#back in the demo i realized that two pair is basically objectively the best option for value relative to rarity

[fioras-resolve]

i think the really fun thing about balatro for me is the way that like yes it is a skill-based game, you do have to be good at making hands, but with the right combination of modifiers at the shop you can move past the need for skillful hand-building. when you're scoring in the millions from high cards is when you know you're playing balatro

[kaibacorpintern]

hi i forgot the ship name but would u write something thats seto and ryou? (platonic or romantic) where they play a ttrpg together or somethin idk

“or somethin idk” give me an inch, i have run a mile. a mile of 4.7k words.

platonic euroshipping. post-canon. ryou applies for a game writer position at kaibacorp and makes it to the final stage. contains: dragons, swords, some very sexy things about solidvision and the virtual world, kaiba covered in blood and having a great time, me the writer having a great time, hopefully you the reader having a great time, and ryou, not covered in blood, having a very, very, very anxious time

tw for some fantasy violence

++++++

Ryou inhaled, taking a deep breath of: the fresh, sweet smell of grass, the coolness of river water, something dry and grey in the wind, slightly rotten - smoke? And sulfur. The grasses were filled with the restless susurrus of the wind, each blade quivering with anticipation. Above him, a hawk tilted in lazy, wide circles, tracking the hidden paths of its prey. He stood on a dusty path halfway up the long slope of a steep hillside, the farmlands of the valley behind him peeled back to reveal the burned, blackened devastation beneath. The village from this distance looked like the charcoal remains of a bonfire, the air still shimmering with heat. 

The sun itself was hot, making him sweat in the thick, coarse silk of his mage’s robe, every purple thread saturated with light and heat. Mopping sweat from his brow, Ryou opened his options menu, the holographic display falling open, in the guise of an illuminated manuscript, and hovering at waist-height in thin air, perfectly tilted for reading. The parchment was old and yellowed, almost velvet to the touch, the edges frayed with age, and he couldn’t resist the urge to smell it, leaning in cautiously to take an experimental whiff. Strong notes of dust, old ink, age; an undertone of knowledge, of the forbidden kind. 

He selected Player Appearance and the page turned, with weight and heft, to reveal another. Kaiba didn’t miss a beat. Ryou had no doubt if he knelt down to drink from the stream that flowed down the slope, folding in clear ribbons past the rocks, the water would run cold over his fingers until they pruned. And the magic effects?

He swallowed. It was not just the sun that was making him sweat.

He’d just changed into something more practical - a short-sleeved green tunic, a pair of white breeches, leather boots that had just a bit of bite to the fit, like the player had to wear them in - when a chime pealed out from six feet away, as though someone had rung an invisible bell. The air tore apart, in odd, geometric anguish, like a broken mirror twisting into itself - 

and there was Kaiba, standing in the knee-high grass in his customary black turtleneck and tight pants, frowning with his arms crossed.

“Hello,” Ryou said. “It’s so nice to see you again. Your technology is... this is amazing. The attention to detail is incredible. The player screen, with the parchment - it even smells like - ”

“What is this? Medieval?” Kaiba said, glancing around at his clothes, the distant village, taking no notice of his praise; Ryou bit his tongue in self-rebuke. As if buttering him up with compliments was going to help. 

“Western Europe. From the mid-11th century to the 12th. The age of knights and chivalry,” he said, deciding that maybe his best strategy was to simply be straightforward.

“I’m familiar with basic history, thank you. How... classic,” Kaiba said, in a tone that screamed disinterest, and Ryou’s heart began to plummet - already starting from behind? No, no, no, he reminded himself, straightening the slouch out of his shoulders. Yuugi had warned him about this. Kaiba was fantastically tough to impress, in general, and the Virtual World was his world, a realm he'd built with sweat and tears, and stolen back with blood. So he hand-picked every writer that wrote for Virtual World games, refusing to squander a single pixel on conventional nonsense and uninspired cliché. 

The last step - before he brought the axe down - was a short, playable demo, as proof of concept, written by the applicant and executed by the Virtual World team.

Ryou had come this far in the application process. Trust that, Yuugi said. And trust yourself.

Kaiba was looking at him, eyebrows arched with expectant curiosity.

“Er,” Ryou said. “Let’s get started, then. You’ll need to change.”

He pulled up the menu, revelling in the hovering parchment once more, and changed Kaiba’s appearance, like - like magic, the lines of Kaiba’s silhouette rippling like a sine wave from the bottom up, his modern-day clothing becoming a knee-length tunic of chainmail under a belted dark blue surcoat. Kaiba held still throughout the entire transformation, in smug admiration of the effect, his arms held out in a ballet dancer’s pose as chainmail draped down his shoulders to his wrists. 

In his right hand appeared, with a sharp, diamond flash of light, a long arming sword, the edge nicked with age and bloodspill. The hilt was black, with a sapphire gleaming in the pommel. A plain shield dropped onto his left forearm. 

He gave the sword an experimental spin, testing the heft with practiced ease, and slid it back into the leather scabbard on his belt.

“A knight, the charred, smoking remains of a village… I’m assuming I’m on a quest to kill a dragon?” he said, pushing back the hood of the chainmail so that it draped off his shoulders, and nodding up the slope to where the grasses tattered into rocky shale. 

“Yes, you can assume that,” Ryou said politely.

