[Now, normally Stocke would be more than a little unsettled by that transformation - if normally is 'before he was a shade,' anyway. In the last couple of years, though, he's shapeshifted himself enough that it's not as weird as it could be. It's more the strange mix of organic flesh and inorganic shapes - and storage? Okay, yes, Judai pulling his cards out of it is still kinda odd.]
[A second later Stocke realizes again he's being Steve, and allows himself to stare. He responds to Judai's question with a slightly distracted (and deliberately drawn out),] Uhhh. We have cards. I don't think people trade for them, normally -
[It's about in the middle of that sentence that he accepts the Duel Monsters card from Judai, blinking at it.] - ah. No, nothing like this. Looks like a book illustration...
[And since this particular card has only flavour text, not effects, it kinda backs that up. Not that Stocke can read it - the language he knew back in his old world was nothing like Japanese.]
[He runs his thumb carefully over the surface of the card, puzzling over the line of stars at the top and the numbers at the bottom.]
[Judai being... Judai... fails to comprehend how that could be freaky. He just smiles as he rummages through the deck for Winged Kuriboh so he can show the difference between effect monsters and normal monsters.]
They can be really pretty, yeah. [he says as he keeps moving through, careful not to drop his friends.]
So these cards are part of the game, Duel Monsters. I run an Elemental Hero deck so most of my cards are themed around heroes, plus some aliens. Elemental Hero Sparkman there's a normal monster so he's got no fancy effects. You can have five monsters on the field at one time and five spells and traps, but I'll explain that later.
[He points to the stars at the top.] That's basically the level of the monster. Monsters 1-4 don't need a tribute to be placed on the field. ATK is the attack of the monster and DEF is the defence. So it's their strength.
You wanna meet Sparkman? Might make this lesson a bit more fun!
[Stocke absorbs all that, though he may not understand everything the way Judai means it. He's not sure what aliens are, and to him "heroes" doesn't mean superheroes. If he weren't pretending to be human, the word "tribute" would have made his eyes flicker. But... alright, so this Sparkman's offensive more than he is defensive.]
[He holds the card back out to Judai, noting the care the kelpie's taking with the rest of his deck and trying to match it.]
[Judai nods eagerly like an excited puppy.] Yeah! I asked Mana to hook me up with the ability to use my arm as a Duel Disk. That's like how we play the game. Basically it makes holograms of the cards. Makes the game more engaging and action-packed.
[He puts the deck back in after organising the cards and then takes Sparkman back.]
I'll show you! I summon Elemental Hero, Sparkman!
[Judai presses the card on his arm and it glows. The blue light from his arm glows and out emerges the card himself. Sparkman's a bit taller than Judai so he's a lot taller than Stocke presently. The hologram nods in acknowledgement.]
It's not the real deal but he's still pretty cool.
[Stocke jerks back from the summoning as Sparkman appears. (He's not going to say, but that's far more from the flash of blue light than the actual appearance of the hologram.) After a second, though, he draws closer again.]
Can he - hello? [The last is aimed at Sparkman, testing to see if he'll respond. Almost immediately after he registers Judai's 'not the real deal' - probably not, in that case. The "human" turns his attention back to Judai.]
[Judai's more used to people being startled from the holograms so he doesn't notice the weakness. He just grins.]
Unfortunately, no. It sucks but they're just holograms. Most people wouldn't notice though because they can't talk to their monsters like I can. Not many people know that cards are the medium between our world and the Duel Monster Spirit world. My world basically revolves around this game whether it knows it or not.
[He smiles] So there are four kinds of monsters. I really only have three, so we'll skip over ritual monsters. There are Normal Monsters like Sparkman, Effect Monsters that have abilities that can be activated and Fusion monsters which are monsters that are combined.
[That's - that's a lot to absorb in one go, Judai. Though Stocke supposes it's no more unlikely than magic time travel books...]
[Hm.] Tell me about ritual monsters anyway - they're really what they sound like? You said something earlier about sacrificing monsters...
[Are "ritual" and "sacrifice" just buzzwords for Stocke? Maybe. Especially now that Judai's mentioned that these monsters are actual... spirit things from another world, secretly.]
[He's simplifying it, he swears.][He holds up the four cards that he's drawn] or the field [he gestures to Sparkman] that's equal or greater than the stars of the ritual monster.
