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WE'RE BACK, BUSYBODIES!

I hope you're all ready to start recruiting your sidekicks because nominations are open! But, before I link to where you can nominate, there is one big difference from last year… I'm allowing detectives to transfer accepted nominations from last year's tagset. Please read the guidelines in that section before requesting a transfer.

Nominations are open! They will close on ~~Friday 23 January~~ Saturday 24 January*. [ In your timezone + Countdown ]

*AO3 has scheduled maintenance that will impact nominations.

Please submit your nominations here.

Please read the guidelines before nominating, and keep an eye on the comm in case clarification is needed from you before a nomination is accepted.

Nomination guidelines

You can nominate up to 10 fandoms with 10 relationships (this includes characters, relationships, and groups) each.

All nominations must be disambiguated with the name of the canon after the ship/group/character, e.g., "Veronica Mars/Logan Echolls (VMars)", "Solo: Joe Goldberg (You TV)", "Solo: The Crows (Six of Crows Series)", "Fred Jones & Daphne Blake & Velma Dinkley & Shaggy Rogers & Scooby-Doo (Scooby-Doo Cartoon)".

Please avoid nominating "All Media Types" and "& Related Fandoms".

Crossovers belong under "Crossover Fandom".

Please ensure you properly capitalise your tags, otherwise we will either fix them or reject them.

Please remember that you do not have to nominate canons that are investigative in nature. We will accept any canon! The work created for the request needs to involve an investigation, so please nominate what you're eager to receive and/or offer.

Please remove diacritics (or accent letters) from nominations to help us avoid having accidental duplications. We won't be querying or changing these, but it's a preference to make it easier to search for tags if we need to move or edit them.

Disambiguations

Disambiguations help us identify which canon a character, relationship, or group belongs to, and are mandatory as part of your nominations. These assist us greatly in the backend, and also allow requesters and creators to know which version of a character is nominated, especially for large fandoms with various mediums or character versions.

You are welcome to abbreviate the fandom name when nominating your characters/relationships/groups to save space, although please make the abbreviation distinct for someone who is canon blind, i.e. for The Hunger Games, you could use "THG - Collins" and "THG Movies". If your tag goes wandering, we want to be able to put it back in its rightful place.

Examples of disambiguation are below (the disambiguation is bolded):

Logan Echolls/Veronica Mars (VMars)

Solo: Finnick Odair (THG - Collins)

The Crows (SoC Series) in Ocean's 11 (Ocean's 11)

Misty Quigley (Yellowjackets) & Elmo (Sesame Street)

Detective investigating murder or disappearance & Fake medium & Crime suspects (OW)

Fandoms

We have no restrictions on rarity or media on fandoms. You are more than welcome to nominate a very popular fandom or very rare fandom.

For more specific canon types:

RPF: RPF is permitted. Non-famous family members and under 18s are not eligible. We will not be allowing nominations for world leaders and reserve the right to reject any RPF nomination that we feel will cause distress to our participants.

Original characters in non-original canons: You may nominate Canon Character/Original Character(s) and Canon Character & Original Character(s). You are welcome to be as specific or as broad as you wish, e.g. "Veronica Mars/Original Female Character (VMars)" or "Abed Nadir & Original Male Character (Community)".

We highly encourage you to ensure your nomination specifies the gender of the OC unless you're interested in receiving a fanwork with any gender, i.e., "Misty Quigley & Original Character (Yellowjackets)" is broad and unspecific, and means your creator will be allowed to define the gender of the OC. If you are interested in a specific gender for the OC, please nominate this specifically, i.e. "Misty Quigley & Original Female Character (Yellowjackets)".

We will not accept participants who try to box their creator into a specific type of relationship using their optional details in their sign-up. Please keep that in mind while nominating.

Original Works: These must be nominated under "Original Work" in the format "Character Type/Character Type", "Character Type & Character Type" and "Solo: Character Type", e.g. "Female Detective/Male Criminal Mastermind (OW)", "Female Pirate Captain & Male Privateer (OW)", "Solo: Female Archeologist (OW)", etc.

We encourage you to be specific regarding gender and what you're after. Please try not to be overly specific—our tags have character limitations, and we also will not allow boxing in creators.

Recursive: These fandoms will be allowed as long as the nominators provide evidence that the creator has given permission for recursive works. This should be submitted either via email at gumshoeagency@gmail.com or on this post. Recursive nominations that fail to provide this proof will be rejected. Please ensure you include "DFE" ("Disambiguated for Exchanges") in the disambiguation.

Crossovers: Crossovers are permitted. These should be nominated under "Crossover Fandom" with the fandom name for each character in brackets, e.g. "Taissa Turner (Yellowjackets) & Michelle Jones (MCU)" or "Solo: Elmo (Sesame Street) in Home Alone (Movies)".

Threesomes/moresomes: These types of relationships are permitted, whether they are romantic or platonic. (Romantic is to be signified with an "/" and platonic with "&".) If you are nominating characters that do not exist in the same canon, please ensure you do so under "Crossover Fandom".

