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yurishippingolympics
For this bonus round, we're looking for prompts inspired by plant/flower symbolism and the language(s) of flowers!
Here are some resources on flower meanings:
Script Florist
Farmer's Almanac
Wikipedia: Hanakotoba
Wikipedia: Plant Symbolism
This round will end on July 1st.
Fills can be in any format, and you can fill your teammates prompts, but you cannot fill your own prompt.
You can post as many fills and as many prompts as you want!
for your prompt post title, please use the following format:
PROMPT: TEAM [TEAM NAME]
for your fill post title, please use the following format:
FILL: TEAM [TEAM NAME]
POINTS - BONUS ROUNDS
For prompts: 10 points each (maximum of 150 prompt points per team per round)
For fills:
First 4 fills by any member of your team: 100 points each
Fills 5-10: 50 points each
Fills 11-20: 40 points each
Fills 21-50: 30 points each
Fills 51+: 25 points each
PROMPT: TEAM ANIMANGA
Date: 2024-06-17 11:21 am (UTC)FILL: Team Ace Attorney
Date: 2024-06-18 04:56 am (UTC)FILL: Team Kittyuri
Date: 2024-06-24 04:05 am (UTC)Word Count: 1022
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At the ripe old age of twenty-two years old, Kitty Song Covey is the sole owner of KISS Flowers. Or at least she’s currently the sole owner, although she’s not sure how much longer she’s gonna keep that title if she keeps staring at her latest customer instead of helping her.
The customer in question has a black crop top and a sleeve of chrysanthemums blooming along her arm. The ink is a rich purple that blends into black at the edges and there’s a separate stem of smaller flowers that curl around her bicep. Kitty does not open her mouth and gawk because that would be weird.
“Hi?” the woman says, waving her hand haphazardly to grab her attention. Swallow. Kitty lets the thought do the mental equivalent of slapping herself straight across the face and remembers to close her jaw.
“Hi,” she replies and because she was an absolute mess at 16 years old and is just the same mess but with a Bachelor’s degree and six more candles on her birthday cake, her hands run absent-mindedly across the counter as she tries to figure out what the fuck to do with them. What does she normally do when there are other customers? Rest them on the register? Tuck them underneath?
She settles for wringing the stem of a rose like it’s a bird’s neck for lack of better options. The woman across the counter quirks an eyebrow but doesn’t raise a question. Kitty nearly topples from the relief.
“Is your power out?” Kitty blinks. She has a list of expected conversation starters filed away in her mind and that wasn’t in the repertoire.
“What?” Kitty replies eloquently. The woman points to the lamps they barely use, courtesy of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The plants need the sunlight and it saves money on electricity.
“The power. Is yours out too? I think it’s out for the whole street because none of our machines will start, but we weren’t sure.”
Kitty’s brain chugs through the questions like it’s swimming in molasses. She rubs her neck and is horrified to see her fingers slick with sweat. Is that why she’s been sweating through her apron all day? She just assumed Minho had forgotten to pay the power bill again.
“I think so,” she says and kicks herself in the shin. She’s 2 for 2 with the stellar responses today. “Our AC’s out.”
The woman finally relaxes, a smile easing onto her face. She sticks one hand out over the counter and Kitty notices that her nails are painted midnight blue.
“I’m Yuri,” she says and Kitty absent-mindedly thinks me too before yelling at herself to get a grip. “I work at the new tattoo place across the street. The heat’s been killing us all week long.”
“That’s not the only thing killing me right now,” Kitty says because her mouth has always moved faster than her mind. She swallows the mortifying squeak that tries to crawl out of her throat. “I meant that I’m Kitty and that there’s been a horrible… bug infestation lately! Pesky little things keep eating all the plants before they have a chance to grow and it’s killing us–you know what that’s like.”
Yuri stares at her for a bit but eventually takes the stammering in stride.
“Well,” she says awkwardly, pushing her hair out of her face. There’s an array of stars scattered on her side and Kitty stares. “That does sound like–”
“Fireweed,” she blurts out. Yuri blinks at her.
“I’m sorry?” she asks. There’s more confusion than annoyance laced into her voice though and Kitty decides to take it as a green light from the universe.
“Your tattoo,” she says, reaching for her arm absent-mindedly. She pulls her hand back when she’s halfway there with the realization and it hangs awkwardly in the air between them. “Those are fireweed, right?”
Yuri tips her head back in a real smile for the first time–one that spans the full length of her face. It’s a beautiful sight.
“Most people can’t tell that,” she says and Kitty laughs. She shrugs half-heartedly at the plants spilling out of their pots all around them, hanging on the walls and scattered across the floor. Yuri follows the line of her hand and grins.
“Fireweed’s an interesting choice,” Kitty says. “They’re one of the first things to grow after a fire, right? And that’s the best living conditions for them too.”
Yuri smiles again but there’s something hard twisted into her eyes this time.
“That’s right,” she says. She glances back at the doorway quickly and Kitty’s overcome with fleeting panic. The cold hook in her gut feels like folding on a winning hand. “Well, I better get going now–”
“Stay,” Kitty blurts out. If she had a nickel for every time she leapt before she looked, she could retire right now. Yuri blinks at her in response. She’s been doing that a lot. “You said all the machines were down right now so you can’t work, right?”
Yuri nods slowly, like she’s easing herself into cold water. Kitty grins.
“Stay,” she says, turning up the wattage of her smile to the max. Minho likes to say that it’s blinding and she should wear a cloth over her face to spare the rest of humanity but Minho likes to say a lot of things and over half of them are complete bullshit. “Stay and tell me more about your tattoos! Why fireweed? Why chrysanthemums? Why those colors?”
Yuri nearly buckles under the barrage of questions. Kitty’s aware she’s a bundle of nerves standing across from her, a ticking time bomb about to explode but Yuri’s studying her with more curiosity than annoyance.
She spares a glance at the clock and Kitty watches the moment she caves. Her mouth twists for a few moments before it hardens into something solid and she meets Kitty’s gaze head-on, leaning against the marble.
“Well, I guess I could spare a couple of minutes. And I was about to go on lunch break anyway.”
That’s all the permission she needs. Kitty grins and pulls her behind the counter.