Disclaimer: I don't own YGO, plain and simple.
D/N: What the crap? I already uploaded this last week! O.o Damn Fanfiction, deleting my stories... AND I missed getting the next chapter of Valentine's Day up for yesterday. Great... Well... whatever. Whoo! Typer Shark is one annoying game, I'll tell you that! Anyway, here is your second chapter for your own enjoyment! A short little blurb right now, because I'm tired and my mother just introduced me to the world of 'sugar-free', low-calorie brownies that she made for herself and her co-workers. What a bleak and dreary place that must be. I couldn't eat one, and I love candy. Really, it's amazing I'm so thin. (Eriso: The way you eat, it's going to catch up with you and smack you hard.) Yeah, probably, but like I say, "I ain't fat yet!"
PEOPLE! Let me know the names of the characters in Dawn of the Duels! O.o All I have is Pharaoh Yami! That's it!
Reviews, Reviews, I Love Reviews, Just Not Sugar-Free Brownies:
Anaraz: Ahahaha! You wanna hit him? Go ahead! I'll even supply you with the bull's-eye! /Hands over a fancy bull's-eye/ This should be good!
Alex: Oh, wow, child! I don't even know where to begin, I'm that flattered. I just hope you know that because of you my parents and brother hate me because I won't shut up about your review or stop dragging them down to the computer, pointing and screaming, "Hahahaha! See? I'm loved! I'm loved!" I've been giggling about it all week, so now my friends think I'm a freak too... U.U Don't worry about not reviewing my other stories - (Eriso: You were doing so well! What happened?) ... ... (Eriso: Right. I'm not in this.) Like I was saying, don't worry about it because this totally makes up for it! I adore long reviews, and especially ones that give me nice, warm fuzzies in my heart. Everyone else hates the side effects that are inevitably spawned, but their opinions don't really match mine, so it's all good. I'm so happy that you were actually able to come up with some great things to compliment me with - God, could I come out sounding anymore narcissistic? - because I really love reading them! /insert overly-excited squeal here./ Really, I could go on all day agreeing with you about how fabulous I am - Wonderful. Isn't one of the seven deadly sins 'vanity'? - and profusely thanking you for recognising my greatness - Right. Straight to Hell, though I'm pretty sure I've already got a one-way ticket there for writing this thing... - but Typer Shark has messed up my typing abilities. Wow, I hate those little piranhas. I can type out the words fast, but I can't seem to get the single letters... Anyway, I probably shouldn't keep prattling on, but you've definitely got my extreme note of gratitude for your kind words, and I can only hope that I've met your standards with this chapter and every chapter yet to come. Gravyness... I've begun giggling again... Joey's my favourite too - in case you haven't guessed - and don't worry about dear Kaiba! He'll be getting a pretty important role later on. Not yet, of course, because we're not at that point yet, but later for sure. Soooo... It's Priest Seth, is it? Great to know! Let me know what other names I'll need to know later on - like... all of them. O.o - because I'm pretty sure I'm going to be getting a long list of people saying, "YOU'RE CALLING THEM THE WRONG NAME, GENIUS!" So, I'll let your eyes stop bleeding from having to read this idiot reply, and I'll apologise for not being able to separate it into paragraphs. I don't do that with responses because... because. Yes. Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and thanks a bunch!
R.F.K.a.'...': Bwuahaha, yes, I've been thinking about this story for a long time, but I've never actually been able to figure out how to write it with an actual plot or an explanation of how on Earth Joey got into the past or whatever, so having it as a sequel to O.D.a.M really helped out! Gerbils... hmmm... I could use gerbils... hmmmmmmmmm... But wait! Then you'll know what's coming! No, no, no, I will use... dark... shadowy... things to stalk you for the time being, and then my latest minion recruits shall attack! Ahahahahahahha! ... Yeah, I should write a book. O.o And start updating. God, when's the last time I updated Valentine's Day? Months ago! That's not good...
Jenn120: Ahh, a newcomer! Thanks, and enjoy the chapter!
OooOOOooOThe sun's reflection stabbed at Joey's eyes as he looked out at the sandy horizon. Not surprisingly, it bore a remarkable resemblance to Razatul's realm. The yellow-gold sand, the various hills, the... sand. Yes, those two worlds sure had a lot of sand. ... And apparently ancient, smelly, Egyptian guys who hated him, that was a shared trait too. No, one just couldn't forget about the obscene amounts of hate that just happened to be continually directed to him...
Not long into the lengthy walk around the ridiculous number of tents in the middle of the desert, Joey and 'his' brother happened upon a group of men just as scruffy, smelly and badly dressed as the first.
