Yu-Gi-Oh! Horizon [IC/Not Accepting/PG-16]

[Blake 312]

“Not bad, not bad…” Charlie rubbed their chin while looking at the board. They weren’t so sure that Peter would have handled everything, but he had, so… time for a little more fun. “My turn, then. Draw! Then I’ll activate the effect of Fusion Substitute in my grave! By banishing it and returning Sabre-Tooth to the Extra Deck, I get to draw 1!”

Drawing the top card, Charlie glanced at it and grinned, “But the draws don’t stop there! Next I use the effect of Fluffal Wings in the grave, banishing itself and Fluffal Leo to draw a card! Then I can send Toy Vendor to the grave, and draw another!”

Swiftly drawing the top two of their deck, Charlie’s hand had grown from 3 cards to 7 in the blink of an eye. And then 8?

“And when Toy Vendor is sent to the grave, I get to search a Fluffal,... or Edge Imp Sabres! So I chose the latter. Then I activate Edge Imp Cotton Eater from my hand!”

A pair of oddly sharp angel wings appeared on Charlie’s right, a pillar of blue light surrounding them before they opened to reveal a gaping maw, with what looked to be a bag of cotton attached to it. Red eyes glared at Peter as the blue light slowly filled the room, and the number 1 appeared beneath it.

“While I control Cotton Eater as a Pendulum Scale, all Fusions I control gain 300 ATK! So why don’t we work on getting some of those out? Come back to me, Doggy!” As Fluffal Dog reappeared, it seemed to growl while Charlie picked up a card, prompting a pout from the duelist. “Aww, don’t be mean to poor Cat! It didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just cute! As is the little mouse from earlier… so let’s go, Frightfur Custom!”

The trap lifted itself up, glowing bright and causing a small hamster-like rodent to appear from it, gripping a donut as a shield. At first, it squeaked cutely… but then its eyes began to glow red, a wicked, toothy grin appearing on its mouth.

“A monster revived by this card is treated as a Frightfur in addition to its name. But then my mouse is soooo lonely! Let’s have him bring two more friends from the deck!” A dastardly snicker escaped the rodent as two more copies were summoned from the deck, all in defense position, though these stayed in their cute, donut-wielding form. “Then I’ll use the two that aren’t Frightfurs and the Edge Imp Sabres in my hand… to activate Polymerization!”

Gripping their hands together once more, the three rose to the sky, blending together above Charlie as bright light bathed the area. 

“The mice and blades offer themselves to the mightiest cat! Devour them and destroy my enemies! Fusion Summon, Frightfur Tiger!”

A giant tiger plush, like a blue version of a certain imaginary friend tiger, appeared on Charlie’s board, sitting harmlessly. The scissor blades suddenly tore through it from the outside, shredding through it, and even becoming limbs for the beast. It cackled wildly as its eyes began to move without reason, before locking on to Peter.

“When it’s summoned, I can target cards my opponent controls equal to its materials… and destroy them! I target Twin Burst, Blue-Eyes, and your set card!”

“Oh, everything I have, then?” asked Peter. “Mm, I don’t think so. My trap card, you see, is The Ultimate Creature of Destruction, which makes one of my monsters immune to effects like that. I think I’ll keep my Twin Burst Dragon around a little bit longer.”

An image of Peter’s now-revealed trap appeared in front of the dragon and gleamed. Despite the carnage the Tiger was inflicting elsewhere on the board, the trap acted as a barrier, keeping the Twin Burst Dragon from harm.

“By the way, if a monster does attack my dragon this turn, my trap’ll also destroy your monster. So don’t get any wild ideas.”

“Oh, really? That’s some helpful info, but the other Blue-Eyes isn’t safe~” Charlie hummed softly, drawing the top card of their deck. “I also forgot to mention that Cotton Eater lets me draw a card when I fusion summon while it’s a scale. And what a draw it is! I activate Fluffal Angel in the other Pendulum Zone!”

A cupid-like angel, clothed only in a white toga, appeared, cooing as the column of blue light covered its form, just like Cotton Eater. As the number 8 appeared beneath it, a light began to shine from Charlie’s graveyard.

“Now, I won’t be able to summon anything but Fusions from my Extra Deck for the rest of the turn… but in exchange, I revive Fluffal Owl! Come back to the field!”

As the avian appeared with a hoot once again in defense, Charlie snapped their fingers, reducing their life from 3200 to 2700. The dog on the field and a card in their hand rose up, the latter revealed to be a mass of possessed chains and car parts.

“The softest creatures pack the biggest bite. The wolf now dons sheep’s clothing and tears through its foes! Fusion Summon, Frightfur Sheep!” Sounds like a motor running filled the air as the fusion yielded two disks attached to chains that pulled up a demented, stuffed sheep from the ground, a mix of baas and whirrs escaping it. “With Tiger and Cotton Eater, Frightfur Sheep gains an additional 1500 attack, giving it a total of 3500. You know what they say, you still take the damage. Oh, and my Edge Imp Chain lets me add 1 Frightfur card from my deck to my hand… So I’ll just choose this one called Reborn.”

Glancing at their hand, Charlie saw their win condition. Fusion Weapon plus Frightfur Reborn would give them the damage they needed to win… But that didn’t feel very sporting. Besides, dunking on newcomers would probably only scare them off. Better to put on a show and make them feel better about themselves.

“Battle! Frightfur Sheep attacks Twin Burst!”

