cap_ironman | 2024 Cap-Ironman Holiday Exchange Rules and Sign-Up Information

We hope you’re as excited as we are, because it's the middle of September and we're moving towards the end of the year, which means it's time for one of our most popular fests! Welcome to another round of the Cap-Ironman Holiday Exchange!

The Cap-Ironman Holiday Exchange is our annual fanwork exchange for Steve/Tony and Steve&Tony works. Each participant is matched to secretly create a Stevetony fanwork for another participant.

At the end of December, gifts are revealed in batches, and then in early January the creators are revealed! Stick around to guess who gifted what before creator names are announced in our Masterpost.

Before signing up, please read through the General Cap-IM Event Guidelines and the specific HE guidelines below even if you have participated before. There are some changes this year that we hope will make signing up easier for everyone!

For the full schedule and quick links to related posts, check out the 2024 Holiday Exchange & Community Gifts Information Masterpost.

★ SCHEDULE

September 15: Exchange sign-ups open
October 6, 10:00 PM ET (what time is it for me?): Sign-ups close
October 6-10: Matching period
October 11: Assignments sent out at the latest
December 11: Last day to drop out penalty-free
December 18, 10:00 PM ET(what time is it for me?): Finished exchange assignments are due
December 25: Start of gift reveals
January 7: Creator reveals

★EXCHANGE PARTICIPATION GUIDELINES (click to expand)

You must be 18 or older to participate in the Cap-IM Holiday Exchange.

You must have an Archive of Our Own (AO3) account. You can request one here. If you can't get an AO3 account in time, let us know and we will try to provide you with an invitation.

By signing up, you are commiting to create a gift that focuses on Steve and Tony's relationship—whether it is romantic, platonic, pre-slash or otherwise as requested—in one of the exchange's eligible universes, and abide by the minimum fanwork requirement for your medium.

Gifts must be previously unpublished and posted as a complete work for this exchange.

This is a secret exchange and all gifts are meant to be a surprise. Please don't reveal who you are creating for or discuss the specifics of your work publicly until after the creators are revealed.

★FANWORK TYPES AND MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

By signing up you are committing to creating, at minimum, one of the below:

Artwork (traditional or digital mediums,incl fancomics): One polished work on an unlined surface.
Fanfiction: One fanfic of at least 1000 words. You are encouraged but not required to have it betad.
Fanmix: One fanmix of at least 5 songs, with cover art (which can be digital, traditional, an edit, etc.)
Fanvid: One vid of at least 1 minute with no gaps or missing footage
Gifsets and Edits/Manips: Two gifsets or manips, of a quality that you would be happy to receive as a gift.
One manip/edit
Podfic: One podfic of at least 500 words if you are also writing the text for it. One podfic of at least 1000 words if you are recording a pre-existing work.

You must request and offer to create a fanwork in at least one of the universes listed below:

Avengers Academy (game)
Avengers Assemble (cartoon)
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (cartoon)
Iron Man Noir
Marvel 616
Marvel 1872
Marvel 3940
Marvel Adventures (Comics)
Marvel’s Avengers (2020 game)
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Marvel Ultimates
Marvel 6160

★SIGN-UPS (click to expand)

You can sign up for the exchange here from September 15.

Sign ups take place on AO3 and consist of one request (what you want to receive) and one offer (what you want to create). When sign-ups open, there will be an announcement on all Cap-Ironman platforms.

If you do not have a Transformative Works Statement in your AO3 profile (or otherwise easily accessible) please either give your potential gifter permission to podfic your works in your request, add a statement to your profile, or specify that you are not willing to have your own works podficced.

You can edit and delete your sign-up until October 6, 10:00 PM EDT what time is it for me?).

If you have any questions or concerns, please email the mods at cap.im.events@gmail.com before sign-ups close; we'll be more than happy to provide any clarifications and help you through the sign-up process.

Please note that if your sign-up does not not comply with the HE rules after October 6, it might be deleted so matching can start.

REQUESTS
In the request part of your sign-up you state what you want to receive as a gift from your secret gifter.

