knifemonopoly | IC inbox

[Oh no. Oh hell, Ryou's broken Atem, he's laughing and he won't stop, and it looks so uncomfortable and he's not sure...if he's in trouble?!]

I'm...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to break the rule, we didn't agree to what would happen if someone broke the rules, we just...uhh!

[Ryou...admittedly isn't in much of a better state, he's taking this about as well as a child who thinks they've done something wrong, for absolutely no logical reason. Nervously, he attempts to raise himself up except NO. Nononono can't do that can't...oww. All he really manages to do is give Atem's fingers an unnecessarily hard squeeze.]

A-are you okay? It's...n-not that funny is it?

[Again, IS HE IN TROUBLE?! Does he have to levitate his laptop to himself and dial a friend?!]

[Gasping for breath, Atem forces his head up, his eyes open, to look at Ryou -- oh no, Ryou's upset, Atem has to get it together -- he gulps in a lungful, and tries to speak, but he just gets out--]

I'm not -- I'm not going to...snrk! H-haha...just because you...

[He remembers what set it off...annnd then he's lost again. A second set of vocal cords is involved now, there's a deeper, chestier undertone to the laughter, like a much larger beast hmhmhm-ing with its mouth closed. A very long name for a letter, indeed!]

--W! Mmweh heh--

[He squeezes Ryou's hand back, picking it up and pushing it back down on the bed like he's slapping a table in mirth, and the tip of his tail raises off the bed to do the same thing -- but unfortunately, it's still healing, too, so when it comes down on the bed, even though he's still laughing, Atem flinches.]

Hhh--ouch! Ha ha---ow.

[But it lets him breathe. Okay, okay. Ohhh his sides hurt. But the laughter's faded down to small aftershocks, now.]

Ah...ha ha...it's all right! I'm -- I don't -- I'm not sure what came over me. Haha.

[A sleep deprived giggle fit that's a little bit informed by weird supernatural bullshit, that's what.]

[Have you ever seen the visual representation of someone keysmashing? That's Ryou, for several reasons. Firstly, what the fuck is that double-laugh? Ryou needs to know where those sounds are emanating from, because if it's coming from Atem then he has at least 2 follow-up questions.

Secondly now that Atem said W, that's about the time that Ryou came to the realization that it was in fact pretty funny funny, he's not laughing because he's going to bite Ryou for breaking the rules which--Ryou Bakura you have been living with this guy for months, since when is that a fear?!

So he kind of...laughs too, but his laughing is softer, more repressed, because laughing hurts and Ryou's got quite enough of that in his life.]

Oh...oh no, don't do that...haha...your tail. You're going to hurt it worse. B-but I'm glad I didn't upset you...

[Why did he think he had? Seriously.]

[There's straight up tears of laughter in his eyes.]

Heheh. Yes. Of course -- I didn't mean to, I just forgot...

[Breathe in. Breathe out. All right. Okay. He felt funny about the broken rule, but he's absolutely not going to cause any pain or suffering over it, god no. Protect Ryou Bakura. OK. OK, he's good. Oxygen is working its way into the stitch at his side. He's relaxing again.]

Not sleeping very much must be getting to me...I've never had a fit like that.

[Whew. It's a good thing it was in front of Ryou, who he trusts, and not anyone he thinks is a danger to him or his friends, who he wouldn't want to see it...]

[Man...Ryou wishes he could roll over and hug Atem. Why does he have to lack the arm to do so? He feels personally victimized by the lack of close contact he can have.

In protest of such, he releases Atem's hand just long enough to twine his whole arm around the naga's. He pulls it close enough to press his face against Atem's forearm. Look it's not...he's just hugging him as a really good friend. Let him have this.]

Not sleeping...is terrible. I'm sorry for saying something so stupid, but...you have a nice laugh so I guess I don't feel so bad.

[Does he have a nice laugh in actuality? It doesn't matter. Ryou likes it. That's his reality. Atem laughing until there's tears in his eyes is...good. Ryou likes it. Now that he knows it's fine, his heart is practically swelling with contentment that Atem could break loose for 2 seconds. Even if it was in a sleepless haze.]

...Well actually. Your laugh is nice but I think you were doing some weird monster nonsense in the background. Because you were...extra-laughing.

[Ugh, that sounds dumb.]

Like. Laughing...but darker.

[No. That's worse. Ryou closes his eyes. He can't look at Atem after saying that, the words that are coming out of his mouth are stupid and he can't figure out how best to describe the resonant rumbling that had been emanating from his pal here.]

[A friend hug. Uh huh. If Atem were any dumber, he might think that touching faces is just a friend thing that friends do, but he's not. He is not that dumb. Telling someone they have a nice laugh can be friendly, but, uh, not like this it isn't.

