#seto gives his whole everything to talk to atem again

[fat-butch-dyke]

The implication that yugi will always be second place to atem in everyone's mind makes me aaaaaaa

[gx-gameon]

When it's time to go to the Dark World to rescue Jesse, do any of the DM crew join the GX kids or no?

This is my Great War. Every day I think about this idea.

Because there are three options here.

1) They stay behind

The portal closes before they can get there. And they are forced to wait.

Now as I wrote here Seto does still have the dimension pod that he used to go to the afterlife and duel Atem. However they were using them to try and track down Jesse. If they get left behind they won’t stay there for long. But I don’t know if they would try and lock on to Jaden or Jesse.

If they decide to go after Jesse they are going to run into possessed Jesse. Leading to a duel with Yubel. I don’t think Yubel would win but I also don’t think they’d lose. I think they’d find a way to end the duel in a draw through outside forces. And then send anything they could to keep the DM crew occupied.

Or

They track Jaden which has the same outcome as option two

2) They get there just as the portal opens and get sucked in

Now much like Zane, Aster, and Crowler they end up some place different then the Gx kids.

They don’t catch up to Jaden until he’s already the Supreme King. And oh we have so many options from here

This is Jaden at arguably his most powerful. He has super poly and is not holding back. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything right now and that makes him dangerous.

Add into this that the DM crew as are looking at their son/nephew who they raised as a little family unit. He’s lost to them right now and they are trying everything to snap him out of it.

How many DM characters do you think the Supreme King can beat?

Note they might be ‘going all out’ but they would never risk killing Jaden. Joey is definitely dueling the same way he did against Mai in the Oricalcos arc. Focused more on snapping Jaden out of it than wining. But as we know from Axel winning is the only way to defeat the Supreme King.

Yugi is absolutely trying to make the appeal to his son. “This isn’t you. I love you. Come back to me.” We could make this so heart wrenching.

Note they would probably met up with Axel right after Jim was lost. Axel tells them the horrible truth. This is because I still want to give the final duel against the Supreme King to Axel as it is a great moment for his character.

Plus after it’s all over Jaden has to live with not only ‘killing’ his friends (again not your fault) but also hurting and maybe killing some of his family.

3) They join the Gx crew for the whole journey.

Jaden still tries to rush ahead but the DM crew are not only experienced Jaden wranglers but also experience desperate protagonist wranglers. It’s your time to shine Aunt Téa and Dad Yugi.

They are able to keep a better eye on the kids so they don’t get captured. Meaning there has to be another way to sacrifice people.

We have some options

A) the Gx crew still gets put under the spell

they start talking crap about Jaden which greatly disturbs the DM crew for a lot of reasons.

Then they reach Brron the man traps separates the two groups all the Gx crew into duels (like a five on 1 tag duel?) but they all lose except Jaden because of their sadness/rage.

Leaving Jaden friendless and feeling like he couldn’t protect them. 

Jaden feels like a failure and maybe he gets tricked into thinking his family is dead and that’s what makes him fall.

B) it’s the DM crew Brron targets for his spell. They don’t have the negative feelings towards Jaden but each other.

Hear me out.

The whole situation has been stressful and a lot of them (Joey and Tristian) are upset with Seto’s school that keeps putting Jaden and friends in danger.

Téa and Yugi as super sad about Jaden’s lose of normalcy and also the way some of his friends behave.

Seto’s pride is as large as ever.

It’s not that they don’t love each other, they do but it’s stress and the situation and complex feelings. They’re not blaming each other but the situation and the spell brings out those negative emotions.

This ends with them getting sacrificed

Jaden has to watch as he loses his family and he loses it.

This also allows the Gx crew to be more active in the plot and maybe have some bonding with the remaining DM crew as only four are sacrificed.

Again this is my Great War. I have no idea which idea to go with.

[lucky-ladybugs-lovelies]

Five Characters who have changed my life

I have been pondering a lot lately on the top characters who have changed my life. So it’s not like just a list of favorite characters or characters I like. It goes much deeper than that. One’s life truly can be deeply affected by amazing characters. I wanted to list the ones I felt have been most influential for me and why.

(Also, WTH, Tumblr, I forgot that if I make a numbered list, it turns everything into ones! And it won't let me edit that!)

Yugi Muto, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

Now, this is actually a bit of a curious choice because I wouldn’t say it’s Yugi himself I have seriously gravitated towards, but it’s his whole franchise in general. Yugi was the original protagonist along with Atem, and therefore, because YGO DM has changed my life more than any other franchise, I decided to give Yugi a position on the list even though there are other characters on the show who have intrigued me more. Seto was the first one I seriously fell hard for, but I ended up having a lot of issues with him by Battle City. Marik was perhaps the YGO character who was most important to me as a character alone, but he hasn’t influenced or fueled all or even most of my YGO works. YGO DM is Yugi’s show overall, and this show has inspired and shaped me like no other. Because of YGO, I learned how to seriously improve both my drawing and my writing. I could not draw a decent human before I discovered anime! And I have found so many friends because of my fanworks. Some of these people only stayed for a time. Others are still around now. I role-played, talked, shared so many things with these friends and their affect on my life can never be overstated. YGO DM was the gateway to so many wonderful things for me that as a sheltered home-schooled person I didn’t have a lot of access to before that. I think Kazuki Takahashi would be happy about that.

Radley, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds

While Radley was not the first who interested me in 5Ds, no one else has seriously captured my imagination as he has. I love characters I can flesh out and characters I feel are or could be good, and he qualifies for all of that. But it’s not just a matter of loving to write about him. He, and Kalin, have helped me through some very serious rough places in my life. I first became interested in writing about Radley right before I learned that my friend of 20 years had died of cancer. I had so many wonderful ideas for stories about Radley, and focusing on those was really a balm for that grief. Later that same year, it was the love of Radley and his love of motorcycling that finally helped me conquer a fear of driving I’d had for almost ten years after nearly getting in a horrible wreck on the freeway. I wanted to have fun driving like Radley did. That longing was finally greater than my fear. Nothing else had gotten through. Because I was finally able to drive again, I’ve been able to do many things to help my family as we have been going through challenges the last several years. I believe God brought Radley to me at a time when I desperately needed him and that I would be remiss to not give Him the credit.

Sephiroth, Final Fantasy VII/Kingdom Hearts

I remember when I first watched Advent Children, I loved it but wasn’t impressed by Sephiroth’s limited screentime. I can’t even exactly remember how or why he finally captured my imagination and my heart. Maybe it was spending hours reading the entire game script since I had no access to the game and could not play it even though I desperately longed to do so. I definitely remember seeing in the flashbacks that he was a good person. I fell in love with that person. I know when Crisis Core came out and there was suddenly much more sane Sephiroth content, my heart was absolutely enraptured. I loved him, I loved Zack, I loved the beautiful friendship they could have together. But I know I already loved that before Crisis Core, most likely from reading some intriguing fics. I was disappointed that Crisis Core didn’t have them as close as the fics made them and that Sephiroth hadn’t been the one to train Zack, but there was so much to love anyway and I found ways to make their friendship work even with things being somewhat different in Crisis Core than fans had thought.

Because I loved Sephiroth so much, and also Zack and Cloud and their complex interactions with him, my imagination soared again as it had with YGO. I’m not sure I’ve loved any characters as much as them save for YGO ones. I wrote many fics for both FF7 and KH verses, I drew for them, and I made more friends. It was the YGO experience all over again. It was magical. I also used Sephiroth as my email address, with a name based on KH Sephiroth. That is still my main account today.

Now, finally able to play the game at long last due to having a Switch Lite and it being available for that, my imagination is soaring again. My muse has woke up. I’ve been doing new things with the characters in both verses, including finally investigating KH’s Birth By Sleep and starting a timeline that uses its vital information on the KH Sephiroth—information that fits with what I wanted to think about him all along. I’m playing KH Sephiroth in role-plays. I’m also playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a game I honestly hadn’t ever planned to buy, because seriously, even though I don’t like fighting games, I can PLAY as Sephiroth! I don’t think any other game to date allows that.

Eevee, Pokemon

No one can deny the immense influence Eevee has been on my life (and my wallet!) over the last years. I always loved Eevee, but Radley turned that love into something life-changing. When I decided to play Radley in a Pokemon RP online, I chose Eevee as his starter. I quickly fell in love with the little darling, as did Radley, and he and I both soon wanted more and more of them. My room is an Eevee colony! But it’s not just a matter of loving collecting Eevees. I love it because of their sweetness and innocence. I am not exaggerating when I say that looking at their adorable faces has actually helped my emotional well-being more than once. Things have been very difficult in real-life for the last several years and I’ve clung to Eevees as something bright and beautiful when things have been falling apart around me and not making sense anymore. Last year I had an absolute meltdown in June. It was seeing my sweet Eevees looking at me with their innocent, happy smiles that calmed me down and helped me start to heal. I don’t think I’ve gotten that bad again since then. I believe God has allowed me to collect so many Eevees because He knew they were actually important medicine for me.

Tony Ferano, The Monkees.

Now most people will probably look at this and go “… What? Who?” Tony was a supporting character in episode 25 of The Monkees, Alias Micky Dolenz. He was absolutely hilarious, mostly because of his expressive reactions to all the nonsense going on around him. I just couldn’t get enough of him, to the point that I started following his actor Jimmy Murphy from role to role. It wasn’t the first time I’d done that, but no other excursion has led to so much. Because of Jimmy, I followed him to Kolchak: The Night Stalker and got interested in Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland. Then I followed Simon to Perry Mason, a show I’d loved before. I got obsessively interested in it and some of the actors, including William Talman. Because of William and wanting a Hamilton Burger plush, I started making my own plushies using plushie bases from Joann’s. I’m still doing that now. Then I followed William to The Wild Wild West and fell in love with that show and it became one of my most favorite classic TV shows of all time. Mom and I shared so many happy hours watching it, and most of these other shows. Those are memories I will cherish forever. I liked Christopher Cary in his WWW episode and his character Snakes Tolliver has been hugely inspirational to me. He had less than ten minutes of screentime, but I worked with that, fleshed him out, and developed him over many fics, both for WWW and for other series I crossed over with. I’m still using Snakes today, in RP as well as fics. I just posted something with him a couple of days ago. And Christopher was also hugely influential when I followed him to The Rockford Files and ended up fascinated by Ginger Townsend and Lou Trevino and their relationship. And so on and so on. I’ve written fics, tried drawing non-anime people again (albeit they do have anime influence in the style), even made a webcomic.

All because of Jimmy Murphy and his character Tony Ferano.

[apricotheart]

@shacchou​  |  continued  

        𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆. Being at Kaiba’s penthouse served as a reminder of just how different their worlds were. Anzu was certain his living room alone was bigger than the whole three-bedroom apartment she shared with her roommates. The space was immaculate, screaming luxury and opulence — but in a way that, even Anzu could admit, was tasteful and classy in its decor. It was a far cry from anything she had known, having spent the majority of her life putting money back just to see her dream come to fruition through her own hard work and determination. Which wasn’t to say Kaiba didn’t put in hard work and determination. Anzu was no fool. Perhaps the only other person with more single-minded tunnel vision than Kaiba Seto, when it came to something they wanted, was Anzu herself. It was a trait she had to begrudgingly accept they shared.

        Yet, for all the differences in their respective worlds, the universe seemed determined to push them together. Anzu wasn’t entirely sure she believed in destiny, even after everything that happened with Atem and the Shadow Games, but it felt as if something was at work here, pitting her against Kaiba again and again. A cosmic joke if there ever was one. 

        Anzu found it hard to hide her displeasure as she stared at the ticket laid out on his desk. This wasn’t part of the plan, and she had been adamant about that. The plan had been to avoid each other as much as possible. But now, not only had he agreed to see one of her performances with a business colleague, he’d taken it upon himself to bring her to his penthouse just to deliver the news. She knew that it was likely he was just being — for a rare moment — considerate, but Anzu couldn’t help feeling the whole situation was counter-productive to their original agreement. After all, they had exchanged numbers for this very reason. 

