Sign-Ups, Schedules, Rules, and More
Welcome to the 2025 Magnus Archives/Magnus Protocol Big Bang event!
I’m Mod Magpie, I’ll be your host this year. It’s my first time hosting a fandom event, so bear with me if things don’t run as smoothly as they could!
SIGN-UPS
Author Sign-ups Artist Sign-ups
SCHEDULES
Author & Artist sign-ups open: April 17th
Author sign-ups close: May 15th
Author 50% check in: July 1st
Artist sign-ups close: July 15th
Author summaries and tags due: July 18th
Claims open: August 1st
Author & Artist pairings go out: August 8th
Author 75% check in: August 15th
Author first draft due: September 1st
Artist 50% check in: September 15th
Artist 75% check in: October 1st
Author and Artist final products due: October 15th
Posting starts: October 18th
(Schedules might shift slightly as needed, Mod Magpie has a job, I will never take time away from your projects, I will only give you extra time)
RULES
Age Requirements
No age requirements, however if an author creating fic that would be rated M or E on AO3, we ask you mark it as such in author signups so that we can make sure artists who are minors do not get paired with those fics. Any authors who are minors will not be allowed to submit fic that would be rated mature or explicit. Because this is a collaborative event, we just want to make sure the authors and artists that are paired together aren’t uncomfortable working together.
Both authors and artists will be asked to self-identify as a minor (younger than 18) or not a minor (18 or older) in their respective sign-ups, and any person caught lying about their age will be banned from this event, and any subsequent events hosted by this blog.
Content
No content is banned, nor are there restrictions on ratings (aside from minors. However, please tag your fic appropriately! Just a general, catch-all ‘Dark fic’ tag or something similar is NOT enough, everything must be properly tagged so that no one gets into a fic with content that they didn’t want to read.
Word Count
As 2025 is the first year this blog is hosting the event (and the first fan event Mod Magpie has ever hosted) we certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from signing up, and as such the word count minimum is being kept lower than most, at 3000 words, but we encourage authors to write much longer fics than that if they want! Preferably, keep the word maximum to about 100000, we want you to have time to finish, and we want the artists to be able to finish reading so they can make their art in time!
Author Expectations
When signing up for the event, we ask you have at least a general idea in mind for your fic, so that we know you’ll at least start on the right track! Because this event is a collaborative effort, we ask that you try your hardest to complete your fic during the time allotted so that your paired artist will be able to create their art for your fic. Throughout the event, Mod Magpie will be reaching out to make sure you’re on track to finishing your fic by the posting date. Failure to respond with these check ins in a timely manner will result in being removed from the event for the year so that we have time to reassign the artist with which you are paired. You will be expected to communicate with your paired artist, failure to do so will result in being removed from the event for the year. Authors are expected to come up with a new idea for this event, meaning you can’t take something you’ve written half of and just finish that for the event. If you have a negligible amount of the fic written already, you might be able to use that, so long as you haven’t posted any of it yet.
Artist Expectations
You are expected to create at least one piece of art for the fic you have been paired with. Whether that be digital art, traditional art, or something different is up to you. Throughout the event, Mod Magpie will be reaching out to make sure you’re on track to finishing your art piece by the posting date. Failure to respond with these check ins in a timely manner will result in being removed from the event for the year so that we have time to assign another artist with the author with which you are paired. You will be expected to communicate with your paired author, failure to do so will result in being removed from the event for the year.
Claims
Fic summaries and snippets will be made available on the Tumblr page, and artists will then able to claim fics in a ranked-choice voting system through Google Forms. Once again we ask that any authors making mature or explicit fics mark them as such so that we might pair you with an appropriate artist. Artists will be given space to request not be paired with a fic with specific tags (i.e. a specific kink, a specific aspect of violence or dark fic) and such requests will be honored, so authors should understand that fics with such tags *might* have a more difficult time getting claimed. Any artists claiming a fic that is not marked mature or explicit is asked to not create mature or explicit art for the fic.
Posting
Both authors and artists should refrain from posting any of their fic anywhere online before the posting date, so we can literally kick off the posting with a bang of new fics! Authors should not talk about their ideas before artist pairings go out to keep anonymity for fairness sake.
Check ins
Check ins are made by Mod Magpie to make sure that authors and artists are moving forward with their works and are on their way to meeting the posting deadline. When check ins say ‘50%’ or '75%’ that doesn’t mean that has to be exact, just that you’ve gotten near that amount of the story done, and you feel like you can get it done by the posting deadline. (If you’ve gotten more done, good for you! You’re ahead of schedule, not a problem). But, if you feel like life has gotten too hectic and you won’t be able to complete your work, it’s okay, life happens, but don’t wait for a check in to let us know! You can always reach out, and we’ll do our best to repair your partner for the bang with someone. so that everyone has at least one partner.
Further questions?
Reach out on @themagnusbigbang or at themagnusbigbang@gmail.com if you have a question, I’m always happy to answer.