[Open] Where There Is No Wine

[judgemewhole]

WHO: James Norrington and You. Yes you.
WHAT: Drinking wine solves everything. Or at least that is what James is trying out this month.
WHEN: After the Tevinter debacle
WHERE: The Blooming Rose - he's only there for the good vintages and the chess games, kids.
NOTES: Warnings for talk of torture, bloodshed, and general warning for drunk James

There are times in one's life where one simply wants to blot out a few of the worse hours of their lives. For fewer, it is days, perhaps even weeks. Very few want to blot out about four months worth of time from their memory, but after returning, barely, from Tevinter?

James Norrington, Knight Commander and 'fed-up with being calm, polite, and gritting his teeth', had decided to get absolutely and totally shit-faced. He was also going to get shit-faced in the best brothel in all of Kirkwall, but honestly it was because their wine cellar was second to none, and all of the ... employees of the establishment were more than willing to get 'paid' for their time with a glass of wine and a good chess game.

He didn't just disappear from his office. He wasn't off to have a bender and never be seen again. There was a note tacked to the door of his quarters, and his office, in the same bold print so anyone could find him if they really desired to.

It said simply, Off to share the Maker's love at the Blooming Rose. Blessing the fallen with holy wine. Please join if you are looking to save the sinners and enjoy a good Red from Antiva. - J. Norrington

He was saving them, persay. They wouldn't have to sell their bodies for at least an hour or two while playing chess with James. It totally counted as an act of charity from a member of the Templar Order. If he got to drink wine along with it, well, he was just blessing himself.

He needed a lot of damned blessings.

Comments

[pyrazine]

It was her nose that led her here, the smell of food - not much - and wine - a lot of wine. She comes into the establishment and sits next to the guy who smells the most like he doesn't belong here, the smell that says that he might have been here for a while but it wasn't all day. He's playing chess.

Aluisio plays chess, and he taught Luana. The Saci will talk to you like a chess game, he used to say. She's watching the game for a moment, watching the woman who is losing, miserably, who is now trying to flirt her way out of a corner, and her mouth presses together. Luana is no good at math, or science, or chemistry. She's not clever when it comes to literature. But she knows a lot about chess, because Aluisio won't let up on making her play him.

She probably isn't good enough to beat him, but she's definitely god enough to keep up, and maybe give him a challenge. "Hey," she says, nudging the woman who is staring at the board. "Move," she says, kicking a little more, and the woman - okay, she's probably a whore, but Luana doesn't judge - looks at Luana with the affect of a woman who does not want to lose money here. Luana nudges her again. "You're losing, move. Give the man a challenge."

There's a bit of a snarl, but eventually the woman moves, and Luana sits, resetting the board. "You're not too drunk for this, right?"

[judgemewhole]

James was peering at the board with all the intent of someone who is trying to pull out moves from the back of his mind, but honestly, he's starting to get bored. Sabina has tried to keep it interesting but honestly - her head is not in the game and she keeps giving him hungry looks. Like she'd love to get his silvers worth. So she's flirting, and not paying attention to her pieces, and he's already got her beat in about five or six moves.

That boredom is suddenly lifted when a young woman comes up and kicks Sabina's chair, ordering her to get out so she can play. He sits up, then back in his chair, watching this entire exchange with no little amusement. He takes up his glass of wine once more - from the third bottle - and eyes her. Street rat and a smart one at that.

"It depends. Are you good enough for me to sober up a little?" He drawled, arching one dark eyebrow at her.

[pyrazine]

She shrugs a little as she finishes resetting the board, her fingers long and nimble. Is she good enough for him to sober up? She's been playing for two years, but he looks like an old man. He's probably a couple years younger than Aluisio. Old men always have tricks that they don't share, until you're well in their debt.

He is drinking more wine. Luana isn't big on wine - she prefers spirits - and so she doesn't pour a glass of her own. "I'm okay," she admits, "but I'm better than that one," she says, nodding her head. She looks up at him, and there's a smile on her face now, and she looks both innocent and totally guilty at once. It's a rare kind of look. "So let's start with your-" she takes a breath. "Seventh glass of wine? Eighth?"

She doesn't know exactly, only that he smells like he's been at this a while. She opens the game, easily, her fingers tipping on the top of the queen.

