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marichat-verse · 3 years

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Mist Memories

Leo Valdez x reader for his birthday ahhhh (even though it's angsty) with a platonic/developing jason x reader cameo at the end (lmao im sorry i couldn't help myself 😭)

Based on this picture I found in pinterest + also [kinda] based on traitor by olivia rodrigo and omg i really recommend u guys listen to this edit because it reminds me so much of this fic that's been stuck in my head for MONTHS also kind of a run away with me prologue lol

Your POV

I nervously made my way across the forest until I reached a limestone cliff. I knocked on the iron door, not really expecting to get an answer.

My boyfriend has been shutting himself in Bunker 9 for the past few weeks. I stood there counting up to seven before knocking again. I knocked again two more times, until he answered in the middle of my last knock.

He removed his goggles and winced as sunlight hit his eyes. He'd grown thinner and paler, making the dark circles in his eyes more pronounced.

"Oh, Leo..." I reached out to brush a few strands of hair away from his face, but he moved away.

"What are you doing here?" He said in a monotone voice.

I moved to walk inside the Bunker, brushing off his hesitation to let me in. "I'm your partner, remember? And I'm really concerned because you're shutting yourself out lately. You know everyone's starting to worry about you. Percy asked me to check on you because you missed pegasus riding with him. Oh, and I'm pretty sure Jason's coming back from Camp Jupiter soon. I was hoping you and Annabeth could be with Piper while Percy and I hung out with Jason because it's been a little awkward since their breakup. Plus Piper wanted to tell you something—"

"Please," he said forcefully causing me to stop and look at him. "Just... Get out."

Normally, he'd shut himself from the world for a few days to work on an important project or because he was feeling really sad and he needed space. But this was getting out of hand. He had never locked me out of his life when I offered to help him. He was never this mean when he asked for space. I was not having this attitude of his.

"Okay, Leo. I tried to play nice. What is so important that you blow off all your friends for nearly a month that you can't even tell your partner, or maybe say hi to your best friend who's coming back from the other side of the country?"

He didn't say anything. He pursed his lips and avoided eye contact. I scanned he room for any signs.

It was messier than usual with all the crumpled paper scattered on the floor, especially on his desk. He could have been drawing up new plans. Something in my gut told me that something wasn't right. There were no new unfinished projects, indicating that he wasn't starting a new invention. Harley's helicopter lay on his bench in the same state it was weeks ago. Huh, not even his siblings could enter the Bunker.

I turned and Leo was already changing Festus' oil. I took this moment of distraction to pick up a few pieces of crumpled paper on the floor and on his desk. I had to process the words a bit longer—too long that Leo took notice. Damn dyslexia.

I heard footsteps speed up behind me, but it was too late. I read enough and got the gist of what he had been trying to do these past few weeks.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He yelled at me. Small embers started to erupt between his curls.

I laughed dryly. "So this is what you've been up to?"

His fists tightened, further crumpling the paper in his hands. His eyes flashed with anger, despair and confusion.

I sighed and focused my eyes on his desk, not daring to look at him any longer. Under some pieces of paper were old photographs of him and Piper from Wilderness School. Yup, those definitely were the mist memories she had with Jason. I read the latest draft he'd been writing:

Dear Piper,

Remember the mist memories from boarding school with Jason? They were real, but they were with me.

I miss you. I miss when it was just us. I miss the night on the roof.

Yours truly,

Leo Valdez

I tried to keep my voice from cracking. "How long?"

I heard him sigh. "Three weeks."

I balled my fists. Tears started to fall and smudge the ink. I wiped them away as fast as they came.

"How?"

"In a dream," his tone softened now. "Hera came to me in a dream and told me to check an old drawer in Bunker 9. I found the photos and the memories came rushing back."

"How long were you dating back then?"

"Two weeks."

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

Silence; then a deep breath.

"No."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Why?"

"Because I knew you'd get upset like—"

"I meant why would you throw away months of our relationship for a couple of weeks of your relationship with her? And without even bothering to tell me? Gods damn it, Leo. We've been together since you've first arrived at camp. And what about those promises you made when we were sailing to Greece? You've been keeping these feelings away from me and you've been lying to me, making me believe that there's still something between us and—"

"Oh, calm down," he said with an annoyed expression and tone, which only infuriated me more, "it's not like I did anything were her yet! I didn't kiss her or tell her how I truly felt for her! She just got out of a relationship with Jason around the same time I had that dream. I had to figure out how to talk to her about it. I've been alone in this Bunker for three. Fucking. Weeks. I didn't cheat on you."

"Oh, and that makes everything better?" I countered. "Being in a relationship isn't about not cheating, Leo. It's about being honest and communicating with each other."

"Oh, like you've been communicating with me? After the war, you take go back to Manhattan for school, and you take a job. I haven't seen you much during the holidays because work has been keeping you in the city. And you won't tell me what you even do for a living!"

I took in a deep breath. "I told you I needed to have a life outside of camp! I needed to know first that I could handle myself in the mortal world as a normal human being. I needed this demigod part of my life to be separate as much as possible! I've been in two wars, Leo. I needed time to myself, too. And I was about to tell you guys in a few more days. But I guess now, I'm glad I've kept you out of that part of my life. At least I have an escape from all of this. And now, especially from you."

I took another deep breath and walked to the door, about to let myself out. I turned back again, both our tear-stained eyes meeting each other.

"If it makes you feel any better," I said softly, "I would've hated the idea of us breaking up. But if you really love her, if you really feel like you have this special connection to her and she makes you happy, then I won't get in your way. You could at least have had the decency to talk to me so we could have left on a good note."

He looked at me with wide eyes, clearly regretting his actions. I sighed and looked around the Bunker, possibly for the last time. Lots of memories were definitely created in this room; all just as grand and meaningful as the inventions they made here. But just like some of Hephaestus' contraptions, some of them were flawed and dumped in his scrapyard, no matter how much potential it could have had.

"Goodbye, Leo."

I sat on a rock on the beach that gave me a beautiful view of Long Island Sound. To my left, the sun started to set, casting an orange filter on everything. My heart broke, remembering how everything glowed orange in the Bunker. Leo always left the fires burning when he was working. The sunlight twinkling against the sea reminded me of how small bits of flame peaked through his hair earlier. I remembered how mad he was at me. Or maybe he was mostly mad at himself.

"Hey."

I jumped when someone sat—or rather, landed—beside me. I turned and smiled, seeing one of my good friends back at camp.

"Hey, you're back," I said weakly. "How long have you been here?"

He smiled at me, although he could maybe sense that something was wrong. "Half an hour, maybe? I saw Annabeth making plans to expand camp to have a city. She made me do an aerial inspection and I told her I'll get back to her tonight. That's when I saw you."

"Mhmm," I mumbled, not really knowing what to say. It was silent for a few minutes before I spoke up again, knowing he was just waiting for me to open up.

"I broke up with Leo."

His head quickly turned to me. I guess he wasn't expecting it to be that bad. "What?"

"Oh yeah," I laughed dryly. "Turns out the mist memories Piper had in Wilderness School with you? They were real. But not with you."

His eyes widened. "Oh... With Leo."

"He locked himself in the Bunker for weeks trying to write a letter. It was heartbreaking. Like, truly heartbreaking. He wanted to tell her how much he missed her and how much he missed them. Then he said how much he missed that night with her under the stars and... It hurt. Like hell."

"Oh," he said. "I guess Piper didn't tell me everything then."

"She knew all along?"

He shook his head. "Maybe not everything, but she told me she's been confused about her feelings lately and she'd been having visions or dreams of possible old memories that were messing with her head."

"I'm sorry about you and Piper," I said.

"Don't be," he said. "I understand her. It did hurt, though. But I think I can get over it some day. We're still awkward around each other, but at least we left on a good note."

I scoffed. "Leo couldn't even give me a good ending to our relationship."

"Hey," he said as he put a hand on my shoulder. "You're a great person, y/n. You've done so much, especially for him. It's his loss that he was stupid enough to let go of you."

"I know that."

"Do you really?"

"I do!" I said. "I'm a great person and I know that. But that doesn't mean what he did doesn't hurt me."

"I know," he said. "You'll find someone who'll treat you like the queen that you are. You're a great person, and I'm not just saying this to cheer you up. I truly think you're amazing."

I smiled at him. "Thanks, Jason. And you'll find someone great, too. Maybe not as great as me but, then again, who is?"

We both let out a laugh. The conch sounded in the distance, signaling dinner. I moved to stand up before hearing Jason speak up again.

"Hey, do you maybe want to just grab a couple of plates and eat out here?"

I smiled. "Yeah. That sounds good. I don't really want everyone else hounding me about the breakup right now."

I don't know how long it was going to take me to get over Leo. We really did gave something special. It was cruel how the universe gave me something so good, to make me have hope that something was finally going right, then have it yanked away from my arms just as suddenly as it came.

He never cheated on me, but that didn't mean he didn't betray every promise we made to each other. I should have known it was too good to be true. Life has always played cruel jokes on me.

Then again, who's to say that things won't turn out for the better, right?

•••

Tagging: @drvrslcense @bubblybubbubs @dreamerball @quteez @aesthetxcimagines @chasingpj @beingleft @wadewilsonsgreatestfriend

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codename-adler · 3 years

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foxes + onesies (1/9)

based off of that one post i saw and don’t remember, where people once caught Allison wandering around Fox Tower in a giraffe onesie, and i absolutely melted for her. here is the Foxes’ journey to getting a onesie each!

Allison

in the aftermath of the “mob war”, Allison still sees Betsy for counselling, mostly to cope with Seth’s death still, her ED and to process her childhood and teenage trauma

Betsy teaches her a lot about self-care (and not in Allison’s traditionnal definitions of self-care, which are: bottle it up, act out, burn through 500$ in clothes, repeat)

all in all, Allison has a lot to come to terms with by the end of the semester, and Betsy won’t be there as much in the summer, so she leaves her with a little list of self-care tips to look at when Ally feels overwhelmed

- pick a time to make yourself some tea, or try out some new ones and tell me about it next time

- try drawing with those wonderful pencils of yours, but in different art styles (because yes, Allison does have a fashion sketchbook. but silly doodles? abstract drawings? anatomy sketches? she never tried)

- watch movies by yourself, and for yourself, Allison

- since you love shopping and spending so much, find yourself a cozy thing, a soft thing that will only be for yourself, when you need to be reminded to love yourself and be gentle with yourself

those were the suggestions that stuck to Ally the most

so the next time she goes out to the mall with Dan and Renee, she doesn’t expect to find anything like Betsy suggested

she does look for some herbal tea at David’s Tea, and ends up getting some hibiscus + rose water green tea

but then they go to Walmart (she wants to gag)

fucking Walmart

the girls need some pads and tampons, and the gatorades are on sale (because all the Foxes, as a treat for winning the Championship and bc they all want to stay close after the hard year they endured, got to stay on campus for the whole summer (idc if it’s unrealistic, sue me, that’s how i roll))

for once, Allison follows Dan and Renee, without looking at anything, without touching anything (what if she catches it??)

then Renee wants to look for socks

that’s when Ally passes a rack of colorful onesies

one brushes the tip of her elbow, and wow it’s so soft

not at all the quality material she expected

she stops in her tracks, lets the girls go on to the underwear section, and really looks at the pajamas

there are lots of unicorns, and pandas, a few mouses, and two giraffes

bright yellow, light-spotted giraffes, with their little ears and antlers and all

the sewn-on eyes are closed and have cute little lashes details

Allison imagines herself wearing it and feels utterly stupid

but- she keeps running her fingers through the synthetic velvety material, mesmerized by its softness

she thinks back on Betsy’s list

the folks would absolutely loathe it. the high school bitches too. God, even Seth would say it’s fucking stupid. Nobody should ever be seen wearing that…

But I wouldn’t have to worry about my man-shoulders in it… or my stomach… or my thighs… I could even go braless, or wear just that cute little bralette I haven’t got the courage to wear yet… and I think Renee would agree it’s cute…

then she hears Betsy’s soothing voice in her head

But do you like it?

Yes. Yes I do.

and that’s how Allison takes down the onesie, cashes out and waits for the two other girls outside the Walmart entrance, feeling silly, and jitty, yet quite happy with herself

back at Fox Tower, she washes it immediately, only to stuff it back under her bed

it stays there for quite a few weeks, until it’s almost time for school to start again, her last year at PSU

the boys are out at the beach, Andrew and Neil are God-knows-where, Renee is meeting a friend, and Dan is out shopping with her Sisters

Ally is alone, and lonely

she’s craving something, something that feels close to how one of her nanny used to take care of her hair before bedtime, telling her stories of folklore around the world

guessing that nobody will be back before sundown, she reaches underneath her bed and takes out the giraffe onesie

she gets rid of her high-waisted skinny jeans, her silky cropped blouse and her high-heeled sandals in favor of Seth’s old Marvel boxer shorts, her baby blue bralette she still hasn’t worn, and the infamous onesie

and wow, it’s so baggy

as she buttons up the front, it almost feels like being wrapped up in a giant, fluffy pancake

she giggles to herself, like a little girl

until she goes to look at herself in the mirror, where she straight-up bursts out laughing

she feels so, so light

she puts on a pair of Renee’s fuzzy socks with the sticky soles and leaves her bedhair as it is

she spends the rest of the day on the couch, watching Barbie movies from the hidden collection she has in her closet while painting her real nails in rainbow colors

she makes herself a big cup of the tea she bought, and lights an ocean-breeze candle

between Barbie as the Island Princess and Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, she even goes so far as going at the end of the hallway to buy some sugar-free gummy bears from the vending machine, completely forgetting herself…

of course, this is when the boys, including Andrew and Neil, are coming back from their day outdoors

she stops dead in her tracks when she turns around and sees them, a *giraffe* caught in the headlights

the boys only notice her because she stops moving so abruptly

she’s speechless

the boys, not so much

Kevin: *oblivious to the onesie situation* So you’re the one hoarding the healthy gummies. Dude give back some.

Matt: Oh, hi Ally… *raises his pointer finger, opens and closes his mouth in awe, lowers his arm back down* Cute?

Andrew: *his face says he doesn’t give a shit, but he’ll let the image make its way to his heart eventually* *very sneakily snaps an adorable pic for the group chat*

Neil: *whispering to Andrew, genuinely confused* I thought these were for babies? Do we qualify as babies? Why is Ally dressed like a baby, Andrew?

Nicky: BITCHHHHHH I shoulda made a bet on THAT!

Aaron: Well fuck. 60 points to Hufflepuff for cuteness. Ugh. I can’t believe I said “cute”. Jesus, I wanna vomit. Eurk.

Allison slowly makes her way back to her dorm room without a word, her cheeks flushed and her eyes to the ground, clutching her bag of gummies

she hasn’t felt this vulnerable since Seth’s passing

an hour later, she’s still hiding under her blankets as Renee and Dan file in

of course, they saw the photo posted to their group chat, and they heard everything from Matt and Nicky

Renee gets under the covers with Ally, and Dan proceeds to show off the goods she got with a very silly runway walk

they don’t say anything, until Neil sends a new picture on the GC

it’s a printed version of Andrew’s picture, pinned to the locker room wall with all the other photos they’ve accumulated

and everybody in the chat is dying of cuteness overload

Ally’s got that look of a toddler caught red handed, so open and genuine and surprised; her mouth is slighlty opened in an “o” shape; her mismatched fuzzy socks are peeking from underneath the bunched up fabric at her ankles; the hood is pulled up and slouching over her head…

but nobody, nobody, is making fun of her

we’re talking about the Foxes here. they never pull their punches.

so this? unexpected. shocking. astounding.

and right at the bottom of the picture, in shaky black marker: Baby Ally

with a poorly drawn heart next to it

in Neil’s unmistakeable handwriting

she cries

and never again is she ashamed of wandering around in her giraffe onesie

and if from then on, many Foxes gifts are soft things for her, well, that is called character development

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steve0discusses · 3 years

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S5 Ep10: Kaiba Embarrasses Himself on International Television Again

We start off this duel by teasing us into believing that this is a part of a theme park:

The Kaiba theme park is a weird mix of actual horrorscapes and animal crossing cutesy stuff...you can really tell what parts were Mokuba and what parts were Seto in this park.

