Re: Petty Squabble [ROUND 2] [Acidity City]
03-25-2012, 03:41 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Lord Paradise.
As a moderately seasoned chess player, Nancy was at a disadvantage here, for this was most certainly not chess. Her other disadvantages were as follows: she was certain she was going insane, she had to keep watch over the Broderburg girl out of the corner of her eye, she was tired and hungry and beaten down and equally afraid of dying and losing her clothes. Luckily, she seemed to be winning.
Her opponent moved one of her Green Mirrors up into the corner, flanking Nancy’s Grey Architect. “Infinite mirror,” she declared. “Your Architect exists as an infinity of unrealized possibilities—“
“—And I can’t move him, yes, I know, I’m starting to get the swing of this. Sorry,” Nancy added, worried that she should be polite as possible, as some of the spectating natives were carrying spears. She decided that getting speared would probably be one of the most uncomfortable ways to die. Looking down at the board, Nancy saw the move that the chess-priestess had thought she was going to make, where she used her architect to construct a line of buildings in the way of the Green offensive line. It would have been a good move—she thought—but she had something different in mind. Watching her opponent’s reaction closely, Nancy took a Grey Aqueduct and inched it between two Green temples, putting all of her aqueducts in line. Without taking her finger off of the piece, she asked of one of the spectators, “This would create a flood, wouldn’t it?”
The native man smiled and nodded. Nancy took her finger off the piece. The priestess smiled and placed several glowing “river tiles” on her side of the board, removing three of her pieces. Then she rotated her Green Calendar counterclockwise, removed the river tiles, placed her own pieces back, and shifted Nancy’s Aqueduct back where it had been.
Nancy was speechless. “I’m sorry,” she said. “What did you just do?”
“My Calendar reversed the flow of time, forcing you to choose another path,” yawned the priestess. “What, didn’t I mention that?”
“I’m sure you didn’t.” Nancy looked at her own Calendar suspiciously. “If I do the same thing now, will that undo your undoing my move, or will it undo the move you took before, with your Mirror?”
The native frowned. “It would push back my Mirror,” she admitted. “But might also do untold damage to the timestream.”
Nancy had no idea what that meant. “I’ll take that risk,” she decided. “Time’s on your side on this game anyhow.” She rotated her Calendar counterclockwise.
From then on the game got a little more complicated, because, due to “temporal abberations,” the two of them were no longer strictly alternating turns, and acid no longer flowed downstream. But at least Nancy was able to get her architect in position. The game went on for rather longer than a normal game of chess—she wasn’t sure how long exactly, but could make a rough measure by it by how restless Alison seemed on her stone bench—with Nancy on the defensive but generally setting the pace. She would put up a street of buildings and the Green King would put taxes on them, so Nancy used her aqueducts to flood the whole housing project, at which point her opponent would send in her gondoliers and establish a beach head. Nancy generally appreciated the sophistication of the game that allowed two pieces to occupy the same square without either eliminating the others, but the tactics began to get a little overwhelming when a battle to control a single bridge wound up creating a totem pole of gray and green pieces eight squares high. Though she had difficulty translating her strategies into the vertical dimension, she was fairly sure she was not doing well, so she was surprised and not immediately relieved when, instead of taking her turn, the naked woman simply stood up from her seat and said “Game.”
“Pardon?” asked Nancy, checking to see if the Green Godhead, islanded amidst several river tiles, was threatened from any direction.
“Your Messenger reached the sun,” explained one of the spectators, pointing at the top of the totem pole. “Eclipse and apocalypse. Not only do you win, but the loser’s pieces are to be dumped in the river as a sacrifice to Chess.”
Nancy wasn’t sure she appreciated a culture that drowned things in acid as a matter of course, but maybe that was just paranoia or an assumption based on their race. “I was just lucky,” she admitted. “But I’m glad not to have lost.”
She debated asking whether or not she was receiving a prize for victory, but then the chess-priestess said, “Only one move remains to me. I must take you to see Chess Herself.”
”Chess as in the God of Chess?” interjected Alison. ”I’m the God of Numbers... or something.”
”Quiet. Nancy Little, the Goddess will meet you in Her inner temple now.”
“Now wait just a minute,” breathed Nancy, rising from her seat. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable meeting up with a God, or a Goddess or what have you... is this absolutely necessary? May I decline?”
“Nancy, when beckoned by a higher calling, one does not simply decline—”
”I’ll go,” volunteered Alison. ”Nancy and I are friends, so, you know, I could go in her place. If that’s okay.”
