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sportsfest2018-07-01 12:02 am
Bonus Round 2: Quotes
Bonus Round 2: Quotes
Sometimes you just have to keep with tradition! Keeping with the SASO roots that SportsFest was born from, Bonus Round 2 is all about quotes.
This bonus round will close on July 13th, 2018 11:59PM PT. [COUNTDOWN]
This Round is CLOSED, but is perpetually open for new FILLS.
Rules
The Rule of Thumb for this round is prominence - did a published author or poet write this line you’d like to quote? Great. Is it from a speech or a historical document? Cool. Did your friend say something funny on twitter the other day? Not so much.
Please DO NOT prompt screenshots of private conversations, Discord convos, or conversations between you and your friends. This can easily and unintentionally bring the prompts into inside joke territory, and can create an exclusionary environment.
Quotes from other SportsFest participants (or yourself) are NOT allowed in this round (for similar reasons to above, and the fact that you could just make anything a quote).
Please give credit to the original speaker of your quote whenever possible.
If prompting with a screenshot, it is polite to post a transcription of the text below the image for accessibility.
Please use your best judgement, and if you’re unsure if something qualifies - ask! The mods are here to help.
And to reiterate, Your prompt MUST include one or more specific nominated fandoms. Please do not prompt "Fandom: Any".
A Few Examples:
“Today is far from Childhood -
But up and down the hills
I held her hand the tighter -
Which shortened all the miles-
- Emily Dickinson, ‘One Sister Have I In Our House’
“Til this moment I never knew myself”
- Elizabeth Bennett, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
“SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE!
- Damian, Mean Girls
“It's a quarter past midnight
As we cut through the city”
- Quarter Past Midnight, Bastille
If Prompting
Please use the following subject line for prompt:
Prompt: [Your Team]
Replace [Your Team] with the name of the team you belong to. Nickname or Official Name are both acceptable
Copy/Paste the following into the body of your comment. Delete all instructional text in parentheses.
NSFW Prompts
EXPLICITLY NSFW PROMPTS must be posted to the after-hours comm. “Explicitly NSFW” means that the prompt includes outright sexual content (whether in a photograph, drawing, or in words), and prompts that in the additional requests are asking for explicit fills. Prompts are posted with the same HTML format, in the same manner as a SFW prompt, just under the designated post for that Bonus Round in the after-hours comm. See ‘Filling’ for the procedures for NSFW Fills.
Once you have joined the Afterhours community, you can find the corresponding post HERE.
If Filling
Minimums
Required Work Minimums:
400 words (prose)
400px by 400px (art)
14 lines (poetry)
There is no max work cap.
Format
FILL: [Your Team], [Rating]
Replace [Your Team] with the name of the team you belong to. Nickname or Official Name are both acceptable
Replace [Rating] with the rating of your fill (G-E).
Copy/Paste the following into the body of your comment. Delete all instructional text in parentheses.
NSFW Fills
All NSFW fills must be posted in the corresponding Bonus Round post in the After Hours community. If filling a prompt that has been posted on the after-hours comm, simply reply to that prompt. If filling a SFW prompt, let the prompter know by replying to the original prompt on the main comm with a link to your fill on the corresponding after-hours Bonus Round Post. Please do not use the Fill subject line or Fill header when cross-linking. This will cause the BR scorer to count your fill twice.
Once you have joined the Afterhours community, you can find the corresponding post HERE.
Scoring
The scoring for bonus rounds depends on the number of people (n) on your team. You’re welcome to make as many prompts and fills as you like!
For prompts: 5 points per prompt, limited to 5 times the number of team members (5n)
For fills, where (n) = number of members on you team:
First 5n fills: 20 points each
Fills 5n to 10n: 10 points each
Fills 10n to 15n: 5 points each
All fills after 15n: 2 points each
Confused? Don’t worry; math is hard. Check out the Bonus Round Point Widget to help you figure out the point scale for your team.
All scored content must be created new for this round.
PROMPT: team kinara
Fandom: daiya no ace
Major Tags: none
Additional Tags: none
Do Not Wants: n/a
Prompt:
I hear the clockwork in your core
Time strips the gears till you forget what they were for
I push the numbers through your pores
I crack the codes, I crack the codes that end the war
— andrew bird, not a robot, but a ghost
Re: PROMPT: team kinara
Fill: Team Kinkage, T
Fandom: daiya no ace
Major Tags: none
Other Tags: breakups,bittersweet endings,implied sexual content, narrative heavy bc shun thinks too much
Word Count: 1221
Remix Permission: case by case
this goes with another fill from the last round and a fic i already have up on ao3. i really need to make a series.
