The Beast's Lair Secret Santa Contest! (2016) [Submission Deadline 12/24]

[Kirby]

This'll be the first year, but I suppose we can start now. This won't be a huge contest, anyway.

So, to begin. This is a thread for a Secret Santa contest, a more informal affair than the usual contests we get around here. Basically, this works as a sort of fic exchange, in which members may anonymously submit ideas or premises, and later receive another's premise in turn to write in exchange. And in the end, all the fics will be posted and the community gets to vote for which of their fics were their favorite. And so on. Without further ado...


A General Summary:

1. Participants will submit their ideas or fic premises, one per participant. PM them to me. You may post them publicly if you like, but keeping them anonymous is funner, honestly.
2. Once the deadline's up, participants are then given a fic premise for them to write.
3. Before the writing deadline is up, participants may send their fics to me. Once the deadline's up, all the fics will be posted anonymously into one megathread.
4. The community (so, not only limited to participants, even non-fic writers may participate) then votes on the most favorited fics out of all the submission. Rather than judging with points and categories and actual judges, anyone can simply vote for their favorite fics, and tally up their votes. Votes for your own fic will not be counted.

Rules and Guidelines:

• Participants that submit ideas must write an idea in turn. This can't quite be enforced, but don't be a shitter and try to mooch a free fic off this contest and not even bother try write anything in turn, not even as a joke. Especially not as a joke. If you find yourself unable to finish in time, a half-done fic is better than no fic at all.
• On a less harsh note, don't be pressured to make your fics like 20k word epics. Shorter drabbles, like only 1-2k words, will be just fine.
• Similarly, try keep your submitted fic pitches flexible. Please don't try request super long fics, and try to keep one-shot or drabble ideas in mind. We don't have much time to write, so please be considerate of others.
• TYPE-MOON fics/premises only. Don't request crossovers, even if one side is TYPE-MOON. This is mostly for fairness, so that people won't find themselves writing, say, a Blazblue crossover when they can't be expected to have any Blazblue knowledge.
• Not a rule, but it may help to note what parts of the Nasuverse one is familiar with, and what works they've consumed enough to be comfortable writing. It'd be bad for everyone if people got pitches that they know nothing about.

Link to Fic Entry Thread

Link to Voting Thread

Pitched ideas will be displayed publicly here, so you have time to think before pitches are distributed.

Submitted Prompts

• So a Servant, a Magus, and a Dead Apostle walk into a bar...
• A fic about Nanaya and the Back Alley Alliance. Together, they try and fail to solve their homelessness. But where in Misaki is there a cheap room that also allows pets?
• Lord's Mystic Code

  Supreme Code
  heist. (A Supreme Code is like a Lord's prized Mystic Code, for example Kayneth's moeblob)
• The final confrontation between Arturia and Mordred at Camlann.
• Any of the major characters from KnK as a Dead Apostle.
• Servants/Heroic Spirits in the Throne of Heroes 'waiting room' (imagine one exists) or in some other limbo state, before or after manifestation into a Holy Grail War. Do they smack talk? Do they have a different perspective than when they're 'on the ground'? Choose any set of Servants.
• Cu Chulainn versus anybody.
• Straight porn of Illya and Shiki Tohno. Theme is transience.
• Vanilla Arturia is in a hall replicated to look close to her old court at Camelot so that she may mingle more easily with her fellow Knights of the Round Table when her other versions start entering one by one.
• Conversation between Gilgamesh and/or Kotomine and FHA Avenger
• A oneshot about SHIKI Tohno and his Roa possessed sibling. (This way it can be any of the Tohnos not just Shiki or Akiha)
• Shiki Tohno meets the real Kouma Kishima for the first time.
• After graduation, Shirou decides to visit Kiritsugu's grave for the first and last time, before he leaves Fuyuki for good. (Alternatively, the visit could be when he returns to Fuyuki).
• Serious Taiga Fujimura.
• An adult (MA+) romance story between Gudao and Okita Souji. The story's tone must consign with the order of seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring again. Setting is writer's choice, but it must have a happy ending. OPTIONAL: Each season's opening sentences must consign with the Tanka structure: five, seven, five, seven, and seven (words instead of syllables are fine, too).
• A mecha- or war-based Type-Moon AU. Think Aldnoah Zero or Gundam 08th MS Team, but it can really be based on anything. F/SN or Tsuki preferred.
• A crack or humor fic of Shirou and Caren being a couple, and her bringing him home to meet her parents.
• As humanity faces its final days, Roa contemplates the end of eternity.
• Shortly before the Holy Grail's final dismantling, Rin and Shirou encounter the Lion King.
• In the grassy field outside his hospital, the one Shiki Tohno meets is not Aoko Aozaki, but Souren Araya.

