Spectre Requisitions

"Opening the Rare Stock for you, Commander." Mass Effect Rare Pairing Fanwork Exchange. 2026 Schedule: Nominations begin: January 15 Nominations end: January 23 Signup begins: January 24  Signup ends: February 7 Assignments: February 11 (at latest) Assignments due: March 22 Assignments reveal: March 29 Creator reveal: April 5

[justice-for-jacob]

Rare pairs exchange @spectre-requisitions-exchange has revealed gifts and there's one Jacob gift!

"Poison On Our Tongues" for ~dandenbo: Jacob/Thane canon divergence AU, "kind of a jacob loyalty mission rewrite", 9.5k words. Jacob gets an SOS from a long dead friend.

[cannot-rest]

Rare pairs exchange @spectre-requisitions-exchange has revealed gifts and there's an adorable Ashley/Samantha fanart!

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

SPEC REQS UPDATE

Hey everyone!

Reveals are right around the corner! (FOUR DAYS AND COUNTING barring any unforeseen circumstances) So go ahead and polish off that unfinished summary. Finish translating that language. Double check that the names are in the right spot and that they are spelled correctly. Add that missing punctuation. And make sure that all thoughts are complete!

You guys did amazing and we can't wait to see how you like your gifts!

We have sent an email to the participants who we haven't heard from, so pinch hits may be forthcoming, stay tuned. <3

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Hi. Do you know if there’s a similar event in the fandom, for rare pairings, but that is instead in a Big Bang format? Or “rare pairings week” or something of the kind. I’m interested in participating, but since im not very experienced in terms of writing, id rather do it with less chance of disappointing a receiver :) thank you very much! I’ll participate as a spectator on this one, you’re doing a great job organising! Xx

It sounds like there isn't an official one but there is a WIP Big Bang that is multi-fandom and has concluded for this year but is an annual occurence, as is the Mass Effect Big Bang @mebigbang.

There are multiple Mass Effect character weeks throughout the year though none of them are specifically "rare pair" weeks.

HOWEVER, you can always write/draw treats and post them to the collection without needing to sign up for the exchange. Treats can be posted any time after assignments have gone out and can be for a singular recipient or multiple recipients as long as they meet the rare pair criteria.

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Sign-Ups Have Opened!

Sign ups for the Spectre Requisitions exchange are now open and you may sign up from January 24th to February 8th. You must fill out at least three unique requests and three unique offers. Requests and offers do not have to be the same. (But can be!)

Important links:

Sign-up Form

Nominated Relationships Spreadsheet

Countdown Timer

A couple of reminders:

Treats are OPT-IN. "Treats" are works that are given to you that are not your main assignment. To opt-in to treats, you will need to enable treats on Ao3 AND declare you are open to being treated. If you do NOT specify treat preferences, we will assume you do not want to receive any treats!

To enable treats: Go to “My Dashboard” on your Ao3 account, select “Preferences” from the sidebar, scroll down to “Collections, Challenges, and Gifts,” and make sure that the “Allow Anyone to Gift Me Works” box is checked.

You can use the following template in your sign-up box to state your treat preferences if you would like: Open to Treats: Yes / No Open to Treat types: Fanart, Fanfiction Open to Multi-recip treats: Yes / No If you are open to all types of treats, you can simply say "Treats welcome!"

There is a RATINGS box for sign-ups! The box is not mandatory and non-binding but will help with determining who is or is not interested in smut. If you are open to potentially creating or receiving smut, SELECT the "Explicit" option for that offer/request. Please note that this is NOT a guarantee that you will be matched, in either direction, with someone who has opted into smut; and even if you do match in that manner, you're not obligated to create smut (nor are they obligated to create smut for you).

NOW THAT SAID: SIGN UP! SIGN UP! SIGN-UP! CLICK HERE TO SIGN-UP!

You can go back and edit your Sign-Up Form up until Sunday, February 8th, 8:00PM EST.

How Do I Sign Up? Instructions beneath the cut:

1) Go to the Sign Up Form at AO3.

