switchbladeeyes | Entries tagged with fandom snowflake challenge

From

snowflake_challenge: Talk about an unexpected joyous moment you experienced last year.

Last year, I tried fresh oysters for the first time. It turns out that I love them. Mr. SwitchbladeEyes and I eat mostly plant-based, but we will have seafood very occasionally, particularly when we visit the coast. We jaunted out to the coast for his birthday last year to an area where oysters are cultivated, learned a ton about the process of farming them (super interesting!), and both tried fresh oysters for the first time--both raw and BBQ’d.

Never having had fresh oysters before, I had no idea what to expect. Oh my! Turns out they are delicious! We sampled some that were local to the immediate area, and some that had been cultivated a few hours further north. It was interesting to discover they tasted different because of the different conditions in the water. Since then, we’ve visited the coast a couple more times and enjoyed sampling some fresh oysters each time.

snowflake_challenge #14 was to create your own challenge. That generated a bunch of participant-created challenges. In this post, I respond to some of those challenges.

( Cut because of the length... )

From

snowflake_challenge: In your own space, create your own fandom challenge.

Ooh, this is a fun one! This is going to lead to a proliferation of challenges from comments at

snowflake_challenge. I plan to look through those comments and reply to some of those participant-created challenges in a separate post.

Meanwhile, for my own idea, how about this: What is a fanwork you'd like to see? Maybe it's something you've dabbled with. Or you've thought about it, but are coming up blank. Or it's a medium you enjoy seeing but don't personally create with. Make a post in your journal about a fanwork you'd enjoy seeing. For all you know, someone may create it, know where to find it, or chat with you about their thoughts on the idea.

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My response: "Schanke Lives!"

In the Forever Knight (FK) fandom, I've had a persistent itch to read fic in which Schanke lives beyond season 2, and the season 3 characters are also still present. I would love to see a fanwork that tackles that. (I mean, I'm sure this exists somewhere in the sea of thousands of FK fics. Feel free to point me to it if you know. There's always room for more though.)

These are my thoughts on the subject: even though FK's lack of adherence to its own canon sometimes makes me a little nutty when I watch the show, that could be a strength here. Maybe Schanke (and maybe also Cohen) had to go into hiding for some kind of witness protection reasons and never got on that fateful plane flight (sure, their bodies were identified among the plane crash victims in "Black Buddha," but, well, canon schmanon). Ooooh, thinking off the cuff here, maybe evidence of their bodies was somehow falsified for witness protection purposes. Or maybe Schanke didn't get on the plane because he was kidnapped (why? IDK, we'll figure that part out later lol). Or maybe not any of that, and his plane just never blew up; a different plane blew up. Schanke (and Cohen) could move, be reassigned, quit the police force, whatever. Or maybe they carry on as before, but the new police force characters have different roles than depicted in season 3. Or maybe "Black Buddha" never happened and we get introduced to the new characters of season 3 in a different way with a different case.

Any of my fellow FK fans feel like there's some potential here with "Schanke Lives!"?

From

snowflake_challenge: Create a Rec Countdown

This is a fun one! A countdown of "things I like, and maybe you might like them too."

Five fiction books:

The Square of Sevens: family intrigue, mystery, twisty, historical setting.

All Systems Red: Murderbot would rather be watching soap operas than saving your ass, but it will still save your ass.

Hench: when you're a temp working for a supervillain.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built: a future world that is kind and gentle.

Remarkably Bright Creatures: giant Pacific octopus solves mystery of family tragedy.

Four non-fiction books:

Quiet: a book about the power of introverts.

Die with Zero: the purpose of money is not to have money (made me think a lot, but it does have flaws).

The Splendid and the Vile: happenings during Winston Churchill's first year as Prime Minister.

The Poison Squad: history of food safety regulation in the United States (more interesting than it sounds, don't read while eating).

Three comedy shows:

Ted Lasso: don't know anything about soccer? No problem.

Acapulco: I dream of visiting a fictional Mexican resort in the 80s.

Parks and Rec: especially hilarious for anyone who has ever worked in government.

Two sci fi shows:

The Expanse: realistic, dark, but I think humanity is gonna make it.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds: maybe it will have a Klingon boy band, maybe a main character will commit murder, you just never know which it's gonna be.

