[Thread] From the top...

[black_not_white]

Characters: AU Manjoume Jun, open to whoever
Where: the rooftop of Apartment Building 2
When: mid-afternoon
Summary: Though he's certainly not going to go out completely in the open right now, Manjoume needs some fresh air. Care to poke?
Warnings: Besides Manjoume's easily-irritated nature, it depends on who shows up.

Comments

[eightgemmaster]

Johan didn't often go up to the roof himself. But today he felt like a bit of fresh air, and for once, he decided to go up instead of down. After that whole mess with the Warden...well, he wasn't sure at the moment how anything stood with Yubel and Haou and himself, and he didn't feel inclined to think about it too much right now.

So, he left a note to let Juudai know where he was going to be, making certain to pin it down so it wouldn't fall under a table or anything, and headed upstairs. Ruby Carbuncle was on his shoulder, trilling softly now and then.

When he got up to the top, he saw someone else was already up there, someone wearing black. Johan thought he looked vaguely familiar, and figured he probably lived somewhere on the Paj floor, so he'd likely seen him there.

Johan wandered over to the edge and peered over carefully, trying not to bother the other young man. It did look to be a long way down.

[black_not_white]

The soft sound of footsteps made Manjoume aware of the fact that he was no longer alone on the roof. Not that he had been about to insist any time soon that it was his roof or anything - it was public area too, just out-of-the-way public area. But still, the fact that there was someone else there... didn't completely ruin any peace that there might have been, but it certainly didn't go unnoticed.

A brief glance to the side told him that it wasn't anyone he actually knew, who had come to the roof. He thought he might have seen the other one around in the hallway or something, but that was the only connection he could make.

Because it was no one he knew, he decided not to say anything for the moment. If the other young man decided to say something, he would respond, but he wouldn't initiate.

[eightgemmaster]

Johan moved a bit back from the edge; he was not in any mood to end up a splatter on the pavement. He shivered some at a gust of wind and wrapped himself more tightly in his fleece jacket. At least that had come through the Event That Hadn't Happened better than the shirt he'd worn then had.

He glanced again at the other, and decided it would be rude to not at least introduce himself. "Johan Andersen," he said after a moment, holding his hand out politely.

[black_not_white]

Johan Andersen... He vaguely recognized that name, from somewhere. He'd heard it, once or twice before, though he couldn't remember the context right now. He shrugged it off, for now - if it was important, he would figure it out.

But since Johan was being polite and introducing himself, it would only be polite to respond in turn. "Manjoume Jun," he introduced himself, accepting the handshake.

[eightgemmaster]

Johan tilted his head some; that name sounded familiar to him. He glanced at Ruby on his shoulder curiously, and she trilled, answering the question he didn't even have to ask. He looked back at Manjoume, then.

"I think we come from worlds that are...similar. Probably not the same one, though." He reached into his pocket and drew out his deck, spreading it slightly to show what he meant.

[black_not_white]

A glance to the shoulder. Manjoume had dealt with spirits before - even if he couldn't see them anymore, he knew what such an action meant, when Duel Monsters was involved. He said nothing, but took a mental note anyway.

"You're probably right," he replied, pulling out his own deck - the Armed Dragons of North School. "Another duelist then, huh? There are a lot of us, here, apparently."

[eightgemmaster]

"And most of us seem to live down there in Paj." Johan grinned slightly at that as he glanced at Manjoume's deck. He thought he recalled the one that he'd seen duel Juudai in his world using something else, but given the differences in worlds and times, that didn't mean much. "I'm in Paj-Tria."

[black_not_white]

"Paj-Enas," Manjoume replied. "So you live next door, then. With Judai, right?" He was pretty sure that that was where the older one lived.

It was kind of noteworthy, when thinking about it, that so many versions of people he knew lived on Paj - he, himself, hadn't had a particular reason why he had chosen to live where he did, but so many on one floor couldn't just be coincidence. Maybe it had to do with some of the things he'd heard, about some of the things that had happened before he'd been brought here, but he wasn't going to dwell on it too much.

