He ticks the time away--

[neargenius]

Who: a neargenius & a soldiershin
When: shamelessly/shamefully backdated to Tuesday thanks to my lame & F. Scott Fitzgerald!
Where: the super secret no-one-allowed MN apartment in some slightly sketchy sector in scenic Siren's Port!
Summary: Jomy has never played Risk. This is a crime against humanity. He also promised not to cheat. Oh, and he might be useful in the

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[neargenius]

Near wriggled the top of the box off and began unpacking the pieces. He had already played by himself, three times, so they were separated into plastic bags, sorted by color and type. After a glance, he picked through the pieces--blue, black, red, yellow, green--and then selected the gray pieces, carefully starting to line them up against the edge of the table in a neat, straight row.

He didn't stop in this work at Jomy's question, but continued, silently--at least for the moment. "Probably," he answered eventually. "I didn't need them when I got the game, but they might still be in the box." He was nearly finished setting out his pieces, his hands moving quickly. "At the bottom. I wouldn't have thrown them away, because they came with the game."

He kept his head bent over his pieces, but looked up at Jomy through his fringe. He had been smiling. Was there something particularly amusing? Humor in itself was somewhat of a puzzle. It wasn't that Near didn't make jokes, it was that no one understood them. They made sense to him, and that was all that mattered. But humor in others was a bit of a mystery, because it was so often less than formulaic. This instance was no different. Nothing funny had happened; nothing funny had been said. What was it?

It wasn't that Near cared, precisely, it was more a casual sort of curiosity. He kept watching Jomy's face, in case something else would cause him to smile.

"You can get the board out, too," he ordered, "if you're going to look for the instructions. Which color do you want?"

[soldiershin]

His answer was instant, like naming a favorite color. "Blue, please."

Bending down toward the box, he reached in and pulled out the board as requested (ordered, whatever). He didn't lay it out in front of them immediately, taking a short moment to glance down at the designs and markings. These were the continents and countries, probably, drawn in the way that the people of Terra viewed their political boundaries.

He caught his thoughts before they strayed too far into that topic. Smoothing the board over flat onto the table, he reached back into the box to pull out the instructions. Jomy stared at the words for a brief moment, then flipped the first page over. A quick skim and vague understanding of the rules was as far as he got before he found himself setting the pages aside, propelled by his desire to play.

"Alright." Eying the way Near's pieces were placed, he copied the placements with his blue pieces. It was a rough copy at best, but it was good enough, he figured. Glancing back up, he tilted a touch to find Near's eyes through the boy's hair (somewhat). "I'll learn the rest as I go."

[neargenius]

He watched Jomy work on his pieces, glancing down at his own to note the similarities between them. A copy, in a way, though a bit more ragged. That made sense: as someone who hadn't played before, he would naturally watch for cues. Near made note of that, slipping one finger into his hair, twining the strand around and around and around. Jomy had read the directions quickly, as well. He could be lying about never having played. But that was too obvious--if he were lying, then he would do a better job of maintain that lie; his reading would have been more deliberate and painstaking. He could be a very fast reader--or he could not have read them too closely. Likely the latter, Near thought, nodding a little as he let the strand of hair spring off of his finger.

"Okay," he said, immediately starting to wind his hair around and around again. "We choose territories now. I'll pick first, because I've played before. You put your piece in the territory that you want."

After a second of deliberation, he picked up one of the army pieces and placed it on Brazil, then sat back, shoulder slumping. "Do you know about these countries?"

[soldiershin]

A shake of the head at the question, "No, not at all."

He then glanced down at the pieces, the piece that Near chose, and paused in slight confusion. The instructions had mentioned different roles for different pieces, but he couldn't properly appreciate how they worked (together) without a first run through. This type of battlefield (that is, fighting on land) was also new, where it felt two-dimensional compared to the three-dimensional nature of space.

