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 Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 1:11 pm
With one more destroyer, Arastoo could have made his configuration somewhat more symmetric, dammit! He couldn’t make a proper spiral either. It bugged him very much, yes it did, but at least, behind a computer screen, nobody could tell he was frowning, oh right, he wasn't in front of a computer, oh well. 17 squares, a bad number, oh yes it was, a terrible omen that even the Italians were aware of with the whole VIXI latin thing. Just what did he have in mind when he signed up?
Oh right, the prizes. And the fun game part.
The redhead waited for his opponent to join his game while he was finishing setting up his fleet. Strategically, in a very counterproductive way, he put one or two ships at specific locations that he thought would be targeted first, so that the 17 squares would turn early into something else less threatening for his ego.
… emphasis on the "thought".
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:41 am
Evie had never been that great of a Battleship player. Truth be told, she hadn't played it much at all. But Zachary had suggested it over an email, and she figured that, if nothing else, she could at least placate her older brother. It was even possible that she could get her mind off of Effie and Diana, just so long as she focused on the game. There had to be something like prizes involved. That would keep Evie focused.
She entered the room humming something that sounded vaguely like "Build Me Up Buttercup", smiling when she saw the redhead with the half-set up Battleship game. "Are you Ara-stoo?" she asked, looking down at the name she'd written on her hand before she left. "I'm Evie. Nice to meet you!" She sat down at her place, leaning to the side so she could shake his hand before setting up her own little pieces. There was no particular rhyme or reason to her choice, just something that looked like it would be hard to figure out. Once she'd placed all of the toy boats on her little plastic ocean, she looked up to the redhead, her yellow eyes thoughtful.
"Can I go first? I'm kinda new at this," she said with a cheerful giggle, looking back down at her board. "I pick...umm...C8!" She grinned to herself: the letter-number combination looked like a smiley-face, and she got some level of amusement out of realizing that.
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:00 pm
His eyes left the board. Symmetric hairstyle, good point. Better omen than the 17 squares thing. “Arastoo, yep. Short for Aristotle, in case you wonder” he replied, advancing his arm for a handshake. Of course she’d wonder, she seemed to be the kind to. “Nice to meet you, Evie.” As always, his tone was neither nor very warm, nor quite cold.
Back to the game. “Please do so, miss.” He was focused, and really hoped that she would hit one of his boat (preferably the aircraft carrier for reasons related to – you guessed - SYMMETRY AND GEOMETRY LOL). He hoped.
The dark-eyed guy couldn’t help but cringe a bit. “Missed.” Still 17 occupied squares. 17 17 17
“I7.”
A terrible choice in his mind; he blamed the evil power of the 17. Well, at least my opponent is having fun...
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:08 pm
"Aristotle! Like the Greek philosopher? That's so cool!" Her smile widened as she looked down at her board, finding I first, then scanning across to the 7 column. "Ooops! Looks like that's a miss, too," she said sadly, inwardly somewhat relieved that she hadn't been hit the first time. She placed a white peg in the C8 square (it seemed that smiling faces heralded no explosions), then thoughtfully looked to her board, continuing to hum as she did so.
"How about F-6?" Central area of the board: always a good place to look.
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:24 pm
Definitely a curious girl; it wouldn’t kill him to chat and satisfy her. “My parents thought the philosopher's name was a bit too straightforward and old-fashioned, so they gave me the Iranian variation of the name instead. What’s Evie short for?” It wouldn’t surprise him if her name were Eve but wanted a more cute nickname.
He didn’t even need to put any sort of peg to memorize the coordinates. And he didn’t have to scan his boats again, either. “Nothing on F6 either.” This should have been good news, but the longer he saw the 17 occupied squares, the more uneasy his mathematical mind went. “How about D4?”
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:30 pm
Evie looked fascinated, momentarily forgetting the game. "Iranian? I didn't know there was an alternate version of Aristotle. That just makes it even cooler." She placed another white peg on F6, then batted her bangs out of her eyes to get a better look of the board. "Short for Evelyn, but my brother couldn't say that when I was born so 'Evie' stuck." She gave Arastoo a playful wink. "I'll probably switch it back to Evelyn when I score my record deal, though. I'd rather be a Sarah McLaughlin than a Brittney Spears, any day."
