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hellaverseexAO3 Collection • Relationship Tagset • Optional Freeform Tagset
A casual exchange where you have two months up to create and receive either at least 300 words, a clean sketch on unlined paper, or an uncoloured one panel comic of any relationship of your choice.
These exchanges will occur in four different stages: Nominations, Sign-ups, Assignments, and Reveals.
- During Nominations, people use a form on AO3 to submit pairings (either / or &) or solo characters (also nominated as relationships by going "Solo: Character") in either the Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon) fandom, Helluva Boss (Web Series) fandom, or Crossovers fandom.
- During Sign-ups, people use a form on AO3 to request and offer to write stories one to three fandoms from the nominated list. Participants must offer and request multiple pairings.
- After sign-ups, participants are matched up based on what they offered and requested, and Assignments are sent out. Participants have a set amount of time to create fic or art for one of the relationships their recipient has requested.
- Stories must be posted to their collection by the deadline, where they will automatically appear as anonymous "Mystery Work" gifts for the recipients.
- Then the stories shall be Revealed while author names are hidden for about a week or two, depending on the exchange. Afterwards, the author names shall be revealed.
If you have questions or need clarifications, you may always use the veesevents@proton.me email. This is the most reliable and fastest way to contact the mods. The mods are here to help - don't be afraid to email us.
You should email the mods immediately about problems like these:
- You want to participate, but are not sure you are eligible - possibly due to a previous ban.
- Your assignment does not include anything you actually signed up to write.
- You posted your assignment, but it showed up on the pinch hit list as if you had defaulted.
- The reveal has just taken place and the story written for you is missing/not complete/does not include the characters you requested.
- The reveal has just taken place and the story you wrote is missing.
If you have difficulties with your assignment, you are encouraged to contact the mods. We may be able to help with the following problems:
- The subject matter of your recipient’s request is tricky/possibly squicky/includes things that someone might find upsetting, and you require more information.
- The request details don't match the fandom, or concern characters that the recipient did not request. (In this case, depending on the details, it may be that the recipient is breaking the rules and the mods will work with you to find a solution of some sort.)
Be warned, however, that not all recipients will reply to requests for information - in these cases we encourage you to go ahead and write a story limited to the fandom requested and including all the requested characters. Optional details are optional. Anonymity is important in exchanges - please don’t contact your recipient yourself.
The mods create a nominations form on AO3 for every challenge. Participants can nominate a certain amount of pairings that they want to be available for that exchange.
"Tagmods" work behind the scenes to check each nomination after nominations close. They approve correctly formatted nominations and reject any which have characters which are not involved in any of the approved fandoms. We eliminate duplicates and fix typos. Once clean-up has been completed, the list is ready for sign-ups.
There will be a relationship tagset which will last between exchanges, but different exchanges might have separate "additional tags" and therefore you may have to nominate the same additional tag in multiple exchanges.
Anyone aged 18 or older with an AO3 account can sign up. You are only allowed to sign up or nominate with one account.
You are required to request at least three different relationships. We use "Or" matching. This means the person assigned to you must only write one of your requested relationships to match with your request.
You must offer to write at least three different relationships. You can also offer "Any" characters in HH, HB, or Crossovers, but that means you are willing to write any of the nominated characters, in any combination.
You can change your mind at any point during the sign-up period by editing your sign-up form. You can find your sign-up form on your AO3 profile page: click on "Sign-ups" in the left-hand navigation pane.
"Optional details" is the space on the form where you can give extra information about the kind of story you want to receive.
This information is optional for both you and your writer. You don't have to write anything here, and your writer doesn't have to include any of the details listed as “optional details" in their story. Please only include text in this box, with very minimal formatting, as rich media can cause problems in the mods’ interface and won't appear if you are sent out as a pinch hit. No images or heading tags please.
A good use of the optional details space is providing prompts for your writer. Other helpful things to include are: why you chose the characters you did and what you like about them; whether you’re a fan of crossovers or AUs; favourite genres or tropes; and so on.
