#fandom giftbox

[itsmariemccurdy]

PSA

If you post a request for a fandom gift exchange and someone fills that request, whether it's fic or a pod or art or whatever, you ought to acknowledge the gift in some manner. Even if you don't like the gift! As long as the giver fulfilled your request and didn't violate any DNW's, this kind anonymous person has taken time out of their lives to create art YOU REQUESTED.

"But it was badly done," you say. I don't care! That's not the point. I would love to receive literary masterpieces when I request a gift, but a gift is a gift. It's free, something someone volunteered their time and effort to fulfill. That alone is a kindness worth acknowledging.

"But it wasn't exactly what I was looking for," you whine. I care even less! If you want something specific, then you should have been more clear in your request. Also, stop being a brat. *You* should have been more specific. The blame lies on your shoulders. It goes right back to the simple fact that a person volunteered their time and effort to fulfill a request for you, most likely a total stranger. That is kind and kindness deserves some manner of acknowledgement.

A kudos. A like. A reblog. A brief comment. Something.

Someone saw and/or was assigned your request, said "Yes, I can and will do this," then expended the time and mental and emotional energy to give you a present *you asked for*, so maybe, just maybe, you ought to thank them.

It feels pretty crappy to work your ass off on a gift, only to be met with radio silence by a giftee who is otherwise very active online.

[unioncolours]

The 5th Majsasaurus Year

Today is the 22nd of September, 2024. As per tradition, I have written a reflection of the year that has passed since September 22nd 2023, a public diary entry of sorts. Not only is Sept 22nd Shikamaru’s birthday, but also Majsasaurus as a member of the Naruto fandom’s birthday as well. This date marks five years since I posted my first fic in the Naruto fandom. You can read my first reflection from 2020 here, the second from 2021 here, the third from 2022 here, and the fourth from 2023 here.

It's been five years guys! Half a decade of making a fool out of myself online!

I have to be honest, this year has not been the best when it comes to fandom. While not as depressing as the worst year of 2021, it’s been challenging for sure. Before I go into this year and personally reflects all its quirks and events, I’ll start by introducing my nickname that’s been used on me online; Bex.

When I got social in the Shikatema fandom spheres back in late 2019 I asked people to call me a different name, a name I chose. My back then friends said the name I chose was too long and didn’t want to call me that, so they gave me the name Bex. I accepted the nickname without whining, because there I was, new in a server, and I just followed their lead. So I became Bex online. This is important for later, hence why I told this backstory.

And now onto the fifth year of being this persona online. Keep reading if you’re interested in my year.

I finished my last review of my year by announcing to you, my followers and friends, that I was expecting a child, a theme which was very visible in the fic I published 23rd of September 2023, we hold galaxies.

Since I knew that I’d obviously would have to cut down my time spent online very drastically after my baby would be born, I planned to write one more Shikajin fic with the aim of it being around 30k long, hoped to publish it in December and then be on a longer break. However, it’s… not always that easy being pregnant haha! What I didn’t realise then but realised later was that I suffered from brain fog and that made writing challenging.

What did cherish my days was that dear SpicedGold, who I for a longer while have been close to, sent me a giftbox literally from across the globe. In that giftbox she included two homemade plushies, one of Inojin and one of Shikadai and I had never been so surprised in my life. Now two plushies of them is decorating my shelf above my computer by which I write fics! My friend @clumsydragon28sent me from another corner across the globe another gift box to me as a Christmas gift, where I got even more plushies! Those were of Rowlet from Pokémon and Fyodor from BSD and both plushies decorate my living room. The gifts were truly cherished.

However, because I had rather forcefully decided that I WILL write a final pre-motherhood fic and had a deadline if I wanted it published before my baby was born, it meant I stuck with the first idea I had that sounded mediocrely interesting. Yeah, I should not have forced myself at that point, but wanted to go on a break with a bang and wanted to give my readers something to chew on before giving birth.

And I had very strong faith in myself that I could make it.

For months I battled through writing a plotline my heart didn’t love and my due date got closer and closer and all I could see was plot holes and words that refused to form. I realised 30k would not be enough for whatever I was cooking, and I had now strayed very far from my original plan.

I started to procrastinate and, because I had gained 60 user subscribers on AO3 (if you’re one of them, thank you so much), I decided to host a silly bingo with prompts. I received a few prompt-asks and wrote mini fics for them, all around 600-800 words. It was a wonderful way of procrastinating. You can read my mini fics here: Jinchuuriki Temari part one and two, TemaTen modern au, a fluffy Shikatema, and a Witcher AU.

Not even when my maternity leave had begun before the due date had I made any significant dent in my primary fic and I failed my quest to publish it, even if I by then had a good idea of what to do of the story.

After my child was born and when I had healed form the birth the brain fog vanished immediately. With zero sleep and a tired body I once more had a vision for my fic, and I banged through the rest of it like a madwoman. I had inspiration once more!

TERRORISE, the Shikajin fic, was published at the end of March 2024 and ended being 56k long. It is definitely not my best fic by any means, and there are at least two or even three places where I know I could have added a subplot to up the word count to my trustworthy 90-something thousand words to make a deeper and more profound story, but at that season of my life I could not write a better story than what TERRORISE ended up being. The missing subplots were the lie Inojin told, and Chocho and Sarada’s common backstory, which were only mentioned and alluded to, but not explored like they could to have made a better story. The final chapter was published by the beginning of May, and I have not re-read anything of it.

