Conscripts

RETRO Slice of Life - 1988

♔ Henry Koning ♚

+

Name: Henry "Harry" Koning
Age: 22
Appearance:

Hair looks like actor's picture

Height: 5'8
Weight: 164 lbs

Likes:
• Chess
• Puzzle games
• Watching sports, especially football + baseball
• Travelling
• A healthy work life balance

Dislikes:
• Impatience
• Unnecessary mistakes
• Addictive substances
• Improper/Unsportsmanlike behavior

Zodiac Sign: Pisces (He doesn't believe in this)

Special Talent:
Chess: Being co-champion in the US Championship, and positive performance in international tournaments, Henry's chess talent cannot be dismissed. This translate to a variety of more general skills like memorization, visualization, pattern recognition as well as maintaining calmness in most situations.

Profession: Titled chess player. Chess coach at Delta Chess Club. Undergraduate Computer Science and Mathematics at Delta University.

Personality:
Generally a pretty chill person, Henry does not get angry quickly, nor does he express his emotions in outbursts, though he does tend to let out how he feels in a calm yet blunt way. In normal times, he tends to be pretty laid-back, and thanks to the money he raked from tournaments, chess coach and events, he could afford to enjoy the spectacles of life that he misses when he's focused on competitive chess, learn new things that he doesn't get to learn often. Without him stating it, or the sight of him playing in clubs/universities/on the streets with random people, you'd never guess he's a professional chess player. Nonetheless, Henry is still a very competitive person at his core. He treats every loss seriously and every mistake he makes both in chess and in real life critically, while victories are well-deserved and something to be proud of. He does not have any qualm to tolerate crap when it comes to the things he love, and he's more than willing to shove them back at the offenders in his trademark brutal honesty.

Bio:
Henry was born in 1966 in Florida to a family of Dutch refugees to the United States due to World War 2. His mother, Alida, had rough times trying to get by in the new living environment, and by the time of Henry's birth, she was homeless, separated (and later divorced) from her husband, and was forced to live in a van, shuttled to do different jobs to feed herself and Henry. Young Henry did not have formal elementary education, but to him it was his mother's van, where she taught him basic subjects like math, English, etc. When he was old enough to go to middle school, however, Alida had found a stable enough job and settled in a cheap run-down apartment, and he enrolled in the local Floridian middle school, where he discovered his future career as a chess player.

The chess genius Bobby Fischer who singlehandedly beaten the Soviet chess machine and dethroned Boris Spassky in 1972 inspired a wave of chess popularities in schools across the United States, including Henry's middle school with a small but cozy group of friends and teachers with interests in the game. There, Henry began to display his aptitude for the game, defeating all his peers easily after a few weeks of learning. One of the teachers then introduced him to a chess simul in Texas with a chess master and former national champion. Henry played and held his positions for over 40 moves, drawing crowds of onlookers, before being beaten. His performance, however, got people's attention, and he was introduced to attend the Florida Chess Club where he was coached properly by chess professionals. He gradually developed a solid and conservative playstyle that is difficult to crack open but often leads to draw positions.

Attending a Florida high school, Henry won two state championship in 1980 and 1981. His first brush with the US champion came in 1982, where the intimidation of going on the big league led to a less than stellar performance. By the time of his high school graduation, he surpassed the FIDE rating of 2300. In the same year, he redeemed his previous year's performance by becoming the US co-champion, losing only to the previous year's candidate.

After high school, Henry hesitated on going further into college and instead spent his next few years trying to improve his and his mother's living conditions. They moved to Delta City, and using his chess talent and riding on what's left of the chess boom left from Fischer's time, Henry coached young chess players as well as participating in chess events in multiple states for money. During this time, he also participated in multiple international chess tournaments, including one in Paris and in Latvia, finishing 9th and 4th place respectively. All these efforts secured him a fairly stable middleclass lifestyle at Delta.

Recent History:
After earning 2 norms for his performance in Paris and Latvia, Henry decided to wait a bit before going for his third norm, thus securing his International Master title. He wanted to settle down, enjoy life a bit since turning his life around and finish his university education. He's currently 2nd year undergraduate in Computer Science, minor Mathematics at Delta University.

