highadrenalineexchange | Recent Entries

Good morning good afternoon good evening! Here are the rules for the 2026 round of High Adrenaline. There are no major changes to any of the rules from last year, but please make sure to read through all the info listed below so we're all on the same page.

AO3 Collection •Nomination Form • Approved Nominations Spreadsheet• Tagset • Sign-Up Form • Sign-Up Search App • Short Treat Collection • Advice for Newcomers

You have two weeks to write 10k (or draw a 25-panel/10-page comic) and one week to edit. Have fun ;)

Nominations Open: Sat 14 Feb 2026 10:00AM EST
Nominations Temporarily Close for Cleanup: Fri 20 Feb 2026 09:59PM EST
Sign-up Opens & Nominations Reopen: 21 Feb 2026 01:00PM EST
Nominations Close: Fri 27 Feb 2026 09:59 PM EST
Sign-up Closes: Sat 28 Feb 2026 9:59PM EST
Assignments Go Out: ASAP
Assignments Due: ~~Sun 15 Mar 2026 9:59PM EDT~~ Mon 16 Mar 2026 9:59 EDT (countdown)
Works Revealed: ~~Sun 29 Mar 2026 9:59PM EDT~~ Mon 30 March 2026 9:59 EDT
Creators Revealed: two weeks after work reveals

This exchange has been inherited by a new mod. Some jokes may stay the same and some might be less funny than previous due to this, but we're all still committed to everyone having a good time.

NOMINATIONS

TIMING

Starting February 14th, each person can nominate fandoms, with up to 10 relationships or solo characters per fandom.

There are two ways to nominate:

Use our handy Google form! Any nominations that are incorrect or questionable will be queried on Dreamwidth. Safety fandoms must be nominated using the Google form so you can provide verification of safety status.
Use the standard AO3 tagset nomination form. Any nominations that are incorrect or questionable will be rejected immediately to keep the queue from getting clogged. To renominate them correctly, use the Google form.

Nominations will close temporarily on February 20, so tagmods can finish checking and approving fandoms and putting them in the tagset.

When signups open on February 21, people can nominate more fandoms if they really want to, but at that point, please don't nominate a fandom unless you are definitely going to request it.

Nominations will end 24 hours before signups end so we have time to check the last nominations and add them to the tagset.

FORMAT

You can nominate fandoms and relationships. Relationships should be in the form A/B, A & B, or 1: A. The / (as in "Barry Allen/Iris West") indicates a sexual and/or romantic relationship. The & (as in "Barry Allen & Iris West") indicates a platonic relationship. "1:" (as in "1: Iris West") indicates a fic that is primarily about one character rather than a relationship (though that character can be in relationships of various kinds with other people). You can also request "1: Worldbuilding". Please disambiguate every relationship by adding the fandom name at the end of it, like "1: Worldbuilding (Discworld - Pratchett)".

Please do not nominate groups or "Any [Group]" as a character. For example, "Eduardo Sandoval & Any Cop (Narcos)" and "Lucy Pevensie/Maenads (Narnia - Lewis)" would not be eligible as nominations. Relationships of the form A/B & C are also not accepted.

Crossovers should go under Crossover Fandom. Relationship example: "Peter Pevensie (Narnia - Lewis)/Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones TV)". If you want a character from fandom A in a fusion or crossover with fandom B, you can format it like this: "Peter Pevensie (Narnia - Lewis) & Worldbuilding (Game of Thrones TV)".

Almost all fandoms are eligible for the tagset. Creator’s Choice of Fandom will not be in the tagset. All original work nominations go under Original Work. We prefer specific canons over All Media Type fandoms, but we will evaluate those as they come.

Every single fandom has to be double-checked by tagmods for safety fandom status, which will take time. You can technically fill out the Google form as many times as you want, but for the sake of our achy wrists and tired eyes, please only nominate fandoms you're pretty sure you want to request or offer.

SAFETY FANDOMS

You will need to sign up with at least one safety fandom. A safety fandom is a fandom that can be consumed in five hours or less. It should also be available in English or with an English translation. This is designed to prevent the untimely death of our pinch hitters, who will have exactly one week to write 10k and who therefore cannot spend 20+ hours consuming a new canon for a pinch hit.

What exactly counts as a safety fandom? Glad you asked! One of these things MUST be true for your fandom to be a safety:

It's Original Work.
It's a standalone you can watch (TV episode or series, movie, music video, etc.) that's up to 5 hours long.
It's a standalone you can read in English (book, poem, collection of stories, etc.) that's up to 100,000 words long (check at Reading Length).
It's a standalone you can listen to (song, album, performance, etc.) that's up to 5 hours long.
It's a video game whose main story takes up to 5 hours to play (check at How Long to Beat).
It's a comic book run with up to 30 comics.
It's a manga with up to 30 chapters.
It's a still image (photograph, painting, etc.) or series of still images.
It's RPF, and the necessary information about the people you're nominating is contained in a medium that fits one of the above categories (a biography under 100,000 words, a documentary under 5 hours, etc.).
It's some other fixed-length fandom, in English or with an English translation available, that's easy to access and can be consumed in under 5 hours.

It also has to be reasonably available. If your fandom is rare, out of print, expensive, or otherwise hard for a pinch hitter to borrow or buy on short notice, it's not a safety.

When nominating a safety fandom, you'll need to provide links for at least one place where it can be gotten. Links for non-safety fandoms are welcome too, but they're required for safeties! If you're nominating RPF, the info source you link here will be considered the "canon" for that nomination.

