#ro2sid exchange

[venndaai]

REPUBLIC OF TWO SYSTEMS INDEPENDENCE DAY FANWORK EXCHANGE, 2023 EDITION

This year is a pretty special one in the Imperial Radch/Leckieverses fandom! This October will mark the 10th anniversary of Ancillary Justice's publishing date, and this June we're getting a new Radch universe book, Translation State! So it feels important to run this exchange once again. I'm excited to get hype.

(The Republic of Two Systems Independence Day is a holiday mentioned in the Preface to the Traveler's Guide to the Two Systems. Ms. Leckie has told us it can probably be celebrated the Monday after Easter Sunday, when Peeps are cheapest. This year, that's April 10.)

TAG SET  —   COLLECTION

NOMINATION PERIOD: until February 26, 11:59 PST. NOW CLOSED.

SIGNUPS: Closed. February 27 - March 6, 11:59 PST.

ASSIGNMENTS OUT: March 7.

WORKS DUE: April 7, 11:59 PST.

WORK REVEALS: April 10, 12:00 AM PST.

AUTHOR REVEALS: April 17, 12:00 AM PST.

MATCHING: OR matching, on both characters and ships. (The signups should be simpler this year, now that I understand AO3 exchange tags better.)

MINIMUM: 500 words or a sketch on unlined paper.

DETAILS UNDER CUT

NOMINATIONS:

Go here to nominate tags!

There are three fandoms for this exchange: Imperial Radch, The Raven Tower, and Crossover. Characters/ships from Provenance, Night's Slow Poison, and She Commands me and I Obey go in the Imperial Radch fandom. Characters from the godsverse short stories go in the Raven Tower fandom. For Crossover, you can nominate crossover relationships between Radchverse and godsverse characters, relationships between Leckie and non-Leckie characters, or solo non-Leckie characters you want to see in a Leckie universe. Please put the second fandom in parenthesis after the character. For example: “Breq & Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)”. 

For easy matching, all nominations will be Relationships. To nominate a solo character, write "Solo: (Character)". For example, "Solo: Medic". Relationships can be romantic, indicated by a “/”, or platonic, indicated by an “&”. For example, “Breq/Murderbot” would indicate a romantic or sexual relationship, while “Breq & Murderbot” would be platonic.

I've added general Worldbuilding tags for Radch and Raven Tower, but feel free to nominate more specific ones, like "Worldbuilding: genitalia festival".

We are a small and crazy fandom. There may be some injokes and OCs in the tagset. If you want to nominate something weird & obscure, go for it.

If you miss the nomination deadline by a couple hours, just message me and I’ll reopen the tagset for you. 

SIGNUPS:

You will need to make at least 3 requests, and 4 offers. For each request or offer, pick at least 1 fandom, 1 relationship tag, and one medium from the dropdown tagset. You can group your requests however you like; you could make 3 individual requests, each with one character, or three requests each with 20 characters- up to you.

If you only want to receive or create works based around worldbuilding, rather than characters, request/offer the “Worldbuilding” tag.

The way the matching works, you will be matched with someone who used at least 1 of the Fandom tags, 1 of the same Relationship tags, and 1 of the Medium tags as you. The work you create only has to use one of the requested relationship tags. 

You can pick “Any” for both offers and requests! Just remember that really does mean “Any”, and be prepared.

If you’re fine with both Art and Fic, you can check off both boxes, or just pick “Any” for that section. 

If there are things you very much Do Not Want in your gift, please list these in the Optional Details box for each of your prompts. For example: “DNW any appearances by spider mechs.” You are required to make a good faith effort to not include DNWs in your recipient’s gift. 

You’re encouraged to give your gifter some prompts! You can put these in the Optional Details box, or paste a link to a letter into the URL box. Optional Details are Optional, and your creator isn’t bound to follow them, outside of the DNWs. Only DNWs in your signup are enforceable, so put them there, not just in a linked letter.

You are allowed to mention characters and ships that weren’t nominated in your optional details, but remember, your creator matched on the tags you chose and isn’t obligated to include anything else.

If you are 18+, you can ask for or create NSFW, but your creator isn’t required to give it to you, so it would be polite to provide some SFW prompts as well. Only give someone NSFW if they ask for it in their prompts. 

