sit before you skip your way over frozen ground to the dress you quickly fasten around you.

With your feet in the warm shoes and your body covered in something more than a flimsy nightgown that does nothing to protect you from the cold, you go along with what, surprisingly enough, has become another familiar routine for you since becoming his wife.

Turning your back to Ivar you fasten an earring as he tightens and ties the laces at the back of your dress.

Taking one hand off his task, he touches the hanging pendant that now adorns your ear, and asks,

“These are new.”

“A gift,” Before he can ask from whom, because of course he would, as if someone would be stupid enough to try and court Ivar the Boneless’ wife, you shrug, “A shieldmaiden gave them to me.”

“Why are you surprised? You are their Queen; they should want to earn your favor.”

With a shrug, you offer the only truth you can, “They don’t hate me, your people. I thought they would.

You sigh, and work on putting your other earring as you think on how to say this.

“I want you t-…” You stop yourself, and clearing your throat start over, “I have noticed that you shouldered a responsibility that was supposed to be mine, and I know-…Life hasn’t changed much for me or for the people here since I’ve become their queen, and…I know it is part of the reason they don’t hate me,” You straighten your head as Ivar finishes lacing up the dress, and turn around to face him. “I want you to know I am grateful.

But because pride wins, you join your hands in front of you and add,

“This could all have been avoided if you hadn’t forced me to marry you, of course. But, regardless, I…”

“You are welcome.” He interrupts you, his expression in equal parts exasperated and smug as he silences you.

You take a seat and wrap cold fingers around the hot drink, lifting your feet from the floor and bringing your knees closer to your chest.

Choosing to test how well you’ve taught Ivar your language, and how well he’s taken to understand it, you start, slowly and enunciating clearly,

“How far along are we from winter?”

He replies with a smug smile and a tilt of his head,

“A month, at most.”

“Your Greek is getting better.” You reply, knowing pride seeps through your voice.

“Your Norse is still that of a Greek.” He taunts without missing a beat, and you roll your eyes even if your own lips betray a smile.

The doors to your rooms open and you are startled into attention. Prince Ubbe stalks into the room, muddied and battle-worn, but his eyes, and his rage, are settled on his brother.

The Prince departed what you’d like to say is two -three?- weeks ago, shortly after the wedding, to follow a trail further North with a small army. Ivar ordered him to, even if you know Stithulf will retreat to Strepshire.

As to why Ubbe was sent North, you don’t know. Maybe Ivar knew of some route to some village, maybe he knew something he didn’t share with you or his brothers. You don’t know.

What you do know, is that Prince Ubbe has returned and apparently has done so with a lot of pent up anger. You lower your legs back to a proper position, and stay silent and still as you wait for an explanation as to why the Viking barged into your rooms.

Ivar smiles, the cruel visage of the King of Kattegat as he starts to play, “Welcome back, brother. What did you find?”

The other man snarls, “Nothing. Not a fucking trail, Ivar. The Saxons are not traveling North, and we just gave them all the time they needed to get away.”

But Ivar doesn’t seem phased at all, shaking his head with a knowing and mocking smile.

“I know. They are moving for Strepshire.” He assures. You frown his way, begging him silently to stop being so fucking secretive.

The Prince finally takes notice of you, and a wide gesture of a big and dirtied hand towards where you sit precedes his loud words,

“Why are you so certain? Don’t tell me it’s because of what your witch tells you, brother, be-…”

Ivar interrupts him, mocking smile dimming and seriousness settling in his features, even as he speaks with gesturing hands and raised eyebrows, “Because my wife was right. If they think we are not pursuing them they will move. I sent men disguised as merchants to travel the area, and while your little army made noise on the other side, they caught the Saxons moving for Strepshire.”

You are startled into silence, and for a moment you think so is his brother. Counting on his vitriol and his reluctant agreement with many of the things you say when the Vikings argue of the war against Stithulf and his men, you never expected Ivar to take your words to mind when planning his next move, not truly.

Prince Ubbe’s expression starts to switch from an enraged snarl and the eyes of a man raging over presumed failure; to realization and a hint of a surprised smile hidden under his beard.

“You sent me on a blind chase,” He huffs, fond exasperation in his voice, “You little shit, you could have told me the purpose was to distract them.”

Ivar shrugs, even if the mocking and mirth is still on his eyes, the tension between the brothers seems to lessen.

“It wouldn’t have been as convincing, brother.”

Half-hearted curses flow from Ubbe’s lips as he clasps one hand roughly on his younger brother’s shoulder, shaking the other Viking as he laughs. You have a feeling secrets of blood shared flow between them in those brief interactions, so you lower your gaze to your red clover and chickweed infusion and watch the herbs twirl.

“Witch,” The Prince calls, and you lift your gaze. With a sigh, he amends, using your name instead of the unwanted title before he continues, “I do value your counsel,” Your skepticism shows in your face, for the man huffs a short laugh and corrects, “I should value it.”

“Thank you, Prince Ubbe.”

The older man takes his leave and when Ivar returns his gaze from the door to you, he frowns when faced with your wide smile.

“What?”

“You trust me.” You boast, a giggle leaving your lips. Ivar rolls his eyes in response, taking some almonds from a platter in the table and eating as you still stare at him with a smile.

“You are a strange woman.” He mumbles in response, but you shrug.

“I have been called worse,” Seeing he refuses to acknowledge your words, you insist, “And you trust me.”

Ivar’s eyes narrow, “I don’t trust easily.”

Whether that is a rebuttal of your claim or a warning to honor his trust in you, you cannot know for certain. Instead of giving him an answer, you offer a smile and drink from the almost scalding infusion.

____

“If we reach out to Sigurd, we can get a legal claim on that land, our people can-…”

“We don’t need a legal claim if we erase the Saxons from the earth, Ubbe. We can gather a bigger army, we can return to York, start raiding from there again.” The King interrupts his brother, and the other man is quick to jump into a discussion. The Prince’s voice raises, his hands gesture wildly, and of course it all is returned tenfold by the King.

Your eyes travel from Ivar to his oldest brother, back and forth as the two argue on and on and on and…

It has surely been too long of this, and you have only been here a couple of months. Hvitserk, on the other hand, has been dealing with this for Hera knows how long. He may be close to planning a coup and murdering both of his brothers, and you cannot say you would blame him.

You find Hvitserk’s gaze across the table, a middle ground between the two sons of Ragnar here in Kattegat in more ways than one. While Ivar yells for the army and resources to move for Wessex again and Ubbe argues with gritted teeth about earning more land to settle North; Hvitserk bites into an apple, granting you a half-hearted shrug in response to the rising voices of his brothers.

You hide your own smile behind the rim of your cup as you drink. Soon enough you and the Prince find yourselves discreetly battling for dominance as you throw almonds to battle his cashews, playing in turns to try and throw the pieces carefully so that they push the enemy pieces off the imaginary board.

The game evolves and changes, and after a while you are breathing little laughs as you try aiming some dried fruits and nuts into Hvitserk’s open mouth.

You ready another throw of a dried piece of some strange fruit, but a hand grabbing onto your wrist stops you. You lift startled eyes to meet Ivar’s enraged ones.

“Would you two stop acting like fucking children?” He growls, eyes jumping between you and his brother.

“We are having fun, brother,” Hvitserk answers around a mocking smile, drinking from his cup before adding, “Not that you would know what it is.”

You keep your gaze on Ivar’s profile as you pointedly tug your wrist out of his grasp, even as his attention remains on his brother.

“Hivtserk…” Ubbe sighs, and you watch him drag a hand over his face.

“What?” The other Prince shrugs, defiant before he turns eyes to the King. “He keeps her chained to his side, like some pretty bird in a cage. Least he could do is keep her happy.”

“So you’ll be the one to keep your brother’s wife happy?” Ubbe presses with a shake of his head, “Just shut up and eat.”

“I kept yours pretty happy, didn’t I, Ubbe?”

Instead of letting the conversation between the Princes go on, Ivar asks, cruel and cold but you know there’s more anger to him than his tone lets on,

“You want to fuck her, is that it?”

Well, that wasn’t what you were expecting. You turn wide eyes from the King to his brother, but Hvitserk only smiles slightly, completely calm.

“Ivar!” You hiss quietly, but he doesn’t even turn to you.

“All of Kattegat wants into her bed, brother,” Hvitserk replies, drawling out the words, “But you know this already.”

Ivar shows a smile as cold as it is feral, and even if it is not directed at you -thankfully- you still feel a thrill of cold run down your spine. Not so difficult to imagine, if that’s how he looks at his own brother, why the people of Kattegat fear their warlord King.

“And do you?” Ivar insists, making you frown.

“I didn’t take you for the sharing kind, brother.” Hvitserk replies easily, a merciless sort of mischief shining in his warm eyes.

“Stop this,” You warn, raising your voice a bit and dreading the few eyes that turn to look. Glancing at the Prince in silent admonishment, that he surprisingly accepts by lifting a hand in silent surrender; you then turn to your husband and state lowly, “It does not matter, I married you. I am your wife and I will not be spoken of as a slave to be passed around.”

He shakes off the touch of your hand on his arm, a gesture you didn’t even realize you did. Not noticing you had reached out to touch him, it shouldn’t hurt as it does to see him reject you, but it does.

“I think it’s time you go prepare for tonight’s feast, wife.” He dismisses without even looking at you, cold fury in his voice.

Even though you did nothing wrong, even if it is not your fault his temper flares without warning or motive; he dismisses you like an unwanted pet.

You grit your teeth and beg to Persephone, Freyja and all the Gods that your eyes do not betray the furious and powerless tears even if your eyes sting as you stand up and walk away.

The Gods made you many things, but none of the things you are would walk out with lowered eyes, with your head downcast, letting a man forget what he has done when trying to silence you.

____

When you are summoned to stand alongside Ivar for the start of the feast, you walk in with your head held high and what is sure to be what Sieghild called your Athenian nobility shining through in every step you take.

You cross your legs, and tilt your head to the side. Your mother very obviously bristles at the display.

“Narses will follow my-…”

“Commands?” Galla interrupts, sly smile on full lips.

“Advice. He will refuse to negotiate with the Saracens,” You insist, before shrugging, “There are no pacts-…”

“Don’t say it.” Sieghild warns, but you ignore it.

“Between lions and men.” You finish with a smug smile. Your mother sighs in exasperation, rolls her eyes and drops her head to the back of the chair she sits in.

“Gods above. I dread to imagine the kind of uptight little monster you’d be if I hadn’t been the one to raise you.” Sieghild grunts.

“Yes, thank you, Sieghild. You raised a noble-blooded Athenian with the courage of a Varangian. A delightful woman to be around, especially when she doesn’t get her way.” Galla grumbles before standing up with a curse, and you frown.

“Hey, I can hear you, both of you.”

You bow your head in greeting to the Princes and King, and you could swear Ubbe and Hvitserk share a look between them, but say nothing.

Once the people are distracted enough, Ivar leans towards you from his place on the throne and states, “You are angry with me.”

“What a perceptive man you are, truly.”

“Don’t mock me, it won’t end well for you.”

“What will you do? Humiliate me in front of everyone?” You intone with a tilt of your head, furious eyes set on his.

____

Hope you liked this, would love to hear your thoughts on this! As for why this was the mess that it was, idk, my writing either drags on and on or is a convoluted mess, I don’t have a middle ground it seems. I’m very sorry if this chapter is a shabby one, I did my best. Thank you for reading, have a nice day/night! <3

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

The Fight

Excuse me...You look like you’re around this area pretty often. Three nights ago, did you see a man in a white fedora head into the batting cages?

Hm. Can’t say for sure...What are you a police officer or something...

W-Well...something like that...

Hey, do you have a moment? I’m looking for info on a person. Recently, did you see a blonde man in a white fedora with a pencil mustache and goatee come by here?

Hey, trying to work here missy. Get lost...

Guess that’s not much of a lead...

Excuse me?

Hm? What’s wrong?

Do you have a moment? A few nights ago, a man in a white fedora stopped by the batting cages. Did you perhaps see anything?

Hm...Well, I can’t say I saw a man with anything like that. There’s a lot of people with weird fashion choices like that around these parts. Although...Sorry, how many nights ago exactly was he around?

About three. Why?

Well, I heard some drunkard smacked down a passing civilian that night.

A drunk man knocked someone down?

Yeah, but I don’t think he was hurt too badly. He was screaming angrily about it for half an hour or so though. I’m pretty sure this happened around midnight.

So that night, somebody was assaulted?

I came to check things out myself, but the guy was already long gone by that point.

Any idea who the man who got attacked was?

I could swear I recognized him from somewhere, but...I can’t really tell. He looked mostly like your average jou.

Thanks for your cooperation. Have a good evening sir.

Not much of a lead then...Guess I’d better contact Ms Kirigiri.

[Future Foundation Branch 1. Branch Chief Office]

So, in short, we’re fresh out of leads.

I’m sorry Ms Kirigiri...I tried...

I already told you, Kyoko is fine...

I can’t refer to you so casually after I failed you...

You didn’t fail anyone Shuichi. In the very least, you found out more information than I did.

*Kyoko opens the door to her office.

Hey...

Makoto? I thought you’d have left hours ago...

Sayaka went back home, but I figured if I did the same, I’d just collapse. I did go out for a bit of fresh air though.

So instead, you’re in here, drinking my juice?

Sorry...got thirsty...

Oh well...Are all of the files done, or is there anymore for me to help with.

All done, no worries.

Anyway, how did the investigation go? What’s the situation?

They’ve got Shuichi and I gathering evidence for a murder trial. Turns out Koichi Kizakura went and got himself arrested...

What!?

A member of the Crazy Diamond biker gang organisation was found half-decapitated behind a nightclub.

We dropped by the holding center to talk to him. He claims he’s innocent, so we went around looking for information. We didn’t find anything solid though.

That’s...one hell of a case you’ve got on your hands...Do you need any help with it?

I’m sure we can handle it.

Well, if things get dicey, then let me know. I’ll jump in and help whenever you need.

Will do, thanks.

For now though, I think we should all go home and get some rest. I’m sure you, Maki and Himiko have some catching up to do, right Shuichi?

Yeah, I wonder how they’re going to react to all this...

Goodnight you guys. See you in the morning.

Night...

*The next morning. Kyoko is sitting at her desk in her office spacing out when suddenly she gets a phone call.

Hello? Detective Kyoko Kirigiri of Future Foundation Branch 1?

Um...Hello Ms Kirigiri...It’s me. We met yesterday, do you remember?

Ms Midori Yamaguchi I presume?

Y-Yes, it’s me. Listen, sorry to do this so out of the blue, but I’m currently at a cafe in the city. I can send you the address, so can you and your sidekick meet me there? I have some important information about the case.

