#lubb2023

What counts as art? If you are an artist participating in this event, there are a lot of ways that "count." You can do traditional, digital, moodboards, banners, a piece of embroidery... as long as it is a visual piece of art that goes with the fic you are paired with, it counts!

Minimum Word Count: The absolute minimum word count for fic is going to be 5k. It can be a one-shot, or a multi-chapter fic. It can be 7k or 200k, whatever your heart desires. As long as it is at least five thousand words, and done by the deadline, it counts.

Can I write in a language other than English?

Of course you can! As long as you are able to communicate with your artist in whatever language to get the collaboration done, I fully endorse fanworks in the native languages of the authors.

LU-centric: This event is for the Linked Universe fandom. That means that all art and fic must fall into the greater umbrella of the LU.

That being said, if you want to write something that is entirely about one member of the chain, or only features three of them, that is completely fine. AUs are allowed. Crossovers are also permitted, as long as the focus is our beloved Links.

Go crazy. Just stay in the fandom.

Ratings: Go nuts. Fluff, angst, any and all archive warnings and ratings are permitted. Write G, write E, write whatever speaks to you. That being said, y'all better be tagging responsibly. Artists will be asked when filling out their signup sheets if they are comfortable creating art for certain ratings/warnings.

Original Works Only: All entries for this event must be original to this event. That means that authors can't add a few chapters to their current WIP and call it a day. And artist cannot decide that an existing project is close enough and make edits. The point of this is to create an explosion (or a BIG BANG if you will) of brand new fanworks.

Authors: this is the perfect excuse to dust of those plotbunnies and flesh them out.

Collaboration: This is a collaborative event. We are celebrating our love for the Legend of Zelda franchise, the Linked Universe, and the Chain together. That means that you have to keep in contact with your partner, and complete the two check-ins with me (the event organizer) so that everyone has a good time working together to make something beautiful.

Beta Reading: As someone who chronically posts without a beta, I am not going to enforce having one. That being said, this event will have a beta sign-up, and I strongly encourage taking advantage of our kind volunteers. Or use your own regular beta. Or live that "no beta, we die like men" life. You do you, I guess.

For those of you interested in volunteering to beta read, please, feel free to do so. There will be a sign-up for you wonderful, beautiful, selfless people.

Hosting: All fics will be hosted on Archive of Our Own. You are more than welcome to post them elsewhere as you so desire in addition, but the "homepage" for the event will be an Ao3 collection. If you are an author who wants to participate but does not yet have an Ao3 account, I recommend signing up for one now. Last time I checked, the wait list was about a week. Not bad. Paired art-pieces can be hosted anywhere that the artist chooses, as long as it is linked/attached to the corresponding fic.

Posting: Since a majority of the fandom is currently going though whumptober/flufftober/linktober, and I know how Nano can be, I am looking at a late early december post date.

That being said, when we do get to posting, there will be a couple of hard-fast rules. Fic will be posted with the art and a link to the art hosting page/artist. Art will be posted with a link to the fic. The point of this is that they go together, after all.

Support: Please reach out to me. Send me a message/ask for the tiniest thing. If you think that someone else already asked it, it's fine, I will answer it with a link to the other answered ask. This is not the first Big Bang or Reverse Bang that I have run, so no matter what the question is, I am sure I have heard it before. Ask it. It's fine.

Also, reach out to your fellow artists and authors. The point of events like this is to make friends, so go on! Talk to people!

Extensions/Deadlines: The point of this event is to create an explosion of content on one set date. That being said, I know that life happens. Words can be hard. The muse can abandon you, and leave you bereft of the ability to finish the work.

This is where that communication thing comes in. If you make sure that your partner and the mod (that's me, hi) knows that you are just running behind, then all is forgiven. That being said, do try to meet the deadline. And those who have not completed their work for this event will not be allowed to participate in the next event I run (if/when) that occurs until said work is completed. It wouldn't be fair to your partner otherwise.

Where do I sign up?

The official timeline and sign-up sheet will be out by this Sunday, October 8th. I will be posting it on my Tumblr. And will tag all successive posts for this event with #LUBB2023 (Linked Universe Big Bang 2023).

Any other questions?

What is the timeline again?

Here is the whole schedule post. But short version, sign-ups will close on November 11th, claims will be Saturday Nov. 18th and then everything will be posted on Saturday, January 27th.

What form do I fill out?

If you are going to write fic, click the author one. If you are going to make art, click the artist one. Beta readers, hit the Beta one. If you are going to be participating in more than one capacity, fill out a separate form for the separate ways you will participate. (EX: If you are going to write and also draw for someone else's fic, fill out both the artist and author forms).

Wait do you want my Tumblr or my email?

