#ic. noa.

[dichotomousvariable]

🥚 what's your guilty pleasure song that you'd belt in a noraebang alone?

🥚 - spiked eggnog.

"noraebang? why would i go to a noraebang alone? that sounds so sad. i'm not that sad and lonely! if i'm going to sing alone, i'm going to do it in the comfort of my dorm! ridiculous. they charge like, an arm and a leg for ONE mid snack. ridiculous!!! what was the question again? my guilty pleasure song? catch me singing any and all jojo's bizarre adventure soundtrack hits in mediocre japanese at the top of my lungs."

[notkitsune]

🌿 🥀 🍒

🌿🥀 - 3 am drunk text.

< to: noa. > sms: i'm not your favorite gangcheori member :( there's no way :( sms: i don't know why it matters to me rn but it does sms: how do i become your favorite gangcheori goon i want an adoring fan sms: pls this is so important to me right now sms: i also feel sick but i don't think that's relevant sms: but it might be

🌿🍒 - last text.

< to: noa. > sms: do you know where tenha is sms: they owe me dinner sms: they didn't say when the dinner had to be & i want it now sms: alternatively, would you like to go get dinner

[explomb]

I'm not a genius I'm just a talented learner? What is this yap, bro lock the fuck in we don't have time for menty bs isagi 😭🙏

[icedtoastt]

Noa cosplay!!

[8loomy]

takumi wants ice cream 🍦🐻🐷

bonus:

naruse taking care of takumi

[millenniumdueled]

Yugi stares out the window, watching the pouring rain as he listens to the buzz of his classmates around him. Talks of weekend plans, of parties and karaoke and dancing, of movie nights, of bowling and roller skating. Of invitations never extended to him, only ever overheard.

Yugi wonders what it might be like. To spend the weekend having fun with friends, making memories and trying new things together. Of playing games with someone other than his grandpa.

Of course, he'll be spending this weekend as he has every other since starting college, and for many weekends before: working the game shop and playing games alone in his room. With a sigh, he takes his backpack from the floor beside his desk and removes an intricate, ancient golden box. He may as well use this time before class starts to work on his biggest project. It's been 8 years, but--

"maybe today will be the day i finally solve the millennium puzzle," Yugi says under his breath.

No sooner has he removed the lid when the small sarcophagus is snatched from the desk before him, making Yugi jump.

"Are you talking to yourself?? What a creep," Tristan Taylor jeers, holding the golden box far above Yugi's head as the smaller man leaps from his seat.

"please--!! give that back, it's my treasure!!" Yugi pleads. As he tries unsuccessfully to jump for the relic, another bully takes it from Tristan's hands.

"What is this, a jewelry box?? Only a girl would care about something like that," the blond taunts. Yugi feels his face go red. "You want it back, man up, gimme all you got and take then."

Yugi sinks into himself, suddenly feeling smaller than ever. He hugs his arms across his chest. "i... i hate fighting. please, joey, just give it back!!!"

The bully only laughs at him as he takes a peek at the contents inside the box. "What is this shit anyway? Looks dumb." With that, he turns the box upside down, and the small, golden pieces rain down over Yugi's spikey head. Laughing as the smaller man drops to his knees to frantically collect the pieces, Joey tosses the box to the side. "Let's go, Tristan."

It's hard, it hurts, but Yugi manages to collect the pieces without crying. He'll wait until he walks home for that, when the rain will hide his tears.

That night, as he sits at his desk at home, the pieces of the Puzzle seem to click together more easily than ever. And for a moment, his heart begins to swell with nervous excitement. Is this it? He's never gotten this far before. If he twists this piece half a turn, then adds this other piece, then slides that piece over....

He tries not to let himself get his hopes up too much. But another piece fits, and the frame of the pyramid comes together.

His fingers tremble.

There's only one final piece.

He's done it! He's actually solved the--

Yugi's blood runs cold as he reaches into the golden box for the last piece, his fingers finding only the smooth bottom of the golden sarcophagus.

no...

He grabs the box, turns it upside down, but nothing falls out. Had he missed a piece when Joey had dumped them back at the school? No no no. Then that would mean the Puzzle could never be solved. No, he was sure that he had searched every inch of the floor, over and over, ensuring he hadn't forgotten any of the shimmering, golden pieces. He leaps up from his desk, tearing apart every inch of his room in search of the missing piece to no avail.

