Around the World and Web includes announcements and items of interest from beyond the SWG.
Week of Kiliel
Welcome to Week of Kiliel!
This event will be held May 17-23! The goal of this week is to celebrate and be creatively inspired by the relationship between Tauriel and Kili Durin! We want to encourage The Hobbit community to make Kiliel art, fanfiction, edits, crafts, and more!
Rules:
• There are prompts for every day to inspire your creativity! You can pick one or multiple from each day, and they can be followed as loosely or as closely as you would like!
• Please use the tag “#week of kiliel” so we can reblog your entries! You can also tag @weekofkiliel! We are so excited to see and support all of your work!
• Late entries are fine, though we ask that you do not post earlier!
• If you have an existing work that fits one of these prompts that you would like to submit, that is fine, but please repost about it with the hashtag on the day it corresponds to! While we accept already existing works, we really want to encourage new Kiliel content as that is one of the goals of Kiliel week!
• NSFW is allowed! While none of the prompts are explicitly NSFW, NSFW is permitted as long as it is properly tagged!
• While the main ship and characters should be Kiliel, background ships and characters are welcome! However, for this event we do not accept Durincest or other incest ships.
NO AI WILL BE PERMITTED FOR THIS EVENT, ANY AI ENTRIES WILL BE UNOFFICIAL AND WILL NOT BE REBLOGGED OR ENDORSED
Prompts
Day 1 - Modern AU, First Kiss, Dating, Fluff
Day 2 - Courting, Erebor Never Fell AU, Wingman, Khuzdul
Day 3 - Sickfic, Poison, Angst, Healing
Day 4 - Mirkwood, Culture Shock, Meetcute, Sindarin
Day 5 - Height Difference, Cuddling, College AU, Bed Sharing
Day 6 - Crossover AU, Fake Dating, Arranged Marriage, Confession
Day 7 - Afterlife, Everybody Lives, Scene Rewrite, Alt First Meeting
Aspec Arda Week 2026
Aspec Arda Week: May 10th-16th, 2026
This event celebrates asexual and aromantic spectrum interpretations and headcanons of Tolkien's Legendarium.
Any creations about the aromantic and asexual spectrums are welcome! You can create edits, gifs, fanart, fanfic, fanmixes, and more! All versions of canon/fanon and characters are included, be it from the books, movies, TV, OCs, etc. Please tag your posts with #aspecardaweek AND @ mention this blog @aspecardaweek so that your work can be easily found. If you are posting your submission to AO3, we will have an event collection! This is not an event for generative AI works.
The prompts below are a guideline for the week’s events, though you are not obligated to stick to them when participating. They’re completely optional, and more of a source of inspiration than a mandatory guideline. Feel free to explore them however you’d like; an explanation for each is given, but you can interpret them differently if you want to.
Day 1 / May 10th: Asexuality || Hope
Day 2 / May 11th: Aromanticism || Community
Day 3 / May 12th: Across the A-Spectrum || Loneliness
Day 4 / May 13th: Worldbuilding || Dragons
Day 5 / May 14th: Relationships || Linguistics
Day 6 / May 15th: Intersectionality || Found Family
Day 7 / May 16th: Freeform
For further clarification, check out our FAQ, code of conduct, and prompts pages! Happy creating!!
Detailed Prompts
DAY ONE: Asexuality
What characters do you see as asexual? Why? How does that impact their lives?
Alternative prompt: Hope
DAY TWO: Aromanticism
What characters do you see as aromantic? Why? How does that impact their lives?
Alternative prompt: Community
DAY THREE: Across the A-Spectrum
“Asexual” and “aromantic” are umbrella terms encapsulating a wide spectrum of identities. From grayromantic to demisexual, and aroace to lithromantic —there are many other labels on the a-spectrum. This is a day for exploring those identities and the characters you associate them with.
Alternative prompt: Loneliness
DAY FOUR: World Building
How does acceptance and prevalence of aspec identity vary over both cultures and species?
Are all elves really baseline demisexual? What’s up with one third of dwarven populations focusing on their craft instead of taking a spouse? How do soul bonds work between elven couples who don’t want to have sex? Did Númenor get aphobic when they started distancing themselves from the Elves? Do aspec hobbits feel pressure to settle down and have large families?
