SHAH-K-MATE*

[Kaishi*]

((Continued from: An Organized Chaos))

Erick Rischio, Bloody Fists member and crazy man slash game master extraordinaire, sat by himself in the lunchroom. Well, relatively by himself. There were a few others littered here and there, tittering about random things going around Bathurst. Loiterers, they were called, the band of highschoolers who chose to stick behind at school while the buses were pulling out. The staff didn't mind them, just as long as they kept inside the student center or the cafeteria and weren't defecating the walls, or anything. They just needed to be out there by the time the janitors came and locked the door.

Not that most people cared about that, though. Most, "hardcore mothas" as they liked to call themselves, lingered behind. Why you'd want to hang out around your highscool, Erick had no idea. There really wasn't anything cool about sitting around in a cheap school building, pretending to smoke tootsie pops, and listening to mainstream punk shuffle. The next table over was doing all of that, some crude mix reusing the same ol' weak riff blaring out of some girl's CD player. Please.

He overturned his messenger bag. A plastic bag full of plastic figurines fell out, landing safely ontop of a ratty chessboard. Assorted pawns, black kings and white queens, and everything in between. Rischio set the pieces into their positions, and waited for his opponent to arrive.

[Axis*]

It was a refreshing change of pace. At the very least it was meant that way. Instead the pungent odor of a day's old trash seemed to assault him with more and more strength at every step. Heinz brand catsup was smeared across one of the doors in a shockingly bizarre yet violent pattern. Even worse was the discarded chunks of gum on the floor. They still seemed oddly fresh. The combination was repulsing enough make a man gag. At the same time, however, Charlie couldn't help but feel hungry.

He had the early bird's lunch period. It was roughly the same as the others as far as Charlie was concerned. There were, however, certains quirks. The bonus was that there would never be a shortage of things to buy. At the same time though there always was the danger of food not being prepared on time. Then there was naturally the hunger you would feel at this time of day. The cons dragged it down a bit but Charlie had no intention of changing it anytime soon.

Taking a step through the door, Charlie paused momentarily to survey the room. There were a few people here and there that he knew. No one that he knew knew but they were classmates known the less. Tens years in this lovely school system had to amount to some type of bond, after all. The one thing that really stood out was good ol' Erick Rischio. The challenge that brought the gang member here was still fresh in Charlie's mind but so was the hunger in his stomach.

He naturally chose to deal with the easier one first. Charlie turned to his left and began to walk towards one of working vending machines. Erick could wait for now. Like it or not.

[Kaishi*]

Erick smiled when Charlie Jay arrived on the scene. That meant that it was time to play the game. He picked up the fortress and the horse, rather known as the rook and the knight, and put them to temporary combat against eachother. Right in the middle of the board, in between a crowd of stoic characters. The lack of space made it hard, yet increasingly more interesting the further he thought about it. One peice, the knight, could only travel in an oddball L shape. L, in this circumstance, stood for limiting. The cross-shape possibility for the rook gave it all the room in the world to crush the knight. Left a few spaces, or all the way across. Maybe upwards, to catch the pansy pony off guard.

Hopefully, Seige would be polite enough to get Erick a snack bar. Amused and knowing full well that that was an impossibility, Erick started the practice match by moving the white rook up two squares, past the pawn. All the other Kings and Queens and soldiers were ignored as the black knight advanced. One square by two squares, it was placed neatly in front of a pawn. Whether the move was foul, or not, it mattered little.

The rook went right, left, whatever, landing with a glare infront of the black knight. It reared, snorted, and kicked the castle right onto its back. Confusing, yes, against the rules, maybe. Rischio was just bored. Matches were no fun when you could only control the lamest units in the game. Things were better done when you had the whole board under your control, otherwise things got mighty confusing. That being said, the old game was wiped, and replaced with a brand new war of doves against crows. One side lead by Rischio, the other lead by CJ himself.

Patience Dam broke and all the impatience induced anger flooded his voice. "Hurry up! I'm getting bored!" Erick had come here for a game, not to wait for Charlie to grab himself a bag of skittles, or something. Especially if, judging by the way he seemed to be browsing, the guy wasn't even going to get something for his opponent. "Let's play the game now, jeez."

A few of the punks in the next table over gave him mild glares. Risch flipped them a mild bird.