An inappropriate use of the optional details space would be to demand a very specific story or relationship between the characters; to provide a prompt and declare or imply that this is the only story you want; to make a request for a story that does not match either the fandom or the characters you matched on; and/or to demand a crossover/fusion with another fandom with no other options offered. As a writer, if you are assigned a prompt like this, you can contact the mods for help.
It must include a list of Do Not Wants (DNWs) if there are things that will ruin a gift for you. However, these will not be enforced in cases where the mods feel a requester is being unreasonable to their writer. They will also not be enforced if they appear only in the requester's letter.
We require writers to make note of the squicks, triggers, and other DNWs their recipient has put in the "Optional Details" fields and make a good-faith effort to avoid those. This includes brief mentions of DNWs as well as DNWs for things that appear in canon. If a writer isn’t sure how a DNW applies to a particular request, it is the writer’s responsibility to check with the mods. Mods can contact recipients privately to clarify a DNW’s meaning or potential exceptions.
“Optional details" are meant to allow a writer to understand some of their recipient’s favorite things so they can better craft a story for that person.
Your story must be your own work. Do not use ChatGPT or other generative tools to create content. If you're unsure how much of another source (e.g. quotes) can be included in your work, please check with the mods.
Either go to your Assignments page on AO3, which you can find under the "Assignments" link on your Profile page, or go to the event's page and click on "Your Assignment". You should see two buttons at the top right of your assignment: "Fulfill", and "Default".
Click "Fulfill", and you'll be taken to a posting form. This will automatically post your story into the current challenge. It will also have your recipient's name already filled in. All you need to do is fill in the rest of the form, preview it to make sure it looks okay, and post.
If you're posting a Treat, you won't have an assignment or "Fulfill" button. Instead, go to the collection and click on "Post to Collection" under the collection title. This will take you to a form with the challenge collection name already filled in. Fill in the recipient's name manually, then fill in the rest of the form, preview it to make sure it looks okay, and post.
AO3 allows editing at any time. Please note that your story must be complete when it is uploaded. You may still make edits until the reveal, but the story itself must be finished: every version of the story that you upload must be something that could go live as a gift if you weren't able to update any more. Uploading an unfinished story is against the rules. Your story must also stand on its own. Do not give it a cliffhanger with the intention of expanding it or adding more later.
You can add author's notes, but they will be visible as soon as the stories are revealed. You must not reveal your identity or link to social media in your author's notes. Please also don't use author's notes to apologise for your story. We bet it's great!
Do not add your work to an existing series until after Creator Reveals. If you are writing your work with an existing series in mind, please get a second opinion on whether it stands alone.
If you can't finish in time, you can default. This lets the mods know they need to find a pinch hitter to write a story for your recipient.
Things happen. Life happens. Defaulting is often out of your control. An earlier default is better than struggling against a deadline you won’t be able to meet. After defaulting, if you manage to finish your work anyway, it can still be uploaded and your recipient will have an extra story. An earlier default is better than a later one, as it gives the pinch hitters longer to work.
Simply follow the steps outlined below and everything will be fine.
To default, go to your Assignments page on AO3, which you can find under the "Assignments" link on your Profile, or on the exchange's subcollection page as "Your Assignment". You should see two buttons at the top of your assignment: "Fulfill", and "Default".
Click the Default button, then click the confirmation on the popup that appears. The mods will be notified and will find a pinch hitter to fulfill your assignment.
If you default, and your own writer defaults, your requests will not be sent to the pinch-hitters list. While defaulting does not disallow you from receiving a story, it means you are no longer guaranteed a story in the exchange.
You may be restricted from signing up in future. Whether you get a penalty for defaulting depends on how and when you default.
- Before the assignment deadline: If you default using the AO3 button before, you'll be flagged as a defaulter. However, if it’s your first default, you are free to participate in the next exchange. If you have done so more than once, you might be expected to write and post another story to participate again.
