Authors are now revealed, so you can link to your fic, repost it, and talk about it wherever you like. We had a really great exchange this year - with 24 fics for only 12 people signed up, everyone wrote their hearts out!

I hope the whole fandom had a great time, and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible back next year for Biggles Holiday Airdrop 2026.

Challenge #13

TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

There are so many great communities here on dreamwidth, such as fancake, and so many others I could tout. But today I want to talk about socialshakespeare, a community that does audio-only cold readings of Shakespeare plays each month (*also a general note: the Shakespeare fandom on Tumblr is just fantastic, with amazing analysis and discourse).

I have not participated in a socialshakespeare reading yet, because: (a) time constraints; (b) utter lack of voice-acting talent; and (c) I'm chicken. But it's such a great, fun concept, and they often choose plays that are a bit more neglected -- performed less, not always on Shakespeare class syllabi, etc., which is cool. Here is a more detailed description of the community and here are the guidelines, with links to complete rules and expectations. Each month they announce the new play and there are sign-ups for which character part you want to read. They also post surveys so people can vote on the next play.

Maybe someday I will participate, lol. But for now, I'm passing the info along for others who might be interested because it sounds like so much fun.

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Introduction Post*
Meet the Mods Post
Challenge #1 * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4 * Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 * Challenge #7 * Challenge #8 * Challenge #9 * Challenge #10 * Challenge #11 * Challenge #12


Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #13 )

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.



<a href="https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/"><img src="https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/12/28/sfc2.png" alt="two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text" border="0"></a>

Who's ready to rumble?

Signups are open until Friday 30 January Sunday 1 February. [ In your timezone + Countdown ]

You can sign up at the collection; you can view the tagset for our approved canons and relationships. Please read this post to ensure that your sign-up complies with the exchange's guidelines!

View what's been requested on the AO3 app!

Sign-up reminders

• You must be 18+ to sign up.


• An AO3 account is required to sign-up/participate. Please sign up with one account only. If we find you have signed up with more than one, your additional sign-ups will be deleted and you may be banned from the exchange.


• A reminder of the mediums and minimum requirements of the exchange:
  
  • Fic: 3,000 words minimum.
    
  • Comics: 10 panels minimum.
    
  • Podfic: A recording of a completed fic of 3,000 words minimum with "casefic" as one of its tags.


• There is a known bug with AO3 where the tag may be in the tagset but might not appear in the drop-down menu. Copy the relationship from the tagset and paste it into the box (press enter afterwards). AO3 will accept this.


• Please provide prompts in the Optional Details as to what kind of work you'd like to receive. This box has been marked as required.


• If your sign-up breaks any of our rules, we may contact you to request edits made to your sign-up. If we do not receive a response, we will delete your sign-up.


• Sign-ups made in bad faith will be deleted without contacting the recipient. This exchange has been designed to be an enjoyable community event.


• Please do not put any notes to the mod in your Optional Details. Contact gumshoeagency@gmail.com as all requests and information you input in your sign-up is public.


• If you are not matched to what you offered, please contact the mod immediately at gumshoeagency@gmail.com within a week of assignments being sent out. We will only change your assignment once after assignments have been sent out.

( Requesting and offering. )

( Do not wants (DNWs). )

( Dear Creator letters. )

( Do not match requests. )

( Prompts. )

( Additional things worthy of note. )

If you have any questions, please ask them here or email Commissioner Clawseau at gumshoeagency@gmail.com. We're excited that the agency is open for its second year!

Went to cinema yesterday to see The History of Sound. I saw a review of it months ago, when I think it was doing rounds at festivals, that suggested it was a bit dry. I didn't find it dry as such, but did feel it did some jumps between its various time periods that I struggled to follow. And perhaps both main characters, Lionel and David, could have done with a little more depth. But it was good enough to spend a Saturday early evening with.

Earlier this month, the local Vue showed Labyrinth as a 30th anniversary special, and I went to see it. I wasn't entirely sure if I'd ever seen it before, and I was warned that it might seem a bit creepy. And yes, parts of it are creepy, but I found it better and more imaginative than I had expected. David Bowie's goblin king, looking very much like an 1980s big-hair rockstar, looked rather incongruous, which probably goes on to show how certain things feel dated sooner than others.

On BBC iPlayer, rather than at cinema, I watched the 1974 Murder on the Orient Express, which I thought I must have seen before, and where the investigating seemed to be proceeding at a rather snappier pace than I remember from the book or the 2017 film.

Also on BBC iPlayer, rewatched The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert for the first time in years and found it still so good.

Finally, on BFI Player, Eismayer, an Austrian film about a closeted army trainer whose life changes when he meets an openly gay young soldier.

