BONUS ROUND 1

[hso_mods]

Bonus Round 1

Genre-Mixing

Hey, shippers! Welcome to your very first bonus round proper--we hope you have lots of fun with it! This time around we're going to be asking you to mix it up a little--each fanwork posted for this round will be a mish-mash of two different genres, blended together in a delightful incestuous slurry to create an UNSTOPPABLE CREATIVE CONCOCTION--er. Or. Something.

Yeah, we're genre-mixing. That's what we're doing this round.

Rules

1. Submit prompts! Prompts should consist of two different genres and one ship. This cannot be your team's ship! These are worth 5 points each, for a maximum of 100 points per team.


2. Look through the prompts and fill whichever you like!


3. You may not fill prompts for your ship, nor may you fill your own team's prompts.


4. Fills should be posted as replies to the prompts which they are for, following the format below. They may be any medium.

Title Format
If you are starting a new thread, please use this format in your title.
PROMPT: TEAM [YOUR SHIP]
Replace [YOUR SHIP] with the name of the team YOU belong to; please use the characters and quadrant, not whatever portmanteau or nickname you've come up with.
If your team name is not in this format and in the title we cannot guarantee that it will be counted.

If you are filling a prompt, use this format in your title.
FILL: TEAM [YOUR SHIP]
Replace [YOUR SHIP] with the name of the team YOU belong to; please use the characters and quadrant, not whatever portmanteau or nickname you've come up with.
If your team name is not in this format and in the title we cannot guarantee that it will be counted.

Posts not using this format in the title will be understood to be unofficial discussion posts, no matter what they contain. They, like all comments on the comm, are subject to the Wank Policy.

Scoring
For prompt posts: 5 points each (maximum of 100 per team)

For fills (as stated here):
First 5 entries in each post: 30 (per entry)
Entries 6-10 in each post: 20 (per entry)
Entries 11-15 in each post: 10 (per entry)
Entries 16+ in each post: 5 (per entry)

All scored content must be created/assembled new for this round.

If you have any questions, please ask them at the FAQ post here, or email them to us (homestuck.shipping at gmail). Otherwise, we cannot guarantee that we will see them in a timely fashion!

Comments

PROMPT: TEAM JOHN<3ROSE

[astrologicallydubious]

Terezi <3< Vriska
Space Opera + Detective Fiction >:]

PROMPT: TEAM ERIDAN<3KARKAT

[twizz]

Eridan<>Feferi, dystopia and superhero fiction. Both genres are found on Wikipedia.

FILL: Team Dave<3Karkat

[lacertae_dreamscape]

AU setting with no Sgrub. There might be a second part if I didn’t suck too much with the characterization.

The room was barely lit, a flickering light in the corner sending trembling shadows all over the walls and the floor; Eridan glanced out of the window, bored of the sight already despite only having been in there for less than a day.

The long line of skyscrapers, the way they slithered upwards, buildings curved into domes, grey and brown mixing together in a bland, unappealing way… he disliked all of this. He disliked the way everything just melted together into a single horrid nothing, how there was nowhere to look at that didn’t just seem the same. He disliked how there was nothing to suggest the city had any sort of identity.

He disliked knowing he had been part of that system until a few months before, and he disliked the fact that if the accident hadn’t happened, he would still be lost in the lull of this nothingness, without knowing better, without feeling the helplessness and the hopeless vibration of the city itself as it slowly succumbed to this blank, tedious void.

He stared down at his hands, covered by thin gloves, and his face contorted into a small grimace.

He didn’t want to be there.

The door of the room was slammed open, and a figure bounced in; Eridan had half an idea to ignore her and continue his sulking, but he knew that his resolve would waver as soon as the newcomer spoke.

“You are sulking aga–in,” Feferi’s bubbly voice wormed its way into Eridan’s chest, making his heart swell with pity and affection. “I to–ld you to keep the lights on!”

He grunted in reply, wincing when Feferi flicked the lights on and the sudden change made his eyes water.

“Wwelcome back,” he muttered instead, glancing at her from his spot next to the window.

Feferi was balancing a bag of food in her hands, smiling that contagious smile again, and Eridan cursed his instincts, feeling his gloom recede slightly. “You wwere gone far longer than you told me you wwould,” he accused, last attempt to keep his bad mood up. “I wwas afraid you’d been caught”.

“Si–lly, I just went out to get us food!” she pointed at the bag in her hands, which smelled definitely of fish. “Clam down, I promised you I wouldn’t do anyfin without telling you first!”

He sniffed, still slightly upset but definitely mollified, even if he didn’t want her to know. “I wwouldn’t a know,” he rebutted, but finally moved away from the window.

