Swamped

Your thoughts are interrupted by a loud ruckus. It sounds like some of the patrols are coming back. Maybe Squib Squad's among them. You duck out into the hall and see if you can spot your...

...well, "friends" is a strong word, here. You're really only on the squad because Ash thought they needed someone who could read. Sure, you were a troublemaker before, but you've felt more than once that you were getting in over your head. There's always been a certain distance between you and Squib.

It's not like when you were on Tom Third's squad. You were a couple of years behind most of them, but Tom thought you were smart enough to keep up. Or maybe he just wanted to keep an eye on you. Whichever it was, he made sure that you felt like you were on the team, not just the poor sap who had to clean up everyone else's messes.

Anyhow, you head to the front gate to see who's coming in. You ask the guards about your teammates specifically, but they haven't come back.

Maybe they will if you just wait a bit longer. The greatrat can't get in too much trouble, can it? Ash said those sedatives were strong.

You decide to talk to some of the other knights in the meantime. You might at least be able to find out where they're posted right now.

That's when you spot Lisa Black.

You remember Lisa, though if she remembers you it can't be fondly. You played cards with her once, and being the clever little troublemaker you always were, you tried to cheat.

She caught you just by looking at your face. She made it very clear to you what she thought of cheaters. She was so mad, you were worried Tom would kick you off the squad.

Perhaps the part that hurts the most is that you never got to find that out. Two days later, Tom Third was caught in the rain and never came back.

You've seen her at Third's memorial a few times, though you made sure to keep your distance. She's got the same sort of look now, but something's different about it.

And that's when you realize it. You've never seen her afraid before.

Well. You doubt she'll help, but you can worry about that later. Right now, you just want to know what the hell has knocked the Black Queen off her game. You approach carefully.

"Are you all right?" you ask. She glances at you, then gives you a glare.

"I remember you, cheater," she growls. "And given that you're on Squib Squad, I doubt you've changed your stripes. Leave me alone."

"I will, I will," you say. "I just... well... you look like you've got something going on. I know, I know, it's none of my business, but, um..." You rack your brains for an excuse. "I could fetch one of your friends. Someone you can talk to about it. Probably not good to keep these kinds of worries bottled up, you know?"

She gives you another look. Oh hells, she's trying to read your face. She must know you're hiding something, she's too good to let something like that slip past her even now.

"Tell you what," she says, pulling out a deck of cards. "If you're so interested in what's bothering me, we'll play a game of Swamprats over it. Winner learns the loser's secrets."

"But you always win," you protest.

"So they say! I've always wondered how true that is, myself." She smirks a little. "But even if the winner is already decided, I think there's a lot of interesting things that can happen in a game, wouldn't you say?"

You're not sure what to do here. She's read your face - maybe she wants to help? Or maybe she wants to find out what you're up to and report it, which can only be all sorts of trouble.

Should you accept the challenge or not?

yes! the opportunity to cheat again and slip it RIGHT UNDER her smug little nose is too tantalizing...

You should play it straight. You need help and you know she's giving you a test, even if she's using it to distract herself.

You're not as talented as Lisa, but you're no fool either. Everyone has different tools, different strengths. If she's shaken now that means that her toolset failed or almost failed her. That she's worried about losing something.

That's your strength. You can risk being hated. you can risk losing. You know there's something bigger than whatever game you play - there has to be.

It's the strength of a cheater.

You should play it straight, that's part of her test. But it's not part of who you are -
Accept the challenge, but make it clear: You'll cheat. She'll know that you did - but she won't know how.

You should play it straight. You need help and you know she's giving you a test, even if she's using it to distract herself.

You're not as talented as Lisa, but you're no fool either. Everyone has different tools, different strengths. If she's shaken now that means that her toolset failed or almost failed her. That she's worried about losing something.

That's your strength. You can risk being hated. you can risk losing. You know there's something bigger than whatever game you play - there has to be.

It's the strength of a cheater.

