I don't know what possessed me to do this, I'm normally not one to do a self insertion deal. Yet, I thought it would be interesting to try anyway, and I wanted to honestly show how I would handle (or how I think I would handle) such a thing. It's done mainly as a flip between first person and third point of view.
Hey, everyone has either written one themselves or at least daydreamed about it happening, so I figured why not? Though I'm hoping I end up with one slightly different than anyone else's.
Yes since this is supposed to be from my account I end up being the main character. But let's hope I didn't derail things too much.
I tried to keep that Mary Jane thing or whatever it's called out of this. But I think I ended up doing a bit of that, though I hope it's not -that- bad and I found a way to save my ass.
Seeing as how my knowledge of Yu-Gi-Oh is limited, I'm gonna say this is an AU to save my butt, that way I don't get a million complaints about not writing someone correctly.
Oh yes, and Yu-Gi-Oh! characters and everything related is (c) Kazuki Takahashi
Let's see, where do I start? Well first of all I've always been one for an impressive imagination and ideas for artwork or stories up the yin yang. This naturally made me a somewhat powerful and strange dreamer. We've all had those dreams that are so real we think it is real? Or how about an event that is just so horrible and/or odd that you think it must be a dream? I can't tell you how many times I've been in both situations. Well, the dream so real thing happens most of the time. I've had these waking dreams, scare the crap out of me. I'm twenty one and I still get horrible nightmares. Aren't I lucky? Sheesh, well, this isn't supposed to center on my dreams. Not totally, at least. Rather, something that I still can't figure out if it was a dream or what. Things that ended the event make me think it was real, yet, some things don't add up right and fit into place, so maybe it was a dream. I don't know, all I know is it's driving me nuts trying to figure out what did happen.
My name is Sarah, I'm the average woman, I suppose. Finished high school with flying colors blah-blah-blah. Got to an art college to study animation, dropped out with a near heart attack. Moved the three hundred some odd miles back home where I just... lived. I lost myself, my college experience was just horrible and I'm still reeling from it. I'm being pressured to do something, but what I don't know. I'm just here, don't know where to go or what to do. So, having so much time on my hands I began to create things. My nightmares and dreams became so vivid and full of... plot. It was amazing what my subconscious mind would cook up at night. It was like watching a movie. Well, a movie that had quite a bit of bugs, but more elaborate than dreams I'd had in my childhood.
But this isn't about a dream. Well, to the best of my knowledge it isn't. What it was, well I don't know. I just know it happened.
Damn, I was uncomfortable. I knew right off I wasn't in bed, it was too hard. Oh god, I was sleep walking again, wasn't I? But, I was scared to open my eyes. Why? Well, I was outside. My back was on a brick wall and I was sitting on the sidewalk or something. How embarrassing, I was somewhere in my night gown and... boots? Wait, I've done some weird stuff when I would sleep walk but putting my boots on was not one of them. Slowly, I opened my eyes. Well, the boots were on right, I had jeans on, a T-shirt and, wait, I can see clearly... my contacts? Ok, yeah, I have put my glasses on before; and waking up because your face hurts isn't fun. Glasses had that effect, trying to lay face down on the pillow and all. But my contacts? How...? I mean, I can't put them in when I first wake up. I'm too clumsy. That wasn't the worst of my worries, not only am I fully dressed, but I have all my jewelry on and my wallet with me. A quick check of my pockets showed me I had my keys, mirror, contact case and brush. Never leave the house without this. My sunglasses were on my head as well, this has gone from odd to scary as hell. I'm too hung up on how I'm dressed as if I was going out, then it hits me: where am I? In an ally, but, there are no allies where I live. It's a small town, big open spaces with enough rooms between buildings for another building. I feel so stupid, I must have got on a bus or something. Or I was sleepwalking and someone picked me up. Oh god, what if...? No, couldn't be. If so I wouldn't have been so clean. I know I went to sleep in my bed, I never leave the house. Only rarely on weekends. This made no sense. Ok, maybe I should stop worrying about how I got here and worry about where here was. It's early morning, I think. The air smells fresh and cool still, the sun is low. There's a slightly different glow in dawn then there is in dusk, but I can't really tell as I have no idea where I am. I think it's dawn, I think. Sun seems to be getting higher. Wow, look at that. I'm awake at dawn, this is new. I'm a night owl, up all night and sleep till late afternoon. Wonder where I'm going to eat. Wait, why am I worried about that? Still don't know where I am, gah, it's a dream. That's the only reason why I'm worried about food suddenly. So it's a dream, I can walk up to any place and they'll magically have food. And for free, or for some odd price of hoping around on one foot with a paper bag on my head. I straighten my shoulders and stroll out of the ally-way. Hrm, I can walk. So this isn't one of those dreams where I'm stuck on knees, hand and knees or I hover everywhere. However, once out I notice something else. I can't read the signs. They say you can't read in dreams, but I was always able to. As long as stuff was in English. This is, something. One of those weird symbol writings I'd see in the Asian district back at home. They all looked the same to me, but apparently there were... some big number of writings that are about the same. I have no idea what I'm looking at though, do I care? Well I will if I start talking to persons and I can't understand them.
