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break-slash · 3 years

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Puzzleship JP & KR Fancomic Recommendation List

UPDATE (19-12-2020): Added two more artists and two more titles on the Japanese lists!

I don’t consider myself as someone very tidy and organized, but I just like making lists of the things I love, somehow. Hence this post. I haven’t been in the fandom for long but I thought I’d share some of my favorites primarily from two sites: pixiv and postype. Most of the postype ones are behind paywall, and I will mark them differently.

Some of my favorites come from the same artists, so I’ll also link their pixiv profile on top of my favorite work of them.

(I actually bookmarked a lot and picking them isn’t an easy task, so I will update this step by step. If you see only a link of an artist, that’s the reason, but I can guarantee you will love their works! Feel free to recommend me yours through reblogs or DM as well!)

Japanese

Artist: CYHGM

She is a Chinese and is more active on Weibo (she posted tons of puzzleship there, but my Mandarin is beyond rusty so I could only cry in despair lmao), but she has two fancomics that I absolutely adore of. Those two mentioned fancomics are:

The Past and The Future. You can check my translation for this one here. It tells about Atem who gets transported to 3000 years later before his coronation, and that’s where he met post-canon!Yugi. Just... everything about this comic is so wonderful. I teared up at the last page, not gonna lie ;_;

The Pharaoh and The Fairy: An Ancient Egypt-slash-fantasy AU featuring the S0/TOEI casts. The fairy Yugi was saved by Atem, and it’s an obligatory for fairies to grant their savior’s wishes. However, Atem doesn’t exactly have something he wants of, and this confuses Yugi on how he should repay him back. Pure undiluted sugar, and fairy!Yugi is just so cute.

Artist: Fushitas

Arguably one of the most popular Puzzleship fanartists in the JP fandom (look at their number of followers on Twitter, man), but maybe it’s also due to the fact they were in AoT fandom too. They’re mostly active on Twitter, and if you also watch Zexal, they draw tons of Yuma-centric pairings too. They have released lots of books, and their prices on the reseller sites are... well, let’s just say, unbelievable. Just to show how famous they are.

From everlasting to everlasting: Set after DSOD. A mysterious figure appears in front of Atem, claiming to be his queen. Everyone in the after life somehow acknowledges this person, which makes him even more confused because he’s the only one unaware of this. On the living realm, Yugi who is on the way to his home got hit by a truck (isekai much??) and when he woke up, he suddenly plays the role of Atem’s queen. I’ve always adored Fushitas’ drawing, and this is no exception. The story is pretty simple, but is still good! The ending of this comic is everything I’ve always wanted from the canon lol.

The King’s Guest: Ancient Egypt AU. The councils are starting to get worried because Atem shows no interest in marrying someone, so Shimon opens up a “chance” sort of for civilians to become “someone for the Pharaoh to talk with”. The civilian Yugi takes this chance right off the bat, and stuff happens? This one is just so sweet and the misunderstanding later in the story kinda cracks me up. I really love the way they build the two’s chemistry in here.

Artist: usi

They only draw two puzzleship fancomics, but both are so good and explores the themes I’ve loved from the pairing.

The Lotus’ Devil: Set post-canon with a flashback. It tells about Yugi’s regret in the past where he wanted to show Atem a small pool supposed to be full of lotus flower only to arrive seeing them not blooming. Fast forward to the post-canon, he found out that there’s actually a monster residing on that pool. I really, really loved the ending scene of this one.

Who’s The Detestable, Fortunate Guy Here: I think this is set sometime in the canon story, although the exact timing is unclear. It’s a short comic of Yugi asking Atem to pretend to be his date and go on a “dating practice”. A very pleasant hurt-and-comfort kind of story, and who doesn’t love a story of them dating anyways? :”D

Artist: Houzuki Anzu

She doesn’t draw much YGO, but she has some Arc-V and 5D’s fanarts too if you watch the series!

Hourglass: Sets after the Memory World arc. Yugi keeps hearing a strange sound inside his mind, and he finds out there’s a huge hourglass standing there, guarded by the will of Millenium Puzzle. Apparently, the hourglass is linked to Atem’s remaining time in the living realm? Anyways, the ending of this comic might look like a cliffhanger, but I personally think it isn’t. I love the theme this comic picks to explore and the way it is presented.

Present: Same setting with Hourglass, but this one focuses more on Atem sorting out his feelings about the Ceremonial Duel and what he has learned from Yugi in general. It’s a very nice extra detail that the canon slightly lacks of, and I just love... bittersweet stuff in general haha.

Artist: Chiriko

Are you the type who wants puzzleship to be full of happiness and fluff and nothing else? Well, she has a number of comics to fill that need! I actually love all of her works, but if I have to pick, these two are my favorite:

...Don’t Ever Leave Me Again: A short story about Yugi having a nightmare of where he was stuck in the fire accident at Otogi’s store. Well... this isn’t a fluff sort of, but it’s... a happy ending still? /shot

[Untitled]: A dialogue-less comic, but this is the sort of post-canon what-if that I really, really like. Atem stroking Yugi’s face while sleeping is just... so soft man....

Artist: Komori Nea

Their art style was one of those that’s very noticeable and has a certain charm on it. They are pretty active on Twitter, and even draws puzzle comics once in a while that haven’t been uploaded to pixiv (which is why I recommend you to check their twitter gallery too haha)

The Soul Stays Awake: Post!DSOD. Atem comes back from afterlife in hoping that Yugi would be as happy as he is, but months after, Atem’s existence still hasn’t been registered on Yugi’s life just yet. Another post!DSOD take that I like which involves the fear of another farewell and uncertainty, but this is a good hurt-and-comfort. I swear, it’ll hurt you just... for a while. :”)

The Attack’s Aim: Set during the canon series. A short comic mostly portraying Yugi’s hidden strength but also the tenacity of duelist that is not only targeted toward the opponent, but also to Atem, without the person actually noticing it. The last page of this one is so... soft and gentle I had to put it into this list.