        Leaning forward, she picked up the ticket to examine it. They were, to absolutely no surprise, the best seats in the theatre to the opening night of Coppélia; VIP balcony seats that would give him the perfect view of the stage and its performers. As he spoke, Anzu felt her temper stirring. ❝  Well, that’s too bad. You’re getting my opinion anyway. I’m not one of your employees, Kaiba, so don’t talk to me like I’m a subordinate.  ❞ A deep breath, and then she added, ❝  Should I expect you to be at the after party as well?  ❞

[x-atem-x]

@numberoneduelist

Excessive captures it pretty well. There’s more here than one person could consume in two weeks. At least it’s still eaten, one way or the other. He’s also not in a position to judge too harshly - he’s known for his spending habits. He may not consume a lot, but he definitely pays for quality. He nods, taking a bite.

The way that Atem talks about missing Domino is somewhat melancholy, longing. And it has that last piece of the puzzle clicking in his head. The reason things feel off is that the man has been changed by his experiences with modern day. He started a whole second life and had to learn everything over. Having to reconcile his new life with the old one is likely a difficult task. Maybe impossible. Despite being in his own body, the Pharaoh must still feel split in two.

Seto doesn’t envy him in that.

The executive takes another drink - the difference between the bread of ancient Egypt and that of modern day Japan is stark - before swallowing. He shakes his head, exhaling a chuckle.

“I would’ve come even if I didn’t have a way back.” He’s not exactly ashamed to admit it. He’s dedicated to his obsessions; it’s a blessing and a curse. “In layman’s terms, I’m just going to throw the whole thing in reverse. Theoretically, it should send me straight back to the point I left.”

Theoretically is the key word. He’s not exactly sure how it’s going to go. He’s never done this before, and all of the research until this point has been purely hypothetical. There’s a reason there aren’t dimension-hopping machines haven’t been developed en masse yet. On the topic of theoreticals…

He gives the man next to him a sidelong look from under his bangs.

“If you wanted… you might be able to catch a ride.”

Atem seemed completely unsurprised, but certainly amused at the notion that Seto would have hurled himself into oblivion with no exit plan for a card game. It was flattering and absolutely endearing. Kaiba was endlessly passionate, even if he did not possess a single modicum of self-preservation.

At the offer, the chance to return to Japan, the Pharaoh's face lit up for a moment. There was a flicker of hope and want that shone in his violet eyes and his chest seemed to swell with happiness.

The idea of returning, going back to the city and the people he had come to love. To see Yugi and to pull him in for a hug with his own two arms— there was nothing he wanted more.

But after just a moment, his face fell as he once again felt the weight of his crown and the responsibilities he had to his people settle on his shoulders. He gave a smile and said, "That really is a lovely thought."

Atem began simply tearing apart the bread he held in his hands as he said, "What I want and what is the right thing to do unfortunately do not seem to align here. A Pharaoh can dream, though."

[mokubaskaiba]

dumb post dsod "noah comes back to life" thoughts under the cut cause I'm never gonna be over what canon did to him

so. its been a day or so since the ending of dsod and they lost track of seto and have absolutely no way to contact him. mokuba is worried sick. it was only supposed to be one duel, and a duel doesn't take multiple days. he can't shake the feeling that something is wrong, but there's so little that he can do, so he just tells himself seto will be back soon

but its been over a week now, and the weight of everything that has happened is catching up to him. every morning that he wakes up to an empty house, every meal that he eats in silence, every time that he passes setos empty office, hes reminded more of of the orphanage and the lonely days he spent without seto under gozaburos care, and its making him lose sleep. he starts thinking more and more about how kaiba never answered him when he asked if he would come back, and how much he was hurting from atems loss, and how much seto needed atem in his life. and against his better judgement, the very beginnings of doubt begin to form in the back of his mind

he doesnt want those feelings. he doesn't want to think about how kaiba might not come home tomorrow. he doesn't want to think about how he might have lost his only family member, and how he'll be alone. so, he turns to the only other family he knows

he throws himself into the work of locating noahs back up file and building him a new body with such ferocity, it reminds the people around him of his big brother. he skips classes, loses sleep, and devotes all of his time outside of running the company to bringing noah back

it doesn't take too long to upload noahs consciousness into one of kaibacorps super computers, and for the first time in a long while, noah wakes up

its weird, to say the least. noah never expected to actually wake up again. the back up was a long shot he never thought would actually work out. everything feels jarring and a little too much like the first time he woke up after the car accident. he fluctuates between being numb and completely overwhelmed for the first few days. existence is a heavy thing when you're a 13 year old boy who's died twice already

mokuba comforts him when he wants company, and gives him space when he needs it. he does everything to assure him that this won't be like his situation with gozaburo. he will not be abandoned. he will not die again. he will live in the real world, and he has a family that loves and accepts him. noah can never fully make himself believe it, but he wants to, and most days thats enough to keep him going

(noah is has a lot of feelings on hearing the situation with seto. he mostly settles on feeling relieved, because exploring his thoughts on his step brother? rival? friend? is something he absolutely cannot handle with his current state of mind)

so the days go by with mokuba working on the company and making noahs body, with noah calling him every so often to complain about how boring the employees are that mokuba has looking after him, and how none of them play mario kart as well of mokuba and he absolutely must get down to his room immediately

when mokuba isn't at kaibacorp, noah and him will often text each other about plans for tomorrow's game, or about how awful mokubas school is, or one of the million computer simulations noah has made. but at night, they're mostly comforting each other about the fears and anxieties that don't let them rest

when the time comes, theyre both anxious about noah being uploaded to his new body. mokuba is thinking about everything that can go wrong and noah is so caught up in the fear of being in the real world he can barely understand why he wanted this in the first place. but when he first opens his eyes and takes his first steps, he begins to calm down. and when mokuba races to give him he first hug, he remembers what all this was for in the first place. they were both lonely and needed family

seto eventually comes home, and for him the whole experience was only half an hour. why would he need more? both him and atem dueled each other and then they talked about grief, and how its been effecting kaiba. short and sweet, just as kaiba wanted. but when he comes to, sees the different year on the calender, and mokubas extra inches, and hears an awfully snarky voice saying "welcome back step brother" he begins to doubt how long he actually took

[puzzlebros]

How to Keep a Pharaoh

So, a Yugioh How to Keep a Mummy au. Credit for the original idea of this goes to @gamebro-advance

So Yugi, is the main character and Grandpa is always out exploring the world and sending weird and often dangerous gifts back to Yugi. Yugi lives with his Aunt Mai.

So Grandpa sends a huge version of Golden Sarcophagus to Yugi. It’s delivered on it’s side. Yugi’s ready for something dangerous to pop out, but the lid falls to the ground and there is a tiny Atem, dressed in his full pharaoh regalia, looking up at him with a challenging expression.

Even though he’s tiny, Yugi is still half expecting him to be dangerous so he tries to prod Atem back into the sarcophagus, but Atem is having none of it and keeps escaping.

Atem through gestures shows that he’s willing to help with chores in order to stay and Yugi’s like, you’re a bit small, but I guess you can try, which Atem does but he’s unable to life a broom or wash the dishes and he seems so dejected that Yugi finds a way for him to help cook.

Finally Yugi accepts that I guess this tiny person is going to stay, so he needs a name, which is when Yugi’s pet Kuriboh, another one of his grandpa’s finds comes bouncing in and demands Yugi’s attention. Atem isn’t pleased and crawls all over Yugi trying to get Yugi’s attention back on him.

Eventually Yugi gets them both settled down and names Atem, well, Atem, cause didn’t grandpa mention that was some great pharaoh’s name?

Mai comes out and claims the sarcophagus for herself. She sleeps in it.

Then Yugi’s childhood friend, Seto comes over. Hear me out. In this universe his and Mokuba’s parents don’t die, so Seto still has his smarts and his slightly cool demeanor, but he hasn’t had the influence of Kozuburo Kaiba. Yugi approached him as a kid and he decided he needed to take care of this smol, innocent child.

Anyway, Seto shows up and Yugi shows him Atem. In the anime the friend tries to unwrap the mummie’s bandages. Atem doesn’t have that, so instead Seto tries to take him millenium puzzle. Yugi scolds Seto so he stops. Seto and Atem still have a few glaring matches though.

So, Yugi adopts Atem. At first he leaves Atem home when he goes to school and Atem tries to be strong, but he just misses his aibou so much so he ends up crying himself into severe dehydration every time. After a few days of this, Yugi starts bringing Atem to school, which makes Seto want to smack him, because you’re going to get caught, idiot.

Yugi tells Atem that when people are around, he needs to act like a doll. Tea sees Atem, thinks he’s a doll, gushes over how cute he is, and asks if she can have one. Yugi, unable to say no, says he’ll make her one. So he makes several fake Atem’s. Atem is investigating them when Tea shows up so of course he pretends to be a doll. The problem is Tea grabs the real Atem.

After a lot of shenanigans, they get Atem back. And give Tea an actual doll.

A few days pass and a duel spirit, Blue Eyes White Dragon, a smol version, starts following Seto around. Seto is having none of it, but blue eyes is determined. Seto is all tsundere about it, but after the blue eyes sneaks into his house several times he basically lets it hang around.

Seto doesn’t like all this “mystical” stuff. His excuse is that it’s not scientific, but a major reason is that when he was a kid he tried to save a duel spirit, but these duel spirit hunters found and chased him and the duel spirit and he wasn’t able to save the duel spirit, or so he thought. So he’s kind of traumatized.

Dueling is still a thing and it fascinates Atem, so Yugi makes some mini cards so that Atem can play.

One day, Yugi is passing by Tea’s house and hears commotion within. Turns out a duel spirit, Happy Lover, and Tea is freaking out. Yugi helps her calm down and explains about duel spirits. Tea adopts Happy Lover (the same duel spirit that Seto tried to save all those years ago) and Tea gets to meat Blue Eyes and Atem.

Then they meet Joey. Joey has a bad temper and is angry all the time so most people avoid him. Turns out he has night terrors and gets very little sleep. Yugi befriends him anyway. Joey’s confused because this little shrimp is insisting on being friends even after Joey accidentally hit him because he got startled (Seto was not happy).

A bit later Joey calls Yugi panicking because there’s something in his house. It turns out to be a Scapegoat. It has the ability to eat bad dreams so it was attracted to Joey. Yugi explains everything to Joey and Joey joins their has a tiny companion group.

Blue Eyes keeps eating all of Mokuba’s snacks so Seto gets mad at it and they have a tiff. Blue Eyes goes a way and doesn’t come back. Seto refuses to look for her because she left onher own, it was her choice and he doesn’t want to admit he’s worried, but the others insist on looking. They find Blue Eyes stuck in a fence.

All the duel spirits get lonely while their humans are at school so Yugi contacts his grandpa’s friends the Ishtar’s and have the Ishtar’s watch the minis while the others go to school. It becomes a kind of duel spirit day care.

Yugi receives another package from Grandpa which induces the whole “oh no is this something dangerous” feeling. Yugi tricks Seto and Atem out of the house, which leaves both of them upset with him and they find another way back into the house.

It turns out to be an Anubis statue who can talk and claims to be able to see the future. They call him Shadi.

One day they’re on a hike, when suddenly everything goes quiet and starts to feel odd. Yugi realizes they’ve stumbled into the entrance for the duel monsters’ festival, which doesn’t allow humans unless they have a special invitation. Dark Magician always invites Yugi, but he hasn’t gone in a while because he asked Seto to go with him once after Seto’s incident with the duel spirit hunters and Seto said he shouldn’t mess with that stuff and refused to go.

The greeters for the festival show up and are about to punish them, when Yugi asks that they only punish him, and everyone’s like “Yugi, no!” The greeters don’t agree and are going to punish everyone anyway, when Atem finds the tickets in Yugi’s pocket which somehow appeared in his pocket.