Finally, Yugi's hope gives out. He collapses to his knees in the middle of his room, surrounded by the mess he created in his frantic search, and cries.

----

Yugi must have floated through the weekend in a daze of sorrow, because the next thing he knows, it's Monday. He doesn't want to go to class today. Why does it matter? His major is undeclared. Uncertain. Unfinished. Just like the Puzzle sitting on his desk at home.

The rain is still pouring.

Usually, Yugi walks the short distance from the Kame game shop to the community college he attends, but today he doesn't have the energy. His feet feel heavy as lead as he climbs onto the public bus.

As Yugi seeks a spot to stand amongst the crowd of passengers, he finds his way toward the back of the bus where he spots a familiar face. Tomoya Hanasaki, one of the few people as quiet and unpopular as himself on campus. Maybe he should say hi? If there's anyone he has a chance of befriending at all, surely this other outcast is a safe bet...?

But before he finds his courage, he notices the discomfort on Hanasaki's bespectacled face. Then he recognizes the larger man sitting beside him, a notorious bully from their college by the name of Sozoji. Yugi tries to listen, but he can't hear their conversation over the other passengers, the hum of the bus, and the loud music blasting from the headphones hanging around Sozoji's thick neck.

Should he help...?

What could he possibly do...? He's no larger or more threatening than Hanasaki after all.

In the end, Yugi decides to turn his back, to mind his own business. The last thing he wants is to make anything worse for anyone. And if he just makes himself invisible, maybe he won't attract any of whatever cruelty Sozoji is planning.

He doesn't think he can take another beating, not with his heart so incomplete.

The next day, as Yugi sits alone in English class, he can't help but notice that Hanasaki's seat is empty. His stomach sinks, a feeling of guilt slowly filling his chest. As he stares out the window, he listens to the chatter of his classmates around him.

"--shattered ear drums--"

"--total hearing loss--"

"I heard he tried to kill himself--"

Yugi sinks down in his seat. It's not like he could have done anything, right...? If he had spoken up, it would just be him in the hospital now...

The rest of the day goes by in a blur.

----

The weeks that follow seem to be filled with nothing but more unfortunate events. Yugi stares at the empty seat once occupied by his biggest crush, a girl named Téa with dreams of being a dancer. Abducted from her waitress job by an escaped prisoner several days ago, her body had just been found that morning.

Yugi only feels numb.

---

The weekend comes around again, and once more, Yugi spends it alone in his room. He hasn't had the energy to work the shop these days. Letting his own grandpa down too, now.

Yugi lies on his bed, eyes unfocused towards the single window over his desk as he tries not to think of the misfortunes of the previous month. But as his eyes drift to the Millennium Puzzle, sitting on his desk, forever unfinished without its final piece, he can't help the thoughts that creep into his mind.

He's never believed in things like magic. But his grandpa's ominous warnings of curses and Shadow Games come to mind. Is that what this is? Did he anger the ancient Egyptian gods when he lost that final piece? Is this the Pharaoh's Curse, taking out everyone around him before finally coming for the man who handled the ancient relic so carelessly?

He wishes the curse would just take him. Or at least, hurt the people who deserve it. The bullies that hit him and taunted him.

What if he had spent those 8 years getting stronger?

Instead of wishing on some stupid Puzzle?

Yugi can't take it anymore. He jumps up from his bed, ready to smash the relic back into its many pieces. He snatches the incomplete Puzzle from his desk, only to hiss in pain and shake his burning fingers as the artifact falls to the carpeted floor below.

Why...?

Why would the Puzzle burn him...?

Why does he smell so much smoke....?

Why isn't Joey saving him, like--

Yugi's eyes go wide as they stare down at the Puzzle, haphazardly lying at his feet.

The Puzzle piece isn't the only thing that's missing, Yugi realizes. His friends, his allies, the voice inside his heart.

This isn't right.

This isn't how his story goes.

Heart pounding in his chest, Yugi reaches for the Puzzle, only to find himself falling. Through the floor, dragged by a chain around his ankle into the depths of the Domino City bay.

but it was my wrist, Yugi thinks as the world grows darker and darker. and it's okay. because joey will save me.

joey will save me.

and joey's sister will save him.

and then we'll save the kaibas.

and it will all be okay.

Yugi opens his mouth to take a deep breath, trusting the words he repeats in his mind. It will all be okay. It will all be okay.

And it is.