The disks began to spin fast, slicing across the twin-headed dragon’s front, causing Peter to drop from 5000 to 4500. After the damage went through, the sheep exploded, causing its disks to land in front of Charlie. “Normally, Twin Burst would banish Sheep, right? But Sheep stops you from activating effects until the end of its attack. Instead it dies to your trap’s effect... But that’s not all! Once per turn, when this sheep dies, it can revive itself with an additional 800 attack! Rise from the grave, sheepy!”

The cackling amalgam rose again, taking its place next to tiger, which also had a sizable buff to its attack. Charlie then shrugged and held their hand out, grinning. 

“And that’ll be my turn. Let’s see you get past this.”

[LordCowCow 839]

Hana's head was swimming with all the information. The two duelists made their turns, summoned, re-summoned, activated effect after effect. And after all of it...

"I have no idea what's going on." She proclaimed, proudly, with her fists on her hips and chest puffed out.

Her gaze drifted away from the duel and towards the others who were here. She noticed that not many of them seemed all too animated. Avi that was usual but for the others it was a darn shame. Her eyes swept right past the strange one, who seemed to be really getting into it, and landed on the boy with the glasses. He seemed to be thinking about something but hadn't really said anything for a while.

Too long a while, Hana thought, words should be allowed to be released out into the world and bottling it up inside just was no good.

So she went over to the boy and leaned in towards him, too close for most people's comfort, with her hands behind her back. "Heya, whatcha doing? Got anything to say, new person? I bet you got allll sorts of thoughts just waiting to come out don't you?" She said, tapping his head.

"Oh wait!" She gasped and brought a hand to her mouth. "Are you hungry? I bet that's it!" She stood up straighter and pulled out her phone. "I got this!"

She called out to the rest "We're gonna make this tryout a Pizza Party Tryout! Hey, hey, what pizzas do you want!" She then opened up an app on her phone and began placing an order. Humming to herself and swaying from side to side. She put in the requests of everyone who answered, no matter how different the preferences were, and then several more for good measure before sending it along. "This is gonna be fun! I haven't eaten pizza here before!"

[Chaos Sonic 442]

Once again, another set of turns came and went, this time with Charlie having a plethora of cards drawn from their deck and a now revived Frightfur Sheep with a boost of 800 attack, along with Tiger and Cotton Eater, this would bring the Fusion Monster from 3500 it had before, to now a total of 4300 at the end of the turn. At the moment, however, it seemed they were just playing a game of tennis with this Duel. A nice sized damage here and immediately served up to the opponent, who would only do pretty much the same thing. Still...it was quite interesting to see the Co-Captain of Horizon's Duel Team in action.

Hmmm, with nothing left on Peter's field, unless he Top Decks something in the next turn, he might actually lo-

"Heya, whatcha doing? Got anything to say, new person? I bet you got allll sorts of thoughts just waiting to come out don't you?"

David's thoughts were cut short when the one member of the Duel Team, Hana, abruptly derailed them as he felt his head being tapped a bit. He blinked slightly before looking down at Hana, who now was derailed into a different conversation regarding pizza. What a strange individual... he thought, before clearing his throat, adjusting his glasses slightly.

"Apologies. I figured I'd remain silent for the time being. After all, no one else seemed to be commenting on the happenings, aside from the other Co-Captain." David began, glancing over at Avi, before returning to the Duel before him. "But, since you prodded...even though now your occupied now with a different topic it seems..." he sighed, overhearing her talk about what pizza everyone wanted. "All I'll say is that this Duel, while it seems generally even, I believe it may just end in the victory of the Co-Captain."

With another adjustment of his glasses, David continued. "Right now, Charlie has seemed to be on top of everything since the beginning of this Duel. Peter, while demonstrating a generous amount of Dueling prowess and skill with his Blue-Eyes, Charlie seems to have everything on lockdown with their Fluffals and Frightfurs. Especially at this moment. The only thing that Peter has left for himself right now is Twin Burst, while Charlie has Frightfur Tiger and Sheep, along with Edge Imp Cotton Eater. Further, they still have Toy Vendor which is the main kicker for them and their plays, allowing them to have ample amount of access to any resource in their deck." He paused, taking a breath, already getting lengthy but nevertheless he continued. "With a total of 4300 attack for Sheep, and with the possibility of that Sheep gets destroyed somehow within this next turn...and that's assuming Peter can Top Deck something...it'll return with another 800 attack, bringing it up to 5100 attack at the start of the next turn. And the moment more Fluffal or Frightfurs get summoned, that number will increase further."

David sighed slightly, crossing his arms. "This turn hinges on if Peter can make a solid play to claw out of the grasps of the Co-Captain."

[radio414 903]

“Draw!” Peter said. His emphasis was doing a lot of heavy-lifting hiding his uncertainty. The duel had turned into a Sisyphean task, after all; he’d spend resources over and over trying to clear Charlie’s board away, but setting back up seemed effortless for the captain, and they’d caused Peter to spend even more resources protecting things he’d already made.

This draw was important for a lot of reasons, Peter determined (he hadn’t actually looked at it yet, but he had decided it to be so). It was important because, while he still could see a pretty clear opportunity to punch through, if he didn’t, Charlie’s Frightfur Sheep was going to eat his Twin Burst alive before the rest of their monsters turned their attention to Peter.

