#i also heavy want me some thief king and atem | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rainstormcolors · 3 years

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I wanted to craft some crackship ideas, and I was given some ships and I want to post those ideas so:

Atem and Ryo Bakura -

Maybe the Ceremonial Duel is arriving soon and everyone is antsy and sort of dodging around the weight of their feelings and the weight of what’s coming. Ryo has felt hollow and confused in the wake of Yami Bakura having been ripped away from him. He wasn’t present for it, he had no say in it. And Ryo never understood who Yami Bakura truly was, and something breaks down and he needs answers. So Ryo musters the courage to face Atem about it. Except once he actually meets with Atem he gets cold feet about it, and the two sort of dance around actually talking about the heavy subjects: the looming duel and what Atem suspects---Ryo wants some answers. Really, Atem himself never truly understood who Yami Bakura was. And the two stumble into this conversation. Ryo feels anchorless. Atem is confused about where his anchor is. And both feel sort of disconnected from reality: Ryo in the shadow of having this mysterious and yet major presence in his life suddenly torn away and feeling that hole, and Atem with the knowledge of what’s coming soon and how he’ll be torn away. And Atem really can’t give Ryo the answers he’s looking for about Yami Bakura exactly, though Atem finds himself falling into guilt over Thief King Bakura. And Ryo feels guilty because he’s been so helpless about what went on and Yami Bakura’s fate. And Ryo doesn’t know if he’s angry or grateful or horrified. But Ryo starts breaking down and Atem is confused and a bit overwhelmed, and he says he’s sorry. And Atem wonders about the holes the others will feel, about the tears they’ll spill, if he’s torn away himself.

Isis Ishtar and Kisara -

Kisara’s spirit guards the palace in Ancient Egypt after her human form was killed. As a spirit, her form shifts between dragon and human. Priestess Isis catches sight of the beautiful spirit from the corner of her eyes sometimes. Isis feels a bit lonely and overburdened after so many casualties and so much rebuilding and she finds comfort when she sees this shimmering spirit. She often sees the spirit lingering at the same spots and so she sometimes picks flowers and leaves them in those spots for the spirit. Sometimes the spirit notices her back and smiles to her. The years pass on and on and Isis has a family as is expected of her and she grows old, but the spirit remains a warm companion in the palace. When Isis dies in old age, Kisara greets her with a smile and Priestess Isis’ heart blooms. Kisara takes her hand and guides her on towards her new life as Isis Ishtar. In the modern age, Isis looks upon the Blue Eyes White Dragon on the stone tablet but won’t dare acknowledge what she feels. She can’t even recognize these feelings. But the Dragon saves her from a dark fate in Isis’ duel with Seto Kaiba. When the dim future the Millennium Necklace had shown her seemed inescapable, Seto instead was suddenly inspired by visions of Kisara to summon Kisara’s spirit to win the duel and Isis is freed.

Thief King Bakura and Seto Kaiba -

Yami Bakura has vague memories of Set just as he has vague memories of Pharaoh Atem. He hates both of them, although his murky memories focus more sharply on Atem. But Yami Bakura does keep notice of Seto. I’m thinking, when he’s not in control, Yami Bakura drifts in and out of dark dreams when he’s resting inside the Ring. He sees pieces of the Thief King’s anguished past and pieces of the royal court battling him and also there’s something comforting about the pulse of Zorc’s heart which he feels beating. But more and more he believes Seto Kaiba is also a piece to the puzzle of the past. And eventually this provokes him to challenge Seto to their duel in DM’s final season and to invite Seto to follow him to Egypt, which Seto does. Seto himself doesn’t understand why he’s drawn to the pulse in Egypt but it’s like gravity.

But when everyone is pulled into Ancient Egypt, it’s like the memories are scrambled. Seto watches some strange younger version of himself rescue a girl trapped inside a cell and race off with her. And suddenly he’s pulled elsewhere and he’s watching a massacre. No one seems to see him… except when he notices a hiding child with white hair and the hiding child notices him back. He walks to the child, who seems upset and frightened of him at first but then also notices that the murdering patrol doesn’t seem to notice this strange man in a strange coat. And Seto stays by the child as he shivers in his hiding place, Seto numbing to the sight of violence. And he sits down by the child until it’s all over. Eventually the child uncurls and they look over each other.