No water fills his lungs, only oxygen. His red-violet eyes flutter open to a blue sky overhead, lush grass all around him. He reaches for the Millennium Puzzle around his neck and frowns. So that's really missing. And so is the voice inside his soul.

But it's different. Though it's quiet, his heart doesn't feel empty. Not the way it did when Duke's father had shattered it to pieces. Even without the relic hanging from his neck, Yugi can tell that he isn't alone.

He sits up in the grass and crosses his legs, tries to clear his thoughts and get his bearings. Whatever nightmare he had just escaped, it was only that:

a nightmare.

Yugi knits his brows together. He can't come up with a logical explanation how he got here, to this clearing in these peaceful woods. Without the Puzzle to cling to, he presses a hand over his heart and closes his eyes, trying to focus on that feeling that tells him he isn't alone. When he tries to call out for his other self, he's met by something unexpected inside his chest.

How did he get here?

Last he remembers, he and his friends had been searching for the Kaiba Brothers. They had followed the coordinates that Mokuba had posted, appearing on a Kaiba Corporation branded aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific. They had been escorted deeper into the massive ship at gunpoint, ushered by mechanical guards into a bright, white room. And then...?

Feelings of rage, of anger, of resentment. Of sorrow. Of fear and insecurity.

Yugi's fingers curl into a fist, tight against his heart as he tries to calm the storm.

"hold on other me," he pleads aloud. "i'm going to find you. i promise i'm going to find you."

[seashaper]

Their Worst Mistake.

It’s peaceful. They’ve been happy, lately, and with far fewer negative thoughts on their mind, Madison Rook feels very calm in their serene setting of choice. The few inches of water layering the ground of their floating island world (Laminar, Mads had called it? Sure, that works.) soak into their skirt as they sit crosslegged in the motionless sea, under the glittering night sky and drifting islands far above. The silence and stillness around them allows them to focus on the water, mirrorlike so long as they don’t move a muscle, cold against their skin. It’s 2 hours into this quiet, extended half-meditation when they close their eyes, sinking deeper into this peaceful trance..and feel a ripple. The water moves, somewhere distant but not too far, and as the displacement moves the water from there to here, Rook immediately pinpoints the direction it had come from, and stands up to move closer. The disturbed water disrupts their trail, and sort of gives them away, but in this wide, open space, it isn’t like the visitor can hide. Their first thought is Patches, bubbling rage rising in their throat at the thought of her uninvited presence before they swallow it down. No, she would know better by now. Their friends would have asked first, Jake can’t get down here..there’s only one other person who would wander this empty sea alone.

The ripples stop, for a moment they think the visitor might have left, but then Madison Rook sees a winged figure not far off in the distance..and they see a black, spreading stain, swirling in the water they shift with their movement. They recognize it instantly. Blood. Their blood. ..His blood. They sigh, and the concern lessens, he’s probably just here to do the awful thing they both do from time to time, and they don’t want to be near him like that..but then, they look up. The figure is gone. The ripples spread out from the edge of a deep body of water.

Madison Rook stands in the shallow water, watching the drifting, inky blood, and rolls their eyes, exasperated with the angel’s disappearance. He must’ve seen them, and left out of shame. That’s fine. It’s not like they could’ve helped, anyways; neither of them could really be helped, at times like that. It’s best to let Mads Altair work through it alone and move on. He’ll bleed, he’ll go down, he’ll wake up, head home, and hug Bo for a while, but in the end, in the morning, he’ll be mostly fine. As fine as he ever can be, when he does that to himself. Not that they can judge him, but even without judgment Rook can still feel bitterness toward their copy. Everyone knows he does it. It hurts their friends to know. Every time, every sinking blade, it hurts their friends who wish he didn’t, and although they still can’t help but do the same, Rook hates him, in the moment, for causing even more pain. Right. He can deal with his self-destructive actions on his own. Rook turns on their heel, unfolds their starry wings, and flies up and away, to continue their peaceful moment in cleaner waters.

**************

It’s only a day before someone asks where Mads is, but 2 before he’s actively sought out. Hinata teleports to find him..and arrives at the angel’s infinite pile of swords. Imbued with his power, regenerating and eternal as he was, they’re all that’s left. His friends struggle to confirm his death, abduction, or active isolation, but Rook watches the people they love search desperately for the *real* Mads in a haze. They think they know, but they don’t want to be sure. Recalling the moment, the when and how, the sorcerer can deduce exactly how Madison Altair would’ve done it. How long it would’ve taken. How far, far too late it already is. What they saw in the endless shallow sea isn’t something they can admit to their friends without being thoroughly confident in what it means. They try to convince themselves they’re wrong, maybe something had happened after that, maybe S had gotten him, they couldn’t have been the last person to ever see him above water, but no other direction bears fruit when explored, and eventually, Madison Rook breaks down, no options left but to admit what they’d witnessed and accept what it means.

