"Can I go first?"
>Sure.>
Rruyshah got the opinion her opponent did not care at all about the outcome of the game. She decided to try a tactic she'd only done a few dozen times, moving a pawn on the far reaches of the board outwards. It replied by moving the pawn on the other side. She maneuvered her pieces, and it played a mirror-image game that ended up in the state they had reached around her five-twelfth win, with him unable to do anything, but not in mortal danger. "I win."
>No you don't.>
"We're not going to have this argument again."
>So I win!>
"No, you don't. We play again."
>We what?>
"To settle it."
>This was supposed to be the end.>
"Well, it's your fault for not losing."
>Uh…how does that work?>
"Just move. I'll let you go first."
It shifted its physical position. >Okay, I moved.>
Rruyshah grabbed a "horse". "I want to throw this at you."
>Don't you mean "I don't want to throw this at you"?>
"I think I will."
>Do it, then.>
"I changed my mind." Rruyshah plunked it down on the edge of the board.
And the battle ensued. Her opponent played for an end to his torment, she for the pride of victory. How long had it been since she had been an Exalted One? Worth something? Free on her homeworld? Did she even want to count? This was where she could be worth something, if only to this sub…
Fine. She'd admit if that was what was wanted to be heard. It was nice to have around, only because he had been easy to beat. Had been. Which aggravated her all the more when they round up exchanging their entire armies. (She had proved several hundred games ago that with only two pieces left, victory for either side was impossible.)
>Do we play again then?>
"Uh…yes!" Rruyshah wasn't about to refuse that offer.
They did. And tied, this time proving another end condition could never lead to victory. By the time they were six games into the tiebreak round, they had outlawed more finishes than they would have considered.
Rruyshah didn't count how many games they'd played (although she suspected it was forty-eight) before her opponent thoughtspoke, >I think I've figured it out.>
"How to win every possible game? I've been working on that, but not very successfully."
>No, why we keep tying. We'd been going back and forth for a while, but I think now we're exactly even. We can't win against each other because we're both…>
"Equals?" Rruyshah had never to her recollection said a word with such disgust.
>Yeah.> It extended a tiny limb. >This is how we draw on my planet, too.>
Before Rruyshah could retract it leapt at her. Its desperation was so complete, it didn't care which of them survived the "unpredictable effects". One of her scales fell off before both of them were blasted to opposite corners. What seemed to be a wall of electromagnetism split the room between them for an instant. Then it was gone. Rruyshah didn't even bother to try and hide her trepidation as she turned from the place she had landed…
and saw herself, all scales intact.