if life's a game to you

ʜᴏᴡ's ᴍʏ ᴅʀɪᴠɪɴɢ?

✓ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛs sᴄʀᴇᴇɴᴇᴅ
✓ ᴀɴᴏɴʏᴍᴏᴜs ᴇɴᴀʙʟᴇᴅ
✘ ɪᴘ ʟᴏɢɢɪɴɢ ᴏғғ

slays

To put it concisely: Noa is a spoiled brat. His story is that of riches to rags. He’s accustomed to getting everything handed to him on a silver platter, much less without having to even ask. He retains a sense of aristocracy; while his remarks are shrouded in a thin veil of politeness, he’s often biting, harsh, and quick to criticize. His upbringing has bred additional, unfavorable traits: for one thing, he’s arrogant. He loves to put in little snide remarks wherever he can, his favorite being in that others are pointblank inferior to him.. Ask him what he thinks of you and he'll be brutally honest, though of course refrain from stating if he truly cared about the other's well-being (it's more likely than not that he doesn't). However, this doesn't stop him from 'openly' deceitful and twisting the truth to his advantage. He's manipulative, selfish, and enjoys watching others bend and break to his will. When he wants something, he won't rest until he gets that something, and will use whatever means necessary to assure it will be done as he wishes.

As briefly mentioned, his arrogance reaches painful levels— not only for him, but also everyone around him. You see, Noa believes himself to be better than everyone (except Father); therefore, he’s the natural choice to inherit Kaiba Corperation. This isn’t something that’s entirely delusional; Noa's extremely intelligent. And it’s not just because he was caged with unlimited resources for six long, grueling years and forced himself to absorb everything he could; he’s naturally-inclined, and even before his entrapment, he showed potential. It’s because of his environment that his pride extends to that of a "God complex", as exemplified by his Duel Monsters deck centering around the very notion of him being akin to a holy entity and that, upon being digitized and raised above all others, he's no longer fit to be rudely dubbed as 'human'. Yes. If he's not above others in something, then he will be.

He's commanding and authoritative; coming from someone who appears as little kid, most consider him as just offensively bossy. As of the last six years of his “life”, he's not used to not being large and in charge. "Control freak" would be a good title for him, as anything outside of his control he wants ruled under his thumb. As he’s used to be able to control everything in his own little virtual world, everything must go as planned. And, according to him, it will go as planned, for it's impossible that one would differentiate from how he's predicted. Reading people comes easily enough; despite not being all too familiar with every emotion, he's able to recognize and pinpoint them, usually even if the person in question attempts concealment. And when things don’t go his way, he reacts as a typical spoiled brat would: unpleasantly.

Though he arguably wasn’t the sweetest of children before his death, the virtual world and its subsequent isolation has twisted him into something bitter and hateful. As it would do to anyone in that situation, its warped his mind. Though older than Seto Kaiba himself, Noa's failed to mature past his physical age. As would become evident through his interactions with Mokuba, he hasn't quite grasped the concept of natural human affection. It would appear as if his relationship is based on the textbook definition of a "brother", acting as a caricature of the idea itself instead of as anything natural or truly heartfelt. He struggles with love because it's something he's never truly experienced. Mokuba's undying loyalty to Seto completely baffles him. It's only when Mokuba shows Noa (genuine, not something he's programmed) empathy and affection that it becomes something he can begin to reciprocate. Because, yes, as much as Noa is able to recognize and manipulate others' emotions, he still struggles with understanding.

Yet, despite what Noa likes to believe, he's still human. He retains a deep sense of loneliness and a fear of being abandoned – as has already happened to him, whether he can accept it or not. By a long stretch, his deadly sin is envy. Envy, envy, envy. It's where his constant desire to best others comes in—he wants what others have. And, considering everything’s been taken from him upon his death, that is everything. But there's a little more to it than that. Noa, above all else, wishes to be truly cared for. As he refuses to acknowledge this, despite realizing it, he instead chooses to show these human desires through... less than kind means. As witnessed with Yuugi and his friends, with Noa having none of his own, he thus traps them and attempts to destroy their friendships with one other. He wants to show them the true meaning of being completely and utterly "alone". He wants others to suffer while protecting his own fragile ego from the pain its already sustained. Indeed, he takes a sadistic pleasure in doing unto others what the world has done to him.

