This is an independent, canon-divergent, post canon Yami Bakura!
Update (4/17/23): My mobile friendly rules and about pages are finally ready to go!
Update 2 (6/20/23): I’m putting a small blogroll here so you know where else to find me lol: starlitmemoriam: YGO!DM Multimuse (sideblog to this one!) neferenti: YGO!DM OC numeralis-xcvi: YGO!Zexal No. 96 / Dark Mist
Bakura was confused, but Atem held no sympathy towards his own problems, as it turned out.
“I’m a failure, is why,” he spoke sure of himself. “The state of the world, the things that happened only happened because I was not strong enough to stand up to my destiny. And even these people here, they looked to me to save them and once again I messed up and made a fool of myself and their trust.” He breathed out a quiet sigh. “I’m not the hero they all expect me to be…and I guess…I’ll never forgive myself for that. I’ve never lived up to a single expectation given of me…I suppose it’s no surprise that the God’s have forsaken me.”
Not again with this heart-spilling feeling stuff! He was never good at handling others’ emotions; always made him a little uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to do. Bakura’d always known the confident, head-held-high Atem who didn’t take anything from anyone. Seeing Atem so down all the time was… disheartening. What could he do, what could he do…
“Don’t say that." His tone had grown soft; voice quiet. "You don’t need to be a hero. You need to be you.” Sure, lots of fucked up things have happened to essentially all of them, but that wasn’t necessarily in the other’s control to begin with. Getting up to approach Atem again, he knelt down to better meet the other’s gaze.
“I know things happened, and yeah it sucks, but you don’t need to live up to other people’s expectations. You can only give your best, and that depends on the day. Keep your chin up, ‘Tem, I can’t get lost in your eyes if they’re staring at the floor.”
Did.
Did he just fucking say that.
Oh god he’ll never forgive himself for letting that one slip.
Just look at Atem.Look at Atem. Look at Atem. His heart was pounding, breath shaking, body trembling. Blue eyes started looking glazed over, fading in and out of the present. Someone else, a thief, wanted to take control of the poverbial wheel and it wasn’t quite the fight he wanted to have right now. If Atem was shaking him, talking to him, he wouldn’t know. Nothing was quite registering aside from his immediate panic response.
It was too much. The noise,the chatter, the people.These surroundings didn’t look familiar; Atem must’ve moved him somewhere else. He thought he was going to suffocate, really, he did. His chest was constricted, his body was trembling, was he just going to keel over right here and now?
“We… need to go.” He finally choked out, struggling desperately to ground himself in the here and now. That wouldn’t quite be possible when everything sounded like someone took an amplifier to all the noise and turned it up to 11.
“They make specific types of enclosures for that, you know.” But he was probably going to flub it the first time. Bakura was right, but he didn’t consider their presence an infestation really. They kept the more problematic pests at bay and they weren’t venomous, so he had no reason to deny them access to his home.
But the moment Bakura asked that question, he froze. His mouth, which had been open to say something else, closed.
He was silent for a moment as he considered it.
“…To be honest…not much…” He breathed out quietly. “I don’t…get many visitors…and…the television is boring…and my body…means that I have a hard time going out on my own, no matter how much I wish to.”
So often he was stuck here, sitting in his loneliness and trying to run away from it.
O– Oh. He… wasn’t expecting Atem to just dump his heart out like this. Felt a little awkward now, actually. What’re you supposed to do when someone just dumps their feelings out for you to see? Nervous blue eyes flickered around the room, desperately attempting to come up with something to say to fill the awkward silence that surely permeated the air between them.
“I… I didn’t know you felt that way.” Bakura quietly admitted, settling his gaze on the wall behind Atem’s shoulder. He’d had an inkling that Atem physically wasn’t doing well; if the cream and cane said anything about it. But to hear it from the other’s mouth… “Listen, as I said before, I thought you were pretty popular.” Apparently he was dead wrong about that. What can he say to make this any better??
“You’re not gonna get less lonely if you don’t put yourself out there.” Never in his life did he think he was going to be the one standing here giving Atem advice, but here they were. Wild, truly. “Don’t you have someone to talk to? Anyone at all?”
