Risk It {open}

[Naomi Green]

Naomi carefully studied the board unfolded before her. Various plastic pieces stood upon the map, each occupying a separate country. It looked as though they'd been carefully sorted too, instead of randomly placed as would normally be the case for the board game. A group of blue soldiers dotted the United States region, red soldiers covered China, and black soldiers covered sections of Europe. Naomi carefully shifted the pieces about on the board, studying them. Reaching over, she picked up the dice.

So novel, the idea that everything could come down to chance. One throw of the dice, one minor alteration, and an entire holding could fall. It seemed too much like luck to Naomi, but then again, that was why they called it "risk."

She shifted the field again, moving pieces to a sketch that she'd placed next to the board. This time, it was much clearer: Hammel and the grounds surrounding. There were three colors there: a light blue, a green, and an orange. These were arranged in patterns too. All in patterns. Naomi tapped one particular blue piece, situated in the area she'd labeled "student lounge," in careful script.

Naomi moved to flick a piece off the board, an orange one stationed in the staff lounge. It flew across the table, a distance away, and hit a student sitting a few feet away.

"I'll need that back," said Naomi. She smiled slightly, extending a hand. "It's quite crucial to my game."

[Aaron Walker]

AJ was sitting in the corner of the room building a card tower when something flew across the room and smacked him in the head. He jumped up, sending his cards flying in every direction. “Oh well,” he said looking for at the pile of cards. “I was just gonna knock it down anyway.” He was planning on shooting it with rubber bands from across the room.

He looked up to see a girl extending her hand towards him. “Whatcha playin?” he asked grinning and shaking the hand held out to him. He ran over to look at the board. “Risk?” he asked. “You know, most girls aren’t really into soldiers and stuff. But I guess whatever floats your bubble…or something.”

Finally realizing that the girl wanted her piece back, AJ started looking on the floor for it. Unfortunately, the area was now covered with the remains of his card tower. “Uh…wanna play 52 card pick up?” he asked, and then realized he’d be using three decks. “Well, more like 156 card pick up?”

[Naomi Green]

Dear lord, he was one of those, wasn't he? Within moments of AJ starting to talk, Naomi heard nothing but high pitched squeaking of the type that would sound more natural coming out of a small, woodland creature than a teenager of any stripe. It certainly didn't help that he shook her hand instead of giving her back the piece. It took all Naomi had not to immediately wipe her hand off on her shirt.

She let him babble, watching his movements with the tired patience of someone used to long-suffering. When at last he seemed to realize that she'd asked him for something, she was already considering shoving the nearest metal object into the softest bit of AJ she could fine. Such as the space between his ears, for example.

"You set up a card castle using three decks for the sole purpose of destroying it," she said, her voice flat and non-believing. She watched him for a while, before bending over and scooping up large handfuls of cards. She would rather just find the piece now and get this doubtlessly painful experience over as soon as possible.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ had no idea that he was being an annoyance. He figured that since she wasn’t doing much talking she was probably just shy. “You knew here?” he asked, smiling. He loved welcoming new students and showing them the coolest spots to hang out. Like the roof.

“Of course I did!” AJ said, completely forgetting he was supposed to be helping her find her game piece. “I was gonna practice my rubber band aim. And what better target than a card tower. ‘Course, I’m not the best aim…yet…so I figured more cards equals bigger target, right?” He pulled a handful of rubber bands out of his pocket and showed them too her.

“Wanna give it a try?” he asked, grinning in anticipation. “I’ll bet we could get this tower fixed in no time if we worked together.”

[Naomi Green]

There was a gaping black of ignorance and stupidity nearby, even larger than the usual one that possessed most people between the age of thirteen and twenty two. It threatened to suck in all conscious and reasonable thought within radius. Just standing near it was enough to make one's intelligence dip drastically, possibly even creating permanently harm to the intellect. Woe unto those that would dare venture close enough to the gaping hole in intellectual reality which was this youth.

Not that any of this really showed on Naomi's face. She kept her expression stony, cold as ever, as she listened to him prattle about like a parakeet or some cartoon character. There were words there, and Naomi believed they were what Americans considered "English," but the sentences hardly made sense or carried anything resembling meaning.

"you wanted to practice shooting rubber bands," said Naomi. "At cards. Because you wanted a bigger target."

Her brain was starting to hurt.

"I believe I would interfere with your project. If you could just retrieve my piece," Naomi looked around for it, seriously considering abandoning it. There were always substitutions to make.

[Aaron Walker]

Even if Naomi had been showing all her hateful feelings on her face, it's doubtful that AJ would have noticed. He was to busy being excited about meeting a new friend. He was already planning future games of Risk and shooting rubber bands throughout the school.

"Yeah!" he said, excitedly. This girl caught on quick and he was please, misunderstanding that she was just as playful as he was. He grinned at her. "I know, it's genius, right?"

His grin vanished when she asked again about her game piece. He looked through the pile of cards again, unsuccessfully. "Sorry," he said. "It seems to have vanished in the land of no return. But..." he started digging around in his pockets and pulled out a small Captain America figurine. "You can use this if ya want." He handed her the toy and then walked over to the table where her game was set up.