I had already decided before my baby was born that my project when they were here would be to re-edit To go down with the Sun, my first long fic from 2019. I had often thought about re-editing it finally, since before 2019 I had never written something vast that in English before. That meant my fics at the beginning of my career had language errors that I couldn’t see then, but now was aware of. I started re-editing in May, thinking I would change and add to a good amount of scenes, but in the end, I only added a little bit to one scene aside from correcting and re-editing the rest, which honestly surprised me, even if I so boldly stated in my previous official diary post that there would not be anything to correct. That my bold claims were true did surprise me after all.

Beside that I also added more scenes to three chapters from no one cries for unknown soldiers, my Shikatema WWII fic from 2022, just because I could and I had wanted to do it for a longer while, since that fic would have benefited from having a longer editing period than what I allowed it to have two years ago. So I did! It was fun and lovely to dive back into one of my favourite projects of all of my time in fandom.

In the middle of re-editing Sun I was struck by very sudden and intense inspiration to write about Saiino. In my ‘giving birth’-projection fic with Temari I waxed poetics about the wonders (and horrors) of biology when it comes to childbirth and ended the fic on a very powerful and positive note, but now felt inclined to write a fic which featured a mother who did not have a wonderful start of her motherhood and who fell ill to postpartum depression instead of having a lovely baby bubble.

As if possessed I smashed on my keyboard and crunched to get the fic done in time for Mother’s Day 2024. I made it, and the Ino-centric fic to grow a bed of flowers was published late that evening. I even rushed my ending a bit to make it but even with a rushed ending the entire atmosphere of the piece of so bittersweet and lovely! Postpartum depression is also such a hidden or even taboo topic that I think it was very needed in our fandom to have a description of that.

I could then go back to To go down with the Sun, and I had even commissioned the skilled and wonderful @keijidraws to make a poster for the fic, which I felt like that fic deserved. Over these five years that has passed since I wrote the first words of this fic (if my memory isn’t failing me, I think it was 10th of October 2019 I started writing Sun), To go down with the Sun has given me so, so much. My most kudos and hits, many friends, online crushes, *fans* even if I dare to call them that, soulmates, it all, all started from that fic. It deserved getting reborn and loved again. It was a rather easy job banging through published chapters and just edit them. I had finished everything the final week of May and was really proud.

By the beginning of June I was planning to write an InoTema fic, and was musing between two different settings and plots when I learned that the way I was perceived in what was part of my fandom circle was not a positive one and, being my own fault for how I behaved or was, or not, it affected me badly. Being online caused me panic attacks, I got problems with my sleep, and I had nightmares. And because of that I started to hate the person I was online. I hated Bex and I hated Majsasaurus. I hated the way I was that had led to me being perceived that way and if I hadn’t known better and counted down from ten, I would have nuked myself off the internet out of shame and hatred.

I would have deleted this tumblr you are reading this post from. I would even have deleted my discord server I have loved and nurtured since 2021 without the blessings of the other mods, just nuked it, leaving them shocked and detached from the group of friends we had. I would have ruined it all. I would have deleted everything but my fics on AO3. No, deleted wouldn’t have been enough, in my hatred for my own persona, for Bex, this person that was given to me all those years ago, I wanted to kill her.

I constantly planned suicide letters in my head to post here online. Not killing myself in real life of course, but online. And killing Bex would mean to kill my love for Naruto the series and ShikaTema and Shikajin. How does one kill a hyperfixation?

I started working on it, on killing her. I created a new tumblr and a new nickname and logged out of this one. I hid my twitter account. I decided to never write a Naruto fic again. As you can see, it got very bad very fast. Some of you might think I overreacted at words on a screen and that it all was my own damn fault and I should have reacted or gone about it differently, but it just got like this.

The entire month of June and July I spent in darkness when it came to fandom. It felt like Shikajin would be the only thing keeping me tied to Naruto again and in a desperate attempt to cheer myself up I began editing To dance above the Stars, the sequel to To go down with the Sun, and my true favourite out of the trilogy it belongs to. To try to force myself to not give up, I asked my dear friend Soverel6 if she wanted to make me a poster and she happily agreed, without knowing I was one click away from deleting myself away from her.

Then I began editing sometimes in June. I thought the fic sucked when I re-read it this time around and rather than adding, deleted a lot of the content. Most of the content I deleted was unnecessary preaching for a cause I ran in the fic, and I toned down that theme a lot. After 4 chapters I was ready to give up, to just not bother anymore with this fandom crap and leave for good, when Soverel6 surprised me with an almost finished poster. For her sake, I could not give up. I could not fail the trust she had in me, and I kept fighting for my joy within the little world of the fic.

After a month of sulking and feeling awful I managed to once more spew fun ideas for @notquitejiraiya's sequel fic to her masterpiece Grandmaster, which we jokingly call GMJ (the real name is Piano Man haha). SpicedGold also got to know I was feeling bad and to cheer me up started writing the sequel, When Waterlilies Waken, to the fic that originally made us friends, Let Wildflowers Grow Free. I felt so honoured she got around to do this, after me talking (pestering her) about a potential sequel for a long time. During this time I had reached my favourite parts of the fic, To dance above the Stars, I was editing, and thanks to the support I received from friends when talking about it I finally managed to find it fun to work with a fic again. I was still greatly offline from Naruto spheres, and when I sometimes logged into this tumblr just to check I was very careful to never reblog anything and often logged out again with a pending panic attack.