Feferi giggled, already getting the food out of the bag and onto the table, and Eridan grabbed the remote before sitting down, observing the rations Feferi had brought home with another, deeper grimace.

“That looks kind a disgustin,” he made a face, poking the plate with a finger.

Feferi rolled her eyes, already obviously fed up with Eridan’s complaining, but chose not to comment, because it was right –the food, despite the good smell, didn’t really seem like much. Unfortunately, with the rationing in the big city, it was hard to have something good, and Feferi still refused to use her money to get real food.

It would defeat the purpose of their presence in the city, and the fact that nobody had to know who they were.

If suddenly someone started using the royal coupons, the news would spread, and Feferi would lose her cover. It was hard enough that she was a seadweller, and as such, clearly distinguishable.

Eridan poked at his food again, but slumped his shoulders in defeat when Feferi glared at him so he shut up and they started to eat.

Feferi glubbed away about anything and everything, as if they hadn’t seen each other just earlier that day, and Eridan allowed her mindless babble to soothe his nerves, finally piping up and making small talk back, feeling elated when his moirail smiled at him.

He might always be gloomy and annoying, but he cared for her, and seeing her smile was the reason he had accepted to make that trip to the big city in the first place.

Even if that put both of them in danger.

They were in a clean room –no hidden cameras, no electric eyes that would reveal their position to Her– but he wasn’t sure how long that would last. Sol was an infuriating idiot, but he knew what he was doing, and if he said they were safe for now, then it meant they were.

Unfortunately, not even Sol, with his connection to the machines, could keep them covered much longer.

“So, wwhat’s the plan, Fef?” he cut her off, and she pouted before turning serious once again. “I don’t like being here”.

Her smile wavered a bit, turning into a determined frown. “I do–n’t either, but we have no otter choice. I’ve been glubbing with the others and we think it’s time to do somefin bigger!”

Her words sent a shiver down Eridan’s back, and once again he wondered if there was no other way out.

He didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to be part of this stupid coalition against Her Imperial Condescension. He didn’t want to risk his life fighting the system, not when the system had far too many ways to fight back.

The resistance didn’t really have many chances at all.

And yet…

“But,” Feferi looked at him, and hesitantly extended one hand to briefly touch Eridan’s, looking at him with eyes filled with understanding. “I don’t want you to f–eel forced at all! Our porpoise is obvious, bu–t you don’t have to join us if you don’t want to”.

“Fef…”

The quiet acceptance, the way she looked at him, as if she knew exactly he would bail out at the first offer, because she knew him and she knew exactly what he was thinking…

His heart clenched a bit, and he shook his head.

Feferi had been there when he’d been hit. She had been there to soothe him as he went through the worst pain in his life, a pain that he was sure he would never forget, no matter how many sweeps he were to live.

She had been there when he had discovered that he could feel things –feel them in ways he had never thought possible. Read the feelings of things, the world that suddenly held more for him than it ever had.

Objects that carried in them memories and ghosts of their owners, of the trolls who had touched them and held them and made them. Feelings of many different people, pressed and pushed together, carved forever in every surface he touched with his bare hands.

Memories that made Eridan face things he had never wanted to face, until he could no longer hide away. Until he could no longer excuse the society he lived in, until the system around him suddenly stopped making sense.

He’d lived all his life with the conviction that his kind was privileged, that all landdwellers had to die and that Her Imperial Condescension was right…

Until everything he touched screamed the opposite. Until the memories and feelings of thousand lowbloods and landdwellers rushed into his mind through the barest touch.

Until he was forced to open his eyes.

Feferi had been there, with her warm smile and her heart filled with pale pity, with tales of those who had once tried to rebel and had failed in the past, and a burning determination to be the one to succeed.

Feferi, heiress of the Condesce, who should have inherited the throne to be naught but a puppet in the hands of the previous Empress, and was now fighting Her with a small handful of rebels, each and every single one of them with something special, something a bit like Eridan’s own power.

Fef called them all superheroes because they were fighting evil.

Eridan called them fools.

And yet… and yet he was with them, because Feferi was his moirail, because he wanted to be at her side, because…

“Wwhat are you sayin a course I’m comin wwith you,” he scoffed.

Because well, he didn’t like to admit it, but she was also right.

Feferi smiled brightly, her hand tightening its hold on Eridan’s, and he smiled back, even if he was definitely not as sure as she was that everything would be fine.

But he might as well hope.

PROMPT: TEAM SOLLUX<3TEREZI

[heybuddyboy]

Condesce<3Psiioniic, dystopia + heartwarming children's story

Re: PROMPT: TEAM SOLLUX<3TEREZI

[zoamh]

Aaah this prompt! I must write it! Bookmarking.

