Yuri Challenge

Authors and artists are revealed!

2012-02-19T16:45:58Z

Posted by: cypher

Reveals are done!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated: authors, artists, pinch hitters, treat-makers, readers and commenters -- we've come up with some lovely things here together, and I hope everyone had fun. ♥

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Happy Yuri Valentines!

2012-02-14T15:18:44Z

Posted by: cypher

The collection is live!

Browse, enjoy, and don't forget to thank your gifter!

Thank you to everyone who participated, and especially to everyone who came through with pinch hits! You are fabulous people. ♥

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Deadline passed -- anyone up for treats this weekend?

2012-02-11T02:45:45Z

Posted by: cypher

And there we are, deadline reached!

You have been awesome -- we've had a great participation rate and a wonderful variety of fandoms. Pinch hitters are now working on the last few outstanding assignments so that everyone will be covered by V-Day.

In the meantime, if you'd like to write or draw an extra treat for someone, you can now browse the whole list of requests to do so! (The list sorts by the date of the request by default, but you can use the buttons up top to sort by fandom -- or by prompter, if you have a special fandom someone you want to write/draw for.)

You don't need to be signed up for the exchange to post a treat, and you're welcome to post short fic and quick sketches as treats, too; all you need is an AO3 username for posting purposes. When your treat is done, you can use the "Post to Collection" button on the challenge profile page; make sure you fill in the name of the requester in the "Gift this work to" field of the posting form!

Thank you all for your support, your creativity, and your hard work! I can't wait to start opening these presents. ♥

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Yuri Challenge - deadline almost here!

2012-02-09T18:39:17Z

Posted by: cypher

About a day and a half until the deadline! We are cheering for everyone as you push on through these last hours~

Fic and art is due at 6:00 PST on Friday, February 10, about 32 hours from this post. (convert to your local time zone)

You can post your work, or let us know you're dropping out, from the same place: go to the collection home page, click on "Your Assignment," and scroll down to get to the "Default" and "Fulfill" buttons.

Pinch hitters: Thank you for helping out with the pinch hits we've gotten so far! Expect to see some more activity on the list this weekend. Statistically speaking, we're probably due for another handful when the deadline passes. Keep up the good work!

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Reminder: deadline approaching!

2012-01-29T23:18:28Z

Posted by: cypher

Just a quick reminder: you now have a little less than two weeks to finish your works for Yuri Challenge Valentine's! The deadline is February 10, and there will be another reminder when we get closer.

When your work is complete, you'll need to post it to the AO3 collection: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yurichallenge2012

Choosing "Your Assignment" from the left menu, and then choosing the "Fulfill" button at the bottom of your assignment page, will get you to the Post New form with the collection and recipient name already filled in.

If you need to drop out, go to the "Your Assignment" page and select the "Default" button. You don't need to do anything else; the archive will notify us automatically that we have an assignment in need of a pinch hit.

Technical Difficulties: if you use the AO3 regularly, you've probably noticed it's been laggy lately. Please, if you can, try to give yourself a little breathing room for posting difficulties! The coders are working on it and we have our fingers crossed that they'll work out the performance issues before the deadline, but it wouldn't hurt to plan for difficulties. If you can finish a little early, it's probably a good idea!

Good luck to everyone who's still working (and congrats to our early finishers who have already posted)!

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Reminder: fill out your letters!

2012-01-07T00:58:10Z

Posted by: cypher

Quick reminder, all! While Dear Valentine letters are optional, if you did indicate that you'd have one, your creator is probably checking on it. Please, if your letter is still a placeholder, fill the details in!

Also, a few things to make sure of:

- Be sure your letter is unlocked! If your journal defaults to friends-only, you might want to double-check to make sure you've changed the security setting for that entry.

- Remember that both writers and artists play in this challenge! If your suggestions and preferences are entirely focused on one medium, see if you can go back and add a bit of info about the other to make sure your creator isn't left without guidance.

- You are welcome to link your letter in this post!

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Signups closed - matching in progress!

2011-12-28T16:42:13Z

Posted by: cypher

What it says on the tin! The challenge signups are closed (final numbers: 39 signups!) and the archive software is generating matches right now.

If all goes well and we have matches for everyone, you'll see them in your inbox within the next few hours. If there's anybody we can't match, I'll be doing some modly gymnastics and contacting people to try to get that worked out.

\o\ /o/

ETA: Everyone had at least one match! You should see assignments in your inbox soon. If they don't arrive, check your spam folder; you can also find your assignment by going to the collection home page and clicking the "Your Assignment" link in the sidebar.

