This year's bingo will run during the month of October between October 15 and 31, and all kiss fills specifically have to be themed in one (or more) of three areas:

Seasonal, meaning the season and weather in your part of the world in October has to be an important part of the fill. Is that spring on the pampas? Fire season in the Outback? Deep winter on Antarctica? The cozy autumnal vibes of "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?" All of these are fair game, and more. We'd love to see settings and seasons and seasonal feasts/events from all over the world that take place in October if bingoers are so inclined.

Spooky, which could be Halloween themed or more general horror, thriller, monster, ghost, horror, etc. themed. These are scary fills, and happy endings are not required. Angst, gore, and MCD are allowed but must be tagged in the fic and on tumblr.

Spoopy, by which we mean spooky but with a silly, cozy, or otherwise basically lighthearted tone. We would expect a happy ending to a spoopy fill.

The format will be the same: a 3 x 3 card, with cards generated after participants fill out a form we'll put up at a later date.

The rules will be the same, as are the requirements about tagging and warnings for flashing, etc.. Since horror and seriously scary offerings with unhappy endings are definitely allowed, the requirements about tagging especially apply.

Your mods (@dontbelasagnax @notthestarwar and @lttrsfrmlnrrgby) are the same and we're psyched to welcome back @picktheonesthatlast , who's going to help us with logging and checking fills and other admin things. We could use another helper or three for reviewing fills and logging them, as well as helping with announcements, banners/headers, and more. If you'd be interested, drop us a message or ask here!

So what's next?

Subscribe to notifications to this blog so you don't miss any news and can act during sign up windows. We will cross-post in the codywan tag, use #cwfkb3 and #cwfkb2026 and #cwfkb, and post reminders in the Codywan Nation Community here on tumblr. You can also email us at [email protected] with questions if you don't want to use the ask box or messages here.

And, as always, every fill is a winner, whether you make bingo or not. We can't wait to see how all you creative, talented members of Codywankisslandia fill the prompts and the themes!

Let the SpoopKySeason (we're still workshopping the catchphrase…) CWFKB3 countdown begin!

General Rules

We're sure you are familiar with the rules of bingo, but just to be certain everyone is on the same page, to get a bingo you must fill three prompts in a row. That row can be vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. Fill all the prompts on your card and that's a blackout!

Get as creative with your kisses as you want, but they MUST BE A FIRST KISS between Obi-Wan and Cody in some capacity. 

Prompt fills (that are not podfic) should be new works, meaning that they should not be part of an ongoing work-in-progress that has not yet been posted as a complete work. Sequels and prequels to already-finished works are welcome! 

Posting Dates

Participants have the October 15, 2026 to October 31, 2026 to post bingo fills! Sign up around the time of this announcement and you will have a long creation window before posting time rolls around.

You are strongly encouraged to post to our collection on ao3 and we love to see your posts on tumblr, too– if you’re posting on tumblr, please tag us on main (not in the codywan community, but on your main blog) using @codywanfirstkissbingo AND tagging your post with #CWFKB2026.  We don’t want to miss anyone if tumblr drops the ball in our notifications.  Using #CWFKB2026 gives us another way to find your fill.  

If you’re posting on AO3, we will reblog your fill if you make a Tumblr post with the link,  @ us and tag your post with #CWFKB2026. We’ll be checking the AO3 collection when tracking fills and making round-up posts with bingos and blackouts, so your fills will be included there– but we will not cross-post every individual fill on AO3 as its own post if the creator has not made a tumblr post we can reblog to share. Posts shared anywhere but tumblr or AO3 will not count, but you can crosspost to other platforms if you like (i.e., Squidge, DreamWidth, Pillowfort.)

If you post only on AO3 and don't see comments or follow up from any of the mods in your AO3 prompt within 24 hours, please drop us an ask here or send us an email with a link to your work.

When posting on tumblr and/or on AO3, please be sure to include a screenshot of your bingo card with the prompt fill indicated so we know which square you’ve filled! We will not count a post as a valid fill if there is no picture of your bingo card, but if your tumblr post has your bingo card and links over to AO3 for the actual fill, then you don't have to post it twice.

Specific Rules

Fic: 100 words minimum per prompt fill. To be clear, the kiss itself does not have to last 100 words, though we'd be delighted to see that.

Art: One drawing per fill (digital or traditional). Different drawings can be on the same canvas/page if you so wish. Go wild with your compositions.

Podfic: Same requirements as fic for tagging and posting, HOWEVER you do not have to confine yourself to this year's theme. All flavors of podfic welcome. Chatty cold reads, multivoices, minimally edited, lots of editing, music/sfx, repods, and more. Cover art optional. You can definitely collab with an author or fellow podficcers for this event if you so desire. We will provide you with an extensive spreadsheet of first kiss fics whose authors have given permission for podficcing. (CWFKB authors and codywan authors more generally, now's your chance to add fanworks permissions to your AO3 profile!) Bring on the podfics!!!

Fanmix: One song per fill- we'd love to see what songs give you codywan first kiss vibes! Try to match lyrics to your prompt but instrumental songs are cool too.

Fanworks must be human-created: You may not use GenAI for any part of your fill-- no prompts, no autofill, nothing. The spirit of fandom requires human creativity, period. The mods will post some seasonal, spooky, and spoopy prompts to inspire you, and we are happy to call for beta volunteers if there's an interest, but it's up to you, not Claude or ChatGPT or any other GenAI gizmo, to create your fill.

