small_gifts | Countdown to Small Gifts 4/7: Beginnings

I'm sure I'm not the only who can cite

shoebox_project as my gateway drug - it was the first fanfic of any sort I'd ever read, and I was completely hooked. The idea that there might be room for gay people in Harry Potter was a wonderful idea for my teenage, closeted self. I read every Marauders story I could get my hands on, started writing for

blanketforts when it came around, and generally had such a good time and grew so attached to the characters that I had no desire to explore any other part of fandom.

let's see..i started reading hp fic right after DH was released b/c i couldn't let go of the series after being a fan for almost a decade. so i started reading lily/snape fic [!] - most of which was set in the marauder era. after that it was a natural progression to read marauder-specific fic [since they were hilarious and adventurous and hello, had 2 of my fave characters].

and then..remus/sirius happened a la

shoebox_project and

musesfool's list of fics ♥ the rest, as they say, is history.

i read the shoebox project. i've been wracking my head for the past two years trying to remember HOW i managed to find the shoebox project in the first place (it was my first HP fic overall), to no avail. it's very frustrating.

Edited 2009-11-27 00:07 (UTC)

I started in HP fandom reading a couple of H/D stories, but I think my gateway to R/S were stories by Sam Storyteller,

musesfool and

penknife.

My girlfriend at the time was trying to get me to write/read something other than bandom. I was reeeeaaaally into Harry Potter and she was like, 'so hey, have you noticed that Remus and Sirius are totally soul mates?' and I may have blinked at her but she sent me packing with the books and told me to come back when I figured it out. It's sadly the only good thing to come out of that relationship and the reason why I abandoned the ship for a year to deal with my heart woe, but I'm still glad for it, because it makes me happy.

A lot of accidental happenings led me to fandom. I accidentally clicked onto Mugglenet's fan fiction page whilst searching for updates on the new HP movie (which, if I remember correctly, was POA, and I was trying to figure out who was playing Remus and Sirius). I read a couple of gen fics then somehow - don't ask me how... unconscious desire, perhaps - managed to click on a slash fic.

I didn't realise what I'd done and was a little bit surprised when Sirius and Remus started making out on the stairs of Grimmauld Place(and I can't remember the fic, unfortunately). I did, however, quite like the idea (thank god it was a well written fic) and went in search of more fic. The more I read, the more this pairing made sense, and I fell in love with Sirius (I had already given my heart to Remus).

A friend -

misundersnape - started writing a Snape/OC fic and that, plus the horror that was DH, inspired me to write an alternative version of the story with Remus and an OFC. A few Remus/OC fics later and I decided to try my hand at slash, since that was pretty much all I read despite writing het sex. I loved writing it, my first fic - which is HIDEOUS - got a really positive response, and I've been writing slash ever since. I don't think I'll ever feel as connected to another pairing as I do to these pups.

end ramble.

I think I started on mugglenet fanfiction in about 2005 (the quality was, er, not good). I remember finding hp_art_daily very early on in my fannishness and discovered slashy porny art. That was an odd day; I told a friend about it and we went for a long walk to discuss the porn, haha!

I can't actually remember what attracted me to R/S in the first place. I actually didn't like shoebox the first time I read it, in 2006. I read it properly a few months on, though, and absolutely adored it. I remember reading _demonsblade_ fics a long, long time ago and I think they was probably one of the first R/S fics I read. Also, epprep and utter_rubbish.

I finally began to read fanfiction inbetween the publications of HBP and DH. You can guess what character I was the most interested in. I was looking for some happiness for Remus Lupin, but was surprised when it seemed JKR's idea of a good time for the unemployed werewolf was an immature woman with pink hair and a promising career ahead of her with a yen to "keep" him. So I started reading fanfiction to "sse" how Remus and Tonks worked. Bored quickly, that lead to reading Marauder gen fic and eventually, I clicked R/S fic and was surprised at how well that "worked." LOL! And here I am still entralled......

