Flaws: Many people call me a hard ass. Can't say I blame them. Plus my sister and Carly say I have a drinking problem.....
Pet Peeves: Three rules about what I hate: 1. Don't ruin a good cake 2. don't interrupt my drinking. And the most important rule is NEVER hurt my loved ones
Favorite food: A big choco berry cake with a big bottle of booze. It's a fit for a king!!
Least favorite food:Not a fan of sushi. It reminds me of a mistake.....
Hobbies: I dabble in some gardening
Skills
Requip: The hunter :allows Eric to store and summon hunter weapons at his disposal.
Stealth: is a sneaky guy when he needs to be
Speed: While not as fast as his sister,he can move pretty fast.
Background
Before meeting the guild,Eric and Alici didn't have much since their parents died. They both took odd jobs to get by. At one point,they were taken in to be weapons. The conditions were vile and the twins nearly lost their lives. Then,one day a woman came to save all the captives. Alici and Eric followed her to the guild and the rest was history.
Personality
Eric is what people call "hard to handle ". He always has a frown on his face and is quite rude and cynical . However,he is also the most loyal man you will ever meet . He is also very clever, being able to take on harder opponents and win.
Requip: The Assassin: Has weapons fitting of assassin
Speed: Is the fastest of the siblings
Stealth: Can make herself scares when she needs to be
Strength: Is very strong,
Cooking: Is a pretty awesome cook
Background
Before meeting the guild,Eric and Alici didn't have much since their parents died. They both took odd jobs to get by. At one point,they were taken in to be weapons. The conditions were vile and the twins nearly lost their lives. Then,one day a woman came to save all the captives. Alici and Eric followed her to the guild and the rest was history.
Personality
Alici is a lively young woman. She sees life as something to enjoy. She always tries to see the bright side of life. However, she can be pretty reckless at times. She prefers to go fast. However don't let that demeanor fool you, she is the assassin for a reason.
Friends
Carly Nagisa
Jackie Park
Gai Novak
Trivia
Loves to play matchmaker
Like her brother,she is the equivalent of Irish and Thai descent
Has a love for electro swing
Is always trying to get Eric to stop drinking,it never works
Flaws: Overworked himself, not good at picking up social cues
Pet Peeves: Unethical experimentation,hurt children ,hurt friends
Likes: Learning more about magic ,his family ,his spirits, reading
Favorite food: Ramen
Least favorite food: sour food
Personality
Hikaru was a kind man. When he was alive, he always tried to help others. He also had a love for magic. However,that man was always stubborn. For better or worse. He had always overworked himself, concerning his loved ones. He also had bad social skills, leaving his colleagues to do the talking for him .
Friends
Kail Montoya
Alicia Whatts
James Lee
Trivia
Far sighted
Proposed to his wife by making her a magic book for her recipes
Was the one who named Marinette,who he named after a magical researcher in the 40s.
Knew about Yubel,was planning on talking to them about what they were before he died
Was actually a good cook,he just preferred quickly made food
While Kousei worked at Heartland Tower, he was against the idea of getting close with others. He barely talked with anyone at work, and people tended to avoid him. He’d stay until late in the archives, as he also had to compensate by studying on his own.
He’d just follow orders from Faker and work on his daily tasks, but after his first meeting with Chris, he would suddenly start to find him everywhere he went
His relationship with Christopher is the most important one, as he was the first person he considered his friend, and felt comfortable enough around him when they both worked at Heartland Tower.
i'm late and out of order but yolo, here's a season 0 oc: Arisa Kondou
picrew
Arisa wasn’t supposed to have an after school job, but faer family didn’t have a lot of extra money, so this was faer way of helping. Kaiba Land didn’t seem to care that Arisa was still in high school (since the CEO and vice president are both children, that makes sense), so fae was lucky enough to help out in the gift shop. Arisa likes to play hanafuda games, but can’t help but be intrigued by Duel Monsters, especially after seeing Kaiba and Yugi play against each other. Arisa seems sweet and delicate, but is very tricky and mischievous, sometimes going so far as to be outright malicious.
@ygoc-week
drabble under cut
“I can’t believe we’ve been going to the same school this whole time and never met,” Arisa says, offering Miho some of faer lunch in the break room. “I’ve seen you, of course, but…”
Miho would be offended if fae hadn’t, but the assurance placates her and she smiles. “At least we know neither of us will tell on each other.”
Arisa smiles, eying Miho for a long moment. “That makes me your little secret, huh?” fae hums.
Because the job is a secret and Arisa and Miho never had much cause to talk at school, Arisa ends up watching the friend group from afar. Arisa doesn’t have friends at school. Fae keeps to faeself, playing solitaire games with faer hanafuda deck. The cards catch Yugi’s eyes sometimes and Arisa thinks he might approach fae, but after he beat Seto Kaiba in Death-T, Yugi seems reluctant to reach out to new people.
One might think that he’d be more triumphant about his very public victory over the greatest Duelist in the world. Arisa would be.
But Kaiba Land temporarily closes while Kaiba is in a coma. There’s a valiant effort to keep it open, but the biggest appeal of Seto Kaiba was that he was unbeatable. There simply weren’t as many people interested in coming to the amusement part. Mokuba Kaiba had his own share of fans, but the vice president’s focus was divided. He didn’t have time for the dog and pony show it would take to draw a large crowd.
The most unfortunate thing about it for Arisa was that it meant fae lost faer job. Oh sure, they promised faes that when the park reopened, fae would be rehired, but who knows when that would be? Arisa could find another after school job, but it wouldn’t be a secret shared with Miho anymore.
