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[atowncalledtreffy]

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[atowncalledtreffy]

He slumps down into a sitting position, his head tilted at the board, scrutinizing all the little pieces to remember where they go and how best he wants to move.

"Works for me. You go first."

[draculabutbackwards]

Adrian only faintly remembers his lessons about opening gambits. You're supposed to be able to take control of the board. It never seemed to do him any good against Father. He hops a knight and just sort of hopes, taking a seat cross-legged in the air as he does.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor snorts when he sees Adrian sitting in mid-air, only inches from the ground that Trevor's on. Goddamn vampires.

He watches the move, curious if Adrian's as good as he says or if he's fucking around. Trevor moves one of his middle pawns up two spaces, opening up a space for a bishop to come out on the next turn.

[draculabutbackwards]

At first Adrian tries because he doesn't want Trevor to feel like he's being allowed to win. And because it's a little bit funny to watch the occasional struggle to remember which bit goes where.

Then he tries because he is, quite frankly, floundering. He was just never interested in strategy. He wants to settle things as effectively as possible and can't really think more than a move or two ahead. It doesn't take long to start losing pieces, and without much regard for their value, either.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor watches, growing more confident and alert as his brain is forced back into working despite his best efforts to kill it with drink. He tilts his head a little and starts trying to help Adrian, as if that probably won’t piss him off more.

“You sure you want to move there?” He’ll ask. To give him a bit of help and maybe to rub it in his face, a little. Trevor’s lost pieces himself but he made Adrian pay dearly for them. This might be the first he’s ever gotten a chance to beat someone because no one ever takes it easy on anyone in his household. And that in turn makes him suspicious that he’s being allowed to win.

“Look, don’t move there, it leaves an opening for me to box you in that corner in a few moves. I’m trying to lure you out and you’re falling for it.”

[draculabutbackwards]

He takes it for an attempt to psyche him out the first time. And then he looses that rook. Apparently he should not, in fact, have moved it there. Honest daytime hours are creeping up, but he can't blame this on being tired. This is about the amount of sleep he usually gets, if that. He's just. Not very good.

A more detailed warning draws him up with a frown as he looks over the board, puzzles, finds Trevor's approach, and sighs. "So you are."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Yeah." He says, encouraging. "So don't move there. Or you'll be like me, running headfirst into every trap and dug hole in the fucking country. It's like...you're trying to think how you can beat me, yeah. But you're also trying to think of what I'm doing to beat you."

[draculabutbackwards]

This was not exactly what he planned for and it's a bit harder to reconcile himself to than the original plan. But. Trevor seems to be having a decent time ordering him around. He's lucky he doesn't really blush. He's not proud about learning facts, but this isn't quite the same thing.

But. All secondary to the goal here. "So move this piece first to protect the other one, or..."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Or attack me on my weak side here, where I had to move pieces around and left an opening. You're playing defensively. Which is fine, but eventually I'll wear you down."

[draculabutbackwards]

Alright, now this is chess lessons. He remembers being... kind of a brat about this part, actually, but he can't quite reconcile himself to sticking his tongue out and declaring that chess is dumb, which is the response he remembers to his first loss. "Next move, then." Not that it seems likely that there'll be too many more.

[atowncalledtreffy]

He snorts, and continues playing. Adrian plays like he's got one piece at a time - the piece he's moving - and Trevor tries to use each and every piece to start making Adrian feel enclosed and boxed in.

He's getting steadily drunker, though, so who knows? Maybe a few more rounds and Adrian'll beat him because he'll be too drunk to see straight.

"You're letting me win."

[draculabutbackwards]

"No, I am losing, but I can see how it would sort of look the same." Drunk Trevor, sober Adrian is a combination he hasn't endured in a while. It's kind of annoying. Almost ass annoying as the fact that he felt very clever for getting his hands on that rook only to lose a bishop and a pawn that actually made it a little ways.

[atowncalledtreffy]

He starts slurring his words and giving a sulky look back, despite the fact that he's winning, because drunk Trevor is annoyed and sad and suspicious.

"You're letting me win." He insists. "Dracula taught you, didn't he? Play like you mean it."

Trevor castles with his remaining rook and crosses his arms, scowling.

[draculabutbackwards]

Adrian has come out to the other side now, classifying this as a thing he's not immediately good at, and therefore not his thing. He can be breezy again. "Is it so entirely foreign to you to think you might just be better at this than I am? I never took to it particularly."

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Oh my god." He mutters under his breath, rubbing at his eyes. Trevor is under the impression that he himself is awful at it, but only because he was twelve and playing against people with twice as much experience and no inclination to take it easy on him.

Plus, it's strategy and that's where he tends to shine.

"You should take to it. It's a fucking - look, you have to consider everything you've got. You don't take one part of your forces and leave the rest home to piss away all your wine."

[draculabutbackwards]

And now he is getting chess lessons from a drunk Belmont and, well, whatever, it's doing its job. Keeping a faint, and still slightly embarrassed, smile hidden, he looks innocently across at Trevor. "You make it sound so serious. It's just a game." Bait.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor seizes onto it, blindly. He's not the clearest thinker when he's drunk.

"No, it isn't just a game. It's tactics. You learn, you adapt, and you fucking...I forget the word. Anyway. Fuck you, it's your turn."

[draculabutbackwards]

He's clearly having a very good time, in a very Trevor way. Adrian nods reluctantly, trying to look only a bit convinced. Now he absolutely is humoring Trevor, but at this point he doesn't think he's going to get caught.

And he does try for a decent move, though he's pretty sure the game is utterly unsalvageable. Positioning a bishop with an eye for a knight. Trying.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor grumbles at the board and at Adrian. He does lose the knight, and buckles down to force a quicker checkmate in response, scowling with his head propped up. He's the worst sore winner when he's drunk, too.

[draculabutbackwards]

Well. He got the night. Adrian considers a moment, then leans over and punches Trevor's shoulder. He hasn't touched the wine and has no excuse except that it's funny and might bring this back where he wants it.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Trevor rocks with the punch and makes a half-hearted swipe back at Adrian, like a cat.

"Oy! This is a DRINKING game!"

[draculabutbackwards]

"And yet you've finished most of the drink. I'm obviously losing. Let me have my forfeit." Turning the whole thing into a tussle has a certain appeal. If the board gets knocked over, have you really lost?

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Ugh. Fine." Adrian Tepes, you're the worst. He rocks back a little, scowling and rubbing his arm. It's a feint; he's not that hurt, the baby.

"Next piece, I'm hitting you back."

[draculabutbackwards]

"You won't have much choice with the bottle empty," Adrian teases. As if he could possibly have hit hard leaning around a board from a sitting position. He doesn't feel bad at all.

[atowncalledtreffy]

"Could hit you with the empty bottle." He says, moving to attack Adrian's king.

"Check."