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 Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:20 am
There was something that Arastoo appreciated greatly about Kirin. Not her appearance, he just held no interest in girls, though her hairstyle was extremely symmetric in comparison with the mess he’s often seen at Barren Pines, and that gave her a bonus point. Not her brains especially, as you had to be somewhat smart anyway to be included in his short list of appreciated people.
No, it was mostly the fact she was on the same floor as him. No girl to stare at him and imply many ridiculous things about his relations and morality. Of course, he was still thinking that the computer error that caused Kirin to have her room here was caused by some foreign character in her name (78% was extremely likely in his book, anyway). Perhaps even one of those poor kids who were given a line of code for a second name, who knew? “Kirin do if (v2 GT v42) compute v7 = ABS (v2-7) Thompson” was potentially pretty hard to bear for the average person, after all.
Ara reached room 16, and knocked at the door thrice. He had a large bandage on his right cheek, covering something that looked like a large bruise, and another one on his other cheek, that didn’t seem to cover anything in particular. Other than that, he looked his usual self: earnest and calm.
“Hi, Kirin, it’s me, Ara. I’m here for the timed chess game!”
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:37 pm
Kirin had been laying on his bed, eyes closed, trying to find some inner peace after an annoying day. When someone knocked on the door, Kirin was ready to bite their head off. Then he recognised the voice. Arastoo was one of the few people could tolerate, well, perhaps even enjoy the company of. There was nothing like a challenge, after all, and Arastoo managed to beat Kirin at chess just as often as he lost. Best yet, he didn't mind adding extra 'challenges' to the game that made it more tolerable for Kirin. Hence the timed chess matches.
Kirin was at the door in seconds. A quick glance over his shoulder to check that nothing incriminating was showing. Still, best not to invite Arastoo in, just in case. That was the downside about people with brains worthy of respect - they saw more than your average Barren Pines student.
"Good afternoon," Kirin greeted Arastoo with a small smile for the sake of manners. "I'd almost forgotten. Shall we head to the library?"
The library had a chess room, possibly because the school had anticipated having a chess club at some point. If they ever got that off the ground, Kirin might actually join. At the moment, though, two people wasn't enough to have a school-approved club.
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:02 am
“As usual, as you wish. You don’t seem to have planned something else instead, but if you did, we can always move it to next week.” replied Ara in reference to her having forgotten the game. “Shall we go right now?” he asked, already holding the door for his opponent. His eyes didn’t peek inside the room despite his opportunity to do so: she seemed to value her privacy (but what kind of girl at the boys’ floor wouldn’t?), and his politeness outweighed his curiosity.
“How are you?”
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 2:09 am
"Thank you," Kirin nodded politely when Ara held the door open for him. Not even looking inside, what a gentleman. Well, no one could say that Ara wasn't smart, and peeking inside Kirin's room would NOT be a smart thing to do.
"No, nothing planned. I was just cat-napping," Kirin explained as he locked his door behind him. Kirin led the way to the stairs. From the cafeteria downstairs, it was a quick cut across a concrete courtyard to the library.
"I'm fine. Wishing I could get off campus for a while, but I suppose that's why we all look forward to the holidays." It wasn't unusual for boarding schools to forbid leaving campus except on excursions and for holidays, so while annoying, Kirin didn't think anything of Barren Pines' closed campus policy. "Yourself?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 2:36 am
“Glad to hear it.” Together, they went to the stairs in direction of the courtyard. “As for me, I can’t say I mind staying here. I admit it’s hard to be friends with the people outside when 56% of them aren’t symmetric at all and 88% don’t understand why it would bother me. My sisters don’t, either.”
Arastoo remembered being teased in primary school for overanalyzing things, and his family’s inability to correct his strange behaviour. In the meanwhile, he learnt how to protect himself, and purposely spent a very large part of his adolescence studying maths and science, to the point he wasn’t quite sure anymore when he joined Barren Pines, or which students shared his House. He’s recently been trying to fix his loneliness that was reaching ridiculous levels, even for him.
