SASO Referees (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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sportsanime2015-08-08 08:50 pm
referees) wrote in sportsanime2015-08-08 08:50 pm
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Bonus Bonus Round: Encore
Bonus Bonus Round: Encore
SASO 2015 is over, but this round is perpetually open to new fills (no new prompts).
This is your last chance to get fills for unloved prompts from all previous rounds. Let's party!
(Pay attention to the prompt format this round, located below; it's different from previous rounds. Don't forget about the "Recs" bonus round either!)
This round ends at 7PM on August 22 EDT. Countdown Timer.
RULES
- NO NEW PROMPTS ALLOWED. It has to be a repost from a previous bonus round.
- You can repeat any previous bonus round prompt, whether it received fill(s) or not.
- You can repeat your own prompts.
- One prompt per post, post as many times as you want.
- If you're posting a prompt that's not yours originally, please check the toplevels to avoid posting repeats.
- Fills work the same way as every other round: don't fill your own or your teammates' prompts, including old reposted prompts. It works like this:
- Your teammate posts a prompt that was originally posted by a different team? You can fill that.
- Someone else posts a prompt originally created by you or your teammate? You cannot fill that.
- You post a prompt originally posted by another team? You can't fill that either.
- 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 FUKUTOMI JUICHI/KINJOU SHINGO, T [Part 1/2]
Word Count: 2994
Notes: Look, okay, I know that technically only one of the songs fits into the implied time frame, but listen…
Also, if forced to acknowledge any allusions that are in this, I may die.
The bar was filled with smoke, filling the air all around and lending the place an otherworldly sort of feel, the patrons seeming like sprites dancing in and out through a thick enchanted mist. The smell of alcohol mingled with fast, jazzy music, neither one of them speaking to a reputable establishment. But the people here were clearly rich, dressed to the nines in sparkling dresses and sharp suits. Even in his suit and trenchcoat, Tadokoro felt outclassed.
Tadokoro stood in the doorway, straightening his trenchcoat slightly. It was a bit of a nervous habit, which he mentally chastised himself for. It didn’t matter what he looked like, he told himself, even though he didn’t quite buy his own story. He wasn’t here to socialize. He was here on business.
Just business.
Tadokoro pushed his fedora up just enough to get a better view of the patrons. Maybe it would be more polite to remove it all together, he mused, but he wasn’t about to start removing any articles of clothing when he still had every suspicion that he could be asked to leave at any moment.
He bellied up to the bar, sizing up the young man tending it. He was dressed in a fancy uniform; a crisp black vest over a white button up topped with a bowtie. The man regarded him dully, his dark eyes wiping over Tadokoro up and down.
“I’d like to speak to the proprietor,” Tadokoro says, cutting straight to the chase.
The bartender blinked at him, unimpressed. “I’m afraid we do not address such requests. Especially from those who are not paying customers.”
Tadokoro huffed. “Just tell her Tadokoro is here. If that doesn’t get her to come talk to me, then I’ll leave. No fuss.”
The bartender ignored him, picking out a glass from the shelf to polish.
Tadokoro sighed and fished out his wallet. He procured a few bills and flipped them onto the bar. “May I please have a whiskey on the rocks.”
The bartender looked at him again with that sweeping, measured look. “Are you sure?”
Tadokoro growled. “Of course I’m sure. You want me to buy something, so I am!”
The bartender set down the glass on the bar. “You don’t seem like the type to… partake.”
If Tadokoro hadn’t felt sheer loathing for this man before, it was surely bubbling up now. “I know how to hold my liquor, if that’s what you mean.”
The man simply shrugged, and in short order the glass was filled. Tadokoro took it and made a point to take a sip while the bartender was watching. “Now, can you please tell Makishima that Tadokoro Jin is here and would like to speak with her?”
The bartender pursed his lips. “I’m sorry, but the proprietor does not take guests.”
Tadokoro bolted straight up, pushing his stool back in the process with a loud scrape. “You listen here, I did not come here to be talked down to and played with by some stuffed up penguin! So, why don’t you take one of those bottles back there and shove it straight up your –”
“Tadokoro!” a cheerful voice spoke up, cutting off Tadokoro’s rant. The man found himself being spun around, coming face to face with a woman in a white suit with a pencil skirt, and a matching white headband adorned with a lacy flower was perched in her black hair.