I uploaded the edited chapter of To dance above the Stars onto AO3 when it was finished in August along with Soverel6’s poster and finally dared to show my face on twitter again. Twitter felt safer than tumblr for some reason.

By this time, two months since I began hating being part of this fandom, I finally started feeling hope again. I decided that, before taking the ultimate decision to actually leave, I must write one final long fic of ShikaTema. I mused different prompts, all of them long and angsty and bloody of course per my brand and what I love to write the most. I mused different plots and it was between yet another historical au which would take place during WWI, another historical au which would take place during the 1700s and focus on witch-hunting, or a fantasy au which would be my Witcher AU, which I have mused for a bit and am really fond of.

I decided in the end to attempt at the Witcher AU.

However, I didn’t start writing it, and started writing this text instead already in late August. Then, after knowing I had received so much love on the WWII-au from 2022, one of my best fics to be honest, in the spur of the moment I decided that I will record the entire fic as a podfic. I begged my dear friend Becks to make me a new poster for the fic’s re-launching as a podfic and since she luckily agreed, I promised myself to do it. I, Bex, would try something completely new! And dauting. And tough. Recording wasn’t a problem in itself, I love reading things out loud, but the chapters were longer than I thought when reading out loud, and the software I downloaded for the editing was not as easy to manoeuvre as I predicted.

Then the fatigue hit again. I got stuck. I have not given up and I will finish it, but the deadline is maybe by 2025, haha.

When I got stuck with recording myself, I managed to scrape together a will to finally, after three months of practically deciding to never write any fic ever again, write a one shot. That one shot ended up being a second chapter to we hold galaxies, my projection fic I published exactly a year ago on Shikadai’s birthday 2023. I first thought of making it a one shot, but ultimately decided to add it as a chapter instead, and I was pretty satisfied with how it ended up being.

Now I am facing what to do next. I still had that promise of a long ShikaTema fic, but the Witcher AU didn’t feel as good as it once did. The hype inside me waned at the same time as new ideas spurred. New ideas. Did you hear that, “new ideas”? That is the sound of me almost being healed from the intense hatred I felt towards my Naruto online persona during the summer.

One of the new ideas is for example connected to Inojin’s canon fate in Boruto the manga, during which chapter he ‘died’ I was not feeling good. I was already trying to strangle my love for him and then he DIED on me. I cried. Yeah, no, judge all you want, but I was not exactly mentally stable enough to witness that. Now, however, I am luckily having fun with engaging with canon once more, since Inojin survived, and we got some good food from the chapters. I had fun in my safe space with other people who were engaged with his fate.

I am now brooding an intense and angsty Shikatema canonverse long fic. Canonverse! It’s almost like going back in time to when I thought I only could (and wanted) to write canonverse, back in 2020 and 2021. I also have a wlw idea again, after deciding to trash all the InoTema ideas that were ruined due to my anxiety in June, so it feels… normal again. It feels like I normally feel like in fandom, in a place where my imagination can run free and I can be the antithesis of a dude bro: the silly bean sister.

I find it ironic how I every year say I have learned to deal with fandom grief, but this year proved once more that I will never learn. But I think I will have to learn to accept that I won't learn.

Now we are here again, at the 22nd of September. Five years has passed since I uploaded the first chapter to my first fic, and I have 950 000 words uploaded on AO3. Earlier this year I promised myself to beat the delicious one million word count before 2025, and I know I realistically still can do it if I start writing tomorrow and stick to it.

But I will not retire until I have that sweet one million words on AO3. It would be too much of a failure to do so. So, dear sixty something subscribers, followers and other lurkers, expect at least 50k more of Majsasaurus fic in the future.

And yes, you can call me Bex. I don’t want to kill her anymore. I asked her forgiveness for being so angry, especially when I proudly bought a Temari Funko figurine in September. I don’t think I can kill this hyperfixation just yet. I don’t think I even want to kill it.

I can, with confidence, say, that there will be a 6th Majsasaurus Year in 2025, at least in some capacity.

Thank you to those who stopped me from deleting everything.

Majsasaurus Bex

[dmbjexchange]

🐉 Year of the Dragon Lunar New Year DMBJ Treat Exchange 🐉

We are going to HOP (get it… Year of the Rabbit!) into 2023 with an idea that is a new format for the DMBJ Fandom. The Lunar New Year Treat Exchange is a slow burn of an exchange, with low pressure and plenty of time to create, and is open to fan creators of all types - writers, artists, vidders, gif makers, and all others.

Based on the Fandom Stocking and Fandom Giftbox exchanges that used to run on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth, no-one will be assigned to create a gift for any specific person - instead, anyone who would like a treat signs up with their wishlist of characters, ships, likes, and prompts (and DNWs!). This list is open for browsing, and anyone who feels inspired to create for anyone else is free to do so and add the treat to the AO3 collection for the event. All treats will then be revealed at the Lunar New Year!

Since the New Year for ‘Year of the Rabbit’ is so soon (22 Jan 2023), the first LNY reveal will be for the ‘Year of the Dragon’, on 10 February 2024.

This exchange is open to all the DMBJ canons - if it’s DMBJ, then it’s eligible! Since all treats are to be posted to the AO3 collection, you will need an AO3 account to participate – if you don’t have one, you can request an invitation code here, or ask for an invitation from existing AO3 members.

