22degreehalo

Eeeee: finally, after a couple of years of desperately wanting to but not having the guts, I have signed myself up for idproquo!!! \o/

As usual I've copied most of the details from my previous letter so there's no need to check those, too, unless you're really lacking in reading material. :D

Beneath the first cut I'll put some general insights as to what I like and dislike! Everything is optional, of course, so don't stress too much - I just personally work better when I have a whole smorgasbord of ideas to potentially focus in on, so I like to give the same options for those who want them!

( General likes/dislikes/et cetera!! )

And now below I'll try to elaborate on what I was picturing with the freeforms I selected (most nominated by me myself hahaha); as always this is all optional and just intended as inspiration/guidance! :)

( The Fandoms (tm). )

All right, so I've signed up for comment_bingo, to supplement the Fanfic Reading Challenge, and though I initially felt guilty at the prospect of making a post about it when there's still so much I haven't done for snowflake_challenge, embarrassment is the activity-killer!!! Commenting and promoting comms and challenges is good!!!! Let's go!!!!!!!!

( I'll also do another FRC update because that's been going really well!! I'm pumped to be into February now~ )

We're two weeks (plus extra) into the Fanfic Reading Challenge, and for whatever reason I felt like talking about what I've done!!

My first task has been ticked off!! It was the whump/MCD one :'D (requiring three fics) I don't normally read that sort of stuff a lot, but I randomly got to thinking about Yuki and Akito around the new year (no idea what that's a harbinger for...) and then I wanted to read a bunch of Muu/Rei (from Milgram) after my Yuletide fic got posted and authors revealed...

Two more have also been completed: a fic that's over a year old with under 100 kudos (I lied, that was the first task haha; the Akito/Yuki fic!) ...and there's apparently one more but I can't find it.

Right now, I'm just reading whatever I feel like in the moment, because I was craving a bit of that free-form reading after the rush to get in as many tasks as possible at the end of last year. (Though that was also really fun!!) So while I have been doing some planning ahead for some tasks and adding wayyyyy too many fics to my MFL list (seriously, it's starting to get unwieldy how many are in there just recently; I should do some more sorting on my tablet, too), I'm pretty much just reading stuff and then looking up what it fits.

Despite that, I'm still pretty close on some tasks! The parentheses/sentence/title case one is hilariously full; when the year started I put a bunch of parenthesis titles into my Read Later on my tablet but quickly realised... yeah, I am not going to need to go out of my way for these :'D The lower case section is also almost done, lol, though I'll need at least one more fully upper-case title to complete it. (Luckily, I have one in mind!)

It's also a bit funny when you're rushing through a fandom/pairing that just naturally fits some of the tasks. I've been bingeing on Josh/Sam from The West Wing recently and have almost gotten enough Secret Relationship trope fics, after which point I'll be able to start putting them into the Coworkers trope task instead :'D (Or I could always shift them over if I need to!)

Oh, and the small fandom tasks, given that I started the year with Yuletide :D

I was surprised to realise that there's no specific challenge for 5+1 fics this time, though of course you can select that as one of your Favourite Tropes for another task. I'm also missing the character alphabet of last year. Between Xenk, Q, and Zuko, it was actually really doable!! :D (Weirdly, 'I' was the letter that had me really branching out...)

Sometimes I look at the tasks completed and get a bit 'oh no I've done nothing!!' which lmao. Last year I started the challenge in late September and was able to basically pre-fill it with everything I'd read so far, and it's just a little different not working from that same starting point this time.

I also keep feeling like I need to ~come up with a ship that I didn't read last year~ and the like for similar tasks, and. It is January, lmao. I have plenty of time to get into new fandoms the current me couldn't even dream of. :)

I think I'll leave it at that; the laptop is getting pretty warm on my lap here, unfortunately, haha. Damn Australian summers. Hope I can check in again another time!

Challenge #6

Share your favourite piece of original canon. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Oh, this question came up at exactly the right time :DD

If you're familiar with Homestuck, I highly highly highly recommend checking out TheWertSearch's read-through of it; even aside from the joy of seeing someone react to the story for the first time, she's analysing it heavily as she goes and really brilliantly insightful, absolutely carrying on the fandom's legacy of theorising in a way that really brings me back to the days of the MSPA forums!

