call it what it is | nate

[addilyn elara slater]

this wouldn't be the first time

it will not be the last time

October 14, 2025
Nathaniel David Forrester

It was after dinner, or at least Addy thought so. She found her usual armchair in the corner of the common room that was far enough from the commotion but close enough to feel some warmth of the fire. Even seven years later, it was still so cold down here to her, as was evident by the green and silver scarf draped around her neck. Some students were walking back in from roaming the halls, studying in the library, or whatever activities she follow Slytherins seemed to participate in without fear of consequence these days. She sat horizontally in the chair, her back leaning against one armrest while her legs were bent up against the other. Due to her small frame, she was actually quite comfortable. Her Magical Theory textbook was open--a few chapters ahead of what her assignment had called for. The last thing she needed was to fall behind, starting now in her final year of school.

The benefit of this course was that she actually found it rather interesting. She took mental notes or things to make a note of for when she finally decided to take apart the converted muggle phone device she'd acquired over the summer. She was still thinking through where to start. She hadn't noticed the common room slowly empty and the noise die down. The main noise was some shuffling and the crackle of the fire. She paused in her reading and chanced a side glance to the man part of the common room and only saw the silhouette of a familiar head--or rather a familiar thick skull setting by himself. Closing her book, she stood up from the chair and walked over and around the side of the chair to face her fellow seventh year. "Shouldn't you be studying or something?" Addy was used to seeing students up late in the common room, rushing that three-foot essay on the uses of Boomslang skin that they had an entire week to finish. There was a smirk on her face. She didn't particularly care if he had finished his homework, but why pass up an opportunity to give him a hard time.

[Nathaniel David Forrester]

now you see me.

HE SMELLED OF WEED AND THE MINT GUM HE was chewing furiously. Picking charcoal out from under his fingernails as he sat in the back corner of the Slytherin common room. The cold from the outside still clinging to his robes, tie still tied tight by his throat despite the late hour. Nate was vexed to study in his bedroom, his bed mates all equally insufferable. Messing around or snoring violently. Soon enough, if he was just patient enough, the room would empty and he could retire by the fire until his eyes grew too heavy to fight.

Unfortunately, sometimes there was someone more stubborn than Nate. The second-hand wizard chess set laid out on the table in front of him, paused in the middle of a game he was losing against himself. Dark enough that from a distance he was nothing but a shadow. Addilyn Slater had better eyesight than the average troll, though. He'd known it was her before she'd even spoken, already noting her lingering presence some time before. He did not ask for her company, or her commentary. She was intent to dole it out both in spite of this.

Fingers tented in front of him, Nate cleared his throat but didn't look up immediately. Instead, he wordlessly instructed his knight forward on the board and let his invisible partner checkmate him viciously. "Shouldn't you be out terrorising the villagers?" He retorted as the dust settled on his fallen knight. "Or... did I whistle?" He asked meanly with lifted brows, his lips thinning in to a cold representation of a smile. "Because I don't recall calling you over, Slater." He began rolling up his board, pieces with it. 

addilyn elara slater     so sorry this got lost in my notifications!

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[addilyn elara slater]

this wouldn't be the first time

it will not be the last time

October 14, 2025
Nathaniel David Forrester

Nate didn’t acknowledge her presence right away, instead opting to move his chest piece forward only for it to crumble against his opponent. Addy’s eyes lingered on the board for a moment, noting each piece's position on the board and analyzing the pattern in her mind. Chess. It had always been a favorite of hers, and when she was much younger, she’d beg her older brother and sister to play with her, though her father typically obliged. Plus, the one thing that had worked out for her in the past seven years was being named Captain of the Chess Club—it wasn’t the Prefect, Head Girl, or Quidditch Captain badge she wanted by any means. Nate gave his usual type of remark, and if Addy had been a Prefect, she might have commented on the particular smell she could pick up off him.

Addy crossed her arms loosely. ”Your knight was protecting your King. Why would you move it?” She observed. A rookie mistake, in her opinion. The bishop would have been a better option. ”I could see that from all the way over there.” Addy glanced behind her to where she had been studying. While it had been unlike her to literally curl up in a chair, even her perfect posture needed a break. She shook her head in mocked disappointment as if she was instructing one of the third years in her club. ”I can see why you never joined Chess Club or play against anyone.” It wasn’t the first time she’d observed him playing Chess by himself. In Addy’s experience, most preferred an opponent to practice against. At least Addy did. It also gave her the satisfaction of a win.

[ no worries ]

[Nathaniel David Forrester]

now you see me.

NATE HAD ALWAYS HAD SOMETHING OF A superiority complex. He liked to think himself a bit better than most. Maybe not in pedigree - being a sad little orphan and all - but in intellect, awareness and cunning. Like most Slytherin's were prone to. That is why he was loathe to be wrong. Addilyn Slater shared much of this mentality, thought Nate, she was just far more vocally irritating about it. He was happy to think it privately, unless challenged. It made her presence doubly insufferable at times. No matter how fit she was.