You should play it straight, that's part of her test. But it's not part of who you are -
Accept the challenge, but make it clear: You'll cheat. She'll know that you did - but she won't know how.

are you proposing that we make them think we cheated without actually cheating at all because that's pretty cool

I was thinking more along the lines of "cheating is part of your character and you should be true to yourself and hope she can see past her prejudice because then you could both grow as people" but yeah what you said would do that also let's go with that.

You stop for a moment and think about how the rest of Squib Squad would react if they heard you turned down a challenge.

Yeah, you can already hear the mocking laughter. You're not facing that later. You'll play her game.

But you intend to play it your way.

"Deal a hand," you say confidently.

"I don't think we got beyond the basic rules last time we played," Lisa says, dealing out the cards, then dropping one face down. "So let's stick to them, just to save time. We'll just add one extra rule for speed."

"What's that?"

She puts a card down beside her.

"If you pass, you lay aside one of your cards. Next bet you lose, you've got to hand that card over as well as the others. So passing has a cost, which means the game can't drag on even if nobody's willing to bet. Of course, if you end up laying your entire stash aside, you'll have to make a bet next turn no matter what."

"Works for me."

"Good. Consider that play my first pass," she says, smirking. She draws a card and puts it aside without even looking at it, though she puts it down so you can see it's a Five of Stones. "So it's your turn now."

"I haven't even picked out my card yet."

"I know. It's called taking a handicap. You get a free turn, and a free card. So make your choice, and then tell me your bet."

You look over your cards. Nine of Wings, Ten of Leaves, Six of Wings, Nine of Blades, Six of Blades, Nine of Stones, Scholar of Wings.

Which one will you lay down?

let's play scholar of wings and show off how much we know about paul mccartney

Lots of nines, in a normal game, that's an advantage, but you can't worry about advantages when playing Lisa black.

It also helps to have the 6's of matching suit, the design on these cards give the 6 and 9's similar fonts. You won't trick Lisa with that - but she might think you would try.

But what is most interesting is the scholar of wings. That was Tom Third's card - well not his card really, but you can't think of a better card to represent him. Pick the scholar of wings.

It forgoes your advantage, but it's appropriate for your match. A subtle hint of your respect for Tom might be enough to convince her to help you after the game. Of course she might take it as a cheater just trying to use Tom's memory.

Don't set it down alone though. "Shuffle" your hand around and Place all of the cards down in a stack but in the same order you drew them (The order you listed them, DF). You've still technically put the scholar down - but that's just the kind of seedy move someone would play if they're trying to slip in extra cards or if they're confident in the luck of their draw, and have planned out their bets. Either way, you use her preconceptions against her.

As you glance over your cards again, the Scholar of Wings catches your eye. Seeing the calm, yet determined, look on the Scholar's face reminds you of Tom Third.

You decide that's the card you're going for. But you're not playing this game the standard way.

Oh, you'll follow the rules. That's what she's testing you on, you've worked out that much. But you want to keep her guessing on that as long as you can.

You fiddle around with your cards, making a big show of it, but in the end they wind up in the same place. Then you drop the stack, with the Scholar on the bottom.

"My card's at the bottom of the stack," you say. "I'll just take the rest off the top. Easier for me to keep track off. It's supposed to all be one stash anyways, right?"

"Fine," she says, keeping her eyes on your stack carefully. She wants to know if you're trying anything with it.

You draw your first card. It's a Four of Stones. So what's your bet? Suit, rank, or pass?

pass with a smug look on our face like we know what we're doing

You want to play like you have the nine at the bottom, in which case you want her to get the nine at the top of your stash. Pass.

When she makes her call next turn, try to think about some unpleasant moments with Squib. The mental distraction may throw your facial features off, if just slightly.

to be honest i've completely forgotten how swamprats works, but that's good because best strategy here has to be to be "no strategy." that's the best way to trip up a pro

You decide to pass, but you play up the pass as much as you can. You make a point of looking smug, like you know what you're doing. She'll probably catch that you're playing it up, but that doesn't mean she'll work out what you're really thinking.

Especially since you're not entirely sure what you're really thinking. You just know that you're trying to make the game interesting, even though you likely won't win it.