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Signups close to an end -- please check your offers!

2011-12-26T19:31:16Z

Posted by: cypher

Less than 48 hours now until signups close! I'll be cutting them off on the morning of Wednesday, December 28, around 8am in my time zone: convert to your time zone here.

If you have not yet signed up, here's where you can go to do so.

If you have signed up, please take a minute to browse the signup summary and see if there are any other offers you can comfortably make -- fandoms listed in red at the top have nobody offering them at all, and most of the fandoms with "(1, 1)" after them are only being offered by the person who requested them. Don't feel you need to offer things you don't want to write/draw! But if there are options there that you could comfortably add, it does help make matching smoother for everyone.

Finally: the pinch hit list! The pinch hit list is a group of volunteers who stand by to produce fic/art for the challenge if someone has to drop out (there are always at least a few). If you'd like to be on that list, add your email address here:

Subscribe to Yuri Challenge Pinch Hits

Email:

Visit this group

You'll then be on the email list that gets notified when a pinch hit is needed; at that point you volunteer to claim it if it looks like something you can do.

\o/

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Signup reminder; collecting letters!

2011-12-18T16:53:34Z

Posted by: cypher

First: Signups are well underway, with 22 people signed up as I type this post, and a good variety of fandoms represented! If you haven't signed up yet, well, there's no time like the present! You still have plenty of time (signups close early on December 28), but there are a couple of reasons to do it early if you can:

- The earlier you sign up, the more chance there is that other people can see your requested fandoms on the signup summary and remember they could offer something you want! :3

- Potential technical difficulties: Yuletide's posting deadline is the 21st, and stories are revealed on the 25th, which means about 2,000 participants and an untold number of other readers increasing the load on the archive. I'm still hoping this will be the year that the servers are powerful enough and the code is optimized enough that Yuletide doesn't bring the archive to its knees, but it seems best to be prepared for trouble. ^^

If you're still agonizing over what your last request or offer should be, no worries! Take as much time as you need. But if you have your ideas together, it can't hurt to add them early. (Remember, you can always edit your signup by going back to the signup page, as long as they're open -- you can add, change, or remove any part of your signup so long as you still meed the three-fandom minimums when you're done.)

Second: Dear Valentine letters!

Writing a letter to your writer/artist is optional, but it's a great way to tell your Valentine more about the things you love and the things you'd rather avoid. If you've written a letter, please link it in the comments of this post! Include your AO3 name and the fandoms you're requesting in your comment, please, so it's easy to find.

Happy signups, all! ^_^

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Signups are open!

2011-12-13T15:42:47Z

Posted by: cypher

Signups for the Yuri Challenge 2012 Valentines are open!

Head to the signup page to get started.

Once at least five people have signed up, you'll be able to keep track of current request/offer numbers via the signup summary.

You can also always go back to the signup page during the signup period if you want to change anything around.

And if you're not sure what you want to request/offer, you can browse the full list of nominations via the tag set.

Signups are open until December 28, and there will be reminders about timing as we get closer to the end. ^^

Have fun! Can't wait to see what you all come up with. :3

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Signup guidelines!

2011-12-10T18:37:33Z

Posted by: cypher

Signups for Yuri Challenge will open on Tuesday the 13th, first thing in the morning in the mods' time zone (but we're on the west coast of the US, so it will probably be pretty late in the day for some of you!). There will be a post here to let you know as soon as the form goes live. Signups happen on the AO3 so we can take advantage of their automated matching tools.

If you've already played in AO3-based exchanges, the signup form will look pretty familiar to you. If you haven't, we have a handy guide here with some screenshots.

( right this way! )

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Partway through, fandom/characters update

2011-12-03T17:39:17Z

Posted by: cypher

Gosh, the enthusiasm here is humbling and exciting!

We're less than halfway through nominations, and you have collectively suggested 76 fandoms you'd like to see, and over 360 characters. *_*

I've been inputting your nominations as we go to the Yuri Challenge Tag Set, where you can browse to see what other people have added (and double check to make sure I haven't messed up any characters for your fandoms -- I caught myself associating somebody to the wrong fandom once, but I certainly would be grateful for other people checking my work). We have a lot of anime/manga fandoms, a healthy selection of video games, a few sentai shows and (so far) one k-drama. Please give your friends a heads-up, especially if you're into these less-represented categories! We'd love to see more participation from them. (Also, if you have suggestions for places we could promote the challenge specifically to sentai and/or drama fans, we'd be happy to hear about them.)

