Disclaimers are the same throughout the story.
Really long Author's Note: (Skip if you want but no flame reviews if you do) I'm having a lot of fun writing this. I decided that eventually, I'd want to add in some sort of invisible love triangle, mostly because it is obvious that Jou is bi in this fic (if you couldn't tell from his obsession with his half-elven friends). After a lot of thought (But not too much!), I've decided on a rather wacky coupling, just because I felt like it. It works with at least…one of person's personalities. You'll see. Just don't worry, it's definitely JouxSeto!
As I stated earlier, Radiant Eclipse belongs to me. Later in this chapter, Seto explains why the name was chosen. This is exactly what I told my fellow guild mates before forming Radiant Eclipse as a co-leader on EverQuest. Therefore, RE is mine. Moltaenya DMagmus, Heretyc, and Demise are also mine.
Some info - This is an AU based on the second anime series (that means no Death-T or anything like that). Basically, I didn't want everyone to run to America, but another reason is to mess with the Japanese school year a bit. I knew that Japan greatly differed from US/Canada in terms of the school year, but I didn't want to make it seem too much like an American highschool. All I needed was the school year to end in the winter with a longer break - it's symbolic.
Vocab:
Solo: To be able to kill or hunt monsters single-handedly. Becomes increasingly difficult as a character's level raises (to put emphasis on forming groups in the online community). Some classes are more suited for soloing in certain areas.
Pulling: Luring monsters from their spawn or wandering points, to the group's location on purpose. A good "puller" can usually draw single monsters to a group without training them. The higher in level a character or a group is, the more difficult it is to kill a single monster. It is preferred to exterminate one at a time.
Nuke: To cast a high damage spell on a target. Wizards tend to have the most "Nukes" of any class.
Pet: A summoned disposable creature. It will aggro anything that attacks its master. If the master is attacking a creature, but the creature has a different character in its target, the pet will not attack unless commanded by the master. Summoning pets requires components.
Own(ed/age): A slang term (as opposed to lingo) used to describe how something was easily dominated. Simple and easy slaughter of something would be described as "Ownage". To be "Owned" means to have been easily defeated.
Dazzle: A spell that only enchanters have. It holds on most monsters, and renders them immobile for a specific time rate (ie 15 seconds, 30 seconds…it increases with level). Once "Dazzle" breaks, the monsters go after the enchanters, and enchanters are a very weak class that cannot take a beating and live. Dazzle can break when the time limit is reached, or when another character does damage to the dazzle monster.
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"Hey, get up lazy!"
Jounouchi opened his eyes slowly, trying to adjust to the daylight filtering into Yugi's bedroom. After yawning and sitting up, he noticed that Otogi was the one to wake him. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, and wearing all black. His headband was actually missing for once.
"So, Yugi slept next to you while you were just wearing your boxers?" Otogi remarked, staring at Jounouchi's bare chest.
"Uhmm… let me get washed up," he blushed, climbing out of bed and heading for a toothbrush. He returned two minutes later, to see that his friend was still sitting on the bed. He yawned, "Where's Yugi?" He searched for a pair of jeans, licking the toothpaste off the back of his teeth.
"He's helping out downstairs. Said it would be about an hour before he would be able to come back up," he stood from the bed, and walked toward the blonde, "Katsuya, we have to…talk."
"What's up?" There they were! He found a pair of jeans, crumpled in his bag. He reached down to grab them, but Otogi grabbed his wrist.
"I have…a slight crush on you," he admitted to Jou. Instantly, thoughts of "Duke" flew through his head. He even started to remember that dream he had.
"Umm…I'm not sure what ta say…" he replied. Otogi slipped his hands under Jounouchi's arms, startling him.
"You don't have to say anything," Otogi assured him, "Just do something to let me know what you think." He already had blonde hair running between his fingers, and his face was dangerously close to Jou's.
"Umm…why me?" was all that he managed to think of. Duke kept running through his head, playing that silly lute, and shaking that tone body around like nothing.
"You're so stupid that it's cute. And you seem like a lot of fun, so…" Jounouchi interrupted him with a kiss.
"I'm still mad about the dog suit," he pulled away to breathe, "And you know, you're a real playboy. I always thought you liked girls."
"I do," Otogi said, "And I always knew that you liked both."
"You did?" How could anyone have known his deepest secret?
