Week 5

[airlockedmods]

Week 5

[In a tragic yet seemingly inevitable turn of fate, the Champions have lost Zombina this week. OsoKaramatsu and Korra, too, are gone, both having fallen in their attempts to help their fellow Champions out of terrible circumstances.

Again, the Champions will find themselves experiencing strange dreams on Sunday night, until they're awakened by C.E.C.E.'s announcement. This is all starting to become routine.]

Congratulations, Champions! By surviving your third trial, you have unlocked the fourth floor of the ship. A new mini map has been added to your P.I.P.!

[The trash compactor is completely shiny and new again. In addition, the profiles on the P.I.P.s still inticate that Karamatsu is dead. Because of course he is, right?

Fuck you.]


Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday



(( Welcome to Week 5! Don't forget to check in and submit your memory regains! Turn in your benefactor threads for sweet loot, too! ))

Comments

[immaculacies]

Hm... It could be something like a multi-dimensional refraction phenomenon? That is, there isn't only one future, but dozens or hundreds of different timelines that could exist. "Ourselves" only exist in one of them, but by seeing a vision of one possibility, you were able to interact with it and change it... Or something like that.

[playthedamncard]

[Okay, that? That's impressive. He's impressed.] ...Those aren't the sort of theories most fourteen-year-olds would be able to come up with. What are these magicians teaching you?

[immaculacies]

Well, most fourteen-year-olds aren't taught magecraft. [She giggles. When she speaks again, there's no hint of bragging in her tone.] I'm considered a prodigy, you know. I don't think it's that odd that I could apply theoretical knowledge to your situation, though.

[playthedamncard]

Isn't it such a burden to be so smart and yet be surrounded by such...normal people. [He says it allllmost fondly. He's very well aware of the feeling of being a prodigy, a genius of a child.]

[immaculacies]

[That comment catches her off-guard, and for a moment, her cheery smile falters. Just hearing that sentiment makes her heart twist, and when she smiles again, there's a bittersweet edge to the expression.]

Mm. It's very lonely, sometimes.

[All of the time. She had been all alone, until she met Saber.]

[playthedamncard]

[Oh. Oh, that's something genuine. A tiny, terrible part of him sees getting a reaction out of her as a win, but the rest of him just feels...

Tired, actually.]

It's freeing, at first, isn't it? Knowing you're special. Right up until you realize the downsides of being set apart from others.

[immaculacies]

[She shakes her head and averts her eyes from him.]

I've known for as long as I've been alive. So, I never... I didn't understand how miserable it was, being alone, until I felt something different.

[playthedamncard]

I've at least always had my brother. But he's also several years younger than I am. So while I have high hopes for his future, I recognize that we aren't quite equals. He looks up to me for everything. And I've taught him since he was small. Well, smaller.

So perhaps I don't fully understand it. But I have an idea of it.

[immaculacies]

N— No, that sounds right. That sounds exactly right... My sister, Ayaka. Ever since our mother passed away, some of that role has fallen onto me.

But... She's too young to understand. It probably sounds cruel of me to say it, but she never will. She's very ordinary, and not cut out to be a magus at all. Really, it's a good thing that I'm the older one. I don't think she would be able to survive as the successor.

[It comes out in a rush, a little disjointed. It's still strange, seeing fragments of her experiences in other people.]

—But, that's why I said. When you told me that I was better off not feeling anything at all. That's not true... I don't want to go back to feeling empty and alone.

[playthedamncard]

It was rude of me to suggest.

[He observes her for a moment, head tilted, and then adjusts the holographic chamber. Some of the disjointed images disappear--the priest and the dead woman, the giant dragon and its rider. (Atem stays, but he gets seated on a throne fit for his station and in the corner of the room, away from them.) There's a couch now, though. So there's that. He goes to seat himself at it, on one end, legs crossed professionally.]

I have been of the opinion that emotions are vulnerabilities. That if something does not help you stride forward toward your goal, it's not useful. That if something would allow an enemy to find an opening to attack, it's a weakness that needs shut down. But when we were young and on our own, I told Mokuba to smile. That no matter what, he should smile through everything, just to show anyone who would see him hurt that they couldn't. A lesson in spite, perhaps, but maybe even then, I didn't want to see him turn into me.