Luckily, it's dark, and Atem's the only person here with heat vision, so he doesn't have to work too hard to control the flush on his face, darkening the fevered sleepless blotchiness he's already got.

It is very important to remember why he's decided to stay out of romances. He reminds himself of that as Ryou goes on, and Atem asks, with clear bemusement:]

Extra laughing....?

[He didn't hear anything he was doing. He was well and truly overcome. Sorry, Ryou, you're gonna have to give more clues, Atem's operating with fewer neural pathways than usual.]

[It's a "friend" hug. Ryou will die on that hill. And his eyes are closed so the fact that he has night vision and glowing eyes will not expose Atem.

Honestly most of his behavior can be laid squarely on the fact that he's medicated post-surgery with something that is definitely not local, and like Atem, he's also very, very tired. So it takes him a moment to give Atem his arm back, sue him.

All that said though...he really, really wants to try and sound a bit more coherent. So he eventually does open his eyes, and his mouth twists in frustration as he attempts to find the right descriptor.]

...Another voice. A deeper voice. It was in tandem, so unless we have ghosts who like laughing, then it had to be you, right?

[Ghosts would be sick though.]

Ah! I see...I think I know what happened. Heh heh -- no, it wasn't a ghost!

[Said fondly, since he knows how disappointing that must be for Ryou, but it's true. But, then, he sobers.]

I have two mouths.

[He's not sure how Ryou's going to take that, since it's another trait this form shares with the Osiris serpent, but he's gonna drop it bluntly and see where they go from there.]

[Ryou might take it terribly if he thought about it long enough, but they've since shifted from the topic of Osiris, and he's now staring at Atem with a very determined, focused look on his face.

Where's the mouth? Where is it? There has to be a seam right?]

I wanna see.

[TELL HIM!]

...

[Well. So far, so good. Okay.]

I don't know if I can do it now...it was pretty tricky getting it open the first time, even though I needed to to feed...

[Atem lets go of Ryou's hand so that he can reach for the seam that runs almost-invisible along his jaw, catching his claws in it, seeing if he can remember how to get it open. Can he only do it when he has to eat? Or will the muscles work no matter what? Carefully, he pries at it.]

Lust warned me to be careful about my jaw coming unhinged inconveniently, but actually, I've had the opposite pro--

[Annnd there it goes! The entire lower half of Atem's face splits, opens, and there's rows of teeth and a fleshy blue tongue and two huge, hollow fangs that uncurl from the roof of the mouth as the word loses all articulation and becomes a rumbly monster growl. It's not aggressive, not a warning, more like a surprised praaah--! but with reverb.]

[Okay, now Ryou can see the seam, now that Atem's fingers are prying at the edges. He tilts his head anyway, because he's trying to figure out the anatomy of it and OH. OH SHIT OKAY NEVER MIND THERE IT IS.

He tenses, because there's a mouth under Atem's face and that's...so weird, and it doesn't really freak him out because it doesn't have the exact same arrangement as the creature that he's scared of, but he obviously can see the parallels. Ryslig really is a ridiculous place. How does the Fog know these things?

But all that aside...Ryou now has confirmation of where the sound came from, and once his surprise wears off, he wriggles a little closer to inspect Atem's fangs. It might hurt, but he doesn't care he has to see it! Up close and personal!!]

Ow! Eugh. Atem, that's...that's awesome!

[Said like an absolute weirdo.]

[S-- so far, so good?? He thinks? Atem murmurs--]

...hey, be careful...

[--when Ryou hurts himself trying to wriggle closer, but it's an undertone, an aside. He brings his face back down, so that the lower mouth falls mostly closed, and it's easier to do things like talk, and make eye contact. Sorry, the big boba-straw fangs are hidden again!]

"Awesome"? Heh...more like troublesome! I couldn't figure out why I couldn't eat. My mouth wouldn't open wide enough! But it turns out, I don't swallow things whole at all...

[Ominously, the large blue tongue slips out without Atem meaning it to, licking an upper corner of his lower mouth. But a lower corner of his upper mouth?? It's weird.]

Edited 2021-08-06 19:12 (UTC)

[It's truly a massive disappointment that the fangs are now hidden, but Ryou still finds himself tracing the seam with his eyes and familiarizing himself with the way it looks, how it might operate.]

Huh...I thought for certain that you'd have to eat a whole person, and I kept wondering how that would work out for you. If you don't swallow a person whole, then how do you--

[Tongue.

That's distracting. That is so weird, that is so cool!! Ryou can't help but laugh, just a little, because the tongue seems to be doing whatever it wants to.]

Ha...is that involuntary? Your other tongue doesn't look like a snake tongue at all...

[This is the best distraction from pain ever...he wants to touch it. He wants to feel the seam of Atem's second mouth. Can he do that? Is he allowed? Is that super rude?!

