Q: What is TMA Mspec Week about?
A: This event is about celebrating canon mspec characters, as well as your mspec headcanons in the podcast The Magnus Archives
Q: Why make a TMA Mspec event?
A: This podcast has a rare instance of an mspec ace main character, as well as multiple unique mspec characters, which is something we all love deeply and want to celebrate. On top of that, we want to encourage creation of fanworks with mspec headcanons for other characters, because the more the merrier! The mods are also bi/mspec people themselves, or simply folks who enthusiastically support mspec identities, so this is a very exciting opportunity for us!
Q: When does the event take place?
A: From January 25th until February 1st, 2021
Q: What does “mspec” mean?
A: Mspec means “multi spectrum” and is an umbrella term for all queer identities that include attraction to more than one gender, e.g bisexual/biromantic, pansexual/panromantic, polysexual/polyromantic, omnisexual/omniromantic, etc.
Q: What tags does the event use?
A: To get your work seen and reblogged/retweeted by us, tag it as “#tma mspec week” on Tumblr, and “#MspecWeekTMA” on Twitter.
Q: Do we have to use all of the given prompts?
A: Nope. We give a selection of three types of prompts per day, generic / mspec-related / character list, and you can choose to use one, two, all three, or none of the suggested prompts. They’re there purely for your inspiration
Q: Character prompts give you three characters per day. Do we have to use all three??
A: Nope! If you choose to use the character prompts at all, you can choose one, two or, if you want a little challenge, even all three. And, of course, your work absolutely doesn’t have to be limited to the chosen characters. Meaning that if out of a list of Jon, Tim and Melanie you chose just Jon, your work can still be JonDaisy, JonMartinGeorgie, just Jon or something entirely else. We wanted to add the character prompts to hopefully inspire out of the box thinking about which characters could be mspec, and encourage a wide diversity of representation in the works that could be created!
Q: What do you mean by “the works have to touch on the topic of mspec identity”?
A: While there are no strict boundaries, the main goal of the event is the celebration of mspec identities and content featuring them. This can mean an explicit exploration of a character’s identity and self-discovery, but it can also simply mean, for example, a MartinGeorgie artwork or a JonPeter fanfic. We leave it up to you to decide how you personally interpret this topic and how you personally want to celebrate it. We won’t strictly police the content, but also ask people participating to only submit works they genuinely believe fit the event.
Q: Do the works have to be focused on romantic relationships?
A: Nope! The works can be romantic couples or romantic poly, but they can also focus on just one character, a friendship, QPP relationship, found family, or otherwise platonic relationships. The only important thing is touching in any way on exploration/celebration of a mspec identity, however you envision it.
Q: Can the focus in the work be on a different identity alongside the mspec one, or are only mspec identities allowed?
A: Yep, it absolutely can be! We more than encourage intersectionality, and if you want a character to be bi ace and trans, or maybe pan and nonbinary, or simply queer in their own unique identity, we completely support it.
Q: Can the work feature mspec/lgbtqa+-phobia or otherwise negative/upsetting/angsty content?
A: Yep! You can certainly explore or feature elements such as bi/pan/mspec-phobia, aphobia, transphobia, etc. within your work, as long as it doesn’t promote such behavior as correct or justified. But please be sure to tag and warn for such themes accordingly.
Q: Do all characters in a work for this event have to be mspec?
A: Of course not! While the focus should be on mspec identities, it doesn’t mean that it can’t feature gay, lesbian, aroace, or straight characters. However, we will not allow erasure of canonically mspec characters, such as Jon (both as mspec and ace), Tim, and Georgie, in favor of different headcanons.
Q: Are only mspec fans allowed to participate?
A: Of course not, any fan of any identity is allowed to participate, of course as long as they act respectfully and in good faith.
Q: How do I submit a work to the AO3 collection?
A: Please see the information here
Q: Is there a minimum or maximum word count for fanfic?
Q: Is any ship/headcanon/content/etc. not allowed in this event?
A: Nope, aside from works that promote any sort of x-phobia or bashing. Everything else is allowed, so long as you make sure to provide appropriate rating and content warnings
Q: Can I submit a work that was created and posted previously, but that I believe fits the event?
A: Yes! The 8th day, February 1st, is reserved specifically for previously posted works to be reposted/retagged/added to the AO3 collection.
Q: Who are the event mods and how can I get in contact with them?
A: You can send questions directly to this account through the ask box or DM us on Tumblr or Twitter.
The mods for this event are:
Saj (@ sajwho, @ saj_who on Twitter)
Aza (@sazandorable, @sazandorable on Twitter)
Fly (@apatheticbutterflies)
If you have any more questions left, please feel free to send them to our ask box!
You can also see the event rules here
