WHO: The Master and Svetlana Sergievsky WHEN: Today! WHERE: Park! WHAT: As if running into the 'other woman' and then finding your cheating husband is here as well isn't bad enough, have a run in with a bored Master. WELCOME TO LAWRENCE! STATUS: Incomplete RATING: TBD but there will be mind messing with. Because you know, the Master's bored.
Svetlana had been correct in assuming the girls would be happy about Anatoly being there. After all, he was their father, they had been so heartbroken when he hadn't returned home after the World Championship. It broke her heart having to explain to her daughters that he wasn't coming home, having to come up with some reason to try and ease their insecurities that they were somehow behind it. Even now, Svetlana didn't know if they ever truly bought it. After all, they were children, but they were perceptive. Even if Svetlana smiled to them and told them that their father loved them very much, they knew that she was hurting. Which would put a hole in her story. So, when he had come home with her after the second World Championship, they had been ecstatic. Then they had ended up here and they didn't know what to do. If daddy was missing again or not. If he had left again. But then, he had shown up and all was right in their world.
But not Svetlana's. Svetlana didn't know how to respond to Anatoly's arrival. Yes, she had searched for him when she had first shown up here, but as they had been walking together it made sense. She didn't know how to respond at all. It was all so fresh in her mind... but at least in Moscow, she didn't have to worry about the Hungarian. She didn't have to worry about him leaving his daughters behind again as he obviously had no care for her, even if he had actually asked if she was okay, which had confused her. But Florence was here, which meant that she wasn't sure if she could be certain he wouldn't hurt their daughters again. But they had begged to spend time with their father, alone, and Svetlana had no choice but to comply. She couldn't break their hearts. They were already so confused and lost, they needed familiarity. And as much as a horrible husband Anatoly had been to her, he had never been a horrible father.
So, as Anatoly spent the day with the two girls, Svetlana had decided she would investigate this place. She knew she would need to learn this place, and perhaps she would be able to find a way to teach the girls English as well. But somehow, she ended up at a near by park and found a chess table. Why she went to it, she didn't know. She should curse the game of chess, but she couldn't. Because even though it pulled her and Anatoly apart despite bringing them together, it was how she had always figured things out. And she did need to figure things out. How to navigate this new world. How to learn about everything she had missed in the past thirty years. How to deal with the fact that she was supposed to help fight in a battle of good and evil. Not to mention how to deal with Anatoly. So it was by instinct that Svetlana went to the empty board and sat down, staring at the pieces before moving one, losing herself in a solitary game.