🐉 Schedule 🐉

Sign-ups open: January 22nd, 2023 - The Year of the Rabbit

Sign-ups close: October 30th, 2023

Deadline for all treats completed and posted: January 21st, 2024

‘Pinch Hit’ period to ensure everyone signed up has at least one treat: January 21st - February 9th, 2024

Treats reveals: February 10th, 2024 - The Year of the Dragon

Creator reveals: February 17th, 2024

🐉 Guidelines 🐉

1. You can start creating treat fills whenever you like - you do not have to wait for sign-ups to close.

2. You do not have to sign up with a request yourself in order to create a treat for someone else.

3. While you do not have to create a treat for someone else if you sign up with requests for treats yourself, we ask that you do create at least one treat.

4. When choosing requests to treat for, please prioritise anyone who does not yet have a treat (the list of requests will be regularly updated to show Y/N as to whether or not someone has a treat fill yet). 

     a. If there is anyone without a treat fill by the time of the deadline, mods will ask for people to create treats so that everyone who signed up receives at least one treat.

5. Your creation/s must focus on your recipient’s requested characters or ship (or one or more of their requested ships, if they have nominated multiple ones). While unrequested background ships are fine (unless listed as a Do Not Want), if it is a shippy creation then the focused ship/s must be one or more of the requested ships.

6. You will be expected to create a treat matching your recipient’s request. Filling any specifying prompts is not obligatory, but try to create something you honestly think your recipient will enjoy!

7. You must not include anything that your recipient has listed as a DNW (Do Not Want). Not even as a one-line throwaway reference.

8. The minimum requirements for the treats are 300 words for fic, one sketch on unlined paper for art (traditional or digital), a 3 panel manip or set of 3 single panel manips, a fanvid of any length, or any other fanwork of equal effort.

9. You can create as many treats as you like over the creation period.

10. This is an anonymous exchange: refrain from discussing your assignment in public. After the works are revealed, there’ll be a one-week anon period when the creators remain anonymous before the creator reveals.

11. You are welcome to post your treat to other sites in addition to AO3, such as Lofter, but please ensure that you do post it to AO3 as well so that your giftee gets the notification.

12. Most importantly: be excellent to each other!

🐉 Sign-Up Information 🐉

Sign-ups will take place via Google Form, starting on January 22nd, 2023. The form will be posted in a separate post when sign-ups begin.

The form will ask you for your name and for a link to your Dear Creator letter. Your Dear Creator letter is where you will fill out your request, and can be hosted anywhere you like - Tumblr, Dreamwidth, Google Docs, etc.

Sign-ups will close on October 30th, 2023. While no new sign-ups will be accepted after this date, you are still able to make amendments to your Dear Creator letter.

Treat creation can begin at any time after January 22nd - you do not have to wait for sign-ups to close before creating treats.

🐉 Dear Creator Letters 🐉

Your Dear Creator letter should contain the following information:

Preferred DMBJ canon: You have to choose at least one. If you’re willing to receive a treat in any canon era, you can just say “Any”!

Characters: You have to choose at least one character that you would like your treat to be about.

Relationships: These can be any platonic, romantic, or sexual relationships you would like in a treat. “None” is a perfectly valid answer here.

General Likes: This isn’t a place for detailed prompts, just general themes you enjoy. E.g. getting together, established relationship, alternate universe, dark, crack, hurt/comfort, etc.

DNW (Do Not Wants): Things that your creator must not include - squicks, triggers, or characters or things that you simply don’t like. Remember that you don’t owe anyone an explanation about why something is a DNW, and that DNWs are not meant to be taken personally. Just list the things you don’t like, “DNW: X, Y.”

Prompts/specific ideas: if you have any prompts, you can also put them here! You can be as general or as detailed as you’d like, but remember that while your creator will try to make the best gift for you, filling a specific prompt is not obligatory. You can include a crossover prompt (with other DMBJ verse or other canons entirely), but make sure it’s not the only prompt you have.

Please note in your Dear Creator letter if you are happy to receive a treat in Chinese.

You can make changes to your Dear Creator letter at any time, but please keep in mind that the later you make changes, the higher the chance that someone may have already created a treat for you that will not have those changes taken into account - this includes late DNW additions, so please try to ensure that any/all DNWs are listed as early as possible, and that late changes are just additions to prompts and things you like.

🐉 Multi-chapter Fics 🐉

If you are writing a multi-chapter fic for a treat and don’t want to drop the entire fic at once, these are the posting guidelines for it:

At least the first chapter posted by the deadline, ready for the reveals on February 10.

From February 10, aim to post at least one chapter daily.

All chapters of the fic must be posted by the time of creator reveals on February 17 (If the fic is more than 7 chapters long, then this will mean that multiple chapters will need to be posted on some days).

🐉 Other Info 🐉

If you have any questions, ask on the YuCun Discord or submit a question to @dmbjexchange​ or @thetombraidersguild​

Please follow @dmbjexchange​ or @thetombraidersguild​ for announcements and reminders.

[hitmanexchange]

Welcome to Hitman Holiday Hoarders, a gifting fest for the Hitman fandom! 🎁

Detailed schedule and rules under the cut!

Schedule

December 6 – Sign-Ups Open

December 31 – Sign-Ups Close

January 6 – Gift Reveals (16:59 UTC)

January 13 – Creator Reveals (16:59 UTC)

All times are 23:59 UTC unless otherwise specified.

The Basics

Hitman Holiday Hoarders is a gifting fest in the style of Fandom Giftbox and Fandom Trees.

Gifts are required to be drabble length (100 words) at minimum. Longer works are of course welcome.

What is a gifting fest?