Better late than never right (looks directly at the camera)
⬅[Prev] Day 7: Free Day
@ygoc-week Day 7.2: The F in Free Day stands for Flower Language (Final)
i'm very normal about flowers and symbolism okay
Originally I picked the Hibiscus for Fuschia because it has a loud appearance just like him, but then I found out it represents fame, glory and riches?? Perfect for mr get that bread (he also likes the edible kind)
also apparently you can use it to denote if you're married or not in Hawaii well he sure is a househusband thumbs up emoji
With their dignified and noble appearance, I immediately looked towards white Chrysanthemums for Viol! They require lots of water, and this boy can pack so much ocean-related imagery
White chrysanthemums in particular also symbolise mourning and are used in many parts of the world at funerals, and he's had to deal with two major losses in his life (one before and one during the war).
According to this one Japanese blog I found, the name (kiku) comes from the word for dead end because it's the "last flower to bloom in the year" and that's very funny so apt to me because it symbolises the fate of those from the Fusion Dimension that crossed his path during the war (except for one little guy)
Jackie was another character where I assigned a flower to her out of vibes and then when I checked its symbolism it was a match made in heaven yippee
Camellias are bold, beautiful, and being winter bloomers, tough and resilient. As an orphan that climbed her way up the social ladder in the Synchro Dimension through years of shady side-jobs, that alone would have cinched the assignation, but on top of that, camellias also represent eternal love and long-lasting devotion as the petals and calyx fall together when the flower withers.
Jackie is a very social creature, and here, she's holding (slowly letting go of) yellow camellias, which represent friendship, highlighting what's most important to her...
The Ghost Orchid has no cool symbolism or flower language associated with it (yet, anyway) but it has plenty of characteristics to derive meaning from!
Inhabiting swamps and forests and blooming once a year or sometimes even none at all, it's an extremely rare specimen.
It's largely leafless, and relies on its roots rather than photosynthesis for nutrients. Likewise, instead of relying on others like how plants require sunlight, Fleur sets up her spider web throughout the Synchro Dimension to accomplish her goals.
Also, both she and the plant have the same little scarf!! (Another happy coincidence)
Bonus lore!! (since its related) Jackie also has a habit of assigning flowers and animals to all the women she meet (Viol is the odd exception) and keeps track of them in a little notebook she carries around (and me with a handy dandy excel sheet).
Being a VRAINS character, of course she has an avatar!
Known as Transcendence online, Penelope likes to explore the digital world and see what's possible. Her avatar has a pink base, with a white torso and some blue trim. Most notably, her right arm is split into three metallic pieces, the latter two of which float in the air. The metallic parts feel cool to the touch like any metal would. Additionally, her avatar has rectangular pupils, mimicking those of a SOLTis.
She's been gathering duel data from herself and others for her personal work whenever she goes out. She likes testing some less-than-entirely-legal programs to manipulate the world, but tends to keep them relatively nondisruptive. She doesn't want to draw too much of a target to herself, after all!
While in VRAINS, Transcendence uses the same Crystron deck as her real-world counterpart. It's a bit harder to handle with the limited zones of speed duel, but it's still possible. See this post for her deck!
I mentioned in the previous post that Penelope has several AU versions and that one of them is ARC-V. It's an universe I always liked exploring, but the collective ARC-V brainrot in YGOS more or less forced my hand. Big thanks to them for helping to flesh some of this out. So let's examine that version of her character!
Penelope grew up in the Fusion Dimension. She always wanted to be praised and looked up to, and so she did her best to be the best student she could be. This allowed her to test straight into the blue dorm through her entry exams. During orientation, she was assigned to the group led by Fuschia (@fluffalpenguin's character). Being the brownnoser that she is, she wanted to appease the upperclassmen, and so she ended up making a small levitating Aluber figurine for him. The two stayed allies throughout school, though Penelope would consider him a friend in addition to being a mentor.
The next few years were pretty straightforward for her. Attend classes, improve her dueling, learn about other dimensions, learn about the new tech and how to work with it, and so on. She was totally enraptured by the lofty goal and didn't pay as much attention to the details as she should have… up until the Academia invasion. At this time, she was using her Reclamatron deck (card designs still WIP).
As a member of Obelisk Force, she was one of the members to invade… but immediately, she was plagued by doubts. She wanted to make the world a better place, hence her desire to fulfill Academia's goal, but seeing the terror of the XYZ dimension's inhabitants made her question her motives. When her first assault was over, she returned to Academia and grabbed Fuschia to talk about the whole situation. She wanted out, while he was still her senior and wanted to continue the invasion, still not questioning Academia's motives and mission. What was initially some doubts and discussion turned into a heated argument, and later, a duel by one of the many cliffs of Academia's island. One poor dodge from an attack made her land on unstable ground that crumbled beneath her, sending her into the ocean. She would have met her demise there if she hadn't immediately activated her disk and transported herself to synchro, ending up in City… and still splashing immediately into the water there. It was still enough to survive, but she knew she couldn't go back. Fuschia, for his part, thought that she had died then and there.
Still, though, she wanted to establish herself here. The first thing she did was disable the tracking on her disk. (Luckily, she'd already known enough about how it worked to have this be something she could turn off at a moment's notice. She decided to get a lay of the land and managed to help someone with a small repair, letting her get somewhere to stay for the night. She eventually got settled in synchro, setting up a repair shop in the commons area. Her time there was one of conflict; on one hand, she wanted to appease those in power, but on the other hand, she wanted to prevent the wrongs they were causing. She always justified her actions in favor of the tops by saying that she'd be able to use those resources to help those in need… such thoughts were probably suggested to her by other tops, since she's quite malleable in that regard.
Post-canon, she continues to run her shop, repairing other peoples' runners and gadgets while also improving her own. She occasionally visits Fuschia in Standard and has started to become friends with some of his colleagues there.
Since moving to synchro, she's put together the Crystron deck she's known for elsewhere. She still has her Reclamatron deck, just like she has the chassis for her old disk, but the internals have been removed for a standard synchro one. Her duel disk's blade is a sector of a gear as well, rather than any of the standard ones.
Today I want to take the chance to give a shout out to my friends in a certain discord server; without them I don't think I'd ever go so crazy and make so much OC content this year!
