Rules and Schedule

[galadriel1010]

AO3 Profile
Freeform tagset
2023 Relationships Tagset

What is this exchange about?
How do I participate?
What is the schedule for this exchange?
What are the different stages of this exchange?
Rules

What is this exchange about?
This is a multifandom exchange for works with a focus on cats of all kinds. This includes housecats and other felines, as well as cat-people and persons transformed into cats. Participants must create a story of at least 1,000 words or a clean, finished piece of art.

How do I participate?
You must have an Ao3 account and be at least 18 years old to participate.

What is the schedule for this exchange?
Nominations: 24 July-7 August
Signups: 7-13 August
Assignments out: 15th August at the latest
Works Due: 10th September
Works Revealed: 17th September
Creators Revealed: 25th September
All times are 11am UTC.

What are the different stages of this exchange?
Nominations
You can nominate your cats as either individuals or as part of a group. Please distinguish individuals by prefacing with Solo. All nominations should go into the "Relationships" box.

Examples:
Solo: Cat!Bucky Barnes
Cat!Bucky Barnes & Human!Steve Rogers

Real life cats should be famous in their own right, and should be nominated under the fandom Real Cat Fanfiction.
Examples:
Solo: Larry the Downing Street Cat
Maru & Hana

All nominations must contain at least one cat character. The following are considered cat characters:

• Original cat (can be entered as simply 'Cat')


• Canonically non-cat character transformed into a cat. Freeforms should be used to specify the nature of this transformation.


• Big cats such as lions and tigers (but not bears)


• Cat-people of all types


• Fictional cat-like species

When nominating catperson characters, please nominate as Catperson! and add qualifiers as needed, e.g., Original Female Catperson or Original Nonbinary Catperson.

Examples:

• Solo: Cat!Bucky Barnes


• Solo: Catperson!Bucky Barnes


• Cat!Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers


• Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers & Cat


• Catperson!Bucky Barnes/Original Female Catperson


• Original Nonbinary Catperson & Steve Rogers

Freeforms
Freeforms can be used to specify scenarios and tropes that you are interested to see in a cat-focused fan work. Examples include:

• Accidental Cat Acquisition


• Adopting a Cat


• Temporarily Transformed Into Cat


• Character Has Always Been A Cat


• Shapeshifting Character Messes With Others

The moderators reserve the right to reject any scenarios and tags that are related to controversial real-world themes; for example, Nazi concentration camps.

Signups
Requests
You will have 10 fandom slots for requests. You may repeat fandoms with different ships/tags, but you must request at least 3 unique fandoms. For each fandom slot, you may request 1-20 relationships and 2-20 freeforms.

You may request either fic, art, or both.

If you have a letter at an external site (Dreamwidth, Tumblr, Google Docs, etc)., provide a link to it in the relevant box. Please ensure that your letter is complete by the time signups close.

If you have any Do Not Wants (DNWs) that you wish your creator to respect, they must be in the Optional Details box of your signup. DNWs that are only contained in an outside letter cannot be enforced by the mods.

The mods encourage all participants to use clear, specific, and reasonable DNWs for this exchange. If you have questions about the best way to phrase your DNWs, please contact for assistance.

Offers
You will have 10 fandom slots for offers. You may repeat fandoms with different ships/tags, but you must offer at least 3 unique fandoms. For each fandom slot, you may offer 1-20 relationships and 2-20 freeforms. You may offer "any" for relationships and/or freeforms. If you choose this option, please be sure that you are prepared to create for whatever relationship and/or freeform your recipient has requested.

You may offer either fic, art, or both.

Matching
Matching works on an OR basis. Your request will be matched to a creator based on just one fandom/pairing/freeform combination.

If you do not have a potential recipient, you will be contacted and asked to edit your sign up. If you do not wish to do that, or if you do not respond within the appropriate timeframe, your sign-up will be deleted.