Artist: caf

Often draw with S0/TOEI style, characters and characterization in mind. Their coloring in illustrations is so soft, plus artists who specialize in S0/TOEI style can’t be found so easily. Their comic style is not a manga-like one and they write the dialogues with handwriting, but if you can read hiragana and write and understand how kanji works (so you can write it on translation machine), their comics are easy to understand!

magenta: S0/TOEI AU where Yugi and Atem are two separate person. A short comic of Yugi lying under the rain as Atem searches for his whereabouts. I really love the way they portray the rain and the atmosphere surrounding the scene. Or maybe I’m just biased with rains in general, ahahaha.

Yuugi and Mao’s Stay Home: Same AU as above. Our two boys has to face the same shit we do IRL in this comic, which is quarantine. Atem offers to cook something for Yugi since he can’t eat outside. You love seeing Yugi eating stuff? This is a perfect comic for y’all.

Artist: Kkyut

Artist: Kayu(i)

Others:

Gemini: As Atem comes back to the living world, Yugi faces the dilemma of having being separated by “his other self” physically and mentally. A short comic, but the lines the artist used are so... beautiful. Like, the way they describe Yugi’s loneliness?? Just hits the park so much.

Until The Hourglass Runs Out: Set after the Memory World Arc. As their farewell day goes closer, Yugi decides to give Atem a full control of his body at school so he could spend his time with Jounouchi and the gang more. However, things don’t go as smooth as Yugi had expected. If you like that little teeny weeny pain before the Ceremonial Duel, this comic perfectly suits the taste.

see you sometime: Post-canon. Mahaad offers Atem a chance to meet Yugi in the living realm one more time, but with several conditions. Firstly, he could only stay for a day at maximum. Secondly, Yugi won’t be able to remember who he spent his time with after Atem hangs out with him. Thirdly, Yugi will not be able to “recognize” this Atem; he will only be registered in Yugi’s mind as a new classmate. A bittersweet comic in whole, but seeing the two having fun like a normal teenager would just makes me grin.

After The Rain: A dialogue-less comic, so everyone would be able to read this right away. A short comic of the two, but still very cute and wholesome!

The Tropics of Horus: Post!DSOD, Atem has to chase Kisara who lingers around Kaiba’s soul and he needs Yugi’s help to bring Kisara back to afterlife, but he has his own ulterior motive. This manga is so dialogue-heavy and might be hard to dissect especially if you don’t understand JP grammar and context, but the time spent trying to understand the meaning behind every words will be worth it. That much I guarantee. Just... everything about this comic, and how Atem’s “ulterior motive” connects to our boys’ adventure in canon series are so well planned. You can also purchase the R18 version in a form of the book here (toranoana)

Christmas Day: S0/TOEI puzzleship hint (dark puzzle???). There’s something in store for Yugi in Christmas, but this one might surprise Yugi a lot. It’s not that the prompt of “Atem gets separated from Yugi temporarily” is uncommon, but it is still a sweet one and makes you smile throughout the pages.

Korean

All titles mentioned here are not free unless mentioned otherwise. Also I don’t understand Korean except being able to read Yugi and Atem’s name, so my story interpretation might be wrong. If you understand Korean, I’d really love for you input! ;_;

You can check out on how to buy comics from postype here

Yugi’s 2020 Birthday Anthology: Rain and After End

This is an anthology consisting of four titles, but they share the same (or similar) setting where Atem is reincarnated, but he doesn’t remember his past (or has not yet, depending on how the story portrays it). Some are age-gap (adult!Yugi and high school student!Atem), so you might want to consider that if it’s not your cup of tea.

To Like Someone is to...: Age-gap setting. Mostly tells about how Yugi deals with his feeling as the reincarnated Atem in front of him turns out to have a feeling on him. I like how the story’s conclusion is that Yugi will sort it out slowly while also teasing Atem how he’s “too early” to date Yugi w.

In A Circle: A story about how the two met through an online chess game. Iirc Yugi works in a game company and Atem is sort of a famous e-sports player in this setting. There’s a lot of dialogue in this one and the app sometimes can’t process them very well, but I liked what I can understand from it! not very convincing is it haha i’m sorry i shouldn’t have done this

Familiarity: Age-gap setting, where Yugi becomes Atem’s caretaker. The comic mostly focuses on how Atem notices how kind (or too kind) Yugi is sometimes, but there are times where he feels distant. The plot where Atem gets into a fight with the other kid in his school because the kid mocks Yugi, and how Yugi just... accepts it even when Atem doesn’t want to say his reason of punching the kid is just.... god... I love this kind of age-gap setting like this I guess ;_;

Touchdown: Age-gap setting, but Atem is older in here (university student). The two goes to Atem’s university festival and they think about their own feeling when they got separated. On their way to drop Atem off, he confesses to Yugi, but Yugi is still unsure on his overlapping feeling between the reincarnated Atem and the Atem he knows. Make sure you play Motohiro Hata’s Rain and Aimer’s After Rain during the car scene to make the “rain” mood works even better :”)

Others:

Try For Point: A continuation of Touchdown, where Atem (like, the one from the past) visits Yugi in his dream and helps Yugi in sorting out is his feeling toward his reincarnated self. Atem’s advice is so sweet and there’s one certain line from this comic that I remember very deeply - there’s a part where he says, “If you don’t pull out the card, you won’t know what card it is, right?” to help Yugi clearing out his hesitancy ;w; at this point, I curse myself for not being able to understand Korean

#puzzleshipping #blindshipping #ygo #im sorry if i can't make a precise description...#will be updated regularly as i scan through my bulky bookmarks

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inktrailing · 3 years

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I stole this from @the-kaedageist because it looked fun.

(Also me: “I’ll do this meme quickly...” ... *loses track of time*)

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

78 to my greatest surprise. I guess the only favor 2020 did for me was in writing.