One podcast:

Pop Culture Happy Hour: breezy, fun, not too long.

From

snowflake_challenge: In your own space, create a fanwork.

This was a fun one last year!

I saw so many interesting creations last year, including someone who was building a diorama/miniature of a room related to their fandom. So creative!

I myself stuck with writing fic. It's what I like. So I'm doing that again this year.

For the new visitors to this journal, I write in the "Forever Knight" fandom. I think all you need to know is that these characters are vampires who have lived many, many centuries and irritate one another. They're pictured in the icon on this post.

I keep docs with random scenes, fragments of scenes, ideas, notes, quotes, and questions that perhaps will someday inspire something or make it into a story. It is quite a hodgepodge. One such part of the collection is the following:

Nick and tent revivalist church. Early 20th. Great Depression? American south. It’s summer. Hot. Dusty. Humid. LaCroix being LaCroix. Would LaCroix wear a boater hat? Seersucker? “Priests and preachers, shamans and saints. You’ve always been drawn to them.” Conversation between Nick and LC.

I worked a bit last night to flesh it out. Then some more this morning. There's no real story here, just a little scene that I plunk you in the middle of without much context. Could fit well within a character flashback someday if I ever figure out what the story is. Here we go...

( Nick and LaCroix in a familiar pattern. )

From

snowflake_challenge: In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for a beloved character, relationship or fandom.

First of all, an aside. The post about this on the Snowflake Challenge says, "Seems like we all spend a considerable chunk of our fandom time trying to convince loved ones, friends and total randos alike that our blorbo is in fact the best."

Blorbo?? What is this word? Well, the internet tells me that it means, "A fictional character or celebrity of whom one is especially fond."

Blorbo. A new, awesome word added to my vocabulary. Not sure how often I'll get a chance to use it, but I'm glad it's there.

Annnnnnyhoo, I have an embarassment of ~~riches~~ blorbos. But since this journal is mostly for me to nerd out about "Forever Knight," I shall focus this challenge on Nick Knight. For the 2-4 people that follow along my journal fairly regularly, Nick needs no introduction. So this is for participants of the big ol’ fandom mixer that is the Snowflake Challenge.

Meet Nick:

Not bad, huh? 😏

Nick is a night shift homicide detective fighting crime on the mean streets of Toronto in the 1990s. Also, he’s a nealy 800 year old vampire.

Yep, vampire cop. Try not to overthink this.

Nick is the main protagonist of the show “Forever Knight.” While he’s the hero of the in the show’s present day, he wasn’t always that way. He’s made some poor life choices and spent centuries hunting down and murdering humans. As one does. If one is a bloodsucking undead creature of the night.

Nick feels pretty bad about all that murder though. His major guilt complex drives most of his actions in the modern day. He is highly repentant, trying to live a better life and do good in the world.

His ultimate aim is to regain his humanity, and to that end, he tries to live like a human and works toward a cure for vampirism with dear friend and major source of UST, Dr. Natalie Lambert. She's of the few humans who knows what he really is.

Though he keeps his nature hidden from them, he also has close relationships with his human partners on the police force. First, Don Schanke (pronounced "skanky," and no, I have no idea why the ever loving hell that choice was made), and then later, Tracy Vetter.

Despite his aversion to vampirism, he still uses his vampire abilities (flight, speed, strength, hypnosis) regularly. He also associates with other vampires, most notably Janette and LaCroix; the three of them spent centuries living as a kind of family. Janette is a confidant, and "on again, off again" paramour. She's also the coolest vampire on the show (I said what I said). LaCroix is the vampire who turned Nick into a vampire. He’s an asshole, but he gets all the best lines. And Nick is definitely his blorbo.

Nick is just a fun character. A brooding vampire protagonist with a violent and checkered past, who, in the present, is a kind person and has a sense of humor. And while he tries to make choices that are "good" or "right," the world isn't always that black and white even if he wishes it were. These complexities make him incredibly interesting. It's cool to see what fans do with him in fic, playing with the different worlds he's living in.

The show's opening credits explain the show's entire premise and what Nick's deal is. If you're so inclined, enjoy.

Thanks for coming to my ~~TED~~ Blorbo Talk.

From

snowflake_challenge: Share your favorite piece of original canon.