Actor or Actress/Public Figure who would play your Character in a movie:

Tobey Maguire

Myself

Tell us about yourself:

*Your age: 21

*What part of the world are you from?
International Student from Vietnam to Vancouver Canada

*How many years have you been writing/roleplaying?
Since 2017 so 4 years

*How often do you have time to post?
If I push for it, once a day. I will sit a lot on public transit and does allow some time to just sit there and craft a post.

*Anything else you want to mention? What you do for a living? How much do you work a week? What do you enjoy doing besides writing? Put as much as you want.
I just got internship as an IT Technician, and will be working 40 hours a week. I also do game supertest for the game World of Warships. I like to play chess casually and also take a long walk in the park (more like forest) near my house.

"These are the things that make a good story great and good writers even greater."

Player Interaction Scale

3.5

RETRO Slice of Life - 1988

Oh hey, I remember Sol City. It was a way different time back then, but interesting to see another one like it. I’m gonna throw in my interest for this one as well.

Innocence Lost - A Science Fantasy RP [v.03]

Alexander Kherol

The Last Ascendancy Commander

---

Raising a Genius

---

“Mr. and Mrs. Kherol, I know the promise is a 15 years of service. 5 years in the Dragon’s Brigade, and 10 years in the home reserve army.” Said the man Kherol and Kotaro would call father, and for Kherol his second father. In front of him were his first father and mother, whom were obvious they didn’t want to have this conversation to begin with. “But from his time with us, we can say with complete candor that he is not only needed, but wanted, in our army. A man with a good heart and talent to back him up. Alexander already agreed to it, but I want to ask your permission as well, as his official guardian.”

“Look, I don’t want my child to mingle with those kind of people. I don’t care where you send him, just not up there.” Alexander’s father raised his voice for the first time since they came. He was alright with his trust on the governor as long as it was to keep him safe. But now the deal was not that anymore.

“I understand your concern, that’s why we’ll arrange a mentor for him.” Saxon gave the parent the profile of the man who would be giving Alexander pretty much all the guidance he needed for the next 2 years of his life. Faro Weinheber. A ‘retired’ Chief of Defense, now served as an instructor for young officers. A man almost with great grandkids already, but had a pretty impressive service record as well as respect (at least from the previous officer generation) and was still going. “The man has an impeccable character, I’m sure he will make sure young Kherol here would become a stellar officer.”

His father sighed, his breathe that he mustered so heavy Alexander could feel it from across the table. And he felt for him too. Accepting this would mean a lifetime of serious dedication in an extremely hostile environment. And it’s very possible that he’d also be forced to make difficult decisions, ones that could affect hundreds if not thousands of lives. Alexander was more than uncertain if he could handle such pressure, but here was his chance to change the world. He wasn’t ready to stop there. But for a parent, who wouldn’t want to be with their children, to see them safe, sound, happy, and successful.

“I don’t know, I still don’t think he should…” He sighed again before turning to his wife, Olivia, sitting right next to him. “Honey, what do you think?”

Olivia sat silent for a long moment. She wasn’t looking anywhere else but at her precious child in the eyes, or rather where she thought his eyes are behind the glasses. “Alexander said yes to this, yes?” She said softly. Both Alexander and Saxon nodded. “Then I don’t think I have much to say on the matter, do I? He knows what’s best for himself.”

Alexander was a bit perplexed. He wasn’t going to object to it, but he was surprised she’d greenlight it that easily. She wasn’t so keen on it the first time around, and it took an attempted kidnap and almost his entire hand for her to finally let him go. Perhaps she took something from that traumatizing incident.

“Great, then it’s settled.” Saxon closed the conversation and quickly packed up to leave. “I’ll be arranging some meetings with Faro, I’ll let you all know when it is time. You can stay with your family for a few days for a break.”

---

---

Those few days flew by like the breezing autumn wind. Not before long, the governor had the meeting date, time and location set, and that he’d have shuttles come over to escort him to it. Alexander enjoyed all what he could from those short days, but he didn’t know what else to be had other than just catching up with the years or have some meals together. Nobody had the mood to really do anything more than that.

Alexander already had his stuffs packed up, or rather he didn’t have much to unpack to begin with. He was wide awake before the sun got out of the comfort of its horizon, well-drilled by the military life. Like the fainting fog outside the windows, he could hear a distant sound of the piano being played from the living room. Olivia was the first person in mind. She liked calm piano music, and often put them on speakers as lullabies when he was a kid or just to make the house a lot like a home. But this time, the tune was noticeably heavier, something he never heard before.