The chess-priestess sized Alison up and down. “Alison,” said Nancy. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable letting you, er... what I mean to say is your parents—“
”My parents are always dragging me to church. They’d probably be overjoyed that I’m talking to a Goddess. Just say yes, okay?”
Nancy sighed. “Make sure she isn’t harmed,” she told the priestess. The priestess nodded, took Alison by the hand and led her down a hallway.
Nancy suddenly felt very alone, surrounded by mostly-naked men. She hoped the little girl with the strange clothes would return soon; Alison wasn’t exactly grounded, but compared to everything else in this place, she was an island of normalcy.
“Anyone care for another game while we wait?” she asked.
* * * * *
Of course the inner temple was a giant chessboard. Having left the priestess behind some ways back, Alison took her place on the starting setup like a dutiful Harry Potter character. She recognized the stone pieces, not as pieces from normal chess or from the game Nancy had just been playing, but as statues of people she knew—her mom and dad and brother and sister each had their own square in the front row, and there was Carnea and John Smith and Nancy. The Nancy piece, strangely enough, shared a square with an angelic-looking woman covered rather provocatively by a handful of four-leaf clovers and a top hat.
Those were the Grey pieces. On the Green side, the pieces were, to say the least, abstract. One of them moved.
Alison considered this. She had always thought of herself as very unlikely and the world as terribly unfair, and understood that there was an opportunity here. “So if I want to just talk to this luck goddess, should I just talk to Nancy? That seems like it’d probably be rude.”
“Yeah, I know Envoy. He’s a robot. I think he helped us out a little while ago. Alright, I don’t trust you or anything, but if I’m looking for Envoy at least it’ll get me out of your creepy nudist temple.”
“Alright. Thanks. She was just slowing me down anyway.” Alison left the back way, realizing almost immediately that she had no idea where to start looking for Envoy. She didn’t have Nancy’s luck with her anymore, so she’d need to think like a chess player. The streets and canals made up the board, and Envoy was... a knight? That sounded about right.
Back in Chess’s temple, Fortune’s piece disengaged from Nancy’s and backed off a square. The statue of Nancy, lacking the goddess’s support, fell over, and shattered.
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As a moderately seasoned chess player, Nancy was at a disadvantage here, for this was most certainly not chess. Her other disadvantages were as follows: she was certain she was going insane, she had to keep watch over the Broderburg girl out of the corner of her eye, she was tired and hungry and beaten down and equally afraid of dying and losing her clothes. Luckily, she seemed to be winning.
Her opponent moved one of her Green Mirrors up into the corner, flanking Nancy’s Grey Architect. “Infinite mirror,” she declared. “Your Architect exists as an infinity of unrealized possibilities—“
“—And I can’t move him, yes, I know, I’m starting to get the swing of this. Sorry,” Nancy added, worried that she should be polite as possible, as some of the spectating natives were carrying spears. She decided that getting speared would probably be one of the most uncomfortable ways to die. Looking down at the board, Nancy saw the move that the chess-priestess had thought she was going to make, where she used her architect to construct a line of buildings in the way of the Green offensive line. It would have been a good move—she thought—but she had something different in mind. Watching her opponent’s reaction closely, Nancy took a Grey Aqueduct and inched it between two Green temples, putting all of her aqueducts in line. Without taking her finger off of the piece, she asked of one of the spectators, “This would create a flood, wouldn’t it?”
The native man smiled and nodded. Nancy took her finger off the piece. The priestess smiled and placed several glowing “river tiles” on her side of the board, removing three of her pieces. Then she rotated her Green Calendar counterclockwise, removed the river tiles, placed her own pieces back, and shifted Nancy’s Aqueduct back where it had been.
Nancy was speechless. “I’m sorry,” she said. “What did you just do?”
“My Calendar reversed the flow of time, forcing you to choose another path,” yawned the priestess. “What, didn’t I mention that?”
“I’m sure you didn’t.” Nancy looked at her own Calendar suspiciously. “If I do the same thing now, will that undo your undoing my move, or will it undo the move you took before, with your Mirror?”
The native frowned. “It would push back my Mirror,” she admitted. “But might also do untold damage to the timestream.”
Nancy had no idea what that meant. “I’ll take that risk,” she decided. “Time’s on your side on this game anyhow.” She rotated her Calendar counterclockwise.
