Yuuki Juudai [遊城十代]

gargleblasted app

2011-05-26T07:13:19Z

OOC:

Name: Qu-ko
Are you over 16?: Yar.
Personal LJ: aphotic
Email: kaleidobeam [at] gmail.com
Timezone: EST -5
Other contact: AIM: HighinQusitor
Characters already in the game: N/A
How did you find us?: Friend is dragging me here, aaaaaah--

IC:

Character name: Yuuki Juudai
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Timeline: Post-series + movie
Age: 19
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: The ones we've seen in canon for him involve mind tricks of some kind: mind control was stated to be part of Haou's powerset in the original, for one. Yubel's powerset extends to allowing him to do various similar mind-related things such as see through and dispel illusions, resist possession, mind reading, and mental manipulation, and other such things of that nature.

He's also capable of summoning spirit form Duel Monsters into real manifestations via Yubel's power. He's used it multiple times in canon, and the spirits have their own free will and can interact with the world freely, presumably until it drains Juudai too much. However, considering he's probably got a decent-sized reserve of power on that front thanks to Yubel, I assume he'd be able to maintain them for long periods of time if necessary.

How would they use their abilities?: He will never, ever use the aforementioned mind control ability of his own volition -- it's effective, yes, but he is probably never going to use it again. Too much trauma behind it, not to mention it's not a very nice thing to do without permission. He's a good boy.

Most of the time, Juudai only uses his powers when absolutely necessary, or when they're the best way of helping people. He's benevolent at heart, as his power alignment would suggest, so he's not going to wreak havoc with them or anything. Given a choice between that and stopping the havoc, he's gonna choose the world-saving gig every time.

Appearance: Juudai is, at first glance, anywhere from striking to gorgeous depending on the particular moment you catch him in. He's rumpled and spontaneous, if you take spontaneous to mean uncombed, given his wild mop of two-tone chocolate-orange hair, even slicker, wilder, and more unkempt now that he has fused with Yubel. He's of a hair under average height for his age, just barely even with Johan and Asuka, and has a fairly slender, lean and willowy build -- tight, but not overly muscular, making him a very healthy glutton. His eyes are brown, earthy and lively, but subject to change under certain circumstances to something heterochromatic and fey (Yubel's eyes, which are a deep forest green and a neon tangerine orange) or something piercing and cold (Haou's eyes, more of a metallic gold color in both eyes).

His school blazer is the classic long-sleeved red coat he's become known for, with a high collar, dark red trim, and a flared peplum much like that of any standard-issue Yu-Gi-Oh trenchcoat (except it only barely goes past standard coat length in his case). The black shirt he wears underneath has sprouted a mandarin collar, as well, and is long-sleeved underneath the blazer. Typically, he pairs this choice off with dark jeans and rather unusual sneakers frequently seen worn by various characters in any of the colors of the three dorms, Osiris Red, Ra Yellow, and Obelisk Blue.

Reference pic here.

Background/Personality:
For a large portion of his childhood, Juudai was alone. But like all simple descriptions, this isn't entirely accurate -- he had parents, but they were always busy with work and such and had little time for him. But he was without human companionship most of the time. Keyword: human. He's had the ability to hear and see duel monster spirits since he was born, and one in particular guarded him jealously... very jealously. Her name was Yubel, and so every time he would invite a neighborhood friend over to play with him, something bad would happen because of her, due to her overprotective nature concerning Juudai, until the neighborhood kids just simply stopped coming to play with him anymore out of fear the same would happen to them after she sent one boy to the hospital.

At the same time, Kaiba Corporation had begun to accept cards made by people to send into space and study and gather the energy that came from it. He asked his parents to send in his own drawings of Neos, and Yubel as well with the hopes that she would receive the "energy of justice" and change her ways from the trip. Naive five-year- old thinking, perhaps, but it made sense at the time.

However, it didn't go as planned. There was a malfunction in Yubel's capsule, so after coming into contact with the "Light of Destruction" instead, an evil force that resides in the far reaches of space, it plummeted back to earth, and Yubel burned up almost entirely in the atmosphere, leaving her with just her left arm remaining by the time she landed. While this was going on, her connection to Juudai caused him to have constant nightmares in which she tried to call out for him. His parents worried about him, and decided to pay for him to undergo a technological procedure that would erase a portion of his memory. Thus, the events involving Yubel, and even Yubel's existence itself, was forgotten for a time.

And that brings us to the start of the series. Juudai started off the anime as a bit over-the-top ignorant and self-centered from the very beginning, no matter how well-meaning he was at heart. In the beginning, he often wound up being rather childish underneath the good-hearted exterior -- he tended to be thoughtless, scatterbrained, hesitant to take anything seriously, and even selfish... but most of these traits wound up getting masked by his inclination to be a good person and a kind hero admired by all, and often came across in a way that seemed more charming and innocent to most people than brash and stupid at first. He was just a nice guy, if a little dense and oblivious to things that mattered most of the time, along with the occasional insensitive remark that his friends would brush off as "typical Juudai". Even through the events of seasons one and two, he took them in stride. Season two in particular was hard to wrap his entire head around, as Juudai barely noticed a change until his friends started getting brainwashed, at which point it sunk in that this was really happening, and he had to do something about it.

However, this small collection of negative traits of his stopped being quite so "charming and innocent" when they wound up becoming more glaring over time, causing him to grow into someone who was outright reckless and neglected to consider the consequences of his actions, which really got to him when he realized just how much of a total dickweed he'd been -- that's an understatement, as he pretty much went off the deep end when unfathomable results came of his actions afterward. This is basically the entire plot of the latter half of the series, which contains 99% of Juudai's character development.

In the beginning of season three, he meets Johan Andersen, a transfer student from North School, with whom he strikes up a friendship like no one else before. It had seemed he had a greater bond with Johan in a few days' time than he had with some of his friends from his time in the school up to two years prior, based on how the two of them acted together; it was as though they had known each other all their life, they were so close and so strikingly similar in personality -- they possess the same enthusiastic love for dueling and for spirits, after all. At the time, a teacher who had transferred to the school at the same time as Johan, Professor Cobra, had begun to collect energy from students as they dueled by equipping them with "dis belts" that gathered the energy generated by the duel and depositing it in his laboratory in the forest of the island. The truth was that the energy was being gathered for Yubel -- she had struck a deal with Professor Cobra when he found her as she crash- landed back on Earth years ago, promising him she could reunite him with his son if he helped her gather duel energy to regain her body, which had disintegrated in the atmosphere with the exception of only her left arm. When Juudai and his friends infiltrate the lab, Juudai is made to begin to question the reasons for why he continues to duel, and if that reason is wrong or not. This is the first time such a question has been posed to him, and it bothers him greatly, because it's not something he can answer with confidence like usual. He doesn't really have time to think about it, as he is set up in a deathmatch with Cobra immediately afterward. When Juudai wins, Cobra is sent plummeting off the edge of the high-up helicopter platform they had been dueling on, presumably killing him (rather, he walked straight off the platform himself because he was seeing a Yubel-induced vision of his dead son, allowing her to fulfill her contract with him in the most twisted way possible by "reuniting" them... but still a fulfillment nonetheless). Yubel, who has by that point mostly regained her body, sends the entire school to a different dimension, much like a desert, in which Duel Monster spirits are real and tangible (while normally they are just that, spirits that cannot be seen by most humans). She possesses the mind of a boy named Martin to use his body as a vessel shortly thereafter.

