#seto has so much money like this is completely possible

[mistakenlyfoundnico]

Do you think since Kaiba has so much money an tech that he could have came up with such believable proof that santa exists (if they celebrated ig) bevause it made Mokuba happy that it was hard to convince Mokuba he doesn’t exists. Like he would be like mokuba it's time to tell you truth samta isn't real and mokuba would pull up years of like security photoage or like the time to the north pole to see santa and his elves and kaiba is just trying to tell him it was all fake but it all looked so real and he just did to good of job of making mokuba that he couldn't make him not believe. I like to think he had to fake Santa's death.

[rosalind-hawkins]

Mastershipping Musings ft. Pegasus

Pegasus is obviously a point of contention between Duke and Kaiba.

Pegasus and Kaiba still have to be business partners after Duelist Kingdom in anime canon, and that's the primary canon I follow because I'm still working on the manga. (side-note: Pegasus probably makes Kaiba pay through the nose for BEWD royalty rights, don't ya think?) Anytime they encounter each other, in business meetings and gaming conventions and tournaments, they have to play (mostly) polite in front of the cameras, but Kaiba can't stand him. That said, he's built his entire company based on Duel Monsters, so he has no choice but to put up with him. I imagine that Kaiba keeps Mokuba away from Pegasus as much as possible, to the point of making sure they're never ever in the same room together and trying to just never mention Pegasus to Mokuba if he can help it. Mokuba doesn't act outwardly traumatized after DK, but he's not taking any risks and not putting his brother in harm's way. Pegasus is a dangerous man, and Kaiba learned that lesson the hard way.

{Long post, rest under cut}

Duke idolized Pegasus as an artist and creator, and was basically the sole inspiration for Dungeon Dice Monsters. Once he finds out about what Pegasus did to the Kaibros in Duelist Kingdom, he's going to feel so conflicted. I think the internet's been around for long enough that we've all had a creator that we liked get outed for something awful they've done (I feel like it's happened a lot) and then we have that uncomfortable feeling afterwards of "but their art/content is so good" "but I shouldn't support them" "but you can separate the art from the artist" "but not when consuming the art is giving them money." Duke is gonna have a whole crisis about it when he finds out. When.

I don't think Kaiba feels a need to explain to Duke what Pegasus did, as he really doesn't come up too often as a topic of conversation between them, but also because he doesn't want to deal with the memory of it.

This gets a little bit into something that's fun for me: the different histories that Duke and Ryou have with Kaiba. Ryou experienced Duelist Kingdom (complete with the Kaiba bros getting their souls stolen by Pegasus) and Duke knows nothing about that. There's no reason for anybody in the friend group to tell Duke about what Pegasus did to Kaiba, or that Pegasus even had a Millennium Item (I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that never even comes up around Duke in season four). Ryou has no reason to talk to him about Pegasus because Ryou never thinks about Pegasus. Just forgets about the dude most of the time. And it also slips his mind that Duke doesn't know about that.

On the flip side, Ryou knows nothing about the Noah Kaiba virtual world adventure (I imagine Duke calls it the Battle City Bonus Round) because he was in the Shadow Realm, so he doesn't know about the KaibaCorp missiles that still exist btw (that's something important from that arc that I think it's easy to forget about, but yeah, Kaiba still owns all the weapons that KC had when he took over) and he didn't meet Noah or Gozaburo or find out how screwed up the Kaiba family is from that. He gets told or finds out later that Seto and Mokuba are adopted, but that's about it.

It's also entirely possible that at some point these three—Pegasus, Duke, and Kaiba—will sit down to a business meeting together because of the deals between their three companies. Just imagine Duke going into this meeting with no idea of the personal history between Pegasus and the Kaibas, all he knows is the professional stuff between their companies, and he assumes that they're on friendly terms with each other. Boy oh boy, is he in for a surprise (yes, this is a scene that I have planned for Power of Three). Duke goes in clueless with his boyfriend and the artist he adores, and then they're both going for the jugular, and he's just in shock. One of the few things that can leave Duke truly speechless, but he's got words for Kaiba after the meeting, you can count on that!

Power of Three snippet/preview below, because this scene won't be getting published for a looooong time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You were so much cuter when we first met," Pegasus sighed. "Fifteen and full of hope, and so terribly naïve."

"You've always been an opportunist,” Kaiba scoffed. “I wasn't nearly as naïve as you thought I was."

"You were naïve enough, dear boy. After all, you trusted me."

"At least you admit that you're untrustworthy."

Pegasus smiled.

Again, Duke was at a loss.

"Have you seen the pictures of when we first met?" Pegasus asked Duke, his smile smooth and charming. "He was downright adorable."

The way he stressed that last word made Seto's skin crawl.

"I'm not sure that's relevant to the topic of royalties," was Duke's tactful response. Seto had told him to keep the conversation on-topic; he’d thought Seto meant for him not to get distracted, not to keep the other two on track.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm not the one luring children to my private island in international waters,” Kaiba sneered, and Duke couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen him look so angry.

"Children are delightful, and they have such vivid imaginations." Pegasus laughed, his relaxed posture a sharp contrast to Kaiba's tension. "I can only imagine what Mokuba invented about his visit with me that makes you so resentful."

"You call that a visit?"

"Of course it was a visit. He even had his own little room." Pegasus's single brown eye twinkled. "And so did you, for that matter."

Kaiba stood sharply, glaring down at Pegasus, who simply leaned back in his chair and met his gaze. Duke held his breath, too confused to know what to say at this point. The silence stretched out, the clock on the wall audibly ticking down every second that passed.

"You're a damn lucky man that I can't cut ties with you," Seto finally said, releasing the fists that had been clenched at his sides.

"I'm a damn clever man for making things that way."

The air felt heavy in Duke's lungs and on his shoulders as he looked between the man he loved and the man he idolized.

"As long as you're damned, I'm content." Kaiba carefully sat back down.

"You're never content, but that's alright. I like you that way." Pegasus leaned forward again. "Back to the contracts?"

"Yes."

[glitterytidalwavedragon]

Let’s Talk About Kaiba’s Heritage... He’s French… (A head cannon I propose could be cannon)

Once more my brain goes off and wonders away with itself and this is one of those things... I did the same level of research on this that I did for Sebastian’s heels... I think I need help sometimes. 

So, one of the greatest mysteries with the Kaiba brothers is who they were before the monster called Gozaburo. While we may never get the names of who their parents are or what their original last name was, let us look at some interesting facts that point to the Kaiba brothers being of French heritage.

Let’s start with something obvious. The Kaiba brother’s food choices. Seto prefers eating, in fact his favorite meal, is Fillet Mignon with Foie Gras. A French dish. Mokuba’s favorite dish is, of course, Chocolate Parfait, this kid and sweets.

But let’s look at what Seto doesn’t like, as Mokuba only dislike is celery and well, child not liking celery is normal. Kaiba does not like Oden. A seafood centered dish with origins in Japan and Korea. While it isn’t a solid argument for them being French, one thing might be.

The World Chess Championship Gozaburo entered. Now if we go with the timeline in the manga, the whole Yugioh DM series takes place in 1996. Gozaburo adopted the brothers in 1990 as Seto would have been 10.

When Gozaburo won the world champion ship, he was visiting an orphanage in the nearby area to donate the prize money. Takashi-sensei did like using real world references, so if he thought ahead and used the realm world championship of 1990, know where that took place? Lyon. Where is Lyon? 

France.

If the local orphanage was in the place of the championship of the real world 1990 location, then Gozaburo was in France.

Now let’s look at Gozaburo. Could he have been Japanese, absolutely no questions asked. However there are some issues with his business and resources. First let’s look at what happened to Japan after World War 2. Japan was not allowed to have a military for 70 years since the world war. In 1990, the 70 year band on the military was still in effect. This means that Gozaburo’s private military or employment of a Japanese army would be consider illegal by, not just Japan, but by the US and UN.

However, Gozaburo did have dealings with many countries outside of Japan. In fact it could be very safe to say that the man had the company stationed in Japan, but everything else outside. Afterall, their main factory would later become the Duel Tower that Kaiba blows up twice.

Also, after World War 2, Japan was restricted from making a number of weapons. While we don’t know the full list of weapons Kaiba Corp made at the time, we can assume, since he was supplying countries like the US, he did make WMD’s (Weapons of mass destruction). As Japan is restricted from developing WMD but Kaiba Corp. did have access to many WMDs.

What I am trying to boil down to is that it is completely possible that Gozaburo found Seto and Mokuba outside of Japan.

Let’s return to France for a moment. The average height of a French adult male is 5’ft 10.75 inchs in the 1990’s. Now, for those who took statistics mathematics there is usually a deviation, meaning it would not be unusual for someone to be slightly below or above the average. Usually the number used is 5 points. So the shortest average would be 5’ft 5.75incs and the tallest average is 6’ft 3.75ins.

Seto, at sixteen is at 6’ft 1in. Reading a French report by E. De La Rochebrochard in 2000, marks French males as entering Puberty at 15-20, but there is also the chance of still growing taller until age 25. Seto could very well still sit in the average with a likely of going above average.

But better, lets look at Mokuba and compare him to Yugi. The average male height for a Japanese male in 1990 is 5’ft 7inchs. Yugi, at age 15/16, starts at 5’ft. I couldn’t find much on the puberty of Japanese males, so I will use the global average of 13-17 years of age and with the same possibility of him growing up to age 25.

Using the same 5 point, and considering Yugi has another few years, Yugi could in fact hit the average. But then let’s look at Mokuba, who is 11 and is 4’ft 8ins…. Yugi who is five years older than the younger Kaiba brother is already barely taller than Mokuba, a boy who hasn’t hit puberty yet. If anything, when looking at the anime and Seto was 12, he looked to be around the same height Mokuba is currently.

Which would mean that Mokuba is on track to reaching his brother’s height.

Now there are more advious things such as the fact that Seto and Mokuba are very much inspired and live in western style household and fashions. I won’t go into their appearance as someone who looks completely different from their real heritage, I have no room to use that as an example.

But the brothers are amazingly comfortable in western traditions. It would make sense for the brothers to have western roots.

So there, is my argument. Enjoy!

What do you guys think? Opinions!

P.S. Please read the notes...

[husbandomail-archive]

Hello there! I honestly love the yugioh protag dad headcanons 💛💛💛 and I was wondering if you could do the same for the yugioh rivals? -💞anon

guess who did ALL THREE GX RIVALS BC SHE’S A FOOL IN LOVE

Seto:

Ever stoic, Kaiba is actually terrified of being a father. Obviously his relationship with his own family was hellish— from a very young age, he completely disconnected with the concept of family, apart from his deep connection with Mokuba. Seto never thought about having children, but now that it’s happened, he’s desperate to not be like his own father.

He’s always going to have trouble expressing affection, that’s just how he is. He does his best to convey his feelings, though; he’s slowly learning that he can’t buy his children’s love, but he’s still always presenting them with custom-made cards, or games designed just for their appeal. He pays incredible attention to detail, so everything he gives the kids really is one-of-a-kind, designed for them and nobody else.

Always does his best to spend time with the kids, even though it’s going to be awkward on occasion. Once you have kids, he does his best to stop bringing work home with him— instead, he’ll actually sit the entire family down to have dinner together, or he’ll sit in the living room and read while the kids watch their cartoons. It’ll take him a long time to learn to connect, but he’s going to make an active effort.

Chazz:

Chazz assumed he’d have kids eventually, but that was in more of a “carry on the family name” way instead of “damn I’m in love.” He’s also worried about being a dad, because he’s recognized that his family was awful— but he’s pretty sure that if he just does the opposite of what they did to him, then he should be fine. And of course, he leans heavily on you for support.

He continues pretending he’s stoic as hell, but the truth is, the kids have him wrapped around their fingers from the first time he holds each of them. Whatever they want, they can have. He was able to hold on to a decent amount of family money, so he can safely take breaks from his dueling career to pay attention to the kids— he absolutely attends every event, be it a dance recital or a spelling bee or anything else. He also always has front-row-seats reserved at his duels for you and the kids, if you want them.

Knows for a fact that he wants to keep the children out of the public eye, though; he was shoved into the spotlight early, and it had a dangerous effect on his mental state that he still hasn’t gotten over. Chazz doesn’t want his children going through anything he experienced, so he’s going to do his best to keep your entire family shielded until they’re old enough to decide their paths on their own. Related— whatever they want to do with their lives, he’ll support them wholeheartedly.

Zane:

Zane is another one who’s worried about being a dad; he’s well aware that his health will most likely never fully recover, and he worries about possibly dying young and leaving you without a husband, your small children without a father. In the end, though, he thinks he’d regret not having kids more.

He’s almost overwhelmed by the concept that he’s got a family now; he loves holding the kids when they’re babies, watching their tiny fingers wrap around his much larger hands, or how their faces scrunch up when they laugh. He’s almost always the one to get up in the middle of the night when the kids cry— you’ve followed after him once or twice, only to find him twirling them around in his arms, humming softly, looking at the babies like they hung the moon. Sometimes he falls asleep in the nursery chair, holding them, instead of coming back to bed.

As they grow, he talks to the children as people first and foremost; of course he does his best to shield them from the harshest realities of the world, but he knows that children are smart, and he’s not going to treat them like they’re stupid. He knows that spending several years behind emotional walls damaged many of his past relationships, and he has no intent of repeating that mistake— and he knows that if he’s open and loving with his kids, they’ll continue turning to him when they need him as they grow, instead of just trying to fly on their own.

Aster:

Aster never truly gets over losing his father, and because of that, once he has children, he’s tempted to drop everything in his life and just take care of his family. He’s terrified at the thought of something happening to you or him, leaving the kids without their parents, repeating his own life story. He’s going to rely on you a lot for emotional support.

He takes a few years off dueling so he can help you raise the kids through the toughest years; he probably ends up playing the “bad cop” out of your pair, because he’s still a pretty serious man, but even then, he gives in easily when they turn the puppy eyes on. He’s protective, too; he was already careful to keep you out of the spotlight, but now that you have kids together, he takes extra precautions to preserve your family’s privacy.

Pretty big on gifts; since his deck was a memento of his father, Aster wants to leave something meaningful for his children too, although hopefully it’s under much nicer circumstances. Maybe it’ll be something like specific cards, or maybe he’ll get each child something like customized jewelry or another keepsake— either way, he hopes that his gifts to them are always filled with love and happy memories.

Jack:

Jack never had a father figure, so although he never put much forethought into fatherhood, he’s adamant that he’ll be exactly what he never experienced. Once the topic comes up, though, he knows he wants a big family— he can’t imagine how his life would’ve been if he hadn’t had Martha and the other kids, so he doesn’t want to have just one or two children who get lonely.

He’s deeply proud of his children from the moment they’re born— you’ve gotta stop him from strapping them onto his Duel Runner and bringing them with him during tournaments. He wants nothing more than to show them off to the world, because not only are they his cute little kids that he adores— they’re also living evidence that he is loved, and that’s a feeling he’s still not used to.

You’re absolutely gonna be the voice of reason in the household, because Jack is basically just a big kid himself; when you tell the kids it’s bedtime, he’s right there with them whining, begging for five more minutes, one more episode. He especially pampers any daughters the two of you end up having— daddy-daughter dates are absolutely a thing, for as long as the girls want it. When they’re little, you’re constantly finding him crammed into tiny chairs, sipping imaginary tea with bows pinned in his hair, having a heated argument with a doll over if rose petals are truly edible.

Kite:

Quite obviously, family is important to Kite; he knew he wanted children of his own one day, but like with many of the others, he considered himself too awful a person to ever start a family. While he definitely wants several kids, he wants to take it slowly— a few years between each child, so that you don’t have two or three infants at the same time.

He’s overly-protective of his children; he was forced to grow up far too quickly, and although he’s learned that the world is cruel, he wants to shield the kids from that pain as long as possible. If you don’t keep too close an eye on him, he’s at risk of becoming stifling— but he does trust you immensely, so if you ever point out that he’s preventing the kids from growing, he instantly readjusts himself. He knows it’s vital that they have their own experiences without him, too.

Makes a tradition of taking your entire family back to the countryside where he and Hart grew up. That’s where he’s at his most relaxed— he loves taking the kids swimming or fishing, watching the sunset over the lake every evening. And given that Heartland is so artificial, these trips to the lake will be the kids’ first time seeing fireflies. That’s an absolutely magical moment that he wouldn’t give up for the world.

Shingo:

Shingo was an only child and a lonely child. Looking back now, as an adult, he’s slowly learned that his own father was neglectful; he can pinpoint many aspects of his behavior as originating from that, because he never felt loved, and was desperate to find it wherever it was offered. He doesn’t have a preference in how many children you have together; if you only have one, then he can give all his love, but if you have two or more, then they’ll never be lonely.

He’s still pretty high-strung, so the infancy years are always stressful— but he’s devoted to the things that are important to him, so he’ll push through it, making active efforts to help you through the difficult years too. He may complain to himself when he has to get out of bed and rock the babies to sleep at three in the morning again, but he does an incredible job of shielding his frustrations from the kids as they grow; his father wasn’t too subtle about not valuing him much, and Shingo absolutely never wants his kids to think he feels the same way.

Very much a fun dad; he’s enthusiastic and cartoonish and has incredible reactions to everything. He loves putting on silly shows even when he’s doing something as simple as making dinner. You’ll have him put the kids to bed one night, and then he just won’t come back to finish the movie you were watching— you wander into the bedrooms looking for him, and he’s sprawled out on the floor, the kids all asleep on top of him.

Reiji:

Reiji values family more than anything, even despite the difficult choices he’s had to make through his life. Because of that, he knows for a fact that he wants several children— but he also never wants to pressure you into anything, so it’ll all be at your own pace. If you’re happy, he’s happy.

He does need some time to adjust— he’s never been a very affectionate man, and his family’s trauma has left him struggling and having to relearn how to handle his emotions. He’s overly-gentle with the kids at first, almost skittish; he has trouble picking them up unless you hand them to him, and he’s hesitant to sit down and play with them often. He’s afraid they’ll recognize he’s feeling strange and avoid them, so you’ve gotta work with him through it.

Once he’s past his initial fears, and as the kids get older, Reiji shapes up into a pretty good family man; although he’s busy, he makes a point to set aside consistent time for everyone, and he’s supportive of his children no matter what they choose to do with their lives. He learns to talk openly with them, because without conversations, he tends to overstep boundaries and coddle them— if the kids ask him to let up, he will, but if they need help with anything, he’s there too.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep 26: What the Hell is Glued to Valon’s Ass?

Well guys.

I should preface--since it’s effecting the voice I have in these recaps quit a bit--I’m still in quarantine and losing my entire mind. So, I took a break from making a whole lot of content because I actually can’t judge if anything I make is good or funny right now. I think it’s a weird consequence of making just so many decisions navigating things I won’t go into. tl;dr, It’s been ridiculous.

And so I’ve only really been on twitter, and it just so happens, that there’s been a bunch of really insane and juicy art fights going on that have kind of ramped up in insanity the farther LA goes into the red, (since most of art twitter lives in LA since art twitter is elitist as hell, which was it’s own very spicy art fight), but one of the most recent ones was...I kid you not...about if it was possible to make cannibalism ethical...and I threw my Wacom tablet out of the freakin window was like...y’all. I’m done.

I’m done!

I DON’T KNOW HOW ART TWITTER WORKS. At all. I don’t know what the people want!

And I was like, I need to look at something that came out before this epidemic. I just need this and so we’re back to Yugioh. I have no idea if this post is any good, because again I can’t judge my own abilities anymore, and I probably sound very very salty, and whatever, but at least I’m not talking about freakin cannibalism in the middle of art twitter. At least I got out of that mess, amiright?

I can’t get worse than cannibalism. I can’t get worse than certain people at the top rungs of art twitter that are absolutely going to eat somebody at some point in their life and I don’t really want to be a part of that club nooooo thank you.

Like Yugioh is pretty effed up, and I will eat these words (just the words) but I’m pretty sure we’re not going to venture into cannibalism.

So anyways, I had to read my own recaps to catch up with what is even happening, and so for those that forgot, like me--Everyone is sort of standing in the middle of the road in San Fransisco and there’s a bunch of orcs everywhere.

Seto is still in denial. Maybe he just assumed Roland threw out a bunch of hologram projectors all over San Fransisco and so there’s just...monsters everywhere? I mean how prevalent is his hologram trash?

We barely even have parking, why would we have hologram projectors everywhere, Seto? San Fransisco barely has HOUSING. Even when Google Glass was a thing, we only whipped those bastards out at parties for the gram. They weren’t actually USED.

Somewhere in like...the grossest park in SF, (like there’s a light pole that’s tipped over? There’s weeds everywhere? No playground equipment? What is this?) Valon and Joey are...throwing cards at eachother. Not much to say about this interaction other than Valon is going to be in a robot suit the entire time, and no you did not miss anything, I just don’t go over the cards here, and...that’s his card schtick--he gets in a robot suit and punches you in the balls. That’s it.

(read more under the cut)

Speaking of getting punched directly in the balls, Mai is still on the hunt to murder Joey Wheeler, because that’s how she’s decided to work through her trauma. Just kill a completely unrelated person to the one who actually gave her the trauma in the first place. Sounds like American politics in 2020.

I will say, it is nice that we have a consequence to the Marik season and a little more depth into Mai, I just wish we had more of an explanation of how she jumped this far other than “I dunno, man, Orichalcos.”

Anyway, she sees the Bat signal and was like “Valon, you had one job”

Bro brings up that Mai seems hella jacked now and like...yeah...It has to be a real workout to do a bunch of wheelies all day on a heavy motorcycle. Go for it, girl.

Valon’s robot suit has robot vision, by the way, and it’s extremely 00′s UI.

mmmm just like Samus Aran.

Can’t have a Yugioh show without beating up your protagonists for a good while. At this point in the series, just comparing trauma of one character to another, you’d think Joey would be the one with trauma that makes him murderous as hell. Instead, he’s remarkably one of the most stable people here. Especially compared to Valon, who is this strange hypocritical broken record of “you gotta let Mai make up her own mind” while doing his very best to manipulate Mai.

If they had both left eachother alone, then Mai would have been way more likely to come back to her senses, just throwing that out there. Valon was a guy who latched on too much, and Joey was the guy who didn’t latch on at all--she needed a good in-between guy. A good in-between guy over the age of 21. It’s a shame that this type of guy does not exist on this show for her to hang out with. 

So Valon flashes back to the moments directly after he introduced Mai to his dad (Dartz) and Mai got possessed with Oricalchos powers.

