Trespassers Part I
Jul. 14th, 2016 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerQuestion: in Duel Destinies, does this mean Franziska is the Mai stand-in? Because if so...I'm kinda scared, guys.
~Dreamer~
Main Points:
Yugioh Legacy!verse, though vague enough *could* be Universe Optional
Chapter Summary: A follow-up to a comment made during the Phantom Tournament, mostly because the image of Joey with the stuffed Red-Eyes was too good to pass up. Just because they're in different cities doesn't mean the gang (in this case, Joey, Yugi, and Téa) can't hang out. In this case, they're playing a horror game.
Word Count: 3085
Rating: teen
~Dreamer~
Main Points:
Yugioh Legacy!verse, though vague enough *could* be Universe Optional
Chapter Summary: A follow-up to a comment made during the Phantom Tournament, mostly because the image of Joey with the stuffed Red-Eyes was too good to pass up. Just because they're in different cities doesn't mean the gang (in this case, Joey, Yugi, and Téa) can't hang out. In this case, they're playing a horror game.
Word Count: 3085
Rating: teen
“Hey, can you guys hear me?” Yugi asks, adjusting the unfamiliar headset a little. It still feels weird, but he’s bound to get used to it sooner or later.
“Loud and clear,” comes back Téa’s cheerful voice, and he finds himself reflexively smiling in response. He might not be holding her hand, but just hearing her is…well, it’s nowhere near enough, but it’s something, and it still makes him shiver even though he’s warm. Love is weird, sometimes.
“Are you sure you wanna play dis game, Yuge?” Joey asks, and he transfers his gaze over toward the video stream. Sadly, it doesn’t work reliably enough for him and Téa to try, or he’d…probably be using it way too much.
He laughs and rubs at the back of his head, ignoring the adorable stuffed Red Eyes sitting within reach of his friend. The blond would appreciate that more. “I was told it was a pretty well-done game, and it looks really interesting from what I’ve seen. But you didn’t have to play it with us.”
“Knowin’ you, you’d get sucked inta it. If my friend’s gonna face freaky soul-stealin’ gh-ghosts, he’s not gonna do it witout me. No matta how much I’d ratha not, I’m not gonna let anythin’ happen to you,” he states matter-of-factly, and Yugi swallows.
“Well, it’d be something new, since it’s always involved KaibaCorp technology before,” he tries to stay positive, but there’s definitely a little fear curling inside his gut.
“And here I was, thinking that there was no way Trespassers could get any creepier.” Téa’s not intimidated or worried at all, at least, not given her still-upbeat voice.
Yugi smiles a little and nods to himself. “That’s right. You said you’ve played it?”
“Just a little on the tutorial part. I wouldn’t say it’s complicated, but it’s definitely complex.” Téa pauses. “We do want to play this, right?”
Yugi moves his mouse over the icon, pausing for a bit, before clicking decisively. “Well, I’m not going to live my life in fear of what might happen, so yeah.”
“I-I’m definitely ready,” Joey states and does the same, after a longing look at the stuffed animal.
“All right. I’m not going to tell you too much about the story, especially as you learn a fair amount of it right away. First, we have to make this a multiplayer game. For the host we probably should pick someone whose internet is more reliable; in other words, not me.”
Yugi finds the multiplayer setting easy enough, but frowns. “The Normal and lower difficulties are all greyed out, Téa.” He likes to start on easy to get the hang of controls, but that doesn’t appear to be an option here.
“You can’t actually pick Hard or higher. We think it means that you’re automatically on Normal Mode for your first game, but Tristan emailed me that he thinks the starting mode is random from Normal down, and you don’t get told.”
Yugi perks up from staring in bemusement at his screen, still not sure whether he should click ‘next’ yet. “You heard from Tristan?”
She laughs. It’s a pretty sound. “I’m not entirely certain why he was playing Trespassers at three in the morning, but…” She realizes what’s going on and tells him, “You can go on. We can’t join you until you send the game invite.”