“And I’m not even talking about chess. Artificial intelligence is just so predictable, and the same goes for solo video games, really. People add unpredictability to the system, but only 1 out of 13 has reasonable skills, it’s not worth looking for them” explained Ara as he reached the previous floor. If it wasn’t a challenge, it just wasn’t deemed worthy to be labelled “game” in his mind, as he could analyze anything else as easily.
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 5:23 pm
The statistics flew over Kirin's head and he was happy to ignore them. It wasn't like he had Ara's aptitude for maths - any attempt at answering about that would just come off as stupid. But when the topic switched to computer AIs...
"Ha, don't get me started on the quality of programming out there," Kirin snorted. He pushed open the door that led out into the courtyard. There was a chill breeze, but it was tolerable, nothing to go running back inside over. "I think they employ ten year olds to program AIs for them. Have you tried playing chess against the computer, instead of an online opponent? Pathetic."
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 1:49 am
"I did. Thrice, to make sure. It was always over under 3 minutes. 3. Minutes.” For good measure and in order to fulfil the 3 pattern, Ara said it again. “3 minutes.”
Ah, the courtyard. Now the fun began. He walked along an imaginary line, using only a straight line of paving stones, avoiding the darkest ones. He did it all very naturally, however, as if he’s been doing this since forever.
“I take it you like programming.” He looked at Kirin again, and suddenly, this data made its way into his brain to change his interpretation of the situation.
This greatly raised the odds that she had hacked her way into the boys’ floor intentionally. Why would she do that? He still needed a hint. Oooh, scientific curiosity.
“I’d ask you to rewrite that silly AI into something decent, but I doubt you would make it as adaptable as the average player. They can be quite rigid in their strategy.”
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 4:16 am
Kirin gave Ara a sideways glance as he repeated himself several times. Kirin couldn't decide if Ara was just that pissed off, or if there was some math-logic thing hidden in there. It was hard to miss the way Ara threw maths and statistics and his interesting logic into everything he did, including all their conversations. Kirin shrugged. It wasn't like Kirin had normal conversations, either, relying on mental flowcharts for how his female persona should speak and act.
"Like it?" Kirin wondered if that were true. In a flat, decidedly non-bragging tone, he said, "I've been told I have a talent for it - that would be how I ended up here. I don't dis-like it. And computers are certainly less annoying than most people... but whether I enjoy it...? I couldn't really say."
They walked a bit further in silence, Kirin mulling over this idea. As they neared the library entrance, Kirin began speaking again. "Not on the level that I enjoy chess, I suppose. And certainly not like I enjoy karaoke." Kirin skipped a few steps, not quite dancing, as the joy of his favourite hobby coursed through him.
Note to self: Organise a karaoke party soon!
He couldn't help but smirk at Ara's low opinion of either AIs or other players or possibly both. "The computer is too rigid, or the players are too rigid? And if it's the latter, shouldn't you include yourself in that category, too?"
Ara was better than any other chess player Kirin had met, but the other male was still quite obvious sometimes. Must be the love of maths. Which was sometimes a bonus, as Ara derived new strategies to take against Kirin (winning half the time, damn him), but the other half of the time Kirin could almost see the logical strategies forming on the board.
But since Kirin wasn't the kind to give out compliments, it was only Ara's losing matches that Kirin would deign to comment on. And this was to someone Kirin tolerated and respected for their brain, not even someone he didn't like. No wonder Kirin had been known to make girls cry.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:17 am
He looked at Kirin thoughtfully. “I see. I’m a bit the same way with numbers. Whether I like them or not is not important. What matters is that they are everywhere – or should I say everything. Almost everything, I mean.”
Ara reached the library without having checked his path; he was pretty confident that he respected his pattern. He silently mused about that irony: he appreciated unpredictable players, but everything outside of games was supposed to follow his personal mental order.
