Newsies Oneshots 2.0

The King David Game

Hey everyone! Just figured I'd post this but from the chaotic here. Enjoy!

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Ike grinned as he opened his front door for the final time, seeing Elmer holding a bag of chips. "Elmer, you're a lifesaver, as always."

They shrugged, making their way inside. "I figured Crutchie brought bread, or something. We could make sandwiches during the break."

"Great minds think alike", Ike agreed, closing the door. "Everyone's in the living room. Just find a seat where you can."

"I'll do my best!"

"Okay, wait, but why are you always the king?" Oscar questioned, brows furrowed in confusion. "Why can no one else be king?"

"Anyone can be king", Davey shrugged, though tired from being asked questions by kids no older than fifteen all day. "I'm just the main one—the group is big, so there are two kingdoms: mine and the other. If you roll a one, you're king of that kingdom and either for or against me. That ploy is to take me down."

Oscar scratched his head, blinking. "Sure. That's a lot of subplots though."

"The main plot is figuring out who wants to replace me. Someone in my court could be working with you to have me gone. The game continues that way—I can either adopt a new role, or take back my God-given one. You operate on the information I tell you."

Oscar hummed. "What does the consort do?"

"Closest guy to the king", Romeo explained, an amused smile on his face. "Jack really just came up with it because he didn't want to dethrone Davey. But we kept it because it's actually a really good position."

"Why?"

"So the consort is the one who knows pretty much everything", he explained, a strange seriousness to his voice. "They get their information from the king, which we communicate during council meetings with the advisor, king, and consort. Depending on how they roll—evens for betrayal and odd for supporter—they do with that information what they will. Essentially, the idea is to get the people to vote against the king."

"This is unnecessarily complicated."

"We know."

"Yes!" Morris exclaimed, a proud smile on his face. "I'm the advisor. The role of a lifetime."

Davey chuckled, passing the die to Jack to role. "Happy to have you, Morris."

Jack, disappointed, passed the die off to JoJo. "I hope this is a good round."

"I hope I can keep up with these unnecessarily complicated rules", Oscar joked, only making Elmer laugh. "What happened to playing Candyland? The Game of Life?"

"Ugh, those are so boring", Race groaned, happy not to be given the burden of anything more than a peasant. "This keeps us busy for hours."

"I love story games", Crutchie admitted, grabbing the die and shaking before tossing. He rolled a one. "They're great. I'm a king, by the way." He rolled again and sighed disappointedly. "Damn. Anyway, it's fun once it starts."

So it did, because this author doesn't have time to assign roles to everyone.

"In a world not so far away", Ike began, waving his hands like markers to paper to set the scene, "a kingdom under the rule of a king most kind, most tyrannical lived. The peasants were happy, dying for simple diseases like the common cold-"