[Log] Checkmate 8D
Who: Jet Black and D
What: Shogi 8D
When: Tuesday Afternoon
Where: Jet's Room
Rating: PG!
D walked the hallway with his eerily quiet step, glancing from side to side as he looked at the various nameplates. Finally he halted and stared at a particular plague on one of the doors. He had found it.
Hesitating only slightly, D reached out a hand to knock lightly, but firmly, on the door. He waited patiently outside, not moving a muscle after lowering his arm back to his side.
He was in all black, the rim of his wide-brimmed hat slightly concealing his face as his head tilted down ever-so-perceptively. He didn't necessarily hold himself to be intimidating, but he came off that way anyway.
Even after last night's outing and consequent hangover, he still had a hard time believing what had happened to him. He wasn't a stranger to strange occurances, but normally it would have worn off by now.
The place was nice, though. And the gang was here... which was a blessing and a curse in itself, he knew, but he'd rather them there than not. He busied himself with the shogi board in his room- where had it come from?- and marvelled at it. Real wood like this was hard to come by, especially wood lacquered to such a fine degree. Well, it had been hard to come by. He guessed it wasn't such a big deal to other people.
The knock alerted him to someone at the door, as knocks usually do, and he called out a "hold on!" as he got up and stepped over. Crazy armour, he thought, wondering if everyone dressed strangely here. "You D?"
The vampire hunter nodded slightly. "Yes."
He remained standing perfectly still; he was not the type to ask for permission to enter, and neither would he simply barge on in without permission. D's eyes glanced at the room behind the man standing before him, gathering everything there was to see without comment, then settled back on Jet. Still the hunter was unmovable.
The other man scratched the back of his head, disturbed more by the silence than the other man's stature. Jet's build wasn't something to sneeze at,a fter all. "Well, c'mon in," he said cheerfully, swinging the door open and leaving it as he turned back in. The room was simple, almost bare by the castle's standards.
"You been here very long?" he asked conversationally. He was glad he'd met Faith, at least- she knew how to make good conversation. Faye was a wet blanket, Ed never made sense, and Spike was, well, Spike. He didn't know about this guy, but it didn't hurt to try. He sat down enthusiastically at the board, putting the rest of the pieces in order, almost humming to himself.
D followed his host inside the room and his eyes wandered over what he hadn't been able to see from the hallway. He paused just inside the door to shut it and then glanced to Jet.
"Not long," he said. As an after thought (and to keep the awakening, obnxious voice near his left hand quiet) he added, "Although longer than I've ever been in one place for a long time."
He stepped softly to the table, making no sound on hard floor or carpet, and took a seat. His movements were smooth to the point of absurdity. He looked at the the board being set up with mild interest, although the expression was lost on his expressionless face.
The youth glanced up at Jet. "A month maybe. You just got here." He said the last as sure as a statement, not a question.
"The other night," Jet said grudgingly. Well, he'd talked through silence before, so it shouldn't be a huge problem. And besides, shogi wasn't a game for talking through. Unless the other person was Spike. "Seems I was the last to arrive, but it doesn't feel that way. Last thing I knew, it was Faye and I on the Bebop, and then bam, I'm here." He tried not to be too disgruntled about it, but goddamnit, his ship!
"Well, may the best man win," he said with the same enthusiasm as before. "I'm pretty rusty myself, so needless to say, I'm lookin' forward to getting back into the game."
D nodded slightly. "Good luck."
Seeing as how D was the guest he took it upon himself to make the first move. He began with a simple opener then sat back to await Jet's move.
The youth's position hardly looked "comfortable" although he didn't seem to mind either way. He sat back fully in the chair, with a back straight as was once proper in a time long since lost. If one would could describe him adequately at the moment, it was definitely "proper."
Jet, on the other hand, had never been anything more than what he was, and if that was improper, so be it. Shoulders hunched, he leaned over the board, rubbing his bearded chin between pointer and thumb. "So," he asked casually after sliding a piece forward himself, "what's your story?"
"Story?" D asked, eyes staring at the board. He moved another piece into position. His eyes stared at the board a little longer before rolling upwards.
"I'm a Vampire Hunter, from Earth after the cataclyptic war. The world is ruled by the Nobles and humans struggle to survive in the Frontier." He paused, his eyes wandering away from Jet's face. "The year is... 12, 090 A.D. in my dimension. Nobles created far greater science than humans. But they're slowing dying out now."