[judgemewhole]

He gives the young girl across from him a keen look over his wine glass. Assessing her, assessing him. She was sharp, this one. Already looking for weaknesses she could exploit. She would make an excellent warrior. Of course she was probably more of a rogue - knives, that sort of thing. Sword-play might be too slow for her ...

A smile escapes his usually serious expression, and he puts the glass down. "Sabina wasn't looking for a game, though. You are. So I shall put aside my - eighth - glass of wine. Give you a run for your coin." He looked over the board. "Black, or white?"

First or second? He hoped she went first, knew she would probably go second. Testing him again.

[pyrazine]

She takes it easy for a long moment, leaning back, looking at the board. She's doing this on purpose, she's doing this to make an impression. This impression matters, although she couldn't say why.

Finally she turns the board so the white pieces are on her side. "I'll play white," she says, although she usually doesn't. She usually doesn't make the first move. She does it because she thinks that she wants him to think she's a little bit strange, and she is.

The rifter shard in her hand isn't hidden, but it's not enough for her.

[judgemewhole]

This was going to be an interesting battle of wills, and neither one of them had even made a move on the board yet. She certainly is a mystery - and she is trying to make herself more of one. What was it about the young and wanted to create secrets on top of secrets? He often felt like telling them that life would give them enough to hide away without them having to invent anything.

Still, he did not know her. She could have had a much rougher life, and that was why she seemed so old and young at the same time.

"Very well." He waited for her to make the first move, then he made the second, and so on. He watched her play for a few moments, "Did your chess teacher tell you to be this ballsy?"

[pyrazine]

She laughs a little. "He'd probably slap me on the top of the head," she says, cheerfully enough now, her opening move easy. This should be a fun game, challenging for her and maybe a little bit on the edgy side for him, but even drunk he should win. She's only as good as an education lets her be.

But to her credit, she does unexpected things. Where someone might go right, she goes left, less like she's playing chess and more like she's directing not an army, but maybe something more organic. A pack of wolves, perhaps. "What did your teacher tell you to do? I hope it wasn't flirt with the whores while you played."

[judgemewhole]

He smirks at that, and makes his own opening gambit. Much more conservative than yours, but he wants to see just which way this mongoose ran the board. Considering how she slipped her pieces here and there. Considered all the angles before moving her piece.

"My teacher taught me to clear my mind of all other distraction, except the board and the pieces. Where I am is irrelevant , all that matters is the music, and how it makes me feel."

[pyrazine]

"How is that working for you?" she asks, smiling a little. She pulls her legs up so that they're cross legged on the chair, the trousers that she's wearing loose enough to make it look comfortable. She never realized how much elastic made her life easier until this moment.

"I mean, where we are is pretty irrelevant."

[judgemewhole]

"Considering that I have yet to lose a game ... I would say it is working quite well for me. The music of a chess board is rather like the music of a battlefield, after all." He mused, as he looked around.

Then he snorted a laugh. "Yes, I suppose so."

Then he started to move, starting to the demolition of her defenses.

[pyrazine]

She doesn't talk much as they play. She doesn't talk much, not because she doesn't have a lot to say, but to keep the game interesting she has to focus all of her mental energies on making it interesting. It's true that she plays a strange game, uneducated, organic. She plays with someone who knows the rules but doesn't understand the underlying precepts.

But she also understands strategy.

It's not an easy game for Norrington, but eventually he wins, and Luana sets her king down, her head tilting towards him. "At least you're not bored."

[judgemewhole]

It is a fascinating game. He would love to get this young woman in front of a battle map, to see how she would set her traps. It would be all fluid motion - nothing laid to wait a few moves down the road. There, now. She is immediate and she is merciless, but he eventually catches her because her impetuous strategy unfortunately leaves her defenses quite bare.

He sits back, and eyes his wine glass, which he has not touched this entire time. "Not in the slightest. I enjoy the way you play, stranger."

[pyrazine]

She looks at the board, as if she's trying to see where she went wrong. That's what Aluisio always made her do after they played, to get an idea of how to improve next time. "Luana," she says, a little absently, and then she looks up at him. "That's my name. Don't be a stranger."

[judgemewhole]

He looks at her thoughtfully, before one corner of his mouth lifts up and he nods, "James. I won't be."