But Leon takes it well, just kinda standing there as he’s done this entire arc--being a general forgettable nice boy who just...doesn’t do anything. Like he gets up, he plays cards, he sits down. Having him on top of a rock with melodramatic Little Mermaid waves crashing at his feet is laughably the opposite of Leon’s whole vibe.

Leon just seems like the type that listens to coffee shop ambient Youtube videos when he wants to amp himself up. This kid appears to attend a private school...somewhere...I think, and just went to a dueling competition in his school outfit because he literally doesn’t have a style of his own hanging in his closet.

Like Yugi wears his school outfit, but he does that ironically, to off-set the amount of makeup and hair spray he has in his hair. Leon wears the school outfit maybe because he admires Yugi so much, but is like “time for my rogue bow I wear in my hair. That’ll scare my competition.” He completely missed the point of the 00′s alt school outfit scene.

I do way too much art to not see the imagery. I feel like this is half my job, and playing “where’s the hidden Freudian meaning?” is half the fun of going to any art museum.

(read more under the cut)

Anyway, Seto got tired of no one paying any attention to him, so he stepped out of his 14-monitor mancave, he very quickly pulled his Dragon outfit out of the (dirty) laundry, flicked a couple sea crabs out of his pockets, spritzed it with Febreeze and called it “good enough.”

Like, is it just me, or has dragon jacket greyed out a tad from last season? Like it’s starting to get a little...worn? Like what funk is coming off of Seto Kaiba right now?

Also notice that he brought his giant stash of cards to the duel. He’s going to put on this show as if he’s not going to pull out the giant stash of cards. But like...he’s going to pull out the giant stash of cards. Like Hell boring ass Leon is going to play his deck of Candyland characters again.

Leon is declared a winner on Technicality and it’s like.

Damn Seto, for reals?

So congrats, Leon, you did literally nothing, again, and yet you mystifyingly persist on this show. Clearly you aren‘t going to grow a second head out of that ponytail like professor Quirrel in the last act of this arc.

That’s when Yugi’s hazy memory recalls something from the Before Times of “that time period before I was possessed by a needy ghost that eats up 3/4 of my memories and time.”

So Schroeder is Atari. Neat.

Also, this makes Zigfrieds outfits a hell ton more endearing when you realize he’s this Willy Wonka game company owner making toys for children. Kinda makes you wonder why Seto’s such a stick up the ass in comparison when it’s like--dude Kaiba, maybe you could learn a thing or two about whimsy. It could really help out your inconsistent park.

Anyway, Kaiba quickly realized who hacked the park and so, understandably, he asked Zigried to leave, which...backfired?

Y’all card culture is a lot. Everyone in the audience covered their faces in shame because they were so embarrassed by Seto Kaiba and I’m like...not sure why? Because he didn’t do a duel? Against this guy who snuck into his tourney not unlike Rex and Weevil? This asshole?

Recall that the last time Seto played a guy who had a fake name it was Marik freakin Ishtar and he killed a LOT of people (actually, it was Alister, pretending to be Pegasus, but he also killed a lot of people so that still tracks). Card culture can’t seem to learn from their mistakes, although Seto clearly sees the problem with dueling a professional hacker in a digital card game on a hologram that may or may not be able to murder you. At least its not a magic.

And so, tired of being humiliated on television, Seto decides to bust out the dueling gloves (well, not those gloves. You know what I meant) and use the equipment he BROUGHT WITH HIM and clearly never intended not to use in the first place.

(I hope you enjoy this dutch angle that wasn’t quite dutch enough, so it just looks like they’re lounging)

Roland patiently walks over from...somewhere? I don’t know where Roland comes from whenever he pops up, but he waltzed over to hold onto this suitcase as if that’s a formal part of his job.

I say this so often but like...I don’t know what Roland’s job is. He’s like a valet/butler/duel referee/duel cheerleader/CEO/and I will spend the rest of this series trying to understand it. Part of me is like...could Roland be a temp worker at an agency who just gets rehired for a different Kaiba Corp job every couple of weeks?

That weird ass fourthKaiba, I will never understand Roland.

Just one letter away from being a Zigfriend, Kaiba. Just one letter away. I know this because I misspell friend a LOT.

Zigfreind? Zigfriend? Damn it, both of them look the freakin same to me, this sucks! Why can’t I spell friend without autocorrect!?

Just the amount these two fight when Seto clearly barely even remembers who this guy even is.

Leon shows up in the seats, pretending that he’s totally cool about winning on a technicality right after Zigfried went on a rant about how shameful, irredeemable, and mortally embarrassing winning on technicalities are.

He seems to take it pretty well, smiling, sitting next to Rebecca, and then dissolving right into the background because this kid’s whole deal is being way too nice to exist on this show.

Y’all we just had that art meme where people were redrawing that “How to draw manga face” and guys...that’s what our anime used to look like.

I mean look at that uncomfortable chin there, that tapers in for some reason. Those eyes melting off of her face. The lack of any 3d sense. This was an anime ideal for a very, very long time.

Anyway, the “how to draw manga face” is a perfect masterpiece and never needs to change. (But it is fun to make fun of it although I guess the person that drew it was actually a kid, which makes sense from a publishing perspective to have a kid make a book about how to draw stuff for kids.)

We see a little flashback of Schroeder and why he hates Seto Kaiba, and can I just say, I kind of love this little outfit. Kind of a shame that it’s stuffed into a flashback.

Which is when we found out that Zigfried thinks Seto Kaiba did a plagiarism.

Which is hilarious because it was Gozaburo Kaiba who was plagiarizing Seto, so like...who did it first?

OK guys. Lets talk about this.

APPARENTLY, there was some sort of contest to work with Pegasus...kind of like an architecture contest (which is a thing, when a city is doing a big project, they send out a call, and big firms will compete to see who builds it) and I GOTTA know what Pegasus’ theme was.

Like did he say to all the little rich kid geniuses “I would like something that makes my cards ALIVE, can you do that?” Then when Pegasus got a hell ton of holograms and was he like “But ALIVE--it makes it alive, right boy?” And when he was shaking the hands of each stupid kid was he like “So if I hypothetically put my dead wife on a card and slapped it into the machine--could she EXIST. Like...enough? I just need her to legally exist is all, and not like..literally of course...but enough literally to be a sin against God, can you do that?”

I just want to know if Willy Wonka Wonderkid Von Schroeder had any idea he was creating a resurrection chamber for a dark wizard. Like he has no idea that he dodged getting his business bought straight from under him and his soul shoved into a card. And it’s not like Schroeder was going to abduct Yugi’s Grandpa and ensure that Yugi would be there to save him down the road. Like I’m pretty sure Schroeder would have been sacrificed waaay before that whole island contest even went down.

Zigfried got so freakin lucky. I can’t believe he’s mad. But then again...

...the man swims in milk pools so like...maybe his logic center is busted? Maybe he wanted to die in a horrific murder island? I don't know what Zigfried is into, but I do know that because Zigfried doesn’t have millennium rod powers linking him to the millennium eye--so would it have mattered? There’s destiny reasons that Pegasus chose Kaiba.

Course...we never found out where the scales ended up, have we? We think it’s Shadi, but have we seen Shadi bust those out since Season Zero?

Man that would be a good plot twist that will absolutely not happen.

Yo, make horse guy into a dark wizard, show, I dare you!

Anyway, that’s all for now, but if you want to read from the beginning, here’s the link:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#ygo #yugioh #yu gi oh #S5 #Ep10 #Seto Kaiba #Yugi muto #Duke Devlin #Tristan Taylor #Tea Gardner #Mokuba Kaiba #zigfried von schroeder #leon

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thegoodgayshit · 3 years

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Luz’s mother really doesn’t want to send Luz to camp. She knows once she leaves, there is no going back. But Luz has a knack for getting into trouble, and one day she stumbles into the same type of people her mother would have preferred she avoided. After helping Luz dissolve her high school bully into dust, Eda and Lilith know right away that this kid is just like them - a child of the gods. So Luz hops on a Pegasus and heads to Camp Half-blood, where she embarks on a dangerous quest that makes her both friends and enemies... and she might even save Olympus along the way.

Chapter Eleven: I Get Threatened by the King of Athens

There was a tense and uncomfortable silence. Luz had a sinking feeling in her gut, like pieces of a puzzle were coming together in a game she hadn’t agreed to play.

“What do you mean Amity isn’t with him?” She said quietly, not moving her eyes away from Theseus. If she had thought he was cute before, now the sight of him made her blood run cold. She should have listened to Gus. “Achilles captured her in Boulder. Where is she?”

Theseus pursed his lips. “Achilles isn’t always the most tactful. He has his own agenda too. He was supposed to bring Amity to my boss in Colorado, but he went off the rails, literally, and took her to his new place in Kansas City. Fled from our boss because of some disagreement between them.” Theo scoffed, rolling his eyes. “As if we could even refuse to begin with.”

Luz was stunned. “I have… so many follow up questions.”

“Kansas City? Like… our next stop?” Gus asked with a frown. “That’s one coincidence.”

Theseus hummed in annoyance, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’ll soon figure out that few things in our world are a coincidence. The gods are pawning you even as we speak. You met the flower crown lady in Cincinnati, who gave you a job to prove to the love lady she made the right choice in favoring you.” He gestures to Luz with a roll of his eye. “Then, your daddy gives you a hand in the train station to make sure you’re on the exact right path they need you to be on, so you can’t mess this one up. So sure, coincidence.”

“My dad?” Luz asks, not sure what Theseus meant.

“The map,” Gus hissed in realization. “As the god of travelers, some kids of Hermes must have special abilities with map reading.”

“Then there was the way she could haggle the price down without even trying,” Willow added with wide eyes. “He’s also the god of merchants.”

“See, what did I tell you?” Theseus said with a smile. “You kids are quick.”

Luz didn’t like feeling like an idiot. But that’s what was happening right now. All the time she and her friends thought they were doing something good, all that time Luz felt guilty thinking this was her fault and the gods had been manipulating their quest from the beginning.

Her anger must have shown on her face because Theseus shot her a sympathetic smile.

“Don’t feel too bad, Luz. It happens to literally every great demigod.” His face hardened. “In Athens, my quest in the Labyrinth was half a test of skill and half a test of wit. My father promised me glory and honor by coming home a hero, and when I got back on my boat I didn’t even have to touch my ship the whole way home. It was like the sea guided my boat home on its own, and I knew my father had blessed me. Do you know what happened after that?”

There was silence between the three of them. Luz remembered the story, but with the look on Theseus’ face, she knew she couldn’t say it.

“Poseidon didn’t raise the white sails when I arrived,” Theseus said bitterly. “My beloved stepfather had asked me to when I arrived so he knew I was home safe. When I arrived, I was the new King of Athens, because he had thrown himself off the roof thinking I was dead. Poseidon killed him.”

Theseus sat back in his chair, a look of complete misery on his face. “I blamed myself too, you know. Then, when I died, the gods couldn’t even spare me then. The judges wanted to send me to Tartarus. But Minos argued that because I slew the Minotaur, I deserved Elysium. In the end, I was punished to roam the Fields of Asphodel forever.”

Willow and Gus were looking at one another, but Luz was so enamored by the story she couldn’t tear her eyes away. She had always been a sucker for a dramatic tale.

“I forgot everything. Who I was, what I stood for. And then my boss came to me and pulled me from my torment. I was alive again, and a new man. I would never serve the gods as long as I served him.”

“The man in the mountain,” Luz whispered, looking at Theseus unable to disguise her fear. “Who is he?”

“The reason I’m here is so you never find out,” Theseus said slowly, and the three of them flinched. Theseus chuckled under his breath.

“Sorry, not like that. I’ve come as his messenger to offer you a deal.”

“A deal?” Willow said with a frown. Luz shared the sentiment. Why would the man who had been tormenting Luz’s dreams for weeks want to spare them?

“Look, you kids have a good heart.” Theseus continued, eyeing each of them carefully. “My boss knows that. I’ve now seen it myself. We’re all pawns in the game, we always have been. You didn’t ask for this quest, so my boss is giving you a chance you won’t get if you continue forward to Colorado. Go to Kansas City, take Amity from Achilles, and go straight home. Leave this whole thing alone and spare yourselves the pain and heartache.”

“But all of Olympus will fall without Hestia,” Gus protested, “we have to save her!”

“But why?” Theseus asked, and Gus fell silent. “Why can’t an old age of pain and suffering just end? My boss will allow a new era to rise, and demigods can live peacefully with the other mortals. I can see my father again. You can all go home without needing to fear a monster will hunt you down. Luz, you can have a normal life with your mom where she doesn’t have to worry.”

Luz flinched, and Theseus smiled slightly. She didn’t know how he knew about her Mami, but she didn’t like the way it rolled off his tongue.

“Stop that!” Gus demanded to Theseus, and he looked over at him innocently. Willow reached over and put a hand over Luz’s.

“I am just being truthful,” Theseus said, and Gus’s eyes hardened.

“No, you’re not. You’re deceiving her. You went to Tartarus because of how you treated Ariadne. You abandoned her on an island and she would have died there if Dionysus didn’t save her and make her his wife.”

Theseus froze, and for a moment his expression changed, going from sympathetic to cold.

Willow nodded along to Gus, pointing an accusing finger at Theseus.

“You were a war criminal too. You kidnapped the Amazons and the Spartans and caused a war for the Athenians between them. You were exiled because you treated others so terribly. The gods didn’t force you to be awful.”

Theseus’ eyes flashed furiously. “I am offering you demigods a way out! A chance to escape the prophecy.”

“Why would we want to do that?” Luz butts in, narrowing her eyes. “The prophecy told us we would bring Olympus peace.”

“The prophecy says nothing of the sort,” Theseus growled. “Don’t trust the words that can be so easily twisted. It also says you will dawn a new age. That is exactly what my boss is trying to do. And unlike you, I’ve heard it in its entirety. One of you is doomed to die, and that is why Amity would not tell the camp what she heard. She assumed it was her, and that is why she told her companions to run. But I know better. It will be one of you three.”

There was silence again, and Luz felt her mouth open and close fearfully. She didn’t know what she was going to say. Theseus got up from his chair, adjusting his notebook and pen to tuck it under his arms. Luz realized he was leaving.

“You don’t need to decide now,” Theseus said carefully, though he was clearly still angry. “My boss just asked me to pitch the offer to you. You’re still heroes, and now that you know where Amity is I imagine you’re going to go find her. Last we heard, Achilles was planning on hiding in the musician's manor in Sunset Hill on the west end. Look for the gold lyre outside.”

He pushed his way into the aisle, turning his head one more time.

“If you chose to continue, my boss will not hold back. We will do everything we can to finish our mission, and that includes stopping you if you get in our way. And I can promise you this, you are no match for my boss.”

Luz’s chest flared with anger as the entire conversation hit her at once. She hated Theseus. He was a huge bully, who was so mad at the world he blamed everybody else for it but himself. Luz knew better, and if his boss was anything like Theseus, then she hated him even more than she already did. Standing up, she balled her fists at him and stared him right in the eye.