And Seto is thrust to further on, to over a decade from that moment. And the Thief King, as he rampages on the court, notices Seto and suddenly he recognizes this person and it catches him offguard but not by much. The battles are touch and go for both sides as the days drip by. Seto doesn’t understand why he’s here and he’s tired. One day when he’s alone he’s suddenly confronted by the Thief King. Seto recognizes him enough at this point to ask him why on earth he was invited here---surely you noticed I’d be on their side after all. But TKB asks back why did you stay by me and why did you come. Seto grunts over how TKB could be so sentimental over that. TBK sneers. And then Seto grunts, more softly, how the past is awful and hateful. TKB slips away, but this interaction lingers on in both of their heads. And they discretely meet like this once or twice more, having clipped conversations as the battle moves on. At some point, Seto has to ask Atem if he even realizes who he’s been fighting and why.

#atem #ryo bakura #isis ishtar #kisara #seto kaiba #thief king bakura

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thosewhoruleegypt · 6 years

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The Pharaoh’s Lotus Garden (1 - 14)

The Pharaoh’s Lotus Garden is a collection of oneshots and drabbles within the TwRE-verse; Ancient Egypt AU. Each can be read separately, but they’ll make more sense with context~ Part I happens between For Love of Pharaoh and King and What Followed the High Priest Home.

Main Story Begins Here! Also available on AO3~ Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

Part I; Chapter 14 In which Pharaoh and King reach something resembling an understanding 2000 words; rated T

"Pharaoh!"

"Great Ra..." Atem breathed through grit teeth, but still turned as the Thief King trotted up to him. The Pharaoh had been taking detours through his own home for three days, attempting to avoid the newest official residents of the palace. But he relented, then, only wishing Yugi could be beside him to play peacemaker. "What is it?"

The Thief King's mouth twisted in something almost like a sneer; it contorted the scar on his cheek. "I've figured it out," he said, and Atem wondered if he could get away with commanding the Thief King to kneel, in order to erase the difference in their heights. "How to properly express my gratitude."

"I swear, if you try to hug me again—" Atem began, but pulled up short when the Thief King produced a deck of cards from beneath his robes. "What are you—?!"

"These cards are how I control the Shadow Realm," Bakura said, looking smug. He fanned out five cards—a trap and four spells. He picked up the trap: Destiny Board. "I stole them from this very palace, almost a decade ago. Destiny Board gives its wielder free access to the Shadow Realm, but not only that—when these five cards played as a combo, the caster can transport other targets to and from the Shadow Realm, as well. I had Ryou plant the four 'Spirit Message' spells here at the palace on the day of the attack, and used 'Destiny Board' to activate their affect. They all rematerialized in my deck after you defeated me."

Atem drew back as if struck. "And you intend to—!" he began, but stopped when the Thief King held out two cards: the Destiny Board trap and the monster card Dark Master - Zorc.

"I've been sitting on that damned soft bed for days, trying to figure out how to possibly make things okay between the two of us. Ryou's worried, see, about that. He doesn't want any trouble. And I've come to the conclusion that I'm far too great a threat, as it is. You'll never relax around me, for very good reason. So here." He held out the cards more insistently. "If you hold the Destiny Board card, I can't open the Shadow Realm. And as for Zorc, I've been looking for an excuse to rid myself of that lump of sludge for ages, so you can have one of my most powerful monsters, too."

Atem paused; considered the offered cards with narrowed, cautious eyes. "I suspected the answer lay in that stolen deck of yours. But if I'd wanted to... I could have had your cards confiscated the moment you were imprisoned."

"And I don't know why you didn't," the Thief King said, "but you didn't. So this is my answer to your kindness."

Again the Pharaoh considered this; didn't take the cards, but reached into his robes to retrieve his own deck. He leafed through the cards contemplatively, and eventually selected two.

