SASO Referees (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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sportsanime2015-06-13 07:58 pm
referees) wrote in sportsanime2015-06-13 07:58 pm
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Bonus Round 2: AUs
Bonus Round 2: AUs
SASO 2015 is over, but this round is perpetually open to new fills (no new prompts).
This round is made for exploration of all those "what-if?" scenarios, like "what if my favorite sports anime was actually a spaghetti western?" or "what if everything was the same except everyone was actually a car?"
This round ends at 7PM on June 27 EDT. Countdown Timer.
RULES
- Submit prompts by commenting to this post with an alternate universe idea, along with a ship from one of our nominated fandoms.
- An AU could be a canon divergence, e.g. "what if [team] didn't win the Inter High in season 1, but [other team] did instead?", or a completely different setting altogether, e.g.s pop idol AU, coffee shop AU, superheroes AU, etc.
- Fill prompts by leaving a responding comment to the prompt with your newly-created work.
- 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)
For fills:
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 AOYAGI HAJIME/TESHIMA JUNTA, T+ (1/3)
Warnings: Well, it’s the Hunger Games, so. Graphic violence, death, emotional anguish, small bits of bad language. Also, trans Manami.
Thanks to Kiri for helping to smooth out details and giving ideas for Maximum Carnage.
This is one of the longest things I’ve ever written, what the heck. Do we get bonus points for having absolutely no chill and writing behemoth fills?
--
When Arakita’s name is drawn – what fucking luck, selected as tribute in his last eligible year, he’d been so close – he chokes on the whirlwind of emotions that blasts through his heart and his stomach and his mouth.
Fear. That’s self-explanatory.
Disgust. With the whole process, with the Capitol, with everyone watching and applauding.
Sorrow. For himself, because he is going to die, but more for his family, for his little sisters and his mother and father; for his friends; and for Fuku-chan, who he has to leave behind.
Relief. When someone volunteers.
Anger. When he recognizes the voice.
Pure, abject horror. “Fuku-chan, you bastard, what the fucking hell are you doing?!”
“Sorry, Yasutomo. I had to.”
“No.” Choking, crying. “No, you didn’t, you didn’t, you didn’t.”
“I did. I love you.”
“I love you too. Don’t die.”
Fear, again, when Fukutomi refuses to promise.
--
“I guess I should have told them I’m actually a boy, huh, Jinpachi?” Manami’s voice is light and airy, as always. Someone who doesn’t know him would have thought he wasn’t concerned at all. But Toudou knows him. Toudou knows. “Maybe they’d have to choose someone else. Or they wouldn’t have chosen you.”
“Shut up.” The response is muffled. Toudou’s holding Manami close, arms wrapped around his waist and shoulders and face buried in the fluffy hair behind his ear. Manami can barely breathe, but that’s okay. He wouldn’t be able to breathe, anyway.
He leans into Toudou’s shoulder and stares out the train window.
--
Onoda is crying.
Naruko is crying, too, but he’s trying to pull out his famous bravado, trying to keep it together for his little brothers and for Onoda, and, maybe, for Imaizumi, too.
Imaizumi isn’t crying, and a part of him feels like he should be, like he should be where Onoda is, clinging to his boyfriends, begging Naruko to be careful. Instead, he’s standing to the side, just kind of numb.
“Wrap it up,” a peacekeeper says, and Imaizumi jolts.
“Naruko…”
His voice is quiet – numb, like the rest of him – but Naruko hears him anyway, and gives him a wobbly smile, and holds out an arm.
“I know you’re not a touchy-feely kinda guy, Hotshot, but I could really use a hug right now. So, how ‘bout it?”
Imaizumi finally forces himself to move. To hug, to touch, to kiss. One last time.
“Don’t look so down,” Naruko says as he’s shepherded away. “I’m coming back! Don’t doubt it!”
It’s hard not to.
--
There’s nobody to say goodbye to, so Aoyagi waits alone until they fetch him for the train. Then, he sits alone on the train. The girl is binging on pastries. Their escort and mentor have disappeared to the bar car. Aoyagi, as always, is alone.
Out in the poorer districts, there are a lot of orphans. Aoyagi and his district partner are two of the faceless children, the ones nobody will miss, the ones who will die early. Nobody doubts that they’ll be among the first to die.
Aoyagi thinks, maybe I’ll try. Maybe I can succeed, just this once.
--
Teshima knows he will fail. He lets himself cry into his mother’s arms while he waits for the train. He’s not the cleverest or the sneakiest or the fastest or the strongest, and he’s going to die, he knows he’s going to die.
“Please don’t die,” his little brother says, crying just as hard, and all Teshima can do is stroke his hair and kiss his cheek and apologize over and over.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry, I love you, sorry…”
--
Fukutomi stares out the window and thinks of Arakita.
He couldn’t promise Arakita his own life, but. He’ll try. He’ll fight and kill and do whatever it takes to get home to him.
He is strong.
--
“Wooow, these are nice beds!” Manami is scampering around their suite, bouncing on the furniture, sticking his fingers into every one of the immaculately-plated dishes of rich food. Their escort is scandalized – even more so than when she’d learned that Manami is really a boy, no matter what his genetic scan says, which probably says something about the Capitol, though Toudou doesn’t know quite what – and she gives Toudou a look that says control your cousin.
