#I miss him and Téa so much

[writingmccord]

Tim Daly at Sundance 2025 (via @/emilyglasswoman on Instagram)

[l1ghtfromthecloset]

Some funny/wholesome headcanons I have for some of the YGO DM characters:

Yugi: Can never find anything. Like ever. Yami used to help him find missing things and now that he's gone, anytime Yugi can't find something, it ends up on his bed exactly 20 minutes later magically. Every. time.

Joey: Is amazing at braiding hair. He used to do it for Serenity all the time.

Téa: Despite being amazing at dancing, she's not that great at singing. But she's also really good at lip syncing so it makes up for it.

Tristan: opposite to Téa, he is severely uncoordinated when it comes to dancing, but pretty good at singing. He also owns a guitar in his closet.

Mokuba: He likes to eat straight up coffee beans. Like, just the beans. Straight from the bag. Seto walked in on this one morning and now he is forever secretly terrified of his little brother in the morning.

Seto: He listens to lofi and Hans Zimmer when he works. He listens to metal when he builds decks, and he listens to "You're not me" on repeat regularly. (I made an entire Spotify playlist based on this).

Seto and Mokuba: they combat train together. It's how they bond. And Mokuba somehow beats Seto every time.

Bakura: despite being the Bri'ish little fella we know and love, he hates tea. Especially black tea. Even if it's sweetened. He prefers coffee over anything.

Marik: used to love tea but stopped drinking it once he found out that Bakura hates it. Now he drinks coffee, despite not liking it that much.

Rebecca: she secretly still sleeps with her teddy. She also reads a quantum mechanics book before she sleeps. 💀

Duke: He has a small side hustle in making resin dice. He has a pretty creative and crafty side.

That's all I can think of for now :p

Lemme know if y'all want more. You're free to add on your own to this if you'd like :)

[gx-gameon]

I was wondering, how/when did the AU’s version of Sheppard learn about Jaden’s history with Yubel? In canon, it’s never stated when exactly the Yuki’s told him about it, other than that it was before the entrance exams, though my assumption was that it was when Jaden first signed up for Duel Academy.

But I imagine that probably wouldn’t make much sense in this AU, unless they were stalking him or something after giving him up. And I’m not really sure what they would expect Sheppard to be able to do if they told him before.

I…. Didn’t think about that.

Cause Jaden’s birth parents are not around. They’re not dead they just want nothing to do with him. They don’t even know who adopted him.

I guess if you want to say that it is Jaden’s birthday parents that called it would be after the televised school duel in season one. His birth parents saw him at duel school dueling, and were like ‘oh no, how did he get there.’ Maybe it’s concern for the other students, maybe they are that afraid of their child, maybe they don’t say anything and are like ‘not my kid not my problem.’

I can’t see Yugi or Seto telling the school anything. It’s weird for them to have that kind of information about someone that’s ‘not their kid’

I could see Seto reaching out maybe since Jaden is missing his “true deck” and it is Kaiba Corp that sent it to space. But the details on Jaden’s childhood? I don’t think so.

With Atem around they have a lot better understanding of Jaden’s locked powers. They aren’t a scared couple with a “dangerous” child. Atem can help Jaden keep his powers in check.

I just don’t know if Sheppard has that information.

If he does it’s right after the school comes back from the other dimensions and all the adults are talking about what happened. Jaden is in his room sobbing and all the adults have been pulled to figure out what happened and where Jesse is.

If Crowler/Bonapart bring up Yubel I’m sure the Dm crew would react. They’re have to explain why they know who Yubel is. Seto or Mokuba lying about Jaden’s parents reaching out about sending the card to space. (All of that happened before Jaden was adopted so it’s not linked to his identity as Prince of Duels) they lie and say they didn’t know who the card belonged to and the staff draw the conclusion that Jaden was the child. (Not their son but the one whose card was sent to space)

Yugi is super stressed and just wants to go see his kid which is hard because all the adult staff wants help figure out what’s happening and Jaden’s friends are all in the Slifer dorm. He can’t exactly sneak over. Maybe he can just call it a check in. Ya the kids need to be check in on. He grabs Téa and says they are going to check in on the kids. The plan is Téa and him will walk over there together ask how the kids are doing. The students will point out that Jaden’s not doing great and then Yugi can go check on him while Téa distracts the others. A great plan, (you know if Jaden’s friends are not to star struck to remember that Jaden needs support)

Imagine his and Téa suprise when they show up to the dorm to over hear Sheppard telling the students everything he just learned about Jaden (that Yubel was once his card, that the card lashed out and hurt people, that Yubel was sent to space. But in this instance does he know about the electroshock therapy to make Jaden forget? Or do he and the kids think Jaden was playing stupid the whole time? Questions to figure out later.)

Yugi’s furious. He makes it known though he’s trying to reel it in. He shouldn’t be this upset about a strangers kid. He can be mad about the kids privacy being breached but why? The kids should know what happening, they’re the only fixing problems at this school (technically it’s Jaden but whatever) and if they don’t know about the Electroshock therapy then it looks like Jaden hid this from them and when their lives were in danger he willfully chose not to tell anyone the vital information he knew. The kids have a right to know and the would have a right to be angry in that situation.

Yugi can’t defend Jaden. He knows Jaden had no clue about Yubel. He knows the kid had his brain fried. He knows that Yubel tortured Jaden for months even after they were sent away. He knows Jaden would never willing put anyone in danger or hide information. But he can’t say any of that without exposing who Jaden is.

And depending on how much Shepard what told by Seto this situation looks really bad for Jaden. Either they know about the electroshock and have pity for him, or they don’t and they think he hid information from them. Neither is a great look and Yugi know it’s the Dm crews fault.

They are the one couldn’t hold their surprise over hearing to was Yubel in the other dimension. If they had they never would have had to reveal anything to Sheppard and he never would have told the kids.

Part of Yugi just want to say screw and tell them all right now that Jaden is his son. They do not know what his boy has been through, and this is a family matter now.

But that’s not his choice, it’s Jaden’s.

Jaden who is upstairs morning the loss of his best friend/romantic interest. Jaden who just violently remembered his childhood memories of Yubel. Jaden who is already being eaten alive by guilt and has already had so much taken from him.

If his parents had understood duel monsters and magic they never would have striped him of Yubel. He lost his protector. (Yes she was hurting people but that’s because dueling has always been life or death for them and they were watching baby Jaden loss and in their mind be killed, of course they protected him) if they had known how to talk to spirits Yubel could have been calmed and Jaden would have a protector at his side.

Jaden had his powers and memories blocked by getting his brain fried at a young age

His parent abandoned him. (Spooky child)

And besides the last one Yugi knows these parents were acting on the information they had. Almost no one has the connections to the spirit world Jaden would have need as a child to be safe. It’s a mirical Yugi found him. But he’s still hates Jaden birth parents for all they put him through.

Jaden had his true deck sent to space. (By Kaiba Corp)

While they did their best to give him a loving and stable childhood being the prince of games isolated Jaden from his peers up until duel academy.

They there were that shadow riders and sacred beast his first year (Yugi is still upset with Seto over that)

The cult his second year

And now his protector is back and corrupted by the light and trying to kill all of Jaden’s friends

And Jaden’s “friends” were just told that Jaden knowingly put them in danger

The universe keeps taking from his boy. Jaden seems to keep pulling the worst cards and yet his boy has always faced everything with hope and joy. He’s so proud of him. And Yugi doesn’t want to take something else from Jaden. He doesn’t want to be the one who decides when Jaden’s friends learn the truth.

He really needs to talk to his son.

But Jaden’s already running for a portal.

(Again this is fluid. I need to see what I want to happen once I finally get around to rewatching season three. Thank you though, I totally forgot about how Sheppard knew that information so thank you for pointing out a plot hole to me.)

[aloysiavirgata]

Hi! I'm not sure if you've done this before, but my prompt is: 2023 Mulder and Scully rediscovered an old copy of their Hollywood AD film. Thanks so much!😍

It was the kind of autumn Gothic novels were written for, blustery and orange-gold with purple velvet twilights. The house was creaky with uneven seams that the cold seeped into, left Scully in thick wool socks at breakfast, flannel pajamas at bedtime.

She went to the thrift store after work to hunt for handmade quilts. She liked to rescue them from the sad racks under fluorescent lights, imagined women gossiping and sewing them with fingers as nimble as any surgeon. Remembered how Playtex seamstresses sewed the first space suits with 1/64th of an inch tolerances.

Scully perused the DVD bin as she waited in line, a Rising Sun quilt in shades of blue over her arm. She smiled as she went through them, remembering the times she had seen the films. A Few Good Men, When Harry Met Sally, Gladiator, and…oh.

Christ.

Scully felt her face go hot, glanced around as though anyone were paying attention. She tucked The Lazarus Bowl under the quilt, tossed a twenty on the counter, and fled.

***

Mulder hadn’t really stopped smirking since she came home with it, cracking wise as he assembled a large plate of nachos for them to share.

Scully, angry at herself for this weakness, glared at him from the depths of a laundry-basket quilt in shades of green.

“Should I call Walter?” he asked, settling next to her. “Your main squeeze?”

“Fuck off.”

“How many Hail Marys from Sister Spooky for that?” He hit play.

Scully, visible only as narrowed eyes and a messy bun, watched Téa Leoni sprint across the screen in Manolo Blahniks.

Mulder loaded a chip with refried beans. “Look at her go,” he said with admiration. “You’ve got to be impressed with her commitment to verisimilitude.”

Her onscreen doppelgänger paused to let her bosom heave.

“I would never run in that bra, that would just ruin your neck.”

“Well, that’s why she got paid the big bucks.”

They watched in silence for a while longer, eating, listening to the wind scrape tree branches together over the mortifying dialogue.

“You ever miss it?” Scully asked. She’d be sixty in a few months. Sixty, my god. She was thirty-six when this mess had come out and had been starting to feel past her prime just then.

She’d been a child. An infant.

Mulder made a non-committal noise around a pickled jalapeño. “Sixty-two now, I’d have been punted out 5 years ago anyway.”

“I think the kids say yeeted now,” Scully remarked. “We’d have been yeeted.”

“That’s very lit of you, Scully.”

“I’m hip to the lingo. All the new residents are like…sixteen.”

Gary Shandling waved his gun, made dire threats that violated the Geneva Convention.

“Look at this fucking idiot,” Mulder scowled. “I showed him how to hold the thing, Jesus Christ.”

Scully smirked. “You ever show him whether you dress to the left or the right?”

He grabbed her under the quilt, drew her against him as the windows rattled. “Just you. In the limo, if I recall. God this is a terrible movie.”

“Only on the way back,” she clarified, his hands under her shirt. “I made you buy me dinner first.”

“Always a lady,” he mumbled into her neck. “Though…that was the Bureau card. I guess ol’ Walter bought you dinner and I just reaped the benefits.”

Scully shoved him away.

“Wh-“

“I can’t live this lie any longer, Fox. I’m in love with Associate Producer Walter Skinner.”

[dei-lab-assistant]

Nothing Builds a Friendship Like a Crisis

Co-written with multifandoms27 Summary: You wanted to work in peace, but a certain CEO wanted you to take on a job for him. Dub canon plus a version of DSOD. Female Reader. Set maybe two years post DSOD. Fun fact: I always write my Reader character with personality and specific description. This means she may not be as generic as is customary for this type of story. Each reader character also has a specific place in the Yu-Gi-Oh world, and is basically an OC with set connections and feelings about the various canon characters and other reader characters. This is reader B, who is immune to the siren song of romance, cheap, eccentric, logical, and hands-on. Word count: 1,100 You never intended to become friends with Kaiba. You'd heard too much about him from Joey over the years to think such a thing was possible. But... It felt lonely after Yugi and his friends’ graduation. Over the course of the three prior years, while you had worked at Kame Game, Yugi had slowly pulled you into his friend group. Always slow to form emotional connections, you found you were no match for Yugi’s bright smile and quiet nudging to join in the fun. And despite being four years older, you had been well integrated by the time Yugi graduated—although, truth be told, you were only marginally aware of how much you had come to delight in spending time with the group. At least, until it ended, then you became keenly aware. Téa left to study in New York. Tristan was working full time in his dad’s factory. And Joey spent his days working a collection of odd jobs and chasing down his dream of becoming a professional duelist. And then Joey started dating your younger sister, and it felt like losing two friends at once. Fortunately, you and Yugi grew closer, starting Pharaoh Games together, designing a few games which the two of you sold for a slight profit at a small scale. And Mokuba started to swing by; he latched onto you, quickly becoming close. It was Mokuba who hired you and Yugi to design the proof of concept game for his older brother’s new solid vision holograms. And that was how, amidst a whirlwind year and a half project, you met Seto Kaiba. He was the most interesting human you had ever met, he designed incredible things, and he loved his little brother—the three shortcuts to winning your favor, all in one person. You and Kaiba worked well together—which Mokuba encouraged—and to your surprise, by the end of the project, Kaiba was going out of his way to talk to you, tell you about his plans, and ask for your advice on specific elements of scenario design for his own Solid Vision projects.

You even tried to help Kaiba win a bet with Pegasus, and although the two of you eventually lost, it did help create a true bond between you, (especially when it came time to pay up.) Still, once the Solid Vision game was completed, Kaiba moved on to other projects, and you were left with nothing to return to but quiet work at the game shop. It was a good job, a good life, and Yugi was a good friend; but you missed spending time with someone smarter than you, someone who built imaginary worlds from light, someone with impressive dreams for the future. It felt like, after years of hearing about Yugi’s adventures, you had been swept up into the edges of something grand, only to be dropped again back into the mundane—and there were fewer friends to share it with now.

Still, the Kaiba brothers both kept in contact in their own way, and you had low social needs, so it all seemed like it would work out. 

While working alone at the game shop, you flipped the radio on. An old fashioned trumpet fanfare blasted out of the speakers as you scrambled to turn the volume down. You were all too familiar with the melody—the theme song for a rapidly ascending game company, Knightly Rook, which had been in an advertising blitz for almost a month now. From your admittedly biased perspective, the company seemed more hype than substance, but it was the company’s snide, barely concealed jabs at Kaiba Corp that irritated you. Still, there was a lot of talk from the company’s popular president that Knightly Rook would soon go public, so for the moment, even the news was covering their rise to prominence.

At your hip, your cell phone went off, playing the Kaiba Corp theme. Switching off the radio, you popped the phone out of its clip and answered it. “Kaiba?” 

“You’re taking Mokuba to Kaiba Land tomorrow.” Kaiba rarely bothered with the customary social dance that defined most people’s conversations.

Had you forgotten about a plan made months ago? You switched to your calendar app, “No, I’m not. I’m working tomorrow.” You liked jumping straight past the niceties too. “Besides, I don’t remember asking you to plan my schedule.”

“You should. You wouldn’t make yourself a long-term plan if I paid you to do it.” Kaiba gave a harsh little laugh. “Yugi can run the shop. I want to hire you to assist Mokuba for his park inspection tomorrow.”

“Don’t you usually do the monthly park inspection with Mokuba?” You switched your phone to speakerphone, setting it down and grabbing a box cutter. “Besides, Yugi’s out of town this week.” Cutting open a few boxes of supplies, you began to check the contents against the provided invoices.

After a moment’s silence, Kaiba gave a little growl, “Why is Yugi in New York?”

He must have checked Yugi’s duel disk location. “He’s visiting Téa.”

“Fine. I’ll pay Mr. Muto to give you the day off.”

“Honestly, just wait a couple of days and—“

“Do you think you’re not up to the task? Is that why you’re turning this opportunity down?” 

“Hey, we both know I’m capable of keeping up with Mokuba. I’ll be available in a few days. You don’t even have to pay me.”

“I’d rather you did it tomorrow. And I’ll pay you. The last time someone other than me did the inspection with Mokuba, he ended up covered in wet paint and quit.”

Not surprising. Mokuba could be something of a feral gremlin with anyone he didn’t like. You sighed. “What time will a car be picking me up?” You weren’t going to pay for parking at Kaiba Land if you could help it.

“Nine. I’ll have someone fax you your W-4. Fill it out and have it ready for tomorrow.”

“Okay.” You marked off the last of the supplies on the invoice. “Anything I need to read up on tonight?”

“I’ll send you the latest security protocols. But be sure to destroy the papers after you read them.”

“Security proto—Kaiba what’s going on?”

“I’m handling it. But I don’t have time to accompany Mokuba tomorrow. Just keep an eye out.”

You sighed again. Why did Kaiba have to be secretive? “Fine. But I’m not a bodyguard. I don’t have the right training.”

“Mokuba will have guards with him.”

You set down your pencil. “That’s good. Will we see you tomorrow?”

“I doubt it.”

“Well, I’ll keep Mokuba out of trouble.”

