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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 IWAIZUMI HAJIME/OIKAWA TOORU, G
1438 words
“Alright, I’ve got it.” Toudou plops down next to them on the grass where they had been doing homework together until he showed up.
“Keep your voice down,” Arakita hisses, pushing at Toudou’s shoulder for talking so loudly and because he’s sitting way too close.
Toudou rolls his eyes. “Arakita, there’s no one near us. And besides, they wouldn’t have any idea what I’m talking about!”
He sighs, but settles back down to where he had been laying, book in front of him on the grass. Toudou’s right—not that Arakita will admit that—but it still doesn’t stop him from being aware of everyone even remotely close by. Not when they’re talking about this.
Fukutomi and Shinkai barely acknowledge Toudou and Arakita’s exchange beyond greeting Toudou, are used to it after being together as housemates and friends since their first year.
“So…” Shinkai looks up from his textbook when there’s a lull in Toudou’s chattering about what had happened in their less than one hour apart while he got his own books out. “You have it, then?”
“Yes!” Toudou reaches into his bag and pulls out what he had been tasked with getting—three mandrake leaves. “Save your applause, I’m always this good!”
Arakita rolls his eyes at the theatrics, but finds himself staring at the leaves in Toudou’s palm for a minute before the other puts them away again in case someone does happen to walk by and see them.
He still can’t really believe that this is happening. That the three of them want to even attempt something like this—something that’s illegal and probably unheard of for fourteen year olds to try—for him.
It had taken until second year for any of them to even figure out that Arakita is a werewolf. He knows that until then, they were suspicious of his excuses for why he would suddenly have to leave once a month, but accepted every lie he told them up until middle of second year.
Toudou is the one who had been the most vocal about it, sometimes even demanding that Arakita spill whatever secret he’s hiding, but Arakita knows that Fukutomi and Shinkai had been equally concerned about what was going on with him, about what he refused to tell them.
He had been afraid back then, afraid to explain to them that he had been bitten by a werewolf as a child and had to leave the castle once a month to transform so he didn’t hurt anyone, afraid of coming to Hogwarts and of people finding out and avoiding him at all costs—what typically happens when people do find out.
But meeting Fukutomi on the train his very first day had been like a fresh start. He soon met Shinkai, and later Toudou when they were all sorted into Gryffindor together, and everything has just sort of fallen into place since then. They didn’t know anything about what had happened to him, and didn’t push him away. For the first time since he was a kid he had friends.
They’re not stupid, though. Fukutomi is smart—one of the smartest in their year—while Shinkai is perceptive and picks up on pretty much everything, and Toudou is nosy and persistent (but in a good way, even if it annoys Arakita to death sometimes.) And by middle of second year they’ve got it all figured out and ask him about it.
Arakita doesn’t want to confirm that they’re right and risk losing the few friends he finally has. But he can’t really deny it any longer, so he ends up telling them. His fists are clenched, eyes focused on the floor instead of their faces because he’s afraid of seeing the looks of fear or repulsion in their eyes now that the secret is out.
But Fukutomi assures him what happened in the past doesn’t define him—not to them.
Shinkai smiles and says that it doesn’t change anything.
Toudou punches his shoulder and starts screeching about how he can’t believe Arakita thought they would stop being his friends over it.
Arakita’s chest feels tight at their words, and he smiles, for once not afraid of losing them. Not anymore.
After that, it has been nothing but support from them. It’s as if nothing has changed, which is really all Arakita’s ever wanted—to feel normal, to be normal despite transforming into a werewolf every month.
The only thing that’s different, however, is that ever since the three of them have been trying to come up with some way to support him and help him further, even though Arakita always insists that they don’t have to. He doesn’t think there really is a way, anyway. Besides, having them stick around and stay by his side as his friends is good enough.
But by the time it’s their third year, Toudou is nudging him awake in History of Magic class, whispering (or at least trying to), and pointing at the board.
Arakita, still a little dazed from the nap, leans forward and squints to see it. And written on the board in a quick scrawl is apparently, the answer: Animagi.
Apparently the three of them had been passing notes in class ever since the topic came up, while Arakita slept. Toudou had finally decided to shake him awake, too excited about the idea to contain it for much longer.
(He and Toudou end up getting detention for being too loud and disrupting class when their professor catches them talking, and despite complaining about it later, Arakita thinks that it’s worth it.)
But now that it’s a real possibility, a plan that’s actually going to happen, it seems unbelievable.
“I told you, you don’t have to do this,” Arakita mutters once there’s silence between them again. “Really, it’s—”
“Are you kidding? I just stole mandrake leaves! We’re not discarding all of my hard work because you’re trying to be a martyr, Arakita!”
“What Jinpachi means is that we’ve already decided, so don’t try and make us change our minds, Yasutomo,” Shinkai supplies.
Fukutomi looks up from his assignment, nodding in agreement. “We all agreed. We want to.”
“Aren’t you lucky to have the three of us who care about you enough that we’d do something illegal to help you out?” Toudou asks, laughing as he nudges Arakita’s shoulder. “Criminals at only fourteen, who would have thought?”
Arakita laughs. “If you get caught, make sure Toudou is the one they throw in Azkaban.”
Toudou rolls over, looking at him with an offended stare. “Arakita!”
“Toudou.”
“You’re joking!”
“I’m not.”
He huffs, cheeks puffed out in mock annoyance. “I’m going to take my mandrake leaves back to the herbology greenhouse and never come back, then! Good luck without me!”
“Be my guest!”
“Everything I do is so underappreciated,” Toudou complains. “How do I put up with this every day of my life?”
“Yasutomo, Jinpachi, stop.” Shinkai’s calm voice draws them out of their usual banter, and when Arakita looks over at him, there’s an amused look in his eyes. Like he thinks it’s funny.
Even Fukutomi has stopped what he’s doing and is watching them, looking entertained by their back and forth.
“Thanks,” Arakita finally says. “All of you. Thanks for doing this.”
“We’re your friends, Arakita,” Fukutomi says, sincere, reassuring. “We’re with you until the end.”
Even though Arakita knows it’s the truth by now, hearing Fukutomi, who doesn’t always say it aloud or confirm it, means a lot. He looks down at his book, cheeks heating up at the words. “Jeez, Fuku-chan…” he manages after a moment, slightly embarrassed, but smiling because of them.
The thought that they’re going to become unregistered animagi just so they can keep him company during the full moon, something completely illegal and unconventional, is kind of surprising. But he appreciates it. Really, he does, and he couldn’t ask for better friends.
And maybe keeping a mandrake leaf in his mouth for a month will somehow make Toudou quieter. No more nagging Arakita to do his homework or to stay awake in boring classes or to keep his grades up and stay out of trouble so he doesn’t affect their Quidditch team’s performance. It’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless, so Arakita would take it.
(Toudou somehow manages to not let anything, especially something as small as a mandrake leaf hinder him. Of course. He shouldn’t be surprised.)
Arakita can’t really say he minds it, though. Especially when they do manage to pull it off and from then on full moons are no longer as unbearable or lonely as they always have been.
Re: FILL: TEAM IWAIZUMI HAJIME/OIKAWA TOORU, G
Re: FILL: TEAM IWAIZUMI HAJIME/OIKAWA TOORU, G