If you haven't nominated your favorite fandoms yet, or if you'd like to add more characters to an existing nomination, the nominations post is over this way.

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Yuri Challenge: Banners Galore!

2011-11-30T04:53:21Z

Posted by: vangirl

I made a few banners for advertising and uh, got carried away. ^^; So I figure, why not let people help us advertise in their own journals? Clearly, it's a more noble purpose than "I am bored and have access to a trial copy of Photoshop."

( So here we go, a galore of graphics to choose from! )

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Yuri Challenge Valentine's 2012: Fandom & Character Nominations

2011-11-29T05:01:28Z

Posted by: cypher

Comment to this post to nominate fandoms and characters for the Valentine's 2012 exchange.

Fandoms: you may nominate up to four fandoms. All fandoms should be East Asian in origin.

Characters: you may nominate up to six characters in each fandom. All characters must be female-identified. Sexswapped versions of characters who are clearly male in canon are not allowed. Characters whose canon gender identity is ambiguous *are* allowed, on the understanding that works for this challenge need to treat them as identifying female.

Take a glance through existing comments before you add your nominations! If someone else has already nominated one of your fandoms, you don't need to use one of your own nomination slots for it. You may comment to the existing nomination to add up to six more characters to that fandom. See the first comments in this post for an example.

Please use the full names of fandoms and characters to help us get them all included correctly in signups.

EDIT: You can check on your nominations (and other people's nominations) at a glance by going to the tag set for Yuri Challenge 2012 -- if you spot any errors, please let me know!

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Will you be our Yuri Valentine?

2011-11-29T04:59:58Z

Posted by: cypher

Hey all! Ready to get this thing fired up for another round of fabulous f/f fic and art?

We'd like to try something a little different this time -- instead of running another prompt fest, we're hoping you'll join us for a Valentine's exchange.

Here's the quick rundown of how things will work:

Where: Fandom/character nominations happen right here; signups and posting will happen on the AO3 so we can use their automated tools.

When: Fandom/character nominations start right now (nominations post!) and run until December 12. Signups open December 13 and run until December 28. Assignments go out on December 28 (or 29 if matching is tough) and fic/art is due on February 10. (A mad dash for any necessary pinch hits goes here.) Fic and art goes live on the archive on February 14.

What: You commit to creating one story of 1000+ words, or two stories of 500+ words; or one polished artwork or two clean sketches. Your work should include some kind of sexual or romantic element between the characters (ETA: this sentence has been rephrased to remove the "relationship" phrasing; we don't mean to exclude encounters that are not part of an ongoing relationship). Explicit content is not required, but please make it clear that there is attraction and/or affection going on between these ladies.

Eligible fandoms: All East Asian source fandoms are eligible. The term "yuri" comes from Japanese fandom and is usually used in the anime/manga/video game parts of English-language fandom; we encouraged manhua and manhwa last round and are broadening this round to allow dramas & music fandoms from East Asian backgrounds also. (Please, if you're in those fandoms, encourage your friends to sign up! Neither of your mods has much background there.)

Eligible characters: All characters in this challenge should be female-identified. If a character's gender identity is presented ambiguously in canon, you may nominate her on the understanding that she will be treated as female for the purpose of this challenge. Characters who crossdress while clearly still identifying as male are not eligible.

If you need an AO3 account: Leave a comment to this post or PM either cypher or vangirl with your email address and we'll send you an invite so you can skip the queue.

Questions? What did I forget to cover? Ask away!

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Yuri Challenge: now affiliated with female_fest!

2011-06-09T14:42:08Z

Posted by: cypher

It's a busy week for us, affiliating with other communities!

When our first round started, a few people brought up the possibility of opening the challenge to other kinds of f-f relationships rather than just romantic/sexual. I'm happy to say that female_fest is addressing that need: they're currently accepting fic/art prompts in any fandom, focusing on any kind of relationship between female characters.

Check them out!

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Yuri Challenge: now affiliated with ladiesbigbang!

