It's all fun and games until someone loses Sheffield.

[thelibraniniquity]

So. Vodkopoly was last night, and despite the relative lack of vodka - I believe Mark was the only person to actually down a shot, and that was only because he landed on the Keele square - the game was awesome.

And by awesome, I mean EPIC.

Six of us broke in crazy_celebrian's Monopoly Here & Now edition, which among other UK-type places featured Keele and Stoke-on-HellTrent instead of the classic London streets. It started out amiably enough, even if alex_the_tory kept complaining because he kept ending up in jail and didn't pass 'Go' for ages, until Nottingham was the only 'property' left that hadn't been bought.

Until it was. And then all hell broke loose.

I can't actually remember who teamed up first. I believe it was Mark and almostcanon. Shortly after that, alex_the_tory and crazy_celebrian joined forces, combining money and property, leaving just myself and robtovsky playing solo, but only for about ten seconds, until I proposed a merger.

With three teams of two the game quickly heated up. After the purchase of Nottingham insider trading quickly ensued, hindered only by almostcanon's refusal to sell me St. Alban's, the corollary of which was my refusal to sell Sheffield to crazy_celebrian. Properties were developed, exorbitant rent began to be charged, and in the classic story of capitalism, the rich got richer... while robtovsky and I refused to give up either the utilities or Sheffield.

At some point almostcanon abandoned the game, wandering into the living room where everyone was playing Taboo or somesuch - and much more quietly than our War Of The Conglomerates - with the result that Mark eventually merged with crazy_celebrian and alex_the_tory, leaving robtovsky and I at a distinct monetary and propertarial disadvantage. I vaguely remember a speed round, where rent was not always collected, and before long the tension in the room was fucking palpable. Could have been cut with one of Owen's cheese knives.

Eventually robtovsky and I were cruelly forced to surrender Sheffield to the Unholy Triumvirate, who under Mark's astute financial advice were starting to take the game, and our only hope of salvation was that they would land on the hotels at either Exeter or St. Alban's (Park Lane and Mayfair, respectively, on the classic board). They did, and our brief reprieve was granted, especially as in an incredible stroke of luck we kept landing on our airports, thus avoiding completely their string of hotels around the far corner of the playing board.

It all came to an end, though, when robtovsky and I landed on one of the Triumvirate's hotels, and since we were broke, and it had gone 1am, we conceded the game. The beautiful irony was that of all the locations on the new Monopoly board, the game had been conceded via a hotel on Stoke-on-Trent.

In total the game had lasted at least four hours, and it was entirely magnificent.

Other stuff happened once the game had been cleared away. There was a conversation on the fluidity of sexuality, both in theory and in practice, a brief observation of the Taboo game still continuing in the living room, tea was made, and at around 2.30ish people started leaving.

In all it was a fantastically fun night, even if I have lost most of today so far because I was too knackered to move.

We really need to do that again sometime, I think.