Assignments
You must create one new, complete, stand-alone fanwork that includes at least one requested fandom/pairing/freeform set. You are required to include at least one freeform tag, though you may certainly include more if you like. You can use any of your recipient's prompts as a starting point, not just the one you matched on.

Fic must be at least 1,000 words and must include a beginning, middle, and end. Authors should avoid stopping mid-scene.

Art must be one finished piece of clean lineart on unlined paper, or digital equivalent.

Works must avoid the recipient's DNWs. If a recipient has an unenforceable DNW, please email the mods ASAP so we can try to resolve the problem early.

If you need clarification about any part of your assignment, please contact the mod, who will query your recipient if necessary. Please do not contact your recipient directly, even if you are friends. Please also avoid talking about your recipient or assignment outside private DMs and emails, even if you don't think your recipient is present. This includes Tumblr, Twitter, fandom Discords, the Exchanges After Dark Discord, etc.

If you find you need to default on your assignment, please email the mods or hit the "default" button on Ao3 as soon as possible so that the mods can have time to find a pinch hitter. There will be no penalty for defaulting before the deadline of

Pinch Hits
Pinch hits will be posted to the Dreamwidth Community and will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis. You do not need to be signed up for the exchange to claim a pinch hit.

Treats
Treats are allowed and definitely welcome. You may write treats for a specific person or for the community at large. If you write a treat for a specific person, please ensure that it avoids their DNWs. If you decide to write a treat for the community, you can gift it to on AO3.

Treats may be of any length or medium (for art), but should still be complete, stand-alone works at the time of posting.

Rules
1. Participants must be at least 18 years of age.

2. Absolutely no kinkshaming. Remember, Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That's Okay.

3. Participants who cannot complete their assignments on time must either email the mod for an extension or hit the default button as soon as possible. Participants who are no-shows at the deadline will be banned from next year's exchange.

4. All gifts must respect the recipient's DNWs. Bad faith attempts to violate the spirit of the DNW while adhering to the letter of it will be treated as DNW violations. If you are confused about your recipient's DNWs or feel they are unenforceable, please contact the mods.

5. Maintain anonymity until creator reveals. Do not contact your recipient with questions; email the mods instead. Do not post your fic, in part or in whole, anywhere but Ao3 and your beta's inbox until reveals. Avoid talking about your assignment or even which fandom you're writing for on social media, Discord, etc., even if you don't think your recipient will see it.

6. Participants are expected to be civil to one another. Mods will deal with infractions on a case by case basis but reserve the right to ban participants for mean-spirited behavior including (but not limited to): harassment on any platform, release or abuse of personal information (doxxing), deliberate spitefic, egregiously bad faith participation, or derogatory remarks in summaries, author's notes, or comments.

Comments

[gloss]

This is a ridiculous question, but please bear with me. In terms of who's included under cats, you mention "persons transformed into cats". Is there any way that we could also write, um, "always a cat" versions of characters? Like rather than having, idk, Dana Scully transformed into a cat, we could write the AU where Mulder is partnered with an extremely intelligent and beautiful Abyssinian cat?

(I just really want to write BB-8 as a calico cat, I'm sorry.)

[keita52]

Hi, it's not ridiculous! What we are hoping is that people can use freeforms to specify the nature of the transformation, of they if have always been a cat. One of our example freeforms is "Character Has Always Been A Cat" or whatever variant of that gets nominated.

[gloss]

Oh, great! Thank you so much :3

[desertvixen]

What about fandoms with giant possibly semi-sentient robot lions? Are they sufficiently cat like?

[galadriel1010]

Sounds like a cat to me

[flo_nelja]

Just to be sure: we can't use modifiers as Werecat!Character or Bakeneko!Character, it has to be in the freeforms?

[keita52]

Quite the opposite! Sorry for the confusion. We would like you to nominate as Werecat!Character - since I'm not entirely sure what Bakenoko!Character means, you may need to change it to something more easily understood.