Then again, this was just a game. So Jomy made made due with gut feeling. A slight tilt of the head later, he picked up a horse-shaped piece to place it a little far from Near's piece - somewhere on the Asian continent (India, he would later learn).

That done, he gave the apartment another glance around before his gaze swung back around to Near. "Do you live here alone?"

[neargenius]

Near watched Jomy's initial choice of territory with interest, leaning forward over the board just slightly. Opening moves were often very telling, but there was little to learn from this particular choice. India was centrally located, but too easily advanced upon. Definitely a novice at the game, then, and not lying at all. Confidently, he placed his next token on North America, and sat back.

"No," he said simply, in reply to Jomy's question. A beat, and then he sighed a little, relenting. It would be better to answer more fully, to avoid more questions. And it was fairly common knowledge that Near and Mello were acquainted. The fact that they shared a residence would not be damning information, if connections were made. Furthermore, Jomy seemed--based on initial impressions and preliminary thoughts--someone worthy of some certain trust. He had been invited here, after all; that required a substantial amount of trust in itself.

Though of course, the desire for a good game nearly outweighed trust itself. With that in mind, perhaps he had moved a bit too hastily in agreeing to this direct meeting.

"Someone else lives here," he said, elaborating. "Someone from home. And the cat."

He pointed to it, in case Jomy had missed it. Slightly overweight, the cat was crouched in a chair. Its tail flicked back and forth in sleepy irritation, and his single yellow eye was narrowed at Jomy--or at Near; it was difficult to tell, with the cat. "He might bite you."

[soldiershin]

He took the land above his first move after (China) with little hesitation. Not due to a lack of effort on his part, but due to an ingrained tendency to keep (his) people together. Pack mentality - it was both dangerous and safe to stay together so close, but the familiarity of the habit gave him a degree of comfort and confidence. He would adapt at a later time, when the game was actually underway.

It was kind of fun, being able to go head-first into a mistake. He would feel a bit embarrassed at his mistakes at a later time, he was sure, but that wasn't now.

Sitting back, he glanced in the direction of the cat. He smiled at it, almost in wonder; he had his own cat now, but seeing these animals on Terra? It still felt amazing, in a way. He did, however, refrain from giving into his desire to go pet the thing; his lava cat had an extremely mild temperament (to Jomy's luck, really), but it'd still nipped at him once or twice. That had stung. He didn't want to really dive headfirst into a bite.

Back to Near: "What's his name?"

[neargenius]

Near leaned against the table, pushing the little gray tokens forward with his forearms. He let his chin drop to rest on his arms as well.

"Mello," he replied, idly, his voice slightly muffled by his arms. He selected another token and set it down on Mexico. It would be organized to select all of the pieces of a single territory, but this was more fun. "It's okay to tell you, because everyone knows, mostly. but it used to be a secret."

He looked back at Jomy, rolling his eyes up to consider him through his hair again. "You live by yourself." It was a guess, but he was probably right.

[soldiershin]

Placing another token on yet another piece of the Asian continent, he glanced up with a blink. His face was wrought with obvious surprise because - a secret? The name of the cat? That was odd. Head tilting a fraction, he amended his thoughts. No, Near was probably referring to the roommate. Why the roommate would be a secret, he wasn't certain, but it made more sense than the cat angle.

Jomy nodded in response to Near's statement shortly afterward. "I do."

A glance at the animal again. "Though I also received a cat recently."

[neargenius]

"A cat from where?" There was always curiosity to be dealt with, even over the smallest things. Near put down another token, this one on Africa, and looked up to watch Jomy decide on his next piece. "Or did you just find it? Everyone here seems interested in having pets."

He nudged his finger against the token he had just set down, tipping it onto its side. "The things people name their pets is more interesting than actually having them. Sometimes they give them boring names. Sometimes, they aren't boring if you know what the person was thinking when they named them." He sighed a little, pulling in an extra breath. It was a lot of talking to do at once. "What's your cat named?"