- Default via Placeholder: If you upload an unfinished story, or a placeholder (for example, gibberish, or repeated paragraphs to make wordcount), you will be marked as a defaulter. You may also be marked as a defaulter if, upon reading their story, the recipient tells us that it does not deal with their requested relationships. This will result in a ban from the next several exchanges.
- No-show default: If you default by simply failing to post your story, without using the Default button or contacting the mods in advance, you will be expected to either write a treat or be banned from the next several exchanges.
- Multiple defaults: If you default twice in a row, but want to participate in future, please talk to the mods.
If you are banned in any of these cases, you may get yourself unbanned by talking to the mods, although you may be required to write additional stories.
Pinch hits are assignments that the original author has had to default on, or assignments that weren't matched to any authors. As people default, the mods will post the assignments to the Hellaverse Exchange's Dreamwidth community, where they're available for anyone to claim.
Every year, people who did not sign up for the main challenge will write pinch hits in order to help out those who otherwise might not get a story. These pinch hitters are encouraged to leave prompts at a post on the Dreamwidth admin journal. There is no guarantee of a story, but we encourage participants to check these prompts and see if there is anything they can write.
Treats are just that: unassigned extra stories (or other works) created for the fun of it. You don't need to be signed up to the challenge to give a treat. People whose requests go out to the pinch hit list in the last week of the challenge are the most likely to get treats written for them, as people scramble to make sure everyone is covered. But anyone may find an extra gift in the archive for them on story reveal day.
There's no way to differentiate an assigned story from a treat in the main collection. Some treat writers put something in the tags or the author's notes about the work being a treat, so the recipient will know which is their official gift. They are not required to do so.
If you're writing a Treat, you won't have an assignment or "Fulfill" button. Instead, go to the collection on AO3, and click on "Post To Collection" under the challenge title. This will take you to a form with the challenge collection name already filled in. Fill in the recipient's name manually, then fill in the rest of the form, preview it to make sure it looks okay, and post.
AO3 released a setting that allows users to choose whether or not they can receive extra gifts. If a person has the setting "Allow anyone to gift me works" selected in their preferences, then AO3 users can give extra gifts to that person. If this setting is not checked, only a user who has an exchange assignment for that person, or who has claimed their prompts in a prompt meme, can give them gifts.
Because of this setting, we have encouraged people to state in their sign-up or profile page if they're open to treats. Mods can also check who's able to receive treats (especially because users could choose to change this setting during the event). If you're not sure if someone would like treats, you are very welcome to ask the mods.
Reveals come in two stages: story reveals, and author reveals. For story reveals, the mods switch all the regular stories from hidden to visible. Participants are notified by email that they have a gift waiting for them, with a direct link to their gift story. Participants can also look on their AO3 profile under "Gifts" to find their gift story. Author names are still hidden at this point.
Authors can reply to comments on AO3; these will automatically appear under the name “Anonymous Creator" until author reveals. However, authors must be logged in for this to work.
For author reveals, the mods switch all the storiesr from anonymous to showing author names. Everyone can see who wrote the stories. Once author names have been revealed, participants can crosspost their stories to other platforms and can respond to comments un-anonymously.
This is an anonymous exchange. Do not:
- Contact your recipient directly for information (even anonymously) - any requests should go to the moderators, who will act as an intermediary;
- Publicly discuss details of your story that would identify what you are writing, or for whom;
- Upload your story to any other site or link to it saying you've written it until after Creator Reveals;
- Mark your story as part of a collection known to belong to you, or as part of a series;
- Or any other action that will publicly identify what you are writing or who it is for.
You are not allowed to delete your story or remove it from the collection once it has been uploaded. The mods may grant exceptions on a case by case basis upon request.
The mods reserve the right to ban any participant who participates in inappropriate behaviour, or for other significant disruptive behaviour on a case-by-case basis.
Please comment to thank your creator for their gift!
A casual exchange where you have two months up to create and receive either at least 300 words, a clean sketch on unlined paper, or an uncoloured one panel comic of any relationship of your choice.
