victory_road | { i

[Atem's been in Johto for a little while. He's been shoo'd out of a strange bedroom by a strange woman into a strange town with strange music playing on loop in the air. He's been trying to process the events of the past couple of hours--New Bark locals may have caught him brooding by the lake, contemplating the abrupt mood whiplash from where he was to where he is--and has come to the conclusion that this must be a dream of some kind. Unless, somehow, he blanked out during his Ceremonial Duel with Yugi and this is a colorful afterlife where no one from his past seems to be.]

[And that's not even touching on the large, very strange creature that, unbeknownst to him, has decided he's something of an ancient building himself and has taken to protectively circling him as if on a track.]

[After his initial bout of getting in his head about the whole thing, he decided to ask for help with this...PokéGear. It looks like one of these but dark purple and he's never seen anything like it. No one he knew had phones that fit in pockets, but if Kaiba Corp can make hologram machines, then why not someone make tiny phones? Tiny phones that can do...too many things for Atem to keep track of at the moment. For now, a kind local has shown him posting functions. Posting to where? Atem doesn't understand. But he's trying to roll with it.]

[Video]

--and that's how you start a video post.

[Mildly unflattering shot of Atem looking down at his PokéGear. Sigilyph floating in and out of frame.]

I see...

And you just hit this on the screen right here aaand...

[Shot of Atem's feet; shadow of Sigilyph circling.]

...the camera turns around!

[Atem now lifts the phone up and starts filming around him; houses, trees, Sigilyph, kind stranger (who waves). His index finger is pushed up into the corner of the viewfinder.]

Interesting...thank you for your help.

Yeah, no problem! Good luck on your journey!

[Kind Stranger, who left out just how to post things, trots away from view and Atem is left just kind of...looking around town with the camera, seemingly unaware he's filming a post in progress. Sorry if you get tired of New Bark and Atem's orbiting Sigilyph, it's a while until the camera suddenly takes a turn for the ground and Atem's shoes again.]

"Post now"? What does this--

[The feed cuts short, the long scenic video gets posted. What's up guys?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Radley is gently amused by the video, which is clearly the poor guy's first attempt. But then he really stops to think about that first shot. That guy ... he looks like ...]

Hi there. It looks like you're enjoying the scenery. I'm Radley.

[The Eevees surrounding him start to warble.]

[After the initial startle that Radley's reply notif gives Atem, following the prompts to watch it and reply are easy enough. He's catching on.]

[Atem's reply starts off with him looking just a twinge off-camera--it's difficult to not watch yourself on a little screen for the first time--in a few seconds of baffled silence.]

[So he just...talks back to it, huh?]

Hello. The scenery is...nice, yes. Did you see all of that? When I was moving the camera around?

[And oh, where are his manners?]

I'm...Atem. [Still getting used to having his own name.]

Yeah, I did. It's fun figuring out how the camera works, isn't it?

Atem.... You remind me of someone from home: Yugi Muto.

[Atem doesn't have the chance to comment on cameras; upon hearing Yugi's name, that someone recognizes him, many of the things he's been trying to ignore about being in Johto resurface abruptly.]

Yugi is...my partner. We've been through many ordeals together.

[There's a sadness in his smile. He's been struggling with wishing Yugi and friends were here but relieved they're safe in Egypt currently, as far as he knows.]

How do you know him? I can't say I recognize you. [He's not exactly going to get into the whole "spirit possessing a pendant that Yugi wears" thing.]

[Radley is still deeply confused by the resemblance, but doesn't push it. He sees the sadness in that smile.]

I haven't met him personally, but I know of him. I watched a lot of tournament videos of his duels.

[He has no idea he's talking to the one who really played most of those duels.]

[Though it's true that a portion of those videos would be of him, big or small, he takes the idea of duel videos of Yugi literally, not taking his presence into consideration. Having yet to duel Yugi himself, as Johto has snatched him from doing, he's struck with curiosity about what those duels would be like. But he's on a no spoilers run of that friendship; he wants to find out for himself someday.]

Videos, hm? I'm certain they're incredible.

They sure are! It's no wonder Yugi is the King of Games. I'm always impressed by his strategies.

[Atem nods with a proud smirk. Yugi Appreciation Hours over here.]

Are you a duelist as well, then?

I duel, but I don't enter tournaments or anything like that. I'm more of a manager. Or I was. I don't do that too much anymore.

[He's grateful the need for the nightly duels in his town is over. The town is safe.]

A manager?

[He's definitely intrigued by the idea, being used to everyone having a straightforward role as a duelist or not. Wait till you hear about dueling schools, Atem!]

Something like that anyway. People dueled for me. It's a long story.

[He'll take that as now not being the time to get into it. Also he is flashing back a bit to meeting unsavory duelists working for a nefarious boss, he's no stranger to the concept of gangs and such, but this guy seems cool.]

I see.

[Hm, well since he's talking to a duelist...]

Do you duel here? In Johto?

[Radley's group was indeed thought of as a duel gang, but they were pushing back against a truly dangerous and cruel gang.]

I'm hoping to get some monthly or even biweekly Duel Monsters meets going at my restaurant, actually! Would you be interested?

[There's a sizeable chunk of Atem's mental real estate that's taken up by dueling so, yes, he looks pretty enthusiastic about the idea.]

I would! Where is your restaurant located?

Goldenrod City. I can make sure you have transportation to there if you haven't reached it in your travels by then.

{ i | video }

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