Rising Shards

Kalei sighed in relief when we got to the next room and there wasn’t a void monster that looked like the lady she accidentally left in our slideshow waiting for us. Instead, the room looked like a social studies class, but with a map of the country on the ground, with tiny void monsters that looked like melty toy soldiers waiting on each state. Each group was a different color, with one having a cheesy complexion that made me want nachos.

“I almost didn’t do this one since it might take a while,” Diast said through our wristbands. “But we’re somewhat reenacting the VCV civil wars. This won’t be a typical ‘swing your sword and fling your powers’ type battle.”

Lillia softly gasped, her eyes wide with excitement. “This is like Prospectors: VCV Edition?”

“A simplified version, yeah.” Diast said. “If it was the full version we’d be here for hours, but maybe sometime we can do that in class.”

“What’s Prospectors?” Oka asked.

“A board game,” Lillia said. “You try to conquer the world via strategies and machinations. It’s brilliant. I have the physical version and the eGame version.”

“So how do we do a simplified version of it?” I asked. I remember Stella and I tried to play it once and we got so confused that we gave up after 20 minutes of setting up the board.

“First, stand within a state’s borders to pick it. When you’ve got that done, use your wristband to pick the amount of void monsters you want to send to your enemy states. This is simpler than the real game, but you will still need to use the geographic knowledge you learned in class to not send your void monsters off a cliff or get blocked by a mountain.”

“Diast, you have a good tutorial voice,” Kalei said. “You could do game voiceovers. But like specifically for explaining things.”

“I can’t tell if you’re making fun of my teaching as usual or actually complimenting me,” Diast said. 

“Genuine compliment for once!” Kalei said.

“Well, thanks.”

Iris counted on her fingers. “There are more us than there are states though?”

“We can have one pair partner up for a state,” Diast said. “I don’t expect the strategy period to last too long before you’re all just fighting the monsters. But the last state with any left standing wins.”

“I call dibs on the partner!” Iris said. MaiMai, we will rule one of these states with an iron fist, got it?”

Maia shrugged.

“We could have done the full world version, it’s a lot more fun,” Lillia said. “VCV only can be exciting for the all or nothing aspect of only having five nearby states doing battle, though. I think the continent-only version is the best of both worlds if you don’t have time for a full global experience.”

“Next time we can do this a lot more fleshed out,” Diast said. “Ask Letoh too because she might have a full unit for it in spring. And don’t be surprised if at least one of these ends up on the Recreant games next semester.”

“Does the winner get a prize?” Kalei asked. “Something like enough extra credit points to pass every class no matter what grade I got on my finals?”

“You can get a candy bar of your choosing from a vending machine when we’re back home.” Diast said.

“That works too, I guess,” Kalei said.

Kalei went for the Jecruible Islands, saying “I pretty much gotta, right?” Iris and Maia picked East Valataran. Lillia picked Haven, likely because of her budding relationship with Ko. Oka picked the southeastern state of Jiru, and I ended up with our home state, Exoun.

Each of us had 50 void monsters as our army. Since this was for class, I focused and tried to really think about what we had learned about the VCV civil wars. They were about 500 years ago. I think. That sounds right. And five main generals leading each of the states brought their own army of void monsters in. And Exoun…I think they kind of stayed out of it? They set up something. A perimeter! I remembered that from the vocab words. So I organized my little army of void monsters around the border of Exoun from 500 years ago, which looked a bit lumpier and not as neat as the state I knew today. 

“I’ll be sure to go easy on you all,” Lillia said.

“Will you even have to? I pretty much have this in the bag,” Oka announced. “The capital of the VCV is in Jiru, so I probably have the best tactical advantage.”

“Thanks for the lesson we all knew from grade school, Oka.” Kalei said.

“I’m just announcing my strategy!” Oka said.

“It’s stupid to announce a strategy to your enemies,” Kalei said.

“Oka’s not stupid!” I snapped.

“Oh my god, I’m not saying she’s stupid, I’m saying her strat—” Kalei said, rubbing her face with her hands. “Can we just get on with this already? I know who I’m targeting first.” She shot me a pointed look.

We were allowed one enemy area to invade each round. We could also stand guard. I did that, trying to imitate how Exoun did way back when, making it unscathed through most of the wartime by kinda just hiding and hoping nobody noticed. Not the bravest approach, but in a game I didn’t think it was the most cowardly thing I could do. 

That strategy went in smoke almost immediately. Because I had snapped at Kalei, she decided to make me her first target. I thought the defensive positioning for my soldiers was pretty solid, but Kalei’s army wiped the floor with mine, knocking me out of the game immediately. I needed a few to cry on the sidelines from my sudden defeat (this might have also been some residual crying left over from the lab splattering incident). By the time I checked in on the game again, the first round was over. Lillia had taken over Oka’s state, while Iris and Maia managed to hold onto theirs with a similar hide in the background plan as me. Oka and I sat together on the side of the board consoling each other.

“I really thought having the capital would have. Some effect.” Oka said. “Jiru won the civil wars in the end because of the capital, I think?”

“And I thought trying to just copy what happened in the textbook would help me win, with the whole Exoun hides from the fighting thing.” I said.

“But at least you both used your knowledge from class, which is the point of this whole endeavor,” Diast said.

For the next round, Oka and I weren’t sure if we should cheer for anyone. Lillia took over Oka’s state and Kalei got mine, so we weren’t in the mood to go for them. But Iris and Maia were taken out by Lillia’s army almost immediately in the second round, with the duo’s tactic of hiding everyone in a river failing spectacularly, so we didn’t even have a chance to root for the underdogs. Kalei kept her ground but failed to get any others, so it was pretty clear how the last round would go with Lillia having her surrounded. Kalei still fought valiantly, utilizing her knowledge of her family’s home state to hold Lillia’s soldiers at bay. Lillia still was the expert on this one and wasn’t deterred for long.

Once the map was hers, Lillia explained to us the real historical formations and battle plans she utilized to win, throwing in some dramatic hair flips for good measure. She closed out by holding her hand out and saying, “Dr. Diast, I would like a StarChoco bar as my reward candy.” All things considered, it was a very humble victory speech.

“You got it!” Diast said. “Great work, gang.”

“You said you’d go easy on us.” Kalei said.

“I did go easy on you.” Lillia said. “When we play this again, I expect improvement from everyone.”

“Lillia’s frickin’ scary, dude.” Iris muttered.