Having nothing else to do, he left the comfort of his bed, got dressed for the trip and went out to the living room. And there was the white-haired woman, sitting there by a small electric piano that he never knew she had. Her hands floated through the keys, her fingers caressed them gently as they were her own children. Noticing her son around the corner, she turned her amethyst eyes over, but her melody continued like the voice of nature.

“It’s a little early dear. You don’t need to be up for another hour.” Olivia said.

“It’s just a routine.” Alexander replied, as she chuckled. She still hadn’t forgotten her Alex, one where she had to constantly remind to go to sleep at 3 AM, lest it affects his school performance, but never really stopped him. Once he got into the Prodigy Supplementary Program, it was never her concern anymore.

Alexander walked up to her by the piano and grabbed a chair nearby. “I never knew we have a piano.”

“I bought it last month. It’s just a cheap one from down the street. A big one would just crowd our apartment, and I wouldn’t play it that often anyway.” She said.

“Why didn’t you get one earlier?”

“I didn’t have time I guess?” She shrugged. “Only when you’re gone do I realize how boring life is. So I picked the piano up.”

“You’re very good though.” Alexander glanced over his mother’s hand movement. He knew nothing of music, but it was hard to believe that this was someone who learned the piano just a month ago.

“Well, I picked the piano up again actually.” Olivia continued to play. “I was in the school orchestra.”

“Did you have any solos?”

“I did, yeah.” Her voice picked up a little. “I think I have a copy somewhere on the bookshelf in my room. You can take them with you to the academy if you want.”

Alexander wasn’t interested in that yet though. “Why didn’t you play?” He asked.

The melody continued, but Olivia stayed silent. Her lips perched slightly, as her bright amethyst eyes stared blankly onto the piano.

“Grandmother didn’t let me.” She blurted out. “She didn’t think it was a viable career.”

“I guess…” Alexander said, unsure what else to say.

“I initially tried to go on, just to prove a point. But she forced me to go to university, and then…get married.” She continued. “When I have you, it’s pretty much over. Work began to flood my schedule, while you demand my lap like a little dog. So naturally I just forgot about the piano.”

Alexander was quite surprised to hear. He had met his grandmother a couple of times, and she did come off as an assertive person, but not to this extent. He wondered how much of the ‘get married’ part was forced on her, but he didn’t want to pry. He probably didn’t want to know either. But there was something else he wanted to know.

“…Is that why you’re ok with me doing this?”

Olivia looked up and at him in the eyes, this time directly with no cold layer of glass to quell his desire to know. The question came at her so unexpectedly, but it was not as intimidating as she would have imagined. Like mother, like son, his eyes were boundless, yet lively like the ever-expanding galaxy that surround and wrapped her into a warm embrace.

She expected nothing less from her little baby though. Barely a few notes were played and he already figured out the entire song.

“Mhm.” She only nodded, so slight he almost didn’t notice. “I wanted you to become the best of who you want to be,” Her voice trailed off weakly. “But you’re…just so beyond me, at such a young age even, that I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do. That’s why I just let you fly free.”

Everything that happened. From grade skipping, the scholarships, the supplementary program, the academic competition, the chess tournaments and now his decision to go into officer training. Not only that, but even his times around the group of friends who had now all but dissolved into the river of life with only Melinae he could keep contact with, he was allowed the autonomy that normal parents would hesitate to give to their children. It was for that reason.

Normally, Alexander wouldn’t have much to say except praises for Olivia for her progressive thoughts to not become the parent his grandmother was. But at the same time, they were given a warning when he was eight about his preceding popularity. They were aware that the Ascendancy knew, but not only chose to not let him go initially, but also still let himself be himself. And now he’s on a path that they both didn’t want.

But then again, Olivia wasn’t prepared to be a mother either, especially to a once in a lifetime genius. Above the burdens and anxiety she inadvertently caused, above the dangers she neglected because she was scared it would impede him, she still tried her hardest to be better for him and because of him. He couldn’t have asked for more than that.

Gently, Alexander leaned in towards Olivia, and gave her a kiss on her forehead. That was much he could do for now.

Innocence Lost - A Science Fantasy RP [v.03]

Alexander Kherol

The Last Ascendancy Commander

---

The Applause

---

People sometimes wondered how Alexander could keep such emotionless calm amidst danger and chaos. In response, the Grand Admiral would crack a joke or two with that same face they described. But it was uncomforting sometimes, especially being at the top, with all eyes on him looking to see what the genius would do next.