When monsters are sacrificed, they're not really sacrificed. They're still alive in the spirit world, just not in the game. If a monster is 1-4 star, you can summon them without a tribute but if they're 5 or 6, you need to send one monster from the field to the graveyard to summon them. 7-9 require two tributes while 10 stars need three. The game can get pretty tricky though because it's balancing strength with abilities with your spells and traps.
[Judai notices.]Sorry. Like... treat everything as a card game unless I say otherwise. Cause it's really that. A fun game. [It just has to coincide with his entire universe]
Yeah. Spells are cards you can play from your hand or field instantly. They're these green cards. They have all sorts of effects depending on what's written. And Traps have to be played face down and can't be activated straight away. Those can be activated on your opponents turn. So you can see how full on it can get, huh?
Nope. It definitely doesn't. It'd be super horrible if it did. [There is one exception to this but he doesn't want to say anything since it's not important.]
Oh all kinds. Some can destroy monsters, lower attack points or spring a surprise. [He shows a couple from his hand.] A Hero Emerges lets me summon a monster if my opponent randomly picks it from my hand and Hero Barrier lets me negate 1 attack from your opponent's monster as long as I have an Elemental Hero monster on my field.
Are all the monsters in this game heroes of some sort?
[Thanks, Judai's deck.]
[In any case - there's really nothing Stocke can relate this game to! It's not like Alistel had any trading card games... With that said, it's always easiest to learn a normal card game by jumping right in, he feels. There's only one more thing he needs to know beforehand, and Judai can explain the rest on the way:] How do you win a round? Those numbers on the monsters...
Nope! Just my deck! Or a lot of my deck really. I think heroes are cool so I collect the Elemental Hero Archetype! There are different monsters too!
Here! This is my buddy, Winged Kuriboh. He's a Fairy.
[Look how round and fuzzy and not heroic he looks.]
Well, to win, you gotta get your opponents lifepoints to 0. You start with 4000. The attack of the monster shows how strong it is. Basically how it works is that you can only attack your opponents lifepoints if your opponent has no monsters on their field. You need to overcome your opponents monsters and take away lifepoints, either by effects or damage from the monster. I think you can guess what the defence is too. That's represented by switching your monsters horizontally.
[Sparkman's card is changed and then the monster bows and crosses his arm, adopting a defensive position]
["Steve" nods, back to thoughtful. His eyes skim over Sparkman's pose, as if evaluating it for any real weaknesses - it's only for a flicker of a moment, though, easily missed.]
...think the easiest way for me to memorize everything and learn the rest is to play. [Is Judai interested?]
[Stocke is wrongly assuming, of course, that it can be played with one deck... but maybe he's lucky and Judai's brought two.]
Do I need... [he hesitates, tapping his arm. The one that'd have a Duel Disk growing out of it if he were Judai.]
[Super misread. Judai is talking about his favourite game. He's not cautious which is a good thing.
Judai can be very dangerous when he's on his guard.]
Hell Yeah! Sounds sweet!
[Judai grins and he pulls out another deck.] I don't have a spare duel disk but you don't need to play on the duel disks if you don't want holograms. We can play on the table. [He indicates a wooden park table over off on the side.]
I borrowed this deck off my friend. I can use his deck while you use mine. Mine's a little easier to understand and has less additional rules. Pendulums are a bit tricky.
[He nods to Sparkman and he disperses his monsters by turning the disk off. They vanish and Judai puts the cards back in his deck and pulls it out of his arm.]
[Truthfully, Stocke doesn't even mean anything by it. It's just habit. Still probably for the best that Judai's enthralled in the cards, though.]
[Stocke accepts the deck, walking over to the table. As he does, he skims through the cards to see if there's anything that totally stumps him on first glance. Then he flips them back upside-down and shuffles them - with a bit more care than he would shuffle normal playing cards. Kings and Jokers generally don't tend to be very unique and valuable as individual cards, while these... he's not sure. How do you print so many variations?]
[He looks up at Judai to watch how the kelpie's setting up.]
[Duel Monsters are both his greatest strength and his weakness. It's not so problematic in his world where the focus on the game is so important but here it's come up a few times as a bit of a culture clash.
Judai shuffles his deck with care too, since cards are precious and every one is valuable. He internally thanks the cards out of habit and gets ready to duel as he sits down.] Deck to the right. Extra deck to the left. Don't worry about the extra deck unless you use polymerisation. That's one of the green cards.
[Judai puts Stocke's extra deck down for him.]
