for this bonus round, the theme is competition! pretty open-ended, prompts that are about some sort of competition! this round will end on july 31st!
Fills can be in any format, and you can fill your teammates prompts, but you cannot fill your own prompt.
You can post as many fills and as many prompts as you want! To participate, reply to this Dreamwidth post!
for your prompt post title, please use the following format:
PROMPT: TEAM [TEAM NAME]
for your fill post title, please use the following format:
FILL: TEAM [TEAM NAME]
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yurishippingolympics2024-07-16 11:56 pm
PROMPT: TEAM TOUHOU
FILL: Team Anime/Manga
“Ugh, fuck you,” Winter says for the third time.
Cinder puts down her knight with a decisively smug-sounding clunk and smirks at her. “No swearing during the match, babes.”
As if to prove her point, Ozpin fixes Winter with a particularly reprimanding glare. She winces apologetically, focusing back on the board in front of her. “Point taken. You didn’t have to do that, and I wish you hadn’t.”
The space where her piece used to be blinks whitely at her. Maybe she should have gotten more sleep. Across the table, against the backdrop of her towering work friends, Cinder contemplates the board with her head in her hands and a widening smirk that Winter really doesn’t like the look of. “Oh, dear,” she says sweetly. “You’ll just have to try harder, then.”
Just to be pedantic, Winter moves a bishop. Cinder isn’t playing to win; that much is clear — she’s playing to fuck with her, to see what she can do to push her buttons. The success comes from the reactions she draws out, the chaos she manages to cause. Anyone who understands chess can see that.
Anyone who understood chess enough to stop giving a shit would fight fire with fire. The thing about that, though, is that no one wins, and Winter has long since decided that if she can’t even do that then she might as well quit entirely.
“Ooh,” Cinder hums, “clever.” She kicks Winter’s shin under the table as she moves her own bishop, seemingly aimlessly, and props her chin back on her hand when she’s done.
Okay, yes, she’s definitely just intentionally fucking with her now. Winter grits her teeth as she makes her move, taking Cinder’s bishop and tucking herself between two of her own pawns. It’s a fairly defensible position, and it’s —
“Check,” Cinder announces for her.
Winter sits back, folding her arms. She regards Cinder over the top of her glasses, waiting for her to move next. “Well?”
//
Strangely enough, she wins, and it rings hollow. Winter finds Cinder outside the old classroom they’ve been using for matches and stands beside her as she kicks up dust.
Cinder glances up expectantly as she approaches. There’s no sign of that competitiveness in her expression now, only patience — she tilts her chin up at Winter and it feels almost like a peace offering. “You play well.”
That’s — not what she was expected to hear. Winter falters, searching for a response.
“I — um. What was your strategy there?”
Cinder grins. There’s no malice behind it, but she tends to do everything with a menacing air. “Fuck with you, obviously.”
“Why?”
It’s a simple enough question. Cinder just shrugs, and when she does, Winter feels her gaze settling on her the same way she feels a blow to the chest. “It was fun.”