"Are you winning?" he asked, looking at the board. He pushed on of the blue soldiers toward South America. "Can I play? I think I remember most of the rules. I'll be blue if ya want." He sat down at the table and grinned up at her.

[Naomi Green]

Genius. Really? Really really? People like this existed?

Where was a coin when you needed it? For Naomi was already picturing herself forcing a coin through this idiot's skull, watching as his smile turned into something far, far more gruesome. She fought back the murderous impulse yet again, reminding herself that this was a fellow meta. Like it or not, he too had been blessed or gifted with the same abilities. Which meant that they were, in many ways, playing on the same side.

Besides, it was amusing placing a Captain America figure onto the board, already picturing it as being one of the officials at Hammel. Naomi couldn't help but wonder whether or not people would take offense. Personally, she just found it funny that one of America's best heroes looked utterly ridiculous and flung a shield at people. At least some of the other heroes had common sense, with sensible powers and weapons at their disposal.

"I usually win," she said, allowing herself a small smile. She sincerely doubted that this fool would be much of a challenge, but he would be slightly better than playing by herself. Plus, this would probably count as socializing, and Naomi was fairly certain she could count it as charity work with the right spin.

"We'll need to set up the board,' she said, waving a hand. She wished the pieces were metal, though, again, she'd probably have started shoving it into his body. Instead, she started clearing out her battle plans, figuring that the sooner the evidence was erased, the better. Hopefully the moron knew how to set up a Risk board.

"I'm Naomi Green, by the by," she said casually, scooping up pieces and trying to determine which she'd play.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ, completely oblivious to Naomi's internal violent thoughts, was busy trying to remember the rules of the board game. He had played it once or twice with his uncle. But AJ was never one for following the game rules exactly. It was more excited in he could drop a bouncy ball "bomb" onto the board halfway through.

"Yeah, well you've never played against me," AJ teased returning her smile. He helped her clear of the board and began dividing up the colored pieces, placing the blue ones in a pile in front of him. "My Risk skills might be a little rusty," he admitted. "But all war is basically the same, right?"

He smiled as the girl introduced himself. "You're new...right? Or new-ish?" He hoped she was. Some people tended to get offended if he asked them that and they'd been there for years.

"You're gonna love it here," he said, forgetting that is was his turn to introduce himself now. "Me and my buddy Jared, we're always having an awesome adventure," he started giggling. "Maybe you could hang out with us next time we start a fire, or dropped a bucket of rubber off the stairs onto someone, or almost kill someone with powder." In his head, every statement made perfect sense, so it rarely occurred to him that someone could misunderstand.

"So who goes first?"

[Naomi Green]

Dear Lord, she really was going to spend most of the next hour or so wishing she could drive a coin through this boy's head, wasn't she?

"Most wars are," she said. She had already begun counting out her pieces, being quite the practiced veteran of risk. Seeing as she couldn't play any electronic games, Naomi had spent several years of her childhood playing board games instead. She'd had an affinity for Risk, Chess, and other games of the like. So suffice to say, there was a longstanding tradition of her playing such games. That is, when she actually bothered to socialize at all, which was usually in circumstances like this, where it was clear she had no desire for actual social interaction, and was instead trying to earn marks on some kind of invisible report.

"I've been here for a little over a month or so," replied Naomi. She kept her voice crisp, very British, very "you're a stupid American." "I transferred from Kocher."

There was already the implication of "it was better there," but Naomi was half tempted to outright say so anyway. AJ didn't strike her as someone who picked up on subtleties. Regardless, she kept her thoughts to herself, as she had been doing, instead finishing the organization of her pieces. Then she looked at AJ, raised a brow, and reached for another color, ignoring any suggestions that they would "hang out" in favor of:

"Since there are only two of us, we must create a neutral army that shall go first. I shall go second, you last," she said. Thus was the turn order created, as far as Naomi was concerned. She set out a piece for the "neutral," then one of her own, having selected black, of course, as her color of choice. Then she waited for AJ to make his move, hoping that he at least knew the basics of the game he was so desperate to play.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ was trying to pay attention to Naomi's hands as she counted out the pieces and set up the board. Although he, like Naomi, was not much for video games; he would rather go outdoors and play than sit around inside. But still, fun was fun.

AJ picked up from her accent that she wasn't from the States, but as usual he failed to recognize the tone in her words. He smiled at her, sure that she was going to love it here at Hammel. After all, he did, so he figured everyone else did too.

"Cool beans," he said, still smiling. He was a little glad that she was going first so he could try to remember the exact rules of the game. He had selected the orange color so that Captain America could be one of his pieces. "Too bad this game doesn't have any bombs," he commented as he set out his first piece after her. "They should make a World War 3 version. With like spies and advance weaponry and stuff. That would be freakin' awesome! Right?"

[Naomi Green]

By now, Naomi had decided to just go ahead and have a little fun with it. Why not?

"Some versions do," she replied. She was already stationing her pieces to take over Australia, and scattering quite a few pieces in Europe and South America. For some reason, she was purposefully avoiding America. one can only imagine why. "There are various versions representing different universes and different sections of time. Perhaps you would be more interested in the future version, which involves space, bombs, and underwater cities."