PROMPT: TEAM SOLLUX<3TEREZI

[heybuddyboy]

Condesce<>Grand Highblood, mirrors for princes + splatterpunk

FILL: TEAM GAMZEE♥KARKAT [trigger warning: gore/death]

[sempiternalserpent]

A Mari Usque ad Mare
Being an Account of the Reign of Her Imperial Condescension, Sovereign of the Vast Sea of Stars, Her Affairs, and Her Life, Transcribed for the Edification of Later Queens
Book the Third, Chapter Fifteen: The Courts of the Mirthful
All Princesses would do well to endear themselves to he or she whosoever claims him or herself as the Grand Highblood. This figure, well known to all who walk the earth of Alternia's endless night, is often an indigo blood of profound stature, wit, intellect, and cruelty.¹ The Grand Highblood serves not only as the leader of the subjuggulators, but as a spiritual leader within the common religion of the indigo bloods, The Church of the Mirthful Messiahs. He serves as a beacon to whom all the indigo bloods look, who brings not only glory in battle but wisdom in peace. He is also a fearsome enemy to those who might oppose him, and is not one to be trifled with or to offend.
Once again an aspiring heiress might turn her gaze upon the glorious legacy of the Imperial Condescension, who held not only a strong and fruitful alliance with the Grand Highblood, but considered him her moirail, and often spoke fondly of him in her discourses. Excerpted below is a passage from her personal accounts of a visit she once paid him and his court in the year 4879 AT.²
The Highblood asked me to pay him a visit today, so I decided to acquiesce. Our time together is so limited, with his talons full of managing affairs planetside and my gaze stretched across galaxies. It will do me well to see the painted bastard.
I was glad to see he was well, and we greeted each other informally, simply embracing like the childhood friends we were before we became aware of our audience, at which point he offered me a smirk and greeted me in a more traditional manner. I was weary from the journey and requested he send his retinue away.
They scattered like dropped marbles, skittering away before they could rouse his ire.
I sighed and let myself melt into his massive arms. He cradled me like a ragdoll, gently papping my back and stroking my hair. He whispered my name into my ear, and I smiled, cooing his back. He can be a brute at times, but I would never replace him for anything. Besides, his brutishness is part of his appeal.
I made a grabbing motion, and he lifted me up into his arms to carry me off to the parlor. It was then that I saw her- a young indigo blood who had returned to spy upon our palest intimacies. He saw her too, and I knew then that I needn't say anything for her to suffer the consequences. My Highblood offered me a small murmur of apology and a peck on the forehead before turning to administer punishment.
She cried out, realizing she'd been caught, and turned to run. He caught her before she'd taken ten steps. She begged, pleaded, but he was uninterested, grabbing her by one curling horn and wrenching her head to the side with a sharp crack. At first I'd thought it was the sound of her neck snapping, and I was disappointed the show was over so soon. It was merely the cracking of her pathetic, brittle horns under his iron grip. He lifted her up by her unshattered horn, mindless of her babbling pleas for mercy as he traced the dark lines of her facepaint with a thick black claw that drew blood in its wake to pretty up her otherwise unremarkable face. He whipped her by her horn again, calling her a disgrace to the subjuggulators and making her start to cry in a most embarrassing fashion. It was obvious to anyone that she was flushed for him and hoped to get into quadrants. While I couldn't fault her for coveting such a fine specimen, he really was above her.
I don't say that just as his moirail.
Her other horn broke, and he drove its point into her cheek. She squealed like a hambeast, trying to fight him off. What a fool. I enjoyed myself as much as he as he slowly carved her to shreds with her own shattered horns, mocking her pathetic little red aspirations. Were he more a beast, he might have claimed her, but that restraint is what marks him as the excellent leader he is.
After he was done, we went back to his respiteblock, and he painted my face with her blood, which made me giggle like a schoolgirl...

1. While there may at times be a Grand Highblood who does not possess all of these qualities in their fullest realization, such leaders do not tend to reign for long, as the indigo blooded cultists, crude and foolish though they may be, will not suffer an inferior leader. In cases such as this, it is best to befriend the indigo blood who possesses these qualities, for they will most likely kill and take the place of the current Grand Highblood in a short deal of time, or shall rule with the current as their “fall guy” (to appropriate the colloquialisms of these roguish fellows) until such time that being in the possession of such a pawn becomes unnecessary.
2. Editor's Note: the original publication of A Mari Usque ad Mare was in the early centuries of the Condesce's rule. This visit most likely took place during the thirteenth perigee of 239 GCE, when she returned to Alternia to celebrate her victory over the Meiskian system.