Mariku’s hands had lain down on his legs and his body had sunken into himself, during what Bakura said. He had transformed from a wraith of rage to a still statue in a span of few moments, his batteries were long since giving out, he lifted one of his hands and saw himself already blurring out at the edges…
A long shuddering sigh left him and the darkness slowly pulled back into it’s original form of light shadows in the corners. The sunlight behind him was shining through the window and already filtered through, him, like he wasn’t real, like he was a mere Fata Morgana.
“…” The first thing he parted off was some low laughter, blackness still streaming down his cheeks freely. “… do you think, I don’t know that?” He clawed at his own face furiously, staring at his own hand in bafflement, like he had never seen something like tears before.
“What am I doing here.” He asked himself, not even realizing he said it out loud. “Ryo is going to have my hide for this… he wouldn’t even WANT this…” His face was still smeared with black streaks and he snarled at Bakura, like he just realized that the other was there anymore - and then his face fell into something like remorse.
“… we’ve all been fucked over… and I let myself go being selfish like this…” The body above Bakura seemed to fade even more now and the weight seemed to be gone completely. “… yeah… I guess this is the best.” He mumbled lowly, closing his eyes. “You can pretend to be something you are not for the longest time… but it’s still there… it’s still festering at you in silence…” He sighed. “I am still a deranged maniac with no control over their emotions.”
He seemed to simply accept what was happening to him and it seemed to draw him away even faster. “For what it’s worth, Bakura… barging in here and ruining you… and your home… I’m sorry… this wasn’t supposed to happen.” He showed his teeth at the other.
“But if you ever go after him again… I will put your body on a pole and watch it getting eaten by crows until you fucking perish. I like him… and I am not going to lose him. To NOBODY.”
Wide eyes stared up at Mariku, who seemed to be caught between several strong emotions. Hurt, anger, sadness just to name a few. He knew the struggle. Still as the dead, breath caught in his throat, eyes locked on the other in terror. He really believed he was about to meet his maker on his own kitchen floor; pinned by an enraged Mariku for daring to breathe a bad word about his lover. Even as the weight evaporated, as Mariku spilled his heart out, he was too afraid to move.
“Mariku…” His voice was quiet; as if a normal volume would scare Mariku into another frenzy. Bakura didn’t have a clue what was going on, but he knew he was too afraid to ask. Hell hath no fury like a Mariku scorned, especially if it involved Ryo. And that’s a bone he now knew to never pick. There wouldn’t be a next time after that.
“I think it’s best if you left.” He didn’t want a sorry. He didn’t want Mariku’s apologies or explanations. The other man broke into his kitchen, antagonized him, and nearly murdered him for speaking one thing out of line. As apologetic as he seemed to be, the other man had done enough. He’d rather not see him again for a while. Maybe ever. The pain that he’d managed to swallow in order to protect himself was bubbling up full swing. He laid his injured arm back down on the ground as gently as he could; the other laid across his stomach. Gods, everything just hurt.
🌙 * ― 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐒 ( prompts for the five senses. add [reversed] to reverse the action. feel free to change wording as needed & add details )
𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇.
[ 𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐓 ] ― sender wraps a soft blanket around receiver’s shoulders [ 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐊 ] ― sender and receiver fall into bed together on silk sheets [ 𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐋 ] ― sender pulls receiver’s hair ( gently / hard ) [ 𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑 ] ―sender strokes receiver’s hair [ 𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 ] ―sender brushes receiver’s hair [ 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓 ] ― sender paints a picture onto part of receiver’s body ( specify what & where ) [ 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 ] ― sender traces their fingertips over receiver’s body [ 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑 ] ― sender traces a scar on receiver’s body [ 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐃 ] ― sender reaches out to hold receiver’s hand [ 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏 ] ―
sender worships receiver’s body
𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄.
[ 𝐔𝐍𝐔𝐒𝐔𝐀𝐋 ] ― sender feeds receiver something they’ve never tried before ( specify what ) [ 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐑 ] ―sender feeds receiver something sour ( specify what ) [ 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 ] ― sender feeds receiver something sweet
( specify what ) [ 𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐄 ] ― sender feeds receiver something spicy
( specify what ) [ 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 ] ― sender kisses receiver to taste the lingering flavour of what they ate or drank on their lips ( specify what ) [ 𝐂𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐑 ] ― sender bites receiver hard enough to draw blood [ 𝐔𝐍𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋 ] ― sender feeds receiver soup when they’ve fallen ill [ 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐊 ] ― sender makes receiver a cocktail to try [ 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐇 ] ― sender cooks receiver their favourite meal [ 𝐓𝐑𝐘 ] ―
sender gives receiver a taste of what they’re cooking / baking for their opinion
𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓.
