rosavelle | Even though I don't want you to hate me, when you say "it's okay" and look at me... (Biki's January)

[Well, in an attempt to reach a better understanding with the horse, Nabiki had challenged her to a game of Go. And she was not about to back out on a ~~man to man fight~~ personal promise.

God Nabiki hoped that this would help her get relocate her headquarters from out of her hindquarters. And that went for herself, too.

Her duel with Corrin had... helped, with her own imposter syndrome. She didn't believe half the things Corrin said about her charming qualities, but she did know that Corrin sincerely believed her, and that helped. But Nabiki wasn't kidding when she said Gold Ship also deserved better.

Nabiki couldn't blame Golshi for wanting to kick her ass. (Literally, could not. She'd tried. Nabiki couldn't bring herself to.) But if she was going to get thrashed, better in this arena. And maybe she could even hold her own, and see what patterns Golshi would put from her mind onto the board.

So on a nice, sunny, cold day in January, Nabiki Tendo set up a go board and stones, and two chairs, and prepared to throw down - stones, in her case.]

Edited 2026-01-20 22:09 (UTC)

[ Gold Ship is Frustrated with many, many things and the situation with Nabiki is pretty damn high on that list. She wants to hate her and she can't, because she doesn't (but also she does, but she doesn't, but she does, but she really doesn't??!) and there is No Easy Solution to this. Beaks seems to think a game of Go will help them reach some kind of understanding, Golshi finds that ridiculous.

Competition can do that, sure, but she's so uma-brained that if the contest isn't physical and doesn't involve the clash of body and will that a race or other sport can bring it's not going to have the same effect. Gold Ship likes board games of course, loves them even, competes too, but she's never felt the same connection between herself and a gaming opponent as she has on a race track.

SIGH and it's probably shitty of her to let Nabiki think Go would be some sort of fair contest, given that Gold Ship's... kiiiiind of a national champion in the game, but heck with it. She's allowed to be selfish and win at something, damn it!

So at the time and place agreed upon Gold Ship comes trotting up as Nabiki finishes setting up. No fancy outfits or posturing today from the uma, she's in the track suit she's had made for herself, sporting her usual headgear/hat combo, and wearing her running shoes, the cleats Darin forged for her clacking clearly on each step. She fully intends to go running after this. ]

Heya Beaks. [ Kind of low energy in the greeting today. She's feeling out the vibe, watching Nabiki carefully to get an idea of what sort of mood her business partner/friend/PERSON SHE KIND OF WANTS TO KICK is in. ] Didn't keep ya waitin', did I?

Not at all. Top of the afternoon to you.

[There's a certain tension there. Nabiki's impostor syndrome isn't the monstrous thing threatening to consume Gold Ship, but it is there, made worse by her knowledge of the time gap between her and Akane, and there is a part of her that wants Golshi to kick her ass.

But the part that wants to be happy and that wants Corrin and Gold Ship to be happy, and knows Gold Ship hurting her will not help her, is stronger today. So there's genuine friendliness there, too.]

Ready to see things in black and white?

[ The tension is Frustraitingly Familiar but new at the same time. Her first instinct is to break it with a joke, bu-

Bright, high energy, pop music starts to play from around her. Gold Ship's ears perk in surprise, then she takes a deep breath to wrangle her bloomcraft back under control. ]

"A miracle has happened here tonight", eheheh. Good one. Pretty sure ya haven't heard that one yet though, eighties an'all.

[ Yes she's laughing at her own unintended reference. Walking over to the chairs she proceeds to spin one around so the back faces the table, then steps over it with one leg before sitting down, resting her arms across the back rest.

She really looked up to Jonathan Frakes as a pony, sue her. ]

Ready as all ever be, Beaks. Don't think it's gonna shake out like ya think, but might as well try.

Edited 2026-01-21 23:06 (UTC)

[bac k of chair perfect shape for fit Frakes weak back, yeah? Beeks is unfazed. God knows if it fits Ranma sits.]

Oh? Should I accept a handicap against you, or shall we pretend we’re equals? I don’t plan on losing, but I’m prepared to get my ass kicked after all.

Edited 2026-01-21 23:10 (UTC)

Handicap? Against lil ol' Golshi-sama? C'mon Beaks, it's Go, not a race!

[ Crap. Did she catch onto Gold Ship's familiarity with the game? Nabiki really has to take the fun out of eveything...

