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nominations

Mid-Nominations Notes

Thanks for all your nominations so far! 2732 fandom choices have been submitted so far (note that if two people nominate the same fandom, that counts twice towards that total).

Nominations will close at 9pm UTC 26 September. If your fandom requires evidence, please also submit it by that time. We can't give a decision on all fandoms on the Evidence Post by close of nominations, but the sooner you make your case, the better your chances of a swift answer.

We've seen some very large fandoms among the nominations! Yuletide is an exchange for rare fandoms. We will reject all of the fandoms below, so if one of them is your nomination, please choose again:

Baldur's Gate (Video Games) - I & II will be approved, as per evidence, but this label will be rejected

Actor RPF

Andor (TV)

Baldur's Gate (Video Games)

Black Sails (TV)

僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)

Deltarune (Video Game)

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)

Downton Abbey

Gravity Falls

Horizon (Video Games)

House M.D.

전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong

The Pitt (TV)

プロジェクトセカイカラフルステージ！| Project SEKAI COLORFUL STAGE! (Video Game)

斉木楠雄のΨ難 | Saiki Kusuo no Sai-nan | The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Star Trek: Enterprise

Undertale (Video Game)

Warframe

We also won't approve "All Media Types" or "& Related Fandoms". If you've nominated any of the following fandoms, please either pick a specific piece of media, or argue your case on the evidence post.

Ender's Game - All Media Types

History Boys - All Media Types

Midsomer Murders - All Media Types

We've seen nominations for relationships, original characters, or Reader characters. Please only use the Character field to nominate specific characters who appear in a canon. For exceptions, see the eligibility post.

We've also seen many well-formatted nominations and nominations we are excited about! Please keep them coming.

We are happy to answer questions about nominations.

Schedule, Rules, & Collection [still being tweaked for this year] | Contact Mods | Tag Set | Community DW | Community LJ | Discord | Pinch hits on Dreamwidth

Please either sign in to comment, or include a name with your anonymous comments, including replies to others' comments. Unsigned comments will stay screened.

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2025

Reveals!

The collection is open here. Go forth and enjoy! Creators will be revealed in one week, September 26 at 9:59PM Eastern Time. Please remember that comments are required in this exchange; if you have not commented before the start of next round you will be banned.

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2025,
sign-ups

Signups are closed!

Just an update that signups are closed! I'm going to finish fine-tuning matching tomorrow morning (East Coast time), so don't wait up for unmatchable emails tonight :)

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2025

All Assignments Are In!

All assignments are in and we will open on time tomorrow, September 19th, at 9:59PM Eastern. Please ensure your works are ready to be seen and loved! As a reminder, you must comment on your gift before the start of next year’s exchange, or you will be banned.

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ATLA: Heat, Wait, Steep, Repeat by Haicrescendo

Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender
Pairings/Characters: Zuko, Iroh, the GAang in the background
Rating: G
Length: 2,889 words, 19min 30s
Creator Links: Haicrescendo
Theme: Food & Cooking, character development, family, families of choice, going home, missing scenes,

Summary:

[Zuko’s greatest failing, not his only but just one that stands out the most in a very long list, is that he’s never known quite what he had until it’s gone. Or, on the opposite hand, he covets the things that don’t matter, that seem to matter so much at the time and turn out, in the end, to be something that Zuko’s made up in his head.

And then Zuko finds, of all things after it all, that he misses Uncle Iroh’s tea.]

Or,

Zuko screws up his life and in the process of fixing it, figures out some tea wisdom along the way.

Reccer's Notes: This story is so beautiful and gentle. I absolutely love seeing how Zuko's growth and character development is mirrored with his finally learning to make a decent cup of tea. Plus the neat detail of how he despite learning from and trying to emulate his uncle, he makes it his own way. Zuko and Iroh's relationship is lovely in this too. Just an all around lovely story. klainelynch does a beautiful job with the podfic as well

Fanwork Links:
Heat, Wait, Steep, Repeat
and the Podfic both on AO3

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Community Recs Post!

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fics/fancrafts/fanvids/podfics/fanart/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.

Current Music: “Cha Ge”

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Mo Dao Zu Shi; Chen Qing Ling: Tea Preferences by CQL Sects - a Headcanon, by watch-grok-brainrot

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi; Chen Qing Ling
Pairings/Characters: Gen; M/M; Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian; Jin Zixuan, Wen Qing, Wen Ning, Nie Mingjue, Nie Huaisang, Jiang Fengmian, Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli, Lan Xichen, Lan An, Lan Wangji
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 1,209 words
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, arrant pedantry, Author Showed Her Work, Food Porn, gastrotravelogue, tea nerdery, Tumblr work
Creator Tags:
headcanon, the untamed 陈情令, cql, mo dao zu shi, mdzs, wei wuxian, lan wangji, nie huaisang, jin zixuan, wen qing, nie mingjue, wangxian headcanon at the very end because that's what i'm here for, tea, i really like tea, heicha, oolong, white tea, green tea, dragonwell, my ramblings, qi is a thing for some tea drinkers

Creator Links: (AO3)

Haoppopotamus; (Instagram)

haoppopotamus; (Tumblr)

watch-grok-brainrot (formerly ~~wangxianbunnydoodles~~)
Theme: Food & Cooking, Cultural Differences, Meta, Research, Worldbuilding

Summary: Since watching ep 3 for the first time (i.e. january), this has been knocking around in my brain. In ep 3, we see JZXuan waltzing into the same inn as the Yunmeng Trio, booting them, and then rejecting “bad tea”. Ever since, I’ve watched a lot of tea being poured in CQL. It got me thinking, what kind of tea would different sects prefer and what would different characters drink?

