Yamada, Mamoru (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thestudyof) wrote2017-04-19 08:39 pm
thestudyof) wrote2017-04-19 08:39 pm
[Short Story - Takes Place Shortly After Test With Sullivan]
Yamada, Mamoru considered himself to be a fairly well-adjusted man, given his life circumstances. After falling into Duel Monsters like his fellows did in school, he quickly found out about his "psychic" abilities, which set off his interest in the hows and whys of what could cause such power to develop. Despite the shock of it though, he felt he had accommodated to the power very effectively, and managed to keep his head on right even when later on, the Arcadia Movement had not only made Psychics more notable in the public eye, but also carried the negative stigma-- nay, seemed to encourage it.
But he managed that all in stride. He had gotten a good job. A stable life. And he did what he had wanted to do.
Cut to now of course, he was less the model of someone who was well-adjusted. Stressed, depressed, and disgraced from his original field, he had thrown himself into AI development and Real Solid Vision improvements, while integrating his prior research. Certainly there were risks, but it all helped. Not just for LDS, but for himself too.
Though now he found himself questioning things. That Adams person, whoever they were... they had brought up a valid possibility that he was causing the effects that were similar to Dark Games on his testing duels. They had also remarked on how accurate the Fire Fist personality was... but was it? He wasn't sure, though the personality he programmed in had felt right by his assumption.
He sighed as the thoughts mulled around his head, typing away at a laptop connected to the Real Solid Vision system. His eyes drifted to the displayed time-- 00:43. He grumbled-- he was lucky he lived decently close by, because the trains will have stopped running by now. This was a bad habit for him to be in, but he lost track of time when he was working. It's no wonder the company told him to get an evaluation done. He probably looked like the walking dead half of the time.
Still though, he didn't feel tired, but he knew he should start packing up. He grabbed his bag and started putting things away, before he got to his deck holder that was sitting out. He paused, considering it for a moment.
That Adams person... they said they felt a "nothing" from the deck, among whatever "magic" there was. That blank card, namely...
That blank card was one of the things he had found after he had woken up, after the incident. Among the sudden Burning Abyss Monsters (which alone were a shock to suddenly have) he had found that card sticking out like a sore thumb. Touching it at first always gave him a sickening pit in his stomach, like being around something dead. But he didn't dare get rid of it, or the rest of the altered deck... even if he didn't plan on using it. It caused him to keep quiet about it.
He had a thought all of a sudden. If the blank card was a Duel Monsters card, then should the system recognize it? He had been working hard on it, yet he never considered giving it a try... ... Well, experimenting is the only was to get results. He reconnected his laptop, before opening the deck case, gingerly removing the offending card, and the proceeded with firing up the scanning system. Once it was ready, he placed down the card, and let the system do its work.
At first, he figured it didn't work-- after all, it was a blank-- but after some moments passed by, a small surge seemed to go through the system. Small, but enough to spike Mamoru's anxiety levels. The display on his laptop started to build something together, though it was clearly slow-going and struggling.
... whatever it was though, it was a mess. Jumbled up errors and visual artifacts, but... it was something. Like the system was trying to put together the pieces...?
He looked closely at the screen, trying to make out whatever it was trying to render. But the late hour was starting to get to his eyesight. He grumbled, looking at the time again and reminding himself that he shouldn't be doing this-- he hadn't even had dinner yet. Not that he was that hungry either, but it'd be worse for him to start blowing that off.
He weighed his options, before getting up. It's a risk, but he'll leave the laptop and card here for the moment while he at least took care of things like basic nourishment requirements. If it wasn't done rendering by the time he got back, he'll just have to give up on it for now.
--
He ended up coming back a bit later than he had intended. He had managed to find something to eat at one of the 24 hour convenience stores, but it wasn't going to work out eating around sensitive equipment. So, he had stopped at home first-- a small apartment nearby. One thing led to another, and he ended up dozing off for an hour, only to have the shock of remembering that he had left the system on proceed to jar him awake.