A bit impromptu of you Ms Yamaguchi, but very well. I’ll contact Shuichi and meet you there in an hour.

[Unnamed City, Unnamed Cafe, 10:01]

Hey! We’re over here. Pull up a chair.

Officer Shinogi!?

Yep, your good old friendly policeman's here. Sorry if I’m a bother.

It’s not that, just...is there any reason you’re here?

I’m the one with the info. Ms Yamaguchi’s already seen what I’ve shown her...

I figured it would be better if he’s here. He can explain some things that I can’t.

I see. Very well then. Thank you for your cooperation officer.

No prob...

*Shuichi pulls up two chairs, one for him and one for Kyoko.

Ok, so...You guys go first. Did you go to the batting cages?

We asked around that area. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anyone who could back up Koichi Kizakura’s alibi.

I see. Well, thank you regardless, and good work, both of you.

So, why did you call us out here? Some new info?

Take a look at this...

*Officer Shinogi slides a phone to the two detectives.

The police released this to the public late last night. It’s security camera footage that shows outside the Mighty Anchor.

Mr Kizakura and Mr Isao are both in this video, clear as the sky.

*Midori plays the footage. It shows Kizakura running into a bunch of men in leather jackets, ranging from different sizes. All of them have the same emblem on the back. After learing at each other for a minute or two, Kizakura takes a swing at one of them, and hits him dead in the face. In response, the other gang members start beating down on him, while the one who was punched barks orders at the others and then walks down the street away from the chaos. The footage then shows one of the gang members waving the others inside. The other gang members then drag Kizakura’s brusied body inside the club. Soon after they’re out of sight, panicked people start pouring out of the building. When this is done, Midori pauses the footage.

See that guy beckoning the others into the club? That’s Isao.

I see. This is rock solid evidence of Koichi and the gangs fight.

Hm...I’m already noticing an inconsistency.

What’s that?

When we last spoke to him, Mr Kizakura told me that the fight happened, and the Crazy Diamonds started it.

But it seems that wasn’t the full truth. Kizakura very clearly takes the first swing here. Even if the gang threatened him, it’s clear he’s the one who turned it into a physical brawl.

Yes, you’re right. It’ll be hard for Koichi to talk his way out of this one...

But I have a question. That person with the spiky hair who got punched and started walking away...

Who is he?

About that...That guys name, is Eje Karma. He’s not just a run of the mill member of the gang either. He’s the entire gangs unanimously appointed leader.

He’s...the gangs leader?

Kizakura said as much. He said that their leader had been on the scene with them. Karma’s pretty much the duke of that entire area. He’s such a huge public menace, that even the area’s police are too afraid to go near him.

Be that as it may, I still had him questioned. Didn’t find out anything key though, since he kept dodging the question. Also, at the time, he had several of his goons with him. We wanted to avoid a fight, so we didn’t press for much.

What I’d like to know is how the Crazy Diamonds are able to have such an impact on a whole area. They’re a biker gang, not a yakuza group. Do you suppose they have some kind of hideout in the area?

That must be it. But that’s not all the information that we have.

There’s more?

Yup...This foootage was found at about 10 o’clock, apparently exactly the time Kizakura said this went down. But here’s the thing...I’m about to fast forward the footage to an hour later...

*He does so and the footage shows something else.

What’s going on here?

At this point in time, everyone who was in the bar, except for the barista himself, have left the facility. But an hour after Kizakura’s dragged into the bar, the Barista himself, alongside four other members of the gang, leave the building. That means the only people in the building at this point in time...

Are Koichi Kizakura and Kawaguchi Isao...

Why would Isao decide to stick around?

Who knows? I try not to understand the mentality of thugs like that...

Wait a second...

What?

You said the first footage was recorded at 10pm, and the second was an hour later. That means everyone left the bar and left the two of them alone at 11pm.

But if what the files I’ve read on the case state is true, Isao was murdered at 1am at the earliest and 3am at the latest.

Then there’s a minimum 2 hour gap!

What do you suppose Kizakura and Isao were doing during that wide time frame?

Mr Kizakura told me that as soon as the situation became one on one, he recovered and started fighting back. As soon as he saw an opening, he took it, and won their fight.

But he claims that he just beat him around and knocked him out. He didn’t kill him.

If that’s the case...then what did Kizakura do with Isao’s unconscious body?

I feel if we ask him, he’ll answer by saying he just left him there. However, he claims that that fight was the last time he ever saw Isao, and he also said that he woke up inside the bar after the barista helped him get healthy again. If that’s the case, then clearly he either got up and left, or someone else moved him.

After that, Koichi left the club and headed straight to the batting cages. He burst in and at some point, passed out. He woke up at four in the morning, an hour after the predicted time-frame of death.

Well, I can’t keep playing a case like this too close, since I’m on the local force and whatnot, but I’ve got a thing that could help you find out more about this, Detective.

What’s that Officer?

You see this guy?

*Shinogi points to a certain person in the video footage.

This guy is the barista that runs the nightclub. The police have got him down at the club itself, so you can go down and ask him a few questions.

I see. In that case, we’ll head there right away. Thank you officer.

Good luck Ms Kirigiri. If you find out anything, let me know.

Thank you for your help Ms Yamaguchi and Officer Shinogi.

[lafeae]

Prompt: Black Eye

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!

Characters: Jounouchi Katsuya, Kaiba Seto

For: @badthingshappenbingo

Words: 1168

Jounouchi didn’t want to make a big deal of a black eye. When he walked into class his normal amount of late, he kept his head down. It was easier to take the verbal berating and slip into his seat than it was to lift his head up and argue with Sakamoto-sensei. It didn’t do him much good anyways, so why bother?

The entirety of the maths lecture, Jounouchi wasn’t mentally there. He was more interested in poking at the rough bruising that marred his left eye, jabbing with the tips of his fingers (and his pen) until his eye flinched. It hurt more than the other knotty bruises. Maybe it was because everyone could see the eyesore (no pun intended, he said to himself).

It didn’t help kept catching Kaiba staring at him like a freak.

“Stick your nose where you shouldn’t have, mutt?” Kaiba asked near the end of the lecture.

“Piss off.”

“Hmph.”

Of course, Kaiba wasn’t the only one that noticed. He saw Yuugi turning his way, throwing questioning glances that seemed to triangulate between Honda and Anzu, all of whom made some half-assed attempts at talking to him before being reprimanded. Why was it Kaiba that was close enough to antagonise him? Damnable alphabetised seating...why the hell did they even use a Romanized alphabet?

And Kaiba just kept jabbing him about it. Asking him what he did. “Piss off,” only went so far.

Jounouchi wasn’t even sure what hurt worse. The black eye or Kaiba’s ridiculous pestering. Why the hell did moneybags care? It wasn’t like he as so persistent when it was a fight. Then again, Jounouchi was more direct when it came to getting in scuffles on the street. That was different. That was just going into the wrong turf or passing up Hirutani without greeting him properly. Stupid things. He was proud of those scars; it wasn’t like Hirutani ever bested him for long.

In boredom, Jounouchi rested his cheek in his hand and poked it almost rhythmically, until his eye filled with tears. He didn’t know why he did it. Glutton for punishment, he guessed.

“It’s only going to make it worse, you know,” Kaiba said. The bell for lunch rang.

Jounouchi sneered. “The hell you care?”

“I figured you had enough brain cells to know otherwise.” Kaiba left before Jounouchi could reply.

At lunch, he was happy to drift into random conversation with his friends, picking off their lunch trays evenly. They never seemed to mind. His pocket money had went towards rent this week. Someone had to keep a roof over his and his Old Man’s head. And it wasn’t his Old Man.

“Are you okay Jou-kun?” Anzu asked.

Jounouchi sucked the salt from his fingers. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. You’re just not too talkative today.”

“I just slept funny,” he said, and grabbed a bottled juice from Honda’s tray, pressing it to the side of his face, close to the bruise. The coolness was nice, even if it wouldn’t last. “It’s been gettin’ hot out there; hard to sleep when you’re suffocatin’.”

They group agreed. But there was a passive glance from Yuugi, a beleaguered smile and a pat on the arm, that suggested he knew. They all knew, Jounouchi reasoned. Otherwise he would have been strutting his scars like a peacock, regaling his heroic tale. Silence was sort of an unspoken rule with them. Anzu would still ask, just to be sure, and that was about it.

“You wanna stay at my place tonight, Jou-kun?” Yuugi offered. Kaiba glided by in that instant, sparing the smallest of looks at Jounouchi. The blond flipped him off before looking back to Yuugi, confused. “I have a fan. You’ll....probably sleep better.”

“Nah, I’m good. Thanks though, Yuug’,” Jounouchi said. Honda stole his juice back. Anzu proffered hers after.

“I think the heat’s makin’ Kaiba extra weird today, too,” Honda said. “He’s like...staring at the back of your head Jou.”

Jounouchi rolled his eyes. “He don’t need an excuse.”

“I’m just sayin’.”

Jounouchi narrowly looked over his shoulder, catching where Kaiba sat by himself. Most of his focus was on his laptop, but occasionally he would look up at Jounouchi with a dead-eyed stare. Like he was looking through Jounouchi’s soul.

Jounouchi shivered. “I’m about t’ moon him.”

“Don’t. You’ll get in trouble,” Anzu said.

“Worth it.”

But Jounouchi didn’t. He didn’t want to give Kaiba anymore ammo to stare or be curious. Even though the black eye was probably the darkest bruise he had on his body, it wasn’t the only one. It wasn’t the only scar, either. The less questions from the prick, the better.

By the end of the day, he was ready to run out of the school. “We all going to my place?” Yuugi asked as they headed for the door.

“Yeah. Go on ahead, I’m jus’ puttin’ my stuff up,” Jounouchi said. He was already trying to cram his books into his locker. He elected to do his homework during homeroom, anyways. He needed fun to distract himself.

Jounouchi slammed the locker closed and pivoted to leave. Instead, he panicked backwards. Someone stood ridiculously close to his personal space, enough for him out his arms up to block. “The hell’s your problem?” He asked, and then realised it was Kaiba. His arms fell by his side. “Christ, Kaiba...I need t’ put a bell on you or somethin’.” Kaiba arched a brow. “What do you want?”

“What happened, Jounouchi?”

Jounouchi clenched his teeth. “None of your business, moneybags. Now, if ya don’t mind, I gotta get goin’.”

Jounouchi went to step around Kaiba, only to be forced back by a thin hand clutching his shoulder. Surprised, Jounouchi looked down at Kaiba’s pencil thin fingers as they dug into his shoulder. It was a strangely warm grip. A knowing, comforting grip, that lasted for half a second before Kaiba’s hand drifted down and nudged Jounouchi back, making space between them.

Silently, Kaiba rifled through his satchel. The touch had entranced Jounouchi enough to watch, and he was further confused when Kaiba pressed ice pack into his hand, followed by a small unmarked make-up jar. “Ice for pain. Salve for swelling. Ask the friendship girl for foundation.”

“Eh?”

“Don’t say I never did anything for you,” Kaiba said. Jounouchi squeezed the ice pack.

Kaiba brushed by him, and Jounouchi snapped out of his trance. “The hell’s wrong with you Kaiba?” But Kaiba disappeared around a corner, almost like a ghost.

Jounouchi looked back down at the ice pack and bit his lip. None of this made sense. And no one would believe him if he told them that Kaiba had managed to somehow be magnanimous. He constantly wondered why. A prick being kind?

The ice pack was pressed to his eye. Jounouchi looked back and smiled a bit to himself. Somehow...he had a feeling Kaiba got it.

He could deal with that. Maybe.

Kaiba was still a prick.

[bluejaytaco]

Superhero AU (8)

Still going strong! Read it here under The Failings of Project Millenium on AO3 or see everything under the Superhero AU tag here!

He could hear some kind of girlish giggle.

For a moment it was as if he were floating alone in a void. Nothing touched him; it was almost like he was falling in slow motion.

Jounouchi looked up and found his eyes locked on a woman in a cat mask. Through it, he could see glowing blue eyes. He looked around to see the void he was floating in was attached to her.

She gently placed him on his feet but continued to float herself.

“Hello.” Her voice was young and soft. Her long pale hair flowed in the air as if they were in water. She looked like a ghost in a black mask.

“Uhhhh,” Jounouchi said, at loss for real words.

The giggling came back. It surrounded him.

“You are a good person, Jounouchi Katsuya. And your influence on all of us has been a great one.”

“All of you?”

She nodded and finally touched the ground. “With the presence of Horus and Ra, we can finally see all the outside influences. The people who changed us without the need for the powers within.” She touched his chest. “Sadly, to communicate as I do now and to survive that last attack, you needed to gain something from... well, Set is fond of calling him 'Patient Zero.' When he's not present to hear it, of course.”

“Lady, I don't wanna sound rude or anything, but you're confusing the Hell out of me.”

“In time, it won't. The Mother can see it; we will all find peace.” She sighed and shook her head. “And that includes you with your feelings for Set.” She lifted her mask.

Jounouchi lost all the air in his lungs. She was beautiful. As pale and delicate-looking as a lily. She looked like the statue of a goddess he'd seen in books come to life. Maybe that's exactly what she was; he couldn't be sure.

She smiled kindly and took Jou's face in her hands. She gently pressed her forehead to his. “They referred to me as Subject Bast. From now on, I will help guide you.” She released him a second later and backed up. “Take care of him, Jounouchi Katsuya.”

Jounouchi opened his mouth but all the words fled as he felt a familiar sensation of waking up. She was fading and getting further away. “Hey, wait!”

Jounouchi blinked dumbly as he stared up at a stark white ceiling. He could feel the bed against his back and a mask on his face.

Hospital. He was in the hospital. That made sense.

He turned his head to see a chair pulled next to his bedside. Kaiba was sitting by, legs crossed and head propped up on his fist. His eyes were closed and his breathing was at a soft, even pace.

Jou snorted. “So, you can't turn it off either.” He looked back up at the ceiling and smiled. “Typical.” By the light outside, it looked to be dawn. If that was the case, it was possible Kaiba sat there the entire night.

He would expect that out of anyone else. His sister, Yugi, even Ryo. But Kaiba? Not anymore. Not after...

Jounouchi's smile tensed and quivered as he felt a sob escaped. He blinked the tears from his eyes. “You're such an asshole.”

Kaiba slowly opened one eye but said nothing.

-

Yugi paced in the waiting room. By this time, he'd chewed his fingernails to nubs as all the concern for his best friend flooded in and bounced around his brain. Everyone else had left after a bit of persuasion. Shizuka was pulled away with the promise of an update as soon as Jounouchi woke up. Ryo had to fill Bakura in on everything that happened. Anzu had to go back home to talk to the police about the situation. Mokuba was convinced to leave by Kaiba before the older one walked into Jounouchi's room, despite the doctors and nurses attempts to kick him out.

