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sounddrive · 4 years

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10 Gifts For A 10 Year Old

This year for @fieldsofvesuvia, I got @sumilong as a giftee! I hope you enjoy this story as much as I had writing it!

“Ilya! I cannot believe you!” Lilinka has her hands on her hips, glaring in exasperation at the teenager before her.

“I know . . .” Ilya rubs his neck, face flushed.

“Today, of all days?!”

“I knooooow . . .”

“Well,” Lilinka sighs, shaking her head, “you have made your bed, my dear.”

“I am going to get Pasha her present!” Ilya replies, confident. “It’s the least I could do! She’s turning ten!”

“Ilya, how in the world have you done this for five years straight?”

“I still, er, got it on time. She loved each and every one!”

“Ilya, the party is in three hours.”

“Pressure makes diamonds, Lilinka!”

“Famous last words, Ilya,” the old woman replies in kind, laughing softly as he marches out to do just that. Lilinka glances up at the ceiling, shaking her head as she mutters to herself.

“I wonder how this year is going to turn out . . .”

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

. . . What did ten year olds like, anyway?

Ilya walks around Nevion, trying to see what was in stock in any and all the shops. To make sure Pasha wouldn’t peep at the decorations, Lilinka had Pasha busy at the spa.

Ilya had spent an hour roaming without any luck. He ends up in a cafe with outdoor seating. Seeing his distress as the minutes tick by, one of the servers took pity on him. Ilya can only manage a quiet thank you as they hand him a glass of water, on the house.

The teenager rubs his face, regretting for the umpteenth time for his procrastination. How did he manage to do this five years in a row, indeed! He downs the cup and returns the glass to one of the servers, thanking them.

Before he could point his shoes in another direction, he spots a wheeled cart not too far from the cafe. A starburst goes off above his head. He immediately rushes over, barely able to correct himself from tripping over his feet in the process.

O*O*O

The sign above the cart reads Oddly Shayped Plants and Planters. The signage was promising, so Ilya went to take a gander at the wares.

It turns out that the owner of the cart was freshly out of the spa. They were clean shaven and, in their words, felt that their spirit was cleansed too.

“So, what can I do for you young man?” they ask, looking at Ilya with a pleasant demeanor.

“I’m, uh, browsing for the moment,” Ilya explains, rubbing the side of his neck “I’m not exactly sure what—”

Before he could continue and explain himself, the salesperson claps a hearty hand over his shoulder. Ilya is more or less directed to a particular ware. The auburn haired teenager wonders for a few moments why it was hidden. That is, until the salesperson pulls the light fabric cover away.

Given that the salesperson swore up and down they found it in the wild like this, Ilya found himself to be impressed. The teenager was sure it was a cactus. The sight of it however knocks the wind out of his lungs. The cactus itself has an unfortunate limpness of shape and, presumably, of function. The very thought sends Ilya into a red-faced and barely-suppressed bout of teary laughter for five straight minutes.

Once the older Devorak siblings got himself together, he thanks them, but it’s not what he’s looking for.

“You see,” he explains, “my sister is turning ten years old, and she is er, quite fond of cats. Are any of these planters feline-shaped, my good fellow?”

“Oh! I think these fit the ticket,” the salesperson leads Ilya back to two specific crates.

Ilya peers into these crates, eyebrows shooting up in delight at what he’s seeing. The planters themselves were in the shape of cats. However, the little cacti act as a tall, spindly tail per kitty-shaped planter.

It was perfect!

“Would it be, er, possible to take the whole lot?” Ilya asks, noting that there were indeed ten of them. Ten kitty-shaped planters for his ten year old, feline-loving sister. It couldn’t be more poetic!

When the salesperson told him of the price, the teenager almost collapsed from a heart attack. Ilya desperately digs into his pockets, finding he was severely lacking in the coinage the seller accepted.

“Ah, er—” Ilya wracks his brain for ideas. “Is there anyway you’d, uh, be up for a trade of some sort? Within reason!” There had to be something the vendor could want . . .

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

To say the least, this wasn’t going to be easy. Ilya offered his services in helping to take care of the cart, only to realize time was seriously against him. This left trading . . . hence why Ilya was at this friend’s house.

“Ilya, are you serious?”

“Misha, please—!”

"Why in the world did you promise this stranger my mother's pelmeni?"

Ilya quickly explains the bind he is in, getting an exasperated look from his friend.

". . . my god you idiot. Why did you do this again?" Misha sighs.

“Misha, my friend—”

“Oh here we go . . .” He sets down his woodwork, looking at Ilya.

“—for the sake of my beloved sister,” Ilya is ready to throw himself at Misha’s feet in order to get further with this, “can you please convince your delightful mother to make it? I’ll compensate by helping you haul in the next order of wood for a week!”