2) What’s you total AO3 word count?

355,868. Holy...

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

10. Critical Role, CWDC, Men in Black (movies), Supernatural, Doctor Who, PotC. Spattering of some other stuff.

4) What are your top five fics by Kudos?

Unconventional, Men in Black, Jay/Kay, 1211 kudos... somehow

Fish Tales, Men in Black, Jay/Kay, 336 kudos

meet us where the night ends, Critical Role, Essek/Caleb, 298 kudos

I see death cresting over the hill, Critical Role, Essek/Caleb, 276 kudos

message, Critical Role, Essek/Caleb, 273 kudos

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I AM REALLY BAD ABOUT THIS. It’s literally on my AO3 profile that I’m bad about it. I try every now and then but I so often just get flustered and then don’t end up responding. Oftentimes I’m at work and just flailing during the rest of my shift and yeah /)_(\ Words Are Hard, says the writer.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

OH THERE’S A COUPLE. I would say Caught in the Wires (MIB, Jay/Kay); and you know my soul (CRc2, Essek/Caleb) probably are the two worst for bad end future fics. follow me into the golden wild (DW, Rose & the Moment) is my favorite of my bad end fics though lol. I fucking love that fic hahaha, and it’s one of my least read stories XD

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I don’t really. Not fic wise. A lot of my thought processing goes through basically using an RP format with myself (because I like icons, okay) so sometimes I’ll take wild concepts and play out scenarios with a bunch of characters and sometimes I’ll get shit out of it that I can actually use but other times I’ll have fun things that will not translate well to fic.

My fav of those was a Pokemon AU that y’know basically dragged a bunch of characters in and eventually they had to deal with a Problem like ya do while still ending up stranded. I enjoyed throwing Dean/Lucifer at that because Dean just ended up “ghost hunting” aka freeing/helping/catching ghosts and ending up with 70+ and Lucifer really only traveling around with a Zoroark and still hating humanity but helping mistreated and scapegoated pokemon.

I just really like Dean and his ghost army lmfao.

An actual crossover fic I have (and maybe one day could finish) was Arrow/The Dresden Files only because Paul Blackthorne except it uses book canon instead of TV canon because of Winter Court Bullshit so like whatever, I do what I want some days I guess \o_O/

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t... think so? I sometimes get minor disagreements on characterization but I typically write for myself and am pretty set in my ways so it’s like okay I accept your opinion but it’s not going to change anything.

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I cannot write smut to save my life.

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

If I have I definitely haven’t noticed.

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

stood too close to the flames (LoT, Mick/Len) was translated.

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No.

13) What’s you all-time favorite ship?

I ship so many things at the drop of a hat and so frequently go back to old ships to find new things to read even if it’s been a looooong time. I would say Jay/Kay since I’ve shipped and written them for the greatest length of time without it fading.

I do genuinely enjoy writing Dean/Lucifer though so go rarepairs I guess.

14) What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I fucking love I’ll Stop the Whole World (DW, Doctor/Master, 47k words) as I’ve pulled it up again after idk months to skim through but I suppose I learned a lot from writing lost in the lapse again and going backwards to any of my longer WIPs just hurts a bit? I want to figure it out because there’s so much I adore in it but there’s a lot of work to be done and having two monitors helps now but... I don’t have the energy to tear it apart and sew it back together.

15) What are your writing strength?

god idk

I’d like to say I’ve gotten better at I guess... balance? Juggling dialogue and action and scenery. I forced myself to work on scenery descriptions awhile back and I think it paid off?

I learned to take good notes, especially if it’s something with multiple plot threads that I need to keep track of. That’s what has made some of my older WIPs such a bitch because I didn’t do that and I’m like ????? Hey? Past Me? WHAT?!?! And retroactively trying to build a timeline is REALLY DIFFICULT ACTUALLY.

I do also think I keep my narrative parallels pretty tight. I’m sure a lot get missed because people aren’t staring at the same story that I am for months combing things over, but it delights me okay ;)

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing shit?! Well, I’ve gotten better at that over the course of the last year. Critical Role reaction fics helped A TON with that. Just spitting things out immediately after an episode.

I am a fucking perfectionist though. Like I’ll canon divergence all I want but mentally I need the basis of canon to weave into my writing even if it’s just for a single line. I like willfully breaking canon not ignorantly.

This means I either never get things done because I need to rewatch or I too meticulously obsess over something.

While I think I’m good with writing scenery I’m SUPER BAD at character descriptions?? I’m trying to?? Work on it?? But that’s one thing I’ve finally just been like okay I know I’m bad at this I just need to accept it and go on because if I get hung up on it then again, nothing’s gonna get posted.

I’ve learned that I vehemently hate the words “still” and “probably” because I white noise them even when doing intensive editing and I use them so damn much and now that I realize going back to read old things hurts my soul.

17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Look I grew up primarily on writing Yu-Gi-Oh! fic. I had my Time with poor use of Japanese in fic. While I don’t have any fandoms now that I write for that it would be relevant... I can’t do it anymore. However, reading it doesn’t bother me, and it generally doesn’t jar me out of anything. Like it feels normal reading it in MDZS fics for one thing.

18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I want to say some super wonky ~new cards~ Cardcaptor Sakura fic. But I think the first fandom I published for on FFN was likely YGO. Anything early than that I would have blacked out of my memory ahahaha.

19) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

lost in the lapse again took up my life for MONTHS and was really my pride and joy. It was the longest thing I’ve ever written and edited to my liking. I’m so so happy with how it came out and I’m shocked honestly that it has 118 kudos now because I really expected it to get maybe half that, tops. But it was definitely one of those I’m writing this for me, this encompasses what I want, and if others enjoy it that would be really nice!

Otherwise I think I’d say I see death cresting over the hill because it has so many elements I just enjoy rereading. I think it’s my favorite of my Critical Role fics too.