On cue, a child no more than twelve years old staggered up the dusty path from the village, her small torso heaving with breath, sweat and tears running in clean streaks down her soot-stained face. 

“Sir Knight,” she choked out. Flashing a look at Ryou that said cheap blow, but unable to deny his own fraternal instinct, Kaiba dropped to one knee and caught her, his hands swallowing her thin, shuddering shoulders. Playing along, at least.

“Calm down,” he said, steadying her. Ryou imagined his anxiety as a small, hard rock, packing in the twist of every fraying nerve, and leaned all his weight onto one foot, grinding the rock into the dirt with his heel. "What is it?”

“They sent me to warn you, about the dragon,” she panted. “They said only the Chosen One can truly defeat the dragon, and bring peace back to the land. Many have tried. All suffered the same terrible fate - a fate worse than death.”

“I see,” Kaiba said. “And who is the Chosen One?”

The girl glanced at Ryou over Kaiba’s shoulder, her eyes glinting with fear. 

“No - no one knows,” she said. “But all the oracles say they’re coming… a knight with a pure and worthy heart. Sir Knight, don’t go. Come back to the village. It’s safe there. What do you gain from this? Our humble lands aren’t worth the danger!”

“I think they are,” Kaiba said, thumbing soot off her face, and frowning as her cheek pixelated, briefly, and resumed a skin-like texture. "Open master commands, user ID 000002510. Initiate master log. Begin recording: skin-to-skin contact glitch reappeared during writer play-test, candidate Bakura, R. Begin patch work immediately. End recording. Disperse to Virtual World team, flag Sawada, project manager. Close master commands. Did you know, one of the most compelling unsolved problems in physics is the lack of a theory that realizes both general relativity and quantum mechanics?”

The girl gave him a wary look, wide-eyed with faint alarm. Ryou sucked in a breath, grinding the anxiety rock down, down, down.

“You - you speak in tongues, Sir Knight," she said. "Are you also an oracle? Has your future-sight failed you? Don’t you see that only death lives on the mountain?”

Kaiba snorted and stood up, turning to Ryou. “A solid response to non-standard player input. Doesn’t ignore modern concepts, but re-contextualizes them in the setting of this world via a framework of prophecy, and redirects the player to the plot.” 

“Um... thank you?” Ryou said. “I wanted this world to feel like it has a future, too, not just a history. I wanted to place it on a timeline, like it - ”

Kaiba’s attention swung back to the girl, still standing there with her eyes darting between them, full of bafflement. 

“Return to the village, girl. Tell them my future-sight never fails me.”

The girl retreated backwards, warily, twisted on her heel, and fled down the path.

"If I go down to the village, what'll I find?" Kaiba said.

"More information about the Chosen One, and an outlaw who tries to recruit you to her band of thieves, with the option to join them for a stealth-based quest.”

"Hm. You have the imagination and the decency to offer me something other than blatant bait, which I don't always bite. The cliché of the Chosen One is boring as hell, it’s both over-done and deterministic, but I think... yes. Yes, I'll bite. Let's go see your dragon."

In the wake of this... compliment?, Ryou could only offer him a small, tentative smile, his heart clenching tight around Yuugi's advice. 

Kaiba started up the path. 

“Er, Kaiba - you might want to check your inventory before you encounter the dragon."

Kaiba’s hand padded around his waist until he found the small satchel that sat on his hip. Another parchment unfurled in the air before him, listing its contents:

Two full healing spells;

Two glamour spells, for changing the guise of a person or object;

Two transformation spells, for changing a person or an object into an animal;

Two scrying spells, for locating people or objects;

Two ignis spells, for commanding fire;

Two aqua spells, for commanding water; and

Two ventus spells, for commanding wind.

Ryou watched him as he read. He'd carved a small, thick groove into the dirt below his foot. Surely, that was enough for Kaiba to get creative?

Kaiba only closed the parchment with a brisk flick of his hand. Then he started up the mountain, Ryou following nervously behind.

***

The mountain path was rougher than Ryou expected, a tightly-coiled spring of switchbacks, leading to the curved lip of a high pass. After several minutes of trudging the dust in silence, he was panting for breath, his feet aching and blistering in their boots, and deeply regretting adding this little detail to the story. Next time, he was just going to put the dragon on a rolling, grassy plain, and he’d make it like an American autumn corn maze, because it still needed to be a challenge, and when the players got to the center they’d find the dragon’s decaying, rotting corpse and realize they’d been stuck inside the maze for five hundred years and everyone they loved was dead, and if they wanted to go back to their own time they’d have to find out how to resurrect the dragon, but only at a terrible cost, a sacrifice of some kind... Not his best off-the-cuff work, but there were usable concepts in there, somewhere. If there was a next time.

Despite being laden down with the chainmail, each tiny link flashing like fish scales in the airy slanting of the afternoon sun, Kaiba seemed unaffected by the demands of the hike, propelling himself forward with long, energetic strides. How?

Ryou thought about asking for a break. Or drinking water from the stream. Or changing his boots for something comfier, but he didn't have anything else in his outfit inventory except the mage robes, and the slippers might be even worse… he stopped, hands on his hips, gathering his breath.

From here the valley sprawled below them, a wide, velvety plain, its edges rising and scalloped by mountains. The village fit in the circle of his thumb and forefinger, a smoking black thumbprint. The team had done a fantastic job: the stream ran down the mountain, flattened into a river, and ran south, lazy and serpentine, a green-blue ribbon cutting through the yellow plains, just like he’d outlined in his initial description of the world….