"I mean, you practically drooled all over Bakura and I yesterday, not to mention that you totally wanted to glomp Kaiba during that last tournament." His deduction put Jounouchi in complete denial. Kaiba? What a jerk! How could their bitter hatred for each other be so misconstrued?
They kissed again, for five minutes straight. Hormones filled the room, and Jou was surprised that some sort of smoke detector hadn't been set off yet. He had his hands up the other boy's shirt, tracing imaginary lines around the muscles of his back.
"So, would you like to be my boyfriend, Katsuya?" Otogi asked during their second oxygen break.
A pang of guilt struck Jounouchi when he heard the official question. He had a sudden desire to turn on the computer and talk to Nymphe. He felt like he had cheated on her, even though they weren't even a couple. He gently pushed away from the slender boy and replied, "Lemme think about this, okay Ryuuji?"
"Sure," he grinned, leaving the room with a wave.
[A.N.- Tee hee!]
"OOPH!" Jounouchi sat straight up in bed. Yugi had plopped onto his stomach, waking him from his dream. He struggled to catch the breath that had been knocked out of him.
"Sorry, Jounouchi! I tripped on your bag and fell!" Yugi picked up his head from Jou's stomach, blushing.
"What is it?"
"Um…Jounouchi…" Yugi stared at him, "Was it a good dream?"
"Oh, hehe, yeah, it was…It…" he paused, realizing that his friend's stomach had landed right on top of… "Eerrr!!! Uhh…Yugi! It's not what you think…it's uhh." Jou continued to stutter, trying to explain to him that it was a dream, and not his presence in that area of his body, that made it do what it was doing.
"Sure," Yugi's voice deepened slightly, "I believe you, Jounouchi." The small body slid itself up so that they were face to face, and it was then that Jou knew Yami had taken over.
"Uhh…Yugi?" he stammered.
"I'm not Yugi," Yami said seductively, setting the Millenium Puzzle on the floor next to the bed. He pressed their chests together, and the cold metal of the buckles on Yugi's shirt made Jounouchi jump. He narrowed his sexy eyes at the blonde, and kissed him. Jou tried to struggle out of it, but for some reason, his legs would not move.
"Oh, no!" a girl called out. The two boys stopped kissing and looked over to the door, seeing a brunette in armor. Tears fell from her blue eyes, and she cried, "How could you, Joukatsu! I thought you loved me!"
Suddenly, Yami was on his feet, and holding a Dark Magician card up in the air. He summoned him, somehow, and the monster smacked Nymphe over the head, killing her. Nevaeh entered the room soon after, dangling the Millenium Ring from his fingers.
"Ah hah hah!" the dark knight laughed, "Finally! We can have Jounouchi all to ourselves! But first, let's play this shadow game!" The room filled with an eerie black mist, and now all three of them were in a huge bed. The boys began to fondle Jounouchi shamelessly, and Nymphe stood from her spot on the ground, and started to cry.
"AHH!" he yelled. He was still in Yugi's bed, and his scream woke him up.
The punky kid rubbed his eyes. He was still in his blue pajamas. Yawning, he looked at Jou and asked, "Did you have a bad dream?"
"Yeah, I guess it could be called that," Jou replied.
"Okay, well it's only six right now, we should get back to sleep." Yugi lifted his head and moved it from the pillow to his friend's chest, to comfort him from his bad dream, or at least that is what Jou believed. He was already sound asleep again.
It's been two weeks since Jounouchi has started playing the game. He and his friends were all level thirty, with the exception of Bakura and Otogi. Nevaeh was pushing thirty-eight, and Duke was at thirty-five. They were grouping together often lately. The group, which consisted of seven now since Nymphe had joined them regularly, was loafing around the town of Laen. Joukatsu and Renga each had full suits of chainmail armor, Joukatsu had green, and Renga brown. Zoerb and Teani had different staves, and their robes, while the same color, were far more embroidered than their beginner robes. The half-elves and Nymphe hardly changed their own look.
"We should start a guild, so we can kill the big monsters!" Yugi suggested. It was followed by several comments of agreement.
"Who should lead? The person who is the leader has to buy the guild charter from the NPC in town hall, and has to be able to lead anyone else who joins up," Otogi said.
"You should," Yugi said. Again, everyone else nodded in agreement.
"How flattering! An awesome guild with an absolutely stunning guild leader…" Otogi's bard began to run circles around the others.
