Sunday Game on Crotalus Commons

Renée Errant

April 19, 2011 12:28 PM

Sunday Game by Renée Errant

Mumbling the password, Renée rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stepped half blind through the entrance of the common room. She hadn't gotten much sleep last night (somebody snored), and the energy she'd had buzzing within her in bed had been drained from her form and all she could be grateful for was that it was Sunday and no classes to be had. Breakfast had filled her up and she was now quite content at simply falling into a cushy seat and sleeping the rest of the day away. As far as she knew there was no Quidditch practice, and Miss Diaz didn't need any help either.

After a few minutes of slumping she grew restless again, straightening and bringing her legs up to fold her feet under herself and look around the common room. Exploding snap, a few fanged frisbees whizzing around. She supposed a few other students felt more energetic due to coming from breakfast or something. She slid out the of the chair and grabbed a chess set, set it on a table and lowered herself to the floor to begin playing against herself. She wasn't really playing though, just arranging the pieces so that it looked as if a war was really going on.

David had taught her chess when she was little. She remembered wandering up to him and Gabriel, sticking out her hands and complaining that all the white pieces had to be on the white squares and all the black pieces had to be on the black squares. When she realized she had run out of squares she lost interest and left. But David took her passing interest in meddling as a young prodigy's intense interest for the game and had signed her up for lessons. She had resisted in tears (she was only six) but had grown to actually love it, and her teacher.

Bored now of simply fooling around, she set the pieces up correctly and looked up at the nearest person. "Game?"

0 Renée Errant Sunday Game 0 Renée Errant 1 5

Daisy Thorpe

April 23, 2011 9:31 PM

I'd be game, if I knew the game (WotW) by Daisy Thorpe

Daisy hated weekends at Sonora. Her life during the week felt busy, full of purpose, but the weekends…the weekends just felt pointless. She usually finished her weekend homework before she went to bed on Friday night, which left her with two days to get through with nothing to do that really counted for anything, since she already knew the material well enough that she didn’t need to study more and got no rewards for work she did on her own. That was frustrating beyond belief for her, and she was usually in a very bad mood by the time she got back to classes, which made it lucky that she had Defense on Mondays. It didn’t always give her an outlet, but it did often enough that she had yet, she thought, to make any enemies because she’d had an especially unfulfilling weekend.

Addie One had, on several occasions, suggested that she attempt socializing with her peers to fill the weekend void, but Daisy’s attempts to socialize were usually thwarted by one thing or another. Like the fact that most of her peers were deadly boring. Ryan was a mouse, Jordan’s main interest in life was boys, Eliza was either busy being a perfect lady or glaring and refusing to say anything because Renée was in the room, Sara was so dainty Daisy wanted to swat her, Sophie was so flighty that any attempt to interact with her might make Daisy go through with her what she only wanted to do with Sara, and no one else in the year counted as Daisy’s peer. Unless they or she changed dramatically in the near future, Daisy thought she was just doomed to live and die as a failure of a girl.

She didn’t really mind that much. If they were all anything to by, it wasn’t that much fun to be a success of one, anyway. The trick was just to never let her mother know she didn’t mind. Daisy hated lowering herself to pretending to tear up and tell Addie One that she accepted her own worthlessness, but since that was what shut the older witch up, that was what she did, just as she gritted her teeth every week and got through Saturday and Sunday.

She was able to spend some of one particular Sunday morning sleeping and some more eating a generous breakfast, but that didn’t last forever, and she went back to the common room to check and see if she had any library books she needed to return. Halfway across, though, she spotted Renée sitting on the floor and stopped to look at her, wondering what was going on in her head to make her reject chairs.

To her surprise, Renée noticed her and spoke to her. It had never come to the point where Daisy had to formally declare herself on one side or the other, but she’d thought it should be understood that she was in no position to take Renée’s side over a Bennett. There were Bennetts who shared turf with Daisy’s family, and Addie One said there were all sorts of unpleasant stories floating around about Renée’s family anyway, making them by far a worse investment than Eliza was.

Still, she glanced at the game Renée was playing. “I don’t know chess,” she said. She had never seen the point in learning. It was a boys’ game, mostly, and she had better things to do than play games anyway. Now, though, she glanced at the board again. “Care to teach me?” she asked.

This could actually turn out to be something interesting.

0 Daisy Thorpe I'd be game, if I knew the game (WotW) 177 Daisy Thorpe 0 5

Renée

April 25, 2011 3:21 PM

I'd better teach you then. by Renée

Though her immediate reaction was one of disappointment, Renée mulled over her roommate's request. "Ah... si." She took the chess set and carefully set that on the floor as well, and then moved the table so that there was more room. She gestured at the opposite side of the board for Daisy to sit. "I've never taught chess before. Well," She thought for a moment. "I never taught anything before actually." She beamed suddenly. "This should be fun." She looked down at the board and then up at Daisy, tucking a curl behind her ear. "Do you know anything about the game at all? Like, what the pieces are called?"