Naomi smiled up at AJ, then leaned back. Her pieces were in order, and she'd already reinforced most of her more strategic places. She somehow figured that AJ would likely be of little threat, and was treating this as what it clearly was: a simple game for her enjoyment. Which, considering this was Naomi, was something else entirely. That hardly dislodged her belief that this was inane and she was mostly doing it for future bragging rights, but it helped.

"Let me know when your pieces are in place. I'm ready to begin whenever you are," she said, waving her hand. She paused, realizing, "I don't believe I caught your name earlier, simply a mention of your friend."

Because Naomi liked to know the name of her victims first. She was personal like that.

[Aaron Walker]

"Really?!?" AJ asked, excitedly. "Do you have any of those versions? Can we play the space one next? I'll bet that one is awesome." He was already imagining his Captain America figure propped on some sort of spaceship zooming around to defend his corner of the world. AJ didn't really understand that whole concept that Risk was a board game about world domination. He thought of it in the same category as Chutes and Ladders, or maybe Parcheesi.

AJ returned Naomi's smiled. He could help but think that she was such a nice girl. Not too girly, so that she would freak out if she chipped a finger nail. Which in AJ's book was always a plus.

His pieces where laid out in less of a strategic manner, although he'd somehow managed to be mostly in North and South America. He figured she was just being sweet and allowing him to have the coolest countries. Although if AJ had to choose, he would have thought Asia was pretty cool too.

"All set," he said, placing his last piece on the board. "Ready to ...um...rumble?" He didn't hear Naomi's question at first. He was too busy trying to plan his first move, which wasn't easy when he couldn't really remember how the turns went. "Oh,," he said when it occured to him what she was asking. "I'm AJ. Short of Aaron James, but AJ is much easier to say." He grinned at the girl, so happy to make a new friend.

[Naomi Green]

Naomi desperately wanted to say "no, I don't have the space one," but the truth of it was that she knew where a copy of it was. Practicing strategy in a post-apocalyptic world sounded like a valuable use of her time, so she'd made certain to invest in it. Besides, the addition layers of strategy and the longstanding implications made it all the more intriguing. But to her answer:

"Perhaps later. We'll see how this goes."

She had noticed the South American block, and knew precisely where she was going after kicking the pitiful amount of "neutral army" forces out of Australia. After studying the board for several seconds, Naomi planned out her next several moves, hoping that AJ's luck was as poor as his strategy. Knowing her luck, he'd be the type to roll nothing but 6's.

"Pleasure to meet you; I'm Naomi," said the Brit, with another tight smile. She waved for AJ to go first, and leaned back, already templing her fingers and plotting her next three moves.

{did you wanna just fast-forward through the actual game part? Sort of recap it? I'm betting that Naomi's a better strategist, but that AJ gets lucky with the dice. The strat wins out in Risk, mostly, but I hate to make it be all like "Naomi wins." Feels prattish.}

[Aaron Walker]

((sounds good to me))

The game didn’t last too long. Even though AJ had several good roles with the dice, that was the extent of his game playing ability. If Naomi was frustrated with his luck or his lack of knowledge about the game, he failed to noticed. He grinned nonstop, even when it was clear that she was winning by a landslide.

“You’re good at this,” he said as Naomi defeated the last of his army. “Maybe you could give me a lesson sometime?” He started to help her clear away the board before he remembered his original plan to build a card tower. “Hey!” he said as he jumped up excitedly. “You wanna help me with my tower now? We can see who knocks it over first.”

Without waiting for her to reply he ran over to where his cards were still piled on the floor. He started to collect them all and noticed something among them on the floor. “Hey! Look!” he yelled, jumping up again. “I found your lost game piece,” he held it out for her to see. Well, more like shoved it in her face. “See?”

[Naomi Green]

The game proceeded more or less as Naomi expected. While she hardly thought it was the intended point, it also brought to her mind just how much luck could play into things. Yes, she still ended up triumphant in the end, but there were several times when AJ rallied. Had he had just a little more strategy, things would have been much worse for her.

A hard lesson to be learned, but one that she was certainly going to take to heart.

"Perhaps," allowed Naomi. She was already scooping up pieces, mentally deciding that she was going to simply treat AJ with polite courtesy whenever she met him. He reminded her a little of a dog, or perhaps a small child. Amusing, innocent, and while he may be slightly annoying, you couldn't really fault him for it.

Perhaps she could keep people like him around as jesters or something, should she ever succeed in her plans of establishing a meta based government. They needed comedians and such to remind them of mortality and all.

"I would hate to interfere with your plans," said Naomi. She offered an indulgent smile, but focused mostly on picking up her pieces. The Captain America piece she studied for a while, holding it up and looking at it, wondering. Yet with a shake of her head, that too went aside. She was just folding up the board when AJ arrived with the piece.

Startled, Naomi almost hit her fellow meta with the game board. Instead, she gave him another of the indulgent smiles, and told him to put the piece into the box.

Yes, very much like children. And Naomi only had so much time for childish games.