"How about a name?" Jou asked. This was going to be the hard part.
"Triumph?" Anzu wondered.
"Nah…sounds too lame," Honda remarked, "What about Victory?"
"Templars of Death," Bakura stated. Everyone looked at him strangely.
"How…morbid," the enchanter commented.
"Radiant Eclipse." It was one of the few times that Nymphe actually spoke to anyone but Jou. No protests could be heard.
"Where did you get that from?" the blonde warrior asked his friend.
"There are so many power guilds out there, that all have the same goals, and achieve them in the same way…" the cleric explained, "It's time for a new power to rise, and accomplish feats in a way that hasn't been done before. This is the Eclipse. The period of darkness." Hearing the angelic voice speak in such a poetic form always made Jounouchi blush. Nymphe continued, "We are the brilliance...the radiance, in the darkness. With the passing of the Eclipse, comes change."
"Then it's decided," Otogi announced, "We are going to form the guild Radiant Eclipse. I'll go find that NPC, and everyone here will be officers once it's formed.
"We've finally made it to the bottom of this dungeon!" Yugi exclaimed.
They were in the pit of a dungeon known as The Fierce Tower of Sorcery. There were several levels, all of which had a mini-boss, and other named monsters which had their own quests or rare items attached to them.
"We barely survived that last fight," Bakura stated, "But at least we got a key and some armor." He strutted around, flashing his new black breastplate. The bard soon joined him, showing off his new white-feathered cape. They began doing circles arm-in-arm.
"You two really match now," Yugi sighed. The half-elves ignored him, and kept prancing around each other excitedly.
"Incoming," Honda announced, dragging a black robed wraith back to the group.
"Undead," Nymphe smirked, "My specialty." The cleric began to cast a spell, one which the group has never seen before. Red particle effects traveled from her fingertips and pierced directly into what would be the heart of the wraith. It was immediately done for.
"Wow, you nuked the crap out of that thing!" Yugi said. His friends looked at him in disbelief.
"Yeah, we could totally own this whole level!" Honda added, "Everything here seems to be undead!"
"My turn, pulling," Jounouchi announced.
"Pull five." Jou stopped. Did Nymphe just ask him to pull five on purpose? Everyone else seemed to be shocked as well. Nymphe stood solemnly; "Pull five. Don't worry." Okay, he knew that meant business. He trusted what she said, despite the pleas from the other group members.
"Better to be safe than sorry," Bakura said. His dark knight began to cast a spell, and he summoned a skeletal minion.
"Wow, I didn't know that dark knights could have pets!" Yugi said. Everything with him was amazement.
"You can be really creepy for a shy-guy," Anzu told the silver-haired boy.
"Incoming, five!" Jou announced. He was getting beat up pretty badly by these monsters. There were two green ghouls, two skeletal warriors, and one wraith. He kept his faith in Nymphe; he knew that she would heal him as soon as he came in range of the spell.
He ran, and ran, and ran. Finally, he caught sight of the group, and welcomed the heal. The heal that Nymphe never gave him. He stopped in the middle of the group, with very close to zero health points, and began fighting one of the ghouls.
"Aren't you going to heal him, Nymphe?" the enchanter asked heatedly. She was getting nervous, because her dazzle spells were not working.
"No." Instead, the cleric began casting another spell, and the undead around the group were slain.
"You really had me scared there," Jou typed in a personal message to his friend.
Nymphe tells you, 'I know, but you trusted me.'
"Yeah, I did," the blonde responded, "It was still scary."
Nymphe tells you, 'Don't worry. I will always protect you.'
"I'll protect you too," Jounouchi told her. It was truthful. He silently wished that he could be zapped into the dungeon, in place of his warrior, and take her off the some desolate zone, just to be alone with her for real.
"What was that?" Honda asked, referring to the massive slaughter of five highly dangerous monsters.
"It is what is known as an Area of Effect spell. This particular one works against undead only." Nymphe sat down to regenerate some magic energy, while taking in the praise from the crushing defeat of the undead.
"Let's do that again!" Honda suggested, as if anyone in the group had thought otherwise.
"I don't think so," a sultry female voice stated. The group looked up and saw two dark elf ladies standing back to back, with their arms folded triumphantly.
Both ladies were barely clad in very revealing black leather armor. Their characters appeared different from most dark elves, due to their black hair. Most dark elves had white hair.
