From what she'd seen, chess seemed to be an interesting game, one she'd like to learn. It didn't take much of a leap for Elphaba to all ready tell that the pieces on the board could be interpreted in different ways, most likely due to whatever move they were used to make at any given moment. She liked things that involved strategy like that, but also had equal parts symbolism. Elphaba wasn't always straight-forward about her emotions, she sometimes took a round about way of expressing them, such as she was doing now. Perhaps learning chess could give her another way to express herself. She couldn't deny that she was suddenly wishing she knew the game all ready and had a board in front of her so she could speak through moves, but she would talk.
"I would love to learn, thank you for the offer. When strategy and symbolism combine, I find I can never go wrong with them." Especially considering she was trying her best to keep herself from flying off the handle at things. She didn't want a repeat of Oz, nor did she want to repeat when she'd set all those zoo animals free. Truth be told, she'd done a very good job of keeping her temper of late. But it never hurt to have a back-up in place should her current methods fail.
While Elphaba had studied a lot of the things here on Earth, mostly history, she hadn't quite delved much into Communisim. She was fascinated by the ancient civilizations, and thus read the most about them. But once Svetlana explained the censorship, Elphaba fully understood. It was much like what the Wizard had been doing in Oz. "Oh I understand that now. Oz wasn't so different, the Wizard squelching any out-spoken voice that went against what he said." It was still sad to her that for so many years she'd believed in the Wizard, only to have all her hopes and beliefs crushed upon meeting him.
Elphaba caught the underlying pain to Svetlana's voice. It was one that sounded all-too familiar to her, and she felt bad for what she was about to tell this woman. But Svetlana had been nice enough to offer to listen, and if this woman needed to talk in return, Elphaba would gladly do so. She took a drink of her tea, then studied the liquid in the cup for some moments before she continued.
"In the Oz I'm from, I had grown accustomed to being hunted, to hiding myself from the Gale Force. But in the year I've been here, I've fallen out of those habits. When I found myself in that other version of Oz, I found I was being hunted there, but I no longer could cover my tracks like I once could. Also in that world, I found my mother and sister were still alive." She paused, looking back up at Svetlana. "My mother died when I was almost five, giving birth yo my younger sister. My younger sister was killed shortly before I ended up in this world." She paused again, drawing in a steadying breath. "When the Gale Force brought me back to the Emerald City and had me in prison, Madame Morrible came to visit, gloating over my finally being captured and how she was going to make an example of me. They...they tortured me...for days..." Her voice cracked and she looked down at her arms, though her skin was hidden beneath the fabric of the turtleneck and the wounds were healed and gone, she could see the open wounds, the burns, and she cringed, pinching her eyes shut. But when she closed her eyes, she was only greeted with images from being strapped to that table.