BONUS ROUND 1: THROWBACK PROMPTS

[a1c0bb]

In this round, we'll be using prompts from last year's bonus rounds! You can either come up with a prompt based on the previous themes, fill a prompt from previous bonus rounds, or fill a prompt that's been posted this year!

Here is the tag with all the previous bonus rounds!

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]

If you're filling from a 2023/2024 prompt, please link to their prompt in your post!

To participate, reply to this post!

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FILL: Team Magical Girls

[thestoryeater]

SHIP: Isabel/Owen x Tara/Maddy from The Pink Opaque from I Saw the TV Glow

"Tara?" It came out more like a squeak than intended.

Isabel's voice sounded too high-pitched. Her legs were shaking, her chest ached, and she had dirt places she didn't even know was possible.

"What is it?" asked Tara. She already looked so at ease in her new skin. Her old skin, Isabel should be thinking. She'd been back for longer, obviously, hadn't been suffocating beneath the earth for as long. Didn't stop her confidence from feeling almost like a superpower.

"Aren't you scared?" asked Isabel. She tried to make her voice sound lower. It still didn't sound right, but it was good to move her face again. Her real face, not the one she'd had forced on her for so many years. The face she'd wanted to blur away into nothingness when she looked at it in the mirror and she thought she'd die with, old and gray and alone.

Isabel half-expected Tara to make a quip like she always used to. Maddy did as well. Even the Luna Juice couldn't drown out that habit.

The Luna Juice couldn't drown any bit of Tara. Isabel felt its sickly sweet aftertaste on her tongue and nearly threw up. Tara had fought and clawed her way through the worst that Mister Melancholy had to offer already, and Isabel had done what? Sat around working an job where all the days melted into one neverending cycle of dirty floors and neon lights and screaming kids? God, she was pathetic, wasn't she? Tara could didn't even need her to save the world.

Isabel felt two hands taking hers. They gave them a squeeze, and Isabel squeezed back. Her breathing slowed down. She hadn't even realized she'd started hyperventilating.

"I'm terrified," said Tara.

"I'm terrified too," Isabel nearly burst into tears. She focused on the feel of Tara's hands, knuckles split and palms callused, the feel of them against her skin- her real skin- an anchor. "You should- I'm not feeling so great, maybe you should leave me behind."

"No," Tara told her, her voice rock-solid. "That's how Mister Melancholy wants us to think. He kept us buried in the Midnight Realm so we'd forget. That bastard doesn't want us knowing how powerful we are, especially when we're together. Don't let him get to you in your head, okay?"

Isabel took in a deep breath. Beneath the scent of Luna Juice and grave dirt, she could smell old leather and gasoline on Tara.

"He's already been in there for so long," she said.

"I know," Tara reached up to Isabel's face, tucked a strand of hair that had been in her eyes behind one ear. "You're not alone there. I- I'm scared shitless, alright? We can wait, if you want."

Gazing into Tara's eyes, something clicked into place inside Isabel's chest. Dun. Dadun. Dadun. Her heart was beating.

"No," said Isabel. Her voice came out high-pitched, but it didn't sound wrong anymore. She gave Tara's hands another squeeze. "C'mon. It's time to go save the world together."