The students begin to get desperate due to the extremely limited resources in this world, as well as Yubel turning half the student population into walking, brainless zombies. A connection is established between the desert world and their home dimension, along with an attempt to send their only hope to get home to them -- Rainbow Dragon, the ultimate card of the Gem Beasts, Johan's deck. The plan almost fails when the capsule containing the card is nearly swallowed up by quicksand, but it is retrieved successfully and delivered to Johan. After all the hardship and adversity, Juudai and Johan face off against Yubel in Martin's body... but Juudai does not remember her at all until the very end of the duel, in which all the sealed memories of his childhood come flooding back to him. In the end, Johan uses the power of his Rainbow Dragon to open the dimensional portal wide enough to send everyone else home... except for Yubel and himself.

Upon finding that Johan did not return with the rest of the school, Juudai is absolutely crushed and overwhelmed with guilt -- Yubel is his problem, now that he remembers; if he'd never made that mistake, it never would've happened in the first place -- and soon sets out alone to rescue him by going through the remnants of a portal to the alternate dimension. This is where his recklessness becomes more readily apparent, and his friends begin to get the foreshadowing feeling that bad things will happen if Juudai doesn't slow down and think things through instead of charging right ahead time after time.

His friends approach him and insist upon offering their help despite his initial refusal to let them go, so together they fall into an entirely new world, much different than the desert-like one Yubel had sent them to earlier, called the Dark World. He begins his search, learning that in this world, if you lose a duel, you will quite literally explode into a cloud of sparkles, the equivalent of death to most. The going is tough, and the deaths of many people and spirits who didn't deserve it at all disturbs Juudai and the others greatly. Eventually, he runs into Brron, Mad King of Dark World, after running far ahead of his friends despite the warning not to, and finds that four of them (Fubuki, Asuka, Kenzan, and Manjoume) have been captured by Brron after he'd left them in the dust, with the intent of sacrificing them for the beginnings of a certain card, one with the power to fuse the twelve total dimensions together -- Super Fusion. Brron plans to use it to summon Colorless, the true ruler of the Dark World.

The plan ultimately backfires on Brron. When his friends are indeed sacrificed and Brron brings Juudai to the abrupt realization that it's entirely his fault for running ahead, leaving everyone behind, and ultimately being selfish and thoughtless... something that had been sleeping inside him for a long time awakened suddenly, turning his eyes a bright, crazed yellow. This was the power of Haou, the Supreme King of darkness. Somehow, Juudai's despair and guilt resonated with this power, causing it to awaken and for him to take on an entirely new persona, that of Haou, the power of which was supposed to represent that of "kind darkness", from which all his universe was supposedly born. But instead, that intense negativity which reached out and resonated with it actually warped it, causing him to become more of a figure of evil than good. He defeats Brron eventually, who tells him with his last words that Johan is dead. Juudai reverts back to normal for a very brief moment, until another of his close friends, Shou, approaches him and tells him his trust in him is gone because of what he saw him do to his friends. This is the last straw as he mires himself further in negativity and darkness and allows himself to fully become Haou, the ruler of the Dark World, taking Brron's incomplete Super Fusion with the intent to complete it with the souls of other duelists, human and monster alike.

The aftermath involves Juudai shutting off 99% of his emotions and committing effective genocide on a nation of spirits in an attempt to somehow justify the deaths of his friends, unable to handle owning up to anything greater for his own sanity. His remaining friends are forced to spread out and wander, until one of them, Jim, finds out that the enigmatic new dictator of the Dark World is actually Juudai through direct confrontation, and duels him, attempting to drag him out of the darkness he's drowned himself in with the help of his Orichalcum Eye, an ancient artifact that can look into the hearts of others and see their true selves. Finding that Juudai was actually buried under layers upon layers of darkness and despair, he tries his best to get him to rethink his decision, but ultimately loses and is killed. Another of Juudai's friends who had been looking on, O'Brien, takes the dropped Orichalcum Eye when Jim loses and flees the scene in terror. It takes a while, but he realizes that if he doesn't force Juudai to see the truth, no one else can or will. So, with the help of the small remainder of Juudai's living friends, he makes it to the top of Haou's castle to duel him. While the result ends up as a draw, O'Brien uses the power of the Orichalcum Eye at the last moment to drag Juudai out of darkness for good this time before he too succumbs to the rule of "your life points are your life".

Then, after he's been dragged forcibly out of his self-imposed bout of mindless evil at the cost of even more of his friends' lives, he goes into a suicidally depressed phase next, because the guilt is so crippling that he just wants to die and get it over with. He can't even bring himself to use his fusion cards in a duel, his trademark -- by then, they've hurt so many people that it's almost an emotional trigger for him to use them again.

Eventually, it's explained to him that he and the persona he took on when killing off all the spirits -- "Haou", the Supreme King -- are two sides of the same coin, essentially, and it's kind of a difficult realization for Juudai. It means having to accept it was his own actions that caused the chain of events, but it also means that by doing so, he can become who he was probably meant to be from the beginning. Juudai, driven now mostly by grief and the burning desire to end all this death and pain at the hands of Yubel, who is pulling the strings, enters into a duel with Yubel in Johan's body after more of his friends get killed off -- at first, to expel her from Johan's body, a seemingly impossible task which he succeeds in accomplishing by utilizing his power and Johan's power together to create a miracle. When the first duel ends without result, Juudai leaves Johan in his teacher's care (one of the last survivors, as it turns out) while he goes to finish his business with Yubel. After Yubel reveals their past lives together, the reason she loves him as much as she does -- because she gave up her body and underwent an intensely painful alchemic procedure to become the hideous hermaphroditic dragon she is now, after which past-life-prince Juudai pledges his eternal love to her and only her, no matter what anyone else may have said -- Juudai realizes what he has to do. When Yubel activates Super Fusion to fulfill her own ultimate goal, to fuse the twelve dimensions and create a world for only Juudai and her, Juudai uses a trap card to change the target of the fusion to himself and Yubel, fusing their souls together and releasing all those dead to return to their proper worlds (well, not all, but the ones Juudai cared about the most, whose souls Yubel saved as potential bargaining chips in the future).

By the time he'd rectified the mistake that started it all and fused with Yubel, it seemed a lot like he'd shifted gears from one extreme to the other as a result of his experiences; from being reluctant to handle anything with seriousness to being a little too "serious business" at nearly all times. Over the course of season four, though, he relearned how to lighten up and have fun again, thanks to his friends, and found the right balance on his personality to make him a more mature, reliable person as a whole. It is about a week after the fusion that Juudai returns to Duel Academia as a shooting star (literally), and the transfer students, including Johan, are sent back to their schools to complete the year. All is not over, however, because a new trouble begins to stir during the final few months of the school year. While loose ends are being tied up by Juudai and his friends as they prepare for their adult lives, a force simply called Darkness, different from the "gentle darkness" that Juudai wields, begins to set his plans to bring everyone into the world of Darkness into motion. Juudai is, at first, all set to leave the Academia without graduating, but a conversation with Saiou and Kagemaru from his past years changes that, and he decides to stay to take care of the impending danger. In the meantime, he eases back from the school scene and lets his friends begin to choose the paths they want to take for their futures, as well as learning a little from them in return.