Wait. 

This was all virtual. 

There was no such thing as air, here, or rivers or sunshine or grasses.

His real, physical body was half-asleep in a Virtual World testing pod on the 17th floor of the Kaiba Corp Tower, and his body here was just a series of algorithms, and if he didn’t want to sweat, he didn’t have to fucking sweat! Thank God!

Up ahead, Kaiba noted the absence of his footfalls and turned around, one hand resting easily on his sword hilt. From his position on the path, he looked down at Ryou from several feet up, which doubled the intimidation of his already formidable bearing.

“I’m fine,” Ryou said. “Just... admiring the view.”

“Are you having your Matrix moment? That’s what my programmers call it,” Kaiba said.

Ryou laughed. “I think so. I was tired but I don't feel it at all, anymore. Like all the fatigue's just melted away and I could run a marathon.”

“Is that something you enjoy?”

“Oh, no. I hate sports.”

Kaiba snorted.

“So, tell me. Why do you want this job?” he said. “At my company? Writing stories with my technology?”

“Er - ” Blindsided by the swerve in topics, Ryou tripped over his thoughts. Surely he must’ve read his application? Maybe he didn’t have the time. Stick to straightforward. “I’m sure you remember my performance in Battle City?”

“Yes, I remember,” Kaiba said, which was honestly more than Ryou expected of him.

“Well, I don’t play much Duel Monsters anymore,” he said, “but I still.. every once in a while, I turn my Duel Disk on and play a few cards, just to see my monsters come out, see them breathe… you know I run a Zombie deck, full of demons and dead things, but SolidVision makes them feel so - so alive. You took these fantasy monsters that exist only in our heads and put them in our world.”

“Virtual World game writers don’t work on SolidVision products,” Kaiba countered.

“Right, I know that. To me, Virtual World and SolidVision are the inverse of each other, or opposites that contain each other, like, like yin and yang - with SolidVision, the unreal enters the real, and becomes real. In the Virtual World, the real - ” Ryou motioned to himself - “enters the unreal, and becomes unreal. We like to put walls between imagination and reality, you know, taxes are real and unicorns aren’t, but with SolidVision and Virtual World, there is no wall. That’s the world I want to write stories for.”

“Hm,” Kaiba said, the corner of his mouth curving up in a smile. “Interesting take.”

And he waited, saying nothing more, until Ryou realized he was waiting for him; and trotted lightly up the path to join him.

*** 

By the time they reached the top of the mountain pass, the air had turned a clear, dusky gold. The mountains cast long, black shadows across the valley, like dark teeth, chewing up the farmlands. The mountain pass was saddle-shaped, one side sloping down into the valley they’d just come from, the other flattening into a smaller, higher bowl, cupping a pale blue-green lake between its rocky palms.

Kaiba scrambled onto the nearest large rock, his head swinging as he scanned the lake valley. Ryou wrapped one arm around his waist and bit his thumb. They had found a deep, penetrating quiet, the kind of wilderness quiet that was devoid of texture of any kind; no bugs or burbling streams or bird song. It was not even like holding your breath, waiting, because that implied a coming moment of exhale, a sigh of relief. This was a perfect stillness. 

And hidden somewhere inside it was a dragon. 

Ryou bit harder, until he remembered the pain was fake and did nothing, and he had to come up with something else to temper his anxiety, which was definitely, definitely real.

Kaiba's gonna flip his shit when he sees your dragon, Yuugi said, from the back of Ryou's mind, Ryou's demo manuscript in hand. In a good way or a bad way? Is it too derivative? What does it matter that he'll flip his shit for my dragon when he flips his shit for ANY dragon? He's a slut for dragons. Oh my god, you can't say that! Yuugi, please, help - nope. You got this. You know what you're doing.

Even the metallic shing of Kaiba’s sword coming out of its sheath seemed small, in an unnatural way, a pointless, petty defiance. 

A shadow fell across the lake valley. 

Both of them looked up -

and an enormous dragon hurtled out of the sky, landing with thundering force on all four clawed feet, flattening trees and boulders beneath its reptilian bulk. Ryou staggered backwards and fell, in an awkward, clumsy crab pose; Kaiba threw his shield over his face and dug in, undaunted.

"HAVE YOU COME TO KILL ME?" the dragon boomed. “MISERABLE WRETCH?”

Kaiba lowered his shield, just enough for his first full look at the dragon. From his spot, crumpled on the ground, Ryou saw, in the shadow below the shield, another slender smile. The dragon’s hide was a dark, luxurious blue-black, mottled like snakeskin but textured with the heavy crags and knobs of crocodiles. It lowered its head on its long, arching neck, gracefully bearing the weight of two massive, curving horns, and stared down at them with fathomless acid-green eyes.

Even Ryou, who had designed it, sat enthralled: every movement it made - the eager flick of its tail, the claws, curling into the dirt, glinting under a layer of blood and grime, the shuddering of its leathery wings as they folded into its long body - hinted at indomitable power. It was a true creature of legend, a titan from the youngest days of the world, demanding both reverence and terror.

“I have!” Kaiba replied blithely, despite announcing it in a ringing voice.