The Google nomination form also has a space for writing a quick fandom promo. We encourage this for safety fandoms especially! If you're hanging out as a lingering pinch hit, that lil blurb could be what gets a pinch hitter to read your book/watch your movie/listen to your album and pinch hit for you. Make it easy for our pinch hitter heroes to save the day!

As tagmods check the fandoms and ships, they'll be added to the AO3 tagset.

SIGNUPS

When signups open (from January 25 to February 1) you can sign up on AO3. You need a free AO3 account. If you don't have one, email highadrenalinemod@gmail.com and I'll get you an invite code.

You must request at least 3 different fandoms. You must request at least 1 safety fandom (see above for more info on safety fandoms). You must offer at least 3 different fandoms, and at least 1 relationship per fandom. At most, you can request 10 and offer 10. Requests and offers have to be unique.

Please be sure to include a list of Do Not Wants (DNWs) in the Details box! Unless you genuinely are fine with receiving any kind of fic/comment, in which case please say "I have no DNWs". DNWs should be specific. For instance, do not ask for "nothing icky" because it's very hard to know what that means. DNWs should also not force the author to only write one thing. For instance, do not DNW "fic where my chosen character isn't pregnant" because it's unfair to try and make your writer do one very narrow type of fic (in the example, pregnancy fic).

Likes, prompts, ship thoughts, general screaming, etc. are optional and can go into the Details box or into a letter which you can link in the "Letter or other link" box.

Please keep in mind that optional details ARE OPTIONAL—this means that a writer only needs to include at least one of your requested relationships and avoid your DNWs. Writers are not obliged to write out a specific prompt or plot for you.

If nobody requests anything you offer, we will email you so that you can add offers. If you do not reply to the mod email within 24 hours, your signup will be deleted so that we can get assignments out on time.

If nobody offers what you request, you will become a pinch hit.

If you are open to receiving a 25-panel, 10-page comic for a request, check “I Opt In to Receiving a Comic Instead of Fic.” If you are not open to this, check “I Do Not Opt In to Receiving a Comic -- Fic Only for Me!” You must check ONE AND ONLY ONE of these options for each request. Opting in to a comic doesn’t guarantee you’ll get one—fic is an acceptable fill for any request.

If you are an artist, and you only want to create a comic, sign up normally and email highadrenalinemod@gmail.com so that I know to only match you to people who opt into art.

You can also email highadrenalinemod@gmail.com with Do Not Match requests (to prevent a particular person or people from creating for you) and Do Please Assign requests (to ask that you be assigned to create for a particular person). I can't guarantee I'll assign you to the recipient you want, but I'll try.

ASSIGNMENTS, DEADLINE, REVEALS

For your assignment, please write a fic of at least 10,000 words for at least one of your recipient's requested relationships. If your recipient opts in to getting a comic, you can draw a comic of at least 10 pages/25 panels. Please respect your recipient's DNWs. Please do not post a sequel to a previous work of yours unless your recipient has explicitly opted into receiving sequel works.

If you can't finish your assignment in time, please default. There is no penalty for defaulting before the deadline. However, if you attempt to publish an unfinished assignment before deadline, or if you copypaste the word pickle in 10,000 times (or similar), that will lead to a one-year ban.

If a fic includes parts such as [add apple-picking scene here] or simply does not have an ending, it is incomplete. A fic must be publishable at deadline; that is, a fic must be ready to be seen by the public at deadline. If your work is incomplete at deadline, you will be defaulted and your recipient will go to pinch hit.

You may request one 2-day extension. Your request needs to be emailed to highadrenalinemod@gmail.com before the deadline. There will be no second extensions.

If at least one person has completed their assignment, yet they do not have a gift ready for them 24 hours before the collection is set to reveal, then the work reveals will be delayed in increments of 24 hours (i.e. it might be one day, two, etc) to ensure all who finish their assignment receive their gift.

PINCH HITS

Pinch hits will be posted to the Dreamwidth. You can claim them by commenting on the pinch hit post (comments will be screened). If there are outstanding pinch hits when the collection is supposed to open, the collection opening will be postponed.

If you did not complete your assignment, you will not become a pinch hit.

For pinch hits that linger or are added after the deadline, the requester may choose to opt in to receiving two 5k+ fics (or 5-page/12-panel comics) instead of one 10k+ fic (or 10-page/25-panel comic). This is completely optional.

TREATS

Please only post treats that are 10k+ to the main collection. If you have a treat that is less than 10k, you can post it in the short treat collection. Anything posted in the short treat collection will not count towards Triple Crown.

OTHER RULES

You must be 18 or older to ride this ride.

In most cases of problems, mod will try to communicate first to make sure it isn't an accident & to see if it can be fixed. That said, mod reserves the right to act if any of the following happens:
1. somebody publishes an incomplete fic
2. somebody publishes the word pickle 10,000 times (or similar)
3. somebody creates a fanwork containing one of their recip's DNWs
4. somebody writes spite fic
5. somebody behaves like an asshole towards other participants and/or mod (for example, if you were to email mod every hour on the hour demanding mod answer your question immediately, that would qualify)

Questions? Did I mess up a link? Other concerns? Email highadrenalinemod@gmail.com.

Navigation

Recent Entries

Sticky: 2026 Schedule and Rules

NOMINATIONS

SIGNUPS

ASSIGNMENTS, DEADLINE, REVEALS

PINCH HITS

TREATS

OTHER RULES

Please Fix

Queries

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags