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sportsanime2016-07-21 08:53 pm
referees) wrote in sportsanime2016-07-21 08:53 pm
Entry tags:
Bonus Round 5: Myth & Lore
This round is CLOSED as of 7PM on August 4 EDT. Late fills may be posted, but they will not receive points.
RULES
- This round does not have prompts. Instead, we ask you to draw inspiration from the wide pool of mythology, fantasy, folklore, and fable. An urban fantasy or supernatural AU? A re-imagining of your favorite folk tale? Characters swapping ghost stories or playing D&D? As long as your fill in some way incorporates the fantastical and/or supernatural, it's welcome here.
- Your fill still has to be about a ship from one of our nominated fandoms. What ships you create work for is up to you, though.
- To submit your fill, simply leave it as a comment as a reply to this post.
- 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)
Remember, this is a NO-PROMPT round. Format your fill comment in one of the following ways:
| If FILLING: | If FILLING as a TEAM GRANDSTAND participant: |
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 fills as you want!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 Kominato Ryousuke/Kuramochi Youichi, G
no tags, sleeping beauty au
1788 words
Trees weren’t supposed to be grey, Haruichi thought.
He rested his hand on one of the trees cautiously, wary of how silent the forest was; there was no birdsong or any sound of leaves rustling, and it filled him with foreboding. The bark of the tree felt cold and rough – not like normal, but like a statue, as if someone had carved it from a block of stone.
Haruichi looked back at the regular, green forest he’d come from, then ahead at the sea of grey trunks and frozen leaves ahead. What on Earth had he stumbled across?
Common sense told him to find a different route – he wasn’t going anywhere in particular, just looking for a place to stay – but he had to find out what lay in the centre of this mess. Closing his eyes, he summoned his magic and muttered a couple of spells – setting a marker here in case he got lost, and enhancing his resilience in case he came across anything bad. After he was done, he pressed on.
As he went further in, it became clear that the entire forest was made of stone. Haruichi thought about what could have caused it – an extremely powerful mage, maybe, one a lot stronger than himself. He was fresh out of training and was still at the stage where he had to go to other lands to collect ingredients and the like instead of having the skills to grow them in his own patch – he didn’t even have his own patch, which was one of the things he’d been seeking out before he’d found the forest of stone.
Curiosity killed the cat, his brother would say, when they used to live together. He pushed away the memory and continued.
He noticed the trees thinning after a short while – fortunately the forest wasn’t too big – and stepped out of the stony woods into a clearing.
What he saw there made him freeze.
A giant castle stood in the frozen grass, the same dull shade of grey as everything else in the area. It was covered in thorns – which also seemed to be frozen – and it looked as if nothing had touched it in hundreds of years.
Very cautiously, Haruichi stepped forward, following the path up to the door. Nothing stirred.
He rested his hand on the door, and it began to glow beneath his fingertips. Alarmed, he stumbled back, but the glow remained as a shining golden handprint on the stone surface, a splash of colour among the monochrome surroundings. To Haruichi’s amazement, the colour then began to spread, colouring the entire castle, cracking sounds filling the air as flakes of stone began to fall off.
Haruichi was frozen in alarm. He hadn’t used any magic, so why had his touch triggered this? He couldn’t be sure, but it almost seemed like the castle was returning to normal.
The stone melted away from the golden walls, and all of a sudden the door flew open. A girl stood there, eyes wide – from her attire, she looked like some kind of noble.
“You're here,” she gasped. Haruichi noticed stone fading from her fingertips, and realised with a jolt that there must be people in this castle, all encased in stone. He could only stare as she looked back towards the castle, hearing the footsteps of people as they hurried through the halls to see what was going on, before she grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.
“Come in,” she said. “Before everyone crowds us.”
The girl’s name was Wakana, and after she’d managed to pull him out of the sight of the other residents, she sat him down and explained what was happening. First, she asked him what the year was – when he told her, she looked shocked.
“It’s been two hundred years since we were frozen,” she said, amazed. “I definitely don’t feel that old.”
She didn’t look it, either – she didn’t seem much older than Haruichi. “How did I break the seal?” Haruichi asked her, still a little shaken.
Wakana sat up a little straighter. “Two hundred years ago, our king wronged a powerful sorceress. It’s… more complicated than that, but if I went into detail we’d be here all day. Anyway, in revenge, she cursed the palace – starting with the king’s son.” Her face fell a little. “He was put into an eternal sleep. The curse continued to spread even after the king died, and it was said that it could only be broken by the sorceress, or her blood. As in relatives.”
Haruichi blinked, trying to take all this in, and Wakana tilted her head. “I guess you must be her descendent, then, but it doesn’t look like you know anything about this.”
He shook his head slowly. “No, I don’t. I come from a long line of mages, but I don’t think we know our history that far back.”
“I see.” Wakana folded her hands. “Well… thank you for freeing us. I just need to ask you for one more thing.”
Haruichi nodded. “What is it?”