Alternative prompt: Dragons
DAY FIVE: Relationships
Aspec people can have many different kinds of relationships, including romantic and sexual ones— but some kinds of relationships are more unique and common to the aspec communities, such as queerplatonic ones. Today is a day for exploring all these different kinds of relationships!
There are several relationships in Tolkien's works that could easily be read as queerplatonic, including Frodo & Sam, and Legolas & Gimli. There is also an interesting footnote in The Nature of Middle Earth which describes something like a queerplatonic relationship and provides some Quenya words for it.
Alternative prompt: Linguistics - Many of the terms for aspec identity come from root words of Latin, can you postulate translations for aspec terminology in any of Tolkien's languages?
DAY SIX: Intersectionality
There is more to a person’s life than just their orientation. Outside of fantasy species, how does being aspec interact with a character’s other identities and experiences, such as race or disability or religion? What’s the impact of a character’s aspec identity on their gender or other orientation labels? Today is a day for exploring the intersections of the aspec experience with other aspects of identity.
Alternative Prompt: Found Family
DAY SEVEN: Freeform
Post about something aspec related not yet covered in the topics this week, or return to a prompt you have more thoughts about! Alternatively, we have some additional prompts for inspiration that did not quite fit into the other days.
- Recommend a fic, meta post, etc. that includes aspec identity.
- How would a particular character respond to allonormativity / amatanormativity? What kind of amatanormativity / allonormativity have they faced?
- What is a particular character’s relationship with their aspec identity Is it a big part of their life?
- Post about an aspec character’s family, either found family, or blood relations. Does their family support them? Does their family (or society) have expectations of marriage and children of them?
- Post about aspec community (symbols, cultural practices, mentorship and friendship with other aspec characters) within the context a culture within Tolkien's Legendarium, or take a character and post about what parts an aspec community they would resonate with in a modern Earth AU.
Angbang Week 2026
This is the official blog of Angbang (or Melron) week.
We follow the tags "#AngbangWeek" and "#Angbang Week" as well as the current year variations of those tags. We have our ask box and DMs open if you have any questions!
List of prompts for Angbang Week 2026:
- Day 1: First meeting/Reunion
- Day 2: Dating/Intimacy
- Day 3: Competitions/Rivalry
- Day 4: Eyes/Gaze
- Day 5: Letters/Long distance communication
- Day 6: Last day together/Separation
- Day 7: Canon divergence
As always, there are two prompts a day to choose between. You may create any original work you feel relates to the prompt, and if you did not connect with a prompt, feel free to skip it. All previously unposted creations made by you are accepted (fic, art, moodboards, playlists, etc). For any adult content, please keep it below a read more and tag it accordingly.
When posting your works, please post them on the day the prompt appears on or on a later day and tag this blog directly by using @, or add one of the following tags (#angbangweek2026, #angbang week 2026) to your post's tag list so we know the post is for the event. Please note that the event rules have been updated to clarify that we do NOT accept any creations made using Generative AI of any sort, and as such we will not be featuring any such content on this blog. For any questions or further clarifications, feel free to reach out in the asks or DMs. Happy creating and we'll see you in May!
April/May Teitho Challenge
Our prompt for April/May is Heartbreak. There are so many possibilities with this one!
Will you go back to the very beginning with the heartbreak of Melkor’s discord during the creation?
Or will you take us to the time of Miriel and Finwë? Fëanor’s heartbreak at the loss of his mother?And later his father’s death? Or the loss of the Silmarils themselves, that led to so much heartbreak for so many?
The kinslaying. The ship burning. The Helcaraxë. Battle after battle. Betrayal. The heartbreak of The Oath itself.
The death of Fingolfin. Fingon. Finrod. The sons of Fëanor, one after another. The heartbreak of those left behind: Maglor, Galadriel, Elrond.
The tragedy of the House of Hurin.
Or will you come to the time of Celebrimbor—the glory of Eregion and Khazad-Dûm and the devastation that followed? The Last Alliance?
