Our rare pears are ripe!

Sign-ups are open! They will close on Wednesday 20 August at 11:59pm EDT. [ In your timezone + Countdown ]

Quick links: Tagset • rules and guidelines • AO3 app • the requests summary • collection summary.

Please make sure your sign-up complies with the exchange's guidelines. A refresher of our key info is below:

Sign-up reminders

• You must be 18+ to sign up.


• An AO3 account is required to sign-up/participate. Please sign up with one account only. If we find you have signed up with more than one, your additional sign-ups will be deleted and you may be banned from the exchange.


• A reminder of the mediums and minimum requirements of the exchange:
  
  • Art: Clean lineart on unlined paper or the equivalent of one comic panel.
    
  • Fic: 1,000 words minimum.
    
  • Podfic: A recording of a completed fic of 1,000 words minimum that is about the requested rare pair.


• There is a known bug with AO3 where the tag may be in the tagset but might not appear in the drop-down menu. Copy the relationship from the tagset and paste it into the box (press enter afterwards). AO3 will accept this.


• If your sign-up breaks any of our rules, we may contact you to request edits made to your sign-up. If we do not receive a response, we will delete your sign-up.


• Sign-ups made in bad faith will be deleted without contacting the recipient. This exchange has been designed to be an enjoyable community event.


• Please do not put any notes to the mod in your Optional Details. Contact rarepairexmod@gmail.com as all requests and information you input in your sign-up is public.


• If you are not matched to what you offered, please contact the mod immediately at rarepairexmod@gmail.com within a week of assignments being sent out. We will only change your assignment once after assignments have been sent out.


• If you did not comment on your gift from last round, your sign-up will be deleted.

( Requesting and offering. )

( Do not wants (DNWs). )

( Dear Creator letters. )

( Do not match requests. )

( Prompts. )

( Additional things worthy of note. )

Nominations are closed! I will be working through the remaining nominations that have yet to be reviewed. I do not have any plans on posting another query post, although I will if I have any questions.

A huge thank you to the tagmods for helping me tackle our massive nominations dashboard! We have over 3,000 nominations and I would not have been able to climb that mountain as quickly as I did without you. You have been a tremendous help. ♥

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In the meantime, please have a look at the tagset, specifically what you're interested in requesting and offering, and let me know if you see any errors such as duplicates or strange typos by Tuesday 12 August at 11:59pm EDT. [ In your timezone. ] The tagset will be finalised by this time and will not be changing for any edit requests.

When flagging errors, please provide the fandom and the nomination as it sits in the tagset so I can easily find them! Thank you to everyone who has already flagged duplicates and errors!

Sign-ups will open on Wednesday 13 August, time unspecified. Please be aware that Tuesday 12 August at 11:59pm EDT. [ In your timezone. ] is the deadline for 2024's participants to have commented on their gifts from that round. Here is a handy link for the 2024 collection. (If your nominations are fine, perhaps have a look around at our previous collections and comment on some of the gifts! We have fantastic works in our collections!)


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Thoughts on fandom

Fantastic Four (2025) vs Marvel Cinematic Universe
I have several nominations for Fantastic Four: First Steps characters, but we have them split across MCU and FF:FS in the nominations dashboard. Did the nominators—or those who are interested in requesting/offering—oppose me placing them under "Fantastic Four (2025)"? I know that this movie is technically in the MCU, but as it takes place on another Earth, I'm considering accepting it as a different "continuity" to the other MCU relationships.

All the nominations that have been submitted for this sub-fandom are approved, even though, at the publishing of this post, I have not officially approved them yet. I just need to know where to put them.

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Rejected nominations
If you oppose a rejection because it's eligible or I've made a mistake (it happens—I have been hit with AO3's "Retry Later" and "You're clicking too quickly" messages repeatedly over the last 48 hours that has reset my progress when approving nominations 😫), please let me know before 11:59pm on Tuesday 12 August so these nominations can be reinstated into the tagset.

These nominations were rejected during the last round of nomination review:

Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Neville Longbottom/Luna Lovegood (HP) - Over 250 works.

due South
Benton Fraser/Margaret Thatcher - Over 250 works.

Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield (Stranger Things) - Over 250 works.
Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair (Strainger Things) - Over 250 works.

Quantum Leap (TV 1989)
Sam Beckett/Al Calavicci - Over 250 works.

Thank you!

Thank you for pointing out duplicates! I will be removing them shortly — please keep letting me know if you see any duplicates/errors in the tagset as you see them.

Reminders:

• We do not accept Canon Character/Reader nominations. These will be rejected without query.


• Please disambiguate your nominations or risk these being rejected.


• Please refer to the nominations guidelines before nominating.

We have a few queries. If I do not hear back from the nominators 24 hours after the publishing of this post, I will be rejecting the applicable nominations.

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Renominate under correct fandom

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Angel/Lindsey McDonald (Angel: the Series)
Larry Blaisdell/Daniel "Oz" Osbourne
Rupert Giles/Spike
Spike/Andrew Wells
Spike/Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
Xander Harris/Andrew Wells

Please renominate under "Buffyverse". If it is not, these nominations will be rejected.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Annabeth Chase/Piper McLean (PJO - AMT)
Annabeth Chase/Rachel Elizabeth Dare (PJO - AMT)
Annabeth Chase/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano (PJO - AMT)
Rachel Elizabeth Dare/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano (PJO - AMT)

Please renominate under the correct fandom as per our guidelines — are you after the book ("Percy Jackson - Riordan"), movie ("Percy Jackson (Movies)"), or TV show ("Percy Jackson TV")? If this is not renominated, these nominations will be rejected.

Appaloosa - All Media Types
Virgil Cole/Everett Hitch (Appaloosa)

We do not accept "All Media Types" nominations. We're happy to hear cases about why this should remain under the AMT umbrella from the nominator. If we don't hear back, or if this is not amended per our guidelines, this nomination will be rejected. Accepted as is.

Fire Emblem Series
Edelgard von Hresvelg (FE3H)/Karin (FE5)

The disambiguations dictate this is a crossover. Please renominate under "Crossover Fandom". This nomination will be rejected if it is not amended.

Real Person Fiction
Aaron Taylor-Johnson/Fred Hechinger
Aaron Taylor-Johnson/Original Female Character(s)

Please renominate under "Actor RPF".

苍兰诀 | Love Between Fairy and Devil (TV) RPF
Changheng/Dongfang Qingcang (Love Between Fairy and Devil)
Changheng/Dongfang Qingcang/Xiao Lanhua (Love Between Fairy and Devil)
Changheng/Xiao Lanhua (Love Between Fairy and Devil)
Dongfang Qingcang/Shangque (Love Between Fairy and Devil)
Dongfang Qingcang/Shangque/Xiao Lanhua (Love Between Fairy and Devil)
Jieli/Xiao Lanhua (Love Between Fairy and Devil)

This is nominated under an RPF tag, but it looks like all the relationships are fictional characters. Can the nominator please correct the fandom for this nomination, or explain why this should be accepted as is. This nomination set will be rejected if not amended/if case is not made. Accepted.

Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth (Video Games 2020-2024)
Cloud Strife/Wedge

Should this be under "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" as a fandom? Please amend the fandom or this nomination will be rejected. Accepted.

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Queries

Multi-Fandom
Roberta (L'ultimo Terrestre)/Majid Zamari

This looks like it is fandoms thrown together under one umbrella. Is this a canon? (Google says it is fan-created content.) Or is this an AO3 canon? We will not accept this if this is an AO3 canon as it looks like recursive work. Please amend to Crossover Fandom and correctly disambiguate.

Severance (TV)
Irving B./Burt G.
Irving Bailiff/Burt Goodman

I am assuming this are the same characters nominated under different formats. Can someone canon familiar please confirm? Both tags accepted, assuming it's clear that they are asking for two different versions of the pairing.

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Rejected nominations

If your nomination is rejected and you have a case for why it shouldn't be (or if we have made a mistake), please discuss it with us before nominations close; otherwise it will remain rejected.

