Snowflake Challenge #2-4

[chacusha]

I'm skipping Challenge #1 for now because I don't really want to do blog maintenance at the moment.

Challenge #2: In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year.

Already done 🔒here (friendslocked).


Challenge #4(a): IceBreaker Challenge! Tell us about yourself.

I might split this into two posts with a post later on introducing some real life aspects of me. But for now, basic intro:

• Basics: Tako / she/her / American expat living in the UK / 35 years old (at the time of this writing).
• Fandoms: Star Trek is the big one at the moment (my focus is mostly Quodo but I think I can talk intelligibly about all of the series, although not the films which I largely have not watched yet). I also have some forever fandoms like Soulcalibur and the Mana series (especially Trials and Sword of Mana). I've played most of the Kingdom Hearts series and various Final Fantasy games (I, VI, IX, X, XIII, Tactics, Mobius, Dimensions, Unlimited (anime), and parts of IV, VII, X-2, and XII). Bravely Default is also a game I like and am fannish about, but the fandom is kind of dead. Older fandoms I like talking about but I'm not sure the fannish creative drive is there anymore: ASOIAF, Disney.
  • Some more minor things I love but aren't big fandoms for me: Gunnerkrigg Court, Old Kingdom series, The Prisoner (60s TV show), Revenge (TV), Ghibli movies, Satoshi Kon's filmography, various CLAMP series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Chrono games, Puyo Puyo games, Princess Maker games, lots of western animation including A:TLA, Codename: Kids Next Door, The Dragon Prince, Miraculous Ladybug, ReBoot, Steven Universe, and Young Justice. Nina Paley's filmography (she is a huge TERF, though 😭).
• Fanwork media: Used to be more of an artist, but I do a mix of fanart and fanfic nowadays. I also like writing meta and making icons, although I don't often have time to do the latter much anymore.
• Other hobbies/interests: Personality quizzes and typing systems (I also just have an interest in psychology in general), dress-up games/KiSS dolls, making games (super time-consuming, though), blogging, watching movies/TV shows, reading fiction and nonfiction books, playing video games (struggling to find time for this recently, though).
• I always like taking requests and making gifts, but I generally have, like, psychological issues doing commissions/making fanworks for money, so I don't do them. But I am always open to requests.

Also, here's a little icebreaker game: Ask me some questions about my fandoms or tastes! Some options:

• Make me choose [between two things A and B].
• My favorite / least favorite thing in [category].
• Rank all of the [x].

Challenge #3: 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.

1. Recs/self-recs - Rec me something you don't think I've seen/read yet but which might be to my interests. For self-recs, rec me something you've made that I might not have seen yet -- could be a journal entry or a fic you've written that you think might be relevant to my interests or you're interested in my thoughts on.

2. Questions for the above game.

3. Icons - I'd love icons for any of the fandoms listed above (or recs of existing icons!), especially for canons or characters I don't have any icons for, such as the Old Kingdom series or SanSan, but I think I'd especially love Star Trek icons with meaningful quotes on them? Or even just suggestions for memorable Star Trek quotes/moments that would be nice on an icon.

4. Advice - I've been thinking recently about prompt/kink memes, like the type that used to be popular in LJ and kind of died when LJ collapsed and DW failed to get the same level of traction. One thing I've noticed about prompt memes is that you kind of need to see other people's prompts in order to get inspiration for more prompts, which is a bit of a bootstrapping problem.

I have an older prompt meme I'd like to revive, and part of that is that I would like to encourage people to leave more prompts so that there's more of a pool for people to work with. I was thinking about having like a prompt-leaving event where I encourage people to leave a bunch of prompts. I was thinking of having some prompts for prompts to get people's ideas flowing (e.g. leave a prompt for a ship that doesn't exist on AO3 yet, leave a prompt for your favorite kink, leave a gen prompt, leave a prompt involving a minor character, leave a prompt matching a fic/work you have already written/created or plan to write/create, etc. etc.), plus some kind of incentive for people to leave a lot of prompts like making the prompts worth different points and goals point thresholds to hit or a bingo card or something to ensure people try to leave as many prompts as they can think of -- like achievements but for prompting.