His first brush with that sort of expectation is the moment he stepped on the playing hall of the exhibition match with grandmaster Babir. The 11-year-old emerged from backstage with the pair of opaque glasses given to him by the organizer's CEO. Prompted to look intimidating and mysterious, the young Kherol crushed his contender in his first 17 games with the unpredictability of a creature beyond their comprehension. Now he walked into game 18 with the star of the event, the chess grandmaster from Korta; the two facing off in good old fashion classical chess: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves then 30 minutes for the remainder of the game, and 30 seconds addition for each move. It would be a very tiring experience for Alexander, who rarely had to go through the format before. But he was prepared regardless. He had his night's sleep, a good run through of the grandmaster's old games, and now as he approached his opponents, shook his tusk sat down readjusting his pieces, he kept his nerves under control and flow with the ticking clock besides him. And the game began with a loud clatter as the Babir started Alexander's clock.

Without hesitation, Alexander played the bishop and queen's pawn, otherwise legendarily recognized as the Queen's Gambit. This sudden deviation from his normal aggressive style of king's pawn openings went completely against Babir's expectations as all he had prepared from the first 17 games were thrown out the windows. He still had a huge reservoir of reply from years of studies, and he picked one to test the young prodigy. Alexander took little time with his openings, having already visualized the positions hundreds of times in his head. A few moves in and both sides emerged into the middlegame with no clear advantages.

However, the grandmaster already felt the unease on his shoulders, as he saw his own reflection in the motionless, emotionless Alexander. It was as if the boy's breathe disappeared the moment he put his palm on his cheek. He also took his time with his ingenuity. It was cold, unnerving and terrifying even, looking this kid in the eye, wondering if he was actually an android who probably had more emotions than he does, wondering if he's actually looking back, if he's actually calculating the game, or he's actually planning to strangle his opponents. He did all of them.

What followed was immediate suppression on Babir positions. Due to the nature of Babir's reply, one of his bishop's movements will be really negated, and in response, Alexander's innovation is to create an peculiar and innovative pawn structure to suppress other bishop as well. Babir gradually realized the significance of his opponent's intentions. Alexander was aware of Babir's flexibility with open attacks, so he forced the aging chess player into not only an extremely confined middle-game. He'd even do what was unthinkable - throwing away castling right and walked the king up out of possible bishop breakout checks, or even nonchalantly sacrificing minor pieces - to continue the movement suppression. Babir could feel the strangle tightening his noose, his pieces couldn't move anywhere meaningfully. Despite being superior in material, none of those were significant. He had no decent pawn break left; the other ones completely shatter his fortress. There were few good moves for the grandmaster.

Casually, as the noose was tightened, Alexander took his time improving his own pieces, getting them into positions. He was a lot more mobile, he had plenty of time on the clock, and his opponent couldn't meaningfully respond. The death blow did not come from any dramatic immortal sacrifices, or aggressive quick maneuvers across the board, but a gentle and stone-cold pawn push. Regardless of that pawn being taken or not, the queen would infiltrate and he's dead. He lost, there were no convincing otherwise. Babir slowly reached his hands for the clock. A loud clatter echoed the playing hall once again. It was move 56, Alexander's time sat at 50 minutes, while Babir at merely 10. He was annihilated by an 11-year-old, whose inhuman calculation and genius innovation crafted a masterpiece.

It was at this moment, that the Kortan grandmaster Babir Anchovisch, having beaten much more experienced opponents than Alexander, stood up from his chair, weakly smiled to the boy sitting across the table and gave him a round of applause. The claps was followed by hundreds others in the hall, complete in awe to the spectacular performance of this genius from Alexandria, who had just now reeled back to reality. He realized what he created, and to the thunderous applause of everyone including even his adversary, whom he had only viewed as such until now, he could only give one final handshake before hurrying off stage.

It was too much for him.

He walked to a hallway full of journalist ecstatic for a snapshot or a shameless question thrown his way. He didn't have the energy or charisma left to answer any of the 'how do you feel?' or 'did you calculate all of those moves?'. He desperately squeezed his ways into the bathroom nearby. Hunched over the sink, Alexander let out a nauseating pant. In front of this mirror, he was cold and frightening. His stomach churned; he ripped off his glasses and wiped the sweat off his brows in front of this incomprehensible creature. He did all of that. Those merciless play, the slow strangulation, the emotionless disconnect into the unearthly reality in his head.