This is a height chart for (almost) all the OCs in our ARC-V AU (those with at least half a body anyway, lol), arranged by home dimensions! You can probably tell, but it goes from Synchro -> Standard/Pendulum -> Fusion -> Xyz. When characters appear twice it's usually to show the change in their heights (and/or emigration to another dimension) between during the events of the series and post-canon.
We're always looking for more people to join us in the fun! Even if your OC isn't based in ARC-V, feel free to make an AU version of them if you like; though if you just want somewhere to infodump about your YGO OC blorbo this is the place too!
Most importantly, if you're into cooking lore for your blorbo, we've got daily text-based prompts! Here are just a few as an example, ranging from serious to shitpost:
yeah look how well-organised that looks don't you want to come in you are a vampire and i am opening the door (<- invite link)
Okay I'm done shilling thanks for reading thus far yea I do have another Day 7... it's in progress.. like 75% done...
(OCs above include those belonging to @darkingmirage @shinrei017 @yuugo @shshshotsz @nialumin @frosty-mage @lucinaofstardust )
my obligatory "series i made up" protag, Yuval Elkayim
picrew link
Duel Monsters being able to be used as a power source has been incredibly helpful in space exploration. Small communities live on asteroids, which have been terraformed to harvest crops. Yuval grew up in one of these and eventually found a way to play Duel Monsters that made the game pace a bit longer and steadier, which made a more efficient stream of energy. Because of this, ze was selected for a larger program on a small planet nearby, working to connect the small enclaves scattered about the planet with an rail infrastructure, while having to deal with various environmental hazards.
@ygoc-week
drabble under cut
Yuval hadn’t expected much to come of zir innovations on Dueling. When ze shared it with the commune on the next asteroid over, it was because it was something that would help them, not something ze wanted recognition for. But then Yuval got a message from the System Authority that zir new Duel style–the Level Ramp–was perfect for the infrastructure project on the nearest planet.
The planet was large and the terraforming projects were going very slowly, so there were several cities and enclaves scattered about the planet, but traversing between them was impossible. Yuval’s Level Ramping could change that by making it possible to build railways connecting the cities. It was surreal. It felt like ze had won a competition that ze hadn’t entered in.
And that was before Yuval found out that there had been a contest, pitching solutions for this problem. Zir work was submitted on zir behalf and Level Ramping had won. Yuval would be more excited by that if it weren't for the harsh looks ze received when meeting the rest of the group.
“The thing is,” one of them was nice enough to explain, “when we submitted ours, we were also training to go on this expedition. It's pretty annoying that someone from a farming asteroid gets to come along without enough knowing what you're doing.”
“I had to come along in case the Duel Disks need maintenance. I'm a quick learner, so I won't be any trouble.” But she clearly still has her doubts. Yuval will have to prove zirself in some other way over time. Words are easy after all.
Clear Skies is a story that involves multiple timelines and a version of Z-ONE trapped, trying to find a solution to a time loop. This VERY mucH revolves around Rain and Kalin.
One timeline we get to see is a brief snapshot of an attempt where Z-ONE defeats Roman and is able to restore Rain’s memory prior to her awakening in the Satellite, so during the Team Satisfaction era she’s instead a murderer-menace.
Yet stilllll ends up in a relationship anyway and is facing a firing squad for the things she and Kalin have done. He sets off an explosion, and they manage to escape.
It gets cut off there in the main story BUT I honestly was so enamored with this timeline that I wrote out how they ended up warming up to each other. This one-shot is prettttty long, almost 4k words! but I’m happy I get to share it for OC Week! I originally wrote this for the Angstober prompt “Crimes of Passion” because oh, doesn’t that fit them perfectly?
WARNINGS FOR THIS ONE-SHOT: alcohol use, gun violence, a drinking game that gets. hot n heavy. implied/offscreen nsfw (nothing that would be an E rating on AO3, don’t worry~!)
full fic under the cut :3c
————————
Soft beeps filled the hospital room. Kalin Kessler had fallen asleep on his knees, his hand in Rain Orichalcum’s; she lay comatose on the bed. Z-ONE appeared in the visitation seats in a green flash wearing a blank expression.
“Again. Again,” Z-ONE whispered. “How many times have I been here?”
A swirl of violet flames birthed the figure of a Dark Signer, Ccapac Apu wearing Rain’s skin. Its black robes lined with blue drank in the noonday sunshine. Its drawn hood casted shadows over its dark eyes, but its grin was free and bright. “If it isn’t the worthless machine back again! What are we at now? Should I be celebrating three thousand?”
“When you are snuffed out,” Z-ONE said, “those taunts will vanish with you along with all the anguish you have woven into the universe.”
“Little old me?” It feigned surprise. “But I was happy to eat up one timeline! Here you are creating ever more for me to feast. Tell me, rusty bucket of bolts, do you ever consider how those timelines end up? Ever had one stick in the old brain?”
“What? No. It doesn’t… matter.”
“Oh, but it does. A tree fallen in the forest may go unheard by humanity yet makes sound enough to scatter the birds, and a timeline abandoned by your sorry self continues to spiral until ending up in my wondrous arms. Or are you a depressed solipsist?”
Z-ONE stared. “I go on. It is what I do.”
“The weight of it all must eat you up.” The wicked god hovered over Z-ONE, spittle flying with its words. “The decisions you’ve made and the sheer agony they’ve resulted in. I know you lie to me. They’re lodged in your brain as much as I continue to experience them—every timeline continuing on, every light for me to consume! You should try godhood sometime, but oh, no machine could process it. You would fall to pieces. I suppose it wouldn’t matter, since you’re already a heap of junk!”
Z-ONE’s fists balled. “I am no god. Nor am I a machine. The probability exists. I merely have to find its branch. Your days have been numbered from the start. As for the other branches…”
Z-ONE stood. “A god such as you exists simultaneously on every timeline, and so you will be eradicated everywhere; everywhen.”
“Eradicated!” The wicked god laughed and slapped its knee. “Funny! You aaare funny. You don’t like to talk about them, but I have my favorites! Timelines you’ve screwed up, that is.”
