A ship between two or more characters which is not commonly spoken of, created for, or enjoyed by many people. Everyone has their own metric by which to measure the rarity of a ship. In past years, this event used a Calculator to determine if a ship was a rarepair by the count of fics tagged for it on AO3. (See Rarepair Calculators 2024 and 2025.)

This year, we are going a little hands-off with the qualifications of what a Rarepair is for the purposes of this event. We ask that participants submit their rarepairs with sincerity and honesty. Fringe-case examples will be looked over by Event Coordinators, and may be gently turned down. If you are uncertain if your ship is a Rarepair that will earn Tickets, you may submit it to the Event Coordinators in the discord server for evaluation.

A person who signs up to participate in this year's event in the Official Event Discord.

A person who opts to provide a prize for the Official Event Raffle.

A person who opts to assist with the management and moderation of the Official Event. Includes the Event Host, Discord Moderators, and Prize Volunteers.

The Raffle, and all associated Event activities as hosted in the Official Rarepair New Year Event Discord server.

A 'ticket' or point of participation. Different activities can earn a participant a certain number of tickets, with bonus tickets allotted for meeting certain benchmarks. (See The Raffle for details.)

The metaphorical pot that a Participant can allot their Raffle Tickets to. Each ticket allotted to a Pot is a chance to win the prize associated with that pot.