After Mai refuses to join the team, she joins the team and directly kills Pegasus. To which, she was like “Oh yeah, I don’t actually have any personal agenda against this bastard. He’s just some guy who kills other people, this is just normal vigilante work.”

And so Joey decides he should share flashbacks, since that’s what we’re doing now, and we get a slight retelling of this scene in S1.

In this retelling it’s different because the hanky was actually holding the money card. This was not how it originally went, the card was given separately--but they had to do SOMETHING to make that hanky make some sort of sense, so it...has a card now.

That’s kind of the Yugioh solution to every problem, actually--just put a card on it.

(EDITORS NOTE: OK so apparently, actually-turns out the hanky DID contain a card originally in S1 but I just hella forgot--and normally I’d change this to reflect that but like my mind is full of quarantine spaghetti, so I’ll just leave it as is for posterity because I don’t feel like rewriting anything.)

What IS it though?

Don’t think about it too much, but what IS that?

On the other end of town, Seto remembered that if he spends too much time with these people, they might accidentally mistake it for friendship.

So...Seto Kaiba joined them so he could take back Kaiba Corp with the team, and then just...forgot I, guess. Maybe he got the munchies. A shame to be Kaiba, San Fransisco has NOTHING open past 11 PM except for bars. It’s not really like New York, SF sleeps really freakin good.

So now that Kaiba’s gone, Rebecca has to guess his password.

She’s supposed to be some top tier hacker but she doesn’t have a program to test these permutations for her? Whatever, girl.

And then, out of no, where Tristan had a panic attack.

Mom friends have to do that some times, they have to carry the guilt of their stupid children. But TBH, I kind of forgot that Tristan exists so it caught me off-guard.

Hey I kid you not, I went back to art twitter for a hot second, and there’s this person I follow who is very popular because they’ve drawn this one ship for I want to say 20 years--and they generally make very pretty art. And they recently drew their shipping pair on a set of matching toilets--facing eachother without any bathroom stalls--and they’re just...poopin while looking at eachother. I just...

What Is Going On With Art Twitter!?!?

I need to retire!!!

I don’t understand anything at all going on outside my bedroom, y’all.

I mean I guess I fell for it, I did click the image to see it in full--just in case it WASN’T a picture of them pooping but...no....that’s just what it is.

I need to delete my twitter account.

Anyway, stay safe out there, it’s a mess.

here’s the link to read these in chrono order if you’re bored and you just don’t want to go outside today, I get, I’ve been there, been doing that.

[dessiekarma]

My Harem is Entirely Bad Boy Types (Kirisaki Daiichi x Reader) Pt. 7

Chapter 7: I Think We’re At That Point Were My Harem Story Gets Serious, And I’m Totally Not Ready For That!

 “I’m sorry, I really don’t know.” (Y/N) responded, looking seriously at the woman in front of her.

 “Nothing at all? Not even from all the time you’ve spent with him?”

 “…Makoto’s reasons have never been very telling. He hurt Kiyoshi because he hates someone like him. He hurts everyone else because…he can. Because he wants to prove that anyone can be trash. I’m sorry but I can’t think of any other reason why.”

Ms. Hanamiya nodded slowly before pressing her hands tightly over her mouth to not let out a sob. (Y/N) didn’t know what to do. The older woman had asked this of her the day they met. To be able to sit and discuss with her…to discuss Makoto.

 To know why he was the way he was and why he did all these awful things.

 “So, you’re telling me he’s just…evil. It’s just in his nature. There’s nothing I can do.”

 “I’m sorry I didn’t mean for it to come out li-”

 “Don’t apologize. I’ve seen it for a long time…I just never did anything about it. Maybe it’s genetic and then that’s my fault because Makoto didn’t pick his father, I did.”

 (Y/N) suddenly remembered the comment her captain had given about his dad during the interview. She had been curious ever since.

 “Was his father a bad influence?”

 “That man was the devil himself, but I always thought that since my baby was three when I finally left…that he wouldn’t remember all of it. That he would be different.”

 “Remember all of what, ma’am?”

 “The abuse.”

 “I’m sorry to hear that.”

 “It was my own fault. Everyone warned me about him and I knew how he was. But I was the baddest girl at school and wanted to be dating the baddest boy. He was a basketball player and I started talking to him after going to one of his games. Well I was probably barely sixteen when I got pregnant. I thought he’d want nothing to do with me but he invited me to live with him after my parents kicked me out.”

 (Y/N) nodded to herself. She had figured as much with the woman looking as young as she did and having a son Makoto’s age. However, she had no place to judge her situation.

 “I think he just saw our baby as the ultimate manipulation, a part of him I would always have. I knew I could have made it on my own but not with a baby. I stayed through all that man’s treatment because I wanted my son to have a better life than what I had. So, I would sacrifice my own body to be sure he stayed healthy.”

 A lightbulb went off in the girl’s head, a possibly answer to one particular question of ‘why’. But still she said nothing.

 “And when it was only me on the receiving end I was fine. But the day came when he struck our son too. Well me and Makoto shimmied out the bathroom window that night and scaled down from the 3rd floor with just one bag. And now I can’t help but think…I didn’t get him out of there in time. I let him watch this man put his hands on me for 3 years, eventually letting the same thing happen to him.”

 “But you ca-”

 “Yet…in the back of my mind I think of all the times I spoke to him gently. All the times I told him how he was supposed to be and how what his father was doing was wrong. I tried to show him to be kind and loving. Why didn’t those characteristics stick?”

 “I think they did. Somewhere in there but they got mixed with everything else too. I won’t lie and say your son is a misunderstood and innocent soul. No, I may not believe him to be an evil person, but he’s done evil things. He’s ruined someone’s life. Still I think he can change, I think he needs serious help.”

 “I know. I’ve known for a long time that he needed to see a professional, but I just could never get the courage to tell him. He just…the way he looks at me when he thinks I won’t notice. And he used to get so mad when I told him anything at all.”

 “Ms. Hanamiya, are you afraid of Makoto?” (Y/N) asked with a firm voice. She watched the woman fiddle with her own cup of coffee before glancing around the café as if someone would hear her. “Are you afraid of your own son?”

 “Makoto… he looks and acts so much like his father. It terrifies me…he terrifies me. When he was four, I remember taking him to the park and I looked up to see him pushing this little girl off the swing when there was an open one right next to her. I didn’t even scold him I was just stared. And he caught my eye and looked right back at me with no shame, as if he was studying my reaction. I’ve never stopped being scared.”

 (Y/N) sipped up the rest of her tea and traced circles on the rim of the cup. There was a lot she had to say about this but nothing that she wanted to give as advice to a fully-grown woman. And she also knew that if her captain ever found out she was meeting with her…she didn’t know what would happen.

 “Well that’s enough out of me. I know it wasn’t fair of me to try and get information about my son out of you and I wont waste anymore of your time.”

 “Oh no, I understand why you would want to talk to me about it. But I do have to go, my team has a charity benefit to go to tonight.”

 “A charity benefit? Makoto didn’t mention anything like that.”

 “He didn’t want to go.”

 “I see….is it black-tie?”

 “Yes ma’am.” (Y/N) began before looking at her with serious eyes. “Is he not going because he doesn’t have anything to wear? I know he struggles to buy lunch sometimes and with you telling me he’s only at KiriDai on scholarship…I don’t mean to assume.”

 “Not that he’d ever tell me but I do believe that to be the case. I don’t have a suit for him to wear and the nicest outfit he owns is his school uniform and even that cost me so much overtime to pay for.”

 (Y/N) bit at her lip nervously. She wanted to do something, but she also didn’t want to offend. Taking a few moments to decide the girl put on a business face.

 “You said you’ve worked at the department store for a long time correct?”

 “Yes dear.”

 “I can lend you some money if you agree to speak with the store manager for me. You see I’ve been working with this company…”

~~~~~

 “Please! Please! Please! Please!” Hara said actually chasing the girl around the gym.

 “Leave me alone! Do you know how hard it is to run in heels?!” (Y/N) shouted back as she clacked across the linoleum floors.

 “I do.” Furuhashi deadpanned not paying Yamazaki any mind when he asked if he was joking or not.

 “I wanna see what dress you picked! You can’t leave that coat on all night! Come on take it off!”

 (Y/N) let out a yelp as Hara caught up quickly and hoisted her up over his shoulder. She laughed as the male spun her, trying to disorient her.

 “Stop! I will pee on you in self-defense!”

 “He’d probably be into it.” Seto commented fixing his cuffs.

 “Eww who the hell would actually want that!?” Yamazaki exclaimed, looking disgusted.

 “I do.”

 “Oww did you actually bite me!?” Hara’s voice called out as he quickly dropped the girl to the floor.

 “(Y/N) warned you. I know for a fact she’s a biter.” Furuhashi said extending his hand to help the girl off the floor.

 “So, something did happen when you stayed at her place!?” Yamazaki accused with a finger pointed directly at the blank-eyed male.

 Neither of the accused said anything, instead choosing to look away and ignore the loud male. The whole team settled down as they tried to adjust their formal wear. They were now just waiting on Seto’s ride to come and drop them off collectively at the venue.

 (Y/N) checked her makeup for the 5th time since she arrived only for the compact to be gently taken out of her hand. Yamazaki snapped it shut and gave her a smile.

 “You look gorgeous, stop worrying.”

 “Thanks Zaki, I just want to be sure my makeup looks perfect.”

 “I think you look perfect without it.”

 Seto made a comical gagging sound but (Y/N) only smiled with a slight blush on her face. Standing up from the bleachers she reached her hand up to adjust her friend’s tie.

 “You look very handsome too, Zaki.”

 “So, when are we leaving?” A sudden deep voice called out from the gym entrance.

 The team turned to see their captain standing there his a black on black suit. His usually stringy hair looked soft and one side was slicked back behind his ear. He didn’t try to make eye contact with anyone as he strolled in like it was perfectly normal.

 “Hey you showed.” (Y/N) said with a teasing smirk. “I thought you were too good to come.”

 “I never said that idiot. Don’t put words in my mouth. I couldn’t trust the reputation of my team to this motley crew. I figured I would come to keep an eye on you guys.”

 “You clean up nicely. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you put this much effort into your appearance.” Seto commented with a small smile.

 “Thanks. You guys actually came together pretty well too. Except for our little train wreck over here.” Hanamiya said coming up to (Y/N). “What’s with the trench coat, you a pervert or something?”

 “I was saving my dress reveal until we got there but high demand means I must supply.” (Y/N) joked before unbuttoning jacket and allowing it to slip from her shoulders.

 As the coat fell to the ground dramatically (Y/N) gave a slow spin. All the guys couldn’t help but stare. In her usual completely unsexy school uniform, she wasn’t the person you would cast a second glance at but this was definitely not her school uniform.

 Her dress was an emerald green mermaid style with long black lace sleeves. The back was completely open, decorated only with thin sparkling silver chains. It fit her as if it had been one of a kind created just for her.

 “So? How do I look?” The girl asked though she was already internally smirking from the boys’ reactions to her.

 “Stop fishing for a compliment you know you look hot. Now let’s go.” Hanamiya said giving a slight eye roll before turning and calling his team out to leave.

 (Y/N) smiled and began walking after her captain only to feel Yamazaki place a gentle hand on her elbow. Turning to him she noticed his face wasn’t as angry looking and strained as it usually was. He held his arms out to her with a smile.

 “Can I escort you into the car?”

 “Sure!”

 “Yeah well I call escorting her into the actual event!” Hara said grabbing the girl’s other arm ungracefully.

 “What? Hell no! Walking in with her on your arm, people will think you two are a couple! They already thought that enough when you two had Mako, now it’s free game!”

 “You said it yourself! We have a child together, so of course I would escort her in.”

 “What if there’s other hot girls there? Huh? When they see you with (Y/N) you’ll lose your chance with all of them.”

 “You wish. I could flirt with any of them with (Y/N) hooked around my waist and I’d still get whoever I wanted.”

 “You cocky asshole!”

 (Y/N) watched the two friends bicker and chuckled as Furuhashi swooped in to actually take her arm and lead her out the gym.

~~~~~

 “Hara my feet hurt!” (Y/N) pouted as the male dragged her across the dance floor. “Why do we have to dance every song?”

 “Because I leave you alone long enough and one of our teammates will ask you to dance, or worse one of these other assholes might.”

 (Y/N) rolled her eyes at that. She knew that her heart to heart with Hara had moved her up from spank-bank material to waifu levels but boy was taking this too seriously.

 “Yandere type.” (Y/N) mumbled to herself, catching Hara’s attention.

 “I thought we were all the bad-boy type?”

 “Sure but now that I get to know you guys, there’s a few subtypes.”

 “Oh really? I’d like to hear that.”

 “Well Furuhashi is clearly the Kuudere type though he’s just a cocky comment and snobby laugh away from being Oujidere.”

 “Baby girl, I understood maybe half of that sentence.”

 “Furuhashi seems very cold and distant but from his random outbursts I know he sees himself as very high and princely. Got that stereotypical rich kid backstory to book. Yamazaki is probably the closest I would get to deredere bad boy, he’s usually the most upbeat out of yall though he’s probably just loud as opposed to cheerful.”

 “Okay I can see those.”

 “You are getting crazy possessive, so I’d say Yandere.”

 “I’ll stab the next person who asks you for a dance.” Hara whispered jokingly only to roll his eyes. “Come on I’m not a yandere!”

 “Fine you’re the lewd type then!”

 “I’ll take that. What’s Seto?”

 “Hmm I can’t say I know him well enough to have decided that yet.”

 “Caps is tsundere all the way. I don’t even need to watch anime to know what that means and that it fits him perfectly. That or maybe he’s just an asshole.”

 (Y/N) smiled as the song ended and she made her way back to the table her team had been sitting at. Hanamiya was on his phone seemingly disinterested in everything while Seto was trying his hardest to ignore the girl chatting in front of him.

 Out on the dance floor Yamazaki had been asked to dance and seemed to be having a good time. And they’d all been surprised to find Furuhashi’s fiancé in attendance. (Y/N) smiled as her friend gave Yui a kind look and spun her gently to the tune of the new song.

 Approaching the table, the girl chatting up Seto instantly grated on (Y/N)’s ears.

 “Hey come on! Are you Young-Mi’s other son? I met your brother before! You know you look nothing like your parents but I recognize the name, Seto! I heard your mom has some big plans ahead any ideas what those are?”

 Seto looked totally uncomfortable as the girl rattled off questions about his parents. (Y/N) wrinkled her nose at the girl, was she the daughter of a tabloid publisher or something? Hanamiya seemed annoyed as well yet not half as likely to step in and help his teammate out.

 “Why don’t you come dance with me? We can talk out on the floor! Get to know me because I’d really really love to get to know someone like you.” The girl said pressing her chest into Seto’s arm only making the male cringe away from her touch.

 “Kentaro!” (Y/N) called out flouncing to her friend. Coming up behind him she smoothly slid her arms around his neck before kissing his cheek softly. “Are you making new friends, love? Hi, (Y/N) (L/N)”

 The talkative girl looked at (Y/N)’s extended hand in disgust but shook it anyway.

 “And who are you exactly?” The girl said looking down on her.

 “I believe I just told you, I’m (Y/N) (L/N). Kentaro’s special friend.” (Y/N) said running her thin fingers through the male’s hair. She was happy that he wasn’t uncomfortable with her being up on him but instead seemed rather content.

 “I meant who’s your family, what are you connections.”

 “Tsk tsk it’s rude to ask something like that before you’ve even given me your name.”

 “Ito Hatsune. My father is a tv personality for Hito Ito.”

 “Hito Ito? The Japanese TMZ knock off? Trying to get a scoop for daddy? I’m afraid you’ll turn up with nothing here. My love and his family try and stay scandal free, right Ken?”

 Seto tried to nod but practically shivered at the way his name rolled off (Y/N)’s lips.

 “How boring. She didn’t even put up a fight.” (Y/N) huffed as Hatsune turned on her heels and walked away quickly. Removing herself from Seto’s side she threw herself down in the seat beside him. “Sorry I was in your personal space, you looked uncomfortable and I figured that was the easiest way to make her go away.”

 “No, thank you. I appreciate it.”

 (Y/N) smiled brightly before her eyes flowed to Hanamiya who was still scrolling through shit on his phone. Now that she knew this wasn’t his world, she understood why he was withdrawing. He had no connections to make, no company to speak of. Had he not been a super intelligent basketball prodigy he wouldn’t even be here.

 Beautiful violins swelled in the background and the young girl perked up immediately at the tune. Turning to try and find her dance partner she huffed as he was off dancing with a cute brown-haired girl.

 “Seto, come dance this song with me.”

 “I honestly cannot dance. Like at all. Sorry (Y/N) I would but that’s a type of embarrassment I don’t need.”

 Pouting the girl turned to look at Hanamiya.

 “No.” He said not even looking up.

 “I didn’t even know you were listening! How did you know I was gonna ask you?”

 “Because I’m not an idiot.”

 “Please Hanamiya, it’s such a pretty song!”

 “What? Do you speak French?”

 “Uhh no.”

 “Then you don’t even know what the song is about. It’s not some cute heart-touching ballad.”

 “Then come translate it for me while we dance!” (Y/N) said getting up and standing in front of him extending her hand out. He looked from her palm to her face and realized she wasn’t gonna give it up.

 “Fine, just this song.”

 The girl smiled as Hanamiya lead her out of his team’s sight, to a more private corner of the dance floor. (Y/N) placed one hand on the tall male’s shoulder and locked her other with his firmly. She almost shivered as his cold palm pressed flat onto her exposed back.

 “I admit I went through hell, didn’t I my love? Before I met you, my love.” Hanamiya whispered to her in a quiet voice.

 “What?” The girl asked completely baffled by the male addressing her that way.

 “Those are the lyrics, idiot. ‘Whether it pleases you or not in dancing the Javanaise.’” Hanamiya said, cutting through his own sentence with another translation. The pair swayed and (Y/N) watched him mumble the lyrics perfectly.

 “I never knew you spoke French.”

 “I speak several languages.”

 “That’s incredible.”

 “Not really, languages are easy. It’s just speaking, nothing difficult. ‘In your opinion what have we seen of love? From you to me. You really had me going, my love.’ Besides you speak two languages, don’t you?”

 “Yeah but it was a bitch to learn Japanese and I had full on immersion learning. You’ve apparently just learned these on your own. Hmmm ‘You really had me going, my love’ that’s a heavy lyric, isn’t it?”

 “I told you it wasn’t a love song. ‘Alas, April in vain dedicates me to love. I wanted to see that love in you, my love. Whether it pleases you or not.’ Yet everyone is dancing to it as if it is.”

 “I disagree. Unrequited love is still love. You still feel it just as strong no?”

 “I wouldn’t know. It’s a bullshit concept honestly. If you isolated the right chemical you could technically bottle ‘love’ and sell it as something people inject right into their veins.”

 “You’re so smart but I think that’s why you’re so miserable.”

 “I’m not miserable.”

 “But you are. You don’t let yourself enjoy anything in life because you have to be so analytical of it. Look at everyone else just dancing and enjoying the music but you overthink the chemical process of love and the psychological implications of unrequited love. Anyone else would just enjoy a slow dance with a cute girl.”

 “Oh really? And pray tell who said you were cute?”

 “I believe the word you used was ‘hot’ no?”

 Hanamiya scoffed, tensing up at the way the girl was trying to read him. He was one dimensional to most people. He was an asshole and nobody ever tried to see beyond that…he wanted to keep it that way.

 “I know you’re not the actual airhead you pretend to be. But I’m smarter than you, remember that and know that you will never figure me out. I can see it in your face that you think you know me but you don’t.”

 “You’re right but I’d like to. You’ve told me so very little about you. One particular thing comes to mind…why do you play basketball?”

 “Really? Of all the things you could have asked, you ask that one?”

 “I want to know. It’s not weird to want to know why someone does something that they invest so much time into. Why basketball? You’re so intelligent you could play an instrument, or shogi/chess, hell even another sport might have utilized your brain more so why this?”

 “For exactly that reason. All of those things were so intelligence based that they came to me so easily. There was no effort in it. I could have chosen to do any of those things and would have been a GOM level prodigy at it but then it would have gotten old really fast. Intelligence could only get me so far in basketball if I didn’t have the physical skills to back it up. I had to actually work my ass off to be good, to reach the level that I did. Basketball isn’t boring to me. It’s probably one of the only things that make me happy.”

 (Y/N) took in the honesty of that answer and let it stew in her brain. It made sense, he was basically Aomine but with intellect. Everything around him was just numbers and facts, it seemed almost sad to live in a world with no magic, no feelings.

 “Life is not worth living without love. But you are the one who wanted it that way, my love.”

 “You don’t have to want it that way.”

 “I’m just telling you the lyrics.”

 “I know. But I can tell you have a lot more inside you than just smarts. You have some feelings you can’t process with facts and it bothers you. You don’t have to go through everything on your own. Maybe it doesn’t seem logical to you but other might get it. You’ve helped me more than you realize and I’d do anything to repay you, remember that.”

 “Whether it pleases you or not, in dancing the Javanaise.” Hanamiya ignored her and continued translating, he looked up at her and she could barely hear the final lyric. “We loved each other for the length of a song.”

 As the instruments decrescendo off into nothing Hanamiya is left staring down into the eyes of a girl who he can feel staring right through him. She knows something and he doesn’t like that.

 “Oww.” (Y/N) murmured, arching her back and pressing her body into his slightly.

 Suddenly taking notice, Hanamiya withdrew his hand from her back. Unconsciously his grip on her had grown way too tight and even his nails were biting into her flesh. Almost as if a switch was flipped the male’s expression grew angry and he resisted the urge to push her away from him.

 She watched as he scowled and stormed back to his seat. The girl deflated at the events. It was always 1 step forward 2 steps back with him and she didn’t know what she was doing wrong. She hadn’t even said anything this time.

 “Well I’d heard Kirisaki Daiichi had gotten a new manager. You seem to be holding your own well with them.”

 (Y/N) turned to come face to face with none other than Akashi Seijuro. In trying to make connections, she found out quickly that he was the one to know. They’d only briefly spoken a number of times at events like this and also because his father did business with some people very close to her.

 “Akashi-san, how nice to see you.” (Y/N) bowed her torso at him and his own teammates behind him.

 “Come now, you weren’t nearly so formal with anyone else here.” The magenta haired male hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face up to look her in the eye.

 “Woah! Who the hell are you!?” Hara’s voice suddenly echoed in (Y/N)’s ear as he strolled up beside her. The rest of the team including Hanamiya were not far behind. “Hands off!”

 “Akashi Seijuro, and you are Hara Kazuya correct? Second son of the Hara Hotel empire. I must say (Y/N) makeup and hotels don’t really mix, now do they? Not a very wise business move.”