Now you can only normal summon one monster per time. Special summoning isn't as limited. You can have a total of five monsters and five spells or traps on the field at one time. I'll take the first move so you can see how it sorta flows, alright?
[The "human" eyes the extra deck with some curiosity - it's so much smaller than the main one - but doesn't try to flip through it. Until it comes up and he gets more of an explanation, he's going to be assuming it's meant to be drawn blindly like any other deck. And they've already started "playing," so it's not fair to get a preview.]
[OOC: However I have no idea how to play Loki's deck which is Magispectres and Yosenjus so I can either as a friend or we can handwave.]
[Judai smiles.] Alright. Draw five cards and I'll take the first turn.
[Loki uses Pendulums but that's a rule far past Judai's time. He stares at the Yosenjus and the Magispectres.] So if you want to set a monster in defence mode, you put it face down horizontally. Like this. And if you're setting cards, same in the back row. [He places two cards down.]
And since I'm not battling, I'll end my turn. Then you go and you draw.
[Stocke draws five cards when prompted, eyes flicking between them and what Judai's playing. He still can't... read them. Which might be a problem. But he brought this on himself, he's game to try anyway. With any luck he'll only need those monsters with numbers and it'll be pretty straightforward -]
[Aaand nope all his draws but one are Effect monsters right off the bat, and that one only when he copies Judai for his own turn and draws a sixth card. This is going to go swimmingly.]
If I want to battle - I place them faceup. [Right?] Then what?
Yup. Face up and straight up, not horizontal. You'll need to read the effects if they're orange. Sometimes the timing is important. This is the Main Phase 1, just in case if any of the monsters mention that. You can choose to battle after you summon one. Remember, four stars or less. After you summon, you can play spells or set traps and then you can battle. So you declare your monster to attack mine. If the attack of your monster is higher than the defence of mine, then my monster is destroyed. If my defence is higher, you lose the difference to your lifepoints of 4000.
[Judai's going to be very generous with the rules, helping Stocke and all with the game. He explains the phases to help get a pattern and even writes them down so they have sort of a flowchart to follow and explains the extra deck. It's confusing but he hopes Stocke has fun.
He's happy to talk about anything further though...]
[Play progresses, with some hiccups - eventually Stocke gives in and starts asking Judai for translations of cards. Yeah, it means he doesn't have all that many surprises in store... but then again, he's not really playing this to win. There aren't any stakes to the card game.]
[After a bit, when he's shuffling his deck thanks to the effects of some card or other, he asks,] You said this game helped you communicate with people, earlier. [Paraphrased.]
[It's all in good fun and it's mostly to teach 'Steve' how to do all of these things. Judai is having fun showing him around and he hopes Steve is too.
Even if he has his own mission.]
Yeah. It does. Back in my world, the decks reflected the people who used them. Your dueling, your plays all reflected you as a person. Your deck will respond to your heart. Back in my world, sometimes duelling would have a lot of stakes on the line and it would be almost like our duelling responded to our will. It's sorta hard to explain but I feel like when I was duelling, I could really see what kind of person I was facing and be able to talk to them one on one in the most raw way possible. It doesn't exactly translate here though.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2018-06-19 07:57 am (UTC)[Now, normally Stocke would be more than a little unsettled by that transformation - if normally is 'before he was a shade,' anyway. In the last couple of years, though, he's shapeshifted himself enough that it's not as weird as it could be. It's more the strange mix of organic flesh and inorganic shapes - and storage? Okay, yes, Judai pulling his cards out of it is still kinda odd.]
[A second later Stocke realizes again he's being Steve, and allows himself to stare. He responds to Judai's question with a slightly distracted (and deliberately drawn out),] Uhhh. We have cards. I don't think people trade for them, normally -
[It's about in the middle of that sentence that he accepts the Duel Monsters card from Judai, blinking at it.] - ah. No, nothing like this. Looks like a book illustration...
[And since this particular card has only flavour text, not effects, it kinda backs that up. Not that Stocke can read it - the language he knew back in his old world was nothing like Japanese.]
[He runs his thumb carefully over the surface of the card, puzzling over the line of stars at the top and the numbers at the bottom.]
no subject
Date: 2018-06-22 09:24 am (UTC)They can be really pretty, yeah. [he says as he keeps moving through, careful not to drop his friends.]