She waves her hand in a carefree divisiveness, doing a heck of a job keeping her already building frustrations from showing. ]

You can start black though if it makes ya feel better. M'good either way.

Sure. Thank you. And let me... hmn.

[Clack.

Clack. Clack.

Clack, clack, clack.

It's soon clear that Nabiki is a talented amateur. Her chances aren't zero.

...but the odds of beating Golshi are not good.]

So what's this I hear about learning to play poker from a consummate cheater? Remind me to tell you about this idiot called the Gambling King.

Nakayama's a die-hard gambler, but she's in it for the thrill. Normal poker doesn't do it for her.

[ Clack.
Clack.

Gold Ship is impressed, Nabiki's got a decent talent for this, but an amateur is an amateur. Gold Ship's typical style involves setting traps, letting her opponent get an early lead, drawing their attention to one side of the board

Clack. Corner, corner, diagonal for her. Two rows claimed, from black to blinding white. ]

Cards in general don't, ya know? Too borin', random but predictable. S'more of a rush if everyone at the table is cheatin'. Pretty much the only thing us Stego gals tolerate cheatin' on is cards.

Edited 2026-01-23 02:48 (UTC)

We are both talking about Texas Hold Em, not draw or stud poker, right? The one with flop cards, where it's about reading the odds, not the luck of the draw?

[Clack. Clack. Clack. Nabiki frowns, then cautiously puts a stone or two in a different part of the board, to see how Golshi will react.

She's having fun, but this is the most challenge she's had in a while.]

And then there's Mao. Ever heard of it?

Mmhm. Gotta count the cards, everyone better have at least three swaps in their sleeve.

[ Intereeesting play, she doesn't seem confident in it though if that frown is anything to go by. Clack, clack. Gold Ship humors the move for now, playing passive, waiting to spring another trap.

She doesn't frown. Doesn't flick her tail or her ears. The umamusume has a trained poker face, or Go face as the case may be. ]

Not allowed anywhere near us after the Incident with Orfevre. Symboli Rudolf had ta come down an' ban it from campus.

[ Clack. She smiles, but it's from the memory rather than the play. ]

Course that means Nakayama is always tryin' ta sucker new gals into it. Nothin' more excitin' than tempting the wraith of the Emperor herself, ya know?

[...okay wait. wait. Hang the fuck on.]

Symboli Rudolf. Winner of the Triple Crown, Symboli Rudolf?

[Yes, of course Nabiki keeps up with horse races. I'm insulted Golshi even had to ask if she did.]

Edited 2026-01-23 03:18 (UTC)

Yup. Who else would it be? There's only one Prez ya kno-

[ Waaaaaaaaaaaait a minute here. Gold Ship's ears finally twitch as she looks up. ]

I thought y'all didn't have umamusume back where you're from?

I didn't think so either, then I heard a name I knew. Wait, wait, wait.

Rival Bizen Nishiki, 1984?

M'not so sure 'bout the year- [ The flow of time in ~~Lordran~~ Umamusume is convoluted... ] -but yeah? Never met Bizen Nishiki though. Katsuragi Ace an' Mr. C.B. are around Tracen all the time, that whole bunch is pretty tight. Most gals who raced together are.

Beaks. If this is some kinda messed up mind-readin' thing, s'not funny.

Not a mindreading trick, I think.

[That twinkle in her eye is dangerous. She is DELIGHTED by the theory forming.]

...is Uma an abbreviation? Short for something?

S'just quicker ta say Uma than it is Umamusume...

[ Oh. She doesn't like where this is going. Goddesses, if she goes and brings up the similarities to horses she WILL be throwing Nabiki out a window. ]

Why?

Of course it does.

Seems I was mistaken. You're just -

[She senses danger. Killing intent.

Like any good student of Anything Goes, she's great at dodging.]

- from after my time, that's all.

Wyvernshit.

[ Yeah she's. Kinda picked up a curse, since they don't really have "horseshit" where she's from

Clack, clack, clack. Another corner secured, another row hers. ]

You're tellin' me ya know about the Prez, but the idea of an umamusume was almost impossible ta get through Ranma's thick skull? Even after she retired she was everywhere, if y'all are from her time racin' ya shouldn't be able to walk down the street without seeing her face. Or bumping into a few other umas. What's goin' on, Beaks?

If you ask me I might have to tell you.

[Clack, clack, clack.

Is Golshi losing ground, or can Nabiki just not see the trap she's walking into?]

Are you sure you want to know?