#writing #meme

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higuchimon · 5 years

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[fanfic] Embrace of Fate: Chapter 1

Juudai fidgeted in his far too plushly cushioned chair, trying to smile at the next person in line. He thought he managed it pretty well. He rubbed the back of his head and leaned back, staring at the counter on his arm out of the corner of his eye.

Half an hour to go. He kept the smile plastered on his face. It wasn’t a real smile. He didn’t feel like smiling, not tonight. Tonight was boring.

Tonight was supposed to be the most exciting night of his life, or at least to rate up in the top ten or so. Tonight was his Soulmate Party. Tonight his parents had gathered all the people in the city and the kingdom and a few from the outlying kingdoms they had friendly ties with, everyone who had a counter that ran out tonight.

One of them, supposedly, was his soulmate. The most important person in the world to him. Probably not the person he’d hate the most – that was the Light of Ruin, or so he’d been told, and that didn’t exactly come with arms for a timer to be on – but someone vitally important to him for the rest of his life and probably all of his future incarnations as well.

He didn’t need to look up to feel the weight of his mother’s gaze on him. Like all mothers, Queen Kaien had that sort of ability. He tilted his head towards her and tried to convey how unutterably happy he actually wasn’t.

“Be patient, Juudai,” she murmured from her position behind him. “You’ll meet them.”

He sure hoped so. All the timers had been checked against his and none of them had it down to the same second. As far as he was concerned, that meant none of them were the one and they could all go home or try to meet other people or anything that they wanted to do that wasn’t hang around him trying to be there when the fateful moment struck.

This would probably be a lot easier if soulmate counters didn’t exist. Or if I didn’t have one. People wouldn’t crowd around trying to see his wrist or throng up waiting for the timer to strike zero. They’d give him some space!

Juudai jerked himself to his feet, grumbling under his breath. All of those near him stared as if they expected him to declare that he’d just decided who his soulmate had to be. Instead, he turned to his mother.

“I’m going for a walk in the garden.” He shot a quick glance at everyone else. “Alone.” He hoped they got the message.

Queen Kaien tilted her head. “Of course, son. Do let us know if you meet anyone interesting.”

By which she meant ‘meet your soulmate’, of course. Juudai had no idea of who that person would be, other than someone who wasn’t in the ballroom. But as he hurried to the nearest door, aching for some clean cool air, he didn’t think he would have cared if he’d actually met them or not.

The silver sphere of the full moon rode high tonight, with sparking darts of stars filling the rest of the sky. Juudai only gave them a cursory look. He wasn’t much of one for sky staring, though it could be kind of interesting with the right company.

Tonight he just wanted the peace and quiet that the Soulmate Party wasn’t giving him. He breathed in deeply, fighting his jangled nerves down. Everything was supposed to be fun tonight. Everything was supposed to end with him finding that one person for him and being thrilled to the core of his soul for all eternity.

And yet they weren’t there. He wasn’t sure of where they were. What little he could get from the Darkness – being Haou did have some perks, after all – just said the person that matched his counter, that matched him, was out there somewhere.

He settled himself on a marble bench in the darkest part of the garden. He could still see and hear everything going on at the party, but he wasn’t there and they weren’t trying to nag at him. That made it all so much better.

Juudai didn’t look at the counter. He could feel it going down with every second but it wasn’t time yet. He wanted it to sneak up on him, at least as much as the marker of his future could.

His stomach rumbled a little. He hadn’t eaten anything at the party; partly because he hadn’t been hungry then and partly because of how his nerves jangled and twitched.

Having everyone stare at me if I so much as twitched towards anyone didn’t help, either.

Maybe once he met whoever it was, they could go get something to eat together. They’d have to talk, wouldn’t they? They could talk while they ate. He’d seen his parents doing that before. It shouldn’t be all that hard.

Warmth spiraled up from his left arm. Juudai glanced at it in annoyance; he wasn’t getting sick, was he? Fevers didn’t start in the arm and they really didn’t start like that.

A minute left. Only a minute. Where had all the rest of the time gone? He could hear confused noises coming from the chamber inside, and his mother’s voice attempting to calm people down. He started to sit up, wondering what the whole problem was. What could it be, tonight?

Footsteps brushed through the grass. Juudai whirled that way, his heart thudding in his chest, forgetting that there were other people in the universe. He knew that was a bad things; he shouldn’t do that. But the final minute faded away and he could see a shape coming towards him.

A shape that raised an arm and leaped closer to him, a sudden wild yell cracking, and Juudai found himself on his back, a knife gleaming in the moonlight before it came down towards him…

Yubel didn’t know their way around Shadowshaven. That wasn’t so unusual; they hadn’t been there for more than a couple of hours. They had one goal: find a place to stay long enough so that they could get washed up and changed and go to the palace for the Soulmate Party.

For Prince Juudai’s Soulmate Party.

Yubel knew their timer ran out that night. They’d known for months it would be tonight. What they hadn’t known, what no one knew, was who they would meet when the timer dropped to zero.

They glanced down again; another hour or so remained until the fateful moment.

I’m not going to meet my soulmate looking like this. After months on the road and limited time to take care of themselves, this wasn’t the best that they’d ever looked. Dust in their hair and a thin coating of it all over them – mostly because they’d been passed by carts on the road more than once. Mud splattered their lower legs as well, from some of those carts.

Yubel stared up to where the palace rose over the streets. There wasn’t any guarantee that they would meet their soulmate at the party, but since they would meet whoever it was tonight, Yubel thought it was just as good a place as any to check. Soulmate Parties meant that lots of people whose timers ran out at the same time would be gathered together.

Not for a moment did Yubel think that their soulmate would be Prince Juudai himself. Yubel studied history and politics and soulmate theory just like anyone else in their position back home.

