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 Independence1776, Indy for short. I've been in fandom since 2003 and am very much a Fandom Old. (The things I have seen, Gandalf.) I don't have any patience for gatekeeping and bad behavior; I believe in "don't like, don't read." I tend to be gen focused and I like hurt/comfort and whump. I also really love canon divergent AUs.

I updated my profile and pinned post, mostly to say I’m no longer in Tolkien fandom. That is incredibly weird for me to say, much less think, because I’ve been in it for most of my life in fandom. But I’m not anymore. I’m still a part of Star Wars fandom— there are fics I absolutely want to finish writing and to write— but I’m also very quiet there. I've read a lot more published books than fic recently. It’s a strange place for me to be in, both in fandom and not in fandom at the same time.

As far as Snowflake goes, what I'm hoping to get out of it is to feel less disconnected with fandom and maybe start figuring out my place in it as I am now and not who I was in the past.