#i'm the middle school girl playing slide in ride for the roller coaster

[kaibacorpintern]

Isono (or Mokuba if you want an option) + camera

i spent far too long on this because i had one idea and then switched tracks to a totally different idea but, i had a good time

The Kaiba brothers were incognito, after a fashion. Seto in a white linen shirt, the sleeves rolled to his elbows, and a pair of aviators. Their crisp mirror finish turned the gaze of anyone who looked too closely right back on the inquisitor: don’t ask who I am, who do you think YOU are? With his distinctive eyes hidden from sight, he was anonymous. Just another young man in line for Flight of the Dragon at Kaiba Land California, albeit better dressed for a yacht club than an amusement park.

Mokuba stood beside him, his thick black hair up in a pony tail and pulled through the back of a gold-colored baseball cap, matched to the massive Winged Dragon of Ra graphic on his black tank top. His growth spurt had claimed a good amount of the baby fat in his face and he moved at a coltish, energetic trot these days, still unused to the way his lanky, newly long limbs swung through space. Suddenly, almost overnight, a greater part of the world was within reach.

Right now, almost everything he wanted was close at hand. The back of his neck dripped with sweat under the blazing dry heat of June in California. A trio of middle-school girls stood between them and Isono’s watchful eye, playing a rapid game of slide to pass the time. Overhead, the rollercoaster thundered down the tracks, trailed by strings of adrenalized screams like a sleek aluminum kite.

Seto was just so stiff, his bearing completely perpendicular to the lively crowds; clearly retreating to some shadier, cooler part of his mind. Visibly on edge about something, or everything, or nothing at all. As usual. That did not bode well for what was supposed to be a relaxing day.

Struck by a thought, Mokuba pulled out his phone, tapping through some screens, giving his melting iced coffee an idle shake.

“Are you working? Put it away. What’s the point of badgering me to take a day off if you’re working?” Seto said, and Mokuba smirked as he found what he was looking for.

“I’m not a badger, I’m a Cancer,” he said. “Check it out. Kaiba Land filters on Snapchat!”

He tilted his phone towards Seto, who took it and swiped through the filters, frowning.

“Who approved these? This is the wrong shade of blue. What the hell happened to brand consistency?” he said.

“I approved them, and they’re consistent with my brand, the ‘way more chill Kaiba brother’ brand,” Mokuba said, making a mental note to check with the graphic designers for more offending shades of blue. “Oh, do that one, the Dark Magician one, there’s an effect.”

But Seto, all too familiar with Dark Magician’s effect, swiped past it, now roaming through the rest of the filters, perching his sunglasses atop his head as his frown took on an investigative gleam.

“Glittery bear ears, rabbit ears, hideous facial distortion, another hideous facial distortion, zebra stripes, butterflies… dog ears?” he said.

“Stick out your tongue, see what happens,” Mokuba said, taking a sip of his iced coffee, and Seto, in the name of science, obliged.

“So it’s a Wheeler filter,” he declared, laughing to himself under his breath. Mokuba rolled his eyes. The line shuffled forward and they moved into the cooler, airy shade of a tree. Seto paused on a filter, thumb hovering over the screen as his eyes widening slightly. Ah. He found that one.

Mokuba smiled as the filter, in all its wild, crowning glory, fit into place around his and Seto’s faces. “Let’s do it.”

“Absolutely not,” Seto said. “I’m not doing a ‘Yuugi’s hairstyle’ filter.”

“Absolutely yes, we are, and I’m sending it to Yuugi. He’ll freak,” Mokuba said, grinning wider. “Like, no one thinks of you as a person who’d send a Snapchat.”

“Is that so,” Seto said slowly. Mokuba gave him a few moments to let that sink in, idly glancing at his nails, waiting for Seto to pounce on the conclusion. He did, with an amused chuff of disdain. “They don’t know me at all.”

They leaned into each other, tilting their heads together, Mokuba slinging his arm around Seto’s shoulders, flush with the ease of his secret victory. Yuugi’s long blonde bangs fluttered across their eyes, clashing with their bangs, and Seto took the photo.

“Wait, it needs a caption,” Mokuba said.

“I like it without a caption. It has an ominous feel,” Seto said.

“Bro. Why would I want to send an ominous Snapchat?” Mokuba said.

“That’s my brand,” Seto said, smirking, and sent the snap without further ado. The line flowed forward again, casual and unbothered. The middle-school girls next to them had reached a neat twenty claps in their game of slide. “What does the one with all the Kuribohs do?”

A flock of Kuribohs floated around his scowling face, close but not touching, like a school of fish around a shark.

“That’s a voice changer.”

“What kind of voice?”

“Try it and see.”

“Mm.” Seto glanced around at the park, as though searching for inspiration in the clear blue sky, the distant sounds of cheerful whoops and coasters rattling on their tracks. Or, possibly, doing some rapid calculation, weighing his dignity against the petty delight of Freaking Out Yuugi. A sly gleam crept into his eyes as he held the button and spoke into the phone.

They replayed the snap. His voice floated from the phone, distorted into a high-pitched, chipmunk squeal, Kuribohs dancing around him. Yuugi, duel me!

“Send it,” Mokuba demanded, grinning furiously. “Send it, send it, send – ”

“Okay, I’m sending it,” Seto said, equally insistent.

“You still haven’t seen the best one,” Mokuba said. Seto raised his eyebrows, giving him a curious look, and swiped through the filters with a vengeance.

“A filter where they’re wearing my coat, riding a Blue-eyes White Dragon,” he said. The dragon reared back, opening her jaws and firing a piercing white beam of light at the screen. The phone vibrated forcefully in his hand. He turned to Mokuba, mouth tugging in a smile. “You’re right, this is the best one. The graphics are excellent and the haptic feedback is inspired.”

“Is it on-brand enough for you?” Mokuba said, with a warm frisson of pride, as Seto turned his head slightly, testing his angles.

“Oh, I think so,” he mused, taking the photo; his thumbs hovering for a brief moment before tapping lightning-fast across the keyboard. is this how you feel when you’re too short for the rides at Kaiba Land?

“Let’s take some normal ones,” Mokuba said. “Maybe Isono can – ”

“Wait, Yuugi responded,” Seto said, and let out a bark of laughter that startled the middle-school girls.

KAIBA WTF

THESE ARE FUCKING CURSED

He let slip an evil little chuckle as he tapped out a reply, shoulders easing into a slouch. Mokuba let his gaze drift around the park, at the children tugging on their parents’ hands, the rollercoaster clattering overhead, the massive kick of white spray from the log ride a few hundred yards away. They were well past the shade of the tree now, within a stone’s throw of the rollercoaster, and the sweat was crawling down his back. He didn’t mind. 

“Mokuba,” Seto said, and Mokuba turned with a pleasant smile, only to find himself in another photo with his brother, unfiltered. “Perfect.”

Mokuba beamed, sucking on his iced coffee. Or something like it.