I'm going to hit on some from several media I enjoy or have enjoyed in the past. (A post that's not just "Forever Knight," shocking.)

These are amongst my favorites. I'm not sure I have single favorites from any of these.

Forever Knight: I love LaCroix's backstory. From being a powerful Roman general as a human to being turned into a vampire by his adolescent daughter while his human world was being destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, whew, fucked up. I think his backstory explains a lot about him.

Oz: Jefferson Keane's entire story arc in season 1 is one of my favorite things in the show. His transformation from ruthless, hardened criminal who has committed horrible acts to a peaceful man who becomes the victim of a grave injustice (and he still finds peace in that) is amazing. Perhaps even more remarkable is that the show did it all in only 4 episodes.

Sherlock Holmes: "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is a truly eery story. There's a scene where Dr. Watson and Henry Baskerville are out on the moor a night. They hear a howl rise and die on the wind before falling silent in the dark. At that moment, it seems perhaps the story of the legendary hound reputed to have hunted and haunted Sir Henry's family could be true. Sir Henry's dread in that scene is palpable as he realizes laughing about the idea of the legend while safely in London is quite a different thing from being out on the cold, dark moor and hearing that howl. I get skin pricklies every time I read it.

Shrinking: The moment when Jimmy finally admits to Paul that he's not okay and needs help. Throughout the show, it's been clear that Jimmy needs therapy yet is resistant or in denial (despite he himself being a therapist). I was really worried he was going to fall into his unhealthy, destructive patterns again, and so relieved and proud of him when he sought out his mentor Paul instead.

Highlander: It's been an age and a half since I've seen the show. My recall of the canon is fuzzy in many places, but one thing I distinctly recall is the revelation that Methos was once a very, very bad guy. AND, he had horribly wronged another character, Cassandra. I remember it being shocking, especially with the uncertainty of whether maybe he could be that villain again. I gotta eventually rewatch this show.

Ted Lasso: So many moments, but one stand out is when Rebecca confesses to Ted all the underhanded things she has done to see that Ted and the team fail because her horrible ex loved the team. Ted doesn't even hesitate to forgive her, he's not even angry because he has great compassion for her and understands how hard divorce can be. It's just a great scene.

MASH: Another one I haven't seen in ages that had so many incredible moments. One that has always stood out to me is when Margaret, whose disciplined and stoic demeanor is like armor in the chaos of the war, breaks down when a dog she had been feeding gets run over and killed by a jeep. It's like her armor was built to protect her from all the human tragedy, but with the unexpected death of that dog, tragedy finally gets to her.

Supernatural: The entire episode "Fan Fiction." While the show can be serious and even scary, it also can be very tongue in cheek and meta about itself. Sam and Dean discover high school students have written a musical about their lives. It's absolutely hilarious while still fitting with the "monster of the week" format of the show. Not gonna lie, "A Single Man Tear" gets sung on the regular at the Casa de SwitchbladeEyes.

I think that's all that immediately comes to mind. I'm sure there are many others. It was fun to think about this!

From

snowflake_challenge: Since this is the start of a new year, this challenge will be to set your own goals!

As with last year, I’ll use this opportunity to set fic writing goals. Last year, I had two goals, which I met. This year, I’m setting a whopping three goals.

1. Contribute to

fkficfest. So much fun. Last year was my first time writing for this. I loved this fest, both reading and writing.

2. Contribute to

spook_me. Last year was also my first time writing for this. Super fun and low pressure! IDK if I will be able to top plopping a colossal tentacle monster on a major landmark, but dammit, I'll try.

3. Finish my “Forever Knight” fic that addresses what ever happened to child vampire Daniel. I made a lot of progress on this last year and I think finishing it this year will be doable.

Fandom

snowflake_challenge is back! I may not do all the challenges, but certainly expect to participate in some. It's fun, like a light, fannish cocktail party.

Today's prompt is: In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

Funny enough, I was thinking about this last night because I stumbled across a post by

pj1228 about it having been 30 years since discovering “Forever Knight” (FK) back in 1994. That's also when I discovered it! Somehow this show about a vampire detective with a major guilt complex would become my gateway to fandom a couple years later.

Summer of 1996, prob July or August, I got the internet. And with it, I discovered FK fandom. I distinctly recall stumbling across the #foreverknight chat room on IRC. (everything old eventually becomes new again because Discord reminds me a lot of IRC). I asked, “Other people watched this show?” because I’d never met anyone else who watched it! I had found my people.

