One Month to Polyship Week!
Expanded Prompts: Day 1–2
April 16 & 17
Road Trip: Send your polycule on a journey! This could be a literal road trip — car snacks, squabbles over the aux cable, weird roadside attractions — or something more fantastic. "Road" trip in space? Sailing around the world? Four metamours on a quest to find their missing shared partner? Maybe you wanna draw the squad flying down the highway while crammed into a minivan! Go wherever the road (or the prompt) takes you!
Sedoretu: Maybe you're a long-time Ursula Le Guin fan, or maybe you just read some sedoretu fic or bemusedlybespectacled's primer and got inspired — either way, assign some moieties and see what happens. You can play it straight or mix it up: Maybe your characters are the "wrong" genders or moieties to form a sedoretu. Maybe your polycule has too many members to fit the pattern. Maybe they're a Morning couple looking for a set of lavender marriages with a nice Evening couple. Have fun with this classic framework!
5+1 Things: A classic fanfic trope that lends itself especially well to polyship shenanigans! 5 different dates + 1 group night in, perhaps. Or how about five times Character A got pranked + one time they pranked the rest of the polycule? This trope also pairs well with an Outsider POV — something like 5 times Character A saw their crush kissing someone + 1 time they got a kiss!
Visual Prompt — OT3 Pose Meme: Aren't mcnuggyy's poses just the cutest? Draw one or combine a few or tell us the story of how your polycule got into this position. Remember to tag @/mcnuggyy when you share your creations!
Huddling for Warmth: Another classic trope that's even better polyam style! Perhaps they've gotten trapped in an ice cave on a dangerous expedition. Or they could be getting cozy in a Canadian shack as a surprise blizzard rolls through. Or maybe there's just that one member of the polycule who always seems to be freezing. Whatever the case, bundle those blorbos up!
Second Chances: Get your heartstrings ready for tugging with this prompt! What happens when your partner's new partner is a familiar face? How does the squad support Character A when that person who broke their heart blows back into their life? Whether it's a breakup-makeup story, a surprise encounter with an old flame, or a missed connection that comes back around, this prompt is all about how your polyship navigates trying to start again.
Missing Scene / Epilogue: Sometimes canon just leaves the perfect amount of space for a story. Whether it's a moment of intimacy, a messy argument, or a hilarious and heartwarming get-together, this prompt asks the questions: What happened when the narrative wasn't looking? And what comes after happily ever after?
Visual Prompt — View from Above: Are they posing for pictures, or exhausted after a battle, or maybe out stargazing? It doesn't have to be this exact stock photo pose, just give us a bird's-eye view of the crew!
The ao3 collection is now open for submissions, and we'll start revealing the fics on April 16! We'll be watching the #PolyshipWeek23 hashtags, and you can also @ us when you post for reblogs and retweets. Remember that text prompts can be art prompts and visual prompts can be story prompts — whatever inspires you, we can't wait to see what you come up with!
Masterpost & Guidelines
