Looking as if she hadn't thought this one too much, Nadia sent a knight forwards, menacing the very and only, famous black bishop.

It was at times like this she would have liked her first trap, taking her bishop that one time, would have worked. She had no reasons now to keep that knight in position anyways.

He could move the bishop aside, leaving his king open for attack, or let the bishop be taken by the knight and then exchange the piece with his queen, only to loose his queen and basically the last means of offense other than the single attacking piece on Nadia's side of the board.

Deciding on the latter, Jaren shuffled the last attacking piece (ooc: knight or rook? I've forgotten) seemingly arbitrarily.

"Nope," was all Zekke offered in the way of an answer to Ganymede's question. His eyes were laughing, still, however, and he grinned.

Just wait and see...

ooc: At this point, J's king is protected + protecting the bishop in front, and that bishop is menaced by Nadia's queen, rook and knight, while Jaren's queen is menacing the same spot when N attacks. You got it pretty right. Hence:

With seemly that last piece not being a visible threat and apparently having the way free, Nadia takes the bishop with the queen and menaces the king from all angles, so Jaren is to take queen with his own queen with no choice over it, Nadia then takes queen with her knight, and if Jaren takes the knight with the king, the king is taken by the rook, check mate.

And that, with very little variation, was exactly what happened. Jaren realized by the time he'd lost the queen that he wasn't getting out of this fix (and no, shuffling the king back and forth to avoid the knight and then the rook was not exactly a solution unless you wanted to play the game in a perpetual loop.)

With that, Jaren sat back and crossed his arms, only to freeze in shock as the white pieces on the board suddenly sprung to life, formed a single file and danced the can-can.

And stared.

"..."

Nadia had maintained a serious expression the whole way, even when she thought she had Jaren just where she wanted, she tried to attempt the pocker face despite all her excitment. At the end, and as she could only see there was no way to loose, the corners of her mouth lifted in one unhelped smirk.

And then, Jaren tumbled his king on resign, and the pieces sprung to life before Nadia could even start gloating about it.

The pieces from both the black and the white side had turned to face her and she first thought they were going to attack her thinking her to have cheated or something. But in fact, the lifted their texured lower part as skirts and spotted-pantied legs appeared undernearth. And danced. Dance the can-can from all things!

And Nadia just stared, completely bewildered by the sight.

Coming to think of it, this was even a better tease. Not able to stop herself, Nadia covered her mouth and tried not to go though a unattractive laughing fit, but failing. In the end she just snorted and started to clap along at the rhythm of the can-can dancing. "Yes, a break will do," she said, out of breath.

Jaren made a derisive noise that may have been a laugh being hastily stifled before reaching for his coffee mug and drowning all consecutive other noises in it.

Not that the actual dancing may have been funny, but the element of surprise definately helped the prank, he had to admit.

Marvelled by the show, and while keeping enough composture, Nadia danced along (moving arms, not actually the can-can) before going back to try covering her laughing.

So she continued with the laughing, and trying to stiffle it into giggling and spams, and finally resourcing to bit down her finger to stop herself, by which time there were tears in her eyes. Her eyes searched for Zekke for some explanation and that's where she thought, to her bewilderment, that she had heard laughing coming from--

At the present time, not even Jaren could hide his humor! It was only more visible by the way his coffee cup shook every so frecuently as he tried to hide behind it.

Nadia chuckled, and chuckled again. Finally the laughter was fading though slowly and the sides of her face ached. She lowered her gaze to her lap, it took having her avoid glancing the board to stop laughing. That and not remembering the sight or the equally shocking sight of Jaren laughing. Which nevertheless happened, and she voiced other such noises of mirth and stiffling them again.

As for Zekke, he had already known that the dancing was inevitable and as the pieces sprang to life, effectively surprising his comrades, he allowed himself to laugh out loud.

His laughter was rich and his eyes danced with amusement and he didn't bother to hide it this time.

"If I had known you wanted a chance at the dancing pieces, I would have suggested us play on that board," He apologized to Ganymede. "But I'm sure you'll get the pieces to dance for you when you play on that board. And yes... a break would be nice."

It would give him time to do a bit more planning, after all.

The intention of teasing and boasting about her victory was forgotten since she had pieces dance fher victory had to be flattering enough for her ego. So she instead did what she was used to do after each match at the park at Wicked Pocus - she half stood and offered her hand to shake.

"That was a great game, Jaren," she said.

Jaren nodded wordlessly, having managed to contain himself by swallowing a lot of coffee. He shook Nadia's hand solemnly then sat back, evidently not about to do much more than that.

As the last of the snickering faded, Nadia turned to Zekke and Ganymede, the last looking like she wanted to get moving. Alright, a rest. "I think I do feel like eating something now, do you happen to have any of that icecream?"

She leaned back and put her fingertips together a la MrBurn's excelent line.

Jaren shook his head, still holding a half-full coffee cup. If he had any more coffee he suspected his company would soon become rather unbearable, to put it lightly.

Nadia followed Ganymede to the kitchen, getting her icecream and such. Not much afterwards, they were back and eating. She made some slight comment about the possibility of muggles entering though that tight entrance of a pixie reserve using only vaseline and crowbar.

"I think we have rested for too long," Nadia had suddenly said, dropping her cup. "So, Zekke is my next rival, isn't he?" she said and mocked rolled up her sleeve. In her very back thoughts, she was thinking Zekke must have won the match, therefore her statement. "Unless you are too tired? Then we can leave it for tomorrow," she offered.

ooc: For the sake of posting.

"It's 1am in the morning," Jaren remarked offhandedly, checking his watch. If they wanted to stay up the rest of the night, it was fine by him. He wasn't a regular all-night person but it wasn't like his brain would automatically shut down after a certain hour in the night had passed, either.

ooc: *gets the shivers* Blast your new boldness and purpleness Backie. And yours too, Gan.

"Oh, is it? Well," Nadia blushed. "No wonder I'm feeling this tired. Guess that means we leave it for tomorrow." She didn't wait a reply and started standing up, a bit insecurely looking around. Almost had forgotten this was not usual territory. In the back of her mind, too, she wondered about dinner though she still didn't feel like eating anything since earlier, so no problem, no? "Excuse me, Zekke, I know it's up the stairs but I don't remember which exactly was my room?"

She knew it was the same as Ganymede and all, maybe she could tell her where to go, she thought as her eyes turned to her. "Hey, wait, sure, silly me," she incoherently started. "I'm fine but you didn't have dinner - coffee and icecream doesn't count. It's this late..." she trailed off.

:: Ganymede gave a small tired sigh, giving up the fact she was very tired. "I guess.. we could take a short sleep. Then wake up bright and early?" She suggested through a yawn as she scurried rather slowly toward her room.

"I mean, who knows what's gonna happen?" She yawned again, gave the others the peace sign, finished her journey to her room, and finally collapsed on the bed. She was sound asleep. ::