Atem was dragged away by one of Kaiba's men with Mokuba but was back at the hospital an hour later. He leaned against the wall and watched Yugi. “He's going to be fine.”

Yugi let out a soft laugh. “Yeah, I guess.” He turned and looked at Atem. “Who was that?”

“B-” Atem pursed his lips and thought better of calling the other by his name. No reason for this to spread too far. “Anubis.”

Yugi tensed at the name.

Atem looked down at the floor. “He's... another one of the results from the Project. The most dangerous one of all.”

The story he was told flashed in his mind as Yugi nodded. “Grandpa told me... He tried to kill you.”

Atem snorted and smirked. “He failed.”

“But you're still afraid of him because of that...”

The smirk faded.

“...And now Jounouchi is laying in a hospital bed because of him.”

That hit much harder than Yugi may have intended. Atem swallowed thickly. Jounouchi had done what he could to protect them. Uncaring that, out of everyone in that house, he was the one who probably could have used the protection. Atem sucked in a deep breath. “Your grandfather was right not to trust me.”

Yugi blinked and turned to look at Atem. “Yeah, I guess he was in a way.”

Atem pursed his lips into a thin line.

“But that doesn't mean you get to leave and forget about me.”

He blinked and looked back up. Yugi was staring at him, eyebrows furrowed and a deep set frown.

He uncrossed his arms as Yugi stepped closer and got in his personal space. A warm feeling pooled over him.

“We're too far in this to pull back now.”

Atem blinked before he remembered himself and relaxed. “I guess you're right.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Even if I stay away from you, Anubis could find you.”

“I was more referring to the fact I don't want to break this off but yeah, I guess that works too.” Yugi pulled back as a blush found its way to his cheeks.

Atem felt his face heat up as well. “Are you saying you care more about our friendship than you do about Anubis coming to kill you?”

“Crazy, isn't it?”

“A little.”

Yugi laughed softly and shrugged. “I guess that just describes me perfectly.”

The door to the waiting room flew open. They both looked over at Kaiba and the CEO glared at Atem. “I thought you went home.”

“I came back when Mokuba went to sleep.”

He sneered. “Of course you did.” He turned his attention to Yugi. “The idiot's awake now. He wants to make sure you're okay.”

“Make sure I'm okay?!”

Kaiba gestured to the door and Yugi immediately ran in. He then turned and looked at Atem when the third party was out of earshot.

Atem looked back up at Kaiba and sighed. “Alright. I'm willing to consider that Bakura could be Anubis.”

“Oh? Am I allowed to have that one? How kind of you.” He ignored the dirty look from Atem and glared into the middle distance. “What happened can't be allowed to happen again.”

“It doesn't have to. We know where Bakura went. We can get the mask back and destroy it.”

“We should also consider terminating the wielder as well.”

The suggestion was met with silence.

“Atem,” he growled in warning.

“Kaiba, we can't just kill him.”

“Why not? He has no problem trying to kill us. We'd be doing everyone a favor.”

“Not Ryo.”

“Ryo can go with him. Thousand yen says he knew about all of this. Two thousand says he's one of us.”

Atem grunted and looked away.

“I don't hear you arguing.”

He shoved a hand in his pocket and pulled out two bills. He glared at Kaiba as he pushed it into his hand. “I'm not an idiot, Kaiba.”

“Are you sure?”

The glare deepened. “I won't hear any more of this. We take the Anubis mask but Bakura lives.”

“I didn't come here to negotiate with you.”

“No, you came here to tell me how things would be, then you're suddenly surprised when I don't agree. This isn't a negotiation because I won't let it happen any other way; plain and simple.”

Kaiba let out a snort. “Then you better be there to stop me.” He turned to walk away.

“Why? Because you'll finally become the monster your father was trying to create?”

He froze as his hand pressed against the door. He stared at the glass. In the reflection, he could make out the faint lines of Atem. He had crossed his arms.

Kaiba's fingers curled into a fist as he pushed off the door and glared darkly at Atem. “How dare you-”

“Also! Just for your list of people with my abilities within them? Jounouchi can be added as of today. I'm sure he'd like to know what your father planned for people like us.” Atem stood his ground, arms crossed and feet firmly planted.

Kaiba's eyes widened just a fraction. He sucked in a breath to calm himself and took a step back. “Alright, I'll humor you. Give me one good reason why Anubis shouldn't be terminated on sight.”

“Murder is illegal?”

“Do you think I really care about the legal system? Try again.”

Atem clenched his jaw and looked away for a moment. “Alright, consider this; we're all still alive despite Anubis attempting to kill us all.”

“I fail to see-”

“All of us, including Jounouchi, will walk away despite Anubis being specifically trained to kill all targets on sight.”

Kaiba stared at Atem.

“There's a reason for that. A reason we can't find out if Bakura is dead.”

“That's... a little more valid.” He looked back at the door leading to Jounouchi's room and crossed his arms. “I'd also like to ask him a few questions, now that you mention it.”

“I had a feeling you might.”

-

Bakura was preparing for a bath when Ryo stormed into their apartment. He didn't think anything of the change in pressure or how cold the water suddenly felt against his skin.

He barely even jumped when the bathroom door flew opened and slammed against the wall hard enough to make the surface crack. He just looked back at the other blankly and waited for him to regain his composure.

Ryo glared at him through his bangs, left eye glowing softly.

“Can I help you?”

“Are you mortally wounded?”

Bakura looked over all the wounds on his body. He was bleeding in a few places but it was nothing substantial. He shook his head. “No.”

“You're about to be.”

He smiled at the other boy. “It's cute when you think you can scare me.”

“Do you have any idea what you've done?”

Bakura shut off the water and sighed. “I made the presence of Anubis known.”

“You nearly killed our friends!”

“Don't sugarcoat this and try to make me feel part of the group. Your friends; not mine.” He wrung out his hair and grabbed for a towel.

“Jounouchi was hospitalized because of this!”

“He shouldn't have been in there to begin with.”

“You're such a-!” Ryo was interrupted by the sound of someone at the door. His eye glowed again for a moment before they widened. “Hide.”

Bakura frowned but didn't question it for long as Ryo ran from the room as the knocking got louder. He wrapped the towel around his waist and opened an exit for himself.

Ryo sucked in a deep breath before he opened the door and feigned surprise. “...Kaiba? Atem? Is everything okay?”

“You know damn well it isn't.”

Atem shot a look at Kaiba. “What he means to say is... we know about Bakura and his abilities.”

Ryo nodded. “I... kind of figured. Would you like to come in?” He stepped away from the door, knowing the other two would follow.

“Sorry for the intrusion.”

Kaiba sneered at Atem. “This really isn't the time for you to practice your etiquette.”

“Ryo did nothing wrong. There's no need to be rude to him.” He didn't bother to look back at Kaiba as he walked into the apartment and found Ryo in a small kitchen.

“Have a seat.” He gestured to the couches in the other room.

Atem did exactly that and watched Ryo prepare what looked to be tea.

Kaiba wasn't so keen on the other's hospitality. “We're not staying for pleasantries. Where's the other one?”

“I haven't seen him since last night. He most likely knew you would seek him out and decided to stay away from home.” He walked out with two cups and placed them on the table.

Atem frowned. “So the mask would be with him.”

Ryo nodded. He looked between the two. “Is that what you're here for? The mask?”

“Ryo, if you know of his abilities, then you must know to have that mask back in the hands of its user is very dangerous. It might be only a matter of time before he begins to become unstable.”

Kaiba crossed his arms. “Moreso than he is right now.”

Ryo looked at them in confusion for a moment. Then, something dawned on him and he nodded. “I see. I understand the concern.” He sighed. “As soon as I see him again, I'll do everything I can to get that mask back.”

Kaiba nodded. “See to it that you do. That thing should have been destroyed with everything else from that asinine project.”

Atem gave Kaiba another look before he turned to Ryo again. “Thank you for understanding. I apologize for taking up so much of your time.”

“It was no trouble.” He walked the two back out and stared at the door for a moment. Only when he was sure they weren't coming back did he open a small dark tear in the world. He knew Bakura would see the light and come back.

It only took the other a few seconds. “Well? What happened?”

“They want the mask. They say it shouldn't be back in the hands of Anubis.”

Bakura chuckled and crossed his arms. “Well, they're not wrong. But it also should've never been made in the first place.”

Ryo didn't say anything more as he walked back into the living room and lit a small, black candle on an end table next to a lone chair. He didn't need to ask for Bakura to step closer. As soon as the candle was lit, the other's hand was in his left, thumb moved and rubbed against his wrist.

The world around them was consumed by darkness. The small flame was the only source of light, despite the three glowing beings. Two men and one woman stood by with masks in place.

Ryo turned and frowned at them. “Where's Bast?”

They looked at one another before. The woman in a cow mask spoke up first. “We haven't seen her since... uh...” She glanced at Bakura.

Bakura glared at her. “Since when, Hathor? Use your words.”

“Since you decided to attempt murder. Again.” The taller man in an ibis mask growled right back.

“See? Thoth gets it.”

Ryo shot Bakura a look then returned his glance to the three.

“She worried quite a bit about Set. I wouldn't doubt she is with him.” The last remaining spirit chimed in. His mask was smoothed over with a dark green tint to it.

Ryo looked at him, unsure. “She's always been worried about Set. What would cause her to so suddenly seek him out?”

One by one, they all looked at Bakura.

Bakura blinked and frowned at all of them. “What?”

It was then that it dawned on Ryo. “Jounouchi.”

Hathor let out a soft hiss. “She did mention Jounouchi. I just kinda thought she was envious.”

“Did she say anything else before she left?”

“No. She just kinda went away when... the fight was over.”

“Osiris,” Ryo turned and frowned at the one in the green mask, “did she speak to you about anything?”

He shook his head. “Bast was silent during the battle.”

“But she has been very quiet as of late.” There was a frown in Thoth's voice.

Ryo nodded and looked down. “She... she's always been protective of Set. Something must've really scared her. Something worse than you.”

He didn't even need to glance for Bakura to know he was talking to him. He just squeezed the other's hand as Ryo looked back up.

“There... is still one of us unaccounted for,” Hathor said, very softly. “Maybe she's afraid he might come back.”

“We're working on that.”

“But can you blame her for wanting to attempt to protect him? I'm surprised none of us are attaching to Horus in the same way.”

“There's little need for that. Horus can handle himself quite nicely.” Osiris looked at Bakura. “As you already know.”

Bakura snorted. “We're not here to talk about me.”

“Not today, at least.” Osiris glanced back at Ryo. “We all have our fears surrounding the future for you four living. This fear has even made its way to The Mother.”

Bakura sneered at the title.

Ryo ignored it and just nodded. “I understand. But there's very little need to fear.”

The three of them stared at Ryo.

“Ra...” Thoth stepped forward. “There's a very large need to fear so long as he's still out there.”

Ryo bit his lip.

Bakura narrowed his eyes as he felt a hitch in Ryo's pulse. “That's enough.” He pulled his hand out of Ryo's.

The darkness faded as light took over and the spirits disappeared from view. As Bakura put out the candle with his fingers, Ryo stared at the spot where he'd seen Thoth just seconds before. He held his left hand to his chest. “They're not wrong.”

Bakura glanced at Ryo and growled. “They never are.”

-

“Dude, stop worrying so much! I'm fine!”

“You're a little too fine. Are you sure you're not in pain?”

“That's what these bad boys are for.” Jounouchi shook a still full container of painkillers before he adjusted his sling.

Yugi still didn't look convinced.

“Seriously, let's just talk about something else for a while. Kinda sick of thinking about my broken bones and being out of work.”

Yugi nodded and looked down. There was another question he wanted to ask but almost wondered if Jounouchi might prefer talking about the broken bones again. He eyed Jounouchi carefully. “So. Kaiba spent a lot of time in your room. Have you two...?”

Jounouchi grimaced.

“...Sorry.”

“It's fine. Just,” he sighed and shook his head, “no. Nothing's happening between us. Not since, you know, that night.”

For a moment, Yugi just watched his friend in silence. He was almost afraid of the look on his face at the mention of Kaiba. But, he couldn't help himself. There was pain on both sides. “He was really worried.”

“Yeah, well, so was I when I woke up in the middle of the night to some red light trying to blind me and he wouldn't tell me what the fuck was going on.”

Yugi frowned.

Jou blinked then looked away. “Sorry. It's just... frustrating.”

“Do you ever think about trying again?”

He snorted. “About as often as you think about asking your eye candy out.”

“Don't try to change the subject.” He tried to hide his rapidly heating features.

Jou smirked. “I'm not. I'm just saying a lot.”

He didn't look back at the blond for a moment. He just leaned back and sighed softly. “I really think you two should talk about this.”

He shot Yugi a look of warning. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. You two obviously still care about each other, so-”

“How about the day you actually ask out Atem is the day I talk to Kaiba.”

The two stared at one another for a moment. Then, Yugi pulled out his phone. His eyes stayed locked onto Jounouchi's, only glancing down at the contacts briefly.

He brought the phone up to his ear.

The other end barely rang. “Hello, Yugi!”

While looking directly at the blond, Yugi did everything he could to make it seem like he had nerves of steel and something like this isn't going to faze him. But inside, as soon as he heard that voice, his stomach tightened. “Hey, Atem... listen, I was thinking we should go out sometime.”

“... outside of class, you mean.”

“Yeah.”

“With no friends.”

“Yep.”

“... just the two of us.”

His poker face was slipping. “Yeah.”

There was a pause on the other end. Then, it all seemed to dawn on Atem. “Is this going to be a date?” There was a hint of... something in his voice.

“Y-yeah?” He had to keep it up. Nerves of steel despite the flutter in his stomach.

“Yes. I would like that.”

“Cool! Uh, so how about Friday at six?”

“That sounds perfect.” There was a smile in Atem's voice.

“Great! I'll come by your place around then!” With a quick goodbye, Yugi pulled the phone away from his ear and gestured to Jounouchi. “Your turn.”

Jou stared at him then leaned back and looked away stubbornly.

Yugi frowned.

“It's just... hard, you know?” The blond spoke through a tight throat.

The frown deepened. Yugi nodded. “Yeah. I know.”

-

After Yugi hung up, Atem simply stood in the hallway and stared straight. He felt lighter as the giddiness took control. He could feel an energy move through his body that demanded some kind of outlet. A jump for joy, a scream of some kind, something.

He didn't even realize he was hopping until Mokuba stepped out of the game room and raised an eyebrow at him. “You came out here so you could dance?”

Atem paused as he tried to regain his composure. He coughed into his fist. “Let's return to the game now.” He maneuvered around Mokuba and walked back into the room.

Mokuba followed him with his eyes. A smile slowly worked its way on his face. “So, what made you sprint out of here? Leaving in the middle of a game isn't like you; thought you were going to be sick.”