The wicked god rolled its eyes. “Whatever, whatever, see you next time around.” It cleaned beneath its grimy fingernails and studied Kalin and Rain.
Its smile curled up.
/\/\/\/\/\/
One thousand three hundred and seventy-seven.
Z-ONE tampered with the game of gods by defeating Roman Godwin, possessed by Earthbound Immortal Uru. Uru had snatched Rain Orichalcum’s memories. She was left as a complacent girl with childlike naïvete. A chance run-in with Kalin Kessler netted her an opportunity to join Team Satisfaction and survive in the post-fallout wasteland known as the Satellite, an island used as garbage disposal for the nearby New Domino City.
The Rain Orichalcum who had her memories returned before any such meeting took place, before growing close to humans who showed her kindness and empathy, was a very different person indeed.
Smog intermingled with the gray clouds blanketing the overcast sky. Kalin Kessler strolled the grimy Satellite streets whistling a tune. He kicked a can as he went and periodically glanced up at the rooftops. He passed a pair of stray dogs fighting over a scrap of rotten food and tossed them a fresh granola bar.Â
The hairs on the back of his neck lifted. Wind swept through the streets, carrying litter and brushing the collar of his Team Satisfaction vest against his cheek. He spun on his heel, his focus locked on the rooftop of the building behind him.
A pale woman with long, black hair and blue eyes glared down at him. Her legs dangled over the building's edge. Kalin said, "Heyo, it's just the girl I'm looking for!"
She thinned her eyes.
"Oh, how I enjoy our long and eventful conversations. You know, they've started calling you the shadow. I don't think it fits so much. What about something more creative, like, Raven!"
She rolled her eyes.Â
"Not your name, then." He sighed and made a show of slumping sadly. "One of these days, I'll find it out! Eh, I have a more, uh, pressing priority today. You got a hard number on how many Securities you've killed?"
Her head tilted, expression unchanging. She held up both hands and lifted one finger, two fingers, all the way to ten. Then she curled her fingers and shrugged.Â
"So many you don't know?"Â
She confirmed with a nod.Â
"See! That's a problem for us. You, too. They're hiking up their numbers in the Satellite and making it worse for every one of us. It goes pretty counter to what I'm trying to do around here, which is to stay on the low to keep Security out of our hair. S'long as we got a nice, united Satellite, Security's the only fuckheads. Make sense?"
She stared.
"Come on. There's gotta be something I can do to convince you to leave them alone. Anything you want? I'll find it. Anything you wanna do to me? Hell, murder me instead for all I care. The rest of my team can take it from there."
"Your logic is flawed," she said, and he jumped. Words! From her mouth! "Every human is a fuckhead."
He couldn't help it; he laughed. "Ah, you got me there! Hey, you duel? How about a bet?"
"I'll take a bet," she said, "but we'll play my game."
"What game's that?"
She smiled in a very unpleasant way. "Drinking. You pass out first, and you never acknowledge my existence again. I pass out first, and you get your wish. I'll leave the guys in gray alone."
Very many a thought raced through Kalin's mind. If this was her game, she was surely better prepared than him. On the other hand, he had biology on his side considering his size over her. "You got yourself a deal."
She dropped onto the street before him, her boots stirring dust. Her loose-fitting black shirt, one arm missing the fabric, swayed with her stride. He followed her without word and with a wide berth. He'd heard enough stories to know even a perceived slight could end his life.
Yet there he went, following the Satellite's infamous murderer to who-knows-where. If he survived, Yusei and Crow would kill him. Jack would shoot him one of his more judgmental looks.
Perhaps he should rethink this.
Nahh. It was for the good of them all, so he had to. Plus, free drinks. They might end up being straight up poison, buuut-
"Here," she said.
Gray waves splashed up the high, craggy shoreline. Across the inlet, New Domino City caught rays of sunshine. The smog in this part of the Satellite, so close to the factories, blocked out the sun. She stood inside a control building connected to a now-defunct hydropower plant. The steel dam still stood, and trash floated on the disgusting green water behind it.Â
Kalin followed her inside. She wound down a steel staircase. Their clanging footsteps echoed, testaments to how deep the plant stretched. She stopped three stories down. The emergency generators kept on the lights, and select rations lay scattered on the many control panels. In the corner lay a sleeping bag, an unlit lantern, and scattered bottles.Â
She struck a match and lit the lantern. He studied the place. A few cockroach corpses rested here and there but nothing serious. He said, "Must stay pretty warm way down here in the winter."
She yanked down a large switch on the wall, and the humming overhead lights shut off. Screens and buttons provided minimal bright blue lighting. Most came from her lantern, a buttery orange glow. "Do you feel colder now?"
"Huh? Not really."
"The electricity here keeps the heat going," she said. "Since I don't need it, well. There it goes."
He kept a straight face, but it wasn't the greatest news to hear. They hadn't reached the snowy part of the year but the chill was enough to wake him up in the middle of the night. He'd worn only his typical red t-shirt, jeans, vest, and boots. His socks had more holes than he could count, so the cold found his feet first. "Not many places still get heat. How'd you find this?"
"I'm not here for small talk." She picked up two glass bottles of clear liquid and dropped into a rotating chair. I took the one beside her. The pair of tall bottles rested between various knobs and dials, and the lantern sat on the floor between us. The upward casting of shadows darkened her eyes and the hollows of his cheeks. She said, "Truth or dare's the game. If you pick truth, you drink."
The thought of what she might dare him to do skyrocketed his pulse. He said, "You should drink first. Y'know, so I'm sure you're not poisoning me."
She rolled her eyes and took a deep swig. "Guess I'm truth first."
"Your name!" he said. Uh. Surely there were better options, and yet.
"Rain," she answered. "Rain Orichalcum."
"Wow," he whispered. "Rain…"
"Don't- say it like that."
"Like what?"
She shook her head. "Your turn. Pick."
