#be 2026

1. SIGN IN TO AO3

If you don’t have an Ao3 account, contact the mods for help!

2. GO TO THE BLACK EMPORIUM SIGNUP FIELD (LINK)

3. SCROLL TO THE “REQUESTS” FIELD

Once nominations are finished, you'll be able to sign up. In your sign-up, you'll specify the works you'd like to receive and the works you're willing to create. (They do not necessarily have to be the same!)

You must fill out at least three requests and three offers. You may only select each pairing once, but may give multiple ideas per pairing in your prompt.

If you are interested in receiving Mature- or Explicit-rated works, you must be at least 18 years old and opt-in by checking the appropriate box ("E"); this is not a guarantee you will receive a higher level.

You will have to fill out several fields on the sign-up form:

↳ Relationships

Here you can write in the relationships that you wish to request. As long as it is part of the tag set/eligible nominated pairings, it should be able to be selected here.

If your chosen relationship is in the tag-set but isn't auto-completing, this is unfortunately a bug on AO3's end that we cannot fix -- but if you copy and paste your relationship from the tag-set into this field, you should be able to submit. (Please contact moderators via email at [email protected] if you get an error and let us know what the error was.)

We have increased the amount of allowed Requests per participant from 30 to 40!

You may list between 1-4 pairings in the same Request field. That does not (necessarily) mean you want all four ships in the same fanwork. We allow multiple pairings in the same Request Field because it allows participants to request up to 40 unique pairings, rather than just 10. Some people group thematically, or by character.

Example of someone requesting three, non-connected pairings. The participant here loosely grouped their "platonic" ships together into one Request Field.

Example of someone requesting a pairing.

↳ Additional Tags

This field is to mark if you're open to receiving fanfiction, fanart, or both (check both boxes), for this request.

Example of someone requesting ONLY fanart for any pairings listed in this Request field.

↳ Ratings (Requests)

If you are open to receiving Mature- or Explicit-rated works, please check the box to indicate your interest. We use the AO3 ratings guide as far as judging what each rating entails.

Any participant under 18 should NOT indicate interest in M or E works, as those are intended for 18+ audiences only.

Please choose your ratings carefully! Indicating interest in receiving higher rating works does not mean you are guaranteed to receive them, just that other people will be allowed to gift them to you in this exchange. If you're not comfortable with that possibility, do not check this box.

This recipient did not check the "Explicit" box; they will not receive any Mature or Explicit level works.

↳ Letter

This is a place to put a link to a letter, if you have one. A letter generally is a completely optional, longer version of the description field, and might include more details you'd like your creator to know, or things like pictures that are hard to paste into the description box.

Letters are commonly hosted on Dreamwidth, Tumblr, Google docs, or other such freely accessible websites.

Please note that the moderators cannot enforce any DNWs you put only in your letter.

Completely optional field. Leave blank if you don't have a letter.

↳ Description

Please feel free to use this field to go into some detail about what you would like; this helps give the creator of your work some different ideas about what they could make for you.

If you are open to treats, please indicate interest. See "Treats" for more.

Because there are so many different options for Rook, we are allowing participants to opt-in to a wider range via the Optional Details box. If you've participated before and used our Treat template, this is a similar idea! Post here explaining how.

Examples of prompts or helpful information you could share with your recipient (reminder, your creator is not required to follow your prompts/likes):

General trope likes, e.g., Fluff, First Kiss, Dwarven lore, There Was Only One Bed, Enemies to Lovers, etc.

Stylistic likes, e.g., 2nd person writing, Tarot Card art, chat-fic, etc.

World state options you favor that are relevant to your prompt, e.g., Anora is Queen/Alistair is King, Canon Divergent - Multiple Wardens, Modern AUs, etc.

A sentence or two about why you like the pairing, e.g., "I love Cassandra being flustered around people she likes!"

"What If?" prompts, especially open ended ones, e.g., "What if Blackwall did the Joining ceremony with the Hero of Ferelden in DAO? Or met HoF in the Deep Roads during the Jaws of Hakkon DLC in DAI? Would they have similar perspectives, or different?"

Rating restriction clarifications, e.g., interested in E rated smut, but not E rated violence

Be sure to list your Do Not Wants (DNWs) — if they're not listed in the Description box of your sign up, then the mods cannot enforce your DNWs. If your DNWs are poorly worded or go against exchange rules, they will also be considered unenforceable.

Example Description. This person has NOT opt into treats and cannot receive any. Please see here for more help formulating your DNWs.

4. CONTINUE TO THE “OFFERS” FIELD

The process to Offers is similar to Requests when it comes to pairings and denoting interest in creating fanart and/or fanfic. However, there are a couple differences one should make note of:

↳ Ratings (Offers)

If you are interested in creating Mature- or Explicit-rated works, please check the box to indicate your interest. We use the AO3 ratings guide as far as judging what each rating entails.

Any participant under 18 should NOT indicate in creating M or E works, as those are intended for 18+ audiences only.

Please choose your ratings carefully! You will be matched on this field; if you're not comfortable with receiving prompts that may include NSFW or "E" elements, do not check this box.

↳ "Notes to mods" Field

If you want, you can write notes to the mods, but this isn't required. Some things you might want to include:

If you are under 18 or do not want to receive any "E" requests/prompts from your recipient, please put a simple "No 'E' requests" or in your sign up. This will not disclose your age as we have adult participants who have asked this of mods over the years.

If you're attempting to avoid all spoilers related to Dragon Age: The Veilguard, including any details that may be included in a prompt sign-up, please write a note to alert mods.

The AO3 username of any individual(s) you don't want to be matched with. You don't have to provide a reason as to why you don't want to be matched with someone, but we will rely entirely on the name(s) you enter; if you ask not to be matched with FanficWriter69 but you meant FanficWriter96, we can't guarantee you won't get matched. For the sake of everyone's stress level, triple check any names and make sure you're giving us their AO3 username.

Please do not use this field to ask to be matched with a specific person.

↳ "Any Relationship" Box

If you would like, you can offer to create a work for "Any Relationship."

PLEASE ONLY CHECK THIS BOX IF YOU TRULY MEAN ANY RELATIONSHIP.

The only qualifications you can make are the category of pairings (i.e. F/F, F/M, M/M, Other, Gen, or Multi) or by DA game (i.e. DAO, DA2, DAI). You cannot differentiate by any other qualification or request.

An example of someone offering to draw fanart for any F/F pairing.

An example of someone offering to create fanart and/or fanfiction for the pairing "Fenris & Donnic Hendyr," but requesting not to be matched with a specific user.

5. A NOTE ON MATCHING

After sign-ups are completed, creators and recipients are matched based on their sign-ups. Matches are one-way; that is, while it is possible A may write for B and B may write for A, you are more likely to have A writing for B, and B writing for C, and C writing for A.

You will be assigned to someone who has at least one request that matches at least one of your offers for the below two fields: relationship pairing and type of fanwork.

You will be matched with someone who requested:

at least one of the pairings for which you offered to write or draw ("Relationship" field), and

at least one type of fanwork you offered ("Additional Tags" field aka fanfic, fanart, or both — if both, you can create an assignment in either format; you are not obligated to create two assignments), and

whether or not you've both indicated interest in Mature- or Explicit-rated content ("E" checkbox)