He slowly flicked through the cards one at a time in his hand. That one was his very first draw -- if he could just find the other piece he’d be good as gold. That one was the Blue-Eyes he’d gotten, like, a couple turns ago. And just behind it was…

“I activate the spell card Trade-In!” Peter said as he immediately slid the card into a slot. “It lets me discard a level eight monster from my hand to draw two new cards. I choose…”

Peter hesitated. A new line appeared to him. If he could get Blue-Eyes onto the field, he could bring back his trap card, which could protect him pretty well and that could give him another draw after that. It wasn’t like he’d be in too much danger of losing with that setup. His life points were high enough and -

“Oh come on.” It was his mother’s voice in his head this time. “Are you trying to win or are you trying not to lose?” He hated to admit it, but she was right, wasn’t she? He’d had this card since turn one -- okay, technically turn two but whatever -- shouldn’t he be working towards getting it on the field?

“I’m going to discard this copy of Blue-Eyes White Dragon,” Peter said. “You remember this one, right? And from these two cards…” He peeled them off one at a time. The first one, well, that was no help. But when he looked at the next one, his eyes widened. Peter imagined them even literally lighting up. He looked at the card, at the board Charlie had presented to him, then back to the card.

After a few deep breaths -- he wanted to really make sure he got this right -- he slid the card into place and said, “I activate the card ‘Bingo Machine, Go!!!’” As he spoke, a large hand-operated mechanism as indicated by the name appeared behind him. Its cage was about five feet in diameter, as evidenced by Peter looking like he could fit neatly inside it. “What this card lets me do is pick out three cards that mention Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and then one of them gets randomly added to my hand.”

Out popped Peter’s deck from his duel disk, and he riffled through it, pulling cards to the front as necessary until he’d made his selections. He’d found all three copies of the same card, of course, but he figured he had to go through the rest of the song and dance anyway. It would be rude not to, after all.

His choices materialized as tiny capsule balls inside the bingo machine’s cage, and Peter gave the crank a turn. Just one was enough -- the machine kept spinning on its own until a capsule popped out. Peter read the name on it aloud. “Chaos Form,” he said. “I think I’ll activate that right now.

“It’s a ritual spell,” Peter said. “But it also lets me banish Blue-Eyes monsters from my Graveyard for its materials. Just one Blue-Eyes lets me summon a new level eight monster from my hand. So!”

The lighting of the field darkened significantly and a large circle of runes -- indecipherable text -- glowed a deep azure blue right in the center. Inside the circle itself was the transparent image of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, menacing the entire field with its presence. It didn’t do much else, though; before it could, it split into eight blue orbs of fire, which then positioned themselves equidistant from each other above the runes, and their glow grew more intense.

“I summon Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon!”

There was a flash. A thunderclap! When the room returned to normal, a new dragon stood in the middle of it all. It only had one head, but who needed more heads anyway, especially with fangs like those? Its scales were dark -- a stark contrast to all of Peter’s other monsters -- but its eyes and highlights still glowed with that familiar blue. And it was huge! Even the Twin Burst Dragon paled in size to it, the fact that the gymnasium seemed to contain it at all was a miracle of hologram technology.

“This thing has four thousand attack, did you know?” Peter said. He made no effort to hide his confidence. “And there’s a lot of text on this card. None of it makes it stronger than your Sheep, I admit, but that’s not your only monster, now is it?

“And you could say that all your other monsters are in defense position, but, well, let me just read off this last bit here.” He held up the card. “‘If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict double piercing battle damage.’”

Peter looked back up at Charlie. “How much defense does your Mouse have anyway? One hundred, right?

“Battle! Chaos MAX Dragon, blow through Fluffal mouse and continue right on to the captain!”

The dragon didn’t even bother with its breath weapon. It leapt into the air, ascending with amazing force, each additional wingbeat generating its own gale. When it reached its peak, it paused for just a moment before diving back down, charging straight at the stuffed mouse. The impact blew a massive amount of dust everywhere, and the only hint of the results was Chaos MAX Dragon’s triumphant roar before things settled again. (Charlie: 2700 -> 0)

It was over.

The room was silent. Everything was still.

Peter exhaled, and that single breath turned into a pant. Part of him still couldn’t believe that he’d managed it, and the rest of him was still dealing with the adrenaline. But it allowed the world to speed back up again. He could barely tell, but was someone taking pizza orders? How did they feel about pineapp-

No, before he did all that, there were still important matters to take care of. He crossed the field over to Charlie almost trepidatiously. He wasn’t sure how the captain was going to react to the loss, but he did know he had to find out.

He reached the other side. Now that he was up close, the height disparity between the two was pretty apparent. Charlie was, like a head taller than he was. He also wondered why he bothered noticing that now of all times (and also, like, that was a common occurrence) but he ignored that question for the moment too. 

Peter stuck his hand out. “Thanks for the game,” he said. “I think I can tell why they made you a captain.”

[yui 574]

"We're gonna make this tryout a Pizza Party Tryout! Hey, hey, what pizzas do you want!"

Pizza at tryouts? Makoto was ready for this! Well, not really. It was a surprise she hadn't seen coming! That was like, the opposite of being ready! But boy did she want in on this! Even if she couldn't have much, given she was still digesting that cake from earlier. Without missing a beat, the girl called out "Sausage!" in response.

"This is gonna be fun! I haven't eaten pizza here before!"

"No way! Me neither!" What a coincidence! Two girls who had never eaten pizza before! Of course, trying some out was really high on Makoto's to-do list lately. She simply didn't have the time to get around to it was all. She'd been busy making sure her deck was the best it could be for Duel Team tryouts, helping a few clubs and teams out with miscellaneous chores she happened to be nearby for, and getting used to life here in general. But now she'd be able to cross pizza off her bucket list! Just in time for the duel between that Peter guy and co-captain Charlie to end, too!

