homestuckpolyswap

[homestuckpolyswap]

PROSPIT WORKS — DERSE WORKS

We've got the goods, and the goods are the gifts, and the gifts are for you! Our participants are now able to open all their gifts, and peek at everyone else's. Authors will not be revealed for another week, so take your time speculating who could possibly be responsible for your wondrous fill.

[homestuckpolyswap]

what’s max extension until? :( i know there’s a couple days initially and then you can ask for more but when’s the last day that’s an option?

As long as the extension is requested BEFORE JUNE 7TH, the Max Extension Available is June 11th, 11:59 PM EST. In practice, we don't get too tetchy if you're a couple of hours past that—what with time zones and all, we know how it goes—but we need to keep some time available in case of very last minute defaults and very very last minute pinch hits.

If the extension is requested ON June 7th, AKA the actual deadline, we can only offer a 1 day extension, to June 8th.

If you're a pinch hitter working on a pinch hit, it's a very different conversation! Pinch hitters should contact us via email, Discord, or Tumblr messenger.

Also, if you do end up needing to default, PLEASE LET US KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. We really appreciate it, and it helps us with planning and pinch hit setup.

[homestuckpolyswap]

Prompts Out Romps Out

Other options include SWAMPS OUT, CHOMPS OUT, and PSYCHOPOMPS OUT.

That is to say....IT'S TIME TO RELEASE THE PROMPTS! Both Prospit and Derse 2025 prompts are live, and the 2025 Presents Collection is available, should you feel so inspired or inclined.

The Presents collection is for bonus ‘treats’ made by participants, non-participants, and interested parties alike! If reading everyone’s prompts motivates you to give another gift, or make something, please do! The collection remains open permanently, so you may create at your leisure.

Please remember—Prospit prompts are from the "SFW Swap", and it's possible that your giftee might be underage. Please do NOT write an NSFW treat for a Prospit prompt without appropriate permission and confirmation of age.

[homestuckpolyswap]

NO WAY! IT'S DEFAULT DEADLINE DAY!

It's one of the most important days in the Polyswap Calendar: the final day to default without penalty.

What is a DEFAULT? In the shortest possible explanation: defaulting is where a participant lets the mods know they cannot complete their assignment, and lets another person take over the duty of gifting!

Absolutely any reason can be given for this, including no reason at all, but defaulting TOO close to the date of the collection open—when everyone gets to open their presents on JUNE 14th—is a strain on our volunteer cast of pinch hitters.

To give our back-up creatives the maximum amount of time, we offer a window for no-questions-asked no-shame no-blame default starting on Assignment Day and ending... today! That way, any gift that needs to be substituted will have up to fourteen days of glorious quality assurance.

On the other hand... Defaulting AFTER the Default Deadline—today, MAY 27th—is an automatic penalty. You will NOT be permitted to sign-up as a participant for next year's Polyswap unless you do some make-up work like making two treats of extra goodies or becoming a pinch hitter to save someone else's Polyswap this year.

Defaults can be submitted to the moderation team via email directed to HSPOLYSHIPSWAP at GMAIL dot COM! For Discord users, you can open a mod-chat ticket in the #mod-chat-requests channel!

[homestuckpolyswap]

Whoops! Looks like the Discord link got lost in the hallway somewhere, perhaps inside a nefarious jar of peanut butter. Stand by while we get a fresh email sent out. Haha... ha...

SURPRISE! ASSIGNMENTS ARE EARLY!

Thanks to our incredibly powerful moderator handmatch engine, and several cups of coffee, all Polyswap assignments have been completed two days earlier than usual—after extending the sign-up window for a whole week. YOWZA!

What that means is now you have two extra days to work on your gifts! All assignments will be sent to the email address associated with your AO3 account, as well as a link to the Official Polyswap Discord Server; be sure to check your filters and spam for any missing correspondence with us.

LET'S GET POLYSHIPPING!

[homestuckpolyswap]

SURPRISE! ASSIGNMENTS ARE EARLY!

Thanks to our incredibly powerful moderator handmatch engine, and several cups of coffee, all Polyswap assignments have been completed two days earlier than usual—after extending the sign-up window for a whole week. YOWZA!

What that means is now you have two extra days to work on your gifts! All assignments will be sent to the email address associated with your AO3 account, as well as a link to the Official Polyswap Discord Server; be sure to check your filters and spam for any missing correspondence with us.

LET'S GET POLYSHIPPING!

[homestuckpolyswap]

RING-A-DING-DING!

