#tiny zorc au

[blackfeatherdragon]

I don't have solid designs for the rest of the main group in the pmd/ygo au yet but:

-Yugi is a tiny little Shinx whose grandpa was an independent explorer.

-His grandpa was the one who found the Relic Fragment and gave it to him.

-The Fragment is haunted/fills in for the puzzle, but the spirit of the Fragment doesn't 'wake up' until after Yugi manages to get the Fragment back at Beach Cave after it was stolen (Power of friendship, baybee-)

-The spirit of the Relic Fragment (Atem) was a shiny Luxio in life.

-Much like in canon, he doesn't remember his past and starts off as a shadow gaming gremlin before the character development kicks in.

-The spirit of the Ring is just straight up TKB, with no Zorc influence.

-Like his host, he wound up with severe amnesia and can only remember his name, that he was human, and that he was a thief of some kind (but not what he was stealing)

-Was a human in life, but apparently being a spirit did not make him immune to being turned into a Pokemon. He appears as a Hisuian Zoroark when talking to Ryou.

-Unlike his host, TKB cannot use the Dimensional Scream under any circumstances and has to let Ryou do it.

[anonymouscreampuff]

he returns

[shipping-all-ships]

You know how Ryou couldn't enter memory world because of the "evil in him" or something? and we all assume it's the millennium ring.

Anyways I raise an AU where Ryou is just kind of a little tiny baby bit....evil. Like this passive kind of evil, who will see someone dying and stop to watch or encourage someone to jump from a bridge under the guise of helping. He summoned demons and performed ritual involving sacrifice since he didn't view it as murder, just a fee paid for a service and the person agreed to help him in the first place so that's on them not being specific.

His own father is scared of him and stays away. Hell, Zorc was even scared of him at times.

Just an little sociopath who doesn't think he's all that evil and who has the face of an angel.

[shadowofthelamp]

Year in Review: Writing

So, I can’t do the ‘year in review’ for art because... yeah, I didn’t really draw that much this year. So I decided to trawl through my writing tag for one favorite piece per month, and a pulled few paragraphs from each! Basically everything here is Zim except for the one tendershipping week thing, lmao, oops.

Some months had slim pickings but I still do like every one of these and it was a nice reflection.

January: Arrival

Her skin was tinted a sickly green, more like decomposing flesh than irken or human. Dib swallowed, but her breathing seemed to be even when he placed a hand to her kind of chubby chest, so that was probably just how their skin colors mixed, right? Besides, the lighting in the lab was always weird. Her mouth was gummy with no teeth yet, but her vocal cords were functioning perfectly. He was going to need hearing aids by his twenties, between her and Zim.

She had four fingers and three toes, which he kind of expected, as well as a nose but no ears. That made sense, if she had antennae, but it was still strange to run his fingers along the sides of her head and just feel smooth skin.

Her eyes… they were Zim’s through and through, deep ruby with the color filling the sclera. Did irkens even have sclera if they only had one color? Under the lab’s lights and mixed with the way everything on her slightly shimmered from the sticky goo she'd been coated in, she was like a section of space stolen into the little room and it took his breath away. The water blurring his vision didn’t help as he wiped it away with his sleeve, shifting her to one arm. She was so small...

__________

February: WLOD Dib meets Twix, alt version

It’s fascinating, to see what could have gone right. The 1001 here had gangly, underdeveloped limbs, and wispy hair that never quite got clean from the showers. This version wasn’t fat or anything, but definitely had more meat on its bones.

He examined the goggles- peering through them, they altered its vision because they made the lab beyond the ‘glass’ blurry. Curious, very curious. He was about to pop the lens out when it began to stir, tugging at the metal restraints with a clatter.

_________

March: Zibvoid

He talked to himself.

He talked to himself.

He talked to Zim, who hadn’t said a word since he’d died, but maybe he was just giving him the silent treatment.

Round and round, the generator buzzed like a bee and a hospital and a bug zapper that would draw in prey like flies to a web, except he was the spider now and the Zims were the moths.