2) Start writing in the name of your favorite character/pairing from the nominations. Don’t forget to check the spreadsheet if you need inspiration!

3) The box should start autofilling your pairing as you type (if it doesn’t, that is a known Ao3 bug; if you type or copy it in exactly as it is in the tagset, it will accept it). Select your pairing of choice. You can choose three pairings per request and may have ten requests total.

The requests do not need to be related; it is simply a way to try to get around the Ao3 restriction of only having 10 sign-up boxes.

4) Decide whether you would like to potentially receive fanart or fanfic, or both. Check the applicable box(es).

5) The RATINGS box on each request indicates whether or not you are open to receiving smut. The box is not mandatory and non-binding but will help with determining who is or is not interested in smut. Please CHECK the "Explicit" box if you want to receive smut; and leave it unchecked if you do not want to receive smut.

6) In the "Description" box, you MUST include:

Any Do Not Wants (DNWs) for the requested relationship(s). We cannot enforce DNWs that are not contained in your Ao3 sign-up so please make sure these are in the description.

Whether you are opting in to treats or not. If you are opting in, you must say which kind of treats you are open to receiving. If you do NOT specify treat preferences, we will assume you do not want to receive any treats!

You can use the following template to state your treat preferences:

Open to Treats: Yes / No Open to Treat types: Fanart, Fanfiction Open to Multi-recip treats: Yes / No

If you are open to all types of treats, you can simply say "Treats welcome!"

7) You MAY include:

General likes/dislikes

Prompts, ideas, anything that will help your assigned creator know what sort of gift you would most like to receive!

Please note that - unlike Do Not Wants - it is NOT mandatory for your gift-er to follow these prompts.

8) Repeat between 3-10 times, as you like!

9) You may include a letter or post that goes more in-depth and post it to your tumblr, dreamwidth, public google doc, or another platform, and then fill in the URL in the letter box. (Please remember that DNWs MUST be in your actual sign-up and make sure to include them there, even if they are also in your letter.)

10) Fill out your offers. You must fill out at least three unique pairings you would be okay with writing and can choose up to three pairings to fill in per request. Because we are upping the number of offers to 30 this year, we have removed the option to offer "Any."

11) The ratings box on each offer indicates whether or not you are open to receiving smut. The box is not mandatory and non-binding but will help with determining who is or is not interested in smut. Please CHECK the "Explicit" box if you want to create smut; and leave it unchecked if you do not want to create smut.

12) In the notes, please include any notes for the mods that might help the mods in matching you. For example: "I won't write varren fighting" or "Please do not match me to Councilor Udina". These notes are confidential between the mods and you, and are not shared with your match (or anyone else). You don't have to give reasons; just letting us know what your boundaries are is enough for us to hopefully better match you, and we don't share any information given with other people.

13) Click submit! And welcome to the Mass Effect Spectre Requisitions Rare Pair Exchange!

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Hey 👋 I’ve never participated in the exchange before but I was thinking about making a treat or two. When would I need to post those? Is there a collection I need to post to? Thank you so much.

Treats can be posted to the collection at any time after assignments have gone out, but after author reveals, you'll need to ping a mod to have it approved because we monitor it less. The collection can be found here. <3

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Sign-Ups Have Opened!

Sign ups for the Spectre Requisitions exchange are now open and you may sign up from January 24th to February 8th. You must fill out at least three unique requests and three unique offers. Requests and offers do not have to be the same. (But can be!)

Important links:

Sign-up Form

Nominated Relationships Spreadsheet

Countdown Timer

A couple of reminders:

Treats are OPT-IN. "Treats" are works that are given to you that are not your main assignment. To opt-in to treats, you will need to enable treats on Ao3 AND declare you are open to being treated. If you do NOT specify treat preferences, we will assume you do not want to receive any treats!

To enable treats: Go to “My Dashboard” on your Ao3 account, select “Preferences” from the sidebar, scroll down to “Collections, Challenges, and Gifts,” and make sure that the “Allow Anyone to Gift Me Works” box is checked.