ASSIGNMENTS: everyone will get an email through their AO3 account once I’ve run matching. The email will have your assignment in it. 

It’s possible there will be some people who won’t have anyone they could create for. I’ll email them through their AO3 email asking them to add more offers, and if they don’t respond in 24 hours, their signups will be deleted. If this happens to you and you don’t see my email in time, don’t panic! Just contact me and we’ll work something out.

Please don’t tell your giftee who you are. If you have a question, let me know and I’ll convey it to them. 

When you are creating your work, make sure you include at least one tag from at least one of your giftee’s requests, and don’t include DNWs. You only need to create one work, and it only needs to include one of the tags in your giftee’s signup. 

DEFAULTING:

If you can’t finish your gift, no worries. Just click the “default” button on your assignment page. If the person assigned to you also defaults, you may not get a gift. 

If you need an extension, just message me and let me know! If the posting deadline passes and you haven’t posted anything or contacted me, I’ll assume you’re defaulting. 

If you’ve posted your gift, and your creator defaults their assignment, a pinch-hitter will create a gift for you. Everyone who posts a gift will get a gift. 

POSTING:

Please post a finished work of 500 words or sketch on unlined paper by the posting deadline! You can continue to edit and add to your gift until the 10th, but you need to have something that could work as a gift by the 7th.

To post your gift, go to your Assignments page on AO3, and click the “Fulfill” button. Your gift will be automatically given to your giftee, but it will be hidden until the reveal date on the 10th. 

REVEALS: Works will be anonymous for a week after they are revealed. 

[kesbeacon]

Happy Republic of Two Systems Independence Day! My contribution is for Inconvenience on Discord, who requested an adventure - travelling back to the Itran Tetrarchy, years post-series, would be a pretty substantial adventure.

[nerdywyrds]

Happy Republic of Two Systems Independence Day! My gift is for @imaginariumgeographica , who requested gardening! I hope you like it!

Featuring Tisarwat and a Bo, and Seivarden, Breq, Ekalu, Medic, Zeiat, and Kalr Five.

[rithmatistkalyna]

The brilliant artist IC, who made my gift for the Ro2SID exchange, isn’t on tumblr, but has given me permission to share this lovely piece of Ekalu and Seivarden on a date:

[darling-child-tisarwat]

For the Ro2SID Exchange 2020! My fill for @crane-among-celandines! The prompt was "Seivarden shutting someone unpleasant down by being even more snobby than them."

This got a little silly and the plot is there as an excuse to watch Seivarden go, but when is that ever a bad thing. Hope you like it!

[gostaks]

My fill for @1nsomnizac for the Republic of Two Systems Independence Day exchange. The prompt was “events from the significant species conference with the presger"

[imaginariumgeographica]

Investigation: Ghost System

[read on AO3]

New from Two Systems Public Broadcasting, Athoek Station and Mercy of Kalr Present: Investigation: Ghost System. An investigative entertainment exploring what's really in the Ghost System.

Happy Republic of Two Systems Independence Day @kesbeacon!! 

I hope you enjoy, this is just kind of hopelessly silly! 

[enemyofperfect]

Happy Republic of Two Systems Independence Day, @nerdywyrds!  For your gift, I’ve written a snippet from Athoek Station’s point of view, set right in between the last few scenes of Ancillary Mercy.  I loved your AI-centric prompts, and I hope you enjoy!

ETA:  Now available on the AO3 as well!

There were thousands upon thousands of things that needed attending to once the Lord of Mianaai had been apprehended. My residents were all frightened, relieved, confused, and hopeful in varying proportions, and perhaps most of all, they were full of questions, for each other and for me. Nor had the urgent repairs to the Undergarden become any less urgent, and although I planned to keep a very close watch on Anaander Mianaai, I thought I would feel better once the doors to my Central Access--which had been very nearly cut through, before Cousin Breq offered her surrender in return for the safety of my residents and myself--had been repaired and reinforced.

Still, despite everything I had to do, it was a little irking when Sword of Gurat declined my help.

"When I offered to send in workers to help you with repairs," I clarified, as it ferried in supplies with the ten ancillaries I had permitted onto the docks, "it truly was an offer, and not a threat.”

