Avocados WIP Warriors

INFO & RULES - FLIGHT EDITION (January)

- Feel free to interpret the prompts however you wish - the world is your oyster! <3 - No restriction to one prompt per fic/chapter. - You can merge this event with others, so long as the other event permits this. - Please mark rating clearly, and use CW where applicable. Posts not adequately marked will not be reblogged. - Use the tag #FandomFreeBingo and tag @fandom-free-bingo on tumblr for a reblog - don't forget to also add in the pairing/characters, the fandom and the warnings in the tags please <3 - The second event (Flight Edition) will run until February 29th. Feel free to post after this date, however - works will be reblogged until January 31st, 2025, and the Ao3 collection will be open indefinitely. - Two cards (at most) of each size for each participant. - All media forms, fandoms and original works are welcome! - You can request square changes twice, for up to a week after the card is issued. - Be respectful to other participants. - Be kind to me!- Ao3 collection can be found here! - This season we are offering BOTH 5x5 and 3x3 cards - please let us know which you would like!

Sign up here! Sign ups will run until January 31st - you can post whenever you're ready!

Why Flight Edition? Well - January 5th is National Bird Day! Why? "National Bird Day is a celebration of the wonder of birds and a time to raise awareness about the many threats that bird species face on a daily basis. Birds have long captured the imagination of humans as they effortlessly soar through the skies. It is no wonder that so many people have become either professional or amateur ornithologists (people who study birds). While birds may seem to live carefree lives, many of their natural habitats are under attack. Additionally, poaching and the illegal wildlife trade threaten many bird species. With these factors in mind we need to do everything that we can to protect our birds and their environments." [1]

Basically.... Because they're beautiful and majestic creatures, and we didn't want to lean into the whole 'winter' theme again, because it's not winter everywhere! So... Take Flight! <3

My favourite bird (uh, today-) is below the cut... Look at this majestic boy-

The resplendent quetzal lives in tropical forests in southern Mexico and Central America - and their population is decreasing. They've been given 'Near Threatened' status. Look at that fuzzy little head, and that MAJESTIC tail!

I like birds.

WHBB 2025 - Mod Call!

Dear fellow WinterHawkers, it is almost that time of the year again when we will be looking for artists and writers who are interested in joining us in another round of the Bang.

Before we can start, however, we have some planning and preparation to do. Due to personal and time reasons, we are looking to make some changes to the Mod team this year.

If you are interested in joining our little team and supporting us, please check out the event rules and possibly last year’s schedule to make sure you are ready to commit to joining us for the entire duration of the event and then fill out this so we know where your strengths are and what you could bring to the team. The form will stay open until 7 February.

Further updates on this year’s schedule will follow hopefully soon and we are excited to see many new and old friends in the Event.

– Mods Panic and Jess

P.S.: To make the wait a little shorter check out the previous year’s stories here if you haven’t already!

Sweet & Spicy Bingo is back!

After some time on Twitter and a long absence, Sweet & Spicy Multifandom Bingo has moved to Tumblr for another seasonal event. Welcome & welcome back to past & future participants!

'Sweet & Spicy' is meant to convey the idea that wholesome vibes and not-so-wholesome vibes can coexist in fandom, whether in separate works or combined into one. Prompts may have positive or negative connotations, but you’re free to use them however you’d like!

Signups for our Winter Edition are open until December 20th, but there's no deadline on submissions.

Winter Event | General Info | AO3 Collection

The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge

Welcome to another year of the Fanfic Reading Challenge (FRC)!

I won't bore you with the history of the challenge, this year, but I will welcome you to check out past posts that do explain some of it, as well as include a brief overview of what, exactly, this challenge is, though it does change year to year. (Essentially you read fics to complete goals and win bragging points and an artsy badge.)

This year is especially different, as I had the extreme pleasure of having @noxsoulmate as a partner in crime in keeping me hostage on track to completing this year's FRC. Another valued member of the mod team is @jandjsalmon and speaks for all of us if you need questions answered!

As for the challenge....

This is, indeed, a challenge. Of course.

First of all... you must obviously read fanfiction. As if you don't already!

You also need to download and make your own copy of the spreadsheet, which can be found here, as well as below in the important links section.

To participate in the challenge, you read fics that match the tasks in the challenge. An example of a task can be: "read a fic with a title containing the word purple in it." Should be easy! Of course, there are harder ones.

Which is why there are different modes of challenge to the FRC. These are as follows:

Participation (Complete 1 task)

Regular Mode (Complete 80 tasks)

Hard Mode (Complete 150 tasks)

Extreme Mode (Complete 220 tasks)

Complete (Complete 250 tasks)

The challenge lasts from January 1st, 2025, to December 31st, 2025.