Now with tickets they are welcomed into the festival. Seto punches Yugi for his self-sacrificing stunt and is cold to Yugi for awhile. They help out two duel monsters who are in a similar situation. One tried to sacrifice itself for the other. Through helping out those two, Yugi and Seto work out their own disagreement.

Duel spirit hunters somehow manage to get into the festival and they get Atem. Everyone chases after them and work together to get allow Yugi to catch up and he is furious. He tackles them and everything. Then the Egyption God monsters speak from the heavens and shoot lightning down at the hunters for trespassing on the festival and trying to kidnap duel spirits.

They are all hailed as heroes by the duel spirits and receive gifts, which is a mini festival kit, which is good because Kuriboh and Shadi are put out that they missed the festival. They enjoy a mini festival and all is right with the world.

I headcannon that they all go on to become full time protectors of duel spirits. Working as a team to protect and save duel spirits in the human world.

Anyway that’s it. Thanks again to @gamebro-advance for the idea. Also @allorana @ravengrangergirl I think you’ll enjoy this.

[mutemwija]

Pridecember Day 23: Present (Or Happy Birthday Seto Kaiba 2018 lol)

I had this in my wips for quite some time now and just decided to put the two ideas together for Kaiba’s birthday. And play a little with the prompt title ^_^

You can read it under the tag or here

After he closed the door as silently as he could he took the few steps over the small porch and sat down on the cold stone. It was still morning, at least he assumed it was. He could never really tell what time it was here exactly. But the sun hadn���t risen to her highest peak and her heat wasn’t as intense as it usually was either.

He pulled his turtleneck over his head, not because he was cold but because he wouldn’t sit in front of Atem’s chamber half-clad. Of course he knew people were talking already but that didn’t mean he should and would give them more reason to gossip.

Then again, he had spent the night here, in his chamber even so people were certainly talking anyway.

Well, he couldn’t care less about their opinions. None of them did matter.

The only person that mattered was on the other side of this world, outside of this realm and he had left him alone the whole night. At least here it was the whole night, he didn’t know how much time had gone by on the other side. He had to go back as fast as he could.

Just… He’d known before that night actually, that someone else mattered to him as well. He wouldn’t have made all his way down here if it was different, surely. It had taken him some visits, some more duels until he had accepted that there was more between them, that he wanted more.

And then yesterday, after he’d passed out and was too weak to go back to his brother they’d… engaged in a passionate duel of a different kind.

It sounded easy, seemed like the natural conclusion to all of this but it wasn’t. Quite the contrary.

No, it made everything even more difficult, put them in a even more desperate situation. Like the road they were walking down had suddenly met a dead end.

All because he’d let his guard down around him this one time.

Granted, Atem had done the same.

And it wasn’t as if he hadn’t enjoyed it. Again, quite the contrary.

He still felt him, his skin still tickled and sounds, whispers and images were still as vibrant, as intense and as clear as the moment they were emitted.

The urge to shut his eyes and shake his head to get rid of it all was hard to suppress but he did it anyway. He, no they had done it now so there was no need to try and forget it. He’d always told him the past didn’t matter anyway. Only the future did and he intended to live on these words.

But for the first time, he didn’t really know how to do that.

A movement in the corner of his eyes suddenly caught his attention and he turned his head on reflex.

There stood a young girl at the end of the courtyard, her long silver-blue hair was almost longer than her shabby dress and she stared at him in astonishment just as Seto stared back at her. She didn’t move for a while, as if she was awestruck. Which happened quite often here, since these petty people couldn’t comprehend his emergence in any way. Normally they stayed away from him, left him alone and only whispered behind his back when he walked by. Not that he cared, he’d just noticed it.

But this girl seemed different.

She was still standing there and looked at him, apparently considering if she should come closer or just leave again and Kaiba simply watched, somehow unable to tear his eyes away from her.

There was something about her that fascinated him and he felt an excited rush in his veins when she shrugged her shoulders and finally walked up to him.

He kept his eyes on her as she came closer, daring her to retreat but her steps got bolder the closer she came.

It was weird the way her eyes seemed to glow as she looked at him. She cleared her throat softly. “Can I sit down?” Despite the fact that she had cleared her throat before opening her mouth, her voice still had a small pitch in it and Kaiba frowned at her.

“How should I know if you can?”

It was a usual retort to stupid questions like that but to his surprise he felt a pang of regret jolting through him. She had asked nicely after all, there was no need to be so brusque. Even more surprisingly the girl simply chuckled.

“Oh, I can. Here, I'll show you.” She grinned, that certain, oddly familiar gleam still in her eyes but he still couldn’t pinpoint why it had that effect on him.

She sat down right next to him, a little too close maybe, for his liking. Something radiated off her body now that she sat there with him, so close that he could touch her when he reached out. It wasn’t the addictive, appealing warmth he felt around Atem that he had finally given in to last night and that he could still sense in his core – it was something equally intense and powerful and yet entirely different. 

She looked expectantly at him although Kaiba had no idea why. He didn’t know what she wanted; he didn’t want company and he didn’t want to talk, let alone to a young, impertinent girl.

“My name is Kisara.” She said as if she expected that word would ring a bell. It didn’t, of course and slowly but surely he was getting curious as to what was up with this girl. “I’ve wanted to talk to you for a while actually. But whenever you came here you had only eyes for him.” Her voice had a snarky undertone to it as she nodded her head in the direction of Atem’s chamber.  

Kaiba shrugged. “There’s nothing else here that could possibly interest me.”

“I see…” She seemed crestfallen, if not downhearted and Kaiba wondered why. “Well, of course not... but I thought…”

She stopped midsentence and shook her head with a smile, obviously choosing to keep the rest of her sentence to herself.

Then she fell silent and Kaiba thought she was already done with small talk and would leave him to his pondering again. Although, weirdly, he felt comfortable in her presence, like he had been in her company before, maybe even his whole life. Why didn’t that unsettle him?

“This was the first time you stayed overnight…” It sounded more like a statement than a question and anger began to rise within him after all.

“That is none of your business.”

“No, it just struck me.”

This girl became more and more peculiar with every word she said and Kaiba felt like she was up to some sort of preaching.

“If you allow…” she stopped and chuckled at the look on Kaiba’s face. He knew it, she was just as predictable as everybody else. “I’m sorry. It’s just that…” She spoke deliberately and slowly, choosing her words with care and Kaiba allowed himself to listen. “You’re always striving for the future, always looking ahead and never back but you are stuck in your time with him. So much so, that you chased him all the way here. For more than just a duel or your revenge. Your relationship with him is far more complicated than that… He’s a creature of the past, while you’re bent on the future… and in the meantime you both forget to live in the present…”

Kaiba side glanced at her, wondering just how she knew all this and why he let her talk so much all the while she just stared ahead to a distant point, as if she was looking at something or someone he couldn’t see.

Then she continued. “But still… you made it this far and I’m sure… you’ll find a way to combine your determination and Atem’s purpose.”

Now he stared openly at her.

What the hell was with this girl?

She had obviously died at a young age and yet she sounded almost as pretentious and smart-aleck as Atem.

Just who was she? Why did she seem so familiar?

He missed something, he knew it.

Speaking of missing… There was one thing, one word about her speech that raised his suspicion. Not because she had used it, but because she had left it out and he wanted to know why. “Not... Pharaoh Atem?” He frowned at her and when she turned his head blue eyes locked onto equally blue ones and Kaiba’s breath caught a little. But he swallowed it down. “I mean… everyone else here calls him that, bows and shows him respect whenever he walks by or moves or just breathes. Except you. Why?”

She blinked at him, open confusion in her eyes for a moment before it vanished and was replaced with steadiness and a small, knowing grin. "He’s not my pharaoh. I served another. And my loyalty is his alone. It always was and... always will be." Her glance nearly pierced him and there was something in it that told him he missed the meaning of her words. "... Just as he is loyal to me." She gave him this meaningful smile again and for just a moment her eyes flashed with a determination Kaiba had seen so many times before and knew just too well. And it was in this moment that Kaiba recognized just who she reminded him of this whole time and he gasped for air.

He had seen Atem’s magician and the girl too but he thought they were the only ones. Never in his wildest imaginations had he thought that his almighty dragon was really… She chuckled softly at his wide eyes and slightly open mouth but didn't say anything, just smiled. So, Kaiba opened his mouth.

"You are… my..."

He started but then he heard the door behind them being yanked open and a voice calling out his name desperately.

Kaiba turned to the source of the voice, denying and ignoring the stumbling of his heart at the call as well as the halting of his breath as he saw him.

He thought that after last night he had seen everything, that there couldn't be another surprise, another novelty. But now he stood there with sleepy eyes and messy hair, clad in nothing but a thin blanket that started to slip from his shoulders as he stared back him. He wasn't far, only just a little out of his reach and Kaiba could clearly see the marks he left on him, the irrevocably proof that their union hadn't been a dream. Not this time.

Kisara's chuckle at his side got him out of his thoughts and when he looked back at her she still smiled at him, but differently this time. "Well, I better go now. It was nice... finally talking to you." He managed a nod and opened his mouth to say something but she leaned forward and kissed his cheek swiftly. Kaiba jumped at the gesture and was about to be indignant but when he saw the mischievous smirk she threw in Atem's direction and the pharaoh's uncertain glance at the scene before him he couldn't help a small grin of his own. Their wordless exchange amused him and erased the last doubt he had about her identity. 

He watched silently as she got up. "Remember what I told you." She said, then nodded his head at him, turned and walked away as smoothly as she had approached him, her long silver-blue hair swaying behind her life a stream of water. 

Kaiba still couldn't believe it. Who this skinny, beautiful, mild-mannered girl really was.

He was so caught up in watching her that he hadn’t realized that Atem had come closer to him and he jerked a little when the man cleared his throat beside him and took the place Kisara had been sitting in before, blanket now firmly tugged around his shoulders as if trying to hide the traces of their encounter, as if shielding away and raising yet another barrier between them. They sat like that for a while, neither saying a word.

"Sorry for interrupting you earlier." He said suddenly and Kaiba all but twitched. "I didn't want to scream like that I just... I thought you were already gone."

Kaiba scoffed. "Don't judge me by your own standards."

"Kaiba..." Atem started and the tone in his voice sounded tired, battle-weary. "That... was something else." That almost made him laugh. "Oh, of course it's different when you do it."

"No." Now he sounded infuriated again, with that hint of angriness that let Kaiba tremble every time. "It is different now."

He kept silent after that, contemplating if he should look at him or not, if he should touch him or not, what it meant that he longed for it but still kept his desire at bay. He felt adrift but fought to keep afloat in all of this wonderful chaos. 

"Seto..."

And there it was again. His name, so softly spoken with his voice, rolling off his tongue so naturally and casually and Kaiba let out a breath unconsciously. He felt him stiffen beside him and saw him fidgeting with his fingers out of the corner of his eyes. It was obvious, that he was nervous. "I want you to know... I thought about it and I appreciate you coming here, coming for me but as much as I want to, as much as I wish things were different... I can't change them. I am dead, I am here now, where I... where the dead belong and that is why..."

“Don’t you think I know that?” He interrupted him and glared at him. “And yet you still convinced me to stay yesterday. Don’t you dare tell me it was a mistake. Because it wasn’t. And you know it.”

Atem shook his head slowly. “No, I didn’t mean that.”

Kaiba felt his patience fading. He was already stressing him enough when he was lecturing him but this stammering unnerved him even more. “Then what?”

He shuffled his feet and when Kaiba heard him swallow he braced himself for what was to come out of his mouth next.

Apparently people had a habit for preaching today…

"Kaiba…” So he used Kaiba again now, huh? Fascinating. “This is the realm of the dead and you are many things but certainly not dead. Not yet, at least. You have your whole life ahead of you, in contrast to me. And yet you keep coming here but, Kaiba… You don't belong here." He made a noise in the back of his throat that could have been hhhave been a laugh if he had tried hard enough. "No, I don't belong here." He agreed and Atem stiffened some more despite the fact he'd said it first. But Kaiba knew he struck a cord with his acceptance. However it wasn't all he had to say to that and he turned his head and looked Atem dead in the eye. "But you don't belong here either." Now Atem stared at him in return and Kaiba could watch how annoyance and frustration slowly darkened his expression. “Kaiba…”

"No." was all he needed to say to shut him up. "You know I'm right. So for once in your life, just accept that I am right, and not you."