From there, I discovered fan fiction and the FK mailing lists. I had a lot of fun, went to my first con where I got to meet other fans in person, and wrote my first fan fiction ever. I want to say I was in the fandom until 1999-2000-ish.

Anyway, I participated in several fandoms after that until around 2008/2009-ish. Then life got busy and I stopped participating alltogether. In 2023, I had a fit of nostalgia for the 90s, discovered AO3, and hastily wrote an FK fan fic. From there, I was delighted in to discover FK fandom was still around. I got sucked back in and it’s been a lot of fun and a wonderful creative outlet! I’ve really enjoyed the chance to once again interact with other fans. So FK was both my introduction and reintroduction to the world of fandom :-)

From

snowflake_challenge:

Fandom Snowflake Challenge's 2023 Fandom Wrapped!

Your top 5 fandoms for 2023 were:

Your top 5 fandom spaces (Discord, Twitter, etc.) in 2023 were:

The top 5 things you did to contribute to fandom in 2023 were:

Your top 5 most appreciated fandom contributions were:

Bonus questions:

Your fandom personality in 2023 was: (i.e. Fandom Eeyore, Twitter Refugee, Discord Party Animal, etc.)

In 2023, you discovered: (that you adore hockey RPF, but you hate the Liberty Mutual emu, etc.)

Your fandom home in 2023 was: (Bluesky, Mastodon, Middle Earth, lying in my bed, with a good book, etc.)

Sooooooo... since I only got back into fandom last year after some 15-ish years away from it, I don't really have 5 for most of these things.

( Thus, mostly shorter lists for me. )

From

snowflake_challenge: Make a rec list of fanworks!

I have a tag for my fan fiction recs, which are all currently recs of Forever Knight stories.

Separately, here is a list some fan vid recs:

Oz vid: Love Me Dead. The song is both dark and kind of funny. The vid really nails the toxic hot mess that is Beecher/Keller.

Forever Knight vid: Bad. I'd never heard this song until I saw this vid. It definitely captures the vicious side of our favorite vampire baddie, Lucien LaCroix.

Peaky Blinders vid: Bad. Yes, it’s the same song as above. YouTube was all, maybe you’d like this too? And yes, yes I did. A look at violent gang leader Thomas Shelby and his equally violent brothers.

From

snowflake_challenge: In your own space, create a fanwork.

Sure, why not.

I've mentioned before that I often write out scenes that play out in my head that are untethered to any story. Maybe I'll use them at some point, maybe I won't. I like to get them out of the brain and onto the virtual page. Frees up bandwidth.

So, this morning, in response to Fandom Snowflake Challenge's latest prompt, I jotted down a Forever Knight scene in which there are some kind of consequences for Nick following the events of the episode "Capital Offense." The lack of consequences for his terrible behavior made me kind of bananas.

Mind, this is quite rough and will read as a bit of an incomplete thought. There's no plot, no story, just a scene rather hastily written down.

( Close the door, Knight. )

From

snowflake_challenge: Five Things! The five things are totally up to you.

Up to me, you say?

Well, here are five earworms. #SorryNotSorry

1. Po-TAY-toes
2. Pickwick Triplets
3. This version of Banana Phone
4. Baby Shark (of course, for you Ted Lasso fans, it’s Jamie Tartt)
5. Mahna Mahna

Because there is apparently karma in the universe, the “O’Reilly Auto Parts” jingle just came on the radio while I was finishing this post and will now be in my head all day.

From

snowflake_challenge: Talk about a current fannish project (fic, art, vid, crochet, funko pop village) (that you are creating or enjoying)

I have several Forever Knight fan fiction projects that I tinker with here and there, but one specifically that I've put a lot of work into, and yet finishing it has eluded me. I keep torching my drafts to the ground because they just haven't been quite right.

( It's the elusive Daniel fic that I can't let go. )

From

snowflake_challenge: IceBreaker Challenge! Tell us about yourself.

It's pretty much all fannish things around here, but here are some miscellaneous "about me" facts:

She/her.

From the United States. Still here. West coast.

Undergrad degree in Classics. Professional degree in Law (yes, I practice, which probably sounds more interesting than it is).