Dib. Dib Dib Dib Dib Zim Dibdibdibdibzimdibdibzimdib. The names popped off his tongue as he rolled them both in his mouth, over and over until they didn’t seem like names at all anymore.

__________

April: Sturdy Branches (I know the date’s different on ao3 but it was first posted April)

Her dad is either singing or talking to himself as he vacuumed inside the house with a sway in his hips. At least you’re pretty sure it’s her dad? You haven’t seen a picture of him or anything, but he’s about the same age as your dad, so he’s too old to be a brother and too young to be a grandpa, and she hasn’t mentioned any uncles. A babysitter, maybe, but that doesn’t really make sense since Tulip isn’t home yet- ah!

She’s talking to someone as she turns the corner, bouncing her backpack. It’s lilac and circular, as well as covered in buttons. The Ranger helmet is in her backpack or still in her locker, but either way, she’s not wearing it anymore. She’s got the boots on, though. You adjust the binoculars a bit, but you aren’t good enough at lip-reading yet to tell what she’s saying. Whatever it is, it’s making the girl she’s talking to laugh. Maybe she’ll tell you tomorrow in class or at lunch if you pull her to sit at your table again. She has more friends at the middle table, but they don’t like sitting next to you after the beetle incident, and she doesn’t seem to mind. She always has a big smile when you start talking, and she’d say something if she didn’t like you, right? Pretty much everybody else does.

_________

May: Do Something For You (TD spoilers!)

Dib had never really thought ahead to having a family, but she was pretty much everything she’d want in one. She was an assistant and a partner, she was invested in the paranormal, she hated Zim- but on the other hand, she didn’t want him hurt? She seemed weirdly invested in making sure he didn’t get caught, actually. Eh, she’d hit him pretty hard, so it wasn’t like she was opposed to him getting his rightful dues for being an evil space monster.

It was relatively simple- she was just worried if he died then her timeline would be destabilized, which was a decent enough concern. Zim had to be important to his life for years to come, in one way or another. But whatever they were dealing with in the future, it had to be better with Zim out of the way earlier, right?

__________

June: Unnamed capture au drabble

“Why do you even give me these stupid scripts if you don’t like me doing them?” Dib folded his arms, kneading the ball in his palm. “Just get a robot or something.” He snorted. “I mean, it’d probably break, like half the stuff you touch.”

Zim’s hands curled into fists. “Take that back, you- you- worm!”

Dib quirked an eyebrow. “What, touched a nerve? When I was a kid, half the stuff you made broke, it’s just a fact. You only conquered Earth because this place is a trash heap and your garbage is slightly better than ours.” Over a year in Zim’s presence without too many galling injuries and a lifetime of not being able to keep his mouth shut made him bold. “Honestly, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re probably broken yoursel-” He was cut off with a Pak leg aimed directly at his throat, prodding in just deep enough to draw a drop of blood down the alien metal.

Zim’s eyes were narrowed, but something was watering on the edges, and Dib swallowed, adam’s apple bobbing just below the leg’s tip.

“Zim. Is. Not. Broken.”

___________

July: Laughter

Ryou couldn't stand the lights on one minute and then hated having them off the next. The shadows bled from the way the light reflected off the couch, how it seemed to devour the wall behind it, and he swore he could still hear the voice in his mind. (Was that himself? Had he started thinking of himself as a separate voice? It had been ages since he'd really been alone, even though anyone outside him would have wondered about the boy who talked to his reflection like it was an old friend.)

He wished he could talk to Ryou. Ryou who had seemed so pliable as a child but had proved entertaining, a match for the fire, (heh, fire, even though it wasn't that funny, in fact, it wasn't funny at all, but what did he have but jokes? it wasn't like he could cry anymore) who carved out rules for use of the body with gritted teeth and tugged at the rope of the Ring so hard it had chafed his neck. He'd respected him. From a soft child, he'd hardened and grown firm, grown powerful, grown to be worthy. What were the odds fate had given him a chance at the same time someone had handed a young Yugi the box with the Puzzle? A roll of the dice. (The Gods having a last laugh, perhaps..)

