The Rules:

You now have from this point on, until Monday, two weeks from now, April 19th at midnight Chicago time (GMT-6) to complete your challenge. Your story can be any length, any rating. What you do with the summary is entirely up to you. Write a whole ficlet based on it. Write the opening/closing paragraphs of a hypothetical long fic - or give us a cookie from the middle and throw in some Author's Notes to explain the rest of the plot. Or any other option that appeals to you.

I think the most important thing is that the prompt you've been given can be used as merely a *guide* as to the fic you're writing. You don't have to match it up word for word, or idea for idea. Take the general theme and run with it. Does your prompt have something in it you're not as familiar with? A crossover reference or something else you don't know all that well? WING IT. Really. This isn't supposed to cause anyone any stress or have you trying to cram every HP book into you brain in the next four days. It's a CRACKFIC challenge. Take the idea and just kinda...go! Have FUN!

Also, I know we had a LOT of fun with the horrific spelling and punctuation in the prompts, but please, for the love of all of us reading the fics, PLEASE use regular grammar and punctuation in your story. If you're in need of a beta, ping one of the mods (seleneheart or ride_4ever) and we'll get you hooked up with someone!

When you post your fic please make sure to use this as your header (copy/paste code below):

<strong>Title:</strong> <strong>Prompt:</strong> <strong>Prompted by:</strong> (whoever suggested the prompt you were assigned, also know as your giftee) <strong>Rating/Warnings/etc:</strong>

Please tag as: challenge:badfic 3, and author:[you]

Again, this is all for fun, but if you signed up, please try and get your fic done in time! This should be a quick and easy process! Have some fun with it! If you realize that you're NOT going to be able to participate, please drop a comment in this post. Everyone else, if you would like to pick up a prompt or do a second fic, etc, check the comments here and grab one when it suits your fancy.

( assignments under here )

Go out and have a great time!

If you have any concerns about your assignment, you can DM one of the mods, ride_4ever or seleneheart.

In the spirit of trans-border cooperation, let's have a challenge inspired by the national anthems of the United States and Canada. You can use the words of the anthems themselves, something about singing them (hello sporting events, the Olympics, etc.) or anything else anthem-related you can dream up!

Lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner. Yes, the whole thing. Didn't know it was so long, did ya?
( The Star-Spangled Banner (USA) )

And now for O Canada (a much more reasonable song for multiple reasons), with bilingual bonus:
( O Canada )

Authors: please tag your fic with your author tag. If you are new, I will make a tag for you as soon as I get the posting notification.

This challenge will run until February 23, 2020 at midnight, Chicago time (CDT, UTC-6). Please tag your entries with 'challenge: national anthems’. Have fun, everyone!

If you have suggestions for future challenges, please comment to the community sticky post with your idea.

Chicago is a city famous for its many distinctive landmarks, from the Willis *cough*Sears*cough* Tower to the Cloud Gate (The Bean) to the Navy Pier. And loads in between, including my absolute favorite, the building stones of the Chicago Tribune building (don't get me started, I will go on about how amazing it is).

For this challenge, consider all the famous sights/sites in Chicago and use one (or more) as the prompt for your fic. Wikipedia list if anyone needs an inspiration or starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chicago_Landmarks

Set your fic in one of them! Make them the scene of a crime! Have Fraser drag Ray(s) around to them! Whatever you like!

Authors: please tag your fic with your author tag. If you are new, I will make a tag for you as soon as I get the posting notification.

This challenge will run until January 26, 2020 at midnight, Chicago time (CST, UTC-6). Please tag your entries with 'challenge: chicago landmarks’. Have fun, everyone!

If you have suggestions for future challenges, please comment to the community sticky post with your idea.

Hey diddle diddle! For the next two weeks, the challenge prompt will be nursery rhymes! You can adapt one for a due South story or you can feature any aspect of nursery rhymes in your story. Maybe that kid!fic you've been dying to write???

Following the end of this challenge, we will start the Winter Amnesty period, so if you've had your eye on a challenge, but didn't get it the first time, that will be your chance!

Authors: please tag your fic with your author tag. If you are new, I will make a tag for you as soon as I get the posting notification.

This challenge will run until December 15, 2019 at midnight, Chicago time (CDT, UTC-6). Please tag your entries with 'challenge: nursery rhymes’. Have fun, everyone!

If you have suggestions for future challenges, please comment to the community sticky post with your idea.