You must fill out four required fields:

"Fandom" — this is where you you choose all the universe(s) that you’d be happy to receive a gift for.

"Characters" — this is where you choose which fanwork types you would like to receive a gift in. You MUST choose at least 2 worktypes.

"Additional Tags" — this is where you choose all tropes and themes that match the prompts you've listed. The tags are used by AO3 to match you to your gifter.

"Prompts and Details" — this is where you list your prompts, any Do Not Wants, and additional Likes.

FANDOM
The Fandom field is where you specify all the universe(s) that you’d be happy to receive a gift for. You must select at least one universe, but can choose as many as you like.

If you plan to request AU prompts (for example, a Star Trek AU), please make sure that in the Fandom field you select the universe that you want Steve and Tony's characterisation to be inspired from.

You can mark the "Any Fandom" checkbox instead of specific universes for either (or both) your Request and Offer. Be aware that by checking "Any Fandom" you are saying that you are happy to receive/create for all universes listed.

CHARACTERS
Due to AO3 limitations, we can't rename this field — it's for the worktypes that you would like to receive a gift in! Note that even if you select multiple worktypes, you will only receive one gift.

You can opt in to receive up to six worktypes:

Fanart
Fanfiction
Fanmix
Fanvid
Manip/Gifsets
Podfic

You must select at least two worktypes for your Request. Start typing "Worktype" all the options will appear in a dropdown on AO3.

ADDITIONAL TAGS
We recommend filling this section out AFTER you have decided on your prompts.

The Additional Tags field is for all the tags from the 2024 HE tag set that apply to the prompts in your Prompts and Details section. The tropes and themes you choose are used to generate matches through AO3's auto-matching system, so please make sure that your tags match the kind of gift you would like to receive.

For example, If one of your prompts contains identity porn, make sure to tag "Identity Porn". Don't choose the "Angst" tag if all your prompts are fluffy, or "Wedding" if you don't have a prompt related to weddings.

Please look at our example sign-up post with embedded images and read the instructions in this post carefully.

You must choose a minimum of 5 Additional Tags. There is an AO3 maximum of 20 tags. Please choose as many tags as apply to your prompts. In this exchange more well-chosen tags mean better matches!

You can see the full list of available tags here on AO3.

PROMPTS

Every sign-up must have at least two long prompts and two short prompts overall.
- A long prompt is a basic synopsis of a plot you would like to see.
- A short prompt is up to 10 words that describe a theme, basic trope, or is a link to a poem, song or illustration as inspiration.

Make sure you have at least one long prompt and one short prompt open to each universe you listed in the Fandom field of your request to ensure your secret gifter finds something to work with. You can mark any prompt as being open to more than one universe (list the specific universes) or make general prompts and indicate that they can be interpreted for any of the universes you listed.

Don't indicate any preference about which prompt you'd like to receive the most!

OPTIONAL PROMPTS
You have the option to indicate that you'd be happy to receive an accompanying fanwork for your own existing Steve/Tony or Steve&Tony works as a gift. Please let your creator know where to find your works if they are not on AO3. Works that were created for a Big Bang, Reverse Bang, or the Tiny Reverse Bang event are not eligible for this option.

You can also request one or more crossover, fusion, or unlisted universe prompts (for example, Ults/AA, crossover 616/Inception fusion, Bullet Points, Contest of Champions, Avengers Twilight). Please specify the universes in your prompt, and make sure to select the "Marvel Multiverse Crossover" or "Fusions/Crossovers" tags as applicable.

Please note that these optional prompts DO NOT count towards the minimum prompt requirements of 2 short, 2 long.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
These go in the "Prompts and Details" section of your request, after your prompts.

DO NOT WANTS (optional)
List tropes, warnings, characters, side pairings, etc. that you do not want to see in your gift. Your creator is not allowed to include any of your Do Not Wants in your gift. If these only apply to specific prompts, then you can list them in the prompt as well. Conversely, if there is one prompt that is an exception to this list, mention that in the prompt.