At this point, it was about 3 in the morning, and most people, even those who embrace the night life, were off the streets. It was quiet. Peaceful. And he took the chance to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he walked back to the LDS campus. He still berated himself for dozing off like that, though. Even though he knew he needed the sleep. But he couldn't just leave it like that for too long.
He fought back a yawn as he got back into the testing room. So far so good. Nothing was acting unusual or on fire, which was always a plus. He got back up to the observation room, first collapsing into his chair, before turning his attention to the laptop screen to see if there was anything different.
"Nxxbxx xxx White Rider xx xhx xxavxxx"
That's the name that was clearly displayed, though it looked like parts of the name alone were corrupted. There definitely wasn't a card name that, though, from what he recalled, though he plugged in a search into the database all the same. Nothing, like he expected.
The rendering of whatever image the card was supposed to have had finished too, and it was about as much of a mess as the name. But he could see that the image was meant to be a skeletal figure atop a horse-- or at least what he assumed would be a horse. He wasn't quite sure, but it sounded right. Whatever the case is, he at least had some idea of what this was... the question is, why was this type of card in his deck?
He rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming on, as the card data tried to display too. A mess within a mess. One thing was certain, though. This was supposed to be an Xyz Monster. It had a special condition to be able to summon it, it looked like? Otherwise, the rest of the text was jumbled up and not displaying properly. Looking at it seemed to make the headache worse, as he laced his hands together and rested his temple against them, thinking.
"... harbinger of death, guide the souls to the abyss..."
He snapped awake as that thought went through his head, but was quickly gone before he could grasp it. All it gave him was the headache developing closer to a migraine, as he groaned. He wasn't going to get anything done, at this rate.
Well, for now, his laptop had the data for the card. He removed the card, since it was finished scanning, and put it back into the holder, before finally packing everything up. He felt irritated, but why did he? He did get results-- probably more than he was expecting, given that it had felt like "nothing". But there was something to this card, whatever it was. Connected to the incident he had been in.
Maybe if he figured out that incident, he could finally feel like picking back up his life properly, at this rate. Maybe he'd be able to prove it wasn't his actions that caused the attacks against his researchers.
... He could hope, at least. For now, all he could think about was the ache in his head, and how much he should sleep. He'd revisit this later.
Maybe.
But he managed that all in stride. He had gotten a good job. A stable life. And he did what he had wanted to do.
Cut to now of course, he was less the model of someone who was well-adjusted. Stressed, depressed, and disgraced from his original field, he had thrown himself into AI development and Real Solid Vision improvements, while integrating his prior research. Certainly there were risks, but it all helped. Not just for LDS, but for himself too.
Though now he found himself questioning things. That Adams person, whoever they were... they had brought up a valid possibility that he was causing the effects that were similar to Dark Games on his testing duels. They had also remarked on how accurate the Fire Fist personality was... but was it? He wasn't sure, though the personality he programmed in had felt right by his assumption.
He sighed as the thoughts mulled around his head, typing away at a laptop connected to the Real Solid Vision system. His eyes drifted to the displayed time-- 00:43. He grumbled-- he was lucky he lived decently close by, because the trains will have stopped running by now. This was a bad habit for him to be in, but he lost track of time when he was working. It's no wonder the company told him to get an evaluation done. He probably looked like the walking dead half of the time.
Still though, he didn't feel tired, but he knew he should start packing up. He grabbed his bag and started putting things away, before he got to his deck holder that was sitting out. He paused, considering it for a moment.
That Adams person... they said they felt a "nothing" from the deck, among whatever "magic" there was. That blank card, namely...
That blank card was one of the things he had found after he had woken up, after the incident. Among the sudden Burning Abyss Monsters (which alone were a shock to suddenly have) he had found that card sticking out like a sore thumb. Touching it at first always gave him a sickening pit in his stomach, like being around something dead. But he didn't dare get rid of it, or the rest of the altered deck... even if he didn't plan on using it. It caused him to keep quiet about it.
