route_1065 | forward dating for the birthday boy

Who: Malik Ishtar & Yuugi Mutou
Where: Ruins of Alph
When: June 4 (forward dated) - ????
Summary: The King of Games takes on yet another ancient puzzle.
Rating: D for d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-duelists
Log:

[It wasn't possible to grow unused to underground tunnels, Malik had discovered. In many ways, stepping into yet another cool, dimly-lit chamber felt like slipping back into an old habit, into a different way of life. Something about his surroundings felt oddly comforting.

That feeling of comfort made him chafe all the more.

Walls. He hated walls, and being blocked away from the sunlight. The skin along the back of his neck prickled; the raised marks of his scars grew somehow cold. He should act today, he thought. He should trap Yuugi Mutou in these absurd little chambers, see how he liked it for a change, mere vessel or no. Yes, Malik's Cofagrigus was back in Goldenrod, busily creating his collateral for the deal with Archer (or so he hoped) - but what was Malik Ishtar if not a master of impromptu planning? Couldn't he handle this much? Why, he'd all but been given the perfect stage!

--Yet if it went wrong, then what? He had too much at stake to risk everything now. It was only a small leap from failing to defeat Yuugi to being publicly denounced as a villain and a criminal across that network - an even smaller leap from there to discovering his Rocket involvement. And should that be uncovered, the Game Corner might be outed, too....

No, Malik had to sit, and wait, and plot, until there was no possible way Yuugi Mutou could defeat him. The day would come. He just had to prepare.]

Well, how's the puzzles? Worth the trip?

[Yuugi turned and blinked at Malik as if he forgot he was there. Something he could surely be forgiven for, right? He'd been bent over studying that wall a while, after all.]

Course- I would've kept wondering if I didn't come. But-

[But, it was weird to end up here like this, without remembering how? It was weird there were no records of half of the last week? That even with the idea to come here spawned from their first arrival, when everything seemed... lighter... Something felt off about this excursion?

Of course, when Yuugi was for it before, he wasn't considering what he knew of his companion, even just to himself.]

-it's too soon to say, though.

[He shook his head and signed for Malik to come closer, frowning at the inscription of a poem on the wall, under the stone puzzle.]

I don't think I know the old Pokémon enough to answer these riddles, but I can try the picture without.

[And doing partly well, if the sections pieced together were any hint. Still.]

I can see why it's not been finished, though. Did you want to take a turn?

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