...He isn't sure if he's going to ask, but one thing's for certain. Ryou looks like a kid in a candy store, if the kid in the candy store looked buzzed.

N-not exactly.

[This attention....he's a little self conscious under it....not in a way that's entirely bad, just, it's a lot all of a sudden and Ryou appears delighted and not sad and in pain any more which is good and also nice to see, and, the blotchy redness on his face darkens a shade or two.]

I'm just not used to having to worry about two mouths at once...

[The lower jaw works, because it doesn't feel too natural holding it open like this without a purpose, and it looks like it's gonna close up again in a few seconds.]

[Ryou does in fact notice that the snake mouth is closing back up, so he blurts out his request without thinking.]

Can I touch the edges? W-when it closes, I mean. I just...wanna see what it feels like.

[Nailed it.

He doesn't realize, perhaps, how uncomfortable he's making Atem...yet. But the answer he gets has a chance of bringing him back to reality.]

[The correct thing to do here is obviously to say no. He ought to maintain some kind of distance, and not entertain all of this. Atem can skilfully redirect, he's good at doing that without hurting feelings, and he won't have to deal with much more than a moment of mild disappointment. Yep. Gonna tell Ryou the truth, that obviously the answer is--]

...okay. The bottom mouth is actually pretty safe...the fangs are sharp, but I don't think they're venomous!

[Yes!

Ryou settles himself down, just to free his hand up so that he can properly reach up. It looks absolutely inane, even he knows he looks stupid, but as long as the payoff is touching the seam, he's okay with that. Atem's just lucky he isn't going to try and pry it open again.]

I want to talk about it more...but later. B-because we're supposed to be sleeping.

[They are supposed to be sleeping. And then Ryou had to say a letter for a word game, and now here he is, reaching his dumb shade hand up to trace along Atem's jawline in what may possibly be the most anti-romantic motion, so no one can accuse them of ANYTHING, even if they were here to do accusing.]

[Thank god Ryou doesn't get romantic about it. Atem's not sure he can handle more than one person running their fingers gently over his face in the kind of way that makes you want to ask questions this week. He just...submits to the curiosity, lets the exploration happen, and is grateful the seam doesn't have as many nerve ending as his lips do. Because that -- that might have been a problem. His eyes might have fallen closed, and he might have given away--

--no. Nope.]

You're right.

I don't want to sleep, though...

[Nightmares where he cuts up and sacrifices the people he loves are hard on him. He doesn't know how many times he's going to have to relive it...]

[Curiosity temporarily sated, Ryou does then proceed to make it a little awkward, but not intentionally. He repositions his hand on Atem's shoulder, pulling just enough to beckon him closer.

Again, it's very silly, because Ryou's on his back at an odd angle.]

You have to. I know...bad dreams are not helpful. But you're going to fall to pieces if you don't recharge. If you wake up, I'll be here to remind you where you are and what's real. It's not the same as...seeing everyone else you dream about, but I can only be one friend...

[Despite all the ridiculous things that had just happen, Ryou can't help but try and switch back to comforting Atem. Nightmares or no nightmares, he can't continue this way.

It's worrisome.]

[Silly and awkward or not, Atem does shift closer, because pushing himself forward is the easiest thing in the world to do with a lower half like his -- and Ryou's right, he's already falling into uncontrollable laughing fits, he can't go on like this, even if he wishes he could.

But, maybe, with someone present to help pull him out of the dream, ground him in what's real, what's the waking world...

With a breath that carries an air of surrender:]

...I'll try. If you're here...then, it might not be so bad, when I wake up.

[Great job keeping distance there, Atem. You're doing a super stellar job at avoiding romance. But he's tired, and he loves Ryou, and predictable nightmares are the worst, and, let him have this. He's not positive when Ryou became someone he was comfortable leaning on, but it's happened, and he's glad.]

[Between the both of them, they might almost function as a person if they could just get a little more sleep. Ryou is bound and determined for at least Atem to rest.

He smiles encouragingly, and also apologetically because he can't really move from where he is, can he? He's stuck here, so it's good that Atem's body is mostly snake so that he could make the moves he needed to.]

Yeah...I'll make sure to remind you everything's okay.

[Yeah great job not making this terribly awkward. Ryou's sleepy and addle-brained right now, so he's okay with the current status quo. He wants to pretend that everything's perfectly normal between them and that being this close is fine. There are no awkward teen shenanigans in ~~Ba Sing Se~~ Ryslig.

Which is precisely why he sneaks his hand out to snag Atem's again. Normal. Friendship hand holding.]

[He doesn't mind the hand-holding. Actually, it reminds Atem a little bit of the time he'd died, his body torn to shreds in the back room of a casino, left a wreck in the wake of a mind-controlling parasite, when Ryou had taken his hand, and Atem had seen it, but he hadn't been able to feel it, and one of his last thoughts had been about how that made him feel sad...