[tehexile]

I noticed mine says 'unapproved', is everything okay with it? is it still just waiting for approval?

[keita52]

It was just waiting for approval. Should've been fixed almost nearly after you posted this :)

[nenya_kanadka]

I'm hearing about this exchange too late to participate in this round, but this delights me deeply. I can't wait to see all the cat fic people have written! 😻

[galadriel1010]

Just a nudge in your inbox in case you haven't seen that we're going again and want to jump onboard

[rubick]

Is this running again in 2022? I loved it last year, would love to write again!

Undisclosed fandom

[(Anonymous)]

Hi! I just nominated Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mû, which doesn't seem to have works on Ao3, by its original name; Itou Junji no Neko Nikki: Yon & Mû. It is a comedy manga by Junji Ito about his own life with his two cats, but since it doesn't seem to have works yet, I'd like to know if I should name the fandom "Undisclosed Fandom" instead, or if it's alright to use its existing name and open the gates for more wholesome kitty adventures :)
Thank you kindly for your time!

Re: Undisclosed fandom

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, that sounds very relevant to our interests. Yes, if you can use 'Itou Junji no Neko Nikki: Yon & Mû' and it will be wrangled accordingly. I've approved the nomination

[alexseanchai]

Canonically non-cat character transformed into a cat. Freeforms should be used to specify the nature of this transformation.

this sounds like I want to nominate freeform tags "Black Cat Miraculous Wielder" and "Tiger Miraculous Wielder" (and possibly also "Lion Miraculous Wielder" and "Prodigious Wielder") if I want to see any human Miraculous Ladybug character using the canonical mechanism of transforming into a feline character when that character hasn't already canonically done the thing?

but I do not need to do that if the cat character in each of my nominations in this fandom is one or another of someone who has canonically done the thing, a feline Miraculous spirit, a literal cat, or someone involving some noncanonical cat-transformation mechanism?

and "Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir" is his canonical character tag, but it is not obvious from the canonical character tag "Juleka Couffaine" that she canonically gets the Tiger transformation, so I'm thinking I should nominate anything involving her as "Juleka Couffaine | Purple Tigress"? and there's a canonical freeform tag approximately "Black Cat Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Lady Noire" but her canonical character tag is "Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug" so if she's the cat character in the nomination I'm thinking I should put her in as "Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Lady Noire"? or in those latter two cases should I do "Tiger!Juleka Couffaine" and "Cat!Marinette Dupain-Cheng" and use the "Black Cat Miraculous Wielder" and "Tiger Miraculous Wielder" freeforms to clarify? or indeed "Cat!Juleka Couffaine", thus allowing the possibilities of Juleka with the Black Cat and Marinette with the Tiger and either being transformed into a Felis domesticus for a while?

[galadriel1010]

If it is a canonical cat character or transformation then you don't need to specify it, but if it's either a character who does not have a canonical cat form or does but you want a different form from their canonical one then you need to specify. If it's something that would be hard for a novice to find out (e.g. an optional transformation ability) and you think I'll struggle to figure it out, you can always pop me a message here to let me know. That being said, you know the fandom better than I do, so tag it however you think will be most helpful to other people considering using it

[alexseanchai]

I take it that also means, if I want a cat transformation that is canonical for that character but not that character's usual transformation (since we have seen Marinette as the Black Cat even though she's usually the Ladybug, and we have seen Adrien as both Black Cat but white and Black Cat but gray as well as his everyday Black Cat form), I should specify via freeform?

…which probably means best not to want anything involving Adrien as Chat Blanc or Adrien as Catwalker from this exchange, as idk how to freeform those in a way useful for more than that one character…

[galadriel1010]

If you want specific transformations for them, I would specify 'Chat Blanc!Adrien & Black Cat!Marinette' (for example) in the tags, but if you're okay with any canonical transformation then just nominate the characters and make it clear in your requests. Do you think that would work?

[alexseanchai]

it should, thanks!