The travails of Frodo. The lonely travels of Aragorn. The heavy weight of duty straining the hearts of both Boromir and Faramir. Eowyn’s heartbreak in Edoras.
The doomed love stories that are woven into Tolkien’s books—Turin, Finduilas, Gwindor, to name a few.
Heartbreak can be so many things—with love, with loss, with changes that shift our entire world. But heartbreak can also be in the small moments—for a child, a parent, a friend, a comrade. It can be momentary or span years. Or even lifetimes.
Will you break our hearts with your stories and art this time? Or will you find a way to heal the heartbreak and find the hope that can endure and persist?
We can’t wait to see what you do with this prompt!
Submissions are due May 31, 2026. Please send them to teitho.contest@gmail.com
Your teitho mods
Sian22, Lotrfan, and Cassie.
Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang 2026
Schedule
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March
1: 2025 Gallery Opens
The Gallery for 2025 is live! Enjoy the beautiful pieces created for last year’s TRSB!
22: Suggestion Form Opens
This form gives potential authors (or anyone else who wants to play!) the opportunity to suggest characters, places and scenarios they would like to see in the submitted art. We will post a link to the form on our Tumblr and here on the website. The answers will feed into a publicly available spreadsheet listing the ideas submitted; artists can peruse this to get inspired!
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April
12: Sign-ups Open
We post links to our sign-up form on all the usual platforms. You can then sign up as an artist, an author, a beta, a cheerleader, a pinch hitter, or as two or more of these. Please see the ‘Sign-ups’ section of the FAQ for more details on what these terms mean.
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May
3: Artist Sign-up Deadline
9: Art Draft Due
Participating art submissions must be sent to the mods by this date to be eligible for the Claims Gallery.
For more details on how to do this, see the ‘Art Submissions’ section of the FAQ. Artists may submit up to two pieces of art, for claiming by two separate authors.10: Discord Server Opens
Come hang out with your fellow participants!
15: Art Previews Open
Our online gallery of art prompts will be visible to signed-up participants only. Signed-up authors can browse the artworks and see which pieces appeal to their muses!
16-17: Discord Art Talks
These are live chats on Discord with mod presence – start times to be announced – where we go through the beautiful gallery and admire the work of our artists. It has been great fun in past years!
20: Author Signups Deadline
23 (Saturday) 17:00 UTC: CLAIMS
Authors submit a ranked list of the artworks they would like to claim to write fic for. Claims are on a first-come, first-served basis. One artwork will be allocated to each claiming author; the mods will email you to confirm which piece you have successfully claimed and how to get in touch with your artist. See the ‘Claims’ section of the FAQ for more information.
TBA – Additional Claims
If any artworks are left unclaimed, we will hold one or more additional claiming rounds as needed. Generally, there will be 24 hours between rounds, but the timing is at the mods’ discretion. The additional round(s) will be announced to signed-up participants by email and on the TRSB Discord.
31: Post-Claims Check-in
The mods will email each artist/author pair to ensure that you have successfully established contact – even if you are not planning on a close collaboration, it is polite to check in with your partner, say hello, and make sure you’re both clear on must-haves and do-not-wants. One person from your pair must respond and confirm that you have done this!
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June
14: Free Rein Art Due
We know some artists like to give their authors as much creative freedom as possible, and we have a dedicated collaboration option for this (see ‘Art Submissions’ FAQs). However, this means we require these artists to share the final art with their authors much earlier than artists who are prepared to be more involved.
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July
12: Check-in #2
The mods will email each pair to ensure everything is on track. One person from your pair must respond – see ‘Check Ins’ in the FAQ.
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August
9: Final Art Due
Artists must share the final art with their authors – but don’t post it yet!
Don’t email it to the mods.16: Final Check-in (#3)
Deadline to abandon your fic to a pinch hitter. There will be no penalty for dropping out on or before this date. This year we ask both collaborators to contact the mods at the final check-in.
The mods will email all participants beforehand to ensure everything is still on track. We will ask you to confirm:
- Whether the art is complete (Artists: did you share it with your author? Authors: have you seen the final art?)
