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.
This was my first year participating in @spectre-requisitions-exchange and I hope I get to do so again next year, everyone has been incredibly kind and also everyone is so super talented!!
A huge huge thank you to my gifter who wrote me some fantastically delicous old man smut!!
Take Me Down by MyGorramShip (LoneSurvivor) for FinchMarie (Explicit)
My piece was for @dandenbo and I got the opportunity to draw their NB Shep Otto, and it filled my little queer heart with joy.
Also I'm very proud of how it turned out! It's my most explicit art to date and I'm excited to have ripped off the band aid on that so my art can get shamelessly more filthy in the future. Sorry in advance buds gotta be logged into AO3 to see the full thing!
Spectre Requisitions 2023 - Mordin survived reversing his work on the genophage; maybe in retirement he can begin to help heal the rift with his protege, too.
Treat art for Jaigheart on AO3, requested a Mordin Lives! AU where he and Maelon repair their mentor/protege relationship.
Mass Effect rare pairs exchange @spectre-requisitions-exchange has revealed works! Here are the five Ashley ship-focused works (so far - people may yet add treats). The fShepley is strong this year!
Creators are anonymous until April 8 (coincidentally the start of Ashley Williams Appreciation Week).
Connection Lost by kesla
fShepley, T rated, ~3900 words
Ashley Williams logs into an empty server.
Williams 22:12
> you were a pain in everyone's ass shepard
> epaulets shinier than your damn regulation shoes
> half the time we'd wrap a convo with me feeling like you were short a punch in the face
> but look. i like confidence. especially in my COs. ESPECIALLY in my female COs. even if that CO is annoying as hell and dumb as bricks
> and that's how you got me.
Going Up by Kahika
Willarian, G rated, ~2500 words
It starts in, of all places, an elevator.
Or: Five times Garrus and Ashley rode the elevator and one time they took the stairs.
From: Ashley by CoaxionUnlimited
fShepley, G rated, ~1100 words
They had the funeral yesterday. I shouldn’t be emailing you about this, but God only knows that I’m not going to take up journaling. Sarah would never shut up about it.
The Crack In Everything by FerindenCadash
fShepley, T rated, ~1600 words
After her own near-death experience, Ashley has questions about Shepard's death.
Tell Me When by jusbeinkt
what are we going to call Ashley/Samantha? I'm thinking Trayliams atm, E rated, ~3500 words
Chief Williams:
Your orders for TDY are enclosed. One of our civilian engineers, Samantha Traynor, is currently visiting family on Horizon. She's a tech genius. I recommend connecting with her while on site.
Anderson
P.S. Reports are confirmed. Shepard is alive and flying with Cerberus. I thought you'd want to know.
A comms emergency on Horizon results in an unexpected encounter. Written for Spectre Requisitions 2024.
I had the joy of participating in the @spectre-requisitions-exchange this year! This was my first time doing a rare pair exchange and it was a lot of fun -- @keita52 had a lot of really intriguing pairings to pick from and while I had originally been leaning towards fem!Shep/Tali (because I love them and can't believe they're considered a rare pair) I was really drawn to Chakwas and Mordin. The picture of them that popped up in my mind's eye almost immediately was so clear and vivid that I knew I had to draw them. I hope you like it, Keita!