He nods and does so. He decides to name the game ‘Dark Magician’, as it’ll be easy to remember, and when Téa giggles again, he knows she’s noticed.
“Very nice. Now, you choose your character next. There are eight choices, and we just can’t choose the same character as someone else in the game.” From the sound of the click, she’s already made her choice, and that’s confirmed a second later when the pretty camera lady greys out.
“What’re we lookin’ for?” Joey asks, sounding a little frustrated.
“All of the characters have their strong points and their weak points. Nozumi-chan here is really good at collecting evidence and clues, and she can take pictures of ghosts and other supernatural stuff. She’s not good at fighting, and she’s a little weak, but she’s a fast runner and she’s pretty good at hiding. Just ask about a character you’re curious about, and I’ll tell you about them.”
“You know a lot,” Yugi states admiringly, and he can practically see the blush.
“Not a ton,” she protests, sounding a little pleased anyway. “We had troubles figuring out what we were supposed to do, so we ended up messing around with characters a lot.”
Yugi stares at the options and hovers over them. There’s an older looking lady with a tablet—coordinator, it tells him. He’s not particularly certain what that means, but it doesn’t really grab his attention either. There’s a middle-aged foreign man in sunglasses that also greys out a second later—soldier.
“Bohdan-san’s particularly prone to bouts of paranoia, I’m told. So be careful with how much emotional and psychic trauma you face, because the only time we found each other, he shot one his teammates in the face,” Téa warns, and Yugi sees Joey swallow in the small corner screen.
“Oh joy,” is his only response.
There’s an intern, too, as well as an old man (librarian) that gets his attention briefly. He’s reminded a little of Grandpa. Still, there’s the unassuming young man in jeans that he’s having trouble placing. He hovers over it, and his eyebrows raise. Exorcist?
He clicks, and Téa responds immediately, fondness in her voice. “I had a feeling you might pick the magician. Apparently if he’s not concentrating on the shield spell, he can be pretty weak, and while he’s good at finding spiritual stuff, real-world things might pass him by, so if there’s traps or anything…”
Yugi nods, smiling back. “Thanks for the warning, Téa. Should we just start the game, then?”
“Yep,” she answers. He clicks, and a cutscene plays, piano in the background. It’s an interesting film grain art choice, occasionally pausing on a picture.
“Stay close to me,” the Soldier warns the two as they’re getting out of the SUV that looks like it’s their vehicle. “I’ll keep the two of you safe.” Yugi’s surprised to hear the trace of an accent in the voice acting.
“Guns don’t solve everything,” Shumei-kun responds calmly, getting out what looks like a messenger bag from the back. There’s no trace of an accent in his voice.
“Did you hear that, you two?” Nozumi-chan asks nervously, pulling a camera out, and then all of a sudden the screen turns black.
“YOU CAN’T HAVE US!” Joey screams into the microphone, and Yugi winces and pulls off the headphones for a second.
“It’s part of the game,” he hears when he puts them back on and peeks an eye open. Téa, reassuring in his ear.
A short cutscene plays, showing what look like random desolate hallways with a narrator he’s fairly certain he’s heard before. “You are part of a supernatural investigative team sent to investigate an old, abandoned building. Your clients have been wanting to tear the building down for years, but have been unable to do so, which is why they hired you.” Yugi pays more attention to the visuals, since that might end up being important.
The next thing he sees is his character waking up and shaking his head groggily in a dark room lit only by moonlight coming through windows. There’s what looks like a piano. “You were told what building it was, but at the moment, you can’t seem to remember exactly which job you are on, or how you got here. You seem to have been separated from your companions. You should investigate this place to figure out how to deal with this threat and potentially find your fellow investigators.”
“Stay in the room you’re in,” Téa warns shortly after. “In later playthroughs, if you manage to find the same room, it might not be safe, but for this game this is your safe room. You won’t be attacked here.” He notes Joey look guilty in the corner and tap a few more keys before taking his hand off the keyboard. “Okay, so, welcome to the game.”