[ 𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐃 ] ― sender blindfolds receiver [ 𝐑𝐄𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐄 ] ― sender and receiver see each other again after a period of being apart [ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 ] ―
sender notices something different about receiver ( injury / haircut / tattoo / piercing / etc ) [ 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐋 ] ― sender greets receiver in formal partywear ( feel free to add detail ) [ 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐒 ] ― sender takes receiver to see lanterns in the sky [ 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ] ― sender and receiver lay under the stars to stargaze [ 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄 ] ― sender and receiver lock eyes across the room [ 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖 ] ― sender and receiver see a shadow move out the corner of their eye [ 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 ] ― sender and receive watch as something burns ( candles / a building / a campfire / etc ) [ 𝐅𝐈𝐒𝐇 ] ― sender takes receiver to the aquarium to watch the sea life [ 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐊 ] ―
sender recognises receiver at a masquerade party
𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃.
[ 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂 ] ― sender puts on the radio to listen to music with receiver [ 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘 ] ―
sender plays receiver their favourite song on an instrument ( specify what ) [ 𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍] ― sender and receiver are in bed together while rain lashes against the windows / tent / etc [ 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐑 ] ―
sender whispers something in receiver’s ear ( specify what ) [ 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ] ― sender asks receiver for a dance upon hearing a song [ 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐘 ] ― sender and receiver hear a sound when they should be alone ( footsteps / creaking floorboards / a scream / etc ) [ 𝐇𝐔𝐌 ] ― sender hums a lullaby to lull receiver to sleep [ 𝐌𝐔𝐅𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐃 ] ― sender comforts a temporally deaf receiver after a loud sound ( gunshot / explosion / etc ) [ 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐌 ] ― sender calms receiver down from a panic attack in a loud place [ 𝐀𝐅𝐀𝐑 ] ― sender and receiver hear a muffled sound from another room / outside ( music / people / creature / etc ) [ 𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖 ] ― sender hears receiver crying and approaches comfort them
𝐒𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋.
[ 𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐇 ] ― sender puts a scented bath bomb into receiver’s bath [ 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐄 ] ― sender lights a scented candle for receiver [ 𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ] ―sender puts perfume / aftershave on receiver’s ( wrist / neck / cheek ) [ 𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 ] ― sender inhales receiver’s scent [ 𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐊 ] ― sender is drawn to the kitchen by receiver’s cooking [ 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐒 ] ― sender steals an item of receiver’s clothes because it smells like them
[ 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑 ] ― sender notices receiver smells of their shampoo / shower gel [ 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒 ] ― sender gives receiver flowers [ 𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐇 ] ― sender helps clean receiver after a long day / stressful situation [ 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐘 ] ― sender and receiver walk through the sewers to escape capture / avoid detection / chase someone [ 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄 ] ― sender massages receiver with a scented oil
1. First and foremost, this blog will talk about NSFW themes such as violence, gore, blood, depression, mental illness, etc. These will be tagged as tw insert thing here. If you need things tagged a certain way/certain subjects tagged PLEASE let me know! I'll be more than happy to accomodate you.
Things I need tagged are irl/realistic spiders, irl/realistic insects and (i know how wild this sounds) talk about what happens after you die (irl)! I have the basic cw / tw format blacklisted. You can just tag the last one as cw / tw afterlife. It's the best I could come up with.
Sexual NSFW can be implied, but I prefer not to do explicit unless we are good friends and it's in private, like Discord. FTB or timeskipping is totally ok though!
One more thing: because I'm a 24 year old, I would prefer characters and muns to be 18+. Minors are not welcome here. If you are a minor and try to interact, I will block you. It's nothing against you, it's something I simply cannot risk.
2. I'm open to interacting with doubles, multimuses, OCs, those outside of YGO, etc! (God, I love doubles. Give me all of them.) I just ask for a rules and about page (especially for OCs and multimuses).
3. On the topic of shipping, I go on chemistry. I don't like doing pre-established relationships unless we discuss it first. I like playing slow-burners from hell.
And on that note, this blog will be multiverse and multiship. Verses aren't going to bleed into each other unless it's talked about and agreed upon.
4. We all know tumblr is a hellsite. It eats notifications and the new dashboard is hell on earth. If we are roleplaying together, please tag me! It's sometimes the only way I'll ever know that you replied or had a starter for me!
