[the biggest obvious problem with the brace is how it's clearly made from whatever scrape he could get his hands on and quickly. he misses jayce's forge like no one's business, but he's a little pleased to get a chance to do magic again now that he feels more open to it. even if his brace was basically mocking his own damn work.

his lips quirk regardless, folding up the rag but keeping it on hand in case. hm, that sounded like no chess then, or at least the lack of followup and interest made it sound that way. book club though?]

Well... I suppose in the spirit of a proper hobby it should be purely recreational, but I don't see why books that are also useful and relevant to our interests wouldn't be recreational. [they're already trying to cheat.] And you clearly have an interesting collection already.