The street is somewhat narrow and surprisingly empty from traffic. There are plenty of pedestrians. All the guys and girls are dressed the same, and fairly young too. I'm assuming they're school bound. Uniforms were in scattered schools in my area, but none like this. I had seen these before, the guys in blue suits and the girls in skirts that I wouldn't be caught dead in. I got a few odd looks, yeah I'm out of place. Go me. Got that whole, I guess it was a skater look or something. Black shirt with a bronze dragon in the center and baggy jeans. Had two wallet chains on the right side, one down past my knee and the other just above it. You'd think I'd shorten that long one, sometimes when I'd kneel down it would go over my knee and trip me up. Rarely it would get caught on the heel of my boots. I pulled my sunglasses down over my eyes, I didn't feel like having these people know I was watching them. Hmm, I must look really weird. I'm a pale thing, and here I am in such dark colors. I'm not goth or anything, I don't place myself in any social ranks. I'm just me, dressing how I like. I had dyed my blonde hair black, but over the course of a year it faded and began to grow out. My blonde color ends at my cheek bones, the reddish browns of the rest of it reaches down to just above my bum. It wasn't my hair that brought the stares, some persons had much wilder colors and styles. One in particular caught my eye. I stopped dead in my tracks as the short boy passed me, he didn't even look up as he walked. He seemed totally intent on whatever it was he was carrying. Looked like school papers. But, his hair. Blonde bangs, the yellow strands like lightening framed his soft features nicely. The rest of his hair stood up in large spikes, reminded me of a star almost, only had more branches. The black of it faded into red at his tips. Tri color hair, short in stature and I swore I saw a gold trinket hanging around his neck. I couldn't see his eyes as they were downcast, but I knew for sure who he was, Yugi Mutou. What's more is I saw where he came from, it was just a few buildings ahead of me. Oh god, I sound like a stalker or something. But you know what? This is a dream so it doesn't matter. I can stroll into his grandpa's game shop and everything will be cool. He'll know me somehow. This idea was put on hold when I saw the shop wasn't open yet. Well that was new, oh well. I have time. So I sat down, right outside the door. Pulled my knees up into my chest and rested my chin on my arms. Thankfully the steady stream of school-goers had thinned and was on the other side of the street, away from me. Bet they'd think I was bum. Do I care? No, never have and I bet I never will. That's just how I am. I hadn't been there too long when the door opened, heard a slight jingle from a bell on it, I think. I didn't turn right away, wanted to make sure the person saw me so they would start any conversation. That was another thing about me, too damn shy for my own good. I could never spark up conversation and it took forever before I felt ready to add to one with a stranger. However, I was determined to answer fairly quickly this time. I was hoping I'd get some help, so being friendly would be in my best interest. Everything was going great, until the person spoke. Yep, couldn't understand him. Looked up, it was Yugi's grandfather alright. Short, unique hair style and eyes. Well, good lot of help I'll get if no one speaks English. All the persons who I waved off when they would use Japanese would die laughing if they could see me now.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand you." The young woman bit her lip as she looked up to the old man. He paused for a moment and tilted his head to the side.
"Are you lost? It's very rare to find an English only speaking person around here," he replied in a thick accent.
"You can speak English?" she blinked. "Of course, most places do have English as a second language, a regular part of schools," she shook her head.
"I traveled a lot, it was in my best interests to learn a few different languages," the man replied. "But English isn't required in schools, it's an extra course. Please, come inside for a bit and I'll see what I can do for you." He offered her a helping hand, but she declined and got on her feet herself. He ushered her into the shop and closed the door behind them.