“I assume there’s a story reason why we have amnesia and got separated, other than just scare factor,” Yugi muses.
“I never got that far, but yeah, supposedly,” she answers. “You’ll notice that unlike a lot of games, you don’t have a map. You’re not even sure where the others are, let alone where you are. There might be multiple maps, and they might be randomly generated, so I can’t tell you where you are or how to get places.”
“So, how’re we supposed to play?” Joey asks, and he can almost hear Téa roll her eyes.
“I’m getting to that, Joey Wheeler, just let me finish.” Yugi tries to muffle his giggle in response. “Like it says, we’re supposed to investigate, find what’s going wrong here, vanquish it I suppose, and find the others. We can die. I’m not sure if that does anything other than make us appear in a random room—so you can get really, really lost. In general, you can save the game from any room that you’ve fully checked out, assuming that someone else isn’t in combat at the time. You have a paper and a pencil in your inventory as well as some personal items—I’ve got my camera, Yugi has his exorcist equipment, and Joey’s got his guns. You draw out the map for yourself. You can also play the normal way, where you don’t tell each other stuff about where you are and clues you find, or you can play Meta, where you do.”
“I’m for da last one,” Joey responds immediately, and Yugi laughs.
“I like that one, too, if only because it means we get to actually talk.”
“Team Cooperation is a go,” she replies, a smile in her voice, and then becomes concerned. “I…might have the weirdest starting location ever. I’m in…what looks like a castle’s stone staircase.”
“So, we might be in a castle, den?” Joey responds speculatively, finally giving in and pulling the dragon to him. “I think I’m in some kinda garden, under an overhang. So I might be able to find da car.”
“All right!” Yugi cheers, then turns around, staring at his room. “It’s…actually too dark. I can’t see where I am. I’m going to have to move around to find the light switch.”
“Careful, Yuge.” He can see Joey glancing over at the plushie again.
He walks until he runs into something and begins, slowly, following that. “Uh, Téa, what’s the button to use something?”
“‘u’”, she answers, and he nods.
“Makes sense.” Then he yelps; he can’t help it.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, and it’s taking everything in her not to rush to protect him, even if she has no idea where he is.
It’s kind of cute. And, argh, Joey can see him blushing.
“I thought I saw something move,” he answers, voice a little higher than normal, and breathes carefully. Power of the Pharaoh. It’s just a game. You’re not a kid. You can deal with this.
…because he wants to be someone that, for once, Téa looks up to. He knows she admired Yami’s strength, but he wants her to look at him and admire his strength. He wants to be her equal, and she’s so strong, so self-sufficient.
It’s probably pretty messed up to be jealous of himself, especially since he doesn’t completely feel like he deserves…any of this, but…
Stop it. Yami was strong because he didn’t spend all of his time dwelling on the things he couldn’t change, or thinking about how useless he was. Not that he didn’t do it at all. He was young, too, like me, before the centuries in the Puzzle. But he fought it.
…I can, too.
He sits up a little straighter. He hasn’t been attacked yet. He can see Joey hyperventilating in the corner. I can be strong for my friends.
“Joey, I’m not dead, and I don’t think I left the safe room, so I should be fine.” His voice is a little deeper, but he can see Joey relax a little.
“Who’s scared? I’m not scared!” he denies, and Yugi tries his best to hold the smile inside, because he doesn’t want Joey seeing it and getting his feelings hurt.
“I didn’t say anything about being scared…” he points out logically. “Whatever room I’m in, it’s pretty big. I’m going to try to continue and find the light switch. It should be near the door, I’d think.” It’s nerve-wracking, crossing that darkened doorway, but eventually he finds something that allows him to use it, and the lights spring on.
“It’s…it has a piano,” he reports, turning in a circle.
“Ooh, that’s a pretty good safe room,” Téa remarks. He can hear the smile and relief and…maybe just a hint of pride in her voice. “And you and Joey might be able to find each other, considering…there’s windows, right?”
