ComboCon 2024

And you've finally done it. Your patchwork masterpiece is complete, and you can rest in your newfound knowledge of intersections, mixtures, and all things combined. You look closer and realise, among all the prismatic fragments you found, a few shone the brightest! Congratulations to:

WINNERS

FIRST PLACE

zipzipskins and TrapdoorViolet with Volition

SECOND PLACE

CadaverCommander with Tower Lantern Cleans the Temple of the Allmartyr

THIRD PLACE

Gawain777 with Of Ravens and Wolves

…as decided by 27 community nominations! For the full details, here's the thread.

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Strange magic is at work in the Library…

After the Great Reshelving, the books have come alive, dropping pages left and right as they traverse across the shelves. Pages scramble to pick up all they can with four pairs of hands; the Archivists can only watch in horror as romance mixes with bird facts and music sheets with mystery thrillers. Tomes old and new fall in stacks of alchemical dance-routines, histories of the logic-puzzle war, and baby anatomy cookbooks. Some wanderers are too slow to outrun the paper parade, being buried from head-to-toe in their favourite novels. Surprisingly however, you aren't so bothered. You pride yourself on your inventiveness; you once birthed a phoenix from gunpowder, and things can always be put back together. You brush loose pages off your shoulders, thinking of all the new combinations of words this escapade has provided you, and, armed with some glue and a smile, you get to work.

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Show Rules + Combinations

About

Your task is to write an entry based on the combination of two of the nine prompts seen in this grid. It is up to you which two you choose to combine. Prompts can be interpreted as broadly as you want — you could choose to take a word literally, or as inspiration for a setting, character, etc. The only requirement is that there must be some combination of your two chosen prompts. For example, if I chose the prompts 'lemon' + 'money', I could write a story about a society that uses lemons as currency, or about a lemon drizzle cake recipe that secretly contains the directions to a dragon's hoard, or even a story about the simple life of a fruit farmer. Go wild! There are a total of 36 unique combinations (excluding duplicates).

If you want more of a challenge, you may choose the same two prompts. However, since your piece of writing must be based on a combination of two prompts, duplication will only be allowed if your idea is greater than the sum of its parts. For example, China Mieville's book The City & the City explores two cities which overlap, existing in the same physical space, but with their own separate cultures and populations. This would be a justified use of the same two prompts — 'city' + 'city', because the story is ultimately focused on the cities' combination, which is explored through their relationships and individual identities. A story merely set in
two cities would not fulfil these criteria.

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Dates

Writing Period: Now to 23:59 GMT March 17th
Posting Period: 00:01 GMT March 18th to 23:59 GMT March 28th
Nomination Period: 00:01 GMT March 29th to 23:59 GMT April 4th

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Rules

• Every author may only submit one entry.
• Collaborations are allowed for this contest.
• Galleries are allowed.
• Entries will be tagged with combocon2024.
• Entries must be written with the prompts in mind. Pre-existing drafts are allowed to be repurposed as contest entries as long as the majority of writing is done with the prompts in mind; retrofitting prompts to an already complete draft is grounds for disqualification.
• Spelling and Grammar edits are allowed, anything more is not.
• Shenanigans will not be allowed. Breaking rules is grounds for immediate disqualification. Contest marshals may disqualify individuals at any time based on their behaviour. Shenanigans include:
  • Selectively downvoting/upvoting based on who you want to win, rather than the merits of the article alone.
  • Excessive plugging.
  • Acting in bad-faith.
  • Spamming people with PMs about your work.
• Shenanigans rules also apply to non-entrants; your nominations will not be counted should you be found engaging in such behaviours.
• If you're not sure if something counts as shenanigans, then it probably does, but feel free to ask one of the organizers.
• The prompts shall be interpreted very broadly. So long as you can explain how your work relates to the combination of your chosen prompts, in any interpretation, it'll likely be accepted. The goal is to inspire, not constrain. If you're not sure if it'll count, feel free to ask one of the contest marshals listed below.
• All questions should be directed to Contest marshals LAN 2D and meltedbee

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How to Win

Unlike most contests, winners will not be decided by upvote total. Instead, at the end of the posting period we will be opening a nomination thread where users will post their top three favourite entries, ranked in order. Contest winners will be calculated via users' nominations. The link to the thread will appear here on the 28th March: nomination thread.