"What's your name if you don't mind?" he inquired as he walked past her.
"Sarah," she replied. "What may I call you?"
"You prefer using a first name or sir name?"
"Sir name, I only use first name on those close to my age and younger," she cringed a bit, hoping that wasn't too rude a comment.
"You may call me Mutou, then," he said with a smile.
Yeah, I knew his name. But, I wasn't about to let him know that. I don't think it would be right if I came in knowing his name when I was obviously from far away. So that settled it, I was going to ride this whole thing out and act like I knew nothing. Hopefully I would wake up soon, this was a dream and I didn't want to blow it and turn it into a nightmare. I took to idly browsing the items in the shop, picked up something that caught my attention. The Duel Monsters game, called simply Yu-Gi-Oh in the States, and I think it might have had a different name here. I don't know, all I know about Yugi and co. came from the dubbed animated series.
"Are you interested in that game? My grandson Yugi and his friends all enjoy it." Mr. Mutou announced from behind the sales counter.
"I've seen it before, never played before. Nor do I know too much." That was a lie, she knew about it but was sure it was different than what she was used to, so ignorance was the key.
"Art catch your eye, then? You seem to be an artistic person," he chuckled.
"How did you know?" she wrinkled her nose as she placed the cards back from where they came.
"You're young, fresh out of school I'd assume. Call it a gift, just something about you gave me that impression. But tell me, how did you get lost?"
Oh great, you know, somehow I was hoping to avoid this. I wanted to just make up something because the truth didn't seem that logical to even me. But what could I say?
"I don't know," she replied at length. "I just kind of, woke up in an ally. I have no idea how I got there. I thought I was at home, in my own bed. I sleep walk, but..." she trailed off. Mr. Mutou cocked a brow as he listened.
"You're not a drinker or into drugs, are you?" he asked in a rather flat tone.
"NO! No, I'm not. My younger brother is but I'm not. I... I don't know. It's just, weird," she sighed in a defeated manor.
"Well, where did you come from, perhaps I can point you in the right direction."
"From Texas," she said plainly as she made eye contact.
"Child, I'm afraid you are far from Texas at the moment, you aren't even in the right country," he said, more than a little confused. "I should have guessed with your light southern drawl, are you on a trip or such?" Sarah shook her head and cast her eyes down to the floor.
"Oh dear, this is quite the situation."
"Tell me about it, I'm lost, don't know how I got here or how I'll get back."
"We'll figure out something, don't worry," he said with a smile. "If you don't mind staying around here for the day once my grandson returns from school we'll see about figuring out how you got here. In fact, I think I could call the airport and see if any planes flew in from the States recently," he said as he reached for the phone.
"No, I doubt I came in that way. You know, tickets and security and all. Look at me, do you think I could easily get passed security?" She pointed to her wallet chains, necklace and bracelets as well as rings. Every single last one of the items was metal, be it gold, silver or plain metal.
"I suppose not. Hmm, I'm thinking something else is going on. In that case calling about won't turn up anything. No matter, we'll figure it out. Would you care for something to eat or drink? I could take you up to the living quarters and get you settled in for the day."
"I'd hate to intrude..."
"Oh don't be silly, I've traveled before and have felt the same, for once I can give and feel balanced."
"Alright, I guess. But really, I feel odd. I don't know you, you don't know me..."
"We have a day to talk and get acquainted."
Wow, this is a slow dream. No jumping around, so I get to go through a whole day, time won't magically speed up? Boring dream. Oh well, better than a nightmare at least. I almost tripped over the top step and slammed into Mr. Mutou, must watch where I'm walking and not get lost in my thoughts. He opened the door at the top and ushered me into the room. It wasn't furnished like what I was used to. Fairly bare, I suppose it was because the place was inhabited by just Mr. Mutou and Yugi. No one else to add other things to it, just what was needed. It was small, I could see this by the shop below. A living room, kitchen, single bathroom and what I assumed were two bedrooms made up the living area. It was home to them, and worked. It was cozy and quaint. Though personally I couldn't stand the bare walls. My own room had artwork and posters all over the place. Even ceiling. I'd be back to that soon enough, so I could easily ignore the emptiness here. I paused at the door when I saw Mr. Mutou slide his shoes off. Guess I should remove my boots. I so hope I won't be going back and forth from here to elsewhere. I had to lace up my boots, couldn't just slide them on and off. I set them beside the door before padding over the carpet and sitting on the couch he motioned to. Wonder how I was going to end up spending the day, and why he was being so nice if he knew I hadn't come in through normal travel. Did he perhaps know more than he let on...?