“Yeah, and what might be a door leading outside.” He doesn’t go over to it, though. “It really is a big room. You’re sure these are safe rooms?”
“It’s in the manual, silly. Didn’t you read it?” she asks, and suddenly he feels sheepish.
“…No?” He scratches at the back of his head and resists the urge to just start laughing, embarrassed.
“Oh, you…Joey, I’d have guessed. He hates reading.”
“Especially when it’s assigned by the super strict teacher Téa Gardner,” Joey adds cheerfully.
“I didn’t realize there was one?” he adds, and it breaks the tension.
“You might be able to find some useful information on those bookshelves. Let’s see, how far does this…hmm.” She’s concentrating. He can picture the face she’s making. “…Looks like this entire staircase is safe. That’s actually possibly really useful, if we need to travel between floors, because that seems to be a place that they really love setting up ambushes.”
“There’s a book, but it looks like I’m too short.” Yugi pouts at the screen. It’s as if the game is mocking him. “And I am not climbing on the piano to get to it. I have to grab a chair or something from an adjacent room.” He pauses. “Téa, if you’re being chased, will they follow you into the safe rooms?”
There’s a silence long enough he worries that her phone’s cut out or something, before she answers, trying to hide the worry, “I don’t actually know. The farther you get from your safe room, the more likely you are to be attacked, so we didn’t actually have enough time to get back to a safe room.”
A part of him is panicking about the plan, but the calmer, Yami-ish sounding voice is saying that there’s no winning the game if you don’t even play. And there’s something saying that even if he didn’t get to see too much of it, his instincts aren’t wrong. “Okay, I’m going to go into the next room and see if I can find a chair or anything.”
“YUGE DON’T!” Joey shouts, and his ears ring a little.
“It’s okay,” he reassures. “If everything else fails, I’m an exorcist.”
“Be careful,” Téa warns, but doesn’t argue.
Carefully, Yugi edges out into the corridor, waiting for the attack to come.
He feels it before he sees it, but he has his shinto equipment ready, and it’s like he’s played this game before. The ghost (which, he’d known somehow) passes harmlessly through him, fading into nothingness.
“Yes!” He finds himself jumping out of his chair and pumps his fist in the air, then looks a little sheepish, sitting back down quietly. “There was a ghost, but it’s gone now.”
“Awright, Yuge!” Joey looks more excited than scared, but Yugi notices that he’s clutching on to the stuffed Red Eyes for dear life.
He finds a flashlight in his inventory and turns it on. “Does everyone get a flashlight?”
Téa sounds a little distracted. “Oh, you got it. That’s probably not the best, because there’s supposedly some kind of magic thing you can do to get light. If you can find Joey, you might want to give that to him.”
“Okay.” He frowns at the screen, but he’s not about to ask. “It’s a corridor. I’m going to head into the nearest room.”
This time, there’s no acknowledgement, no encouragement. He glances at the screen to see Joey clutching on for dear life—so he’s still there and not trapped in the game. That’s good. He heads in, and… “This room is creepy. I think there’s blood. Maybe a ritualistic thing? I can’t see as well without the lights on, but I don’t think I want to spend too much time in here.” He does see a chair, though and grabs that. Though he can’t use his equipment, including the flashlight, while he’s carrying it.
“You can’t use your equipment while you’re carrying something so you’re pretty much helpless,” he notes. It’s a mechanic that could be used to good effect with a horror game, and he’s both interested and scared to see what it’ll do. He turns around and notes the route back before picking it back up and making a dash for it.
He hears a sound behind him, but makes it into the safe room. He turns around, but doesn’t see anything.
“Okay, there was something else, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a ghost. I’m safe. And I’ve got the chair.”
“That’s good!” Téa sounds much more enthusiastic. And present. “I’m sorry about that, that was my mom. I have to get off for tonight. She needs to use the computer.”
“Dere’s a way to save, right?” Joey asks.