But when people mysteriously begin to disappear and succumb to the darkness in their hearts, Juudai goes to Domino prefecture in order to stop it. During a duel with Saiou, who has accepted the power of Darkness willingly, Juudai's fusion card is polluted with darkness. When he defeats Saiou, he finds the other has planted bombs onto the Kaiba Corporation building in which they'd had their match. Juudai manages to escape using Yubel's powers back into the now-empty Domino, whose residents, along with the rest of the world's population, have been swept away to the world of Darkness to experience their worst nightmares.

Juudai is about to return to Duel Academia when he meets someone who looks like the emissary of Darkness, Trueman (Mr. T for short), and chooses to duel him. He finds this Mr. T uses Johan's Gem Beast deck, and is shocked when he thinks Johan, too, has been taken by darkness, but after an attack from the pure and mighty Rainbow Dragon, his Polymerization card is dispelled of the darkness that Saiou planted within it, which had been blinding him from the truth, and Juudai finds that it is actually Johan, and not Mr. T like the darkness in his corrupted card had been tricking him into thinking. Without bothering to finish their duel in favor of more important things, the two of them head back to the island by boat as quickly as they can for a final showdown with Darkness. After witnessing Fubuki attempt to take down the boy possessed by the Darkness of Nihility, Fujiwara, and failing when Fujiwara cheats, literally reversing time to defeat him knowing what his move will be, Johan and Juudai step up to the plate. Johan falls while defending Juudai from an otherwise fatal attack in an attempt to "repay his debt", but Juudai manages to free Fujiwara and faces off against the true face of Darkness... which, as it turns out, happens to be a skeletal goat, a form which apparently has some alchemic connections. Long, three-episode duel put short: Juudai defeats him, and although Darkness claims he will return as long as there is darkness in the hearts of humans, Juudai says he'll be there to defeat him again, likewise.

After the graduation ceremony, which Juudai's friends all attend (though are somewhat unsurprised to see that he doesn't come, in the sense that he has always been a free spirit), Juudai is whisked off to the year 1997 (from 2008, the year season four of GX took place in) by Hane Kuriboh, one of his most cherished duel spirits granted to him in the beginning of the series by the king of games himself, Mutou Yuugi. He and post-Battle City Yuugi have a duel, and it is through this that Juudai lightens up significantly and remembers the fun in dueling again. After, he acts on the decision he'd actually made way back at the beginning of season four, after the events in the Dark World, to travel the world and help people connect with duel spirits using his abilities as one of the few who can see and communicate with them.

During the movie, Juudai is seen in Venice, dodging blasts from various dragons, smack in the middle of the chaos as usual. He had been attempting to stop a mysterious masked man from wreaking havoc -- he'd received a tip from some of his friends that their cards had been stolen, and his search led him directly to the perpetrator. Just when he seems to be about to be finished off, a wall of crimson fire shields him from the last blow unexpectedly, and a man on a motorcycle appears. The masked man retreats, for the moment.

On a rooftop, Juudai collaborates with the man, Fudou Yuusei, learning about what has happened to Yuusei and piecing together what they know of their own situations. Yuusei is from the future, and it seems that future is crumbling to dust because of the time traveling being done by the masked man with the dragons. He's also stolen Yuusei's dragon, Stardust Dragon, and Yuusei is out to retrieve it and save the future he lives in. Juudai confirms that the past is also being changed as they speak, and so they hop on Yuusei's D-Wheel and head back to the past.

While there, they manage to meet Mutou Yuugi and pick him up right before everything goes awry -- the man's goal is to kill Pegasus J. Crawford, the creator of the modern incarnation of Duel Monsters. After humbly requesting Yuugi's help and then clearing the area with Juudai's powers, the three of them find the man and confront him. His name is Paradox, and he has stolen all those dragons in order to gain the power to destroy Duel Monsters itself in the hopes of changing his future, which he claims has been ruined by the game. After deadpanning that they're not going to get anywhere with arguing in words, Paradox proposes a three-on-one duel.

During the duel, Juudai becomes a very important pillar of support for both Yuusei and Yuugi, particularly in strategy, as well as emotionally. The three bond quickly and adapt to each other's strategies, able to understand one another through this medium better than any other. More of Juudai's cheerful, fun-loving personality is apparent in this duel, displaying how he's managed to loosen up and enjoy dueling again, even when it's for the fate of the world in this case. He not only helps the other two protagonists save their presents and futures, but has a hell of a time doing it in the process. By the time Paradox is sent packing, the three boys have bonded quite well, and bid each other a fond farewell in the glow of the sunset over Domino City.

Thus ends the canon portion of his history. When it comes to personality, though, one thing about Juudai is that he is very trustworthy and righteous, and fiercely protective of those people he cares about. When he has an opinion, he says it. When he wants something changed, he takes action. And when somebody wants advice, he's the one who gets approached. People simply trust him. In addition, he has a very cheerful air about him most of the time; he makes friends very easily and rarely finds someone who can resist his good-natured, charismatic charm. Once they get to know him better, though, occasionally he can come across as a little jaded, like someone older than his years, who shoulders a heavy, tiring burden not meant for someone quite so young or inexperienced. Yet, even despite the world on his back as it is, he looks out for people, and tries to be a good friend despite his past mistakes. He also does not like to get his friends wrapped up in the practically apocalyptic problems that tend to follow him like an unwanted shadow due to his prominent position in his own universe's grand scheme. Unless someone makes a particular effort to get in his way or antagonize him, Juudai will make a decent effort to be a nice enough guy to everyone who deserves it. A few leftover negative points still exist within him, being that he still has an arrogant streak a mile wide and can be a little abrasive and snarky sometimes, but overall he's usually pretty chill.

Juudai's biggest weakness lies in the well-being of those he cares about. The quickest way to get to him is through his friends rather than through Juudai himself, and the villains in his world have figured this out, it seems -- nearly all of them have preyed upon his friends in some way, torturing or brainwashing them in order to take the easiest route to bringing him down. At first, he attempted to alienate them to try and keep them safe from all the crazy that haunts him, but soon learned it didn't really matter if he did or didn't, that they would try to stick by him no matter what, so he decided he was just hurting them more and stopped. Even in the face of adversity, he's grown strong enough not to waver, but when it comes to a friend being in danger, he can be taunted and held up much more easily than if one were trying to take a direct route to play with his mind. At the point he's coming from, he's a very strong-minded and secure person, so trying to screw around with his self-confidence doesn't work quite as well as it might have earlier on in the series.

Why should that character be in this game: N/A

Why do you want to continue their history here: N/A

For applicants considering an alternate version of a character already in game, please use this as your chance to explain the key differences between your character and the one already in play: N/A

Have you read up on how the game works?:
1) The plug-in is called FlamingFerret (with colors I am too lazy to input)!
2)
- Missions, dur
- Pickpocketing/stealing
- Freelance work

1st person sample: [Well, apparently the person in this video is at least somewhat experienced with technology, because it doesn't start with a closeup of his face or a dense questioning of what the Guide is. Sure, maybe he'd like to know that too, but some things take priority, you know?]