“The next three orders and we’ll call it even.”

“Done!” Ilya declares in turn. The two immediately sign a little contract, so Ilya wouldn’t forget.

Nothing else could go wrong, right?

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

The two of them had to run over to Yeva’s house. Her family had recently come into a good amount of lamb, of which they needed for the pelmeni.

“. . . are you serious?” Yeva stares at the two before her, hands on her hips.

“Ask him Yev; I’m just here for the show,” Misha grins devilishly. Ilya looks over to him with an expression of devastated betrayal.

“Misha!”

“Ilya,” Misha replies in kind, a smarmy smile on his face.

Yeva pinches the bridge of her nose, exhaling heavily. “Ilya, you owe me big if you need that much.”

“What would you have me do?”

“Help me clean out the stables for two weeks—”

“Hey he owes me too; we should coordinate dates and times,” Misha pipes up.

“Ah, so that’s how you got into this mess,” Yeva nods, laughing.

“Some friends you are,” Ilya dramatically falls over, being caught by Misha. “Leaving me wounded!”

“Oh shut up, man,” Yeva throws a nearby rag at him. “C’mon, or else your little sister will disown you!”

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Fifteen minutes after the party started . . .

“Should this just about do it? I also told the barkeep to get you a flagon of ale,” Ilya rambles, handing the plate of pelmeni to the cactus seller. “Now, uh, about those planters?”

“Well, let me taste this first,” the cactus seller grumps. “Then I’ll see about it . . .”

Lucky for Ilya, Misha’s pelmeni was just the ticket for the vendor. The auburn-haired teen fumbled in getting the key from the other to grab the kitten planters.

“You don’t have any wrapping paper, do you?”

“I ran out yesterday. Sorry kid.”

. . . DAMN IT.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Ilya had barely hidden the cacti in his closet when Pasha trots into his doorway.

“Ilya! Hurry up!” she huffs. “It’s almost time for the presents and you were super late to greet the guests!”

“I’ll be out there soon, Pasha!” Ilya dips down to kiss her forehead. “I just need to finish up a few more things.”

Pasha giggles upon receiving the affectionate peck. Sufficiently placated, she turns around to rejoin the party. As she does, Mazelinka and Lilinka come down the hallway. Maz knocks on the door frame as Ilya carefully pulls out the ten planters.

“You haven’t wrapped them!” Lilinka exclaims.

“AH!” Ilya jumps, whipping around to face his grandmothers. “Oh! Lilinka! Maz! I will very promptly, I just, uhhhh . . .”

“No wrapping to be found, eh Illyushka?” Mazelinka chuckles, giving him a grin.

“Not . . . exactly?” He quickly explains that Sasha, one of the guests arriving to the party, was going to provide it what they had leftover for him.

“What do you owe them?” Lilinka exhales, deadpan.

“ . . . some soup?”

“Soup?” Lilinka grimaces. “Ilya, with you cooking you may as well poison the child!”

“L i l i n k a . . .”

“Boy, I’ll help you later,” Mazelinka places a soothing hand on Lilinka’s shoulder. She looks down the hall, seeing a teenager about Ilya’s age coming down with a roll of wrapping paper.

“I think that’s your savior,” Mazelinka laughs, moving aside to let Ilya’s friend in.

“Ah, Sasha—”

“ILYA DEVORAK THIS IS THE LAST TIME I AM HELPING YOU LAST MINUTE! I WAS ALREADY HALFWAY HERE AND YOU HAD THE GALL TO—!”

Mazelinka and Lilinka quickly shut the door behind them, returning to the party.

Another fifteen minutes later, Ilya and Sasha finally join the festivities. They were right on time for the gift exchanges.

Ilya was to go last, because he was late and it’d be rude to cut in front of everyone else’s lovely gifts.

As each present was opened, oohed and ahhed over, Ilya’s anxiety only grew.

“Do you think she’ll like them?” Ilya murmurs quietly to Sasha. “What if she hurts herself on the needles!”

“She’ll be fine!” Sasha hushes, soon the bearer of the brunt of Ilya clinging onto them as Pasha carefully opens the first planter.

There was extra wrapping carefully placed over the cacti, so the first to be revealed were the ceramic kitty planters. Ilya only started breathing again once his little sister squealed in delight, soon quickly unwrapping the rest of the lot from Ilya.

Sasha playfully punches Ilya in the shoulder, laughing with the others as Pasha rushes over to hug her brother. Ilya returns the gesture with gusto, swinging her around in her arms before returning her to the head of the table, soon rushing to help the grandmothers get food out to everyone.