“Yeah, but I mentioned that. If no one’s getting attacked, you can save in the menu.”
Yugi looks. Yes, he can save. He does.
“Okay, it’s working.” She sighs. “I wish we could’ve played for longer. We didn’t get to do much.”
“It’s all right. If you can’t help it, you can’t help it,” Joey tells her, though he definitely sounds—and looks—a little relieved.
“It’d be nice if it was longer, but I’m not going to complain about getting to talk to you for any length of time,” Yugi adds, wishing—not for the first time—that he could actually see her face. He really does miss her, even more now than before.
“Flatterer,” she says, but she sounds pleased.
“Loud and clear,” comes back Téa’s cheerful voice, and he finds himself reflexively smiling in response. He might not be holding her hand, but just hearing her is…well, it’s nowhere near enough, but it’s something, and it still makes him shiver even though he’s warm. Love is weird, sometimes.
“Are you sure you wanna play dis game, Yuge?” Joey asks, and he transfers his gaze over toward the video stream. Sadly, it doesn’t work reliably enough for him and Téa to try, or he’d…probably be using it way too much.
He laughs and rubs at the back of his head, ignoring the adorable stuffed Red Eyes sitting within reach of his friend. The blond would appreciate that more. “I was told it was a pretty well-done game, and it looks really interesting from what I’ve seen. But you didn’t have to play it with us.”
“Knowin’ you, you’d get sucked inta it. If my friend’s gonna face freaky soul-stealin’ gh-ghosts, he’s not gonna do it witout me. No matta how much I’d ratha not, I’m not gonna let anythin’ happen to you,” he states matter-of-factly, and Yugi swallows.
“Well, it’d be something new, since it’s always involved KaibaCorp technology before,” he tries to stay positive, but there’s definitely a little fear curling inside his gut.
“And here I was, thinking that there was no way Trespassers could get any creepier.” Téa’s not intimidated or worried at all, at least, not given her still-upbeat voice.
Yugi smiles a little and nods to himself. “That’s right. You said you’ve played it?”
“Just a little on the tutorial part. I wouldn’t say it’s complicated, but it’s definitely complex.” Téa pauses. “We do want to play this, right?”
Yugi moves his mouse over the icon, pausing for a bit, before clicking decisively. “Well, I’m not going to live my life in fear of what might happen, so yeah.”
“I-I’m definitely ready,” Joey states and does the same, after a longing look at the stuffed animal.
“All right. I’m not going to tell you too much about the story, especially as you learn a fair amount of it right away. First, we have to make this a multiplayer game. For the host we probably should pick someone whose internet is more reliable; in other words, not me.”
Yugi finds the multiplayer setting easy enough, but frowns. “The Normal and lower difficulties are all greyed out, Téa.” He likes to start on easy to get the hang of controls, but that doesn’t appear to be an option here.
“You can’t actually pick Hard or higher. We think it means that you’re automatically on Normal Mode for your first game, but Tristan emailed me that he thinks the starting mode is random from Normal down, and you don’t get told.”
Yugi perks up from staring in bemusement at his screen, still not sure whether he should click ‘next’ yet. “You heard from Tristan?”
She laughs. It’s a pretty sound. “I’m not entirely certain why he was playing Trespassers at three in the morning, but…” She realizes what’s going on and tells him, “You can go on. We can’t join you until you send the game invite.”
He nods and does so. He decides to name the game ‘Dark Magician’, as it’ll be easy to remember, and when Téa giggles again, he knows she’s noticed.
“Very nice. Now, you choose your character next. There are eight choices, and we just can’t choose the same character as someone else in the game.” From the sound of the click, she’s already made her choice, and that’s confirmed a second later when the pretty camera lady greys out.
“What’re we lookin’ for?” Joey asks, sounding a little frustrated.
“All of the characters have their strong points and their weak points. Nozumi-chan here is really good at collecting evidence and clues, and she can take pictures of ghosts and other supernatural stuff. She’s not good at fighting, and she’s a little weak, but she’s a fast runner and she’s pretty good at hiding. Just ask about a character you’re curious about, and I’ll tell you about them.”
