REQUIEM ( joey )

[archadia]

no one can blame you for walking away
^{daddy, daddy, get me out of here ; i'm, i'm underground}

‘Let your most important friend send you to another world, Yugi.’

The scaffolding is gone -- the chains, the anchor -- but when violet flickers closed, Marik Ishar can remember looking through another man's eyes to find it all set up again. Something long dormant shifts and Marik flinches, turning away from the pier. Tanned fingers dig into his skull, tousling platinum hair. He dreams of it, sometimes. Marik has always been used to nightmares. That -- that darker part of him left him with images of carnage and death. Anger expelled through the pain of others. Marik knows the horrors well. And while that part of him, that part that was gone -- right? -- would have laughed, the memories of what he did shook him worse than his dark's dreaming.

Ishizu and Odion did their best to console him. All their words of advice and reassurance fell short. Sending the Pharaoh off to the Underworld wasn't enough to ease his own conscious. The whispers in his head had stopped. The silence was strange. And in it, he found he could nothing but think. Self-loathing and guilt spread so quickly, so violently, he feared his head wouldn't be his own for much longer. It was the fear that drove him to return to Japan. Fear that he would lose control, that maybe it would drive him to hurt his sister, to hurt Odion this time. That maybe he'd go to Japan anyway, but against his better judgment, against his will. The people that his dark would want to crush, those were the people Marik desired forgiveness from. It was a selfish endeavor but without it, Marik could not sleep.

The blonde let his hand fall from his hair. He turned his face toward the sun, the warmth still as fascinating as the first day so long ago, the day that changed everything. Maybe this was -- "A bad idea," he murmured. Curses in his native tongue bubbled in his throat but he swallowed them down. He couldn't go back. Not yet. He came all this way: it wasn't going to be for nothing. Marik wasn't going to risk becoming that man again.

He needed to find Yugi Motou.

[Joey Wheeler]

Joey slowly walked around the the city until he found himself at the port. This was where all of the craziness started at for him and his friends a year ago. His brown eyes scan the area, a few people walked around that day, enjoying themselves as if nothing bad would ever happen to any of them. ever since helping out Yug and the Pharaoh, his whole life had changed for him in more of a better way then a bad. He went from always being angry to actually feeling happy about all of the things around him.

For a time after the Battle City Tournament and trying to show Atem his own past, getting home from all of the that, he himself had time to sit down and thinking about everything ever since making friends with his own group plus extending out of their small group, most of all with Mai. But there was one nagging feeling with the three that came out of Egypt the one who had his most attention was that Marik guy. I have my fist with his name on it... He shook a fist in the air along with making one of his face of anger, imagining punching Marik in the face, making a couple that walked by jump back from his small commotion.

Joey then sighed, sticking his pockets into his jeans and conituing his walk. He looked out over at the sea and then finally someone caught his eye. "It's him." He muttered over his breath, holding a thick Osakan/Brooklyn accent.

((OOC: I don't know which one D: ))

[archadia]

no one can blame you for walking away
^{daddy, daddy, get me out of here ; i'm, i'm underground}

Yugi Motou.

Marik felt the familiar pang of anger that wasn’t entirely his own. Usurped by memories, the pain he’d never forgotten that marred the skin of his back: the tomb keeper had to shake his head to remove the thoughts. No. He was alright. It hadn’t been the Pharaoh’s fault and it hadn’t been Yugi’s. It was alright. He thought of his sister’s soothing words. He thought of Odion’s gruff voice. He thought of the life he had now, the chance to start again. That past – he was letting go of it. Had let go of it. Yugi was his best chance. Yugi was his only chance.

Nodding, Marik turned away from the water. He hesitated, unsure of exactly which way to go. Yugi was sure to be popular enough that asking his whereabouts would at least get a vaguely accurate response but Marik was sure there were people that would recognize his face. He may have left Dominoe on a better note than he’d arrived then, but what he’d done wasn’t so easily forgiven. Yugi, Odion, Kaiba, the woman Mai, Téa, Bakura, Jo --

Joey.

Shock rippled though his tanned figure. Flickers of the deathtrap he'd set up to kill Yugi jumped to the front of his vision. It was that one he'd used. Yugi's best friend, with the power of the Rod. 'Tsubuse. Tsubuse. Tsubuse. Tsubuse.' Marik wasn’t an idiot. He knew that Joey had seen him. Worse yet, he knew of Joey's temperament. This wasn't a good situation for him. He should have found Yugi. He shouldn't have put it off. He was in trouble.

