And the city don't know that the city is getting [Anatoly and Freddie]

[loveofmasters]

[Dated September 12, 2011]Tapping the key nervously on the counter, Florence Vassey looks around the hotel lobby. The press isn’t here which is a blessing right now because neither Anatoly or she have anything to say to them, but looking around she's struck by how... foreign it is to her, so strange. At least in Merano she had been able to guess at

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[pitythetrumper]

It had become something of a habit, these games of theirs. Even now, half of the time one of them would say something that would set the other off and they'd have to leave a game half-played until the next time they came back to the board and finished that game only to start another one. It's strange. He can't really call them enemies and he will not call them friends. Compatriots, maybe. Not - never - comrades. Rivals.

Grandmasters.

He finishes the move with a flourish. Four moves until check unless Anatoly finds a way out of it. He lifts his face to smile in triumph and the smile freezes on his face when he sees the familiar face. Florence. Maureen? No, not Maureen. Not when she looks like she's walked into a trap. Not when he can feel his heart in his throat, strangling him.

His eyes drop back to Anatoly and he pales a little. He doesn't want things to go back to the way they were. He's actually - can it be? - content here. At least more than he's been since he first met Florence.

"Don't look up," he says and the plea is there for both of them to here. If he looks up, if he sees Florence, it'll all become real.

[whoneedsadream]

Anatoly heard Freddie's words but didn't register them at first. His attention was focused solely on the board and how he could get himself out of the hole in which he had found himself. He had stupidly made a few careless errors which Freddie had rightfully taken advantage of and there were few viable options left.

"Hmm? Why?" He glanced up in confusion. Freddie looked... he looked scared, almost, and that was an expression that Anatoly had never thought he would see on his rival's face. His heart pounded, he glanced around the room. There were a few people who might be able to cause such an expression and if it was Molokov or de Courcey, he was going to hit him in the face with a chair.

He only saw a familiar dark-haired woman and in flash, knew who she must be. Not his Florence, but Freddie's. If there was ever a moment where he wished he could be swallowed by the island, this was it and naturally the damned place would not oblige.

"Florence?" This conversation isn't going to go well, there is no doubt about it but the old Anatoly would have run away as quickly as he could and left Freddie to shoulder all the blame. He was going to stay and tell the painful truth even if it broke him.

[loveofmasters]

"Anatoly, I...." She paused in her question, looking at them. Something was horribly wrong, moreso than walking in on the two of them playing a civil game. There was a look of... fear on Freddie's face and he steadfastly ignored her. If anything, she'd have expected insults by now, a dig at her relationship with Anatoly, perhaps another allusion to treason, the old favorites, but this silence from him was unnerving. And then there was Anatoly, her Anatoly, not standing, not greeting her and looking like he was surprised to even see her.

Swallowing hard and taking a deep breath, she looked from one to the other, trying to regain a sudden loss of mental balance as she tried again. "Anatoly, I thought you were heading up to the room, I said I'd be right behind you. What is... what is all this?"

[pitythetrumper]

"I warned you," Freddie muttered. He looked between them. It had been a long time since he'd felt this way. Since he'd felt like he should be the one who needed to leave. Like he was the third wheel between Anatoly and Florence and that they didn't want him there. "Do you want to be the one who crushes her dreams or should that be left up to me, since I seem to crush all the rest of them?"

Of course, what he wanted to do was to walk out and pretend that he hadn't seen her. That he didn't know she was here.

[whoneedsadream]

Anatoly glared at Freddie but said nothing. He shouldn't be so surprised that the dirty work was being left for him. He would explain and then Freddie would find something to take issue with and cast him as the villain all over again. Either way, Florence was bound to be hurt and he wished he could spare her the pain.

"It is a strange story," Anatoly answered Florence as he stood up and walked towards her. He hesitated for a moment then reached for her hand. "This is... we are not in Bangkok, but someplace else. They call it Tabula Rasa."

[loveofmasters]

"Anatoly..." She took his hand, suddenly very frightened as she stepped closer to him, trying not to look at Freddie. It was hard, he was the one thing that didn't make sense, the way he sat, the way they were playing, it was all so... unlike him.

