Breadcrumbs & Butterbeans

Challenge #1, The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

I'm doing snowflake this year for similar reasons to those that led Aka to set it up in the first place, I'm feeling disconnected and haven't been in the practice of regular posting for... a while. That's due to a combination of fandom inertia and a number of personally very difficult years, but given that community here and previously on LJ has always been a positive for me, it's counter-intuitive to stop when I am struggling with the world. So. *jazz-hands* let's get into the swing of posting regularly again.


Anyway, I'm Claire and I'm a fandom old. Or just an Old in general tbh.

I'm proudly Scottish - very pro-independence but I've veered away from the SNP and into the Greens as more representative of my politics, particularly around treating other human beings as, well, human beings, not political footballs.

For clarity: TransWomen are Women, TransMen are Men, Enbys are valid. Refugees are welcome here. I am pro binning Student Loans and increasing taxes for those who can afford to pay them (which in Scotland, now includes me since my last promotion, but we also need to tax the everloving fuck out of billionaires and the ridiculously few people who own so much land here). There is a social contract which we all enjoy, and that needs to be paid for.

I mostly flock Personal stuff, other stuff might not be. The 2020s have mostly been a personal fucking trashfire, honestly, although work has been a solid success and I've learned to drive in the half-decade, so it hasn't been a total loss. I'm working towards 2026 being about some level of personal growth, but that was also the plan for 2025, so if it's just calmly chill then I'll be quite happy with that.

I've been in Bandom for approximately a million years at this point (FoB and MCR flavour) and came from the mines of SPN from season 1 (therefore there is nothing in fandom that frightens me any more and I have entirely run out of fucks for nonsense, gatekeeping or judgy bs). The Last of Us (TV) season one grabbed me, but it hasn't lasted, I was slightly inspired by the last season of Severance, but it didn't have quite enough gaps for writing for me, and I find myself in a very light fandom space once again. Maybe something will grab me this year, that would be delightful.

I am Ermengarde on AO3. I also exist on Bluesky as FloweringC.

I write - intermittently at best, but I've been doing it for a long time at this point so I am in that happy place where I sometimes get someone running through my back catalogue with kudos and/or comments, and that is absolutely lovely.

My fic is more gen than not, and more slightly peculiar premis than not (MCR are Pineapple Farmers? why not?, or Children in 1930s England? Sure. And Adam Lambert definitely has a possessed bear in his freezer. Most writers leave their ID on show somewhere, but I really don't know what my fic says about me.

I am, as I've said, still trying to get back into the swing of things here so I'm not sure how good I'll be at interacting, but the hope and wish are strong, so I will 100% TRY.