onlythebranch | (no subject)

Mad Sweeney is playing three games of checkers at once and winning every one of them.

One might say checkers isn't a game of luck, exactly, and Sweeney would probably agree, but he'd argue that his good luck had led him to find the three worst players in Darrow, and the three players most willing to make stupid bets on their stupid games. So while it might not be due to his luck that he's winning, it is due to his luck that he's about to win a very significant sum of money.

And when he does, there's a good share of cursing all around, but not one of the players seems to suspect Mad Sweeney is anything but an exceptional checkers player, which he thinks is pretty fucking ridiculous on their part, but he's not about to work to change their minds. He's the one with a solid stack of cash after all this and he grins as he folds it over and then tucks it into his pocket.

Money's not an issue for him. The hoard of gold at his fingertips makes sure of that, but he's always liked gambling. He's always liked winning. Seems Darrow is no different in that regard.

As he puts the cash away, he catches sight of a kid watching him. Thick glasses, the kind Sweeney figures get broken every so often by some other asshole kid at school, and he's vaguely familiar. It's possible he lives at the Home and Sweeney has caught sight of him once or twice when he goes to check in on Eddie, but he tends not to pay much attention to the other kids. Last thing he fucking needs is two of them hanging around.

"Big checkers fan or am I just that pretty?" Sweeney asks with a little smirk and a tilt of his head as he reaches into his pocket for his cigarettes.

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"And they call me Awesome Richie," Richie replies, and he guesses the guy must be pretty peeved all the time for people to just start calling him Mad.

"Me, Bev and Eds come all come from the same place," he continues, settling into his seat across from Sweeney, "It's not as shitty as this place, though."

"Sure they do," he answers with an amused snort of laughter. He puts the pieces out, then nods at Richie to take the first move. At this point, given his good luck, his chances are pretty high of winning if he doesn't pay attention, so he's going to have to be careful. He wants Richie to win, even if its just a few bucks.

"You think this place is that shitty?" he asks. He doesn't know all the details, but Eddie's alluded to some shit going on in Derry. Plenty of shit goes on here, too, but Sweeney's not sure which might be worse.

Hell, half the time he's not sure where he would rather be either.

Richie considers his choice for a moment, pretending that he's still trying to figure out what to do for several seconds after he's already decided. It's all dramatics, mostly. Eventually, he moves a checker closer to the center of the board.

"Yeah. I've got to share a room, I'm stuck at a school with a bunch of strange kids, and I didn't even get to bring my bike."

"Fewer dead kids, though, yeah?" he asks casually, leaning his elbow on the table as he watches the movie Richie makes. In another move or two, Mad Sweeney will be able to see exactly how to win and how to lose, so for now he just moves one of his pieces forward without giving it much thought.

"And you're sharing a room with your pal, ain't you? Seems like it could be a hell of a lot worse."

But then again, Eddie's got himself a boyfriend these days, which Sweeney had seen with his own eyes the last time he'd spent an afternoon with Eddie. And the kid lives at the home, too, so sharing a room might not be the best thing about the whole situation.