"All right, then." Lisa draws a card and turns it over. It's a Six of Stones.

That's odd. It's close to the last two cards drawn.

Lisa looks at you for a good while, then puts down another card on top of the one she already set aside.

"Pass," she says. You can't figure out what she's thinking; she's too good at this. Although, she doesn't seem shaken up any more; at least the game seems to be helping her regain her bearings.

Anyhow, it's your turn again. You draw an Eight of Leaves.

Suit, rank, or pass?

> Suit

Keep passing indefinitely. Play out the whole stack waiting for the other to make a move

Rank.

In your fake strategy, you want her to think that you have a nine. Which means losing the nine of wings from your stash is preferable. You'll likely lose the call, but the misdirection is more important.

You're racked by indecision. Do you just pass, and try to throw her off? Do you go for rank, the likelier loss, to give her a nine and make her think one of your nines is on the bottom? Do you go for suit, which has more chances of a match?

You just can't decide. And then it strikes you - why are you even playing this game? You've got no idea where that damned greatrat is, or what it's doing while you're sitting here playing cards.

You shove your whole stack aside. You've just been distracting yourself, and it's not doing any good. The rat's not going to stop running around waiting for you to finish your game.

"I can't handle this right now," you say. "I've got a problem and I'm just running from it. I need help, and I don't know who I can turn to. I thought... well, I don't know what I was thinking, really. Look, I'll make this quick. Will you help me?"

You're Lisa now. What are you going to say?

no

ok but make it quick i would like to sleep

*exhale*

We all have things going on. This game was a chance to clear your mind but you're a little miffed Clancy would try and leave it. However it does look like he's genuinely concerned about something...

It's too bad too. You were going to get him back for last time by stacking the deck in your favor. It's hard for someone to guess "Scholar of Blades" if you split all the Blades and Scholars between the top and bottom of the deck.

you're tired, and you don't want to help but...something though...that Tom Third had said, one of the last times you had talked to him. You were pissed at the rookie for cheating at your game, but Tom calmed you down, in that way only he could. You were much more hotheaded then. It was Tom that taught you to focus though playing games. He had a gift for seeing the best in a person. He saw more in Clancy back then. It frustrated you to no end seeing Clancy get mixed up with Squib Squad - Like he was thumbbing his nose at what Tom saw in him...but now...maybe Tom was right.

"If you forfeit the game, I'll listen. That was what we agreed on right?"

Your first thought is to flat-out tell him no. If he were just a cheat, that would be one thing; but a sore loser to boot? If that's the case, then he's hopeless.

Your next thought is that you just want him out of your hair. If that means dealing with whatever stupid problem is bothering him, well, you'll just take care of it as fast as possible.

On the other hand, do you really want to give him that much? Has he really changed since you last saw him?

Well. When you last saw him, Tom Third was still alive. You remember grumbling to Tom back then after he cheated, that he just didn't have any respect for the game.

Tom calmed you down with another game. In that one, he'd stacked the deck against you... but you didn't even notice, you won so easily. When he told you about it afterwards, you didn't know what to think.

"A game's a game," Tom told you. "Now, I'm not sayin' it's good to cheat, no. But the real question is about trust. When you're out in the muck, whether it's facing the Marshguards or just chasing off a big croc, you need someone you can trust with you. So the question you've got to ask isn't, is this guy a big cheat. It's, can you count on him when things start going bad? And you've got to remember, those aren't always the same question."

You didn't quite understand what he was saying at the time, but you could see it, roughly. Although when Clancy threw in with Squib Squad, you figured Tom had it wrong.

But now. You think you see something in his eyes. You've been seeing it the whole time, really; and you were hoping the game could help you see it more clearly.

Maybe you can draw it out a little more directly.

"Don't you have squadmates you can ask instead?"

His mouth says, "they're not around".

But you can do more than listen to his words. You can read it in his eyes. His face. His heart. What he really means is "they're not my friends."

"Well," you say. "Deal was, if you lost, you'd tell me your secret. So how about you forfeit?"

