Summer 7 - Game Night

[norrhamn_residents]

[ It's a rainy afternoon on Norrhamn, with a distant thunderstorm rumbling over the gray sea. Typical Swedish summer, if we're honest, but that only means that the residents on this island know exactly how to combat it: with a game night.

The main dining hall has been cosied up for the occasion. There's plenty of blankets to go around and the tables have been laid out with flickering tealights and a variety of board- and card games of varying difficulty. There's Scrabble of course, and games like Settlers of Catan, Clue, Ludo and many others, along with regular decks of playing cards. There may be a few Witchcraft: The Collection around here too...

Alongside the usual offerings of hot food that's served throughout the day, the kitchen staff has set up a table with tea, coffee and hot chocolate, as well as treats like cinnamon buns and cookies, salty snacks and candy. Perfect to nibble on while in a particularly thrilling game of Backgammon, or just a good setup for a rainy day fika. ]

Comments

[bluerocks]

Zelgadis raises an eyebrow at Jack's description of his previous misadventure. "That sounds like a nightmarish version of what we have here. Do you have any reason to believe that this gift here isn't just a trick to bring unwitting people into another inter-dimensional prison of sorts?"

As idyllic as the island has been, Zel never fully stopped being suspicious of a good thing. At least he's picked up some better letters; he tacks on 'DRAGON' to Jack's 'DOCTOR'.

[forever_jack]

"Actually, in some ways it turned out to be one of the best things that had ever happened to me!" he shrugs. "They brought my boyfriend in from a point before he died, and we escaped together, so that was pretty amazing."

Glancing at his letters in light of this comment, his eyes light up and he grins widely, adding 'IANTO' downwards across the end of Zel's 'DRAGON', not only bringing said boyfriend into the game but also earning himself a triple word score on it as well! (Okay, it doesn't actually earn him that much, but it's the principle of the thing!)

"That's my boyfriend," he explains, and then sobers as he considers Zel's question. "And that is a good point. But I'm pretty sure there are several people who arrived at the same time I did who are no longer here, and I assume they did so of their own accord..."

[bluerocks]

"Sounds...romantic," Zelgadis says dryly, as someone who is tragically incapable of entertaining a single romantic thought and also wholly uninterested in anyone's love lives.

"The ferry does purport to return people to their home worlds on request; if this island is a trap, it must be a very selective one. Then again, if someone tried to leave and failed to return home, we may never hear about it anyway."

He's working the cynical pondering pretty hard here, almost as a stubborn counter to Jack spinning getting kidnapped to a multiverse prison as 'one of the best things that had ever happened'. But he's also staring at the board, and finally fits in the word 'GAME' across 'IANTO', but also spelling 'GO' down into the end of the 'DRAGON'.

[forever_jack]

One amused eyebrow lifts a fraction at that deadpan reaction to his miraculous love story, but it doesn't bother him and he's more interested anyway in the rest of the conversation.

"That's a good point, actually." He can't help remembering MarinaNova, where for a long time they'd thought the people who disappeared had gone home, only to discover later that no-one ever actually left, their bodies still in stasis pods the whole time, still prisoners.

He shivers a bit, and grimaces. "I really hope that's not the case. Had enough of that sort of thing to last me a lifetime!"

[bluerocks]

"Are you interested in testing the idea? Maybe one of us can try to leave on an outgoing ferry, then return as soon as possible to report back."

Zelgadis isn't immediately volunteering himself for this experiment but he'd like to fish around for someone enthusiastic (or foolhardy) enough to do it themselves.