Canon/Reader: We do not allow Reader/Canon Character to be nominated in any form.

Creator's Choice of Fandom: We do not accept any CCOF for this exchange.

Nominating specific fandoms

Assassin's Creed: Please nominate Assassin's Creed under "Assassin's Creed - All Media Types".

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series: Please nominate these under "Buffyverse (TV)".

DC's Arrowverse: Please nominate characters from Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Superman & Lois, and Black Lightning under "DC's Arrowverse".

DC Comics: Please nominate all DC comics under "DCU (Comics)", but please disambiguate which version of the character you want in parentheses if that information is important to you.

DC Extended Universe: Please nominate all DCEU movies under "DC Extended Universe".

Dimension 20: Please nominate all campaigns under "Dimension 20 (Web Series)".

Dragon Age:
- Nominate all video games under "Dragon Age (Video Games)".
- Nominate all comics under "Dragon Age (Comics)".
- Nominate all books under "Dragon Age - Various Authors".
- Nominate all tabletop RPG under "Dragon Age (Tabletop RPG)".

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Please nominate this under "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII".

Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Please nominate all MCU movies under "Marvel Cinematic Universe".
- Please nominate all Netflix Marvel TV shows under "The Defenders (Marvel TV)". This includes Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron First, Daredevil, and The Defenders.
- Please nominate the MCU television shows separately from the MCU. These should appear as separate entities within the tagset, i.e., "WandaVision", "Ms Marvel", "Loki", "Falcon and the Winter Soldier", "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", etc.
Marvel Comics: Please nominate these under their appropriate Marvel universe, i.e. "Marvel 616", "Marvel Ultimate", etc. We won't accept "Marvel Comics" as a fandom.

Naruto (Anime & Manga), Boruto (Anime & Manga), and Dreaming of Sunshine: Please nominate these separately. Dreaming of Sunshine should be nominated as "Dreaming of Sunshine - SilverQueen (DFE)". If your nomination involves one or more Dreaming of Sunshine characters and one or more Naruto/Boruto characters, nominate this under "Crossover Fandom" with the proper disambiguations.

Star Trek: Please nominate these via their separate shows and the Alternate Original Series, such as "Star Trek: Alternate Original Series ", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", "Star Trek: Discovery", "Star Trek: Enterprise", "Star Trek: Picard", "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", etc. Crossovers between these shows must be nominated under "Crossover Fandom" and correctly disambiguated,

Star Wars:
- Star Wars movies: Please nominate under the appropriate movie, i.e. "Star Wars: Original Trilogy", "Star Wars: Sequel Trilogy", "Star Wars: Prequel Trilogy".
- Star Wars TV shows: Please nominate under the appropriate television shoe, i.e. "Star Wars: Rogue One". We will allow "Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types" to be nominated.
- Star Wars books: Please nominate under either "Star Wars: Legends Books" (Old EU) or "Star Wars: Extended Universe Books" (new/current books).
- Star Wars comics, video games, etc.,: Nominate what's normal in the fandom or by individual title. If you're unsure, comment below and we can figure out how to proceed.
- Star Wars in-universe crossovers: Please ensure any Star Wars crossovers are nominated under "Star Wars - All Media Types", i.e. "Leia Organa (Star Wars: Original Trilogy) & Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)". Please ensure you disambiguate which version of the character you want.
The Witcher: Please nominate via media, i.e. "The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski", "The Witcher (TV)", and "The Witcher (Video Games)".

X-Men Movies: Please nominate either "X-Men (Movieverse) (OTM)" for Original Timeline Movies and "X-Men (Movieverse) (ATM)" for Alternate Timeline Movies.

Tag formats

We accept:

"/" nominations signifying romantic and/or sexual relationships, i.e. "Logan Echolls/Veronica Mars (VMars)".

"&" nominations signifying platonic and gen relationships, i.e. "Logan Echolls & Veronica Mars (VMars)".

"Solo:" nominations will work in two ways: (1) signifying a single character to be the main focus of the fanwork, i.e. "Solo: Veronica Mars (VMars)" and (2) signifying a group, such as "Solo: The Muppets (Sesame Street)", where one or more Muppets will be the central focus of the work as chosen by the creator.

"Solo: Character (Fandom A) in Fandom B" and "Solo: Relationship (Fandom A) in Fandom B" — This signifies a crossover where the nominated character (or relationship) from Fandom A is visiting or already exists in the world of Fandom B. Please disambiguate Fandom B if there are multiple versions of this fandom available.

You may nominate tags in the format of "Character A/Character B & Character C" to request two characters in a romantic/sexual relationship having a platonic interaction with a third character. Please ensure you disambiguate correctly.

Tag examples:

Daphne Blake/Fred Jones (Scooby Doo Cartoon) — The fanwork you will receive will be primarily about this romantic/sexual relationship interacting with the exchange's theme.

Daphne Blake & Fred Jones (Scooby Doo Cartoon) — The fanwork you will receive will be primarily about characters interacting as friends, neighbours, family, acquaintances, enemies, etc. in a platonic/non-sexual way with the exchange's theme.

