[week 32, day 2 | video]

[mightstealyrcar]

I've been thinking

Comments

[kingwithwings]

There's no one here I know. There was, but he got pitched out again almost as soon as he got here. There are other people here from my world, but they're from other times and places, and I'd never met them before I came here.

Doesn't lend much support to your theory, does it?

[mightstealyrcar]

Okay, not much, I guess.

D'you come from one of those places where people can hop around dimensions, though?

[kingwithwings]

I haven't heard of it if they can. Of course, by this point, nothing would surprise me.

[mightstealyrcar]

How do you know these people are from your world, anyway?

[kingwithwings]

We're all duelists. We seem to share the same history, and the same people and locations, as far as I can tell. If it's not the same then it's so close as to not be worth worrying about.

[mightstealyrcar]

Well, I don't know of any other world that has dueling like yours.

[kingwithwings]

I consider that a serious failing in other worlds.

[mightstealyrcar]

Heh, I kind of agree. Wish I could swap the crap in my world for an awesome game.

[kingwithwings]

There's plenty of that, too. It's not all fun and games.

[mightstealyrcar]

At least you have a fighting chance, if you're good enough. Right?

[kingwithwings]

If you're good enough, you can overthrow a government or defy the gods or change the course of time itself.

Not many people are that good, though.

[mightstealyrcar]

Oh, dude, that's so cool.

[Geek mode: engaged.]

All with just cards, right? How's that work?

[kingwithwings]

[Jack actually has to stop and think about this. He has always taken it for granted that cards have power in the same way he takes it for granted that gravity pulls down and the earth revolves around the sun.]

It's... a kind of sacred contract. People have been doing it in one form or another for thousands of years. The game has a lot of power in my world. People wager their lives or even their souls on the outcome of a game, sometimes. That's how I got my best card - gambling with a demon.

[mightstealyrcar]

So what happens if you lose? How did people find out this worked? What if--

[He stops himself, laughing.]

Sorry, this is kinda like half the books I read when I was a kid, y'know? The whole premise where a game, or some imaginary place, is real.

[kingwithwings]

What happens when you lose depends on what stakes you're playing for. If it's just for fun or for sport, you don't lose much except maybe your dignity. If you wager something serious, though, there's no getting out of it.

I couldn't tell you much of the history. I think it started in ancient Egypt. Something about the priests back then discovering monsters and learning to seal them into stone slabs, and eventually people figuring out cards worked just as well and were easier to carry around. Ask the ones who went to school for it. I didn't have what you'd call a formal education.

[mightstealyrcar]

Ohh, okay.

[It's nothing like his world, obviously, but at least it sort of makes sense.]

Heh, I left school when I was fifteen. I never had much use for it except that it was a roof over my head.

So you have to but pretty strong-willed to do this. Otherwise your cards would revolt, right?