Dinner anyone

Silas stood at the door of the Prescotts house/mansion/whatever. He was standing just a couple inches behind his grandparents. The rest of the family either couldn't make it, or would come later. Which meant he was stuck with his grandfather for most of the night, which never ended well. Silas was convinced that his grandfather's whole purpose in life was to ruin his. The car ride had been bad enough, and that was only a preview of what was probably to come during dinner. At least he was friends with some of the Prescotts kids. It wouldn't be the death of him, completely.

After a few seconds, Miss. Prescott opened the door to let them in. Silas realized that once again his grandfather had made it a point to arrive a half hour before dinner was served. He hated that, it meant he had to talk more.

Marina had got ready for the evening. It was one of her mother's usual dinners. She invited over a family and they had dinners. Namely the Julius family was invited over a lot. The two families had been close for awhile. The middle child of the Prescott household had just so happened to walk by the door as her mother opened it. It was the older generation of the Julius family and Silas behind them.

The daughter of Vulcan's grandparents were also over for dinner and were quite fond of the Julius grandparents. She heard her mother welcome them into their home and she stood on her tip toes to peer over her mother's shoulder.

"Hey Silas! We can head over to the study if you'd like." She offered him. Rina knew that Silas wasn't on the greatest terms with the grandfather. Besides that she knew what kind of pressure grandparents helped. She was more than happy to give him an out.

Silas could barely hold back a small sigh of relief when he heard Marina's voice. It meant he didn't have to spend at least the next half hour with his grandfather. Silas gave a quick glance to his grandmother, waiting for her ok to go join his friends. Once he recieved the small smile and nod from the woman, he spoke a soft, "Th-thanks," to his grandmother. Silas hurriedly walked away from his grandparents, and gave Marina a small smile to thank her for saving him before he followed her to her familiy's study.

Once there was an okay for Silas to join her, she began to walk down the hall towards the study. It was only a short walk until she opened the door. Inside was a bright open room. There was a huge table in the study usually meant for playing various games or hosting tea socials. Rina spent a good chunk of time in the study. It was where she found it most comfy to sit and write her novel.

She bet if they really wanted there was liquor hiding in the study too, but Rina knew she'd have to be on her best behavior while they had guests over. She would have preferred to close the door so they could talk about whatever they wanted, but to most adults that'd seem suspicious, especially after last time she shut the door with a boy in the room.

"Did you want to play a game of checkers or chess, per chance?" Rina asked him. Just trying to get something to pass the time. The closer they could make it to the dinner table without having to converse the better.

Silas follows Marina down the hall, even though, he really didn't need to since he spent a lot of time here anyway. Every time he had ever been over at the Prescott's their main hang out place was always the study. Of course today it seemed to just be him and Rina, which was fine. It always got loud and crazy when his older siblings and everyone else was there. "H-how about ch-checkers?" Silas asked, slightly annoyed with the small stutter, usually it wasn't so obvious, but he just spent a fifteen minute car ride with his grandfather, and his brain was still reeling from the awkwardness.

As much as he hated to admit it, Silas was horrible at chess, people have tried to teach him in the past, with mixed results. He had no idea what to do with any of the pieces, it was just something that never clicked for him. Besides, playing checkers was easier and he'd have an easier chance of actually winning.

Rina nodded as he mentioned checkers. She climbed onto the ladder that was on the bookcase and climbed up a couple rungs until she grabbed the box of checkers and carefully jumped off the ladder onto the floor. She walked over to the table and opened the box that held the toy set of checkers the Prescotts owned. Sure they owned a glass set of both chess and checkers, but Rina wasn't into using the fancy stuff all the time.

"Alright, you can use the red checkers, and I'll use the black ones!" She said with a smile on her face as she handed him the pouch that held the red checkers in them and she took the pouch that had the black checkers in it for herself. Slowly she began to place her checks on the board. "Prepare to lose, Silas!" Rina teased.

Silas was glad that she picked out the not fancy checkers set. He hated using the nicer one, he always felt like he was going to break the pieces by accidently dropping them or something. He took the pouch of red checkers from her, and started placing his on the board. "Yeah, I'm gonna win, like I always do." Silas said, smiling as he placed his last piece down on the board. "Ready when you are. You can move first." He leaned back a bit, so he could see the entire board better and waited for her to make her first move.

Rina had started to carefully place each of her checkers on the board. She made sure they had the proper space between them. As she did this, she could hear him talking smack back. This only put a grin on the daughter of Vulcan's face. She placed the last one and then began to study the board and tried to decide on which one to move first. No one could ever take a piece on the first move in checkers. It wasn't possible. Not logistically with all the spaces there were.