“ONLY THE CHOSEN ONE CAN DEFEAT ME,” the dragon said. “YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF SUCH A FEAT. I SEE YOUR HEART, BLACKGUARD KNIGHT. I CAN TASTE THE BLOOD YOU’VE SPILLED WITH YOUR SWORD, BRIGHT AND PUNGENT. I CAN HEAR THE CRIES OF ALL THE LIVES YOU’VE LET EBB INTO THE DIRT AT YOUR FEET!”

“I’m here to avenge the village!” Kaiba shouted. 

“YOU COME UP HERE TO DEFEND SOME PATHETIC SCRAPS OF BRICK AND WOOD, THINKING YOU CAN KILL ME, AND CALL THAT HONOR? REDEMPTION? YOU CALL THAT COURAGE? ITS TRUE NAME IS VANITY! EMPTY AND FALSE! IT WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN BEFORE I DO!” the dragon boomed again. “LEAVE. I WAS ONCE NAIVE AND VAIN LIKE YOU. COME BACK WHEN YOU ARE MORE THAN A MERE WORM, OR ELSE SUFFER MY FATE!”

Ryou had clambered to his feet and bolted for the safety of a low ridge, which gave him a perfect view of Kaiba, head held high and proud as he gazed unflinching at the dragon, several hundred times his size. He’d written those words in his notebook on the metro, leaning his head against the cool midnight glass, pausing every other line to ferret out another piece of sour candy from his bag. Then he’d missed his stop. That trundling, light-washed world of a train car seemed impossibly distant now - a rapidly fading dream, to be remembered only in flashes and silence. To hear the words come out of the smoking jaws of this dragon, each syllable flowing in a delicious, indulgent baritone from its shining teeth, filled him with a breathless exhilaration, his heart hammering in his throat - this was real!

“Only one of us is suffering fate today!” Kaiba shouted back, a laugh in his voice, and then threw a glance at Ryou. “‘Suffer my fate?’ Is that a typo?”

“VERY WELL. COME KILL ME! THERE IS PEACE IN DEATH, AND ONLY ONE OF US CAN CLAIM IT!”

“I - watch out!” Ryou yelled, as the dragon lunged forward, its jaws snapping shut on the empty air where Kaiba had been standing half a second before. Kaiba threw himself out of the way, a nimble tuck and roll, and scrabbled across the shale towards higher ground. Behind him, the dragon swung its massive head, nostrils red and flaring, mouth curled up in a savage draconic grin, glinting with the promise of violence. 

No sooner had Kaiba flung himself behind a scattering of boulders, shield raised, than it unleashed a jet of fire so hot and scorching the boulders glowed red, their rough faces melting in sheets. Ryou felt the heat wash across his face, from several dozen yards away. 

The fire died out. The dragon snorted in satisfaction, horse-like, a loud, wet huff of smoke. The boulders sizzled as they cooled into their new, bizarrely dripping forms.

Kaiba emerged from behind a boulder, sweating and singed, his face streaked with ash and his eyes shining. He tossed the warped, melted wreckage of his shield aside, where it bounced and clattered against the rocks.

“SO YOU STILL LIVE? A MISTAKE. WHAT COMES NEXT WILL HURT WORSE!”

“For you!” Kaiba hurled back, and threw his hand into the air, a gesture Ryou had seen countless times on a duel field - a lightning rod, a summoning. “VENTUS!” 

The wind picked up, in a giddy, howling whirl, bringing with it a cloud of dust that descended gritty and blinding and pale across the valley. Kaiba and the dragon vanished from sight inside it. Mentally Ryou subtracted one spell from Kaiba’s satchel.

“THIS WON’T HELP Y - ” Cut off by a wet chop and an ear-splitting draconic scream, a raw, awful sound, torn out of an unwilling throat. Just below it, a glorious, cascading laugh. “WRETCH! WORM!”

The dust settled, revealing glistening, dark-green blood splattered across the rocks, and a single severed claw, its flesh still twitching. The dragon seethed, its wounded foot curled in agony. Kaiba was clear across the other side of the pass, by the dragon’s tail, grinning open-mouthed as he panted for breath. His chainmail and surcoat dripped with dragon blood; his hair was thick with it. 

“COME GET YOUR PEACE, DRAGON!” he bellowed, and the dragon slung its head around, tail coiling in an ominous whip. 

Again Kaiba lifted his hand, shouted “VENTUS - !”

And a second dust cloud barreled into the valley, as the dragon roared back, “THAT WON’T WORK AGAIN!”

It whipped its tail through the dust cloud, a scythe-like sweep - smacking something hard into the rocks with a thick, fleshy crunch of bone that made Ryou’s insides clench tight with terrified sympathy.

The dragon whirled around, clearing the dust with several storm-gathering wingbeats.

This was not real. This was just pixels, neatly arranged and running in rivers of algorithms - just a clever series of ones and zeroes - and yet Ryou gasped, the dragon laughing, at the sight of Kaiba lying in a crumpled, motionless heap in the rocks. He hadn’t considered Kaiba might actually fail to kill the dragon - all thoughts of jobs and game-writing abandoned - unreality aside, the mind had a way of making it real - what the fuck happened if Kaiba died?

“IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE, WORM?” the dragon said, nudging Kaiba’s limp body with its claws, rolling him over. His head lolled, his body twisted into a horrifying, broken-boned slouch. How on earth was Ryou going to explain this to Yuugi? Hell. “I TOLD YOU, YOU'RE NOT W - ”

Ryou almost didn’t see it - a hawk in a dive, arrow-straight, from the top of the sky, diving through a blinding flash of light several stories up - and out of the light came Kaiba, alive and whole, plummeting towards the dragon’s head, gripping his sword with both hands - plunging it straight through the top of the dragon’s skull. 

He left the sword hilt-deep in dragon flesh as he pitched forward with the force of impact, rolling over the dragon’s brow, flailing to catch himself - on the massive horn. Clinging, victorious, as the great dragon swayed, its green eyes filming, and finally slumped, in agonized slow motion, to the earth, body first, head last, with a thundering, bone-rattling crash. 

It released one last, rattling breath, the trees shuddering in the fetid breeze.

The valley descended into stillness once more. 

Ryou sat down on his low escarpment with a limp thump, burying his face in both hands. This was just a Virtual World, where at one point everything would power down and they’d wake up safe and sound in the squishy, air-conditioned comfort of a pod, and he had, after all, planned on Kaiba killing the dragon, but Kaiba’s sheer nerve seemed beyond that. Yuugi was right. The guy was, maybe, a little nuts. Completely off his rocker.

“Ryou,” Kaiba said, above him, and Ryou lifted his head. Kaiba rested the sword jauntily across his shoulder, the rest of him filthy with dragon blood and human blood and dirt. “I have to say, I enjoyed your dragon. A shame it had to die.”

“Your strategy... You used a glamour spell? On a... rock? To make it look like your dead body,” Ryou said. “And then a transformation spell.”

“Correct. Is that all for your demo?” Kaiba said, cocking an eyebrow, both bloody and disdainful, and Ryou swallowed. “I was hoping for more of a cha - ”

His words stopped hard in his throat, a harsh, hacking sound. His free hand flew to his neck, mouth dropping open in pain and confusion, eyes widening. He coughed - or tried to, achieving nothing more than a thin, ugly retching, his face going white - and Ryou watched, in fascinated horror, as his gamble began to play out. There was nothing he could do to help; he’d written it that way.

The sword clattered to the stones, green blood dripping off the shining edge, as Kaiba staggered sideways, gasping for breath, both hands on his neck - what was the algorithm doing to him? Ryou had only written ‘a suffocating, squirming pain, concentrated in the lungs,’ and resolved to think more carefully about what types of pain he might inflict on the player characters, if the gamble paid off... But how interesting to know even the creator of the Virtual World himself suspended his disbelief - his knowledge of the truth - sometimes, and indulged in pain...

He collapsed to his knees, stretching one hand out, fisting it around Ryou’s collar and dragging him closer - 

“What - ” he choked out, eyes glaring into Ryou’s, in baffled, furious agony - terrified - they rolled backwards, the blue sliding away to white, as he slumped over himself. 

His hand went slack and fell. What life remained slipped away in a low, shaking sigh.

Ryou took him by the shoulders and gently lay him down, passing a hand over his eyes to close them. Dead, but not really.

“Just hold on a moment,” he said. The body had been vacated. The soul - the player - was awakening elsewhere.

He waited a few moments, absorbing the stillness, the detail on the leaves of the pine trees; the way the lake water shimmered in golden flecks with late afternoon light. It was maybe his last few seconds to enjoy the world he’d written, rendered in full splendor by the magic of technology, and he’d banished his anxiety from both his mind and body, to live out its exile in the real world. It didn’t belong here.

The great dragon body began to stir, drowsily, waking up from a deep, deep sleep. The deepest sleep.

Ryou stood up and slid down the escarpment to the dragon, pebbles and dust avalanching around his feet. The stab wound in its skull was knitting back together; the severed claw was crawling back to its slow-bleeding joint. There was an agonized hiss, forced through the dragon’s tightly-clenched teeth, and a vibrating groan, deep in its chest, as it gathered itself out of death.

Its eyes opened, in wary slits - not the bright, acid green, but a stunning, oceanic blue.

“OW. FUCK,” it growled, in Kaiba’s voice, magnified and twice as resonant. “OPEN MASTER COMMANDS, USER ID 000002510. SUSPEND ALL PAIN ALGORITHMS. CLOSE MASTER COMMANDS.”

He rolled upright, flexing his wings with experimental care. He arched his neck, looking down at Ryou.

“YOU TURNED ME INTO A DRAGON.”

“Yes,” Ryou said cautiously.

“NO ONE HAS EVER TURNED ME INTO A DRAGON BEFORE,” Kaiba said. ”SO I WASN’T WORTHY? IS THIS WHAT IT MEANS TO SUFFER THE DRAGON’S FATE? EVERYONE WHO KILLS THE DRAGON BECOMES THE DRAGON, AND ONLY THE CHOSEN ONE BREAKS THE CYCLE. IS THAT HOW IT GOES?”

“That’s how it goes.”

“HOW DO I FIND THE CHOSEN ONE?”

“You choose them,” Ryou said. “You decide what makes them worthy.”

"SO ANYONE CAN BE THE CHOSEN ONE? ANYONE CAN BREAK MY CURSE?"

"That's right."

Kaiba pondered that for a moment, flexing his claws idly in the dirt, the massive slabs of muscle in his shoulders shifting as he tested the strength and fit of his new draconic body. His gaze drifted out over the lower valley, eyes clouding briefly with memories of another story, another game, another man; one who had always seemed real and unreal, all at once, no matter what world he lived in. Ryou had heard it all from Yuugi.