“Thanks for the game. I think I can tell why they made you a captain.”

"What a finish!" Makoto cheered. "The move with the dragons, and the piercing damage, and wow! I'm sure glad we didn't have to duel each other for tryouts!"

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

Terry watched, holding each breath as she brought a hand up to her chest, eyes narrowed on Charlie’s field. She could barely keep up with everything, having to take the descriptions of cards as they went, but she couldn’t help but let out a quiet cheer as two new demonic-looking creatures rose from the stuffing: one, a terrifying tiger, the other a demented sheep! Any overlord would have been joyous to see these creatures, Terry mused, watching as they followed their master’s command. Practically bouncing, she wanted to let out a cry of ‘You can do it!’, but held back; seeing as no one else really seemed to be… Getting into it, like she was.

Speaking of which, the warrior of light, the pitifully inattentive warrior of light, soon said something that took her out of it. Pizza? They were ordering pizza, during tryouts…? Glancing away from the fight, Terry glanced over to see the girl ordering pizza on her phone. “Oh, um… It’s a bit boring, but a regular, cheese pizza would be nice.” Terry smiled, nodding. It was alright for an evil overlord to be polite when someone was ordering her food, right? After all, it wouldn’t make sense to rudely reply to someone offering you something, even if they are a warrior of light...!

By the time she was able to glance back to the battle though… Her heart sunk. It was about this time that the challenger said something about ‘and this card has a lot of text’, or something like that. From there, the duel was over in an instant, as after a small back and forth, the new, even larger dragon took to the skies…! And attacked, reducing the co-captain’s life points to a big, fat, zero… 

Terry almost seemed to droop at the result, a look of utter disappointment, even despair filling her. Was that the fate of all overlords? All bosses? No matter how cunning, how evil how far above her league: to fall to those who wield the light? Bringing a hand up to her chin, she glanced at the co-captain, eyeing them curiously. That couldn’t have been it, could it…? No, the co-captain was in control the entire time, right? As a fellow-boss-- They had to be! That’s right, she reasoned, nodding in her hand. The co-captain must have let the newcomer win… Right?

[Blake 312]

In an instant, it was over. Charlie could only smile as the team's new recruit proved himself worthy. And as their mouse was destroyed and their life hit zero, Charlie began to collect their cards. After all, Peter didn't need to know that they threw the game, right? As the boy approached, Charlie nodded at him approvingly. 

Peter stuck his hand out. “Thanks for the game,” he said. “I think I can tell why they made you a captain.”

He didn't know, right? No, there was no way he could. Sure, they had spent their turns showing off a bit... but a bit of showmanship didn't mean they had the outs, right? Of course not, they were just overthinking it.

"Ah, well, I mostly became the captain out of necessity... They never let me play much the past few years," Charlie laughed awkwardly as they took Peter's hand to shake, their other hand rubbing the back of their head, "But I think you did a great job! A little rough around the edges at parts, but absolutely a welcome addition to the team! Don't you think, Avi?"

Charlie looked to the sidelines as they clamored about pizza, shooting their partner-in-crime an approving grin, "We have a few others to get through... but with a start like that, let's get some pizza, too, huh? How's a ham and pineapple sound? Anyone else up for it?"

[Cheshire Toon 139]

Avriel abruptly stopped writing in his notebook. His pencil snapped in his suddenly white-knuckled grasp. “Charlie…” his growled through gritted teeth. They had thrown that duel; a piercing beatstick wasn’t the wincon Peter needed, so why hadn’t Charlie punished him for making such an obvious play? Just thinking about it irritated him. They had put up with constant harassment about being ‘the eternally benched one’, so why had they chosen to lose a duel in front of a whole new generation of students? It was finally their chance to shut at least a few people up. 

Charlie and Peter shook hands. Charlie laughed at something Peter said, then looked over to Avriel. "But I think you did a great job! A little rough around the edges at parts, but absolutely a welcome addition to the team! Don't you think, Avi?"

The Toon Duelist fought off his frown to nod. “...Yeah. Good job kid.” The subject of conversation became pizza a second later. Avi blinked a few times. Who had brought up pizza? When? It seemed sudden, but it was met with unanimous approval, so he must have missed something. “Pineapple and ham sounds good. I can duel the next one while we wait for it, though. Might as well get this over with.”
 

[Skaia 578]

"Here I thought pizza was an end of the season kind of thing." The group would hear an unfamiliar voice, slight teasing evident in her tone, as the main door to the gym opened up. "But I'll settle for whatever you kids are having." 

In spite of her words, the woman that walked through the door didn't seem that much older than Avi and Charlie. Looking around the room, the woman seemed to be rather unimpressed and oddly annoyed by the room that they were in. "So, we're stuck in here huh?" Then, she looked towards the  small gathering of people, looking at each of them impassively, before saying, "I see." The girl put a finger to her chin and thought for a moment, before shrugging saying, "well, sorry for being late. Haven't been here in...well, it took a bit to find." 

Looking at the students, without waiting she just said, "so you were all in the middle of tryouts or something right? Go on, keep at it."  

[LordCowCow 839]

Hana blinked rapidly as David talked. She didn't seem to get most of what he was saying but nodded all the same. "Mhm, mhm, mhm." She made affirmative noises as she went even if her eyes showed that she wasn't actually taking in what he was saying much at all.