5. Don't start or drag me into drama, don't godmod or any of that nonsense, I'm sure you've heard this rant before. Tumblr roleplaying is supposed to be a fun space for everyone, and I want to keep it that way.
6. Believe me when I tell you, I'm very well aware that trimming is hard right now. This blog has the option to use legacy as of 3/11/23, but I have chosen to use beta. If xkit isn't working for you or you're on mobile and you need me to trim, I've got your back! I would prefer if you could trim your posts but if you can't, I got you.
7. If you reblog a meme or the like from me, I would appreciate if you sent something back to me. I will do the same for you. It's not a requirement but I feel like it's the polite thing to do.
8. On the topic of roleplaying, do not reblog roleplays that you are not a part of. It's rude. Don't do that.
Another thing, I will only thread with mutuals.
If we are not mutuals, you are still more than welcome to send me asks or like my posts!
If we are mutuals and we haven't interacted yet, you're also welcome to just toss me a starter or talk to me through my IMs! Or Discord if that's your thing. I'm shy too, I get it, this should be a welcoming space!
9. I'm a busy person, as are all of you. Replies may take a couple days! Sometimes I'm right on it, sometimes I'm not. Now, if a couple weeks have gone by and there's still nothing, feel free to contact me and see what's up. I have a life outstide of tumblr, too!
10. If you have any questions/comments/concerns/want to get to know me, even if we aren't mutuals, feel free to contact me! Hit up my askbox! Send me IMs! I promise I don't bite! But I can't promise that my muses won't.
11. For all intents and purposes, my default Ryou Bakura is xaleidoscope. If you send me an ask about a Ryou and don't specify, this is who I'm assuming you're talking about. I am, however, still open to interacting with other Ryou Bakuras!
AGE 18
TIMELINE Post-Canon
POSITIONliterally just came back from the dead.
Main Verse.
Yami Bakura had always seen himself as a simple merger of two souls: Zorc Necrophades and Thief King Bakura. Nothing more, nothing less. And since the two beings had similar goals, everything to him was in perfect black and white. Until the most recent host, that is. That’s when things began to change. Arguments arose between his two components and views and beliefs began to shift. Their merger was the one affected. His blacks and whites began to merge into greys. Rapidly, at that. He was at a loss. Not once in his entire existence did he question anything he believed in. He asked himself one question after another, going through a long list until he came to the biggest one of them all:
“Who am I?”
He’s not Zorc. He’s not Thief King Bakura. He’s someone else. Someone different. It’s something he’s never considered before. But it doesn’t answer the question; it only drives the need to answer it. He’d have to look at friendships, rivalries, enemies. He’d have to review everything he thought he knew. He’d have to embark on a journey to self discovery.
He's been known by many names. The Ring Spirit. Yami Bakura. Bastard. Demonized at every corner, and not for nothing. He's a presence that strikes anger in the hearts of those that know, and terror in those that do not. If there was ever a soul that knew what he was capable of, it was his host.
His former host.
Many years had passed since then, but the memories of him still linger. Not one who people are willing to trust so easily or openly. Who could blame them? When you're the reason your friend is injured or teacher is literally soulless, people have little reason or want to befriend you.
If only they knew what things were like from his point of view.
Appearance
You know Bakura when you see him. Long, white hair in a disheveled state (dealer’s choice whether it’s been brushed today), piercing blue eyes, fair skin. Almost always kept up to at least pretend it’s been looked after properly. His eyes are underlined with dark bags, but they’re certainly not as bad as Ryo’s.
Nobody ever called him a fashion icon. Bakura’s still fond of jackets, but that black jacket he loved so much is nowhere to be seen. T-shirts, jeans, and whatever jacket he’s gotten his hands on today. Might be something he owns. Might’ve been nicked off someone’s back. You never know with him.
Interests
You can call him many things, but you can't call him uncultured. Being part of Ryo for so long and experiencing Ryo's passions had inspired him to pick up new ones and reignite his old ones. These hobbies include:
He's very outdoorsy, but he burns easily. He forgets this quite frequently. He looks like a lobster in the summer. A very angry lobster who insists that he doesn't need sunscreen and it'll turn into a tan. Spoiler alert: it never does.