He turned his stare back to the game board and sat quietly once more.
Jet couldn't quite manage to stop staring at the younger man in front of him, blinking a few times. "Vampires," he muttered, more to himself than to his shogi partner, hands on his knees as he looked at the board. "Hmph, I guess this place does have all sorts. Most of the people here are from the past, not common to meet someone from another future..." He stared at the board still, then moved another piece forward. "Cataclyptic war? Nuclear weapons or something"
"Yes, the Nobles--Vampires." He dipped his hat slightly and closed his eyes as he reached out to move another piece.
"The humans caused their own death with their nuclear weapons," he continued, somewhat softly. "Then the Nobles recreated the world in their image with science and magic combined. They created mythological creatures and set them free upon the world. The nuclear fallout also created malevolent beasts of it's own, and the human population barely survived. The Baborois..." he let that trail off and continued in a completely different vein. "Society grew back, the Nobles ruled all. Now the Frontier rules with its new creations and hunters and Noble remnants. You would call it a fantasy novel."
He opened his eyes and continued his stoic stare of the board in front of him.
Wow, that had just been a lucky guess. Nuclear weapons seemed so... old-fashioned, in a way. To know that someone, somewhere, had in fact used them... maybe even in his own future...
What a disturbing thought. "It sure sounds like that. Somethin' you could pick up at a store for a couple of woolongs." Magic and science combined. There was a scary thought, given what he'd seen what just science alone could do. He didn't know what more to say to any of it. Even with the castle, it all just seemed so farfetched. He gave the man another look, then turned his attention back to the board.
Several rounds went by in silence. The man had made some interesting moves- and not interesting in the same way Spike made interesting moves- and Jet found himself unsure how to proceed with some of them. Well, live and learn.
D played on in complete silence. He was used to the silence. A few times he found himself squeezing his left hand shut tightly however. That would never get used to the silence.
Eventually D began to set up Jet for an elaborate trap. It was tricky, and it was sneaky. He had a feeling it would work--at least this once. Jet seemed knowledgable, if not entirely as long-lived and therefore highly mastered as was D's skill.
It was hard to find a good shogi player back home, he considered, one arm crossed in front of him, the knuckles of the other hand rubbing his chin. A skilled one, that was something else entirely. Not many cared for this sort of entertainment, if one could call it that, and the player across from him was certainly one of the skilled ones. Jet felt he was doing a fairly good job at holding up- it was a good workout for the brain.
"My world got wrapped up in science and space travel," he said, almost as though there had never been that long pause. He cautiously moved a piece forward, cautious by nature and unaware of any trap lying ahead. "Chasing crooks across the solar system... I miss it already."
"A bounty hunter?" D said casually, the idea of space travel not entirely new to him. The Nobles had crafts that went into space--many didn't come back, but that was a matter of preference rather than hazard. There were colonies...
D glanced at the board, and if his expression were ever to show satisfaction, then this is when it would have smiled. However, D never felt the emotion much less displayed it on his beautiful countenance.
He stared at the board and again moved a piece to an already planned space. Only a few more moves left.
"I used to be in with the police, but it was rotten," he said. "Falling apart at the seams... no one cared about crime, they just cared about position and power..." He considered between this or that move, hesitated, pushed a piece diagonally two spaces. "So I left and took it into my own hands." Left? He'd nearly been blown up.
"My partner Spike and I were some of the best," he said, certain on that point. After some of the stuff they'd pulled... "...guess it didn't hurt having Faye and Ed along." And the dog. Maybe. Sure, why not, the dog too.
D nodded almost imperceptibly. He understood the machinations of humans possibly better than they did themselves. Too many years, too many villages... all the same.
"Those names... are they here as well?" D already knew the answer to that question. He didn't write much, but he kept up well enough with the journals.
He moved a piece forward a few spaces and sat back to watch the trap spring.
"Yup," he said with something of a sigh. It would be an interesting... howevery long they were here. "Spike, Faye, Ed... Julia." Next thing he knew, Vicious would pop up... if he hadn't already! It wouldn't surprise him if he had and no one had decided to tell him as much. A serious frown and drawing in of heavy eyebrows, and he hesitantly moved another piece forward. Something... something feels off...
D slid the last piece into place. "Checkmate," he said softly.
He stared at the board for a moment then looked up at Jet. "But you consider yourself lucky to have these friends here?" It wasn't completely a question, yet not entirely a statement.