It wasn't him pretending to be someone else he wasn't. It was him all along.

~ Valkyria Chronicles - Changing of the Guard [Pt. 2 - Open] ~

_{December 30th, Rear Trench}

---

Damn, when he said that these people are well-prepared to end other's lives in the most miserable ways possible, he wasn't understating it by any bit. If there is one thing he could say about this group of individuals, or...literally almost everyone he knew at this point. To be fair, he was pretty serious about these topics too not very long ago. War is serious business, but it drained you out. Getting a laugh out of a serious situation like this is important to keep yourself together.

"You're gonna ruin the shovel, Ms. Vicky." Michael raised his eyebrows as his side-glance met Victoria's grin. "But then again," He shrugged. "you don't pickaxe choose your missions. I certainly don't want having to dig my own grave by being merciful, am I right?"

This time, he didn't even need to waggle his brows to elicit a reaction from all the guys and gals at the table. He was pretty certain it annoyed a lot of them, but that's fine. If he could get a laugh out of someone, that was for a good cause. If not, he'd be laughing from the humorless vexation.

Apparently, the Sergeant's (also pretty serious) warning towards the lot at the table had struck a huge nerve on the Darcsen girl at the table. She simply just stormed off with some pretty heavy-handed words thrown around about how people would never be able to understand her. Ooh boy. One of those types again? At least Lucia was pretty tame and benign, given what rumors he heard about what Middleton did to her. Well, if anything, Michael knew what he needed to do later, provided both of them survived the next mission.

"Well, it's hard to ignore now that she put it that way. I'll check up on her later if I can. Have a...you know...friendly conversation."

And by that, he meant it. Even if he couldn't, something he fully expect he wouldn't be able to, get to her to open up, he'd just be someone to hang out with. Surely, even a psychotic killing machine or even an asshat like Middleton would have a life outside of being a psychotic killing machine or an asshat. Like a hobby? A song they like? Their favorite drink even? There has got to be something in there for Michael to befriend them over. Well, he'd find out, maybe or maybe not. Although he did fear that she'd just throw him out for being too intrusive. It could totally happen given the impressions, but it's not something he could control for now.

Right now, in place of the Darcsen were two guests at the table. A redheaded shocktrooper and quite a scruffy individual. The other quite a tad bit taller than the other, but both are just as quiet as the other. But to any observant eyes, he seemed shocked by the Sergeant at the table; something about him that Michael wasn't sure. Nevertheless, it didn't stop the midget sapper to approach the two with the briskly confidence that didn't really match his looks.

"Welcome! You must be part of the raid, no? How are you doing today?" He walked towards them, sandwiched between two tall fellows, and kindly stood aside and let them have the seats. Noticing earlier the Gallian's response seeing the Sergeant, Michael glanced up at him, "You alright, mister?"

@AdmrlStalfos19@Hawthorne@Nimbus@Theyra@Smike

S E C O N D C H A N C E S (An Isekai Adventure)

Robert perched his lips again at Dexter's question. It is indeed true that he didn't get to play the game very often. "It was more like nobody knew this game here. Only my wife does, and her I almost went bald explaining." It is quite a complicated game for a world full of dumb people, but who knows, there are smart people here and there, maybe even Dexter could turn out to be a hidden prodigy. Robert also grabbed a chair, took off his gambeson and comfortly laid it on his lap as he laid the pieces on the table. 16 filled the two rows closest to him, and 16 more on Dexter's side, but his was black-colored. The second row were all the same pieces, shaped like a lamp. For the first row, the pieces on the far outside looked like a castle, a horse's head, an elephant's trunk, and only the two center pieces resembled something from this world: two crowns respective of queen's and king's.

