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PROMPT: Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-07-17 04:32 am (UTC)FILL: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-07-28 07:38 am (UTC)a/n: light is in a lot of this but mostly for the purpose of being ignored. #feminism
Kiyomi allows herself the slightest trace of a smile when she notices her inbox has one new ask.
Anonymous asked: of COURSE mariko and josuke are in love you stupid bitch dont watch the movies if youre gonna twist them to fit uour stupid fantasies god i hope you die
“What is it, Kiyomi?” Light asks, sitting up behind her to peer over her shoulder. “I didn’t know you had any social media other than Twitter.”
“Don’t worry, my Tumblr is anonymous,” Kiyomi says idly. She’s already planning out a reply. Mariko clearly does not deserve Josuke, for one thing; what does she do when he goes into battle for her? Just cheer on the sidelines! It’s frankly galling how many of Hideki Ryuga’s movies’ love interests are utterly useless.
Besides, Kiyomi’s not even sure they like each other. All their on-screen time together is spent kissing. Not a single extended conversation, no shared interests, no chemistry whatsoever — why are they even together in the first place?
“Kiyomi?”
“What?”
Light regards her with a teasing smile. She could swear some expression of — calculation? anxiety? — crosses his face first, but it’s gone in a blink. “Don’t you want to get back into bed?”
“Just a second,” Kiyomi says distractedly. She has to check another blog first.
kuromisa: ughhfhghhghh anyway dnfuckingi if youre a soulless ghoul who wants to DENY LOVE
#tooootally not a vague #literally why r you in their TAG if youre gonna just post ship hate #hope kira gets you
“What are you doing, Misa?”
Misa whirls around. “Oh! Light! I didn’t see you come in.”
“I’m quiet,” Light says. He dumps a bag of groceries by the fridge, unquietly. “I got food.”
“Oh, Light, you’re the best!”
Light neatly dodges Misa’s attempted glomp. He’s so cute, Misa thinks. “Thanks. Just start on dinner soon, okay?”
“Okay!” Misa stretches. She’s done with Tumblr user monochrome-wonders anyway. That should put them off for a good long time before they come mess with her again.
Ugh. If Misa could just tell that user that she literally played the character, everything would be so much easier. But Light wants her to practice “cybersecurity” or whatever, so Misa’ll have to refrain from playing her trump card for now.
Light peers over at her phone. “Is that… Tumblr?”
“I keep telling you to follow me, don’t I?”
“Sure,” Light says. “What’s a ‘vague’?”
Misa brightens. “Sit down,” she says, shooting him fingerguns. “I’m going to learn you a thing.”
The expression of utter despair that comes over Light’s face is, honestly, really satisfying.
Kiyomi is absolutely alone in life by her own design. Other people are, generally, weaknesses. Light is an exception because he’s — Light, and he’s Kira, but otherwise Kiyomi has a hundred acquaintances and zero friends.
She doesn’t regret this decision, exactly, but it does make explaining the situation to Light somewhat more difficult.
“I didn’t even know you liked movies,” he says, with that easy grin Kiyomi has begun to realize only appears when he is completely baffled.
“I don’t,” Kiyomi explains. “I just watched a few of the one Amane-san stars in.”
Light’s mouth forms a little O before he closes it again. “And… why?”
Kiyomi frowns. Is it not obvious? “Research,” she says. “For the NYE show.”
“I see,” Light says. “It’s cool that you put that much effort into each of the performers.”
Kiyomi would ordinarily be pleased by the compliment. But Light is mistaken. “No, it’s just for her.”
“…Oh.” Light stares at her briefly. “Do you… like them?”
“Absolutely not,” Kiyomi says.
Anonymous asked: It is frankly embarrassing that someone who claims to appreciate Samurai of Love as much as you do refuses to engage with even the surface themes of the work. You cannot claim to be a ‘fan’ if you don’t like being reminded of any of the actions the characters take
Anonymous asked: .
“Fucking Mono,” Misa mutters, and stabs her salad with slightly more vengeance than usual.
Light isn’t home today, again. Probably with Kiyomi. That does lift Misa’s spirits a little — she likes imagining ice-cold Kiyomi the way she probably acts around Light: her cheeks maybe slightly flushed with wine, leaning forward with puppy-dog adoration shining in her eyes, a few locks coming loose from her perfect hairstyle…
She doesn’t like imagining Light facing Kiyomi, though. Misa should be there instead. With Light. Obviously.
