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'Well, if you've got no further objections I suppose we need to head back inside and come up with a plan. I'm hoping the priestess has something, otherwise we maybe need to get Isis back on the phone, or hunt down another occult specialist. Someone with a more in depth knowledge of practicing dark arts perhaps. I think we've gotten all we are going to get from this book, and loathe as I am to do Domon any favours I may as well ensure he gets his tome back. I'll send it via courier however, I've no desire to meet the man again if we don't have to.'

((Hmm, that doesn't seem to fit the tone of the show somehow, so long as the books don't do it I'm all for any kind of silly frivolity though. My favourite board game atm - being doing board game nights lately, though most of the people I meet with are leaving Birmingham at the end of June sadly - is Avalon. In it you are either good and fighting for Arthur or bad and fighting for Mordred (but your character is randomly drawn so game of intrigue). To get into the feel of questing we've added an element that whoever is the 'king' (it rotates, so good and bad people all end up as the king at some point generally) has to outline what the quest is. The very first time we played it became a Pokemon vs Yugioh thing and the quests turned into things like destroying Yugioh (*fist shake*) or prostituting sexy Pokemon, etc. Myself and one Pokemon guy took it personally (not that I'm against Pokemon, but YGO is definitely the better card game) - in a good fun kind of way - and so every time I throw a quest he doesn't like he claims it's because he destroyed Yugioh. FYI, I claim he only destroyed GX. razz ))

Seto followed Jounouchi back inside where he tried to eavesdrop on what was being discussed before altering everyone to their return. He just didn't want the room to turn to him and Jounouchi, as they were hardly more prepared for the situation than anyone else. He noted that it was currently his brother speaking, he wondered if Mokuba was still furious with him.

((Yea the situations don't really matter so it's more for the fun of storytelling, though some people do decide to vote against quests not because they don't trust the quest makers to be on 'their' side but because they don't like the quest. Usually only at the beginning of the game though, when it starts to count they tend to just begrudgingly accept we are going on a quest to buy them - a big burly male - a dress and tiara. Also, yesterday we tried playing with an unknown ratio of good to evil characters. The rules state the good to evil ratio (with there always being 1 or 2 less evil people) for the number of players, but instead we pulled the characters blindly save that we did make sure to put in Merlin and the Assassin so there was definitely one of each. Other than that it could have been way overpowered for evil or way overpowered for good but even the good and bad guys might not know the full extent on what they are getting into. Good more challenged then bad as there is really only one evil character who hides from the evil characters. He's more of a chaotic evil and a free ranger, that Oberon. smile But yes, it's a really fun game, you need at least 5 people but each play through can be pretty quick, generally nevermore than 30 minutes and usually less. I'd definitely recommend it to someone into board games so long as they'll have the numbers to play with from time to time.))

'We haven't really found anything we can work with at the moment. The priority right now is finding out if we can either kill the shikigami or break the contract. The book might then give us a few leads on who, but that's obviously not the best line to follow until we know if finding the person holding the contract will even be of use. Immediately, however, we need to definitely find ways to avoid possession outside of this shrine as I doubt we are going to trick this spirit twice. After that any other sort of protection that might protect life, even temporarily, would be an ideal acquisition,' Seto explained, entering the room now that they were noticed. He didn't feel it was his place to suggest Hirutani as the best possible lead, to place Jounouchi at the possible centre of their dilemma. As he had just explained, the identity of the contract holder would only be useful if there was a way to break the contract. Until then it was up to Jounouchi to decide how much he wanted to reveal about his past and those who might be after him now.

((Yea, I mean obviously some of the rp elements aren't as necessary as others. Like we also like to give our king a sword so he can be all official with his quest giving - a sword that of course the assassin likes to steal when opportunities to kill Merlin arise because they didn't sabotage quests well enough. However, you are playing a character - even if you are boringly not one of the 'special' characters and just acting out generic good guy or generic bad guy and the more you get into that the better the game is. So yea, if you do ever try it out let me know what you think. I am a bit fanatically obsessed with it atm, particularly as my main gamer group are finishing up their masters and leaving Birmingham.))

'What is the extent of these?' Seto asked, taking his paper, 'will they just stop possession or will they actually force the spirit to keep a certain amount of distance?'

Seto hadn't expected better, but he was still a bit disappointed that he couldn't do more to keep this thing away from his brother. At least he wouldn't have to worry about this thing getting into everyone else. They should probably take extras if these were just going to be pocket scraps. In case someone lost theirs, or in case as an afterthought they realised there was another person they need to protect.

- - -

'What if we covered our whole bodies in these things?' Honda asked, 'Like we make a giant sheet ward and sure we'll look absolutely ridiculous walking down the street but wouldn't that give us some more space?'

- - -

Seto tried very hard not to just hit Honda after that completely ridiculous question. Truth be told it wasn't a terrible idea, at least elements of it weren't. Yet the way he said it made him suddenly wonder if for all these years Honda and not Jounouchi had been the 'weakest link,' he was certainly the worst duelist.

Honda flushed, embarrassed, yet still a bit unsure how these things work. How could the shrine completely keep the spirit out and at a short distance but a person could only keep something from physically touching them. That said, did distance really make the shrine safe? Supposedly the shikigami could cause a massive earthquake or something from a distance. He'd keep that though to himself, he didn't want to inadvertently give evil any ideas.

'Umm, no I think I'm fine, obviously just be nice if we could hide from this thing, at least until we figure out how to get rid of it from good. Which on that priestess, any ideas on the getting rid of the spirit for good front?'

Seto frowned, 'that plan requires actively seeking the shikigami out, and that is still another route back toward finding the summoner but we still have no evidence that the person who made the contract can break it, assuming they could be convinced to do so. Where exactly would this take us? Other than potentially putting us into a situation where we feel compelled to murder someone human...which if that wouldn't break the contract might not be ideal. Though, just for arguments sake, is there anything to suggest the contract ends if the person who made the deal dies before it's fulfilled?'

Seto knew Jounouchi might not like the murder route, even if it was his own nemesis, but Seto at least wanted to know what all of their options were. Hirutani was a good enough lead to start with, rather than trying to gather some shikigami essence, if there was enough incentive to go after the summoner. Domon had made it sound like that wouldn't really free them from the shikigami, though maybe the priestess knew more than he did.