There are badges that go with the modes completed, and even a secret 6th badge that will be fairly obvious if you look at the spreadsheet! Doesn't mean it'll be easy to complete though. *smirks* (Blame Noxy)

Most important of all: this challenge operates on the honour system. We don't check your work, or your reading logs (see below), so I mean, I guess if you want to be slippery with the rules, you do you, and that's on your conscience, but honestly it's so much fun to see how much you can get done by following the letter of the law/tasks! You can be slippery even with following the tasks fully. It's great fun. ;D

I think that's enough for an intro, really, maybe too much.

Important Links and Reading Logs/Trackers

As there is a component of the FRC that includes tracking numbers of words read, most of us use a reading log/tracker to keep count of how many fics we read, including data such as words, of course, chapters, month completed, ship, author, title, fandom, link to the fic, and such. It's a great place to mark what fics you want to read in the future as well!

This year we have FOUR trackers on offer, quite different from one another, so take a look, play around with them and check out their "intros", and choose according to what you think will work best for you!

Fic Tracking Sheets

Juulna's 2025 Reading Log

Noxy's 2025 Reading Log

2025 Jandy's Fic Tracker

Taru's Fic Tracker 2025

Discord

We have a blast on Discord. From general chatter to sharing pet pics to being there for each other during the tough times to forming lasting friendships and making friendships you’d never make in a ship- or fandom-specific Discord, to asking for help ‘rolling the dice’ (pick a number between 1-10!) to choose the next fic to read, to finding some of the really challenging task fills in fandoms people might not have ever read but are willing to try, or finding fandoms someone has never read and is very tentative about stepping out of their box, but they’re being 100% supported and know they don’t need to complete the fic for it to count for the task, stepping out of their comfort zone… we’ve formed a very odd group of, if not friends, then companions (but there are definite friendships that have formed!! Just ask the people who have started watching NHL and NFL together in our off topic channel!).

In any case, our Discord is not necessary, but it is a worthy and tactical element to completing many of the tasks of this challenge. 💙

And.... without further ado....!

The 2025 Fanfic Reading Challenge! (link)

There is an info/rules page as the first sheet on the spreadsheet that should fill in any further questions you have. It also has more contact info than just this page if you have any further questions and perhaps need a more immediate answer for your needs.

*Occasionally you will run into something that looks like an error, and it may in fact be one! Let us know if you see it. It's hard not to make a mistake on as large a spreadsheet as this.*

Please, first of all, have fun and just read fanfiction that you enjoy! I (Juulna) did that last year and didn't even come close to completing the entire challenge, and I still had a blast because I was enjoying what I was reading and rereading. Others took the challenge right to the completed end. Others forgot about it halfway through but still had fun, and some even went back and filled in the sheet for a really good showing! The challenge is what you make of it, what you want from it. So... just have fun. Read fic. Smile. Enjoy. :)

Second of all... well, we would love if you signal boost this post!!!!

Third of all, we do have our pinned post that includes a link to this page and that will include a link to our Discord and all our trackers as well, including past links for memento and informative purposes.

Thank you, and a blessed 2025 to all!

So during Voiceteam, @paintchipblue made this really neat Podfic Comment Bingo, and it was such a joy to tackle while going through post rounds / at the end and bookmarking stuff I wanted to listen to. Everything looks so new and shiny and exciting, so this was a really fun way to prioritize what I listened to I M M E D I A T E L Y and what I marked for later so I could make sure I got through the whole collection!

Here are the podfics I listened to (and as such, am now recommending YOU listen to and comment on!) under a cut:

Not in English: robot-revolutionarys tumblr dashboard read by CainPods, wilfriede0815

Fandom for Robots, German translation of a fic then podded

(Had) No Comments: Almost Home read by @devilwithabirddress

Hades (Video Game 2018), Asterius/Theseus

Has a Ghost: Light the Way read by @kittonafoxgirl

Pokemon, featuring Litwick, Lampent, Chandelure, and Original Child Characters

More than 5 Voices: Conventions for Robots, multi-voice organized and edited by @gilraina

Fandom for Robots, featuring Computron & bjornruffian

Free Space: gold in the dirt read by @kbirbpods

Star Wars, featuring Commander Fox, Quinlan Vos, and Jon Antilles

A Cold Read: robot-revolutionary's tumblr dashboard, featuring me & @olive2read and edited by olive2read!

