victory_road | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Marik and Hunk
Where: Sevii Islands
When: Before Contest, After Marik becomes a breeder
Summary: The two celebrate the change in role, discuss business, and general news.
Rating: PG unless some hard histories get mentioned.
Log:

[This is bad news for Marik, to be honest. Because Hunk? Absolutely delighted to talk about the math related to breeding. And without Pidge here to ramble at, he needs the outlet. But it's also great- he's glad to help him out with the Cyclizar thing. And he wants his friends to have as much happiness and romantic luck as possible. Things seem to be going pretty well with Fluttershy (he's not been intrusive about it, but it just seems that way).]

[He'd been considering entering the contest, but when he saw that Allura was going to he decided he'd rather give her support. But he's still got a bunch of alien cutouts he made that will have nowhere to go except up as decorations. He doesn't want to throw them away, they're all related to planets that the Voltron crew visited and seem like nice reminders of past adventures.]

[Whenever Marik shows up at the Voltron house, he's in the middle of dumping the giant batch of leftover cardboard scraps in the recycling.]

Hey! I'll be good to go in a minute. Just need to clean this up before I ruin Shiro's day.

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[He isn't to those who he does actually care about. If someone seems like a good resource though... the mindset is still there, even if he hasn't actively engaged in it.

Marik returns his gaze to Hunk as he speaks, looking up at him and staring for a moment as he mulls over his words.]

Thank you, Hunk. I do really appreciate that.

[It's weird but nice to have people he knows he can trust and will remain by his side. People who don't just feel obligated because they're flesh and blood.]

You, Shy, Allura... Everyone here at the house have made me feel like I'm a part of this family... and I'm forever grateful for it. It's been truly wonderful...

[He slowly rises to his feet, pursing his lips slightly as he sorts through any more concerns he might have about his situation.]

... I should probably... tell you the jidst of what happened during Battle City. In the off chance they're from before my time, they might try to tell you things I've done to persuade you away from me.

If... If you want to hear, that is.

I think this is one of those situations where you should talk about it. I don't really want someone coming up to me and taking a detail out of context and... like I know this sounds like it will be bad? But I don't want someone to make it worse.

[And he might not be happy about it, but he's also going to cling to the certainty that Marik wants to become better, that he deserves that chance.]

[Battle City sounds like it's a place that would be here, though. Or on a Galra world. Not going to say that out loud though because that's his brain deciding to become side-tracked.]

And remember, I've seen a lot. I'm probably not going to be shocked.

[Hunk tries to remain pleasant, but in the end he's a war veteran who's had some hard experiences in strange settings. He won't balk from most things.]

[Of all the people to wind up with, he's very fortunate to have integrated with the Voltron crew. If anyone's familiar with strange happenings and death, it's them.

Marik rubs his arm nervously, thinking of how to explain everything. This is going to be a wild ride for them both.]

You already know about my upbringing with the Tomb Keepers. My bitterness and anger grew as I got older. I... couldn't handle all of the trauma I'd gone through. I ended up developing a darker, second personality. In order to keep him at bay, my brother carved his own face with an incantation, remaining by my side through everything from that point on.

I eventually got it in my head that I deserved the powers of the Pharaoh. That I should rule over Egypt. Possibly even the world... So I betrayed the Tomb Keepers, took Odion, and left the clan to... plot my revenge.

[He starts pacing a bit.]

You remember what I told you about Mr. Pegasus and him creating Duel Monsters, yes? He recreated the three sealed God Beasts. I needed those in order to obtain the Pharaoh's powers so I stole two of them from my sister. She was tasked with protecting them. After I got the two, I began my own counterfeiting ring... I wanted to see if I could make copies that would still give you their powers. It seemed promising but...

[He bites his bottom lip.]

... The Gods were not pleased. Quite a bit of my followers died... trying to summon the copies.

We never did perfect it.

[The blonde pauses.]

Is this... making any sense?

[He is keeping up. It's hard to hear, especially the bit about his followers dying. But he's not padding around it or lying, and that helps.]

Well... Kind of. It's a lot. What about this second personality?

[Is it still there? It doesn't sound like it, but does he need help with it?]

And what happened to your brother? And what were the Pharaoh's powers?

[He's taking it a little at a time.]

[It's a lot to take in. Marik, of course, conveniently skipped over what happened to his father.]

My siblings called him Yami. He was... all of my worst aspects amplified. Violent, sadistic, and unrepentant. He just wanted people to suffer.

I'm brother worked with me to get the syndicate up and running. He handled most of the work, actually...

[Explaining the Millennium Items is always an awkward topic.]

His powers mostly lie in his Millennium Item, the Puzzle. It allows vast knowledge and the ability to change the outcome of battles. The Shadow Magic that helped create the Items was part of what I was after though. That combined with the God Beasts... I would have been unstoppable.

[Hearing about Millennium puzzle piece items is always a little like trying to parse Charley Brown's teacher's lessons but he thinks he understands. Most importantly the significance of the tactical advantage.]

Sounds like something the Galra of my world would have wanted. [Hunk admits grimly. Just up their alley, so many of them would have wrecked half the world to get to it.]

I mean, it does sound like they have the right to be mad about it. But I think you definitely deserve the right to not be Yami here. And give us a chance to talk you out of it if you feel those urges coming on again? [He hopes, anyway.]

These people- are any of them dead back home? And have you talked to Fluttershy about this?

[That's entirely fair. All of Duel Monsters sounds like that to most.]

My people were quite gifted in dark arts but most of its been lost to time...

[Marik frowns.]

Yami was banished from my soul. He won't and can't come out as he's no longer a part of me.

[Meaning... he's half a soul. Half a person. He tries not to think about it much as it's somewhat depressing. Sure, his soul has started helping and will heal more as time goes on, becoming "whole" again but... who knows how long that will actually take.

