When the sun rises above Japan, its rays inevitably settle on the jewel of the island's coast. New Domino City, a shining metropolis of skyscrapers, steel and glass reaching toward the heavens like the grasping fingers of some ancient giant. Of course, the city has its blemishes, like the island just off the coast, perpetually hidden from view by clouds of acrid black smoke. It has its nicer sides, like the charming old-school brick buildings dominating its older half, full of wonderful parks and friendly people. However, hidden just beneath the surface there is a darkness brewing. One that, no matter who you are, every long-term inhabitant of the city knows about. There is a hierarchy here, of classes and people, and it is very difficult to strike above your weight class.
Not impossible though.
For the one thing that matters more than cold, hard cash in this city is skill. People have risen and fallen at the whims of champions, of people crowned by their skill, standing at the top of the world and sneering at those beneath their heels, those they had to tread on to reach their lofty heights. In New Domino,
everyone aspired to be a champion, the most famous of celebrities, the most influential of influencers. For when your word can make or break another's life, well... it's a rush, one that people crave.
It is in this city, this den of darkness and greed that our story begins. It is where it will most likely end. For once you first open your eyes in New Domino -
truly open your eyes and face the truth - you shall never leave again.
The ringing of an alarm clock cut through the morning gloom in the apartment. The foul device rings and rings, singing its mechanical lungs out until you manage to untangle a hand from the tangled nest of blankets and slam down on the plastic devil, shushing its shrill screams.
A minute later, the hand is reluctantly followed by the rest of a human body. You blink the sleep out of your eyes, still rather unhappy at the prospect of leaving your bed, but finally, you relent.
Still in your pyjamas, you pad over to the window to open the blinds, taking a second to look out at the city from your unique vantage point. Sure, in the grand scheme of things it's not
that special, but it's your room, so the view from this window is quite literally unlike any other.
You gaze out for another minute, taking in the sights. Sure, you've lived here your entire life, but you'll never tire of the view
[ ] at the uninterrupted skyline, afforded to you by your window being near the top of one of the highest high-rises in the city
[ ] at the inspiring sight of the Tops. Yeah, you're not that rich, but you're still pretty well-off and it's certainly a motivator, staring at the top of society every morning
[ ] of that old clock. You swear it's been here since before you were born, always so punctual, a reassuring sight. Wait, it's what time?! You're gonna be late!
You rush around your room, rapidly collecting some clothes and changing before grabbing your deck holster and clipping it to your belt. Now fully equipped and ready to go, you leave the apartment at a rapid pace, hoping against hope that you won't be late.
[ ] After all, your parents worked hard to get you into Duel Academy, and you're not going to ruin their efforts because you wanted to sleep in. Especially since you're just starting out. (Luna and Leo's age. A lot more inconspicuous usually, since people rarely care about what kids overhear. Unfortunately, it has its drawbacks too, like the fact that adults and older teens won't really take you seriously and it'll be harder to get into some places)
[ ] After all, your parents worked hard to get you into Duel Academy, and you're not going to ruin their efforts because you wanted to sleep in. Especially now that you're getting close to your last year there! (Yusei and Akiza's age, approximately. Pretty much the inverse of the first option when it comes to drawbacks, while still having the issue of some places not really letting you in because you're still clearly a teen, not a full adult yet)
[ ] Crime, after all, never rests and you have to be ready if you want to catch it! Or at least, that's what they said back at the Academy. (Adult and Sector Security officer. While this gives a lot of advantages, like the ability to get into most everywhere and have people listen to you (usually at least), you're kinda... noticeable. And the more underground element is absolutely not your friend)
[ ] Your job's not all that interesting, but that doesn't mean you want to lose it! (Adult, write in what job you'd be performing. Can be anything from a Duel Academy teacher to just some random office worker. Do keep in mind that everything from your job to your age kinda affects what avenues are open to you later on so, keep that in mind. For example, some corporate drone probably won't be invited to the Fortune Cup, while a Security officer or someone else Goodwin would know about might)
You step onto the street and head off toward the nearby undergound station, intent on being on-time today if at all possible. A shout from one of the windows above you attracts your attention. Old miss Brunt, your neighbor, is waving down at you.
