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Post by elizar on Nov 20, 2008 20:53:38 GMT -5
"Wolfbike?" Stefán asked, though he knew he should have expected it, given the ships, aircraft and cars being alive.
Aron had recently done a switcherroo with his king towards the H8 corner, so that Rachel's knight was in a compromising position. He moved his own knight to flank his bishop, to further gain insight into her play profile. Would her knight retreat from the bishop but move in further, the queen or a pawn would catch it. Unless there was something he had overlooked. It had been a while since he had done decent chess.
Marisa chuckled. "And here I am, planning the wedding already."
((Stefán met Steinþór, Babel's father when he was being attacked by an Elf/Sidhe. While he survived, and Steinþór helped him recover, he has some mental 'scars'. They do not hinder his thought processes or altered his personality, they're just there, and tell a story. Maybe they are noticeable enough for a user to pick up that something did happen to him.))
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 20, 2008 21:33:01 GMT -5
"Like a motorcycle, but with the mentality of a dog." Laurie added.
Rachel paused as she examined her options. She realized that with a move of one of her remaining pawns, she could make things a little stickier for Aron. She had one pawn left in its starting position, that could jump two spaces. She moved it out, straight into a rook of Aron's.
"Funny how things worked out here." Bree smirked. "Now, if I can just coax Shale to come for a visit, that would be good, but with the not-entirely-predictable schedule, making arrangements for the kids would be a problem." Joel and Aspasia were a little young to make that trip.
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Post by elizar on Nov 20, 2008 21:41:58 GMT -5
"No family members interested in babysitting them for about a week?" Marisa asked.
Aron was frustrated, but he kept his poker face. The rook had been part of an advance plan, and now he had to think of another.
But that didn't go so well for him, after a dozen plays, he found himself losing the middle of the board and barricading his king.
"I kind of figured they were like that, you got to be able to tame them." Stefán said and headed towards the sound of barking dogs, discovering what she meant exactly by wolfbikes. He noticed a woman waiting by the kennels, but she wasn't tending to the bikes or examining them.
"Greetings." Stefán said, confident that he was looking at Babel's guardian. "My name is Stefán Markússon."
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 20, 2008 22:01:09 GMT -5
"The question isn't whether or not they could do it, but when." Bree sighed. "Since the comings and goings are quite irregular right now."
Rachel was also keeping a poker face, not betraying anything. If I'd thought this hard before going after those dead-hulks, I wouldn't be here now. She contemplated a castling move to dislodge Aron's barricade. The alternative was to make a move for his queen, and she had a knight and rook just about in position to do that. She decided to go after the queen and force Aron to consider breaking his barricade, and she had held her king and one bishop in reserve to deal with those if that happened. She moved her knight...
"Zoe Gordon." the young woman smiled. Her creamy, slightly freckled skin, slightly wavy chocolate hair and amber eyes all seemed just a little too intense for truly human. "So you're the one I screened coming into the bar."
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Post by elizar on Nov 20, 2008 22:10:37 GMT -5
"True that." Marisa said. "Having the ceremony here would mean denying most of the family to be there."
Queen gone. Aron thought to himself, knowing that in most cases, that was death for the king. He moved his rook to the side, still leaving the king with defenses, but it was clear that the rook's next intended move was to advance to do a Check.
"Keeping tabs on the newcomers?" Markús asked with a smile.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 20, 2008 22:37:38 GMT -5
"Let's say I have my "triplines" set to a certain threshold, Mr. Markusson." Zoe admitted. "Better not to be caught napping."
Rachel contemplated the current situation. The endgame was not far off, but she was far from complacent about it. She was wise to Aron's rook move, and resisted the impulse to engage from that side. Instead, she deployed her other knight to engage Aron's knight and force him out. She still had both knights, but was willing to take a chance on one to erode his battlements. Her own king was guarded behind her remaining bishop and her rooks, still apparently distant. Her queen was in a slightly more open position, but it would take at least two moves from any of Aron's pieces to put that one in check, and at tremendous risk for the attackers. Finally, she moved her knight, taking another gamble.
"Speaking of family, how would your folks handle this news?" Bree asked. "Are they purist types or are they more open-minded?"
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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 4:04:25 GMT -5
"Just Stefán." Stefán said. "Markússon is not a title name or a family name."
"Laurie here mentioned that the Icer you liberated has some 'abilities'." Stefán said. "Could you give me a rundown on them, along with a physical description, eye and hair color for instance."
Aron was not going to roll up and die. That gamble was not going to pay.
Marisa took a deep breath. It had been something she had thought about. "I doubt they care." She said. "I don't know if Brett has told you, but I was a party girl in High School." Marisa had once hinted it towards Bree. "Never got punished for coming home or when caught with a guy or buying back alley pheromones to compensate for my inability to control them."
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 21, 2008 14:09:22 GMT -5
"I did the math," Bree answered, "But I figured it really wasn't my place to ask. What concerns me is the reaction of the military bureaucracy, and it could go any number of ways." She didn't elaborate, figuring that Marisa could figure that out all too well. "Your position is strongest if you stay here. Brett would probably think so too, though he hasn't really said anything."
Rachel pursed her mouth a little, realizing that this dog wasn't hunting. Aron was not to be taken for granted, and she considered other tactics, though she wasn't tempted to throw all of them at him. Reluctantly, she moved out one of her rooks, though that would expose her king a little more.
"She's maybe within an inch or two of me, height-wise." Zoe said. "Naturally pale blonde, though now dyed. Green eyes." She took another breath. "She absorbs languages like a sponge absorbs water, even those she's never heard of before. She has some mind-gifts that men in particular should watch out for. And she can draw power off of other users." Zoe had drawn a complete scrambling-field around the conversation, the next best thing to a "cone of silence."
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Post by elizar on Nov 21, 2008 16:12:02 GMT -5
"And Jeffrey needs to get in on this." Marisa said. "Too bad it seems that he wants to do the manly thing and propose to me, yet he's a bit slow in doing that."
Aron advanced as he saw that there was nothing he could do to defend better at the moment.
Stefán thought for a moment. "I've been around a wizard before, back home. Also blond and had a daughter. While he learned languages progressively like the rest of us, I was convinced he could charm the devil just by talking."
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 21, 2008 17:30:03 GMT -5
Zoe was intrigued. "And his name was..?"
Rachel wondered if the conditions were right for castling, but decided that her rook moves earlier would not allow for it. She moved out her bishop to meet Aron's advance, intending to put one of his defending pieces in check.
"That's just what I intend to do." Another voice came in from the right. Jeffrey had come from downwind, so the helo women hadn't scented him coming. He came up to meet the Seahawk, decorously touching noses with her. "Marisa... will you have me?"
<<< New thread after this? >>>
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