Silmeria's Game (Open RP)

[rebelvalkyrie]

Silmeria sat in the Great Hall, arms crossed and frowning at a chessboard in the midst of a game. Several minutes passed before finally moving a piece and then turning the board around to play continue playing the other side.  Ever since learning about the game, she had spent time practicing with the set she asked a house elf to bring to her

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[serrulata]

While Kurama often tried to avoid those of a more heavenly persuasion (being a demon, such avoidance was practically instinctual) a game of chess was on the short list of things he found irresistible. He watched her play a moment before speaking up.

"While it is said that one's greatest opponent is oneself, playing a two-person game alone doesn't strike me as any particular kind of fun."

[rebelvalkyrie]

Silmeria glanced at the speaker, a soul not quite human. In fact, it felt slightly familiar. She had vanished many of his kind before but like Smaug, this individual was significantly different from them.

"Is playing games included in a demon's idea of fun?"

[serrulata]

"Playing games is a major source of demonic fun." He grinned, taking a seat. "Although, the stakes are usually comprised of human souls or such rot, but I'll take conversation and a challenge as my spoils any day."

[rebelvalkyrie]

"That is good," Silmeria replied, repositioning the pieces. "And preferred over your destruction for wagering with human souls."

There were too many bystanders around for that. Besides, he's already broken multiple demon conventions by being articulate, polite and relatively hygienic.

"Are demons given names?"

[serrulata]

"Generally, yes. Mine is Kurama." He folded his hands in front of him and tilted his head to the side, thinking. "I'm afraid I've been terribly off in the human soul wagering department. I think the last wager I made was to see how long a friend of mine could stand in a locker full of shaving cream." He smiled whistfully. "I got a free lunch out of that."

[rebelvalkyrie]

"Silmeria," said in introduction. "A meal that was not your friend, I assume. How do you spend your time if not in wrecking havok amongst the mortal population?"

[serrulata]

"No. He was the cook though, a mistake I won't make again. And, by saving said mortal population, mostly, much to my personal dismay." He was lying, of course. He loved just about every moment of those saving world adventures from the good old days. "They always seem to be getting in trouble and I always seem to fall in with those pesky altruistic types." He moved his E2 pawn to E4 to start the game.

[rebelvalkyrie]

Silmeria looked curiously at Kurama before she moved her own pawn. "Perhaps you act with the altruistic because you yourself are so. I certainly cannot think that a demon who did not wish to save a human would."

Unless, of course, it was all a great ploy to betray all he made grow to trust him.

[serrulata]

"I think," he said, moving out his right-hand Knight, "You have a point there. The end of the world would be terribly displeasing, considering some of my favorite people live in it."

[rebelvalkyrie]

Silmeria raised an eyebrow. "Are your favorites the same as the annoying altruistics?" He was rather insistent of his indifference. Perhaps too insistent. Though one can't deny the element of self-service in saving the world you inhabit.

[serrulata]

"Some of them." By which he meant all of them. "And I think my mother would be rather disappointed. But alas," he sighed, a bit on the theatrical side to give her a little hint that he was teasing. "I suppose I must sacrifice demonic reputation for the sake of being a good son."

[rebelvalkyrie]

Silmeria was unmoved. "The fact you'd be willing to do so suggests you had little demonic reputation to begin with. If you remained with your friends long enough, I might have made you the first inhuman einherjar Valhalla had ever seen."

She moved another pawn.

[serrulata]

Kurama smiled and moved his knight to counter her pawn. "I rather doubt a decade of charity work makes up for several thousand years of being a murdering, lying thief, but I appreciate the flattery."

[rebelvalkyrie]

She shrugged slightly. "That does not remove you from consideration. Murderers and thieves have been chosen before and saving the world is no small feat."

Not so much by Silmeria, exactly, but she had seen who her sisters had chosen in the Hall. For herself, she would have taken notice of a demon who moved so contrary to its nature.

"How did you accomplish it?"

[serrulata]

His smile turned into a proud grin. "Blind luck, as the way it sometimes happens. That, and we're all very stubborn, competitive fellows. being second-best just will Not Do."

That, and their leader had a tenacity that denied death, and a lucky heritage to back it up, but it was mostly the machismo that kept them at their job. There was a reputation at stake, there.

"And you, Lady Silmeria? You mentioned einherjar, have your adventures leaned towards the world-at-stake variety?"

[rebelvalkyrie]

Kurama's response reminded Silmeria of Rufus.

"Yes, there had been an instance where the greed of certain individuals threatened to unbalance the world tree and cause eventual annihilation of all."

In his desire for power, Odin had taken the Dragon Orb, the treasure that kept Midgard stable. Very foolish, given that if the mortal world collapsed, so would the world of gods. Lezard's theft of the treasures would also have caused such an end, only this was less foolish in that he had created his own independent world tree to support him.

"Preventing that was more a matter of sacrifice than luck. Though luck certainly has its place in such events."