and there's a glass on the table, they say it's gonna ease all my pain

[lettersfromhome]

WHO: Mia Rutherford and OPEN
WHAT: She spends a lot of time taking care of everyone else. She needs a drink or five to unwind before getting back to it.
WHEN: Current
WHERE: Herald's Rest
NOTES: Alcohol? Bad decisions?

She's not proud of herself for this. But there are breaking points, and she's nearing one, and it's better to deal with them pre-emptively than not, and have a fuss be made later. There are things that are completely out of her control, Maker knows, and she needs to make her peace with them.

Wine helps. So does the ambiance of the tavern, even if she sits alone. There's a homesickness that claws at her, though she refuses to let it take root too deeply. There's work to be done here, after all--

No. No work tonight. Just...relax. Listen to the music and the noise and the banter and try to let it go.

Easier said than done, but she'll muddle through it. Stubbornness is a Rutherford family trait, apparently.

Comments

[ombranera]

"I am willing to bet you were a fast learner, yes? You strike me as a terribly clever woman." Intelligence, grace, and integrity. there are shades of the fine ladies of Antiva in her- with none of the fripperies, none of the delicacy. Solid like marble rather than spun glass. The not quite so hidden steel in her fascinates him- and that she is not at all charmed by him nor is she so disgusted as to send him away.

She is interesting. He enjoys interesting.

[lettersfromhome]

Maybe it's flattery or a simple guess, but Mia finds herself smiling just the same. It's a small thing, full of memory.

"So much so that I was beating him more times than I lost, before long." One by one the pieces were set into place, nudged to sit properly within their little spaces. "My brothers then set themselves the challenge of learning to attempt to beat me. Perhaps teach me humility."

[ombranera]

"Because every lady needs to be humble, yes?" He snorted, making an elegant, vague gesture. "Give me a woman of skill and forethought and opinions over those that are humble and demure any day."

The former were engaging on every level, enticing and bright, cutting with their wit. Demure ladies...weren't to be bothered, to be tainted, to be touched.

[lettersfromhome]

"Some ladies do naturally exist in such a state, through no fault of their own. But I've little of that particular virtue, as my brothers would discover."

The pieces in place, she sat back, retrieving her glass with an arched brow and a gesture towards the board. "There we are. Now, am I right in guessing you'd prefer to play black?"

[ombranera]

"What may frustrate them is my gain." He sipped from his glass, peering at the board. "It all looks so very different when you are the one moving the pieces, but yes. I shall take black."

He thinks that was the better color for someone that was only passingly familiar with the rules. Cards he might cheat at, but chess? He needed to learn how it was done before he began to bend things.

[lettersfromhome]

"Are you familiar with the way they move, from this angle? We can review, if you're feeling a little rusty."

She has the feeling he's a canny bastard, though. If she takes it easy on him, he will take advantage. But it's only fair if the field is even to start. One finger rested delicately atop a pawn. "Forward two to start, one after the initial movement. And to take a piece..."

It's left open to prompt his memory, to chime in if he recalls.

[ombranera]

"They move diagonally, yes?" He remembers that much. Or. He thinks he remembers that much. Hand resting upon his cheek he peers at the board and her hands rather than her face, trying to recall the tactics he'd been taught.

Elves do not play chess in Antiva. This is new.

[lettersfromhome]

"Very good."

She moves her finger to the knight this time, tapping it once before plucking it up. "Knights are a little trickier. They move forward, and then diagonally to either side. For instance, here, or here..."

Mia leans forward slightly to indicate the spaces on the board. It's been some time since she properly taught anyone to play the game, but she truly doesn't mind. It shouldn't just be a game for nobles with too much time on their hands. Elf or no, she thinks he might enjoy the game for its own sake.

[ombranera]

He absorbs it, most of it, with a fine attention to detail. Plans have never been his strongest suit but given leave and rules within which to work? He can learn. Does learn. Even manages a few moves through the first game that surprise himself if not the lovely Mia.

Of course she has him in check soon enough- he'd expected it. "Tell me again how you arranged this? It seems as though I saw the beginnings of this gambit but I lost it in the middle and now? The trap is sprung."

[lettersfromhome]

"I'm no assassin, but you won't find my tactics lacking."

Somewhere along the course of the game the dour mood she'd begun with beings to lift. She smiles when he makes a particularly clever move, smirks when she maneuvers her pieces into play, and occasionally her eyes dart up with interest. He's still absolutely trouble, as far as she's concerned, but...

Well. This is fun. Actual fun, and she doesn't think she's allowed time for that in a long while. Perhaps it's been somewhat overdue, and who might have imagined that an elven assassin would be the one to step in and remind her?

[ombranera]

"You would be surprised how often assassins do without tactics. Why plan when you can simply poison the other man?" And yet he sits here, sharing his brandy, marveling at the move. That fiddly bit in the middle- he'd lost the thread on account of attempting (and failing) to capture her queen.

"Perhaps we could play another game? I think I have it now." Less stopping between moves to ask questions, less time staring at the board for answers.

[lettersfromhome]

"Very well. Now that we've had our warm-up, I think that's more than fair."

She reaches to set the pieces back into place, both on her side and his, restoring those that had been sacrificed in the course of the game. "For a first effort, it really was quite good. Let's see if you're as bright as you look, mm?"

Time ticks away. The evening stretches on. She barely notices.