Atem sighed, but it wasn’t heavily it was, if not defeated then accepting. "Even if that’s the case… it's not that simple..." "Isn't it?” He went on, not even thinking of stopping here now. "Well I didn't just sleep with you because I could tell you to fuck off the next morning. I did it because I had made up my mind. I knew it would have consequences, that it wouldn't just be a one-time thing and that it would not… heal my infuriation with you." He stood up, facing Atem from above and for once feeling like he really was above him.  "I want you, more than for just a fling or a duel. I want all I can get and all you can give and I want you back. Literally. And I won't stop looking for a way to achieve that." He stopped there, as if suddenly realizing what he had said, how much he had revealed and then stared down at Atem, unwavering, demanding, a sort of questing in his eyes that was only visible for a short moment, and solely for the person in front of him. There was no point in hiding anything anymore anyway.

“Still… I’ve made my choice, Seto.” Ah, it was Seto again now. That meant he was nearly there. “I can’t just go back on it.”

He shook his head. “That wasn’t your choice, it was what you believed destiny expected from you.” Kaiba held his hand out for Atem to take it, and when he did after a while, he pulled him up and close to him. “The next time I come here… I want you to make a choice of your own.”

It took Atem a moment to nod but Kaiba was glad when he did and he nodded in return.

He watched him lean up to him and he leaned down to him as well but stopped right before their lips could touch and instead put his forehead against Atem’s.

“Why?”

“Because it would feel too much like a farewell. And this isn’t one.”

Atem nodded again but they remained like that for a moment more, neither willing to let go of the other so soon.

But Kaiba did, eventually, take a step back and turned away.

He’d walked some distance when he stopped once more and called over his shoulder. “Two more things before I go...”

“Yes?”

“You’ve lived in the past for too long, you should give the present a chance too. And…” He turned his head to look at him, amused by the way he still clutched that blanket and threw him a smirk. Atem caught it and with a mischievous grin of his own let the blanket fall from his shoulders a little. Kaiba laughed and then remembered that he wanted to ask him something. “And would you tell Kisara something from me?

Atem smiled and shook his head. “How about you tell herself when you come back?”

Kaiba grinned at the meaning behind these words and nodded.

“I will.”

[engelchenyugi]

Someone to believe in

Rivalshipping is one of the ships I actually see working out in canon-verse which is more thanks to Takahashi and his illustration for them.

(It feels great that one of my head-canons turned out to be realistic enough for even the mangaka to consider as a possibility.（๑✧∀✧๑）)

I see them forming a business relationship. Kaiba who came back from the Ancient times and made his peace with Atem now has to keep his eyes open in order to find a new rival which is Yuugi. There are quite a few things about Kaiba's and Yuugi's relationship people often seem to overlook. It wasn't Atem who first saw through Kaiba's mask but Yuugi. Yuugi who always had been an outsider in his class must have been used watching people.

He learned to read them because he adapted to them. He never wanted to make people angry or have them think ill of him which of course lead to him being more or less ignored by his classmates. Yuugi has shyness issues in the manga and he can't really say what he thinks as he fears hurting other people or being misunderstood. The manga explains Yuugi's personality, his complexes and how he deals with the people around him perfectly. When the manga starts, Yuugi has been in his class for quite a while but to the reader it is described in a way as if Yuugi was new there. He explains the minor characters and seems to have a lot of knowledge about them although he never actively talked to them. This way of narrative is pretty interesting and unusual.

He is wishing for friends and wants people to see him which is interesting as it shows that Yuugi has spent a lot of time just observing the people around him which explains why Yuugi can tell if someone lies or tells the truth. He has the ability to look through other people's lies which became all the more clearer when Kaiba exchanges his Blue Eyes White Dragon card with a copy.

No, even before that, we see Yuugi look at Kaiba with some kind of concern. He knows that Kaiba is up to something and he is sweating. Kaiba is smiling. Kaiba is acting. He acts like a normal teenager and if we see the whole picture, Kaiba is loved by the masses and he has fans all around the world which is also explained by the shareholders of Kaiba Corporation who only choose Kaiba as the CEO because of his popularity and his reputation among gamers. Kaiba is known as a genius. More than that, he knows how to manipulate people and make them like him. Kaiba is faking a smile and acts like a likable and kind person – which he is absolutely not, as he is pretty devious, self-centered and so full of himself.

Yuugi was the first person who ever saw through his masquerade and Kaiba should have paid more attention to Yuugi and not only to Atem. This is something he will learn after DSOD. I'm pretty sure that Kaiba will accept Yuugi as his true rival (since he already did acknowledge his skills in the end of DSOD) and that they will get closer in a human level during their work on Spherium. I like to imagine how this change slowly comes to them and how Kaiba more and more understands how much he needs people around him, especially his brother and Yuugi. Although Kaiba would never say so, he does need people around him, because if he is all by himself he is rather destructive. He pays no attention to himself and easily gets absorbed in his job, fully forgetting everything around him because he can't deal with his own weaknesses.

And this is something I find very interesting. Yuugi has full right to hate Kaiba. To avoid him, but he chooses not to. Yuugi makes a decision which is surprising to the reader (mostly to Jounouchi) and to Kaiba. He calls Kaiba a friend, saying that they have the same passion and that they're alike. He visits Kaiba in the hospital, fully knowing that he is not going to wake up. This alone shows that Yuugi has forgiven him and that he is even worried about his well-being. The man who put his friends in danger and tried to kill them. The man who would captivate him and make him face his own weaknesses. It's so difficult to understand why Yuugi would forgive him after everything he's done. It’s easy to say that Yuugi is in general a kind boy, but it’s not like he can’t be angry or hate people. Even Yuugi can be quite unforgiving and hold grudges, but there must have been something he gained from his encounter with Kaiba – something he realized during Death-T he wouldn’t have been able without him.

Kaiba and Yuugi have some kind of special bond between them and both know that. Maybe Yuugi is grateful to Kaiba because only due to Death-T he was finally able to address his true feelings and the possibility that there might be someone else inside him that is taking control over his body once he loses consciousness. He needed an extreme situation to say what was bothering him. Without the severe situation they were in, he would have never had the guts to tell his friends his fears. It was the whole situation, facing deaths and not knowing what's happening next, that made him despaired enough to address this matter – which was a good thing and helped him to overcome his fear and realize that his friends would always be there for him, even if he had another person inside him. 

Yuugi calls Kaiba a friend. He offers him help. Both manga and anime. He never shows negative feelings towards the man who put him into hell and even laughed at his misery. There is a lot of respect between them, especially coming from Yuugi’s side who would address him with “Kaiba-kun” while Kaiba would just call him by his forename. Yuugi has a lot of respect for Kaiba and seems to admire him in a way. Yuugi, just like Atem, considers Kaiba a noble duelist. And this way of thinking, the way he sees Kaiba, is to me really exciting to explore.

Kaiba must have realized that, too. Kaiba knows what a kind person Yuugi is and that it makes no difference for their awkward relationship whether he pushes him away, because Yuugi keeps coming back. Yuugi does not give him up and that is something Kaiba needs. Kaiba needs a person who is willing and able to stand up against him and does not mind being rejected. Kaiba rejects Yuugi so many times and shows him that he does not believe in his friendship-is-magic bullshit that one should think Yuugi would finally give up on him. But the more often Kaiba rejects him, the more likely for Yuugi to come back.

And that's why I like their relationship. Kaiba is an asshole and Yuugi still chooses to be nice to him and call him a friend. This whole relationship is messed up and the older they get, the more Kaiba will understand how important Yuugi is for him.

Personally, I really have problems imagining Kaiba in a lovey-dovey relationship because he is does not like showing his weak sides since he is afraid people might take advantage of him. Due to his past with Gozaburo he was taught to suppress his own emotions and strive for success. As the mangaka said, Gozaburo truly thought that this was the best and he actually considered himself a good father which is why he never realized the slowly growing madness inside his son. Furthermore, Kaiba truly regrets having killed his father. He considers himself a patricide and this burdens him. Even stated by the author of the manga:

“To Kaiba, he was a father, but he just wasn't a "typical" father. When he carried out his administration shift, Seto didn't think that Gozaburo would die. Now without a foe due to Gozaburo taking his own life, he slowly started to lose his sanity. He himself felt guilty of committing "patricide." Being an important keyword in this series, the word "patricide" always haunts him. You could say Gozaburo implanted the design that "games equal death" into Seto.”

Kaiba has emotions. Kaiba is easily manipulated. Kaiba is a human-being and it's not like he never regrets anything. There are plenty of things that haunt him. He is obsessed with crushing the past and find a way to the future, because he himself can't go on. He can't do that. He can't forget his past and is chained down by his memories. He needs to repeat these words so often not to convince Yuugi-tachi but himself. Fighting against his own emotions, his past and bounds to other people gives him strength and he seems to believe that this is the only way to reach the future. Abandoning anything around you is the only way to focus.The only way to create a path to the future is to destroy everything. Kaiba tends to think in extremes. All or nothing. Black or white. There is no middle way and he is not willing to accept any other people who oppose his way of thinking.

I'd like to quote something that Takahashi said about Yuugi's and Kaiba's relationship:

“[...]Seto searched for the meaning in fighting said to take down your opponent down in a game on your own. Fighting, and, for example, what's known as war, is a battle between two nations, while Seto considers fighting a personal war to the bitter end. That's why I think Yuugi's character is so significant. Seto, without Yuugi as his rival and without an enemy that he must topple, would not be able to exist.“

Kaiba can't exist without Yuugi, because he would choose the path of destruction and lose himself. Although the mangaka is talking about Yami no Yuugi, rather Atem, it’s something that I see as a general character trait of Kaiba. Kaiba needs someone who gives him a reason to keep fighting, someone to believe in. As shown in DSOD, Kaiba can't deal loss. He absolutely can't. He would never openly admit it or say it out loud, there is a special connection between him and Atem. (I know that the dub destroyed this moment and made him say something he wouldn't say, but I just ignore the bullshit America once again came up for Yuugiou and instead pay more attention to the original version.)

Kaiba does not need to say what he thinks, because it's obvious. His expression shows how he truly feels and that this rivalry-thingy he has going on with Atem is much more than that, equaling the love to an important brother you need to have by your side to realize your own mistakes and show you the way. Atem is Kaiba’s mentor. Kaiba is focused so much on Atem that he can’t see the world around him anymore. That’s just what he is and even in the future, Kaiba will need someone who gives him a reason to be alive. Someone who motivates him to grow and improve and the only one fitting for that role is Yuugi. Yuugi is the only only capable of handling him and has proven that he is worthy to be his next rival.

The movie makes sure to show that Kaibas has a place to return to and that meeting Atem is not the last or the ending of his journey but only a stepping stone to a brighter future where his past stops haunting him.

And later on, it's Yuugi who will fill this role, even going far beyond that. Working together, sharing their passion for games and being able to live their dreams and make anything happen they desire will help Kaiba to regain his humanity. Of course, he will never go head over heels for Yuugi and tell him how much he loves him, because his actions and his looks are enough to ensure Yuugi that Kaiba absolutely treasures him.

[thosewhoruleegypt]

What Followed the High Priest Home (Chapter 7)

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!   Characters/Ships: Puzzleshipping/Blindshipping (Atem/Yugi); Gemshipping (Thief King Bakura/Ryou Bakura); Puppyshipping/Revertshipping (Priest Seto Kaiba/Jounochi); Atem, Yugi, Thief King Bakura, Ryou Bakura, Priest Seto Kaiba, Jounochi Katsuya Rating: M (WARNINGS for steamy fade-to-black moments, banter of a sexual nature, and some abuse of lotus wine) Length: Chapter 7 / 7; 2200 words

Summary:

Upon his homecoming, Priest Seto Kaiba certainly didn’t expect to find a statue of the Thief King in the middle of the palace courtyard, right where the Pharaoh’s statue ought to be. He also didn’t expect the stray puppy he picked up on his travels to follow him all the way home.

