SCREAMS OUT LOUD because you have found my Favourite Thing™ everything i say here is from plotting with my jou's ship-exclusive kaiba, @brothersaved, who i adore so completely <3

i love kaijou / violetship because when its done well, it is just chef's kiss. to me, jou and seto go from these young, hot-headed, deeply angry teenagers still reeling from their traumatic childhoods and the frankly insane things that happened to them over the course of their time in high school, to these two much more tempered, more leveled out versions of themselves that come into being in the years after. they are two people who sort of stumble back into each other's lives unexpectedly, and clash again in that familiar, passionate way they remember so distinctly from before. but there is so much less malice, so much less anger and jealousy and blind rage. because they've each gotten perspective a little, healed a little. and now they're a little more ready to see eye to eye.

things are awkward and fumbling with them, and they bicker constantly but it's friendlier. their relationship is falling into old habits and fighting to make new, better ones. its making out with someone because they're sexy and aggravating and complicated and beautiful. its closeness without giving it a name, until you do, and you never want to stop saying the word lover. its having someone to return home to after business trips and tournaments and bad days and long shifts. its being too stubborn to ask for help for all your life until one day you do. and you never knew it could just be that easy.

jou and seto work best with that bit of distance and time. they're too hateful, too wound up in their competitiveness, their commitment to misunderstanding each other, their want to hurt one another when they first meet. there is no respect or love there, and i don't think at that time, either of them is willing to bend enough to let there be love there. sure, there may be an initial attraction, an aggravating, frustrating attraction, because there is such an intensity of emotion between the two of them ( and that attraction comes back full force when they meet again as adults, i assure you ) but this can't be the basis for anything that lasts.

it is my pet peeve when people call it 'puppyshipping' because it has all the WORST connotations about what this ship can be in fanon. it's something where seto disrespects jou fundamentally for all he is and jou never seems him as anything more than an asshole and a bully. they never make any progress past hating each other in high school. it's always a weird power dynamic, where seto 'owns' jou or something gross, and they are both reduced to their worst, most uninteresting parts. like, i get it, kissing your rival because you hate them is all well and good, but its meaningless to me unless your actually pining for them underneath.

"If you must, take me instead of them."

"This is fair. Weird, but fair."

                                           MAZAKI🍑ANZU ♡ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ♡

                  ❝ ━━ Yeah,  no  kidding.  Can  you  imagine  us  working  out  as  a  couple? ❞

     < unprompted--kinda > -- muse: Marik // @brothersaved

     “Keh. . . why so interested in your  rival Kaiba?~ You should be happy that you don’t have to deal with him and his little band of idiots bothering you. . . unless you DO enjoy their irritating company.” Violet eyes glimmer with amusement and dark intents. Whatever the reason, seems that there is something MORE than expected when observing the two.     Of course, that was more the PHARAOH and Kaiba, wasn’t it? The hostility and the constant struggle for dominance over the other--and not in the sexual tension kind of way. Could there be something else with the old vessel of the Pharaoh, the one that has grown beyond it?

barely lucid, halfway between consciousness and the unrestful sleep his body pulls him into every once in a while in an attempt to escape. hands and knees on cold floors, breath that’s slow and laborious, that makes his ribs ache with each heave in and out ( bastards must’ve broken at least two of them, maybe more ). jou is aware of someone else’s presence in the warehouse- the presence of a lot of someones, actually- but, it’s garbled, like he’s underwater. voices far away, too far for him to reach. whether it’s his mind playing tricks on him or someone unkind here to finish what they’ve started he can’t say for sure. 

moments come in and out of focus, jittering, moving too quickly for him to hold onto. the sound of footsteps which has come to mean incoming danger approaches, but he’s defenceless. all he can do is back himself into a corner and wait. but, these footsteps are followed by a call of his name. familiar, although the desperation is new. jou responds with desperation of his own, metal digging into wrists as he moves towards the voice. it can’t be. he can’t be here. incredulous, but hopeful, he manages to life his head, setting weary eyes on seto. 

the sight sends him into a fit, uselessly pulling against binds that give no way, and only serve to agitate previous wounds ( earned from trying the same thing countless times before ). with renewed strength, he pulls away from the wall, as far as he’s able, furiously trying to close the distance. but he’s not fast enough, he’s not strong enough, he’s not-

“set- seto!” voice shaking, everything shaking. raspy, battered, dried blood and bruises and all. although seto’s presence surely means safety, jou can’t help but panic, as if, in an instant, this could all be taken from him. evaporate in front of his eyes like a sick dream. reminding him he’s still trapped here, alone. grasping at the air, unable to reach him, he just repeats his name like a mantra. like if he says it enough, it’ll be real. “seto. seto. seto-” 

//I’m just picturing @brothersaved‘s Kaiba being like this now.