Bonus Round 1: Quotes

[referees]

Bonus Round 1: Quotes

SASO 2015 is over, but this round is perpetually open to new fills (no new prompts).

PLAY BALL! For this round, we'd like you to take inspiration from songs, sayings, poems, and other kinds of famous words.

Because this is our first full round, please read this post carefully before proceeding!

This round ends at 7PM on June 13 EDT. Countdown Timer.

RULES

• Submit prompts by commenting to this post with a quote attributed to a specific person or character, along with any ship/ot3/etc. from one of our nominated fandoms.
  • Example: "Hi-ho, Kermit the Frog here!" -Kermit the Frog
  • The quote can come from anywhere. Famous people, poetry, songs, books, movies, your neighbor, etc.
  • Your prompt MUST include some kind of relationship. (This is not the sports anime gen olympics.) Platonic relationships are indicated by an "&" between the names (e.g., Yachi & Kiyoko). Non-platonic relationships use "/" (e.g., Yachi/Kiyoko). Please don't say "Any pairing," either!
• Fill prompts by replying to the prompt with your quote-inspired fanwork.
• Remember to follow the general bonus round rules, outlined here.
• You cannot fill your team's prompts or your own prompts.

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. 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: Post written/text fills directly to the round with clear tags. Please link to art/visual fills. You can include a small safe-for-work preview if you'd like. To place an image in your comment, use this code: <img src="LINK TO 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: Post written/text fills directly to the round with clear tags. Please link to art/visual fills. You can include a small safe-for-work preview if you'd like. 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 Imaizumi Shunsuke/Naruko Shoukichi, T

[peterpandemic]

No major content warnings

791 words

Life was easier before Imaizumi met Naruko.

That’s not to say it was always good or enjoyable, but it was, at least, predictable. Imaizumi liked it when things were predictable, when he could anticipate and plan around any obstacles he might encounter. I didn’t matter whether the obstacles in question were upcoming exams in school, unwelcome social interactions that he might be pulled into by well-meaning classmates, or that one stretch of road along his usual training route that was riddled with potholes and was a cyclist’s nightmare--if he was at least aware of what was coming, he could remain in control of the situation instead of scrambling to cope.

Imaizumi was a good cyclist because he knew that control was of utmost importance. Control was the difference between using unexpected conditions to your advantage or falling to them. Control was the difference between winning and losing.

And then Naruko Shoukichi showed up, and that all went to hell.

At first, he hadn’t thought too much of the redheaded cyclist from Osaka-- vague interest, maybe, at the prospect of a slightly higher level of competition from the other first-years than he’d first anticipated, but nothing that couldn’t be worked around. Imaizumi was here to win, after all.

What he hadn’t accounted for was how irritating the other boy would be, how loud and obnoxious he was and how he couldn’t even get away from him, not for long, because Naruko was a (regrettably) good cyclist and would always catch up to Imaizumi again on the flats, even after falling behind on the hills.
It was hard to plan ahead enough to account for someone like Naruko, who seemed to see it as some sort of duty to be deliberately unpredictable. And if this wasn’t bad enough, somewhere along the line Naruko began to unsettle him in other, unexpected ways too.

It started off small, just little things like Imaizumi noticing after one of their impromptu races that he felt truly, genuinely happy as they hunched over their bikes, gasping for breath and arguing halfheartedly over who had won, using exhaustion as an excuse to hide his smile behind his arms. It progressed into a sense of admiration for the other’s talent, and his drive to improve himself despite the odds stacked against him-- this wasn’t such a surprise either, Imaizumi had thought, they were teammates as well as rivals, so it was only natural that he would grow to appreciate the work he put in for the team’s sake.

Less easy to excuse were the strange little urges that Imaizumi would sometimes feel, like the foreign desire to brush aside Naruko’s shockingly red bangs when they fell into his eyes after a hard race, or the need to check in on his well-being just to make sure he wasn’t pushing himself too hard or hurting and covering it up with a laugh for Onoda’s sake. It was worrisome how close to the surface thoughts of Naruko remained on Imaizumi’s mind, even when he wasn’t anywhere in sight.

As a rule, Imaizumi wasn’t the sort of person who concerned himself with other people, but apparently Naruko had to go and prove himself to be the exception.

And really, Imaizumi couldn’t see this as anything but a foreboding sign. He had never felt his loss of control so profoundly as he did where Naruko was concerned, and it left him cornered. It made him feel less like Imaizumi Shusuke, Sohoku’s talented first-year cyclist and more like he was just an awkward kid again, shut-in and lonely because he was unable to cope with the people in his life and what they expected of him. There could be no doubt that this was a bad thing.

And then Naruko would smile toothily at him and call him “Hotshot” with something that could have been affection in his voice, and Imaizumi could almost fool himself into thinking that whatever it was that he was feeling wasn’t really so strange, was actually returned...

But that was a dangerous path to go down, so he didn’t let himself think about it.

Maybe something would give someday. Maybe Naruko would make a move or maybe he wouldn’t, and they would keep being rivals until they graduated before going their separate ways, becoming nothing more than vague childhood memories to each other. Maybe this would all amount to nothing in the end, just a single blip in the straight line of Imaizumi’s life where he had, briefly, considered entrusting a piece of himself to another person.

Regardless of what happened, Imaizumi could do nothing more than weather the storm and hope to emerge as unscathed as possible on the other side.