You can use the following template in your sign-up box to state your treat preferences if you would like: Open to Treats: Yes / No Open to Treat types: Fanart, Fanfiction Open to Multi-recip treats: Yes / No If you are open to all types of treats, you can simply say "Treats welcome!"

There is a RATINGS box for sign-ups! The box is not mandatory and non-binding but will help with determining who is or is not interested in smut. If you are open to potentially creating or receiving smut, SELECT the "Explicit" option for that offer/request. Please note that this is NOT a guarantee that you will be matched, in either direction, with someone who has opted into smut; and even if you do match in that manner, you're not obligated to create smut (nor are they obligated to create smut for you).

NOW THAT SAID: SIGN UP! SIGN UP! SIGN-UP! CLICK HERE TO SIGN-UP!

You can go back and edit your Sign-Up Form up until Sunday, February 8th, 8:00PM EST.

How Do I Sign Up? Instructions beneath the cut:

1) Go to the Sign Up Form at AO3.

2) Start writing in the name of your favorite character/pairing from the nominations. Don’t forget to check the spreadsheet if you need inspiration!

3) The box should start autofilling your pairing as you type (if it doesn’t, that is a known Ao3 bug; if you type or copy it in exactly as it is in the tagset, it will accept it). Select your pairing of choice. You can choose three pairings per request and may have ten requests total.

The requests do not need to be related; it is simply a way to try to get around the Ao3 restriction of only having 10 sign-up boxes.

4) Decide whether you would like to potentially receive fanart or fanfic, or both. Check the applicable box(es).

5) The RATINGS box on each request indicates whether or not you are open to receiving smut. The box is not mandatory and non-binding but will help with determining who is or is not interested in smut. Please CHECK the "Explicit" box if you want to receive smut; and leave it unchecked if you do not want to receive smut.

6) In the "Description" box, you MUST include:

Any Do Not Wants (DNWs) for the requested relationship(s). We cannot enforce DNWs that are not contained in your Ao3 sign-up so please make sure these are in the description.

Whether you are opting in to treats or not. If you are opting in, you must say which kind of treats you are open to receiving. If you do NOT specify treat preferences, we will assume you do not want to receive any treats!

You can use the following template to state your treat preferences:

Open to Treats: Yes / No Open to Treat types: Fanart, Fanfiction Open to Multi-recip treats: Yes / No

If you are open to all types of treats, you can simply say "Treats welcome!"

7) You MAY include:

General likes/dislikes

Prompts, ideas, anything that will help your assigned creator know what sort of gift you would most like to receive!

Please note that - unlike Do Not Wants - it is NOT mandatory for your gift-er to follow these prompts.

8) Repeat between 3-10 times, as you like!

9) You may include a letter or post that goes more in-depth and post it to your tumblr, dreamwidth, public google doc, or another platform, and then fill in the URL in the letter box. (Please remember that DNWs MUST be in your actual sign-up and make sure to include them there, even if they are also in your letter.)

10) Fill out your offers. You must fill out at least three unique pairings you would be okay with writing and can choose up to three pairings to fill in per request. Because we are upping the number of offers to 30 this year, we have removed the option to offer "Any."

11) The ratings box on each offer indicates whether or not you are open to receiving smut. The box is not mandatory and non-binding but will help with determining who is or is not interested in smut. Please CHECK the "Explicit" box if you want to create smut; and leave it unchecked if you do not want to create smut.

12) In the notes, please include any notes for the mods that might help the mods in matching you. For example: "I won't write varren fighting" or "Please do not match me to Councilor Udina". These notes are confidential between the mods and you, and are not shared with your match (or anyone else). You don't have to give reasons; just letting us know what your boundaries are is enough for us to hopefully better match you, and we don't share any information given with other people.

13) Click submit! And welcome to the Mass Effect Spectre Requisitions Rare Pair Exchange!

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

we love the jacob support!!!!

We love highlighting the rarer characters in Mass Effect! Jacob deserves love as much as the other characters ❤️❤️❤️

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Last Chance for Nominations!