I completely blame

remuslives23 for my descent into the madness and the ascent into the happiness that is Sirius/Remus (or Remus/Sirius).
I had been writing HP fanfic for maybe 6 months when she started reviewing an epic story of mine (over at ff.net). Wondering what kinds of stuff this person wrote (because she seemed to have the same sick sense of humour (sorry Julie) as I did), I thought I'd check out her stories. Oh, her het stuff was sooooo very good--and then she wove her indelible web and sucked me into the slash stuff.
I didn't know what I was getting into--but maybe that's a good thing! :)
*goes off to light another candle at the shrine of

remuslives23*

...it was Boys' Own Camping Adventure. ...when it was new.

*feels old*

My very first Remus/Sirius was way back in the day when I was still over on ff.net, I was just learning about fanfiction, and LJ was still an invite-only club.

Glam Rock (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1374825/1/Glam_Rock), by LadyBush (at ff.net).

It's because of this fic that I love French!Remus and twinbrother!Romulus (I think?), and glam rockers. ...There might not be twinbrother!Romulus in this, now that I think about it... I haven't read this in a long time.

Ah, sorry, forgot the rest of the questions (and I don't have the edit feature. Bah!)! I think the first art I saw was by

spacefragments to be honest. It might have been

glockgal, but I might be imagining that one? ...yeah. I'm going to go with the first, there.

And! I wasn't actually big on Sirius to begin with, which is LOLworthy as he's probably the strongest muse for me, now. I've RPed him for...at least three years? But when he died, I was curious to find out more about him - usually my favourite characters in anything are killed off, and I hadn't been too attached to anyone in the series.

As a pairing though, it's the angst and the history, and the fact that they're two broken characters who, after twelve years of misunderstanding, managed to come to the conclusion 'yes, we will kill this betrayer together' almost seamlessly. It was really quite lovely as a friendship, and after some exploration, I've come to really love it as a pairing.

My gateway was fanfiction.net (eek!), where I had been reading stuff in the Outsiders fandom. That is a much smaller fandom than HP, obviously, so when I ran out of good stuff to read I wandered over to the HP section to see if there was anything good there. I honestly have no idea how I ended up reading R/S of all things, but I remember reading folks like

mysid and

midnitemaraud_r and

nyxfixx there, and following links to their LJ's, and discovering that there was much better fic over here. :-P

When I first read the books as a fourth grader, I was always dimly aware that I was really thrilled when those two were interacting. So, as soon as my best friend bullied me into picking the series back up in January, I knew that I was going to ship it (she wanted me to read it so I would ship Harry/Ron and I ended up not really caring about the main generation *at all*) but I was seriously BLOWN AWAY by how much more intense that Love was than I expected. Then another friend said "Oh, if you ship R/S you should read Shoebox Project." and I hadn't read fic in years, but like so many fangirls, I feel for SBP. And then the friend who got me hooked on the series sent me this comic (http://community.livejournal.com/sirius_loving/10505.html) and I was goooonnne.

Oh, man. That, ♥.

Oh God! I had never seen that before and I am sobbing! I've seen pics from it but I'd never seen the whole thing together. Beautiful.

LOL! I'm sure there are many people who would love to thank me for encouraging you to write porny pups as you do it so damn well. I'm happy to take the blame!

I remember your 'Oh God! What did you do to me? I wrote Sirius/Remus slash!' email with your first slash fic... and it was so bloody brilliant even without actual porn that I wasn't sure if I wanted to hug you or kill you and try and drain your talent and absorb it somehow.

I'm still not sure somedays. :P

*twirls you*

You are amazing, Carny is my canon for those lost years, and I love you to death ~~even if you do write Remus/Tonks sometimes~~.

nassima is amazing. I miss her and her gorgeous artwork. I still remember when she posted that - it broke me. Still makes me cry when I look at it, even 4 years later. *sigh*

I came upon R/S by accident, I think. I can remember that my first fic was the do wizard dream of magical sheep by keelywolfe (which was totally intense and a little too violent for my taste then - but got me totally hooked.) Then I stumbled upon the levity series by lupercali & then Shoebox. That cemented it, and that was like... 5 or 6 years ago (and I had felt like I was coming in late!). Yikes.