Participants sign up by adding a prompt with their characters, relationships, the highest rating they're comfortable receiving, and any DNWs (Do Not Want). Others then fill their empty gift basket with short fics, and everyone gets to open their presents when the collection is revealed on January 6th.

You are not expected to write a gift for someone else if you sign up, but you're of course welcome to do so. This fest is for everyone who would like to receive a gift fic, but can't participate in exchanges for whatever reason. This event is for everyone who wants to read Hitman fanfiction and would like to receive a little gift fic. It's also for everyone who wants to write Hitman fanfiction and enjoys writing little treats with no required reciprocation.

Requests

How many requests can I add?

You can place one request under this tree. The writer(s) who choose(s) to write a ficlet for you can pick

If you’d like to suggest a specific scenario, add it to your request’s description. Try to find the right balance between an interesting idea that gives authors something to work with and a too restrictive request. You can also specify if you'd like to receive cute fluff, for example, or which characters you'd like in your fic.

You may add up to four fandoms (minimum: one) to your request. The fandoms to choose from are the Hitman video games and the other canon mediums, namely the two tie-in novels "Enemy Within" and "Damnation", and the comic book series "Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman".

Characters and Ships

You can add the characters and ships you'd like to see to the optional details of your request. When asking for relationships between characters, please make sure to use A/B for romantic or sexual interactions (including queerplatonic) and A & B for platonic or familial interactions to avoid misunderstandings.

Rating

Please pick the highest rating you're comfortable receiving. Ratings lower than the one you picked are implied; if you chose Mature, you may also receive a fic that was rated General Audiences or Teen & Up.

If you're a minor, please don't request fics that were rated Mature or Explicit. Please don't add to your request or your letter that you're a minor, we're going by basic internet safety rules here.

Fics with a higher rating than the one you chose will not be revealed until the issue is resolved.

DNW and Letters

You also have the option to add a link to a letter. These can be very useful to give your writer ideas for possible gifts. It can also be invaluable for telling them what you do not want at all.

If you have anything you Do Not Want (DNW), it must be in the request directly to be enforceable. Authors should respect the Do Not Want list; however, the requester should not abuse it to try and force the author into a corner. Do Not Wants that appear only in an external letter will not be enforced.

Please word your DNWs neutrally, and please don't explain why you don't want to see it in your gift.

Am I guaranteed a gift?

No, this is a gifting fest, not a gift exchange. Gifts are not guaranteed, but we can work together to make sure everyone who puts a request under the tree receives a gift.

Can I stay anonymous?

You can add your request anonymously, and you can choose to stay anonymous. In that case, the fic(s) written for you will not be gifted to you, but only be a prompt fill in response to your request.

Required Commenting

If you received a gift fic, even if you also wrote a fic for someone else, please try to leave a positive comment on your gift before creator reveals.

Giving kudos and sharing the gift you received on social media or to your blog, and adding it to your rec list/public bookmarks is also encouraged, but not a requirement.

If you can't comment during the anonymous period, please do so as soon as possible after creator reveals.

Participants who did not comment on their received gift fic will not be able to participate in future gifting fests or prompt fests until they caught up with any missing comments.

I don't have an AO3 account!

There's still enough time to request an invite by joining the queue. If you learned about this event too late and can't get an invite before December 25th, please contact me and I'll help you out.

Prompt Fills

Minimum Requirements

Since this is a gifting fest and a busy time for everyone, the minimum requirements are intentionally low: 100 words, which is a drabble. If you want to write more, you absolutely can! There is no maximum wordcount.

Prompt fills need to honour the requester's DNW (Do Not Want) and the maximum rating they chose. Works need to be newly published for this exchange and created by you in good faith. AI-generated works are not welcome.

Posting

In order to post, go to your AO3 claims page and click the "fill" button on your claimed prompt. That will take you to a new-works form with the prompt already tickied. If the request you picked was not anonymous (or is not anonymous anymore by January 6th), please gift your work to the person whose request you picked. You might need to add the username yourself.

Deadline

There is no hard deadline, but since this is a holiday themed gifting fest, please post your work to the collection before work reveals on January 6th. The collection will stay open, and you can post additional works both during the anonymous period and afterwards.

Anonymity

Works stay anonymous until creator reveals, the Saturday after work reveals.

Please don't reveal your identity before that. Don't add your work to one of your existing series, add a revealing author's note, or discuss your work on social media. The anonymous period is part of the fun. You're free to do all these things after the creators are revealed! Logged-in comment replies to your own work will not reveal your identity; you'll show as "Anonymous Creator" until work reveals. Feel free to reply to the comments you receive during the anon period.

Multi-Fills

You may claim a request that has already been claimed by someone else. Since this is a gifting fest without assignments, please try to also claim a request that hasn't been claimed yet, to make sure everyone who participates receives at least one gift.

Be friendly!

Make sure that your prompts and your fanworks do not contain any hostile elements towards people you disagree with in any part of the fanwork (title, tags, summary, author's notes, body text). Refrain from adding DNI notes.

If you shame or harass other participants, or if there are signs that you have deliberately caused problems in multiple exchanges, the mod will delete your signup.

[egg-node]

Hewwo Egg!

🙃🌈🎁

Although I’d like to substitute the drawing your OCs part in the giftbox ask with drawing other people’s OCs

YOU. the nefarious echo owogami. artist ask meme

🙃 Which is easier: faces facing left, right, or front view?

huh. okay. so i had to take a second to look back in my art folder because i could not remember the last time i drew a face (of the humanoid variety). last time was september? wild. anyways i think it's front. i don't have to worry about the angle of the nose then/making sure the eyes are appropriately resized.

