shawarma time
[ some time after Atem's palace when everyone has had the time to get back from braphine's temple, and more importantly get that sand out of your everything (and enjoy NOT 40 degree Celsius weather)
everyone who was in Atem's palace will find themselves suddenly added to a group chat by joshua and he just sends a singular address
it's the address to a shawarma place that somehow magically has a big enough table to fit 14 people. amazing. we love fluid locations like this.
post palace dinner, y'all know the drill ]
everyone who was in Atem's palace will find themselves suddenly added to a group chat by joshua and he just sends a singular address
it's the address to a shawarma place that somehow magically has a big enough table to fit 14 people. amazing. we love fluid locations like this.
post palace dinner, y'all know the drill ]

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Does he hug her back? Pat her on the back? Uh.
Now he wishes he could just hide in the Millennium Puzzle again.
He measures all his available responses, and settles for a stiff pat on her upper back with one hand. Pat. Pat.]
I'm fine, Mafuyu.
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( but she lets go and retakes her seat, freeing him from the awkward hell of being cared for. )
But you also don't have to be.
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Why does everyone in this restaurant have it out for him?]
What about you?
[REVERSE CARD OPEN]
You've been through way more than I have the past few days... Do you want to talk more about what you experienced? You said a Shadow version of your mother took over...?
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... My mother back home is incredibly controlling- she's manipulative and charming, so she gets away with it as she's never turned violent and can explain herself "properly", and uses this to keep Dad at work all the time, too- so she can have free reign.
All of my life she's isolated me from anyone and everyone she could while also raising me up as a pillar in the community. No one was good enough to be a friend, only a follower- and she was so smooth about it, everyone fell into place as she wanted.
Up until my friends online.
Within my palace, shadows took on forms of others, yes? The one that took on the form of my mother... was really in character. She took over as "the Queen" and even while possessed, I was so terrified that I tried escaping on my own. I almost got to the group even, before she pulled me back.
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I had a theory that palaces were manifestations of our ib--- our hearts--- in Nekyia. That yours manifested a metaphysical version of your mother is quite... alarming to say the least. That her presence still haunts you even though she isn't here. Mafuyu, are you afraid she'll take you away?
[What kind of pressure is she under back in her world..?]
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... But, is it fear if it's fact? Every potential friend I had, every club or committee... she's cut them off, turned us apart. She used my computer to stalk my friends. Before we arrived here, I was certain she was about to hurt me, so I had to run away. She-
... Within the palace, she wanted to "fix" me. It... hurt. I felt less like a person and more like a broken marionette. And then I was.
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Unless she learns how to travel the multiverse or Lady Braphine summons her, you're safe here.
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Those palaces... They're not our hearts. They're our troubles, and what would draw out the most aggression out of us. They're traps.
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Instead he mulls over what Mafuyu says to him.]
Traps...
You know, you're right. They are our troubles, but that in turn is also a reflection of our hearts. The parts of us we'd rather bury... The damage your mother did is, unfortunately, a part of you. I wish it wasn't. I'm certain others feel the same for you.
[He thinks of Kaiba--- the pressure he went through is startling similar to Mafuyu's. The need to be perfect. Isolated from any potential friends and even his own younger brother. And that... that ended in...
Patricide.]
After this ends... You need to get away from her.
No matter what. If that's staying here or traveling to a different world... I'm certain your friends will understand.
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( deep down, she knows that she can't go back to shibuya. she just wishes the girls could come with her. )
What about you? What waits after the end of this?
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I'll return to where I belong in the Field of Reeds.
[He avoids looking at her as he says it.]
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( she was tragically not the egypt kid growing up. but he sounds... sad? reluctant? she's not sure. )
... You don't sound too eager.
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[He chews on his lower lip before he answers.]
No... I wouldn't say I'm not eager. My father... My friends... they're all waiting for me. It's supposed to be paradise.
[Y'know... the afterlife...]
And I do want to go back.
[His stare is boring a hole through his pita now.]
Only... it's nice to be alive again--- especially as myself. Not as another person.
[He gestures his hand for emphasis.]
I enjoyed being Yugi's other self! But... he's not me; I'm not him.
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[He'd rather not piss them off again.]
Trust me... I'm already on their short list...
I'm not even sure how Lady Braphine managed to bring me here in the first place--- the contract she'd have to write would have had to been ironclad.
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[He leans his elbows on the table.]
Or, as I suppose in my case, return to being dead.
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( she pauses to collect her thoughts. )
I don't feel as if it's right to send you somewhere you aren't ready to return to. And I don't think it's fair of anyone, god or not, to hold it over your head.
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I'll give it some thought, ok?
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