In the meantime, the Great Royal Husband, Yugi Mutou, makes a new friend, one Jounochi Katsuya, and Pharaoh Atem wonders when the power dynamics around his palace got so difficult to navigate.

Sequel to “For Love of Pharaoh and King;” “The Pharaoh’s Lotus Garden—Part I” accounts for the time between the two works. Can be read separately, but will make more sense with context.

Full Story Begins Here! Read on AO3 Previous Chapter – Next Chapter (next part coming soon~)

Chapter Seven: Return, in Truth

There was a feast—a feast the likes of which hadn't been seen since the royal wedding. Pharaoh Atem spared no effort in celebrating the return of his cousin and High Priest, Seto Kaiba, and the whole of the royal city rejoiced with their Pharaoh. The commoner Jounochi Katsuya, friend of the Great Royal Husband and consort of the High Priest, enjoyed a seat of honor at the banquet, beside Priest Seto. The Thief King made no mischief to speak of. 

That night, everyone in the palace enjoyed a peaceful, exhausted sleep. When dawn came, the air was undisturbed by human movement and filled only with early morning birdsong. 

A single person broke that stillness—one Jounochi Katsuya, making his somewhat meandering way through the courtyard of the palace. And, as he neared the front gates, a second approached from behind him; called out. 

"Jounochi?" 

The young man turned; tilted his head. "Oh. Hey, Yugi." 

The Great Royal Husband halted; took in Jounochi's determined expression and the bag slung over his shoulder. With a sinking heart, he asked, "Where are you going?" 

Jounochi smiled. "Back home. I never thought Seto'd change his mind, or anything. I just hung around for one last night with him, and that's that. That's how it is, between us. I get that. I always knew that." 

Yugi frowned; reached out and took one of Jounochi's hands in both of his. "I don't know about all that—I can't speak to your relationship with Priest Seto—but I would like it if you stayed." 

"Thanks for being my friend, Yugi," was Jounochi's reply. "You're the best one I've ever had. I mean that." 

They embraced, tightly; Yugi clung to Jounochi, knotting his hands in the other's shirt, and then they parted.

"Come visit any time," Yugi said. 

"Thanks. I think this is goodbye, though." 

Yugi nodded. "I... understand." 

"Say 'bye' to Bakura for me," Jounochi said, backing up as he did so. "Tell him I'm sorry we never got that proper fight, okay?" 

"I will..." Yugi took a single step after him, but stopped there; watched as Jounochi took one slow step back after another. 

"And don't even bother to tell that bastard Seto 'bye,' for me!" Jounochi called, then waved. "Thanks for everything, Yugi!" 

"We'll still be friends!" Yugi called after him, and Jounochi's smile faltered. 

"Yeah... yeah, friends forever!" he yelled, then spun and began to run; Yugi saw one arm rise to cover his face, as he did so. 

"Friends forever!" he called. "Goodbye, Jounochi!"

... ... ... 

"Obelisk the Tormentor... and Slifer the Sky Dragon..." Atem murmured.

His High Priest nodded, standing before him at the side of the throne room. It was mid-morning, the day after the banquet. "Two of the Three Lost to Time. Two of the three god cards. The third has eluded me." 

"Finding even one of them is a feat thought impossible, by many..." Atem murmured. "You've done well. Far beyond well." 

Seto nodded. "My Pharaoh honors me, with such words." And he offered the two cards on upturned palms. 

Atem considered them, then picked up Slifer the Sky Dragon. Seto looked questioningly at him. 

"My Lord?" 

"Obelisk is yours, Cousin. You've dueled well, with it, and are deserving." 

Seto looked perturbed. "They're both yours, by rights, Pharaoh. I left to find them on your behalf." 

"Then consider Obelisk a gift, if you must," Atem replied. "Either way, it is yours." 

Seto hesitated, for another moment, and then pulled the card back toward himself. "Thank you, Pharaoh. You honor me." 

Atem smiled. "I do. But you needn't be so formal about it." 

Seto still dipped his head when he said, "You honor me, Cousin." 

"And you didn't leave on this mission on my behalf," Atem scoffed. "Don't try to feed me such lies." 

Seto's head snapped up. "It's not—!" 

"You left because you were running away. From what happened." Atem's voice wasn't harsh; his expression was gentle and open. "What's done is done, Seto. There's no need for that, anymore. You're home, and I hope you'll stay." 

Seto shifted; began to turn, and said, "Excuse me. I have business to attend to."

"Stay, Seto."

Seto bent his head again, though he didn't turn back. "If that is my Pharaoh's command." 

"It's not a command," Atem said, softly. "It's a request." 

And Seto replied, after a moment, "I'll stay, Cousin..."

... ... ... 

"It looks like it hurts..." Yugi murmured, running his hands gently along the bruises that mottled Atem's chest. They, along with some scrapes about his shoulders and face, were the extent of his injuries from his duel with High Priest Seto. Mentally, though, the Pharaoh had taken less damage from the final attack than was to be expected—there had been no fear, on his part, or malice on Priest Seto's, at the moment of impact, and that had softened the blow.

"It's fine," Atem murmured, kissing Yugi's shoulder; working his way along the collar bone, and then hovering above Yugi's throat. He kissed the hollow at the base of Yugi's neck, then ran the tip of his tongue lightly up; nipped his jaw. Yugi shivered. 

"Really... I wish you hadn't taken that last hit..." Yugi breathed, although his breath kept hitching. 

Atem nibbled, then sucked at Yugi's neck, just below his jawline, leaving a scarlet mark before replying. "I had to, love... We had to settle it. And now it's settled." 

"No more fighting? Really?" Yugi asked, stubbornly refusing to be distracted. 

"No more fighting..." Atem breathed; kissed Yugi's mouth, quickly, and breathed between kisses, "No fighting... unless Bakura... starts it..." 

Yugi shoved Atem's chest, at that, and Atem grunted softly in pain. Yugi, remembering the bruising, gave an alarmed squeak. "I-I'm sorry...! I wasn't thinking...!"

"If you weren't thinking, we wouldn't be having this conversation... Stop thinking..." Atem growled, giving up on spoken words as he attacked Yugi's mouth again. Yugi's body arched involuntarily, despite his whine of protest. 

"We're not done talking about this...!" he said, and then groaned into Atem's mouth. 

"We can talk about it later..." was Atem's reply, as his fingers sought out each sensitive spot on Yugi's body. 

"Pharaoh..."

"I'm sure it'll come up again. I got Seto to say he's staying. I almost thought he wouldn't."

Yugi felt Atem's distress bubble up, with that thought, and wrapped his arms around the Pharaoh's neck; kissed him back, to soothe him. "But you got him to stay. So don't worry."

"Right... it wasn't just because of me that he stayed, though. I'm sure."

That made Yugi pause, and for a moment they both stilled, short of breath and with passion halfway begun. "What? What do you mean?" 

"The boy. Jounochi." Atem matched Yugi's verbal speech, for a moment, and Yugi sensed his lingering dislike for the young man in question. Atem reverted to telepathy, for efficiency's sake, to convey without words how Priest Seto had left in search of the god cards; how he had sworn it was on his Pharaoh's behalf; how Atem had always known it to be an excuse, for the palace had become an uncomfortable place for young Seto Kaiba. "But he only found two of the three gods, so he could've stayed away, according to his own pretext. He came back because he wanted to. He came back because of the boy."

"Couldn't he have just been homesick? After all that time?"

Atem's head was turned slightly, his gaze distant. "No... not my cousin. We may not appear it, but we know one another well. He's not the type to suffer from ailments such as homesickness."

"So... Jounochi?"

"Mm. I don't know his motivation, exactly... but that's the only thing I can think of. That's the only variable that could've changed his mind, for whatever reason."

Yugi frowned, then said aloud, "I hope he comes back, then." 

Atem looked down in surprise. "'Comes back?'" 

Yugi nodded. "Jounochi. He doesn't think... I mean, he left, this morning." 

Atem smiled suddenly; began to laugh, the sound soft and warm. 

Yugi stared up at him, surprised. "Atem?" 

"Don't worry, Partner..." Atem leaned down; kissed him, and so passionately that Yugi had no choice but to respond. "It's been taken care of."

"What do you mean... Pharaoh...?"

"We cousins may not appear it, but we know each other well. It's been taken care of."

"Pharaoh, please explain...!" Yugi's whine, as Atem's hands began again to wander, suited the pensive thought. 

"Later, Partner... we said we'd talk about this later..."

"Pharaoh..."

"Later, my love."

"Later... Pharaoh..."

... ... ... 

Jounochi Katsuya sat in a dingy tavern at the very edge of town—the next town over, from the royal city. It had been a couple of days since he'd covered such a distance in one day, so his legs were a bit achy, and he propped them up on the empty chair across the table while he drank his beer.

"Aah..." Leaning back, Jounochi let his head hang; closed his eyes. He was strangely comfortable with the fact that his time as Priest Seto's... whatever he had been... was over. But he had no idea what would be next for him, then. He would return to his family; try to find work... and what? Perhaps take a wife, for the sake of meeting social expectations; perhaps not. Perhaps he'd never take another lover, and keep instead to whores and one-night-stands for company. 

Maybe that jerk Kaiba's wrecked me... for good... Jounochi smiled, when the thought occurred to him. Maybe...

The chair was jerked suddenly out from under his feet, and he gave a shout of surprise as he bolted upright. A familiar shape thudded down across from him, waving for the tavern staff. 

"Wine, please," the newcomer said. "The best you have." 

"Wh-Wha..." Jounochi tried, then stood and spluttered, "Wh-Wh-What?!" 

"Have some dignity, pup," the man said, with a motion. "Sit down." 

Jounochi slumped back into his chair; stared at Seto Kaiba, even as the High Priest thanked the serving girl for the wine. He poured two bowls. 

"Drink. You look like you could use it." 

"You... you came after me?" Jounochi breathed, and Seto narrowed his eyes. 

"Don't ask questions with such obvious answers." And he sipped his wine. Jounochi, at a loss, did the same. 

After they'd both finished their drink, Priest Seto stretched across the table; grabbed the front of Jounochi's shirt and kissed him, more insistently than passionately. Upon drawing back, he bit Jounochi's lip hard enough to make the other yelp; to draw beads of scarlet blood. 

"Come home, pup. Don't make me chase you all the damn way back to the start." 

Jounochi's breath caught, and he grabbed Seto's wrist as the High Priest went to retract it. Seto regarded the display with slight amusement. 

"You jerk. Stealing my shtick." 

"You're the one who ran away, this time." 

Jounochi drew a breath, then let it out with a chuckle. "It's already dark. We'll have to spend the night here, for sure. I'll decide in the morning, whether I'll keep running or not. What'd'ya say?" 

But Priest Seto shook his head. "I'm through sleeping anywhere but my own bed." He stood; used the grip Jounochi still had on his wrist to pull the other up, as well, and led him toward the tavern's door. 

Jounochi was drawing breath, once again, to object, but again let it out before speaking. Seto motioned almost demurely to the chariot waiting outside, all but blocking the street. Several palace folk stood by the horses, and Seto motioned one of them over. 

"Go pay the tavern owner," he instructed the servant, then said to Jounochi with a smirk, "You can't expect the High Priest to go looking for his lost puppy on foot, now can you?"

Jounochi grimaced at him. "That's how I always had to come after you."

"You and I aren't quite of the same privilege," Seto replied. "Or the same breeding, or the same social standing. And yet..." he threaded his fingers through Jounochi's hair, startling the young man, "here I am, come to retrieve you anyway." 