"D4's a miss," she said, scanning her board. "H2 have anything?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 1:56 pm
“I wouldn’t have known if it weren’t for my parents, either. You can just call me Ara if you want.” The redhead was still absorbed by his obsession of the day, and his voice was still rather… monotonous. Damn prime number!
“I think this is going to take a while. Missed again.” A short pause. “Well, let’s do what most people do and keep striking the diagonals… B2.” And he still didn’t take note of anything. Who knows how good Ara is at poker? (Answer: quite bad.)
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:11 pm
"Ara it is, then," Evie said with a nod, noting her most recent move with another white peg. How long was this game supposed to take, anyways? It didn't seem to bother her that the boy was distant--she, too, paused to take a moment to look at the board. She tried to think of a strategy, but how were you supposed to strategize something you couldn't see? Vaguely, she wondered if this was how it was for military big-wigs, searching around in the ocean for the bad guys. Except Ara wasn't really a bad guy, was he?
Then again, this wasn't anything life or death. Just a silly game, that's all.
"Diagonals sound good...C3, then!" It was a simple matter of elimination: eventually, one of them would hit.
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:23 pm
At this point, he just sighed. The next attempt had to result in something. Sure, the point of the game was not to have your ships sunk, but, well, the number thing, and he couldn’t just snap one of his own ship to correct the ratio. Besides, he was supposed to hide his fleet well… the fact his opponent had apparently done the same was not relevant.
Sure, it was a silly game for Ara too. But he couldn’t ignore the numbers, even though the number were not his enemies either. Nor his friends. He couldn’t ignore them because they were the rule behind everything. Even that innocent game.
He scratched his head, though he already knew his move and had even implied it beforehand. “No C3 here. How about F6?” he announced.
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:59 pm
"F6 is a miss," Evie said with a sigh, gradually growing bored of having nothing happen. She made sure to keep her top grid upgraded, then thought again, trying to find something that would be both spontaneous but crafty. "A1," she said, deciding that if nothing else she could get the corners out of the way. After those were out of the way, she could just work her way towards the center, assuming that things would go for that long. Evie wondered if they would run out of white pegs first.
"So, why are you at Barren Pines?" asked the girl, idly twirling the end of her pigtail with one finger. She grinned. "Is it for your amazing skills at Battlship?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 3:21 pm
Finally. Ara’s face was suddenly illuminated with pure, unadulterated relief. He smiled brightly, and said with enthusiasm: “A1? That’s a hit!”
It was a very weird combination for a Battleship game.
Anyway, his problem was fixed. 16 is much, much nicer than 17. Sweet 16.
… where was he again? Oh, right.
“Me? Oh, I’m not at Barren Pines for the Battleship skills, though it is certainly related to it… I’m here for the maths. There are mathematical patterns everywhere, you know, and you can go a long way if you know how to connect them.” A grin. “F9! How about you?” He hoped this one would hit, too. For the time being, he still lacked data to form a real strategy.
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Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2009 5:40 pm
A hit! Yes! Evie let out an excited gasp as she placed a red peg on the A1 square--sign that she had, in fact, hit something! Did she have any idea what or where it was? No! But the fact of the matter was that she'd hit something, and that was awesome!
"Oh, I have perfect pitch," said Evie with the nonchalance of someone who'd said it a thousand times. "Like, any time anyone hums anything, I know what the note is. I sing, too. I'm doing a competition and everything in December with Mason Everheart." She looked down at her own board with a sigh. "F9's a miss, sorry. What about A2?" Considering she'd gotten that first hit, she had a 50/50 chance of getting it right, and she was feeling pretty confident about now.
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Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:37 am
Well, hope he didn’t like 16 that much, because now, there’s 15 left.
Ara realized slowly that he wasn’t supposed to lose, and it was seriously starting to look like a bad start for him. Huh. Think, think, there is enough data to start making predictions.
He finally added pegs to the previously empty grid, and scanned the resulting configuration thoughtfully. “I don’t really know how useful it is in a pragmatic point of view”, he admitted, “would you mind explaining how it can be used outside of competitions? Also, A2 is a hit – of course - , how about G2?”
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