And he is brilliant in his own right, but he's more than that. He has friends. He's personable. He's seen what I am, and I know sometimes it upsets him. [They'd had that argument inside of Noa's world, after all.]

I made myself the way I am to protect me, and in doing so, protect him as well. Even if he can't see that. Even if I'm wrong.

[immaculacies]

...Kaiba-san, you sound like a magus, when you say things like that.

[Like it's something funny, she laughs. He probably won't like hearing that, but it's true.]

You aren't wrong, but that isn't the whole truth, either. Emotions can be exploited. Passions can be manipulated. Sometimes, destroying an enemy through those means is easier than direct confrontation. If you cut their legs out from beneath them, they can't advance.

But, even if you have to carefully guard them... Sometimes they're useful, too. A simple feeling can push you forward. It can give a struggle meaning. That's what I found out, when I met Saber. The kind of feeling that defines what it is to be human.

[playthedamncard]

I'm not devoid of them. I can't be. I just hide them. Brotherly love has guided me forward. Empathy for children. The heart-pounding passion of fighting a worthy opponent. I feel, and sometimes I can't keep it to myself.

It's a weakness in itself, isn't it? Trying not to show care.

[immaculacies]

Mm, maybe. It isn't one I can fault you for, though, since it just seems normal to me. Like I said, it's a very magus-like way to behave—like if you show vulnerability for even a second, you'll be devoured. Maybe it's more true for them than it is you, though.

[But the way magi treat each other... It's all so pointless and petty in Manaka's eyes. It's half the reason she's so disdainful of those "stuffed shirts," as she had put it to Kaiba once.]

...But, putting that aside, Kaiba-san. [She glances toward the Pharaoh, sitting on his throne, and giggles.] Is this really a conversation you want to have in front of him?

[playthedamncard]

Perhaps it's more literal for them, but the business world is full of hungry sharks. I've had my livelihood threatened too many times not to take it seriously.

[She means to tease him again, though, with his insistence on keeping Atem in the room. He's slightly more animated than before, talking in a quiet, deep tone to faceless aides, looking natural upon a throne.]

I'm confident my secrets are safe with a hologram. [He says it with a hint of a smirk.]

[immaculacies]

[She meets his little smirk with a giggle, apparently content to leave the topic of magi behind.]

Still, you really like him, don't you? Wanting to keep him here even when nothing of the rest remains.

[playthedamncard]

He's gone now. [It's not really an answer to the question, but.] Parted from his vessel, and they had a duel that he lost. An impossible door opened filled with impossible light, and he walked into it, into the impossible afterlife, to find his rest after thousands of years.

I find the whole thing difficult to reconcile with. At least, like with drawing, setting up holograms helps keep the memory alive and hopefully gives me new perspective.

[immaculacies]

Ah... Yeah. But a drawing will last longer than this, since the holograms here disappear once you leave the room.

I wonder, though. Is it just the magic you're having a hard time reconciling?

[playthedamncard]

...Yuugi has proven himself to be a fine duelist in his own right and worthy of the title of King of Games. But it's always been him behind most of the duels and ridiculous adventures.

I've known for a while. I can't lie to myself about that. But I had no good way of explaining it before. I suppose I still don't; it sounds insane no matter how I try.

The Puzzle and the rest of the artifacts are gone, and I'm no longer beholden to any influence of the shadow games played. I can finally move ahead without any worry that some new magical threat will arise because someone just couldn't get put to rest like any proper king.

...Perhaps I just never thought he would actually be gone. But if it was going to happen, of course it'd be in some flashy and dramatic way.

[immaculacies]

Mm! It sounds like the way you feel now is perfectly normal. When a big chapter of someone's life closes, it's typical for them to need time to come to terms with it.

...Though, I still think you sound fond of him.

[playthedamncard]

...I believe you're right. I'm actually going to miss him. I'll never get to duel him again to see which one of us is truly the superior. Yuugi...is not the same. They're not the same person; it's not the same dynamic.

It's still too fresh in mind to really know. I can't dwell on it, that's for certain. He's gone, and he's hardly the first or last person who'll ever leave my life.