#I will probably post a little bot more of this for context and archive tomorrow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

capucapo · 10 months

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(( continued from here. consider this an epilogue lollll. no dueling here, just a summary of it and then the aftermath. not super long !!! I promise!!

Seto Kaiba @blueeyesking , me as Noa, Mokuba, and the Yugis. Wyatt @seashaper , Hika @nameless-brand , and Pyre as Joey @redeyesandchilifries ))

[ Noa explains the Deck Master system, allows Seto to choose his and then shuffle. The rooftop arena falls away as volcanos rise from the void instead, an ocean of lava surrounding them, confining each Duelist to a small, stone platform as the cages containing their friends hang overhead

Noa also explains that he was born, that he was Created, weak and sickly. That Gouzaburo deemed him too frail to ever hope to run Kaiba Corp, had hidden him from the public eye out of shame.

As they Duel, that scenery changes with the cards that Noa plays. When he activates Giant Flood, a massive wave overtakes the field, washing away the lava as Noa babbles on about the Seven Days of Creation. A great ship rises from the tides, and Noa announces the arrival of his deck master, Shinato's Ark.

And Noa had vowed to prove his father wrong, to make him proud. He worked hard and studied hard and pushed himself hard to refute his place as heir.

From oceans to dense jungles and fields where dinosaurs roam, his Seven Turn prediction seems to liken the biblical legends to the more scientific phases of the Earth's natural history. Meteors rain from the sky, and the jungles freeze, ushering in the ice age.

So hard that his body finally gave out, just as Gouzaburo had finally seen some spark of potential in him.

As the ice age melts away to reveal lush, open fields of grass, Noa's confidence never wavers.

He explains the virtual system that his consciousness was transferred into. The virtual world that had been designed by the newly adopted heir of their company, as a final project of sorts to prove his own worth. A training simulator developed for the US Military, but Gouzaburo had found a different way to utilize its advanced technology.

The fields decay, turning to concrete below the Duelists' feet as Domino City rises up around them once more, Kaiba Corporation growing and towering behind Noa.

Noa explains that with his mind digitized, he was able to rapidly gain knowledge and information from both Gouzaburo's systems and the expanse of the internet. That he had run a million and a half simulations within his little world that showed how Kaiba Corporation could become the most powerful company on the planet-- it would only take a World War significantly reducing the planet's population! From there, he would rebuild as he alone saw fit. Ruling the new world as its God, as its Creator.*

Or its destroyer.

Even with all the assets that Seto had sunk into the ocean, Noa bets he could destroy the earth in, mmm 31 days.

He gets cocky though. For all his planning, for all of his deckmaster's ability to raise his lifepoints, to render the graveyards useless, Noa makes one tiny miscalculation.

He had anticipated Seto's Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon. After all, he'd summoned it against his own little brother. What he hadn't anticipated was the Dragon's Rage trap card, allowing Seto to inflict piercing damage with those hits. With nothing left in the graveyard, Noa suddenly finds himself losing control of the situation. But he puts his hand on his hip, smirking still as he looks up smugly through his thick eyelashes.

Until the second the attack hits, and his lifepoints drop to zero.

And finally, Noa's eyes go wide with the bitter realization.

He had hoped to use Mokuba at this exact moment. To summon up the baby brother at his beck and call, to stop Seto's attack in its place and buy him the time he needed to perfect his Creation strategy. But enraged by the betrayal, he had locked Mokuba up so tightly, even he would need to run the necessary processes to summon the teenage shield again. And even then, would it work?

That card's already been played.

Noa shakes with rage as his LifePoints hit zero. But his legs give way, as do the cages that hold the Kaibas' friends. He collapses to his knees, all his confidence and boasting shattered like glass ]

Rook

Rook didn't see the duel, or the shifting landscape around them. All they saw were the bars, the shouts of declared attacks drowned out by echoed screaming and burning pain. Shortly, they slide down the bars behind them to huddle on the floor of the cage, eyes fixed blankly on nothing as they sink into their helpless memories.

Seto takes the victory; the cage vanishes and Rook tumbles to the semi-real ground, the impact knocking them out of their trauma-trapped trance and making them gasp, hand reaching for their clasp again. The sorcerer blinks back into the moment at the seemingly positive outcome and shakily pulls to their feet, too dazed to taunt the villain and his loss, unfortunately, but looking around to make sure everyone is okay, or..at least not actively in danger, in Tristan's case.

Seto

Seto turns to see Mokuba's friends and Yugi's troupe fall, not even giving Noa the respect of facing him in his defeat. Noa knows the Kaiba family attitude toward Loss. He searches the sky for his brother, who surely also should have been released...

NOA

[ From where he kneels, broken, eyes wide in shock still, Noa begins to laugh. Some quiet, hollow, detached chuckle that builds and builds, until the fallen Kaiba is laughing hysterically, sitting back on his knees and head turned up to the sky. ]

Seto

Seto quickly snaps his attention back to Noa.

"What are you laughing at?!"

NOA

[ Noa's eyes fall to the side, staring at Seto with a manic smile, his head still thrown back.

"You might have beaten me... but... you still lose, Seto. You know what happens to losers in our family... But... there's only one way that I can truly die..... The countdown is already set. Do you really think... You can find Mokuba and a way out before this facility sinks? In only 25 minutes, Seto...?" ]

Seto

Seto's eyes narrow at Noa, and he bares his teeth, barely suppressing the urge to heel-stomp the blue-haired, arrogant child. He would be a child for the last 25 minutes of his life, and know he had lost... Seto doesn't need to stoop so low as to add true injury to this loss. But he still strongly considers it.