“It was just a phone call. Nothing more.” He picked up his controller.

The young Kaiba walked over and studied Atem's face. He raised an eyebrow as the other leaned back.

“What?”

“It was Yugi.”

Atem blinked as his face started to heat up.

“He called to ask you out, didn't he?”

The heat increased and he looked away.

“God, I'm good!” Mokuba grinned and pulled the controller from Atem's hand. He flipped through the menu before he landed on a game. “You know, normally I'd take this opportunity to thrash you considering you're so gaga over your upcoming date-”

“Gaga?”

“-but I'm feeling nice today. So, I want you to play this game I've been meaning to test.” He handed the controller back to Atem and pushed the other back onto the couch. The screen was already full of strange little shapes, all of which moved and bent as he pressed buttons.

He worked with the shape as he tried to learn the game's true objective.

Mokuba plopped down on the couch next to him with a drink in hand. “So, when's the date?”

“Friday.”

“Cool. That gives us plenty of time.”

“For what?”

“Grooming you so you're not a romantic disaster like Seto.”

Atem looked at Mokuba in confusion. It took him a moment before a frown took over his features. “A romantic disaster?”

Mokuba just grinned. “Don't worry. Yugi'll be swooning.”

Atem couldn't help but be worried.

[kaibab-the-grumpy-dragon]

Kat Murata’s about page

//This is set for mobile user to see it, but if you can like this post after reading it would be great! 

General

Full name: Kathleen Murata

Nicknames: Kat, Katy, KitKat, Kiiro no ryū (Yellow Dragon), Boss, Sunflower(only Jou)

Age: 24 by default. Depending on the verse but 3 years older than Jounouchi

Birthday: 30 May ( Gemini )

Birthplace: Domino City

Current residence: Domino City

Nationality: Japanese

Ethnicity: Japanese/Russian/Swedish

Gender: female

Sexuality: Heterosexual. Sort of Demi-romantic

Marital status: Single

Religion: Atheist

Occupation: Student - 3nd years of Business economic / Leader of the gang, Kiiro no Ryū (The Yellow Dragons)

Appearance

Face: a mix between Asian and Swedish feature. Round, full lips, button nose with a scar on the edge. Freckles when she tans.

Preferred Hand: Right

Hair: Wavy bob haircut, golden blonde

Eyes: Blue

Body type: Muscular, shaped by dance, workouts, and yoga.

Skin Tone:  medium skin tones with neutral olive undertones

Cup size: A-B cup

Height: 1m83 (6′0”)

Weight: 72 kg (158lb)

Health: rarely get sick, mostly little colds. She seems to generally heal a little faster than others.

Energy: Because of her being possessed by a monster, her body needs and uses a lot of energy. To preserve her muscular mass, she needs to eat a lot of calories. Even more when Xeras takes control and uses his powers.

Scars: An inverted V one on the nose, razor ones on her left wrist, circular ones on her upper back (from the summoning circle), a line on her abs, several smaller scars on the arms, body and legs, and cigarette burns on the right arms.

Clothing style: flashy clothes, mostly crop top, hoodies, shorts, street-wear.

Makeup style: No makeup

Posture: Depends on her mood. Most of the time confident, imitating men behavior when with her gang, more feline and gracious when she flirts.

Tattoos: 3 dragon tattoos: one around her left wrist, one big on her upper back with his tail that ends under her left breast, and one small on her right inner thigh.

Scent: her cheap shampoo that smell candy for the hair, lemon for the body.

Personality

Mental/Emotional disorder(s):  Borderline personality disorder(false diagnostic: symptoms mostly due to Xeras’ possession), PTSD

Phobias: Musophobia(rodents), Nyctophobia (darkness), loss of limbs or paralysis.

Addictions: Risky gambles (involving her own security), coca cola, coffee, jelly coffee, sex.

Likes:

- Dance (hip hop, New Age ) She’s good at it.

- Drawing.

- 80’s songs and punk rock. But only people close to her know it.  

- Giving food related nicknames

- Roller skating

- Omelet

- Pizza

- Banana-chocolate ice-cream

- Mostly all food

- Coffee

- Dragons

- Playing Duel Monsters

- Even more Dragons

- Being the Yellow Dragons’ boss

- Bowling

- Tease People

- Flirting with people

- Space

- Horror / Monster/Kaiju Movies

- Star Wars

- Sitting on anything

- Dominant men in the bedroom

Doesn’t like:

- Bullies

- Doctors

- University

- Authority in general

- Serial killer movies

- Rodents

- Being in the Dark

- Be told that she’s crazy  

Hobbies:

- Roller skating

- Dancing

- Dueling

- Drawing

- Video games

- Combat sports

- Yoga

- Vogue fem

Fears: Rodents, abandonment, darkness

Habits: Turn things into competitions, stealing your food, entering where she shouldn’t.

Negative traits: Don’t know when to back down sometimes, can be pushy and loud, heavy eater, hot-tempered, don’t know how to lie for trivial things.

Positive traits: Seems to always smile, try until she succeeds, loyal, curious.

Abilities: combat and dancing skills. The monster inside her gives her some slight regeneration. Could learn to use shadows magics.

Equipment: A knife in her boots or under her clothes, another one in her backpack that she always has. Her deck and her duel disk, battle city version.

Trinkets: Her old phone. She always has in her backpack, a USB key that was from her dad.

Transportation: a pair of boots that can turn into rollers, with an electric motor, produced by KaibaCorp (offered by the close members of her gang)

Collections: Several ones. Knives, guns, duel monster cards.

History:

- Sharing the same passion for robotics, Kat’s parents met at an IEEE International Conference on R&A (Robotics and Automation) in Atlanta. Her dad, Hideyoshi, a young AI genius with a fragile health that had left him lame, was from an old Japanese family with some Russian ancestry, the Murata’s, who were not really into honest business. But his talent and original organic approach to programming led him to another path: Founding his own robotics company.

Her mother, Erika, a strong Swedish woman, that gave Kat almost all of her genetics, left her country and family to study and work in America. She had always loved to tinker but the creation of prosthetics and robots fascinated her.

Their meeting was a surprise, but they quickly became attached to one another and when he asked her to follow him to Japan, at Domino city, to accomplish his project, she accepted. With each of their specialties, they created Murata Robotics with the help of an American friend, Stuart Evans. After some time they had two children, Kathleen and Hiro.  

- Kat was a cheerful little girl, with curly blonde hair, always smiling and curious, even if she was a little too much naive. At 8 she was already interested in her dad’s work. He dedicated his secret project to her: creating a fully functional animal AI, based on what a dragon could be.

- Their lives turned upside down the day where Kat met a strange man in a convenience store. He talked with the 8-years-old girl a few minutes but disappeared before Erika had seen him. The night after, Kat woke up, upon hearing the sounds of a struggle. Before she could react the same man entered her room and captured her. She doesn’t remember everything from this night but some details are still clear today. Her family sitting in front of her. Her father telling her to look into his eyes as her mother’s blood spilled on the floor. Her brother’s cries. Their slit throats.

After that everything went quickly. He took her with him, locked her up in a cave, left her screaming in the dark, with only rats for company. When she finally fell silent and he was sure that she was broken and weak, he brought her into a room decorated with dozens of candles. It didn’t take her long to lose consciousness when he started engraving the summoning circles on her back with a ritual knife.

What was supposed to be a sacrificial ritual to bring a monster into this world, Xeras, the dragons slaver, trapped him in the body of this little girl. And it was furious. Using Kat’s physical and emotional pain, it merged their soul, releasing their wrath on the man who did all that. When the police arrived, they found her unconscious with the dead body of her kidnapper. They decided to close the case.

- After a stay in the hospital to take care of her wounds, which left her with scars, they took her to an orphanage, waiting for the family of her dad to come to get her. But under the influence of the monster inside her, she quickly became violent, hurting herself and the other kids. Her family, that only wanted the control of Murata robotics, put her in the Institute, a psychiatric hospital for children, for ‘her own good’. She was soon diagnosticated as having a borderline personality disorder and PTSD and was placed in isolation, under medication. The monster finally calmed down, too weak to take control anymore.

- Two years later a psychiatrist finally decided to give more effort toward her recovery. After some work, he declared her well enough to go, but not without supervision. Her family was powerful and didn’t want her to take back her inheritance one day. They made efforts to bribe for a ruling of ineptitude, claiming she was not able to care for herself, even into adulthood.

Of course, they never took custody of her, and she was placed in an orphanage, and then in a foster family until her 18th birthday.

- Being mostly free to go outside, she quickly mixed with the wrong crowd. Understanding that she was on her own and nobody would help her, she came closer to the only kind of people that would accept her, other outcasts, delinquents, gangs.

At 17, she fell for a 24 years old gang leader, Esteban. She tried to join his group, but he laughed at her. Why would he take her? She knew how to fight in the schoolyard but she was weak. He threatened her to take her as a prostitute, but he finally let her go. He liked her gaze.  

- Strangely, dance had been her salvation. She met a dance teacher that taught her to have control of her body and to be confident. She began to workout as well, she built up a fair amount of muscles for a girl of her age. When she went back to Esteban, he finally accepted. He saw potential in her but he also wanted her. Even if she was still young, she was crazy about him. Her relationship with him defined all the ones she had after. If anybody tried to say that she was only a prostitute, they would feel her wrath.

But she didn’t totally agree with how Esteban was leading his gang. And by that time, her ambition was more important than the feelings she had.

- At 20, she began to search for supporters within the gang and when she had enough support on her side, she led an attack on Esteban and the rest of the gang. After a knife fight that she won with difficulties (winning a scar on her abdomen), she had to choose what she would do with Esteban. He was already condemned. She could let him live with the shame that he lost his power against a woman, or she could kill him. But she knew him. He was psycho, a killer. But strangely enough, he loved her. In his own way. So she offered him to be her second in command. He accepted. After all, it was his only way to stay with her and keep some power.

- She changed the name of the gang, calling them Kiiro no Ryū, the yellow dragons but also changed their activities. Her goal was now to protect the people of the districts they controlled. Their main incomes were the attacks of other gangs, everything linked to the underground Duel Monster traffic (rare cards, illegal tournaments,…), but also drugs traffic and prostitution. Most of the gang’s members are loyal and receive a share of the profits. Kat mostly refuses to use that money, even if it could have given her a good life.

- During this time, Kat continued her scholar life without interest, being at Rintama High School and had to repeat a year. But she saw something that motivated her. She remembered that kid she saw on TV when she was at the Institut, that was adopted by the richest man in Domino. And now she was seeing him on TV again, CEO of his company. It impressed her. It made her realize that she could do it too. That even with a bad start she doesn’t have to stay in the underground. And maybe take back her parent’s company. After that, she began to studies seriously to graduate from high school with a scholarship for the American University of Domino City. She chose to study Business Economics, making Kaiba Corp her main subject.

- Being good at dueling she decided too to start a more official career, as the Dragon Warrior. So far she managed to win her duel disk, and participate in some tournaments, with some good results.

- But when everybody seemed to go better, the worst happened. Strong of years of wait, Xeras took advantage of a moment of weakness to take full control of Kat’s body. She only managed to be back in control thank to her friend Isabel, after a long and harsh combat. The discovery of her possession was a shock, it meant that all those bad things that happened to her, the Institute, all the violent events that she couldn’t remember, all this was because of him. It took her time to accept that, but after all, he was stuck in her body and they can’t do anything about it.

This part is valid for the default verse with @upbeatsunshine. If your muse is Jou, Kat doesn’t know him. If you still want to use this headcanons, send me  an IM/ask :) :

- She met him when she was 13 and him 10, and he became her first and best friend. They tried to learn together how to survive in their neighborhood.

- Once Jou was 18 he went to live in the same apartment than her, using one of the bedrooms.

Facts:

- She has great difficulties making friends, she’s very awkward socially speaking. She still doesn’t know how she made ones.

- She tends to be impulsive and vulgar. But in the presence of people she likes, she’s very energetic and radiant, always ready to laugh.

- She sings very badly and she is unable to play well to a game other than Duel Monster (include video games. Except from Otomes games. She good at it.).

Home: A converted brick building in the old industrial district. The first floor is big garages and her apartment is the half of the second floor. A big living room/kitchen, a bathroom and three rooms.

Family: Hideyoshi Murata (father/deceased), Erika Magnusson (mother/deceased), Hiro Murata (brother/deceased), Adam Sjögren (cousin), her father’s mother and brother (CEO of Murata Robotics)

Friends: Jounouchi Katsuya (@upbeatsunshine), Isabel Corazón, Imnah Hiwatari

Followers: Esteban, her gang members, her dancers.

Pets/Familiars: Doggo, a male golden retriever with a scar on his side and limping a little

[florencetheflowerfairy]

Thoughts on the Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro OT3? What do you like, dislike? What do you think could be done to make it better?

Sorry for the delay, Anon! Youasked about one of my favorite things during a busy time, and I wanted to devotemy full attention to it!

Some general thoughts on the Taichi-Sora-Koushiro trio

I love the Taichi-Sora-Koushirodynamic so much. It’s the trioclosest to my heart, and this is coming from someone who adores the Taichi-Sora-Yamato trio.

In my extremely biased opinion, Ilike to imagine that Taichi, Yamato, Sora and Koushiro were the first fourcharacters created for Adventure. Thestaff decided that they needed 1) a protagonist, 2) a rival, 3) a heroine, and4) a brain. (They were never going to make the heroine 1, 2, or 4.) After that,I like to imagine that the other four characters were created in response tothem. The rival got a younger brother to show his motherly personality andbetter parallel the motherly heroine; the introvert heroine got a complementaryextrovert girl; the brain got a complementary nerd boy who valued disciplinemore than curiosity; and the protagonist got to develop his relationship with hisyounger sister to better parallel the rival and his brother.

I mention these ideas just to showhow strongly I feel that the Taichi-Sora-Yamato trio and theTaichi-Sora-Koushiro trio are both centralto the plot of Adventure, andeverything else sort of revolves around them. The way the staff decided to makethese central characters work is that Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro are the onlythree characters who start out as friends. And Yamato is the outsider who workshis way into Taichi and Sora’s hearts. So even though Yamato is the important foilcharacter destined to receive the most developed relationship with theprotagonist, Adventure still workswell as an ensemble cast because Sora and Koushiro’s relationships with theprotagonist are unique and special. They are his heart and his head.

What I like

Firstly, I like Taichi, Sora, andKoushiro because they are such unexpected friends, right from the beginning. Ithink that the unexpected nature of this trio makes them more complexcharacters; it makes Taichi softer, and it makes Sora and Koushiro tougher. Evenwithout knowing the official backstory that these three were in the soccer clubtogether, I realized from their interactions in episode 1 that they alreadyknew and trusted each other. And honestly, that’s all I need! I love how the writerswere able to show without telling. However, I love knowing the backstory,because it’s easy to imagine that Sora and Koushiro were two oddballs on the boys’soccer team. And yet Taichi still befriended them! And constantly seeks theiradvice! That speaks well of Taichi’s character, that he’s the type to want tomake everyone feel included. That makes it easy to understand why these twolonely redheads like him so much!

