#honestly this is why i miss lj

[queen-of-reptiles]

𝙱𝙴𝚂𝚃 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙴𝙽𝙳𝚂

description: In which Georgia Stanway and Leah Williamson’s younger sister are just best friends… right?

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part one of the best friends series

mapi part one here (hidden universe)

ona part one here (hidden universe)

georgia stanway x female williamson!reader

disclaimer: I am in now way saying Georgia is bi-sexual or lesbian, this is all fiction

warnings: honestly not many, a couple of swear words maybe? a mini make out sesh, angst, fluff and google translate german (sorry) xx

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y/n just posted

liked by stanwaygeorgia, lucybronze and 499, 244 others

tagged fcbfrauen, stanwaygeorgia and 12 others

y/n Baby England knows how to party ;)

see all 12, 333 comments

username1: she is ICONIC 😍😍

username2: THAT SECOND GOAL WAS UGHHH

Lj10: superstarrr 🌟🌟

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y/n: was taking lessons off you ig

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lucybronze: Naaaa it was me 😉

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y/n: acc it was Keira and LJ 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

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lucybronze: You're so lovely to me

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y/n: 🩷🩷

username3: love the fact Bayern bought her and Georgia and went on to win the league!

fcbfrauen: ❤️❤️

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y/n: ❤️❤️

username4: I wonder if she misses playing with Leah??

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username5: well they will be playing together in the WWC and England international games so idk

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username6: besides, she might switch back to Arsenal as she only signed on for one season at Bayern!!

leahwilliamsonn: You missed ya first one!

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y/n: you miss every one

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leahwilliamsonn: come at me pipsqueak - if you can from that height!

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y/n: Say goodbye to your kneecaps !

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leahwilliamsonn: 💕

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y/n: 💕

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username7: HHAAHAHAHAH

stanwaygeorgia: she can't dance btw

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y/n: salty cause she lost just dance 😙

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stanwaygeorgia: TAKE IT BACK

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y/n: NO

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stanwaygeorgia: TAKE IT BACK!

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username8: bestie goals right there

see more comments...

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y/n loved to party, that was so obvious to everyone who knew her. Especially when she felt it was as earned as they winning the league party felt the night before.

To win and beat Wolfsburg to that number one spot, to have automatic qualification for the next Champions League, it just felt right and normal for a party.

What also felt right, was her arm curled around y/n's waist, the feeling of her naked skin pressed into y/n's as she slept, trying to put off the hangover for as long as possible.

Best friends. They fuck when they get drunk yeah? Or when they're not drunk and just feel like it. They were best friends, and they needed to help each other out. It was normal.

It was not normal.

y/n knew as she crept from Georgia's room and into her own - considering they lived together - that what they were doing was not what best friends did.

y/n knew that best friends did not make such changing decisions as she did for Georgia, she knew that best friends were supposed to love each other, but not be in love with each other.

So why was she in love with Georgia?

y/n knew what would happen. Georgia would be up in half an hour, always coming too once y/n no longer held her, she would cook them breakfast, and ignore what had happened.

It killed y/n. It truly truly killed her. How could she just ignore everything they had done last night, every loving touch, every kiss, moan and climax.

But she did, and so would y/n. And in two weeks when it would happen again, y/n would be there, on her knees for her and crawling back like she always did.

They would go back to camp for the world cup, y/n's sister Leah would captain them and everyone would be oblivious to the fact y/n was drowning in Georgia.

y/n sighed, running a hand over her face and climbing into the shower, trying to wash the feel of Georgia's hands from her body. It didn't work.

Then she changed, pulling on some jeans and a shirt before grabbing her fanny pack, phone and head phones and pulling on her trainers, moving into the kitchen where Georgia stood making them coffee.

"Mornin'!" Georgia smiled.

"Coffee?" She asks, holding the cup up but y/n shakes her head.

"I'm going to meet up with Syd. Sorry G." y/n smiles, ignoring how her heart broke at Georgia's relaxed smile, not even mentioning the fact she was in y/n's shirt.

"Okay, when will you be back?" Georgia asks and y/n sucks in a deep breath as she shrugs.

"Dunno. Sydney said she'd help me revise." y/n explains as she picks up her tote back from the bag hook, her revision for her sports science degree inside.

"Oh, I can help!" Georgia smiles, knowing it was something she usually did.

"It's okay, Syd and I have got it." y/n smiles. "Have a nice day." She adds.

"Don't be home too late!" Georgia smiles as y/n rushed out the door, her house keys on the hook. "I love you." Georgia sighs sadly to the empty flat, before she sighs and leans over the counter.

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y/n just posted on her story x 2

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y/n and Sydney were laid out on the blonde's sofa, y/n having texted Georgia saying she would have dinner at Sydney's, unknowingly disappointing the light brunette back at their apartment, who had spent the day watching the door longingly as she tried to get chores done.

y/n and Sydney were watching a TV show y/n had begged Sydney to watch called Humans, the German saying she wouldn't like it but now being as obsessed as y/n was.

"Will you ever tell Georgia?" Sydney asked aloud, being the only person to know y/n's current dilemma as the two were very close.

"I don't know Syd." y/n sighed and Sydney sent her a look.

"Warum weißt du es nicht?" Sydney asked with a scoff.

Why don't you know?

"Because it is not that simple!" y/n chides, Sydney sending her a look which said say it in German. "Weil es nicht so einfach ist." y/n repeats and Sydney nods.

"Maybe not, but the way you both look at each other is clear." Sydney denies and y/n sighs.

"And how is that?" y/n asks with an eye roll and Sydney glares at her.

"Like you two are each other's reason for breathing." Sydney states and y/n snorts and shoves her.

"You Germans are so fucking poetic." y/n says before checking her phone and sighing. "I need to get home." She hums and Sydney rolls her eyes.

"No you need to avoid this conversation." She says as y/n grabs her bag.

"Huh, look at the time. Love you." y/n says, dragging out the 'you' as she gets to the door.

"Love you too." Sydney calls as y/n leaves. "Dummes Mädchen." She then mutters.

Stupid girl.

y/n slides her headphones on, happily walking the ten minutes back to her and Georgia's in the slowly setting spring German sun. She got to the door, sighing as she realised she didn't have her key.

y/n knocked on the door, straining her ears as she tried to hear Georgia's padding footsteps but didn't hear anything. y/n texted the girl, confused at her lack of response considering it was only 8:34 pm.

When she didn't reply, y/n called her twice both times the phone ringing out to voicemail as the phone was outside the shower which Georgia was currently in, trying to forget about the way y/n's lips felt.

y/n waited, for ten minutes outside their house, sighing as she slid against the door and called her sister instead, watching the phone ring out before the blonde picked up with a grin.

"Hey baby sis!" Leah grinned, smiling at her sister who grinned widely back.

"Hey Lee." y/n smiled, her head lent back against the door as she watched her sister's smiling face. "You look happy." y/n chuckles and Leah grins.

"Of course, I see you tomorrow!" Leah grins and y/n can't help but smile.

"I can't wait to see you either Lee." y/n smiles widely and her sister lets out a shriek as her body is pushed to the side.

"Baby Williamson!" A cheer echoes. Mary Earps pushing herself into frame.

The players who play in the WSL had gotten to camp two days ago, the women who play abroad all now waiting to join at camp after their later games.

That included, Keira, Lucy, who played at Barcelona and y/n and Georgia, who played at Bayern, all four having made it into the squad and all travelling over tomorrow.

"Mary! Hi!" y/n grins, Leah huffing as Mary snatches her phone away.

"I saw that off the line clearance from you yesterday, we'll make a keeper of you yet." Mary grins. y/n can't help but let out a laugh at that and someone calls Mary from off camera.

"Go on, go help whoever needs it." y/n laughs at the keeper who grins and presses a kiss to the camera.

"I'll see you soon!" Mary calls before handing the phone back to Leah and running off, Leah rolling her eyes as her sister chuckles.

"What are you doing?" Leah asks her sister who sighs.

"Forgot my key, so waiting for G to let me in the fucking flat." y/n groans and Leah chuckles, though she looks confused that the two weren't together. "I was at Sydney's." y/n explains.

"Oi oi." Leah grins, wiggling her brows and y/n glares at her.