"And you still manage to be a jerk while doing it..." Jounochi muttered, but didn't resist when Seto shooed him on ahead toward the carriage. "I haven't decided yet, y'know," Jounochi objected, as he was bundled inside. "I may be gone again tomorrow morn—aah!" 

The High Priest gave him a rather hard shove, sending him crashing face-first into the carriage's cushioned seat. Seto was on top of him before he could right himself, pinning him down, and the carriage door shut behind them with a soft click. 

"Don't be so disagreeable," Seto ordered, close to his ear; Jounochi shivered. "It just makes me want to put you in your place..." 

Jounochi tried to think of a retort as his ear was bitten; as his trousers were pulled down in one swift motion. He felt the carriage begin to move with a gentle lurch, the sounds of horses' hooves an echo behind Seto's harsh breathing. 

"What do you want, Joey? Anything... I'll do anything you want... For this carriage ride, the High Priest will be your servant..." 

Jounochi gave a breathless chuckle. "That's a weird thing to say, when you've got me pinned." 

"I know what you like..." Seto rasped. "That's why..." 

"And if I had something different in mind?" 

"Then I am your servant." And the High Priest bit his neck; sucked, then licked the spot as if in apology. 

Jounochi's whole body shuttered. "Maybe... after... y'know. After y'know what... then I'll think'a something... different..."  

"As you command, Lord Joey..."

[btp-yami]

I said I’d do it one day

GOSH DARNIT SETO AND NOAH NEED TO HAVE SOME MORE POSITIVE INTERACTION

LORD KNOWS IT WONT HAPPEN IN THE ARCS (as far as Ive written it)

~*~*~*~

The elevator dinged as it hit the top floor, and as soon as it split, Noah followed Mokuba down the hall.

“I still don’t see why you wanted me here,” He arched a brow, “Dad n’ ‘Tem are WAY more passionate about Duel Monsters. I mean, I love it, but…”

“Trust me,” Mokuba smiled, “I wanted you for this. And besides, you know Yugi, Atem, and Seto will all be super biased.”

“Can’t argue with that one…”

But, when they went into the office, both straightened upon stepping over the threshold.

He seemed to be leaving, but Seto shut the lid to his briefcase before turning to look over at them. He donned a black suit instead of white, but the bright blue tie was still in place, bangs falling over his eyes enough to make his expression unreadable.

Noah immediately tensed, glancing off and away while Mokuba relaxed.

“Hey, Seto. I thought you left already?”

“Came back for a few things,” Seto answered tersely, before leaning back against his desk and crossing his arms, “This, being one.”

“I told you I could handle it…” Mokuba halfway grumbled before frowning, “Look I know you’re gonna pick Blue-Eyes.”

“Not for that,” Seto looked past Mokuba to Noah. “For him.”

Noah tensed even more, rigid and dropping a small, nearly-inaudible “Shit.”

“I brought him, Seto,” Mokuba tried to explain, frown still in place, “After all, getting another opinion won’t hurt.”

Seto still had his eyes clearly on Noan, who avoided looking at him by any means necessary.

“Give us a minute.” Seto looked to Mokuba expectantly.

Noah started edging back towards the door while Mokuba frowned, “Are you sure that’s—”

“Just a minute. I’ll need to catch my flight soon.”

Mokuba shrugged, “A-All right, I guess.”

Noah cringed, swerving back around when he had been just over the threshold.

Mokuba stopped next to him, patting his shoulder with a smile of apology, “Don’t worry, he doesn’t bite. I’ll be back in just a bit to get your input.”

Noah frowned after him, but then took a couple steps back inside. He stayed right by the door, but kept his arms crossed in front of him as he kept his gaze on the wall nearby and not Seto.

Seto still stared at him, examining him.

A full minute quickly passed, until Noah finally sighed tersely.

“Look, if you’re gonna go on about what happened a few years ago, just get it over with already.”

His shoulders grew rigid with his discomfort.

“You’re doing that quite enough for both of us.”

Noah’s shoulders dropped, and he finally looked back over to see Seto had walked over to him. Only the three stairs between levels of the office separated them.

“Tell me,” Seto replied, eyeing him, “If I asked you about Yugi three years ago, what would you have said?”

The question caught Noah off-guard, and he flushed with embarrassment as he still recalled the feeling, his chest tight and blood pounding.

“I-I…” His voice was softer than he meant it to be, “I-I would’ve said I don’t know him…Or…o-or strode out…or just…remain silent…”

He looked off, “I-I wouldn’t’ve told you… ‘he’s not who you think he is’…”

A frown came over his face, looking further away, “Why would you care? Y-Your whole rivalry was with Atem.”

“Your father is a respectable duelist,” Seto countered firmly, “And kind, to the point of naïvty. Or at least he was.”

Seto folded his hands behind him, “When he walked in here three years ago—you, the Pharaoh, and two childish girls in tow—he looked…different, I suppose you would say. Beaten. Worn. There was a shadow to his eyes.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed into a small glare. “You wouldn’t understand, Kaiba.”

“He was in those damned shadows.”

Noah’s eyes were wide, startled before he looked back over.

Seto stared back, until he climbed the last three steps, towards Noah. “While I might’ve fully believed it all to be some mind trick, Mutou—I guarantee, I know I saw Mokuba almost get hurt more times than I’m pleased to remember. All in the span of a few years.”

His eyes narrowed, “Something I noticed in you, when you were shouting like a child in here three years ago. That was only once you knew what had happened. But, you said yourself: before Yugi came back, you didn’t believe in anything.”

Noah’s shoulders hunched again with slight shame while he looked off, “Get to your point, Kaiba.”

“The point is this: stop dwelling on the past.”

Noah straightened, before frowning, “I-I’m not—”

“If you weren’t,” Seto interrupted, “I’d be speaking with a young man, not a child.”

“I’m not a child!” Noah argued, straightening.

“Act like it.”

Noah huffed and looked off, “What right do you have to tell me that?—Trapping Dad and Mom and everyone in some death trap cuz you losf a game–?”

“When you lose the only thing you hold as ‘important,’ everything is personal,” Seto straightened, “And that was before I realized how important Mokuba was. Just as you eventually realized how important your family and friends were to you.”

Noah softened at that, before sighing softly, and he frowned at Seto, “And ‘dwelling in the past’?”

“Even though you know fully well what happened to Yugi,” Seto explained, “And the two of you have been growing closer, you still feel guilty about everything.”

At that, Noah was silent, shoulders once again rigid while his glare finally fell away.

“You may not realize it, but Yugi’s guilt is hundreds of pounds heavier than yours.” Seto’s frown didn’t change, “And it probably only makes him feel worse to see you still ‘affected’ by it.”

He started back over to his briefcase, at his desk, “Yugi is exactly who I think he is: stubborn, too-caring and devoted to friends and family.”

Noah’s gaze moved to the floor, smiling softly, before looking back up with a frown. “…Why?”

Seto picked up his briefcase, “You’ll need to be more specific.”

“Wh-Why are you telling me this? Taking the time to talk to me? I-I wasn’t exactly… ‘respectful’ last I was here…”

“For that reason,” Seto came back up the steps, standing next to Noah and frowning down at him, “If you keep dwelling on the past, Mutou, you’ll make a lot of the same mistakes I did. Learning from mistakes are crucial; dwelling on them will only prevent you from moving forward.”

Noah finally smiled weakly, giving a small nod of agreement.

As Seto opened the door, Noah straightened, “Hey—”

Seto paused without turning to him.

“I-I’m sorry about all the stuff I said before,” Noah smiled, “Thank you.”

Seto glanced back, before giving a quiet scoff and heading out.

As he did, Mokuba finally came back in, sighing with relief. “Well, it doesn’t look like you two clawed each other’s eyes out…”

He smiled and held up his clipboard, “Now, how about that design input?—We still need a central Duel Monster to be chosen for putting out the stuffed animal set.”

Noah looked over the three designs carefully: Exodia, Kuriboh, Dark Magician, and Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

He handed the clipboard back with a smile, “Actually, I think Blue-Eyes is your best bet.”

Mokuba was startled, before he frowned, “Did Seto talk you into this…?”

Noah looked back down the hall, just as Seto got in the elevator and left.

“You could say that.”

[fictionalsadist]

(Later still) Day 29-Candle

in the light of the candles a confrontation happens and truths are told

(the rare “Seto Kaiba stays in the afterlife instead of dragging atem back” fic)

The only light in Atem’s chamber’s was that of the candles and the moon that held his gaze. He was hiding from his unexpected guest, aka: Seto Kaiba and he knew it. They’d been arguing all day and he was tired. When he’d realized that Atem could never again leave this realm without facing oblivion he’d decided to stay. When they’d been informed that since Seto was once both priest and Pharaoh and the fact that he’d firmly decided to stay here, there was no way to force him to return to the land of the living. Now they were trying to decide what to do with Seto now that they couldn’t get rid of him.

If he was being honest with himself Atem was glad that Seto couldn’t leave. He’d fallen hard for this man in both lifetime’s he’d known him. In both lifetime’s he hadn’t been able to tell the man how he’d felt before leaving him behind.

Before abandoning him.

“Penny for your thoughts.”

The soft whisper startled Atem and he spun to meet the steady blue gaze of Seto Kaiba.

“What-” Atem couldn’t finish the thought. The way that the candlelight glimmered over Seto’s skin made his heart race.

““Penny for your thoughts” it’s a term used by english speakers to ask what on your mind.” Seto informed him.

“How did you get in here?”

“I was taking a walk and I found a hidden walkway that lead me here.”

Atem shook his head. When he looked up again Seto was leaning over him. Atem swallowed.

“Want to tell me why you’re avoiding me?” Seto demanded.

Atem shoved him back “I am not avoiding you.” he snapped and turned to walk away. Seto’s hand grabbing his wrist stopped him.

Both gasped as they were forced into a shared vision of when Seto was Atem’s priest. Hs cousin, heir and lover….

Seto teaching Atem in the library and being entranced by the way the candles flame danced over his tri-colored hair, his intensely focused red eyes, his skin. Unable to help himself Seto leaned forward and pressed their lips together in their first kiss…

Atem begging Seto to talk to him after their duel where Atem defeated him with the use of Kuriboh instead of the gods….

Seto begging Atem not to go through with his plan to seal himself in the puzzle...

When they were release from the vision Seto yanked Atem around to face him. He caged the struggling pharaoh in his arms. “That’s it isn’t it?!” the taller male hissed “You don’t want me because I’m not him?!

“No!” Atem snapped no longer able to hold back now that he’d been confronted “I want you because you are Kaiba!”

Atem managed to shove Seto back. Instead of moving away Atem crossed his arms defensively “But...I don’t want you because you were him….I loved him with an intensity that stld my breath away.  I broke him by abandoning him in favor of saving the people. Don’t ask me how I know, I just do. BUt I fell for you, Seto Kaiba, and I don’t want you to give up everything you worked for just because-”

Seto’s mouth covering his cut him off. Tears burned at Atem’s eyes when Seto pulled away.

“You don’t get to decide this alone.” Seto growled and reached out to gently brush one of Atem’s bangs behind his ears “There is no life I can be without you and be whole. You keep saying I’m his reincarnation. So, that means you broke me in two lifetimes. That means you owe me. Don’t keep us apart any longer…”

Atem couldn’t do it. He couldn’t win against Seto. So he stopped trying and pulled Seto down to kissed him with two lifetime’s of longing. Seto gave as good as he got. Burying his fingers in that soft mass of tri-colored hair. When the need for air drove them apart they merely rested their heads against each others. After a time Seto picked Atem up and carried him to his bed and held him close. They didn’t sleep or speak or do more than exchange the occasional kiss until the sun rose. Only then did Seto finally speak again.

“I can’t be your priest.” Seto told him softly. Atem held his breath. Seto continued with the words he desperately wanted to hear ““There is no need for you to take a wife here...no need to produce an heir. So marry me. Be my husband instead of my king.”

Atem could only give one answer

“Yes.”