Then Kaiba looked at him and started to laugh, a sound that echoed and rebounded across the small lake valley, the water shivering as each delighted peal of laughter rolled across. Ryou blushed as it buffeted him from all sides.

“IS THAT SO,” Kaiba said, with dry relish. “YOU’RE HIRED.”

[bagelpyjama19]

Find the New Features of the iPhone Xs and Xs Max

Most people very likely concur with me personally that iPhone X design was one of the very best, and that's exactly why Apple chose to keep the same style for their next set of individualized cell phones. Introduced a year ago, it's the first Apple handset to jettison the single button. In another, I held its brand new successor, the iPhone Xs. My eyes squeezed closed, and I passed them back and forth between my hands, rolling each telephone over, feeling the curves, glass springs, double lens camera lumps, and lightning ports. I realized that I could not tell the difference between the two phones. This isn't a criticism. It is only a fact of S design years, where Apple locks in the iPhone layout and concentrates, rather, on updating key internal components. As such, the biggest changes to the 5.8-inches Iphone Xs and its big brother, the 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max, both of which I analyzed, could be seen in performance (thanks to this newest A12 Bionic CPU), photographs and movies, (brand new cameras and a new ISP supported by the A12), along with functionality (iOS12, the final version of which came pre-installed on my evaluation units). The result is a pair of fantastic, elegant, and high-performing gadgets which will please iPhone enthusiasts and receive more than a few glances out of Android cellphones. It still has the same rigid surgical metal frame wrapped in a new glass material which Apple stated was formulated to be more scratch tolerant and durable. I gave the phones a couple half-hearted drops on a thin-pile rug but was not prepared to allow them to slide away . Thus far I've discovered just one very fine scratch on your iPhone Xs Max. So let's think about them scratch-tolerant, but still not scratch-proof. The bigger Iphone Xs Max shares all of the iPhone X's substance and layout features, but does this in a 6.2-inch x 3.05-inch x 0.30-inch entire body. In 208 grams, it's considerably heavier than the iPhone Xs. The Xs Max is really a bit shorter (0.04 inches) and thinner (0.02 inches), however, it's also a couple of grams heavier when compared to the Iphone 8 Plus, the most big-screen cellphone that from a distance that the iPhone Xs Max most looks like. Button positioning power/sleep, quantity controls, ring/silent switch -- are the exact same. However, there's a single minor chassis gap. At the bottom edge of both phones sits the lightning connector. It is book-ended by means of a pair of drilled holes which accommodate one half of their stereo speaker program and among their cellphone's microphones. There used to be half a dozen slots on either side. Now the right side includes six openings, but the left, which just houses a microphone, has only three. This little change was completed, in part, to accommodate the new inner antenna configuration that contains 4x4 MIMO and License Assisted Access, which uses unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum to deliver 1 Gbps broadband over LTE. Apple upgraded the water and also dust-resistance rating to IP 68, which contrasts to the handsets residing in 2 inches of water for as much as half an hour. I didn't get to go swimming with all the iPhone Xs or even Xs Max, but did operate the latter phone under water, juice and milk. Afterward, as recommended, I dried and shut off the cellphone. I had been careful to not plug it into a lighting cable (that is a no-no following a dowsing) but didn't place it onto a wireless charging foundation in which it had no trouble accepting a fee. Apple, by the way, stated it put some effort into creating the wireless charging platform (basically the hidden coils in the telephone ) more forgiving. This is good news, since I have, on more than 1 occasion, woken up to discover that my iPhone X didn't charge because I placed it a small off-axis on the charging base. I have never ran into this issue with the Iphone Xs or even Xs Max. The iPhone Xs and Iphone XS Max bodies are rigid and tough-feeling, but torqueable, particularly the bigger cellphone, which really creates a tiny clicking sound when I try to twist it. Evidently, I've only had these iPhones for weekly, but based on a year's experience with the original iPhone X (granted, largely in a sparse case), I consider this design framework tough and prepared for the long haul. Even as Samsung trolls Apple for its black cutout at the peak of the Iphone Xs and Xs Max, Apple shows no signs of stepping backwards from the multi-option technologies, which neither grew nor slipped in the newest iPhones. As with the original TrueDepth Module, that one is still packaged with the exact components (none of which, as much as I can tell, have been upgraded ). There is a 7 MP camera, scatter projector for thickness sensing, infrared camera (thickness sensing), flood illuminator (yes, also for depth-sensing), proximity detector, ambient light sensor, the second half of the stereo speaker system, and a mic. About the backs of the iPhone Xs and Xs Max, there is more of that custom glass, the Apple Logo, the term iPhone (however no"X" or"therefore"), along with the 12 MP dual camera program. This vertically-oriented, pill-shaped camera module looks exactly the same as it did on the past iPhone X. It's still a notable bulge, but at least it did not get any larger. Within the module is new hardware backed by new image technologies, but more about that later. I've always thought the 5.8-inch iPhone X that an fantastic tradeoff involving a big-screen phone and hand-friendly ergonomics. The display is big and immersive, however, the body is more comfortable to hold pocket. The iPhone Xs Max in comparison can, especially if you're utilised to holding a more compact phone, feel big. It is not embarrassing to hold, however people with smaller hands will probably struggle with one-handed use and will probably wish to turn on Reachability, which with a swipe back on the horizontal bar moves everything halfway down the display, making it more accessible. Nonetheless, the trade-off may be worth it. I forgot how much I enjoy the larger iPhone display, and about the Iphone Xs Max, you get much more screen without contending with a bigger phone (there is only that 0.04-inch height gap between the Iphone 8 Plus along with the iPhone Xs Max). Apple's full-stack control of the iPhone design, development, and production process pays dividends throughout the shiny handset. However, it's most clearly in the silicon, that is developed and designed in conjunction with the hardware and software components that will rely upon it. Last year, Apple released the A11 Bionic, a powerful mobile CPU with built-in Artificial Intelligence Power. The newest A12 Bionic assembles on that short legacy with a more powerful Neural Engine and much more impressive graphics functionality. Every time I examine a new iPhone, I begin by using Geekbench 4 to test out the raw CPU operation. To ensure there are minimal background processes going, I usually conduct the test before I have set up one program. I conducted the Geekbench CPU grade and (together with understanding that Apple stuffed an excess gig of memory inside the new Xs course iPhones) saw that the single core scores had improved marginally between the A11 Bionic and A12 Bionic. However, that the multi-core score was inexplicably lower. Not by a lot, but I had never seen that happen. The amounts were much higher than that which I made from Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845, however a lower result on the new Iphone did not make sense. However, once I reran the Geekbench CPU test a day or so later, the A12 multi-core numbers beat people of the A11. My guess is that, even though I set up the Iphone Xs and Xs Max as new iPhones, there might nevertheless have been a background setup process happening that hauled down the CPU numbers.

