Zachaire Beau
When sweet familiar tones drew me,
Away from the tormenting crowd,
Then my other childhood feelings
Better times echoed, and allowed.
So I curse whatever snares the soul,
In its magical, enticing arms,
Banishes it to this mournful hole,
With dazzling, seductive charms!
Cursed be those high Opinions first,
With which the mind entraps itself!
Then glittering Appearance curse,
In which the senses lose themselves!
Curse what deceives us in our dreaming,
With thoughts of everlasting fame!
Curse the flattery of ‘possessing’
Wife and child, lands and name!
Curse Mammon, when he drives us
To bold acts to win our treasure:
Or straightens out our pillows
For us to idle at our leisure!
Curse the sweet juice of the grape!
Curse the highest favours Love lets fall!
Cursed be Hope! Cursed be Faith,
So the good doctor reasoned. Through the devil of it all, the rumble and roar of the engine against the clock, hours turned into days or what may it pass. Lines of text, surrounded him, paper was a veil, and ink his doorway. Far from this place, so far from home, but into the throes of the distant lands, in-between the pages of his book. Zachaire could not possibly tell you if he sat alone, or with some stranger, or how long the ride to the only structures for kilometers around was. A good read was all he needed to keep himself occupied, and this Children's Card Game had quite a few rules and several cards to consider, too many for Zachaire to bother reading about all the fine details. The basics were really quite simple, a series of phases in which one gather resources then battled before preparing for the opponent's turn at doing the same. It was for this reason it was called a 'duel.' And speaking to anyone on this bus was a challenging task, after all his accent betrays him just as much as Mephistopheles would betray the good doctor.
The bus came to a stop, but the story did not. The story had grabbed you by the throat, and dragged you along with it. And in the case of Zachaire, well his neck was rather long, longer than most as his head tilted down towards his book unaware. Slowly the bus cleared out, and he was oblivious to the outflow of people, young people who also decided to go here. This Duel Academy to learn, amongst other things, how to play a complex Children's Card Game. What was the rush? There was no need to hurry. This may have been a mistake on his part, but there was no reason to let an opportunity pass by after passing the entrance exam somehow. Yet, time waits for no man, or perhaps the bus driver waits for no one as he almost literally threw Zachaire off the bus, almost. The first few attempts at trying to tell the boy to get off the bus and they were here failed so the driver decided to grab the boy's collar and drag him out of his seat and sent him down the stairs. It was by the second step did Zachaire finally close his book with a firm shut, the pages on either side hugging a blue ribbon down the inner spine.
"Est-ce ceci?" ---
A tower which reaches into the heavens, a place to make a name for yourself. A tower of babel. Which as Zachaire learned was a card in this card game, and many of the cards drew inspirations and references to great works of literature and stories and if not, they made their own. A rather novel concept really, making unwritten stories through the use of cards. The inside was definitely a shining embodiment of grandeur bordering hubris: a open space emblazoned with a logo which sealed them. The faces of those captured within the frames regarded the new arrivals, supposedly extraordinary students who came out of this place to be successful in such a trivial pursuit of sport. What was Duel Monsters? Legends say it was about some magic and sorcery practiced in ancient Egypt, but why make it into a game for children? Who was mad enough to do this? Here they gathered upon this crest, and soon they shall be scattered. Just as the story of the tower goes.
Elevator or Stairs? Clearly the stairs, while yes the elevator would be a much quicker, and easier path to get to the location needed. The easiest path was not always the best path to choose. As the American Frost said, taking the one less traveled by, will make all the difference. The stairs also allowed a longer reading time, with rhythmic steps as Zacharie cracked open his book again to read once more of the good doctor. This however may have looked a tad silly, with the boy lugging around a heavy suitcase filled with a dozen book, real books not those digital ebooks, pressing down upon his clothing and other personal effects. Who said you can't take it with you?
And here is the difference: by the time Zacharie made it, all the choices were sparse. The throng and masses had already came and picked out their decks, but this did not bother him. He did not come here to learn how to play a children's card game, there were other classes outside of this and he had no plans to become one of those faces in the lobby.
Line up in front of the display, then tell me which structure deck and pack you want. I will grab them for you, and then you should head over in that direction to that table, where you will choose you Duel Disk and Courses. You can drop off your suitcases there for the time being as well. These directions repeated a few times over, less enthusiastically each time. The options were scant and few by now, and the last student which had came before Zacharie just swiped the 'Legend of a King' deck, which he noticed a picture on the box which reminded him of one of the archetypes, one based off of Arthurian legends. A shame really, he would have liked to try that one, if not just for the storyline. Zacharie looked through all structure decks, well all the ones remaining, which was probably about a half-a-dozen left, unsure of which to pick.
"Come on kid, I haven't got all day..." The man behind the counter was getting slightly irritated, "Pick one and move along. Come on, which one do you want?" He looked at the man and shrugged, burying himself into his book as a defensive mechanism to avoid having to talk with him much to the chagrin of the worker. "Fine, here since you like books so much." A structure deck was placed on the counter for him to pick up, the man not even bothering to ask if the boy wanted an additional pack or not. A picture of a boy dressed in blue holding a book, how fitting.
"Unbound Arcana? Ah! Merci beaucoup monsieur!"---
A duel disk? What sort of contraption is this? He had signed up for standard dueling, whatever that was considered, so Zacharie picked up a standard academy duel-disk after setting his luggage aside at the designated spot, although he did keep his book in hand. Social barriers were great to maintain behind the covers. Some paperwork, which went by a great deal swifter than him picking a deck. The top and middle rows were being filled, but again Zacharie had no sense of urgency to get down to the nitty-gritty and open his deck to examine his cards. The game, from what Zacharie understood, was more than just knowing your own cards, but quite literally knowing about your opponents cards. One had to know the opponent's deck better than your opponent. Take for example the Six Samurai, which he saw someone with the structure deck as he passed his way up, a group of cards which was based off of feudal Japan and a story of a band of warriors which united the land; their monsters are easy to unite and enter the field all at once, but it was their ability to manipulate the elements of the opponent's field which made them stronger. Knowing which, how and when to disrupt the opponent's field was crucial to protect them as their monsters were unusually 'weak' in terms of attack and defense points which was part of the main mechanics of the game. But the beauty of it was: rule not by the arm and sword, but by the mind and wand.
But there was something which had caught his attention, well, something he remembered from the rulebook. Since some cards were innately overpowered, they were banned from play. A silly notion to Zacharie as if they were made so powerful, why were they made to begin with? There was a boy with a deck which had a familiar image emblazoned upon the box. Something terribly awful, a definitively banned card from now and forever for its nigh-apocalyptic abilities. Everyone who knew about the game should know about that card's notoriety, some famous duelist used it a very, very long time ago along with its counterpart which was for the longest time was also banned. Curious as to why this deck was here, Zacharie approached Vincent, and dropping his book, actually opened his mouth to speak to him:
"pardonnez-moi monsieur, but iz that not le chaos emperor dragon?"
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