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Chapter One: Dor-Seti
Cold rain.
Every time he attended one of these outdoor regionals there was cold rain. Probably because they always held Dor Seti’s Regional Tournaments in the middle of November. This November, the rain came down mingled with ice and snow. The crowd of spectators, all huddled together in a feeble attempt to generate warmth, formed an ocean of dark gray parkas. Parkas purchased for outrageous amounts by vendors at makeshift kiosks and stands. Luke shielded his cup of now lukewarm chocolate from the falling ice rain with a gloved hand. Why Dor Seti didn’t just build a coliseum like Veridon City or Kashus was beyond Luke’s comprehension. Maybe the residents of Dor Seti simply enjoyed hypothermia.
“Luke!” Squeaked a tiny voice from amidst the sea of parkas. Luke scanned the crowd seeing nothing but more cold grey faces. “Luke!” It shouted again. Something small and bright yellow caught the corner of his eye as it bobbed out from among the crowd. “Over here, Luke!”
Stacy Fallen, in her trademark yellow rain coat, popped out of the crowd from a completely different direction then Luke had expected. She must have been bobbing and weaving through them, taking advantage of the agility her diminutive stature afforded. She jumped onto Luke nearly knocking him over, her arms gripping him in a bear hug with strength unexpected of someone so petite. Half of his precious chocolate splashed into a muddy puddle below.
“Oh! I’m sorry Luke!” When she saw how desperately he tried to balance his remaining Java. “I was just so happy to see you!”
“Cutting back on the Ritalin again, Stacey?” Luke said, letting the rain wash away the spilt chocolate from his parka sleeve.
“How’d you guess!?” Stacey giggled with a tight smile and maniacal gleam in her eye. She softened her face and stepped to his side locking arms with his. She looked up into the air whimsically and mused, “So, when are we gonna stop pretending and let everyone know our true feelings towards one another?”
Luke shook his head, “I’ve never kept my feelings for you secret, Stacey. Everyone knows you disturb me on a deeply visceral level.”
Stacey sighed. “That’s just the restraining order talking.”
Still locked arm in arm they began to make their way towards the registration tent. Stacey began shivering and forcibly wrapped Luke’s arm around her shoulder.
“You should have gotten here earlier.” She said. “The line for registration is out the wazoo!”
“I pre-registered a month ago.” Luke stoically replied.
“A month!?” She exclaimed. “That means you had to register your duel disk early. That means…”
Luke tried to give her a simple non-emotive glance. It didn’t work and Stacey gasped as if she had just inhaled toxic fumes.
“Ooo! Can I see it! Can I see it! Can I see it … “ she rattled on and on, all the while bouncing up and down like a 2-year-old on a fructose drip.
“Alright, alright! Calm down! ” Luke looked around somewhat embarrassed by the display. “I wouldn’t want the bolts in your head to pop loose completely. God knows what would happen if we put them back in wrong.”
Luke reached under the fringe of his parka, fumbling with something attached to his side. Passers-by seem to give him sideways glances, perplexed by the awkward motions of a man with his hands under his parka. He finally managed to undo the ties on his waist band and pull out the three meters of gleaming triangular plasteel.
Luke’s Duel Disk was custom made. Nothing quite like the Nationals Championship winners had, of course. Luke’s disk was of his own design and built by his own two hands. The overall structure was built on the chassis of a standard YGO-7 Duel Disk Interface, only major personalized modifications had been made.
The Game Zone Platform had been slightly enlarged. The YGO-7’s had the Card Zones cramped too tightly together, which often resulted in the cards being accidentally popped out of their zones. The Deck Cartridge had also been modified to hold, at least, a 60 card deck with ease and no jamming. While there was nothing he could legally do with the built-in randomizer, he did manage to “soften” the pincer devise that kept his deck from falling out of the Deck Cartridge, by gluing in a felt buffer. This would keep the backs of his cards from getting scratched by the metal grip. More importantly, he had managed to water seal the entire device with a new body, also custom painted red with gold flames.
But perhaps the most telling of all personalizations was the Wireless Gaming Interface. No longer would Luke have to risk electrocution from sitting under a leaky pup tent or from the spilled drink of a careless duelist.
Luke brandished it with no small amount of pride.
“It looks like a hot rod!” Stacy blurted out.
“It should. I based the design on an old picture of a car my dad used to own.”
Stacy blinked twice with large brown cow eyes and a frozen grin. He’d mentioned his dad unconsciously, forgetting how uncomfortable he usually made the subject of his father when brought up. The rain pounded audibly against the Duel Disk for an awkward moment, until Luke finally decided to get it out of the rain.
“Well” he said fumbling under his parka again. “This thing may be water tight, but lets not push our luck.”
Stacey apparently had been holding her breath. “Were you able to make all the modifications you wanted?”
Luke frowned, not at Stacy’s question, but at the sudden realization of what a cold, dripping wet Duel Disk feels like against dry clothes.
“Yeah” He said, shifting his parka around uncomfortably. “”Mostly… The important parts anyway.” He was slowly beginning to realize that these parkas really didn’t keep you from getting wet on drizzly days like this, they just slowed the process down.
Glancing at his wrist watch, Luke noticed that it was getting dangerously close to 8:45 AM, when registration closed.
“Come on” He gripped Stacey firmly by the forearm. “Let’s get to registration before I miss my shot at national mediocrity.”