“You’re no hero. We’re going to finish this quest and free Hestia, and we’re going to do it right. You can tell your boss we’re on our way.”

Theseus paused, but he didn’t say a single thing. He just looked at Luz sadly, like he was trying to decide what color coffin would go best with her skin tone. He walked to the front of the bus and whispered something to the driver. The bus screeched to a stop, and Luz had to grip Willow’s hand to keep herself steady. Theseus got off, and the bus started moving again. Luz collapsed into the seat, and Willow leaned into her shoulder comfortingly.

“That was really brave, Luz,” she said, and Luz shook her head.“No, it wasn’t. It was stupid. My Mami was right, I have a terrible habit of making enemies.”

“Theseus is an enemy,” Gus assured her, “but now we at least have some information.”

“Yeah, like how Amity is in Kansas City,” Willow said. “We can go get her tomorrow morning.”

“That, and that the man in the mountain is more scared of Luz than we originally thought.”

“What?” Luz sat up and looked at Gus like he had three heads. Gus shrugged his shoulders. “Theseus was trying really hard to cover it up, but their plan is dangerous. He is trying to keep us away from the plan, not protect us from it.”

“That’s a bold assumption, Gus,” Willow said with a smile. “But it’s also optimistic! I like it.”

“What about the little detail that one of us is going to die?” Luz said with a frown. “I don’t like those odds at all.”

“We won’t know what’s happening with the prophecy until we find Amity,” Willow reassured her. “For all we know, he could have been lying to us to try and scare us into submission. We can’t think like that. Trying to change a prophecy never works.”

Luz groaned, covering her head with her hands. “This is so confusing. I’m sorry I dragged you guys into this mess.”

“We want to be here, Luz,” Gus said with a smile. “Besides, I always knew Theseus was not the greatest, but today my theory was actually proven!”

“Yeah, what a jerk.” Willow agreed. “Sorry we didn’t believe you, Gus.”

Gus rolled his eyes and nudged Luz playfully. “Don’t. I saw the way you guys looked at him. We can’t trust every attractive demigod we run into anymore.”

Willow blushed, but Luz laughed, nudging Gus back affectively. “He has a point.” Luz reached down to her lap and picked up the Tupperware Theseus had given her. “Do we think this is safe to eat? Because I’m starving and I don’t want to go find Amity on an empty stomach.”

Gus snatched it out of her hands. “Don't eat that! For all we know it could be poisoned. It's enemy food.”

Willow had completely ignored both Luz and Gus and was busy eating half of the sandwich. “I had some when he gave it to us. It’s safe.”

“Great!” Luz snatched the container out of Gus’s hands and popped it open, her mouth watering at the sight. It was a fresh PB&J on white bread and an assortment of crackers grapes and cheese. She dug in, finishing the contents in what must have been a record time.

Gus grumbled something about how we were risky and totally stupid, but he ate along with them. By the time they had finished, the three of them were sitting together comfortably, and Luz’s eyes were getting heavy. Willow nudged her with her shoulder.

“If you and Gus want to sleep, you can go ahead. I’ll take first watch.”

“Are you sure?” Luz definitely wanted to sleep, but she didn’t want to leave Willow watching by herself.

Willow chuckled, putting her backpack between her and Luz, so she could rest her head on it. Gus settled in next to Luz, resting his head on his own pack against Luz’s side.

“I’m sure. Try and catch some sleep. We don’t know when we’ll get another chance.”

On that happy note, Luz wasn’t sure how she would be able to get to bed with her mind whirling. But as soon as she rested the pack against her head, she found that she was so exhausted from the day’s events she fell right asleep.

The dreams came again, and Luz found herself standing in the mountain, hiding behind a huge metal shipping container. She poked her head out and saw the man in the mountain, his back turned to her, staring straight forward at a huge metal cage. Inside was a girl, no older than fifteen, dressed in white rags and sitting with her hands bunched up to her knees. Luz thought she might have been very pretty if she wasn’t looking so haggled, her copper-haired pulled back messily and her eyes sunken and tired. Despite her half hazard appearance, she was staring at the mountain man with disdain, like he wasn’t worth her time at all. Luz liked her instantly.

“Why won’t you just give in?” The man said angrily, slamming the base of his bronze staff into the ground. Luz had never seen him with the staff before, he usually had a sword. He was cloaked in dark robes, and Luz could see parts of a dark mask sticking out from the front of his head. “You’ve been here for weeks now. Your fire should have died long ago.”

“The fires of Olympus are not so easily extinguished,” the girl said softly, frowning at him. “As long as there is hope, I will remain here.”

“I will crush your hope beneath my feet!” the man roared, and Luz flinched at the volume. The girl in the cage did not seem so easily frightened, and instead, her eyes flickered beyond the man and towards Luz. The two of them made eye contact, and Luz was shocked to her core by the warmth that flooded through her. Her eyes were the color of dying embers, and Luz couldn’t help but smile.

“Hope remains,” the girl said, but not to the man. She was looking directly at Luz. “And so I remain.”

Luz didn’t realize the dream had shifted until she was somewhere else. She was standing in a huge room reminiscent of an old ballroom. The tiles were white and smooth, and the walls had a golden wallpaper draping them. Everything inside was expensive, but the furniture was pushed against the wall like it wasn’t needed. Outside the polished white windows, Luz saw a massive garden and a long driveway, and then towards the street, she saw a stone plaque that read “1200 West, 55th Street”.

As Luz turned her attention back to the center of the room, she did a double-take. There was Amity, chained to the middle post with her eyes closed, looking worse for wear. She was still in the clothes she had worn when she left camp two weeks before, and she was grubby, with cuts and bruises all over her body. Luz lunged forward to help her, but the sound of laughing from another room startled her so badly she diverted and slide behind one of the expensive sofas hiding from view.

Two men emerged, talking amicably with each other.

“I don’t know how you managed to get away, you’re bound by eternal oath.” The first said, and Luz peaked over to get a closer look. He was a tall and skinny man dressed in simple white cotton pants and a blue shirt, with long black curly hair that sat messily on his head.

“I haven’t technically broken any oath yet,” the second said, grinning deviously. He was much larger than the first man, with muscles on muscles. He wore a sleeveless white shirt that was so tight Luz could see the outline of his stomach, jeans, and white sneakers. His dark hair was close-cropped to his head, and he had two swords hanging loosely on his belt. “Belos can wait a little longer. Besides, this is in his best interest. The prophecy says so.”

He reached down towards Amity, cupping her chin with his index finger and thumb, and Luz felt a snarl pulling itself angrily from her lips. She tried to rush forward but her limbs felt like lead, and she was frozen in place.

“She doesn’t look good. Keep her alive until the other kids get here. I put a bottle of nectar in the fridge.”

“Belos better come through with his promise.” The first said lowly, crossing his arms. “Taking out three demigods on my own is not how I planned to enjoy my new life.”

“You will be compensated for your work,” the second said with a shrug. “If there is one thing he is, it’s practical. He appreciates your time and effort on our joined mission.”

The first sniffed disdainfully, “very well.” He looked over at Amity, and his eyebrows pinched in concern. “Are we sure she’s breathing? You know I don’t do well with pets…”

Luz was interrupted by something shaking her violently, and she woke up with a yelp, her head smacking into something. She groaned in pain, rubbing her forehead.

“Ow!” Both she and Gus said at the same time.

Luz looked around and realized she was back on the bus, and that it was now almost dawn. The hard thing she’d collided with was Gus’ own head, and the boy was now standing up and leaning against the seat for support.

“That’s the last time I wake you up,” Gus moaned, shaking his head like it would get rid of the pain.

“We’re here,” Willow said, doing her best to stifle the laugh. “We just arrived at the Kansas City bus terminal. We have to get off and look for Amity.”

“No need,” Luz said certainly, standing up and throwing her backpack over her shoulder. “I know exactly where she is.”

#the owl house #lumity #luz x amity #Percy Jackson AU #shelby speaks

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alectoperdita · 4 years

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Fictober - Day 30

prompt: “just say it” fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters pairing: Jounouchi Katsuya/Kaiba Seto rating: teen warnings: none a/n: brief background: this is a pivotal scene that i’m trying out from my mostly unpublished childhood-friends AU, we trade petty cash for miracles, where Katsuya and Seto grew up as childhood friends after Katsuya went with his mother after the divorce and Seto’s parents never died. The intention was to pick up the story when they’re in high school as Shizuka’s eyesight deteriorates and explore the events of Duelist Kingdom from this canon divergence.

Katsuya stared blankly at the ceiling. The bed cradling him was as soft as a cloud. After a night of sleeping on the forest ground, such a mattress should be heaven-sent, but he doubted he'd get much sleep tonight. His thoughts had been racing into overdrive ever since the dinner hosted in honor of all the qualifying semi-finalists.

It was a miracle in itself that he even collected ten Star Chips to enter Pegasus' castle. As much as he worried about who he'd been matched against for tomorrow's semi-final, it wouldn't matter because he didn't have either the Glory of the King's Hand or the Glory of the King's Opposite Hand card. Dammit!

What could he do? For a brief second, he considered knocking on the room next door but quickly shut down that train of thought. Like hell was he going to rely on that bastard now. He'd made it this far without his help.

He heaved himself into a seated position and cast a resentful look around the richly decorated room. Just the sight of it made Katsuya's blood boil. Pegasus had wasted God knows how much money on a private island, a whole damn castle, and then this stupid tournament. Probably more than enough to pay for Shizuka's surgery ten times over. If it was possible, he'd settle for robbing the long-haired weirdo blind and be done with this whole strange affair.

A knock on his door pulled him from his thoughts. Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, he rose to his feet and called, "Who's that?"

"It's me," replied a familiar male voice from the other side of the door.

Katsuya stiffened. Part of him wanted to tell the other boy to go to hell—still might, depending on what he said next. "C'min."

The door swung inward, and Seto entered the room. He immediately shut the door in his wake, yet he remained standing clear on the other side of the room. It seemed the other boy was just as wary of him after their last confrontation.

Katsuya studied Seto more carefully than any textbook he'd ever owned. Why did it feel like it had been months since they last saw or spoke to each other when only a few hours had passed since dinner? When it had been no more than a day since they stormed off on each other?

He clenched his hands into fists and forced himself to breathe, already feeling like they were tittering on the edge of another screaming match. "Whaddaya want?"

Sucking in a sharp breath, Seto finally crossed the room to approach him. He reached into the coat of his trench coat and pulled out a card. "I came to give you this," he said and offered it to Katsuya.

Katsuya took it and flipped it over. It was Glory of the King's Hand. Stunned, he snapped his shocked eyes back to Seto's impassive face. "You're givin' me yours?"

Seto shook his head and flashed two more cards, Glory of the King's Opposite Hand and a second Glory of the King's Hand.

"Then where'd you get this one from?"

"I asked Yuugi for his. He knows the reason why we're both here."

Rage flooded through Katsuya's body. "You told him about Shizuka?"

Ignoring his outburst, Seto continued, "Yuugi has no need for the prize money. His only concern is rescuing his grandfather."

"And he just gave it to you outta the goodness of his heart?" sneered Katsuya.

Seto gave a small laugh. "Actually, yes, but I offered to help him regardless. Should I win the tournament, I will challenge Pegasus for Sugoroku-san's soul."

"Oh my god, please tell me you don't actually believe that bullshit! Magical Egyptian artifacts, my ass!"

"Something is happening here. You can't deny that."

"Which is exactly why we should win that prize money and get the hell outta dodge. We don't have time to get involved in their bullshit. We have to worry about Shizuka first!" shouted Katsuya.

"I owe Sugoroku-san. If he hadn't given his Blue-Eyes, do you really think I'd made it this far in Duelist Kingdom?" asked Seto.

"Well, somehow, I've managed fine."

Disgusted, Katsuya turned away, but a grip on his elbow stopped him from leaving. Seto closed the last of the distance between them. Katsuya's skin prickled at their closeness, as it often did in the previous few months since they reconnected.

After several awkward seconds, Seto cleared his throat and said, "There's more I wanted to talk to you about."

"Yeah?"

Seto fell quiet again. He met Seto's dark blue eyes head-on, unflinching as that intense gaze swept across his face. The seconds seemed to drag on into minutes and then hours. Katsuya's patience was close to reaching its limit.

"Just say it!" snarled Katsuya.

"Tomorrow's match, I want you to drop out."

Katsuya couldn't believe his ears. "What the fuck?"

Seto clenched his jaws and forged ahead. "Or throw the duel. Either way works."

He ripped his elbow out of Seto's grip and spun to face the other boy fully. He acted on instinct as he invaded Seto's space, much as he would any perceived threat in the schoolyard. Seto was not intimidated—had never been by Katsuya's physical posturing no matter how many times they clashed over the years. But if Seto thought he'd even consider such a request for even a second, he really didn't understand Katsuya.

"You want me to take a dive?" growled Katsuya. "You really think that little of me, huh? Gotta save Jounouchi from himself. Stop him before he fucks everything up. Wow, fuck you, Seto. Screw your superior, holier-than-thou ass."

Tension furrowed between Seto's brow. "Be reasonable. Only one of us can advance in the tournament to win the prize money. It was bound to happen sooner or later."

"No."

"Jounouchi—"

"I said no! You're always looking down on me, but I'll show you—"

"This isn't about your pride, dammit! Listen to me for once in your life!"

"My pride? What about your's? Ever since we were kids, you had to be the best, be fucking perfect. You can't stand the idea that I might actually be a good Duelist. That I might be as good or better than you."

Seto's face turned bright red, flushed with anger, as his body trembled. Good. The damn bastard was losing his cool. Out of the corner of Katsuya's vision, he spotted Seto lifting one hand and tensed in anticipation of an oncoming punch. If Seto thought he wouldn't throw down with him in a fancy castle, he was stupidly mistaken. But Seto didn't try to hit him. Instead, he grabbed both of Katsuya's shoulders and shook him.

"I'm trying to protect you, you idiot!" shouted Seto.

The earnest plea in his voice made Katsuya finally give pause. When he looked—really looked at Seto, he could spot the telltale signs of worry and fear that marred his features, from the dark circles around his usually vibrant eyes to the perpetually pinched corner of his frowning lips.

After seeing that he had Katsuya's attention, Seto continued, "There's something very wrong with Yuugi's pendant. If Pegasus' eye is anything like it, I don't want you caught in the middle. It's too dangerous."

"I can take care of myself." Katsuya tried to shake off Seto, but the boy clung to him with an iron grip. "Seriously, I'll be fine."

Seto shook his head. "That's not something I'm willing to take a chance on, Katsuya."

The use of his given name caused a shiver to run down his spine—or maybe it was the way Seto said. Something didn't add up. Hadn't been adding up since they stepped foot on this strange island. Katsuya had written it off as Seto being even more of his usual persnickety self. Yet given what he just said, had he been overprotective?

"Why not?"

Seto pursed his lips. "I can't let anything happen to you."

"Why?" Katsuya insisted.

"Because I care about you. Because I—"

Seto squared his shoulders as if he'd made a decision; determination blazed in his eyes. Pulling Katsuya forward, Seto bent his head down and pressed their lips together urgently. Seto didn't really know how to kiss, Katsuya noted in an almost detached way. He seemed to think applying pressure was the end all and be all of kissing, and he was staring into Katsuya's eyes as if he could see into his soul. It might have been endearingly incompetent if it wasn't happening to Katsuya.