"I'll accept your gesture, Thief King. But we'll trade, then." He flipped the two cards face-forward, revealing them to be "Curse of Dragon" and "Miracle's Wake."

The Thief King softened. "What a wise and fair Pharaoh," he crooned, though his tone left it a bit unclear as to whether he was speaking earnestly or with some edge of irony.

Atem regarded him distastefully, uncertain how to receive the comment. He took the cards Bakura offered; placed his own in the Thief King's palm.

"Like an exchange of rings," purred the Thief King, and Atem took a swipe at him. Bakura skipped backwards, but the Pharaoh didn't try to follow. After a moment, Bakura's grin eased into something more natural; less mocking. "Let's have a drink, shall we? Come back to my room. Ryou and Yugi are off together, I think. We should be able to get away with being... amicable, for a while, without losing face."

Atem hesitated, then gave a heavy sigh and shrugged. "Very well. Now that your room isn't the dungeon, I suppose it wouldn't be a bad place to spend an afternoon."

Servants spared the Pharaoh and the Thief King many odd stares as they made their way, side by side, back to the Thief King's new chamber. Once they arrived, the Pharaoh settled in at the dining table, legs crossed; the Thief King fetched the wine.

"Thank you." The Pharaoh drank when offered a shallow bowl; commented, "I think you drink the most wine of anyone in the palace."

"I did without, for a long while," the Thief King replied, lips curling in a smirk. "Not to get started on my sad stories again."

"No, no, I think wine is one thing men should indulge in more often," the Pharaoh said, staring into his as he swirled it contemplatively. "It smooths sharp edges and stirs up warm passions. Much less utilitarian than beer—far more lusty than simple water."

"Well said." The Thief King held up his bowl; the Pharaoh tapped the rim of his obligingly against it, and they both drank. The Thief King refilled their bowls.

"What are you plans, really?" Atem asked, after a time. Bakura blinked surprisingly limpid eyes at him.

"My plans? Why, Pharaoh, I'm alive, so I plan to live. I plan to drink good wine, and I plan to make decadent love to my Ryou every single night. That's as far ahead as I've thought."

"I envy you that," Atem murmured, staring once again into his wine. "If life were only so simple, I..." He trailed off; sighed.

"I can only think like that because of you, letting us both live here," Bakura said. "This is close to the level of luxury I enjoyed before you came to power, at the height of my own. But then I worked long hours and spent most of my time looking over my shoulder. There were nights I didn't sleep at all, even with Ryou lying beside me. I'm sure you know the feeling."

"I do." Atem took a drink of wine; massaged his temple with his fingertips.

"I miss the old trappings of power, sometimes, but I don't miss that part." Bakura refilled both their glasses. "I don't miss the time spent away from Ryou, either."

"The time spent away from Yugi does wear at me..." Atem agreed.

"But I had to protect him, from all that. From what I did every day."

"As I protect Yugi. Yes..."

"Ryou still found a way in, of course, even when I tried to keep him out..."

"Of course. My Yugi does, as well. They do that because of their devotion."

"They do that because they're in love."

"And we put up with it because we're in love, yes?"

"Why else would we?"

The Pharaoh and the Thief King both laughed, then, and drank more wine. They exchanged meaningless anecdotes, and spoke briefly about how annoying the ubiquitous desert sand could become. They smiled.

Eventually, the Thief King ventured, "I could help, if you wanted. With things. To ease the burden. Whatever you needed, really."

"Do you think I'm that easily fooled?" Atem asked, though his voice lacked hostility. "You won't boil me slowly."

"If I were trying to do that, I'd go about it much more subtly."

"I'm sure. And what use could you even be, do you think? A pharaoh doesn't have much need of stolen treasures."

"Please. I'm no mere pickpocket, Pharaoh. I've got all sorts of skills. Thieves make great spies, for one thing—Ryou's even better at that than I am. I'm just as good at managing treasure as stealing it, for another thing. I'm a clever person, a quick study—taught myself to read. I can talk my way out of most things, and fight my way out of anything else. I can gather information as easily as I can gather coins from people's pockets, and I'm a pretty decent code-breaker. I could go on, but..."

