crack_van | Scrabble, by Speranza (NC-17)

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Ray Kowalski/Benton Fraser
Author's Website: http://www.trickster.org/speranza
Author on LJ:

cesperanza

Why this must be read:

I'm starting off my time here at

crack_van with a story that I feel most in the dS fandom have likely read. Maybe it's not been rec'ed yet because it's so obviously great? ^_^ I'm not quite sure. It's probably also one of the very first dueSouth stories I ever read. I was first taken aback by the amount of work that went in to creating the two voices, side by side, narrating one all-encompassing story. And then when they begin to play Scrabble? Well, at that point I become completely engrossed. Scrabble manages to be heartfelt, funny, and endlessly intriguing from start to finish: it's brilliant.

And now, because of it's complicated formatting (which is completely necessary to the story) you have a few reading options:

[Scrabble optimized for Netscape]
[Scrabble optimized for IE]
for your curiosity, I use Opera, and the IE optimized one works best for me

It's also available in the following formats:
[Word document (.doc)]
and
[Adobe Acrobat file (.pdf)]

All right, I admit it--I'm intrigued. The box is old, and more than a bit dusty, but the corners have been reinforced more than a few times with now-yellowed scotch tape. In other words, this set has been used, and used often. I look up at Ray, who is frowning, glasses perched on the edge of his nose, contemplating his letters, arms crossed over his chest. He knows how to play--he really knows how to play. I sneak a glance at the score sheet--it's worse than I thought. We've had six turns each, and he's just creaming me--104 to 57. I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing wrong.

					S
					C
G	E	N	E	R	A
					B	R	I	S	K
B	A	S	I	L		O		I
				A	R	I	S	E
				I		S		G
A	N	T	I	C		T	E	E	M
				I		E			A
				Z	E	R	O		X
				E					I

Wow, he sucks. He really sucks. And what's funny is that he sucks in just the same way Stella sucked. I used to be able to beat Stella's skinny lawyer ass by a hundred and fifty points, maybe more. Fraser's got the same disease--he's got to be clever. Clever people shouldn't play Scrabble. Me, I'm the king of the four letter word--in more ways than one. While they're trying to get thorax onto the board, I'm playing J and K and Z and hogging all the triple word scores, game over. I mean, look at this damn board. He's left me the G, the K, the A--I could spit on this board and earn 50 points.

Just as I'm ready to give up, Ray sighs, throws his glasses down onto the table, leans forward, and begins to explain.

"Fraser, listen up, okay? Cause I'm only gonna say this once. Let me preface my remarks with 'you suck'--and lemme tell you why."

Oh.

					S				J
					C				A
G	E	N	E	R	A				C
					B	R	I	S	K
B	A	S	I	L		O		I
				A	R	I	S	E
				I		S		G
A	N	T	I	C		T	E	E	M
				I		E			A
				Z	E	R	O		X
				E					I

"Contrary to what you're thinkin', this is not a game of vocabulary, but a game of strategy, okay? Like GENERA--whatever the fuck that is--is all well and good, but it's earned you a total of 7 points, which is pathetic, all right? These letters are worth points, and you wanna be sticking the high ones on those little colored tiles that say DOUBLE and TRIPLE SCORE, okay? You also wanna be stopping me from doing the same thing, which you ain't at all. Right now, I can have any corner I want--so if I do this--here--see--now I've got JACK. Nice four letter word. Jack is worth 18 points by itself, plus the J is on a triple, so call it 19 times 3 equals 57. And that ain't even thinkin'--that's just picking letters practically at random."