Madison Altair had finally managed to disappear forever.

Everything shatters. Rook had seen their friends respond before to their own death, and they had been guaranteed to come back. The weight is so much more immense, this time. The tiefling doesn’t know what to say, what to do, how to help, they try to at least provide company but Madison Rook can tell that their friends, especially the ones who blame themselves for Madison Altair’s last resort, can see, in his duplicate, the same heavy heart and dark desires that dragged him down, and worse, the same face as someone beloved whom they will never meet again. 

All the while, Rook is numbly in shock at the sudden hollowness in their life. They had accepted leaving themselves behind, when they changed, because Mads still held the role they wanted to play, Mads kept everything they threw away, they held relief that their changes wouldn’t erase who they were. But he’s gone, now. All the light and color they’d grown used to seeing in the corner of their vision while they sulked, cuddled, and did spellwork is gone, the castle left in greyscale. With his absence, Rook no longer feels welcome; they’re just a ghost. A reminder. They take their things to the other castle, the simulation they’d awoken within, empty, silent, and unreal. Just like them. That’s where they belong. There are so many silent days and nights spent huddled alone in their closet, weeping for the pain they couldn’t prevent, for the theoretically endless life they’d watched suddenly vanish, for their deep, endless loneliness.

There’s a horrible distance from themselves when watching their friends mourn Mads, everything he was, gone forever, no trace, nothing to regenerate or hold or bury, not even an entire other person who shares his heart and soul. They may as well be dead too, as much of who they are is grieved as fully lost. Mikael tries to reach out, he always does, but they can’t stand to try and take his brother’s place, when they’re just a poor copy, a faded shadow, a disappointment to the man they were long ago, who didn’t even try to save a very important life. They know everyone knows that they didn’t even try. It’s their fault, and even if no one says it, everyone knows, especially Rook. They may as well have killed him themselves. Their sin haunts them, and they can’t escape it, no matter how much ‘blood’, fake twice over, worthless and disgusting, is spilled. Alone, useless, and changed, reset and altered so many times over, with no one to know or care what parts of themselves are destroyed and remade by their violent desperation, Rook struggles to recognize themselves. Maybe that’s better. Maybe their friends will take them back now that they’re nothing like Mads, and their presence won’t cause everyone to hurt. It doesn’t matter if they would. Rook doesn’t remember being wanted anymore.

Interspersed through the 3 months leading up to this are strange moments. Out-of-place recognition, the strongest deja vu they’d ever felt, a sense of deep loss for something they’re mostly sure they never had, usually a piece of magic they feel should be there but isn’t. Worse than that, they relive scenes they don’t know, triggers of memories they can’t recognize but feel the pain of all the same. Their magic, in general, feels wrong, throughout, but they attribute that to a disconnect with its source, a punishment from the sea for letting their other self drown. If anyone could have saved him, it was them. Even the ocean knows that Rook failed everyone. They almost let it take them, they would deserve it, wouldn’t they? But it’s truly impossible. The water won’t fill their lungs; the ocean’s hatred is only in their mind. Or maybe it isn’t. Either way, It provides no escape. But Rook doesn’t try that too hard. A sense of doubt keeps them going. Through their spiraling descent, their isolation and pain, something feels deeply wrong. It feels as if their mind is being partially suppressed, their thoughts dulled, despite them being seemingly as messy and stumbling as they always were. At first that sense makes everything worse, but as they reset and change, it remains, and they start to grow suspicious. Something in them is smarter than this. Despite how foolishly lost and destroyed they feel, how broken they know they are, something just under the surface is analyzing this period past the filter of strong emotion, and what the strange moments mean.