"Soooo, Pepperoni then?" She said, and gave him a thumbs up.

She went to work, her tongue poking out between her teeth as she got the order prepared. "Couple cheese, couple pepperoni, couple ham and pineapple....and four for me..." She muttered as she went.

The girl didn't seem to realize that the match had ended, until she looked up from placing her order to ask if anyone wanted drinks, and when she noticed no one was dueling she let out a loud gasp. "Oooh someone must have attacked finally, who won???" She looked eagerly from Charlie to Peter, "It was Charlie right? Unless the genius fish is an ULTRA genius!"

"Here I thought pizza was an end of the season kind of thing. But I'll settle for whatever you kids are having." 

Hana's head whipped around to face the newcomer. She pointed dramatically at the woman and declared "YOU!....Who are you?" She asked.

"You came here for the pizza didn't you? Smart, very smart." Hana said, nodding admiringly. "Well don't worry, I'm sure you'll get a couple slices!"

[Chaos Sonic 442]

“Battle! Chaos MAX Dragon, blow through Fluffal mouse and continue right on to the captain!”

To his surprise, but not so much his thoughts, Peter ended up pulling something out for the turn, but also clutched the win for himself against Charlie. David nodded slowly, his hand going straight to his chin. "An interesting play from the prodigy. Trade-In then to Bingo Machine...then bringing forth Chaos Max. Going the route of a Ritual Monster finish...while a bit lackluster, it did the job." he said, watching Charlie and Peter shake hands. "As expected from the prodigy, but the Co-Captain seems to be just as strong..."

David somewhat dismissed Hana and her pizza talk, still a bit focused on the Duel and the whole situation that was unfolding in this manner. Nevertheless, he was sure that these Captains had exactly what it took to push him further into becoming a Pro Duelist. After all, if that was what Charlie could do...what could their partner, Avi, do?

"I can duel the next one while we wait for it, though. Might as well get this over with.”
"so you were all in the middle of tryouts or something right? Go on, keep at it."

He was silent as another person walked in, a young woman, and at the same time, Avi offered to Duel the next applicant for the Duel Team as they awaited the...impending pizza party. David adjusted his glasses slightly along with his shirt some. He looked over towards Terry and Makoto, clearing his throat. "Ladies first. Would either of you ladies care to be next? If not, I will take the next Duel."

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

Terry smiled at the proceedings, as Charlie took the loss with grace. Of course, she nodded; he had to have flopped, to have thrown! There was no way any self-respecting dark-lord would be so cheery were this not part of their plan; so it was only natural for her to assume this was part of their master plan, their keikaku, their evil scheme, their manuscript, their- Well, you get the point. By the time she had finished her ruminations, it seemed the pizza orders had been submitted, and the captains were talking among themselves, with the one who had been sitting down offering to duel the next participant.

Right.. The Tryouts themselves. Terry had almost forgotten that she was supposed to be trying out. She had gotten so caught up in watching the duel, that she hadn’t thought to think about how hers might go. Even further, the other co-captain, the one who wasn’t a servant of evil, looked… Really scary, actually. Tall, muscular, and all-around off putting. She knew not to judge a book by it’s cover, but she hadn’t noticed just how ominous he had looked before. And if he looked like that on the outside, his dueling style had to be just as terrifying to behold, and not in an exciting way. She could only imagine her life points getting thrashed, decimated, as she brought a hand to her chest. To make matters worse, someone new had entered in, stating that she was going to watch and observe! Terry could feel her heart beating faster and faster, hand almost trembling over her heart as one of the other students trying out asked if either of them wanted to go next. Honestly, it seemed like the situation couldn't get much worse, only conceivably doing so should she go next...

But at the same time… 

Was it really like an Evil-Mastermind, a Final Boss, to quake in her boots at the prospect of witnessing such destruction? To let herself be psyched out by something that wasn't tangible, by a warrior of the light? Taking a deep breath, Terry forced a smile to her face, nodding. “If neither of you have any objections,” Terry grinned, raising her voice, and one hand to the sky. “I’d like to them the real power of a Final-Boss, the destruction that is to come for their enemies should I be conscripted to their cause!” She announced, pausing to level her hand towards the captains. “For I, Terry Shelley, Final Boss of Destruction, Daughter of Demonic Origin, Warden of Chaos and Herald of Disaster towards all who oppose me, shall strike fear into the hearts of all who oppose me using my loyal servants, the Colossi who heed my call!” She announced, before breaking out into a practiced, maniacal laughter.

[radio414 903]

Peter listened as intently as he could as Charlie described their quote-unquote “ascent” to the captainhood of the team, not that he could understand it all that well. He was new and young, after all, and more brought up for dueling than dealing with whatever intra-team drama that caused Charlie to be pushed to the wayside until this year, so all he could do was nod along. The part, or “parts,” rather that did prick his ears up, though, were the two almost ancillary comments both captains made about his performance.

“A little rough around the edges, but…” Charlie said.

“...Yeah. Good job, kid,” Avriel said.

It wasn’t like Peter wasn’t already beating himself up internally, of course. He had during the duel and now, even after he’d won -- after he’d won! -- his parents still sounded off in his head, scouring his play for anything they could lecture him over. He really tried not to think about that. Not now. And sure, it was his parents’ job and it was his captains’ job to make sure he did play as well as he could, but couldn’t he have, like, a brief moment of respite?