***
Shunshin waited for him at the airport like he always did, patiently populating a corner of a bench in the baggage claim until the luggage from the latest flight from Tokyo started to spill onto the conveyor.
Kazuya’s suitcase arrived before he did, so Shunshin waited near the carousel until the bag’s owner came to seek him out. It had become the norm for them, and when Kazuya came from the terminal, their eyes locked across the cavernous room and they sedately sought each other out.
And so it had been for the past five years, with every one of Kazuya’s winter ball stints spent in Taiwan and staying with Shunshin’s family. They even had a room set aside just for Kazuya when he visited. He never used it, of course; it was an old joke with the family that Shunshin enjoyed perpetuating.
After all, Kazuya slept with him every night.
When they met in the middle, they exchanged a brief hand squeeze in greeting. It was never much by the way in showy reunions. Not that a pair of young men reuniting at an airport in an obviously romantic way was terribly strange; Taiwan tended to be a lot more liberal than its Eastern Asian neighbors. It just wasn’t their style.
As they left the airport for the waiting line of taxis, Shunshin filled Kazuya in on the latest family news since the last time they had talked on the phone. Shunshin’s mother was retiring, his cat had taken to sleeping on the pillow Shunshin had put out for Kazuya, and the family had decided to have a pool put in.
Shunshin knew how ridiculous it all sounded, but Kazuya always listened and laughed when the situation warranted. He also listened to Shunshin say it all in slow and carefully enunciated Chinese. It wasn’t a language that was easy to pick up, but after a few years, Kazuya had grown a little more comfortable with it. He could at least go around town without getting himself arrested, punched, or starved to death.
At the house, they worked in tandem to unpack Kazuya’s things so Kazuya could collapse on the bed face-first and snooze away the four hour flight. Shunshin gently tugged off Kazuya’s traveling clothes and then his own suit before joining him. The warm early autumn afternoon was perfect for them to curl up into each other without being hot or cold.
He awoke to Kazuya nuzzling his neck and his hand curling around Shunshin’s thigh. Groaning, he hefted Kazuya onto his chest and let his hands do some wandering of their own. God, he had missed this. Missed them.
The days went by in similar fashion. They shared their days when they got home from their respective jobs, and they shared their nights when no one else was around to distract them. After five years of this, Shunshin knew exactly where Kazuya liked to be touched, and vice versa.
Yet the longer Kazuya stayed, the more loneliness haunted Shunshin. The less Kazuya showed the effects of their long periods of time apart, the worse it got. ‘When I get back to Japan’s were always on Kazuya’s tongue. He would catch Shunshin just watching him and asked, “What, do I have food on my face?” yet never understood that Shunshin loved him enough to want him the entire year and not just for a season.
The day Kazuya asked him to blow off work to have sex but ended up going to practice anyway was the day Shunshin moved into the spare room.
Three long months dragged by, and Kazuya never knew what to say to him anymore. Shunshin didn’t have the heart to tell him that if he didn’t understand, then that was the problem. Instead, he ground out the weeks until the bandage could be cleanly torn away and allowed the wound that had festered there for years to breathe and to heal.
The night before Kazuya was set to depart, he gently knocked on Shunshin’s door and sat on the bed next to him, staring off at nothing in particular. “I don’t know how to fix this, but I’m sorry.”
“I know.” Shunshin squeezed Kazuya’s hand and swallowed hard. This was it. If Kazuya did ever come back to Taiwan for winter ball, it wouldn’t be while staying there. Shunshin’s entire chest ached at the thought, but the idea of going on the way they were made him want to retch.
Kazuya turned to him and brushed a thumb over Shunshin’s cheek. “Someday, I hope I can give you what you need, but if you have to find that with someone else, then I hope you do.”
Shunshin feathered a bittersweet kiss to Kazuya’s lips and blinked back tears. “I want that for you, too, Kazuya.”
When he was at the door ready to leave for his own room for the night, Kazuya paused and asked, “Is there any way I can stay here tonight?”