One day, everything clicks. Madison Rook doesn’t call themselves that anymore, Madison is dead, they have no right to the name– and they barely resemble him now, anyways. They stare in the mirror, using their magic to change, recreating forms they barely recall through their resets in a vain and listless attempt to reignite their sense of self. Running out of ideas, on an instinct, they grow their hair long, change the shape of their body and face, just so, a far different change than those they’d been through in this version of their lifetime..and recognize themselves instantly. This unfamiliar familiar face, the realest version of them they’d never seen before. They don’t understand how they know it, until they do. The scattered, half-ignored pieces come together, flashes of pain they shouldn’t know, their strange, missing magic, the behavior of their friends..so dim in their mind now, but it was strange, wasn’t it? Would their friends and partners really abandon them like that? It doesn’t seem right, now. None of this seems right, except for the face in the mirror. The longer they stare, the closer they lean, the harder the tiefling thinks, the more the cracks show, literally, until the locks around their mind, enhanced through magic and hours more of study than they should have at this moment, fall free, and they realize. There is no world where any of this should happen. They know a better life than this, they know themselves too well for this hollow, shapeless feeling to exist. It shouldn’t. Nothing should be this way. How is it supposed to be?

They remember. 

Madison Rook is supposed to be saving someone, right now. Someone deeply important to them, abducted and afraid, and they’ve spent- months? Moments? Too much time suffering alone, pain they’ll never be able to unlive, but maybe it’s not too late. There must be a way out. They can see the flaws in this reality, now, the cracks spread across the mirror, and, dropping this form, leaning back to get momentum, Rook slams their horns into the glass; everything shatters, the simulation-within-a-simulation bathroom falling to pieces around them, leaving them in a void, until it fades into another, less personal setting. Now in their more human-passing form, Rook stands with their eyes closed, processing the information that’s come rushing back to them, and pushing out of the empty place they’d just been in, suppressing that void, it wasn’t real, it wasn’t true, Madison Ruarc is fine and so are they, or at least they will be, for now, until their important task is done. It’s suppressed, they’re present, and they take a deep breath, straighten up, and dramatically billow their cloak just to feel a little more like their badass self.

Now to go find their friends.

[denim-bias]

[seudxnimx]

Continued from here @irrwicht

Noa wasn’t stupid, far from it. He’s incredibly cruel and one that doesn’t give a second thought on if someone lives or dies as long as what he has is safe and in safe keeping.

He and Aoto though somehow managed to mix fucking and fighting - even if both acted as a snake in the situation - but Noa isn’t patient. There was bound to be a break in one of them and the snap happened and again… and again… it led to this situation here. Did he trust Aoto? No. If he sensed a word of this was getting out he wouldn’t hesitate to try and chuck his body over the balcony. Was it nice to have a body in bed? Yes.

He’s not overly affectionate, it’s taken quite a few times to even get to this level of comfort but he doesn’t hesitate with it, adding in the more possessive locked in arms at Aotos side. “No.” It’s a simple answer and an honest one, although Noa would change possessive for clingy in this sense but it’s nothing more than hook ups with the devil for the both of them, “What are you going to tell him?” Eyes scanning the view, Noa enjoyed the money and lifestyle but he’d give it all up if he could have a normal life but it’s not possible and so… he soaks it up. Uses it and abuses it - just as the life had done to him.

[jpopstreaming]

🎉 Discover 286 new Japanese music releases (2024, week 28) 🌍 Now streaming worldwide on Spotify!

Dive into our weekly updated playlist 🎧

[shadowbrn]

from derek hale ( @tvintedspvrk ) to noa olivar:     ❛  you want to be a good girl for me, don't you?  ❜

getting the hell out of millwood had been the best thing to ever happen to noa olivar. as soon as she graduated, she was gone, and she had ended up all the way across the country in beacon hills, california. it had been an unexpected move, but she was loving everything about it. another great part? discovering derek hale. she'd been lost when she got there, but quickly after she met him . . . everything seemed to fall into place. she bit her lip as he spoke, her cheeks flushing red. derek really knew how to get to her . . . ❝ always. ❞ she purred almost immediately, looking up at him ( she could never get over the way he towered over her . . . ), ❝ what do you want from me? ❞

[pestilight]

What has been done to you, @lunaright...?

Gone were the golden antlers they once bore, signifying their fallen divinity, now replaced by horns that jutted from one side of their head. The scourge staggers — but fall not they did, puppeted by invisible strings that guided their way upwards; their footing unsteady as the world shifts under their feet. Cocking their head up and to the side ( the horns heavy enough to tilt balance ) its pupil darts afoot, attempting to focus on the face in front of them.

Even through the malice clouding their vision with crimson, they knew.

