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Post by Robert Zanrou on Oct 29, 2009 19:57:27 GMT -5
Today was a cloudy Saturday. Navigating the forest, he headed for the ruins. Earlier, he had met the new vice Headmaster. It was just a casual conversation. However, he brought up an interest in the ruins. He said that he would explore them, and today was the day he would.
His nightmares have gotten more and more disturbing. He had just had one about forcefully dominating Japan. His army came in with deadly force, and whatever corrupted Robert had executed the leaders. Japan was in ruins, and he was laughing on his throne. This had made Robert wake up in a cold sweat once again.
Maybe the new Vice Headmaster would be able to help him. Though this was simply a hunch, he was desperate. His fear of his deck was staggering. And recently, it had caused him to do something he hasn't done in over eight years, cry. The fact that he might become a tyrant, and the torture his friends went through was painful for him.
He had entered the ruins, looking for the new Vice Headmaster. He was in his casual attire. This consisted of black leather pants, brown boots with steel toes, black leather gloves and a leather coat with a face mask attached to the collar. He looked around, he knew where the ruins were. However, he had never been inside of them, so this was a first for him. "Hello?" he asked nervously.
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Post by Zephyrus Dunavant on Nov 1, 2009 22:42:42 GMT -5
He may have let slip that he was heading to the ruins later.
And by let slip, he meant that he surreptitiously stuck it into his conversation without drawing attention to it. Jame had told him that one of his students—one Robert Zanrou that Zephyrus did not interact with before—was having some trouble sleeping and controlling his deck. Unfortunately, Jame seemed busy with something entirely different, such as the recent and somewhat troubling events concerning a “Jack of Shadows” that wanted to do his best Jack the Ripper imitation with the students of Duel Academy. Figuring that was more important (and not wanting to bother with some random who was claiming various Slifers and Ras), Zephyrus allowed the professor to take care of that while he went on to babysit one of Jame’s students.
So he had managed to flit in the bit about going to the ruins into some casual conversation. It was a chance meeting, and no one would have dwelled upon it unless he was seriously considering seeking professional help. If Robert was really as much of a mess as Professor Grant said, odds are that he would try to meet up with him at the ruins. If he weren’t, then Zephyrus would know that all wasn’t so terrible and he would get a nice walk through a rather historic location on duel academy island. Even though he had only just left the island a year and some months ago, he had never really explored the ruins too extensively as a student. The spring in his step indicated that he was—at least deep beneath that perfect poker face—excited to look.
Zephyrus’s garb looked completely different from the traditional Obelisk dorm advisor coat that he usually donned. Without the restrictions of the school policies, the regal Dunavant brushed the dust from the shoulder of his finely pressed, fashionably sleek jacket and slipped his hands into his tailored, traditional fit jeans. His duel disk, which he never kept too far from his person, clipped neatly in his inside jacket pocket, just over the fine button shirt pressed underneath. The rugged walking boots both clashed and, by virtue of excellent contrast, worked with the outfit as a whole, and the overall image that Zephyrus presented was both somehow casual and fashion-conscious—perhaps expected from someone with someone as impressive a background as the Dunavant estate.
But even amidst the change in attire, Zephyrus’s remarkable stealth did not diminish one iota. He crept up behind the new student, figuring he wanted to test to see just how bothered and high-strung he was first hand. With a bold, strong hand, he placed it on Robert’s shoulder, answering his call for another person with a simple, too-charming-to-be-natural “Yes?”
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Post by Robert Zanrou on Nov 1, 2009 22:59:55 GMT -5
When the hand hat been placed over his shoulder, his normal reaction would just to roll with it. However, he was as jumpy as hell, and had jumped. He then looked at Zephy, recognizing him by face. "Jesus, you scared me! Sorry, nightmares have been getting worse. Well, I was wondering if you could help me. My deck is giving me trouble. If you want to look at it . . ." he then unlocked the deck box containing it and lifted it. ". . . here it is." He was clearly nervous.
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Post by Zephyrus Dunavant on Nov 2, 2009 6:29:48 GMT -5
Well, of course he scared him.
The only thing that would have annoyed Zephyrus more than said response would be if he had claimed that he hadn’t scared him, because not only would he be making a poignantly redundant remark, but he would also be lying. In Robert’s case, he did not lie, but he was still no less annoyingly redundant. Zephyrus had to refrain from rolling his eyes at the childish reaction and the sudden eagerness at pushing forth his deck. For someone who had tried to meet with ‘anyone’ after a casual, haphazard mention of going to the ‘ruins’, Robert seemed all too eager to jump on the first person he met with his life story—a life story that Zephyrus did not particularly want to hear.
He had half a mind to blink blankly at the student, turn on his heel, and leave him there in the middle of the ruins, but he squelched that temptation quickly. The request seemed so stupid. He had nightmares, and his deck was giving him trouble, so he wanted him to look? If he had already concluded that the deck was, in fact, giving him nightmares, Zephyrus hardly saw what good him looking at it would do for him. Instead, he turned toward him, and with a blasé shrug of his shoulders, he replied, “And what am I supposed to do for you by looking through your deck?”
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Post by Robert Zanrou on Nov 2, 2009 20:12:46 GMT -5
With a sigh, he put it back onto his belt. "Sorry, haven't been able to think straight." He was desperate to get some help. "Well then, want to duel? Maybe that would actually be fruitful." he said. He didn't want to waste any time with this, he wanted to understand his deck. Maybe if the deck was fed with combat, it would steep down. He was willing to try anything to make shit right.
Just then, Ojama Blue came to him. "Master, something feels strange about this man!" he said, scared. With a sigh, Robert turned back to Zephy. Then, Ojama Red appeared. He said, "If he does something to you, I will kick his ass!" he said, slightly pissed.
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Post by Zephyrus Dunavant on Nov 2, 2009 20:41:46 GMT -5
He wanted a duel? Well, Zephyrus could have foreseen that he wanted a duel, but he would have preferred settling the kid’s little ‘issues’ away from dueling. Dueling—something that he had grown so incredibly proficient at, that he could rival with arguably the world’s best dueling in his younger sister—was something that had grown so old for him that he doubted that he would take much pleasure from it for the rest of his life. There was just too many calculations, too many odds, too many outs to keep track, too much… seriousness… for him to find the practice enjoyable.
Ever since he was a child, he had grown steadily better at calculating and keeping track of every out. He could make every read, he often knew the entire hand of the opponent within a few glances, but that did not make for a fun duel. Sighing, he shrugged and removed his duel disk, plugging one of his newer decks into the duel cartridge. Even though he did not duel frequently, Zephyrus had become a very avid deck builder. It was just one of those things to pass his copious amounts of free time. He would calculate all of the odds in his head and create a deck that maximized the probabilities of playing his game-breaking combinations. Even though he rarely played against a live opponent, the thousands of simulated games ensured that the decks had a far larger sample than any amount of conventional—and by his standards, primitive—dueling could accomplish.
“I’ll go first,” he said, removing the top six cards of his deck and adding them to his hand with one blasé movement of his hand. He took a second to scrutinize his hand, before shrugging and going for it.
“I’ll set one monster, play Dimensional Fissure, and then set 4 facedown backrow.” The move was highly unconventional, but the carefree, cheerful way that Zephyrus said it made it seemed like he was blissfully unaware that his play was not a very wise one.
LP: 8000
CIH: 0
Monsters: [/li][li] [/li][li] [F/D] [/li][li] [/li][li]
Spells: [F/D] [Dimensional Fissure] [F/D] [F/D] [F/D]
Graveyard: None
RFG: None
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Post by Robert Zanrou on Nov 2, 2009 21:15:40 GMT -5
Pulling out the Ji Feng MK II and sliding his deck into it, he nodded. He knew that this would be painful. When he had seen him set four backfields, a monster and play Dimensional Fissure, he nodded. He knew that he had something in store for him. "Draw!" he shouted. With a smile, he said "I play Heavy Storm!" but that was met with Starlight Road. Stardust Dragon then took the field. However, he had to keep strong. "I summon Gladial Beast Laquar!" The tiger took the field. "Battle! Attack his facedown!" Which turned out to be Morphing Jar. He discarded his hand for 5 cards. "End of Battle Phase! I tag out Laquari for Equeste! I retrieve War Chariot!" "I set two backfields and end."
LP: 8000
Hand: 4
Field: Laquari
Backfield: [fd] [fd]
Grave: Heavy Storm, Bottomless
RFG: Test Tiger, X-Saber Airbellum
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Post by Zephyrus Dunavant on Nov 2, 2009 21:30:40 GMT -5
It had been going rather well for him. Not only did Zephyrus manage to negate the primary piece of mass spell and trap removal—that is, Heavy Storm—from his opponent, but he also turned the play into an advantage of special summoning Stardust Dragon via his Starlight Road. Zephyrus’s play made even more sense when his opponent ran into a face down Morphing Jar with his Laquari, allowing the assistant headmaster to replenish his hand with five more cards, while sending a few of Robert’s useful cards to the removed from game pile. Without an X-Saber Airbellum, it was unlikely that Robert would be synchro summoning big beaters, which was perhaps Zephyrus’s biggest concern.
Drawing for turn, Zephyrus casually examined his newly replenished hands. The six cards offered quite a bit of an option. But before he did anything, in his standby phase, he chose to flip up one of his face down cards, Macro Cosmos. Having both Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos on the field at the same time seemed to be another one of those puzzling headscratchers that the assistant headmaster made all too frequently. He chose to play slowly though, picking one of the six out of his hand and announcing, “I will normal summon Elemental Hero – Stratos, and select a Elemental Hero Neos Alius from my deck!”
His opponent did not go lightly, however, as he flipped up a bottomless and sent Stratos to the removed from game pile. After adding Neos Alius to his hand, Zephyrus announced and attack with Stardust dragon, but it ran into a Book of Moon that flipped it face down. Shrugging at the setback, he added, “And I’ll set one more backrow and end my turn.”