He didn’t have to say why; Shunshin understood all too well. Nodding, he took Kazuya’s outstretched hand and pulled him close. Kisses melted into caresses, and then into a heated hunt for bliss.
Awaking in a tangle of heavy and sated limbs, Shunshin watched Kazuya sleep for the last time. He absorbed the way the creases in the corners of Kazuya’s eyes from too much time in the sun melted away in slumber, the way Kazuya’s jaw had squared as he had hit his twenties, the smell of Kazuya’s unrepentantly fruity shampoo, which he used because the smell made him happy.
Shunshin bit his lip and cried in the dark, and he hoped to hell Kazuya couldn’t hear it. The furtive looks Kazuya gave him the next morning as they got dressed told him he probably had.
The ride to the airport was long and quiet, and so was the standoff while Kazuya looked back and forth between Shunshin and the security checkpoint where he couldn’t follow. Finally, he dropped his duffel bag at his side and crushed Shunshin with a tight hug. “I’ll miss you, Shun.”
“I already miss you.” Shunshin snared Kazuya’s mouth for a breath-stealing kiss that earned them more than a few glares from offended old ladies, but he didn’t care. He was sending off the first person he had ever loved for the last time. They could very well never see one another again. Against that, nobody mattered in that moment but Kazuya.
They let each other go, and Shunshin watched woodenly while Kazuya picked up his bag and headed for the security checkpoint. He stood there long after Kazuya headed off for his terminal until a concerned airport security officer asked him if he was all right.
He said he was and headed for the street to hail a taxi, and when he returned home, he put on his sweats and jogged through the neighborhood for nearly four hours before he was too dehydrated to continue, and that night he slept in the bed where they had last made love, which still smelled of sex and the pillows of Kazuya’s shampoo.
Days got easier and the ache eased. He followed Kazuya’s career, including a blockbuster trade to the Carps, and after a few years or so, seeing Kazuya’s name in the media made him smile.
FILL: Team Daiya, G
Fandom: daiya no ace
Major Tags: None
Other Tags: SPOILERS FOR ACT II, TOKYO SENBATSU GAME (CH. 98-99, 101-104, 129)
Word Count: 1178
Remix Permission: Sure!
Thanks for the prompt!
***
When he first arrived at the Inajitsu Grounds for Tokyo’s Senbatsu, Miyuki noticed that You Shunshin seemed different. He had a wide-eyed, amazed look.
“Clock Work” as they’d called him for his uncanny control of his pitches, had been driven and focused last time they’d played Akikawa Academy. He wondered, briefly, what had caused the change and then he was swept up in their practice and didn’t think about it again.
He noticed it the next day when they were paired up in the bullpen. It was just like he’d dreamed of. Shunshin threw the ball exactly where he asked. He marveled at his precision and grace.
During their practice in the bullpen, Shunshin stopped and walked up to Miyuki who pulled off his catcher’s mask. “Everything all right?”
“I was going to ask you. You haven’t said anything about my pitches.”
Miyuki smiled. “That’s because they’re almost perfect. There’s nothing to correct or adjust.”
Shunshin frowned. “There’s always something that’s concerning.”
“All right. Let me know ask you how I’m doing. Do my signs make sense? Am I asking too much, too little? Are you bored?”
Shunshin shrugged. “You’re doing fine. Yes. No. No. No.”
The corner of Miyuki’s mouth twitched. “Ah well, that’s good...then.”
Shunshin stood looking down at him. “I’ve always wanted to pitch to you. This is kind of a dream come true.”
“Pitching practice with me?” Miyuki laughed.
“Yes. And also this Senbatsu. It’s the perfect way to end my career in Japan.”
“Oh. That’s right, you’re going back to Taiwan after this?”
He nodded. Miyuki stepped closer and tapped his chest with his mitt. “It’s going to be a good couple of games.”
Shunshin blushed. “I’ve seen you do that with Sawamura. I always thought he was so lucky to have you. You seem to like him.”
MIyuki was taken aback for a moment then recovered. “He’s a loudmouth and kind of an idiot but he’s fun to work with.” Shunshin didn’t reply to this comment. “Shall we continue?
They went back to practicing though Miyuki considered it more like him moving his mitt around while Shunshin did all the work.
Later, they were all sitting in dugout, waiting for the coach. Miyuki looked around, amazed at the caliber of players. Mei kept trying to get his attention, Carlos wouldn’t put his shirt on, Shirakawa engaged in friendly banter with Umemiya about his favorite hair product, and Shunshin sat quietly next to him, listening to music on his headphones, watching everyone.
