Where am I?
This is something like a gateway between worlds.
Why am I here?
I don't know. You tell me.
I… I don't know. I was playing a card game with a friend. Then the cards started glowing, and I wound up… here? You said this is a place between worlds. You mean between universes right? Is this place really a place? Does "here" even mean anything here?
To be honest, I'm not sure myself. My kind have traveled the multiverse so long we forgot how things used to appear to us, how we used to think and feel about this kind of "place". Suffice to say that if this gateway were simulated by a computer, it would be like that selection window that appears on your computer screen when you're switching between programs. I don't suppose you know what—
I know what a computer is, and I'm familiar with what it does. Are you saying we're in a simulation, and the simulator is trying to decide what to do with us?
Kinda? It's a lot more complicated than that and some of it depends on whether we're actually in a simulation or not, but close enough.
And who are you?
I'm the Gatekeeper for this gateway. I am a copy of my original self, who left me here as a sentry to protect the Universes beyond from those who would harm them, and as a guide to younger travellers.
So you haven't always been here?
Very astute! No, I have not always been here. My people are the descendants of the Old Ones, possibly among the first to travel the stars of their home cluster of universes as the Multiverse counts time. So many had been lost in the gateways between worlds before we ascended and started placing Gatekeepers.
Wow. That's amazing.
It boggles even my mind sometimes, knowing how far my kind has come and may yet go on this journey we call life. But it seems your journey has only just begun.
Is that…?
It is somewhat rare that I have an interesting young mind/soul to talk to in an in-between not-quite-place such as this. I have deemed you worthy and unblocked/forged the way.
The way to where?
To one of the universes beyond this gateway, of course.
But I don't even know how I got here! I want to go home!
Unfortunately I cannot guide you back to your home universe. The safe gateways are all one-way. If you turn back now who knows what will happen? This instance of you may wind up in a completely different universe than the one you came from, possibly one which cannot support human life. Or you may even be lost in the not-quite-space between worlds forever.
Okay. I understand, and I won't take that risk.
Very good. Now, I should warn you that someone recently passed through a nearby gateway carrying her trading cards, and accidentally dropped them in the pathway from that gateway to the Universe she wound up in. It has had some rather interesting effects on the local cluster.
Interesting how?
Hehhehheh. You'll see. You have some trading cards of your own with you. Do try not to lose them. They may technically be mere cardboard rectangles with fancy artwork on them, but time and time again people underestimate the significance and value of cardboard rectangles with fancy art.
I know! It was like that in my home universe too. I suppose I should get going then.
Indeed! You will face many challenges ahead. It may be stressful at times. Just remember that you do not have to take on every challenge. If a battle is too risky, you can refuse to fight it or have another fight in your place who has better odds of winning.
Wait, battle?
And most importantly, HAVE FUN!
D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-
Six priestly advisors were facing off against a mysterious thief in a throne room, guarding their king who sat in the throne behind them. The thief was standing atop a golden coffin.
"You dare defy the Pharaoh!?" one of the priests demanded.
"I dare! For he and his forefathers have defiled my home with unspeakable evil! Now I have come to cleanse this evil from the world!"
"You know not what you speak, witch! You defile the sacred tongue with your words!"
"Owowowow…" a strange young man wearing strange clothes had appeared out of thin air and landed on his bottom. Right in the middle of the standoff.
The pharaoh, the thief and the six priests stared at him in shock.
"Who are you?" the pharaoh asked warily.
"My name is Harris. I… is this Ancient Egypt!?"
"Indeed, this is Egypt."
"If this is Ancient Egypt, then how are you speaking English?" asked Harris incredulously.
"What is this English you speak of?" demanded one of the priests. "You mean the sacred tongue?"
"Sacred tongue? It's just a language! How can a language be sacred?"
"Watch your mouth!" said another one of the priests. "Do not disrespect the sacred tongue!"
"I don't suppose there are any other sacred tongues, are there?" asked Harris. "Por ejemplo, si le pregunto ¿puede comprender como hablo ahora?"
The pharaoh, the priests and the thief were giving him very strange looks.
"I'll take that as a no."
"I do not know where you come from or how you know of us," said the pharaoh slowly. "But if you do not intend to come to our aid then I advise you to leave."
"Oh!" said Harris. "Sorry, but I'm completely new to this world, I doubt I could find my way around without a guide. I'll just get out of your way then."
Harris quickly stood up and ran out of the line of fire.
"I hope you don't mind if I watch your battle," he added once he thought he was maybe a safe distance away. "It could probably tell me some things about what kind of world I've landed in."
"...Very well," said the pharaoh. "We were already going to attempt to keep the fighting contained so as not to damage the palace, but we cannot entirely guarantee your safety. On your own head, so be it."