Ryou dug his nails into the wood of the desk so hard that it made crescents, tiny moons in the umber that dug splinters into his pale fingers. The little model of the Thief King sat, as he always did, half-hidden on his shelf behind the pieces of Zorc. He'd never bothered to glue the monster back together but felt oddly reluctant to just incinerate the figures and be done with them. Both of them. Either of them. Maybe he just didn't want to pretend it had never happened. (Maybe he was worried he'd forget, thoughts and memories swept away by the sands of time, trickling down the hourglass, minute by minute, day by day, as he aged the way the Spirit had never been allowed to.)

___________

August: New Mission

It had been a month.

Nebula Twix had survived. She’d had to be popped into the healing pod when she had an allergic reaction to the oatmeal Dib had tried to feed her when it had inflamed her spooch, and Gir had tried to eat her head the one second Zim’s back had been turned, and she made goo from both ends a lot, but otherwise, she was perfectly fine!

And with that, Zim had come to a crossroads. It seemed that he was, indeed, in this for the long heel. (He was pretty sure that was the phrase. Humans liked large feet and large boots, so it made sense.) He could either continue to keep her a secret, or he could pass on his success to the Tallests.

Creating slaves out of the species marked for invasion was pretty common- something like 85% of invaders did it. But creating hybrids? That number was much lower. (Besides, they were usually disposed of as soon as the invasion was complete.) And irkens having those hybrids from their own bodies, and not just mixing them out of genetic slurry and quickly aging them up in time-fields? Almost completely unheard of. Zim was the pioneer in that area.

Also, having smeets from one’s body may have been a tad illegal, considering how hard it had been to find good information and judging from the fact that all irkens found to do it were brought in for experimentation. But no matter! Zim was nothing if not very, very good at things few other irkens dared to do, ready to drive the Empire forward by any means possible. They would have to appreciate that!

__________

September: Twix finds out she’s pregnant

Secondary life-form detected, the chamber chimed.

“Oh, gross, I’ve got a tapeworm? Well, flush it out.” Twix rolled her eyes, going back to the computer.

Lifeform has elements of Pak user.

Her finger froze on the ‘b’ key. “It… what? Analyze species origin.”

The chamber hummed around Twix as sweat dripped down the skin of her neck. There was a tiny 'ding!’ like a kitchen timer.

Lifeform is too underdeveloped to make more than approximations, but is roughly 25% irken and 75% Dominant Earth Species.

Her scream rattled the walls.

__________

October: Best-Laid Plans

“Of course, Number One.” Two turned his head slightly, and Dib jolted- he hadn’t directly commanded him to do that. “Your plan is perfect.” He blinked slowly- much slower than most Zims. Most Zims were utterly manic, back and forth and back and forth, loud and brutal and dangerous, but Two- Two had always worshiped him. Maybe even more than the rest. It had been nice, to be admired so heavily. Two had adored the personal attention when he was turned into an errand boy.

Dib might miss him.

He shook that thought out of his head, gripping both sides of Two’s face with his index finger and thumb, nails (not claws, they weren’t claws) digging into the cheeks.

“You belong to me.” Two didn’t respond, and Dib dug in a little further.  Irken skin was thicker than a human’s, with a single drop of pink blood oozing over Dib’s fingernail and leaving a barely-perceptible damp trail. “Respond. Who do you belong to?”

“I belong to you, Number One.”

___________

November: Desperation (warning if you click through for impalement)

Dib’s lips were on Zim’s before he even knew what he was doing. “You’re not dying on me, you little bastard,” he hissed, fumbling to hold up the body as Zim nearly coughed blood directly into Dib’s mouth. It was salty and sweet all in one, but Dib couldn’t linger on the taste. Zim’s fingers grasped at his shirt, and Dib took that as a sign that it was working, pressing their lips together hard enough to bruise the capillaries.  

There was a click. Dib breathed in blood and out carbon dioxide, sputtering and swallowing it down so Zim wouldn’t die like this-

Something red-hot and metallic climbed over his arm before digging into his spine, and he realized that the body had gone entirely limp before there was electricity and then there was nothing.

____________

December: Freak

Twix grit her teeth. “How am I supposed to trust you if you’ll just- just do that?”

