Alternate Universe 5k Exchange

Creators have now been revealed for the 2025/2026 round of AU5k! Thank you all so much for participating - this exchange is always one of my absolute favorites to run and I love seeing the love we have for AUs every year.

A few notes, and a few questions I’ve had for you guys regarding the event:

1. Do you like the length of the creation period? Too long? Too short? Prefer a more formal check-in in the middle?
2. Do you like the time of year that this event takes place? (mid November to March/April) Is it potentially conflicting too much with FFFX and HAex or are we okay with where we’re at in the event calendar?
3. How do we feel about a commenting rule for next year? I think if I implement one, it’ll start on works submitted for the 2026/2027 round (meaning no one will be penalized for not commenting on gifts until 2027/2028 round signups) and be something close to FFFX’s “please comment on gifts before next year’s signups open, or otherwise contact me to discuss,” but I’m not entirely married to the idea and would like some input on whether we think that’s something you guys would prefer as a group.
4. Any other feedback? Comment down below!

Hello Hello! All of our pinch hits have now been claimed, and the collection is tentatively set for revealing at 10pm EDT on the 29th of March.

We still have six works that need to be filled by hard working pinch hitters before the collection can reveal, so I will be able to update all of us at the latest on the night of the 28th regarding whether or not the collection will reveal on the 29th, but my expectation is that everyone will come through, which means it is getting Very Close Now Indeed, and it's definitely time to start getting those last polishing edits in, avoiding scope creep for real this time, etc etc.

We're almost there!

This pinch hit post is out of date! Please see our most recent pinch hit post! ( Read more... )

Hooray! Assignments have been sent! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the modmail (TavinaFanfiction@gmail.com) if you suspect that there’s been a problem with your assignment.

Keep an eye out on the comm for the Initial Pinch Hits! These will be posted shortly.

Thank you everyone for your patience while we work through Tagset Cleanup. There is still one outstanding query for The Witcher - AMT, if this is a fandom you would like to offer or request, please see this post for more potential details and get back to us!

As of now, signups are open! Please find the signup form here.

The amazing DontStopHerNow has created a freeform picker to help us with signups, see here for the link to make your own freeform picker, and here for a handy list of new freeform tags that we have added for the 2025 round that weren’t in the 2024 round.

Signups will close on December 19th, 2025 at 10pm EST. (Signups Closing Countdown Timer)

Signups Closing Countdown Timer | AU Freeforms Picker Spreadsheet | Signup Form | 2025 Relationships Tagset | Freeforms Tagset | 2025 Collection | 2025 Auto App Link

Hello Hello!

We have some nominations queries! Please let us know within 24 hours about how we might update these tags, so we can get the bulk of tagset cleanup under way!

Relationships and Characters:

• Alan Wake (Video Games)
• Fictional Alex Casey/Fictional Ilmo Koskela (Alan Wake)
• Nominator, we’re not sure that “Fictional Ilmo Koskela” is a canonical character in this game. Can you, or anyone else that’s familiar with this game let us know? Thank you!
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• 1: Founder Undercover at Starfleet Headquarters as Admiral Leyton Who Transforms into a Bird (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
• Nominator, would you mind if we accepted this as “1: Founder-imposter Admiral Leyton (DS9)” for the sake of making this nomination more succinct?
• Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
• Nominator, I’ve heard from you a bit about why you’d prefer All Media Types for this fandom - other people who might request or offer this fandom, would you take this to be “I don’t really care which version of canon I get” ? I’m not inherently opposed to accepting this as it’s own thing outside of the games, show, and books for this year, though I think in future we might want to discuss this a bit more on a future Franchises Post to clarify what we mean, since we use Star Wars - AMT to catch Star Wars inter-canon crossovers. (Though I suppose that might be more of an edge case than anything.)
• 燕云十六声 | Where Winds Meet (Video Game)
• Tags with “Female Shao Dong Jia” - Nominator(s) can you confirm that Shao Dong Jia is the player character or that their gender is customizable in game (and therefore that there’s a corresponding Male Shao Dong Jia)? If there’s only one canonical gender for this character, would it be acceptable to accept these nominations as Shao Dong Jia? Sorry, I wasn’t able to find a character list for this game when investigating!