 “Kazuya and I aren’t dating.”

 “And what does makeup have to do with anything?” Hara snapped.

 “Hmm they don’t know?” Akashi asked with a small smirk on his face. He knew they didn’t. “(Y/N)’s the hei-”

 “I work for New Face, you know, that really popular makeup brand. I’m nothing more than a wholesale associate, I get stores to carry the product that’s all.”

 “Why didn’t you want us to know that?” Furuhashi asked, almost not believing everything and believing she was purposely withholding information.

 “Because none of you guys work in that sense. I didn’t want you to look down on me.” (Y/N) was stammering a bit before a very tall and attractive looking man stepped forward and gently tilted her chin back and forth.

 “I love your highlight, it’s so natural. Is it New Face?”

 “Oh no, this is a new brand I thought I’d try out.” The girl said awkwardly as the feminine male studied her entire makeup look closely.

 “You really should show me before the night is over! I’m Reo, by the way.”

 (Y/N) shook hands and instantly felt a little insecure. This guy had really nice hands and was prettier than she was.

 “So, are you a boy or a girl?” Hara asked rudely causing (Y/N) to slam her elbow into his ribcage.

 “Ha! She’s got fire, I like that. And to answer your question my dear lavender blossom, I am an experience.” Reo said flipping his perfect hair. The gorgeous male pirouetted away to the rest of his team, sitting at their own table.

 “Now, if you’ll excuse us, I believe I was having a conversation with (Y/N). Can I have a minute alone with her?” Akashi’s voice came out smoothly as he waved a hand to shoo off the KiriDai boys.

 “With my manager? Hell no.” Hanamiya said, instantly not liking the attitude this guy had. He’d played him before in middle school and even though he was a hell of a lot creepier then, this shit wasn’t gonna fly. He tugged the girl’s arm and pulled her into his chest.

 “Oh come now. I love getting to know all the members of the elite teams. I might have had the chance to speak with her during the Winter Cup if your team had made it that far.”

 “Oh shit.” Seto mumbled, knowing full well there was about to be a blood war between the two god-complex males.

 “Yeah you didn’t exactly win that tournament either and you actually care about that shit. You got beaten by the same team that beat us, so I don’t believe you have room to talk.”

 “Our team would wipe the floor with your rich boy asses!” Hara exclaimed blowing a large bubble.

 “Aren’t we just a bunch of rich kids too?” Yamazaki said with a metaphorical sweat drop on his head.

 “Is that truly what you believe? Well how about we test out that theory. One Gom and three Uncrowned Kings against a team that I hear, doesn’t utilize the only tactic they had to win anymore.”

~~~~~

 “Ooo! Damn!” (Y/N) shouted out as Hara fell on his ass while Akashi rushed past him. “Cross him up!”

 “Who the hell are you cheering for?!” The teen yelled at his friend.

 “The only dude out on the court breaking ankles! Woo!” She cheered again as the game grew even more heated.

 Seto smiled at the girl who was obviously enjoying herself.

 “It’s not easy bitch!” Hara cursed as he rubbed his tailbone. “I’m not exactly used to playing in dress shoes and slacks.”

 “Sounds like an excuse TO slack!”

 “His Emperor Eye is pretty impressive, isn’t it?” Seto asked the girl sitting beside him on the park bench. He watched the girl wrinkle her nose slightly as she mulled it something over.

 “I mean he’s really amazing at basketball but why the weird names for their ‘special moves’. Like he’s crossing people, not using a Pokemon attack.”

 Without intention Seto let out a booming laugh that even caught (Y/N) off guard. She smiled as the male hid his grin behind a large hand as laughter trickled off into chuckles.

 (Y/N) felt herself smile as the boy beside her was slowly beginning to open up more. He was usually fairly quiet and the last time they really spoke in depth was when they sang together during the cultural festival.

 The girl was snapped out of her thoughts as Reo caught her eye and beckoned her towards him with a long delicate finger. Totally captivated by the young man, she navigated her way carefully across the park court.

 Reo patted the bench next to him and (Y/N) sat quickly.

 “So, now that we have some time where did you get that makeup from? Not just the highlighter but the lipstick and eyeliner too!”

 “It’s a new brand that just launched, ‘Me but Better’.”

 “I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of it.”

 “Well so far only one store in Japan carries it but-”

 “What the fuck!”

 (Y/N) spun around quickly, startled by the angry voice of her captain. She was expecting him to be scowling at one of the Rakuzan boys but instead he was storming right up to her with her own phone in his hands.

 “What the hell is this!?”

 “My phone…what happened?”

 “Your phone rang and guess who’s fucking calling?!” Hanamiya shouted, getting much closer to the girl in a threatening manner.

 “Ryo? Shoichi? Umm…”

 “My mother!” Hanamiya’s voice practically roared as he threw the phone to the ground. “What in the actual fuck do you think you’re doing talking to her?!”

 “I just…why did you grab my phone?” The young woman sputtered not knowing how to answer him.

 “Why did I grab your phone?! Is that really all you have to fucking say!? So what have you been telling her? About that time I nearly choked you or about how I broke someone’s leg?”

 “No, I haven’t told her anything she didn’t already know.”

 “That she didn’t already know? That’s such fucking bullshit! I should have known you were messing around in my business when I got that call from YOUR boyfriend telling me if I didn’t play nice for you that he would go and find my mother and tell her all this shit I’ve been keeping from her!”

 “No…that doesn’t make any sense! I didn’t tell him to do that, I don’t even know how he would have your number! And nobody needs to tell her anything! She’s not stupid, she knows all about you and basketball and Kiyoshi!”

 Hanamiya looked as if he was about to explode before he let out a small almost chuckling sound.

 “You remember you saying you’d do anything to repay me right? You can stay the fuck away from me from now on.” The dark-haired male brought his foot down on the girl’s cellphone smashing it into an unusable mess.

 (Y/N) winced but barely allowed the man to storm off the court before she too was on her feet. She was about to run after him but Hara stood in front of her quickly.

 “You were actually talking to his mom? We’ve known him for years and we’ve never even seen her.” Yamazaki said looking very concerned.

 “It’s not like I tried to find her! Furu and I ran into her at the mall the day he got engaged!”

 “You never told me that.” Furuhashi stated firmly, not wanting to get tangled into the predicament.

 “She asked me to meet her! What was I supposed to do?”

 “Tell her no.” Seto said running a hand through his hair. “You didn’t have to agree to meet up with her, you could have told her you didn’t feel comfortable talking about him.”

 (Y/N) blinked a few times. She knew that she came in hard on the defense, ready to blame his mother for something that her own curiosity had led her to agree in the first place.

 “I just…he’s always so miserable. I thought if I knew why then I could-”

 “Well you can’t, so just stop while you’re ahead.” Seto replied firmly.

 “But I…” (Y/N) began to think about the explosion that was sure to go off when Hanamiya finally got home. From what she’d gathered, his mother would be quite frightened and if she was being honest…she wasn’t sure what her captain was capable of. “I can’t just let this happen. I can’t let anything bad happen between them because of me! I don’t want to be a burden on his life!”

 “Do you know where he lives?” Reo’s voice suddenly came up behind her as he placed both hands on her shoulders firmly.

 “Yes, his mother gave me their address when we met up.”

 “I have my car with me, I’ll take you.”

 “No, you won’t.” Furu said pulling (Y/N) by the wrist firmly. “Just leave it alone.”

 “I can’t! I don’t know what will happen! What if he gets really mad, or she kick him out or some other bullshit and I just ruin their lives!?”

 “What’s done is done!” Hara snapped out at the girl.

 (Y/N)’s body shook and when two tears cascaded down her face the boys knew they should have said something different.

 What they should have said was she wouldn’t ruin their lives. What they told her…

 “No…you’re wrong. I can’t accept that I can’t change things! I won’t accept having no control in what I’ve done to someone else’s life! …. You can’t stop me.”

 And they didn’t.

~~~~~

 “Seriously! Haven’t you done enough!?” Hanamiya screamed out as the girl raced up the steps of his apartment complex and called out to him.

 “Please! I never meant any harm, I just wanted to help your mom.”

 “Help? Help her with what?!” Hanamiya practically barked out at her. “What you think you have to fucking save her from me!? Huh?! You think I’m gonna hurt her!?”

 (Y/N) cowered back in fear, as her captain got in her face.

 “The only one that’s going to be hurt is you, if you don’t get the fuck out of here!”

 While the girl wanted to call his bluff, she also knew when he was angry his violence didn’t discriminate. Still, despite herself, she needed to get out of the corner she’d backed herself into. With as much force as she could she attempted to push him away from her. His body nearly got thrown off balance before he grabbed her wrist tightly.

 “Stop! Makoto, please!” Both teens turned their heads to see the male’s distressed mother opening the apartment door and rushing outside.

 Though the small woman was shaking she forced her body between the two and stared up at her son in timid defiance. She took the girl’s hand from his grasp and held it gently, trying to comfort her.

 Hanamiya took in the way she held the girl closely and the way she looked at her with such care in her eyes. His own hand hung limply at his side and before he could help himself a tear ran down his face.

 “Why…why are you defending her? She’s not your daughter…You’re not her mother!”

 Mrs. Hanamiya was stunned by the hurt look on her son’s face. She hadn’t seen him cry in years. Even with as vulnerable as he looked right now the second, he took a step towards the two women, she instantly jerked back.

 “I think I should just go.” (Y/N) mumbled, seeing a side to Makoto she wasn’t ready for.

 “Oh now you think you can just go?” The male said, moving to block the stairwell. “You wanna be in my business and leave when things get a little tense?!”

 “I never meant to-”

 “It was all me! I burdened her to meet up with me. Please, let’s talk about this.”

 “Talk about this!? You should have wanted to talk with me about this before talking to her! I barely met her, what the hell could she possibly know about me?!”

 “You…you always spoke so highly of her compared to others. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were particularly fond of her. I figured, if she was able to get close to you, if you had feelings for someone like her then maybe-”

 “Maybe what?”

 Hanamiya waited for his mother to answer but he knew she wouldn’t continue.

 “Maybe it meant that I wasn’t a lost cause? That I was capable of human emotion? That I’m not some goddamn monster!?”

 “I don’t think you’re a monster.”

 “Then why!?” The male screamed out, probably startling the entire apartment complex. “Why have you always looked so terrified of me!? Why did you always flinch away from me when I never did a single thing to you!?”

 (Y/N) felt the cold air whip around her as the night breeze began to pick up. She wished she hadn’t told Reo to go home. She wished she hadn’t come here. She wished she’d never gotten involved.

 “Its just because you’re so big and intimida-”

 “No, that’s bullshit! I remember everything! Even when I was small and I came running to you, you’d move away. I’d try to hug you and you’d push me back. You would only show me affection when you wanted…So what is it about me?” Makoto now had streams of tears coming from his eyes, not caring that (Y/N) was seeing. “You always told me you just weren’t the physically affectionate type. But if that’s so…why does she get to touch you? Why are you so afraid of me?”

 (Y/N), only now, realized how she and her were clinging onto each other for support.

 “You just…if you can remember that surely you can remember all the fights you got into as a child! All the times I had to pull you off some other kid in the park. It’s like violence was engrained in you and you know how your father was. I was just so afraid that you wou-”

 “My father…so because my father was a piece of shit, I wasn’t allowed to make mistakes!? I was a little boy and you always treated me like I did something wrong. You were the only person I had in this entire world and you were never on my side. You always thought the worst of me. It didn’t matter what I did. I could get the best grades, be a sports prodigy, get into some rich kid school and for what? You still only see me as your bastard that trapped you with that asshole for three years.”

 Mrs. Hanamiya finally released the girl’s hands and took a tentative step towards her son. His tears were heartbreaking, and she would have given anything in that moment to have done things differently.

 “That’s not true. You have always been the light of my life and you were the only good I ever got from that man. I’ve never had anything and I’ve always done wrong, including how I raised you but sweetie…you’re my best thing. Having you was the only thing I ever did right.”

 Hanamiya lifted a hand to wipe at his face only to catch the flinch in his mother’s face. Lowering his hand once more, he knew that all the kind words she was saying meant nothing. Because it was in his nature, in his fate, in his blood.

 “You still…you still see me just like him. Did you know when I was ten, I went to find my dad? I wanted to know if I really was like him. Did you know he’s in prison?” Mrs. Hanamiya’s breath caught in her throat. “For sexual assault.”

 (Y/N) felt her heart drop into her stomach. Mrs. Hanamiya hadn’t told her anything of the sort but she and her captain were thinking the same thing.

 “Did he…? Am I just some constant reminder of this horrible thing that happened to you? Is that why you hate me?! Is that all I’m destined to be in your eyes?”

 “No! I don’t know what that man did once I left. But I loved your father, our relationship was abusive but not…that. And Makoto, I love you.”

 “But you don’t like me.”

 Hanamiya let the whistling wind be the only noise between the three for a while. His mother averted her eyes and he knew why. He’d hit the nail on the head with everything. His own mother didn’t like him. She never answered him on her perception of his destiny. And her unwillingness to answer was the loudest response he could have received.

 What had only been sorrow turned to anger quickly.

 “So he was abusive? You knew it and you stayed with him?”

 “For you!”

 “Yeah…and that’s why people like you make me sick. Fucking martyrs, putting their own well-being on the line for others. And for what? To come to resent the very people they were protecting? To lord their pain over them for years? I didn’t ask you to stay with him! I didn’t ask to be born! If you knew your life was falling to shit, you should have done the responsible thing and just had an abortion, instead of ruining yours and my life!”

 (Y/N) gasped at that comment and with a quick turn of her head placed both hands over her mouth. Tears streamed down her own face and she shook thoughts from her head. Glancing over at Mrs. Hanamiya she saw the woman’s shoulders shaking in sobs.

 “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry you would rather have not existed than to have me as a mother. Nothing has been your fault and I’m sorry I couldn’t treat you the way I should have.”

 With that the woman fled down the stairs quickly. Both teens were stunned at her quick escape. Makoto whipped his head around and watched her make her way down the street.

 “Shit, it’s dark and she shouldn’t be out by herself right now. What the fuck is she thinking?” He said to himself as he turned towards the staircase.

 (Y/N) grabbed his wrist quickly and gave a gentle tug.

 “No, wait. I think she needs this time to think on her own. Just give her a little time, I know things will be fine.”

 “You know? What the fuck do you think you know about my neighbourhood? Maybe taking a stroll around your private estate at night is perfectly safe but it isn’t always that way here, okay?”

 “Hanamiya.” The girl pleaded once more now standing between him and the stairs, her grip still on his wrist. “Believe it or not I understand, everything.”

 “How could you even begin to understand? Look just call your personal driver and have him take your spoiled privileged ass home.” He snapped attempting to push past her.

 “I can’t d-”

 “Let go!”

 “NO!”

 (Y/N) felt Hanamiya jerk her arm up to get her to release his hand. He was successful in his attempt, but the motion had the girl off balance. Still in her heels from earlier, there was no hope of steadying herself.

 The staircase seemed much higher as each stepped cracked into some part of her body. One area alone didn’t have time to process the pain before another felt it too.

 And just when it should have been over and the steps should have ended, her head came into contact with the cement at the bottom.

 She could hear quick footsteps down the staircase and then nothing.

[momothegeckho]

arranged. | 03

Previous: |01  |02 

Summary: Chiara was living out her days normally, when against her will, she is betrothed to Seto Kaiba for a business deal. She does not approve, and expects Kaiba not to either... until she hears he is the one who facilitated this deal.

The OC is Chiara Fuyu, daughter to one of the best holotech labs internationally, named Fuyu Corp. Her father agrees to have her married to Seto on grounds of uniting Fuyu Corp under Kaiba Corp.

╭⋟────────────────────────╮

“Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. You should change into something more comfortable.You also have your own bathroom through your closet over there. Don’t take too long.”

As I made my way to the bathroom, I had stopped to take in the closet leading to it. The clothes were nice, but they weren’t mine. In fact, none of my original clothes could be seen amongst the new replacements. Not that they weren’t nice, but it was very rude to me that my clothes are nowhere to be found. I would have to ask Kaiba about this later.

Upon entering the bathroom, I felt as if I was transported into a more futuristic dimension, because everything was so advanced. The bathroom was a fluorescent white with hints of blue in certain areas, and the shower was surrounded by a glass frame, completely clean and had a mirror on the wall next to it. The bathtub looked just as cool, and I found myself drooling over the design. My fangirling only amplified when I heard an automated voice come from the mirror in front of the sink. The bathroom had a damn AI, too?!

“Good evening, Ms. Fuyu! I will be your helpful AI unit from now on! I am named SUNNY, created especially for you by Seto Kaiba, and can be used anywhere in your room, and even on your phone once you download me!”

I was honestly impressed, and also a bit flattered that Kaiba developed a system for me. All of my hate for him took a hiatus as I just stood and admired his efforts because this has to be the first time someone had put so much effort into a gift for me.

“Ms. Fuyu, I have been instructed to start your shower as soon as possible! The temperature of the water is a comfortable 90 degrees, and I have some of your favorite songs cued for the duration of your shower. Kaiba has also instructed me on your outfit for tonight, so no worries!”

Of course Kaiba had picked my clothes as well. A control freak at heart I suppose. Everything else was wonderful! The automated shower system, heat control, it was all very nice of him.

That shower had to be the most comfortable thing I experienced today, and even though everything was accommodating to my comfortability, I still couldn’t help but feel sadness, disgust, and anger at my father for leaving me. Did I even matter to him? This was all like some stupid dramatic stereotype, being sold off to some rich cute guy to be married…

… wait, did I just admit Kaiba was cute?

Ugh. All of this is already getting to me… How do I get out of this mess?

I got out of the shower and went to the sink, and I just looked so tired. So done with everything. From now on, I would be alone here with this utter sociopath, and I no longer knew what to do, let alone think.

“Ms. Fuyu. I sense high stress levels in your heart rate. Do you need assistance?”

This AI is really something. Stress sensors? Kaiba went all out.

“Nothing is wrong, Sunny. Just a bit unnerved. I need some rest.”

“Oh! I am sorry to hear that, Ms. Fuyu. Let us get you dressed and fed so you can sleep.”

Before I could walk to the closet, I watched as the hangers began to shift and move on each side, silently sifting through the clothes, then pushing out one of the hangers, revealing a nice pajama gown, fit with a cover-up and matching slippers.

“Kaiba is literally the definition of too much money, and too much time.”

After getting dressed, I made my way downstairs, slowly making my way to the dining area, and almost being scared to death by one of the staff of the house.

“This way, Ms. Fuyu.”

Why is everyone here so monotone? There’s only so much static I can take…

Walking into the dining room, I am escorted to a seat next to the head of the table. Across from me is Mokuba, Kaiba’s little brother. I smile and wave at him, and he shyly does the same. He clearly is uncomfortable with this, too. I try to strike up a bit of conversation with him, although it is short and very strained with the gigantic elephant in the room, being…

WHY AM I HERE?

It isn’t long before Kaiba enters the room and sits at the head chair, exchanging a quick smile to Mokuba before turning to me with a stone face.

“You look tired.”

I know this asshat didn’t-

“Why thanks, Kaiba, I feel tired… Can I ask you why I couldn’t find any of my original clothes from home?”

“They weren’t necessary, and inappropriate for you to wear here.”

Inappropriate? Was that his way of calling my clothes ugly? What a guy. 

The food was brought out and we began to eat, in a very awkward silence. I don’t know if it was just me, but I felt so uncomfortable. The food was good, but the silence was almost unbearable. I couldn’t just let this be.

“Kaiba? I have questions, and I’m tired of being left in the dark.”

Before I could continue, Kaiba stopped me and directed his attention to Mokuba, politely asking him to eat in his room. When he had left, he turned his attention to me and sighed.

“What?”

“... What? Kaiba, none of this is making sense to me! No one has been telling me anything and I’m getting impatient!”

“The contract has all of the information you need. I don’t have to answer anything for you and you should accept that this is what we have to do now. Don’t make anything harder than it has to be. Do your duties, and I will fulfill mine.”

A whole new flood gate came loose, and I couldn’t help but cry. I tried not to, because the last thing I need is for Kaiba to have the satisfaction of making me cry, but it was just too much to handle. My eye contact with Kaiba broke as I looked down at my lap, allowing my hair to cover my face as I tried to hold back whimpers, failing miserably. Couldn’t he see how scared this made me? How drastic my life just changed? I know he has an apathy streak, and could care less about others, but this is just cruel.

I noticed Kaiba stand and turn his back to me, looking at the painting on the wall opposite to me. He was quiet, and his silence made me feel worse.

“How can you be like this? Did you do this ro me on purpose? Trying to show me my father could care less about me, taking me away from my home… forcing me to marry you when I don’t feel a shred of love for you? It’s cruel, Kaiba. Even for you.”

Had my words even reached him? Was he even worried? If he cared for me, the least amount, he would say something. Anything. There was nothing, but awkward silence.

This had to be the most awkward moment I’ve had in awhile, and it only became more awkward when I heard shuffling. Looking up, I flinched lightly to see Kaiba’s hand reached towards me, his face had more surprise than mine.

He had stopped reaching when he was close enough to almost touch my face, and then slowly, he retracted and turned back from me.

“You clearly need some time alone. Just, go rest. We can talk in the morning.”

I stood as quietly as I could, and quickly left for my room. Leaving Kaiba behind. I shut off my light and got into bed, tears still streaming down my face onto my pillow.

“Ms. Fuyu, It’s me, Sunny. How are you feeling?”

“Sunny, just call me by my first name.”

There was silence, then the AI spoke again.

“Understood, Ms.Chiara. Your distress levels are very high. Please talk to me.”

I was hesitant at first. Would this AI just report back to Kaiba? I didn’t know, and at that moment, I was too emotionally compromised to care. I told her everything. How I felt, What had happened… As much as I could to make myself feel better.

“I apologize for such a tiring day… You don’t have to worry, Chiara. This is strictly confidential. I am created to serve you, and I will remember our conversations for future discussion and solution making.”

That made me feel a bit better as I laid there under my blanket. At least I had something to vent to. Feeling myself drift off, I felt another question fill my mind, and I asked Sunny before I drifted off.

“Sunny? Kaiba was about to touch me at dinner when I was crying, but he just stopped. Why did he do that?”

There was silence, before Sunny began to speak.

“From the contract I have on file, it states that he is not allowed to touch you until you are 18 and give consent, or unless your father approves. Other than that, touching you directly is forbidden and punishable by annulment of the contract.”

… huh.