“Toudou,” Tadokoro said, a little less enthusiastically.
“Oh, I have missed your visits,” Toudou said, pulling Tadokoro down to kiss both his cheeks. She leaned around him to face the bartender. “Imaizumi, dear. Why didn’t you tell me such an esteemed guest was here?”
Imaizumi paled. “I… well, that is…”
Toudou waved at him. “Run along and get me a drink, would you?”
Toudou didn’t wait for Imaizumi to respond to that. Before Tadokoro could protest, he was being pulled along by his tie to a sitting area. He assumed this must be the V.I.P. section, with the way it was secluded, with no one else seeming to dare to come close. It had been years since Tadokoro had stepped foot in this place, but he still remembered the layout. And if memory served, which he was sure it did, the bookcase in the back of the lounge was no mere decoration. Back when prohibition was in full swing, that bookcase had been the hidden entrance to the stockroom. Of course, there were other uses for a hidden room, and even back then it had been used for other things. Many things, Tadokoro remembered with a slight flush.
Tadokoro resigned himself to sitting down in a chair opposite Toudou, who was curling cat-like into a similar plush chair, tucking her legs underneath herself. Tadokoro tried to speak, but was silenced with Toudou’s finger. He waited until Imaizumi hurried over, placing a cocktail in front of Toudou, and swiftly left.
“Now,” Toudou said, twirling a finger around the stem of a cherry floating at the top of her drink. “What can I do for our favorite private eye?”
Tadokoro sighed. “You can let me talk to Makishima.”
Toudou took a long sip of her drink, before holding up a finger and tutting. “My dear Tadokoro, do you have any idea where you are?”
“A bar,” he said roughly.
Toudou chuckled. “You are in Rome, my friend,” she said, picking out the cherry and running it along the rim of the glass. “People pay their taxes to Caesar, and in return, they have their freedom.” She lifted the cherry to her mouth and pulled it free of the stem, chewing it slowly. “Sadly,” she said at length, “this is why someone on your particular side of the law has never fit in very well with our business model. A true shame, in my opinion.”
“I’m sorry, did you have a point?” Tadokoro asked, gesturing with his whiskey glass. “I think I missed it somewhere under all your bullshit. I’m here exactly because you deal on the other side of the law. I need information, because that’s my job.”
Toudou smiled. “I know, Tadokoro, and that devotion is what just makes you ever so charming.” She looks him up and down, and Tadokoro feels much more perturbed by it than when the bartender did it to him. “The point, Tadokoro, is that this isn’t the speakeasy you knew all those long years ago. Makishima has transformed this place into a kingdom. And she is the Queen. This is her castle.” Toudou’s smile dropped, eyes suddenly boring into Tadokoro menacingly. “And a Queen does not build her palace walls so that she can leave them. Much less have to deal with any Tom, Dick, and Harry who barges through them.”
Tadokoro leaned forward. “I’m not just any Dick,” he said.
Toudou raised her eyebrows, sipping her drink again. “I suppose you’re right about that.”
“I just want to ask her a few things,” Tadokoro sighed.
“For business?” Toudou asked.
“Yes.”
Toudou went silent, sloshing her drink around the glass. “Tell me just one thing Tadokoro.”
Tadokoro waved for her to continue.
“You say you want to ask her about the crime business. Things she’s privy to due to the nature of her establishment.”
“I already said yes to that.”
Toudou looked up at him. “Then why did you ask specifically for Makishima? I work here too. What’s more, I’m the people person. I’ve heard all the same things, if not more.” She leans forward, settling her glass on the coffee table between them. “So, you tell me. Are you really here on business? Or is that just an excuse?”
Tadokoro leaned back into his chair at that, looking away. There were still people dancing, though the music had changed pace since he’d first entered. Tadokoro could swear it was a live band, but he couldn’t see them. They were either hidden by the haze, or the record that was playing was truly exceptional.
“And don’t you dare think of lying to me, Tadokoro,” Toudou said. “I’ll know. I always do.”
