More than a decade's worth of silent words, unseen gestures, and wasted potential packaged simply into the body of a small boy – this is the Yugi Mutou that the world strains to see. If ever a child mastered the art of melding into his surroundings without changing a single speck of his appearance, it would certainly be him, forgotten in his person corner in the furthest reaches of the classroom where no one see his quietly playing with his own games. It would be rude to intrude on others and ask for their company, after all – if they'd any interest in his board games or his plastic toys, they would have come to him in the beginning – and if there's one thing in this world that he does not wish to be, it's rude. A mother could shed tears at his politeness alone, although it's unclear as to when said tears shift from joy at his manners to melancholy at his inability to say much outside of those bland phrases, all daintily sweet “Thank you, Ma'am”s or “P-pleased to meet you, sir”s passed out like candies at a parade. A social doormat at best and a knife-throwing target at worst, his inability to vocalize much of anything quickly becomes an inability to properly defend himself or ask for aid when one of Domino's excess of bullies comes stomping around the corner, and it is with as much silence as he exhibits in most other situations that he watches fresh bruises and cuts blossom over his skin. (Not his soul, though, untouched and unbroken.) He revels in the stillness of his small circle in life, and only allows himself to wonder for fleeting moments if perhaps, just maybe, he will be able to inspire and adore; of course, meaningful words with no volume cannot move, and his adoration for his greatest friend constantly falls on deaf ears and forcefully oblivious eyes. In the end, his meek voice is so easily lost in a tidal wave of an ever changing and bustling world. He does little to move with or against the flow, sinking like a rock to the bottom of a river bed where it goes unseen and forgotten for what can be a great length of time. Like a rock in a river bed, however, the slightest of movements creates a great muddy cloud – and in the instance that someone moves his heart, the effects are as immediate as they are widespread and powerful.

For all of his timid ways – a lifetime of prevented intrusions and a subtle lack of self worth – the image that he rarely portrays is of a deeper, truer self. A self that could move mountains with willpower alone. He loves with a ferocity, more loyal than a litter of grown pups, and once he's set his mind to something – well, you've heard it all before. His kindness has turn thugs into alleys, enemies into close friends, and despite his instance of his own lack of strength (I'm weak, so weak, I just wanted to be like you), anyone who has seen him do the thing he does will know he's anything but. No terror stands in his way, and should it jeopardize the safety of those he cares for, there is nothing that he will let conquer him. A massive spherical boulder at the top of the hill, mighty enough to bring the strongest of monsters to its knees – all he needs is that initial push.

Yugi is a boy with many faces, each genuine, and all worn for different situations. His still corner of solitude may be a frequent prison, but the energy stashed away upon turning down offers of courtyard basketball or giving into the demands of those who would take advantages of others – goodness, one could say he attracts these like a fluorescent light coaxes in insects – is put to good use once in the company of those he is comfortable with. For a voice that so often finds itself quiet and stuttered, there's no doubt that it screams the loudest when the situation calls for it, and the physical expression of excitement he displays is often compared to that of a child having consumed too much sugar in the hour prior. Childish in that sense, he's also rather immature in another, although more befitting of his age of sixteen; while he'll never breathe an inappropriate joke aloud, he can't stop himself from thinking them in his mind, and the unnamed tape Jonouchi slides him in the morning isn't the first and won't be the last. Aside from those odd occasional pastimes, though, he's the picturesque model of innocence, investing his time of study into family-oriented games and burying himself in a world of playful fantasy and tournaments of Parcheesi; if only such dedication to the world of physical and virtual gaming did not leave him so lacking in terms of intelligence.



If Yugi Mutou is innocence, however, the Other Yugi is pure corruption. He dances to the beat of heads smashing themselves into brick walls, laughing all the while at the ironic justice he wrings to all of those of soured hearts that are unfortunate to cross paths and step on his lighter self. Mercy is a word long cast to the wind, torn apart by methodical claws and bid farewell with a kiss of death; a wrongdoing is a shame, and one committed against him is a death wish. They tread on his doorstep and rap knuckles against the frame with chins held high and eyes glimmering with disdain (his held higher, eyes the window to the ancients' favored forms of suffering), and they leave with minds shattered, souls lost, their corpses ricocheting off his sneakers. An instrument of destruction, the the harbinger of doom to those who have brought it onto others – he is a machine with a simple job, and no one can fault him for reveling in it. By no means is he, though, despite what the survivors may say in their less-than-lucid states about him, a being of pure evil, or anything close to such a foul thing. A soul imprisoned, tasked with bringing with him the evils of years some thousand years passed to bring punishment where no others could: No, not evil. No paragon of virtue, but, perhaps, a bit misunderstood. He flares with the pain of his host, chokes the life out of demons in human flesh for his sake or his friends' sake, and while his spit is a fire that tries to burn all in its path, he shaves it down to a core that scorches only that which must be scored, snuffing it out and receding to the deepest corners of a mind he has been enslaved to. Work is, as always, work; he cannot enjoy himself over the fall of everyone.

