Liberta Duel Academy is a Yu-Gi-Oh! roleplay site set in an Alternate Universe (AU) version of the original series of Yu-Gi-Oh!, set roughly 50 years after the end of the Dark Side of Dimensions movie. Liberta Duel Academy is set in the city of Silvershine located in a fictional small country known as Silva, somewhere along the western coastside of Europe.
September through October 20X1 - Welcome, Class of 20X4!
The new school year at Liberta Duel Academy is here! Students - new and returning - are adjusting to their school life and getting themselves settled in. The entrance ceremony presented the principal's address, spoke of Dorm Rankings, and introduced the Student Council. Alongside the standard Master Duels, the experimental "Specialty Duels" were announced to those new to the academy. So unpack; duel a fellow or two; explore the academy and the city of Silvershine! Action; adventure; slice of life; it's up to you! How will you have yours unfold?
Post by Masumi Sakamoto on Jan 24, 2022 4:32:53 GMT
"Yeah, uh huh... Studying hard. I got it, I got it! Geez, Mom, you're worse than my teachers!" a rather loud girl groaned as she rolled her eyes sarcastically, rowing her arms back to have her triceps against the back of her train seat. Luckily for her, she found a place to sit for the ride to City Heart: holding onto those handrails and "dangly hoopy things" really put a strain on her arms. Masumi had assumed the pinnacle of comfort on this ride: taking up too much space and speaking way too loudly for a phone conversation. "I totally got this under control! It was assigned last week, it's due in two days, so I'm thinkin' I'll start... Tomorrow afternoon! You got nothing to worry abo- H-Hey! That's plenty of time to get started! I can do it when I get back from Ci- W-Wait, don't call the tutor back! I'm not going again, he's sooooo boring and won't stop taaaaaalking! I'm a Duelist, not a math- ...ist? Whatever that word is, I don't do geometry! And the assignment isn't even for math!"
All passengers, please hold on. The tram is now approaching City Heart Station. Please gather your belongings and watch your step as you exit.
"Oop! That's my stop! Would love to talk more, but I gotta go! Call you later, love you lots and lots!~" Marcy cheerfully bid farewell to her mother before hanging up, cutting her off mid-retort and pocketing her phone with a small chuckle. With a dramatic push to boost off of her seat, she hummed cheerfully and awaited for the train to stop...
...Only for her to not heed the warnings of the friendly neighborhood automated warning system. The halting of the train sent her stumbling forward, slamming into an older gentleman in front of her. He was sturdy enough to keep his balance, so instead he shot a silent glare over to the Liberta freshmen. Masumi let out a groan, running a hand through her hair and holding her temple with a sheepish smile. "GAH! Whoopsie! S-Sorry..." she mumbled an apology, only prompting the man to huff and carry on his way. Her uneasy chuckling trailed off before she exited the train a few seconds later.
"Okay, Marcy, focus: you've got time to kill before working like crazy on a super duper big assignment. No distractions! Just doing something fun for a while, making the most outta this time, and then it's right to work. What to do, what to do..." she began talking to herself quietly, looking around with a finger scratching her chin and waiting for inspiration to strike for entertainment.
All passengers, please hold on. The tram is now approaching City Heart Station. Please gather your belongings and watch your step as you exit.
Of course, the loud girl was not the only one who had been on the train that day. A pink-haired girl with a fairly large, black, rectangular rolling case and bag had sauntered off the train without paying a moment of attention to the sound of the girl who had crashed into another or her own words from her phonecall.
After all, despite carrying two bags worth of music equipment, other associated paraphernalia, and a change of clothes, she still remained, adorned in her school uniform and a pair of glasses, hiding a pair of bluetooth earbuds behind underneath the locks of hair that went over her ears.
There was no time for idle amusement at the girl or even idle attention to her as she simply, and with ease that did not befit her slim frame, pulled her case behind her and carried her relatively large bag on the same shoulder. All the while, her eyes focused on a map on her phone that depicted the area around Heart Station.
“The big question is where to start from here?”
Normally, she’d be doing her usual tell of resting her fingers on her chin, but seeing as both hands were full, Stella was unable to accommodate her usual tic. Yes, her mind was occupied more than it reasonably should be. After all, she needed to find a good location to set up shop for performances. She was hardly going to do a normal today, but preliminary intelligence was an important thing to gather so testing possible locations for suitability was a pertinent necessity for the streetside singer.
“I don’t have enough possible locations though.”
With that utter of dismay towards her lack of information though, she began to walk forward. Without focus, she would move, not ever being aware of the formerly loud girl she was more moments from crashing into—an action that would be an embarrassment for a performer like her.
