#chessasks

Send me one of the following:

♔ - King: Talk about a time you have felt constrained and entirely reliant on others for help.

♕ - Queen: Talk about a time you have felt fully in control of a situation, like you held all the cards.

♗ - Bishop: Talk about a time you have unexpectedly slipped through the cracks in a situation.

♘ - Knight: Talk about a time you left your allies behind because you were overconfident.

♖ - Rook: Talk about a time you stood fast in defense of others

Alyssa sits on the edge of her bed, holding the porcelain mask in her hands, running a thumb along its contours, over the eerie eye holes, and up the tear drop design painted on its surface.

“‘illsbrad did a proper number on me.  M’not goin’ t’pretend I came out o’my time there ‘ole and undamaged.  Y’live f’years in ‘ostile territory surrounded b’monsters, see if y’don’t become one y’self t’survive.  What m’sayin is, I got real good at breakin’ people down.  Unmakin’ them t’get what I needed of them, before sendin’ them off t’their final rest.  Mostly it was forsaken, but I was good at it.  Came t’enjoy it.”

She sets the mask down on the bed beside her.  It’s been almost eight months since she wore it last, but she can still see Allie’s tearful face, the terror in the young Ren’dorei’s eyes as Alyssa ripped her soul free, twisted and manipulated it before shoving it back in.

“I’d left most o’that be’ind when I came t’Stormwind, least wise until someone kidnapped m’brother.  The people responsible f’takin’ ‘im acted like m’friend, brought me in, ‘elped me look for ‘im.”  A hint of venomous sarcasm in that.  “They knew what I was, what I could do.  They used it every step o’the way.  The ringleader, Clyde…I became ‘is little instrument o’torture.  ‘e used me against a friend o’mine ‘o got too close t’is business.  I did terrible things in ‘illsbrad, but I did worse things f’Clyde.  All because I believed in ‘im.  First that ‘e could ‘elp me find Damien.”

She sighs, picking up the mask again, holding it up before her features, looking through the eyeholes, before turning it over in her hand and setting it on the nightstand.  “Then, because ‘e made me believe I could get revenge on the person ‘o took ‘im in the first place.  I followed Clyde all over the Eastern Kingdoms, goin’ t’the ends o’azeroth t’do ‘is dirty work t’get back at the people ‘o ‘urt m’brother.  Took me far too long t’realize I was under their thumb the ‘ole time.”