Has... anyone seen a cat?

[He laughs a little, offering a sort of friendly smile.]

--I mean, my cat is missing. He's a big brown tabby with a bushy tail. Responds to Pharaoh, when he feels like it.

Damn cat better not have gotten himself stuck between worlds or something, or gone off on his own...

[An odd, yet fond mutter, to say the least. But then he shakes his head and shrugs expansively.]

Now that that's out of the way. I've only been to outer space once before, but this spaceship thing is kind of new to me. Whose bright idea was it to fill out all those forms for something like this, anyway? It's like Chronos-sensei decided to torture me from beyond the boundaries of worlds...

Well, I guess I don't mind sticking around for a while -- I think seeing space would be pretty cool. And I'm curious to know who's listening to this, too. But somehow, I can't shake this really bad feeling I have...

3rd person sample: It was a gorgeous late fall morning, with perfect weather; the storms had finally wheeled away from the harbor town he turned up in, for now, and left a smattering of clouds and blue skies behind in their wake. Juudai popped another candy into his mouth from his place seated on a rooftop, watching the sun come up, and tried to clear the cobwebs away from his mind, seated on the pier.

It was becoming increasingly difficult, however. The weight of years was starting to eat at him. Too many memories, too many regrets. Too many lost opportunities. Was he even in the right place anymore?

"Juudai," someone murmured in his ear, "you're too old to worry about how old you're getting. Stop it."

Juudai's did not even watch her materialize, a smile spreading across his face. He was too used to it by now.

Looking at Yubel these days was like looking into a mirror -- a mirror that reflected into the past. She materialized behind him, embracing her lover fondly, fingers tracing his jawline.

"I'm getting a little old for Halloween, at least," Juudai replied apologetically. "It's for little kids... but I always end up with more candy than I know what to do with every year, don't I?"

"Is that a complaint I hear?" Yubel smiled, settling more comfortably in her chair.

"...Nah," he decided after a moment.

They fell into a comfortable, knowing silence again, both just enjoying the moment, it seemed.

"I got something good last night, too. Split it with me?" Juudai nudged the cheerfully decorated box that sat next to his bag of candy.

"I don't understand what it is about people and sweets." Nonetheless, despite that snarky remark, Yubel eyed the box carefully. Juudai knew she'd never been a big fan of overly sweet things for as long as he'd known her in both lifetimes, but she could eat it sometimes, especially if he pulled something on her.

"Me neither, but who cares? And nobody can see us up here at this hour, anyway," Juudai chuckled, unwrapping the single cake inside from its fillet of pretty paper. Materializing fully with her power, if a little hesitantly, Yubel watched as Juudai cut the small pastry open, spilling its sweetened cream center all over the plate and made a slight face. Sometimes, she didn't mind doing things like this just to amuse Juudai, but...

"What is that, chocolate?"

"Yep," Juudai laughed. "One of the bakeries in the downtown district here was giving out cute little mystery boxes to kids for Halloween trick-or-treating. I managed to talk one out of them for myself."

"How eloquent of you, considering you didn't pay attention in English class and had to resort to using the most unhelpful phrasebook for the longest time," Yubel said, with a touch of snark.

"Yeah, it was great. A total moment of triumph." Juudai grinned at her facetiously, brushing her comment right off, and took a bite of the cake. "Mmmm. Try this."

"...I don't care for chocolate, you know," she said sourly, offering him a dubious look. Still, Juudai was apparently not going to take no for an answer; he held up a piece of the chocolate-filled cake and allowed her to take it in her mouth -- she may or may not have nibbled his fingers teasingly in the process, while being careful of those dragon fangs at the same time.

"I'm right, aren't I? It's good?" Juudai said, trying to emphasize the boyish hope in his voice.

"It is," Yubel acquiesced, not at all reluctant. No, she didn't care much for it, they both knew. There was no hiding it. But he was teasing her, and she knew better than anyone it took a little pain to get what you wanted.

He turned his neck enough to be able to meet his lips to hers, tasting the chocolate in her mouth. That was the real reason he'd done it, she knew. And it was also something he could not hide from her if he wanted to.

"Tastes even better that way," Juudai said, grateful to be able to bury his problems in the sticky-sugar-sweetness of holiday gluttony like this. As far as he was concerned, the only way to spend the post-holiday of spirits was to actually be with a spirit.

Questions?: Juudai, in canon post-series, has a cat named Pharaoh who he travels with snuggled in his bag (who might even count as a minor character during the series itself, fffff). In Pharaoh's stomach lives the soul of his dead teacher, Daitokuji. I was curious if Juudai would be able to keep Pharaoh without Daitokuji inside him (as he counts as his own character), or if he'd have to give the kitty up? Either way is fine with me, just wondering! I kind of assumed in the sample the answer is no, but that was just for sample's sake, after all.

Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: YAH I REMEMBERED. :D

Deck List

2011-03-12T01:58:01Z

Because dueling is awesome, and because I can.

Deck 1 (E-Hero)
3x Elemental Hero Prisma
3x King of the Swamp
2x Elemental Hero Sparkman
2x Elemental Hero Burstinatrix
1x Elemental Hero Avian
2x Elemental Hero Wildheart
1x Elemental Hero Bubbleman
1x Elemental Hero Bladedge
1x Elemental Hero Necroshade
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
1x Exiled Force
1x Wroughtweiler

3x Polymerization
3x Miracle Fusion
1x Super Polymerization
3x E - Emergency Call
1x R - Righteous Justice
1x O - Oversoul
1x Instant Fusion
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Cyclone Boomerang
1x Skyscraper
1x Hero's Bond
1x Pot of Avarice

1x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Hero Blast
1x Skill Drain
2x Paradox Fusion
1x Mirror Force

1x Elemental Hero Wildedge
1x Elemental Hero Wild Wingman
1x Elemental Hero Darkbright
1x Elemental Hero Flame Wingman
1x Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman
1x Elemental Hero Electrum
1x Elemental Hero Tempest
1x Elemental Hero Thunder Giant
1x Elemental Hero Necroid Shaman
1x Elemental Hero Steam Healer
1x Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster
1x Elemental Hero Plasma Vice

Deck 2 (E-Hero + Winged Kuriboh)
2x Elemental Hero Avian
2x Elemental Hero Burstinatrix
3x Elemental Hero Prisma
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
2x Elemental Hero Sparkman
3x Elemental Hero Wildheart
2x Elemental Hero Woodsman
1x Elemental Hero Bubbleman
2x Elemental Hero Clayman
1x Elemental Hero Necroshade
1x Elemental Hero Bladedge
1x Winged Kuriboh
1x Dandylion
1x Card Trooper
3x King of the Swamp
1x Wroughtweiler
1x Winged Kuriboh LV10

3x Polymerization
3x Miracle Fusion
1x Super Polymerization
1x Monster Reborn
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x E - Emergency Call
1x The Flute of Summoning Kuriboh
1x Hero's Bond
2x Gold Sarcophagus
1x O - Oversoul
1x Transcendent Wings

