Fluffity fluff is an exchange centered around all kinds of fluff! Friend fluff, romance fluff, family fluff, creepy fluff, plot or empty calories—this exchange covers it all! Participants will create a work of at least 1,000 words or an individually made fanart.
2023 Links
Tagset |
Signups |
Collection |
Dreamwidth Community
2023 Schedule
Nominations Open: March 9 (nominations will continue to be open through sign-ups)
Sign-up Opens: March 12
Sign-up Closes: March 18
Assignments Due: May 8
Works Revealed: May 15
Creators Revealed: May 22
All deadlines are 12:01PM CDT (UTC -6).
FAQ
How do you define ‘fluff’?
Fluff has a wide definition. For the purposes of this exchange, we will be very liberal with what ‘fluff’ is, exactly. While the most general definition revolves around pleasant, feel-good work, there can also be instances of creepy fluff, hurt/comfort fluff, etc. As such, please describe what kind of fluff you are looking for within your request.
How do I contact the mods if I have a question?
Your mods are neosaiyanangel and Rubick. Email neosaiyanangel@gmail.com, reply to Dreamwidth posts, or DM us on Discord at neosaiyanangel#0437 and Rubi (Rubick)#3506.
Rules
General rules
Each participant will produce a complete, original, brand new work that is created specifically to fulfill a request for this exchange and meets the following requirements:
- Fanfic: Your fic must be a story with a beginning, middle, and end. It must be written in English and at least 1,000 words long.
- Fanart: Your piece doesn't have to be colored, but it must be a completed work and cannot be drawn on lined paper. Allowed fanart includes digital and real media (e.g., paper and pencil, paint, sculpture). No AI-generated art, sketches, WIP images, bases, traces, or graphics (e.g., photomanips, aesthetics/mood boards, or screen captures).
- Each work must match one of the recipient's requested combinations of fandom + relationship + additional tag. It does not have to be for the request you matched on.
- The work must not contain the recipient's DNWs for that request.
- The work must be complete and posted to the FluffityFluff 2023 AO3 collection by the stated deadline.
Gift guarantee
Works will not be revealed until everyone who fulfilled their assignment and requested at least 3 unique fandoms has a gift.
Additional general guidelines
Signups
- You must be 18 or older to participate in this exchange.
- Signups with unmatchable offers will have 24 hours after the close of signups to add offers that match existing requests. Please check the requests and make sure you're offering at least one thing that at least one person has requested. Also please make sure that the email address linked to your AO3 account is working, and whitelist emails from neosaiyanangel@gmail.com and malevolentlighthouse@gmail.com.
- Well-behaved socks are welcome. If you use a sock, please adjust your offers and requests so you don't risk being assigned to create for yourself. You commit to creating one work per signup for someone who is not you. Serial sock-matchers and sock-defaulters will be banned from future exchange rounds.
Creating
- We're here to have fun. Please do your best to create something your recipient will like, and to leave kudos and appreciative comments on your gift(s).
- That said, optional details are optional. Prompts may guide your writer, but please be open to getting something gloriously unexpected.
- This is an anonymous gift exchange. Please don't tell anyone which work you created, share snippets of your work anywhere, or put identifying information on your work (such as links to your social media) until creators are revealed.
- If you have a question for your recipient, please ask the mods to pass the question along anonymously. Do not try to contact your recipient directly.
Posting
- We understand that sometimes life happens and makes it difficult or impossible to complete an assignment by the deadline. If this happens to you, please either default or request an extension before the deadline. There is no penalty for defaulting, and we're generous with extensions. You never need to explain or justify requesting an extension. If you do not complete your assignment, request an extension, or default by the deadline, you may be banned from future exchange rounds.
- Any work added to the collection must be complete and in sufficiently good shape for your recipient to enjoy it if you are unable to make further changes to it. If you post an incomplete work, a work that does not match your recipient's requests or that goes against their DNWs, a plagiarized work, or filler, you may be banned from future exchange rounds.
- Generous treating is encouraged. Please enable treating in your AO3 settings by going to your Preferences, scrolling to the Collections, Challenges and Gifts section, and checking the box for "Allow anyone to gift me works.”
- There is no mod account. If you'd like to gift a work to the exchange as a whole, post it without a recipient and note in your Author's Note that it's meant as a treat to the collection.