2011-06-08T01:39:35Z

Posted by: cypher

What it says on the tin! We are now affiliated with Ladies' Big Bang, which is having signups right now for their second round of celebrating female-identified characters with a huge variety of fanworks. If you've been looking for good inspiration to write epic fic or lengthy meta, or draw ambitious art, or post monstrous picspams, or make just about any kind of ambitious fanwork project centered on one or more of your favorite female characters, check them out!

ladiesbigbang: a female-centric panfanwork big bang challenge.
Optional sign-ups open June 1-30th, final drafts due October 1st.
sign-ups: creators | cheerleaders | betas
info: minimums | rules & guidelines | pinch hitting

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"Professional Development," Ace Attorney, Franziska/Ema

2011-04-12T17:15:41Z

Posted by: stealth_noodle

Title: Professional Development
Creator: stealth_noodle
Rating: NC-17 (drunk sex)
Warning: None.
Word Count: 4449
Prompt: Franziska x Ema - They both know a thing or two about professional disappointments.
Teaser: This was not the sort of thing Ema Skye usually did, but she also didn't usually run into hot lawyers who flirted with her over too many drinks.

( This would have been posted so much less late if it hadn't completely run away with me. )

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Voting: Results

2011-04-10T04:54:54Z

Posted by: vangirl

The results are in and were they ever close! There were quite a few five-way ties while the voting was going on. ^^

Sweetest:
[Art; NWS] Blessings of Water (Tales of Legendia; Fenimore/Shirley) by lynndyre

Hottest:
[Fic; NWS] Mine and Thine (Final Fantasy V; Faris/Lenna) by sheffiesharpe

Most Exciting:
[Fic] Land of Wizards -A Mutual Understanding- (Kino no Tabi; Kino/Nimya) by redefined

Most Poignant:
[Fic] Her Little Secret (Star Ocean 2; Rena/Celine) by wallwalker

We also included a fifth secret category for this round! The voting system meant that some fics got voted for in several categories but didn't win any. The category is for the fic with the most votes overall!

Most Votes:
[Fic] Awakening (Revolutionary Girl Utena; Utena/Anthy) by stealth_noodle

The winners will receive 50 DW points within the week. :3

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"A Light That Never Goes Out," Final Fantasy VI, Terra/Phoenix

2011-04-05T18:53:13Z

Posted by: stealth_noodle

Title: A Light That Never Goes Out
Creator: stealth_noodle
Rating: R (xeno sex)
Warning: None.
Word Count: 1195
Prompt: Esper Terra/any female Esper, Communion.
Teaser: She is all the colors of fire, a spectrum ablaze.

( Meanwhile, back on the airship... )

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Voting time!

2011-04-03T02:11:58Z

Posted by: vangirl

Hello everyone! This post is a bit late so any post before this one is eligible for voting. ^^

We'll be voting for the best work for each of four categories. The winner of each category will win 50 DW points!

In your comment, please vote for your favorite in at least one of each category:

Sweetest:

Hottest:

Most Exciting:

Most Poignant:

You may vote for only one of your own works, but then you must vote for all categories.

Comments are screened!

Voting ends April 9th!

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Reminiscence, Digimon, Mimi/Sora

2011-04-01T10:55:32Z

Posted by: hejinglan

Title: Reminiscence
Creator: hejinglan
Rating: R / NSFW (Frontal nudity.)
Warning: None. (In canon they are underage, so please think of this as a future/college situation.)
Image dimensions: 350x447
Prompt: Digimon, Mimi/Sora, back to real life

( From time to time, they like to think about the old days. )

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Rewind, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Homura/Madoka

2011-04-01T06:13:51Z

Posted by: terajk

Title: Rewind
Creator: terajk
Rating: Mature
Warning: Spoilers through episode 10. Also (skip) violence, major character death, vomit.
Word Count: 1035
Prompt: Homura/Madoka, dutiful

( I have lifetimes )

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"Fireworks," Ace Attorney, Pearl/Trucy

2011-04-01T03:52:22Z

Posted by: stealth_noodle

Title: Fireworks
Creator: stealth_noodle
Rating: PG
Warning:None.
Word Count: 2017
Prompt: Pearl x Trucy, Apollo Justice timeline - they've always wanted a family, and find one in one another. (Or: their epic plot to set daddy Phoenix up with Mystic Maya backfires when they end up falling for one another.)
Teaser: "Why is it so hard to get them to figure out that they're obviously in love with each other?"

( Epic plot backfiring time! )

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"Caught", Black★Rock Shooter, Dead Master/Black★Rock Shooter

2011-03-31T23:45:02Z

Posted by: ivoryandhorn

Title: Caught
Creator: ivoryandhorn
Rating: hard R
Warning: noncon
Word Count: ~1200
Prompt: Dead Master/Black★Rock Shooter, ...I still remember / the smile when you tore me apart.
Teaser:

( She smiles, triumphant, and Black★Rock Shooter searches her green eyes for a signal, a sign. This time, there is none. )

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