~The following story is a series of anecdotes involving a couple of boys constantly trying to best each other in the art of one-upmanship. To achieve this goal, they appeal to their readily accessible, sort of unorthodox method: The Ticklers' Gambit. Players shall start with 10 points apiece...~
A certain John Egbert was feeling especially mischievous today, and giggled to himself as he wrote the first rule to the game.
"Hey, you." Dave Strider purred, wrapping his arms around John's shoulders and leaning over his head to read John's notebook. "The Ticklers' Gambit? What exactly are you getting at, Egbert?"
"Just a little challenge, Strider Dear." The shorter boy smiled, with a devious glint in his blue eyes as he looked up at his love's shaded eyes. "Hey!" he shouted as Dave snatched the notebook from his hand and sat on the opposite side of the table.
"You're challenging me, Johnny boy?" the cool kid asked smugly, looking over the top of his shades. "You do realize I can kick your ass at just about any challenge you hand me right? Not to mention you're pretty weak when it comes to this in particular." There was a loud thump as John's knee hit the underside of the table after Dave tickled his foot with his toe. He winced, but held a straight face as Dave laughed at him. He smirked back and adjusted his glasses.
"Then maybe you won't mind taking the challenge." He taunted, leaning his chair back and putting his socked feet on the table. "Since you're so sure you'll win. …Or maybe this is just another one of your 'cool guy' spiels and you're afraid you'll lose to li'l ol' me." Dave rolled his eyes and tickled John's toes.
"Get your goddamn feet off the kitchen table, ya slob." He ordered playfully, just before John fell back from laughing too much. "I'll play your stupid gambit; if only to show you who the true master of one-upmanship is." When John didn't get up with some witty comeback, Dave called his name. "Where did you get to, you- Ack!" John's laughter came from under the table, where he'd squeezed one of Dave's kneecaps; he loved that squawking sound he made when he was caught off guard. Of course Dave glared at him and slid off the chair, sitting under the table with him.
"Quit your screwing around and tell me the rules already." He said, and John smiled, reaching up onto the table and managing to find his pencil. He took back the notebook and resumed his writing.
"Well, rule one is that we both start with 10 points. After that, it works kinda the same as my old Prankster's Gambit: every time one of us loses a point, the other one gets it."
"Rose said that game sucked." Dave chuckled.
"Only 'cause she wasn't that good. Rule 2: Whoever has the most points after a week wins."
"And the tickling aspect comes in when?"
"I was getting to it! Rule 3 says that in order for the attack to count as one point, you would have to be tickled for 2 minutes strai- What are you doing?" Dave had taken the pencil without a word and edited the two minutes into three. John sighed, having enough sense not to argue about this when they were so close together.
"So, every three minutes is one point?" Dave asked softly, walking two fingers along John's spine and making him giggle and smack his arm with the notebook.
"Yes, Dave." John snickered. "But they have to be consecutive seconds, meaning no breaks."
"So, if I tied you down and tickled you for half an hour straight; that'd take all ten of your points away?"
"Y-Yeah…" John crawled from under the table, suddenly having a strong urge to put as much distance between himself and his boyfriend as possible.
"We doing negatives?" Dave asked, following him to the fridge.
"No, silly. That'd just be salt on a wound." John tore out the page with the rules on it and stuck it to the refrigerator with a few magnets. "Oh, by the way, I'll be keeping track of the points."
"What, you don't trust me?" Dave put his arms around John's waist, pulling him close.
"Nope!" John laughed, squirming away and bolting. "Let the Gambit begin!"
Author's Notes: A good friend of mine from both school and deviantArt got me to read Homestuck, something I had actually started doing a couple years back, but stopped due to my lack of an attention span back then. I realize now that the story is not only confusing as hell if you don't pay at least 97% attention, but it's also one of the most epic stories I've ever read. So all Congratulations and source-material credits to Andrew Hussie. *applause* :3
-By the way, just for fun. Tell me who you think is going to win this Gambit.