Post by Masumi Sakamoto on Feb 14, 2022 22:50:10 GMT
In the typical irony that always follows her around like a shadow, that "striking" of inspiration would manifest itself into a physical form. The musician behind her bumped into her mid-step, sending her stumbling forward with a shaky, startled shout. Masumi flailed her arms in front of her comically before catching herself with her left arm as support. Breathing a sigh of relief, she boosted forward into a rather dramatic, haphazard roll while turning around to face the source of her fall. Nerdy as she was, her relentless urge for adventure and a social life kept her light on her feet once a day. The rest of her attempts were much more clumsy, but a broken clock is right once a day, right? "Hey, hey! I said I was so-"
"...Wait, you're not that guy," Marcy mumbled, looking up at Stella as she rose to a standing position once more with a puzzled look on her face. "Hold on a sec: that uniform! You're a Liberta student, right? I dunno you, but you kinda bumped into me first. That must mean... Oh!"
Snapping her fingers and smirking, she shot Stella a wink. "Random introductions, right?! Talking not your style? That's okay, I totally get it! Or... I'm totally wrong, and this is movie-style bullying. But that's too cliché for this day and age. So I'm betting on the second thing!~" she cheerfully noted, offering her hand forward with a shameless grin. Leave it to Masumi to be the confident, spontaneous people person that doesn't even react to being slammed into from a blind spot. "Masumi Satori Sakamoto, first-year B-rank Silvolver student! Just 'Marcy' is fine, though. What's your name? What's in the box? What brings ya to City Heart? I'm sorry if I'm asking too much at once, I was just really hoping I'd run into someone new today!~"
And an embarrassment it was. Unlike the girl who she had crashed into, Stella had found herself unable to catch anything to break her fall. She was lucky enough that she kept a tight grip on her phone since that was something she could ill afford to lose easily around here.
Before she could do much more, she heard the young girl continue her rambling. It was only then that she realized that this girl came from the same school as her and as such, it was then that she realized she could probably make use of this random encounter.
But before she could do that, Stella pocketed her phone, got on her knees, and quickly laid the rectangular rolling case upon the down and opened it up. “Nothing damaged? No, no, no, no, no.” Stella uttered a single no every time she ran her fingers across a piece of equipment and found no visible or palpable damage.
“That’s a relief.” She sighted briefly and let a hand fall upon her chest.
Having ascertained that everything was where it needed to be, she turned her focus onto the rambling girl, whose words she had all heard.
Having been given the introduction, she only gave a mildly dumbfounded gaze as she let the Masumi finish up her introductions before taking her hand.
“In order, yes I am a Liberta Student. Stella Harmonia, Uniteal A-Rank. The box is all just music equipment. I’m coming to the City Heart to look for good places to set up future street performances, so this is all really just some time to scout the area and enjoy it a bit.”
As long-winded as the girl was, Stella couldn’t hate it in the slightest. She simply smiled as she answered all of her questions one-by-one.
Post by Masumi Sakamoto on Mar 3, 2022 9:43:22 GMT
Masumi nodded along to Stella's responses, taking note of the small details to the best of her ability. "Okay, Stella: so you're an A-rank- Wait, WHAT?! L-Like, a real A-rank Liberta student?! That is SO COOL!!" she let out an excited squeal, bowing her head in giddy respect. "Seriously, it's crazy that you're, like... Y'know, that good at Duel Monsters! Those proctors were no joke when I had my entrance exam. I can't believe people really beat those guys, not to mention did well enough to get recognized for it." A peculiar statement coming from someone supposedly admitted to the school considering it implies she lost to the proctors, but she seemed so casual saying it that it sounded normal.
"'Street performances', huh? OH! You play music or something? I love music! Well, not all music, but I like to think my tastes are pretty diverse," Marcy continued to talk at a mile a minute. Sugar rushes were like small second winds compared to this level of energy. "Buuuut... Yeah! City Heart's got tons of really cool places for that kinda stuff! The public Duel Arenas are pretty high-traffic areas, but I think most of the time people just wanna watch matches rather than performances. The food court's a little better, but not much standing space: plus the Solid Vision displays might be a bit distracting if you wanna keep someone's attention. Hmm..."
Snapping her fingers on her right, it's as if a lightbulb lit up above her head. "Maybe near the stairwell leading up to the arenas? It's really close by here since they're actually just above us now, plus with the skills of an A-rank, you could go ahead and challenge anyone you want with major confidence if you need a break at any point! How's that for convenient?~"
“No, I’m not that great. Really, you’re exaggerating.” Stella let out an awkward laugh as she tried to minimize the profuse amount of praise that she was getting from Masumi. Sure, she had the skill to be A-Rank, but it was hardly worth the praise she was receiving. She could hardly call it embarrassing, but it wasn’t like she wanted that being broadcast. Perhaps it was a mistake to reciprocate the introduction the way she did.
That being said, it seemed like the young lady with a bad case of logorrhea before her had a surprisingly intimate understanding of the hot spots in the location.
She had mentioned a few, but one in particular stuck out to her—the stairways leading to the arena itself. Obviously, setting up performances in the arena area was a bit difficult, but the area near the stairs would be a decently good place to gather attention. Not too in the way and not too small that it would not allow the usual crowds to form.