I honestly had nothing to say about that, but a lot of speculations about it. The one nagging at me the most was wondering if Kaiba really cared enough to respect the boundaries, and why he would include that in the contract in the first place.

With these thoughts and questions, I fell asleep. This would just have to wait for tomorrow.

////////////////

Well, Kaiba wasn’t expecting this. 

At All.

The whole situation earlier was one of the possibilities he hadn’t prepared for, and it didn’t help that he wasn’t the best with expressing words, or feelings, to other people. Of course he didn’t want her to cry today. His words were totally misunderstood. Mostly his fault on that front, but he wasn’t expecting Chiara’s personality to be so gentle, yet fiery against his own. Not that this was a bad thing. He liked her. Otherwise he wouldn’t have asked for her hand. Okay, maybe the contract was a bit much, maybe a bit too forceful, but it had to be done, unfortunately. He was being rushed, and the usual steps one would take to marry their significant other, didn’t apply to him now.

“Sir, You have a new blueprint to review. Your team sent it in a few minutes ago.”

“Understood. Leave it to me.”

He wasn’t really paying attention. He was just mentally kicking himself for almost touching her today. He had to get more control if he wanted this to work. And in order to make this work, he had to make her see that he wasn’t a terrible human being, which should be easy.

… right?

|04

[themattress]

Rewatch: My Bride is a Mermaid Ep 9 - 11

In which I watch three episodes, each better than the last.

Except for their endings, which somehow keep getting worse.

Episode 9: The Running Man

OK, so much happen in these episodes that I’m doing this with bullet points.

- “SUN! YOU JUST HIT A CELEBRITY IN THE FACE WITH A VOLLEYBALL!”  Right off the bat, Lunar loses all of that menace she had in the previous two episodes. What a dork!

- Kai Mikawa is introduced, crashing though the gym floor with a submarine. He’s a jerk who throws his power and money around to solve his problems, but a highly entertaining one.

- That flashback to child Kai and child Sun was hilarious and adorable.

- Kai has severe agoraphobia. He would thrive in the current conditions of the world.

- The midway point of the episode is clearly where Kai’s debut chapter in the manga ended, with him seemingly leaving to go on a journey of self-improvement for Sun’s sake only to show up as a new classmate the next day. The second half of the episode is a completely different story about a school field day, with the only link being Kai’s heavy involvement.

- Kai reveals his famous space suit, the only way he can get around his problem with being outdoors. He also gains a devoted servant in Chimp, who betrays Nagasumi and even tries to launch missiles at him from Kai’s submarine. Damn it, why couldn’t you stay Chimp Roshi? Actually, great things come out of this Kai/Chimp alliance later on, so I should be grateful.

- Sun’s team is rightfully losing, so Gozaburo fucking cheats and declares the final event to be worth a ridiculously large amount of points so that if Sun’s team win it, they win the whole field day. But ha ha, this plan fails when a downpour of rain incapacitates the merpeople.

- Seeing Kai flopping around on the track as an orca whale is just....what!?

- The episode ends abruptly: Sun sings her ridiculous sleep song to put everyone to sleep, and then there’s a brief scene with all the girls talking before Nagasumi, Kai and Chimp’s faces get superimposed onto a rainbow and Kai’s voice saying something like “I’ll get you next time, Nagasumi Michishio!” Really? They couldn’t think of a better way to end it?

Episode 10: Iron Man

- This episode introduces one of the most famous characters from this series: Lunar’s father, the boss of the Edomae Gang, who is a total Terminator parody. Seeing this huge, seemingly emotionless, Arnold Schwarzenegger-looking guy as an overprotective dad is hysterical.

- Nagasumi spends the start of the episode being menacingly stalked by Papa Edomae and trying to convince all his doubting friends that he really saw such a monster of a man. This would have worn thin if it’s all the episode was, but thankfully it switches gears pretty quickly.

- Mawari throttles Chimp. I fucking love you, Mawari!

- A long chase scene with Nagasumi and Kai running from Papa Edomae occurs, with them trying every possible hiding place, getaway route, or means of defense (Kai even pulls a Karin Kanzuki and tries to blow Papa Edomae up with a satellite beam), but nothing works. 

- So Kai’s dead, then? But he only just got introduced! 

- Sun comes in to protect Nagasumi, which isn’t a surprise. But Gozaburo coming in to protect them both is, and Nagasumi is astounded by his heroism as he holds his own against Papa Edomae in a brutal 1-on-1 battle that, like episode 8′s climax, seems very DBZ-inspired.

- Papa Edomae’s identity is revealed, he goes into a flaming dumpster and, in a parody of Terminator 2, gives a thumbs up while saying “Hasta La Vista, baby!” And that’s the end. Again, pretty abrupt. You would think we’d get more from Lunar at the end than we did.

- Another Masa Today omake, with Maki getting her comeuppance for that stunt she pulled two episodes ago: first locked in a cage and then flushed down the toilet! Damn, that’s harsh.

Episode 11: Armageddon

- Chimp Roshi is back! But damn it, he’s indulging in the perverted side of Roshi, which isn’t any different from how he usually acts! And now Kai is in on this creepy-ass behavior too?

- Lunar is devastated at having gained weight and immediately decides to go on a crash diet, which she drags Sun into, which in turn drags Gozaburo into it. Oh, this is going to be fun!

- Masa and Shark Fujishiro run their own mermaid telemarketing channel in their off time. It’s supposed to make funds for the Seto Gang, yet Gozaburo buys from it himself to help with Sun and Lunar’s exercising! And then Fujishiro buys from it as well! These people are idiots!

- Nagasumi accidentally drinks mermaid bottled water, which has a negative effect on humans...specifically, it makes him grow gigantic and turn into a mindless rampaging beast!

- Mawari sees a giant, naked Nagasumi and decides she’s overworking herself.

- Class Rep sees a giant, naked Nagasumi and decides she needs new glasses.

- It’s Kai to the rescue when he hits Nagasumi with a rocket ship and sends him to the moon before he can smash up the town. But then he takes it too far and launches missiles at the moon to kill his rival with. “Time for you to DIE, Nagasumi Michishio!” Gee-zuz, Kai! O_O

- Gozaburo is also hilariously ecstatic about this development, but poor Sun is devastated. It’s brief, but we actually see Lunar looking concerned and saying “Sun...” softly. Awww! 

- That Lance of Longilus-inspired mermaid spear actually ends up playing a pivotal role in the climax of the manga, but here its main use is for one of the funniest jokes in the series. Sun gives her dramatic speech and catchphrase amidst the falling sakura petals, gets ready to throw the spear at the moon...and then trips and falls down. And then Octopus Nishijima lands on the spear and breaks it. Needless to say, Sun’s mind breaks at the exact same time.

- But it’s OK, because order one spear from Masa’s TV channel and get a second free!

- The episode could have ended on a funny yet touching note with Sun and Nagasumi, but it fucks up at the last minute by having it end on more abuse given to poor Nagasumi from his awful parents. Child abuse is something that is extremely hard to make funny, and I’m sorry, this show does not manage it. Gozaburo is Nagasumi’s unwilling father-in-law, so him beating up Nagasumi is funny. Nagasumi’s actual father beating him up, otoh, is just aggravating.

[the-cryptographer]

I know you probably get asked this a lot, but I can't help myself. You can tell me to fuck off if you don't want to answer, though. Do you still want to finish Lottery Ticket? Because it's one of my favorite YGO fics and the idea of you dropping it makes me so very sad.

It’s fine anon. I mean, I appreciate the recognition that I don’t owe you an answer or free content or anything, but I don’t get asked too often so it’s not a bother. And I’m not gonna tell you to ‘fuck off’.

Short answer is that - No, I’m not dropping Lottery Ticket. I still want to finish it. And, although I’m moving at a glacial pace, I was working on writing the next chapter as recently as sometime last week.

I’m going to give a longer answer though - Yeah, I also get scared I’m not gonna be able to finish it sometimes too. Not in the sense that it’s not important to me, but in the sense that I’ve been writing it for over two years, am over 100k words into it, and I’m not even halfway through the the planned story. I hope that I’ll be able to pick up the pace at some point, but moreso I hope that two or four or however many years in the future I’ll still care as much about finishing it as I do now. I’m kind of lucky I had some experience under my belt when I first started writing LT, enough to be able to know that I need to have a rather concrete understanding of my plot and story structure to see a long project through. But what LT has really driven home is that I have a very poor understanding of how many words and chapters (and how much time) it takes to execute the ideas in an abstract outline.

Also, yeah, idk how obvious it is, but Lottery Ticket is pretty personal to me. Not in the sense that I grew up with a gambling alcoholic dad, started a long distance relationship with a classy older woman straight out of my teenage years, or worked as a gofer for the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. But a lot of the themes it deals with - feeling trapped in a household with a deteriorating abuser, class struggle through the lens of the more personal relationships between employers and employees, codependency and not being able to trust that people love you bc they depend on you, the intersectionality of poverty, racism, and crime, etc. etc. are all pretty heavy themes that I care deeply and personally about. And you’d think that that would make this story easier to write at times, but it mostly just makes it more difficult. It often feels a lot easier to rattle off oneshots about characters and ideas that, while maybe not entirely without emotional gravitas for me, certainly don’t hit as many soft spots so consistently.

And, in a more immediate sense, yea- next chapter is killer. I recently complained on twitter about how the draft for it cracked 8k, and I didn’t feel it was remotely finished. I like to divide the chapters so that they individually have a crescendo of rising and falling action - or at least that’s what I tell myself - so, having established the previous chapter that the next chapter is going to be about dealing with this problem where Jou owes an ungodly amount of money to yakuza affiliates and has no paycheck to pay with, I don’t think it really makes sense for me to post until I’ve reached a resolution to that conflict eleven days later. But, in addition to the mad scramble for cash, the chapter also has to include Jou dragging an unconscious Kaiba home, Jou negotiating with his landlord, scenes with Honda and Yuugi that establish how Jou feels about relying on them, an extendend flashback with Mai (& Anzu) that does much the same thing in addition to giving more background on Jou’s living situation, all that foreshadowing, etc. Also, I was kind of up in the air about whether or not to include this scene in this chapter or next - because there is /so much/ this chapter and I have very little concretely planned for next chapter - but I’m increasingly coming to think that Jou should confront his dad about the stolen paycheck this chapter instead of next one. Like- Jou’s kind of avoiding coming face to face with his dad and directly asking him for the money back. And the idea is that Jou’s been in situations similar enough to this in the past, that he already knows what the likely result of such a confrontation is and that it’s probably a dead end. So he’d prefer to wait until after the situation with Kyoutarou is dealt with to speak to dad. But the more I think about it, the more I realise the audience doesn’t have the same information that Jou does, and would probably benefit more from seeing the outcome of that confrontation firsthand. And to see it firsthand while there is still a hypothetical possibility for Jou’s dad to somehow influence the outcome when Jou goes to pay his debt, instead of after it’s somewhat of a moot point.

And, yeah, that brings me to the last part, which is the anxiety for what comes after the next chapter. As I’ve said, the fic is plotted out pretty heavily, but the two-three chapters after the next one are the part of the fic I have planned out the least in terms of their concrete events. I know the scene that the chapter after next ends on, but I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to fill the first part of it in with beyond the extremely vague ‘need to have a scene with Mokuba and start filling in more foreshadowing before the shit entirely hits the fan’. This isn’t explicitly a problem, per se, because Lotto Ticket has a big cast and there are a lot of threads I can pick up with Mai, Anzu, Shizuka, Honda, Yuugi, the other secretarial staff, etc that will hopefully fill out the pacing gaps in a way that will hopefully be entertaining and insightful, before I get back to the more solidified chapters directly preceding and including the climax of Part 2.

And, mmm, in addition to the anxiety related to chapter planning or lack thereof, there’s also just anxiety about what I’m going to have the characters say, do, and think? Next chapter is going to start dropping some pretty horrible headcanons about Jounouchi’s misogyny and his criminal record that I think should reasonably turn some people away from a fic featuring him as the protag. Following this he will spend a while comparing Seto rather unfavorably to Mai, and I mean that in an extremely intimate relational sense. And while I, as the author, know this is him struggling with his own homophobia and that it’s not meant to reflect negatively in a meta sense on Seto or JouKai, it takes a while before Jounouchi even starts to get over himself. Also, like, I’ve dropped some hints already that Jou and Mai have an open relationship (and that it’s a setup Jou’s not very happy about and kind of considers cheating anyhow). But I think the further progression of the “cheating” as it exists in this fic has the potential to be increasingly upsetting for readers, and it’s also the first of multiple issues regarding Jounouchi not really having a very good understanding of consent. And, finally, although I started the fic with a rather stark and controversial picture of Mokuba, and have since tried really hard to communicate that he is the same kid from canon that loves his brother to death, we have absolutely not reached the worst in his conflict and anger with his brother and I’m sure at least a few people won’t like it. And, mmm, I’m not really willing to compromise any of these things or tone them down. Even the few that aren’t directly baked solid into the plot structure of the fic, even the ones that I’m really not going to be able to frame in such a way that I can address them in detail given Jounouchi’s POV, I think they’re all extremely thematic and pointed towards the story’s idea of the situation Jounouchi grew up in, what he learned from it, and how much is at stake or not at stake, when he tries (or doesn’t try) to escape the poverty and abuse that (at least in part) defined him. But, yeah, idk. Even though I’m decided in that ‘this is the story i’m gonna write and no other’ it’s still anxiety provoking to think about readers being upset with me or dropping the fic even if I think their reasons for doing so would be completely justified - you know what I mean?

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to ramble about writing (or not writing) one of my favourite fics, anon. I hope I’ll be able to get the next chapter out sooner rather than later.

[teamdoesminecraft]

Everything about the pokemon au is perfect... is there lore???

oh you know me of COURSE there’s lore

It’s all kind of tangled together and hard to explain right now, so this post is gonna be a little less narratively-written and a little more expository. but as always, shoutout to @crystalfloe​ for being my partner in crime in developing this!

Some of the Ninetales dex entries say that it “came into being when nine wizards merged into one.” Naturally, we took this and ran with it: you know how illusioners are a sort of “secret mob” in Minecraft that were never actually implemented? Hundreds of years ago, in this lore, nine illusioners (possibly the last of their kind) met together in secret to preserve themselves. After a lengthy process of spellcasting, all of them gave up their physical forms and agency to create a new, pokemon spellcaster: Seto. Seto is his own person, not a conglomerate of nine, and he never really feels that he’s not; sometimes, though, when he argues with himself, it feels like there’s nine voices in his head all with different opinions. Being based on a kitsune and also having access to magic and curses in this AU still, he can shapeshift/illusion himself into a nearly human form-- he can’t/won’t get rid of the tails though, ever.

In these hundreds of years ago, Seto did some travelling, and his illager background eventually brought him to a wooden mansion. He lived there for a while, learning new magic under an evoker, and developing a gradual distaste for most other “humans” because of everything negative the illagers had to say about it. One lone adventurer, though, as they always do, stumbled upon the mansion, and found their way inside. Many illagers were asleep at this point in the night, but Seto wasn’t; he was the one who “greeted” the intruder firsthand. Said intruder wasn’t the nicest person either; they lashed out and tried to grab Seto’s tail to hold him down in a fight.

More Ninetales dex entries will tell you that “grabbing one of its tails will result in a 1,000-year curse on you and your descendants.”

Said adventurer lived and died uneventfully after that, but their descendants bore the burden. Sneaking around at night, looking to steal from illagers, and digging their way through the frostbitten winter woods, the family line was cursed with Weavile aspects; the original adventurer was doomed to slowly become one, even losing their mind in the body. Their bloodline wasn’t quite as unfortunate, but became a version of werewolf; were-weaviles, technically. Looking at too much moonlight at any one time causes them to transform and be mentally “replaced” by a far more animalistic version of themselves.

That’s why SSundee wears his glasses; they block out any excess moonlight. Of course, on the full moon, he has no choice but to close every curtain, because at that point there’s just too much to avoid. SSundee lives a rather quiet life, running a pastry shop in a no-name village, keeping his transformations to a minimum. He somehow inherited the original map that led to the mansion in the first place; he keeps ahold of it just as a reminder to not go there, ever.

SSundee’s got a friend, though, who’s willing to do anything for easy money.

Husky took the map, and ignoring SSun’s protests as just standard-SSun-paranoia, went to find the mansion to dig up any potential treasure there. Once inside, he was pursued by illagers, and fell between the walls; in the darkness, he reached for what he thought was a rope. It wasn’t, of course, and Seto had a whole new curse to lay. Husky had never been a fan of rain, surfing, or even baths as much as showers; Seto thought it would be the funniest thing to ruin the experience for him even more. (do I really gotta specify what pokemon Husky is) Husky’s started down the path of slow transformation, with an extra wrench in the formula; if any part of him gets touched by water, that part takes on more kip-like traits until he dries it. He found out while using SSun’s shower, and blamed it on him like it was some sort of shitty prank; when SSun wasn’t open about what he thought happened, Husky threw the door open.

It was a full moon that night (because of course) and Husky was terrified for a short while (because of course), running as far as he could. SSun, before he lost it, was even more terrified, because as far as he knew Weavile were nothing but predators; he doesn’t know much about Weavile, though, and what he neglected to learn was that Weavile are pack bonders, and that he had already built up a strong friendship with Husky. In summary, Husky spent that night trying to avoid being force-fed dead sandshrew by this terrifying demonic weavile that was also still somehow the mom friend.

BACK TO SETO, he has 1 (one) friend who isn’t an illager: a fellow troublemaking fox. Lox is a lonesome zorua who somehow wormed his way into the mansion (because doesn’t everyone eventually) and learned how to control his illusions by watching Seto in secret. Lox uses these illusions, generally, to fuck with people; it doesn’t help that Seto finds it absolutely hilarious. Eventually, Lox learned to create his own individual human form to cast, and learned sign language; he set out on his own just to explore, planning to find more people to mess with. Lox eventually discovered a small cottage in the woods, and was ready to just completely ruin this person’s day by unveiling that Deep Pokemon Magic--

--but True was, unfortunately, already a pokemon fanatic.

Even disregarding Tepig and Zubat, True tends to a bazillion wild pokemon, all the time, constantly. He’s invested in learning everything he can (scientifically) about how they work, especially their ties back to humans. (True is, in this AU, the one person who would be 1000% on board with being part pokemon, and also the one person who never will be.) When Lox tried to mess with him by impersonating people, True immediately recognized him as a Zorua, and tugged him inside for interrogation. True was relentless in his efforts to understand, poring over books, tests, and learning sign language to communicate with Lox better. Lox eventually mentioned that he didn’t want to be pinned down to one location, and didn’t plan on living forever in True’s little house; True realized this, of course, and waved him off, saying Lox was free to go wherever he wanted. Once away, Lox realized that though he liked the outside, he had enjoyed his time with True almost just as much; now Lox looks for any excuse he has to come back, and pops in from time to time for no reason.

One big excuse to come back, of course, is discovering another human-pokemon anomaly; when Lox saw a man with golden horns quietly using telekinesis to steal a lunch in a market square, he intercepted him and led him all the way back to the cottage. Sky was, understandably, confused and a little distressed; eventually after True sat him down they were able to have an actual conversation.

Sky’s history is (surprise surprise) Mary-Sueish. He’s a shiny hoopa (the only hoopa, so technically nobody knows he’s shiny?), and in this world, all legendaries have the ability to form-shift between pokemon and human. He was created by two other legends-- Notch (Arceus) and Herobrine (Giratina) to assist in preserving/expanding/helping the world. They both act as sort of guides for him in this AU, with neither really being evil or omnipotent. After creating Sky, they realized that while he was powerful, he had no experience in the world; they set him in a mostly-human form and instructed him to travel the world, meeting new people, and understand how humans and pokemon interacted and got along. They also, via a certain amount of magic, prevented him from saying what he or his history was; they didn’t want anyone finding out about the legendary child and trying to kidnap/control him. One notable ability of Sky’s is wish-granting; Hoopa being based on a djinn, we had to give him the magical bullshit. He can only grant one a day, though, in total, and he has plenty of restrictions on them-- no time travel, changing things that already happened, etc, etc. 

While Sky couldn’t tell True any of his actual history, True has been helping him learn more about his abilities and is 100% willing to travel with him anywhere to learn more about him.

SPEAKING OF NOTCH ARCEUS did you know he had a bastard son?? And that son was Xephos? YEAH THATS RIGHT TC/YOGS CROSSOVER AND I DONT GIVE A SHIT

Respawning doesn’t exist in this AU, so the yoglabs complex serves a real purpose via the cloning machines. Xephos doesn’t actually know he has any Arceus genes in him; they’re locked away and not apparent at all. That’s not why we’re looking at yoglabs right now, though: we’re here for Bajan.

Backtracking once again, Bajan grew up in a relatively decent-sized village, watching Wizard of Oz (Poke-Oz?) and absolutely loving the Infernape character. When he was about eight, his village was raided by pillagers; he had to run, as fast and as far as he could. Eventually he stumbled into the mountains, and up to Xephos and Honeydew, who were conducting a relatively boring test compared to normal, and YES i’m saying that Bajan’s gay dads are from the yogscast, nothing matters anymore

Bajan was adopted into the compound and was a very curious and energetic child. So curious and energetic, in fact, that he stole a transformation talisman and used it without calibrating it first; he passed out and was given two weeks to live, with his human DNA in constant conflict with the over-abundance of non-specified Pokemon DNA. Not wanting to support child murder, Xephos developed a particular method that he severely hoped would prevent Bajan from dying; he had Bajan pulled out of his safety-fluid-tank for a few hours so he and Dew could talk to him. They explained the procedure and asked if he had any requests-- Bajan still loved Infernape, so that was the first thing out of his mouth.

In the experiment, of course, they had to use Chimchar DNA to more closely match Bajan’s youth, but the procedure worked; he was given a very specifically calculated transformation talisman to wear to prevent him from becoming unstable again. (He was a little miffed that he had been given the “baby” form, but hey, what could you do.) Bajan lived for the next few years as a poke-human hybrid in the labs, generally being a good, if destructive, kid, practicing his firey abilities. On his birthday, he committed a small act of mischief; he lied to Dew and was able to go outside the labs for the first time since he got there.