“How am I supposed to drop my whole social life because you can’t help being the weirdest person in school?” Tulip shot back. “I do care about you, but it’s so, so hard sometimes, because you just don’t know how to act, and sometimes I’m sick of waiting for you to play catchup just because your parents are the town freaks!” She slapped her hands over her mouth and took a step back.

Twix’s eye twitched under her goggles. “At least they’re freaks that love me. I’ll see you tomorrow, third period.”

“Twix-”

“I said,” Twix said through gritted teeth, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Get out before I reactivate the security.”

Tulip got out, and Twix buried her face in a couch pillow and screamed.

[the-power-of-blue-eyes]

To Hell For The Company

Zorc shrieked with pain and rage, bellowing as he clawed at the air, trying to knock Seto and his holy blade away from him. The flash of light had blinded and disoriented enough that he missed the comparatively tiny angel. His draconic phallus, also blinded, swung and sprayed jets of fire at random. One blast caught Seto's calf, and he cried out in pain.

The howl of victory rattled Seto's bones even as he retreated to find a better angle of attack. One threat neutralized, Zorc's massive tail began to swing at the patriarch's own back, flailing at his own flesh in an attempt to smash Bakura like a mosquito.

"NO!" screamed Seto, and he rushed underneath Zorc, swinging at the base of the demon's tail to slice it off or at least incapacitate it before it could hit Bakura.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

{Closed angel/demon AU antagoshipping RP between @yaminokura and @the-power-of-blue-eyes}

{Read from the beginning here}

[riyuyami]

Hey, got anymore headcanons for the duo vessel au?

Oh wow, people still remember that au? :o Hmm, let me see...

-Millennium World is complete chaos now that we have two vessels involved instead of one. So the duel with Zorc as Bakura and Yugi now includes Jounouchi cause he at least deserves a rematch! That little duel before time stopped was utter nonsense!

-I am *this* close to just letting Atem stay with them cause the ending of ygo is bullshit, and Yugi is more than happy to have another roommate

-But if he leaves, we get DSOD and we see Jounouchi actually being saved by Atem, who talks with him. We get to see more of that than just Atem posing in the distance.

-I will always have the bad guy never knowing that Jounouchi is the other vessel for Atem’s soul, so it’s always a surprise. ‘Really? This guy!? First the tiny man and now king dork?!’

-I’m surprised that it took them so long to tell anyone, you’d think either of them would have let it slip that a ghost lives in their souls

-Kaiba starts to see Jounouchi as more of a rival than as a constant annoyance the longer Atem hangs around. He can see that both of them duel differently with that deck Jou has, and he has to admit... Jou has a better grasp of such a risky deck than even the spirit. He’s not gonna admit this out loud, of course.

[yaminokura]

To Hell For The Company

Even with his eyes closed, Seto’s holy light brought tears to the corners of Bakura’s eyes. Good. If it hurt him, it hurt Zorc a hundredfold. Bakura was pissed that Seto hadn’t obeyed him, but it was done, and there was nothing to do but fight.

Seto dragged his sword up Zorc’s leg. The holy blade split the flesh like a kitchen knife through raw beef. Bakura leapt on Zorc’s back, using his serrated dragon talons to climb where Zorc couldn’t reach. He was no longer the small devil he’d been with Bakari—with a scraggly barbed tail and tiny nubs for horns. Thanks to his journey with Seto, Bakura was half dragon, and as Seto used his holy blade to draw cuts across Zorc’s chest, Bakura used his claws to maul the demonic patriarch.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

{Closed angel/demon AU antagoshipping RP between @yaminokura and @the-power-of-blue-eyes}

{Read from the beginning here}

[stcrcrcsscd-blog]

//I got another AU idea comin, I can feel it. So... listening to pirate music and me being me, I have an idea for another YGO type world. 

Under the cut because it got long real fast.

It’s set in a world based on the setting of Final Fantasy 9 with the airships and technology, but add an Ancient Egyptian twist and a bunch of magic. 

Oh, and trading cards. Can’t forget those.