Edited 2026-01-23 04:06 (UTC)

Tell me before I toss ya out the window.

[gold ship's player rolls a d20: 19 It is, in fact, a trap, to quote Gold Ship's.... fourth...? Fifth? favorite space centric series. ]

Cause if there's something screwy goin' on with our worlds I'd rather find out from someone I kinda trust.

[ Oh! She trusts Beaks! That's a big step, admitting that. Kinda ]

Don't shoot - or kick - the messenger.

Symboli was plastered all over the billboards in my Nerima, Japan.

You have probably already guessed this from the fact that you're already not happy about it, but back home the Triple Crown is a famous series of... well, the kind of races you're trying to organize here, for lack of your sisteren. Our Symboli still won the Triple Crown against Bizen Nishiki.

On four legs. Which is why we write 'Uma' funny.

[ DEEP
FUCKING
BREATH.

Okay. She kind of figured by now, most worlds have horses, umamusume and horses have a LOT in common. She was okay with that. She could accept that, but that someone she KNOWS has a horse in another world that shares her name and career... at least it's Teio's idol and not hers. ]

Ugh... well, Prez would probably find the writin' thing amusin' at least. Least it's not like Oguri-senpai or Tamamo-Senpai are some kinda weird horse things in your world too.

[ They are, Gold Ship. They were racing not that long after Rudolf, Gold Ship. Your entire world is about to shatter, Gold Ship. ]

[Okay. This chapter was hard to write. It was less a memoir and more an exorcism - Tatewaki Kuno's antics affected Nabiki directly, and she wasn't proud of the ways in which she made it worse. For these reasons Sora Amano was going to come off poorly too.

God she wasn't looking forward to writing about "Jin Tao Ng."

But she thought long and hard about how to make a distaff counterpart to Kuno that wasn't just Kodachi, and she thinks she's got it.

Time to head back out to the cafes with her readers, get feedback on the first chapter, and hand out the second.

And this time, thank God, she can read in Akane as well, over tea in her own room in the Yuri dorms.]

Edited 2026-01-20 22:21 (UTC)

[Yoojin's eyebrow rises and continues to rise as he reads through the second chapter of Nabiki's gender-flipped tell-all. He isn't even finished yet when he has to set it down and ask, plaintive:]

"Durance vile"? Nobody really talks like that, do they? No one besides those guys pretending to be wuxia warriors. I don't even know what "durance" means.

Bold of you to assume I’m not directly quoting Tatewaki Fucking Kuno. Pretending that samurai blood still matters, misquoting Bashou to sound smart and acting like he’s like the protagonist of a chanbara film is what he does.

[All this delivered while gesturing with her pencil.]

I’m not proud of my part in making things worse, so look forward to Sora Amano being an ass in this chapter.

[She sips a tall milk tea with boba through a straw.]

…and there’s one other tension point in my life resolved, at least.

[As she describes Kuno, Yoojin's face scrunches in a way that suggests he kind of knows what she means.]

Engh.

[But anyway. He doesn't need to talk about his one trip to Japan.]

Tension point? Because of this guy?

…I picked up a fourth prereader who had the suggestion for chapter one that I incorporated of at first assuming the strange girl in the bath was one of the idiot suitors.

In related news, don’t feel like you need to dance around this with my sister anymore. Ranma, yes. Akane, not any more.

Also, it means "bondage or imprisonment." The Count of Monte Cristo endured durance vile.

Edited 2026-01-23 02:30 (UTC)

Huh. Well, I did, too, but I can use normal words for it.

[Like "kidnapping" or "extremely illegal international incident still waiting on the other end of this sabbatical."]

You told Akane, then? That must be a relief. ...Seems kind of unfair to Ranma if he's the only one out of the loop, though.

You know what? I'm not sure I want to know. Saying that, if you ever want to tell someone about it...

That said, I do plan on telling him, but there's... I need to clear the air about something to him. I read in Akane because she shared a secret with me, and it only felt fair to extend her the same courtesy. I -

[She sighs, suddenly feeling a headache. She doesn't want to talk about this. Part of her thinks she should.]

[He waves a hand, muttering, "Don't worry about it, it's fine." Whatever's on Nabiki's mind sounds more pressing, and he sits forward a bit, frowning.]

Nabiki? What's up?

This will sound insane. More insane than the Pink Carnation of Gorinosho.

But I think…

I think I’m from Ranma and Akane’s future.

...

I've heard way crazier.