She dropped her voice so she could pretend to have some privacy. "I don't understand, how can this... I just finished checking us in. Has... Anatoly, is Molokov here, did he do something?" She wouldn't put it past him, some kind of threat, some kind of game. Never having to do with chess, but there was always a game.

[pitythetrumper]

Freddie couldn't help but snort a little. "Actually, this may be the one thing that he didn't have a hand in. Although that would be a scary thought. Molokov and Walter behind the island." Even they wouldn't do this. Well, maybe not 'wouldn't', but he was fairly sure that they couldn't do this. "But I'll be sure to let them know you think it's their fault the next time I see them."

As much as he didn't want Florence to be there, he couldn't help taunting her.

[whoneedsadream]

"Freddie, if you have nothing helpful to say then be quiet," Anatoly snapped, turning his head so he could send another glare Freddie's way. "I understand this is difficult for you but it is so for the rest of us."

He shook his head and turned his focus back to Florence. "I know it is strange and unbelievable but this is how this place works. It takes you from where you are and brings you here."

How he was going to tell her the rest, that he had been here for nearly three years and had moved on, he didn't know.

[loveofmasters]

"This can't be real, it..." She shook her head, trying in vain to clear it, throw these crazy thoughts out of the way. These horrible visions. It's a dream, a nightmare, it had to be, there was no other explanation. All she had to do was wake up, Anatoly would be lying next to her and they could have a laugh over this.

"I have to wake up. That's all there is..." She started to take a step back, to flee, to get away from this impossible thing they were describing.

[pitythetrumper]

"Fuck you," Freddie shot back. And there it was again. That feeling that he'd had in Merano and in Bangkok. The one he'd had the first few months here on the island. "The sooner that she realizes that there is no going back that we know of, the better."

He waggled his eyes at her. "I could always pinch you to see if it really is a dream. Believe me, I'd love to."

[whoneedsadream]

Anatoly briefly entertained visions of punching Freddie square across the face and how satisfying it would feel but for the sake of Florence and his desire not to have the IPD involved stayed his hand.

"It is not a dream, Florence" he said gently. "This is all very real. I... I have been here for over two years and Freddie has been here about a year. Time is strange, here."

[loveofmasters]

"Strange. Strange!?" She tried to keep the edge of a rapidly rising hysteria out of her voice. Panicking wasn't going to help anything, it certainly wasn't going to help her wake up any faster, help end this whole thing faster.

"Strange is waking up and finding out the dry cleaners sent the wrong person's clothes up to the room. Strange is finding a receipt to a restaurant you've never eaten at. This is ludicrous! Insane!" Pulling away from Anatoly, she tried to find something to sit down on before she fell down. People didn't feel faint in dreams, did they? God, this couldn't be real... could it?

[pitythetrumper]

"What he means to say is 'fucked up'," Freddie put in helpfully. "Only he's too nice to put it like that." The word was accompanied by a scowl. He hated when Anatoly pretended he was nice when they both knew better. When he'd had Anatoly's fist on his jaw. When they'd both been rolling around the dirt at fight club. That was definitely different. Even being friendly and being nice were two different things. They could tolerate each other, but in the end, they would always end up fighting again.

Didn't this prove that?

[whoneedsadream]

"If you know so much, then why don't you explain?" Anatoly snapped at Freddie, his irritation very much visible. "But no, that is beneath you, isn't it? That would require you to think of someone other than yourself and you can't possibly have with that, can you?"

[loveofmasters]

"Stop it, both of you!" Florence snapped, her glare taking in both of them equally as she sank into a nearby chair. It was too much, having them argue, on top of everything else she wasn't babysitting that. She'd had enough.

"Anatoly, look at me, please." She took a deep breath, trying to focus on him, just him. The best thing that had ever happened to her. "Tell me you're telling the truth. I'll... I'll believe you." He'd never lied to her, and honestly, she couldn't fathom a reason he'd lie now, as crazy as this was. She just... he was here. She could handle whatever happened if he was here with her.

[pitythetrumper]

Anatoly, Anatoly. It was always about him. "You'll believe him and not me." Freddie's mouth twisted and he all but snarled at Anatoly. "You know what?" He stood up. "The two of you can have your nice little reunion and can keep me out of it."

His upper lip curled into a sneer directed entirely at Anatoly. "Even if I'll miss seeing her face when you admit the truth to her."