"But what?" Atem asked, with a smirk. "Too modest?"

"I can be of use to you, Pharaoh, if you'd like."

Atem considered this; sipped his wine. Bakura didn't push, but got up and fetched another bottle when the first ran dry.

"That one time Ryou fell asleep on the terrace—he didn't just drink with Yugi that night, did he?" Atem asked, after a time. "He was drinking with you, wasn't he?"

"Yugi got him pretty well drunk," Bakura said, with a laugh. "I don't think he drank much, in the palace, for fear of it loosening his tongue."

"And here I thought the boy just had admirable restraint."

Bakura chuckled. "But yeah, he came out to the desert afterwords. Brought me some wine and insisted I drink it with him."

"You probably didn't need much coercion."

"True. I did think he was being rather foolish, but the strain of subterfuge was really getting to him, at that point. He didn't want to betray you, you know. More than that, I think, he didn't want to betray Yugi."

"But he loves you."

"He loves me. So he brought me wine. And I love him, so I swore to make the celebration, after you defeat, worth all the pain he had gone through."

"You were there, then. At my palace that night. You brought him back."

"He couldn't walk on flat ground by the end of that night, let alone across the desert sands. Of course I brought him back. Got him all settled on the terrace. I knew you or your little pharaoh-ling would find him there, come morning."

Atem was silent for a long time, staring into his wine. Then he said, "You likely could have killed me that night, while I slept. If you had slipped that far past my defenses, it's unlikely you would have been intercepted, at that point."

"It didn't really occur to me, to take that kind of a risk. Not with my plans going so well."

Atem shook his head. "Don't lie. If I could be slain by a simple dagger in a dark night, then all of Ryou's pain and suffering would have been for naught. You held back, then, so that he could see his work come to something."

A sly grin stretched across Bakura's face. "See, Pharaoh? We do understand each other quite well, don't we?"

"Sometimes I'm quite capable of winning a duel myself, but I still allow Yugi the final strike. He puts himself in such danger, when we Mind Shuffle. The least I can do is make sure he has the satisfaction of victory."

Bakura nodded. "That's it exactly."

Atem poured them both more wine.

"How about I start you out hearing complaints?" the Pharaoh said, eventually. "I opened up an audience hall, fairly early in my rule, for common folk to present their problems to me. It turned out to be a far more successful and intensive thing than I anticipated, and while I wouldn't dream of doing away with it, it places a significant strain on my time. You could sift through them, for those that really need my attention, do additional research as needed, and settle what matters you can on your own, with the resources I'd give you access to."

The Thief King laughed heartily. "One of your most tedious and trying tasks! Well played. I'll take it on!"

Atem's eyebrows rose in surprise, lips twitching up in a smirk. "Really, now? You will?"

"Of course! I said 'anything you need,' didn't I? And here I'm trying to prove I'm sincere in my intentions, so it certainly wouldn't serve me to back out now!" The Thief King drained the rest of his drink. "I'll need quite a bit of wine to get through it, though, I think."

"I'll have a priest supervise it, for a while," Atem said, with a slight nod; poured them both more wine. "We'll see how you do."

"Oh, Pharaoh, I do relish tests of my endurance. I won't disappoint you, surely."

Atem held out his wine; Bakura tapped his glass against the rim. They both drank.

"Are you sure you’ll be able to manage the stairs back to your room?" Bakura asked playfully.

"Please. I can handle myself."

The Thief King's grin widened. "Whatever you say, Pharaoh. You are the King of Egypt, after all."