“It’s about the king’s son. He’s still asleep, and it doesn’t look like he’s waking up any time soon.” Hope glimmered in her eyes. “Would you see if you can wake him up? He was my best friend.”
Well, it wasn’t like he could just walk away after all this, and he wasn’t in a rush. Haruichi smiled and nodded. “I can try.”
“Thank you.” Wakana smiled back, then turned and led him out of the room.
This isn’t working, Haruichi thought.
He was sitting on a chair in front of a large, four-poster bed, observing the sleeping prince – Eijun, his name was, Sawamura Eijun. Wakana had left to give him space while he tried out his magic, but nothing – no awakening spells, no anti-hex spells or curse-reversing charms – had worked. Contact hadn’t worked either, like it had with the castle; it was evident that something different was at play here. Eijun wasn’t even frozen in stone anymore – he just looked like any slumbering human, except he refused to wake up.
Haruichi was at a loss.
“Look,” he mumbled, part of him questioning why he was even talking to a person who couldn’t hear him, “I don’t know how to help you. Can’t you give me a hint? Anything?”
He was greeted with closed eyelids and limp arms. Haruichi sighed.
“Is this like a fairy tale?” he muttered quietly to himself. “I hope I don’t have to kiss you, or something silly like that.”
It was ridiculous, of course. But a tiny part of him thought that, well, why shouldn’t he try? Of course, there was only a tiny chance it would work, but it was still a chance, and he didn’t want to leave prematurely; if he did he wouldn’t be able to stop wondering whether he could’ve done more to help. If it didn’t work, he could just try something else. As long as Wakana didn’t suddenly open the door to check on him.
Come to think of it, did he even have to kiss him on the mouth? Haruichi lifted one of Eijun’s arms and pressed his lips to the back of his hand.
Nothing happened. He supposed it would have to be the mouth.
Haruichi leaned forward, his rational thoughts snapping why are you doing this, this is ludicrous and will never even work, and pecked the sleeping prince on the lips.
He then shot backwards, embarrassment colouring his face a bright red. This felt… really weird.
And then, Eijun opened his eyes.
Haruichi sat, shocked and staring – Eijun’s eyes glancing around the room until they came to rest on him. They’re so bright, Haruichi thought.
Eijun was still staring at him and he hadn’t spoken, so Haruichi took it upon himself to start. “Um… hey. Are you okay?”
It wasn’t the best starter, but Haruichi’s mind was taking a while to catch up with the situation. How had the kiss actually worked? He was close to just melting into the floor when Eijun sat up, alarmingly fast for someone who’d just woken up from a two hundred year slumber.
“Did you wake me up?” he asked, excited. Haruichi blinked – everything was happening too fast. “Y-yeah, I did. My name’s Haruichi—”
“Thank you!” Eijun stood up, attempting to bow, and then stumbled. Haruichi jumped up, holding his shoulders to steer him back to his bed. “Please sit down, you only just woke up!”
“Sorry, sorry.” Eijun grinned sheepishly as he sat – his grin reminded Haruichi of a sunny day. “But really, thanks! I thought I’d be asleep forever. I mean, I knew what was gonna happen when I fell asleep, and I kinda thought ‘what if I never wake up?’ But here I am! And I actually don’t feel that tired!”
Haruichi laughed a little. “Well, you have been asleep for two hundred years.”
“That long?” Eijun gaped at him, and then he laughed, a loud, obnoxious sound, but it was also oddly endearing. “I guess that makes sense, then!”
He halted suddenly, mid-laugh. “Wait, did you kiss me, Harucchi?”
Haruichi froze, mind flicking between oh god, he knows and how does he know and did he just nickname me? “I…” He hid his face in his hands. “No! I mean… it was a spur of the moment decision, I promise-”
“Huh? I’m not mad or anything,” Eijun said, blinking. “But one of the curse conditions was something like,” he put on a dramatic voice, frowning comically, “’you can only be awoken by the kiss of the person who you are going to marry.’”
Everything was happening way too fast.
“I,” Haruichi started again, his head swimming, then sighed. He was too exhausted to be floundering in confusion anymore. “I’m just a mage who stumbled across this place. I have no idea what any of this means.”
“That’s fine!” Eijun beamed. “I mean –” he actually looked embarrassed for a second, as if he’d been graced with some flash of situational awareness- “I dunno about that part. Maybe I heard it wrong. But we should still be friends, at least.”
Haruichi gave a shaky laugh, his shoulders relaxing a bit. “Alright. I don’t see why not.”
Eijun was still studying him with those bright eyes of his, head tilted and gaze curious, intrigued. Haruichi fidgeted a little, noticing the freckles scattered across Eijun’s cheeks and the bridge of his nose. After a short while Eijun sat up, grinning and telling Haruichi they should go outside and see all the other palace residents to decide what to do next.
Haruichi followed him, mouth curved into a little smile of his own. Maybe this won’t be so bad, he thought.