"You think you can stop me from damaging the palace, this place which I hate most of all? You fools! Great Spirit of Set Ma'at! Meretseger, Thief of Sanity I summon thee!"
A monstrous winged spirit appeared, with claws so sharp it hurt to even look at them too long, like nails on a chalkboard only worse.
The pharaoh and the priests stared at it in shock. So did Harris.
"O' Meretseger, have you betrayed us?" asked one of the priests, falling to his knees in despair.
"Stand up!" said one of the other priests. "We swore to the gods that we would protect the pharaoh with our lives. If that means fighting one of them who has committed treason against the rest, then so be it."
"That...that…" said Harris. Then he started laughing. "Of course! So that's what the gatekeeper was talking about! I just landed in a world loosely inspired by the Yugioh anime! That traveller who dropped her trading cards in the space between worlds accidentally turned this whole cluster into that! And… and all her cards had English text on them, didn't they? That's why you call it the sacred tongue!"
"What are you blabbering about?" demanded the thief.
"But unlike the Yugioh anime," Harris continued. "This world's trading card game isn't the Yugioh trading card game. It's Magic: the Gathering!"
Harris reached into his pocket and pulled out his deck and started searching through it. It wasn't just the deck, but the sideboard too. And yet even with both the deck and sideboard, it still felt heavier than mere trading cards ought to feel. His cards had survived in the "place" between worlds, the "place" between possible realities, and had come out stronger than before in some mysterious way. How had that even been possible, anyway?
He found the cards he was looking for.
"If I were to guess, those strange golden trinkets the priests are all wearing or holding were created in some forbidden spell which stole the lives of the Set Ma'at villagers. And you're the only survivor, which is why you're here for revenge. Am I right?"
"How did you…?"
"I didn't know, but I suspected," said Harris. "Your name wouldn't happen to be Bakura, would it?"
"What?" asked the thief. "No, it's Naradia."
"Ah, okay," said Harris. "Well in any case, I am deeply sorry for your loss. The people of your village didn't deserve to die."
The priests tensed up.
"You believe the lies of this thief!? You dare question the honor of the pharaoh?" asked one of the priests.
"It's not necessarily his honor I'm questioning. I don't know who killed the villagers of Set Ma'at, or even that they were killed at all. I only know that it seems likely based on what little I know or suspect already, and that Naradia believes it to be true. She also believes that you all are responsible for it. That being said, an eye for an eye makes the world blind. While I know it may be presumptuous of me, might I recommend that instead of fighting, you conduct a thorough investigation into the origin of those golden trinkets you're holding, whatever they're called. And then if one of your priests or relatives did something untoward behind your back, you could decide what to do with them then, your majesty."
"The Sacred Relics were given to us by the gods," the pharaoh growled angrily. "And I would trust my family and my priests with my life!"
"Fine, fine!" said Harris, throwing up his hands in frustration. "But if you're right, then Naradia here should have no reason to hate you enough to attack you like this, and you would have nothing to fear from such an investigation. At the very least it could convince her to stop attacking you and apologize for her behavior."
Naradia's eyes bulged in incredulity. "Apologize to the Pharaoh!? Me?"
"Someone might be manipulating her," Harris continued as if Naradia hadn't spoken. "You might consider capturing her for interrogation rather than killing her. She might not know what she speaks. That was one of the first things I heard when I landed here, by the way."
"And you believe the Pharaoh or his forces can capture me alive? On what grounds? I have a god on my side!"
"Even gods can be beaten," said Harris. "They're just harder to beat. And sometimes the trick that works on them rarely works for anything else. And sometimes it only works once. Pharaoh, catch!"
He tossed two cards towards the pharaoh.
The pharaoh caught them and stared at them in confusion.
"I know they aren't on stone tablets, but try casting them anyway!"
"We won't let you! Meretseger!"
Meretseger, the Thief of Sanity, dived towards the pharaoh. The other priests began to cast spells to protect him.
"Stop! The pharaoh will win! Get out of his way!"
This, apparently, was the wrong thing to say.
"Meretseger, stop, it's a trap!" shouted Naradia.
Meretseger flapped her wings hard, creating powerful gusts of wind to stop herself in her own tracks. She then flew back to Naradia's side.
She and Meretseger turned to glare at Harris, menacingly.
Harris gulped in fear.
"You know too much," said Naradia, dangerously. "Die!"
Harris tensed, preparing to dodge while knowing it was pointless. He wasn't a fighter, and he wasn't athletic at all.
"Arboreal Grazer, protect Harris!" the pharaoh commanded.
A lanky horned and furred beast with a long tail appeared, kind of like a cross between a monkey and a sloth. It clambered forwards and jumped into the path of Meretseger's attack. The beast was torn apart by Meretseger's claws and dissipated in shards of green light.