Thanks to everyone who's nominated so far. Nominations will be closing soon (today) but there's still a little time left to sneak in any last pairings.

A few additional notes:

We are still looking for clarification on Kai Leng/Shepard Clone nomination - what gender clone are you after?

We also have a nomination pending for Zevin Raeka/Original Character(s) - again, please give us some additional clarification on the Original Character(s) you're wanting. Please see the Original Character(s) guidelines from the nomination post or reach out to the mods if you need some guidelines.

The nomination for Kaidan Alenko/Citadel Doctor has been replaced with nominations for Kaidan Alenko/Female Citadel Doctor, Kaidan Alenko/Male Citadel Doctor, and Kaidan Alenko/NB Citadel Doctor from another request.

Sign-ups begin tomorrow and we will have a Sign Up Post coming soon. Hope to see you and all your rare pairs soon!

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Hi, i put in the warframe requests. For all the Operator's it should be NB. meant to fix those before they got approved but got sidetracked by life sorry 😅

I also fixed the Operator & collector & Javik to NB Operator (Warframe) & NB Awoken Collector Adept & Javik if that works?

Okay thank you for the clarification! We will get these approved as soon as possible!

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

SPECTRE REQUISITIONS 2026: THE RARE PAIR EXCHANGE IS HERE!

Are you a rare pair shipper? Do you love those pairings that canon never supplied? Or maybe you’re just good ol’ shipping trash who loves to ship almost EVERYONE in the Mass Effect universe? Then boy do we have good news for you!

The Spectre Requisitions Rare Pair Exchange is here again!  We’re a rare pair fanart and fanfiction exchange that’s open for the Mass Effect Trilogy and Mass Effect Andromeda. Whether you started with the original Mass Effect or got into the series through Andromeda or the remaster; whether you favor gen and platonic or threesomes and moresomes -- we want you to join us! Mark the dates on your calendar and get those thinking caps on for nominations!

If you’re not already in the Discord, come join us! It’s open year-round for all your rare pair needs.

2026 SCHEDULE

Nominations begin: January 15, 2026

Nominations end: January 23, 2026

Signup begins: January 24, 2026

Signup ends: February 8, 2026

Assignments Out: February 11 (at the latest)

Assignments due: March 23, 2026

Assignment reveal: March 30 2026

Creator reveal: April 6, 2026

We can't wait to see what rare relationship goodness you come up with this year! Nomination Guidelines are here, and we've extended the nomination period by one day due to AO3 being down the day before the original deadline. Also if you want to see what's already been nominated to make the most of all your spots, check out our Noms Spreadsheet and the Tagset itself is here!

WE ALSO HAVE A SPECIAL TREAT FOR YOU THIS YEAR! You may nominate up to 20 pairings and during signups you will be allowed the usual ten requests, but with three pairings per request, giving you up to 30 for all your rare pair needs!

Feel free to shoot us a message if you have any questions and we can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Also, be sure to check out this post (more to come if needed) to make sure there isn't an issue with your nominations!

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Nomination Clarifications Needed 1

Thanks so much to everyone who has nominated so far and for those of you who haven't yet - there's still a few days left! We are currently sitting at just over 400 approved pairings!

In order to add a few more, we are looking for clarification on the desired gender (female, male, NB - for trans characters use their preferred gender presentation and note you would like them to be trans in your sign up) for following nominations:

Kai Leng/Shepard Clone

Kaidan Alenko/Citadel Doctor

Ryder & SAM

Harbinger & Operator (Warframe)

A few other nominations needing clarification:

Operator (Warframe) & Collector & Javik: Please specify a desired gender for the Operator and provide more details about the Collector.

Zevin Raeka/Original Character(s): Please give more information about the desired Original Character(s). Check out the Original Character(s) guidelines from the nomination post for information about this.

Smoking Salarian/Asari Dancer From Chora’s Den: Where is the Smoking Salarian from? Is the Asari Dancer the one that Shepard can watch or a different one?