Tadokoro didn’t look at her, his gaze still on the dancers. Even with the fast paced music, there were a few dance partners still squashed close together, practically attached at the hip.
“Just give me five minutes,” he finally said.
Tadokoro could hear Toudou’s grin in her voice. “And what exactly would you do with those five minutes?”
Tadokoro broke his eyes away to look at Toudou. He couldn’t hold her gaze though, her eyes holding the same sparkle of her cat-like grin. It was nothing short of predatory; he was a mouse that had clearly fallen into a trap, and she was set to devour him at her whim. He looked away, his eyes flitting anywhere but her face.
“I have no idea,” he said finally.
Toudou laughed. Tadokoro heard ice clinking at the bottom of her glass as she sucked down the last of her drink. “That is exactly the kind of thing I expect to hear from Tadokoro Jin,” she said, laughing. “You have no guile. You just barge in, guns blazing if necessary, with nothing but your righteousness and no plan in sight. You’re simple, like that.”
Tadokoro snorted. He nearly got up to leave, when he felt a hand gently grabbing his forearm. He looked to see Toudou leaning over, laying her hand on him fondly. “It’s part of your charm, Tadokoro. And if Makishima ever really loved you, she loved that too.”
There was sincerity in Toudou’s voice, and Tadokoro chose not to mistrust it. He simply nodded.
She leaned back into her chair, unfolding her legs and propping them up crossed on the coffee table. She dug her bent elbow into the arm of the chair and held up her hand to regard her fingernails. “I can’t promise you five minutes.”
“But–”
Toudou held up her finger. “But... I can let you see her. You can have as long as the lady allows. No more. Understood?”
Tadokoro nodded.
Toudou smiled and splayed out her hand, motioning towards the bookcase on the wall. “I believe you can show yourself in.”
Tadokoro stood up, and with an unsure glance, first her and then to the bookcase itself, he walked over. It had been years, but not so long that he forgot where the latch was. With a glance, he found the custom bookend, the wooden one with a stylized spider burned into. He moved it to the side and heard the sound of the latch giving way. He looked back over his shoulder at Toudou.
She waved him on. “Go on. I’ll close it up behind you.”
He pushed the bookcase, and found that it rolled much more easily than it once had. Clearly, this had been among the many upgrades to the place.
He stepped into the stairwell behind the bookcase, ducking slightly. He expected it to be dank and musty, but the whole thing was surprisingly clean. It was only dimly lit still, but the stairs were not the old splintered things he remembered but instead brightly polished wood. He descended the stairs, barely making a sound as he did so. It was far different than it had been, back when his weight used to cause the stairs to screech in protest.
At the bottom of the stairs, he found the store room transformed. The room was lit with lamps of colored glass and draped with fabric. Gone was the smokiness of the upper level, replaced with a haze of perfume. On the back wall, Tadokoro saw a slightly risen stage where a band played on. He realized now that the music he'd heard above was clearly piped in from down here. Along each wall were cloth partitioned alcoves, where small groups gathered and whispered to one another. There were people dancing – both patrons and hired professionals, if Tadokoro guessed correctly – without apparent worry for propriety. The servers, too, were more provocatively dressed, drawing many patrons’ eyes.
[Part 2/2]
She wore a black dress, cut to hang diagonally across her thin hips, and it sparkled green in the light, matching her hair pinned up in a bun. Several green locks fell freely off her head, dangling towards her bare shoulders and sharp collar bones that peaked out just above the neckline of her dress.
Her arms were crossed, each hand holding a pointed elbow. Even when she looked him, her eyes didn't seem to see him.
He’d never felt more like a ghost.
“I was warned you were here”" she said, after what could have been an eternity to Tadokoro’s reckoning.
He did his best to compose himself. “I’m sure you were,” he said. “I didn’t exactly make a secret of it, yelling at your bartender like that.”
“If there was one thing you were never good at, it was being quiet.”
Tadokoro nodded.
She waved at him to follow her, making her way to one of the alcoves along the wall. It was the biggest one, directly facing the band. She didn’t sit, though, and Tadokoro didn’t either.
