19 Jun 2026, 18:22
Sacrifice the Rook
tldr; runaway piece | #215f3c - speech | ooc:
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| --- | ---It was September twenty-eighth, the day of Guinevere's sixteenth, when an owl flew over her head at breakfast, clutching a large rectangular parcel. It dropped suddenly, with her only narrowly catching it before it crashed into her plate. Guinevere found a lot of things mildly or moderately embarrassing, one of them being receiving mail at meal times; she would prefer if the package simply appeared in front of her door. Surely there was some spell to make that happen. --- Quickly, Guinevere shoved the delivery into her book bag and waited until breakfast had ended to open it on her bed. It contained a wad of birthday money, an ugly photo of herself (likely Will’s idea; she’d get him back for that somehow), and a wizard chess set. She pocketed the money and stashed the rest into her trunk, and since that day, there they have been sitting away… --- Until, for decluttering purposes, Guinevere had decided to dump everything out of her trunk to reorganize and toss the weeds. The board game had resurfaced, so Guinevere had decided to bring it out to the Courtyard to inspect further, especially due to the good weather outside. ---This, however, was where Guinevere realized the oversight of her idea. It was wizard chess, which was unlike regular chess in the sense that the pieces often had a mind of their own. This Guinevere found out as soon as she dumped out the pieces from their container baggies onto a small table. Tinny voices began to shout, making heads turn around her. She put her head in her hands in embarrassment, as if to say, this is not my mess! ---“Took you long enough!” one piece lamented loudly. “We have been confined in your damp room since forever!” ---“That’s right,” chimed another. “She probably doesn’t even know how to play… useless!” ---What happened next left Guinevere utterly mortified and speechless. As if in protest, a rook had leapt off the table, running around the floor seeming without any intention except for causing the fifth year trouble. Hastily she sweeped up the remaining pieces, slamming the lid on top of them as she went to retrieve the rebel rook. At this time it had already reached a nearby student - surprisingly fast, for such a small piece - and was jumping all over her feet. Guinevere grimaced, hurrying over to the student, a girl from her house. ---“Hi, sorry… Let me just… yeah, sorry, it’s under the table… right there!” Guinevere dearly hoped that her cheeks were not flushing red and it was just her imagination. |
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@Amethyst Castillo
@Amethyst Castillo
Last edited by Guinevere Russetwood on 29 Jul 2026, 22:37, edited 2 times in total.
| Guinevere Russetwood, Y6, Slytherin sta • 10 | eva • 12 | str • 6 | wis • 7 |arc • 10 | acc • 11 | Akane Shimizu, Y6, Mahoutokoro sta • 10 | eva • 10 | str • 5 | wis • 10 |arc • 10 | acc • 10 |
29 Jun 2026, 10:19
Sacrifice the Rook
The potions homework progressively got harder, in Amethyst's opinion, worse. Keeping up with all those ingredients and quantities required vigorous efforts, and the second year wasn't the best at it. She barely remembered if the potion was to be stirred in the left direction or the right. Her grandmother condemned her performance in potions, and she did not seem to get any better at it. She couldn't care less about what her grandmother thought about her demeanour, but academics were where she drew a line. She wanted her grandmother impressed with her academic performance. Amethyst wanted to be nothing less than perfect in her academics. Potion brewing held her back from achieving it. |
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Amethyst gawked at the dirty floor of the courtyard, trying to recall the number of sprigs of dried lavender needed for the calming draught. The young heiress barely registered the commotion around her. She could hear someone vaguely arguing about playing something, but she paid no further heed. The problem at hand was bigger. Sprigs of dried lavender. Was it three or four? Amethyst saw something black creeping up her feet. She stood up in an instant. A roach, she thought. Dried lavender sprigs, four. Her mind was a mess. She shook her head. It took her a minute to realise that it was a rook. A rook that now lay on its back, groaning and protesting about its condition. Amethyst crouched down and picked up the rook, ignoring all its complaints and objections. |
| "What a magnificent piece of chess," she exclaimed. A dimpled smile formed on her face while the potion scrolls now lay forgotten behind her. Someone had scurried over to where she stood, mumbling a few apologies. And that made her realise the chessman in her hand belonged to the girl standing in front of her. She handed over the rook to her when another protest was voiced. "Let me run away; she doesn't know how to play." Amethyst looked at the older Slytherin, her eyes wide and curious, demanding an explanation. This was a first. She had never seen chessmen trying to run away from their chess board. footnotes. |
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ORDER NOW,, free if you have an AI pfp and want it redrawn, human made: smitten || Inpc: Kaiming Zhang
15 Jul 2026, 01:25
Sacrifice the Rook
tldr; hi | #215f3c - speech | action: hi
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| --- | ---Guinevere almost turned on her heel and left when the younger girl looked up at her with clearly many questions. It was not a bad idea, as the piece was already back in her hands. Then, she would go back to her dorm and whittle down the dumb thing into a plain wad of wood. This was, unfortunately, not possible as Guinevere would never recover from the embarrassment. Even thinking this, she could already imagine herself, thirty years old, wincing as she recalled the moment. ---So instead, Guinevere racked her brain for a more logically sound option. “Well, magnificent if you ignore that nasty attitude…” she grumbled, still bad at making small talk. “All I did was leave it and the whole chess set in my trunk for a year, that doesn’t reflect on my chess skills at all. Do you agree?” It was a rhetorical and stupid question, so she didn't expect an answer. Then she caught sight of the wide grin on the other girl’s face. Guinevere herself enjoyed chess to an extent, never mind the occasions when she flipped the table in frustration at her stupidity and lack of foresight. To her, chess didn’t exactly strike her as a game that ignited significant joy. ---However, she did realize that the whole reason she was out in the courtyard was because she wanted to test out the chess set, and this girl seemed certainly enthusiastic. “Would you like a match? Don’t worry, I do know how to play.” ---Guinevere walked over to retrieve the rest of her miniature army as well as the checkered playing board. She arranged her pieces nicely, save for the rooks. They could be misaligned all day long. “You take the white pieces?” |
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@Amethyst Castillo
@Amethyst Castillo
| Guinevere Russetwood, Y6, Slytherin sta • 10 | eva • 12 | str • 6 | wis • 7 |arc • 10 | acc • 11 | Akane Shimizu, Y6, Mahoutokoro sta • 10 | eva • 10 | str • 5 | wis • 10 |arc • 10 | acc • 10 |