“Beh,” Misa says aloud to an empty apartment.
She can’t afford to get distracted, though! She looks back down at her phone and rereads the ask (asks) (seriously, who sends another ask just to add a period?).
This has to be Mono. (Tumblr user monochrome-dreams, who Misa has nicknamed in her head because she is not saying that entire pretentious username in her head every time, and also because Mono’s blog is entirely free of any personal information.) No one else is as dedicated to proving Misa wrong about Samurai of Love. It’s not even one of the more popular movies Misa’s acted in; she doesn’t know why Mono likes talking about it so much if they don’t fucking like the movie.
Misa types back you are just mad because uou are angry and hits Answer.
Would Light dox Mono for her? Probably he could, but he’s so busy these days… Oh well. Misa will just have to keep sending anonymous asks. It’s hard work, being a Tumblr keyboard warrior.
“What does ‘you are just mad because you are angry’ even mean?”
“I don’t know, Kiyomi,” Light says. “It sounds like a logical tautology to me.”
“Exactly!” Kiyomi slams the phone down. “She’s so… belligerent!”
“I could ask Misa for you,” Light offers.
“What?” Kiyomi’s scowl briefly disappears as she looks up. “Why would she know?”
“Just a hunch.”
“I see,” Kiyomi says, not seeing. She looks back down at her phone.
At the very least, Kuromisa has given her something else to work with.
Anonymous asked: besides im friends with the actress n SHE says the authorial intent was for them to be deeply in love so like youve been proven wrong by word of god already give it upppppp
Anonymous asked: also die
Well, Kiyomi’s going to have to introduce someone to the idea of Death of the Author. Would it be more devastating to write out an entire putdown or just link the Wikipedia article?
“Kiyomi?”
“Yes?”
Light holds out the memo pad, which reads We have to discuss our plan; T has some questions. “Are you alright? You look troubled.”
Kiyomi writes: What are they? “I’m fine,” she says aloud. “It’s just that sometimes the anonymous hate bothers me.”
“Because you’re Kira’s spokeswoman?” Light’s gaze softens. “That’s understandable.” He writes: Wants to know if he can use an email scheduler so you can write your names more regularly
Oh, it’s definitely Mikami. Not that Kiyomi hadn’t already suspected. Does one/hour work for him? she writes as she says, “Yes. I love the job, it’s just… difficult sometimes.”
She does. She really does love it. Almost as much as she loves arguing with Kuromisa.
“Have you thought more about what I was saying the other day?” Light asks. He scrawls a check mark on the memo pad.
“Y-yes,” Kiyomi says. Quitting the job. Sometimes it makes her almost laugh out loud, being asked that question by Kira himself, but she’s always been good at navigating two different conversational threads. “I think… I might be ready. Soon.”
“Soon,” Light agrees.
He pushes the memo pad back at her. Also can you stop looking at Tumblr while we’re on mic, Matsuda wants to make an account now
Compromise: I’ll only do it in the bedroom from now on
…Sure
PROMPT: TEAM OCS- MOON
Date: 2024-07-17 04:34 am (UTC)Paranormal investigators / ghost hunters researching the same place
FILL: Team Anime/Manga
Date: 2024-07-25 10:14 pm (UTC)“Oh my G-d,” Cinder says loudly the moment Winter walks through the door, “leave me alone.”
Winter stops with her hand on the doorknob. She glances between Cinder crouched on the kitchen table and Emerald curled under it, then back to her car outside. When her gaze returns to the two of them — and they really do look like a pair of guilty children — her eyes have hardened. “No,” she says, and drops her backpack on the floor.
Cinder feels for something on the table she can launch at Winter’s head and comes up empty. Curse her lack of foresight. She should have known Winter would be here; they always find the same places, always manage to show up at the same times, and it would be a lot less annoying if Winter weren’t actually hired to investigate —
“We should probably go,” Emerald whispers from under the table. She’s right, technically. Winter is part of Atlas’s paranormal investigation department, which means that she’s a cop for hire who goes around abandoned buildings and shouts loudly in case the ghosts can hear her. If she’s got her hands on a case, it means Cinder and Emerald (who have been hunting ghosts since before people actually cared enough to report it to the police, thank you very much) technically are here illegally, and it means Winter could have them arrested for trespassing on a crime scene.