 Anyways, There are three people destined to wield the Egyptian gods. Obelisk, Slifer, and Ra can only be summoned by one particular person. In this verse Kaiba can summon Obelisk, Atem summons Slifer, and Yugi summons Ra.

The cards were only created to act as spell storage, and people have ‘decks’ filled with the cards they use on a regular basis. Some cards are illegal, such as the Seal of Orichalchos, destruction ring, and many other spell and trap cards. You actually have to get a license to use trap cards in this verse unless your job requires their usage.

Monster battling isn’t allowed in cities due to the size of some monsters, however, smaller ones are allowed to be summoned and used around other people as long as the monster is well trained. Most monsters have docile attitudes, but some are dangerous even when small. (Looking at the toons here. They love to fight and cause destruction)

Zorc is in this world as the demonic spellcaster. In order to defeat him, all three Egyptian gods must be summoned. The problem is, they choose their wielders, and those wielders could be scattered all over Egypt. There’s also only one card of each god.

Atem got Slifer when he was eleven, Seto got Obelisk when he was six. Neither could summon them, but they could talk to them and see them as tiny versions of themselves.

Yugi got Ra the latest. Around fifteen years old.

There are pirates in this, and Yugi’s the captain of the Lunar Pirates. A group that openly supports the pharaoh. He’s a little bit of a flirt at times (You can blame Akefia for that). Atem’s entranced by Yugi when he first sees him and decides to try and court him. 

There’s obviously puzzle/blindshipping in this, as Ra and Slifer are a couple. Their love story has been told for hundreds of years in this verse.

Also, Kul Elna is also in this. Though it’s not destroyed. It's known as the city of carriers. Any male child born in that city has a chance of inheriting a special gene through their mothers. Of course, this gives them the ability to have children. Those males will have wider hips than regular males and a more hourglass shape, but they can’t make their own milk. They’ll need a wet nurse to feed their babies when they have them.

Gay marriage is legal because of these men, and even normal men that can’t have children can also get married. Same for women. The women of Kul Elna can also get male anatomy from their fathers.

That’s all I want to type out right now, not including Ra and Slifer’s love story. That will be either its own post or a drabble.

SHIT this got long...//

[thosewhoruleegypt]

The Pharaoh’s Lotus Garden (1 - 1)

The Pharaoh’s Lotus Garden is a collection of oneshots and drabbles within the TwRE-verse; Ancient Egypt AU. Each can be read separately, but they'll make more sense with context 

Main Story Begins Here!  Also available on AO3~  Previous Chapter - Next Chapter 

Part I; Chapter 1  In which Thief King Bakura convinces Yugi to unlock his cage door  2500 words; rated T; warnings for discussions of suicidal thoughts and/or actions, and for brief mentions of past abuse 

Ryou Bakura was an unmoving lump on the bed, occasionally snoring softly. Thief King Bakura, however, sat staring out at the dungeon hallway with gleaming eyes. The light filtering in from the tiny sliver of window just below the cell's ceiling turned his gray hair to shining silver.

"Evening, little pharaoh-ling. To what do we owe this moonlight visit?"

Yugi shifted uneasily, then sat down outside the cell with a resigned sigh. "I couldn't sleep. And Pharaoh knows to look for me most everywhere else, and I really don't want to talk to him, right now."

"You can talk to me, if you want. Ryou's pretty impossible to wake, once he's out, but I never could stay asleep through the night."

"Thanks... and sorry," Yugi said, sighing. "Sleeplessness wears at you, doesn't it?"

"I'm used to it. In my line of work, you always sleep with one eye open." Bakura grinned at him, and Yugi gave a small smile.

"Fair enough. I really don't feel much like talking, though."

"That's fine, too," Bakura said, leaning back to drag over a bottle of wine. "Have a drink?"

Yugi shrugged; took a mouthful of wine and then passed the bottle back through the bars. "Wine does help with sleeplessness, doesn't it?"

"It does," Bakura said, with a grin. They sat in amicable silence for a moment, and then he said, "You know what else helps?"

"What?"

"Going for a walk."

Yugi gave him an unamused look. "I'm not that easily fooled."

"C'mon," Bakura appealed, spreading his hands. "I just want to stretch my legs a bit."