[eightgemmaster]

Johan nodded, a warm, caring smile flickering across his features at the mention of Juudai. "I think I've seen you in the halls before...and I know I've heard of you in my world. I watched you duel my Juudai there once." He wondered if he should mention the results of the duel...Manjoume having lost, but having performed so well that it freed him of being a slave duelist and returned him to the ranks of a noble duelist.

[black_not_white]

"Oh?" Manjoume asked, his eyebrow perking a little. Regardless of everything that had happened in his life, he still took pride in himself, and having never met another him before (though he had been told a few things), he was admittedly somewhat curious about how he fared in other worlds, and if there were any stylistic differences.

[eightgemmaster]

From what he recalled of the reaction of most of the people around here when they'd found out his status, Johan decided it was better not to mention the slave duelist aspect directly. It was perfectly normal to him, but other people could be strange about it.

"He won, but you did very well, enough so that you were knighted," Johan said. That was the truth, though not the full truth, of course. "If I remember right, you played a deck of Ojamas. You had him on the ropes at one point." There was the thrill of having seen an amazing duel clear in his voice, as well as pride in Juudai.

[black_not_white]

Judai winning wasn't unexpected - much as he strived to become powerful enough to do so, he himself hadn't ever won a duel against him, and somehow he got the feeling that it wasn't all that different in other universes. Still...

"Knighted, huh?" Though he tried not to show too much besides interest in the subject, he couldn't help glowing with pride for the alternate of his that he had never, and probably would never, meet. To have fared so well against Judai, even if it had ended in a loss...

Of course, this only mattered if the Judai from Johan's world wasn't a useless coward like the one from his own, but the longer he was here, the more he (subconsciously, and it would be fairly impossible to get him to actually admit it, but) began to accept the fact that maybe - just maybe - his was the exception, and it wasn't the other way around.

[What's this? Manjoume, using his smile icon? Gaspeth.]

[eightgemmaster]

"There are generally two kinds of duelists in my world," JOhan said, picking out his words carefully. "The noble duelists and the not-noble ones." He thought of how to phrase it. "Noble duelists can ...sponsor...not-noble ones and if they win enough duels, or perform well enough even if they don't win, they can be knighted and become nobles. That's what I've been doing for the last three years...working on becoming one myself. I was just one duel away when I was brought here. I would've dueled my world's Kaiser Marufuji Ryou."

And he still would. It had just been delayed.

He thought a little more; he wasn't sure if he could remember who Manjoume's owner (or sponsor, if that word was to be used) had been. He had a mental impression of white, but that didn't mean a great deal. It didn't make a great deal of difference, though.

"I get the feeling my world's way of being duelists is kind of rare, though."

[black_not_white]

Manjoume listened to Johan's explanation of the universe where he came from. It was certainly different from how things worked back in his own world, but it still made some sense, thinking it over.

"It probably is rare," was his reply, "but it sounds like it works for your world, at least. And if you've gotten as far as you have, I'm sure showing off enough skill for you to be knighted whenever you get home won't be hard."

The thought didn't even cross his mind to ask who the version of himself in that world's sponsor had been. It probably wasn't even anyone he himself had ever met, anyway, and made little difference, really.

[eightgemmaster]

Johan grinned; he looked forward to that every day. He'd miss the people that he'd met here (well, most of them), especially Juudai and Johan, but it had been going on a year since he'd seen his Juudai and frankly, he worried about him.

A trill from Ruby Carbuncle caught his attention and he glanced over to see what she wanted.

What she said sent a slight frown across his face...and when she held her tail before his eyes so he looked at Manjoume through the gem...

Well. That was interesting.

[black_not_white]

A glance to the side, and a frown. Manjoume had already figured out that there was a duel spirit involved here, even if he couldn't actually see, hear, or otherwise tell that it was definitely there - he couldn't say he hadn't had a good amount of experience with them in his lifetime. The frown made him curious, though - it was the kind of expression that stated that something wasn't quite right.

"Something wrong?" he asked, figuring that it probably wouldn't be a horrible idea to at least know what was going on.