It wasn't a pleasant realisation that the only one who wasn't glaring viciously at him was the oldest and most frail in the bunch.
The wrinkled old man flashed him a crinkled, yellow-toothed smile as he came closer, his hands behind his back and clutching, Joey guessed, his gift. Oh well. He'd deal with the putrid stench these guys gave off as long as he got something good out of it.
"Joseph, my dear son," The old man rasped, as the two finally stood in front of him. "I am glad to see that Levi brought you here quickly." He gave an appreciative nod to the man who had slinked off into the group of other smelly men as soon as he got had reached them. The look in his - the newly introduced Levi's - eyes suggested that he would have liked a slightly longer praise.
Instead, the old man turned back to Joey, his crinkled, grey and black, striped robes seeming to be the only thing keeping the guy standing up. "Joseph, I have made for you a new coat of pure, incomparable beauty. For days I worked, stringing together cloths of immaculate elegance, and now I give it to you with the hopes that you would wear it like the light of my life that you are."
'Well, no wonder these guys hate me...' Joey thought to himself while anxiously glancing out the less-than-pleasant looks that the rest of his brothers were giving him. Aloud he said, "Oh. Okay, great. Thanks."
His father smiled again, bringing the coat of 'immaculate elegance' from behind his back. "To you, my son. A coat of the kings, one even the Pharaoh would praise."
"He would stop and stare..."(1) One of the brother muttered, in awe-inspired annoyance.
Joey looked down at the coat, and the coat looked back at him with brilliant colours of red, yellow, green, brown, scarlet, black, something that sounded like 'poker', peach, ruby, olive, lilac and... well, various others he was too lazy to identify and that I was too lazy to type. (2) Moments passed as Joey studied the clothing, feeling it move against its fingers and generally to distract himself from the waves of hate that couldn't have been more obvious if they strapped signs and rude gestures to the waves... or something. (3)
The seams of the coat were invisible, having been crafted with such a grace that made the colours blend into one another in a way reserved for the light spectrum. It shined in the sunlight, the more expensive colours shimmering, and the long, perfectly hemmed sleeves had such a simple yet stunning design that left the mind wondering how such a delicate piece of artwork was ever crafted by mortal hands.
At least, that was how it looked to the people of yesteryear.
To Joey, it looked kind of... tacky.
"Uh... wow, thanks. You shouldn't've done it... father." Joey said, weakly. He wasn't actually expected to walk around in this, was he? His clothes sucked enough, and had enough fleas in them without having to bring more inevitably hiding in this junk.
The old man beamed, before grabbing Joey in a hug that nearly crushed the life out of him. "Oh, I had to, my son! Your mother, before she died, was my favourite wife of all. You remind me of her, Joseph. You are a child of my old age, and I am more than happy to give you this."
"Wow," Joey said again, wheezing as breath escaped him. "That's great." His mind was start to slow and the world grew a bit darker, but somehow the thought, 'Dude had four wives!' managed to make its presence known.
Finally, his father released him, stepping back excitedly. "Well, Joseph, try it on! Let's see how it fits!"
"Yes, Joseph," the largest of the Smelly Man Brigade said, his voice edged with a dangerous amount of ice. "Let's see how you look in your new coat."
"Ah..." Joey replied, his hands tightening around the robes, "I'd... kinda... rather not try it on right now..."
"Nonsense," Another said, as he and another rushed forward, yanking the robe out of his hands and forcing him into it. It was a wonder it didn't tear. "There. Don't you look stunning."
"You look like a gift from Heaven," The old man said, his eyes welled up with tears.
Joey couldn't help but let loose a smug grin. "A gift from Heaven, huh? Well, I always knew I was gorgeous, but it's nice to hear other people say..." He trailed off, his eyes accidentally slipping from his father and landing on his brothers. "Uh... thanks. I... appreciate it."
The old man smiled again, and nearly a half hour of praising every aspect of the blond and commenting on how much he looked like his mother later, finally took leave.
His brothers did not follow him.
"So, Joseph," One told him, walking up to Joey's side and picking up a clump of the fabric. "You have a new coat now, do you?"
"... Uh... yeah," Joey said slowly, leaning away as inconspicuously as possible. "Yeah, I guess I do. But I'm sure yours is... on its way. I mean," He laughed a bit. "The guy didn't just make one for me. You're his sons too!"
"Really." A brother replied flatly. "It seems like he only has one son nowadays."
"Oh - come on," Joey told them, adding in a nervous laugh that died quickly. "When someone's got twelve kids, they don't forget 'em. He's... probably just makin' yours now. He only wanted to make mine first because... uh... because-"
"Because you're the favourite." The largest griped.
It was around this point in time that Joey realised he was a bit surrounded.
