Open Check Mate

[Sybil St. James]

Sybil didn't really care for the park and it's playground full of screaming kids. She was also a kid but she was an older kid. She was about to head off to Hogwarts next year after. And despite her disinterest in the park her nanny always took her there in the hopes she would play some of the other kids. Instead she found herself sitting at one of the park tables with her chess set playing against herself, practicing for a tournament that weekend. This one was just a muggle tournament so the pieces wouldn't move on their own which she found annoying. Sometimes she'd forget and tell the pieces were to go, only to be met with confused looks. She usually won so she never really cared when she slipped up. Sybil sighed as she turned the chess board around to contemplate her next move. She wondered how long she'd have to pretend to be having a good time before her nanny would give up on trying to get her to socialize and take her home. She thought she got plenty of socializing in on the days she went to the daycare in Obsidian Harbour. All this felt unnecessary. At least she had a tutor lesson later this afternoon to look forward to.

 

[Ruth Thorne]

As the months dragged on, Ruth's anticipation to get to Hogwarts only grew stronger. Being at home with Cyrus away was lonely, not to mention it had the unfortunate side effect of her parents focusing more on her. Sure, Ruth liked attention as much as anyone, but the expectations? She could happily do without those. At least she'd worked out a happy medium. Do well, but not perfect. It seemed to serve her well for the moment - but honestly, the sooner she got to Hogwarts the better.

Her work ethic had served her well enough that she had her whole afternoon free, and as such she'd gone to the park to run around, see if she could meet some new and interesting people, and just generally be free of supervision (to an extent). Shoving her hands in her pockets, she hummed a song she'd heard on the wireless as she wandered, stopping only when she saw a girl sitting by herself playing chess. Ruth felt as though she'd seen the girl a couple of times before, she looked to be about the same age as her, but hadn't really had a good chance to say hello. Not having anything better to do, now seemed like an ample opportunity. "Oh, interesting gambit!" she said, peering at the board without getting close enough to be too much of a bother. It sounded like the type of thing Cyrus would say. "Which side are you hoping will win?"

 

[Lumos Walden-Cade]

Lumos had to admit the idea that he would be going to school so soon, after years spent lamenting the fact that he couldn't go, was increasingly becoming something of a daunting fact. It was almost as though it had all sort of creeped up on him, which, honestly, he should have expected. None of his siblings were exactly quiet about it and then there was the fact his and Nox's best friend Tori was also going and whilst that was amazing, it also meant they were probably going to have to watch out for her. Also, his dad was kind of a professor there, so... that meant he'd have to be on his best behaviour... but he didn't want to be on his best behaviour, because that was so boring.

Takarokaro park was the only place he could go where anything made sense, and the moment he got there he could see he clearly wasn't the only person who'd thought about this. Standing off to the side a little, he watched them interact, they didn't seem to know each other, which worked well for him, since people who were already friends were harder to break into as a general rule - not that he was breaking in, he was just looking for something to do in the moments before he ran into his dad or Nox. It did seem a bit pointless to be playing with ordinary chess. He didn't think he'd ever seen that before. Since he came from a strictly magical home. Both his parents being magical and former aurors. His Mum was a metamorphmagus and everything!

"Why are you playing boring chess? Wizarding chess is so much better." Though, he did kind of want to play.

@Sybil St. James @Ruth Thorne ​

 

[Sybil St. James]

Sybil absentmindedly chewed on her lower lip as she considered the pieces in front of her and ran through several options before finally making her next move. But before she could move the board around again she heard a girl compliment her strategy. She looked up smiling but was a little confused. She hadn’t done a gambit but was instead trying to get her white pieces into a flanking position. “Um thanks.” she said warily. Not everyone liked chess like she did and she tried to read the other girl’s intentions as best she could. As far as she could tell she seemed sincere or at least wasn’t mocking her. “Not sure. Either way I still win.” she said addressing the second question with a small but satisfied grin. She was about to maybe offer to let the girl play with her when a boy their age joined them. His question made her roll her eyes. “It's all the same game.” she said with her chin raised defiantly, even if she did agree with him. “This is just the set I bring to the park.” she explained. “My set of wizard chess is at home where other people can’t ruin it.” she said pointedly.

 

[Ruth Thorne]

Ruth made a mental note to see if she could pester Cyrus into helping her learn to play chess. She knew the very basics, but she hadn't had a whole lot of practice and didn't know anything especially complicated. Not in the least because she'd probably say something like 'oh that's totally too hard for me' and play it off. "Good point! That's a totally smart way to look at it." She raised an eyebrow at the boy, sizing him up. Though, she knew it was a good idea to be on pleasant terms with everyone her age as she was going into school. "Yeah, like, isn't it mostly that you have to move the pieces yourself and they can't yell at you if you make a bad move, so like, it's even more thinking for yourself." She absently twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "Or like, something like that anyway." She looked between the two. "Hi, I'm Ruth. Are you both going to Hogwarts next year, then?"