3x Royal Decree

1x Elemental Hero Plasma Vice
1x Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman
2x Elemental Hero Flame Wingman
1x Elemental Hero Wild Wingman
1x Elemental Hero Thunder Giant
1x Elemental Hero Electrum
1x Elemental Hero Darkbright
1x Elemental Hero Tempest
1x Elemental Hero Wildedge

Deck 3 (Neos + Yubel)

3x Elemental Hero Neos
2x Elemental Hero Neos Alius
3x Elemental Hero Prisma
1x Neo Space Pathfinder
2x Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird
1x Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin
2x Neo-Spacian Dark Panther
2x Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab
1x Neo-Spacian Glow Moss
1x Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
1x Phantom of Chaos
1x Yubel
1x Elemental Hero Prisma

2x Common Soul
1x Convert Contact
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Lightning Vortex
3x Neo Space
1x Space Gift
2x Instant Neo Space
1x Reverse of Neos
1x Wrath of Neos
1x Neos Force

2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Magic Cylinder
1x Mirror Force
2x Limit Reverse

1x Elemental Hero Air Neos
1x Elemental Hero Aqua Neos
1x Elemental Hero Storm Neos
1x Elemental Hero Flare Neos
1x Elemental Hero Grand Neos
1x Elemental Hero Magma Neos
1x Elemental Hero Dark Neos
1x Elemental Hero Glow Neos
1x Elemental Hero Chaos Neos

HMD / Contact

2011-03-12T01:22:55Z

If you need to get in touch with me for some reason -- for critique, plot, CR, or other purposes -- you can either use the following contact info:

AIM: HighinQusitor
MSN: sapphiredewgong [at] hotmail.com
Email: kaleidobeam@gmail.com
LJ: aphotic

Or, alternatively, you can PM this account or leave a comment here. Comments are screened, anonymous is on, IP logging is off (and if they're not for some reason, do let me know!)

Keyblade Order application

2011-03-01T02:43:21Z

Player Info
Your Name: Qu-ko
Your LJ: aphotic
Your Age: 20
Contact Information (Email and AIM/MSN/Yahoo): Email: kaleidobeam@gmail.com, AIM: HighinQusitor

Character Info
Character Name: Juudai Yuuki
Series: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Character Age and Gender: 19 / Male

Character Personality: Juudai started off the series as a bit over-the-top ignorant and self-centered from the very beginning, no matter how well-meaning he was at heart. He has never wanted to be a bad person (with one notable exception), and for the most part, he never has been. In the beginning of the series, he often wound up being rather childish underneath the good-hearted exterior -- he tended to be thoughtless, scatterbrained, hesitant to take anything seriously, and even selfish, but most of these traits wound up getting masked by his inclination to be a good person and a kind hero admired by all, and often came across in a way that seemed more charming and innocent to most people than brash and stupid at first. He was just a nice guy, if a little dense and oblivious to things that mattered most of the time, along with the occasional insensitive remark that his friends would brush off as "typical Juudai".

However, these negative traits of his stopped being quite so "charming and innocent" when he wound up growing into someone who was outright reckless and neglected to consider the consequences of his actions, which really got to him when he realized just how much of a dick he'd been -- that's an understatement, not to mention too little too late, as he pretty much went off the deep end when unfathomable results came of his actions afterward. Then, once he'd fused with Yubel, it seemed a lot like he'd shifted gears from one extreme to the other; from being reluctant to handle anything with seriousness to being a little too "serious business" at all times. Over the course of season four, though, he relearned how to lighten up and have fun again, thanks to his friends and a little help from someone special, and found the right balance on his personality to make him a more mature, reliable person as a whole.

One thing about Juudai is that he is very trustworthy and righteous, and fiercely protective of those people he cares about. When he has an opinion, he says it. When he wants something changed, he takes action. And when somebody wants advice, he's the one who gets approached -- people trust him as a hero, and since his reformation, he hasn't let them down. In addition, he has a very cheerful air about him most of the time; he makes friends very easily and rarely finds someone who can resist his good-natured, charismatic charm. Once they get to know him better, though, occasionally he can come across as someone older than his years, who shoulders a heavy, tiring burden not meant for someone quite so young or inexperienced. Yet, even despite the world on his back, as it were, he looks out for people, and tries to be a good friend despite his past mistakes.

Juudai's biggest weakness lies in the well-being of those he cares about. The quickest way to get to him is through his friends, and the villains in his world have figured this out, it seems -- nearly all of them have preyed upon his friends in some way, torturing or brainwashing them in order to take the easiest route to bringing him down. At first, he attempted to alienate them to try and keep them safe from all the crazy that haunts him, but soon learned it didn't really matter if he did or didn't, that they would try to stick by him no matter what, so he decided he was just hurting them more and stopped. Even in the face of adversity, he's grown strong enough not to waver, but when it comes to a friend being in danger, he can be taunted and held up much more easily than if one were trying to take a direct route to play with his mind. At the point he's coming from, he's a very strong-minded and secure person, so trying to screw around with his self-confidence doesn't work quite as well as it might have earlier on in the series.

He can be quite sympathetic under certain circumstances, particularly to those close to him, but he does not like to get his friends wrapped up in the practically apocalyptic problems that tend to follow him like an unwanted shadow due to his prominent position in his own universe's grand scheme. Unless someone makes a particular effort to get in his way or antagonize him, Juudai will make a decent effort to be a nice enough guy to everyone who deserves it. A few leftover negative points still exist within him that were never quite ironed out all the way, being that he still has an arrogant streak a mile wide and can be a little abrasive sometimes to people who grate on him, but overall he's usually pretty laid-back.

Yubel: The Duel Monster he's fused to is also his lover, and they actually behave much like lovers in their own weird way. At one time, Yubel was overprotective of him to the point of driving away everyone around him, and it was only worsened when she was possessed by the Light of Destruction. It caused her to turn actively psychotic and warped her sense of love and pain -- this was only half the Light's doing, though; the other half was Yubel convincing herself that he loved her so much that he was putting her through this pain of being separated from him, as a sort of mental defense to avoid admitting he might no longer love her. She simply could never fathom that he didn't actually love her, because she'd based her life around him in every way possible -- physically, mentally, emotionally, and even so far as changing her human form permanently for the sole purpose of protecting him. With all she'd sacrificed to live for him, Juudai not loving her anymore was absolutely out of the question.

Once the Light was gone, though, Yubel mellowed out considerably, and more or less returned to the person that Juudai remembered from his past life. She's snarky and smart-mouthed, and will often tease Juudai privately in ways that anyone else might consider as abrasive, but that he regards as affectionate, and will even go so far as to smart-mouth her right back. She's still fairly one-track minded, and her only goal to live for is to protect Juudai, but that's all she really needs, and in a way, she's a bit emotionally stunted of her own doing because she's so focused on him alone. She rarely regards anyone else unless they're threatening her or Juudai personally, and instead concentrates obsessively on the only thing she's known for two lifetimes and thousands of years in-between.