"No way."

"How big is this luxurious little cell?" Bakura asked, with a motion. "Ten by seven? And as much as I appreciate the bed—which I do, I really do—it kinda cuts down on space."

"..."

"Ryou's getting sick of my pacing. We almost had a fight today, because of it."

"..."

"What damage could I possibly do, with you as escort?"

"A lot, actually..."

"You can cuff me." Bakura held out his wrists willingly.

"I wouldn't want to do that..."

"And besides, I'd be leaving Ryou behind. He's basically collateral to make sure I'd come back."

Yugi thought about that for a moment; examined Bakura's hopeful eyes. The Thief King was a rather large man, and the cell looked even smaller than it should have around him, even when he was sitting. Yugi swallowed slightly, observing the muscular legs that the Thief King claimed a desire "just to stretch." He was attractive in an entirely different way than Atem, Yugi thought. The Pharaoh of Egypt was lean and sleek, like a caracal or wild cat. The Thief King was powerfully built, like a desert lion, an effect which would only be emphasized as he further regained his health. Already, even in the confines of the small cell, his fugitive-leanness had begun to fade with adequate food, rest, and proper shelter from the elements. Yugi swallowed again, involuntarily, as he recalled the time he had walked in on a very shirtless Bakura doing push-ups with Ryou on his back.

"What do you think?" Bakura's eyes were limpid and sincere as he prompted the other, and again Yugi swallowed.

"I... well..." Though he knew—from experience and legend—that the Thief King was no novice at telling tales, Yugi couldn't seem to summon up a scrap of earnest mistrust. So he stood, slowly, and said, "A walk... yeah, walks are good, on sleepless nights."

The Thief King brightened, a smile like a child's slicing his face. "You're the kindest of Lords, certainly, Yugi Mutou!" He stood as Yugi fetched the keys from some ways down the hallway, then turned back and kissed Ryou's forehead with a murmur of, "Be back, my love." Yugi couldn't tell if it was for show or not.

"Just a quick walk around the garden," he said, as if to reassure himself of the fact. The Thief King came trotting—laudably restrained, in his excitement—into the hallway, and waited as Yugi re-locked the cell.

"Did you want to cuff me?" he asked, and Yugi shook his head.

"It wouldn't do a lot of good, anyway, if you decided to try anything."

Bakura laughed, flexing one bicep. "I know these look impressive, but I'm really not capable of shattering chains."

Yugi gave him an unamused look, less than assured. "Let's go..." he sighed, and Bakura kept obediently to his side as they walked down the corridor.

"So what's your sad story?" Bakura asked, conversationally. Yugi glanced over at him in surprise.

"My sad story?"

"You were a slave, right?"

Yugi nodded. "Yeah..."

"Parents sell you?"

"Oh no..." Yugi shook his head. "Someone I beat in a game. I bet my life on the game, against the debt on my grandfather's shop. He couldn't pay, so I played for a chance for him to keep it. But when I won, the man attacked me. And when I woke up, I had already been sold."

Bakura gave a low chuckle. "Ouch."

"From what I heard, he didn't make half of the money my grandfather owed him, by selling me. That made me a little happy."

Bakura laughed. "That is a bit satisfying. I still think you'd fetch a fairly high price, though."

Yugi gave him a baleful glance, but didn't speak as he opened the outer door of the dungeon complex. Bakura pulled a step or two ahead, but stopped just on the threshold. He raised his face and inhaled deeply, eyes closed.

"It's good to be alive."

Yugi blinked up at him in surprise, closing the door as quietly as he could manage. The Thief King certainly looked more magnificent in the open than in a cage, face turned up toward the moon, his scarred and supple body bathed in silver. Yugi was momentarily caught short of breath.

"I owe that to Ryou, you know," Bakura said, with a catty glance toward Yugi. Then he set off at a leisurely pace, Yugi trotting to catch up and then padding along beside him.

"Was that all true? What you told Atem?"

"You believed it," the Thief King said, with a sideways grin.

"But was it true?" Yugi repeated.

