Game of War

Posted on 22 Sep 2016 @ 6:21pm by Ensign Mimi & Ensign Splendora Nightingale
Edited on on 24 Sep 2016 @ 11:02pm

1,167 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD -04 - end of Beta shift

[ON]

Splendora sat in the corner eating her dinner after Beta shift, a sandwich with chips and drinking a Vulcan fizz, a drink much like earth sprite. She had her trusty deck of cards out and was laying a game of solitaire. It had been a long shift.

Glad her shift was over Mimi skipped into the mess hall to get her lunch, it had been rather uneventful, mostly maintenance broken up by the odd minor emergency.

As she sat down and started to carve up her fish she looked over at the table opposite her, an Ensign she was sure she recognised from the group that came onboard a little while back sat there arranging small slips of card she'd never seen before into some form of pattern. Whatever she was doing it seemed to require concentration as she often took several seconds before placing the next few cards in the pattern.

Mimi's curiosity eventually got the better of her, she picked up her tray and headed over. "Would you mind if I joined you Ensign..... Nightingale?"

Splendora look up. She smiled at Mimi. "Sure! I'm sorry I didn't catch your name."

"Sorry, I'm Mimi." Mimi replied as she sat down opposite Splendora. "I was the one on the transporter when you came onboard."

"Oh yes! Well good to meet you. Sorry I've met sooo many people in the last few days. How was your shift?" She collected the cards and put them to the side giving Mimi all her attention.

"Busy." Mimi replied "But nothing important." She took a big bite of her fish before speaking again. "How about yours?"

She smiled. "Long. I was trying to relax with Solitaire but...for some reason it's not going well. How would you like to play a card game." She asked. Maybe a game of War would sooth her tiredness.

"A card game? is that what you were doing?" Mimi asked admitting that she'd been watching Splendora.

"Yeah." Splendora smiled. "I was playing Solitaire but like I said it didn't end well. How about we play a game. Do you know the game called War?"

Mimi shook her head. "I have never played a card game before. My curiosity got the better of me as I had no idea what you were doing."

Splendora smiled. Something about curiosity and a cat came to her mind. "Okay. Well these," She held up the deck of cards. "These are cards. In the deck there are 52 cards." She passed the deck to Mimi.

Carefully taking the deck Mimi picked a few cards from the top and looked them over.

"Now in each deck there are four different symbols, called the suit. One is the red diamonds, red hearts, black spades, and black clovers." She showed Mimi the cards.

"And each one has a value. What about these ones?" She asked showing her two of the face cards.

She smiled. "They too have a value. The Ace," she held up the Ace. "It has a dual value. In some games it's a one and in others it's an eleven. The J is known as the Jack or Knight and it's value, according to some rules and games, is also ten just as the queen and king." She took the cards. "Before any game is begun the cards are shuffled to make sure that they are randomly placed." She took the cards and began shuffling to show Mimi. "Would you like to try playing a game? It's an easy one and relies on the value of the cards."

Mimi's ears gradually tipped forward as she watched Splendora shuffling the cards and explain what they were. "Sure, what are the rules?"

"Okay so I will shuffle he deck and then split the cards in two piles. Keep them face down where you cannot see the values, ok?"

"Ok."

"We will each turn over a card and whoever has the highest card will take both. If we both lay a card down that is of the same value it's called war. This means that you deal three cards face down and one face up. Again whoever has the highest value takes the cards and places them at the bottom of their pile. The goal of the game is to win all of your opponent's cards."

"Seems easy enough, so the entire game based on luck?" Mimi asked after taking a few moments to eat some more of her lunch.

She smiled. "Yup. Let's try!" Splendora shuffled the cards and separated them into two piles. She gave one pile to Mimi and kept one herself. "Do you want to go first?"

"Sure." Mimi drew her first card and smiled before playing it down. "10 of hearts."

Splendora placed her card down next. It was a three of hearts. "You win!"

"Yay." Mimi sad and took both the cards adding them to the bottom of her pile. She drew her next card and smiled again her luck so far holding as she drew another rather high card. "9 of diamonds"

"Nine of hearts! Now we go into the war phase." She placed three cards face down and turned the fourth card over which was a two of spades.

"So now I put these down and show this one." Mimi followed suit and put three cards face down and then a fourth; the two of hearts. Mimi cocked her head to the side she'd drawn exactly the same card value as Splendora. "What happens here?"

She smiled. "Double war.. at least that's how I was thought." She put down three more face done and another face up. Another two. She grinned. "Your turn!" She was really enjoying the game. "I"m having fun." She said, meaning it for the first time in a long time.

"This game is interesting." Mimi said and placed down another series of cards including a King of spades winning her the war and all 18 cards. "But it seems very.... basic, it is all based on luck."

"Ahh but sometimes we all need a little luck." She smiled. They continued to play. "So how are you liking the ship so far?" Splendora asked.

"It's good." Mimi said and played her next card. "The crew are a very tight...... group but they're all friendly."

She smiled. "I've seen that too. But I kind of like the family atmosphere. We don't get to pic the family we're born into but the one we work with and our friends we do!" She looked at the woman. "You're Nekomi aren't you?" She asked.

"I am yes." Mimi said, she wondered how Splendora knew as they'd never met but then she remembered she was a counsellor so had access to files on all the crew."

Splendora played another card, won the round and then lot the next. "So tell me a bit about yourself." She said putting down a 5 of clubs.

[OFF]

****

Ensign Mimi
Operations officer
USS Galileo

&

Ensign Splendora Nightingale
Counselor
USS Galileo
[PNPC MacKenzie]

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