damned_institute | Day 38: Game Room

She’d never been in the Game Room before.

It didn’t look spectacularly interesting, she had to admit… but it’d be more fun than just hanging out in the Sun Room, right? Yuffie idly thumbed through a deck of cards, walking around the room to examine various bits and pieces. Board games, video games, chess… No really awesome prank material that she could see, but maybe she could rope somebody into a game of poker? That could be fun, but… ah, then again, most of the patients were just like her -- they didn’t have anything really cool that she could swindle out of them. Not until Nightshift, anyway.

Still! She’d keep it in mind. It wasn’t like there was anybody else in the room yet anyway, so any potential swindling would have to wait a little while. What could she do in the meantime, huh? Pick- pocketing a nurse could be fun..! Wait -- no, not when it was quiet like this. She’d have to wait until there was more cover, unless she got distracted. Yuffie hadn’t stolen anything in days, not since that time in Doyleton, with the Kaito kid…

Yuffie smirked. That had been fun.

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Game Room? That sounded interesting. The teenager hurriedly stuffed the last of his taco into his mouth and nodded a quick good-bye to his lunch partner. In the room, he was shown several bits and pieces of games. Tony picked a checker board and set up the pieces, hoping to entice a partner. Nothing in particular was on his mind, which was kind of a relief.

[for Frey]

Well, it had been a bit of an odd day so far, but not bad overall. Frey had spoken with Mori at breakfast, and that had been oddly pleasant. The next two shifts had been more uncomfortable and awkward than anything else, but at least nothing terrible had happened.

A game sounded like a good way to wind down before speaking with Uesugi again tonight, so Frey made no objection when the nurse led him into the game room. Spotting a familiar face all by himself, Frey wandered over. "Afternoon, Tony. Would you like some company?"

Not only had he attracted a player, it was a familiar face. Tony smiled and gestured to the board. "It's all set up and ready for you. I'm glad to see a friendly face." His smile wasn't broad enough to be a grin, but a certain light entered his dark eyes to show he meant it.

"I hope you haven't had a bad day."

"I'm afraid I'm not entirely familiar with this game. The board is familiar, but the pieces are not. If you'll grant me some patience, though, I would love to learn." Everything he could learn about this world, which he gathered had much in common with Takaya's, was a good thing.

It was hard to imagine not knowing checkers, but there was a time when he had to learn it. "Well, this is called checkers. It's a... simple strategy game. One side has red and one black. You advance across the board one square a time unless you can jump an opponent, which you can do more than once if they're lined up right. The jumped men are taken off the board. When you reach the other side you can get your man crowned, like this." He stacked one checker upon the other. "Then the man can move backwards too. The one who takes all the other person's men off the board wins. Does that make sense?"

It certainly did sound very simple. Possibly too simple--Frey was concerned that he had failed to understand some key point. "Are there any rules about moving pieces, other than one space at a time?" He couldn't see any differentiation between the pieces, other than being red or black, but perhaps there was something subtle he'd missed in the markings.

"Um... the moves look like this." Tony demonstrated the zig-zag moving and jumping. "I learned by watching. It's easier that way, but we're only two here." Well, only two at the table. "I can play either red or black. Red goes first."

Even though he was the beginner and the slight advantage of taking the leading move would be useful, politeness demanded that Frey decline the offer. "Please, take red." It seemed a very simple game after all, simple enough that even a very inexpert strategist like Frey could probably do fairly well. Lucretia would laugh at such a game, of course--to her it would be something she could win in her sleep, no doubt.

Tony arranged the pieces back into place. He wouldn't do anything where the nurses (or Frey for that matter) could see, but it was frustrating and a little frightening to feel that his power to move objects with his mind didn't fill him. Normally the tiny chessmen would be no challenge to him at all. How was this? he wondered not for the first time. Maybe he could talk to that lady who'd claimed to be a goddess.

When he had the pieces ready, he made his first move, hopping a man out jauntily. "This makes me glad I didn't pick a deck of cards. I don't know if I could explain any card games." He laughed and ran a hand through his loose hair.

"I apologise for my ignorance. I don't believe my world has any games in common with yours, I'm afraid." Frey moved one of his pieces, a few spaces over from Tony's--it wasn't in a position where Tony could jump one of his over it, but that was the extent of Frey's planning thus far. Lucretia would laugh at his poor attempt, no doubt.

"I don't mind. I'm just glad I was up to explaining this." Tony didn't have any strategy either. When they'd played, Tia used to beat him a bit over half the time. He moved another piece out, seemingly ignoring any attempt to get close to the one Frey had moved. "Playing is just something to do while talking. I hope you're doing okay."

Day 38: Game Room

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