—wait where do I nominate freeforms?

[keita52]

Here! https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/6985

[(Anonymous)]

I noticed in this rules post it says For each fandom slot, you may offer 1-20 relationships but the signup form is set up to only allow 1-10 relationships. Which one is correct?

Also, any chance you could make the requests visible on AO3 rather than just the signup summary? It's extremely helpful to be able to see what characters/tags other people are requesting as signups are ongoing, in order to make sure you're matchable when signing up!

[keita52]

Both of those have been fixed :)

[avandrathemarysueslayer]

Hi! I tried to offer Itou Junji no Neko Nikki: Yon & Mû, but since there are no fics yet, there are no relationships yet, so I couldn't offer it. The characters would be Junji Ito, A-Ko, and the cats Yon and Mû, so the relationship could be, for instance, Human!Junji Ito/Human!A-Ko & Yon & Mû. What I don't know is how to offer it :( Is there anything I could do? Thank you so much for your time and patience!

[keita52]

This is a known Ao3 bug where some relationships do not autofill. The only one in our tagset is Human!Itou Junji & Yon & Mû. Just copy/paste the exact relationship and it should let you save.

[(Anonymous)]

Is the exchange not running this year?

IfIFitsIFics 2023 - y/n?

[bardicraven]

'allo!
Found this exchange only in time to pinch hit last year and have been looking forward to joining in from the beginning this year.

Will the exchange be running this year?

Chirp, chirp!!
Birdy, BardicRaven

Re: IfIFitsIFics 2023 - y/n?

[if_i_fits_mod]

Hello! Yes, we will be running this year. Nominations are sneakily open, and we'll be gearing up for a proper launch shortly

Re: IfIFitsIFics 2023 - y/n?

[bardicraven]

YAY!!!! Thank you for letting me know. Will be watching to see when the pouncing commences!

[pinkygrocket]

I'd like to nominate Yon and Mu from Junji Ito's Cat Diary, but the work is autobiographical. Should they be nominated under Junji Ito's Cat Diary or RCF?

[if_i_fits_mod]

If the cats are only known from that work, I would tag under that work.

Can't Find Where to Nominate - pls give link

[bardicraven]

'allo!
I am feeling very silly, but am not finding or figuring out where to nominate. I have checked for a link in the above post and in the collection info on AO3 and haven't found anything I recognize as the correct thing.

Please help!

Chirp, chirp!!
Birdy, BardicRaven

[himejoshiheart]

Can I write a treat for the community if I'm a minor (and it's not smut)?

[if_i_fits_mod]

Hiya,
The 18+ rule is for your protection and that of other participants. While I am fully in favour of everyone writing all the fic about cats, I would ask you to come back to join us in another year when you're old enough by the rules of this challenge.

[himejoshiheart]

Okes! :3

Any way to still nominate?

[bardicraven]

'allo!
I have my list all prepared and was sitting down to pounce when I notice the nominations button is no longer there.

Nominations: 24 July-7 August implies to my brain that the outer dates are inclusive, which is why I didn't worry about waiting until today to submit my noms.

Is there any way to still nominate?

Thank'ee's!
Chirp, chirp!!
Birdy, BardicRaven

Re: Any way to still nominate?

[if_i_fits_mod]

Hiya,
I'm really sorry about that. All of our cut-off times are 11am UTC because of the time difference between the UK and West Coast America. It's an experiment with finding the best window (because, like cats, the mods do not like getting up early). If you have a list of your nominations, I can have a look at adding them in. You can post them here, or email me at IfIFitsIFics@gmail.com

Re: Any way to still nominate?

[bardicraven]

'allo!
Thank you - just emailed them to you!

And thank you for the time-on-the-day - I looked and looked and didn't see it. Middle-aged eyes, apparently.

Will make sure I get my sign-up done by the correct time.

Thanks again!!!!

Chirp, chirp!!
Birdy, BardicRaven