"Shut up!" y/n laughs, knowing she and Sydney were just friends. y/n goes to say something but the door unlocks and y/n sighs in relief.

"You go and get packed missy." Leah says and y/n mockingly salutes. "I love you." Leah adds and y/n smiles.

"I love you too Lee." y/n smiles at her, before she hangs up and walks into the apartment, Georgia was stood awkwardly by the door, wet hair hanging over her shoulders.

"Sorry, I uh, was in the shower." Georgia apologises, and y/n shrugs as she sends her a small smile.

"It's okay, I should have remembered my keys." y/n nods. "I was on facetime to Leah anyway." y/n explains as she places her bag down.

"How was Sydney?" Georgia asks awkwardly as y/n walks into her room where her suitcase is half packed.

"Yeah great, we got through a lot." y/n smiles happily as she digs through her closet to find more clothes.

"Good, good." Georgia nods, awkwardly stood in the doorway of y/n's bedroom.

A silence settled across the two, and usually neither would mind that, because they could be in silence together but would like it, because they were together.

However, this silence was pregnant with awkwardness, tension thick in the room as Georgia watched as y/n continued packing, trying to avoid looking at her.

"Why won't ya look at me?" Georgia asks and y/n tense, sending a quick look at Georgia.

"I am, but I need to pack G." y/n says and Georgia scoffs.

"You ain't looking at me!" Georgia denies and y/n throws her trainers down as she turns and folds her arms, looking at Georgia.

Their eyes meet, holding their stares as they both watch each other for a moment before Georgia scoffs at the cold stare being held between them and turns and walks out.

y/n listens to her go and jumps when Georgia's door slams shut, her head dropping as she sighs and shuts her own door quietly, she then sits against her bed and falls back.

Love sucked.

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y/n hadn't been able to sleep. She put her phone down nearly an hour ago at half eleven, but sleep hadn't been kind enough to save her from over-thinking.

She was on her side, back to the door, almost as if she was trying to forget that across the hall Georgia was probably asleep. Getting energy before flying tomorrow.

Slowly, there was a creak behind her and y/n stopped breathing, holding the air in her lungs as her door shut again and a body slid into bed behind her.

Georgia's arm slowly curled around her waist and y/n sighed, turning onto her other side so they could at least face one another. y/n couldn't see her, it was too dark.

But they both knew their eyes were open as they stared into the dark of the room. Georgia's hand was resting against the dip in y/n's waist, y/n's hand was close to Georgia's chest.

There was no sound other than the quiet breathing, the small breaths blowing in and out softly as they laid together. Slowly, Georgia's head moved, her breath now pushing against y/n cheek.

She stopped, lips just centimetres away as she gave y/n enough time to push her off, to shove her away. However, y/n's hand came up to slide up Georgia's chest and onto the back of the neck.

The moved in sync, lips colliding softly as the room suddenly filled with sound of smacking lips and breathy moans. y/n's hand tightening on the back of Georgia's neck, pulling her closer.

Georgia pushed up, leg swinging over y/n as her arms held her above her, lips never breaking as their tongues tangled together, tasting every section they could.

y/n sat up slightly, pulling Georgia closer to her as her other hand pushed at her back, mounting Georgia onto her lap as y/n's back hit the wall.

Georgia's hands slid around her shoulders, fingers playing with the baby hairs on the back of y/n's neck. y/n sighed into the kiss, knowing where it would lead as Georgia pulled away.

"We should get some sleep." Georgia says quietly, settling down into y/n's side.

y/n paused, shock running through her veins because a kiss like that always led to something more.

"Yeah, okay." y/n whispers, settling further into her pillow as she pulls Georgia closer, nose buried into her head as she inhaled Georgia's shampoo.

y/n's eyes quickly become heavy with sleep, Georgia's warmth and body weight pressing into her finally helping her brain shut off, and in the silence of the room, the two fell asleep embraced.

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The next morning y/n woke up alone. Her phone blaring her alarm and as the two girls got ready for the day it was like another heartbreak to know they had slipped into their old routine.

She and Georgia joked like friends, not mentioning the night before as they shuffled out of their apartment and locked the door, Georgia letting out a shocked shout at the person waiting for them.

"Sydney!" y/n grins, rushing over to hug the blonde.

"I wanted to say goodbye!" Sydney smiles. "I will see you soon, I'm sure." She adds. y/n chuckles and squeezes the blonde once more as Sydney then hugs Georgia.

The taxi pulls up and Sydney pulls y/n to the side, Georgia rolling her eyes as she is left to help the driver pack their cases away.

"Tell her." Sydney says quietly, her back facing Georgia. "Just tell her." She adds.

"But Syd." y/n sighs and Sydney sends her a look. "I'm so sacred." y/n admits and Sydney giggles and brings y/n into a hug.

"Everyone's scared y/n, but if there is one person who can deal with fear it's Baby England." Sydney promises and y/n sighs.

"I'll see you soon." y/n promises Sydney who smiles and the two pull away and share another smile.

"We going?" Georgia calls, the girl leant against the car, arms folded and eyes narrowed in annoyance as y/n rolls her eyes.

"Yeah." y/n tells her. "See you soon!" y/n grins at Sydney who waves at her as y/n climbs into the taxi.

"About time." Georgia scoffs before nodding at Sydney although slightly tightly before Georgia sunk into the car and shut the door.

y/n sighs at the girl's attitude but quickly slides her headphones on and easily ignores the glare Georgia sent her way and the driver awkwardly clears his throat as he drives away.

Sydney watches the car go, a wedge of confusion stuck in her at the fact the two girls she played with could not see what she could so clearly.

"Dummes Mädchen. Also offensichtlich eifersüchtig." Sydney can't help but say as she begins to walk home.

Stupid girls. So obviously jealous.

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y/n and Georgia made it to the airport, neither having said a word to the other since the ride began, both placing their headphones on and ignoring the other - anger swirling for reasons neither really understood.

The two checked in their baggage as if they were separate travellers who didn't know each other. They went and got coffees from separate places as if they were not friends.

And when they sat down on the plane, the two turned away and closed their eyes, preparing to sleep the short journey.

"Why are you angry with me?" y/n asked quietly, trying not to be too loud. But Georgia didn't answer, she simply turned to face the window.

y/n sighed, rolling her eyes and leaning down, pulling her eye mask out of her bag and placing Georgia's on her arm, knowing she struggled to sleep on the plane without it.

At the action, Georgia caved and turned to face y/n, but the girl already had her headphones and mask on, and was clearly no longer interested in the conversation.

And as the two sat next to each other, travelling back home to their national camp. Neither had felt so lonely in a long time.

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End of part one

[bullet-prooflove]

Sending hugs always!

He hides his heart and hurt because he kinda had to

For Mitch Ripley, please and thank you!

Tagging: @spaghettificationandpretzels @mini-bee-bee @mandy426 @phoward89 @kmc1989

Companion piece to

Drove All Night - Mitch hates the idea of you spending your birthday alone. 

Seperation!Series:

Marley 2.0 - Mitch doesn't realise your hiding a secret from him.

Not Your Problem - Mitch feels you pulling away from him.

In the weeks after Mitch leaves you he locks away every vulnerable part of himself into a little box and tosses away the key. He self-medicates, upping his medication because he doesn’t want to feel a God damn thing. His world becomes grey again, he’s stoic, numb. It’s the only way he can cope with the end of his marriage.

There’s radio silence from the both of you. He sees you in passing at the hospital but you don’t speak to one another, he can’t even look at you. He knows there’s rumours flying, but Mitch can’t even bring himself to care. Nothing touches him anymore.

He’s filling in one of his patient charts when LJ appears alongside him, completing the intake paperwork from an accident that occurred with a tractor. Mitch has managed to avoid the other man up until this point, he simply pretends he doesn’t exist.

“I’m sorry to hear about you and Marley.” LJ says and Mitch just shrugs his shoulders.

“Why?” He says despondently. “You can have her all to yourself now, I’m not in the way anymore.”

“I don’t understand...” LJ says as Mitch stares down at the tablet in his hand, his knuckles turning while as he grips it.