LIKES (optional)
List additional tropes, characters, side pairings, etc. that you would be happy to see included in any gift you receive. Do not repeat things already in your prompts or Additional Tags. This is a bonus list for 'extra inspiration', and your creator is not required to include any or all of these in your gift.

LANGUAGE (optional)
Mention any languages other than English that you are willing to receive gifts in. This means that if your creator is fluent in one of the languages you have listed, they will have the option to create a gift in that language(s).

Keep in mind AO3 only allows 5000 characters in the "Prompts and Details" section. Be concise and use the space wisely!

Example sign-up

OFFER
The Offer section is where you indicate ALL the universes, fanwork types and tropea and themes that you would be happy to create for.

You must select at least one universe that you are willing to create in, but you can select as many as you like. You can tick the "Any Fandom" checkbox if you are happy to create for all fandom tags in the tag set.

You must select at least one fanwork type that you are willing to create. This is the worktype(s) you will be matched on, but you can always create in a different worktype as long as it has been requested by your gift recipient.

In your offer you must select at least 10 Additional Tags, but can offer up to 20, which is the upper limit AO3 sets for their sign-up form at the moment.

If you want to offer more than 20 Additional Tags, please put your top 20 tags in the Additional Tags field, because this is what the initial algorithm uses for matching. You can list other tags you’re willing to create for in the "Additional Notes" field so that we can take them into account.

All tags you offer should be universes and genres/tropes you are absolutely happy to create, as these are the tags we are matching you on. You cannot change your offer after sign-ups close.

Be aware that we can’t guarantee that all of your recipient's prompts will appeal to you.

If you have any extra notes for us — e.g. hard triggers, tropes or themes you are unable to create for — please tell us in the "Additional Notes" field and we will try our best to take it into account. A short list of your Do Not Wants and hard nos will help us to make sure you find more prompts to work with in your sign-up.

In your offer you can optionally provide us with the AO3 username of one person (your beta, roommate, sibling, etc.) who you'd rather not be matched with, no explanation needed. We will try our best to not match you with them, but can’t always guarantee they’re not your only match.

★ASSIGNMENTS (click to expand)

When will I receive my assignment?
Assignments will go out no later than October 11.

How do I fulfill my assignment?
To fulfill your assignment, you need to create at least one of the below:

Artwork (traditional or digital mediums,incl fancomics): One polished work on an unlined surface.
Fanfiction: One fanfic of at least 1000 words. You are encouraged but not required to have it betad.
Fanmix: One fanmix of at least 5 songs, with cover art (which can be digital, traditional, an edit, etc.)
Fanvid: One vid of at least 1 minute with no gaps or missing footage
Gifsets and Edits/Manips: Two gifsets or manips, of a quality that you would be happy to receive as a gift.
One manip/edit
Podfic: One podfic of at least 500 words if you are also writing the text for it. One podfic of at least 1000 words if you are recording a pre-existing work.

If you wish to create a multi-media gift, you must meet the minimum for at least one requested medium.

Once your work is complete, go to your assignments page on AO3 and click the "Fulfill" button for this exchange to submit it to 2024 Captain America/Iron Man Holiday Exchange collection. Find detailed instructions for how to do this here. The collection is set to "moderated" and "anonymous", so there will be a delay between submitting your work and seeing it appear as an anonymous "Mystery Gift" in the collection. Mods review all gifts before approving them, so if your gift does not appear in the collection as soon as you post it, don't worry.

You must create a gift that completely fulfills at least one of the prompts your recipient lists. Beneath their prompts, your recipient might list optional "Likes" and optional details. You are not required to include any of these if they don't appeal to you, but you can use them for additional inspiration.

Gifts cannot include any listed "Do Not Wants". Please honour your recipient's wishes and do your best to create a gift that will appeal to them.

Fanworks must be newly created for this exchange.

Stories cannot be sequels to existing fic or part of a previously posted series. Art and fanvids cannot be based on other existing fanworks unless the recipient has specified otherwise in their request.

Betas are not required but strongly encouraged. If you want to find a beta reader, there is a list of beta readers available here.

