a second miracle

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

[ A small tea table is just right there, in the middle of the plane. A solitary figure sits at it, and atop it is a chessboard. All of the pieces are scattered across the table except for Bernkastel's and the pink, blonde witch on the other side of the board. Every now and then, she'll take a sip of her tea and maybe rearrange her pieces in a certain way that only she understands, but scatters them again.

Directly in the middle of the board, Bernkastel takes the pieces of the little girl swinging a purse, and sets her in the middle. ]

You can be a stand-in piece.

[ Eventually... she notices a piece that should not be on her game board. She takes it and lifts it up behind her, as if there was someone who would take it from her.

The stars behind her have been disguising thousands of pairs of cats eyes, and finally one large cat emerges from the scenery to sink its teeth into the piece, messily gnashing it to bits until there's nothing. ]

Thank you.

[ Back to her game. ]

Comments

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

That's practically a rule for those who steal. My game isn't stealing.

[ex_fatalist246]

I wasn't sure you'd decided what your game was.

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

Complicated hide and seek.

[ More cryptic honesty. ]

[ex_fatalist246]

You can play it in the dark if the power goes out again.

[He notes this answer and files it away.]

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

Dark or light, the hide and seek I play doesn't rely on that.

[ex_fatalist246]

What does it rely on? [Interrogation from the detective forever.]

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

My own skill. [ And dodgy answers from the witch forever. ]

[ex_fatalist246]

In hiding or seeking?

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

Seeking. I don't have any reason to hide.

[ex_fatalist246]

Then I guess you don't have any reason to dodge my questions.

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

You think I have?

[ex_fatalist246]

I wouldn't call you 'forthcoming.'

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

My apologies if I'm not blunt about every single detail.

[ex_fatalist246]

You're forgiven. [It's accompanied by the slightest hint of a smile.]

Can you control a chess game and play the seeker in hide and seek at the same time?

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

I don't see why not.

[ex_fatalist246]

The person who plays chess isn't usually a piece in the game.

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

... Yeah. Maybe the board I used was a little off.

[ex_fatalist246]

[Very calmly, like it's nothing:] If you try to use anybody here as a game piece against their will, I'll do everything in my power to stop you.

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

[ Just as calmly back. ] And if I told you I already had a target as the opposite king's piece?

[ex_fatalist246]

I'd ask who it was.

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

And I would not tell you.

[ex_fatalist246]

Then I guess I'll have to find out myself. [And his eyes go back to the board, and the piece she called a 'stand-in.' That would be the clue he took for now.] Thank you for this talk.

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

How strange, that you would thank me.

[ex_fatalist246]

[He gets up to leave.] The circumstances are strange also.

[mirakill.livejournal.com]

Are they?