"Truth." He smelled the bottle. Fuck was it strong. He took a swig and coughed. Stuff almost came back up as vomit but he hit his fist against his chest and kept it down. The strength of it flooded his sinuses and lingered there. "Ugh, what the hell?"
She was laughing. He was too stunned to speak. She swiftly recovered her composure and swiped the bottle from him. "All the other stuff isn't strong enough."
"So you drink fucking rubbing alcohol?"
"Yes."
His brows shot up, and he studied the stuff with renewed interest. It'd hit him within seconds and he felt the urge to laugh even though nothing had happened. He rubbed his mouth and said, "Uh, your question?"
"What are you trying to do to this island? Conquer it?"
He blinked. "Kind of. I don't know. That doesn't sound like the right word. We're trying to, like- unite! Thaaat's the word. Yeah, so, right now it's split into a whole bunch of territories run by different gangs. They make life hell for anyone who's not in their gang, and lots of times, members of the gangs act like slaves to whoever the gang leader is. We're not like that. We wanna take them down and let everybody be free. We can make the Satellite as good a place to live as the City that way."
"Why do you believe that?" she said.
"Ha! I'm not drunk enough to fall for that. You gotta ask me next time."
"Fine." She drank. "Truth."
"Why do you keep killing people?"
She squinted and cleaned out her ear with a pinkie. "Do fuckheads deserve the lives they've been given if they use it only to abuse others? Take these other gangs, for example. Clearly you have a case of an individual with power who abuses it and takes advantage of those beneath the leader. Why should they continue to exist?"
He snorted. "Yeah, okay, they suck. Why does that mean you get to kill 'em? Like, why do you get to decide that?"
"I answered my question."
"Ugggh. How many in are we?"
"You've had two shots," she said.Â
"What? No. I'm gonna fall out of the fucking chair! Whatever. I'll take a dare!"
Rain struck a match. A single strip of smoke rose up between them. "Your tongue. Five seconds."
"What the fuck?"
She arched an eyebrow. Psycho. Kalin opened his mouth. The heat started at the tip and slowly moved back inside his mouth, her fingers touching his lips. "One. Two. Three."
He shut his eyes tight against the searing pain. He smelled something burning. She dragged out her vowels: "Fooour…"
He clamped down his teeth, snatching the match and smothering it with his tongue. Her fingers came away wet, and she gaped at them. He grinned with the blackened match as his toothpick. "Five!"
She scowled and took a swig. "Truth."
"So boring!" A corner of his mouth quirked up. "How many shots does it take to get you to pass out?"
"To be determined."
He threw up his hands. The fact it didn't throw off his center of gravity was a good sign insofar. "Lemme ask a real one since you can't answer that. It's only fair." She nodded, so he said, "Why d'you hate people so much?"
A corner of her lip jumped with her snarl. "Because of what they did to me."
Hangups, eh. He considered the bottle. "Meh, do your worst. Dare again."
She giggled. He about fell into the floor hearing it. He deeefinitely had the lead. She said, "Really?"
"Yeah, really! What's the torture gonna be this time?"
She leveled an even stare at him. "Take off your shirt."
He busted out a laugh. Her expression didn't change. He said, "Oh, so I've caught the shadow's eye, huh?"
The chair spun behind Rain as she shot to her feet and gripped a fistful of his shirt. He grinned and held up his empty hands. She dropped him and sniffed. "I hope you freeze to death."
"Mhmm, that's it." He was too far gone to fear her snarl. He tossed off his vest and peeled off his shirt, stretching to leave his broad shoulders. She sat with the chair backwards, her chin resting on its cushioned back. The bottle dangled from her fingers. She kept her eyes locked with his. The cold raised bumps on his skin but the thundering pump of his blood kept him plenty warm. He smiled, saying, "I can tell you're trying sooo hard to keep your eyes up there."
Her expression soured. She downed three massive gulps, finishing the bottle, and tossed it aside. "Truth."
"Do I get three?"
"I'll ssstab you," she said.Â
Her blinks were getting uneven, too. That with the slurring meant very good things for him. He nabbed the next bottle. "Are you really gonna follow through on our bet?"
She let her arms dangle over the chair, and her cheek pressed against the chair. "Mmm. I would still defend myshelf."
The lantern flickered yet the light was bright in his eyes–electric. "Myshelf?"Â
"Shut up. You take three. You slowed down too fast for it to be fun."
He swallowed a trio of the nasty stuff. He stumbled and had to find his chair with a probing hand. "That answer works for me. I get a truth now, right?"
"Yeah." She stood up and swayed. A firm hand on the chair kept her upright. "What the hell is with your interest in me? You're always talking to me and wanted my name and- you've heard about me. You know what I've done."
There was a tremble to her that could've come from any number of things. Kalin chalked it up to the alcohol. "Suuure. I've got connections. I know the witnesses. Funny thing about all the stories is how all those kills were for the purpose of protecting a victim. Crazy stuff! There's always someone who was in danger and got away."
"That's not true," she hissed.
"Okay, take your sip and lemme ask you for the truth."
She grit her teeth and growled. "Dare."
"I get mine now? Finally!" He crossed his arms over the back of his chair. "Shirt off."
"What?"Â
"Come on. You can't act that way when you made me do it."
Her inhale was sharp. Her focus rolled down his bare arms and abdomen. Her frown was a tight little thing as she threw off her black shirt. Loose gauze bound her chest. The lantern light caught on the light hairs surrounding her navel and trailing up her flat stomach to the white wrappings, the topmost loop of which was juuust open enough-
"Stop," she snapped.
"Yeah, yeah. The hell do I do? I think if I have another sip I'll, like, die."Â
There was also the curve of her hips, how the lantern's flicker played its soft and warm light over her skin disappearing into her waistband-
"Dare," he managed.
"I dare you to claw out your own fucking eyes."
He blinked and stared at his hands. "Shit."