- Whether you have discussed posting logistics (ie, have you talked about how the art will be posted (embedded and/or posted separately to the collection), who will handle promo posting, any specific posting needs)
26: Art Can Be Posted
Artworks can be posted to your preferred platform on or after this date (but before they are due in the collection). Hype your collab wherever you like and get the excitement going! Artists should ensure that their author has received a link to the art for embedding or linking in the finished fic as agreed upon before August 30th (deadline for posting the fic to the collection).
30: Fic Due In Collection
Authors should post their stories in our AO3 collection with the artwork embedded or linked. See the “Posting fic” section of our FAQ.
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September
5: COLLECTION REVEALS
Around the World and Web Archive
Events listed here are no longer active but are listed on the site for historical purposes.
Academia Lunare Call for Papers: Religion in Fantasy and Science Fiction
Academia Lunare is an award-winning annual edited volume from Luna Press Publishing. They explicitly welcome submissions from writers with all levels of experience. The theme of the annual Call for Papers 2022 is Religion, including those created specifically for a fictional work.
Religions, and the social and cultural structures related to them, have played a fundamental part in human history – for better or worse, as witnessed in reality or in fictional worlds.
On a mental level, they can influence a person’s perception of the world and the values they hold or discard; they influence the individual’s identity, regardless of whether they consider themselves to be religious or not. On a social level, they provide purpose, hope, belonging and a support network, but also chains and oppression.
Writers are invited to explore the concept of religion in all its forms and presentations, from an angle of their choosing, and its development in SFF literature, games, movies and TV.
Proposals are due by 30 September 2022 for consideration. For more information on the publication and submission requirements, as well as a list of possible approaches to the topic, see the full call for papers.
2022 Tolkien Collector's Guide Recording of Tolkien Reading Day Available
Tolkien Reading Day is celebrated worldwide on March 25th in honor of the destruction of the One Ring. Listen to our guests and panels talk about their love and friendships around Tolkien and his books.
Chapters:
00:00 - start of the livestream
05:13 - Artists Panel - Jenny Dolfen, Emily Austin, Anke Eissmann, Donato Giancola, Ted Nasmith
1:05:00 - The Tolkien Experience Podcast - Dr. Luke Shelton, Dr. Sara Brown, Sarah Westvik
1:36:45 - More Podcasting - Shawn Marchese and Alan Sisto (The Prancing Pony Podcast), Marcel Aubron-Bülles (SmallTolk Podcast), Chad Bornholdt and Chad High (The Texas Tolkien Talk Podcast)
2:04:00 - Digital Humanities and Education - Elise Trudel Cedeño and James Tauber
2:37:30 - Video and Media - Matt Graf (Nerd of the Rings) - Note that Clifford "Quickbeam" Broadway (TheOneRing.net) was unavoidably delayed and appears later in the event instead
3:10:00 - Guides to Middle-earth - Dick Plotz (Founder of the Tolkien Society of America, 1965) and Robert "Bob" Foster (author of The Guide to Middle-earth and The Complete Guide to Middle-earth)
3:36:50 - Audio and Audiobooks - Jordan Rannells
4:16:20 - Open Mic! Joined by Clifford Broadway (TheOneRing.net), Pieter Collier (The Tolkien Library) and many more
Sign-Ups Open for the Silmarillion Remix Challenge 2022
What is a remix?
A remix is a retelling of an existing work. The idea is to retain the spirit of the story, while creating a new work of your own in a different manner or style.
We see this done with art when it comes to the DTIYS challenge (Draw This In Your Style); remixing fic is similar. Remix it in your style! How would you have told that story? Would you have picked a different point of view? Would you have made it more serious, or rather more comical? Would you have included a flashback, or begun the narrative earlier, or later? Would you have arranged the chronology differently? Maybe instead of telling the story over several scenes, you would have chosen only one, and expanded on it, or vice versa? In your hands, keeping the plot the same, how would the story change?