There were other comments from the peanut gallery. “Ultra genius,” someone said. Another said, “Prodigy.” They were the type of comments that Peter both appreciated hearing and tried so hard to ignore. That was his reputation, and while they were certainly a nice ego boost, it wasn’t him. It didn’t feel like him, at least.

Fortunately, that’s where Peter’s navel-gazing stopped, as it was interrupted by both Charlie announcing their pizza order and another person -- an upperclassman? Faculty? Peter couldn’t tell -- waltzing in and making snide remarks about that same food. 

The former was the more pressing issue. “Um, actually, just pineapple for me,” Peter said. “I don’t really like…” He trailed off. He could just pick off the errant pieces, right? Sure, it’d make for worse pizza but it sounded like the order was already being placed, and while Peter considered himself a lot of things, a bother wasn’t one of them. Not about pizza.

The other interruption, well, it sounded like Makoto (Makoto was her name, right? All the stuff pre-duel felt like it had taken place a month ago) had already started the introduction chain again, so when conversation quieted down again, he walked over. “Hello, I’m Peter,” he said to the newcomer. “Nice to meet you.”

[Skaia 578]

The woman looked over to the the one girl who greeted her, ready to introduce herself only to stop in confusion. As the girl seemed to think she was here for the pizza specifically, the woman shook her hand saying, "no, not really no. I'm- " before the girl could finish her introduction yet again, two of the others seemed very enthusiastic to keep the tryouts going. One in particular that the girl just looked at blankly, before muttering, "well, I guess there were those types here too." Sighing, the woman looked forward once again as the person who had just finished dueling came over to greet her as well. "Yo." Giving a two fingered wave to the boy she said, "name's Clara." 

Looking over to the first girl who spoke when she entered she then said, "more specifically I'm Coach Clara, or just Coach. Or Coach E I guess if you want to get formal about it." As the girl seemed to be a bit out there, Clara then added, "here to be the coach for your team. Not a pizza party crasher." The woman shrugged, before saying, "but well, heya." Looking at everyone else she said, "well, don't worry about me just yet, I'll just be watching for the time being." Looking towards the older two of the gaggle of students she asked, "did I miss anything else before coming here?"  

Edited January 29, 2020 by Skaia

[LordCowCow 839]

“Um, actually, just pineapple for me,” Peter said. “I don’t really like…”

"Got it! Don't you worry, I still have time to add to the order, I always figure something else I want after I order anyway and they know my name I'm sure they're waiting." Having said that Hana put in an order for another pizza with just pineapple. "Large is fine I hope."

She then sent the revised order in and nodded in satisfaction. The order was large, hopefully large enough, and she was sure that everyone would be able to get their fill. No empty stomachs when Hana was around! As she thought that her stomach growled. She sure hoped they'd get here soon. That cake didn't keep her satisfied for long and it had been a few hours since her last meal.

Putting the phone away, she bounced on over towards the woman who was calling herself their coach. "I didn't know we were getting a coach! Did we have a coach last year? Aren't couches supposed to have striped shirts?" She paused. "Wait that's a referee. Are those different?"

"Anyway, you didn't miss anything, you're just in time for the pizza orders after all! Oh, wait, did you want something?" She dug into her pocket for her phone once more.

[yui 574]

Suddenly, a woman appeared! She didn't look much older than the other students here - if at all - but apparently she was the coach? Coach E, she'd said people could call her. She was just here to watch the tryouts, she'd said, but for some reason the coach also being here added a small feeling of pressure onto Makoto's shoulders. If - and that was still just an if - she made a fool of herself in a duel, it was no big deal if it was just in front of all the other students. But for some reason, adding a coach into that equation made her definitely not want to mess up. Which brought her to something someone - she couldn't quite recall the name - had said.

"Ladies first. Would either of you ladies care to be next? If not, I will take the next Duel."

The boisterous girl - her name was Terry - wasted no time volunteering. Well, there were two captains technically, so that meant two duelists at a time, right? "I'll also step up to the plate!" Makoto added. "I came here to try out for the team after all; not sit around doing nothing. Unless we're only doing one at a time, I'm ready to rumble!" Surely she had this in the bag.

[Blake 312]

"did I miss anything else before coming here?"  

"Not really, Coach, just the first tryout. Peter here did a wonderful job!" Charlie replied to Clara and patted their junior on the head, "He's certainly a welcome addition. And then these ladies would like to go next? I figure it'll take a bit before the pizza gets here, and we have a couple volunteers, so why don't I take on... Eenie, meenie, minie... Frightfur Tiger by the toe... You!"

Charlie pointed at Makoto with a grin, before sticking their right hand out for a shake.

"I'm sure you already heard my name by this point... but I'm Charlie, one of your co-captains. Nice to meet you!" Charlie waited to take the girl's hand as they looked over to Terry, "Sorry about that, but you can duel next, and then we can handle the last of our new recruits. We don't exactly, uh... have space for more, as you can see."

[Chaos Sonic 442]

David watched, arms crossed, seeing Terry following after Avi and then Makoto following Charlie. Process of elimination, since Charlie had already Dueled Peter and is now Dueling against Makoto, he would most likely be Dueling against Avi. So now...it was time for him to make a quick check...one last time.

He immediately took this moment and sat down, taking his deck box out. With a quick movement, he pulled out the deck he worked so hard in putting together, holding it in his hand. With an exhale, he moved a bit and placed down a mat on the ground before proceeding to spread the deck out over it. He wanted to take one last look at everything in order to prep himself for his Duel. Could he have started watching Avi's Duel against Terry to learn how the Duelist worked? Yes, but at the same time, he figured he'd let the Captain's secrets in his Duel Style remain just that: a secret. Not knowing what he would be up against would be part of the fun.

