ow the edge (open)

[blue_ice]

Who: Kaiba (blue_ice) and you!
When: One early September morning
Where: All over campus!
What: DUELS. In any and every game. Or try to talk him down from this madness, idk.
Warnings: Excessive edgy shonen rival behavior. Possibly some dark themes, will be labeled in subject lines!


Kaiba's request, in hindsight, was a foolish one. Every interaction between their worlds and this one thus far had been a disaster with unintended consequences, why would this be any different? And why would he risk his most priceless possessions this way? He could kick himself, but that's not going to save his Blue Eyes White Dragons. His hand trembles as he holds them, watching their attack and defense values slowly tick toward zero.

You are not the worthy heir we chose, says the trio of voices in his ear. Your emotions have made you weak. We seal our power from you until you prove that the spirit of a champion lurks within. Crush your foes with precision! Or are you now a coward?

No. He's no coward. Kaiba sweeps through the hallways with an icy expression, searching for prey. Any instrument they might hold for a game draws him...a deck of Fantastic Foils cards. A basketball. A chess board. A wand. Any game, anywhere...he absolutely must win. He swivels to face his chosen opponent.

"You. Duel me. Now."

Are you game? Or more inclined to tell him he's out of his mind? It's your move.

Comments

[ahew_kha]

Too bad for him that running into Kisara is probably the wrong person to be asking any sort of game thing towards. She'd merely been looking through a simple book, slowly blinking up at him from her sitting position. He can't be serious, can he? Of course not.

"... Duel?" Outside of what little she'd heard of with the whole stone tablets and such, she really has no clue what has gotten into him or what that term even really means. "I... don't know if that's honestly a good idea?"

Or perhaps she's the right person to be talking to if the whole dragons thing is a problem, but it's up to Kaiba if he wants to test that theory or not, after all.

She's content to look at him absolutely bewildered from her sitting position on the floor for now.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba actually falters in his step a little, looking at her slack-jawed. In his blind panic he hadn't entirely recognized her, and now that he does...he pulls a card out of his pocket, flinching at the lowered numbers and glancing at her.

He crouches beside her, looking her over for any signs of illness or injury. It's probably a little unnerving because he's too distracted to explain himself. "...maybe not. Thought you were someone else. Are you feeling well?"

His gaze shifts between her and the card in his hand, just slightly suspicious.

[ahew_kha]

Kaiba, honestly, you're starting to creep her out a little. But she's staying where she is and just slowly blinking at him as he's looking her over. There has to be a reason for it, right? Or, well, she thinks there's gotta be a reason for it.

"I am... fine?" Gods, she's just exceedingly confused now. "A little tired, but that isn't entirely unusual, why?" Sleeping well? Her? Nope, not happening any time soon.

At least she's noticing that he's looking at something in his hand, so that helps? "What are you holding?"

A WILD ANGEL APPEARED!

[temptationaccomplished]

"I seem to have left my sword at home," he retorted, flustered and more than a tad bit annoyed at having his study break interrupted by this RUDE young man demanding a duel, of all things. How archaic! Hadn't dueling of strangers on the street gone out of fashion sometime in the 18th Century? And there were rules, besides. Where was the thrown glove? Written challenge? Chosen Seconds? This was hardly a duel of gentlemen if the young lad couldn't follow a few basic rules.

Foreign to Aziraphale was the concept of dueling collectible monsters (or monsters on collectible cards), though he may have recalled Warlock mentioning such a video game, but that was neither here nor there.

He flipped over the top card to reveal the 10 of Hearts as he tried to resume his solitaire game and shifted a bit to pointedly angle himself away from the boy.

"Besides," he continued with a snappish, holier-than-thou tone, "there are nicer ways to ask for things."

[blue_ice]

"Are you usually tired at this time? You should probably see a nurse."

That could be a sign of illness. Or worse. He really hopes it isn't, but he glances at the ticking-down values of his cards and visibly flinches again. Kisara continues to give him that suspicious look, so he sighs and turns the card over. He doesn't have time to dawdle, after all.

"This is that card I mentioned---the legend based on you that made its way into the modern game. I requested them from the Anastara researchers, but the spirit of the dragon no longer trusts me. The cards are degrading every minute until I win a duel."

He's fighting back the fury in his voice, trying to sound neutral. He's distantly aware that he probably looks like a madman right about now.

[ahew_kha]

"Sometimes I don't sleep well, so pretty normal." She is not going to see a nurse over any of that, thank you very much. Trust no one and nothing when it comes to doctors or scientists, clearly.

