Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Synopsis: A girl going through college wanting to make friends, but is faced with two problems in doing so - her hermit lifestyle and social anxiety. However, as she navigates through college she meets a boy and they become fast friends. But...is that everything?

Warnings: none

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Redd Nichols moved through the campus ways into the cafeteria. Many people were crowded there, laughing and talking, but some were doing homework or sitting alone. She was one of those people. Making friends wasn’t her strong suit, and certainly not on a college campus where she knew next to nobody. She sat at one of the tables which already had a man there, but she made sure to sit on the opposite side of him.

She opened her computer and got to work on a homework assignment. She didn’t have anywhere she needed to be, she could sit in that chair until the campus closed for all she cared. However, the urge to make friends kept nagging at the back of her mind. She just started here, but it seemed like everybody had their cliques. She stole looks at the man from over her computer.

Like her, he had brown hair. It was short and slightly curly, and he had blue eyes. That was all Redd managed to see before he looked up at her. Quickly, she looked back at her computer and hoped he hadn’t caught her.

“Can I help you with something?” The man asked.

“Oh no, no sorry I was just staring off into space.” Redd spoke nervously. Why was this so hard for her to do?

“It’s okay. I’m Sam. Sam Reed.”

“Redd.” She finally looked back up at him.

His eyes were a dark blue, but he had the kindest smile. She gave him a smile back. “What’re you working on if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh just stuff for programming.”

“Ew.” She grimaced, remembering her high school coding class.

“I know.” Sam rolled his eyes. “But it’s what I have to do.”

“Is it your major?” Redd asked.

“Sort of.” Sam typed more on his computer and sighed dejectedly. “I’m a computer science major but this isn’t what I want to do with my life.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Build computers.” Sam’s smile was brought back a little bit. “I’ve always loved building stuff. Computers, Lego’s, Gundam kits, you name it.”

Redd nods. “That’s cool! I’ve built a couple Gundam’s myself, but never a computer. You must be pretty smart.”

“Eh, I don’t think so. It’s just something that comes with instructions and you follow it, just like Lego’s, or IKEA furniture.” Sam clicked his mouse twice before typing more into his computer. “What about you? What’s your major?”

“Oh, General Education for now, at least until I can figure out what I want to do.” She sheepishly looked away. Sometimes Gen Ed majors got some bad reputation, and she didn’t want this potential friend to be put off by her major.

“That’s cool. Any idea of the major you want to declare?”

“No idea yet, but I’m hoping to get there soon.” Redd put her gaze back on her computer.

“I’m sure you’ll get it soon. Hey, I have to run to class, but it was lovely chatting with you.” Sam closed his laptop and Redd could see his broad shoulders. “I’ll see you around?”

“Yeah! For sure!” She smiled and waved as he left the table.

If she saw him again, she would want to strike up another conversation, which means this is possibly her first college friend! She couldn’t wait to tell her uncle.

• ───────────────── •

Getting home around an hour later, she could smell cigarette smoke. Her uncle Lance was home. “Lance? Why are you home? I thought you were working tonight.”

She dropped her bag at the front door and moved through the house, ending up at the back of the house. Lance was standing at the back door, half in and half out. He had a cigarette between his fingers as he turned to look at his niece coming through the house. As he turned however, he revealed a woman with bright blue eyes that seemed to glow. Redd stopped and shifted uncomfortably.

“Hey kid, how was school today?” Lance asked, flicking his cigarette.

“Fine…who is this?” Redd pointed to the woman she’d never seen before.

“Oh her? This is a girl I work with, Maelstrom.” Lance pointed to her with his thumb.

Redd sensed something wrong with her. She noticed Maelstrom had her hood up, but it seemed like something underneath it was jutting up under the hood. Aside from that, something was just…off.

“Nice to meet you.” Redd noticed the air was stiff.

“You too. Lance, I should probably take my leave.” Maelstrom spoke with urgency.

“Alright, I understand.” Lance and Maelstrom seemed to share a knowing glance, one that made Redd uncomfortable.

Maelstrom shouldered past Lance and past Redd before leaving out of their front door. She blinks a little before looking at her uncle. “New girlfriend?”

“No, I work with her.” Lance took a drag from his cigarette.

“Uh huh, and what was that look at the end?”