- Tagset nominations open: Now
- Signups open: Sunday, March 16
- Signups close: Sunday, April 6
- Assignments out by: Monday, April 7
- Assignments due: Sunday, June 1
- Works revealed: Sunday, June 15
- Authors revealed: Sunday, June 22
FAQ For It's a Hellaverse Exchange!s
These are exchanges for Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss run through the Archive of Our Own. Participants sign up to write a story or create artwork using characters and/or pairings which have been requested. In return, they receive a story or art featuring characters and/or pairings they have requested.These exchanges will occur in four different stages: Nominations, Sign-ups, Assignments, and Reveals.
- During Nominations, people use a form on AO3 to submit pairings (either / or &) or solo characters (also nominated as relationships by going "Solo: Character") in either the Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon) fandom, Helluva Boss (Web Series) fandom, or Crossovers fandom.
- During Sign-ups, people use a form on AO3 to request and offer to write stories one to three fandoms from the nominated list. Participants must offer and request multiple pairings.
- After sign-ups, participants are matched up based on what they offered and requested, and Assignments are sent out. Participants have a set amount of time to create fic or art for one of the relationships their recipient has requested.
- Stories must be posted to their collection by the deadline, where they will automatically appear as anonymous "Mystery Work" gifts for the recipients.
- Then the stories shall be Revealed while author names are hidden for about a week or two, depending on the exchange. Afterwards, the author names shall be revealed.
If you have questions or need clarifications, you may always use the veesevents@proton.me email. This is the most reliable and fastest way to contact the mods. The mods are here to help - don't be afraid to email us.
You should email the mods immediately about problems like these:
- You want to participate, but are not sure you are eligible - possibly due to a previous ban.
- Your assignment does not include anything you actually signed up to write.
- You posted your assignment, but it showed up on the pinch hit list as if you had defaulted.
- The reveal has just taken place and the story written for you is missing/not complete/does not include the characters you requested.
- The reveal has just taken place and the story you wrote is missing.
If you have difficulties with your assignment, you are encouraged to contact the mods. We may be able to help with the following problems:
- The subject matter of your recipient’s request is tricky/possibly squicky/includes things that someone might find upsetting, and you require more information.
- The request details don't match the fandom, or concern characters that the recipient did not request. (In this case, depending on the details, it may be that the recipient is breaking the rules and the mods will work with you to find a solution of some sort.)
Be warned, however, that not all recipients will reply to requests for information - in these cases we encourage you to go ahead and write a story limited to the fandom requested and including all the requested characters. Optional details are optional. Anonymity is important in exchanges - please don’t contact your recipient yourself.
Nominations
The mods create a nominations form on AO3 for every challenge. Participants can nominate a certain amount of pairings that they want to be available for that exchange.
"Tagmods" work behind the scenes to check each nomination after nominations close. They approve correctly formatted nominations and reject any which have characters which are not involved in any of the approved fandoms. We eliminate duplicates and fix typos. Once clean-up has been completed, the list is ready for sign-ups.
There will be a relationship tagset which will last between exchanges, but different exchanges might have separate "additional tags" and therefore you may have to nominate the same additional tag in multiple exchanges.
Sign-Ups
Anyone aged 18 or older with an AO3 account can sign up. You are only allowed to sign up or nominate with one account.
You are required to request at least three different relationships. We use "Or" matching. This means the person assigned to you must only write one of your requested relationships to match with your request.
You must offer to write at least three different relationships. You can also offer "Any" characters in HH, HB, or Crossovers, but that means you are willing to write any of the nominated characters, in any combination.
You can change your mind at any point during the sign-up period by editing your sign-up form. You can find your sign-up form on your AO3 profile page: click on "Sign-ups" in the left-hand navigation pane.
"Optional details" is the space on the form where you can give extra information about the kind of story you want to receive.
This information is optional for both you and your writer. You don't have to write anything here, and your writer doesn't have to include any of the details listed as “optional details" in their story. Please only include text in this box, with very minimal formatting, as rich media can cause problems in the mods’ interface and won't appear if you are sent out as a pinch hit. No images or heading tags please.
