OK, 'not comment' wasn't 'be completely indifferent to it' either! she ranted mentally. she picked herself up, noticing how coffee was taking all of the attention over her (not that she was searching ofr it but...). Hm-ing slightly, she went back to seat, the bump over her head actually doing this weird type of pounding...

Next, Zekke had excused himself and went to his room for what he recounted, fetching the table games he was speaking about. She noticed Jaren had gone to his book... and Ganymede?

It came as a pleasant surprise that after a long gasp, Ganymede had indeed moved over to her sounding worried. Ah, at least someone does care! Well that was what she thought before Ganymede had proceeded to make fun of her. So much for friendship. She chuckled. "Yeah, I guess it was."

At the sudden question now, she said, "Yeah, well, that's the idea. LikeChess, Ganymede?" In fact, she didn't know her feeling towards thee game.

:: Ganymede shrugged and replied, "I've seen kids play it in the commonroom and stuff. Never really got to play myself. Although, I did read a rule book for it. I know how to play." She wondered who she would play first. "Lets do boys against girls. I'll play Zekke, you play Jaren. Then the winners play eachother!" She suggested pointing to each of them as she explained. ::

Nadia's lips stretched to the side into a pensive smile... or smirk kind of smile. "Interesting proposal. Well, I don't see why not," she nodded approvingly as she said this, "if you played common chess you should be fine with this, Gany, adn while a broken piece of chess doesn't get stuck in your eye or something..."

The last she said it a bit offhandly, not meaning anything in especial at all - sure thing it has never happened, right? "If you have any doubt, you can ask any of us." She winked at the (recently-discovered) older girl.

:: Ganymede winked back and looked in her tea. She pretended that there were tea leaves there. "The leaves say.. " Then she stopped and turned to Nadia with a questioning look. "A chess peice in the eye?" She began laughing and placed her cup down. "A chess peice in my eye." She repeated with more laughter. "Jaren, has that ever happened before in the history of chess?" She asked him as he had his nose in his black notebook. ::

"No incident was recorded, though that doesn't mean it never happened," Jaren replied, closing his book and stuffing it back into his pocket.

Nadia was good at table tennis, so let's see how good she was at chess...

"Are you guys coming or am I going to have to play against myself?" Zekke's voice, tinged with amusement, floated out from the living room.

"That would be amusing to watch," Jaren said, then paused. Did he just make a joke?

He nodded to the other two and made his way over to the living room, coffee mug in hand.

:: Ganymede gave an excited squeal of delight as she shuffled to the livingroom. She sat down on one of the couches and waited for the others to join.

"Zekke, do you have two chess boards?" She asked him. "Unless we each play and watch eachother." She suggested. She sighed. "Mind if I run to my room and change?" She asked as she pulled at her sleeves. "I need chess playing clothes on." She smirked and stood up. "Just that way right?" She pointed toward where her room was and began walking there. ::

Zekke chuckled in response to Jaren's comment.

"Your room is right that way, Gany, and yes, I have two chess boards laid out already." He nodded and pointed out the way and settled himself in front of one of the chessboards on the living room cocktail table and sat on a large cushion he had resting on the floor.

He cradled his cup of coffee and wondered who would win. This should prove to be rather... interesting...

His lips quirked as he imagined how a group game of Risk might pan out.

Nadia looked up hearing the voice of Zekke coming from somewhere. "Oh, right." She had understood Zekke would come back with the games, not the other way round, but anyways. She registered Jaren's words with some curiosity, actually stopping on her track.

She finally shook her head and stood to follow the group, not wanting to sound impolite as to explain what went on her head. But. In all honesty... Nadia didn't consider Jaren would think something to be amusing ( ). At least not with those chosen words.

"Wait, you have Chess Clothes?" she asked a retreatening Ganymede. And here she thought Gany was the least experienced. Seemly she had been all wrong about that one. She took a seat in one of the chairs set over one of the chess board tables, quite admiring of the design of the chess pieces.

"Alright, I'm ready when you are," she told the boys with a glimmer of challenge in her eyes. She was suppossedly playing Jaren first, according to Gany's plan, then playing the winner. (Because she was already counting she would win this one.)

:: Ganymede returned a few minutes later. She had on black PJ pants and a dark green beater on. The pants were a bit baggy and had a hole at her right knee. She curled back onto the couch and sat infront of a chess board. "Well, who goes first? I think it's white.. or maybe black?" She looked at the board unsure. "I'm white.. do I go first?" ::

Zekke was about as comfortable as he could get in what he was wearing at the moment, except his boots had at one point or another been removed and so he was sitting on the cushion on the floor with black socks on.

He chuckled quietly at Ganymede and gestured to her. "White goes first. Always."

Jaren sat down opposite to Nadia, with the chessboard between them. He turned it so that the white pieces were facing Nadia, silently waiting for her to take the first move.

He'd been beaten rather spectacularly at chess the first time he played against Zekke and since then had been reworking his strategy. He couldn't tell if he was getting any better, because Zekke liked to change strategies as well, so that the last game resulted in a stalemate.

There was an emotion, excitement, Nadia rarely felt if it wasn't at chess. Maybe a hunger to prove herself while nothing really is at real stake, like a duel. Or, well, she couldn't know, she wasn't that good with deciphering her own emotions. It was that same feeling she was getting now as each of them readied their selves for the game, facing their opponents.