 

[Lumos Walden-Cade]

Lumos absolutely didn't agree that chess and wizard chess was the same game. There was just something more... special about watching two pieces of chess smash each other to pieces. It took far more cunning, he thought, than what normally would for a simple game of chess. To be fair, Lumos was hardly a chess prodigy, and who wouldn't say he was a particularly avid player either, but he and Nox liked to play when they were taking a moment out of their pranks. Personally Lumos enjoyed the pieces moving themselves about the board, it felt a little more powerful to him, getting the piece to move by his word alone. "I don't know, I think I enjoy feeling like what I say is important," he offered, moving closer to watch the girl play. Neither of them looked like they would be fun targets, and since he didn't have a wand yet he couldn't even do something silly or fun, he would just have to entertain himself with this pair until he figured out where he was supposed to meet Tori and Nox. "Don't you like telling the pieces where to move and watching them move though? I enjoy that part."

He looked over at the Ruth girl when she introduced herself and grinned. "I'm mostly Lumos, sometime's I'm Nox, but I'm always Cade." He said, moving closer to hold his hand out to her. If there was one thing he'd taken away from his parents it was that being polite was important, especially to potential allies. See Lumos' idea of friends was someone he didn't want to prank, but his idea of allies were people he would prank, when they were least expecting it, and he really wanted to prank these two the moment he had the chance. "And yeah, guess I will be. You too then, huh?" So maybe he would get to prank them after all?

@Sybil St. James @Ruth Thorne ​

 

[Sybil St. James]

Sybil was glad that the girl, Ruth, was mostly on her side. Not that there really were sides since this wasn't even a real argument or even a debate. She sighed. "Well it doesn't really matter if they move where you tell them, if you don't know where they should go." she said. "And of course i do. I especially like when they chop up my opponent's pieces." She was maybe being a little full of herself now. Something her father always said was worse than not being right. But she couldn't help it. "So you don't know your name?" she asked skeptically. He was probably trying to make a joke and she wasn't in the mood to play along. "Well I'm Sybil." she said simply. "And yes I'm going to Hogwarts. Nice to meet you Ruth and....whoever you are."

 

[Ruth Thorne]

Ruth tilted her head and blinked as the boy introduced himself. "Are you like, sometimes Accio and other times Depulso too?" she asked, quickly feigning a blanker look as she went back to twirling her hair around her finger. If they asked why she was up on her spells, she'd just claim it was because of her brother. Which wasn't entirely false. The last thing she wanted was to give the impression that she was ahead, because then people would rely too much on her and it would be annoying. "I guess telling pieces what to do is fun, they just get soooo mad when I make a mistake," she explained, giving a light shrug and an unbothered giggle. "It's nice to meet you too! It'll be such a relief to know some faces." Ruth was cautious not to overstep and force friendship right away. Then it would look too desperate and kind of sad, she thought.

 

[Lumos Walden-Cade]

Lumos snickered, he didn't bother answering the questions about his name because he was pretty sure it didn't really matter anyway, he would answer to anything they called him, or didn't call him, it would just make things easier when he pranked them and they couldn't tell anyone who he was. Well, he hoped anyway, since he hoped they were both going to Hogwarts. "Chess is as much a game of chance as of strategy and skill," he said, unsure whether he should elaborate further. "The point is to know your enemy I suppose." And wasn't that what he was doing? Figuring things out as he went, watching to see who would make moves to where, it was the best way for people not to know where his loyalties lay. "Yes, I agree, knowing some people when I get there would be great!" He admitted, not telling them he wasn't going to be heading there blind at all.

@Ruth Thorne @Sybil St. James ​

 

[Sybil St. James]

Sybil fought to hide her smile at Ruth's comment but failed. She tried to think of another spell that could be a good name but came up short. She didn't have much time to think until 'what's his name' said something so wrong she couldn't let it slide. "It is not." she said impassionedly when he said chess was a game of chance. She had to take a deep breath to collect herself form just how wrong he was. "Knowing your opponent..." she started pointedly. "would be important." she finished. She was happy to move on to a more exciting topic for everyone. If only so she wouldn't end up pulling her hair out by the end of this conversation. "So what do any of you know about the castle?" she asked. "My father went there but he hasn't talked about it much." she admitted. Her mother had too but she couldn't really comment on her.

 

[Ruth Thorne]

"We-ell," Ruth started, not wanting to be too left out or anything. "My brother got sorted last year and my cousin's going into sixth year," she explained, with a light indifferent shrug. "But I don't know much about it or anything, I guess it's like...one of those things where you kinda have to like, see it for yourself? They haven't told me a lot." Cyrus and exploring didn't necessarily go hand in hand as it was, and it wasn't like she had a map to hand for it. "I know the stairs move, I bet even more if you're late for class," Ruth suggested, although she really didn't know for sure nor would she pretend she did. "I just know that you end up having to do a loooot of walking. I hope we can learn, like, a levitation spell or something."