Additionally, I appreciate how thistrio allows Taichi to stand on his own without his foil, Yamato, even as Yamatogradually becomes closer friends to Taichi and Sora. Because as important asYamato is, Sora and Koushiro will always be Taichi’s left and right hands. Tome, showing the Taichi-Sora-Koushiro trio—without Yamato—is important, becausewe see that Taichi and Yamato don’t just revolve around each other. They’remore interesting than that. (This is also why I love the Yamato-Sora-Jou trioso much; Yamato has interesting relationships without Taichi, too.) It’s smartwriting that helps give Adventure such agreat ensemble cast.

Naturally, I also love the threerelationships in the OT3 individually! Taichi & Sora and Taichi &Koushiro are the two best developed friendships behind Taichi & Yamato. Theyare dynamic friendships that grow deeper as the show progresses, all the way tothe Dark Masters arc. Sora & Koushiro’s friendship is also sweet, if moresubtle.

Finally, what I love most aboutthis trio is how incredibly loyal they are to each other. It’s beautiful towatch. Taichi was willing to risk his life to save Sora from Nanomon. He alsoput himself in danger to protect Koushiro from Piemon, treating Koushiro likeHikari, his family. Meanwhile, Sora and Koushiro were willing to travel to theends of the earth to search for Taichi after he disappeared, refusing to giveup on him. And Sora and Koushiro were the only two older children who stayed byTaichi’s side during the Dark Master’s arc. Through it all, Taichi, Sora, andKoushiro remain flawed children who struggle with expressing their feelings,but their love for each other clearly shines.

What I dislike

What I dislike most about this triois the same as what I dislike most about the Adventure series in general, which is that the girls always get theshort stick. In this case, Sora is not treated equally to Taichi and Koushiro.That doesn’t mean that the writing for her is bad—it’s actually quite good inseason 1! It’s easy for me to forgive issues in season 1. But that makes Sora’sdiminished role in season 2 and the movies all the more disappointing. Season 2and the movies give greater importance to the Taichi-Koushiro-Yamato trio—a triothat I actually dislike because of how blatantly exclusionary it is.

The other thing that I dislikeabout the writing for this trio is that the Tri staff does not care about it asmuch as I do. I remember that Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro do interact in Tri,but it’s difficult for me to remember scenes when they help each other grow aspeople. Because of this, I feel like Taichi and Yamato revolve too much aroundeach other in Tri. At least, it’s too much for me.

Some hypothetical fixes

I wish that Sora had a moreprominent, interesting role in 02 andthe movies, to put her on more equal standing with Taichi and Koushiro. I thinkthat one cool solution would be to bring Sora with the boys on the camping tripin 02, even though this means thatthey probably would have had to write different romance jokes than the old ‘Junis stalking Yamato’ shtick.

In Tri, I wish that Sora and Koushiro were shown to console Taichiduring his long, sad arc where he is afraid of hurting people, because it feelsto me like Yamato is Taichi’s only friend who has taken his Tri issues seriously. I also wish thatTaichi had gotten a scene where he comforted Koushiro in Confession, and I wish that he and Sora had a moment ofunderstanding in Loss that wasseparate from her relationship to Yamato. (I wish the same thing for Sora’srelationship with Yamato in Tri.)Basically, I wish that Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro had been more importantfigures in each other’s character development in Tri. Someone else might be able to fix that more creatively.

But you know, theTaichi-Sora-Koushiro trio isn’t perfect in my favorite season Adventure either. If I could make onechange, it’s that I wish we had more insight into Sora and Koushiro’s feelingswhen they left the group in the Picodevimon arc. We got a lot of insight intoYamato’s feelings when he left the group in the Dark Masters’ arc, so it doesn’tfeel fair. (Especially for Sora, who is supposed to parallel her canon loveinterest when she is the first person to leave the group.) While Yamato leftthe group because he needed space from Taichi, Sora and Koushiro left to try tofind him, and because they refused to believe he was dead. I think that wouldbe fascinating to explore!

Conclusion

The Taichi, Sora, and Koushiro OT3is the best. It makes me happy thatyou thought to ask me about them! Thank you.

[the-cryptographer]

You may choose between Trustshipping or Angstshipping for the meme, if you'd like!

I’m sorry. If you give me two options I’m gonna probably always pick both. Hope you don’t mind :’D

Under the cut:

Isis/Seto.

What they watch during movie dates and what kind of snacks they get from concessions.

Isis is probably the one that actually likes avant gardefilm, and the most obscure foreign films, and really quiet personal dramas.Seto finds all of it utterly boring, but he tags along anyhow and, ifeverything goes according to plan, he falls asleep within the first half hour,and Isis gets to enjoy the screen, her junior mints, and Seto’s adorablesleeping face. And Seto wakes up refreshed from his power nap so it was awin-win for everyone.

Which one gets in to a fight with the other’s parents.

Everyone’s parents are so dead. But let me say Isis andMokuba get along stunningly well, but Seto and Malik are always at each other’s throats. It probably starts with mild irritation from the way Battle City wentdown, but then it starts magnifying. Both Malik and Seto are rude and failedtheir anger management classes after all, so small infringements on eachother’s space start to add up, and then eventually the worst of both of themstarts to show, and Isis becomes the battleground for their possessiveness, andnow they avoid so much as being in the same room as one another. Seto andRishid also don’t get along great, although not nearly as bad as Seto andMalik. They both make super stern faces at each other, and don’t say anything,and refuse to break eye contact for five minutes, until finally one of them hassomething else that requires their attention. And it seems to everybody theydon’t get along, but really on the inside of their head they’re like ??? andcompletely unable to interpret each other, and both of them are wondering ifthey did something to offend the other but neither can think of anything. Badat communicating bros.

What kind of street performance they’d put on to raise money if they were stranded somewhere.

Isis had the necklace in canon, of course, but I wonder ifshe’s a skilled cold-reader? I can see her being good at something like that.She recruits Seto to help her set up a stand for palm reading, and gives reallyvague but good advice and puts on a bit of a show and completely charms thepeople walking by. Seto is really grumpy about it – first of all fortunetelling is BS, and second of all Isis is totally playing up her ‘exotic’foreignness. But then Isis tells him to buzz off – what would he know aboutbeing foreign in Japan/France, or being a cave-dwelling Egyptian with anunusual phenotype, and she’s only doing this so they can afford a room for thenight so he can suck it up and be appreciative of her amazing skills pls.

How they’d be as parents if they had-a-kid/someone-forced-a-kid-on-them.

Emotionally distant parents… haha. Unplanned (or at leasthalf-unplanned) trustshipping baby is actually one of my favourite headcanons.Somehow they overlooked something obvious~Anyhow, Isis is a little better at being soft, compared to Seto, and definitelybetter at being attentive. I wouldn’t call her understanding, exactly, butshe’s not really going to hold what she doesn’t understand against you – if youget me? She’s also more physically affectionate – kisses to the brow, andwashing the kid’s hair in warm water, and sleeping cuddled next to baby. But,otherwise, they’re both kind of inclined to do the same kind of parenting jobs– handling the soft-quiet moments before bedtime, and being a unified wall ofice when they need to discipline. And, anyhow, they’re both really into theircareers, so I think they’d hire somebody to take care of the kid in themornings – feed breakfast, and pack lunch, and drive to school. They kind ofsplit the evening shift between them then.

Who would cause the most trouble during a camping trip and how.

See, unlike Seto and Jounouchi where I could imagineJounouchi dragging Seto out on a recreational camping trip (sort of) againsthis will, I can’t imagine either Seto or Isis going camping unless there wassome reason they needed to gocamping. Maybe they’re visiting some remote archaeological site, and Setocouldn’t get clearance to fly the Blue Eyes jet in. Or there isn’t a place toland the Blue Eyes jet and Isis refuses to jump from a moving plane, lmao. Ormaybe they’re stuck in virtual reality or (netherworld) Ancient Egpyt or somefantasy AU or are just stranded in the middle of nowhere after some traumaticevent? Since they are comrades in ‘can this be over already?’ they worktogether with terrible efficiency. They are neat and direct and to the pointwhile setting up camp and making meals and packing up. Neither idly causestrouble. I think the worst of it is maybe that Isis isn’t quite as athleticallyinclined as Seto, or rather her stride is much shorter, so while they’re walkingthere’s a moment where she’s exhausted and fallen quite a bit behind, andSeto’s like ‘what’s wrong? hurry up.’ And Isis, who is kind of embarrassed thatshe’s struggling is finally tired of sucking it up and is like, ‘can we restfor half and hour,’ except it’s not really a question. And then Seto is like,‘Hn,’ kind of annoyed, but they both sit so Isis can catch her breath and eatsomething.

What they would give each other as both a serious gift and a troll gift.

I think Isis likes gift giving type traditions, so she mightinsist upon it until it actually makes it through Seto’s skull. Isis puts a lotof thought into getting beautiful wood carvings and vases and other home goods,and Seto just thinks all of it is terrible trash, lol. Comparatively Seto buysher things like leather wallets and purses and dresses without thinking, andIsis actually cherishes them, lol. Eventually I think both of them happen uponbetter methods though. Seto finds the Metropolitan Museum of Art Store magazineand actually gets a clue. And Isis starts to buy him books instead – not everyone is a winner, but Seto enjoys at least half her picks so~Would- Would either of them buy troll gifts? Isis might buy Seto sillykeychains with little kites or blue eyes just for fun. But even that’s not thattrolly.

Who moves in with them as an unfortunate third wheel roommate.

MALIK.

How they feel about handholding and sudden kisses in the ear-cheek vicinity.

Handholding: no. not casually at least. Sudden kisses: inpublic – no. in private – one of the few joys in Seto’s life. Soooo, sameanswers as for JouKai. But Jou kind of is disposed towards casually touchingSeto anyhow though in a way that Isis is definitely not – ie. clasping Seto’sshoulder, pushing Seto in one direction or another, dragging Seto somewhere bythe arm. Isis and Seto are one of those couples who never touch each other inpublic at all, and you think they must be really frigid with each other in privateand are only together for cerebral reasons. But actually that’s not true atall, it’s just they’re just not… touchy-feely.

Who’s always snapping photos and who’s pack-ratting clutter.

Mokuba is the one with the camera. If it wasn’t for him andtheir other friends and the Kaiba Corp security cameras, there would be nophotographic record of either of them, lol.And Isis is the pack rat, I guess. She’s collected too much artwork and toomany artefacts and too many things from the museum store. A lot of it justspends time collecting dust in storage. It’s all very nice clutter though. Her and Seto are both very obnoxiously upperclass, so their house is all minimalist and everything in place.

Who hogs the bathroom in the morning and who causes toothpaste related drama.

Isis probably takes longer in the bathroom since she wearscosmetics and all, but I’m not sure either of them is a bathroom hog. And Isisboops Seto on the nose with a gob of toothpaste and then kisses it off and Setowas experiencing whiplash with the way he went from being furious to charmed inzero seconds.

What their matching costumes were for that one party.

They went to that one party as a couple of obscurehistorical or literary figures – so obscure even I have no idea who. Literallynobody got it except Malik, who thought it was dumb.

If I think they’d get married and why or why not.

Maaaaybe? In an emotional sense, I think Isis would want tobe married to Seto more than the other way around. I don’t think it’d be amake-or-break issue for her, but she might end up feeling him out on the topicinstead of the other way around, so long as there wasn’t an outside factorinvolved. Like, going with unplanned pregnancy, Seto might suck up hisreservations and suggest marriage first out of a sense of responsibility and I’m not gonna not give my child my name.And if immigration and citizenship became an issue that could be resolved withmarriage, I don’t think Seto would rule it out as a practical solution. Itdepends on where they’re living too – I think the name thing would likely be anissue with Isis too, but if they’re getting married in a place like Francewhere they don’t have to share a name and entry into the koseki isn’t an issue,it seems more likely. But, then, I’m not always sure these guys have a typicalkind of relationship that they’d understand through marriage in the firstplace. I don’t typically think Kaiba’s interested in living outside Japan, andI don’t typically think Isis is interested in living outside of Northern Africaor Western Europe – and there are lots of circumstances where it might happenanyhow, but sometimes I think they’re a kind of friends on the phone and acouple while in town kind of ship. I’m not sure either of them would feel theburdening NEED for a constant romantic or sexual relationship in their life, sothey might be satisfied with that kind of thing. Maybe when they’re old andhave more free time they want to be closer, so they move in together somewherein their sixties or seventies, but by that point who cares about marriage?They’ve got their own thing going on~ There are so many ways this could go…

Who has over a thousand unread emails in their inbox or five hundred icons on their computer desktop and how the other reacts to this gross mismanagement.

Kaiba more so than Isis, but their emails and computerdesktops are both disaster zones. Their actual desks are also disaster zones –paperclip explosion. They’re both kind of annoyed with each other about it, butreally they’re more annoyed with themselves about it. I think Isis catches onthe hypocrisy sooner than Seto, but they both learn quickly that attacking thestate of each other’s desk means attacking their own organisational failure so…

What their hidden artistic talents are and how appreciative the other is of these talents.

Isis encourages Seto’s singing A LOT. And Seto’s reallyembarrassed about it and secretly a little flattered.

What they consider each other’s most attractive quality and/or their favourite thing about the other.

Isis is so elegant. And it’s a perpetual mystery to Seto howIsis can manage people and be so in-charge while also not being a screamingbanshee. That Isis can get people to do what she wants while being so kind andcomposed is a crazy skill, and he doesn’t get it but he can get behind it. AndSeto’s belief in his own agency and self-worth and in his ability to be thechange he wants to see in the world and all that literally saved Isis fromdespair in canon. I don’t really think there’s anything about him that Isiscould possibly admire more given the amount of personal significance that heldfor her. Shit, I love this ship so much. This might be how you feel aboutrivalshipping. I want Isis and Seto to be friends so, so badly. He utterlysaved her, and I don’t think he even recognises or realises the inherent worthin himself for having grasped the life and the future she’d lost in his hands,and throwing it back to her. I want him to see and to know how precious andcomplete that gesture was – that he cannot be a failure so long as he’s savedsomebody. gdi, let them be friends!!!

==

==

Malik/Ryou.

What they watch during movie dates and what kind of snacks they get from concessions.