“You know a lot,” Yugi states admiringly, and he can practically see the blush.
“Not a ton,” she protests, sounding a little pleased anyway. “We had troubles figuring out what we were supposed to do, so we ended up messing around with characters a lot.”
Yugi stares at the options and hovers over them. There’s an older looking lady with a tablet—coordinator, it tells him. He’s not particularly certain what that means, but it doesn’t really grab his attention either. There’s a middle-aged foreign man in sunglasses that also greys out a second later—soldier.
“Bohdan-san’s particularly prone to bouts of paranoia, I’m told. So be careful with how much emotional and psychic trauma you face, because the only time we found each other, he shot one his teammates in the face,” Téa warns, and Yugi sees Joey swallow in the small corner screen.
“Oh joy,” is his only response.
There’s an intern, too, as well as an old man (librarian) that gets his attention briefly. He’s reminded a little of Grandpa. Still, there’s the unassuming young man in jeans that he’s having trouble placing. He hovers over it, and his eyebrows raise. Exorcist?
He clicks, and Téa responds immediately, fondness in her voice. “I had a feeling you might pick the magician. Apparently if he’s not concentrating on the shield spell, he can be pretty weak, and while he’s good at finding spiritual stuff, real-world things might pass him by, so if there’s traps or anything…”
Yugi nods, smiling back. “Thanks for the warning, Téa. Should we just start the game, then?”
“Yep,” she answers. He clicks, and a cutscene plays, piano in the background. It’s an interesting film grain art choice, occasionally pausing on a picture.
“Stay close to me,” the Soldier warns the two as they’re getting out of the SUV that looks like it’s their vehicle. “I’ll keep the two of you safe.” Yugi’s surprised to hear the trace of an accent in the voice acting.
“Guns don’t solve everything,” Shumei-kun responds calmly, getting out what looks like a messenger bag from the back. There’s no trace of an accent in his voice.
“Did you hear that, you two?” Nozumi-chan asks nervously, pulling a camera out, and then all of a sudden the screen turns black.
“YOU CAN’T HAVE US!” Joey screams into the microphone, and Yugi winces and pulls off the headphones for a second.
“It’s part of the game,” he hears when he puts them back on and peeks an eye open. Téa, reassuring in his ear.
A short cutscene plays, showing what look like random desolate hallways with a narrator he’s fairly certain he’s heard before. “You are part of a supernatural investigative team sent to investigate an old, abandoned building. Your clients have been wanting to tear the building down for years, but have been unable to do so, which is why they hired you.” Yugi pays more attention to the visuals, since that might end up being important.
The next thing he sees is his character waking up and shaking his head groggily in a dark room lit only by moonlight coming through windows. There’s what looks like a piano. “You were told what building it was, but at the moment, you can’t seem to remember exactly which job you are on, or how you got here. You seem to have been separated from your companions. You should investigate this place to figure out how to deal with this threat and potentially find your fellow investigators.”
“Stay in the room you’re in,” Téa warns shortly after. “In later playthroughs, if you manage to find the same room, it might not be safe, but for this game this is your safe room. You won’t be attacked here.” He notes Joey look guilty in the corner and tap a few more keys before taking his hand off the keyboard. “Okay, so, welcome to the game.”
“I assume there’s a story reason why we have amnesia and got separated, other than just scare factor,” Yugi muses.
“I never got that far, but yeah, supposedly,” she answers. “You’ll notice that unlike a lot of games, you don’t have a map. You’re not even sure where the others are, let alone where you are. There might be multiple maps, and they might be randomly generated, so I can’t tell you where you are or how to get places.”
“So, how’re we supposed to play?” Joey asks, and he can almost hear Téa roll her eyes.