“Rauru…” his name leaves its mouth in a whisper, guttural and raspy. Though its voice is undoubtedly theirs, it merely acts and speaks for its puppeteer, stumbling closer towards the Zonai and reaching with outstretched arms, a mockery of a smile painted on their face. Gesture kind, even though its intent is not, it speaks all too softly, too kindly; a cruel lure. “It's been too long, once King of Hyrule.”

     It washes over him as though a spreading affliction. A traitorous, blasphemous thought. In the staggered spaces between their halting motions, as Rauru looks upon his once-ilk's taint — their decay, their corruption, their erosion — he feels it take form as a serpent writhing through his veins: accrued remnants of some ancient, seething, inexplicable wrath.

     The gods are truly wretched, to continue testing him past even death.

     It is instinct, as it was in life, to shatter the notion before he can dwell on it. Its pieces fall away like glass shards slitting past his fingers, but the outrage remains — fueled by a regret that hangs ever heavier from his shoulders and a heartache so profound, it has him numb for the first time since he's awakened from a sealed slumber.

     They call him by his name. They reach for him with beseeching hands.

     It should not make him yearn as harshly as it does.

     He lurches back beyond their grasp. "Iroha," lies on his tongue, a gentle hand ready to be extended in turn, but he holds it there. He holds it there, close, like it is a fragile thing: like he daren't say it aloud for fear of losing something else — someone else — he has never been willing nor prepared to let go of.

     ( He holds it there, close, like he hasn't already lost them. )

     "My friend," he murmurs instead. His breath does not rattle. But he imagines, if he were made of bone and blood and sinew once more, not even thralling magicks would be able to keep it steady. "I wish, dearly, I could say it is good to see you again."

[icedtoastt]

Getting on that hagiwara noa grind rn

[aerael-a]

@talentbloomed cont. from here

          𝐍𝐎𝐀  𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐒  𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆  𝐁𝐔𝐓  𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄  𝐀𝐒  𝐇𝐈𝐒  𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑  𝐂𝐔𝐏𝐒  𝐇𝐈𝐒  𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐒.    The  previous  fear  and  anxiety  gone  now  that  one  of  his  parents  was  there  with  him.  He  still  with  his  other  dad  would  be  there  ━━━  he  always  felt  safer  when  both  his  parents  were  around  him,  but  he  figured  soon  the  other  man  would  arrive.  He  hoped  so  anyway.  

            The  green  eyed  male  hums,  leaning  into  his  father’s  gentle  touch.  He  still  thought  it  was  hid  fault,  but  decided  not  to  argue  about  it.  Dad  was  there  now,  he  wasn’t  alone  anymore.  ❛      I  haven’t  gotten  anything  from  him  either…        ❜    he  pouted,  worry  swirling  within  evergreen  hues.  

            Tooru’s  question  caught  Noa  off  guard.  He  was  pretty  hungry,  not  having  eaten  since  that  morning,  but  he  hadn’t  expected  to  be  the  one  choosing  what  they’d  have  for  dinner.  ❛      Mhmm…      ❜  he  took  a  moment  to  think  about  it,  only  coming  up  with  one  option.  ❛      This  isn’t  really  dinner  food  but,  I  kind  of  wanted  to  eat  milk  bread,  dad.      ❜  Noa  said,  a  blush  dusting  his  cheeks  as  he  peered  at  his  father.    ❛      You  know,  the  one  you  make.      ❜    He  mumbles,  looking  down  at  Mochi  to  hide  this  sudden  shyness.

            He  had  missed  home  and  his  dad  and  the  comfort  only  home  could  provide.  ❛      But  I  just  missed  you,  and  your  food  and  home,  so  whatever  you  want  to  cook  will  be  fine  with  me…        ❜  

[capucapo]

selfie with my big brother!!!!!!!!!!!!! and hex!!!!!! kind of a family portrait [:

(( thank you so so SO much Wyatt @penofdamocles for collaborating w me to finish this in time to still be relevant!!! and working with my nitpicky self. iluuu 💖💖💖 ))

[millenniumdueled]

Your name is Yugi Mutou.

You love puzzles and games. Your grandpa taught you everything you know, but that was so long ago now, you can't possibly remember the details. You remember the games though, their names and rules and stakes. And you know you've never lost.

You have three precious friends, and you would do anything to protect them. You waited so long to find them. You won't let anyone take them away from you now.