Bajan fucken loved the outdoors, because who wouldn’t, and went running around way past his curfew before he got lost. While lost, he stumbled upon an absol-- Jerome had been on the run for as long as he could remember, because of the human superstition of absols causing natural disasters. After enough poking and prodding, Jerome eventually agreed to lead Bajan back to the vault door; on the way back, he locked up and refused to move. Bajan followed his gaze and realized that Jerome had sensed an avalanche before it could even begin-- there was no way they were going to outrun it. Bajan positioned himself between the oncoming snow and his new friend, and put every effort he could think of into spitting out the most powerful flamethrower he ever would--

--and he evolved. Bajan had never realized he could evolve before, and spent the next five minutes in complete and utter glee before yanking Jerome back to the labs to show off his new form and his new friend. The yogs weren’t as excited as he was to bring an absol into a place prone to nuclear disaster; he was grounded for lying, staying out past curfew, and the aforementioned absol-napping; Xephos took a mild amount of pity on Jerome, though, and agreed to test whether or not he was actually the cause of natural disasters. Eventually, when nothing really proved that he was, Jerome was allowed to talk to Bajan again-- at which point Jerome asked Bajan to translate his request to the yogs. 

Jerome had lived his life being unable to enter human society, even as a pet, because of the superstition around absol; seeing Bajan, a healthy and happy human-pokemon hybrid, had give him an idea. As Bajan translated, Jerome himself wanted to be a hybrid, so he could talk and interact with people. Xephos, though skeptical, was never one to turn down a scientific opportunity, and eventually was able to complete the procedure. Armed with a new half-human friend, a newly evolved form, and an advanced understanding of maturity, Bajan approached both Xephos and Dew one night with a request: he wanted to go outside the labs, with Jerome, and explore the world on his own to participate in battles. Eventually, they conceded; Bajan was abso-fucking-lutely ecstatic, and so was Jerome, to be travelling with someone for the first time ever. They currently roam the world as a duo, picking fights and having fun.

The entire team will eventually meet up, either through Sky’s wish-granting, Bajan and Jerome’s roaming, or Lox’s people-hunting; maybe a combination of all three. From then on they can travel the world together, working hand-in-hand to discover new things about each other and help one another as some of the only of their kind in this world.

Xephos, however, still sits in the labs, working on understanding pokemon in a much less communication-based way than True. Every time he re-clones himself, some piece gets lost, sending his mind into a darker spiral... it’s only a matter of time before he discovers his locked Arceus genes, and uses them in a way he definitely never should have.

[shctteredillusions]

This time I'd go with Hades, Seto, and Alayna

The Muses in an Otome Game [ @for-a-prxce ] Accepting, under read more because length

Hades would be a ridiculously long route in so many ways. Considering the fact that he is actually the Hades, that comes with its own full set of issues and hurdles because even when it comes to other immortals, he’s still likely to outlive them when taking into consideration that he can literally only die at the hands of another god and ha, like anyone really wants to take him on anyway. And almost every single god, other than very few exceptions, he isn’t the slightest bit interested in interacting with them. His route would start most likely with a simple conversation, half of what you say will end up confusing him. Don’t be a smartass to him, don’t ever, ever disrespect him or Lyrica, don’t flirt with him, just be straight with him. Honesty earns higher points than most other things and especially if you’re patient with him. 

Answer his questions with practical answers, don’t beat around the bush or sugarcoat things. Never ask about the other gods, that’s a quick way to have him dismiss you. He hates talking about them especially Zeus. With his route comes surprise visits from Lyrica which will mostly only end badly for you because she’s extremely protective of him and will not like most who try. Lyrica herself will be one hell of a tough hurdle and you won’t get anywhere if you can’t earn her trust and approval because she means the world to Hades and he won’t be with someone his little girl doesn’t like. 

If you manage to get Lyrica on your side (good luck man, phew), then there’s getting him to even see someone in that light since flirting is yet another way to be dismissed by him, but keeping things strictly platonic won’t likely go anywhere either. Patience is key here, I can’t say that enough. There are literally no right answers for him, mostly just ones that aren’t bad and then the bad ones. The average end that most will end up with is him just being friends with you. Good end, you earn both his and Lyrica’s trust, you spent this incredible amount of time with him and somehow manage to get him to look at you that way (again, good luck), then you’d have even more issues with him rarely ever being able to leave the Underworld on top of him still being unable to tell you most of his secrets, half the palace would be off-limits and a lot of the Underworld too but he is very capable of making someone happy. 

The best ways to increase his affection are basically already stated. Patience, honesty, and treating Lyrica good. Actually, the most endearing thing to him is when someone is good to Lyrica, especially if they act almost motherly towards her. That’s likely the fastest way to earn his heart. He loves plays, shows, operas, nice romantic little dinners, and overall, very old fashioned types of courting. He’s an old fashioned kind of god so anything too modern will totally throw him off. It’s best if the other person understands more of the human world than him so that they can teach him the things he’s missed out on all these centuries.

When he’s in that place, he has this innocently sweet charm that comes naturally to him and he will want to take care of and spoil anyone he cares for. You’ll have adopted a daughter that after you’ve won her over, will love you just as fiercely as she does Hades and will have granted yourself an eternity of happiness with the god. Bad end… you say or do something wrong and he simply dismisses you and never lets you come back around again. Either that or Lyr never warms up to you and she herself basically throws you away or even worse, kills you herself. Really bad end? You earn his wrath and he kills you as punishment then punishes you in neverending torment in the Underworld. Good luck!

Seto’s route would be… hm, to be honest, I’m not completely sure. I don’t think he’d really be that tough, mostly just because of the things he has to deal with, I think he’ll be another that takes time. Kimi and his mother take most of his time and attention, he won’t be all that much there during it and then there’s the grief when his mother does die and then having to chase after his sister. I’ve tried to run a few different scenarios in my head for him and I still can’t really figure out what he’d take to well enough. Like, flirting I think he’s a bit like Emil and kinda like “wait, are you talking to me,” sort of deal because he’s lived a rather sheltered life considering who his father was so he’s not used to the attention very much. 

I’m thinking coming at him without the intention of something more is best. I think he’d like someone who is simple, someone he can hold a conversation with. He isn’t the best at it so I think when he finds someone he can talk so easily with, that will be the first “oh wow” moment for him. He himself doesn’t really flirt, at least not right off the bat. Even though he isn’t used to things like flirting or a lot of compliments, he’s not easily flustered either. He’s more of the type that just rolls with the punches and doesn’t let most things to him. He definitely can appreciate someone’s strength, physical, emotional, or mentally. And he also isn’t down for temporary things, if he can see right from the beginning you just want to sleep with him or have no actual future figured out for yourself, he’s likely not going to give you the time of day. He likes seeing someone who’s got it together for the most part.

Perhaps having long and possibly deep conversations with him would be best once you’ve gotten past that initial awkwardness. Bonus points if the person is funny, he enjoys a good joke or two. Eventually, they’ll have to endure some visits with Kimi who other than her anger towards Shiori for what happened to Kaito, is overall a decent woman and so long as the person on his route is a good person, it won’t be that hard to get her approval. Though really, Seto likely wouldn’t feel the need for it anyway when he considers what Kimi did without his approval. So basically, win his affection with stimulating conversation, a good heart, and overall kindness and strength. 

That pretty much sums up what I’ve got so far, maybe as I get the chance to use him more I’ll figure out more. Good end is that you win his heart and you’ll have yourself a very caring, loyal and affectionate boyfriend who totally has the image of a future with a couple of kids in his head. He’s not afraid to come out with what he feels so when he does like you, he’ll straight up tell you and so on for all that comes later. Bad end isn’t really bad, just he decides you’re not suited for him and he moves on.

Alayna is another who needs a lot of patience. Not nearly as much as Hades but still. Granted, she is the type to be able to acknowledge a pretty face when she sees one, it’s more of a very impersonal sort of manner about it. Working through her awkwardness and constantly flustered state will be the biggest challenge. Though she isn’t self-conscious, she does write off most compliments given to her as the person just being kind and flirting with her just ends up with her far too flustered to be able to deal. The best way to get to the good end with her is to be calm, be patient and just keep trying. 

Getting a wrong answer for her is hard because, for the most part, she appreciates all input given to her so long as it’s not something rude and obviously a bad choice. Treat her with respect, be a good person, don’t let the fact that she people-watches and will likely study you get to you. You’ll have periods where she just kinda disappears and if you’ve gotten far enough you’ll be able to find her in her apartment in the zone when it comes to her writing. If you come across her like this, simply taking care of her without much interruption is the best thing for her. Food, drinks, a blanket or move her when she falls asleep (she will fall asleep right at her desk and half the time end up on the floor), all good ways to score points with her. 

She prefers a gentle soul, deep conversation and the other must definitely have an interest in reading. She will love discussing books she’s read and if you share the same interest or have the same books you’ve read, she’ll take to you far quicker. A way to lose points would be spending too much money on or around her, flirting too much, or someone with a big ego. She was raised with wealth, is still a rich heiress even though you wouldn’t know just by looking at her, so money isn’t something she’s worried about and if you go crazy on it, she’ll likely think you’re trying to buy her affection and that will end badly. Flirting too much, again, makes it too hard for her to actually interact with someone and she will likely end up avoiding you if you do. Big egos actually piss her off, she really doesn’t believe that any one person is as amazing as their ego leaves them to believe and that everyone has flaws. Coming at her as if you’re the best thing since sliced bread will have her knocking you off your high horse and then ditching. 

Bonus points can be earned with walks on the beach, strolls at night, reading together, actually showing interest in her work, never treating her any differently once you find out she’s a famous author and a rich heiress, and a love for animals. Good end, you land yourself the cutest little flustered girlfriend who’s a total sap once in a relationship and comfortable. Bad end, she ditches you, you end up getting knocked down a peg, slapped and then ditched. The moderate end is just friends which is surprisingly less likely to happen than the bad end.

Basically, win her affection with a love of reading, a shared interest in genre, reading together, nice walks in less crowded places, a gentle heart, a love of animals, taking care of her when she’s not paying attention to herself. Encouraging her is good too, she may blush or get flustered if you speak of her writing but she hears you, that she definitely does and she can’t see herself with someone who doesn’t believe in her and her ability to write. That’s about all I have for her so far since she too is relatively new.

[peachy-kun]

GX AU Judai Backstory Drabble, Part 1 (aka I Hate Titles)

PG, focused on Judai Yuki right before entering Duel Academia, contains one (1) OC father

hhhhhhhakjsldkfjl so over the years I’ve dabbled in writing random things but never posted anything, anywhere, ever because a) I never finish anything and b) who’d want to read that garbage anyway h a hA

But I’ve been poking at this one for a while now, and I finally just figured why the hell not. It’s a small thing about Judai’s backstory, which is based on the GX AU that @jenasu and I are currently writing/getting destroyed by. It’s a decidedly different backstory for him, but it ties into major AU plot points etc etc. This is only the first half of it, hopefully I’ll finish the other half.........

Some small things to note:

Judai already has had Winged Kuriboh as a spirit friend since he was a babs

This is actually true of Japan, but there are high school entry exams, usually on the same day, and as such most students cram and study to get into one high school of their choice, it’s difficult to try and apply for multiple high schools. But high school isn’t actually mandatory.

I hope this is at least somewhat enjoyable, and please let me know if I should add any tags to this!

                                                        ======

Judai clutched the large envelope in his hands with nervous excitement as he quickly walked down the sidewalk back home. He could still barely believe he had the packet at all; silently, he thanked his teacher for having listened to his wishes and acquired it for him. Glancing down, his eyes sparkled as he looked at the emblem printed on the front, comprising of a large, stylized “DA” - Duel Academia.

His mind was already made up. The exams were only a few weeks away, but Judai was sure he’d manage. The only thing twisting a knot in his insides at the moment, however, was bringing it up to his dad…

“Kuri…?”

Judai looked over to see Winged Kuriboh hovering beside him, concern in his large eyes. He gave him a small, reassuring grin.

“Don’t worry, Aibou! I’m fine!” He could tell his best friend was hardly convinced. When they were so closely connected, it was almost impossible to hide how he was really feeling. Giving a small nuzzle, Winged Kuriboh perched himself lightly on Judai’s shoulder. He wouldn’t lie; it was comforting.

Adjusting his other hand’s grip on the bag of bento he bought for tonight’s dinner, Judai continued down the street until he came to a decently-sized apartment building. He shuffled up the steps, fumbling with his keys slightly, before unlocking one of the doors and entering.

The living room was quiet, with the light of the setting sun starting to filter in through the parted curtains. Judai carefully placed the contents of his bag in the fridge, before unceremoniously plopping himself onto the couch. Eagerly yet carefully, he opened the envelope, and poured over the papers inside. It would be a little while longer until his dad came home. He wanted to be ready.

                                                    ======

"So...you spoke with the school counselor today about high school options, right...?"

The question from Keisuke abruptly cut through the usual silence at the dining table. Judai knew he would bring the subject up, but the suspense had been eating away at his stomach for a while now.

"...Yeah." He hoped his dad didn't catch any of the nerves he tried to stamp out of his response.

Keisuke continued to skim the newspaper he held in one hand for a moment, before finally placing it down on the table and turning his gaze towards Judai with a vague smile.

"I know it seems daunting, but the high school I went to weighs heavily in your exam's favor. As long as you do well there, they won't mind so much about your grades." He'd lost count of how many times his dad tried to reassure him this way. Judai was sure that in his mind, the future was obvious. He'd attend the same high school, then the same university as himself, before ending up at the same company. It was so clear cut for him, Judai wasn't sure if he'd even considered any other possibility.

"I'm sure your teacher can recommend a good cram school to attend." Keisuke continued, though he had already returned to his newspaper. "It'll be stressful for a few months, but I'm sure you'll be fine."

"...Actually, Dad...?" Judai said hesitantly. He gripped his hand under the table tightly, willing his voice to stay even. "...There's another high school I wanna try the exam for."

There was a small pause, though it felt like a suffocating eon. His father then turned a raised eyebrow at him.

"Another high school...?" He couldn't read the expression, but Judai was sure he was already skeptical.

"Y-Yeah...!" He tried to push as much assertiveness into his tone as he could muster. "It's a private school, but if I do well on the exams, I can get a scholarship, so it won't be expensive...!"

"...What's the name of this place?"

Mentally, Judai took a deep breath before responding. "Duel Academia-"

“Absolutely not.” The sudden hard-edged response felt like a bucket of ice water in Judai’s face. Keisuke’s expression had changed to a look of quiet disapproval that was all too familiar at this point. “Judai, I thought we had already discussed this matter.”

“I-If you’re worried about me passing, the exams won’t overlap…!” Even if he knew that wasn’t the reason for his dad’s objection, Judai felt compelled to continue, in the vague hope that the argument he had rehearsed in his mind would move him in some way. “I can still take the other exam if I don’t-”

“You’re not going to any school associated with that game…!” There was a note of finality within Keisuke’s slightly raised voice. “You won’t make a future for yourself at such a place!”

Judai could feel his ears heat up, his desperation instantly changing to a frustrated defiance. He dug his nails into his leg, in a vain attempt to keep himself calm.

“…Mom wouldn’t say that…” The words spilled out before he could stop himself. He was never good at hiding his emotions either way. But despite the minefield Judai knew he just stepped in, he couldn’t back down. Not on this.

“Judai…!!” Anger rumbled underneath his father’s voice, as he leveled Judai with a steely glare. Stopping an involuntary flinch, he gritted his teeth, finally looking up to meet it with a glare of his own.

“You could at least give me the chance! You don’t even try to ask me what I wanna do with my own life!!” He continued. “I know I can be a great Duelist like Mom!!"

With some force, Keisuke tossed the paper in his hand onto the table.

"And what did that do for her? Nothing!!" Judai could hear the bitter edge seep into his father's every word. "I won't have you falling into the same trap as Sayori did! You're not taking that exam, and I won't hear otherwise...!"

Judai looked away, desperately trying to stop his own anger from breaking out. He couldn't say he didn't expect this. He had hoped that for once, however, his dad would stop and actually listen to him. Instead of acting like his mom was gone forever. Instead of blaming everything that made her, that made Judai who they were, for why she wasn't here now.

"...I can take any exam I want." The shake of emotion in his tone was clear even to himself. "And if I pass, I'm gonna go. I've got a right to make my own decisions...!"

A prickling tension hung in the air in the ensuing short silence.

"...Then," Keisuke started with a quiet fury, "then since it seems you believe you're old enough to be responsible for yourself, I assume you won't be needing any of my help paying for the tuition if you decide to go to that school."

Judai snapped his head back to stare at his father, speechless. While Duel Academia wasn't the worst by far compared to some other private schools, it was still a prestigious academy founded by Seto Kaiba, and the tuition reflected that accordingly. Unless he did exceptionally well during the entrance exam and won their best scholarship, there was no possible way he could afford it.

"T-That's not..." Judai stammered weakly. He felt as if the floor was giving out from under him.

"Fair?" The bitter bite had returned more forcefully in Keisuke's tone. "How is it fair then, that I would have to sink money into something that would merely put you in a dead-end?! As long as you're living in this house and under my care, Judai, I expect you to listen to me and the rules that I've set!"

Picking up the slightly crumpled newspaper, Keisuke leveled him with one last pointed look. "This is the end of this discussion. You had better make sure you have plans for a cram school soon."

Despite himself, Judai could feel a stinging sensation well up in the corner of his eyes. With a light clatter, he abruptly stood from his chair.

"...I'm done..." he barely managed to mumble out, before hastily leaving the table, and his unfinished dinner, behind. He couldn't care less about his dad calling out to his retreating back. Face burning up, Judai simply wanted to be out of the room before he lost his composure completely.

The hot tears had already started rolling down his cheeks by the time he collapsed onto his bed. Trying to muffle a sob, he buried himself into his pillow, but it did little good to stem the flow. His father's ultimatum felt like a crushing weight on his heart.

How had things gotten to this point...? Judai remembered a time when his Dad supported his Mom entering tournaments, even took him to see them occasionally. He couldn't understand - why was it so wrong now for him to look up to her as a Duelist, to want to follow in her footsteps?  It was as if his Dad had left her for dead, and wanted to forget anything to do with her completely. The thought made his blood boil.

Slowly, his sobs quieted, until a heavy silence fell in his dark room. Judai rolled onto his back, in order to stare blankly up at the ceiling.

"Kuri kuri..." A sad voice drifted down from the darkness, before he felt soft fur nestle into the side of his face. Wrapping his arms gently around Winged Kuriboh, Judai pulled his friend as close as he could to himself.

"...I can't give up, Aibou..." He finally whispered, voice still heavy with emotion. "I'll become a great Duelist...and find Mom out there somewhere...!"

A long silence passed, before Judai finally sat up, and turned on his desk lamp. Once more, he looked over the papers he had acquired earlier that day with an even greater focus.

He wouldn't let go of this chance. If there was any possible way for him to enter Duel Academia, he was going to take it, no matter what his dad said...!

[rainstormcolors]

A post that will only be of interest to maybe like two of my mutuals, but whatever, I want to write it. It’s a summary of the garbage Azureshipping fic I wrote many many years ago, while the dubbed Yu-Gi-Oh! anime was still airing. I included some excerpts from this story as well, though I’ve already shared them with a few of you. This story was never given a title, was never given an ending, is 350 handwritten pages long, and is crap. But I’m very fond of it even still. (BTW, this summary is very -very- streamlined. The work as a whole is a pure mess.)

Kaiba Corporation mysteriously goes under, and Seto and Mokuba are left penniless. I didn’t bother to going into detail regarding this, but it’s implied dark forces are at work. In the meantime, the brothers scrape by, living in a shabby apartment, and Seto seems to have given up. Yugi and Tea visit the brothers and Yugi offers to give them money, to which Seto’s attitude is, “Piss off! I don’t want your charity!” but as Seto’s turned away, Mokuba snatches the money from Yugi’s hand and whispers, “Thank you.” Meanwhile, in his dreams, Mokuba sees strange fragments of the past and the future.

Seto is deemed an incompetent parent to Mokuba by social services and Mokuba is taken away, but Mokuba runs away from the agency and takes to living on the streets for a string of days. A new Duel Monsters tournament is being held in a nearby city and Seto enters, hoping to win the grand cash prize, and is full of misery. Joey and Mai also enter this tournament. Seto and Joey duel, the two exchanging insults, but Seto wins and he proceeds to the finals. (I should mention I didn’t actually write any of the duels in this story. The moves are kept vague.) The final game is between Seto and Mai. Joey’s still unhappy about losing to Kaiba, meanwhile Yugi, “Yami,” and Tea watch the duel silently and uncomfortably. Tea then sees Mokuba in the crowd, watching his brother, and so in that moment she begins to cheer for Seto. Seto wins the duel and Mai doesn’t really seem to mind at all. But Seto isn’t given the prize money, because the tournament’s host has a grudge against Kaiba Corporation. (I don’t give any details for why.) And Mokuba vanishes, remaining hidden in the streets.

That night however, the Millennium Ring takes on a life of its own and teleports onto Mokuba’s body, and Yami Bakura’s energy possesses him. (I was making the Millennium Ring possess random people before DSoD made it cool!) Possessed Mokuba goes to the hotel Yugi and co. are staying in and he steals the Millennium Items, Joey’s deck and duel disk, and Tea’s cellphone, but Yugi and Tea catch him in the act. Possessed Mokuba races off into the night with the pair of friends in tow, when suddenly a man in a truck snatches up Mokuba (such an original plot point) and the Items from the street. The man rushes to an airplane held at the edge of the city, drives the truck into its cargo bay, and it flies off towards Egypt.

At some point around this part I decided this was going to be an Azure romance. While I realized the woman in Seto’s vision during his duel with Isis was far and away most likely not going to actually be Tea, I decided to give Tea a vision of that moment with the implication it’s her.

After finding him, Tea tells Kaiba what’s happened and he’s infuriated. Tea tells him to try tracking her cellphone and he does (just somehow), and they pinpoint his brother’s location in Egypt. Tea has enough money for two plane tickets, and while Seto isn’t happy about it, he needs to rescue Mokuba of course, and so she and Seto go together as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Yugi, Joey, and Tristan explain the situation to Mai and she decides to front the money for the four of them to fly to Egypt on another later flight.

Mokuba is still possessed by Yami Bakura as he’s brought to an underground temple in a secluded corner of Egypt. There are three siblings, who I make it clear care very much about each other: the oldest brother, the middle child who is the head of the group—a woman with short purple hair and wearing a black dress, and the youngest sister who has brilliant red hair and is in white robes. (I was ripping off the Ishtar siblings as villains before DSoD made it cool!) (I’ll also note it doesn’t seem they caused the collapse of Kaiba Corporation from earlier.) I wrote this story before the Millennium Scale was revealed in the anime, and it’s the Big McGuffin here. The siblings are the protectors of the Scale, which is said to be the most dangerous of the Millennium Items. The Scale is welded to a stone and only the chosen one may remove it, King-Arthur-and-the-Sword-style. There’s a prophecy inscribed in the temple walls, which states in part that the wielder of the Millennium Scale will become a vessel to filter evil from the Shadow Realm into the mortal world, and the siblings believe Mokuba is the chosen bearer of the Scale. Yami Bakura is gleeful at the chance to take hold of another Millennium Item but his spirit is unable to budge it, and touching the Scale ejects his grasp over Mokuba’s body. None the less, the siblings jump to the conclusion that they were mistaken, this boy is much too young to be the bearer anyway, and that it must be the older Kaiba brother who is the chosen one instead. Despite being the villains who kidnapped him, the trio are actually fairly hospitable to Mokuba. The middle sister is grouchy about how things have gone, though she’s happy to keep the Millennium Items for herself, and she has the friendly and pretty youngest sister (who is Mokuba’s age at that) take Mokuba into town in the morning.