“I’m getting to that, Joey Wheeler, just let me finish.” Yugi tries to muffle his giggle in response. “Like it says, we’re supposed to investigate, find what’s going wrong here, vanquish it I suppose, and find the others. We can die. I’m not sure if that does anything other than make us appear in a random room—so you can get really, really lost. In general, you can save the game from any room that you’ve fully checked out, assuming that someone else isn’t in combat at the time. You have a paper and a pencil in your inventory as well as some personal items—I’ve got my camera, Yugi has his exorcist equipment, and Joey’s got his guns. You draw out the map for yourself. You can also play the normal way, where you don’t tell each other stuff about where you are and clues you find, or you can play Meta, where you do.”
“I’m for da last one,” Joey responds immediately, and Yugi laughs.
“I like that one, too, if only because it means we get to actually talk.”
“Team Cooperation is a go,” she replies, a smile in her voice, and then becomes concerned. “I…might have the weirdest starting location ever. I’m in…what looks like a castle’s stone staircase.”
“So, we might be in a castle, den?” Joey responds speculatively, finally giving in and pulling the dragon to him. “I think I’m in some kinda garden, under an overhang. So I might be able to find da car.”
“All right!” Yugi cheers, then turns around, staring at his room. “It’s…actually too dark. I can’t see where I am. I’m going to have to move around to find the light switch.”
“Careful, Yuge.” He can see Joey glancing over at the plushie again.
He walks until he runs into something and begins, slowly, following that. “Uh, Téa, what’s the button to use something?”
“‘u’”, she answers, and he nods.
“Makes sense.” Then he yelps; he can’t help it.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, and it’s taking everything in her not to rush to protect him, even if she has no idea where he is.
It’s kind of cute. And, argh, Joey can see him blushing.
“I thought I saw something move,” he answers, voice a little higher than normal, and breathes carefully. Power of the Pharaoh. It’s just a game. You’re not a kid. You can deal with this.
…because he wants to be someone that, for once, Téa looks up to. He knows she admired Yami’s strength, but he wants her to look at him and admire his strength. He wants to be her equal, and she’s so strong, so self-sufficient.
It’s probably pretty messed up to be jealous of himself, especially since he doesn’t completely feel like he deserves…any of this, but…
Stop it. Yami was strong because he didn’t spend all of his time dwelling on the things he couldn’t change, or thinking about how useless he was. Not that he didn’t do it at all. He was young, too, like me, before the centuries in the Puzzle. But he fought it.
…I can, too.
He sits up a little straighter. He hasn’t been attacked yet. He can see Joey hyperventilating in the corner. I can be strong for my friends.
“Joey, I’m not dead, and I don’t think I left the safe room, so I should be fine.” His voice is a little deeper, but he can see Joey relax a little.
“Who’s scared? I’m not scared!” he denies, and Yugi tries his best to hold the smile inside, because he doesn’t want Joey seeing it and getting his feelings hurt.
“I didn’t say anything about being scared…” he points out logically. “Whatever room I’m in, it’s pretty big. I’m going to try to continue and find the light switch. It should be near the door, I’d think.” It’s nerve-wracking, crossing that darkened doorway, but eventually he finds something that allows him to use it, and the lights spring on.
“It’s…it has a piano,” he reports, turning in a circle.
“Ooh, that’s a pretty good safe room,” Téa remarks. He can hear the smile and relief and…maybe just a hint of pride in her voice. “And you and Joey might be able to find each other, considering…there’s windows, right?”
“Yeah, and what might be a door leading outside.” He doesn’t go over to it, though. “It really is a big room. You’re sure these are safe rooms?”
“It’s in the manual, silly. Didn’t you read it?” she asks, and suddenly he feels sheepish.
“…No?” He scratches at the back of his head and resists the urge to just start laughing, embarrassed.
“Oh, you…Joey, I’d have guessed. He hates reading.”
“Especially when it’s assigned by the super strict teacher Téa Gardner,” Joey adds cheerfully.
“I didn’t realize there was one?” he adds, and it breaks the tension.