I'm sure that I must have read or been told this long ago, but I didn't take it fully on board until recently. The BOTW Hero of the Wilds armor (outfit) is the Zelda '86 garb. And we're meant to know that. The elevator pitch for BOTW must have been: "What if the very first game, but with everything today's systems can offer and fans have come to love?"

It dawned on me 400+ hours into The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as I ran out of ways to delay confronting the Calamity and saying goodbye. When I personally earned the "Hero of the Wilds" outfit and began leveling it up, it hit me. The Wilds set -- green cap, green tunic, brown long-sleeved shirt and short trousers -- is the ultimate tangible reward for exploring (beating all 120 base-game shrines), specifically described in-game as "the warrant of the true hero," "meant for a hero who travels the wild lands," "just your size," "wearing it just feels so right," etc. etc. With the DLC and amiibos, I have found sets for some other distinctive Link outfits from the other games. Their descriptions are not like this. The others emphasize the specific ancient hero who sailed the seas, or battled the twilight, who is not you, the player character in BOTW. This set is in the base game, not bonus material, and it is explicitly for you, you who have traveled the wild lands, just like the first Link from 1986. (Also, this is the only set that can be leveled up as high as the knight's set. The knight is who the Hero of the Wilds was in the pre-Calamity past; traveling the wild lands is who he is in the post-Calamity present.)

Naturally, of course, one game does not replace the other! Both are on the timeline (cough). BOTW is explicitly and provably long after all the others. And Zelda '86 is known, I believe, to be set wholly in the foothills of the Eldin region, less than a quarter of known Hyrule, aside from all the infinite other differences. But. Both are set in a fallen society, where the surviving people hide from roaming monsters, and Link must search and search and search for how to help bring it the peace to begin to repair itself and emerge from its darkness.

And he does. ♥ Well, if you beat the games. Which I did not do as a child on a relative's console in the '80s, for sure. But will do soon, now.

And nominations are closed! Thank you to everyone who nominated, transferred nominations, and picked up errors (some my own)!

This is the only time that we'll have to review the tagset and fix any errors. Please let me know if you see any typos, wandering tags, duplicate fandoms or tags, and anything else that's a bit fishy.

*

Our final nomination queries for this round:

All Media Types + Related Fandoms
Can the nominator(s) please clarify the specific canon they're after? We do not accept "All Media Types" and "Related Fandoms" without a case being made.

Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
Aslan & Caspian (Narnia)
Aslan & Eustace Scrubb
Aslan & Lucy Pevensie
Aslan & Susan Pevensie
Caspian & Edmund Pevensie
Edmund Pevensie & Lucy Pevensie & Peter Pevensie & Susan Pevensie
Edmund Pevensie & Peter Pevensie
Edmund Pevensie & Susan Pevensie

Are you wanting the books, TV Show, musical, or films? Rejected as I haven't heard from the nominator.

Les Misérables - All Media Types
Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables)
Grantaire & Jean Prouvaire

Are you wanting the movie, novel, or musical? Rejected as I haven't heard from the nominator.

The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Gríma Wormtongue/Théodred (LOTR)

Are you after the novels or movies? Sorted!

Transformers - All Media Types
Any Decepticon Character
Drift | Deadlock/Perceptor
Impactor/Springer (Transformers)
Megatron/Rodimus | Rodimus Prime
Optimus Prime/Ratchet
Ratchet/First Aid
Rung & Whirl (Transformers)

Are you after the Michael Bay or animated movies, video games, or novels? Rejected as I haven't heard from the nominator.

These nominations will be rejected if I do not hear back from the nominator(s) in 12 hours. [ In your timezone. ] (Yes, it's meant to be in Sydney time!)

Thank you!

Ninth challenge is to talk about my favorite tropes. snowflake_challenge
So I guess I'll talk about my favorite tropes or themes to write (since I will read almost any type of story).

Right now, songfics are a favorite to write.  Not a fan of just posting lyrics or having the characters sing them (not a fan of musicals)/play on the radio, apparently (after looking this up) I like "lyrics as narrative," with the plot of the story following the lyrics.  Its just fun to get it to fit.

I also like constrained writing, where you put specific rules or limits on the story.  I've done two of these - one was following several characters across one night doing thier life and interacting and talking with each other with a Rashomon effect but the limitation was no spoken dialogue, and the other story was how one character thought of another and the story was an acrostic one with the letter of each paragraph spelling out the character's name.  Also still trying to do the 100 word drabble, but haven't gotten there yet.

Enemies to lovers trope come up a lot in my main fandom since, cannon-wise, the two characters are enemies when we first see them.

I also really like patching up canon gaps, inconsistencies, plot holes, that sort of thing, whatever that is called.  I don't fix it with like a dream sequence or ammesia, or hand-waving like that, but logical and canon-compliant fixes.  Those can be harder to do but that's what makes it more fun.