“Bye.” Kaiba hung up. Abrupt as always. Hopefully, you wouldn’t make any embarrassing mistakes tomorrow. If Kaiba trusted you, then you had no intention of letting him and Mokuba down. Part 2

[millenniumdueled]

Regrouping

(( rp from Discord with @redeyesandchilifries and @blueeyesking, formatted for easy reading! hopefully? ))

Yugi.

As the golden light disappears onto his chest, the Other Yugi feels that warm bloom through him, filling him with a pleasant feeling he'd almost forgotten. Though he's still in the crumbling remains of Dartz's temple, he feels home. Whole. Complete.

For just a moment, he disappears into his own soul, closing his eyes to meet his Partner inside their shared heart. And there he sees him. Yugi Mutou, his other half. With his sweet smile and soft eyes, and all the warmth of a summer morning. He reaches out to take the hands of his Other Self as his smile somehow grows even brighter. "i'm so happy to see you again," he says with both a chuckle and a sob. "I missed you so, so much. Partner, I-- I'm sorry…" Despite the tears that fall from his eyes, the Pharaoh smiles as he holds onto Yugi's hands. "shhhh, other me, what are you talking about? i'm so proud of you," Yugi says, with breathless adoration. Oh, how he wants to stay like this forever. To just hold his Partner and never let him go again. But as the raging waves shake the crumbling temple, the two are pulled out of their emotional reunion, and back to the reality, and urgency, of their situation. For the first time in weeks, Yugi opens his own eyes. It's a little disorienting, to occupy a physical body again after so long as nothing more than a trapped soul. But he wastes no time, blinking away the discomfort before rushing to the side of Kaiba and his friends on the temple floor.

Seto Kaiba

Seto groans as he raises his bruised body, touching the back of his head where it hit the stone floor, checking for blood. No… he's fine, just battered. He then notices Mokuba holding his arm, immediately taking all of his attention with more than a little alarm; Seto gently shakes his little brother's shoulder, yelling over the din of the temple's rumbling, "Mokuba. Mokuba! Are you alright?" The older Kaiba hardly notices or cares when Yugi runs over to everyone.

mokuba

Mokuba groans as his consciousness returns, but he doesn't immediately open his eyes. His head hurts. His body feels heavy. He feels his brother shift beside him and snuggles closer, almost forgetting where they are or the danger they'd been in, as his mind isn't quite awake yet. But the urgency in Seto's voice as he calls his name has Mokuba quickly sitting up in alarm. Instantly, he remembers the Duel, remembers watching the awful way Seto had twitched and writhed against the seal as Dartz had cast him out from it. "Nii-sama!!" he gasps, eyes wide as he looks up at his brother in shock and excitement. "you-- you're okay!!" He pulls his attention away from Seto, looking around at the others as Yugi goes to Téa and Tristan to check on those two. "does that mean-- did Yugi win? is it over???"

But Yugi glances over at the brothers' touching reunion, bites his lip, and shakes his head.

Seto Kaiba

Seto finally fixes his gaze on Yugi, after it had briefly, almost imperceptibly softened at Mokuba's awakening, again intense and disdainful. "What do you mean, Yugi."

yugi!

Once he helps his friends up and ensures they're okay, Yugi walks over to the Kaibas. "my other self beat dartz, but that didn't stop the leviathan. it… consumed dartz, instead. i guess it didn't matter which powerful soul it took…"

Seto Kaiba

He doesn't accept a hand up, but does help Mokuba up, himself. He dusts them both off with a few pats, fussing over his little brother a little. "…I see. Ironic, and fitting. But it's still been awakened, then. We gotta get out of here."

yugi!

Yugi smiles a little as he watches the brothers, especially Seto's rare display of caring. But he nods solemnly in agreement with his suggestion. "yup… but… we can't give up hope yet. we can still save everyone. we just need to regroup and-- see if joey's okay too." Téa's already motioning to the door to the chamber they're in. "So let's go!!" she urges

Joey

He. Is. RUNNING. From the moment he awoke in the helicopter, Joey knew what that meant. He just knew that Yugi was right there. And there was no man alive that was going to keep him apart one second longer. Toward the temple, up the steps, down the halls, right into the chamber. "OUTTA MY WAY!! YUGI!!!" He barrels straight for him, not even stopping once he reaches him. He roughly yanks Yugi up, spinning on the ball of his foot as he hugs him tight. "He did it!! You're here!! Ahaha, we're really back!!"

yugi!

As Yugi starts to lead the group out of the chamber, the sound of a familiar voice echoes down the stone halls and stops him dead in his tracks. The realization hits him after a second, and immediately his spirits seem to lift, a big smile growing on his face as his violet eyes go wide. And then, before he can react, he's swept off his feet. He can't help but to break into gleeful laughter, throwing his arms around the other man he's missed so, so much. "joey!!!" he cries, returning the gesture with the tightest squeeze he can. "i'm here-- you're here!!! i'm so glad you're okay, you have no idea--!!!"

Joey

"I should be sayin' that to you!" Joey laughs, spinning around once more for good measure. "Hey, don't leave us out!" Tristan teases, jogging over for a hug of his own and waving an arm for Téa to join in as well. The two got theirs, now it's group hug time!

yugi!

Yugi's all smiles as he's spun around by his excitable best friend again, feeling his Other Self chuckle at them from inside his heart as well. He's just about to remind them they still have work to do, but then Tristan comes running over with Téa at his side and well-- the world can wait for one more hug. "get over here guys!" yugi giggles, one arm around Joey and one outstretched invitingly. But as Tea wraps her arms around Yugi and Joey, Yugi keeps his arm open, violet eyes and friendly smile fixed on the loner brothers.

Seto Kaiba

Seto crosses his arms, but has a playful smirk on his face as he shakes his head. He intones to Mokuba, "We were so over, but now we're so back." He isn't actually sure if he's getting that song reference right; he doesn't care about pop music like Mokuba.

mokuba

Mokuba gives his brother a perplexed look, but just snickers and shouts a "yeah!!" in agreement. As he catches Yugi's fixated stare and gesture, he rolls his eyes. But he still smiles as he lumbers over with exaggerated objection, pulling Seto by the hand toward the group. "ohhhh my godddd you and your dumb friendship, the world is ENDING you NERDS," he complains loudly, though he slings an arm around Yugi in a side hug. Looks down and smirks a little and leans a bit too much weight on him, just really rubbing it in how much bigger he is than Yugi now. Get bullied, shortstuff.

Seto Kaiba

Seto refuses to join the hug. But he does put a hand on Yugi's shoulder, and an arm around his little brother. "We can celebrate after we get out of the crumbling temple, idiots.*

Joey

This is one of those small, brief moments that's going to stick in his mind forever, he thinks. Out loud, Joey cracks a joke. "Man, I just ran up all them steps!" Tristan gives him a playful jab as they disentangle. "A'right, a'right, let's vamoose!"

yugi!

Oh, Yugi will never forget this moment, and neither will his Other Half. Even Mokuba's antagonizing warms their heart. They both promise to hold onto his memory forever as they all separate….. "oh! one second!" Yugi pipes up one more time. He takes his deck from his DuelDisk to search for something, then holds out two cards. "now that you're both back…. i think you're gonna need these."

Seto Kaiba

Seto takes his Fang of Critias without much gratitude, but with care, after they all step back from Yugi. "We surely will. I hope you used my card well," he adds, with a sharp but somehow also lighthearted Look at the other Duelist.

Joey

Joey accepts his card back with a grin. It's more familiar this time, this weird feeling of being reunited with an old friend, but still stands out enough for him to Notice. "Thanks for takin' care of it for me, hope he helped! Okay, now let's not get crushed!!"

yugi!

Yugi's learned enough to pick up on the subtleties of Kaiba's expressions, and returns his Look with a sweet but knowing smile. "other me couldn't have done it without you," he affirms to Kaiba, then adds, "both of you. now--" "let's go already!!" Mokuba cuts him off, starting to race ahead the way they'd come before.

[bluewavesofchange]

The guardians of the Pharaoh

Sea and shadows: the Queens of the abyss.

I don't own Yugioh or it's characters

Mild mentions of gore

Chapter 1

 

The moon shone one the aircraft as it sailed through the sky, heading towards its mysterious locations. Everyone had settled down for the night after all the events that had transpired; Téa and Serenity were sharing a room while Joey, Tristian and Duke had stayed together in the room beside the girls. Ishizu had found where Odion was being kept and stayed by his side, wishing to keep him safe from Marik as she still had her necklace. She wanted to give it to Yugi since she no longer had any use for it but she had heard what had happened to the teen and his sister.

 

Ishizu had been meaning to reach out to Lillian when she arrived in Domino but she had other issues she needed to deal with, mainly being her brother and his rare hunters. She had seen the future and set certain things into motion when she invited Seto Kaiba to the museum…she wanted to save her family, not realizing the lives she had put in danger.

 

She had missed her friend dearly and had wished to see her again. They had grown close during the raven haired stay with her. She was the first female friend, well friend Ishizu ever had. They had many things in common and got along quiet well. Lillian was the first to listen to the other girl about her past and the trauma she had experienced from her father, the years of living in the darkness and her brothers torture in the name of carrying on the family legacy. It helped to have someone to talk to and to understand what she went through. To hear that the evil version of her brother had nearly killed her only friend was heart breaking. She just hoped that she would be alright…

 

Rozu was…bored to say the least. The end of the day had been probably the most exciting she had experienced in eons and now it was quiet again. She remained in the shadows as she watched the 3 teens sleeping, the only sound was their breathing and the beeping of the heart monitor connected to her host. She floated over and stared down at the girl…to think she had wasted so many years of her life to find the missing Siren only to find a weak pathetic version of the warrior she had once respected and fought beside. The mighty sea goddess reduced to a teenager who could barely control her powers…including the one the dark queen desperately needed…

 

She turned to Yugi, the sweet innocent boy who was the vessel for the little brat that had sealed her away…the reincarnation of Atem’s lover, the boy whose life was saved by her sister Clarity…the goddess of light who had given her soul for some human boy. The last member of her family now gone…not the Rozu cared, they were never close, separated at birth and only re-joined years later after the darker sister had endured so much heartache and pain…having suffered for years under the iron fist of her father Lord Yomi. And what she knew about Clarity, she had a happy upbringing, being raised by not one, not two but 3 warriors who loved and adored her. The two sisters couldn’t be any more different, the sister of light had tried to reconnect with her sister, to grow a bond between them but Rozu had no interest (not that she would admit that it was nice having someone show empathy and care for her).

 

She reached over and ran her wisps for fingers over the teen’s cheek as he slept, a soft whimper leaving Yugi’s lips. Rozu wouldn’t admit it that she found the boy intriguing, she could feel the untapped power that lay within the child…she had felt a surge of it earlier today. Heba had some of Clarity’s gifts when he was staying with Atem in the palace…it was very possible that Yugi could have the same abilities , perhaps even more and that could cause a problem for Rozu. She could not let him stand in her way of her revenge…but she could still use him. His naïve and trusting nature could come in handy…not to mention if she can make him suffer, it would hurt the pharaoh deeply. The thought of hurting his heart made her smirk and purr in delight as she pulls her hand away.

 

The last of the 3 that grabbed her attention was the Siren’s mate…the wielder of the Blue Eyes white dragons…the beasts Rozu’s father had hunted down for their supposed gift of immortality. Too bad the dark lord never saw his dream come to fruition. He had paid for the pain he had inflicted a million times over and Rozu had made sure of that…

 

She moved closer to the tall brunet, her fingers ghosting through his hair. She had to admit that he wasn’t bad to look at and his soul was positively rife with torment and suffering, she could practically taste it on her tongue but there was a hint of something else…something hidden deep within his spirit…something long forgotten…specks of a world the goddess had left behind years ago…how peculiar. And just like Yugi, Seto wore a familiar face from ancient Egypt. She recognised him as the descendant of Pharaoh Seth, the successor of Atem. Rozu had enjoyed watching the two of them bicker and banter back and forth back then…like how brothers would get along…how Rozu imagined her sons would’ve been had they lived…

 

She pushed the phantom pains she was feeling deep to the recesses of her mind and heart. She would not think of them…her two boys had never had the chance to even live as they were ripped from her arms the day they were born…

 

She looked out the window when she sensed someone calling upon the power of the shadows…someone had started a game…how interesting. She headed up to the top deck and found Bakura and the dark version of Marik engaging in a shadow game…this should be interesting.

 

Meanwhile…

 

While Yugi and Lillian were sleeping peacefully, Seto’s fingers hand started to twitch as his mind was thrown into a strange dream…

 

Kaiba’s eyes opened and was met with a breath taking view…vast fields of tall grass and wild flowers…mountain ranges in the distance that were dusted with snow…a sparkling river flowing through the valleys and hills covered with trees that were made of purple bark and red leaves…ok that’s not strange.

 

He walked through the tall grass, his hands running along the grass and plants, disturbing a flower that looked like a blue dandelion, it’s feather light whiskers detaching from the plant and floats away on the breeze. What was this place? Was this just some kind of weird dream? A hallucination?

 

Whatever this was, he felt at peace, like calmness had washed over him…he hears laughter coming from somewhere. He sees some grass rustling and approaches it only for the rustling to move behind him. He kept searching until his eyes landed on two children dressed in rags…a little girl with turquoise hair and blue eyes…and a little boy with white hair and a recognizable set of eyes. They were holding hands as they ran through the grass, heading to the top of the hill and sitting beneath a tree, smiles on their faces as they watched the sunset on the horizon.

 

Seto was confused as he watched them…it felt like he had seen them somewhere…but before he could think or do anything else he heard a roar coming from the distance…he turned and caught sight of one of his Blue eyes coming towards him, it’s mouth opening and blasted a beam of lightning at the teen…

 

His eyes widen and covers he face with his arms, bracing for impact but it never came…when he lowered his arms the scenery had changed into something straight out of war movie…the land was burning, blood and bodies scattered about, humanoid and warrior type duel monsters alike. In the distance he caught sight of something more bazar and horrific…giant corpses…dozens of corpses of his prize dragons…their chest torn open with the organs spilled out before them…some of them were missing wings and others were even missing their heads and other body parts…the f@&% was this?!

 

In front of him stood the two children from before, their hands still clasped together as they were staring at the bloodshed and gore before them. Slowly they turned to face Seto, the CEO stepping back as he saw the blood splattered across their bodies and faces…

 

Kaiba’s eyes fly open as he sits up with a gasp, breathing heavily as he looks around, finding himself back in Lillian’s room. His gazing on his sleep girl, slowly calming himself down as he mumbles, “Just a dream…just a bad dream…” he sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair, sitting back in his chair, his eyes not leaving Lillian.

 

She seemed so peaceful despite what happened. He reached over and ran the back of his fingers along her cheek, feeling the warmth coming from her skin, a sign of life…that she was ok (for now at least).  He could believe that just a few hours ago he had nearly lost her…he had watched the life leave her eyes and her bleeding out in front of him…

 

He couldn’t let this happen again…he would keep her safe and that was a promise…he stood up, needing to go get some work done before they arrived at their destination tomorrow. He’s eyes falling on Yugi; the boy seemed to be shivering a little. Probably from the fact that he always seemed to be wearing leather and sleeveless shirts and from all the blood he had given his sister to save her life. He walked over to the cabinet and took out an extra blanket. He carefully put it over the Muto siblings, making sure they were tucked in and warm. He pressed a gentle kiss to Lillian’s forehead before leaving the room…needing to make preparations for tomorrow, not wanting to be caught unprepared again.

 

However that wasn’t the case. As morning came a new problem arose…

 

As the sun rose over the sea and the island of debris and what looked to be a large tower came into view, the zeppelin started to veer off course, heading towards a fortress that rose out of the sea. The shaking of the aircraft had woken everyone up, the teens (minus Lillian and Yugi) headed to the control room just in time to see some kid with green hair come onto the screen, introducing himself as Noah…stating that he had known Seto for a long time and that he had a bone to pick with the tall teen…laughing maniacally as the giant doors of the metal structure opens and the aircraft lands inside it…

 

The teens disembark under Noah’s command, Seto hoping that their kidnapper wouldn’t notice the two patients in med bay…unfortunately he wasn’t so lucky. Noah demanded that both Yugi and Lillian join the rest of the group as they would be needed for whatever he had planned. Seto downright refused, snarling at the brat that they were in no condition to be moved. After all Yugi was still recovering and Lillian had undergone surgery just a few hours ago. But his refusal was met with gun fire…literally. There were turrets that activated and started fire at them, Joey trying to shield his sister as he pulls her against his chest and Seto does the same with Mokuba, protect his brother from the gunfire…a bullet grazing Seto’s cheek, creating a cut that starts to bleed. He ignores the stinging pain as he glares at the turrets as they retract back into the wall, Noah threatening that he won’t miss next time…

 

With much hesitation he heads back inside the zeppelin to retrieve the Muto siblings while he leaves Mokuba with the others…

 

Yugi had been awoken when the aircraft had started to shake violently and woke Lillian too, the harsh movements jolting her body and causing her a server amount of pain. However she still grabbed her brother and held him close till the aircraft stopped moving.

