Caitlin called Nora four times with no answer, which made sense. Nora usually passed out by 11 on most nights, and it was well past two. So, here they were, forced into each other's company, and Caitlin didn't trust her enough to sleep.
Max gladly blabbered away about some topic that Caitlin couldn't bring herself to care about. She was droning on and on, and Caitlin was already exhausted. She might've been a night owl, but that meant staying up alone, not with a random speedster stuck with her. So, she did the only thing she could think of to shut Max up, asked if she knew how to play chess and pulled out her board.
The speedster's face seemed to fall at that, but Caitlin didn't care. A nice quiet, thoughtful game of chess to move the time. Caitlin set the pieces on the board, with no help from Max. Setting the pawns first, then the rook, the knight, the bishop, the queen, the king, and so on.
They flipped a coin for colors. Caitlin won with white, which gave her a beautiful advantage. Max seemed to pay no mind, keeping herself busy with staring at Caitlin's apartment, her hands, or Caitlin herself.
The game progresses, Caitlin thinks rather highly of herself, all of her pieces are developed. Not a single piece unprotected, she starts to move to attack but is caught offgaurd when Max returns every move she gives with vicious vigor. Piece after piece, pawn after pawn, rook after rook. They're trading pieces and Max is playing like she has dozens of bishops and knights, not just two.
It scares Caitlin, she's never been a chess master but she's certainly been good.
Caitlin stares down at the stranger sitting in front of her, Max hasn't spent longer than a second with each move while Caitlin has been staring at the board for five minutes.
Max looks up and grins, moves a piece for Caitlin that at first, looks like she's being annoying. Caitlin moves to put the piece back before she realizes that this is the best move she's got, any other move and she'd either lose her queen or her bishop. Why she couldn't see it before she didn't know but Max did.
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Max theorizes sometimes, late at night when the dreams are too much, that her brain is what's going to kill her. Her body is weak on its own but her brain moves faster than a supercomputer. Can her mind self-regulate like a typical human brain can? If not, where's the limit?
Max's mind works like a computer, she runs through every situation, ever possibility, every path imaginable and sifts around till she finds the best one. Her mind lacks the human touch of instinct or cleverness so she can lose, just not very likely. So yes, chess is a bit boring and she prefers beer pong.
Caitlin pauses, her eyes slowly glide up from the board to stare quietly at Max. "You're going to win." She says like she can't believe it.
With a chuckle Max leans back, linking her hand behind her head as a makeshift pillow. "I won six moves ago." A smug grin plastered on her lips.
