T and I went somewhere we've never been today, a place I didn't even know existed. It's called the Black Rose Gaming Center. On a Yu-Gi-Oh website, T found out the place would be hosting a card preview/tournament today and he asked if I'd take him. Why not?
It's a place that sells cards and comic books and graphic novels. Anime stuff. The guy who greeted us at the counter wore a nifty nose ring and he was very nice and friendly. The cost was $20 and T got 5 packs of cards. He would have to "duel" 5 times, then he would get another pack plus a rare card. Ok. I paid the money and he received his cards plus some kind of registration from Upper Deck Entertainment that registers him as a duelist, I guess. One of the other guys there offered to help T make a deck out of the cards he'd received and get him started.
T has been collecting these cards for years. He has probably thousands of cards from Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and DragonBall Z. He's been watching the cartoons and has the action figures and plays with these toys all the time. I hear him playing at dueling a lot. I hear what they say on the cartoons but I've never paid a lot of attention. There's no blood and guts with these cartoons, it doesn't seem offensive and he's really into it. I know he's not the only kid who likes that stuff because I've talked to other moms about it and heard from T about playing the card games with his friends. I still wasn't really prepared for what I witnessed at the Gaming Center.
For one thing, there were a lot of people there, and not many of them were children. I think T was the youngest kid there. The guy who helped T out in the first place was in his 20s and he seemed to know a lot about the cards and what to put in a deck for maximum effect. T's first duel was against a guy who was in his 20s. There was no betting cards on these duels, in other words, everyone kept their cards because the tournament was just for fun. I was reading a book and listening to my iPod, kinda watching T and his opponent. It was pretty surreal to hear the lines from the cartoons coming out of real people's mouths. "I summon Elemental Hero in attack mode and Guardian Warrior in defense mode. That ends my turn." "I summon Black Hood Gargoyle to attack your Elemental Hero, taking your life points!" (I'm just making the names up but that's really what it sounds like!) Anyway, I guess T made a good effort but came up short in his duel. He had a couple of others before we left, these against teenagers. He said even though he lost he had a lot of fun and got some cool new cards. I'm sure we'll go back again sometime.
At one point T was at a different table than me and these 2 men sat down by me to duel. One guy had a case with him. He opened it and it had a soft velvety lining and 6 compartments for decks. All of his cards were housed in protective sheaths. I thought about what it would be like to be married to that guy. Does he also have a duel disk (toy) that he plays with at home while he's watching the cartoon? How did he get to be so into it? He looked to be in his mid to late 20s.
Anyway, it was trippy for me, but T really liked it. After the tourney we went to the library and to see "Bee Movie." It was cute and funny.
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