"Yeah, well, that's great, glad you all know it too, I'm just gonna... uh... go back to my - tent." Joey said, quickly pushing through the wall before nearly running back in the direction he came from.
And to top it all off, Joey made an astounding discovery. There were fleas in this colour-explosion-gone-wrong.
OooOOOooOFinding his way back to the tent he woke up in was harder than he thought, mostly due to the fact that they all looked exactly the same. He managed it in the end, however. His was the largest.
"It's like that old geezer wants me to die." Joey muttered, walking in. He considered flopping down on the 'bed' again, but one look made him prefer standing.
He let out a long sigh, looking around the tent's inside. It was quite empty, save for the small rug on the ground, makeshift table and chair, and, of course, the bed. It wasn't exactly the most cosy place on Earth, but he'd lived through worse. After a long period of studying the chair intently, Joey finally deemed it safe enough to sit on and take out the jewel Tartra had given him.
Staring into it again, he was slightly encouraged by the swirling smoke-stuff that appeared again, followed by the overly happy, overly airy voice of the time mage herself.
"Hey, hey, it's the coat-wearing Joey!" Tartra greeted him. He imagined her bubbling with energy, her blue ponytail shaking with excitement and joy. "Glad to hear from ya so soon, kid! So, how'd it go?"
"The coat thing?" Joey grumbled. "You knew about that, huh?"
"Uhm... what part of 'I've already seen the world take place' doesn't click in, child? I've seen your past self get the coat already. Anyway, that wasn't what I was talking about. How'd your brothers take it?"
Joey let out a low groan, letting his head fall to the table with a loud plunk. "You mean after they were glarin' at me and wishin' I was dead while I was gettin' the stupid, horrible, hideous coat from my 'dear, old dad', or after they surrounded me and started broadcastin' how much they hated me?"
"Neither! I meant how your brothers took the whole dream thing." She paused for a moment. "You... told them about the dream... right?"
"Yeah, I was gonna tell a bunch o' big, angry guys that there was this super-cool dream I had when you knocked me out about corn and stars." Joey said, rolling his eyes. "I don't want them to start plottin' to kill me."
"You idiot! Of course you do! That's the whole point of telling them the dream! So they finally snap and drag you away to die!" Tartra shrieked, somehow still clinging onto a joyous demeanour through her sudden horror. "You've got to go back out there, tell them and get those hairy siblings of yours to kill you!"
"I wanna do what? Tartra, you're not serious, are you?" Joey got out, separating his words with little gasps of shock. When the girl was silent, Joey said, "Why, exactly, do I wanna die?"
"Silly, you don't die. They don't actually kill you. They just sell you off to slavery."
"Oh, well - slavery. Why didn't you say so?" Joey replied, his grip on the blue gem tightening. "Shall I bind myself now or will they take care of it for me?"
"They've got ropes, so no sweat." Tartra chirped back.
"I was bein' sarcastic!"
"Were you? Well, nevermind. That's beside the point." Tartra said. "The point is that you need to go and tell your brothers about that dream. It's the straw that breaks the camel's back. It's the grain of sand that tips the scale. It's the drop that fills the glass. It's the-"
"Okay, okay!" Joey cried, before sighing and staring at the gem in frustration. "You promise that if I go and tell these guys about that stupid little dream I had, and after they come and kill me, that I'm not gonna die?"
"Mmm... sure! I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die! ... Oops! I guess that wasn't sending out the right message, was it?"
"Tartra..."
"Alright, fine, seriously." She paused to clear her throat, giving Joey the idea that she was trying to be businessy. She spoke again, slower, and putting more emphasis on each word. "I, Tartra, guarantee that you, Joseph Wheeler, will not die when your brothers come to kill you, and will instead be shipped off to slavery in Egypt." She finished, giggling hysterically. "Wow, that was so serious! I sounded just like Trawmi there! Anyway, you're satisfied then?"
"Not really..." Joey muttered.
"Well, that beats a 'no'. Alright then, budderino! Get that cattle drive a'movin'!" And with that, the smoke cleared from the inside of the gem, and she was gone.
The blond continued to stare at the gem, as if expecting her to sudden come back and say that she figured out a different route to Egypt. She didn't, naturally, so Joey let out a disgruntled... grunt, stood up, and walked out of the tent.
"I couldn't just walk to Egypt?"
OooOOOooO"Hey... guys..." Joey said, quite stupidly. Once more he was in front of the Band of Brothers sitting together on long benches. Almost at once he began awkwardly sizing them up and wondering if now was a good time to suddenly realise that listening to a possibly deranged blue-haired, overall clad, random attacking girl wasn't exactly the smartest thing in the world.