PROMPT: TEAM DIRK<3ROXY

[shinigamishi]

Magical Girl + Steampunk for John<3Rose.

FILL: TEAM ARADIA<3FEFERI

[chiuchiu]

Uhm hope you like it! And sorry for the orribile pic but my scanner isn't working :u
I really hope it's ok btw

http://imgur.com/Dh6gF

PROMPT: TEAM SOLLUX<3TEREZI

[heybuddyboy]

Grand Highblood<3Redglare, slice of life + political conspiracy

FILL: TEAM DIRK<3JAKE<3JANE<3ROXY

[veira]

TAGS: terrorism?

She sees him in the early moments of dusk when his armor is still strewn across the floor of his block instead of on his body, when he is naked in the shower and washing the mats of his hair, when he sits in his underwear at their kitchen table with a bowl of squirming meal worms and reads the lowblood paper through the little crescent lenses of his reading glasses as he eats. Coffee; black. The little classic radio sits on the counter blaring the quiet static crackle of troll C-SPAN.

She has been up for an hour already, perched on the tidy end of her recooperacoon reading her daily passage of scripture, doing her devotions. The table is strewn with papers and the ancient law books that only her connection to him allows her to have access to. The restricted stacks, half the text blotted out in black marker. The law is a lovely thing, but it is twisted and warped and she sees the warps now, sees them and traces them in the contours of her mind, incubating she dare not voice until it's ready.

She sits across from him, fully dressed. She has a steak, raw, with candied fruit on the side. Coffee; black. She spreads an ancient forbidden scroll on the table and half reads it, half watches him over the brim of her shades.

The radio tells of a lowblood insurrection on the other side of the planet, a city looted and all but razed, the population marching on the loading docks of a backwater spaceport to gain access to its jumpships, to orbit, to snuggle little neutron explosives into the bellies of the Imperial fleetships and fly away again before they exploded. The propaganda is all doom and gloom and condemnation, and across the table he sets his newspaper down on top of her scroll and circles one article in indigo ink, catching her eye.

"Something's brewing. I think Her Royal Fishtits is planning something and trying to stick this on the lowbloods again to distract."

"They killed thousands," Redglare intones, bored and skeptical. The Highblood siding with the lowbloods; rarely anything but a devil's advocate meant to ensnare her. Although she has learned that 80% of what he says is the same tactic. She matches in kind.

"She kills more," he says around a disgusting grin, his teeth full of food.

"You kill more."

He laughs. "That I do, and I got plans and schemes for miles just like she does, but at least I don't try to be motherfucking nice about it. Try to play the leader instead of a tyrant." He pens words over his circled article in jaunty scrawl. "It would be cute to see her fall. We're gonna plan it. You don't get a choice."

Yes. She will plan his rebellion. And when the plan is in place, Redglare will be the one calling the shots, though he thinks otherwise.

PROMPT: TEAM DIRK<3JAKE<3JANE<3ROXY

[thatreevesgirl]

Pairing: John<3Jake<3Dirk
Genres: College AU and Armageddon

FILL: TEAM DAVE<3<KARKAT

[makingtriangles]

((Auugghh I sadstucked D:))

It had grown dark, the light from the television flickering over their faces as they stared blankly at the set, John on the floor, Dirk and Jake on the edges of their beds. There was so much that needed to be said that none of them could breathe a word.

It was Jake that finally switched off the TV, and clicked on the lamp on his dorm desk. John was staring at nothing. Dirk was staring at Jake.

"I have to get to Dad," John said finally, voice high and strange.

"There won't be time." There was a quaver in Dirk's voice that made Jake's heart give an awful twist. "There aren't enough jets for everyone who wants to go west and the roads will be nearly impassable."

"I have to call him." John scrambled to his feet, eyes frantic. He made it to the door in two steps, and they heard his running footsteps echo off down the hall before the door slammed.

Jake buried his head in his hands. There was nothing any of them could do. That's what they'd said. The scientists. Nothing anyone could do.

"Jake..." He felt the bed dip under his roommate's weight, and a cool hand on his arm. "I need to say something."

Dirk sounded nervous and sad. Jake wondered if he'd ever hear any of his friends sound happy again. "Go on, then."

"I know you and John are...but I can't..." He let out a shaky breath, hugging himself, his eyes downcast. "I'm in love with you."

Jake could barely stop his hands as they reached for Dirk's shoulders, pulling him around. He only caught a glimpse of those startled orange eyes for a split second before he was crushing their lips together, hands sliding up Dirk's shoulders to tighten in his hair.

Dirk made an anguished sound, hands fisting in the front of Jake's shirt, kissing back in desperation. Soon they slowed and stopped, panting for air, foreheads still touching. They sat that way for a long time, in silence, their hands intertwined.

