Chess is the struggle against the error
Nov. 6th, 2018 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Playing chess in the park with Nina had become a strange, regular ritual. The Bull liked rituals, though, and having somewhere to be once or twice a week help him set other parts of his life in order. He liked chess, too: it kept his mind active. Playing against Nina did that two-fold, as she tended to try to cheat in one way or another. He didn't blame her, but it kept him on his toes.
"Check," she said triumphantly, her green eyes bright.
Bull surveyed the board and moved his king to protect it. She moved a knight; he took it with his rook. Nina pouted.
"All out of horsemen," she sighed as she propped her head on her hand, elbow on the table. She made what seemed to be a reckless move with a bishop and Bull reacted with staid calm to defend his king.
"Checkmate!" Nina declared. Bull blinked and had to look at the board, wondering what he had missed. In her quick move withe bishop, she'd drawn his attention away from her queen. He surveyed the board, but she was right: there was nowhere to move his king that would be safe.
"You're getting better," he said as he sat back. Nina looked very pleased with herself. "Another game?"
"Sadly I have a few clients lined up for this afternoon," she said as she rose, smoothing out her coat. "Same time next week?"
"Of course." Bull rose with a quiet grunt. He wore a metal brace on his left leg, and the old pain bothered him more in the cold. He accepted a hug from Nina and kissed the top of her head. She was a kind girl.
As she left, Bull carefully sat back down, using the stone table for support. He stretched his bad leg out and started setting the board up again. He was wearing more clothes than he ever had in Thedas, mostly at Dorian's and Krem's insistence. Krem tailored everything for him. Today it was a long-sleeved v-neck sweater. He'd brought his coat with him, but for now it sat under him to protect him from the chilly stone bench.
"Check," she said triumphantly, her green eyes bright.
Bull surveyed the board and moved his king to protect it. She moved a knight; he took it with his rook. Nina pouted.
"All out of horsemen," she sighed as she propped her head on her hand, elbow on the table. She made what seemed to be a reckless move with a bishop and Bull reacted with staid calm to defend his king.
"Checkmate!" Nina declared. Bull blinked and had to look at the board, wondering what he had missed. In her quick move withe bishop, she'd drawn his attention away from her queen. He surveyed the board, but she was right: there was nowhere to move his king that would be safe.
"You're getting better," he said as he sat back. Nina looked very pleased with herself. "Another game?"
"Sadly I have a few clients lined up for this afternoon," she said as she rose, smoothing out her coat. "Same time next week?"
"Of course." Bull rose with a quiet grunt. He wore a metal brace on his left leg, and the old pain bothered him more in the cold. He accepted a hug from Nina and kissed the top of her head. She was a kind girl.
As she left, Bull carefully sat back down, using the stone table for support. He stretched his bad leg out and started setting the board up again. He was wearing more clothes than he ever had in Thedas, mostly at Dorian's and Krem's insistence. Krem tailored everything for him. Today it was a long-sleeved v-neck sweater. He'd brought his coat with him, but for now it sat under him to protect him from the chilly stone bench.
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Date: 2018-11-11 02:53 am (UTC)The pair currently playing make for a strange sight: the man is horned, enormous, and silent, the girl chatty and relatively petite beside him. Anthony has seen the horned man before, of course, at the Halloween party less than a week before, and Guy had mentioned his conversation with him as well. It’s difficult not to be curious about someone who looks so very…unusual.
Once the girl leaves, Anthony decides to approach. “Interested in another game?"
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Date: 2018-11-11 03:09 am (UTC)He regarded the man a moment before he nodded toward the seat Nina had just abandoned.
"Always," he answered, his voice warm and low. He finished setting up the pieces.
"Black or white?" he asked. The board could be turned easily, and Bull generally allowed his opponents to have their pick.
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Date: 2018-11-11 11:22 pm (UTC)“White,” says Anthony, who is practical enough to accept a slight advantage when offered to him.
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Date: 2018-11-11 11:32 pm (UTC)His neck was thick, clearly built to support horns that were nearly as wide as his shoulders.
"I'd say that you could touch them, but you don't strike me as the kind of person that touches strangers."
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Date: 2018-11-18 03:15 am (UTC)He begins their game by moving his pawn. “It is generally considered impolite,” he says. “Though I imagine that doesn’t stop most people in your case."
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Date: 2018-11-18 03:55 am (UTC)"Most people, unless they're drunk, wouldn't dare. The worst they do is stare. Though I have been called a demon on occasion... I think one woman threw some blessed water at me once."