Challenge #12

Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!

Thank you to all of fandom. The creators, the cheerleaders, all the mods of all the communities. You're all amazing.



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We have over one day left of nominations! Thank you to everyone who has caught my bloopers. Let's say I did them on purpose to test your eagle eyes…

Nominations close Saturday 24 January. [ In your timezone + Countdown ] (It's the correct countdown this time!)

Please review our nomination guidelines before nominating. There's an opportunity to transfer accepted tags from the 2025 tagset to the 2026 tagset.

*

All Media Types + Related Fandoms
Can the nominator(s) please amend their nominations? We do not accept "All Media Types" and "Related Fandoms" without a case being made.

Les Misérables - All Media Types
Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables)
Grantaire & Jean Prouvaire

Please amend the canon to reflect what version of Les Misérables canon you are after. Is it the movie? The novel? The musical?

Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
Aslan & Caspian (Narnia)
Aslan & Eustace Scrubb
Aslan & Lucy Pevensie
Aslan & Susan Pevensie
Caspian & Edmund Pevensie
Edmund Pevensie & Lucy Pevensie & Peter Pevensie & Susan Pevensie
Edmund Pevensie & Peter Pevensie
Edmund Pevensie & Susan Pevensie

Please renominate as per the nomination guidelines. Are you wanting the books, TV Show, musical, or films?

Please note I will reject all nominations that remain as "All Media Types" and "Related Fandoms" when nominations close and will not be giving the chance to amend them. Please nominate your canon as per the nomination guidelines!

Crossover Fandom

Doctor Who
Clara Oswin Oswald (Doctor Who 2005) & Team Torchwood (Torchwood)
Fourth Doctor (Doctor Who 1963)/Clara Oswin Oswald (Doctor Who 2005)

Please renominate under "Crossover Fandom" as the fandom, not "Doctor Who". Sorted!

Other

Big Finish Audio

Hello Doctor Who fans! I know I can ask this question when we conclude the round, but I wanted to get ahead of the feedback post and ask it while it's still fresh. Can those familiar please let me know if what I have in the tagset in terms of Big Finish Audio is correct? I did a bit of Googling, but I'm admittedly a little lost. (My familiarity with Big Finish Audio is only through tagset approvals.)

In the tagset, we have:



• Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
  
• Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
  
• UNIT: the New Series (Big Finish Audio)


Should all of these remain as separate canons, or should they fall under one big "Big Finish Audio" umbrella? From my understanding, Big Finish Audio is the production company, and these are all different series, much like how Doctor Who 1963 and 2005 are different series (in a way that they're not even different series… Doctor Who is a very complicated canon when you go into the fandom weeds!).

I'm happy to keep them separate, but I wanted to know so I can make any amendments (if needed) and make a note for 2027's nomination guidelines.

I will be rejecting all lingering nomination queries once nominations close. Please check the nominations queries posts from 2026 to make sure your nominations are not one of them! If you need help making amendments, please ask rather than risk losing your nominations.

There will most likely be one last nomination queries post before nominations close. Please ensure you spell your nominations correctly! There will be very little opportunity to fix these errors once sign-ups open.

Please let me know on any nominations post if you see any duplicates or errors (like typos or my bloopers!) in the tagset. I'll be doing a sweep of the tagset once nominations close. Your eagle eyes are much appreciated! Happy last-leg-of-nominating!

From snowflake_challenge:

Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!

This is such a nice one!

Shout out to the little slice of "Forever Knight" fandom here on DW and on AO3! I was so delighted to stumble my way back into the fandom a couple years ago after, well, decades. I surely do love chatting about the show and reading/writing the fic with y'all!

But an especially big shoutout to thefruitbat, who has beta read soooo much of what I've written, not just for "Forever Knight," but also "Grantchester." Can't even say how much having that second set of eyes and added support helps!

"I said, brrrrrrrr, it's cold in here! There must be some trillingstar in the atmosphere!" I'm quite confident I would not have written so much fic these past couple of years if I hadn't found my way to trillingstar's Discord server and started doing writing sprints with her and others, mainly wawamouse, whose emoji game cannot be beat (thanks forever for 🥩🔨). Are we all writing in the same fandom? No. Am I even writing for the fandom the Discord server is focused on? Again, no. Are we still showing up to sprint, cheer each other on, and talk through any challenges? YES. It's awesome.

Introduction Post* Meet the Mods Post

Challenge #1*Challenge #2 *Challenge #3*Challenge #4* Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 * Challenge #7 *Challenge #8 * Challenge #9 * Challenge #10 * Challenge #11

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #12 )

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.