 

Her arms slowly fell to her side as her brother pulled away, the girls face contorted in agony, panicking the younger teens as he screams for help. A doctor and nurse rushing in a few minutes later, Yugi getting out of the bed as the medical professionals aided the wounded girl…the tri-colour haired boy stands back and watches with concern…Yami coming out of the puzzle and hovering beside the teen with his hand around his shoulder…

 

Seto arrives at Lillian’s room just as the doctor was finishing up…they had ensured that Lillian was stable before giving her something for the pain…she looked up feeling hazy as her eyes land on her beloved, seeing the wound on his face and asking what happened, wanting to know what happened to him and why the aircraft had shaken so viciously…he didn’t answer her as he turns to the doctor if she could be moved.

 

Yugi is shocked at this, “Have you lost your mind?!” Seto frowns at the teen, “We don’t have a choice.” He states as the other boy glares at him, “Bullshit.” Both Lillian and Seto’s are thrown back a little as they had never heard the kid swear before. “Listen Muto, we’ve been taken hostage by some brat that has a vendetta against me…his threatening to kill everyone if I don’t bring you and…Lillian along.” Yugi clenched his fists and was about to say something when Lillian spoke up first, “I…I’ll go.”

 

Yugi turned to his sister, “You can’t! This is Kaiba’s fault! He should find another way to deal with it that doesn’t put your life in danger!”

 

“I have to agree with him Mr. Kaiba. Ms. Muto is in no condition to be moved. Her stitches could rip and –“

 

“Enough!!” Lillian shouted over all of them, her eyes flashing for a moment, “I’m going.” Her brother shook his head, “You can’t!”

 

“Yugi enough.” She looks at him sternly despite how exhausted she felt and the pain she was in, “I’m not letting your friends die or get hurt…I’ll be fine.” She tried to reassure him but he wasn’t convinced…Seto turned back to the doctor and asked him to do everything he could to ensure that Lillian was ready to go…as much as he hated this he didn’t have a choice.

 

Yugi reluctantly put his jacket back on as he watched the doctor and nurse remove all the IV’s and heart monitor from Lillian, getting her a hospital robe to wear after making sure her bandages were wrapped tightly. She couldn’t stand up however as it was causing her pain. Yugi is about to head over to give her his shoulder to lean but Kaiba beat him to it, lifting her up into his arms. The short teen wasn’t happy at all about this, “I could’ve helped her.”

 

Seto was getting annoyed with Yugi at this point (being annoyed with himself as well for dragging everyone into yet another bad situation…even if he didn’t know why this was happening). “No you couldn’t. You’re still weak and would probably drop her. You’re probably too small to even carry her. So back off!” Seto exclaimed more out of frustration than anything else.

 

Lillian frowned at the brunet as she catches her brother’s expression…the words hitting him deeply. Yugi hated it when people pointed out his size and called him weak…he knew he wasn’t as tall or as strong as his friends or even the other teens his age…it wasn’t something he could help. He tried his best to make up for his stature but it didn’t always work.

 

Seto saw his down trodden face and knew he shouldn’t have said that and would probably get an ear full from Lillian. And Yami was seething with rage, wanting nothing more than to give the bean pole a piece of his mind for insulting his Aibou.

 

“Listen Yugi…” he turned to face the shorter boy, “…Don’t take what I said the wrong way…You might not have the physicality to take on those that dare to harm you or the people you care about…but you have a strength were it mattes the most…You courage, your loyalty and your tenacity…you’re clever mind and quick thinking and your skills as a duellist…” he meant every word as Yugi looked at him, “…use that to trample your enemies and come out on top. Let me keep Lillian safe and you focus on helping me to get us out of this…” his words sank in deep as Yugi nodded. He made a lot of sense and he was complimenting him he guessed…in his weird condescending type of way.

 

So he would go along with Kaiba and reluctantly put his faith in the other. Yugi followed Seto off the zeppelin as Lillian rested his head on the brunet’s shoulder, whispering softly to him, “Nice save. But I’m still gonna kick your ass for that later…” Seto smirked, “Glad to see your sense of humour is still intact.” Lillian rolled her eyes but a soft smile formed on her lips…

 

Once they re-joined the group, they headed down the hallway Noah was leading them through. They reached a large room, screens turning on and revealing the members of the Big 5 who had tried to take over Kaiba Corp. Seto had never revealed what he had done to them when he returned to Domino after Duellist kingdom but it seemed he somehow imprisoned them in a virtual reality world…in which the teens found themselves being thrown into as giant holes opened in the floor, causing them to drop down into darkness…

[cyberdragoninfinity]

hi yeah i have a little more i want to add on to the Duel Links AI Characters thing. This kinda blurs the line between Headcanon and Theory tho

A really weird thing that is either brilliant subtext or me just reading in to things too hard is the progression of the AI Duelists. Not like, the release of duel worlds and stuff, or powercreep, or anything like that. I mean theres two real, defined types of AIs in Duel Links.

If you look at a lot of the DM characters... theyre fairly flat. Like yeah I know thats also true of Téa/Anzu and Mai and stuff in the show, but it applies to pretty much the entire starting roster. The most odd yet obvious example of this is, oddly enough, Yami Yugi. My mans got Nothing. Hardly shows up in events, any place he would its usually Yugi(DM) instead, and he had very few gate interactions.

Now, think about that from a lore perspective. Yami Yugi is the whole fuckin' point of this. This is the AI Kaiba set out and tried to make, wanted to fill the gay ass void in his heart see again, and he's so... bland. Uninteresting. Why?

Turns out, its because of that very reason. He was the First, of course hes gonna be worse than the others. As time went on, Kaiba got better at making the AIs. And at first, it really was him making the AIs. Let me explain.

Again, looking at the earlier characters again, something becomes obvious. These characters are bland because theyre almost... missing something. If you look at everything they say, everything they do, something clicks. Its all stuff Kaiba either heard about secondhand, or was physically present for. He made the best approximation he could, on his own, but theyre just that: approximations. Easy best example is the first ever event character, Yami Bakura. A fascinating character in Duel Links lore, simply because he's the first Self Aware AI. A big question that comes out of this is Why, and the answer I believe is rlly cool: hes not Yami Bakura. Not even close. Like yeah obviously hes an AI clone, but thats not even what I mean. Kaiba knows so little about Bakura that he couldnt even make a complete personality. He just put a kinda mischevious personality in a Bakura Costume, gave it an interest in occult and Tabletop RPG games, and told it to do its best.

But this is Seto Fucking Kaiba. He doesnt settle for that. So, he got to work on a new, better system. A System that lets him use [insert bullshit explanation here, I like "uses the collective memories of players"] to truly copy people down to their very souls. And the first few times, it goes well. It really is an exact replica... and maybe, maybe thats an issue.

Pegasus J. Crawford has been dead for years at that point, but his impact on the game and large presence make it almost obvious in hindsight. If it were anyone but Seto Kaiba, this might have been the cue to say "hey maybe this is a little fucked up and I need more control over who gets added."

However, Seto 'As the owner of a major corporation I have to do that everyday' Kaiba dont roll like that, so he just leaves the Soul Printer on to do whatever the fuck it wants, and... yeah. After that point, every other AI, along with the duel worlds, is a result of the soul printer. Maybe he should have at least limited the scope to this dimension and the egyptian afterlife tho.

Theres also an argument that its not that the soul printer wasnt ready, its that he needed a playerbase to steal the brain power off of to run said soul printer, so he whipped up the first few to get started.

...sorry i forgot just how much brain rot this game caused me and ur earlier posts got me going again ;-;

OOOHOHOHOHOO THIS IS SUPERRR SUPER GOOD STUFF and I definitely think this is picking at what's really under the hood here. Transcend Game was all about Kaiba using people's (many of which being CHILDREN'S) brainwaves to create images and experiences, so it really would not be out of his ballpark to get the system running and just leave it to do its thing while he goes off and obsesses over shit like Why Isn't The Atem AI Right. It's Not Perfect. Why Isn't It Perfect.

and now you've got the AIs themselves producing 'brainwaves' and feeding memories into the system, and that's popping More AIs into the world in turn (i.e. Yuto's and Yuya's memories being the catalyst for Shay showing up, etc.) and they're...uh. starting to get self aware!!!! SO THAT'S FUN. It's like an ouroboros feedback loop of fake memories creating fake memories creating copies of what was once someone's memories.

All cuz SOMEBODY wanted to be king of a virtual reality even though he has more money than god and better things he could be doing 🙄

[falcor-thee-luck-dragon]

Of Monsters and Men

Chapter 9- Rare Species

Summary: You may be about four-hundred years old, so why not finally let your eyes behold the sight of a dragon?

Warning: blood, a bit of smut, angst, tad longer then usual because it gets spicy

Masterlist

You had left Jaskier down in the rocky valley with Roach, packs of supplies and valuables in her back, and two travel guides that lead the way to this dusty mountainous place as you and Geralt searched for some type of vicious lizard creature. You had already confirmed with yourself that those two guides were trouble and as usual your suspicions had been correct when your ears pricked with the sounds of scuffling and Jaskier's protests as you make your way back down the trail.

But by the time you made it round the jaggety rock formation does your crimson eyes find a shocked Jaskier, one dead guide, two beautiful warriors, and a grey bearded man with a tinge of enchantment about his aurora and peculiar scent. Honestly you kind of expected something randomly unexpected to happen at least once today, only to your small trio of course.

The fearful guide looks up wide eyed at your sudden presence, Geralt coming to a halt right behind you, a puzzled expression crossing his features as yours does about the same, "I believe those are mine." Mutters Geralt before the man quickly drops the items in the rocky dust, throwing you the small sack of coins he had stolen, then hastily turning around and booking it down the uneven path.

Jaskier looks to the two of you, pointing at the new strangers, "Ger-Geralt, Y/N...uh, This woman just killed a man with her bare hands for trying to steal your horse." The warrior stands unfazed at Jaskier's inquisition.

You snort, "Maybe she'll make a better travel companion, then." Geralt lowly chuckles at your comment, a smile upon the mystery mans face as Jaskier scoffs before turning to him.

"Uh, I'm sorry, who are you, exactly?" He wonders, something that's definitely in your mind, they seem harmless enough at the moment but you're not ready to just trust anyone.

The short greying man steps forward, a wise smile upon his face, "I am Borch Three Jackdaws. These are my companions, Téa and Véa." He reveals, tilting his head as his companions stand to either side of him protectively, "I've been looking for you two, Geralt of Rivia and Y/N of Alkatraz." You side eye Geralt, how and who the fuck is this guy?

——

After traveling down the mountain trail for a while, the old man has now lead you all into some bustling tavern, he takes the lead while exclaiming how meeting people of yours and Geralt's likeness is a first for him, he's rather quite excited to dine with you two as he boasts about how legendary your adventures are, thanks to Jaskier. Though with how lively his body language is, you can tell he's sought you out for something important, people like him don't just butter you up with compliments without meaning to get something out of it.

He finds a long table by the fireplace, directing the tavern barmaid to get him one of everything they have and to keep the ale coming, Geralt sits down as you go to do the same upon his left, Jaskier making himself comfortable on your immediate left. Your body sat in between them as the man, Borch, brings his own bottom onto his wooden seat as his companions seat themselves across from Jaskier.

Borch claps his hands together, "A short while ago, a green dragon landed across the border in King Niedamir's mountains." Your eyebrows raise in curiosity as Geralt's simply furrow in thought, Borch smiles knowingly, "I know what you're thinking. Impossible, dragons are so rare. But it's true." He takes a sip from his mug, the barmaid going around the table and filling each one of yours up with ease, "Locals spotted it and went after it in search of treasure. Of course, they succeeded only in wounding the creature and angering it so righteously that it swooped down from its lair and set half a hillside ablaze." Geralt scoffs, disinterested before taking a sip of his mug, "Dead sheep everywhere." Finishes the intriguing man.

You chuckle with a shake of your head, this may not quite be something that you'd like to get involved with if actual fire breathing dragons are concerned. Taking a sip from your shiny dented mug you listen as Jaskier tries to turn on his charm, "You have the most incredible neck. It's like a...a sexy goose." You snort into your ale as the faces of Téa and Véa appear to be less then impressed.

"Now, the King is in a bind." Continues Borch with his dragon story, "He's set to marry the princess of his rival kingdom, Malleore, which means it's bad timing to have a murderous pest lurking about in the mountains. He's commissioned a hunt to kill it. Four teams have signed on. The winner gets the dragons treasure hoard plus the title of lord over one of his new vassal states. That is...if he survives." Explains Borch thoroughly, it all sounds intriguing at best, but you could care less about treasure and a lordship over some needless state.

"Great overview of the details, but what does this have to do with us?" You ask, seriously you just got done with a weary monthlong hunt, you're not exactly chopping at the bit for another go around with a monster.

"I want you to join my team." Inquirers Borch with a small smile, you take another sip as Jaskier's face lights up.

"I can hear it now, a tale of two Zerrikanians and their valiant poet lover. Oh!" Chuckles the bard, "We're so doing this. We're in."

"You've wasted your breath, Borch. We don't kill dragons. Take my advice. No treasure is worth dying for." Mutters Geralt.

"Depends on the treasure." Answers Borch, "What I need is...a new adventure. One final first before I'm too old to do anything but die."

You think about his proposition, he is an odd little man with quite the wish, "You think killing a dragon will bring you that?" You wonder.

"All I know is there's one path up that mountain, and it's overrun with monsters."

"Oh in that case." You quip as he continues with his reasoning, "With you both on my team, a Witcher and dhampir princess, we'll be unstoppable." He confirms before suddenly a loud squabbling is heard behind Borch, a group of dwarves are being hassled by the other bar patrons. One of them screaming for the bartender to give his friend, and you quote "four fucking pints", apparently those imbeciles are one team. Tèa adding in another team called the Reavers, asking if you both have heard of them, of course you have. Nasty lot they are.

You turn away from those men to address Borch of your decision, telling him bluntly that the answer is no. He doesn't appear to be very fond of that reply, almost disappointed he leans in and tells that you're missing something, what could you possibly be missing?

"Sorry to interrupt this lovely moment...That's only three. Where's the...What's the fourth team?" Questions Jaskier as he leans over you to point at Borch, gently pushing him away, your ears prick at the sound of a door opening. Borch turns around in his seat to look, "Them." Comes from his lips as you look up from your mug, mouth going slightly agape, your eyes stare on in befuddlement at the titular individual standing across the tavern, a knight at her side.

Jaskier starts to laugh as you break out into an uneasy chuckle, he quickly declines the dragon hunt invitation as you suddenly feel compelled to join for some deeper unknown reason, "Thank you for the wine and such but we really can't get involved. Geralt, Y/N, shall we?" Says Jaskier with a friendly pat to your shoulder.

Your eyes never leave the infamous mage as she locks eyes with you before reverting her gaze towards the knight, "We're in."

Jaskier mumbles a swear as Geralt nods in agreement, whatever you say goes in his book. No matter the crazy witch you happen to be old friends with.

Borch smiles kindly, "The hunt begins at sunrise." He exclaims excitedly as you take another sip of your ale. Well things just got a hell of a lot more interesting with the unexpected appearance of your longtime troublesome friend, let's find a fucking green dragon!

——

Just as agreed you and your boys had made it to the forest grounds where the other teams are, all preparing for the journey ahead as they tie their horses down since the terrain is too dangerous for the hooved beasts, including Roach.

You walk past an angry dwarf who's mad that his pack has been stolen, without two fucks to give you continue onward and over to Geralt and Roach as Jaskier introduces himself to the small man. They have a modest conversation before the dwarf departs, his other shorter companions following him as they ask if Roach is for sale as they scamper on past, "Charming how everyone wants to get their hands on Roach these days, isn't it?" Points out the bard as he walks over near you with his lute in its case hanging from his hand.

"He means we won't make it out alive." Mutters Geralt as he pets the mare's flowy mane.

Jaskier's face contorts in surprised concern, "Wait, what? No one mentioned anything about impending death!" He worries as you pet Roach's soft nose, a small snicker leaving your nostrils in quick short bursts of air, his face looking even more troubled at your amusement.

Roach nudges her snout into the opened palm of your hand, wordlessly greeting you in her own way before you must leave the kind mare behind. Thump. Thump. Thump. You purse your lips together at the approaching heartbeat of a certain mage coming your way.

When she's close to your little group, you don't care much to turn around for the time being. "How is it that I've walked this earth for decades without coming across a Witcher, and then the first one I meet, I can't get rid of?" She presses, Geralt makes quick eye contact with you as he ignores her.

