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 Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka, G

[alder_knight]

no tags, 625 words

It’s forty-five minutes past Rin’s bedtime when his phone’s email alert buzzes. He’s finally on his way to sleep now, and considers ignoring it, but he compromises: he’ll just see who the sender is and then put his phone on airplane mode for the night.

The email is from Haruka. Rin opens the message.

Subject: you asked
Date: June 26 (4 minutes ago)
Sender: Nanase Haruka
Body: [link]

Puzzled, Rin clicks the link. It’s a storefront selling adult-sized, swim-ready, spandex mermaid tails. For a moment Rin only stares, wondering if his fatigue is making him hallucinate. The image doesn’t change. Rin flops back down on his bed.

He closes the tab, the app, and his eyes, and considers. 15 000 yen? For a birthday present? A birthday present as weird and ridiculous as Haruka himself?

With a sigh, Rin plugs in his phone and turns off the light. It’s late. He’ll sleep on it.

***

Morning comes. Rin buys the damn tail.

***

The week after Haruka’s birthday, Rin gets a skype call at home. He’s brushing his teeth but he picks up anyway. It’s Makoto.

“Rin!” his friend greets him, smiling with either excitement or nervousness, Rin can’t quite tell. “How are you?”

Rin spits toothpaste into the sink. “Pretty good,” he replies, and ducks to rinse his mouth before continuing. “Haven’t heard from you in a while. What’s the occasion?”

“Well,” replies Makoto, and it’s then that Rin registers Makoto’s surroundings - tile walls, lots of blue, high ceiling - “well, Haru-chan wanted to show you something.”

Distantly, Rin hears a splash, and a clear, irritated voice calling, “Drop the -chan.”

Makoto smiles and switches the camera from selfie mode to rear-facing video.

It takes a moment for Rin’s eyes and the camera’s focus to adjust, but when they do, Rin bursts out laughing. Haruka is floating on his back in the family pool at the recreation center, arms out for buoyancy, wrapped in iridescent blue spandex that covers him from the waist down and terminates in a fluked tail.

“Hold the camera still, Makoto,” Rin says, hoping to get a clearer look. The blissful look on Haruka’s face makes any regret Rin felt for the price evaporate. Haruka looks like he’s just achieved enlightenment.

“Haru,” Rin calls, “swim for me.”

Haruka lifts his head and rises out of his back float to peer up at the camera, hair dripping into his eyes. Rin feels his chest tighten at the sight of him, a feeling that no familiarity has ever dulled. “Come on,” he urges, “I want to see you swim in it.”

When Haruka does - when he rolls onto his front to take a breath and submerge, joined legs kicking slowly and steadily to propel him across the length of the pool, Rin stops feeling silly about it at all. Somehow the tail looks right on Haruka - or rather, he looks right in it. Haruka has always been more or less aquatic. The graceful undulation of this new appendage suits his style of swimming so well that Rin is surprised he’s gone so long without it.

“Isn’t it perfect?” Makoto comments. “It was such a good gift.”

When Haruka swims back to the edge of the pool where Makoto is waiting, grips the concrete edge, and peers up at Makoto’s phone, Rin’s heart catches again. He knows the face Makoto is seeing on him must be an embarrassing one. He can’t find it in him to care.

“Haru,” he calls out, hoping it will carry, “happy birthday.”

Haruka spares him a small, rare, precious smile. “Thank you, Rin.”

Re: FILL: Team Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka, G

[tempestuously]

OMG I love this. I love how you worked Makoto into it in his endearing way and the way Haruka wants to show off but wants to pretend like he's not showing off. And just the casual nature of the email in general. It's so blunt, so Haruka. And of course, Rin absolutely smitten with Haruka as always.

Thank you!

Re: FILL: Team Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka, G

[alder_knight]

The idea of Haru being like, "Makoto, I need you to come to the pool with me and video call Rin while I'm swimming in my new tail. But I need you to make it seem like it was your idea," was cracking me up so hard, I'm glad it was actually funny to someone other than myself too. XD

Also I never write Makoto and that is a damn shame.

anyway: thank you!!