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sportsanime2016-06-09 08:58 pm
referees) wrote in sportsanime2016-06-09 08:58 pm
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Bonus Round 2: Images
Please read the rules carefully before posting!
This round is CLOSED as of 7PM on June 23 EDT. Late fills may be posted, but they will not receive points.
RULES
- Submit prompts in the form of a canon screencap from one of our nominated fandoms along with a ship. Screencaps can be from the anime or manga, as well as any other kind of offshoot media, e.g. official art, drama CD covers, light novel illustrations, magazine covers, photos from stage plays, and/or caps from games.
- Doujinshi, fan-made games or any other fan-created work should not be prompted, even if you receive permission. Only prompt official, canon artwork.
- Keep your prompt concise. Don't prompt a whole manga chapter, for example.
- Your prompt MUST include some kind of relationship. Platonic relationships are indicated by an "&" between the names (e.g., Abe & Tajima). Non-platonic relationships use "/" (e.g., Abe/Tajima). Please don't say "Any pairing," either!
- Upload the cap somewhere (imgur works well) and post here with the images themselves or a link to them. Including a text-only summary of the image is encouraged.
- Fill prompts by leaving a responding comment to the prompt with your newly-created work inspired by the cap.
- Fills can be directly connected to the cap, e.g. panel redraws or writing fic that fleshes out the moment that was capped or that fleshes out what happened directly before/after, but fills can also be more indirectly linked. As long as the work is somehow inspired by the cap, it counts.
- Fills that are too long to fit in a single comment should have the rest of the fill placed as replies to the original fill comment. The subjects of these extra comments should be something like "part 2 of X" or "continued."
- Remember to follow the general bonus round rules, outlined here.
FORMAT
Bonus round shenanigans all happen in the comments below. Brand-new works only, please.Required Work Minimums:
- 400 words (prose)
- 400px by 400px (art)
- 14 lines (poetry)
Format your comment in one of the following ways:
| If PROMPTING: | If FILLING: | If FILLING as a TEAM GRANDSTAND participant: |
PROMPT: TEAM [YOUR SHIP]
| FILL: TEAM [YOUR SHIP], [RATING]
| FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, [RATING]
|
Posts not using this format will be understood to be unofficial discussion posts, regardless of what they contain. They, like all comments in this community, are subject to the code of conduct.
SCORING
These numbers apply to your team as a whole, not each individual teammate. Make as many prompts/fills as you want!For prompts: 5 points each (maximum of 50 prompt points per team per round)
First 3 fills by any member of your team: 20 points each
Fills 4-10: 10 points each
Fills 11-20: 5 points each
Fills 21+: 2 points each
All scored content must be created new for this round.
Etc.
If you're hunting through the prompts looking for what to fill, a good trick is to view top-level comments only.Have a question? Check The FAQ first. If you still need help, feel free to contact the mods. Happy fanworking!
FILL: TEAM MIYUKI KAZUYA/MIYUKI KAZUYA, T
Word Count: 2,277
"Are you going up the mountain again?" Hinata asks. "To see him?"
Kageyama spares him only the briefest of sidelong glances, taking in the orange tangle of Hinata's hair and the determined look in his too-bright eyes, before turning back to doing up his armor. He wants to look off to his right and away from Hinata, in the direction of the mountain peak that looms high above the capital spread out in the valley a day's ride away.
"I have to," Kageyama says. "He hasn't said yes."
Hinata snorts, but doesn't argue with that part of Kageyama's plan. They're both too stubborn for their own good, the sort of people who won't give up until they fall down dead from trying. Hinata won't try to discourage Kageyama from requesting another audience of the grand king. Strange as it sounds, Hinata will understand.
"Give me that," is what Hinata says instead, snatching the arm guard Kageyama is failing to buckle right out of his hand. "If I let you do my job for me, what's gonna stop you from getting rid of me, huh?"
Kageyama lets Hinata take the guard. His fingers are smaller and defter than Kageyama's, though Kageyama is the one with the right finesse in his hands for magic. He lets Hinata tend to his armor because that is Hinata's job as his squire, because it is hard to put on a guard one-handed, with Kageyama's off hand. It certainly isn't difficult because his hands are shaking.
"Kageyama..." Hinata says.
Kageyama squeezes one fist shut, squeezes it until his hand stops shaking. His teeth are squeezed tight too, gritted against the memory hovering behind his eyes, of roaring walls of roaring emerald flames, of the long shadow cast across them, both moving in ways that light and shadow shouldn't move.
"So, that incredible grand king," Hinata says, voice undercut with that awe he must not be trying hard enough to quash, "ended up scaring you all over again, huh?"
Kageyama looks away, mouth twisting into a scowl, eyes narrowed in frustration. He doesn't want to admit it. He doesn't know how to lie.
