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kudalyn · 5 years

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And now for your other fantasy AU...what is it going by? Magic AU? Anyway super interesting!! So is completely-human still the default form for Atem though? Is it just that every time he transforms he can't help making a tail? And does the anal country (lol sry not sry) ever find them? Is it the mental link that finally reveals their feelings for each other? I get that Atem's magic is different but what can it DO other than let him transform, out of curiosity? Sorry for the scattered questions!

magic au! my au that i’d love to do more for but have to have on the sidelines still ;v; also needs a better name…

now that atem’s a demon conduit, his ‘main form’ is mostly human, but with some mild touches like sharper ears and pupils, a general ‘not quite human’ air to his overall appearance, things you wouldnt really notice unless you were observant and knew what to look for. if he allowed himself to relax and accept what he is now fully, his appearance would take on a bit more of a demonic look to it, horns, small claws, lil nub tail, some black markings. but it takes him a long time to be comfortable in his own skin again, so his keeping up a ‘glamor’ essentially becomes second nature to him and hard to turn off.

unless he’s going fully ‘human’ he almost always has some form of a tail. it’s a point of disgruntlement for him, for learning how to have a tail isn’t easy (but hes at least glad he can keep it short to not do any damage) but yugi finds it endearing. it’s a design trait he just can’t quite get rid of - similar to horns and markings/scales. he can’t ever get fully rid of them himself, more just adjust the sliders of his own customization menu, if you will. shrink the horns, means something else has to grow or change in its place. he can go full ham on some design elements if he wants to, but he’s not really comfortable doing so unless it’s absolutely necessary, like combat.

their home country (lol, anal country) does send people after them, in a more guise of spies/assassins/retrievers sent out without permission into other countries’ territory to try and keep their ‘scandal’ under wraps and not have to deal with the other countries political loops or laws. particularily to the country yugi and atem fled to - one who’s known to give asylum to refugees welcomingly and could get in their way, but also could decide having someone as dangerous as a untrained demon conduit wasn’t worth the trouble for the alliance, and kick yugi and atem out of that country as well. so both assassins and the boys try to keep a low profile for various reasons.

its actually a batch of assassins that make atem and yugi have to reveal themselves to jou and ryou in the first place - yugi had been pretending to be a old man and atem his cat, and jou had gone to him about his sister’s fading sight as rumors of a skilled and cheap apothecary had been popping up, and jou was having trouble gathering money for a ‘proper’ expensive treatment that might not even work. with yugi’s quiet magical help shizuka was cured, and jou was immensely loyal to ‘old man jenkins’ out in the woods, happy to run errands for him or send customers his way, and check in on the old man. ryou came about later looking to be an apprentice, but yugi had to turn him away, but still helped him out a little through book suggestions and minor lessons. ryou and jou met through visiting old man jenkins, and became friends

they noticed some shady looking guys trailing old man jenkins in town one day and followed them out to the forest in the directions of yugi’s hut, and got an eyeful of yugi and atem shedding their disguises and fighting back. there wasn’t much they could do to help out in the fight, as their magic wasn’t near on par as these magic users, but they helped distract a little and in the end, helped yugi hide the unconsious bodies. yugi fled back to the cabin to get memory-altering spells to try and turn the assassins off their path, for just killing them would leave a big X on their location (though atem wanted to do off with them) and yugi didn’t want to be on the run again just yet. ryou and jou help atem guard the men until yugi returns, and then yugi and atem reveal who they are - but yugi intends on using the memory altering magic on jou and ryou too, but ryou notices this and begs them not to do it - they want to help out yugi and learn more about them. they insist they’ll keep their mouths shut, and even help keep an eye out in town if more shifty stuff pops up and try to help redirect any nosy business so yugi and atem can avoid a fight like that again

yugi is unsure but atem is the one who suggests they try it out - he knows yugi is lonely and tired of running, they just got comfortably settled in their cabin for more than a year. he threatens to eat ryou and jou if they betray them though, lol

their mental link does help with getting feelings across, but they had already confessed their feelings prior to the familiar contract - it was the contract that made atem open up about his feelings to yugi, insisting he wanted to be with yugi forever and this was a solid way to tie him to yugi and ensure yugi’s safety - from himself

yugi had some romantic feelings for atem as well but had pushed them aside in all the stress and danger, but the opening of the mental link allowed them to be able to share thoughts and emotions without miscommunication, so he opened up to their relationship fully when he could fully understand the depth of atem’s feelings. the mental link has some downsides, like intrusive thoughts sometimes flitting between them or things like those awful ‘first thing that came to mind and it was an insult’ sort of thoughts, but they have a different ‘color’ than their fully coherent thoughts so they understand what they are easily and try to help each other with those kinds of things, like each owns self-detrimental thoughts and feelings. also the fact they literally can’t keep a secret from each other, cause while they can keep the thought itself hidden, the other can feel when they’re withholding something behind a mental barrier, and thus gets nosy. though the mental link is a hell of a boon when it comes to mushy times and sexy times, but they learn to tune out the ‘yugi and atem radio FM’ with experience. it can be distracting.

atem’s magic is mostly about power absorption and distribution. it comes across as a physical alteration to himself usually, but demons absorb essence and power via emotions, elements, or just pure arcane magic depending on their specialty. atem - and by extension zorc’s - specialty was arcane, one of the most deadly since it can just draw from existence itself. atem can suck the magic stamina right out of someone and use it for himself, altering it as he needs, but he can also give it, greatly strengthing and fortifying yugi’s already pretty impressive stamina and skills. essentially he skills in buffs and debuffs, and through that he can strengthen himself and yugi in various ways. he usually buffs his own physical strength, and yugi’s magical stamina, but he can do things like mimic elemental magic if need be (not his strong point, little finesse with that stuff and more Big Explosions)

its a great boon to yugi since atem can choose what kind of buff to give yugi depending on the type of magic yugi is using. yugi is a jack of all trades wizard, where he has many skills but not many direct specialties or masteries. atem can help buff that by giving him more control over a certain element or branch of magic, where it’d normally take yugi more studying and control to use said branch, and through the buffs he learns and gets more skills when he uses that branch of magic.

as these kind of open buffing and debuffing is extremely useful but dangerous in this magical world, demon conduits (and strong demon familiars) are deemed far too dangerous to exist, for they can either be very destructive themselves by absorbing magic and causing pure chaos, or if they are trapped and manipulated they can give someone or some group much more power than they’d have naturally.

a perilous existence for atem, for sure, but yugi and atem manage as best as they can.

#skyisthelimit112 #kudask #magic au

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