"I'd say something strange was afoot, but then again, Witcher's are bound to bump into monsters eventually, with the exception of our dear Y/N here, obviously." Jests Jaskier as Yennefer hums in fake amusement.

"Jaskier."

"Yennefer."

"The crow's feet are new." She muses with a tilt of her head.

Jaskier frowns, "Yeah, well, your jokes are...old." Scoffs the bard as he turns to walk away down the trail as more of the teams begin their trek for the mountain.

You watch as he leaves before turning around and suspiciously eyeing up your mysterious old friend, "What brings you from causing unnecessary chaos to hunting for a dragon, Yenn?"

A small smile forms onto her lips, "I'm here with my escort. Noble Sir Eyck Denesle." She nods towards the kneeling knight as he prays for safe travels, "To assist him in killing the dragon." For kingdom and glory shouts the knight as he sheaths his sword, she smiles almost adoringly at him before turning to you again, "Till we meet again, Y/N. Geralt." She turns to walk away towards her knight as Geralt says goodbye to Roach.

You can't help but feel incredibly apprehensive of her true intentions for making this tiresome hike to the lair of a dragon of all things. Deciding to abandon your wondering troubles, with a shrug do you turn around and follow the other travelers up the trail as Geralt falls into pace behind you.

For hours do you walk up the mountain path over rocks and rubble, fallen sticks and trees, and Jaskier's constant voice as he fruitlessly attempts to talk to Téa and Véa about whatever happens to pop into his head at the moment. You're honestly one more sentence away from smacking him upside the head when he suddenly expresses to the two warriors that he'll go into the brush and find them something to eat.

How chivalrous of him.

The group stands upon a flat section of the mountain as Jaskier walks off the path and into some bushes on the hunt for something edible. You're not tired in the slightest due to your inherited abilities so lack of rest and food at the moment feels like nothing. You suddenly raise your head to sniff the air as the scent of some furry malnourished creature catches your nostrils, it smells almost like that of wet dog and garlic, its got to be sick. Not a pleasant scent by any means.

A second later your observations are confirmed as Jaskier claims to be looking at something in the brush. His heartbeat suddenly spikes as he jumps back and races out off the mountainside greenery. He stumbles back onto the trail, "Y/N it's one of your friends again." He rushes before jogging over behind you, ever so slightly pushing you in front of him as he cowers back wide eyed at the lanky werewolf looking bastard growling near the edge of the trail.

"What in the name of Bloemenmagde is that?" Exclaims a fearful bald dwarf.

"It's a hitikka." Answers your Witcher as the others bare their silver, "It's probably starving. Sheath your weapons." Advises Geralt as Yennefer's knight does exactly the opposite, he pushes past a dwarf before hacking away at the hungry scared beast. His sword slicing off its arm as it screams in pain, another slice to its stomach before the sword cuts its head clean off, the knight hacking at it in a frenzy as blood spurts forth. Everyone looks on in disgust as he really lets into it, he finally stops, breathing heavily as he looks down at his work.

Snorting you fold your arms, "I think you got it." Jaskier lets out an amused huff of air as the knight ignores you, shouting "for kingdom and glory!" blood still dripping off of his face.

"Sir Eyck!" Shouts Yennefer worriedly as she races to his side, touching his face affectionately as he looks into her lavender irises, "You could have been killed." Turning your head away from the sappy interaction you pick up your pack before slinging it over your shoulder, "We should have just fed Sir Eyck to the scrawny fucker and save my nostrils the disturbed scent emitting from that heap of guts." You muse as the knight glares at you, a smirk upon your lips as you turn to continue up the trail.

Another hour is spent hiking before camp is set, a decent fire aflame as Sir Eyck cooks the hitikka over the spit, he picks off a chunk of the diseased meat and eats it with a smile, proud of his kill and the meal it produced. You watch the idiot consume the infected meat, a brow raised at his ability to feast without a single concern, "Not that I give a shit about your valiant life as a knight of whoever the fuck, but I wouldn't eat that." He keeps chewing as his irritated blue eyes find your crimson ones, you can tell your presence puts him off.

Nonetheless he answers you, "Knights never waste a kill." He coughs, "It's precisely why I'll make a great lord to Niedamir's vassal state. A great knight must lead by example. For..."

"Kingdom and glory. We know." Adds Téa with a truthful jest of annoyance for the irritable knight as you and Jaskier let out a small chuckle.

"My subjects will be the luckiest serfs in all the lands." He turns to Yennefer fondly who's seated by his side, "Especially with the beautiful Yennefer as my mage."

She smiles, her eyes never leaving his, "I cannot wait to serve you, My Lord." She speaks softly, Sir Eyck studies her face affectionately as one of the Reavers walks to the fire, undoubtedly about to disturb the peace.

"How would you like to serve me tonight...witch?" He boldly asks while reaching down to tear off a chunk of meat, if not for the fact that this dragon hunt has multiple teams working together you'd without a doubt suffocate him in his sleep.

Instead you bite the inside of your cheek at his godawful scent, "Careful, Boholt." You challenge darkly, he stands up with a piece of meat in his hand as he turns to Yennefer.

"So, the lady dhampir wants to play knight too, hmm? That is interesting, I wouldn't mind you both visiting me in my tent this night if..."

"If I was to seek you out in the dead of night, I assure you, you would not be alive at dawn." He scoffs as his eyes trail over you, you stare at him unflinching from his lustful gaze, "Besides, she's plenty able of murdering you herself, better yet...maybe I'd make a pretty necklace out of your vertebrae." The dirty man smirks, laughing lowly at your threatening presence. Just by looking at him you can you can tell he's more nervous of your existence among this group then of anyone else. Apparently old wives tales of vampires runs deep in this one no matter how bold he displays himself.

The bald dwarf insults him once again before the Reaver makes a crack at Geralt about if the Reaver will either kill the monster or monster hunter first, leaving the circle in peace as you listen to the grumbling of Sir Eyck's upset stomach, "Uh..I'm afraid I must take my leave." Says the knight as he stands, his face growing pale, "Lady Yennefer, may I escort you to your tent?"

She tugs on his hanging attire, "Will you be joining me?" A smile coating his features as he stutters, "Uh...My Lady, I would...never degrade your honor in such a way." You simply roll your scarlet eyes at his annoying chivalry, Yennefer picked this one of all people to fuck around with?

Jaskier snorts, "I hate to break it to you, but that ship has sailed, wrecked and sunk to the bottom of the ocean." He flinches back as you smack his arm, though it was indeed humorous there was a more intimate reason for her actions a while ago that goes deeper then just a friendly jest in your personal opinion.

But yes, it was quite funny.

Holding his stomach while he fumbles off towards the bushes to relieve his bowls. The rest of you laugh at his expense, the bald dwarf suddenly intervenes with his own bit of knowledge about how there will be no state to rule with the quickening approach of Nilfgaard on the rise. His words do trouble you for the close by innocents that will no doubt suffer from their forces soon enough.

War is war.

Not long after does Yennefer excuse herself from your campsite lot of unruly characters, the dwarves following after for their own rest; leaving you, Jaskier, Geralt, the two warriors, and Borch at the fire to converse about the existence of dragons and how creatures with mutations always fight the hardest to survive. Ending the conversation with a jab at Sir Eyck, who's quite literally the shittist knight of all the knights anyone has ever seen.

What. An. Idiot.

——

After a restful slumber wrapped up in your Witcher's strong arms, do you wake and walk outside into the fresh forest air before the scent of shit and someone's decaying body wafts into your sensitive nostrils, you grimace as Yennefer walks past you, appearing to be in search of that flashy knight. She asks around if anyone has seen Sir Eyck recently, oh shit, you turn and casually walk yourself away from her and Geralt, who's just gathered his belongings. You follow the gnarly smell until you reach the edge of a small cliff, where down below lays the dead body of Sir Eyck.

How can not a single person smell this. Oh right.

You travel down to where he lays; his pants remain around his ankles, only the length of his tunic covering his bare arse from the world. A small pile of dung rests nearby from when he was relieving himself earlier, blood noticeably seeping out from his throat. You crouch down and inspect it better, it is indeed fresh, "Yennefer! I found your knight...I don't think he'll be joining us further!" You shout as the others run over to the small cliffs edge to get a look for themselves, their faces all showing obvious variations of discontent and nervousness.

"Who slits a man's throat while he's relieving his bowls? Is nothing sacred anymore?" Worries Jaskier as he stares in revulsion, hugging his side with a look of distain.

"Fuck." Blurts out Yennefer in frustration as she abruptly turns around, walking away as you make your way back up to where everyone is standing.

The journey continues on as it has before, a couple hours going by before the bald dwarf delves into the promising fact that there is a shortcut nearby that miners would use to travel faster, your team agrees as Yennefer wanders onward, seemly disinterested in the news. Rolling your eyes at her insistent moodiness, you turn to Geralt and ask for him to keep going as you'll get her to follow. You can't help but feel compelled to have her in your company, and as far away from those untrustworthy group of Reavers who smell of ill intent, no matter how irritating she can become.

He nods and leaves you to it, not questioning your capabilities for a second as he follows the rest of the group. You turn to find Yennefer a good distance away from you walking down the gravely mountainside landscape, so to catch her before she's out of sight you race to her in a blur, stopping directly in front of her with a windy woosh of air in her face. You smirk as she frowns at you, no doubt about to say something witty, "I didn't kill Eyck if that was your question Y/N."

You chuckle as she rests a hand on her hip, "Of course you didn't, the bastard's scent was one of the Reavers, that fucker Boholt." You confirm, "And all before you could accomplish what you've actually come here for."

She scoffs, "And what could that be, hmm. I'm here for the dragon." You raise a brow at her shitty explanation as she scoffs, "God I hate you sometimes...I'm here because...there are certain healing properties it's rumored to possess." Your brows furrow in thought, thinking back to the djinn and the wishes and all that shit. And everything before that.

"I thought your transformation healed all physical problems?"

She looks down, avoiding your gaze, "At the cost of others yes." Oh right, the participant will always lose their ability to produce a child of their own. Male or Female.

Suddenly your mind clicks in realization, you tilt your head with a knowing smirk, "You've traveled all this way for made-up fertility cures using fresh dragon hearts?" You muse.

She simply glares, "They're not made up!"

"They are," You argue, "once some things are bound by deep powerful magic they cannot be undone. There is always a balance to everything we do that deals with magical properties, you of all people should know that." Her face falls as you continue, a tinge of humor in your voice now, "And honestly, call me an asshole but come on. You, a mother?"

"You think I'd make a bad one?" She challenges, half offended as you shrug.

"Well, you'd be fun. At least." She turns away from you, not content with that lackluster reply, "I don't really know what you'd want with a child..."

She snaps around, "They took my choice. I want it back. Not that I'd expect you to understand." She smirks, proud of her little jab at your more sinister origins.

You let out an annoyed huff, "I didn't choose my parents, or what unholy abomination they made of me through their lust. But listen, the ones who pieced us together, there's probably a valuable reason why they made us sterile...maybe it's a blessing. This lifestyle isn't exactly suited for a child, but if you really wanted you could fuck around with feeble idiot kings in their court in between naps and feedings..." she turns and walks away, anger in her heart as you follow.

"Do not patronize me!" She snaps as she continues to stomp in the opposite direction, "You know nothing of how I feel."

You're standing in front of her in an angry blur as she turns away from you, "You don't think I haven't thought about it either! I have Geralt, whom I love more then the very earth I walk on or the stars in the sky, but I'll never have a child with him, ever. And I'd rather feed this fucking Child Surprise to a harpy then..." She turns her head to face you, immediately stopping your protests.

"What'd you just say?" She wonders as you purse your lips, looking away from her now that you've let slip some secret information.

"Uh...fuck."

She chuckles, "Isn't that rich. You lecture me on made-up cures for having a child, meanwhile you cheat with destiny to steal one." Presses Yennefer as you scowl down at her.

"It's not like I wanted this! Fuck." You grumble as she studies your troubled face, "It's not even mine but like that matters, the little shit will be in my life whether I want it or not." You pause for a moment before coming back to why you actually stopped her, "Uh, listen Yenn. The others are taking a shortcut, come with us and avoid getting something rather unpleasant creeping into your tent at night. It'll be enjoyable." She rolls her eyes at your dark humored implications of the other travelers.

"Fine."

——

Your band of merry adventurers finally reache the shortcut, it's a pass on the side of the mountain that's held up by wooden planks and metal bars thrust into the rock. You look over the edge as the dwarves give the rest of your company a hard time about crossing since this path is quite literally made for just a dwarf. The small men walk out first as Jaskier gives you a wary glance, a swift breeze blowing your hair about as you smile at him, "Y/N don't you dare think of leaving us, I swear to god." He mutters as you break out into a mischievous grin.

Oh he knows you too well.

"See you on the other side my loves." You blow him a kiss before free falling backwards off the steep rocky ledge, you hear the worried shouts of the warriors, Borch, and Yennefer as they call out for you. The wind whips past your face while you watch them grow smaller and smaller until you shift yourself into a cluster of black bats that all catch on the wind current. You race up to the edge once more before screeching past them on the mountainside, a smile forming onto many of your furry faces as you hear their swears and jabs at you.

"Fookin' vamps." Grumbles one of the dwarves.

Not caring to stick around for however long it may take them to cross, you swiftly glide on the wind as you take in the mountain air and all the wild she has to offer you on this fine day. Your fun feels short lived as soon enough the dwarves make it to the end of the cliff path and onto safer ground.

You shift back into your normal self and wait for your more familiar companions to arrive, after forty-five long boring minutes do they make it round the corner. A melancholy dreariness about them, your face falls as soon as you see Geralt reach the firm rocky ground without Borch, Téa and Véa behind them like they should be.

You know they didn't make it.

Geralt, Jaskier, and Yennefer walk to the campsite without a word as the dwarves start a fire and set up their tents. You throw yours and Geralt's tent together as he walks over to a nearby rock to sit and think about whatever terrible thing must have happened to the others. Jaskier catches your eye and nods for you to follow, standing to your full height do you turn to trail behind him. Seating yourself on the left of Geralt, Jaskier on his right as the three of you look out into the great valley beyond.

"You did your best." Begins Jaskier softly, "There's nothing else you could have done. Look, why don't we leave tomorrow. That is, if you'll both give me another chance to prove myself a worthy travel companion." Solemnly laughs the bard as Geralt hums, a small smile upon your face as you listen, "We could head to the coast. Get away for awhile. Sounds like something Borch would say, doesn't it? Life is too short. Do what pleases you.....while you can." He ends with a tired sign.

"Composing your next song?" Jaskier smiles at your comment.

"No, I'm just, uh....Just trying to work out what pleases me." You smile softly at the dusky mountainside, Geralt's golden irises glance over you with the tiniest of content grins lays upon his handsome features. Jaskier says his good nights before patting Geralt on the shoulder and walking towards a half made stick tent, his prized lute by his side.

A soft cool breeze fans your face as Geralt ever so subtly opens up his palm that's placed atop his thigh, without a second thought does your own hand fall into place with his larger one. A grin on either of your faces as you scoot closer to him so that you can rest your head against his broad shoulder.

A soft joyful sigh leaves your parted lips, "We should go to the ocean. Get away from all this nonsense and danger...more so for Jaskier's sake then mine, but uh...I'd love to feel the salty breeze upon my skin once again. See the great blue waters, feel the sand on my bare feet." He hums in reply, pressing the lightest of kisses upon your head, "You ever been to the ocean, my love?"

"No." His voice is soft and gentle.

You lightly squeeze his hand, "Well, you'd love how peaceful it is...the sounds of the waves are just something else. I never feel as small as when I'm standing on the edge of the world, a vast mystery of water stretching like a grand crinkly blanket. I can't wait for you to see it." A yawn escapes as you bury your face into the crook of his neck, a smile breaking out upon his lips at your adorable actions.

"We should catch some sleep if we're to travel for the ocean tomorrow, after finding that dragon and all." Mutters Geralt, you nod before standing up, slowly unlacing your fingers as he stands to his full height as well.

"Alright, to bed it is."

You turn to walk back to your tent as he picks up his belongings to follow you there, your tent is dirty white and appears rather unsuspecting from first glance, although when you walk in, the volume of the space triples to a large comfortable room. A king sized bed pressed against the center of the right wall, a table to the left and a couple lanterns placed perfectly on a few of the wooden tables for a cozy warm feel to the billowy room, or tent in other words.

You walk in and immediately take off your dark leather armor adorning your torso, your hard leathered gauntlets next as you set everything onto the nearby table. You listen as your Witcher sets his things down next to the edge of the bed, his slow heartbeat picking up ever so slightly as he walks up behind you, a smirk creeps out over your face as he snakes his large muscular arms over your body with ease.