Jet stared at the board a moment, blinking in confusion. "What?" he said out loud, straightening up to look at the board. No, no, that wasn't right, there had to be-
No, if he moved there, he'd- and there, same thing- maybe that piece? But-
He slapped his hand on his thigh. "Damn," he said, whistling lowly, then rubbed his head. "Didn't see that coming at all," he said with a sigh, then laughed. "That was a sneaky move!"
At the question, he blinked. "Huh?" A pause to think about it. "...sure, I guess I am. They're lousy friends, but friends all the same... no one from your world around?"
D shook his head. "No." A pause. "It wouldn't matter. There's no one..." He didn't finish the thought much less the sentence.
His left hand mumbled a complaint, barely audible to the human ear. D shifted his hand ever so slightly and the noise stopped.
He nodded once, kept his hat covering his face in the process. "Thank you. The design is very complicated, but... I could teach it to you if you like." He failed to mention that he had created it on his own after many decades of studying the game.
Jet looked at the other man, eyebrows raised somewhat with vague concern. "Hm?" he asked, but didn't go into detail with the question, thankfully. D didn't seem the sort to talk much usually. That he'd said so much might have indicated he hadn't had anyone to talk to for some time... which answered his own question. Jet hummed again, looking back at the board, the hand's muttering gone predictably unheard.
"I've never seen anything like it," Jet said, and rather than become a sore loser as he usually would with one of Faye's games, kept a firm hold on his enthusiasm. "Would you? That'd be great!"
D raised his head and then nodded. "Then we'll have to play again." He rose swiftly and suddenly. The move was elegant and precise.
The hunter looked down at Jet, no emotion on his perfectly sculptured face, and said monotonously, "Another day, Jet?"
He didn't wait for an answer. He moved to the door quickly and opened it--stepped outside.
"Uh- yeah, sure," Jet said, startled at the sudden movement, turning his head to watch the other man leave.
"Thanks for the game," he called out. Nice enough buy, all things considered. The weirdness factor being pretty high up there and all. "...how did he do that?" Jet muttered to himself, letting the door remain open as he stared back at the board, wondering what the Hell had just happened.
And the dark cloaked figure quickly disappeared down the hallway, but not before politely closing the door.
What: Shogi 8D
When: Tuesday Afternoon
Where: Jet's Room
Rating: PG!
D walked the hallway with his eerily quiet step, glancing from side to side as he looked at the various nameplates. Finally he halted and stared at a particular plague on one of the doors. He had found it.
Hesitating only slightly, D reached out a hand to knock lightly, but firmly, on the door. He waited patiently outside, not moving a muscle after lowering his arm back to his side.
He was in all black, the rim of his wide-brimmed hat slightly concealing his face as his head tilted down ever-so-perceptively. He didn't necessarily hold himself to be intimidating, but he came off that way anyway.
Even after last night's outing and consequent hangover, he still had a hard time believing what had happened to him. He wasn't a stranger to strange occurances, but normally it would have worn off by now.
The place was nice, though. And the gang was here... which was a blessing and a curse in itself, he knew, but he'd rather them there than not. He busied himself with the shogi board in his room- where had it come from?- and marvelled at it. Real wood like this was hard to come by, especially wood lacquered to such a fine degree. Well, it had been hard to come by. He guessed it wasn't such a big deal to other people.
The knock alerted him to someone at the door, as knocks usually do, and he called out a "hold on!" as he got up and stepped over. Crazy armour, he thought, wondering if everyone dressed strangely here. "You D?"
The vampire hunter nodded slightly. "Yes."
He remained standing perfectly still; he was not the type to ask for permission to enter, and neither would he simply barge on in without permission. D's eyes glanced at the room behind the man standing before him, gathering everything there was to see without comment, then settled back on Jet. Still the hunter was unmovable.
The other man scratched the back of his head, disturbed more by the silence than the other man's stature. Jet's build wasn't something to sneeze at,a fter all. "Well, c'mon in," he said cheerfully, swinging the door open and leaving it as he turned back in. The room was simple, almost bare by the castle's standards.
"You been here very long?" he asked conversationally. He was glad he'd met Faith, at least- she knew how to make good conversation. Faye was a wet blanket, Ed never made sense, and Spike was, well, Spike. He didn't know about this guy, but it didn't hurt to try. He sat down enthusiastically at the board, putting the rest of the pieces in order, almost humming to himself.