“I know about the two of you.” Mitch says tilting his head towards LJ, meeting the other man’s gaze. “That it started in St Clair, continued when you got back home.”

“What? That’s not…”

Mitch shakes his head, cutting the other man off.

“I don’t care.” He tells him because honestly he doesn’t want to hear the denials and all that shit, he’s too exhausted, too emotionally wrung out. “The two of you can do what the fuck you want. I didn’t fucking care.”

He walks away then, the tablet cradled to his chest because that ache he’s been trying to push away, it’s back with a vengeance. He heads to his locker and he pops another pill, and then another. He’s lost track of how many he’s up to, all he knows is he’ll take as many as he can to drown out the misery that keeps rising up inside of him.  

He spends the next few hours in a dissociative state, people talk to him and he responds but it’s all automatic. He doesn’t recall these conversations, he only has an awareness of them.

He’s refilling his water bottle when the seizure happens. There’s a raising sensation in his stomach, his arms start to tingle and he’s rocked by a sudden wave of nausea. The water bottle slips from his hand, clattering to the floor as the lightheadness hits and his entire world slips sideways. He smashes  his head on the way down, it bounces off the coffee table, knocking him out as his body hits the tiles.

It's ten minutes later that Hannah Asher finds him, sprawled out, broken, bleeding.

You’re the first person she calls.

Love Mitch? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[getvalentined]

I love when folks ask me Fandom Old questions and I get to be like "Yeah, uh, that's from my old online RP group, no it's not canon at all, yes we just made it up, no we did not claim it was canon but the mid to late aughts were a strange time."

It's honestly a shock to realize how often this has happened. I mentioned earlier that Reno's fanon surname came from this same group, but that's not even the half of it. I once made a bunch of screenshot manips based on the most ridiculous ships anyone could think of—someone slapped a random line of text onto one of them and to this day it's used as a "cringe FF7 fandom" meme. I saw it on the twits a bit back and almost fell out of my goddamn chair.

If you've ever heard Scarlet referred to with the surname "West," read about Tseng fighting with metal fans, seen Elena's older sister being called Anna instead of Emma, come across Vincent portrayed as having a PhD in spite of being a Turk, or caught references somewhere to Grimoire experimenting on Vincent as a child, that started with this group. That was us.

One of the funniest examples of this, for me specifically, is that we don't actually know which arm Veld is missing? The fandom generally goes with his left because that's how I drew him in the first picture of the guy ever posted on devart way back in 2005, but it may very well be his right. I've seen people offer "proof" that it's his right based on a scene in the opening cutscene, but you can't tell there either, and with BC's graphics there's literally no way to tell on his sprite.

Hell, this year we found out everyone's assumed timeline of the Kalm fire is wrong, and that's our fault too because we made some assumptions about Felicia's age for an LJ RP that were entirely wrong. She's around Zack's age, not Sephiroth's! She's old enough to run with a terrorist group in BC, but she was a child when Kalm burned, and that happened in 1997—we know this because NPCs in Rebirth literally refer to the fire in Kalm having happened "just ten years ago." Veld has only had his prosthetic for three years when BC starts. (This also implies that, contrary to popular belief, Veld may actually be younger than Vincent. Vincent may have been the senior partner, and that's why he was sent to Nibelheim alone while Veld was left at headquarters.)

We were really wrong on this! But we were working with what we had. There's no canon evidence for the vast majority of these things (the most notable exclusion here is Vincent being educated) but we weren't claiming there was. We were filling gaps, and canon was so sparse that we had a lot of gaps to fill. So if it turns out that Veld lost his right arm, then I'll just have to start drawing him that way—because losing his left was never canon.

Tragically, there's nothing any of us can do to make people stop assuming these things are canon at this point; there aren't a lot of us still in the fandom, and it's not like any of us have those old chatlogs anymore. People from this RP group have DIED since those days. It's been over 20 years since most of us met, and around 15 since most of us were in a public fannish space together.

"Prove it," people say, and I literally can't. Do you know how many computers I've been through since then? 75% of the platforms we used no longer exist. This all started on a BBCode forum! There is no proof!

But...there's no evidence any of these things are canon, either, so maybe think about that? The Kalm fire, Tseng's weapon of choice, Veld's arm, character surnames—none of these are retcons because there was no lore there to retcon. We made it up for our specific purposes, and it escaped containment in an era when there was really no way to do online contact tracing.

It's just one of the weirdest feelings in the world to see younger folk arguing about A or B point in canon, about X or Y retcon—referencing something my friends and I thought up at like 10 o'clock at night on a now-defunct IM client in August of 2005, because we needed something to refer back to for a specific scene in an RP and the source material had nothing to offer.

Absolutely fucking bonkers.

[sillygeeseys]

How I think Creepypastas would react to finding a stray child:

((My first official HC post!! Please feel free to go in my ask box if you'd like more!!))

Pastas featured: Jeff, Toby, Masky, Hoodie, LJ, EJ, Liu, and Slender

Tw: Death, canon typical violence, this is NOT going to be fluffy in most places

Jeff:

-He's so uncomfortable at first, especially if it's CRYING.

-His older brother instincts eventually kick in, he uses a voice he almost forgot he ever had, and hums a tune he hardly remembered knowing

-He wouldn't keep it for long, he can't, his lifestyle is far too dangerous for a child. (And so is he)

-In fact, he'd probably kill it. Claiming it's an act of mercy, it wouldn't survive long anyways after he abandoned it.

Toby:

-They FIRST thing he asks is if he can take it home with him.

-He'd be terrified to pick it up/touch it, especially with his tics, he wouldn't want to drop a kid.

-He sees so much of himself in that child, he begs to not abandon it all alone

-He's still a child himself, so he wouldn't make the best parenting decisions if Slender miraculously allowed it

-If Slender said no, he'd take the kid somewhere safe, probably the police or an orphanage, or somewhere the kid would have to be legally cared for by SOMEONE.

-He's probably so playful when he crosses the hurdle of his fear around potentially hurting the kid, always connected at the hip.

Masky:

-He's the most collected out of everyone, he's been at this for many years so this is probably not his first or last kid incident.

-He uses nicknames like 'champ', and 'buddy', and settles them down

-Younger kids seem particularly drawn to him, he has no clue why, even if someone else brought the little missed period cycle home, they somehow always end up passed out on Masky while he carries them around the manor so they stay napping

-He would've absolutely been a father if the proxy life hadn't chosen him, but he'd never tell a soul that.

-Slender usually sends his kids away to human families, or something awful happens, and Masky loses them somehow. It kills him a little.

Hoodie:

-They honestly don't notice the kid at first until they spot something wriggling around in the background of their camera footage

-Kid has to approach THEM

-They do everything to try shaking the kid off at first before eventually accepting the situation

-They stop for McDonald's on the way back to the manor, while calling Slender to explain what's going on

-They're just as scared as the kid is, in fact they probably stress eachother out the longer they're together

LJ:

-Eats them.

-Eats them, and tosses the bones to smile dog.

-Is probably the 'awful things' that keeps happening to all the kids Masky tries to raise.

EJ:

-Is probably 'awful things' #2.

-He doesn't eat them though, kidneys are still way too little, and he doesn't like how squishy they are at that age, way too sweet too.

-But he'd certainly attack/fatally wound a kid if they approached him in a way that startled him

-He usually blames LJ though because he feels way too awful for anyone to know it was him

Liu:

-He's so so gentle, and patient

-He remembers being that terrified, he remembers being that child that needed someone when they were at their most alone.

-He probably wraps them in his trench coat, he keeps them in his bedroom where they're safe from the riff raff of the manor (JEFF)

-He hums that tune Jeff used to hum to him when they were little

-He eventually has to give them up, he stalks many families for weeks until he finds the perfect one. He still keeps tabs on some of the kids he's rehomed.

-They're probably scared of his stitches/scars/overall facial deformity from Jeff's attack, and it breaks his heart

Slender:

-Literally all the Creepypastas are stray kids to him. (He sees them more as 'pets' but that's for another HC)

-He keeps tabs on the kid, if it dies then its too 'weak' for his standards, if it survives he'll monitor it's life until he can yoink the little bastard, and stamp it with a proxy mark.