His head leans into the side of your neck as he places a gentle feather light kiss to your temple, you hum in content, "What do I owe this pleasure?" You muse as he kisses the side of your cheek, his left hand feeling underneath your shirt as he gently caresses your hot skin.

"The pleasure is all mine." Mumbles Geralt into your exposed neck as you fight back a moan when he begins to press butterfly kisses all over your skin. One hand resting upon your breast as the other one trails up your torso from underneath your clothing.

A low moan escapes you as he nips carefully at your jawline, his hands continuing to explore your body, a slow warmness forming from deep within you as he shows you more and more love to your heated vessel. You suddenly bite your lip as the feeling of something hard pressing against your bottom, with a smirk gracing your beautiful features do you reach an arm around to slyly palm his hardening member. Just as you'd intended does he grunt at the feeling of your hand squeezing him.

Letting him be, you break away from his grasp to turn yourself around to face him, "Will you make love to me this night?" You whisper as he kisses your soft wanting lips in reply.

Slowly pulling away he rests his head against yours, "Of course." Is all he's able to say before he's captured your lips with his once again.

You move in sync as his hands trail all over your clothed sides, you lean into his hardness as he gently squeezes your bum. Your lips keep locked onto one another as he begins to unbutton your trousers, your nimble fingers working on his own buttoned pants. Your hands become a quick tangled mess as finally your bottoms are loose enough to pull down. You both keep your tight embrace as he tugs at your pants, pulling them down to your ankles for you to step out of. He pulls away to get rid of his own ones, a lustful smile dancing across his features as he tugs off his shirt to expose his blessed muscular body.

Smiling cheekily at him, you raise your arms up for him to pull off your top, he does so a second later. The fabric long forgotten on the carpeted floor as you reach around to unlace your bra and finally rid yourself of the tight constraint with a blissful sigh. Geralt fearlessly eyes them up as you chuckle, your breasts bouncing with your heaving chest, sending Geralt wild. In an instant he's on you again, his hands exploring all over your exposed skin as you trail your nails down his bare back. He kisses you feverishly as one hand plays with your breast and the other rubs at your wet womanhood, sending you into a heated lust that's slowly overtaking your wanting body.

In a blur do you have him naked as his name day, laying dazed on the soft mattress, his white hair tousled as you shimmy out of your undergarments and give him a playful smile, your fangs showing in your joyous state as he awaits your next move. Reaching your hands out do you push his parted legs farther apart, his member bouncing deliciously as you do so. Your next action a slow and meticulous one as you crawl over him, your naked vessel hovering over his as you lean down to capture his lips with yours in a heated embrace. Just as quickly as you started do you pull back to hover your dripping entrance over his erect manhood, you hold it in place before gently placing it right in line with your folds.

He grips your exposed thighs as you lower yourself onto his hard cock, a breathy gasp leaving your lips as he slides into you, your face shifting from discomfort to pure bliss as you adjust to his largeness, he lets out a groan when you starts to rock back and forth in a quick calculated motion. He feels like a hot dream as he writhes and bucks into you while you pin his hands to the soft blankets in your lust. You can tell that he desperately wants to kiss you, but you're taking this orgasm before he gets the privilege to claim your lips. With a smile upon your sweaty face do you rock him into the bed, a swift warmness building in your womanhood as the blessed friction continues to drive the both of you to the edge.

Another blessed roll of your hips has you undoubtedly cuming all over his member as you ride out your high, Geralt releasing his load into you as his eyes close in pleasure, a moan leaving his parted lips as he tightly grips onto your bare hips for support. You ride him some more as he squirms underneath your touch, a pleased grin upon your face at how easily you're able to bend him to your will just by taking the lead and thrusting your hips against his while for the fun of it do you swirl your hips around his throbbing cock. He moans once again at the contact until suddenly he flips you onto your back in a flash, his lips connecting with yours as you gasp in surprise. Geralt taking this generous opportunity to stick his tongue into your mouth, his whole body leaning into you as he parts your legs even further.

Your hands quickly claw at his muscular back as he pumps into you vigorously over and over again, sending you into a moaning mess underneath him as he grunts into the quiet night air. The sweet sounds of skin on skin contact singing beautifully into your ears with each new thrust into your slick entrance. He pounds you into the mattress as you bite back a scream, deciding to mark up his back instead of giving him the satisfaction of hearing your pleasure. Though you're not so sure how much longer you can hold on before you let loose a loud howl from his deep strokes into your wetness.

He continues to relentlessly pound into you before a cry emits from your throat at the sheer pleasure he's handing you so freely. Another moan leaving your mouth as he shuts you up with a kiss before your body shakes in ecstasy all around him, he kisses your neck as you cum for the second time tonight like a little puddle of bliss underneath his stone body. Another kiss against your cheek as he releases himself into you with a grunt, his ending thrusts turning sloppier and sloppier as he gives what's left of himself to you before he's truly spent.

Humming in content at his last fruitful efforts to pleasure you, you pull his head down to capture his lips with yours in an act of silent appreciation for his never disappointing love making skills.

Geralt's lips leave yours as he kisses your forehead before pulling out of you completely and falling into a tired heap of Witcher by your side. You smile as he closes his eyes, the both of you breathing heavily as you feel is seed seeping out of your entrance and onto your legs and bed as you stare up at the cloth ceiling. Not caring for the mess in between your throbbing legs, you turn yourself onto your side as you nuzzle into your soft pillow, your body falling into a blissful slumber as you fall asleep to the sounds of Geralt's breathing. No words need said, everything you've both needed to say was just done and that's good enough for you.

When you wake the tent is basked in the light from the morning sunrise, illuminating the room in a dull grey hue as you open your crimson eyes to find Geralt's golden ones watching you adoringly. A shy smile pulls at the corners of your lips as you become aware of the thin sheet of fabric hiding you from the world, "Did anyone ever tell you it's rude to stare at a naked woman?" You muse with a light chuckle.

He averts his gaze as a smirk appears onto his lips, "My dear Y/N, I have seen you in a much more compromising position then laying in the nude by my side." You gasp before smacking his arm.

"I'm royalty my loyal Witcher, I could have your head for speaking like that." Instead does he reach his muscular arm over to your side, pulling you closer to him. The two of you flush against one another, your blanket leaving your bottom bare from the quick movement.

You kiss his cheek, a smile forming onto both of your lips, "Though perhaps you could show me how you're planning on making up for it." Geralt kisses you in reply, his hands trailing down your bare sides as he holds you close for a heated embrace.

——

After making love to your Witcher in the early morning light, not caring if anyone heard your time together, you walk out of the dirty white tent, dressed accordingly and ready to slay a dragon. Although when you step closer to where everyone should be, the dwarves have gone missing, their scent leading away down the trail. With a low growl do you begin your hunt, Yennefer and Geralt close behind as you all make haste for the unknown whereabouts of the small men.

Your hike lasts about fifteen minutes before the scent of the dwarves becomes stronger and stronger the farther down the trail that you all go. Once you turn a rocky corner do you spot all four of them, Yennefer shouts some paralyzing enchantment upon them before you're able to quite literally rip them a new one. She quickly races past you and the dwarves, you easily follow in step behind her as she makes it to the large vine covered mouth of the dragons lair.

The both of you walk in, your eyes adjusting to the darker atmosphere as Yennefer's eyes widen in bewilderment. You quickly find the source of her shock as your sights land on the huge shimmering body of a dead green dragon, a small egg near her head. You frown before both Téa and Véa make an angry appearance, they demand for the two of you to halt, their swords out and ready to defend.

Aren't they supposed to be dead?

Yennefer steps forward with her shiny dagger, ready to get what she came for before Geralt races into the cave, shouting for everyone to stop. A second later does a golden dragon screech as it comes out from its hiding spot in an opening in the rocky ceiling. The dragon greets all three of you; Téa and Véa explaining along with Borch in his dragon form why this female dragon was laying carnage against the nearby kingdom, she was protecting her egg so it would not die.

Right, of course, and this man is now a dragon.

Taking in all the hectic information with a grain of salt perhaps; a moment later your ears prick to the thumping of multiple erratic heartbeats nearing the caves entrance, you quickly turn to find the team of Reavers hastily stalking their way into view. Shit.

"Looks like we get to fuck up the whole family." States their leader, Boholt, "Slay that dragon!" He shouts before his men charge at you all.

Shifting into a defensive pose you ready yourself as the bastards ascend, "Oh fuck." Slips from your tongue as one of them lunges for your head, his spear making a swooshing noise as it whips in the air readying for its intended mark. Clearly anticipating his advances you twirl to the side, his staff missing you by inches as you rip it out of his grasp and thrust it into the neck of his friend nearby.

Snapping your attention back to the first man, his eyes widen as you roughly clamp your hand around his bicep, he groans in pain before you thrust his lanky body into the air where he cracks open his skull against a ragged stony edge. Lifting your eyes to find the state of your friends, you race to the aid of Yennefer as multiple men advance closely upon her. She finds your determined gaze before using magic to create a sort of sticky quicksand at the feet of the four men. It sucks in their legs until the ground reaches almost to their knees, they shout their protests and obscenities before you unsheathe your silver dagger and in a blur race past them.

When you reach the last one, you turn around to the fresh scent of blood as a thin waterfall of red bursts forth from each of their exposed necks as you listen to their gargled screams. You find Yennefer's eyes as she gives you a hasty nod of approval just as she turns to quickly use her magic once more, throwing about five men into the dirt with a thrust of her hand into the air, the men hit the ground with a hard thud as they struggle to get up. With a smirk do you swagger over to them in their dazed states before driving your dagger into their soft flesh before they have a chance to even register what's going on.

You hear a scream and look up to watch as Geralt slays one last man before you all notice more at the caves entrance, in a hasty blur do you race out of the mouth of darkness and into the sunlight, picking them off one by one as your two companions run to your aid.

They stop at the opening wide eyed as you break the neck of the last Reaver, he falls to the dirt as you turn towards them, blood and dust coating your face. "Nice of you two to finally show up. Gotta do everything myself." You jest, breathing heavily from the whole ordeal. Geralt smirks as Yennefer shakes her head, a small smile upon her lips.

Jaskier suddenly makes it to the top of the moutain, he stops, eyes trailing over the dead and your roughed up appearance, "What I miss?"

——

Once Borch gave some prized dragon teeth to the grumpy dwarves did the mountainside finally calm. They left with huge smiles pulling at their faces as the rest of you found company on some nearby rocks, the lot of you resting for the time being. All three of you somewhat worn out from the whole entirety of the trek to this place and the battle that just ensued.

Jaskier sits off on his own part of the giant flat rock as he listens to Borch speak, "This is my final first. A child. This treasure, this legacy must endure. There is no other reason to go on. Thank you for protecting it." Nods Borch as he looks to the three of you sitting next to one another, "You, Yennefer of Vengerberg, and Y/N of Alkatraz...I can tell why Geralt did not want you two separated, you are both a powerful force of nature when in each others company." He smiles knowingly, eyes squinting in the sun as your brows furrow in confusion, how strange of him to word that sentence.

How strange indeed.

Yennefer's face shifts in puzzlement, "What does that mean?" You both turn your questioning gazes to Geralt, he takes a long pause before he glances warily between the two of you, nervousness radiating from his tense body.

He sighs, "In Rinde. The djinn." Another agonizing pause as your mind turns with troubled thoughts and apprehension for what he's done, he wouldn't, certainly not.

Right?

An uneasiness practically consumes the atmosphere as you connect the dots, the djinn and the wish he must have made that you never asked him about, because certainly he would have used it for himself, on himself? But just looking at him, the way he won't meet your eyes or how his heartbeat picks up with the prick of his nerves, you know. He used magic on you.

You frown as your eyes lock with his, your voice is almost a whisper, "That's why I feel so drawn to Yennefer...why I feel almost responsible for her, so protective...." You trail off, sadness growing in your heart.

"Why I feel this way inside too." Inquires Yennefer while you turn to look at her as she continues, "I haven't seen you in decades, haven't cared about your existence for so long, then the djinn and I suddenly feel incredibly drawn to you like how I felt as a young pathetic mage in Aretuza." She scoffs as a sick feeling forms in the pit of your stomach.

Your fingers crack the rock as you grip it tight in your heated irritation, "Geralt what did you fucking do?" You growl as he slowly blinks, the knot in your stomach growing with each passing second.

He takes a cautious breath as you and Yennefer await the truth, "I wished that...for you and Yennefer to always have each other." Her face falls as you release the rock, quickly standing up as you take a step back, your pained eyes boring into Geralt's the whole time.

You shake your head, trying not to believe it, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" You plead with sad eyes, already knowing exactly what he did, you just need to hear him say it.

"I just wanted...ah fuck....I just meant for." His eyes are sad as he studies your face, "When I die you'll live on, much longer then I ever could or ever will....and I, I love you too much to let you suffer the rest of your existence alone." Geralt pauses for a moment as he looks from you to Yennefer and back to you again, "I bound you and Yennefer together, so you'd have one another when everyone you know is long gone." Your breath catches in your throat as you turn your head away from him. Your face looking out at the vast sky ahead as your body swirls with mixed emotions, but most of all, betrayal.

"Why would you..." Whispers Yennefer as she looks to you for help with this heavy information, blinking you turn around to face them again. Your heart twists with how broken your Witcher looks.

Geralt reaches a hand out to touch your arm, instead you take another step back, anger in your voice, "You could have wished for anything Geralt, anything you fucking wanted!" His face falls as you continue, "Why couldn't you have given Yenn a chance...I thought that would have been your wish, it would only have made sense. Fuck Geralt, I can't ever have a child because of what I am! Not even a djinn would permit the offspring of a Witcher dhampir hybrid upon the continent, its an abomination even in their eyes, a demon infant." Your voice is shaking, "I was lucky to be born and not slaughtered on the spot once I came forth into this world." A frustrated lump forms in the back of your throat as you fight for your words, "It could have worked if you'd let it dammit, now we're bound to one another for eternity instead. You...you..promised me....Geralt....a long time ago to never use magic against me, to never let dark powers like that manipulate my inner feelings, or body...you know why I hate it so much!" He flinches back at your words.

"I could have had a child." Whispers Yennefer, solemn expression looking elsewhere.

Tears slowly begin forming in your eyes, "I've never truly given a shit about anyone but you, Geralt. Then I find Yennefer again and I can't help but feel compelled to help her in her search for a cure....I feel like I can fully trust her, I hate mages, I haven't even seen Yennefer for such a long time. But what you did, this is wrong!" You scream in fury, "No one gets to make decisions for me! Especially when goddamn magic is concerned!"

He flinches back, "Your story in the bathhouse, you seemed very found of one another...and I, I thought that if you were bound to one another then you'd never feel completely lost once I'm gone."

My love, this is not the way.

You shake your head with a pained laugh, "That doesn't give you the right." You look into his sad golden eyes, "I tolerated the idiot novice mages the best I could and their fucking incompetent adversaries! I had a roof over my head and comforts of a room for free, that doesn't mean I gave a shit about anyone else there! And that defiantly doesn't mean you should bind my soul to another."

Yennefer turns to you then to Geralt, her voice that of a whisper, "You had one wish, just one. It could have been anything, I could have finally had a baby."

"I didn't realize." Inquirers Geralt softly, "I didn't mean for..."

"No." Snaps Yennefer coldly, "No you didn't! And here we are, on the fucking mountainside...if I'm lucky I'll never see you again." Growls Yennefer before her harsh glare finds yours, "and if the gods give a shit, we'll never cross paths in this lifetime." Her voice heavy with emotion before whipping around and stalking off down the trail.

Another lump forms in your throat as you glare at the dirt, a few stray tears falling down the sides of your cheeks as you find his pained gaze once again, "You said...you promised...to never use magic on me...not once, not ever." He opens his mouth to say something but you cut him off, "How dare you bound me to a goddamn insane fucking witch of all people! I have always been free of any ties to anyone without my own will to keep me bound, like I have with you and Jaskier....but this...this is just..." You quickly bite your lip to keep from losing it altogether as you lock eyes with Geralt, "you've lost me. I can't....I just, I need time." Your voice a soft whisper as Geralt bolts to his feet, sheer panic in his eyes.

"Y/N no..." He pleads as Jaskier and Boholt watch soundlessly from the sidelines.

You blink a couple more tears away, your body moving a step back, ever so closer to the ledge, "You've linked me to someone...bound me to them so that even when I shouldn't care to help them or give a shit about their life....I do. Even now I want to find Yennefer and join her so she's not alone walking back to wherever the fuck she's going! I shouldn't feel that way, I never have! I shouldn't fucking care!"

"Y/N please..."

You take another step back as his golden eyes frown, "Goodbye Geralt." More tears fall down your face as this hurtful feeling of betrayal consumes you, "Don't try and stop me, I just...I need time." You turn away from him and take a step towards the ledge as he takes a cautious step closer.