Jaspurrrrose reporting to you live, with a Polyswap Announcement. Our sign-ups are officially closed, and thus begins matching. The moderation team of this event are using your carefully crafted offers to find the best possible giftee, so please take this time to Get! Hype!

Officially, everyone will be receiving their assignments on MAY 3RD. However... Sometimes we get matching done early! In the event that we do, you'll have even more time to create the world's best polyship goodness.

As a reminder: pinch hitter sign-ups are still open! Never a bad time to lurk this event.

[homestuckpolyswap]

Happy Sunday! Home stretch for Polyswap—we'll be closing signups on MONDAY, APRIL 28TH. Please make sure to get yours in ASAP if you want to participate!

Happy Monday, everyone! We're pleased to announce that we have crunched the numbers and decided to officially extend signups until NEXT MONDAY, APRIL 28TH. If you were looking for a reason to sign up, consider this the official sign...up!

PROSPIT PROFILE — DERSE PROFILE

Remember: THE BASIC RULES! TOTAL ANONYMITY throughout event. NO assignment swapping OR discussion in public spaces. PROSPIT is ALL AGES with a rating limit, DERSE is 18+ with no rating limit. ALL assignments are given by email. NO shipping wars or participant bullying allowed.

[homestuckpolyswap]

Happy Saturday! We've hit 29 signups, wahoo!

Happy Monday, everyone! We're pleased to announce that we have crunched the numbers and decided to officially extend signups until NEXT MONDAY, APRIL 28TH. If you were looking for a reason to sign up, consider this the official sign...up!

PROSPIT PROFILE — DERSE PROFILE

Remember: THE BASIC RULES! TOTAL ANONYMITY throughout event. NO assignment swapping OR discussion in public spaces. PROSPIT is ALL AGES with a rating limit, DERSE is 18+ with no rating limit. ALL assignments are given by email. NO shipping wars or participant bullying allowed.

[homestuckpolyswap]

We're currently at 22 signups for Derse and 6 for Prospit! We've had 29 for the last two years...could this be our hat trick moment???

In all serious, please feel free to sign up if you've been thinking about it! More polyamory? No problem.

Happy Monday, everyone! We're pleased to announce that we have crunched the numbers and decided to officially extend signups until NEXT MONDAY, APRIL 28TH. If you were looking for a reason to sign up, consider this the official sign...up!

PROSPIT PROFILE — DERSE PROFILE

Remember: THE BASIC RULES! TOTAL ANONYMITY throughout event. NO assignment swapping OR discussion in public spaces. PROSPIT is ALL AGES with a rating limit, DERSE is 18+ with no rating limit. ALL assignments are given by email. NO shipping wars or participant bullying allowed.

[homestuckpolyswap]

Happy Monday, everyone! We're pleased to announce that we have crunched the numbers and decided to officially extend signups until NEXT MONDAY, APRIL 28TH. If you were looking for a reason to sign up, consider this the official sign...up!

PROSPIT PROFILE — DERSE PROFILE

Remember: THE BASIC RULES! TOTAL ANONYMITY throughout event. NO assignment swapping OR discussion in public spaces. PROSPIT is ALL AGES with a rating limit, DERSE is 18+ with no rating limit. ALL assignments are given by email. NO shipping wars or participant bullying allowed.

[homestuckpolyswap]

Pinch Hitter Call

Polyswap wants YOU...to sign up for pinch hitting! As always, we love having backup for Default Day and the unforeseen part of life. Think you have what it takes? Then submit the following information as an application!

AO3 USERNAME: PREFERRED EMAIL: ARE YOU 18+ OR -18: NEED A DISCORD LINK?: PINCH HITTING FOR: PROSPIT | DERSE | BOTH

We accept applications through the official Polyswap Tumblr or our email, at HSPOLYSHIPSWAP@GMAIL.COM.

[homestuckpolyswap]

We've heard the rumblings in the air, the banging on the walls, the clamor for the Discord—so we're happy to announce that anyone already signed-up for Polyswap can request early access to our Official Server! [In addition to our usual "Thanks for signing up and here's your link!" email via AO3 assignments.]

Just send us a message or ask on Tumblr with your AO3 username and—for whimsy, for fun—one of the ships you've requested. You can also email us that same information, using the address: → hspolyshipswap@gmail.com ←. Joining us is a great way to have expedited help with your prompts, modly communications, and a first-hand look at exclusive server announcements about upcoming events or deadlines.

To all potential pinch hitters, you're welcome to take this deal too. A post will be shared soon detailing the information necessary for your pinch hitter signup, and you'll just request Discord access after you're approved.