Some ways to remix a story include:
- retelling it from someone else’s point of view
- writing a prequel or sequel
- taking the story and adding or subtracting an element (e.g. magic)
- taking the story and changing its setting, location, or time period
- taking a minor event in the original story and focusing and expanding on it
- taking a minor character in the original story and focusing on them
In this remix challenge, we’re offering the chance to remix someone’s story, and to have one of your own stories remixed. A remix challenge is a great opportunity to flex some creative muscles and celebrate how transformative and collaborative fandom can be!
For this round of the event, only Silmarillion fanfiction is eligible for remixing. We may open up to other Tolkien fandoms and mediums in the future, but this time around it’s Silm fic all the way!
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2022 Schedule:
April 1 - Signups open
April 7 - Signups close
April 10 - Assignments sent out
May 6 - Default deadline
May 15 - Works due at 11:59pm PST
May 21 - Works revealed
May 28 - Creators revealed
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Please read the rules carefully to understand the parameters of this exchange! You can find the rules on our tumblr (mobile // desktop) or our AO3 Collection.
This event is being run by @arofili and @arrivisting! If you have event-related questions, please email us at tolkienremix@gmail.com or send an ask to this blog!
Tolkien Short Fanworks April Prompts Posted
Here is our thematic prompt and formal challenge for April:
The thematic prompt is: a sudden change of the weather.
In the UK and other countries, April is a month traditionally associated with sudden rain showers, but your response does not need to relate to this particular weather pattern.
However, here is a bonus quotation prompt on that theme:
Again the blackbirds sing; the streams
Wake, laughing, from their winter dreams,
And tremble in the April showers
The tassels of the maple flowers.
(John Greenleaf Whittier, from: The Singer)
The formal challenge is: a fixed-length piece of 222 words.
The choice of number is inspired by the year 2022, although that lovely date 22/02/2022 is now some weeks ago already...
As always, you can combine the thematic prompt and the formal challenge, but they can be filled entirely independently.
Usual reminder that although you can fill the prompts any way you like, in order to post the fill to this community or to the related collection on AO3, the fanwork can only have a word count up to 1000 words and must be linked to a Tolkien fandom.
Rec lists and podfics can be posted as fills for thematic prompts, as long as the fanworks concerned meet those conditions.
Also we continue to welcome other pieces unrelated to any challenge, of course, including cross-posts and older stories!
Digital Tolkien Project Launches "Search Tolkien"
Digital Tolkien Project has launched an accessible system to search across Tolkien's works, see the distribution of terms and phrases, look up the citation reference for passages.
The search is case-insensitive and all punctuation and diacritics are stripped. Phrases up to seven words long can be searched for. For copyright reasons, no actual text is displayed. The search currently covers The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings (minus the prologue), The Silmarillion and Letters (just to the letter number).
References for the Citation system on the search page (which is linked).
More details on the Digital Tolkien Project can be found on the Digital Tolkien Project website.
Fëanorian Week 2022
What is it?: Fëanorian Week is a full seven days to celebrate and appreciate some of our fan faves, the Fëanorians, and their parents, Nerdanel and Fëanor. The event runs on Tumblr.
When is it?: March 21-27, 2022
The prompts are as followed:
- Day 1- Maedhros - > Childhood, Kingship, Torture, Adjusting/Coping, Unity, Beauty
- Day 2-Maglor -> Childhood, Music & Songs of Power, Elrond & Elros, Kingship, Maglor’s Gap, Redemption
- Day 3- Celegorm - > Childhood, Hunting, Orome & Huan, Strength & Beauty, Wickedness, Love/Unrequited
- Day 4- Caranthir - > Childhood, Betrayal, Lordship, Dwarves & Humans, Marriage, Appearance
- Day 5- Curufin - > Childhood, Feanor, Forge work, Celebrimbor, Manipulation, Ruling of Nargothrond
- Day 6- Ambarussa - > Childhood, Lordship, Regrets, Twin, Hunting, Nandor
- Day 7- Nerdanel and Feanor-> Mahtan, Marriage, Reunion, Traveling, Creation, Healing
Rules: You are allowed to post anything fanrelated on the days. If the prompts are not to your liking, you can do your own thing. The tracktag is #feanorianweek. Tag your work accordingly! Have fun and be nice to others. Disrespect towards others will not be tolerated.