“She’s married.” He avoided the subject. “Besides, she’s not my type.”

“What kind of name is Maelstrom?” Redd asked.

“The kind of name you shouldn’t utter so casually.” Lance threw his cigarette down and stomped it out. “So, spaghetti for dinner?”

“Sure. Wait, hold on, you can’t say the first part and not elaborate. Is she one of us?” Redd asked after Lance closed the door.

“No. She’s just someone I work with sometimes. A boss of a boss of a boss of my boss.”

“You never tell me what you do.”

“And for good reason. What happened at school today?”

Redd decided to drop it. Lance was normally dodgy about his work life. “Fine. I met a man today.”

“Man or boy?”

“He seemed like a man to me. His name is Sam.” She smiles at the memory.

“What did I tell you about men?”

“I know, I’m going to get to know him more before I trust him. I got it.” She put her hands up. “You really think I’d reveal everything to him on the first day?”

Lance chuckled and ruffled her hair. “Atta girl. Now come help with the spaghetti. You want garlic bread?”

“Oh do I!”

• ───────────────── •

First chapter wohoo! I know its probably a slow and weird start, but I promise this will pick up soon. Thank you for reading this far, and I hope you enjoyed!

Nothing Builds a Friendship Like a Crisis

Co-written with multifandoms27 Summary: You wanted to work in peace, but a certain CEO wanted you to take on a job for him. Dub canon plus a version of DSOD. Female Reader. Set maybe two years post DSOD. Fun fact: I always write my Reader character with personality and specific description. This means she may not be as generic as is customary for this type of story. Each reader character also has a specific place in the Yu-Gi-Oh world, and is basically an OC with set connections and feelings about the various canon characters and other reader characters. This is reader B, who is immune to the siren song of romance, cheap, eccentric, logical, and hands-on. Word count: 1,100 It felt lonely after Yugi and his friends’ graduation. Over the course of the three prior years, while you had worked at Kame Game, Yugi had slowly pulled you into his friend group. Always slow to form emotional connections, you found you were no match for Yugi’s bright smile and quiet nudging to join in the fun. And despite being four years older, you had been well integrated by the time Yugi graduated—although, truth be told, you were only marginally aware of how much you had come to delight in spending time with the group. At least, until it ended, then you became keenly aware. Téa left to study in New York. Tristan was working full time in his dad’s factory. And Joey spent his days working a collection of odd jobs and chasing down his dream of becoming a professional duelist. And then Joey started dating your younger sister, and it felt like losing two friends at once. Fortunately, you and Yugi grew closer, starting Pharaoh Games together, designing a few games which the two of you sold for a slight profit at a small scale. And Mokuba started to swing by; he latched onto you, quickly becoming close. It was Mokuba who hired you and Yugi to design the proof of concept game for his older brother’s new solid vision holograms. And that was how, amidst a whirlwind year and a half project, you met Seto Kaiba. He was the most interesting human you had ever met, he designed incredible things, and he loved his little brother—the three shortcuts to winning your favor, all in one person. You and Kaiba worked well together—which Mokuba encouraged—and to your surprise, by the end of the project, Kaiba was going out of his way to talk to you, tell you about his plans, and ask for your advice on specific elements of scenario design for his own Solid Vision projects.

You even tried to help Kaiba win a bet with Pegasus, and although the two of you eventually lost, it did help create a true bond between you, (especially when it came time to pay up.) Still, once the Solid Vision game was completed, Kaiba moved on to other projects, and you were left with nothing to return to but quiet work at the game shop. It was a good job, a good life, and Yugi was a good friend; but you missed spending time with someone smarter than you, someone who built imaginary worlds from light, someone with impressive dreams for the future. It felt like, after years of hearing about Yugi’s adventures, you had been swept up into the edges of something grand, only to be dropped again back into the mundane—and there were fewer friends to share it with now.

Still, the Kaiba brothers both kept in contact in their own way, and you had low social needs, so it all seemed like it would work out. 

While working alone at the game shop, you flipped the radio on. An old fashioned trumpet fanfare blasted out of the speakers as you scrambled to turn the volume down. You were all too familiar with the melody—the theme song for a rapidly ascending game company, Knightly Rook, which had been in an advertising blitz for almost a month now. From your admittedly biased perspective, the company seemed more hype than substance, but it was the company’s snide, barely concealed jabs at Kaiba Corp that irritated you. Still, there was a lot of talk from the company’s popular president that Knightly Rook would soon go public, so for the moment, even the news was covering their rise to prominence.