"Yes, I believe we can. You'll die here, Kaiba Noa- known by few, having left no mark on the world or your family's legacy. But we will live on and make it better than you could ever have dreamed... unless you had been anyone but Kaiba Gouzaburo's son."

Seto crosses the street to approach the Yugis, and stands calmly as their friends gather, before speaking.

"This boy doesn't have a creative script in his code; I'm certain he's keeping Mokuba in KC Tower still. Likely at the top, where he could force him to watch our Duel. Once we rescue Mokuba, he and I should be able to work with this old system to free us all, somehow; we'll work out the details when he's safe. Agreed?"

Yugi

Immediately upon being freed, the two Yugis had frantically occupied themselves with checking in on their friends. Yugi had gone to Rook, who had seemed especially distressed by the cages, and Levant and Téa who had landed nearby. While his Other Self had rushed to the side of Joey, Tristan, and Duke, where their cages had fallen on the opposide end of the arena.

But they both step away from the rest of their friends as Seto approaches, Yugi's sympathetic expression softening. The Other One gives him a respectful nod.*

"Agreed. I don't trust that Noa's out of tricks yet, we should all stay together and move quickly. Lead the way, Kaiba. The rest of us will support you however we can."

Mokuba

High above the scene below, somewhere in the towering Kaiba Corporation Headquarters, Mokuba sits alone on a concrete floor, in a dark stone dungeon. Chains restrict his wrists and ankles as he stares at the floor with an unfocused gaze.

He knows this prison. It's the same dark cell that Pegasus had trapped him in. But this time the iron cuffs fit a little too tightly, biting into his skin. The chains are a little too short, preventing him from moving more than a few inches, rather than the couple feet that Pegasus had granted him.

He had seen the Duel. Most of it, at least. Projected against the wall opposite where he sat in chains, Mokuba had watched, listened as Noa explained his origin to Seto.

When the video had first gone dark, it had filled the teenager with hope. Last he saw, Seto had made what he thought must be the final attack against Noa. He had cheered! But the metal cuffs didn't relent. Mokuba hadn't yet been freed.

And so all he could do was sit, and stare at the ground of his cell. Wondering, hoping, distressing, panicking. Accepting the worst.

Maybe Noa had won after all.

Maybe this is how he would die. Alone and cold, abandoned by both brothers and friends alike.

It's my fault, he thinks. It must be. If he were stronger, smarter, better. Maybe he wouldn't get kidnapped again. Seto must be so disappointed... If he's even still alive.

Mokuba wants to hug his knees to his chest, but the chains won't even give him that.

#ooc #ic action #[ not visible ic ]#rp #noa's arc #follow up to the brother's battle #we actually wrapped this arc today so I'm going to be moving on and dealing with the fallout IC #but #I will probably post a little bot more of this for context and archive tomorrow

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la-li-lu-le-lol · 2 years

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Hey. Are you mainly putting this blog and it’s posts on wordpress because of the way tumblr is? Since you said its very unstable as a platform. (Which I agree.) and since I honestly don’t pay too much attention to what’s going on, I’m curious as to what’s making you do this exactly. 😅 (also side note: maybe I am a little worried that tumblr would go down the drain one of these days.)

Also I figured some other people might be wondering the same thing, so that’s why I sent an ask. Sorry if I just missed something or didn’t see a post where you explained it. Either way, thanks for taking the time to answer, Lily. <3 you’re doing gods work if you put everything into wordpress. It sounds like it’s gonna be hard work.

(Disclaimer for anyone out of context: I am not leaving! This is just me talking about archival.)

Tumblr is showing a lot of the classic signs of circling the drain. When I was a teenager I watched several '00s message boards (and to a lesser extent, myspace) begin to draw to a close, and you learn to recognize the signs after seeing it happen enough times. The lack of staff moderation and presence, the uptick in bot activity, the site running worse than usual (money/upkeep problems), the overall morale of the users declining, all the new, more restrictive rules about content (and this won't be the end), they all leave a very bad taste in my mouth because these things happened to forums I loved that got shut down.

Tumblr isn't dying as long as the userbase remains relatively active on here, but let's face the facts: many users have left, it is most definitely in decline, and the staff are putting forth zero effort to stop that. Maybe because they can't, maybe because they don't see it worth the effort, it's probably all a big complicated ball of reasons with no clear villain.

This blog isn't going anywhere, I will never stop running it as long as people continue to use tumblr. But I am being wary and cautious just in case, and that's why I am trying to set up an archive. I have lost a lot of content I love to forums and imageboards closing, and I don't want that to happen again. Tumblr isn't going to die tomorrow, but my guess is that there will be a continued slow bleed of activity. 6 or 7 years from now, it could be just a domain name.

Anyway, my advice is this: don't panic yet, but if you would like to preserve stuff on here, take action sooner rather than later. This goes for every site: DO NOT ASSUME THINGS YOU PUT ON THE INTERNET WILL BE THERE FOREVER. Keep HARD-COPY back-ups saved of everything you make. The internet might FEEL like it's "forever" when you watch a youtube video uploaded fifteen whole-ass years ago or when you look at a BBS forum from 1999, but not all websites are created equal, especially not a niche, geeky website run on a shoestring budget with very server-heavy images and gifs.

#in which I am long-winded like usual. whoops

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