Malik’s favourite films are probably big budget actionyfilms starring overpowered ‘badass’ 2kul4skul antiheros, who walk away from the explosion at the end of the filmand drive off into the sunset. And Ryou just thinks this is the dumbest shitever. Ryou canonically likes the spooky scaries oc but, while it’s not going toput Malik to sleep, Malik does kind of go between being creeped out by horrorfilms and rolling his eyes because so fake – listen, he’s seen some shit. Youcannot even approach the level of FEAR. I think they sit through the moviesthey don’t particularly like for each other, but their favourites to seetogether are documentaries, since that’s something they both enjoy.Documentaries about the natural world, documentaries about scientificinvestigations, documentaries about weird phases in human history and culture –and there must be some documentaries out there about the history of the occult.They each buy a variety of popcorn and soft drinks and candy, and they don’teven ask before reaching over and stealing snacks from the other or drinkingusing the other’s straw.

Which one gets in to a fight with the other’s parents.

Do we know if Ryou’s dad is alive anymore? I’m pretty surehe is, and I’m pretty sure Malik wants to kill him for being a neglectfulsonnuvabitch. Ryou would, of course, prefer Malik not, but it’s a littleflattering Malik feels so impassioned on his behalf. (I mean, even without thathuge strike against him, Malik would still probably fight with Ryou’s dad.Self-centred cultural imperialist. Also vastly different personal and ethicalstandards.) And Malik probably also feels he has a bone to pick with Amane andRyou’s mom too. He curses them out one day. ‘You know Ryou is still sad aboutlosing you guys! How dare you walk out on him like this! He has better thingsto do than worry all the time about your sorry asses!’ And Ryou’s like, ‘That’senough.’ Really upset as he drags Malik away from the gravesite. (But, still,he’s a tiny bit flattered. That he means more to somebody alive than his motherand sister do dead.)

What kind of street performance they’d put on to raise money if they were stranded somewhere.

I’m really completely blanking on this one. Ryou wouldprobably try a combination of tarot reading and asking people, really politely,if they could spare some change. But I think Malik’s probably the one thatpulls out some improbable genius skill and accurately interprets what somerandom passer-by needs and draws in success by putting in half the effort. Andthen Ryou’s like, ‘wow’ and claps for him. I just don’t know what thatimprobable genius skill is.

How they’d be as parents if they had-a-kid/someone-forced-a-kid-on-them.

Malik would just be… so terrible, lmao. Not only do I thinkhe’s completely uninterested in fatherhood, there is also nobody too importantto not fade into utter insignificance in the face of his episodes. Even if hewas an ever present factor in a child’s life, he’s totally a Disneyland dad.Let’s go out and do the fun thing, but then he gets bored after that’s over andit doesn’t matter if the kid is tired/hungry/needy now – whatever~ I’m actuallytrying to think of a situation where Malik would ever be stuck parentingsomebody alone with Ryou and… it’s not pretty. Malik himself is aware he’s notcut out for this. Isis and Rishid are both aware he’s not cut out for this. Theonly circumstance I can think of is something terrible happening to both Isisand Rishid and Malik’s taking care of his niece(s)/nephew(s) bc he’s not goingto have them go into foster care and… it’s just terrible. He’s terrible andneglectful, and he knows it, and he’s cries daily about it, but he just- can’t. Ryou would be picking up all ofthe slack really, bless him, but even he can’t really bridge the gap. Ryouwould be a patient and kind father, if a little lacking in sturdiness. He patsthe children’s heads softly and makes really simple breakfasts and packs warmlunches. He asks Malik and the kids to take shifts making dinner, and to lookafter getting themselves through their daily routines. He asks like it’s afavour to him and, for the most part, nobody wants to disappoint him, but he’sstill not sure what to do when he’s met with resistance – it’s hard for him tobe firm. It’s hard when the kids come to him for advice too. Ryou is spreadthin, and those kids are gonna have to parent themselves to a large extent…In less terrible situations though, Ryou and Rishid would probably beco-parenting if somehow Malik or Ryou got a hold of a child. Rishid is a littlebetter at at least pretending to be firm, haha. If he talks at all it’s obvioushe’s made of marshmallow, but he can make an intimidating look and wait insilence until the other party cracks. And between Ryou and Rishid there is moreenergy to look after kiddos properly and direct attention away fromfaildad!Malik.

Who would cause the most trouble during a camping trip and how.

Tbh, I think Ryou would have absolutely no concept of whatto do on a camping trip. He stares at the fire starter and the packed tent forabout an hour trying to figure out how they work and the mysteries haven’trevealed themselves, heh. Ryou was also unsure how to handle a deer approaching him, and that time hefumbled the can opener and spilled all the veges on the ground, oh dear. Malikhas to take over the practical realities of camping, which he’s not too excitedabout, but it ends up being okay because Ryou holds his hand and points out theconstellations at night and the world is as it should be.

What they would give each other as both a serious gift and a troll gift.

I don’t think they give gifts often but, when they do, Ithink they try to make it special and personal. Like Malik probably thinks up areally nice gift for when Ryou gets his degree – a commissioned piece ofartwork, or some old tome about Ryou’s field of study, and also a bottle ofnice scotch. And Ryou probably does the same when Malik manages someaccomplishment with work – gets him a nice leather bag, or a flashy new helmetfor his motorbike. For troll gifts, they might give each other silly decorativehair ties, and Malik gets weird earrings, and Ryou gets silly pop astrologybooks that piss him off because it’s not properastrology, and Malik doesn’t even believe in any of this shit in the firstplace.

Who moves in with them as an unfortunate third wheel roommate.

I mean, I’m pretty sure Rishid lives with them for a whileat least. But it’s more like Ryou is the weird third wheel interrupting Malik& Rishid’s bromance, heh.Actually, I think Rishid probably grew up under the assumption that he wouldnever be allowed to have a wife or kids bc he was basically intended to be aforever slave to Malik and Isis, but then Malik was like, ‘wtf, no. you canhave a family if you want. Fuck everything dad said.’ And Rishid got !!! really excited!!! Omg, he never dreamed!!! He’sreally happy about this!!!And that all sounded fine and dandy to Malik until Rishid actually met somebodyand he realised that either (1) Rishid would have to move out, or (2) Rishid’swife would have to move in. And Malik hates both of these ideas, it isliterally the worst. How dare you ruin mylife like this, Rishid, after all I’ve done for you… So, yeah, there’s agood possibility Rishid’s wife is the unfortunate forth wheel roommate, lol.Malik will get used to it.Also, Yuugi’s not really an unfortunate roommate to have at all, but I reallylike that collection of Millennium Roommate comics and am very pro-Yuugi-hanging-out-with-these-two,so that could be really cute~But also, it should be Jou too. Yes.

How they feel about handholding and sudden kisses in the ear-cheek vicinity.

Yes, definitely, on both accounts. But holding hands all thetime. They hold hands loosely and then curl their fingertips around each otherwhen they stray too far away.

Who’s always snapping photos and who’s pack-ratting clutter.

Ryou takes photos periodically, but not in any kind ofmethodological or constant way. Everyone’s always smiling in the photos bc Ryouwon’t take frowny ones or surprise ones  :-)And Ryou’s the pack rat. He buys a lot of crystals and gift items from thestationary shop. Textbooks and manuals. Half-used pens and pencils he picked upabsentmindedly here and there. Strange leaves and rocks he found out walking.Later he runs into certain things and wonders why he has them, but herationalises he must have kept it for a reason, and so it stays.

Who hogs the bathroom in the morning and who causes toothpaste related drama.

Malik takes forever in the bath, and forever getting readyin the morning. He’s a bit narcissistic and also gotta apply that kohl. Ryou onthe other hand showers quickly and throws on wrinkly clothes in five secondsand somehow every woman he’s ever met still falls over themselves around him.And Malik is totally a toothpaste drama queen. He gets angry and squeezes toomuch toothpaste out and then eviscerates the tube and throws it at the mirrorand is just in general as FRUSTRATE about the toothpaste as he can be aboutanything. Ryou doesn’t care though because if he made a deal out of everystupid outburst? And especially an outburst where all at stake was a tube oftoothpaste and a dirty mirror? Pls.

What their matching costumes were for that one party.

Sorry. I’m again getting too lazy to try and research the kinds of details I’d want. I feel like they’d dress up as a pair from some ancient culture’s mythology, but probably not Ancient Egyptian mythology so… I’m not sure what Ryou would like, heh.But for another party, they might go dressed up as each other. Or one dresses up as the other and they both try to trick people into thinking there are two Maliks or two Ryous. haha, this seems like a kind of concept that would appeal to Ryou again.

If I think they’d get married and why or why not.

I don’t know. I get the feeling either Ryou would be reallyfor it, or really against it – for a reason that’s more ideological than personal– and then Malik would be like ‘sure’ either way. Ryou has a whole speech abouthow marriage exists as a societal institution and why it is or isn’t importantfor them to get married as a gay couple and Malik’s like ‘sure’. ‘Sure.’

Who has over a thousand unread emails in their inbox or five hundred icons on their computer desktop and how the other reacts to this gross mismanagement.

Ryou’s the one that’s more attached to his computer, but Idon’t think he has more than a dozen desktop icons, or thirty or so unreademails. It’s very whatever. Malik has fewer emails, but he’s ignoring the onesfrom Isis’s work about how he needs to do this or that for the museum. Ryouscolds him about this.

What their hidden artistic talents are and how appreciative the other is of these talents.

Malik might be musically inclined. He knows how to play thequanun and guitar. Also, if it can be considered an art, Malik’s really good atdoing literary translation work. Ryou’s pretty impressed on both accounts. Hegets a little blown away by Malik’s casual genius.And Ryou’s pretty crafty. He might do carving or wood burning – he made all theMonster World figurines himself, yes? Malik likes looking over his shoulder andwatching the process. They both find it soothing.

What they consider each other’s most attractive quality and/or their favourite thing about the other.

I don’t know how to explain. They’re both really straightforward in different ways. I think they like what they perceive as the honestly and simplicity in the other, compared to how they, themselves, feel deceitful. There’s something really earnest in Ryou’s kindness and demeanor and passionate love of his hobbies, and there’s something really earnest and simple in Malik being able to voice what he wants - a significant amount of which is completely normal stuff like not wanting to be hoarded underground? I think they’re drawn to that in each other. Along with a kind of… underutilised intelligence they see in each other? Ah, I’m just rambling inarticulately now. Meme over. Thank you for your ask!!

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Temper, Temper:  chapter 2

Searing heat of a volcano coursed through Yamato’s veins at Taichi’s words. He grabbed onto the brunet’s arms and stared at him, heart pounding, mind racing.

“Did you say what I think you said?”

Seven years. Seven long and painful years with not a single word from any Digimon or Gennai or anyone. Not even the Kaiser contacted them to gloat over what he’d done. If it hadn’t been for their Digivices and Koushirou’s constant work to break the gate barrier, Yamato wouldn’t have been surprised if they had begun to think it all some kind of weird dream, mourned their dead, and struggled to move on.

What kind of a memorial for Takeru would that have been, he wondered?

But now Taichi looked back at him and shoved him away, a wild grin all of his face. Not the expression of someone who hoped to see someone long gone, but someone who wanted to gain the bloodiest revenge that they could.

Normally Yamato would’ve discouraged that in Taichi. Right now, with hope he’d never imagined now hanging in his reach, he suspected that they’d be more likely to do it together.

“He got in this morning. He’s been working to make sure it’s stable, and as far as he can tell, it is. It might not stay that way. We might not be able to get back until we can take down whatever’s blocking it from in there.” The lash of the smile across Taichi’s lips promised pain. “But we can get there now. We can do it, Yamato!” Now his hands gripped onto Yamato’s shoulders. “Get your things. The others are already coming.”

Of course they were. Everyone wanted to go there and help. It was what they did.

He burst into a frenzy of activity once Taichi let him go, grabbing his travel bag and throwing a few clothes in there – he wasn’t eleven anymore, he knew the importance of clean laundry – and a few other odds and ends he’d accumulated over the years in anticipation of a day he’d half-convinced himself wouldn’t ever come.

When he looked back at the door, Taichi still stood there, his own bag over one shoulder now. He hadn’t lost a shred of the savagery written across his features.

“Let’s go,” was all he said, and Yamato fell into step next to him.

Koushirou’s apartment was of respectable size: if you took out all the computer gear he’d stocked it with over the last seven years. With all of that gear in there, there was barely enough room for a handful of people to stand, let alone nearly two handfuls.

Taichi and Yamato were the last ones to arrive. Koushirou lived there, of course, as did Jou – Jou was often the only reason that Koushirou ate, drank, and slept, and sometimes even he couldn’t get the redhead to manage that.

Mimi and Sora sat on the narrow couch, Sora’s arms wrapped comfortably around Mimi. Jou moved around the apartment, packing up two bags, one of clothes and one of medical gear of every time Yamato thought could be made portable and some that couldn’t be.

Jou wasn’t a fully licensed doctor yet, but that was more because he hadn’t had the time than anything else. He’d most certainly done everything he could to learn what was necessary.

Sometimes Yamato wondered how they’d survived that first trip to the Digital World. As much as they’d fallen from high places, fallen into rivers, had no idea of where they were going or what they were doing, they probably should have.

He knew where that thought was going and shoved it out of the way as he and Taichi came over to where Koushirou worked on his computer.

“How much longer?” Yamato wanted to know.

“It depends on when all of you are going to be ready. I’m almost certain that it will close down after we go through.” Koushirou looked up at them all, his eyes painted with weariness and hints of pride in his success. “I’ve set up an e-mail to go to all of our parents and to our respective universities. Since we have no way of knowing how long this will take, our parents will know where we’ve gone and what we intend to do. They’ll be able to get in touch with the universities as well and make certain that if we’re not back within a month’s time, we’re unenrolled.”

Jou fidgeted a little at that, but before he could say anythng else, Koushirou kept going. “It’s for the best. It’s not impossible that the gates end up sealed permanently while we’re on the other side.”

Yamato threw himself down on the little bit of free space on the couch, nodding at Sora and Mimi. He started to say something himself, when another set of footsteps sounded.

They shouldn’t have; he could see everyone who’d be going with them. But Mimi turned toward the sound and smiled as Michael entered the room.

Yamato hadn’t seen him all that often over the years, but he knew he and Mimi kept in touch. And that he had a partner Digimon just like they did. He wasn’t an actual Chosen, but he was still one of them.

“What’re you doing here?” Taichi asked, lifting his eyes from Koushirou and his work long enough to see who it was.

“Because I’m going with you. I haven’t seen Betamon in as long as you haven’t seen your partners, and I want to help stop the Kaiser.” Michael’s fingers flexed. “I couldn’t help last time, but maybe now...maybe we can all get this fixed.”

“Fixing isn’t that easy,” Taichi said, gaze drifting back to Koushirou and his flying fingers. “And some things can’t be fixed.”

