#dark contract

[jdtrashman]

Tyler Vera, the protagonist of my WIP, as drawn by my beautiful and talented wife @uldahstreetrat

[ygoreviews]

D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried ———————————————— 1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner "D/D" monsters During either player's turn: You can target 1 face-up Spell/Trap Card on the field; that target has its effects negated, until the next Standby Phase. You can only use this effect of "D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried" once per turn. If this card is destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to the Graveyard: Gain 1000 LP for each "Dark Contract" card you control. ———————————————— Can Be Found In: Pendulum Domination Structure Deck (SDPD-EN042)

D/D tries to gather together all sorts of setups to pull out consecutive summons one after another. With the most diverse Extra Deck out there, a D/D can go arround many summons and effects in a single turn and still have resources left for their next turn. Combined with Dark Contracts giving extra benefits in exchange of Life Point costs, D/D can obtain an army of huge creatures right from early game.

"D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried" can easily become a dominant Synchro Monster keeping the Duel in our favor thanks to his chainable ability. During any turn, "Siegfried" can target a face-up Spell or Trap to negate its effects until the next Standby Phase. If "Siegfried" is destroyed, in return will let us recover 1000 Life Points for each Dark Contract on our field. Overall, "Siegfried" can easily negate not only opponent cards but also avoid certain risks from ours, becoming a highly versatile monster  against all sorts of dangers even after his destruction.

"Siegfried" is not a very demanding Synchro Summon as only requires D/D monsters as his non-Tuner materials. Thanks to the consecutive summons the archetype can pull out, "Siegfried" becomes easily available using small monsters as well other creatures from our Extra Deck. From big options right on early game like "D/D Swirl Slime" bringing a Fusion Monster, to late game abilities like "D/D Lamia" and Pendulum Summon, "Siegfried" shouldn't have many problems to be on the field when needed the most. And even if "Siegfried" is defeated we shouldn't worry much, as members like "D/D/D Flame King Genghis" and "D/D/D Oblivion King Abyss Ragnarok" can easily revive him or any materials to summon a new copy with.

The wording of "Siegfried" effect might be a bit confusing for new players as might seem that only affects cards like Field Spells and Continuous Traps among others and counter setup reliant strategies. However, since this ability can be activated at any moment, "Siegfried"can actually respond against normal Spell and Trap cards and keep our game out of any trouble. Since the effect stops in the next Standby Phase after its activation, "Siegfried" effect will reset and thus able to re-target the same card to keep it effectless as long as possible. This ability can also be used towards our own cards like "Imperial Order" or "D/D Savant Kepler"  to temporarily avoid their negatives , specially on Dark Contracts as their permanent pressence will constantly drain our Life Points. Since most Dark Contracts' negative effects activate during our Standby Phase, we can negate their effects during the opponent's turn but once "Siegfried"effect stops we will avoid taking damage yet have their effects ready to be used. With this mindset of working along Dark Contracts is obvious that "Siegfried" healing effect when defeated will be useful for the worst scenarios, not only by opponent's destructive sources but also our own like "D/D Orthros" or "Torrential Tribute".

"D/D/D Cursed King Siegfried" can easily take different roles as the Duel progresses, becominf a flexible Synchro Monster to depend on. His chainable effect deals not only with permanent Spells and Traps but also any activation which isn't a Counter Trap, becoming a powerful countermeasure against all sorts of strategies. Not only that but also the sinergy with the Dark Contracts, as with the proper timing we will avoid their damaging effects while keeping their benefits, and in the worst situations give us a solid recovery effect by "Siegfried" own defeat. While "Siegfried" is one of the most dependable D/D/D members in the Extra Deck, requires perfect decison-making to spend his negation effect on either our Dark Contracts keeping them at bay or dealing with certain threats on the field. But beyond of some bluffing or wrong negation choices, the dominance "Siegfried" provides to the field makes him one of the most important members in the D/D's Extra Deck.

Personal Rating: A

+ Negates the effect of a Spell or Trap Card until the next Standby Phase + If destroyed will heal us for each Dark Contract on our field + Chainable negation effect + Can avoid negative effects while keeping the positives from Dark Contracts and other cards

- Requires good timing to use his negation effect on our cards or the opponent's

[jdtrashman]

some believe the old magic to be lost forever, the secrets to its application lost with the magi of old when they fled this world in fear decades past. But if you know the right person, who is willing to give you the right directions, you can find the last vestige of the old ways, hidden behind a labyrinth of alleyways and back-ends. The shop has no name and no windows. Only a purple door, emitting the unmistakable stench of patchouli. The proprietor of the establishment is a beautiful Latina woman whose smile never wavers, yet is never directed at you.

Her name is Fox. And she has been expecting you.

