Snowflake Challenge - Day 1

Slowly catching up on the things I want to be doing, as well as the things i should be doing.

snowflake_challengeDay 1

In your own space, talk about your Happy Place—the things that give you joy, calms you or keeps you sane. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Like many, I can't say that my 'happy place' is exactly a place. I like my home, and I tend to love curling up in blankets with cups of tea - especially on cold and rainy days - but I would have to say that the place I retreat to when the world gets to be too much to handles is fandom.

More specifically, Magic Knight Rayearth.

It's a tiny little fandom. Many of the active fans know or know of one another. I've been drifting in and out for nearly two decades, and I run a little forum dedicated to the series. It's quieter now than it was when it first started, but I keep the lights on, because there are still people who like visiting.

I love all of the friends I have made over the years because of this tiny little fandom. So far, I have met seven of them in person, I would happily meet more. Many of us disagree on pairings and like different characters, but most of us get along just fine despite that. We're too small of a fandom for proper shipping wars. But this also makes it a quiet place to retreat to. Friendly faces, and a few comfort fics to read.

No matter what other fandoms distract me, or pull me away, it's a place I'll probably keep returning to for the rest of my life.

Snowflake Challenge - Day 2

snowflake_challenge Day 2

Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I don't read very many fandoms, so here are a few Harry Potter fics that have made me happy this past year. In order from shortest to longest.

A Store of Happiness by coyotesuspect Sirius/Remus - G 10845 words
Harry spends the summer after his third year living with Sirius and Professor Lupin.

Rec note:
Mostly, this one just made me giggle. Especially with Sirius and Remus trying to keep their relationship a secret - badly.


What We Pretend We Can't See by gyzym Draco/Harry - M 131,086 words
Seven years out from the war, Harry learns the hard truth of old history: it’s never quite as far behind you as you thought.

Rec note:
This is a fic I have reread multiple times this past year. It's just... It's a fic I want to hug for hours. I think the best description of it is in the Notes: "It features all of my favorite things: gratuitous depictions of cooking, at least one character who is clinically incapable of shutting his mouth, and borderline-unhealthy drinking partaken of by 20-somethings whose lives aren’t quite what they thought they were going to be, somehow."

I have it saved to my kindle, and I plan to keep it there.


Oh God Not Again! by Sarah1281 Basically Gen - G 150,731 words
So maybe everything didn't work out perfectly for Harry. Still, most of his friends survived, he'd gotten married, and was about to become a father. If only he'd have stayed away from the Veil, he wouldn't have had to go back and do everything AGAIN.

Rec note:
This fic is glorious. I found it because there was a post on tumblr going around about it, and it lived up to the hype. Harry accidentally goes back in time and wakes up on his eleventh birthday with all his memories still intact. It's also basically a glorious fix-it for Sirius's death (mysterious disappearance through the veil), as well as fixing a number of the things that I found annoying about the books. Harry claims his future knowledge comes from his psychic scar, which annoys Hermione SO MUCH, and Luna totally believes him about being from the future, because of course she does.

Snowflake Challenge - Day 3

snowflake_challenge Day 3

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

One of the most wonderful additions to canon that CLAMP has written for Rayearth are hidden in little short omake bits at the ends of the Scenario Collection (script books for the second half of the anime series). It gives you more details into the characters personalities.

Things like the advisor who sings karaoke to let off steam, the brooding character who turns into a hug monster when he has a little bit of alcohol, or how one character knows where the other keeps his lockpicks (and that he liked to use them to eat cake with when in need of other utensils).