Technically.
Cinder wouldn’t put it past Winter, if it weren’t for the fact that she’s too much of a coward to report her. She leans over the edge of the table until she can catch a glimpse of Emerald’s face and shakes her head, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “Nah, she’ll just have to suck it up. She likes it when I’m her competition.”
“I can hear you,” Winter shouts from down the corridor. At some point she must have taken what she needed out of her bag and scuttled off. Cinder hops off the table so she doesn’t continue to look stupid in front of her ex-something and pokes her head into the corridor to look for her.
“If you can hear me,” she challenges, “why don’t you stop me? Tell me to fuck off?”
“Cinder,” Emerald hisses from the kitchen. Cinder ignores her.
Winter has made her way into the living room and is setting up her equipment already, shoulders hunched forward like she can hide the movement of her hands from view. She doesn’t even look up when Cinder comes in, just asks, “So, what have you found?”
Cinder blinks. She was expecting a lot more of a fight than that. “Probably just a standard kid haunting. The house was owned by an old couple who lost one of their daughters young.”
Winter nods decisively. “That matches the reports I’ve been given. Any luck establishing contact?”
Cinder gestures to herself, scowling. ”What do you think, Miss Professional?”
There’s a glimmer of challenge in her eyes when she glances up. “I’ve got three days to get this girl out. Are we working together or apart?”
Cinder doesn’t even have to think. “Apart,” she says, and Winter’s answering smile lights up the whole room.
FILL: Team Griddlehark
From:PROMPT: Team Transformers
Date: 2024-07-17 04:34 am (UTC)Further wishlist for inspo:
- would like to see Override keep her tradition of being the current Speedia winner/planet ruler
- off that, would love if the femme competing against Override has a massive crush on her
PROMPT: Team Webcomics/Webtoons
Date: 2024-07-17 04:35 am (UTC)PROMPT: TEAM OC MOON
Date: 2024-07-17 04:36 am (UTC)"Competition is an interaction between organisms or species in which both require a resource that is in limited supply (such as food, water, or territory)."
PROMPT: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-07-17 04:36 am (UTC)Professors in academia who keep publishing papers to debunk each other's papers
*bonus points for magic realism setting where they have opposing theories on how magic was created/should be used/can be categorized/etc
FILL: Team Anime/Manga
Date: 2024-07-25 09:49 pm (UTC)To: Winter Schnee (w.schnee@atlas.edu)
From: Weiss Schnee (w.schnee@remnant.com)
Dear Winter,
Have you Dr Fall’s response to your paper? She’s been alleging that your sources are unreliable to anyone who’ll listen. I tried to get Emerald to talk her out of it but she’s determined to attract your attention.
Your loving sister,
Weiss
[attachment - C.Fall Aura Theory]
//
To: Cinder Fall (c.fall@salem.edu)
From: Emerald Sustrai (e.sustrai@salem.edu)
Both Weiss and I think it would be a bad idea to publish your paper as it is. I’ve never met Winter in my life, but I’m taking Weiss’s word for it when she says she’s terrifying. I don’t think she’ll let you live it down and it’s possible you’ll take a significant hit to your reputation if she’s feeling particularly spiteful. Remember, she comes from old money and she was practically born with a pen in her hand. I don’t think it’s right that she could ruin you, but it’s something we should probably be keeping in mind.
Your friend,
Em
To: Cinder Fall (c.fall@salem.edu)
From: Mercury Black (mercuryyyyyy@remnant.com)
girl are you sure about this
//
To: Weiss Schnee (w.schnee@remnant.com)
From: Winter Schnee (w.schnee@atlas.edu)
Good evening.
