violence from the school. The unofficial version was that the loser had to suffer a standard penalty. This penalty consisted of running along the walls of the Academy barefoot and wearing only underpants, shouting loudly over and over again as you ran:
“Epsilon is less than zero!”
If you lost and didn't undergo the penalty – well, no-one actually knew what happened then. There were rumours that the alternative penalty was so terrible that no-one even wanted to know what it was.
When Muko heard the Imaginary tell him that things needed to be settled through the Game, he declared that he hadn't got a clue about how to play it. What's more, he'd heard that Machinists were way better in nearly all games that involved complex strategy.
Suddenly Amartia, Paidia and Gelio appeared on the scene. Amartia immediately looked for a way to support Muko, and offered to play in his stead.
Trupacius objected: “I thought chess wasn't for … girls.”
He glanced around expecting appreciation for his wit but none