"Yeah," he says, the word coming out unexpectedly hushed. "Yeah, he really did."
"But you're going back," Hinata says. "You're going back to face him again. Is he going to use his magic on you again, is that what happened last time?"
Kageyama can see the spread of giant wings rising in the back of his mind, the memory of that vast wingspan snapping wide, of a terrifying beast looming over him and eyeing him up with poison-colored eyes. He can remember the heat of the flames as if they were real, the sweet scent that undercut their burning, sickly and saccharine like the inside of a medicine-woman's tent, a smell strong enough to make Kageyama lightheaded, dizzy.
He knows that all of it is intimidation tactics, is the grand king's way of scaring him off from his request. Knowing doesn't make the tactics any less effective.
"Yeah," Kageyama says again. "I'm going back as many times as I have to."
"Isn't it kind of stupid though, to keep doing the same thing over and over?"
Hinata has just finished doing up Kageyama's other arm guard; Kageyama grabs him by both sides of his face, grinding his knuckles in against Hinata's temples so that he squirms and shouts at him.
"Are you really going to call me stupid?" Kageyama asks. "Right before I go up to see him again?"
"I'm just saying," Hinata points out, throwing Kageyama's hands off of him so that they drop down to hang at his sides. "Maybe you should try doing something different."
"Different," Kageyama echoes. "Like what?"
Hinata shrugs, proving that this is as far as his bright idea has gotten. "I dunno. We've solved a lot of problems together, haven't we? Remember when we were performing in that one tournament, and the games were totally rigged, and so we decided to just— Kageyama?"
Hinata immediately goes from enthusiasm over his tale to what must be concern over the look on Kageyama's face. Kageyama can't tell exactly what it's doing, but it's starting to hurt his cheeks. Must be something scary.
"That's it," Kageyama says. "That's what I'll do."
"The thing from the tournament?" Hinata asks. "Because like, I had my eyes closed for the entire fight, and you were the one guiding me with magic, if you're going to do that with the grand king, won't that... you know..."
But Kageyama isn't listening. Now he has a plan, and all he has to do is follow through on it.
-
The path up the mountain is a familiar one, after the number of times Kageyama has walked it. Once a day, every day, for the past three weeks. He forces Hinata to stay at their camp with the horses, where they've been holed up for the entire time Kageyama has been working on this... On this project. He's unwilling to return to the capital until he succeeds.
With his eyes blindfolded, Kageyama takes the path far more slowly than he has on any previous journey.
He can feel the hard-packed dirt beneath his feet even though the leather soles of his boots, can feel each rock he steps over and each twig he breaks with his heel, can feel them more clearly than anyone else might because that is where Kageyama's magic lies. It's all in sensing and perceiving, in taking in the world as it is and translating what he's learned of it. Kageyama has never been skilled at changing things, at magic such as the grand king's illusions. It makes people think he is a poor sorcerer.
It's why he became a knight. The kind of magic he has is perfect for augmenting his physical abilities, for heightening his awareness of himself and the enemies all around him in the event of a fight. It was the natural choice.
Kageyama knows when he reaches the top of the mountain path because the quality of the dirt changes, shifting from hard-packed but fertile soil to looser sand, to gravel, giving way to the rocky surface of the path leading into the grand king's mountain home. Though his eyes are closed, Kageyama remembers the vaulted interior of the cavern the grand king has fashioned into his audience chamber, dripping with stalactites and with shafts of sunlight shining down through holes in that natural ceiling far, far above Kageyama's head.
It's an impressive room, perfectly circular and leading up to the dais where the grand king will come to sit, indulgently, once Kageyama has made enough of a fuss. It's impressive even before Oikawa springs his illusions and his magic on Kageyama to frighten him off.
Kageyama stands in the center of that room, eyes shut behind the blindfold Hinata has knotted neatly, carefully over his eyes, and calls out, "Grand king Oikawa! I request an audience with his majesty, ruler of this place."
Kageyama waits.
There's a roaring around him, the yawning sound of Oikawa's flames leaping high as he steps into the room. Kageyama can imagine them, fading from emerald into the same seafoam-green of the dragon form that's next in Oikawa's arsenal. But behind his blindfold, everything is dark and close, and he holds firm.
"What's this?" a familiar voice asks. "A lamb before the slaughter?"
Kageyama feels the warmth of the flames pressing on his body, overheating him in his armor and causing damp rivulets of sweat to trickle down his neck, down his back, down the insides of his thighs. The hot pressure of the flames he can feel without his sight and yet he can't help but wonder: is this fake as well? Is Oikawa a clever enough sorcerer to get inside his head, to give him the illusion of sweating and trembling, to induce fear directly until he caves in and retreats?
Kageyama presses his hands together, ignoring Oikawa's question. He bows his head, and implores the king, "Teach me."