Bakura enjoys the beach but doesn't know how to swim. Besides, it's much more fun to dig holes under people's towels and wait for them to come back and find a surprise waiting for them. Bonus points if he can fill it with water before they come back. He has been banned from a couple beaches for this if you're curious.
Personality
At the first meeting, anyone would say that he’s cold. He has a bad attitude, he’s disinterested in even pretending to be nice, and would rather be literally anywhere else. Which, sometimes, is true. He’s only interested in what you have to say if it, in some way, benefits him. He looks out for him and him alone. Being a spirit does that to you, he supposed. But it’s not that bad; the ring gave him shadow powers that made his hell more intriguing. Of course, the power is contained to the ring itself, but he’s more than free to pick and choose who gets to wield it. His years of experimentation with what the ring can actually do has brought out the darker side of him. The screams are things he’s never going to forget, for better or worse. He gets a kick out of watching people become fearful of him and the weapon at his disposal. Maybe now they’ll stay out of his way.
But there are shackles that he’ll never be free from. His soul isn’t human anymore. It’s not fully monstrous, either. Instead, it’s a blend that doesn’t mesh as well as it used to. And he can feel it. Part of him wants to shed any last remnant of the things he used to feel and give in to the darkness and hatred that plagued him for millennia. The other part of him isn’t so keen on the idea and pushes for a separate path. His black and white views are starting to mesh into greys, and he doesn’t like it. Everything he has ever done are things he has to question, and it’s affecting him rather profoundly. His bitter, resentful self is still there. He will always be ready to snap and bite at anyone who pushes him just the right way, but now he has to face himself and ask,
“What do I want?”
Not what Zorc wants. Not what Thief King Bakura wants. What does Yami Bakura want? It’s funny how he’s never asked himself this question after what, 3,000 years of existing? It was like he never considered himself a single individual. He’ll do what it takes to discover himself and get an answer, no matter what highs or lows he has to stoop to.
Biography
The first memories he could claim to be his own were a void. A feeling of compression. Dripping. A sensation he would later discover was called "wetness." But the noise. The loud, ear-splitting noise. He would later discover that this noise was called "screaming." They sounded... hurt. They sounded in distress. What were they saying? Why were they screaming? Where was this coming from? He could not move, for he had no legs. He could not look, for he had no eyes. He could not speak, for he had no lips. He was formless, he was mindless. He simply... was.
Then suddenly, light.
Shapes. colors, creatures looking at him. Who were they? What was this place? Why do they look at him like that? He barely had time to process or react; he was moving and speaking on its own. What was this movement? What was that? Was he making that noise? It was overwhelming. If that wasn't distressing enough, suddenly new visions appeared before his eyes. Hot weather, coarse ground, feelings he couldn't describe, and monsters. These new voices would soon introduce themselves to him. They called themselves Zorc Necrophades and Thief King Bakura. We are part of you, they said. No, we are you.
And you must kill the pharaoh.
But why? He asked. Who is this pharaoh, what did he do to me? He put you in that ring, they said. They trapped you for thousands of years. Are you not angry? Are you not hurt? Think of your family that died to create your prison! He didn't even know what a family was, but it sounded awful! If that's what needs to be done, then so be it.
But if the voice is Zorc, and that other voice is Thief King Bakura, then who is he? Did he not have a name like them? Every time he found himself in control of the boy who wore the ring, everyone called him Ryo Bakura. The body responded on its own. So that must be his name.
Yes, he is Ryo Bakura. That is his name. It is a name he will treasure.
Yet, it didn't quite feel right. Ryo is the name of the boy, not him. But if the King of Thieves can share part of his name with Ryo, can he not do the same? Yes, separate the two. His host can be Ryo. He can be Bakura. Two sides of the same coin.
He wasn't sure if he liked Zorc, though. He found him to be... pushy. But if he's half of him, then it should be okay, right? That's how it's supposed to be, is it not? His soul hates the pharaoh, so he must hate the pharaoh. This makes sense, does it not?
Looking back, this line of thinking was the one thing that kept him alive.
The Mun
Hey fam what's poppin'
Hi! I'm Cherry (they/them), I'm 24 years old, and I'm a history graduate student with dreams of becoming a museum curator!
I've got a lot of interests and if I'm not here, I'm probably busy with studying or running / playing a D&D campaign!
I have Ishtar & Bakurae brain rot. I love them. They own me.
