Boys Who Wear Glasses DVD Commentary Part 1

[mayhap]

belmanoir asked for commentary on Boys Who Wear Glasses, which is very possibly my favorite thing I've ever written! Squee!

Boys Who Wear Glasses

The title is the last remaining artifact of my original plotbunny, which was going to be a sort of short crossover crack kind of thing where a bunch of different anime characters with glasses got together and played quiz bowl. I couldn't quite decide how it was logistically going to work and ended up writing this instead. It's kind of generic, but at least it's cute and has megane love, which is appropriate. I hate coming up with titles so much.

Part 1 of 4.

I had never posted anything multipart before. It was kind of an adventure. I knew there were going to be four parts because it was all structured around the quiz bowl tournament, so that helped.

Prince of Tennis. Tezuka Kunimitsu/Inui Sadaharu. PG. 1,621 words.

I'm not used to considering top/bottom dynamics when writing out pairings, obviously. Inui is clearly the top in every possible way, anyway.

The funny part is that I wasn't even sure as I was working on this part whether I was going to make it slash or gen. I was enjoying their interactions so much that I went ahead and put it as slash in the header and started thinking about the course of their relationship throughout the fic. Somehow, it ended up being being my total OTP of DOOM.

Tezuka takes over the Seigaku quiz bowl club. Inui joins him.

Fear my complete inability to write a summary to save my life.

We called it 'scholar bowl' in my state. I've also heard academic bowl, quiz bowl, "It's Academic", etc. I went with 'quiz bowl' because it seemed the most self-explanatory.

The sun was setting and Ryuzaki Sumire was packing up her things to go home, but Tezuka hung back, awkwardly.

"Ryuzaki-sensei," he said finally.

She inclined her head. "Yes?"

"I have a favor to ask you."

Ryuzaki nodded. She hoped it didn't have to do with playing Echizen again, although she rather suspected not; Tezuka had not demonstrated the slightest bit of reservation about that, whereas now he was positively diffident.

This section seems all weird now. Originally I was going to use multiple POVs, but I ended up sticking in Tezuka's head for the rest of the fic. I guess it kind of functions as a prologue or something.

I love Ryuzaki-sensei, anyway.

"With your permission, I would like to play for the quiz bowl club," Tezuka said. "The matches are held in the evenings and it will all be over in a month. I won't permit it to interfere with the tennis club in any way, of course." He spit the words out rapidly, staring at a fixed point located somewhere on her desk.

"Of course," Ryuzaki said, bemused. As if Tezuka would allow anything to interfere with the tennis club. Tezuka bowed his thanks and turned to make his escape. "Might I ask why this sudden interest in quiz bowl?"

Tezuka stopped, dutifully. "It was brought to my attention that all of the members of the quiz bowl team have dropped out due to lack of interest, leaving no one to represent Seigaku in districts. I felt that this would be shameful, so I volunteered myself as a player. Contingent on your approval, of course."

Oh, Tezuka. ♥ ♥ ♥

"What, all by yourself?" Ryuzaki teased gently.

"I will do my best."

"Of course." Ryuzaki didn't doubt it. She had never actually had Tezuka as a student herself, but of course, she had heard all about it in the teachers lounge. From the sound of it, it was something of a harrowing experience. No doubt, he was imminently qualified to be an entire quiz bowl team all by himself. She only hoped that it would be fun. Tezuka desperately needed to have some fun. "Don't overwork yourself."

Ryuzaki is kind of my self-insert, I think

"I'll be fine." Tezuka bowed again and left.


.

At the end of practice the next day, Ryuzaki made a general announcement to the team with a wicked glint in her eye. "All of you should wish Tezuka good luck. He's going to be taking over the Seigaku quiz bowl team single-handedly this month."

Totally my self-insert. Hee.

Tezuka looked stoic as his teammates reacted to this news.

"What? Quiz bowl?"

"Nya! Tezuka-buchou knows everything! Of course he'll win!"

"That's not even a sport!"

"Tezuka, I'm still not sure this is a good idea."

All that unattributed dialogue looks kind of weird. I think those are supposed Momo, Eiji, Arai and Oishi, respectively. Well, Eiji and Oishi are obvious.

Tezuka held up one hand, quelling them instantly. "It's nothing," he said, keeping his voice level. "The other team members were unable to meet their commitment, so I volunteered to step in. It does not conflict with the tennis club. It is only for this month." He was sorely tempted to order everyone to run laps, but practice was supposed to be over, and besides, he couldn't assign Ryuzaki-sensei laps. He gave up and dismissed them all instead.

He didn't notice Inui hanging behind to talk to him until Inui was practically on top of him. "Tezuka," he said.

"Inui was practically on top of him." Hee.

Tezuka started.

"You should have a teammate in quiz bowl," Inui said.

"I'll be fine," Tezuka said again, but Inui cut him off.

"I participated in a mathematics competition in elementary school and we placed first in the district. Also, I can gather data on our competitors and determine what subjects we ought to study. I estimate that I will be able to improve the chances of your winning by at least thirty-six percent." Inui pushed his glasses to the top of his nose. Tezuka stared at him. "I won't let it interfere with my training, of course."

"Of course," Tezuka agreed, bemused. As if Inui would let anything interfere with his training. Then, remembering himself, he added, "I will have you placed on the team roster at once, then."

I like that echoed line. Inui and Tezuka are so much alike.

"Thank you," Inui said, equally formally.

.