"In this game, we take turns. I go first you go second, because white pieces go first. Objective is capturing your opponent's pieces, and putting the opponent's king under attack. If your king cannot move while under attack, you lose. Every piece has its own name and rules. This piece is called a pawn." He pointed at one random piece on the second row. "Then rook, knight, bishop, queen, king." Then went to the first row and quickly tapped on the top of these pieces. He then grabbed one of the pawns "Pawn moves forward only one square, twice at first move if so choose. Captures diagonally, becomes either 4 of these pieces if reaching the other side of the board. Knight moves in an 'L' shape. Rook moves straight. Bishop moves diagonally. Queen combines both rook and bishop movements, so it has very powerful scope. And the king just move to any square surrounding it. For every pieces except for the pawn, you can capture the exact same way as you'd move. Cannot capture your own pieces." He reached for his king and immediately set up a simple illustration of a check. "How you put the king under attack, is to put him in the line of capture of other pieces, like your rook here next turn can capture my king. It's called check, and you have to evade, either by blocking, moving away, or capturing the attacker." With every point he made he put his pieces, or rather slamming it on the board in a way that it felt like he was tossing it as well to illustrate. "If you cannot stop this, it's called checkmate, and you lose."

Now, knowing his experience teaching Riley this, this is the part where her head explodes. No matter how concise he put it for this kid to learn, it'd still be a lot of info for someone. So he'd do exactly what he did with her. "Now, best by test. You might be confused, but a few games in, you'll get the idea. I won't go hard."

If he preferred to do something else, that is completely fine by him. He didn't expect anyone to get or enjoy this game this quickly.

S E C O N D C H A N C E S (An Isekai Adventure)

I'll have my post up tomorrow. I'm enjoying myself some good show on Netflix tonight

S E C O N D C H A N C E S (An Isekai Adventure)

He thought he was already being secretive enough, quietly blending into the background amongs the refugees and taking his leave silently. Apparently not though; the demon boy was behind him as the reclusive Robert was unpacking his stuffs. Well, for his reclusiveness, he didn't actually have a lot of problems with having someone else inside his house. If one were to be mindful, the house did seem to be designed for more than one person, like the large bed, two chairs next to a decorative helix structure model, etc.

"A few years, yes. Some poor salesman couldn't wait to get rid of this place, but one didn't know how to clean it up." He replied, as he turned around. "Just don't bother the machines. The rest feel free to crash."

Robert was recharging some of the machines in the room like the heaters or the clock, which had been running quite low on power for a week now - any later and the clock would need to be recalibrated - when Dexter asked about the board he had there. On the contrary to the rather casual and non-interested tone he had earlier, Robert's tone suddenly grew a bit more excited that someone took an interest in it. He walked to Dexter and stood right next to the board. "It's a game. A very tactical game, you take turns and move your pieces in a way to capture this piece here." He pointed at the tallest piece on the board with a cross above it. "Each of these pieces have their own movement rules. I can give a quick crash course if you want."

S E C O N D C H A N C E S (An Isekai Adventure)

I got it, don't worry. I'll work on my reply soon enough

S E C O N D C H A N C E S (An Isekai Adventure)

By the time the wyvern riders were done, Robert was hella out of his elements, as the barrier he created faltered almost immediately. But thankfully, it was resolved without bloodshed, and the couple thanked both Dexter and Robert for their assistance. The artificer patted the husband on the shoulder, had a firm grip before nodding in approval as he watched the two followed the trail to the village that he spoke of. Turning over to Dexter, who, for all his cowardice earlier, bravely helped him in the face of danger there, he too gave the young demon a nod.

"Thank you for the help, young one."

He might seem like a kid, but Robert found the act at least the mark of a man.

A while later, seeing MacKenzie along with the group of prisoners made Robert sigh in relief, but he was too tired to really make a scene or anything. "I hope yall are now ready to go to the village, because I sure did." Was his only remark, not really to anyone, but his side-glance to Yakeru was meant to be an indirect jab at the youngster's rashness. He might not get it right here, but later he would, because the artificer would not let this slide so easily. For now, he just wanted some fish.

He spent most of the trip back to the village in silence. Only once he reached there would he speak, mostly to the village chief, who promptly agreed to let the refugees and the reincarnated to stay there, but it will probably take a bit of time to get everything ready, because of the sudden influx of people coming in. Then, Robert would excuse himself for a couple of while or so as the village was getting ready. If one were to follow the man, they'd find quite a large house stationed in an obscure corner of the village, easily missed and hidden. It looked primitive, but make no mistake, it was very mystical once you step inside it. The ticks and clasps of wood or metal together made for a very surreal experience, as all sorts of machineries, powered by physics and a little bit of magic touch made the house lively even if no one was living there except Robert. For those attentive, there was a checkered board of 64 squares on one of the desks near the doorway, filled with pieces that might be familiar to the reincarnated. Does this game also exist in this world too?