Art by my lovely and talented wife, @uldahstreetrat, featuring Fox, one of the main supporting players of my WIP, Dark Contract

[jdtrashman]

If The Characters From My WIP Were In Obsession (2026)

Tyler adjusted his cufflinks, tightened his tie, and turned to Bear. In the other room, they could faintly hear Nikki banging on the walls, pleading with her "boyfriend" to let her out.

Tyler was not having a good day. Not nearly as bad as his boss, mind, and certainly nowhere near as bad as the people in this latest case. But still, he's had better evenings. A woman was dead, another was brainwashed, and there sat the culprit, in the chair Tyler had tied him to, mere moments before. He was a sniveling wreck beforehand, but now he was a sniveling wreck who had also soiled himself. Understandable, given how this conversation was likely to end for the both of them.

But first, some answers...

Tyler contemplated the tiny stick in his hand that had caused so much trouble. "One Wish Willow". Break the stick, and you get one wish, whatever you want. "Amaze your friends," said a quote in the corner of the box. Tyler almost scoffed. He remembered when his boss gave him the debriefing on the item. The first words out of Tyler's mouth were "how the fuck did you let this slip by you???"

The old man was typically not one to let shit like this just end up on store shelves, no matter how remote. That kind of oversight, especially for items this powerful, were like holes in the side of a ship. Doesn't matter how big or small, it's always a problem. Naturally, Tyler and his team were dispatched to cover the whole thing up.

He looked back up at Bear, who hadn't said a word since he was tied down. His eyes just stayed locked on Tyler the whole time, silently pouring tears like a slightly open faucet. Another bang on the door. Nikki barely sounded human now. The doors in this house were cheap, and even if they weren't (and even if they didn't have several pieces of furniture acting as barricades), the spell cast on the poor girl clearly didn't make allowances for her own self-preservation. "Are you going to kill me...?" Bear finally asked. His voice warbled like a steel cable at high altitudes during a storm.

"Why would you do this?" Tyler asked.

"I-I didn't know it would actually happen!" he shouted. "I just wanted her to like me, that's all! And now she's being, well, this, and then Sarah and..."

Tyler replied with a simple "Mhm."

"But like, well, I mean, everything was fine at first."

Tyler looked around the broken, tattered remains of the house. There was a stain on the rug near the door that smelled faintly of piss. "Fine, huh?"

"Look, I got tricked, okay! By that, that thing! Why would someone make that?! It's not my fault - NONE of this is my fault!"

Tyler's eye twitched. But he swallowed it for now. Full story first. "Okay. Is the original personality still in there? Has she tried to reach out to you at all?"

"Well, I...I mean..."

"Sir." Tyler pulled back on his suit jacket, revealing his gun. "It is time to be honest."

Bear jumped in the chair as high as the restraints would let him, and Tyler picked up a fresh new scent of piss. Ah, what a sanitary life I lead. Thank god Simon isn't here.

"Okay!" said Bear. "Okay, okay okay, just put that away, okay!? There was this, this one time. She was asleep, but like, she also wasn't, you know?"

"What did she say?"

"She..." Bear muttered the rest. Tyler growled, and began to draw the gun. "She asked me to kill her! I-I thought, maybe it was another freak out, so-"

"Another?"

"It happens sometimes, but she always apologizes afterward."

A crash. Tyler's eyes darted to the door. Nikki's hand, broken, purple, and dripping with blood, had punched through the door, and was now scrambling to move aside the furniture barricade. "She's gonna get through, we need to get out of here!!!" Bear shouted. He thrashed and yanked at his restraints.

Tyler went to a pocket in his suit jacket and pulled out a dart gun. He shot a dart into the thrashing arm coming from the hole, and moments later, it fell slack. Nikki was asleep. Tyler holstered the dart gun. "Anyway."

"Why the fuck didn't you do that before?!" Bear asked.

"I didn't know if putting her to sleep would just make something worse come out. Turns out, all that happens is the poor girl begs for death. I can't imagine why. But back to our little tête-à-tête, when was the first freakout."

Bear took several deep breaths as the adrenaline subsided, and he answered. "It wasn't long after I made the wish. A day or so. We were actually about to, ya know..."

Tyler felt his blood go hot with rage. While he kept the full fury of it below the well-trained facade of his profession, he did allow a dangerous narrowing of the eyes. "And did you?" His hand went back to the gun. Time to be honest.

"Well, yeah?" Bear replied. He phrased it as a question, without a hint of shame. He likely didn't understand why Tyler was reaching for the gun at all.

Tyler's hand was tightening around the handle, when his phone went off. It was Simon. He answered. "Hey," said his best friend on the other end. "I found the magic shop, and I've confiscated all the willows they had. Amazing what a forged FBI badge lets you do."

Tyler kept his eyes on Bear. "Whatcha got?"

"Clark and I ran some tests on them. This isn't a curse; it isn't even a genie scenario. The wishes are 100% clean. It's exactly as it says on the box."

