Book 4 - Schemer of the Scalding Sands: Chapter 24; Board Game Intelligence

The screen turns on as the next chapter title plays "Chapter 24; Board Game Intelligence".

There was then a skip to that night.

It seems that the Octavinelle trio were put in the same vacant room in Scarabia as the Ramshackle duo was in previously, while now still housing them. Or in simple terms the Octavinelle trio and Ramshackle duo were both sharing the same room that the duo stayed in during their captivity.

Grim is much more cheerful as he comments "Kalim was in a pretty good mood today!" Azul nods as he says "Agreed. That was the 'regular' Kalim I know."

Grim puts his paws on his hips as he partially explains "When he's in a bad mood, he narrows his eyes and gets this scary tone when he talks."

Jade puts a hand to his chin as he asks "Are you sure that's what happening here?" Even Floyd seems confused by his twin's question and asks "Whaddaya mean?"

Jade explains "You're prone to mood swings yourself, Floyd. Kalim doesn't give me that same impression. I suspect a different root cause at play." while he slowly crossed his arms.

Grim shrugs and tells them "Jamil said it was brought on 'cause of their lousy dorm standings in Spelldrive and the exams." This brings a reaction out of Floyd as he raises an eyebrow and questions "Really? Since when does Sea Otter care about that?"

This mostly confuses Grim, as Yuu had already gotten an understanding of Floyd's tendency to give nicknames; it was just who he was talking about that confused her.

As Grim's confused he asks "Sea- what now?" Jade explains "He means Kalim. Floyd likes to give people nicknames based on sea creatures."

He waves his hand up and down towards Grim, as he explains Floyd's nickname for Grim "In your case, Grim, you have a cute, round little silhouette. Which is why he calls you Baby Seal." Jade then finished off by stating "It's a term of endearment." Grim huffs in annoyance as he complains "I ain't round! I'm full-bodied, thankyouverymuch!"

Everyone ignores Grim's complaints, as Floyd himself explains his reasoning for Kalim's nickname "Sea Otter's always bangin' on a drum with a grin on his face. Reminds me of those fuzzy sea scamps."

Azul seems to have a genuinely soft smile on his face as he comments "He does have a generally sunny disposition." Before the smile is lost and he very quickly moves on saying "I can't imagine his demeanor would shift so drastically over something as minor as unimpressive grades. I agree that the root cause is likely to be something else entirely.

Azul then moves forward by making a plan of shorts it seems as he says "If we want to get to the bottom of this, we'll need to get to know Kalim better."

He then turns to Jade and requests "Jade, would you mind having a little 'talk' with him?" Jade instantly puts on one of those sly almost sinister smiles as he answers "Consider it done. Jamil would be a harder target, but… Kalim might be willing to 'talk' openly with me." Floyd then claps his hands as he adds onto the plan "Then I think I'll play with Sea Snake in the meantime!~"

Clearly the trio now have a full plan in place.

As Azul puts on his business man smile that he used when he was tricking someone into a deal not worthwhile and says "Excellent idea. I'll join you for that."

The three of them all start to do a sort of evil chuckle.

Grim crosses his arms as he pouts and complains to Yuu "Their smiles ain't reached their eyes once this whole time…"

It then shifts to another room, this room is also extremely dark, considering it is night time.

It then shows who's room it is, as Jamil walks through the door, whispering complaints under his breath "Ugh. Yet again, Kalim ignored my input and made an arbitrary decision."

But once the door is safely and fully closed he fully voices his complaints out loud, as the room is most likely at least slightly sound-proof from the inside.

Jamil complains "Does he have any idea how much extra work that means for me?! Rrrgh!" He sighs as pinches the bridge of his nose and seems to find a silver lining of sorts, saying "Well, he's asleep now. Surely the rest of tonight should go smoothly."

He was about to lie-down at least when there were suddenly two knocks on his door. Jamil raises an eyebrow and asks "A visitor? At this hour?" He then gets up to see who's at the door. He opens the door to reveal Azul, Floyd, Grim, and Yuu outside.

Azul greets him first, with a smiling "Good evening, Jamil." Floyd next "How's it hangin'~" Then Grim "Mind if we drop in?" Meanwhile Yuu awkwardly rubs the back of her neck and apologizes "Sorry to disturb you this late… and for the crowd!"

Jamil obviously gets annoyed at their appearance and asks them "Gh! What do you want?"

Azul explains "When Kalim gave us a tour of the treasury, we spotted a board game I've never seen before. I asked Kalim to explain the rules, but it's still not quite making sense to me." Jamil raises an eyebrow in distrust as well as the fact he didn't know what game Azul was talking about.

Floyd then says a little bit about what he most likely had gotten from the game "It's this wood board with little divots, and you put gems in 'em or something? How's that work?~"

Jamil makes an "Ah" noise before stating "I recognize the board. That's a popular game in the Land of the Scalding Sands."

Azul pushes his glasses up before telling Jamil "As a member of the Board Game Club, I'm always looking to try new games. Would you care to play a round with me?" Floyd also seems giddy as he laughs cheerily before pretty much shouting "Me too! I wanna see what you've got, Sea snake!~" Grim puts his paws on his hips as he proudly states "The great Grim never misses out on a competition!"

Jamil thinks for a second and says under his breath "Kalim's gone to bed…" and then some more stuff that is too quiet to be heard.

He then gives his answer to them "I don't see why not. My dorm room doesn't have enough space for all of you, though. Let's play in the lounge."

The screen then fades to black as "To be continued" plays before fully turning off.