Aggravation, thy name is Steam. And Google.

So this past day was real fun. **sarcasm.** I wanted to play Duel Links so badly that I fought for hours to get Steam to work so I could play the PC version. Steam never cooperated. I don't know whether something messed up in the download or if there were just too many people signed in at once, but I had a horrible time connecting to the servers to even just sign in, and then whenever I got in, I couldn't get it to connect to the servers to start a download of Duel Links. **headdesk.** I tried switching my download region several times, I made sure Avast and Windows Firewall weren't blocking anything, I tried again after booting the computer up fresh later in the day ... all to no avail. Finally I uninstalled out of disgust. I don't know whether to bother reinstalling and seeing whether I had a faulty installation the first time. Even if I get it to work right, there's no guarantee the game will work. Technically, it says it will only run starting on the next OS up from mine. But Steam itself said it will run on my OS, so that's why I tried installing it. I thought the game would probably play through the Steam app and therefore might possibly work. But I didn't even get the chance to try and see if it would. We do have computers in the house that run on Windows 10 instead, but those are Dad's computers and I'd rather have the game on a computer that's mine. But don't think I haven't been tempted to try anyway. UGH.

(I have wondered if the thing's inability to download the game has anything to do with the fact that for some bizarre reason, the computer switched to not allowing me to download updates from inside programs several months ago. I have to remember to go to the Flash website and download the full version of the update every time there is one, instead of just being able to click the little gray box when it pops up, like I used to. I have no idea what happened. I didn't change my antivirus or firewall programs around that time. Heh, I can't even update from within my antivirus program, so it would be hilariously ironic if it's the culprit. I think I tried disabling it and the problem still happened, though. But regardless, even if that's why it couldn't connect to the servers to get the game, that wouldn't explain why it also couldn't connect to the servers to sign in in the first place!)

Then I went back to the idea of maybe getting the $30 Smartphone from Walmart that Dad has and see if I could play the game on that. I've been considering the Smartphone for a while for several reasons, but right now, wanting the game so badly is the main one. It would be like buying a portable gaming system, heh. I don't need a Smartphone, since I have a working phone and my precious tablet, but the tablet can't play the game. Anyway, so I wanted to make sure the game was compatible with that phone before buying it, so I asked Dad to let me just check something a minute. Unfortunately, he wasn't signed in on his Google account and it wouldn't let me even see something so simple in the Play Store without being signed in. He doesn't really use Google and I figured he wouldn't remember his sign-in info, and he didn't deny that when I pointed it out after he offered to sign in, so I finally gave up and signed in, figuring I could easily sign out after checking. Oh brother, was I wrong. #(&$#(&$ Google wouldn't let me out once I was signed in! There were instructions on how to sign out of the Play Store and they didn't work. It was outrageous! Finally, the only way I could sign out was to sign in on the phone's browser and delete the phone from the recent devices on my account. UGH! I hate Google. Problem is, they operate several things I really like, from YouTube to Blogger to Google Sites. And my tablet has an Android OS. I can't get away from Google. And the game is compatible with the phone, so I seriously want it now. It doesn't look like anything else will work for me to be able to play it.

Then there's my longing of merchandise.... I still can't find the Yami Bakura Hexor or get the pin the rare times I see it, but I turned up a seller on eBay who has the Seto and Yami Bakura magnets, as well as magnets of other characters. There's enough of them to make me feel like the price is worth it. There are even doubles of some of them, so I might be able to do some gifting with the extras. And the price has just lowered! I think I'm the only one interested, so even though it's been turned into an auction instead of a Buy It Now, I'm hoping I can snag it. But I really shouldn't get both it and the phone right now, so now I'm stuck in another dilemma. I don't want to miss out on the magnets. I had previously sort of decided I couldn't afford the lot, but then I got a real good look at everything in it when I looked on the laptop. The app just doesn't magnify things as nicely as the website does. Once I really saw everything I'd be getting, I felt the price was worth it.

If only the PC version of Duel Links would work, that would solve everything. I could get the magnets and not worry about the phone right now.

Oh well, I guess at least I can feel relieved that my burning desire isn't to buy that Yami Bakura figure that's over $100. Gah. Making the plushie has soothed that urge. Plushie's certainly more cuddly than the figure anyway. But I love that dynamic pose....

You know what's kind of creepy/weird about the plushie? I noticed that there's a long pinkish-red mark on the left arm, right near where the knife wound was on the show/in the manga. I have no idea how it got there. I didn't put it there. I didn't bleed on the plushie (although I got needle-stabbed several times). And I don't remember it being there when I first got the plushie home (although it must have been). I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn't show up well enough to be worth posting. Seriously, though, that is CREEPY.