The larger leap in performance is from the Geekbench Compute Metal score, which leapt from 15,145 over the iPhone X into 22,245 on the Iphone Xs and Xs Max. Apple's done a lot of effort to beef up graphics performance, particularly for the raft of ARKit 2 (and Surface 2) applications heading into the platform, a few of which can support multiplayer gaming. While there are not a lot of ARKit 2 apps in the app shop, I'd get a hands-on time with an iPhone Xs operating Galaga ARthe exact same demo Apple showed off during the Iphone Xs unveiling. To perform, a few other writers stood on a table and pointed our phones in the virtual Galaga video arcade console. Soon, alien enemies began streaming from the video game display and from all around us. I swung the telephone from side-to-side up and up and down to see and then take the arriving strike. It was swift and a lot of fun. Similarly, I've seen how, together with ARKit two, the phone can place, say, an incredibly realistic digital pressure stove or sneaker on a true table or at my feet, the illusion divided only once I slid my hand to the frame and, about the iPhone Xs display, it looked like my digits were stuck under the pot. You can't support these types of real-virtual combinations without ample images horsepower, thickness mapping, along with the AI required to identify the surfaces, shadows, as well as reflections will work on virtual objects in an actual open space. This processing capacity also helped amp up more mundane operations such as Face ID. While the procedure for registering my face was unchanged by the first iPhone X, opening either telephone with my head, as well as using Face ID to access password-protected programs and solutions, is substantially quicker than it had been on the iPhone X. Overall, in real-world applications, both Iphone Xs and Xs Max perform properly. Apple put significant effort into improving the photo and movie experience on the iPhone Xs and Xs Max. Along with brand new lenses along with a bigger detector, the cameras (rear and selfie) are all backed by a new image signal processor. The specifications on the dual cameras have been untouched from the iPhone X (and are the exact same on either the iPhone Xs and Xs Max). There's the 1.8 wide angle lens along with the f 2.4 2X telephoto. Both of those comprise optical image stabilization and may shoot around 4K video in 60 fps. They still shoot slow-motion video in up to 240 frames per minute. If you want mad 960 fps super-slo-mo, you are going to need to visit Samsung. From the pure-play photography race, though, Apple requires the guide. The Smart HDR uses detector, ISP, and neurological enhancements to catch a number of the finest high-dynamic range photos I have ever seen. The gap between what was possible on the first iPhone X along with the Xs and Xs Max is stunning. Apple produced a system capable of capturing 2 frames every thirtieth of a moment, and immediately assessing and combining them into one picture that maintains not only foreground and background detail, but can freeze action without introducing enormous grain. In multiple pictures, I saw that the iPhone Xs and Xs Max find color and detail in shadowy spaces without blowing out the brighter places. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is also an outstanding low light shot, but I feel the Xs line is a little better. I am particularly impressed by how Apple's built upon its own pole position in Portrait Mode digital photography. Apple released Portrait Mode back in 2016 with the iPhone 7 Plus (the software lagged behind the hardware). Since then, Apple's elegant the concept, including things like Studio Light, Contour Light, Stage Light, and Stage Light Mono. These features remain, and have been marginally improved. That which I love and, as an amateur photographer who regularly plays with f-stops to get just the ideal depth of field effect, is that the newest Depth Control. Depth Control enables you to take a Portrait Mode photograph and correct the Bokehdepth or depth of field focus, once you shoot the pictures. This works with both front and rear cameras, meaning that the image processor is using two different types of thickness details. On the trunk, it's the advantage of 2 lenses to find stereoscopic details. The leading camera counts on the depth-sensing equipment. I understand, Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 offers the ability to adjust background attention while you're shooting the image, in addition to after. However, there's a crucial difference here that is evident in the iPhone Xs and Xs Max Depth picture editor. It's a slider that allows you adjust smoothly from an electronic f 1.4 aperture into a digital f16. At a true camera with a mechanical aperture, high figures interpret to sharper focus from the backdrop and also reduced numbers mean the focus thickness is a lot shallower. About the Galaxy Note 9, Live Focus basically sees the pictures as two planes: the foreground and background. The slider effectively blurs the background plane. The Iphone Xs's depth slider relies on all the depth advice to decrease or enhance background focus through all of the airplanes between the very front of this subject and the background. Along with the enhanced Portrait Mode stitching (tackling the way the topic and a blurred background match together), the subtlety of the impact through the array of virtual f-stops is remarkable and also, Apple's explained, is modeled on how real lenses using hardware apertures would