Bonus Round 3: Gift Tags

[referees]

Feeling generous? In this round, you get to give creative gifts as prompts.

This round is CLOSED as of 7PM on July 7 EDT. Late fills may be posted, but they will not receive points.

RULES

• Submit prompts as a gift tag in the format below. You can specify the size and a characteristic of the gift, who the sender is, who the recipient is, and a one or two sentence note from the sender to the recipient. Descriptions of the package and the included note don’t have to be explicit, see below.
• Package: medium sized cube, rattles
  From: Kageyama Tobio
  To: Hinata Shouyou
  Note: These will help you get better.
• Envelope: manila, 12''x17'', very thick and heavy
  From: Tezuka Kunimitsu
  To: Kinjou Shingo
  Note: Enclosed - Play without regrets!
• Your prompt MUST include a relationship. Platonic relationships are indicated by an "&" between the names (e.g., Riko & Momoi). Non-platonic relationships use "/" (e.g., Riko/Momoi). Please don't say "Any pairing," either.
• Fill prompts by leaving a responding comment to the prompt with your newly-created work. Fillers can get creative with how to interpret the prompt: your fill can be about the character receiving the gift, one or both characters using the gift, what prompted the sender to send the gift—the physical gift itself can even be excluded from your fill. What’s important is that the gift tag is clearly the inspiration for your fill.
• 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)

There is no max work cap.

Format your comment in one of the following ways:

If PROMPTING:	If FILLING:	If FILLING as a TEAM GRANDSTAND participant:
PROMPT: TEAM [YOUR SHIP] Replace [YOUR SHIP] with the name of the team you belong to, including Grandstand or Sports Teams Write it exactly as it appears on the team roster or your team will not receive points Place the prompt's relationship in the first bolded line of the comment. Including the canon isn't required, but it's nice. Below that, place applicable major content tags (when applicable; otherwise write "no tags" or "none") Visual example	FILL: TEAM [YOUR SHIP], [RATING] Replace [YOUR SHIP] with the name of the team you belong to Write it exactly as it appears on the team roster or your team will not receive points Replace RATING with the rating of your fill (G - E) Place applicable major content tags and word count before your fill (when applicable) NSFW FILLS: Please cross-link these fills and use clear tags in your comment. Written/text fills should be hosted at AO3 ONLY as a new, unchaptered work. Art/visual fills can be hosted anywhere. You may include a small safe-for-work preview of the fill in your comment. To place an image in your comment, use this code: <img src="LINK TO YOUR IMAGE" alt="DESCRIPTION OF YOUR IMAGE"/> Visual example	FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, [RATING] Replace RATING with the rating of your fill, G - E, as explained in the rules Place applicable major content tags and word count before the fill, where applicable NSFW FILLS: Please cross-link these fills and use clear tags in your comment. Written/text fills should be hosted at AO3 ONLY as a new, unchaptered work. Art/visual fills can be hosted anywhere. You may include a small safe-for-work preview of your work in your comment. To place an image in your comment, use this code: <img src="LINK TO YOUR IMAGE" /> Visual example

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!

Comments

Fill: Team Grandstand, G

[elucidatedlucy]

Tags: Mentions of absentee parents
Word count: 1500

Yuzuko came in with smiles and band-aids. Unlike the professional tan medical tape her father kept, Yuzuko's were brightly decorated - covered in cartoonish mascots and pictures of candy, cheap things that fell off her elbows with the same fervor she trained with.

That in of itself, Ringi wouldn't have minded, glancing over during breaks.

Not until Yuzuko would say, toothless grin aside, "I'll lend you some if you need them!"

At the very least, Ringi didn't mind her bloody knuckles like she did that creepy smile. Even her father's complaints were tepid in comparison to relief at wiping it off Yuzuko's face for a moment.

"If you don't come across as apologetic enough," he would say, "Her parents will not let her return."

That was the way those foreigners went, apparently.

Alongside bright red gloves, the closest thing to candy she owned, Ringi wrote - May the best one win!


---


Yuzuko kept coming in, always wearing those bright gloves.