What makes you think that?

…I’ve considered Ranma family and tried to make up for earlier shitty behavior towards him you’ve already seen the start of through Sora Amano’s worst moments, ever since I met his mother Nodoka and saw how desperately he wanted to be her perfect masculine ideal of a son, or else.

Akane didn’t know Nokoda’s name when I dropped it.

Ah, he mentioned his mom to me. Said he had to pretend to be you girls' cousin just to talk to her, so it'd be weird if Akane didn't kn...ow...

[Yoojin's brows draw down further.]

Uh, wait. What does "or else" mean?

[After the reveal that the Akane here, somehow, predated Nodoka, a lot of things about Ranma's distrust of Nabiki seemed to make more sense. Which is why she was holding out an olive branch - an offer to get him, or rather her, ice cream at a Primavelle creamery Nabiki favored, with exactly the kind of parfaits Ranma would break out the frills and lace to go to.

And then, there's more to talk about with Akane - her cooking was no longer a hazard, but it did need serious work, and Nabiki wanted to help her with best practices for food shopping. So that meant helping her with menu planning, in her dorm.]

[Snow is hard to come by in Nerima, but Nabiki takes that as a great excuse to get silly with it and, childlike, indulge in making some snowfolk. And if there's a contest for it where they can practice imprintwork, all the better.

She's knitting warm scarves and modifying the bands of jaunty hats, putting her Imprint into them, to drape around the necks of her snowfolk and the folks helping her make them. And she doesn't think she's doing a bad job of it, either.]

Edited 2026-01-21 01:13 (UTC)

[ Well...it is a way to practice magic, yes.

Dainsleif supposes it isn't a bad idea to lend his participation in general as well, which in the end is shooting two birds with one stone, giving the usage of certain magics is encouraged. After alighting some manner of 'imprint' magic into his own, to assist in carrying 'cold' and keeping the snowmen in place. Not that it's necessary, but his snowperson hasn't been exactly made with a finesse...putting it lightly. His goal isn't really to win, though. ]

...Have you put together something like this before?

[ The snowmen. Where he originally has come from, snow wasn't as plentiful as it was elsewhere in Teyvet; therefore, even putting together snowman isn't something he has done before, really. ]

Not once! Nerima gets some snow, but not enough for this. I’m here to practice Imprintwork, something I have more experience with than snowmen - if we snag a prize, that’s the icing on this cake.

And how about you?

I'll say the same. [ Seems innocuous enough to say, really. ] There are various places that have seen snow in my world, but generally not where I'm from.

As for imprintwork, I have about a beginner's experience. Which is only slightly also more than what I have for building snowmen.

However, practice makes perfect, doesn't it?

So my Dad used to tell me. Judging by my sister, he wasn't wrong.

Have you met Akane, actually? Sweet girl. Passionate. There's a reason she's the heir to our Art and not me.

I have no idea who she is, so no.

[ He says plainly, because it's true. ]

I assume you're making a comparison between yourself and her, in that you are implying you don't have the same drive?

…you know, I think I do have the drive. It’s just that I had other things to put my time into than martial arts. I won’t say better things.

It’s just… I’m a businesswoman. And she can hold her own against a rogues gallery of world-class wuxia-ass fighters. Larger than life. Wild like her fiance.

But what’s your story, stranger? Call me Nabiki Tendo. “The Marchessa Furinkan,” at a grand ball.

Essentially, you are stating you two live in different worlds.

[ Which seems about logical enough to him. A business-person and a fighter would naturally see things differently, and go through live with a world of differences in their approach. ]

My name is Dainsleif.

My story can be summed up as one who has seen much in exploring the world back home, having seen a multitude of lands, and naturally, events mostly from afar - though, not many know to give myself titles with much ease. I don't make a habit of attending large functions.

But, I imagine if someone is deep in the world of business, that is a necessity, is it not?

((Got an idea for a Nabiki scene? Post it here!))

Even though I don't want you to hate me, when you say "it's okay" and look at me... (Biki's January)

For now you are strong enough to hold me up, and now I can hold you up as well (Go with Gold Ship)

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I can see the final draft inside my own head, I can do anything inside my own head (MHF Prereaders)

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Don't deny it, don't decry it, don't defy it, our gifts to the world, our reasons to be (Ranma Cast)

The color of this special season fills me with excitement (Snowman Contest, Imprintwork, OTA)

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Hold up, hold up, let's just be friends for now (or, Wild Like You)