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you need any help! There are still 2-3 days left for getting nominations in if your favorite(s) aren't on the list yet!

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN!!!

That's right, friends! It's time to kick off this year's exchange!

Please note nominations must come through this AO3 Link!

When nominating, please use “Mass Effect – All Media Types” in the fandom box.

As a reminder, both gen (&) and romantic (/) relationship tags are allowed for this exchange. Any relationship that fulfills the criteria below the cut is eligible! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask the mods via our inbox or on our discord!

Please see eligibility rules, a how-to guide to nominating, and commonly asked questions below.

ELIGIBILITY RULES:

A pairing must have 200 or less works when viewed with completed works OR

A pairing may have over 200 works, but when viewed with completed works and otp:true parameters, the amount of remaining works is both under 200 and less than 1/3rd of the total number of works.

Please note that gen (&) and romantic (/) are considered distinct pairings and counted separately. A gen pairing may be eligible for nomination when the corresponding romantic pairing is not, or vice versa.

For Example:

* If Adrian Victus/Steve Cortez has 138 works, then it will be accepted as it has less than 200 works. No further filtering is needed.

* If Volus God (Self-Declared)/Liara’s Hanar Half-Sister has over 200 works, but when searched with opt:true, only has 5 works, it would be allowed as it would have met the under the 1:3rd ratio rule.

* If Maya Brooks/Krogan Who Believes Fish Live on the Citadel has 200 works, but when searched with otp: true and completed works parameters, has 100 works, then it would not be allowed, as the ratio between the completed works and completed works with just the pairing (the otp:true component) would be too high to qualify. This rule is meant to help pairings that are commonly used as “side pairings” but rarely are featured in works where they are the focus.

* If Female Shepard & Female Shepard Clone has 100 works and Female Shepard/Female Shepard Clone has 110 otp:true works after filtering, the gen relationship is eligible but the romantic relationship is not.

If you have any questions on those rules or you just want to hang out and talk Mass Effect pairs beyond the most popular ones, consider joining us at our Discord server. It’s a great place to hang out and talk rare pairs.

HOW TO NOMINATE:

1) Go to the Ao3 Tagset Page for Spectre Requisitions while logged into Ao3. A tagset is what most Ao3 fan exchanges use to determine what relationships (in Spec Rec’s case) or other criteria are used for an exchange.

If a pairing is not nominated, it will not be able to be used for sign-ups, regardless of whether it would have been eligible otherwise. (Example: Suvi/Chakwas, while certainly being eligible as far as total works go, won’t be an option to ask for if it’s not nominated during the nominations period.)  

If you don’t have an Ao3 account, contact the mods, we’ll be happy to help you get one with an invite link!

2) Click the Nominate Button.

3) Fill out the Nominations Sheet.

For fandom, please use “Mass Effect - All Media Types.” We only use Mass Effect - All Media Types because it gives us the highest chance of getting that sweet, sweet Mass Effect content in there regardless of potentially sticky couples. (For example: crossovers between a book and a game, or between the Mass Effect Trilogy and Andromeda, or crossovers between other media and Mass Effect.) For relationships, any pairing/threesome/moresome that meets the eligibility rules. For most pairings, Ao3 should help autocomplete it for you -- but if you come up with a very original pairing (or AO3 is feeling unhelpful), it may require you to type in the full thing. If it does not auto-complete, don’t worry - you can still submit it! Pairings should be in alphabetical order of last name. One pairing per line, please!

4) Submit your Nominations! Just click the button on the bottom, and you should be off off and away!

COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

What if I accidentally nominate something that’s not eligible? Will I get in trouble?

Nah. You might wind up with it being rejected, but we assume most people operate in good faith in their nominations. If we reject a couple, we will always put it in the spreadsheet for the year linked on the sidebar with a reason why, and you are always free to come to us with questions if you’re not sure what that is.

How many things can I nominate?

New this year, you can now nominate 20 relationships! Have at, friends!

Can I nominate, even if I’m not sure I’ll sign up or don’t plan on signing up?