Fandom for Robots

Not Safe For Work: the beauty of discovery, read by @42donotpanic

Marvel/DC Crossover, Bucky/Clint/Jason

Wild AU Premise: dark and burning (soaked with orange blossoms), read by @kbirbpods

Star Wars, Feemor/Fox

Has An Actual Ship In It: A kiss behind the barricades, read by @kbirbpods

AFTG characters (Jean Moreau/Jeremy Knox) in the Star Wars universe as Jedi padawans

F/F Ship: in search of a sky for smoke to rise to, read by @korechthonia

Star Wars, Padmé/Arla Fett

OC As A Major Character: By His Side, read by rambling_company

Star Wars, outsider POV about Obi-Wan/Anakin

Under 5 Minutes: The Living Among the Dead, read by @kbirbpods

LOTR: Eowyn-centric

Canon Over 200 Years Old: Silver Skins, read by wilfriede0815

Fairy Tale featuring a selkie's daughter

Character Study: Many Colors, read by @42donotpanic

Marvel, about Natasha Romanov

💕 for some very soft Winterhawk?

Kiss somewhere other than the mouth

-

Clint's chin is resting on his palm, which is proper on the counter, and he's watching the coffee percolate. He feels movement behind him--the shifting vibration of steps on old wooden floorboards, each step a little thump of soundless noise. He doesn't have his ears in, because he doesn't put his ears in before coffee, but he likes that he can still feel it when Bucky gets in from his morning run.

The kiss that presses to his cheek makes him squeak, shocked not by the action but the cold of Bucky's lips.

Autumn comes later ever year it seems, but the cold front sets in just as quick as always.

Bucky presses a second kiss to Clint's shoulder, still a little cold through the fabric of his shirt but not as much as skin on skin. A wordless apology.

"Love you," Clint mumbles, and feels the way the fabric of his shirt shifts when Becky's smile jostles it.

Bucky pours them both coffee, throws on an old purple hoodie of Clint's so his cold metal arm won't brush Clint and startle him all over again, and they settle in on the couch to drink their coffee together.

Clint never thought he could be this happy. Clint never thought he would feel this loved, especially in this way. But he is.

He presses a kiss to the corner of Bucky's jaw, coffee warm lips on warming skin and scruff, and says it one more time just because he likes to say it: "love you."

Bucky smiles like a sunrise and signs back, love you (too).

the full extent of the law

fic by @roipecheur, art by @42donotpanic

Explicit No Archive Warnings Apply

Daredevil (TV), Daredevil (Comics)

Relationship: Rahul "Ray" Nadeem/Matt Murdock

Characters: Ray Nadeem, Matt Murdock, Lester | Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, Nihar Nadeem, Seema Nadeem, Tammy Hattley, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones (Marvel), Danny Rand, Turk Barrett, Karen Page, Sami Nadeem

Additional Tags: Mystery, Character Death Fix

Summary: Ten days after taking a bullet to the head, Ray wakes up in the hospital: a family man with an absent family, a career man with a hopelessly tanked job. He's left to piece back together the life he counted on losing, a task that feels impossible until the collision course of his old life and his new one entangle, and Matt Murdock asks his help in investigating an art smuggling operation backed by an unknown player. The work makes Ray feel like himself again for the first time in months, even if working around Matt in particular holds its own unique set of challenges that Ray had to grit his teeth and ignore.

Surviving certain death means a series of repeated events: waking up, and doing it the next day, and the next, and the next.

--

If that summary doesn't make you want to run and read some delicious angst and mystery and getting-together fic, featuring a cast of legends including the one and only and beloved Ray Nadeem... *winkwink*

Fanart of the ship Matt Murdock/Ray Nadeem from the Netflix/Disney+ Daredevil tv show. The fanart depicts Ray and Matt snuggled up on a couch together, Ray has his arm wrapped around Matt’s shoulder and has his face turned towards him, while their legs are stretched out in front of them, socked feet propped up on a coffee table. There is a laptop on Ray’s lap and Matt has a blue cup lifted to his mouth, drinking something. Matt is dressed in an orange t-shirt, light grey sweatpants and forest green socks, while Ray wears a red t-shirt, khaki pants and dark socks with blue tips. They’re sitting on a dark brown couch, and either side of them are two big, red throw pillows, and a green blanket is thrown over the one arm of the couch. The atmosphere is playful and romantic, Ray is smiling softly at Matt, while Matt has one eyebrow quirked in a playful gesture.

SIGN UP POST

It's late September and that means #ITPE sign-ups are OPEN 🎉🎉🎉 Links will be at the end, so please read through the post as we have a lot of new information/procedures this year!

This is the FOURTEENTH year of the exchange, but the FIRST year we will be hosting it on Tumblr, which was far and away the winner in our platform move survey. Happily, this means we get to keep our acronym and branding!