Princes usually have soulmates who are nobility at least. Sometimes other royalty. That wasn’t always the case, but enough so that Yubel knew that the odds were against them. So they focused instead on what was far more likely: their soulmate was one of the other guests, perhaps one of those rare commoners who would be there for the same purpose they were.

Soulmate counters were quite odd things. Yubel wondered what it would be like once they actually met one another. Whoever their other person was.

The closer it grew to nightfall, the more crowded the streets became, and the more Yubel wanted to find anywhere they could get clean at and then head to the palace. Even with their timer clearly expiring that night, they likely wouldn’t be allowed in if they didn’t look decent.

Water! Yubel spied a fountain in the square ahead and hurried there, pushing their way through the crowd, most of which ignored them in favor of their own pursuits. Yubel settled by the fountain – there were benches there for that purpose – and hurriedly washed, keeping a quick eye out for anyone who might want to argue with them doing it here.

This did seem to be a public fountain, though. Going to one of the local wells might’ve been possible, but Yubel had seen the lines there. They’d never get through in time to go to the palace, and they didn’t want to stretch how the counter would resolve.

Once all the dust and mud had been washed away, Yubel dug into their bag for the outfit they’d planned to wear tonight. Their eyes widened as they pulled it out.

“What happened?” Yubel murmured, resting a hand on the large rent along one side. They’d kept it carefully wrapped up all this time and there wasn’t any reason this should have happened. But there the hole was all the same.

After all this time on the road, Yubel knew how to sew, fixing up minor wear and tear on their travel outfits. But there wasn’t enough material and thread in their supplies to deal with this and it would take even the best tailors far, far too long to fix it tonight.

“Excuse me.”

Yubel jerked their head up to see a young woman addressing her. They blinked, nodding acknowledgment, wondering what she wanted.

“Are you here for the Soulmate Party tonight?” The woman gazed at her with kind, gentle eyes and Yubel nodded a bit blankly. “I thought so.” Her attention shifted to the tunic in Yubel’s hands. “I don’t know anyone who could get that fixed for you, but I’ve got an outfit that might fit you if you want to try it. You shouldn’t meet your soulmate looking like you just walked out of a ragbag!”

Yubel tried not to laugh; they’d been thinking the same thing. “Thank you so much.” They rose to their feet. “My name’s Yubel.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Yubel. I’m Claret.” Claret bent her head gracefully in a nod. “Do you have an invitation?” A small smile fluttered around her lips. “I suspect not.”

Yubel cast a glance at their own disheveled self, even after the quick wash. “No. But my timer should get me in.”

“You’re quite right. But if you’d like, I can help you there.” Claret nodded towards the palace. “I will be attending as part of the festivities – I’m a harpist. The palace can be confusing if you don’t know it very well.”

“I think it would be even if you did.” Yubel admitted, falling into step beside Claret as the other started to guide them through the streets. “I’ve never been in one, though.”

“I’ve only been in the one here. It’s like any huge house that people have built on for centuries. Confusing and cold at the worst times.”

Yubel found a laugh tapping at their lips. This would be an interesting evening for certain.

So it proved to be, as Claret helped Yubel get a proper bath and dressed in the outfit she’d suggested: made of warm velvet and fine silk, in shades of deep blue that complemented Yubel’s coloring, and well made boots of dyed leather. Yubel carefully cleaned the gemstone adornment for their forehead and settled it back where it belonged after brushing their hair.

Being guided to the palace meant it didn’t take as long to gt there as Yubel feared it might. The guards nodded the two of them through after a quick check of Claret’s credentials and inspecting Yubel’s counter.

Yubel looked over the whole gathering, their heart clenching as they did. They couldn’t see the prince, but that wasn’t a surprise. They wouldn’t have wanted to stick around in this stuffy place either, not when everyone stared as if Prince Juudai were the finest of foods and everyone wanted to keep him to themselves but he’d been made just for one person and no one knew who that was.

Yubel thought they’d gotten lost in that thought a little and decided to just look around and see what they could see.

It didn’t turn out to be that much. There were people whose counters were within minutes of running out and a lot of them were trying to introduce themselves to each other, hoping to have that final moment happen and to look into another set of eyes and find that bond flowering.

Yubel could feel their own counter winding itself down to within a few minutes. They wandered closer to one of the doors that led to the outside, which was soaked in silver moonlight. At the far end, near what Yubel thought might be a bench, they could see a shape that made them tingle all over. It was a sensation they’d never felt before.

“Majesty!”

Yubel snapped their head around to see a pair of guards dragging a struggling figure towards the king and queen. At the same moment, warmth spiraled up from their left arm, and a sense of need overflowed through them.

He was in danger. He needed help. He needed Yubel.

Yubel had always wanted to be needed. They hoped from the bottom of their heart to find out that their soulmate truly needed them.

Outside. They slammed the door open and leaped out just in time to see the shadowy figure they’d seen before fighting against another figure, a knife gleaming in the moonlight. Yubel snarled, wishing they had claws and fangs for a single heartbeat before leaping forward, tackling the attacker across the half-seen garden.

The attacker swore, language Yubel hadn’t ever heard before and didn’t care if they’d ever heard again, straining against Yubel’s fierce defense. They brought up their leg as high as they could before slamming it down onto the attacker’s stomach. It was a risky move; the attempted murderer could have armor of some kind, or perhaps magical defenses.

They didn’t. They’d made such a mistake and Yubel exploited it ruthlessly. Yubel followed that hit with another, this time slamming their fist into their opponent’s chest, feeling bone crunch underneath.

One more hit, this time a blow to the attacker’s throat, ended the fight, sending them crashing to the ground. Yubel stared for a few moments, breathing hard and fast, before turning around, their arm all but scorching now.

He brought himself to his feet, his eyes wide, staring in surprise at the wreck of the attacker before he looked towards Yubel. Yubel’s throat dried at the dawning realization that their counter had just hit zero and they looked into the face of Prince Juudai.