Eventually, Seto drew back. Katsuya's lungs burned, reminding him to breathe again. His body was having a delayed reaction to the kiss. His lips tingled first, before the sensation and the warmth spread to the rest of his face and down his chest. Even the tips of his numb fingers paradoxically twinged and itched.

"Did you just kiss me?" Katsuya croaked.

Seto actually rolled his eyes before giving him a fond look. "Yes, you idiot."

"Why?" Katsuya asked for the third time, still as confused as the first time he asked.

With surprisingly gentle hands, Seto embraced him. The hug was both achingly familiar—carrying traces of the affection they'd shared as children—and foreign in how much they'd grown in mind and body since. Yet their bodies still slotted together like puzzle pieces. Seto's answer ruffled his hair like a gentle spring breeze.

"Because I love you, Katsuya. I always have."

Check out other puppy/violetshipping ficlets I’m writing all #fictober20 long

#fictober20 #violetshipping #puppyshipping #kaijou #my fanfiction #fic: we trade petty cash for miracles #enjoy your soft Seto #i'm sorry i'm writing scenes for random WIP AUs from my backlog #i actually already have the first 2 chapters of this completed #but i keep hmming and hawing about publishing it #because i'm still struggling with the rest of the Duelist Kingdom details #one more day to go!#yugioh

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tessatechaitea · 5 years

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Team Titans #22

Team Titans is an anagram for "this could have been a good comic book but the execution was completely fucked up from the start."

If you can tell whether this kid is shocked or entertained, you're a better comic book reader than I am. And I'm a Grandmaster!

Meanwhile in New York, I'm faced with a similar conundrum.

If you can tell whether Killowat shit himself or had a wet dream, blah blah blah...you know the rest.

Little kids enjoying cannibalism (sort of? Were-creatures eating a Pegasus counts, right?), Killowat blowing his load so hard it wakes up the rest of the Titans, and now this:

I'm glad Fredric Wertham wasn't alive to see this debauchery!

The Team Titans have been put up in an old YMCA because they knew Prester Jon would fit in. The place is falling apart and there are *GASP* sex workers right outside! They're all disappointed that they survived the black hole because what kind of life is this? What did they expect, a mansion that's also a secret school for heroes from the future? A crumbling old YMCA should be exactly what they expected seeing that Terra describes their new gig working for the government as indentured servitude. Maybe there's a dictionary definition of "indentured servitude" that I missed? It's a good thing I learned how to type decades ago because I've just removed my eyes with some fabric scissors. Thanks, Urban Dictionary Rabbit Hole, for teaching me about My Little Pony crotchboobs! The drama between Redwing and Prester Jon continues because it's always nice to have drama that doesn't make any sense in a comic book and drag it on for several issues without explanation. Finding out that my sister could grow huge claws, pointy ears, and wings would be the least unsettling revelation I've ever received from her. Why the fuck is Prester Jon making such a huge deal out of it? In a world where Prester Jon dealt with hundreds of different superheroes on a daily basis, why would this change be so unsettling? Unless...of course! Prester Jon is sexually attracted to women with huge talons and pointy ears! Oh yeah! This is going to get incest! I mean good! The Team also manages to discuss earthquake preparedness because I guess some of DC's funding comes from Public Broadcasting grants? Over on Titans Island, the CIA have gathered a group of Team Titans together for their first black ops mission. The team will be lead by Aqualad and is composed of Mirage, The Human Mystery, Shockadelica, Wonder Boy, and Green. I can't believe I just listed a group of characters that include names like Shockadelica, Wonder Boy, and Green, and I'm mostly upset about Aqualad. Hopefully Mirage will tell somebody what she did with Deathwing! That's the only mystery I care about solving before this series ends. Hmm, apparently the mission is just sticking them on the Titans sub to wait for orders. Stupid comic book misleading me into repeating the "black ops" lie! Meanwhile in Seattle, Bumblebee and Herald will be leading another team composed of Metallik and Hero X. Maybe others but they're not named. A team in Torrance, California, learns how much people in the DC Universe hate super-heroes because editors at DC Comics have no clue what the whole medium has historically been about. Forget about inspiring heroes dedicating their life to helping make the world better. It's much easier to add drama if people hated and feared the heroes! So many assholes decided that the X-Men worked and thought the mutant premise could just translate to regular super-heroes. Plus it doesn't help when every other Superman story involves Superman being manipulated by a villain to use his powers against the people of the world. Stop giving the people of the world excuses to hate the heroes. Even I would hate Superman if his ego wouldn't allow him to leave Earth because he was a danger to it. Get the fuck away from humanity until you find a way to stop being hypnotized by magic villains, you fucking piece of shit! Um, Flamebird leads the Torrance team, composed of Nightrider, Battalion, Murder Master, some Judge and Jury member, and some other blockhead. No wonder everybody in Torrance hates the Team Titans (and the democrats, apparently)! They've shuttled all of the terrifying characters to the Torrance team! I guess I missed something over in the Darkstars comic because Donna Troy has decided to leave Terry and her baby to join the Darkstars. I can't say I disagree with that decision. Fuck Terry! Terra, Redwing, Prester Jon, Lapidus, and Killowat head to Qurac because remember how the comic book started there? They discover Chimera who must be a Team Titan because she knows their names and they recognized her dead pegasus. The Were-Creatures overpower them and they escape into a fortified building. But once inside, they discover Redwing has completely mutated too. The worst part is that Prester Jon calls her a hideous thing. She's going to remember that comment for sure. Team Titans #22 Rating: C-. Ignoring all of the plot stuff that annoyed me, I'm simply grading this comic book on one point: one of the Titans is called Murder Master and they held a press conference to introduce this guy to the community he'll be living in. And that community was already up in arms about the democrats taking away all of their military jobs! "Hey, angry people of Torrance! Here's your new local superhero team that will help protect your community! Battalion, a big gruff grizzly bear that probably hates you and would love to punch you in the face! Nightrider, a vampire that has just recently remembered he loves the taste of human flesh! A member of Judge and Jury, the bad guy Team Titans team that kills other Team Titans! And Murder Master, the master of murder! Don't you all feel safer now?!"

#Team Titans #Teen Titans #New Titans #DC Comics #DC #Comic Book Review

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sage-nebula · 5 years

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@em-exceeds-change-zearu --- Hope you don’t mind, but I wanted to respond to your tags in a new post since the original post was long enough as it was, haha!

#also i love all of these picks and the thought that went into them #and that he has a varied team that's flexible and can take on tons of things #ALSO I'M GLAD YOU DIDN'T MENTION ZEKROM #I WAS DREADING A RED EYES BLACK DRAGON REDUX WITH ZEKROM #(even if zekrom and reshiram are huge walking red eyes and blue eyes jokes)

See, it’s because I put a lot of thought into it that I didn’t mention Zekrom! Zekrom doesn’t work for the Red-Eyes Black Dragon at all (and ditto for Reshiram with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon)!

From a visual standpoint, I get why the comparisons were made. Zekrom is a black dragon with red eyes, and Reshiram is a white dragon with blue eyes. But that’s where the similarities end. While monsters in YGO have only very loose elemental associations, the fact still remains that the Red-Eyes Black Dragon is a fire dragon, while the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is an electric dragon. We see this in their attacks. The Red-Eyes Black Dragon’s attack is Black Fire Bullet (JP) / Inferno Fire Blast (EN), while the Blue-Eyes White Dragon’s attack is Burst Stream of Destruction (JP) / White Lightning (EN). “Burst Stream of Destruction” isn’t specifically electric, but it isn’t fire, either, and the look of it certainly looks electrical whenever it attacks (which is likely what led to 4Kids naming the attack what they did). Either way, these attacks make it clear in both the manga (JP) and the anime (EN) that Red-Eyes is a fire dragon while Blue-Eyes is an electric dragon.

But with Zekrom and Reshiram, that’s reversed. Zekrom is Electric/Dragon, while Reshiram is Fire/Dragon. Their types do not match up with the YGO dragons at all. And while some might say that’s a minor quibble, it really isn’t. Jounouchi is pretty heavily associated with fire, even setting Red-Eyes aside. Just off the top of my head:

The yo-yo he was pictured with in the cover art for chapters 48/49 was a “Fireboy” yo-yo;

He defeated Chopperman by setting him on fire with the candle + oil combo;

One of his most memorable cards is Flame Swordsman (though him saying it was his favorite card was an anime invention, but nonetheless);

He stayed behind with Yuugi during the fire at the Black Crown and made it out with only minor injuries;

When he got to name an attack during his duel with Malik, he named it “Jounouchi Fire”;

The God card he’s most heavily associated with is Ra, and Ra is the one that uses flames to attack (versus Osiris’ wind and Obelisk’s lightning);

Speaking of, he survived Ra’s flames at first brush (he died a few minutes later, true, but even that was only temporary)

Jounouchi is pretty heavily associated with a fire motif, and so it makes sense that his signature dragon would be a fire dragon, rather than an electric one. And likewise, Kaiba seems to be associated with lightning and electricity far more than he is with fire. Kaiba is all about technological advancement, is always surrounded by computers, robots, and the latest technology that he himself invented. The God card that he’s associated with, Obelisk, is one that has lightning spark around its fists when it attacks. It makes sense that his dragon is an electric one, rather than a fire one. Switching that around by associating Jounouchi with Zekrom and Kaiba with Reshiram is a huge mistake. It doesn’t fit at all.

Moreover, the thing about legendary pokémon is that most of them come with a stronger meaning associated with them. They’re cool looking and have types, yes, but each of them also usually symbolize something, or have something they watch over, protect, or stand for. For Zekrom, that’s ideals (and fighting for one’s ideals), and with Reshiram, that’s truth (and fighting for the truth). While Jounouchi can be an idealistic person, what Zekrom actually looks for in its champion is someone who wants to push their ideals onto others, to lead the world with them, and that’s not Jounouchi. Jounouchi doesn’t want to push his ideals onto others; he lives his own way and that’s that. Likewise, Kaiba’s not really concerned with the truth outside of how it benefits him, and he’s not opposed to flat out ignoring or denying it when it doesn’t, so I don’t think Reshiram would choose him as a champion either, haha.

So yeah, I saw no reason to bring up Zekrom. The Red-Eyes Black Dragon is represented by shiny charizard, and that’s that.

#i also didn't consider sivally/silvuddy at all!!! #but considering that it's literally named...silver buddy... #(gladion you fucking nerd) #it's perfect #the nickanme is perfect #he would approve #maybe silvuddy is something he gets in duelist kingdom? #like. in pegasus' basement or something #but this is pokemon world and you mentioned gladion existing in this crossover canon so HMM. MMM. #I'M STUCK ON HOW HE GETS IT TOO

I did imagine this as taking place in the Pokémon World, yeah, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t adapt Duelist Kingdom as well. All we have to do is make it pokémon battles instead of Duel Monsters duels. So Pegasus owns an island with a castle, and he decides to host his own battle tournament on his island (that takes place over a more reasonable span of time than just two days). Maybe entrants have to collect star badges instead of star chips, or maybe it is star chips if badges would get him in trouble with the local League. In any case, he has his own unofficial, not-government-sanctioned tournament, and it’s very much like Duelist Kingdom except everyone has real monsters and therefore people like Mai and Bandit Keith have a much harder time cheating than they did in the actual canon.

(Well, Gladion doesn’t have to exist in the crossover canon, haha. It’s just an idea I threw out there. I don’t know if any relationship I could invent for him would be as fun to write as the one I had between him and Alan, so it’s not like I’m very attached to the idea of him existing in this story.)

#...oooh #kaiba imports it into his Tower Of Death scenario because he paid big monies to Aether Foundation #jou ends up taking it back #the same way how in other trials they utilized things that belonged to their enemies against them #(maybe replace the stupid ride of fear part with it BECAUSE HONESTLY THAT WAS THE LOW PART OF THE TOWER. IT WAS STUPID.)

Hmm, that could work! Although honestly it might make more sense for Kaiba Corporation to have created Type: Null. Kaiba spared absolutely no expense when it came to creating Death-T, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that:

According to the currency converter I use, in 1996 (when this was written / would take place), ¥10,000,000,000 would be $87,989,745.57. Kaiba spent eighty-seven million dollars to build a theme park to kill Yuugi with. Money was not an issue for him whatsoever.

But that said, Type: Null seems like the type of creature Kaiba Corporation would have created, particularly if they existed within the Pokémon world. Maybe not so much once Kaiba takes over and turns it into a gaming company, but back when it was still a company for developing military weapons? The concept of pokémon being created as weapons is not at all foreign to the series (Mewtwo and Genesect being two prime examples), and I could see Gozaburo wanting to top all of them by creating a chimera that replicated the powers of Arceus. So maybe Type: Null had already been created and cryogenically frozen, and Kaiba released one of them in the hopes that they’d be able to kill Yuugi and the others. That could work. That said, I did really like Chopperman as Jounouchi’s personal challenge, particularly since he knows it’s a trap and walks into it anyway because he feels it’s the right thing to do (what a Gryffindor), so yeah, replacing the horror ride would definitely be preferable, particularly since how sexualized that scene was re: how the ride groped Anzu was unnecessary and gross and hands down the worst part of Death-T. :/

#(I HATE TRISTAN'S BRAT COUSIN HE HAD NO REASON TO BE THERE AND ONLY EXISTED TO MAKE TROUBLE) #(I APPRECIATED THAT HE VAPORIZED INTO NONEXISTENCE AFTER THAT ARC. BYE BINCH)

Haha, Jouji is his nephew, actually! Honda was on babysitting duty for his big sister that day. I will say that I do like the fact that Jouji exists purely because it lets us know that Honda has a big sister, and I’ve actually utilized that by fleshing her out into a character for a few fics I’ve written (including my magnum opus), which makes me somewhat attached to her. That said, we don’t actually need that, because Honda brings her up again when he brings clothes for Shizuka to wear when he picks her up from the hospital:

(Sorry for the scan quality, it’s the best I can do right now. Also, the “I don’t know if they’ll look good on you” --- that’s VIZ being kind of loose with the translation. In the original Japanese what he says is more like, “I don’t know if they’ll suit you,” which makes sense given Shizuka is far more demure than what Honda’s sister is implied to be like, given her taste in clothes.)

This little mention here is actually part of why I characterized her the way I did when I wrote her; that she wore “loud” clothes when she was younger spoke to a punkish style of dress, and in my mind, attitude therefore. Either way, though, Jouji is the first way we find out that Honda has an older sister, and that happens much earlier than this, so I guess that’s at least a little good he brings to the story.

Still, though, I agree with you overall, haha. I don’t like Jouji as a character at all. I don’t like the toilet humor during the horror game ride (though that still wasn’t as bad as the ride itself groping Anzu), I don’t like how he’s perverted as a baby, and I don’t understand how old he’s supposed to be. He seems like he should only be a year or so old, but if that’s true, how can he talk that well? How can he understand more mature concepts? It feels like he should have been at least five or six, but then I suppose he wouldn’t have been able to be carried around . . . ugh. Either way, he didn’t really bring anything of merit or value to Death-T. The closest we got was that he was the bait to lure Jounouchi in, and I liked that because, again, Jounouchi knew that it was a trap, but he walked into it anyway because he felt it was the Right thing to do, both because Jouji had helped them once before, and because Jouji was a baby. (And there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment right before the games actually start where Honda is trying to get Jouji to shut up, and Jounouchi says, “Don’t make him cry!” Jounouchi really does have a soft spot for kids, aww. It’s the big brother in him, probably.) Plus, the fact that Jounouchi won that literal fight to the death while holding a baby in his arms is nothing short of badass, and I’ll never take any badass moments away from him. ♥

But yeah, Jouji was a worthless trash character, lmao. There’s a reason why, although I’ve written Honda’s older sister, I haven’t actually written Jouji. I’ve no use for that annoying thing.