"So it's all on the guy doing the wishing," Tyler finished.

"Indeed. You have one with you, yes? Another wish should undo this whole thing."

Tyler looked down at the willow. The words the wishes are 100% clean echoed in his mind. No catch. No monkey's paw. But first thing's first. "What'd happen should something...befall the wisher?"

"Classic Galatea paradox," said Simon. "The spell is directly tied to him and Nikki, removing one undoes the whole thing. But I mean, you have a willow, so it's unnecessary. Look, Tyler, I'm five minutes out, just don't do anythin-"

"Simon," said Tyler. He wasn't looking at Bear anymore. He wasn't looking at anything anymore. He was staring a million miles away. "Don't worry about it."

Their organization doesn't like its members to have any ties to the normal world. Makes things complicated. So when you join, The Old Man scrubs every trace of you from the normal world. Social security number, internet presence, public records, everything. But that's an expensive endeavor, and the agent is made to pay it all off. This debt must be cleared before an agent is allowed to leave. Simon and Clark never liked this job, and Tyler had resolved himself to free them, whatever the cost. Whatever the cost.

He hung up the phone. He looked back down at Bear, and pulled out the willow. "yes, thank you," said Bear. "Just make the wish and make this all go away, okay?"

Tyler almost chuckled. "I wish that Simon Duling and Clark Alba were free of their debts." he broke the willow as Bear screamed at him to stop. Tyler closed his eyes and let out a breath. Basking in the satisfaction of helping his friends.

"Why would you do that?! Why?!"

"Your confusion at someone thinking of others before himself is... unsurprising. But don't worry, I'm gonna fix all this."

He drew his gun. Bear screamed. He shot him in the mouth. The bullet tore through the back of his mouth and impacted the wall behind him. Bear and the chair he was tied to fell back from the impact. He choked and gurgled for a few moments, just enough to know he was going to die, that hell was coming next, before he finally went still.

Tyler turned back to the door, to the hole that Nikki's beaten-up arm was hanging from. He pulled his phone back out and hit 4 on the speed dial. "Hey Scarlet," he said. "Need a clean up and a mind wipe at my location. I also...need you to set someone up in a new town, make a recent murder record go away, the usual jacket. Yeah, yeah, I know, put it on my debt. Yes, I know it's getting high. Simon and Clark? Don't worry about them. I took care of it." He hung up the phone before she could question him further. He put his hands in his pockets and walked out the door.

Simon and Clark were 5 minutes out, no use trying to escape them. He'd get to have one last talk with his best friends. They'd no doubt have questions, they'd no doubt have some stuff they wanna yell. But they'd also probably wanna know why he didn't wish himself free along with them.

Tyler wondered to himself if he had the stones to respond to that question with the truth. That, despite everything, he fucking loved this job.

[jdtrashman]

tagged by @uldahstreetrat for WIP Wednesday or whatever it's called

tagging @kyle-the-monkey

---

Night fell on the city of Nafplio, Greece, and Scarlet Seraphim had business with a Minotaur. 

Minotaurs were simple creatures: intelligent by nature but prone to isolation, left to fend for themselves as soon as they’re born. Early on in their life cycle, they find some mountain or hole somewhere and begin constructing their “nest”. Due to how their aversion to human contact tends to conflict with a love of wandering around, Minotaurs often continue building their nests until it turns into a twisting labyrinth akin to the inside of an anthill. 

Ultimately, if you left them alone, and didn’t go wandering into any weird dark caves, the average person’s chances of meeting a minotaur were slim to none. But every now and then, there was an exception. See, minotaurs are fiercely territorial, and since the weakest minotaur still easily dwarfs the average person in strength and stamina, those unlucky enough to stumble into their labyrinths seldom lived to tell about it. Most minotaurs, however, will not pursue their quarry if they manage to escape. This was where the Contractors came in, altering the memories of these fortunate few to protect the secret of The Community. But then you had cases like that of Asterion Minos and Sophia Barberis. 

Sophia was a fresh faced college grad, with a love of the outdoors. So to celebrate her graduation, she, her sister, and a few of her friends, went on a road trip across the country. While they were on the road, her sister went behind a bush to pee, and chose the wrong patch of ground on which to squat. Asterion had dug just a bit too close to the surface, and the added weight caused a cave in. Sophia and her friends went down to find her sister, and one by one, Asterion killed them for intruding on his territory. Only Sophia managed to get away, but instead of waiting for the Contractors to alter her memory, as per the agreement between them and the minotaurs, Asterion gave chase, all the way to Sophia’s hometown of Nafplio. 

Fortunately, they were able to subdue him before he was seen by anyone. Now it was just a matter of cleaning up the mess. 