Juudai stared at the new arrival. He’d seen only a few moments of the fight, but that was enough to know he’d been saved. He’d barely realized he was being attacked in the first place before whoever this was came out of nowhere, slashing into the person trying to attack him.

He swallowed. He stared into eyes that shone bright as gemstones, staring back at him. He could feel the warmth on his left arm and slowly raised it enough so he could see it glimmering in shades of blue.

“Hi,” he whispered, not lifting his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever look away from them again. He couldn’t think of why he would want to.

“Hi,” the strange murmured back. They were about his height, with hair of turquoise blue green and eyes that all but glowed as they looked back. A gemstone shimmered in the center of their forehead – a symbol of knighthood from a distant kingdom that Juudai couldn’t remember the name of at the moment. That would probably explain how they’d fought so very well.

Juudai swallowed. He started to reach his hand out, then pulled it back. Every part of him thrummed to the idea that this was his soulmate, someone that he’d waited for ever since he’d come into this life.

But he wasn’t going to touch until they wanted him to. Until they both wanted to. That was the rule – or at least the custom. A soulmate bond wasn’t solidified until the people involved made skin to skin contact with one another. And it wasn’t considered right to do that unless both wanted it.

What if … they don’t want to? But they’d come here. They’d saved him. They stared like he stared.

The other’s hand twitched towards him as well. They swallowed, a small brief terrified smile flickering over their features. “I’m Yubel.”

“I’m Juudai.” Juudai wished that he could offer his hand like he’d been taught. He tilted his head instead. “Are you all right? You didn’t get hurt, did you?” He glanced to where some of the palace guards had appeared, taking the intruder into custody. He could see better now, and the one who’d tried to attack him bore the marks of Yubel’s displeasure.

Yubel shook their head. Juudai wasn’t sure of why he didn’t want to think of them as ‘he’ or ‘she’, only an awareness that was what they would have wanted.

“I’m fine, really. What about you? You’re not hurt.” Yubel stepped closer before freezing in their tracks, hands pulled closer to them.

“No. You got here in time.” Juudai smiled, warmth flooding through him. “I didn’t think this was how I would meet you, though.”

Yubel’s cheeks tinged red for a few seconds. “I didn’t either. I mean, I didn’t think that I would meet you like this. Maybe not at all. I mean...” They wrapped one hand around their left arm, where the marker still shimmered zero, and ducked their head. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s all right!” Juudai had to yank his hand back to prevent himself from reaching toward them. He’d never been so glad to see his parents arriving, both simmering with rage. “Mother! Father!”

“Juudai!” King Aodh enfolded Juudai into his arms a heartbeat or two before Queen Kaien did the honors as well. “Are you all right?”

“Sure. Thanks to Yubel.” He gestured over to his soulmate, who raised one hand in a tiny wave, their smile a bit strained. “They’re my soulmate.”

Aodh and Kaien both gave Yubel measuring looks before Kaien spoke. “A pleasure to meet you, Knight Yubel. I don’t recall seeing you on the guest list, though?” Only curiosity tinged her words at the moment.

Yubel shrugged. “I only got into town today. I knew my counter was running out and I heard about your Soulmate Party, so I thought I would get lucky.”

“And so you did.” Aodh chuckled briefly. “But we have someone else to thank as well. One of the harpists we hired for the event recognized that we had intruders.” He gestured behind himself and Yubel’s eyes widened as a woman moved closer.

“Claret! Are you all right?” Yubel moved closer to the strange woman, freely reaching out to her. One of the guards – Juudai thought his name was Burgundy – stood beside the harpist in a protective stance.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Her gaze flickered over to Burgundy for a few moments before darting back to Yubel and Juudai. “So it seems that you are as well.”

Yubel’s flush deepened. “I guess.” Their eyes darted to Juudai and his parents. “I didn’t expect this.”

Kaien cleared her throat. “Regardless, you’re part of the family now. Did you two wish to confirm your bond now or wait for a later date?”

Juudai and Yubel’s eyes met once again. Juudai tried very hard not to get lost in them and didn’t think he did that very well. He swallowed again and jerked his gaze away.

“Uh… yes?” He had no idea of what sort of answer he gave with that. Yubel’s lips twitched for a fraction of a second.

“I think we should get to know each other a little bit first. Maybe a few days, at least?” Soulmates needed the same time as anyone else to really get to know each other. Just because the Gods or the Darkness or whatever it was designated certain people to be with other people didn’t mean they would get along all the time, or that there wouldn’t be problems to overcome.

Sometimes there were even more problems than the non-soulmate types of pairings. At least that was what Juudai had heard.

But his parents both nodded at that. “We’ve kept a room near to Juudai’s ready for his soulmate. Do you have any possessions to put there?”

“A few. I’ve been traveling light.” Yubel sent a darting glance towards the queen that somehow diverted itself towards Juudai. “It’s been a long trip.”

Aodh nodded his agreement. “Then we’ll make sure that you can rest.” He turned his own penetrating gaze onto Yubel. “And eat. I don’t think you had time to before everything started to happen tonight.”

Yubel’s stomach didn’t rumble, but from the way they ducked their head down and refused to meet anyone else’s eyes, Juudai wouldn’t have been surprised if it did.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Yubel murmured. Juudai wished more than ever that he dared to take their hand. Every instinct in him screamed to do it but it wasn’t right. Not in the slightest. He’d learned enough manners to know that.

King and queen both turned away, with Kaien dropping another look onto Claret. “You’re welcome to stay overnight if you like as well. Your timely warning and the fact you brought Yubel to the palace tonight will be rewarded.”

Claret ducked her head as well. “It was my pleasure, Majesty.” Her eyes darted up to the guardsman Burgundy as he loomed high over her. “More than my pleasure.”