Oh, that card thing. She does vaguely recall that and is narrowing her eyes a little to get a better look at it. Yeah, yeah that does look like what her soul does, she knows that much.

"Are you... sure it's not just something weird happening here? Or a trick they're trying to pull on you? Since I'm fairly sure you can't contain a soul in something as small as that. And even if you could, that... is still technically me and not some other weird dragon." Trying to be rational seems like the best way of going about this whole mess, even if she's holding her hand out to see if maybe she can get some kind of clue on what might be going on.

[blue_ice]

"Not the kind I meant," Kaiba shook his head. He's focused his gaze on the deck of cards, his mouth a thin line. He'd apologize, but he's really short on time. And being nice was what got him in this mess to begin with.

He took a deep breath, his voice rather tight-sounding, but less hostile.

"I want to play a game with you."

[blue_ice]

"Oh. Right."

Kaiba inhales sharply. It could be a trick, like the echo of Gozaburo was. But the voice had sounded so familiar, and the dropping numbers are eating away at him. He can feel his desperation growing as his power slips away.

He reluctantly passes her the card.

"I can feel their scorn. In the same way I used to feel pride when dueling with them. And you're sure you haven't felt different since this started? An hour ago?"

[ahew_kha]

Really, she has no idea what the point of the numbers and such really is. It's a card. Does it really matter if the numbers are different on it? Does that really make his value any different? How weird.

She's humming softly to herself as she's gingerly taking the card from him, just seeing if she can actually feel anything off of it. As far as she knows, she's nothing really special, but if this is technically her soul in a way, then it should do something, right? Or give her some sort of sign of what's going on.

"No different than I normally do. I have... just been trying to make sense of these books for the past few hours." English is weird, okay.

[blue_ice]

The card doesn't seem to respond to her at all. It's hyper-focused on draining itself and taunting Kaiba.

He watches, and once he's satisfied that she's not getting sick, he exhales and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Great. I should...go. Find that duel. But I'll be back later, unless there's any kind of game in that book."

He wants to offer to help her. That might even be readable in his expression, which is more tired than hostile. But he's acutely aware that he's being judged for his helping hand.

[temptationaccomplished]

Oh. That I'm refusing to be nice, but am straining something trying to be not un-nice tone and expression were painfully familiar, even if the face and situation were not. The young man was obviously in need of a friend, if he was challenging random classmates to undetermined games. The angel could certainly attempt to help in that regard, now that it didn't seem like discorporation was going to be an issue.

"Right. Well," Aziraphale gathered his cards back into a stacked deck and turned back towards the boy, offering a handshake. "That's at least a little better." A PLEASE would have been too much to ask for, he supposed. "My name is Mr. Fell. May I at least know the name of my opponent and the game he wishes to challenge me to?"

[ahew_kha]

How weird. It's just further proving to her that there's something weird about all of this mess and maybe Kaiba needs to, you know, chill out a little bit.

"I wouldn't take this as seriously as you seem to be, if it's not responding to me, then I would wager it has been tampered with." At least she's handing it back at the very least, oops.

"Please be careful and not let it get further under your skin than it already has?"

[puzzlers]

He had been working a lot with Professor King over the last couple of weeks with his Deathtoll card to see where the Gate could be opened and they had found a lot of, uh, interesting places. It seemed like the most interesting was still the one he and Kaiba had found though, but whatever. He's sure that the two of them would have breakthrough soon. He was scribbling in a notebook in an empty classroom when Kaiba burst in unannounced and... challenged him to a duel. What.

"Kaiba? Are you okay?" He looked positively maniac. He closed the notebook and stood up, wand out and used to lock the door, so his boyfriend couldn't escape without answering the question.

[replaceme]

Lady feels like she's losing her god damn mind. If you didn't think she was skittish around people before she's become 100x more so because of the regain she's struggling with. She's not sure she regrets diving head fist into so much sundering magic, because necrotic magic is hers to wield, but it's been a while since she's had to deal with something like this. Her saving grace is having her familiar back by her side. Back home it was his death that caused things to become so overwhelming, so perhaps having him here will help.

Shade is here too, and though he can't speak like Nyx can his presence has been calming from the start. Shade is perched on her shoulders and Nyx is flying by her side as she stares at the ground and tries to keep it together. She walks head first into Kaiba, which is not what she needs right now. The other thing she doesn't need is to be challenged to a duel. "W- What?"

[blue_ice]

What?

Kaiba blinked twice. Had he honestly been so desperate to throw himself at anyone that he hadn't recognized the familiar face? Granted, they'd both been so busy that they hadn't spent much time together lately, but he could never forget his face.

"...Yugi?"

