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 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.

Re: FILL: TEAM ERIDAN♦ROSE

[crispychocolate]

let me love you.
here have all of my love.
like.
all of it

Re: FILL: TEAM ERIDAN♦ROSE

[crabbygreymalkin]

Oh my god. This is terrifying, and soooo good!

FILL: TEAM EQUIUS<3ERIDAN

[messageredacted]

Warning: body horror

The first sign that the change is coming is when your skin gets itchy and tight, like your insides have started to grow faster than your outsides. You spend two nights in sullen denial, soaking in the ablution trap and scratching ceaselessly, before you finally have to admit that it really is starting.

Terezi went through this six perigees ago, and you’d had to put up with her constant complaining for a full week before she molted, and then, even worse, you’d had to put up with the winking emoticons in Trollian while she teased you for being so young and immature. What’s it like? you’d asked her. You’ll find out, she had replied.

Then, of course, Sollux had gone through it, followed by Tavros, Kanaya, and eventually everyone else you knew, until it was just you, still hovering in your final instar, on the edge of sexual maturity.

Some days you had thought maybe you weren’t going to molt at all. Maybe your mutation was too severe, and instead of reaching maturity you would just stagnate right here, stunted and half-formed until you died young.

But now that it’s started, you find that you wish it wouldn’t. Once you molt, you’ll be an adult, and that means your blood color is going to be far more obvious. Your life is going to become even more of a clusterfuck than it is now.

##

You wake up the next night with a film over your eyes. Everything is blurry and gray. You splash your eyes with water but it doesn’t help. You’re thirsty and your fingers and toes are all swollen and blistered. The sides of your ribcage ache to the touch.

You spend the night in the ablution trap again, miserable and sore. The water feels good, even though your ablution trap is shallow and uncomfortable. You wish you could submerge yourself entirely instead of just sitting hip deep. You lay back in the trap and fantasize over going swimming in the ocean. Of course, that would be a terrible idea; the seadwellers would destroy you. But you can dream.

##

CG: REMEMBER WHEN I STAYED UP TALKING TO YOU ALL DAY BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO SCARED TO GO TO SLEEP AFTER WATCHING TROLL DAWN OF THE DEAD?
CA: wwe agreed to nevver talk about that again
CG: WELL YOU OWE ME A FAVOR.
CA: do i
CG: YES YOU FUCKING DO.
CA: wwhat do you wwant
CG: IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I’VE BEEN TO THE BEACH AND I SORT OF WANTED TO VISIT BUT I DIDN’T WANT SOME FISHFACED PSYCHOPATH TO CULL ME FOR GETTING TOO CLOSE TO THE WATER.
CA: you wwanted to go to the beach
CG: I HAVEN’T BEEN IN A WHILE.
CA: just on a wwhim
CG: WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?
CA: you hate the beach
CG: MY LUSUS IS A CRAB.
CA: you hate the sand
CG: I CAN PUT UP WITH THE SAND.
CA: you hate the wwater
CG: I FUCKING LOVE THE WATER.
CA: are you molting
CG: OH MY GOD. WHY ARE YOU MAKING SUCH A BIG ISSUE OUT OF THIS.
CA: you mean youre only molting noww
CA: kar thats so precious
CG: HOLY SHIT.
CG: FUCK YOU.
CG: I’LL SEE YOU TOMORROW.

##

Since your lusus is a crab, you don’t live too far from the ocean. Still, it’s a long walk when your eyes don’t work correctly and the skin from your hips down is covered in a painful rash. You keep coughing because your lungs feel like they’re filled with fluid.

When you finally feel the sand under your feet, you could almost cry in relief. You can taste the salt on the air and feel the sharp breeze on your face.

“Holy fuck, I forgot how disgustin’ it is,” says Eridan. He’s a blurry shape in the water. “I mean seriously Kar, you look like shit.”

“Fuck you,” you mutter, shuffling through the sand. A wave laps over your feet and you hiss as the salt hits your blisters, but you don’t even hesitate before you wade in deeper.

Water splashes. You push through the breaking surf and then dive into the water. The sensation on your skin is so blissful that you almost groan out loud. The itching in your legs relaxes, and you open your eyes under water.

The film over your eyes isn’t as obtrusive under water. In fact, it protects your eyes from the salt. Eridan flicks his tail and swims in a circle around you, as sinuous as an eel. The purple-black scales over his hips glimmer with iridescence. Any vague thoughts you had of taking off your shirt are immediately banished. There is no way you’re baring an inch of your scrawny gray flesh in front of that kind of physical perfection.

You surface and take a deep breath. Eridan surfaces next to you.

“That’s a molt, all right,” he says.

“Is this as bad as it gets?” you ask despairingly, riding a wave as it raises you off the sand and then lets you down again.

Eridan rakes wet hair out of his face. “Growin’ the tail was the worst bit. I don’t know how it is for land dwellers.”

You groan and sink back under the water, scratching at your ribs. Eridan follows you down and then frowns at you, his eyes fixing on something on your neck. He reaches out and pokes at it and you recoil.

“What the fuck,” you say in a cloud of bubbles, and then you bob to the surface again. “What are you doing, you asshole?”

“You got something on your neck,” he says, reaching out again. You slap his hand away and then poke at your own neck. There’s a knot in your flesh there. In fact, there’s one on both sides of your neck. They hurt to the touch.

As you prod it with a finger, the knot on the right side of your neck splits open. Something unfurls from inside, damp with lymph. You make a noise of utter disgust and duck under the water to rinse it off. The fresh wound stings. Muscles twitch in your neck.

Eridan is staring at you in horror. “Since when do you have fins,” he says.

“It’s not a fin,” you say, tugging at the flap of flesh that has revealed itself. You can’t see it, but you can feel the spines of cartilage inside it. “It’s just some sort of, uh. Growth.”

You claw at the other side of your neck until that splits as well. By this point the itch in your ribcage has grown unbearable, and you can’t even stop yourself from pulling your shirt over your head. You dig your claws into the swollen flesh on each side of your ribcage.

There are six long slits in your chest, three to each side. Each one has a vivid red opercula, and as they peel open for the first time, you can feel cold water rush into your chest. You have a moment of blind terror before you suddenly realize that you’re breathing.

“Holy shit, Kar,” Eridan says underwater, his eyes fixed on the bright red lining of your gills. “You’re a mutant. That’s perverse.” He sounds like he’s caught between disgust and delight.

If you were less distracted, you’d punch him. “Stop staring at me,” you say instead. “Just fuck off back to your hive. I’ll be fine.”

He circles you like a shark. He has far too much spine for a troll. It’s disturbing to see him move like that, like he has muscles in places you didn’t even know existed. “Just wait until your tail grows in. That red is going to be freakish.”

“Fuck you.”

He grins. “There are sea trolls out here who would eat you for breakfast. They’d hunt you for sport.”

You snarl at him with far more confidence than you feel. “You can try.”

“I just might,” he replies. He completes one more circle around you and then kicks off with his tail, giving you more space. “But I’ll give you a head start.”