Catch a Falling Star 2 Unfinished Ficbit – Setup

~ crossovercreativechaos

“I’ve forwarded the latest update from Legal to your secure email account. In brief, someone seems to be leaning on Customs.” She hesitated. “Mr. Kaiba, is this more than the usual trouble? Normally you’d want a new design to stay close, yet you instructed us to get lodging in any hotel but this one….”

“That’s right.” Kaiba stalked to the luggage, pulling out three hardened cases large enough to hold a set of Duel Disks or an oversize laptop. “You have experience in industrial espionage.”

Melanie accepted the luggage. “Sir, I don’t think we should be discussing this under these circumstances.” Her gaze flicked toward the other teens.

“My beta-testers,” Kaiba said bluntly, before Tea could puzzle out enough of the implications to start fuming. “They’ve dealt with the Big Five. They should know who they can rely on.”

“Of course, sir.”

Beside her, Tea felt Yugi stifling a snicker. “What’s so funny?” she hissed under her breath.

“My beta-testers,” Yugi murmured back. One dark brow quirked up, just like Yami’s when he was about to state the one truth that would send an opponent raving over the edge. “Not Kaiba Corp.’s.”

“I don’t get it,” Joey said under his breath.

“You will.” Yugi smiled. “Just try not to rub it in, all right? He’s going to be mad enough when he figures it out without any help.”

Tea traded a glance with Joey. I don’t get it. Why would Kaiba be mad about-

Oh.

My beta-testers. In the same tone Kaiba would say my brother, my Deck, or even my Blue Eyes White Dragon.

Oh, no!

“Yug’?” From the way hazel eyes had bugged out, Joey had just come to the same terrifying conclusion. “He’s gonna kill us.”

Yugi’s smile only deepened. “He won’t.”

“He’s gonna hurt us.”

“He might try,” Yugi admitted.

A/N: And, unfortunately, this was about as far as I got. For much the same reason as The Great Escape – I set up a situation with too many characters and moving plot parts to easily keep track of, and then RL crashed down like a ton of bricks.

The idea I had for what happened next involved SG-1 trying to figure the kids out, part of which would be Daniel sympathizing with Joey for getting caught between cultures and possibly helping him figure that out. Meanwhile the NID would be trying to stage a technology raid and figure out why none of their bugs were working. And either partway through that or just as they think they’ve got the NID finally down for the count, Amaunet’s ha’tak was going to show up. Cue tremendous mess of death gliders and archer Jaffa versus SG-1 and Duel Monsters. End result with Amaunet so very dead, Daniel reunited with his wife, a lot of NID comatose bodies around that Bakura miiiiight not get around to putting souls back in, and there was much rejoicing.

28 thoughts on “Catch a Falling Star 2 Unfinished Ficbit – Setup”

    1. And how. Trying to get Bakura to agree to actually do so would be…interesting. Because why? He doesn’t like these people.
      ‘Right thing to do’? who do you believe you are talking to here exactly?
      Throw the law at him, he’ll be gone, plus there’s probably -not a law about this-
      The only thing I can think of that might work is offer him a /reward/ – possibly a /bounty/ to do so. After all, NID members in an eternal coma can’t face trial and go away for multiple consecutive life sentences or face a firing squad for planetary treason.
      That might do it.

      Imagining Seto telling someone this. Cackling.

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      2. He might be receptive to the ‘souless corpses have a really hard time answering questions’ argument though. Granted, that might well lead to him sticking their souls into something that can be questioned but isn’t their actual bodies…

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      3. >> Granted, that might well lead to him sticking their souls into something that can be questioned but isn’t their actual bodies…

        No. Absolutely not. I refuse. Yes, I remember the rpg miniatures arc that was Bakura’s intro in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and I don’t care. Creepy Dolls are where I draw the line, and if Bakura does it anyways then I am out!

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  2. i thin there is too much hate for NID. many of them are guilty of having wrong impression of things, and working of faulty information which leads them to stand in opposition to the protagonists and little else, that at least some of the protagonists didnt do themselves at some point.

    fewer of those who would get de-souled by bakura deserve it, unless you changed things…

    maybe have Amounet appearing be the stuff that interrupts, before big confrontation with either NID OR SG1?

    perhaps even have both sides dig some stuff, and then get them recalled due to Hatek identified getting on the way to earth, with Kaiba and his helpers following said two groups, to learn about it.

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      2. Especially in the context of this fic. In this fic, at least, they are more than willing to let Seto hurt a little girl so they can blackmail him. That says bad things about what they threatened Hammond’s granddaughters with.

        Liked by 5 people

      4. >> Yeah, that is a stain that is never coming out.

        … Like the world’s worst combination of of wine, grease, and mac n’ cheese.

        Imean- I know, I know, this is the NID we’re talking about. Blood is the obvious route to follow. But it just doesn’t feel… slimy… enough to me.

        Liked by 2 people

  3. . . .someone seems to be leaning on Customs

    No seems about it, Ma’am.

    Someone is definitely leaning on Customs.

    “My beta-testers,” Kaiba said bluntly

    Actually, the gang wouldn’t be bad beta-testers for his tech. He can trust them not to steal the designs for his competition. And if it can stand up this bunch of lunatics and the trouble that follows them around like ducklings, it can handle anything mundane users can throw at it.