A good use of the optional details space is providing prompts for your writer. Other helpful things to include are: why you chose the characters you did and what you like about them; whether you’re a fan of crossovers or AUs; favourite genres or tropes; and so on.
An inappropriate use of the optional details space would be to demand a very specific story or relationship between the characters; to provide a prompt and declare or imply that this is the only story you want; to make a request for a story that does not match either the fandom or the characters you matched on; and/or to demand a crossover/fusion with another fandom with no other options offered. As a writer, if you are assigned a prompt like this, you can contact the mods for help.
It must include a list of Do Not Wants (DNWs) if there are things that will ruin a gift for you. However, these will not be enforced in cases where the mods feel a requester is being unreasonable to their writer. They will also not be enforced if they appear only in the requester's letter.
We require writers to make note of the squicks, triggers, and other DNWs their recipient has put in the "Optional Details" fields and make a good-faith effort to avoid those. This includes brief mentions of DNWs as well as DNWs for things that appear in canon. If a writer isn’t sure how a DNW applies to a particular request, it is the writer’s responsibility to check with the mods. Mods can contact recipients privately to clarify a DNW’s meaning or potential exceptions.
“Optional details" are meant to allow a writer to understand some of their recipient’s favorite things so they can better craft a story for that person.
Your story must be your own work. Do not use ChatGPT or other generative tools to create content. If you're unsure how much of another source (e.g. quotes) can be included in your work, please check with the mods.
Posting Assignments
Either go to your Assignments page on AO3, which you can find under the "Assignments" link on your Profile page, or go to the event's page and click on "Your Assignment". You should see two buttons at the top right of your assignment: "Fulfill", and "Default".
Click "Fulfill", and you'll be taken to a posting form. This will automatically post your story into the current challenge. It will also have your recipient's name already filled in. All you need to do is fill in the rest of the form, preview it to make sure it looks okay, and post.
If you're posting a Treat, you won't have an assignment or "Fulfill" button. Instead, go to the collection and click on "Post to Collection" under the collection title. This will take you to a form with the challenge collection name already filled in. Fill in the recipient's name manually, then fill in the rest of the form, preview it to make sure it looks okay, and post.
AO3 allows editing at any time. Please note that your story must be complete when it is uploaded. You may still make edits until the reveal, but the story itself must be finished: every version of the story that you upload must be something that could go live as a gift if you weren't able to update any more. Uploading an unfinished story is against the rules. Your story must also stand on its own. Do not give it a cliffhanger with the intention of expanding it or adding more later.
You can add author's notes, but they will be visible as soon as the stories are revealed. You must not reveal your identity or link to social media in your author's notes. Please also don't use author's notes to apologise for your story. We bet it's great!
Do not add your work to an existing series until after Creator Reveals. If you are writing your work with an existing series in mind, please get a second opinion on whether it stands alone.
Defaulting
If you can't finish in time, you can default. This lets the mods know they need to find a pinch hitter to write a story for your recipient.
Things happen. Life happens. Defaulting is often out of your control. An earlier default is better than struggling against a deadline you won’t be able to meet. After defaulting, if you manage to finish your work anyway, it can still be uploaded and your recipient will have an extra story. An earlier default is better than a later one, as it gives the pinch hitters longer to work.
Simply follow the steps outlined below and everything will be fine.
To default, go to your Assignments page on AO3, which you can find under the "Assignments" link on your Profile, or on the exchange's subcollection page as "Your Assignment". You should see two buttons at the top of your assignment: "Fulfill", and "Default".
Click the Default button, then click the confirmation on the popup that appears. The mods will be notified and will find a pinch hitter to fulfill your assignment.
If you default, and your own writer defaults, your requests will not be sent to the pinch-hitters list. While defaulting does not disallow you from receiving a story, it means you are no longer guaranteed a story in the exchange.
You may be restricted from signing up in future. Whether you get a penalty for defaulting depends on how and when you default.
- Before the assignment deadline: If you default using the AO3 button before, you'll be flagged as a defaulter. However, if it’s your first default, you are free to participate in the next exchange. If you have done so more than once, you might be expected to write and post another story to participate again.