Kraven the Hunter (2024)
Dmitri Smerdyakov/Reader
Nikolai Kravinoff/Reader
Sergei Kravinoff/Reader

Hades (Supergiant Games Video Games)
Moros (Hades Video Game)/Reader
Polyphemus (Hades Video Game)/Reader

Nosferatu (2024)
Friedrich Harding/Reader

The Gentlemen (2019)
Raymond Smith/Reader

Gladiator (Movies - Scott)
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus | Emperor Caracalla/Publius Septimius Geta/Reader
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus | Emperor Caracalla/Reader

28 Years Later (Movie 2025)
Jamie (28 Years Later)/Reader

Bullet Train (2022)
Ladybug/Tangerine (Bullet Train)/Reader
Tangerine (Bullet Train)/Reader

MobLand (TV)
Harry De Souza/Reader

Real Person Fiction
Aaron Taylor-Johnson/Reader

Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Garth/Raven — Over 250 works. Added to the tagset. Apologies to the nominator — I misread Garth for Garfield!

Marvel Cinematic Universe
Phil Coulson/Steve Rogers — Over 250 works. Last works were posted in 2024.
Loki/Steve Rogers — Over 250 works.
Loki/Sif — Over 250 works.

Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Draco Malfoy/Severus Snape — Over 250 works.
Luna Lovegood/Harry Potter — Over 250 works.
Minerva McGonagall/Severus Snape — Over 250 works.
Sirius Black/Severus Snape — Over 250 works.
Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas — Over 250 works.

Video Blogging RPF
Andrew Ilnyckyj/Steven Lim — Over 250 works.
Rhett Mclaughlin/Link Neal — Over 250 works.

Riptide (TV)
Cody Allen/Nick Ryder — Over 250 works.

Laramie (TV)
Jess Harper/Slim Sherman (Laramie) — Over 250 works.

Thank you!

I hope you're all ready for the third round of Rare Pair Exchange!

Nominations are open! They will close on Sunday 10 August at 11:59pm EDT. [ In your timezone + Countdown ]

Please submit your nominations here.

Please read the guidelines before nominating and ensure your nominations meet our eligibility criteria. Keep an eye on this community in case clarification is needed from you before a nomination is accepted.

Eligibility criteria

Please ensure you check your nominations meet the eligibility criteria. To qualify for this exchange, the ship needs to have less than 250 works on AO3, be complete and written in English, and be filtered using the otp:true filter while logged into an AO3 account.

If you're unsure of how to filter a work via AO3, please see here on the Rules/Guidelines post explaining how to use the "otp:true filter".

Nomination guidelines

• You can nominate up to 10 fandoms with 10 relationships ("/" only) each. We will not be accepting solo character nominations or relationships using "&".


• Each nomination must be of one single relationship. We will not be accepting "Ava Starr/John Walker & Yelena Belova/Bob Reynolds (MCU)" as a nomination.


• All nominations must be disambiguated with the name of the canon after the relationship, e.g. "Theodore "Laurie" Laurence/Amy March (Little Women — Gerwig 2019)". If they are not disambiguated, you risk your nomination being rejected.


• We do not accept "All Media Types" and "& Related Fandoms" as a canon nomination. Please specify which version of canon you would like rather than nominating under the 'all media' version of the tag, e.g. "Dragon Age (Video Games)" vs "Dragon Age (All Media)". There are a few exceptions to this rule—please see our "Nominating specific fandoms" section for more information.


• Crossover nominations: Please nominate crossovers with "Crossover Fandom" in the "Fandom" section of the nomination form, with the crossover relationships filling up the relationship textbox. i.e. "Crossover Fandom", "Natasha Romanov (MCU)/Dinah Lance (DCEU)".


• We do not allow Reader/Canon Character pairings and recursive fic to be nominated for this exchange.

Disambiguations

Disambiguations help us identify which canon a character/relationship belongs to, and are mandatory as part of your nominations. These assist us greatly in the backend, and also allow requesters and creators to know which version of a character is nominated, especially for large fandoms with various mediums or character versions.

