This image would not leave my head.

I had to do it. Welcome back to the madhouse.

That is all.


.


"Uh . . . not that I'm specifically complaining or anything, but . . . um?"

Mokuba didn't have to turn around to know what Yugi was going to ask him about, or to know why his voice was so hesitant—and yet, tinged with laughter. He set down his flute of champagne and rolled his shoulders; it was a nervous tic at this point, something of which he wasn't even conscious anymore.

"Ain't you underage?" Joey chided; he was the only one that was let into the convention hall without a tie. Apparently even the men working the door realized that trying to make Joey Wheeler dress in a full suit was a lost job. As it was, the blond was making do with slacks, a button-down shirt, and motorcycle boots.

The closest thing to dress shoes that he apparently owned.

Yugi had at least tried to adhere to the dress code, though when pressed on why he'd elected for a bowtie of all things, he'd simply shrugged and said, "Bowties are cool."

Nobody else seemed to understand why Mokuba found that so absurdly funny.

"Shut up," Mokuba said, returning to the moment. "It's a social thing. I'm expected to drink. Besides, you try raising that boy and still play designated driver."

"Aw, c'mon," Joey said, laughing as he glanced somewhere outside Mokuba's field of vision. "He's your baby brother. You know you love 'im."

Mokuba smirked. "I do. He's the pride of my life. But that doesn't mean I don't need to drink in order to deal with him."

"Better watch it, there, Kaiba. CPS might take issue with talk like that."

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay. Let them try to do something about it, then."

Yugi, adjusting his cool bowtie, was laughing. "I'm not sure why we're expected to dress up for this. I mean, it's still about games, isn't it? I would have expected, given Mister Crawford's penchant for insanity, that he wouldn't dictate this kind of formalwear. I mean, really."

The thought had crossed Mokuba's mind, too, why Pegasus Crawford would have any reason to insist upon formal dress for his latest Magic & Wizards conference. The elder Kaiba was no stranger to wearing a three-piece suit to discuss games, but the elder Kaiba wasn't Pegasus Fucking Crawford, the industry's resident Class Clown.

"Tell ya what, though," Joey put in, "fact that everybody's all dolled up definitely makes him stand out."

Mokuba finally found himself unable to look away anymore, and turned to follow his friends' collective attention.

Seto Kaiba, standing ramrod straight so that he'd appear as tall as his four-foot frame would allow him, was standing by the food. He was particularly infatuated with the shrimp cocktail.

He was dressed in hand-tooled animal-skin pants and boots, a long white-and-blue coat with a peaked hood, leather bracers, various feathers and ornaments, and more than a few weapons could be seen on his person. Blunted weapons, to be sure; his hatchets and daggers weren't sharp enough to cut through bread.

But, weapons all the same.

"Isn't that the dude from Assassin's Creed?" Joey asked. "Is that who he's dressed up as?"

"The third one, specifically," Yugi said. "Connor."

"He wanted to be festive," Mokuba said, "since it's so close to Thanksgiving."

"So he dressed up as a Mohawk assassin from the American Revolution?" Yugi asked incredulously.

". . . Yes."

Joey snickered. "Fuckin' love that little snot."


.


Something to note for this AU of mine. One, I do have a full story in mind for it, but it's not ready yet. So, to kind of work out the kinks on it, I'll be returning to the Elder Mokuba/Little Seto dynamic every so often in this story, in much the same way most of the story takes glimpses at the larger "Good Intentions" universe.

Assassin's Creed III stars Connor, or Ratonhnhaké:ton, a Native American assassin of the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) tribe. This game was released in 2012, which obviously doesn't follow the usual timeline of my YGO work. The "Good Intentions" stories mostly take place in 2007.

For this experiment in particular, I've decided to let go of my adherence to the timeline. There are so many pop culture references I'd like to make in my other stories, that I can't because they're too recent. So for this AU, I've decided to let go. This story takes place in Everytime.