So these cards are part of the game, Duel Monsters. I run an Elemental Hero deck so most of my cards are themed around heroes, plus some aliens. Elemental Hero Sparkman there's a normal monster so he's got no fancy effects. You can have five monsters on the field at one time and five spells and traps, but I'll explain that later.
[He points to the stars at the top.] That's basically the level of the monster. Monsters 1-4 don't need a tribute to be placed on the field. ATK is the attack of the monster and DEF is the defence. So it's their strength.
You wanna meet Sparkman? Might make this lesson a bit more fun!
no subject
Date: 2018-06-24 11:00 pm (UTC)[He holds the card back out to Judai, noting the care the kelpie's taking with the rest of his deck and trying to match it.]
...meet him?
no subject
Date: 2018-06-25 08:47 am (UTC)[He puts the deck back in after organising the cards and then takes Sparkman back.]
I'll show you! I summon Elemental Hero, Sparkman!
[Judai presses the card on his arm and it glows. The blue light from his arm glows and out emerges the card himself. Sparkman's a bit taller than Judai so he's a lot taller than Stocke presently. The hologram nods in acknowledgement.]
It's not the real deal but he's still pretty cool.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-27 11:45 pm (UTC)Can he - hello? [The last is aimed at Sparkman, testing to see if he'll respond. Almost immediately after he registers Judai's 'not the real deal' - probably not, in that case. The "human" turns his attention back to Judai.]
no subject
Date: 2018-06-28 03:38 am (UTC)Unfortunately, no. It sucks but they're just holograms. Most people wouldn't notice though because they can't talk to their monsters like I can. Not many people know that cards are the medium between our world and the Duel Monster Spirit world. My world basically revolves around this game whether it knows it or not.
[He smiles] So there are four kinds of monsters. I really only have three, so we'll skip over ritual monsters. There are Normal Monsters like Sparkman, Effect Monsters that have abilities that can be activated and Fusion monsters which are monsters that are combined.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-29 11:19 pm (UTC)[Hm.] Tell me about ritual monsters anyway - they're really what they sound like? You said something earlier about sacrificing monsters...
[Are "ritual" and "sacrifice" just buzzwords for Stocke? Maybe. Especially now that Judai's mentioned that these monsters are actual... spirit things from another world, secretly.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-03 02:12 am (UTC)When monsters are sacrificed, they're not really sacrificed. They're still alive in the spirit world, just not in the game. If a monster is 1-4 star, you can summon them without a tribute but if they're 5 or 6, you need to send one monster from the field to the graveyard to summon them. 7-9 require two tributes while 10 stars need three. The game can get pretty tricky though because it's balancing strength with abilities with your spells and traps.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-07 05:40 pm (UTC)The spells and traps - those are also cards?
no subject
Date: 2018-07-10 04:17 am (UTC)Yeah. Spells are cards you can play from your hand or field instantly. They're these green cards. They have all sorts of effects depending on what's written. And Traps have to be played face down and can't be activated straight away. Those can be activated on your opponents turn. So you can see how full on it can get, huh?
no subject
Date: 2018-07-13 05:13 am (UTC)[In that case... he nods.] What form does a trap commonly take?
no subject
Date: 2018-07-18 06:30 am (UTC)Oh all kinds. Some can destroy monsters, lower attack points or spring a surprise. [He shows a couple from his hand.] A Hero Emerges lets me summon a monster if my opponent randomly picks it from my hand and Hero Barrier lets me negate 1 attack from your opponent's monster as long as I have an Elemental Hero monster on my field.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-21 01:49 am (UTC)Are all the monsters in this game heroes of some sort?
[Thanks, Judai's deck.]
[In any case - there's really nothing Stocke can relate this game to! It's not like Alistel had any trading card games... With that said, it's always easiest to learn a normal card game by jumping right in, he feels. There's only one more thing he needs to know beforehand, and Judai can explain the rest on the way:] How do you win a round? Those numbers on the monsters...
no subject
Date: 2018-07-26 06:32 am (UTC)Here! This is my buddy, Winged Kuriboh. He's a Fairy.
[Look how round and fuzzy and not heroic he looks.]
Well, to win, you gotta get your opponents lifepoints to 0. You start with 4000. The attack of the monster shows how strong it is. Basically how it works is that you can only attack your opponents lifepoints if your opponent has no monsters on their field. You need to overcome your opponents monsters and take away lifepoints, either by effects or damage from the monster. I think you can guess what the defence is too. That's represented by switching your monsters horizontally.
