Singing the Body Electric

1. Comment to this entry saying 'DOWNPOUR'* asking, and I will pick 3 of your icons/userpics.
2. Make an entry in your own journal (or just reply if you prefer) and talk about the icons I picked!

pauraque asked me to talk about the following icons:


I wish I had a more interesting story for this one, given that it's my default! Prior to joining Livejournal in early 2002, I was a mailing list user through and through and don't think I'd frequented any platforms that used icons. Icon slots were limited on early LJ - maybe even just to one? - and a few people I knew were using pictures of themselves or avatars made to look like them. That was why, when trying to figure out what I should pick for my default icon, I settled on a picture of a mouse - because I was being anonymous(e).

*holds for groans*

The little mouse on a white background remained my default for a year or two before I switched it up in 2003/2004, around the time that pornish_pixies and other Harry Potter comms I frequented were taking off. Before that, I'd been posting to my own journal and commenting in friends' journals, but my community involvement was still mostly on mailing lists and archives. Once I started posting more fic in LJ comms and had settled on my pen name being Delphi, I thought it was time for a new icon. I kept the animal theme and white background style (since it wouldn't clash with the colour schemes on various comms), and chose an owl instead because of the Harry Potter connotations. I'm pretty sure I just cropped it from a stock photo.

The image has degraded since then, and it looks a lot fuzzier on modern screens than it did, er, nearly two decades ago. I think it actually might be time for this long-serving owl to get a well-deserved retirement.




This was my reversathon icon! Reversathon was a Harry Potter fic exchange with two twists: 1) Instead of the mod matching participants based on requests, participants would advertise what characters/ships/genres/kinks they liked to write or draw and then choose based on those ads which other participants they would like to get something from, and 2) To keep things anonymous, participants posted their ads under assumed wizarding world names.

I participated in 2007 under the name Sophronia Sweedlepipe and ended up writing a fic called Friends and Wine (Horace Slughorn/Severus Snape, 10k, Rated E). Unfortunately, I was very un-conscientious about attribution in those days and have no idea where I got the image from beyond some online collection of artistic beefcake. I don't even know whether I just cropped it or if I'm responsible for that particular shade of pink. I just know I went with it because it was completely unlike my usual icon style and journal colour theme, had matchmaker-y connotations that seemed apt for a fic exchange, and fit with the adult nature of my offer. After I shut down the throwaway account I'd made for the ad, I kept the icon for my main account and used it occasionally for E-rated fic.




This is the best one pauraque could have picked because I had no memory whatsoever of making it. This required a little sleuthing on my part, only to lead me to the conclusion that I've very likely never used this icon.

Thankfully, Dreamwidth lets you see the order in which you uploaded icons, and the placement of this one was key to figuring out what I'd intended it for. Right before it are an icon of Jim Gordon from the Nolanverse Batman movies and one of Sebastian Michaelis from Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler, and right after it are an icon with a Discworld quote and one of the front cover of Dan Abnett's Ravenor trilogy. I've made a limited number of works for these fandoms, and it just so happens that most of them were for a multifandom blackout I managed for kink_bingo in 2011. (Man, do I miss writing that much...) I checked out that time period in my journal, and sure enough, in the middle of a run of Batman, Kuroshitsuji, Discworld, and Ravenor fic was Five Occasions Upon Which John Childermass Attempted to Read the Book Called Vinculus (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Childermass/Vinculus, 500 words, Rated T).

Now, if you click through to that fic you might notice that it has a completely unrelated icon. That's because I apparently used one of the kink_bingo community icons for all my fills that year - probably the one from the centre of my bingo card. But I obviously created fandom-specific icons for each fic too, possibly for when I posted them to other comms, but more likely as a procrastination activity when I was supposed to be writing. I could be wrong, but there's no other icon that seems to go with Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and a raven in a tree seems like the kind of thing I would have picked.

Sorry for all the nostalgic fandom diversions, pauraque, but this was a real trip down memory lane. :D