-He's sick of his proxies getting attached, and bringing them home. He keeps having to remove kids from Masky's care because Slenders worried it'll affect his work ethic negatively.

-He's probably the reason this kid is all alone anyways, and he's way too exhausted to care. If he picked up every kid he found in the woods with bones sticking out, he'd basically be running a daycare for anyone ages 3-45.

[flappervcmp]

KYLEE'S 𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑭𝑶𝑹𝑻 𝑳𝑰𝑺𝑻! 🦇👻🧛‍♀️🌙

comfort food(s) :   chicken nuggies, cookies (specifically triple choco chip chips ahoy), salt & vinegar chips, fruit gushers

comfort drink(s) :   tea (any kind), hot choco, ginger ale

comfort movie(s) :   avatar & avatar: way of water, twilight (all of them), pride & prejudice (2005), howls moving castle, labyrinth, crazy rich asians, lord of the rings trilogy (extended edition), beauty and the beast (cartoon)

comfort show(s) :    the vampire diaries, the walking dead, game of thrones (excluding s7-s8), gilded age, downton abbey, chilling adventures of sabrina, buffy the vampire slayer, interview with the vampire (if u havent watch it, u should bc its amazing)

comfort clothing :   a skort and a crop top for at home, or my pjs

comfort song(s) :  espresso - sabrina carpenter, better than revenge - taylor swift, endwalker (footfalls) - masayoshi soken, roses of may - nobuo uematsu, canned heat - jamiroquai, we didn't start the fire - fall out boy cover vers., phantom of the opera - ramin karimloo & sierra boggess, masquerade - phantom of the opera (25th anniversary show vers.), ain't no love in oklahoma - luke combs, 8 dates (demo version) - cast of why am i so single, long face - lestat de lioncourt (played by sam reid)

honestly my music taste is all over the place generally so its a mix of some of my fave songs, along with stuff that im listening to on repeat lately

comfort book(s) :   twilight - smeyer , the vampire diaries -lj smith, the forbidden game series - lj smith, acotar - sarah j maas, ruinous love trilogy (3rd one isnt out yet but i know ill love it) - brynne weaver , phantom of the opera - gaston leroux, vampire academy - richelle mead, lights out - navessa allen, the princess and the grilled cheese sandwich - deya muniz, ice planet barbarians series - ruby dixon

comfort game(s) :   oblivion (the superior elder scrolls), any legend of zelda game (tho OoT is my favourite overall), final fantasy x, final fantasy xiv, final fantasy ix, final fantasy x-2, final fantasy xiii-2, baldur's gate 3, stardew valley, the sims, dragon age inquisition, final fantasy 7 remake (part 1 & 2), vampire the masquerade bloodlines, animal crossing, assassins creed

tagged by the lovely @dopplgaenger 🥰

tagging (ofc feel free to skip if you're not comfortable sharing!) - @broknfeed, @little-miss-buffy, @burninq, @insanislupus, @vervainlacedveins, @wiredcapability, @twiicetheheart

[olderthannetfic]

/728286197798076416/ - this is me. Before tumblr the sites I hung out in are socmed sites that have a friend system and not a follow one. I got a bunch of friends through those sites forums and seeing how some people interact with their mutuals here reminded me of those times so I thought that's how they become "friends" on this site when there's no friend system (and by that I meant like an online acquaintance you'd interact with a lot and not actual friend-friend unless you two actually got close).

It's also just been at least a year since they followed back. I have interacted with their posts with mostly likes and some reblogs (sometimes with added commentary since I like their posts) but aside from a like or two when they followed back, they haven't done anything else. A random follower who hasn't liked or reblogged anything from me even from the start doesn't bother me but I've seen people here make a big deal of being "mutuals" with someone and some of them have made posts about how their mutuals are important to them/their friends which fits how they talk to their other mutuals on posts but doesn't apply to me. It's what confuses and bothers me about why they decide to follow back cause it doesn't make sense based from these stuff.

I read the replies on my original ask and I guess I really just shouldn't think much about this. It's just so strange to me so it bothers me.

--

...

Nonnie, I was there for the whole Livejournal era, starting in 2002 before most of fandom was even on it.

I can say with certainty that calling the following function "friends" led to plenty of wank but no actual increase in how much it meant that you were a friendly acquaintance.

Some people have always used sites this way. Some just follow you because they meant to keep track of your account and go check it later. Did they actually go check it later? Questionable.

Most likely, these people talking about "mutuals" in that manner don't derive the friendship from being mutuals. They follow back people they're already friends with for other reasons. They may also be thinking only of the mutuals who talk to them a lot in ways they find amusing or notable.

One thing we cannot control is whether other people like our writing.

I get more than the usual share of replies. Some commenters stand out to me because I like how they phrase things. It's usually the people who sound like they read a wide variety of genres and as though they have a similar vibe to mine. I'll usually notice the Spanish speakers (if they mention it) because that's of interest to me, but I'll still probably only click with the ones who are pretty good at English in a way that sounds nice to my ear. Honestly, that's hard to quantify because it's different form how native someone's grammar is. I have a bunch of regular rebloggers coming from a variety of languages who are a pleasure to read despite copious grammatical errors because they're funny or sound colloquial despite that or because their content is so interesting. Some people sound stiff or convoluted despite having zero technical errors. (And that's true regardless of native language.)

If I find you painful to read for EFL reasons or bad writing skill reasons or humor that reads as tryhard instead of funny to me or excessive hostility or some other thing, we won't click.

Neither I nor the other person has any significant control over those reactions.

Now, I haven't observed your mutuals and have no idea what kinds of things you guys post, but I have observed a common pattern, both on tumblr and back in the day on LJ, where someone interacts a little but not enough and their comments are okay but nothing special. If the people they're interacting with are busy or already have a zillion friends, sometimes, they just get missed.

I also think performative posts about ~my mutuals~ tend to be hollow bragging about being popular. When they aren't, there's an implicit sense that they're talking about a particular subset of mutuals.

There's not really that much of a contradiction here. You were just taking those posts at face value, and you shouldn't.

[cookinguptales]

I almost wrote a small essay in the tags of that "fanwork as content" post but realized that it would probably be better off as its own post. So now it's... a large, rambling essay. lmao

Like... to preface, AO3 is great, it's a great resource for fandom, it feels good to have a centralized location that works well. That said, there has been a steady decline in how I've felt treated as an author since we switched to an archive-only model of fic.

For people who are newer to fandom, pre-AO3 (and even in the early days of AO3), people often crossposted fic. Sometimes to websites, sometimes to journals (particularly LJ/DW), sometimes to communities, sometimes to kink memes...

AO3, while certainly one of the primary places you could upload stuff, wasn't necessarily where you would get most of your primary interaction about your fic. It was always designed to be an archive, not a social media site.

But since we moved to an archive model (and away from LJ/DW) I've noticed that fic gets almost no traction on sites that actually are intended for social interaction. I'm not saying it's easy for any creator in fandom, but god. The numbers on fic posts are just downright demoralizing.

I don't mean to sound arrogant here, but I think I'm a pretty good writer. People seem to really connect with my fic. In multiple fandoms, I've written fic that most people have read and enjoyed, to the point where people have just taken it for granted that if someone reads fic in the fandom, they've probably read something I've written.

All this is to say, I know I've written fics that people like. I know I've written fics that people connect with. And I know those posts still only get like 5 notes sometimes on Tumblr.

I'm proud of my work and I'm happy that it's gotten such a warm welcome on AO3!!! But there are times when I feel like all this means that I could write literally the best fic on earth and still no one would talk to me. People still wouldn't want to interact with me on social media sites.

I wrestled for... honestly, a long time with all this. I had a hard time putting into words why this felt so uh. Bad. Was I just self-conscious about my own writing? Yes, but that's a separate issue. Was I just jealous of others' popularity? Sort of, but it went deeper than that.

I had an issue with a fandom that I don't write in anymore. I got a lot of fanart based on my fic, which was great, which was amazing, there were even fan comics made. Visual media travels better on social media than fic. That's just a fact. And I had to watch as repeatedly, art based on the fic I wrote got thousands of notes while my fic got maybe 12. And I realized the power of social media vs. AO3 because it did get to audiences that weren't familiar with my fic and people started to give those artists credit for my ideas.