influence each picture. For most people the smart phone camera is their sole camera. This sets a pro-level command at the hands of huge numbers of individuals, that are just about to begin taking some genuinely fantastic portrait images. Immediately after taking regular photographs, video, and even 4K, I stay surprised with the standard of videos and photos coming out of their Iphone Xs and Xs Max. Sure, it is odd that the bigger Xs Max does not, as could be convention, have any improved picture capturing features, but I doubt anyone is going to be disappointed with the picture quality delivered by either innovative cell phone. There are a few other equipment-related enhancements, like the guaranteed dual-sim technology which permits multiple phone numbers (believe work and individual numbers of one phone) through the aid of eSIM technology. Unlike ordinary SIMs, you do not require a carrier card only for the provider to confirm it and empower it on your mobile phone. It's a great characteristic which, for evident reasons, I couldn't test. For sound fanatics, there's also the new stereo recording and wider-stereo playback. This is somewhat tough to test, and I sometimes worry my ears are not good enough to detect what might be a more nuanced difference. But, I'd find a way. I recorded, in landscape mode, some cars driving by. These start on the left side of the screen and push to the right. In movie I recorded using all the iPhone Xs, the sound travels from 1 side of the phone to another. Playback about the iPhone X is pretty loud but lacks the identical amount of separation sound. Apparently, videos with a great deal of sound technology aren't only great showcases for the awesome displays, but highlight the brand new, wider stereo playback abilities also. As hardware/software marriages go, you can not do better than the Apple iPhone Xs and iOS 12. I've been operating betas of the new mobile OS for months in my iPhone X and found it incredibly smooth and stable. On the Iphone Xs and Xs Max, it becomes even better partners. Along with butter-smooth and light rapid operation (in games, video, and internet browsing), the enhanced reality skills announced into iOS 11, ARKit, and the iPhone X tend to be far more refined and custom-made from iOS 12 and also the Iphone Xs. The intelligent assistant is a much better listener than ever, and getting smarter. Her speech is more conversational and she's asking follow-up queries. Siri can be more hands-on, putting connections between benign items like schedules and locations and presenting them in advance. Additionally, there are a lot of third-party programs tapping into Siri, allowing you to use only your voice to access app attributes and information without even launching the app. You are able to install iOS 12 on your older Iphone (down into this iPhone 5s), but not all of features, especially those between AR, will work on the old devices. Still, I clearly recommend the upgrade with anyone conducting an iPhone 7 and up. It is simply a much better, more polished, educated, and intelligent user experience and, to be fair, I've hardly scratched the surface of all of the upgrades and feature enhancements you'll find. Apple claims 30 minutes more battery life involving the iPhone X and Xs and 90 minutes more with all the iPhone Xs Max. In my experience, either new mobile might get you through most of the day on a single charge. I spent using only the iPhone Xs Max. I kept the brightness high and conducted all kinds of apps and procedures. It lasted quite a strong 10 hours. Perhaps just a little bit less than I anticipated, but still enough for me through most of the day. Seriously, with under a week under my belt, it is difficult to provide a complete evaluation of battery performance. There are so many factors and, of course, battery life will be great on new phones. Speak to me in six months or a full year, and we are going to see if I am still happy with battery life. It is not strange that Apple did not lower the price for the brand new $999 Iphone Xs (or even hold on the initial version and sell it at a lower price). I'm not shocked that we now have an almost $1,100 model or that we're able to cover a whopping $1,449 for the 512 GB iPhone Xs Max (which happens to be the model I tested). Apple's already proven that individuals will pay virtually anything to get their hands on the most current iPhone. Is $1,000 or more to pay for a cell phone? Maybe, but how a lot of us think of the complete price rather than monthly payments? I am, though, a little annoyed that Apple discontinued the lightning -to-3.5 mm adapter. It is like in the previous 12 months, we've all gotten rid of our audio and Bose cans, such as it is a solved issue. Memo to Apple: It is not. What I could say is that all these are the iPhones you desire. The Iphone Xs does not mess with that which I consider a classic layout, and the Xs Max only takes all that is amazing about the iPhone X also expands it. As a pair, they're equally as amazing as the first home-button-free Iphone X. The design looks especially fashionable in a golden finish. Photographers will love the new camera, and gamers and content customers will desire the big-screen iPhone Xs Max. Even if you have the iPhone X, I wouldn't update unless you need more authentic augmented existence and also complete depth control on your own portraits. To get iPhone 6s, 8, 7, and even 8 Plus officers, that the iPhone Xs and Xs Max is going to feel as a enormous leap into the foreseeable future.