Freeforms:

• ALL: Alternative Hanahaki AU
• Nominator, we’d prefer a bit more specificity on what kind of alternate hanahaki au you’re looking for, can you update us on what kind of Alternative Hanahaki? (Platonic Hanahaki? Hanahaki where they cough up lizards? Hanahaki that doesn’t kill you? Hanahaki that doesn’t require a confession? Something else entirely?)
• ALL: Bad Guys Win
• Nominator, we have “ALL: The bad guys win/The good guys fail” in the tagset already - is this an acceptable tag, or were you aiming for something slightly different with this nomination? Let us know your thoughts!
• ALL: Different characters get together
• Nominator, we discussed and thought this tag might be a bit confusing esp if you end up requesting canonical ships. This might be something that’s already baked into the ships you request, even if it’s technically an AU. If you were thinking of a more specific scenario/think there’s a way to clarify this that we haven’t thought of, please let us know!
• ALL: Hogwarts AU
• Nominator, we already have “ALL: Harry Potter AU - Hogwarts Setting” in the tagset! Were you thinking of a different kind of Hogwarts AU? Let us know if what’s already in the tagset makes sense for what you’d like to request!
• ALL: Superheroes AU
• Nominator, we already have “ALL: Superhero/Supervillain AU” in the tagset! Let us know if this tag would be what you’re interested in requesting and/or offering, or if there’s a way to clarify that this tag is substantially different!
• White Collar: AU where Neal is not a CI but an indentured slave and Peter and El take him in (with or without smexy tiems).
• Nominator, I appreciate your love for this specific scenario, but we discussed and felt that this might be a bit too much of a “boxing your creator into writing one very specific prompt” situation. Would it be acceptable to you to accept this tag as “White Collar: Neal is an indentured slave AU” ?

Rejected Tags with Undefined/Too Large Groups:

• All for the Game:
• Palmetto State Foxes Members & Neil Josten (AFTG)
• Avatar the Last Airbender:
• The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
• Critical Role Exandria:
• Bells Hells & Ashton Greymoore (CritRole Exandria)
• Bells Hells & Orym (CritRole Exandria)
• Cerberus Assembly & Caleb Widogast (CritRole Exandria)
• The Mighty Nein & Caleb Widogast (CritRole Exandria)
• Volstrucker & Caleb Widogast (CritRole Exandria)
• DCU Comics
• Batfamily Members & Dick Grayson (DCU)
• Fire Emblem Three Houses
• Byleth Eisner and Blue Lions Students (FE:3H)
• Marvel 616
• Beyond Corporation & Ben Reilly (616)
• God Fighters Team & Ben Reilly (616)
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians
• Camp Half-Blood Campers & Luke Castellan (PJO)
• Kronos Army Demigods & Luke Castellan (PJO)
• The Gods & Luke Castellan (PJO)
• Teen Wolf TV
• The Pack & Stiles Stilinski (Teen Wolf)
• Young Justice Cartoon
• Dick Grayson & Members of the Team (YJ Cartoon)
• Pluribus
• The Others & Carol Sturka (Pluribus)
• The Others/Carol Sturka (Pluribus)

If any of the nominators of these rejected tags would like to discuss re: this group being well defined and not more than 6 distinct people (unfortunately, guaranteeing a work will include all the members of a group that’s larger than 6 + anyone else in the nomination already is very difficult even for a 5k event!) please let us know in the next 24-48 hours, and we can add the nomination back in!

Hi everyone! We're 4.5 hours or thereabouts from nominations closing for the 2025/2026 round of AU5k!

What time is that for me?

After nominations close later tonight, there will be a query post going up likely sometime tomorrow - we do not have many queries, so be on the lookout if your nominations have not been processed 24 hours after nominations close.

Next, we will head into nominations cleanup, where we will look for and remove duplicates, fix up any nominations that need to be queried, and finish processing all of the nominations still outstanding in the tagset, before we begin to open for signups. Signups may open early depending on the quickness of the process for nomination cleanup, but this cannot be guaranteed, so expect signups to open at the scheduled time.

Thank you to everyone for your interest in this event, and an especial thanks to DontStopHerNow for their outstanding work during the nominations period, your help is much appreciated.