“I hear that you’re here on business.”
“No,” Tadokoro said before he could ever think better of it.
She looked up at him, blinking. “What?”
“I mean I said I was, but…” Tadokoro paused, trying to think of something. The music drifted between them, the only thing to be heard outside of the vague buzz of conversation from patrons. Tadokoro decided to stick with his strengths and not think about it too much. “Dance with me.”
Makishima’s eyes threatened to bulge out of her face. “What?”
Tadokoro shucked off his trenchcoat wordlessly, followed soon after by his suit jacket. He looked up at her as he was unbuttoning his shirt sleeves to roll them up. “Come on. Your band is playing. Let’s dance.”
“You want… to dance…” Makishima waved a hand at him. “Tadokoro…”
Tadokoro smiled at her. The best beaming smile he could muster. “Dance with me,” he repeated, holding out his hand.
Makishima scoffed, but Tadokoro didn’t miss the hint of a smile at the corners of her lips, threatening to break out.
“You’re really not playing fair now, Tadokoro,” she said, taking his hand.
His smile widened. “I guess not. But I can live with myself.”
Taking her hand was more of a thrill than he cared to admit. But wrapping a hand around her waist when they got to the dancefloor; that, Tadokoro could hardly believe was real.
There was a pause before either of them spoke again. “You’re better at this than I remember,” she said.
Tadokoro laughed, and spun her around. He was justified to see her grin when she faced him again. “You pick up things in my line of work.”
“A lot of dancing involved in being a private dick?” she asked.
“You’d be surprised.”
He returned his hand to her waist, and her hand returned to his arm, travelling up to rest on his shoulder.
“So, if you’re not here for work, what are you here for?” she asked.
“Well, I did come here on a case,” Tadokoro admitted. “But to be honest with you… it’s nothing special. Probably could have checked out any joint in town and found something.”
“But.”
“But I picked this one,” Tadokoro said.
Makishima nodded. “So, you wanted an excuse?”
“Maybe,” Tadokoro said. “I don’t know. I didn’t think about it too much.”
“And just what were you going to say to me if I let you in on that pretense?”
“Not sure,” he said. “I figured I’d know once I saw you.”
“Well…” Makishima backed away slightly, not breaking contact with him. “Now you see me. What do you want to say?”
“You’re beautiful.”
Makishima paused. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he said. He nudged her, syncing them back to rhythm of the song.
“Tadokoro…”
“You’re beautiful,” he repeated. “And I’m an idiot. I never should have put the job before you.”
“Well, you’ll hear no argument about that one.”
Tadokoro nodded. The music became slower, and inch by inch, Makishima moved closer. Soon, Tadokoro felt her head rest on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm more tightly around her waist, pulling her close, not daring to give up any space now that he had this.
“So, what do you want?” Makishima whispered into his neck. Tadokoro felt goosebumps rise at her breath hitting his neck.
“Whatever you’ll give me,” Tadokoro said. “Whatever you want.”
Makishima hummed. “I don’t forgive you.”
Tadokoro swallowed. “I know.”
“Not yet,” Makishima continued.
“That’s fair,” he said.
They swayed in silence for a moment. Just them and the music.
“Toudou thought I should have forgiven you a long time ago,” Makishima admitted.
Tadokoro smiled. “Really? I kind of thought she wanted me all to herself,” he said, jokingly.
Makishima lifted her head, smiling. “Never. I’d kill her for such greed.”
They laughed together, Makishima moving in her face closer until their lips met. Tadokoro stiffened, at first, but soon returned the kiss passionately. He ran his hand up her back and over her neck. Teasing his fingers through the bottom of her hair bun, he fished around until he found the pin to pull the whole thing free, setting her hair loose in waves. In retaliation, he reached up and tipped the hat off his head, catching it deftly in her long fingers.
When they broke away, he was taken aback at her smile. She offered his hat back, dangling it in front of him on the tip of one finger. He took it with the hand that wasn’t currently carding through her hair.
“I meant it when I said you were beautiful,” he said.
“Tadokorocchi, stop,” she said, laughing.
He flipped his hat onto her head. “Never.”
Re: [Part 2/2]