(The shared vision was probably going: We have literally served him to you on a platter (like sealshipping) just take him. probably with a bunch of inappropriate eyebrow wagging)

[nagito-komaedas-boxer-briefs]

YgoPridecember: Snow

Atem is brooding at his usual spot; the desk near the window. He watches the snowfall that starts to gather outside. Wearing a fitted red wine dress shirt and fitted black slacks.

‘Kaiba asked for my hand in marriage.’ Yesterday he said on Japan’s national news (and pretty much the world for that matter after it spread to social media) about their engagement. The former spirit at the time couldn’t think clearly. Which resulted in them arguing about nothing. At the end Atem gave a one off answer to satisfy Kaiba that made him grimace now.

Now that it sunk in the reality is making him contemplate his future. ‘Should I marry him?’ They only started dating recently but Atem knew Kaiba for ages if you count his previous incarnation. The first time he met him (again) is almost four years ago and they interacted with each other continuously. Drawn to each other like a moth does with a flame.

Kaiba has his quirks (to put it mildly) that Atem finds both enduring, amusing and exasperating. The man wears his heart on his sleeve and pretty much everything he does is excessive or outrageous. Buy out the whole city just for a duel monsters tournament, his own amusement park, what’s next a space station?

He’s worried about what if they get into arguments like before? Silly what if’s that make no sense. Atem sighs and hears the door opening. “Hello Aibou.”

“Is this a bad time?”

“No.” Atem turns around and gives Yugi his undivided attention. His lighter half handing him a mug before sitting on the bed across from him. Atem picks up on the scent of dark chocolate and hums.

Yugi takes a couple of sips before he speaks again. “You want to talk about Kaiba?”

Atem takes a deep drink of his own before setting the mug on the desk. He closes his eyes and breathes in. Then out. “I’m not sure if I should marry him or not.”

“Why?” Yugi’s voice has a hint of worry. “Kaiba-kun admires you. In fact I bet he’s going to come over despite a storm raging outside.”

Atem shakes his head because he knows Yugi is most likely right. “I know you have your own life with us separated but I think Kaiba-kun suits you. You’re one of the few that can tolerate him and Mokuba-kun admires you. Even with the things he done in the past you still depend on him. You both bring out the best in each other. More than our friends and me.”

Yugi stares into his cup before meeting his other half’s eyes. “Maybe you should give Kaiba-kun a chance. He’s changed a lot because of you and I feel deep down inside that he loves you deeply. He doesn’t show it the conventional way but it’s there in his actions.”

Atem frowned at his foolishness. ‘If Kaiba didn’t care he wouldn’t go through great lengths to gain my attention or bother with my friends.’ Seto Kaiba, the proud CEO, actually went to a karaoke gathering with him and sung.

“Thank you aibou. I’m not sure what came over me. I do care about Kaiba.” Atem took a deep sip of his hot chocolate. Imaged how it would be married. Things wouldn’t change that much and situations like moving arrangements can be settle when they come. They would do this together and if he had doubts Atem still had the shoulder of Yugi and their friends.

It would work out. 

They changed subjects to lesser things, such as the group and the shop in general. Both of them having a casual moment. Yugi seemed to finish off his cup finally and sat up to stretch. “Come on. Let’s go make a snowman.”

Atem blinked. “What.”

Yugi grinned impishly. “I know you hate the cold but I want to make a snowman in front of the shop.”

The former spirit thought about dragging his heels like a child or acting like Seto Kaiba. He sighed and relented instead. Too much pride to be foolish over something minor as snow. His aibou didn’t ask much from him and provided shelter among other things for free.

Atem bundled up in his parka along with a ton of layers while Yugi, used to the elements, only wore his  duffel coat along with a blue sweater and leather pants. “Wear a hat and gloves!” He yelled as Yugi raced down the stairs.

The two of them did make a snowman. Atem ended up getting a runny red nose and they somehow tried to make a mini Kuriboh and failed.

When Seto Kaiba showed up hiding behind a scarf with a bundle of flowers, it did not save him from both men pelting him with snowballs. Atem turned on his Mou no Hitori when he started making kissing noises.

[duelingdestiny]

Unpopular opinion about Atem, Kaiba, Bakura, Yuugi and Mahaad?

Atem: Guys Atem is a DORK who knows next to nothing about sex. Just please stop trying to make him some suave sex god. I literally cannot handle it. Okay if he’s been AROUND then yeah sure he’s going to learn. He just didn’t probably have time to really get into a whole lot in AE besides, you know jacking off in the NILE, but that was like a required thing and now he wants to kill me for bringing that up eheheheheh.

Kaiba: Seto does not like Jounouchi. Just, okay I’m SORRY. If you read the original Japanese the way that Kaiba addresses him is not playful, or respectful, or nice in any way shape or form compared to everyone else. His speech is derogatory. Jou the only one he calls names. He has zero respect for him as a duelist. He calls him the weakest duelist in history-kun, which is just...mean wow not to mention the kun is straight up snide. In the “friendship” duel Seto’s thoughts are entirely on Yuugi. He really doesn’t seem to care if Jou lives or dies in the duel. The last thing Seto says to Jou is: Jounouchi, it's fitting for you to become fodder for me to see Malik's endgame.” So yeah, I really don’t think that Seto likes Jou. EVER. 

Bakura: Oh god here we go. Look. Bakura is angry, don’t get me wrong. He’s a ball of rage, but I think that people play him TOO angry. He’s so much MORE than that. He’s hurt. He’s deeply hurt, and yes, sometimes that comes out as rage, but sometimes I think it would come out in different ways. People who play Bakura in anger mode all the time are missing some deep sides to a character that is far too complex to just give over to anger all the time. Anger fades over time, but pain, hurt, grief, those are the things that stoke rage back up again. Without all these facets, Bakura just seems flat. 

Yuugi: Yuugi is not a cinnamon roll. He’s a pervert. Canonically a pervert. He’s not pure. He’s not innocent and at times he can be manipulative as hell. He’s not a good voice of reason in the group in all honesty, and he’s flawed. Holy crap he’s flawed guys. Our perfect little kuriboh wielding son has FLAWS. He’s angry. He’s been jealous. He’s been a shit to Atem, he’s been a pervert to Jou and made fun of him. He’s got more of a personality than adorable smol that can do no wrong. 

Mahaad: I don’t believe that Priest Mahaad and DM are two separate people. I don’t see how they can be based on the battle with Arcana. Me and my roomie were talking it over and he uses an effect Yami Yuugi doesn’t even realize he can use at that time. DM uses his free will to protect YY. I also believe there are certain times in DOMA where he acts on his own. I’m not certain of where, but I can’t understand why anyone would negate Mahaad’s sacrifice by saying that he’s not DM. I also don’t know if DM remembers EVERYTHING about AE but I think he knows enough to know he has to protect YY. Also, I headcanon that when Atem dies, Mahaad’s soul is free, hence his appearance in the afterlife. 

[soundlesswind]

DSoD: On Kizuna, Ambiguity, Love...

Going to be honest here when I say I’m not quite sure how to go about expressing my intentions with this, so I hope whoever reads this, reads it with a grain of salt. It’s one of those 4-am in the morning kind of moments of serenity.

The following post explores a little bit about cultural differences, with a few DSOD spoilers. Read at your discretion.

“Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.” - Kahil Gibran

Today’s starting topic is on kizuna, “bonds”. That which ties people, concepts and objects.

絆 Kizuna | bonds (between people), emotional ties, a connection, a link.

You may find it odd that instead of just saying bonds, I’m specifically using the word kizuna. Well the reason is, there’s a slightly different nuance with kizuna. Much like there is between sayonara and good-bye. Such are the woes and wonders of language. With kizuna, there is something like...a feeling of destiny, something more tangible, something that is able to tether. This concept is popularly depicted using the red string of fate (once, very literally tethered by Pegasus). --- As a side tidbit, it’s also amusingly a homophone to 緤 kizuna (a leash; a tie to bind).

In a previous post I mentioned that in DSoD, Kaiba stated that he too had a bond with the Pharaoh... Well, if you didn’t have a picture of something more concrete before this post, perhaps now you might consider a different nuance behind his words. Something more along the lines of “I have a destiny with him”. And while it was to serve the purpose of being worn by Yugi in the movie, that Kaiba fastened a chain to the Millennium Puzzle leaves a very peculiar aftertaste. But the image of kizuna doesn’t necessarily have to take the form of a string. The Millennium Puzzle itself is the symbol of bonds. Many different, complex pieces of thought and labour to form a whole; throughout the series was broken, repaired and carried by others, connecting whoever it touched... Except, because for the majority of the story, the Puzzle was carried by and is recognized as the bond between Yugi and Yami, we sometimes forget it has gone through a number of hands. Namely, his hand... One of the lines in the movie, Kaiba declares that the Puzzle is his. At the time of watching it, I didn’t really give it much thought because it was just Kaiba being Kaiba, but after writing the previous post, I realized, oh, wait, no, it really did belong to him at one point. --- Well, one point several thousands of years ago when he was Priest Seto. That kind of spins the perspective a bit, because then, it almost seems as if Kaiba reclaiming the Puzzle may have ultimately been his fate. Thus, the notions of kizuna. The nuance between culture and language is such a precarious fine line. Sometimes these things aren’t given much thought.

Now, as for the second topic of this post, ambiguity... There’s a lot about the theme and intent of DSoD that leaves people guessing. The ambiguous atmosphere is in part the intentions of its creators (marketing or otherwise), but I’ve brought this up because I want to explain ambiguity as a cultural phenomenon. It’s something more commonplace in Japanese culture than in North American culture, where things such as arguments are purposely left with room for debate. There usually isn’t a definitive answer, or one truth (unless you’re Conan)...rather, everything is laid in place of relativity. It’s also even rooted into the language where chigau (”that’s not quite right”) is more often expressed than straight up iie (”no”). So what I’m saying is, there is simply no clear cut yes and no answers not just for DSoD but for a lot of Japanese media, because that may just be the general attitude perpetuated by and for the intended audiences. Hence, you’ll often see a lot of series where things are left open-ended or there’s a lot of read-between-the-line moments, and what I find is that a lot of fans from other cultures seem to demand a blunt answer to something that’s meant to be left open for interpretation. As is such with Takahashi-sensei’s celebratory illustration featuring an event post DSoD --- it is but only one of several possibilities... Which now brings me to a very dangerous topic. The third topic.

Let’s talk about love. Let’s talk about love because boy, this has been heavily debated.

I’m of the stance that Kaiba throughout DSoD was mourning because of love. Now, I don’t particularly mean romantic love. It has been iterated time and time again that Kaiba and Yami’s relationship is complex. Just calling it rivalry or friendship doesn’t really encompass the depth and nature of their relationship. The reason I’m calling it love is because love is a such a broad and holistic metaphysical concept with the capacity to encompass a lot of things. Are they lovers, no. Are they in love? Probably not, or probably not in the typical sense. Just, there is a sea of emotions between the two that’s everything short of romantic feelings. I don’t particularly want to call it platonic love either, since that sort of gives off too gentle of a feeling.

Passion, obsession, preoccupation, selfishness, selflessness, desires, demands, and a repetition of fateful encounters...all the qualities often associated with the concept of love. Although I, myself, personally don’t enjoy preoccupations with labels. Being preoccupied with labels and clear-cut stances often divides things that should be looked at as a whole; and so I’m using the term love as a container, instead of a label, if that makes any sense.

To Kaiba, Mokuba is all he has left in the world...but also to Kaiba, Yami had been the center of his existence, a path he always sees himself crossing in the future, but not just simply one instance. It’s through the clashing of their souls that Kaiba feels alive, with only cards between them as their means of communication. He’s overall a brutally harsh man inside and out, but there are a few times where he expresses a deeper layer of emotions that appear so subtly they’re hard to pick up. The manga version of Kaiba is quite different from his anime counterpart. He’s far less excessive and is much more straight to the point. There’s a stronger display of his values and beliefs. Even though I consider DSoD a continuation of the mangaverse, I also feel there is a difference between Takahashi-sensei’s story telling style and flavour, and the end result of the animation studio as a collective. It’s bound to give off a different taste. I thought the Kaiba in DSoD was much more sombre and softer than usual; or it could just be Kenjiro Tsuda’s sweet low husk that gets to me (---one too many Otome CDs, Tsuda-san!). 

