Tourney Spectator Lounge

Rose looked over the field very briefly before making her next move. "I'll move this fair knight next, then." She said, as she moved the figure from B1 to C3.

"Do you play chess often?" She asked, striking up a casual conversation with her opponent.
"When I was younger, I used to," Aelieth said, thinking of his next move. "One of my friends played competitively and would occaisionally ask me to help him practice."

He picked up the pawn on E7 and placed it upon E6.

"I was never amazing at the game, but I enjoy it." He finished the thought, looking up from the board.
"Neat. I've never known anyone who played Chess competitively." She said when he told his story. "I only play pretty casually, too. With family members and friends when we're really bored sometimes, you know?" She put her hand on her knight before noticing the move he had made.

"Oh, so that's why you did that..." She said, as she picked a new move. She decided on the fly to move her knight from G1 to F3 instead.

"Do you usually go by Aelieth? It's a pretty unique name, and since it has multiple syllables, you never know." She said with a shrug as she watched for his next move.
He thought for a while, on the move, not the question, before answering. "I guess... That's the name I usually give to people, though when they find out my last name they usually just start calling me Hadrok, I guess since it's easier to say."

Upon finishing the statement, Aelieth finally decided on a move and moved his Bishop from F1 to B4 for the capture.

"So, what about you? What made you want to take up journalism?" He asked, shifting focus from himself.
"Poor, brave little pawn. Gave his life to better serve his queen." Rose said as her now dead pawn was removed from the board.

"I'll have to rescue my knight for now, even though it dooms another pawn. That's the best shot I have for now." She thought, as she moved knight from C3 to A4.

"Well, I don't really know. It was kind of a calling, I guess. I figured it'd be great to spread information over the web, since even with all the technology available to us I think most people don't bother looking into issues or keeping up with the news. I figured I'd try and make it more available." She looked over the board as she answered, and spotting a potential mishap she grimaced slightly and inhaled before recovering and hoping her opponent wouldn't pick that up.

"Unless he already is a few turns ahead and planned that. . ." She mused.

"Also, to be fair, it looks like a fun field to get into and experience independently on my free paper could help get my name out there as experience for a real job some day."

Then, as she passed to her opponent, she added her own question, though it was more of a continuation off her last one. "What would you like to be called?"
Let's scare that little guy back to his hole... Aelieth thought, moving a pawn from B7 and set it down on B5, the aggressive action leaving the white stallion with only one safe move. At least... I hope so... a ping of self doubt ran through his head.

"Me? I'm fairly indifferent," he shrugged, giving a gesture that he yielded control of the board to Rose. "Lately it's really only been family that calls me Aelieth, but either that or Hadrok is fine by me. I don't see a problem with making it easier for people to address me. Any nicknames you go by?" he asked, "or do you usually stick with Rose?"
Rose wasn't quite sure what he was doing with his pawn, but she didn't quite care yet.

"Alright, then. I'll have to call you something." Rose commented, as she reached for a pawn in the A row, but then moved her hand over and moved her black bishop from C1 to B2.

"And yeah, I usually go by Rose." said named girl answered. "I'm not sure I'd like going by my last name alone. It seems a little masculine and jockish too a lady like me." She said with a smile.

"You have any siblings?" She asked, continuing the small talk as board control transferred to Aelieth.
"Nope. I'm a spoiled, single child," he chuckled as he answered. I guess she didn't see it... he thought, noticing that her knight was still in the same place.

"Sorry about this..." he said as an aside, making Rose regret not paying attention to the pawn. "Pawn to A4." he declared, sliding the diagonal and capturing one of her queen-killers.

"You?" he asked in reference to her family, picking the conversation back up as he returned board control to Rose.
"Oh." Rose said, having totally failed to notice such an obvious move. "No problem, all is fair in love and war." She responded as her knight was taken.

She then snapped back into the game and started working at something new.

"I've got a little brother, only a couple years younger than I am." She said, as she moved a pawn from C2 to C3.

"Got any pets?" She asked next, as control left her possession once again.
"Yeah. I've got two large breed dogs, Kelly, a Husky, and Nikki, a black Lab. There was a family cat, but he died recently from diabetes."

As he talked, he moved his bishop out of harms way, sliding it from B4 to A5.