Scarlet stepped out of her all black 1998 Buick Skylark and stared down the pier at the captured minotaur. Three agents were off to the side, busily tending to the wounds of the minotaur agent they had to call in to subdue Asterion. They had Asterion hanging over the side of the pier, tied to a ship’s anchor that was itself hanging from a crane. “Ours is not a difficult organization to work with, Mr. Minos,” said Scarlet. Her electric blue hair hung over half of her face, leaving only one of her eyes to glow a deep red as she studied her prey. The eye was the only thing Asterion could make out from the dead of night. Her clothes were the usual black, and combined with her dark umber skin, Scarlet would all but fade into the night without it. The glow wasn’t particularly bright, but it painted her face in red like a darkroom. She crossed her arms in displeasure as she continued. “You don’t come up to the surface, and we cover up the disappearance of anyone who wanders into your labyrinths. That was the deal. I don’t recall any part of that contract saying 'oh by the way, after about 500 years, ya’ll can do whatever'. So, care to explain?”

Asterion huffed indignantly at her, which came as no surprise. Asterion Minos remembered a time before her. Before her father. Before The Contractors. Such memories had a tendency to produce ill-placed pride. Then, he spoke, his voice like a great brass bell, “The agreement remains intact,” he said. “But my territory is my territory. That woman and her friends trespassed. So I had the right to kill them. That was also in the agreement.”

“Yeah,” Scarlet interrupted. “Except for the part where, if a trespasser escapes, their containment becomes our responsibility.” Scarlet’s luminescent eye scanned Asterion until she found that one of his eyes had been gouged out. She looked back at her agents. “Any of you do that?” They shook their heads. Scarlet turned back around and chuckled. “So she took out your eye on the way out, huh? Well, I mean, you did kill her sister, her boyfriend, and two of her best friends, so maybe we call that a fair trade?” 

Asterion thrashed against the chains binding him to the anchor, snarling. “It is my right to kill her! She trespassed in my home, took my eye! The humans have taken everything else from us, and now we cannot even have our peace?!”

Scarlet fixed him with an even stare. “Tough shit. You should’ve killed her when you had the chance. Now she’s out of your reach, and she doesn’t even remember you. As far as Sophia knows, she’s the lone survivor of a car accident.” Scarlet chuckled again, but this time it carried a frustration beneath it. “You were almost seen by three eyewitnesses, four cameras, and a Google Maps Car! A fucking Google Maps Car! You were almost on every computer and phone in the world! You put every minotaur in Greece at risk as a salve for your own ego!” 

Asterion met her stare with one of his own, and said quietly. “You do not scare me, little girl. I remember a time before you, before your father. And do you know what those memories tell me?”

“What?” Scarlet dared. 

“That times can change.”  With a deafening roar, Asterion tore free of the chains and launched himself off the anchor towards Scarlet. Scarlet held up a hand to the agents behind her, telling them to stay back. As he drew near, Scarlet moved her hair out of the way of her other eye, and both eyes flared. The light from her eyes grew until it took up the entire pier, and Asterion Minos fell to the ground next to her, rolling in abject agony. He grabbed at his arms and his sides as every molecule in his body lit up like a flamethrower. Scarlet walked him down as he tried to crawl away from her, stopping only when he reached the edge of the dock, finding only the unforgiving ocean below. “Sorry Mr. Minos,” she said, watching Asterion disintegrate before her eyes. His legs were already gone, and his right arm joined them, causing him to fall on his snout. “But you’re just bad for business.” She kicked him into the sea, where the waves took care of the rest. Scarlet smoothed her hair back into place, the glow returning to normal. She turned around, and found Jayjay waiting for her. The young asian-american woman almost rivaled Ritter in her ability to move without being noticed. She pushed a strand of her sandy blonde pixie cut back behind her ear with one hand, while the other presented Scarlet with a manilla folder. “No rest for the wicked, eh Jay?” Scarlet asked. Jayjay merely nodded. While best friends, Jayjay never had much to say while working. Scarlet took the folder and opened it up. Her cool demeanor soured almost immediately. “What?”

[jdtrashman]

(art by my incredibly talented friend Grimbeary, follow her on Instagram at Grimbearyart)

As Caesar, once the most powerful man in the world, bled out on the floor of his own senate, many of the members of the coup looked down at the blades in their hands and felt a thrill the likes of which they had never felt before. The satisfaction of changing the tide of history with the death of a single man. They began to wonder if they could do it again. Thus were The Knives of Caesar born, and ever since, they have worked from the shadows as the deadliest order of assassins in the world.

A knife of Caesar can come in all shapes and sizes, but they all share a perverse love for their work. But none love it more than the woman who has just arrived in New Orleans for a very particular job. A woman in garish pink and the emptiest eyes. They say that her soul is so cold and hollow, that she can only find meaning in the rending of flesh. They say she was never born, and thus can never die.

Her name is Mimi, and when she arrives, they say not to run. She likes it when they run.