"What would you like to drink?" he asked again.
"Oh! Sorry, um water is fine with me," Sarah answered as Mr. Mutou filled the glass.
"I trust you'll be alright if I leave you up here for most of the day?" he inquired as he handed her the glass.
"Thank you. I should be, if I can keep myself busy with something," she replied as she took the glass.
"Paper and pencils are a start. I doubt television will do if you can't understand the main language spoken here."
"I'll probably watch anyway, sometimes it's really amusing to watch when you can't understand what is being said. But paper and pencil would be nice. I could doodle if all else fails," she shrugged.
"I'll see what we have, and after that if you need me I'll be downstairs. Oh, I almost forgot. If you get hungry help yourself to what we have."
Free range, huh? That means I should be extra careful, I'm not doing something that will put me on a guilt trip or something. I get to entertain myself for a full day, this should be fun. Hm, if there was such a thing as a sarcasm meter I bet that comment would have blown it up. And if I'm still around when Yugi gets home, won't that be interesting. As long as I don't develop a fan-girl attitude, I should be fine. Must act like I don't know him either. Now, onto the most important question of the moment, what do I draw?
At some point in the morning I ended up falling asleep on the couch, had the crap scared out of me when Mr. Mutou woke me up. He apologized a couple hundred times then offered to take me to lunch. I tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted. Guess the old guy got lonely during the day without Yugi around. I know the shop was fairly active, had heard folks trickle in and out before I fell asleep. I asked about the shop and he chuckled before telling me that being the owner and the only present worker, he could close it down when he wished. Now was just for lunch, and he insisted I join him. Said I could see a bit of the city, might help me remember how I got there. You know, that got me thinking. I bet he's relating this all to some weird case of amnesia. I guess that works. Ah well, lunch was interesting. The area was a bit of a culture shock, then again you travel from one part of the States to another and you get a mild one. Got one when I traveled up north to see my boyfriend. This was bigger, however, being in a whole other country and all. I had no idea if the prices I saw on things were good or not, exchange rates were lost on me. I was ever so thankful to have Mr. Mutou there to translate and speak for me, I felt like, well, like such a tourist. We got back to the game shop and I decided to sit with him at the sales counter as I absently drew dragons. Not my first choice of subjects, but I really didn't feel like drawing any of my characters and explaining them. After a while, Mr. Mutou brought out a few cards with dragons on them. He wondered if I would be willing to draw them, he'd love to hang them up on the walls in the store. I so wished I had my colored pencils, those expensive kind that look like paint when used kind. Not watercolor, a thick rich lead with wax in it. Oh well, perhaps color would only give him the idea I could render things fully and I'd get stuck drawing a lot. He was nice and all, but I don't think I like the idea. I watched customers come and go, was told I had compliments on my drawings, couldn't understand a word folks said so I just took Mr. Mutou's word for it.
"Yugi will be home shortly. He doesn't really speak English, a few words but you won't be able to carry on a conversation with him," Mr. Mutou stated once the latest customer had departed, they were in a school uniform and had a bike waiting outside; so school was out and it was just a matter of time before his grandson would walk in.
"That's alright," Sarah waved. "As you know by now I'm not really talkative myself."
Mr. Mutou chuckled and shook his head. "Yugi can be a regular chatterbox, he'll be disappointed to not be able to understand you. I'm sure he'll enjoy your art and will want to talk about it. Oh, and he always brings a few friends with him. Anzu, Honda and Jounouchi."
"I can pronounce the first two, but as for the third, eh, that won't be so easy."
I knew the three as Téa, Tristan and Joey. The overwhelming urge to just use Joey instead of the long name which I would horribly mangle wouldn't be ignored. Well, I was pretty sure I could handle Jou, but would he allow such a shorthand version? Guess I'd find out. Mr. Mutou was right, it couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes since he said Yugi would return. The short teen was in front, he gave me a funny look as he noticed I was behind the counter and his grandfather was nowhere around. I felt extremely awkward and shuffled off to the store room behind me and told Mr. Mutou they had company.