Yamato wasn’t going to argue on either side. If Michael wanted to come, that was one more person who could lend them a hand. Even giving the Kaiser a setback had been hard enough seven years earlier. With all this time to do anything he wanted and no one to stop him, this would be even harder.

Koushirou stood up without warning. “All right. I’ve put everything that I can into place and the gate is open: for now. I haven’t been able to get a view of where the gate is, so we’re going to have to be careful. Anything could happen.”

Taichi was on his feet a breath later. “I don’t care.”

“Neither do I,” Yamato said, joining Taichi as they moved toward the computer.

Seven Digivices in seven hands, hands larger and stronger and older than the last time they’d done this. Seven voices, steel-hard and ready to fight no matter what.

Crossing the gate hadn’t changed a bit. Yamato didn’t recognize where they landed: a small thicket of trees, with the television buried underneath a thick coating of vines and saplings.

The fact he’d landed on his head, with Taichi entangled around him, didn’t help him to recognize any of it. As soon as he could get his head together, he wriggled up to his feet and moved away, the others following suit.

“It looks so much the same,” Mimi whispered, looking from one side to the other. “What’s he been doing?”

No one could hazard a guess. Yamato didn’t even want to try. He moved forward carefully.

“We need to find our partners. Or someone who could at least tell us what’s been going on,” Jou said. “Information is what we need the most right now.”

A tentative thought occurred and Yamato checked his Digivice. Part of him wanted to see what it hadn’t seen in years: the tell-tale signs of D-3s. But again, nothing.

“Let’s get out to where we can move around,” Sora suggested. “We can’t see anything from in here.”

Carefully they did so, keeping close to the thick woods, just in case anything happened.

The fact that nothing did happen kept them all on nervous harpstrings the longer they walked along. Yamato looked in all directions, wary of anything that even looked like it was moving.

“Did you see that?” Taichi asked, keeping his voice low. Yamato nodded. He didn’t like what he saw, but he saw it all the same.

“Those looked like Geckomon,” he whispered. “But I couldn’t tell if they had any of those Evil Rings on.”

Mimi drew in a quick breath and Yamato knew she was going to yell something. Sora grabbed her arm before the words could come out.

“They’re probably under the Kaiser’s control. Even if we can’t see a Ring on them.”

“But they’re my friends!” Mimi protested, keeping her voice down but harsher with protest.

“Actually, they’re my friends. Or my slaves, I should say.” A voice spoke from above, not quite the same as they’d last heard it, but familiar all the same. All seven heads jerked up as if on the same string.

There, on an AirDramon, stood the Digimon Kaiser. His uniform wasn’t the same as they remembered, looking more like a formal suit with a cape attached. His visor remained the same, as did the glittering violet eyes behind them, and he sneered down at them.

“You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? I made this world mine once and for all, and you had to break in here and try to disturb everything that I’ve made.”

Taichi’s hands clenched and unclenched. “You killed my sister!”

“I think it was a Monochoromon who did that,” the Kaiser replied with a sardonic smirk. “But now I’m going to see to it that the same thing happens to all of you.”

He raised one hand and snapped his fingers, and the sound of pounding feet arose above all else.

Greymon.

Garurumon.

Kabuterimon.

Ikkakumon.

Birdramon.

Togemon.

Each and every one of them with an Evil Spiral. Kaiser smiled.

“Dispose of them.”

To Be Continued

Notes: I told you he knew they were coming.

[sparklyjojos]

CARNIVAL recaps [7/13]

Today’s recap: JDC J-pop version, the S-detective of two genders, and Dokuson being Dokuson.

--

[PART 2 — CARNIVAL BOX]

--

FOURTEEN

07 Dec 1996 — 13 Dec 1996

OSAKA CASTLE

--

It’s funny how fast you can get used to something, BOKU thinks. He’s already got used to his D-name so much that he turns his head when people on the street say the pronoun “boku” in conversations.

Similarly, the world already got used to the Crime Olympics.  Every day four million people die, and yet the world continues to turn. Maybe there’s no other way for humanity to continue than trying not to feel the despair, giving up in a way. Attempting to understand the fear and pain of a tragedy this big could drive anyone insane. Even detectives in books can’t help but get used to murders.

--

BOKU isn’t anything special. He’s had an average upbringing, worked some entry-level jobs, and even now his office work isn’t anything really outstanding. What is he doing in a place like JDC, anyway? As the representative’s assistant? Looking at his reflection in the window—at the scared young man with glasses hiding tired eyes—he wants to run away.

When he turns around to return to his desk, he finds his chair occupied by Yuiga Dokuson. BOKU could swear he didn’t hear him come in. As always, where is Dokuson, there he immediately brings this strange atmosphere as if everything in the world runs according to his will.

Dokuson states that BOKU’s been slacking off. BOKU answers that unlike Dokuson, he’s a regular human being that has to rest sometimes, and he doesn’t have nowhere near Dokuson’s talent either. Dokuson rebutts that talent is not everything, and those who seem to be superhuman geniuses have simply been working more than others (and that he, Dokuson, who of course has the greatest talent of all, is naturally the one working the hardest.) According to him all people are narcissists by virtue of being different from others, and the ones aware of it are the only ones who can really polish their talent (and since Dokuson is the most aware narcissist of all, then of course he is the greatest genius in the world.) Dokuson is sure that he could achieve anything another human can, like getting a gold medal in the Olympics, he just doesn’t care enough to do it.

(BOKU once more has to wonder what he’s even doing here and what on earth is this conversation he’s having.)

BOKU asks if Dokuson also thinks himself the most beautiful in the world—even more beautiful than Tsukumo Juku? Dokuson states that Juku’s beauty is “defective”; after all, what is the most beautiful should not cause harm to others, like making them faint. Besides that, what is considered beautiful changes with time and place, and besides that, right-minded people wouldn’t NOT consider the world’s greatest genius like Dokuson not to also be the most beautiful. And if BOKU doesn’t feel the same, then in Dokuson’s eyes he’s wrong-minded.

(...Well, certainly he is the world’s greatest narcissist, BOKU thinks.)

Dokuson is sure he would solve the Crime Olympics the fastest on earth. But he can’t do it right now, which must mean nobody else can do it, which must mean the case is unsolvable for now… for others than the members of the villainous group, at least.

Dokuson leaves the room, and BOKU wonders for the nth time why he’s still working for this man. He grumbles under his breath sometimes, but still doesn’t quit, and neither does everyone else working in new JDC. Must be Dokuson’s charisma. Whether for good or for bad, JDC has changed under his rule, just like the entire world has changed in the last few months.

--

[And now we enter our first narration change, this one in second person.]

Ever since JDC fell victim to the Billion Killer, the entire country sent them help and presents, touched by the tragedy. Mass media quickly threw together the “JDC Band”, with the artists’ share of money being donated to JDC (though not the recording industry’s share. That’s how the world works.) The band is entirely female, each member dressing up in the style of one of the JDC’s famous detectives:

Vocal — Dark (Ryuuguu Jounosuke)

Guitar — Eve (Christmas Mizuno)

Bass — Lead (Tsukumo Juku)

Drums — Cocktail (Amagi Hyouma)

Keyboard — Manya (Hikimiya Yuuya)

[...they just chose all the young bishonens, didn’t they.]

The band is doing quite well, their single Carnival Eve and first album Carnival climbing to the top of various charts with speed unusual even for the circumstances. All the tickets for their concert at the Osaka Castle Hall on December 7th sold out instantly, but they kept a few spares for VIPs like the members of DOLL.

Of course, you have been waiting for the opportunity to visit your beloved Japan again. You’re quite a fan of the country. And so, you and the girl you’ve met during a case in Italy, Somedaring Amagoi / Ittai-chan, came to Osaka together. Some people in the crowd recognize Amagoi and ask for her signature. You don’t think you’d be recognized anywhere in your own Italy… but then again, it’s not like you’d pull attention to yourself by randomly talking out loud on the street while being a detective. (Though you would do that as a woman.)

“It seems everyone is only paying attention to Ittai,” Amagoi says in her usual third person. “Nobody here really knows you, Meiru-shi, even if you’re one of the seven S-detectives in the world!”

Inspired by Ryuuguu Jounosuke, Amagoi also refers to men using the suffix “-shi” and to women using “-jou”. It’s a weird manner of speech—even weirder because she’s a returnee with a strange way of pronouncing things—but you do appreciate that she properly sees you as a man right now.

Well, she does think that the flowery Genoa folk dress you wore earlier was prettier, but you are in detective mode now, and your clothes have to match.

You and Amagoi take a stroll in the rain and talk. You mentioned earlier that the Osaka Castle Hall reminds you of a giant UFO, but Amagoi thinks that if anything looks like an alien spaceship, it’d be the city’s giant stadium, Osaka Dome.

Walking into the hall you stumble into JDC Band’s vocalist known by fans as “Dark Ryuuguu”, and then take a look at the rehearsal. It’s weird to see these imitators dressed as detectives on the scene, like in one big masquerade—or maybe it’d be better to say it’s a masked “Carnival”, like the name of their first album. It’s quite a strange feeling observing them, like stepping into a parallel world.

Amagoi doesn’t look anything but happy seeing “Dark Ryuuguu”.

“Somedaring,” you ask, “are you not sad about your mentor’s death?”

She is, but she doesn’t believe Jounosuke’s really dead. Nobody would be able to kill a guy that lucky if they tried, she says. Even if the accident definitely happened, Amagoi is sure Jounosuke will come back somehow, especially considering how much weirdness is going on in the Crime Olympics already. She’s more worried about the people that went missing, like Ajiro Souji and recently Jounosuke’s sister Otohime—it’s her disappearance that she asked you to investigate, seeing as you are the world’s best locked room specialist, known as the Locked Empress. (Empress, even though when you’re a detective, you are always a man.)

--

Some time after the concert, at exactly 1 PM, a series of thunderous roars comes from somewhere in the rain, and all of a sudden the Osaka Castle Keep vanishes into thin air. You both break into a dash to to the empty space. The Castle has simply disappeared without a trace, surrounded by crowds. Amagoi thinks this may be a supernatural phenomenon, and not a mystery that could ever be solved.

--

FIFTEEN

14 Dec 1996 — 20 Dec 1996

SKY BUILDING

--

So who the hell even are you, asshole?

—is what Yuiga Dokuson often asks himself.

Where are you going with your life?

And why are you even asking yourself those stupid questions? It could be because of that S-detective you’ve met recently—but no, someone like you surely wouldn’t be influenced by another person. And it’s not like you haven’t been analyzing yourself constantly anyway, scrutinizing yourself at all times, as if you’re stuck in a particularly rude second person narration.

--

As soon as you get the news about the Osaka Castle, you order sleep-deprived BOKU to check the crime scene. You can take over his work no problem, it will only take you fifteen minutes what he would need half a day for, obviously.

A few hours later BOKU returns along with Amagoi and the S-Detective Firannu Meiruneshia, who is wearing a flowery folk dress of Genoa. You welcome Amagoi, who as always refers to you as “Demon Lord” (must be the effect of all those fantasy RPGs she likes), and you observe the other closely.

The explanation you’re given is that Firannu, while a woman, takes on a boy persona during investigations. Not in an actual alternate personality way, but simply performing a fictional role, so that they can look at everything including themselves from a different standpoint—instead of an adult woman, a teenage boy. “Firannu Meiruneshia” is a D-name. They also use a nickname E-Mail, conveying a double meaning: one, they are as quick in reasoning as an e-mail in being sent, and two, it’s a pun on “E [Empty] Meiru”—as in, the detective personality of “Firannu Meiruneshia” is empty, fictional.

A fictional person with a fake name, speaking fake words… Certainly you already noticed something off about them before, their somewhat uneasy atmosphere. Then again, everyone’s personality is in a way “made up”, fluent, influenced by others. Everyone is subconsciously acting out a role of “themselves”.

--

You talk about the disappearance of the Osaka Castle. It had been closed for maintenance for a good while, and boy, did all that taxpayer money just vanish together with all eight stories of the building.

You and Meiru may not understand the solution yet—even the world’s greatest genius won’t solve anything without the necessary data—but you know vaguely what’s going on. (Oh, and even if you call everyone by their first name, you do call them Meiru instead of Firannu; it’s only fair when they call you just by “Dokuson” like you prefer.)

Amagoi notices that the highly suspicious timing of the Osaka Castle repairs could serve to hide the preparations for whatever trick was used, though she can’t explain what that trick was exactly.

--

[...and here would be first person narration from BOKU, but I’m lazy so have this in third person instead.]

BOKU has recently finished reading a crime novel that used the Hanging Gardens of Babylon as a theme, so inspired by this he reads up on the Seven Wonders (the ancient ones as well as several new lists). It is indeed wondrous how human hands could built something like the Wonders. Then again, the ancients were probably used to them the same way that BOKU is considering the English Channel and artificial satellites as a normal part of his world. Maybe the term “Wonders” would apply better to actually unexplained things like UFO or Yeti.

BOKU can’t help but notice that a lot of the entries on various lists of modern “Wonders” match the crime scenes chosen by the Billion Killer. Stonehenge, the Easter Island… perhaps they could predict the future targets by looking at those lists? Hanto Maimu has sadly lost her predictive ability ever since the birth of her daughter, so she can’t help them anymore.

--

On the next Saturday, while BOKU is busy in the office, Ushiwaka Gigolo [which the reader probably forgot existed] comes in and asks where on earth that bastard Dokuson went, because he had promised to meet with her today and yet the office is empty. BOKU has no idea where the guy is either, so they go to search for him together. [And the female employees eye BOKU enviously, because as it was said in Carnival Eve, Ushiwaka really does seem to be popular with the ladies. That’s what happens when you’re bi and your reasoning method relies on flirting and falling in love, I imagine?]

Unusually for her, Ushiwaka isn’t tagging along with Kakuusan Kanke today [bet you forgot about her too], since the latter is apparently in the US with Hyouma for certain reasons. BOKU wonders aloud how Kanke managed to get Hyouma to America despite his horrible sea-sickness and fear of flying, and Ushiwaka’s answer for now is “we have ways”.

Eventually, Dokuson calls BOKU on the phone and tries to get him to go somewhere, but before he can explain more, Ushiwaka snatches the phone and tells Dokuson exactly what she thinks about him breaking promises. BOKU has never heard anyone else be that straightforward with Dokuson. He gets the impression the two have known each other for a long time.

Finally Ushiwaka hangs up and announces cooly that they’re going to meet Dokuson in the Hanging Gardens. Not the Babylon ones, of course, but the Floating Garden Observatory at the rooftop of Umeda Sky Building, a famous landmark in Osaka.