I want you to give me whatever method of contact information you have to give me. Tumblr, email, discord, whatever. Just give me at least one. My personal preference is tumblr, but I am not picky. I will work with you.

Why did you ask about potential archive warnings?

Because while I fully support the right of writers and artists to make art about whatever they damn well please, I don't want to match an author who is not comfortable with graphic violence with a fic that's just a beautiful gorey fight scene. This is not a moral judgement, I just want to respect everyone's boundaries and make sure we all have fun.

What are you going to do with the information I give you?

Your contact information will be given to your partner so that you guys can get to work on communicating and making beautiful fic/art. I will also use it to check in twice before posting to make sure everything is going well.

All other questions are to make sure the pairing / claims process goes as smoothly as possible for everyone.

How detailed do you want that fic summary?

That is frankly up to you. That blurb and working title is what I am going to be using to pitch your fic to the artists. After you two get in touch, then you can flesh out the details together. So if you think three words is enough to get an artist excited (EX: Ravio wielding Fi), then that will do. If you want to give a full 300 word book blurb, that's fine too.

What if I want to make fic for a different version of the Chain? Like Bonus Links or LinkedMaze?

You are one hundred percent more than welcome to do so! Just make sure that you include the fact that the fic is for a specific non-LU version of the boys in your summary when you fill out the form.

Wait! You forgot to tell us about X!

Fic Synopses

Working Title: Why can't you hear me?

Archive Warnings that May/Will Apply: Graphic Depictions of Violence Projected Archive Rating: T Synopsis: Legend is lost, he doesn't know where he is. Suddenly Dark Link appears and tells Legend his plan, to corrupt the veteran hero, and use him to get to all the other Links. Legend fights back but does not succeed. From then on, the chain slowly (really slowly) figure out whats going on and have to find Dark Link and find out how to rescue Legend from the corruption/possession. 

Working Title: Little Stitches

Archive Warnings that May/Will Apply: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death Projected Archive Rating: M Synopsis: A 5 plus one style series of vignettes of Hyrule with his resurrection dolls. The major character death is temporary, but will happen several times. Angst with a happy ending.

Working Title: Four Times

Archive Warnings that May/Will Apply: None Projected Archive Rating: T Synopsis: Time accidentally picks up the Four Sword. This goes about as well as anyone can expect.

Working Title: A Quieter Kind Of Courage

Archive Warnings that May/Will Apply: None Projected Archive Rating: G Synopsis: After a few days of resting in Ordon Village, Wind notices that something is weighing on Twilight's mind and asks him about it. Twilight admits that he has never told Uli and Rusl about his wolf form, and that he wants to but is afraid that they will fear him and drive him away. Wind encourages him to trust in their love for him and go talk to them. Twilight works up the courage to tell them. Many tearful hugs are had and Twi gets his fluffy head pet by his baby sister.

Working Title: Captain's Log

Archive Warnings that May/Will Apply: Graphic Depictions of Violence Projected Archive Rating: M Synopsis: Pre-LU fic where Wind gets captured by a band of rouge pirates and its up to the dream....ish team Linebeck and Tetra to get their swabbie (and trash rat) back!

Working Title: X Marks the Spot

Archive Warnings that May/Will Apply: Graphic Depictions of Violence Projected Archive Rating: T or M Synopsis: taking place in a modern world filled with mythological creatures, a group of bounty hunters go after their biggest prize yet; three young heroes reincarnated. 

F.A.Q

How Do you decide who gets what fic?

I do not decide anything. The claims will be awarded on a first-come basis. The first person to fill out the form gets their first choice. The second person also gets their first choice (unless the first person picked it, in which case they get their second), and so on.

When will the form close?

When the last artist who signed up for the event has made their choice! So in 10 minutes or three days, that's up to you guys.

When will I be told what fic I got?

As soon as physically possible. I will contact you through your listed preferred method, and inform you of which fic you have successfully claimed, and provide you with your author's preferred contact information. Depending on various human factors, this could take 30 seconds, or a few hours. I am but one man.

Why is there almost a week between fic synopsis reveal and claims?

So that everyone has a chance to look at the fics and make their decisions before you all rush me with your choices. Trying to keep this fair for the terminally online and the grass-toucher alike.

What if both my first and second choices are taken?

In this unlikely but unfortunate scenario, I will reach out to you directly for your third choice. I won't continue confirming claims until after I hear back from you, so don't worry, the next artist who answered isn't going to 'cut' your place in line.

Have any fun facts for us?

Yeah, actually. The fic to artist ratio has worked out so that two fics will actually end up with two artists. That's super fun and exciting for the lucky author who gets picked twice, and actually makes it more likely that all artists will get their first choice. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I am participating as an author. So one of you will be getting a "hi you got my fic," message.

Wait! You forgot to answer my question about XYZ!