At your hip, your cell phone went off, playing the Kaiba Corp theme. Switching off the radio, you popped the phone out of its clip and answered it. “Kaiba?” 

“You’re taking Mokuba to Kaiba Land tomorrow.” Kaiba rarely bothered with the customary social dance that defined most people’s conversations.

Had you forgotten about a plan made months ago? You switched to your calendar app, “No, I’m not. I’m working tomorrow.” You liked jumping straight past the niceties too. “Besides, I don’t remember asking you to plan my schedule.”

“You should. You wouldn’t make yourself a long-term plan if I paid you to do it.” Kaiba gave a harsh little laugh. “Yugi can run the shop. I want to hire you to assist Mokuba for his park inspection tomorrow.”

“Don’t you usually do the monthly park inspection with Mokuba?” You switched your phone to speakerphone, setting it down and grabbing a box cutter. “Besides, Yugi’s out of town this week.” Cutting open a few boxes of supplies, you began to check the contents against the provided invoices.

After a moment’s silence, Kaiba gave a little growl, “Why is Yugi in New York?”

He must have checked Yugi’s duel disk location. “He’s visiting Téa.”

“Fine. I’ll pay Mr. Muto to give you the day off.”

“Honestly, just wait a couple of days and—“

“Do you think you’re not up to the task? Is that why you’re turning this opportunity down?” 

“Hey, we both know I’m capable of keeping up with Mokuba. I’ll be available in a few days. You don’t even have to pay me.”

“I’d rather you did it tomorrow. And I’ll pay you. The last time someone other than me did the inspection with Mokuba, he ended up covered in wet paint and quit.”

Not surprising. Mokuba could be something of a feral gremlin with anyone he didn’t like. You sighed. “What time will a car be picking me up?” You weren’t going to pay for parking at Kaiba Land if you could help it.

“Nine. I’ll have someone fax you your W-4. Fill it out and have it ready for tomorrow.”

“Okay.” You marked off the last of the supplies on the invoice. “Anything I need to read up on tonight?”

“I’ll send you the latest security protocols. But be sure to destroy the papers after you read them.”

“Security proto—Kaiba what’s going on?”

“I’m handling it. But I don’t have time to accompany Mokuba tomorrow. Just keep an eye out.”

You sighed again. Why did Kaiba have to be secretive? “Fine. But I’m not a bodyguard. I don’t have the right training.”

“Mokuba will have guards with him.”

You set down your pencil. “That’s good. Will we see you tomorrow?”

“I doubt it.”

“Well, I’ll keep Mokuba out of trouble.”

“Bye.” Kaiba hung up. Abrupt as always. Hopefully, you wouldn’t make any embarrassing mistakes tomorrow. If Kaiba trusted you, then you had no intention of letting him and Mokuba down. Part 2

Hi! I recently came across your posts and wanted to make a request if that’s okay. I’d like a tutorial on how I use this app, as well as notifications on when you add more stories. I’d also like to request some sleep and constant affirmation that your boyfriend is a hotty, specifically that he is very smart and his ff14 character ship of Au Ra and Miqote relationships are very Pog.

I’m very exhausted, but hey I somehow managed this shit lol see you soon love

Hello my love! Everybody, this is my boyfriend Luka. He's the co-writer for my story "Not What It Seems" over on @jwritesstuff4!

Now, assuming you're on mobile (I know you are old man <3), the home button takes you to your home screen. There you'll see posts from people and specific tags you follow. The magnifying glass button allows you to search, and Tumblr will give you some suggestions underneath the search bar.

The video camera button is Tumblr LIVE. No idea what it is, so don't concern yourself with it. The smiley face icon is where you can see notifications of people who liked your comments, reblog/like your posts, or when someone mentions you, answers your ask (request), or when someone you have notifications on for posts. Finally, the little person icon is where you can see your Tumblr account and change things about your blog.

As for turning notifications on, go to my blog(s) and in the upper right corner, you'll see some icons. Click the little person icon and it will prompt you with a few things. Click "get notifications" and voila! You'll get notifications every time I post.