As she raised her left hand to rest on Burgundy's, Juudai spied a shimmering mark, a harp and sword touching one another, intertwined by a chain of rich violet: the mark of lovers. He blinked; he hadn’t even known Burgundy had a soulmate. Truth to tell, he’d been so involved in worrying about meeting his, he hadn’t thought about anyone else’s.

Well, it was a good thing he did, since that ended up bringing Yubel to him. They would have met somehow – that was what being soulmates was all about – but Claret's presence just made it that much easier.

Juudai followed his parents out of the ballroom, which was slowly being cleared, and through the corridors until they reached the royal suite. He stopped outside of his room and looked back at Yubel.

“Your room is there.” He tilted his head towards the doorway across the hall. “If there’s anything that you need, let us know?”

Yubel looked as if there were something on their mind, but they didn’t say it. Juudai wondered if they would need clothes or to go get their clothes or something. What they had on didn’t quite look like theirs.

It looked good on them, but not quite theirs. Juudai looked forward to helping Yubel fit in around there. The more trey got to know each other, the better.

Yubel only smiled, an expression that looked far more tired now than anything else. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

Juudai tried to glower. He would have done better at it if he wasn’t as tired as he was. After hours of meeting people who weren’t Yubel and then actually meeting Yubel, he wanted to get some deep sleep, and as much of it as he could manage. Then food, reak, solid, delicious food instead of the little bites laid out at the party. If he could decide what he wanted, he would already make the request for it. At the moment, he just wanted food.

His stomach rumbled to the point he almost forgot what he wanted to tell Yubel. Oh, that was it. Right.

“Call me Juudai. We are soulmates, you know!”

To Be Continued

Notes: Did you ever think I wouldn't write a soulmate fic for Yubel and Juudai? I have another thought in mind for Yubel, Juudai, and Johan, but this series is just for them. It will be a series that features Juudai and Yubel in many universes with soulmate marks of varying kinds, and stories within those universes. So, other stories here will feature them in other points in this timeline, or other worlds altogether. Whatever my imagination comes up with.

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #ygo gx #yuuki juudai #yubel #yubel x juudai #juudai x yubel #soulshipping #chapters: embrace of fate #series: fate's heart

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em-exceeds-change-zearu · 4 years

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I have a question, because I trust your expert opinion on these matters.... What do you think of yugioh sevens?

sorry it took so long for me to answer you, anon! i was puzzling over how to answer this for a long time, because i really wanted to give my honest opinion but i had a Lot to say and not all of it positive. also i’m in the middle of moving out of my apartment with the husband and that’s really busy lol.

so. hm. okay. given that I’ve only seen the first episode so far (I watched it when it first came out and haven’t gotten the chance to see the other two), I can’t say my opinion will be super informed! however, I can give my initial first impressions based on what I saw from the first time I watched it! the impressions will be under the cut, but let’s just say that my opinions are. Mixed. again, my opinions should be taken with a grain of salt, because i’ve only seen episode one and I really expect the show to show it’s true colors by mid-season, but this is just a really quick first impression after mulling over my initial impressions for a few days.

I think overall, my impressions of the first episode is that I can see the potential, but the execution is somewhat shoddy. It honestly doesn’t feel like the producers used the extra six months or so from ending VRAINS early to their best advantage here, but there’s an...effort? I can at least see why people are charmed by the show so far. I’ll break it down piece by piece to show what initial problems I had with it that prevented me from enjoying it fully. It’s still a very charming show, and I plan on giving it a chance, but I feel like the show itself is still finding its footing. And that’s to be expected, most ygo spinoffs are just Like That when they start, but it’s definitely one of the weaker starts to a series i’ve seen. I’ll break it down by its aspects to show what I both like and dislike about it!

Setting - Okay, so I’m actually rather charmed by the setting itself. It feels like it’s a direct callout to how the ygo meta has gotten in real life - there are a few decks that stand out over the rest and sometimes tournaments can come down to being between one type of deck and its counter. Yuga wanting to make his own type of dueling because he feels like the world around him is getting stale is incredibly charming, and the rules he’s come up with absolutely feel like something an elementary schooler would come up with (I used to make fun of pendulum summoning being the same type of thing, but this is just straight up reminding me of the days when pokemon trading cards were super popular and none of us little brats knew the rules so we made up our own as we went along). Yuga’s a little kid who dreams about giant dueling robots and wants dueling to have the mystery and fun and pizzaz it used to, and who doesn’t? I support this baby boy and his dueling robot dreams.

The world around him is established to be pretty restrictive and somewhat eerie as well - the school is largely managed by robots that regulate things down to the smallest level (I don’t think there’s even any adults around, which ???), and even the smallest innovations Yuga does to help make life more efficient, like adding a carrier to his bike to carry his bookbag, are rejected as out of line. There’s actually a nice level of show and don’t tell here and there, like showing how the robots scan each student while greeting them happily at the door, or how duel disks are automatically shut down and locked during school hours. One particularly chilling moment is watching robots clamp down on students trying to trade cards informally in the schoolyard, calmly and cheerily informing them that such trading is prohibited and must be done in a sanctioned G-Corp trading location. What seals the deal is that the student’s don’t express annoyance and anger at this, merely accepting such a restrictive rule as a mildly inconvenient part of life - which shows how such an indoctrinative lifestyle has already affected their manner of thinking. I feel like the first episode would have benefited more from being stretched out into two episodes instead of trying to cram a duel inside the end of the first episode, because the crammed nature of it all meant these moments are very few and far between, lost in how quickly the episode rushes through these plot points.