And I say it was well-timed, because do you know what page she reached just the other day?

>[S] Cascade.

In preparation for this liveblog I thought, well: why not rewatch the video myself?


y'all.

it has not aged a single fucking DAY.

Reaaching the end, I had tears in my eyes. It's still just so fucking absolutely unbelievably cool, and I don't know any other word to sum it up!!! To have seen the comic and the characters grow over time, the way the plot all came together at this point to create such unbelievable moments of both awesomeness and plot-twisting horror, the sheer quality of the designs and animations and art and music...!

I don't think there's ever been a canon moment that absolutely just bowled me over, knocking me flat on my feet, like Cascade did, even all these years later. Probably there never will be!!

If you did read it back in the day, I invite you to watch it again and Remember. And if you never did...? Well, there were a lot of thing said back then about people who watched Cascade first. And, like: obviously the magnitude of the flash will be even greater if you experience it as intended (or as close as possible now that the comic's ended). But it sure says something about this flash's ability to convert new people to the canon, right? And if that's the result, I sure ain't complaining!!

And now after my little jaunt into yuletide_admin, I have also joined up with candyheartsex! :D My letter below is mostly copied from my Yuletide letter aside from the new fandoms, so no need to check that one out below.

Beneath the first cut I'll put some general insights as to what I like and dislike! Everything is optional, of course, so don't stress too much - I just personally work better when I have a whole smorgasbord of ideas to potentially focus in on, so I like to give the same options for those who want them!

( I should go to bed haha )

And beneath this cut is some request-specific ideas or potential themes to explore! Note that this ended up getting pretty long hahah; sorry, but I'm just a rambler who struggles to cut things down and this has sort of been a busy week sooo 'if I had more time I'd have written a shorter letter' et cetera!!;; (Which is to say: optional details are optional!! This is for inspiration ONLY.)

( hey why did I decide to request 10 things. @past me. )

And we're back again with snowflake_challenge!! I'm glad to have ticked off the 'complete every challenge' achievement last year, but that doesn't mean I'm not coming back this year! :)

Challenge #2
In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
Whether you've been in fandom for a while or just discovered fandom, we'd love to know how you came to fandom! Was it that one book or a TV show or movie or anime/manga or a band/song that gave you that first spark? Or a character or characters that you wanted more of but the canon material just didn't have enough of them? Or were you introduced to fandom by someone?

So, my family is not really especially fandom-y by my own standards: the closest we come is my mum's lifelong appreciation of Jane Austen and her works, but that's less about blorbos and ships and more about her fascination with the time period and stern disagreement with all adaptations who get those period details wrong. (A totally valid form of fandom-ness in its own right! But she's only this way on this one particular subject, and she doesn't share any other of my fandom tendencies.)

However, one thing they do have is being (somewhat) geeky. I was raised on Monty Python and The Simpsons and they've always been keen to show me their favourite movies and TV shows (just last week we started a rewatch of The West Wing!), so I did at least grow up with a particular appreciation for popular culture.

But nothing ever - before or after - really hit us, as a family, like Harry Potter.

( I will one day when I'm older and wiser / 'Til then I bought him a synthesiser... )

Challenge #1
Update your fandom information. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I completed this challenge last year and I'm still pretty happy with the results, so I'm checking this one off, too!! I even altered my Ao3 bio to mention that I'm okay with my fics being fed to AI, once I realised how very much in the minority I am on that matter. That's probably not the sort of thing to say if I want to make any friends... but welp. I am what I am.

On to the next challenge! :)

So, what with my newfound confidence in my own ability to make moral decisions and the discovery of spaces where Harry Potter can be talked about without incurring the wrath of inordinately angry antis, I've lately been delving back into fanfiction, particularly as regards my first-ever OTP: Remus/Sirius.

And, um... what exactly is going on in this whole fandom, exactly...?!

If you haven't checked back yourself, give it a go. Look up the tag on Ao3 or tumblr. It's... pretty much unrecognisable from what I was part of back in ye olde days of the late 2000s/early 2010s.

I'm still trying to work out exactly what the terrain is and why it feels so foreign, but here are a few dot points:

( hoo BOY this turned into a rant. So among other things this is 'I hate fandoms deliberately making characters less autistic' no. 4,670... )

All right - the very final entry to snowflake_challenge for 2024...!