I have seen, and I’m taking the steps to prove her wrong. As much as I hate to admit it, she brings up several important points. I should have taken more care with the construction of my paper — her criticisms are mostly linguistic loopholes. Fortunately, I’ve been reading some of her other work and I take issue with how she conceives of Aura regeneration, so I think it’s at least worth discussing in an academic setting. :)
Your loving sister,
Winter
//
weiss has sent an image
weiss: so
this bodes well
em: oh my g-d
oh no lol
weiss: i’ve never seen her do that in my life ever
it’s like a train of thought she typed out and hit enter on
she drafts every email like she’s drafting a war-ending memo
and she put a fucking smiley face on it
i think she might actually kill cinder
im so sorry in advance
em: nah she kinda asked for it
weiss: well if it’s any consolation i think she’ll leave a body
merc (third wheel): at least leave her a career at the end
my g-d
u were right shes terrifying
weiss: i love her so much but she has never heard of doing things in moderation
she may actually just drive to cinder’s house and stab her
//
To: Emerald Sustrai (e.sustrai@salem.edu)
From: Cinder Fall (c.fall@salem.edu)
lol. what’s the worst she can do? she’s an annoying prick and she deserves to be reminded that she’s not above criticism. i am not above publishing academic essays out of spite
To: Cinder Fall (c.fall@salem.edu)
From: Emerald Sustrai (e.sustrai@salem.edu)
Well, it was nice knowing you. Mercury sends his condolences.
Your friend,
Em
PROMPT: TEAM OCS- MOON
Date: 2024-07-17 04:36 am (UTC)F1 / car racing
PROMPT: Team Webcomics/Webtoons
Date: 2024-07-17 04:37 am (UTC)PROMPT: Team Webcomics/Webtoons
Date: 2024-07-17 04:38 am (UTC)PROMPT: TEAM OCS- MOON
Date: 2024-07-17 04:38 am (UTC)Rival crafters ( woodworking, crotcheting, etc) who keeps running into each other at markets and crafts fairs
PROMPT: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-07-17 04:39 am (UTC)What if we were coaches for opposing sports teams who were absolutely not allowed to fraternize with the enemy for fear of allegations of collusion, and also we were both girls?
PROMPT: TEAM OC MOON
Date: 2024-07-17 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-26 07:43 pm (UTC)Cinder starts banging furiously on the walls of the cell the moment the door closes. Winter watches her from her bed with a kind of detached curiosity. Her eyes are far too tired for her stare to burn.
It takes her more than half an hour to get sick of it, too. A new record. After the fourteenth attempt to fry the locking mechanism on the paneling with her Grimm arm fails miserably, Cinder whirls on her — it’s the only thing she can think to do, and there’s no one else in the cells with them.
Her anger dies almost immediately, if only because of how pathetic Winter looks like this. Still, it doesn’t stop her from snarling wordlessly and slamming her non-Grimm, non-electrocuted arm straight into the paneling between them. Winter doesn’t even flinch, just stares pitifully.
The fight drains out of her, too. Cinder sinks to her knees in front of the wall of her cell and digs her claws into the floor, just for something to do. Winter stares blankly at the top of her head.
Breath scrapes out of her, picks up in time with her heart pounding in her ears. Does she even have a heartbeat in her Grimm arm? Does it matter? Is the whole of her going to be Grimm one day? Does that matter, either? It was supposed to matter. Does any of it —
“Cinder, if you panic you’ll burn the whole place down.”
Cinder’s head snaps up without her telling it to. She finds Winter’s eyes through the blue paneling and glares, snarls wordlessly again. There’s the assumption of indignation there, enough of a threat to deter her from saying something again.
Winter stares back evenly, expectantly. Awaiting a response.
Her fingers curl into the metal floor. Winter makes a soft disapproving noise that dies in her throat. If she wants a response, Cinder decides, she’ll have to work for one; there’s no way she’s stooping low enough to let Winter g-ddamn Schnee look at her with even a shed of sympathy —
She sighs heavily, folding her arms over her chest. “You’ll be pleased to know we’re going to fall out of the sky anyway. So you can make it worse, if you want. We’re both dying here.” Her eyes narrow. “Salem isn’t coming to save you.”
Fire curls from Cinder’s mouth, wreathes her head in smoke. “You’d better pray she doesn’t.”
Winter scowls. “You’d better pray General Ironwood doesn’t decide to have you executed before we hit the ground.”
“Oh, please. We both know he’ll execute you first.”
She stiffens. At least, Cinder thinks she does, and she’d much rather run with that assumption than leave a blow hanging between them.
//
The city falls slowly. Cinder crawls up onto the bed in her cell to watch it happen, letting smoke bleed from the corners of her mouth. Underneath her, the floor shudders and groans as mechanisms fight to correct themselves, and Winter starts to smile.
“What?” Cinder snaps once, when the look on her face gets too smug to bear.
Winter’s eyes flick over to her. She really does have an intense stare. “They succeeded.”