That night, ten little cactus planters were lined up in Pasha’s windowsill. Just like the person they were gifted to, the planters share a cat-like smile, eyes full of mischief energy.

#The Arcana #fieldsofvesuvia2020 #Julian Devorak #Portia Devorak #Mazelinka #Lilinka #my fic

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hqrarepairexchange · 4 years

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Posting Guidelines

Hello, and welcome to the final stretch of the 2020 Haikyuu!! Rarepair Exchange! A lot of us have found new ships, new friends, and a lot of in between during this time, and the best part of the event - the gifting - is here!

Where do I post? You have your choice of where you post your work, as long as the hosting site does not require any kind of sign-ups to view the material. Examples: AO3, Twitter (art only), Tumblr, Instagram (art only), or even blogging sites like Dreamwidth or Livejournal, providing the post isn’t friend locked.

If you WANT to post art to AO3, no one will stop you, but if you’ve ever done it before, you realize that it doesn’t resize well and is terrible for mobile users. We recommend being judicious in which platform you use depending on what kind of work you’re posting.

Social Media Tag: #hqrarepairexchange2020 (both Tumblr and Twitter)

AO3 Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/hqrarepairexchange2020

What do I post? We ask that all works be put into some kind of retweetable/rebloggable format for ease of sharing. On Twitter, you can post art directly there or a link to a fic. On Tumblr, you can post art and fic directly there, as well as create a link post.

If you don’t have an account on either platform, or for whatever reason you don’t want to post your gift work there, you can SUBMIT the work (link, art, fic...whatever works) to the Tumblr blog <https://hqrarepairexchange.tumblr.com/submit>. You don’t need an account to do that, and the formatting is friendly to either type of work. If you can’t tag the post, don’t worry. Before the work goes live, a mod will tag the work with the appropriate ship and fandom tags so folks who track tags will still see it (and reblog it because -chefkiss-).

All social media posts must contain the following information:

Your recipient’s name + @ their socmed acct

Chosen Ship

Word count (optional, and if applicable)

Any archive warnings (Major Character Death, Graphic Violence, etc), as well as sensitive topics (illness/injury, phobias, animal injury). USE GOOD JUDGMENT.

A link to your created gift (if applicable)

A note for your recipient

When do I post? Posting runs from September 19th to October 4th. Don’t worry about time zones. If you’re in New Zealand and want to post at 12:01am on the 19th, even though it’s still yesterday morning on the other side of the world, go for it.

Works may be submitted to the AO3 collection before the posting period begins, but they will be moderated (unposted) and not be approved until it’s the 19th in US Pacific Time. IF YOU DO POST TO THE AO3 COLLECTION EARLY, please bear in mind that your work will be timestamped for when you posted it, not when it goes live. When this is the case, your work will not show up in the most recents. We highly recommend you go back and edit the posting date to the current date when it does go live so people trawling the newest works have a better chance of finding yours.

How do I tag the account for the event? We have a Tumblr account (hqrarepairexchange) and a Twitter account (hqrpexchange). Feel free to @ either of our social media accounts, and post the work under the event tag. We’ll be tracking both.

Twitter: twitter.com/hqrpexchange

Tumblr: hqrarepairexchange.tumblr.com

Discord: https://discord.gg/C4KNwmJ

How do I let my giftee know their work is done? You have several options. The most common ways are tagging them in your social media post or AO3 work post, providing they have an account on that platform. In the assignment email you received back in June, We provided you with whatever social media accounts your giftee gave on their sign-up form. You can also find participants’ preferred social media accounts in the #roll-call channel of the event Discord, and most AO3 account handles are listed there, as well.

If you post a fic to AO3, if at all possible, we recommend you list your work as a gift for your recipient so they get an almost instant email letting them know something great is waiting for them. If you aren’t sure what their handle is, feel free to ask a mod either through our social media accounts, Discord, or our email <[email protected]>. We'd be happy to either ask or do some sleuthing for you.

We will have a channel in the Discord server specifically for posting exchange works, as well. Not only so you can find yours, but so your fellow participants can see what you’ve been working on. You can @ your giftee there if possible, as well.

Will the gift be anonymous? No. As soon as your post goes up, your giftee immediately knows who you are. The initial !!! phase of getting a gift is strong, and it’s only fair that it be directed at you in particular, the one who worked hard to make it.

I don’t see my gift. What do I do? If you don’t see your gift on Day 1, don’t worry. We know you’re excited, but your gifter assuredly wants to deliver the best work possible, so if they take a few extra days to perfect it, it’s worth it. However, you are always free to message a mod and we can check on the status of your gift or point it out if it was already posted.

I have a different question. If there is anything that is unclear or you’re not sure about, please contact a member of the mod team via social media, Discord, or email and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

#admin #about #faq

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