Alright. Gist of the situation being simply this: do what I can to both survive as well as disrupt the Captain's plays. David thought, glancing over his cards. He knew how Time Thief worked inside and out: form Redoer and disrupt the opponent by "stealing" the top card from their deck to add as Xyz Material to gain effects. But simply going after Redoer wouldn't help, the opponent most likely would be expecting this. Therefore, counter measures should be decided.

...if he finds a way to disrupt Redoer, I'll bring forth Perpetua, that way I'll bring Redoer back into the fray. That combination there should also last me some time in order to formulate a strategy. he adjusted his glasses, nodding. It all boiled down to what this Captain's general play style and their moves would entail, therefore would dictate what moves he himself would have at his disposal.

With another exhale, he scooped up the cards and then took Time Thief Redoer in his hand, looking directly at it. ...we can do this. I'll show them what I can do...this will be the starting line of my Pro Duelist career!

[radio414 903]

Coach Clara didn’t seem to recognize Peter, which threw him a little bit, but he shrugged it off well enough. She’d just walked in, after all, and just about everyone else had made her the center of attention. The fact that she’d barely paid Peter any mind at all -- she’d even introduced herself to him first! -- was enough for him at the moment. He took his hand back with a courtesy “Nice to meet you too,” and wandered his way over to the benches.

Everyone else was scrambling around, trying to continue tryouts, an act that especially made sense now that there was an actual coach here to supervise. But he’d already gone through all that. And now that everyone else was setting up for more hot dueling action, Peter allowed himself to go through his own duel in his head, playing those eight turns over and over until he’d come to some sort of conclusion.

It didn’t take very long. Sure, he’d found himself double-guessing plays even while the duel was still going on, but he’d won, hadn’t he? So he couldn’t have been that bad. And besides, there were now two captains and a coach ready to teach in case they spotted something in others’ play that he could relate to. It wasn’t like he wasn’t going to improve, even if he only skimmed his analysis here or there.

The duels were almost set up now. Opponents-to-be were already shaking hands in preparation. Peter leaned back as well as he could on the bench and got ready to spectate. It had been a fine first day so far, he thought. Maybe he wasn’t sure about everything else he knew being on the dueling team entailed, but the meetings, at least? He could get used to them.

[Skaia 578]

With everyone having figured out who to play, the tryouts proceeded without incident. Clara didn't say much of anything while any of the duels were going on, opting to just quietly watch. Once each of the duels had finished, the woman looked around to see if there was anything else ready to happen, only to confirm that everything had happened. After taking a bite from the recently arrived pizza, the woman took out her phone and started to type in a few notes into it. After reviewing the results, the woman took a silent look at each of the team members and tryouts, before taking another bite of her pizza.

"Well, that's probably good for today." Addressing everyone else the woman continued, "honestly there's probably not much to do today other than that, and I guess, this." The woman motioned towards the enormous stock of pizza that they had. "But, aside from that, the only other thing I'd like to cover is critique. More importantly, critique that isn't my own. So, Captains." She motioned to Avi and Charlie. "Applicants," motioning to the people who tried out. Looking to Hana she said, "pizza girl, feel free to chime in with your own thoughts." 

[LordCowCow 839]

"pizza girl, feel free to chime in with your own thoughts." 

Hana looked up as the coach said that. As if she had some instinctive knowledge that, while they all had pizza, she was the one being spoken about. Usually it was the case. She had been called all sorts of types of girl. Pizza girl. Sushi girl. Cake girl. Stupid girl. That last one wasn't a food. Unless there was some food in a different language that she didn't know of.

Her eyes lit up at the idea that there was a food she had no knowledge of.

At the moment she was sitting down on the ground. Four open boxes of pizza laid out in front of her. She had a slice in each hand. One, anchovies and black olives. The other, chicken and bacon. She took a bite of both at once then scooted herself closer to Avi. "Hey, hey Avi, is stupid a food somewhere?" He knew so much more about cards than she did so surely he knew about all sorts of things. Especially something as important as food.

It was just then that she remembered the coach had asked for their thoughts. "I think that this pizza is good!" Hana said. "I wish I could have given you one for your own but you came in so late...Maybe someone else will let you have some of theirs." Though she doubted it. After all she had been rather greedy and only got one or two pizzas per person besides herself.

Wait.

"OH, did you mean the duely thing? Uhh...well..." She shoved most of the rest of one piece in her mouth and chewed it while thinking, tapping her chin with the other piece as she considered the duels she saw.

"It looked like everyone had fun!" Was the conclusion she reached.

[Chaos Sonic 442]

The Duel was an eye-opener for David. His attempt at seizing victory against the Duel Captain, Avi...failed miserably. It was a Duel with his Time Thief deck against Avi's Toon deck. His strategy against the Duel Captain consisting of trying to snag his cards for Redoer's general Xyz Material turned out to work for a few turns...but at the end of it...didn't help him in the long run. While he took this loss gracefully, David unfortunately stood there after the Duels were finished, with a look on his face. He was in deep thought, very deep.

"Well, that's probably good for today. But, aside from that, the only other thing I'd like to cover is critique. More importantly, critique that isn't my own. So, Captains, applicants, pizza girl, feel free to chime in with your own thoughts."