Ugh. He realized his mistake almost immediately and swiveled on his heel, reaching for the doorknob only to find it wouldn't budge. He huffed. "Sorry, Yugi, but I don't have time for this. I have to duel someone else---if I can't win, I'm finished."

'Win' being the operative word...Blue Eyes hadn't told him it had to be a fair fight, just that he needed to utterly dominate a challenge or lose her forever. Therefore, Yugi and Atem were way down on the list of opponents he wanted. Just his luck to run into his boyfriend now. He looked away, having the grace to be somewhat embarrassed by this.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba eyed the man warily. This...would be an interesting challenge. It reminded him of someone...no, no. He needed to think of anything but that.

"Seto Kaiba."

He shook the offered hand curtly. "What card games do you know, Mr. Fell? I'm on a tight schedule, so we should both know the rules."

[blue_ice]

"Blue Eyes is my pride and the centerpiece of my deck. Without her, I have nothing."

He inhales deeply. To lose is to die. Those words from so long ago still echo in the back of his mind. "Have you seen anyone pass by with a game? A ball, a deck of cards...anything?"

[puzzlers]

"Kaiba..."

He frowns, glad that he had decided to lock the door on him. Granted, seeing his boyfriend in a panic does make him feel a bit bad about being underhanded, but clearly something is wrong and he should be telling him about it. "If you can't win, and why do you have to win? What happened, ..." He trails off, reaching out to him. "I think you're underestimating yourself again." His frown deepens at that. Kaiba could absolutely beat him.

"I think I have an idea..." He had put gotten the opportunity to summon Gandora, though things had, uhm, not exactly gone to plan. Each and every time he tried he ended up in a maze with somebody else he... well... that part was also strange. It was someone he knew. He hoped this time it would be Kaiba. He kept his hold on his boyfriend as he channeled all of his energy into the summon, teleporting them both into the strange maze.

"If you want to play a game, then here you go, Kaiba. Find the center of the maze, go."

[blue_ice]

Huh...Lady definitely looked distracted. With her familiars gathered around her you'd think she'd be more at ease, but she looked almost as disturbed as he did.

He lifted his hands to steady her. "A duel. Any game, I'll play it. But I need to duel. But you look more like you need a doctor."

[ahew_kha]

Why on Earth is she the one trying to be the voice of reason? Kaiba, please, don't make this a thing she has to do.

"Does it not strike you as strange that this is happening so suddenly and that nothing changes while it is in my hands? If that card is supposedly based upon myself, why would there be no reaction or change while I was holding it?" ... That makes sense, probably.

"I think there was a group heading outside earlier, though I didn't catch what they were going to do, but it's as good a place to start as any?"

[blue_ice]

It all happens in a whirlwind. Kaiba almost flinches away, but Yugi's grip on his hand is stronger. The world twists and turns around them, and a chill races up his spine as he instinctively curls around Yugi.

"You're starting to sound like him," he grumbled, reminded strongly of those early days. But Yugi was here beside him, and they needed to escape together. He lights the tip of his wand and tentatively steps forward, still holding to Yugi's hand.

"...look, I'll tell you what's going on if you tell me what you just did---argh!"

He stumbles slightly on a slippery root---wait, that hadn't been there a moment ago---and crouches low, casting a repelling charm to hopefully clear the way for Yugi.

[replaceme]

"I, ah, uhm..." No, she couldn't bother him with her problem. Not when he looked like he was dealing with something, himself.

"A game? W- What kind?" Nyx frowned, moving in between Lady and Kaiba. "A doctor can't help."

[blue_ice]

"Somewhat, but it happened because I requested it from home. There's always some price or test when we do that. I shouldn't have risked them this way."

But it was too late now. He sighed.

"Sounds that way. And...if you do start to feel off, tell someone."

He gave her another worried look.

[blue_ice]

"Any kind. Cards, sports, fencing, dueling...I need to play."

And he needs to win. But she doesn't look in any condition for that right now, so he keeps a loose hold on her arm. "Why not? Is this another curse?"

[puzzlers]

He's done this before, so the sudden change in scenery doesn't affect him nearly as much. He lets Kaiba hold onto him as strongly as he needs to, until he's able to get his bearings in the strange maze. "And that's not a bad thing." He comments lowly.

"Fair, but you go first, Kaiba. Tell me what's going on." His grip tightens when Kaiba stumbles to keep him from falling, though if he hadn't caught himself he probably would have hit the ground too. It's not like he's big or strong enough to keep someone like Kaiba upright. Look at him, he's a tiny! He keeps his own wand out, casting a spell to have the tip light up too.