When John returned, face pale and eyes rimmed red, they pulled him between them, holding him tightly in a many-armed hug. John kissed Jake first, desperate for affection, for consolation, and didn't release his hold on Dirk even when Dirk leaned in and pressed a slow, nervous kiss to his throat.

Jake pushed John back onto the bed, and Dirk hovered for a moment, unsure of his place, until John curled one shaking hand around his wrist. "Please stay."

PROMPT: TEAM SOLLUX<3TEREZI

[heybuddyboy]

Kanayac3<Karkat/Sollux, high school AU + magical girl

PROMPT: TEAM ERIDAN<3KARKAT

[murasakivie]

Dualscar <3 Eridan

Edwardian fiction, gothic romance

[cypher]

I love you

I want to write this

let me see what i can do

PROMPT: TEAM GAM<>KAR

[sicklikewinter]

rose<3vriska
body horror + epistolary novel

PROMPT: TEAM SOLLUX<3TEREZI

[heybuddyboy]

Eridan<3<Kanaya, hurt/comfort + domestic comedy

FILL: TEAM KARKAT<3TEREZI

[xelfi]

I hope that +body horror is okay because welp my hand slipped.

...This probably isn't anything at all what you were hoping for and I only lightly touched upon the prompted genres. I'm so sorry ._.

Also, I am so terrible to poor Eridan here that it isn't even funny. Or does that make it funnier? IDK, this is just the strangest thing I've ever written, that's all.

---

When you wake up, it isn't to whatever afterlife long dead nautical aristocrats claimed was set aside especially for those of royal blood, but to unimaginable pain coursing through through your entire body, and you don't know how this is even possible. The last thing you remember is the chainsaw, and, oh god, what if death is reliving your last moments for ever, because that is what this feels like and it's just not *fair*...

Warm hands press against your cheeks, and her fingers are so warm against your tear-streaked face that you don't realize it's *her* until she speaks, because when you attempt to open your eyes, you're nearly blinded by the brightness that you should have recognized but didn't.

"You didn't actually think that I would let you go so easily, did you, Eridan?" You blink through the moisture and light just in time to see her leaning in close, fangs shining, then piercing your lip and drinking from you. It hurts, but it is a better hurt than the pain that is everywhere at once, because you are at least able to focus on that one part and drown the rest out.

You must have passed out at some point because the next thing you know--other than strange blurry happenings that may very well have been dreams rather than reality, anyway--the pain isn't nearly as bad and you're upright instead of lying down on the cold cement floor. Looking around, you don't recognize a thing, but the bright colors and fabrics scattered throughout the area along with the hazy pain filled maybe-memories-maybe-dreams makes it obvious whose respiteblock you're currently sitting in--if sitting is indeed what you're doing because you're kind of afraid to look down.

But you look down anyway, and, oh, Kanaya stitched your severed upper body to a chair. A purple, velvet armchair, even. Your arms are the arms of the armchair. Ahahahaha...

You were probably laughing too loudly, because she appears suddenly from wherever she'd disappeared to since you saw her last, and smirks a bit at your reaction. "I'm so glad you like it, Eridan. I was concerned you would not approve, but lacking Equius's expertise in robotic prosthetics, I'm afraid that following your impromptutation, this really was the best I could do. At least my previous experience in relieving males of their lower halves allowed for a smooth and relatively pain free transition with the use of proper medication and care, and now no one has to worry about you wandering off and selling the rest of us out to the enemy. Not to mention that now there should be a significantly lesser frequency of you thinking with your bulge."

Her derisive tone has you shaking in rage. The chair legs are rattling against the floor. This probably isn't good for your stitches. "Fuck you, Kan; my plan wwas the only chance any a us had gettin out a this mess alivve, but nobody wwanted to listen--nobody evver listens!--an now Fef's dead an probably Sol is too, an you're a goddamn undead glowwin creature a the daylight, an I'm a fuckin chair!"

She's up in your face in a flash, tipping the chair--tipping you--backwards like some kind of heavy handed bruiser threatening a captured rival in a shitty action flick, except there's no one out there with any interest in rescuing you anymore. This would probably be a lot more exciting if the bulge thing wasn't so uncomfortably accurate. "If you had just set aside your selfishness for a few more hours and took into account that a much better plan than trying to join forces with the demon that wants to kill us was well underway, you would have known there was more to hope for than you realized and perhaps not sought to destroy all that remained before I finally stopped you."

She was still sore about the matriorb, obviously. As if she'd ever have the chance to restore the troll race anyway now that you were all doomed. Time for a reality check. "It wwas you wwho crafted the wweapon that destroyed it all." It had been yet another thing of yours she had broke clean in two; just like your ashen feelings thrown back in your face when she rejected your proposal and turned around to play auspistice for Vriska and Tavros instead.

