Countdown to small gifts 1/6: Introductions

[smallgiftsmods]

Welcome to Small Gifts! Every year as we count down to December 1, we post some discussion questions so that you can get to know your fellow participants and watchers (and talk about R/S, of course!). We'll have one question a day through Sunday, and the festivities begin on Monday

Comments

Saying Hi!

[museinabsentia]

All right, I'll bite.

Hmm... how did I fall into this. That's probably a much longer story than needs to clutter up this feed, but the short of it is that I read the books as if this pairing were sub-content right from the first time I read them. It wasn't even a question in my mind. I had to get over that, obviously, but I sort of wandered my way into fandom many years later thanks to a random comment from my baby sister about a totally different fandom (more of that long story). I spent most of my time lurking, and I won't get into just how much time, or how many names I recognize from having seen their work for fear that I'll come across as creepy. Err... creepier.

As for this fest in general, I actually saw a posting for this years from mutuisanimis while at RS-Games and decided that a new fest was the best way to keep myself from running off and hiding and pretending that I had never worked up the nerve to finally join in. So a great big hi to everyone involved just for being wonderful and for making sure things like this have the

Re: Saying Hi!

[magnetic_pole]

Welcome, welcome! I think there's a strong RS Games contingent here, actually. (RS Games folks, are you out there?)

I also saw the subtext reading the books, and that seems to be a common experience for R/S shippers. :) Glad to meet you, M! M.

Re: Saying Hi!

[museinabsentia]

Glad to meet you, too! I love these fests. It's so nice to find other people who think along the same lines. I spent years feeling like a lost little duckling reading things into books that no one else I knew saw. I always wanted to shake people and be like, "how can you not see it?" but I didn't feel the need to call additional attention to my strange reading habits.

Re: Saying Hi!

[magnetic_pole]

And I love the fact that I can be really, really into things in fandom, and no one thinks it's weird. :)

In other words, not strange reading habits at all! M.

[nerak_rose]

i am primarily a writer! i do some art every now and then, but it's so little that it barely counts. i also read, of course! :D

this ship is one of those that it feels like i just always knew about. i'm not sure how to explain it, it's just, there's this ship and that's it, and as far as i'm concerned it's probably canon. but i didn't get into the fandom until 2010, when a friend linked me to some fics she'd been reading because she felt like re-reading a lot of old fandom stuff. i used to have the opinion that i wouldn't do lit-based fandoms, but i fell into it anyway... so here i am. :P

i don't write much R/S anymore outside of fests, which makes me a little sad tbh. i wish i did, but i also think part of the reason for that is the lack of new (canon) content. there's only so many times i can read the same variation on some canon thing, and while i LOVE AUs there doesn't seem to be a lot of them around? or is that just me?

[magnetic_pole]

I think here are a lot of us who write primarily for fests, now. While I loved the experience of waiting for new canon, fests have been another good way for me to generate that sense of...timeliness, if that's makes sense? Of enjoying something along with others.

What kind of art do you do? You rarely meet writers who make are, too! M.

[nerak_rose]

That makes a lot of sense. :) I'm glad the fests are still around.

Haha "what kind" :'D I'm not a very consistent artist. I don't have a fixed style. You can check out my dA here: http://karnerose.deviantart.com not a lot of fanart and lots of old photography (these days my photography skills are mainly displayed through Instagram...). Actually my photography style is the only thing that never changes for me, I'm pretty set when it comes to that. Everything else... Whatever comes to my mind. I tend to mix materials and styles and usually for me style and project go hand in hand so I might not reuse a style later... Idk I'm weird XD

[magnetic_pole]

Wow, I'm really impressed by your art! It takes a lot of skill to capture a familiar face.

Nice to see you again, N! M.

[huldrejenta]

I stumbled upon HP fandom a few years ago more or less by accident, mostly because I'd fallen in love with Remus and wanted to read more about him. I loved the bond between Remus and Sirius when reading the books, and fandom has made me love them as a pairing even more. I've also grown to know and love Sirius more and more through the years - Remus was my first love, but now I honestly couldn't choose between them :)

I love reading about them, and like nerak_rose I love AUs. It's exciting to explore what these guys would be like in another setting, with different challenges, yet remaining true to their canon selves. But I also keep getting impressed by how writers find new and fresh ways to tell stories from canon.

Unfortunately, I'm a rather slow writer and not particularly prolific, and I'm so glad these fests are around to push me into writing R/S, to find a lot of great entries to enjoy, and saying hello to other R/S shippers :)

[cevennes]

AUs are just the best (especially the AUs where no one dies, ever!), and I love how this fandom can throw these two into practically any setting and still make me love them. It's astounding!