🌈 Do you use more warm or cold colors?

i think by a fairly narrow margin my palettes are more cool than warm. but i've got plany of warm-toned pieces also. colors...... are good :3

🎁 Do you prefer drawing fandom stuff or your own characters?

LOL THE STIPULATION. you know me well. if you hadn't added that, i would've had to add it myself. yeah no no yeah i've drawn a bit of ultrakill stuff last year, but before then. if we exclude ultrakill, the last time i drew a large enough fandom thing to get saved into my art folder was 2019. lol. lmao.

i just don't usually get possessed by the need to draw fandom blorbos. especially if they're from a media that don't have canonized designs (looking at you, blorbo from podcasts) since character design kills the me.

[thinking-outside-the-giftbox18]

Welcome Home OC - Andy Astrange ft. Wally Darling

*Being gone for a long while as I go through the TSP fandom, and comes back with colorful puppets*

Hey, everyone, I would like to introduce you to my Welcome Home OC, Andy Astrange ^^

I haven’t made an official ref yet as I plan the base design first, name, and then finalize later.

Name: Andy As[ter S]trange

Occupation: Stranger (former), Neighbor 

Gender: Non-binary

Pronouns: They/Them

Affirmation: The Neighborhood, The Gray Treehouse

Relatives: Belle the Blue Pixie (parental figure), Whistle the Red Kitten

Hypothetical favorite food: Fruit yogurt

Personality: Cautiously shy upon arrival but is curious and playful when opening up more.

Facts: 

They like to collect things around their treehouse or in the Neighborhood, like rocks, sticks, leaves, etc.

They have interacted with all the neighbors, but they like spending time with Wally

They like to nap by their tree house with Whistle. But they wake up feeling dizzy.

They ALWAYS look down, at times would look up when they want to.

More art on Andy because I ran out of stuff to type out here:

1 - A Pleasant Stroll

2 - Tin-Can Telephone

3 - A Lesson on Borrowing

That is all I got for Andy, so here’s Wally as a floptropican as a joke and later regretting it

As for TSP, I am making a blog to post all of it there - @teamnarr8oftheparableverse​

Have a Nice Day ^^

- Giftbox

PS. The ship name of Wally and Andy is StrangeDarling ^^

[kyuuxmizu]

I envy the ginhijis/hijigins cuz they're winning rn 🥲 The illustration is a special benefit for early bird purchasers of the Ato Matsuri Abema PPV tickets

I looooove the Yorozuya illustration tho (it has autographs of the seiyuu too), so yes, I will still purchase a PPV ticket even though I'll be going to the matsuri in person hahahah

(Please give us gintaka crumbs too 🤲🤲)

(I wonder if this can be a way for people overseas to watch the matsuri ^^ Just like how the Ymri fandom did for OP4)

More info in the cut ->->->

There are 2 Gintama Ato Matsuri events:

① Afternoon(昼) event at 13:30 JST

② Evening(夜) event at 18:30 JST

PPV (Pay per view) Live-streaming at Abema starts at the same time as the events themselves ^-^

Streaming will be available for viewing from March 19 13:30 JST until March 26 23:59 JST.

There will be 2 tokutens (special benefits) for those who purchase PPV tickets from Abema:

① Early bird purchasers (until 2023-03-18): Gintoki and Hijikata digital illustration

② All purchasers: Yorozuya digital illustration with autograph and messages from the seiyuu

Both are drawn by Shinji Takeuchi, Gintama anime's character designer. The digital benefits will be sent to abema.tv/gifts

Viewing ticket prices are as follows:

① 1 Event Ticket: 4,000 Abema coins (4,800 JPY)

② Through Ticket (both events): 7,340 Abema coins (8,808 JPY)

③ 1 Event Ticket with merch: 6,500 Abema coins (7,800 JPY)

④ Through Ticket with merch: 10,670 Abema coins (12,804 JPY)

Abema Premium subscribers get a 20% discount!

Merch that come with the tickets:

① Elizabeth celebration bag

② 3 types of Gintama original stickers

③ Gintama Ato Matsuri 2023 (provisional) memorial ticket

④ "After the Ato Matsuri" behind-the-scenes interview video

Benefits ①~③ will be delivered to the registered address from May-June.

Benefit ④ is a digital gift that will be sent to the Abema giftbox in April.

ref.

https://www.bn-pictures.co.jp/gintama/2023event/str.php

https://abema-ppv-onlinelive.abema.tv/posts/40760003

[maswartz]

Anyone else noticing fandom tags getting invaded by random video bots like “giftbox openings”

like this

[jaclynhyde]

Things I've Written

Having not made a promotional post since...Yuletide 2018, here's the fic I've written since then!

Fandoms: Fate/Grand Order, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, Malevolent, Mob Psycho 100, Nier Gestalt, Starman, Tales of Xillia, Xenogears

Crossovers

A Friend in the Hand (Gilgamesh Finalfantasy/Enkidu Fate, 100 words)

Gilgamesh peered closer. "Friend Enkidu?" he asked, hopefully.

DC Comics

Not Good at Farewells (Starman, Shade/Jack, 100 words)

The Shade gives Jack one more parting gift.