I remember watching the tags of those posts because it was occasionally the only way I'd hear feedback on what I'd written (imagine getting one comment and 5 notes on a fic, then seeing dozens of people in the tags of fanart saying that it was their favorite fic in the fandom! it was weird!) and seeing the tags gradually devolve into "oh, this is such a neat idea for an AU, artist OP" or "wow this dialogue is perfect [artist] I love it" and like

It's weird to feel so happy because so many people are enjoying your work in a transformative way but also so unhappy because you have been completely removed from the equation. No one... even knows you wrote those things anymore. You have been removed in favor of a more "marketable" version of your work.

It's uh. It's a bad feeling. I stopped writing in that fandom eventually.

So again, I felt like... idk, like there was no point in me even trying. Because I could write the best fic on earth and still somehow get erased as a person. People would want my "content," but they wouldn't want me.

I think that's what hurt my feelings so much.

What I've realized is this: what I miss is the sense of community. On LJ, you could post a fic, cross-post it to a community, and there would be comments that would become conversations that would become lasting friendships. Not always! But often. I still talk to some people daily who I met through fic on LJ over a decade ago.

In the archive model, there has almost become a death of the author. The me on social media and the me on AO3 are very different; more importantly, it's almost like it's viewed as the "me" is on social media, but the work is on AO3. I am absent. There is only the fic, not the person who created it.

And that's okay, but when you try to combine those two things on social media and it goes over like a lead balloon... idk. There's an odd sense of dehumanization. I don't mean it in like... I don't know, a dramatic human rights violation kind of way. More that I literally feel like less of a human person the way I interact with fandom these days. Like I'm no longer a person who writes fic as a way to connect with my fellow fans and more a "content creator" whose human side is separate from my creation and never the twain shall meet.

(And I'll admit it feels especially galling to be forced into the capitalistic "content creator" box when it's not even a thing I can make money off of, lmao. It's like the worst of both worlds. I feel like if I can't make money off fanfic, I should at least be exempt from capitalistic social trends during its creation.)

I'm not so much complaining about my current fandom; WWDITS has actually been one of the best fandoms for interaction I've been in since the birth of AO3. That's one of the reasons I keep writing stories for fellow fans to read -- many of those fans feel like my friends, and I want to make them happy.

I think that poster was right when they talked about how the pivot from fan to "content creator" has fucked up fandom. There is this sense that we should be treating fandom like a job, often a fast-paced one with no pay. There is this idea that we should be separated from our "content" like you might a worker from their product, and blah blah blah alienation of labor, Marx, I get it, but damn if that isn't a shitty thing to do to your fellow fans who are making art for the love of art.

There are so many things I do love about AO3. I like having a central, organized place to put my fic. I like not having to worry about my work being lost to the ages. I like having an organized comments section I can return to on bad days to cheer myself up.

But I don't like the way that fic has kind of been relegated to a portion of fandom where people aren't particularly social. I don't like the way that authors are separated from their writing. I hear people complain sometimes about A/Ns because god forbid an author leave any trace of their actual personality to distract you from their content.

I can't have DMs with someone on AO3. I can't add someone to my friends list. There are no "beloved mutuals." There is just my work and the people who are kind enough to comment on it, even if they never actually engage with me elsewhere.

It's... a weird feeling, to feel so loved and unloved at the same time. Like you keep writing trying to make something good enough that people will talk to you but like. That's really not how it works. lmao. The best fic in the world won't make you friends anymore. It won't make people see you as a fellow fan rather than a pen name under a title.

My fic is some of the most personal stuff in the entire world, but my personhood is stripped away from it. It's so fucking weird. People like my fic, but they don't like me. They remember my stories but not the person who told them. It's bizarre. It feels like having your life and experiences strip-mined for content, and then the rest of it is just... left behind.

Frankly... I work in the publishing industry IRL and I have had opportunities to write professionally. Real, tangible opportunities. But I turned them down because I've seen it, the way that trying to fit such an intensely personal art form into a capitalistic framework can be exhausting, dehumanizing, and stressful. I don't want that for my work. Fandom has always been an escape from that.

But now fandom is starting to conform to those exact same capitalistic frameworks (and ofc without any kind of capitalistic compensation) and I hate to see it. It's so stressful. I feel like we're losing a lot of what makes fandom fun for writers and we're getting pretty much nothing in return. I'm not surprised that so many writer friends I know in fandom have quit.

like damn, I just wanna have fun with a bunch of dumbshits who love to overanalyze vampires and cry over their dumbshit shenanigans, not take on a second job. one that, I reiterate, I am not being paid for.

(Note: I am not asking for payment, just that I not be treated like a worker. The tradeoff for treating someone like a worker is that they get compensated for it. If I'm not being compensated, no one gets to treat me like this is my fucking job.)

It's a weird thing, because for a lot of people, fandom has become their job. Fanartists at cons selling fanart, youtube essayists making money off videos, professional cosplayers with sponsorships, etc. And so fandom is becoming more corporate, more capitalistic, more marketable. It's frustrating for those who don't want to capitalize on our fannish output, and doubly frustrating for people who are legally unable to do so.

I'm realizing as I write this that I'm most upset about the nonconsensual capitalization of fandom, particularly when imposed on people who are unable to access the very meager benefits of capitalism. I didn't ask for any of this!

Feels like when I'd be forced to go to assemblies for the US military when I was in high school. Like I'm morally opposed to all this but I'm also not physically fit for "service" anyway, so it's doubly insulting. I feel like I've been opted into the, ah, corporatization of fandom when I'm not even eligible for employee benefits. None of this should even apply to me! ;;

Okay!! I'm all het up now so I'm gonna go eat lunch and go for a walk! No monetization of hobbies, only trees.

[mychoombatheroomba]

Things I Love About the Shitty Live Action Resident Evil Movies

So, it was my birthday recently and my roommates asked if I wanted to do anything fun. My response, of course, was to suggest getting drunk and watching the live action Resident Evil movies and like, damn, I love those stupid ass movies so much. So I wanted to make a really dumb (and lengthy) post about the goofy things I like, whether for legit or meme reasons.

Y'all, I know they're bad, that is, in fact, why I love them.

1 - The opening is genuinely kinda freaky, like, the elevator scene? Oof, well done suspense

2 - Michelle Rodriguez. That's it, that's the post.

3- The LASER ROOM - so iconic they used it in the games. The first movie came out in 2002, RE4 then used the laser room in 2005, like, y'all, they took that from the goddamn movie, that's how much of a vibe it was

(And honestly, just the Red Queen in general, what an absolute icon, love that her appearance changes in every movie she's in)

4 - Alice is the most fanfic Mary Sue character I've perhaps ever seen on-screen, and I love that for her. Look at her kicking this zombie dog in the face, it's hilarious

5 - Pretty game-accurate costuming? I can dig it

6 - They're gay, your honor

7 - Bad CGI on the Licker, I would expect nothing less

8 - Alice is at her most powerful when she finds a white bathrobe just lying around somewhere

9 - Raccoon City gets destroyed in the course of, like, a day if I'm understanding the timeline right. Like, first infection to nuking the city seems to be about 24 hours. Incredible.

10 - Leon fucking wishes he was Alice, miss ma'am out here driving motorcycles into buildings and then launching them at a monster just to shoot it and blow it up.

(Special mention for another "they're gay, your honor"

11 - You'd think the kid they have to rescue from Raccoon City is Sherry, wouldn't you? An Umbrella scientist's daughter who the gang have to save? NOPE it's Angela Ashford. Not to be confused with the game's Alexia Ashford. Is it an easter egg? A botched cameo? IDK bro, you think they know the lore?

12 - "GTA MOTHERFUCKER" - LJ, before running over a zombie

13 - THEY GAVE NEMESIS A REDEMPTION ARC??? Incredible (not before making him and Alice fist-fight each other)

14 - Keeping with RE tradition, the helicopter almost always crashes.

15 - They just decided, fuck it, let's give Alice superpowers. Also the stupid Umbrella eyes, literally whenever they come up.

16 - The third movie is just Mad Max and Fallout: New Vegas merged together. Also the way they say the whole earth withered and died but later movies very clearly show flora still alive

17 - Why is Jorah Mormont from Game of Thrones here? WHY IS JOHNNY CAGE FROM MORTAL KOMBAT 1995 HERE???