D followed his host inside the room and his eyes wandered over what he hadn't been able to see from the hallway. He paused just inside the door to shut it and then glanced to Jet.
"Not long," he said. As an after thought (and to keep the awakening, obnxious voice near his left hand quiet) he added, "Although longer than I've ever been in one place for a long time."
He stepped softly to the table, making no sound on hard floor or carpet, and took a seat. His movements were smooth to the point of absurdity. He looked at the the board being set up with mild interest, although the expression was lost on his expressionless face.
The youth glanced up at Jet. "A month maybe. You just got here." He said the last as sure as a statement, not a question.
"The other night," Jet said grudgingly. Well, he'd talked through silence before, so it shouldn't be a huge problem. And besides, shogi wasn't a game for talking through. Unless the other person was Spike. "Seems I was the last to arrive, but it doesn't feel that way. Last thing I knew, it was Faye and I on the Bebop, and then bam, I'm here." He tried not to be too disgruntled about it, but goddamnit, his ship!
"Well, may the best man win," he said with the same enthusiasm as before. "I'm pretty rusty myself, so needless to say, I'm lookin' forward to getting back into the game."
D nodded slightly. "Good luck."
Seeing as how D was the guest he took it upon himself to make the first move. He began with a simple opener then sat back to await Jet's move.
The youth's position hardly looked "comfortable" although he didn't seem to mind either way. He sat back fully in the chair, with a back straight as was once proper in a time long since lost. If one would could describe him adequately at the moment, it was definitely "proper."
Jet, on the other hand, had never been anything more than what he was, and if that was improper, so be it. Shoulders hunched, he leaned over the board, rubbing his bearded chin between pointer and thumb. "So," he asked casually after sliding a piece forward himself, "what's your story?"
"Story?" D asked, eyes staring at the board. He moved another piece into position. His eyes stared at the board a little longer before rolling upwards.
"I'm a Vampire Hunter, from Earth after the cataclyptic war. The world is ruled by the Nobles and humans struggle to survive in the Frontier." He paused, his eyes wandering away from Jet's face. "The year is... 12, 090 A.D. in my dimension. Nobles created far greater science than humans. But they're slowing dying out now."
He turned his stare back to the game board and sat quietly once more.
Jet couldn't quite manage to stop staring at the younger man in front of him, blinking a few times. "Vampires," he muttered, more to himself than to his shogi partner, hands on his knees as he looked at the board. "Hmph, I guess this place does have all sorts. Most of the people here are from the past, not common to meet someone from another future..." He stared at the board still, then moved another piece forward. "Cataclyptic war? Nuclear weapons or something"
"Yes, the Nobles--Vampires." He dipped his hat slightly and closed his eyes as he reached out to move another piece.
"The humans caused their own death with their nuclear weapons," he continued, somewhat softly. "Then the Nobles recreated the world in their image with science and magic combined. They created mythological creatures and set them free upon the world. The nuclear fallout also created malevolent beasts of it's own, and the human population barely survived. The Baborois..." he let that trail off and continued in a completely different vein. "Society grew back, the Nobles ruled all. Now the Frontier rules with its new creations and hunters and Noble remnants. You would call it a fantasy novel."
He opened his eyes and continued his stoic stare of the board in front of him.
Wow, that had just been a lucky guess. Nuclear weapons seemed so... old-fashioned, in a way. To know that someone, somewhere, had in fact used them... maybe even in his own future...
What a disturbing thought. "It sure sounds like that. Somethin' you could pick up at a store for a couple of woolongs." Magic and science combined. There was a scary thought, given what he'd seen what just science alone could do. He didn't know what more to say to any of it. Even with the castle, it all just seemed so farfetched. He gave the man another look, then turned his attention back to the board.
Several rounds went by in silence. The man had made some interesting moves- and not interesting in the same way Spike made interesting moves- and Jet found himself unsure how to proceed with some of them. Well, live and learn.
D played on in complete silence. He was used to the silence. A few times he found himself squeezing his left hand shut tightly however. That would never get used to the silence.
Eventually D began to set up Jet for an elaborate trap. It was tricky, and it was sneaky. He had a feeling it would work--at least this once. Jet seemed knowledgable, if not entirely as long-lived and therefore highly mastered as was D's skill.