“Who?”
“The kids,” she says, sounding proud, sounding triumphant. “They’ll either kill or save us all.”
That ignites something — strange in Cinder’s gut. She stares through Winter, stares through the flickering cell paneling and the hazy dying overhead lights, and finds her body moving. Finds something tight in her hands, something curling in her chest, something —
“Cinder,” Winter says sharply, “Cinder, don’t—”
The wall explodes outward, blue fragmenting into nothing, metal twisting. Winter lurches backward and vanishes behind her bed. Cinder watches her with a kind of distant fury, something violent and desperate unwinding through her fingers, bleeding white and red and black.
//
Winter carries Cinder’s unconscious body up through the empty halls of the Academy until she finds a portal. There’s movement on the other side: people running, flares of colour. Weiss, she thinks, surely Weiss.
She rubs soot from her eyes and holds Cinder closer. And then, terrified, she runs.
PROMPT: Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-07-17 04:40 am (UTC)Bonus: They start dating and eventually come around to reversible A/B. Or keep fighting about it at random unrelated times.
FILL: Team Ace Attorney
Date: 2024-07-17 09:57 pm (UTC)This is so silly andhhdbdbwjwjdj
Re: FILL: Team Ace Attorney
From:PROMPT: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-07-17 04:40 am (UTC)Helping each other cheat at a card game
FILL: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-07-17 10:22 pm (UTC)Context for non-AA fans: Trucy has a superhuman ability to perceive other people’s tells.
PROMPT: Team Transformers
Date: 2024-07-17 04:41 am (UTC)FILL: Team Kittyuri
Date: 2024-07-25 02:51 am (UTC)PROMPT: Team Webcomics/Webtoons
Date: 2024-07-17 04:41 am (UTC)PROMPT: TEAM OCS- MOON
Date: 2024-07-17 04:41 am (UTC)A race to steal a valuable item
FILL: Team Anime/Manga
Date: 2024-07-26 09:36 pm (UTC)“She’s making a competition out of stealing from us,” Winter mutters. “We need to increase security. I need to find — give me about twelve hours and I’ll have a full report of our weak areas. I’ll find — I’ll — Weiss, where’s my flashlight?”
Weiss shrugs. “Where it always is. Why are you pacing?”
“Cinder Fall called me,” she says urgently. It doesn’t really have the effect she’s hoping for; Weiss rolls her eyes and gives up trying to count how many times she’s crossed the room, turning away. “She directly admitted her intentions. I have a recording of the conversation and proof that it came from her, all I need is to —”
“Or maybe,” Weiss says patiently, “we move the painting to a second location and put one of the thirty-five — sorry, thirty-six alternate versions you commissioned for this exact purpose in its place. And then, we track her and wait to see what she does with it. How long do you think we have?”
Winter paces faster. Weiss sighs audibly. “She called me from her apartment at 3:14. She lives approximately half an hour away by foot, but she won’t come by foot because that is, objectively, fucking stupid. She’ll attempt to infiltrate after closing hours because she knows I’m a night guard. I —”
“I’ll call Ruby,” Weiss announces.
“Please don’t call Ruby.”
“I’m going to call Ruby.”
Weiss steps out of the room before Winter can stop her and pulls out her phone. The sounds of her protest follow her into the corridor.
Ruby picks up on the third ring. “Hello, Curator.”
Weiss rolls her eyes at empty air. “Hello, Huntress-in-Chief. Winter is —”
“I can hear you!”
“ — Winter is asking if you wouldn’t mind bringing a few of your lot down here, preferably within the next thirty minutes or so —”
“I am very distinctly not.”
“ — and taking up stations where she directs you to.”
Ruby sighs, long and hard, on the other end of the line. “Really? Three minutes before my shift ends?”
“Really,” Weiss says sternly. “She’s convinced someone is trying to rob us. Do you think I was going to go to the police instead?”
Ruby hums. “You are my best-paying customer. Okay, I’ll round a few people up.”
Weiss hangs up before she can start teasing her and walks back into her office. Winter is, somewhat predictably, taking measurements of the windows. She doesn’t even have the presence of mind to look ashamed about it.
Weiss folds her arms, raises an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”
Winter’s tape measure clicks back into itself. “Taking measurements,” she says, like it’s obvious.