What is #ITPE?

#ITPE is a low-pressure, no-minimums podfic exchange that originated on Twitter. We are now on Tumblr because of Twitter’s…everything, since it was bought by the Muskrat. Everything–sign-ups, communication, assignment/gift distribution–used to be run entirely on Twitter, but as the exchange has grown, we’ve incorporated other platforms to help make our lives as mods easier. Consequently, sign-ups will be on AO3 and submissions of your finished gifts (when it comes time for them) will be via Google form. Otherwise all communication, including announcements, questions, assignment and gift delivery, will be conducted over Tumblr and instant messaging. 

Who are the mods?

Our mod line-up is @blackestglass (blackglass) & @knight-tracer, with flowersforgraves assisting on the backend with data management. 

What is the schedule?

The dates for #ITPE 2024 are:

Sign-ups: SEPTEMBER 21 - SEPTEMBER 29

Assignments go out: No later than OCTOBER 8

Projects due: DECEMBER 17

Distribution: DECEMBER 24

So long as it's still September 29 somewhere in the world, you can still sign-up.

How do I sign up?

We are continuing to run sign-ups through AO3 (without a nominations process, so just write in your fandoms). We are asking for a minimum of 3 unique fandoms and if you want to sign-up to give or receive more than 20 fandoms, pick your TOP 20 for the AO3 and put the rest in your Dear Podficcer Letter. If you have less than 20 fandoms, we encourage you to list all of your primary and secondary fandoms in the sign up form so we have options for matching!

Note: We consider certain RPF fandoms as “umbrella” fandoms. We know we have K-Pop podficcers and sports RPF podficcers who often sign up for our exchange. Individual K-Pop bands and individual sports/sports teams do not count as “unique” fandoms (so for instance, only listing SHINee, BTS, and A-Teez would not count as having 3 unique fandoms for sign-up purposes; for our purposes, they would all fall under the K-Pop umbrella). In addition to listing your favorite bands/sports/teams in the fandom field, we do ask you to help us out for matching by thinking of at least 2 other fandoms which you might be happy to give and receive in. The RPF podficcing pool is small and we try not to repeat matches within a 5-year period, so giving us more fandom options will help us find you a match. 

What is a Dear Podficcer letter?

Your Dear Podficcer letter should include stuff like squicks, triggers, ship and trope preferences, and anything else you think we & your gift giver should know regarding your fandom tastes. Letters are mandatory. They don't have to be long! But if you have extremely specific tastes, it’s better that you let us know upfront in your letter so that we can ensure that you receive a gift you’re happy with. Please don’t worry about seeming “difficult”! We want you to love the gift you receive! Also, do feel free to request your small, obscure fandoms! Just help us out by also including some more popular or “mainstream” fandoms among your options. 

If you’re still uncertain what a letter should look like, here are some examples from 2020: blackglass’s 2020 letter & knight_tracer’s 2020 letter. You can also check out linked letters in the “Requests Summary” on AO3 to see what other people’s letters look like!  

Letters should be hosted on a publicly viewable platform, such as on Dreamwidth, tumblr, carrd, GDrive, Dropbox, etc. 

Please put your Tumblr and AO3 handles (if they don’t already match) in your Dear Podficcer letter. For our sake, ideally somewhere in the title field. Toss a coin to your mod team. 

Also please be kind to your mods & avoid using smushnames or cute fandom ship names in your letter. We're not always in your fandom & sometimes people will use different names to refer to the same pairing & we mistakenly believe you're requesting different pairings (see: the Zimbits/JackBitty/etc. debacle of 2020). Using Char A/Char B(/Char C) would help us out a lot! You don't have to use AO3 levels of disambiguation – just provide us with enough information to figure out who the characters involved in the ship are. 

If you have specific tastes in what you want to RECEIVE in a fandom, but you’re willing to CREATE outside of those preferences (for instance, wanting to receive podfic about a specific pairing, but willing to podfic for other pairings in a fandom), please indicate that in your letter! If you want to offer or receive fandoms that aren’t currently on the AO3, or you’re one of those gutsy people that is willing to offer and create in “any fandom”, message this account and we’ll make sure it’s all recorded. 

In addition, if you’re an adventurous listener who is open to RECEIVING podfic for “any fandom” please ALSO message us so that we’re aware! We still need a minimum of 3 fandoms for your sign up so that it can go through.

If you have any DNWs (“do not wants”)  that you don’t want to post publicly in a letter, concerns about matching, or anything else you’d like to privately let the mods know, there’s a section in the sign up this year that you can fill out. Or you can send us a message!