You are welcome to abbreviate the fandom name when nominating your relationships to save space, although please make the abbreviation distinct, i.e. for The Hunger Games, you could use "THG - Collins" and "THG Movies". If your tag goes wandering, we want to be able to put it back in its rightful place. If your disambiguation is too generic and your nomination goes wandering in the tagset, you risk it being removed entirely.

Examples of disambiguation are below (the disambiguation is bolded):

• John Walker/Ava Starr (MCU)


• Finnick Odair/Katniss Everdeen (THG - Collins)


• Jessica Jones (JJones)/Wanda Maximoff (WandaVision)


• Female dragon rider/Female dragon hunter (OW)

Fandoms

We have no restrictions on rarity or media on fandoms. You are more than welcome to nominate a very popular fandom or very rare fandom; however, the relationship must be rare and fit our eligibility criteria.

For more specific canon types:

• RPF: RPF is permitted. Non-famous family members and under 18s are not eligible. We will not be allowing nominations for world leaders and reserve the right to reject any RPF nomination that we feel will cause distress to our participants.


• Original characters in non-original canons: You may nominate Canon Character/Original Character(s). You are welcome to be as specific or as broad as you wish, e.g. "Veronica Mars/Original Female Character (VMars)" or "Abed Nadir/Original Male Character (Community)" as long as it fits our eligibility criteria.
  
  We highly encourage you to ensure your nomination specifies the gender of the OC unless you're interested in receiving a fanwork with any gender, i.e., "Misty Quigley/Original Character (Yellowjackets)" is broad and unspecific, and means your creator will be allowed to define the gender of the OC. If you are interested in a specific gender for the OC, please nominate this specifically, i.e. "Misty Quigley/Original Female Character (Yellowjackets)".
  
  We will not accept participants who try to box their creator into a specific type of relationship using their optional details in their sign-up. Please keep that in mind while nominating.


• Original Works: These must be nominated under "Original Work" in the format "Character Type/Character Type", e.g. "Female Detective/Male Criminal Mastermind (OW)", "Female Pirate Captain/Male Privateer (OW)", "Female Archeologist/Female Librarian (OW)", etc.
  
  We encourage you to be specific regarding gender and what you're after. Please try not to be overly specific—our tags have character limitations, and we also will not allow boxing in creators.


• Recursive: We do not allow recursive fandoms in this exchange.


• Crossovers: Crossovers are permitted. These should be nominated under "Crossover Fandom" with the fandom name for each character in brackets, e.g. "Taissa Turner (Yellowjackets)/Michelle Jones (Spider-man Holland)".


• Threesomes/moresomes: These types of romantic relationships are permitted, i.e. "Peter Parker/Michelle Jones/Ned Leeds (Spiderman - Holland)". If you are nominating characters that do not exist in the same canon, please ensure you do so under "Crossover Fandom", i.e. "Peter Parker (Spider-man Garfield)/Peter Parker (Spider-man Maguire)/Peter Parker (Spider-man Holland)".


• Canon/Reader: We do not allow Reader/Canon Character to be nominated in any form.


• Creator's Choice of Fandom: We do not accept any CCOF for this exchange.

Nominating specific fandoms

• Assassin's Creed: Please nominate Assassin's Creed under "Assassin's Creed - All Media Types".


• Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series: Please nominate these under "Buffyverse (TV)".


• DC's Arrowverse: Please nominate characters from Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Superman & Lois, and Black Lightning under "DC's Arrowverse".


• DC Comics: Please nominate all DC comics under "DCU (Comics)", but please disambiguate which version of the character you want in parentheses if that information is important to you.


• DC Extended Universe: Please nominate all DCEU movies under "DC Extended Universe". This includes Wonder Woman, The Justice League, Suicide Squad, Batman vs Superman, Man of Steel, Aquaman, etc. The Batman (2022) and Superman (2025) should be nominated separately.


• Dimension 20: Please nominate all campaigns under "Dimension 20 (Web Series)".


• Dragon Age:
  
  • Nominate all video games under "Dragon Age (Video Games)".
  
  
  • Nominate all comics under "Dragon Age (Comics)".
  
  
  • Nominate all books under "Dragon Age - Various Authors".
  