"Well, good morning
[ ] young mister [Write in your name]
[ ] young miss [Write in your name]
[ ] young mister? Miss? Which is it today, [Write in your name]?
Not going to say good morning to your favorite neighbor?"
You laugh and wave back, a slight smile coming to your face as you do. Miss Brunt has been a staple of your life here. You haven't gone a day without seeing her, age having done nothing to dim her shine or her edge.
With that encounter out of the way, you hurry toward the station, a quick glance at your watch making you speed up. You dash down the stairs, quickly flashing your pass for the ticket gate to scan before bursting onto the platform. You made it, barely. Now that you're safe you give yourself a quick patdown to make sure you've got everything and you didn't forget anything back home. Thankfully, it seems your holey memory decided to cooperate this time, and you're fully equipped with a charged phone in one pocket, your wallet in the other and your keys in a third. Everything else is already right where it needs to be so you really only need to carry a few essentials, a precaution you took after getting in trouble one too many times for forgetting something important at home. Breathing a sigh of relief, you pull your phone back out and relax, poking around the net as the train carried you toward your destination.
Heya everybody! I know, I know, 'Wombat what are you doing, you haven't uploaded anything in ages and now you're doing a
Quest?' Look, some of the stuff I had been reading and playing lately kinda inspired me, so I, well... did this. My main inspiration is the always amazing Arkanian and his Quest
Nothing is Sacred. Go give it a shot if you haven't yet, it's pretty good! Now, the reason I haven't given you peeps a deck selection yet is simple: I've got two, one for if you pick guy, one for if you pick girl, and I'll randomly pick two from each selection if you choose to be nonbinary. I wanted to make gender a more impactful decision than it normally is (well, that might be underselling it a lot. I just wanted to make it
more impactful, that's all). You'll get your choices next update, which should come in about 24 hours, give or take a few.
Mechanics
Now, these mechanics are mostly the same as the ones in Nothing is Sacred, which are themselves heavily inspired by
Have You tried Dueling It Away by The Great Walnuts on SB. If there's anything that doesn't really smoothly translate over to this quest, I'll let you know about the rules changing, but mostly they'll be the same. I'll write them down below in case you don't want to go see the original for yourself.
DP
In DiA, new cards were acquired from stores by spending DP, or Duel Points. This quest will be doing something similar. You'll start with a large amount of DP to spend during chargen, and can usually earn more when you win duels… as well as certain other methods, that will be explained in more detail when the quest starts covering them. These points can be spent to acquire cards – for example, should you go shopping for booster packs, I will provide a list of cards that could potentially be acquired from said packs along with a DP cost for them, and you can spend DP to buy those cards.
Unlike DiA however, DP will be spent on more than just acquiring cards from shops. Many instances where you acquire a card through other means – such as via spirit world shenanigans, for example – will require you to spend DP. There will be certain traits and abilities that can potentially be acquired or upgraded through DP expenditure, or even require DP to use. All told, DP will not be representing money as it does in DiA, but rather the expenditure of something a bit more supernatural.
Custom Cards
These will be a thing. Not necessarily a
common thing, but a thing. Don't expect them to be easy to acquire, though.
Anachronistic Cards
These will most definitely be a thing, mainly because I don't really want to spend hours trawling through wikis to make sure you can only get what would exist during the Synchro era. Obviously cards that specifically affect XYZ, Pendulum or Link won't exist, and those that affect Synchro
as well as any of those will be altered to only work on Synchro and Fusion (like Dogmatika for example). Really OP stuff won't be showing up unless absolutely necesarry and I'll do my best to not make anyone completely above your means to defeat. Yes, this affects enemies too. Yes, this technically means Yusei could have some of the new Synchron support like Jet or Satellite or Junk Speeder. Will he? Probably not. Could he? Yes. This just means you can get practically any support for whatever deck you pick next chapter, even the new stuff and that you have to look out for getting suddenly jumped by someone using, I don't know... Gem Knights or something.
Cards will usually have their IRL effects, any exemptions from this will be clearly noted ahead of time