We're looking forward to meeting you!

[homestuckpolyswap]

Is the prompt url is expected to be a google doc? Also, does nobody is required to write nsfw mean I cannot have a prompt that is just, "A/B/C do this sex act." Or does that mean I need to have prompts that could be non-sexual?

The Prompt URL can be just about anything accessible, such as a Tumblr page or a Google Doc. However, the link cannot contain or require tracking, such as a sign-in or a record of who visits. This means a read-only G-Doc or similar, in order to preserve anonymity.

Derse is an 18+ NSFW Optional Zone, to contrast the All-Ages No Horny rules of Prospit! What this means is that while your prompts can absolutely be as frothy as you'd like, your gifter doesn't have to include all the gritty details. They could:

write a tasteful fade to black after much pomp and circumstance,

draw a multi-panel conversation so charged it reads as an intimate moment,

perform a singularly gut-wrenching song that touches on all the yearning your prompt entails,

and so much more!

So, while you certainly can write your prompts very salaciously, it is understood that your gifter has discretion in what they will incorporate. Thus! We encourage writing broad open-ended prompts full of details and headcanons, to allow aaaaaaaall the possi8ilities for your Polyswap fill!

As a sidenote, blatantly ignoring core details of your prompt is against Polyswap rules. You cannot require that a gifter create something with very selective headcanons, but they cannot completely ignore the prompt to do their own thing. This is a request, not a commission.

[homestuckpolyswap]

I'm wondering what y'alls stance on technical RPF is. Say we have something like Dave/John/Obama. Would this be disallowed because Obama is technically a real person even though we're angling for the character from Homestuck? (sorry if this is a dumb question I'd just really love clarification)

No such thing as a dumb question! Technical RPF and its place in Polyswap are a nuanced subject, but not from a place of judgement.

Due to concerns about appropriate tagging, sourcing proper fills, and precedent, we do not allow "real world" Homestuck characters in Polyswap Proper.

Not all "real world" characters have a canon tag on AO3 that is wrangled by the Homestuck fandom, and locating someone who just so happens to be willing to write Dave / John / Obama in an anonymous swap would be an absolute marvel of matchmaking... especially a gifter that just so happens to write Homestuck-specific Obama and not just former president—Actual Obama.

Furthermore, there is a precedent for disallowing characters who function as abstractions or self-inserts, such as MSPA Reader, so this follows that decision.

However, for our smaller events, such as an upcoming prompt meme wherein everyone posts up requests with no expectation of having them filled, Obama as he appears in Homestuck would be permissible!

[homestuckpolyswap]

Here at Polyswap HQ, we've got a saying... "ENCORE!" Past sign-ups are always the best place to seek inspiration. You can find each and every past Polyswap Collection HERE on AO3, infinitely bursting with old prompts and fills for your consideration.

[Just navigate to the REQUESTS SUMMARY on your selected collection, like so:]

There might be a ship you've never thought of before, or a prompt that just tickles your fancy for a re-write. Previous requesters could still be seeking satisfaction—think of this "prompt recycling" as a way to bump good ideas back to the front of the Polyswap queue.

In another vein, checking your bookmarks [or Tumblr likes, or phone gallery] for beloved fanworks of old is a great way to reinvigorate your love for polyships. Especially the types that drive us mad with creativity!

Much thanks to @harvestspriteirl for allowing us to co-opt this relatable comic!

Does anyone else feel like this during @homestuckpolyswap or is it just me... I swear, I have so many ideas all year, and at the last moment, they abandon me XD

[homestuckpolyswap]

So... What IS this POLYSWAP stuff anyway? Let's simplify it down for all the newcomers, and the potential newcomers too!

The Homestuck Polyship Swap Event—Polyswap for short—is an Archive Of Our Own [AO3] gift exchange styled a bit like a Secret Santa. Under the cover of anonymity, participants craft poly-focused gifts for each other, all for the joy of revealing who did what at the end of the event!

We moderators here at Polyswap believe that polyships are just the best thing ever, and want to encourage fellow makers of the craft to make more of the stuff we love! Signing up is a guarantee that your polyship appreciations are recognized... and shared by creatives!

This event community keeps the time-honored fandom tradition alive: making what you want to see, transforming canon into something brand new. Some of our greatest exports are fics that change brain chemistry, amazing comics, and so much more!

As Polyswap eagerly nears its tenth anniversary, we are encouraging participants to give us a try, and bring a brand new Homestuck polyship into the spotlight.