Partners 4 Life Exchange

What is this?
A Gift Exchange Challenge for fans of EO, aka the relationship between Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Organized Crime. We are using the summer hiatus to request and write new stories for our favorite pairing. 

What’s a Gift Exchange?
A fanfiction event is a little like a "Secret Santa" exchange in which authors are matched with prompts requested by others. All participants will both write and receive a new story about Elliot and Olivia.  

How does it work?
There are five phases. First, nominations, in which you can suggest tags/tropes to be used in the stories. Second, sign-ups, in which participants complete a form to both request and offer a story. Third, you will be matched with another participant and will have about two months to write and submit the story. Fourth, story reveals, where a whole new collection of EO stories with anonymous authors will be released, and the fifth and final phase, when the authors of each story are revealed. 

Who can participate?
Everyone is welcome; however, you must have an AO3 account. You can request an invite from AO3 by going to the Invite Request page and adding your email to the queue (the page shows you how long you'll have to wait for an invite).

How do I nominate tags?
Navigate to the Partners For Life Tagset and click “submit nominations”. 

How do I sign up?
Click on the “Sign Up Form”. You will be asked to input your request(s) and offer(s). 

What do I include in my sign-up?
You will select at least five and up to twenty Additional Tags to request and to offer. In the ‘Description’, you may include details and prompts such as:

-A story about Elliot and Olivia celebrating the summer on the seaside. Any rating, but no angst, just fluff and cheer.
-An AU in which Olivia is an assassin who falls in love with her target, Elliot.
-Please write a sexy missing scene from any episode in 1.0.

It is important to include any Do Not Wants or triggers. These may include restrictions on ratings (e.g., “up to Mature only”), requests to avoid archive warnings (e.g., “no character death”), or strong preferences about ships (e.g. "no Rollisi") or general themes (e.g., “no religious imagery”). Creators are expected to take these requests seriously.

You may include a link to an exchange letter with more details on your likes and dislikes, but please include your 'Do Not Want' list in the sign-up.

What don’t I include in my sign-up?
Prompts should be broad, not specific. For example:

Good: I want a Tattoo Parlor/Flower Shop AU.
Good: I want a Tattoo Parlor (Elliot)/Flower Shop (Olivia) AU. Cameos from other characters in the Law & Order universe welcome!
Bad: I want a Tattoo Parlor/Flower Shop AU where Kathleen is a tattoo artist like her father and Olivia comes to get a tattoo of the logo of her flower shop and she sees Elliot’s art on the wall and wants him to do her tattoo instead of Kathleen but he refuses because he thinks she’s a snob only then he gets to know her better when he has to buy flowers for his brother’s funeral and he wants to do it but he doesn’t want to take business away from his daughter and also Noah works part time for his mom and befriends Kathleen and they set up a date for their parents like The Parent Trap. It backfires at first, but then they merge their businesses.

Don't show favoritism to one prompt over the others (e.g. "I really just want this one AU"). Your author may have matched on another prompt and might feel disappointed that you are not excited about the prompt you requested. Try to show equal enthusiasm to all prompts that you have selected.

What are the requirements?
All exchange fics should be new (not posted anywhere prior to this challenge) and at least 1000 words. Unless your recipient explicitly gives permission for you to write in another language, the fics you write should be in English.

All exchange fics and treats should include Elliot/Olivia as the main pairing. Additional relationships may be included at the discretion of the author as long as they are not on the requester’s Do Not Want list; however, the focus must be on Elliot and Olivia in a romantic relationship.

What’s the anonymous period?
This exchange is anonymous until author reveals on September 25. Please do not talk about your assignment or post your story on any social media (tumblr, twitter, discord, etc.) until after author reveals. You may utilize a beta-reader (we encourage it!), but do not share the fic or any notes publicly.

When posting your fic, make sure you do not de-anon by sharing personal information in the author's notes, such as mentioning other stories you've written, thanking a beta which you use all the time, or linking to your socials.  You may post things like, "A big thank you to my beta", and add their name once authors have been revealed. 

What if I can't finish?
We understand - please default on AO3, and your assignment will be given to a pinch hitter. We request that you do this as soon as you know you cannot complete the assignment, so our pinch hitters have as much time as possible to complete it.  Defaulting means you are not guaranteed a gift, though you may still receive one if your writer has not defaulted.

What’s a pinch hit or pinch hitter?
When an author cannot complete their assignment, it is reassigned to a pinch hitter. These authors step in to write the story so everyone ends up with a gift. Participants in the exchange may also be pinch hitters, but we ask that you complete your first assignment before accepting a pinch hit. All pinch hits will be posted to the Dreamwidth Community. Pinch hits will be announced on Discord, Twitter/X, Tumblr, and BlueSky.