Tuesday evening, Jamie and Doug's room

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Doug and Marie-Ange teach Jamie how to play Magic: the Gathering.


Jamie had propped himself up in bed, watching a couple of dupes drag his desk closer. "There," he muttered, "now I can rest and play on the computer."

Doug looked over at the Jamie work gang sniffling and wiping runny noses and grinned. "You could have asked for outside help with that, y'know."

"Hey, I just figured out the whole 'let people help' thing, I'm not very good at it yet." Jamie reabsorbed the dupes. "Although I'm definitely getting used to chicken soup on request."

Doug nodded. "Especially when it's made by Lorna." He brightened. "Hey, how about instead of you being antisocial on your computer, Angie and I teach you to play Magic?"

Jamie blinked. "I'm pretty sure Kitty's making the soup herself, actually. I haven't been down to see, though. And sure, sounds fun."

Doug nodded and sent a quick IM to Marie-Ange to head over for the teaching.

In her room, Marie-Ange grinned, and logged off, grabbing the small pile of cards that she did have in English on the way. Moments later, she was at the boys' door, poking her head in. "You said there was teaching?"

Jamie grinned. "Yeah, we're culturalizing the iggerant Kansas hick boy. C'mon in."

Marie-Ange grinned back, then mock-scowled at Doug. "He is NOT allowed to play anything with token generation. He would like it too much."

Doug nodded. "No tokens. And no weenie goblin decks, either."

"No fair speaking a foreign language in front of the sick guy. Tokens?"

Doug nodded. "Tokens. Generally it's some kind of strategy that involves making a bajillion little creatures and swarming over your opponent."

Jamie grinned. "I think I could get the hang of that one."

Doug grinned back. "Which is why there's no way in hell we're letting you do it for now."

Marie-Ange flopped onto the floor, and picked through Doug's cards. "I think... green, mostly, because it is simplier to explain creatures first? And, maybe red, because who doesn't love fireball?"

Doug nodded. "Everyone loves fireball."

"And Drain Life. I espically like Drain Life."

Jamie slid out of bed and went over to pick through some cards himself, mostly looking at the art. Then he grinned and held up a fan of five land cards. "Full . . . continent, I win?"

Doug chuckled. "Okay, we need to start from the beginning, Angie. Explain the colors to him?"

Marie-Ange laughed, and picked up a set of cards nearly identical to the ones in Jamie's hands. "Okay, to win, you have to make the other player run out of life. They
Marie-Ange: have 20 points. To do that, you cast spells, and to do that, you use mana. Spells and mana come in 5 colors. Red, White, Green, Blue and Black." She pointed out a card with a symbol of a raindrop on it, and a picture of a tropical island. "Islands, like this one, make blue mana."

Doug nodded. "There are several different kinds of spells. Instants, Creatures, Enchantments, and Sorceries."

"So you want a lot of land to start out, then?"

"You want a lot of land.. yes." Marie-Ange frowned, and dug through half the boxes in the pile, before producing a small paper booklet. "Rules! Wonderful rules that mean I don't have to explain the turning the cards on the sides!" She handed it over to Jamie, with a grin. "Ignore the confusing parts about Banding. It won't ever be important, trust me."

Doug grinned. "Unless you're like me and love to play White defense decks."

"Turning the cards on the . . ." Jamie flipped through the rules. "Oh. Well, okay, then, let me take a look at this."

After a minute, he grinned at Marie-Ange. "Hey, not that I'm asking, because it might be kind of extending yourself and I don't want to give you a headache, but have you ever tried animating a game of this? Be like a movie. Or at least a fight scene."

Doug smiled wryly and looked over at Marie-Ange.

Marie-Ange chuckled, and picked up one of the cards. "Doug didn't tell you about the walls then, I guess?"

Jamie perked up. "No, the little weasel. What'd I miss?"

Doug blushed. "It was...sort of private. And very emotional. But...Angie should probably tell."

"Some of the cards are walls, they... well, they're walls. They don't fight, and they don't attack. They just keep you safe." Marie-Ange handed the card - which had a picture of a large stone wall at the top - to Jamie.

Jamie looked at it. "Very wall-y. Fine example of a wall. With rocks in it." He raised his eyebrows and waited for the rest of the story.

Marie-Ange grinned, looking slightly embarassed. "I made .. four of them."

Jamie looked impressed. "Of these? Four? Stone walls? Big ones?"

Doug nodded quietly. "She was afraid that I was going to run away again."

"Good time for a new trick, then," Jamie said, glancing down at his scabbed knuckles. "Glad it worked."

Marie-Ange continued to look embarassed. "Both times, yes." She followed Jamie's glance down to his hand, but simply raised her eyebrows at the scabs.

"Both times?" Jamie followed Marie-Ange following his glance, and waggled his fingers apologetically. "It's New Trick Week, I guess. I had to get through a door."

Doug wrinkled his forehead. "Get through a door? How'd you manage that?"

"Jammed my fingers underneath and duped on the other side. Wish I could do it again, but I guess it was a stress thing."

"You duped through a door?" Marie-Ange's mouth dropped open, and she blinked. "That beats walling up the door to your room any day."

Doug nodded. "But why'd you need to...oh. Kitty." Doug looked vaguely guilty.

Jamie smacked Doug on the shoulder lightly. "Don't worry about it, man. We're okay." He grinned. "Better then ever, lately. I so owe Doc Samson cookies."

Doug smiled at Jamie. "I'm glad to hear things are going well. So anyways, think you've got a handle on some of this?"

"I think so. You'll still kick my ass, but hopefully I won't embarrass myself first."

Doug looked pensive. "Or, what we could do is what I used to do to teach friends back home. Play our first game hands up so we can explain certain things as they happen."

Marie-Ange grinned. "Or make Doug play with all bad cards. Fyndhorn Brownies and Merfolk of the Pearl Trident. Bad, bad cards."

"Or both. Then you can explain exactly how I'm beating Doug's very bad cards."

Doug chuckled. "That works for me."