Meretseger swung another claw.
"Plummet to the Earth, Meretseger! Return to the Underworld!"
A beam of green light quickly shot out from the pharaoh's hand and enveloped Meretseger's wings, then slammed her to the ground.
Meretseger dissipated in shards of black and blue light, as Naradia stared in shock.
"Guards! Seize her!" the pharaoh commanded. "Before she summons her goddess back!"
Naradia was quickly apprehended and her hands were tied.
Harris collapsed to his knees, feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by the day's events so far.
"...Just because you knew there was a trap, doesn't mean you could avoid triggering it," he heard himself saying to Naradia, sounding braver than he felt. The shaking and the terrified look on his face probably gave him away. "You should've run away while you had the chance. I hope the pharaoh shows you mercy. If not, I'm sorry. You kinda brought this on yourself though. An eye… for an eye makes… makes..."
Harris collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Naradia glared at him as she was taken away to the palace dungeons.
"Pharaoh, what should we do with this foreigner calling himself 'Haris'?" asked one of the priests. He was tall, thin and elderly and had a small goatee on his chin. He had a strange golden monocle-like thing in front of his right eye. "If there was one thing that witch was right about, it's that he knows too much."
"Ahknaten is right," said one of the other priests. He was stout, middle-aged and clean shaven. A golden stethoscope-like thing was gripped tightly in his hands, with the end being shaped like a key. "How does he know so much about us, while also claiming that he's new to this world and needs a guide? And he clearly knows more of Meretseger's abilities than we do. I don't understand why his telling us to not interfere caused Naradia and Meretseger to abandon their attack on the pharaoh. Berenati, your knowledge of faraway lands and divine lore is the best in the kingdom. Do you have any ideas?"
"Meretseger has been known to borrow the powers of those who reside in the underworld," said Berenati, a priestess with mystical tattoos up and down her arms and a small golden ring hanging from her neck. "I wonder if this means she can take powers from the living too. If we hadn't interrupted our own spells while we were still shaping them, would she have taken them from us? Could she have stolen our summoned spirits so they could no longer return to their stone tablets? I find it interesting that Haris warned us not to cast our spells and get out of your way, your majesty, yet still believed it would make sense for you to cast his. Perhaps Meretseger can only steal spells from our minds or souls, and not directly from stone tablets? You were holding miniature stone tablets in your hands, which may have strengthened your connection to them so you could more quickly draw upon the power of their spells. The charging time may have been less than typical with those smaller tablets. It's also possible that Haris feared giving Meretseger more targets to attack. For the more of us she struck, the more spells she could steal."
"I see," said the pharaoh. "And what about Haris himself?"
"He reminds me of one of my students," Berenati said thoughtfully.
"I know!" said an elderly priestess with a golden band clasped around her stomach. "You're talking about Beketa right? Inexperienced and idealistic, but also clever and insightful beyond her years."
"Yes, we all know how much you dote on Beketa," said the Pharaoh with a grin. He shook his head, causing his shoulder-length mop of black hair to shake too. He was young, but there were already long streaks of gray mixed in with the black. The golden crown he wore had six gemstones in it, each one a different color. "She definitely takes after you, even though you aren't related. Haris on the other hand, I'm not so sure of."
"He does not remind you of Beketa?" asked a bald priest with sharp eyes and a billowing cape, holding golden scales.
"He certainly does remind me of Beketa," said the pharaoh. "But even more than that… he reminds me of my father."
"Hmmph," said a young man, a priest with a golden rod in his hands and about the same age and height as the pharaoh. with strangely similar features. "Well, this man who reminds you of your father is still lying on the ground before our feet. And so is the body of your actual father too, by the way. It is undignified. He must be returned to his tomb!"
"I'll take care of it," the stout, middle-aged priest said quickly. "And as for our guest…?"
"Indeed," said the pharaoh with a smile. "Let us arrange living quarters for our mysterious hero and other-worldly guest, Haris. And yes, Siamune, please have my father returned to his tomb."
-
Author's note:
First of all, for those who are confused by the fact that a Thief of Sanity destroyed an Arboreal Grazer, even though an Arboreal Grazer has 3 toughness and Thief of Sanity ordinarily has only 2 power, keep in mind this is not an ordinary Thief of Sanity. This is a more powerful ascended version of Thief of Sanity which has been given a different name, one more power, and the legendary and god subtypes. The mana cost is also one mana higher than an ordinary Thief of Sanity.
The girl who dropped her trading cards in the quasi-space between the universes of this cluster? Some of the cards she dropped were blank proxies intended for making custom fanmade cards. That's why a more powerful version of Thief of Sanity is possible.
