1. The 7 day wait for spars is from the when the spar starts, which is determined by the time stamp of the first dice roll per character - we do it on a dice roll per character basis so that it's you who controls whether or not you receive the penalty, not an opponent which might exploit the rule to lower your HP. This is to make sure you don't take on too many spars at once and flood the battleground, where as the week wait for challenges which is based on the fight's rubric timestamp is because there's direct IC consequences/changes - and also so that you can't be challenged multiple times in a row since a challenge is a mandatory thing where a spar is more of a choice.
2. The fighting penalties are provided during the creation of the rubric because that's when judges notice them and apply them. The starting spars too early is applied during a fight since sometimes spars don't receive a rubric and thus you really earned no penalty.
As far as passing out vs. ending submissive/not standing, those would not stack. Penalties can 'stack' in the sense that if you go over 800 words and end the fight submissive, you get docked for both - also the 800 word penalty is the one that can occur and be docked multiple times in one fight, but it's really the only one.
Since passing out is a step up from ending not standing, then in that case both would not be applied. Auto forfeit goes straight to no rubric, your opponent is the winner, so there'd be no need to dock hp anyway.
@Shady
Helovia Hard Mode