Valentine's Challenge
Valentine's Challenge Invitation

Who: Anyone reading this who can draw a picture (even a crappy MS Paint one!)
What: Take two of my characters and pair them--but choose the most unorthodox and hilarious pairing you can come up with. (het/homo/interspecies/undead/talking inanimate objects/whatever! They can be from different stories/comics.)
Where: I'll make an entry with a poll in sinman
When: Send it to me by February 14th, of course! You can either e-mail me at shortbustohell at gmail dot com, or post a link/the image in the comments of this entry. I'll number and compile them for the poll.
Why: Because riverside_hq is doing a Valentine's contest, and it looked like fun. ^_^ Go do Jesse's, too!

FIRST PRIZE: A snail mail valentine with five buttons. ^_^ My Valentine might be ugly, but it will be a unique special snowflake with no other valentine like it! I will also draw a mushy Valentine doodle of any two characters you choose.

SECOND PRIZE: Snailmail valentine, character doodle!

THIRD PRIZE: Character doodle!

To help you choose your subjects, I made an incomplete but serviceable character list. (If you aren't familiar with my characters, don't worry about being "accurate" in their appearance--the important part is coming up with a ridiculous pairing, and I'm sure you can do that from this list!) Feel free to use characters of mine that aren't listed, as well. If you do want a reference or more in-depth description of any of them, let me know. Some of these have mild spoilers, but nothing ruinous. Here they are:

Adrian - (Heart of Stone) An angsty high school metal head who ends up in the goblin world, reluctantly playing the part of an assassin at the behest of the capricious Goblin Prince

Allister, Captain - (Rapscallion) The wiry captain of Grumslug, Allister is more than a little queer but amazingly adept at hiding it. His generous, cheerful, LOUD manner earns him a lot of friends who are willing to do favors as long as they don't have to be around him for more than an hour to complete the task.

Boyd, Deputy Dean - (Madcat Mountain) Chubby deputy whose life would have been a lot easier if he didn't have to choose between his boss, who wears a sheriff's star but acts like a crimelord, and a bunch of mismatched deserters who mostly have records but are bent on saving the world.

Darin - See Neith.

Ghost - (Rapscallion) A thief who enjoys alcohol, witty banter, and not being an indentured servant to a bounty hunter with a thousand disguises. Two out of three isn't bad.

Goblin Prince - (Heart of Stone) A self-important, bratty tyrant who controls Underfaerie (the goblin world). In a moment of boredom, he imported an Earth high schooler to try and assassinate him, as a game.

Ivantry, Captain Iandil - (Saltesia) Totally freaking queer captain who leaves his merchant company to go on a quest to capture, pardon, and reform pirates.

Izaketra - (Clockwork Sphinx) Another princess who pulls the infamous Jasmine and sneaks out among the commoners. She's not stupid enough to reveal herself, but an evil crimelord does recognize her--and later, when she learns she can never go home, she's glad of his creepy dinner invitation.

Jacob - (Vale of 1,000 Ghosts) Ghost appearing as a well-dressed Victorian man who offers
Marushka tips about the various ghosts of the manor she inherited.

Jioso - (Beam Sea) Scholar who found something he shouldn't in the library, and immediately stole it. He stowed away on a ship with an unfortunately high price for a passenger's berth...

Josh Sullivan - (Urban Nights) Josh is the only fat freckled vampire I know of. He takes to his undeadocity surprisingly well--so much that the vampire who infected him is a little freaked out. Josh hangs out in goth clubs and messes with the minds of the envious.

Juejonjie - (Saltesia) Farmboy-turned-sailor-turned-pirate who--wow, everything is a spoiler. He's vicious, he has freckles and bright red elflocks, and he likes animals. That's all you get.

Juniper - (Madcat Mountain) At nineteen, Juniper has already been through a lot of hard times--including running away from a contract at a brothel and freelancing his way west until he gets the scare of his life. Twice. (And then they just keep coming. haha)

Kiel - (Dragonglass) A fairy who saves Trick, an errant human, from certain death. He doesn't realize his do-goodery is going to get him involved in guiding Trick around Faerie, and pissing off some pretty dangerous entities.

Lorne Vanora, Count - (Island of the Ghost Seals) The formal, cold ruler of a lonely island in the middle of the Ghost Sea. Lorne is strikingly beautiful but has the bedside manner of a trout. He has many terrible secrets, but perhaps some nice ones as well.

Marushka - (Vale of 1,000 Ghosts) Curvy, sweet girl who inherits a massive fortune her senior year of high school. Alone in the world, she moves to the abandoned family mansion to solve the mysteries of the ghosts haunting it.