Of course! Nominating isn’t a binding process - you’re only submitting what you’d like to see. You don’t have to sign up after nominating things - in fact, nominations are anonymous, so we can’t tell what you’ve nominated.

Are there any special rules/restrictions on what I can/can’t nominate?

Only the eligibility rules.

How do I search the OTP:true thing?

Can I nominate transgender or nonbinary Shepards/Ryders?

Yes! All Shepards and Ryders are welcome. For Nonbinary Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them under Nonbinary Shepard/Ryder. For transgender Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them under the preferred gender presentation and when you sign up for the exchange, please put in your sign-up that you would like that version of the character to be considered trans.

(Please note if you only want a trans version of a character, write in a DNW (Do Not Want) in your request for the cis version of the character; otherwise, you will be interpreted as open to both cis and trans “Female Shepard/Ryder” or “Male Shepard/Ryder”.)

Can I nominate Original Characters?

Yes - ish. We allow original characters who are defined enough to give the person who matches on the original character something to go on, but not so much so they have to do an exhaustive amount of research on a fanon character. For example:

Allowable OC nominations:

Female Asari Spectre/Female Cerberus Agent - both these roles are defined in terms of what category of pairing they want (f/f), and the two roles give someone an idea of who these people are without being excessively limiting.

Not-so-allowable:

Communications Officer/Male Original Character: both of these are too vague. We’re not sure whether this person wants a male, female, nonbinary, or other gender for the Communication’s Officer; Male Original Character is so nebulously defined that we’re not sure just who that might be.

Female Shepard/Batarian(s) - We don’t know who these batarians are, or how many of them there are. “Five Male Batarian Pilots” tells us a lot more.

Male Shepard/Legion/Ebony Raven Darkmayne (My OC) - While we encourage you to add details about your Shepards or other OCs, it’s very hard to write for original characters someone else has formed. Please nominate your OC in more generic terms (ex Male Shepard/Legion/Female Original Goffic Hogwarts Student).  You can add in names and descriptions in optional details in your sign up, but this way the writer or artist has more wiggle room for what will suit their fic or art, and you have more options of matching more people since you aren’t limited to one interpretation of a concept.

A good rule of thumb is if you can sum up an OC in more than one and less than five non-name nouns, it’s probably a valid nomination.

Can I nominate crossovers?

Yes! Both crossovers between different Mass Effect properties and other fandoms entirely are welcome! Just please, if the character you’re crossing over doesn’t hail from a Mass Effect canon, add in the canon next to the character name, e.g. “Darth Vader (Star Wars)/Garrus Vakarian.”

What if I have more than ten twenty to nominate???

Good news, as mentioned, we have increased the number of nominations from ten to twenty. If you still need a few more nominations, please PM us or talk to us on the discord about adding in extra pairings. In order to keep things fair for everyone and not have one person’s pairings dominating the space, please limit your extra requests to no more than 5.

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Please reblog THIS version! (With a new, updated discord link.)

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

hi hi, i'd like to join the discord server but the link in your post from today says the link is expired!

We're sorry about that! Try this one: http://discord.gg/p7NzUch4sq

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN!!!

That's right, friends! It's time to kick off this year's exchange!

Please note nominations must come through this AO3 Link!

When nominating, please use “Mass Effect – All Media Types” in the fandom box.

As a reminder, both gen (&) and romantic (/) relationship tags are allowed for this exchange. Any relationship that fulfills the criteria below the cut is eligible! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask the mods via our inbox or on our discord!

Please see eligibility rules, a how-to guide to nominating, and commonly asked questions below.

ELIGIBILITY RULES:

A pairing must have 200 or less works when viewed with completed works OR

A pairing may have over 200 works, but when viewed with completed works and otp:true parameters, the amount of remaining works is both under 200 and less than 1/3rd of the total number of works.

Please note that gen (&) and romantic (/) are considered distinct pairings and counted separately. A gen pairing may be eligible for nomination when the corresponding romantic pairing is not, or vice versa.