She's extremely intelligent and cunning, though she no longer has reason to manipulate anyone like she did before. In her time, though, she's granted a number of "monkey's paw"-type wishes and struck up deals with multiple people to accomplish her purposes (which were, of course, designed to allow herto get back to Juudai), and in no way has she not kept her word... though perhaps not in the way anyone was expecting. She probably doesn't really regret it, because it brought her back to Juudai in the end, but she wouldn't need to do it again anytime soon. The mindset that "love is pain" and, likewise, "pain is love" has since left her, now that she's felt true love from him, but considering how snarky she can be, she's still got a knack for inflicting a special brand of pain on anyone who dares to cross her and/or Juudai.

Basically, her life revolves around him, in the most literal sense possible. If you asked her about it, the universe only exists because Juudai created it to give her and him a place to love one another, and little else. The existence of other people simply doesn't mean anything to her, but since she doesn't interact with other people while she's fused to Juudai anyway, it doesn't really need to. She does her job quite well, and she loves him, and that's all Juudai could ask for from her.

Brief History: There's a wiki entry here, but it's inaccurate in some aspects as well as biased towards the English dub, which is an entirely different canon as far as I'm concerned. So I'll write out the history as it took place in the original Japanese, and then explain the part that branches off.

For a large portion of his childhood, Juudai was alone. But like all simple descriptions, this isn't entirely accurate -- he had parents, but they were always busy with work and such and had little time for him. But he was without human companionship most of the time. Keyword: human. He's had the ability to hear and see duel monster spirits since he was born, and one in particular guarded him jealously... very jealously. Her name was Yubel, and so every time he would invite a neighborhood friend over to play with him, something bad would happen because of her, due to her overprotective nature concerning Juudai, until the neighborhood kids just simply stopped coming to play with him anymore out of fear the same would happen to them after she sent one boy to the hospital.

At the same time, Kaiba Corporation had begun to accept cards made by people to send into space and study and gather the energy that came from it. He asked his parents to send in his own drawings of Neos, and Yubel as well with the hopes that she would receive the "energy of justice" and change her ways from the trip.

However, it didn't go as planned. There was a malfunction in Yubel's capsule, so after coming into contact with the "Light of Destruction", an evil force that resides in the far reaches of space, it plummeted back to earth, and Yubel burned up almost entirely in the atmosphere, leaving her with just her left arm remaining by the time she landed. While this was going on, her connection to Juudai caused him to have constant nightmares in which she tried to call out for him. His parents worried about him, and decided to pay for him to undergo a technological procedure that would erase a portion of his memory. Thus, the events involving Yubel, and even Yubel's existence itself, was forgotten for a time.

Years passed, and Juudai enrolled into Duel Academia for his high school years at last, landing in the lowest-ranked of three dorms, Osiris Red (which he didn't seem to mind at all, surprisingly... even actually enjoyed the low-quality dorms because he liked the color red). His first year involved getting acquainted with Duel Academia and its quirks, which included many strange happenings on the island the school was situated on. It turns out there were three legendary demons sealed beneath the school with the power to accomplish many seemingly impossible tasks -- like destroying mankind, creating a philosopher's stone, and granting eternal youth, among other things. He and six of his friends (including two of his teachers) were granted seven keys to the gate that locked away these demons. The chairman of the school board of Duel Academia, Kagemaru, hired seven assassins to retrieve the keys and bring them to him, all under different circumstances. In the end, by the time the seventh assassin (who turned out to be one of the keybearers himself, the teacher Daitokuji) made his appearance, six of the seven keys were in Kagemaru's possession, and only Juudai's key remained. He managed to take down both Daitokuji and Kagemaru himself, facing off against the three demons and avoiding disaster by a narrow margin.

Juudai's second year gave him knowledge of the existence of the Light of Destruction, when a new student named Edo Phoenix entered the school and used its power against him. When Edo defeated him in a duel, Juudai lost his ability to see his cards, and fell into a deep depression. He attempted to leave the school, but was swept away to Neo Space, where he regained his ability to duel and came back with a new deck all his own, the Neo Spacians that he'd designed and sent into space so long ago. The energy there had given them life, and so they lent Juudai their power. With it, he defeated Edo Phoenix in a rematch. In the meantime, though, other events were unfolding; a "society of light" was forming amongst the Obelisk Blue and Ra Yellow students, who had apparently been brainwashed by the power of the Light and a man with unusual psychic powers named Saiou Takuma, who was Edo's manager in the pro dueling leagues. After freeing his friends from the Light's control, a series of events led him to a showdown with Saiou where Edo had failed to undo the control the Light had over his best friend. It was a close match, but Juudai managed to send the Light packing for the moment, eliminating the control it had over Saiou's mind and ultimately saving the world from imminent destruction a second time.

His third year, however, was the year that changed his life forever. In the beginning, he met Johan Andersen, a transfer student from North School, with whom he struck up a friendship like no one else before. It had seemed he had a greater bond with Johan in a few days' time than he had with some of his friends from his time in the school up to two years prior, based on how the two of them acted together; it was as though they had known each other all their life, they were so close and so strikingly similar in personality. At the time, a teacher who had transferred to the school at the same time as Johan, Professor Cobra, had begun to collect energy from students as they dueled by equipping them with "dis belts" that gathered the energy generated by the duel and depositing it in his laboratory in the forest of the island. The truth was that the energy was being gathered for Yubel -- she had struck a deal with Professor Cobra when he found her as she crash-landed back on Earth years ago, promising him she could reunite him with his son if he helped her regain her body, which had disintegrated in the atmosphere with the exception of only her left arm. When Juudai and his friends infiltrate the lab, Juudai is made to begin to question the reasons for why he continues to duel, and if that reason is wrong or not... but he doesn't have time to think about it, as he is set up in a deathmatch with Cobra immediately afterward. When Juudai wins, Cobra is sent plummeting off the edge of the high-up platform they had been dueling on in a haze, presumably killing him (but not before seeing a Yubel-induced vision of his son, allowing her to fulfill her contract with him in the most twisted way possible... but still a fulfillment nonetheless). Yubel, who has by that point mostly regained her body, sends the entire school to a different dimension, much like a desert, in which Duel Monster spirits are real and tangible (while normally they are just that, spirits that cannot be seen by most humans). She possesses the mind of a boy named Martin to use his body as a vessel shortly thereafter.

The students begin to get desperate due to the extremely limited resources in this world, as well as Yubel turning half the student population into walking, brainless zombies. A connection is established between the desert world and their home dimension, along with an attempt to send their only hope to get home to them -- Rainbow Dragon, the ultimate card of the Gem Beasts, Johan's deck. The plan almost fails when the capsule containing the card is nearly swallowed up by quicksand, but it is retrieved successfully and delivered to Johan. After all the hardship and adversity, Juudai and Johan face off against Yubel in Martin's body... but Juudai does not remember her at all until the very end of the duel, in which all the sealed memories of his childhood come flooding back to him. In the end, Johan uses the power of his Rainbow Dragon to open the dimensional portal wide enough to send everyone else home... except for Yubel and himself.

