Atem => victory_road Application

[paythepenalty]

Player
Name: Box
E-mail: n/a
Preferred Contact: eightcorners, PM, or BoxTime#5035 @ Discord
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Victory Road: n/a

Character
Name: Atem
Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (manga)
Timeline: Chapter 338, before the Ceremonial Duel takes place
Canon Resource Links: YGO Wikia

Personality:
(I took some screencaps during my re-read so I just. have those to use.)

Atem's temperament is a steady level of cool. He keeps his head in stressful situations and is able to not only continue to maintain keen observation over his surroundings, such as being locked in a room and still noticing his friend is a little Off or catching the same change in demeanor for a split second, but also come up with a counter attack should he need one. This confident collectedness allows him approach difficult confrontations with a clear mind and sometimes with a shrug when going into an incredibly important duel with no plan. The few times he's not level-headed are either when the danger involves a close friend (falling into his hatred and lamenting that nothing is worth the effort if Jounouchi is dead), someone has been deeply taken advantage of (doing this whole thing when confronting the Player Killer), or, honestly, someone pathetic is groveling (take a gander at this interaction with Haga). The thing these have in common is Atem's sense of what is fair or just. As someone who once dealt out penalty games on the regular, he's developed an idea of how others should be judged for their crimes and/or misdeeds. As the series goes on the presence of penalty games wanes as he learns the concept of kindness from Yugi, but he remains steadfast in his stances. While he makes jabs at people less as the series goes on, he never truly leaves behind the threats of violence.

Though calculating and analytical, Atem takes risks many times. He doesn't know everything, can't always figure everything out on his own, but he'll confidently take what he does know and blaze on with it. Sometimes it's risking everything to play a trick on someone to get out of a situation, or putting all his trust on a rocky relationship to have a better chance of winning a life-saving duel (when Kaiba gives him a certain card before the duel with Yami Marik while stating he could be setting Atem up for failure). He's also prone to placing all his faith on the draw of a card with no visible concern that he might, this time, fail. In Atem's world, as long as he has pride and faith, then everything will turn out just fine. Despite how well he can decipher a situation, he has to be told sometimes how to read and act on it.

Relatedly, Atem leans "all or nothing" with his friendships. He cares deeply for all his friends, and would go to great lengths to protect them. It doesn't take much to enter his circle of friends, the general requirement is for someone to have pride in themselves and what they do, as well as display goodwill a minimum of one time. Though not ready to call Yami Bakura a friend, he does reach to find the goodness in him. He forgives fairly easily as well; as Marik says himself, he did try to kill Atem and friends but Atem wasn't about to let him die in the final duel. Atem believes in the "power of unity", which is basically team work but the kind that involves deep trust, circling back to his risk-taking behavior; if he believes he can trust in someone else 100%, he'll go for it. The concept ruins Kaiba a little bit when they tag duel together.

Atem is a very driven individual who needs mental stimulation. He thrives in a leadership position, able to shift from being bored to firmly commanding soldiers and leading them on a chase to catch a villain (not many people who have never ridden a horse before can just hop on a horse and go, y'know?). He gets very focused on resolving conflicts, be it playing a basic game or dealing with a violent tomb raider. In the early part of the series, he would solve these problems with harsh penalty games after winning a game cleverly set up by himself. Slightly further but still early in the series he's willing to personally inflict harm should the need arise, which he never does (he sticks to card games), so it's more the sentiment of beating someone up rather than actually taking the action himself. However, for all his ability to focus in on a situation, when he's bored he's bored. It's easy to revive him though: put him in a situation where he can provide input (talking to Priest Set when he's being the way he is), introduce Duel Monsters into the equation (thank you Anzu), or any conflict where he can observe, make a play, etc. will help him out.

Atem's focus on the past is best reflected in an aspect of his relationship to Seto Kaiba. Kaiba, someone who looks towards the future and wants to leave his past to literally crumble into the ocean, expresses at one point that his reason for wanting to defeat Atem is because Atem is always looking towards the past. In this relationship and perhaps in general, Atem represents The Past as a concept.

