Nerd Wars
Episode 2.5: Thwarted
Yesterday was to be the day when Brendan scored his first victory in the war between the forces of chaos and order. I’m the force of chaos, if you were wondering. Melodramatic? Perhaps. But a little overstatement never hurt anyone.
You see there was a method to my madness. I have a long memory, as you may have guessed from that grudge I’m holding for his watch game. I remember back when I first persuaded him to teach me how to play chess. The lessons remain incomplete and I fear I shall forever remain ignorant due to an issue we had during the third game. With a total of three pieces left to his name he decided to tip his little king onto its side and declare me the winner. That wasn’t a euphemism, if you were wondering.
I wasn’t happy with that. I wanted to play the game through to the end for two reasons. One, I was learning and felt the practice would do me good. The other was that I wanted no doubt whatsoever left as to who had won. After all, having him forfeit was not the same as winning. By forfeiting he left a question in my mind as to whether I really would have won, or if perhaps there might have been some sneaky move that could have snatched victory from my grasping fingers. I righted his king. He tipped it over again. This went on for a couple of minutes until a previously unseen flaw in the marble led his king to break in half. Bastard.
What does that have to do with Episode 3? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps everything. You see yesterday I decided to give him a victory. It required even more consideration than my first two attempts. You see, I wanted him to spot what was missing but I didn’t want him to know that I wanted him to spot it. Which effectively ruled the monitor out again. Why did I not want him to guess my plan? Because once the plan was revealed I risked him guessing my intentions.
I wanted him to get that one because I didn’t want him to forfeit. I didn’t want him to decide the best possible outcome for him was stalemate. I didn’t want him breaking a perfectly serviceable king. I wanted him to think that he could win until I snatched victory from him at the last minute.
So I chose something which was highly visible but a plausible choice. His main speaker. It’s large and a silver colour which easily distinguishes it from its surroundings. While it is under his desk it’s not really concealed and takes up valuable foot room. It should have been immediately visible.
From the moment he stalked in the door I knew that my plan had been foiled. A bad day at work had rendered him useless to me. After a perfunctory attempt to goad him into playing the game I got tired of the scowling and grumbling and told him what I’d taken. “I would have gotten that.” Yeah, but you didn’t. I couldn’t claim that victory though. That would have led to him forfeiting the rest of the game. So I magnanimously decided yesterday didn’t count towards the outcome. Yes, what should have been a stroke of genius is now one of those books that fill in the gaps between episodes. We now know what happened between whatever happened at the end of Attack of the Clones and whatever happened at the start of Revenge of the Sith.
And don’t we feel better for it?
Tagged: Entertainment, Hobbies.