For Example:

* If Adrian Victus/Steve Cortez has 138 works, then it will be accepted as it has less than 200 works. No further filtering is needed.

* If Volus God (Self-Declared)/Liara’s Hanar Half-Sister has over 200 works, but when searched with opt:true, only has 5 works, it would be allowed as it would have met the under the 1:3rd ratio rule.

* If Maya Brooks/Krogan Who Believes Fish Live on the Citadel has 200 works, but when searched with otp: true and completed works parameters, has 100 works, then it would not be allowed, as the ratio between the completed works and completed works with just the pairing (the otp:true component) would be too high to qualify. This rule is meant to help pairings that are commonly used as “side pairings” but rarely are featured in works where they are the focus.

* If Female Shepard & Female Shepard Clone has 100 works and Female Shepard/Female Shepard Clone has 110 otp:true works after filtering, the gen relationship is eligible but the romantic relationship is not.

If you have any questions on those rules or you just want to hang out and talk Mass Effect pairs beyond the most popular ones, consider joining us at our Discord server. It’s a great place to hang out and talk rare pairs.

HOW TO NOMINATE:

1) Go to the Ao3 Tagset Page for Spectre Requisitions while logged into Ao3. A tagset is what most Ao3 fan exchanges use to determine what relationships (in Spec Rec’s case) or other criteria are used for an exchange.

If a pairing is not nominated, it will not be able to be used for sign-ups, regardless of whether it would have been eligible otherwise. (Example: Suvi/Chakwas, while certainly being eligible as far as total works go, won’t be an option to ask for if it’s not nominated during the nominations period.)  

If you don’t have an Ao3 account, contact the mods, we’ll be happy to help you get one with an invite link!

2) Click the Nominate Button.

3) Fill out the Nominations Sheet.

For fandom, please use “Mass Effect - All Media Types.” We only use Mass Effect - All Media Types because it gives us the highest chance of getting that sweet, sweet Mass Effect content in there regardless of potentially sticky couples. (For example: crossovers between a book and a game, or between the Mass Effect Trilogy and Andromeda, or crossovers between other media and Mass Effect.) For relationships, any pairing/threesome/moresome that meets the eligibility rules. For most pairings, Ao3 should help autocomplete it for you -- but if you come up with a very original pairing (or AO3 is feeling unhelpful), it may require you to type in the full thing. If it does not auto-complete, don’t worry - you can still submit it! Pairings should be in alphabetical order of last name. One pairing per line, please!

4) Submit your Nominations! Just click the button on the bottom, and you should be off off and away!

COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

What if I accidentally nominate something that’s not eligible? Will I get in trouble?

Nah. You might wind up with it being rejected, but we assume most people operate in good faith in their nominations. If we reject a couple, we will always put it in the spreadsheet for the year linked on the sidebar with a reason why, and you are always free to come to us with questions if you’re not sure what that is.

How many things can I nominate?

New this year, you can now nominate 20 relationships! Have at, friends!

Can I nominate, even if I’m not sure I’ll sign up or don’t plan on signing up?

Of course! Nominating isn’t a binding process - you’re only submitting what you’d like to see. You don’t have to sign up after nominating things - in fact, nominations are anonymous, so we can’t tell what you’ve nominated.

Are there any special rules/restrictions on what I can/can’t nominate?

Only the eligibility rules.

How do I search the OTP:true thing?

Can I nominate transgender or nonbinary Shepards/Ryders?

Yes! All Shepards and Ryders are welcome. For Nonbinary Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them under Nonbinary Shepard/Ryder. For transgender Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them under the preferred gender presentation and when you sign up for the exchange, please put in your sign-up that you would like that version of the character to be considered trans.

(Please note if you only want a trans version of a character, write in a DNW (Do Not Want) in your request for the cis version of the character; otherwise, you will be interpreted as open to both cis and trans “Female Shepard/Ryder” or “Male Shepard/Ryder”.)

Can I nominate Original Characters?

