face the strange

Challenge #15 - In your own space, opine on the future of fandom.

This is not an easy question for me to answer, but an intriguing one! And since one of the suggestions was 'your hopes about fandom', I'm going to say this: I hope that every fan gets to enjoy and keep enjoying exactly what they personally enjoy, as openly and excitedly as they want to, and that no one for any reason (financial, legal, moral, religious, well-meaning or malicious) gets to ever actually stop them. ♡♡♡

Challenge #13 - In your own space, rec three fanworks that you did not create.

The first one is my playlistexchange gift I just got today because I was going to rec it in a new post anyway when I found out what the newest Snowflake challenge was. :D

And then two more! I'm definitely not choosing my favorites out of all my gifts, it would be impossible - all of them are not only amazing in their own right but also perfectly tailored to my personal likes and dislikes. So I didn't even attempt to do that, and my criteria for choosing the other two recs were: (a) it's the first fic that popped into my head, (b) it's not something I've recced anywhere recently (and preferably ever, though I'm not 100% sure about that), (c) all three recs are in different fandoms. And this is what I got, but it doesn't mean I love my other gifts any less. ♡♡♡

i can't help this awful energy (568 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Magicians (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: 23rd Timeline Quentin Coldwater, Quentin Coldwater
Additional Tags: 23rd Timeline (The Magicians), Shadeless Quentin Coldwater, Minor Violence, Song: Control (Halsey)
Summary: Quentin Coldwater, freed from his shade, feels more powerful than he has in years.

the creation of time and will (3309 words) by OldSportSquared
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Skins (UK)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Effy Stonem, Katie Fitch, Tony Stonem, James Cook (Skins UK), Pandora Moon
Additional Tags: dream state, Dreams vs. Reality, Time Travel, Mental Instability, not sure what's real, Post-Skins Fire
Summary: “Here,” Cook says, as she passes. “You need to go further back.” He’s leaning against a tree, clipping his fingernails, wearing the only jacket she ever remembers him wearing, warm and easy.

come my darling homeward bound (1817 words) by nonexistentwench
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Arya Stark & Weasel of the Riverlands
Characters: Arya Stark, Weasel of the Riverlands (A Song of Ice and Fire)
Additional Tags: Melancholy, Wilderness Survival, Visions, Old Gods-induced time travel shenanigans
Summary: Separated from the rest of their group, Arya and Weasel spend a night on the Island of Faces and receive a visit from the future.

Challenge #11 - In your own space, talk about your favorite trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme.

Peggy Sue! The specific type of time travel where a character goes back to their own past and to their old body in order to re-live their life (or a part of it) and do it right this time around. It can be a time loop (Groundhog Peggy Sue) or just a one-time thing. That's it, that's my most favorite trope in the universe. ♡♡♡

I got a number of wonderful Peggy Sue fics in several of my fandoms as exchange gifts (I'm not linking them because without re-reading I might confuse some of them with a different type of time travel fix-it), and a week ago I wrote a Yellowjackets drabble about it myself (I'm mainly a fanartist, not a fanfic writer, otherwise I'd write at least one of those for each of my fandoms).

This trope is the reason I absolutely loved Being Erica despite not even vibing with the main character. It's the reason why Higurashi is my main fandom right now. It's the reason I'll watch and read things instantly without even knowing of their existence beforehand as soon as someone tells me that the trope is a big theme.

And of course I'm taking recs! For entire new-to-me fandoms where the trope is canon, and for fics in any of my fandoms (the trope is usually very character-centric, which is also what I love about it, so reading fandom-blind is not really possible). If it's a Peggy Sue story, I'm automatically 100% interested! :D

Challenge #9 - In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, time you spent in the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well.

In addition to my mental health finally significantly improving in the summer (and still continuing to improve), I'm really proud of my progress as an artist. So I'm going to share 5 more of my favorite pieces of fanart I created in 2022 (I already shared one in the scavenger hunt post). :D

( under the cut (image heavy) )

Challenge #7 - In your own space, interact with a community or a fic.

I do this every single day anyway, so in order to do something special for today's Snowflake challenge I made my first ever rec post at fancake for their current Women Being Awesome theme. :D It's a Discworld/Narnia fic and it's absolutely flawless! ♡

Challenge #5 - In your own space, tell us about 3 creative/fannish resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy.

➽ Reddit. Most of my reddit activity is non-fannish (it has awesome educational subreddits where I can learn MANY new things every day if I want to, and amazing mental health resources), but honestly ALL news I've ever read about Yellowjackets (like new actors or even when season 2 is airing) was on r/Yellowjackets (which also happens to be the subreddit where I made my most upvoted comment of 2022 xD), and I do visit other fandom subreddits occasionally.

➽ AO3 exchanges! There's no way for me to list all of them (or, well, there would be a way but it would be long and tedious af xD) because for the last 4-ish years I've participated in EVERY exchange that wasn't writing-only, art-only (I do fic-for-art exchanges), or romantic/sexual-only. :D I can link the ones where you can currently nominate or sign up (worldbuilding_exchange, idproquo) and the one that is starting nominations very soon (goreswap) tho. ♡♡♡

➽ fandomtrumpshate! Charity auctions in general (there's been quite a few others, the most recent one being sunflower_auction, but they're one-off and don't come back every year) are the only type of event other than AO3 exchanges that I absolutely LOVE drawing for, so I participate in every single one too, and make as many offers as possible. :D

Challenge #2 - In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for your fave character, ship or fandom.

I find primers and manifestos overwhelming to write because I want to include everything and for my brain 'everything' often means literally everyFRAKKINGthing, so I go

and give up, lmao.

But you still get one! :D Sort of.

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni: the checklist (and a brief explanation how the canon works) (no actual spoilers)

( under the cut )