Rain doubled over laughing. She stumbled, hit the floor, and lay on her back still busting a gut. He started in with her. She said, "Dumbass."
"How'd you know the nickname my friends gave me?"
They broke down into a new fit.Â
"I dare you to drink more," she said.
"Huh? That's gotta be against the rules!"
"Fuck your rules."
"Can't argue with that," he said, and he drank. He couldn't taste it anymore. Probably he was dying or something, but what a way to go. "Your turn."
She pushed up off the floor. "Dare."
The lantern was low and sputtering. He leaned into the dark and said, "Touch me."
Her eyes widened, the reflected spot of orange like a sunburst sky. He laughed and ran his hand through his hair. "No, that was stupid, I-"
But she was approaching him, cautious like a feral animal attracted to proffered food. He stood stock still. She studied him from his ice-blue locks long enough to fall in his face to his warm hazel eyes to his bare chest. Her fingertip pressed onto his sternum and traveled down, tracing the outline of his abs, leaving a hot touch in every trench. He realized he was hearing her breaths, loud and echoing, and he was holding his own without meaning to. She pressed her hand to his stomach, and he gasped, the incredible warmth of her enticing a shiver throughout all of him.
"You know," she whispered, her fingertips glancing up his chest to land on his shoulder, "I think it's your turn."
He could only remain upright and breathe.
"Kalin?" she said.
A shaky exhale left him. He laughed a little, and she squeezed his shoulder. "This is the greatest day of my life."
"Huh?"
"You said my name," he murmured, staring up at the ceiling. "And I've never heard it said better."
She clicked her tongue and turned away. "I can tell I'm drunk because that one kind of worked."
His arm looped around her waist. "How much?"
She shook him off, and he stepped back. She said, "Drink or don't. I'm still gonna win."
He took a swig. His vision went blurry for a few seconds but he managed to blink it away. "Ask away."
She met his eyes and said, "What do you want to do to me?"
His brows lifted and he had absolutely zero control over his stare landing on her chest, on the gauze-wrapped curves swelling and retreating with the rhythm of her breaths. She inched closer to him, licked her lips, and said, "Dare."
He pinched the end of the gauze above her cleavage and waited, the question in his eyes. Her fingers curled around his wrist and the smallest part of him, the still sober bit, expected his bones to snap. But she guided his hand to unwind the binding and free her bare skin. The white strips fell and curled around her feet. He stared at her and she at him, their exhales long and intermingling, the world silent outside the thrumming beats of their hearts.
She snuffed out the light with her bare fingertips and pressed her body to his. She kissed him and he tasted like bonfire smoke. He couldn't think beyond the need to be consumed by her heat like the damn match, left a burnt and useless nothing, and he didn't care. Her dark hair was silk through his fingers and he had to hold her ever closer. They fell onto the sleeping bag. The glow of the LED screens turned her eyes electric blue, and he grasped her face to brush his thumbs beneath them. She kissed him again and her fingers found his waistband.Â
It's dark outside–a seemingly abrupt state but one that occurred gradually, the sunset a fleeting and dying beauty to behold.
/\/\/\/\/\/
"We can't keep running forever. What do we do?" Kalin slammed his fist into the alley wall, and his knuckles bled. The pouring rain filled the open wounds. "I don't know what the fuck to do!"
Rain sat slumped on the opposite side. The white roots of her hair showed on the crown of her head. The drizzle dripped down her face like stray tears. Blood mixed in the liquid from the cut on her cheek, the graze of a bullet. "The clothes factory?"
"Fucking Security knows about it, and about your power plant. The hideout, too. Shit. That explosion got you away from the firing squad but brought more of those fuckers out of the woodworks. Where do we go?"
"If I turn myself in-"
"Don't give me that shit. We go down, we go down together."
"I wouldn't be anybody without you!" she said. "You have to keep going, even if I-"
He took her hand between his. "You're everything, whether I'm there or not. Let's get going. Hard to hear with the rain, so we gotta stay on the move."
They climbed the rooftops. Flashlights attached to assault rifles cut through the storm. Shouts rang out but the downpour drowned them. Rain and Kalin ran from building to building, offering minimal exposure. Bullets fired. Glass shattered by them. They hit the deck and scrambled outside the back exit.
A horde of Securities awaited them. A pair filtered in from behind and jabbed them forward with their barrels. Rain followed Kalin's lead by holding up her empty hands. The Securities surrounding them were all poised and ready to fire their uncountable weapons.Â
A voice crackled over their comms. The Security wearing a scarf clicked his radio, saying, "Roger."
All fronts fired at once. Rain screamed but the bullets whizzed past her and tore Kalin apart. The onslaught ceased. She dove to his side and gathered him in her arms but he was gone, gone. She roared and threw out her deck, touching every card. An army of monsters filled the sky. Dragons blasted Securities and blades stabbed clean through bulletproof vests. A panicked Security fired wildly, automatic weapon churning out bullet after bullet. Several Securities fell yet the attack of the enraged monsters did not end.
Scarlet blossomed from Rain's chest. She collapsed in a splash of water. The endless gray sky brought her back to that day so long ago it felt like decades past rather than months.
How love slows time.
Her breaths weakened, and her heartbeat slowed.
It doesn't have to end like this.
Violet blazed from both Rain and Kalin's forearms. The mark of the Giant glowed, and fuchsia flames ate away at their bodies until nothing remained.
----------------------
(reminder I’m just a writer, artist credit in alt text!)
OC week has been so great!!! I’ve loved seeing and reading about all your blorbos <3 (and I’m in a few nice OC spaces if anyone wants in/ to add on discord, anx)
Thought I’d include some summoning chants for each of my OCs today. Final day of @ygoc-week!
Renee Ascella
Starmight Sorciere: "Weave and dance under the night sky and cast a truly illuminating spell! Starmight Sorciere!”
Milky Way Wyvern: “The forces of an entire galaxy collide in one monster! Milky Way Wyvern, enter the atmosphere!”