Also why does Wesker look a little like Eminem to me in the third movie?

18 - The amount of just, like, "hey, this monster/character was in the games, let's just put them in the movie anywhere!"

19 - Carlos gets one of the only satisfying death scenes for a named character from the games. And by that I mean he gets one of the only on-screen death scenes for a named character from the games. Slay, king.

20 - Why does the Tyrant look like that?

21 - The army of Alice clones were blonde originally, but all went out and dyed their hair together between movies and I think that's cute.

22 - The timeline is so fucked up, I don't think they even knew how long was supposed to pass between the movies

23 - The way they shoehorned Chris in so bad that, as a kid, I thought he had no importance and they just wanted to give Claire a character to help her with her amnesia (also, Claire having amnesia). The Redfields do get to shoot the shit out of Wesker at the end though, good for them.

24 - THEY'RE GAY, YOUR HONOR

25 - The Executioner from RE5 just like, is in Los Angeles for some reason?

26 - This shot of Wesker.

27 - Wesker takes Alice's powers away in the beginning of the 4th movie, then at the end of the 5th movie he reinfects her with the T-Virus so she can be a superhuman again and just like, bud, you're wildin'. Also it's mentioned in the 3rd movie that Alice's blood could be the cure, and that she could synthesize it once the Tyrant is dealt with? But she doesn't? She just takes the clones of her in the facility instead of using the equipment to make a cure? I know they cure it in the last movie but like, girlie, you could have tried earlier idk. Fascinating.

28 - The opening credits scene for the 5th movie is actually pretty cool

29 - The rest of the fifth movie . . . whatever those writers were smoking, I want some. I know there's literally an Umbrella base in Antarctica in the game but like, idk, having an underwater base where you have multiple city simulations running for BOW production is so funny to me. They've got clones of Carlos and the whole team from the first movie, a random child Alice adopts, Las Plagas lads on motorcycles, more Executioners, Barry (oh, hi Barry!) and damn I love every terrible minute of it.

30 - "The Leon you ordered from AliExpress"

31 - Li Bingbing as Ada, my beloved

32 - Whatever the hell this fight scene is (I am obsessed with it). The sapphic energy of Jill v Alice. Las Plagas giving you instant superpowers. Michelle Rodriguez beating the shit out of Leon Kennedy (mans draws his knife and immediately gets disarmed, Krauser would be so disappointed). Ada just snoozing in the snow the whole time. Cinema.

The music kinda slaps though.

The second half of this where Michelle gets clocked in the face with a fire extinguisher and just looks offended? Immaculate.

33 - Wesker saying that he, Alice, Jill, Leon and Ada are the last hope for humanity from the roof of the White House. What a team.

34 - AND THEN LEON, ADA AND JILL FUCKING DIE OFF SCREEN BETWEEN MOVIES ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Peak writing right there.

35 - I have never seen the Final Chapter, but I do know that Claire is the only (known) surviving original RE character. Chris is MIA and everyone else is dead. The lesbians win again.

36 - Also there's a character named K-Mart. No notes.

37 - WESKER GETS KILLED BY A DOOR LMFAO

I cannot say I would recommend these movies without the consumption of alcohol involved. Once that's in the mix? They're a great time.

[snowflakechallenge]

Meet the Mods!

Akamine_chan created The Fandom Snowflake Challenge back in 2012 as a way to remind herself “why I loved fandom so much”. Over the years the challenge itself has come to mean a lot to many of us, so by way of introduction some of the mods for this year have written about what The Fandom Snowflake Challenge means to them and why they are excited about it.

Muccamukk: Mucca mostly writes fic and reviews, usually in western media fandoms, and can never turn her back on a kink meme. She's been participating in the Snowflake Challenge off and on since year one, helping mod for the last five, and there still hasn't been any cake.

Misbegotten: I'm Misbegotten and this is my second year as a Snowflake mod. Fandom has been my happy place for many decades. My sad place too, but what's life without variety?

Sparrow2000: Hi I'm Sparrow2000 on LJ, DW and A03. I've made my fandom home in the Buffy 'verse for the last 20 odd (sometimes very odd!) years and it's where I write. I read in any fandom that catches my eye and I'm an avid reccer because I believe spreading the love keeps our fandoms alive. I've taken part in the snowflake challenge every year since 2014 and it never fails to energise my fandom joy. I'm thrilled to be helping out behind the scenes for the third year running and can't wait to see how everyone expresses their own fandom love this year.

Tjs_whatnot: Oh Snowflake, how I've missed your optimistic and cheery fandom energy! I've exhausted those resources pretty early on last year, so a refill is in desperate need! I've been part of the Snowflake family for ages now but I learn something new each year, so it's a new challenge each time. I can't wait to get reacquainted with the other old timers and meet some new, fun fandom faces. LET'S DO THIS!! ♥ ♥ ❤ ❤

Queer_scribbling: Hello, I'm Briar. I've participated in the Snowflake Challenge the past few years, but this is my first time helping out as a mod. For me, this challenge is a welcome reprieve from the doldrums of winter, and I hope the sense of community - lurkers, likers, commenters, and more - will help all of us to start 2024 on a high note.

Summerstorm: Hi! I'm Lix, and I'm back as a Snowflake mod after a few years off. These days, my fandom participation is mostly reading fic, playing ttrpgs (new this year! because I finally got good meds! I use a calendar now entirely to keep track of games?), and screaming on Discord about actual play shows, but I care a lot about those three things. Fandom is a load-bearing pillar of my life, and honestly I don't know what I'd do without it.

Pebble_in_a_lake: Hello! I'm pebble, a lifelong sci-fi and comic book fan. I've participated in snowflake challenge several years now, but this will be my first time pitching in as a volunteer. I love the fun and positivity it brings to the community each year as everyone shares their love for their different fandoms. Whether you're participating, commenting, or lurking, I hope you all have a very fun time. :D

Spikedluv: Hello to all returning and new Snowflakes! I love Snowflake and I’m thrilled to be part of the group bringing Snowflake to you again this year. The best thing about this challenge is that it reminds me of all the great things about fandom. The feeling of community. The comments and feedback. The squee that comes with discovering new fandoms and new fic and new friends. And while Snowflake only lasts for one month, these are things we can take with us into the rest of the year. As I’ve said previously, Snowflake has taught me that I need to be the change I want to see in fandom and gets me pumped up to go forth and be a more active participant.

Seleneheart: I love Snowflake because it is such a marvelous way to start the New Year - to know that I''m not a lone voice crying out in the wilderness, that there's hundreds of people who love fandom and they are all right here!

This is my sixth time to be a mod for Snowflake, and every single year I've come away with new friends, new ideas, and new connections with old friends. Some people I see all the time during the year, and some I see only during [community profile] snowflake_challenge - all of you warm my soul. I can't wait to get started!

Pronker: Hello there, I'm Pronker (DW, FFN, tumblr, twitter, theforce.net and AO3) and this is my second time modding in seven years' participating in the best challenge ever. :) I love to launch a new year with fellow fans' enthusiasms and creativity. Favorite fandoms: Hogan's Heroes, Penguins of Madagascar, Star Wars, Constantine, Greek Mythology, Star Trek TOS, Laredo, and my very first one, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. See you soon!

Dizzydrea: Hi everyone! I'm Dizzydrea on DW and AO3. I've been in fandom for over 20 years, so I've seen some stuff. I only found out about Fandom Snowflake a few years ago, but I look forward to participating each year, though this is my first year as a mod. I'm a writer, up to about 50 fandoms now. I read a lot, too, and I like to comment as a way of paying it forward. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with this year.

Cornerofmadness: Hi everyone! I'm excited to be back for another round of Fandom Snowflake. I'm Cornerofmadness on DW/LJ/AO3. I've been around fandom for decades, since the paper zine days of the 80s and 90s and been in online fandoms for more than twenty years so I've seen a lot, the good and the bad. I think that's the thing I like best about this challenge is we see so much of the good here. I'm probably best known in the Buffyverse, Fullmetal Alchemist, Prodigal Son and now The Owl House but I've had a toe in many fandom waters and hope to dip them into many more.

