Bored Games

Vesuvi 

Peeks
I have a tiny HC idea for Spare and Andy if you’re up for it 

digitaliron 

YEAH?
YEAH YEAHYEAH YEAHYEA YHEYHEAYHEA YHEAH?

Vesuvi 

BFKDNSKFNQKDN
YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH

Okay but Andy is severely bored and lonely™️ in his room- BCKSNSKDNG
But what if he had a few board/card games and went to visit Spare and ask if he wanted to play a game or two?

digitaliron 

instinctively his first thought is 'oh my god not again'
flashbacks to his dad's board game and card collection before going back to normal with "uh, yeah. yeah! yeah!" going from monotone to enthusiastic with each 'yeah'

Vesuvi 

Andy with a blank stare and innocent smile while he holds scrabble, uno, and other innocent games

digitaliron 

"wait, in... my room or yours?"

Vesuvi 

Andy looks puzzled (heheh) for a moment before he gives a soft ‘Ah!’. “W-We could play them in my room, o-or the common room downstairs where there’s more uh.. f-furniture?”

digitaliron 

"Oh. Oh! Yeah, furniture."
"Uh... you're gonna... need to teach me how to play these."

Vesuvi 

He nods, smile growing. “Yeah, of course! I uh- have a few more games in my bag if none of these look interesting.” He starts inching away, waiting to see if Spare wants to follow or not.

digitaliron

spare awkwardly watches him. inch away. until he's far enough he kinda just. does a little step forward
optimal distance of 6 feet maintained

Vesuvi 

((They’re so awkward it’s amazing

digitaliron 

((they're working on it
((they're getting there

Vesuvi 

In hindsight, Andy probably should have offered verbally to lead the way. “I-I’ll head downstairs then to set everything up if you wanna follow?”

digitaliron 

"Uh, I could help!"
"And, uh... I wouldn't mind seeing all the other stuff you have?"

Vesuvi 

Andy smiles at that. “Yeah, sure! After I put this stuff down I can go grab the rest.” He adjusts the games still in his arms and goes for the elevator. Can’t risk falling down the stairs and dropping everything!

digitaliron

1 stack of delivered board/card games in the commons later:

spare looking through the stack "Uh... which one of these should we start with? I know Scrabble... but I don't know the rest. My family mainly got these like... obscure games from hobby shops? My dad's a bit of a hipster with these."

Vesuvi 

Andy looks down at the pile with an equally thoughtful expression. “Hmm.. Well we could always play Uno or Go Fish? Those are some pretty easy card games… Oh!” He reaches for the chess board and holds it up. “Ever played Chess?”

digitaliron 

thinking emoji "...Well... I've played enough Chess to know I don't know how to play Chess... does that help?"
"I know the rules... but not the... how do I say it? The part where I know what's a good move or not."
moment of embarrassment. more info shared than needed. "...Yes, I've played Chess." 

Vesuvi 

Andrew can only offer a reassuring smile. “That’s fine, Chess is one of those games that needs a bit of thinking to play. If you want, I could show you a couple of strategies and what to look out for.”

digitaliron

"Oh, uh... thank you. But... I think a quick game before that would be fun!"
translation: spare is going to size him up

Vesuvi 

Meanwhile Andrew assumes Spare just wants to see how much he remembers. Which is fine! Checking where your current skill levels are at is a great way to finding out what you need to improve on. “Alright! I’ll just set up the board real quick-“  
He scoots every other game neatly to the side and gets to setting up the chess board. At some point he started to ramble about how he would play this with his past roommates, namely the notably funny ones, only cutting himself off to ask Spare which color he wants to play.

digitaliron 

spare digs into his pocket after a moment and pulls out a penny. wordless flip. "...Black."
goes back to listening

Vesuvi 

With a nod, Andy is happy to keep going while he turn the board around a bit so the black pieces are facing Spare, and the white facing himself. “-and she seemed really confident in her abilities, so I took her word for it. First round, she got herself checkmated in only three turns. I still feel kind of bad for laughing because she’d looked so devastated.”

digitaliron 

spare, literally about to attempt to checkmate him in four turns: anxious nod
switches tactics and attempts the intercontinental ballistic missile gambit. fucks it up on the second turn

Vesuvi 

Andrew sees what Spare’s trying to do but doesn’t have the heart to tell him the amount of openings he’s created. It actually takes a great deal not to let Spare lose this quickly. Hopefully it’s not too obvious.
In the end though, Andrew checkmates Spare. “A good first game!” He tries in an attempt to cheer up the shorter of the two.

digitaliron 

spare is hiding his panic and defeated expression as well as he can since turn four
cloud over his head

Vesuvi 

Maybe Andrew should have picked Go Fish. “H-Hey, it’s okay! Chess isn’t an easy game, like it’s so complicated there’s a whole tournament dedicated to it. It took me a while to figure it out too.”
“How about I show you some neat tricks and how to spot openings?”

digitaliron 

"Yeah... just... give me a second..." shock mode fading. slowly putting the pieces back in place for a second before giving himself a two handed light smacking
"...Okay, maybe I could go for some tips."

Vesuvi 

It’s almost comical how Spare acts, Andy thinks. But he shakes that thought away for the time being so he can show Spare a thing or two about the game. Hopefully by the end of it he’ll at least have a better understanding!

digitaliron 

spare does his best to wrap his head around the fundamental strategies and is very visibly short circuiting through the tutorial. "At least I'm making more progress than when my dad tried teaching me..."
"Uh... should we put a message in ghoul.me?"