Also creepy is that I watched Yami Bakura's duel against Bonz (again) and then the Arkana duel and got this really bizarre and weird plunnie of Yami Marik trapping Bakura as a Duel Monsters character in a duel (maybe other characters too) and then forcing Yami Bakura to play against him, Yami Marik. And eventually during the duel, Yami Marik gets hold of the Ectoplasmer card and wants to extract Bakura's soul and attack Yami Bakura with it. Yami Bakura is horrified and outraged. He tries to prevent that from happening, but fails. Only Bakura manages to fight back himself and instead of attacking Yami Bakura, he protects him and prevents another attack of Yami Marik's from getting through. Eventually Yami Bakura manages to win and Bakura's soul is restored, of course. They're both pretty badly shaken by the experience, although I think it affects Yami Bakura the most. I'll probably write that as a blurb. I doubt it will go into the current fic, although who knows what might happen. I'd kind of prefer it to be a oneshot unto itself, though. I really like having Yami Marik and Yami Bakura as arch-enemies. I really felt rather sad they never had another clash, especially after their intriguing parting words in the manga version of their duel.

... Huh.

Looking at my Yami Bakura icon, I suddenly realize he's either left-handed or ambidextrous. Never noticed that before.

I've been fooling around reading some of my old timeline YGO stories lately. Definitely inferior to my current writing abilities (the oldest ones, at least) and I prefer the characterization of my current timeline, but I still see the charm and fun in them.

I had an urge to look at the first one Marik was in, Stolen Memories, so I dug that out this morning. And honestly, I was kind of disappointed by it. I liked the other ones I looked at more. I'm a little disappointed to be disappointed, since I always remembered it as one of my favorites in the series.

It was strange to begin with, since it was an attempt of mine to make Marik good before we knew how Battle City was going to turn out or how he would be saved. So I had him get amnesia and be horrified as he starts remembering things he did. Also, at that time we didn't even know about Rishid, so he wasn't included.

Later, I went back and tried to modify the fic so it fit canon at least a smidgen better. The revision acknowledged that Marik had repented during Battle City, but was of course still horrified by the bad memories when they started returning. And to get Rishid in and explain his absence, I had it that he was badly hurt by the Rare Hunters and spent the story unconscious. Unfortunately, unless I didn't skim things enough, I didn't add scenes to bring him back into the action later or even mention how he's doing in the epilogue. WTH. Poor Rishid! Of course, once we did know more about Rishid, I made up for those problems in other fics.

Then there was a subplot going on with Seto and P. Seto. Also at that time, everyone thought P. Seto was a villain, both because of the dub's manipulation of the first flashback with him in season 2 and because of that Forbidden Memories video game. So naturally, I wrote him as such. Also during the revisions, I tried to repair some of the damage by saying Ahkenadin was possessing him, or rather, intimating it, since I didn't reveal that positively until one of the last mysteries in the series. I kind of cringe and feel bad seeing how I used him in that early fic now, though.

Finally, I was disappointed by how I used Bakura and Yami Bakura. There was a promising subplot involving Yami Bakura being poisoned by a knife, but for some reason I didn't really milk it for all it was worth. It was a mild poison and he didn't even tell Bakura about it. He mostly slept until the poison was beat back. Then he didn't have many scenes of note until he rescued Bakura on P. Seto's ship, and of course insisted it was just because he needed Bakura, LOL. I'm wondering now if he and Bakura didn't get better screentime until the following mystery. I skimmed through the deejay one and the cruise one and the Frisco one and the ranch one and the Boston one a couple weeks ago and they had great subplots in all of those. (Not always strictly IC subplots, but still, a good amount of screentime.)

... And I stand corrected. They did have good subplots in the fics before this one. There's a very intense one in the very first mystery fic, the ski resort one, with them lost in the snow and Yami Bakura getting to be protective and worried for the first time in my fics. Later, he gets shot by a dart while Bakura watches in alarm. That was also the first time I wrote for them, I think.

I could probably write a much better "Marik has amnesia" fic now, with all canon known and my better writing skills. I have been taking elements from some of the old stories and putting them into the current timeline. I wonder how readers would feel about a complete re-write of Stolen Memories that would fit in my current timeline? It would be posted as a separate document, of course, same as I did when I rewrote Dead and Alive, so it wouldn't take anything away from the old fic.