Alice Ascella
Starsinger Aquarius: "A melody floods through the galaxy. Can you hear it? Can you sing it? Come out, Starsinger Aquarius!"
Lightbringer Virgo: "A million stars will never shine as bright as this! Lightbringer Virgo will light up the field like never before!"
Celestial King Leo: “Ruler of the stars, shake the very galaxy with your presence! Celestial King Leo!”
Ravyn Kusari
Thundero of the Stormy Skies: “Sovereign of the storm, come down and strike the hearts of those who oppose you!”
Midnight Rapidfire Dragon: “Valor of machine and dark of night come together and form an annihilating force!”
Midnight Unicorn: “Magic at its finest takes a majestic new form!”
Midnight Pegasus: “Wings of the night, take flight! Midnight Pegasus enters the field!”
Adira Tsuyoi
Sky Surfer - Thunderstorm: "Cracking lightning, torrential rain, fierce wind. The brewer of storms can sail through even the roughest weather!"
Cyrus Hikari
Solar Flare Dragon: “The light of power takes on a brilliant new form!”
Galactic Flare Dragon: “The light of the universe manifests itself before me! Galactic Flare Dragon!”
Kai Hikari
Mafiaran the Underworld Flame: "There is no fire like that of the underworld. Burst forth from below to incinerate those in your path! Mafiaran the Underworld Flame!"
Sunsitu the Destructive Flame: "Run rampant and set a burning trail of destruction in your path!"
Asher Kanashimi
Mech-Canine Greyhound: “Race at lightspeed and tear up the track, Mech-Canine Greyhound!”
Mech-Canine Cerberus: “Steel guardian of the underworld. Triple the teeth and triple the power. Mech-Canine Cerberus!”
Yugioh Vrains Be More Chill AU because I listen to the soundtrack and somehow relate it to this. @ygoc-week
Ravyn is Jeremy. She feels kind of inferior and has a crush on this guy who is out of her reach. There’s a time where she connects with him and thinks she has a chance, only to find out he likes someone else. So, she gets a Squip (which I think would be more like something forbidden that can be installed in your duel disk instead of a pill you take). She hopes to slowly drift away from her friends and her feelings for Asher, but is still drawn back to him.
Asher is Christine. Like how she’s very into theatre, he’s very passionate about his music. He’s friendly towards people and that’s how he gets through to Aoi despite her shy exterior.
Spectre is the Squip. In the actual OC lore, Ravyn joins the Knights of Hanoi and becomes close to Revolver, but Spectre has the more intense personality that I think is required of the Squip. Ravyn installs the Squip in her duel disk which lets her see him when she’s in Link VRAINS. His plan is to spread himself like a virus to everyone else in the virtual world. He takes advantage of Ravyn's desire to start a new life away from her friends to accomplish this.
Adira is Michael. She’s Ravyn’s closest friend and support. When Ravyn runs away from their apartment and starts this whole new life, she feels betrayed. In the end, she wants her friend back and will do what it takes to reach her.
Aoi is Jake. In role only really that she connects with Asher and, through that, her personality changes. Being with him makes her come out of her shell.
Ryoken is Brooke. He’s representative of the new life Ravyn has (like how Jeremy dates Brooke once he becomes popular).
These relations are mostly in terms of role in the story versus personality.
Songs (they play like animatics in my head)
A Guy That I’d Kinda Be Into
The whole song is spent as Ravyn watches the relationship.
In the first verse is her listening in on Aoi trying to imply that she likes someone.
Ravyn also hears Asher confides in Cyrus about this who tells him that she’s definitely into him.
Aoi and Asher start dating and grow closer and closer.
The end of the song is split between Ravyn and Asher after the event of him forgetting her birthday.
Ravyn sits alone in the darkened apartment while Asher is at a fair with Aoi.
Asher’s the guy Ravyn likes while Asher simultaneously tells Aoi he likes her.
Upgrade
It starts out with Ravyn talking to Ryoken , which switches into Spectre coaxing her. She’s hesitant about it though.
While in Link VRAINS, she spots Asher and Aoi talking and being in love.
Spectre directs her attention back to him, tempting her with the fact that if she goes along with his plan, she could be with Asher.
Adira confronts Ravyn about her change in behavior, worried about what’s happened to her friend.
Ravyn thinks about why she ran away and how painful it’s been for her living with Asher.
She uses her scythe to forcibly log Adira out of Link VRAINS.
The Play
Spectre’s plan to spread his virus to everyone is now in motion. People are starting to become like zombies.
Ravyn starts fighting against him.
Adira steps in with a flash drive that will dispel the virus (she got it from Playmaker). The zombies manage to snag it from her though.
She and Ravyn use their ace monsters to fight them.
Ravyn gets her hands on the flash drive and is about to insert it into her duel disk when Spectre confronts her with Asher who has been infected already.
He controls Asher to act like he’s in love with her. Ravyn tries to fight it, knowing it’s not real even if she wants it to be.
“I love you.” Ravyn sheds a few tears. That’s all she ever wanted to hear from him. It didn’t matter if it was romantically or platonically, she just wanted to be by his side and know that he cares about her.
And so she inserts the flash drive into his duel disk.
I was going to attempt a seventh ficlet for the challenge but my brain said "no". Fair enough, I have cranked out more creative writing than I have in years. It's not a matter of not having AUs I could write for. I do. Many of them. I'm just scraping the bottom of the barrel when I try to translate them from RP verses to fic verses.
Instead, I am going to use today as an info dump day. Information on Sanura's fate in Ancient Egypt (hinted at in yesterday's prompt fill), mini bios for her and Mahaad's children, and references for a couple of other OCs that pop up in the ficlets.
Thanks for throwing this event together, @ygoc-week! I may swing back around and do another run through for a different OC.
Warnings for mentions of murder and character death under the read-more.