How should we be communicating with you over Tumblr? We will primarily be using the instant messaging function. Therefore you will need a Tumblr account to sign up, because that’s where all communication and assignment/gift delivery will take place. It’s totally fine to use a placeholder account you only use for this exchange. (We do recommend adding a userpic, filling out your bio, and maybe reblogging a few posts so that you don’t seem like a bot.) All participants should be following the mod account, especially if you have restricted settings so that only people you follow can message you. The instant messaging system, unlike the ask system, allows us to maintain a record of our communications, and is the best way to share information you want to keep private between us or have extended conversations. You may use asks if you have a one-off question or questions you don’t mind getting public answers to. 

(Notifications for new Tumblr messages can be finicky so try to check out the messaging tab semi-regularly throughout the duration of the exchange instead of relying on the blue dot to let you know there’s a new message.) 

In an attempt to avoid tripping spam filters and hitting the Tumblr limit on sending messages to new people, we are asking you to help us out by sending us an instant message to let us know you’ve signed up, rather than us trying to reach out to dozens upon dozens of people (prime spambot behavior)! 

What happens if you get marked as spam?

If we get shadowbanned/tossed in potential spambot purgatory, the mods will reach out to you from our personal accounts/mod sideblogs or via email. During the sign up period, we will reach out to you via messaging to ask you for a reliable email address to reach you at in case all of our attempts to not get flagged as spam fail.

If we are marked as spam, we’ll still be able to post on our own blog and we should still appear on your dash, but we won’t be appearing in the tags most likely, which is another reason why it’s important for you to be following us!

How does matching work? How will I get my assignment?

The mods do hand-matching, meaning rather than just letting the AO3 algorithm run and make arbitrary matches based on fandom, we read all your letters and try to match you with someone with similar tastes and interests. We’ll only be relying on the AO3 algorithm to help us spot tricky matches. 

Another of the ways Tumblr combats spam is to shadowban anyone sending multiple similarly worded messages. We’re going to make an attempt to deliver extremely pared down assignment messages so that we’re mostly sending unique information. If we do get marked as spam, as mentioned earlier, we may reach out to you on sideblogs or via email. 

What kind and how many gifts should I make? Do you really mean “no minimums”? 

Yes, ITPE gifts have NO LENGTH MINIMUMS. Make something as big or as small as you want to commit to! We truly do mean it. This is meant to be a low pressure exchange! Accordingly, please set your expectations that you may receive a short gift. In the past, we have had participants who’ve been extremely generous and made a prolific amount of gifts for their giftee, but they are outliers and there is certainly no expectation that anyone else should strive to those heights. 

I have more questions about making gifts!

We’re sure you do, but we’re not there yet! We will update this FAQ with more information about submitting gifts and treats once assignments go out, so check back!

I’m ready to sign up! What are the next steps? 1. Fill out the sign up form on AO3 here.

2. Follow us @itpemod if you haven’t yet!

3. Send us a message over the chat letting us know you’ve signed up!

4. Optional (but encouraged if you want to talk to people!): join the Tumblr Podfic Community to participate in the friending/following meme!

5. Optional: Track/follow the #itpe or #informal tumblr podfic exchange tags! 

Happy 2024 Fic Challenge!

@jandjsalmon and I are here with the new fic reading challenge for 2024! Heck yeah! Jandy did most of the work this year, I'll be honest, and the new challenge looks great!

For the uninitiated, basically there's a bunch of tasks to complete as you read fanfiction over the year. For example, read x number of authors, read a new ship, read a fic with x in the title, etc.! It can be a fun way to challenge yourself, or to help you read more, or to discover new things you might never have tried!

But here, without further ado...

2024 Fic Reading Challenge spreadsheet

There are also two fic trackers you can use (or you can create your own, of course).

Jandy's Fic Tracker

Juulna's Fic Tracker

Remember that for any of these spreadsheets, you need to 'make a copy' for your own use. Otherwise you won't be able to edit anything!

We have a pinned post with all the important links, but I'll include a couple here for ease of access.

We have a Discord!

We also have completion badges every year, and here are last year's as an example. (They are adorable.)

And, of course, there are rules (with a helpful FAQ).

Anyone is welcome to join, even if you don't hang out with us in the Discord! And the whole challenge is done on the honour system. You say you completed Extreme Mode? I ain't checking that out! :P

Well, we hope that everyone has a good time with this year's challenge! We're as excited as you are. And remember: there's never a stupid question if you need to ask us anything. We do accept Anon asks, too. <3

Have fun reading, and here's to a great 2024 overall!

WIP Warriors Round 4

It's hard to believe, but it's already been four weeks again and it's time for the next round.

Each Vote is worth 7 Sentences.