Ringi sat to the side, staring at her stretch. It had taken years for her to escape the blatant strain. Between motions and preparations, Yuzuko would sit up with a look of pure surprise - making Ringi's gut churn. It was a shock to all of them that she was still here. Even herself.

"Do you miss them?"

Yuzuko spun her legs through the air. If Ringi bothered to stand up to help, she could power through the rest of her warm-up. Rather than making the girl sit and wait another two hours for the first of the students otherwise to arrive.

Ringi raised her voice. "Your parents?!"

Upside down eyes met hers. Yuzuko arched her back, slamming feet into the ground, to hold herself up.

"It's okay," she said. "I'll see them again soon!" The grin wasn't any better like this. "It's really nice of them to let me stick around here like this!"

The Mawataris - they'd abandoned a child in another country. In Ringi's mind. Even if her father had taken in Yuzuko, it didn't count. That thing wasn't her sister.

"Do you ever miss your mom?"

Yuzuko's voice was always the same. Always blithe. Straight-forward. A skin-crawling honesty.

"What?" Ringi spat.

Turning and crab walking, Yuzuko closed in - Ringi dragged her legs up onto the chair, against her chest, hiding a glare behind her knees.

"I've never seen your mom around," Yuzuko said. She was still holding herself up. Talking so easily. A tiny monster under her bed, terrifyingly friendly. "Do you miss her?"

It wasn't something to think about.

She had her father. She had training. She had food and a home and a place to stay and talent and a million fools who thought they could do anything against her strength.

But Ringi said, "Shut up." She didn't get the flinch she wanted in return - so she slammed down her feet. "You don't care, so shut up."

"Of course I do!" Yuzuko - finally rolled over, staring up like she could be a puppy. "You're my friend."

"I'm not your friend," she muttered. "You freak."

That earned her a longer placid stare. "Oh." Moments, before it still transformed as Yuzuko's face ever did. "You're right! We're family, too!"

"Wh... no! No, we aren't," Ringi said, driving herself back further into the seat.

But Yuzuko was standing, vibrating with absurd excitement. "We don't have to worry about missing anyone, then!"

In a distant bag, that was always on her, Ringi could see the same flash of already torn red gloves. Sewn up. Washed carefully. Her father had shown Yuzuko how, when she'd refused. How to treat the leather. How to hold her hands, to avoid shattering bone.

Ringi folded her arms. "Whatever."

And Yuzuko shone.


---


Even long after she'd proven herself, grown men would come in and stare at Ringi as though she was her father's private joke. Regardless of how many people she could twist down to the mat, strike, break, there was always another who called it an accident.

"They're all pigs," she said one night, throwing shoes across the room.

Yuzuko stared down from her bunk. It had been her father's request, and 14 months, before Ringi had allowed it. She kept things clean. And clear. Sharing a room wasn't terrible. As long as it was her choice.

"The way they look at me," she muttered. Ringi mussed her sweat-drenched hair. "Like I can't do anything."

"Really?" Yuzuko tilted her head, ever like a confused animal. "That's so weird! Why would they do that?"

Ringi sniffed, worn and tired and annoyed. "Yuzuko. Don't be dumb."

"But you're the coolest! I know why they think they can beat me. I really suck!" The same face. The same grin. It wasn't as unsettling, anymore. Yuzuko's face had grown on her like a fungus. "No one could really beat you though. You might be one of the strongest people in the world!"

The effect was worse, now. Wriggling through worn holes in armor, carefully built pride, Ringi scoffed. "Duh." She crawled into her own bed, wrapping covers up around her head. Yuzuko was terrifying. "I don't know how you can keep coming back when they look at you like that. You don't have anything going for you."

Once, Yuzuko had complimented her on the mean things Ringi said.

"It's cool that you could be so honest with me," she'd said. "It always makes me feel like I can get even stronger!"

Here, Yuzuko leaned over the bed, staring with an upside down grin.

Monsters weren't supposed to hang up like that.

But Ringi figured it was alright for a weirdo like Yuzuko to be an exception.