"Every word," Bakura replied easily. He kicked playfully at a stone in the path. "Ever wanted to die, little pharaoh-ling?"

"No."

"It's a wonderful thing, really, if you're lucky enough to live through it," Bakura said, gazing up at a tree as they passed. "You never see things the same way."

Yugi nodded slightly. "I know what despair is like," he said, "even if I've never wanted death. So I do have some idea of what you're talking about."

"I can imagine. From a slave to the betrothed of a pharaoh? It's like me, going from street rat to King of Thieves."

"You did that by your own merit, though," Yugi said, embarrassed. "I was lucky to have Atem appear to pick me up out if the mud."

Bakura shook his head. "You and the Pharaoh... there's something very special that exists between you two. The fact that you got dragged into the Shadow Realm with him is proof of that. And you earn your keep dueling for him, don't you? Am I right?"

Yugi nodded, though he lowered his head. "That's... yeah, that's the big secret..."

"Anyone who knows their way around the Shadow Realm could figure it out. Luckily, there aren't that many out there who do."

"Why do you know?" Yugi asked with interest.

"I made a deal with a demon. A monster. Zorc, in fact," Bakura said, pausing and gazing up into the lush branches of a tree. "I'm going to climb this," he informed Yugi, without looking down. "I'm not trying to escape, so don't freak." He leaped, then, and heaved himself up with powerful arms, vanishing with a leafy rustle.

"H-Hey!" Yugi called after him, then hurried to scramble up the trunk. When he broke out into the moonlight once more, close to the top of the tree, he found Bakura waiting there, leaning on a thick branch and gazing up at the sky.

"We all make contracts with them, those of us who duel," the Thief King said. "I just took it a bit farther. I gave Zorc a piece of my soul, and he gave me access to the Shadows."

Yugi gaped. "A piece of your soul?"

"Mmhm," Bakura touched the hollow at the base of his neck, then trailed his fingers down to the golden ring that hung, always, against his chest. "That was long before I met Ryou. That was when I was dying, for real, as a street rat with nothing and no one. That deal allowed me to keep living."

"But... you gave up a part of your soul..." Yugi breathed.

"Aah, but you're talking to the King of Thieves, little Yugi. I got it back, a long time ago. My soul's intact, I assure you, and I can walk the Shadows, and I command Zorc as my servant in mighty duels. A true King, don't you think?"

Yugi swallowed, wondering yet again if he'd made a terrible mistake by letting the Thief King out to take a walk.

But Bakura soothed his fears with a surprisingly soft smile, and said, "I could overthrow your Pharaoh on a whim. But you, Yugi Mutou? I think you might be able to get the better of even me."

"M-Me...?" Yugi asked, the branch he stood upon swaying.

The Thief King nodded. "You think I didn't have that duel won? Little Yugi, you're the one who beat me, that day. And Ryou says you're the one who saved me, when my pulse stopped. Now I sit in a dungeon, with my precious Ryou, and I'm happy of it, because of you. I don't think there's another god or monster or human soul that could have that kind of influence on me."

Yugi didn't know how to respond, so he remained silent.

"Why don't you want to talk to Pharaoh?" Bakura prompted, eventually.

Yugi sighed. "Because... he can't make it like things didn't happen. He tries so hard... and he does so much, for me... but sometimes... when we sleep next to each other... he can see them, too. The flashbacks. The dreams. They cause him more pain than they cause me. I... Physical distance makes it easier to keep our minds separate, so he doesn't have to dream about that, too."

Bakura nodded slowly; waited patiently for Yugi to find the words to continue.

"It's like... what he doesn't realize is... he can feel my terror, but I can also feel his guilt. He takes it on himself, and he tries to make it like it never happened. But that's impossible. You can't change the past. I have a future, now, and that's thanks to him, but he has to realize that... that the past isn't something either of us can help!"

Again Bakura nodded; said, "The past makes us who we are, pharaoh-ling—you, and I, and even Horus-incarnate, the Pharaoh. We'd be different people, if not for our pasts. It'd be foolish to change them, even if we could."

"I know." Yugi gave a weary smile. "I wouldn't change a thing."

"Neither would I," said the Thief King.