As for prizes, I don't have much to offer, but I will at least offer this: The grand prize winner may choose to either have a scene of their fic illustrated, or may instead choose to have an illustration of a character of their choice. Here's sort of a sample of what I have drawn in the past. Not professional, but it's something. Prizes go to the writer, not the one who wrote the prompt.

Prompt submissions are closed. Fics are to be submitted by 12/24, 11:59 PM EST. You may submit your completed fic through PM, or link me a file over Discord or IRC.

[Rafflesiac]

I volunteer as tribute.

[Draconic]

This is surprisingly heartwarming for this site. Perhaps Beast's Lair isn't devoid of hope after all. All hail, Kirby!

[You]

can you give an example of an acceptable prompt?
and an unacceptable one

[Kirby]

It's easier to talk about what's not acceptable, but I'll try.

Acceptable:

"Fluff about Shirou x Rin at the Clocktower"
"A scene taking place after Hisui Good Ending, focusing on Kohaku"
"A fight scene between Enhance and Narbareck"

Unacceptable:

"The Mask is summoned as Shirou's servant" (crossovers with non-TM properties are discouraged)
"*insert complete outline of a 100k word fic here*" (too long, just a pitch for a short fic, please)

Though otherwise, I won't be too strict on what pitches are good or bad. Just not something overtly bad or long, please. Also, as far as lemon pitches go, you can, but in that case people should indicate whether or not they'd be okay with writing lemons.

- - - Updated - - -

I already have some submissions in the OP, and those are all acceptable prompts, if that helps.

[SeiKeo]

I'll put in one.

[Sesto]

i feel like this might be an issue if someone ends with a premise they're not knowledgeable about (like something who hasn't read tsukihime/MB getting the alley alliance premise, for example)

[Kirby]

While matching writers and prompts is going to be mostly random, I will try keep it so that each writer will receive prompts about things they're familiar about. Hence also asking for prospective writers to mention what kind of subjects they are or aren't familiar with.

[Sesto]

oh i didn't see that part

[Ace]

Unacceptable:

"The Mask is summoned as Shirou's servant" (crossovers with non-TM properties are discouraged)

wow this prejudice

[ItsaRandomUsername]

wow this prejudice

Be honest. You're hueing inside.

[Five_X]

I'll put in one.

interest piqued

[Bird of Hermes]

I think I may try this out myself

[Prix with a Silent X]

I would like to participate. It was a little unclear if we were meant to do this privately or publicly, I think, but I can write most Fate stuff (but not really GO or up-to-date strange fake beyond the first two chapters) and KnK. I've also read Tsuki no Sango.

[Kirby]

Voicing your interest publicly is fine. The only things really needed to be done privately are submitting prompts, and then the fics themselves.

[Historia]

I'm in.

[You]

whoever gets my premise good luck

i don't mean it in a omg my premise is so cool type of way

[Prix with a Silent X]

User You is trying to force better technical competency one fic prompt at a time.

[Kirby]

A thing: if you are willing to take on more than one prompt, you maybe submit additional prompts. So, like, you can submit two prompts total if you'll write two in turn, and so on.

[Historia]

So it starts on the 6th of October or...?