Challenge #4

IceBreaker Challenge! Tell us about yourself. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

...so, yes: I understand that it's terribly ironic to leave the icebreaker for last. :'D But I really just wasn't sure what to write for this one, especially after updating my fandom details on a previous day... So, I think I wanted to see what was covered by the other days, and what other people were writing, and so I thought I'd figure out what I wanted to say! And, you know? I think I do have that kind of context to answer this properly, now!

( My very first fully completed Snowflake Challenge... <3 )

The last snowflake_challenge challenge!! (Except the one I kinda deliberately skipped but idk I'll just mash it in with the friending meme :'D)

Challenge #15

Fandom Snowflake Challenge's 2023 Fandom Wrapped!

Your top 5 fandoms for 2023 were: Ensemble Stars!, Fire Emblem, Dungeons & Dragons (inc. Honour Among Thieves), Love Live!, and The Office (US)! (Also Touhou and 100 Kanojo snuck in *right* at the end but I think they're more 2024 things.)

Your top 5 fandom spaces in 2023 were: Tumblr, Twitter, AO3, Reddit, and IRL!

The top 5 things you did to contribute to fandom in 2023 were: Wrote fanfic (mostly drabbles, plus that one honking big The Office fic I randomly wrote right at the end haha, as well as finishing the KanaSou Taboos fic), read and recced fanfic, contributed to fandom discussions and stuff, collected merch for itabags/shrines/etc., oh and I almost forgot til I checked my yearly recap: took part in preserving SIFAS music videos before the game shut down!! (Oh man that's a whole story in itself because I wanted to record SO MANY and we got a bunch of scouts in the end days to have new costumes and stuff but for the three days before the game shut down I had 0 internet connection and I was so desperate to record a couple few more with those before the end but by the time I opened the game I was too late :( )

Your top 5 most appreciated fandom contributions were: I finally got some comments on my FE4 Let's Play so that was super super awesome!!, I continued to be somewhat of a presence among Souma fans even if I'm much less active now haha, I didn't spend too long active in the Oscar/Andy (The Office US) fanbase for multiple reasons but damn it was fun to blast in headcanons blazing drop a longfic and then olly outy, some recs I made also got comments which is always unexpected but really appreciated!!, and... well I had one semi-popular text post about DnD:HaT (this one!!) so I guess that!

Bonus questions:

Your fandom personality in 2023 was: Uhhh hmmm. I was honestly more of a lurker for most of it! In Enstars I was and remain a JP-era SoumaP and occasional Translator (and how delightful that ENG era exists now!! :D), for fanfiction I was a Drabble Dabbler, for Fire Emblem I was a Cringily Earnest FE4 Elitist (not that I think I really am an elitist but that's the stereotype :'D), and as always I remain a MultiFandom Old :D

In 2023, you discovered: That I do actually enjoy Touhou (and the music is just as good as everyone always says it is), but that I don't particularly care for the one character I thought would be my favourite :'D (Reisen!)

Your fandom home in 2023 was: Scrolling through tumblr/reddit/twitter, sharing fanworks and making silly comments and gushing about my faves <3 That and knee-deep in prompt tables and associated lists brainstorming what possible Characters and Ships could Apply to these prompts whether or not I ever write a single word associated with all this supposed 'planning' :'D (Sorting is fun!! n.n)

Challenge #14

Try something new. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

So for ages now I've been thinking of doing a sort of public challenge: I put forward a list of common Fire Emblem gameplay archetypes (and perhaps the usual number of them per game), and people can fill it in with their favourite characters in those categories, thus putting together a theoretical all-faves crossover Fire Emblem game cast!

I had high ambitions, envisioning a graphic that people could edit and make look really good, or even an online form that could generate such a graphic for you, since I figured that a tier list maker would have to have too many sprites to make finding characters easy... But it turns out that there is a tier list maker with almost every Fire Emblem character, and while intimidating for sure, it wasn't nearly as hard to use as I thought?

So I made one myself as an example, and posted the result and challenge to the Fire Emblem subreddit!! :D

I don't often submit original posts to reddit, and I'm always nervous about putting challenges and question memes and stuff out there in case nobody cares haha, so it's definitely something a bit new! But it was really fun to put together and I really hope I get to see at least a couple of other creations based on this challenge! <33