"I don't mind," she said. "They're right, aren't they? I'm just a kid!" Confusion floated across her face. "But it's sorta silly to make assumptions like that, anyway. In a fight, aren't you supposed to be ready for anything? One day, I'll give them a real run for their money!"

It was so simple.

And foolish.

And Ringi wasn't sure why she hadn't thought of it like that before. A smile challenging the frustration on her lips. Grinding her teeth with a private grin.

"It'll be a while for you," Ringi said. "But don't worry." She gave an honest gift - a wink. "I'll fix 'em up till you can yourself."

Yuzuki held out a hand, and Ringi slammed her own into it.

"May the best one win!"

It couldn't be anyone else but her.


---


Her father sat down beside her, pulling away from the ring where Yuzuko circled.

"Aw, dad." Eyebrow raised, Ringi gave a coy smile. "Aren't you supposed to be up for Yuzuko? She could get into trouble."

"She will," he said. "But she can handle it."

Ringi laughed, and fixed the frames slipping down her nose. "I don't like these much. I think I'll take 'em back to the store, alright? When Yuzuko's done here, I'll drag her out with me."

"You've been training her," he said.

"You always talk about how dangerous the streets are." In the ring, Yuzuko had her opponent pinned. Eight seconds - she could see through the holes in her hold, and the opponent was unfortunately smart enough. That was better, though. It was better to see Yuzuko struggle with that sick smile of hers. Years, and it was fun. Years, and it was a delight to see people weak in the face of the monster she called family. "No better place for us, right?"

"She's not good at striking like you are," he said.

"Good," Ringi said.

He stared, quiet scars and lines through his face - but she never broke down, against him. It made her feel taller. Stronger. "Break her hold a few times." Her opponent was smart, but not quite enough. Another grip, and Yuzuko had brought him down. He was panicking - and Ringi never did. "If you have the time, remind her what it's like."

Ringi grinned. "I'd never let her forget."

And her father returned the same smile, colored however it may have been by the strange mania behind her strange sister. His two daughters - a bright pride that she didn't need at all.

A red glove stabbed, triumphant, into the air.

The best one in the ring always won.


---


"You're so lucky!" Ringi whined, hanging over her sister's shoulders. "I'll never get to fight Natsuo this way."

But she'd given her new gloves.

Something new, for such a fun fight.

"She might win!" Yuzuko bopped Ringi in the head, too strong for her own good. "Then I'll definitely convince her too."

Ringi huffed. "No, she won't. It's you."

Yuzuko's eyes wandered, eclectic twitch of her nose drawing Ringi's attention. "Then ... oh!" She spun around. "When I win, maybe she'll say she owes me one, and we'll trade out fights with friends! That'd be cool, right?" Eyes sparkling.

She was still a fool.

But nowadays, it made Ringi smile.

Even if she couldn't see the terrifying hatred in Natsuo's eyes. But Ringi wondered if it was familiar, for Yuzuko. After who she'd grown up with.

"You'd better!" She bopped Yuzuko's head in return. Ringi had long since learned to have fun with it. "May the best one win."

Re: Fill: Team Grandstand, G

[babster]

!!! THANK YOU! I loved the progression of their relationship, from Ringi hating her to really thinking of Mawatari as a sister. I loved how red gloves and 'may the best one win' echoed throughout the whole thing. "Years, and it was a delight to see people weak in the face of the monster she called family." such a wonderful line. thank you

Re: Fill: Team Grandstand, G

[karahashi]

!!!!!! THIS IS GREAT! I love how you've written Ringi with those harsher moments - 'That thing wasn't her sister.', 'A skin-crawling honesty.' And the vivid colour of the gloves throughout is a really great image linking the scenes together!
(also this line made me laugh, but it's perfect!! 'Yuzuko's face had grown on her like a fungus.')

The progression of their relationship is amazing, and Yuzuko's subtle growth too - you portray things in such a natural, organic way :O The light imagery you've gone with for Yuzuko with the sparkles in her eyes and just. Shining. It's really effective! I love it a lot *o*

This is a superb tribute to Rinji and Yuzuko's relationship and I really enjoyed it!!!