She knew relatively little about her roommate. The girl was from California, which gave them little chance for the two to actually socialize in society. Though from her manner, Renée doubted she came from a family which Marianna would be interested in, even if they were in New York, a city which the family dominated. It was odd for Renée to come to realize that most places didn't have the same Metropolitan liberal mixed culture that New York did. It was interesting, and provided a new insight into the world that Renée hadn't even known she hadn't known. Still, just because Marianna wouldn't have found her interesting didn't mean that Daisy wasn't. It was odd that she didn't really know any of roommates all that well, but she was usually playing with Pecaris anyway. And besides, Eliza had apparently started a silent war with her (she still struggled to remember how the feud started), Jordan was Eliza's friend, and their other roommates didn't interact much either.

She waited excitedly while Daisy answered, running through the things her tutor did to teach her how to play, and impatient to learn how well she would turn out to be as the teacher rather than the student. And maybe Daisy would turn out to be fantastic a player, but not more so than herself and she could enjoy beating her every now and then. "Ready to start?" She asked, her fingers running over the white pieces in front of her, the players still for the time being, all of them as eager as she was to start the game.

0 Renée I'd better teach you then. 0 Renée 0 5

Daisy

April 27, 2011 8:38 AM

As you like by Daisy

Even after a year and a half of Renee's habit of speaking random Spanish, it took Daisy a moment to not hear her response as 'I see,' which was one of those charmingly ambiguous statements that annoyed her even when she was the jerk using them. Once she processed it, though, she attempted to return Renee's smile. She didn't do that often, so the effort lacked warmth, but people rarely cared about anything enough to pay attention to more than surface details. As long as they kind of saw what they expected to see, they'd usually just go with it. More true of adults, but true enough of most people her age, too.

"Maybe," she said, not committing herself fully to 'fun.' She was in this for the fun of finding out why Bennett hated their extra roommate so much; if it turned out that it was just that happy, giggly people who defied convention went a step beyond Daisy's slightly disgust-tinged apathy for Eliza, Daisy expected to lose interest quickly. "The little bent-over men are pawns, the one with the crowny-looking thing on top is either the king or queen, the queen's important, and something can move on a diagonal," she went on, summing up the grand total of her chess knowledge.

Now, with the start request, was where things could get interesting. "Sure," she said. "I don't do floors, though, unless you're giving me a grade my al - mother cares about." Not a good idea to call Addie her alleged mother. For one thing, the family in-joke wouldn't translate well to general company, and for another, Ads might somehow find out about it. Daisy could just imagine how much fun her summer would be if that happened.

0 Daisy As you like 0 Daisy 0 5

Renée

April 27, 2011 2:47 PM

Well, it's something to do anyway. by Renée

"Ah... well, that's not so bad." Renée's expression fell slightly. She probably wasn't going to be playing a real game with Daisy any time soon. 'Still, it might be fun anyway.' She smiled slightly down at the pieces, watching as they shifted in place, recognizing their discomfort with newcomers though it wasn't her chess set but one she'd played with a few times before. All chess sets were similar in that they often resisted and tried to control inexperienced players, but once a player had gained their respect they were subservient and helpful. By now they were comfortable enough with Renée.

"You don't - you don't do floors?" Renée tilted her head up at her. "Well, all right." She forgot she was dealing with the classic Crotalus pureblood. And also that she herself was one. Except she was in no way classic. She waited for Daisy to get a chair or something, and lifted the chess set again on the table, bringing the table nearer her to again, and for herself continued to sit with her legs curled underneath her on the floor. Maybe it was just how she was taught (her chess tutor was from the east and had taught in his own traditional setting) but Renée found it easier to play chess in even levels. Hunching over the pieces became tiring, and the table they used was too low for where they sat in the chairs. 'But somebody apparently is unable to do floors.' She let the derisive thoughts pass in favor of her own growing excitable impatience to play the game in at least some form.

"Ready now?" She asked, voice light, able to keep the impatience out of her tone. While David maintained that she was self-involved, Marianna sometimes protested this by claiming she was simply stuck within her own mind (it was a fascinating place to be). Occasionally though, Renée was able to break out of the fantasies her mind conjured and actually perceive things in the real world. Such as the disconnect she sensed with Daisy now. The girl didn't seem all that fascinated with learning how to play which confused Renée since she'd asked. 'Probably just as bored as I am.' Well, as long as she got to play, whatever the reason.

0 Renée Well, it's something to do anyway. 0 Renée 0 5

Daisy

May 03, 2011 3:29 PM

And that's good. by Daisy

And it seemed, Daisy thought with mild amusement when her roommate’s face fell at her chess piece identifications, that Renée was bad at hiding facial expressions. Boring, but that much the better for her actual purpose here. So long as something was either interesting or useful, she could put up with it not being the other.