Fate/Grand Order

Restoration (Izou/Ryouma, 1728 words, Chocolate Box 2021)

Just have to lay low for a few days, Fujimaru said. It'll be easy, she said. Yeah, easy if she hadn't brought a man-slayer and a psychotic dragon to do anything that isn't murder people. Upside, Fujimaru was holding Oryou's leash for awhile cause she heard some frogs. Downside, that left a treacherous asshole holding his.

Eyes Closed (Avicebron/Gudao, 100 words)

"I won't look," Ritsuka said, eyes already squeezed shut.

Borrowed Nostalgia (CasGil/Kingu, 100 words)

He knew what sex with Gilgamesh felt like.

So Familiar a Gleam (Roman/Merlin, Roman/Magi☆Mari, 9466 words, Yuletide 2019)

Every night, Romani Archaman dreamed of the end of the world.

Even worse, sometimes Merlin came to visit.

Matchless Match (Roman/Solomon (according to Gudako), 100 words)

"So," said Gudako, leaning over Romani's shoulder, "are you a Solomon fan or a Solomon fan?"

(Un)familiar (Enkidu/Gudako, Roman/Gudako, 100 words)

Enkidu had his looks down exactly. The easy smile, the hand at his neck, even the bags under his eyes.

Reunion (Gilgamesh/Enkidu, 2546 words, Chocolate Box 2019)

Gilgamesh has nothing to say to Enkidu now. Or so he thinks.

Final Fantasy IV

Hot and Bothered (Edge/Rubicante, 1233 words, Chocolate Box 2019)

If you can't bring the Autarch of Flame to a blizzard, his cloak's the next best thing.

Malevolent

But Gentle Pulls the Strings (John/Arthur, 11,771 words, Chocolate Box 2022)

John and Arthur have settled into a routine after escaping the Dreamlands. But when a suspicious theatrical troupe comes to town, the two must confront whether they've truly escaped the King in Yellow.

Likewise, the Road to Ruin (John/Arthur, 2123 words, Fic in a Box 2021)

And a voice growled in his ear, "Don't turn around."

Arthur's entire body tensed under the restraint. "What—what's behind me?"

"I am."

Mob Psycho 100

Knowing (Mob/Reigen, 570 words, Fandom Giftbox 2019)

“Did you know?” Reigen asks, suddenly, and Mob's hand on his arm grips just a little too tightly. He almost wants to say know what?, pretend nothing between them had changed at all, pretend they hadn't hurt each other.

Uncertain Road (Mob/Reigen, 2195 words)

Mob is home from college, and everything is just like old times. Except when it's not.

Nier Gestalt

Dreams That We're Telling Ourselves (Papa Nier/Weiss, 3562 words, Chocolate Box 2020)

For a long five years, only Nier and Weiss remained.

Tales Of Xillia

Of Spyrites and Spirits (Alvin/Balan/Jude, 3537 words, Tales of Rarepairs 2021)

While celebrating an important discovery, Jude Mathis makes a more personal one.

Xenogears

Alter Ego (Id/Citan, Fei/Citan, 100 words)

Id had the will to kill him, certainly. But there were far neater methods than strangulation.

"I won't look," Ritsuka said, eyes already squeezed shut.

[feckyeswriting]

Fandom Giftbox - A Low Key Fandom Event

Hey y'all! I wanted to boost an event that's happening right now over on Dreamwidth that anyone can join! If you have no idea what Dreamwidth is, that's okay! The gist is that it is a journaling/semi social media site. It's based off of LiveJournal (which you may have been a part of or missed completely).

To participate, you will need to join the site. It's easy! And then once you've joined, you can be easily lured into participating in even more and more events there. There's been a lot said by people better versed than I on how to get acclimated to using Dreamwidth, so I won't get into detail here. You just need an account to be able to follow the event community & to submit your comments.

So what's this event?

Probably should get into that, yeah!?

Fandom Giftbox is a multi-fandom, anyone is invited event where people will gift you drabbles, icons, fanart, or anything else under the sun. Of course you should also be gifting to others as well. It's a nice, warm feeling to drop off a few fills and then open up your own "box" on the reveal day to see what others have thoughtfully given to you! There are just a few stages to the event.

I just want to emphasize, this is open to literally any fandom. Including Original Works. Want more cryptid/cryptozoologist action? You can request it here.

1. Sign Ups

Enter a comment on the 2020 Sign Up post. Be sure to include the General Signup and as many Fandom Signups as you feel like filling out. Three fandoms is the minimum. I've seen people put in as many as 10-12.

2. Fill Giftboxes

Once the boxes are opened, you can browse through the tags on the lefthand side of the journal or on that year's Request by Fandom posts (once they've been created). Look for at least one where you can create something for the recipient. But by all means go hog-wild and fill as many as you'd like. Again, the more that people gift, the more that everyone gets!

Fills are submitted by adding comments to the person's box. They will be "moderated" which just means that the recipient won't see them until they're revealed.

Fun fact! Mods will monitor to see if any giftboxes are "Needy" and empty. Towards the end of the fill stages, a list of these Needy boxes will be available. The goal is for everyone to get at least one fill.

3. Giftboxes revealed!

You get to look through all the fills on your box (and anyone else's). The warm and fuzzies, they are so nice.

So like... what can I give? Or what am I going to get?

Fills will have to follow the "Wants" and "DNWs" (Do not Wants) that are included in the sign-up phase. DNWs have to be followed. Prompts are just suggestions though. So if you ask for Harry/Draco with a prompt for an Auror AU, you may not get the AU. But you would get Harry/Draco.