There is no maximum work requirement and you can create as many fanworks as you like for your recipient, if you feel inspired to do more. Just keep the exchange deadline in mind!

Podficcers: please make sure that if you're podficcing someone else's work, they have got a blanket statement or have otherwise given you permission.

Editors and Manip-people: please do not use existing fanworks as the basis of your work unless the creator has a blanket statement or you have been given permission.

Do not upload incomplete works to the collection. You can make small edits to your work after the deadline, but this should be reserved for minor changes such as fixing typos. Make sure you upload your complete work and don't leave it as a draft in the collection—you must post it before the deadline, otherwise you will be defaulted from the exchange.

Don’t forget: assignments are to be kept secret from the rest of the community until creator reveals happen.

Please ensure that your finished assignment abides by Cap-IM's General Event Work Requirements.

I don't like any of my recipient prompts. Can you match me to somebody else?
No. After assignments are sent out we can't recall or change any of the matches. However, if the assignment you received doesn't match what you offered, please contact us by emailing cap.im.events@gmail.com immediately.

What do I do if I have a question for my gift recipient?
DO NOT CONTACT YOUR RECIPIENT yourself, not even anonymously on Tumblr. Please get in touch with the mods and we’ll pass your question along and then get back to you with their response.

Extensions and Dropping out (Defaulting)
If for any reason you are not able to complete your assignment before the due date, please go to your assignments page on AO3 and click the "Default" button (found next to your HE assignment here: archiveofourown.org/users/YOURUSERNAME/assignments) as soon as possible.

Please default as soon as you know you won't be able to fulfill your assignment! This notifies the mods, and means we have time to look for a pinch hitter. If you default before December 11th, defaulting is penalty free. If you think you can finish with a few days' extension, please get in touch with the mods before assignments are due on December 18. Email cap.im.events@gmail.com with your draft and let us know how long an extension you are requesting.

If you don't have a completed gift submitted to the AO3 collection by the Holiday Exchange assignment deadline and have not contacted us before December 11th, we will assume you've dropped out and send your assignment out to our pinch hitters.

If you drop out after the exchange deadline has passed, you will be ineligible to participate in next year's Holiday Exchange and other collaborative Cap-Ironman events until you fulfill the requirements to lift your temporary ban or become eligible again. You can find more information on defaults and bans here.

If you have to drop out, you will still receive a gift in the exchange as long as your own gift creator does not also drop out of the exchange.

★POSTING AND REVEALS (click to expand)

Exchange works will be revealed on AO3 over a period of time during which the mods will post daily round-up announcements on our social media platforms.

AO3 only sends notifications when a collection is revealed completely, so please check the collection regularly during the reveals period to see if your gift was posted, or read our daily round-ups.

Revealed works will still have anonymous creators. However, you can interact with them as usual — please comment and kudos away! Creators can reply to comments and will be listed as "Anonymous Creator".

Don't forget to comment and thank the person who created a gift for you!

Please note that we do keep track of this, and that ignoring your gift will have repercussions on your ability to participate in the next round of the Holiday Exchange.

Remember that creators must remain anonymous until creator reveals happen at the end of the event. Please respect the anonymity and do not discuss or promote your fanwork publicly until that time. You are welcome to link and share revealed fanworks and the general collection instead!

Before creators are revealed, there will be a post where everyone is invited to guess which works were created by who.

After the collection and all creators are revealed, you're welcome to discuss and share your work(s)! If you're posting your work on the socials, please tag or mention

cap_ironman so we can find and promote it..

★COMMUNITY GIFTS AND PINCH-HITTING

If you don't want to sign up for the exchange but still want to be involved, or are willing to create more than one fanwork, you can participate in the Community Gifts part of the event. You can find detailed information about Community Gifts here.

You can also help us out as a pinch hitter. If you want to post your pinch-hit yourself, an AO3 account is required — otherwise, the mods can post on your behalf.

To sign up as a pinch hitter, please click through to this info post.

For more information, you can find the Cap-IM Holiday Exchange FAQ here.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact us at cap.im.events@gmail.com, or get in touch with the mods another way.