Sanura's Fate
Sanura lived at the palace for just about eight years total. Six of those years were spent married to Mahaad. In that time she served as the courtier of the royal wives and became a nanny to their children, as well as receiving training to be a sort of 'last line of defense' for them. It was work that she loved, and she loved the people she looked after in return. For five or so years everything was fine. Great, even. But there were rumblings outside the palace walls of discontent among the population. Loud enough to catch the attention of the Sacred Court but quiet enough to not be labelled much of a true threat.
That was a mistake.
In a devastating, bloody evening one of the royal wives was killed, along with the crown prince. It was an inside job. The ranks of the royal guard had been infiltrated by those who wished to see the bloodline ended. Sanura stumbled upon them in the act and was nearly killed herself but was rescued by loyal guards and the Sacred Court, alerted by the Ring and Necklace. The loss of her best friend and one of the children she loved took a heavy toll on her. That toll paled in the face of that taken on Atem. The murders of his wife and son planted some of the seeds that would one day blossom into darkness in the distant future.
But life and the passing of time marched on. While Sanura never fully got over such tragic losses she found a new normal in day to day life. Her family needed her, and she could not let herself dwell in the pain forever. She and Teana and the other palace mothers guided their children through their grief and slowly they all moved on.
Late the next year, Sanura gave birth to a second son named Bakari. If they had known that someone with a similar name would cause so much ruin and heartache they may have chosen a different name. Regardless, Bakari was a much loved and welcomed addition to their family.
Unfortunately, their happiness would be short lived. Bakari was only two months old when Bakura attacked the palace. Two days later Mahaad was gone. In the immediate aftermath Sanura shut down. Numbed by shock she carried on as if nothing was wrong, but she was mechanical and quiet as she cared for her sons and went about her work. It would be three weeks before she finally cracked under the weight of losing her husband.
This time, while she managed to pull herself back together, she never succeeded in escaping the heartbreak. Perhaps in time she might have. She had always proven herself to be resilient in the end. But time was not something given to her. Another assassination attempt was made on the royal family while security was spread thin because of Bakura. The attack was directed at the nursery. Sanura fought the assassin and held them off until guards could react, but made the ultimate sacrifice in doing so. She died protecting the children, including her own sons.
Minkah was only seven, and Bakari an infant, when they became the first orphans of the war.
Sanura was reunited with T'Kai and Rami in the Afterlife where the three of them waited to greet their loved ones when their time came. It took several thousand years for Sanura to be reunited with Mahaad.
Minkah
Minkah is the oldest son of Sanura and Mahaad. He was a quiet and shy child that took a while to warm up to new faces. The only one to really pull him out of his shell was Rami, Atem's oldest child. Together the two of them led the gaggle of other palace children on many an adventure (under their mothers' watchful eye, of course). The loss of Rami destroyed his childhood innocence but he stepped into the void his best friend left behind. At six years old he did his best to guide the other children and keep their spirits up. It was a hint of the person he would grow to be.
The following three years saw him growing up faster than any child should. The loss of his parents and most of the adults in his life as a war raged around them stole any chance at a 'normal' adolescence. He and his brother were adopted by priest, now Pharaoh, Seth in the end, as were all of the other children of the Sacred Court members who lost their lives in the battle against Zorc.
His teen years were marred with uncertainty. His brother knew Seth and his wife as his parents. As a result, Bakari pushed back against Minkah's attempts to tell him about Mahaad and Sanura. It led to a messy rift between the brothers that would take years to mend. With his brother refusing to listen, Minkah felt isolated with the pressure of keeping his parents' memories alive. Eventually he was reassured by Seth, Mana, Isis and Teana that he was not alone in the responsibility. The show of support helped him find balance between the trauma of his past and the regular challenges of being a teenager.
He eventually grew into a stable and well rounded adult. While he had none of his father's magical abilities and was passed over by the Ring, he nonetheless found a place among Seth's court as a vizier. In his early twenties he married Iseret, the daughter of Isis and Karim. The two of them would go on to become part of the first generation of tomb keepers. The modern day Ishtar siblings are some of their descendants.
Bakari
Minkah's younger brother. He was an infant when the brothers were orphaned. Understandably, he had no memories of either parent. He grew up with their ghosts instead. It grated at him. As far as he was concerned his parents were Seth and his wife and any instance otherwise was met with anger. Bakari hated living in the shadow of Mahaad's legacy and did not care to hear about Sanura's sacrifice. His brother's persistence in trying to teach him about the parents he had never known led to a nasty argument between them. They would be adults before they reconciled.
Unlike Minkah, Bakari did possess magical abilities. They were not as strong as Mahaad's but they were decently impressive. Bakari chose to ignore them when they first manifested. This proved to be a bad idea, however. He became Mana's apprentice in his mid-teens when it became clear that he needed to learn how to control his magic.
As an adult he served as a royal magician. He never fully outgrew his reactive temperament but did learn how to control his outbursts. He and Minkah settled matters and grew close, though rarely saw each other after Minkah became part of the tomb keepers.
T'Kai and Rami
Atem's second wife and oldest child (shown here as an adult, if he had lived that long). T'Kai was the one who brought Sanura to the palace. Her marriage to Atem was purely political at the start, but eventually the two of them and Teana would become a powerhouse threesome. T'Kai had two children: Rami, and a daughter named Khaiya. Teana's son Atemu was born between the two.
T'Kai was 25 and Rami was just shy of six when the two of them were murdered by a group harboring a great deal of anger and resentment to the throne. Years later it would be uncovered that Bakura fanned the flames of the group's hatred and dropped suggestions on how to get rid of the royal family. It acted as the perfect way for Bakura to destabilize the palace from a distance while he worked on his own ambitions.
For the last day, I decided that since this week I focused on a single OC, Today, I might as well show off all of them!
With that, please enjoy our quick introduction special broadcast!
(This post is image-heavy (sorry for the quality i didnt know how to make it better lol) so im putting it under a cut- oh, and theres a bonus art at the end!)
Thank you for making it to the end! This event was so much fun, here's to more!
And of course, heres a bonus art of Oswald~