- The only recipient of your work should be the person whose request you are fulfilling. Please do not gift works to multiple recipients, even if they have similar requests and even if your creation is a non-assignment treat.
And most importantly…
Don't be an asshole. This exchange allows for a large variety of different themes and prompts, some of which may be sensitive for some participants. If there is content you don't wish to create, don't offer tags that would necessitate creating that content. If there is content you do not wish to receive, be unambiguous in your DNWs. Don't attempt to subvert a requested tag into something you know the recipient will not want, play "I'm not touching you" with DNWs, or create spite fic or spite art. Harassing a participant or attempting to start drama over their requests is grounds for a permanent ban.
Nominations
You may nominate up to 10 fandoms, 10 relationships per fandom, and 10 additional tags (freeforms).
Fandoms
Any fandom may be nominated. There are no eligibility requirements.
Avoid nominating "All Media Types" when possible. Please specify the media when making your nominations. When in doubt, being more specific is encouraged, to ensure you match on the fandom you want to receive. For example, it's fine to nominate the following:
- DCU Comics, DC Animated Universe (Timmverse), DC Extended Universe as unique fandoms
- The Witcher (TV) and The Witcher (Video Games) as unique fandoms
- Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) and Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997) as unique fandoms
For Marvel, please nominate all Disney + shows under the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” fandom with the MCU disambiguation.
RPF limitations: No non-famous family members of 20th/21st-century famous people. No living people under 18. No 20th/21st-century Nazis, fascists, or white supremacists.
Relationships
Please disambiguate all nominations with the full or abbreviated canon name.
The following ships may be nominated:
- / (sexual and/or romantic) and & (non-sexual and non-romantic) ships,including in combination
- "Reader" with or without specification (Character/Reader, Character/Non-Op Trans Male Reader, etc.)
Please do not use piping or multiple names unless necessary for clarity.
There will be one "fandom" called Crossover Fandom. Crossover relationships can be nominated within it. Each individual character should be disambiguated (abbreviated canon names are fine).
Crossover nomination examples:
- Natasha Romanov (MCU) & Margo Hanson (The Magicians TV)
- Andromache of Scythia (The Old Guard Movie)/Any Disney Princess (Disney Princesses)
There will be one "fandom" called Original Work. Trope-style characters and relationships can be nominated within them. Please preface nominations with: FF, MM, FM, Multi, Other.
Specifying genders for Multi, and Other nominations is welcome but not required. If no gender is specified, "any" is assumed, which includes nonbinary and nonhuman genders.
If you have a two-person ship where one or both genders aren't binary F or M or aren't specified, put it under Other. All ships involving non-human, non-humanoid entities (such as pet kittens and tentacle monsters) go under Other. Please use Multi for all ships of 3+ people even if they are all the same gender.
Original work nomination examples:
- FF: Catgirl/Doggirl (OW)
- MM: Teacher/Lonely Dad (OW)
- FM: Lonely Dad (M)/Teacher (F) (OW)
- Other: Lonely Parent (NB)/Teacher (any) (OW)
- Other: Horse (M)/New Farmhand (M) (OW)
There will be one "fandom" called Creator's Choice of Fandom. Use this to request "bulletproof" tags that you like so much you truly don't care what fandom is written for you. Your creator can choose absolutely any fandom, including RPF, Original Work, and fandoms not in the tagset, so if this is what you request, be sure you're open to that. If you request CCOF, you may DNW up to 5 specific fandoms.
CCOF nomination examples:
- Any Pair of Codependent Siblings (CCOF)
- Any Group of Three or More Characters (CCOF)
Additional Tags
The Additional Tags field is for freeforms. They can be as general or specific as you like. The mods will not attempt to enforce any specific definition of "fluffy"; if you nominate something, we assume it's fluffy for you.
Very similar tags will be approved as long as they aren't 100% functionally identical (e.g., "Wedding Planning" and "Planning a Wedding"), and anything even slightly unclear will be queried.
There is no need to group or categorize freeforms; you can nominate "Hair brushing" on its own, and don't have to specify "Grooming - Hair brushing."
Both very general ("Hurt/Comfort") and very specific ("Hurt/Comfort - Character A wraps Character B gently in their coat") freeforms are allowed. Fandom-specific freeform tags are allowed.
