cancry | Superbia Intro Log

[They descend the stairs.

And it leaks in slowly, bit by bit, rather than a tidal wave all at once. Like every step is another puzzle piece, another long forgotten memory seeping back into light and color.

The stairs disappear. And so does Chiron.

He marches off, ostensibly to go exploring, you know, as they always do somewhere new. But he doesn't really see the buildings, see the children or the smattering of adults, some of whom greet him like they know him when he doesn't even know himself. He walks across campus, through hallways, in as straight a line as he can manage with the layout. He walks into the forest, unheeding, and then comes out the other side, still here, still at the school.

Eventually. He's in a club room. It's for the chess club. He knows, because he found a chess board, and he's set one up. He sits across from nothing and no one. Idling on the black side.]

[And who's the last Executor anyone expected to have any interest in chess? The answer wanders in after her uneventful initial foray into the forest. That last part is important to mention since it explains why she has a leaf stuck to her hair.]

Oh, Sir Chiron!

[Oh no, she's walking towards the board!]

[Oh. Oh, there's someone here. He's staring down at the board, face obscured by the fall of his hair, but he stirs just slightly.]

Sir? [Give him a moment. Ah...] That's very formal of you. Appropriate.

It seems so to me as well. Perhaps I am simply a formal person.

[Riiiiiiight.

Oh dear, she's sitting down.]

I am a prince. Was a prince. Lord-- [He opens his mouth like the name is just on the tip of his tongue. But it's not. It never really was, was it? He bites his tongue, shakes his head.

He's paler than normal. Almost a deathly sort of pallor to his skin. He doesn't look up at her.]

It's apt, is all. Your Majesty. I suppose...some part of me knew all along.

Ah--!

[Veil's immediate impulse is to apologize and correct herself to Lord Chiron, but it turns out she does in fact have a brain-to-mouth filter. Either this is shocking news to him, or he's coincidentally also suddenly very sick at the same time, and the last time she thought something might be a coincidence everyone got mad at her. Being royalty seems to her like it should be a good thing, but what does she know?]

...I wonder how much we do still know, somewhere inside.

[As soon as she says it, it seems like it was obviously the wrong thing to say, but at least it's not any of the dozen wronger things that popped into her head first.]

[Haha. Very sick. That's funny. It's funny! It's so funny he should laugh, but it just comes out as a very tired haaaaaa, little more than an exhalation.]

Too much, I fear. Haven't you remembered, little royalty?

[It should be obvious to pretty much everyone by now that Veil is not just an open book but one with important passages highlighted and her own Cliffs Notes guide, and this is no exception. She visibly winces, and for a moment she doesn't say anything.]

Only a few moments.

...There's a- a disconnect. It doesn't all fit together. Yet.

[He's silent for a few passing moments.]

Do you know how to play?

[Veil exhales as if she'd been holding her breath (she wasn't) and takes a look over the board. Names and rules come into her mind, enough that nothing seems obviously missing.]

I believe so.

~~[NOTE: This should not be taken as an indication that she knows how to play competently.]~~

White goes first. I always let my brother go first. To let him think he had an advantage. It would infuriate him when he was young when I would still soundly beat him. He--

[And Chiron...lapses into a hesitant silence again.]

[. . . ah.]

Perhaps we should play a different game? I seem to recall another that uses the same board, if we can find the proper pieces...

[TRYING TO AVOID SUBJECTS is her specialty today apparently!]

No.

[It's an immediate answer, but it lacks the sharp rebuke Chiron might normally have given.]

No, I want to play-- [Does he? Does he really want that? He shakes his head again.] I...confess that sometimes I don't feel truly here. I simply need...some time to remember. To slot it into place.

[From down the hall, there was the telltale tap of a cane on the floor accompanying steady footsteps. Free hand running light along the wall as he worked on mapping out their new surroundings, Phoenix paused as he reached a doorway.]

...Excuse the interruption--is anyone here?

[And then listening intently for signs of life--breathing, shifting, a surprise Authority about to kill him, the usual.]

[Oh. Ah. It's tempting to just...say nothing. To become stone, to let Phoenix move on as though there were nothing. Nothing at all.]

...You've come to the wrong room.

[He couldn't do that to Phoenix. Probably.]

Chess is a visual type of game, unfortunately.

[He hesitated for a second, like a needle briefly hopping on a record before settling back into place.]

[The smell of stagnant air. Cold sculpted marble under his hand, covered by a layer of dust. A name he couldn't remember that kept coming up again and again in fragments of lost history buried and locked away.]

[...Phoenix wasn't sure what it meant, but he was beginning to form the vaguest lines of a full picture that left him extremely uneasy.]

...Try me, we both might be surprised.

[He could picture a chessboard, certainly. And holding the image of so many pieces and exactly where they were at a given time might have been a suitable exercise for keeping a calm head and formulating strategy in combat.]

...Perhaps.

I am not the best of company at present. [He sounds it, too. Exhausted, where he had been his typically chipper self prior to the descent. Distant. But at least he's more present than the last bevy of memories that left him as a completely different person, in a different place, in a different time. He's mostly aware of where he is. It's just that, when he looks up, he keeps expecting someone else.] Fair warning.

That's fine. I don't mind that, so long as you tolerate my presence at all.

[Better to be miserable with someone than miserable alone. It took Phoenix a few cautious steps to find a seat opposite Chiron, but he took it regardless once he did.]

...I do hope someone would let me know if there's anything immediately amiss about the location. It seems suspiciously ordinary, I'll be quite embarrassed if the sky ends up being neon purple or some such absurdity.

Mm? [It feels safer to look, with Phoenix. Who won't see anything amiss. Blinks a few times.] Oh. I haven't paid much attention. But I suppose aside from being a looping school campus, it's oddly normal.

Well...that could certainly be worse. At least we're out of all that miserable noise.

It would have been a terrible loss had we had to leave you.

[...Oh actually maybe he should say-]

You're sitting on the white side of the board. Traditionally white goes first.

I would have been quite beside myself, I assure you.

[He carefully traced the edge of the board with a feather-light touch that ghosted over the arranged pieces on his side, drawing out the image in his head as meticulously as he was able. After some thought, he slid a pawn forward without lifting it off the board--the quiet sound in its wake like a bookmark in his head.]

...It's worth a try, if you're willing to humor me as an opponent.

So long as you take no issue with me occasionally fixing your pieces.

...I used to be quite good. I wonder if time and death have rusted me. [obviously we're not gonna pretend we know shit for shit about how good chess is played but he definitely slides a piece, just to mirror Phoenix] As they have rusted away everything else we are.

I'm not sure if I was any good or not. I think I've at least a handle on the rules, though I doubt I will be much challenge.

[It wasn't really about the game itself. He had a feeling they both could use the company, and could stand to remind himself that Chiron was Chiron.]

...Rust can be cleared away, with a bit of effort and patience. Perhaps we may yet even find something better beneath it.

[you know how they also say shit like 'rook to e4', they're doing that too just. bc he blind okay. fuck if i know how it works I just move the pieces fam]

Ah...it's the something better that worries me, I fear.

[Which is a shift. It was the something worse that had him wrapped up in a fervor before.]

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