Marik didn't move. Like a deer in headlights, he held his ground, staring across the distance between them. What else could he do? He couldn't run -- he refused to run -- and he knew Joey wouldn't let him just walk away. Marik was too important for that. But approaching him was out of the question. Marik wasn't quite sure which one of them was the prey in Joey's eyes, but it certainly felt like him. He didn't like being at the mercy of others.

But Marik steadied his breathing and waited. He couldn't find atonement if he didn't confront his sins. And Joey had been caught in the crossfire of many of them.

[Joey Wheeler]

Joey felt his fist go back as he watch Marik just stand there, ready to take what ever punishment he was about to give him. Finally they could've been considered face to face, Joey was shaking hard from a decision to actually plant one on Marik's face, but something get the better of him and made him thinking of what everyone would say to what he did. Joey gridded his teeth and he slowly put his arm down. "Tat wouldn' be right." He mumbled his dark eyes looked down. "You must already be sufferin'." Joey added looked up at him, still having the adrenlaine going through his system.

Joey turned around on his heels and faced the opposite way of Marik. "If you're lookin' for Yug, he might be at teh shop." Joey crossed his arms, looking to his left, trying to look at Marik from the side of his eye. "You try ta do any funny business... I'll make sure to punch extra hard." His eyes narrowed down as Joey turned his head around once more. Joey wasn't way too sure as to what Marik could do anymore, but he wasn't going to take any chance with him around Yugi.
I'll make sure he does nothin' to Yug. He nodded quietly to himself.

[archadia]

no one can blame you for walking away
^{daddy, daddy, get me out of here ; i'm, i'm underground}

He wasn't surprised by the fist. By the anger. By the incoming threat of getting his ass kicked. He was surprised when it went away. And the words -- insightful without meaning to be: 'You must already be sufferin'.' Ra, yes. Marik had thought that someone acknowledging it would have made him feel better. Instead, he sunk to a new low. He was being pitied, pitied and hated and shut out. There was no solace in his pain being recognized. How much did he have to do to tip Ma'at's scales in his favor? How much did he have to do to accept what he'd done and be okay? Could he ever?

The downward spiral of thoughts, of Joey's (probably mistaken) kindness, left him more shell-shocked than having run into him at all. "That's. It?" The words slipped off his tongue before he could stop them. Regret followed. He shouldn't have opened his mouth at all. This was some demented sort of good luck and provoking Joey to go back on it wouldn't end well for him. Marik wasn't a sadist, contrary to what others thought. The last thing he wanted was to fight Joey. Or rather: get pummeled by him. He couldn't fight back. He didn't have the right to. Not after everything that happened. The muscles in his shoulder's tensed, waiting for that fist to rise up from Joey's side again. Idiot, he chided himself.

Hoping to right it, Marik opened his mouth again. And again he wished he hadn't. "You're just going to let me see Yugi? Unattended? After -- " Marik winced. He was ready to punch himself. His eyes, no longer wide and startled, dipped to his feet like Joey's had before. He waited, tense and still, for retribution of any kind to fall on his head. And he realized, in the beat that followed, that he needed it.

[Joey Wheeler]

Joey turned around. "I might as well be it. Unless you really do wanna get socked." He smiled holding a fist up, "But I feel it won't be right." Once more his fist went down, oblivious to Marik's shrinking back. He walked a few steps forward and felt a lightly breeze that went through his puffy, blond hair and sighed. Why do you have so much regret? Joey wondered as he turned around. It's Yugi that you'll need ta talk to. Joey thought back to the time that he had bullied Yugi, of course the guilt had slowly gone a way to the point that he would now help is friend out.

Joey's dark eyes narrowed slightly. "Don't tink I won't leave you alone with him... I don't trust you quite yet." He said, taken aback that Marik looked down like a person that was about to get the stuffing beat out of them, Joey should've known better.... Once more Joey walked over to Marik this time he took the scuff of his shirt into his fist, lifting him up slightly a deep frown on his face. "I ain't leaving you along with Yugi." He said quickly, "But I ain't gonna punch you unless he doesn't accept you. You should get his forgiveness first." Joey then let Marik go, "He's better at the judgment of friends then I will ever will be." He concluded.