Tea and Seto arrive at Egypt together and head to the place they’ve pinpointed, and in the town they find Mokuba waiting, and he and Seto have their sweet warm reunion at last. But tensions are high. Tea and Mokuba decide they need to get the Millennium Items back, and Seto agrees begrudgingly after Mokuba confronts him with, “How is it better?! What’s happened to you? You don’t care about anything anymore. […] If you go home I’ll come, but if you care, then help Tea get that stuff back.” Mokuba leads them to the temple in the nighttime and they sneak inside. They grab the collection of Items, but before they go, Mokuba finds himself strangely drawn to the Millennium Scale. It’s as if there’s a magical tug, and he goes to it and nudges it, whispering, “It is me…” before Tea and Seto call him to leave.

(Stuff gets really convoluted at this part and I’m really streamlining it here.) As they escape, Tea loses her sandals. There’s a confrontation with the trio of siblings, and soon Tea and Seto only have the Millennium Rod as all the other Items are stolen back, and the purple-haired woman challenges Mokuba to a duel for some weirdo reason, summoning the Shadow Realm as a test or something. Mokuba duels using Joey’s deck and duel disk but flounders. Tea shouts for Yugi, and with this, thousands of miles away, Yami realizes the others are in trouble. But as Mokuba’s about to lose, Seto uses the Millennium Rod to shatter the Shadow Realm, and so Mokuba’s soul is safe. Seto, Tea, and Mokuba steal the siblings’ car (noticeably not the truck; I don’t know what happened to the truck or airplane) and drive off, back towards the town.

Shadi appears to Mokuba in a vision spouting lofty nonsense about destiny at some point.

At nightfall, Tea and Seto have this embarrassingly written romantic moment:

[from pages 206 to 211; it’s goofy and bad and overwritten and so so so woobified]

““Oof!” she groaned w/ a loud thud, Tea had rolled off her bed onto the floor. There was no difference from when Tea had her eyes shut and when she had her eyes open, it was darker than the pitchest of blacks. “Hrmm,” she groaned rubbing her eyes, she was still very sleepy. As her eyes slowly adjusted, she could see an extremely dim light barely visible to the human eye seeping through the cracks of the flap hung over the back entryway as a tacky, cheap cover. Tea pushed up against the side of her invisible bed to help her stand and from there she felt her way round the tiny room, pushed through the flimsy flap to the outside world which left her totally breathless.

It was beautiful, the sky was speckled w/ what seemed like a trillion stars. Tea had never seen so many stars in her life. Back in Domino City, the bright lights almost always left the nightscape completely starless. Now that she was out in the middle of nowhere there wasn’t a single light source to fade the sky and everything from up in the heavens shown through, and she could see to the edge of the universe. Then Tea saw a dark figure radiating a faint silvery lining. It was Seto, staring off into the unknown. Seto didn’t seem the type to enjoy something as simple yet precious as stars, but this didn’t surprise Tea. There had been enough hints of his fascination w/ the sky. From how he held his tournament on a blimp and a high up tower, to him simply peering out the window as they flew here. Even his favorite duel monster could fly far up into the atmosphere.

She walked over and stood next to him. They didn’t look at each other, they didn’t say anything, there was absolute quiet, but the quiet didn’t bother Tea this time. The 2 just stared off into the silvery-blue desert silently. There was a gentle breeze, a soft whirling sound pierced the air.

“Why are you up?” Seto finally said in a tender voice, his eyes still fixed up to the moonless starscape.

“hmm, oh, I fell off my bed,” Tea quietly replied, “and why are you still up? We found Mokuba and you’ve been awake for several days straight.”

“more like a month”

“A month? You haven’t been to sleep for a month? Is that even physically possible?”

“Unless you count me passing out, yes.”

“Why?” He didn’t say anything, he shut his eyes like he was trying to sleep standing up. Tea looked at him, he was so broken. “Seto? Erk- I mean Kaiba!” she shook her head trying to snap some common sense into herself, “Sorry, I’ve been hanging w/ Mokuba too much and I’m starting to talk like him.” Why do I keep calling Kaiba Seto? I-

“Tea, Seto’s my name,” he reopened his eyes slowly, “you’re suppost to call people by their name. I never got why you and your pals call me Kaiba.”

“Well that is your last name,” she pointed out to him.

“My adopted last name. The name of my evil, wicked stepfather. Don’t even have the company anymore.”

Seto’s stepfather, a topic his mind seemed hopelessly stuck on. It haunted him in ways no one else could ever really understand, as icy essence that would always linger in the back of his thoughts. He was a little boy, the forgotten boy lost in time, forever running from this tangled fear, forever trapped in this endless chase, too afraid to stop and be devoured by this monster locked inside his frigid heart. Too afraid to even look back.

“You really don’t like your past, do you?”

His eyes were hollow and lifeless. Seto slowly rocked his head back and forth, lost somewhere in a numbing trance.

“Was it really that bad for you? I mean if that creep hadn’t adopted you, you never would of…” Tea stopped herself. Since he no longer held the position of president for Kaiba Corp, all the good had been sucked away from his adoption.

“It depends whether you value youth or not. Guess I did. But I just have to put all that behind me.”

“You mean forget?”

“It’s nice for your little friends to spit at me for that, especially when they have no idea what it was like.”

“You’ll never forget trying to forget, because in trying to forget you’ll remember and it will always be there. Don’t try and forget, try and let go,” Tea explained. Seto remained stuck in his daze. “So do you not like being called Kaiba? Besides Mokuba, and me too I guess, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody call you by anything else.”

“It was alright when I owned Kaiba Corp, it was one of my accomplishments, earning that name. But now it shows my failure.”

“If it bothered you so much, why didn’t you tell us?”

“What ever.”

“Ah. Well anyway, why can’t you sleep?” she asked getting back to the point, returning the conversation’s personality back to quiet and mellow.

“I just can’t, I lost my company, I lost Mokuba,” he explained to her.

“Stressed out then?”

“I’m a failure, a throwaway…”

This was not the Seto Tea grew to know, before all this rained down on him, Seto was always going on how much more superior he was to the others, now he was ranting how much more worthless he was. “Oh come now, you’re not a failure. Your company was stolen, I know you don’t believe in magic, but it was some ancient magic power that did this. You’d only be a failure if it was actually your fault, and it’s not. You’re really smart and skilled, I’m sure you’ll eventually bounce back. We’ll fix this. You know what they say, when you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up.”

“And you fall right back down,” he grumbled.

Tea was not getting through to this guy, “What do you mean?”

“What do you care? This is only going to result in one of your long, annoying speeches like it always does.”

“It does not.”

“Oh yes it does. You don’t even know the half of it.”

“Tell you what, if I promise to not say a single thing will you tell me?” she coaxed trying to come to a compromise.

He hesitated, feeling Tea’s waiting gaze upon him. “Look at my life, it’s a disaster, it just goes up and down, up and down, it never stops.” Seto quivered a little as he spoke, “Everytime I think things are starting to look good, I plumbit back down. My and Mokuba’s parents died, our remaining relatives stole our inheritance and then just dumped us off at an orphanage and no one cared for us. I tricked a rich CEO into adopting us and I thought things might change, but he turned out to be a heartless, dictating snake, so I overthrew him and took control of his company. Things were okay for a while, and now this! I have nothing, everyone hates me! My life has been ripped to shreds!”

Tea looked at him, she had never heard Seto talk so openly. His eyes looked so sad. She had known a little about Seto’s rugged past, but for some reason hearing it made her finally understand Seto’s bitterness, his distrust for people. “Everyone does not hate you, what about Mokuba? He doesn’t hate you.”

“Yes he does. And I can’t blame him. I’m a horrible person…”

“He just wishes you’d be more light hearted, try having fun. I mean, why aren’t you ever happy? Try smiling every once in a while.”

“Yes, I should try smiling, who cares how I actually feel? I should just pretend to be happy and smile, even if I’m dead inside, cause as long as I’m smiling everything’s alright.”

Tea thought about that for a second. “Are you really always that unhappy?”

“Speech, Tea. This is turning into a speech.”

“Well I can’t help it, you’re ranting on about how tenuous a life you have, and maybe you’re right, but you’re afraid of your past, you’re afraid of your future, I strongly doubt you like your current position, what is it you want? What would have to happen to make you happy?”

He finally turned to look at her, his deep blue eyes reflecting the dazzling stars. Tea felt a bizzar pull to him, like some force was bringing them together, it was weirding her out. Just a week ago the thought of talking to Seto left a foul taste in her mouth, she had been beating herself up for dragging herself here w/ him. But not anymore, instead of talking at him, she was talking to him, she could see the world through his eyes, everything had changed.

“You promised you wouldn’t say anything,” he gently said.

“Sorry, I forgot,” she whispered back. The 2’s personalities were an absolute contrast, there was no chance of ever hitting common ground, Tea was a jovial, kind-hearted girl, Seto was a bitter, withdrawn boy who lost his place. Still, there was a strong connection between them as they gazed back up into the star-frosted heavens, absorbing it’s pale silver glow.”

That same night, Yugi, Yami, Joey, Tristan, and Mai arrive in Egypt.

In the morning, Seto gives Tea his shoes, and she, he, and Mokuba have a “day of fun” in the town since they don’t know how they’ll get home yet. Seto plays a casual duel with Tea as if it was a lesson. Seto and Mokuba go off together and leave her alone for a bit as well. Later, sitting and watching the sunset together, Seto finally falls asleep and he slumps gently against Tea.

Then Tea’s friends find them and it’s all bustle and explaining things. They decide they’ll make another attempt to re-capture the Millennium Items because this shit is dangerous. Seto leaves them. When Tea meets him later, he pulls out the Millennium Rod from under the bed and asks her why she didn’t tell her friends about it, and she tells him it’s his. He forces it into her hands but she holds it back out to him. Seto then places his hand over hers on the Rod and bends down to her but she stumbles back, saying she should be getting back to the others now, and he lets her go.

Tea, Yugi, Yami, and Mokuba go to the temple and approach the Scale on the stone together (apparently the sibling villains are really really incompetent at guarding it). Tea guesses that Yami is the chosen one and he steps forward, but something feels wrong and evil, and Mokuba begins to see things and is able to read the scripture on the walls. Tea tries to comfort him. Then the purple-haired woman confronts them. She tells the group it’s one of the Pharaoh’s rivals who can pick up the Scale, and Mokuba feels confused as he hears this. She gives them the Ring as a peace offering. She offers to return the Millennium Necklace to them if they would be so kind as to bring Seto Kaiba to her to activate the Scale.

Tea and Yami aren’t sure what to do next, but as they leave with the Ring they find Seto standing outside the temple. As it should turn out, some kind of hallucinatory vision had carried him along with them and he’s just as confused as they are. They tell him about the situation. Mokuba, knowing he’s the only one who can remove the Scale and wanting to put an end to all this, tells Seto to try it. Seto does and is able to lift it with ease, and Mokuba is shocked. (The idea is Mokuba’s nudge was enough to free it, but he didn’t realize that.) The purple-haired woman is ecstatic, reveals that there’s dark magic inside the Item, and she challenges Seto to a duel to claim the Item’s powers. The youngest sister goes to Mokuba’s side. The woman and Seto duel, everyone watching, and Seto wins.

And so Yugi, Yami, Seto, Mokuba, and Tea leave with all the Items in their possession, but Yami and Tea are very concerned. They return to the others, and Mokuba is disturbed as things are explained and considered.

Here’s another excerpt:

[from pages 305 to 316; bad bad bad and overwritten and woobified again, now with terrible melodrama]

“Seto leaned over the sink in the inn’s bathroom. It’s edges were lined with scuz and sludge ringed the foucet, it’s handle was very loose. There was a shower, but it didn’t work. Washing his hair in the sink had grown used to him. He had done it back when he and his brother were living in that broken down apartment of deferred dreams and causes, and at the airport in London while waiting for his and Tea’s plane to arrive, but being without soap he couldn’t get it too clean. He wished the water was colder.

“Seto, are you OK?” Mokuba asked him standing in the restroom’s doorway.

He didn’t look up, “Why?” he said through the dribbling sound of running water.

“Because the girl you decided to f-“

“Mokuba, please.”

“Sorry,” his eyes shifted to the millinium scale that had carelessly been laid on the floor, “Heads up, Joey and Tristan might try to steal that from you.”

“Steal what?”

“The millinium scale, for some reason they seem to think it’ll make you go crazy or something.”

“Idiots. And let me guess, Tea-“

“Did nothing. Talk to her already, or do you want me to do it for you?”

Seto finally pulled his head out from under the grummy, near-broken sink. “Mokuba, you’re not helping,” he said as he squeezed the water out of his tangled hair with his fingers. Then he picked the polished scale off the floor. “See, this is why I don’t make friends,” he grumbled, “I knew this would happen.”

“Seto, you can’t just give up, that’s so unlike you.”

“She’s made her choice, let it be.” He walked out of the restroom, his hair damp and spirit low, “I have nothing, I don’t deserve her care.”

Mokuba stared blinklessly at his brother a bit horrified at what he was saying. Seto walked away and disappeared down the sliver of a hallway.

Hours were swept away never to be retrieve or re-lived again. The brief sandstorm had passed away a short while after noon broke, and the gang would of probably started to head to a city and airport so they could set their sights on home, but w/ this idea an ugly problem showed it’s face. Not even half of them could fit into that pathetic car to transport them anywhere, so for the moment they were stuck.

“OK, here’s my plan,” Tristan announced.

“If it involves leaving Seto and I stranded here…”

“First off, no it doesn’t,” he replied to Mokuba. Everyone was sitting outside in a ring formation, discussing ideas and ways to tackle this issue, everyone except Seto. He was off leaning against the side of a building feeling feverish and soaking in his aloofness. “Tea, did you ever get your cell phone back?” Tristan continued on.

“Umm,” Tea reached into the shallow pocket of her brilliant apple red skirt with grey, yellow, and forest green cross hatching, “yeah, why?” she said as she felt it’s hard, plastic surface.

“Cause we can call someone up then to come and pick us up or drop off another car or something.”

“And who do you propose we call Tristan?” Mai said.

“I dunno, anyone.”

“Yo, Kaiba! Do you have any ideas?” Joey yelled over at Seto, who was nodding off, “Hey, wake up! It’s not night time yet!”

“You always have to find some way to make a nussence of yourself Wheeler, don’t you?” he said, “figure something out for yourself for once.” Seto pushed off the building and walked away wishing not to be bothered anymore.

“Fine! We don’t need your help!” Joey barked at him as he left.

Tea watched as he turned into the building. “Ahh, I have to go to the bathroom.” She hopped to her feet and followed Seto’s footprints that he left in the pale, colorless sand. Mokuba crossed his fingers.

Unaware of the fact Tea had followed him, Seto let himself fall limp onto one of the beds, his worn out body, as weak and tired as it was, had reached it’s limit. How he could stay as perky as he’s been he’d never figure out. He heard someone else enter the room. “Tea?” his heart lifted a bit.

“Um, yeah, Kaiba, where’d you put the millinium rod? Cause the thing of it is-“

*Clank* Seto had quickly pulled it out from under the bed and threw it bitterly against the wall. The loud sound it made as it clashed against the wall made Tea flinch, she hadn’t expected him to throw it. He didn’t throw it at her, in fact he had thrown it at the opposite end of the room from which she stood, sending a strong message.

“Take it,” he spat.

She glared at him for a second, then moved over to pick it up. Right now she didn’t know how the rod’s magic might affect Seto, and it was Yugi’s. It was wrong for her to have handed it over to him to begin w/.

“Tea?” Seto said, his voice had calmed down and now came off as tender.

But Tea ignored him and went back outside. The second she passed through the cloth flap though she stopped and looked down into the millinium rod held in her grasp. What had she just done? Part of her wanted to run back immediately into the room and return it to him. No, she couldn’t do that, what was wrong w/ her? She wished it would just disappear right out of her hand.

“Tea? You took it back?”

Tea shot her head up. There Mokuba stood before her, his glassy, oversized eyes reflecting the deep navy sky painted over w/ pale pink clouds.

“Huh, oh, well it’s Yugi’s,” she said.

“You’re taking it back because you’re afraid he’s evil aren’t you?”

“No, it wasn’t mine to give away to begin with. I’m taking it back because it’s my friend’s,” she told him.

“Seto is your friend!” he cried.

“Um,” Tea became figety and nervous, she squeezed the millinium rod so hard her knuckles turned white, “I have to go, they’re expecting me back you know.” She brushed past him and headed back to Mai, Joey, Tristan, Yami, and Yugi.

Mokuba clamped his teeth hard together. He couldn’t just let it be, this was wrong. “Why are you ignoring Seto?!” he angrily yelled at her.

Tea didn’t even get 6 feet away. She stopped and turned back to look at him, “Mokuba?” she weakly muttered.

“How could you just of forgotten this past couple days?” Mokuba had so many things worrying him, so many thing picking at his stability, but he thought he could finally stop worrying about his brother being friendless. He wasn’t about to let Tea piss it all way. “He opened up to you, doesn’t that mean anything? I’ve never seen him open up to anyone before until now. Why have you just thrown it all away?” He looked at her, hungry for her reply.

“I- Mokuba. It’s really complicated and we just don’t know. I’m sorry my friends don’t trust him right now. My friends and I have been through so much together, I can’t just abandon them,” she explained.

“So you abandoned Seto?!”

She didn’t know what to say. Mokuba was exactly right. “Look, this is really hard for me-“

“-Not as hard as it is for him.” Mokuba cut in, his voice grew serious and low, “No one has ever cared for us before like this, until you. Even when Seto pushed you away, you still stuck by him. And it meant something to him, it really did.”

“Mokuba, what am I suppost it do?! My friends mean more than anything to me and they’re concerned,” she cried, “And I mean more than anything to them. Our friendship is forever.”

“Your friendship with him could be forever too…”

“I’m sorry Mokuba, I just can’t.” She slowly turned back around, staring empty into the ground. But before she could head off anywhere, Mokuba said one last thing that caused her to freeze up.

“He loves you!”

Tea quickly jerked her head back around, “Love? That’s an awfully strong word.”

“Well he does.”

“Mokuba, don’t take this the wrong way, but your brother doesn’t seem the type to fall in love,” she told him.

“I know, and that’s what’s so cool about it. I never thought Seto could grow so attached to someone, but he did, and it’s you!” Mokuba looked pained, she could see he was telling the truth. “He loves you, he told me! It was yesterday, when we went off for a walk…”

-- “Seto,” he said snapping his pendant shut, “I have a question. It’s about you and Tea.”

“What about me and Tea?” he lazily replied snapping his pendant shut as well.

“Are you guys like friends or something? I mean I’ve never seen you like this before,” Mokuba asked.

Seto had his eyes fixed over the sands of the desert as they bathed in the deep orange rays of the sun, “Yeah, well, no one’s ever cared for me like this before,” he replied in a tone that Mokuba never quite heard his brother use before.

“I care,” he said.

“Not like this, this is this is different…” his voice was so soft.

“Oh my gosh,” it hit Mokuba, his later bloomer brother was finally, “You lo-“

“Weird, isn’t it?”

“I never thought I’d see the day where Seto Kaiba falls in love,” he said joyously, “Tell her!”

“Mokuba, we’re going to have to go back to reality eventually. You’ll be placed in foster care, who knows where I’ll be, and once Tea meets her little friends again, she’ll forget about us,” he cooly explained.

“No, Tea wouldn’t do that!” Mokuba argued, “Tell her!”

Seto let out a weak sigh, “We’ll see…” he said, shutting his eyes slowly. --

“… And he was right!” Mokuba cried, “The second your stupid friends showed up you forgot about us!”

“… Seto loves me?” Tea slowly mumbled as if in a dream, and to be honest, not all too surprised to be informed of this.

“Yes, or at least he did. But then you started ignoring him,” he said calmly, “Tea, I understand that you would care much more for your old friends than you would ever for Seto, but you mean so much to him. Very few people have ever gotten to his heart, in fact there’s only 2, me and you. But once you’re there, trust me on this, you’re never coming out. You know, I always knew eventually down the road you’d be forced into choosing, but I thought it’d be Seto’s doing, not your friends, what does that tell you about them?”

“Mokuba, it’s not like that!”

“Are they really your real friends?”

“You know how close we are, of course they are!” she growled disgusted.

Mokuba paused, he paused for a long while, staring longlingly into her eyes. And then he walked away, off towards the rising silver sliver of a moon.

Tea watched him as he shrank away into nothing, she was alone now, left to think over everything that had just been told. The millinium rod was a retreat, for her to compare the Kaiba she once knew to the Seto she now knows. Tea stared into the gold for several minutes, studying the warped reflections. Her decision was made as she remembered she was wearing Seto’s shoes. He had been walking around bare foot this whole time.

The sun was swallowed up by the earth, a few white speckles had been sprayed into the deep heavens. The clouds that hung in the sky had transformed into a brass color, it was pretty.

“Where the heck is Tea?!” Joey grouched.

“Calm down Joey, girls always take a long time in the bathroom.”

“Hey!” Mai spat at Tristan, who snickered.

“She’s probably off talking to that brat Kaiba again. What the heck is going on with them?” Joey grunted.

Yami? It was Yugi, his spiritual essence hovered around Yami like a mist.

Yes Yugi? All their talking was done telepathically, both being souls trapped in the same body.

Don’t you think it’s kind of mean to assume Kaiba might go crazy from the millinium scale? Yugi had been neutral since the start of all this, in fact the truth was he was rooting for Seto. And Yami had been neutral too up until this morning, but something changed.

These items are dangerous. We have to protect Kaiba and Tea too. Yami replied.

Who do you think you’re kidding? This isn’t about us and Tea, this is about you and Tea. Ever since we saw them watching the sunset you’ve been weird. I can see your thoughts. I think you’re jealous.

Jealous?

Can you admit it or not? Talk to her.