    My beta-testers. In the same tone Kaiba would say my brother, my Deck, or even my Blue Eyes White Dragon.

    Yep. You have been claimed.

    And Seto might be annoyed (to put it mildly) when he figures that out, he will not be able to take it back. Not really. He might go into denial. But not give up what he has claimed as his. Dragons are very possessive and Seto is a very dragon soul.

    And there are worse places to be then claimed as one of Seto’s own.

    “He might try,” Yugi admitted.

    Yeah, especially considering that Seto is still very uncomfortable with the idea that he trusts you and Yami, let alone the rest of the group.

    He’s not used to being able to trust anyone but Mokuba.

    The idea I had for what happened next . . .

    Sounds pretty cool to me, through I can see how that might get overwhelming.

    Maybe you could break the story into smaller stories with more manageable parts like In A Cat’s Ear?

    Assuming the bunnies express interest in continuing this project at some point . . . and you have the energy to spare to do so.

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    1. >> Yep. You have been claimed.

      […]Dragons are very possessive and Seto is a very dragon soul.

      This just makes me grin and remember the final part of Ellen Brand’s Ankoku Wa Osare Nai Don’t Fear the Darkness series, where one of the Ghostbusters (I think my memory says it was Venkman?) talks about how if Kaiba legit has Ancient Egyptian Priest magic and dragon tendencies… Well.

      I don’t remember the exact quote but I think it was something to the effect of: “Egyptian magic is all about names. Names have power and naming things is key to many of their ceremonies. And one of the first and oldest names any toddler learned to apply was ‘mine.”

      Ellen Brand is one of the few authors alongside Vathara whose work tends to just… tie things together, surprising me with those little moments of ‘of course. How didn’t I see that? It makes perfect sense and is brilliant.’

      I always enjoy reading those moments.

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      1. This is mine is also how the magic of the human threshold tends to work to.

        The person is saying to the supernatural baddie “This is my space. You are not welcome in it.”

        Or other similar magics. Like: “These are my people. You cannot hurt them. You cannot have them. I will not allow it.”

        (I enjoy Ellen Brand’s work too.)

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      2. Tho’ that last line actually makes me think of Discworld witches, funnily enough, mostly Tiffany Aching and Granny Weatherwax.

        Liked by 3 people

  4. This? This is my favorite bit right there, because Kaiba is as protective as his dragons when it comes to ‘his’ things. 🙂 Yay low-key fluff! I wish you the very best of luck on your writing…and hope you have better luck slaying the bunnies than I do. TAT

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  5. I mean, I don’t know enough about Yugioh to know if this is even possible, but if Bakura could put those souls back in with… conditions, well then maybe he’d do it willingly. Enthusiastically even. After all, a bunch of, ahem, former NID agents turned whistleblower on the NID (kidnapping is not legal) who have decided to be wilderness warrior types in Antarctica protecting, I don’t know, penguins… Or possibly Arctic, polar bear researchers, the type crazy enough to try to get up close and personal…

    But yeah, that sounds like A Lot to have planned out. I second the suggestion of, maybe, breaking it up into smaller, interconnected stories?

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    1. a) Vathara, thanks for posting this.
      b) I’ve had my sleep interrupted, and my ‘wiser to stay off the interwebs’ period is just about to start.
      c) My bunnies went “what if this and escape were finished as a crossover”, so they are trolling, and I am nuts. Sleep is good.
      d) See y’all next week. I’ll be lurking hopefully before I’m trusting myself to post anything sane.
      e) I’m wondering if we will see MCO snippets first, or perhaps that nine chapter buffy fic that was mentioned. Or one of the other fics mentioned.
      f) Starting to digest pearl. Very nice. I will probably want to reread it after things settle before making any structural comments beyond that I would be interested in what happens next. (“More, please” struck me as far too demanding.) Any interest in copy edits? What is the best venue for those?

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      1. Please, there are far crackier bunnies for this ‘verse.

        For example Kitty might be visited in a dream one night by a certain blue-eyed, white-haired woman who gives her some High Priest wrangling tips. Whether or not the Professor sticks his nose in and gets promptly blasted right back out of the dream by a column of lightning is up to the writer.

        Liked by 4 people

      3. -…You realize in any X-Men ‘verse Kitty already knows a blue-eyed white-haired woman from Africa… 😉 –
        True, though I’m pretty sure that one couldn’t easily mistake Ororo for Kisara and vice-versa.

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  6. “My beta-testers,” Yugi murmured back. One dark brow quirked up, just like Yami’s when he was about to state the one truth that would send an opponent raving over the edge. “Not Kaiba Corp.’s.”

    “Oh, did you get to test the newest duel discs?”

    “No, we aren’t beta tester’s for Kaiba Corp. We’re the beta testers for Seto Kaiba One-Point-Two. He’s trying out a new personality and needed help getting the bugs out.”

    “I thought he was Two-Point-Oh?”

    “Nah, he hasn’t made that much progress yet. It’s going to be at least a decade before he cracks a smile.”

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      1. That works if you count High Priest Seth, I’m not so sure Kaiba has any interest in counting High Priest Seth (he seems to be too busy contemplating the waters of the River Nile).

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      3. he seems to be too busy contemplating the waters of the River Nile

        The thought of someone actually saying that phrase to him…

        *slow grin*

        Liked by 4 people

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