He looked up.
"What should I call you?"
It was a pointed question: it was not what is your name, though that would have been just as easy, and perhaps more regular a thing to ask.
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Date: 2018-11-19 03:22 am (UTC)Speaking to him, though, is rather like speaking to any other man. Especially with a chessboard to focus on, Anthony finds his opponent’s strange looks easy to set aside.
“Anthony Blunt.” He makes his next move. “Anthony.” The man has chosen an interesting way to ask the question; Anthony echoes it back at him. “What should I call you?”
Guy had called him Tib, but Anthony has a feeling that is not his actual name.
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Date: 2018-11-19 03:29 am (UTC)He didn't mind - it was less a mouthful and it still got his attention. Bull surveyed the board, then moved a knight.
"My people don't have names. I had to choose one when I left them."
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Date: 2018-11-20 01:10 am (UTC)“It is an unusual choice.” He surveys the board for a moment and moves his bishop. “Do you not call each other anything at all where you come from?”
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Date: 2018-11-20 02:01 am (UTC)He shrugged and moved his next piece. He knew how strange Qunari society sounded to anyone that lived outside of it, and how hard the theory that structured it might be to understand. Still, it was how he had been raised and how he lived for the first thirty years of his life.
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Date: 2018-11-20 04:15 am (UTC)“Why iron?” Usually Anthony would not ask so many questions, but his chess-playing companion seems quite willing to answer.
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Date: 2018-11-20 04:27 am (UTC)He watched Anthony's next move and considered his own.
"Eh, matches the skin tone," he said with a chuckle. "You make weapons out of it. It occurs naturally. And it was the first thing that popped into my head."
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Date: 2018-11-22 03:02 am (UTC)“Did your arrival in Darrow force you to invent a name for yourself?” he wonders.
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Date: 2018-11-22 03:12 am (UTC)Sometimes he couldn't believe how long it had been since he left Par Vollen. He had changed in ten years, though some days in Darrow he realized he had not changed as much as he once thought.
"Honestly, if I had arrived in Darrow when I was still living in the north, I might have just kept my title. It wouldn't mean anything to anyone here."
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Date: 2018-11-28 01:28 am (UTC)The opportunity he has now before him is a fascinating one.
“What was your title?"
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Date: 2018-11-28 01:36 am (UTC)He moved another piece, then sat back a bit. Bull shifted his weight on the bench and stretched out the leg with the brace on it, careful to keep it off to the side rather than under the table.
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Date: 2018-11-28 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-28 02:18 am (UTC)When Anthony moved a piece, Bull's counter-strike was quick.
"After that, I shifted specialties. I was sent to the south to spy."
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Date: 2018-11-29 02:09 am (UTC)“Keeper of illusions,” he muses. “A rather elegant name for a messy business."
The Bull's last move has left Anthony in check. He studies the board for a long moment before moving his king away.
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Date: 2018-11-29 02:15 am (UTC)"Tangled," he decided as he surveyed the board. "It only gets messy if you lose track of the pieces. Getting information, passing it along, that was easy. Most of the people in the south look like you, they're human. Most of them were impressed I could speak, never mind read or write."
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Date: 2018-12-02 03:28 am (UTC)“Those in the south think poorly of you people?” he surmises.
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Date: 2018-12-02 03:35 am (UTC)Bull shrugged and looked across the table. "But I made it a point to try to understand humans. Even if half of what you do is strange to me."
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Date: 2018-12-04 03:48 am (UTC)He chooses a bishop. “And both might be quite different from the humans you know."
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Date: 2018-12-04 04:31 am (UTC)He moved another piece, a knight. Chevalier.
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Date: 2018-12-09 02:31 am (UTC)“I am not certain our attachment to relations does us much good,” he concedes, quoting mildly, "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb"
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Date: 2018-12-09 03:13 am (UTC)He moved a bishop into line with Anthony's knight.
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Date: 2018-12-11 02:50 am (UTC)“Converts?” he wonders aloud. “That makes you sound more like a religion than a race of people."
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Date: 2018-12-11 02:59 am (UTC)"Yes, and no," he said regarding the idea of religion. "The Qun is a philosophy. It governs our entire way of life. The Qunari are followers of the Qun, but also a race of people. You are not, and could never be, Qunari. Just like I, no matter how hard I try, could never be human."
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Date: 2018-12-15 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-16 12:56 am (UTC)Bull shrugged. "It's not a good way of life for everyone."
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Date: 2018-12-19 01:58 am (UTC)He moves his knight. “Check."