I can’t.

Why not?

Yugi, I live inside a piece of jewelry, just a spirit who takes temporary control over your body. I’m not even sure how long I’ll be here…

What will it hurt? Hey, you 2 have been through so much together, how could she reject you? If it calms you down, I’m for it.

Different parts of Tea’s head pulled her different ways. Eventually Seto had come out of the room. If he had seen her, he gave no acknowledgement. Up against the grit wall, Tea just observed him for a minute. Once again she found him staring up into the sky speckled w/ silver. She walked up silently to him.

“Seto?” she barely murmured. He didn’t look back at her. “Seto?” she repeated, a little louder this time.

“So you’re calling me Seto again?” he finally said, his voice cold and dead.

“Well that is your name,” she playfully replied, but it was obvious Seto was in no such mood.

“I’m not sure I want you calling me by that anymore.”

She held out the millinium rod to Seto, despite the fact he wasn’t facing her, “Here, take it,” she insisted, “I didn’t give it back to Yugi. You don’t take back a gift.”

Seto stood stiff, still staring into the sky’s great vastness. Everything became a shade of blue as the stars and moon cast majestic silver shadows over the earth.

“Mokuba said you loved me.”

“Did he?”

“You’re not angry at him, are you?”

“Why would I be angry at him?”

“Because he either lied to me or spilled out your secret.”

Seto finally spun around to her, “Is it really that big of a secret?”

Tea looked away, “… no.” She already knew, ever since she first cheered for him when he dueled against Mai, she felt something changed. That was the turning point. She looked back over at him, “Seto, I’m sorry. It’s just- my friends just appeared out of nowhere, and you guys kept fighting over nothing, and they got worried about these stupid items and prophecies, and I didn’t know. We’ve been through so much, but th-“

“Tea, stop talking.” Seto took 2 steps towards her. She found herself staring into his eyes. She had never noticed before how they changed color. Sometimes they looked turquoise, other times they were almost lavender, now they were very distant and dark. Hope lived in them again.

And that left her to think about yesterday, when they almost- If her friends hadn’t suddenly shown up, would she have gone through w/ kissing him? The more she thought about if she’d have done it, the more she saw herself doing it.

He was so close to her, it should have been uncomfortable, but it wasn’t, it really wasn’t.

Are you sure about this? Yami asked Yugi.            

What are you afraid of?

They were slowly traveling over to where Tea had vanished off to. Yugi and Yami at this point had figured that, being gone for as long as she was, Tea had gone off to Seto. But they were OK w/ this. Yami just wanted to get the facts known and get the facts out there. What was Yami so nervous over? It’s not like Seto had any romantic interest in Tea…

Yami froze, and from a distance watched the lip-locked couple numbly. Yugi was in shock as well.

… that’s… interesting…”

I know there are about 35 more pages to the story, but it’s at this point when it begins to fizzle out. It’s more that it takes that many pages for the story’s thrust to finally die.

I wrote this story during a dark place in my life and it became a kind of oasis for me. I felt alone and full of anger and self-loathing, but when I was writing, those feelings dimmed and it was like I could breathe for a moment.

I’m sorry to anybody whose time I wasted with this nonsense, but this was once something very meaningful to me. That’s all.

[kari-izumi]

Mokuba’s Reason Why Not: Chapter One

Or, “Hey, Kari is Finally Gonna Post That 5+1 Fic She’s Been Dropping Hints About Since Forever”

So, finally…finally, I have something I can live with for this prologue. This was originally 900 words, and now it’s over three times as long. And I don’t think I’ve ever edited a story this many times as I have this one chapter. I’m still not 100 percent, but I need to feel like I’ve made some progress in any part of my crumbling life, so here it is.

I haven’t posted on AO3 yet just in case anyone here has any suggestions to make it stronger before going live (it’s not beta'ed since I’ve been outta fandom for years and I’ve lost contact with most of the folks I used to talk with…but given the pairing, it may have been a hard sell anyway…or not, given the response that this postgot).

So, the premise began with me wanting to write a whole different idea entirely. Actually, two–I tried writing this scenario from several viewpoints but it was far too angsty for my liking. To get into the second idea would be to spoil future chapters. But doing a 5+1 story could incorporate a whole bunch of ideas and characters I wanted to write for as well as to subvert that teen playboy and the prudish nerd girl trope because seriously, did anyone watch seasons four and five and notice how forward Rebecca was towards Yuugi?

Okay, those seasons suck ass, but you know what I mean XD

On that tangent, fair warning: lots of making out in this chapter. I struggled a lot with how um…detailed to make this. Namely to keep as little as possible. And honestly, all the “writing about children having sex at any point in their lives, even years after canon as teens/adults makes you a pedo” bullshit on this site made me nervous about posting this at all. I don’t have a problem with blocking anyone who will ship bash. Don’t like; don’t read applies here. But there won’t be any sex depicted in future chapters.

Beyond that, any comments and critiques are more than welcomed in my inbox.

Title:Mokuba’s Reason Why Not Pairing:Kiddyshipping, with a couple surprise pairings on the side Chapters:1/7 Summary: “Losing his virginity isn’t something he’s planned on in this busy week, but when an intelligent, awesome girl like Rebecca admits to having the hots for him, Seto is out of town and no one else is going to stop them, the question isn’t why he should do it, but why not?

If any two fifteen years old have ability to tell if this is a good idea, it’s them.”

Or, the five times Mokuba thinks he's got this sex thing figured out and the one time he knows for sure what it is he wants.

—  

Fifteen year olds doing homework with their friends happens every afternoon. Normally, it’s for a trig class or Japanese literature or focusing on the college entrance exam.

Fifteen year olds working after class to have a bit of spending money is also common. They have a delivery route or know a family friend in need of a help at the local restaurant.

A fifteen year old girl researching historic artifacts for her university master thesis, five thousand miles away from home is rare. A fifteen year old boy who holds the Vice Presidency of a major gaming corporation whose spending money is more than what most take home in their entire lives is even less seldomly seen.

“We really do have crazy busy lives,” Rebecca remarks on one such afternoon. She holds a textbook open with one hand while writing notes into a tablet with the other. “It’s almost like we’re not even kids anymore.”

From the other side of the desk in his corporate office, Mokuba glances through his own stack of papers; some are contracts to be reviewed, others mundane reports. He’s been at this all day, and if he’s honest, it’s all starting to run together.

It’s not like he has much time to think about stuff like that, least of all these past two weeks. There are times that he wants a bit more normalcy–being able to attend after school clubs or blow off work for a party. But for all that is unusual about his life, he’s content for what it is. He’s got an awesome brother, a set future, plenty of friends–and Rebecca, sitting across from his desk, who understands the pressure of high expectations better than anyone else his age.

Blinking his eyes as he looks over at her, Mokuba says with a wiry grin, “Yeah, but I’ve gotten used to it. I can’t imagine any other way of life. Could you?”

“Eh?” She looks up from her tablet, tapping the pen at her mouth the way she always does when she’s got something she’s contemplating. “I guess I can’t. Even if I wasn’t a prodigy, I think being in high school for four years and gossiping about clothes and boys would have gotten pretty boring anyway. I’m pretty glad for my life and I enjoy all the friends I’ve made in the pro dueling circuit. Like you.“

He sits up even straighter in his seat.

“Its nice having someone my age who isn’t intimidated by me being smart.”

Mokuba feels the room, which is already soundproofed to block outside noise, grow even more quiet as a certain warm, ecstatic feeling comes over him at her words. Intimidated? Her intelligence was his favorite thing about her! “You broke through Nii-sama’s security and helped us get the company back. I guess people might get freaked out, but I think that’s awesome.”

It’s not the first time they’ve discussed DOMA or her crazy hacking skills. But Rebecca usually brags that she could teach him a few new skills and not lower her eyes as her cheeks grow pink.

Letting out a cough, Rebecca asks hurriedly as she resumes scanning through her book, “Speaking of him, when does Kaiba come back from Hong Kong, anyway?”

“Monday afternoon,” he replies. He goes back to his own stack of papers, pretending as he always does that he doesn’t notice or care how much he truly likes having her around. And sure, she’s gotten hot over the past year, objectively speaking; but more than that, her boundless enthusiasm for gaming and school and everything is hard not to get suck into.

Rebecca speaks again. “You looked like you were spacing out for a moment.”

“It’s fine,” Mokuba says automatically as he picks up a new report to glance over.

“Bullshit! Have you even slept in the past few days?”

“Work’s gotta get done. Not like I’m going to school tomorrow.”

“That’s no answer!”

Rebecca reaches over for his free hand, and not even the clearly angry, frustrated scowl on her face negates the sudden jolt of electricity that shoots up through his arm.

“Look, I know a thing or two about all-nighters, and it doesn’t do you or your project any good to burn yourself out. If you work yourself to death like you tell me Kaiba does, how can you help him?”

Realizing that she still is holding his hand–and that somehow, their pinkies have become entwined–they both turn away from each other, but neither moves. Mokuba doesn’t blush that easily with his completion but he does feel his ears burn. “I mean…you’re right about that. I haven’t slept much, but…I’ll try.”

Sighing she says. “No, I shouldn’t bring it up. I know you’re working to keep up the company for your brother. But I can’t help it to bring up a better way of doing things a when I see it.” Rebecca laughs as she adds, quietly, “You probably think I’m too outspoken.”

“What? Not at all! There’s nothing wrong with passion and speaking up. And if other people have a problem with that, that’s their issue, not yours.” He believes this firmly, and looks her square in the eye as he says this. “And I like that you’re direct. You’re like the most honest person I know.”

Rebecca looks like she wants to say something, but closes her mouth. Her expression changes to one of resolve–Mokuba’s noticed the same look appear during her duels when she’s deciding on the best play against her opponent; beyond that he isn’t sure what else to read into it. Maybe he’s said too much, he wonders as she removes her hand from his to close her tablet and textbook, placing them into the bag on the floor. It’s only the training he’s gotten from Seto on how to school his face and emotions when he needs to that keeps him from showing any emotion of his own, as he realizes how nervous he is.

Mokuba watches her stand up out of her seat…

…and walks around the desk, stopping right at his chair, spinning it towards her. His heart nearly stops when Rebecca leans over and places a hand on either shoulder, rolling one thumb on the collar of the blue dress shirt he wore that day.

“How about I show you what I’m feeling?”

Her eyes really more like emeralds when her face is this close, brilliant and clear and reflecting the afternoon sun.

Mokuba has thought about this and thinks of his best line to respond:

“Um…wait, what?”

Rebecca doesn’t seem to mind or care that his brain has short circuited as she coos in a voice that’s far quieter than he thinks she is capable of. “Shut up, Mokuba.”

It happens so quickly that Mokuba doesn’t have time to close his eyes or to move his hands off the armrests. Her lips feel so soft along his and a current shoots through him from the sensation.

Rebecca jumps away suddenly, covering her mouth with her hands. Her eyes are wide in shock.

“Did you feel that…that spark?!” she squeaks.

“Wow…yeah.” He definitely felt that, placing two fingers on his own mouth, which is still a bit tingly. “But I liked it, though.”

He really did…and thinks it could be better. Mokuba stands up and pulls Rebecca close, his arms wrapping around her shoulders as her hands reach for his neck.

“You’re so tall,” she notes, looking up at him with a rapt expression, her voice so quiet.

With his own goofy grin Mokuba tilts her chin up to kiss her again, and hell yeah, this is a whole lot better indeed, being able to hold her close, catching the glimpse of a smile each time they break apart. The air grows still and the light gets slightly brighter through the window and he entirely forgets the rest of the world. So maybe he wouldn’t have picked his office for their first kiss; but then nothing in their lives follows the typical teenage script anyway.

As if by some primal urge that he doesn’t fully understand, Mokuba soon finds himself guiding Rebecca onto the top of the desk. She looks down, being careful not to knock over the forgotten stack of papers before leaning back, propping herself on her elbows.

Rebecca lets out an excited giggle. “You have a chair, you know!”

“Yeah,” he says, resting one hand along her hip and gripping her cheek with the other. “But it’s more fun like this.”

Mokuba becomes very aware of the way her thighs squeeze his hips, pulling them even closer. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

He hasn’t planned any of this, but being a Kaiba, he’s long since learned to roll with the unexpected and wield it to his advantage…and from the muffled sounds Rebecca makes as their mouths connect, she’s enjoying this a lot. And he enjoys that she’s enjoying this as the languid, chaste kisses soon give way to deeper, more intense ones each time they separate for air. Their tongues meet,  tentatively at first, then more often; their hands begin roaming along backs and hips and twisting into one another’s hair as the silence in the room is filled with increasingly louder, heavier, more ragged breathing.

“…Mokuba?”

“Mmmm…?”

Rebecca pulls away, her cheeks a dark red, looking down briefly as she asks. “…that’s not your cell phone, is it?”

He freezes immediately, feeling his face growing heated and his mouth goes dry. “Umm…no,” he whispers.

It comes back to him right now–that conversation that he had with Seto a few months ago about biological urges taking over rational thought in the heat of a passionate moment and promise me you’ll take a minute to think it over, Mokuba–or rather, that Seto insisted on having with him over breakfast, the morning after the last tournament. Next the actual sex talk two years ago, it was easily the most awkward and out-of-the-blue conservations Mokuba could remember, and he still hasn’t figured out what exactly prompted him to bring it up when he did.

Maybe Seto realized somehow that this exact situation was going to happen, sooner rather than later.

Rebecca–rather than being bashful by…well, him–is grinning wickedly. “I’m glad.”

Mokuba can barely register her implication as she rolls her hips against his, hooks her legs even tighter and sucks down on a spot right behind his ear and that–that entirely throws his rational thought away so thoroughly that if he wasn’t so entirely turned on, it might have scared him to think he could lose control of himself this quickly–to grab a tight hold of her hair as he lays her back into the smooth wooden surface, being urged on by the noises as he kisses her neck, and desiring to grab her hips to test out how truly soundproof this office really is–

“Mokuba-sama,” he hears.

They both freeze, and the temperature in the room plummets instantly as everything comes crashing back into focus. Mokuba snaps up straight as his eyes instantly focus towards the door that he’s sure he didn’t lock to find it still firmly shut.

“It’s just the intercom,” he tells her, sighing in relief.

“I guess you have to get that soon…” says Rebecca. Her smile is unusually relaxed, even for her.

Mokuba gives her a slight grin in return.“If I don’t pick up, he’ll worry and call Nii-sama.”

“Hmmm.”

“Mokuba-sama, are you there? I have the tournament scheduling you asked for.”

Taking a moment to steady his breathing again, Mokuba reaches out for the intercom button, trying desperately to keep his voice flat and neutral. “Yeah, I’m here, just…can you leave it by the door?”

There’s a slight pause before Isono replies, “Yes, Mokuba-sama.”

Apart from the shock of nearly getting caught, a part of Mokuba is thankful for the interruption. What the hell was that?! He rubs at his face, feeling as though he’s coming back into his body as he remembers the other part of Seto’s talk: a list of all condom brands available in every country Kaiba Corporation did business in.

“Damn, that was too close,” he says, after a pause, low under his breath.

“I’ll say. I don’t what Isono would have done if he’d saw us like this,” Rebecca says with a sly smile and a wink.

Mokuba decides against any clarification on that as he pulls her up, helping her off the desk before pulling her into a chaste hug. His cheek rests against the top of Rebecca’s head, taking in the comforting scents of bright yuzu lemon and sweet jasmine in her hair.

“I’m sorry,“ he says.

“For what?”

“Because I didn’t even think about using…um…when we were about to…”

Rebecca catches his meaning and the smile is beaming as she kisses his cheek. “You silly. It’s sweet you were worried, but I’ve taken the pill for awhile anyway…just in case.”

“Oh.”

Oh.

The thought that Rebecca has been thinking about this…with him…for a while is a huge ego boost and flattered is too weak a word to describe the feeling that comes over him. But then, she’s one of the smartest people he knows.

She continues, not meeting his eyes as her face goes from a slight pink to deep red. “You’re the first guy that I’ve really felt like I wanted to…um, I mean…well, you know.”

“Me, too,” he replies. Maybe he hasn’t given nearly as much planning, but this afternoon…damn. Mokuba doesn’t remember a time when he’s smiled this much or felt so alive. “That was so crazy intense. I felt like…wow.”

“I know.”

There’s a look in her eyes, Mokuba notices–the one Rebecca gets when she’s got a plan or an idea that, he knows from experience, she won’t let go of. But there’s something else behind it this time, and realizes she had a similar look right before they were interrupted–

“I think we should do it.”

Her arms tighten around his back, clinging onto his shirt, her eyes oddly serious.

Mokuba isn’t sure how far his jaw has dropped. Rebecca has never exactly been shy about going for what she wants; she certainly wasn’t earlier. But stating it so plainly just makes it all so real.

“What’s with that look?” Rebecca’s smile doesn’t quite look as natural as usual. “Didn’t you want to do it earlier?”

“Well, yeah,” Mokuba says and squeezes her shoulders more tightly, and he’s never been so aware of his own heartbeat. “But this is moving a little fast, isn’t it?”

“Eh?” Rebecca snaps her head up, scanning the office with a look of disbelief. “Look at where we are! Our whole lives have been moving fast for as long as either of us can remember. At least this is our decision.”

“Shouldn’t we go on a date first?!” 

“Well obviously, we’d go out to dinner first. I have standards.”

“That’s not what I mean!” he sighs, closing his eyes. “I mean, I really want to…you know…but we just figured out that we like each other like that. Why rush?”

“Is this any more crazy than you missing class to run a company or me having yet another degree before I can legally drive here or back home? Kids our age are doing it anyway–”

“Did you really just–?”

She places a finger to his lips. “–and we obviously click. Why would we wait?”

Mokuba opens his mouth to counter, but nothing comes out. Rebecca isn’t wrong; he knows all the reasons kids their age are told to wait, but the biggest one–ruining your future–would hardly apply to them. He’s already lived through things that would have entirely broken many others. In nearly every other way that matters, they might as well be adults already.

Even if Mokuba isn’t exactly sure he’s ready for that step right now, there isn’t anyone else he would even consider sharing this with…so does it really matter if they do this now or in a few months anyway? The newly awakened part of his mind reminds him of the excitement of wanting to melt into one another, hearing her cry out in pure bliss at his touch; the images quickly crush the nagging voice that says slow down because you want more than just sex.

“Not like anyone would stop us anyway,” Mokuba points out. Arthur Hawkins still resides in San Francisco in between his archeological digs, Isono he’s sure wouldn’t breathe a word of it to anyone as long as he comes home before Seto gets back–

Shit.

As far as he knows, Mokuba officially has more first hand knowledge of this subject than Seto does at twenty years old. How would he even begin to approach this subject with him? Would Seto even understand? Or try to stop him?

“You said Kaiba won’t be back till Monday?” Rebecca asks as though she could read his mind.

Mokuba blinks a few times as the realization kicks in. “Yeah…”

Maybe just this once, Seto doesn’t have to know anything about this at all.

Rebecca strokes behind his ear, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “So, Saturday works?”

Losing his virginity isn’t something he’s planned on in this busy week, but when an intelligent, awesome girl like Rebecca admits to having the hots for him, Seto is out of town and no one else is going to stop them, the question isn’t why he should do it, but why not?

If any two fifteen years old have ability to tell if this is a good idea, it’s them.

He reaches for her neck to bring her in for a quick kiss on the forehead as he says, “Let’s do it.”

I bet I can totally feel her up now.

He goes for it, slipping one hand into the opening of her shirt.

–and gets his hand slapped hard.

“Ow!”

Rebecca cheerfully waves a finger at his nose. “Nuh-uh!”

“But–!”

“Nope!”

“Weren’t we gonna do it earlier?!”

“Yeah, but it’ll be way more exciting to wait, won’t it?” She giggles as she pulls away and claims her backpack. “Besides, it’s only two days. I’m sure you can wait that long.”

Mokuba honestly doesn’t know how he’s managed to live this long without it!

“Can’t I feel over the shirt?”

“Hmmm…” Rebecca pretends to think on it, tapping a finger against her chin. “No, that’d be way too distracting when I get home. Sorry!”

“Distracting how?”

Rebecca doesn’t respond as she heads towards the door, only giggles. “You’re way more innocent than I thought…oh…”

The tournament schedule that Isono left, he remembers. He walks towards the door and reaches down for the folder.

“Oooh, I wanna see who I’m up against!”

“Sorry, Rebecca,” he says. “You know I can’t show anyone that.”

“Awww! Not even a hint?”

He pretends not to notice the hand that reaches his arm as he taps the folder lightly on the top of her head. He’s grinning as he replies, “Won’t it be more fun to wait?”

They lock eyes; a second later they’ve pulled each other into another searing kiss, but Mokuba breaks it off before either can get carried away again.

“Saturday,” he tells her.

Rebecca blinks, her hand lingering on his chest for a second before taking a step back and heads out the door. “Yeah…see ya.”

Mokuba takes his folder back to his desk, but sets down without opening its contents. There’s no way he can go back to his work now or even go to sleep with thoughts about Rebecca–

Distraction.

…oh.

He suddenly feels a bit distracted himself at the thought, regretting the decision to have this suit tailored so snug to his lithe frame. Mokuba growls, running both hands in his hair.

It’s going to be a long two days.

[real-life-pine-tree]

Leo Will Never Know: A Butterfly’s Wings (1/?)

In an alternate timeline, Yugi indirectly prevented the events of Arc-V from ever happening. But how could this small change have an impact on a few selected people? A spin-off of the Arc-V Aftermath series. Based on the hilarious comic by @justanotherotakuandartist. Co-written with @violetganache42.

Leo Corporation. A gaming company that specializes in a popular card game called Duel Monsters, which was created by Maximillion Pegasus. The CEO of the company was none other than Leo Akaba, father of his daughter Ray. As a young girl, she was always ambitious and strong-willed while also deeply cared about him, having high hopes for his future…until that one fateful day.

An employee had already informed Leo of some tragic news that occurred. He called Ray into his office, worrying about how it'll affect her. Once she entered, she asked if everything was okay upon seeing his dismayed face. He broke the news about how his meeting with Seto Kaiba was abruptly cancelled, shocking and upsetting her.

"What?!" Ray asked. "How come?!"

"It appears Mr. Kaiba has mysteriously fallen ill," Leo explained. "But not to worry. Hopefully he will come to his senses soon. I really do think adding mass to the current Solid Vision technology will make the basic card game far more exciting than it already is."

"I hope so," the young girl said, sounding a bit sad. "I really want to take part in these Action Duels."

"And you will," Leo said reassuringly. "It will just be a bit delayed."