He had a thought all of a sudden. If the blank card was a Duel Monsters card, then should the system recognize it? He had been working hard on it, yet he never considered giving it a try... ... Well, experimenting is the only was to get results. He reconnected his laptop, before opening the deck case, gingerly removing the offending card, and the proceeded with firing up the scanning system. Once it was ready, he placed down the card, and let the system do its work.
At first, he figured it didn't work-- after all, it was a blank-- but after some moments passed by, a small surge seemed to go through the system. Small, but enough to spike Mamoru's anxiety levels. The display on his laptop started to build something together, though it was clearly slow-going and struggling.
... whatever it was though, it was a mess. Jumbled up errors and visual artifacts, but... it was something. Like the system was trying to put together the pieces...?
He looked closely at the screen, trying to make out whatever it was trying to render. But the late hour was starting to get to his eyesight. He grumbled, looking at the time again and reminding himself that he shouldn't be doing this-- he hadn't even had dinner yet. Not that he was that hungry either, but it'd be worse for him to start blowing that off.
He weighed his options, before getting up. It's a risk, but he'll leave the laptop and card here for the moment while he at least took care of things like basic nourishment requirements. If it wasn't done rendering by the time he got back, he'll just have to give up on it for now.
--
He ended up coming back a bit later than he had intended. He had managed to find something to eat at one of the 24 hour convenience stores, but it wasn't going to work out eating around sensitive equipment. So, he had stopped at home first-- a small apartment nearby. One thing led to another, and he ended up dozing off for an hour, only to have the shock of remembering that he had left the system on proceed to jar him awake.
At this point, it was about 3 in the morning, and most people, even those who embrace the night life, were off the streets. It was quiet. Peaceful. And he took the chance to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he walked back to the LDS campus. He still berated himself for dozing off like that, though. Even though he knew he needed the sleep. But he couldn't just leave it like that for too long.
He fought back a yawn as he got back into the testing room. So far so good. Nothing was acting unusual or on fire, which was always a plus. He got back up to the observation room, first collapsing into his chair, before turning his attention to the laptop screen to see if there was anything different.
"Nxxbxx xxx White Rider xx xhx xxavxxx"
That's the name that was clearly displayed, though it looked like parts of the name alone were corrupted. There definitely wasn't a card name that, though, from what he recalled, though he plugged in a search into the database all the same. Nothing, like he expected.
The rendering of whatever image the card was supposed to have had finished too, and it was about as much of a mess as the name. But he could see that the image was meant to be a skeletal figure atop a horse-- or at least what he assumed would be a horse. He wasn't quite sure, but it sounded right. Whatever the case is, he at least had some idea of what this was... the question is, why was this type of card in his deck?
He rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming on, as the card data tried to display too. A mess within a mess. One thing was certain, though. This was supposed to be an Xyz Monster. It had a special condition to be able to summon it, it looked like? Otherwise, the rest of the text was jumbled up and not displaying properly. Looking at it seemed to make the headache worse, as he laced his hands together and rested his temple against them, thinking.
"... harbinger of death, guide the souls to the abyss..."
He snapped awake as that thought went through his head, but was quickly gone before he could grasp it. All it gave him was the headache developing closer to a migraine, as he groaned. He wasn't going to get anything done, at this rate.
Well, for now, his laptop had the data for the card. He removed the card, since it was finished scanning, and put it back into the holder, before finally packing everything up. He felt irritated, but why did he? He did get results-- probably more than he was expecting, given that it had felt like "nothing". But there was something to this card, whatever it was. Connected to the incident he had been in.
Maybe if he figured out that incident, he could finally feel like picking back up his life properly, at this rate. Maybe he'd be able to prove it wasn't his actions that caused the attacks against his researchers.
... He could hope, at least. For now, all he could think about was the ache in his head, and how much he should sleep. He'd revisit this later.
Maybe.