Eleven sets of piercing, far-from-happy eyes locked onto him, the annoyance tearing their attention away from their food not helping matters.
"You?" One said, harshly. "What do you want?"
"Ah... I... just thought... we could... y'know... talk." Joey replied. 'Probably shoulda left the coat behind.'
The man snorted, before turning to one of his left. "Asher, tell me I am not dreaming. Did he just ask to talk with us?"
"Shall I pinch you, Naphtali?" Asher said, reaching an arm out.
"I do not think that will do it." Naphtali shook his head, his black bread speckled with flecks of food. "This is just too much for me to handle. Our dear dreamer has decided to speak with us humble folk." The other laughed loudly as he began pretending to swoon.
"Ha, ha, ha... yeah..." Joey said, cautiously taking a step forward. Right, it was time to do this thing. His past self must've done this lots of times, otherwise they wouldn't have been calling him 'dreamer' and such. Alright... so... just tell them. What was the worst they could do, anyway? Tartra said they weren't going to kill him. Of course, 'vicious mauling' didn't exactly fall under the category of 'killing', did it? "So... uh... Hey, I had a really weird dream last night."
The replying chorus of frustrated groans wasn't too encouraging.
"Alright, fine." The largest said, staring at him intently. "Tell us. Just what did you dream about this time?
He needed much more than just a deep breath, but seeing as how it was all Joey had right now... "Okay, well... it was kind of weird, y'know?"
"You told us that already." A small one said, annoyance written all over his face.
"Now, now, Benjamin," The largest said, continuing to watch Joey with an amused face. "Let him speak his piece."
"Right... well... Okay, it started off with us bein' in this field of corn. We were... choppin' it down and then we started tyin' it up, but then the sheaves that I was tyin' up just stood straight up in the air, and yours just came and kinda surrounded mine and bowed."
Murmurs of rising fury and increased annoyance greeted him as he finished, but no one stopped him immediately, so he went on.
"And then... there were like... eleven stars, the sun and the moon, and they all just started bowin' down to me-"
"Eleven!" One cried, jumping up out of his seat. "Eleven! What a strange coincidence that that is just the number of stars to represent us. Do you think yourself a king? A gift from God sent to rule over us?"
"Wha - no! No, no, no, it was just a dream!" Joey said, in a panicked voice. Forget Tartra and her 'they won't kill you' speech! Right now was the time to try and defuse the situation. This was going to be tricky. He wasn't used to stopping fights. "It was only a dream. It's not like it'll come true anyway! I just... I just thought you guys might wanna know, is all."
"You thought we would like to know that you dream of being higher than us?" Levi snapped, getting to his feet as well, the rest following suit. "Only a dream indeed! You will never become anything greater than what you are now - the favourite of our father, and even that may be short-lived!"
"Sit, Levi." The largest said in a firm voice.
"Sit? Reuben, he seeks to rule over-"
"There will be no threats to our brother while we are under our father's eyes." Reuben said, gesturing for him to sit once more.
Levi stared at him in shock and fury, but finally sat, muttering something that sounded to Joey like, "Then we'll wait until we are away from our father's eyes."
Reuben turned back to Joey, his voice grim and his hands clenched. "And you, Joseph, would be wise to keep your mouth free of any words like the ones you have spoken. Any dreams you have are just that - dreams. Keep them to yourself if you wish to go about freely."
"Sure..." Joey mumbled, his legs weakening. This was bad. They were going to kill him after all, weren't they? After muttering a quick apology, Joey slipped out of the tent opening once more, but not before catching the words of one of his 'brothers'.
"I tell you all, I have grown weary of his dreams. We should rid ourselves of them now."
Joey shook his head before wandering back to his tent, the darkness of the night blanketing him and the moon laughing. The stars definitely weren't bowing now.
Walking was definately still an open option.
OooOOOooOOOOOO
OOOOO
(1) - 'Cause you knew it was coming. (For those who've seen the musical.)
(2) - Another titbit for those who've seen the musical. In case you haven't, the singing people have this huge song about all the colours on Joseph's coat, and the chorus sings for like ten hours, 'It was red, yellow, green, brown, scarlet, black, poker (I think), peach, ruby, olive, lilac, gold, chocolate, azure, lilac, foal... I think they said green twice, I'm too lazy to remember, and silver and crimson and gold, I think they said twice, azure they said twice too, and lemon and something and something and purple and white and pink and orange and blue.' Yes... Well, now you know.
(3) - The train of thought is lost.
D/N: Another chapter done, another chapter up! Man, I have to start updating my other stories... I haven't touched Valentine's Day in forever, and it's only two days away! O.o I'll have to do something about that, and fast.