The chair is--you are--righted roughly, swung around, and pushed up to a table, where several other chairs were prepared. They were just regular wooden dining block chairs with no trolls attached, though, or even any trolls sitting in them for that matter. They don't look all that comfortable, so you're not at all surprised when Kanaya chooses to sit on you instead--but you are incredibly pissed off. You can't even raise your arms to scratch her or tilt your head far enough to bite, and your neck is very clearly exposed and ready for her to feed from on her every whim. "I made a mistake," she finally responds, "and I took care of the consequences as best I could. You, on the other hand, continue to express a lack of growth in character and persist in blaming everyone but yourself for all the negativity that results from your actions." She pauses, and you seethe. "But that's all right, Eridan; now that you no longer have the ability to act on your own and make a further mess of yourself and your surroundings, you ought to have more than enough time to think about what you've done."

This is stupid; you've only ever done exactly what one with royal blood was meant to do all along. If anyone was to blame, it was the landwellers for corrupting Feferi so entirely that she actually started to pity the lowbloods instead of rising up to rule over them as the Empress she should have become with you at her side.

But Kanaya would never understand that, so you just keep it to yourself. She probably wanted you to keep talking so she could ridicule you some more, and you weren't going to give her the satisfaction.

She abruptly turns toward a clock on the wall and rises to her feet, her lips curled in a cruel twist. "Oh, would you just look at the time; our guests are going to arrive at any moment and I haven't even set the table. Make yourself comfortable, Eridan; there are several others who have been wanting to speak with you."

Fuck everything--you haven't even fully recovered from being chainsawed in half and she went ahead invited all the survivors over for a goddamn tea party.

PROMPT: TEAM ERIDAN<3KARKAT

[murasakivie]

Eridan <3< Karkat

Mermaids, Body Horror

FILL: TEAM ERIDAN♦ROSE

[eishua]

wow hi I really hope this is what you were looking for?? I've never written anything like this, so I hope you like it c:>

-----------------------------------------------------

Karkat had heard the legends. Everyone had. At this point they were more like children's fairytales than actual legends, told to sleepy-eyed youngsters before cuddling up for bed and giving them pleasant dreams of adventure and mysterious beautiful creatures that roamed the deep waters. Indeed, mertrolls were a common story amongst residents of the oceanside town he was visiting.

He'd studied merfolk for more years than he'd care to admit, and it had come to be a prominent fixation in his life (though he'd never admit that, either). But Karkat hadn't come to the town for cutesy tales of whimsy. He was more interested in the darker side of the legends that didn't quite make the cut when it came to watered-down bedtime stories.

The mertrolls Karkat was familiar with were not affectionate. They didn't frolic near the surface and greet tourists with a happy wave of their tailfin. They weren't best friends with fish and otters and other cuddly sea critters. They didn't sing, they didn't dance, they didn't rejoice in the highest of spirits.

They did, however, grab you fiercely by the wrist, drag you beneath the surface, and abduct you to their underwater dwelling. And they did it silently at that, flashing only a luminescent row of razor sharp teeth as they pulled you down, down.

His vision was fuzzy and he struggled to remain conscious, but the burning of his lungs assured Karkat that he'd been under for a few minutes already. The frigid water caused his skin to prickle as if he were being stuck by millions of needles, and the brief notion he'd had to try and free himself was quickly extinguished. Losing feeling in his limbs and cheeks, he began to fade into unconsciousness.

As if on cue (or possibly due to a rather lucky coincidence), he was brought to the surface, gasping desperately for breath now that his head was above the water. He vaguely acknowledged that his captor still had a firm hold on him, and this fact became increasingly evident as his thoughts began to clear and he became aware of the pointed claws acutely digging into the skin of his wrist. But before he had the mind to start struggling again, he was yanked rather forcefully up onto an outcropping and the grip on him was released.

For a moment the fact that he was just unexpectedly dragged underwater, almost drowned, and violently shoved onto a cold slab of rock seemed to slip his mind as he gazed around. He appeared to be in an underwater cave, with sheer cliffs for walls that ascended into darkness; he couldn't see the ceiling. The place was captivating, and as he caught his breath he was almost spellbound by his surroundings.

He was quickly brought back to reality as a gleaming pair of yellow eyes peered at him from just above the surface of the dark pool before him.

Karkat's heart leapt. "You're one of them, aren't you?" he questioned in a hushed voice, daring to crawl forward slightly toward the edge of the water. A sudden fascination overcame him as he held the unblinking gaze. "You're a mertroll."