Winners will receive one feature pick each for the months of April and May. Additional bonus awards will be given out for funsies.

Happy writing!

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Final Rankings (by votecount)

Combo	Title	Author	Votecount	Nomination Score
Heat+Hideaway	Pasadena Mascara	|lzhoudidion and MaddGasserGaton	+25	14
Unearth+Twin	Vicarious	Din-Bidor	+24	13
Unearth+Unearth	UNDER. EARTH.	Stygian Blue	+24	8
Leftover+Construct	Volition	zipzipskins and TrapdoorViolet	+22	36
Hideaway+Construct	Coober Pedy Cave Clash 100	ch00bakka	+22	3
Hex+Master	Of Ravens and Wolves	Gawain777	+21	22
Leftover+Construct	Cassette_001: "Empyrean"	UncertaintyCrossing and Sebarus	+21	3
Construct+Master	You The Weapon	Vishardsh	+20	17
Heat+Leftover	Shelfstalkers - Galen's Guide to Bibliozoology	Rosyfox2002	+20	4
Hex+Unearth	The Last Confession of Wind-among-Reeds	Spoddetman	+19	5
Heat+Hex	Tower Lantern Cleans the Temple of the Allmartyr	CadaverCommander	+17	25
Leftover+Hideaway	Presque Vu	AKAM80	+16	2
Hideaway+Unearth	Groundwater	NotAnOligarch	+15	7
Heat+Construct	Frame by Frame	Sobek109	+15	1
Twin+Hex	The Splittage of Ms. Molly Gambol	Snapdragon133	+12	x
Heat+Hideaway	the Human constellation!	winkwonkboi	+10	x
Heat+Heat	The Red on the Horizon	J T K C	+8	x
Leftover+Construct	Titanic Tin Soldier	Arclund	+7	x
Leftover+Heat	A Bit of a Mess	Crow-Cat	+6	x
Question+Question	How Did I Get Here?	IndustryStandard	+5	x
Construct+Master	The Repair Order	TopHatBionicle	+2	2
Construct+Twin	Three Nights	hazellines	+1	x
Leftover+Heat	A Forum for My Brother	Anonymous	-7	x
Unknown	Excerpts from a Journal of an Interdimensional Archeologist	Magier Eule	-8	x
Unknown	Who Are We	SanchaySquirrel	-8	x

And some fun facts:

• Leftover + Construct was the most popular combination; Heat was the most popular individual prompt; and Question was the least popular.
• Out of 45 possible unique combinations (duplicates inclusive), over 18 unique combinations were written!¹
• Three people chose to duplicate their prompts.
• While meltedbee and I were brainstorming prompts, we had to cut many good ones that just didn't fit, including Paragon, Monument, Ooze, Flux, Red and Hyper.

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Additional Awards

These are like bonus stars in Mario Party — ultimately they're arbitrary things that have no bearing on the winners, but real ones know they mean everything.

Lost on a Technicality (Highest Votecount)

Pasadena Mascara by lzhoudidion and MaddGasserGaton

Time Management Award (Written in 5 minutes before the deadline, lmao)

The Red on the Horizon by J T K C

The 'Something else you wanna add?' Award (Most Footnotes)

Coober Pedy Cave Clash 100 by ch00bakka

The Questionaut? (Only person to use 'Question' as a prompt)

How did I get here? by IndustryStandard

Seafarer Award²

UNDER. EARTH. by Stygian Blue

Library Darling Award/Best Newcomer

Shelfstalkers - Galen's Guide to Bibliozoology by Rosyfox2002

'Least Words (how?)' Redux Award

Cassette_001: "Empyrean" by UncertaintyCrossing and Sebarus

Best Title

The Last Confession of Wind-among-Reeds by Spoddetman

That's it for bonus awards, thanks for reading. Maybe next time you can get one too!

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+Translations

Footnotes

1. I expected more people to choose the same combination, so this makes me very happy — it means I chose a good variety of prompts!

2. Sidenote: Styg, I intentionally didn't put any words that referenced water, wetness or open blue expanses, to see what you would come up with. Serious props to you for interpreting 'Unearth' so creatively. Once again I learn that the water always wins.