"Y/N I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to go this way, I just thought..."

You don't even bother looking at him, "I understand your intentions. Truly. But right now I can't forgive what you've done....if I even dare look at you I might lose control and break your fucking jaw." You seethe through clenched teeth before taking another step forward as he hits his fist against a jutted out rock next to Borch in hopeless frustration.

"Don't look for me, I'll find you when I'm ready."

"Y/N!" Cries Geralt, as you grimace almost in pain. So much anger, hate, and deep sadness coursing through your heart.

You can hear him take more rushed steps in your direction before you leap off the cliff, tears slide down your cheeks as you free fall in dreary bliss before shifting into a wild chaotic pack of screeching bats. Your heart hurts with anger and sorrow as you force yourself to keep flying away from both Geralt and Yennefer.

Away from the mountain. Away from the pain. You are a storm.

-

Tagged:  @notahappytree​ @ashleyforeverareject​ @sokkasdarling​ @kmuir1​​@haleypearce @diegos-butt​ (@auds24 sorry idk why ur name won’t work)

[tortie-tales]

Friendship: Seto Kaiba x Reader Chapter 1

"There we go. The last card. Balance it on the very top," I whispered, careful not to disturb the fragile card tower. Tristan and I had spent over an hour on it, and it made me proud.

Tristan moved carefully, and balanced the card on top. I held my breath, scared to breathe. Fifty one cards were used to build the tower, and Tristan held the last one in his hands. He moved away slowly, and we let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Mokuba is here!" Joey shouted, startling everyone. He slammed his hands on the table, causing the card tower to collapse on itself. Nothing was left standing, no evidence of the masterpiece that had once stood tall.

"Joey!!" Tristan and I yelled at him. Tristan got up and chased him, while I sat there and mourned our lost work. "Forever in our hearts, card tower," I said solemnly, my hand over my heart, "rest in peace."

The once calm living room of the Mutou house had become chaotic. Joey was running for his life with Tristan on his tail, Téa and Yugi were at the door, welcoming Mokuba, and I was sitting on the couch, pillow in hand, ready to avenge my child.

Tristan quickly caught onto my plan and drove Joey towards me, where he got a face full of pillow. The force of my swing caused him to fall on the hard floor, where he groaned and asked for mercy. I smiled, threw the pillow back on the couch, and began to collect the cards that were scattered on the ground.

Yugi and Téa entered the room, followed by Mokuba. "(y/n), this is Mokuba, Mokuba, this is (y/n)," Yugi said, unphased by Joey's downfall.

I stood up and placed the sloppy pile of cards on the table. "Nice to meet you, Mokuba," I said, smiling. The raven haired boy smiled back at me, "Likewise, (y/n). Hey, Joey, are you ok? That looked like it hurt," he asked, looking and sounding genuinely concerned.

"I'm good, don't worry Mokuba. I'm glad you could make it," Joey said, reassuring. He stood up and rubbed his back. "So, what are we doing now? Should we play a round of duel monsters?"

"Man, Joey. What is with you and that game? You're not even that good at it," I said, doing my best to hide my smile. Joey looked at me, aghast. "I am good at it! And what about Yugi? He plays too!"

"Yeah, but he's actually good at the game," I pointed out with an even voice, before Joey's look of pure offense made me burst out laughing.

"(y/n), please stop teasing Joey like that. You know how he gets," Yugi sighed, probably wondering why I acted like such a child.

I couldn't help it, it was too easy to tease Joey. It was entertaining to watch him get so worked up, and what can I say, I'm a sucker for free entertainment.

"It's fine, Yugi. Besides, she's probably just jealous that a noob like her wouldn't be able to beat a pro like me," Joey said, obviously confident in his skills.

I kept my cool and looked him square in the eyes. "Is that so? Care to make a wager, then?" I challenged, knowing he wouldn't back down.

"If you win, I will buy you lunch every day for a week. If I win, then you-" I paused for dramatic effect "-have to give me a piggyback ride to school everyday for a week."

Joey was unaffected by my statement.

"It's a deal. Be ready to buy me a three course lunch tomorrow!" he grinned, obviously motivated by the mention of free food.

"Let's duel!" we shouted in unison.

~time skip to about the end of the duel~

This is it, I thought to myself, gritting my teeth. All of my most powerful dragons are in the graveyard. If I can just draw my secret weapon....

I drew a card and screamed, making Joey jump.

"What is your issue?!" he exclaimed, looking unnerved by my sudden outburst.

"I can't believe how much food I'm going to have to buy! This is hopeless, maybe I should just quit." I looked at my hand and did my best to ignore the fact that I drew my winning card. Making Joey confident in his victory was the key to my victory. My plan worked, based off of his smug smile. Yugi, however, looked suspicious.

"Eh, don't worry (y/n). Since I'm so generous, I'll only make you buy me one course meals," he said, drooling over the thought of food.

"Gee, thanks, Joey. Well, to get this over with, I guess I'll just put this little guy in attack mode." I put Decoy Dragon face up in attack mode.

Joey drew a card. He smiled cockily. "Ok, now I attack with my Red Eyes!"

"Joey, wait!" Yugi yelled, but it was too late. My card's effect had already been activated.

"Not so fast, Joey! You activated Decoy Dragon's effect! Now I can special summon a dragon with seven or more stars from my graveyard" -I picked up Tyrant Dragon- "and I choose this card! Since it has to have a dragon tribute when special summoned from the graveyard, I will tribute Decoy Dragon." I cackled, knowing I would win. "Now, your Red Eyes is destroyed, and you lose two hundred life points!"

Joey stood there, dumbfounded. He looked at his cards. "I end my turn," he gulped.

"Yay!" I drew a card. "Now I attack your life points directly and win! Who's a noob now, Wheeler?!" I exclaimed, satisfied with my successful strategy.

"Cheer up, Joey. It won't be so bad," Téa said, patting Joey's shoulder.

"Wow, (y/n), is your deck all dragon monsters?" Mokuba asked, intrigued.

"Almost."

"My big brother would like this deck! It's just missing the blue eyes white dragon!" Mokuba said, excited.

"That's cool. You have a brother?" I asked, interested. I didn't know he had siblings. His brother must be as sweet as he is.

"Yeah, I could introduce you to him tomorrow if you'd like!" Mokuba seemed very excited. A little too excited.

"Sounds good!" I said, smiling.

[danieco]

@unfriendlyamazon

who smokes weed, who doesn't, who absolutely should?

Joey* and Rex Raptor smoke the most. Yugi didn’t smoke any weed before becoming friends with Joey but like, because he didn’t know how to get any and nobody ever offered. Ryou isn’t all that interested (he says it just makes him sleepy) but he’ll smoke if the others are (he loves an edible tho). Téa doesn’t smoke until she’s in college because she’s too responsible. I am actually not sure about Duke... October please advise. Like the answer is yes but I’m not sure how much or when. Mai smokes but never with the main YGOs because she’s an adult. Solomon did when he was younger but grew out of it and views it as like, a youthful lark. 

Seto doesn’t and should. Same for Weevil (Rex offered and Weevil is so prissy and sheltered he was like OMG... drugs... I will cheat and lie and help unleash ancient evil on the world but I draw the line at DRUGS). I feel like I’m missing people... OH MY GOD HONDA. Yes Honda smokes too

[nikkithebard]

Your Angel Ellipsis

Geraskier short fic, post S1E6, post mountain-break up, hurt/little comfort, fix-it-fic, angst, angsty thoughts, featuring HSK, open ending, 2.6k words

Rating: T (Mature language)

A/N: I am totally 100% open to fic ideas if anyone wants to share some. Feel free to send an ask with a prompt, I don’t mind in the slightest. (I have never uploaded my work here before)

The bard moved with about as much grace as a broken-legged turtle, holding his lute case close to his chest. It was the only thing around him that felt even remotely real. Everything else had faded into whispers across his skin. The wind, the dirt, the others who remained on the mountain still. The soles of his boots had been worn thin, slipping over the rocky dust of the ground. Jaskier ignored it. He was far too disinterested in anything that wasn’t the very person he was distancing himself from.

Jaskier cared for Geralt of fucking Rivia.

And all he had gotten was shouts, demeaning language, and a wish fit for a djinn.

Oh, how far he’d thrown himself into this wolf’s den. He feared he’d die of heartbreak--again--if he didn’t die from the hunger and dehydration that came with getting lost climbing down a fucking mountain. How far had he gone? Felt like he had been descending in circles rather than going straight down.

Jaskier heard his own words in his mind, reverberating.

You did your best. There’s nothing else you could have done.

Who would have known the words were better suited to him and not the witcher? But, it was true. There was nothing else the bard could have done to change the outcome of this dragon hunt. He tried to talk Geralt out of this, tried to convince him this was too dangerous a task. As per usual, Geralt cared little for Jaskier’s opinion and carried on. Was that his fault, too?

His foot slipped on a larger boulder and he fell. Catching himself before he could do any serious damage, Jaskier decided to take a seat, the sun beating down on his back. Rivulets of sweat pooled around the collar of his chemise. Opening the case, Jaskier made sure his lute was alright. Of course it was, but a peek wouldn’t hurt.

The lute, as it always did, sang back at him through its dark wood, enchanted to no end. Pointless to think it would ever break, really. He withdrew the instrument, strumming the melody he had been crafting for weeks now. It had started out as a metaphor for some sort of unrequited love. As of late, it had been slowly turning it into something much sourer. With naught but the help of a sorceress he watched portal herself away nearly an hour or two ago. Jaskier was still dumbfounded that Geralt was so entrenched in the most awful example of the fairer sex.

“The fairer sex,” Jaskier mumbled to himself, strumming to the opening melody of his latest tune. “How, when she’s as unfair as a thief? A bandit?” He tilted his head, pondering. “A crook?”

Very rarely did lyrics fall into his lap so perfectly, yet the poet learned early on in his life to not look a gift horse in the mouth. Taking out his pen and notebook, he scratched off the first line of his original ballad, writing in the better one.

Jaskier sighed, unable to keep his mouth shut even if there was no one around to listen, “Bollocks, there I go again, rewriting yet another love ballad. Not that it matters, when you spend over twenty years stooped in what others would refer to as a pile of shit, perhaps every tune comes off as identical, yeah? All the words collide and all the notes fall into unbridled repetition--” He stopped, his own voice crashing into his ears, “Twenty years? Is that right?” He scoffed, fingers absentmindedly moving over the strings of his lute, “Can’t be, I don’t even--I can’t be over forty, can I?” He tried to shake the thought from his mind, yet he simply couldn’t get away from the passage of time. The time he had spent trailing a witcher that threw him away like a tankard of spoiled ale. “What...am I doing?”

Over twenty years, Jaskier had spent chasing a man for nothing. For nothing, because there was nothing else he could have done. The years dripped into his mind, at first a simple leak. In seconds, a stream. In minutes, a broken dam of thoughts and images dancing across the landscape of his brain.

At first, he had only longed for a muse after a particular dry spell of wordless thoughts that had plagued him after he arrived in Posada all those years ago. Jaskier had been coming down from a small bout of fame he founded for himself and the money had run out too quickly. And it was then that he had caught sight of the White Wolf. Only, then, he had nary a clue of who the man was. Jaskier saw armor, swords, a very interesting shade of hair. He was intrigued. As the day passed and Jaskier crafted the song that shot both of their names into the stratosphere, he realized he cared little for the money, the recognition, the women. Yes, it was damn welcome, but he found himself missing something.

It didn’t take him very long to admit the thrill of the adventure--wanderlust, to be specific--was the answer to a question he asked himself too many times. And so, when he and Geralt found each other again, he made it a point to tag along. Geralt didn’t appear to care all that much and let Jaskier do as he pleased. Only when Jaskier droned on and on about any random crap that came to mind--which was purely to spur any sort of response from the silent witcher, he wanted to get to know him--did Geralt stir enough to shut him up.

As time went on, years apparently, Jaskier found himself caring less and less for the songs. He just wanted to follow the witcher. His friend, though Geralt refused to verbally reciprocate the fact. After a while, he only wished for his company, to hear the incredible feats and adventures that befell the witcher. It wasn’t until they started to become tight on money and ended up sharing rooms together that Jaskier realized his fascinations went beyond friendly. When they were alone, with a roof over their heads and safety in their minds, Geralt would always relax a bit. He would speak, joke, smile even.

Jaskier thought he was insane in the beginning. To think he could feel anything more than a curious nature. But, no, it became quite apparent.

Jaskier cared for Geralt of fucking Rivia.

And it had become his fatal flaw.

Geralt, it seemed, truly cared nothing for the troubadour that brought him fame and coin.

And it was painful. Of course it was. The two had fought a multitude of times in the past, but this was different somehow. To blame his own destiny on the bard that had only wanted to leave this damn mountain, to leave the witch to her inevitable demise, wanted the witcher to be safe.

Perhaps that was why he had very obviously confessed himself to the witcher. Using the excuse that he had to work out what pleased him when he had done so years before. All to stave off the knowledge that his confession had been viewed as material for his next song. That his love was nothing more than musings to be ignored.

Jaskier never thought he would be faced with his unrequited affection so harshly, though he figured it would come down on him eventually. He strummed the lute, an acute anger creeping up his spine.

The fairer sex, they often call it.

But, her love’s as unfair as a crook.

It steals all my reason,

Commit every treason

Of logic with naught but a look.

He had written a majority of it a night or two ago, when Sir Eyck had gone off to shit in the woods and Yennefer had gone off to “get her beauty sleep”. Scratching off lines and writing over them, as he had gotten so used to for a long time.

Never getting the chance to tell Geralt how he felt, what he wanted, what he needed. Came to a point where he no longer thought it was ever going to happen. Watching Borch, Téa, and Véa fall to their presumed deaths--and nearly watching Geralt follow suit--changed that. He knew there would never be such a delight as “the right time”, especially if this hunt had proven to be so deadly. Jaskier wanted to say his feelings outright, hoping a song would help him in that regard. Alas, nothing ever worked out that way.

Jaskier settled for asking Geralt to allow him the opportunity to prove himself as a worthy travel companion, stretching his tone across the word “companion” to give it a different meaning. Geralt did not catch on and if he did, made no move to show it. And he was shot down.

It made him upset, knowing he had lost the battle for the witcher’s affections long before the bard had even agreed to take part. Rigged and unjust, but he should have known better than to love someone he knew damn well now didn’t care.

A storm breaking on the horizon,

Of longing and heartache and lust

She’s always bad news,

It’s always lose, lose

So tell me love, tell me love,

How is that just?

But, Jaskier cared for the witcher before they had met the witch. And, still, he had lost. He had nothing else but their friendship, and even that was gone now. It wasn’t his fault. Not this time. All at once, everything had gone to shit, more so than it had before whenever Yennefer’s influence on Geralt made his vision turn red. Always lashing out at everyone, always angry, never ever good for him.

The lute was strummed harder, the instrument making the troubadour’s emotions known to anyone within range.

But the story is this,

She’ll destroy with her sweet kiss, her sweet kiss.

The bard repeated the line, filling the melody appropriately. There was nothing else he could do but let the song continue. He was a bard, all he knew was to let the music escape him, else he might explode. Jaskier heard rustling behind him and chose to ignore it, too caught up in his emotions to stop the tenor of his own voice. If he could just finish the damn song, he would feel better.

He wouldn’t be so angry that he had completely wasted over twenty years of his life. Destroyed his own path whilst following Geralt down his. Getting them free rooms, free meals, making him famous, helping him scrounge up coin for better armor, making him hair tie after hair tie from the leather of old strappings. Fixing baths, cleaning and stitching up wounds, sleeping in the same fucking bed together. And he still lost to a lusty bitch with a hankering for destruction.

Jaskier had lost to a woman that never spent more than a few hours with the witcher at a time. A woman that caused him pain, not healed him of it. A woman that would outlive him and still cause Geralt heartache without respite. Melitele damn her.

Her current is pulling you closer

And charging the hot, humid night.

The red sky at dawn is giving a warning, you fool!

Better stay out of sight.

The troubadour's tune faltered, voice breaking as memories of the past flooded through him again. Asking Geralt a favor in bodyguarding him while being told he was not the White Wolf’s friend, which stung despite the bard’s nonchalance. Learning that Geralt needed nothing out of life. Jaskier telling the witcher that someone--the use of a gender-neutral pronoun had been a flirt, but still remained true to his heart--may want him. “I’m weak, my love, and I am wanting.” Jaskier’s tone changed, filling with longing and desire. He knew he had a penance for lofty things. Good clothing, fine wine, upstanding company. But, he steadily gave it all up, choosing a life of grime and dirt and blood. The rustling behind him came closer.

If this is the path I must trudge,

I welcome my sentence,

Give to you my penance,

Garrotter, jury, and judge.