Vriddy: Hi! I'm Vriddy, a huge fan of Fandom Snowflake since I discovered it a couple of years ago and very excited to be part of it from the volunteer side for the first time this year! I'm mainly in anime fandoms at the moment, and looking forward to sharing all kinds of fannish joy with everyone this month. Such a wonderful way to start the year, I hope you all have a great time, too!

Tellshannon815: Hi again, back for another round of Snowflake, looking forward to seeing what you all come up with, discovering new fandoms, and hopefully making some new friends!

Turps: Hi, I'm Turps and I've been taking part in Snowflake since the very beginning and joined in as a mod a few years ago, and enjoyed the process so much I'm back for more.

Snowflake always gets my fannish year off to a great start, but what I love the most is how low-pressure it is. Some years I've managed to complete every challenge, and others only a couple. Sometimes I've done a challenge but not linked at the comm, and that's fine.

I've made some good friends due to Snowflake Challenge, but also see and read posts from people I only see once a year, and I love that. It's like meeting old friends who I have a quick natter with before heading off into the virtual distance, and I'm looking forward to doing that again.

As you can see the challenge means so many things to the mods, and to everyone who has participated before, and will hopefully also be meaningful to anyone joining us for the first time this year. You’ll find us all wading through comments, welcoming everyone, answering questions, keeping the peace, so if you need anything, don't hesitate to flag one of us down.

Tomorrow starts the first of the fandom challenges, so hope you all are ready for some fun times! Feel free to do any challenge that strikes your fancy (or all of them), or leave a comment on someone else’s challenge response at anytime.

[sunriseverse]

finished the fourth episode of zmyx so you will, unfortunately, all be hearing my thoughts so far.

to start off, the show looks really good! the aesthetics are on point, the lighting and staging is good, and the costuming is lovely. it takes a minute to get going, and at first i assumed it was some sort of esports show a la qzgs, with the cgi wolves, but aside from that, there isn’t really an issue.

on the topic of costuming—i really enjoy the distinct aesthetics each character gets from the very start! ljs with a very casual, somewhat untidy appearance, and rbj/rnz (not sure if he’ll be using his novel canon name later or not, so i’ve added both for posterity) in hanfu that initially made me assume this was a transmigration into a period drama novel. i think rbj’s hanfu is a replacement for the novel canon crossdressing, since they can’t…….well, you know. (oh, crossdressing, you will be missed! more reason for me to actually read the novel.) but hey, as a hanfu enthusiast, i’m not complaining. would love to know how he knows how to use a sword, though.

as for characters—the chemistry between hjj (yes, the hjj, of reunion fame—i initially recognised him and then dismissed it, because surely not, yes? but no, dmbj is in everything) and rbj’s actor is very good! i wasn’t sure exactly what i would be getting, since it is a censored adaptation, but the two of them really click. rbj is, i think, going to be my favourite, because he has a bit of a sh!era wx feel about him—he’s smiling on the surface, but underneath that he is dangerous. i would also love to know what’s up with lqs’ hearing?? my first thought when it happened was “oh, local man experiences autism for the first time!” but it appears to actually just be a character trait, which is cool. lqs also feels a little like wx to me, but an early era wx, which is amusing, considering hjj’s dmbj role—he’s inexperienced, and sometimes reckless, but he does, actually, have a thought process behind what he does, even if it’s just that he wants to help someone.

in terms of how romantic it is—i’m only four episodes in, but—very. i would honestly put it up with shl in terms of how explicit it is? which is kind of amazing, and makes me assume they’ll cut a LOT before it gets rereleased. rbj calls lqs his wife out loud (after another character takes a stab at them and asks if lqs is rbj’s wife outside the door, but still), gives him a ring because “it’s something [i] wanted to give you outside the door” (probably plot relevant, but who cares), and they share a bed, canonically, onscreen (this one doesn’t have an explanation. there quite literally was only one bed). also, there’s just a lot of general Vibes, in the vein of “these two people immediately fall into synch around each other”. and rbj makes lqs carry him, multiple times.

the episodes are also all under twenty minutes so far, which is good, because there’s almost eighty episodes, and as a very busy person with an adult life, i could not fit this in any other way. closing notes are: very fun, can’t wait to see how the plot evolves, and, goddamnit, am i going to have to read another hundred-plus chapter novel????

overall, i am giving it……..8.75/10, with points detracted for the lack of onscreen crossdressing and so far lacking in cat appearances (lizi we love you). why, aiqiyi, why????

[seeminglyseph]

I saw a YouTube video describe LiveJournal as a Russian Website, but like. Historically. Like “starting in 199x the Russian blogging site LiveJournal” and my brain has left my body. There were so many stages involved in the Russian takeover of LiveJournal it is literally part of why we have Tumblr like we do now *and* why people who came from LJ get mega twitchy about censorship and protective of AO3 and like. I remember when it was the blog site of choice for Russians who didn’t want to be found by the government because it was a foreign website. Then it got bought by a Russian company and had its servers based in Russia because it was so popular with Russians and the non-Russians moved to tumblr or Reddit or unfortunately Twitter.

Which means nothing and is likely inaccurate I haven’t checked, but like. Man I miss many LJ functions. Would have loved to see a blogging site like that fuse with tumblr. Best of both worlds.

Maybe a bit of old school DA and have a social platform that can actually be good for artists, because there is not much that actually works for art community building. Miss that. I miss old web.

Honestly starting to use Reddit a little more because it reminds me of forums. I know I’m getting old, but surprise people over 30 exist on the internet and some of the stuff we liked was good.

[hedghost]

Understandable lol but from a United fans view why are the players getting such different treatment when they left for the same reason?

no literally! people have just turned on lessi for some fucking reason and it's honestly horrible to watch. i think the main difference is that united is lessi's childhood team, and barca is ona's, so ona is going home, whilst less is supposedly leaving it.

that being said, i think there's clearly something going on that we don't know about, and even if there isn't, i personally don't see a huge problem with alessia's decision, since united doesn't seem serious with all these last minute offers. i've seen a lot of bad takes and a lot of good ones, so i won't dive back into those, but i'd say, as much as i'd love for her to stay, and as much as i hate to see her go to a rival, united has shown us all that they don't take this team seriously, and so we can't punish players for seeking development elsewhere.

i also think, technically, ona is a better and far less replaceable player than lessi. her impact on the team has been immense, and we leave a big, big hole without her there. i do think lessi is great, and she'll also be missed if we don't replace her, but, ona was a whole other level. lessi was good this season, i love watching her play, but personally i don't think the midfield we play with allows her to get her full potential. she's good, but ona is groundbreaking. i think most united fans would agree on this, and if i'm honest it's giving the people who've turned on lessi a lot of ammo, and maybe the reason for some difference between the treatment of her and ona.

in the same way that arsenal fans switched on lessi towards the middle of the season, then switched back when they found out she was likely going there, some of the united fans who used to defend her have now seem to have switched too.

arsenal fans i can give the benefit of the doubt for saying she 'doesnt score that much' if they're only looking at stats, but for united fans to start using the same point is baffling to me. i'm not sure how you could be a united fan and think that the only thing less brings to the table is goals, when her style of play is clearly so much more than that.

as much as it sucks, i can't fault the players for deciding to move on, and i can't fault the fans being upset. i get it, i am too. they're great players and great people, we don't want to lose them. but like you say anon, the different treatment i absolutely can fault. calling less a snake, or a money-grabber, senidng her death threats etc.etc. is, in my eyes, way too far past the line of a good football rivalry, especially since anyone with half a brain can tell there's more to it than that. don't get me wrong, i believe rivalry is important, and fun. if i saw less play for arsenal at lsv, i would probably join in with the booing. not out of hate, but because it's fun, and its the done thing, and alessia is a grown woman who would understand that. she'd probably laugh. i'd want her to do badly that one game, and then when she isn't playing my team she can go back to being my favourite. but yeah, the attitudes of certain united fans i do not like at all, and that's what's getting to me about the whole thing.

from my perspective, the club has serious problems - which we've seen countless times in regards to countless other players: letting AG and LJ go, letting Jackie go and then not letting her say goodbye, Skinner's eyeroll at Garcia, the absolute lack of rotation, the slow negotiation with Ona and Lessi, potentialy not being able to keep Mary, signing players like Leon and then shipping them off on loan, VBR being on the bench, and now VBR potentially being shipped off to Italy?? - and so i will absolutely not be blaming any of them who want to leave, childhood club or otherwise, and especially not when it's the two players who have given us so much.

anyone who wants to be a dick can be a dick sure, but like, i just think it's fucking stupid.

