ultrapenumbra | INTRO.

You wake up feeling like you’ve had a rough night’s sleep… maybe a bit jet-lagged, if you’re familiar with the feeling, or perhaps like you, uh, had a little too much to drink last night. Either way, you’re probably not expecting to wake up in a forest clearing, so that might be even more disorienting. It’s not an unpleasant place to wake up, mind. It’s sunny, and there’s a pleasantly cool breeze blowing through. The grass isn’t tall enough that you could get lost in it or that someone could be hiding in it… or something.

There are, in fact, a lot of somethings surrounding you--a veritable menagerie of creatures, some of them adorable, and some of them intimidating… but they seem to be as disoriented as you are. And then, well… you realize something’s a little off about yourself. There’s no pond to look at your new appearance, but… maybe the ground’s a little closer. Maybe you don’t actually have arms and legs at the moment. Maybe you don’t have eyes anymore?

Regardless, something’s definitely up. Fortunately, there’s a path leading out of the clearing, so once you get your bearings and speak with some of the other weird critters you’ve woken up with, you can find… somewhere you can get answers. Well, hopefully, anyway.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jack Atlas, the True King indeed! It would be an insult to consider me anything else! I could crush anyone who dares to stand in my way.

[He scoffs.]

But there are no dimension like you say, or at least none that operate in such a divided manner. [He almost seems... offended? His voice raises.] And is that what folks call the mound of literal garbage floating in the sea nowadays? The 'Commons'? Dare you downplay that which I had to overcome!?

[Relax you didn't do any of that. He's just as upset about it though. Residual Anger About Poverty, apparently.]

I know what battles I have fought. I know what allies I have made. More than anything, I know this knowledge to be true.

[Even if none of this knowledge is his own, none of these achievements are his own. He at least knows they're temporally correct.

Jack's tone lowers to something more acceptable.]

And yet you say you know Jack Atlas? What would be the meaning of this?

Auh....

[The more Jack speaks, the more it feels to him like

1, this isn't Jack Atlas.

2, this... ...Well it doesn't sound like Jack Atlas' world even. Uh.] I, the man Gongenzaka, did not think...

...A mound of garbage..? Hauh..?

That...

...The Commons was beneath the Tops, in the Synchro dimension... ...I saw no such island of garbage...there was certainly the 'underground' of garbage, where those who lost the Friendship Cup such as myself were banished, but...

[He blinks, and blinks quite rapidly.] ...How can this be..? That we know of two entirely different places..? Or even different knowledge of the dimensions..?

[Jack can think of a way.]

Perhaps they're different timelines.

[Of course, though he has little insight on his masters' operations, he believed the times Z-ONE visited had withered from his touch - or perhaps that was something inevitable like his masters feared. In any case, perhaps this was a place left untouched by Yliaster, somewhere so far removed from the end of the world that it had splintered into... whatever sort of mess Gongenzaka had described.

That's about all he has by way of explanation, though.] And Jack Atlas happens to be a constant between the two.

Different timelines....

...Auhhh...I, the man Gongenzaka...suppose that theoretically, there was a time before the four dimensions split, from which things could have been drawn from...

[Confusing..!] AUH...Th-Then there could also be another Kaito...or another Crow, another Edo..!

[Hey go back to that last one.]

Mm, it's hard to say what came first, but it doesn't really matter, does it? We're both here, right now, with memories-

[data,]

-of the same people. They both apparently exist now simultaneously.

[Yeah no that fake head stands straight up at the mention of borb.]

Crow? As in Crow Hogan? You know him too? Are the other Signers there in your world, too?

[Well. He supposes...not, no. He doesn't say that outright, but the fact that he doesn't argue it probably implies the response. He jumps as the head snaps back upward however (AAAAH), and blinks.] Mn!

Of course! He and Shinji helped Yuuya and my other friends, when they arrived in Commons from the Standard Dimension. I later dueled him, in fact!

[And technically forfeited but anyway.] Auh....I, the man Gongenzaka....have not heard of a 'Signer', however...

Shinji? Yuuya...? [He decides to stop asking who people are at this point; they're clearly not from the same world, so asking about figures he clearly doesn't know is an incredibly moot point.

But a Signer isn't a particular person, and if anything, it is...]

You know Crow and myself - fought with us, even - but don't know what a Signer is?

Auh....frankly, Crow and yourself did not appear to know each other either...

[Huh....He sits.] ...We really must be from unique realms, then...

...Mnh. Exactly...what is a Signer though, if I may ask?

['Jack' is astounded.] ...the little brat and I grew up together...

[Yes, truly brothers. This is either exactly how siblings talk about each other or exactly Not That. Incapable of being wrong, the perfect crime.]

A Signer is a servant to an entity called the Crimson Dragon. They can use their connection with the Dragon to call upon powerful cards in duels with incredibly high stakes.

[grumblegrumblegrumble,]

[Gon's an only child so. He has no idea.] Mnh....

I, the man Gongenzaka...Have never heard of it.

I apologize, deeply, [He adds, bowing his head.] But...

Although we are from separate realms, I, the man Gongenzaka, have no doubt that your spirit remains strong! If you are Jack, then it matters not that we must re-meet- I am certain that we shall be able to fight alongside the other again!

[oh hun]

[Good thing Jack doesn't have a mouth cause he'd be grimacing for so many reasons right now.]

...I trust you are a worthy ally as well, if I was willing to lend my power to you in another world. I won't let this body of mine forsake me again!

[His costume head beams eerily.]

When I master its power... I will be a greater force to be reckoned with than you could possibly imagine, you'll see.

[r u ok there jack]

...again..?

AUH-! Of course..! Likewise, I, the man Gongenzaka, shall not crumble under this new form..!

INTRO.

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