Characters - Okay, overall the dynamics of our main cast look like they can be really cute. We have our rebellious protagonist that wants to shake up everything and have fun, our uptight class president that wants to enforce the rules but gets swept up in the chaos protag-kun brings, the rival character that thinks protag-kun could change the world around him and looks at him with respect and also might possibly be a chuuni dumbass, and the token female character who’s Totally Not Interested In This Dueling Thing, No Way, Really. But honestly, in the first episode a lot of this characterization is lost in...screaming, actually. They’re very. Loud. Particularly our president, who honestly looks like he’s got multiple facets to his character (he briefly expresses admiration for yuga’s modified bike and its convenience before immediately reverting to screaming about rules, eventually does come around to helping yuga out because he doesn’t want to get Insta-Banned for being near him, etc), but we lose so much of it because, again, he spends 95% of the time screaming. we also get a lot of forced humor and gonk-y reactions that seem kind of exaggerated, partially because said reactions tend to be Spelled Out for us as opposed to just letting us see it happen, but this is lack of how the characters are themselves and more about how they’re being handled so far. which i’ll explain more when i get to talking about storyboarding.

music - it’s...okay? the OP is growing on me and is actually pretty cute, but I’m not getting anything that stands out. the BGM hasn’t really had any pieces that really get my attention so far, but maybe we’ll see something better in the future? i don’t know

storyboarding - okay. I’m not going to be talking about the animation because i’m not harping on the style (although it does admittedly look woefully generic and not very YGO at all) given that they’ve moved to a completely different (and cheaper?) movie studio. i’m not going to talk about the shoddy cgi or the stilted animation or anything like that. i’m specifically talking about the storyboarding itself, how scenes are being framed and arranged, and how the main story is being told. and this key part is where SEVENS entirely falls apart.

the problem is that the story is going by entirely too fast and is craming all sorts of things into its timeslot. the characters react loudly and obnoxiously to every little thing, with exaggerated pratfalls and gonkfaces as opposed to...actual reactions. it’s understandable from yuga and possibly even the high strung class president, but when even characters that are established to be a little more mellow minded (see, rook and romin) end up acting like that, it kind of contradicts what little we know about them. Not that it’s bad for them to act like that, but it has more impact if we see this after we have established characters for them (although if rook is actually established to be a chuuni dumbass later, i would immediately forgive them for that instance specifically, because that’s adorable). it honestly comes off as the animereaction equivalent of Johnny Test - all the exaggerated sound effects and janky reactions to compensate for the lack of animation or storytelling. it’s kind of upsetting to look at.

speaking of establishing character. It’s honestly done rather poorly for a first episode, which is a problem. I need to have a reason to be invested in these characters, and when you rush through their introductions it leaves me wanting. for example, my previously mentioned example of our class president clearly showing interest in yuga’s inventions but having it completely smothered in his need to appeal to authority and his high strung anxiety is a good point! but we get so little of it that it’s very much lost in his constant screaming and yelling - so seeing him portrayed as part of yuga’s friend group from day one is a bit jarring. another more telling example is rook immediately showing interest in yuga because this kid really keeps trying to modify his duel disk. okay cool. why. why should we care about this. we haven’t seen any instance of him before this, and when he’s introduced he talks about this Secret Hidden Backdoor Legend That’s Totally Prominent!!!! except we don’t see any hints in the series leading up to it, it literally comes out of nowhere. there’s no mystery or mystique in this, we haven’t seen rook try challenging this on his own, he’s just immediately dropping the wham ball of OH YEAH I ALREADY BANNED MYSELF, OOPS. speaking of: why is it bad that they get banned?? what happens? obviously you get locked out of your duel disk but then what? clearly, it should affect these kids’ standing in society somehow because the extreme control over said disks and card management means something, but we see rook attending school like nothing is wrong. nobody notices him, he’s not established as a troublemaker or a wanted figure by the nearby robots, he’s just...there. so there’s no emotional impact to seeing that yuga is one strike away from being banned, or that rook was already Banned (you’d think him getting banned at such a young age would cause Problems, but See it’s Fine, So). also yuga reminiscing about how he’d forgotten what he wanted to do with his new style of rush dueling and how he wanted to bring fun back into it falls really flat because, again, we can’t really see why it’s important for him to do this. him spelling it out for us suddenly when he’s close to losing a duel lacks the emotional impact because we haven’t seen how it affects him specifically. we can see little things - he’s already tried so many times, he keeps printing out little robot designs, he’s somewhat annoyed with being locked out of his disk during school or harranged for every little thing he does, but we haven’t had enough time to see why this is so important to him or why he does what he does.

again, a large majority of these problems would be solved if they handled this the way zexal and vrains handled it - having most of the worldbuilding be in episode 1 and introducing the main duel mechanic in episode 2 with a full on duel that was started at the end of episode 1. maybe show some standard dueling as a contrast and use those show-not-tell instances from the setting to show how restrictive or repetitive it is (maybe yuga and co hanging out at one of those G-Corp Mandated Trading Stations after school and watching/playing some duels? yuga trying to show off rush dueling in there and getting kicked out?), then introduce rush dueling as a thing in episode 2 when he’s introduced to the Secret Backdoor Trial by Rook after seeing hints/rumors/etc about Mystery Programmer Man Who Did This For Some Reason. but rushing it through like this, especially when introducing a Whole New Dueling Format AND a new type of card, isn’t ideal. but trying to cram things together like this makes the weakness in storyboarding really stand out, and it taints an otherwise good story. not that the story in itself is bad, but it’s not presented particularly well.

it could be like how vrains clearly improved in storyboarding after episode 14 or so, after the initial rush was over with, so i’m willing to give sevens another chance on this. but this isn’t a very strong way to introduce us to the characters or the world they want to show us.

overall: charming ideas, shoddy execution, will be looking to see if they improve on this. i’m willing to give it a chance, though, because yuga is a darling boy that deserves it. also the class president. i may not remember his name but i also stan him.

#sevens #is that the tag we're using #i don't know #ygo sevens #yugioh sevens #?????#i aint gonna lie every time i hear about ygo sevens i accidentally think about the sevens webnovel #it's got a very yugioh plot without the card games but it's mostly fantasy adventure harem adventures #decent read! but this isn't about the sevens webnovel it's about the yugioh sevens #so i'll shut up now #ask shenanigans

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