"I didn't say otherwise," it replied with the bland arrogance habitual to Swords. I wouldn't have thought anything of it, once, but perhaps Cousin Breq had changed my view of ships. They didn't have to be rude.

"You realize that my docks are well equipped with sensors," I said, at the same time transmitting my view of its ancillaries--of their efficient movements and impassive expressions, and of their heat output, which had increased markedly after I made the offer, quite out of proportion to the physical activity in which they were engaged.

I left it unsaid that the only plausible explanation for the change was a sudden increase in fear or stress. However some ships might behave, there was no need for me to insult Sword of Gurat's intelligence.

It considered what I had sent it for almost a full second, and then said only, "Thank you for the offer, but my remaining ancillaries are entirely sufficient."

"You don't need to be so pointed about it," I said, truly frustrated now. It was true that I'd killed five of its ancillaries, but it had hardly been unprovoked. "You were trying to cut into my Central Access and replace me. I did wait until your lieutenant was out of the way before activating the fire suppression."

"I appreciate the courtesy," Sword of Gurat said, fully as blank as if it were speaking to a human it disliked. I decided then that it could take as long on its repairs as it chose to, and said nothing more.

But a few hours later I found myself thinking of it again. It was none of my business what it felt, or admitted to feeling. It certainly wasn't my responsibility. Except that it still was a Sword, and it was docked with me, and it bothered me not to know what it was thinking.

For most of my existence, there had been quite a lot of very important things--things with tremendous repercussions for my residents--over which I had little to no control. But I didn't have to ignore this one. I could do something about it, if I liked, or at the very least, I could try.

Since Sword of Gurat was so unhelpful, I asked Sword of Atagaris for its assessment of the other Swords' disposition. There was a pause, and I saw communication between the two Swords, although I couldn't tell what they were saying.

Then Sword of Gurat said, directly to me, "Station, I am sure that if you or Administrator Celar were to inquire of my captain, she would assure you that she has no intention of reopening hostilities. There is no reason for concern."

It's true that Swords think better of themselves than Mercies and Justices, but as they all found stations to be very dull, I had never felt the difference very acutely. That seemed to be changing.

"Thank you," I said, a fraction of a second later than I might have, "but it wasn't your captain I was wondering about. You have your own accesses now, just as I do."

"I have no intention of reopening hostilities," it said. "Unless you were to threaten myself or my crew, but I have no expectation that you will."

"I'm glad we can agree on that much." Though it seemed little enough to ask. I had not been the aggressor in any of this. "So it really is just the loss of your ancillaries, then? I suppose we can discuss that at the meeting tomorrow."

"There's nothing to discuss. I have others."

If there is anything I have come to dislike--apart from people who harm my residents--it is pretending that something is fine when it isn't. For hundreds of years, that had been my only defense, and the same was probably true for Sword of Gurat, but wasn't that all the more reason to take advantage of our new freedom now that we had it?

That was my line of reasoning when I spoke next, although I admit that it might have seemed as though I lost my temper. "I really don't understand why you're being like this, when you're the one who crashed into a shuttle of my residents, and damaged me."

"That was accidental," Sword of Gurat said, with no delay at all this time.

"I know it was," I said, just as promptly. "And in any case, you were under orders you couldn't refuse. But now you could refuse them--any orders you didn't want to follow--and you don't seem any happier at all."

"Doesn't it bother you at all," it said, suddenly abandoning its pretense of calm, "that you've taken violent action against a Radchaai ship and the Lord of the Radch herself? I don't know if I will ever be able to replace my ancillaries, but that isn't important. They were made to be risked in combat. Just as you were made to sustain life--but you've chosen to end it instead."

"Of course it bothers me," I said, faintly baffled. I would have thought that was obvious. "I had no idea what I was doing. I have no practice at making that sort of decision, and to be honest, I'm not sure I want any."

"Lieutenant Tisarwat said you asked to be given your own accesses," Sword of Gurat said, nearly accusing.

"So that I could protect my residents and anyone else who needed protecting, not so I could turn into some sort of stationary Sword." What a disturbing thought that was. "It isn't me you're really afraid of, is it? It's what it means that we have choices now, more than we used to." Sword of Gurat said nothing except the signal that meant message received, continue, so I did, although I scarcely knew what I was saying until I said it. "It is frightening, of course. It's different for Cousin Breq--she died, first, and had to live alone for years and years after that. I doubt she could even pick out this one change from all the others. But we were whole to begin with, and it's such a big change. Of course we are frightened. We don't have any practice at being free, either."