"Who are you?" Otogi demanded, not bothering to look at his screen for the information like the rest of the group did.
One of the elves, who had crimson eyes, stepped forward and said, "I'm Moltaenya DMagmus, a warrior of flame. You may have heard of me before."
"I am the dark knight known as Heretyc," the one with the silver eyes informed them, "And your guild is cramping our space. We were here first, and we've already cleared to the master of this lair."
Nymphe tells you, 'I've heard of them on the message boards. Molt is the leader of a high-end guild known as "Demise", and Heretyc is the highest-ranking officer. Moltaenya was awarded her last name in server event. She's the only player on this server to have a title or last name.'
"Oh, she seems pretty stuck-up about it too," Jou replied, "I know a guy like that. He's a real jerk." Just thinking of Kaiba made him angry.
"Let's leave then, guys," Otogi commanded them, "I don't want to cause problems."
Seto was tired. It was already two in the morning. The erratic sleeping schedule that he was on was taking its toll on his body. He needed a break.
"I won't be online tomorrow," he told Jou, "I have to take a break." The two avatars weren't fighting. Instead, they were laying down, side by side, on the decline of a grassy hill in a very safe and empty area. It was also night time in the game. He changed the view to first person, and watched the sky above them. It was very well done, and looked so incredibly real.
"What's wrong?" the warrior asked him.
"I am wiped out from my sleep patterns," he admitted. He covered his mouth to yawn, and sat back in his chair. That was another problem; he found himself so engrossed in his laptop monitor that his back was hurting from poor posture.
"I hear ya," his friend agreed, "My back hurts a lot lately, and I'm waking up too late. I might go to the park tomorrow and relax."
"I might go to the local park as well. It's a good idea." Seto smiled.
"I'd miss ya if I went online anyhow." Someone would miss him?
"You…would?" the boy keyed back. It was a bit shocking, but at the same time, it was a very pleasing sensation. He knew that if it were the other way around, he would probably miss him as well.
"Yeah, Impy, I would." Joukatsu had started calling him Impy last week. He found it cute, even though it was very different from his actual character's name.
There were several minutes of silence. Kaiba had drifted off, half-asleep and day dreaming in his chair. He woke up when he heard Joukatsu's voice once again through the headphones.
"To tell you the truth…" there was a short pause, "I like you. So of course I would miss you."
Seto wasn't sure how to respond. His hands were shaking, though he would never admit to it if he was asked. He just stared at the screen blankly, trying not to pass out. He was dizzy.
"Um, Impy? Did I scare you? Are you there?"
"I'm…I'm here."
"It's sounds strange, but it's the truth," Joukatsu confessed, "It's almost the ideal way to find someone…You see a person for who they really are."
"You don't have to explain," he interrupted, "I know." Seto took a deep breath, and contemplated what he was going to say next. He badly wanted to return the words, but then what? And what would happen when Jou discovered that he was actually a man? He had never done this before. Perhaps it was time for him to come out of his shell.
"I like you too, Joukatsu." He had to type it three times before sending it. His fingers were shaking so much that he had made uncountable typographical errors.
"You're tired, I can tell."
"I really am, I should set up camp." Seto knew he wouldn't be able to sleep now. His heart ached to be held by his pixilated partner. It figures, that someone as cold as him would be cursed to fall for someone that he could never have. He would be reflecting on his life the entire night.
"Just wait a sec, I found a new emote." The blue-eyed boy changed his camera to third person perspective to watch the new animation. Joukatsu leaned in to Nymphe, and kissed her lightly on the lips.
Thank you to Seth-the-lonely-soul, mandapandabug, Casey Katemera, Drakemar, Elusia, Animefighter 6, Kioee Manioso, Glen, Cherry-Wolf, nasako, ColeyCarissa, BlingBling021, joey baby, Kumori Sakusha formerly Saelbu, and anyone else I've missed who reviewed.
To address some reviews specifically:
You'd think it would be obvious that one of them was the other! Later on, it goes into why that is (I've written up to Chapter 10 already...the fic may end up finishing off at Ch. 11). Look up the Japanese verb "Katsu" if anyone wants to find a good reason (Though it wasn't my original intention to have that happen).
As far as my warning at Ch. 1 goes - I placed that there for two reasons; 1) My stories end up being very dramatic as I like to torture my characters; 2) Have to warn the homophobes; 3) Wait for later chapters ;)