I love how you describe falling for Remus, too! He's such a bit of brightness in the third book, you just want to roll him up in a blanket and feed him soup. I'm super happy there are fests like these around to spread the love, and so many incredible people who ship it. (I am still reading through your r/s games work and it is SO GOOD. So, so looking forward to seeing your piece here!)

Re: Introductions

[huldrejenta]

I agree, AUs where no one dies are wonderful :)

And yes, Remus and Sirius work so incredibly well in all sorts of worlds and settings! I'm not into AUs to the same extent as with these two when it comes to other pairings, really. Remus and Sirius are such wonderful characters regardless of their surroundings :)

I love how you describe falling for Remus, too! He's such a bit of brightness in the third book, you just want to roll him up in a blanket and feed him soup.

That's a perfect description! <3

Thank you, and goodness, I'm returning the compliment, and then some, as I completely and totally loved and adored your fic for RS Games! (I recced it over on crack_broom, in case you haven't seen it - I would like everyone to read your story <3

[magnetic_pole]

I've also grown to know and love Sirius more and more through the years - Remus was my first love, but now I honestly couldn't choose between them

Me, too. :) I think I asked about this a couple of years ago in these discussion posts, and quite a few of us had been drawn in my Remus but fallen in love with Sirius along the way. Not too much movement in the other direction, though--which is interesting.

Great to see you again, H! M.

[cevennes]

I've loved HP since I was pretty young, but growing up, Prisoner of Azkaban was always my favorite book, and Remus and Sirius were a big part of why! I guess I've always shipped these two the way you might ship Molly and Arthur Weasley, or James and Lily, in that they just were--but I didn't give it a whole lot of thought until I re-read the books early this year and it hit me HARD. Then I started reading and writing fanfic and drooling over fanart and, man, I am in deep; in a lot of ways, I still feel like I've hardly scratched the surface. They really do hit every button I've got.

It's amazing to ship something that's popular enough to warrant fests like this! I don't have anything else that even comes close, so this sort of thing is really a treat for me, to get to see so many incredible pieces in one place. I can't wait to see what everyone does, it's going to be the best. ♥

[magnetic_pole]

It's amazing to ship something that's popular enough to warrant fests like this!

Hurrah for critical fandom mass!

So 2014's the first year for you, hm? So exciting! Are R/S your first ship generally, or have you been in other fandoms?

Welcome! M.

[cevennes]

They're definitely not my first ship, but they are absolutely one of my favorites! I've mostly hung around tiny femslash contingents in video game fandoms in the past, which are basically like a speck of sand on a beach; there's more R/S fic on AO3 alone than entire fandoms I've been in, and nothing else I ship has amazing fests like this! It makes me really happy to know so many people love these two and keep creating such awesome things; I can't wait to see all the pieces here!

Thanks so much for the welcome!!

[mindabbles]

Welcome 100 times over! It is so exciting that people are still joining in. Your presence makes it feel fresh again. I think you'll find many around these parts who favor PoA. :) I love it, too. Not only for the R/S content, but for the way the series shifts there. I always saw it as the crescendo to the end really begins. This is the first one where there is nothing like a tidy ending. So welcome again to the fandom and we're so glad that these two are still generating interest.

[laroseminuit]

Hello everyone!

R/S was one of the first pairings I ever encountered after I discovered the joy of fanfiction ... over a decade ago, oh god suddenly I feel very old. I remembered feeling like there was quite a bit of unspoken backstory/subtext in the books, and R/S made sense of it all.

I've always been more of a reader than a creator in fanfic (and my art is strictly fiber-art based), and I actually don't do much fanfic writing at all any more, but the Small Gifts community is so wonderful and fun and welcoming (and nostalgia-inducing) that I eagerly await it every year, as both a reader and a participant.

[mutuisanimis]

*high-five* for fiber-based art ^_^

[magnetic_pole]

Aw, yay for annual homecomings! Really nice to see you again, L.

I love the fact that every year I find stories and ideas I'd never thought of before, even after all these years! There's always something new around the corner... M.

[mindabbles]

Oh, thank you for saving some of your writing mojo for here. I'm feeling pretty nostaligic myself, and it is thrilling to see so many old familiars and so many new people, too. That's what makes this fun year after year.

One year, I believe someone contributed a fiber-based craft that was quite a hit. :)