  
  • Nominate all tabletop RPG under "Dragon Age (Tabletop RPG)".


• Final Fantasy VII Remake: Please nominate this under "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII".


• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  
  • Please nominate all MCU movies under "Marvel Cinematic Universe".
  
  
  • Please nominate all Netflix Marvel TV shows under "The Defenders (Marvel TV)". This includes Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron First, Daredevil, and The Defenders.
  
  
  • Please nominate the MCU television shows separately from the MCU. These should appear as separate entities within the tagset, i.e., "WandaVision", "Ms Marvel", "Loki", "Falcon and the Winter Soldier", "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", etc.
  
  
• Marvel Comics: Please nominate these under their appropriate Marvel universe, i.e. "Marvel 616", "Marvel Ultimate", etc.


• Star Trek: Please nominate these via their separate shows and the Alternate Original Series, such as "Star Trek: Alternate Original Series ", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", "Star Trek: Discovery", "Star Trek: Enterprise", "Star Trek: Picard", "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", etc.
  
  Crossovers between these shows must be nominated under "Crossover Fandom" and correctly disambiguated,


• Star Wars:
  
  • Star Wars movies: Please nominate under the appropriate movie, i.e. "Star Wars: Original Trilogy", "Star Wars: Sequel Trilogy", "Star Wars: Prequel Trilogy".
  
  
  • Star Wars TV shows: Please nominate under the appropriate television shoe, i.e. "Star Wars: Rogue One". We will allow "Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types" to be nominated.
  
  
  • Star Wars books: Please nominate under either "Star Wars: Legends Books" (Old EU) or "Star Wars: Extended Universe Books" (new/current books).
  
  
  • Star Wars comics, video games, etc.,: Nominate what's normal in the fandom or by individual title. If you're unsure, comment below and we can figure out how to proceed.
  
  
  • Star Wars in-universe crossovers: Please ensure any Star Wars crossovers are nominated under "Star Wars - All Media Types", i.e. "Leia Organa (Star Wars: Original Trilogy) & Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)". Please ensure you disambiguate which version of the character you want.
  
  
• The Witcher: Please nominate via media, i.e. "The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski", "The Witcher (TV)", and "The Witcher (Video Games)".


• X-Men Movies: Please nominate either "X-Men (Movieverse) (OTM)" for Original Timeline Movies and "X-Men (Movieverse) (ATM)" for Alternate Timeline Movies.


• Original characters in non-original canons: You may nominate Canon Character/Original Character(s), e.g. "Diana (Wonder Woman)/Original Female Character"; "Jess Mariano (Gilmore Girls)/Original Characters". These belong under the canon character's fandom.
  
  You can be as specific as you would like. If you do not specify a gender within the tag, you cannot box your creator into a specific combination, so please make sure to request the dynamic you would prefer.


• Original Works: These must be nominated under "Original Work" in the following format: "Character Type/Character Type", e.g. "Princess/Maid (OW)", "Pilot/Soldier/General (OW)", etc. If they are not nominated in this way, they will be rejected.
  
  You can be as specific as you like, i.e. "Male Pilot/Male Soldier/Female General (OW)". Please remember that you cannot box your creator in with a specific dynamic that isn't already indicated by the nominated tag.

Relationships that are close to reaching 250 works

If the relationship you want to nominate has 245-250 works on AO3 and meets our eligibility criteria (works are completed, written in English, and you're logged into AO3), please reach out with a link of your eligibility checking so that we know that the relationship was eligible at the time nominations were open. We do not see nominations in the order they are submitted.

Rejected nominations

If your nomination does not meet the eligibility criteria, it will be rejected without query.

Please ensure you disambiguate your nominations to avoid the risk of it being rejected for not meeting our guidelines.

Questions

If you have any questions or would like to seek clarification on a potential nomination, please comment here (anon is on) or email rarepairexmod@gmail.com.

Please be patient during the nomination period. Checking nomination eligibility requires searching via AO3, and this triggers the "Retry later" message. I have built a couple of days into the exchange's schedule to allow for any nomination querying/eligibility checking overflow.

Happy nominating!