During the events of Duelist Kingdom and the series until then, Atem is prone to betting his life on a game, any game. When stakes need to be laid, he goes for his life from the get-go. At this point in the series he's arguably not fully aware of his personhood, existing only as an "alter ego" or another self of Yugi, so there's not much of a future to conceptualize at all for him. This allows his confidence to become ripe fodder for a reckless handling of life; not just his, but anyone else's. Not only does he express multiple times that he's okay with an opponent dying, more often than not at his very hands, he comes the closest to following through with life as bargaining chips when he duels Kaiba in Duelist Kingdom. Kaiba puts his life on the line and Atem, unable to handle the idea of losing due to his circumstances, is completely ready to take Kaiba's life. He's stopped by Yugi and thus loses the duel. While it's shown near the end of the series to be a trauma Yugi has taken on, Atem seems to have only catalogued the memory at most.

As the series progresses and his bond with Yugi deepens, he offers his life as a bargaining chip less if ever again--after all, it's Yugi's life he values more, now. Despite how much mental real estate is taken up by concerns of the past and who he is/was, Atem has the thought that it doesn't matter if he never gets the answers he wants, as long as he has Yugi he's okay. With how close and deep as his and Yugi's relationship is, Atem does tend to retreat to it instead of further considering what it would be like to have all the answers at all; if everything remains the same with Yugi, then nothing will have to change--nothing will have to move forward. He tries to protect Yugi from the idea of what the future could mean for their metaphysical partnership only for Yugi to insist Atem try to go back home, regain his identity and memories, even if it means never seeing each other again. When regaining his name, he at first tries to get his friends to not worry about using it; the change is scary. This struggle continues until the absolute end, with Atem approaching the Ceremonial Duel with the thought still in his head that he might not want to leave Yugi and friends; does he want to win or lose the duel? Atem leaves that up to destiny rather than coming to a decision for himself.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Sigilyph
Password: Atomic Fireball

Samples
RP Sample: Musebox Thread

Victory Road Sample:
Atem manages to finally light a fire in the middle of the night. He's grateful for the warmth, especially in the tips of his fingers, but it's the light he wanted most. Cradled in his hand is the Millennium Puzzle, still strung on a chain around his neck. Atem may have changed into the clothes in his bag, but he could never bring himself to part from the puzzle.

He shifts on the log he rolled over to the fire and turns the puzzle in his hands, runs his thumb up and down the edges. He feels nothing from it, as though it's been sucked dry of all its essence. As it is now, it's technically little more than a pendant around his neck, though its weight is heavy with memories. It would be easy to dwell on those memories, to shuffle between those he made with Yugi and friends in Japan and those he regained from Egypt instead of thinking about tomorrow.

The fire he's made crackles. Shadows dance in its light. If Atem only looks at the ground he can trace his Sigilyph's shadow as it circles around him like a toy train on a track. It's certainly a strange creature, large and mysterious, but over the past few days of traveling with it he's grown to find comfort in its company.

Atem sighs. He looks up at the sky. It's beautiful, full of stars and a bright crescent moon. The music isn't quite loud enough to ruin the serenity, and Atem has found charm in its presence, anyway. This isn't quite the same as camping during Duelist Kingdom, if not just because the ambient sounds of animals are notably different. Pokémon chittering, chirping, and scurrying are all different from whatever Atem used to hear and catch glimpses of in the dark on Pegasus' island. The sky, however, is just as clear and beautiful without all the city lights to cover it up.

If only he and his friends could be under the same sky.

Sigilyph passes over Atem's stare, floating along its path. He sighs and can't help but smile. This creature isn't very talkative. The PokéDex entry said it circles ancient buildings it used to protect, so perhaps it senses the thousands of years Atem's spirit has been away from the afterlife. Or maybe it's just clingy. Atem doesn't mind either way.

He trails his gaze after Sigilyph. "Don't you want anything to eat? I must have something for you."

Sigilyph, dedicated to the path, makes a noise that Atem has yet to be able to decipher.

Atem presses his thumb gently into the puzzle. "What about sleeping? Is that what the PokéBall is for?"

Another noise and Atem is nowhere closer to understanding the Pokémon. He shrugs and picks the PokéBall from his belt. With confidence gained from doing this a few times already, he quietly summons Sigilyph back into the ball. He looks down at it in his hand. Now he was truly alone in the darkness, except for the company of his memories.