#emexceedschangezearu #long post for ts #yugioh #meta #yeah so idk if I ever shared this but the love triangle with Shizuka? does not exist in the manga #neither Honda nor Otogi have feelings for her in the manga lmao #which is nice considering she's a junior high student (~13) and they're high schoolers (Honda is probably ~17 at this point since he's #the oldest of the bunch)#the fact that Honda literally wanted Shizuka to wear his older sister's clothes is the biggest sign he didn't have a #crush on her in the manga lmao. who dresses their crush like their sister?? no one #but the anime decided to rip this out and throw a weird and annoying love triangle in. SIGH.#it's also a waste because manga!Otogi >>>>> anime!Otogi imo #i far prefer awkward tsundere Otogi over flirty playboy Otogi #''I-I WAS JUST IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD . . . I-IT'S NOT LIKE I WANT TO BE FRIENDS OR ANYTHING!!!" <- actual manga!Otogi dialogue #anyway this is off-topic. i'll be quiet now

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wqdwaefes · 3 years

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dejasquietplace · 6 years

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When you have time, I would love to hear more stories from your campaign

god there’s so many to choose from because we’ve been playing for a year now... let me see if i can compile the Best Of highlight reel for our campaign (here’s the group pic for visuals):- a few sessions in through a series of really unfortunately good rolls, our bard, phaedra, came into possession of a cursed dress that makes people think you’re royalty. they used this to get access to a fancy ball, saying that they and the rest of the party were nobles from a floating island nation no one else had heard of. this quickly got.... out of hand, and now, a year later in our campaign, we have literally created an island to cover our asses and we’re making a real nation

- during one of the party’s numerous stays on azazel’s boat, later in the game, az FINALLY confessed his feelings to the party’s monk ak’ta; however, before he did this, he asked for phaedra to have sex with him so he could potentially fuck the feelings away (this made total sense to him), when they asked if he was drunk he yelled “I AM SOBER AS A FUCKING TACK” and that’s still one of the best improv quotes to this day

- during another Boat Bout tm, some really really really bad shit happened and az had to stay on the boat for three weeks to be extremely depressed. phaedra and ak’ta stayed with him there, the others went back to the party’s mansion to take care of the adopted kids there-- our party cleric, ailynn, certified Good One and slight southern belle, accidentally stress baked some weed brownies with some meddling from the teenage kid and then phaedra’s pet dire wolf ate them all

- we have kids. very early on in the game rad, the fighter, decided she wanted some, and she already had inherited a bigass mansion in the city, so she scooped up three elf/half-elf kids from a shitty orphanage and now they’re all our kids. they have very doting aunts and uncles

- back to the island thing, our tiefling monk ak’ta dropped 50 trillion gold to make it happen because she’s a Certified Daddy’s Girl and her father is the baron of hell.

- az went off on his own for two weeks to go on an adventure to get a cool sword from a ghost, Just A Man And His Pegasus Mount And His Loneliness, while the rest of the party went to go check out our Cool New Island but found it still had remnants of some really fucky magic in a cave on the island so they decided to investigate. they did not realize that this fuckiness was being caused by an enormously powerful monster made of oil and a giant skull, they ALSO didn’t realize that time was moving much faster outside the cave and thought they’d only been there for a few days when in fact, two entire weeks had passed and az was not only done with his journey, but also had received barely any contact from the group in that time, and returned to an empty house, incredibly sad and worried. he was paged and showed up at Fuck Cave, the rest of the party ran up and hugged him while covered in oil and Sadness, and he rolled a nat motherfucking 20 to shoot the thing right between the eye holes in the skull and cracked that motherfucker. other things also happened but that was a high point for me personally

- one time phaedra ruined what was meant to be a difficult encounter with a bunch of corrupted ents by casting command at a high enough level and telling them to go the fuck away

- ailynn didn’t know how to flirt with girls so she asked phaedra for advice and they were completely and utterly unhelpful, so she downed a mug of ale, talked to a cute girl in a small town tavern, and now they’re long distance girlfriends

- every time i solve a puzzle in-game it’s an important event because im so incredibly stupid and oblivious. ive solved a total of 4 puzzles now

- phaedra is currently dating a dragon and did not know that until just recently

- that’s all i can think of right now, thank u for your time

#ask deja #deja plays dnd #long post #SORRY THIS ALL SOUNDS LIKE THE RAVINGS OF A LUNATIC #IT'S BEEN A LONG YEAR #Anonymous

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the-cryptographer · 6 years

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The first series ygo arcs according to me. Manga and DM canon. According to me. aka not the ultimate truth.

Season Zero

Pros: school life shenanigans. mah boi Jounouchi is at his most character development-y. mah boi Seto is at his most psychotic. someone else’s boi Atem is a hilariously shitty vigilante. stupidly aesthetic edgy.

Cons: Jouji. villains are dumb. and you’re dumb for liking this shit, DeLurk.

Comments: God Tier, tbh.

Duellist Kingdom

Pros: best Mai arc. best Kaiba arc with best payoff for ‘to lose is to die’. solid Jounouchi arc. solid Jounouchi arc where he’s terrified of zombies. duels are quick and cathartic. minor duellists are at their best. island funtimes. sneaking around Pegasus’s property. THE ENDING OF THE ARC IN THE MANGA!!!

Cons: idk, Paradox Brothers?

Comments: also God Tier, tbh.

Legendary Heroes

Pros: Yuugi, Jounouchi, Mai, and Mokuba go on fantasy RPG adventures. Mokuba is a manipulative little shit. we learn that Seto is shit at delegating power within his company. also Yuugi, Jounouchi, Mai, and Mokuba go on fantasy RPG adventures.

Cons: everything is rushed and contrived and stupid. if you start to question why and how Yuugi, Jounouchi, Mai, and Mokuba go on fantasy RPG adventures, the whole thing unravels into a ball of coal.

Comments: it’s still fun af and nothing can stop it from being fun af.

Dungeon Dice Monsters

Pros: Otogi.

Cons: the anime version was shit. but also the anime version had some cool Otogi-Pegasus connections that I wish were in the manga despite myself. so you can’t win.

Comments: i love Otogi, you can’t understand.

Battle City

Pros: ISHTAR SIBLINGS. no, for reals, Malik is the best villain, and the Ishtars have be best sibling drama. had the best duel in the series (trustship duel). Jou-Malik duel was also pretty quality. Bonz v Y!Bakura. Y!Bakura v Y!Malik. plot relevant. Yuugi says he loves Jounouchi. Kaiba grows up a little (and also talks shit about Jou for dying). Pinnacle Shizuka. Dark Necrofear. Atem goes on a fail-date with Anzu.

Cons: longest, most draggy arc with so many low, low, boring af moments. full of boring, shitty Jou duels. slightly-less-full of boring, shitty Atem duels. Mai gets put in a coma. Jounouchi has literally nothing interesting to do until Mai gets put in a coma. ableism. misogyny. boredom.

Comments: best parts of the series and worst parts of the series combine to make Frankenstein’s monster of ‘i can’t stop watching’.

Noa’s Arc

Pros: Kaibros drama. Noa is an amazing little bitch. sci-fi adventures. Anzu and Dark Magican Girl team up. peak crushshipping love and drama and Honda is a jackass and Shizuka is amazing. we get to learn more about the Big 5, and at least half of them are interesting.

Cons: brought up a bunch of Kaibros drama that then got dropped prematurely. didn’t bring enough mind-fucky drama to the table. also WHY IS GOUZABUROU SORT OF ALIVE, GFDI, GOOD JOB UNDERMINING THE BASIS FOR SETO’S BELIEFS, ANIME, GDI.

Comments: still worth it, tbh.

DOMA

Pros: interesting (if highly inexpert) exploration of Mai’s PTSD, her self-imposed distance from others, her misogynistic self-hatred, and her need for validation from the stupid fuckboys in her life - all of which Battle City brought up and then fumbled terribly. ROAD TRIP IN AMURICA. Otogi and Rebecca are now pals. Rebecca and the Kaibas are now pals. Rebecca hacks things. Kaiba refuses to help and then ends up helping anyhow. Honda is still the best mom friend to Jou and everyone. Amelda, Rafael, and Valon are all interesting and have interesting conflicts going on. shrimpshipping hell. Atem gets some interesting character moments.

Cons: Atem gets some interesting character moments that don’t fit into how the rest of his arc has played out AT ALL. Dartz. Atlantis. stupid Legendary Dragon cards. DARTZ. ATLANTIS. there is no end to my hatred for how Dartz ended up being used to undermine the problems Amelda had with Kaiba.

Comments: similar to Battle City in my contrasting love and hate with its structure. but less plot relevant.

Grand Prix

Pros: Vivian. Jou & Mokuba moments. Jou & Grandpa moments.

Cons: everything else.

Comments: I shouldn’t even like Vivian as much as I do but, what can I say, I love Miss Sinophobic Stereotype apparently.

Capsule Monsters

Pros: Melon Club(?) Jounouchi in a Red Eyes costume(?)

Cons: ???

Comments: yeah, I haven’t watched this yet.

Millennium World

Pros: magical Ancient Egypt setting - woohoo! new members of the cast are fun. Yuugi got to duel. cartouche & true name magic. more Monster World tabletop fun in the manga.

Cons: new members of the cast are underdeveloped. rushed as fuck. Set and Kisara relationship is terribly written. Thief King Bakura’s valid complaints about genocide and the ruling class get thrown out the window. Zorc is the most boring ultimate evil.

Comments: series goes downhill as it continues according to me apparently.

Darkside of Dimensions

Comments: I’m tired of this post now. Big pros are Yuugi and Kaiba duel and the portrayal of grief. Big cons are throwing Anzu’s experience under the bus and introducing Ishtar siblings ripoffs (Mani is okay). Everything Kaiba did was in-character. That is all.

#here is your dose of too many opinions for the day #meta lite #save me from this card game hell

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writinghistory-445-blog · 6 years

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Sometimes I have to step back and look at where I have started. When I kept my first full length journal that I filled front to back, I was sixteen years old and from there, I have filled about five more and I am working on three separate ones right now. The only reason I have three separate journals is because I happened to keep finding journals that I thought were really cool looking. My latest one is made out of recycled materials and is designed with a Pegasus on the cover, and I wanted nothing more than to start writing in it even though I had a leather bound journal that I had started writing in the week beforehand. For me, I have never been able to just sit there in the middle of the day and just begin writing. I’ve never been one to go to a cafe and start typing or bringing my journal in my bag and just waiting for inspiration to hit me. My writing hits me at the most inopportune times and I’ve kind of just accepted it at this point. There have been nights where I’ll lay in bed at 3 o’clock in the morning and I just have to turn my lamp back on, grab my journal, my favorite pen, and just start writing. I’ve been in classes that were two hours long of just lecturing and I’ll just open a new document and start typing because I had taken the professor before and they managed to give the exact same lecture the semester before. I’ve even been in the middle of writing a final paper for one of my classes and had to fight the urge to just save and quit to write about my latest characters because inspiration just happens to hit at the worst times. To be honest, it is quite annoying that my brain does that to me. It has lead to me being the biggest procrastinator in the world. It has lead to B papers that definitely could have been As if I had just taken the time to write it early and actually revise. The only time I’ve ever felt like my inspiration was hitting me at the right timewas when I participated in the Rhode Island Writing Project’s Open Air Institute, a professional development experience that forced me to actually write about ten times throughout the day and really start to explore my writing outside of deadlines and late night distractions. Following quick-write prompts throughout the day really pushed me to expand my writing past my characters and my school writing assignments. In comparison, my worst experience with writing had to be during my senior year of high school. I had a paper about Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness that was notorious for being the hardest paper that we would have to write in my Honors English course. I, being me, waited until the night before to write the five to eight page literary analysis. Coincidentally, that very same night, One Direction’s next album Midnight Memories also got leaked online. Needless to say, I was pretty occupied with hearing my favorite band’s latest album five days before it was scheduled to be released. I refused to write for hours that night, just staring at my ceiling, not knowing what Joseph Conrad even remotely meant by writing “the horror, the horror.” My paper was due first period the next day at 7:35 in the morning. That night, I was up until six o’clock in the morning, crying over One Direction and my own stupidness at procrastinating so much over the paper (I got a B+ on it still so it was honestly not the worst thing I’ve ever written). I wish I could say that I have gotten over this habit of procrastination now that I have entered college, but I think it has unfortunately gotten even worse. As a writer, this had lead to me becoming so overwhelmed by deadlines, that I really lose sight of perfection in favor of the final product. And honestly, that is the most frustrating part of my writer identity.

#writing history

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mystical-flute · 7 years

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Come Sail Away Ch. 5

The executives sat around the large conference table in the room, leaning back with identical, satisfied looks on their faces. Master Pegasus' plan was going just as expected, and it would all be over soon, with Yugi Mutou's defeat. None of them had any personal vendettas against the sixteen-year-old of course, but he had unseated Seto Kaiba as a champion, and that simply couldn't stand for that.

Even if they did have plans to destroy their young boss and restore Kaiba Corporation to its former military glory with the help of Pegasus. No longer would they be laughingstocks, ordered around by an eighteen-year-old and a thirteen-year-old. Finally, the Big Five would once again be in control of things they were good at instead of stupid card games. Pegasus would handle that side of the takeover.

The camera showing the duel panned back slightly, allowing a view of the entire arena, and Crump's deep voice rumbled through the room.

"Leichter, isn't that Miaka's daughter standing there?" he asked as the camera focused in on the tri-colored haired woman who was observing the duel.

The American's eyes lifted to the screen. "Hm? Oh, so it is. Master Pegasus did say something about her being needed for part of his plan." He supposed at one time, he'd looked at her like she was his own daughter, especially after Miaka and Genji disappeared, but the novelty had worn off, especially once Mr. Kaiba had reportedly started dating her… but there was no confirmation of that just yet – not that it mattered considering he was going to be out of the way.

"She looks tired and anxious, doesn't she? I suppose Master Pegasus' tournament has been draining on her," Johnson's monotone voice added with a small smirk.

"Life has not dealt her a fair hand. And neither have we," Leichter said with a chuckle as he took a sip of his drink, watching the duel with a smile.

Yes, Leichter thought, soon everything would be as it should be.

"Wait – she's gone!" Crump exclaimed after the duel was covered by that strange purple fog that they couldn't see through and the camera panned back to the spectators. "Reika's gone!"

Leichter's eyes widened. "She's probably looking for those boys. Give me the phone."

Johnson slid the phone over to him, and he frowned as he dialed Kemo's number. "Kemo, find the girl. She's escaped our eyes." When there was no response from their guard, he frowned. "Kemo?"

"I'm sorry. Kemo's a little tied up at the moment," came the voice of Reika Mutou on the other end of the line.

-----

With Yugi dueling a man who could read his mind, Reika was a bundle of nervous energy, so she'd decided to take off into the castle to find where Pegasus had hidden the Kaiba brothers once Pegasus had summoned a shadow game, which, according to Azila, not even she could break even though she too had a Millennium item. Tristan and Bakura had disappeared some time ago trying to find him.

"Reika? What are you doing here?" a voice suddenly asked.

She turned faster than she meant to, putting up a defensive stance before relaxing when she noticed it was simply Mai Valentine.

"Mai. I was just looking for Tristan and Bakura. Have you seen them?"

The blonde woman blinked in surprise before her lips curled into a concerned frown. "No, I haven't seen them, but I'll help you look."

