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 JADE<3JOHN<3KARKAT

[inkysquid]

Kanaya<>Karkat

Star-crossed lovers, lost world

FILL: TEAM ROSE<3ROXY

[attentionmerrymakers]

They arrive in ships; in large curving ships that slice through the water. The rippling sails bear foreign insignias.
Kanaya does not greet them. Kanaya does not hurry out to say hello. Kanaya watches from the curtains.

Of course she greets them anyway; the strangers are escorted into the palace and loaded with gifts and told to wait here quietly, please, and don't touch the vases, we've just had them replaced.
Kanaya draws back a curtain.
"Hello," she says.
Lack of horns or not, they're still a bunch of men, so: they gawk. Kanaya smiles.
"I am the head priestess," she says.
This jolts them: ah, religion. They smile weakly. Kanaya sweeps an arm in the direction of the throne room.
"This way, please."
They get up and follow her.
One lags behind; reticent or irritated or both, Kanaya can't tell. He's curled in on himself, arms crossed and face drawn shut in a defensive scowl. It is clear he does not want to be here.
She falls back.
The rest of the strangers file into the throne room.
She pauses outside the door and touches his arm.
"Pardon if I'm intruding, but are you alright?" she asks.
The stranger sort of smiles, sort of shrugs.
"I've been better," he says. "It's possible that my entire life has been a simple introduction to the awfulness of my current situation. A prelude, if you will. Now this," he says, jerking a thumb towards the throne room, "is in no way my fault. This is disgusting. This is perhaps the purest form of imperialistic idiocy I have ever been witness to."
"I see," says Kanaya. "Would you care for a cup of tea?"

.

His name is Karkat. He is not here because he wants to be.
He sits on the kitchen counter while she stirs their tea and tells her stories of the world he left behind; of planes and cars and trains. She listens, always up for a good story.
"Are there any ferocious monsters where you come from?" she says, handing him a mug of white tea. He laughs, startled.
"No, no. Not really. Why, are there some local nighttime ferocities I should be concerned about?" He's unwound, showed his laugh lines nearly as much as his frown lines. Curled his hands around a hot mug of tea and relaxed, still slinging insults at God and his fellow man but in a laid-back sort of way, like a natural, vicious commentary. Kanaya enjoys it immensely.
"And what about you," he says, pointing at her with the mug. "What the hell are you?"
"I am a priestess," she says, handing him the sugar bowl. "I thought you caught that."
"No," he says, "I mean, what the hell are you?"
She smiles.
"I am a nighttime ferocity," she says, smiling and showing her fangs.
"I've seen small children scarier than you," he says. "Put the fangs away and hand me a God damned spoon."

.

For weeks, he comes and visits her at the altar. She prays with her palms up towards the heavens; prays for good soil and clear water and a warm winter. He sits with his legs crossed and listens.
"Pray for a fucking plague," he says, not looking at her. "Pray for a disease to strike down all us filthy foreigners. You know they're going to kill everyone? Ransack your shining temple?"
She opens her eyes.
"They will not touch us," she tells him.
"No," he agrees. "If they lay a finger on you I'll kill them myself."
She kneels in front of him, cups his chin in her hand. Gently forces him to meet her eyes.
"Take my word, we are more than capable of protecting ourselves," she says. "Promise me that you will not kill anyone."
He softens a bit; touches her cheek with the rough pads of his fingertips.
"Yeah," he says, and she covers his hand with her own. "Yeah, okay."

.

Lightning cracks and the night is split open by electricity and violence. Kanaya stands at the entrance of the palace and does not move.
"Let us by," say the foreigners.
"There are children in here," says Kanaya.
"Let us by," say the foreigners, and surge forward.

.

Karkat finds her when he is bloody and bruised and beaten. She lies at the bottom of the stone steps and breathes shallowly.
"Kanaya?" he says, dropping to his knees and grabbing her.
"I hope they didn't harm the children," she murmurs to the sky. "I would have their heads for that."
"No, they didn't touch the children." He clutches her to him, her blood smearing his coat. "God fucking damn it, you are an idiot, you're an idiot. I never should have left, fuck me, fuck me, Kanaya."
She smiles.
"Shh," she says, something she murmurs to the queen when she is sad, something she whispers to the tops of children's heads when they cry. "Shhh." She touches his lips and he cradles her head and they sit on the steps until the sun rises.