Vesuvi 

Andy can tell this is probably wearing on Spare’s brain a bit so maybe they should switch to something else.. “It’s a start, but I believe you’ll get there. I think the more you play and apply new knowledge, the easier it gets.” 

He turns around, looking through a couple other boxes and the two card decks for something easier and less mentally draining. “Hm?” He looks at Spare confused. “Why? Did you want others to join?”

digitaliron

"I mean... head to head games feel kind of... competitive, don't they?"

Vesuvi 

“I guess so..” Honestly Andy just didn’t know anyone else he could ask, aside maybe two or three other people maybe but a lot of people are either on vacation or he just didn’t want to bother them. “Well I do have some cards here and we could invite some others.”

digitaliron 

spare's got the phone out already and is going with the classic strategy of "I'm just going to invite everyone and see who sticks." quick message and away it goes 

spare is either noticing andy looking for something easier to play or he is projecting his own desire to play something less mind melting/soul crushing. who can tell "Er... you don't happen to have... Catan or Brass Birmingham in there?" sheepish

Vesuvi 

Andrew ends up pulling Uno out and holding it in his lap for the time being. Brass Birmingham and Catan are both things he’s never heard before and it’s fairly obvious.
Tilting his head he says “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of those before.”

digitaliron 

"Dad's old hipster games! They're the one's I usually beat him in, so I actually have some confidence in those ones... So... how's this one go?"

Vesuvi 

Andy nods along, even if he doesn’t understand! He’ll just have to look them up later. “Right, so, the whole point of Uno is to get rid of all your cards. But you have to be able to match the colors or numbers to place them down-“ He goes on to explain the rules.

digitaliron 

gets schooled. "This seems simple enough... I think."

digitaliron 

no idea what he's doing "So... your roommate? Did she get any hot chess tips?" small talking while he sneaks a look at the rule book for strategies

Vesuvi 

There is no rule book   
“Ah, well, she uh.. decided not to play chess with me anymore ^^;” Andy tries to think of something else while shuffling the cards. “I had some other roommates though who were good sports about it all, whether they won or lost. I even got to play a game with one of my foster parents, who I think was a… high school teacher? She was very smart, I remember that.”

digitaliron 

spare cannot help but smirk at that first part before he turns curious "Foster parents?" 

Vesuvi 

“Mhm.” He hums, setting the deck down neatly to the side and starts dispersing their cards. “I grew up in foster care.”

digitaliron 

he's wide eyed, blank, thinking it though. has the thought to actually pick up his cards "...Was it... bad? Good?"

Vesuvi 

Andrew doesn’t seem phased by his reaction whatsoever. “It had its ups and downs, but a lot of the families I stayed with were very nice. Definitely not what someone would consider ‘normal’ though.” He slips one more card out from the deck and puts it in the middle face up. “Ready when you are!”

digitaliron 

"That... kind of sounds harsh. Wait, what does a reverse card do with just the two of us?"

Vesuvi

“Only if you look at it that way.” He points out. “Oh- You just go again.” Andy giggles.

digitaliron 

"Oh, right." reverse and a 7 down "But... doesn't having to switch families feel... not great?" 

Vesuvi 

“It was like that at first, but it got easier over time. The only times it really got to me is if I was with one family for more than a few years.” He places down a +4.

digitaliron 

spare's worried look is immediately replaced with a blank stare "...This game is stupid." draws 4

Vesuvi 

That pulls a giggle out of Andy

digitaliron 

"I just... feel like I got lucky in comparison. I don't even remember my time in foster care before getting adopted." puts a funky little number 

Vesuvi 

Andy stares at the card in the middle before reaching for the deck to draw a few cards, but he does seem to perk up with interest. “You were a foster kid too?”

digitaliron 

"Yeah. I uh, got lawyers for parents when I was 4. They're..." hesitation as he scrunches up trying to find the right words here "...I'm not really sure what to think of them anymore. Hard to trust myself on it, heh."

Vesuvi 

“We’re they too good at arguing?” Andrew jokes.

digitaliron 

it gets an amused exhale out of spare "Sure, but all it did was teach us about loopholes and bartering." his face flashes with joyful memories that quickly fade with every card he has to pull from the deck. he is emotionally decimated by having to pull 4 cards

Vesuvi 

Andrew notes the shift in expression and looks on his own of concern. “Do you guys still keep in touch?”

digitaliron 

"...Just my sister." puts down his own +4 "I hear they're doing better for themselves. Maybe I'll find out on Christmas."

Vesuvi

Ah… something tells Andrew there’s some uh… ’family tension’ going on. As much as he’d like to give some advice, this is far from his area of expertise. All he can do is offer a smile.
A few minutes later… it’s safe to say Andy lost. “I think this is almost half the deck.” He jokes, looking at the ridiculous number of cards in his hands.

digitaliron 

spare looks. just a tad smug with a respectable 3 cards "You didn't have to go easy on me after the chess match." he says. like a tease

Vesuvi 

Andrew shoots back a look of his own, full of challenge and plenty of amusement. “Alrighty, mister. How’s about a rematch?”

digitaliron 

"Sure!" puts down his 2 reversals and wild with a dumb grin on his face