But the problem is that I don't want the prompts people leave to be TOO identifying, you know what I mean? I don't want any one person leaving a bunch of prompts to be super identifiable (because that might discourage them from leaving a bunch of prompts at once), nor do I want it to be obvious from the prompting pattern whether it's just one person leaving all the prompts or multiple people leaving some prompts -- it should be underdetermined from the set of prompts left how many people are playing.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to run this event. In order to make it anonymous, for example, things like scoreboards would be out -- it'd have to be more of an honor system how many prompts someone left. I would probably also want to announce the event and the prompt prompts/achievements in advance, and then maybe have like a really short period for leaving the prompts (e.g. a 48-hour period) so that it's slightly more likely that people will time their prompts in a way that mixes with other people's prompts?

Anyway, I'd love some thoughts/feedback/suggestions on how to run this and whether you think it would work, or things I need to think about if I want this to succeed.

Comments

[tribble_of_tarth]

Ooo, for the icebreaker game: what are your top three Quark/Ferengi-centric DS9 episodes?

[chacusha]

Oh, this is hard! I'm going to go with:

1. House of Quark -- This episode I think is a contender for one of the most solidly entertaining Star Trek episodes ever. Klingons + Ferengi make a great combo; Gowron is great in this episode. Quark gets to shine in this episode -- it shows off both his rakeish and noble sides -- and I like the feelings in how his relationship with Grilka starts off so antagonistic but ends with eyefucking in something more tender.

2. The Magnificent Ferengi -- Quark doesn't have the biggest role here, but I love getting to see all the Ferengi characters in one place, and seeing them bounce off each other and try to pull off an operation together. The "getting the team together" sequence is so fun, and Ferengi + Vorta is also a great combo, apparently! It's also fun seeing Quark get to be the leader of the Ferengi team. Just a pitch perfect episode.

3. Business as Usual -- I think this one is probably my favorite of the many, slightly darker, "Quark suffers in trying to be a Good Ferengi" flavor of Quark episodes. Gaila and the guest star villain are great -- I just love the cynical speech Gaila gives to Quark when he's experiencing doubts. I also like the dynamic of Quark kind of (for once) openly doing business that the DS9 administration disapproves of but they can't really do anything about it (as part of that, Odo harumphing disapprovingly at Quark in the background during this episode is also a great dynamic). Also, I just love the outfits Quark wears in this one! He gets to wear such a good set of them.

I'm a bit sad Little Green Men and Bar Association didn't make the list here... u_u What about you -- which ones would you pick? :D

[tribble_of_tarth]

A very good list! Mine are:

1. Family Business - This is my favorite feel-good episode for the entire series, and I watch it a lot when I'm feeling down. I love Quark's relationships with both Rom and Ishka, so this episode was an instant favorite for me. (Also, Rom's despondent "Mooo-gieee," when when he says goodbye to her at the end of the episode lives rent free in my head, lol.)

2. The Magnificent Ferengi - And my second favorite feel-good episode, lol. As you said, watching all of the Ferengi bounce off each other is great. (The scene where they run to the ship and back is so amazing, I laugh every time.) From a Quodo perspective, I love the interaction the two have after Quark's spotlight is stolen by the bridge crew returning from the war effort. Odo says something along the lines of, "Well of course everyone is going to pay attention to them. They're heroes." But I feel like Odo's surprisingly soft when he says it? Like, he easily could have been haughty and condescending about it, but instead he seems to be trying to maybe even comfort Quark a bit? Idk, I just think it's cute. (And then pair it with the whole bit where Rom asks Quark "What's it like to be a hero?" at the end? SO CUTE, UGH!)

3. Body Parts - This episode has special personal meaning for me, and I either cry or get misty-eyed when everyone shows up with stuff for Quark's bar at the end every. single. time. Also, gotta love supportive baby brother Rom bidding his life savings on desiccated Quark discs. <3