#pharaoh atem #pharaoh atemu #thief king bakura #yugioh #yu-gi-oh!#bakura #TwRE #those who rule egypt #TPLG #TPLG PI #the pharaoh's lotus garden #the pharaoh's lotus garden part I

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ziyal · 6 years

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Yugioh!

my all-time ultimate fave character: it’s Kaiba come on you all know it’s Kaiba (runner ups are Atem & Ishizu)

a character I didn’t used to like, but now do: I think it was right around my... 2013ish reread when I started to REALLY love the Ishtars, but especially Rishid, who is super underrated imo

a character I used to like, but now don’t: i don’t have a real answer for this so I’ll just tell you all that when I was like 13 my favorite ygo was Yami Bakura because... like... edgy middle school phase. (I don’t dislike him now by any means I just think this is funny)

a character I’m indifferent about: I just... don’t understand Otogi and why he sticks around and gets to be Part of the Gang. what’s he.... for. why introduce another non-duelist character to stand around and say things occasionally and have brief grasps at character development but not actually do anything significant. I actually have come around on him a bit recently and think he has interesting potential but it goes nowhere

a character who deserved better: BAKURA. which one? take your fucking pick! there’s two or possibly three of them depending on how you slice it and zero have a satisfying character arc! wouldn’t it be nice if Ryou Bakura got to have some actual conclusion to his character and we knew what was going on with him or what he thought about his situation at any point after Duelist Kingdom, wouldn’t it be nice if the Thief King got any sort of actual resolution to his revenge plot and completely legitimate grievances against the throne, wouldn’t it be nice if we actually understood what the fuck was going on with Yami Bakura and how much of him was Zorc vs how much he was an independent entity because GOD is it confusing, any of this would be good

also most every female character (with the exception of I’d say Ishizu) but especially Kisara, who is conceptually very cool but in practice literally has NO personality and does nothing but show up, act shy and retiring, manifest her Ka, and get fridged to further Set’s character development. sigh.

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: i just! don’t understand! puppyshipping!!! i’m really sorry, i’ve never got where it came from -- I like both characters a lot and i think that the narrative parallels between them are interesting but their dynamic to me is so GENUINELY just pure anger and dislike and disrespect (from kaiba’s side) that I’m baffled by all the people who seem to take it as “belligerent sexual tension.” i think part of this is a manga/anime divide because i’ve heard that their dynamic is a bit more ... playful in the anime? but even then I’m still not fully on board. SORRY.

I also love Yugi & Atem’s relationship to no end and I absolutely 100% Get It, like boy I can SEE the subtext folks are picking up on for SURE, but I have never been fully on board with actual romantic Puzzleshipping. I think they should be super close and love each other forever but not Kiss. my hot take on this is “i think yugi is just too normal to want to get with someone who used to live in his body”

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: cmon, you guys know it’s prideshipping. that’s my BRAND. shoutout to dark side of dimensions for giving their relationship some actual closure and promise and some REAL HEAVY subtext. it’s been a year and honestly? i finished that movie like “wow can’t believe prideshipping is BASICALLY one-sided canon” and I hold to that opinion

a cute, low-key ship: I hadn’t thought about it a ton before but Wishshipping has really grown on me a lot recently

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: I don’t have a ton of Yugioh ships. is Trustshipping unpopular? Ishizu’s the only person I can ship Kaiba with other than Atem, because clearly the true Kaiba pairing dynamic is “Kaiba being constantly thrown off and frustrated by everything they do, but in a sexy way”

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: Yugioh has a grand total of like, 1.5 actual ships, so I have no applicable answer to this question. ...oh! in the anime, from what little I’ve seen, the way Honda & Otogi are made to fight over Shizuka is really uncomfortable and bad

my favorite storyline/moment: nostalgia DEMANDS I say Death-T is my favorite arc but realistically I think my actual favorite is the Battle City finals. there’s just so much great stuff there

a storyline that never should have been written: can’t come up with one. there’s definitely issues with individual plot points but there’s no one major storyline I can point to and say that the series would be better off without it.

my first thoughts on the show: I was 10 years old, fuck if I know. it came on after Pokemon and then I found the manga and was hooked

my thoughts now: I love it, a forever fandom. I realize I bagged on some aspects of the plot a lot earlier in some of these answers but, um, Yugioh Is Good and I do genuinely think it deserves a little more credit and to be taken a bit more seriously than it most commonly is in pop culture. listen: there’s more to it than card games but also fuck you the card games are good

#yugioh tag #Anonymous

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