The ask box is open if you have any questions!
Call for Papers: Oxonmoot 2022
Oxonmoot runs 1 through 4 September 2022. The Talks and Papers strand will run through the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. Papers may be presented in person in Oxford or online via Zoom; we will also accept pre-recorded video presentations, though we request that the presenter be available live for questions at the end of their presentation. Papers should be 20 minutes in length (with a further 10 minutes allowed for questions); longer talks (e.g. art- or artefact- based) may be accepted, and should be discussed by email with the Day Time Programme Coordinator.
The Call for Papers closes on Sunday, 15th May.
The Talks and Papers will be balanced by a wide range of other Activities – these could include, but are not limited to, workshops, demonstrations, discussions, games, physical activities, films & videos and social activities – but any and all offers are most welcome. Activities may take place in Oxford, online, or combine both online and in person participation, and may be scheduled alongside the Talks & Papers, or in the Evening (local time) time depending on the nature of the Activity. Please indicated the expected duration of your Activity as part of the submission form.
The formal Call for Activities will open in mid April, but if you would like to discuss any ideas prior to submission, please contact the Activities Programme Coordinator, or for social activities the Social Programme Coordinator.
The Oxonmoot page has many more details on this year's event.
Other links:
Guild of Scribes Discord Server Open to New Members
Guild of Scribes is a community of Tolkien fanfic writers who want to receive and give constructive feedback on their own and others' works in a supportive and safe space. The goal is for members to participate as both writers and reviewers/readers. As a writer, you set the parameters for the types of feedback you are looking for and as a reviewer, you sign up for the works based on your own areas of comfort and knowledge. Except for 'asynchronous review' (similar to beta but with the potential for more in-depth feedback from more people), each work receives its own private channel for review, open only to the author and the participants (3-5) who have signed up to review and comment on that particular work.
To keep the server small and manageable for now, we’re inviting members by request only. If you have any questions or want an invite please message @polutropos (she/they) or @Minubell on Discord, or @polutrope on Tumblr or polutrope@gmail.com.
Library of Moria Moving to AO3
The Library of Moria, a Tolkien slash, femslash, gen, and RPF fanfiction and fanart archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).
The Library of Moria was founded in 2002 as one of the first Lord of the Rings archives, but quickly grew in scope and popularity. The archivists have lovingly kept the Library of Moria running for nearly two decades, but with the announcement that the eFiction software that runs the archive will not be updated, they realize it is only a matter of time before the archive is rendered unusable. They are moving the archive to the AO3 to ensure that it stays online for all of those who have enjoyed it over the years to revisit for decades more.
The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Talullah, Azzy and Half Elf Lost to import the Library of Moria into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all images currently in the Library of Moria will be hosted on the OTW’s servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages. Eventually links to the old site will redirect to the collection on AO3, which can be searched and filtered in order to locate individual imported works.
If you are an author on the Library of Moria, check the announcement from the Open Doors Project for more information on how authors will be contacted and works migrated, as well as contact information for the Open Doors Project.
Polyship Week 2022
Polyshipping week is a multifandom celebration of love that will run March 7-14, 2022. Find them on their website, Tumblr, Twitter, and AO3.
Event Guidelines
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Please tag us @PolyshipWeek or use the hashtag #polyshipweek22 so we can retweet your creations!
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Participate in one, a few, or all the days as you prefer! Feel free to choose just one prompt, mix and match, or whatever sparks your imagination!
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Works may be in any medium — fics, art, gifsets, multimedia, etc. — as long as they are original creations with all collaborators credited.
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Works accepted to the AO3 collection through the end of March.
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No ship or character bashing please — let's make this fun for everyone!
Prompts
Day 1: "two hands" - vee | compersion | meet cute
Day 2: solo polyamory | date night | only one (big) bed
Day 3: metamours | growing old | scifi AU
Day 4: open relationships | meet the family | domestic fluff
Day 5: kitchen table | queerplatonic | magic
Day 6: comets | scheduling as romance | historical AU
Day 7: triads | mapping the polycule | soulmates
Day 8: Free Day
