delacourtings | [challenge] snowflake challenge days o1-o5 (Reply)

it’s basically become a tradition for me to post days 1-5 in one post so, here’s days 1-5!

also, how gorgeous are these banners by the lovely

summerstorm?!

day o1
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.

fandom wise, i think dw is my happy place. while twitter has so many dear friends, it’s also bogged down by real life and politics and news, and tumble has so many issues and so much discourse that it becomes tiring, whereas i try to keep dw my little corner of the internet where i keep things relatively light and happy.

and then, of course, there’s harry potter, both the original text and the fandom, which fill me up with such warmth and happiness and i suspect always will.

non-fandom wise, home is my happy place. particularly when my family and dogs around, even if we’re all in separate rooms. there’s just something comforting about knowing that we’re all there. ♡

day o2
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’m not sure what kickstarted it but i’ve been in a real gendry/arya mood lately so here are three of my recent fave fanworks for them!

•serve and protect by bemusedbicycle

thinking back on it, i think this was the fic that sent me back down the gendry/arya rabbit hole. it's a modern au where arya is the daughter of politican of ned stark and gendry is her bodyguard.

politician's child/bodyguard au's and, to be honest, anyone/their bodyguard au's are my kryptonite and this fic was even better because it fits gendry/arya so well. this fic incorporates all of the canon elements and dynamics so flawlessly into this world and does a beautiful job doing it. bemusedbicycle is such a talented writer. i only recently found them but i plan to read everything they have written/will write in fandoms i'm a part of. (and i sincerely hope they write gendry/arya again because they have such a great grasp of their characters and their relationship.)

note: this is a wip, which i don't normally read or rec, but i made an exception here because the fic is so wonderful and because the fic only one has one chapter left to be written and the emotional crux of the fic is completed, bemusedbicycle said the last chapter would be mostly smut so please don't let it being a wip scare you off!

•gendry & arya | lovely by

tabbleey•gendrya in castle in the sky by

daeyton

this is an absolutely gorgeous piece of gendry/arya fanart by

daeyton.

i love so many things about it. how gendry has a grumpy facial expression but his hands are around arya’s waist, gendry’s pointy ears and his little cowlick, arya’s cute little upturned nose and her half updo, the smug/self satisfied expression on her face. not mention the color scheme is incredible with warm pinky-orange corals and turquoise. it’s just beautiful in every way.

and two quick bonus recs:
•all summer we just hurried by

chash which is a renaissance faire au with knight arya, blacksmith gendry, and secondary sansa/margaery.

•and this other piece of fanart by

daeyton featuring gendry kissing arya on the hand

day o3
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.

if you know anything at all about me it’s that i love fleur delacour. she’s my favorite female character in harry potter and my second favorite character in the series overall, behind harry himself. i love everything about her. people always underestimate her and judge her because of appearance, and she always makes them regret it. she doesn’t sacrifice her femininity in order to be strong, she refused to let people equate her being feminine with her being weak. she’s strong, in every way, and as moody/crouch says “she’s as much a fairy princess as [he is].”

she has one of the most fascinating and difficult character arcs in the books and people don’t even realize it because she isn’t a main character.

not even going into the trauma of the triwizard tournament, think of what all she goes through.

she goes to work at gringott’s, where the employees are one of the most oppressed species in the wizarding world, and meets bill and falls in love. and then when the love of her life introduces her to his family, they treat her horribly. they are supposed to be her new family, the only family she has in this new country, and they judge her and make fun of her and without even attempting to get to really know her. and she suffers in silence until she can’t anymore. she refuses to take it any longer. she joins the order, she risks her life, multiple times, for harry and this finally gets me to one of my favorite parts of deathly hallows: shell cottage.

shell’s cottage is supposed to be fleur and bill’s oasis yet she and bill offer it up as a safe house. an argument could be made that she just agrees to it because she feels she owes harry for saving gabrielle during the second task, but if it were an eye for an eye, her debt would have been repayed at the beginning of the book when she became one of the seven harry’s. she doesn’t know harry that well, not really, and even though we as an audience know that harry and hermione are considered to be part of the weasley family, fleur likely does not. she doesn’t know luna, dean, or ollivander at all. yet she lets all of them into her home and takes care of them.

people, both in canon and in fandom, view her as superficial but she’s so much more than that. she’s smart and strong and loving and caring and she is so much more than her beauty. i love the shell cottage chapter so much because it shows us that.

day o4
comment to someone you haven't ever interacted with before or introduce yourself to someone you've interacted with and friend/follow them. afterwards, leave a comment in this post with the equivalent of "i did it!"

i’ll be doing this but i also wanted to take the space/time here to say please don’t hesitate to comment here if you feel so inclined, even if we’ve never interacted! ♡

day o5
in your own space, promote three communities, challenges, blogs, pages, twitters, tumblrs or platforms and explain why you love them. leave a comment in this post saying you did it. include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

i wanted to take this space to highlight some of my fave weekly and monthly prompt/challenge communities.

each one of these comms is always inspiring me to write and to finish something in a quick turnaround, which is something i dearly need.

•