The old man's face lit up as he emerged from the backroom and greeted the four teens, Sarah stood awkwardly at the door, leaning on it's frame. She knew the conversation had turned to her when she picked her name up. Honda tilted his head to the side as he regarded the pale woman as Jou pointed to her chains and said something to the others, it elicited a harsh glare from Mr. Mutou and a slight chuckle from Anzu.
"Sarah," Mr. Mutou announced as he turned around. "This is my grandson Yugi," he smiled as he motioned to the boy. Yugi smiled warmly and offered his hand, Sarah hesitated then took it. The youth shook it and cheerfully said something Sarah couldn't understand. "This is Anzu Mazaki, Hiroto Honda and Katsuya Jounouchi," Mr. Mutou said as he pointed to each person. She got a nod from Honda and Jou only cocked his head to the side. Anzu had a totally different reaction, however.
"So you speak only English?" the brunette asked the young woman.
"Yeah," Sarah blinked, Anzu had taken her by surprise.
"I'm hoping to go to New York to study dance, so I've been studying English to better fit in," she smiled.
"Oh, thank you. I don't feel so out of place now that two can understand me," Sarah replied.
"Plus, it's really fun to make the others think you're talking about them when you aren't," Anzu giggled as she pointed to Jou, Sarah laughed as well. Jou didn't find it funny and began to raise his voice, Sarah took it that he was demanding to know what had been said.
A surprised expression from behind her made Sarah turn. Yugi was holding up the drawings, he pointed to the ones that had been based on images from the cards. It sounded like a question, and when Mr. Mutou answered and pointed to Sarah, she knew just what had been said. She quickly tucked the pencil into her pocket, not quite sure she wanted to be caught "red handed." Yugi passed the paper along to the others who all looked back up at Sarah.
"Have you thought of going into art?" Anzu asked as she got her hands on a Blue Eyes White Dragon picture.
"I was going to be an animator, but I dropped out when the program moved too fast and was too stressful. Was a two year program for computer animation. The weight of everything really took it's toll on me, I had a nervous breakdown and a near heart attack, so I moved back home," Sarah shrugged. She'd told the story many times before, at first it had been hard. But eventually she got over it.
"Oh, I'm sorry. What do you do now?" the brunette asked as she collected the other drawings and looked before handing them to Sarah.
"I... do nothing. I'm lost," she bit her lip.
"It just takes time, don't worry," Mr. Mutou spoke as Anzu nodded her agreement. A cough from Honda reminded them that there were three other persons around who couldn't understand a thing.
"One more thing, where are you from? Your accent sounds familiar," the girl asked.
"Texas, central part," Sarah replied.
"Oh dear, don't let Jounouchi know or he'll harass you with stereotypical southwest expressions. It's about all the English he knows. Bet he doesn't know what they mean either."
"I do say y'all a lot, but that's about it," Sarah admitted. That go Jou's attention, suddenly he grabbed the young woman's hands and said the one thing Sarah wanted to hit him for.
"Howdy, pardner!" the blonde boy said with a huge grin. He let her hands go and laughed hysterically, a slap to the chest from Anzu shut him up though.
"Told you so."
"Guess I got myself into that one."
Oh, I so hope he's not going to be doing that a lot. Otherwise I'll walk my happy ass out the door and just walk. Don't know where, but I'll do it. Maybe I'll pop him one first, I don't know. I just hate the stereotypical things. So help me, he pulls out a cowboy hat I'll ram the damn thing over his head and eyes. As long as he didn't tease me about where I was from, he was fine by me. A tugging on my short sleeve got my attention. It was Yugi, he pointed to his favorite card, the Dark Magician and then held up a piece of paper. I knew where this was going, and those big violet eyes wouldn't let me say no. Sure enough, Mr. Mutou confirmed what I had been thinking. I accepted and prepared to be asked to draw everyone's favorite card. Yugi eagerly lead me and the others up to the living quarters. While they all got books out for homework, I got started on the picture Yugi had requested. His card had shown a good deal of wear on it, I bet others in his deck looked the same. It was only the edges that were worn, everything else was perfect. Yugi insisted on hovering over my shoulder half the time to watch. Oh I hate that, but I always try not to say anything. Unless it's family, then I bop em with the pencil and turn around. But wait, didn't Yugi have homework to do? I turned around and pointed to the book he had abandoned, the boy gave a sheepish look and toddled back over to where his friends sat. Jou made a comment which got a snicker from Honda and a puzzled look from Anzu. I assumed Jou was making some childish comment and paid it no mind.