Yes - ish. We allow original characters who are defined enough to give the person who matches on the original character something to go on, but not so much so they have to do an exhaustive amount of research on a fanon character. For example:

Allowable OC nominations:

Female Asari Spectre/Female Cerberus Agent - both these roles are defined in terms of what category of pairing they want (f/f), and the two roles give someone an idea of who these people are without being excessively limiting.

Not-so-allowable:

Communications Officer/Male Original Character: both of these are too vague. We’re not sure whether this person wants a male, female, nonbinary, or other gender for the Communication’s Officer; Male Original Character is so nebulously defined that we’re not sure just who that might be.

Female Shepard/Batarian(s) - We don’t know who these batarians are, or how many of them there are. “Five Male Batarian Pilots” tells us a lot more.

Male Shepard/Legion/Ebony Raven Darkmayne (My OC) - While we encourage you to add details about your Shepards or other OCs, it’s very hard to write for original characters someone else has formed. Please nominate your OC in more generic terms (ex Male Shepard/Legion/Female Original Goffic Hogwarts Student).  You can add in names and descriptions in optional details in your sign up, but this way the writer or artist has more wiggle room for what will suit their fic or art, and you have more options of matching more people since you aren’t limited to one interpretation of a concept.

A good rule of thumb is if you can sum up an OC in more than one and less than five non-name nouns, it’s probably a valid nomination.

Can I nominate crossovers?

Yes! Both crossovers between different Mass Effect properties and other fandoms entirely are welcome! Just please, if the character you’re crossing over doesn’t hail from a Mass Effect canon, add in the canon next to the character name, e.g. “Darth Vader (Star Wars)/Garrus Vakarian.”

What if I have more than ten twenty to nominate???

Good news, as mentioned, we have increased the number of nominations from ten to twenty. If you still need a few more nominations, please PM us or talk to us on the discord about adding in extra pairings. In order to keep things fair for everyone and not have one person’s pairings dominating the space, please limit your extra requests to no more than 5.

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Small delay

So sorry, but due to an unforeseen IRL emergency, we need to delay out reveals 24 hours.

Reveals will now be March 31st at 10:00PM EDT. Here's a handy countdown clock!

Spec Reqs Assignments Revealed!

Countdown to Mar 31, 2025 10:00 pm. Showing days, hours, minutes and seconds ticking down to 0

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

A Guide To Treats

A treat is a work composed for the Spectre Requsition Collection outside of your assignment. A treat is extra, i.e. you are free but not obligated to create it on top of your assignment. This is possible in the following ways:

A fanwork for an un-requested pairing on the nominations list. Is there a pairing on there you just absolutely want to write something for and no one requested it? You can post it to the collection as a treat!

A fanwork that fills a request of one of the participants you weren’t assigned to. Maybe one of the requests just grabs you and you can’t help yourself. We feel you. We really do. 

If you create a fanwork for a participant of the Exchange, you are obligated to follow the Assignment Requirements, with the following exceptions: 

A treat does not have a minimum word count requirement; it doesn’t need to have over a 1000 words like your Assignment Fic does.

A treat may also be a manip on its own, unlike an Assignment Artwork. 

A treat may be gifted to multiple recipients, or to the collection as a whole.

You do not have to be signed up to post a fanwork to the collection! All you need is an AO3 account; if you don’t have one, you may message the mods and we will get you an invitation. The collection is open to treats from now up to creator reveals. It will be inaccessible to anyone but the creator and the mods until that time. 

How to post your treat:

1) Log into AO3 and go to Post->New Work. Fill in your actual document, titles, warnings, etc. like normal.

2) Under Post to Collections/Challenges, type in the following groups:

- SpecReqs2025

3) Under Gift this work, type in your recipient’s name. If it’s a treat, type in the person whose prompt you used for your fanwork if you used one; otherwise, you can leave this form blank to just make a general gift to the community. If you’ve done it right, it should look like this:

4) Scroll to the bottom, post your fic! Voila, you are done!

After that, the mods will take a look at your fic; if we have any follow up questions, we’ll email you at the address listed on your Ao3 account.