Anyway, back to what I was saying... A good portion of the movie felt like it was a funeral, with mourning as a theme, where Kaiba was just stuck in a state of perpetual denial and grief. Moreso in the Japanese version than the English version; where in the former he feels unable to replicate Yami Yugi’s likeness for the hologram battle, and in the latter he doesn’t feel a sense of true accomplishment or fulfillment of revenge. Except, y’know, being the forward thinking man he is, he ends up screwing the Acceptance stage, and just makes his own Defying Laws of Physics stage.

I went a couple times in theatre, and my friends all over the world also went a few times, and we all had similar experiences to share. That there seems to be a great majority of viewers in theatres who were in awe at Kaiba’s dedication to Yami/Atem, be it men, women, or children. The theatres were either filled with hollering, clapping, or both; so I really felt as if Kaiba’s dedication and emotions reached out to many viewers. Like, a lot of straight guys confessed this. And when you consider his actions and facial expressions throughout DSoD, he really went above and beyond (literally), denying everything and anyone that stood in his way, going through plans A to Z just to get to the one person he wanted to meet. The first time I watched it I honestly couldn’t believe what I had seen. I saw Kaiba’s obsession and insanity, but also his obscure gentleness and sadness. It’s kind of hard to think of all his great efforts as something less than love.

Anyway, I hope this post has stirred some cogwheels. Last but not least, I kind of wanted to wrap up with talking about death. In a lot of Asian cultures and beliefs, death isn’t the end of the road. It’s not described as nor does it give off the feeling of finite, and so “death” doesn’t really signify the “end of life”. It’s more simply put a transitional pause in time, or relocation of the soul. After earthly life, the soul ascends to a different space, where it (temporarily) rests. A different dimension so to say. You’ll see this depicted a lot. Very famously in say...Dragon Ball, Bleach, and my favourite Houshin Engi, where the soul is held in a different dimension ready for reincarnation, or ready for transformation, or even ready to travel different dimensions (look up transmigration novels, they’re a popular thing...). So what I’m saying is I don’t think Kaiba’s “dead”, and I find it weird that this is so often talked about. That’s not his style. He’s smart and cocky enough to get himself there, so he’s smart and cocky enough to get himself back. I guess he figures if he can’t draw Atem to him, he will go to Atem. 

[pharaohsparklefists]

Darkside of Dimensions Review

Since I’ve seen it twice now and gotten a few asks, I figured I’d share my thoughts on the new Yu-Gi-Oh! movie with ye.

Spoiler-free summary: I really enjoyed this movie, especially Kaiba’s and Yugi’s characterisation, but the duels dragged. The antagonist was an interesting person but an uninteresting duelist so the big duels against him were repetitive and lacking flair. The animation was mostly gorgeous but did suffer from “eh that character is in the background in this shot, it’s fine if they’re just a misshapen blob” syndrome. The plot made as much sense as YGO ever does: it’s supposed to be in manga canon but there are still inconsistencies and the plot could have used more structure. It’s definitely only welcoming to people who already like YGO, I can’t imagine getting much out of it if you’re not a YGO fan! But if you are, it’s excellent fun!

Now for details!

So the plot, if you haven’t seen it but are interested, is as follows: Kaiba is so upset that the Pharaoh / Atem / Other Yugi is gone that he’s trying everything to bring him back, including creating a near-flawless holographic replica to duel, excavating the pit the Millennium Items fell into to find the Puzzle, and, for some reason, building a space station that is reached by SPACE ELEVATOR which is literally the most ridiculous thing he’s ever done and this is Seto fuckin Kaiba we’re talking about here. However, a group of magical teleporting children have been granted the power to reshape the world into a peaceful Utopia, via a magic cube. This power will be lost if the Pharaoh should happen to be resurrected by any grief-stricken, obsessive teenage billionaires, so they’re keeping a close watch. Meanwhile, their leader, Diva, wants to take revenge on Ryou Bakura because he blames Ryou for the death of their mentor, who turns out to have been Shaadi, of all people. Calling himself Aigami, he inserts himself into Domino High, but has to take time away from his plot to confront Kaiba, who has found the Millennium Puzzle, in pieces. Diva/Aigami fails to prevent him from taking the Puzzle, but does manage to steal back two pieces, one of which he entrusts to his younger sister who immediately gives it to Yugi. Kaiba challenges both Diva and Yugi to a DUEL MONSTERS DUEL SHOWCASE TOURNAMENT, ostensibly to launch his BRAND NEW DUEL DISK SYSTEM but actually to get the pieces of the Puzzle back so he can resurrect the Pharaoh. Yugi tries to explain that the Pharaoh has moved on but Kaiba point-blank refuses to listen. Meanwhile, Diva has evaporated Ryou with his magic cube. Yugi duels Diva and wins, rescuing Ryou from ... wherever it was that he went, and banishing Diva to some kind of sand dimension. Then Kaiba and Yugi duel, but at the last moment, their duel is interrupted and they have to team up to take down ... Diva again, but like, now he’s a lizard and possibly Yami Bakura is possessing him?? Kaiba sacrifices himself for Yugi to have a chance to continue the duel, but Yugi is at the point of passing out, when Atem launches himself back into reality to help Yugi draw and play his last card, winning the duel. Atem and Yugi silently say goodbye one more time, then Atem leaves. Yugi et al graduate from high school, while a delighted Kaiba takes Diva’s magic cube and uses it to visit Atem in whatever dimension Atem exists in now, thereby proving wrong everyone who tried to tell Kaiba to maybe have some chill.

The more I think about the plot, the less sense it makes. It suffers from a typical Late Addition To A Series problem, in that, the if this shit is so important, why didn’t it ever come up during the series? If Shaadi was so invested in his cult of adorable children, why didn’t he ever visit them as a ghost or mention them to the Pharaoh? If the Pharaoh’s existence is so tied to this all-powerful world-altering magic, why didn’t he know about it? If Ishizu and Marik held the secrets of the ancient tablet, why didn’t they mention that shortly after the fated duel between Atem and Yugi, some earnest orphans would be teleporting around to literally destroy everything and remake the world into a Utopia? The Shaadi part especially doesn’t seem to make sense. Especially because the Eye is already missing. 

But anyway. The real story is Kaiba’s obsessive need to duel the Pharaoh one more time, and I really enjoyed how his character was handled. I was worried that this angry, upset Kaiba would have walked back his character growth, but he hasn’t. He’s newly angry and upset, and he’s being a dick, but it’s definitely a post-Battle-City Kaiba on screen, one who’s learned from his relationship with Atem. Despite how raw and angry he is, he listens to Yugi, treats Yugi with respect, and is not only willing to cooperate against a dangerous foe, he’s actually the one who suggests it! 

He’s pretty obviously experiencing grief and not really knowing how to deal with it, since he never explicitly named what Atem was to him; he can only admit that Atem was a rival, so he’s channelled all his energy into the idea that if he could just duel him one more time, he could feel better. But his language is all over the place. He’s obviously angry at Atem for leaving: having repeatedly said that Atem was his worthy rival, he now spits at the hologram!Atem that he was never worthy. Sure Kaiba, he’s so unworthy of you that you spend every waking minute and an unimaginable amount of money trying to see him again. He tells himself he bears painful scars of defeat, but then says that if he could duel him one more time, the pain could be made easier to bear. Surely if the pain is just from losing, then winning would erase the pain? But if the pain is from losing someone you care about, then getting to say goodbye wouldn’t erase the pain, it would just make it easier to bear. When he speaks to Yugi, he identifies them as feeling the same way: he tries to get Yugi to admit “you want to see him too”. As the movie goes on, it becomes more and more obvious that this is about more than a duel, this is about Kaiba feeling loss and grief and needing closure. His feelings and Yugi’s feelings are compared repeatedly. Yugi said goodbye and got closure, he misses Atem “all the time”, but he’s able to move on, he talks about his hopes for the future with his friends. Kaiba didn’t, and isn’t, he has abandoned all his trademark talk of the future and replaced it with grandstanding about how he, Seto Kaiba, can do ANYTHING, because that’s what he needs to believe. He needs to believe he can do the impossible because he needs to do it to see Atem again.

Aside from the fact that he risks everything at the end of the movie to transcend dimensions and the veil of death itself to go and see Atem, he also willingly lays down his life in the final duel, and when Yugi asks why, he says “For him. The Pharaoh.” I mean T______T holy gay subtext, Batman

Also apparently he spent a long time recreating Atem’s “perfectly coiffed hair”, which, let me tell you, Atem’s hair is many things, but you definitely have to be madly in love with him to describe it in flattering terms.

But you know, the thing that made me really hopeful for Kaiba was that, near the end, after Atem had said goodbye to Yugi and left after his brief visit, Kaiba came up and I expected him to freak out: he spent the WHOLE MOVIE trying to see Atem and here Atem had visited but not stuck around to say hi to Kaiba or give him the duel he so vociferously claims he needs, and I thought Kaiba would be furious ... but instead, after a whole movie of snapping and bragging and firing people and being ruthlessly sarcastic, he was finally cheerful. He was smiling. He said “I told you so” but really happily. He wished Yugi and his friends well! The confirmation that Atem was out there somewhere, waiting for Kaiba to find him, was all Kaiba needed to cheer up.

And when Kaiba did show up in Atem’s throne room, Atem’s smile was so warm and sweet! I wonder how much he knew of what was going on - enough to know he needed to show up, obviously. He’s obviously very fond of Kaiba, I’d love to see more of how he felt about leaving without getting to say goodbye. Judging by how pleased he was that Kaiba showed up, he must have been sad. But probably coped better with it. Still, it’s hard to rag on Kaiba’s outrageously unhealthy coping mechanisms when he actually fucking did the thing and somehow wrestled a happy ending for himself from the universe out of sheer stubbornness.

Incidentally, I think the dimension-hopping pod and suit and all was all just for show. It seems the cube works based on willpower - I think Kaiba just needed the tech in place to make himself feel better about using magic. Like, now there’s a spaceship involved it’s clearly Science and not magic. But actually it would have worked just as well if he’d just willed it.

Really, my only major problem with this movie is that the duels against Diva were AWFUL. Especially because Kaiba seems to have given up on everything except dragons in his deck. hologram!Yami vs Kaiba was good fun, and so was Yugi vs Kaiba, but Kaiba vs Diva was hell.

Kaiba: SAY HELLO TO MY BLUE EYES MAXIMUM AWESOME DRAGON

Diva: I SUMMON VJAM, AND THEN ANOTHER VJAM, AND THEN THEY COMBINE INTO GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY KING GLORBINFLORBIN AND THEN UN-COMBINE (that’s a word) BACK INTO THREE VJAMS

Kaiba: yeah well, I SUMMON  BLUER EYES EVEN MORE DRAGON, PLUS TWO B-LIST DRAGONS

Diva: MY VJAMS COMBINE INTO EYELORD CUBEMEISTER THE FOURTH THEN ATTACK 27 TIMES THEN I SUMMON ANOTHER VJAM AND THEN ANOTHER VJAM AND THEN THEY ALL ATTACK AND THEN I PLAY THREE MORE CARDS AND END WITH THREE VJAMS ON THE FIELD LIKE ALWAYS NO I’M NOT CHEATING

Kaiba: COME FORTH BLUEST EYES YETANOTHER DRAGON!!!1!

me: kill me

But aside from that and the travesty of a wasted opportunity to combine two hot anime men (srsly who looks at Diva and Yami Bakura and decides that a mixture of them should be a lizard in a cheap wig?), it was an extremely enjoyable movie. I can’t wait to get a DVD so I can recap it! I’m not sure if I want to recap as soon as I get it, or wait til I reach a natural break-point... I guess I’ll see where I am when the DVD is released!