If Yugi and all of his potential, often tossed to the shredder and wasted or no, is an apprentice, Yu-Gi-Oh! goes well beyond that of a master; he is, perhaps, the master. Games come to him easier than does breathing (in part because, as a spirit, he's no need for breath), the cards, the pieces, and the trickery all weapons he's long ago learned to wield with deadly precision. To challenge him to most anything – a wager, a riddle, a trial, a game – is to accept defeat before the invitation has even quite fallen past the lips, and to accept his own offer of “fun” is to lose oneself to his favorite form of entertainment. There is no one quite like him at what he excels in, appropriately titled a king, and there is not the slightest bit of doubt that he knows this; he is as much pride personified as he is misery personified, so much so that he would sacrifice the highest of prices to maintain an empty slate of loses and a sense of being untouchable. Perhaps he is not the most handsome, and perhaps his stature stands quite short, but his mind can outrun and outfox the most deceiving of foes, and if he has his way, he'll be quick to remind why he should be feared. Of course – outside of that title, outside of that skill, what is it, exactly, that he has? Not a name, not a past, not a body. Somewhere, three thousand years ago, he used to be someone, and like the reverse of his other soul, so little a sense of worth until it explodes in one short brilliant supernova, he is a spirit who sites high on his pedestal until his remembers that the pedestal is truly all he has -

- and when he falls, it is into nothing but his own forgotten regrets.

Yugi is an ordinary human being. He stands quite short, yes, and we all do wonder how on Earth that hair of his works, but there is nothing out of the ordinary about him. No, rather – it is the spirit living inside him that holds any interest. After completing the millenia old and appropriately titled Millenium Puzzle, the likes of which was foretold to instill the person able of solving its supposedly impossible-to-solve puzzle the power to pass judgment via “The Shadow Games,” he was possessed by an ancient spirit sealed within the pieces, presumably lying in wait since ancient Egyptian times for someone to solve its broken home. Yugi, himself, may have no out of the ordinary powers; the enigmatic spirit within him, however, is another matter entirely.

Yu-Gi-Oh! (literally "king of games"), although more commonly referred to as “the Other Yugi,” possesses the aforementioned power to pass judgment via “The Shadow Games.” We do have to wonder how limited his scope of abilities are outside of these games, challenges issued to offenders who have hurt the one sharing the body and the rest of their group of friends that generally end in grave misfortune for the loser (always the other party), although it is not within his function to, as they say, “pass judgment” outside of these challenges. Essentially, how it all goes down is this: Bad guy does the bad thing, Yugi gets upset, the Other Him takes over, challenges the bad guy to a game that varies depending on the situation, Other Him floors the poor sucker, and the final verdict is – the loser either suffering severe mental trauma or flat out dying. Yu-Gi-Oh! Appears to be most adapt in playing mind games, often causing incredibly realistic hallucinations in his victims that can last either a few days to... well, simply put, indefinitely. Hallucinations aren't the only thing he is capable of doing, however, his bizarre abilities allowing him to physically manipulate the world in any way he so chooses by “raising the Shadow Level” of the current Shadow Game. For example: one game may simply be playing mind games on the second party, making them think that something that isn't actually happening is happening, while another will literally translate damage taken by toys into damage taken by the toy's owners. Yeah, imagine breaking the arm of that toy off. You wouldn't be imagining things when your own popped clean off. The mental trials he can put his victims through, however, are not things to scoff at, either; take a gander at Kaiba, whose psyche was shattered to the point he was left catatonic for at least the duration of the series. That's what you get for playing card games. Despite how heinous these things may sound, however, the strange spirit does not seem to be malevolent, and you cannot say the offenders did not have it coming when each one agreed to play his little games.

In the beginning, control over his body being forcefully ripped away would leave Yugi tired and completely unaware of the other spirit taking his frame for a little ride, and even after taking note of the string of amnesia, he could still only speculate that something wasn't entirely right with him after completing the Puzzle. After a certain series of trials known as Death-T, though, not only was Yugi's other half confirmed to himself and his group of friends, but he was able to retrain all memories of what his other half did while in control of his body. There is no method they can use in order to communicate, the two only having shared one conversation when the weaker of their little duo of pointy hair was trapped in an inanimate object, and the stronger appears to only take control in times of extreme emotional distress.

Yugi, while no astute student or prodigy, is generally quite knowledgeable about most kinds of games. His home was planted on top of his grandfather's prided game shop, the likes of which imported many kinds of games from many places across the globe (and time), and his interest in them lead him to study a great number of games that most teenagers his age have never heard of.

A busy father constantly out across the world on business trips left the Mutou house with one less member throughout most of his childhood and teenaged years, and while he loves his father dearly, it would be a bit of a lie to say that his parental figures laid more of the shoulders of his present mother and roommate of a grandfather. Losing them, as well, to the odd “worm holes” created by the tide have taken quiet the toll on him.

Yes, that hair is natural. No, don't ask how.

Is a bully magnet. This guy got the snot beat out of him every other day at Domino High, and probably still gets the snot beat out of him every other week here at the Institute.

Hopes to join the Vanguard upon graduating from the Institute, but fears that without Jonouchi, Honda, and Anzu's encouragement he won't be able to do much to help the cause. Worse, still, is that his lack of physical strength an intellect has had him tossed around many study paths, most all of which he has managed to fail spectacularly in.

He tries very hard to keep the existence of his other self hidden, mostly out of fear that the idea of being possessed by a very vengeful spirit will scare away what few potential friends there are in the city. The few instances where the Other Him has taken over and was caught in the actions have been, albeit with great difficulty, pushed aside with such excuses as “practicing for an acting role” or “not feeling very well”, although he fears the day when faculty or the Guard recognizes that all is not what it seems.

LAST APP: serdjan aleskovic

ACCOUNT: @yugi

CLAIMS: "Yugi Mutou" from "Yu-Gi-Oh! Season Zero"

ART CREDIT: admittedly, i lost the credit. sorry. c':