Reccer’s Notes: In which Haoppo uses her tea connoisseurship as a vehicle for characterization and worldbuilding (and invites her imaginary friends to illustrate and share her interest.) For the likes of me (with no claim to Asian cred by birth or upbringing, and whose blunted sensory range reduces almost all tea to hot leaf juice), this serves as a window into an unfamiliar area of interest and body of cultural reference frames (the idea that tea might possess qi, not necessarily related to its flavor, was a new one on me—but of obvious importance to cultivators.)

Fanwork Links: Tea Preferences by CQL Sects - a Headcanon

(The original post, preserved on the Wayback Machine, includes a beautiful and apropos GIF header: Tea Preferences by CQL Sects - a Headcanon (~~wangxianbunnydoodles~~)

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Locked Tomb: Dead Dove With Left Grief

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admin: theme reminder

Theme Reminder: Food & Cooking

Photograph of steel spoons and spices in a dramatic setting with added text that gives it the look of a gourmet magazine cover: September 2025. Food & Cooking, at Fancake. Steel teaspoons are arranged in an elogated oval to suggest a fish, with the bowls acting as scales and some of the handles left visible to create the fins and tail, giving the creature a spiky appearance. The concave bowls are dusted with a powdery orange spice for color and one spoon at the front of the fish is filled with a coarse black spice to create an eye. The fish is on a black surface with a rough texture and around it are three skinny green peppers, a mound of salt, a mound of orange spice, and a dipping bowl filled with a clear amber liquid.

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Small Fandoms Bang: A Small Fandoms Big Bang

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Multifandom: Informal Tumblr Podfic Exchange 2025

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Small Fandoms (Multifandom): Small Fandoms Bang

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Community Challenge & Signup Reminder!

Hello, sweet and spooky Trick or Treaters! Signups close in just under two days (September 18 at 7:59 PM EDT/23:59 UTC). Here is the signup information post!

And for this year's Community Challenge, we're going retro again. Your collective goal is to treat every participant.

*except for the ones who opt out of treats. do not treat them!

This will be managed in a similar style to the 2021 community challenge (see here) with percentage tiers of success. I'll post the exact tier targets after signups close and we have the numbers.

Get excited, and good luck!

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due South: Hungry Like the Wolf, by Wagnetic

Fandom: due South
Characters/Pairings: Diefenbaker
Rating: Gen
Length: n/a (artwork)
Content Notes: may induce donut cravings!
Creator Links: Wagnetic on AO3
Theme: Food and cooking, Happy endings, Crafts, Textiles

Summary: A bag featuring Dief and the imminent demise of some donuts.

Reccer's Notes:
I will never stop reccing this! An excellently crafted bag with a felt appliqué of Dief about to enjoy a stack of donuts. It's so good, and a perfect likeness of Dief with a "donuts incoming" gleam in his eye!

Fanwork Links: Hungry Like the Wolf

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Multifandom: Eat, Drink, and Make Merry Exchange

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admin: poll: theme

Round 179 Theme Poll

Poll #33623 round 179 theme poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 105

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Mystery & Suspense
37 (35.2%)

Platonic Relationships
32 (30.5%)

Uncommon Settings
36 (34.3%)

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[Charity Auction] Marvel Trumps Hate Creator Registrations are Open!

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Current Mood: charmed

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Stargate Atlantis: A Supermarket in California

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairings/Characters: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Rating: Mature
Length: 7,571 words
Creator Links: whateverrrrwhatever on AO3
Theme: Food & Cooking

Summary: John decides that California doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

It's an AU where John Sheppard inherits a supermarket right next to Cal and meets Rodney McKay, physics professor. They kiss. That's it, that's the fic.

Reccer's Notes: This is an *almost* complete AU, shot through with wonderful location details, wherein John is a veteran who spent time in Antarctica and Rodney is a professor at Berkeley. In a series of snapshots, John inherits a run-down local market, decides he likes the neighborhood, and sets about making a place for himself. Then one day, an "unnecessarily dramatic" (as described in the tags) Rodney walks through the door.

This was one of the first SGA AUs I read and it stayed with me. I truly enjoyed following John as he problem solved; first the store, then Rodney. (Spoiler: the solution is snacks.)

Fanwork Links: Story on AO3

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2025

All Pinch Hits Claimed

All pinch hits are claimed! Thank you so much to our wonderful pinch hitters. If all assignments come in as expected, reveals will be Friday, September 19, 9:59PM Eastern Time. We will update ASAP if anything changes and there is a delay. However, please take these next four days to ensure your works are ready to be seen and loved!

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Ladies' Bingo 2025-2026 (Round 13)

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