First got the internet in 1996.

Two cats. Mildly allergic to them. Allergist said I don't have to stop scooping them up and planting my face in their bellies though. Good. Can't stop, won't stop.

Married to husband for 12+ years.

Lifelong history nerd.

Complete sucker for period dramas.

Love to garden.

Big fan of audiobooks.

Random assortment of more current shows I'm into but not particularly "fannish" about: "Cobra Kai," "Gilded Age," "Stranger Things," "House of the Dragon," "Severance," "Slow Horses," "Bridgerton," "All Creatures Great and Small," "Hotel Portofino," "Call the Midwife," "Strange New Worlds," "Ted Lasso," "Last of Us," "Doctor Who," "Evil," and "Somebody Somewhere."

Not a follower of sports, but will watch the Olympics and enjoy attending live games on occasion.

Don't like to bake but like to watch baking competition shows.

Absolutely refuse to iron things.

Love to dine out.

Wordle every single morning (longest streak for solving within 6 turns: 33 days).

Pescatarian (eat vegetarian 95% of the time though).

Currently reading: "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" by V. E. Schwab and "Emperor of Rome" by Mary Beard.

Just finished reading: "System Collapse" (Murderbot Diaries #7) by Martha Wells.

Favorite board game: Ticket to Ride (prepare to be crushed by my mighty train empire!)

Lifelong Star Trek fan (though not of every iteration).

Enjoy turn-based strategy video games. Not so much real-time games of any kind (exception: Red Dead Redemption 2).

Favorite podcasts: "Rex Factor" (reviewing the kings and queens of England and Scotland across history); "Saga Thing" (reviewing Icelandic sagas and discussing the history and culture of medieval Iceland); "LeVar Burton Reads" (like Reading Rainbow for grown-ups); "Great Detectives of Old Time Radio" (classic detective radio dramas, I'm primarily a fan of the super fun "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"); and "Unfuck Your Brain" (unpacking head trash for women).

Very much enjoy attending live plays and musicals.

That's all that occurs to me at the moment. If there's something in particular you'd like to know, you can always ask :-)

From

snowflake_challenge: Create a wish list of fandom things (podfic, graphics, playlists, canon recs translations, research help, vids, sky's the limit!) that you'd like to receive.

EDITED TO ADD: OMG, wish effectively granted!! raine discovered the zine could be bought on eBay (didn’t even occur to me to look there, I’ve rarely used the site). I ordered it and should have it January 16-ish! *throwing confetti*

I don't want for much in the teeny-tiny little bits of fandom in which I find myself. Pretty happy with it all. Nice people. No drama. A+.

So my wish "list" is really just one thing. I've commented on it before, but I figure

snowflake_challenge presents me the opportunity to get a broader reach.

I am looking for someone who has a copy of a 2002 Highlander zine called "A Kind of Magic" and who would be willing to scan or take pictures of a story in it.

The story is the last of my "lost" fan fiction. I have not been able to find my copy of the zine, which I suspect didn't make in one of my many moves over the past 22 years. I do not have an electronic version of the story.

Mayhaps the (princes of the) universe shall smile upon me this time!

Cover of the zine looks like this:

From

snowflake_challenge: In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.

I'll stick to fannish stuff here since that's really the raison d'être of this entire journal.

I touched on this in the "2023 Fic Year in Review" post, but I only really have two writing goals this year:

1. Contribute to

fkficfest when that happens.

2. Finish my FK “five things” story.

That's it.

I am targeting the end of January to finish the FK "five things" story in time for

trope_of_the_month's offer of amnesty this month. But I'm not sure that time frame is even really a "goal," considering I told

thefruitbat "if I don't finish by the end of January, it's fine." (I'm over halfway there, so I'm actually optimistic.)

I do have a few other stories in progress, but whether I will finish them this year... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I will get there when I get there.

I also have a bunch of scenes I have written that are untethered to any story. They just played out in my head, plot-free, but interesting enough to write down. Maybe they’ll find “homes” in 2024. Anyone else do this? Just write out random scenes that pop into your brain?

So I guess I’m not so much a “goal-oriented” fic writer, but more of a “shiftless dreamer-oriented” fic writer. (Autocorrect wanted that to be “shirtless” dreamer lol.)