Inui called him for the first time before Tezuka even got home from school. "Tezuka," he said, "how are you doing in Japanese history? I'm sure that's going to be an important subject."

Phone sex! :D

"Fine," Tezuka said, and hung up. He took off his shoes and kissed his mother on the cheek and settled in his bedroom with his copy of Le Petit Prince and his French-Japanese Japanese-French dictionary. He was up to chapître cinq in the French version.

This whole plotline/foreshadowing thing with Fuji's copy of Le Petit Prince made more sense in my head, I think. Oh well.

His mobile rang. "Tezuka," Inui said, "who will our first competitors be? I'd like to begin gathering data on them as soon as possible."

"I don't know," Tezuka said, and hung up. He made a careful note in the margin of his book before he began on his homework.

His mobile rang again in the middle of his chemistry worksheet. "Tezuka," Inui said, "do you think I need to work on my derivatives? I'm still pretty shaky on the procedure, but this is a junior high-level competition, so perhaps I won't be required to use them."

"I don't know," Tezuka said. "Our coach said that he'd give us some packets of sample questions tomorrow. We can talk about it then." He hung up.

Oh, Inui. ♥ ♥ ♥

.

The next day at practice Tezuka let Inui set up one of his tests of skill, with Inui Juice for the losers. No one said anything to him about quiz bowl, although he thought he saw Eiji and Momo giggling about something. He had Inui match them up against Ryoma, who squeaked out a victory over them.

I love Tezuka totally putting them in their place while not even letting anyone see that he's annoyed.

Other than that, it was an uneventful practice. He walked with Inui back into the school.

The quiz bowl coach was considerably less dedicated to the cause than Inui was. He greeted them perfunctorily, then left them in his empty classroom with a wad of messy photocopies and a padded briefcase containing an electronic device with cords and lights that resembled a battered octopus.

Our team used these buzzers (the Showtime Buzzer Boxes with the handgrips). They plugged into one of these.

"There is no commitment to the quiz bowl club," Tezuka said, his lip curling slightly in disgust. "No wonder all the team members quit."

Inui plugged the buzzer system into the wall and flipped the small red switch on the back. It didn't do anything.

Our buzzers malfunctioned a lot.

"The tennis club never has to work with sub-standard equipment," Tezuka went on.

"The tennis club does well in competitions," Inui pointed out.

"We wouldn't do well if all we had was sub-standard equipment," Tezuka said. Inui was opening up the plastic case with the screwdriver from his eyeglasses kit.

"I think I can fix this," he said. Tezuka looked over his shoulder.

"No, don't touch that," he said, "or it'll -- "

There were sparks and a fwoosh of smoke and Inui coughed and wiped his face with his handkerchief. "I think I shorted it out," he said. "I'm sorry."

"We can just ask each other the questions," Tezuka said finally. He helped Inui pack the buzzer system back in its padded briefcase. He figured that he could take it home and try to fix it there.

Inui sat at the sensei's desk with the photocopied questions. He read aloud: "This man devoted much of his life to the pursuit of alchemy and the Christian Bible. Name this scientist and philosopher better known for his study of optics and his three laws of motion."

I wrote that one off the top of my head.

"Isaac Newton," Tezuka answered. That was a simple one.

Inui marked something down in his omnipresent notebook. This one was labeled 'Tezuka Kunimitsu, Quiz Bowl'. He began rifling through the pages of questions.

"He was given the title 'the god of fiction' by his admirers. Who is the author of A Dark Night Passing and short stories such as Reconciliation?"

Wikipedia, baby.

"Shiga Naoya." Tezuka remembered the name, although he had never actually read any of the stories. They went on for some time, with Inui trying out a variety of questions and taking careful notes.

"Shall we change places?" Inui asked, finally.

"Yes," Tezuka agreed. He resumed possession of the sample questions while Inui precisely tore out three sheets of notebook paper to use for scratch.

Tezuka decided to start with something easy. "A large piece of construction paper is point zero one millimeters thick. It is cut in half and one piece is placed on the other to make a pile. These are cut in half and all four pieces are placed in a pile. These four are cut in half and placed in a pile, and the process is continued. After the pieces have been cut and piled for the tenth time, what is the height of the pile in centimeters?"

I totally stole this from a helpful site with a bunch of story problems.

Inui took down the numbers at first, but then calculated the answer in his head. "Ten point two four millimeters."

Tezuka shook his head no. Inui said, "But you have made ten cuts, which means that you take two to the power of ten -- "

"The question asked for a response in centimeters. Don't get careless," Tezuka cautioned. Still, he was pleased. Inui was much swifter at mental calculations than he was; he tended to spend more time thinking out the problem before reaching a solution.

"One point zero two four centimeters," Inui corrected himself. Tezuka asked a harder question and Inui answered it even faster.

"We're running out of math questions," Tezuka noted.

"Yes, they constitute only about twenty-three percent of the total makeup of these questions," Inui said. He sounded disappointed.

I liked there to be lots of math questions when I was playing, because I didn't have to do them. I had my right-hand boy for that. He wasn't all sexy like Inui, though.

"Your data tennis has paid off in more than one way, Inui," Tezuka put in. Then he looked away and said, "It's getting late. We should be getting home."

"Yes," Inui said. He took the questions and Tezuka took the buzzer system and they turned off the light and locked the door behind them.

.

Tezuka ignored his homework and took the buzzer system to bits all over his bedroom. He fell asleep before he had figured out what to do with it.

The buzzer system is totally a metaphor for masturbation, I think.