He won’t, though, because their lives have been hard enough already and now they’re about to come to an abrupt, painful end.
If Manami wants to jump on the bed, Toudou will find him the best beds the Capitol has to offer and then jump with him.
--
“I clogged the toilet!” Naruko announces to the room at large, grinning at the reactions. His district partner snort-laughs, their mentor gives him a thumbs up, and the escort “tch”s under his breath.
“Poop jokes are the epitome of humour in the districts,” the mentor explains, and Naruko silently cheers at his cooperation.
He’s not worried. He knows he’s fast and strong, so he’s not worried. He’s just going to take advantage of all the food and training he gets before the arena. It’ll be fine. Nothing to worry about.
He clogs the toilet again, later, doubled up and heaving and sobbing.
--
Aoyagi doesn’t like the grandiose suite he’s been dumped in. It makes him feel too bright and exposed, so he sneaks off to hide in the elevator. There, at least, he can curl up in a corner and he doesn’t have to look at brightly coloured velvets and shimmery satins and plates of rich stews and cakes.
He feels more human, alone in the unadorned space.
--
Teshima tries to enjoy the food and the excessive luxury, but he’s scared. He wants to go home. All he wants is to go home.
The closest he can do is to go to the roof, where he can watch the stars and pretend that he’s lying on the roof of his parents’ little cottage, that his brother has unwillingly fallen asleep beside him and soon their parents will call them in for bed.
There’s someone in the elevator. His skin is scrubbed-pink, like he’s never been clean before, and he looks up at Teshima with surprisingly sharp eyes.
“Hello,” Teshima says.
He’s not Teshima’s brother, but he’s almost good enough, and they lie quietly together, watching the sky. Teshima sees a shooting star, and points it out.
“Make a wish,” he says, half-sarcastic.
--
Fukutomi is one of the few eighteen year olds in this year’s Games. He’s one of the biggest, too. It’ll give him an advantage, he thinks, over his smaller, younger competitors. He’s spent his whole life around tools that can be used as weapons and he can wield a scythe and throw an axe with the best of them. The Career tributes watch him with interest – apart from them, he was the only volunteer this year – and he considers forming an alliance.
It’s a detestable thought. He’s not excited for this. He doesn’t want to kill. But then he thinks of Arakita, waiting at home, and he knows. If this is what he has to do, to get home, then that’s what he’ll do. He goes to speak with the Careers.
--
Arakita watches the parade, watches his Fuku-chan standing tall and silent and proud, and hates himself for being safe at home.
--
Toudou has a great appreciation for his stylist. Manami couldn’t possibly be more indifferent about how he looks for the spectators, but Toudou has always been keen on Capitol style. He watches the fashion shows religiously – he’s the only person Manami knows who has ever been eager to watch Capitol programming. Toudou’s stylist is tall and thin and has long red-and-green hair and Toudou is utterly delighted with him. The stylist, for his part, seems bemused to have such a chatty, opinionated tribute to style.
Manami doesn’t care for his stylist, but he likes Toudou’s well enough, comes to appreciate the man when he insists that if Manami is a boy he should be styled like a boy, and Toudou nearly kisses him on the spot.
--
Their whole family is packed into one small house. There are a lot of sniffles and quiet sobs, but otherwise, everyone is silent.
They’re so proud, but so, so sad.
--
The parade is fun and bright and categorically overstimulating. The crowd cheers for Naruko when his chariot rolls out, and he absolutely eats it up, drinking in the adoration like a man dying of thirst. He may be young and small and skinny but they’d better watch out for him. He won’t be going down without a fight.
He hams it up for the crowd and the thunderous applause increases.
Even if he dies, the world won’t forget Naruko Shoukichi.
--
At home, Imaizumi and Onoda are wedged into a rickety chair meant for one. Onoda laughs through his tears and even Imaizumi manages a smile.
It’s harder to smile, later, when there’s a gap in the bed where a third person should be.
--
The parade makes Aoyagi uncomfortable, his clothes are heavy and restrictive and he can’t turn his head, but he sees Teshima up ahead of him and he suddenly feels just a little bit calmer.
--
Teshima is nothing if not a strategist, and so he acts. He acts for the crowd. He smiles and waves and looks like he’s having the time of his life and he thinks, like me, sponsor me, give me your support.
He thinks about alliances, and he surprises himself with wanting the orphan boy who watched the stars with him. He wants Aoyagi. He tries to figure out why, what benefit there is, and he finds nothing, but still, he wants him.
--
Teshima’s brother clings to their father’s hand and stares, laser-focused at the projected image of the parade.
“He looks confident,” he says, looking to his parents for confirmation, but none is forthcoming.
--
When the gong sounds, Fukutomi charges straight for the Cornucopia. There’s an axe and he wants that axe. He hears screams and shouts, vaguely, like he’s underwater.