It was hard to find a good shogi player back home, he considered, one arm crossed in front of him, the knuckles of the other hand rubbing his chin. A skilled one, that was something else entirely. Not many cared for this sort of entertainment, if one could call it that, and the player across from him was certainly one of the skilled ones. Jet felt he was doing a fairly good job at holding up- it was a good workout for the brain.
"My world got wrapped up in science and space travel," he said, almost as though there had never been that long pause. He cautiously moved a piece forward, cautious by nature and unaware of any trap lying ahead. "Chasing crooks across the solar system... I miss it already."
"A bounty hunter?" D said casually, the idea of space travel not entirely new to him. The Nobles had crafts that went into space--many didn't come back, but that was a matter of preference rather than hazard. There were colonies...
D glanced at the board, and if his expression were ever to show satisfaction, then this is when it would have smiled. However, D never felt the emotion much less displayed it on his beautiful countenance.
He stared at the board and again moved a piece to an already planned space. Only a few more moves left.
"I used to be in with the police, but it was rotten," he said. "Falling apart at the seams... no one cared about crime, they just cared about position and power..." He considered between this or that move, hesitated, pushed a piece diagonally two spaces. "So I left and took it into my own hands." Left? He'd nearly been blown up.
"My partner Spike and I were some of the best," he said, certain on that point. After some of the stuff they'd pulled... "...guess it didn't hurt having Faye and Ed along." And the dog. Maybe. Sure, why not, the dog too.
D nodded almost imperceptibly. He understood the machinations of humans possibly better than they did themselves. Too many years, too many villages... all the same.
"Those names... are they here as well?" D already knew the answer to that question. He didn't write much, but he kept up well enough with the journals.
He moved a piece forward a few spaces and sat back to watch the trap spring.
"Yup," he said with something of a sigh. It would be an interesting... howevery long they were here. "Spike, Faye, Ed... Julia." Next thing he knew, Vicious would pop up... if he hadn't already! It wouldn't surprise him if he had and no one had decided to tell him as much. A serious frown and drawing in of heavy eyebrows, and he hesitantly moved another piece forward. Something... something feels off...
D slid the last piece into place. "Checkmate," he said softly.
He stared at the board for a moment then looked up at Jet. "But you consider yourself lucky to have these friends here?" It wasn't completely a question, yet not entirely a statement.
Jet stared at the board a moment, blinking in confusion. "What?" he said out loud, straightening up to look at the board. No, no, that wasn't right, there had to be-
No, if he moved there, he'd- and there, same thing- maybe that piece? But-
He slapped his hand on his thigh. "Damn," he said, whistling lowly, then rubbed his head. "Didn't see that coming at all," he said with a sigh, then laughed. "That was a sneaky move!"
At the question, he blinked. "Huh?" A pause to think about it. "...sure, I guess I am. They're lousy friends, but friends all the same... no one from your world around?"
D shook his head. "No." A pause. "It wouldn't matter. There's no one..." He didn't finish the thought much less the sentence.
His left hand mumbled a complaint, barely audible to the human ear. D shifted his hand ever so slightly and the noise stopped.
He nodded once, kept his hat covering his face in the process. "Thank you. The design is very complicated, but... I could teach it to you if you like." He failed to mention that he had created it on his own after many decades of studying the game.
Jet looked at the other man, eyebrows raised somewhat with vague concern. "Hm?" he asked, but didn't go into detail with the question, thankfully. D didn't seem the sort to talk much usually. That he'd said so much might have indicated he hadn't had anyone to talk to for some time... which answered his own question. Jet hummed again, looking back at the board, the hand's muttering gone predictably unheard.
"I've never seen anything like it," Jet said, and rather than become a sore loser as he usually would with one of Faye's games, kept a firm hold on his enthusiasm. "Would you? That'd be great!"
D raised his head and then nodded. "Then we'll have to play again." He rose swiftly and suddenly. The move was elegant and precise.
The hunter looked down at Jet, no emotion on his perfectly sculptured face, and said monotonously, "Another day, Jet?"
He didn't wait for an answer. He moved to the door quickly and opened it--stepped outside.
"Uh- yeah, sure," Jet said, startled at the sudden movement, turning his head to watch the other man leave.
"Thanks for the game," he called out. Nice enough buy, all things considered. The weirdness factor being pretty high up there and all. "...how did he do that?" Jet muttered to himself, letting the door remain open as he stared back at the board, wondering what the Hell had just happened.
And the dark cloaked figure quickly disappeared down the hallway, but not before politely closing the door.