Lol hun, I already know you're a hotty. And yes our ff14 characters relaitionship is very pog. I've been thinking about introducing ff14 to this blog, you think I should?

Yes you did somehow manage this. I'm proud of chu. See you soon my love <3

Nothing Builds a Friendship Like a Crisis (part 2)

Co-written with multifandoms27 Summary: Kaiba hired you to assist Mokuba for one day as Mokuba performed his monthly inspection of the local, Domino City branch of Kaiba Land. You were totally up to the task, until things spiraled out of your control in the worst way possible. Dub canon plus a version of DSOD. Female Reader. Set maybe two years post DSOD. Fun fact: I always write my Reader character with personality and specific description. This means she may not be as generic as is customary for this type of story. Each reader character also has a specific place in the Yu-Gi-Oh world, and is basically an OC with set connections and feelings about the various canon characters and other reader characters. This is reader B, who is immune to the siren song of romance, cheap, eccentric, logical, and hands-on. Word count: 1,495 You can read part 1 here.

Mokuba was dressed for work, wearing a button up shirt, tie, and dress pants. If he were in an office, the choices would have seemed normal, but since the two of you were spending the day in an amusement park, he looked quite out of place. At the moment, Mokuba was talking to each of the attendants working in the arcade, asking them questions, looking at spreadsheets, and trying to gauge how popular the newest game cabinets were. You wore your usual cargo capris, brightly colored socks, and a t-shirt decorated with little images of Scapegoat ringing the ends of the sleeves. Atop your head you wore a baseball cap and sunglasses; you had no intention of being identified in any paparazzi photographs if you could help it—fame seemed like more trouble than it was worth.

Standing around, you eyed the snack bar, wanting one of the neon colored slushies marked as “extremely sour” on the menu board, but simultaneously not wanting to spend your money on overpriced theme park drinks. Men in dark suits and sunglasses loitered around as well—Mokuba’s security detail: Cole, Bishop, and… you couldn’t remember the names of the other two. Eventually, Mokuba finished talking with the employees, and walked back. You helped him sort his notes—asking questions, listening closely to his answers, acting like both of you were adults, even though Mokuba wasn’t one, and you rarely felt like a grownup. The guards did a good job of gently brushing away anyone who tried to approach without permission, as Mokuba finally concluded he was certain all Kaiba Corp regulations and standards were being met in the arcade. It was time for fun. Starting with rhythm games before moving on to dancing games, you and Mokuba had a blast. After working up a bit of a sweat, you leaned against the metal handrail attached to the dancing game, “Why are you so good at this?” Mokuba grinned at you, “Practice.” “Practice? I don’t want to have to practice to get good at games!” You enjoyed joking around with Mokuba, it felt natural, almost like he was your little brother—no, thoughts like that were dangerous. Even if Mokuba had taken a shine to you, there was no way the Kaiba brothers were about to let you into their circle of people they truly trusted and cared about; even Yugi barely managed to make it in, and he was one of the sweetest people in the world. One of the guards, Bishop, approached with a slushy in each hand. You had interacted with him a few times over the past year, and he was always attentive to people’s needs. Gratefully, you took the proffered neon green concoction, surprised at how sour the drink was; you loved tart foods. Beside you, Mokuba chugged down his own pink slushy, giving himself a brain freeze. “Arrrgh, why doesn’t this happen to you?!” You shrugged, “I eat slowly. It has its perks.” The two of you made your way outside, where the bright sunlight and gentle breeze contrasted with the dim, noisy interior of the arcade building. Continuing to sip on your slushy, you wondered if you had somehow overdone it playing dancing games. You did enough cardio workouts in your daily life that it shouldn’t be negatively affecting you like this, but… You forced yourself to keep walking across the park, sipping at your cold drink and trying to act like you felt fine. “Can we go on the new roller coaster now?” Mokuba interrupted your thoughts. “I haven’t had a chance to ride it since it opened two weeks ago.” He turned to face you, “Woah, are you feeling okay?” “Not really.” Talking caused an unexpected spike of nausea. “I think I need to sit down for a minute, but you can go ahead and ride.” What on earth had you done to yourself back there? Mokuba hesitated. “I’ll be fine. You can ride it again with me before we leave.” There was no way you were going to hold Mokuba back, even in such a small matter.