[Sparkman's card is changed and then the monster bows and crosses his arm, adopting a defensive position]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-26 11:04 pm (UTC)...think the easiest way for me to memorize everything and learn the rest is to play. [Is Judai interested?]
[Stocke is wrongly assuming, of course, that it can be played with one deck... but maybe he's lucky and Judai's brought two.]
Do I need... [he hesitates, tapping his arm. The one that'd have a Duel Disk growing out of it if he were Judai.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-27 03:46 am (UTC)Judai can be very dangerous when he's on his guard.]
Hell Yeah! Sounds sweet!
[Judai grins and he pulls out another deck.] I don't have a spare duel disk but you don't need to play on the duel disks if you don't want holograms. We can play on the table. [He indicates a wooden park table over off on the side.]
I borrowed this deck off my friend. I can use his deck while you use mine. Mine's a little easier to understand and has less additional rules. Pendulums are a bit tricky.
[He nods to Sparkman and he disperses his monsters by turning the disk off. They vanish and Judai puts the cards back in his deck and pulls it out of his arm.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-28 05:16 pm (UTC)[Stocke accepts the deck, walking over to the table. As he does, he skims through the cards to see if there's anything that totally stumps him on first glance. Then he flips them back upside-down and shuffles them - with a bit more care than he would shuffle normal playing cards. Kings and Jokers generally don't tend to be very unique and valuable as individual cards, while these... he's not sure. How do you print so many variations?]
[He looks up at Judai to watch how the kelpie's setting up.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-30 03:22 am (UTC)Judai shuffles his deck with care too, since cards are precious and every one is valuable. He internally thanks the cards out of habit and gets ready to duel as he sits down.] Deck to the right. Extra deck to the left. Don't worry about the extra deck unless you use polymerisation. That's one of the green cards.
[Judai puts Stocke's extra deck down for him.]
Now you can only normal summon one monster per time. Special summoning isn't as limited. You can have a total of five monsters and five spells or traps on the field at one time. I'll take the first move so you can see how it sorta flows, alright?
:eyes: so is there a judai decklist anywhere out there so i can randomize the cards stocke draws
Date: 2018-08-01 02:24 am (UTC)[The "human" eyes the extra deck with some curiosity - it's so much smaller than the main one - but doesn't try to flip through it. Until it comes up and he gets more of an explanation, he's going to be assuming it's meant to be drawn blindly like any other deck. And they've already started "playing," so it's not fair to get a preview.]
Sounds good.
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Jaden_Yuki%27s_Decks#Darkness
Date: 2018-08-03 12:46 am (UTC)[Judai smiles.] Alright. Draw five cards and I'll take the first turn.
[Loki uses Pendulums but that's a rule far past Judai's time. He stares at the Yosenjus and the Magispectres.] So if you want to set a monster in defence mode, you put it face down horizontally. Like this. And if you're setting cards, same in the back row. [He places two cards down.]
And since I'm not battling, I'll end my turn. Then you go and you draw.
either way works for me! at some point in the middle stocke's gonna ask about foggy again though
Date: 2018-08-06 12:32 am (UTC)[Aaand nope all his draws but one are Effect monsters right off the bat, and that one only when he copies Judai for his own turn and draws a sixth card. This is going to go swimmingly.]
If I want to battle - I place them faceup. [Right?] Then what?
Lets handwave and as they duel they can talk seriously and we can focus on that
Date: 2018-08-08 02:28 am (UTC)[Judai's going to be very generous with the rules, helping Stocke and all with the game. He explains the phases to help get a pattern and even writes them down so they have sort of a flowchart to follow and explains the extra deck. It's confusing but he hopes Stocke has fun.
He's happy to talk about anything further though...]
no subject
Date: 2018-08-19 04:28 am (UTC)[After a bit, when he's shuffling his deck thanks to the effects of some card or other, he asks,] You said this game helped you communicate with people, earlier. [Paraphrased.]
no subject
Date: 2018-08-20 03:03 am (UTC)Even if he has his own mission.]
Yeah. It does. Back in my world, the decks reflected the people who used them. Your dueling, your plays all reflected you as a person. Your deck will respond to your heart. Back in my world, sometimes duelling would have a lot of stakes on the line and it would be almost like our duelling responded to our will. It's sorta hard to explain but I feel like when I was duelling, I could really see what kind of person I was facing and be able to talk to them one on one in the most raw way possible. It doesn't exactly translate here though.