video | un: furuderika

[miiraculous]

 [Near the end of the month, after playing Jumanji more times than she cared to, Rika is able to face some realities. Those being that her house is more empty than before and that she's feeling lonely. She's never lost a friend in the way that she has lost Rena. There's no way to flip a switch and have her back, and that has been weighing heavily on Rika's mind.

And yet, the matter for which she makes a network call is rather childish and unimportant in comparison.]

Is the Trench always like this..? I never expected that a game board would be so mean... Games are supposed to be fun, not like that.

[She sounds more disappointed than traumatized. Perhaps a sign of maturity? Or being numb to so much suffering.]

Where I am from, my friends and I had a club where we played games together. Games let us leave our troubles behind for a few hours and spend time together, in a piece of the world where everything was fun. It makes me sad to think that games might have been ruined for the people here, because one of them was naughty. So I...

[Rika's voice trails off. She briefly imagines a cheerful Rena and how she would react to this. As part of her grieving, Rika tries to follow in the imaginary Rena's footsteps. This is more proactive than Rika's used to, so she can't help but sound uncertain.]

I want to make a game board that isn't mean and play it with everyone here. Does anyone know where I can find some paint? And a biiig piece of wood, or something similar, for the board? I've never tried this before, but... I would quite like to try. I do not wish for the fun of games to be taken away too.

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video: un: UNOWEN

[forwantofahorse]

[If you think about it, murder mysteries were just another kind of game. One you played between yourself and a long-dead, metaphorically if not physically, author.

This is where Sayo's thoughts are taking them as they're writing outlines on camera for their very first piece following... everything, really. As disastrous as the results of their last writing project were, there was something about untangling a puzzle as you molded it in your hands that caught their brain like nothing else. They need a hobby to take their mind off karate every once in a while, with the tournament looming in the distance.]

I'm not sure about creating the board myself—while I can draw, I've never been one for arts and crafts—but I should be able to help with making the rules, at any rate. I have a talent for these kinds of things.

[miiraculous]

You can draw?

[She's awed by this first. Making rules is an interesting skill to bring up as well, especially when Sayo doesn't look or sound especially strict.]

Rules are important too. You cannot win without a win condition. ☆

[forwantofahorse]

I can indeed! [Their chest puffs out in pride.] I'm not really a professional, but I've been honing my skills ever since I arrived here.

[Sayo is, in fact, considering starting a webcomic. Horror of horrors.]

...Or if the rules are too obscure, or the win condition too hard to find... the game might as well be impossible anyways.

[Now that draws a bittersweet smile from Sayo, although it's a mere flicker before their expression is once more.]

A proper board game will need more than a simple X, Y, and Z from me, though. What kind of game would you like it to be?

[miiraculous]

[Rika maintains a smile. Rule XYZ. She tries to banish the thought, but she's reminded of how her situation back home feels like a cruel game where no one taught her the rules.]

I like board games! Games with a combination of luck and skill are the best. You cannot win them unless you think quick.

[forwantofahorse]

Hm... maybe we could base it around cards, then? A "deck building" game, one where each player starts out with a set deck of cards, which they can add to and cut from as the game progresses.

It also adds an excellent element of bluffing and fakeouts into the game, since you can't know what your opponent has in hand at any given time. In my opinion, even beyond luck and skill, the most important aspect of a game is how well getting into an opponent's head will serve you.

[By rights, the game of red truth would've been easily won by the detective's side had Beatrice not worked so hard to "turn the chessboard around" on Battler himself, hitting all of his weak points at once. That sort of gameplay still thrilled Sayo.]