029 -- [Action || Video]

[endgames]

[The afternoon finds Shikamaru bundled up against the cold and out and about in parts of the village he won't normally be in. Wandering, it might look like; he drifts in and out of high-traffic areas like the bar and the item shop to places less visited. The coffee shop he'll be at for sure, and his final stop will be the building that was once Azzip's Pizza.

This will do.]

[Video]

[Later in the afternoon, with dark still far off, the journal feed will click on to see Shikamaru surrounded by various colorful boxes among other things. He folds his hands over a table.]

It's come to my attention over the last few months that some of you have never heard of boardgames, or have otherwise never played. As a reasonable guy, I can let a lot of things go, but that... just seems sad.

[He shakes his head here. With woe, even. And then he gestures to the board games from various worlds strewn in the background. Close inspection will find a shogi set, a chess board, Go, Pai Sho, Plateau, Candy Land, Mouse Trap, Jumanji and so on. You can pretty much make up any family-friendly board game you want here and he will have it somehow. Go for it, actually. He hasn't played all of them.]

I'm here to tell you why they're awesome. [...] And possibly to petition for a partner. It's troublesome, but you'd be surprised how hard that is to accomplish here...

Katara. [Hint, hint.] Kotomi-chan. [Who he can't tease as well, so he'd best clarify:] If you're still up for that.

[He shakes himself with a grin, saluting at the journal with his left hand. He picks up the nearest game.] Anyways, let's get started. It goes like this...

[And from here he'll be giving the abridged rules of the games he knows to start. Feel free to interrupt him, or call him out on any games he skips.]

[/end Voice]

[Action || Locked to Konan]

[Much later in the night, after he's seen to everything he needs to, Shikamaru takes a box out of a drawer and goes outside. From it, he withdraws an origami hummingbird, and contemplates it slowly for a few quiet minutes.

When he's done, he holds it up at eye level and speaks seriously.]

It's about time we spoke again. Don't you think?

Comments

[endgames]

You know chess?

[greenjacketed]

Know it? Aye.

[ if sharpe is completely honest -- which he'd hardly be with a friend, let alone a stranger -- he'd confess that his best knowledge of chess came from working with men who used soldiers as their pieces. battlefields as their game boards. wellington is a chessmaster. lord pumphrey, too.

and sharpe's role varies from pawn to rook to bishop to knight. he'd court their queens but never be king. but he would also never allow any chessmaster to sacrfice him prematurely. he's old, now. and tired of having this or that intelligence officer tell him that he'd die only when it was convenient to wellington. ]

I'm afraid I haven't the patience for boards and cards. [ or he hates that he always loses. ] I'd sooner take a sort of sport, I fear.

[endgames]

You sounded like the sort. I was just trying to think of a game you might know for an easy comparison to one of those I mentioned. Shogi is much like chess.

[greenjacketed]

In what way? It requirese pieces? Patience? Both?

[endgames]

Both. [You need ~strategy~.] Some of the pieces have the same names too.

[greenjacketed]

Aye? Which ones?

[ the pawns, sharpe. always the pawns. pawnship was universal. ]

[endgames]

The King and the Knights, for one. Shogi has nine Pawns instead of eight, and one Bishop and one Rook as well.

[greenjacketed]

...Nine. And the king? Aye. Could have predicted him. But what of his queen?

[endgames]

Queen's a thing in chess. Shogi doesn't have pieces with the same sweeping power. The Rook and the Bishop are the strongest pieces, and then there's also the Gold and Silver Generals.

[greenjacketed]

And what -- pray tell -- can the Generals do?

[endgames]

The Gold General can move one square in any direction but diagonally backwards, giving it six possible moves.

The Silver General can move one square diagonally in any direction as well as one square directly ahead of it, giving it five possible moves.

[greenjacketed]

...At least that sounds something like what a General does. I suppose.

[endgames]

Heh, yup. Pawns can likewise promote to Gold General if they make it to the other side of the board too.

[greenjacketed]

That's all, eh? [ a sharp bark of a laugh -- not exactly unlike a rifle's cough. ] Poor bugger. Don't know what he's getting into.

[endgames]

Sad but true. All of the pieces but the King can also promote, but they take on other roles.

[greenjacketed]

Ah. If only gettin' and keepin' a promotion were actually as easy as that, lad.

[endgames]

You don't need to tell me.

[greenjacketed]

Worked for it, have you?

[endgames]

Only way to know.

[greenjacketed]

Then -- for your sake -- I hope you've climbed well.

[endgames]

Mm. [He doesn't have the grace to look uncomfortable, though he leaves out the details of how long he's been active duty.] Would be working on another rung if not for this place.

How 'bout you?

[greenjacketed]

There's always higher up to go, lad. Though -- there are things back home which must be done, first.

[endgames]

You going to war?

[greenjacketed]

Been at war, in point of fact. One war or another. This place or that. For twenty years, now.

[ and yet advancement still came slowly. ]

[endgames]

Aa... [He can sympathize with that, not out of experience - his generation was born on the tail end of a war and avoided several close calls until the Fourth Great War was announced - but stories he's heard. He knows from his father's scars that they're long and brutal.]

For what it's worth, you don't sound that old.