Same logic follows for the type of fill. There's a sample list of media on the sign-up sheet for what are common fills - "Any, Fanfiction, Fanart (Drawn/Digital), Graphics (Icons, Wallpapers, Manips, Banners), Fanmixes, Fanvids, Meta, Recs, Podfic, Fan Music". If you really don't want to get anything other than fanfic, you are more than welcome to say just that. Just note it might make it harder for people to fill if you are too picky.

What's the timeline of this?

You can see the official timeline on the Fandom Giftbox page, but here's the schedule as of 4 Jun 2020:

Sign Ups Open: May 31st, 2020 Sign Ups Close: June 21st, 2020 (No earlier than 11:59pm EST) Giftbox Posting Begins: June 7th, 2020 Giftbox Posting Finished: on or before June 26th, 2020 Request Spreadsheet Finished: on or before June 28th, 2020 Fandom Entries Up: on or before July 5th, 2020 Empty/Underfilled Giftbox Requests Begin: by Sunday, July 19th, 2020 AO3 Collection/DW Comments Revealed: Sunday, September 6th, 2020 (No earlier than 11:59pm EST)

What should I do while I'm waiting for the event to start?

What a great question. Why don't you check out the DW Fandom Calendar and see if there's anything else up your alley happening soon? You can also try out some of the neat features on DW like Access-Locked journals for only close friends to see your updates, finding new people via Interest Search, or checking out Latest Things to see if anyone's journal is interesting enough for you to consider Subscribing too. Don't forget to Subscribe to Fandom Giftbox, too, so that it'll show up on your Reading Page (which is like a very slow moving Dashboard).

And don't forget to give a wave to me on there if you'd like! I give access to most people so long as we're from the same circles :)

[itsmariemccurdy]

What We Make

Staff Sergeant William Hadrell wants one thing in this miserable life: to die for the cause. When he's mortally wounded in battle, he seizes on the chance to undergo the augmentations and go out with a bang. What he never expected was Dr. Abigail Ashe, a woman who makes him think there might be more to life than dying.

Abigail has never hated her role in making augments more than when she's faced with Billy. Sending him to certain death on the battlefield is almost more than she can bear.

When their base falls under attack, Billy sends them both hurtling through time in a last ditch effort to save her. Together they grapple with survivor's guilt and the uncertainty of a certain future in 1998, along with a way to stay in the fight when a small family of soldiers tracks them down.

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Category: F/M

Fandoms: Terminator - All Media Types, Black Sails

Relationships: Abigail Ashe/Billy Bones, Sarah Connor/Kyle Reese

Word Count: 32,296

Status: Complete

(Link in the reblog)

[nrgburst]

The sheer joy of realizing somebody has written you something as a gift!!! :DDD

So I have already gone rummaging through the tags but there is at least one mystery fanwork in every fandom I requested DARN IT. 😂 My detective work foiled and I will have to wait until reveals! My bet is on a Kate Daniels fic though! *Goes and gleefully shakes her gift some more because she has the patience of a three year old*

[cynical-harlequin]

Fandom: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Poe Dameron/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Dysfunctional Relationships, Enemy Lovers

Summary: “Tell me, Poe, do you always romanticize your own destruction?”

Poe knows he shouldn't keep meeting with Kylo Ren. There is nothing of Ben Solo left in him. But he's never known when it's time to accept defeat.

[hhimring]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Tar-Telperiën, Tar-Ancalime's granddaughter Additional Tags: Númenor, Family, Female Protagonist, POV Female Character, Childhood Summary:

The future queen Tar-Telperien asks her aunt about her refusal of the Sceptre.

[willidothefandango]

Giftbox!

So I signed up for the fandom giftbox! Is like uh fandom stocking but it’s happening now instead of at the end of the year :D

So if you want you can drop by and leave something on my page haha. If not you can always look around the other pages and see if a prompt inspires you.

[thinking-outside-the-giftbox18]

Angst Vent Idea: I’m after you, Andy’s Apple Farm Fandom.

So... This week didn’t start great and I am still upset about it. I just came across this fandom scrolling [don’t worry, I know about Andy’s Apple Farm, not a full fan tho.] and saw a lot of angst potential...

I WANT IN.

Here’s the idea:

Andy just...giving up. Like, after everything in the game happened because of what he [Thomas] did, he gave up.

The other characters were at first not bothered by this, even Peter the Pumpkin wasn't fazed, but it got on everyone's nerves as Andy was just emotionless and they got angry...but then concerned.

Besides Peter, who knew that Andy is "ripe for the picking"

Oh no. He won’t just KILL Andy/Thomas, that’s TOO Merciful.

Peter has already tortured him enough, he just got a puppet to play with for eternity who'd be so emotionlessly playing the part that it's not even an act that could convince the other characters. 

They'll KNOW that he's not okay...despite his wide smile.

Would be amusing to see the gameplay show the characters reacting to Andy’s head being a png image of a real apple.

But I am also a sucker for happy endings to comfort all this, inspired by a fic I’ve read from @sir-subpar, I liked the idea that all the characters and the spirits possessing them are different entities and had a programed life before the Eastwood Incident, and once the souls are free, they’ll try to go back to what things were.

I’ve seen the ships, I like Andy x Claus and Andy x Peter (fairly questionable, I know). 

I can see Peter the Pumpkin being an entirely new character who was made by the demon and when the demon is gone, Peter doesn’t know what’s next for him but would work with Andy and help others with a smile.

And yes, I like to ship Claus x Andy x Peter

Hope you enjoyed this, don’t care if you don’t.

- Giftbox