"Thank you," she replied with a smile as the two continued to sneak through the castle.

"You're not supposed to be out here, are you?" Mai suddenly asked as Reika kept herself pressed against the wall. "In fact, your behavior suggests you're not exactly… willing to be here. You've seemed tense since I met you yesterday."

She hummed slightly and ignored the questions, ducking down a hallway when she heard a rumbling sound, putting her arm out so Mai was concealed too.

Kemo appeared out of the wall, looking around with the smug grin on his face that Reika just wanted to punch.

"That's got to be where he's keeping Kaiba and Mokuba," Mai whispered.

She nodded slowly in agreement, violet eyes searching for something she could use to distract Kemo before Mai suddenly bolted out from their hiding spot with a wide smile. Reika gaped as she ran up to Kemo.

"Miss Valentine? You should be on your way back to Domino…" she heard the man say as she remained hidden in the shadows.

"Well, I was too engrossed in Yugi's duel that I missed it. I was hoping you could help a girl out…"

"Sure Miss Valentine, I'll be more than happy to call you another ship," Kemo replied just as a cell phone began to ring.

The voices began fading as Mai led him down the hallway – oh… now she understood.

With a smirk, Reika moved carefully, grabbing a small statue off a nearby table and snuck up behind Kemo, whacking him over the head with it hard enough to knock the man out and grab the gun that was on his hip.

"Kemo?" came a voice from the dropped cell phone.

Reika felt her heart stop at the voice. Though it was over the phone, she could tell the southern American accent anywhere.

"I'm sorry," she said as she picked it up, "Kemo's a little tied up at the moment."

"Miss Mutou? Miss Mutou, what are you doing?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Leichter. Now if you'll excuse me I have some things I need to take care of."

"Reika!"

She ended the call and threw the phone down the hallway in disgust as she stalked back toward the false wall Kemo had appeared from, shaken at the revelation that Leichter was involved in all of this.

"Friend of yours?" Mai asked, her voice less curious and more cautious now as she followed her down the dark pathway.

"My mother's old boss. He kept an eye on me when I was a kid after my parents went missing, but he stopped communication with me when I left for school. I should have known something was suspicious with him when he showed up at my grandfather's hospital room," she said with a sigh as she ran a hand through her long hair.

"Reika, where did your mother work?"

"Kaiba Corp," she said with an exhale. "As a secretary."

Mai frowned as they made their way through the damp, cold dungeon. "So… your mother worked for Kaiba Corp, you have one of those objects that Pegasus wants, and that man at Kaiba Corp is currently working for Pegasus. If this wasn't real life, I'd say this would make a good plot for a movie."

"I really wish this was a movie," she sighed as they approached a fork in the path. "Which way should we go?"

"My gut says left," Mai said from behind her.

"Left it is."

A chill ran through her as they moved carefully through the dungeon, Reika keeping careful tabs on where they were going and how to get back to the main entryway. She didn't want to be suspicious, but it was odd that Mai had decided to help her with this. Not that she was going to turn down help – Seto was tall, and she swore that most of his weight was in his trench coats and not actual body weight, and she didn't think she could move him all the way back to the dueling arena by herself, especially with the guards lurking around the area.

She clutched the gun a bit harder at the sound of a thump from down the hall, their footsteps quickening until they came to a stop in front of an unconscious Bakura and Mokuba. Tristan was hovering over an unconscious guard with a suit of armor's helmet in his hands.

"Hey Mai, Reika. What are you guys doing here?"

"Probably the same thing you are. Give me the key, I'll get Seto out of there."

Tristan gave her a curious look, but handed her the key with a shrug, going to pick up Mokuba and Bakura as Reika knelt in front of Seto and sighed.

"It'll be over soon. I promise," she whispered to him as she uncuffed him from the wall and carefully hoisted him over her shoulder. "Mai, a little help, please?"

Together, she and Mai dragged Seto from the cell before their trio rushed as fast as they could back to the dueling hall, where the purple dome still blocked their view of Yugi and the duel.

"Tristan, what happened to Bakura?" she finally asked as they situated their fallen companions against the wall.

"It's his Millennium Ring. It – I don't know, it's got another person in it, like Yugi's puzzle. And that person wanted Mokuba's body. So I knocked him out and threw the ring off a cliff. It won't hurt anyone again," Tristan explained.

"Hm…" Azila hummed. "The Millennium Ring is not like the other items. I'm not so sure it's gone for good…"

"Comforting," she replied.

"It wasn't supposed to be."

"I kn – ow!" Reika's thought was cut off by a sharp pain in her chest, and looking around, it was obvious Tristan, Téa and Joey had felt it too. "Yugi…" she whispered. "You'll be alright. We're here."

She wasn't sure how much longer they stood there, but eventually, the dome faded, the life points counter on Yugi's side of the arena suggesting that he'd won the game. Pegasus' head was in his hands, cards scattered around him.

"You did it Yugi! You really did it! I knew you could!" she said with a laugh as she pulled her cousin in for a hug. "Pegasus is going to free everyone!"

"Thanks, Reika… it was hard but I'm glad I had everyone by my side."

She stepped back to allow his friends to congratulate him, looking over as she saw Croquet beginning to approach.

"Master Pegasus has requested a private meeting with you, Miss Mutou. Immediately."

"Excuse me? After everything he's put people I care about through? Forget it. He's letting everyone go and we're getting the hell off this island," Reika said, crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes.

"I'm afraid he's not going to take no for an answer, Miss Mutou."

"Fine. But the gun comes with me," she said as she followed Croquet, hearing vocal protests from her cousin and his friends. She was tired of these games with Pegasus, and for once, she wanted to have the upper hand. Though Yugi had won the duel, there was no telling whether or not Pegasus actually would hold up his end of the bargain.

She was led to a tower and paused, gripping the gun as she looked at the man who was leading her upstairs. "This had better not be a joke, Croquet." Frankly, she never wanted to see a tower again after everything the weekend had taken from her.

"It's not a joke. Master Pegasus is waiting for you upstairs."

Exhaling through her nose, Reika followed the staircase, where she indeed saw the disgraced man standing in front of a table, his head drooped.

"What do you want, Pegasus?" she asked, not daring to move away from the staircase.

Pegasus took what sounded like a shaky breath and turned to face her. "I wanted to give you back your things, Miss Mutou," he told her, handing her the purse she'd had the night she'd been taken hostage. "And I wanted to apologize for what I did. I let the darkness of my Millennium Eye cloud my judgment and the lines between right and wrong got blurred. I know I can't make up for it, but I did need to get it off my chest."

Reika studied him for a moment, trying to see how genuine the apology and the pretty words were. She sighed before pressing her lips together, formulating words in her mind before she spoke.

"Forgiveness isn't my strong suit, so you won't be forgiven so easily. However… I do have compassion and an understanding. You were desperate to do more than control a company and steal two items, weren't you?" she questioned as she looked around the tower once again, seeing a painting of a blond woman hanging on one of the walls. "That woman. Who is she?"

"She was my wife. I lost her when we were still newlyweds."

"A desperate attempt to see her again. That's why you were so interested in T.A.I.D.R. You were hoping that we could find her for you. I'm sorry Pegasus, but there's no way to bring back the dead. That's one dimension we don't have access to," she told him. "If we did, I'd ask if my parents were there."

"You lost them?"

"In a way. They've been missing since I was ten. It would be nice to know if they were dead, then I could move on with my life," she told him bitterly, looking through the purse absently and finding everything was in place. "If you are still interested in the agency, Pegasus, someone will be in contact with you once I get back to Domino."

Pegasus had money, and money was never something an undercover, off-the-books organization was going to turn down.

She turned to leave, stopping when Pegasus called her again.

"Take these," the white-haired man said, handing her three cards. "As proof that I always keep my word. Everyone has been set free. Your cousin and his friend shall get their winnings in a few moments."

She looked down at the three empty cards and let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Thank you, Pegasus." She turned to go again, hearing Pegasus speak once more as she descended down the stone steps.

"You know, you and Kaiba-boy do make a lovely couple. I wish you the same happiness Cynthia and I had."

She went scarlet, running the rest of the way until she reached the duel arena again.

"Reika! You're okay!" Joey said. "But your face is all red. What happened?"

Putting a hand on her cheek, Reika felt the warmth radiating off of it. "I'm fine, don't worry. Pegasus was just returning some lost objects to me," she told them with a relieved smile as she saw Seto and Mokuba beginning to stir. She couldn't contain herself as she moved over to them as another guard went over to Yugi and Joey.

"Hey," she breathed to them with a soft smile. "You guys okay?"

Seto nodded, rubbing his head as he gave her a small smile.

"Reika! When did you get home?" Mokuba asked, hugging her tight. "We haven't seen you in forever!"

A laugh escaped her as she returned the hug. "I got home a few days ago when I heard my grandpa was in a coma… and I think I'll be home for a little while yet," she explained, beginning to feel tiredness trying to draw her in. "I missed you guys."

She looked up at her secret boyfriend, giving him a look that signified there was much to come in terms of their reunion. He only smirked in reply, and for a moment, the rest of the world slipped away, a mutual understanding between them.

The journey back to Domino was a long one, but it was worth it as she and Yugi burst into the game shop and found their grandfather awake and alert as if nothing had happened.

"Grandpa!" she cheered, practically diving into the familiar security of his arms.

"Why Reika! Did they drag you all the way home just because of me?" the old man chuckled, his arms embracing her. "They didn't have to do that!"

"No one dragged me, I got the first flight I could!" she protested. "I wasn't going to stay in America knowing what happened to you. And then when Pegasus invited me to watch the tournament how could I turn it down?"

The old man smiled and kissed her forehead like did when she was a little girl. "Well, I'm glad to see you safe and home. Now how about we have some dinner, hm? Being trapped in a coma works up an appetite!"

She didn't want to think about what he went through while he was there, but she forced her tone to remain lighthearted. "I'll cook, grandpa, just to prove to you I won't burn down the kitchen anymore," she said with a grin.

"Very well, but we'll help you, just in case," the older man replied, clapping Yugi on the shoulder and grinning as everyone made their way into the small kitchen. "Tell me all about Duelist Kingdom, my boy!"

"I wish you could have been there, Gramps. It was amazing! I beat Weevil Underwood in my first duel, and Joey beat Rex Raptor!" Yugi said, "but the most important part is that Joey got enough money for Serenity's operation."

Joey nodded eagerly. "Yeah! She was so excited when I called her from the helicopter! I heard mom crying in the background, but when I called dad, he didn't seem to care much."

"Yeah well… who cares what your dad thinks? Serenity is going to be able to see again, and it's all because of you, Joey," Téa said with a wide smile.

"She's right Joey. Family isn't always blood. Sometimes it's those we choose to allow into our lives. And if my family doesn't mind me speaking for them, you have a family here that cares about you, and we'll all be here to support Serenity and her operation."

"Y-yeah? Really?" Joey asked, eyes wide. "Thanks, guys. It means a lot to me."

That night, Kame Game was filled with laughter and light, and as Reika leaned against the counter to watch the scene before her, she couldn't help but be reminded of the pirate crew she'd left behind.

-----

Kame Game was dark. The doors were locked up tight and its inhabitants slept in their beds.

Reika Mutou never looked to be completely settled, although Azila supposed that was because of her time as a pirate. It seemed odd that a pirate would be the one to inherit the bracelet, but the objects were fickle, and it had clearly sensed something within the young woman that bonded them together.

Azila wasn't sure what had brought her to this realm, knowing that Reika would be asleep and especially knowing what she had gone through over the last couple of days, but there was a great sense of unease she had, and she'd wanted to be here, just in case it was more than an odd feeling.

Taking what at one point would have been a seat at Reika's desk, Azila's violet eyes scanned the room before stopping as the Millennium Symbol formed on the door, a man in a white cloak stepping into the room, looking startled when he took in Azila's presence.

"A ghost from the ancient past. That was not what I was expecting when I entered this room," he said smoothly, looking from Azila to the sleeping Reika. "Why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same question. At least this bedroom belongs to the woman that wields an object that formally belonged to me, while you just broke in," Azila said, keeping her low even as Reika shifted slightly in her sleep. "Who are you?"

"I am Shadi. I was a tombkeeper who looked after the Millennium Items… and one was nearly stolen."

"Which one?" came Reika's tired voice from the bed. Azila turned to find her human companion sitting up on one arm, looking at the ghostly figure with a frown.

Shadi stepped over to the bed. "The Millennium Eye that belongs to Maximillion Pegasus. I have heard that you were on the island yesterday."

Reika nodded slowly. "But I didn't try to steal anything."

"Then you have nothing to fear," Shadi said, pulling out the Millennium Key and pressing it against her forehead. He was back what seemed like only a second later, and shook his head. "My apologies for believing that you had tried to steal it. I suppose I'll have to keep looking. Good evening, your majesty."

He vanished before either of them could speak, but once he was gone, Azila felt the burn of Reika's stare boring into her. A strange feeling since she'd been dead for thousands of years.

"Your majesty?" Reika whispered.

Azila opened her mouth to explain before Reika held up her hand.

"Actually you know what? I'm too tired to comprehend all of this right now." Reika's face dropped back into her pillow.

"Very well," Azila whispered as Reika's breathing deepened, indicating sleep.

"The boy the prophecy spoke of is just next door, Great Royal Consort Azila. You know what is to come…" Shadi's voice whispered in the darkness.

A cold streak of fear went down her spine, and with a nod, Azila vanished back to the spirit realm.

#fanfiction #come sail away #yugioh #seto kaiba #yugi mutou #joey wheeler #tea gardner #tristan taylor #mai valentine #mokuba kaiba #maximillion pegasus

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steve0discusses · 3 years

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Yugioh Season Zero: The Yo-yo Crimes of Jounouchi Pt 2

OK, last we left off, we were in a different Youtube video. This one I grabbed off of 2 different videos (you’ll see their watermark in the corner change) and it makes me appreciate the quality that our other episodes have been, honestly. A little bit of compression going on in these, just to give you even more of that nostalgic feel of watching a bootleg anime from the 90′s your brother got from his weird high school friend’s Napster account.

Because this is done with subtitles on, it takes more caps to cover it. Part of why I rewrite the dialogue in these recaps is to help abridge stuff, and so consider yourself warned...there’s a lot of caps in this one. For most of you, that’s probably not much of a problem. But I’m just letting you know because...I sure wasn’t expecting it to be over 40 caps for half an episode, and I’ll probably just type less to make up for that. (Tumblr keeps Erasing All My Words anyway, so this is for the best, but that’s a tech issue I already went into in another post.)

(read more under the cut)

So, to start off, Yugioh and co. walk up to a bar like a really weird version of a bar joke and are like “do you know where we can find the yo-yo gang?” And, much like a video game npc, the bartender was like “I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about, and I heard every part of their intimate conversation. Let me give you all the details, children.”

Hey, PS, there’s an entire Wikipedia entry about the bar joke. And that is wild. Apparently the first bar joke was from Ancient Sumeria, and Wikipedia was like “Here is the Sumerian joke, but we Do Not Get it. Please don’t try to get it.”

The joke being: "A dog walked into a tavern and said, 'I can't see a thing. I'll open this one'."

Damn. I can’t believe the Sumerians were onto meme humor before we ever invented memes. They were in the Galaxy brain over there in the land before time, holy crap. Depositing their memes knowing that 7,000 years later mankind would look at the world’s first joke and be like “I don’t get it!” while all the millennials and zoomers with our MB of nonsense memes on our phones are like “No. I get it.” Good on you Sumerians, that is freakin the best joke ever made. 7000 years to get to the punch line of confusing the hell out of all us. Bless.

