(Untitled)

[merrimanlyon]

Merriman is in the bar, a chess board in front of him and a folded newspaper at his side. He's working out the day's chess problem in an old edition of the Times, a variation on an endgame once played between two Soviet grandmasters. Complicated, but rather elegant.

One hand hovers over a pawn, but then drifts over to pick up his cup of tea

Comments

[wine_women_song]

*Making his rounds, 'nysus stops at Merriman's table.*

Can I get you anything, or a fresh pot of tea?

[merrimanlyon]

Merriman looks up, blinks a bit, then smiles. 'I believe I could do with a fresh pot, yes. Ceylon Kenilworth, if you would be so kind?'

[wine_women_song]

Certainly! A moment...

*He walks back to the bar, and returns in a few minutes with a pot of tea, as well as a small mat to put it on. He sets the mat down, then places the pot on it.*

Should take a little while to steep, depending on how you like it.

[merrimanlyon]

'Thank you,' Merriman replies, with a cordial nod, before glancing round the bar. 'A busy evening tonight?'

[kitchen_maid]

"Are you winning?"

[merrimanlyon]

'At the moment, I am attempting to figure out how this game ended in an actual victory as opposed to a stalemate,' Merriman says, looking up from the board. 'Good evening, Amy. How goes it with you?'

[kitchen_maid]

She tilts her head, studying the board in front of him.

"I think it's entirely beyond me. But I'm very well, thank you," she says. "How are you?"

There's always just a little bit of concern when you have to ask Merriman that. You never know when the answer is going to involve various forces of Darkness.

[merrimanlyon]

This time, at least, the answer does not. Not yet, at any rate.

'Well enough, truly,' he replies, and gestures to the empty chair across from him. 'Matters have been rather quiet for me of late, for which I am most thankful.'

[politestpirate]

The Commodore's presence in the bar is quite fortuitious, given a conversation Wellard had with Melou of late, and also a certain posted sign, he has some questions.

Thankfully, the questions are more to do with the conversation, rather than the sign. (Mary will probably be asking more about the later anyways, and will not that be fun?)

So, the chess board is now sharing table space with tea- there is easily room for both.

[merrimanlyon]

There is indeed. Perish the thought that there would never be room for both.

'Good evening, Mister Wellard.' Merriman moves the newspaper to one side, just to free up a little extra room. 'How goes it?'

[politestpirate]

"Quite well enough sir- and yourself?" Chess would not be involved if there was doom happening, so Wellard thinks its a safe enough question.

[merrimanlyon]

'Taking advantage of a bit of peace and quiet,' he replies, with a nod to the board. 'I have not played a game in a while now, and so I thought I would start by working through a game played by those who are far more skilled at it than I am.'

It's safe to say that Merriman could have been a chess grandmaster, at some point along the way...though there are those who would say (with some degree of truthfulness) that he gained most of his experience through playing with real-life chess pieces.

[deserved_it]

If he happens to look up, there's a young man watching the problem intently.

(All right, "intently" may be an understatement. Eustace may, in fact, be murmuring possible solutions to himself, frowning.)

[merrimanlyon]

Merriman is quite good at knowing when he's being watched, though it does not interrupt his concentration on the game. But he slides a rook over two squares, and sits back in his chair.

The young man may be watching the chess board, but now the chess player is watching him.

[deserved_it]

The move earns a dubious, sidelong look.

It's probably a good move, really, but Eustace is working without context, and it looks like a good way to lose ground.

[merrimanlyon]

It may well be. It certainly is not the move that the winning grandmaster played in the actual game, the one recorded in the newspaper.

A red pawn moves in response -- also not a move played in the newspaper. In fact, it might seem that the pawn is being set up for a delicate trap which is quite likely to lead to a mate in four.

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary knows nothing about chess except that it involves knocking tiny wooden people over.

So the chessboard gets only a cursory glance when she marches over to Merriman and announces: "I have a question about Malory."

[merrimanlyon]

He'd known it was coming.

That's why he manages to keep the wince to a bare flicker of emotion as he turns to face her.

'What about him, Miss Lennox?'

[mmquitecontrary]

Well, Merriman is the expert.

Promptly and precisely: "What is a wanker? And does it matter to the book if Malory was one?"

[merrimanlyon]

He'd known it was coming.

That still doesn't prevent him from biting his tongue.

'First of all,' he says, all but grinding out the words, 'that particular word is not one that is typically used in polite company. It is meant to be an insult, and a rather crude one at that -- one used by people who do not have the wit or intelligence to come up with a better way of expressing their dislike of someone else.'

(At this point, he doesn't really care if Mordred might be invisible and within earshot to hear what he's just said.)

'That said, whether or not Malory was one -- I am not saying that he is, even if others do -- does not have much impact on the book as a whole. I think that the bigger question is one of accuracy. Like the questions you were asking me about the book by Howard Pyle, earlier.'