From that the brunette had grabbed the checker closest to the left hand side of the board and she moved it diagonally left putting it up against the edge of the board. Making it impossible to jump over that particular checker of hers. "Your move."

Silas smiled, as he picked a piece on the right edge of the board, and moved it out towards the middle. He would have a few moves before he had to worry about Marina trying to get it out of the games. He leaned back again, too wait for her next move. "So where's everyone else at?" He asked, trying to make conversation, his own siblings had made prior plans and had managed to get out of coming tonight. None of them wanted to spend time with thier grandfather, even if it meant hanging out with the Prescotts.

Rina watched as he made his next move. She continued to look at the board in front of her. It took her a minute to decide. There were too many options this early in the game. So she moved the checker diagonally left into the spot that the first checker she had moved was in. Still in the safe zones. From there she looked up at him to answer his question. "Roy is in the hospital after an incident that happened earlier today. Caelia went to keep him company for a bit. Amara and Felix might be by later with their parents. Depends." Rina said with a bit of a shrug and then added. "Roy is alright. Not in danger of dying. If he was, I doubt my mother would be hosting a dinner tonight."  

Silas nodded, as he stared at the board trying to decide what to do next. There werent any real moves to be made still, so he picked a piece and moved it up, still safe. "Linus and Natalia are with them also, along with my parents. Said they would come closer to dinnertime. I heard about Roy." Actually the entire legion heard about Roy and Sophia's battle with the unknown shadow monsters, it was all that the cohorts were talking about. "G-good that he'll be okay, though."

"Well maybe not entirely okay." Rina said thinking out loud a little bit as she watched him place his checker somewhere else. For now they were both safe in where they had placed their checker. Marina just moved the bottom checker to replace the other one she had just moved. Still keeping it safe. "It's fairly certain that he's going to lose his eye. Poor guy. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger though, right? Hopefully they'll be back later to get some food." She said with a small shrug of her shoulders. "How are Natalia and Linus anyways?"

"That sucks. If he needs any tips on how to be part-ially blind, tell him to let me know." Silas said, awkwardly. He remembered when he had lost his sight in his right eye, that it had been excruciatingly painful. Though, Silas was pretty sure Roy had it worse. He moved a piece closer to one of hers, still safe, but not for long, he still had time to block her next move though so he wasn't worried yet. "Natalia, and Linus are about the same as usual, you know, always fighting about something stupid."

"I'll let him know. I'm sure he'll appreciate it! He may not seem that way, because Roy can be a bit of a grump, but it'd be nice for him to talk to someone who gets it, you know?" Rina said with a smile. In a way it felt like she didn't do a whole lot. Her siblings were out there doing stuff and putting themselves in danger, but yet she felt like she was too safe. She needed to do more with her own life. Instead of moving her checker forward where he'd think, she moved to a different side of the board keeping that checker safe for the time being. "I think that's just what families do. We fight all the time here." She said with a small laugh.

Silas narrowed his eyes, thinking that she would of moved a piece somewhere else. No problem though, he could work with this. He picked a piece and moved it into another safe zone. Silas laughed a bit, if his siblings were here, they wouldn't be playing checkers right now, because they would all be waiting for Natalia and Linus to finish whatever spat they were in the middle of at that moment. "Yeah, I'm sure that's true." He said, leaning back again to wait his turn again.

Marina watched as he moved another checker. Soon there would be no more safe spots to go, but Rina had a plan in mind. She moved the checker that had been behind her other one to the spot it was originally in. So far she was slowly shifting her pieces up the board circling around in a way. It wasn't often she got to play anymore since none of her siblings ever felt like playing. Sometimes she could convince Felix to play checkers with her, but it was fairly rare. "Lets hope some of the others show up, otherwise we're going to have to talk about how good the legion is for at least two hours over dinner. 'Oh my, I simply adore the legion! I want to be centurion someday momma!'" Marina said with a mock accent and a bit of a laugh following after.

Silas was slowly moving his pieces up the board, he had all of his pieces guarded. And he may have managed to trap himself. He sighed, Marina was the only person who ever actually stood a chance at ever beating him in checkers, and here he was basically letting her win. Not good! He was losing his checkers mastery to Marina... He knew he'd have to let her get a piece or two before he could break the trap and start getting her back for this.

"I can only imagine the conversation topics now."

The daughter of Vulcan thoroughly enjoyed playing checkers against Silas. He was one of the better players out of everyone she knew. Most people lost within minutes of playing against her or Silas from what she heard. Rina enjoyed these games a lot because they exercised her brain and they made her think more. They were based on strategy and Marina loved strategies. The girl had mixed feelings a lot. Most times she couldn't stand the very systematic way the legion worked, but in others she wanted to succeed and she wanted people to know that she was a force to be reckoned with. She wanted to live up to the great expectations her ancestors left behind, but it was difficult a times. She always wanted to be creative and herself. She moved up her bottom checker again, not making any offensive moves yet.