They promptly tell Miho that everything was resolved and that she should go to bed and she was like “Cool!” and exited stage left. Bye, I guess. Anzu also went home, but she didn’t have to be tricked into doing it, she just went the hell to bed.

(PS, I just realized that if I want to write less...I should probably not look up Wikipedia articles about the world’s first ever bar joke. But y’all, habits die so freakin hard, and I just feel like it’s very pertinent to this Yugioh recap, although I know it’s really not.)

Yuugi and Honda decide to visit the warehouse and harass Jounouchi. In the context of the show, they’re going out of their way to pull their best friend out of society’s systemic downward pull of a life of crime and most likely turning into exactly like his Father. But, the way that it’s storyboarded makes it look a lot like these kids just show up out of the corner and this gang was like “Damn it, again? OMG small children, please leave us alone!”

Honda hands over the symbolism sash, to which Jounouchi symbolically says “Nyeh.”

And Honda didn’t take it very well.

After tending to his kidneys for a little while, Honda decided to go back at it again at the Krispy Cream and do some sort of insane parkour over this completely ordinary fence.

Ah, the very first instance of real duel law where you duel over a relationship. In later seasons duel law is invoked for things like Mai’s marriage and the right to date Tea (and then just kind of forgetting you ever won the right to date Tea twice). But to think the very first time was Honda dueling for the right of Jounouchi to be part of nerd gang because Jounouchi had fallen to the dark side yo-yo gang across the street run by some 40 year old man with blue hair.

How many times is Honda gonna fight with a broom? Like are they just magnetized to his location? where are they even coming from?

Freakin janitor powers over here, put him in a Final Fantasy style RPG. I want to see what his limit break would be.

Not like it matters, because Hirotani very quickly explains why these yo-yo’s are at all a threat.

Which honestly shouldn’t be...so lethal? Seems like the weight is all you need, not really the spikes. But it’s at least stronger than Honda’s janitor stuff.

Unfortunate for Honda that he just destroyed an antique.

So with lightning reflexes, Yuugi does what he does most:

The death yo-yo ricochets back and does this little itty bitty scrape to this guy’s face and he’s real bothered by it. Although it’s like...well dude, you’re a 50 year old high schooler, I don’t think people will notice the scrape compared to everything else falling apart in your life.

And so then the Yugioh Season Zero team was like “oh shoot is it time to torture Yuugi???” and they got hella excited.

Like I thought it was just Yuugi’s class that were a bunch of disturbing criminal disasters, but I guess it’s the whole city. Like...was Yuugi’s class the good school?

I mean, it can’t be, there’s no way...

but like...is there a good school in this universe? How does anyone survive till graduation? If you so much as disgrace a yo-yo, you will get the torture treatment that I sure did expect in Yakuza games, but not so much in Yugioh, tbh.

Just a reminder: This is the third time we’ve beat up Yuugi this episode. Within the first meeting of Yuugi and Hirotani, he beat the tar out of Yuugi within eye shot of Jounouchi. So like...Jounouchi was reallllllllllllllllly lax on that deal, right? Like...he took his toot sweet time to realize “yeah this just ain’t ever gonna happen.”

And then the yo-yo wars begin.

Just like Solid Snake crawling through the radiation chamber.

Hirotani throws his Fyper-yoyo, Jounouchi intercepts with his Eireboy, and Hirotani’s completely terrible yo-yo just flies off the string again because Hirotani should have just sticked to using his fists. No wonder they wanted to recruit Jounouchi so badly, their yo-yo game is so off.

We never get a door to darkness in this episode, dipping our enemies into mind horrors. Instead, we get home-alone style traps. But, this makes sense. Not only do the show makers have to make Yuugi avoid solving problems with magic in front of Jounouchi, they also have to make it Jounouchi’s choice to leave Hirotani behind. If Yuugi did it for him in like...some sort of duel law situation...then that sort of leaves out Jounouchi’s choice in the equation.

Not like this ever really comes up in later seasons, since who even follows through with duel law and marries Mai? But like, it does feel like Season Zero calls out the later Seasons a bit in this regard. Honda got beat up because he tried to win Jounouchi back by force (or game, I guess.) That was just another form of coercion on the heels of Hirotani’s. What Jounouchi actually needed was to make his own decision to leave.

...most other anime I’d be like “I’m sure that’s just a translation error” but not this one.

So Yuugi runs to the roof where Jounouchi will never see this.

My audible sigh reading this line about fight club roof.

These stupid gang members went into Yuugi’s native territory, not just a fight club roof, but on a warehouse? They were dead before they arrived.

This was like maybe 3 frames of animation in just rapid succession, it was pretty silly and good.

Reminder that like 4 minutes ago, Yuugi was about to get like executed on a meat hook.

Speaking of getting executed on a meathook:

Hope you like the idea of glass in your eyes, because this anime’s got it.

They chase Yuugi around, in a sequence that was done mostly to conserve frames, so you rarely saw the ground until this shot:

Lots of falling down this episode, but unlike Tea, who fell from a warehouse ceiling once and just kind of rubbed her ass after and was like “ah damn it.” these guys won’t come out of it virtually unscathed.

Also, Honda is here now:

Jumping off of his symbolic sash trapeze, he decides to do in Hirotani for good.

Hey so like...walk the dog is a fairly gentle walk that a yo-yo does slowly on the ground right?

Just pointing out how sensitive Hirotani’s fingies are.

And he...didn’t appear to be dead, so I don’t have to add to the bodycount...but it’s gonna be a real long road for recovery.

And now, with the gang back together Jounouchi is back at school knee deep in make up assignments he’ll probably completely ignore since we know that in a years time, these fools are going to be trapped on Pegasus’ island, and at that point school will be just that place you talk about when you try to remember why you’re friends with Bakura.

---hey aren’t those chairs attached to the desks?

Because...holy crap, Anzu.

Honestly this is what you see before you die, but I guess Jounouchi died off screen after the episode ended, so I don’t have to add him to the deathcount (again). RIP.

Alright! That took like...8 tries to get Tumblr to save this one, but it managed! (well...I guess “managed” isn’t the word you’d use for a typing program that takes 8 tries to save)

Next time, we’ll be back to S5, for an arc I’ve heard is kind of boring. We’ll see. If it truly is, I can condense episodes into fewer posts. Or maybe it’s a secret gem? I guess we shall see.

And if you just got here this is a link to read all the Season Zero recaps from the start:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yuugi-muto/chrono

(there’s also a link to read all the Yugioh posts we wrote from the start in chrono order but straight up, this file won’t freakin save, and I just can’t even will myself to look up that link again. It’s on the home page of this blog on the right.)

#YGO #yugioh #yu gi oh #Yuugi Muto #Jounouchi #Honda #Anzu #Miho #yo yo gang #Hirotani #Yuugi and the gang do serious property damage

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steve0discusses · 3 years

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S5 Ep 3: Apdnarg is Really Hard to Spell

Yo guys, people are getting vaccinated, the sun is parting through the clouds, and I felt so nice that I even stopped listening to quite so many throwback 00′s BTS mashups (and yet I keep clicking on these dissonant catastrophes thinking “this time it’s got to be better. This time they’ll figure it out.” and like, no. Turns out you can’t match Brittany’s Toxic with BTS’ Black Swan. You can’t do that.)

This must be a sign that things are getting better. If anything, it means my personal tastes are improving. I mean I only clicked on like 3 “Dark Academia” Playlists where I could pretend I’m some sort of spooky witch in an abandoned library with a bad music player and basic taste in classical music (like can we ban Satie from Youtube for a little while?). Hell, I might even do a prompt update to this blog!

Yeah, you heard me, I’m actually going to stay ahead of the update schedule for Yugioh Abridged (maybe. I haven’t actually watched cuz of spoilers, I just noticed the thumbnail pop up on Youtube and was like “Damn it, they came out of hiatus??? I got hurry UP.”)

Anyway, speaking of the sky parting.

I’ll have you know my bro said this is actually more like a circumcision and it was one of the worst thing I have ever heard.

We get a chance to take in this lineup of confusing and varied character designs, and Joey. who is...still Joey.

The animators probably had to hold a strike in order for them to put Yugi in the audience, lets be real. There are TOO MANY PEOPLE in this shot and one is wearing a turban where you draw every single wrap. I hope those artists charged by the line.

Tea has a subplot where she’s just very frustrated with everyone she knows. They have been traveling together for like many weeks and got trapped in a foreign country so I get it. But at the same time, it’s kind of hard to picture Tea with female friends.

Because right now you got this 12 year old child, the other duelist who does not care about anything besides cards, and Kaiba’s 3 dragon cards that we’ve all collectively decided are female.

Hell it’s almost like the writers are asking themselves why Tea is here. Maybe they forgot. There’s no more ghosts to bus, no more people to knock out with her ass with random Olympic feats. Tea’s just sidelining.

(read more under the cut)

Mokuba is a itty bit bit taller this season, and so I guess that means he can legally climb on top of the cherry picker in order to give a riveting speech.

Really says a lot about Mokuba that he is so unphased about talking to, I dunno...an entire planet of people. Kind of a shame we never see this courage from Mokuba used for anything other than talking really, really big and giving everyone around him a really hard time.

Mokuba takes a moment to dunk on Yugi Muto, as is Kaiba tradition.

And then introduce the first pair of duelists, which obviously must be between the few people in this tournament that we actually know and care about.

Thankfully, in between last episode and this episode, Yugi has figured out who his own Grandpa is. This is a relief, because Yugi is such a mess, that I was fully convinced it would take over half a season for him to recognize it. I mean how long did it take him to figure out he shares a body with a ghost? Like half a season?

Instead Yugi recovered gracefully from not recognizing his grandpa, but it’s not like he bothered to tell anyone else, so the rest of our cast is just gonna be like “Is he my hairdresser? The guy who delivers my mail? Who is this guy who made absolutely no significant changes to his outfit or voice?”

Like sometimes this show goes full Spongebob silly kid’s show and you never know when to take it seriously or not. They might be sacrificing the entire cast next episode. I really don’t know. But for now their big concern is who is grandpa??? Like an innocent card version of “Are you my Mother?”

Faced with public speaking, Yugi decides to have a melt down.

We have seen him face monsters, we’ve seen him on TV dozens of times, he’s been in multiple competitions...but give a speech? Of course he can’t do that. The kid doesn’t attend enough school to know how to do that. Them’s learning skills.

And that was when a newly assembled wife-jet spliced through the sky like a souped up razer scooter and deposited 1 fully equipped Seto Kaiba in a Buzz Lightyear jetsuit.

THE RECOVERY.

Seto always watching over his Brother, ready to save this awkward party if it kills him (and it really should, that suit is held together by two seat-belts), making sure to get on that platform before Yugi starts going off about how he’s half an Ancient Egyptian. (Ah, life before social media. You could just be hella famous and also half a dead dude and people would just not know. I kinda miss the time before I knew literally everything about everyone.)

Please admire how close those flames are to setting Mokuba’s heavily hairsprayed mane completely alight. It would be an unforgettable spectacle.

These were absolutely just random ass jet packs that Gozaburo Kaiba made to kill hell tons of people, right? Like Seto found it in the family cabin, clutched to the heart of some crispy fried corpse and was like “neat! Mokuba! I found a cool toy!” and just plucked that thing out of that skeleton’s clutches and has been flying around for months?

Like this is Seto Kaiba’s Butter Glider, right?

Seriously what type of vehicle license do you need for one of these things? RIP My ‘Seto only has a scooter license’ headcanon.

Which I’m only even thinking about because I’ve had to try and make an appt with the DMV for days to get a freakin REAL ID. I went to sleep in 2019 and I could fly on a plane. I woke up in 2021 and it’s like “Want one last screw you?” and just...can 2020 please stop screwing me over? It’s March.

Anyway, the Jet is removed soon after, so no, this is not part of his new outfit. He goes right back to his Post-S4-Trauma-Normcore.

After wrestling this competition out of his brother’s hands and confusing everyone in the audience, Roland must have gotten the memo to cut the microphone before Seto got too excited and we were quickly ushered on to the next stage of the tournament.

One sec...the BTS Mashup playlist I just clicked on did a Black Swan X 7 rings mashup and it’s the worst thing my ears have ever heard.

Holy crap. I had to actually turn down my volume. Like...Ariana Grande already has music that has way too many overlapping singing parts on it--and then lets just stick a 52-person boy band on top? That’ll fix it. Yeah. Go ahead.

Wow. Even I had to change the song and you know how much I enjoy pop culture mistakes.

Spot the Mickey but like a million times easier because it’s a Massive Dick Shaped Dragon.

Yep. That’s my grocery shopping outfit. Except maybe not a lab coat and a duel disk. Wish I had a duel disk, that would make social distancing just a hell ton earlier. Just a “Yo, only one person in checkout, please” and then bap them on the head with a propelled discuss/hologram.

Anyway, Grocery shopping/Doctor man dueled the Purple Hair Boy, and considering that Purple Hair got screen time and shook Yugi’s hand once--I think that Doctor man doesn’t stand a freakin chance.

Good. I hate him.

Also, every time he breathes he’s gonna fog up his glasses. I have experience in this area. He can’t read his own cards in the same way I can’t read my phone if I’m in the refrigerated aisle.

So the way this tournament works, is everyone has to sit in the stadium to watch the show. Kinda like showing up to a football stadium just to watch a recorded TV monitor...but then again...that is how it feels to watch a football game at a football stadium when it’s live (at least with the tickets I usually get.)

And as we watch Grandpa waiting for his competitor, we find out that his competitor (Joey) is too busy eating snacks to give him the time of day.

Why do cartoon hot dogs always have lettuce? Is that seriously supposed to be relish? Or is there a place in the world where you put lettuce on your hot dog?

Sorry, bro has just informed of his favorite hot dog order, which is absolutely terrible so I will share it with you: a Five Guys hot dog with ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, onions, mushrooms, pickled peppers, and you guessed it--topped with freakin lettuce.

My own kin. How am I over 30 and just finding out that my baby brother thinks it’s normal to walk into a restaurant with normal god-fearing law-abiding people and order lettuce and mushrooms on a hot dog?

I have fully failed him.

The rest of this episode is watching both Joey Wheeler and Mokuba have a shared panic attack while Seto does freakin nothing.

Please remember that Seto has both a jetpack and a dragon wife plane and could have easily solved this problem. But nah.

Then again, Seto Kaiba has given this crew so MANY rides, that maybe he’s tired of being the Soccer Mom for the team?

Like they don’t actually say this episode, but Seto was the one in charge of like...this entire place, do you think he made the 2 for 1 special just to get Joey where it hurts the most? Or does it actually not take any subterfuge to screw Joey Wheeler because he’s just naturally this way?

Like Mokuba wasn’t there when Joey was told “stay right here, and then we will all go together to fight Dartz” and Joey was like “I’mma save Mai from herself although she told me not to!” and then he Hella Died. But, Mokuba did see the result, AKA, Joey’s dead body being carried on the back of Tristan. Maybe Mokuba never realized that Joey died because he went out of his way to be late?

Lets do a tally of every time I can recall with my dodgy memory that Joey was threatened to be DQ’d/pretty much was DQ’d either by his own fault or no fault of his own

-When he wasn’t allowed to go on the boat to Murder Island because he was a stupid nobody kid who did not have a dueling glove

-When he wasn’t actually supposed to be in Pegasus’ tourney and was, in fact, secretly using half of Yugi’s entrance ticket the entire time

-when Bandit Keith stole the ticket that Joey got from Yugi so then Joey had to borrow Mai’s ticket although she had just used it so it really shouldn't have counted. Because, really anyone could have just piggy backed off of each other’s ticket until the whole boat went through that castle.