From then on the game got a little more complicated, because, due to “temporal abberations,” the two of them were no longer strictly alternating turns, and acid no longer flowed downstream. But at least Nancy was able to get her architect in position. The game went on for rather longer than a normal game of chess—she wasn’t sure how long exactly, but could make a rough measure by it by how restless Alison seemed on her stone bench—with Nancy on the defensive but generally setting the pace. She would put up a street of buildings and the Green King would put taxes on them, so Nancy used her aqueducts to flood the whole housing project, at which point her opponent would send in her gondoliers and establish a beach head. Nancy generally appreciated the sophistication of the game that allowed two pieces to occupy the same square without either eliminating the others, but the tactics began to get a little overwhelming when a battle to control a single bridge wound up creating a totem pole of gray and green pieces eight squares high. Though she had difficulty translating her strategies into the vertical dimension, she was fairly sure she was not doing well, so she was surprised and not immediately relieved when, instead of taking her turn, the naked woman simply stood up from her seat and said “Game.”
“Pardon?” asked Nancy, checking to see if the Green Godhead, islanded amidst several river tiles, was threatened from any direction.
“Your Messenger reached the sun,” explained one of the spectators, pointing at the top of the totem pole. “Eclipse and apocalypse. Not only do you win, but the loser’s pieces are to be dumped in the river as a sacrifice to Chess.”
Nancy wasn’t sure she appreciated a culture that drowned things in acid as a matter of course, but maybe that was just paranoia or an assumption based on their race. “I was just lucky,” she admitted. “But I’m glad not to have lost.”
She debated asking whether or not she was receiving a prize for victory, but then the chess-priestess said, “Only one move remains to me. I must take you to see Chess Herself.”
”Chess as in the God of Chess?” interjected Alison. ”I’m the God of Numbers... or something.”
”Quiet. Nancy Little, the Goddess will meet you in Her inner temple now.”
“Now wait just a minute,” breathed Nancy, rising from her seat. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable meeting up with a God, or a Goddess or what have you... is this absolutely necessary? May I decline?”
“Nancy, when beckoned by a higher calling, one does not simply decline—”
”I’ll go,” volunteered Alison. ”Nancy and I are friends, so, you know, I could go in her place. If that’s okay.”
The chess-priestess sized Alison up and down. “Alison,” said Nancy. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable letting you, er... what I mean to say is your parents—“
”My parents are always dragging me to church. They’d probably be overjoyed that I’m talking to a Goddess. Just say yes, okay?”
Nancy sighed. “Make sure she isn’t harmed,” she told the priestess. The priestess nodded, took Alison by the hand and led her down a hallway.
Nancy suddenly felt very alone, surrounded by mostly-naked men. She hoped the little girl with the strange clothes would return soon; Alison wasn’t exactly grounded, but compared to everything else in this place, she was an island of normalcy.
“Anyone care for another game while we wait?” she asked.
* * * * *
Of course the inner temple was a giant chessboard. Having left the priestess behind some ways back, Alison took her place on the starting setup like a dutiful Harry Potter character. She recognized the stone pieces, not as pieces from normal chess or from the game Nancy had just been playing, but as statues of people she knew—her mom and dad and brother and sister each had their own square in the front row, and there was Carnea and John Smith and Nancy. The Nancy piece, strangely enough, shared a square with an angelic-looking woman covered rather provocatively by a handful of four-leaf clovers and a top hat.
Those were the Grey pieces. On the Green side, the pieces were, to say the least, abstract. One of them moved.
WELL PLAYED
Alison didn’t really know how to respond to that. “Wait,” she said. “I’m green?” A grey piece moved.<font size="5">MY GAMBIT WAS TO BRING FORTUNE’S HERALD ONTO MY BOARD
YOUR SIDE SACRIFICED A PAWN TO EVADE THIS
Alison stepped forward two squares. “I’m not a pawn,” she insisted.YOUR SIDE SACRIFICED A PAWN TO EVADE THIS
I DON’T MEAN ANY INSULT, CHILD
THE SMALLEST OF PIECES OFTEN PLAYS THE GREATEST OF ROLES
AND YOUR ACTIONS FORCE ME TO RECONSIDER MY ENTIRE STRATEGY
Alison dove towards the wall as the pieces began to move faster and faster, dancing around the temple. Not understanding the rules—or else recognizing that there were no rules—she kept tally of events: Carnea’s piece took out grey and green pieces indiscriminately; the robot moved quickly into the center and held sway over a large piece of territory; the other robot, the one with the die for a head, was taken off the board early, as was John Smith, although he seemed to reappear later on the other end of the board; the members of Alison’s family took a multitude of short, jerky movements towards the corners before being taken out one by one; Nancy remained immobile, yet safe. Finally everything stood still.THE SMALLEST OF PIECES OFTEN PLAYS THE GREATEST OF ROLES
AND YOUR ACTIONS FORCE ME TO RECONSIDER MY ENTIRE STRATEGY
YOU’LL HAVE TO FORGIVE ME FOR THE SHOW, I WAS MERELY THINKING KINETICALLY
YES, MY MOVE IS CLEAR NOW
YOUR FRIEND NANCY IS THE CHOSEN OF FORTUNE, A POWERFUL AND CAPRICIOUS GODDESS
WITH THE POWER BESTOWED UPON HER, SHE COULD DO WHATEVER SHE DESIRES, AND YET HER FEAR AND WEAKNESS PREVENT HER FROM MAKING USE OF HER GIFTS
IT WOULD BE TO THE BENEFIT OF BOTH OF US WERE FAVOR’S FORTUNE TO BE TRANSFERRED TO YOU, LITTLE PAWN
Alison took a look at the woman keeping watch over Nancy’s statue. She didn’t look entirely trustworthy. “I already have my own Goddess friend,” she explained. “Carnea. We’re going to become better gods than you are and take all your worshippers away.”YES, MY MOVE IS CLEAR NOW
YOUR FRIEND NANCY IS THE CHOSEN OF FORTUNE, A POWERFUL AND CAPRICIOUS GODDESS
WITH THE POWER BESTOWED UPON HER, SHE COULD DO WHATEVER SHE DESIRES, AND YET HER FEAR AND WEAKNESS PREVENT HER FROM MAKING USE OF HER GIFTS
IT WOULD BE TO THE BENEFIT OF BOTH OF US WERE FAVOR’S FORTUNE TO BE TRANSFERRED TO YOU, LITTLE PAWN
THAT IS ONE PLAY AVAILABLE TO YOU, YES
BUT DOORKNOBS AND LOCKS WILL NOT PROVE SUFFICIENT TO SAVE YOUR FAMILY
THOUGH LUCK AND CHANCE ARE THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF STRATEGY—AND CHESS, PLAYED RIGHTLY, IS A GAME OF ABSOLUTES—IT DOES NOT SUIT US THAT SHE SHOULD REMAIN A PASSIVE PRESENCE IN NANCY’S HANDS
BUT DOORKNOBS AND LOCKS WILL NOT PROVE SUFFICIENT TO SAVE YOUR FAMILY
THOUGH LUCK AND CHANCE ARE THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF STRATEGY—AND CHESS, PLAYED RIGHTLY, IS A GAME OF ABSOLUTES—IT DOES NOT SUIT US THAT SHE SHOULD REMAIN A PASSIVE PRESENCE IN NANCY’S HANDS
Alison considered this. She had always thought of herself as very unlikely and the world as terribly unfair, and understood that there was an opportunity here. “So if I want to just talk to this luck goddess, should I just talk to Nancy? That seems like it’d probably be rude.”
A FRONTAL ATTACK WOULD FORCE AN UNFAVORABLE ENDGAME
A PIECE ON YOUR SIDE KNOWN AS “ENVOY” IS SOON TO BE CONTACTED BY OUR PANTHEON’S EQUIVALENT PIECE, “MESSENGER”
THROUGH ONE OR BOTH OF THEM YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PETITION FORTUNE
A PIECE ON YOUR SIDE KNOWN AS “ENVOY” IS SOON TO BE CONTACTED BY OUR PANTHEON’S EQUIVALENT PIECE, “MESSENGER”
THROUGH ONE OR BOTH OF THEM YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PETITION FORTUNE
“Yeah, I know Envoy. He’s a robot. I think he helped us out a little while ago. Alright, I don’t trust you or anything, but if I’m looking for Envoy at least it’ll get me out of your creepy nudist temple.”
EXIT THROUGH THE DOOR BEHIND GREEN, THEREBY BYPASSING NANCY
SHE WILL BE SAFEST IN MY TEMPLE... AND I AM LEARNING MUCH FROM HER UNCONVENTIONAL STRATEGIES, SO I WOULD PREFER IF YOU DID NOT TAKE HER FROM ME
SHE WILL BE SAFEST IN MY TEMPLE... AND I AM LEARNING MUCH FROM HER UNCONVENTIONAL STRATEGIES, SO I WOULD PREFER IF YOU DID NOT TAKE HER FROM ME
“Alright. Thanks. She was just slowing me down anyway.” Alison left the back way, realizing almost immediately that she had no idea where to start looking for Envoy. She didn’t have Nancy’s luck with her anymore, so she’d need to think like a chess player. The streets and canals made up the board, and Envoy was... a knight? That sounded about right.
Back in Chess’s temple, Fortune’s piece disengaged from Nancy’s and backed off a square. The statue of Nancy, lacking the goddess’s support, fell over, and shattered.
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