[EFFECT ROOM] The Red Thread of Not-Quite-Fate

[hyperhero]

[This room is definitely one that you wouldn't expect to find in a school, considering that it appears to be a gigantic cafe. Plush carpets, cushioned chairs, a whole bunch of fancy drinks and snacks...

Someone put a dating cafe in the school!]

((OOC: Here's how it works! The room is based off the idea of the red string of fate from Japanese/Chinese legend. On stepping into the room, your character will find a thin but completely unbreakable red string tied to their pinkie, with the other end tied to someone else who's come into the room. The red string persists even if you try to leave, and won't disappear until a full day later. The thread itself will lengthen or shorten depending on the proximity of the two characters, but it won't let you get more than a room's length away from each other.

Here's the complication: the Gods are kind of sort of drunk off their asses, which means that the red string could tie you to literally anyone. Your worst enemy, your brother, your father, Old Man Jenkins... it's one of those things where you're lucky if you get your soulmate! Furthermore, the strings can (by player choice) actually swap around repeatedly, so your character could end up tied to one person all day or have to deal with being tied to five different ones through it!

For characters who don't know about the legend, there's a paper pinned to the wall by the door that explains it (at least, the actual legend, not the drunk-gods part). While the paper can be ripped up, it'll just regenerate a minute or two later.

And yes I purposefully picked the most inappropriate journal for this))

Comments

[fluffydeathdealer]

[What the hell, gods?

Is this punishment for claiming they were beneath him? Bakura's just going to be sitting down over here, staring at the string and wondering what the hell kind of lunatic came up with this curse.]

[hyperhero]

[It must be, considering that if Bakura follows the string, it's apparently tied to the idiot cleaning out the ever-refreshing supply of baked goods over there.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

...

[Tug tug.]

[hyperhero]

[His hand was tugged away from his cake what cruelty is this. It does make him notice the string, though, and he tilts his head, tugging it a little without actually looking over.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

...!

[YANK!]

[hyperhero]

[And after a moment of mental flailing, Judai is now sprawled on the floor with his arm at an angle and blinking.]

Ow.

[fluffydeathdealer]

Judai. Please tell me you're at least aware of the fact that we're tied together.

[hyperhero]

Huh?

[He looks down, pulls on the thread, then looks over.]

...Hey! We are!

[fluffydeathdealer]

[Twitch.]

You've got to be kidding me...

[hyperhero]

What's going on? Where'd this come from?

[fluffydeathdealer]

Didn't you read the sign? The gods have decided to punish us for our sins by trapping us together.

It's 'fate'.

[hyperhero]

What are you talking about? I didn't do anything that bad.

...What sign?

[fluffydeathdealer]

Clearly I did. The sign's over by the door. It's some kind of legend. The red string of fate binds us.

[A little wave.]

[hyperhero]

[Huh! Judai's going to go over and read that.

A couple of times, in fact. He blinks a little, looking down at the string, then back to Bakura. After a moment, he bites down on it, as if testing if it's really not going to come off.

.......]

Eh?!

[And there it is.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

Did you just figure it out?!

[His head hits the table, facefirst. How annoying... Drawing his dagger out of the sheath, he tries to cut the string.]

[hyperhero]

Well, yeah! There was a whole bunch of food around here! I wasn't looking at strings or whatever!

[Yeah... there won't be a cutting of that string.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

[After a few failed tries, he resheathes the blade, groaning in frustration.]

Of all the times to get tricked by food... why did my stomach betray me?

[hyperhero]

Maybe it'll just come off?

[Judai goes to sit down at the table with Bakura, crossing his arms on the surface and putting his head on it. It gives him even more of a childish air than usual.]

I mean, if it was real, we wouldn't be seeing it... right?

[fluffydeathdealer]

Most strings break a lot easier than this. But I'm just going to hope that it does. No offense to you, Judai Yuki, but being tied to you isn't my idea of fun.

[hyperhero]

Aww, come on! We still need to duel, don't we? You're still really grumpy.

[fluffydeathdealer]

[This kid... has nothing but duels in his head.

Bakura heaves a sigh, lifting his head at last.]

Why does it bother you? My being grouchy.

[hyperhero]

Because it means there's something making you grouchy, right? So maybe if you get to let loose and have some fun with me, it won't be that bad.

[....That's a surprisingly intelligent answer, coming from him.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

[WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR HAIR HAPPENED TO JUDAI YUKI?]

Kh... I'm trapped inside a prison inside a prison, dependant on Ryou Bakura to do anything at all, and unable to fulfil my goals as long as I'm here.

[And surrounded by idiots.]

Do you really think duels will lift my mood?

[hyperhero]

[Eesh, that's pretty bad... but Judai nods after a moment.]

Well, yeah! I mean, if you're stuck in a prison and have to rely on Ryou, isn't it good that I wanna duel with you any time we can? I mean, you get to pretty much go all out with me and enjoy just having fun with it for a while!

Or we could do something else, if you don't wanna duel all the time.

[Ryou has a bunch of games, right?]

[fluffydeathdealer]

Hm...

[It makes an odd amount of sense. Most of the people here are boringly adverse to duelling, after all. And it will help him get more comfortable with the new Lockdown Deck.]

That's fine. I do enjoy duelling, and I need to get better acquainted with the deck you helped me with.