Solo: Velma Dinkley (Scooby Doo Cartoon) — The fanwork you will receive will be about/centred around Velma Dinkley, but other characters can appear while interacting with the exchange's theme.. She will be the primary character interacting with the exchange's theme within the work.

Solo: Mystery Inc. (Scooby Doo Cartoon) — The fanwork you will receive will be about/centred around one of any member of Mystery Inc. but, can potentially be more than one. They will interact with the exchange's theme.

Fred Jones & Daphne Blake & Velma Dinkley & Shaggy Rogers & Scooby-Doo (Scooby-Doo) — The fanwork you will receive will be about/centred around the nominated Mystery Inc. members, who interact platonically with one another with the exchange's theme.

Solo: Scooby Doo (Scooby Doo Cartoon) in Sesame Street — The fanwork will be a crossover about/centred around Scooby Doo visiting or already existing within the world of Sesame Street and interact with the exchange's theme. This will be nominated under "Crossover Fandom".

Elmo (Sesame Street) & Mystery Inc. (Scooby Doo Cartoon) — The fanwork you will receive will be a crossover work in which Elmo and one or more of the members of Mystery Inc. meet or have some kind of pre-existing platonic relationship and interact with the exchange's theme. This will be nominated under "Crossover Fandom".

Daphne Blake/Fred Jones (Scooby Doo cartoon) & Elmo (Sesame Street) — The fanwork you will receive will be a crossover work in which Fred and Daphne have a romantic/sexual relationship and platonically interact with Elmo with the exchange's theme. This will be nominated under "Crossover Fandom".

Group nominations

"Solo: Group" tags mean "one or more of this group" whether or not they have "any" in front of them.

If you request an ambiguous group, i.e. "Solo: The Avengers", we will assume any possible member(s) of that group fulfil the request. If you want specific members, please nominate them in the "Character A & Character B & Character C" format. (Please select the characters you absolutely want.)

You may request "Any" of a character type, e.g., "Mikhaila Ilyushin/Any Female Talos I Employee". Please make sure any important information is within the Any character tag.

Where there is ambiguity created by a nomination, we will likely side with the creator. If you want to ensure you get specific characters, then nominate them by name. If you request "Veronica Mars (VMars) & The Avengers (MCU)" and include in your DNWs that you do not want Bruce Banner, this may not be enforced.

Transfer 2025 nominations over

One of our fellow detectives asked about this as an option for 2026's round, which I thought was a great idea! I apologise to anyone this may blindside, as I hadn't considered it and didn't build it into the schedule.

I'm allowing transfers from last year's tagset into 2026's tagset. This means these nominations will not count toward a nomination slot. I will batch load these into the 2026 tagset, provided the request follows the guidelines below.

Each person can only request a maximum of 10 fandoms to be transferred.

Anonymous comments must sign their comments with their AO3 usernames.

If you do not provide the information in the format specified, I will not be transferring your selected tags over.

Please reply to this post with your fandom and the tags you want transferred. Please format it as follows: Fandom,Relationship,Relationship,Relationship, with each fandom on a new line. Please do not change these tags and do not add spaces. The tags must be exactly as they appear in the 2025 tagset.

If you can title your comment's subject with "Transfer", that will be very helpful for me! This isn't mandatory, and I will process these transfers even without a subject line. (Please don't stress if you forget!)

Transfers must be requested on this post only. If they are asked on any other post, I will ignore them.

Please be patient with me as this is my first time offering this.

Questions

You're welcome to drop any questions below or email gumshoeagency@gmail.com.

If you see any errors in the tagset, please point them out, preferably on nomination-related posts, so they can be amended before sign-ups open.

*

Thanks very much to the

ficinabox mods for letting me steal some of their nomination guidelines. 🩷

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

nomadicwriter

Cadfael Chronicles - Ellis Peters,Hugh Beringar & Brother Cadfael (Cadfael - Ellis Peters),Solo: Brother Cadfael (Cadfael - Ellis Peters)
Discworld - Terry Pratchett,Gytha "Nanny" Ogg & Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax (Discworld - Terry Pratchett),Sam Vimes & The Watch (Discworld - Terry Pratchett)
The Brokenwood Mysteries,Daniel Chalmers & Mike Shepherd & Kristin Sims (Brokenwood Mysteries),Sam Breen & Mike Shepherd & Kristin Sims (Brokenwood Mysteries)
Foyle's War,Christopher Foyle & Sam Stewart (Foyle's War)
Jonathan Creek (TV),Jonathan Creek & Maddy Magellan (Jonathan Creek),Jonathan Creek/Maddy Magellan (Jonathan Creek)
Ludwig (TV),Lucy Betts-Taylor & John "Ludwig" Taylor (Ludwig),Lucy Betts-Taylor/John "Ludwig" Taylor (Ludwig),Russell Carter & John "Ludwig" Taylor (Ludwig)
Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators (TV),Frank Hathaway & Luella Shakespeare & Sebastian Brudenell (Shakespeare & Hathaway)

From:

Nominations are open! Guidelines below.

Nomination guidelines