And thus are born Noa's motivations as the antagonist of the Virtual World arc. He aims to take back what he thinks is rightfully his — Kaiba Corporation, on account of him being the first heir, groomed for such a succession since birth, and overall sense of entitlement and suitability — and take "revenge". He falsely blames Seto Kaiba for his abandonment by his father and consequent suffering, planning to take over his body and regain his place as the proper heir.

This is where things get a little complex! While Noa's abilities should only be applicable in his own virtual world, I'll detail them anyway. To begin: As he acts as "God" of his virtual world, he tends to have godmodding tendencies.

Essentially, this means he can do whatever he pleases. He can recode an individual both appearance-wise and personality-wise. He can control them. He can delete them. He can create intricate, identical clones that otherwise might only be off in their personality. He can warp the environment. As implied, he can brainwash one completely. He can completely reconstruct ones personality doing this, rewrite someone's memories, or even turn them to a mindless drone. He can turn people to stone and instate their slow, virtual death (though, the death also applies to real life). However, these effects can be undone with the introduction of certain stimuli that is consistently applied, such as a long-time friend's continual attempts to snap the hypnotized back to reality combined with the vivid reminder of certain memories.

But this is rather a lot, and again, Noa does not control the world of Empatheias by any means (it isn't virtual, for one). However! I'd like to keep certain physicalities (or lack of, rather) of his character intact. Because of this, I'm going to propose a revised version of his abilities to apply to this new dimension:

His new body would be, for all intents and purposes, not alive. Not necessarily dead, but it would lack a heartbeat, breathing and eating is not required, etc. He does not contract illnesses. Because of this, actually killing him might require more creative means, such as beheading. It's difficult to kill what's not alive, after all. Regeneration of any wounds is slightly faster than the average human. Perhaps as to be expected with someone entirely disconnected with reality, his sense of touch, and thus pain, is dulled.

I'd like to keep his ability to teleport and create holograms. Both would be limited to a radius of fifty feet. In addition to himself, he can optionally teleport whatever he might be touching at the time.

Something was off.

Noa's first, immediate thought was that the system was glitching. But that was impossible; no outsider had tampered with the core code in what felt like years. Besides, his world didn't glitch. Which brought him to the next likelihood: Father had implemented some new level for him explore, some new parameters to test. At first, excitement wells in his chest. A reprieve from monotony. How long had it been since he experienced something new?

But this excitement is quickly dashed as he's not sure if he likes it. There didn't seem anything new or even challenging to it. A forest. It certainly looked life-like, he'd give it that. His footsteps feel heavier than usual, his movements sluggish. It's like gravity is weighing down on him. He tries to send a message to his father for what feels like the umpteenth time. Maybe he'll receive an answer this time. He tries to exit the level. No, what's most "off" is that he's entirely disconnected. Was this the challenge?

"Father?"

His voice calls out tentatively, blue eyes darting this way and that. A knot of apprehension settles in his stomach, followed by a surge of anger up his spine. He begins to step forward; the grass around his feet shrivels, weathers away and dies. The air around him chills as his hands ball into fists. It's a bizarre game construct he's yet to notice, as he's focused on the impossibility of being more anymore alone than he had been even before. But as quickly as those volatile thoughts overtake his mind, he hears the low murmur of a voice, catches movement just on the edge of his vision.

... NPCs? Finally. For all his waiting around, he didn't have the patience for this.

Noa's steps quicken, shoes crunching on forest debris. He steps into what must be warm sunlight, locking eyes with a frail woman. His voice rings sharp and clear, his tone demanding:

"Tell me where I am."