Merivale - (Island of the Ghost Seals) Shy, gawky young man who is abducted and taken to a mysterious island in the middle of the Ghost Sea. He can trust no one, but he's tempted away from fear from time to time by scientific study of species he's never before seen.

Nathan - (Lios Isle) Cocky, care-free young man who closely serves the creepy master of the castle where the twins are visiting. Nathan is supposed to keep Rob and Sera out of trouble, but he spends an equal amount of time flirting with Miss Rachael.

Neith - See Robby.

Nix - (Beam Sea) Taciturn, lanky sailor who saves a stowaway from a shark, first by getting bit himself and then by stabbing it in the brain. He's like that.

Ockopy - (Heart of Stone) A fat little toad goblin who guides Adrian through the goblin world

Palus - (Clockwork Sphinx) The skinny, dainty crimelord is the terror of the streets, and no wonder--he's not entirely human. His taste for the genteel is almost as finely honed as his taste for the cruel and violent.

Pauley Whipstaff - (Madcat Mountain) Short, snarky gunslinger who spent some time on the wrong side of the law, but has since settled down to run the infamous bounty hunter Toby Tuttle, chasing bandits and killers for cash.

Peter Pan - (Second on the Right and Straight on 'Til Morning) Punk, teenage version of everyone's favorite childhood hero.

Pristine, Captain - (Beam Sea) Scary bitch pirate captain. I can't tell you anything else about her or it'll spoil the plot. I'll hint though: You know those spiky heels she wears on deck? There's a reason she doesn't have to worry about balance, like normal human beings do.

Rachael, Miss - (Lios Isle) Prim young governess who wants desperately to get along with the twins she's in charge of, find friends her own age and discover true love, but that big stick in her butt kind of gets in the way.

Rob and Sera Iver - (Lios Isle) Twins who make a visit to their mother's childhood home, a spooky manner on cold, rainy Lios Isle. Sassy Sera demands answers from Nathan, the cousin assigned to make sure they don't see anything they shouldn't, but Rob quietly deduces the facts on his own.

Robby - (Rapscallion) Changes his name as often as he changes his costume. This long-faced, sarcastic bounty hunter managed to snag a year's contract of service from the best thief in their country--and he's not about to waste it.

Seltiece - (A Backwards Fairy Tale) A would-have-been princess with self-esteem problems, Seltiece discovers a singing frog by the pond in her yard. She kisses it out of superstition, and is more than a little surprised when it turns into 6'4" of Prince Tamory.

Shanta - (Dragonglass) Faerie forest god in the shape of a very large grey female wolf.

Sunny / Phineas Browne - (Urban Nights) The vampire Sunny is going through a phase as a transvestite goth hooker when he comes across someone who seems to fill every empty place in his soul--a kindred spirit. In a moment of weakness he makes Josh into a vampire, and the devout 300-year old Catholic is surprised and a little repulsed at how well his protege takes to the serial killing lifestyle.

Tamory, Prince - (A Backwards Fairy Tale) During the ignoble venture of looking for a place to stow a fiancee he doesn't want to marry, Tamory accidentally got turned into a frog. When he is kissed by a not-quite-princess, he changes mostly-back. He's not disappointed in the least.

Tobat - (Clockwork Sphinx) Perhaps his loyalty comes from suffering a curse much like his master's, or perhaps he simply doesn't mind Palus' vicious manner. The heavyweight bodyguard is a reticent and constant companion to the lord of the underworld (no, not the one where Seth hangs out--the one where they gamble on human death fights).

Toby "Two-penny" Tuttle - (Madcat Mountain) A Mary Sue of epic proportions--long black hair, one green eye and one blue, and she's the best shot in the West. She'll need it, because she and her long-lost twin brother have a destiny that began a thousand years ago with a war of the gods. Blah blah. She's snarky and prone to making snap judgments, which she changes later slowly and hopefully when no one is looking. haha

Trick - (Dragonglass) An unfortunate Irish-American who follows a pretty sound in the woods and lands in Faerie. Here he has to contend with giant spider monsters, shark-teethed witches and cities of demons, not to mention his guide Kiel's snotty remarks.

Upjack, Sheriff Grady - (Madcat Mountain) Never without his greasy smile, Sheriff Upjack uses charm to hide the filthy monster beneath. He has a fatherly regard for his errant Deputy Boyd, but he can't let Boyd's new friends save the world. He has other plans.

Wendy - (Second on the Right and Straight on 'Til Morning) Fat, pragmatic, gamer girl with rainbow hair who visits Neverland with her two step-brothers.