<a href="https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/"><img src="https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/12/28/sfc2.png" alt="two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text" border="0"></a>

After a grey and rainy day (week, really), I wasn't actually sure I'd find the motivation to go out, but I did do it. And the concert involved some wonderful singing and playing of the Concert Hall organ, but it felt very choppy, even when it seemed the intention was to move smoothly from one piece to the next, at least some of the time.

I'd like to go to more of the Classical Music series concerts, but I keep finding they're on days I cannot do or I'm not so interested in whatever's on the programme. Although I realised during the interval when I checked the dates that I might be able to do a Tuesday one that I'd thought I cannot do because of the German classes, but it appears to fall in the break between terms 2 and 3, so maybe I can do it after all. But that's April, I can wait a while before I buy tickets. There's also one in May that's currently on my maybe list.

Buses home were a bit annoying: just missed one, the tracking said the next one would be in 3 minutes. It was a very long three minutes, more like ten or twelve. Walking home might have been faster after all if I'd started walking as soon as I saw I missed the earlier bus.

It's time to enjoy our bonanza of gifts!

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/bigglesholidayairdrop2025/profile

We had a delightful little last-minute flood of treats, and we ended up with a very respectable 23 24 fics in the collection!

Go forth, enjoy, and don't forget to leave a comment on your gift(s)! The collection will remain anonymous until Monday.

Just as an update: everyone has a gift (pinch hitters included!), AO3 seems to be working smoothly (we hope), and we are on track to reveal at 20:00 UTC Thursday! Click here for Countdown Timer.

Get your last-minute treats and edits in!

Link to Holiday Airdrop 2025 Collection for your clicking convenience.

Note: Updated with correct time, apologies! (The countdown timer was right all along, though.)

Challenge #11

In your own space, grant someone's wish from Challenge #5. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your own post with the wishes you granted if you feel comfortable doing so.

I did this already on the day of Challenge #5, so I'm considering this one done. Yeah, it's cheating a little, but it's been a day, lol.

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Finished since the last reading post
Finished Life after Life and now agree with the colleague who said at the book group last week that she thought it was good. All the lives Ursula might have lived was a question that remained fascinating right to the end. And the book just kept surprising me. It also made me think about Making History by Stephen Fry, which I read years and years ago, where trying to alter the past to stop Hitler is a key plot point.

Currently reading
Still reading Challenger. No progress on anything else I'm still in the middle of, but I started reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. It's been on my to-read list for a couple of years now, but it only occurred to me to check if it was available in the library a couple of weeks ago. For some reason I expected it wouldn't be, but it was actually easily available in the central library sci-fi/fantasy section.

Reading next
Not sure

Introduction Post * Meet the Mods Post * Challenge #1 * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4 * Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 * Challenge #7 * Challenge #8 * Challenge #9 * Challenge #10 *

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #111 )

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.



<a href="https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/"><img src="https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/12/28/sfc2.png" alt="two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text" border="0"></a>

snowflake_challenge: Wishlist: "Create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts."

Years ago, I mentioned that I would love to read a thoughtful Rurouni Kenshin/Highlander crossover, and skieswideopen recommended one from FFnet -- indeed, a substantial one with a substantial sequel. That happy memory, plus several folks setting good examples, reminded me that the comfortable thing for me to do with this prompt is to ask to receive recommendations, if you happen to have some. Here are a few:

I'd enjoy some recommendations of really well-written and thoughtful gen The Legend of Zelda stories, any game. More specifically, stories that dig into some aspect of the lore/worldbuilding/themes of their game society, along with strong characterizations -- probably, but certainly not necessarily, starring NPCs. (Favorite approaches to Link can differ so. Some are brilliant; some are not.) No villain stories, of course, including Tingle, please: good guys and ordinary folks and tragic failures preferred. (And possibly redeemed monsters, where relevant. What does it mean in Twilight Princess that the King Bulblin chooses Link over Ganondorf at the last and appears in the end credits?)

I'd enjoy recommendations of well-written Dungeons & Dragons (cartoon, 1983) stories that I have not already read, or perhaps have not read for a long time. There are not that many on the AO3. While I'd prefer gen or canon ships, I'll happily read well-written romance, including non-canon ships, as long as they do not pair any of our heroes with villains, and as long as they are age-appropriate and era-aware (our gang are adolescents or teenagers in the '80s and in their 50s today). I think I'd particularly enjoy "returned from the Realm" or "grew up in the Realm," but canon-like adventures are always most welcome.

And while the Rurouni Kenshin/Highlander crossover that skieswideopen recommended years ago was very good, I still wish to read one focusing more on Kenshin's decision never to kill again, and how that moral direction intersects not only with HL's game's imperatives, but how it intersects with the moral imperatives of HL characters like Darius, Grace, the false Methos, Richie, and Duncan.

What recommendations might you like that I can supply?