PROMPT: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-07-17 04:42 am (UTC)Lawyers AU: defense attorney vs. prosecuting attorney
(don't look at my team affiliation)
PROMPT: TEAM OCS- MOON
Date: 2024-07-17 04:43 am (UTC)Graffiti artists who keep painting over the other's work
PROMPT: Team Webcomics/Webtoons
Date: 2024-07-17 04:43 am (UTC)PROMPT: Tokusatsu Yuri Ships United Front
Date: 2024-07-17 04:45 am (UTC)FILL: Team Anime/Manga
Date: 2024-07-19 09:24 pm (UTC)CURRENT SCORE: 11 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 23 (CINDER FALL)
“Do you really have to write it on the board?” Winter groans, sinking down into her seat.
Penny nods, putting the cap back on the pen with a decisive click. She glances over at Winter, sunk down at her desk, and back to the whiteboard. “It’s an efficient way of keeping track of the status of the competition,” she recites, “and besides, Mr Ironwood says it’s a good motivator.”
“I’m sure it is,” Winter mutters. She drags her hat down over her head for good measure, effectively shutting out the sight of the office and her objective failure for the next twenty minutes. Either until Penny asks her to look at something, or her boss walks in and announces some new ridiculous crime.
Penny keeps rambling to herself, no doubt re-arranging her files into a new and interesting kind of order. “It’s impressive that Miss Fall has managed to pull all this off without leaving a substantial record behind, really. It must be unimaginably difficult to erase your presence entirely.”
“I’m sure there’s a file somewhere,” Winter says to the inside of her hat, “but how do you go around digging through important government documentation to justify arresting a petty criminal?”
“You ask nicely?” Penny suggests.
//
CURRENT SCORE: 14 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 39 (CINDER FALL)
“Can you think of anything else that might have been taken?” Winter asks.
Watts shakes his head, clutching his own hat to his chest. He reminds her a little bit of a weasel, Winter thinks. A particularly slimy weasel. “No. Just the two monitors.”
She glances around the ransacked room, noting the scorch marks on the ceiling, the grooves in the floor. This is just a security room in the back of a relatively un-Cinder-ed mall, nothing special at all. There’s nothing that would warrant this level of sloppiness, and it doesn’t match Cinder’s style at all. “And you’re sure you saw her?”
His face contorts a little. “I’m sure,” he says snippily, “and it sure would be nice if I had my security monitors so I could prove it to you.”
She folds her arms, determined not to back down. “Surely the files from the tapes back up somewhere.”
“I’ll be sure to send them to the station when I find them,” Watts says, lips curling, and Winter takes that as her cue to leave.
She steps out of the room, gesturing for Penny to follow her. He makes a loud noise of complaint that she ignores as she marches down the hallway outside of the security room, following the trail of scorch marks back to the entrance. Vine and Elm shoot her questioning looks that she waves off as she gets back in her car. “We’re not getting any more out of him. You can try if you want.”
“It was probably a set-up,” Penny says helpfully, sliding into the passenger seat.
“Fall hates Watts,” she adds, off Elm’s questioning look. “And I assume he hates her too. If he’s trying to implicate her in a crime she didn’t commit it’s probably stupid thief in-fighting.”
“Do thieves even have in-fighting?” Vine asks, raising an eyebrow.
Winter shrugs. “Watts was a suspect in a case Fall was involved in a few years back. I assume he thinks we’ll follow it through and give him a chance to pay her back.”
Penny makes an amused noise as they pull out of the mall’s car park, inspecting the notes she’s propped up on the dashboard. “You really know a lot about her, don’t you?”
“It’s when she started beating me,” Winter mutters, curling her fingers around the steering wheel. “The fifth case. Right around when we stopped working with the police.”
Like being a private detective is much better, but whatever, as Weiss would say — and has, on multiple occasions.
“The fifth case,” Penny echoes, “the one with the stolen lab equipment, I remember. So you think he thought he could trap her?”
Trapping and arresting Cinder Fall is something Winter has only managed to do a little over two dozen times, and she’s always gone within 24 hours. Embarrassingly, she’s still considered the best person Ironwood has at his disposal.
She drums her fingers on the steering wheel as they drive back into Mantle proper, bracing herself for the lecture she’ll no doubt receive from Vine for abandoning him and Elm to Watts when they get back. “I think he thought she’d be stupid enough to fall for it,” she says. “I think he doesn’t know her at all.”