"I imagine they'll ask us our plans for one. For two they'll ask about any achievements we've made since they've last seen us. Maybe if we have any love interests in mind. Or maybe they'll play match maker. I hear your family keeps trying to set Amara up with Cepheus. I remember the day Felix and I decided to tell the family we were no longer dating, it almost felt like world war three. Seemed like I was going to be accused of finding a lesser demigod to be with. As if I care about status. It's quite superficial, in my opinion."

Silas enjoyed playing checkers with Marina, because she was the only one that would actually say yes. Probably because he beat everyone else 100% of the time, and he only beat Marina 50% of the time. He almost sighed in relief though, he had at least two open pieces she could've taken. But just cause she wasn't know, didn't mean she wouldn't next. He decided to move his one piece up out of the way of danger, along the edge of the board.

Silas laughed, though he was pretty sure this dinner was going to go the same as it always was. His grandfather was going to take passive aggressive comments at him the entire time, and he was going to end up stuttering so badly that no one was going to be able to understand what he was saying. "I really hope they don't try and play match-maker again..." The last time his mom and Miss. Prescott played match-makers it had ended badly. Very badly.

It was a struggle the whole match, they were neck in neck the whole time. As always. The two of them were each others biggest competition in checkers. However despite how close the game was, there still had to be a winner and there still had to be a loser. In this case it the was was Marina. She threw her hands up in the air and shouted 'Yes!' with the biggest grin on her face, At that moment her grandmother was standing in the doorway shaking her head disapprovingly.

"Is that how a lady reacts?"

"No, but who said I was a lady?" Marina threw back as she stood up to put the checkers away.

"Dinner is ready."

"Alright, will be right there grandmother." She replied.

After they cleaned up the game they both walked over to the dinner table to take their seats.

Silas sighed, and hung his head back in fake exaggeration of defeat. He would just have to defeat her after dinner. Silas stood up from his chair, and helped Marina put away their game before he followed her to the dinner table. He didn't take his usual seat because neither of his siblings had been able to come apparently, he was stuck with just his parents now to deflect his grandfather's comments at him. He sat down in between his father, Magnus and his mother Rebecca. His grandfather was seated on the other side of his dad. Silas had a moment of hope, thinking that maybe he would forget that he was here.

Marina sat down beside her mother. Caelia and Roy hadn't come back yet. Her grandfather sat at the head of the table and her grandmother on the edge beside him. Marina had no one on her other side. Usually she sat between her two siblings or next to Felix. None of them were there for tonight. There was a silence that filled the room as everyone began to dish up the things that they wanted. Rina didn't have anything to say, and she hoped that no one would even ask her a single thing during this dinner. She hoped a saving grace would come in.

Silas piled food onto his plate, as it was passed his way. He wondered why his own siblings hadn't come, but he didn't dare ask his mom. Silas sunk down in his chair a bit, as his grandfather glanced over at him.

"So, Silas is in the run for third cohorts Opito position. Of course, we'd rather him get centurion, but he probably wouldn't be a good fit for that." Patrick Julius commented. As if he couldn't be any more subtle than that. Silas bit his lip, holding back the very sarcastic comment that came to his mind right then. This was not going to be an easy dinner.

As soon as Patrick opened his mouth to speak Rina knew it wasn't going to be good. It never was. That was why it was generally nice to have the really successful children here or the ones who were in deeper shit than the rest of them for things. "I politely disagree, Mr. Julius. I think given the chance Silas could really prove himself in a centurion position." She said grabbing her fork and picking up a piece of potato. She felt the light nudge on her foot from her mother.

"Marina, has been working hard making weapons for New Rome recently. Although she's never been considered for such a role such as Optio, I think that's a great chance for you Silas." Cora said trying to be more reassuring to Silas and to control some of the passiveness. Patrick wasn't Cora's favourite, but him and her father were fairly close so she stayed cordial with them.

Silas quickly bit into a piece of the turkey, trying really hard not to get angry. He gulped it down, as he listened to the short conversation ensued afterwards. He silently thanked Rina for talking for him. He ignored the short glare that had been sent his way from his grandfather. [color:c5e4=000099]"T-thanks, Miss. Prescott," he mumbled, trying not to mumble but it happened anyway.

"Well Silas told us last night, he never wanted anything higher than Opito anyway. The rank is a perfect fit for him, I think." Rebecca said, sending a glare right back at her father-in-law. 'Go mom!' Silas thought, Rebecca hated Patrick Julius even more than he did.