- Default via Placeholder: If you upload an unfinished story, or a placeholder (for example, gibberish, or repeated paragraphs to make wordcount), you will be marked as a defaulter. You may also be marked as a defaulter if, upon reading their story, the recipient tells us that it does not deal with their requested relationships. This will result in a ban from the next several exchanges.
- No-show default: If you default by simply failing to post your story, without using the Default button or contacting the mods in advance, you will be expected to either write a treat or be banned from the next several exchanges.
- Multiple defaults: If you default twice in a row, but want to participate in future, please talk to the mods.
If you are banned in any of these cases, you may get yourself unbanned by talking to the mods, although you may be required to write additional stories.
Pinch Hits
Pinch hits are assignments that the original author has had to default on, or assignments that weren't matched to any authors. As people default, the mods will post the assignments to the Hellaverse Exchange's Dreamwidth community, where they're available for anyone to claim.
Every year, people who did not sign up for the main challenge will write pinch hits in order to help out those who otherwise might not get a story. These pinch hitters are encouraged to leave prompts at a post on the Dreamwidth admin journal. There is no guarantee of a story, but we encourage participants to check these prompts and see if there is anything they can write.
Treats
Treats are just that: unassigned extra stories (or other works) created for the fun of it. You don't need to be signed up to the challenge to give a treat. People whose requests go out to the pinch hit list in the last week of the challenge are the most likely to get treats written for them, as people scramble to make sure everyone is covered. But anyone may find an extra gift in the archive for them on story reveal day.
There's no way to differentiate an assigned story from a treat in the main collection. Some treat writers put something in the tags or the author's notes about the work being a treat, so the recipient will know which is their official gift. They are not required to do so.
If you're writing a Treat, you won't have an assignment or "Fulfill" button. Instead, go to the collection on AO3, and click on "Post To Collection" under the challenge title. This will take you to a form with the challenge collection name already filled in. Fill in the recipient's name manually, then fill in the rest of the form, preview it to make sure it looks okay, and post.
AO3 released a setting that allows users to choose whether or not they can receive extra gifts. If a person has the setting "Allow anyone to gift me works" selected in their preferences, then AO3 users can give extra gifts to that person. If this setting is not checked, only a user who has an exchange assignment for that person, or who has claimed their prompts in a prompt meme, can give them gifts.
Because of this setting, we have encouraged people to state in their sign-up or profile page if they're open to treats. Mods can also check who's able to receive treats (especially because users could choose to change this setting during the event). If you're not sure if someone would like treats, you are very welcome to ask the mods.
Reveals
Reveals come in two stages: story reveals, and author reveals. For story reveals, the mods switch all the regular stories from hidden to visible. Participants are notified by email that they have a gift waiting for them, with a direct link to their gift story. Participants can also look on their AO3 profile under "Gifts" to find their gift story. Author names are still hidden at this point.
Authors can reply to comments on AO3; these will automatically appear under the name “Anonymous Creator" until author reveals. However, authors must be logged in for this to work.
For author reveals, the mods switch all the storiesr from anonymous to showing author names. Everyone can see who wrote the stories. Once author names have been revealed, participants can crosspost their stories to other platforms and can respond to comments un-anonymously.
This is an anonymous exchange. Do not:
- Contact your recipient directly for information (even anonymously) - any requests should go to the moderators, who will act as an intermediary;
- Publicly discuss details of your story that would identify what you are writing, or for whom;
- Upload your story to any other site or link to it saying you've written it until after Creator Reveals;
- Mark your story as part of a collection known to belong to you, or as part of a series;
- Or any other action that will publicly identify what you are writing or who it is for.
You are not allowed to delete your story or remove it from the collection once it has been uploaded. The mods may grant exceptions on a case by case basis upon request.
The mods reserve the right to ban any participant who participates in inappropriate behaviour, or for other significant disruptive behaviour on a case-by-case basis.
Please comment to thank your creator for their gift!