“You all right?” Miyuki asked him.
Shunshin removed his ear bud. “Yeah. I was just listening to this song by Yuming. Ever hear anything by her?”
“I don’t think so,” said Miyuki.
“What are you two talking about?” said Mei. He was trying to barge into their conversation.
“Shunshin here is telling me about a song by Yuming. Ever hear of her?” Said Miyuki.
“Oh yeah, she’s great!” said Mei. “You have really good taste!” This he said to Shunshin.
“It reminds me a little of this situation,” said Shunshin. He passed one of his ear buds to Miyuki. When he took it from him, their hands brushed. Miyuki smiled and slipped it into his ear. He listened. It was wonderful. Upbeat and hopeful. Mei was telling everyone about the song but Miyuki just looked at Shunshin, their eyes meeting in a kind of soft understanding.
****
The next day, Miyuki arrived early so he could change and start warming up.
He was stretching on the slightly damp grass. It was a beautiful day. Shunshin approached him and started stretching out his hip flexors.
“Do you mind playing first base?” He asked.
“No, I had a feeling something like this would happen. With Inui as our captain, I knew I wouldn’t be able to play catcher.”
Shunshin stopped stretching. “Out of all the people I’ve met here. I think you’re the one who intrigues me the most.”
“What?” Miyuki couldn’t cover his surprise.
“You’re interested in how people work, what motivates them and breaks them.”
“That comes from being a catcher,” said Miyuki going back to his hamstring stretches. “And figuring out how to beat your opponents.”
“Does it?”
Miyuki nodded. “What else would it come from?”
Shunshin looked at him for too long. “What do you make of me, Miyuki Kazuya?”
He opened his mouth to speak then stopped.
“Come on,” said Shunshin pushing up his glasses, “You can tell me.”
“You like...order. Predictability but...deep down inside you fear uncertainty and...chaos.”
“Not bad. And how would you break me?”
“I wouldn’t,” Miyuki said without thinking. A soft breeze ruffled Shunshin’s black hair. “I just...I guess you’re fine the way you are.”
“You mean, you wouldn’t do it but you’d have someone else do it.”
“Maybe.” Miyuki nodded approvingly. “I think you have me a little figured out too.”
“Kind of fun, right?” He smiled. Miyuki saw that soft understanding in his eyes again.
At that point, the rest of the players came out to warm up and they stopped talking.
****
They’d done pretty well for themselves, tying the first game with Americans and being beat by one point in the second but the best part, Miyuki thought, was being on the same team as these guys. “Once in a lifetime,” he said to himself as he packed up his bag.
“Hey,” Shunshin walked up to him, “I want to thank you for everything.”
“Oh yeah, great games, great people,” said Miyuki.
“I’m leaving in a couple of weeks. Mind if I get your Line account?”
“I’m not on Line but we can text each other,” said Miyuki.
Shunshin laughed. “Why am I not surprised?” They exchanged numbers. Shunshin was looking at him for too long again.
“Of course we’ll keep in touch,” said Miyuki.
“Yeah.” Shunshin shifted his feet awkwardly.
“Everything okay?” Miyuki could see a blush coloring his cheeks.
“I just...there are a few things I regret. One of them is not getting to know you better.”
“We were on separate teams so it’s more difficult to do.”
“You seem to know Narumiya pretty well.”
“That’s because we started playing when we were kids.”
“Hm,” Shunshin looked over at Mei who was laughing with one of the American players. “He’s the only person I’ve heard call you Kazuya.”
“Yeah, that’s his privilege, I guess. And we know Mei is all about his privileges.”
“Can I...call you that?”
Miyuki felt a jolt. No one had ever asked him that before. “Sure. Feel free.”
Shunshin’s face grew redder. “Thanks. I guess we better go talk to the others now. They’re going to wonder what we’re up to.” He started to turn away.
Miyuki reached out and brushed Shunshin’s hand with his fingertips, much like they had when he’d passed him the earbud. Shunshin turned back, surprised.
“Are you regretting that you came to talk to me?” asked Miyuki.
“No,” said Shunshin. “Would you?”
“No.” Miyuki smiled and they walked back to the others. He didn’t flinch when Shunshin slipped his arm around his shoulder.