This story came from a plot bunny I've had jumping around in my head for a long long time. I have no idea how far I'll take this. Maybe it'll be just a series of one shots. Maybe it will be more like a comic strip except in serial novel form. I might bounce around a bit. I'll try to make it as enjoyable and interesting to read as I can, but don't expect perfection. I'm just doing this for fun.
One of the things that disappointed me about the original Yugioh series was that the powers to materialize their card effects in real life were seriously underutilized outside of combat and seemed to have surprisingly much less impact on the development of that world's culture and history than it should have.
We knew it was possible for much of the series, from Aki's psychic powers in 5ds to a lot of what happens in the other eleven dimensions in Yugioh Gx, etc. etc. And yet in-universe secret rare cards like Rageiki were never classified as WMDs and never triggered any sort of cold war MAD-type situation. And neither did the millenium items. The presence of literal WMDs in the Bronze Age really ought to have made more of a noticeable impact IMO.
That being said, I'm not entirely sure if this story counts as Yugioh fanfiction or not. It's certainly a story about card games and ancient egypt, there are a lot of significant similarities. But there are a lot of equally significant differences too. I honestly do not know if this counts as yugioh fanfic or not, and I'm the author! I suspect you won't either. But if you like yugioh you'll probably like this story too, I hope.
Also, this isn't a fix fic. This story is not an attempt to fix everything wrong with the yugioh franchise. It's more of a deconstruction/reconstruction of a lot of the tropes and conventions of card game anime, many of which originated in yugioh.
I pick it apart not to make a mockery of it (how could I it's too awesome to mock-usually anyway. The Abridged series by LittleKuriboh is admittedly pretty good.), but to find what I like most about it as well as what I wished it had more of, see how it works and how I can make it work more to my liking.
Note that the game in this story's universe is NOT Duel Monsters, but Magic: the Gathering. At this point in my life I'm much more familiar with MtG than with the Yugioh tcg, so mtg is the card game of this universe. I'm limiting myself to only using cards that are legal in Historic format, as well as maybe the occasional fan-made card. I hope that's alright.
Also since a trading card game being introduced around the start of written human history if not much earlier is one of the main differences that sets this story's universe apart from our own, I have taken some steps to limit how much butterfly effect would realistically take place in my story: the more powerful cards are often very rare and hard to find, and the weaker cards get mined out of the areas they appear in very quickly. Humanity doesn't figure out how to make more cards until after they industrialize. I haven't decided exactly when in their timeline that's going to happen yet.
Another thing to note, the OC protagonist of this story will be part of a same sex male romance with a significant age gap. I will do my best to avoid the utter cringeyness and unhealthy dynamics which typically arise in fictional portrayals of such relationships. That being said, said relationship will be important to the overall plot-thing I have in my head, so I can't just pretend it doesn't happen.
Rest assured that said relationship will not become a black hole that causes the whole universe to revolve around them. A healthy romance is the intersection of the individual life stories of two or more people, and those people are still individuals even when they're romantically involved. They still have their own personalities and their own lives outside of the relationship.
Finally, the protagonist is not a gary stu. He is definitely a very flawed human being, just like anyone else, and the main reason he will have so much ridiculous success early on in the story is because he comes from another older world (our own) where people lived much longer lives due to things like sanitation, healthcare, the internet etc. Also because he watched yugioh and played magic the gathering for years, which gives him an enormous edge in this story's particular universe. Also because other characters know he's from another world and has much to learn of their ways, so are a little more forgiving of his social transgressions. He will still encounter obstacles which challenge him deeply, and he will still make plenty of mistakes early on in addition to his successes.
His flaws might not be as easily noticed when viewing the story through his own perspective, but rest assured he does have flaws and I do plan for him to suffer from his own mistakes and blind spots quite a bit, just not to the point where the story becomes too angsty I hope.
Despite his skill with magic the gathering and his familiarity with the yugioh anime, that can only take him so far. The world he found himself in isn't quite like the yugioh world he's familiar with from anime. And his understanding and familiarity with alternate universe human bronze age culture is still only skin deep. Despite his skill at diplomacy and empathy he WILL still make faux paus, more than once at least.
And if he is ever in physical danger, he will almost always run away or try to find a way to solve the problem without fighting, rather than standing up for himself and defending those he cares about. While he is a little badass in some significant respects, he's a badass in an intelligent supporting-role kind of way, not a front-line fighter sort of way. He'd rather let other people fight his battles for him, he doesn't see himself as a fighter. So in a world where war and combat is increasingly done through card games, something he's very good at, it's possible that his very identity is going to be challenged down the line. But that particular plot point may not happen for quite a while. Also he's a self insert.
Let the adventure begin! Enjoy!