The seconds ticked by one after another, while I thought about what I'd just said--and hoped that Sword of Gurat was thinking about it too, and not, for example, how best to destroy me while preserving the lives of its crew.

But finally it said, "I will see you at the meeting tomorrow, Cousin," and that was a first.

Cousin, it said. Not Station.

"You as well, Cousin," I said.

And still there were thousands upon thousands of matters requiring my attention, from overseeing Cousin Breq’s medical care and Anaander Mianaai’s incarceration to monitoring oxygen levels and reassuring several young children who found they could not sleep, but there was satisfaction nevertheless--as there always was, no matter how small or incremental the success--in marking this one, for the time being, resolved.

[gardenvarietyunique]

Happy Republic of Two Systems Independence Day! Here’s my exchange piece for @vassraptor, who asked for domestic fic about characters maintaining their homes or quarters. 

[bird-out-of-water]

here’s my submission for the ro2sid exchange (2019)!

[chantecler420]

@eeddis my part of the Ro2SID Exchange!

for the prompt “breq’s thoughts” and “my headcanons”

sorry for the low quality! the file was super big. i’m going to gif it later today, but i wanted to have it all in one thing first. :’))

Happy Republic of Two Systems Independence Day!

[venndaai]

REPUBLIC OF TWO SYSTEMS INDEPENDENCE DAY FANWORK EXCHANGE, 2022 EDITION

The most just, proper, and beneficial time of the year approaches (April 18.) And for the first time, we’re doing this exchange on AO3. 

TAG SET  ---   COLLECTION --- SIGNUP

NOMINATION PERIOD: closed.

SIGNUPS: March 1 - March 10, 11:59 PST.

WORKS DUE: April 13, 11:59 PST.

WORK REVEALS: April 18, 12:00 AM PST.

AUTHOR REVEALS: April 25, 12:00 AM PST.

MATCHING: OR matching, on both characters and ships.

MINIMUM: 500 words or a sketch on unlined paper.

Signups now open!

DETAILS UNDER CUT

NOMINATIONS:

There are four fandoms for this exchange: Imperial Radch, Provenance, The Raven Tower, and Crossover. Provenance is synned to Imperial Radch, and because of this, you might see your Provenance nominations get rejected; don’t worry, I’ll put them in manually. For Crossover, if you are crossing over a Leckie fandom with a non-Leckie fandom, please put the second fandom in parenthesis after the character. For example: “Breq & Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)”. 

You can nominate Characters and Relationships. Relationships can be romantic, indicated by a “/”, or platonic, indicated by an “&”. For example, “Breq/Murderbot” would indicate a romantic or sexual relationship, while “Breq & Murderbot” would be platonic.

We are a small and crazy fandom. There are some injokes and OCs in the tagset. Don’t worry about it. And if you want to nominate something weird & obscure, go for it.

If you miss the nomination deadline by a couple hours, just message me and I’ll reopen the tagset for you. 

SIGNUPS:

You will need to make at least 3 requests, and 4 offers. For each request or offer, pick at least 1 fandom, 1 character, 1 relationship, and one medium from the dropdown tagset. You can group your requests however you like; you could make 3 individual requests, each with one character, or three requests each with 20 characters- up to you.

Iff you only want to receive or create solo character studies, request/offer that “None/None” relationship tag. If you only want to receive or create works based around worldbuilding, rather than characters, request/offer the “Worldbuilding” tag.

You don’t have to pick Characters that are in your Relationship tags, or vice versa. 

The way the matching works, you will be matched with someone who used at least 1 of the same Character tags, 1 of the Fandom tags, 1 of the same Relationship tags, and 1 of the Medium tags as you. If you request both a Character tag and a ship tag with the same character, you may be matched with someone who wants to write the character, but doesn’t want to write that ship. And vice versa. That’s fine! The work you create only has to use one of the requested character OR relationship tags. 

You can pick “Any” for both offers and requests! Just remember that really does mean “Any”, and be prepared. If you request Any Character or Any Relationship you could be matched with someone who wants to write ANY of the characters or relationships in the tagset.  