"I was hoping to play out the game after the problem was taken care of," he says, a little awkwardly. "But if that's how you want to do this, I guess we can."

Then he laughs.

"In fact, why don't I do it with a guess? That's the rules, right? Guess the card and get it wrong, and you lose. Let's get this over with."

"Give it your best."

"Right. Is your card the Scholar of Wings?"

"No," you say. "But you were surprisingly close." You pick up the Scholar of Blades and reveal it.

"That's interesting," he says, turning up his stack to reveal the Scholar of Wings on the bottom.

"You deliberately..."

"Well, it wouldn't do if I accidentally got it right, would it?"

The two of you have a little laugh, but Clancy starts looking around nervously.

"Right. I'll tell you, as I said, but this is big trouble if it gets out."

"I won't tell a soul," you promise. After all, you're already in pretty deep trouble if anyone finds out what you were up to earlier tonight. "Whisper it."

He leans in.

"We caught a live greatrat. It's loose. I need to get it back."

You should have known it would be something like this if Squib Squad was involved.

Well, you're part of this mess now, might as well do what you can. What are you going to suggest to him?

The great rat will have a stash it wants to get to.

You two just have to figure out what it is.

The great rat will have a stash it wants to get to.

You two just have to figure out what it is.

no, no, it'll wanna go home, to the tunnels! it's like electricity, it always wants to go to ground... so it looks like you're going mining

"Right," you say, once you've calmed yourself down and lead Clancy to a secure room. "So the first thing to figure out is where it might be going. Luckily, Dean's been going on about greatrat habits all day to help pest control work out where any stragglers might be, and I got a bit of it while we were patching up a hole."

"I'm all ears," Clancy says.

"There's two things about greatrats. First, they're pack animals. They're not afraid to split up, but sooner or later they'll go back to the pack with whatever food they've scavenged. But - they're also selfish creatures. They always save a little for themselves, and stash it somewhere."

"We caught this one outside," Clancy says. "So it wouldn't have a stash in here, unless it's making one."

"Dean brought that up. Seems that if a greatrat gets lost, it'll find the nearest pack before doing anything else. They do try to find their home pack, but they'll settle for any that's available. They only start stashing once they either have a pack or give up on finding one. If it got loose recently, it'll be looking for a nest."

"And we found a nest last night, didn't we? Think this one might be searching for it?"

"It's likely, but we patched most of the holes up. The only one we couldn't get to was the one in the auditorium; it was just too big to handle right now."

"The auditorium?"

You nod.

"A few memorials are missing. We'll make new ones, but... it's still upsetting. Anyhow, it's going to head there sooner or later, but the room's under heavy guard. There's still tunnelers down there, and we don't want them getting loose. Hopefully it hasn't gotten there yet..."

"About that," Clancy says with a groan. "The room we were keeping it in has a narrow passage in it that connects directly to the auditorium. I told Squib this might happen."

"Well, it can't be there yet or we'd have heard someone raise an alarm. Last I heard, orders were to have two knights outside the auditorium and six inside at all times. Of course, that's going to make it hard for us to get in unnoticed, which I assume is what you want."

Clancy seems worried all of a sudden.

"Do you know who set the guard roster?" he asks.

"Well, it was Tom First when I was there. By now that's probably been passed on to one of the sergeants, though it wouldn't surprise me if Sergeant Ash took it on himself. He was pretty thorough about assigning volunteers once he took command. Why on earth are you asking?"

"Never mind, it was just a stupid idea."

"Well, right now, we don't have many ideas at all, so you may as well let it out."

"Um. Was thinking that, depending on who the guards are, we might be able to get them to just let us in. But no, of course they wouldn't do that."

"Clancy," you sigh. "I can tell when you're hiding something. Something's got you worried now, even more worried than the greatrat."

"I really don't think it's a good idea to talk about it," Clancy says. "It's one thing if I get blamed for the greatrat, but if this gets out, it's even bigger. I... I just can't."

Will you press him for more information, or just move on and start hunting for the greatrat?

Always get as much information as you possibly can. Perhaps some insight he can offer will prove invaluable.