Penny hums, tapping her fingers on her chin in time with Winter’s on the steering wheel. “That does give me an idea, though.”
//
CURRENT SCORE: 15 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 39 (CINDER FALL)
Cinder glares up at her from her position on the ground. It looks a little bit glorious, Winter thinks, and shakes the image out of her head before she can follow it any further. “Good bait, huh?”
Winter smirks at her, flicking dirt off the edge of her sword. Ironwood let her keep it when she quit the Atlas police, saying it added to her image, and she has to agree. It’s great marketing, too. “Good bait,” she echoes. “Detective Polendina had the idea.”
Cinder huffs hair out of her eyes, squirms against the rope holding her hands behind her back. “Don’t act smug. I let you catch me.”
“Why? You like being tied up?”
“I told you not to act smug. Maybe I just like seeing your stupid face.”
“Mm,” Winter hums. “Anyway, I’ve called for backup, so. You’re trapped. Any confessions before we take you in?”
Cinder is, generally, a lot better at smirking than her. She looks up at Winter through her eyelashes, lips curling up, and says, “If you ask me nicely I’ll give you my phone number.”
“So I can call you in your prison cell?”
She shrugs, grins. Her shoulders curl backwards, her hands shift — and Winter is grateful that her first instinct is to throw herself forwards to pin Cinder down when she sweeps an arm out, knife in hand, rope curled through her fingers.
//
CURRENT SCORE: 15 (WINTER SCHNEE) / 39 (CINDER FALL)
“You’re pleased with yourself,” Penny remarks.
Winter folds her arms over her chest. “She’s been in custody for 72. That’s further than we’ve ever got before.”
Penny covers her mouth with a hand, turning away. “She keeps asking to see you, you know?”
She thinks of Cinder on her knees in the burnt-out shell of the mall’s old camera room, smirking up at her. Thinks of the way her eyes lit up when she realised she’d been caught, the way she fought Winter when she tried to break free, all knives and teeth — “Yes, well. I’ll keep questioning her.”
“I think she likes it when you do that,” Penny says, still facing away. She’s scribbling something on the whiteboard, free hand pressed flat to the surface.
Winter bites her lip to keep herself from smiling. “Well, she shouldn’t.”
PROMPT: TEAM OCS- MOON
Date: 2024-07-17 04:46 am (UTC)Instrument players competing for the lead / first chair. bonus points if you go full whiplash with it
FILL: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-07-23 03:27 pm (UTC)There are three truths Kiyomi knows in life:
She is now considering a fourth:
"What's wrong, Kiyomi?" Misa bats her eyes at her, leaning against the door of the music practice room. Kiyomi can hear Mendelssohn wailing in agony from the other room as his Violin Concerto in E Minor is methodically butchered by some auditioning first-year. (They have thin walls here.)
"You can't fucking play the violin," Kiyomi informs her.
"That's weird," Misa says, hefting her case in one hand. "Because I could swear I could!"
"No you can't." Is it Opposite Day? Is reality playing a cruel trick on Kiyomi as karma from a past life? "You're a singer. You do vocals. You've never touched a string instrument in your life."
Misa smiles at her, eyes creasing into half-moons. "Oh, silly Kiyomi. I've been taking violin lessons since I was a kid! And piano too!"
"Play something, then," Kiyomi challenges, sounding remarkably calm if she does say so herself.
Misa pretends to consider it, casting her eyes up to the ceiling. Then she smiles again. It's somehow wider this time. "Hmm… Nope! I'll leave it a surprise."
"I swear to God—"
"Girls!" Ms. Kitamura pokes her head in from the larger music classroom. "Keep it down!"
"Yeah, Kiyomi," Misa says, eyes widening in faux-concern. "Keep it down."
Kiyomi Takada is not a violent person. Misa just inspires violent instincts within everyone, surely.
"I would've expected this from Amane, but not from you, Takada," Ms. Kitamura says, looking between Misa (grinning like the Cheshire Cat) and Kiyomi (who immediately schools her expression back to assured calm). "But I'm sure it's just nerves."
It's an out. A humiliating one, but regardless. "Yes, I'm sorry," Kiyomi says. "I suppose I am a little nervous."
Ms. Kitamura's smile is sympathetic. "We all have our off days. But I'm sure you'll get that first chair position!"
