Uwah! Gomen nasai everyone! I may not be able to update for a while, so this is my apology chappy. At least you'll get to find out what Malik's problem is, yes? ^^;

Malik: Geh, she's making things up. I haven't got problems like that!

Urusai!

Seto: *cough* I'm doing the disclaimer. Megami doesn't remotely own Yugioh. Hell, she doesn't even own a car.

Urusai! ~.~ Seto doesn't love me... I'd better get back to working on the fic he stars in ^_^ Time for thank you's and reviews!

Reviews~

RBMIfan~ Yay! You're one of my regulars =D I don't know what a Mary Sue is, either... just that people don't like them much ^^; If you could plot with me on making a story that parallels with this one, I'll gladly try to write it ^^; contact me on e-mail or AIM

Jay Kamiya~ The fact that Yuugi thinks he's a good person? Well... with all that he's done to Yuugi, I imagine it would make him feel kind of guilty X-x; Maybe if he gets over his guilt it'll make him feel better, but... *shrug* He's so much fun when he's angsty =D (Malik: I am not!) I'm pretty sure he'll get better about his self esteem soon. ^^

imgonnakil~ Aiyaa, Chibi =D one of my chibis. I'm so glad you like this ^O^

starryeyz~ Ari~ ^O^ YES. Write me fluff! Onegai! *-* I lurv you Ari-chan~~ *pets the fluff pass you gave me* Mahaha

Escuro de la Lus~ ^_^ you don't have to wait now! -^^-

Sherry-chan~ Did the little arrow thing cut you off? =D; Kaiba's Oracle isn't over by far. I've got piles of fanfics with Oracle in them that I just haven't gotten up yet! ^^ Twisting Plans has Oracle as one of the main characters, it's kind of interconnected with KO too =D Dunno that this fic will have a plot, but I'm going to try to bring one in somehow! It's basically just a character pice. ^^;

Just Ego~ *points to law* see? Right there? It says you've got to log in! =D I rarely log in for reviews anymore. It's kind of silly, though, because you can track what you're reading and see if it's updated if you review it ^_^

Elfy-Girl-Juniper~ Sexy! I get cookies! ^O^

benign sadist~ Unfortunately, in the series, Malik doesn't show his compassionate side until right before he gets taken out =_= He seems like such a jerk but he's got great reasons! (Malik: Bah.)

Takuro~ Malik needs to open up sometime =D The shrinks at my past two schools have both said that writing is the best way to get things off of your chest. Or drawing. Malik seems like the type of person who would have to let it out sometime, and as long as he's under an assumed name in a scenario like an online journal where no one could find him unless they really tried, I think he would open up quite a bit. The problem with giving him more energy is that he doesn't seem to have much of it very often. He's the kind of person (or at least, I think) that doesn't want to get too involved in anything. I'm going to have to twist reviews around a bit so that he can respond to them later on, but he'll probably have a lot to say on the subject! ^^

@#$&! Ten reviews this time! ^O^ I am so flattered, none of you have any idea. ^----^

~*Saturday, June 21: MVP~

Found out a lot about my mother today. Mama is a subject we rarely talk about here in the Ishtal house, simply because 'neesan and Rishido are the only ones who remember her at all. And it isn't like I've got Da' to tell me (oh, and whose fault is it? Gee, I wonder...). So I sit and don't know anything, and Rishido and 'neesan never say anything either. I guess they must think that I'll be "upset" by it or something... But you don't need to know about that just yet. Why don't we set the stage for our story first, mm?

'Neesan made me go along with her to the museum for a tour. Some idiot was sick today, so I hadto fill in for him. At any rate, a blonde brat with a teddy bear (oh I hope I never have to see that annoyance again... I'd probably kill her. Seriously.) comes along and starts bragging about her ojiichan's archaeology work and such. Lots of stupid stuff like that. We were going through Pharaoh's tomb replica and she had the stinking nerve to ask wether I'm actually an Egyptian or not. The conversation started something like this:

"Hey, guide! How do you know all of this stuff? You clearly aren't an Egyptian. They haven't got purple eyes and bleached hair! You look like a surfer-boy!"

This is one of the things I do not like hearing. I do not look like a "surfer-boy", I look like a blonde Egyptian. (And, according to that crazy MaicoGreywords girl, I'm quite the sexy blonde Egyptian. I think American girls have some serious vision problems.) But, being the calm, mature, under-surveillance-of-'neesan adult that I am, I gave her the best answer that I could: "I know more Egyptian curses than you can count. Don't make me use them." Or rather, something along those lines with a bit more cursing in Arabic. I had no idea that it was so useful to know more than one language. Evidently, knowing conversational French, English, Japanese, Arabic, and Ancient Egyptian, really is some sort of feet.