Upon finding that Johan did not return with the rest of the school, Juudai is absolutely crushed and overwhelmed with guilt, and soon sets out alone to rescue him by going through the remnants of a portal to the alternate dimension. His friends approach him and offer their help despite his refusal to let them go, so together they fall into an entirely new world, much different than the desert-like one Yubel had sent them to earlier, called the Dark World. He begins his search, learning that in this world, if you lose a duel, you will quite literally explode into a cloud of sparkles, the equivalent of death to most. The going is tough, and the deaths of many people who didn't deserve it at all disturbs Juudai and the others greatly. Eventually, he runs into Brron, Mad King of Dark World, after running far ahead of his friends despite the warning not to, and finds that four of them (Fubuki, Asuka, Kenzan, and Manjoume) have been captured by Brron after he'd left them in the dust, with the intent of sacrificing them for the beginnings of a certain card, one with the power to fuse the twelve total dimensions together -- Super Fusion. Brron plans to use it to summon Colorless, the true ruler of the Dark World.

The plan ultimately backfires on Brron. When his friends are indeed sacrificed and Brron brings Juudai to the abrupt realization that it's entirely his fault for running ahead, leaving everyone behind, and ultimately being selfish and thoughtless... something that had been sleeping inside him for a long time awakened suddenly, turning his eyes a bright, crazed yellow. This was the power of Haou, the Supreme King of darkness. Somehow, Juudai's despair and guilt resonated with this power, causing it to awaken and for him to take on an entirely new persona, that of Haou, the power of which was supposed to represent that of "kind darkness", from which all his universe was supposedly born. But instead, that intense negativity which reached out and resonated with it warped it, causing him to become more of a figure of evil than good. He defeats Brron eventually, who tells him with his last words that Johan is dead. He reverts back to normal for a very brief moment, until another of his close friends, Shou, approaches him and tells him his trust in him is gone because of what he saw him do to his friends. This is the last straw as he mires himself further in negativity and darkness and allows himself to fully become Haou, the ruler of the Dark World, taking Brron's incomplete Super Fusion with the intent to complete it with the souls of other duelists, human and monster alike.

Juudai's remaining friends are forced to spread out and wander, until one of them, Jim, finds out that the new dictator of the Dark World is actually Juudai through direct confrontation, and duels him, attempting to drag him out of the darkness he's drowned himself in with the help of his Orichalcum Eye, an ancient artifact that can look into the hearts of others and see their true selves. Finding that Juudai was actually buried under layers upon layers of darkness and despair, he tries his best to get him to rethink his decision, but ultimately loses and is killed. Another of Juudai's friends who had been looking on, O'Brien, takes the Orichalcum Eye when Jim loses and flees the scene in terror. It takes a while, but he realizes that if he doesn't force Juudai to see the truth, no one else will, and so with the help of the small remainder of Juudai's living friends, he makes it to the top of Haou's castle to duel him. While the result ends up as a draw, O'Brien uses the power of the Orichalcum Eye at the last moment to drag Juudai out of darkness for good this time before he too succumbs to the rule of "your life points are your life".

When he recovers from his last match as Haou, Juudai becomes depressed and afraid to duel or use his fusion cards, knowing what he did and how many people he hurt and killed with them. It takes a duel with one of Haou's servants and an explanation from one of his friends that he and Haou are two sides of the same coin to gain some of his confidence back. Soon, however, he meets Johan, and is shocked to find that Johan has in fact been possessed by Yubel with the hope that if she has Johan's form, Juudai will love her like he loves Johan. Before Juudai can challenge Yubel, however, another of his friends, Marufuji "Kaiser" Ryou, steps in and has his own ultimate duel with Yubel-in-Johan's-body, and although he loses, it fulfills his final wish, as he realizes he was dying of a heart condition to begin with. Juudai, driven now mostly by grief and the burning desire to end all this death and pain, duels Yubel, first to expel her from Johan's body, a seemingly impossible task which he succeeds in accomplishing. When the first duel ends without result, Juudai leaves Johan in his teacher's care while he goes to finish his business with Yubel. After Yubel reveals their past lives together, the reason she loves him as much as she does -- because she gave up her body and underwent an intensely painful alchemic procedure to become the hideous hermaphroditic dragon she is now, after which past-life-prince Juudai pledges his eternal love to her and only her, no matter what anyone else may have said -- Juudai realizes what he has to do. When Yubel activates Super Fusion to fulfill her own ultimate goal, to fuse the twelve dimensions and create a world for only Juudai and her, Juudai uses a trap card to change the target of the fusion to himself and Yubel, fusing their souls together and returning all those dead to their proper worlds (well, not all, but the ones Juudai cared about the most, whose souls Yubel saved as potential bargaining chips in the future).

It is a week after the fusion that Juudai returns to Duel Academia as a shooting star (literally), and the transfer students, including Johan, are sent back to their schools to complete the year. All is not over, however, because a new trouble begins to stir during the final few months of the school year. While loose ends are being tied up by Juudai and his friends as they prepare for their adult lives, a force simply called Darkness, different from the "gentle darkness" that Juudai wields, begins to set his plans to bring everyone into the world of Darkness into motion. Juudai is, at first, all set to leave the Academia without graduating, but a conversation with Saiou and Kagemaru from his past years changes that, and he decides to stay to take care of the impending danger. In the meantime, he eases back from the school scene and lets his friends begin to choose the paths they want to take for their futures, as well as learning a little from them in return.

But when people mysteriously begin to disappear and succumb to the darkness in their hearts, Juudai goes to Domino prefecture in order to stop it. During a duel with Saiou, who has accepted the power of Darkness willingly, Juudai's fusion card is polluted with darkness. When he defeats Saiou, he finds the other has planted bombs onto the Kaiba Corporation building in which they'd had their match. Juudai manages to escape using Yubel's powers back into the now-empty Domino, whose residents, along with the rest of the world's population, have been swept away to the world of Darkness to experience their worst nightmares.

Juudai is about to return to Duel Academia when he meets someone who looks like the emissary of Darkness, Trueman (Mr. T for short), and chooses to duel him. He finds this Mr. T uses Johan's Gem Beast deck, and is shocked when he thinks Johan, too, has been taken by darkness, but after an attack from the pure and mighty Rainbow Dragon, his Polymerization card is dispelled of the darkness that Saiou planted within it, which had been blinding him from the truth, and Juudai finds that it is actually Johan, and not Mr. T like the darkness in his corrupted card had been tricking him into thinking. Without bothering to finish their duel, the two of them head back to the island by boat as quickly as they can for a final showdown with Darkness. After witnessing Fubuki attempt to take down the boy possessed by the Darkness of Nihility, Fujiwara, and failing when Fujiwara literally reverses time to defeat him knowing what his move will be, Johan and Juudai step up to the plate. Johan falls while defending Juudai, but Juudai manages to free Fujiwara and faces off against the true face of Darkness... which, as it turns out, happens to be a skeletal goat, which apparently has some alchemic connections. Long, three-episode duel put short: Juudai defeats him, and although Darkness claims he will return as long as there is darkness in the hearts of humans, Juudai says he'll be there to defeat him again, likewise.

After the graduation ceremony, which Juudai's friends all attend (though are unsurprised to see that he doesn't come), Juudai is whisked off to the year 1997 (from 2008, the year season four of GX took place in) by Hane Kuriboh, one of his most cherished duel spirits granted to him in the beginning of the series by the king of games himself, Mutou Yuugi. He and post-Battle City Yuugi have a duel, and it is through this that Juudai lightens up significantly and remembers the fun in dueling again. After, he acts on the decision he'd actually made way back at the beginning of season four, after the events in the Dark World, to travel the world and help people connect with duel spirits using his abilities as one of the few who can see and communicate with them.