Kiyomi Takada does not have off days. She can't afford them; see list item #3 on her four fundamental truths. But she puts on her best polite-and-slightly-abashed smile, and nods.
"Hang on," Misa says with a frown. "Kiyomi-chan! You didn't tell me you were aiming for first chair!"
Of course she's aiming for first chair. What else would she aim for? (Also, Kiyomi-chan?) "It's only a goal," Kiyomi lies. "I'd just be happy for the chance to play."
"Oh, good!" Misa's frown turns into a beatific smile. "Because I'd like first chair too."
"You what?"
"Oh, Amane," Ms. Kitamura says in blissful ignorance to Kiyomi's ongoing crisis, "I didn't know you played the violin."
"THAT'S WHAT I—" Kiyomi coughs. "Apologies. I meant, I was surprised too."
"I'm a woman of many surprises," Misa says, and shoots Kiyomi a finger-gun. "Ehe!"
"Well, good luck to both of you!" Ms. Kitamura smiles at them both warmly. "May the best player win, am I right?"
"Absolutely!" And Misa honest-to-God winks.
"Thank you," Kiyomi manages before Ms. Kitamura is gone and she can slump against the wall in relative peace.
It lasts about three seconds. "By the way," Misa pipes up, "I'm going right before you."
"Are you now," Kiyomi says.
Misa's eyes widen again. "Ooh, is that some hostility I detect, Kiyo-chan?"
Yes, because Misa is exhaustingly bright and boundlessly annoying and the only person alive who somehow manages to see through Kiyomi's facade like it's air. Kiyomi feels — dangerous around her, for some reason. Like any chirped hello or swished pigtail could set off a chemical reaction within Kiyomi that would level all of Tokyo if she let it. Like if Misa ever jumped off a bridge, Kiyomi would do it too just to show her she could do it better. Like —
Misa makes Kiyomi feel alive.
God, Kiyomi hates her.
"I'm sure you're imagining things, Amane-san," she says at last, tilting her head up to look at the ceiling. The fan spins round and round. "Why would I have any hostility towards you?"
"I don't know," Misa says, putting a finger on her cheek. "But that's why you're interesting."
Kiyomi blinks.
"I'm interesting?"
"Well, duh," Misa says, rolling her eyes. "Don't play humble, Miss Refined To-Oh."
"Shut up," Kiyomi says without thinking.
Misa grins. "See? That's when you're interesting."
Kiyomi — doesn't know how to reply to that, at all. She fumbles for a safe topic.
"Aren't you going to practice?"
Misa looks down at her case as though seeing it for the first time. Then shakes her head. "I think I'm better spontaneous. Don't you?"
"I don't know," Kiyomi says. "You don't fucking play the violin."
Misa laughs. "You're funny, Kiyo."
"W-well," Kiyomi says, her face heating despite her best efforts to keep her heartbeat stable: "I'm going to practice."
"Yay!" Misa claps her hands together.
"…I was going to tell you to leave," Kiyomi says.
"But I came in here just to listen to you play," Misa pouts.
"You what?!"
"I mean," Misa says, "you sound really, really pretty considering you're someone who hates me."
"Oh," Kiyomi says weakly. At some point in this conversation she retrieved her violin and bow from her case despite having no memory of doing so. "Er. Thank you?"
Misa beams. "You're welcome!"
The Mendelssohn has quieted by now. Some pathetic fool who took the "you can play anything!" tip from the audition poster literally is now playing "Happy Birthday" next door.
"I'm not particularly good," Kiyomi says, as she rests her bow upon the strings.
"Oh, don't lie, Kiyo," Misa says. Her smile is sharp. "You think you're brilliant."
Kiyomi, for once, doesn't deny it.
She just closes her eyes and starts playing.
PROMPT: TEAM ACE ATTORNEY
Date: 2024-07-17 04:47 am (UTC)Betting on whether some mutual friends will get together or not
FILL: Team Kittyuri
Date: 2024-07-22 02:44 am (UTC)PROMPT: TEAM OC MOON
Date: 2024-07-17 04:48 am (UTC)PROMPT: Team Webcomics/Webtoons
Date: 2024-07-17 04:49 am (UTC)FILL: Team Kittyuri
Date: 2024-07-24 12:04 am (UTC)Ship: Cynder/Whirlwind from Skylanders, link to ao3 fic here!