At the time, Nadia was already considering the chessboard when Jaren had reached over and turned it around so that she was with white pieces. Her left eyebrow raised slightly. Out of curtesy ('ladies-first' manners type of thing?), or was it to give her advantage over him? she wondered. Well, she usually used blacks, but if it suited him better, she could accomodate.

As per usual, her first movement was to move the pawn just before the king, one space. Thus beggining the chess match. During the wait for the next move, she used the small period to make herself comfortable by sitting in a Shao-Lin meditation-like position, shoes off.

:: Ganymede looked at the board and began trying to predict what he would try. She slowly placed her right hand on the farthest right pawn and she pushed it two spaces forward. She quickly pulled her hand away, waiting and watching him intensely. Her left big toe poked out of her gray socks, she wiggled it as she kept watching. ::

Jaren moved the rightmost pawn first, as far as it could legally go in the first move. In the first several minutes of the game with Nadia he moved all his pawns out onto the field, freeing up the space for his other pieces.

In the very same minutes Jaren was opting for sending all his pawns forwards, Nadia had managed to create a fort-like formation of pieces all around the king, looking like a shield. Again, something she always did; a formation that started with sending that one pawn before the king forwards.

In the meantime, Jaren had neglected his pawns in some circumstances. Nadia got to take a couple of black pawns, points to her. So far so good.

Jaren didn't seem to particuarly care what happened to his pawns, and even seemed to be deliberately placing them in danger. Three of them were up against the wall Nadia had made around her king with pawns, and two more were already on her side of the board.

In the meantime, he seemed to be doing a good deal of manuvering on his side of the board with his knights.

:: Ganymede kept an eye on how Zekke moved his pawns. She succeeded in gaining most of his pawns and both bishops. They played at a slow pace. Every once in a while, Ganymede peered at the board very hard and before making her move. "I think I am gonna win." She stated with an evil grin looking at Zekke and then to the board. ::

Nadia moved to take the pawns but taking her time. She was expecting most of them to be traps, but either avoided those traps or there weren't in the first place. On the other hand, she had put her own trap by moving the castle where it was at reach for his queen but with a knight backing the castle up. And going after that bishop...

Zekke was nonchalant, careful to not show anything in his expression. He smiled indulgently at Ganymede, only letting a flicker of danger dance in his eyes for a brief moment as his fingertips lightly brushed over the top of his pieces.

"Perhaps you are," his voice almost purred as he murmured. "You're a rather good chess player. If only I had found this out earlier."

And perhaps not...

With that said, he silently moved his knight to capture her queen. "Check."

He was rather enjoying this game. Ganymede had proved to be a rather good chess player and her moves had been somewhat pleasantly and gratifyingly unpredictable.

Comparably, Jaren was an unpredictable chess player as well, but in some ways, shared a more similar thought pattern and thus the unpredictability itself seemed to be born more from strategy. Ganymede's strategy on the other hand seemed to be a bit different in that the unpredictability was almost a reflection on her own personality and it made her moves that much more difficult to predict.

It had been unpredictable enough that he had ended up having to play by ear and resort to stealth and trickery to get her to reveal her queen and king to him on her own volition, which she just did. But even so, he had lost several pieces including his bishops, but that too, had been a part of his own plan - to sacrifice for the greater end.

He continued to smile winningly at Ganymede, but now there was a challenging sparkle in his eyes.

:: Ganymede jumped up and shrieked, "I knew you were gonna do that!" She sat down and swiftly moved her castle into place. "Check.. MATE!" She got back up and danced about for a few moments. She then held out her hand to shake with Zekke, "Good game." She told him stiffly, then melted into a smile. "Let's watch the others now." She plopped down in a chair near Nadia and Jaren. Her eyes watched intently on their game. ::

Zekke stared for a moment and then burst out laughing.

Check... mate?

He could have sworn that she would have only been able to check and not get a checkmate, but... Ahhh so that's what happened. He had forgotten that his bishop hadn't been guarding the king anymore and...

So she was right. Drat it! In moving his knight, he had inadvertently left the space open for her rook - the stupid castle!

He laughed and shook his head. "You and your divination, Ganymede. Spectacular game. I didn't realize my error until too late."

He shook her hand warmly and followed suit with pulling his cushion over a little closer so he could watch the other two play.

Jaren attacked from the rear, taking out Nadia's castle with a knight and therefore sacrificing it so that in his next move, he could deal with her knight. Perhaps his knight would prove to be better bait than his bishop, since Nadia appeared to be after that.

A slight problem with this was, aside from his other pieces and the now mostly-gone pawns, there was nothing else protecting his king, and he knew that...

Still, Nadia wasn't going or the king as it was. She seemed to be keeping an eye for the queen and expecting the openness of the defenses around the king as a kind of trap she couldn't figure out. Because of that and because of her insecurity, she lost a bishop and narrowly missed loosing her own queen. She had made a rather dumb move or trying to put her around and create an extra pressure.

Having eyes on them didn't help and her cheeks got a bit redder. But at the same time, the loosing of that bishop set her to pay more attention and not allow it to happen again. Right now the knight on the barrier that was her king defense was blocking one of his king's way out, though no piece was directly menacing it. The other pieces were set to always have another cover for them and result in a piece for a piece.