"I'm aware." He drawled, pulling in a slow breath as he stared up at her without humour. "I'm glad you enjoyed the show." Nate added, smirking falsely as he leaned back in his chair until the front chair legs lifted gently, ankle hooked on the table's leg. "But, I hate to be the one to tell you, Chess Master..." He mock-whispered, hand cupped around his mouth. "It's not really losing if you're playing yourself." He shrugged, clicking his tongue as if he were revealing something of great magnitude.

Nate rocked his chair back twice more before setting back on all four with a hard thud. Beginning to gather his pieces in to some semblance of order. "It was stalemate, Slater." He told her, not even deigning to meet her eye as he chewed his gum lazily, tongue rolling in his mouth. "In chess, you always have to look 20 moves ahead." He spoke mostly to himself. "I could have protected my King, lost it four moves later-" He steadied a piece, rolling the head between his finger and thumb before pressing down harshly. It was knocked with age. "Or, I could have bowed out and went to bed early." He turned his face then, a thin and too-large smile stretching his cheeks unnaturally.

"And, for your information-" He added with mocking cheer, appraising her from head-to-toe. Her expensive robes tailored an inch off her ankle, tie brand-new and hair brushed to a mirror sheen. "I have never had any interest in the Chess 'n' Pals club." Nate wrinkled his nose in cruel disapproval as he finished laying his pieces out in order. "Where everybody has their pristine little hand-made, daddy's-pressie boards polished to a fine sheen." He cast her a look of superior pity as he spoke with quiet dismissal. "Your club's a fucking farce, Slater." The only member Nate would even think of playing was Addilyn and that was just because she could beat him - had beaten him. 

addilyn elara slater       

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[addilyn elara slater]

this wouldn't be the first time

it will not be the last time

October 14, 2025
Nathaniel David Forrester

Addy had known Nate for the entirety of their time at Hogwarts, and their personalities had always clashed. It wasn’t that she entirely disliked him, but her competitive nature was quickly brought out by him and overtook everything else she might have been feeling. There was a lack of amusement in his voice, it wasn’t lost on her, but she didn’t move or waver. Maybe it wasn’t off-putting because they were similar in that way and because their friends tended to belong to Hufflepuff rather than their own house. And not that Addy would admit it, but Nate had a point. Who was your greatest opponent, if not yourself? You knew your every move and every thought, but it was the opposite of easy. Still, it wasn’t losing per say.

”I know how chess works.” She answered sharply. The ability to think ahead and have a plan or at least respond to different possibilities was where she excelled. She was different rather than friends in her life with more fiery and impulsive natures like Brigh. ”You might think it’s a farce, but I think you’re scared to lose.” Addy’s rigid posture didn’t budge, and neither did her narrowed look. While it was her little club to manage, she hardly took such comments personally. Many thought Chess was easy until they were placed in front of a board with even a third-year who’d been practicing since they arrived at the school. It brought those students back down to Earth from whatever high horse they’d been judging from, and that was the part Addy enjoyed.

And Addy had put Nate in his place before. He would never forget if Addy had a say in that. ”Maybe if you learn to lose gracefully, it might be an easier time for you.” She challenged, that never wavering Slater superiority seeping out in her words. ”How about a quick game?” She asked. Nate wasn’t the easiest opponent, and that was the challenge and only made the victory sweeter.

[Nathaniel David Forrester]

now you see me.

IT WASN'T THAT NATE DID NOT BELIEVE ADDY knew how to play chess - In fact, Nate knew all too well. It was the look on her face he chased, the sour scrunch of her nose as she bit back sharply. And how he hid a smirk by shoving his tongue in to his cheek at the sound of it. The humour of it didn't last long, though, as Addy was a proficient verbal dueller. He hated to be considered a coward, it stuck in his teeth as he cast her a disdainful look down his nose. "Oh, do you?" He replied, voice thick with sarcasm. "You think so highly of yourself and your company." He scoffed, turning his face away dismissively.

The truth was, Nate hated losing. Who liked losing?, he thought. Losers, he answered himself. That wasn't, he maintained, why he didn't join the club. It was given that he wouldn't always win, that's why he often bowed out of his own solo games. The club was just a place were losers congregated, and that was not a place Nate wanted to be, even on his darkest day. Even if Addy was the least pitiful of any chess player he encountered. Even if she was hot enough to come out of such a club socially unscathed.

"Why on earth would I do that?" He laughed, genuinely amused this time as he leaned back in his chair. Making a point to appear overly casual as the front legs lifted and he swung on the back carelessly. Coming back down with a sharp smack of wooden legs on wooden flooring. "Nobody likes a graceful loser." His sharp eyes watched as she rounded the table and defiantly pulled out a chair. Inserting herself in to quiet moment of peace and setting his blood to a gentle, competitive simmer. "You pity a graceful loser," He expressed hungrily, pulling his chair in and straightening his posture as the pieces began to carefully rearrange themselves in to order. "They've obviously had the time to perfect their craft." He reached over and gently pushed her Queen askew on the board. "You'd know, right?" 

addilyn elara slater       

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!