“Hah, I didn’t know about karaoke… I sing rather badly myself. I didn’t expect you to be good at it.” He shrugged. That made another odd hobby for the girl. When he looked at her, there was the lingering feeling there was something off about her, but he couldn’t quite guess what…
A grin couldn’t be helped, accompanied by a chuckle. “I meant the computers. But… maybe I’m like a computer myself, and not in the good way.”
And of course, he opened and held the library door for his opponent.
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 1:06 am
Kirin nodded. He wasn't sure he'd explained it properly - SO not anywhere on his flowcharts - so it was a relief to see that Ara understood. Not that Kirin was looking for kindred spirits, just trying to avoid further complications.
"Eh!" Kirin jerked at accidentally giving part of himself away. He gave an awkward laugh. "Ahaha, well, just a hobby, you know."
No, it definitely didn't fit his Ice Queen image. And the strange thing was, if Cameron had stumbled across one of their karaoke parties, Kirin wouldn't have cared. But away from that atmosphere and its freedom, it suddenly mattered that people knew Kirin could be different than how he normally appeared.
"A-anyway, I'd still rather play you than a computer AI," Kirin hurriedly tried to get back to normal ground. He brushed past Ara into the library. Strangely enough for this time of day, it seemed empty. Kirin shrugged it away. Less noise to intrude on their match. He led the way to the room set aside for chess, several boards already set up. Standing behind one of the boards, Kirin crossed his arms over his chest. In cool tones, he taunted, "Shall I let you be white? Do you need the handicap?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 2:12 am
It was hard to get Ara to ask for the handicap. “I’ll be very fine with the black pawns, thank you very much.” He walked around to his part of the board, and bowed respectfully. “And after all, ladies go first.”
A quick glance at the board… huh-oh, a hair. He took it off his rook, almost disgusted, and went to put it in the trash bin before coming back.
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 2:40 am
It was a good thing Ara walked off to the bin, because his comment about ladies had Kirin narrowing his eyes and fighting to not grind his teeth. "Oh? Well, this lady is going to kick your a**. Don't say I didn't offer you first move."
Taking his seat, Kirin set the timers up. Immediately he moved one of his pawns, then hit the timer. He started expectantly at Ara. The first few opening moves were always rather similar, it was a tad too early to pick up on a strategy just yet.
C'mon, c'mon, let's get into it already!
Unnoticed, one of Kirin's legs began bouncing gently, the only outward sign of Kirin's excitement at a decent game.
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 2:55 am
"Heh... I won't, miss."
Taking his seat, Ara immediately counter-attacked with a pawn moved to a strategic position (something to do with hindering the bishop later on), and hit the timer as well. He was calmer than Kirin in most aspects, but had a terrible poker face, and it was only a matter of time before that hopeful gleam in his dark eyes betrayed the arrival of a brilliant counter-strategy.
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 10:04 pm
Today, Kirin decided, would be a fun day to test out Ara's ability to react to rather... chaotic... strategies. A spur of the moment decision. Perhaps the thought of karaoke had the redhead in a better mood than normal.
Forgoing the traditional move of pawns first, Kirin moved one of his knights. Still out of range of Ara's pieces, but it was something Kirin hadn't tried again Ara before. Hitting the timer was simply auto-pilot at work, Kirin's mind devoted to spinning a strategy out of this impulsive move.
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Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:02 am
A knight. It wasn’t like her to do this that early, but she was definitely doing it on purpose. He stared down the board a few seconds, scanning every inch. He decided to mirror her previous move. He put his pointer finger on his own knight that faced Kirin’s, thought a couple more second, and decided to have them face each other once more. Ding, timer, and a grin.
Ara lifted his eyes towards his opponent, thoughtful. A bit more than the previous times, something tugged at the back of his mind. Something off with her. Err. Not the hair, obviously. The face… maybe the face. But what should it hint to?
The problem with Arastoo is that almost nothing could prevent him from analyzing whatever he could lay his eyes on, not even games that required his entire attention.
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