Then, more keenly, the stomp of a footstep right behind him and he doesn’t hesitate before driving his axe through the chest of a little girl. Her ribs crunch and her blood splatters across his face and he hacks into another girl before grabbing a backpack and a set of knives and guarding his position.
“Well done,” one of the Careers says, and Fukutomi spits blood onto the grass. It’s not his.
--
The first thing Toudou does, upon rising out of the ground on his platform disc, is to look wildly around for Manami. For his little cousin.
Manami is already looking when Toudou finds him, and he smiles and waves. They have a plan, but Manami’s always been flighty, and Toudou’s worried.
His worry is justified. Sure enough, Manami breaks away from their plan – run to each other, run away together, hide – and skips his way to a crate lying nearby.
Toudou hears himself screaming. “Sangaku!”
--
Naruko flees – he’s not stupid – and he runs and runs until he suddenly finds himself face-to-face with a sneaky-looking boy with curly hair. They stare at each other – the other boy seems just as startled as Naruko, but then he flicks his bangs, glances over his shoulder, and breathes, “Alliance?”
Naruko just nods once and follows the boy deeper into the trees.
--
Aoyagi isn’t alone, but he’s not with Teshima.
It’s his district partner, the girl, he doesn’t remember her name, but she’d seen him and run after him and decided they would work together.
It’s better than being alone, he supposes, but not much. She’s nervous and erratic and cannot move quietly through the underbrush, but Aoyagi leads her downhill. They have no supplies, and they need to find water.
If nothing else, Aoyagi is good at survival.
--
Arakita doesn’t know if he’s proud or horrified by what Fukutomi has done.
--
There are six of them. Four Careers. Another burly teen. And Fukutomi. They’ve hoarded the supplies and go hunting as a pack.
Four, Fukutomi thinks, wiping off his axe blade.
--
“You absolutely boneheaded idiot,” Toudou hisses, dragging Manami up a tree by the collar. “We had a plan, why didn’t you stick to the plan, you moron, you could have been killed!”
“Sorry,” Manami says, cheerfully unrepentant. “But look!” He perches on a wide branch and opens the little messenger bag he’d managed to grab. There’s a small canteen – filled, luckily, with some kind of energy drink – and a large, serrated hunting knife. Toudou looks conflicted.
“Well,” he says, “it’s good to have this, I’ll give you that much.” Manami beams. “But you have to be more careful! Listen to me, for once, please,” he half-begs.
Manami considers this, lips pursed.
Toudou’s voice is unstable, now, and he pulls Manami close to press their foreheads together. “I promised your mom I’d take care of you. And mine,” he whispers, and Manami stills. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Sangaku. It’s bad enough already.”
“I’m sorry, Jinpachi,” Manami says sincerely, and he lets Toudou hold him with shaky arms.
--
“I recognize you,” Naruko says loudly, and Teshima tries to shush him. He lowers his voice, but only a little. “From training,” he adds. “You were terrible.”
“Yeah, thanks for that,” Teshima mutters. “Now shut up.”
“What are you looking for?” Naruko crouches beside him.
“Somewhere safe,” he responds. Somewhere near fresh water. A source of shelter. Food. Somewhere they can light a fire where the smoke and light won’t give them away.
Naruko scoffs. “We’re in the Hunger Games. There’s no such thing as safe.”
--
The girl is driving Aoyagi crazy, but she’s an ally and he needs an ally. Two sets of eyes are better than one.
They take turns sleeping at the base of a fallen tree.
--
Ten tributes are killed in the first twenty-four hours. Teshima and Naruko’s district partners are among them. They look at each other, and silently agree to take this alliance to the grave. Whoever’s grave comes first.
--
Toudou and Manami have spent their entire lives climbing trees. They can go days without touching the ground, and this skill lets them evade the Career pack easily. The cocky idiots never think to look up. When they’re out hunting, Manami sneaks into their camp and makes off with supplies, a few at a time. Food, matches, rope. Everything they need to stay alive.
“Gotta outlast them,” Toudou mutters, sorting through their spoils, and Manami nods along.
--
Teshima and Naruko bicker, sometimes, often, but otherwise Naruko thinks they make a good team. He’s fast and athletic and Teshima is smart, so between the two of them, constructing and disguising a small lean-to at the base of a cliff takes no time at all. Naruko extends his fist and Teshima smirks and bumps it.
They’re cooking a squirrel in a little pile of embers when they hear footsteps. Neither of them had been able to grab a weapon from the Cornucopia so they’re armed only with sticks filed to dull points, and rocks with sharp edges.
Two people, a boy and a girl, burst from the trees.
“Aoyagi,” Teshima breathes, and the boy smiles at him.
--
“He has a good alliance,” Onoda says tentatively, looking up at Imaizumi for his input. Imaizumi nods silently, focused on the screen. It’s a misfit alliance. They’re all small, hungry-looking, not at all like the powerful Career pack, but Naruko and Teshima have accomplished a lot so far and Imaizumi thinks, maybe.
He doesn’t like the look of that girl, though.
--
They chase and catch a little boy with a limp, and the Career tributes take turns jabbing him with their swords to make him scream until Fukutomi steps forward to sever the boy’s neck.
Five, he thinks, as the others scowl.