“You might be able to find some useful information on those bookshelves. Let’s see, how far does this…hmm.” She’s concentrating. He can picture the face she’s making. “…Looks like this entire staircase is safe. That’s actually possibly really useful, if we need to travel between floors, because that seems to be a place that they really love setting up ambushes.”
“There’s a book, but it looks like I’m too short.” Yugi pouts at the screen. It’s as if the game is mocking him. “And I am not climbing on the piano to get to it. I have to grab a chair or something from an adjacent room.” He pauses. “Téa, if you’re being chased, will they follow you into the safe rooms?”
There’s a silence long enough he worries that her phone’s cut out or something, before she answers, trying to hide the worry, “I don’t actually know. The farther you get from your safe room, the more likely you are to be attacked, so we didn’t actually have enough time to get back to a safe room.”
A part of him is panicking about the plan, but the calmer, Yami-ish sounding voice is saying that there’s no winning the game if you don’t even play. And there’s something saying that even if he didn’t get to see too much of it, his instincts aren’t wrong. “Okay, I’m going to go into the next room and see if I can find a chair or anything.”
“YUGE DON’T!” Joey shouts, and his ears ring a little.
“It’s okay,” he reassures. “If everything else fails, I’m an exorcist.”
“Be careful,” Téa warns, but doesn’t argue.
Carefully, Yugi edges out into the corridor, waiting for the attack to come.
He feels it before he sees it, but he has his shinto equipment ready, and it’s like he’s played this game before. The ghost (which, he’d known somehow) passes harmlessly through him, fading into nothingness.
“Yes!” He finds himself jumping out of his chair and pumps his fist in the air, then looks a little sheepish, sitting back down quietly. “There was a ghost, but it’s gone now.”
“Awright, Yuge!” Joey looks more excited than scared, but Yugi notices that he’s clutching on to the stuffed Red Eyes for dear life.
He finds a flashlight in his inventory and turns it on. “Does everyone get a flashlight?”
Téa sounds a little distracted. “Oh, you got it. That’s probably not the best, because there’s supposedly some kind of magic thing you can do to get light. If you can find Joey, you might want to give that to him.”
“Okay.” He frowns at the screen, but he’s not about to ask. “It’s a corridor. I’m going to head into the nearest room.”
This time, there’s no acknowledgement, no encouragement. He glances at the screen to see Joey clutching on for dear life—so he’s still there and not trapped in the game. That’s good. He heads in, and… “This room is creepy. I think there’s blood. Maybe a ritualistic thing? I can’t see as well without the lights on, but I don’t think I want to spend too much time in here.” He does see a chair, though and grabs that. Though he can’t use his equipment, including the flashlight, while he’s carrying it.
“You can’t use your equipment while you’re carrying something so you’re pretty much helpless,” he notes. It’s a mechanic that could be used to good effect with a horror game, and he’s both interested and scared to see what it’ll do. He turns around and notes the route back before picking it back up and making a dash for it.
He hears a sound behind him, but makes it into the safe room. He turns around, but doesn’t see anything.
“Okay, there was something else, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a ghost. I’m safe. And I’ve got the chair.”
“That’s good!” Téa sounds much more enthusiastic. And present. “I’m sorry about that, that was my mom. I have to get off for tonight. She needs to use the computer.”
“Dere’s a way to save, right?” Joey asks.
“Yeah, but I mentioned that. If no one’s getting attacked, you can save in the menu.”
Yugi looks. Yes, he can save. He does.
“Okay, it’s working.” She sighs. “I wish we could’ve played for longer. We didn’t get to do much.”
“It’s all right. If you can’t help it, you can’t help it,” Joey tells her, though he definitely sounds—and looks—a little relieved.
“It’d be nice if it was longer, but I’m not going to complain about getting to talk to you for any length of time,” Yugi adds, wishing—not for the first time—that he could actually see her face. He really does miss her, even more now than before.
“Flatterer,” she says, but she sounds pleased.