Anyhow. We continued along inside the tomb replica and came to our house. Yes, we lived in a connection of the Pharaoh's tomb to protect it. 5,000 years of sitting there. Bleck. (Is bleck a word?) Just like our home, it had a feeling of darkness and dampness. For those of you who haven't come and seen our exhibit, it's basically a bunch of stone walls with carvings on them, some pillars, doorways, the modern things that Da' brought down from the real world: lanterns, tables, books, pens... and stacks upon stacks of scrolls. It looks like 'neesan brought a lot of stuff with her from home. The room where we kept the Sen'en Rod and Tauk was a "run around and play with things" room. Consequently, that is also the room that I murdered Da' in. Greaaaaaaaat. One of the demon children got a "cling to the guide" movement started, and I got piled on. Next to the pillar Shaadii appeared at. I don't remember much after that--just that the next thing I knew was that I was in 'neesan's office being fanned with paperwork.

She asked me why I had started screaming about Da' in Arabic and why I'd fainted. It scared a lot of the kids. Oh yeah--I was going to tell more about why I faint, wasn't I? Hmm... Well, I've got a heart condition. Not life threatening or anything (although I'm sure lots of people would like that, wouldn't they?) but it's there. It's called Mitral Valve Prolapse. Pretty simple, really--It's a heart condition where the left side of your heart doesn't pump blood right. There are these little flap things that close--your valves. And they're like fringe. One or two of mine don't close properly, so when I get blood pumped into my heart, some of it leaks back out. Therefore, I don't get enough blood, not enough oxygen to the brain, and then I pass out sometimes. Being dehydrated makes this worse. Caffeine makes you dehydrated.

I like coffee.

In a nutshell, if my heart races a lot of times I faint. (Unless I've eaten a bunch of salt. That holds water in and I can't get dehydrated. Woot!) In the most recent case, I fainted because I saw all the images of my dad's death and Rishido's near death flashing before my eyes and got terrified. The children piled on me felt like Da's body, and I honestly expected Shaadii to appear in front of me and tell me that Pharaoh had willed his death. And I felt my fear come back to me, and I swear I could feel Yami no Malik back inside of me... And then I couldn't see. And I blacked out.

The worst thing about that is that when one's yami possesses them against their will, the omote will not get to see anything that happens. It's exactly like fainting. You can't see anything, you can't feel anything, and you wake up later with a big gap in your memory. Ryou has confirmed this for me.

Oh, silly me, a lot of you haven't heard of yami's or omote's. In my case, a yami was a darker soul created out of my hate for my father and myself and Pharaoh. (I think) because of the scars on my back and the magic in the ritual, the hate was able to manifest itself. Or maybe it was a spirit like the other Sen'en item holders have? I really do not know. I never asked.

How does this all relate to mama? Well, she had the same heart condition as I do. I think. When we went to the hospital about it and they asked about my symptoms, Rishido said that mama had the same sort of thing. Maybe that's partly what killed her.

...

Wow that was a long post. I'm going into hiding now. Next post should be about these review-type-things I'm getting tacked to my journal... I'll touch base on the stuff I promised to respond to, also. Just a sort of catch up. Dunno if I should have said most of what I have so far...

~*To be continued*~

^_^ I'll probably write a few more entries in my binder and type them up when I'm allowed back on the computer. Don't worry, you won't be forgotten! =D

Translation & Notes~

ojiichan~ grandpa. ^^; It's a mix between being formal and informal.

MVP~ Mitral Valve Prolapse is a real heard condition. I think one in eight people have it, too, so it isn't like I'm giving Malik a horribly rare disease. I don't know that he's got it, or any disease for that matter... but I like making pretties suffer sometimes. (And the information on it is all true--I've got the blasted thing =_=)

omote~ In Japan, it's 'omote' (front) rather than 'hikari' (light). ^^ Earlier Malik said 'hikari', but he's just making a slip up. I doubt the characters actually know what to call themselves, seeing as no one actually calls Yami no Yuugi or Yami no Bakura that aside from the author.

Malik's mommy~ she died during childbirth ;-; very sad. But they don't say why she died exactly, just that she did. MVP is hereditary, I think, so I figure he could have gotten it from her. That does not mean, however, that Isis has it... it's not one of those dominate trates.