They gazed wordlessly up at the sky, together, for some time. Bakura sighed, softly and in apparent contentment. Yugi recalled a similar night spent with Ryou Bakura on the palace terrace, and smiled.

"You know, I was absolutely planning to escape, if you actually let me out tonight."

Yugi's jaw dropped, and he turned to meet Bakura's eyes—gleaming with humor. "What?!"

"I don't have it in me, though," the Thief King said, with a shrug. Then he dropped down through the boughs, and Yugi scrambled after him, landing just as Bakura was brushing himself off. "Let's head back. Don't want Ryou to wake up and think I've killed you and run off, or anything like that."

Yugi's eyes narrowed as he followed the Thief King back along the path. "Are you teasing?" he asked warily. "About intending to escape?"

"Maybe. Maybe not." Bakura grinned. "Even if I play tame, I'd like to at least keep you guessing."

Yugi huffed.

"We should do this again, sometime," Bakura said, stopping to run his hand gently through a flowerbed as he passed it.

"Not happening. Not after what you just told me."

"Really? Maybe I should make a break for it while I have the chance, then..."

"W-Wait just a minute...!"

"Kidding, kidding... or maybe I'm not?"

"Please stop!"

The Thief King laughed—a warm, deep sound, and Yugi felt his spirit lifted mysteriously. He looked up; saw Bakura's face in profile. The pale, disfiguring scar contrasted even more vividly with his rich skin-tone in the moonlight. The sight should have been a frightening one, but the Thief King's expression was peaceful; his laugh and his slight smile both genuine.

"The legends of the Thief King don't mention your good humor or your wisdom. Why is that, do you think?"

Bakura gave a loose shrug of his powerful shoulders. "When you get a reputation as a thief and a killer, no one cares to listen to your jokes or your anecdotes."

"Makes sense, I guess."

"I am a thief and a killer, Yugi."

"I know that," Yugi said, a bit uncomfortably. "But..."

"But nothing." Bakura, suddenly serious, turned to him. "You should have let me die, by all rational thought."

"I couldn't do that," Yugi said softly. "You reminded me of... and Ryou..."

"I'm not sorry you saved me," Bakura said. "I want to stay alive, for as long as possible. But you're a smart one. You had to realize what saving me could mean."

"But I wasn’t thinking about that," Yugi said. "I was thinking about your life. That's all."

"Why not think about all the lives I've taken? And those I might take, if I lived?"

"I didn't make a mistake by saving you—I'm sure of that! Why are you trying to convince me that I did?" Yugi asked, a bit exasperated.

"So you don't go trying to make friends with every killer and thief you meet," Bakura replied. "Just because it worked this time doesn't mean—"

"It worked?!" 

Bakura blinked. "It what?"

Yugi beamed up at him, any annoyance banished instantly. "Are you saying we're friends?"

The Thief King paused; replayed the conversation, for himself, and then gave a rueful chuckle. "Shit... little pharaoh-ling, don't twist my words."

"I didn't! You said, 'Just because it worked this time.' So you do admit that it worked!"

Bakura laughed; nudged Yugi's shoulder lightly with one fist. "Don't tell the Pharaoh, okay? I'm not sure he wouldn't have me put to death on the spot for claiming to be your friend."

Yugi nodded, his smile brightening further. "Sure! But he'll come around eventually, I'm sure of it." 

"With your skills of persuasion? I'm sure he will."

As they reached the entrance of the dungeon once more, Yugi said, "We should do this again, soon."

Bakura gave him a predatory grin—obvious histrionics that made Yugi chuckle. "And if I try to escape?"

"You won't," Yugi said, with certainty, and Bakura softened.

"I won't, Yugi Mutou. Not from you."

[anonymouscreampuff]

yugioh au where everything is the same but zorc looks like that

[anonymouscreampuff]

vaguelygenius replied to your photo “yugiohau where everything is the same but zorc looks like this thing”

FEAR HIM

@vaguelygenius  he is to be feared

[anonymouscreampuff]

what a bunch of dorks

[anonymouscreampuff]

he sleeps

[anonymouscreampuff]