To quote from cesperanza, the founder of the comm, regarding this challenge:

"pearl_o suggested this a several years back, and it's become our standing Halloween challenge:

"Our stories have a lot of variation, but there's still mostly a common genre we all stick to in writing our fanfiction. So what I think would be really cool would be a Genre Challenge -- for all of us to pick a specific genre of writing and write our fanfiction in that, with its style and rules.

An incomplete of possible genres: mystery, detective story, thriller, horror, ghost story, historical fiction, harlequin or regency romance, sf, fantasy, western, drama, children's book, Platonic dialogue, memoir/biography, academic paper, newspaper or magazine article, textbook, religious text, chronicle, guidebook, reference book."

Dress your fic up in its Halloween costume -- so much scope to choose from! What sparks your fancy?"

Traditionally, this challenge ran four weeks, so we will keep this open until November 17, 2019 at midnight, Chicago time (CDT, UTC-6). Please tag your entries with 'challenge: genre: 2019’. Have fun, everyone!

Let's have your fluffiest, fluffy fluff fic! We all need something soft and fluffy these days, right??

Coming attractions: in the past, this comm has had a Halloween Genre challenge, and we will do the same, starting October 20.

Also, I'm going to close out the icon challenge tomorrow, so get your votes in if you haven't already!

Authors: please tag your fic with your author tag. If you are new, I will make a tag for you as soon as I get the posting notification.

This challenge will run until October 6, 2019 at midnight, Chicago time (CDT, UTC-6). Please tag your entries with 'challenge: fluff’. Have fun, everyone!

I've noticed that no one has participated for the last two challenges. Please, please submit your suggestions if you have something you're burning to write. Comment to the community sticky post with your idea.

People acting out of character is usually a hallmark of Bad!fic, which we openly embrace here on this comm (see #badfic tag for examples). However, characters can act out of character for actual reasons. Either way works - your story can have someone being out of character the whole fic, or they could be out of character reasons unknown to the other characters. How would the others react? Would it raise red flags?

Authors: please tag your fic with your author tag. If you are new, I will make a tag for you as soon as I get the posting notification.

This challenge will run until August 25, 2019 at midnight, Chicago time (CDT, UTC-6). Please tag your entries with 'challenge: out of character’. Have fun, everyone!

If you have suggestions for future challenges, please comment to the community sticky post with your idea

I'm posting this early because I'm about to go to the airport, headed for Chicago, as it happens. Don't worry, the previous challenge is still open until midnight.

I had reason to look up the episode of LOST titled Man of Science/Man of Faith (for research reasons, you know how it goes). due South has a lot of ways to explore that conflict. The Vecchios were devout Catholics, and the Frasers seem to be completely scientific from what we know of Fraser's grandparents. There's also the instinct vs. logic that caused Benton and Ray K. so much trouble.

It doesn't have to be conflict - take any science topic, or any faith topic and explore it in the context of due South.

Notes on tagging: after conducting the author poll, I'm going to change the tagging system, but it's a long process, so please be patient. If you've posted here recently, you have an author tag- author: username. Please use it, and if you don't have one yet, I will get to it. From now on, the format for challenge tags will be- challenge: challengename.

Authors- you are welcome to go through and fix your own entries if you like.

This challenge will run until July 28, 2019 at midnight, Chicago time (CDT, UTC-6). Please tag your entries with 'challenge: science/faith'. Have fun, everyone!

If you have suggestions for future challenges, please comment to the community sticky post with your idea.

I know that many of you have been waiting for this challenge and here it is! Amnesty means that *any* previous challenge on this comm is available during the amnesty period. Here is the list of tags containing the previous challenges.

Please tag your entries with both the challenge you are answering and 'amnesty 2019'. If you have any question about the tags, please let me know.

Because it's summer and I'm going to be traveling quite a bit, and I presume everyone else in the northern hemisphere will be doing the same, I'm going to leave this open for the month of June. Please have your amnesty fic posted by June 30, 2019 at midnight, Chicago time (CDT, UTC-6).

If you have suggestions for future challenges, please comment to the community sticky post with your suggestion.

Does anyone remember Fanfic100 and the Big Damn Table over on Livejournal? The basic idea was that you claim a fandom, or a character, or a pairing, and then you write 100 fics for it, using the table below as your prompts. Now, I'm not requesting 100 fics from anyone (heh) but I figured we could use the table for our prompts for the next two weeks.

( big table is big )

Please comment with ideas for future challenges on the community sticky post

This challenge will run until May 19, 2019 at midnight, Chicago time (CDT, UTC-6). Please tag your entries with 'fanfic100 challenge'. Have fun, everyone!