--

On the way, BOKU thinks about how the world for something fictional, 架空, literally means something that’s “overhead”, “suspended in the air”, kinda like the Hanging Gardens seemed to be, well, hanging. The Umeda Sky Building reminds him both of the Gardens and of the alleged Tower of Babel. Come to think of it, the Billion Killer seems to like choosing places that are tall towers or give the visitors the illusion of walking in the air.

They find Dokuson at the rooftop, but just as he starts scolding them for being too late, Ushiwaka slaps him in the face, because he promised to meet her at JDC, dammit! Even someone as composed as Dokuson can’t help but look a little stunned, and in his cool explanations about being Very Busy With Work there’s a hint of deep emotions. (BOKU is now seriously wondering what kinda relation these two have.) Dokuson says that he’s not running away or anything, he’s only here because Amagoi and Meiru wanted to meet up to talk about a new clue. Ushiwaka replies that she’s not going to let this fly, as Dokuson had assured her that no matter what, he wouldn’t break his promise this time, and yet. Thankfully BOKU manages to change the topic to the case before they can really get at each other’s throats.

The three take a walk through the Floating Garden Observatory while Dokuson’s explaining what happened in the last few days. Amagoi and Meiru investigated Ryuuguujou trying to figure out how Otohime could have been kidnapped from a locked room situation. In a strange coincidence, one of Otohime’s bodyguards, Matsuo Meiten, provided them with information about another case. At the very moment the Osaka Castle Keep vanished, he was in the Umeda Sky Building with his family and so had a great view of the surroundings. Just before the inexplicable happened, he noticed something among the clouds above the Castle: a small black shadow… which, taking distance into account, must have been something even bigger than the Castle itself.

Ushiwaka scolds Dokuson for believing Meiru this easily without checking things himself, to which Dokuson answers that oh, he already did check them, who does she take him for, and then BOKU hurries with another question before the two can start arguing again.

Suddenly Dokuson’s phone rings. [His ringtone is the Devilman opening. Even the narration points out that since it’s 1996, Dokuson must have used the ringtone composer thing on his phone to painstakingly input all the notes himself. Amazing.] The ones calling are Meiru and Amagoi, who want them all to meet up in the restaurant on another floor, so the three move towards the rooftop’s exit.

Suddenly the world goes dark, as if something eclipsed the sun. Right above the Sky Building hovers a giant round object. For a moment it seems to get smaller (or ascending?), but then it gets bigger again. And bigger. And bigger...

Only when Dokuson kicks him and yells at him to run, does BOKU come out of shock and dashes after him towards the exit. As they’re running through the building chaos erupts around them, the impact sends debris flying and shakes the entire world. Dokuson is supporting Ushiwaka and screaming at BOKU to move faster, but he can’t possibly go any faster, Ushiwaka is yelling that she can run on her own, everything is chaos and panic. BOKU falls behind, can’t even see where he’s going through his broken glasses, the floor tilts under his feet until he can’t keep his balance and falls down. Something round that’s rolling around hits him in the face. The Billion Killer’s skull. BOKU gets through the tilted escalator tunnel down to the 35th floor, but then the collapsing world rotates again, the tunnel is now a completely vertical deadly fall, and BOKU doesn’t have any strength left to keep himself from sliding towards it—but just as he’s about to plummet to his death, somebody catches him in the last moment possible.

It’s Dokuson. He came back for him.

BOKU can only cry with relief before his body gives up and he loses consciousness.

--

Whatever the object that smashed into the Umeda Sky Building was, it vanished without a trace right afterwards. Witnesses claim it looked like a giant alien spaceship.

Two days later, when Amagoi and Meiru visit a restaurant at the famous Osaka Dome (which apparently has undergone some renovations lately), they learn about a curious thing that happened there on Saturday—a small, highly localized earthquake was registered with the epicenter at the Osaka Dome.

The Osaka Dome, which is distinctly giant and looks like an alien spaceship.

They might not know the exact trick to the Sky Building's destruction yet, but they know with what it was hit.

The case is partially solved, just like Meiru partially solved the mystery behind Otohime’s disappearance—they don’t know what happened, but think that Otohime is safe. Meiru seems to have figured out a lot more, but doesn’t want to share it, so Amagoi asks for at least some hint.

Meiru says that all murders happen in a locked room—the Earth itself, a locked room that nobody can really get out of. Maybe the thing they need is some truly cosmic reasoning.

--

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

[the-cryptographer]

I must ask you about JouKai for the meme, predictably. Nice questions, btw!!

Don’t worry! It’s predictable in a good kind of way :D

And thank you! I’m glad you liked the questions! I feel like you can determine my terrible taste in fic by reading these questions~

Rest under the cut:

What they watch during movie dates and what kind of snacks they get from concessions.

Hehe. I think we talked about them watching horrible realityTV and avant garde films that neither of them can stand. But, for the movies,they probably watch really lame live action kids movies with monsters andDRAGONS. Jounouchi also likes genre pieces, like samurai and yakuza flicks.Anyhow, yeah, Jounouchi buys popcorn and sour gumdrops from concessions withthe intent of feeding Kaiba in small increments through the movie, but he getstoo into watching the screen and eats it all himself.

Which one gets in to a fight with the other’s parents.

You’d think it’d be Kaiba given his own parents are too DEADfor Jounouchi to fight with. But, yeah, I can’t really see Kaiba doing it. Hemanages some passive aggressive snark when Shizuka forces Jounouchi and himinto the presence of Jou’s mom, but he’s trying to be nice and also not tryingto pick fights with nobodies, so hekeeps himself contained for the most part. He also tries to be passiveaggressively snarky with Jou’s dad, but Jou’s ready to kick anyone who is meanto his dad straight out the door, so Kaiba also contains himself there too.Anyhow, it’d totally be Jounouchi if Kaiba’s parents or Gouzaburou were stillalive. Jounouchi might be intimidated by Gouzaburou at first, but eventuallyGouzaburou would cross some line in Jounouchi’s presence and from then onJounouchi would be ready to fight him ALL THE TIME, 24/7, NO BREAKS. Ugly, uglystuff :v

What kind of street performance they’d put on to raise money if they were stranded somewhere.

Despite being a comedy routine in motion, I kind of doubtthey’d jump to that immediately. At first Jounouchi’s like – let’s put on aduel as a performance. And then Kaiba’s like – no – and walks off. Jounouchistarts out juggling, and singing/busking, and trying to do a kind of one manstand-up comedy show, and it’s just not working, and so over time it startsdevolving and he starts pleading with every nice looking nee-san and jii-chan thatpasses by – lend me some cash pls pls. And then Kaiba returns because in themeantime he’s hijacked somebody’s street cart and pounded its business intoshape and aggressively sold a bunch of extra units. It’s probably good Kaiba gotback when he did, because Jounouchi’s next method of recourse is probablymugging people…

How they’d be as parents if they had-a-kid/someone-forced-a-kid-on-them.

Jounouchi’s all into being nurturing in my head. So he’s cookingmeals, and blowing bubbles in the bath, and listening to the kid’s problems,and also he functions as a human jungle gym some of the time. Totally fussy, soccermom, and also goofy dad jokes. Also definitely the parent to go to if you’relooking for sympathy and support, and to get away with shit. Omg, he’s theworst at discipline.Yeah, so Kaiba gets to play bad cop a lot. Jounouchi would probably also stickhim with icky jobs like diaper duty a disproportionate amount of time. ButKaiba also maybe does stuff like tell bedtime stories – quiet things. Comparedto Jounouchi – he’s hard to draw approval and affection out of, so the momentswhen he shows these things become very !!! You’d want to make him proud and tonot disappoint him.Also, you totally wouldn’t realise as a kid, but as you’d get older you’drealise that Jou and Kaiba were totally playing you. Like, they were working insynch this whole time and providing really complementary things as parents, andyou’d suddenly be blown away by how much the things you appreciated or blamedone for and not the other were really a joint effort all along, and you wereTRICKED! Haha, I think they’d be good parents x’)

Who would cause the most trouble during a camping trip and how.

Kaiba would be such a bump on a log during a camping trip. Ifeel like he wouldn’t be into it AT ALL. How dare you drag him away from workfor this bullshit.

“C’mon, Kaiba, if you don’t help get this fire started, we can’t eat.”“Wecan just not eat then.”

So, since Kaiba’s not willing to do anything on this camping trip, he doesn’tactually cause any trouble. But, by the same token, Jounouchi’s definitely theone that solves all the trouble he creates by himself. Jounouchi gets themlost, and Jounouchi manages to get them unlost. Jounouchi breaks the frame forthe tent and then repairs it using twigs and woven grass. Jounouchi doesn’t sealup the food properly and wild animals get into it, and Jounouchi has to chaseoff the bears and monkeys and everything by himself and then make entire mealsfrom the one can of beans that’s left over and whatever he forages. Jounouchi’sa resourceful idiot, so somehow they make it out okay.

What they would give each other as both a serious gift and a troll gift.

I don’t feel like they’re a gift-y kind of couple because Jounouchihas no money and Kaiba doesn’t need anything and also Kaiba actually beingsentimental enough to give out presents(??)Serious gifts from Kaiba are probably like ‘my undivided attention forhalf-an-hour’ and ‘I paid for this apartment, and also your health and life insurance’and ‘I am touching your shoulder and attempting to be emotionally supportive. Doyou see how hard this is for me?’ They are spontaneous and touching gifts… Exceptfor the insurance bills; he pays those every month. Troll gifts from him… I’mnot sure Kaiba knows how to troll Jou without being rude and cruel. It isunknown~Serious gifts from Jou are probably in the realm of 500 sandwiches deliveredover the course of a year, or I brought you chocolate for Valentines and friedchicken for Christmas. Troll gifts are probably honestly the kind of thingKaiba gets for his birthday. Jou buys him things like KaibaLand souvenir cups, orridiculous neon glow-in-the-dark-sex toys he doesn’t even think Kaiba wouldlike, or little blue dragon hair clippies for little girls.

Who moves in with them as an unfortunate third wheel roommate.

I’m pretty sure Kaiba is the unfortunate third wheel roommatein most of my headcanons considering both ettuship and battleship. But- okay,let me do this for real.Although I’m sure Kaiba would be annoyed by anybody that moved in unexpectedlywith the possible exception of Mokuba, none of Jou’s friends are really allthat unfortunate. It’d probably be… Pegasus or Siegfried (maaaaaybe Amelda) manipulatingthe fuck out of Seto, and creating some elaborate set of fake circumstances andalso blackmail for why they can’t stay at the hotel while they’re in town, and bothSeto and Jou would very much like them to leave but- no.

How they feel about handholding and sudden kisses in the ear-cheek vicinity.

Handholding: no. not casually at least. Sudden kisses: in public– no. in private – one of the few joys in Seto’s life.

Who’s always snapping photos and who’s pack-ratting clutter.

Jounouchi’s definitely the one snapping selfies andcapturing Kaiba’s frowny face on camera during all important life junctures. Phonecamera is getting worn out.I don’t think either of them is very pack ratty. Probably Jounouchi sometimesgets into moods where they can’t throw the thing out because what if we need it later. (‘We’ll buy another one,’Kaiba says, honestly confused by the question.) But even Jounouchi’s probablyof the personal philosophy that every important thing in life can be carried ina backpack, so I think for the most part he’s not collecting clutter.

Who hogs the bathroom in the morning and who causes toothpaste related drama.

Neither one of them is hogging the bathroom. And, idk, whois the real causer of toothpaste drama – the one doing the toothpaste thing, orthe one making a big deal out of the inconsequential toothpaste thing? Well,squeezing the toothpaste from the top of the tube, leaving toothpaste on the sink,trying purposefully to be annoying and writing messages on the mirror withtoothpaste – Jounouchi does all those things. Also, in an attempt to solve the issueof squeezing Kaiba’s toothpaste tube wrong, he buys his own tube of toothpasteso they each have their own. But he buys annoying flavours like bubblegum andbanana and it kind of pisses Seto off.

What their matching costumes were for that one party.

Probably it should be Duel Monsters themed, yeah?! Lord ofDragons and Red Eyes? Kaibaman and Flame Swordsman? But imagine Jou as Marioand Seto as Luigi and Jou tried to convince Seto to go as Princess Peach butKaiba was like, ‘absolutely not’, and Jou was like ‘yeah, you’re right.Princess Peach actually has an ass’, and everything was terrible.

If I think they’d get married and why or why not.

Never say never. But, honestly, probably not? Headcanon isJounouchi thinks marriage is like, ‘I have a promise and responsibility as aman to always protect and support my spouse and our kids.’ And Kaiba thinksmarriage is like, ‘I want to bind us together for eternity.’ And I thinkneither of those is really compatible with their relationship with one another.Jou’s view is kind of condescending to begin with, but it probably even strikeshim as condescending when it comes to the absurdity of him providing (physical)protection or (fiscal) support to Kaiba. And Kaiba probably spends his timetrying to figure out not how to bind himself closer to Jou, but rather how to createspace and breathing room in their relationship in a way that isn’t cruel orharsh or pushing Jou away for good. So I don’t think either one would reallyhave an inclination to approach the topic with one another – even though I’m allfor them being together until and after they’ve become crotchety old men.Also, you know Seto went through hell and also murdered people to get thatsurname? It’s a big deal for him. He’s not letting his surname go and, also, onlyhim and Mokuba are worthy of the name Kaiba – you have to prove yourself. And, withany luck, by the time Seto and Jou are settled enough for this to ever come up,Jou will probably be sure enough in himself to go, ‘fuck you. I’ve got nothingto prove. you can have your smelly name all to yourself’. And, also, we shouldpity the poor girl or boy Mokuba decides he wants to marry, because who knowswhat hell awaits them before they are accepted™ by Mr Kaibaman.

Who has over a thousand unread emails in their inbox or five hundred icons on their computer desktop and how the other reacts to this gross mismanagement.

Kaiba. Definitely. Thousands of emails. Hundreds of desktopicons. It’s a kind of orderly disaster. Jounouchi doesn’t care. He reacts byslowly trying to shut Kaiba’s laptop, and then Kaiba tells him to knock it off.

What their hidden artistic talents are and how appreciative the other is of these talents.

Jounouchi’s handy and canonically good with model kits and stuff,but I think Kaiba’s the more classically artistic. For some reason I think he’sboth a good singer and good at drawing – although he doesn’t do more thanrandom sketches. Kaiba himself doesn’t put much time or value into either ofthese talents (except when drawing comes in handy for invention concept art andconstruction blueprints) but Jou – Jou kind of thinks it’s both super cool andsuper annoying bc, gdi, why is Kaiba good at everything?!

What they consider each other’s most attractive quality and/or their favourite thing about the other.

I think I answered this one a while back, but Kaiba’scharmed by Jou’s smile and that Jou is so unrelentingly sturdy. And Jou kind ofadmires Kaiba’s pride and persistence, and also how much he cares for Mokuba.

…

Thank you for the ask :D