[ID: Banner on a purple-blue gradient that reads "Polyship Week: a multifandom celebration of polyamorous ships" /end]
Polyship Week is a week-long fan event celebrating polyamorous ships with daily creative prompts. This event is open to all fandoms as well as original characters and worlds. Last year's event was a rousing success, with over 70 fandoms represented in fic, art, and more!
We're tweaking the dates and format a bit for 2023, and we'd love your input! Our short interest check is available here via google form and asks about dates, prompt types, and some additional ways to participate.
The form will remain open through the end of 2022, with dates and prompts to be announced in January. And as always, our inbox is open for questions. :) Can't wait to see what we can make together!
Interest Check is Closed — see the 2023 prompts here!
I loved the Iron Widow triad the minute I met each of them. Talk about a power throuple! Yizhi, Shimin, and Zetian ready to (literally) burn down the world.
"Darlings," Warlock says, leaning against the doorframe. "I'm beginning to suspect we're not exactly... normal."
Wednesday looks at him. "Okay."
Joel stares incredulously from where he's pinned against the wall. "Normal? Of course we're not that." He crinkles his nose. "Why would we ever want to be?"
"It's not that I want to be, I just never realized I wasn't," Warlock replies. "No one ever told me."
"So, what? You thought it was normal to live in a haunted house?"
Warlock stares at him levelly. "I have told you about my nanny, haven't I? She haunted mine till I was eleven."
Joel waves his sword hand, nearly decapitating some tulips. "Fair point."
"If you're joining, grab a sword," Wednesday says, apparently bored with the discussion of normalcy. She lowers her own sword from Joel's chest. He promptly springs away, coming to greet Warlock with a kiss.
As soon as their kiss ends, Wednesday tosses Warlock a sword and the fight is on.
Core ot4 + Ben, domestic fluff, loosely based on the prompts family style meals and marriage for legal benefits
*
“You can’t marry us all just for the tax benefits,” Mal says, using both hands and the pull-up bar in the kitchen to hoist herself up over Ben’s head. “I already called dibs on that.”
Ben gazes up at her. And it really is gazing, Evie thinks to herself. There’s no other way to describe how romantically starry-eyed they are for each other “I think I called dibs on you, actually,” he says. “Seeing how I proposed first and all.”
“Well, I proposed second,” Mal shoots back, pointing her toes and lifting them over her fiance’s head. “Because I’m cool like that, and not some romantic loser who thinks about weddings and taxes all the time.”
“If he’s the king, can’t he just give himself tax benefits?” Carlos wonders out loud. He’s sitting at the counter holding a knife. He is not chopping anything with said knife. The pile of un-chopped peppers in front of him speaks volumes to how effective their usual Wednesdate meal prep together has been lately.
“I think that’s called fraud,” Jay says, whacking more enthusiastically at his own pile of veggies. Not that there’s really any way to get less enthusiastic. “And that’s for awful, evil people like us.”
Carlos flicks a piece of pepper at him. “Oh, so we can just marry each other for the benefits then?”
“Sure?”
“Do it then. Coward.”
This could go downhill quickly. Evie claps her freshly washed hands together, a little too enthusiastically. A little soap foam in the eye never hurt anyone. “Shut up,” she says brightly. “Nobody is marrying anybody just for the tax benefits, and if nobody is going to help cook I’m kicking you all out of my kitchen.”
“Eviiiiiiiie,” Carlos whines, flopping over the counter. “Don’t be meeeeeeeean.”
Jay picks up the pace with his chopping.
Mal swings her feet wildly, which is not the same thing as helping with dinner. Maybe if they attached a little cup of milk to her toes, she could make butter or something. Evie files the idea away for later, if only for the humor value in suggesting it at some inopportune time. “Evie’s bitter because nobody is marrying her,” Mal says in a sing-song cadence. “She’s going to die alone because someone won’t change the laws around polygamous marriage and nobody else is pretty enough for her.”
“Rude.” Jay says.
Mal kicks a foot out at him, which Ben somehow manages to duck. “You’re like, mostly gay. Shut up.”
Jay stabs an onion with more malice than is strictly necessary. “I could pretend. If Evie wanted.”
Evie doesn’t really want to marry Jay, even for the benefits. She has her own healthcare now, and can afford to pay for almost anything she wants even before hidden fees like retired hero’s taxes come in. It would be nice to be wanted, though.
“Aww, babe,” Mal says, and hops down. “Eves, I would marry you if I could.”
“You chose Ben first, I know,” Evie says softly. Her face is hot. It’s stupid and petty of her to be emotional about this. “I understand your reasons.”
“I love you.” Mal says earnestly.
Ben steps across the kitchen, and in one quick motion pulls them both into his arms. His lips are a gentle pressure against Evie’s head, and then she’s squished up against Mal, and her lips are warm and soft and oh-so-gentle against Evie’s own. “I love you too, babe,” Evie tells her. “All of you.”
There’s a thump of two more bodies joining the hug, and then a wet tongue licks her ear. “You’re the best,” Carlos whispers. “Even if you have weird ideas about dinner sometimes.”
Please enjoy my (late) entry to @polyshipweek‘s sixth day, fulfilling the prompt of “scheduling as romance” with Mei Changsu’s cooperative metamours :D
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It takes Lin Shu an embarrassingly long time to realize that his loved ones are coordinating with each other.
