“Hey, Mat,” Lorn smiles. Mathew looks up from where he sits on his little sleeping blanket with a scowl.
“Don’t call me that,” he replies.
Lorn, however, laughs back at him. “Ease up, mate. Ye want to play Snap?”
Mathew’s scowl lightens from annoyance to confusion, and he sits up a little straighter. “What?”
The pirate holds up one of his hands, revealing a deck of cards hidden underneath his fingers. “Do you want to play some Snap?” Lorn repeats, speaking slowly and loudly to Mathew, as if they didn’t already speak the same language.
“Never heard of it,” Mathew replies.
“It’s just a card game. It’s super easy to learn.”
“I don’t even have cards.”
This makes Lorn’s smile fade as he lowers his hand again. Mathew would like to play with him, but he’s got no cards to play with, and he doubts that there’s a being on board that happened to bring a spare set for him to use.
Lorn lets out a little thoughtful hum, which is drowned out by the chatter of other pirates around them. “Well, then… ye can be the judge.”
He can be the judge? What is this game of Snap?
“Sure,” Mathew nods, rising to his feet.
“Great! This way.”
Mathew follows Lorn towards the back of the large room, where a somewhat large space has been cleared with other pirates sitting in a tight ring, each rifling through their own sets of playing cards. Off the top of his head, Mathew figures there’s about twenty pirates waiting for a game to start, give or take. A few others linger behind the ring on the ground, whispering to one another or simply staring down in silence. As the two approach, needless to say, there’s excitement in the air.
“Snap is pretty simple,” Lorn says to him as they near the ring of pirates. “Each round, every being draws a card. If their card has the highest value, they keep it. If their card is lower than the highest card drawn, they have to discard it. Beings keep playing until they have discarded their entire deck. The winner is the being with the most cards still in their deck after a while, or if they are the last remaining being with cards to play. Got it?”
Mathew nods.
“And ye,” Lorn jabs a finger at Mathew’s chest, “will walk around and call out the cards as they’re drawn. And also make sure no being cheats.”
“Right.” He doesn’t really know how one would cheat in this game, but he’ll try and do his best.
Lorn rubs his hands together eagerly. “In the circle ye go, mate.”
With a light eye roll, Mathew steps between two beings and stands in the center of the circle of gathered players. There’s one small gap in the ring that he didn’t notice before, although it is quickly filled by Lorn. He reveals his cards and shuffles his deck rapidly, quickly preparing himself for the game to begin.
Eyes stare at Mathew expectantly as he stands in the middle of the group, their cards all placed in front of their legs face-down. He doesn’t know any of these beings aside from Lorn. Feeling lost, he turns back to his mate, looking for direction. Lorn looks up from his cards momentarily and gives him a light smile and an encouraging nod, mouthing the word “Start”.
“Right…” Mathew says aloud to the players, “let’s start the game.”
Immediately, the gathered pirates sitting in the ring take the first of their top cards and flip them over, slamming them onto the wooden ground for Mathew to see. He waits for a moment to make sure all the players have a card drawn before making his first round.
He steps up to the nearest player. With the cards all being a soft grey color, he can clearly make out six bright white diamonds on the surface of this card.
“Six!” he calls. As he says the card’s value, almost half of the players take the cards they had played and slides them aside, still face-up. That must be how they discard.
Mathew strides quickly to the next player with a card still out in front of them. This card has pitch black circles on its face, ten in total.
“Ten!” Another couple of hands shift their cards backwards.
The next card, “Twelve!”
Now all the cards have been retracted except for one other player on the far end of the circle. Mathew makes his way over to the other player, and as he does he can sense the impatience of the others as they shift and stare at him intensely, with some already holding their hands over their decks, ready for the next play.
The last card in play is also a twelve. With a nod, he gestures for the two players to remove their cards, which they do, flipping them back over so that they’re face-down and placing them under their decks, and the next play is then made. A chorus of snaps fill the air as the next set of cards are slammed down before him.
Once more, he starts his round, starting with the player he visited last. “Two!” Nothing happens as he moves to the next player. “Eight!”
On and on and on it goes. After a while, Mathew can’t help but feel dizzy as he treks around the circle of players time and time again, calling out the cards. By now, however, a couple of the pirates have dropped out due to having no cards left to play, leaving gaps in the circle of players. However, they still linger on the outer edge of the ring, spectating the rest of the game.
“Fifteen!” Mathew calls, and every card left in play is promptly discarded. Earlier, he had seen a picture card - a knight, with a long flowing tassel in armor of white and gold - but apparently picture cards were banned in this particular game, so that being had been disqualified. Thus, fifteen is the highest value card that can be played.