Why she was bothering to care about this enough for it to be useful, though, was a little harder to define. Eliza was never going to do anything. She had some skills, Daisy would grant her that, but she was too...something to actually do anything, an imprecise description that served its purpose anyway. It all came out to it being very unlikely that she would actually move against Renée, which meant no war, which meant no sides to a war, which meant no reason for Daisy to really care if they hated each other or were in love with each other or whatever their problem was. She guessed the idea just intrigued her, all the reasons that had to be behind it. Wheels within wheels within wheels.

“Nope,” Daisy confirmed when her statement about floors was repeated to her in question form, the repetition making it sound surprised. “I don’t do floors.”

This wasn’t strictly speaking true, not always, but she wasn’t going to show off a point of even relatively mild impropriety in front of someone who wasn’t a confirmed ally (preferably one she had something worse on, too) or sit on a floor she wasn’t familiar with but which did see a lot of traffic. Plus, she felt the need to establish some boundaries. Renée seemed…careless, self-involved, way out of keeping with someone who (according to Addie One, anyway) used her mother’s maiden name. Daisy thought it was best to make sure everyone understood right up front that Daisy was the one talking to Renée, not the other way around.

It seemed she was understood, because the other girl agreed to the stipulation. She continued sitting on the floor herself, which was strange since it made her look highly subordinate to Daisy, but she agreed. Though not without a parting comment, however light the tone.

“You can proceed,” Daisy said.

0 Daisy And that's good. 0 Daisy 0 5

Renée

May 04, 2011 11:03 PM

Chess Crash Course by Renée

"Okay, I'll just go through all the pieces first." Renée picked up from her side of the board, a black pawn. "These are the pawns. I know you know that already, it's just easier for me if I just go through all of them." She lowered the pawn, and picked up the rook from the left side of the board. "This is the rook." She lowered that and picked up the piece next to it. "Knight. A personal favorite." She smiled at the light cheers from both the black and white knights, the other pieces muttering amongst themselves. She lowered the knight, picked up piece next to it. "Bishop." Lowered, picked up piece next to it. "King... and Queen." She lowered the Queen back on the board and then looked up at Daisy. "Alright, you repeat back to me the pieces as I point to them. If you get it wrong I'll say its name and then we start over again, okay?"

As soon as it seemed Daisy had gotten all the names of the pieces well enough for them to move on, Renée did. "The pawns move two spaces on their first move, and then after that they only move one space." Every time she described how a piece moved she demonstrated it on the board. "They can also just move one space on their first move." She asked Daisy to repeat how pawns move. "Rooks move either horizontally," She moved the rook from side to side. "Or vertically." She moved it up and down. "And they can go as far as they want." She asked Daisy to repeat how a rook moved. "Bishops are the ones that move on a diagonal. See how each bishop is either on a black square or a white square? They always have to stay on its chosen color, and moves as far as it wants on that color on a diagonal." She asked Daisy to repeat how a bishop moved. "A lot of people say that the Queen is the most important piece in chess." Soledad Errantez striding into a room, everyone immediately straightening up, flashed across Renée's mind. "She moves as far as she wants, just like a rook and a bishop. Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal." She asked Daisy to repeat how a Queen moved, and then how a King moved after she showed her. "The King moves in any direction it wants, but only one space, alright?" She had Daisy repeat all the pieces' names and how they moved except for the knight's.

"The Knight's the most interesting." She grinned down at it, tracing the figurine. "It's the only piece that can jump over other pieces. It moves in an L - shape form, and for three spaces." She demonstrated, and asked Daisy to repeat the motions. "Okay, so that's how they all move. How they capture is a little different; pawns capture diagonally, not by moving forward. Knights capture the piece they land on, not the pieces that they jump over. All the other pieces capture whenever they run into another opposing one." She swallowed, her mouth a little dry, but was fine in seconds. 'Never realized how many rules there are to this game.'

"All the pieces can move backwards except for the pawns which can only move forwards. Ah... the kings can't touch. That means, they always have to be at least one square away from each other. If your king is attacked - not captured, just threatened with capture - then he has to get out of it. When he is attacked, then it's called check. To get out of check, you either move your king away, put something in between him and the attacker, or try to capture the attacking piece. If none of that works, it's called checkmate and the game is over." She struggled to think about what else Daisy needed to know, gently brushing dark curls out of her eyes.

"Well... maybe we just want to start? Your pieces will tell you if you're doing something wrong. And if you have any questions you can just ask me. Alright?" She adjusted the pieces and looked towards Daisy whose pieces were white. "White goes first in chess, always." She adjusted herself on the floor and waited for the game to begin.

0 Renée Chess Crash Course 0 Renée 0 5