Not "old," seasoned. :)

A friend who wanted to drag me into fandom with her sent me bits and pieces from the r/s seasonal writing challenges. I know some of yours were some of the ones she sent to convince me. It actually didn't take much. :)

I don't remember the name of the first R/S fic I read - and probably a good thing, since it was really awful! LOL It was over at ffnet, back in September, 2004. But I'm so grateful for it because somehow it led me to Practice Material (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1975575/1/) by

the_dark_twin, which led me to other amazing writers like

_nyxfixx and

thistlerose, and to LJ itself, where I found

kabeyk,

minnow_53,

archon_mentha,

sheafrotherdon,

franticbabbles,

ignipes,

musesfool, later

shaggydogstail, and many many more. Plus, the artists:

nassima and

kasche,

remeciel, seviet (Marta),

cathybites, ponderosa, and more. 2005 was a great year for R/S. :)

(My 5 year LJ anniversary was today actually! Earlier today - the 26th, since it's after midnight now)

Remus and Sirius were my favorite characters - and I loved the whole MWPP era storyline. I finally came over to HP fandom looking for MWPP-L fic. The first HP fanfic I ever read was "After the End" by Zsenya and Arabella over at The Sugar Quill, which was actually a post-Hogwarts trio fic, but Remus and Sirius had a fairly significant role in the story. That was in like July 2004. The R/S subtext was screaming, but I didn't hear it. :-P Go figure. It wasn't until I accidentally stumbled on a R/S slashfic (the bad one!) that it finally clicked in my head.

Of course SBP was recced everywhere back then, even more than it is now, if you can believe it. :) I read the first 3 or so chapters, but...what can I say; I didn't connect with it. *shrug* I vastly preferred

thistlerose's Midnight Conversations, and

franticbabbles' Years fics. And if you've never read any of the stories in

prankstersguide, which was co-written by

sheafrotherdon,

ignipes,

krisomniac and

lacylu42, and illustrated by

krisomniac - even though it's unfinished, and destined to remain so - it's absolutely fantastic, each chapter is its own contained story, and you should!

Holy shit! 5 years in HP fandom! Where does the time go?

Edited 2009-11-27 06:21 (UTC)

Oh man, that is the truth. That piece is stunning and heart-breaking every time.

I used to be one of those people who refuse to read HP on principle :) I did notice the potential of this pairing years before, though, while watching PoA and thinking, 'Are you for real?' Even though I don't picture the characters they way the were in the movie, it definitely made an imprint.

So one day my friend announced she was leaving Seattle and moving back to Minnesota. She was a huge HP fan and tried to make me read it several times, so I decided to pick up the books as a goodbye present. I was massively, horribly prejudiced against them :) The first two did not go too well, but then I go to PoA. I fell asleep thinking about the characters one night and still thought about them when I woke up, so that made me an official HP fan. I was terrified of fanfiction, knowing how much bad writing you get (lots of experience with ff.net, hehe!) and how huge HP fandom is, but then GoF was long and did not touch the subject of Marauders until the very end, and I missed them.

The first fic was from the Russian fandom, but it was pretty bad, had some Snupin in it, and oh god the translated names, places and that damn password for the Map which made me want to scratch out my eyes. Besides, the fandom was relatively small, R/S was hugely unpopular and Snape seemed to creep in everywhere (he's cool, but I mean everywhere), so I got dissappointed and came to hang out here.

Happy Anniversary, L!

I think you know that, along with

such_heights,

magnetic_pole, and most of the artists and authors you list above, you were one of the people whose stuff

elizassecret used to convince me she wasn't crazy. In retrospect, that is very funny!

*hugs*

Countdown to Small Gifts 4/7: Beginnings

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