"Teach you what, little prince?" Oikawa asks. His voice is closer now, rising over the soft sound of his footsteps as he moves across the room. "You can't even look at me. How do you expect to learn from me?"
"Teach me," Kageyama asks again, refusing to back down. "I'll do anything you ask."
Oikawa laughs, a high, amused sound. He's close enough now that Kageyama can feel him, right inside the personal bubble of his magic. He can feel every exhale Oikawa makes, feel the exact rhythm of his breathing, feel the pattern of his heartbeat like a pressure playing across Kageyama's own skin. He can tell that Oikawa is not bothering with any more of his usual magic.
"Anything?" Oikawa asks. "That is a high price to pay, dear prince Tobio. Do you really know what you're asking for? You had best be sure!"
Kageyama is sure. He is a skilled knight, as things stand. He could adequately lead an army, or win in a fight of skill. But he is a poor sorcerer, by anyone's account save for the palace's guardsmaster, whose only skills are likewise tuned for fighting. He's an inadequate prince. He could be better, so much better, if he knew the things that Oikawa does.
"I'm sure," Kageyama says. "I will do what it takes."
"Are you scared of me?" Oikawa asks, voice gone soft, hushed.
He's standing close enough that Kageyama can feel the heat of his body, a furnace of magical energy banked but still burning hot with Oikawa's will. It's frightening, being able to sense all that power built to a head inside one person. But it's — different, with Kageyama's eyes closed, with Oikawa standing so close and not pouring any of the energy into his usual tricks.
It feels as if there's... A blockage, something Oikawa has dammed up, a channel through which he can't — or won't — hold forth with his power.
Kageyama has begged Oikawa to teach him every day for three weeks because Oikawa is the only sorcerer in the kingdom with the right skills to do it. Kageyama hasn't asked Oikawa because he wanted to, exactly. He admires Oikawa very much, fears him outright, and knows that there is absolutely no other choice.
But now he's... Curious, about just what the grand king might be holding in reserve.
"No," Kageyama says, and doesn't think he's lying. "I mean — yes. But I came anyway. I want to learn."
There comes a silence then, a waiting, heavy silence that presses on Kageyama more oppressively than the darkness behind his eyes, than did the dazzle of even Oikawa's illusions turned on to their fullest majesty. He can almost hear the buzz of Oikawa's thoughts, sensed through his magic. But he cannot guess what Oikawa is thinking.
He feels a hand on his cheek, warm, bare skin pressed against his face. Oikawa tips it one way, then the other, so that Kageyama can feel rather than see the appraising stare being directed at him. Then Oikawa pulls up the blindfold, so that Kageyama's eyes twitch behind the light now dazzling him through his eyelids, struggling not to blink his eyes open.
"Look at me," Oikawa says, more insistently than any of his previous teasing or dramatics. "Look at me, little prince."
Kageyama blinks open his eyes.
Oikawa's hand on his chin is a little too tight, and his eyes staring into Kageyama's face are wide, bright, piercing him straight through with their stare. The flames jump around them once Kageyama can see him, and for a moment Oikawa seems to loom over him, towering above him with the application of his magic.
But Kageyama holds his ground, this time, and after a moment the entire world seems to jerk and Oikawa reverts to being only a man, standing across from him. Kageyama is surprised to realize they are almost the exact same height.
"Fine," Oikawa says, and lets go of Kageyama's face.
He turns around, as the flames cut out and leave the audience chamber feeling empty. It's only the two of them standing in a room much too large, Kageyama rooted to the spot, Oikawa with his back dismissively turned.
"Come back tomorrow," Oikawa says. "Bring what you must for an extended stay and be prepared to work hard, little prince. Your control is unexpectedly good and your natural talent is quite impressive, but you have nothing in the way of discipline. And abilities? Don't make me laugh. You have everything to learn, little prince Tobio."
Kageyama is still processing the fact that the grand king has finally said yes. Oikawa spins back around, rolling his eyes and shooting Kageyama a sour look.
"What are you still doing here?" he asks. "Go on, get out of here, shoo shoo. This is your last day of freedom, after this we are going to work until your fingers bleed. And don't bring that little squire of yours, I don't care how many times he asks. He doesn't have enough magic to fill a thimble and I'm not wasting my time."
Oikawa stares at him, expectantly. Kageyama stares back.
"Thank you," Kageyama finally says. It feels correct, somewhere in his gut.
Oikawa rolls his eyes again, making a little shooing motion with his hands. "Don't thank me yet, I'm about to make you regret ever asking to study with me. Now get, before I change my mind."
So Kageyama does. As put-upon as the grand king had sounded, Kageyama thought he might have been smiling. He will not regret this apprenticeship. He'll make certain that he doesn't.