He'll refrain from admitting he does have those urges from time to time. After all, Yami was just him amped up to 11.]

No, none of them are dead... I was close to doing it a few times but... in the end, everyone survived.

[He swallows, his face becoming a bit pale.]

I... I haven't told her about them yet. She knows about Yami, my childhood, the tomb keepers but... I need to talk to both her and Allura about this as well...

Okay, you definitely should... But I need to tell you about Lotor- I mean, really tell you. 'Cause it's relevant to telling Allura about all of this.

[He takes a deep breath. Hooo... this will be hard. He knows that Allura is protective of Fluttershy.]

Sp the Prince of the Galra Empire was a guy named Lotor and he totally exploited Allura's desire to see the good in everyone. The only one of us suspicious of his desire to get better was Lance and Lance was mostly just into Allura at the time- hard to read it as anything other than jealousy. [Especially since he'd disregard other suspicious parties if a hot girl was involved.]

Lotor promised he wanted to get better, and that he wanted to help. But he ended up just using Allura's love against her. Romelle... Romelle was a victim of his plans. She was the one who outed him to us.

[Allura's very protective of Fluttershy, she'd not want her to go through what she went through.]

You need to tell them. And you need to offer to work with them to stay on the right path. Yami might be gone but I think it'll be for the best if you're absolutely crystal clear with them. Don't try to stop them from talking to those guys just, you know, ask them to please keep giving you a chance. Lotor got away with as much as he did because he kept the people who would tell on him away. The most trusting thing you can do is to just explain yourself and then let it happen.

[Marik listens intently, unfortunately drawing parallels between himself and this Lotor fellow. That's what he essentially did with his siblings. Used Odion's guilt to pull him along all of his life and Ishizu's sympathy to help him once he lost his body.

He rubs the back of his neck, avoiding Hunk's gaze for a moment.]

Right... I wasn't going to ask them to avoid Yugi's crew, just... not to mention me until I can find out when they're from. I thought running things through you first would work out better and give me an idea on how to handle the girls.

[The blonde grimaces. Much like a cat, he just wants to hide and continue as he is, even if he has moments of weakness. Even if he knows he's being bad. He's been very good though, at least he thinks so.]

Gods. I was so happy when I got here despite missing my siblings... then more and more people started arriving and I feel like... I'm in trouble despite not having done anything. I hate it. I hate feeling like this...

[It all circles back to him having too much time by himself to think on his past actions - and how he doesn't regret what he's done, just regrets getting caught and his plans failing thanks to his darker half.

Not that he's about to tell anyone that.]

Yeah, I'm glad you did. If you came to Allura and tried to seem like you were avoiding consequences... well, it wouldn't be good. Not after what happened to her. I think you just need to focus on telling them that you'd like to keep doing right by them. And then if you do ask for time away from them- just remember it's a big ask, especially for a long time.

Lotor's parents were pretty awful. I think in the end he did feel like he was doing what had to be done, and there was no stopping him. I think you need to trust them to stop you.

[Which is the part he reiterates. Just because power can be like an addiction. And Marik is young, he lived a life where other people controlled him, power could have been his 'freedom' and he fell into the trap of it. At least that's the story Hunk is hearing.]

[If he wants to convince them that he's turned over a new leaf, he just needs to trust them to help be a moral compass.]

Allura's been a fantastic leader. She'll give everything, unselfishly, to do what's right. [He can't tell her that she died to save every timeline, every person, but that's the best he can phrase it.] And she's incredibly strong. I'm just... you know, a cook. I'm right sometimes, but I'm not great at big overarching big decisions. I'm just good at keeping my friends afloat when they need it.

If you need perspective? I'd trust her with everything.

[Fluttershy is it's own complication.] Do you think it would make Fluttershy uncomfortable to have to hide you from the people upset with you?

[In Marik's case, it was him giving himself what he thought he deserved after having his life taken from him. His brother was the one that wanted to be tomb keeper, not him. But with Odion not being of blood, their father wanted none of it.

Odion would have made a fantastic tomb keeper. He would have led them all to greatness, would have upheld all of their traditions to a T, and served the Pharaoh with honor and dignity. ~~He should had killed his father years ago- No, Marik. Don't think like that.~~

The Egyptian takes his words into consideration, despite how badly he wants to simply hide, and a small part wants to lash out and tell Hunk he's wrong.

... He's not though. He's right. Which is why Marik went to him first. He takes a deep breath and slowly exhales, trying to keep himself calm.]

I wasn't planning on hiding for a long period of time. Just... maybe a week or two. I can't do much hiding with the prom on the way anyways but I want to cover my bases. I'll... I'll explain this all to the girls and ask if they can hold me accountable...

[Like a child who's just been called out on stealing from the cookie jar, Marik fiddles with his golden arm cuff, looking down at the ground.]

... It would make her uncomfortable. She's already been taking everything really well... I hate... burdening her with even more of my drama...

Edited 2023-04-03 13:07 (UTC)

I know you have to make sacrifices for the people you care about, and I'm sure she would help you. But like, keep in mind you want her to be happy more than you want her to be uncomfortable, right? I think maybe a week or two isn't asking too much.

[As long as he reminds Marik that asking someone of good nature to protect someone who did wrong and knows it is lot. But asking someone of good nature to protect someone who wants to be held accountable and start a new life of doing the right thing is different.]

[He thinks maybe they can do that.]

I'm sorry, man. It would have been easier if you had a little more time to prove you were on the up and up, wouldn't it?

[He finally holds out his arms.]

...You need a hug?

[Because that's usually the thing he can do best. He gives awesome hugs, if Marik wants one. He can give him a pat otherwise.]

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