Life in Red... • RED DWARF • Arnold Rimmer x OC story

16. Chess game gone wrong

He had that serious, resolute look on his face. It bordered the thin line between austerity and near child-like immaturity.

"...Move there." Rimmer pointed to the board; unwavering, a concrete decisiveness made his tone edgy and gravelly.

"No, you don't want to move there." I shook my head.

"It's chess." He stated, trying to regain a sense of power. "It's my turn. I say move there."

I took Rimmer's Queen, white, and moved it diagonally to the center of the board.

My dark, and readily prepared knight was waiting only a few squares away, smiting 'her majesty', the queen, with a swift blow.

"Oh..." Rimmer watched as I took his piece, my knight claiming queen's position on the board.

Rimmer swallowed, realizing what had happened.

"I did warn you," I muttered.

"...You know, checkers is really much more my game. There's far more nuance, albeit tact, in a rousing game of checkers." He held onto his fleeting dignity.

"More 'nuance' in checkers? You can't be serious,"

"—But, you insisted on playing chess, knowing you had the upper hand." he interjected. "No, this is completely unfair, Hammond." Rimmer winged.

Actually, I thought sourly, it was Rimmer's idea to play board games in the first place; But, I didn't argue.
Rimmer honestly hadn't changed much since I worked with him in Z-shift. He was just as irritating and unbearable as before. Perhaps worse, now that he was dead and all.

"We can play checkers if you want to, Rimmer. I don't care. There's snakes and ladders too, if that's more your speed."

Rimmer's face tightened into a tense capsule of frustration.

I held my smile, getting a sick sense of pleasure from watching him grow irritated. It was like foreplay, if foreplay had nothing to do with physicality and everything to do with making the other person miserable... Rimmer stood, exhaling a slow and painful sigh. He felt his 'H' and sauntered absently.

"I need a break from you, Hammond." Rimmer said with snark, taking another deep breath.

"What a coincidence." I replied.

"I'm all too mentally fatigued to play a game of strategy! That's why I'm slow like Holly when you ask him for the square root of thirty-six. —That's what this is, Hammond. It's because you've been bothering me all day."

"Yeah right!" I scoffed. "I suggest you stop acting like some old hag and hop off your period, Rimmer. We've only been hanging out for like an hour!" I stood up too, scraping my chair against the floor just to bother him.

"—Will you lot shut up!?" Lister groaned from his bunk.
His limbs hung in the air. His clammy hand swaying as he raised his voice.

Lister caught me by surprise. I glanced at him, having forgotten there was even a body huddled under that striped blanket of his.

"Still hungover, Listy?" Rimmer grinned, walking towards his sullen bunkmate.

"Hmmf." Lister grumbled something unintelligible, popping his head out from under the blanket. He squinted, blinking against the bright lights of the sleeping quarters.
"Not hungover...I only had a six-pack of tallboys. I must be coming down with something." He said hoarsely.

"Go to medical." I said.

"I don't need medical. I'm just a tad unwell.