At this point, the canon branches off into the AU. While he's traveling, he picks up wind of strange disappearances and shadowy creatures at Duel Academia, which he recalls is now a place of dimensional strain in his world. At first, he wonders if it's such a good idea to go back and help, but realizes quickly that if he doesn't do it, nobody will, and books it back to the island. It doesn't take long after that for him to encounter Heartless, which at first he thinks are just wayward Duel Monster spirits. Dueling certainly doesn't have any effect on them, though, considering they don't react when he activates his duel disk, nor when he summons Neos to punch them into oblivion -- in fact, Neos' attack just goes right through them ineffectively. Yubel tells him they're not Duel Monsters of any sort she knows (to which his response is "oh, sure, you tell me that now"), and the shadows start to close in on him because boy, that kid sure has a lot of tasty darkness in him!

The second they pile on him, though... Yubel's guardian instincts kick in, but in a slightly different way that it seems even she's surprised to see. A keyblade materializes in his hands, very Yubel-esque, with the third eye on the hilt and everything. Despite the fact that Yubel herself has no idea what the hell just happened, Juudai doesn't have time to question it, and starts smashing shadows at random; a little awkwardly, but it gets the job done. Before he can get jumped again, Yubel directs him to an open portal she's located, possibly the one used by the Heartless to get to Duel Academia. With no way to close this portal on his own, he decides traveling will have to take a back seat for now, and goes through to find a world with a castle on the other side...

Rank: New Student

Special Powers: The ones we've seen in canon for him involve mind tricks of some kind: mind control, for one, and resistance to mind control/illusions/what have you to go with it. He will never, ever use the mind control ability of his own volition, though -- it works on humans, at least; as for Heartless, who knows, but he's not about to find out. Too much trauma behind it, not to mention it's not a very nice thing to do without permission. Resistance, conversely, stems from his fusion with Yubel, and allows him to do various mind-related things such as see through and dispel illusions, resist possession, mind reading, and mental manipulation, and other such things of that nature.

I tend to believe that the power of Gentle Darkness has more uses than just "brainwash people" like it was used in canon, though, because it's such a vast power that was scarcely described and not even close to being used at its full potential at any point. And since Juudai's long beyond the point that he'd use it like that, I'll say that the element leaks into his keyblade use. Since it's a different alignment of darkness than the Heartless, though, I assume it would work just the same way as any other elemental-affinity weapon might, as the Heartless are still very capable of hurting him as well.

He's also capable of summoning spirit form Duel Monsters into real manifestations via Yubel's power, but since they're ineffective against Heartless, they'll probably be used less, and, if anything, for more practical uses like clearing obstacles. Yubel was also able to cross dimensions/worlds on her own, but I doubt Juudai has a very good handle on that particular ability yet, so it won't be used much, if at all, unless something comes up that requires it.

Light-element things, regardless of alignment, will probably bother Juudai or at least weaken him to some extent, because, well... he's good darkness incarnate. The Cornerstone of Light comes to mind, so he'll probably be avoiding that when he can help it.

Other Skills: Juudai's a very good strategist when he actually takes the time to think about something, though that doesn't always happen. He has some level of survival skills, too, along with resilience, considering he was traveling the world on his own with only a cat and a few spirits to help him, but I wouldn't call him an expert, just someone who learns from experience. Otherwise, I guess the best that can be attributed to him is that he can think on his toes extremely quickly and extremely effectively -- it comes from being a duelist.

Keyblade: "Nightmare Pain". It's a Yubel-style keyblade transformed from Yubel's card, with the third eye on the hilt and similar mishmashed, dragonskin design. |D

Reason for having a keyblade: Aside from being a shounen hero with crazy powers, I figure that, since Juudai is anything but a heart of purest light or anything, his capability and willingness to help others, strength of heart, and important position in his own world (being one of the incarnated forces that balances it out, plus fused with a spirit) are suitable substitutes. And since he's good darkness and all, I think it's very likely he, of all people from his world, would be chosen.

RP Sample: "There's a shadow hanging over this place," Yubel murmured to Juudai. "Someone has to do something about it."

"A shadow?" Juudai echoed, startled. His guardian slanted him an amused look from bold, mismatched eyes, bright colors nobody in the world could ever possess but her. And him, perhaps.

"A shadow." She waved vaguely. Outside the window life went on as normal; people walking from place to place, chatting with friends or lovers along the way. "Can't you feel it?"

Juudai sighed. The apparent failed association was inexplicably irritating. "It all seems pretty normal to me."

It didn't take Yubel long to realize that he wasn't moving, lying there on his side and staring off wistfully into the distance. "You should hone your powers, then, shouldn't you?"

"The hell I should." He closed his eyes. Yubel sat next to him, in material form, and they lounged together, more feeling each other's presence and emotional state than really seeing it. "I have to learn to use this 'keyblade' thing, too. It's going to be a lot different from just dueling."

"Think you can handle this?" Yubel inquired, a taunting intonation in her voice that, in anyone else, would've been intended to rile him up. She shifted closer across the bed, wrapping her arms around Juudai and dragging him to lean against her as she rolled to her back. Juudai allowed the gesture, letting her move him while knowing her intentions without having to be connected to her.

"Of course. I have to," he said. His fingers clenched in the sheets, and he sighed, impatient with himself; Yubel could see and sense him pushing away the frustration. "They're threatening my world, and it has to stop. I won't let them take it after I worked my ass off to save it from a lifetime's worth of threats."

He was all lean, willowy muscle and tousled miscolored hair and passionate emotions with deep meaning when she looked at him, and he was staring at her with his seemingly ordinary brown eyes glinting with searing, renewed determination. "The shadow is the Heartless' doing, though, isn't it? The shadow you said was blanketing this place."

"More than this place by now," she mused. "I don't know how they're capable of such a feat, however. Strength in numbers, or strength in sheer force. Either way, the organization that is fighting against them will need your help if they want to win."

Of course, she would think they would need his assistance over anyone else's. A breathy laugh emerged from his lungs. Juudai had his doubts about the whole thing, but as long as it helped his friends live out their lives and saved the world he'd fought so hard to protect the first three or four times, it didn't matter how he did it. Dueling would've been so much easier in his opinion, but... whatever worked.

"That sounds like you. But they sound like they can use all the help they can get." He straightened; it was his final answer. "I'm going to stop them."

Yubel smiled, the sly, enigmatic, yet bizarrely fond smile that they both possessed, the one with edges that burned and called like flame; the one that, in Juudai's life, had drawn so many moths to him, and in Yubel's, had burned just as many.

Note to Mods: Until/unless someone apps Yubel separately (because I'm trying to drag a friend or two with me eventually!), I'll be playing her as a kinda-sorta NPC. Not that she'll need to be played much, since Juudai's really the one I'm apping, not her -- that, and she doesn't come out much anyway. If/when she gets apped, I'll discuss with the player and possibly the mods what becomes of the fusion, and other such important details like that.