You have this power. You don't know why you have it, or why you know how to use it. But when it's needed, and not a moment before, that power comes to you innately. And you will use it to protect those things that are precious to you.

So when a violent criminal puts a gun to one of their heads, you do the only thing you know. You use that power.

Penalty Game: Burn.

When you turn around, the looks on the faces of your friends breaks your heart. You don't understand.

Why do they look so horrified?

You saved Téa.

Why is she shrinking away from you?

Your chest burns as hot as the fire raging in the restaurant booth behind you.

Anger and confusion fester inside of you as you sit in your empty room. You don't know what happens next.

All you know is Darkness and your name

Yugi Mutou

----

You haven't seen your friends much since then, and the days have passed in a blur. It's been three weeks. It feels like a lifetime, sitting in that darkness.

Your friends are planning a booth for the campus wide fall festival. Maybe you can make it up to them now. Maybe you can show them that you aren't a monster.

But when a larger student and his friends destroy the games booth you've worked so hard to build, your hair stands on end, that power inside you roaring to life.

You remember the horror on their faces, the nervous way they've tiptoed around you since. This time, you're careful not to show them this side of you, this power that you have.

But when the news comes out about the bully's gruesome death, you hear the name that your friends and classmates whisper

Yugi Mutou.

---

One of your classmates enters the shop where you work with Grandpa. It's been so long since you've seen your friends. Maybe you can make a new one now.

Instead, that classmates insults your Grandpa. He hits you with his metal briefcase, and steals Grandpa's most precious Duel Monsters card.

You know what it's like to lose something precious.

You know what it's like to find something you love, and you know the emptiness when it leaves.

You follow him home and challenge him to the trading card game that he loves so much. All of the anger, all of the loneliness, all of the pain inside you boils.

If your friends are going to fear you anyway, then why hold back?

You'll take all of that anger, that loneliness, that pain and you'll show this classmate how it really feels to lose.

You don't turn your back, watching with a stoic stare as the illusory monsters rise up and sink their teeth into your classmate. As he screams and swears his revenge against you

Yugi Mutou

---

You don't know how much time passes.

All you know is Darkness. Isolation. Anger. Pain.

It's been days. It's been months. Maybe it's been years. Simmering all that time, in the only things you know.

So when a stranger breaks into that Darkness and that innate power inside you begins to boil over, you let it.

You turn all of your anger and pain, all of your Darkness on him. You rush at him with all of that Power you hold, reckless with rage.

You don't see the bricks beneath your feet turn to sand, obstructed by the Darkness that is all you know. You tumble and fall down, down into the gaping maw of a hungry god.

You think it must be the end for you. But somehow, you find yourself somewhere full of light. As you push yourself to your feet, your eyes meet their own gaze.

Your chest aches as you face yourself.

No.

That's not you.

The sorrow in those eyes isn't yours. It's the mournful look of another, of the young man whose life you'd slipped into. He looks at you like you've betrayed him. Like you've killed him.

"you're not yugi mutou," he says.

The scenery around you cracks like glass. That space flickers.

"Then who am I..?"

Another crack.

Yugi Mutou, the real Yugi Mutou, says nothing else. You reach out for him, but your feet won't move.

"Who am I?!" you cry as the world shatters, falling away to reveal a great labyrinth full of impossible starways and doors to nothing.

Yugi Mutou is gone.

You fall to your knees, scream in pain, in anger. You pound on the stone floor with fists that aren't yours, until your knuckles spill his blood as you cry over and over

Who am I

Who am I

Who am I

You don't expect a response as your voice echoes around your tomb. You don't expect anything but Darkness. You freeze, clasping a hand over the warm feeling that's suddenly sprouted inside your chest.

other me

You hear the voice, not with your ears, but with your heart.

you're my other me.

The warmth blooms through your body, guiding you to your feet once again. You don't fight back, allowing the warmth to guide you across the tomb to a nondescript stone door. A bright light blinds you momentarily as you step out of the Darkness, away from the anger and pain that's all you once knew. Into the soft, warm light of a peaceful forest clearing.

"i told you i'd find you," Yugi Mutou says, looking up at you with a smile. But that smile quickly changes, concern creasing his brows. "hey hey hey, what's wrong?? it's okay other me, you're safe now! i mean--"

You don't let him finish, sweeping him up in the tighest embrace, pressing your face against his. You don't pass through him. You can feel him in your arms. You know that isn't right, but for now you're grateful.

You still don't know who you are. But at least you're not alone.