And his chorus repeated over and over, driving home his emotional distress at losing the one person in this godsforsaken world that was still willing to deal with his bullshit. Jaskier knew, now, that Geralt had never truly been willing and was only ever acting in line with his morals. Geralt only saved him from the djinn because it was the right thing to do. Geralt chose not to harm Jaskier out of pure annoyance because it was simply wrong and unjust.

Yet, Jaskier couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps Geralt sometimes acted outside of his moral compass. The banquet, the event that had really changed the course of the witcher’s life, had been the only inexplicable act Jaskier could not explain. The witcher had helped him free of his coin, in the most minute way. Nothing in their initial understanding of the event had even the slightest to do with what was the textbook definition of a witcher.

Was it due to the fact that, even if Geralt would never admit it, they truly were friends?

Jaskier had little time to continue his reverie, a soft hum from behind breaking through his thoughts.

“I will never understand why I am oft referred to as a ‘garrotter’.” Gravelly voice, low toned, and calm. Jaskier froze, music stopping. How much had he heard? And even more, he caught on to the metaphor immediately.

Jaskier cleared his throat, refusing to look, “It also means ‘killer’ or ‘hunter’.” He said plainly. “Not to mention your name matches the sound of the word a bit.”

“Hmm.” Geralt said, “That’s not the first time I’ve heard that.”

It was a wonder they were even speaking. Jaskier was always so quick to forgive the witcher, though. Yes, he was still hurt and angry. On the other hand, he would fight to keep their friendship and wouldn’t let their squabbles get the better of them. He would just have to bottle his pain, again. Well, maybe put the cork back on the bottle if he was being truthful. He’d let enough spill out of him over the last few days and the song didn’t help.

Geralt walked, moving in front of the bard, gear in hand, “The long way down is safer, but we have a lot of ground to cover.” Face emotionless, golden eyes stared down at the distraught bard.

The bard shook his head, not knowing how to proceed, “Geralt--”

“I’m sorry, Jaskier.” The witcher cut in before the troubadour could make a long-winded speech. His name always sounded intimate when it crossed over the witcher’s lips. Never casual, always private and personal.

Jaskier gave a pained smile, blue eyes still rimmed red with sadness, “Good, that’s all I wanted.” No, it wasn’t. He kept that bit to himself. He stood, placing the lute back into its case and placing the strap on his back.

Geralt gave him another straight look, but his eyes always displayed the man’s thoughts and emotions. He knew Jaskier was lying, especially if he had been paying attention enough to know the truth behind the bard’s lyrics, “Hmm.”

They continued down the mountain together, both silent for once. It wasn’t until they had reached the bottom that Jaskier finally fell into a mindless chatter. His thoughts were becoming too heavy and it wasn’t appropriate when he had company.

They didn’t talk about the song, not for a long time. And when they did, there was no turmoil or miscommunication on either end.

There was only an understanding.

[gx-gameon]

I know we still early in this au but dear god I need to know the DM crews reaction to showing up at Duel Academy only to find the school and the students GONE in season 3

Okay so I’m currently half way through season 1 of my Gx rewatch. (I’m at the school duel so “Chazz it up!” Is finally a thing) until I rewatch season 3 all of these ideas are fluid. I don’t know if they will stay or change into something new as I rewatch it and get inspired.

Now on to the question

When the DM crew shows up the school (or what’s left of it) is in pandemonium. The DM crew know the school is gone as soon as they get close to the island. It’s kind of hard to miss that the whole school building is gone.

Yugi is hard core freaking out. His son, his baby boy, was in that school. And the schools gone. They should have acted sooner.

Atem is trying to comfort Yugi but he’s just in shock as well. He had promised himself he wouldn’t allow harm to come to Yugi or Jaden. The past two years have been hard. He’s wanted to step in so many times but Yugi had always trusted Jaden. Even when he was scared out of his mind for him, he’d insist that if Jaden believed he could handle it they wouldn’t step in until necessary. Sure the monitored the situations and were ready to step in at any time, but it was never enough for Atem. He wasn’t used to standing back while other fought. It was something he distinctly hated about the memory world and his memories of Egypt. And now his nephew was missing and all of his fears were coming to pass.

Joey is staring at the crater in dumbfounded shock. What happened that could take out a whole school? Sure there was a creepy professor that was stealing people’s energy? But that can’t possibly lead to a school blowing up. Could it?

Tristian is the one to voice the question “what happened? It looks like the whole place was blown sky high!” Thank you Tristian. A great observation but not very helpful. Considering the observation sent Yugi down a new spiral.

Téa is trying to stay positive “we don’t know that yet. Maybe Jaden wasn’t in the school when it disappeared. He does like to cut class.” It’s wishful thinking and they all know it. (Jaden is to much like Yugi, to much like Atem. He’s always going to be at the center of the action) She’s trying to keep them and herself calm but it’s not truly working. But she does have a point, they need to find out what happened before they freak out.

Seto can’t take his eyes off of the crater that was once his school. He’s running through so many options of what could cause that. Some far more grim than the others. He almost pivoted to punch Tristian in the month when he says that the school was blown sky high. Because that couldn’t be what happened. Seto would know if one of his properties blew up. There was no way he lost his son, their son (he thinks as he finally looks over at his husband) to an explosion. He can see Yugi finally breaking.

His husband always keeps them grounded when it comes to Jaden and his adventures. Everyone else is always ready to fly to Duel Academy and fight Jaden’s enemies for him. And Yugi understands because he wants to too, but he always calms them. Gets them to watch from a far until Jaden truly needs them. His husband has been a pillar of strength for a long time but specifically these past two years. To see him finally break is heart wrenching. Part of him wants to go to his hisband but Atem is always there and Seto can’t help Yugi if he doesn’t know what happened to Jaden.

He lands the plane and looks at their cobbled together family. “I’m going to find out what happened. The rest of you stay here.” He want to find out if their son is safe, if he wasn’t anywhere near the disaster (not likely) or if their son was in the disaster was there a way to get him back (there had to be he wouldn’t accept another option) or was he dead (if so he didn’t want Yugi or the others to be told that news in front of a crowd. They deserve privacy to respond however they wanted. He could handle it. He’d go, get the world shattering news, come share it with the family, comfort his husband as he breaks down, and start planning his next trip to the afterlife)

His statement is not met well. “There is no way we’re staying here rich boy!” Joey is irate, the rest of the group is to. Loudly protesting Seto’s statement. Seto is more than prepared to argue back. But there is one voice that easily cuts through the noise.

Yugi stands on shaky legs , Atem moving with him arms ready to catch his Aibou if he falls. But Yugi has always been a pillar of strength. He looks at his husband with wet eyes. “There is no way I’m waiting.” And with that it’s settled, they’re all going together.

——————————————————————————

Now Chancellor Shepherd didn’t think this day could get any worse. His school was missing along with several hundred students. There was no way this could get worse

Until Seto Kaiba, the man who owns the school, walks up with some of the most famous people in dueling and demands to know what happened. How did they even find out about this? It only happened last night!

The man quickly stumbles through and explanation of what he believes happened and that their scientists are already looking into it.

It basically comes down to the school was transported to a different dimension.

Seto’s brain is already firing on all cylinders. He has the tech to travel between dimensions. But it was one person travel, not school building travel. How long would it take to get the tech here? How long will it take to change it to be school size. He’s got plans and Mokuba’s right next to him as the two start firing off advance math and science of what has to be adapted on the machine to make this work.

Yugi is both relieved (Jaden’s alive) and also terrified (how do they get to him? Seto might be able to bring the school home but Yugi wants to go after Jaden now.)

They are all working together to try and figure out a way to either A) get in contact with the school. B) get the school back. Or C) send at least one of the DM cast to go help the kids (most likely Yugi, Atem, and Joey in that order)

They are hoping that if they can get in contact with the kids maybe they will have a plan. After all they have more information then the adults do at this time. Plus actually hearing from Jaden will calm a lot of their nerves.

Everyone is very productive. The goal is getting the kids (Jaden) back. The DM crew isn’t going to waste time. Seto has taken over the whole operation bring in equipment and directing staff and scientist. He’s getting things set up to communicate with the kids when who should show up but Pegasus.

Why is Pegasus here? Seto didn’t call him. No one on the DM cast would call him.

Seto goes over to tell the man off. He’s under a lot of stress and he’s trying very hard to not take it out on any of the remaining students (they are trying to help) the staff (they are incompetent but they are also worried for the children and they are helping) and he is not going to take it out on Yugi or his friends (the DM crew have grown on him. Sure he and Joey will have petty fights but that’s more for entertainment than actual animosity) so when Pegasus shows up he is the perfect target for all of Seto’s built up aggression.

Or he was until Shepherd comes over and tells them that he asked for Pegasus to come. And excuse me Chancellor Sheppard but can you tell me why you called Pegasus, a competitor of Kaiba Corp to help with a problem when you won’t call the actual CEO who owns your school? Kaiba is not happy and Sheppard is sweating bullets.

Pegasus reveals that he is there because of Jesse Anderson and the rainbow dragon. He needs to find the tablet and create the rainbow dragon card. Then he can send it to Jesse who can use it to bring everyone home. Finally they have a plan!

Seto would be releaved. Except that Pegasus’s looks between him and Yugi and says “Honestly you two think I’m so heartless that I could hear that your little duel prince is trapped in another dimension and I wouldn’t come to help? You wound me.” He’s being dramatic and he’s trying to lighten the mood and reassure the parents that he is there to help.

What he accidentally does is reveal to Sheppard that not only is the Prince of Duels currently at his school! But he was currently lost to a different dimension! Under Sheppard’s watch! This is so bad. He’s running through the missing students in his head as fast as possible trying to figure out who the Prince of Duels is.

It can’t be Jaden. He loves the boy but he’s a bit of an airhead and he doesn’t think there is a thought that has crossed the boys mind that hasn’t left his mouth. (Oh you fool)

It can’t be Chazz he’s met the boy’s brothers

Can’t be Syrus. Zane is his older brother and as far as anyone knows there is only one Prince of Duels.

He doubts it’s Hassleberry. Not with the boys military lingo. But that might just be used to throw him off.

It’s not Atticus. Again he has a sibling and he was missing for two years. If this is Yugi and Seto’s response to their son being missing for a few days he couldn’t imagine them sitting idle for two years

But who?

Bastian? No the boy left the school last year.

Maybe a student who flies under the radar

Or maybe…. It’s one of the transfer students. All the duel academies knew the son of Seto Kaiba and Yugi Muto would attend one of their schools. He and the other head masters had been trying to figure out who the kid was for years. He wouldn’t put it past the two fathers, who were religious about their son’s privacy to send him to a far away school.

Axel is a bad choice his aditude and loyalty to Professor Kobra didn’t fit with what he had picked up from watching the DM crew.

Jim is a good candidate.

And then there is Jesse. The boy with an ultra rare deck. Pegasus’s whole plan to save the school revolved around the boy. And he did say he came specifically to “help the Prince of Duels” could it be Jesse? He was the one Pegasus was helping. If it was Jesse that was even worse the boy had been at his school for barely two months before the Chancellor lost him!

Needless to say the man is hard panicking.

On the other side Seto is furious. How DARE Pegasus reveal anything about Jaden to these people. He’s about to tear into Pegasus. This won’t stand. This won’t happen again. He’ll buy Pegasus’s whole company and ruin this man’s life if he says one more thing about his son.

But before he can Yugi speaks. “Pegasus. While I appreciate your help in this matter. I’ll remind you that there is nothing more important to us than our son’s safety. And a major part of that is his privacy. I will not have that compromised.” His voice is firm and unquestionable. He is a king after all and he will not bend on this matter. His eyes leave Pegasus and land directly on Sheppard. “By anyone here.”

Seto watches the man visible gulps and knows his husband’s message was received load and clear. ‘Tell anyone about this and you’ll pay.’ Yugi doesnt often behave this way outside of duels but Seto never tired of how HOT it was.

The two lead the way back to the rest of the crew and allow Pegasus to explain his plan. Yugi and Atem decide to go with Pegasus to find the Rainbow Dragon tablet. Hopefully between the three of them they will hear the beast’s voice calling out.

The next big problem is deciding who will duel Jesse when the time comes. Seto wants to and does Joey but they are both told that if they would have to go all out to generate enough duel energy. But if they do and they beat Jesse to early then they might lose their chance to get Rainbow Dragon through. Jesse’s a great duelist but the DM crew are in a league of their own.

Chancellor suggests Zane.

After the duel and rainbow dragon goes through all there is to do is wait. A few hours later the school is back.

And Jaden is screaming.

[fairknights]

Hello! I'm brand new to your blog and I gotta say, ur writing's amazing! ^.^ I was wondering if you could do a scenario with the yugioh boys (original to 5ds) and their reactions to hearing their s/o sing for the first time? Even if you end up not doing it, thanks for taking the time to read this request and have a great day! ^.^

Ahh thank you so much. I hope you have a great day as well ^^

I’m gonna do just a short scenario for a few characters from each title. I kinda took some liberties with this, so some of the scenarios are the s/o getting up on stage as a singer and some are in a more casual setting. I hope that’s okay! As I said I’m only going to do a couple of characters per title, so if I miss anyone out who is a favourite of yours then hit me up and I’ll add whoever you like!

Singing Headcanons

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Yugi Moto:

He hadn’t meant to overhear you singing to yourself. He was waiting for you in the hallway of your place, ready to take you out on a date. You’d said you’d just be a few minutes getting ready, and he didn’t mind waiting at all. The door to your room was slightly ajar and he could hear your voice coming from it, singing along to one of your favourite songs. He couldn’t help but smile, listening to you as you danced around your room. It’s cute seeing you so relaxed, he thinks.

Seto Kaiba:

He knew of course that you’re a singer, but he’s somehow never heard you sing before. When you’d invited him to one of your shows, he was quite interested in getting to hear you. He’s taken this evening off to come and watch you, something he wouldn’t likely do for anyone else except Mokuba. Watching you up on stage, he finds himself mesmerised. Your eyes search for him in the crowd and he feels a strange spark when your eyes meet. He finds he can’t hold your gaze for long, but in that brief moment he knew you were singing just for him tonight.

Joey Wheeler (Katsuya Jounouchi):

You, Joey and the rest of your friends had met up that night for karaoke and fun. He’d got up on stage earlier with Tristan, the two of them singing loudly and rather badly. Neither of them have much singing talent anyway, so it just kinda became a game between them where they messed about and deliberately sounded bad. Joey loves making you laugh, so seeing your amusement at his horrible singing was enough. When it’s your turn, you get up with Téa and sing a duet with her. Joey is surprised to find you’re actually a decent singer. Téa is dancing around the stage and singing along with you, but his eyes are on you the whole time. He watches you with a grin on his face, and when you get back he throws an arm around your shoulders. “Didn’t know you could sing like that!”

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Yuki Judai (Jaden):

It was a few years since you and Judai had graduated from Duel Academy, and he was staying over at your apartment. You’d gone to take a shower before he’d woken up that morning and were just vibing and singing as you usually did in the shower. You got out of the shower and dried yourself, dressing in the bathroom today. As you left the bathroom you jumped. You were not expecting to see Judai outside in the hallway. He had this sly grin on his face as he eyed you.

“What?” you asked, heart racing from the start.

“I’ve never heard you sing before. You sounded good!” He chuckled.

“...everyone sounds good in the shower...” you grumbled.

Edo Phoenix:

It’s late at night; or is it early in the morning by now? Edo can’t sleep. He usually just spends nights he can’t sleep on his boat, letting the gentle rocking soothe him even if his mind won’t rest. Tonight though, he feels too restless to stay put. He finds himself taking a walk through the thicket, the night air and cool breeze soothing to him. An unfamiliar sound gave him pause, however. Is someone singing? He headed towards the sound cautiously, careful not to make too much noise. Though the sound was unfamiliar to him, the person it was coming from was not. Apparently, you couldn’t sleep either. You sat in a clearing, playing music on your phone and singing along to it. For a moment, he just listened, enjoying the sound of your voice. But he decided to announce himself; much to your embarrassment. He told you your voice was good, and besides he hadn’t really heard much anyway, in an attempt to calm you. He joined you for a conversation that night, though not before half-teasing that you could carry on singing for him if you wanted.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s

Yusei Fudo:

Ever since you told him that you sing on stage, he’s wanted to come to one of your shows. With everything going on, Yusei found himself too busy to come and watch you for some time. Tonight, he finally got his chance. You looked amazing, dressed up for your stage act, and he found himself even more enamored with you. You sounded amazing too, Yusei thought. He found himself unable to take his eyes off you the whole time you sang. He approached you afterwards, wanting to tell you how he enjoyed your show and what he thought of your singing. He found himself unable to speak for a moment, still a bit starstruck by you. He saw a different side of you tonight than the you he knew so well. He’s quick to recover and awkwardly tell you that he thinks you’re amazing.