“If you say so.” Mokuba sounded unsure. As though sensing his boss’s uncertainty, Bishop suggested, “We can leave two of the guards with her, in order to make sure Ms. l/n remains undisturbed while we’re on the ride.” Mokuba nodded, “Good suggestion.” He grinned at you, “See ya later.” With Bishop and one of the other guards in tow, the short teen headed for the waiting line.

Smiling wanly at the two remaining security guards, you walked over to a nearby bench, slowly sitting to avoid roiling your stomach further. You watched as Mokuba and Bishop slipped under a velvet rope blocking off the secondary access line to the coaster and made their way to the front. After seeing the two of them start to enter the next available car with the other park goers, you closed your eyes and let your head sink back, glad to be sitting still and resting.

Listening to the people passing by, the soundtrack for the roller coaster line, and the distant screams of riders enjoying themselves, you relaxed. After a few minutes, you began to feel better, which was just as well, since Mokuba was likely to be bounding up any second now. A couple more minutes passed. It was too quiet. Opening your eyes, you realized the roller coaster wasn’t running. Your eyes traced along its brightly colored path; you didn’t see any cars running on the tracks, only empty cars at the loading station, which weren’t being filled. So the previous cars must still be on the tracks, and since you couldn’t see them, it must have been in one of the covered portions. Groaning, you pushed yourself up and made for the ride. With the two guards at your side, it was easy to make it to the front of the line, where a young woman was trying not to panic as she talked into her intercom. Finishing her call, the ride operator covered her face with her hands, “I’m gonna lose my job…” “What’s wrong?” You asked as you approached, eyes scanning over the ride’s control panel as you spoke. Noticing you and the guards, the young woman tried to straighten up, “Oh, uh, one of the magnetic brake systems completely engaged when it wasn’t supposed to, and now the ride is stopped at the top of the second peak.” She pointed to the relevant part of the ride, which was covered by an outer tunnel, hiding the cars from view. “I’m hardly an expert, but that can be caused by a sensor malfunction causing the security protocols to engage, right?” You wished you knew more about how roller coasters worked. The young woman nodded, “That’s right, but if that happens, I should be able to fix it by restarting the system, and it’s not working!”

A rapidly approaching helicopter almost drowned out your next question, “How long before someone gets out here to fix it?”

“A technician should be here in a couple minutes, but I don’t—” the helicopter was too loud now, drowning out the ride operator’s words. It seemed louder than the Kaiba Corp copters you had been near a few times.

Squelching down your unease, you moved to get a better look at the helicopter, which was unmarked. The copter stopped over the place where you knew the roller coaster cars with Mokuba were stuck, and two men jumped out onto the roof of the tunnel. Was this a rescue operation? Turning to yell to the two guards with you, you saw them motioning to one another in a way that made it clear this was not supposed to be happening. At this angle, it was hard to see what the men from the helicopter were doing, but they appeared to pry a panel off of the tunnel and drop down inside.

More black suited men were arriving at the loading platform now, shouting terse commands and code words you recognized from studying the security protocols last night; this was bad.

Some of the guards began to make their way into out-of-bounds maintenance areas, drawing guns from their suit jackets and preparing to climb steep emergency staircases up towards the place Mokuba was trapped. Caught up in watching the security men, you failed to notice what was happening until the ride operator grabbed you and pointed. Three men were rising from the hole in the tunnel, with a bound but struggling Mokuba in tow.

“Mokuba!!” The helicopter drowned out your cry, as the four figures disappeared inside. The roller coaster cars suddenly started moving again, its passengers’ screams becoming audible as the helicopter began to fly away, rapidly disappearing in the distance.

Leaning back against the side of the control panel, you slid to the ground, your knees almost touching your shoulders. “Mokuba…” This time the word was barely audible, your throat tight as tears threatened to spill from your eyes.

Well, it’s like what you said here

EXPECT. we do one for each other! you get what I mean?

Oh yeah I get what you mean! Sorry for the late response, I've been pretty busy with family stuff :)

All the people who think Seto Kaiba and Alexis Rhodes/Asuka Tenjoin look alike (and are potentially related) say aye