LP: 8000
CIH: 5
Monsters: [/li][li] [/li][li] [/li][li] [F/D] [/li][li]
Backrow: [F/D] [Dimensional Fissure] [Macro Cosmos] [F/D] [F/D]
Grave: Starlight Road
RFG: Morphing Jar, Elemental Hero Stratos
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Post by Robert Zanrou on Nov 5, 2009 22:46:44 GMT -5
"Draw!" he shouted. "I activate Respite! Returning both Chariots to draw 3 cards!" He looked at his next draws. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon! Targeting one of your backfields!" but it was Reinforcement of the Army. With a sigh, he said "I summon Gladiator Beast Bestiari!" The bird man was summoned, but sucked into a bottomless pit. "I attack your facedown Stardust with Equeste!" He took 400 damage, but nodded. "I tag out Equeste for Laquari!" The tiger man took the field with 2100 attack. "I set two and end."
LP: 7600
Hand: 1
Field: Laquari (2100 ATK)
Backfield: 3 Set
Grave: Heavy Storm, Bottomless
RFG: Test Tiger, X-Saber Airbellum, Book of Moon, Respite, MST, Bestiari
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Post by Zephyrus Dunavant on Nov 6, 2009 0:24:53 GMT -5
“Draw.” Zephyrus added a card to this hand. His blasé face hardly changed in expression as she saw the six cards in hand. The hand wasn’t exactly what he liked, but it would have to do. Besides, he was able to grind out a significant amount of advantage so far.
“I’ll activate Trade-In,” he said, dropping a Beast King Barbaros to the graveyard before drawing two more cards. “Then, I’ll summon Beast King Barbaros from his hand.” His opponent responded with a Bottomless Trap Hole, the second and last one in his deck, but Zephyrus chose to activate his one-time only Stardust Dragon’s effect, tributing it and removing it from play in order to negate the effect of Bottomless.
His opponent must have seemed puzzled, as Skill Drain was not on the field. To add to his bewilderment, instead of passing, suddenly the 1900 attack monster charged towards the opponent’s Laquari. Zephyrus passed priority and waited for the last possible moment—just before the damage step—to flash singular card from his hand, “I’ll activate the quickplay spell card, Forbidden Chalice!”
Barbaros jumped to 3400 attack, plowing through the 2100 attack Laquari. “Then,” he said, as the dust cleared from the impact, “I’ll set one card face down and end.” The effect of Forbidden Chalice wore off and Barbaros returned to 3000.
LP: 8000
CiH: 3
Monsters: [/li][li] [/li][li] [Beast King Barbaros (3000/1200)] [/li][li] [/li][li]
S/T: [F/D] [Dimensional Fissure] [Macro Cosmos] [F/D] [/li][li]
Graveyard: Starlight Road
RFG: Morphing Jar, Elemental Hero Stratos, Reinforcement of the Army, Bottomless Trap Hole, Stardust Dragon, Forbidden Chalice
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Post by Robert Zanrou on Nov 6, 2009 0:33:44 GMT -5
Of course, playing Chalice on Barbaros was a predictable move. It would move it up to full power plus 400 for the turn. "Draw!" he shouted. "I set two and end." He had no choice now, it was now a game of defending himself.
LP: 6300
Hand: 0
Field:
Backfield: 4 Set
Grave: Heavy Storm, Bottomless
RFG: Test Tiger, X-Saber Airbellum, Book of Moon, Respite, MST, Bestiari, Bottomless, Laquari
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Post by Zephyrus Dunavant on Nov 11, 2009 2:07:11 GMT -5
With four facedowns, Zephyrus wanted to be conservative, but he had negation on the field, and considered going for it. After all, his opponent had already exhausted both bottomless trap holes that he was allowed, and his only out was to have both torrential tribute and mirror force on the field. Considering the odds of that being the case miniscule, Zephyrus decided to make his move. It was, perhaps, an uncharacteristically aggressive move from someone who preferred good, conservative play and continuous field presence, but he decided that the occasional aggressive play was best. Drawing for turn, Zephyrus surveyed the field to make his play.
“I’ll normal summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius,” he announced. When his opponent neglected to respond, Zephyrus decided to flip another card over, special summoning Guardian Eatos from his deck. Still no response from the opponent. He summoned a second Guardian Eatos, which elicited a Torrential Tribute in retribution. “I’ll flip my facedown, Dark Bribe, allowing you to draw a card in exchange for your Torrential Tribute’s effect to fizzle.”
His opponent did not go down quickly, as he flipped Solemn Judgment in response, his life points dwindling to 3150, only to have Zephyrus flip his own Solemn Judgment in response, draining his own life points to 4000 in return. Then his four monsters sprung into attack, and even though Robert had a Book of Moon lying in wait, his calculations instantly told him that he would not be able to survive the battle. The four monsters flew by him, draining the remainder of his life points as they triumphant sauntered past.
“A charming duel,” Zephyrus said, sounding entirely ignorant of the battle he just fought, as if he had just returned from a walk through the park. “Perhaps we should do it again some other time…
“Now, Mr. Zanrou, what assistance do you require?”
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