Several days after the unexpected cancellation was made, Kaiba visited the company to talk to Leo about something, surprising the latter. He had recently returned from a tournament to take care of personal business with Pegasus, so after that whole fiasco was dealt with, conversing with Leo Corporation's CEO was the first thing that came to his mind.

"I thought about what you said about adding mass to Solid Vision," Kaiba informed. "And I came to the conclusion that it's a stupid idea."

"What?" Leo asked. "But you said-"

"Forget what I initially said," Kaiba interrupted. "If you add mass to Solid Vision, what's next? The holograms become sentient and destroy the world?"

"Sir, I don't understand what you mean," Leo said.

"I have undergone a series of rather unexplainable events due to malfunctions in the current system," Kaiba explained. "And I realized that your ideas could doom the world to destruction. So I would advise you to stay out of the dueling business for the sake of everyone on Earth."

Ray overheard the entire conversation between the two CEOs when she noticed Kaiba heading towards his office a couple minutes earlier. She had secretly followed him until he entered through the office's double doors; one of them was left partially open, unfortunately allowing her to hear the world-shattering news. She was left in total disbelief after their talk had ended, turning around to lean against the door to process what happened. Kaiba walked out of the office to head to his limo and return to his company, KaibaCorp, not noticing the disquieted girl on his way out. The moment he turned the corner and disappeared from the hallway, she immediately got up and ran into Leo's office, completely heartbroken about how the deal was officially shot down.

"What are we going to do now?" Ray asked, hugging her father tightly as she sobbed.

"Don't worry, Ray," Leo said. "We're Akabas, and Akabas never give up. We'll find a way to make Action Duels a reality."

Sadly, Action Duels never became a reality as it soon became a forgotten fantasy. One day, news went all around Domino City on the newest craze from KaibaCorp: Duel Disks. They became immensely popular at a rapid rate among Duelists that it left Leo Corporation in the shadows to eventually crumble and fall. Because of the Duel Disks' success, Leo and Ray soon lost the company due to bankruptcy. They struggled to avoid living the rest of their lives in poverty, forcing the young girl to sell all her cards to make some money; she even might have ended up with the possibility of cutting and selling her hair as well. Whatever tactic she resorted to, it was all for one purpose: to make her father happy again. She was willing to give her title as a Duelist up just so they can be closer to living normal lives.

Fortunately Leo recently managed to find a stable job within Domino City that had a good minimum wage during the week before the upcoming Battle City tournament began. Ray got super excited because it means he'll be able to save enough money to buy a house for the two of them. It didn't matter to her if the Akaba family name was overlooked by the general dueling public; as long as they pull through this conflict, that's all that matters to her.

"I'm so sorry we had to go through this," Leo said, realizing his daughter gave up her dreams for the sake of happiness. "Maybe some day we'll be able to afford cards for you."

But Ray shook her head, her now-shoulder-length hair moving slightly. "What matters is us rebuilding our future," she decided. "It's like what you said: Akabas never give up."

To Ray, family was what's important to her and always comes first in her jurisdiction. Not everyone is a Duelist and she is okay with that; she still loves the card game and will check out some duels when she wants to, but even her interest in Duel Monsters pales in comparison to the strong bond she has with Leo. She clearly remembered those words he told her several days ago was definite evidence on how they will stick together through any situation, regardless if it is worse than their current one or not.

Leo chuckled. "That's my girl," he happily said, ruffling his daughter's newly-cut hair.

A few days later, Battle City has begun. One of the first duels that initiated was between Yugi Muto, the King of Games, and someone named Seeker; he was one of the many Rare Hunters that are scattered all over Domino City to infiltrate the tournament as part of orders from their leader Marik Ishtar, who was unknown to everyone while his Rare Hunters were. As the duel progressed, a young boy was watching. He had side-parted hair with a silver color scheme with light green highlights. Many of you would recognize him as Zarc Nightstone from Timeline B, but due to the failed idea of Action Duels in the main timeline, he was still just called by his real name: Michael Lindonson. He wasn't taking part in Battle City because he doesn't want to wager his Odd-Eyes Dragon and end up losing him.

Michael looked at Odd-Eyes Dragon. "Don't worry, buddy," he said. "I'll make sure no one ever takes you away, not even those Rare Hunter creeps."

He continued watching the duel, holding Odd-Eyes in his hand. Seeker had just summoned Exodia's head, enabling Yugi to activate his Trap card Chain Destruction to destroy every copy of Exodia's head his opponent had in his deck and hand in order to prevent him from summoning Exodia the Forbidden One. He then played his face-down Dust Tornado to destroy Swords of Revealing Light. Once it was his turn, he used Monster Reborn to revive Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast in attack position  and had it destroy the Head of Exodia that was on the field. Summoned Skull and Alpha the Magnet Warrior then attacked Seeker directly—with Alpha gaining 200 ATK during the Damage Step after Summoned Skull attacked—and reduced his LP down to 0, resulting in Yugi winning his first duel for Battle City and without losing any of his LP. Michael was amazed at what he witnessed and wanted to talk to him, but before he could, he saw that Seeker was acting weird, almost as if he was being mind controlled.

Michael looked at Odd-Eyes Dragon. "What's that?" he asked, holding the card up to his ear. "You're saying there's something evil going on? Like what?" He paused, then he smiled. "Then it's a good thing we're not in this tournament."

After Marik used Seeker to introduce himself to Yugi and his friend Joey Wheeler and declare he will be a pharaoh by taking some kind of puzzle and the three cards Michael never heard of, his mind-controlled puppet's body fell to the ground; either Seeker passed out or his soul was sent away to some kind of wasteland were all the lost souls wanted revenge. Regardless, after the two friends conversed with each other, Michael walked over to Yugi to talk to him.

"Can I help you?" Yugi asked.

"I... I heard what that creepy guy was saying," Michael said. "Odd-Eyes even told me he was sensing something evil. What's going on?"

"Odd-Eyes?" Yugi questioned.

"Yeah," Michael answered, showing Yugi the card. "I know he's not much, but some day, I'll get some friends for him so he won't feel lonely."

Yugi looked at the card. "I see," he said. "May I take a look at it?"

Michael handed his card to Yugi for him to see. Odd-Eyes Dragon was a Level 7 DARK monster with 2500 ATK and 2000 DEF. His effect allows him to inflict damage equal to half of the original ATK of an opponent's monster that was sent to the Graveyard. Aside from his effective stats, the tri-color-haired teen was more curious about how the young boy treated Odd-Eyes as if the card was real. Does he have some kind of unique ability that no one else had?

"You said this card was lonely," Yugi said, giving Odd-Eyes back to Michael. "Don't you have a deck?"

"Yeah, but it's a Magician and Sorcerer deck," Michael explained. "Odd-Eyes is the only dragon I have, but I want to get more dragons to keep him company."

Michael's deck consisted of regular effect Magicians and Sorcerers, so they don't really stand out. However, all their abilities worked well together with each other and with Odd-Eyes, leading him to his deck construction. He also mentioned on how he wasn't taking part in Battle City because he doesn't want to lose his favorite card, especially at the hands of Marik and the Rare Hunters.

"Odd-Eyes is special to me," the young boy explained. "I saw him in a display case at a card store and it felt like he was calling to me."

"So your dragon chose you instead of the other way around," Yugi realized.

"I guess you can say that," Michael said.

Yugi smiled softly. "You are different from other kids your age," he said. "But know this: never forget to follow your heart. If you continue to stick to what you believe in, you could end up becoming someone extraordinary."

Michael became starry-eyed after hearing these words of advice, almost as if this moment is what changed his life. "Thank you, sir!" he said, sounding too happy. "I'll never forget your advice!"

The next day, Michael was sitting at a park bench, analyzing the cards he currently has. He was determined to trust his instincts from now on after his encounter with Yugi. At the same time, Ray walked down the park's pathway; with her father working to buy a house, she figured she needed a quick walk after everything the two were going through. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the onion-haired boy, causing her to stop walking and turn her head to where he was sitting. She noticed he was scanning through his deck; she may not be a Duelist anymore, but she couldn't resist seeing someone who also enjoys Duel Monsters. She walked over to the bench with a double desire: she didn't to disturb him with what he was doing, but she also wanted to talk to him.

But Michael quickly noticed Ray. "Hi," he said. "Wanna duel?"

Ray looked a bit saddened. "I can't," she sadly admitted.

"Why not?" Michael asked.

"My dad lost the family company," Ray explained. "And in order to help him get enough money, I had to sell all my cards and..." She gently tugged on a lock of her shoulder-length hair.

This was an indicator to Michael that she used to have long hair, but she had to sell it to raise some money. She then explained how her dad recently found a job and how they will soon search for a house to live in and start living normal lives.

"So you gave up on being a Duelist just so your dad could have more money?" Michael asked.

Ray nodded in response. "But I'm not giving up," she said. "Akabas never give up!"

"Akaba..." Michael mused. Then his eyes widened. "So that's what happened to Leo Corporation!" he realized. "Those KaibaCorp Duel Disks must have put your dad out of business!"

"They did," Ray said. "We might have lost everything, but we're trying to improve ourselves."

"Don't you miss your cards?" Michael asked. "Didn't you hear them crying in pain?"

Ray paused what she was about to say after hearing those questions from Michael. She never knew monster cards had emotions…or maybe they really do emote and only a few can communicate with them. She asked what he meant by that and if he can tell how they were feeling.

"It's the reason why I didn't take part in Battle City," Michael explained, holding up Odd-Eyes Dragon. "I'm a good Duelist, but I would have risked losing Odd-Eyes forever, especially to those Rare Hunter creeps. He chose me for a reason, so I want him to stay by my side."

"So you can actually hear your cards speak to you?" Ray asked.

"Just Odd-Eyes," Michael clarified. "We have a special bond. Sure he doesn't fit with all my Magician and Sorcerer cards, but I'm gonna get more dragons so he'll have friends."

Ray was surprised and amazed at how distinct Michael is from the rest of the boys and how much he cares for his Odd-Eyes. She never thought she would encounter a special person in her life, even if she and Leo were in a slowly easing heat of the moment. Maybe they can get to know each other more and help him find some more dragons to include in his deck so that his favorite card won't feel lonely.

"I could help, but I'm not sure," Ray admitted. "My dad has been a bit protective of me ever since we lost the company. He doesn't want me to get hurt."

"It's okay," Michael said. "Your dad will never know." He held out his hand. "Michael Lindonson."

Ray looked at his hand before smiling and shaking it. "Ray Akaba," she said.

And from that moment on, Michael and Ray became friends. They spent the entire day hanging out with each other as they watched a couple Battle City duels and developed a powerful bond with each other throughout the next few days. It was even emphasized not long after the tournament was over when the Duel Monster Spirit World was forced opened into Earth by a mysterious new threat, causing the monsters to spill into the human world and all kinds of bizarre weather events to occur globally. During that time, Ray and Leo still haven't gotten enough money yet despite the work and hours her father was doing; then again, it was a job he was recently hired into, so it will take some time. However, they did save enough money for her to get a new deck that focuses on an archetype called Hope Dragon. She had a total of four aces—Hope Dragons Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon, all with effects that can help her gain Life Points and select monster card zones on her opponent's field to prevent them from summoning their monsters.

"I activate Polymerization!" Ray declared. "And I'll use it to combine my four Hope Dragons to summon Hope Dragon Nature!"

She and Michael were in a tag team duel against two employees from Doma, an organization with the intention of capturing human souls with a Spell card called the Seal of Orichalcos. This threat was virtually life or death because the two kids can't afford to lose any duels as they risk their very souls to try and defeat the employees. Right now, Ray finished Fusion Summoning Hope Dragon Nature and was getting ready to activate her effect.

"I activate Hope Dragon Nature's special ability!" Ray announced. "All of your unoccupied monster card zones are blocked! And for every blocked zone, I regain 400 life points!"

Since she was referring to her opponent, he only had three empty zones, which became blocked as she gained 1200 Life Points. She was then ready for her Battle Phase.

"What?!" the Doma employee asked. "How could you obtain that kind of card?!"

"Because I am an Akaba," Ray answered. "And Akabas never give up!"

"And we're doing this for my friend," Michael said, referring to Odd-Eyes Dragon. "He won't forgive anyone who brings harm to his home world!"

They could tell that Odd-Eyes was absolutely livid at Doma for putting the Duel Monster Spirit World in danger like that. Even if he now resides as a card on Earth, it was still his home and any threat that endangers it must be thwarted at all costs.

"But that's not all," Ray added. "I activate the Spell card Union Attack, allowing me to share my Battle Phase with my partner!"

Both Doma employees were shocked at the Spell card she used. They couldn't believe that something like that exists and it was bringing them one step closer to their defeat. Together, Ray and Michael declared their attacks.

"Feel the rage of my dragon!" Michael declared. "Spiral Flame Strike!"

"Natural Energy Bloom!" Ray added.

Odd-Eyes and Nature unleashed their signature attacks, with Ray destroying one of her opponent's monsters—the one in attack position was sent to the Graveyard while the other in defense position remained intact—and Michael wiping out the other employee's only monster. He then immediately followed it up by activating Odd-Eyes' effect.

"Now I activate Odd-Eyes Dragon's special ability!" Michael exclaimed. "You lose life points equal to half of the monster's attack points he just knocked out, which is enough to finish you off!"

Odd-Eyes directed another attack towards the Doma employee, bringing his LP down to 0. Due to the overwhelming power of the Seal of Orichalcos, it captured his soul and sent it back to Dartz's main organization, leaving his body to collapse on the ground.

"Don't celebrate yet," the remaining Doma employee said. "You've still got me."

"I know," Ray replied. "So hopefully this Hinotama card should be enough to finish you off as well."

Ray activated Hinotama, causing fireballs to rain down towards the other employee, draining his lingering Life Points and losing his soul to the Orichalcos. Both bodies laid on the ground, soulless and unconscious as the two kids were relieved to win this duel, but also horrified that they witnessed as something so scary as that.

"Are we doing the right thing?" Ray asked.

"We are," Michael answered. "Odd-Eyes' home is at risk. We need to protect it."

"But what if we end up losing?" Ray asked. "Could we lose our souls forever?"

"We'll be fine," Michael reassured. "And as long as we keep winning, your dad will never know what had happened."

Eventually, the Doma threat was vanquished and both worlds were now at peace, relaxing Odd-Eyes Dragon. About a decade later, almost one year before the King of Games' influential legacy began with a bisexual soon-to-be Slifer Red male teen, Ray and Michael were now 14 going on 15, with the young Akaba girl having her hair now past her shoulders. Leo has saved enough money to buy himself and his daughter a house, finally putting an end to their struggle with poverty.

On one peaceful evening, Michael and Ray were at the local park, excited about things to come. "I can't believe we're going to Duel Academy in a few days," Ray said. "What do you think the school is like?"

"I'm not sure," Michael admitted. "But I heard the training varies depending on the rank system."

"Rank system?" Ray asked.

"Yeah, Kaiba created them based on these powerful cards from Battle City," Michael explained. "The best Duelists are in Obelisk Blue, the second best Duelists are in Ra Yellow, and the third best Duelists are in Slifer Red."

Ray heard those three names before and guessed they were named after the rumored Egyptian God Cards. She became more certain about her assumption because she recalled hearing about Kaiba and Yugi's duel during Battle City when they summoned Obelisk the Tormentor and Slifer the Sky Dragon respectively. She then thought it was unfair that Obelisk Blue was ranked the highest and Slifer Red the lowest; she wondered just how egotistical the CEO was.

"Guess Kaiba is still bitter about Yugi defeating him," Ray commented.

"Probably," Michael agreed.

"But he definitely deserved that," Ray added. "That's what he gets for ruining my dad's business!"

Although Ray was glad that she and Leo now have a place to live in, she never forgave Kaiba for letting them go bankrupt. Speaking of which, she hasn't gotten a chance to figure out what her future will be since her main intention was to endure and help get out of poverty. She gave up her dreams of being a Duelist by selling her old cards and here she is right now, playing Duel Monsters once again and attending the first ever duel school with Michael. Her thoughts shifted topics and she started thinking about him and how much they have been through together.

"Michael... What are your dreams for the future?" Ray asked.

"Duh!" Michael replied. "I'm gonna be the World Duel King so I can keep the world entertained!"

"Entertained?" Ray asked.

"Yeah," Michael answered. "I'll do that by putting on performances as I duel."

"You don't care about winning?" Ray asked.

"Not really," Michael admitted. "As long as the crowd is entertained and smiling, that's a perfect victory for me."

Michael loved the thought of hosting Entertainment Duels and being what he called a professional Dueltainer. It made Ray remember the rejected concept of Action Duels due to the claim that monsters could gain emotions and cause an apocalypse. Her face then grew depressed because it was the true source of where she and her father were at and how much they suffered over the years. It was more upsetting to know that they would have been perfect for her friend to use to achieve his dream.

"I'm sorry," Ray said, sounding a bit hurt. "It sounds like those Action Duels would have been perfect for you. But now..." She let out a sob, being unable to speak.

Michael wiped a tear away from Ray's cheek. "Don't start crying on me," he said. "Sure I won't be able to interact with Odd-Eyes Dragon during duels, but I can still entertain the crowd through other methods."

Ray looked up at Michael's face after hearing him speak. There was only one type of duels and everyone has been doing these standard duels for a long time, whether it was a single match, a tag team, a 2-on-1, or even a battle royale. She was then reassured on how he knows there will be new methods introduced in the near future, making her pleased to know she had someone like him for a friend. …Or maybe more than a friend. Just then, the two leaned forward and locked lips with each other, sharing their very first kiss together.

Ultimately the two parted for air. Ray had a glazed look in her eyes, almost as if she enjoyed the kiss. But she quickly realized what just happened and she looked away, embarrassed. "I'm so sorry!" she said. "I don't know why I did that! I-"

Michael shushed Ray as he gave her a second kiss. "Don't worry," he said. "Besides, Duel Academy is on an island far away from here. Leo will never know."

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 31-32: Marik Takes a Shower

Ah, what time is it? It’s time for Yugi to finally duel Seto Kaiba, who has been waiting very impatiently to duel him for last 50 episodes. Basically since the beginning-middle of Season 2.

So, a side note, in my quest to try and make sure this blog remains legible and accessible for everyone (despite how often Tumblr tries to flag me for adult content), you’ll notice some changes--first off, certain characters have been given a texture to their text so it’s easier to tell apart if you are colorblind. From here on out, Kaiba is this chrome-y gradient color pattern, to match how cool he thinks he is.

Second off, I went and made all the photos a bit larger, which was completely pointless as tumblr hates text posts, and so although I told the blog to do high res photo’s only, that only applies to photo posts. Apparently all text post images are rounded down to a smooth 500 no matter what in this theme and I could change my theme but then I’d have to change a lot of things. I went in to the HTML/CSS editor and as far as I can tell there’s just nothing I can do.

Anyway, Kaiba immediately picks up on the fact that none of Yugi’s friends are here so he tries to play into Yugi’s insecurities. This is pointless, as Yugi is already insecure about basically everything anyway.

And so about the rest of this episode is just Kaiba and Yugi disagreeing with what the purpose of dueling cards is. Surprisingly, no one said “getting soooo much money from children” which is what the people who funded this show were thinking.

(read more under the cut)

Really, truly, honestly, Kaiba’s past self beat Pharaoh once, straight up killed the original King of Games who had complete control of his vague magic at the time. But Pharaoh isn’t even going to fathom Kaiba beating Marik. Like...Kaiba could do it.

One of the weird parts of this show is that everyone but Yugi is bad at cards but they keep showing us proof that, no really, they’re great at cards, just not when Yugi is looking (especially Duke, omg).

But the tension of this duel hinges on this assumption that if Yugi loses, then Kaiba has to duel Marik and he’ll just flat out lose. But...would he? Kaiba actually did proper research on these cards while Yugi is just kind of winging it and is also two people.

And then Tea had the audacity to say this, within hearing range of everyone else.

(and also, Duke has faint horizontal line patterns now. He speaks with a slight plaid.)

But Tea, for reals?

WHEN!?

When has it NOT?

It was only for a brief second but you bet your ass I stopped the footage there and smh.

And then Kaiba decided to use the holograms for actual hologram things. But in the most embarrassing socially awkward Kaiba way possible.

I kind of love how this show draws generic white people. With just the weirdest eyes ever. It’s like somewhere between Ghibli and the original Sealab2020.

Since Roland decided to go and help Kaiba destroy the world, Tristan took over being the useless person in the room to shout orders at this genius child who absolutely does not need Tristan’s help.

Tristan isn’t exactly a tech guy so I guess he was just there to give Mokuba anxiety.

And then, a very cool thing happened.

Yes, that’s right. It’s a Marik Shower Scene.

Turn on that slow anime lo-fi music and glory at this sexy...sink faucet???

Y’ALL.

Y’ALL.

WHAT!????

I feel like I just learned a lot about Marik. He’s surrounded by the forefront of technology, surrounded by So Many Purple Shampoo Bottles, but like...I don’t think he ever really caught on to the whole running water thing. This kind of infers that like...he’s been doing this sink routine in whatever bathroom is around for like all the years he’s been on the surface.

And like maybe.....maaaaybe he just needed to cool off. But there’s a big difference between spritzing your face and just shoving your entire head and all it’s anime hair into the sink. One is a spritz, and the other is a camp shower. 

Wow.

Y’all, I’m still thinking about that Spinoff I wish existed. I’m still thinking about “Marik’s Boat Time”, just about the every day life of Marik stumbling through basic chores. I just want to see Bandit Keith going into the communal restroom they had on that boat, attempting to shave in the mirror while Marik comes in and just dunks his entire face into the nearest sink.

Oh, and PS, Marik’s font is embossed now. He’s an embossed Comic Sans Papyrus font. The most offensive font choice I could think of. Seems like something a villain could really get into.

I don’t really go over the card games here but this sequence was a whole lot of Kaiba forgetting how Yugi’s deck works.

And PS, in this flashback, Seto Kaiba was watching them do this duel from just offscreen. He watched Joey have to exchange cards with Yugi and then I guess Seto just...forgot that Yugi has this card? Although Seto Kaiba made sure to use the duel disk system so he could spy and know what everyone’s deck is? 

Seto...

Anyway, from that flashback, Yugi remembers that Joey is a Big Boy and that he is Resilient and Not A Baby, and figures, he won’t die for reals. He’ll be good.

Whatever works for him.

should’ve could’ve...

But anyways, short on content today, so it was a short post. Ah, just like I always intended for these posts to be.

And if you just got here, congrats on reading this entire post despite coming in at the middle of S3. This is a link to these recaps in chrono order so you can start at Episode 1.