Jack Atlas:

Jack heard you were singing on stage tonight, and showed up to your act without warning. He wanted to hear you sing the moment you told him you were going to sing. You didn’t like just suddenly singing on the spot because he asked you to, so he had to take matters into his own hands. It’s not like you wouldn’t have invited him to hear you sing anyway, but Jack has to be dramatic. You spotted him in the crowd right away, tall and blonde and wearing those outlandish clothes. He’s hard to miss. You found yourself smiling as you sang, your eyes meeting his. He watched you with a genuine smile of his own, a rarity as most of his smiles are more like smirks or wide grins during exciting duels. Once your act was over, you make your way to him.

“Didn’t know you’d be here tonight!” You chuckled.

“I told you I wanted to hear you sing.” He said simply. “You sound as good as I expected you to.”

[the-kings-of-games]

I like Chaseshipping, so here's a college headcanon:

(Or: In which Tristan's friends are famous and he's famously dating)

While Téa goes to American and Yūgi and Joey continue to on their dueling careers, Tristan attends university two cities over to study business and accounting. He wants to help with the family business.

For convenience's sake, he rents a cheap apartment, but he comes home often, usually on weekends.

Due to living close to campus, he joins the gaming club (because it reminds him of his best friends) and makes friends. He's not the best at playing, but he's awfully insightful and knowledgeable about games, including Duel Monsters.

He's well liked by his classmates, and even professors can rely on his help. Tristan often agrees to go to drinking, but he doesn't go to "meet" people, though he's been offered a few times.

"Sorry, I have a boyfriend. He's in California right now."

Girls find it endearing, but that's all Tristan mentions of his boyfriend. A few people in his circle think the boyfriend's made up because he's trying to be nice. They tease him about it.

"He's real. I wouldn't lie about that, that's embarrassing."

"Then show us a picture! Come on, Tristan!"

"I rather not. He always incites a riot when he's brought up, and I know people will bother me about him."

"You make it sound like he's famous."

". . . He's— Very good looking. I guess." (Technically, a lot of people I know are famous, but I'll never tell any of you that!)

Then, one night out at a bar with the game club, there's a surprise appearance from some old friends. The door to the club's private room is opened, and Tristan hears a familiar voice.

"I knew I saw you coming in here, Tristan! It's been a while."

The room is quiet, and everyone's eyes are as big as saucers because there's a world famous duelist and the CEO of the biggest Duel Monster company in the world just standing there.

"Mai! Kaiba!" Tristan greets, smiling. Everybody's been so busy, it's been a while since they had a get together. "What are you doing here?"

Mai smiles back, winking. "Working on some tournament deals, and we stopped here for the night. Are these all your friends?"

Seto scoffs. "I knew I felt geek the moment I stepped inside this establishment. Be ready to leave at 9 tomorrow, Valentine." He's already leaving.

"He's still an asshole." Tristan is rolling his eyes to the back of his head, but he's still laughing. "It was good seeing you, Kaiba! Mai, you wanna stay for a drink?"

"Sure! Let's catch up a bit. I could use better company than Mister Brick Wall. Scoot over, Tristan."

Tristan introduces his club to Mai. All the club members are silently thanking the brunette because God, that's Mai Valentine! (And they got to see Seto Kaiba in real life??)

Mai warms up to the club immediately, answering questions from excited nerds. (Don't worry, she's very used to this.) She agrees to autographs. At some point, someone asks offhandedly if she knows Tristan's "boyfriend."

"Yeah, why you ask?"

"So he is real? Tristan won't tell us anything about him. We thought the boyfriend's made up."

Tristan is groaning, hiding behind a beer. Nosy friends. Mai is intrigued by this.

"Well, I won't tell if Tristan won't, but I assure you, the boyfriend is very much real."

"Can you at least tell us one thing about him?"

"Mai," Tristan says, pleading for her to stay quiet.

"Don't worry, Tristan. It'll be vague: he's famous in the gaming world."

The club ponders on this for a second, looking back and forth between themselves and Mai who's laughing. Someone famous in the game world, and someone world famous duelist Mai Valentine knows, maybe someone close to her?

"Joey Wheeler???"

Tristan spits out his beer.

For weeks after, Tristan is badgered by big DM fans on campus because word got out about Mai and by his club friends because they really want to know about his famous, real boyfriend.

However, Tristan doesn't let up, tightening up even more. This is partly the reason why he didn't want to tell in the first place.

Then, another surprise appearances happens but only for other people. Tristan had been excited for a week, and when he's done with classes that afternoon, he rushes out of the building, throwing himself at one of the guys in sunglasses standing outside. The other guy has a hat on and is shorter.

There's shouting between Tristan and the hatless one (a blond), the former getting the latter in a headlock while the short one laughs. They look pretty close. Tristan takes them to the game club because the shorter one loves games.

The three of the them show up at the club meeting which is already five minutes in. Tristan's guests take off their disguises, and it's Joey Wheeler, another world famous duelist, and Yūgi Mutō, the King of Games????

Everyone's freaking out. Two people burst into tears, and another into flames(?). They're all too shocked to speak properly.

"Does this happen all the time?" Joey asks, joking. He gives someone a wink, and they faint.

"I half expected this to happen," Yūgi says, a little worried.

"Remember it was all your idea," Tristan says, shaking his head. "Everybody, calm down, or we're leaving!"

Self-control is brought back to the club. Everyone who's into DM challenged Yūgi and Joey to a duel, but the former refrains, wanting to play the other games available first. Joey's all, "I'll take all of you on for the both of us!"

Everyone's having a great time, and someone is smart enough to ask about Tristan's boyfriend.

"Pretty boy?" Joey asks, scoffing. "There's nothing special about him. So what if he's Pegasus's—" Tristan clasps a hand over his friend's mouth.

"He's still your boyfriend?" Yūgi asks, confused. "I thought he—" Tristan has two hands, guys, for silencing his two best friends.

"I have dirt on the both of you. I'm not afraid to use it."

Joey and Yūgi choke a bit before nodding. Everybody is even more intrigued (about the boyfriend and the dirt Tristan has).

The meeting continues on like before, and the three leave about two hours later, Tristan and Joey chanting, "Cheap beer! Take out! Cheap beer! Take out!" Yūgi is laughing, waving the club goodbye.

By now, Tristan is the gaming club's most favorite member. Word gets out about Joey and Yūgi, and even more people are asking about them. Everybody's just waiting for the next famous someone Tristan knows to show up. Maybe Pegasus? Dueling prodigy Rebecca Hopkins? Up and rising American pop idol Téa Gardner?? God???

But months pass and there's nobody new shows up. Everyone's a bit disappointed as the semester comes to a close, but Tristan doesn't think much about it. He's just trying to finish his classes and have a good time.

Finally, there's only one club meeting left before break. Some people will graduate, some will come back to finish their degree. Tristan's already packed to go back home for the time being, and he goes to attend the last meeting, lingering on his walk over.

He does not expect to see one famous dice lover, creator of the popular Dungeon Dice Monsters, young and successful entrepreneur and part time model, sitting and playing with members of the club who are literally vibrating with excitement and awe.

"Duke! What are you doing here?!"

"Oh, hey, babe! I came to surprise you and take you home. I miss your sister's cooking."

Duke doesn't hesitate as he gets up and kisses Tristan on the lips. His smile is 100 watts, Tristan is nervous.

All the pieces finally come together.

"YOU'RE TRISTAN'S BOYFRIEND?!"

Duke's smile falls, Tristan is nervous™.

"Boyfriend? He's not my boyfriend."

Tristan is sweating, face red. Duke is glaring at him. The club is sweating. The tension can be cut with a knife.

"Tristan Taylor, what have you been telling everyone?! I'm not your boyfriend, I'm your freaking fiancé!"

". . . FIANCÉ?!”

[straightfacedstrangeness]

Not that anyone asked (but seriously I’d LOVE for someone to talk to me about PokeSpe (just no spoilers past vol 13)) but since I made an offhand remark about my Top 5 favorite characters, it occurred to me that I actually DO have approximately 5 top favorite characters, and I’m procrastinating on work, so I’m gonna ramble

**just in case, note that a lot of this will revolve around my childhood experience with gender in a “I’m AFAB (and present-day me still identifies as a cis girl) but I don’t fit in with what media is telling me girls are like” way, a brief childhood feeling of homophobia, and probably general TMI about my opinions and emotions throughout my life, haha

1. Yellow

Okay, so, I was a little kid when Pokemon Adventures started coming out in English, back when manga was released as single-issue monthly comic books instead of complete volumes.  So I was rereading the same chapters over and over while anxiously awaiting the rest of the story (and wound up missing a bunch of issues anyway)

I enjoyed the RGB arc, I thought it was fun, but I didn’t LOVE the series until Yellow showed up.  At that age my ideal crush was “a cute boy my age who would be nice to me” and Yellow was presented to the reader as a cute boy my age who was sweet and kind and gentle, but also good in a fight, as all shounen protags must be.  Extra bonus points because they had just a few physically weak Pokémon and tried to fight battles in a way that minimized damage to their own and the opponent’s Pokémon, which meant they fought in a particularly smart and clever way.  And I was considered “smart” for being good at school, so being a SMART cute “boy” my age who would be nice to me, Yellow was PERFECT.  I mean, I loved the arc in general because of the clever battles, and the mystery of what had happened to Red, why these people were after Pikachu, why Yellow was so secretive about themself and their mission, etc was really engaging.  But also I adored Yellow as a character and partly in a “I wonder if ‘he’ would like me??” kind of way X’D  So to my tiny child self who didn’t even know it was possible to like-like someone of the same gender (because I hadn’t read Cardcaptor Sakura yet XD ), the reveal that Yellow was a “girl” was devastating—I had to cross out floating hearts on at least one drawing of us holding hands (scandalous!) and, while kind of stunned and shaken for a while, decided that what I’d felt all along was a deep, intense desire to be friends X’D (which probably wasn’t too far from the truth since I was pre-puberty and later turned out to be asexual)

(Also note that I never got the RGB issue that had the chapter where Red helps a little ‘girl’ capture a Rattata—later proven to be Yellow’s backstory—so the gender reveal really came out of nowhere for me.)

But anyways, I still love Yellow as a character for all the above reasons, without the crush aspects because I’m way older than them now.

Also when I reread the series ten years ago, I finally realized “wait, aside from surprising the reader, there’s no real plot reason for Yellow to pretend to be a ‘boy’ except that Green told ‘her’ to—so why did ‘she’ do it?”...and because at that time I didn’t even know that nonbinary genders existed, I decided it was cus they had low self-esteem and pretending to be a different person gave them courage (the same reading I had for Mulan at the time).  These days I’m more inclined to “yeah, I think Yellow’s nonbinary,” but that other interpretation was deeply relatable to me and only made me love Yellow even more.

2. Bill

Bill’s definitely a character I’ve grown to love more as an adult, since I’ve gone from seeing myself as “a protagonist doing cool things” to “a side character just living their life who hopefully gets to do something once in a while.”  But as a kid and now, I like him mostly for the slapstick and goofy expressions and the (early chapters Viz translations) outrageous accent  X’D  My brain desperately craves endorphins and the best way to get em is through a good laugh.

But also, I liked that he was introduced as a goofy character-of-the-week who got into ridiculous trouble and had to be rescued, but then kept being brought back, was slowly built up to be the “smart sidekick who explains things,” and eventually got to the point where he was participating in big battles (the Yellow finale on Cerise Island).  I rambled about this in the tags of another post, but I liked that he was a character who was “weak” without being “useless.”  As a kid who was good at school, I was obsessed with being good at things and had developed a black-and-white view of the world where either you were “strong/smart” or “weak/stupid” to the point that failing or just being not-so-good at anything was devastating (it still kind of is), because that meant I was actually “weak/stupid” when I was supposed to be “strong/smart.”  So it was kind of awesome that this guy who kept getting into trouble and having to be rescued—and didn’t even want to BE part of the final battle—managed to hold his own and get through it and help out instead of being a burden that dragged everyone down.  Seriously, he used a MAGIKARP effectively—the Pokémon everyone makes fun of for being “useless” and he used its one attack to save his life!

(Bonus points for all this happening in contrast to my devastating childhood experience of stanning The One Girl Character in every popular shounen series, waiting desperately for her to get to do something in battle, and then her one spotlight episode revolved around her struggling because she was so weak...not only was that actually happening to a boy for once, it was actually happening in a more satisfying/empowering way :’D )

3. Gold

I have extremely specific tastes when it comes to “the dumb shounen/action movie protag,” because as a kid I hated it when the main character was “dumb” because I was “smart” (re: good at school) and people who were “dumb” shouldn’t deserve to be the main character and have all the cool powers and save the world and stuff.  As an adult, I hate it when male characters are dumb and/or jerks but it’s treated as fine or even sexy(??) and the other characters fawn over them, and I generally still kind of hate it when characters who are dumb and/or jerks get the big important role when there’s a female character RIGHT THERE who’s more competent (and OF COURSE she has to wind up falling in love with him)

But anyway, I have extremely specific tastes, and Gold is it  X’D  He’s the perfect combination of “unshakably confident in his own stupid/egotistic views” and “treated as annoying and/or comic relief by the rest of the cast” with a bonus dash of actually being really clever in battle (so my inner child goes “Ah yes, technically, he is ’smart,’ and therefore...worthwhile“)  Making me laugh while also impressing me is like the key to my heart.

4. Crystal

I’m too lazy to look it up, but when Viz was publishing Pokemon Adventures as monthly comics, they must have switched to publishing it as trade paperbacks only and/or had a huge gap between the end of Yellow and the start of GSC, because for YEARS I’d thought Yellow was the end of the series and was shocked the first time I saw later volumes.  (My dad was buying us the monthly issues at the local comic store, and either they wouldn’t have ordered the trade paperbacks or he wouldn’t have thought to check those shelves.)

Anyway, that’s a long lead-in to the statement of “Crystal would automatically be my #1 or #2 if I’d read her arc as a kid.”  She’s a girl, she wears pants, she’s EXTREMELY smart (genius-level “book-smarts” about every Pokémon’s behaviors and weaknesses PLUS being clever in a battle), was tough as nails (she KICKED her Pokéballs!!), had no interest in romance or her appearance, AND had a short arc about losing her confidence and training herself back up to full power.  I would have KILLED for a character like that when I was a little girl being told that “girls don’t like action shows like Dragon Ball Z” (but I was a girl and I did???) and that girls were supposed to be pretty and obsessed with fashion and dating, and that girls were never the main character of action series, just side characters who either did nothing or got one chance to do something and were pathetically weak (see above, and/or Sakura’s fight against Ino (Naruto), those couple filler eps where Téa/Anzu played Duel Monsters (Yu-Gi-Oh), Videl getting pummeled by Spopovich (DBZ), etc).

So anyway, she’s awesome, she’s exactly the type of character I would’ve loved as a kid.  The only reason she’s behind Gold here is because at my age, “makes me laugh” > “the kind of main character I used to wish I could be”

5. Green (the girl trainer...I’m just too loyal to the Viz version to call her “Blue”...)

I’m trying not to rehash the same “I’m a girl but none of the girls in my shows/comics are like me!” childhood woes over and over, haha, but as much as I always enjoyed Green for being extremely clever and outsmarting the boys and being funny when she did so, she always lost points with me for being “pretty” and flirting to get her way, because that put her in the box of “girls are supposed to be pretty and desired by boys and obsessed with their appearance and romance” that was so foreign and disheartening to me as a kid.

But her staredown with Ho-oh at the end of the GSC arc TOTALLY got me.  As a sad adult with anxiety, watching characters who are absolutely terrified overcome their fear, watching characters who are completely beaten down struggle back to their feet and keep fighting, is like my ultimate power fantasy.  That sequence genuinely had me in tears.

Also her bond with Silver is super precious, especially since that’s like the first time in the series we’ve seen her be genuinely emotional and vulnerable with someone instead of teasing or manipulating them.

Honorable mention: Sapphire

I haven’t gotten up to R/S in my reread yet, and I only read that arc once over like a weekend ten years ago, but I’m pretty sure she’s gonna be a Top Fave cus again there’s that “I'm not like other girls!” childhood feel  (last time I’m saying it, I promise)

It’s a story arc where one protag wants to fight the gyms and the other protag wants to win the beauty contests, but the one who wants to fight the gyms is the girl!!  And she’s the typical “dumb but extremely good at fighting” shounen protag but she’s the girl!!  She’s feral and illiterate and a total tomboy and wins all her fights and she’s a GIRL!!!!

--

Anyway, those are my kids and my dude and my probably way-too-personal reasons why.  If you wanna reblog, reply, or send an ask about your own faves...please