But he can feel Ryou's hand now. Even if everything isn't okay, even if that's clearly not true and the lie makes him think of Kaiba, body changed into something unlike himself, working on a hope for escape, and of Noa, who threw himself into the vortex to give the Fog back her power, and Yugi, who's going to have to feed eventually but won't choose how, and Marik, who says he can handle what this place will do to him but Atem's not so sure, and David, who just doesn't want to go back to where he came from, and Mr. Mobius, who doesn't deserve any of this, and Mukuro and Horatio with their one-eye-apiece and Celeste who cut off her wings and Triffany who just wants her husband to live and everyone else whose happiness he'd fight for with everything he had who are stuck in this cruel, cruel game--

--holding hands is okay.]

It isn't.

[Fingers with claws on the end wind around Ryou's.]

But it's enough.

[Enough, for now, to have this support. Things don't have to be okay for him to keep going, and he doesn't even need to have someone else beside him to force himself onward, most of the time...but, right now, "Ryou Bakura being there when he wakes up to tell him he didn't actually just dismember Yugi or Kaiba or Celeste or Ima or any of the other friends he's dreamed about and that he's awake now" is close enough to "okay" to work.]

Like a wildcard...

[That sure does just slip out of his mouth with no context. No-Sleep Atem is inches from rambling about The Light.]

[Ryou's fingers squeeze firmly.

He knows better than anyone that things aren't really okay, and he'd only been saying that because...he wants Atem to feel better, somehow. They're both just a little too pragmatic for that though, so he just does his best here, and nods. Whatever Atem says, it's okay.

Ryou will support him...even if he is about to slip into a diatribe about the power of friendship or light or whatever.]

Like I said...I can't do much. But I'll keep you close. I'll be here. I'll protect you.

[He's serious. He's not kidding, even if it may as well be a joke coming from Ryou of all people, who was not fragile, but still managed to be emotional and easy to overtake. He wasn't made to protect...but his heart is in it, the words are strong, even if he isn't.

If the emotions in his heart were enough, then Atem would be shielded from any negativity. But the best he can do is words. And maybe...take Atem's painful emotions while he's sleeping to try and kill his nightmares.

He's not sure if he can do that. Can he do that? Maybe he'll fuck around and find out. It's not as if he isn't used to nightmares himself.]

Ahaha...I'm your wildcard? I thought I was a Joker.

[Ok there's a real joke for you. Friendly reminder that Ryou is not batting a hundred, honestly.]

[Hearing Ryou repeat I'm your wildcard? gives Atem the strongest sensation like he's just given away a tell. A powerful sense runs through him that he is doomed, that a bell has been rung that can't be un-rung, because it isn't the kind of thing you say to a friend, it's a pet name, even if the association makes sense. Atem feels distinctly like he's on train-tracks, like he's slipped and fallen and couldn't change direction if he tried, and must play out the rest of the game. So, he'll play, holding Ryou's hand in his and grinning over at him.]

Heh heh...sometimes, they're the same thing! It's not uncommon to play with jokers wild...and having one means that you don't need everything else to go right to win.

[Thank goodness Ryou doesn't have a vampire's sense for heartbeats. Atem's goes slower than a human's, because it's pushing a lot of blood through a very long body, but the pace it's setting is absolutely faster than normal. This is where Atem lives now, where he is telling Ryou Bakura very personally that even though Ryou's an unpredictable element, he's very valuable to anyone who holds him, and with him there Atem can do things the rules normally wouldn't allow, and all he can do is hope Ryou is too sleepy to read the tell.]

Edited 2021-08-08 14:31 (UTC)

[Blessedly, Ryou just take it at face value and doesn't ascribe further non-platonic emotions to it. But even though he doesn't think too hard about what being a wildcard actually means to Atem, he can't help but bring their hands close to his face. Again. And get snuggly.

Again.

But then...he yawns and there is absolutely no covering his big stupid shade mouth, so he just turns away because he's not about to exhale on Atem, but that means Atem gets a nice profile view of Ryou's yawn and the goofy way his lip pulls back and exposes his pointed teeth until the end of the yawn. Then he settles back into just...looking fondly at his friend with tired, half-shut glowing eyes.

He's sleepy. He's warm. If they keep prattling like this, then Ryou will be the first one to go.

So it follows that without understanding the gravity of his words, Ryou just murmurs something quietly.]

'S nice being someone's favorite...when they're your favorite too.

Edited (just changing a word!) 2021-08-08 15:59 (UTC)

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, PLAYER1. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 10.11.0.0.01 * PLAYER1 has joined 10.11.0.0.01 <PLAYER1>** If you're looking for someone you knew as Yugi before June, you've found him! It's Atem, leave a message.

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