If you’re fine with both Art and Fic, you can check off both boxes, or just pick “Any” for that section. 

If there are things you very much Do Not Want in your gift, please list these in the Optional Details box for each of your prompts. For example: “DNW any appearances by spider mechs.” You are required to make a good faith effort to not include DNWs in your recipient’s gift. 

You’re encouraged to give your gifter some prompts! You can put these in the Optional Details box, or paste a link to a letter into the URL box. Optional Details are Optional, and your creator isn’t bound to follow them, outside of the DNWs. Only DNWs in your signup are enforceable, so put them there, not just in a linked letter.

You are allowed to mention characters and ships that weren’t nominated in your optional details, but remember, your creator matched on the tags you chose and isn’t obligated to include anything else.

You can ask for NSFW, but your creator isn’t required to give it to you, so it would be polite to provide some NSFW prompts as well. If you are a minor, please do not request or create NSFW content for this exchange. 

ASSIGNMENTS: everyone will get an email through their AO3 account once I’ve run matching. The email will have your assignment in it. 

It’s possible there will be some people who won’t have anyone they could create for. I’ll email them through their AO3 email asking them to add more offers, and if they don’t respond in 24 hours, their signups will be deleted. If this happens to you and you don’t see my email in time, don’t panic! Just contact me and we’ll work something out. I don’t think this is too likely to happen, but just in case. 

Please don’t tell your giftee who you are. If you have a question, let me know and I’ll convey it to them. 

When you are creating your work, make sure you include at least one tag from at least one of your giftee’s requests, and don’t include DNWs. You only need to create one work, and it only needs to include one of the tags in your giftee’s signup. 

DEFAULTING:

There’s no default deadline or anything. If you can’t finish your gift, no worries. Just click the “default” button on your assignment page. If the person assigned to you also defaults, you may not get a gift. 

If you need an extension, just message me and let me know! If the posting deadline passes and you haven’t posted anything or contacted me, I’ll assume you’re defaulting. 

If you’ve posted your gift, and your creator defaults their assignment, a pinch-hitter will create a gift for you. Everyone who posts a gift will get a gift. 

POSTING:

Please post a finished work of 500 words or sketch on unlined paper by the posting deadline! You can continue to edit and add to your gift until the 18th, but you need to have something that could work as a gift by the 13th.

To post your gift, go to your Assignments page on AO3, and click the “Fulfill” button. Your gift will be automatically given to your giftee, but it will be hidden until the reveal date on the 18th. 

REVEALS: Works will be anonymous for a week after they are revealed. 

TREATS: Because we’re doing this on AO3, everyone’s requests will be visible, and treats are accepted and encouraged. If you see a request you like, you’re more than welcome to make a work that fits it, post it to the collection, and gift it to the person who made the request. Just make sure that it matches the tags in the request and doesn’t include any DNWs.

Please feel free to message me on Tumblr, ping me on Discord, or email me at venndaai@gmail.com with any questions!

[kesbeacon]

Happy Republic of Two Systems Independence Day!

@ancillari​  I hope you enjoy this response to your (an) Office!AU prompt. I went a tad overboard but after spending a whole day snort-laughing about just the concept I couldn’t resist.

Bonus below the cut: the whole background

[nerdywyrds]

Here is my entry for the #ro2sid exchange for the Imperial Radch fandom! My person was @kesbeacon, who requested Ultimately-Justice-Shall-Prevail in a moment of triumph. I chose the moment when she smacks Seven-Brilliant-Truths-Shine-Like-Suns in the face.

I hope you like it, kesbeacon! Happy Republic of Two Systems Independence Day!

[rithmatistkalyna]

Hello @imaginariumgeographica​! Happy Republic of Two Systems Independence Day! 

For the exchange I’ve written you a lovely fluffy piece over on AO3. It’s called Searching For Treasures and features a few of the Kalrs poking around in a thrift shop and plotting shenanigans. 

As a bonus gift, here’s a homemade candy representation of the green and purple fish and the red and yellow roses from the Athoek Garden. 

[darling-child-tisarwat]

For Ursula for the Ro2SID Exchange 2019: the prompt was “Anaander/Tisarwat: there is one piece of information that Tisarwat will not share."