He was met by stillness, but whether it was from a desire to remain silent or the inability to understand his language, he wasn't sure. Before he could speak again, however, the mysterious being had swiftly drifted forward in order to lift himself out of the water and onto the rock. He observed Karkat in cautious scrutiny, but his look appeared more curious than malicious. If he didn't know any better, Karkat would have thought the mertroll was just as fascinated by him as he was of the mertroll.

He really was a unique creature. From the waist up and with a frontal view, he appeared to be just like any other land dweller, but upon closer inspection, a long spiked fin ran down his spine. His fingers were carefully webbed, and he possessed an almost elegant tail marked on the end by a translucent violet fin, similar to the ones that adorned each of his cheeks. And then, of course, there was the set of long horizontal gill slits situated precisely between each of his ribs.

Karkat found himself staring at these gills in silent fixation, suddenly very aware of his own breathlessness that he'd suffered just minutes before. The mertroll studied his face for a moment before appearing to comprehend his interest, and promptly decided on some investigation of his own.

In a moment of bewilderment, Karkat was shocked to find that the other was insistently pulling at the hem of his dripping shirt. The garment was uncomfortably wrenched over his head, and he watched as it was flung aside. The mertroll assertively grasped his wrists once more in one hand and moved his arms away in order to examine Karkat's now bare chest and sides. His eyes narrowed in puzzlement at the smooth, unmarred skin between his ribs.

Though the pain of broken skin around his wrists was stinging him for the second time that night, Karkat ignored it and instead spoke evenly. "I can't breathe underwater like you," he began, realizing that his lack of oxygen filtering organs was apparently a rather strange sight. "I don't have gills."

The smile that crossed the mertroll's face was both eerily intent and somewhat sadistic. Karkat's heart rate sped up and he once again attempted to free his captive hands, but this only made the grip tighten. With his unoccupied hand, the ever-silent sea dweller began tracing slow, deliberate lines across Karkat's chest. Long pointed claws threatened to puncture his skin, and Karkat let out a low hiss as the fingers feathered over his side and dug painfully into his ribs.

In a blur of motion, a piercing agony overcame him. With a cry that came out as no more than a squeak, Karkat felt a trickle of blood begin to well up from the newly formed gash across his side. The mertroll plunged his fingers easily into the laceration, deepening the wound and lengthening it still until a long, thin line of flesh had been torn from Karkat's ribcage. Without hesitation, the claws were withdrawn and the process was repeated a few inches down, sending Karkat into a dizzying misery that only seemed to delight the mertroll even further.

"Please," Karkat managed to choke out, but his cry was cut short as his wrists were dropped and a hand pressed forcefully against his throat. He gasped for breath as his captor pushed him backward and pinned him to the rocky ground. At this point he had three gaping slashes running bright and bleeding across his left side: crude gills of his own that soon had matching counterparts on the right as the sea dweller continued.

With the increasing inability to breathe and the searing pain coursing through his body, Karkat once again began to fade from consciousness. He was vaguely aware of the mertroll removing his offending fingers from the deep cuts, and his surroundings spun as he was picked up and lifted from the ground.

He realized with all the terror he could process that now that the makeshift gills were made, the mertroll intended to test their functionality. He was carried to the edge of the pool, and through his bleary vision he could barely make out a row of pointed white teeth stretched into a fiendish grin and the amber glow of two captivating eyes.

The mertroll slowly leaned down, kissed Karkat briefly, and dropped him into the depths below.

PROMPT: TEAM SOLLUX<3TEREZI

[heybuddyboy]

Feferi<>Eridan, comedy of manners + epistolary fiction

PROMPT: TEAM ERIDAN<3KARKAT

[murasakivie]

Terezi <3< Vriska

Ontological Mystery, Misery Lit

PROMPT: TEAM ERIDAN<>ROSE

[wallwalker]

Martial arts + Military adventure, Jake<3Dirk<3<Equius

Re: PROMPT: TEAM ERIDAN<>ROSE

[macca44552]

Oh hell yes. Working on this now.

PROMPT: TEAM DIRK<3JAKE<3JANE<3ROXY

[thatreevesgirl]

Pairing: Dirk<>Jane (though I wouldn't mind Dirk<3Jane either)
Genre: Political and Hurt Comfort

FILL: TEAM DAVE<3ROSE<3TEREZI

[megaparsecs]

Illegitimi non carborundum

It's not until the fifth assassination attempt that it hits you - this is your life now.

You're sitting in the tiny confines of the tour bus, head in your hands, and you can't leave, you can't go out like this.

"Above all, you don't show fear," you remember Dirk telling you. "Don't let the bastards grind you down" and back then it had been funny and now you are remember the look of hate in the man's eyes when he pointed the gun.

The door cracks open. "I'm sorry," you say. "I need to be alone for a few minutes."

"Jane," says Dirk, and steps into the room. "It's just me."

You look up from your hands then, even though your face must be a mess. Dirk won't care though, Dirk won't need you to be photo-op ready, he's seen you at your worst and he's seen you at your best and throughout the whole bitter campaign he's whispered strategies and encouragements in your ear.

"You did a great job out there, Jane," he says. He sits down on the bed next to you. There's just barely enough room. "Showed that impetuous conflagration of hardcore haters what's up."

"Sure," you sniffle. "Fine, I 'showed them what's up,' but dagnabit Dirk, that doesn't matter if I can't keep alive until election day!"

Your voice wavers on the last word. He slips off his shades and puts them aside and you know he can see the fear in your eyes, in the roll of your shoulders.

His eyes remind you of marigolds.

"Hey," he says, and wraps his arms around you. "Hey, come on Jane. You're talking to me here. Your number one advisor, the chess master himself, the grand puppeteer of this whole fucking thing. You'll stay alive. I'll make sure of it."

You let out another choked sob and he just hold you, shushes you gently, plants a kiss to your worried and creased forehead and you don't understand how he is always so goshdarn calm, alway, even when he's staring down the barrel of a gun.

(A sudden recollection of something he said to you when you were still kids - "If you ever need help, Jane. If you're ever in any trouble at all, let me know. Just say the word." The sincerity burned you.)

You bury your head in his shoulder, let him stroke your short choppy hair as you wipe away your tears with his shirt. "You can't pull everybody's strings," you say.

"Watch me," says Dirk.

His hand clenches around a fistful of your blouse and you hear the butterfly hammer of his heart and you hope you won't let him down.

PROMPT: TEAM ERIDAN<3KARKAT

[murasakivie]

Dave <3 Tavros

Sports, Slapstick comedy

PROMPT: TEAM SOLLUX<3TEREZI

[rieduentant]

Dave<>Vriska, picaresque/sword and planet

PROMPT: SOLLUX<3TEREZI

[rieduentant]

Dave<3John, paranoid fiction/sea story

PROMPT: TEAM SOLLUX<3TEREZI (warning for incest ahead)

[heybuddyboy]

Dave<3Rose, literary nonsense + sex pollen

PROMPT: TEAM EQUIUS<3GAMZEE

[sinnovedades]

Gamzee <3 Karkat
Western + Musical

yep

PROMPT: TEAM ERIDAN<3KARKAT

[murasakivie]

Dirk <3 uu

College, Sex comedy

FILL: TEAM [Dave<3<Karkat]

[fluorescentnova]

"What is that trash?" Dirk can hear the indignant shrieking of his room mate before he has even closed the door behind him. A quick survey shows that yes, the troll is standing and dramatically pointing at the final for Dirk's figure drawing class.

"This would be art." He holds up the matted charcoal piece so red eyes can take in the entire thing.

"That's not art! She is nude! You've been carrying pornography all over campus!" It doesn't matter that the troll cannot see Dirk's eye roll behind dark shades, because he's not taking his eyes off the filth that is so proudly presented. Further words are only half heard by Dirk until a strangled gasp of recognition bursts forth. "That is the Rose human! She is displaying her milk sacs!"

"I know. I was so filled with desire as I stared at her, wishing to caress her face with my black tool." Even across the room he can feel the tension being caused by his words. "Lean forward and whisper to her how beautiful she is." His tone is melodramatic as he cradles the picture, treating it as if it really were Rose swooning in his arms. Dirk looks up just in time to see his room mate sputtering, almost frothing at the mouth.

Dirk unceremoniously drops the drawing, steps over it to and takes the hand of the flushed mess previously known as a troll. "Could it be that you want me to... draw you? Just as affectionately?"

There is more squawking before Dirk is pushed away. "As if I would ever do such a lewd human thing!" It takes more effort than it should for Dirk to hold in his laughter until he is alone in the room, having watched the other retreat in a twisted up rage.

PROMPT: TEAM GAM<>KAR

[sicklikewinter]

gamzee<3<terezi steampunk + tragedy

PROMPT: TEAM ERIDAN<3KARKAT

[murasakivie]

Sufferer <3 Dualscar

Forbidden romance, Harlequinn Romance

PROMPT: TEAM ROSE<3ROXY

[plaidmage]

Rose<3-Karkat, giant robot/documentary.

(good luck)

Re: PROMPT: TEAM ROSE<3ROXY

[murasakivie]

Oh man... I kind of REALLY want to do something for this. I wonder if I can pull my idea together.