Additional Tag examples:
- Fluff without Plot
- Character A falls asleep on B's shoulder; B gently moves A to rest on lap instead
- Comfort Food
Requests
The request section of your sign-up must include:
- 1 to 10 fandom requests (fandoms can be repeated); you must request a minimum of 3 unique fandoms to be guaranteed a gift
- 1 to 10 characters/ships in each request
- 1 to 20 Additional Tags in each request
- Whether you want art, fic, or both for the request
It may optionally include:
- likes and/or prompts for each request
- your DNWs for each request
- a link to an exchange letter or likes list
Prompts may guide your writer, but please remember that optional details are optional and be open to getting something gloriously unexpected.
DNWs
A DNW is a thing you Do Not Want to get in a fic. DNWs can be different from one request to the next, and can be general ("DNW slurs and name-calling") or specific to a canon or request ("DNW Harry/Draco, even as a background ship").
Your DNW list does not need to explain why you don't want something. Please don't use your DNWs to disparage something that someone else may be into.
DNWs that create an impossible request, such as "DNW incest" for an incest ship, and DNWs that are vague or difficult to understand, such as "DNW hard kinks," will be disregarded. DNWs that directly contradict a freeform (such as requesting the tag “Comfort Food” and then "DNW mentions of food") will be disregarded. However, DNWs may be used to specify how freeforms are applied to requested ships ("DNW Steve Rogers eating a hot dog").
DNWs will only be enforced if they appear in your sign-up on AO3. DNWs solely posted in a linked letter will not be enforced.
Example useful DNWs:
- "DNW snakes" for a fandom that doesn't have snakes in it
- "DNW non-canonical character death"
Example non-useful DNWs:
"DNW turtles" for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- makes request impossible
"DNW anything triggering" or "DNW dead dove content" -- too vague, different people may have different definitions
"DNW gross foods like tomatoes" -- disparaging
Offers
The offer section of your sign-up must include:
- 4 to 10 fandom offers
- 1 to 10 characters/ships in each offer
- 1 to 20 Additional Tags in each offer
- Whether you're offering art, fic, or both for this offer
Signups with unmatchable offers will have 24 hours after the close of signups to add offers that match existing requests. Please check the requests and make sure you're offering at least one thing that at least one person has requested. Also please make sure that the email address linked to your AO3 account is working, and whitelist email from neosaiyanangel@gmail.com.
Creating, Posting, and Gifting Works
Assignment-fulfilling stories must be complete, made specifically to fulfill this assignment, in English, and at least 1,000 words long.
Assignment-fulfilling art must be finished and made specifically to fulfill this assignment. Your piece doesn't have to be colored, but it must be a completed work and cannot be drawn on lined paper. Allowed fanart includes digital and real media (e.g., paper and pencil/inks, paint, or photographed 3D art). Do not post AI-generated art, sketches, WIP images, bases, traces, or graphics (e.g., photomanips, aesthetics/mood boards, or screen captures).
Treats should be complete fics or finished artworks that are made specifically to fulfill a request. There is no word count minimum for written treats.
To fulfill an assignment, find it on your My Assignments page on AO3 and click the Fulfill button. To post a treat, go to the Fluffity Fluff 2023 collection page and click Post to Collection, and enter your recipient's exact AO3 username in the "Gift this work to" field (copying it from their request page and pasting it in is safest).
Pinch Hits
Pinch hits will be posted to the Fluffity Fluff Dreamwidth community and promoted widely. Contact the moderator at neosaiyanangel@gmail.com or reply to the Dreamwidth posts to claim them. If you think you might know someone who could create for a pinch hit, feel free to share the links around.
We're grateful to all pinch hitters! We will have a post where pinch hitters who did not sign up to the exchange can post requests. Please consider creating a treat for a pinch hitter—exchanges could not run without them.
Work and Author Reveals, and Comments
There will be one week between the initial work deadline and work reveals. Please use this time to make your work as polished and fabulous as it can be, or to pick up a pinch hit or create a treat.
If you receive an inappropriate gift, please immediately contact the mods.
Please leave kudos or a comment on your gift(s). If possible, please do this before authors are revealed. If you aren't sure what to say, a simple "Thank you for this wonderful gift!" is fine.
Many thanks to the
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
idproquo team for allowing us to pilfer their rules post!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rubick