“Alright! I like that idea.” Stella clapped her hands together once before reaching to Masumi’s own hand. “How about you give me a tour around the area. The stairs sound nice, but nothing a bit of scouting and touring wouldn’t hurt, right?”
Post by Masumi Sakamoto on Mar 31, 2022 22:17:56 GMT
"A tour? Sure thing! You found a pretty good person for that, heh: I grew up in this city, so City Heart's something I know like the back of my hand!~" she bragged, smirking pridefully and puffing out her chest. It was still surreal that she was able to take the Rokket Railway to both the mall and her actual home, both locations with rather insignificant commute times due to their close proximity to Liberta. Masumi began walking forward, motioning Stella to follow her. She made it a note to point and gesture as she talked, making this a much more proper tour of the area.
"We're in the Rokket Railway station: that big train system that runs through the entire city. It all connects at the Silverdome, which City Heart surrounds. If you're a Liberta student and you don't know about the Silverdome, do you even watch Dueling?! Ha ha! You had a pretty good idea picking here versus the stadium, since I hear that security likes to keep a close eye on people around there. Something about 'loitering', which I think is a fancy word for people not liking you being somewhere. Meh."
Stepping out of the subway station area, Masumi did a small spin and waved her hand around herself with a giggle. Even during a busy time, the underground mall area was quite spacious. The bright (but not harsh) ceiling lights shone upon the floors, which gave off a gentle reflection in return. The entire area felt clean and practically dripping with metropolitan chic, breaking out into multiple-story areas in a central open annex filled with escalators, decorative hanging fixtures, and natural light shining in through the top.
"Behold: welcome to City Heart! City Heart's got both above-ground and underground segments, each one with a bunch of different shops. It's not really separated by 'what can you buy here', but there's a bunch of different stores scattered about so no matter where you are, you can usually find a place that has what you're looking for less than three minutes away! There's officially licensed card stores, clothing and fashion, tech parts, and a lot more. There's even a vintage store here! They've ported a bunch of old DVDs to digital downloads for even Duel Disks that double as phones! Really great if you're a fan of old movies like myself, but don't feel like pirating them 'cuz... Y'know, it's illegal to pirate stuff. Aaaaanyways... Might not be a good place to set up shop for a performance since most places use Solid Vision for advertisements, but if you can find an open spot smack dab in the middle of a cross-section you might get some serious attention!~"
Continuing on, Masumi didn't stop talking. It was impressive how one person could keep blabbering away without even the slightest hint of apprehension for hogging the conversation. "Right now we're in City Heart North: this is the area where most of the shops tend to cater towards students, since Liberta students sometimes like to bike here or something, lock their stuff up in the above-ground lockers, then head downstairs to this area. I've skateboarded her a few times, but by that point I usually just carry my board with me. Maybe give the food court area a try in terms of setting up a location! It's got some wide open spaces, plus lots of snacks nearby if you get hungry! Most of the 'fine dining' stuff isn't in this area since all the angry rich guys aren't anywhere near this side of the mall: less chance of someone kickin' ya out, right?~"
Marcy seemed out of breath from her explanation, pausing and raising a finger as she hunched over and took a few deep breaths. Chatterbox that she was, she was human. "Hah... Whew! Sorry, most people don't ask me for tours so I'm just super stoked! Any questions so far? I never even bothered to ask if you've been here before, but I just kinda assumed you hadn't if you asked me to show you around."
There were definitely less appropriate tour guides she could have picked. But, at the end of the day, she was nowhere near averse to the one she had picked. Someone as loquacious as her would inevitably let slip something that would click with Stella. That being said, none of that had to be unintentional. In fact, the girl calling herself Masumi was far more accommodating and thoughtful than she had expected.
“Loitering...” Stella found herself sighing. It wouldn’t have been the first time for someone to get on her case about loitering and causing a scene and it would hardly have been the last if she had tried going close to the stadium. “Guess that knocks that location out of the running.”
Realistically, given how imposing the presence of the Silverdome was and just how frequently and significantly it was used, it was likely that she would end up being drowned out by the main event. A stage performer like that could hardly accept a position like that where her audience was oh so quickly wrested from her.
With each stop on their little tour, she could make more mental notes.
“Major cross-walk located at that point.” She said as she kept herself focused on keeping up with the energetic girl.
But all energy was finite and it seemed physical exhaustion was the inevitable result of speedy movement and equally speedy words. Masumi had finally grown tired enough to take a pause in her tour and though she had not given any opportunity for Stella to get in a word edgewise, it was not like she had needed it.
“Well, I haven’t been up here to the north section, and I hadn’t looked around too much in the area. I mostly spent a lot of time closer to the school itself for convenience.” She then looked to the tired ball of energy. “I was wondering if we could try to also look for a music or instrument store as well but maybe a snack might be in order here?”
Clearly, the tour was not going on like this. Or was it?