Nihuang comes by often for strolls in the gardens of the newly revived Lin manor. When he asks her about Yunnan, she waves him off, saying that Mu Qing has everything well in hand. The awareness of their unbroken betrothal simmers in them both.
On other days Meng Zhi stops by, often when he’s coming off shift at the palace. He spars with Fei Liu, stays for supper, and occasionally declares himself the arbiter of Lin Shu’s rest. “Even if I have to press you into bed myself,” he says with his infectious grin.
Jingyan takes care not to summon him to the palace too often, mindful of his health, but he also sneaks out to Lin manor more often than a newly crowned emperor really ought.
“What about your wives?” Lin Shu asks one time, plaintive. The habit of keeping Jingyan distant is hard to break.
“They understand,” Jingyan says and kisses him, leaving Lin Shu to grapple with that.
Lin Shu doesn’t notice that these ostensibly spontaneous visits never clash until Nihuang gives up the game.
“—Well, it was Meng-dage’s night, but we had to be at the palace for that dinner with the Northern Yan ambassador.” She says it offhandedly, casually, as if she’s not rearranging Lin Shu’s understanding of his own schedule. When he stops, she stops with him, looking up into his face curiously.
“Meng-dage’s night?” he echoes.
“To spend with you.” Nihuang tilts her head. “What’s the matter, Xiongzhang?”
Lin Shu has cheated death twice and won two kingdoms. He knows when to pick his battles. “Nothing.” He offers her his arm again. “Go on.”
Lin Shu finds, as they walk on, that he’s smiling.
Day 2 of @polyshipweek's prompts and you know I had to go with "There was only ONE bed!".
Like the first one, it got longer than intended, lol
ONLY ONE (BIG) BED
"I'm so sorry, there has to be some sort of mistake..."
"Mistake?" Kansuke repeated the receptionist's words, while said woman typed frantically on her keyboard. "What mistake?"
"The reservation on Yamato seems to be wrong" she said while her eyes wandered from Kansuke to Yui and then to Taka'aki.
Irritated, Kansuke tapped his finger on the desk. "That means?"
"The current reservation is for a couple's room" she finally replied, visibly uncomfortable about the mistake made.
A bushy eyebrow was raised and then Kansuke looked at Yui.
"Don't look at me! It was Hirata-san who made the reservation!"
Taka'aki rubbed his temples. "So I guess he was under the assumption that it was just the two of you going?"
"Even if so!" Kansuke seemed to be more and more irritated by the situation. "What on earth did him make reserve a couple's room?!"
Taka'aki crossed his arms and looked at one of the potted plants on the desk. "Well, I guess just like the rest of the department he is under the impression that you two are dating, or want to date."
"That makes it even less okay!" Kansuke exclaimed, his flat hand hitting the desk. "What Yui and I may or may not be doing outside of work is none of their damn business!"
"Kan-chan..." Yui grabbed his arm to calm him down. "Don't shout."
He groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "So what now?" He didn't like that these rumours about them had reached such an extent. It would only bring more problems.
"I'm sorry," the receptionist said with subdued voice, "but there are no extra rooms available at the moment. There is a congress going on in the city and most hotels are fully booked."
Another groan was heard from Kansuke, but it was Yui who said: "It's okay, we're taking the room." It's not like they had another choice if they wanted to attend the training event they were here for.
The woman at the desk nodded. "I will make sure to give you a discount and I'll try to get a third bed for you."
"Don't bother" Kansuke growled. "We're good."
"But... there's only one bed?" The woman looked at him in confusion.
"It is alright. We are childhood friends" Taka'aki said, as if that explained everything.
"Ah..." The woman seemed to wait for some sort of elaboration on this, but then she just shoved the keycard over the counter. "Please sign here" she said, handing them over the papers.
Yui took the card and signed, smiling slightly. "Thank you and have a nice day."
"Childhood friends, really?" Kansuke said when they entered the elevator.
"Well, would you rather I told her that we are a throuple?" Taka'aki said while pressing the button for their floor. "I doubt she would have even known what that means."
Kansuke scoffed. "Well, now she thinks we're a couple tagging along their childhoodfriend."
"Isn't that what they all assume about us anyway?" Taka'aki didn't want to sound resentful, but the situation recently had been exhausting, to say the least. Hirata wasn't the only one assuming that Kansuke and Yui were dating, or at least madly in love with each other, and it had been harder and harder to keep a straight face when their coworkers asked him for more intel. After all, he had grown up with both of them, right?
Warm arms wrapped around him when Yui embraced him from behind. "I'm sorry, Taka'aki-kun" she said, burrying her face in his back. It wasn't easy on any of them, having to keep their relationship a secret, but she knew it was harder for him than for them.
"They all should know better than to push their noses into other people's business!" Kansuke growled. "Hirata is in for a spank if you ask me, that brat!"
"Kan-chan, calm down, ok? Nobody's getting spanked." Her lips curled. "Well, nobody outside of this elevator~"
Both Kansuke and Taka'aki raised an eyebrow at this.
"Oh come on, don't be such spoil sports." The door slid open and Yui tucked her arms into theirs. "Let's hope Hirata booked a nice suite for us~"