"Any pets of your own?" he asked, mirroring her question once again.
"Nope. No pets for my family." Rose responded as she moved a knight from F3 to H4. The game certainly felt intense enough.

She didn't say anything more this time, as she examined the board. She decided to give him a chance to pick a topic.
Aelieth thought in silence for a while. After a while, he decided on a power play. As he moved his Queen from D8 to H4, capturing Rose's Knight.

"So..." Aelieth said, quickly trying to find a topic to keep the conversation rolling. "What would you say the most interesting thing you've found while working on the paper would be?" he finally said, once again reverting to Rose's experience as a journalist...

I'm gonna have to come up with some better topics... sooner or later she's going to think that I only see her as a journalist... he thought as he awaited her response and next move.
Rose was surprised by that move. She hadn't seen it coming. "Alas, both brave knights have been slain!" She said with mock excitement as she quickly looked for a new strategy.

She decided to move the pawn sitting at D2 to D4, in order to open up her back row for some movement.

"The most interesting thing I've seen in my very short career as a journalist. . ." Rose began, trailing as she looked at her opponent, "Well, I got to watch footage of someone's experience during the Electown war." She said, thinking back.

"Do you have a car or a license?" she asked, picking the next topic quickly, and assuming that as the younger and more female of the two her question wouldn't come off as creepy or stalkerish.
"Yeah, I've got my license." Aelieth said as he thought. The more obvious moves were played out, causing him to start to think in the future. "But since I have to pay for my tuition, and how easy mass transportation makes it to get around, I haven't really gotten around to getting a car."

"Knight to F6." He said, relocating his king side knight to its new home.

"How about yourself?" he asked, trying to keep the conversation rolling. As he asked, it dawned on him that he didn't know his conversation partner's age. She looked young, mid teens, but he couldn't tell if she was around learner's permit age. He decided against asking for her age, as that could be easily misconstrued as creepy.
"Neat." Rose said, as she looked over the board. "And yeah, I've got my license." She said, as she decided to force the enemy queen into making a move by moving a pawn from G2 to G3.

"I also have a car, mainly thanks to my wonderful father." She said, thinking of her car. "I just suppose I like the freedom it gives me, you know? Being able to drive really makes you a bit less dependent. It's like a stepping stone on your way towards complete independence."

"What're you trying to get into?" She asked, after thinking over the consequences of paying tuition on one's own.
"Well, for a while, I couldn't decide. I've always enjoyed working with computers, but the fields that you could enter were near endless. One day, I happened to enter the wrong room and found myself amongst people studying to become Navi designers. I dunno why I stayed, but the moment the class was let out, I went to the adminstration building and changed my Major." he reminisced, having his queen take a step back and move from H4 to H5 as he did so.

"Since then, I've been studying how to create custom Navis, mostly visual components and personalities. Well, the base of the personalities, at least. The more a personality is programmed rather than built by the experiences of the Navi itself, the less lifelike it can be."

He was content to let Rose continue picking topics of conversation while he relinquished the board to her.
"Oh, interesting." She said, as she thought about it. "Must be neat to design virtual life." She thought aloud, as she moved a pawn from F2 to F3.

"Have you made any full Navis yet?" She asked, as the control transferred.
"Yeah. Holoß is actually one of mine. His design was sorta interesting, an Navi that is more or less artificial in an already artificial world. I've still got a few bugs to work out, though..." He said, glancing away for a bit. "Because his projectors have a high power requirement, his system had to shut down his vocal routines, leaving him without the ability to speak. I just haven't been able to figure a workaround yet..."

He move a knight from B8 to C6.

"I haven't really made any more complete Navis aside from him... still learning a great deal of the theory behind creating unique and stable Navis."
"Cool." replied the girl as she looked over the board. "Good luck with that." She moved a pawn from H2 to H3 before continuing the conversation.

"So do you enjoy school, then?" She asked.
"Well, the core classes are pretty dull," Aelieth responded, shifting his queen from H5 to G5. "But the courses focusing on Navi Design and Computer Sciences are enjoyable, and hopefully will soon be the majority of my schoolwork. How about you? I'm guessing you're not in college yet, so any choices of schools lined up? Or maybe some more fieldwork before entering the journalism workforce?"