Chapter One: Dor-Seti
Cold rain.
Every time he attended one of these outdoor regionals there was cold rain. Probably because they always held Dor Seti’s Regional Tournaments in the middle of November. This November, the rain came down mingled with ice and snow. The crowd of spectators, all huddled together in a feeble attempt to generate warmth, formed an ocean of dark gray parkas. Parkas purchased for outrageous amounts by vendors at makeshift kiosks and stands. Luke shielded his cup of now lukewarm chocolate from the falling ice rain with a gloved hand. Why Dor Seti didn’t just build a coliseum like Veridon City or Kashus was beyond Luke’s comprehension. Maybe the residents of Dor Seti simply enjoyed hypothermia.
“Luke!” Squeaked a tiny voice from amidst the sea of parkas. Luke scanned the crowd seeing nothing but more cold grey faces. “Luke!” It shouted again. Something small and bright yellow caught the corner of his eye as it bobbed out from among the crowd. “Over here, Luke!”
Stacy Fallen, in her trademark yellow rain coat, popped out of the crowd from a completely different direction then Luke had expected. She must have been bobbing and weaving through them, taking advantage of the agility her diminutive stature afforded. She jumped onto Luke nearly knocking him over, her arms gripping him in a bear hug with strength unexpected of someone so petite. Half of his precious chocolate splashed into a muddy puddle below.
“Oh! I’m sorry Luke!” When she saw how desperately he tried to balance his remaining Java. “I was just so happy to see you!”
“Cutting back on the Ritalin again, Stacey?” Luke said, letting the rain wash away the spilt chocolate from his parka sleeve.
“How’d you guess!?” Stacey giggled with a tight smile and maniacal gleam in her eye. She softened her face and stepped to his side locking arms with his. She looked up into the air whimsically and mused, “So, when are we gonna stop pretending and let everyone know our true feelings towards one another?”
Luke shook his head, “I’ve never kept my feelings for you secret, Stacey. Everyone knows you disturb me on a deeply visceral level.”
Stacey sighed. “That’s just the restraining order talking.”
Still locked arm in arm they began to make their way towards the registration tent. Stacey began shivering and forcibly wrapped Luke’s arm around her shoulder.
“You should have gotten here earlier.” She said. “The line for registration is out the wazoo!”
“I pre-registered a month ago.” Luke stoically replied.
“A month!?” She exclaimed. “That means you had to register your duel disk early. That means…”
Luke tried to give her a simple non-emotive glance. It didn’t work and Stacey gasped as if she had just inhaled toxic fumes.
“Ooo! Can I see it! Can I see it! Can I see it … “ she rattled on and on, all the while bouncing up and down like a 2-year-old on a fructose drip.
“Alright, alright! Calm down! ” Luke looked around somewhat embarrassed by the display. “I wouldn’t want the bolts in your head to pop loose completely. God knows what would happen if we put them back in wrong.”
Luke reached under the fringe of his parka, fumbling with something attached to his side. Passers-by seem to give him sideways glances, perplexed by the awkward motions of a man with his hands under his parka. He finally managed to undo the ties on his waist band and pull out the three meters of gleaming triangular plasteel.
Luke’s Duel Disk was custom made. Nothing quite like the Nationals Championship winners had, of course. Luke’s disk was of his own design and built by his own two hands. The overall structure was built on the chassis of a standard YGO-7 Duel Disk Interface, only major personalized modifications had been made.
The Game Zone Platform had been slightly enlarged. The YGO-7’s had the Card Zones cramped too tightly together, which often resulted in the cards being accidentally popped out of their zones. The Deck Cartridge had also been modified to hold, at least, a 60 card deck with ease and no jamming. While there was nothing he could legally do with the built-in randomizer, he did manage to “soften” the pincer devise that kept his deck from falling out of the Deck Cartridge, by gluing in a felt buffer. This would keep the backs of his cards from getting scratched by the metal grip. More importantly, he had managed to water seal the entire device with a new body, also custom painted red with gold flames.
But perhaps the most telling of all personalizations was the Wireless Gaming Interface. No longer would Luke have to risk electrocution from sitting under a leaky pup tent or from the spilled drink of a careless duelist.
Luke brandished it with no small amount of pride.
“It looks like a hot rod!” Stacy blurted out.
“It should. I based the design on an old picture of a car my dad used to own.”
Stacy blinked twice with large brown cow eyes and a frozen grin. He’d mentioned his dad unconsciously, forgetting how uncomfortable he usually made the subject of his father when brought up. The rain pounded audibly against the Duel Disk for an awkward moment, until Luke finally decided to get it out of the rain.
“Well” he said fumbling under his parka again. “This thing may be water tight, but lets not push our luck.”
Stacey apparently had been holding her breath. “Were you able to make all the modifications you wanted?”
Luke frowned, not at Stacy’s question, but at the sudden realization of what a cold, dripping wet Duel Disk feels like against dry clothes.
“Yeah” He said, shifting his parka around uncomfortably. “”Mostly… The important parts anyway.” He was slowly beginning to realize that these parkas really didn’t keep you from getting wet on drizzly days like this, they just slowed the process down.
Glancing at his wrist watch, Luke noticed that it was getting dangerously close to 8:45 AM, when registration closed.
“Come on” He gripped Stacey firmly by the forearm. “Let’s get to registration before I miss my shot at national mediocrity.”
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