Other: Send an ask with your inquiry! We're more than happy to discuss expanding the fanwork pool to maximize creativity.

Ratings

You can post any work with any rating, but please do use ratings/archive warnings/tags on AO3 when posting there. When posting on tumblr, please warn for potentially triggering content in the tags and the header to the post, so readers can filter as needed. 

Anything gory, any MCD, any angst, and anything spicy or explicit should go under a read-more tag.

Please also use a read-more tag if you’re posting a fic that is longer than a drabble (100 words) so we’re not clogging people’s dashboards.

To help make this event safe for Codywan fans with any kind of photophobic issues, you must tag any and all flashing imagery with #flashing. If you're unsure what constitutes flashing, please see this article, or err on the side of caution for any image with: moving stripes or checkered patterns; strobe light, lightning, or explosion effects in any image or video; images of flickering light/sunlight on leaves/water; very fast cuts between images in a gif or video; rapidly moving images in an animation or gif set that stop and start or “stutter;” sparkle text or similar moving text effects; and images in an animation, gifset, or video that are in high color contrast to each other (for example, a gif set that cuts pink Barbie gifs with black & white Oppenheimer gifs to create a fast-moving contrast between the two styles.)

To make this event accessible for Codywan fans who are low-vision, have visual processing disorders, or who otherwise find their fandom experience strongly enhanced when art, photographs, and photomanips have Alt-Text captions, we strongly recommend that you add Alt-Text to your posted image on tumblr, so that Codywan fans with screen-readers can enjoy your post along with everyone else.  This post at Perkins School for the Blind gives you some tips and tricks– the description doesn’t have to go into every detail a seeing person would see, but an example might be: “A full-color digital drawing of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Commander Cody kissing under mistletoe.  Both Obi-Wan and Cody are smiling, and little cartoon hearts are floating around them.”

The CWFKB mods' decision is final on whether your post/entry requires a flashing warning; they will contact you to ask you to update your tags if you haven’t already noted in your tumblr or AO3 post that your fill contains #flashing content. If you are not willing to use the flashing tag, even after being contacted by the mods, the mods have the right to decide that under-tagged flashing fills will be disqualified from the event.

Finally– please include #NSFW or #spicy #gore and #flashing tags on tumblr– posters whose tags or ratings are deceptive, insufficient, or misleading versus the actual content may have their fills disqualified.

When in doubt, please contact the mods! We will also contact you about any fill where the tags or ratings raise a concern or where something just isn't clear. Please keep an eye on your email after a fill, because that will be one of the ways we will contact you.

Combining Prompts

This is a low stakes event and we just want people to have fun! If you want to combine prompts that's totally fine, but we ask that you give each fill its own scene within the larger work. This means there should be a separate kiss for each prompt, even if the 'scene' is a series of types of kisses all in a row.

Swapping Prompts

Nearly have a bingo but there's that one pesky prompt in your way you don't vibe with? Go ahead and swap it with another prompt on your card!  All the prompts are randomly selected and not handpicked for participants; we understand there's a chance some of the prompts may not inspire you, so we allow ONE and only ONE SWAP PER CARD. Use the Force swap, codywaners!  Use the swap!

Free Square

The free square can be whatever type of kiss you want. It can be a repeat of a kiss already on your card, or something else altogether-- just make it clear in your post that you are using the free space.

FAQ

What is a "Fill"?

On your bingo card you have squares each containing a prompt. You fill the square when you fulfill a prompt. Therefore each work you make for this event will contain at least one fill.

How do I demonstrate it's a first kiss in an artwork?

Any kiss depicted in an art fill is automatically assumed to be a first kiss! If you want to provide more context and let the viewers into the world you've drawn then you can absolutely write up a summary or description of the scene!

Are there any rules against AUs and Gender Swaps?

AUs of all kinds, including gender swaps, are more than welcome - fusions and crossovers, too!

Since all works for this event have to be new, does that mean it can't be something I've posted on tumblr?

If the work is something you initially created for purposes other than this event then, no, it can't be used for this event.

However, this absolutely does not forbid you from sharing your progress online. In fact, we encourage you to share your WIPs and give sneak peeks to excite everyone! If you tag us we will give it a reblog to show everyone what you're up to and cheer you on!

How do I swap prompts?

We recommend you draw an arrow on your card to keep it easy for us mods checking for bingos!

Example (old big card):

Confused About Kisses

Butterfly Kiss: This is when eyelashes touch and flutter! It's a very ticklish, playful kind of kiss.

Sensory Kiss: Any kind of kiss that involves the senses-- staring at someone's lips before kissing them, the friction of someone's mustache or chapped lips, the scent of their lip balm, the taste of coffee in their mouth, the noise of lips smacking, heck, even morning or garlic breath. As long as there's some element of the sensory input of the kiss, you're all set!

Magical Kiss: It could be a wonderful, perfect kiss. Or it could have some sort of magical influence - there's lots of room for you to play. However you interpret the word "magical".

Thirsty Kiss: This can be desperate, lustful, full of desire... or they could physically be parched and in need of some water.

Behind the Scenes

This bingo is modded by tumblr users @dontbelasagnax @notthestarwar and @lttrsfrmlnrrgby , who brought you #CWFKB2023 and #CWFKB2025.  This year we are rejoined by the amazing helper @picktheonesthatlast . We would totally welcome additional helpers, either for logging fills, helping tabulate signups, or working with graphics.

Our adorable profile picture was drawn by @anaclastic-azurite!

You can actually find the public inception of this bingo event right here!