The first to speak was the girl who dealt with the pizza orders, who apparently didn't have too much of a say about the Duels in general. She seemed to be a type of individual who didn't care one way or the other. But with no one else speaking up almost immediately about the thoughts about the whole situation, David figured he would speak up next.

"Critiques aren't my type of thing, unfortunately. Though that applies to seeing others Duel. And unfortunately, I watched only one Duel while I was preparing for mine." David began, clearing his throat. "Peter displayed both skill and a strong knowledge of his deck, which I assumed has been after being quite familiar with them since day one. Regardless, his Duel against his opponent displayed quite a bit of power in his moves. However, in my own Duel against the one Captain...I can give my insight and thoughts on it." He adjusted his glasses and slowly crossed his arms. "I wasn't expecting to face a Toon deck. Against my Time Thief deck, it seemed like it was an obvious outcome. The dynamic of the deck being built for direct attacks against an opponent basically put me at the disadvantage. While I did my best to whittle away at his resources via Time Thief Redoer's ability, I didn't anticipate the swift response from the Duelist's deck in summoning things straight from the deck in the manner that was displayed."

David paused, exhaling slowly before looking over at Avi. "Regardless of my loss from this, I take it as a major learning experience. I haven't seen someone Duel like that before and it's inspired me to improve as much as I can. If this is the level that potential Duelists aiming for Pro have...then I want to reach that level. I would like to learn from the Captains on how to better myself and even to allow me to test myself against them to see how far I've come."

[radio414 903]

The duels were entertaining enough, Peter supposed, though given the environment and without the thrill of actually being in one, he felt like he was supposed to be taking notes, or at least paying more attention than he really was. His mind wandered, and he frequently turned to fidgeting around in his seat. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be doing with his hands. Keeping them folded in his lap felt a bit unnatural, leaning back was difficult given how the benches were set up, and crossing his arms felt a bit more stand-offish than he was willing to be (though maybe it still was the pose expected of him? Besides Avriel, who really recognized Peter anyway?).

Oh, for a deck of playing cards! Peter briefly considered pulling out his Duel Monsters deck and just fiddling with them, but he also knew that the cards were the wrong size and there were too few of them to really get (literally!) lost in the shuffle. Going back to his locker and grabbing his bicycle cards wasn’t really an option, though, either, for so, so many reasons, the biggest one, of course, being “My parents would find out.”

The answer came in the form of pizza, which, when he thought about it a bit more, really was a pretty good answer to anything. Peter spent the remaining tryout time with a slice in hand, idly chewing. He was on his second slice when everything finally came to a close and Coach Clara called them all back together for a final breakdown. “Captains, applicants, pizza girl, feel free to chime in with your own thoughts.”

He should have been taking notes.

Still, Peter felt like he was expected to say something. “I mean, everything went pretty well, I guess. I feel like my play could have been tightened up a bit, but, I mean, I won, so…” It was probably a bit arrogant of him to say it out loud like that, but he had been asked. “And everyone else, I mean…” He shrugged, not sure what he was supposed to say next.

David chimed in with his own compliments, which Peter appreciated. He only hoped, now that it was all coming out, that he hadn’t missed some obvious detail in his play. All that arrogance would come off as foolishness if he had.

[yui 574]

"Well, that's probably good for today. But, aside from that, the only other thing I'd like to cover is critique. More importantly, critique that isn't my own. So, Captains, applicants, pizza girl, feel free to chime in with your own thoughts."

Critiques. Those were never something Makoto was that great with, at least not with dueling. Her uncle was really impressive at it, pointing out little long-term mistakes Makoto had made several turns before they became a problem, but the best she could ever do was note a glaring flaw in something. A flaw like "Your opponent was wide open, and you didn't use your free Battle Phase" or "You summoned the wrong monster" was as far as she could critique really. So she thought back to the duel she had against Charlie, trying to think of any glaring mistakes in her gameplay.

There was one thing that bothered her about it, in retrospect.

"I was too quick to panic in the face of an overwhelming field and summon the wrong monster," Makoto reviewed. "I also rushed a bit near the end because the pizza looked so delicious." To be fair, it totally was. This was pretty good stuff! Makoto would definitely be having more pizza in the future.

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

Terry frowned as she thought back to her duel; she had barely even seen any of the other duels after her loss, doing her best to regain her composure as she adjusted her scarf. It was immature, she reminded herself, to be this upset over a loss; of course a boss would have a few bumps on her road to the top, and it seemed as though she had been accepted despite her failure. But… That Duel Captain-- He was strong, scary, and powerful. He had gone right over her strongest monsters, managing to spiral verthing out of her control... And  then there was that terrifying, skeleton… So cartoonish, but so powerful…

Burying her face in the scarf one last time, she made careful notes to dry her eyes, taking in a deep breath as she lowered her scarf. It seemed everyone was voicing their thoughts about their duels, and those they watched. “I…” She trailed off, fidgeting with her dress. “I need to keep my composure better next time. There will be a lot of eyes on me if I duel, and… I can’t crack under pressure like that, or get intimidated by my opponent.” She nodded, lowering her head a bit. “No matter how scary the opponent, or how far behind I get in the duel, I need to keep my composure.” She repeated, quieter this time, before glancing back up. “Um… As for my strategy, I need to be a lot more careful with my removal, and focus less on amassing powerful monsters and more on summoning the right monsters to stop my opponent… I need to summon monsters who can deal with and control the board, rather than the ones I like-- Right?” She asked, her tone nervous, devoid of… Any real confidence, as she murmured out her critique of her own duel.