Ona and Less will both hold a special place in my heart, regardless of where they are, and I will be supporting them both. I truly don't belive either of them took this decision lightly, and I don't want to hear all the negativity.

[kingkatsuki]

I didn't really know who to send this to and was just going to let it rot in my brain, but you commented on the lurker situation and it got me into a weird rabbit hole and made me kinda realize something a little tangential but I think still relevant. Maybe I'm old, but it seems like the attitude around fandom has shifted in the past decade or so from a collective of like minded people sharing and creating together, to a creator/consumer relationship that mirrors influencer culture. It's all transactional now. And that makes me sad tbh. Like participating in a community is so much fun and lurkers or those who just consume without engaging are really missing out, but also I hate seeing fan work creators getting treated like content farms. If you write or create art, nowadays that seems to define your fandom identity, it becomes your (unfair) barrier for participation and validation, and you're ostracized or forgotten and replaced if you can't continue to clear that hurdle for whatever reason. There never used to be this huge gulf between fandom creators and the other members, in my experience at least. It's like people now think they only have 2 options: be a creative person and provide a steady stream of free content (for an audience that expects/demands it from you) or mindlessly consume and only ever watch to the sidelines. But it's not true! Participate! Be a hype man! Curate your favorite fan content! Do something! Fandom is supposed to be more socialism, not capitalism! And maybe try to see the writers/artists as fellow fandom members first and content creators second. Like, you'd probably be frustrated too if people who you thought were your friends expected you to always be the only one to put in any effort to the relationship and then just ignore you if you asked for anything in return. It feels bad.

Nah, in a way I kinda feel the same. Sometimes I think I must be old because when I was younger and writing was primarily on quizilla/ff.net/LJ fics always used to have lots of comments, people would comment on each individual chapter and there were always bookmarks/faves etc.

In a way I want to say the shift in fandom has meant that people are more inclined to be lurkers now, or sites like tiktok/twt have made it easier for people to lurk. Or it could be that because there are more websites and years worth of content that it’s now easier to find fics and consume them mindlessly without worrying where you’re going to get your next fix.

But then there are sites like wattpad, and I know that everyone seems to hate wattpad for various reasons, but honestly I feel like the way their site works is ingenious. It gives people who read fics the ability to comment on each paragraph of the fic, enabling them to almost “live react” as they read through. And then you can still leave a little comment at the end or discuss in the comments with other readers/the author. And if you go on there now, you’ll see the sheer number of comments some fics have.

I also think that if you’re in a smaller/niche fandom you’re more likely to get more meaningful responses/engagement for your content. I used to write for Z Nation for example, which is an extremely small community and I got maybe 10-50 notes on a fic but more than half would be people commenting or simply interacting with me? Because people were grateful to find fics for their fave fandom? Whereas Bakugou there’s a million Bakugou fics so why should someone bother interacting with anyone when they can just scroll to the next one?

So it’s websites like that which make me think it’s partly that fandoms and the way we receive content has shifted, but I also think it’s people being selfish and ungrateful too. Because they just want to mindlessly consume and they don’t think about the living, breathing person behind the screen.

But for me personally, I’ve made some of my best friends by commenting on/reblogging their fics or just talking to them? So it’s like why wouldn’t you want to interact with people who are the same as you? Who enjoy the same things? Or why wouldn’t you want to do something so simple (and free) that could make someone’s day?

[ellzilla]

Not me reading "he doesn't miss his "dead" sister" and not thinking "what a sack of shit" but rather "Why?" Like I am now sitting her thinking about the psychology of these two siblings. Like wtf could make you not miss your dead sibling? But then when you think about it reallcthe extremely fucked up childhood experience they had and how it could have potentially effected them throughout their lives. like...yeah! No! That checks out! Him not missing his sister? Kinda checks out! And like not sure how close they were but it makes sense even more so if they weren't super close. Tbh I'm kind of surprised either of them even remembers the other exist. Im more surprised if Ella remembers him. Because that's a lot of trauma in one day and for CHILDREN no less? And it seems like they were pretty young at the time too so like I'm honestly not suprised. Shit that traumatic at a that age? Sounds about right. I started unintentionally analyzing these characters in order to answer my question and now Instead of 1 question I have like 20. In short I guess they are in my brain rent free now.

I have been staring at this for the past hour bc I've never had someone do such a deep dive of my characters before. But yes, basically! When they were kids, Ella was kinda emotionally distant from Elliot? Not because of anything wrong, just more focused on staring and examining toys or items n' such. If they had a few extra years together, they would have been close. Alas... Elliot very vaguely remembers Ella but that's it. He remembers his parents got murdered so it's only reasonable to him that she died as well n' he doesn't remember that part. He was only 8 when it happened! Ella was only 5!!!! She has no memory of him at all nor of the event that separated them. She just assumes she's always been with LJ bc that's all she remembers.

[lacepockets]

Honestly I miss LiveJournal's heyday. I miss it being basically the main "social media". The way things operated there is, in my opinion, ideal. Having a personal online journal, which you could make be readable to friends only, and joining communities you could read and post in separate from your journal... Why did we move away from this type of thing?

Like sure LJ is still there, some people (like 4) still use it. But it's nowhere near as ubiquitous as it once was. I think maybe tumblr is the closest thing that's still commonly used, but to be honest, it's not as great as LJ. Not nearly enough privacy/curation features and the sense of community is lacking.

idk I'm sad about it I just want her back :'(

[intimidating-fettuccine]

Where would some of the creeps take their s/o on their honeymoon? Any creep of choice is fine with me :D also hope you're doing okay and staying hydrated!

-flamingo anon

As a lil extra, click here for a link to LJ and his honeymoon Hope you’re also doing okay and staying high in moisture!

I hope you’re fine with this selection because I had a spinning wheel pick ‘em 

Jeff:

Italy. Don't ask me why, but Jeff just gives me the vibes of someone that would really like to go to Italy, especially with you by his side. The sights and the food are things that have been drawing him in for far too long, and I can absolutely see him dragging you around there. I think it would be a few weeks long, starting at the top of Northern Italy and going all the way down through Southern Italy as the two of you bounce around, hitting a bunch of different stops along the way. He loves the journey, but he loves it even more with you by his side, enjoying seeing your reactions to all of the different things the two of you come across together. To him, it doesn't exactly matter what the two of you are doing, so long as you have that wonderfully happy smile upon your face, Jeff is completely content with doing anything at all.

Eyeless Jack:

Somewhere quiet. Jack cannot stand people, especially in crowds, and he doesn't like highly trafficked areas. What I would recommend is taking him to stay in a nice little cottage for a few weeks, isolated from society, just spending time in each other's company, not having to worry about anything at all. He honestly really enjoys it, waking up in the peace and quiet of nature, curled up into your side, without any worries or stresses of having to go anywhere or do anything. It's nice for him, and the two of you pass your days in contentment together, enjoying the beautiful flora and fauna around you. It also gives you a bonus that animals are naturally drawn to Jack, so you can make a few more little animal friends while you're there. Something like that would be the perfect honeymoon in Jack's eyes. 

Helen:

France. After living in the Underworld for so many years, Helen would like to return back to his home country of France to take you on a tour of the country for your honeymoon. Whether you're familiar with the country or not, Helen makes the visiting trip quite entertaining and fun, showing you all of his favorite areas, and taking you to dine at his favorite restaurants, and time seems to fly by unfortunately fast for the two of you as you wander around French streets together. He never quite thought he'd truly miss France and just wanted to visit it for nostalgia's sake, but with you by his side, he finds himself wishing he didn't have to leave quite so soon. He reasons it's fine because, after all, he can always come back with you later when he wants some more true alone time with you, which neither of you will end up complaining about, content to be beside each other, focusing on each other.