-When his account was hacked to get entered into Kaiba’s tourney when Kaiba very clearly told him he could not apply solely because he was Joey Wheeler.

-When he was late to his sister’s eye surgery because he got mugged by Marik’s Rare Hunters, so she almost refused to do the surgery.

-When Joey got possessed by Marik, and as Marik, threatened to murder everyone else in the tournament including both of the Kaiba brother’s who’s tournament it was, and then chained himself to Yugi Muto to throw both of them to the bottom of the ocean.

-I think there was a point when he threatened to attack Kaiba in Kaiba’s own tourney while not possessed? Like several times?

-when he got struck by Lightning and almost did not stand up fast enough after being struck by lightning, which is apparently a type of DQ in Duel Monsters.

-When he tried to save Mai from getting hit by a fireball, but then Yugi did it instead, and then so many people were standing on the dueling platform that Kaiba couldn’t possibly DQ them all.

-When he entered the restricted area of the blimp in order to hassle Kaiba into landing the Blimp, which Kaiba did not do.

-When Marik killed Joey before Joey could press the “go” button on his duel disk to play the card that should have won Joey the match.

-When he was dueling a lawyer in a digital universe but then the dice was like...weighted? So Noah had to walk over and be like “The hell is this weighted dice? This is my perfect digital world? How did you even do that?” and then Joey won because the match was no longer legit.

-When Joey yelled at Noah too much and so Noah turned Joey to stone for being a rude ass spectator

-When Mai was like “Wheeler and Valon, listen closely: do NOT murder each other” and then Joey did a murder on Valon so she was like “I guess I have no choice, I was very clear” and killed Joey straight up.

-When Joey decided to block Seto’s fireballs while Joey Wheeler WAS a playing card, somehow disrespecting both Dartz and Seto Kaiba at the same time.

-When Joey was playing cards but then got absorbed into a giant Leviathan and basically couldn’t play anymore after that.

-There’s probably hell ton of S0 stuff I just haven’t seen yet.

-This episode

And Joey runs fast for a montage of wacky things that really have no business being in a theme park. Things like this:

(remember when Bakura almost died from a rock that ended up being a balloon? It comes full circle.)

The stuff that the Kaiba brother’s think is normal and fun.

Anyway Joey fights off a bunch of hologram snakes and bats and everyone is like “Should we tell him it’s just holograms???” And it’s like wow, guys, how many times have these ‘holograms’ straight up murdered Joey Wheeler and everyone else on this cast? Too many? Because I have a google doc with so many deaths on it. 7,805,844,048, to be exact.

Anyway, he gets there with five seconds to spare and Mokuba’s like “well at least you were still entertaining while we filmed you in front of a live audience being a total spaz for 15 minutes straight, so I’ll let you go.”

Grandpa and Joey start playing, Joey completely oblivious that this is just an older Muto, while Hawkins walks up awkwardly and is like “hey guys. I’m so sorry about this.”

(welcome to my font choices, for those new here, I have to make weird font color choices to make sure it’s legible for the colorblind and also for the non-colorblind. This one is not much contrast, so I may change it up in the future, but for now, this is Grandpa Muto’s new font. I apologize to every graphic designer reading this. Please don’t tell anyone who has ever hired me for graphic design about this blog.)

What’s funny about this exchange is that after they find out that Yugi’s Grandpa is Apdnarg (HOLY my brain cannot get around the spelling for that, and I will not change it in the caps. I cannot do a ‘pdn’ ever again), they don’t stand on his side of the field or anything. Hawkins is legit Solomon Muto’s only fan during this exchange and like...damn. Way not to back your Grandpa, Yugi.

Yugi immediately strides up to Mokuba to non-confrontation-ally inform him that he has stepped over a line and Mokuba is like “what are these things you say called ‘lines?’”

According to Mokuba, Solomon Muto begged him to be in the competition so he could relive his glory days (glory days making no sense here, because the game has only been released for the past 15 years, so glory days is like...the before times that can only be referring to disgraced archeologists and Pegasus ((who is, in his own way...a disgraced archeologist, too))) and Mokuba was like

“You trained Yugi Muto, right? Hey that’s good enough for me. This drama is gold. People will eat it up. Hell yes. Don’t be afraid to abduct him a little bit. Maybe trap a couple people in a digital hellscape for a little while? Now we go by Pegasus house rules here, so fire as many lasers as you want, but just make sure not to hit anyone in the face. Oh man, we are going to be swimming in cash. Love it, Muto Sr, love it.”

But I dunno, I feel like Grandpa won’t make it past next episode. It is Joey. We kinda need him to make it past Ep 4 of the arc. If Grandpa Muto becomes the new Joey Wheeler, that will be a weird transition for this show to make.

But that’s all for today, as always, here is the link to read these in chrono order becuase there’s SO MANY that you don’t need to read backwards--don’t do it--just use the chrono tag (and I don’t know if you can add compound tags, but I did separate the Season from the Episode, so if you write S4, it should only pop up stuff from S4. I didn't’ do that to seasons 1-3 though because I just...didn’t.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

And because I brought it up: here it is, the best BTS Mashup that I found on my deep dive. Like legit--this one isn’t a mess:

youtube

Most of other ones are horrible in a fascinating way. Like I’m not even a BTS fan, I think I sort of age out of that metric, I’m just bored and quarantined. And lets be real, we all appreciate a good bop when we hear it.

#yugioh #ygo #yu gi oh #photo recap #recap #episode recap #yugi muto #seto kaiba #mokuba kaiba #Joey Wheeler #Apdnarg #Grandpa muto #tea gardner #tristan taylor #professor hawkins #and then I ranted about BTS #but please don't quiz me about BTS I know nothing about them aside from the music #I actually thought there were over 12 of them because every time I see them perform it feels like an entire stageplay production of people #like a 101 dalmations situation where every time I saw BTS there were 3 new people #I assumed it was like the Gorrilaz where people just show up and then disappear in a rotation #but no. There's 7 BTS members #that can't be right #there has to be more than 7 #is this a berenstein bears situation?#how is there only 7?#I swear there used to be like 16 #and they would be introduced like here's jimin and Jungkook and red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and pea #like is google seriously telling me there's only 7 kids in this band?#this is the biggest scam google has ever played on me #this weird alternate timeline that not only has an epidemic but also only 7 members of BTS

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steve0discusses · 4 years

Text

Yugioh S4 Ep10 pt2: Yugi’s Never Ceasing Commute Continues

Last we left off, it was time to eat. Thank you. Thank you, Yugioh. You get me.

Not one of their better spreads, TBH.

No cheese wheels, too. They are truly living in hard times.

(read more under the cut)

Rex and Weevil decided to look for rare cards in the rubble of Arthur Hawkin’s house.

I don’t know why they bothered with this, everything was very clearly exploded and on fire, but youknow, these two just seem to be very hellbent on being bad at life. Just two jokes that are here just to be jokes, wearing these duel disks that they’re not going to use until it’s finally time for them to betray us. Checkov’s jokes.

And I hate to say this but they really are this season’s Bakura.

I know I just said that.

But this show really likes having at least one character that might turn at any moment and stab our protagonist in the back. They like to have at least one at all times there, hovering over Yugi’s oblivious shoulders, with that figurative knife (or literal, in the case of that time when Bakura stabbed himself without nearly any provocation).

In the past, when Bakura was out to lunch, we would have betraying friends like Kaiba, who would go solo in the middle of his own card game and end up throwing everyone in danger, and also Tristan who got full on possessed by the Big 5 and tried to murder everyone, but I guess after 4 seasons they were like “Youknow...I think Kaiba got over it.” and like...you can’t have Rebecca stab us in the back so lets bring Rex and Weevil.

At least their showtime is minimal, because unlike Bakura, who is pretty likeable even when he’s being an asshole, Rex and Weevil never turn off the asshole and are mostly just visual gags stumbling over eachother. Bakura was quite clever and had a bit of depth and mystery, while I don’t think Rex and Weevil are smart enough to even know how to spell mystery.

And if Rex and Weevil end up being good guys and the saviors of the whole show then my sincere apologies, but they are still kind of grating.

Now Rebecca gets a duel monster’s card that has a death threat on it, which is probably the normal way to sign your duel monsters cards in this universe. I imagine every card in Yugi’s deck has a couple death threats on each of them by now. Probably makes them more lucky.

Ya so...

I can forgive this. The people who made this looked at a map of California, forgot that California is roughly the same size as Japan, and were like “I mean, there’s like 50 states, it can’t be that big.”

But here’s the thing about Death Valley. I am a Californian, but I have never been there. This is why.

Death Valley is ASS to get to. Barely anyone lives there. Nothing goes there. You can’t just take a train, you have to drive there by going south past it and then turning around. It’s real round about and just in the middle of nowhere. May as well get there by flying into Las Vegas, and if you are flying into Las Vegas, chances are slim that you will leave that Vacation Town USA to vacation in a literal desert.

Clearly they saw the name “Death Valley” and got super excited but y’all...there’s a reason why we call it that, and everyone who knows about geography or is a Californian is kind of like “um...is Yugi...going to Death Valley???? That city slicker?”

Cuz this is not a normal desert. Normally, a human can survive 3 days without water, in Death Valley you apparently can only survive for 14 hours. It is the lowest point in the US and also the hottest point in the US and the place where the highest temperature was ever recorded on the Earth. And while that heat is only for 5 months of the year...it’s not winter in the show, is it? It’s fairly warm. San Fransisco wasn’t even foggy?

Like even the Death Valley website is like “please don’t leave the main roads and hike during the hot months” because y’all, this park is damn serious. Like this is one of the only National Parks that has not just one, but multiple ghost towns in it.

Don’t get me wrong, Death Valley’s very pretty and very fun I’ve heard, and it has like a very fancy dayspa in it, and if you like geography and like to rough it, then you will absolutely love how freakin weird Death Valley is. So, if you’re safe and know how to pack your gear, you’ll have no problem, but...Y’all, Yugi Muto, who barely survived Pegasus’ island (and only because Mai fed him) is going to just casually go into Death Valley.

In that outfit.

Then, in some barn somewhere (I have NO IDEA where this exchange takes place) Rafael is grilling Arthur only to realize that this is a very pointless conversation.

And in case you forgot Darts exist, he’s still out there, murdering people off for kicks. we’ll just add 20 more to the death count, the internet told me that’s the average amount of people on a fish boat of average size (although sometimes this boat seemed like the size of a shipping container barge but youknow...)

And in case you missed it, I have been doing the death counter wrong so I was 2 people behind--it’s correct now. With the rate this show goes I feel like we might see death 666 eventually. But, yes we did pass 269 so we’ll have to wait another 100, I guess, because it went to some rando on this boat. Nice.

(The highest surface temperature of Death Valley ((not the air, but the ground)) ever recorded, was 201° F.)

(That’s 94° C for those in the back.)

I mean Yugi is part Pharaoh so I guess he just has a strong attraction to really terrible deserts. He’s also half a dead guy so maybe he also just has a strong attraction to being dead.

But I dunno, maybe this is the months of the year where Death Valley is manageable? Maybe? Possibly? We’ll just assume that it is.

Now you can go horseback riding in Death Valley, as you can in any National Park, but it isn’t real normal to ride your horse all the way from San Fransisco. And like you can’t even let your dog off a leash in Death Valley. This is such a bad park for pets!

Also, I found out some fun facts about horse travel, for anyone interested in writing fantasy and wants to know the average speed of a horse.

So a horse can go about 100 miles in a day, but only for one day. If you do 250 miles, the time has to be more spread out since you must recharge your horse. According to some horse-specialist on the internet who does horse marathons from coast to coast, if you have to do 500 miles, then you average about 24 miles a day, accounting for horse-recovery time and assuming it’s a horse that wasn’t bred for super long distances. (this is about a 500 mi horse ride, ps)

The pony express of old, the iconic Wells Fargo, would actually have horse stations along the prairie, where you would trade in your tired horse for a new horse, so that way you would never have to stop going 100 miles in a day. Since Yugi never changed his horse, this ride would have been absolutely ridiculous, and Copernicus the horse, would have stopped somewhere in Gilroy.

But this is a kid’s show so wtv, we’re gonna ignore that.

(reminder that Yugi decided not to unhitch the perfectly serviceable truck and drive away with air conditioning.)

And Yugi really did make Rebecca promise not to tell these much older teens that he took off (something about how he doesn’t want to put more people in danger yada yada, normal Yugi stuff), but the show kind of blames this on Rebecca...but like...she’s 12. This one is on Yugi.

But, if Rebecca were older, maybe she would have done the same thing. Rebecca seems like maybe the type that realizes that when you like an idiot boy, you gotta let them do idiot things, and make idiot mistakes. You can’t just control what your friends do all the time, unlike this crew, which is controlling because that is the only way they keep eachother alive.

So Joey decides to ignore both of the cars right next to him, and just book it to save his stupid ass friend. On foot. To Death Valley. From what the show insisted was just outside San Fransisco.

And I guess that Rafael decided to just let Hawkins go?

Probably because Yugi got on a horse and Rafael was like “of course I know Yugi is chasing me on horseback off the main roads. Of course I know that.” and then he just...let Hawkins walk all the way back...

Hawkins should be dead, but not yet.

So lets check out Death Valley.

So like...again I just think they probably boarded everything and had a rough idea of “America has a bunch of natural canyons, right?” and didn’t realize that the Grand Canyon was soooo far from California.

There are actually canyons in Death Valley but like...I dunno if the art matches that so much? They aren’t nearly as massive as the canyon situation farther East.

Again this was their art choice that they made and it’s...a choice. And they committed to it.

And this bike thing happened?

This tandem bicycle for children lost among the wreckage of Rebecca Hawkin’s home is like a whole “baby shoes, never worn” short story in itself. Rebecca has nooo siblings or parents, right? She has a really old grandpa who is like 80 and doesn’t bike? Just uh...bringing that up...was this tandem bike for her to hang out with Yugi? Does Rebecca even have friends her own age? She already graduated college.

So much inferred by the bike that I know is just here because it’s a funny joke to see Rex and Weevil on a stupid tandem bike.

So I’ve heard about the bike/car/horse paradox before in regards to this season, (it’s one of the few things I knew about this season before going in) so I’m happy to see I’ve recapped enough Yugioh to see it play out.

The paradox being, if Yugi is on horseback, and Rex and Weevil are on a bike, and the rest are in a car, who arrives first?

Apparently the show itself isn’t even sure because Rex and Weevil can keep up with a horse???

Anyway, the correct answer to the paradox is that everyone not in a car is dead for not bringing any water.

Everyone except for Raphael, who probably put a camel pack into each of his shoulder pads.

OH NOW IT’S AN ANIME.

I don’t get why this is happening. But it’s a thing now. Rafael has either literal or metaphoric wings. Bear in mind I thought Pharaoh was Metaphoric for like 14 episodes. These Icarus wings might just be real. Rafael might have been a card this entire time, and I wouldn’t even blink.

Anyway, if this is your first post of mine you’ve seen of this, my apologies, we’re in S4 and this is very confusing. You can read from S1 ep 1 in chrono order by clicking this very handy link here!

#yugioh #ygo #Episode Recap #photo recap #yugi muto #joey wheeler #rebecca hawkins #raphael #rex raptor #weevil underwood #duke devlin #tea gardner #anime food #s4 #ep 10 #fully prepared for Rafael to be a card

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