Bored Games - Short Affair for 17th August

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

*awkward cough* I wrote most of this in my lunchbreak yesterday, but fell asleep before I got round to posting it in the evening. But it seemed a shame to waste it, so hope no one minds.

Prompts - Inhale/Sky Blue
Word Count - 986
Title - Bored Games

Napoleon gazed down at the mishmash of letters, trying to find any sense in it. Ah. "I - S - T on capital," he announced cheerfully placing the tiles down. "Capitalist. And that's a double word score on the T, so - "

" Twenty eight points," Illya told him.

He looked at him. "I know," he said levelly. The four of them had been stuck in this safe house for two days now, waiting for contact. None of them were built for boredom. There was no radio, no TV and no books - just a dusty pile of boardgames.

"Capitalist?" April smiled. "Was that a hint that you wanted to play Monopoly instead?"

"Definitely not," he said. "I can just about deal with losing at Scrabble to someone who speaks it as, what, a fifth language?"

"Fourth," Illya corrected. "And that's only if we are counting chronologically."

He nodded. "I'm not losing at Monopoly to the sneaky Communist. Again."

"The game does provide an excellent study as to to the inevitable downfall of a capitalist society," Illya said seriously.

"Right," Mark agreed. "Everyone always wants to be the car."

"Exactly," Illya nodded

"I always take the top hat," Napoleon said.

Illya snorted. "Why am I not surprised? And Q-U -A - R - O -L. Quarol."

They all looked at him. "No Russian," Napoleon reminded him. "Only English words allowed, remember?"

Illya gave a contemptuous little huff. "The Cyrillic alphabet has no letter Q. How could that be Russian? It is an English word."

Uh huh. Napoleon smiled widely. "And just what is a Quarol, partner mine?" he asked interestedly.

"A physics term," Illya declared. "It is a piece of apparatus one uses to more accurately measure the rate of particle decay among hadrons."

"Anyone?" Mark asked with a laugh.

April shook her head. "I studied psychology, darling.. The best I can do is tell you that a man who would lie to his friends' faces just to win at a children's game clearly has serious issues."

Illya didn't even blink. “The Q is on the triple letter. So that is 70 points for me, if you please, Mark.”

“This game should come with a dictionary as standard,” Mark complained, scribbling the score down regardless. “And it's my turn....huh. I seem to only have six letters here. I must have forgotten to pick one up last time.”

“Of course you did,” April said with a mocking smile, and Napoleon surreptitiously looked under the table for the missing letter while Mark felt around the bag for a replacement.

“Ah,” he said at last happily. “Just what I was looking for.”

“It took you long enough to find it,” April commented innocently. “Your finger-reading skills not up to it?”

Napoleon looked back at his letters with a frown. Wait.....“These aren't the letters I had before,” he said. He'd definitely had an 'H' and an 'I', rather than a 'R' and a 'U'. “April?”

She batted her eyelashes at him. “Yes, darling?”

“You should know better than to look away, Napoleon,” Illya told him. “Things have a way of going missing.”

“So I see,” he said, with a glare at both of them. Oh. Wait. “Actually, I was wrong,” he said cheerfully. “These are my letters after all.”

“Anyway,” Mark said loudly. “A-P-O-L-O-G and E on 'IS'. Apologise, and I used all seven letters so that's 78 points for me, which puts me ahead of you Napoleon.”

“That's not how you spell 'apologize',” he objected

“It is exactly how he spells 'apologise',” Illya said. “I've read his reports.”

Napoleon blinked. “What are you apologizing for in your reports?” he asked, briefly diverted.

“Look, mate,” Mark said. “There's two ways of spelling it. The British way, and the wrong way. So you're just going to have to put up with it.”

“I agree with him,” Illya said.

“You spelled 'sceptical' with a 'k' two rounds ago, don't even talk to me,” Mark said dismissively. “You're betraying the country that provided your education.”

“I-N-H-A-L-E,” April announced. “With the 'h' on the triple letter, that's 34 for me, I think.”

“Thirteen of those points should be mine,” Napoleon complained. “Okay, C-E-R-U-E-A on the 'N'. Cerulean, and that blank is an 'L'.”

“What's that?” Illya asked.

Napoleon raised an eyebrow. “It's a colour. Like sky blue.”

“No,” Illya said patiently. “That.” He pointed.

Ah. He had missed the fact that his word adjoined another.

“Agar with two 'r's,” Mark said. “I've never seen that before.”

He looked up into Illya's damned smile and decided to take a leaf out of his book. “It's an agricultural term,” he lied. “To do with crop rotation.”

Illya's expression didn't change. “Really.”

“You know as much about agriculture as I know about physics, pal,” he pointed out.

“Yes, but my point is you know as much about agriculture as you know about physics,” Illya said.

“And aren't there only meant to be two blanks in the set?” April asked with a frown.

He subtly rubbed his fingernails on his jacket sleeve to get rid of the little traces of paint he'd scratched off the tile.

April sighed. “Maybe we should try a different game.”

“Risk?” Mark suggested.

“No!” he and Illya said simultaneously.

“There was an...incident,” Illya explained carefully.

“An incident?” April repeated, a tiny smile hovering around her lips.

“An incident,” Napoleon agreed, thankful for the euphemism. “And that's all we're going to tell you.” There had almost been a fist fight, and even, almost, an order handed down from Mr Waverly banning the game for all UNCLE personnel.

“Alright, alright,” Mark said shaking his head. “Snakes and Ladders? Surely no one can find a way to cheat at that.”

He and Illya exchanged a quick glance. Ah. A challenge.

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of board games, but I Loved this! Makes sense spies would cheat.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

I played far too many board games as a child, as you can probably tell. They really can lead to the worst arguments. And really, is it cheating if everyone knows everyone is going to do it?

Thanks for commenting.

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

Fantastic. 'The British way and the wrong way' :-D

This reminds me way too much of every board game I've played with my family. We have the Scrabble Deluxe, which has lovely wooden tiles, and it wasn't until the end of the game that we noticed my nephew had place 3 blanks on the board.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I suppose the correct spelling probably depends on which country they're actually in at the moment. :)

And yes, that sort of thing sounds familiar. I seem to remember my brother trying to hide Monopoly money up his sleeve.

[jkkitty.livejournal.com]

And I am sure they will find a way to do it. Pleased games with spies, think I'll pass. Cute.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Thanks - and yeah, I think I'd hate to be involved in these games as well.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Altogether excellent. Especially the end. And I must quote: There's two ways of spelling it. The British way, and the wrong way.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. And glad you liked that line; it was a paraphrase of something my friend told me once.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Ah, a challenge. Indeed, and you met this one with great style. And humor, of course.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Thanks! This one was kind of a cheat in that I really could have fit absolutely any prompt words into it, but never mind. :)

[garonne.livejournal.com]

That was brilliant! Definitely saving this one to read again. 'The British way and the wrong way', heehee.

[otherhawk.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks! Wouldn't have said it was one of my best, but I'm glad you liked it.