There’s also a special rule for fifteens that, whenever they are played, it must be discarded alongside every other lower value card. When all of the fifteens are out, the rule applies to any fourteens drawn, and so on. The “discard the highest value card alongside everything else” rule is supposed to make the game go much faster, making this particular game of Snap far from whatever is supposed to be standard.
Mathew waves his hand to signal the end of the round, and the players draw again.
‘Snap, snap, snap, snap’ go the cards, the sound ringing in his ears. At first the snaps were annoying, but now they’re strangely comforting. He’s probably just gotten used to the sound by now, or maybe he’s growing tired of standing as long as he has.
“Six!” He trudges around as the cards shift. He looks up momentarily to look at Lorn. He’s still in the game with a rather sizable deck remaining compared to the others. He’s got a distant smile on his face, and when he notices Mathew’s stare he gives him a little wave. Mathew looks back down at the card at his feet. “Nine!”
He can’t help but let out a small sigh as he swiftly moves to the next card. Yes, he’s slowly getting tired of his judging routine.
Round and round he goes, losing track of how many cards he’s seen, how many rounds have passed, of how many players have left. All there is is the snaps of the cards and the little symbols on them.
“One! Eleven! Five!”
‘Snap, snap, snap’ once more. And on and on and on.
By the time he finally brings himself back to reality, there’s only five players left in the circle, Lorn being one of them. With a wave of Mathew’s hand, the players draw once more. And then, of course, he approaches Lorn to read his card, with him being the closest player to him.
“When does this end?” he asks.
Lorn lets out a small chuckle. “It’ll probably end soon, mate, don’t worry.”
Mathew rolls his eyes. “Fifteen!” All the cards disappear into their respective discard piles. This should be the last fifteen… probably. Admittedly, he’s not done a good job at keeping track.
‘Snap, snap, snap’ goes the cards as the rounds pass by. It’s a very quick game, once he picked up his judging pace. But being so bored, he doesn’t think he should continue to judge. There are plenty of others still watching the game who could probably take his place.
“Eight!” he calls. One of the remaining players picks up his cards, all of which have now been discarded, and slams them onto the ground in frustration. Mathew just waits for the player to collect them again and then stand, disappearing through the crowd in defeat. Lorn rolls his eyes at the player’s frustration as the others murmur amongst themselves with disapproving frowns.
Mathew just waves his hand and the next round starts.
‘Snap!’ “Four! Six!” Gesture. ‘Snap!’ “Two! Seven! Eight!” Gesture. ‘Snap!’ “Ten! Twelve!” Gesture. ‘Snap!’ “Nine!” Another player leaves. They’re down to three now. Gesture. ‘Snap!’
Something. Something.
He slips back into the monotony of reading the cards and listening to their snaps. When will he be able to sit down again?
‘Snap!’ “Thirteen!” He looks up and notices that there’s only two players left, Lorn being one of them. His remaining deck is nearly double the other players’, if he were to guess. Should he end the game now? Should they continue?
Lorn makes a small gesture for Mathew to continue, so he raises his hand and calls the next round.
‘Snap!’
He can’t help but note his mate’s deck, and then the clear anger on the other player’s face. Mathew wasn’t paying too much attention to the players, just reading the cards. Could it be that Lorn had taken advantage of the situation and cheated under his nose, or had he simply gotten lucky this game?
“Five!” he calls. Lorn doesn’t move his card back. Mathew goes to check it. “Six!”
The other player lets out a small growl as they discard their five. They don’t have many left in their deck.
‘Snap!’ “Seven!” Mathew reads off of Lorn’s card. Another grumble from the other player rises. Gesture. ‘Snap!’ “Three!” No movement. He wanders back to the other player. “Eleven!” Gesture. ‘Snap!’
The murmur of the spectators grows faintly, and he can hear Lorn’s name being tossed around between them. Mathew lets out a heavy sigh and looks down at the card before him. “Twelve!” Lorn doesn’t move his card. “Fourteen!” Both cards are discarded. Mathew gestures for the next round to begin.
‘Snap!’ “Five!” he calls out Lorn’s card. He turns to look at the other player, their teeth gritted as they discard their final card. Lorn won.
“Already?” he hums aloud. “Can I sit now?”
Lorn laughs, collecting his cards and rising to his feet, patting Mathew on the back. “Aye, mate, ye can. Thanks for judging.”
Mathew nods once and almost begins to walk away, but his gut churns with a question he wants to ask before he leaves.
“Ye didn’t cheat, did you?”
Lorn gives Mathew a playful shove on his shoulder and replies, “Nah, I’m just that good. Now go on and rest, mate. That was a lot of walkin’ ye did.”
“Sure…” But he doesn’t feel so sure.