Cast (#wattys2016)

Chapter Three

The cafeteria looked just like one you'd find in a typical school. "There's no one here." I say, though that fact is visibly obvious.
"Most people won't leave their room."
"That's horrible, they need to get out sometime."
"We encourage them to do it, but they just have no motivation." He seems sincere.
"Then it's my job as an Advisor to give them motivation."
"I like the way you think, come, we'll discuss this further while we eat."

We walk up to the counter where the lunch lady is, she's a skinny punk-looking girl with pink hair and a lot of piercings. "Hey, I'm Ari, the most epic lunch lady to ever hit this cafeteria."
"Well you seem to be much more accepting of your new job today." Doctor Periwinkle says with pride in his voice.
"I sure am, I'm going to kick butt in this position." I honestly couldn't tell if she was sincere or just being sarcastic.
"All right then, what's on the menu?" He asks.
"We've got lasagne with garlic bread and your choice of water, pop or juice."

We get our food and then the Doctor leads me through a door into the staff room; the peach coloured room is filled with soft blue chairs around elegant wooden tables. "I'm surprised how nice this whole facility is, you must be well funded." I remark, actually wondering how this place makes any money.
"We just try our best to make the experience comfortable for everyone in every way. So, you want to motivate the patients to get out of their rooms more hmm?" I'm not too fond of the subject change, but I still answer his question.
"Yeah, I think I could maybe even organize some activities that patients can take part in."
"I like your thinking, what kind of activities do you have in mind?"
"Something simple to start, to get them used to the idea; some board games, maybe."
"Ooh, have you ever Gagalon?"
"Nope, but I can guess it originates from Westin." I feel proud of my knowledge of the Sanctuary.
"Ha ha, you know all to well Paige. Yes, Gagalon means 'Dragon' in English; it's a game of war and misfortune."
"Sounds like everything I'm into." I joke. "How do you play?"
"Let me grab the game board, and I'll show you." He moves to a wooden cabinet in the corner of the room and pulls a large black box off the top, the pieces inside shake and rattle as he sits back down. "This is it." The front of the box has beautifully illustrated armies facing off against each other as a dragon swoops down into the centre of the battlefield, breathing a deadly flame from its mouth; the word 'Gagalon' is printed in sharp gold lettering.
"It looks epic."
"It is epic." Doctor Periwinkle makes quick work of opening the box and setting up the board, which is a square divided into four sections: red, blue, yellow and green. He places eight colour coded pieces onto each section, placing a black dragon statuette in the middle. He also picks up a deck of cards and cradles it in his hand. "So, how the game works is that you pick up a card and move forward however many spaces it tells you in whichever direction it tells you; if you land on the same space as another player, you 'kill them', moving them back to start. The one card you never want to pick up is the Dragon card, which moves all of your own pawns back to start. Whereas the army card let's you choose one other player who has to move all of their own pawns back to start. To win the game you have to be the first person to get all your pawns into another area of the board, it doesn't matter if they're all in the same colour area or not, as long as they've all reached an end point."
"I think I get it, can we play?"
"I would love to."

The doctor and I played an epic game of war and in the end I rained the victor. "Good job Paige, and good game."
"Thanks, it was a lot of fun." We shake hands.
"So, do you think this game will be good for the patients?"
"I think this will be the perfect for the patients."
"Alright then, I can help you schedule regular game nights."
"How about every Monday at around 5:00? So after the game people can eat and hopefully will be encouraged to keep coming over for dinner every night."
"Sounds brilliant."
"What's brilliant?" Ari asks, coming up next to me. Only now do I notice the tattoo of a dragon on her neck.
"Paige the Advisor has decided to schedule a games night on Mondays to encourage some patients to get out of their rooms." The doctor explains.
"Sounds interesting, what games are we going to be playing?"
"Gagalon." I tell her, assuming she'll already know what that is.
"Gagalon?! Oh I love that game! I from West Westin, so I've played it a bunch; I was family champion back home."
"Really? That's pretty cool, why were you sent here?" I can't help but be curious.
"I was family champion, until I burned my house down."
"Oh." Is all I manage to say. You and Stasia would get along great. I think.
"Yeah, I was troubled; but I'm clean now, nothing to worry about."
"You should take her word on it, she's made great progress since coming to the Sanctuary." Doctor Periwinkle says.
"Do you think you're going to get out anytime soon?" I ask.
"Hopefully, right Doc?"
"Of course, maybe another month or so."
"Wicked!" She cheered. "But in the meantime I'd love to play some games."
"You're lucky, being the lunch lady you get to overhear all the dirty little secrets of the Sanctuary." As I spoke I made a mental note to ask her about said dirty little secrets later.
"I sure am, I have the best job that was ever forced onto someone."
"You needed to learn to make positive contributions to society!" The doctor explains, and for once I see the actual doctor in him.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. I've got to get back to work, feel free to come visit me anytime."
"I will." I promise.